Delusional Romance

I personally don't think the book Young Wives Tales should be brought back into the curriculum. There is really no point to this exert at all. All it talks about is a woman's struggles on having an orgasm. I really don't care if someone wasn't able to enjoy sex as much as they can now. I would rather learn about factual information about feminism than personal experiences. The best part about the reading was that she gained independence and learned how to pleasure herself without a man's help. This may motivate other women out there with the same problem to go out and do something about it. By talking to your close friends you realize you have a lot more in common with people than you think. She was able to overcome her fears and problems, and she never gave up. This story would be extremely helpful to other women with the same problem, but for others it really doesn't matter at all. It's basically about her complaints about marriage and sex and that it didn't live up to her standards. I don't believe that reading those books could have truly ruined her idea of sex for that long. That's why these stories are called young wives "tales", they're just tales.

The life of Bella Swan

What a Girl Wants

"The only thing as difficult for a girl as a divorce—if we are to judge from stories aimed at the teen market—is a move." Caitlin Flanagan in What Girls Want picks apart the aspects of family, sexuality, and gender in recent books and films. She jumps around a little bit, so it's hard to follow at times, but the basis of the article is about the Twilight movies and books. The quote from above describes her main point, how a girl is portrayed on screen today. They come off as vulnerable and sensitive, which is definitely not always the case. Bella Swan moves to live with her dad after her parents get divorced, and without hesitation she takes over the role as the wife of the household. She cooks and cleans for her single parent every night and doesn't complain once. This makes it seems like every girl that comes from a divorce should take over the role that the mother would have had. A divorce isn't just hard for girls; it's difficult for all parties involved, so why are girls the only ones shown hurt? "Bella Swan is en route to the Phoenix airport, where she will be whisked away from her beloved, sunny hometown and relocated to the much-hated Forks, Washington, a nearly aquatic hamlet of deep fogs and constant rains." In the movie they also make it so Forks is the worst place ever to move to. They always have to make the divorce difficult and one parent has to move far away. It's very stereotypical for a movie to portray the worst case of a divorce; there is never one that has a happy story. The good weather in Phoenix symbolizes a good relationship that she has with her mother, where everyone is happy and it seems like they weren't affected by the divorce. Forks on the other hand symbolizes the weak relationship that Bella has with her father, and the rain signifies all the bad things to come. The only reason she decides to stay in Forks is because she falls in love, of course. She doesn't want to stay because of the relationship she is growing with her father; it's because of a "teenage boy". It's just typical that the supernatural world is involved, because it makes her already hectic life even crazier. As you get further into the books and movies, Bella not only has one suitor, but two. There always has to be a decision, a tough choice between a werewolf and a vampire. The complete opposites for many reasons, not just because of what they do. Now not only is Bella torn between her parents, but two guys as well. Why is Bella's life so confusing and unrealistic? It's like they're saying a girl that comes from a divorce can't lead a normal and happy life, no that's too easy for them. 

Bella Swan may be a character that a lot of teenage girls can relate to because of the divorce, but there are plenty of girls out there that will never experience any of this. 

Birth Control

After our discussion on birth control in class on Thursday it's obvious that it is a controversial topic. I believe that it's their own choice and a girl should be able to do what she wants without someone looking down at them. Birth control has so many more uses other than for preventing pregnancy that makes its advantages greater then its disadvantages. Women in other countries don't need to have birth control, but they should have the choice to take it or not. Controlling pregnancies and the population isn't the biggest problem in Africa, disease is. We need to focus on getting more medical attention out there to help people who are sick. I feel bad for the women that don't receive any help from anyone and end up being shunned from their community. They didn't do anything to deserve treatment like that and they deserve to have a choice and a voice. Birth control is some what affordable and could easily be a suitable option for a lot of women today. If they can't afford it there are many other forms of birth control that I also believe all women should have a chance to use. No one should be forced on birth control or have to take it, it's entirely the users choice. People shouldn't judge so much on what others do, and should just worry about their self.

