Final Paper

Women have been represented many different ways in the texts that we have read throughout this course.  They have been characterized as good and as evil, but most importantly they have been depicted as strong and empowered.  Many of the women we learned about in this course represent those who deviated from what is commonly thought of as the more traditional woman.  The women that we studied and the reading that we did widened my understanding of the role that women played in forming the culture we live in today.

The women that we read about in the texts were very different from what is commonly perceived as the typical woman.  The typical adult woman is considered to be a mother and a wife.  The typical woman is usually depicted as submissive; with perfect hair, clothes, and makeup.  She is the usually the homemaker, and she is commonly excluded from matters that deal with finances or decision-making. She is never depicted as an equal, but rather she is shown as needing a man to complete her, needing a man to dominate her.  However, the women that we studied in this course are very different from the typical woman, in fact they go against many of the fundamental qualities that make a female a traditional western woman.

The women that we studied about are empowered.  The texts show that women are strong and independent, that they are smart and educated, and that this culture relies heavily upon females.  Moreover, the reading show a woman does not have to conform to traditional values and live a conventional life to have a fulfilling life. 

The lady in the  poem, La Malinche, is a perfect example of a strong woman.  She was considered by many to be a traitor, but what she really was is a survivor.  She pushed through the toughest of times and managed to make a better life for herself and her son without relying on anyone.  She was able to create a life without the help of anyone, a true act of strength. The women in the article, Maid in LA, also depict strong empowered individuals.  They are living everyday and working so that they make a better life for themselves and their families.  Many of them have children and they have been forced to be transnational mothers to them, but they continue working so that their children can have a better life.  If those women don’t illustrate what it means to be strong than I really don’t know what else would. 

Another way that many of the women we studied in this class differ from the traditional woman is that they were independent.  Catalina de Erasuo is a wonderful example of a woman who lived an independent lifestyle.  She dressed as a man and acted as a man would.  She was not reliant upon anyone but herself.  She was not the only woman of her time period to act this way, in fact many women during the medieval times started to live independent lifestyles.  Also, in more contemporary times woman are choosing not to be subjected to “forced heterosexuality” and “forced motherhood”.  There has been a huge push towards women not needing a man to complete them.  In fact, women do not feel the need to be with a man if that is not what they want.  We read about women living independent lifestyles with other women.  This is very different than the typical male female relationship that is common of the typical woman. 

Finally, the women that we studied in this class are smart and educated.  Many went against what they were told and strived to learn.  One woman that stood out in particularly educated and smart is Sor Juana.  She is a woman who defied everyone and learned to read and write.  She was self-taught, and considered to have too much intellect.  She is perfect example of a woman that defied the traditional gender roles.  Another woman that we studies about that went against the typical was Virginia Wolff.  She was very well educated and did not adhere to what a typical woman should be.  She was independent even though she had a husband.  She was allowed to show her intellect through her writings, and she was not concerned with how others viewed her.  She went against all the values of a traditional western woman.  

The readings that we have done really opened my eyes to the role that women have played in creating western culture.  I always thought that women had sort of taken a back seat to men when it came to creating the culture that we live in but in reality women really shaped western culture.  If there had not been women who stood up to the typical gender roles then we would not be living in the society that we live in today.  Women dressing as men and demanding the right to be educated make our culture what it is currently.  Because of these women I am able to go to college and have a career outside the home.  I, as an educated woman, am taken seriously and have always been told that I can do what ever I set my mind to.  The women that we studied and read about in the texts pushed for equality and strived to make society view women as equals.  Through the steps that women in the past have taken I am able to live in a freer society, one in which I am not judged as subservient and I am not dominated males. 

The women that we studied about are truly the backbone of the culture that we live in.  Nowadays a woman can be whom ever she wants, she is not forced to be a traditional woman,  or a mother, or a wife.  Today women have options.  We owe a huge  thanks to the women of the past. 

 

Day 14- Reading Response

The topic of today’s class was women and globalization.  I found this a really interesting topic because I never thought of it as a women’s studies issue.  However, after doing the reading I realize that it most definitely is. 

