Final Reflections

I really never thought that I would actually be interested in what there is to learn about Women's Studies. I took the class because I just needed credit to graduate...any class was sufficient. I realized that I don't really look a lot at everything that is around me and that I take a lot for granted.

I found a lot of the topics that we talked about really interesting and I liked how the class was more geared towards conversations rather than full out lecture because it gave me the chance to see how other people my age feel about the issues we talked about. I feel that I have learned a lot about myself from this class and I now think about some of the values I hold and why they are so important to me.

I didn't think that women's issues really pertained to men, but when you think about it, everything that concerns women has to do with gender. When we talked about equality between men and women early on in the semester, I thought that it was something that was fought for back in the early 1900s and not relevant to today.

I also realized that a feminist is not someone that I thought she would be. I had the stereotypical notion that they were lesbians, hated men, and only cared about rights for women and completely ignored equality. Through this class I realized that I could be considered a feminist because I do care about the same issues that we learned and talked about in class, I never thought of them on a day to day basis.

Title IX

Title IX covers a lot of bases when it comes to sex discrimination. It includes areas such as education, sports, service organizations, educational institutions of religious organizations, etc. Many schools that have lots of sports programs have to follow by this title when it comes to the number of women's sports that are offered based on the female population in the school.

I found an article on the New York Times website about the University of Delaware and how they have cut back men's programs because they feel that in the future they will not be able to meet the requirements of Title IX. The school plans on adding another female sport in the fall, but they are concerned that they will not be compliant with the Title in the future. Is this really cause for concern? Or is it just limiting the choices for men and being unfair about it?

There is currently debate over whether or not the University is discriminating against its male athletes because of all of the cuts they are making to the men's teams. It seems like it's easier for some schools than others to follow the requirements of Title IX.

To read more of this article...click here.

Lara Logan's Story

I have heard of many stories from during the war where women and men have been sexually assaulted and raped by people who were fighting during the time, but this story really shocked me. A CBS reporter was in Egypt covering a celebration that was taking place because a president in Egypt had just resigned.

She was told that she needed to get out of there, but soon enough she was surrounded by so many men that she could not even think about escaping. She describes what happened to her and that she had so many different hands touching her and hitting her with objects that she honestly thought she was going to die.

This attack went on for about 25 minutes, which I can only imagine felt like more than a lifetime. I can't even begin to think about what this would be like, but I know that it would be nothing less than traumatic. I think it is very brave of her to talk about her experience because like it says in the article, she is breaking the silence for all of the women that this has happened to.

Click here if you would like to read more from the article.

Boys Who Like the Color Pink

I work in a daycare and I used to help teach in the classroom with the 2 and 3 year old children. In one section of the room, there is a little makeup table and a bunch of princess dresses and dress up shoes where the kids can pretend to be princesses. There was a little boy in my room who always wanted to put on the fluffiest princess dress and walk around in high heels. Not because he wanted to look like a girl, but because a majority of the other kids in the room are girls and that's what they were all doing.

I don't personally think that there is anything wrong with a boy wanting to wear a dress or even enjoying the color pink or purple. I found this video on YouTube about a boy who considers himself to be a princess and he really enjoys wearing dresses, sparkly clothes, and loves the colors pink and red. This would not have been a news story on NBC if everything in society wasn't so gendered.

I also remember an episode in season 3 from the show The Office where a woman had just had a baby and she brought her child into work one day. The baby was wearing pink from head to toe and Pam goes up to the mother and is gushing about how cute the little girl is. The mother interrupts Pam and says that her baby is actually a boy and that his favorite color is pink. Pam doesn't say much else before she walks away because she is embarrassed that she made such a mistake.

Going back to the boy at my daycare that likes to dress up in princess outfits...everytime his father came to pick him up and he was wearing a dress, he got really upset about it. He would always give his son "the talk" consisting of the fact that his son is on team blue and that team blue is so much better than team pink. So I guess that answers my question about where all of the insecurities boy have about liking the color pink come from. I personally think that pink is a nice color on a guy and that some guys should wear it more often.

