My love for the world just got a little bigger

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/the-internet-responds-to-barilla-pasta-chairmans-anti-gay-re

I am guessing that everyone in the class knows that Barilla is a company that prides itself on homophobia. Never again will I look at that pasta and think "gosh gee wizz I want that pasta tonight!" No I say No!!! I actually started laughing when I read what Barilla has said about homosexuality. What kind of world are we living in when pasta companies hate the gays too!!! I didn't know how people would respond to the past company, but it seems that people are PISSED! I thought I would just let the class look at the ways in which pasta may seem straight, but after you give it some love and attention it flops any way ;).

on the subject of privilege...

So over the weekend I ran into this article on thought catalogue on a woman who is tired or being ashamed of being rich
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/being-privileged-is-not-a-choice-so-stop-hating-me-for-it/

The response letter speaks volumes (albeit, in a sassy manner) and points out an important discussion on privilege and in my opinion, intersectionality
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/your-privilege-isnt-the-problem-you-are-the-problem/

What are halls thoughts/responses to the letters? What do you think is the best way to start a conversation on privilege? 

Breast Implants

http://www.xojane.com/issues/im-a-feminist-with-fake-tits

So, something I have always wondered about was how feminists viewed fake boobs. We have talked about how you can't say someone isn't a feminist because of some things they say or do. For example, in one of our readings, a woman said she felt guilty for wearing thongs, but Ina has said that there are some things that you just can't say or do and still consider yourself a feminist.

So, where do breast implants fall? Personally, I don't know how I feel about them. It's that fight between is it a powerful thing for women or is it just re-instilling that women are sex objects?

Are breast implants a deal breaker for being a feminist? Or, are they just not that big of a deal?

It's hard to kick ass in stilettos

http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/lady-superhero-costumes-redesigned-by-ladies

I hope this doesn't seem trivial next to some of the more somber postings this week, but I thought this was cool. My best friend is a self-described comic book nerd, and as a result I interact with this world fairly regularly. It has always pissed me off that the books consistently portray the men in bad-ass crime fighting suits, whereas the women look like they were given a wash-cloths worth of material for theirs. For example, one of the DC women, Huntress, is a bad-ass, crime fighting broad who notably frequently fights against abusive men. However, she is portrayed in outfits that are simply illogical considering the activities she is undertaking. While these makeovers were not provided by the industry itself, hopefully this pushes them in that direction----especially since I recently read an interview with some higher-up at D.C., who noted that young women are one of the largest growing audiences..... well then give us some more realistic clothes you guys.

I Understand Why Some Women Don't Think They're Feminist

A few classes ago we discussed some celebrity (I forgot her name) who does a lot of feminist activism but doesn't call her self a feminist. I actually know quite a few women who are very feminist, but don't call themselves feminist and I totally understand why. Personally, every other day I struggle with labeling myself as a feminist.

On twitter I came across two articles. The article called "Feminist" Does Not Apply: On Conferring Labels Without Consent",  explains why the author rejected the identity of feminism is a response to another article, "Sorry, Megyn, I am pretty sure you're a feminist.", where the author criticizes a woman who has clear feminist ideas for saying that she's not a feminist.

In the Feminist Does Not Apply article the author talks about how experience in an all-female space working to fight oppression was the most oppressive experience of her life. I related to this soooooooooooooooooooooo much.

These two articles offer great insight into why I sometimes don't like calling myself a feminist and probably why other women don't call themselves feminist as well.

(Click article title to read articles)



 

Onsies Petition

I came across an article for a petition to stop this company, IT'SUGAR from selling these onesies.


                    



The petition which can be found HERE, calls for the company to, "Stop selling clothing that sexualizes baby's bodies and insults their mothers."

I guess it's a trendy and ironically funny thing to put "adult themes" on onesies because babies can't read but I don't really find these funny. Black women have had a long history of being overly sexualized and this was used to justify alot of bad treatment such as rape so sexualizing children makes me very uncomfortable. So far the petition only has 132 signatures. I'm curious as to
what the outcome of this petition will be.

Here is the website selling the onsies.

