#scholarly source 1

[nelasa2-blog]

Analysis of a scholarly source

 In the book Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil, the goal is to clarify Muslim women’s purpose for not only wearing the hijab, which is a sign of modesty but also, includes the discussion of feminist approaches and tackles the ideology of certain mainstream and pop culture views about what the veil means. The purpose of the veil or hijab is not to subjugate Muslim women. This Chapter also discusses the way feminists are not representing Muslim women properly and are not completely educated about Muslim women’s faith which results in them automatically assuming that they are oppressed by covering up and in need of saving, quoting, “They remain convinced that a satisfying life in the veil is still an oppressed life. Like the mainstream view their assumptions are also ultimately grounded in liberalism.” (Bullock, 2003).

This chapter there is a clear battle between how feminism is supposed to stand up for all women and how they actually represent and stand up for different groups of women. This is suspected because of some feminist’s liberal views, “The concepts most at play are liberal concepts most at play are liberal concepts of individualism, equality, liberty, and oppression. For this reason, I shall call this school of feminists “liberal feminists.” (Bullock, 2003). I really liked this book because it takes the angel of religion and combines it with feminist approaches which makes it easier for anyone to understand.

 Some of the questions that I want to raise for someone who cares about justice on the basis of gender would be why do people misinterpret different cultures easily? What can we as a society for make other cultures and religions comfortable with what they choose? I believe that education is the base of change in this issue.  

[eatingdisorderandbodyimage]

3rd Post - Analysis of Scholarly Source

       This scholarly source addresses how North America has put such a high emphasis on physical appearance. It compares how body image issues affect men and women. Both sexes are often found comparing their body to media set appearance ideals. Men and women both perceive their bodies differently. Men aim for a more muscular body where as women aim for a lean figure. The idea of body image is subjective, which means it depends on the viewpoint of an individual of how they perceive their body. People develop a negative body image when they compare themselves with the standards placed by the media. Body esteems is also another way to describe how one feels about their body (Brennan, 130). According to the sociocultural theory, mass media is a huge determinant on peoples self body image dissatisfaction. When we compare out bodies to people who are more attractive than us we often develop dissatisfaction towards our bodies.

        The study had made six hypotheses, which it tested out through out the research. The first three hypotheses were similar and predicted that women would experience body dissatisfaction more than men. This dissatisfaction with their bodies led to other issues like eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem and etc. Even though it is more common for women to feel self conscious about their bodies, men also feel this way. Women are more focused on how much fat they have gained and aim to have a slim figure where as the men feel self-conscious when they do not have a lot of muscle on their body. In order to conduct this study, they used the population of undergraduate university students from Canada. The sample population consisted of 197 students who were fluent in English and were enrolled in Psychology 100 courses. In order to get a general idea about the participants, they had to complete an online survey which asked them questions regarding their age, sex, native language, their height and their weight. The research was done using a variety of different questionnaires and scales. For example: Body Exposure During Sexual Activities Questionnaire (BESAQ), Body Image Quality of Life Inventory (BIQLI), The short form of the Situational Inventory of Body-Image Dysphoria (SIBID-S), Objectified Body Consciousness scale (OBS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-Revised version (SATAQ-R), and lastly Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA).

        Since body dissatisfaction can have an effect on people during sexual interactions, the BESAQ measures how participants act and feel during this. The BIQLI measures to what extent people’s view of their own bodies’ affects their life. SIBID-S is used to determine the emotions that one goes through due to their negative body image. These two scales provide participants with situations in which they have to rate their answer from 0, which is (never) to 4, which is  (always and almost always). The OBS scale is one that uses three subscales such as: body surveillance, body shame, and appearance to measure the extent to which one objectifies their body. The Rosenberg scale measures self esteem. SATAQ-R is a scale that measures to what extent an individual conforms to society’s appearance ideals.  Finally BESAA scale uses three subscales as well: appearance, weight and attribution to measure body esteem which is, self-evaluation of one’s body.

        The results indicate, body image dissatisfaction is more common in women than in men. The study also finds media to have a muscular physique targets men more. I feel that this study did a very good job of analyzing all the different aspects that contribute to one’s body image dissatisfaction. In the future other studies should focus more closely on the particular gender differences and similarities about body image listed in this study.

