Final Topic Two

            History is constantly being made around the world. There are men and women everywhere that come from vast amounts of differing backgrounds. Either way, we were all put on this earth one way or another to live together. The question is, if we are here together, then why are men and women not seen as equals? This is a question that has been raised several times throughout history and continues to be unanswered today. Feminism is the constant struggle to maintain social, political, and economic equality between the different sexes that live on this earth.

            The idea of feminism came about in the young part of the twentieth century when women began joining forces to gain the right to vote. Suffrage was the biggest issue of the first wave feminists because they saw that they needed to have full rights under the law. At this time, women and African Americans were in the same unlawful boat, although the fifteenth amendment came giving racial minorities the right to vote but still excluding women.

            Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, author of The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy, and the movie Iron Jawed Angels both speak about the unequal political opportunity of voting in the early twentieth century. Both the movie and the book highlight the work of Alice Paul, a feminist and suffragist who founded the National Women’s Party. Paul led many women, African American and white, to protest outside the white house.  The protests and parades that Alice Paul headed portrayed the beauty of women, but most importantly the intelligence of women. Rowe-Finkbeiner says in the chapter of her book, “A Tsunami in History,” that “the vote didn’t come easy,” for it took forty consecutive years of voting on the issue to finally get it passed after it was first defeated from the first introduction in 1878 (22). When the suffrage movement finally made its mark, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the United States Constitution; although, the amendment still had some kinks. According to Rowe-Finkbeiner, the first wave feminists were not only significant because they fought and earned the right to vote, “but because their work helped change the perception of women from voiceless dependents to independent thinkers with a valid voice in shaping the country” (23).

            Now that women had a strong base under them, they took the right to vote and continued fighting for equality between the sexes. This is where the second feminist wave came into light, because there was still a lot of work to do when the suffrage movement ended. The second wave mainly worked on issues such as equality in the workplace, reproductive rights, and discrimination based on sex and race. This fight occurred during the 1960s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s. One major leap the second wave made was the enforcing of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). These women earned “the election of more women to public office, legal abortions, and a ban on discrimination in schools and lending, among other things” that many take advantage of today (26).

            One of the most significant cases during this era was Roe v. Wade. This court case gave women the right of abortion up until a certain point of fetal growth. Reproductive rights were very controversial and unfair to women. Men were allowed to get contraceptives for a long time, but women were not. The second wave brought on options for women and feminists continued fighting for these options and more, while becoming more and more focused on their sexuality and individuality.

            The focus on sexuality and individuality led to the contemporary, or third wave, of feminism. Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner wrote in the chapter, “Signs of the Times: Defining the Third Wave,” that “the third wave has worked hard to incorporate the voices of many different women” (104). She explains that this is necessary in contemporary times, but it can also be a danger because women will focus more on individual needs, “thus diluting the political strength that comes from mass numbers” (104). She raises the question, “are we post feminist,” because the focus on female votes is declining, although more women are getting higher degrees and better careers (107).

Surprisingly, fashion was one of the biggest feminist issues in the workplace next to the wage gap for past feminists. The book Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by Bell Hooks describes in “Beauty Within and Without,” how the past feminists movements have pushed the idea of self-love that we have today in the workplace because “women had to demand that the fashion industry (which was totally male-dominated in those days) create diverse styles of clothing” (32). This was important because women needed to be equal in the work force and not be seen as objects of male desire with their beauty at the office. Women needed to feel comfortable and at ease just like men. Sexual harassment in the workplace has and will continue to be an issue in the workplace. Yes, it does go both ways male to female and female to male, but it used to happen to females by males more. Now, there are laws against sexual harassment as well. It’s important that women have confidence to work with men, while maintaining their sexuality (in this case with fashion) and individuality.

            We are not post feminists. We’re still thinking in the contemporary ways, but through a different angle. We have reproductive rights, so now people are looking towards getting more education and information that go along with those rights. The professional opportunities, as already pointed out, are greater but there is still a wage gap that is being fought against. Most importantly, there are more life choices for females that have never been thought about before. Bell Hook describes the economic struggles in the “Women at Work” section of her book. She says that more than half of American women are in the work force, and that many white feminists argue that this is a sign of liberation. According to Hooks, the white feminists would say that feminism isn’t for those who are already in the work force. Being from a working-class African American background, Hooks says, “Most importantly I knew firsthand that working for low wages did not liberate poor and working-class women from male domination” (48).  Yes, there are more rights to economics, but gender discrimination has not been fully eliminated.