The Illegal Abortion Era

The Way It Was

The Way It Was by Eleanor Cooney is an extremely disturbing story of her life. It starts off with her joking around about being knocked up when she was drunk. She was a curious young girl that wanted to know more about pregnancies. As she got older she realized that millions of young girls are actually getting pregnant and they have no one there to help them, and they don't know what to do. Once you are aware of all these teen pregnancies, it's not funny at all anymore, it's sad. Once she hit 18, she found herself in the situation that she made jokes about years ago. She became pregnant, and the father was just a friend, and there was definitely not future in them getting married. This is true in a lot of cases, even if it is the boyfriend that gets them pregnant, they still won't stay together for the baby. So she did what many lost girls do today, look for an abortion. When she went looking for one she lived in the illegal abortion era, so you couldn't go get one as easily as you can today. The things she has seen and lived through are shocking. Once of the instances the doctor didn't even wear a glove, and he told her she was very far along and to come back tomorrow. When she came back with her friend he was very upset and told her to leave. This could be one of two things. 1. He was hoping she would be alone so that he could take advantage of her, and rape her. 2. He was hoping she would be alone so that if the procedure went terribly wrong and she died, he could dispose of her like nothing happened. The doctors that did these procedures in the 60s were the scum of the earth. They didn't care at all about these women, all they wanted was there money, and in some cases their bodies. During the illegal abortion era several thousands of women were treated in emergency rooms for botched abortions, and there were at least 200 known deaths. (Cooney 2004) You can only imagine how many deaths were unknown, and were thought you be kidnaps and murders. Presidents through out this time period made abortion illegal, having a few exceptions here and there, but you had to be on your death bed to be able to do it. Once abortion was made legal, and more exceptions were taken into account, less and less deaths happened. One doctor said, "That ought to tell people something about keeping abortion legal." It should be the woman's choice if they want to keep the baby or not. In some of the other articles for this week, there was women in Africa that were shunned because of their conditions, and were left to die. Women like that should be able to chose, they should be able to get help, and they should be able to receive medical attention. Not everyone has a choice, so the ones that do, should be able to make their own. 

Women&Football

 Could women coach football in the future?

In a recent article on yahoo a Jaguar football player's wife tried to give the coaches some tips and ideas. As first when I looked at the article I thought maybe they were actually taking here seriously, and then I realized, they were making a joke of her. "If Mary Garrard can correctly identify "Goal-line Empty Right F Short Key All Fade" or "I Right Tight Close Goal-line Fake 18 HO Force QB Keep Pass Left" (she'd probably like that one, as the idea is for the quarterback to roll out), we say that it's time to give her a shot." It's like she has to know all the football lingo in order for them to take her seriously. Even if she was joking around, or actually wanted them to do some of the things she was saying, they still wouldn't take any advice from her. The football world is so male dominated that females have little voice in the sport. I don't support this idea at all since I am a woman, and I love football. I believe that women should be able to have a voice and can talk about football with the boys, just like anyone else would do. I mean, C'mon why aren't there any female coaches in professional football, or any other sport? The only female coaches I see are in the WNBA, and no one watches that. (When I typed in WNBA the spell check came up, and the only option for spelling was NBA) That shows a lot right there; you can't even type in a female sport in blogger without thinking it's spelled incorrectly, that's crazy.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/David-Garrard-s-wife-Future-Jaguars-assistant-c?urn=nfl-277298

Junior Figure Control

"Breast Buds and the Training Bra"

Joan Jacobs Brumberg's, "Breast Buds and the Training Bra" explains the development of bras and their importance to teenage girls. In the early 1900's bras has little significance to everyday life, but as years went on bras became more and more popular. Every teenage girl wanted to posses one, even if their parents wouldn't allow them to own one. There were girls who couldn't afford them, and there were girls that had no use for them because they hadn't gone through puberty yet, but that didn't stop them. If infatuation with breasts increased as we got to the 1950's; every girl was journaling about their breasts and everyone else's too. That's another example of time change because now bras aren't something new, so young girls tend not to journal about things like that anymore. "Those who had ample bosoms seemed to travel through the hallways in a veritable state of grace." They're almost saying that girls that had larger chests thought they were better than the other girls who didn't. I believe today that stands true; girls with larger breasts seem to flaunt them more and want to show them off, but that's just my opinion. It also says, "Busty girls mad desirable friends because they seemed sophisticated, and they attracted boys." It may seem that way to other girls, but this statement is definitely not true. Today girls with larger breasts actually come off less sophisticated then other women, and less intelligent. I feel like some girls act differently then they usually would because of that reason. People who influenced these behaviors were doctors, mothers, and advertisers; they believed that only the development of breasts was needed for success. What about development of their brains? Does anything like that even matter to them? For the mothers and doctors it should, but I could understand why the advertisers don't care because they are just trying to sell their product and make money. What were they trying to teach these young girls? I don't understand it. In the end of the reading it says, "When we dress little girls in brassieres or bikinis, we imply adult behaviors and, unwittingly, we mark them as sexual objects." I agree with this statement 100%. I don't believe girls at the age of 11 or 12 should be worrying about things such as bras. They should be focused on their schoolwork and other activities that lead to good work ethics, and personality development. I feel like this topic of puberty and development should come up as it happens, if it's not happening yet, then the girls shouldn't be worrying about it. If the only thing young girls are worrying about is when their breasts are going to grow in, or why they aren't big like other girls, then we have a huge problem. The idea of "Junior Figure Control", can only lead to one thing, self-consciousness. If a social norm is created about breast size, then were in for a long list of insecurities a young girl could have.

