GWSS 1001 - Gender, Power, and Everday Life

My knowledge of women’s movements for the creation of political and/or social changes is pretty limited, and I admit it not without some shame, since I am interested in history and women’s issues, and I feel I should have known by now much more than what I currently know. My sources of knowledge are pretty much the same ones mentioned in our last class meeting- the media, educational system, culture, books, movies and experiences (as well as many other sources).
My historical knowledge of women’s movements is also restricted to mostly (or only?) western or European branches of feminisms, but I know that there are many more historical processes that occurred away from the European-scene or the western-oriented study of women’s social movements.

Continue reading "The Construction of Women’s Movement History" »

Posted by Athesit-feminist at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coming into this class I felt I was going to be one of the only people who knew so little about women’s history. I can not remember being in high school and really learning much about women’s history. All our social studies classes were built around American and world history and the only thing we would hear about women’s history would be a brief overview of how women gained the right to vote. I did not even really know about suffragists or what they actually did to gain these rights.

Continue reading "Women History" »

Posted by Abbey Carson at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In all of my history classes in middle school and high school the only text about the women’s movement was that of the suffragette movement. The amou8nt of text devoted to this subject was relatively small compared to other subjects such as: wars, expansion, and industrialization. It is as if once women gained the right to vote everything was fixed and there no need to further discuss the subject. It really is about who writes history and what is included and what things are left out.

Continue reading "cleopatra was more than just sexy" »

Posted by Jerry at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading this essay, I have to say I find it disturbing and frustrating that most of our sources of information are written, edited and controlled by men. After all the work and fighting that women have done, the physical and verbal abuse the feminist women have had to endure, and they still don’t have a voice that reaches the masses of people the way that men and anti-feminists do. Our family has always subscribed to “TIME” magazine. I always thought it was one of the better sources of information because it seems to be held in such high regard among national news sources. I never would have thought that their stories could be so skewed, or that they would choose to report only certain sides of stories.

Continue reading "Educated Ignorance" »

Posted by Desiree Guida at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What we know of the women's movement is learned from the narratives of our foremothers, (and forefathers). Manifesta's timeline gives an account of women's fight for access to politics and the right to vote along with accounts of feminist role models, such as Rosa Parks. In a historical narrative, that which is not included is as important as that which is. Manifesta's timeline is an accurate detailed account of feminism in America, but it does not consider feminism outside of a western context. The timeline also has few entries listed before 1835. I own a great book that I highly recommend for those interested in early feminists called Uppity Women of Shakespearean Times. This is another historical account of feminism that is not limited to the stories of 19th and 20th century feminists. I will try to remember to bring this book to class.

Continue reading "History as Narrative" »

Posted by Eve Kodner at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As I skimmed through the entries for this week's blog I feel that most people are at the same general level...I don't know much about women's history and the women's movement...which I can also say I describe myself in that category. Freshman year here at the U I took a pretty general history class from mid 1800's until the present. We read tons of articles and watched movie clips and viewed pictures from all periods of time but I felt the strongest emphasis was on the women's movement. Throughout the semester we were told to pick a movie off of her list and write a paper on how it had been modernized. Of the movies a friend and I chose "Iron Jawed Angels" solely because it was the only one we could find at Blockbuster on that given day. After watching it both of us had pages of notes with dates and names, areas including the music and the sex/love story that made it more modern...but also areas that really hit us just because we knew very little about what women had went through back in the 1920's as they fought for equal rights.

Continue reading "despite how easily we can make fun of dolls and movies, they really are beneficial" »

Posted by michelle lynn at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

History is vital to know and understand because where we come from and what we have been through is what defines us, what makes us who we are today.

Continue reading "The Importance of Historical Awareness" »

Posted by coffee drinker at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Right now, I'm listening to Frank Sinatra. Most people with an ear know his voice, but I'm willing to suppose that few know that he's said to have agreed with Reaganist Republicanism on most issues-- except for abortion. (In fact, Kitty Kelly alleged in a much-contested biography that his mother was a "part-time abortionist.") I love taking note of the things the history books don't tell, especially since that pile of knowledge is pretty large. American education—cultural and institutional—teaches what it wants to (what the government and media want it to), and that is often neither the entire story or what we need to know.