It's My Fault

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/09/26/rape-its-your-fault/
Video may be a trigger!

So we have been talking about rape a lot lately so I thought I would add this to the discussion. Today in class we talked about 'women's issues,' and how a lot of the time there seems to be no way to change this backwards idea. Victim blaming is a key way to keep subordination alive, and well in society. Therefore, to counter attack victim blaming All Indian Blackchod created a parody on victim blaming. Just watch it ladies and be amazed. For me personally I think more commercials like this need to be put out on the air. It brings light to the ignorance, and cruelty of victim blaming. The end of the parody was extremely moving because of all the real-life women that come onto the screen, and say that is was there fault. By allowing issues of rape, and assault to still be classed as women's issues the fault will always stay on women. Also male victims will never be recognized, and their stories will be lost. I would like to add though that there are more things that need to be talked about in regards to rape and assault. Most importantly is that these acts happen in the gay community. I know this may seem common knowledge to many people, but I think that the gay community is overlooked when it comes to rape and assault. By not assessing the spectrum of rapes many people will be left to deal with forced perpetration.

Male Survivors of Sexual Assault

http://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceralthouse/male-survivors-of-sexual-assault-quoting-the-people-who-a

After our discussion in class on Tuesday, as well as a previous blog post by Jess, I thought it was super important to look at this post as well. Like the previous blog post about female survivors of sexual assault, quoting the people that assaulted them, this in turn looks at males that are survivors of sexual assault and what their rapist said to them.

In our society, it sounds silly but I think we forget that men are victims of sexual assault just like women are. The sad thing is, our society places such a strong emphasis on men having to be masculine and strong and powerful. Societal norms pretty much say that men CAN’T and DON’T get raped or sexually assaulted. That’s why it’s so scary; we don’t know the exact statistics of how frequently men are sexually assaulted. It’s more than likely much higher than we assume.

This reminded me of an argument my class and I had back in my freshman year of high school…a bunch of girls (and even guys) were saying that men just cannot get raped. They kept saying how men always want it and that it is a guy’s fault if his body is turned on during sex even though his mind may be screaming for help. I think we always forget that men can be the victims just as frequently as girls can be. If a male cries sexual assault, his masculinity is sadly threatened, as well as his sexuality a lot of the time. 

All in all, I really think that our society needs to be educated on not just female abuse but male abuse as well. People make assumptions through stereotypes that men should be powerful and be able to defend themselves and crave sex at all times, but it simply isn't true. 

Frat disaster

Last night my roommate and I decided to go to a frat event with a friend of ours. We were told little in advance, but a friend of a friend is a member, so we decided to go. After a trip on the dreaded party bus, we ended up at the restaurant Table, neighboring the Lemp mansion (I'm getting to the point here- just wanted to set up the scene).

So we got to the place, and quickly discover that it was one of those "which frat guy can bring the most girls" parties. We knew some friends there, though, and decided to hang out a while. Well, after about two hours, board out of our minds (and disgusted by the dancing), we decided to go downstairs to wait for the bus to take us home. I start down the stairs first, but a guy standing on the top step rams his hand in front of me. Giving him a "what the fuck?" look, he explained that no one was allowed downstairs until the bus arrived. Oh, except any guy who wanted to go downstairs, "because the men's bathroom was down there." I gave up a quick fight, but not wanting to cause a scene, I backed off. Especially as I didn't really know any of the frat guys, I  frankly felt a bit unsafe pushing it.  This is one of those things that I am going to regret.

This scene plays out as follows- the guy has roughly 30 women standing at the top of the stairs, all being refused exist. Guy after guy moves past him with ease. 

Now, I'm not sure if this is a typical maneuver at these frat things. However, I asked my mother who works in law, and she confirmed my suspicions. His refusal to let me, or any of the other women leave was  (and I'm sure I'm butchering legal terminology here) fallacious restraint, or... God, what's it called? OH, KIDNAPPING. 