enchanted

Enchanted is movie that both males and females can enjoy because of the comedy, romance, and action that is all mixed in it. The romance between Gisele and Edward is non-existent; they have nothing to talk about and were living in a fairy tale world where you could get married after one day. When she gets to New York she changes completely into a brave and confident woman that no longer thinks she needs her prince. Robert helps her change by teaching her his ways of finding love, and she teaches him the ways of hers, and in the end their two ideas of love intertwine and become one. It is a typical representation of a woman because in the beginning she is in desperate need of a man, and by the ending she is independent and her whole view of the world has changed. That is pretty typical in romance films. Robert also changed throughout the movie though because he was so stubborn about love and believed you can't fall in love with someone that fast. Towards the end his mind got changed as he fell in love with Gisele. Of course there was a happy ending and everyone left with someone, and they live happily ever after.

Snow white or Barney?

"A Finishing School for all, Disney Style"
Some people believe that taking your daughter to Cinderella's Princess Court would be a bad idea, but I think it is completely harmless. If you think that just by taking her there that later on in life she is going to depend on a man, and think that she can get whatever she wants, your wrong. It's just something girls enjoy at that age, they grow out of it fast, so why not let them indulge in princess things for a while. It's not cheap by any means either, being able to go to the princess court and take all your friends with you costs a lot of money. That could be the only downfall because not every family can afford to do things like that and you don't want some of the girls thinking they are better then others. A lot of the influence is from the mothers, and in this article the mom was the one that already had a princess costume at home. They either want to live the fantasy they didn't get to do when they were a kid, or they want their daughter to be able to enjoy things they didn't. You would hope that it is for their daughter's sake, but that's not always the case. This franchise spends so much money on marketing and advertising to younger girls that it doesn't really allow for the fact that maybe young boys really enjoy the movies as well. Girls aren't the only ones that want to live in a fantasy world where everything is perfect and there is a happy ending, boys do too. That's why I feel like they should market the products to be more gender friendly. They could easily invest some money into more boy costumes from the films. The basis of this article isn't uncommon at all, there are a bunch of mothers out there that are willing to spend big bucks to make their daughter happy, but where do you draw the line?

"Is that my son wearing a dress?"
If I was the father in this case, I would be a little shocked as well to see my son in a dress. I do believe that males and females should be able to wear what ever they want, but seeing it at such a young age is a little scary. It seems harmless at first, but all you really want is what's best for your children, so if he wants to wear a dress I think you should let them. The only bad thing about allowing things like this is that you worry about your child being teased by their classmates. It puts the parents in a really tough situation because you don't want to hurt their feelings but every parent has things they want their kids to be involved in such as playing sports, music, or art. You can try and shove things down their throats, and try to get them to do all the things you love, but as they get older they end up choosing what they enjoy the most anyways. Parents do have a lot of influence on their children, but in the end it's them who decide what they want to do.

Hip-Hop in a Women's World

The poem "If women ran hip hop" seems a little old fashioned for something that was wrote in 2007. It hits a lot of stereotypes about women, men, and music. I don't necessarily agree with the views talked about in it, but it does make an interesting case. It says "if women ran hip hop there would never be shootings." Is this saying that only men are dangerous and can stand up for themselves, or is it saying that men are dangerous and can't be trusted? It's almost like it's saying that women aren't capable of starting trouble such as a shooting. Also in the poem it says "and all shows would be all ages cause the economy of hip hop wouldn't revolve around the sale of alcohol." The subject of alcohol is a controversial one as it is, but when you throw gender in the mix it can cause a lot of arguments. I believe they are trying to say women don't need alcohol to have fun or enjoy music, but then again I don't agree with this at all. Not only men are alcoholics or enjoy drinking, women of all ages do too. Women are capable of making a profit no matter what they are selling, even if it is alcohol. Another topic that is pointed out here is the animal shelter. I know that a lot of women love cats and dogs, but so do men. No one would have a hip hop club that was full of animal shelter rescues, unless it was for some charity event. Hip hop has it's own style for a reason, not to be changed to fit "a women's needs and wants"; or what they think those are. The idea if women ran hip hop was fun to read, I just don't agree with any of it, and I'm sure a lot of other women who enjoy listening to hip hop music would agree too.