At the beginning of Manifesta's timeline is "The First Supper," a hypothetical gathering of biblical women. That would be one seriously small party. As Salma Hayek's character in the film Dogma says, "The whole book's gender-biased. A woman's responsible for original sin. A woman cuts Samson's coif of power. A woman asks for the head of John the Baptist. Read that book again sometime. Women are painted as bigger antagonists than the Egyptians and Romans combined."

The meaning of her statement isn't limited to the Bible. But why were women subordinated? Why are they? And whose stupid idea was that?

That's the kind of thing history should figure out, and, you know, get back to us.

Continue reading "A complaint" »

Posted by SuperTree at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I remember when I was younger I didn't give much thought to the fact that most of history is about men. When I got older I started to realize that maybe the reason that there is little mention of women in history is not because there weren't women that were making history or trying to, but because men write history, and get to decide what is "history" or not.

Continue reading "" »

Posted by Alex at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As stated in my last blog I wasn’t ever really too informed with what has happened with the women’s movement unless it was taught to me in a history class back in high school. The two biggest accomplishments that I can remember learning about were the women getting the right to vote in 1920 and Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat in the front of a bus in 1955. Other things such equal pay rights and protests and things of that nature were taught as well, but not nearly as in depth. Looking back on it though I feel as though they were not taught correctly or details were left out. When you learn about women getting the right to vote you never really hear about what they had to go through to get there. The fights that started, the arrests that were made, and the stuff the women actually had to go through to get that right are never really brought up. As one of the clips we watched said……we were taught as if the rights were just given to them not that they had to work their butts off and sacrifice to get it. It just seems as though we are leaving out necessary details when being taught about these things, which ultimately doesn’t allow us to grasp the concept completely or be able to fully understand what it was like for women to live through those horrible times.

Continue reading "Women's Movement Knowledge" »

Posted by Clayton Gripp at 07:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Throughout my education, the women’s movement and women’s history were not popular topics mentioned or discussed in great detail. It wasn’t until I entered college that I started to hear on campus and see visual displays of women’s history and the great movement. Although I didn’t take the opportunity to participate in any of the groups, I strongly believe that every student should be educated about the history of women, their movement, and many other topics that are overshadowed in curriculums. If schools were to introduce these topics properly, I feel that there would be less ignorance towards these topics in the future; its topics that people don’t know about that create unawareness and lack of knowledge.

Although I felt all events and topics in both Manifesta’s Timeline and American Girls should be included in curriculums in schools, a few stood out in particular for me:

1. “1860: New York’s Married Woman’s Property Act gives wives the same right to own property that is enjoyed by their husbands, and gives women the right to joint custody of their children” (Manifesta, 324). This was the first time I even heard about such an act, much less understand and appreciate the importance of it. Relationships between women and children, I believe, are much stronger than that of men and children so this act certainly proved their right to take part in their children’s lives.

Continue reading "Creating more awareness" »

Posted by Lauren Alms at 04:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading the assigned chapters from Manifesta I felt empowered and after some more reflection I wondered, where were all the feminists in my high school and college education? In high school I maybe heard about one or two outstanding women who were considered to be in the same category as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or Gandhi, but I definitely don’t remember them since they really did not stand out to me then; I am almost 21 and I am now learning about women who kick ass. I am reminded of a friend asking me, “Why are you taking intro to women’s studies? I am sure you will learn stuff but why exactly does there need to be a major/minor?" I guess I am still trying to figure out an answer to his question, but after reading two chapters of Manifesta I feel simultaneously encouraged to do what I can to further feminism and sad that I am learning some very important events in history for the first time.