I get the potential argument that this was done to prevent drunk driving or public drunkard shenanigans, but then, we were all driven there via the bus.... none of us had cars. What upset me most (beside having my freedom hindered by a civilian) was the fact that it is very possible that a woman be assaulted at one of these things. In fact, I witnessed various acts that bordered on such behavior. If this had happened, or, hell, even had one of the girls felt unsafe, they would have been stuck. It is a shitty, shitty environment and organization that allows behavior like that. 

Finally, I would like to point out that this is a common frat- guy/house move. My friends and I have shared horror-stories of being virtually trapped in the houses by guys who block exists.

 I'm curious if any of you have experienced such behavior, as well as what you all think about this. Am I overreacting here? Again, this is going to fester that I didn't say anything. 

My Weekend From Feminist Hell

Spoiler alert! This blog post is going to be me venting about the terrible things that were brought to my attention this weekend.

So, on Friday night I decided to sit up with a few of the residents on my floor until 4 a.m. just talking about life. After going to bed I felt all hope in feminist humanity was lost.

First, we started talking about boys...of course. The baseball boys live a few floors above us and have a reputation for being major douche bags. I had never heard any reasons as to why they were labeled as douche bags but a bunch of athletes aren't usually my fantasy men. Anyways, once the baseball boys were brought up a couple of the girls started laughing out loud and were saying, "oh you have no idea!" So of course I inquired, and they proceeded to tell me that a couple weeks ago they got onto the elevator and it was filled with baseball players. They were the only girls on the elevator. Then, they told me that the guys started grabbing their asses! They don't know the guys either, not that it makes a difference but I thought I should throw that out there. The look on my face when they told me had to be a mix of disgust and pure rage. But what made it worse was that the girls were LAUGHING when they told me this! I told them that is NOT okay and asked them if they said/did anything in return and they said it wasn't a big deal. I plan to have a long discussion with my supervisor on Monday about that incident, and as a fellow feminist, I am sure he will not take it lightly. I am also contemplating getting ahold of the baseball coach to inform him of the situation.

If you thought that was bad...just wait!

Next topic was sororities. Eight girls on my floor are in sororities, so it's a pretty frequent topic. A few of the girls were talking about how they were nervous/excited for their first event. Then out of nowhere one of the girls says, "OH GOD I HOPE WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THE CHEERS!" The others shared her horrified look. So obviously I had to ask, "what are your cheers?" They all got red in the face and started laughing. It took me a solid 5 minutes of pure begging to get them to sing them for me. I was expecting them to be corny or dorky because of their responses, but boy was I wrong... (sorry if you are in this sorority, but I'm about to put you on blast)

First cheer: "From city to city (sorority name)s are really pretty. From bed to bed (sorority name)s give really good head. From truck to truck (sorority name)s know how to fuck."

Second cheer: "Freshmen: we get the best men. Sophomores: we are the best whores. (I can't remember junior or senior) Alumni: we make the cum fly.

These cheers are sang at all of their events, including the ones with frat guys there. So, I'm sure the frat guys think really highly of them. So, basically I'm appalled and had to share this with fellow feminists who will be as disgusted as I am. Because the girls on my floor said, "it's just in good fun.."

Survivors

So today in class we watched the short clip of "In Morning and Rage" and as I was on Buzzfeed this came to my attention. Unbreakable is a photo campaign done by Grace Brown. She started off by just photographing her friends who had been sexually assaulted for a school project. Each woman/man being photographed holds up a line that their attacker used. As I went through these photos, and then watched the video at the end of this Buzzfeed I was overcome with strength and courage. Not only has Grace Brown brought more light to the hidden acts of sexual assault, but she has done it in an intrusive way. Instead of shaming the victims (which is what usually happens during the second rape of the victim by society) Grace Brown allows the viewer to be part of the healing process of the victims. Grace does not protest or scream for rights; instead, she just puts the facts in our faces with honesty and compassion. I encourage everyone in the class to please look over these photos and watch the video! Does anyone think that something like this could be done on SLU's campus? If not what way could we as feminists in action aid in sexual assault problems on campus? I know that there in an online board that will be starting that is dedicated to sexual assault, but I don't think that is enough. Sometimes I think simple acts like Grace's could supplement/change SLU's ideas on how to treat sexual assault on campus.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/27-survivors-of-sexual-assault-quoting-the-people-who-attack

