Pop Culture Gone Wild

I have been kind of behind on my reading, so I just got the chance to finish the reading on Pop Culture Gone Wild, and I really enjoyed it. I noticed that it is from Full Frontal Feminism, which is part of what we read before. The reading had some very interesting facts in it, that I would have never known if I hadn't read this book. For instance, Target was recently blasted for selling padded bras meant for six-year old girls. I was shocked when I first read this fact. I had to reread it because I didn't believe it at first. I know that as time goes on, that society seems to be aiming messages about sexuality earlier and earlier in girls, but I didn't think that they would be selling padded bras to six year old girls. When I was growing up in school, I didn't really pay much attention to my under garments as much as I do now, which still isn't a big amount. I really didn't like the normal bras, I enjoyed sports bras more. (Sorry if this is too much information.) My point is that, I don't know what six-year old girls would need a padded bra for, since they haven't even developed much yet. And how can the manufacturer think that people would buy padded bras for their young children? This reminds me of beauty pageants for young girls. These young girls are dressed up in make up, their hair are all done up nicely, and they have to be fit so they look beautiful. I personally don't mind pageants for older woman, although I don't really watch much pageants. But for small girls who still need to explore in life, I feel that these girls will be more prone to care A LOT about their bodies, and not be happy later in life. Society now, does put women in a box, which seems to always be brought up. "women seem to be confronted with too few choices and too many wagging fingers" This is true, because every thing that we do, we are being judged by society. The reading also brushes on "being a lesbian is totally acceptable -- so long as there's a man around to watch it-- and you're young and "hot" of course." As long as we please the men, it's fine for us to like women. I think it's interesting how we tend to have to do things just to make the men happy. From how the author puts it, it is almost that women can't think for themselves, and whatever men want, we will do because we want to be with a man. I am glad we are able to read this stuff, but sometimes its difficult because it seems so demoralizing to women.

Biology About Gender Differences

The speaker today was very informative and taught me a lot that I didn't know before. Some of the facts that are supported by scientific evidence are amazing. The things he talked about isn't a big topic to talk about normally, so hearing about it, made me realize how "uninformed" I am about things. I just go on with my life thinking what I learn in class is all I need to know, but really there is so much in this world to know, waiting to be talked about. I thought it was very interesting to find out about the hip to waist ratio.  The speaker said that what men look for in a women is youth, beauty, and fecundity, and that men tend to like different women in different stages of their life. When a man is thinking about just hooking up, they tend to lean towards a skinny girl, like the one society shows as the "beautiful" girl. And then later in life, when the men are seriously thinking about getting married, they tend to lean towards the leaner, but slim women. When thinking about this, that does make sense to me. If a guy wants to hook up, they aren't going to put much effort into finding a girl that is as caring or sympathetic as if he was going to marry her. So this leads to the "competition" of guys trying to see who can get the "hottest" girl. Another fact that goes along with that is women who store more fat in their hips tend to produce smarter offspring. This is because there is high Omega 3 in the hip fat, but if a women has more belly fat, that could be potentially bad for her offspring. Another one of his many topics that we covered, is that women are really picky when trying to find a guy to be in a relationship with, as compared to the guys, who aren't as picky, and can easily do what they please, in a way, because in the long term, they aren't effected by pregnancy. Thinking about how women are picky when finding a partner has been an eye opener for me, because of how true it is. My roommate sometimes creates a list of what traits her boyfriend will need. And of course many of us to that, maybe not to the extent that lists need to be made, but when finding a guy, a guy could be more attractive because he plays an instrument, or sings. Even myself, when thinking about it, I know what type of guy would interested me more than one who might turn me off with something he says. I find it interesting how so many tests have been made to give us facts about topics like these. And I hope the research continues because it is such an interesting topic that many people should know about.

What Makes A Women Beautiful?