Continue reading "Thanks for nothing, high school!" »

Posted by Bethany Khan at 04:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading the "readings" so far, I've gotten a lot better of an idea what women have gone through to get to where we are today. It's funny that one person blogged "I'm glad I'm not living in the 1950s," because that had always been the era I would've loved to go back to.

Continue reading "Haven't made it far enough" »

Posted by JMP at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own”, she invents Judith, Shakespeare’s hypothetical sister of equal genius, to stress the ways in which women were mistreated and undervalued and to highlight the intense discrepancies between the lives of men and women. Whereas Shakespeare received a high-quality education and the opportunity to make a successful career for himself as a writer, his sister was screwed out of an education, betrothed, and beaten. Judith felt compelled to run away to follow her dream only to be laughed at, ridiculed, and impregnated by a man who regarded her as a charity case. Woolf takes the bold position that “any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at.” A similar point is made in “Iron Jawed Angels” when the psychologist declares after speaking with Alice Paul that “courage is often mistaken for insanity in women.” Judy Chicago’s feminist piece, The Dinner Party (1979), seeks to raise awareness of the actions of the women’s movement by recognizing the work of various celebrated females. This sculpture of a dinner table has thirty-nine placemats dedicated to famous women in history. The Manifesta timeline offers unknown facts and small but important details through a very full and comprehensive account of women and their actions over the ages.

All of these works emphasize the struggles, misconceptions, and earned achievements of females but I fail to understand why I didn’t learn about any of these things in school until now.

Continue reading "reconstruction of history" »

Posted by taylor at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Prior to taking this course, I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about the history of the women’s movement. I had some basic knowledge of the fight for women’s suffrage rights during the early-mid 1900s and about the ongoing fight for women’s reproductive rights with respect to effective contraception and abortion. However, without taking this class, I would have never found out about other important dates. Prior to 1860, women weren’t allowed joint custody of their children. This is something I find quite ironic since in the typical American family the mother is thought of as the “caregiver”. Also, I find it interesting that the first woman to head a presidential cabinet did so in 1933, 74 years ago, and a woman has still yet to be President of the United States. I also think that it’s a good idea to know about some of the lesser known events of the women’s movement, the seemingly smaller things that add up to really mean something. These such events include the starting of female athletic teams, sexual harassment rights, universal daycare, etc.. The ongoing struggle for women’s rights puzzles me…why does it seem as though we are reversing the things that previous generations of women fought so hard for? For instance, when considering the issue of abortion, Roe v. Wade happened in 1973, giving women the right to safe and legal abortions. Women have held the slogan “Our Bodies, Ourselves” for years, why is it that today, people are trying to reverse the decision? I would think that my generation would be more liberal and understanding than that. I think that it is important that more of these women’s studies’ events be taught to children in school. That way, the women’s movement won’t face the retreat into history that it faces now.

Posted by Jessie Baglien at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The American girl doll are obviously stereotypical versions of each group of girls that they are trying to represent. Sometimes these stereotypes are pretty close to reality. Kirsten’s similarity to myself kind of freaks me out. To start with we have the same last name. She is Swedish American and I am also of Swedish/Norwegian decent my grandfather coming over from Norway when he was young. We also both live in Minnesota and have that wishy-washy blonde/brown hair. I suppose that is not too strange since those are all pretty common characteristics to find in Minnesota. However this could give young girls the wrong idea allowing them to stereotype other girls into categories based on what they know about the dolls. Obviously not everyone relates so closely to these dolls.

Continue reading "American Girl" »

Posted by Tyra at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is really difficult for me to admit any flaws in the American Girl Dolls because like a lot for other girls, I loved them. Like Kari, I can remember getting the magazines and although I never had a doll, I read all of the books and thought they were amazing. When I looked ahead at the class syllabus and saw that we were touring the American Girl website in class I was confused because at the time, I couldn’t think of anything wrong with them, they were good role models. After reading the articles and thinking more about it, I can see that the American Girls I loved so much are missing something.

