profeminism is  topic i have thought about before reading Michael Kimmel’s article and i think it is extremely important in our strive toward sexual equality.  i can relate to what he sad about overhearing women talking bad about “men” and feeling a sort of shame.  but i also have to tell myself that i dont think or behave like the men they speak of.  i think of it is they just made an error in the judging his character.

i was raised by my mother my entire life, and i think that is why i support the feminist movement and one of the reasons why i am in this class.  hearing everyday about the liestyles and struggles my grandmothers and mom went through with the patriarchs of my family made me realize that men arent at the center of our own egotistical world.  she explained to me what it felt like being part of a male-dominated household and i thought to myself that it was a very selfish and degrading lifestyle, and i would change that when i have my own family.

my mother proved to me that the machismo attitude that men are superior to women is all an act.  she showed me that women are by far more capable of doing everything a man is capable of doing (except moving a refrigerator upstairs) and more.  she worked 2 jobs, raised me and my brother (who are both delightful individuals), taught us valuable life lessons, and still found time to make it to all of our football games and every other activity we were involved in.  Men are too one dimensional to be able to accomplish all of these tasks and still be able to get sleep at night.

 thanks to my mom, i will begin a new era of men in my future family.  she showed me that to be a man is not simply how you provide for your family, but how you live as a family.  the profeminist movement has not only begun, but will be lived and taught to future generations.

Is a bill of rights for women necessary?

i think Islamic culture is one of the most fascinating group in society today because they are so divided by their religious beliefs.  one set uses the koran to adapt to a changing world and develop a better understanding of Allah’s teachings.  another sect uses the koran as a weapon to oppress the people it was meant to protect and to gain power and money in the physical world.

Asra Nomani’s “…Bill of Rights…” represents what is wrong with the islamic culture today.  in the 7th century, Allah granted equal rights among both men an women.  her bill of rights should not even be necessary because those rights were granted by the God.  the super-conservative sect of islam conveniently forgets certain parts of Allah’s teachings and chooses to focus on the portions that further their tyranical means of existance.

While she was visiting with the professor, she experienced the type of islam for which she struggled day in and day out to achieve.  it was an islam that actually abided by Allah’s teachings and wasn’t an instrument to confine and segregate the people who devote their lives to.

Religon is about love.  to love God is to love the people around you, no matter what they think or believe.  I am a christian and there are people who i dont see eye to eye with, but i dont hate them because we have different opinions on things.  God teaches never to hold hate in your heart.  Conservative islamic groups HATE people who have different opinions and that is what amazes me.  they say they love God and that is why they kill people and destroy buildings because they are defending their religion.  i dont think that people are evil in nature.  it is the ignorance that is taught to them that is the root of all evil.

wellFAIR reform

everyone knows of someone who uses or needs to use welfare.  they hear about it on the news or see people on an episode of cops that desparately need some sort of government aid.  there will always be a need for welfare and there will alway be people who abuse the welfare system.  my grandma witnesses it everyday when she goes to buy groceries at kroger.  a family will buy WIC approved food items, then use the LONESTAR card to pulse out $20 and turn around and use the government provided money to buy a case of beer and cigarettes for themselves.

national statisics show that the number of people actually on welfare is decreasing at an increasing rate.  but does that mean that the number of people who need welfare is going down?  i think not.  i agree with the reading in the fact that the government is scaring away welfare recipients in an attempt to cut the budget necessary to run th program.  this has both positive and negative effects.  the positive side is that people who are using welfare as their primary means of income when they are capable of working to support their families and habits will be discouraged from using welfare because it is easier to get a job and work than to fight the bureaucrats into giving them free money.  a negative aspect of the situation is that the same scare tactics would also be effective against people who actually need the welfare.  single moms and disabled parents may find it easier to light their homes with candles than to argue their case with uncaring public offices.

there is enough porn for everyone

In the reading “Pornography and Freedom”, the author illustrates the idea that pornography is a male dominated scene and the main purpose of it is to sexually repress women.  he is only half right.

