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GOP race turns to Colorado, Minnesota (AP)
LAS VEGAS ? Now it’s on to Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.
With back-to-back victories fueling him, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is looking toward the next states that hold GOP nominating contests as main rival Newt Gingrich brushes aside any talk of abandoning his White House bid __ all but ensuring the battle will stretch into the spring if not beyond.
Shortly after losing big to Romney here, the former House speaker emphatically renewed his vow to campaign into the party convention in Tampa this summer. His goal, he said, was to “find a series of victories which by the end of the Texas primary will leave us at parity” with Romney by early April.
Gingrich continued to shrug off Nevada’s caucus results in an appearance on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.”
“This is the state he won last time, and he won it this time,” he said of Romney. “Our goal is to get to Super Tuesday where we’re in much more favorable territory.”
But first, Gingrich must make it through Colorado and Minnesota, which both hold caucuses Tuesday. Maine follows on Saturday during a month that promises to be as plodding as January was rapid-fire in the presidential race. Romney will look to maintain his position of strength, if not build upon it, as his rivals continue working to derail him even as their options for doing so narrow with each victory he notches.
The former Massachusetts governor held a double-digit lead Sunday morning over his nearest pursuer as the totals mounted in Nevada, where fellow Mormons accounted for roughly a quarter of all caucus-goers. Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul vied for a distant second. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum trailed the field.
Santorum won the leadoff caucuses in Iowa and has trailed in the contests since then. He nonetheless insisted on Sunday that “our numbers are moving up continually.”
“I think we’re going to show improvement. This race is a long long way from being over,” Santorum said on Fox News Sunday.
And on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul maintained the results show voters are still up for grabs.
“I get energized because I know there’s a large number of people who are looking for another option,” Paul said.
With votes from 71 percent of the precinct caucuses tallied, Romney had 48 percent, Gingrich 23 percent, Paul 19 percent and Santorum 11 percent. Turnout was down significantly from 2008, when Romney also won the state’s GOP caucuses.
More than 24 hours after caucuses began, results from the state’s most populous county were still being tallied. The outcome could affect the second- and third-place finishers.
“Our goal is to finish verification,” said Clark County GOP spokeswoman Bobbie Haseley. “There is no modern technology when it comes to how the voting took place and the counting.”
Romney’s victory capped a week that began with his double-digit win in the Florida primary. That contest was as intense as Nevada’s caucuses were sedate __ so quiet that they produced little television advertising, no candidate debates and only a modest investment of time by the contenders.
A total of 28 Republican National Convention delegates were at stake in caucuses held across the sprawling state. Romney won at least 10, Gingrich at least four, Paul at least three and Santorum at least two. Eight were still to be determined.
That gives Romney a total of 97, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention and can support any candidate they choose. Gingrich has 30, Santorum 16 and Paul seven. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
Preliminary results of a poll of Nevada Republicans entering their caucuses showed that nearly half said the most important consideration in their decision was a candidate’s ability to defeat President Barack Obama this fall, a finding in line with other states.
About one-quarter of those surveyed said they were Mormon, roughly the same as in 2008, when Romney won with more than a majority of the vote in a multi-candidate field.
The entrance poll was conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press at 25 randomly selected caucus sites. It included 1,553 interviews and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writer Cristina Silva in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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World stocks fall ahead of EU summit (AP)
LONDON ? World stock markets fell Monday as uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece’s debt crisis weighed on investor sentiment ahead of a summit of European leaders.
The leaders gathering in Brussels hope to focus on how to stimulate economic growth and create jobs at a time when huge government spending cuts threaten to push many countries back into recession.
The latest data showed Spain was one step closer to recession ? technically defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction ? after its economy shrank in the last three months of 2011.
Experts say Europe’s efforts to cut its high levels of debt will be for nothing if its economies remain uncompetitive. The leaders will also discuss a new treaty on tightening budget controls and setting up a permanent bailout fund.
But the meeting will be dominated by another topic that is not officially for discussion ? Greece’s debt problem.
Greece has reached a tentative deal with its private creditors that could avert a disastrous default this spring. Investors holding euro206 billion ($272 billion) in Greek bonds would exchange them for bonds with half the face value. The replacement bonds would have a longer maturity and pay a lower interest rate. When the bonds mature, Greece would have to pay its bondholders only euro103 billion.
But because Greece has been in recession for years, some experts fear it could need more rescue loans from its bailout partners ? other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund ? if it is to remain solvent.
Richer countries like Germany, however, are losing patience with giving Athens loans, saying the Greek government is not implementing reforms and austerity cuts quickly enough.