            Education is the key to gender discrimination elimination. Hooks says in the “Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness” section of her book that, “The formation of women’s studies programs in colleges and universities provided institutional legitimation for academic focus on work by women” (20).  This marked the stepping-stone for learning about feminism in an unbiased atmosphere. Later, feminists went on to critique sexist thinking in children’s books and other areas. It’s important to start young, because society and elders are the cause people accepting the patriarchal way of thinking. Sexist thinking is a learned behavior, which is why feminism goes along with women’s studies. If people are not educated in an unbiased atmosphere they remain unaware of the problems in society because they are never taught differently.

            In 2003, Lisa Belkin wrote “The Opt-Out Revolution” for The New York Times, which follows the patriarchal way of thinking with feminism. She makes a very controversial argument that so many intelligent women these days are slipping back into the ways of patriarchal thinking because they are taking the “mommy track.” This mommy track is the trend of women opting-out of the workforce to stay home with their children. The women she interviewed had law degrees from Harvard and Columbia, yet “they chose husbands who could keep up with them, not simply support them,” which was great, until they decided to opt-out and live off of their husband’s salary.

            Belkin argues that this “mommy track” is not how the feminist movement was intended to evolve. Belkin states, “women—specifically, educated professional women – were supposed to achieve like men,” and yes, barriers from long ago are down, but there is still work to be done. This opt-out revolution is, in a way, undoing the work of the women getting through to the mass media by ways of the fashion industry and undoing the work of feminists that have critiqued children’s books because they are teaching their little girls that they do not need to work and make something of themselves. Women’s studies follows the feminist movements to make sure that people are aware what is going on currently, so issues don’t slip back to the way they were and to show people that feminists are only here to fight against the inequalities between the sexist and that they are not man hating lesbians.

            I am a feminist. I’m not a lesbian and I like men. I believe that women and men were put on this earth as equals, but because society has been shaped in a patriarchal way of thinking, people do not realized that. We need gender studies programs to help raise awareness of this issue and continue to thrive in this struggle toward equality of the sexes. The women of the first and second feminist movements did not fight hard so that women today could opt-out of the work force giving people an excuse to say that women should be in the homes and not use their intelligent minds. Women and men alike need to continue the feminist movement and fight toward the equality of the sexes around the world, for we were put on this earth to work in unity. 

Final Topic One

            Race, gender, and class are three issues that have been controversial topics in society since the beginning of time. They will never be separate issues because they are simply layers of the same theme. One cannot be spoken about without another one coming into light. Like wheat grains and bread, they come hand in hand. Now try throwing feminism into the mix and the issues get intensified. 

            There are feminists of all kinds; many colors, shapes, sizes, genders, etc. A feminist is one who wants equal rights between men and women; therefore, they are not just stereotypical bellicose females who argue and fight their way into equality. In contemporary society a feminist encompasses genders, multiple generations and varied socioeconomic groups.

            There are four literary resources, and one movie that specifically discuss feminism and the effects that race, gender and class portray on the struggle to gain equality between men and women in society. One particular author, Bell Hooks, focuses on race, gender, and class in many of her works. Her book, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics,” goes in depth with all of these issues and explains the simultaneous struggles that they have with feminism and the road to equality among genders.

            In chapter three, “Sisterhood is Still Powerful,” Hooks describes an anecdotal experience that shaped the beginning of her feminist thinking. She realized after transferring to Stanford University from an all-girls school that men and women are looked upon very differently. She saw that there was a significant difference in female self-esteem and self-assertion when males were present in the classroom with females.

This is where her knowledge of feminism came about and the idea that women have to work together if they are going to achieve the task of gender equality. She said, “In order for women to change job discrimination we needed to lobby as a group to change public policy,” so people could eventually change the sexist thinking that women are not equally as intelligent as men (15).

            It’s been seen throughout history, that it takes many active voices to change societal thinking, and even then, not every person is going to change. It’s apparent today, as Hooks states, that “as long as women are using class or race power to dominate other women, feminist sisterhood cannot be fully realized,” but rather women have to come together for a common goal (16).

            In the beginning of the feminist movement for suffrage, race and class were major issues holding women back from achieving their goals. This theme is apparent in the movie Iron Jawed Angels, when American women gathered together while risking their lives to reach out against male politicians in Washington. The movie portrays the struggles of women to overcome class issues when Alice Paul and her crew are gathering women to have a parade showing the intelligence and beauty of women and why they deserve to vote. There is one particular scene where Alice Paul is getting ready to gather working-class women and she tells her cohorts to dress down so that they do not look over-privileged, but rather demonstrate they are trying to help women of all backgrounds.

