Museum Post

During this semester, my boyfriend and I attended the city museum.  Actually, it was a really fun time. The city museum is a museum that is created largely with repurposed architectural and industrial objects. Upon arriving, we paid for our tickets for the inside as well as the roof. The experience is almost indescribable. It was like a giant adult playground/ maze. It was a jungle gym on steroids. The inside was filled with a fake “jungle” scene where you were able to go under the ground and climb up into the trees and even the tree trunks. Upstairs, there was a circus room with kids doing trapezes.  There were ginormous slides; it felt like I was a giant child in a giant playground. After Chad and I became bored, we decided to go to the roof to see the new obstacles. There was a school bus that was placed so it looked like it was falling off the roof, you could walk in the bus and look down. There was a pond with stepping-stones that you could hop on from one to the other. There was a gigantic slide that you could walk up by pulling yourself up with a rope, and then slide down. There was also this giant metal, ladder, tunnel contraption you could climb to the very top in. At the very top was a spectacular view overlooking Saint Louis. At first thought, I decided that there was no way this could possible relate to my women’s studies class, but then it dawned on me that the museum was absolutely not accessible for people in wheel chairs. People with this disability in particular, sure they could get from floor to floor with the elevator but they couldn’t enjoy any of the attractions other than looking. The secret passageways that led to the underground or the maze weren’t wide enough to allow a wheel chair through. The roof wasn’t any better. There wasn’t a wheel chair ramp to get into the bus, and there wasn’t a way for someone in a wheel chair to get the very top to look at the beautiful view. We’ve talked in class about how society makes people with disabilities feel disabled because society doesn’t adjust, and the city museum seems to be a perfect example. They should make the museum more accessible to the best of their ability.  I think they could do this by widening the walkway in the maze, and also adding a ramp to the school bus. They could also make a ramp that lets a person get to the top of the roof. It isn’t fair that people who might be handicapped wont be able to experience the City Museum the way they might want to!

Event Post

During Atlas week I attended a couple events that were totally relevant to a couple things we've discussed in class. My favorite event was the hijab awareness discussion. With this event, girls who do not usually wear the hijab were asked to try it out for a whole day, then come share their experience with a group of both male and female students who do and do not where the hijab daily. When the event first started, there was about 5 people who are either male and come from a family where a women wear the hijab, or female slu students who shared their young and current experience wearing the hijab. I LOVED this event and recommend everyone to either come to it and try wearing the hijab for a day or just come and listen. The speakers were obviously just fellow young slu students, sharing their experience (usually with some comic relief) to other slu students. My favorite speakers were a girl from Nigeria, and a junior boy whose mom wears the hijab. She talked about how where she is from most girls wear the hijab so it had never been questioned by others or herself. At first she felt uncomfortable coming to St.Louis and being asked about the hijab, but now she says she appreciates it because the questions asked are usually coming from genuine curiosity and finding out the answers to those questions help her herself learn more about her religion. The boy talked about growing up in a small Illinois town and dealing with 'casual racism' through 'well-intentioned' jokes that secretly rubbed him the wrong way, then coming to Slu and gaining the confidence to stand up for himself when someone is 'just joking around'. After the speakers were finished, girls who wore the hijabs for just a day spoke about their experience. I honestly was busy with other Atlas events and totally forgot that it was that day until I saw it on my passport haha so I did not wear the hijab that day, but I imagine my feelings and experience would be similar to some of the girls who spoke. They talked alot about being subconscious because they are white wearing a hijab, and were self conscious people might think that because of this they are in a cult and not simply muslim (which led to a well needed conversation on race and religion and the sub conscious thoughts attached to clothing etc.) They also discussed how they actually felt sexier wearing the hijab which I thought was interesting and an unintended affect? It was all really cool to discuss and hear and I'm glad I got to be apart of it!

Museum Visit: Jazz and Baseball Museum in Kansas City

April 5th, 2014 I attended a Student Support Services (SSS) trip to Kansas City. While there we went to the Museum of Jazz and Baseball. The whole museum was specifically about African Americans within the two fields of entertainment. Out of every thing that was included in the museum about baseball, there was only one section pertaining to women. The attached photos was just that.

