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[cbravo5-blog]

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20055380,00.html

Vanessa Hudgens (pictured above) was a star on Disney’s High School Musical. In 2007, Hudgens was dating High School Musical costar, Zac Efron. On Thursday September 6th, a nude photo of the actress were leaked on the internet. It is important to note that these private photos were released without her consent. But the public began to judge her for these intimate photos that were clearly meant for her boyfriend. Her representative stated that the photo was “taken privately. It is a personal manner and it is unfortunate that this has become public.”

The following day more photos of the star were released, again without her consent. Instead of recognizing the issue as an invasion of privacy, Hudgens was quick to apologize to her fans and to the public in general. She said, “I want to apologize to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me. I am embarrassed over this situation and regret having ever taken the photos…” Afterward, a Disney Channel spokesperson released a statement mentioning that “Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she’s learned a valuable lesson.” The article ended with a mention that the studio was in talks about bringing Hudgens back for any High School Musical sequels.

This is related to my topic of slut shaming because Hudgens was scorned publicly for the way she choose to display her body. The photos she took were meant for her boyfriend, and were released without her consent. Yet so many were quick to judge and although she was not guilty of any serious offense, she and the studio apologized because of her choice to take such photos. But no one came forth to take responsibility for leaking such photos. She was a female adult but was not allowed to display her body in a way that showed pride. This happens to average people all the time, photos meant for significant others are shared without consent. But celebrities are especially vulnerable to this phenomena with the release of pictures, sex tapes, etc.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

This post was about the leaked nudes of Vanessa Hudgens. She felt that she needed to apologize for the photos and it and effects on her career. Thsoe post focuses on the ways that the photo were an invasion of privacy and used to shame women. I really like this post, I think that the lack of agency for women and their sexuality makes things like this bizarre. I saw a comparison of this once saying the if it was Vanessa’s fault for taking the pictures it also people’s fault when they get robbed because they should have nice things if they don’t want to be robbed. I think fixing this mindset will take a lot of work around women owning their sexuality. 

[gwscinema-blog]

#3

“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

Feminist theorist Laura Mulvey wrote this groundbreaking piece about women and cinema. Mulvey identifies the term scopophilia, a Freudian concept. This term means the love of looking. This love of looking is a defining aspect of cinema. In terms of film, this represents the relationship we have to it, as something we derive pleasure from while looking at.

The issue with this is the portrayal of women in cinema. The camera is the “eye” of cinema, and this eye is a male’s. This is evidenced by the manner in which women are viewed. The perspective always seems to be from the men within the film. Women are constantly focused upon and are a fixed point of attention and interest, although not in a positive way. They become a symbol of male desire.

Film serves as a reflection in which one(particularly male) sees himself, and begins to identify with it in a narcissistic manner. This relates to Freud’s idea of the ego.  Once the viewer identifies as someone within the film, they begin to derive pleasure from it. This is a problem because pleasure is derived at the expense of women who become objects within film. 

This article was dense but interesting. Some of the freudian concepts may be difficult for some to understand, thus making the article difficult to reach people. The freudian ideas I would generally agree with, as “out there” as they may seem. The article does an interesting job of peeling away at the layers of understanding the issue of objectification of women by film. Mulvey makes it seem as though men can’t be objectified, which I disagree with. I feel that anyone can be objectified, that being said, men generally are not. 

-How can the cinematice “eye” be changed? is that also a result of male directing? Do these concepts remain the same if a female was directing?

http://www.asu.edu/courses/fms504/total-readings/mulvey-visualpleasure.pdf

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Matt focuses on Laura Mulvey’s piece on women and cinema. The piece talks about the portrayal of women through a male point of view. This view sexualizes women in movies. He says that the movies are made like this so men can identify as the viewer. I really like how Matt included the Freudain references because I feel like the idea of the sub-conscious is really important in how you take in media. When we watch TV and movies and carry those messages with us and they teach us how we should be in our lives.