            There are two particular ongoing themes of race and class in the movie that are predominant. The one on class is when a politician’s wife secretly begins to help Paul but her husband finds out and gets very angry because it could jeopardize his career. Finally, after his wife is thrown into jail for protesting, he gains respect for struggling women and begins helping them because is able to see the issue from a personal level. The other scene, dealing with race, came about when Alice Paul was planning the march in Washington. The organizers were desperate for African American women to help with the parade, but Alice Paul was worried that the white politicians would not listen to them if black women marched. Mirroring what Bell Hooks said, the black women came back to Paul and said it’s all or nothing. They wanted to march alongside the white women, because they wanted help as well and they knew if they were going to get it that all women had to come together.

Although women ultimately came together for suffrage, they demobilized after reaching that goal and did not continue working together for future feminist ideals. Addressing this in chapter four, “Feminists Education for Critical Consciousness,” of Hooks’s book, it explains that women began to learn about feminism through informal social groups. The movie and the book both speak about the evolution of these informal groups that were necessary to inform women of feminist thought before literature and educational courses were created on the subject (19). This is the same idea as in the movie, but with a different but quite similar issue.

Society and elders have socialized sexist thinking, making the idea more acceptable to many. According to Bell Hooks, feminist thinking and theory encouraged women to look at the roots of these perceptions through word of mouth until the ideas became published and taught in schools (19). This traditional way of thinking was difficult to change after generations of imbedded patriarchal thought. When these feminist theories came to the classrooms in the turn of the century, they caught the eye of many who wanted to learn them and help women as a whole; although, this new way of viewing women was becoming popular, there were still struggles among classes and races within the movement.

An important theme of Bell Hooks’ articles is that, just like class and racial issues, “simply being the victim of an exploitative or oppressive system and even resisting it does not mean we understand why it’s in place or how to change it” (21). Although people could not quite understand why things were the way they were, institutionalizing the feminist theories made these doctrines and women’s literature more legitimate.

One problem that arose with the incorporation of feminist theory was that it changed the audience from the masses to a sort of niche within the educated. According to Hooks, the “feminist thinking and theory were no longer tied to feminist movement,” because people outside of the academic domain did not have as much access because the “academic politics and careerism overshadowed feminist politics” (22).

The contemporary feminist movement began critiquing children’s books for sexist thinking, because the theory was that people’s minds are shaped as they are aging from the time they are young. Again, problems arose because many people these days are consumers of mass media, which is where most of the feminist ideas are seen today. Today’s feminist ideas are very negative in the mass media and follow a patriarchal way of thinking about feminism.

In 2003, Lisa Belkin wrote “The Opt-Out Revolution” for The New York Times, which follows the patriarchal way of thinking with feminism. She makes a very controversial argument that so many intelligent women these days are slipping back into the ways of patriarchal thinking because they are taking the “mommy track.” This mommy track is the trend of women opting-out of the workforce to stay home with their children. The women she interviewed had law degrees from Harvard and Columbia, yet “they chose husbands who could keep up with them, not simply support them,” which was great, until they decided to opt-out and live off of their husband’s salary.

Belkin argues that this “mommy track” is not how the feminist movement was intended to evolve. Belkin states, “women—specifically, educated professional women – were supposed to achieve like men,” and yes, barriers from long ago are down, but there is still work to be done. While women are choosing to opt-out more often, it’s giving anti-feminists and neutral thinkers a way to lean towards anti-feminists thinking because women are taking household roles again. She makes this point more acceptable by saying the issue “…is a continuing conversation, and a surprising amount of the talk is not about how the workplace is unfair to women, but about how the relationship between work and life is different for women than for men.” This

Belkin states in her article that she knows she is getting herself in a pickle with her argument, but she doesn’t stay solely on this track. Belkin tackles the class issue as well. She was on The Today Show with other women, some with varying ideas and some with similar ideas debating the issue of leaving the workplace at the height of their career. A lot of the contention within this article boils down to the issue that women need to have the opportunity to opt-out. Most American women, especially with the current recession, need to work and don’t have the choice to opt-out or they will not be able to feed their families.

This allows race into the issue because the media is always showing minority families with lower income, which again, with the recession, more people of all races and classes are not getting the choice to opt-out currently. There are fewer jobs in contemporary society with these prevailing financial and political issues that, and because women have opted-out, they are having a harder time getting back into the work place. Once these mothers do re-enter, they have been out of practice and may not be as strong as they once were because the workplace is always evolving, as are the issues of race, class, gender, and feminism.

