I'm not sure if I should post these things to the blog but I received this email from the English department and it seems to fit our class theme so I wanted to share in case anyone might be interested in attending. Hope this is okay professor!
We would like to invite all those interested to join us for an evening with “feminist humor maven” GINA BARRECA!
The event is free and everyone is welcome. There will be cookies after Gina’s talk.
Thank you,
Anna
The Writing Center
(212) 772-4295
Dr. Gina Barreca
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 | 7:00pm
Dr. Gina Barreca is a distinguished writer, lecturer, Professor of English and Feminist Theory at UConn, and was once described as the “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine. Her works include the best-selling novel They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted, and It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World. She has appeared on many programs, including NPR, CNN, BBC, and 20/20 to discuss humor, gender dynamics, and politics.
Time and time again we have seen examples, in which women are seen as inferior to men. Plagued with the burden of having to abide to impossible standards, just to appear more "feminine." For example, instead of being seen as a human being, women are looked upon as sexual objects. Her beauty is seen as the only quality going for her. She must have no sign of aging, no scars or blemishes. "She is thin, generally tall, and long-legged, and above all she is young" (Kilbourne 122). Women that do not conform to these standards, begin to question themselves and their worth. They begin to feel ashamed and guilty, and feel as if their essence is dependent upon physical beauty. Jean Kilbourne also writes, in addition, women are “somehow supposed to be both sexy and virginal, experienced and naive, seductive and chase” (Kilbourne 124).
Some women go through great lengths to receive the "perfect body."
Not only do women have to face this problem, but they also barely have rights to basic reproductive and abortion rights. For example, in January, our president, Donald Trump, signed signed a ban on federal money going to international groups that provide information on abortions. Many people reacted to this outrage, including author J.K. Rowling who said "Men making decisions about women's bodies," a phrase we hear time and time again.
If you look closely, not a single woman was present in the Oval Office during the signing of this ban.
Twitter reaction to the outrage
It's a sad reality, that abortion rules are often determined by male officials. This order can have grueling effects and be dangerous for females in developing countries who usually have to turn to hazardous and unsafe ways to terminate their pregnancies. Roxane Gay, a feminist writer, wrote in Bad Feminist, “We [women] will risk our lives if these politicians, who so flagrantly demean women, force us to do so” (Gay 269). Sadly, it is true. According to The World Health Organization made an estimate that more than 21 million women a year have unsafe abortions in developing countries, accounting for about 13 percent of all maternal deaths. The link to the fact sheet can be found here.A quote from the reading From Abortion to Reproductive Rights written by Jennifer Nelson, women should “maintain the right to bear children was as important to the productive freedom as the legal right to terminate a pregnancy” (Nelson 2). This is something that politicians don’t listen to because a majority of them do not understand the female body. Instead of allowing women to terminate a pregnancy, there are political officials such as Tom Corbett and Terry England, who make it difficult for women to do so by attempting to pressure them into making decisions not to end their pregnancy (Gay 272). There is more information about a woman feeling abortion pressure, that resulted in tragedy, in an article produced by Times Magazine here.
Men making decisions for women is just the tip of the iceberg. Sexism within any field, especially politics, is nothing new. Reproductive freedom should be an absolute right, but it is something that can be easily revoked. Gay makes a good point, when she stated "I don't feel free. I don't feel like my body is my own" (Gay 274). The female body is not a force that should be legislated or regulated by others, except women. Yet, laws that were passed by the state of Arizona, has allowed an employer to dismiss a woman for using birth control (Gay 275).
An image poking fun at the government for having the "knowledge" to make executive decisions for a women's body.
Unfortunately, there is a huge gender gap in political ambition. Women are less likely to be considered qualified to run for office than men. As stated by Linda B. Glaser, there is a false perception that women have to work twice as hard as men to get half as far and overcome obstacles that men never have to undergo (Gender and Politics). In a video I watched in class, Hilary Clinton was called a b*tch and Sarah Palin was considered the hotter of the two, as if that's all these women have to contribute. If Hilary were elected president, there is no doubt in my mind that things would have been different. Women would definitely have a greater voice in the decision of their bodies. However, it is interesting that Hilary supports Roe v. Wade which grants women the right to make decisions on abortion. She has stated that she would defend Planned Parenthood instead of defunding it like Trump said he would. Hilary claims she cares about women's rights to make their own health care decision. What the media and these political figures have in common is that they continue to see women as a dismembered object (Kilbourne 124) . In terms of abortion and reproductive rights, women are mainly seen as a stomach holding a fetus. Most lawmakers do not account for the emotional and psychological journey it took for a woman to make a decision on keeping or getting rid of her baby. They mainly think about the womb and assume because it is growing a life, it must live. In addition, they also don't think about how it will affect the women economically, socially, and other aspects of her life.
