Activism Log #2

Activism: This week, our group met with Nina to discuss the details of carrying out our project. The primary action that I took this week toward that end was to create an online petition for our cause. I titled it “Creation of a Federal Holiday Recognizing the Struggle for Women’s Rights Petition” and posted it everywhere I could on facebook. The url of it is here: http://www.petitiononline.com/w2238868/petition.html. I post it at least once a day and have more recently been sending it to specific people that I know would support it, whether because they feel strongly about its content or just in order to help me out. I made sure to post it to the facebook page for our group, and I also wrote a message in an “update” to all the fans of our page.

Reflection: I have to say, I’m somewhat discouraged at the relatively low number of signatures we have managed to get on the petition so far. After a few days, we were at 48 last time I checked. I think the reason I find this so discouraging is because it had been easy so far to get people to support us, both through discussing the issue and getting people to become members of the page. The most plausible reason for the discrepancy that I can come up with is that it takes a few more seconds to sign a petition than it does to click “become a fan.” I feel like it’s easy to relate this project to the ideas in our textbook about the macro, meso, and micro levels of society (93). It’s difficult to get people to care about this because it’s difficult to look at anything on the macro level. On the macro level, it becomes clear that recognizing and appreciating the ongoing fight for equal rights is imperative.

Reciprocity: The motivation for this project is somewhat self-reinforcing. That is to say, encountering ignorance of what of the fight we want recognized just makes me realize again how important it is that we, as a country, find a way to commemorate the sacrifices of women in fighting for their rights. I’m learning in this process too. Wanting to explain to people why this is so important has motivated me to learn more about the history and significance of this issue.

Seely, Megan. "Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who Are My People?" Fight like a

Girl: How to Be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York UP, 2007. 92-96. Print.

Stalking is not sexy.

Rachel Collins

Jeannina Perez

WST3015

17 February 2010

When Twilight-mania began overtaking pop-culture about a year ago, I didn't think I whole lot of it. I didn't go out of my way to read it because I'm not really into vampire lore, I find it kind of boring. My roommate, however, is a huge fan. One day as I was teasing her about her obsession with the series, she challenged me to read the book before I criticized. So, I did. And I didn't like it. The movie follows the book pretty closely, and I didn't like it either, partly because of the way that sexuality is portrayed in it. It is notable that sex is rarely, if ever, directly mentioned in the book or movie. However, its implication affects many aspects of the relationship between the main characters.

Edward Cullen is a vampire who has learned to suppress his hunger for human blood by feeding on the blood of animals. However, he apparently finds Bella’s scent to be so delicious as to be maddening (3). Throughout the whole film, the potential act of Edward feeding on Bella’s blood and thereby turning her into a vampire is used as a metaphor for sex. This conflation of violence with sex is extremely problematic. Bella wants Edward to “turn” her, but he shows restraint. This restraint, which is portrayed is very difficult for him, is depicted as valiant of him. When we see this dichotomy through the lens of sexuality, it becomes problematic because Bella desires violence as a demonstration of affection. She also desires that sexual attention without seeming to care that it will hurt and possibly destroy her.

A double standard of sexuality is also present throughout the story. Edward breaks into Bella’s room to watch her sleep (16) is jealous of her contact with friends and especially other male figures, and generally stalks her in other ways as well. Apart from being generally scary, this behavior would be labeled “crazy” if it were performed by Bella. However, when Edward does it, it is portrayed as wildly romantic. Bella is also portrayed as extremely clumsy and childlike. As discussed in our Women's Sexuality reading, "as sex objects, women are commonly portrayed as child-like or doll-like playthings" (150). Depictions of women such as these represent discourses of heteronormative sexuality, which play a large role in maintaining power dynamics between men and women (177).

Perhaps the most disturbingly problematic aspect of sexuality’s depiction in Twilight is that it is depicted as a generally destructive force, and one that must be tightly guarded and controlled lest it escape and cause pain and havoc. Edward says that his family "doesn't understand why I can't leave you alone" (13). Bella strongly desires a violent symbol for sexual contact that she knows may destroy her, and Edward is burdened with policing his lust, which would likely maim the object of his desire if it were loosed. This is a very negative view of the power of sex, which seems to be largely based on very non-egalitarian views of sexuality and sexual relationships in general, with regard to both women and men.