As Bell Hooks describes, “the issues that were most relevant to working women or masses of women were never highlighted by mainstream mass media,” but now that is one part of these controversial issues that is changing. We’ve seen this change in Belkin’s article that subtly covers some debates about class. All of the articles cited above have, in some way or another, simultaneously dealt with at least two of the highlighted issues of race, class, gender, and feminism. There are very few, if any, conversations where only one of the issues stands alone because, although they are diverse issues, they have become interwoven over time. Yes they are controversial, but if people such as Lisa Belkin and Bell Hooks, along with movie producers, etc. aren’t speaking about these topics then education only goes so far. It is important to start educating children on these issues so they are socialized to have an open anti-sexist mind. The less education involved causes for an ignorant society that will never gain a greater understanding of how race, class, gender, and feminism coincide. 

Belkin

Many people that disagree with Belkin's "The Opt-Out Revolution" article say that motherhood is important and it's the time while your child is young that the mothers need to be spending time with their children. I really agree with Belkin in the fact that women are, in a way, hurting some of the feminist movement because they are taking intelligent, capable women out of the work force, so men can dominate it. I do think that it is a choice, but you have to be able to have that choice financially. Going back to the workforce is always a problem as well. I think that women become dependent on men when they opt out, but I will say now, there are more men staying out of the work force to stay home and that is a good change.

Readings:
I think that Bell Hooks made a good argument in saying that yes more than half of the women in the United States work and it was liberating for some women because they shared the workplace, but because of the wage gap (especially for minorities) it really wasn't liberating. Poverty is a central women's issue.

The F-Word states that today women are getting a wake up call when they leave college and don't see much success in the workplace at all. I believe that there are many ways women can have success and that everyones definition of success is different because people want and need different things to achieve their own success. Going to college and graduating is a success in my eyes, but women are going to have to work at finding a career and not settle.

Activism

The Project to End Human Trafficing (PEHT) is a nonprofit organization that educates people about human slavery. The provide prevention lectures across the U.S. and internationally. They mainly focus on the sexual exploitation on women and children and bring the issue into the public eye.

Their company offers volunteer opportunities, internships, etc. PEHT is located in Pittsburgh, PA, but they have staff around the world as well. Their website is endhumantrafficing.org and provides tons of information on how to get involved and the resources that they use. In the future, I could help them by volunteering or using their provided resources to help educate people in Oklahoma on the issue.

This is an issue that occurs in many movies, such as the recently aired Taken about a girl from the states that goes on a trip and is put into human trafficing. Movies like this help raise awareness of the issue along with different nonprofits and other activists.

Readings:
FIFE Chapter 18 is very interesting. Religion is always a touchy subject among large diverse groups of people. I didn't know that it had an effect with femism, but after reading this chapter it makes sense. I like that it explains how fundamentalism "perpetuates the notion that control of the female body is necessary" in patriarchal situations (109).

The visionary was a great ending to have in FIFE. I like that it goes against what the mass media says about feminism being dead and explains that now, more men and women of all ages are participating in this movement to equality. It's nice to see the encouragement of bringing everyone together with race, clas, and other biases aside.

The Eternal Feminine

While reading gender in The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos, it is implied that women are inferior to men. Castellanos does a great job of pulling important gender issues into the script through sarcasm and the use of powerful women in history. The play is almost a parallel to the idea of feminism and how it has evolved over the years.
The play is set in a beauty salon in the culturally patriarchal Mexico. The main character, Lupita, is about to be married and is getting her hair done. A salesperson comes to promote a new hair dryer that keeps women from getting bored. If women become bored they, “without realizing it, might begin to think,” and if women think, they may become independent of men as witnessed through feminism (Castellanos 276). The initial setting of the play sets women up to look like fools that should only care about appearance and not attempt to think about anything beyond it because it is the male’s job to think.
In Bell Hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, it explains that women began to learn about feminism through groups before literature and educational courses were created on the subject (19). By putting the setting of the play in a beauty salon, Castellanos gives the illusion of a group setting because there are many women holding conversations in a confined area.
Throughout the play, Castellanos takes Lupita through a series of dreams with a hairdryer that induces these dreams. The salesperson gives the women a sense of control by telling them that they have control over the topics of each dream. This convinces them that they should try it. Later, when asked if this process is a risk, the sales person gets offended because they are questioning him. It brings up the idea that a woman should not question a man, because the male is in charge. Having the play set in a patriarchal society adds to the set-up for these ideas. Hooks says that, “males as a group have and do benefit the most from patriarchy, from the assumption that they are superior to females and should rule over us,” which proves that the salesperson is a figure of male dominance in the play (ix).
One of Lupita’s dreams is of her honeymoon. In her culture, it’s a compliment to a man if his newlywed wife acts as if she doesn’t like sex. Lupita says, “ it seemed repugnant, disgusting,” and Juan replies, “Thanks, Lupita. I knew you weren’t going to fail me in the moment of truth.” It is a sign of male exploitation towards females as if the male is the only one that should gain from the experience, and it’s the female’s duty to give their life partner that experience.
To continue the paralleling between the play and the feminist evolution, Castellanos changes the setting of the dreams to have historical women speak to Lupita. “Producing a body of feminist literature coupled with the demand for the recovery of women’s history was one of the most powerful and successful interventions of contemporary feminism,” says Hooks proving that Castellanos using the historical women as a teaching tool is paralleling the evolution of feminism throughout her play (20). Not only does Castellanos use these women who were intelligent and powerful to parallel feminism, but she also brings up historical feminist issues such as clothing, birth control, and divorce as in the end of Act III the ladies in the salon are speaking on all of these feminist issues.