[themachismoeffect-blog]

Post #9

·Acknowledge negative aspects of machismo when you see them

Like I stated in the 5th post, I think that it is important to acknowledge negative actions of machismo when we see them. Because it is so engrained in Latin culture, people become accustomed to it and see nothing wrong with their actions. One must put the issue in to perspective for them. It may help to make them think about how they would feel if someone did hat they were doing to their mother, daughter, etc. Although I think it should be a matter of general respect towards everyone no matter the identity.

·Spread awareness

When I first began this project, I personally only thought about the effects machismo has on women; as I continued my research I became aware of the many ways machismo can effect boys as well. I continuously think about my youngest brother who is 6 and the negative effects machismo can have on him. I believe that if we spread awareness about the many outcomes negative aspects of machismo can have on boys and girls, people would try to change some aspects in their parenting for their child’s sake; at the end of the day, a parent only wants the best for their child.

·Set a new status quo

Like scholars Ponjuan and Sean stated in my first web source, we should set a new status quo. By setting one and having people exemplify it, people may want to become like that person or just become conscious of the negatives machismo provides. A new norm, with the help of example leaders, can has the power to change the mindset of young generations, therefore ending what seems to be a never ending cycle of machismo.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Shelby’s list of solutions include acknowledge machismo upon recognition, educating others, and setting a new status quo.  I was really interested in see her solutions because I feel that men in my family are severely affected by machismo. I think for me the hardest part would calling out machismo because it is so intertwined with respect in my family. However, the easiest one for me would be setting a new status quo. I think in my home raising my nephew to think that he has worth outside of the machista culture is very important to myself and my sister.

[dontcompete-complete]

Blog Post 11/ Reflection

As an anthropology major, I realize that our behaviors stem from evolutionary advantages. It is so common to find intrasexual competitiveness that I never thought of it as anything at all. The word “competitiveness” is usually associated with males and physical activities. However, as we have seen through this project, competitiveness in women can be aggressive with no physical contact whatsoever. Each competitive tactic has its own evolutionary advantage to “win” a mate.

I can now easily hone in on which tactic is being used by another female. This project has allowed me to assess others’ feelings about another woman and themselves when participating in intrasexual competition. I have observed that most women do it automatically. There are steps women seem to go through when recognizing competition. The first step is a facial gesture that suggests distaste in the competitor’s physical features or dress. The second is a verbal reaction of derogation or self-promotion. After, some women will either make repetitive glances toward the competitor every so often or go to a private space (usually the bathroom) in order to fix their appearance. Lastly, there is attention put on the mate supposedly being competed over. This will include sexual or verbal advances, or mate manipulation.

Learning to recognize the cycle of this behavior, I can easily shut it down. You would be amazed at how many women have no idea what they are actually doing. Always make the woman aware of exactly what she is doing and how it belittles her self worth as well as the other womans. Allow her to realize that she is giving into insecurities. Most of the time, what a woman says about another woman reflects what she sees in herself.

This world has 7 billion people and a little under half of them are male. There is no shortage of mates anymore. When we lived in smaller communities where it was harder to find an adequate mate, the tactics were necessary for human survival. This is just  not the case anymore. Furthermore, it is now more beneficial to stand with one’s gender than to fight against it as a woman. This is necessary in order to further our monetary futures, personal stability, and personal worth. While the evolutionary drive to procreate is crucial to continue the human race, the need to participate in intrasexual competition needs to be left in the dark ages where it belongs.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

I found Vivi’s project very interesting. I have little to no background on anthropology. I think here redefining of what competition is very insightful and is a perfect example of how socially constructed connotations can lead them to become gendered.  Vivi says that she can identify the tactics that “females” use and by following some steps including facial gestures, verbal attacks, continuous glances or self-adjustment, and attention mate. She believes that this is because women are insecure. She ends this post with saying that there are a lot of men and that when women realize that they don’t need to compete over one, we can move forward. She wants women to stand together. Although I found the anthropology information interesting, I feel that this analysis is a little problematic. Saying that mating with males is reason that women use sexist and disempowering methods when they compete against each other ignores so many other factors, including societal effects, agency, and sexuality. For example, how does this explain queer women? Or women who use sexist and disempowering methods when they compete for jobs or things outside of men? I think that this is an interesting start to see the reasons why women might have begun to use sexist and disempowering methods when they competed for male attention, but to explain the greater phenomenon we have to look at socially constructed expectations for women, the ways in which women are taught validation, and what health competition between women would look like. It is also important to note that women have a lot more to compete for than males now, because they have a lot more to do than procreate. They also compete for jobs, academic positions, other women’s approval, etc.

