Support Gap Jeans, Not Gender Pay Gaps

The only gap I care for is The Gap. Their jeans are comfortable on an ethereal level and their striped shirt selection is impeccable. What I don't appreciate is the gap in wages between men's and women's earnings. I knew for a while that there was a substantial divide between the salaries of men and women but what really brought this issue to my attention was the recent unearthing of actors' and actresses' differing earnings (specifically Jennifer Lawrence's statements about her own earnings). I had no idea that this issue stretched all the way to Hollywood too, so I decided research it further. What I read definitely made me want to see change, and I believe that it's time the government intervenes with this inequality and finally establishes equal pay for both men and women, regardless of the occupation.

The fact that women are paid less than men in the year 2015 is truly ridiculous. What's even more ridiculous is how this reality is generally accepted without much fuss from the public or the government. It is the responsibility of the federal government to directly correct this problem in conjunction with companies. If an individual company cannot be trusted to pay its employees equally on its own volition, then the government needs to step in to take corrective action.

One way that companies may step up without government intervention is through a system that will allow companies to display their finances online to the public. This very interesting article from Yahoo News suggests that companies adopt a transparent salary policy that will help combat unequal pay. A transparent salary is a salary that is published online for anyone to see, which shows that the company is confident in its payment policies. I personally think this is a fantastic idea that could a) show the credibility of a company and b) raise the morale of employees and heighten the interest of potential employees. Not to mention it would be good promo/exposure for the company, as well.

This article was also informative, and it broke down the basics of the gap and provided statistics on different factors of the gap. One that I personally found really interesting was the chart displaying the differing wages by state. I was beyond surprised to learn that some states, such as Wyoming, had as much as a $16,000 annual salary difference between genders.

My hope is that in the next few years (or sooner, I'd really hope), the US can start to own up to the fact that pay inequality exists and needs to be fixed. As a very career driven person, I would hate to find out that I'm being paid less than I should be in a job that I love just because of something so inconsequential as my gender.

State of Confusion: A Spiraling Look into Same-Sex Parentage Rights

Before looking into this extremely informative article written by Washington Monthly correspondent Alison Gash, I had no idea just how complicated parenting for same-sex couples could be. In this article, Gash breaks down the story of Michelle and Brittany Conover, a couple who had a child together (the child is biologically Brittany's bot not biologically Michelle's) but then filed for divorce after their child was born. The state, however, did not grant Michelle legal access to her own child on account of the fact that Michelle was not "technically" the biological mother of her son since Brittany was the one to carry him.

Gash did a great job with summarizing a topic that has many complex layers to it and the overall article was very informative. Her intended audience is most likely a liberal one, as conservatives rarely display interest in a topic such as this one. Especially since this article goes very in-depth in the topic of parental legality, I doubt that any Republican, GOP member, or generally conservative person would give the time of day to an article based on anything to do with same-sex couples. The article also did a fantastic job of straying from biases: the information given was strictly straight-forward, and even her opinions were presented with subtlety. I especially agreed with her when she mentions at the end that children of same-sex couples are even more likely to be subjected to a rocky household without the government's support, and the government should be extremely supportive in situations like this. Events like this one show that marriage equality was a wonderful thing to happen to this country but we've still got a very long way to go in regard to all-encompassing equality.

The only gripe I have with this article is that it tends to get a little confusing in parts, especially when breaking down the state laws regarding what constitutes a legal parent of a child. A few paragraphs were also kind of redundant when talking about the specific situation of Michelle and Brittany, but overall I feel like that helped solidify the information.

Situations like Michelle and Brittany's make me so angry because no one should be subjected to treatment like that, whether it's by way of the state or way of morals. As I previously stated, I had no idea that same-sex couples endured messes like this one when deciding custody of a child, and this article did a great job of presenting me with information I had no clue about. I would love to look more into this issue in the future.

President? More Like Presi-DON'T: A Look Into Donald Trump's Vision for America

While speaking briefly about the upcoming election on his podcast, YouTube personality Tyler Oakley made a simple remark about Donald Trump's potential presidency that really stuck with me: "It's a joke until it's not." For the longest time, I was positively tickled by the fact that this man was actually planning on running for president. But now that it looks like he has a more than decent shot of becoming the Republican candidate in the 2016 elections, I am nothing short of truly frightened.

This really great article titled "GOP Can't Shed Itself of Racist Appeals" written by Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe argues that Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP using racism and hatred to lead their party is a very, very bad thing for America to be supporting. While there are many problems circling the GOP, this article specifically discusses racism and the blatant fashion in which the party boasts about its support of it. Throughout the article, he touches on the fact that yes, he disagrees with the conservative party, but also that their campaign methods are horrendously outdated and obviously discriminative. He includes plenty of links and sources to other articles within the piece, and these other sources really propel his argument for the better. Especially since I could hardly believe half of the quotes that Jackson paraphrased- the links provided factual evidence of some of the shocking things said by Trump (the specific point of how the GOP would like to maintain a "whitewashed America" and aren't shy about expressing that fact was news to me personally and also extremely unnerving).

From my perspective, I can't be one hundred percent certain of who the specific audience of this piece is. Of course it's for liberals, but I also feel that this piece, while remaining argumentative throughout, also doubles as an informative piece for people who aren't in the know with Trump's shenanigans. And since it's an argumentative article, it could be directed towards the GOP as a call-out to their behavior and actions.  Additionally, the reporter himself is quite credible: he is a "9 time winner from the National Association of Black Journalists" and a "2-time winner of opinion awards from the Education Writers Association." Not only does the liberal appeal of the article get me interested in the story, but the fact that the journalist has had previous work recognized is equally appealing. I'd love to see more stories like this one emerge as we get closer to the elections.