Module 19

My experience in the virtual feminist classroom has had an impact on me because I really never realized all of the ways that women and minorities view the world, in both negative and positive terms. I am now more aware of how people unlike me experience the world and try harder to be more understanding of these perspectives. I envision a just future as a world where no one judges others which leads people to completely be themselves and not have to be ashamed of who they are. I see all people getting equal benefits, including pay, governmental roles, and educational opportunities. Derogatory words would never be used and everyone would feel liberated as a result of this. I think a lot of this will just take time. As new generations are born, hopefully the previous ones will teach them to be more and more understanding of differences until it eventually levels out and there is virtually none. I don't think legislation will make a big part in getting to this point, because it is at the point where people just have to understand it on a social level and you can't really make laws for most topics.

If I were to advise someone about the value of taking a Women's Studies class, I would tell them to keep an open mind and try to understand everyone's point of view, even if you don't completely agree with it. There were many issues throughout the class that I did not agree with; however, I learned to see the issue from that standpoint and most of the issues I was at least able to understand the arguments for all sides. Feminist education in itself can definitely be a form of activism because learning about where we used to be, where we are, and where we want to be in the future helps to inform. Knowing the issues and all sides of them helps individuals to make informed decisions for themselves.

Module 18

Over the years, medical practice has gotten more sanitary, comfortable, and safer for the patients. Technology has also drastically improved which gives women many more options for reproductive health. Currently, there are several forms of birth control which are all pretty reliable. Also, abortions have become much safer and cheaper. Because of this, I think that women are using abortion as a way of somewhat solving their problems instead of just in case of emergencies. Abortions are so much easier to obtain and pay for that women are not being as cautious as they used to be when it comes to having safe sex. I think that women are still worried about becoming pregnant but they know that if they do happen to get pregnant they can get an abortion without much hassle. This is also probably one of the reasons why sexually transmitted infections are spreading so rapidly-condoms are not being used as often as they should be.

Personally, I am pro-choice but I think that the controversy of reproductive health should be much broader than just the issue on abortion. All of these other forms of birth control that we can choose from today, such as the pill, condoms, and sponges are still "going against God's will". The issue of "what is a life" needs to be discussed and defined before any decision can be made on abortion. Sure, abortions may be "murdering" a fetus but other types of birth control make it so that these fetuses never even have a chance. This may be a far-fetched argument, but I feel that it has some validity. I know that some of my Catholic friends don't believe in using any type of birth control for this reason.

Module 17

I think that violence against women is so prevalent in society because men that they know they have an advantage over women and most of the time can get away with it. Men know that they are stronger than most women and have a great amount of control over them. Many of the also understand that once they commit a violent act on a woman, most of the time women will be too scared to turn them into the police or even tell anyone.

At JMU we have many programs and policies to prevent sexual assault. Personally, I think that the police and security in general are awesome. They are always driving around making sure everyone is safe. One night me and this other girl were walking home from a party (it was pretty late) and we got stopped by a campus security guard who asked us if we wanted a free ride home. I think that things like that are great because it's so easy for things to happen to girls at night, especially on such a big, fairly spread out campus. James Madison also has these blue safety lights that you can press whenever you feel unsafe and a police officer will arrive there in a ridiculously fast amount of time.

We also have a sexual assault support group, as well as a strictly male support group. I think it's good that we have this one for males because although assaults happen to women more often, they do happen to males a great deal. It could be very embarrassing for men to be the only one in a women's sexual assault group because society tends to think that it is virtually impossible for men to get sexually assaulted.

I think that there should be more lighting around the off-campus apartments. This is where a majority of the assaults take place, and there are extremely dark, deserted places around the city. I also think JMU should take greater steps to identify those who commit crimes and making people aware of what they look like and where they live. This could be a great preventative measure.