[themachismoeffect-blog]

Post #3

The scholarly article Latino Fathers: The relationship Among Machismo, Acculturation, Ethnic Identity, and Paternal involvement by Jon Glass and Jesse Owens explains their study in which the focus was on how Latino fathers perceive their involvement with their children. The article makes the point that research has shown that parental involvement can have a direct effect on a child’s well-being; this includes academic performance, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. It is also an important ethnic focus because it Latinos are the fastest growing minority in the United States. The term Latino is used for people from North, Central, and South America; although it includes many cultures, they share similar values of “familiismo, respeto, and educacion” (AUTHOR, 252).  The authors also states that it is important to understand how gender norms can have an effect on parental involvement. Latino culture uses the term machismo for masculine norms, but for the most part, the word has a negative connotation to it; it includes negative aspects like sexism, aggressive behaviors, hypermasculinity, and interpersonal dogmatism. Just as the term has negative connotations, it has positive ones as well; the positive connotations are better known as caballerismo. This term “is defined by egalitarian beliefs, affiliation, positive family relationships, and empathy.

The study had four parts to their hypothesis. The first part included that Latino acculturation of Latino fathers would be positively associated with their parental involvement. It also included that ethnic identity and caballerismo attitudes would be positively associated with the father’s involvement. Lastly, machismo attitudes would have a negative association with the father’s involvement. In the study, 70 Latino fathers took a twenty item survey that were rated on a four point scale.

The results expressed no relationship between ethnic identity or caballerismo and parental involvement but it did show a negative association between machismo scores and parental involvement. Ultimately, the study concluded that machismo attitudes may be related to emotional, interpersonal, ands physical distance from children. Caballerismo is a relatively new dimension of machismo for researchers. This new relatively new term makes the study a little more difficult, but overall, the machismo term does not fully describe Latino men.

I thought this article was very interesting and it made me think outside of the negatives society has taught us to look at. As I think back to my own experience with my Hispanic culture, I forget that caballerismo is a dimension of machismo. Because of this,  think that I agree with everything stated in the article. Not all Latino fathers are the same, and although there are negatives to machismo, the complexities of it make it all the more difficult to really describe Latino men and the effects they have on their children. I think that a person who cares about justice on the basis of gender might bring up the question of this specifically can affect Latina young girls; would machismo affect them the same way it does to the boys?

Glass, Jon, and Jesse Owen. "Latino Fathers: The Relationship Among Machismo, Acculturation, Ethnic Identity, And Paternal Involvement." Psychology Of Men & Masculinity 11.4 (2010): 251-261 11p. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.

[feministtheoryeducation-blog]

In Appropriating Bourdie: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdie’s Sociology of Culture, the author Toril Moi uses Pierre Bourdie’s Sociology of Culture and applies it to feminist theory by explaining how feminism impacts culture. For example, Moi states “I believe that as feminists we struggle to transform the cultural traditions of which we are the contradictory products” (1018). This is the reason that Bourdie’s work is used and because it mentions how educational systems is “one of the principal agents of symbolic violence in modern democracy” (1023). The educational system is one of the most important institutions that has an influence on society, but it has yet to update its curriculum to include new issues that arise as time progresses.

I agree with the analysis done regarding how feminism defies those set “cultural traditions” and the author comparing feminism theory to the Sociology of Culture explains the cultural context of feminism and how it is expanding. As Moi has stated “Bourdie’s Sociology of Culture, I would agree, is promising terrain for feminists precisely because it allows us to produce highly concrete and specific analyses of social determinants of the literary enonciation(statement)”(1018). This book goes into depth about the analysis of feminist theory, but one of the drawbacks is that it is a source that can be difficult to understand if the audience has a lower vocabulary level. This leads to another issue of the majority of sources used to convey the idealistic feminine theory of intersectionality, are for people with higher levels of education, which is why feminist theory is largely misunderstood by general society.

The book has a focus on educational systems, and others, that have influence in society’s beliefs, it also includes a section called “The Social Construction of Gender.” Bourdie has two categories in which to divide “males” and “females,” but again it does not include LGBTQ people. In part this has to do with the year in which it was published, but it presents another problem among the antiquated notions of feminist theory that is being taught.

To read full book, log into UIC account for free access

http://www.jstor.org/stable/469077

Moi, Toril. “Appropriating Bourdieu: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu's Sociology of Culture”. New Literary History 22.4 (1991): 1017–1049. Web...

