Extra Credit #3

I went to the luncheon in the WAGS lounge on December 9 and we had pizza for the lunch. I got to sit and talk with Yaisa and her husband and got to know them a little better. We talked about their dog and talked a little but about different dogs breeds. We also talked about something that we enjoyed in the class and I was telling Yaisa that my favorite thing was having the woman from the Womens Resource Center coming out and talking about women and abuse. I then got to meet the WAGS teacher who teachers a domestic violence class in the fall and we talked about issues surrounding domestic violence and I am going to take the class in the fall of next year. We talked about the different group projects that we had in class. It was cool to sit around and talk to people about WAGS.

Blog # 12

I took Gender and War last semester in the Spring and the class opened my eyes to so many things. The thing that really set me off was women being raped as a tool of war. We had to find a report that an organization has done and my report was over women being raped as a tool of war over in Rwanda. The report exposed so much of what was going on and young girls were being raped. There was a story of how the military made a father rape his own daughter. There were several reports of women being raped by multiple amounts of men at the same time. Our teacher was telling us that some of the soldiers would stick their gun up women and pull the trigger which would completely mutilate the women's genitals. Our teacher talked about how women over there do not get the help they need because they can only take a certain amount of women. One of the organizations that I find unbelievable is Amnesty International. Their motto is "Action for Human Rights. Hope for Humanity." They do everything in their power to help people who's human rights have been violated. I respect this organization because they do everything in their power to help those in need. Let's face it, people in other countries do not have the right to a lot of things and their voices are never heard. It's disheartening to me and I love reading the reports that Amnesty International posts because it exposes what it is going on in the world and opens our eyes to reality. I hope to one day work for Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch because my heart and passion is to help women who are being raped as a tool of war. This subject truly touches my heart and hits home. I would like to go over into Rwanda and help these women with their rights as humans and help them deal with the horrible issues that are over there. My passion is to help people and I'm so glad that I took Gender and War because it has opened my eyes to a world that's dark and I hope to shed some light on the situation. 

"OUR MISSION

We are people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. We investigate and expose abuses, educate and mobilize the public, and help transform societies to create a safer, more just world. We received the Nobel Peace Prize for our life-saving work.

With more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in over 150 countries, and complete independence from government, corporate or national interests, we work to protect human rights worldwide. Our vision is of a world in which every person - regardless of race, religion, gender, or ethnicity - enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

Founded in 1961, our organization has campaigned successfully in recent years for the International Criminal Court and a UN Torture Treaty. Through our research and action, governments have been persuaded to stop human rights violations and change their laws and practices. Death sentences have been commuted. Torturers have been brought to justice. And prisoners of conscience have been released. We ask you to join us - to take action and stop human rights abuses wherever they occur."

Extra Credit #2

I went to the launching of the Center for Social Justice last night and I wasn't able to arrive until 6:15 because I had practice until 6. I unfortunately didn't get to hear any of the speakers talk, but I got to sit and watch the video that they had playing in the background. The video was filled with quotes from different people and also had photos of women from all over the world. I picked up a few papers and I also signed a few petitions. I'm extremely interested in women being raped as a tool of war ever since I took Gender and War in the spring semester. It was a very eye opening class and my passion grew to somehow get involved and so I added WAGS as my minor. I'm so glad that the Center for Social Justice is opening because students at OU will be able to have access to what's going on around the world. I'm very excited to see it grow and prosper into a great part of OU. 

Extra Credit #1

I went to Professor Mann's body image class and spoke to her class about my experience with eating disorders. I used to binge eat and gained around 40 pounds and was going through an extremely rough time in my life. I talked about how it was easier for me to rely on food because it filled a void that I was feeling and it also kept me distracted from dealing with the issues that I needed to face. I talked about how I went through this alone, but my mom finally caught on. I talked about how none of my friends ever asked me if something was wrong and I just kept it all to myself. People asked me some questions about if I'm more open about it now with my friends and I told them that I was more open now with my friends about the situation and that I wish I had let them in at that point in my life because I was at an ultimate low. I was asked my thoughts on how I would've liked my friends to approach me about the situation and I told them that I really don't know what I would have preferred them to say. I decided to stay for the rest of the class because there was another speaker. It was a wonderful experience to be able to speak to other students about my experience and make them aware of eating experiences. 

Paper #2

I'm sorry that I'm just now posting this paper. I talked to Professor Mann about me having problems with being able to post it on here, but now I'm able to. Thanks!

Maile Naone

November 19, 2009

Intro to Womens Studies

 

                                                                                                            Kabul Beauty School

                  This movie opened my eyes to the beauty ideals and the idea of gender in Kabul City. Being a westerner, I never fully was able to understand what gender ideals meant to Muslim societies. In the Muslim societies, men are the ones in control and women fall into the background. The Kabul Beauty School allowed women to feel beautiful and to have a self identity. This film revealed the beauty ideals of Muslim women and how gender plays out in Muslim societies and it’s disheartening that these women rely so much on beauty to have an identity.

