Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015
28 February 2010
In her article “Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood,” Aurora Levins Morales explains the value of actively reclaiming sex for survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Using her own experiences as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, Morales assesses the defensive position regarding sex many survivors take and finds it lacking. Instead of helping the survivor form a strong individual identity, such a position actually traps survivors in another form of victimhood. In Morales’ understanding, only by reclaiming the erotic as it applies to sex and physical intimacy can survivors truly experience passion and freedom in all areas of their lives. For the individual to thrive, she suggests, s/he must move beyond the idea of being a victim, even a strong, surviving one; s/he must reject the fear of sexual passion instilled in them by their abusers in order to become a person of complete passion and fulfillment in every sense.
Morales begins her essay by discussing why strong, defensive survivorhood is so appealing. She recalls her own experiences being sexually abused as a child and the impact those experiences have had on her ability to now understand and embrace her mature sexuality. Morales acknowledges from the start that her abuse and resulting fear of her own sexuality are not her fault; rather, they are the fault of her abusers, the direct consequences of their attempts to “induce physical pleasure in [her] against [her] will,” allowing “them . . . to persuade [her] that [her] desires were dangerous” (Morales 283). Such a stance creates a sense of “wounded eroticism . . . that is honored in survivor culture” (284) because it provides survivors with a way to show that their abuse and violation have left drastic, lasting impressions. In a society where people are often skeptical of the validity of such reports of abuse, the wounded eroticism Morales describes acts for survivors as a visible scar, a way of proving not only that their experiences were true, but also that the survivors have lived beyond them.
In the next section, however, Morales challenges the idea that survivors have actually lived beyond their abuse. Perhaps survivorhood, she posits, is really another form of victimhood. Just as “victimhood absolves [survivors] from having to decide to have good lives . . . to face up to our own responsibility . . . for changing the world and ourselves” (284), the idea of survivorhood presents another “out” for survivors in that it prevents them from ever forming self-identities defined fully by themselves. “When we refuse healing for the sake of that rage,” Morales says, “we are remaking ourselves in the image of those who hurt us . . . becoming the embodiment of the wound” (284). Rather than strengthening and benefiting survivors, then, the defensive approach of survivorhood to sexuality inhibits them, preventing them from embracing all aspects of themselves as equally important and key to their identities.
Morales next connects this idea to of reclaiming sexuality to the power of the general erotic. She discusses the erotic here specifically in regards to physical, sexual intimacy, as her own experiences have taught her that an inability to accept sexuality as a viable erotic passion is one of the strongest obstacles survivors face in reclaiming and freeing themselves. For survivors, embracing their sexuality in all its dynamics, all its turgid unknowns, is essential if they ever wish to truly live beyond their past abuse. For the general population, celebrating and fully claiming our bodies allows us to recognize the ways society exploits and abuses them; from this recognition, we can work to counteract this exploitation, becoming full people of passion and finally finding in everything we do the “deep pleasure in living” (284) contained in the erotic.
Works Cited
Morales, Aurora Levins. “Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 283-284. Print
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Activism Log III
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
28 February 2010
Activism
This was a slow week. I continued promoting the project over Facebook and in face-to-face discussion with friends, but I couldn’t collect any signatures without a petition sheet, which I should receive copies of once tabling starts. I also did a bit of outside research to better understand the statistics and circumstances surrounding the transgendered community. My primary resource has been Deborah Rudacille’s The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights, which I had actually bought this past summer, several months after my cousin came out. I thought I had finished it, but I had stopped reading about two-thirds of the way through. I’ve started reading it again, and I would highly recommend it. It does, from what I can tell, I nice job of discussing key issues in the transgender community and activist efforts, and it has been extremely helpful for me in understanding more about the issue that is central to our project.
Reflection
Class discussion and readings this week focused on violence against women, which is also a major threat facing the transgender community. Violence threatens the entire LGBT community, but the transgendered population is often at higher risk because of the high level of hostility general society presents towards trans. lifestyles. Transwomen in particular are especially at risk for gender-based violence, a phenomenon which stems from the fact that “[c]urrently, negative stereotypes about women of color, poor white women, prostituted women, lesbians, and transgender women all perpetuate the idea, in the wider society, that these women are not worthy of respect” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 263). Hopefully, our project will help foster an environment on the UCF campus that will reduce the threat of violence against the transgender community.
