SHOW AND TELL #3

Look at this link guys! -- http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/04/18/black-face-racial-caricature-and-cake-raising-awareness-about-female-genital-mutilation/


My show and tell post is about an artist in Stockholm who raises awareness about female circumcision in a very unique way.  In this post, he uses a cake.  This cake looks like a naked African Amerian woman.  He uses brownish-black icing on the outside for her skin.  When people start gethering around, he decides to cut the cake.  He gets a woman to do it, and she starts cutting exactly where the clitoris would be.  And as soon as she cuts, he starts screaming like he's in agonizing pain.  The inside of the cake is bright red.  With every cut, the artist gets louder and louder with his cries of agony.  More and more people, alarmed by artist's screams, pay attention to the exhibit.

This article addresses many different issues we covered in this class. 

We didn't talk about this too much, but we did mention female circumcision in class.  Female circumcision is way different than male circumcision.  After males get circumcized, they can still have sex without pain and get pleasure from it.  However, when females get circumcized, their genital area gets completely mutilated.  It honestly probably looks like the cake from this article. They can have sex after, but not comfortably.  Sex is painful and contains no pleasure for them because their clitoris has been cut out.

Another topic this addresses is race.  Kitimbwa Sabuni, a spokesperson for the National Afro-Swedish Association and a critic of this presentation, called the cake a “racist caricature of a black woman.”  But is this cake racist? Or is it just helping raise awareness by showing that this happens a lot in African American communities?

I personally really like what this artist did.  The thought of female circumcision sickens me, and I feel like not enough people are aware that it happens.  Although what he did was radical, it was effective.  Whether they liked it or not, people at the exhibit paid attention to his presentation and probably learned something.  People need to do more things like this around the world to raise awareness about cruel things like female circumcision.

I think there are a lot of things that we learned this year that more people need to know.  From the things we learned this week, I think more people need to know how rape happens most of the time.  Before this classk, I considered rape to be when creepy guys drag you into alleys or break into your home and rape you, but I now know that that is not the case.  Although this does happen, people are raped more often by people they already know.  A lot of people don't know this, but if a guy has sex with a girl at a party who is too drunk to say yes or no or even know what is going on, it's rape.  It doesn't matter if she was kicking and screaming or not, if she didn't say yes, it's rape.  This happens way more often than the "rape script" we are so familiar with.  I think one way to spread awareness about this to girls AND guys is through television.  I don't know about everyone else, but I watch a lot of Law and Order.  And that show is why I had this scripted idea of rape in my head.  Maybe if they put more crime show episodes on tv where girls are getting raped at parties by guys they know, people would be more aware of it.  It also needs to be taught in school.  Guys also need to know that it's rape with they sleep with a girl that's too drunk to function, and girls need to know to be cautious at parties, too, not just when they're walking alone in the dark.  All in all, I think this is a very important piece of information that needs to be taught in our society.

I don't think that I can pick just one specific topic to take from this class because I feel like I've learned so much!  A combination of everything we have learned has lead me to think of the world in a completely different way.  I look at the signs in Walmart differently ever since we talked about the "Shampoo" and "Women's Shampoo" thing.  I look at commercials and magazine ads differently ever since we talked about photo editing and eating disorders.  I feel like I am more aware of major issues in our society like racism, sexism, and homophobia.  I also feel like I'm more open-minded and am able to listen to other people's opinions better.  I can even listen to other views on abortion without immediately tuning them out and forcing my own opinion.  I love all the different sites we were exposed to.  I go on Sociological Images and just scroll through the stuff on there on my own time now because I think it is so interesting.  Overall, this was my favorite class, and it really altered my way of thinking for the better and made me much more open-mined.  I wish I could take this class again and learn more!

I'll start off by saying that I've always been 100% against abortion.  I don't push my beliefs in other people's faces, but I have always been very pro-life no matter what the circumstance is.  This blog prompt actually comes at a really good time because something I saw recently made me question my beliefs.  As dumb as it sounds, it was actually a Grey's Anatomy episode.  A patient on there was pregnant and the baby had complications so she had to give birth really early.  They kept doing procedures on the baby to keep it alive, but it was still struggling.  It came down to a very difficult decision.  The doctors said they could do a certain surgery on the baby, but then the baby would have physical and mental defects for the rest of his life.  If they didn't do the surgery, the baby would die peacefully in a few days.  This made the mother really think about what kind of life she wanted for her baby.  Is a life where you can't move or think normally or even really function a real life?  I know this isn't abortion because the baby had been born, but it made me think of mothers who are pregnant and they find out that if they go through with the pregnancy, the baby would have physical or mental defects.  I still think that killing the baby is wrong, but now I can see why some women make the decision that they do. I can see why they think killing the baby is actually the best thing for it. I'm still going to be pro-life, but I now feel like I can understand some women's decision to have an abortion.

