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.