Feminist Profile

I was having some problems coming up with a new original idea. Everyone has been posting some really great things, and all I've been able to come up with were similar TV shows that are exploiting women. So I decided to make things more positive and do a mini profile on an active feminist singer who has influenced many women (including myself). The punk music scene is almost completely male dominated, even to this day. Kathleen Hanna and her band Bikini Kill helped set the stage for more women to be involved in the Punk movement in the 1990s. In many of Kathleen Hanna's songs she brings up feminist issues such as violence against women, exploitation, and also addressed the issues within the punk scene and violence against women at these shows. (Punk music has the tendency to be violent on its own. With the lack of women in this movement, women unfortunately sometimes get abused and beat up at concerts. Thankfully, this does not happen as much today, but it still happens!) At Bikini Kill concert, Hanna would urge all women to come forward to the stage to sing and dance. Women like Kathleen Hanna have helped many women musicians find the courage to start their own bands and speak their minds.

*Below are some sample lyrics and a clip of a documentary with Bikini Kill in which they describe the beginning and ideas behind their band.

Double Dare Ya

...Don't you talk out of line

Don't go speaking out of your turn

Gotta listen to what the Man says

Time to make his stomach burnBurn, burn, burn, burn

Double dare ya, double dare ya,

double dare ya Girl fuckin friend yeah

Double dare ya, double dare ya,

double dare ya Girl

You're a big girl now

You've got no reason not to fight

You've got to know what they are

Fore you can stand up for your rights

Rights, rights?

You DO have rights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLYSWlVKbIE

Blogging Schedule

Just to refresh your memory ... if you happened to miss your turn at blogging or discussion, talk with me about signing up for a new date. Also a reminder that blog posts are due Thurs. and comments by the following Tues.

This is your 4th Hour of Rigor, and I am expecting active participation EVERY week -- that is, comments on another student's post -- if you're not the one posting the main blog for the day. So get commenting! ;-)

Blogging:
Feb 19 Erika, Stephanie
Feb 26 Sylvie, Chrissy
March 5 Amanda Foulds, Mary
March 12 Molly, Gina
March 26 Erika, Stephanie
April 2 Molly, Amanda F.
April 9 Shannaya, Gina
April 16 Shannaya, Sylvie
April 23 Tara, Chrissy
April 30 Amanda Hunter
May 7 Amanda H.

Discussion Leading:
Feb 19 Mary
Feb 26 Stephanie
March 12 Molly
March 26 Shannaya
April 2 Erika
April 9 Tara
April 16 Amanda Foulds
April 23 Chrissy
May 7 Sylvie
May 15 Gina

Ideas for topics/approaches

Hi all,

Based on your evaluation comments last week, some of you would like more guidance on the blogging. I'll be giving you some personalized observations and feedback, but also wanted to offer some ideas for those of you who may be stumped on topics and approaches.

Some tactics you might take:

1. Respond to the film/TV screening from the previous week, or the readings for the upcoming week. What did you find relevant, interesting, important? What would you like to talk about more in class?

2. Connect course material to what's happening in the community or on campus. The feminist group SHADOW, for instance, will hold a "Take Back the Night" event on April 8, and the Vagina Monologues was performed on campus and will be performed in the community. How do such events make feminism relevant, interesting for a new audience? What can we do to raise awareness about violence?

3. What's happening in media news this week, and how does it concern gender/feminism? (You can go to Yahoo Entertainment news for starting points)

4. What media did you consume this week, and how did it affect your thinking about feminism/gender? Offer some examples and analysis.

5. What about the men? As our class tends to focus more on women, what do you think the media is conveying about masculinity? Post your ideas and observations here.

6. Write about your own research paper in progress. What are you learning? What questions is this raising for you?

What happened to love letters and love songs?