A German official even proposed to have an EU official directly oversee Athens’ government spending. The idea was quickly rejected, however, by both the European Commission and Greek leaders.
Despite progress in Greece’s debt talks with private creditors, the continued uncertainty over its finances pushed markets lower Monday.
Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 percent to 5,689.76 and Germany’s DAX lost 0.9 percent to 6,4552.51. France’s CAC-40 shed 1.1 percent to 3,281.48. Wall Street was also headed for a lower open, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.6 percent to 12,533 and S&P 500 futures down 0.8 percent to 1,302.50.
Sentiment, which has been relatively buoyant so far this year on hopes for a recovery in the U.S., was also dented by Fitch Ratings agency’s announcement late Friday that it had downgraded five eurozone countries, including Italy and Spain.
Looking ahead, investors will keep an eye on an Italian bond auction and more earnings, which were mixed Monday in Europe ? airline Ryanair beat expectations but appliances maker Philips disappointed.
In Asia, most indexes closed lower as investors there reacted to Friday’s release of data showing the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected in the last three months of 2011. The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the October-December quarter, lower than the 3 percent that economists were expecting.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.5 percent to close at 8,793.05. South Korea’s Kospi was 1.2 percent lower at 1,940.55 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7 percent to 20,160.41. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent at 4,272.70.
Benchmarks in mainland China, Singapore, Indonesia, India and the Philippines also fell. Taiwan and New Zealand rose.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plummeted 14.8 percent after the Defense Ministry and the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center said they would not sign contracts with the electric machinery manufacturer, which acknowledged it had overcharged on defense and space-related projects, Kyodo News agency reported.
Traders are awaiting more data this week for clues about which way the U.S. economy is headed. On Wednesday, the Institute for Supply Management will release its manufacturing index for January and the U.S. Labor Department will release monthly employment data Friday.
“Because the market has been expecting rather good economic data from the U.S. … I am afraid if those figures disappoint the market, it may trigger further correction in the stock market,” said Louis Wong, dealing director of Phillip Securities Ltd.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 60 cents to $98.96 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 14 cents to end at $99.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3129 from $1.3208 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.70 yen from 76.72 yen.
___
Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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Stocks fall. Greece weighs on markets.
Stocks are down in Asia and Europe ahead of a key European summit. S&P futures are also lower. Investors shun stocks as concerns linger about Greece’s long-term solvency. ?
World?stock?markets fell Monday as uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece’s debt crisis weighed on investor sentiment ahead of a summit of European leaders.
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The leaders gathering in Brussels hope to focus on how to stimulate economic growth and create jobs at a time when huge government spending cuts threaten to push many countries back into recession.
The latest data showed Spain was one step closer to recession ? technically defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction ? after its economy shrank in the last three months of 2011.
Experts say Europe’s efforts to cut its high levels of debt will be for nothing if its economies remain uncompetitive. The leaders will also discuss a new treaty on tightening budget controls and setting up a permanent bailout fund.
But the meeting will be dominated by another topic that is not officially for discussion ? Greece’s debt problem.
Greece has reached a tentative deal with its private creditors that could avert a disastrous default this spring. Investors holding ?206 billion ($272 billion) in Greek bonds would exchange them for bonds with half the face value. The replacement bonds would have a longer maturity and pay a lower interest rate. When the bonds mature, Greece would have to pay its bondholders only ?103 billion.
But because Greece has been in recession for years, some experts fear it could need more rescue loans from its bailout partners ? other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund ? if it is to remain solvent.
Richer countries like Germany, however, are losing patience with giving Athens loans, saying the Greek government is not implementing reforms and austerity cuts quickly enough.
A German official even proposed to have an EU official directly oversee Athens’ government spending. The idea was quickly rejected, however, by both the European Commission and Greek leaders.
Despite progress in Greece’s debt talks with private creditors, the continued uncertainty over its finances pushed stocks lower Monday.
Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 percent to 5,689.76 and Germany’s DAX lost 0.9 percent to 6,4552.51. France’s CAC-40 shed 1.1 percent to 3,281.48. Wall Street was also headed for a lower open, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.6 percent to 12,533 and S&P 500 futures down 0.8 percent to 1,302.50.
Sentiment, which has been relatively buoyant so far this year on hopes for a recovery in the U.S., was also dented by Fitch Ratings agency’s announcement late Friday that it had downgraded five eurozone countries, including Italy and Spain.
Looking ahead, investors will keep an eye on an Italian bond auction and more earnings, which were mixed Monday in Europe ? airline Ryanair beat expectations but appliances maker Philips disappointed.