[kasiakoisuic-blog]

7th post: Reflection

This class was my favorite one this year. All of the discussions, the laughter, and the realizations are priceless. I also wanted to take this class to educate others that haven’t received this education like I have, like my friends or boyfriend. I’ve learned that feminism is not just for women, its for everyone. It benefits women especially, but men too. I’ve also learned that not everyone completely benefits from the mainstream definition of feminism: “To make women equal to men.” There are men and women who live in poverty, and those women wouldn’t want to equal to those men.

Another huge concept I’ve learned that I can share is the waves of feminism. The first wave was women’s suffrage by being able to vote. The second wave was women being able to live out of the house, and go get a job like other men. The third wave of feminism is equal pay, slut shaming, and rape culture. I’m also proud to say that I convinced my boyfriend that he is a feminist. He actually said two weeks ago, “I am a first and second wave feminist.”

This class has also helped me realize just how messed up the world is, especially politics, and the legal system. It is set up so that the “failed” can fail even more, and the “superiors” just keep on rising up. For example, with the prison to pipeline system. Black students are getting the short end of the stick by doing the same things other students do, but getting into worse trouble because of it.

I will continue to educate myself after this class is over, educate others after this class by keeping involved in events at UIC or somewhere else, or keeping with everything on social media.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Kasia has come out of this course with a better understanding of feminism is excited to share her knowledge with others. She really was interested with the difference between feminist waves. She can now see the oppressions in the world more clearly and does so with intersectionality. I am really excited to see someone come out of the course so willing to share knowledge. I really hope that she cares that into whatever her major is and that this is able to educate many others. 

[miss-andrist-gws]

REFLECTION 

This past semester, GWS 101 was my favorite class! I’ve had a lot of fun learning new topics and discussing them with my classmates. In this class I’ve learned about myself and more about feminist ideas. My favorite to learn about was intersectionality. I had never heard that term before this class and I enjoyed learning about how connected everything is and how working together is better than trying to fight each other and play the Oppression Olympics.

This class has helped change my opinion of the world because I now notice the little things that add to the oppression of people in myself and others. It’s also been reinforced because I feel more passionate about my beliefs and working towards a world where everyone is equal. Being a feminist is a struggle but this class showed me that I am not alone in that struggle. So I no longer care what anyone thinks, I will continue to go on my feminist rants and spread the word as much as I can. I also recently joined a sorority that is focused on the advancement of women, we work to keep the conversation going and I can’t wait to get more involved on campus next year with this as well.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Cyenna really enjoyed this course. She especially liked learning about intersectionality. She feels the class changed her views on the world because she can more easily recognize oppression. She is able to fully express herself. I think it is great that this course was bale to help you unfold your political stance. I wish you all the best with your feminist struggle. I suggest you search social media platforms for more people to continue the conversations you enjoy having. We are out here, haha.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Course Reflection

This semester I was introduced to new writers I had not had the privilege to read yet. I think the most significant part of this course was seeing how discussion about topics I had already formed opinions on made an impact on my views. I think in this class i was able to see others react differently to readings and understand different viewpoints. For things like the street harassment, I was particularly interested in the fact that others have never felt harassed before. I was also more informed on the BLM movement. 

I will continue in feminist struggle, chicana feminist struggle, through my GWS major. I am able to work with a non profit that tries to remove stigma for sexuality. I am also going let my revolution start at home and continue to consume media and life critically. I am planning on trying to start my own blog, possible refine my writing in order to try add to the Chicana stories being told. 