Many women in the media are portrayed as less than human in many aspects. In movies and television we see them dressed promiscuously and used as sex objects. They are “arm candy” for men or trophies that men show off to build their self-esteem. It is almost as if women are the property of the male race. When we watch music videos on MTV or online (YouTube.com, etc), we are witnessed to the little clothing that wardrobe requires the women backup dancers/ singers to wear. I’m sure flashing off a woman’s body in such a way does sell albums, but at the same time it teaches an explicit message. It says that if a man talks, acts, and treats women the way they do in a particular music video, then they too can get women like those seen in those videos. The lyrics of certain songs strongly suggest promiscuity as well as the wrong messages about women. I did some research on songs that might potentially be degrading to women, unfortunately, I found quite a few. I came across a song by T Pain called “I’m in Love with a Stripper.” A section of the song goes as follows: “There’s a hoe in the room, there’s hoes in the car. There’s hoes on stage, there’s hoes by the bar. Hoes by near and hoes by far.” He is basically calling women by a derogatory name. At the end of the song he says “Hoe bring your ass.” This made me think that at this point in the song he is saying that women are sex objects and nothing more. 3OH!3 is a Hip Hop group who sings a song called “Don’t Trust Me.” I heard this song while I was at work. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Towards the end of the song they sing “Shush girl shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips. This repeats two more times. This message is telling women to stop trying to have intellectual conversation so that they can please men. This is the YouTube clip of the “Don’t Trust Me” video. The section of the song that I quoted is around the 2 minute mark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFpT2QSDWM0

Violence against women: going beyond the obvious

This past Sunday, the Albright Thespian Society performed the Vagina Monolgues as a stand against the violence committed against women around the world. Coincidentally, we had just finished discussing the differen types of violence in my women's writers course. We are all aware of the physical abuse against women. This ranges from domestic violence in America to genital mutilation of women in Africa. However, there is more than physical violence circulationg the world. Many women of other cultures experience institutional violence. This denotes the government's approval of using violence against women as a form of punishment. More specific examples are commonly seen in India where women who commit adultery are stoned. The institutional violence encouraging the physical violence is a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped, but as long as the same system of power is in place, it will never cease.
Another type of violence we've discussed and we commonly see in our very capitalistic society is symbolic violence. This refers to the images of the sacrificial mother and the beautiful model we are all supposed to look like. The images that the media gives us of the mother who drops everything and gives it up for her child is detrimental to psychological health in that it forces women not only to give up their identity but to lose themselves almost completely as human beings. For the rest of us who can't quite lose ourselves to the image if the sacrificial mother, we don;t have it any easier. The media constantly bombards us with images of what we're supposed to look like, wear, what to buy, etc. We're not allowed to get old, and we also can't gain weight.
Another type of violence is economic violence. This specifically refers to women in third world countries who work long, hard hours performing arduous labor, and getting none to little pay. The average lifetime of a woman who undergoes this type of violence is approximately 40 years of age where the average lifespan of a woman in America is around 80 years.
The many types of violence are far more than what we have commonly been exposed to. Physical violence is the easiest to see, yet not the only type that we have to be worried about.

Teenage Role Models?

