January 2012
1 post
the most gendered list of all time.
http://www.discoverfun.com/freeinfo/500fun/friends.html.
bridgett mccoy concurs.
December 2011
9 posts
News Article on Abortion...
Do you think the mother’s anger was in any way justified?
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/88971742.html
Banning Beauty Ads: Yes? No?
Earlier on in the semester, we discussed Naomi Wolf’s article “The Beauty Myth”. We focused on one specific argument that Wolf made: how the concept of ‘beauty’, a social construct in and of itself, reinforces male institutions and male dominance over women. (See also Jean Kilbourne’s article, “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising”)
I found this...
Marriage as a patriarchal practice
After thinking about the patriarchal traditions in marriage that have been maintained even until today, I remembered some more that we did not have time to address in class.
1. After the the bride and groom are married, the priest or whoever marries them announces, ” I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith”. This is the epitome of patriarchy in marriage, I think, because the...
H&M Puts Real Models' Heads on Fake Bodies
http://jezebel.com/5865114/hm-puts-real-model-heads-on-fake-bodies
I recently found this article, which talks about how H&M takes photos of models’ heads and puts those images on the shoulders of computer-produced images of bodies in order to show off their clothes as best as possible. I obviously find this really problematic. The fact that this is essentially telling women that their...
Gender101@Bowdoin: Gender Identity and LGBT... →
In reading this article about the decision to downplay the the sexual relationship between the two female characters in The Color Purple, I was reminded of an essay that I wrote about the depiction of LGBTQ characters in the media, especially on television. Even today, more than twenty-five years since The Color Purple was produced, LGBTQ characters and their sexual relationships are rarely...
Spielberg's Decision to "Soften" the Lesbian Sex...
One thing we didn’t discuss in our presentation on The Color Purple is the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. We decided to leave this out due to time-constraints and the fact that the film barely even touches on their relationship. The movie diminishes this relationship to a single kiss, whereas their relationship is much more developed (both physically and emotionally) in the...
Watch
Domestic Abuse Photographs →
Our discussion in class on Monday about violence against women reminded me of this photographer. Donna Ferrato did not begin her career photographing domestic violence. She was following a story about sexual adventures when she witnessed a man scream at and then slap his wife, from that point on she dedicated a decade to advocating for battered women by using her photographs. This link shows...
WatchLea T: First Transgender Supermodel
This link discusses the story of the first transgender super model: Lea T. She was born as Leondro, and always felt “off” in terms of her sexuality growing up. She felt uncomfortable being a gay man, but that was more accepted in society than being transgender, and felt more natural because she was attracted to men. Only recently has she begun living as a woman....
November 2011
29 posts
Doing Gender and Bathrooms
Social Scientists Candace West and Don Zimmerman were the first to coin the term “doing gender” in their sociological article “Doing Gender”, which explores the social construction of gender and the ways in we create, recreate, and reinforce societal gender norms.
Although much of this may be review from earlier topics we covered in class (their articles harkens back to...
Transgender Students in Schools
The film, “TransGeneration” by Jeremy Simmons, is a documentary that follows the lives of four transgender individuals who struggle not only with their own identity, but how their identify fits into the narrow scheme people have when constructing gender. All four of these individuals are in college and are faced with various academic, social, and personal issues in regards to their gender...
violence against children
So in our recent class about violence against women, for violence within the home we focused on violence between intimate partners, but there seemed to be a glaring hole in our discussion, violence directed at children. What are the gendered implications of abuse directed at daughters instead of sons or vise versa? I am under the belief that yet again, men tend to be the abusers, but abuse coming...
Same-Sex domestic violence rose in 2010 →
mrh9009:
In looking into statistics on same-sex domestic violence, I found this somewhat disturbing article, which discusses a recent increase in same-sex domestic violence. http://lezgetreal.com/2011/10/same-sex-domestic-violence-rose-significantly-in-2010/ They found that there was an increase in both the number of cases and the severity of same-sex domestic violence, including six documented...
Hey Baby Game →
Here is a link to the video game I mentioned in class, called Hey Baby. Their website even allows you to play a sample of the game and shoot those terrible sexual predators who are hitting on your character. I’m wondering what other people think of this game, and if it can be interpreted as an appropriate and female-empowering game. After all, other games, tv shows, or movies with...
Rape Definition Too Narrow in Federal Statistics,... →
Men in Battered Women's Shelters
According to Ann Jones, “never before in history has there been such an organization of crime victims united to rescue other victims and prevent further crimes” (486). Battered women’s shelters are saving thousands of lives daily by providing security and assistance towards recovery for abused women and children, and the battered women’s movement “has brought battering out of the private household...
Conservative Conspiracy, and Campus "Safety"
Filipovic would agree with Jason Katz’s “Tough Guise”; sexual assault is a gender problem, perpetrated almost entirely by males upon females. Filipovic also introduces the scary idea that there are people in the United States who are supportive of the “rape culture”. She describes the conservative religious right as waging a “war over the most basic of values:...
Domestic Violence and Saying "Enough"
Ann Jones, in Battering: Who’s Going to Stop It, states that battering alone is now the single leading cause of injury to women in the United States (483). Some may be surprised at this fact because a few myths still remain about violence against women. Jones discusses these myths and in “Countdown” by Lanett Fisher-Hertz, a detailed depiction of an abusive relationship shows that our ideas...