I really liked the essay that we read for the class.  She brought up a great point about how as a culture we consider ourselves Americans but we do not consider immigrants to be 100% Americans.  I never really thought about it in that way, but I guess I am just as guilty as everyone else of doing this.  I have found myself asking immigrants how they are liking the US, even when the people I am asking have been here for a very long time.  I thought it was interesting that the author talked about how she has needs a group to feel apart of her society.  She brought up a great point about how she would never not be a runner if everyone else decided not to run, but how she feels lost with out other Asian-Americans.  It was a really interesting way of looking at things, I guess in a way I am very proud of my culture and I like to be around other people who are of Lebanese or Spanish descent.  When I find out that someone has a similar background to mine I am ecstatic.  Back at home one of my best friends is of Lebanese and Spanish decent, just like I am, and we are just naturally more comfortable with each other.  The piece actually turned out to me very introspective for me. 

The article about The Body Shop along with the movie was really interesting.  The thing that I liked about the article was how the company doesn’t really do that much advertising.  They don’t adhere to the “world with out boundaries” slogan for selling their products.  I thought that the article was really interesting because I never really realized how much advertising influences us.  Also, The way in which the third world is “perceived” in the mainstream is really interesting.  The video really showed some interesting examples of ethnic fashion.  The whole idea of the text as well as the video was really interesting to me.  The idea of the world without borders is super interesting but I don’t think that the way it is being used to sell things is good.  Women are subjected more to this and I think that it is really interesting how they have been targeted in the campaigns. 

Globalization is both a great and a devastating force, it has lead to great strides in the way of women but has also been a great downfall for others.  

Day 13- Reading Response

Today’s class was really interesting.  It talked about how women have been objectified though out  most of time.  The first article that we read, “Ways of Seeing, Chapter 3” talked about how even in the Middle Ages women were objectified.  They were painted to be an object of the male audience and they were painted looking away almost as if they were allowing themselves to be stared at.  The article talked about the difference between nakedness and nudity.  I thought the difference that was given between the two was really interesting. The way the article described how a nude is a to been seen naked by someone else and to be naked is to be oneself.  The way that the author described the differences was really interesting.  I never really looked at nudity that way before.  But I guess that it makes sense.  The article also talked about how the women in the paintings were an object of the male viewer.  I found this really interesting.  I never really thought of the women in the medieval paintings to be owned but I guess that is exactly what they were. 

 

The lecture/video that we watched was really interesting and really got me thinking about how we have been influenced by the media and advertizing for most of our lives.  I never really realized how much advertizing that I blatantly follow every single day.  It was interesting to look at the way we are “told” to behave from a young age.  Women are always shown that they need to change themselves to be beautiful and that they can’t just be happy with whom they are.  I never really realized how much pressure is put on me to be perfect and to live up to the expected stereotypes.  I also didn’t really realize that men aren’t subjected to this striving of perfection.  They are taught that they are fine and that they don’t need to worry about what others think of them.  It was an interesting way to look at things.  I think that the title, Killing Us Softly, is perfect for the movie.  Advertizing  really is killing us softly. 

 

Finally, the male pin-up was really interesting.  I didn’t realize how much men showed dominance in their pictures.  Males when posing and being models are looking at the camera or are being portrayed as doing something while females are portrayed as passive and being looked at.  Also the idea of the phallic symbol in the male pin-up was an idea that I hadn’t really every thought of or noticed.  The piece really made me look around my room and look for instances where men are portrayed as strong and muscled.  I thought that the idea of how a man looks at you, or looks occupied in what he is doing in a picture as opposed to the female looking away was really interesting.  I never really realized that we objectify women as much as we do in advertising.  

Day 12- Reading Response

 

The topic of today’s class was gender roles in contemporary times.  We read three different articles that all showed different views on the gender roles that are present in our current society.

 

The first article that we read, The Carousel of Genders, discussed how there has been a bending of gender lines and a blurring of masculine and feminine sexuality.  It talked about how figures such as Madonna and Michael Jackson have gone against all normal gender lines and created individually an image of androgyny.  This was a really interesting way of looking at things I thought.  I had never considered anything that Madonna had done to be blurring the lines but looking back at her work I realize that she has always been questioning gender roles.  She appears as a  different person in every single one of her videos and you never know what you are going to get.  She has transcended the gender boundaries.  Michael Jackson is the ultimate example when it comes to people blurring gender boundries.  When you look at Michael Jackson he is no longer neither a man nor a woman, he is A-sexual.  He is the ultimate example of the gender blurring that has occurred in popular culture.

