Women's Studies Journal-JB

Aurora Center sponsors Speak

2007-04-17T22:03:30Z

I attended an event sponsored by the Aurora Center on April 16, 2007. The film Speak was shown to help raise awareness about sexual assault and rape. The movie itself was intense and frighteningly real, but it was the discussion following the movie that really moved me to want to do something about sexual assault. There were a number of audience members that had experienced rape before and their stories made my heart ache for them. One of the major questions raised during the discussion was how we could help fight sexual assault in our day to day lives. The most important piece of information that I learned was that we cannot be afraid to come right out and talk to our friends/family if we suspect that they might have gone through some form of abuse. This is especially true in the case of high school aged children because they don't know how to ask for help; we have to help them first. Also, we need to start raising awareness about sexual assault because awareness=prevention.

Wives Confess They're Gay

2007-03-07T22:31:24Z

On Oprah yesterday, March 6, 2007, Oprah interviewed wives who had been married for years before deciding to come out to their husbands. One story in particular had the entire audience in shock. Chris had been married for seven years, living the American dream with a husband, Joe, and two kids, and one day she decided she was being untrue to herself. She came out to her husband and told him that she was a lesbian. The couple tried to work things out, but eventually they divorced. Four years after the divorce, and this was the shocking part, Joe came out that he, too, was gay. Chris and Joe had gotten married, despite feeling for the same sex because they wanted to be a part of the American dream. One has to question, is the dream even a reality?

The Tyra Show

2007-02-21T23:34:23Z

On The Tyra Banks show yesterday, February 20, 2007, Tyra featured transgendered teenagers. I found the show to be very interesting. Most of the teens interviewed were part of a documentary, Odd Ones Out. I didn't catch all of the interviews, but I was moved by how courageous these teenagers were. To be born into the "wrong gender" is something I can't imagine going through. I was also moved by the compassion of these people's families. While it was a shock to the parents to hear that their daughters/sons wanted to trade genders at first, one father described it as mourning the death of a child, they have learned to accept it. Regardless of gender, a child is still a child, a person is still the person that they always have been. I think that this is a concept that more people need to accept.

http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/show_recaps/yesterday_recap.html

Are you a Feminist?

2007-02-20T01:39:33Z

I found this video on YouTube. A man went around the streets asking women what feminism meant to them. I was surprised by some of the responses. I'm sure a lot of people have heard the stereotypes before. Feminists are angry whining lesbians, etc. One women even went so far to say, "Feminism is a radical idea that women are people."There were some intelligent responses though, too. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7BO1PMg-78

SISTAHs

2007-02-13T03:21:00Z

In the February 8, 2007 issue of the Minnesota Daily, Healther L. Mueller writes about the small group of black women who call themselves SISTAH (Spiritually Intellectual Sisters Together Achieving Harmony). The group was created in the hopes of gathering support for women of color on the Twin Cities campus. The group primarily deals with issues of school, dating, spirituality, sexism, and racism. One of the student members of the group expressed her feelings that "women need to stand together to build a stronger academic and social community for students of color."

Same-Sex Marriage

2007-02-13T03:09:57Z

In the February 12, 2007 issue of the Minnesota Daily, Justin Jagoe wrote about "The Right to Marry: Who is Really at Risk?". Jagoe is the treasurer of the Queer Student Cultural Center. Basically, he writes about the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He speaks out in opposition to Christians against gay marriage saying "Your values as a spiritual person can only become stronger by testing what you believe". I guess, being a Christian myself, I found Jagoe's article to be offensive. While I might be in the minority when I'm a Christian and still consider homosexuality to be just another form of love, much like the love between a man and a woman, I disagree with Jagoe saying that we need to "test our faith".

MADDADS

2007-02-13T03:02:50Z

For my Women's Studies class, we were told to find something related to course material that was going on in the Twin Cities. I found an organization called MADDADS, which stands for Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder. I thought that this organization pertained to Womens and Gender Studies because the group is seeking to "bring about positive change, and encourages, motivates and guides committed men and women in the struggle to save children, communities and themselves from the social ills that presently plague neighborhoods." Especially since we have talked about social class and how it leads to oppression of people of lower socioeconomic status; MADDADS is trying to change the world for the better. They are like feminists in this way, seeking to end oppression and create positive role models for America's youth.

http://www.mplsmaddads.org/mission.html

Borat..."It's Nice?"

2007-02-06T03:24:15Z

This weekend, I was fooled into watching Borat. This movie was incredibly offensive to women. One scene from the movie in particular stands out in my memory where Borat is hitchhiking with some college students. The college students repeatedly make remarks about never letting a woman be in charge of you, women are stupid whores, etc.. I couldn't believe that any "educated" person would say such ridiculous things! The movie depicted women as men's property/items that could be bought for their enjoyment. For instance, Borat celebrates when his wife dies, talks about going to California to have Pamela Anderson's "vagine", and his love interest at the end of the movie is a prostitute.

This movie isn't only offensive to women; it features derogatory remarks about homosexuals and Jewish people, too. Before watching the movie, I was told by friends, " Don't go to it in theaters. Rent it so that you can laugh at all the parts without feeling guilty for thinking it's funny." Personally, I found the movie to be too distasteful to have any sort of comedic merit.

Choices

2007-02-06T02:59:57Z

Who doesn't love procrastinating in class by reading the Minnesota Daily? I was doing just that when I found this article "Student groups celebrate women's right to choose" written by Amber Scadewald on Tuesday, January 23, 2007. The article talks about the University Pro-Choice Coalition's efforts to raise awareness about women's reproductive rights. The reason for raising this awareness: it's the 34th anniversary of the decision of Roe v. Wade.
The Coalition's main agenda at the second annual "Rock for Roe" concert was to get out the idea that "Seventy-seven percent of anti-abortion leaders are men, 100 percent of them will never get pregnant." The coalition wanted to make sure that students could realize and become aware of what it was like to live in a time when abortions weren't legally available.

]]> The article goes on to talk about how the UPCC (University Pro-Choice Coalition) was created and why. According to the Coalition's creator, "the group's mission is to educate and raise awareness of pro-choice issues, safe-sex xpractices, pregnancy options, birth control and contraceptives and pro-choice legislation."