Wow, you weren't kidding about how dense this article is. I am going to try my best to define what the words Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence mean according to Adrienne Rich and myself.
Compulsory Heterosexuality: According to the article, Rich states that the world Compulsory Heterosexuality encourages heterosexual feminists as a political institution which disempowers women. I am going to try and break down this word into two parts to more easily understand it. The word "compulsory" means required or mandatory, and the word "heterosexuality" means sexual feeling or feelings directed towards a person or persons of the opposite sex. When broken down, this word makes a lot more sense than the way Rich describes it in the article.
Lesbian Existence: According to the article, Rich states that the word Lesbian Existence in many ways. She states that "lesbianism" is an "alternative lifestyle." She does state that this word is broken down just the way it is written, the existence of lesbianism in the world. She compares the existence of lesbianism throughout the four different books that she states have four different political views and understanding of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable.
I am going to add more to this blog after the discussion in class, I'm not fully understanding what this article is about...
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Talking Point #4
The first website that I visited is People Like Us. This website shows the little things in life that can identify you. One of the questions that it asks is "what does your living room say about you?" There are many things in your life that you do not realize tell who you are.
There is a game that anyone can play which lets you create your own living room, and then it states which class you would fall under according to the decorations and the pet that you picked. I fell under the middle class like Henry Jones. Henry stated that according to my choices I fall under the middle class, but there are other classes that some of the items that I picked belong to. This website showed a lot about how some people can put an individual into a certain working category depending on their belongings or the choices in physical "stuff."
There really wasn't too much more on this website. There is an option to watch a movie but my computer did not have Adobe Flashplayer so it wouldn't let me watch...
The second website that I visited was The Center for Working-Class Studies out of Youngstown State University. There is an article on Wage Theft and how to stop it. There is also a list of places that employees might be able to go to find some assistance from governement agencies about wage thefts.
There is a game that anyone can play which lets you create your own living room, and then it states which class you would fall under according to the decorations and the pet that you picked. I fell under the middle class like Henry Jones. Henry stated that according to my choices I fall under the middle class, but there are other classes that some of the items that I picked belong to. This website showed a lot about how some people can put an individual into a certain working category depending on their belongings or the choices in physical "stuff."
There really wasn't too much more on this website. There is an option to watch a movie but my computer did not have Adobe Flashplayer so it wouldn't let me watch...
The second website that I visited was The Center for Working-Class Studies out of Youngstown State University. There is an article on Wage Theft and how to stop it. There is also a list of places that employees might be able to go to find some assistance from governement agencies about wage thefts.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Youth Pride
Yesterday, September 19, 2012 I went to the Youth Pride facility that is located on Westminister Street in Providence. This was such a fantastic experience. I went there to observe a day in the life of an individual that is LGBT and that attends Youth Pride. This facility is pretty much a second home for individuals between the ages of 13-23 that either identify as an LGBT or have a parent that identifies as such. This is a safe place for these individuals to go after school or work where they can be with others that are just like them. Some of the individuals do not have a very safe or accepting home life, and they feel more comfortable going to Youth Pride after school or work instead of going home. I felt that this feeling that the individuals are having can compare a lot to the Frye article and the comparison to a "bird cage." Some of the children and even adults that go to Youth Pride feel that there is no where else for them to go where they will feel accepted and that they can be compared to living in a bird cage, although when they are at Youth Pride, they have an opportunity to be themselves with other individuals that are going through similar things as them.
When I arrived at Youth Pride yesterday, it was dinner time. The people that were there were having cooking lessons with one of the staff members. All of the individuals that were there seemed to be very comfortable and looked as though they were having a lot of fun. This is something that they do not always seem to feel. This related a lot of the Johnson article when the he talks about having the umbrella when it is raining, but others do not feel the rain. This is how some of the individuals feel when they are not at Youth Pride. They feel like Youth Pride is their area and time to be themselves.
This mission of Youth Pride is to protect, unite, and dignify the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth and young adults. There are ways that individuals interested in this program can donate to Youth Pride to help those individuals. I find this very interesting because it makes me sad to think that some individuals arent even comfortable or happy in their own homes.
When I was speaking to one of the kids at Youth Pride yesterday, he was telling me that a lot of people are afraid to even say the words "gay" or "lesbian" because to those individuals they are not acceptable. It made me think a lot about the article "The F-Word" because throughout the article it is said that many people are afraid to say the words even though that is the only way they can express how they feel. He told me that some people won't even ask if he is gay due to the fear of speaking the word. It was very interesting to see how many links there were to our articles that I never thought I would see outside of the classroom, but I saw in just a few short hours there.