Continue reading "American Girl's History" »

Posted by Kirsten at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In school the history of the women’s movement wasn’t spoken about, the only thing that I heard about was suffrage, but I didn’t understand what women had to go through to get the right to vote. History was never something that I paid attention to in school, because it was never taught in a way that I could understand. So many things didn’t fit, so many people were left out and I learned early on that the history I was going to be taught was going to leave a lot of people and events out, that stories were going to be changed to fit patriotism and American pride and that the books that I would flip through would show white faces and any people of color, of different class, sex, orientation, borders, language, and so on would be silenced. What I needed to know about everyone in this world wasn’t available to me until I was ready to think and learn for myself.

Continue reading "The wrong history" »

Posted by Abby Newberg at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout my course of education, starting from elementary to high school, history was not my favorite subject. As an Asian American, I had soon realized that history is merely a story told from the winner’s point of view. Although there are facts within the story, most of the other important aspects are missing. The idea that the subject has only put the emphasis on such so called courageous “white” men is simply unforgivable. In other words, there were many elements and especially, many other people that had made tremendous contribution to those historic events. Thus, I am still surprised that not many changes have been made to what we are taught in school. Besides the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War I and II, I had not learned much about anything else. The only time that I was taught about women’s movement was about 1920, the year that women had gained the right to vote. Similarly, even if the subject of women’s movement was mentioned, it was not in depth. It was not like we had to memorize the words to the Preamble or the name of each president in the United States.
Furthermore, another aspect about history that really bothers me was the fact that it never talk about other race. For instance, you don’t find that many history books writing about the gold rush and more specifically the barbaric condition that Chinese people had to endure during the building of the transcontinental railroad. Also, history had forgotten to include the many misery and details that the Vietnamese had to suffer through the Vietnam War. We were given only a brief overview as to what happened but not exactly how and why. Sadly, it wasn’t until college that I had decided to learn more by taking classes to focus especially on those subjects.
Thus in conclusion, I strongly believe that changes should be made in the way history is taught. Students should be able to learn about more than one perspective. Likewise, history should be about the exact description of the whole picture rather than the selective part of what had happened. Simply stated, history needs to include women and other races.

Posted by Thuy Pham at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know that women have been fighting a hard battle for a very long time, for equality. As for the specific dates and accomplishments of women, I know that I am naïve to the huge influence the women’s movement has had on society. Women’s history is far more extensive than I have ever been taught in any classroom. Women as a whole, as a movement and a history, have wrongfully been overlooked in my education. We, being any person who is being educated, should learn of the rights that were earned by women, the accomplishments that have been made, and the powerful women of our past. Rosa Parks, Sacagawea, Susan B. Anthony, these are the women that come to mind when I think of strong, influential women. Yet, these women represent so many women who are constantly ignored. Media presents women as eye candy, not as activists. The activists that are represented are the women who fit the horrible stereotypes that have turned so many people away from the women’s movement.

Continue reading "History in the making" »

Posted by Hanna Mosca at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I read through other people’s entries, I noticed a debate discussing how much women should be included in our history textbooks. Some people thought they were severely lacking while others believe they should be less prominent than men because it has just been recently in history that women have made huge societal impacts and changes. As I thought about this issue more, I came to realize that I was never impressed by the women that were listed in the textbooks because of the factual style of schoolbooks.

Continue reading "More Than Dates and Names" »

Posted by Rebecca Stoffs at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What history was I taught in school? I was taught the basics about all our wars; the who’s who of generals, battle sites and death tolls. I was taught to memorize the presidents, vice presidents and random facts about their administration. I was taught that Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and FDR were very important men. With all this emphasis on facts, dates and figures of men in our countries history, I noticed that there was an obvious lack of women representation.

