Final Blog

I have always had an interest in feminism but I never really new why or what it really was about. This class has helped me to define and almost label what my interests are and be able to explore them further. Last semester I took a class called Women's Studies and this sparked my interest in taking Women's Studies courses and Ithaca College. I was excited to find out that I could minor in Women's Studies and continue learning more. This class helped me to open my eyes to other people out there that share common interests as I do. I've learned a lot about the history of women and how feminism plays in to our daily lives. I definitely plan on taking more classes throughout my time at IC and hope to continue learning more. I felt like I had already known a little about the basic topics that were introduced but was able to learn more from this course. I really liked how many of our classes were set up as open discussion so everyone could share experiences and reflections of the readings. I used to say to people that I consider myself to be a feminism but..and would always come up with some reason to not actually put that label over my head. This class definitely helped me to get rid of the negative connotations that come with feminism and also how to tell my friends what being a feminist is really all about. I know that I don't really have too many blogs posted but I hope that my participation in the class demonstrated my interest and thoughts around the topics we covered. I definitely plan on continuing this blog and learning more about something that I care so much about.

Osama Bin Laden Dead

A moment that I will never forget. Our country has the power to do anything. Right now so many people are coming together to celebrate the death of a man so hated. Obama mentioned our countries power to create equal rights for our people and everything else that we have accomplished. I'm for sure feeling a sense of pride for our country. Pretty sure this just trumped the royal wedding.. More then anything though right now I am thinking about how many people are coming together to celebrate something they feel so strongly about..watching the news. When large amounts of people get together for anything so many emotions are brought out. It really proves that if we stand up and support each other we can accomplish almost anything. I know some people may not think this is anything comparable but watching this right now has made me think about what could possibly happen if more people would come together to change the negative images of feminism. Or came together to truly change the way women are treated so that everything actually becomes equal. All I know is that right now I'm nervous and scared.. I can not wait to see what's going to happen in our country as a result of this.

Pro-life vs. Pro-choice

Wow what an interesting documentary. 12th and Delaware was definitely unlike any other film that I have ever seen. I really liked how it really wasn't bias towards either side of the argument. It showed a really fascinating case where right there on the same street you could see people who really felt strongly towards one side or the other. From the very beginning we couldn't tell if we were trying to be brought to one side or the other. I think I can pretty surely say that a majority of our class is of course pro-choice so I couldn't help but of course agree with what the people from the abortion clinic were saying. It was really easy to see the people from the Pregnancy Care center as crazy and just clearly out of their mind. The beginning made it seem like the people from the Abortion Clinic were these mysterious rich doctors that didn't care about rallying back. So needless to say I think we were all excited the moment they showed the shot from inside the closing garage door. We really got to see a personal in with both people from both sides of the street. Each felt so strongly affected by the decisions of these women to either get abortions or not. I for sure had shivers through a good portion of the film when the anti-abortion people were promising the women who were considering abortion money and other financial help. The tactics that the anti-abortion people were using were unbelievable and really just made me want to cry for the lies that the women were being told. So much of what they were preaching had no credibility. However as easy as it may be for me to think the women are being ignorant for being so easily convinced to have the baby instead of going through with the abortions would be wrong. Clearly when a woman is in such a state of extreme confusing and stress almost anything could possibly persuade her to choose not to get an abortion when she is having multiple people yelling at her that she is doing wrong or that she will instantly regret what she is about to. The hardest part for me was watching these people tell so many lies to the women. When the one man protester said that women don't have a choice about there decisions about there own bodies, I wanted to get up and find him and honestly hurt him. It just made me cringe.

The link between Feminism and Lesbian...

...there is none. (sorry guys but this is gonna be just another one of my rants) So we were talking about this in class the other day and it is definitely something I feel like I've had experience with. So to start things off  I call myself a Feminist and I also call myself heterosexual. However there have been multiple times where I have been called a lesbian or bisexual just for the way I express my ideas. I don't understand where the link is. It comes from people being ignorant and just dumb. I don't think I'm sexist and in no way do I think women are better then men. I believe I'm a feminist because I believe in equality in every way, equal rights for everyone no matter who you are. Women have through out history had to fight for there rights and fight for equal opportunities.