Assignment 9

The Women's Resource Center is an NGO, but they do receive a small amount of state money while relying mostly on the community. They take in women who have been/are being abused physically or sexually and give them counseling. Often, they also have children in the home because they are also in danger in most cases. 

This is clearly a women's issue because they take in battered women, but it's not to say that men aren't abused as well. This is a good cause to work toward because women are generally not as strong in a physical sense as men are, so often times they are the one being abused in a domestic situation. 

This is a good cause to donate money to because it is in our community and it offers women a place to go to get help. Most people are too scared to get help, but this gives them a place to go and take their children out of a horrible situation also. 

Reading: FIFE 8 is about globalization and argues that women have similar situations all over. They link things such as cosmetic surgery to awful things that happen overseas. I agree that there is a link and that westerners need to look outside of their territory and help others, but we must not forget that their are problems here as well. 

Upper class society is still receiving more attention, especially in the media, in helping globally, but that isn't to say that there aren't a ton of regular people, not starts, that are helping globalization. I believe it has been going on for a long time, but there are still situations that need to be helped. 

Ethnography Paper

Research Design

 

             Many women these today are opting out of the work force according to New York Times columnist Lisa Belkin. Belkin questions why so many women with high education and opportunity are choosing to let go of the opportunity to be equal to men in the workforce so that they may be a mother in the home. That is a very valid question, but my question comes from a part of her article, The Opt-Out Revolution, when she is speaks of molecular biologist, Shirley Tilghman about her experience of being a single mother and continuing her career. Tilghman says, “A life in science, combined with motherhood, meant leaving undone a lot of things I might have wanted to do,” which led me to question why the opt-out studies happen to be all about women and the effects that motherhood has on their career instead of the man.

            I do believe that leaving the workplace is a choice, but a mother has to have that choice available to be able to make it. Tilghman obviously did not have the choice to quit working because she was a single mother.

            It really bothers me that there are minimal effects on a male’s life that is expecting, or has, a child. Yes, there are single fathers, and it’s actually becoming more common, but it’s not to the extent of single mothers. The fact that Belkin speaks as if most women have a choice of opting out gets under my skin as well because I was raised by a single mother who was raised by a single mother, and neither of them had the choice. Although, my mother did opt-out for a few years and then continued to work prior to being divorced.

            To answer my question, I would have to ask a single mother how she is effect by not having a choice to opt-out, while understanding that not all women wish to opt-out, and if she feels that she is missing out on any part of life. I could also ask how gender roles coincide with my question because the mother is the parent that carries the child, so there is a deeper bond (from my female perspective), but the gender roles urge a mother more than a father to want to stay home with their child. 

            I do think there are many exceptions to my question, but they are merely exceptions, not the trend.

 

Methodology

I decided to find a young mother that did not, and still does not have the choice to opt-out of the work force. She had her daughter when she was 19 and luckily graduated from high school. I chose her because she didn’t even get to start a career before she had a child and she was not married. I have noticed that in the studies the women have all been married and they can rely on their husband. Macey, the mother that is now 25, managed to finish college with a masters, buy a home, new car, and find herself a career while being a mother. I sat down with her after spending a day with her to ask a few questions to help my research.  The following information is questions that I asked Macey about her motherhood experience and her answers.

 

1. What was your initial thought when you found out you were pregnant fresh out of  high school?

A. Honestly, I thought about what people would think of me and what my mother was going to say. I always knew I was going to finish college because my mom is a teacher, but my initial thought was how I was going to do it with a child.

