Blog #10

This week’s material dealt with violence against women. The topics consisted of sexual assault to abusive relationships and so on. I couldn’t help but to think of the movie “Enough” with Jennifer Lopez. The story involves Jennifer Lopez and how her husband, only a few short years after marrying her, started to cheat on her. When she caught him and confronted him, he ended up hitting her. These beating spells happened a few times before Lopez had had “enough,” and decided to take their daughter and leave. At the end of the movie, after Lopez learned self-defense, went and approached her husband and was able to finally defend herself. Although this movie is very intense, it was overall a good image, especially for women in similar situations. The only thing is, is I’m not sure all woman would be able to do what Lopez did. It basically just varies from woman to woman. One thing I know is that a man who abuses their partner, strikes so much fear into that girl and a lot of the time the girl doesn’t know what to do. She’s too scared to even stand up for herself. She’s afraid she’ll get hurt even more. It takes a lot to gain the courage to actually leave and run away. And as some of the other articles talked about, lots of people don’t understand why a woman who’s battered simply doesn’t just leave. It’s not as easy as it looks. Yes, it’s so easy for someone to just say “Oh well, that’s her own fault because she could just leave and the whole situation would be done with.” But unless you’ve been in that situation under the same circumstances, you can’t just assume you’d be able to leave that easily. I don’t know anyone who has actually been through such a thing, but I know enough to know its just not that easy.

Blog #9

This week’s material focused on a few different topics. One topic dealt with the things that young girls do these days to “get attention.” Particularly, a few articles focused on the Girls Gone Wild and pornographic industry. Society these days tries and sells sex. They believe that if a hot young exotic woman is displayed on a commercial, sales will be boosted instantly. The sad part is, its true these days. Sex does sell. With the Girls Gone Wild industry, girls have consented to flash the cameras without even thinking it through. But its true, they are just young and being irresponsible. We all have done something dumb and irresponsible before. It’s just unfortunate that people like Joe Francis can make millions off of it. It’s completely disrespectful for women, but that doesn’t seem to matter to him at all. And, unfortunately, there are a ton more Joe Francis-es out there running different companies who won’t hesitate to disrespect people just to make a buck or two. That’s just the way the business world and our society runs these days. It’s pretty crazy but true. I can only hope that things will improve. There is a lot of awareness out there on things such as these, but something drastic needs to be done in order to stop it! I’ve always wondered why advertisers have focused so much on sex in order to sell. Sure sex is something appealing, naturally, to everyone, but what about happiness? or love? or beauty? Why does sex trump all of these other things that also are attractive to humans? I think its the simple fact that men’s sex drives are strong and a lot of time overtake their drives for these other things.

Blog #8

I was particularly impressed with the article about Kipp, the woman Volkswagen technician. I think its amazing that she was able to work her way up and became the nation’s first woman Certified Volkswagen Specialist. I am also impressed with the industry she is involved in. Cars and car repairs are just something most of us think of as a “man’s” job. I think it’s great that she went against all odds and not only entered into such an industry, but thrived in it too. I am a business major so stories like these kind of make me wonder how I’ll be affected in the business world just by being a woman. I know one of the other articles discussed how a man would more than likely be chosen over a woman in a job selection, even if they have the same credentials. I have heard stories where this has happened and the employer’s explanation deals with just the way women are. We are more emotional than men, this is a proven fact. But I don’t believe that to be a good enough reason to reject a perfectly qualified person. I know it’s pretty tough out there for a woman to become successful in a male dominated area, but I have seen a lot of improvements in recent times. I think it comes down to the stigma that people don’t believe women can “hang” with men or handle the same types of things men must handle. Well, Kipp has done just that. As the article stated, she is the only female working where she works. Her co-workers say she’s great and it’s like she’s just one of the guys.

Blog #7

This week’s material focused on marraige and the different roles women play than men in the relationshhip. I’ve especially noticed as of late, how the role of a woman in a marraige is changing rapidly. In the past, the wife is expected to stay at home with the kids, cook dinner, do the laundry, keep the house clean, and all things in between. It was uncommon for women to be working back in the day, so all of the daily chores were supposed to be the woman’s job. Looking at our society today, I am proud to say a lot of changes have been made. Women make up a big proportion of today’s workforce and not every woman is considered a stay-at-home mom.

On the other hand, however, as a woman, I am excited to do these little tiny things that women are typically responsible for in a marraige. I mean, I could live without the chores… But I enjoy cooking, a lot! So I’m kind of excited for these things whenever I get married. I think a lot of these duties deal with the way we, as women, are. For instance, women typically care more about appearance than men do. For this reason, we want to keep our homes clean, whereas in a man’s apartment, it could be absolutely dreadful. Women also are more nurturing than men are, and so we are thought of as the primary care-takers of our children.