Reciprocity
I was glad of the opportunity to familiarize myself with information about key trans. issues, which will undoubtedly prove useful when tabling begins and I will need to discuss and explain the need for this project to collect signatures and raise support. I am excited for tabling to begin next week; it should be exciting, and it will give me a chance to feel like I am helping achieve something measurable and real.
Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Violence Against Women.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 257-272. Print.
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
28 February 2010
Activism
This was a slow week. I continued promoting the project over Facebook and in face-to-face discussion with friends, but I couldn’t collect any signatures without a petition sheet, which I should receive copies of once tabling starts. I also did a bit of outside research to better understand the statistics and circumstances surrounding the transgendered community. My primary resource has been Deborah Rudacille’s The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights, which I had actually bought this past summer, several months after my cousin came out. I thought I had finished it, but I had stopped reading about two-thirds of the way through. I’ve started reading it again, and I would highly recommend it. It does, from what I can tell, I nice job of discussing key issues in the transgender community and activist efforts, and it has been extremely helpful for me in understanding more about the issue that is central to our project.
Reflection
Class discussion and readings this week focused on violence against women, which is also a major threat facing the transgender community. Violence threatens the entire LGBT community, but the transgendered population is often at higher risk because of the high level of hostility general society presents towards trans. lifestyles. Transwomen in particular are especially at risk for gender-based violence, a phenomenon which stems from the fact that “[c]urrently, negative stereotypes about women of color, poor white women, prostituted women, lesbians, and transgender women all perpetuate the idea, in the wider society, that these women are not worthy of respect” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 263). Hopefully, our project will help foster an environment on the UCF campus that will reduce the threat of violence against the transgender community.
Reciprocity
I was glad of the opportunity to familiarize myself with information about key trans. issues, which will undoubtedly prove useful when tabling begins and I will need to discuss and explain the need for this project to collect signatures and raise support. I am excited for tabling to begin next week; it should be exciting, and it will give me a chance to feel like I am helping achieve something measurable and real.
Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Violence Against Women.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 257-272. Print.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Activism Log II
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
21 February 2010
Activism
This week, my work involved promoting the project. Rebecca created the Facebook group and online petition as planned, and I sent group invites/information to several of my Facebook friends who attend or are somehow a part of the UCF community to make them aware of our efforts.
Reflection
The reading I found most interesting this week was Khan’s “The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl.” In it, Khan discusses her struggle to unite her homosexual identity and her previously-rejected Pakistani one. Because of immense pressure from her family (particularly her mother) and larger society, which, especially in South Asia, “is rampant with homophobia—so much so that most people In South Asia literally don’t have words for homosexuality” (Khan 179)—she has, to this point, embraced being a lesbian member of the LGBT community at the expense of recognizing at all her connection to the Pakistani community. This is, I feel, similar to the experiences of the transgendered community, who are pressured by society to conform to gender identities that may completely contradict their understandings of themselves. To gain social acceptance, they may reject their connections to the LGBT community both before and after transitioning, and in doing so reject a vital part of themselves.
Reciprocity
Because this is my first time being a part of any LGBT-related activism, sending out the Facebook group invites was really my way of “coming out” in support of this community. It was by no means on the same level as coming out as homosexual or transgendered, but it was still a little nerve-wracking, as many of the people I sent invites to were people I knew to be strongly Christian and/or conservative. I did receive some hostility, but, sadly, that is to be expected when dealing with LGBT issues. For me, though, the significant part of this was finally declaring myself an open supporter of something I had kept quiet about in high school because I did not want to risk social alienation. It was extremely freeing to finally, irrevocably become open about something that has, as my feminist identity has developed and my family connections have made it increasingly relevant to my personal interests, become a vital part of how I identify myself from political, individual, and activist perspectives.
Works Cited
Khan, Surina A. “The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 178-180. Print.
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
21 February 2010
Activism
This week, my work involved promoting the project. Rebecca created the Facebook group and online petition as planned, and I sent group invites/information to several of my Facebook friends who attend or are somehow a part of the UCF community to make them aware of our efforts.