In Asia, most indexes closed lower as investors there reacted to Friday’s release of data showing the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected in the last three months of 2011. The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the October-December quarter, lower than the 3 percent that economists were expecting.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.5 percent to close at 8,793.05. South Korea’s Kospi was 1.2 percent lower at 1,940.55 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7 percent to 20,160.41. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent at 4,272.70.
Benchmarks in mainland China, Singapore, Indonesia, India and the Philippines also fell. Taiwan and New Zealand rose.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plummeted 14.8 percent after the Defense Ministry and the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center said they would not sign contracts with the electric machinery manufacturer, which acknowledged it had overcharged on defense and space-related projects, Kyodo News agency reported.
Traders are awaiting more data this week for clues about which way the U.S. economy is headed. On Wednesday, the Institute for Supply Management will release its manufacturing index for January and the U.S. Labor Department will release monthly employment data Friday.
“Because the market has been expecting rather good economic data from the U.S. … I am afraid if those figures disappoint the market, it may trigger further correction in the?stock?market,” said Louis Wong, dealing director of Phillip Securities Ltd.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 60 cents to $98.96 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 14 cents to end at $99.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3129 from $1.3208 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.70 yen from 76.72 yen.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/lSzg3owr9N0/Stocks-fall.-Greece-weighs-on-markets.
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Asia stocks mixed after uneven US bank earnings (AP)
BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday as uneven earnings reports from big U.S. banks dampened investor enthusiasm over successful bond issues in Europe.
Benchmark oil rose above $101 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.2 percent to 8,480.99 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4 percent to 19,696.35. But South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 1,888.71 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat at 4,215.30.
Benchmarks in Indonesia and Malaysia rose while mainland China and Singapore fell.
Financial shares came under pressure on weak quarterly earnings from some U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc., which said its fourth-quarter income fell 11 percent due in part to lower investment banking income and an accounting charge.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group fell 1.1 percent and Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China slid 1.9 percent.
European shares ended mostly higher Tuesday on the heels of short-term debt auctions by Spain, Greece and Europe’s bailout fund that drew strong investor demand, despite recent credit rating downgrades by Standard & Poor’s.
Many had feared the downgrades would prevent them from obtaining funds and worsen a sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
Other good news came from China, where the government said its economy slowed less dramatically in the fourth quarter than analysts had feared.
China is one of the biggest importers and slower growth could have global repercussions if it cuts demand for iron ore, industrial components and other goods from Australia, Brazil, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
It would also mean less demand for U.S. and European capital goods for Chinese factories and construction sites, and smaller profits for U.S. and European companies that do business here. The luxury goods industry would also feel a significant pinch, since China is just about the only growth market for those.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5 percent to close at 12,482.07. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 0.4 percent to 1,293.67. The Nasdaq composite index added 0.6 percent to 2,728.08.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 49 cents to $101.20 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract finished at $100.71 per barrel in New York on Tuesday.
In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.2779 from $1.2722 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.68 yen from 76.82 yen.
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China’s growth ebbs in final quarter of 2011 (AP)
BEIJING ? China’s economic growth slowed in the final quarter of 2011 to its lowest rate in 2 1/2 years as U.S. and European demand plunged and Beijing fought inflation.
The world’s second-largest economy grew by 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December, data showed Tuesday. It was the slowest expansion since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy grew 7.9 percent.
China appears on track to avoid the “hard landing” of an abrupt slowdown but needs to do more to reduce reliance on exports and investment-driven growth by boosting consumer spending, analysts said.
“Today’s outcome seems to confirm a `soft landing’ scenario,” said Frances Cheung of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
Slower Chinese growth could have global repercussions if its cuts demand for oil, iron ore, industrial components and other imports and hurts suppliers such as Australia, Brazil and Southeast Asia.
In 2012, China faces “complexity and challenges” due to global malaise and domestic pressure for prices to rise, said Ma Jiantang, commissioner of the National Statistics Bureau.
“We will face a number of risks that affect the steady growth of the Chinese economy,” Ma said at a news conference.
For the full year, the economy grew 9.2 percent, down from 2010′s blistering 10.3 percent after communist leaders repeatedly hiked interest rates and tightened investment curbs to prevent overheating and inflation.
Hit by an abrupt plunge in Western consumer demand, regulators reversed course in late 2011 and tried to prop up growth by promising more bank lending to help struggling exporters and avert job losses and the threat of unrest.
The plunge in global demand, coupled with lending curbs, drove thousands of small Chinese exporters out of business and forced others to cut jobs, raising the threat of unrest.
Analysts expect Beijing to try to stimulate growth this year with an interest rate cut or other measures to free up money for lending.