Module 16

Welfare reform should be considered a feminist issue because many times the people who are on welfare are single moms with one or more children. It is not just trying to help people out of poverty, but you have to look at the reasons why they are in these situations. I do not believe that encouraging marriage will help poor women's economic status. I believe that most poor, single women know that if they could find a man to marry who they loved and would help them economically they would definitely want to do that. However, marrying just to get ahead in life is something that no woman ever wants to encounter. This could be a feminist topic in itself.

Women need to stand up and take responsibility for themselves and their children, without the help of a man if they choose so. Being forced into a marriage would probably cause many more problems than it would help. Domestic violence would be evident if the couple didn't respect each other. I also don't believe in the idea that we need to find the biological fathers of these poor children. Obviously if the fathers aren't in the picture, the mother doesn't see him as good enough to help raise the children; and this judgment should not be questioned.

I also don't think that women should be obligated to discuss their private lives with state representatives. It is already embarrassing enough for them that they need to discuss the prospect of being on welfare, but being questioned about their sex life is taking away the basic human life of privacy. Many times the women probably don't even know who the father is. I don't see any worthwhile gain that can come of a conversation like this.

Module 15

The way that both men and women view gender roles has not drastically changed in the past 100 years or so as much as feminists hope that it would. Most "normal" American families consist of the husband working all day outside of the home. Meanwhile, in many cases the woman is staying at home caring for young children, doing housework, and tending to the upkeep of the house and the family. A lot of the time, if the men do stay home with the children it is still the wife that does the housecleaning when she gets home from work. It is a standard within American society that women should be the ones doing the work for many reasons. First, I think that it is seen as kind of a reward for men for working so hard at their jobs. Many women are thankful that their husbands are out all day making money to support them and feel that they owe it to their family. Also, the woman's mom did the cleaning when she was younger as did the husband's mom. By principle, this is how they were raised and it is hard to change a tradition that has been with you your entire life.

I have not really experienced any sexism within the workplace (at least I wouldn't consider it sexism) but I have definitely noticed some differences between males and females. For example, I worked as a waitress for one summer. Sometimes I would place huge orders and would need to serve huge amounts of food to tables. The cooks would always get one of the guy waiters to carry out the big trays for me and the other female waitresses. However, when guy servers got big orders they never got any help from other male or female servers. This did not offend me at all; I liked the help even though I probably could have carried it myself.

Also, I worked at a food festival a few weeks ago in Chicago. My main job was to help customers and work the cash register, however all of the workers were dong random jobs around the tent. I noticed many times that my supervisor would always ask this guy to do jobs that consisted of things like standing on chairs and using tools. Again, I didn't mind not being asked to do these jobs but it was just interesting how people think that girls can't do things that are considered "a guy's domain".

Module 14

After skimming through the issue briefs linked at A Portal on Women, Peace, and Security, I saw the practice of female genital mutilation. I have always wanted to learn more about this and researched it further in depth. This is a very controversial issue having to do with sexual and reproductive health that is performed in many countries throughout the world. It includes procedures that purposely alter or injure female genitals for non-medical reasons. It has absolutely no health benefits for women and can cause severe bleeding, problems urinating, and potential childbirth problems. This process is usually performed on girls from newborns until age fifteen and currently about 100-140 million girls are living with the consequences of it today.

There are many reasons for doing this, many of which are cultural. In some cultures, it is what has always been done to girls and the social pressure to conform helps to continue the practice. In other cases, husbands are fearful that their wives will not remain faithful. To be sure that their wives will not cheat on them, they perform some sort of genital surgery, such as "closing her up". When the husband is ready to perform sexual acts with her, he opens her back up which is obviously a very painful process. In some communities, women are thought to be clean and beautiful, and so they must remove these genitals that are thought to be male or unclean.

Female genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. They never get a say in whether or not it happens to them and it is a very painful process. However, it is hard to get the people that perform this practice to stop it. It is a tradition, and something that their grandparents, great-grandparents, and great- great- grandparents have gone through. It is even common for mothers to force their girls to go through the process because they remember it as being an important time in their life when they were younger.