Reflection
The reading I found most interesting this week was Khan’s “The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl.” In it, Khan discusses her struggle to unite her homosexual identity and her previously-rejected Pakistani one. Because of immense pressure from her family (particularly her mother) and larger society, which, especially in South Asia, “is rampant with homophobia—so much so that most people In South Asia literally don’t have words for homosexuality” (Khan 179)—she has, to this point, embraced being a lesbian member of the LGBT community at the expense of recognizing at all her connection to the Pakistani community. This is, I feel, similar to the experiences of the transgendered community, who are pressured by society to conform to gender identities that may completely contradict their understandings of themselves. To gain social acceptance, they may reject their connections to the LGBT community both before and after transitioning, and in doing so reject a vital part of themselves.
Reciprocity
Because this is my first time being a part of any LGBT-related activism, sending out the Facebook group invites was really my way of “coming out” in support of this community. It was by no means on the same level as coming out as homosexual or transgendered, but it was still a little nerve-wracking, as many of the people I sent invites to were people I knew to be strongly Christian and/or conservative. I did receive some hostility, but, sadly, that is to be expected when dealing with LGBT issues. For me, though, the significant part of this was finally declaring myself an open supporter of something I had kept quiet about in high school because I did not want to risk social alienation. It was extremely freeing to finally, irrevocably become open about something that has, as my feminist identity has developed and my family connections have made it increasingly relevant to my personal interests, become a vital part of how I identify myself from political, individual, and activist perspectives.
Works Cited
Khan, Surina A. “The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 178-180. Print.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
This is What We Need to Become to be Serious!
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
17 February 2010
This is What We Need to Become to be Serious!
Legally Blonde follows Elle Woods’ academic journey from sorority sister to savvy-yet-chic lawyer in her quest to win back her ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III. Much of the movie’s humor stems from its portrayal of Elle, which consistently shows her as airheaded, flighty, and generally ignorant of the more serious intellectual and social challenges associated with life at Harvard law school. Although Elle emerges at the film’s end a confident, capable lawyer, this transformation requires several major concessions on her part, regarding not only her interests (fashion for philosophy and ethics of law, for instance), but also her understanding and presentation of herself as an individual.
Elle’s grasp on her own sexuality and status as a sexual being is one of the most obvious of these concessions. Accustomed to the more carefree California lifestyle, Elle initially arrives at Harvard very open about her sexuality. Her video application essay is deliberately filled with shots of her lounging in the pool, clad only in glittery bikinis (Video Essay & Exam). Elle knows her physical appearance fills the dominant beauty standard: she is “thin, lean, tall, young, white, and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208), and she has seemingly no qualms about exploiting her privileged beauty to get her admission into Harvard. The hook succeeds, and the Harvard admissions committee, so distracted by Elle’s physical appeal, overlooks her inexperience and general ignorance of what law school will entail and grants her admission.
After arriving at Harvard, however, Elle’s presentation of herself as an openly sexual being changes noticeably. As her dedication to and success in her studies increase, her wardrobe changes, becoming not only more professional, but also more conservative. A lack of immediate social acceptance at Harvard and conflict with Warner’s fiancée, Vivian Kensington, force Elle to reevaluate her presentation of herself, particularly (in a reflection of her dedication to the fashion industry before entering law school) her wardrobe. Vivian’s style and mannerisms reflect her old-money, New England upbringing; she dresses in muted tones, high-necked sweaters, and clothing that shows off her figure as present, but demure, and clearly off-limits. In short, she portrays a model of the virgin/whore dichotomy women are expected to reflect within themselves, the “central contradiction of the culture” dictating that they appear to “work hard and produce and achieve success and yet, at the same time . . . live impulsively, spend a lot of money, and be constantly and immediately gratified” (Kilbourne 237). Elle sees in Vivian a prototype of the sophisticated, desirable woman: “This is the type of girl that Warner wants to marry! This is what I need to become to be serious!” (“I’m Going to Harvard!”) In her efforts to become “serious” and again worthy of Warner’s attention, Elle abandons bright colors for more respectable black and similarly-dark clothing, her skirts become longer, and her shirts acquire collars and gradually lose the plunging necklines she favored in dresses and blouses at the film’s beginning. While her clothes maintain their fashionable quality, they stop emphasizing her youth and sexual appeal because Elle herself slowly comes to devalue those traits in herself. Her new, restrained wardrobe helps win her social acceptance and respect as a law student, but this new confidence comes at a cost—namely, the loss of her easy confidence in herself as a sexual being, both desirable and desiring, and ultimately not a trait deemed attractive in the dominant culture’s understanding of an ideal woman.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. “The More You Subtract, the More You Add.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 231-239. Print
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Health.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 207-224. Print
Luketic, Robert, dir. Legally Blonde. Perf. Reese Witherspoon. 2001. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2006. DVD-ROM
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
17 February 2010
Legally Blonde follows Elle Woods’ academic journey from sorority sister to savvy-yet-chic lawyer in her quest to win back her ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III. Much of the movie’s humor stems from its portrayal of Elle, which consistently shows her as airheaded, flighty, and generally ignorant of the more serious intellectual and social challenges associated with life at Harvard law school. Although Elle emerges at the film’s end a confident, capable lawyer, this transformation requires several major concessions on her part, regarding not only her interests (fashion for philosophy and ethics of law, for instance), but also her understanding and presentation of herself as an individual.