An Indian-American Miss America causes Ignorant Tweets

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-lot-of-people-are-very-upset-that-an-indian-american-woman

I am going to preface this saying that I do not watch Miss America, nor I have I ever chosen to watch the pageant. From what I have seen through my research (i.e. Facebook and Buzzfeed), I discovered that an Indian-American woman won the Miss America Pageant! Although I do not necessarily support the Miss America Pageant, I thought this was an incredible step in our society and very refreshing to see a woman that is not white and that does not have platinum blonde hair win the pageant. Miss New York winning reminded me a lot of the novel "Beauty Queens", which I discussed in class, and how women of a minority group are so oppressed as "the other" when it comes to these pageants! I am happy that such a phenomenal book written only a year ago was able to already be proven wrong with a woman of color becoming Miss America!

...and then I stumbled upon this article on BuzzFeed. I actually almost laughed aloud because I thought it was a joke. And it makes me sick to think that OUR GENERATION is the one that is making these terrible remarks. And several of these remarks coming from young women nonetheless. I think this is a perfect example of why public education is necessary in order to teach individuals about racism and “Americanism” and why what they are saying is completely ignorant and ridiculous. We also are seeing an obvious divide in groups of women. We have these women on Twitter actually saying, “This is America. Not India” and “Miss America is a terrorist. Whatever. It’s fine.” Really? REALLY? This is ridiculous. And the fact that they compare Miss New York to a terrorist is one of the most offensive things I have ever heard.

I also have to point out the quantity of tweets from MEN. Let’s be real; how many men would actually admit to watching Miss America if it did not spark this much controversy?

I would love to hear how all of you feel about all of these degrading remarks about Miss New York and about Indian-Americans in general. Do we need to start educating our generation and future generations about these racial remarks? Do we need to introduce them and open them up to cultural diversity more than we do now? How can we address such a terrible issue like this one? I know not everyone in our generation thinks this way, but it absolutely terrifies me that we still have people that do…

rape is rape

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/09/10/asian_rape_survey_why_did_the_ap_exclude_partner_rape_from_its_headline.html

After reading Jessica's post about (please excuse the simplification) the trivialization of rape, I felt the need to post and comment on the issue myself. The findings of the study mentioned in this article are themselves disturbing, but what I found particularly horrifying was the fact that the study didn't necessarily consider rape by a partner legitimate. To reiterate, the study found that 1/10 women in studied Asian states had been raped. As if an afterthought or a byline, it then mentioned that if rape by a partner was included, the numbers rose to 1/10. Last time I checked, rape is rape is rape. It is ridiculous that rape by one person seemed to "qualify" more than another. Obviously there is a problem that all of this abuse is occurring, but I think we also need to reflect on our academic analysis of such issues.

Modern science: a feminist's nightmare.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_choosing-your-babys-sex-what-the-scientists-say_2915.bc

As you all probably know by now, I am interested in working in the medical field. One of the components of medicine that really interests me is health care ethics. There are so many ethical dilemmas that occur everyday in the clinical setting.

An issue that is becoming more of a hot topic in health care ethics is gene selection. Modern science has now made it possible for parents to get their fetus' gene pool scanned for "red-flag" genes. There are a lot of issues with this ability...

I think that when this ability was first discovered, the idea was to find genes linked with terminal or life-altering illnesses and "fix" or remove the gene. However, the ability to "fix" or remove these genes has not yet been discovered. So, if an unfavorable gene is found in a fetus, the parents either accept this gene and move on, or they abort the fetus.

As you might have guessed, there is a TON of ethical issues that goes along with these processes. 1) What types of genes are unfavorable? For example, if a person finds out that their child will have Down Syndrome and the scientific community is telling the parents that this is unfavorable and that they should abort the fetus, what does this say about the value of people with Down Syndrome? As a society we are saying that people with Down Syndrome are not valuable to us, so in turn, people who are already living with this disorder shouldn't have been born in the first place.