 

The article about Ally  and  Sex and the City was really interesting.  It brought up good points about how women are always told to be a go getter and to get out here and get it but all the images that are reinforced are those in which a man and a woman end up together.  It was a really interesting look at how we as a culture are saying one thing yet doing the exact opposite.  We need to embrace our feminine attributes without destroying the feminist roots that we have worked so hard for.

 

The final article about Cosmo I thought was really interesting.  I never knew that Cosmo started out the way that it had and it was really interesting that the magazine I read all the time was pretty much built for a “girl” like me.  I thought that everything the article talked about made sense and that it told sort of the un-seen side to  the creating and liberation of women and women’s thoughts.  

Group Project Response

Karissa Nowakowski

 

            When discussing the “syllabus project,” I decided to redo the first half of the syllabus (12/21-12/30) and also to compile both of our information together. While doing this project, I kept most of the readings together (I kept them almost in the same groupings as they originally were). I occasionally took a reading out of the original categories and then added my own. The reason I kept the readings the same was because I wanted to look for something else, other than the original topic, which connected them.

            The First day (12/21), I changed the category to, “Women and Education.” I kept the “Sor Juana” and “Sor Fioleta” articles in this category, and then added a webpage titled, “Republican Motherhood.” Originally, the category looked at religion and normality. While the two original articles had a main message of religion, I thought they both talked about how the women in them used religion to their advantage. In this case, the women used their religion to continue their studies; which was something women were not permitted to do at the time. The article I added into this category didn’t have to do with religion, but with women’s evolving roles and how they were allowed to grow their intellect. I think these articles show how women and their ability to get an education have progressed over time.

            The second category (12/22) was originally “Negotiating Native Identity” and I changed it to “Women and their Home Roots.” I felt like my new category still dealt with issues of native women, but I tried to pick articles that focused more on how their native roots have affected the ways society sees them as women. The new article I added into this category was titled, “Native Women’s Issues.” It talks about how the past historical events involving their “tribe” or native family has impacted the issues they face today. All women face issues, but I think your “roots” affect many of those issues as well. For example, an article I left in the grouping was, “Yo Say La Malinche;” which was about a woman who betrayed her people. This event was during a major moment in history and caused society to look at “La Malinche” differently. La Malinche has since then created stereotypes of women who have descended from her people, which in return caused hardships for women in society.

            For the third day (12/23), I changed the topic to “Women Undercover- Dressing/Acting like Men.” This was a small similarity I saw through the original readings on this day, but I thought it was one that was important. I think it shows how women have had to manipulate society to be allowed to do what men do. I kept the Catalina de Erauso article and the Mary Wesiner article in the grouping because they both talked about how women dressed as men (for whatever reason). The movie I added to this category was the Disney movie, “Mulan.” “Mulan” reminded me of the Catalina de Erauso article because it was about a girl who changed her appearance in order to fight in the military. Catalina was a transvestite but dressed as a man to do the same. I think this new topic I have created could be reason for a good discussion in the classroom.

           

            For the day of 12/28, I changed the category to “Women and Opportunity.” I felt like throughout the entire class, opportunity has been an issue in every category. Therefore, I put an article by Woolf, Nochlin, and one I found on the web in this category. The article by Nochlin was originally in the art category, but I thought it dealt a lot with why women haven’t been given the opportunity to succeed in the art world. The new article I found on my own was about Pakistan and the fact that the girls have not been given the chance for a true education. I put this in this category because it talks about females don’t go to school due to “disrupted family and community structures.”

            On the fifth day (12/29), the topic was originally “work space” and I changed it to “Women Putting Family 1^st and Their Needs 2^nd.” I found that articles in the original category talked about how women were supposed to be the “perfect housewife.” However, when you look at the articles more in depth, you see how women put their needs 2^nd. Being a housewife means taking care of your family, but all of the women were described as being unhappy. In “Culinary Lessons,” the woman was not pleased with her life, yet it was what she was “supposed” to do and it made her husband happy; the same thing goes with the movie, “The Hours.” I think this topic could also be discussed more in depth as to why women feel the need to disregard themselves and why society would enforce a social norm like that.