The article was about the first African American Female Baseball Team. It talked about how they were not allowed to play in the league, however they were better than the majority of their male counterparts. The picture itself is very offensive in the way that they portray the woman. The depict her as having a huge butt, big lips, and is insanely dark in her face. 

In the jazz portion of the museum, they had a lot information pertaining to women. Overall I really enjoyed my time at the museum, but it was a shocking moment when I saw the depiction of the woman in the baseball photo. The way people portrayed black women in the past was a lot worse than how they are portrayed today in illustrations, however there are a lot of similarities. I would have been more involved with the museum if they did include a lot more information and pictures about African American women.

Should teen dad be allowed to have custody of his child?

I found this article very interesting because a 16 year old father wants to raise his child, with the help of his parents. The girlfriend also 16 has given the child up for adoption.  This lead me to think about the rights of fathers. She has already given birth so why not allow the father and his parents to raise the child.  I wonder what giving the child away to strangers mean for this young lady. She already went through the ordeal so that is an experience that is always etched in her mind, never being forgotten.  Do she think the father and his family will make her be a mom and she’s just is not ready? Then, what happens when the child gets older and can seek her out weather with the father or strangers? How is she to deal with that?  I believe that if it were me I would allow the father to raise the child. I think it would be more comforting to know where the child was and whom is raising her/him. I really want to know your thoughts. What do you think you would do? There is a poll in the link for your vote.

http://fox2now.com/2014/04/28/teen-dad-says-adoption-agency-stands-in-the-way-of-raising-his-baby/

Banning Bossy

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/empowering-women?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_149971&cm_mmc=zergnet-_-WomensHealth-_-trafficpartner-_-EmpoweringWomen

I recently found out about this campaign to raise awareness of how girls and women are often made to feel as though ambition translates to bossiness for them. I think it is an awesome idea to have successful business women like Diane Von Fürstenberg and Condoleezza Rice making this issue known, though the idea of 'eliminating' the word bossy all together maybe doesn't sit right with me? I havnt come up with a clear reason as to why, though it may be because there is such a thing as being ignorantly bossy and ordering people around when it is inappropriate. The reason I feel some women are labeled bossy is because subconsciously some people don't feel like it is appropriate for them to be leaders, whereas it is for a man so it just becomes leading. They may be peeved by a women giving them orders because they do not feel as though they are qualified, and they trust a mans opinions more. Therefore it becomes inappropriate in their minds and they label it as bossy. Maybe 'banning' the word bossy would slowly destroy this subconscious notion, but I feel like there could be other ways as well? what are you alls' thoughts.

I got 99 problems and palsy is just one

http://www.ted.com/talks/maysoon_zayid_i_got_99_problems_palsy_is_just_one#t-153255

This is a TED talk that I found on facebook a couple weeks ago and I think that it related to class so well. It is by Maysoon Zayid, she is a comedian with cerebral palsy. She talks about problems with class, such as, she was born in a very poor town where the doctor didn't know how to properly preform births so he cut her mothers vagina open to get her out causing her to have this disease. She also talks about issues with disability because many people didn't take her seriously due to her disability. She discusses being a female comedian and how difficult that was for her. She also touches on racism. She is a muslim woman and grew up in a rural white town. You can imagine the kind of teasing and oppression she experienced because of that. I was very inspired by her attitude towards everything in her life. She was very upbeat and happy the whole time and has taken her disadvantages and turned them into a reason to be a comedian and make people laugh. I think this is a very eye opening and inspirational talk. Please watch it.