2) Gene selection is becoming a trend, and guess which gender is most often selected. You guessed it! Male. This is obviously a huge issue! It again shows how women are valued in society. There isn't a problem with being a woman...but...I want a boy please!

3) Availability of this resource. IVF (in-vitro fertilization) alone costs anywhere between 10 and 30 thousand dollars PER TRY! Imagine how much gene screenings must cost. This means that the only people being able to scan for unfavorable genes would be the wealthy, resulting in an even larger class division.

So basically, with the ability of gene selection, we will have a predominately male, healthy, elite upper class and a largely female, diseased, and inferior lower class. It kind of sounds like a Sci-fi movie, but when you really think about it, this is very much possibly our future if there are not restrictions on gene selection.

For anyone who has ever watch Game of Thrones, or any TV show ever...

http://www.upworthy.com/think-seeing-a-little-male-nudity-on-tv-is-too-explicit-then-its-time-to-hear-the-hard-truth


Hahahahahahahahaha yes! I mean, it's simplistic and not necessarily suggesting social change...but come on TV creators, how about a LITTLE equality in the naked screen time. If you can't beat em, join em, right?

I started to watch Game of Thrones, but stopped after the first three episodes. The sex usually has nothing to do with the storyline, so much so that you can just fast forward right through it and you will have missed NO important plot points. It was just too much violent sex, literal (glorified!) rape, gratuitous female nudity alllll over the place and some pretty fucked up ways of depicting the "savages"...meaning they were all people of color (real cute, HBO...). I picked back up in the third season, because it seems that maybe the creators listened to the (also largely female!) audience a little, and toned it down a good deal, although still not perfect, at all.

(Spoiler alert, if anyone that watches hasn't seen season three)

The Red Wedding is an event at the end of the season where this one whole family basically gets exterminated. One thing (which was actually not even in the book, therefore all the more puzzling as to why they felt they needed to include a graphic scene portraying it) is where the pregnant wife of one of the sons in the family gets stabbed in her pregnant belly; the mom also gets her head cut off in a pretty gruesome manner; they show it all fairly graphically. So the question here is, they can show a PREGNANT WOMAN GETTING STABBED TO DEATH IN THE STOMACH, but an erect, or even a non-erect penis, is out of the fucking question- THAT is what is TOO SHOCKING?? WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

[Worth mentioning though, there have been a few naked (and gay!) scenes with men, but not to the extent that the women are naked. And the camera surely doesn't seem as fond of lingering over the penis as it does breasts or the vagina...smh It is a fucking man's world.]


Overall, I appreciate the plea for some more equality in the naked screen time in all tv shows. Yes, women being naked all the time and objectifying them is so incredibly problematic. But, is it going to stop sometime soon? If there was an absolute equality in the amount that women and men are naked on TV, what would that even be like? What effect could that have? Is that even possible?


What are peoples thoughts?

FEMEN Ran By A Man?

In class we have talked about different types of activism and one  of the activist group that we discussed was Femen. Ukraine Is Not A Brothel is a documentary made by a 28 year old australian filmmaker Kitty Green which "outs" Victor Svyatski as the mastermind behind the group Femen.

Here are some quotes about the man behind Femen from an article about the documentary.

"It’s his movement and he hand-picked the girls. He hand-picked the prettiest girls because the prettiest girls sell more papers. The prettiest girls get on the front page... that became their image, that became the way they sold the brand.” - Kitty Green

"He can be really horrible but he is fiercely intelligent." - Kitty Green

“It was a big moral thing for me because I realized how this organization was run. He was quite horrible with the girls. He would scream at them and call them bitches.” - Kitty Green

"These girls are weak....They don’t have the strength of character. They don’t even have the desire to be strong. Instead, they show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them.” - Victor Svyatski

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-man-who-made-femen-new-film-outs-victor-svyatski-as-the-mastermind-behind-the-protest-group-and-its-breastbaring-stunts-8797042.html

This is shocking  that a feminist activist group is ran by a sexist man and I definitely want to see this documentary.

Here is the trailer.