Works Cited Gay, Roxane. “The Alienable Rights of Women.” Bad Feminist, Harper Perennial, New York, 2014.
Glaser, Linda B. “Gender and Politics Expert Examines Sexism in Campaigns | Cornell
Chronicle.” Gender and Politics Expert Examines Sexism in Campaigns | Cornell Chronicle,
Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.
“Hillary Clinton on Abortion.” Hillary Clinton on Abortion, www.ontheissues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_Abortion.htm. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.” The Beauty and the Beast of
Advertising, p. 122.
Nelson, Jennifer. “From Abortion to Reproductive Rights.” Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement, New York University Press, New York, 2003, p. 2.
“Trump's Order on Abortion Policy: What Does It Mean?” BBC News, BBC, 24 Jan. 2017. Accessed 11 Apr. 2017.
Women in the Media
Professor: Doris Cacoilo
4/8/17
Hussein Farraj
History has proven that men have treated women as second class citizens for hundreds of years. It is the progress that defines an individual, a group, and a country to treat women as equal members of any society. Thats why it hurts to see a country like America going back from those values and following blindly with a man who believes women should be subservient to him(aka Donald Trump). In the recent election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, there have been an outstanding amount of inappropriate language, spreading of rumors, and unfair treatment towards Hillary from president elect-Donald Trump. For example, outwardly bringing up her husbands past doesn't mean she's unfit for being in office. Here is a link of Donald Trump bringing up Hillary Clintons marriage with Bill Clinton before one of the most important debates on television. Donald Trump also gained support from shady/dangerous groups like the Ku Klux Klan, BreitBart, Steve Bannon, and radio broadcasters who have a history of sexist remarks. All of these outlets have criticized Hilary in any angle they could. Especially the way she looked and made comments about how she doesn't look ladylike. Come the F@#$ ON! Hillary could wear a bear's hide for all she wanted, she has experience in the white house while Donald Trump has zero political experience. Here is another link of a couple times Hillary's look was criticized more instead of her ideas. It's really sad when Hillary tries to talk about serious matters about abortion or birth control, when people won't take her seriously.
"Pregnancy is an experience that invites public intervention and forces the female body into the public discourse. In many ways, pregnancy is the least private experience of a women's life." (Gay, Roxane) For so long abortion has been a topic for debate between Conservatives and Democrats. Known as pro-life or pro-choice. President Trump has made multiple attempts on taking away planed parenthood. Here is an article of Donald Trump telling Planed Parenthood that he could have their funding taken away if the organization doesn't support abortion. This is coming from an individual who doesn't experience the physical, emotional, and degrading experience that all women go through in giving birth. Here something that most conservatives don't take to the discussion. What if the individual doesn't want that pregnancy? "By the beginning of the twentieth century, the anti-abortion campaign had succeeded in making abortion illegal in all states, but anti-abortion laws did not prevent women from choosing to abort unwanted pregnancies." (Nelson Jennifer) What this quote is saying that women would go through dangerous procedures to not have a pregnancy. Its a right that all women should have because its their body, no one else's. The sad part about this is that 51% of white women in America voted for him, while not knowing that he doesn't really care about them. Grab her by the pussy! This sentence came from the man who is now in charge of the country that holds your mother, sister, and even daughter. It is going to be a rough couple of years for the American people because of the increase in misogyny, sexism, and racism amongst the divided country. Lets prove that a man like Donald cannot treat this country like one of his business deals.
