Friends Shows It Best

I have been watching the show Friends since it was on and it is definitely one of my favorite shows. I have very many favorite episodes, and as I was watching it the other day, I rediscovered an episode that I not only thought was funny, but is relevant to what we have been discussing in my Women's Studies Class.

We had talked about the "man box" and how hard it is for a man to have characteristics or qualities that don't fit inside this box without being called names that make references to women or weakness. I found this clip on YouTube of an episode of Friends during season 6 which takes place after Joey's roommate moves in and changes the apartment completely. She adds pictures of watering cans, some potpourri, and also Joey teaches Monica how to properly arrange flowers. Chandler walks in while this is going on and he starts to accuse Joey of acting like a woman. I still think that this clip is funny, but now it has a different meaning to me because as we talked about it class, it seems that the worse thing you can call a man....is a woman.

Enjoy!

"Joey Turns Into a Woman"

The Birth Control Fiasco

We have been discussing the term privilege in class the past week and I believe that access to birth control is a woman's privilege. I found an article which discusses Walker's plan to eliminate this privilege from women. He is proposing a bill that makes it alright for a pharmacist to deny a woman birth control if they feel necessary. I believe that a pharmacist is paid for their job...handing out prescriptions, rather than passing judgement on the need for birth control. This is a basic right that so many women's activists worked for in the past and I believe that it is not up to one man to decide whether or not women should be using birth control.

Walker's Proposed Bill

Another article that I discovered discusses how Walker is also Pro-Life and wants to eliminate a woman's right to have an abortion even in the case of incest or rape. I'm not decided on what my views are as far as abortion, but I believe that these should be exceptions to the law. Why does a male governor have the right to determine what is best for women in the community? This article also discusses how Walker is opposed to sex education in schools, whereas his opponent Barrett fully support all of these things. I think that this is a very controversial issue and everyone is more than welcome to have their personal opinion about these things, but one man should not be able to make these decisions for women across the state.

The Abortion Debate

Should Boys Wrestle Girls?

I was on my way to work the other morning and I heard a story on the radio about a high school boy who forfeited a wrestling match in which he could have made it to the state level. The reason behind this decision? He was set up to wrestle a girl. I found a few articles about it online because I was curious as to why someone would give up a state title just for that reason. The article stated that he refused to wrestle her out of religious beliefs because he said that he gets violent when he wrestles sometimes, and he didn't believe it would be okay to wrestle a girl. Is this really the reason? Because if she is a wrestler on the high school team, I'm sure that she can handle her own because there are not too many female wrestlers out there and I'm assuming that she had to practice with boys. Or what would happen if she won? Would he still be the man that everyone thought he was...because he did have a pretty good record from previous matches? I'm not sure if I believe that this was all done for religious reasons, but maybe instead what society has taught him about manliness.

Boy Forfeits to Girl

Valentine's Day Observations

Since this is my first blog posting about gender, I thought what better way to start it off than talking about Valentine's Day? Ever since starting class, I have noticed so many things that involve gender that I never thought about before. Yesterday for Valentine's Day, my sorority sold pink carnations on campus as a fundraiser for our philanthropy. Instead of doing what I was supposed to (which was trying to sell them to people) I decided to observe the people that bought them. My sisters really only approached guys walking through campus, using phrases such as "wouldn't your valentine love a flower?" or "don't you have someone special you want to give this to?" It was funny to me that they only approached guys walking through, but if you think about it, men are the ones who are expected to give women gifts on this day and it would be considered odd if a woman bought a man some flowers. It would also be considered not normal if a man bought flowers or a valentine's day card for his best guy friend, whereas this would be completely acceptable if a woman did it.

I found this article online that discusses a different norm...in Japan. Women in Japan are supposed to buy chocolates and gifts for men, whether it's their boss or significant other. I found this interesting, and refreshing because I think it would definitely take a lot of pressure off of the men to spend so much money. And this trend has been happening since 1950...so maybe there's hope for America that things could change.

Japan Doing Things Differently