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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a bomber involved in the Boston Marathon Tragedy, was featured on the cover of this magazine. He was described as appearing to be a "boy next door" and there was a long, heartfelt article about him and why everyone was so surprised that he was involved. It also made excuses for him by talking about his home life and he was made out to be a victim.
Trayvon Martin, a young black man that was killed, was put on trial for his own murder. Martin was killed by a white man for no reason while he was unarmed. He was made out to be a criminal in the short article written about him.
Why were these men treated so differently? It's because Martin was black and Tsarnaev was not. Everyone is so focused on looking for the bad guy and because of everything we see around us, that person always seems to be the black man. Gay made it clear that our racial profiling stems from the media. When we turn on the news we see black men going to prison. When we look at magazines and articles like these two, we see a victimized white man and a troublesome black man. We are constantly being told who is dangerous. Gay knows that in order to change the way we view the world for the better, we must stop producing and consuming this biased content. How are we going to move towards equality if we are still seeing black folks as criminals?

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This Oscar trophy represents all of the times that a famous person has done despicable things, oftentimes to women, and are still awarded Oscars and allowed to perform at the Grammy's. All of the times that they are allowed to become someone to look up to after disrespecting and even harming a woman are criminal.
For example, Chris Brown, a famous R&B singer, beat Rihanna very badly. This disturbing report was leaked to the public, showing just how disgusting and inhumane Chris treated Rihanna, yet he was still invited to perform at the 2012 Grammy's twice. He was also awarded a Grammy that night. Sean Penn fought violently with Madonna, but that didn't stop him from receiving an Oscar. Allowing men to stand up on a pedestal after committing highly disturbing crimes against women is holding us back and encouraging similar behavior. We are ultimately saying that we are okay with this as a society and that harming women is no big deal. Gay sees that we are never going to make progress against this kind of treatment if we keep publicly rewarding men for this type of behavior. Every time we see this occurring, we are being taught that it is okay to disrespect women and that needs to change.

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This was the first Tyler Perry movie that Gay had ever seen with his intended audience. When she went to the theater on opening night, she was surrounded by black folks who were all just as excited as she was to see the movie. He chose a black director and the cast was composed of great black actors. The movie wasn't amazing, but this was Perry's effort to get more black actors into movies without racial stereotypes. This movie wasn't made to entertain a white audience with caricatures of the black man.
This was a big deal to Gay and many others, but unfortunately it bombed. While many were excited about this change, others were turned off from it. He tried to make a movie that benefited black folks, but the box office showed that it wasn't popular. This is important because it reveals the truth about what society is interested in. Everyone wanted the usual Tyler Perry form of entertainment, complete with stereotyping and over dramatic characters. Gay looked at this movie and she saw that if we really want to change things, we need to change how we view movies and start attending less movies that set black folks back, and more that encourage new black talent to emerge.

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"Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke tells men that even when a woman says no, she really means yes. This idea fuels rape culture and takes respect away from women everywhere. We are becoming focused on the fact that men should be able to take whatever they want.
We even see this notion in real life situations. High school boys asking celebrity models to their dances and a man touching Beyonce while she's on stage. All of these things are given applause and people are sharing them on social media. This encouragement is damaging and while it may seem like it's just one song, or just one incident, Gay tells us that it will all add up. She believes that if we continue to accept this behavior, we will keep getting further and further from

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Gay said, "pregnancy is at once a private and public experience (Gay 269)". It is a very personal part of a woman's life, but it often becomes open to the public since a pregnancy becomes very obvious. This opens up the channel for strangers to comment on what is best for the child.
This public attention can't seem to be separated from women's reproduction. The government is now contemplating what a woman is allowed to do with her own body. Birth control methods and abortion opportunities are being discussed by (mostly) men in office. In fact, it has even become a platform for politicians. We cannot allow men to take control of our reproductive freedoms. Gay reminds us that they have tried this before, but it did not work. She said that we must continue to remember and fight against this.

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When Gay saw the movie The Help, she found that it was just another movie featuring "Magical Negroes". These characters often come from an uneducated and poor background, and then they share their wisdom with ignorant white people. They appear in many films and books. These movies make the white audience feel good about the way things are changing, but really it is not helping anything. Gay shared that in reality, this movie just exploited every tragedy and transgression that has been forced onto black folks. This revealed how much further we need to go to make movies without exploiting black folks.

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Growing up, Gay always aniticipated the next Sweet Valley High book to come out. She loved reading them so much, but none of the charcters looked like her. They were all rich, blond, white, and perfectly thin. All of their problems revolved around finding a new boyfriend or getting a makeover.
Somehow though, Gay saw herself in these characters. She was also looking for a perfect life and lived in the suburbs. She looked into these books and she saw a world where everything worked out. She fell in love with reading through these books and she started to see how minorities are so often ignored in popular texts. This may have led her to start analyzing the world around her and questioning why this system is in place.

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This represents Gay's experiences of being bullied in her school for being Haitian-American. She was being judged for her race and therefore had to come up with a way to stand up for herself. She decided that she would tell them that she would one day be Miss America. They'll just wait and see.
She only saw the sash in her future because Vanessa Williams had won it. Since it was possible for another woman of color, she began to see herself as beautiful and deserving of this honor. The other kids still made fun of her, but this empowered her to keep fighting for her confidence.

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Gay was drawn to these books when a friend showed them to her. It's important that this book showed that a female character could be fierce and strong in human ways. Collins didn't force Katniss to be insecure, but she also didn't make her perfect. She chose to make her brave and powerful. Katniss struggled with similar issues as any other woman, making her relatable. Her relationship with Peeta shows readers that you can be with a man without sacrificing your strength. It was never a compromise. This gives hope for women that they don't need to weaken themselves to be in a relationship.
Gay loved this trilogy because it showed her that there was hope for those who had survived terrible things. I think this trilogy gave her some ideas on how women should be treated and where we should aspire to be in the future.

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This shard of glass from the floor of the cabin in the woods reminds Gay of the day she was sexually assaulted. This event was when she realized that the way her boyfriend at the time treated her was unacceptable and he didn't respect her. She had always thought that it wasn't a big deal because it was just a body, but this event brought her to the realization that she was worth more than that and she should be respected by all men. This could have been a huge reason for her future as a feminist writer and an activist for women's eqaulity and rights.