Consumer inflation edged down in December to 4.1 percent, below July’s 37-month high of 6.5 percent. That could give the government more leeway to stimulate the economy but it still was above the official 4 percent target for the year.
The central bank last week promised pro-growth efforts to support Chinese entrepreneurs and small companies, though its governor warned conditions were uncertain.
Also in 2011, China’s urban population exceeded the number of rural dwellers for the first time, rising to 51.3 percent of the nation’s 1.3 billion people, the National Bureau of Statistics announced.
The slowdown was in line with government plans to cool China’s overheated economy, Ma said. He said the “ideal situation” would be to keep growth between 8.5 and 9 percent and to keep inflation low.
China’s economic growth fell steadily over the course of the year, declining from 9.7 percent in the first quarter. Industrial surveys show manufacturing and exports contracted in November and December. A slowdown in real estate sales as the government tries to cool surging home prices has sparked concern about the impact on the overall economy.
In a positive sign, growth in retail sales rebounded to 18.1 percent in December from November’s 17.1 percent.
“If we can rely more on domestic consumption, that will help the economy to sail through all these headwinds,” said Credit Agricole CIB’s Cheung. “In retail sales, there is quite an obvious pickup in growth, so that is where I think the comfort will come from.”
Also in December, growth in factory output edged up to 12.8 percent from November’s 12.4 percent.
“This all reaffirms our outlook on China for a soft landing in the second half of 2011 and in opening six months of 2012,” said Moody’s Analytics economist Glenn Levine in a report. “Export demand has cooled, but domestic demand is still running strong, led by public investment in housing and other infrastructure.”
___
National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): http://www.stats.gov.cn
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It’s earnings vs Europe for stocks (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. stock investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns this week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region’s difficulties in view.
Bank stocks will probably once again be a primary focus, as not only will European issues call the group’s profit outlook into question, but many key names report results.
Equities have recently undergone a decoupling with respect to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis as signs of progress in the euro zone, along with improving U.S. data, have pushed Wall Street higher on improved growth prospects. Financials have been a beneficiary of that rising tide, with Bank of America up about 20 percent since the start of the year.
So far this month, the S&P 500 (.SPX) is up 2.5 percent, while the Dow (.DJI) is up 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq (.IXIC) is up 4.1 percent.
“We’re going to see more volatility in the weeks ahead with tension between earnings and Europe,” said Christopher Sheldon, the Boston-based director of investment strategy at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which oversees $171 billion globally.
“We want to see Europe resolved, but there will continue to be ups and downs, and while earnings will continue to be relatively good, we do expect slowing compared with 2011.”
However, the uncertainty about Europe returned in a big way on Friday after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the ratings of nine of the 17 euro-zone countries, including France, Italy and Spain after the market closed. Talk of the downgrades spurred a selloff that erased most of the gains for the week, when the S&P rose for four straight sessions.
The downgrades could exacerbate the euro zone’s difficulties and bring concerns about how they might affect U.S. banks’ profits back to the forefront.
Still, market participants looking for signs of strength don’t have to look far. Data has been bullish lately, including Friday’s consumer sentiment reading at an eight-month high that sharply exceeded what was anticipated.
“The prospect of a downgrade has been around for a while, so despite today’s reaction, everyone was aware of the potential, and I don’t think it will be as impactful, especially as corporate business trends remain strong,” said Hank Herrmann, chief executive of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc in Overland Park, Kansas.
HINTS OF BETTER TIMES AHEAD
Earnings reports from numerous bellwethers could reinforce the growth story. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), General Electric Co (GE.N), Intel Corp (INTC.O), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) are among the names set to report.
Early reads have supported the idea that better times lie ahead. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said the domestic economy was strengthening even as its profit fell 23 percent, while Alcoa Inc (AA.N) rallied earlier in the week after giving a bullish outlook for the aluminum sector.
“Banks will be an important part of the story, especially with Europe in the picture, and investors will also be looking at names like GE, which have global exposure, to see what insights can be gleaned from that,” said Herrman, who helps oversee $90 billion in assets.
The U.S. stock market will be closed on Monday in observance of the U.S. holiday honoring the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader.
When trading resumes on Tuesday, Wall Street will watch a number of economic indicators to gauge the strength of the recovery. Data scheduled for release in the abbreviated week includes the New York Fed’s Empire State Index on January manufacturing, the December readings on the U.S. Producer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index, as well as December housing starts and December existing home sales.
For the past week, the Dow rose 0.5 percent while the S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq added 1.4 percent.
