#anj33

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Plenary:  Intersexion

I have to admit that I didn’t know much about intersex people before the film. I was astounded by the stories of intersex individuals. Some had more positive stories, but many faced traumatic experiences in their childhood and adulthood. I didn’t realize that there are so many intersex people in the world. It goes to say that the lack of openly admitting intersex people ties back to gender norms in society. We are socialized to think of the two sexes, male and female. Anyone who is one sex, but acts another or has ambiguous genitalia is a freak. Parents might have a hard time accepting that their child is a mixture of both sexes, but the decision to raise the child a certain gender isn’t right. Society makes it difficult for people to accept intersex people as people. Many of the stories involved genital mutilation at an early age and being raised the opposite gender that they felt closest to. It is a journey that isn’t widely acknowledged and has  a lack of resources. Doctors should have better training on how to deal with intersex births and parents should be educated on the matter as well. I think that by engaging in educated discussion, parents and doctors can make a consensual decision on how to handle the situation, if at all. 

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Women’s Education & Feminism

Women need an education for the same reason men do. We all want to better our minds and have better chances of getting a job. Unfortunately, women didn’t always have the privilege of education and higher education. Education empowers women to learn about history, but maybe not enough about women’s history. A lot of the history and knowledge women used to learn about was written from a male perspective. Women and Gender’s Studies proved to be a good introduction into the study of the history of women. Even so, there are women and girls who don’t have any education past elementary school or high school. The privilege that I have, in being able to attend college, is something that isn’t a reality for many in certain countries. Women need to be educated in the subjects like mathematics, language arts, history, and the sciences, but they need to learn about themselves too. Women need to be better educated on reproductive issues and other health issues. The basic human right of choosing to not give birth through a legal abortion isn’t even an option in some places (even in America). Even if someone doesn’t like the title of feminist, it doesn’t erase the major issues that women deal with that men don’t. Women have faced many roadblocks along the way, but education is the key to ensuring that the future generations of both men and women are sensitive to fixing the issues women face. 

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Vagina Monolouges

I attended the Vagina Monologues last week and found it to be very empowering. I have to admit, I’ve never heard the word “vagina” used so many times in a two hour span, but it was great to hear the stories of other women. Some stories were heartbreaking, others were uplifting. My favorite part was when they would say that they asked people what kinda of clothes their vagina would wear. I was honestly surprised by the stories of how many women had never looked at their vagina or never had an orgasm. I didn’t know that the production has been around for so long, but it was still relevant and informative. 

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Hookup Culture & Rape Culture

Some people may think that hookup culture leads to rape culture. This is a buy in to the argument that women are responsible for the actions of men. It is not unheard of to hear that after reporting rape, a women was asked by police officers what she was wearing or if she had been drinking. Neither of the two have anything to do with the fact that a terrible crime was committed against her. Rape culture is permeated in movies, in the way woman are hypersexualized. Girls clothing is more similar to junior’s and women’s clothing these days. Video games are notorious for the unrealistic way women are portrayed. Women are seen as a kind of afterthought; they exist for the pleasure of men. Listen to popular songs from any genre and you’ll find a host of questionable lyrics. The designer clothing advertisements that we saw in class were clearly not sending appropriate messages. The media has a powerful impact on how women are portrayed.  Every woman has a right to her own body, to adorn it with as little or as many clothes as she likes. There is no excuse for the existence of rape culture, but it still exists. We can’t tackle it unless we get to the root of the problem in the way we are socialized. Our parents have an impact on us, friends/peers, and religion or the lack of, but the media has the most lasting impact. 

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Miss Representation

The pressure for girls to look a certain way is prevalent in all forms of media. The differences between before and after photos of photoshop are astounding and sometimes grotesque. The standards that girls and women are told to aspire to are pretend. One company that stopped photoshopping their models is Aerie, a trendy lingerie store that is a competitor to Victoria’s Secret. Aerie rolled out their campaign a couple years ago and have found great success in the #aeriereal campaign. This business move was revolutionary in the industry. We all know of or have seen the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion show that showcases their fit, skinny models. The reality is that the show is not an accurate representation of what most women look like. While I am all for living a healthy lifestyle, I do not agree with the unfair representation of women in the media. Aerie’s campaign is a step in the right direction of promoting body positivity and I hope to see more good things come from this!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/aerie-unretouched-ads-photos_n_4618139.html

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Plenary

Today’s plenary with Bobbie Ridgely was not interesting to me at first because I am not going into the STEM field. Yet, I allowed myself to be receptive to what she was talking about and realized that her advice was relevant to all majors. One of the most important things that I took away from her speech was to think more of myself as what I can do and what I am capable of. I also learned that what I am majoring in right now doesn’t determine the rest of my life. Through networking and seeking out new opportunities, I can take my own unexpected journey. The key is to work hard and do what you’re passionate about. The plenary was very encouraging in light of the chaos of final papers and other assignments. 

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Women, Sex, Gender and Religion

Although I am not religious anymore, I understand some of the issues that were presented in plenary. Regardless of the religion represented, all three women expressed the difficulties they have faced by being women. They are all intelligent, competent, and devoted to their respective religions. The fact that they all faced challenges from others is unfortunately not surprising. The Abrahamic religions have a major role to play in modern day sexism within religion. The idea of a close knit community in some cases discourages survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence from revealing the perpetrators. Although, I think that the issue of abortion was politely skirted around during the plenary, due to the controversial nature of abortion and religion.