How This Class Has Changed Me

The final quiz we took in class today inspired to me to dedicate my last blog post to how drastically this class has changed me for the better. Within 14 short weeks, this class has managed to open my eyes to a new world I never knew existed. I may be sounding dramatic right now, but I have never had a class that has made such an impact on my life. For all of my other gen-ed classes I felt like I was just going through the motions. I’d attend class, take notes, study the material and take the exams. I would forget the information as soon as the class was over and besides my final grade, the class would not have any affect on my life. This class has gone above and beyond what any other class I have ever taken has done to me. I actually enjoyed attending every class period and the reading assignments never seemed like homework because they were interesting and always managed to hold my attention. I think it’s safe to say at some point in every math class I have ever taken I’ve asked myself “when am I EVER going to use this in real life?” With this intro to Women’s Studies class, I use the information on a daily basis, sometimes without even realizing it. This class has taught me to think outside of the norm. I view things in a different way now and notice things I would never have noticed before this class. I will admit I USED to be the type of person who would occasionally use words with negative connotation without even realizing it. I have said the words “gay” and “retard” in a content they should not be used in but this class will caused me to eliminate those words from my vocabulary (unless used properly) because I have learned about the hurt and negativity they bring. I have scolded my friends and roommates for using the word “rape” in a joking matter and can’t help but point out sexist ads or advertisements. I have already engaged in some forms of activism from this course and I plan to continue to try to encourage others to join me. I do not believe I have a friend who I have not talked to about taking this class and I tell them they have no choice, they NEED to take this class. I almost wish I could re-take this class and learn everything all over again because I honestly enjoyed it that much. I had no idea what I was signing myself up for when I enrolled in Intro to Women’s Studies, but I am SO glad that I did.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

My blog post yesterday about the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show inspired me to find some positive, uplifting messages for women. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a famous campaign promoting a positive self-image for women of all shapes and sizes. The goal is to make women feel beautiful no matter their age, weight, race or height. I did a little research at http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx to find out more about the campaign. According to the campaign’s website, the goal of the campaign is to make a “wider definition of beauty.” The website shares a statistic that I found shocking. The statistic was: “only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful.” Only 2%?! Society’s definition of beauty is found to be unattainable by many women because they aren’t a size 2 and almost six feet tall. Standards about body size and beauty tend not to be created by the ordinary women whose lives they affect. Ordinary women compare themselves to these supermodels who portray an image of perfection. When these average women don’t measure up to the supermodels, they become dissatisfied with their bodies and have a skewed self body image. This body dysmorphia leads women to not accurately perceive their own body. They may see themselves as more overweight than they really are, which will lead to more negative consequences to the body. The Real Beauty Campaign is trying to fight that body dissatisfaction, and teach women to love and embrace who they are and what they look like. The campaign is aiming at all women regardless of age, but there was a specific fund created directed at young girls. A quote from the website states “As so many girls and young women develop low self-esteem from hang-ups about their looks, and consequently fail to reach their full potential in life, Dove® established the Dove® Self-Esteem Fund.” I believe this is such a good idea because the education about positive body images needs to start when you are young, so you can grow up loving yourself and who you are. The younger you are when you learn that you are beautiful, the lesser the impact society will have on your opinion of yourself. All women are beautiful in their own unique way. You should embrace your flaws, not be embarrassed by them. Most women do not look like the Victoria’s Secret Angels who walked the runway last night, but that does NOT mean they are not beautiful. 

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

The famous Victoria's Secret Fashion Show airs tonight and the show always manages to stir up a lot of mixed feelings. The show consists of the famous Victoria's Secret Angels who walk down a runway wearing close to nothing while famous musicians perform on stage. Victoria's Secret produces the show every year to promote their sales for the upcoming holiday season. Some people dread the show and refuse to watch while others can not wait for it. 

Is the Victoria Secret show a good thing or bad? Do girls have a reason do dread watching stick thin models strut their stuff or should we be embracing our sexuality and the beauty of the human body?

Those who love the show (mainly the male population) view it as a celebration of beautiful women. Some girls watch it for motivation to start working out or eating healthier. Some watch for the glitz and glam of the show and the artists who perform. Although there is nothing wrong with appreciating beautiful women, I believe there is a lot of harm that comes from watching the show.

Even the girls who couldn't wait to watch the show, often find themselves regretting watching it afterwards. I have seen an endless amount of tweets and statuses tonight about girls joking that they are never going to eat again after watching the show or plan to workout until their legs fall off.  

Since when is it funny to joke about issues as serious as eating disorders? I remember talking to many girls last year who said after watching the show they felt their self-esteem was lowered and watching these supermodels walk in their skimpy lingerie made them feel worse about themselves.

The show seems to feed negative emotion into a part of society that is already suffering from body dissatisfaction. The causes of mental and physical harm after watching the show do not seem worth it to me, and there should be more messages about women loving and cherishing the body the way it is now, instead of trying to reach an unrealistic ideal.