Elle’s grasp on her own sexuality and status as a sexual being is one of the most obvious of these concessions. Accustomed to the more carefree California lifestyle, Elle initially arrives at Harvard very open about her sexuality. Her video application essay is deliberately filled with shots of her lounging in the pool, clad only in glittery bikinis (Video Essay & Exam). Elle knows her physical appearance fills the dominant beauty standard: she is “thin, lean, tall, young, white, and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208), and she has seemingly no qualms about exploiting her privileged beauty to get her admission into Harvard. The hook succeeds, and the Harvard admissions committee, so distracted by Elle’s physical appeal, overlooks her inexperience and general ignorance of what law school will entail and grants her admission.
After arriving at Harvard, however, Elle’s presentation of herself as an openly sexual being changes noticeably. As her dedication to and success in her studies increase, her wardrobe changes, becoming not only more professional, but also more conservative. A lack of immediate social acceptance at Harvard and conflict with Warner’s fiancée, Vivian Kensington, force Elle to reevaluate her presentation of herself, particularly (in a reflection of her dedication to the fashion industry before entering law school) her wardrobe. Vivian’s style and mannerisms reflect her old-money, New England upbringing; she dresses in muted tones, high-necked sweaters, and clothing that shows off her figure as present, but demure, and clearly off-limits. In short, she portrays a model of the virgin/whore dichotomy women are expected to reflect within themselves, the “central contradiction of the culture” dictating that they appear to “work hard and produce and achieve success and yet, at the same time . . . live impulsively, spend a lot of money, and be constantly and immediately gratified” (Kilbourne 237). Elle sees in Vivian a prototype of the sophisticated, desirable woman: “This is the type of girl that Warner wants to marry! This is what I need to become to be serious!” (“I’m Going to Harvard!”) In her efforts to become “serious” and again worthy of Warner’s attention, Elle abandons bright colors for more respectable black and similarly-dark clothing, her skirts become longer, and her shirts acquire collars and gradually lose the plunging necklines she favored in dresses and blouses at the film’s beginning. While her clothes maintain their fashionable quality, they stop emphasizing her youth and sexual appeal because Elle herself slowly comes to devalue those traits in herself. Her new, restrained wardrobe helps win her social acceptance and respect as a law student, but this new confidence comes at a cost—namely, the loss of her easy confidence in herself as a sexual being, both desirable and desiring, and ultimately not a trait deemed attractive in the dominant culture’s understanding of an ideal woman.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. “The More You Subtract, the More You Add.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 231-239. Print
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Health.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 207-224. Print
Luketic, Robert, dir. Legally Blonde. Perf. Reese Witherspoon. 2001. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2006. DVD-ROM
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Service Learning Proposal
Service Learning Proposal
For Equal
(Formerly G.L.B.S.U. of UCF)
Jen Ackerman
Johana Vanegas
Jennifer Smith
Rachel Miles
Alexandria Bergeron
11 February 2010
Professor Nina Perez
Introduction to Women’s Studies, WST 3015
Community Partner: Equal at UCF
Address: P.O. Box 163245 • Orlando, FL • 32816-3245
Contact: Rebecca Marques
786-271-5382
RMarques@knights.ucf.edu
Equal at UCF Community Profile
Mission Statement:
Equal's mission is to provide a safe environment for students to interact and network with each other, engage in social activities, and develop personal character without fear of discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and to provide support and resources for students who have experienced such discrimination.
Political/ Social Basis:
Equal's vision is a campus environment where GLBTQ students can feel both a sense of self-worth and pride in their individual diversity and a sense of community and belonging, and where all students can expect to be treated equally, regardless of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Equal strives to educate its members and the university community about sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender issues, and about issues that affect the GLBTQ community and provide opportunities for the personal and professional growth and development of its members.