(Wall St Week Ahead runs every Sunday. Questions or comments on this column can be emailed to: ryan.vlastelica(at)thomsonreuters.com)
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal; Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra: visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 For more information on Top News: http://topnews.reuters.com; For London stock market outlook please click on <.L/O>; Pan-European stock market outlook <.EU/O>; Tokyo stock market outlook <.T/O>)
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Soraya Chemaly: Facebook, Nice Girls and Self-Worth
What girls say to each other on Facebook matters more than the possible threat of cyberbullying. It reflects what we teach kids about what’s important and has real consequences.
Have you ever seen what happens when a teenage girl posts a new picture on Facebook? If she’s popular, friends, boys but mainly other girls, reply with some variation of: “You look beautiful!” “Sexy girl!” “GORGEOUS!!”
They even get specific: “Nice butt!” “I wish my waist was THAT small!!!” “Bitch, (in the good way girls say it these days, of course) you look hot!”
In some alternate universe (and according to several competing superstring theories there are an infinite number) girls are doing this instead:
Posting a photo with a bio test: “I got an A on my advanced bio final today!!!” “No way!” “OMG! SO hot!” or Photo-hugging a book with accompanying post: “Just reading Tristam Shandy. LMFAO!” “Me, too! LMFAO2!” “I am SO SO SO SO SO SO jealous!”
Or talking about her athletic prowess, with accompanying video: “Scored the most awesome goal today! Look at this shot!” “You R AMAZING!” “O.M.G. That was the prettiest goal I’ve EVER seen.” “Marry me!” (That last one always makes me burst out laughing.)
OK, I’ll stop now. It’s just so much fun over there.
Apparently, it’s OK for girls to tout how they look, it’s still not OK for girls to share what they accomplish or might be interested in. I am fortunate that most of the teenage girls I know are good, nice people. They are kind to one another. Supportive of their friends. Laugh readily and understand, for the most part, how lucky they are. And, I know that horrible, sometimes tragic, cyberbullying goes on. But, on any given day, it seems that for every genuinely mean girl, there are thousands of nice girls saying flattering things to one another online.
A girl’s introduction to Facebook, and other social media sites often starts during early adolescence, when peer acceptance and relationships are most important to social and emotional development, particularly self-esteem.
By interacting in these ways, girls are being nice to one another. They’re complimenting each other. They are telling each other something important about the world and their place in it. By the time girls are on Facebook they’d have to be living in the outer reaches of upper Mongolia not to know how important it is to be beautiful in our culture. They want their friends to be happy and succeed in that endeavor. What are the roots of self esteem in this equation? Primarily the way they look. And that’s because it’s what our culture tells them.
In addition to peer acceptance being important, adolescent girls develop a preoccupation with image. According to multiple research studies conducted by the American Psychological Association, girls are more likely than boys to emulate what they see in magazines, music videos, movies. Just as they are dealing with physical and emotional changes due to puberty (which always means healthy weight gain), they also have to deal with the unrealistic and unattainable cultural demands for female thinness, beauty and sexiness. Of course, ethnicity, culture, class and sexual orientation are important factors. But for girls of color and ethnic minorities, the implications are even less understood and perhaps even greater in terms of self-image.
Why does it matter why girls post these photos? Or, how they feel their friends’ responses? Why is the timing, in terms of their socialization and development, crucial?
Here’s what the American Psychological Association has to say:
Between the ages of 8 and 11 years, girls tend to be androgynous. They view themselves as strong and confident and are not afraid to say what they think. However, as they cross over into adolescence, girls begin to experience pressure toward more rigid conceptions of gender roles; they become more concerned with how women are “supposed to behave” and with their physical and sexual attractiveness.
Early adolescence is particularly stressful on adolescent girls’ friendships and peer relations, and often means a marked increase in indirect relational aggression. (Mean girls… ) Relational aggression is both more common in girls and more distressful to them. It includes behaviors such as spreading rumors or threatening withdrawal of friendship. It starts happening as girls negotiate power relations and, this is really important, affirm or resist conventional constructions of femininity. That when photographs and their comments come in to play and have more weight than might otherwise be ascribed to them. The photos and comments have power to define girls. Even girls who do not fit the mold of “traditionally” popular, beautiful and thin girl, if they are well-liked, are supported in this way – through compliments that focus almost entirely on looks, with smatterings of “You’re so sweet!” and “You’re so nice!” The opposite is also true. That’s why cyberbullying can so quickly escalate to cause real harm.
There are several consequences and trends related to dynamic interplay of self image, body image, peer assessment, confidence:
In immediate terms, according to the NYU Child Study Center the emphasis on beauty, particularly an idealized, often sexualized and thin body, has implications for health:
- Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression are the most common mental health problems in girls.