            The final day I altered was 12/30 and was originally titled, “The Construction of Gender.” I changed this category to “Women and Stereotypes” because I felt like it was an important part and theme in the readings that talked about gender. I found stereotypes to be very interesting to learn about in this course, so I found a website that talked about some of those. I kept “Night to his Day” and “Introduction to the 2^nd sex” in this category, but I feel like many of the articles could also go along here. Gender has been socially constructed and without stereotypes, I don’t think males and females would act the way they do now. Stereotypes is an important topic to research because I think it says a lot about the ideals of society; it also fits in with a lot of the media studies articles in later days on the syllabus that are in regards to women.

            My changes to the syllabus, I feel, takes a closer look at each category and tries to narrow them down just a little bit more. By examining all aspects of feminism, I think society could “open their mind” and maybe start to improve things even more for women than they already have.

 

Nicole Huckins

Since we decided to split the syllabus in half, it was my responsibility to create the syllabus for the second half of Unit 2, Women and the Modern World, starting from the 31^st of December and Unit 3, Women and the Post-Modern World. When I was constructing the syllabus I thought about what I would find interesting as well as what would be useful or the class to study.  I decided that it would be most beneficial to focus on a different topic every day, but for there to be some overlap of ideas from day to day.  Upon creating the syllabus I aimed to invoke thought as well as stimulate discussion for each of the topics.

I decided to start my section on December 31^st with the category of “Women & Sexuality”.  I thought that it would be a good tie-in to the topic of the day before.  Women’s sexuality is a topic that I feel should be discussed in GWS because it is a fundamental part of who a female is.  There are 3 readings for the day, 2 of which were from the original syllabus.  The 3^rd an article that I found, Human Female Sexuality, I decided to include because it gives a great overview of how women’s sexuality has been ignored throughout time.  This idea of how women have been ignored tied in to the topic for the next day, “Women & Mental Illness” flawlessly.  For this part of the syllabus I used all new texts.  The texts brought to life how women’s needs, with regards to mental illness, have been ignored.  The articles give an overview of the history of mental illness in women and talk about what is being done in that area today.  This is important to GWS because until the 20^th century mental illness in women was not recognized.  We need to study about this to better understand not only about women but how men relate to women’s needs.

The next two days, the 5^th and 6^th of January, focus around the media and the stereotyping of women that is heavily present in the modern world.  The 5^th takes a look at movies and television while the 6^th discusses music and art.  The underlying theme of these two days is the influence that music and movies have on a young girl.  Two of the articles on the 5^th discuss how Disney, the leader in early childhood and adolescent entertainment, is one the biggest offenders when it comes to stereotyping women.  The class on the also looks at a segment of Leave it to Beaver, which illustrates the “perfect” woman with regards to family structure.  The class of the 6^th takes a look more at the music and art side of the media.  It talks about the negative influence that music has had on popular culture.  The class also discusses art, using “The Gorilla Girls” from the original syllabus.  I felt that it was important to include the media and the modern world in the syllabus because the media is the number one influencer in a woman’s life.  I felt is necessary to also bring up the media and its influence in the 3^rd Unit of the syllabus, on January 11^th.  Only in this part I focused on how the media is shaping what is considered to be “Politically Correct” and it is shaping men’s ideas about women.

The last part of Unit 2, and the first day of Unit three, mesh well together and help for a smooth transition between the two units.  Both days, January 7^th & 8^th, focus on politics; Unit 2 around World Politics and Unit 3 regarding American Politics.  I used a lot of the material from the original syllabus on these two days because the information that we studied was very interesting.  It is important to study politics in GWS because that is the area I feel that women have the least amount of representation.  As a culture we need to realize this; and what better way to understand something than to study it? 

The final day of the class, January 12^th, I lightened up the topic.  I decided to end on the category of “Women and Athletics”.  Women don’t have fair representation in athletics and it is something that needs to be acknowledged.  In the past few years women have been gaining notoriety in the sports arena, this trend needs to continue.  This is a great topic to end the class on because it can stimulate a lot of discussion as well and allow for students to express their ideas in a different forum. 