The Royal Obnoxious Wedding

For the past few weeks it seems that all I have heard about it the Royal Wedding. I go on my facebook and there are multiple statuses with a countdown to when they can finally watch it on tv. I know many of my friends woke up at 3am on Friday morning just to watch it and then they were crabby the next day because they didn't get enough sleep. My whole view on this royal wedding is...thank god it is over!

I am not married, nor am I in a serious relationship...I'm not even sure if I ever want to get married because I have realized how big of a deal it is to have the most fabulous wedding ever. I think that the idea of marriage has become idealized...but most people think of the wedding as being the marriage and they think that if the wedding is spectacular, the marriage will be too.

I just think that the royal wedding has now given tons of hopeful single women the idea that a wedding needs to be grand and that you don't have to be royalty to marry into a royal family (because this is the point that many news stations have focused on).

It's also not just the royal wedding that has ruined the simplicity of a small, intimate wedding, but shows such as Four Weddings on TLC and Bridoplasty. Four Weddings is a show where four women are each having their weddings and they have to go to each others weddings and judge them based on a few different categories. Most of the women are judgemental of the food or the DJ or even the way that the bride's dress looked. And don't even get me started on Bridoplasty...who ever thought of a reality show to have brides compete to get plastic surgery of their choice for their wedding day?? Apparently the men they are about to marry are so dissatisfied with their fiancées body that there is no way they could marry them as they are.

I think that all of this means that there is something seriously wrong with the way that women in society are viewing weddings and marriage and it has become nothing but an unrealisitc dream.

"Don't Say Gay" Bill

I found a video on CNN.com describing a bill that was passed in California by the Senate that is prompting that a similar bill be passed in Tennessee. The Bill is being referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill and it states that: No public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.

I know that there has been a lot of debate about sex education in schools, but I thought that it was just about information such as whether or not birth control should be taught as opposed to abstinence. I didn't think that it would come down to not talking about homosexuality in schools!

Apparently this bill had already attempted to be passed in the House, but got denied so it is now being brought to the Senate. The reasoning behind why Senator Campfield thinks this should be passed? He says that parents should be the ones to decide when to talk to their children about this issue.

He also tries to say that this bill is neutral...it doesn't speak for or against homosexuality, but in a way doesn't it? If the bill is banning the topic from being even talked about in schools or the word homosexuality being mentioned...how is that not speaking against it?

Watch the video and decide for yourself!

What Gives Them the Right?

I turned 21 almost a year ago, so I have had my fair share of nights at a bar. I prefer to go to the bars close to campus because a majority of my friends hang out there. Last weekend however, my friends and I decided to venture out to the bars on Main Street to see if we could find a new crowd to hang out with.

(Image found on Google)

Our first stop is a bar that has a pretty good mixture of college students and also graduated college students who still hang out in Oshkosh. I was hoping that since the majority of the men there were older that they would be more respectful and mature I suppose...well I was wrong. One of my friends got hit on almost immediately by a man who was about 25 years old and he seemed like a nice guy until he started to ask her about what kind of things she liked to do in bed. I walked away and decided to head to the bar to grab a drink and I had not been standing there for more than two minutes when some drunk man walks up to me and decides that the best way to introduce himself to me is by grabbing my ass.

I really did not appreciate this, so I walked away and my friends and I decided to head to a different bar, hoping to not run into any more disgusting men like the ones we had encountered already. Once again I was wrong...we went to Mabel's which I consider to be a more low key bar where you can just sit, have a drink, and actually have a conversation because it's not too loud.

A man came up to the bar and sat down right next to me, introduced himself, and offered to buy me a drink. We had been talking for almost a half hour and he seemed normal and actually nice. Next thing you know, he pulls out his phone and shows me very graphic pictures that he had taken of a female friend of his at a strip club. I didn't know how to respond to this, so I told my friends that we were leaving.

After what seemed like the longest night ever, we went home and just vented to each other about how ridiculous the men we find in bars are. My question is, what gives them the right to act and talk like that to women and actually expect something from us? Why do men think that it is acceptable to grab women's body parts and have them find arousing? All I could think about after that night was...really?