Blog 12

I recently finished a lengthy paper for my expository writing class that I chose to write about body image. It was an argumentative paper, so my argument was convincing my readers that celebrities have negative effects on body image. It really seemed to relate to this women's studies course. I found so much valuable information. Doing all of the research really helped me to be more secure in my own skin. I now know everything that goes into making celebrities look the way that they do. I learned all about airbrushing, which I have touched upon before in my previous blogs. I also learned extensive things about celebrities and eating disorders. Advertisements, celebrity endorsements, etc. were all things that I explored as well. I think that my paper turned out to be a very successful one. It was ten pages long and I used around 14 sources to help support my argument. I also addressed cosmetic surgery. For the paper, I was supposed to try and find counter-arguments to my argument. Luckily, I did not find too many people that thought celebrities were having positive effects on body image. I hope that young women will have the chance to learn everything that I did through my research, and that they will not look at a magazine advertisement and think that is how the celebrity really looks all of the time. It can be such a destructive industry and I can only hope that there are more people out there like me who are trying to get an important message across.

Blog 11

This week's political readings led me to take more of an interest in that area. Particularly, the reading about Hillary Clinton led me to do a little more research about her. I just decided to Google her and found HillaryClinton.com. When you go to the website, you are prompted to sign up as a "supporter." I opted to skip the sign up and be directed straight to the website. The one thing I noticed about her campaign website is the overwhelming monetary vibe. I mean, it seems everywhere you look they are wanting you to lend your "support", credit cards gladly accepted. I think it's about so much more than just money, and I wish the website portrayed that more. There is some background given about Hillary titled "Hillary's story." It stated that Hillary was raised in a middle-class family in the middle of America. The piece goes on to say "Hillary went on to become one of America's foremost advocates for children and families; an attorney twice voted one of the most influential in America; a First Lady of Arkansas who helped transform the schools; a bestselling author; a First Lady for America who helped transform that role, becoming a champion for health care and families at home and a champion of women's rights and human rights around the world." It does a great job of stating who she is and what she has done. I'm still on the fence about her ideals and her website, but that sentence really struck a note in me. She's obviously a powerful, accomplished lady who deserves much respect.

Blog 10

This week's class readings about rape really caught my eye. I found the reading the characterized the different categories of rape to be very interesting as well. I was looking at some magazines and came across an article in the September issue of Cosmopolitan. It was titled "His Case vs. Her Case" Court TV anchor Ashleigh Banfiled explained where the law currently stands on rape. She refers to acquaintance rape as "gray rape." She said that most victims of gray rape never report the experience to the police, much less decide to press charges. She also addressed how hard it is even to confront and accurately understand rape, and how hard it is for juries to make judgements about too. The legal system continues to struggle to define exactly where consent ends and rape begins. She went on to give examples of how strong a woman's case (or her assailant's case) might be in several key areas. In the area of consent, consent itself has always been the most basic issue in a rape case. The jury must be convinced that the woman did not give permission, or said and no and meant it, and was clear for the woman to win. On the other hand, the male could win the case by claiming he did not hear the woman say no, or had reason to think she didn't really mean "no." For example, if they were fooling around with rough sex and the male thought "no" was part of the game. When it comes to alcohol, women can win a case if they were too drunk to fully consent. It's illegal to take advantage of someone who is incapactitated. Although, if the woman was wasted, a guy can imply that her story cannot be trusted. But, he can't use being drunk himself as an excuse. The article states many more instances about the deciding factors in rape cases. I highly recommend reading the article to get the full analysis.

Blog 9

In class this week we talked a lot about women's roles. The most interesting thing I found was the article that dealt with maids. No doubt, most of us fail to recognize women's actual roles in the home. They really are "maids" no matter how you look at it. It was interesting to read a story from a personal point of view about how it is to be a maid, what's degrading, etc. My workplace is currently looking for a cleaning service for our new construction. While I was searching for estimates, I decided to do a little bit of investigative research of my own. Some things that came to mind were; How are the cleaning people portrayed on different websites? How are they described? What types of words/language are used? I decided to visit the site of the well known "Merry Maids." What I found was a very generic site. They use a "team" system for their cleaning. There would be anywhere from 1-3 people in a home at one time. They pride themselves on being a very universal cleaning service with operations in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. They continually remind you that they are an established business and strive to fill website visitors with a sense of "comfort." (They speak a lot of being able to trust the maids and not having to worry about theft.) It seems like an okay service, but not very personal. They are aimed at impressing customers with how many homes they clean rather than the quality of the cleaning, or the caliber of the employees. I think the employees definitely deserve more recognition. I also visited the "Molly Maid" website. It seemed eerily similar to the Merry Maids site. Although, it didn't seem to have a very customer focused vibe. They make sure to tell you the Maids workday is from 8-5 and they cannot guarantee an exact time of arrival. They seem to care about their maid's personal time as well as the customers.