The article that really intrigued me was the one about taking the woman’s surname, as opposed to the man’s. I wonder what everyone’s thoughts are on this subject… Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of my family’s name, but I’ve just accepted that I’ll more than likely end up taking my future husband’s last name. Unless of course its just something really embarassing, then we might have to talk. Haha but for the most part, I don’t really mind this. I wonder if any of you had any issues when you got married with this.

Blog #6

The issue dealt with in this week’s material was Women’s Health. A lot of the material discussed abortion and this issue in today’s society. Now I know abortion is a very personal decision and is something a lot of people feel strongly about, especially women. I hope that my thoughts and opinions do not offend anyone, because that is not my intent by any means. When I was in 8th grade we took our big class field trip to Washington D.C. It was an awesome experience and is something I will never forget, but there was one very emotional point of our trip for everyone. As I’ve previously mentioned, I attended a Catholic grade school and as most people know, the Catholic Church pretty much condemns abortion. It just so happened to be that the weekend we were in Washington D.C. the pro-choice march was also taking place right. Our group of about 50 or so students and faculty was making our way through the streets of D.C. heading toward the Holocaust Museum for our next leg of the trip. We ended up having to literally fight our way through 200,000+ pro-choice marchers to get to our destination. Being Catholic, we had some of these marchers yell at us and point and laugh, and to sum it up, it was kind of a terrifying event. The one image I dinstinctly remember was seeing a woman, clearly far along in her pregnancy, who held a sign that read: “I’m having an abortion and I can’t wait.” Now don’t get me wrong, since then I have learned a ton about the issue that I was too young to know about back then. I do understand that there are certain situations in which abortion is necessary to occur for the health of the mother. However, I do believe a human life is created at the point of conception. Not even that, but the lady who had the sign, was clearly only weeks away from giving birth. When I read that sign, I remember I was nearly brought to tears. I understand people’s views on the matter and that they believe it is a personal choice, and that is fine… But the way this lady was displaying her opinions, was just flat out wrong to me. That is something that has stuck with me ever since, and is partially why I feel so strongly about the issue. I know that not all pro-choice people are like this, in fact, I bet there aren’t even that many people like this. I just don’t understand how someone could do that and be that arrogant about it… I know I didn’t know the situation of the lady, but… I feel like there’s no excuse really.

Blog #5

This week’s material focused on body image. Especially in today’s world, with pop-music and the effect celebrities have on the younger generations, I felt this subject was very relevant. You walk around and see posters of these gorgeous young women and extremely handsome men (although after viewing the Dove commercial, who knows if these people are real anyways!) pretty much everywhere you go. They’re on billboards, in stores, in magazines, on TV, basically everywhere. Sure, they’re pleasing to look at, but at the same time, these images can just make us feel so small and insecure about our own body image. With advertisements like these, it preaches that these appealing people are the “norm.” Now, I know a lot of people are able to see past this and snap back to reality and brush it off, but what about those who actually take this message to heart? The younger generations who believe they aren’t good enough the way they are? Those who will do anything to be like the beautiful models they see everywhere? Some girls go as far as to starving themselves so they can stay skinny. It’s a real shame that advertisements such as these can make others feel the way they do, and all it’s for is greed. Money and sales are all that people really care about (in general). That’s all that drives this nation. But looking at this issue, we can’t just sit and blame others. The first step to overcoming this, is to just be bigger than the issue itself, like Maya Angelou did. “Rise” up and don’t let other people tell you who you ought to be or what you ought to look like. Because, the world isn’t going to change as much as we’d like it too… But we can change ourselves.

Blog #4

This week’s discussions about relationships and sexuality was interesting to me. I mean, what girl doesn’t like to talk about relationships and love?! So… I guess I’ll share some thoughts I have about the subject. I don’t believe love is something we “choose” to do as one of the readings suggests. I think it’s just something that naturally happens. Sure, we can pick and choose partners but, to actually love someone, I don’t think is something we choose. I do believe society tricks almost all girls into believing that they can truly live out “The Notebook” type of stories. Hollywood spoils us with movies like this, which leads up to girls believing… okay scratch that word… EXPECTING this to happen to them. Sure, fairy tales can happen. But, it’s not likely. I’m normally a super optimistic person, but I guess when I just sit back and take a reality check, I realize this is unlikely. As I stated in my discussions, I do believe in true love. Maybe it’s just a girl thing, but I believe everyone has a true soul mate. Maybe I’ve been brainwashed by society, or my upbringing has brought me to believe this… but it’s what I believe! I was going to ask you all… Do you believe in “types”? Meaning, do you think you have a type that you’re attracted to? It’s an area that intrigues me because the more I think about it… What about all the other great guys out there who don’t fit my type? What if I meet the perfect guy, but because he doesn’t fit the type I’m normally attracted to, I don’t even give him a chance?! Welp, those are just a few of my views on the subject.