[miss-andrist-gws]

On Tuesday, I went to listen to Alicia Garza, one of the co-creators of Black Lives Matter, speak about the movement and her involvement in it. She started off by stressing that “hashtags don’t start movements, people do.” Meaning that even though her and her sisters started the hashtag, does not mean they started the movement. Which is why they refer to themselves as “co-creators” to the movement. She made sure to let us know that the movement is much older than any of us. While the movement of black freedom has been going on for a while, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter came about from a love letter written by Alicia. She wrote the letter after George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s murderer, was found not guilty on all charges. Alicia said she wrote the letter in a time when black people needed love the most.

Alicia Garza and her sisters wanted to create a space where black people can resist state violence and anti-blackness. They wanted a space where black people can be free. However, the media takes it as the opposite. They are often called terrorists, police killers, ect., and are linked to any protest involving black people. While listening to Alicia, I found some specific things very interesting.

For starters, I loved the way she calls herself a co-creator. I learned how far back this movement goes, and even though the hashtag is newer, the things they are saying are not. The reaction to black freedom movements are not new either. The names they’re called and the way they’re portrayed in the media is just a way to discredit the movements. As Alicia said, they were born from a love letter but the right wants to make it seem they’re out here wildin’. One of my favorite things Alicia said was “demanding a better way to protect our communities isn’t anti-police, it’s pro-people.”

·Another thing I learned was about the usage of the term “black-on-black crime.” Alicia said that that term was created by a social worker to show how black communities are dysfunctional. When in reality, no one cares more about our communities than black people. We often call each other out to keep one another in place. It’s something I see, hear, and even do all the time but I never noticed exactly the bigger picture behind it. Also, Alicia pointed out that there is crime in every community, but only in black communities is there a special name for it. Which is why she prefers the term “inner-communal crime.”

 I greatly appreciated her stressing the importance of taking action. First with her talking about how people make movements, not hashtags. And then again when she spoke on people always making comments about what BLM needs to be doing. She says the problem with saying “what y’all need to be doing is..” is that it doesn’t include you. People can’t just sit on the sidelines and try to coach, they have to stand up and fight for what they believe in.  

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Cyenna went to see the Black Lives Matter co creator speak. She enjoyed that the speaker did not claim the movement as her creation. She writes about the idea of black on black crime and how it is derailing, and really seems to respond the speakers call to action. I did not go to this event, but really wanted to. I find the “inner-communal crime” really interesting and will be doing research on this. I hate when this used to derail police brutality. I also respond greatly to call for reform. 

[technicallystupendouswolf-blog]

The event I attended was a showing of several episodes of the series “Her Story” which focuses on the lives of transgender women. The show portrays problems and issues that some trans women face in society and how they are able to cope with them. These issues varied from being outed as trans, dealing with romantic interests and abusive relationships as well as having to confront those who may not be understanding.

After the showing of the episodes some of the actors from the show were there for questions and a small discussion about the production. They described how most of the cast and crew were trans individuals or lgtbq in some way. There answers to the questions helped everyone at the event to better understand some of the feelings and explanations behind why things were done the way they were, and what was still to come when the full show is produced.

I really liked the show and thought it did a good job of portraying the characters how they viewed themselves. One thing I appreciated was that there was conflict between members of the lqbtq community and made clear that they did not always get along. I also appreciated that they included something with a trans woman dating a man without him knowing. Though things don’t go as smoothly as planned I think having that story line and little hiccup make it realistic as well as portray that it can be a very stressful thing for trans women. The last thing I l appreciated from attending this event is that different trans women are different in many ways. Just because they are all trans does not mean that they are totally different on many other levels.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

This post summarizes the inclusiveness of the cast and crew, and the ways in which the dialogue helped understanding of choices for the series. They praise the conflict portrayed in the series in the lgbtq community. They also enjoyed the way that dating was shown in the series. Overall there is appreciation for sisterhood between women. 