Throughout the early
developments of business there was some kind of marketing strategy to get the
consumers into the producers stores. Whether if it was through the word of
mouth, painted on a wall, on a street billboard or even suggested from your
best friend, you would think about buying a product. Today advertisements are
placed onto the web were most of the worlds consumers go to. Algorithms are set
to market anything you research, for you to see some relatable advertisement in
hopes that you would buy something. The field of advertising has gone too far
because of its sexist, racist, and unfair basis towards beauty. We live in a world
were the younger generation has more access to sources like the internet and
are exposed to beauty standards that are just unfair for most to adapt to. Boys
are expected to be huge with muscle, while girls are supposed to be rail thin
with lighter features. Here is a site that proves that in-order to have a great healthy body you need the balance of both cardio and weightlifting. Here
"Ideal Standard of Beauty"
is an advertisement of a group of women marketing makeup in their underwear. What kind of message does that send to young women everywhere? That you have to be white/light skinned, thin, and almost completely naked to be beautiful. To the bottom right is a man who markets protein powder for men and sells "Big Bad Muscle". The figure not only looks disgusting but brainwashes men to believe that women love this verse of men better. The sad part of this is that both groups just want to be accepted for who they are but because of media sources like news, youtube, and many more websites allow constant advertisements; the younger generation believes this to be the norm of humans. The idea is for men to hold power physically, mentally, and economically over women. Women just have to look nice and be subservient to the beast below. The purpose of these ads are to strike an emotional vain in the boy or girl who wants to be beautiful/handsome or liked
"Ideal standard for Masculinity"
by others. "Advertisements sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be." (Kilbourne-BeautyBeast). What Kilbourne is explaining is that these ads give guidelines to human behavior and look. Not allowing any individuality and putting people into social boxes. While these companies become richer, we all follow lifestyles that are fake to our truest personalities. It is as if we are all living a lie! The most disturbing thing is that the concept of these images are found throughout popular culture. For example, in music today women are seen as sex objects and men are conditioned to be violent and care only about money. Take the artist Machine Gun Kelly. He talks about graphically having intercourse with a women and selling drugs. Another example is Kim Kardashian, who markets multiple beauty products and sell this idea of beauty to women. Teaching young girls to love the way they look and more on education. I find her to be very hypocritical because she ended up just getting famous through her looks and making a sex tape. "The image is artificial and can only be achieved artificially(even the "natural
Artificial Beauty
look" requires much preparation and expense)." (Kilbourne-BeautyBeast). Today all beauty is being artificially made. Women looking so far off to what it means to be normal. I feel bad for all men, including myself who are confused to what we would like. Is it actually someones personality or is it their looks. Even if its a women's look, what is real or what is fake. Same goes for the opposite way when it come to women viewing men.
Companies just want you're money because they know your looks matter to you. One commercial that does want you're money are the ones that try to fix you with some expensive product. For example, acne products. Once a hormonal event for teens has been backlashed with advertising as a problem for social teens. "Ads work in part by generating dissatisfaction and offering images of transformation, of a new you. This particular ad promotes dissatisfaction with traditional images and presents a new image of a more beautiful woman, a new lifestyle and identity." (Kellner-ReadingImages).
Before and After
I consume multiple outlets of media but the ones I think I go to the most are Vice News, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and the show Vikings. The ownership and the advertising effects each and every single person. For example, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube all have pop-ups ads to every new search you do. For Vikings its always some mens shaving cream advertised and Vice has random stuff. Do I believe that this could change, NO! The reason why is that these companies are making millions of dalliers off of people emotions from the shows or content. Whether its envy to become that character to thinking its a cool product. Marketing is over a million dollar industry and once money gets involved, nothing else matters to these companies.
Work Cited:
-Kilbourne, Jean. "Beauty... and the beast of advertising." (1990). -http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=773(Website)
-Kellner, Douglas. "Reading images critically: Toward a postmodern pedagogy." Postmodernism, feminism, and cultural politics (1991): 60-82.
Women in the Media
Professor: Doris Cacoilo
3/25/17
Hussein Farraj
My final project is going to be a story about my journey growing up muslim in America. Media today has made muslims throughout the world feel unwelcome and blamed them for events that they've never done. There will be scenes of my sister and mother having to make tough dississions when conflict arrived about their faith. Throughout my life my sister and mother have been my role-models. When it came to any questions I've had, I would always go to one of them because of the lack of judgement. Teaching me how to treat others, show respect, how to act, be brave, learn, and especially not to talk about matters that I know nothing about. The presentation is going to be on a website with animation, audio recordings, and even Islamic artwork with meaningful messages about women. I want to show the world what it really means to be muslim. Not what the media is portraying us to be; the real meaning of us.
List of few things I am covering:
-How Islam doesn't oppress women like how its shown in the media.
-How women are treated actually through the faith, not through cultural norms.
-How my sister and mother keeps on overcoming cultural and religions judgements about them.
-How Islam made me into the human being I am today!-It was two women who taught me Islam and they didn't give a dam on what people thought of them.
I will be covering ground in my project with quotes from the readings like the Male Gaze, Poetry is Not a Luxury, White Privilege by Peggy Macintosh, and many more quotes. The behind coding of the website will be Javascript, HTML, CSS, and a little bit of Ruby on Rails. Any other additional coding languages I will let you know through email.