I met an individual named Joey Lazzerini who is Mr. Gay Rhode Island and huge advocate for gay men everywhere. He was such an inspiration to meet and I wanted to share his "No Hate" photo with you so you could appreciate him as much as I did.
When I arrived at Youth Pride yesterday, it was dinner time. The people that were there were having cooking lessons with one of the staff members. All of the individuals that were there seemed to be very comfortable and looked as though they were having a lot of fun. This is something that they do not always seem to feel. This related a lot of the Johnson article when the he talks about having the umbrella when it is raining, but others do not feel the rain. This is how some of the individuals feel when they are not at Youth Pride. They feel like Youth Pride is their area and time to be themselves.
This mission of Youth Pride is to protect, unite, and dignify the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth and young adults. There are ways that individuals interested in this program can donate to Youth Pride to help those individuals. I find this very interesting because it makes me sad to think that some individuals arent even comfortable or happy in their own homes.
When I was speaking to one of the kids at Youth Pride yesterday, he was telling me that a lot of people are afraid to even say the words "gay" or "lesbian" because to those individuals they are not acceptable. It made me think a lot about the article "The F-Word" because throughout the article it is said that many people are afraid to say the words even though that is the only way they can express how they feel. He told me that some people won't even ask if he is gay due to the fear of speaking the word. It was very interesting to see how many links there were to our articles that I never thought I would see outside of the classroom, but I saw in just a few short hours there.
I met an individual named Joey Lazzerini who is Mr. Gay Rhode Island and huge advocate for gay men everywhere. He was such an inspiration to meet and I wanted to share his "No Hate" photo with you so you could appreciate him as much as I did.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Romney hasn't earned our trust...
Editor LZ Granderson from CNN has written a well put together article about Mitt Romney, the Republican representative for the Presidential election. LZ Granderson states that he had asked a group of people about the trust that they have in Mitt Romney. The response to this question was "I trust him more than I trust Obama." That response was shocking to me, because of the way Granderson elaborated. He stated that it was a longer way of saying "no." There are many reasons that Americans do not trust Mitt Romney, and one of these reasons is because of the so called "tax plan" that Mitt Romney has, but will not show to Americans. How are we supposed to trust him to be our President if he cannot elaborate on the tax plan he has...??
This is a perfect picture to show the confusion on Mitt Romney's face when speaking to the Americans about his "tax plan."
Many Americans can see that Romney flip flops a lot of his ideas such as the pro-abortion rights, and also Romneycare.
Many people see that Obama has broken promises since he has been in office. Granderson states that "500 promises the president made during the 2008 campaign and found thus far he's kept 37% of them. He's broken 16%, and compromised on 14% and is still working on the other 22%."
I find that not only the Republicans are effected by this situation with Mitt Romney, but also Democrats. He is promising/agreeing on things that he doesn't necessarily follow through with or elaborate on, and it doesn't make him look like a very trustworthy candidate.
This is a perfect picture to show the confusion on Mitt Romney's face when speaking to the Americans about his "tax plan."
Many Americans can see that Romney flip flops a lot of his ideas such as the pro-abortion rights, and also Romneycare.
Many people see that Obama has broken promises since he has been in office. Granderson states that "500 promises the president made during the 2008 campaign and found thus far he's kept 37% of them. He's broken 16%, and compromised on 14% and is still working on the other 22%."
I find that not only the Republicans are effected by this situation with Mitt Romney, but also Democrats. He is promising/agreeing on things that he doesn't necessarily follow through with or elaborate on, and it doesn't make him look like a very trustworthy candidate.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Oppression
This article was one that was based on oppression. According to the author, Marilyn Frye, the word oppression can mean many different things. For example, on the first page of the article, in the first sentence Frye states that "The word 'oppression' is a strong word. It repels and attracts. It is dangerous and dangerously fashionable and endangered. It is much misused, and sometimes not innocently." To me, this statement shows that Frye finds the word "oppression" to mean something more negative than positive. Throughout the rest of the article, Frye explains that first sentence more with examples of how the word "oppression" is seen as "dangerous" and also "misused."