[lgbtcommunityinmexico-blog]

3rd Post

http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.19.0a/ovidweb.cgi?WebLinkFrameset=1&S=IFPFFPHJJGDDJOGLNCIKDGFBOCBBAA00&returnUrl=ovidweb.cgi%3fMain%2bSearch%2bPage%3d1%26S%3dIFPFFPHJJGDDJOGLNCIKDGFBOCBBAA00&directlink=http%3a%2f%2fovidsp.tx.ovid.com%2fovftpdfs%2fFPDDNCFBDGGLJG00%2ffs047%2fovft%2flive%2fgv024%2f00000433%2f00000433-200803000-00010.pdf&filename=Mortality+by+Homicide+in+Homosexuals%3a+Characterization+of+the+Cases+Registered+in+Mexico+Between+1995+and+2000.&link_from=S.sh.22%7c1&pdf_key=FPDDNCFBDGGLJG00&pdf_index=/fs047/ovft/live/gv024/00000433/00000433-200803000-00010&D=ovft

                        Mortality by Homicide in Homosexuals

 Characterization of the Cases Registered in Mexico Between 1995 and 2000 Jose´ Arturo Granados, MSM,* and Guadalupe Delgado, MPH†

This article used the cases registered between the years of 1995 and 2000 in Mexico to show the characteristics and the magnitude of homicides on the homosexual community. The study recorded “Sex, age of the victims, kind and number of weapons used, wounds endured, and the situation in which the corpses found were registered.” The results were that “ The greater mortality by homicide due to homosexual orientation was recorded in men (95%)” with the majority of them raging between 21 and 40 years old. “The wounds inflicted more frequently were cutting wounds.” The results of this study show that the majority of homophobic crimes in Mexico happen to homosexual males and this coincides with our culture because Mexicans love their masculinity and machismo over femininity. Also as the article mentions, heterosexuality in males is something that every generation of Mexicans impose in their sons generation by generation and if the son is homosexual is going to be easily noticed because he won’t want to get married and have a family. This makes the homosexual males vulnerable to homicide because that makes them identifiable. 

I completely agree with the discussion of this findings and believe that ignorance plays a major role in this homophobic crimes and that it is in our power to stop it. I do not disagree with anything in this article. 

A very important question that i would love an answer to is, What towns of Mexico they got the homicides from? Because there is a very diverse opinion based on if you are from a city than from a small town. Who committed the murders and if that person was caught? 

[rahelgeb]

3rd Post

Ethiopian Society values the procedure. Women who have undergone FGM are valuable and accepted within the society. On the other hand, women who have not undergone the procedure are rejected and become an outcast as a result. “Thus a women’s social acceptability in these countries may depend on FGM” (Masho). In addition to religion, society has another reason for reinforcing the procedure. “The women believe the main reason why FGM was done in all the ethnic groups was to reduce and control female sexuality. Female virginity is judged as a prerequisite for marriage, and it is generally thought that virginity and sexual chastity are impossible to maintain without FGM” (Gebre-Medhin). The value of virginity within a marriage is very important within Ethiopian society. Society makes sure that the women stay virgins, even if that requires damaging their sexual desire.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19716126

[streetharassmentgws-blog]

Analysis of Scholarly Source

Feminist Cynthia Grant Bowman discusses in her article Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women the problems with street harassment towards women in urban areas and how the law goes about this subject. She defines what street harassment consists of and elaborates on how the term “street harassment” recently came about universally since the actions of street harassment had no name. She also explains the effects that street harassment has on women and what the law can do to make women feel safer in the streets.

She defines street harassment as both verbal and nonverbal behaviors, gestures, and comments, and has 5 characteristics to it: the targets are females, the harassers are males and acquainted with their targets and the encounter is face to face in a public place. Cynthia also elaborates that street harassment is mainly experienced in large urban areas. Street harassment also affects women’s psychological well-being and conduct. Women who experience street harassment are usually moderate annoyed or fear walking the streets by themselves, which makes them dependent of males to escort them around as a form of protection. Also, women fear that one of those comments could turn into rape. It also takes a toll on women’s self-esteem feeling as an object and such comments can make women feel ashamed of their bodies and associate their bodies with fear and humiliation. The streets are not safe for women to walk in, and therefore the law should be protecting women from street harassment.