it is true that men view pornography far more than women, but that doesn’t mean that all porn is meant for men.  there are so many different types of porn available that it is impossible to say who their target audience actually is.  this is why i dont agree with the notion that porn is meant for a male dominated world.

today, sexual freedom is a right we have as Americans.  we can watch people have sex at any given time of the day, and there is no limit on the style in which they do it.  Each person has a very unique preference on how they like “it”.  some like to be on top, some on bottom, some from behind, and some just dont care.  its a preference.  some women prefer to be in control while some like to be controlled.  same goes for men.  it is all a personal preference.  you cant lump sex into a category describing it as male-centric because women like to have sex too.

women enjoy pornography just as much as men do, just on a smaller scale.  they have their own fantasies they like to see illustrated for them.  it is not fair to cast judgement on something that is shared by both sexes.

The Body Shop

After reading “Designer Vaginas” by Simone Weil Davis, i realized how much other people’s opinions effect a woman’s ego. Granted, plastic surgery is not necessarily a bad thing. Fake boobs are just as good as real boobs and i can change my appearance if i am ever on the run from the mob. But i think the issue here is not what plastic surgeons can alter, but the addiction of knowing that you can change everything about your appearance. Women who compare themselves to artificially enhanced “beauties” want to get plastic surgery so they can “keep up” with the competition. I can understand getting labiaplasty if you have ever tripped over your labia or hear it billowing in the wind, but to undergo a surgery just so it looks prettier is foolish. Im no prude, but hopefully the only vaginas i see are from the women that i love or the ones i dont remember. either way, the labia is nothing to be ashamed of. It was dane cook who made jokes about the “meat curtain” during his HBO special and i think that has raised a false sense of “excessiveness awareness”. a man can get plastic surgery to reshape and enlarge his penis, but most would chose to decline. The only circumstance that would seem applicable is if your tool isnt getting the job done for your lady. then surgery would seem understandable because you have purpose or goal for the surgery, not just for visual appeal.  moral of the story, keep your lips the way they were made because we will still have sex with you. lol

WTF?

Last semester in my sociology class, we watched a film about saudi arabian culture and how women are always guilty of crimes committed against them.  they discussed adultery, homosexuality and rape as if the victims were the criminals in the situation, and they were treated as thus.

This week, a woman was given a lengthy jail sentence and 200 lashes after being the victim of a brutal raping by 7 men.  i read this in the quick and i literally said “WTF?”.  appearantly, she was only supposed to get a minimal jail sentence and 50 lashes, but she went to the media and exposed this travesty to the world and they increased her sentence.

i understand that there are rules in that country concerning a woman’s ability to travel about town (she must have a male escort she is related to) and that the woman in question did not adhere to these rules, but does that make her the criminal in this case.  her being the victim in her own crime makes the men of saudi arabia seem like a pack of wild dogs preying on the weak and innocent and being able to sneak back into the night virtuall unscathed.  im sure that if the punishment were switched and the 7 men got 5-10 years in jail and 200 lashings, they would not rape anyone and finally the women of saudi arabia could walk lone on the streets of the hometown.

No where to go

Many Americans today take for granted how easy life is here in the United States.  Everyone is allowed to come and go as they please and there is no limit to the number of choices a typical American has at there disposal.  I do not think that most Americans would be able to psychologically handle being in a state of war on our own turf and having no choice but to become refugees, similar to the families of Iraq.

the hardest part of being a refugee would be what to leave behind.  i have evacuated my home because of the emminant presence of a category 5 hurricane.  most Americans have never had to face a decision like that because life and death situations dont happen very often in the U.S.  im sure there would be folks in the massive caravan toward a safe haven with a TV or make-up case strapped to there back.

the second question for everyone fleeing the scene would be where is everybody to go?  Mexico would just laugh at us and canada is too far for most of America.  we wouldnt be able to drive because the roadways would be too congested.  so we would have to carve our own sanctuary out of the American countryside.  most Americans have never had to depend on their own abilities for survival and i fear that in the darkest of situations (which could be arond the corner), most Americans would be just another tally mark on the death toll.