I think one of the most annoying types of objectifying is when a random guy grabs a girl’s butt in a bar or anywhere in public.  It’s humiliating and degrading, and I hate it so much.  One time my friend Maria and I were at a bar.  She is a very nice, sometimes quiet girl who isn’t confrontational at all.  We were walking when all the sudden she stopped, whirled around, and shoved some guy against the wall next to us.  She then proceeded to yell profane things at him that I wish I could tell you.  After she was done, I asked her why she did that.  She just said, “Oh, that? He grabbed my ass. I hate that.”  Then she shrugged like her behavior was no big deal and kept walking.  I will always admire her for that.  That’s how I should act when that happens to me, but I don’t.  I usually don’t even acknowledge it.  I’ll just ignore it and pretend like I didn’t feel it.  I think we all need to be more like my friend.  We don’t have to be as extreme as her, but we need to acknowledge it when it happens and let that guy know it’s not okay.

SHOW AND TELL POST #2

For my show and tell post, I went to sociological images and found a lot of things I wanted to use.  I saw a lot of shocking things on there that I didn't really know about society.  And some things on there I knew about but never really thought about.  The url for the topic I decided to do this post on is http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/05/14/skechers-shape-ups-for-tween-girls/.  This is about a commercial I've never seen before.  You guys know what the Sketchers Shape Ups are, right?  Made for women so you can get a better butt and thighs by just walking?  Yeah, they make those for 11 year old girls now.  Which I think is disgusting.  Why on earth would an 11 year old need a better butt? Why on earth would a parent tell her daughter that her butt is too big by buying these for her?  They took the video of the commercial off the site, but they talk about a few key points in the commercial.  In one part, they show a girl wearing shape ups, walking confidently down the street while boys dressed as food walk behind her, looking exhausted.  So, do these shoes make you avoid fatty food, too? It obviously does not make sense to put that in the commercial.  What's even worse is that research has proven that these shoes don't really make anyone more fit.  They don't really help burn very many calories or improve muscle tone. So you're putting your child in these ugly shoes, indirectly telling her she has a bad body, and they don't even work??  All that humiliation and lowering of self esteem for nothing.  I just think that it is really sad that we are now trying to make pre-teens have firmer butts.  What's next? Making babies crawl on treadmills because their thighs aren't skinny enough?  I just think the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous, so I wanted to share it with everyone.

One thing that really surprised me from Monday's class was how many people have mental health disorders.  We think of mental disorders as rare things.  We think there are only a few "crazy" people in the world, but mental disease exists everywhere.  In another one of my posts, I talk about how I participated in an activist movement called Spread the Word to End the Word, which tried to stop people from using "retarded" in such a casual way.  And what we learned in Liz's class showed that we really do need to be careful about these things.  I do it, too.  When I go back to my apartment to make sure my door is locked, I always joke about how I'm "so OCD," and I really do need to stop saying that because a lot of people suffer from the actual disease in today's society.  Overall, I really liked everything in the lecture on Monday, but the statistics on the amount of mental disease in the population surprised me the most.

My question for this week is: "Why do women get eating disorders so much more often than men?"  I understand why women have body image issues.  Turn on the tv or flip through a magazine at any given time and you will see a vast amount of beautiful women with perfect, unachievable bodies.  Being surrounded by these images is enough to make any girl feel bad about herself.  And these problems with self image lead to eating disorders in a lot of girls.  But when flipping through these magazines and watching these commercials, you also see a lot of really hot guys with perfect, unachievable bodies.  All cologne commercials sell their product by showing a hot naked man holding the bottle.  Deoderant commercials also sell their product by showing perfect naked men with impeccable bodies. I'm not sure what naked men have to do with cologne or deoderant, but I'm certainly not complaining.  Why do guys seem to be so much more immune to these ads?  While girls are watching these commercials and tearing themselves apart, most men seem to be unaffected by the perfect male bodies on their tv screens.  I'm not saying that no men are affected, but statistics say that girls get eating disorders much more often.  Why is that?

