Almost Forgot!

Soooo I'm sitting here all packed up and ready to go home and what do you know, I forgot to write my gender blogs. BUTTTT I was watching TV when I realized I forgot. Lol some random company's investment commercial comes on, and its talking about investing. And the investor on the commercial was a man. The commercial started off talking about getting married, then moving into a house and starting a family. Now ok, they had to pick a male or female for this part. But the best part of this commercial was the fact that the house they were in kept changing as he got older. Eventually they had a kid, and it was talking about how sometimes you need room to do your business while other people do theirs. The woman was upstairs with the baby in the typical motherly role, as the man was downstairs on his computer doing his investing. I mean I don't know if this is really a play on gender. But what I do think, is that there is a strong will out in the US right now to return to the 1950's attitude. I know my sister has gone ahead with that, and when you hear republicans talk all the time on TV, I get similar views from them. I do hope women keep advancing toward equality in all aspects of life, but if this is the majority attitude, I can't help but think that we might be headed backward....

Women and Religion

The most interesting presentation so far. Lol to me anyways. I love talking about all the different religions and belief systems of the world. Something about it interests me. But anyways. Women in religion. Well in my mind there is no doubt that religion is a huge factor in the oppression of women. All you have to do is look at the power structure of most of the religions in the world and you see that women are at the bottom. The only thing I don't know what do with is how to think about the people in other countries around the world of various religions that we, as americans, think are being oppressed. Are they really being oppressed? I mean Larissa said it in class, "I don't feel oppressed because we never had anything." Well they don't feel oppressed, so that means they aren't? Kind of the same question we keep getting back to in class. Do we have the right to go out and tell women that they aren't oppressed in other countries? Would these women even agree with us?

Another thing that's interesting to me is the fact that when religions seem to start up, they are mostly run by women. In our paper, I took a special interest in the women and religion portion of the paper. And in Christianity, when it was first made, women were the main people that were worshipping and running the religion. This is due to the fact that Rome was still worshipping several Gods, and actually the rich people of Rome were worshipping some other religion. Anyways, that just left poor people and women to worship Jesus. There was no difference in gender in the early days of the church. Then the emperor made it the official religion of Rome, thousands of people converted, men were in charge of the country and family without question, and so it transferred to christianity. Just some interesting thoughts overall...

Transgender Presentation

Well I would have to say that the first time I had heard about Andy (sorry on the spelling) and Toria's relationship, I was a little confused, and I admit was certainly not very accepting of the whole idea. However, after the presentation that the group the other day made, and after hearing Andy talk, I completely have changed my mind. I really see that this isn't really that unique of a case and that transgenderism actually exists in places outside the US. I mean that really is what gives validity to it to me personally. I really thought at first that Andy was almost like one specific example of transgerndered person and there wasn't really anyone else that was like her. However, I feel I've really been educated on the subject and, in my opinion, with education and knowledge about something comes acceptance. I really do understand now.

One thing I don't understand though is the whole thought on bathrooms and actually airport security. Like OK I understand that using a mens bathroom makes Andy uncomfortable and everything, but I feel as though her using the women's bathroom actually makes more people uncomfortable. You know? I feel like when it really comes down to most things in life you have to consider the feelings and thoughts of the majority of people. That aside, what I really don't understand is the issue with the airport security. Like when the lines get divided up and you have to go into the male/female side. My question is, why would you jepordize an experience like going to India over a possible security line problem? Especially if you guys are going over to help other people. I would think that helping other people is more important than your personal feelings over being in a male or female line. Kind of like going to church when I'm at home. I don't want to go and sit there all dressed up, but I can garuntee that to avoid problems with my dad, I'll be sitting in church on sunday.

Oppression

I would like to think that the US is truly a meritocracy. However, I really can't believe that it is. I mean no matter what some inner city kids do, no matter how hard they try in life, there are some things that are most likely going to be out of reach for them. And not only that, but I feel as though they are given an unfair chance because of the oppressed group they have been born into. Like Celia said in class, there has been a correlation between the amount of books in your house and how successful you become in life. I think that, not only inner city kids, but kids in other countries that may move here are at a distinct disadvantage. This is something that they are never going to be able to get themselves out of. People can't just choose where they are going to be born, or who they are going to be born too. And so oppression lives on.

However, I would like to agree with Amidia in the area of progression. Celia said that progression isn't really happening. I can't help but go against that. I mean, I've said it before in one of my blogs, but President Lincoln, the man that freed the slaves, the most progressive man of his time said that although he thinks there shouldn't be slavery, a black man could never be equal to a white man. I mean he would be an extremely racist man today. I sort of view progression as like a stock market graph. You know like with periods of a rise of progression, with little stints of regression, then more progression. Is it always going in the right progression? No. But I would have to say that the overall trend is an upward slope.

Cell Phone commercial today!!!!

Not gonna lie..... Celia your class is really starting to change the way I look at commercials and everything really! Haha. Anyways I was watching college football today and a phone commercial came on. This is almost word for word what it said:

"This can, schedule dinner, take the kids to practice, allow for enough time to clean, can surf the internet for recipes, and can make sure the kids are all where they are supposed to do... In other words, MOM"

I could not help but laugh at this statement. Before I took this class, there wouldn't have been anything wrong with this commercial from my point of view. But now that I've been through it, I just really started laughing. There is literally nothing in any of those statements that should make anyone differentiate between Mom or Dad. Every single thing in there not only can be done by both parents, but in my opinion should be done by both parents.

Roles in Relationships

I think a lot has to be said from the presentation the other day. It was very interesting and I thought it was very well done! Something that I felt needed pointed out was the fact that our ideals today are influenced by the traditional family thought. Its odd that most women in our class still felt like they would like to do the traditional jobs of the women, and same with the men. Is it because of the fact that they really would rather do those jobs, or is it just that women and men have had their jobs in the household for so long, that they would rather still stay in the norm, without even realizing it??

Another thing is the talk we had about the fact that women still want nice things done for them. Same goes for guys!! We still like little things, or big things of course, that women do for us all the time! I don't really think that has much to do with the traditional vs. egalitarian views.

Sex Ed

I agreed with everything talked about today in class so I don't really have much to discuss about the class itself. However, I think I do have some interesting reasons as to why the sex ed, and the education system in general is the way it is and have a good idea of when it will be changed.

First of all, I think it is ridiculous that anywhere would try to teach abstinence only. It's like they are refusing to believe there are other things going on in the world. I would really consider this similar to teaching creation only and not ever even talking about evolution. It's the exact same thing. Today, thank goodness, we are presented with the evolution side of the argument in school (and in some cases the creationist argument too) and we are obviously taught creation at religious meetings, but at least we are given a choice between the two. I mean every teacher seems to lean one way or the other, but we have the choice. The way abstinence is being taught today, there is no choice even to learn! It's being shown to many students across the nation that abstinence is the only way in which we can stay safe.


Why is it like this? One simple reason. I worked for the last two summers for a state representative here in Pennsylvania. It is one of the problems with democracy, unfortunately.Who are the people voting for the men and women in office? Its the senior citizens of the US. Who was taught when they were younger that sex was bad, and that abstinence was all there was. Senior citizens. And so, why would the politicians want to try to change any of the policies that these people want? They would be voted out of office almost instantly if they tried to go against the voting majority. Unfortunate, but trust me it is true.