Blog 8

In the class readings from last week, I was really interested in one in particular. It focused on the Wal-mart company and the class action suit that they face. It is because of sex discrimination and I thought the article did a great job of explaining and giving examples of things that had been going on to women in the workplace. It is unfair for women to be treated the way they were being done so by the Wal-mart corporation, so I took my research to Google to find out a little bit more about it. I came across the Wal-mart class action website, (http://www.walmartclass.com/public_home.html) and splashed across the homepage are things like "Have you been denied career opportunities in management? Have you been denied equal pay for equal work? Have you been getting the run-around about promotions or raises?
Have you hit the glass ceiling?" It's basically a site that allows women who feel that they have been discriminated against to sign up on the site, or call a toll free number. Or, if anyone has any additional information that may help the investigation, they are encouraged to come forth as well. I read all of the FAQs that could be accessed. There is a lot of valuable information on the page for the discrimination victims. It's also a good place for the general public to go that will help them in understanding the case more thoroughly. The article from class piqued my interests, and I just decided to do some additional research on the subject.

Blog 7

Last week's in-class readings centered around family. Dynamics of not only heterosexual families, but homosexual families were both discussed. I had never really thought about what it would be like to have gay or lesbian parents. I have lived my life being the daughter of a heterosexual couple, and that's all I really know. That's what I would deem "normal." I am interested to learn more about homosexual parenting, seeing as though that type of situation is being more and more prominent in society. I decided to go online and do some researching on the topic. I came across a pretty informational website. It addressed the false notion that heterosexual couples make better parents than gays or lesbians. That claim rests on absolutely no empirical foundation. Overall mental health of parents, and their approaches to child rearing have proven not to be less than that of heterosexual couples. I even found some major supportive evidence to back homosexual child rearing. The website said that the results of some studies suggest that lesbian mothers' and gay fathers' parenting skills may be superior to those of matched heterosexual couples. Reports of lesbian parent's awareness skills as being stronger than that of hetereosexual parents have surfaced as well. I found all of this information very interesting, and I also saw it as a step in the right direction for the gay community. They deserve to gain positive feedback for the positive things that they accomplish. If you would like to review the website, please visit http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/lgplgparents.html

Blog 6

This week, I learned that my cousin decided to being Cosmetology school. I decided to help her do some research on the subject. I enjoy doing make-up and hair, so I thought that it would be interesting to do a little hunting around with her. We used Google at first and just started clicking on random sites. One for the Yossi Bitton Make-up school. Now, she's probably going to be staying in the area to attend school, but we were just searching kind of for the fun of it. On the Yossi Bitton website, there is a before and after gallery devoted to basically how make-up application can dramatically change someone's look. Well, I am convinced that more that just make-up has been added to these photos. If you've seen the Dove commerical thing on YouTube which shows the transformation of the model, it's easier to understand. Elongating the neck, bringing the eyes close together or further apart as needed, etc. are all things I think are noticeable in the pictures. Take a look at the before and after picture. I am not convinced that the only thing that has been done to this picture is added make-up. Make-up cannot make a huge blemish look invisible, no matter how hard you try. Make-up is a minimizer tool designed to detract your notice away from imperfections, but if does not erase them. I think that this is bad advertising for the school. It is unrealistic and I think could lead to disappointment for a lot of hopefuls wanting to attend the school for make-up application. They cannot be shown these pictures and expect to have the results of an Extreme Makeover solely by the use of make up alone. I think that this type of advertising is detrimental. It reminded me of the Dove commerical and I'm sure that others will share the same viewpoints as myself on the subject.

Blog 5

This week’s in class readings focused a lot on appearance, perception, and body image. The article that I read about bras really intrigued me. It prompted me to really think about these vintage bras in a very visual way. I was curious to know what they looked like, what the advertisements entailed, and so on and so forth. I also get a Victoria’s Secret magazine in the mail about once a week I was looking through that and I thought, “I wonder how advertisements from the early 1900s would compare?” Since it was revealed that girls were more concerned with their breasts rather than their weights, I wanted to know what kind of advertising was circulating at the time. I came across an old advertisement for a corset. What is the first thing I noticed? The women in the advertisement actually look healthy. They look normal. They do not look like they starve themselves. They look supple and voluptuous. Their arms do not look like twigs. When you take a look at an advertisement from this day in age for Victoria’s Secret, that is not what you see. You see a highly airbrushed, perfectly made-up model. She does not have an ounce of fat on her. In fact, take a look at the above picture. You can clearly see the model’s ribs in the Victoria’s Secret advertisement. Comparing the two, I had a revelation. It’s obvious why girls at that time were more occupied with their bust line than their waistline. They were not shown images of rail thin girls declaring them as the epitome of “beauty.” They were shown images of real, normal looking figures depicting a standard of reality. It’s empowering to know that at some time, we were not such a weight-obsessed nation. Let’s get back to our roots.