Sex is how you're born. Male or female..(plus everything that comes inbetween), but gender is something that we learn. We learn our gender from everything in our lives. So why do have to accept gender roles as something that can't be changed. As humans and as a generalization, we like to keep things simple. We like to follow what has been done before us. So for us to go against the norm, we are looked down upon. But why? Maybe I want to grow up and be billionaire and be the CEO of successful company. Maybe I don't want kids and maybe I want to have multiple boyfriends for the rest of my life. But no if I were to do one or any of those things I may be looked down upon or if not that then people would be confused. But that's because I am a woman. Some unwritten imaginary law out there is telling people that its not okay for me to do anything that only a man would do. So back to my point though, how does this tie into being lesbian? I guess I just don't get it. I know I went off a little there but my point is that there just really isn't any connection. Just because I fight for equality among men and women and don't want to grow up to be a house wife doesn't mean I want to date a women. So where does the confusion come from? I want all women to be confident with them selves and to never see them selves as secondary to men. But I don't want to marry a women? So why do people think that?

I looked up lesbian feminism and found that it is an actual term...

" "Lesbian feminism" is a related movement that came together in the early 1970s out of dissatisfaction with second wave feminism and the gay liberation movement."

Maybe that was just possibly me being ignorant but the 70's was over 40 years ago and I think its time for a new wave of feminism. Feminism should have no negative connotations that follow it. Assumptions need to be washed away and more people need to open there eyes to what feminism is all about.

why why why

Why is it that everyone has to make fun of feminism? I was hanging out with one of my guy friends who is taking gender issue in sport and we were talking about some of the gender issues that he had learned about in his class. I found it fascinating that he actually had an interest in feminism (whether it was because he actually cared or he just wanted a good grade in his class). So we were talking about title 9 and he wanted to know what I knew about it. He knew that I had taken multiple sex and gender classes. Just as I began telling him reasons for why women were refused an education, his roommates walked in. They asked what we were talking about and I said, "We're talking about the history of feminism." Each guy burst in to laughter and would not stop hysterically laughing. I know that guys sometimes are embarrassed about talking about or taking an interest in issues dealing with women, but why is this? Why is it that there are barely any guys even in our class? Is it really that embarrassing to admit that a guy has an interest in the history of women's rights? And if a guy does have an interest then why is it that all of his friends laugh at him? I don't understand what is so funny about it. Even if I ask the guys that laugh why they were laughing they won't give me a clear response. They never have an actual reason for making fun of feminism. So why is that as a society we ingrain in the minds of boys that learning about women's rights is something to laugh at? Where did the joke that I hear day after day about women making sandwiches even originate from? Yeah I get it, women belong in the kitchen, but what the fuck, really, it's 2011. Who even thinks that way anymore?

Just the other day I was with a few of my friends hanging out at a restaurant and I happen to see a girl that I know from one of my other classes that considers herself to be a feminist activist. I say to my friend who is a girl,"Hey, thats the girl I was telling you about who's really in to feminism." One of my guy friends over hears and says, "What? Does she have really hairy armpits?" Why did he say that? Why is it that feminism has such a negative stereotype? And what can we do to change it? 

These are just two things that happened to me in the past week. But constantly I am either over hearing or being told jokes about women. What does everyone think about this? Does anyone else notice how often these jokes are being made?

In honor of WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Learn about National Women's History Month <--click here

First Day

After our first class of Introduction to Women’s Studies I really have thought a lot about why I am taking this class and what I hope to gain from it. My answer to the question when we went around the room was that I am majoring in business and am all about women in business so I hope to minor in women’s studies. But really, it’s so much more then that. I want to take classes like this one so I can learn more about something that really matters to me. I am tired of the instant reaction of those who know me and those who don't that automatically assume I am a lesbian when I say that I consider myself to be a feminist. I'm tired of my boyfriend thinking he's funny when he calls me fem-ily. I'm annoyed that when I began reading the book Feminism is for Everybody, my best friend says to her boyfriend who is on the phone "Oh Emily is just reading one of her Feminism books AGAIN." I'm tired of people thinking that I hate men or that I think women don't need men. I want to be able to have something to say back to all of the people who assume that feminism is bad and just hates on men. I want to be able to give my friends a clear definition that is easy for them to understand that describes what feminism is all about and why it is so important to me. Before coming to IC I never ever thought that I would consider my self a feminist. When I began to realize that it was something that I really felt was important to me, I was afraid to admit it. I took women's lives last semester and in the book we had to read there was a part about egalitarian gender roles. Ever since reading that I always have said to those who laugh when I talk about feminism, "I'm not a feminist, I just believe in egalitarian gender roles." I knew I was in the right class when we talked about what we normally hear at the end of "I'm not a feminist but…"