Module 13

There are many instances when homophobia discourages intimacy. Many of the gay people that I know are very self-conscious about displaying any type of physical intimacy in public. When I walk around in public, if I see two girls or two guys holding hands, it is much more of a shock to me than if it is a girl and a guy. I'm not against it, it's just not something that you I see as often. Also, in our society it is considered okay for a man and woman to be kissing, maybe even more in public. However, when most people see a same-sex couple kissing in public, the first emotion is usually disgust. This is an awful double-standard because these people are doing the exact same thing and get completely opposite reactions from others: one being positive, and the other being negative.

I have played soccer since I was six years old and have been on many different teams throughout my life. Soccer players are sometimes stereotyped as being lesbians or butch. I'm sure there were some lesbians who I played soccer with, but no more than on any other team or group. We would have soccer sleepovers sometimes and I remember all of my other friends would say that we were all lesbians with each other, which wasn't the case at all. It was just like any other all-girl sleepover. This never stopped me from becoming close to my teammates but it made me think twice about how I interacted with them in front of others. Usually when girls are good friends it is not uncommon for them to hug and show other displays of affection like that, but I was also self-conscious about doing things like that in public.

Module 12

The youtube video called "The Fat Rant" was very interesting. When I first watched it, I found it very entertaining and completely bought into it. It is great that Joy is trying to get overweight girls to love and embrace their bodies. She tells people to stop avoiding things just because of their weight. If they want to go to the Bahamas, they should not go just because they don't feel comfortable in their bathing suit. They should also avoid working out because they are afraid they will sweat a lot and people will make fun of them. The phrase "she should not be wearing that" is one that is said a lot in American culture and should be completely ignored.

However, after watching the Meme and Joy debate I definitely felt differently about the whole subject. Being a health major, it is hard to ignore the statistics about how much body weight influences disease including diabetes, heart disease, and risk for strokes and heart attacks. Joy said that she exercised a lot; however, when Meme asked her how often she said only about twice a week. Joy also said that she doesn't feel bad about eating junk food, but then she said she was a very healthy eater. Her whole story seemed very hypocritical to me and she changed her story many times. It is a great thing that she loves her body, however it seems that she is not doing everything in her power to reduce the medical risks that come with her lifestyle. Weight and appearance is socially constructed, but I feel like that is because being overweight is associated with higher risks of disease. Society feels that if people will not work hard enough to reduce their body weight, which in turn reduces risk of disease, they will not work hard enough in other areas of life.

On the other hand, I think that Meme is going about this the wrong way. She is criticizing other women for something that they may or may not be able to control. Women should stick together and not criticize each other every chance they get. Meme is obviously healthy and in good shape, and I'm sure those women that are overweight don't exactly feel good about themselves when a 100 pound girl is telling them how unhealthy their lifestyle is.

Module 11

Growing up, I was surrounded by a good amount of diversity (at least I would like to think so). The majority of the people in my elementary, middle, and high school were white, however there were a good amount of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and various other races and ethnicities. My parents always taught me that everyone is equal and you shouldn't judge others based on the color of their skin. I had many friends who were a different race than I was and I never really thought twice about it. It feels like every generation is getting a little less racist and isn't "seeing color" quite as much as the generation before them.

I think that "white" can be used as a group name without invoking connotations of white supremacy. Lots of times people don't even realize how saying "white people" and phrases like this may offend people of different minorities. Just because white is the "dominant" race doesn't mean that the people within that category are constantly trying to belittle others. By using the term "white", a lot of the time it is just a way to describe a group of people. It's not trying to make it sound like they are the most dominant group, its just a way to identify people.

The term "white" has probably always been used as a racial category. White supremacy has always been around, and racist was much more prevalent years ago than it is today. I'm sure that "white" had a lot stronger of a racial meaning in the past than it currently does.