 

2. What did your mother say to the thought of her young child having a child?

A. She kicked me out. She let me come right back home, but she definitely had to get over her disappointment first. I had so much going for me and it all came to an end when I found out I was pregnant.

 

3. Is the father still around? How was his life effected by this child compared to yours?

A. Unfortunately, her father sort of took off when she was a few months old. He doesn’t care to see her, so I guess he’s able to just go on as normal while I had to take care of her, finish school, and begin working. It was tough, but I wouldn’t change it for anything now that I have her and I feel great about myself knowing that I             turned a bad situation into a great one. I know I am lucky, but it took a lot of self- discipline and support from my family to get me through.

 

4. Does it bother you to think that your life was put on hold and not the father’s when this was because of him as well?

A. It bothered me a lot. I didn’t understand how someone could just leave their child.

 

5. After summarizing the opt-out article to you, do you feel that you have missed out on any part of your life due to your child?

A. I did miss not doing the “normal” things that kids my age were doing such as going out and going on spring break vacations, but with my mothers help I was and still             am able to have the freedom to do some of those things. It is hard having to worry about a babysitter always. Yes, I wish I could move to Dallas for a summer or something, but I could never do that because I wouldn’t know anyone that could babysit down there if I were to meet a guy and I couldn’t take my daughter             away from her nana.

 

6. How do you feel about not having the choice to stay home with your daughter?

A. I wasn’t able to think about that much because I knew had to go to school so I could support the two of us. As for now, I am a successful teacher and in a way I am with her all day because she goes to Washington, where I teach. Yes, if I were to have another child I may want to stay home, but I think since I haven’t done that before I will feel more comfortable about going back to work again.

 

My Observations

Although Macey does not have the choice to opt-out, most of the teachers that work in her building are also moms that did not choose to quit working due to motherhood. That is something that bothers me about Belkin’s article. She doesn’t interview enough people that don’t have the choice, and she speaks as though it is the norm when it is just a common thing to do, not the “norm.” Most teachers are females in the elementary level and they are usually drawn to the field because they have the stereotypical nurturing characteristic, but many teachers do not opt-out because their schedule also allows time off when the children are out of school. Now, I understand why Belkin speaks about women in higher status careers.

 

Write Up

Although Macey was not able to do many things her friends were and are doing that don’t have children, she doesn’t exactly see it as leaving some things undone but there are things that motherhood makes more difficult. The mother is definitely more affected by a child than a father. Other articles on family that I’ve read in Women’s Studies agree that women are way more at harm with careers and families because of the nurturing stereotype. Today, it isn’t as common for women to opt-out but in comparison to men there is a vast difference. More men are staying in the home while the mother works, so that is also a stride that is being made in gender equality.

 

            

Assignment 7

He's Just Not That into You is a contemporary movie based on the book, with the same title, written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. The movie debuted in February 2009 about a single lady that works with two other women whom are both in relationships. Gigi, the single one, is constantly thinking guys are into her when really, they aren't. The two coworkers are constantly telling Gigi that she is overanalyzing how men react towards her and that they aren't interested when she believes they are. It isn't until Gigi meets a guy that gives her advice that she begins seeing what guys are "really thinking." 

By the end of the movie Gigi's coworkers are having trouble with their relationships and she ends up making the guy giving her advice fall for her. While falling for her, there is a change in roles in that he becomes the one over analyzing as a female would.

This movie strongly portrays gender roles with relationships. The girl is always "the crazy one," and they guy is always the one making the decisions and talking to multiple girls at once. I really like the end of the movie because the gender roles are switched to show that women and men over analyze relationships and "go crazy" over the other sex.

The movie trailer portrays that women are always waiting around for men to give them attention, men are always talking to many females at once, women are always over analyzing conversations and situations, and that men are supposed to be the forward ones in the relationship. The good thing about the movie is that it shows everything goes both ways by the end. 

I read the book and have seen the movie, and liked them both, but I question why there was a book and a movie created to show that HE is the one that isn't into you. I know there are times that a women isn't interested in a man that may be attracted to her, so this is sort of a slap in the face almost. 

Assignment 6

 

Gender is represented in a variety of ways in this particular ketchup advertisement. Some stereotypes of women are seen through the text and image such as glamour, desire, and stupidity. The image has a well groomed woman (perfect hair, painted nails, lipstick) acting surprised as if she couldn't open ketchup before this particular brand's bottle. They give viewers a sense of desire for this ketchup because the image pictures it as glamours. The woman's expression implies that she is surprised that she can open the bottle herself. The text implies that women are incapable of opening a ketchup bottle because they aren't smart enough. If the woman isn't able to open the previous bottles of ketchup, then who did? Must have been a man in the eyes of gender studies. 

