Sex as Feminist Practice -- Quotes

In "Sexy From the Start:Anticipatory Elements of Second Wave Feminism", Scanlon argues that this Thrid wave of feminism is essentially broken down into two groups. Onhe group which still feels that There is no way that you can wear lipstick and skirts, and get you nails done and still be feminin. They feel that this is ruining all the progress that femist have made so far, and only further oppressing us. I can relate this to the article "Oppression" by Frye.
 In that article she talks about men oppressing woman as a femist issue. And this sexualization that woman do is only conforming to it. However Scanlon feels that you can still look sexy and not be conforming to the oppression. You can get your hair done and nails done, and still be a feminist. Some quotes from the article that support this view are" It is a feminism no longer on the defensive, with a fun, playful aeshetic that acknoledges the erotic carcisstic pleasure women reiceve from beautyfying themselves, a pleasure not to be denied". She is saying that is she enjoys makeing herself up and looking pretty soley becasue it makes her feel good, then why wouldnt she do that?? If it makes you happy and feel good on the inside there no reason why you should deny yourself like that

Another quote is, " being smart is important, but being smart and good looking has even greater rewards." I don't think that this quote means anything rude, i think that she means if you feel good about yourself and you take a little pride in your appearance you'll be smart and confident, and no one can beat that! Finally, "... dressing up was a performance , one that makes you feel female'". Again she is saying that dressing up doesn't oppress you it highlights you and your beauty.

Alternate Class

So when we had the guest speakers i learned a lot and I defiantly think that it was a fun class. I think that the whole point of the "what does the word sex mean" game was to get people to realize that it means something different to everyone and to be conscious to to seclude different life styles from your meaning. Also the shuffle activity was fun too. I think that the whole purpose of the eye contact at the end was to get people to realize, okay I'm not the only one who walked so that means I'm not alone, other people are like me too. And once you realize that you realize you have nothing to be ashamed of. I'm so proud of myself and everyone else for being so open and honest about everything. You feel so much better when you don't need to hide things and can just be yourself!

Legal Struggles for Justice-- Connections

An Article that I read from the New York Times, was very upsetting that I feel happens way to often in society, is the blaming of the victims of  rape for their attacks. No one asks to be raped! bottom line. A very disturbing case I read about on line was about an 11 year old girl from Texas who was gang raped. This was said to have happened last November, in the town of Cleveland, about 50 miles out side of Huston.  They took the 11 year old girl who apparently lied about her age, to an abandoned saw mill and raped her.  The 11 year old girl was raped by at least 18 men, both juveniles and adults.

"Every adult male that had sex with this child should go to prison, I don't care what the color is. But I do not believe black males are the only ones that had contact with this young child," said Quanell X, the leader of Houston's New Black Panther Party. "It appears to me there's only been the selective prosecution of one community, which is African American."
In the article it was said that this particular town had a history of African American violence. There may be a great deal of prejudice here and that might be why only African Americanise were blamed for the rape of this young girl. but I highly agree with Quanell X that there were other races involved in this horrific act.
Something I find even more disturbing is people's reactions to these events, aka, "blaming the victim". Republican law maker, Kathleen Passidomo stated, “There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gang raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute." Really? No one asks to be raped! This is ridiculous that she would literally say that because of the way this 11 year old girl was dressed she deserved to be raped. No matter what you are wearing you could be at risk to be raped. But the way someone dresses by no means gives consent. This article relates to another article that we recently read "The Lesbian Continuum by Adrien Rich. It relates because it she addresses  rape and how it suppresses women.  " Forcing male sexuality upon women: rape, incest, torture, a constant message that men are better, and superior in society to women." In riches article it talks about domestic violence because a larger and larger issue. The number of incidence is sky rocketing. This just more and more suppresses a women. Not only does this apply with domestic or rape charges but also with harassment, and sexual assault. Men use this to make women feel trapped and worthless, like helpless sexual objects.

Another reading that we have done that relates to this topic is "Oppression" by Frye. This article relates because rape in itself is oppression. this allegation or rape is not only oppressive and disgusting, it is degrading. men feel stronger and women are further degraded. "You can't win you are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures."  Girls are pressured in so many ways, to look pretty, and look amazing, but while doing that should they have to be afraid to look so good that they could be more vulnerable to rape? I think that in Frye wants us to draw away from the oppression and stand strong in ourselves, and not let anyone push us down or degrade us.
And no victim is ever to be blamed for being raped, it is never your fault.

In addition to Social Justice event ...

I would also like to add some ways that this event connects to some of the class readings that we have done.  One of the first readings was The "F-word". A quote from that article was  "Before women achieved their goal, many suffered for the cause- some were jailed, fined and endured hunger strikes-..." This had a a lot to do with everything that was talked about at promising practices. The fact that to see change and to get to that state in which equality in one way or another is achieved, it takes a lot of people to struggle first and to go through what they did to achieve something so great. it takes a lot of bravery not only for Feminist, but for minority's and outcast to take a stand to help change something that might not even be fixed for generations upon generations to actually get there. Another article that we read that applies to this is the "Oppression" article. This talked about women being oppressed in one way or another, hindering there sense of self, and their voice. "You can't win you are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures."  This relates a lot to my workshop at promising practices on bullying, and fighting the pressure and frustration of it. bullying can be so severe and although a child may appear to be brushing it off deep down inside it is torturing.  I inserted a link about a girl that was so severely harassed, that at just 15 years old killed herself Harassment that lead to death. Finally I found another article that we have read in class to go along with this event, "Something About the Subject Makes It Hard To Name". This talked about the different kinds of racism and how the ignorance of people not understanding racism causes them to be racist! However,  no matter what your background, you are worthy of respect and of equal privileges. I like how she said that "the color of your skin is not the cause of the hardship".  People need to realize that they chose there own destiny, not there orientation, gender, or color of their skin. This relates to my transgender workshop, that a lot of people don't understand transgender and what they don't know they fear, causing them to be "ignorantly prejudice" for something that they know so little about! And finally how does this all relate to Feminism? Everything I have learned in class and every thing I have realize in this event can pretty much be summed up for me in one sentence... Just because we are DIVERSE does not mean that we are UNEQUAL.

