Almost Forgot!

Soooo I'm sitting here all packed up and ready to go home and what do you know, I forgot to write my gender blogs. BUTTTT I was watching TV when I realized I forgot. Lol some random company's investment commercial comes on, and its talking about investing. And the investor on the commercial was a man. The commercial started off talking about getting married, then moving into a house and starting a family. Now ok, they had to pick a male or female for this part. But the best part of this commercial was the fact that the house they were in kept changing as he got older. Eventually they had a kid, and it was talking about how sometimes you need room to do your business while other people do theirs. The woman was upstairs with the baby in the typical motherly role, as the man was downstairs on his computer doing his investing. I mean I don't know if this is really a play on gender. But what I do think, is that there is a strong will out in the US right now to return to the 1950's attitude. I know my sister has gone ahead with that, and when you hear republicans talk all the time on TV, I get similar views from them. I do hope women keep advancing toward equality in all aspects of life, but if this is the majority attitude, I can't help but think that we might be headed backward....

Women and Religion

The most interesting presentation so far. Lol to me anyways. I love talking about all the different religions and belief systems of the world. Something about it interests me. But anyways. Women in religion. Well in my mind there is no doubt that religion is a huge factor in the oppression of women. All you have to do is look at the power structure of most of the religions in the world and you see that women are at the bottom. The only thing I don't know what do with is how to think about the people in other countries around the world of various religions that we, as americans, think are being oppressed. Are they really being oppressed? I mean Larissa said it in class, "I don't feel oppressed because we never had anything." Well they don't feel oppressed, so that means they aren't? Kind of the same question we keep getting back to in class. Do we have the right to go out and tell women that they aren't oppressed in other countries? Would these women even agree with us?

Another thing that's interesting to me is the fact that when religions seem to start up, they are mostly run by women. In our paper, I took a special interest in the women and religion portion of the paper. And in Christianity, when it was first made, women were the main people that were worshipping and running the religion. This is due to the fact that Rome was still worshipping several Gods, and actually the rich people of Rome were worshipping some other religion. Anyways, that just left poor people and women to worship Jesus. There was no difference in gender in the early days of the church. Then the emperor made it the official religion of Rome, thousands of people converted, men were in charge of the country and family without question, and so it transferred to christianity. Just some interesting thoughts overall...

Transgender Presentation

Well I would have to say that the first time I had heard about Andy (sorry on the spelling) and Toria's relationship, I was a little confused, and I admit was certainly not very accepting of the whole idea. However, after the presentation that the group the other day made, and after hearing Andy talk, I completely have changed my mind. I really see that this isn't really that unique of a case and that transgenderism actually exists in places outside the US. I mean that really is what gives validity to it to me personally. I really thought at first that Andy was almost like one specific example of transgerndered person and there wasn't really anyone else that was like her. However, I feel I've really been educated on the subject and, in my opinion, with education and knowledge about something comes acceptance. I really do understand now.

One thing I don't understand though is the whole thought on bathrooms and actually airport security. Like OK I understand that using a mens bathroom makes Andy uncomfortable and everything, but I feel as though her using the women's bathroom actually makes more people uncomfortable. You know? I feel like when it really comes down to most things in life you have to consider the feelings and thoughts of the majority of people. That aside, what I really don't understand is the issue with the airport security. Like when the lines get divided up and you have to go into the male/female side. My question is, why would you jepordize an experience like going to India over a possible security line problem? Especially if you guys are going over to help other people. I would think that helping other people is more important than your personal feelings over being in a male or female line. Kind of like going to church when I'm at home. I don't want to go and sit there all dressed up, but I can garuntee that to avoid problems with my dad, I'll be sitting in church on sunday.