I think as a queer woman I also appreciate the sisterhood in women. I hope that shows like this show people that all women are part of the sisterhood. I think the parallels in my life to those of transwomen all though not the same are powerful. 

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Thursday, April 7th UIC hosted a series screening and dialogue of Her Story. Her Story is a web series that follows the lives of two transwomen in L.A. at intersects the worlds of gayness, dating, addiction, all the while bringing in day to day pleasures and struggle of trans life. The series was wonderfully written and produced. I felt that it was intersectional and witty.

The discussion was very  much the highlight of the event for me. Seeing how the chemistry unfolded off screen was something that made the show that much more appealing. Jen Rishards, Angelica Ross, and Fawzia Mirza all gave such rounded and inclusive answers. They talked about the origins of the show and how the show was writing from real stories, produced by a lgbtq crew, and overall drew on the community. When asked about the way that the themes were chosen, Jen said when they never sat down with the idea of putting certain things into the show, “when we recognize the gasps, we fill them.”

As a queer Chicana, it made me eternally happy to see of color women playing important role. This intersection is something that when creating the content like this can often be marginalized. The idea that a white character was replaced by Fawzia because she was valued so much is interesting. Although I am happy that she was included I wonder whether the characters were written as mostly white to begin with?

Lastly, I wanted to comment on the relationship between Violet and Allie. I wonder how this will unfold. Watching this I felt a similarity between the Transwoman and Lesbian-who-doesn’t-know-about-trans-stuff and the Lesbian and straight-girl-who-doesn’t-know-about-gay-stuff pairing. I see the way in which Allie struggles withe politics of authenticity when dating a transwoman as a lesbian. Where we leave off doesn’t give us too much to work with other than it seems that Violet and Allie have decided to act on the AMAZING CHEMISTRY that kept me on the edge of my seat for an hour, but I hope to see that further explored.

[femmenistsam-blog]

Summary 

The article I’m going to discuss is the Bauer article about Malcolm London’s sexual assault accusation after dedicating his life to activism. Malcolm London is a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, a poet from Young Chicago Author’s, and is featured on a Ted Talk with his poem, “High School Training Ground.” Malcolm is looked up to greatly as a leader in the BLM movement of Chicago. During the November protest honoring Laquan McDonald, Malcolm was arrested, and set free from jail the next day. A twitter hashtag “#FreeMalcolmLondon” was trending all night. To say the least, Malcolm is an activist and a role model for black youth in Chicago. 

A short time later, Malcolm was accused by a fellow activist, a woman named Kyra, of sexually assaulting her. She claimed Malcolm did so in her apartment a few years back, and that he deserved to be called out for it and to draw attention to the silencing of queer and female voices in the BLM movement. BYP 100 took steps to publically announce they were going to look into the accusation and take it very seriously.

Response

The article was important to me because I have done a lot of poetry work with Young Chicago Authors, and have participated in workshops led by Malcolm London when I was in high school. I watched his twitter following grow, as well as his voice and leadership in activism and the BYP 100 community. He has always been someone I look up to, and to hear this accusation really shook me.

However, it just goes to show that the people we look up to are not perfect. They mess up, and sometimes? Big time. Assuming the accusations are true, I think London needs to publically apologize and do everything he can to advocate for sexual assault survivors and to lift up and project the voices of queer people and women in the BLM movement. 

I think this also has to do a lot with the fact that we aren’t taught about consent until we are too old. I doubt Malcolm really processed that was he was doing was wrong in his head while he was doing it. This doesn’t excuse it at all. But it proves the greater point that we NEED consent education in our sex ed programs. 

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Sam found a personal connection not only with the article but with Malcolm because of poetry and social justice. She believes that London needs publicly apologize and work with sexual assault victims. Sam also feels the need for consent training. I like that Sam acknowledges the need for consent training. Although I agree with that aspect, I do not believe that London working with sexual assault survivors is something I can get on board with. I am on the fence with restorative justice, mostly because of cases like this. Even though I do believe that people should not be disposed of, allowing London to work with sexual assault victims seems traumatic to those people. I do not think we should do that in order to make him feel like he repaid a debit.