Gavey, Nicole. McPhillips, Kathryn. Doherty, Marion. "'If It's Not On, It's Not On'- Or Is It?"

Women's Lives, Multicultural Perspectives. Ed Kirk, Ozakawa-Rey.

2010. 167-177

Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Ozakawa-Rey. Women's Lives, Multicultural

Perspectives. Mcgraw-Hill, 2010. 149-160.

Twilight. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perfs. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson. DVD. Summit

Entertainment, 2008.

Service Learning Log Week 1

This week, the things we had been working on previously have seemed to be coming together. We have been collectively amassing the knowledge we will need in order to launch this letter writing campaign. A couple weeks ago, I wrote the preliminary draft of the letter that we plan to send to everyone from student organizations to members of congress. Writing the letter presented a challenge, because it entailed condensing a lot of information into a relatively brief statement of our intentions. The group is currently researching and compiling a definitive list of the places we need to send the letter, while we wait for our professor and community partner, Nina, to proof my draft of the letter. We have met with our community partner more than once to work out the specifics of what we are doing.

Another thing we have done is create a Facebook group for our cause. The group has seen an overwhelmingly positive response, and we are approaching six hundred members, but it has also presented some unique challenges. Personally, working in a group is always somewhat of a challenge for me, and working collaboratively on this project has presented me with an opportunity to improve my skills with regard to working with others. As Seely recommends in "Fight Like A Girl," “involve others- delegate responsibility” (19). Also, there has been some negative response on the page, and it has been disheartening to see some of the ignorant and hateful things that some people have posted in the group. A lot of them seemed to originate from common myths and stereotypes about feminism. As Seely states, “the word has been distorted, diluted, misrepresented, stolen” (2). Though we have deleted the offensive comments, I think we were unprepared for that type of reaction, and we have had to discuss ways to minimize the effect that such responses have on our effort as a whole.

Though we have faced some glitches so far (some expected, some unexpected), I wholeheartedly believe in the importance and worth of what we are attempting to accomplish. Whether we succeed is important, but the lessons in activism that we are gaining are just as valuable.

Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal

For the effort to create a national women’s holiday.

Rachel Collins

Jessie Gerena

Adam Green

Enrique Irizarry

Kelly Quintero

2/3/10

Jeannina Perez

WST3015-001

Community Partner: The National Organization for Women, UCF Chapter

Contact: Jeannina Perez

Community Partner Mission Statement: According to their website, NOW’s mission is “…to take action to bring about equality for all women. Now works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control, and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism, and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.”

Political and/or Social Basis for Organization: NOW is formed on the basis of equality, freedom from sexism, racism, homophobia, and all other types of discrimination. Our view is that the utter lack of any holiday recognizing the fight for women’s rights is a form of discrimination, and as such, falls under the aims listed in NOW’s mission statement.

Memorandum

TO: Jeannina Perez

FROM: Rachel Collins

Jessie Gereno

Adam Green

Enrique Irizarry

Kelly Quintero

DATE: 2/3/10

RE: Proposal to Write a Feasibility Report for the effort to create a national women’s holiday.

This proposal aims to outline the needs, reasons, and feasibility for a service learning project with the intent to create a national holiday for a woman influential within the women’s right movement. Contained within is background on the needs for and benefits of a national women’s holiday, an outline of the work we plan to accomplish, justification for its inclusion in WST3015, and a proposed timeline. This proposal may need to be adjusted after we begin the project, and also needs to be flexible in order to meet the needs of both the project and our community partner.

Need for a national women’s holiday: This project does not have a community partner in the same way that others do. Our community partner is our professor, and our effort spans from student organizations to national organizations and politicians. However, the need for the proposed holiday is clear. There are holidays recognizing many historical and influential figures, such as Martin Luther King Day, yet there are no holidays recognizing women, particularly those who fought and died to secure basic rights of citizenship for women. Such a holiday would promote awareness of the heroic sacrifices of such women, and would demonstrate a movement of our society toward equality and equal recognition.