                  When the Taliban took over Kabul City, they closed salons and women had to secretly own salons without them finding out. The acceptable look for men was to wear turbans and have beard and women wear burkas to cover up their bodies. In the movie, I became fully aware that men were in complete control over the women and that is completely foreign to me. The women have no control of who they want to marry because the families of the women choose who they are going to marry. Nafisa was married to her first cousin because that’s who her family chose for her to marry. With the examples in the movie, women relied on beauty to have a self identity. While the school allowed for women to have a chance at being successful, it also showed how much women rely on beauty in Muslim societies.

                  Beauty has different concepts and ideals in different cultures all over the world. Women in Muslim societies don’t have an identity so they rely heavily on beauty. In the Muslim societies, women only wear makeup and do their hair for weddings and special events. Women are supposed to keep their bodies covered and there’s a sense of modesty. However, Muslim women wish that they could be free like us and wear what they want and be able to express themselves freely. The society is so restricted on allowing women to express themselves and it’s very disheartening to me to see that these women rely so much on beauty. The beauty school allowed for women to have a chance to make their place in society. However, men were still upset at the school because they want to be in control and not have women in control.

                  The relationship between gender is not very good and is completely different from what I am used to. I would not be able to live in a society where men have complete power and women don’t have a say at all. This movie portrayed men in a very negative way and I’m sure this caused many problems after the movie was released. I feel absolutely horrible for women in Muslim societies and I only hope that one day they will be able to have their own identity. Beauty can only take these women so far with self identity because they live in a world where makeup is not entirely accepted. Deborah Rodriguez wanted to make it known to other cultures what Muslim women face on a daily basis.

                  Beauty holds such a high importance in Muslim societies for women. Although this school helped some women, it only drew attention to the ongoing issues in Kabul City. Not all women feel pressured to always wear the burkas anymore, but there is a pressure on women to not rely so much on beauty because men have idealistic views of the women being extremely modest. Women in Muslim societies are trapped in a box of distorted images of what it is to be beautiful and only time will tell if they can break this ongoing cycle.

 

Blog #11

I chose to do the Sisterhood is Global Institute as my NGO. "The Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI), an international nonprofit NGO with Consultative Status to the United Nations, is creating a dynamic global communications network through which an umbrella of NGO interest, advice, contacts, and support can collectively be mobilized for greater, more cost-effective impact in connecting and empowering the global Women’s Movement, ensuring:

• An "always on" movement, enabling women and women's groups to contribute and participate, anytime, from anywhere;
• An opportunity for sustained cross-organizational communication and issue-based coalition-building;
• Grassroots empowerment resulting in a greater integration of local activism and global advocacy"

"It was founded by Robin Morgan, Simone de Beauvoir, and women from 80 different countries in 1984. The institution was created from the book  Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology. The Institute pioneered the first Urgent Acton Alerts regarding women’s rights; the first global campaign to make visible women's unpaid labor in national accounts; and the first women’s rights manuals (in 12 languages) specifically for Muslim societies."

A lot of feminists loved the book that this organization was based on and the institution itself is doing a lot for women all over the world and especially for the Muslim culture. The women that are on the board of this organization are women that seem extremely admirable and some celebrities are on the board such as : Jane Fonda and Margaret Cho. This organization has accomplished a lot and are always on the move to enable women and women's group to contribute anytime and anywhere. This organization unites women all over the world no matter what their ethnicity or religion is. While looking at the website, I just felt a sense of togetherness for women. This organization allows women in other countries to be heard and to have a voice. I know in Muslim societies, the voices of women are not heard because men dominate. This organization has allowed Muslim women to feel like they are wanted and to make them feel like they are truly appreciated as a woman. I believe that people should donate to this organization because they are doing everything in their power to unite women across the universe. Even if it's not for this organization, there are other ones out there that have the same mission. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_t79na8Yk

This is video contain an interview with someone from SIGI

Blog #10

One of the benefits of men putting "tough guise" is that men are seen as the caretaker of their wives and women can feel protected and safe. Putting on this "tough guise" allows men and boys to be ready for a society that puts pressure on men to be strong and masculine. It can be dangerous though because it leads to a negative image of violence for men unfortunately. Gender issues can actually run synonymously with women's issues to an extent. When dealing with gender issues, gender roles also need to be mentioned. Men are expected to be the provider and the strong one and women are supposed to be the child bearers and women need to be soft and gentle. Male bashing does not help men at all because it can lead to violence and because men are expected to be tough, male bashing can ruin a man and then he takes that anger out through violence. When seeing an ad for men of color, they tend to be very muscular and seem extremely tough. These ads do not help the stereotype that men of color are violent. Men and even boys of all races see these images and want to be just like the person who is pictured. There is already enough pressure on men to look tough and be masculine and these images of men of color could make men feel like they are not tough enough. I believe that white men see men of color and being superior when it comes to being tough because the images out there show these men of color as big, tough individuals. Good examples would be of Adrian Peterson or any other pro football player who's of color. There is nothing wrong with putting images out there that show men of color having large muscles, but there are going to be negative consequences and it's like that with every kind of ad.