Cynthia elaborates on the ways that women could file for a case who have experience street harassment. Although she mentions manly legal categories, none “fit” the harassment that women experience. Assault encompanses physical harmful contact, harassment statutes are ineffective because it requires a continuous course of conduct, and fighting words statutes are premised on male experience to act violently. The one that is merely close to fit street harassment behavior is cases that cause emotional distress. Cynthia recommends that there should be laws to address street harassment and its effects that women experience. She proposes there is a passage of a state statute or municipal ordinance prohibiting street harassment, and a campaign to redefine the torts of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy to encompass street harassment. She concludes saying that not many people talk about street harassment because women are now used to this idea and believe this actions towards her are normal. The law should protect women from street harassment.

I really enjoyed reading this article although it was very long. I agree it is important that people know about street harassment and its effects that cause women to have. I agree that the law should do something about street harassment since its affecting many women who live in urban areas. I did not agree that she only focused or believed that street harassment is done specifically by men and the ones being harassed are only women. There are other groups who are harassed like transgender people or gay men and many more. As well, women can also be harassing men in some rare occasions. A question that many can ask themselves after reading this article could be how can we enforce laws if men are the ones who are mainly in charge of passing laws? I think that it is possible and crucial that men notice the effect that street harassment has upon women and think of a woman who is close to these men being harassed. I am sure that if they think of the consequences, these men who are supposed to be as just as they can be should care about what women go through. Also, there are women who are lawyers and work in law offices who can enforce these laws and suggestions that Cynthia has suggested for the best of women’s safety.

-YO

[sex-edandbodyimage-blog]

3rd Post: Sex Ed and Culture for Latina women

The first scholarly article I chose is called “Sex education and cultural values: experiences and attitudes of Latina immigrant women” by Maria Elena Villar and Maritza Concha. The article discusses the background of sex ed for Latina immigrant women and also includes a study. The most significant connection the authors try to make is that culture affects the way sex education is taught or not taught to Latina women both in their home countries and in the U.S. According to the authors, health problems such as high teenage birth rates, high HIV infection rates, non use of contraceptives and intimate partner violence are prevalent amongst Latina immigrant women living in the U.S() For most Latina women sex was seen as a taboo subject not meant to be talked about until marriage or pregnancy. It is due to this constriction of sexual health education that children of Latina immigrant women are taught in the same way. Here the authors prove the point of how strong culture influences behavior and attitudes across generations.

In the study done by Villar and Concha, 30 women were interviewed and/or participated in a focus group. Throughout the interviews and focus groups, there seemed to be an overwhelming focus on sex as a taboo topic. Due to the fact that women were culturally and religiously influenced to believe sex was not an appropriate subject to be discussed, the women kept this belief with them when they came to live in the U.S. Some women were satisfied with the way sex ed is taught in here U.S while other women showed dissatisfaction with the topics taught in sex ed. It is important to note that gender roles played a factor in the decision of parents to speak about sex with their children. Men teach the boys and women teach the girls, although most men believed girls should not be taught about sex. Men also tend to make decisions for the women when it comes to obtaining birth control, using condoms, getting screened for sexually transmitted diseases. 

The subject of this article was personally meaningful to me because of the fact that my family is mostly Latina immigrant women. The stories of the women interviewed in this study sound very familiar to me and my experience of Latina immigrant women. It is because of this that I completely understand what the women said about how they were educated about sex. The most important part of this writing is that culture directly affects the way sex ed is taught and it is an idea that I wholeheartedly agree with. A part of this idea says that religion is part of culture which in turn affects ideas about sex and sex behaviors. I disagree with the authors mentioning religion as a factor in these women’s sexuality purely because of the fact that they did not state that the women they interviewed were religious. I think it is not safe to assume that religion impacted the women’s sexuality or awareness of sex education without indicating that they were in fact religious. Possible questions regarding justice on the basis of gender could be What other sexist attitudes and beliefs in Latino countries are impacting sexual health education? Why are some Latino countries more progressive than other countries when it comes to teaching sex ed? What can be done about negative ideas about gender norms both Latin men and women hold? The only question I think I can contribute to is that last one by saying that equal opportunities for male and female students to learn about sex can be a solution. Comprehensive sex education, appropriate for age, should be integrated into schools and placed in a curriculum early on when children are developing a basic understanding of gender.

Source: Villar, Maria Elena, and Maritza Concha. "Sex Education and Cultural Values: Experiences and Attitudes of Latina Immigrant Women." Sex Education 12.5 (2012): 545-54. Web. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=82611349&site=ehost-live