Blog #5

1. Stupid Girls- This song goes against all the stereotypical girl and Pink always makes awesome songs. Pink really is one of those women who just really doesn't care what other people think and she does what she wants and this song sends such a positive and powerful message to girls.

2. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend- I chose this song because it's one of the most feminine songs I know because the title says it all.

3. If I Were A Boy- This song is wonderful because Beyonce lists all the stereotypes of men and it's such a great song and empowers women in a way. I could honestly listen to this song over and over again because it has such powerful lyrics. I love that Beyonce takes the song and sings it as if she were a boy and it just really shows how women feel and the music video is even more powerful.

4. Single Ladies- This song is awesome because it's saying not to settle for anything less than good. It promotes self worth as well and it's such a good song.

5. I'm just a girl- I chose this song because No Doubt is saying that she doesn't want to be a girl because people think that we're delicate creatures and that we can't do certain things.

6. Unpretty- I chose this song because it promotes good body image because TLC is pretty much saying to love yourself as a woman and embrace your beauty. Body image is an issue of women's studies and so I chose thing song.

7. Can't Hold Us Down- This song is the ultimate empowerment song for women. Once you listen to it, you just want to celebrate being a woman and standing up for womens rights.

I honestly don't think my change in music has changed throughout the years. I've always been someone who listens to all kinds of genres and I'm still that way. I do go through phases sometimes where I want to listen to country more or I want to listen to pop songs more. I can't find one type of genre that I just absolutely love over the other. I truly listen to it all and I'm sure that I will always remain this way. I also listen to songs from when I was younger sometimes.

Gender Realization- Paper #1

Gender Realization

            When I was a child, I never was fully aware of gender differences. I always knew that girls played with Barbies and boys always played with Legos. I did pageants when I was younger and there were boys who also did pageants, but I never thought that was weird since I was raised around that. When I was in second grade, I entered cheerleading and knew that boys always played football. It wasn’t until I got into 9^th grade that I had my first big experience with gender.

            I was in band in junior high and there were some boys who played clarinet that you could tell were gay, but I never really thought about gender into detail until I joined the colorguard. When we tried out, I didn’t even think twice to question why there were no boys trying out because I thought of colorguard being something only girls did. It also didn’t cross my mind that our guard instructor was a gay man. When we went to our first contest, I remember sitting in the stands watching another high school perform and they had a boy in their guard. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him because he moved so gracefully and honestly was the best member of the guard. I became extremely confused because I began to wonder why we don’t have guys in our guard. It didn’t make sense to not have a guy because every guy that I watched that day at the contest was absolutely wonderful and the way they moved was breathtaking.

            I remember asking one of the older girls in our guard why we didn’t have any guys in our guard and she told me that our guard instructor didn’t want any guys in our guard. If a guy had tried out for our colorguard, he wouldn’t of made it simply because he was a guy. To me, our guard instructor contradicted himself since he was our guard instructor and had done guard for many years. I couldn’t imagine why in the world he wouldn’t want to make our guard look even better. In the four years that I was in guard in high school, a boy never tried out for guard. There were some guys in band who expressed interest in trying out for guard, but they knew they wouldn’t have made it. To this day, I still don’t know why our guard instructor didn’t allow guys on our guard. When I got to OU and tried out for The Pride, there were no guys at tryouts. I think that if a boy tried out for our guard, they would make it because I haven’t heard any differently.

            In 2007, we went to the Big XII Championship and played Missouri and their colorguard had a guy in it. Some of our fans who were male and students at OU began yelling obscene things at this poor guy and calling him a fag. What they didn’t see was that he was probably the best one out there on the field. I was embarrassed because our fans were so close minded about there being a guy in Missouri’s guard and you could tell that they guy in the guard was hurt by what our fans were saying to him. To me, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female and decide to be in colorguard because 99% of the time, the guys are absolutely phenomenal. One of the most famous Drum Corps International bands only allows guys in their guard and has no girls in their entire band and their colorguard is the most amazing thing to watch.

            I understand that it looks weird when there’s a guy in colorguard because they are perceived to be gay and feminine. Our society has built the male image to be manly and that males should play sports. Women are supposed to be the girly ones and be in things such as colorguard or cheerleading. It doesn’t seem to bother our fans when they see our male cheerleaders on game days. My experience with gender really opened my eyes to what society expects of gender. Even when I was in high school, there were band members who would make fun of other guard because they had guys in it. I became aware that there is a thick line when it comes to gender sometimes. I wish there would be a guy that would try out for our guard because I never got to experience that. Two years after I graduated, my high school got a new guard instructor and also two male members in the guard. I was enlightened by the change because those two guys were the best ones.  I think that everyone just needs to open his or her minds to gender because it honestly doesn’t bother me.            

            I am more aware of gender now more than I used to be. Like I said, it never phased me when I saw boys competing in pageants or if I saw a boy who seemed girly. Gender never bothered me until I joined colorguard because I realized the close mindedness of people. I will be happy when I see a male in the OU colorguard because that means that change is coming because we are kind of set in our ways. I will be happy when the day comes that our fans aren’t harassing males who decide to be in colorguard. Change is coming and I will be waiting patiently for it to arrive.