Continue reading "Selective Histories 1001" »

Posted by Mr. Hilton at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first glanced at the assignment, I figured the point trying to be made was to have me look back at my life and realize how little I knew about the history of women in our society. After reading most of the other posts, I realized my high school must have done a pretty good job with teaching me about women’s history. So I started to think of specific examples of this. In my world history class, I remember taking a few weeks out of the year to evaluate what was going on in the world through the eyes of a woman. We usually did this with a series of videos, group projects, or writing assignments that focused on an era we were covering at the time. But what did each of these assignments have in common? Each assignment required us to learn about the information via media like the web, or television. I learned about the history of women in our society through the media, not because my teachers were lazy, but because our textbooks were just too pathetic. Bits of women’s history is scattered throughout the book, but how often do you make it through a full history textbook in a year? So from events in history involving Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul to more recent events such as the WNBA and the issues with abortion, the media has been my “teacher”.
I was also able to find information about women’s history in a class where I least expected it; Spanish. An important aspect of understanding Spanish is to understand the masculine vs. feminine form of nouns. Men and women are complete opposites when it comes to Spanish-speaking countries. But where women had their movement in the United States, there was no movement for the women in Spain. I believe that if a student wishes to understand the true history of women, they need to learn about feminism and its history throughout the world. Each generation of students has the opportunity to see feminism evolve over and over again in countries where women are still seen as the submissive being. So I think it is important for students to be in touch with the media in order to learn about new developments and movements occurring around the world.

Posted by Tony Reuter at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was disappointed in High School when I graduated, feeling like I had not learned anything about what I really wanted to know. As a young adult, they teach you the basics: “you need to know Algebra in case you end up working in a field of Math or Science. You should take a gym class because healthy people get jobs. Let's throw in a few English classes so you don't look like a fool trying to write a resume. Oh, and History...just so you know what kind of MEN helped to build the society in which you live today.” Give me a break! I wasn't getting anywhere and became frustrated with teachers' and their damn textbook's ideas that men were the only people I should care to learn about! (Because, duh..obviously they are the reason I am here today!)

Continue reading "Missing pieces in history?" »

Posted by Jen Smith at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Throughout all of my history classes even back to junior high school, I have little to no recollection of a women’s movement or specific events in women’s history because of the way they were taught if they were taught at all. Although we discussed the women’s suffrage movement in my US history class, it really didn’t stick with me. There may have been a mention of Alice Paul, but I don’t remember it. This was one of the only times in the whole class that women’s rights and women’s advocates were at center stage, and it was briefly skimmed over. There was nothing within the teaching that provided anything to leave a lasting impression. There were no stories of hunger strikes in prison. There were no stories of women protestors going to the hospital after being beaten as the police just stood by watching.

Continue reading "The way women's history is taught..." »

Posted by Derek Blanchard at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout my middle school and high school career, I learned a multitude of facts about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Holocaust the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Red Scare, the Civil Rights Movement and other “significant” events in history. While I do not deny each of these events played a part in forming the American society we live in today, I can’t understand how the Women’s Rights Movement wasn’t worthy of our studies. I could tell you hundreds of minor details about each of King Henry VIII’s wives, but all I can tell you about the women’s history is that Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor in the United States, and the Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton held the first women’s rights convention in America. Other than those brief paragraphs in my history books, all of which had entire chapters on the Civil Rights Movement, I was clueless when it came to the Women’s Movement.

Continue reading "It Wasn't "Significant" Enough..." »

Posted by Amanda Leibovitz at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

History is written by men. All you need to do is look at the word: HIS story. History is also written by the victors and since women have recently been gaining voice, we have found a small place within history. Women are found in history books and philosophical writings; however, it is not their voices. For example, Aristotle, a philosopher studied extensively, states, "The male is naturally fitter to command than the female, except where there is some departure from nature...We must therefore hold that what the poet said of women 'A modest silence is a woman's crown' contains a general truth - but a truth which does not apply to men" (Aristotle, Politics). When taking a history class, one does not learn events from a women’s point of view, unless it is specifically a women’s history class. Events are studied from the patriarchal perspective. History guides thought and action today. I take it, then, as no surprise when men today believe what ancient philosophers did. As an example, Tucker Carlson, in an interview about the Duke Lacrosse rape case with Wendy Murphy, stated that, "The testimony of an ordinary person is different from the testimony of someone who hires herself out to dance naked in front of and, yes, sometimes sleep with ... strangers...It's OK to have a bias against strippers in this case, isn't it?...I'm merely saying that her testimony about matters of sex is to be taken by ordinary commonsense people a little differently than the testimony of someone who isn't a crypto-hooker." Although statements like this shock and infuriate me, I can understand where it comes from. I believe that history should be addressing events not only from the victor’s point of view, but all points of view. Especially for recent events. It would be ridiculous for only men to document all events dealing with or around abortion clinics or violations against women’s rights. As a feminist, I write because I don’t want history to be only HIS story. I think its time for herstory.