Module 10

One of the main types of prejudice that affects my life and angers me the most is how men's sports teams get so many more benefits than women's teams. I have a couple of friends who play varsity sports at Divison I schools and a lot of them have similar stories. The men's teams usually have better practice times which are more convenient, whereas the women have random times that fall right during lunch or something like that. This is if, of course, women are even allowed to practice on the "men's field" which is always the nicest field available to the school. Men's teams are also known to fly to away games when needed; on the contrary, many women's teams do not have the funding available for that and have to take busses to the same types of games. Men usually get better referees, more attention in academics and more benefits overall.

I understand that men's games generally attract more fans which brings in more revenue for the team. Because they have more money, they are able to afford more of these benefits than women are. However, women are working just as hard and seem to be getting the short end of the stick. They put in just as many practice hours and I feel they deserve to be treated the same as the men's team.

Hate crimes maintain systems of inequality by reiterating the myth that some people are better than others purely because of race, sex, sexual orientation, appearance, etc. The main types of hate crimes that I am aware of are ones in the 1960's and 1970's against gay people. I took a human sexuality course last semester and we learned about how young gays were hung, stoned, and killed in other horrible ways simply because of their sexual orientation. I was raised to be very open to people of all race, orientation, etc. and was horrified to learn that things like this happened, and not very long ago.

Module 9

My family does not reflect the normative US family at all. Usually when people picture the "perfect" family, they see a husband, wife, and usually two kids. My family used to be similar to this until my parents got divorced. Since then, my family has expanded and there are many people who I now call my family even though we're not really related at all. My dad got remarried and lives in Texas, which gave me 4 stepsisters and a stepmother. I also have a half brother from my dad's previous marriage. My mom is not yet remarried, but has been a seeing a guy for about seven years now and lives with him. I am currently living with both of them for the summer. I call this man my stepfather, and his sons my stepbrothers. I also have a biological brother who is two years younger than me.

The tasks that my mom and stepdad do in their house is fairly similar to that of other families in my opinion. My stepdad works 9-5 most days of the week and brings in a large portion of the income. My mom recently got a new job and works a few days a week. My mom does all of the cooking and cleaning around the house. Untraditionally, she also does a lot of the "handiman" work that is needed around the house. It's a running joke in the house about how my stepdad does not have a strong talent for fixing things around the house. I notice other things too once in awhile that has to do with gender roles. For example, whenever we all go out it is always my stepdad who drives.

The way that men and women communicate definitely has a huge effect on their relationships. Women tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves and let the man know exactly what she is thinking, which has its negatives and positives. Most men seem to not want to show their emotions. This can be good at times because many fights are spared, however it can be bad when there is a lot of built up anger. If the woman is always telling how she feels and the guy doesn't feel comfortable talking about things like this, it can put a huge strain on the relationship.

Module 8

The media has a huge influence on the way that people, and women in particular, view themselves. The commercials on television always portray women as gorgeous and skinny with great skin and hair. They have zero imperfections and seem to be too good to be true. Young girls who don't realize that these people don't exist often try to be like these models and actors. By seeing these perfect models on television, people feel that in order to be attractive, they have to look like them. After realizing that it is not possible to look as good as these people, one can realize how much of an effect media has on self-esteem and how you view yourself.

I thought it was very interesting how the lecture was talking about how much we pay attention to virtually every part of our body. If you really think about it, getting your hair done seems like a trivial task. However, the society that we live in demands that every part of an individual is neat, clean, and kept up with. If one fails to do something such as brush her hair or put on the proper amount of makeup (enough, but not too much), others will look down upon them as being lazy or unkempt. This affects other aspects of life such as the friends you will hang out with and the types of jobs you have. This reminds me of the show 'What not to Wear' on TLC. The hosts are repeatedly telling people that they are very successful, but no one would know it by the way that they dress. This just reinforces the fact that individuals are critically judged on every aspect of their appearance, and must look the role for the jobs they perform.