#sec23srw

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Music Videos

the documentary we watched on music videos really opened my eyes to another issue women face. it seems  music producers/directors/musicians believe the only way their videos will go viral is if there are multiple women twerking and provocatively dressed/dancing. women are objectified in these videos, and i now see these videos in a new, clear light. we talked about whether these women are empowered or if it’s faux empowerment; i believe it’s the latter.

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Miss Representation

the media is so beyond corrupted. the news that is constantly being shoved down our throats is controlled by people with a political agenda. speaking of politics, women are extremely underrepresented compared to men. when politicians are making so many decisions on women’s issues (ex. abortion), shouldn’t the people affected by these issues be represented?  WE NEED MORE DIVERSITY.

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Feminism

my definition of feminism: a world where every person is respected regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion. a world where there is more to a person than how they look. a world where being female does not mean you are automatically at a disadvantage. 

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Video Games

The feminist redesign project made me reconsider a lot of things, specifically video games. They’re constantly centered around a male protagonist, while the female is helpless and in distress. If by some chance there is a female character, she is half naked reinforcing the sexist notion that women are only good for one thing: their bodies.  Why is everything created for the male gaze? Women are intellectual human beings not pieces of meat. 

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DRC Event

As my Douglass event, I attended the showing of Inside Out. The movie was able to subtly shed light on a feminist issue. There’s a stigma that exists that women have to please and appeal to men in the way that they act and look and are pressured to be constantly happy (otherwise we get asked if we’re on our period and if we’re PMSing). Inside Out refutes this stigma with the main character who plays hockey and isn’t always so happy and cheerful but the movie argues that that’s okay. 

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Global Village Plenary: Feminization of Poverty

This event was truly eye-opening. An international proclaimed social researcher expressed her experiences and the challenges she encountered while she conducted a study in the Caribbean, West Africa and Southeast Asia. In multiple areas, she had to tackle social norms of the role of the woman as submissive, homemaker or a potential wife. Many women would like to seek opportunities to be independent. However, they are afraid of the reproof of their male counterparts and the pitfalls of microfinance. In most of the countries she studied, poverty was seen to have a ‘female’ face, indiscriminative of age. Matriarchal lead homes are seen as especially worse off, though further studies have shown that other factors play into the vulnerability of these families.

Also, a lot of miscommunication continues to propagate the feminization of poverty, such as the constant re-use of decades old statistics and biased methods of data collection and analysis. We need to correct the way we portray our mothers, sisters and daughters. It is time to empower these women without giving them another label to bare.

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Plenary #3

This plenary hit close to home. After the viewing of Miss Representation, I have grown evermore aware of the constant ways the media under-represents and misrepresents women in the media. In the mainstream, the attempts have become more and more evident with each new ad, music video or sitcom. It is great to have companies immersing on larger platforms to allow the other 50% of the US population to have decent representation. It was also wonderful to know that not only were women’s issues and stories being presented on screen, but that this organization continues to empower women and elevate worthy individuals to positions of authority. As stated, “Without women in seats of power, without my women’s perspective, certain stories would not be told… the current status quo would be changed.” I am thankful that others have started to fight for the image they wish to see. I am more than willingness to join them in the avocation of better media representation of women and girls.

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A Day Without Feminism

Nowadays, there are immersing groups of individuals that question the necessity of the women’s movement. The word ‘feminist’ is deemed archaic, much like other means to advance minorities such as women’s colleges. However, while reading the stories of women of the past, I am grateful for the advancements made possible by the women’s movement. I would have found it impossible to cope in a situation in which my options for social mobility were linked to my prospects for marriage or my willingness to provide sexual favors. Also, I would be unable to pursue my dreams of becoming a physician, because that is a ‘man’s’ place. I would mostly like have been encouraged to become a nurse or homemaker instead.  I would feel trapped and hopelessness because of a part of my identity that I could not change. Thankfully now, I can attend my science classes and explore my interests in research and medicine. However, the STEM field are still pre-dominantly white male. Therefore, although changes are evident, we still have a long way to go towards fighting to equality between the sexes.

Also there seems to be growing amount of misinformation about feminism floating around. Before defining feminism as archaic concept that generates strife between the sexes, promoting the idea of men vs. women, understand that if you believe that women and men such have equal opportunities to obtain a job or quality education, chances are :you are a feminist.