Blog 4

This week I was really intrigued about the whole idea of homosexuality. I don't know many people who are homosexual, so I guess you could say that I have a lot of questions. I decided to do some research on the web to see what I would discover. Needless to say, it wasn't what I expected. I could not believe how many websites were contributed to being against homosexuality. I honestly thought that we were living in a new era. Granted, most of the sights were religious in nature, proclaiming that the Bible says that homosexuality is wrong. I am a Christian. I don't attend church and I am not very familiar with the specifics of the Bible, but I do believe in God and I do pray. With that being said, I can firmly state that I have absolutely no problem with homosexuality. I am currently in love and have been for about four years. I cannot believe that people criticize homosexuals for following their heart and engaging in something that fulfills their hearts desire. I cannot imagine being deprived of love, and I would never wish it upon anyone. Anyways, when I came across all of the religious stuff against homosexuality, I started to wonder if there were a lot of other people like myself, who were Christians, but didn't have a problem with homosexuality. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon the website ChristianGays.com/wrong.shtml. It was such a breath of fresh air. The website uses the Bible to teach us to be accepting of homosexuality. It addresses all of the issues so thoroughly and even examines counter-arguments. I would love to quote all of the good information, but I think it's more powerful to read the material in it's original context. Please visit the website and be enlightened. :)

Blog 3

The other day as I was waiting in line to pay at Scott’s, I noticed the Glamour magazine sitting on the shelf and had to do a double take. Was the girl gracing the cover who I thought it was? Indeed it was America Ferrera. I had just watched the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie about a week ago, and she seemed to have lost a lot of weight since then. She actually looked like a size 2 rather than a size 10. I thought “good for her,” and went on my way. I subscribe to the magazine, and got my copy in the mail yesterday. As I was browsing through it I had to do another double take. The pictures inside the magazine that accompanied the article about America did not match her physique on the outside cover. Not too long after that, I caught one of the “celebrity gossip” shows and heard them discussing the heavily airbrushed cover of Ferrera. I knew it! I couldn’t believe that Glamour had done that, seeing as though America has been such an advocate about being happy with her body size. What kind of message is this sending to young women? Even if you’re okay with your body, someone else may not be? Her arms had to be reduced to pin-thin, and her hips and face altered for her to earn to cover spot. What does that say about Glamour as a publication? When I initially saw the magazine, I thought she lost weight, and I applauded her for that. I actually respected that she had the discipline to eat right and work out, areas in which I seem to slack. It sends out a terrible message to women, and I am glad that I am not the only one who noticed. I have included the cover picture of Glamour as well as a picture from the inside spread so you can see the evidence yourself.

Blog 2

I am an avid fan of the television show "Dawson's Creek" which was actually canceled in 2003, but reruns can be seen on TBS every weekday morning. I have all of the DVDs and was watching a few episodes the other night. I was watching an episode in which one of the main characters, Pacey (a guy) was going to enter a beauty pageant. Nowhere in the rules was it stated that he could not enter because he was a male, but the pageant directors insisted that it was against the rules. He ended up being able to enter, and did quite well. It got me thinking about "Dawson's Creek" through a feminist lens. I was thinking about the two girls that are main characters named Joey and Jen. Joey is the all American good girl while Jen is the bad girl from the big city. I was analyzing all of the episodes I have seen and really started to notice how each of them are portrayed, one to seem "good" and one "bad." Joey was always dressed conservatively, never in clothes that would give any hint of what her body looked like underneath it all. Jen, however, was always dressed in tight, body-hugging clothes that revealed her ample cleavage. Even though I love the show, I hate how women can be judged simply by their choice of clothing. I know it is a show, but it portrays an image of reality. People can see Joey as good and pure and Jen as bad and promiscuous because they see those things in reality all the time. This example of "lookism" stood out to me because of the things I have been learning in this class. I think that if more people were introduced to these stereotypes, maybe bigger changes could be made. Before, I never thought about it that way because I liked the show and was involved in each character. Now, I know how to look at things through a feminist lens, and I think it would benefit society to learn to do the same.

Blog 1

I was doing some research online for feminist ad campaigns and I what I found really peaked my interests. This week in class, our readings have expressed relating feminism to lesbianism. Just because a woman is a feminist does not mean that she is a lesbian. With that said, more times than not, women stray away from feminist behavior simply because they are afraid of being called lesbian. I found this picture in a GAP ad. It refers to Madonna and Missy Elliott. Madonna and Missy Elliott are two very strong personalities and voices within the muscial world. I thought that this ad was good. It shows women embracing their backsides, not afraid to be close. Although, the website that I found this picture discussed on basically called it disgusting. It made references to how homophobes would definitely not be shopping at the GAP because of their "lesbian-feminist" ad campagin. I thought those comments were ridiculous, but helpful. Everything I have been reading about this week was illuminated on this website. These ads were perceived to be lesbian and "disgusting." It basically boils down to people refraining from shopping at the GAP so that they are perceived as being homosexual. Even though it angers me, I am glad that I found this ad in the place that I did. It was helpful to see those kind of opinions described in the book in a real life situation. I think that I am going to be on the look-out for more ad campaigns when I am shopping now, through a feminist lens. I think it will be interesting for me to really pay attention and see what kind of feminist techniques, or lack thereof companies are using to get people in their stores.

If anyone is interested in taking a look at the website that I referenced in this blog, please visit:

http://www.courageunfettered.com/stuf/riaaSUCKS/