Equal’s Needs:
To fully utilize the student body, Equal will need all of its volunteers to be active and committed to our vision of equality. To make sure our goals get met, volunteers will have to expect rigorous schedule of deadlines and work. Work will include behind-the-scenes organizing as well as field work of petitioning and tabling.
The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rationale and feasibility for a service learning project to benefit GLBT student body and faculty. The following proposal contains background on the need for and benefits of getting gender identity listed on the Non-Discrimination policy project, an outline of the work I plan to do, the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015, and a scheduled timeline. This proposal may need to be revised after beginning the project and must be flexible to meet the needs of the both the service learning project and the community partner.
Need for:
Volunteers who are committed to working for a safer campus that protects its GLBT students and faculty. Volunteers will be expected to help in any way possible including: helping promote the event, outreach to other campus organizations to raise awareness, collect signatures, table in front of the union, and do other various technical tasks.
Plan Proposal:
Our plan is to volunteer for Equal at UCF under Rebecca Marques who is organizing the petition and protest of UCF’s Non- Discrimination Policy. As of right now UCF’s Non-Discrimination Policy does not include gender identity under the list of minorities currently covered. We will be tabling, petitioning, organizing and participating in the protest and hopeful addition of gender identity to the Non- Discrimination Policy. This project meets the need of the our Community Partner Equal because one of their goals is to “create a community where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) students and their allies can feel safe, welcome, and proud, where they can interact and grow with out fear of harassment or discrimination.” Presently the GLBTQ community on our campus is vulnerable to abuse and intolerance which is something that needs to be changed immediately.
Women’s Studies:
Since one of the core principles of feminism is the belief in social, political, and economic equality of all sexes and people, we believe as a group that this project completely encompasses the value and ideals of this course. We are fighting for the protection of this minority, so this group of people feels safe under the Non- Discrimination Policy and on our campus. We are hoping that this project results in more awareness of intolerance, specifically for the transgendered, and an education in equality for all.
Action:
This project has already begun with meetings and will continue with persistent planning and organizing. The first steps of the project include off campus out-reach and contacting those in the greater community who could also support us. Initially the five members of this group will be Rebecca Marques’ main group of volunteers. We will work directly under her and assist her with paper work, petition-making, tabling and recruiting. Each of one of us will have different responsibilities including creating and running the website (event page) for our project, collecting and sending our petition sheets and letters to the President of the UCF, organizing and planning the tabling efforts, running and assisting in the actual protest for our cause, and lastly fulfilling recruiting and promoting for the event.
As a group we will be working under Rebecca Marques who is an active Equal member on the UCF campus. We will need to be devoted and very serious about the cause in order to really achieve the equality we are striving for.
Timeline:
Event page created February 12th
Group Meeting February 15th
Petition forms created and distributed February 15th
to members
Speak and attend EQUAL meeting February 16th
Group Meeting February 19th
Group Meeting February 24th
Informational video February 26th
Video showcase to EQUAL March 2nd
Group Meeting March 2nd
Newspaper article March 8-11th
Group Meeting March 16th
Tabling and signature gathering March 1st- April 22nd
Emails sent to President Hitt March 1st- April 22nd
Group Meeting April 26th
Event (petition turn in) Tentative date April 28th
For Equal
(Formerly G.L.B.S.U. of UCF)
Jen Ackerman
Johana Vanegas
Jennifer Smith
Rachel Miles
Alexandria Bergeron
11 February 2010
Professor Nina Perez
Introduction to Women’s Studies, WST 3015
Community Partner: Equal at UCF
Address: P.O. Box 163245 • Orlando, FL • 32816-3245
Contact: Rebecca Marques
786-271-5382
RMarques@knights.ucf.edu
Equal at UCF Community Profile
Mission Statement:
Equal's mission is to provide a safe environment for students to interact and network with each other, engage in social activities, and develop personal character without fear of discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and to provide support and resources for students who have experienced such discrimination.
Political/ Social Basis:
Equal's vision is a campus environment where GLBTQ students can feel both a sense of self-worth and pride in their individual diversity and a sense of community and belonging, and where all students can expect to be treated equally, regardless of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Equal strives to educate its members and the university community about sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender issues, and about issues that affect the GLBTQ community and provide opportunities for the personal and professional growth and development of its members.