What has inspired me to approach and tackle this project is because of the countless news sources like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and even Vice going to so called "Islamic political leaders" about their view of Islam. Heads ups, their views correlate to isis ideology, Is that really fair? What most people don't know is that women are the ones who pass on culture and religion to their families.
We will start our presentation with a story about one of the team memebers, they will talk about what he has been through and the reality of how people judge bassed on color. We will talk about on the most famous and american heros , captain America. People jump to conclusions with out really knowing anything. This will be followed by the importance of stories not just a single story. We will discuss topics such as Asian america in movies and Hollywood . The idea of Whitewashing will be illustread in the diffrent movies that recently came out. Moives such as Gohst in a shell and Avitar the last air bender.
Reon Chang
As we have discussed in class, advertisements can be incredibly dangerous to society and more importantly, to each individual. Advertisements, specifically commercials, can often engrain into our minds that we have to look a certain way in order to succeed in life. This rings especially true for women. It's like saying if you don't have your looks, what do you really have? And although different commercials may be selling/advertising different products, they're essentially selling the same message and idea.
For my final project, I would like to challenge these ideas. I would like to make commercials that somewhat mimics some of the commercials that I have seen in recent years. These commercials would mainly feature women that I know and they would all look different. They would be from different nationalities and body shapes. I want these commercials to be as diverse as possible. I would use sarcasm and satire in my dialogue to expose the messages commercials try to sell us. So the style of the commercial will be as close as I can possibly make it (within my budget of course), but it would be sending a different message.
I am the creator of a small company called "Get Ready Para Entretenerte".
You can know more about my company by following the Instagram and Facebook account.
Also, they can go to YouTube and see some videos published.
For my final project proposal, I am going to make a video where the theme will be "Machismo and Feminism, where we will not see who is better or create controversy, but yes, see their benefits and negative things that produce both in society".
Hello
everyone!! I have decided to change the subject because the subject I was
proposing was "Machismo and Feminism, where we will not see who is better
or create controversy, but we were going to see their benefits and negative
things that produce both in society." I have changed it since I did some
research and I do not manage to draw many beneficial things from Machismo. Then
I decided that my theme will now be "What is the impact that feminism has
created in the world and what message has left" I think this subject is
more neutral and has More things that can be talked about in general. In this
topic, we will focus on talking about different feminisms that there is both
the liberal and the radical.
I
would like to hear your thoughts about this new proposal although I started to
work on it, I hope to create a good content and message for you.
Birth is the beautiful miracle that brings people together. It is the result of two people that love each other and were free to choice what they wanted in life. Everyone things that their body is the most important thing they can control and own. This was illustrated in class when asked who owns are body almost everyone stated “me, I own my body, my body is mine.” This just illustrated that even educated college students have a strong mandate of ownership over their bodies. We don’t stop and think that our bodies are government owned. We can walk, talk, think freely and reproduce, right? Are we that free? In the past, it was evident that the government controlled every part of life. Today in the age of the cloud and E-commerce freedom is nothing but a mere illusion.
To understand any issue that society faces or any systematic problem one have to know the history behind. History is a teacher of what has occurred what happens as well as why it is happening today. Jennifer Nelson starts off in the introduction talking about history. She states."how many women of color have lost the ability to bear children through involuntary sterilizations." what rights did these women have at the time to fight back? This was something that happened and could never be taken back. As a man I am looking understand that feeling, But how can man relate to a woman might being told you will never have a child, you will never be a mother all because the government doesn't see you are "good enough.". The pain that statement causes on the psychological state of a woman is eminence. For many poor women the dream to raise a child, and through hard work get them out of poverty. Woman of color wanted to push for the right to choose. They wanted to be able to pick for themselves legal abortions not where safe.
The history is now repeating itself as Roxane Grey says " this time the witch hunt is a cynical ploy to distract the populace from the right issues." The government once again not being able to fix the real problems at hand they bring up the topic of contraception. Which is a weak fallback point.
Government has to gain strength and stop using woman as a stepping stone or a hiding stone for the bigger issues. Woman need the same rights to their bodies that man have. Man have rights that are never questioned but woman are placed under unfair pressure and impossible standards . .
Crabtree, Justina. "Here’s why there might never be a successful birth control pill for men." CNBC. CNBC, 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays. New York: Harper Perennial, 2014. Print.
Nelson, Jennifer. "Introduction - From Abortion to Reproductive Rights." Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York U Press, 2003. Print.
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. "The Next Battle in the War Over Planned Parenthood." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2017. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