Plan Proposal: We propose that we will carry out our plan to create a national women’s holiday by formulating a letter detailing our rationale, and send it to student organizations, local, state, and national politicians, national organizations, etc. We will base the letter on legislation that created other similar holidays, such as MLK day. By doing this, we will raise awareness among the community of the need and lack of such a holiday recognizing women. This increased awareness will, we hope, lead to a grassroots effort to create this holiday.

Rationale for Women’s Studies: Women’s studies is concerned with both looking to and shaping the future of the struggle for equality, and honoring and recognizing the contributions and sacrifices that have been made in the past. The holidays recognizing public and historical figures that exist today inspire education because they make common the knowledge surrounding that figure. The fact that there is no such holiday recognizing women such as Alica Paul mean that far too many people in our society are utterly unaware of this crucial knowledge about the progression of women’s rights. Our efforts for the future must be based firmly on a critical understanding and full appreciation of the repercussions of past events.

Action: To begin, Rachel will write a letter detailing the rationale and necessity of this holiday. All other group members will then read and contribute to this letter, and then this letter will be read and finally edited by you, our professor. The rest of the group will be looking up national, state, and local governments, politicians, and student organizations. We will create a Facebook page to promote awareness of our cause. We will then collaborate to distribute our letter to all of these places. We can use the unlimited printing in the honors computer lab to print the letters that we need.

Timeline:

Meet with Nina to discuss the plan on 2/1.

Turn letter in to Nina on 2/5/10.

Create Facebook page – 2/5/10.

Establish definitive list of organizations to send letters to by 2/17/10, then email the ones that we can and send letters to those we can’t by 2/22.

Turn in completed reflection paper on 5/3/10.

Sex sells....as long as it's a heteronormative, woman-objectifying, unhealthy version of sex.

This is an ad you would likely see just about anywhere. Shop windows, department stores, billboards, TV, the internet, malls. It's typical enough that your eyes probably wouldn't even linger on it as you passed. Advertising like this blends into the white noise of the scenery and is rarely consciously analyzed. However, the utter normalization of imagery such as this in our society makes conscious and thoughtful analysis of it all the more necessary and important. The most effective advertising is that which we do not actively perceive as trying to sell us something. Likewise, advertisers themselves may not always be consciously aware of every message they are sending. Advertising performs a singular function, which is to sell; how things are sold is dependent on the society to which they are being sold. Like all media, ads both shape and are shaped by the cultural climate in which they are created. To understand this ad and all advertising, we must deliberately dissect as many aspects of the imagery as possible.
Notice the body language of the woman in the ad. Her spine is curved, head tilted back in a gesture of submission. She is scantily clad, and her face is contorted, teeth bared, in an expression that probably is meant to be ecstasy but can also easily be seen as pain. Her eyes are shut, and her face is visible only blurrily in the background, while the foreground and clear focus is on her body, which (unsurprisingly) displays no trace of fat and glistens with moisture. The depiction of her body is overtly and purely sexual, a perfect example of the oversexualization of women in the media. We’re focused (literally and figuratively) on her body and not her face because her body is what matters. Furthermore, her passive body language is exemplary of that which is seen to be attractive. Submissive and sexy are synonymous, where representations of women are concerned.
We can also unpack the words used in an ad. In this case, the relevant word is “addict,” the name of this fragrance. This word coupled with the image in the ad seems to imply that the woman pictured is an addict of some kind. In this way, the ad romanticizes the idea of addiction by coupling it with imagery of an ideal woman. Addiction to anything is unilaterally harmful, and renders individuals powerless to control and shape their own behavior and choices. By pairing the idea of addiction with an image of an ideal woman, the ad conflates beauty and powerlessness, female sexuality and submission, health with disease, and sexuality itself with a lack of control, agency, and power with regard to women. Once one is familiar with the oversaturation of images such as this one in our culture, it becomes easier to see how erroneous and problematic ideas about women and sexuality are furthered and tacitly accepted in society.

Johnson, Allan G. "Patriarchy, the System". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 68-76.
"Women's Sexuality". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 149-160.