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.

Day 6- Reading Response

The class today I felt mainly looked as women with relation to their sex. It talked about how as a culture were so used to placing men and women into gender specific categories that we forget who the person really is. The three texts that we read for the class today really talked about the role that many women are put into.

The text called Women’s Sexuality, which came from the book Challenging Sex/Gender Binaries talked about how women and men aren’t born into their specific roles, but as a society we shape what our children become. I thought that this outlook was really interesting because I didn’t even really realize that that went on. I guess even before a child is born they are placed into the categories that their parents want them to be in. Many times they will be given the “gender appropriate” things such as a fire truck or a ballerina costume, even if that is not truly who the child is. The article talked about how there has been a new push to break out of these gender roles and I found that whole notion really interesting. I guess that I never looked at it in that way.

The article, Night to His Day, looked into the idea of gender specific roles also. It talked about how the clothing that we wear down to the way that we brush our hair are all gender traits that we individually pick up. It talked about how the clothes we wear hides out sex, yet at the same time gives us a gender. I thought that this was a really interesting way of looking at things. The way that we dress and the way that we carry ourselves does tell a lot about us with out really showing who we are. However, at the same time, I think that it can really hide who a person is at the same time.

The final article, Introduction to the Second Sex, I found a bit more difficult to read. It talked about how everything is really relative. What I found most interesting in this article was how they compared “eternal feminine” to “Jim Crow”. As a woman I had never thought of myself as being oppressed in such a way but now, looking back I realize that women were treated just as poorly but it was hidden from outsiders.

The articles today were really interesting because I never had thought of things in that light. I realized that we make ourselves what we want to be, and we are shaped by what our parents feel is best.

Day 5- Reading Response

The readings today were all about women and the workspace. The main ideas I think are about how women have never been seen as really anything more than a caregiver to the family, even when it is not truly the real mother. The articles took a deeper look at the roles that women have been pigeonholed into.

The first text, Maid in LA, looked at the idea of an absentee mother. The text focused on nanny’s and housekeepers and how children become attached to their nanny’s. When a child does not have a true mother figure they attach on to their nanny and treat her as a mother. Many of the nanny’s have their own kids back in their home countries and are not able to be mothers to their own children because they are busy being mothers to other peoples children, an idea that has been called transnational motherhood. It was really interesting that almost 75% of the nanny’s that were surveyed were Latino. I’m from California and I guess I never really realized how many of the nanny’s in my area were Latina’s. The article I think brought up some interesting views as to how many mothers are scolded in the eyes of society for not being there for their children however, at the same time there has been a huge push for women’s rights in the workplace.

The second text, Making a Home Making a Living, brought up a great point however about how women are being treated like second-class citizens in the work place. Many women are place on the “Mommy Track” or become victims of the Glass Ceiling. This is interesting because yes, while many women have been afforded opportunities in the work place the opportunities that are available for them are the low-paying jobs. Even if a woman is just as capable and smart as her male counterpart she often times does not receive the same good acknowledgement. This is ironic to me because the last text was about women and how they have nanny’s and housekeepers (granted that the article was focusing more on the job of being a nanny rather then the women who employ the nanny’s) but still it seems that women leave their children at home to go out and be treated poorly by male bosses. The whole notion to me is just so backwards.

The articles today really took a look at women in the workspace and how they negotiate their individual lives and their jobs.

Day 5- News Assignment

The article that I found was in the magazine Good Housekeeping. The magazine itself I think can be used as an example of the many issues that women today face but the article I choose to take a closer look at dealt with the idea entertaining and etiquette around holiday parties.


The article talked about how a woman should behave at a holiday party and how a hostess should act. The article was written in a way that stated how a woman was in charge of the party and how it was her responsibility.

In the articles that we have read we have taken a look at how women get put into character molds and how they are pigeonholed into a certain view and this article definitely demonstrates how culture has allowed this idea to continue.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food/manners/holiday-party-etiquette

Day 4- Reading Response

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Today we read about women and literature, as well as watched a movie. The focus of today’s class I felt was breaking the norm and how women have been placed into stereotypical roles.

In Virginia Wolff’s A Room of One’s Own it talked about the suppression of women. The article talks about William Shakespeare’s hypothetical twin sister. The article talks about his sister as though she is truly the brilliant one and it uses this to demonstrate how women were oppressed. The article is about how women were excluded from the educated and literary world. She talks, using the twin as her example, about how it must have been for a woman during that time who were just as gifted but were never given the opportunity to learn and excel in the academic realm. I think that it is a really good interpretation of the hardships that a woman would have faced was trying to break the mold. Wolff herself was a rarity; she was a woman author during a period when there were very few women who chased a life outside of being a mother. She is essentially writing about how women would be put down by everyone, men and women alike, even if they were the most talented purely because of their gender.

Castellanos article, Woman and Her Image, however looks at how women have allowed men to treat them this way. The article speaks about how women conform to traditional values and ideas and don’t try and change what is acceptable. It talks about women making themselves into mannequins and relying on men. This dependence on men and what they think of women, be it attractiveness or domestication, has made it harder for women to push forward and achieve equality.

One of the reoccurring themes in this class is the idea of women and a rise to power. In the beginning women were the ones with all the power, but over time men gained all of the authority. The texts today looked at how women have given away the power and how as a culture we have allowed women to become objectified.