Readings:

Chapters five and six of FIFE are both strongly about women's image, self love, and rights to their bodies. The issue of free love brought women to open themselves up in the sexual sense, which led to the fight for reproductive rights. This topic leads to education because of the issue of class. The women in the ad above looks like a middle class women who could afford these rights to contraceptives and sexual education, but on the other hand, the advertisement brings up the issue of a woman's intelligence and these readings basically stated that the lack of sexual education caused many unplanned pregnancies and many classes could not afford the consequences of that. 

As times went by, contemporary feminism came about. They really pushed the agenda of body image and challenged the fashion industry and even rebelled by burning bras. The ad above has a very "dolled up" woman in it which feeds the body image problems that are still occurring today. There are so many eating disorders still, which the contemporary feminists helped push for women's healthcare to rid some of the issues of body disorders. They also pushed for more clothing options for women as men dominated the industry and women used to wear mostly dresses, as pictured above most likely even though we can't see the entire outfit. It has been socially pressed into women's heads that they have to look, feel, and act a certain way about their bodies and it is still occurring although feminists have helped the issue a lot.

Note: D2L isn't working so I was unable to get Wolf and Scott.

Assignment 5

Below is a playlist I have created that represents gender to me. I have picked these songs because they are great examples that represent strength in women, men who prefer independent women, and those men who are degrading to women. I have mostly always listened to rap and r&b but I'm really open to many types of music as I also love motown!


Readings: The FIFE chapters spoke about love and class. Many songs portray both of these issues deeply within their lyrics. A lesson that Hooks speaks about is how love makes people do crazy things. I believe that songs are a great example of this because many people write lyrics based on experience. In the song Badd that I have posted, they want women and I'm sure love them, but they speak about their image rather than their intelligence etc. Hooks also speaks about class and how all women had to come together and set aside the outside issues, including race. It became a sisterhood, which is what Destiny's Child sings about in Independent. They want all women to be independent and not live off of a man or think they need a man to make them happy. As far as masculinity, male artists in the music industry to act tough (if a rapper which is what I listen to) and often degrade women. It is a social learned behavior that males don't show much emotion, but I do think sometimes in the music industry that it is more acceptable for men to show emotion because after all.. it's just a song. Neyo speaks about wanting an independent woman, which is sometimes threatening to males because they are supposed to be the breadwinner. He is successful and sings about wanting a successful female. I think that is a very important message to other males out there.

Assignment 4

I'm a public relations major and am very interested in doing event based marketing or being a public relations specialist when I graduate. Marketing events and many of the duties of a PR specialist are very sensitive to all types of discrimination. Both careers are strongly public based and depending on the issue or event at hand, I will have to alter what I am doing to best suit the clients and audiences involved. There are a few Women's Studies courses at OU that may be useful to me in the future such as  Body Image vs. Reality, Women in Sports, and Women Creating Social Change. All of these would be useful because they deal with some of the major issues in the media. Women's sports aren't publicized as much as men's and women worry a great deal about their image because the media. I think Women Creating Social Change would do a great deal for me because it analyzes how women come together and marketing focuses on groups etc. As far as my later work, I think that gender will play a role but not as big of role as it would if I were a man trying to be a nurse or a woman trying to be an engineer. Men used to be more dominant in the PR and marketing fields, but there is a shift in the PR field for sure. I don't think I'll face many issues because I have spoken to many women in marketing and PR and they haven't mentioned gender issues unless they deal with broadcasting. 

Readings: Education remains on the top ten list of social issues that women face. Gender inequality is usually always first though. It used to be that women were not highly educated. I don't realize education being a problem because education runs so deep in my family. As I read in The F-Word, many of the goals of feminists remain unrealized, for I am proof of that. People's backgrounds do effect what issues they focus on most. I am the product of a black man and a white woman. Education runs deep on my mother's side of the family and my dad was the first to graduate from college on his side of the family. People of all colors deal with all of the same issues... the issues are just viewed at different angles. The other readings both prove that by educating one another the word spreads and makes things happen, as we see with feminism. Women's studies is now a credited program at many higher education institutes because people and women have the right to vote because women would campaign and spread the word.

Assignment 3

I loved the movie Iron Jawed Angels. Not only were there great actresses in it, but they gave a really good image as to what Alice Paul and her followers were truly like. I learned that they broke from NAWSA and I did not know all of the political issues with feminism in the early 1900s. 