Hey everyone! I'm not exactly sure when I first met a gay person, but I know when I became close with one for the first time.  When I went to STRIPES the summer before my freshman year, I knew that a person from my high school named Robert was going to be there, too.  I did not really know him very well, but people had speculated that he might have been gay.  No one knew for sure, but I didn't know him well enough to make a judgement one way or the other.  He was the only person I knew at STRIPES, so I hung out with him and got to know him a little better.  By the end of the week, I knew he was gay.  He had made enough comments to me throughout the program for me to catch the hint.  The truth is that it didn't really bother me.  We started to hang out once we got to college, and now I consider him one of my best friends.  We hang out every chance we get, and if we aren't with each other we text and talk on the phone constantly.  I tell him about my boy problems, and he tells me about his.  I'm really glad he's one of my best friends because I feel like our friendship has benefitted me in so many ways.  I feel like I'm so much more accepting of different lifestyles after getting to know him and learning about his life.  When he tells me about any inappropriate encounters with other men, I don't even consider it abnormal behavior even though it's two people of the same sex.  I go to the gay bar with him and don't even flinch when I see boys and girls dancing with members of the same sex.  It has also helped me realize how big of an advocate I am for gay marriage, and I know I'll do whatever I can to make it happen because I want my best friend to be happily married someday.  Although I can't say exactly when I first encountered a gay person, I can tell you when I finally got to know one, and it turned into an awesome friendship that I am so greatful for.

When I was in high school, I had a teacher who had a three year old daughter with down syndrome.  She talked about how hurtful and insulting it was when she heard people say "retarded" in a derogatory way.  So she started an organization called "Spread the Word to End the Word" in order to raise awareness about down sydrome and about the harm you could cause someone by just throwing that word around.  A lot of people in our school got really involved, and "Spread the Word to End the Word" started to spread.  Other schools and businesses started to hear about it and contributed to the cause.  I never stood out on the street with a huge poster or anything like that, but I did start fussing people for using the word "retarded" in a derogatory way, which definitely could be considered out of the ordinary.  You should have seen the look on my sister's face when I yelled at her for saying "My science teacher is retarded" when she came home from school one day.  However, both my sisters are more aware of that word now and are more careful about what they say.  My mother had her boyfriend's father over to dinner one evening, and he was saying that he should be able to say "retarded" whenever he wants because of his constitutional rights.  You should have heard me then.  I had never felt like such an activist before that night.  So although it was one of my teachers who created the organization, I feel like I've become an advocate for people with down syndrome and their families, and hopefully I can continue to raise awareness in my everyday life.  One way I can be an activist is to spread awareness in our WGS class, so SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD :)

Hey everyone! I think one privilege I have as a white person that I think society should eliminate is the privilege to be able to buy skin-colored Band-Aids.  This seems like a really trivial thing, and I never even thought about it before taking this class.  However, after reading that article where the author talks about how they only make “skin-colored” Band-Aids for white people, I realized that that really is not fair.  So to eliminate it, I think all Band-Aids should some in colors like red and green and blue or with patterns on them.  That way, they stick out on everyone’s skin, including white people.  I don’t think I or anyone else would mind giving up this privilege because I think it is a little thing that would make everyone a little more equal.   One privilege I have as a straight person that I think should be shared with everyone is knowing that I will someday be allowed to get married.  This is a huge privilege that a lot of straight people, including me, really take for granted.  I think every single person should be able to marry whoever they fall in love with, no matter what the gender of that person is.  I think being able to get married should be considered a basic human right.  I personally wouldn’t mind extending this privilege to the rest of the world because my life would not change that much just to let everyone else live happily married lives with the people they love.  Hopefully this privilege does get extended to everyone soon because I think the world would be a much happier and equal place.

SHOW AND TELL POST

So after listening in class these past couple of weeks, I decided to do my show and tell on white privilege.  It really interested me and concerned me that I had so many privileges as a white person than I realized.  I have so many privileges in my day to day life that I don’t even recognize and take completely for granted.  I found this blog on tumblr, and I found a lot of the posts very interesting and eye-opening.  The title of it is "This…Is White Privilege," and the link is: http://thisiswhiteprivilege.tumblr.com/.  Although some of the posts on here are very angry, I think some of the posts make some good points.  In one part, they say that white privilege is having almost all the new Apple emoji on the iPhone match your ethnicity.  This seems like such a little, insignificant thing, but it’s so true.  After reading this, I scrolled through my emoticons on my phone.  Every single little cartoon person with the exception of two or three was white.  And there are A LOT of people emoticons.  I usually just use them in texts without even thinking about it, but that’s because they look like me, so why would I have to think about it?  This is such a little thing, but it’s a very good example of a privilege that white people take completely for granted.  Another part of the blog points out that white privilege goes all the way back to our childhood.  She talks about how the majority of the Disney princesses are white.  As a little girl, I used to compare myself to  Disney princesses and use them as role models because I watched Disney movies so much, didn’t everyone?  I wanted to look just like Belle, or Cinderella, or Snow White, but I could aspire to look like them because they looked similar to me already.  I never saw that as a privilege before, but now I realize that it definitely was.  I can’t imagine the confusion I would have felt if all of those princesses looked completely different from me.  We were just little kids, but this is another thing we take for granted as white people.  Hopefully after reading this blog, I'll start appreciating the little things in my day to day life that can be seen as white privileges.