- 59 percent of 5-12th grade girls in one survey were dissatisfied with their body shape.
- 20-40 percent of girls begin dieting at age 10.
- By 15, girls are twice as likely to become depressed than boys.
- Among 5-12th graders, 47 percent said they wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures.
- Health risks accompany girls’ drop in self-esteem due to risky eating habits, depression,and unwanted pregnancy.
- Girls aged 10 and 12 (tweens) are confronted with “teen” issues such as dating and sex, at increasingly earlier ages. 73 percent of 8-12 year-olds dress like teens and talk like teens.
Dr. Anita Gurian, a clinical assistant professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine, describes it this way:
Starting in the pre-teen years, there is a shift in focus; the body becomes an all consuming passion and barometer of worth. Self-esteem becomes too closely tied to physical attributes; girls feel they can’t measure up to society standards. Between 5th and 9th grade, gifted girls, perceiving that smarts aren’t sexy, hide their accomplishments.
According to Beauty Redefined, based on studies done in the last five years, 66 percent of adolescent girls wish they were thinner, though only 16 percent are actually overweight.
And it is happening at younger and younger ages: A girl is 10 years-old when she starts emulating models she sees in ads and feeling deficient. Between 20 and 40 percent of 10 year-olds start dieting. Girls start pretending they are not that smart, because “smart” and “sexy” are more often than not portrayed as mutually exclusive binaries.
On a broad cultural scale, the impact of lower self esteem, a loss of a sense of agency and a perception that your worth is bound up in your attractiveness to men has serious consequences for equity. It’s why I keep mentioning the movie Miss Representation, which traces the effects of mass media on girls and culture and illustrated the degree to which television, movies, videos, lyrics, magazine, the Internet and advertisements portray images of girls and women in a sexual manner, as the primary model of femininity for girls to emulate to the exclusion of almost everything else.
So, media messages both establish unhealthy, unrealistic ideals of thinness, sexiness and beauty while causing low self-esteem generated by a failure to meet those ideals.
Girls are working this out every day on Facebook. When they collectively post and comment, I think they are grappling with these issues in the way they can best. They acknowledge the reality of the situation that thin and pretty are important (sexy is really good, too), while trying to be supportive and complimentary, to offset the negative consequences of being held to this ridiculous and fetishized ideal of contemporary female beauty.
For me, it’s simple, as long as we have gender equity imbalances — in pay equity, political representation, story-telling (media), resource allocation — then the currency of a female’s worth will remain the way she looks because the primary traditional way of achieving agency in a woman’s life has been to align herself with a man with the best access to resources. Resources to which women have had a vicarious relationship: money, property, political power, safety. Undoubtedly women’s and girls’ position in the world have improved enormously due to the fight for equal rights, but mainstream messages clearly continue to portray the world through the lens of girls and women as fetishized, feminine helpmeets.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the question “Why did she do that?” because it is often wielded as a weapon to blame girls and women for the ways in which they adapt to living in a sexist culture. My daughters, my nieces, their friends and teammates aren’t, for the most part, obsessing in a single-minded way on their looks. They’re just having fun, messing around with friends online. Yes, there is the usual focus on clothes, appearance, hair — but they are working hard at being good students, healthy athletes and kind people. And, indeed, my daughters will mock me relentlessly when this posts for my concern since they are “Just fine, Mom!” And, yes, I know that athletics, particularly team sports, are a great way to build a great, healthy body-image for girls. It take more than that, however, to offset the relentless beauty pressure that girls are subjected to (as illustrated in this Dove campaign video that made the rounds last year).
However, it is still unsettling to me that what all of these girls, being educated in one of the fairest, most equitable societies on the planet, still chose to share in public: how they look instead, with the exception of “liking” things, what they do and what their opinions are. It’s a tall order for any teen to go out on a limb to do these things — but for girls in this context, where beauty and smarts are still in conflict and where looks are so important — it’s even harder.
There are many great resources, books and organizations working to change mass media’s representation of a girls’ value being rooted in her appearance and sex appeal. Check out the following if you are interested:
She Heroes
7 Wonderlicious
Black Girl Project
Adios Barbie
Princess Free Zone
Powered by Girls
Black Girls Rock!