Our way of life, the American dream, has allowed us the freedom to do as we please and not have to worry about the hardship and strife that 3rd world countries exprience.  this leads us to take for granted how difficult it is just to survive when your homeland is under attack and the hardship of adapting to another countries lifestyles.  Americans live in a proverbial cake walk and i hope that nothing ever happens to where our survival depends on the hardiness and adaptability of our society because we have no where to go.

thats what I said!

wow.  after reading “A Black Woman Took My Job” by Michael Kimmel, that is all i can say.  His essay related to a few things i said in class pertaining to certain rules that men follow, not by choice, but through socialization with other men.  when we discussed reproductive rights in class a while back, i stated that men do not go to the doctor or take their medication as suggested.  This isnt something that we do to make lives difficult for everyone else, we disobey the doctors orders because babying ourselves is out of the question.  after reading this story, i realized that women are smarter than men because ladies will do their best to preserve their well being and are encouraged to do so.  men on the other hand suffer the opposite reaction, we are criticized for taking care of ourselves, which is really ignorant.  as far as money goes, that is a personal attribute.  i like money and the empowerment i feel when i have more than $20 is amazing, but i do not let physical possessions outweigh the more important aspects of my life (friends, family, fun).  money cant buy you happiness so i dont think that it should be a measure of a man’s value.  The “Sturdy Oak” principle is right on the money though.  That is a motto that i live my whole life by.  this doesnt mean that i dont express my feelings or get involved into personal conversations with others, but i choose to not let people effect me in a negative manner.  i do this by always being optomistic.  i never get my hopes up and i never rule out the impossible because i hate suprises and i like to be in control of my own destiny.  a foolish man will stand in the way of a crashing wave to prove his manliness, a smart one will know when to move.

Boo freaky foot doctor!

I read “gender role stressors and women’s health” and i decided that its the medical profession’s fault for misdiagnosing women.  Doctor’s do not think of their patients as people anymore and this shortsightedness causes women in the early stages of mental health issues to get glanced over as a nutty housewife who needs to rest more.  They seem to be taking the easy route out of the situation by prescribing them powerful sedatives and anti-depressants to make it easier for others to cope with their women’s problems.  it seems that to medical practitioners, patients are just another number with a specific problem and that it can be cured as easy as taking some pills.  This is not always the case.  many psychological disorders are clevery disguised as a less dangerous ailment, similar to cancer.  You go to the doctor thinking you have a stomach flu and you leave knowing that you have stomach cancer instead.  the same thing goes on in the brain and women are just taking their medications and becoming content in their drug enduced haze.  women need ask more questions and make the doctors talk to them.  doctors should also take some advanced speech classes to discover new ways to communicate their indecipherable jargon inton layman’s terms.  when the communication barrier between doctors and patient comes tumbling down, women wont feel neglected by their physicians.

blog 3

I reread “towards a new vision” as you suggested on your blog and was really captured by the section on how to transcend the barriers of oppression necessary for social change because that is how I was thinking even before I began reading that selection. Patricia Collins makes very good points about where oppression is hiding in our society, she does not put much emphasis on where oppression comes from.

In more primitive, non-anglo cultures, there is no oppression in a tribe or community. The Amazonian tribes are a close knit family of sorts who work together to survive in a thriving jungle. So why are white cultures so keen on oppressing people of different statuses?

I believe it is our sense of individuality that is causing this rift in humanity’s fabric. I would say that individuality is our culture’s way of saying selfish. Even though our country was founded on the principle that individuality is a freedom we all should enjoy, abuse of this freedom has left a gap between the way our world is now and the way is should be if we are to survive on this planet.

Most people’s individuality is motivated by money and power, or the need to acquire more of it. Money and power are the means by which our society is divided. Very rarely will you see a HUD home next door to a 5 bedroom. It seems that people with money are the one’s in charge and they make decisions that reflect their own way of thinking. Is money and power a measure of someone’s greatness? Or is it a measure of their ability to manipulate honest people into believing they know what is right because they are successful?