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Born on today

Ellen Swallow Richards

Born on December 3rd,1842 in Dunstable, MA

Died 30. March 1911 in Boston, MA

Richards attended Vassar College, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1870. Subsequently she applied for admission to MIT and in January 1871 became the first female student to attend MIT, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1873 in chemistry. She also earned, in 1873, the degree of Master of Arts from Vassar College. In 1910, Smith College conferred the honorary degree Doctor of Science on Ellen Swallow Richards.

Perry Worthey

#bornonthisday #happybirthday

I did my media project on the show “Rugrats”. Though the show covers a diverse array of topics that definitely went over my head as a child, I focused on the episode “Clan of the Duck” in which babies Phil and Chuckie wear dresses for a day.

Amina Lawal Kurami

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Amina Lawal Kurami--a woman from Bakori, Katsina State--was sentenced to death by stoning. In order to prevent her from the stoning, tens of thousands of international petitions were launched through both online and news media outlets. Rather than accept the support from international groups, the BAOBAB for Women’s Rights “asked international activists to desist from sending letters of protest about the Lawal case on three occasions in May, August, and September.” This is due to the fact that international campaigns did not know what was the best way to approach a local situation. In fact, a lot of the petitions for Amina Kurami ended up being anti-Islam and anti-Africa. These petitions could have been used against the case and even used to discredit the local organizations. I find it interesting that it’s difficult for international organizations to be supportive of local organizations without discrediting their campaigns and even the organization. I feel that if international organizations truly cared about local groups, then they would dedicate their life to be informed and supportive of said local groups. Instead, international groups air on the side of arrogance, believing that they have the resources and techniques applicable to this particular situation. Personally, I feel this is similar to white feminism, as white feminist have the most resources and feel they have the ability to speak on other issues without experience or knowledge.

xx - Jenelle Booker

Globalization (Ashkahn Post #4)

As a political science major and as person from a non-European caucasian background, I have spent a lot of time learning about and seeing the effects of globalization. On a very basic level, when discussing globalization on face value, it is discussed as a positive, because we are taught and see from the side that is not being as cruelly effected by globalization. Additionally, for myself, having grown up and gone to school with mostly rich white kids, I never noticed, first hand, the impact that globalization has in the American context: the “Third World Within.” Thankfully, in my Political Science classes, when we discuss globalization, a large portion (usually those that belong to the major or have taken multiple courses in the department) tend to realize and state the negatives of globalization. I assume also then that prior to this reading, or even prior to this class, that a fair amount of people in the class likely assumed that globalization was great. But that is what is great about college! It teaches you that not everything you thought you knew was right.

Maid in America

Hodagneu-Sotelo’s article reminds us of the ways in which work structures our lives. It is both the jobs we take and the jobs available to us that reflect the ways in which society structures people along racial, ethnic, gender, and class lines. It is these intersecting lines that converge in our understanding of immigrant Latina women in LA.

A quick Google search informed me of the film “Maid in America”. This film, by Anayansi Prado, tackles the same issues we read about for today’s class. One quote given on the film’s summary page that stood out to me was:

"Am I going after the American Dream? No, I'm not. Because here we have to live in the reality of who we are.”

For women like Judith, work in the US provides anything but a fair wage for hard work.

A link to the film can be found here! (You can watch it through CoW’s subscription)

-Andrew White

Maid in L.A. Post

Cassidy Ktsanes The article reminds of my Immigration Policy and Politics class where we discussed how it easy for a lot of immigrants to be exploited in their workplace or jobs due to the fact that as an immigrant they do not have the right to vote. The wages can be more under the table and negotiated rather than be a living wage. It is not surprising that the wealthy families who hired the maids do not always pay particularly well because those at the top often exploit and mistreat those at the bottom.

Maid in L.A. also reminded me of an Atlantic article I had read called Maids in America: The Decline of Domestic Help. It discusses how maids are now reserved for the wealthy and that middle-class families are now pressed for time. The article goes on to describe the fights for domestic workers’ rights. The article describes how maids and servants have long been exploited in the domestic industry.

Low-wage workers have been fighting sexual harassment for years. The national conversation is finally catching up with them.

The readings reminded me of this article. Maids and other pink collar workers get harassed frequently but they do not have a platform to expose the men. This reminded me of all the low wage service industry workers have to endure to keep their jobs and not get police involved(in case they are undocumented).

#u.s. news #new york #sexual harassment #united states travel #hotels

Push for Passage of Equal Rights Amendment

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/18/me-too-movement-renews-equal-rights-amendment-push/875903001/

BH

StyleLikeU

My media project looks at the StyleLikeU movement, a project of visual and written media.

A short overview/ project trailer:

How overcoming bulimia taught Jessie Kahnweiler to be a woman:

If you’re different, it’s sunlight in somebody’s world: Jillian Mercado

The pain and empowerment of choosing your own gender: Alok Vaid Menon

Sorry not sorry, women have body hair: Petra Collins

There are so many videos with so many cool people check them out!

https://www.youtube.com/user/stylelikeu/videos

http://stylelikeu.com/

-Andrea Arts

Media Project: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (Ashkahn Alikhani)

For my media project, I decided to pick the Marvel Cinematic Universe(MCU). For those that do not know the MCU is basically the series of movies that Marvel has been releasing, that all take place within the same universe. This means that the different characters can make cameos and appearances in each other’s movies.

You’re welcome. -Lillie

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoirs Persepolis I and II explore her coming of age in Iran during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 in which Mohammed Reza Shah was overthrown and the Iranian Government became an Islamic Republic under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini. Opinionated and unapologetic, Satrapi honestly shares her experiences in a visually powerful way. Persepolis is also an animated film (which is just as brilliant as the graphic novel), and this week’s readings about Iranian women, fashion, and the political and social implications of the chador and hijab reminded me of this scene. I highly recommend reading Satrapi’s work and checking out the film.

-Hannah

(anecdote: I first read Persepolis on my friend Roohi’s couch while doing a series of interviews about her family’s experience as Jewish-Iranians who chose to flee the country during the 1979 revolution. As a Jewish woman, she still feels that the hijab acted as a form of oppression for her (and is symbolic of the many reasons she chose to flee her country) but a woman deserves the right to choose whether to wear a veil or not.)

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