Sports

I have recently been thinking about sports a lot with the end of college basketball and now hockey and it has made me realize how little woman sports are appreciated. I have grown up watching UK (university of Kentucky) basketball and have always been a fan and I have never once watched a woman’s basketball game all the way through. I find it ridiculous that men get all the attention when woman work just as hard if not harder. I think it was something to do with the way I was raised. As said I grew up watching men’s basketball and men’s football with my dad and never once was there a woman’s game playing or even mentioned. I think it has to do with societies skewed view of what is “normal”. Women aren’t supposed to get rough and sweaty, sports are for men. Women are supposed to sit on the sidelines and look cute while cheering. Woman can play just as well as men and receive little attention and even pay. NBA male players make millions and have so many endorsements but you never see female NBA athletes in the media or spotlight at all. I really noticed this when I was in Nashville a little less than a month ago and the weekend I was there was the women’s college basketball final four. For men’s basketball the city the final four is in is completely packed with people and almost impossible to find a hotel. Most people in Nashville while I was there did not even know the final four was going on there. I find this astonishing and wonder why woman can get the attention they deserve when it comes to sports.

Facebook Post..

I was scrolling down my news feed earlier when I came across this interesting post that a "friend" posted. It shocked me at what she was saying because normally you would hear a different position towards the situation. This is what she said:

"I think it's so gay and emasculating to see a man cleaning. If my boyfriends house was dirty I would clean it. I just don't like to see a man washing dishes, sweeping and mopping. That's so annoying."

Personally, I did not know that mopping, sweeping, and washing dishes was a gender specific duty. I just think the post was offensive on many counts. Especially since she used the terms "gay" and "emasculating" in the same sentence. That means to me that gay men are not masculine?

How do you feel?

NBA Owner Donald Sterling Racist Comments

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/26/us/nba-team-owner-alleged-racist-remarks/
This whole situation is just very unfortunate. I am not a huge fan of basketball so I was not up to date on what happened until I went to work today. While on my break it was playing on ESPN and everyone had something to say about it. To be honest, it is not all that surprising. I do not know much about Sterling but ive been hearing so much news about racism in today's society that its not that big of a shock to me. I think he should have the team taken away from him, simply because if he has a problem with african-americans, he should not own a team that has a lot of black people on it. I know the players all feel some type of way about the situation, and they should not have to deal with him.

Feminism in Faith

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sigalsamuel/feminism-in-faith

In class this week somebody did a presentation about their paper that is going to be about women in the Catholic church. I think that this article is interesting, because it shows that women of all faiths are fighting for equality. I am not religious, and part of the reason for this is that I feel that women are very underrepresented in many faiths in general. I think that it sucks that so many women are forced to chose between their religion or equality. I also like that this article points out that it Islam is not the only religion that is repressive towards women. I think that oftentimes people forget that most religions subjugate women in some way or at the very least under represent their perspective. The article written about Zainah Anwar was very interesting, because it does a good job of saying what myths and stereotypes exist about Muslim women and why it is important that they lead the charge in their own movement. The part of the article that really stuck with me was about how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were justified in part by the Wests need to liberate muslim women, but as the author points out this oftentimes has made it more difficult to implement ideas of feminism since these wars caused a hatred of all things western.

Tackling Masculinity in RuPaul's Drag Race

A recent episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, a competition TV show between 16 men competing to be the next drag superstar, reminded me a lot of the issues we discussed with men and masculinity during Tuesday's class. As the documentary we watched showed, men are supposed to be associated with being "competitive, strong, powerful, etc." and should refrain from being a "bitch, pussy, faggot, etc."

In the newest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, RuPaul married six heterosexual couples during the week's challenge. The catch? The women were dressed up as grooms and the men were dressed up as the brides. Although many of the men were caught off guard since they thought their soon-to-be wives were getting the make-over, a lot of them appeared to be very into the challenge. One of the men explained how he was the one who wanted to come on the show in the first place, and another man discussed how he believed in equality and he didn't understand why dressing in drag or same-sex marriage was so taboo in America (he was raised in Holland).

One man, however, stood out to me due to his obvious discomfort in having a make-over. This man explained how he played professional basketball and how he was terrified of "locker room talk" and being harassed by his teammates for being on the show and dressing up like a woman. Josslyn Foxx, the queen who made him over, explained to him that him being this show could also be an eye opener for his teammates and an educational experience for them to realize that dressing in drag and being gay isn't a big deal. From that point on, the man began to take to heart what they were saying, even running off stage to throw up at one point because he did not understand how the drag queens could wear such heavy make-up, clothes, and high heels while also being critiqued very harshly by the judges. In a sense, the show's highly competitive level almost emphasizes that "competitive" nature that is supposed to be inherent in men.