Sex Education
Carole Vance, in “Pleasure and Danger: Toward a Politic of Sexuality”, argues, “feminism must be a movement that speaks to sexuality, that does not forfeit the field to reactionary groups who are more than willing to speak” (334). Such an argument, I believe, inherently supports comprehensive sex education. However, as Jessica Valenti points out in “The Cult of...
WatchFace it, you’re a tease.
I’m NOT a tease.
Sure you are. Sex is your weapon. You said it yourself. You use it to get respect.
Perception of Teases
The scene from The Breakfast Club shows the three labels from which a woman is categorized when stating her status as a virgin or non-virgin: the slut, the prude, or, worst, a tease. The prude is the woman that cuts herself off from sex...
Virginity & Sex as Self Definition vs. Sex as...
In Valenti’s “Cult of Virginity” and Levy’s “Raunch Culture,” both authors argue that we live in a sex-obsessed culture governed by stereotypes and media messages that hurt women and inhibit their power. While Valenti discusses the obsession with a woman’s virginity and the notion of the ideal “desirable virgin,” Levy’s thesis insists that our culture promotes the objectification of women and even...
What I found most interesting after reading the articles was the Twin Cities Annual GLBT Wedding Expo in the “‘We Do’ - On Our Terms” article by Effinger-Weintraub. Effinger-Weintraub describes her overall experience at this event negative, because she was hoping for social awareness but instead found “simple consumerism.” The event did not seem targeted enough to gays and...
Weddings Gone Wild
I really like the topic for tomorrow’s chat just because of the plethora of TV shows devoted to weddings. My mom watches most of these. I post these to show the emphasis placed on the female perspective in the wedding process rather than the couple’s perspective as well as to showcase this burden and importance placed on the matrimonial process in this country.:
My Fair Wedding
...
Kim Kardashian vs. The Real L-Word.
Ackelsberg & Plaskow’s “Why We’re Not Getting Married” really sparked my interest because it offered a view of the marriage equality debate that I honestly had never considered before. The article questions the relative importance of fighting for marriage equality because there exists such a wide range of “alternative” families and individuals who are being denied their basic rights....
"Excerpt From White Weddings (1999)" by Chrys...
After reading all four of the articles the one that had the greatest affect on me was “Excerpt From White Weddings (1999)” by Chrys Ingraham. In her article the author explains about how Americans are spending considerably more money on weddings than in the past. Over the years, as couples and families have increased their spending the wedding industry has turned into a...
http://www.adoptionissues.org/adoption/body-image-a... →
I was doing some research for my paper topic (it deals with the connection between body image and roles of women) and I came across some very interesting articles. One article from an adoption organization explains how races have different body expectations (I guess to help with interracial adoption).
another article I read from “femminist.com”:...
Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill (Take Two)?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/us/politics/woman-accuses-cain-of-groping-he-denies-charge.html?ref=politics
MAACD Campaign: What is Colorism? →
maacd:
The M.A.A.C.D (Makeup Artists Against Complexion Discrimination) is an up and coming non-profit organization whose main goal is to bring awareness to the issue of complexion discrimination (also known as colorism). This is an issue that effects women of many different ethnicities yet it remains a taboo and virtually undiscussed subject. It strives in an environment of silence and...
High School Girl Fakes A Pregnancy For A School... →
October 2011
37 posts
8 tags
“Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the...”
– Audre Lorde?
Third Wave & Beyond
Amongst all of the readings, Walker’s “Becoming the Third Wave” immediately made me dive deeper into the case of Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas. Walker makes the claim that ”…the hearings were not about determining whether or not Clarence Thomas did in fact harass Anita Hill. They were about checking and redefining the extent of women’s credibility and...
A Day with Feminism
At the end of the article “Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future,” Baumgardner and Richards give a snapshot of a day in a world where society abides by feminist values. Citizens of this world, however, do not think of their way of life as a feminist way of life, it is just the cultural norm. I found the attributes of this world extremely appealing. I am sure many would perceive some of...
Lesbians and Femininity--Opposites?
When I read Lorde’s article, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” I became immediately interested in her description of the fear that black heterosexual women have of black lesbians. As Lorde writes, “A fear of lesbians, or of being accused of being a lesbian, has led many Black women into testifying against themselves” (Lorde 457). It is important to note the community in...
“My political obligations? I am a Black woman … in world that defines human as...”
– Audre Lorde (via southerntellect)
Women with Disabilities
As I was reading “Rights, Realities, and Issues of Women with Disabilities” by Hershey I was caught off guard by the quote about the media-morphed female. I have always known that the perfect body portrayed by the media is not something I should aspire to be. However, Hershel makes it clear that the “perfect women” image is even more unrealistic for women with disabilities, she says the “perfect...
Queen Sheba, "We are the Women" →
As I read “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” by Lorde, I was drawn by the small quote that mentioned the American magazine that decided to print only prose because poetry was less “rigorous” and “serious”. Lorde then described that oftentimes, poetry is the major voice of the poor and of Black women, who were in this case left out of this magazine and thus were unable to...