When I was younger, I watched shows like Boy Meets World, Full House, and Home Improvement. In my opinion, they were wholesome, family sitcoms - a type of show that rarely exists anymore. I wanted to be like the girls on Full House - in fact, I got to pick my own middle name, and I picked Stephanie .... because of my love for that show! They were good role models, for the most part, and gave young-teenage girls someone good to look up to. As we got older, singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera started to arrive on scene, and we began looking up to them. Although somewhat controversial at the time, the way they acted and dressed back then was a lot more mild than the "role models" teenage girls have to look up to now.
What do young girls have to look up to these days? The wholesome sitcoms are hard to come by. Sure, you can catch repeats of older shows on ABC Family and Nick at Nite, but the shows that are directed toward the "tween" age group, and the actresses and singers admired by this age group, are often questionable. Girls still look up to Britney Spears, and although she is making a comeback, look at her actions over the past two years. Is this what young teenage girls should be looking up to?
Then there are the ever famous Disney Channel stars, such as Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), Demi Lavato, and numerous others, such as the stars of the High School Musical movies. The "tween" girls want to BE these girls. And yet, how often do we hear stuff on the news about another "wardrobe malfucntion", or picture controvery, or affairs with older men. The stories about them are endless. And while some of them are undoubtedly false, a lot of other things are true. Everything these stars do is looked up to, admired, and copied by these young girls. They see Miley Cyrus or someone in a semi-revealing outfit on stage, which reminds them of what they've seen Britney Spears do, and MAN! That must be cool! And then you have your 12 year old daughter/niece/sister wanting to wear super tight clothes and dye their hair.
I guess what I'm trying to say, and perhaps rant about, is that really good role models seem to be hard to come by for young girls these days. And the ones that really are good role models do not receive nearly as much attenion as the ones that are not. I don't have a whole lot to back me up on this - it's more my personal thoughts. I am selfishly glad that I don't have a little sister, becuase I'd be freaking out as she grows up about the girls out there for her to "look up to". I'm not really sure that there's a solution - the media is always going to give the attention to whoever's making headlines, which usually results from some sort of drama - which probalby aren't the best role models. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all the role models for these tween girls are bad, or even that people like Miley Cyrus is doing an awful job as a role model. I just think that there are so many negative role models, or stories out there, that it's scary to think what little girls might be looking up to. Hopefull society can instill in our children that you don't have to act like the girls you see on tv/hear on the radio...

Drag queens and Beauty queens

Throughout the course we have discussed the role of women in society not paying very close attention to the influence society has on males. Appearance has been and it is still an important factor for women. Women are constantly thrown into the fashion world and critiqued for their appearance. Everywhere you walk, and every direction you turn, cosmetic industries and clothing lines fill the pages of magazines, television and billboard ads to name a few. Women are pulled towards vanity, cosmetic surgeries, and everything else to look and be the "it" image of a woman in society because phsycial appearances all of a sudden define the person. After our class discussion on Miss America and the controversy associated with this beauty pageant dating back to the late 1960s when feminists protested its patriarchal ideals, I thought about men who deviate from the stereotypical role they are supposed to portray in society. What gave me this idea was watching a football player getting his eyebrows waxed. Movie stars and people in the media-men and women are always plastered in makeup to look good in front of the cameras, and that concept is understanding. However, when men go beyond makeup and manicures to dressing in drags, that is a whole other issue and a complete deviation from the stereotypes society placed on men. Men are supposed to be strong, uncommunicative, independent, financially secured, and dominant in their household and in the public realm. However, men dressed in drags deviates from this norm. A drag queen is defined as a man who dresses in women's clothing and makeup and performes in pageant shows and other functions. Women in beauty pageants are seen as putting on a show for male gazers and as objects of male control, but how are drag queens depicted in pageants that model the beauty pageants women are part of such as Miss America and Miss Universe? Miss Gay America is one drag queen beauty pageant that was formed around the 1970s by Jerry Peek and later Norman Jones, and it is currently under L&T Entertainment (Larry Tyger and Terry Eason) missgayamerica.com Do drag queens encounter the same issues that women in beauty pageants face such as being seen as objects? Has society drawn men to dress in drags in order to show their feminine side, which throughout history has constantly been put on the backburner as unnatural and wrong? Drag queens and other "drag artists" or performers are in the spotlight and judged by viewers the same way women are in beauty pageants. In beauty pageants, a winner is chosen as the "ideal" woman that personifies what is "beauty." In drag pageants, men as well compete against other men in drags to determine the best looking drag queen. Therefore, are drag queens and other performers chosen because of their appearance or as a deviation from the traditional depiction of men or both, meaning Are drag queens chosen because they are sort of depicting the true role of men?

More Questions to Think About:

What is your take on drag queens and beauty queens and the shows they perform?

Do you think Miss Gay America and other drag queen pageants are a mockery of women in beauty pageants such as Miss America and Miss Universe?

Do you think drag queens in pageants are portrayed as more feminine than women in beauty pageants?

What message do you personally think the Miss Gay America and other drag queen pageants are implying?

Below are some youtube videos that I thought were really interesting
What do you think of these videos?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgPa5hu8Mv4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfBqfUPdyFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XLwOaMUdWo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN4sYrRSDk