There are two quotes that really caught my eye throughout the article. On the bottom of the sencond page to the top of the third page of the article, Frye states "On the other hand, if she refrains from heterosexual activity, she is fairly constantly harrassed by men who try to persuade her into it and pressure her to "relax" and "let her hair down"; she is threatened with labels like 'frigid,' 'uptight,' 'man-hater', 'bitch,' and 'cocktease.'" "She may be charged into lesbianism." To me, this quote from the article states that women don't necessarily have a right to choose when they want to be sexually active, and they have to pleasure the man whenever he is ready to be sexually active. If the woman doesn't please the man when he wants it, she is viewed as those terms, and even as a lesbian. I completely disagree with this statement. I feel as though women should have every right to choose when they want to be sexually active with their partner, just as much as the man does.
The third quote that I found in the article is the following; "It is now possible to grasp one of the reasons why oppression can be hard to see and recognize: one can study the elements of an oppressive structure with great care and some good will without seeing the structure as a whole, and hence without seeing or being able to understand that one is looking at a cage and that there are people who are caged, whose motion and mobility are restricted, whose lives are shaped and reduced." This quote really stood out to me because before reading this article (and still somewhat after reading the article), I was not sure what the word "oppression" meant. I had to look up the definition to the word. This shows that there is a lot of confustion throughout the world when it comes to understanding the true meaning of the word. There are multiple meanings and the word can be used in many different ways. The definition that YOU choose is depending on your views of the situation.
There are two quotes that really caught my eye throughout the article. On the bottom of the sencond page to the top of the third page of the article, Frye states "On the other hand, if she refrains from heterosexual activity, she is fairly constantly harrassed by men who try to persuade her into it and pressure her to "relax" and "let her hair down"; she is threatened with labels like 'frigid,' 'uptight,' 'man-hater', 'bitch,' and 'cocktease.'" "She may be charged into lesbianism." To me, this quote from the article states that women don't necessarily have a right to choose when they want to be sexually active, and they have to pleasure the man whenever he is ready to be sexually active. If the woman doesn't please the man when he wants it, she is viewed as those terms, and even as a lesbian. I completely disagree with this statement. I feel as though women should have every right to choose when they want to be sexually active with their partner, just as much as the man does.
The third quote that I found in the article is the following; "It is now possible to grasp one of the reasons why oppression can be hard to see and recognize: one can study the elements of an oppressive structure with great care and some good will without seeing the structure as a whole, and hence without seeing or being able to understand that one is looking at a cage and that there are people who are caged, whose motion and mobility are restricted, whose lives are shaped and reduced." This quote really stood out to me because before reading this article (and still somewhat after reading the article), I was not sure what the word "oppression" meant. I had to look up the definition to the word. This shows that there is a lot of confustion throughout the world when it comes to understanding the true meaning of the word. There are multiple meanings and the word can be used in many different ways. The definition that YOU choose is depending on your views of the situation.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
F is for feminism
This article was one that illustrated the way women are wrongfully treated in the US workforce. The author explained how a woman are trying to look for equal rights throughout the workplace and also in a community based setting. Women are searing for the right to vote and to have their voice be heard. I found that the quote that follows was quite intersting; "Young women may believe that a feminist identity puts them out of the pool for many men." This shows that the women feel as though they are being overpowered by men in all settings, not only the workplace. The second quote that I found interesting was "Fear of feminism, then, is not a fear of gender, but rather a fear of politics." There is a picture that I linked to the quote because to me, that picture accurately describes what I feel the author is trying to get across when stating that quote. Many women today have done such incredible things that not even some men can say that they have accomplished. There are women working as doctors, lawyers, teachers, you name it and the women have absolutely made a name for themselves. I feel very empowered to be a woman in the year 2012. Due to the fact that I want to pursue my career as a teacher, I have seen that many women have made a successful living doing so, and they also love their job and look forward to helping make a change in a child's life everyday.
The F word
I may have found this article a little more
interesting than others. I find that this article
is a perspective on what other people see the word feminism to mean. there are maybe people whole
find that find it a word that thy are afraid to use. ecause it mind offend someone. to me, this article was an inspiration. women are strong powerful individuals whom deserve to have moments where they feel empowered instead of men having all of the feeling.
interesting than others. I find that this article
is a perspective on what other people see the word feminism to mean. there are maybe people whole
find that find it a word that thy are afraid to use. ecause it mind offend someone. to me, this article was an inspiration. women are strong powerful individuals whom deserve to have moments where they feel empowered instead of men having all of the feeling.
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