[kdoundkar-blog]

The Feminine Mystique - by Betty Friedan

Summary 

We have done many readings in this class which I found very interesting. Although there is one in particular which caught my attention the most, which was The Feminine Mystique reading we did by Betty Friedan. Friedan talks about the expected roles of women during post World War II (1963). She discusses how the role of women during this time was to find a husband and raise a family along with the pressure of looking like ideal women with blonde hair and a thin figure. It also mentions how many women dropped out of college and stopped pursuing their own dream in order to have a family and be more ‘feminine.’

Many women were dealing with the psychological stress of not enjoying their suburban housewife role. They wanted something more than just that and society’s expectations made them feel guilty about it. The suffered the frustrations of living in a single income household. Women often wanted to go out there and get a job themselves but since society didn’t find that fit for them they were forced to live a life in which they often felt very unsatisfied. Friedan describes the unhappiness of the women during this time as “the problem that has no name.” Women during this time were taught to believe that wanting things like a career, education, independence and etc. were not feminine. She talks about how she interviewed women who had issues with their marriage, children, family and communities. She realized after interviewing many women that the many women in America who had conformed to the society’s ideal role for a women, had said things like “I feel empty somehow…incomplete (pg 274).” This shows how many women were starting to realize that just being a housewife was not good enough for them. They wanted to explore what was out there for them in terms of their individuality.  

Response

I made a personal connection to this reading because I cannot imagine what I would do if I was ‘forced’ to live a life in which all I could describe myself as is a housewife. While it would be great to have a family one day, I feel like there is so much I still want to achieve in life. I want to travel, meet people, learn as much as I can before I decided to settle down. And even when I decide to have a family, I will still continue with my career and help out financially. I feel that women need this sense of independence when it comes to protecting their individuality. Women need education as it only makes them stronger. It will help them get a career and support their family. When they have something that they can proudly call theirs, they will be happier in their marriage and be able to raise their children better and teach them new things everyday. I hope that from this reading everyone can learn that this ideal image of women during the post World War II time was not healthy because women felt the psychological stress of not being able to do anything more than just be a wife or a mother. They wanted something more, which lead to them being very unhappy. So I hope we can all learn from this and know that it is important for every person men and women to have an education, career and independence which will only make them better human beings. 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12784237/GWS%20101%20Spring%202016/Friedan%20-%20From%20The%20Feminist%20Mystique.pdf

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Krutika says she doesn’t know what life would be like for her is she could pursue her own joys. She values travel, education, and agency. She believes women should help finically. All these things would lead to a happier marriage and family upbringing. Agree that the life that Friedan describes is not something I could ever stomach. I think that agency is extremely important to everyone, and a loss of this could be mentally harming. I do think that this lack of agency is bigger than what Friedan saw in house wives. I think women in other social intersection could suffer from this yearning. 

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Photo Credit: illustratedtruths

In Gloria Anzaldua’s “Speaking In Tongues: a Letter to 3rd World Women Writers” from This Bridge Called My Back, we find  an open letter about the challenges faced by the lesbian of color in academia. She brings the reader through an emotional journey describing the alienation she feels with writing because of her origins and queerness. She pushes against white men who try to hold her down to being a sexual object. Anzaldua calls out the white feminist for treating women of color as their projects. In perhaps my favorite section, she fights the idea of being tokenized. She says that her writing liberates her, it allows her to right the wrongs in the real world. This liberation is life for her. She calls for us to stop waiting for a room of one’s own and write where one may. She ends by asking us to write and write honestly. 

The personal connection I made relies heavily on her identity as a lesbian of color. When she speaks about the ways in which she felt internalized racism, it really rung true to me. Being in academia and not knowing why I feel out of place sometimes I identify strong with her. When she speaks of being more than objects for white men, I feel so empowered to rise above that and tokenization. Her liberation is something i’ve felt before. All of this paper was the struggles of being a queer chicana in academia made me feel were only mine. reading this was like self care for me. 