"Dear Ursula," Disney Strikes Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLSnNSqs_CQ
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-gray/disney-villains-little-mermaid-ursula-slimmed-down-designer-collection_b_1638895.html
In a recently released collection of Disney Villain designer dolls, Ursula's representation has caused quite a stir.  Not only have her trademark tentacles been replaced by a ruffled skirt, but she has lost 2/3 or more of her original body mass.  This has brought into question the types of values Disney espouses, as this gives young girls the message that they must be thin to be pretty and widely accepted.  When the villains were not the main characters, they tended to have physical flaws, but the moment they become the focus, suddenly all their "flaws" are magically swept away.
Many fans, such as the speaker of the poem above, have very strong feelings about this matter.  Not only has Disney enforced a negative ideal on its young patrons, but has warped a well-beloved character beyond recognition.  Ursula was powerful, strong and graceful not despite her weight, but because of it.  Her character had real substance and was interesting.  She was not supposed to be perfect and beautiful, that would not cause any unease properly due to the mighty Sea Witch.  By reducing her to her looks, she has nearly joined ranks with the often-criticized princesses.  Ursula was always one of my favorite characters, villain or not, so other opinions on this matter would interest me.

Extra Post: Cheerleaders are lucky to just be admired

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/04/nfl_cheerleading_lawsuits_five_former_buffalo_jills_are_the_latest_in_a.html


above is an article I found describing the situation professional cheerleaders have faced and are still facing today. I was shocked to learn professional cheerleaders do not even make minimum wage, are not paid for their required expenses, and are even fined by their bosses when they gain weight. They are also not compensated for required appearances (such as 'sitting on the laps of important men while they ride on golf carts) and are 'auctioned off' at some events for team fundraising without receiving much if any cut from the deal. Though their practices are extremely time consuming and their job requirements demand much physical preparation. After learning that this is definitely illegal, some cheerleaders banded together to file a lawsuit, and demand living wages for their work, as cheerleaders are not involved in the labor organization of the NFL.
They claimed that they had not before done this because their coaches explained to them that the team was 'like a family' (they are encouraged to call each other sisters etc.), and that they were 'lucky to just be admired by the players and audience'. This is illegal, and obvious manipulation. They are benefiting off the sexuality and dance skills of these women, and not paying them with the excuse 'your lucky to just be admired by the men' and 'there are a million other girls willing to take your place'. What are your alls' thoughts?

Art Museum Visit

I recently paid my visit to the Saint Louis Art Museum. I wandered around every time period and genre of art, but the art from the late 1800s interested me most in regards to what we have discussed in class. For instance, in the picture I took of me at the museum I am standing next to a painting in which the male artist predicts the atrocities of WW1. If you look around the painting you will see men and animals running around a city in chaos. There were many more paintings near this one depicting the horrors of WW1 and WW2, all of which had men as the main subjects and were painted by male artists. I wandered to the next room where the paintings were from the same time period, but had a light-hearted more aesthetic purpose. All of these paintings had naked women laying on beds with care free expressions. What I took from this was that women are not supposed to be seen as suffering, or used to tell a story that one can empathize with, but instead are supposed to be what calms the chaos. They seemed to be objects only used to soothe the suffering of men. This of course implies that women will not be looking at these paintings, only men, and therefore women do not need to be in the photographs that are ment to be empathized with because how could a man empathize with a women's pain? The women will instead be used to soothe the all male audience. This is seen today through the sexualization in commercials I feel. For instance, when Hardies has women eating their burgers seductively it just sends the message to me that they only believe men are their customers, or the customers they want. Yes, men are sometimes sexualized in commercials, but i think only 'female specific' things. Its just some food for thought, and shows how this theme can still be seen today.