When I approached creating my part of the syllabus I really looked for a way to engage all students that would be taking the class.  Also I wanted to create an environment that would be interesting and informative for even the most advanced student. 

 

Day 11- Reading Response (my b-day :])

Women and Race issues was the topic of today’s class. I really enjoyed today’s class. The topic was interesting and the material was much easier to relate to and read.

I liked the video on youtube because it was the first thing that we saw for the class it really illustrated what we were going to be learning about. The images that were presented drew a picture of the stereotypes that African-American women have been type casted into. It really seems that in all of the pictures and animations that there are two categories. There was the larger older African-American woman who was either cooking, or cleaning or eating. Then there was the objectified younger African-American woman who was very slim, usually with a lager bottom and portrayed very “sexily”. Now it seems that there has to be more than these two very precise views, but in reality that is how African-American women have been illustrated in the media. The articles that we read in connection with the video, “Panel probes invisibility of black women in media” and “Who(se) am I: Identity and Image of Women in Hip Hop” talked about this idea further.

Both the articles talked about how black women have gone from being a commodity that was sold as slaves, to a commodity that is sold as sex. It was really interesting because you don’t think of it that way but in reality that exactly what is going on. I never had drawn the parallel between the two until I read the article. It seems like for African-American women they have never been given a “fair-shot” when it comes to being represented in the media. However, I think that it is good that the article it talked about women who have broken the “sexy” role. Women like Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keyes should be the role models for African-American women and children. They are doing a great job of demonstrating how women don’t have to be objectified to get somewhere in the hip hop world.

Day 10- Reading Response

The topic of today’s class was women and the nation. The reading wanted us to look at how women are being treated, or this case abused in other countries. The reading also connected the ideas of “good” moms and “bad” moms and how those ideas can be related to our won country.

The movie we watched, "Señorita Extraviada" and one of the articles we read, “Las Super Madres de Latino America” go hand in hand with each other. The two focus on the huge problem of women going missing in Mexico and in other Latin America countries. The whole thing was really a wake up call to me. I was born in southern California and have lived in Cali for half my life and so I have always been informed about what is going on along the border area and in Mexico, but I didn’t realize how wide spread it had gotten or how many women had been abused. It was really shocking to me also that the police have not done really anything to help the women. Even more shocking was in the video when the woman talked about how the police not only knew what was going on and had even played a role in it. They had violated her and forced her to look at pictures of other women. However, I thought that it was really great how so many of the mothers have taken a stand against the violence that is going on and have really pushed for what has been going on to be recognized. They are considered to be the “good” and “bad” mothers and I think that what they are doing is really important.

The other article, Camp Casey, I thought was a really good tie in. It combined what has been going on with the good and bad mother in Middle America to the States. I think that what more mothers need to stand up and demand that the government not brush the youth aside. It is really interesting to me that the women are the ones who have really taken a stand against what is going on in the world and the men have not taken a greater position.

Day 9- Reading Response

The focus of today’s class was women and art. It chronicled the struggle that women have gone through breaking into and making name for themselves in the artistic world. The movie that we watched really illustrated how difficult it was for one woman, Frida Kahlo, and she was just one woman artist of the time.

The movie was the first thing that I watched for this class. I found it to be very informative about her life, but at the same time I think it is hard to relate to all women artists. She was most definitely a very powerful artist and was very capable of portraying her ideas on the canvas yet she had all of the means to make it possible for her to achieve these great paintings. She had money, she had a father who was a painter as well, she married a painter and she was given space to work and create. Now, I am aware that she did have huge hurdles to overcome because of her polio and bus accident, but I think that all of those issues that she had to face made her a better painter. If she had never been in the accident she would have never become a painter. So I think that while yes she is one of the most recognized women painters is she truly one of the best women painters, or was she just a victim of circumstances.

The Guerrilla Girl’s is interesting to me. I think that is it cool that they take the names of dead women artists and that they petition for more women notoriety in the public at large as well as in the areas of politics, art and film. Since they use humor I think that they are taken more seriously; this is an irony in itself but one that seems to work for the group. Their posters are loud but they command attention and they have a lot of great information on them that makes it hard not to take the group seriously. I think that it really cool that they take the pseudo-names of dead female artists, and it ties into the movie that we watched because one of the founding members took the name of Frida Kahlo.