[femmenistsam-blog]

Body Positivity

The last thing I want to touch on is how she talked about body peace, and the idea that we don’t always have to be in love with ourselves to not hate ourselves. Her campaign is called “Stop Hating Your Body” and I really like her idea. It is difficult to constantly feel like we have to be in love with ourselves to be body positive- the least we could do for ourselves is accept our bad days, let go of the self hatred, and continue to move forward. We may not feel beautiful every single day but we must not hate our bodies because our souls are worth so much more.

Since I could not make it to the event, I watched Annie’s set of 4 YouTube videos about her experience with body dysmorphia. In the first video she introduces the development of her body dysmorphia and recalls a story of her father telling her she needs a nose job when she graduated elementary school. She talks about how this comment wasn’t directly the cause of her body dysmorphia, but her earliest recollection of herself feeling bad about a part of her body. Annie tells us that children as young as 5 years old are already feeling bad about their bodies today. I related to her story immensely.

She then goes ahead to talk about how body positivity should be intersectional, and how to find body peace. She talks about intersectionality as everyone having a different story, and how it is important to listen to every one’s story because you never know where someone comes from. She talks about the double standards that exist for women of color and uses Nicki Minaj as an example. When Nicki posted a photo of herself wearing a thong, she received a lot of push back for it, but white women who post those photos all the time don’t receive the same type of shaming that Nicki did.

I learned a lot about myself from this video. I have had the same struggles as her and I never knew how to put a name to it. I learned that body dysmorphia is the obsession over body image and the delusion of what one’s body looks like. This has been the source of my anxiety and my struggle since I hit puberty, and it has been so hard for me to confront.

I also learned about fatantagonists and how people accuse body positive people of promoting obesity and unhealthy habits. I think that is their way of masking their fat shaming and making someone else’s body their own business. We are worth so much more than that.

[technicallystupendouswolf-blog]

The show Body/Courage offered insights to the way many people viewed themselves and the relationships they had with their bodies despite there being only 1 actress. While portraying the people she interviewed and telling the interviews from their side of the story, she adopted there mannerisms, their accents and emotions to truly project the feelings that she experienced when listening to their stories. In the end, most of the stories demonstrated were about being at peace with their bodies or on the journey to become comfortable with them.

Body/Courage

 I thought one thing people learned from this show is that body image does not just come down to thin or thick. There are as many different potential issues with a body as there are body types out there. During the performance Danielle Pinnock portrays people with body issues ranging from weight to athletics to color and even gender. Danielle demonstrates that people can be unhappy with their bodies for any reason such as the boy who had an athletic body but was ashamed of it after her failed to qualify for a sports team. Though weight is often the issue society seems to focus on quite a bit, it is by no means the only one, it just often over shadows other due to attention.

In addition to this, the show teaches how the people interviewed began to adjust to and accept their bodies and even find their bodies to be beautiful. It is not as simple as immediately deciding to view yourself as the pinnacle of beauty and ignore such a long culture and focus trying to get you to believe otherwise. Learning to love your body is not a simple decision one can make, it is a process they must go through to be comfortable and accept themselves. The show teaches the viewer that you are beautiful even if it may take some time to look past the images and stereotypes of society.

I really appreciate the focus put on the process of coming to terms with one’s body and highlighting that it is a difficult thing to overcome. The large variety of people she interviewed also made the show as a whole more relatable as viewers were able to likely connect with at least one of the stories. I know that I related to 2 of the stories she performed which made me think a lot about my own body image.  

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Jess notices the range in body image issues that Danielle portrayed and how it is not limited to weight. Jess picked the idea that body image is a journey for most people, noticing that the culture that people live in has a large influence on body image. There is an appreciation for the diversity of the people who were interviewed. 

