I think that I would interesting that in the Vedic era, women had more power than they do today. When the Muslim invastion happend everything changed. Before this happened women were able to be more independed. Women could have a bigger role in employment, religion, procreation, and economy. When Muslim's come in, Hindu men wanted there wifes to do what they wanted for their own safey. The two cultures see things very differently from each other.
I must say my service learning experience was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. I am so glad this class gave me the opportunity to work with an organization that means so much to me. At first I was a little hesitant about wanting to do something like service learning because of the time commitments, but after working there for this past semester I realized that it has been amazing. I plan to continue to volunteer with NARAL next semester and hopefully continue volunteering there for the rest of my college career.
For my service learning assignment for the semester, I volunteered at The Aurora Center for Advocacy & Education. The training was twenty hours in itself, which was what was required but I choose to continue to volunteer with them because of the services they provided. I volunteer as a Violence Prevention Education (VPE), which entailed facilitating trainings to student groups, classes, residence halls, and things of that nature within the university. Part of the training we do is present “The Green M&M Project, a reality based examination of myths and messages about sex, power and growing up male and female.” A lot of the things we learned were in conjunction with what was reviewed in the class, such as some of the videos like “Still Killing Us Softly”. I really found this to be rewarding and am glad to have volunteered with them because they really go out of their way to make you feel a part of their community. For instance, I am not just a volunteer who comes in, do a few hours, and am done. Instead they assign us projects of our choices, they fund it, and we have full control over the outcome. That’s one of the many reason I am choosing to continue to volunteer with them next semester.
It is great to read people's positive experiences with the service learning project. I on the other hand was not so fortunate to have a great experience. I volunteered at the St.Paul YWCA kid's club, which was the only organization that accepted me. I had a negetive experince because for one it looked like they did not need vlounteers. They had four certified teachers plus a couple tutors for about 50-60 kids. All I was asked to do was clean up after the kid's snack time. I'm sorry, but I did volunteer to clean up after children, I vlounteered to help my community. I expcetations when I was being trained in was that I would run games and activites, but rather I just cleaned.
At first I was afraid to volunteer at a nursing home because I figured I feel guilty for not going home to see my grandma as much as I'd like, but working there is the best thing I've ever done. This has been a wonderful volunteer opportunity--actually going and helping people who really appreciate and NEED the help. Never in my life have I felt so fulfilled and blessed. As I wheel the elderly to chapel in the morning, I know I'm doing God's work (not to insult any non-Christians). Their faces literally light up when they see me, and I know that I have made it possible for those who ordinarily wouldn't make it to service to make it. I have made many friends at the home, and I am just beginning to know their pain, and I now realize how important it is to not forget the elderly. Oh, and if any of you have spare time, Ebenezer could use a few extra hands; trust me...it's worth it.
when i first thought about this topic, it brought up some up some interesting points; (1) there aren't too many women in political office (2) the stereotype that portrait women as non-ambition, therefore they don't want to seek a lot of power and when they do have power they don't know how to use it in an effective way. The first issue about not having enough women image in political office does in fact have a burden on our society as a whole becuase it eliminates a lot of different perspectives that women have to say about current issues or problems and how to solve those issues and problems in america. The comment on how women don't know how to use power when they do have it just false in a way. I have seen and worked with a lot of women that have the ability to delagate and get the job done on time and did a hell of a job on it. I think the stereotype exist because sometime people tend to be confuse on how we define power and how does power being use and show in various different aspect of our life and situations.
For my service learning at FOLC, one of the events that were important to attend to was the health fair. My director emphasised that this health fair was going to take place a month before it actually happened, and it seemed like a major deal. I had visualized the whole event as hectic, with speakers grabbing audiences and trying to inform them about whatever they had to proposed. However, when I got to the health fair, I was somewhat disappointed. The health fair took place in a gymnasium and it was pretty empty looking. The booths were set up and no spectators came in. I was suppose to sit at my organization's booth, FOLC, and give them information about who we are and what our goals were, but that was kind of difficult if no one stopped by, especially that we did not have our display until 2 hours after the health fair started. We just sat there the whole entire time and it definitely was not how I imagined it.
For my service learning at FOLC, one of the events that were important to attend to was the health fair. My director emphasised that this health fair was going to take place a month before it actually happened, and it seemed like a major deal. I had visualized the whole event as hectic, with speakers grabbing audiences and trying to inform them about whatever they had to proposed. However, when I got to the health fair, I was somewhat disappointed. The health fair took place in a gymnasium and it was pretty empty looking. The booths were set up and no spectators came in. I was suppose to sit at my organization's booth, FOLC, and give them information about who we are and what our goals were, but that was kind of difficult if no one stopped by, especially that we did not have our display until 2 hours after the health fair started. We just sat there the whole entire time and it definitely was not how I imagined it.