Posted by Jessica Englund at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This prompt immediately made me think back to a conversation I had a few months ago with my friend Naomi. She mentioned that in her high school, the United States history curriculum was set up in such a say that women were emphasized (chosen in context among all of the usual men studied, and highlighted for their ‘importance’ as a way of ‘giving women a say’). My friend said that this tactic essentially ignored the voicelessness of women in history, and actually made them seem less important in comparison by profiling them according to lesser historical deeds. So: is this a good idea or a bad one?

Continue reading ""They were important, we swear!"" »

Posted by Annie at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To satisfy my CLA history core, which I was not excited about, I decided to take a HIS/WOST course. I learned about the exact same time periods and issues that teachers taught in high school; however, everything I learned in the WOST course was completely new material for me. I am absolutely appalled at the fact that I had never stopped and wandered what the women were up to during this "history" school "taught", and even more appalled that schools can get away with only teaching half of the real story. For this assignment, I've decided to look through my notes of the real history WOST course and refresh my mind of what I had learned. I picked out a few of the most important people and the issues that they stood for. Of course, there are millions of others that should be mentioned, and hundreds that I could mention, but I only have room for a few:

Continue reading "Who I Should Have Learned About in High School" »

Posted by Lauren Mulvey at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The main theme in the womens movement that I know of and had known of before this class started was women gaining the right to vote. Growing up in this day in age, its hard for me to picture women not being able to vote. Today, we are all told of how important it is to have a voice in our countries matters. Women for years have been trying to push their way up in social status. Gaining the right to vote was defiantly the first of many huge advances to help women have more freedom. Currently, there are still many people who dont believe that women have the right to reproductive freedom. Abortions are still a huge controversy in the world. I do agree with abortion in some instances. For example, rape, incest or if the birth of the baby is going to harm the health of the women giving birth of the baby itself. I do not agree with the use of an abortion as a means of birth control. For example, a way to get out of a sticky situation. However, women have made huge advances throughout the years with the use of birth control and other contraceptives. I find it surprising today that there are some women who arent on the The Pill. Mainly because it is so easily accesible today. I think its amazing that women have the power and the will to bring themselves up in society.

Posted by Kimberly Zier at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

History is written by man; with this knowledge we can conclude that it will be flawed, censored, and exclusive. Sooner or later we all realized that Mr. Columbus wasn’t at all the “great” discoverer we once thought he was. Rather, we found out he exploited, raped, and murdered humans in an effort to “unite” and “understand”…(lest we not forget he was also a horrible navigator- thinking America was actually India). So you bet I am pissed that there is a national holiday esteeming this man. Not only this, but I began questioning the validity of history all together, and I still do...

Continue reading "How censorship beautifies history...and other speculations." »

Posted by Stephanie Taylor at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Tuesday night brought back some fond memories of me when I was little and was obsessed with American Dolls. I remember reading all of the American Doll books; my favorite was Molly’s stories (I don’t think that Kit and Kaya were actual characters yet.) I remember getting the magazine every month and my sister and I circling all the things we wanted, which was just about everything. Once we read all the stories, my mom said we could get a doll, like Rachel’s daughter, my sister and I didn’t want the historical characters especially not the slave doll or the poor doll. Instead, we chose the dolls that looked like us with the cute clothes, not the ugly rag-doll dresses. I even had a basketball outfit with high-top basketball shoes just like mine for my doll named Emily.