Spark Movement
Miss Representation
BrainCake
Pigtail Pals
Girls’ Leadership Institute
There is a short list, others can also be found here. In addition to addressing the first world issues of (compared to the rest of the world) affluent and educated girls who can afford to be on FaceBook, there are many organizations with similar goals internationally that you can find here at Amazing Women Rock — an award winning web site and resource center which was started after its founder, Susan Macaulay, found that “women tend not to “blow their own horns,” and as a result miss out on a lot of opportunities that life has to offer” — that includes telling girls and boys that girls can aspire, with reasonable hope and ambition, to contribute to the greater good by more than just looking good.
Thanks, Likers!
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Follow Soraya Chemaly on Twitter: www.twitter.com/schemaly
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/girls-cyberbullying-facebook_b_1197215.html
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Markets cautious after US debt talks collapse
Trader Jason Weisberg works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Five stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Jason Weisberg works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Five stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
LONDON (AP) ? The collapse of talks aimed at reducing the staggering U.S. budget deficit weighed on world markets Tuesday but failed to stifle a rebound in Europe.
Stocks took a pummeling on Monday after a so-called supercommittee in Congress failed to reach a deal to cut the U.S. federal budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. While not entirely unexpected, the failure heightened worries that political bickering ? in the U.S. and Europe ? will hurt efforts to cut debt during a period of declining economic growth.
European countries are locked in a debate over how to provide a lasting solution to their debt crisis, which is causing borrowing rates to rise to dangerous highs for ever-larger countries.
Many countries would like the European Central Bank to step up its bond purchases, which have the effect of keeping down borrowing rates. It currently buys bonds in limited amounts, but experts say it needs to expand the program significantly if it is to be effective.
Germany, however, opposes such a move for fear it would create inflation and saddle the central bank with bad loans.
Berlin is also against issuing eurobonds ? debt backed by all 17 eurozone nations ? that the European Commission is pushing for this week. Chancellor Angela Merkel is worried it would expose German taxpayers to irresponsible spending in other countries and erode pressure on governments to reform their economies.
As the leaders struggle to find common ground, the markets remained on edge.
Spain was forced to pay sharply higher interest rates in an auction of short-term debt, suggesting investor remain wary of the country’s financial prospects despite a new, center-right government coming to power this week.
European stocks were up slightly after huge losses on Monday, as some investors sought bargains. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.6 percent to 5,251.46 while Germany’s DAX rose 1.1 percent to 5,664.73 and France’s CAC-40 gained 1.0 percent to 2,922.81.
Wall Street was headed for a soft opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures flat to 11,519 and S&P 500 futures up 0.5 percent at 1,196.
Shares in Asia struggled to make headway after Monday’s losses on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4 percent to 8,314.74, its lowest close since March 2009.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7 percent to 4,133. China’s Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.1 percent lower to 2,412.63. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand also fell.
But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng erased early losses, rising 0.1 percent to end at 18,251.59 and South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.3 percent to 1,826.28.
Clouds are gathering in Asia, where Singapore ? seen as a bellwether of Western demand because of its very high reliance on trade ? said Monday its economy would likely suffer a sharp slowdown in 2012 as export orders from developed countries wane.
“I think we are looking at maybe 2 percent growth for the entire world. For a normal year, global economic growth will be like 4 percent, but now it has to revise down to about 2 percent, so you are taking out a big chunk of the GDP … around the world,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.
Losses among Asian stocks were broad-based and included banks and consumer shares.
Hong Kong-listed China Construction Bank and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group both fell 1.1 percent. Hong Kong-listed GOME Electrical Appliances slid 1.9 percent and China Garments Co. lost 2.3 percent.
Mainland Chinese shares in power, food and travel companies led the gains while shares in chemical, aviation and auto companies weakened. Air China Ltd. lost 5.5 percent while Bright Food (Group) Co. gained 3 percent.
In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3533 from $1.3496 late Monday in New York. The dollar was roughly unchanged at 76.93 yen.
Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 93 cents at $97.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 75 cents to settle at $96.92 in New York on Monday.
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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok and Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.
Associated Press
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For-profit colleges getting more GI Bill dollars (AP)
The new Post 9/11 G.I. bill, which substantially boosted education benefits for veterans, has been a windfall for large chains of for-profit colleges, according to figures released Thursday by Senate Democrats arguing for tighter regulation of the sector.
Data on the first two years of the program show more veterans ? and more of the government dollars that follow them ? went to for-profit chains. Of the $4.4 billion the Department of Veterans Affairs disbursed during the 2010-2011 academic year, $1 billion went to just eight for-profit schools. The top seven recipients were all for-profit institutions.
The largest single share went to the University of Phoenix, which collected $210 million through the program, up from $77 million a year ago. G.I. Bill funds for each of the other eight top for-profits also more than doubled from the previous year.