Pregnancy

http://thoughtcatalog.com/jamie-berube/2014/02/you-shouldnt-need-a-reason-for-not-having-kids/#rtZhDz9DIwYd32Hh.01

I did this as my show and tell, but thought of posting it on the blog because I think this is a problem that every women has to face after certain number of years of marriage. I feel like the society expects something out of a women throughout their life. I strongly disagree that there is a certain age for a girl to get married and then they should start thinking of having a baby 2 or 3 years after marriage. I don't understand that why the society cares about when a couple starts their family. This article does a beautiful job of describing a situation of what a women is asked after 6 years of marriage and her reaction. It also shows the cause and effect of how a women can be affected by these questions. Another fact that it mentioned was that no one should be concerned about asking these questions unless its your husband, immediate family, or best friend for 14 years. I hope that people learn from this article that you don't know what the women is going through and it is none of their business to comment on her personal life.

Academic Mentoring Bias

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/22/305814367/evidence-of-racial-gender-biases-found-in-faculty-mentoring

As university students, I think that we all like to believe that every professor is equally invested in all student success without any bias.  However, this study shows that this is not the case, at least in the top universities in the country.  This reminded me a good deal about the study with the resumes that Ina was talking about in class.  Despite the fact that the resumes were the same, white males' were always moved to the top of the stack and African American males' were discarded.  In a similar way, the white males were reached out to by the professors in this study and those from minority backgrounds were ignored.  I think that this really shows that even if we are fighting against organizational inequality, we also have to look at informal inequality.  If marginalized groups are not receiving mentoring, then they will have much less chance of success.

Slur Blog Post

http://www.policymic.com/articles/88101/inspiring-duke-photo-project-calls-out-the-casual-slurs-we-use-every-day
http://www.upworthy.com/some-words-are-up-to-no-good-even-if-they-seem-harmless-think-its-time-to-get-rid-of-these?g=2&c=tvr1

         I saw this photo series today and thought that it tied in really well with our conversation about the use of derogatory terms today in class. The project is very similar to the project that the DLC put on her at SLU, and I think that it does a good job of outlining why the use of any of these slurs is inherently wrong. My favorite is on the second link and it says that she doesn't use the phrase "man-up", because the strongest people I know have cried in front of me regardless of their age, gender or sex.
       This is something that we haven't covered yet in class, but I think that the movie probably addresses it at some point. Society says that men aren't supposed to cry, but at the same time if they do in a rare moment of vulnerability they are often applauded for it. The issue of crying being a feminine thing to do and something that is a sign of weakness typically only hurts women. Hillary Clinton in the past has received a lot of back lash for crying in public addresses before, but when Obama has cried in speeches it has gained him public support.

Additional Post: Ban Bossy Movement

A part of Sheryl Sandberg's goals with her Lean-In book was to start a conversation about these issues and to also raise awareness that women's inequality in the workplace is still a big issue. Along with the book, there has followed a movement and her website helps promote women in leadership roles. In conjunction with this she has also started a Ban Bossy Movement aimed at young girls. It's an effort to help girls view leading as something more positive. She created this movement with the Girl Scouts and wants to promote it to young girls. There are a series of posters with facts about just how young women are taught that their voice is less important. I was surprised by some of the facts on the posters, especially one that talks about how statistically young girls are paid less for household chores. I think that this demonstrates why it is so for women especially to negotiate for a higher salary, when from a young age we're told our work is worth less.

Lean In

In another class I wrote a paper about Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In. Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer for Facebook, and wrote a book about issues relating to women in the work place. The books title comes form Sandberg’s desire for more women to “lean-into” their careers. Her book is controversial, because she thinks that many women do not go full-force in their career fields and “lean-back” oftentimes because of their plans for families in the future. At first I agreed with critiques that maybe she was being too harsh, but after thinking about it this is definitely something that I’ve witnessed myself too. The valedictorian of my high school received a full-ride scholarship to a 4-year university and her parents said that if she went there they’d pay for medical school. A year into college she changed her major, because she thought being a doctor would be too hard since she also wanted a family. This is just one example, but I think that oftentimes today this still does happen, because women if they do decide to pursue both career and family, are going to end up working two shifts not just one. Sandberg makes the argument that until we have equality in the workplace and in the home that women will never feel truly comfortable choosing to pursue both careers and family.