Social Justice Event-- Relection

I attended Promising Practices this past Saturday for my Social justice event.  I found the event pretty interesting. At first we were separated into different groups, depending on which workshop you had chosen. I first in the anti-bullying workshop. We talked about different scenarios and situations of bullying. We were separated into small groups there and each group had different scenarios, some groups talked out loud about their scenarios others put on a skit for the class. Each form of bullying was different, from lunch room bullies to cyber bullies to the bullies at gym class. In all situations the bystander has a huge advantage to overpower the bully by standing up for the person being harassed, but if the bystander remains silent the bully has much more control. It was entertaining and everyone enjoyed it, but it also got you to think and learn from it. Some parents in the class asked questions in the end because they had children in school that were being bullied I think that they also got a lot out of it and I really hope that it helped them. I think though that in schools they need to have more proactive anti bullying programs implemented into the normal weekly routine of the school. Stop bullying before it even happens. Just telling g the kids to “knock it off”, or “just get along”, is very passive for something that is so serious. Teachers and students both need to become more informed on the topic so that they can be a help to stopping bullying and not just playing the role of the passive bystander. The second workshop that they tied into this one was informing us on transgender people. Elizabeth Henshsaw ran this discussion. She was very into it and is sure everyone could tell.  She tied it in to the previous topic because these transgender people get bullied so badly for something that they cannot even help, which is very sad. “Creating awareness” is the first step to getting people to understand and accept these people.

 A quote that I liked that was on her PowerPoint was, “What we don’t know we fear, what we fear we shun, what we shun we don’t know”. So learning more about something makes it seem not so bad after all. The more knowledge you have the more open minded and accepting you are.  She taught us about some of the ways we can be more respectful of people’s differences creating a more comfortable environment for everyone. Some of the ways you can be more sensitive to these groups are, using gender neutral pronouns and words, be understanding and observant, don’t separate groups into boys and girls and also include gender diverse books and posters in curriculum.  I defiantly learned a lot from this part of the workshop as well. After this we went to a teen empowerment session. This was interesting seeing the 3 people who all had different but also similar backgrounds coming together to help other struggling teens, and to provide a strong, positive and powerful message, that we are all strong individuals. They were aiming to some us that we all have a voice and the power of just one voice can go a very far way. They all provide message that success will be reached with ambition and hard work, but it is by no mean unachievable. The last thing we did was hear a message from the youth panel. I really enjoyed all the stories that they had to share with us, I found them very interesting.  Over all I am happy that I chose Promising practices as my social justice event. I think that I got a lot out of it.

Combatting Intentional Bigotry and Inadvertently Racist Acts-- Extended comments

I am doing extended comments on heathers blog. I think that its true as said by Blanchard that racism can be created through a lack of knowledge. I know that when  I was growing up I was extremely sheltered. I went to a Catholic school up until the 8th grade with only 20 kids in each grade and I think there was only one or two black people i n the entire school. And then going into high school i lived in a very small town, it was the only high school in the town and there were probably less then 8 black people in the whole high school. So i didn't really get a Chance to migle too much with a wide variety of races or religions. “Encouraging multiracial friendships and exposing naive students to students of color can help to strengthen the knowledge base of students and decrease the incidents of race.” I wish that growing up I had more of theses interactions and friendships. The codes of racism remind me of the article we just read "something about the subject makes it hard to name".  This article was about the different forms of racism. sometimes when you aren't exposed to other cultures and races it makes it hard to realize that you are doing something wrong. which is why you should try and learn more about different cultures outside of your own and not just think "who cares" just cause it may not directly be affecting you. 
 Like heather said "working together" will help fight racism, ignorance will not.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter-- hyperlinks

Cinderella ate my Daughter was an interesting read. I think that you can make a lot of outside connections to this article. When you are really young and your playing with dolls and watching little kid TV shows, you can pick up on a lot More things than the adults sometimes do. There are hidden messages, and if you aren't looking closely you are not going to see them. Kids really do realize and notice things more than you think.I think that the princess culture that is  discussed in the article teaches girls that "Their value derives largely from their appearance." This is very true. Girls begin to realize what is pretty what is not. What gets others attention and what doesn't. Their value they believe comes from what other people see on the outside rather than what is on the inside. In reality, what is on the out side might get you the interview, but it wont get you the job! The show toddlers in tiaras these young girls are getting rewarded for the way that they look. They don't need to be the smartest girl or most polite girl in the competition, they just need to be the prettiest, with the fake tans and make up and everything that's not teaching girls to set very high goals and expectations for themselves, and the direct sexulization of young children. The link I just posted shows exactly why this is characterized as just that.

 Another thing that we talked about in class was the kind of beauty that is portrayed in barbie dolls and doll princesses. the majority of them are white, with long Flowing hair. I saw a comercial the other day for the "i can be barbie" Barbie collection which were the barbies with careers, every single girl and doll in the commercial was white.  I couldn't find a Single I can be barbie commerical with a colored doll. I think that that doesnt send the most positive message. I think people just need to be more aware of these things and display more different images. Because even when I was younger I always tried to pick the doll that looks most like me. So marketing a wider variety of dolls will make a wider variety of people feel less excluded.