Fulfilling Your Own Stereotype?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lilyhiottmillis/what-its-like-dating-as-a-femme-lesbian

The above link I have posted is entitled, “What it’s like Dating as a Femme Lesbian.” It discusses the implications about lesbians that have more feminine qualities. Definitely check out the link before you read my comments, and I would love to hear about some of your opinions on how to fix these obvious issues in our society.  

This Buzzfeed article reminded me of a topic I discussed in one of my past courses, Stereotyping and Bias in the Media. Groups that are oppressed or categorized as the “other” have so many different stereotypes about them. As this article described, a woman that identifies herself as a lesbian apparently HAS to be butch, a gay man has to be over the top, and even a feminist has to fulfill certain criteria! So why is it that when these oppressed and “other” groups stand up against the stereotypes, the majority get up and arms and pissed off at those defying the stereotypes? Like this article showed, if a woman has feminine qualities, there apparently is no way she can be a lesbian…obviously there is an issue with these assumptions.

Another example that comes to mind is the television show “Will and Grace.” As explained earlier, the assumption is that gay men must be over the top and flamboyant. Will in the TV series “Will and Grace” completely defies these stereotypes as a gay man that was not overly flamboyant or loud or obnoxious or any other stereotype against the LGBT community! The public’s reaction? They were angry that Will did not depict “a real gay man.”

What constitutes a real gay man from a fake gay man? What makes a man a real white man or a fake white man? What makes a real feminist or a fake feminist? I believe people think that individuals are either black or white when it comes to their personality.

So where is the line drawn? Why does society have these unrealistic expectations about how a gay man or a black woman should act? And what can we do to eliminate these stereotypes? When people follow the stereotypes, it seems normal, but when individuals defy their stereotypes, the majority groups see it as being strange. I would love to hear how some feminist activists feel about this! 

Yippee Cali!

 http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2013/09/10/california-governor-signs-3-bills-related-to-rape-domestic-violence/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FeministDailyNews+%28Feminist+Daily+News%29

Finally some laws have been changed about rape and domestic violence in the state of California. The views on rape and domestic violence are suppose to be there to protect ANYONE against these crimes of power and oppression. Unfortunately, because women are still seen as second class citizens most of the times laws are just starting to change. Do not get me wrong, I know that many other laws have been re-scripted over the years to aid women when dealing with domestic abuse and rape, but still not enough is being done. Why is it that in 2013 women were still being told that they had not been raped IF the person who DID rape them had been impersonating someone else!? Why is it that the rapist/abuser still has the upper-hand on insurance usage, and it won't be until 2014 until that is law is taken away? Come on people! We are in the 21st century why are we reverting to 19th century law?? These laws allow women to move up in citizen ranking, but still not enough. If laws are still in effect like the three that are being overturned it makes so much sense that rape and abuse are so high in the world. If laws aren't feminist in nature then abuses will continue to occur. Equality is key because without it patriarchy will still rein supreme.

Side note:

At my old school rape victims were told to report the incidence to the school not the local police. Upon reporting the incident the woman/man would be told to write their victimizes name down and put it into a box. Every six months the box would be opened and if someones name appeared more than three times action would be taken. I know this sounds like a fucking crazy sick system, but that is how my old school operated. Many women/men that were rape/abuse victims just left because they felt like they had no avenues of escape from their perpetrators.

Stop telling women to smile

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/stop-telling-women-to-smile_n_3876041.html?ir=Arts

This was an article I thought this class would enjoy.... talk about grassroots activism. Not only do I love the idea of activism via public art (yeah, I was that cliche kid who got really inspired after watching a Banksy documentary), but I thought it was executed beautifully.  I loved that the women in all of the pictures are looking the viewer in the eye, as I think this added a humanizing quality to all of the pieces. Like every other woman with a pulse, this is an issue that I face walking to and from class, going into the grocery store, etc. What upsets me most about cat-calling is that I feel robbed of my identity- I'm simply "hey girl" or "that ass" (both which I have received in the past week). I honestly don't think that men are cognizant of the embarrassment, belittlement,  or fear that this behavior can strike in women, and so I loved this project for putting a face to the victims.

DPS: Are They Helping or Hurting?