The figures are relatively small in comparison to other government programs like Pell Grants. And they aren’t surprising in some respects because the large for-profit chains enroll students across the country and are far bigger than any not-for-profit institutions. Veterans are free to choose to use their benefits at any properly accredited school they choose.
But the G.I. Bill attracts particular scrutiny because of concerns veterans are being aggressively recruited by institutions that generally have higher costs, default rates and dropout rates. For-profits enrolled roughly 25 percent of veterans using the program but received 37 percent of the GI Bill funds.
Veterans are particularly attractive recruiting targets because of the benefits they carry but also because of a loophole in the so-called “90-10 rule.” That law requires colleges to receive at least 10 percent of their revenue from non-government sources, and is intended to make them prove their value by attracting private dollars. But dollars from military programs like the G.I. Bill don’t count as government support under the 90-10 rule, even though they come from taxpayers.
“It’s possible that 100 percent of a college’s or university’s revenue can come from the taxpayers,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the committee, which scheduled hearings Thursday on the 90-10 rule. “No skin in the game. That’s not a good situation for the taxpayers.”
Harkin’s committee has held multiple hearings over the past year on the for-profits. In June, the Obama administration unveiled new “gainful employment” rules that could cut more programs off from government aid if students aren’t able to acquire decent-paying jobs.
The for-profit sector says it is taking substantial steps to improve student success rates. Phoenix, for instance, requires some new students to pass a free, three-week orientation program in order to continue. It and other companies have seen substantial drops in new enrollment as they accept fewer academically risky students, and insist they’re providing good value to taxpayers.
Indeed, Harkin and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said some for-profits were providing good service to veterans. But they also highlighted the higher dropout rates at many for-profits that leave taxpayers and students on the hook for unfinished degrees.
At the eight for-profit schools collecting the most G.I. Bill funding, more than 400,000 students ? around 60 percent ? withdrew within one year of enrolling. The figures refer to all students; veteran-specific dropout rates are not available.
“Some of these schools are doing a good job,” Harkin said. “But there are some of these, they just want the money.”
APSCU, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Justin Pope covers higher education for the AP. You can reach him at twitter.com/jnn_pope97
Unemployment aid applications tick down to 400K
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The number of people seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week, a sign the job market may be improving slowly.
The Labor Department says that applications for unemployment benefits edged down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000. That’s the lowest level in four months. The previous week’s figure was revised upward from 398,000 to 401,000.
The four-week average, a less volatile figure, dropped for the fifth straight week to 407,750. That suggests there is a downward trend in applications.
Applications have been at or above 400,000 for 17 weeks. They fell in February to 375,000, a level that signals healthy job growth. They stayed below 400,000 for two months, but applications then surged to an eight-month high of 478,000 in April and have declined slowly since then.
The report comes a day before the government will release the July employment figures. Economists forecast that Friday’s report will show that employers added a net total of 90,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 9.2 percent.
That would be an improvement from June, when the economy added just 18,000 ? the fewest in nine months. But at least three times that many new jobs would be needed to substantially reduce the unemployment rate.
Employers are pulling back as the economy struggles.
The economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent in the April-June period after barely expanded in the first three months of this year. Growth was less than 1 percent in the first half of the year, the weakest stretch since the recession ended.
Manufacturers expanded at their slowest pace in two years in July, a private trade group said Monday. The Institute for Supply Management also said that expansion among retailers, restaurants, financial services and service industries slowed to a 17-month low in July.
The two reports showed that there is little sign the economy is growing any faster in the July-September quarter than in the first half of this year.
A more cautious consumer is a key reason for the sluggish period. Americans cut their spending for the first time in 20 months in June, the government said Tuesday. For the entire April-June period, consumer spending rose only 0.1 percent, the worst showing since the recession ended.
Much of the slowdown stems from a spike in gas prices since last year. That has limited what consumers can spend on discretionary goods, such as furniture, electronics, and appliances. Spending on those categories has fallen for three straight months.
Manufacturing output has also been hit by supply disruptions that resulted from Japan’s March 11 earthquake. Those disruptions caused auto companies in the U.S. to reduce production.
Economists had predicted the economy would turn around in the second half of the year once those temporary factors began to fade.
But many are now more pessimistic about the second half of this year. Goldman Sachs recently cut its estimate for growth in the July-September period to 2.5 percent from 3.25 percent. JPMorgan, meanwhile, has reduced its estimate to 1.5 percent, from as high as 3 percent several weeks ago.
Growth of about 2.5 percent is barely enough to reduce the unemployment rate. The economy would need to grow 5 percent for a whole year to bring down the rate by one percentage point.
Associated Press
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