Public Harassment

Living on a college campus, it is almost impossible to walk the streets and not get publicly harassed. It is highly likely to occur during nighttime on the weekends, when many people are intoxicated and more likely to shout whatever comes to their mind. Our class discussion today on public harassment reminded me of an instance a few weekends ago.
My friends and I were at a party when a guy grabbed my friends butt. Now I have seen this plenty of times where a random guy will grab or smack a girls butt and the girl either laughs it off or just yells "PERVERT" and walks away. Although no one wants to be called a pervert, neither of these actions will prevent the random guy from grabbing another girls butt. My friend took a slightly more humiliating approach.
After the brave young man grabbed her butt, my friend whipped around, pinned him up against the wall and firmly said "touch me again and see what happens." The look on this random guys face was priceless and he quickly turned bright red. There was a group of people who witnessed this incidence and everyone was slightly in shock that my friend called out this random guy for grabbing her. The guy tried to deny it but my friend said "don't EVER grab my butt again" and a few people applauded as she walked away. The guy practically ran out of the party due to the humiliation he just faced for being called out for sexually harassing a girl he didn't know.
I was so proud of my friend for standing up for herself and not allowing herself to be another victim of public harassment. If more people are willing to stand up to the perpetrator and not accept the molestation, we will take steps towards eliminating public harassment.

Toys by Gender

Now that it is December and Christmas is right around the corner, there is a big emphasis on presents and toys for the holiday season. As a student in Women's Studies, it is impossible for me to not notice all the gender segregation of toys.
I went the to the Target online website and you can narrow your search by clicking which age you are shopping for. Nothing wrong with that, but there is also an option to narrow your search by gender for toys by clicking "Girls Toys" or "Boys Toys." The girls toys link redirected you to all the "top toys" for girls. The toys included mostly dolls but also materials for arts and crafts, dress-up clothes and stuffed animals. These are all stereotypical toys that girls, through gender socialization, are taught to play with from a young age. The boys link, on the other hand, takes you to the most popular toys for boys. These toys included action figures, riding toys, and lots of Hot Wheels and Nerf guns.
By separating the toys by gender, we are applying gender socialization on children at a very young age. It is not wonder people grow up to be sexist because as a society, we are teaching our children a binary understanding of gender. By giving the option to "shop by gender" we are enforcing the binary of gender to separate girls and boys. Why can't you buy an action figure for a girl? Why would it be frowned upon to give a boy a doll for Christmas? If we expect gender segregation to stop, we must put an end to the binary understanding of gender.

The Hangover 2 Controversy

For one of my Adventure in Women's Studies events, I attended the "Q is for Queer" event on campus. While at the event, the movie The Hangover 2 was brought up during discussion. A girl at the event discussed the controversy of one of the scenes in the movie that really opened my eyes.
The scene she brought up was when the guys in the movie are trying to figure out what happened to them the previous night and Alan remembers they were at a strip club. The guys go to the strip club that they were at the night before to see if they can find anymore clues about what happened to them. While they are at the strip club, the guys find out that Stu engaged in sexual intercourse with one of the strippers. Stu, who is engaged and has his wedding in a couple of days, is obviously upset to hear that he cheated on his fiance with a stripper. The guys reassure him that everything is okay and try to play it off as no big deal. Phil even tells Stu that he technically isn't even married yet and the guys laugh about what happened.
The scene becomes controversial when Stu and his friends find out that the stripper is transexual. Based off of a heteronormative viewpoint, the guys all assumed the stripper was straight. This takes things to a whole new level. Stu quickly turns from being disappointed in himself to being embarrassed and disgusted that he participated in a sexual affair with a transexual person. His friends are all in shock and now all of a sudden him cheating is a huge deal.
The girl who brought up this scene at the "Q is for Queer" discussion opened my eyes to how controversial this scene is. Why is it not a big deal if Stu would have had sex with a straight stripper, but since the stripper was a transexual it is all of a sudden not okay? The men in The Hangover demonstrate a homophobia and a strong sense of compulsory heterosexuality.

I did not include the link to this scene because it is highly inappropriate but it can be easily found on Youtube.

Romantic vs Stalking

A couple of weeks ago in class we discussed how easily romantic gestures can turn into forms of stalking. These overly romantic actions can be found in just about every Lifetime or romantic chick-flick movie ever made. I am a sucker for cheesy, romantic movies so I should be considered a pro when it comes to knowing romantic movie scenes. My all time favorite movie is The Notebook and there is a famous scene in the beginning of the movie when Noah first meets Allie. Noah spots Allie while they are at a fair and quickly approaches her. When Noah tries to talk to Allie she denies him immediately and shows no form of interest. Instead of backing off, this encourages Noah to try harder and he ends up climbing into the seat of the Ferris Wheel in between Allie and another man. This is where things get "romantic." The man in charge of the Ferris Wheel stops the ride and yells at Noah because three people are not allowed to sit in the ride at the same time. I am not sure what the ride owner expected Noah to do considering the fact that he stopped the ride at a very high point, but Noah being the hopeless romantic he is, decides to climb out and hang from the ride. This act of love is extremely dangerous but suppose to be the most romantic thing a man has ever done. He continues to hang while asking Allie if she will go on a date with him. Allie refuses until Noah makes the situation even more dramatic and hangs by only one arm. While everyone is shouting at Noah to knock it off and get back into the ride, he responds by exclaiming "not til she agrees" meaning not until she agrees to a date with him. Finally after Noah's single-handed grip is starting to slip, Allie agrees to go on a date with him.

Before taking this Women's Studies class, I would never have considered this type of gesture as "stalking." I mean, what girl doesn't want a guy to risk their life by begging them to go on a date with them (especially Ryan Gosling)? Not until after the class discussion did I realize how quickly romantic gestures can cross the line and turn into stalking.


Here is a link to the Ferris Wheel scene from The Notebook: http://youtu.be/3Up9NA6YLNA