If you don't know, I am an RA as well as a desk worker in Gries Hall. Over the weekend, tons of incidents occurred in the freshmen dominated hall. Lots and LOTS of intoxicated people as I'm sure you can imagine.

But one incident left a bad taste in my mouth.

While working the desk at 2 a.m., a guy came up to me and informed me that he was just punched in the face by some guy. I asked him what happened and he told me that some girl was sitting on his lap and they were taking pictures together when the girl's ex-boyfriend walked in and punched him out of his chair. So immediately, I call DPS to report an assault. After I got off the phone with them, the guy who had assaulted the other person walked in and started threatening this guy. He was saying things like, "come find me on the 4th floor, Pussy." (You know, typical macho man stuff, because he was such a hard ass) So, I saw first-hand how hostile this guy was.

When DPS brought the assaulter down, the first thing I saw was them all joking and laughing together. I was confused. Then, while listening in on the mediation, I heard the DPS officer saying things like, "this girl set you guys up" and "this girl shouldn't be allowed back on campus!" (the girl was in high school) When it was all said and done, the two guys "bro hugged" and went on their merry way.

The next day the DPS officer came back in for some follow-up information. When I told him I was aware of the situation, he said to me, "So, you know it was all a girl's fault then? She straight played them." I said, "Well, I think the real issue is the fact that one person physically assaulted another person, and nobody deserves to be treated that way." To that he responded, "Yeah, men just get like that sometimes. It is really difficult not to do things like that when you're feeling jealous about a woman."

So moral of the story: women are sneaky creatures. We just wait around hoping to provoke the next man to walk by, and men are helpless when it comes to us. Women create such a stir in men that they can't possibly control themselves enough to not punch someone. Kind of like when a woman is passed out drunk and a man has no control over the need to have sex with her. You can't blame a man for crazy we make them.

I hope you're as grossed out by this situation as I was.

Flora ... my parents hearts didn't shatter at the word gay

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/03/flora-margarine-anti-gay-ad_n_3861495.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular#slide=568023

Even though the rights of the LGBT community are increasing there is still hatred, and oppression towards us throughout the world. Sexual, mental, and physical violence is constantly mentioned in conjunction to the LGBT community. I myself have had many acts of violence occur because I am gay. Unfortunately, not only do many organized religions preach LGBT hate in their sermons, but so do margarine companies! The ad that I am posing is from the margarine company Flora. It depicts a heart of porcelain being shot at with a bullet that says, "Oh Dad I'm Gay," and is part of Flora's "You Need a Strong Heart Today" campaign. I found it very interesting to discover that Flora and Ben and Jerry's are owned the the same company Unilever. Ben and Jerry's campaign for equal marriage rights is now juxtaposed against this homophobic ad. This irony reminded me the discrepancies seen throughout the feminist movement (for example bell hooks with her Red BMW). Discrepancies allow for people's views on a subject to change. My view on Unilever was not good to begin with, but now I am down-right pissed. I wonder if people feel that way when they looked at the out-there discrepancies in the feminist movement (Michael Moore and his anti-labor standards).

Unilever has stated that it had no part in the ad, but I don't buy it. Ads have to be checked before the enter into the public domain. I don't believe this was an 'uh oh' moment for the multinational company. Nevertheless, the homophobic ad could have some positive effects in the world. For instance, the ad could possibly bring to light someone's own subconscious homophobia. Maybe I'm being too optimistic. The ad may create more divides between the straight and LGBT communities. Many a time homophobic oppression is subconscious, or so tiny people may not do anything to fight against it. This ad though is the exact opposite of a tiny incidence. I wonder how this is effecting my fellow queer feminists? What actions do you think should be taken against Flora, and Unilever? Finally, how does this connect back to discrepancies in feminist movements?

Is it activism or slacktivism?

Since this class obviously focuses on activism and how to properly go about activism, I would like to bring up a strong competitor of activism: slacktivism. Slacktivism, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a combination of both the term ‘slack’ and ‘activism’ naturally. Both of these terms obviously contradict one another, yet slacktivism is a huge phenomenon that is definitely consuming our society, specifically the social media obsessed generation.