This insert brings to mind several important ideas about our current invovlment in the Middle East. Kristof dictates that Arab countries are very repressive of women, and that we should be aware and critical of this. However, it's a very black and white perspective on the repression of MIddle Eastern women. In doig this, he is obscuring the complexities of the situation, and creating a polarization. The way in which Westerners pervasively represent and then control our "others" is only CAST as a way to "help" them, we're there to civilize and enlighten then. These representations then become dichotomous. It is the characterizations (we are rational, accurate, etc. and "they" are wrong) we make that seperates us. Also, we cannot simply understand others in terms of culture. We need to consider the broad range of politcal and economic contexts surrounding the issues.
I really enjoyed this piece. I know that I am guily of believing that all muslim women are forced to wear thier veil if they were raised in the middle east. Of course this stereotype was a result of reading many artices that clump all of the people from the middle east as one type of person. Now after reading this I realized just how flawed it is to take what one reads as all factual. I almost felt dumb for not knowing that people from Iraq would not necessarily be like the people from Saudi Arabia. Its just like here, I'm from Minnesota and I live my life much differently than say a person from Hollywood or from Mexico.
When I first came into this class and found out that I had to volunteer for 2 hours every week I thought that I it was going to be a drag and that I would not have time for it. I am actually quite pleased at how I actually really enjoyed volunteering and it gave me chance to actually give back to the community down here. Back at home I was always active in volunteering and it was good for me to be forced to go out and look for a way to help others. Working for Ronald McDonald has been a great experience and everybody there is just so friendly and considerate. The kids I work with are dolls and everytime I walk away from there I feel fortunate. So many people take their lives for granted, I include myself, but when you see the faces of the kids it reminds you to do the best you can. I will continue volunteering my time to help the House next semester!!
In regards to the essay about women as artists:
I guess I've never really thought about the lack of famous female artists before reading this. I mean, it's never bothered me at least. Back in the days of Picasso, VanGogh, DaVinci, etc., I'm not surprised at all that there were few female artists...there really weren't many female professions. Today, I don't know of any famous male artists either, so I can't say that I don't hear of female artists because they're female. The fact is I hear of no artists.
I also thought it was interesting how the author discussed how artists become so good at what they do mostly by teaching and situation. Women, never having access to any education and whose situation was pretty dreary for many years, couldn't develop any skill; therefore, people, taught that these magnificient male artists were born with extrodinary talent, thought that women lacked that "gold nugget" of ability. I guess this is somewhat true, but there have been many artists and writers who never had education. Take Jane Austen for example. No one knew who she was, and she hadn't been educated beyond what all other women generally were during the Georgian period, and look at what she created. I guess I see both sides of this debate.
I would have to agree with Deborah, below, I also always think of female when I hear the occupation artist and I don’t know why, because it is very true that in school we only studied male artists. I can name many male artists in history that are believed to be the greatest of all time, but I can’t really say I know of one truly famed female artist in history and yet I know there must have been some. So when I ask myself where are all the female artists I begin to think about Shakespeare’s sister in the Virginia Woolf’s piece we read. There must have been plenty of women who had artistic talent in history and yet they were unable to express themselves because society created a world where having that talent was not proper. This is very frustrating for me to think about because this would mean there is so much wasted talent in the world that no one will ever get to experience or discuss.
I guess I’ve never really questioned why there are no great women artists, but at the same time when I look at artists in relation to the ones described in this reading I tend to think of women. I know there are a lot of well known men as artists, but for some reason I associate the job as a female profession. I guess it’s one of those stereotypes that stick through, which brings me to my next point. I found the article about gender stereotyping to be interesting. I guess I never really questioned why I say certain things as well as their double meanings. Such as saying “I am going out with the girls”. Also it is very true how one can come up with a million things to degrade women, yet very little for men doing the same things. I know sometimes my friends and I would call each other names in a playful ways and get upset when someone else uses them towards us. I suppose from this point I should really think through what comes out of my mouth if I don’t want others to call me something.
It talks about how women should act. There are white women that should act like ladies and there is black women that should do the house work for the ladies. Ladies should do what their husbands want and nothing more. Ladies should make sure that their house cleaners are doing the work that they should be doing. There should no longer be ladies, the world needs to have women. Women can be themselves and can feel better about themselves because they are doing what they want to do. Being a lady is nothing more than being something that someone else wants you to be.
The discussion on pornography on Wednesday I thought bought some interesting point. One on the issue of why would any women wants to sell her body? The most general stereotyped reasons are money gain or being force into it. Under some circumstances those reasons are correct, but could there be other reasons. I was thinking about the idea of getting ‘attention’ from another person. I not talking about sexual attention so they could have sex when ever they want, but using their body as a way to feel the gratification of being ‘wanted’. In general I don’t have any problem with people exploiting or selling their body because it’s their choice and life. What they want to do for a career and how they going to do it is up to them and I think as long as you know why you are doing it, who care about what others have to say.