Growing up, everyone is taught that boys are stronger than girls.  Boys are faster than girls.  Boys are more athletic than girls.  Boys can play sports better than girls.  That is "just the way things are."  I didn't know the terms "brute facts" and "social facts" growing up, but the statement that boys are stronger than girls has always been a brute fact in my mind.  It was an unchangable thing about society that everyone knew about.  When anyone needs someone to do some heavy lifting, they will ask the boys in the room.  If a girls' team and a boys' team played each other in any sport, everyone would bet on the boys' team to win.  However, after learning these terms and reading certain articles in this class, I'm realizing that that's not really the case.  Although the norm tells us that girls are weaker, that is not a concrete fact.  There are girls out there who are stronger than most boys.  There are feminine boys out there who wouldn't be considered strong at all.  And who are the "boys" really?  We're even learning that gender isn't a brute fact. So it's not accurate so say that boys are always stronger than girls because there are exceptions everywhere.  This can now be considered a social fact, along with many other things in our society.  We should no longer think less of girls and consider them weaker because society tells us to because a lot of the time it's just not true.  I'm glad that this class is changing my perspective on this and other "facts" in our society because I never really agreed that boys are stronger than us anyway, and now I don't have to blindly accept it like I did in the past.

One privilege that I have that I know I take for granted is the knowledge that I will be able to get married one day.  As a straight person, I know that if I fall in love, I won't have to worry about the law or what state I reside in when I decide to get married.  I also won't have to worry about having children or how other people might be judging my marriage.  This is such a huge thing to take for granted, and the articles about privileges really made me think about it.  My best friend is a gay male, and he always talks about how it isn't fair that he won't be able to get married when he falls in love.  And even if the laws change, people will still judge the union of two males or two females, and I know society will approve of my marriage when the time comes.  It's sad that something as normal as getting married is considered a privilege.  It's a basic right that shouldn't be limited to just certain kinds of people.  I shouldn't have to feel grateful that I will have the oppurtunity to get married one day; it should just be a basic right of any human being. I know I have many other privileges as a straight white female, but having the knowledge that I will be able to freely get married seems like the biggest one to me.  I hope the laws change so that it won't be such a huge privilege, but even if they do, society won't fully accept gay marriage the way that it accepts straight marriage.  And it surely won't accept gay people having children the way it accepts straight people having children.  The articles and conversations in class have really made me think about my life and how easy it is to be a straight white female, and I now realize how much I really take for granted.

Hey everyone.  There are many things about being a girl and "doing" the gender role that I dislike.  I don't like waking up so early for class to fix my face and hair.  I absolutely hate blow drying my hair at night.  It's so time consuming and makes me sweat, which is something else girls stereotypically don't like to do. But one big thing that came to mind when I read the blog prompt for this week was homecoming. If you were a girl in high school, you waited for a boy to ask you to the dance.  You just did.  It would be majorly crossing a gender line for us to ask who we actually wanted to go with, so instead we would just wait around and hope for a suitable boy to ask us.  And I don't know about you ladies, but this gave me SUCH an anxiety attack.  What if I don't get a date?  What if the boy who asks me is weird?  What if the guy I like asks someone else? It was exhausting.  Meanwhile, the boys in the school could just waltz up to anyone they pleased and ask her to the dance, and chances are she would say yes.  I was so jealous of them. Why as girls do we have to do that?  Why would it have been such a catastrophic even if I had just asked the boy I liked? I don't know why it is this way, but I don't like it.  Shaving my legs and putting on mascara can definitely be annoying, but I think waiting around for a date back in high school was one of the worst things I had to do in order to "do" my gender correctly.

Hey everyone! I can't really think of a time in the past that I've crossed a gender line, but I can think of a circumstance in the future when I might.  I am majoring in psychology and minoring in Spanish, and my dream job would be doing some kind of missionary field work somewhere in South America. When I told my family about this, they got really worried for me.  My mother especially thought that since I'm a woman, it would be very dangerous for me to be out by myself in some South American country.  She made it sound like if I was a man, it would not even be an issue.  I can understand where she's coming from, and I would probably feel the same way if it was my daughter.  As much as I hate to admit it, girls just seem more vulnerable in situations like that, and that really bothers me.  Going to a different country and doing missionary work should not be gender-sensitive at all.  Women should feel just as safe as men when doing stuff like that, but we don't.  I tried explaining this to my mom, and she saw my point of view, but she still wants me to choose to do something different with my life.  Hopefully by the time I get older, doing what I want to do with my career won't be such a big deal and won't be considered as "crossing a gender line." I read some of the other blogs on here, and I know a lot of you are in the same boat as me when it comes to our career paths being defined by gender, and I definitely do not want to let gender dictate what I can and can't do with my life. 

Hi, I'm here!