The reading on the other hand I found really boring and kind of dry. It was hard to piece together the ideas that were being discussed. I thought that they had some good ideas about women and how they have been not fairly recognized but I think it was a little verbose and it was difficult to put all of the concepts together.

Day 8- Reading Response

Today the focus of the class was Women and Politics. Although I didn’t think that it focused so much on politics as we would normally view them. I think it focused on the way in which women have been entering the political arena and how women have been making a name in the sphere.

The first article that I read “Women’s Rights, Women’s Liberation, Women’s Studies” discussed the myths surrounding feminism and talked about the women’s rights movements. It discussed the waves of feminism and how all that has been done in the past has lead us to where were are as a society today. I was really intrigued when I read the article because I didn’t realize that when the women were working for women’s rights that worked alongside the men that were pushing for equality among the races. Even though they eventually splintered off from the men it was interesting to see how the groups originally worked together in trying to achieve their goals. Another interesting idea that was brought up was how women have started a new type of movement that is moving away from calling females “women” and kind of moving back into the idea of a woman is a female, but a female is not a woman. I think that it is an interesting way of looking at things because from the time I was born it has always been “woman” but there are people out there who are females who do not consider themselves to be “women”.

The second article I found a bit hard to read but I think that the idea of oppression was really interesting. I thought it was ironic how Westernized women have felt the need to go into 3rd world countries and change their way of life. I think that we have enough problems going on in our own country surrounding women and women’s rights that we need to focus on curing those first before we go on a crusade. That being said I am not against helping women in other countries I just think that when people do it as a “feel good thing” as opposed to really helping it does more harm than good in the end.

I was not really a fan of the video. I thought that the way the ideas were being talked about was kind of poking fun at the issues at hand, and although they discussed great issues it was hard to take the segment seriously. Michael Moore had a really funny line in though where he said that men have been getting away with so much for so long and that it is just now that women are getting into the idea of I Am Woman Hear Me. He made an interesting comment also about how women allow themselves to not be heard in the political sector. Even though women have the greatest turnout of voters, the percentage of women who represent the total in politics is really low. The ideas were really interesting I just think that the way in which it the discussion took place was not so great.

Day 7- Reading Response

The articles for today al focused on the idea of forced sexuality and how once again people are forced into gender roles, often times even if those roles do not match whom they truly are. These readings however took a different look at the idea of forced sexuality. They looked by discussing gay and lesbian’s and how they have been forced to “conform to the norm” and how they put on a façade many times and feel pressure to conform to the common societal ideas.

In the article “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” it made me think about the idea that many women may not truly be heterosexual but that they feel like they should be. This feeling that they should be is only driven more by the fact that society drive women to believe that they really don’t have many options when it comes to their life. The article makes you think about how women have always been forced into playing a part that often times they don’t really fit. This is an idea that was also mirrored in the other article that we read on wikipedia about Monique Wittig.

The author, had a very interesting idea about how a lesbian is not a woman and that being a woman is a learned trait. I had never looked at it like this before but when I read her explanation it all made sense. When you are born you don’t know how to be a woman, it is something that you are “taught” or really more something that you pick up. Her idea that a lesbian is going against the conformity and that they are not a woman is in a way very true. A woman is a female, but a female is not a woman and the way in which she makes the statement really made me think about this idea.

The article “Straight News” and the Bill O’Rielly segment I found to go hand in hand. The article is all about how the media has always portrayed a “gay” couple as being bad and that is just what O’Rielly does. Throughout the entire segment he is patronizing the woman defending the kids and saying that to be a lesbian in a school setting is disgusting. He talks about how the thing is a hoax and it was meant by the kids to stir up trouble. In reality O’Rielly is just being another media member who cannot accept lesbians and gays for their true sexual nature. He thinks that it is a joke and he is rude and disrespectful.

I live in the bay area, so for as long as I have been here I have been exposed to this. It does not seem like it should be such a big deal. There really is no difference, its just who you decide to love.