Science, Sex, Gender 9-23-10

Today's class was so far one of my favorite classes. I think that, although gender is a cultural thing, a lot of the culture and gender issues today can be solved through science and history of evolution. For example, we talked about the perfect woman before. The skinny girl with the big boobs and hips. Well, the hips have been shown to be an extremely important factor in what males find attractive. And we don't even realize it! Amazing that we are picking woman out to be attractive, obviously from some current social trends, but even more so based on an idea that was planted in the human mind probably around 200,000 years ago! I believe that a lot of the gender conflict we have today could be studied through science and brain activity and it is an interesting area to me personally.


Side Note: I think that personally biased things should be left at the door when we come into class. Especially when we have a guest speaker whom most of the class found very interesting and helpful and will only be able to talk to us once. To have the majority of the class time devoted to questions that, most of the class would argue were not of any relevance and seemed to be answered fully the first time they were asked, and then to be completely shot down on every question with proven facts, means you should probably stop asking the questions. No one will ever be able to sample all 6.5 billion people in the world in a study. I'm sorry no more ranting for the day!

9-21-10 What starts social change?

Today in class this was one of my group's questions. When we answered it in class, I think we did a poor job of actually answering this first key question. What starts a social change. I think the answer is ultimately necessity. For example, after the first world war, the woman's rights movement started. Well what really started that? The fact was that during the First World War women, for the first time in US history, were needed for jobs that were previously the mens' jobs. However, they were mostly over in Europe fighting in the war. So as a necessity, when life returned to normal, women realized how much of a disadvantage they were now at in the workplace. Granted, the real movement was just beginning, but like I said before it was out of necessity of equal pay, equal conditions, etc. to a man in the workplace that I believe it began.

Another big thing we talked about, and that I find very important, is that change is a progressive thing. Basically, we agree that women are equal, however when we wake up tomorrow, men are still going to be a little "more equal" than woman. It's not going to be an overnight change. The same was evident in the freeing of slaves after and during the civil war. For example, we view President Lincoln as being pro-African American and anti-slavery and a super progressive person for his time. In his time he was. However, when you look at some of his quotes such as, "though I don't believe in slavery, I can never see a black man being equal to a white man," you realize that by today's standard, he's nowhere close to what most people view him in terms of progressiveness. So I believe that time is the only thing that really can facilitate true change.

Identity and Conflict

What is Identity? When you really think about it, all that identity is, is a comparison of yourself to someone else. Even when you say (sorry I'm in Modern Knowledge and the Self right now) things that are immaterial like that your strong willed, corageous, a free thinker, etc. your simply making comparisons of yourself to other people. So obviously, no matter what happens, identity will always be a huge cause of conflict. When speaking with Gender, however, I believe that identity and conflict can be changed. As we've seen over the course of history, the way a woman should be has changed dramatically. Are they still completely equal to men or anything like that? Statistics would overwhelmingly show that they are not. However, a lot of women have really made a lot of progress with being treated equally throughout the last 100 years. And in doing so, I believe that it has caused a sort of identity conflict. What makes a woman a woman? (speaking gender not sex of course) And why is it that there is a distinction between a "girlie-girl" and let's say a "manly girl?" (ie a girl that can play sports, is smart, and is an "I don't need a man to make all the money" kind of girl)

What constitutes Conflict

Very interesting discussion in class today. I really wanted to be able to give some input, but because I have never taken a conflicts class I pretty much just sat back today and listened to what everyone else had to say so I can get a better understanding before I formulated my own opinions.

I'm still a little bit lost on the whole conflict thing. I am seeming to get out of this that conflict is more put on people by the outside. Like ok, sure you have conflicts like wars and all that, but aside from ones that are obvious, who's to say what is and isn't a conflict. I think for there to be a conflict, both parties (or multiple depending of course) have to realize that there is a conflict. In other words, just cause an outside party may think they see a conflict, is there really a conflict? A perfect example is the "liberation" of women in the Middle East. Obviously from our perspective, women over there are oppressed. But do they view themselves as oppressed? Do they think that having to wear the headress and long garments and concealing themselves all the time is oppression or do they view it as how it should be? Do they look at Western Culture and think to themselves, "wow these women over there are really in conflict with the men and that's not what we want.." Kind of thing? I don't know their position on this even but I just wanted to raise the point that I think that in order for there to be conflict, everyone involved in the conflict has to be aware of it.