Continue reading "Fond Memories with American Dolls" »

Posted by Kari Kummer at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

No one has really picked at the American Girl dolls yet, so I guess I will take a stab at it. My sister had quite a few American girl dolls growing up; she had all the books and clothes to go with them. I remember her reading about the lives of each doll she owned and really enjoying the books. After class on Tuesday, I called my sister right away and asked her if she remembered all the books and the history contained in them.

Continue reading "Dolls." »

Posted by Kevin Oran at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before this class, I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that our sources of historical information are generally controlled (and censored, for that matter) by bell hooks’ beloved “mainstream white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” For this reason, much of what I knew of the women’s movement has been watered down or oversimplified. The media or the textbook writers have enormous power over their audience because people tend to trust these sources and regard their information as fact. Historical events are not always black and white, and these sources can control the way they present the information to manipulate the impression on the audience.

Continue reading "Mary Poppins and Hilary Swank" »

Posted by Jesse at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Like many people, I have been unaware of the complete history of women and their struggle(s) for rights in this country. I know we won the right to vote in 1920 but I did not know that “on November 2, more than right million American women voted for the first time” (Manifesta Timeline). It still shocks me that for hundreds of years women were living in this country, contributing what they were allowed to contribute but were still not seen as first-class citizens. According to the Manifesta timeline, “in 1860 – New York’s Married Woman’s Property Act gives wives the same right to own property that is enjoyed by their husbands, and gives women the right to joint custody of their children”. Women were not allowed the custody of their children? How did the government think children were born? Did the father pick them up at the butcher shop?

Continue reading "Why did I not know that?" »

Posted by Kate Kidwell at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I started taking this class, I didn’t really know much about the women’s movement, or about women’s history for that matter. I never really gave much thought to why I knew so little about this topic. I guess I just looked at this class as an opportunity, which I was excited about, to learn more about the women’s movement and women’s history. Now, after reading “The Big Lie” and “Why Fixing the Media Should Be on the Feminist Agenda”, I have a little different opinion on the fact that I haven’t learned much about feminism until this class. I have changed from, excited to learn more but ignorant when I started, to eager still to learn more but upset that I knew so little to start with.

Continue reading "Textbooks, a source of United States history.....well sort of." »

Posted by KIS at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before taking this class, I hadn’t really heard much of anything on feminism. Sure, I had acquired some news about their strength in fighting for our right to vote, but other than suffragists, I had no idea who they were, much less if I was even one of them. I had always wondered what it would have been like back then, but I never thought to myself that what they were fighting for years ago is still being fought for today. Not until entering this class had I received any information on their issues.
I mean, you hear all these stories about parades, protests, banners, and flags, but did that really show me what feminism was all about? The truth is, you don’t get much information on feminists and the issues they are fighting for from your average information resources. And the few articles and TV shows that do share feminisms from popular sources aren’t even hosted or presented by feminists. It may be about feminism, but it’s rarely from the feminist’s mouth.

Continue reading "It may be about feminism, but it's rarely from the feminist's mouth." »

Posted by Mikaela at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember to post by noon on Monday 2/5!

Instructions -

In a 300-500 word post, address one (or more) of the ideas in the following prompt:

What do you know of the women’s movement and/or women’s history? What should we know/learn? What are some of the sources of our historical learning? Who/what constructs our knowledge of and/or views of history and more specifically, of women's history?

You may want to post about key events included (or not included) on Manifesta’s Timeline or update the recent years (the Timeline ends in 2002).

OR

You may want to analyze who/what is included (or not included) in history according to American girl dolls (and accessories).

Click on the banner to tour the Historical American Girl characters:

OR

You may want to think about how Hollywood narratives - like Iron Jawed Angels (re)writes and inscribes history in our cultural imaginations.

Posted by Rae at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)