           

            

Blog #4

When I graduate college, I really want to go over to Africa and work with a nonprofit organization like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch and help women and children over there who are being raped as a tool of war or work in a refugee came there. However, I really don't think that I could be away from my family for that long or be away from them at all. I would love to work as a school counselor because I love kids and helping people. I have also thought about working as a counselor in an abused women's shelter or maybe even working as a patient advocate. I think W S 3220 Domestic Violence and the Law would help me a little bit with traveling over to Africa to work for a non profit organization. W S 3233 Women Creating Social Change would be a very interesting class to take and help me understand how women are involved with social change because I'm currently taking social change right now. W S 3453 Women's Psychosocial Development would help me a lot as well. W S 3563 Women and World Politics would be good just in case I do decide to travel with a nonprofit organization so that I can better understand politics and women around the world. W S 3810 Gender, Law, and Human Rights would also help me a lot and it's also good because my major is actually human relations. The classes that I listed above would really help me in any of my jobs that I choose to do. If I decide to work for a nonprofit organization and go to Africa, gender would play a huge role in my line of work. Not only would I deal with women and their physical needs, I would have to deal with understanding why men are raping these women as a tool of war. If I decided to work as a school counselor, I would have to deal with gender issues with counseling and deal with the psychological needs of both boys and girls. I would have to deal with women's issues when working for an abused women's shelter and would have to deal with both if I decided to become a patient advocate. I have dealt with gender needs of both men and women and boys and girls with my work history. I worked in a daycare and had to attend to the needs of three year old boys and girls. While all the children were similar, boys and girls need different things. I worked in a veterinarian office and mostly dealt with animals, but I also had to deal with owners sometimes and I found that the women were more worried about their animal than men generally were. After that, I worked at a place called Dustee's and dealt with all kinds of people. I've always had a job where I've had to deal with all kinds of people throughout my work history. I don't know that there's any job that doesn't deal with gender somehow and we face challenges with gender in everyday situations and issues. 

Blog #3 Iron Jawed Angels

I learned so much through watching Iron Jawed Angels. I wasn't aware how much women went through just for us to get the right to vote. You always hear about the womens suffrage, but this movie really opened my eyes. There were many tensions between the women throughout the movie. Some of the women didn't support the womens suffrage movement which caused discourse. In the movie when the President had declared war, some of the women wanted to quit because the country was at war and they realized that people are focused on the war. When their main spokesperson died in the movie, Alice Paul runs home and wants to give up. The women always overcame these tensions because they were there for one reason and always found the strength to move on and fight for the right to vote. Alice Paul and the other women achieved their political goals by being relentless and not giving up. When they were sent to jail, Alice Paul refused to eat and caused problems in the jail and it got leaked to the public how these women were being treated in jail and it just showed how much they were not going to give up until they got their way. This movie was really good and I'm very glad that we got the chance to see it because it really opened my eyes to what happened during the womens suffrage movement. I think that this should be a required movie in history classes while you are in high school or junior high. These women were heroes and without their hard work and dedication, we would not have the right to vote. I liked this weeks reading because I believe that it explained feminism better to everyone, hence the title of the book. I feel like the F Word was talking specifically to women, but this weeks book talked to the general public. I think Bell Hooks is a good author. 

Bog #2

The person I interviewed was my nanny. My nanny didn't really have an experience of gender or at least none that she can remember, but she does have a history of feminism. I come from a long line of strong, independent women and that all started with my great grandmother. My nanny was raised to be independent and strong willed just like my great grandmother was. My nanny was raised during the era of feminism where women should be housewives and not be in the workplace. However, my nanny worked as a veterinarian technician at one point and worked in a hospital at another point. She was a single mother raising my uncle and mom and they were around the age of 2. She struggled with being in the workforce at that time and not having equal pay or equal rights as men do. Feminism is the political journey of having equal rights for women. One experience in my life that dealt with gender was in junior high. I had joined my high school's colorguard which is the flags in the marching band and didn't really realize that we were only girls. It wasn't until I saw other guards with boys with them that made me wonder why our guard didn't have boys in it. The boys in these other guards were so graceful and you could never take your eyes off of them because they were so good. I finally had asked why our high school doesn't have guys in our guard and that's when the guard instructor told me that he would never allow a boy into our guard because he wanted all girls which was weird since our instructor was a gay man and was phenomenal in guard. It was weird to me that our high school didn't allow guys in the guard and I was a little offended because most guys in guard are absolutely wonderful at guard. It made me aware of the gender differences. We also don't have guys in the guard here at OU and I remember the Big 12 Championship in 2007 when there was a group of our fans yelling at Missouri's colorguard because there was a boy in their guard and they were calling him a fag and saying extremely rude things. I thought the readings this week were good. I liked Chapter 5 because it talked about women in the workplace and about statistics. It also talked about how different races of women don't complete college and never reach high paying jobs. In Chapter 3, I thought that there would be more of an issue with body image and although it was an issue for women, it wasn't one of the highest. I also really enjoyed the movie that we watched in class and it makes me feel more empowered as a woman. 

Blog #1

My name is Maile Naone and I am a senior that will be graduating in May 2011. I'm a human relation major and a womens studies minor. I am in the Pride of Oklahoma and I spin the flags, but I play clarinet in my free time. Music is such a huge part of my life and it's one of my passions. I also hula dance and I truly enjoy doing that when I get the chance. My number one passion is people. There's nothing that I love more than helping people and observing the relationships that people have with each other. I'm in a music sorority named Tau Beta Sigma and I'm an alumni of Phi Mu and I would still be in Phi Mu if weren't for our house getting closed because nations decided to not tell us that some alumni members from a while back had racked up $200,000 in debt while they were attending OU. I'm taking this class because I made women's studies as my minor and so this class is required for me, but I'm also interested in this class because I've always wanted to learn more about feminists. I think this class will help enrich my knowledge of everyday issues that women face. 

Questions I want answered

1. What exactly does feminism mean?

2. Can men be considered feminists?

3. What issues do women still face with feminism and what are some top concerns for women?

4. Have the views of feminists changed throughout the years?

5. What will be the biggest thing that I learn in this class?