9/9/10 Doing Gender 3

Very interesting discussion today in class. One thing I wish we would've had more time to go over and I guess something we will go over on Tuesday is the roles of a man and woman in the family. For example, we talked about how it's socially "not ok" for either a man or a woman to adopt by themselves. But why? I still am not quite clear.

The biggest thing I would like to go over in Tuesday's class is how woman in particular view themselves today and why it is that most women strive to be that perfect woman. More in the area of why do woman feel they all need to be that way? (ie. Skinny, Big boobs, skinny legs, Etc.) Because it is what society expects of them right? Now here is where I get a little bit confused. When we say that society wants them to be that way, how did society determine that's what an attractive female is? It wasn't much more than 100 years ago (if that even) that the woman was considered attractive and "the perfect woman" if she was overweight and a little bit chunky. It was viewed as a status symbol to have a little bit of fat to you. It just meant that you could afford to eat more. And I am pretty sure that in some "primitive" cultures, that particular trend is still in effect today. Not only that, but for most of "civilized" history, the most attractive woman was the woman a little over weight. What caused society to shift their views? If someone reads this and I forget to bring it up on Tuesday, don't be afraid to help me out!

Week 2, Doing Gender

The article I'm going to talk about here is the one titled, "Your a Hardcore Feminist, I Swear." This is for several reasons. First of all I have a few questions about it I would like to get out in class. Secondly, I thought it brought up a ton of good points. And thirdly, (probably most importantly) it was the first article I could completely read, understand ever word, and stay focused!! With that being said, let's dive in.

The main point the author is trying to make here is that a Feminist woman should not be afraid to consider herself a feminist. She shouldn't fear the misconceptions surrounding the word, nor fear the way people will treat you if you consider yourself a feminist. There are a few questions this reading really raised in my mind. First of all, when it talked about the lady who wrote an editorial, or commented on an article or whatever she did, it basically said that woman was wrong. However, I would almost tend to disagree with the author in this area. I can think that this lady would be very adimant about woman's rights and the well-being of women in general. However, I get the feeling that the author was being negative in her comments towards the woman and was doubting whether she really believed in what the author believes. I think that all the lady was really trying to say was that it is her choice, as a woman, to dress how society chooses to want her to dress the same way it is the choice of some woman to not shave and to dress however they feel.

Another interesting point that maybe I would like to bring up in class is when she was talking about equal pay, and all these equalities woman must still fight for in order to achieve equality. First of all, she is still sort of missing the point of some of what our discussion got to in class. She is still basing herself off of what a man has. She wants to be equal to men. Why is it that everything we talk about is being compared to men. Isn't there anything the woman would just want to be like a woman for? Also, and just a side note of course, after all these things woman want/have gotten equality in, do they want equality when it comes to the Armed Forces? As in, if there was a draft, would woman still want to be equal to men in every aspect? Just a question.

Doing Gender 1

What I'm going attempt to do is talk more about the class discussion than the actual texts. Though some text ideas will come up, it was just much harder for me, not coming from any background in this area at all, to understand a lot of the things the text was trying to say so far.

The biggest thing I noticed from yesterday's class was the difference between the guys' and the girls' posters. Not so much in qualities that society obviously wants in each to be different, but in how the groups themselves actually made the posters. For example, in every single women's group, the poster they made had what society wanted of them, and what they individually believed a woman should be. However, in the men's groups, there was just one definition of what a man should be. Not what society viewed they should be like, but what we thought they should be. This really got me to thinking, has the media/society/whatever it's to be called, influenced men that much that we no longer know what we want to be? Or is this just the image that all men hope to fulfill? I would have to argue that it is not the image that all men hope to, or even want to fit.

But then again, perhaps the reason there is a distinction is because from a woman's point of view, the society/media seems to be pulling them in different directions. They patronize the "blondie" actress that seems to be the perfect looking girl and have the ditzy attitude and is dependent on the man. At the same time, however, there seems to be a pull in the direction of women like Hilary Clinton, Elin Nordegren, (Tiger Woods' wife) and even Sandra Bullock now that her and her husband and not together. So there seems to be the double image going on here with woman. On the one hand the perfect woman is the blond girl that doesn't know her right from left but looks good. And on the other hand, you have the "new" perfect woman seeming to be this independent, I can make it on my own whether I'm the hottest woman alive kind of woman.