Last Thursday, it was brought up in class how different pant sizes are for women and how much easier it is to buy pants for guys, because all they have to do is measure their waist and length of their leg. Differently, when women shop for jeans, it could be anything from 00 to 14, 16, I am not even sure how big it goes up to, but its so crazy the amount of different sizes women have to choose from, in my opinion. Yes, like many of the other women in the world, I am really happy when I can fit into pants that are size 2, because I feel like I am fitting in. But now thinking about it, I am fitting into what society wants to me be. If the sizes would remain the same from store to store, I don't think I would mind that much, but the sizes are all over the place. A size 2 in one store could be a size 6 or 8 in another one. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy going shopping, but I wish sometimes I could do my shopping faster, as the guys can do, by just finding my size and that will be right for all the other pants I want (or skirts or shorts). The women are brought up to want to aim for the perfect body. Which, what we figured out in one of the first days of classes was, being tall, having a slim waist, big boobs and butt, and long hair. And so no matter if where we come from in the world, or at least in the United States, many of us strive for those attributes (or some of them) no matter what we look like. Our aim is to fit into those small sizes of pants, or other clothing so we can "prove" to the world how good we look. But now looking back many years ago, the "hot and sexy" women weren't these small skinny sizes that they are now. Marylin Monroe, wasn't a 00, or 2 size, and she was still known to be that ideal women. So what happened? Who decided that what a women should look like to change so drastically? Knowing that I will never be tall used to bother me a lot, because everyone always seems to be towering over me, but I have learned to love how I am. That doesn't mean that I still try and stay fit, and do want to have a "nice body" so to say, but I know that having a size 00 won't decide if I am beautiful or not. Who I am decides that, and I am happy that I have realized that, and glad that I have stopped trying to be who I wasn't.

Who decides?

In class we have been talking about how society decides how we should act and puts us in certain boxes according to our sexes. We also discussed for a bit of who decides what gender neutral is because men or women can have different characteristics about themselves that don't have to be specifically in the "boxes" that society puts us in. And as our conversation went on, it got me thinking, especially when we brought up male nurses. This is unusual for society because society always sees nurses as being women, so the fact that there can be male nurses is not the norm. True, whenever someone says nurse, I automatically think of a woman doing that job, but if it is a male, I personally don't have a problem with that. But then there are questions that go along with the male nurse occupation. Did he only become a nurse because he wasn't good enough to become a doctor? Society has such a huge impact on us, and I don't think we realize how much it does until we truly think about these certain situations for ourselves. Then there is the twist that if you become a male nurse, he still gets promoted faster and paid more than women nurses. So, just because a male is now in a woman's position it seems like society is trying to make the situation better for him by making the job more appealing. Who knows. But I thought that was really interesting, because our roles or jobs in society are so separated that if one gender changes their jobs or role, then there are questions and gossip arises about that person. Topics like that are so interesting to me, because it helps me become more aware of my surroundings.

Feminism Still Alive?

It's funny how related all of my classes seem to be this year, my Introduction to Human Communications, and my Message Analysis class, I understand because they are both communication classes, but this class also goes along with those two classes very well too. Rhetoric is a word that I have seen all the time, and having the Introduction to Communication right before Gender and Conflict is great, in my opinion, because I am all focused on how best to communicate or how different things are interpreted, and then seeing how gender fits in along with how different things are interpreted. Another word that keeps coming up in my readings, and discussions is Feminism. Talking about how it seems to be an effort that has fallen apart, since women have become more equal to men compared to how things were years ago. But it is also said, that even though it is known that there isn't a group of feminists, women are always compared to being feminists. If something happens then, it is because of the feminists. One of the readings for Tuesday is about Feminism, and there it is brought up once again. This one reading tells how the movement of Feminism has stopped ever since women got to be in the workforce and also got to choose whether to stay home or not. And here, Bell tells us to take up arms once again, join hands and start the feminist movement once again. Because we, as in women, deserve more than what we have. Even though we have come so far, we still have so far to go, so to say. So this started me thinking about what I could possibly to to help the feminist movement. And I know I don't want to do anything on a big scale, but I can do small things such as trying to stop my guy friends stop putting down girls, even when telling jokes. I think I want to help the feminist movement, but at the same time its hard for me to think what I should do, because I am so used to the everyday put downs so to say, so I don't mind that much. I think taking this class, will allow me to explore what else I may be able to do, and see how feminist I actually am or would want to be.

Full Frontal Feminism

I just finished reading the chapter from Full Frontal Feminism, and loved it. Jessica Valenti's writing style is one that is really easy to relate to in my opinion, because it is like you are sitting there having a conversation with her instead of reading her writing. And she brings up many good points. I have heard of feminism and different meanings, but I don't think I ever put too much thought into whether I considered myself one. Even when reading it, I was questioning whether I thought myself as feminist or not. The Feminists Are Ugly section made me realize that many of us, women I mean, end up taking most of what we hear to heart. At least out of my friends this happens. If someone tells me that they like my hair, I will take pride in my hair each day. And the same goes for if someone says that I don't look good, I might go and try to make myself look better in someway. And then I continue to think about what that person said as time went on. But what I have realized over time, and even more so reading the chapter was that I should be happy with who I am and what I have. This chapter has made me more excited to continue and hear other people's opinions in class and learn more about how gender can cause conflict, even in places where I don't think they do.