Slacktivism is a phenomenon where individuals support a social cause, yet they tend to do the minimal effort to support a particular cause i.e. they slack off. Those that partake in slacktivism believe it is real activism, simply by making a Facebook status supporting a cause or changing their profile picture to a supportive symbol. A good example of slacktivism was the overwhelming support that same-sex marriage received when a number of Facebook users turned their profile pictures red for equality. Although the message is there, these Facebook users claim that they are in support of same-sex marriage by promoting it through “activism” when in fact they are supporting the mission in one of the laziest means possible. On a personal level, I think having supporters is obviously necessary, but the component of activism cannot be ignored.

So how does slacktivism affect future activism efforts? Does slacktivism promote awareness for these social causes or does slacktivism create this unrealistic belief that individuals are ACTUALLY doing something if they change their profile picture red in support of same-sex marriage, black because of SOPA, or to a picture of Kony in order to protest his movement?

In my personal experience, I have actually had a friend yell at me and defriend me on Facebook because I would not change my profile picture to an American flag on 9/11. I explained to him that I certainly do have pride in our country and I do not need to show my pride simply by changing my profile picture. Having a picture of my face as my profile picture does not make me any less American than having the American flag as my profile picture.

He did not take this well.

Another example: When people were changing their Facebook profile pictures red for marriage equality, I had a friend call me up and ask me what on earth people were doing that for. She was not being educated by the Facebook profile pictures at all...it just confused her to the point of needing to call me and ask me about it. Is it bad she was not being educated through Facebook and needed to call me about it, or is it something positive to think about since she was seeking out education on the matter? And if she had these questions, I wonder how many other people had questions about the profile pictures. 

Why is our society so obsessed with slacktivism? Are we that lazy? Is our generation not being properly educated on what activism really is and how we can make a difference in our society? Or am I being too negative and slacktivism is the next best thing towards achieving activism considering social media does play such a prevalent role in our society? I would love to hear what other activists think about it. Am I being almost too traditional or am I being realistic about this situation? Where is the fine line between someone that supports a social effort and someone that takes action and does something about it? Obviously getting the message out their and educating the public is necessary, but is a Facebook status or profile picture really doing that?

FGM, cultural imperialism?

I am absolutely fascinated with the intersection of culture, race/ethnicity, religion and gender.
I wrote a paper last semester for my global health class about something that is a global health issue, and of course I chose something involving women in the world, female genital mutilation.
Like most, I was staunchly against the practice and to me, it is still a heinous crime against vaginas everywhere. This article really gives a different perspective, and I ended up centering my paper around how medical practices in the western world can be borderline cultural imperialism. That is, impressing our beliefs and values onto other cultures as "right" or "moral".
 http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/a-new-debate-on-female-circumcision/?_r=0

What is ya'll's take on this? I believe this whole world is grey, nothing is black and white. It's beautiful that way. Is this just one of those things that really is black and white, right or wrong?

struggles in success

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/30/gender_differences_and_self_esteem_new_research_shows_that_men_feel_insecure.html

I just came across this article, which I thought had pretty discouraging implications. A new study has confirmed a tension many of us have already encountered- male discomfort with their partner’s success. The article notes:

“It didn’t seem to matter to men what the circumstances of their girlfriends’ success was. Whether the success was social or intellectual, whether it related to the boyfriend’s failure or was just something the woman achieved independent of anything the boyfriend did, the men still tended to feel worse about themselves when their girlfriends succeeded”

I found this article interesting because it demonstrates how men are also negatively impacted by the gender stereotypes that persist to this day. Obviously this trend negatively effects women- the article theorizes that power struggles could be an instigator to intimate partner violence, and in general, could make women feel insecure about their successes. However, I think it is also important to consider how topics and issues that we discuss in women’s studies classes impact other groups as well. I know multiple young men my age that scoff at the idea of a women’s studies classes, and fail to see the ways that these issues impact their mothers, sisters, girlfriends, classmates, and even themselves. I thought this was a great example of how dysfunctional cultural perceptions can negatively impact such individuals who think women's studies issues only concern the nagging bra-burners.