It was a very interesting movie, and the jail scenes were just horrible the fact that they put a feeding tube down Alice Paul's nose in the movie. I loved seeing the passion that women had and that they actually did something to further their beliefs instead of just wish there was gender equality with voting. 

The fact that the Senator's wife got involved against his will meant a lot to me, especially when I saw by the end of the movie he was helping them. It provides a theme that people can change, but you have to see all sides to know what the real issue lying in front of you truly is. I don't think that everyone should change what they believe in, but everyone needs to be knowledgeable about both sides to every story. 

Sometimes, there are more than two sides to every story. There were many tensions among the women who worked for suffrage. The same issues seem to always go hand-in-hand in the United States: race, gender, and class. Much tension was caused during the parade and whether or not African American women could walk or not. I am proud that the African American women joined the parade knowing that the upper class white males were the ones that had the ability to change the laws. This issue, along with the class issue when Alice Paul and her women were campaigning to the lower class working women were huge themes throughout the movie. I do think that class was more of a tension in the movie than race, while race is more an issue than class in society. People see race more than they see class. Through education provided by Paul and her coworkers, the race and class issues were minimized and they united for the achieved common goal.

Readings: My favorite definition of feminism comes from Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by  Bell Hooks. She states that it is "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." I agree with her in that using the term sexism it broadens the definition and helps rid the man hater stereotype. I like that Hooks blatantly states that women can be sexist too. It really adds to the verification of her title... feminism is for everyone and isn't about women hating me; although, there may be some women that use that motive to be a feminist.

I am in a sorority. Hooks speaks of sisterhood and how it is powerful. I have learned that there is a confidence you gain when you're with all of your girls. They don't have to be your best friends, but because you all have common interests it makes you more confident in what you believe in and helps you to stand up for your beliefs. 

Assignment 2

I interviewed my grandmother about her experiences with gender through the years. She experienced many gender issues, especially when she got divorced around 1970 with three children at home. My grandmother was a 3rd grade teacher and growing up she said all of her teachers were men. Women weren't allowed to teach when she was in grade school, but now teaching is stereotyped as woman's job. My grandmother never experienced higher education issues for her parents were both college graduates as was she and my grandfather. She was not allowed to have a credit card and being divorced was highly frowned upon. My grandfather was able to sign loans in her name, without her consent. She describes feminism as women being equal to men. 

When I was in the eighth grade my friends and I tried to play football for our school. We were always the prissy athletic girls, but we loved to proved to our guy friends that we were just as tough as they were. Our team had many injuries that year, and were losing many games. We had always played sports and our basketball team was the strongest team in the school along with track. We followed through and asked to play football. The coach said he would consider it (they had already had a female kicker a few years before we were in middle school) and let us know. He spoke to his female coworker who loves sports and she said no. She shouldn't have a say in it, but she did. He told us he strongly considered it but it was so late in the season and since we had never played we would have a hard time learning all of the plays. To this day, I really think he would have let us because we were almost more athletic than our guys, but because the female teacher said no we couldn't. You would think that she would like to see a girl in that position.... clearly not.

Readings: The F-Word has a passage in chapter three that goes along with my experience trying to play football. It states that you can care about your looks and take pride in them while being a feminist. "A feminist wants the best for both sexes and doesn't want either sex to be discriminated against." My school, as I've already stated, had a girl play football before but she was only a kicker. There are rules in football about contact with a kicker, so it wasn't quite a big deal. My prissy friends and I wanted to play and prove that we were just as tough of athletes, but we also wanted to help the guys win because they weren't winning and most of our best players were hurt. 

Assignment 1

Hello, 

My name is Rachel. I am a sophomore Public Relations major at the University of Oklahoma. I am originally from Oklahoma, so I am a HUGE sooner fan. I love involving myself around campus and getting to know diverse groups of people. While being in college a short time, I have already noticed that you learn just as much out of the classroom as you do in the classroom, therefore I think it is very important to be active and learn from the people you meet. 

I have created this blog as an assignment for an Intro to Women's Studies class that I am currently talking. I chose this class to gain a Western Culture credit and it seemed most interesting of my available choices. I am in a sorority, so I am guessing I will be able to observe what I learn at my house... that will be interesting. 

Below are five questions that I hope to have answered by the end of the course. 

1. What is feminism?

2. What are the major issues of feminists today?

3. What is holding women back from being complete equals to men?

4. Why are the mass media so concerned about what women celebrities are wearing rather than what they are doing for our society?

5. Why are women generally paid less than men?