I think that Jess has a really good point in the reach societal images of beauty has. Body/Courage really demonstrates that over and over again in through out the play. One of favorite examples was when one person was talking about Beyonce and they were saying not everyone can look like Beyonce and goes back to say Beyonce is still beautiful but not everyone looks like her. This person, in my opinion is a forward thinking person because they can see that there is nothing wrong with praising that body, but if we praised oner bodies as well this journey to body positivity would not be so long. 

[miss-andrist-gws]

I was lucky enough to attend the play Body/Courage written and performed by Danielle Pinnock. It was a one woman show and it was brilliantly performed. The story follows Danielle through her life long struggle of body acceptance. It also shows Danielle interviewing other people to find out what they think of their bodies and the problems they go through. While I was watching the play, I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster ride. It goes through moments that make you feel different types of emotions. One minute I’m laughing at Danielle’s grandmother, and the next minute I’m upset over a man being told his body is worthless. I actually liked that the play made me feel something, though. While I also liked that it was a one woman show, I think I would have liked it more if there were different actors for each character.

I learned and appreciated a lot from the play, but my top three things were hearing other people’s stories, body acceptance, and how the play was presented.

Other People’s Stories

I liked hearing how different people viewed their bodies. Everyone had a different way of saying it, but no matter what everyone went through a period where they didn’t feel good enough. It just goes to show that no matter how different we are, we’re all still the same.

Body Acceptance

This play helped me see that no one is alone on the road to accepting yourself. Also, that it can be a long process and not something that happens overnight.

Presentation

The way the play was presented was amazing. It was shown in a way that made the audience really connect to the performance. I really felt the message that was being portrayed, and the fact that multiple people were interviewed made it even better because it showed that everyone is facing the same problems.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

Cyenna attended the Body/Courage performance. She really appreciated the diverse body imagery that Danielle presented. She felt a new understanding for other people’s stories. In addition she was able to understand that body acceptance was not unique to one person or one culture. And, she was very pleased with how the play was presented. 

I am glad that Cyenna points out that she felt that body acceptance was not an individual struggle. I felt that this was something Danielle perfumed beautifully. I believe that the struggle to love one’s boy transcends so many borders, both physical and not. This lesson was something that I feel we can all walk away with and move towards applying to how was interact with messages of beauty in our worlds. We can think abut how we consume and project them on to others and ourselves. This process of acceptance can be made easier for ourselves and others when we actively consume messages of beauty and filter hat is harmful, and even create new messages.

[katgenderstudies-blog]

I was part of the Thursday group that went to see Body/Courage. Danielle Pinnock stars in a one woman play that enacts snippets of interview that Pinnock conducted around the world center on people’s body image. The interviewed range all across race, age, gender, and sexuality. She shares the stories of mothers, sex workers, a transwoman, elderly, amongst others.

In addition to applauding the courage that others had to share their body image stories, Pinnock allows the audience into her own body image story. She talks about her cultural background and traditions complicated her body image and relationship with food, as well the way religion added complexity. 

I adored the part in the play where Pinnock talks has closure with her mother. Her mothers tells her that she apologizes for the way that she treated her and how her own body issues played into how she raised her. I felt that this moment really shows that shamming bodies isn’t always calling somebody fat, which her mother did do, but is also micro aggressions that she also did like telling her that she would be so much prettier for her party if she worked out and ate according to her diet. 

I also really liked the point where one man was talking about it not being as easy to love your body as it is to say that you do. This wrong so true for as a chicana. The ideas of loving my own body in a society that blasts images of white thin women as the beauty norm are very hard grasp. It’s constantly something that is hard when i look n the mirror to unlearn those images and the urges to look like that. 

Lastly, I loved the way in which she fearlessly talked about her relationship to food after her father’s death. This part really stood out to me because I feel like when people fat shame they do not think about how food is different for others. It is easy to say,”Eat healthier” when food is associated with comfort or pain. Eating disorders do not always manifest in weight loss, but also weight gain. Ultimately the negativity grew into alcoholism and an attempt to suicide, and this was probably one of the harder parts to watch during the play.