Equal’s Needs:
To fully utilize the student body, Equal will need all of its volunteers to be active and committed to our vision of equality. To make sure our goals get met, volunteers will have to expect rigorous schedule of deadlines and work. Work will include behind-the-scenes organizing as well as field work of petitioning and tabling.
The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rationale and feasibility for a service learning project to benefit GLBT student body and faculty. The following proposal contains background on the need for and benefits of getting gender identity listed on the Non-Discrimination policy project, an outline of the work I plan to do, the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015, and a scheduled timeline. This proposal may need to be revised after beginning the project and must be flexible to meet the needs of the both the service learning project and the community partner.
Need for:
Volunteers who are committed to working for a safer campus that protects its GLBT students and faculty. Volunteers will be expected to help in any way possible including: helping promote the event, outreach to other campus organizations to raise awareness, collect signatures, table in front of the union, and do other various technical tasks.
Plan Proposal:
Our plan is to volunteer for Equal at UCF under Rebecca Marques who is organizing the petition and protest of UCF’s Non- Discrimination Policy. As of right now UCF’s Non-Discrimination Policy does not include gender identity under the list of minorities currently covered. We will be tabling, petitioning, organizing and participating in the protest and hopeful addition of gender identity to the Non- Discrimination Policy. This project meets the need of the our Community Partner Equal because one of their goals is to “create a community where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) students and their allies can feel safe, welcome, and proud, where they can interact and grow with out fear of harassment or discrimination.” Presently the GLBTQ community on our campus is vulnerable to abuse and intolerance which is something that needs to be changed immediately.
Women’s Studies:
Since one of the core principles of feminism is the belief in social, political, and economic equality of all sexes and people, we believe as a group that this project completely encompasses the value and ideals of this course. We are fighting for the protection of this minority, so this group of people feels safe under the Non- Discrimination Policy and on our campus. We are hoping that this project results in more awareness of intolerance, specifically for the transgendered, and an education in equality for all.
Action:
This project has already begun with meetings and will continue with persistent planning and organizing. The first steps of the project include off campus out-reach and contacting those in the greater community who could also support us. Initially the five members of this group will be Rebecca Marques’ main group of volunteers. We will work directly under her and assist her with paper work, petition-making, tabling and recruiting. Each of one of us will have different responsibilities including creating and running the website (event page) for our project, collecting and sending our petition sheets and letters to the President of the UCF, organizing and planning the tabling efforts, running and assisting in the actual protest for our cause, and lastly fulfilling recruiting and promoting for the event.
As a group we will be working under Rebecca Marques who is an active Equal member on the UCF campus. We will need to be devoted and very serious about the cause in order to really achieve the equality we are striving for.
Timeline:
Event page created February 12th
Group Meeting February 15th
Petition forms created and distributed February 15th
to members
Speak and attend EQUAL meeting February 16th
Group Meeting February 19th
Group Meeting February 24th
Informational video February 26th
Video showcase to EQUAL March 2nd
Group Meeting March 2nd
Newspaper article March 8-11th
Group Meeting March 16th
Tabling and signature gathering March 1st- April 22nd
Emails sent to President Hitt March 1st- April 22nd
Group Meeting April 26th
Event (petition turn in) Tentative date April 28th
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Activism Log I
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
14 February 2010
Activism
This week involved mainly planning. We met with Rebecca Marquez, our contact in Equal, in the UCF library this past Friday afternoon, 12 February 2010. Although fairly short (the meeting lasted only about an hour), we used the meeting to discuss changes to our project and the general plan for implementing it. We learned that because sexual orientation was just recently added to the Golden Rule, we will instead be tabling and raising support to add gender identity. Mainly, our responsibilities will include tabling in front of the Student Union, collecting petition signatures in our classes, and generally promoting the cause through social-networking—Rebecca mentioned creating a Facebook group and online petition for this initiative, both of which should be useful in publicizing and gathering support.
Reflection
A common point in this week’s readings was our society’s general refusal to accept women’s bodies. For me, this is an especially relevant point when discussing the transgendered community because of the further perceptions we have of transgenderism as being unnatural. If society teaches us that it is unacceptable for women to be larger than stick-thin, how can we expect it to accept a person wanting to change his/her physical anatomy drastically through sex-reassignment surgery so that the external sex and internal gender identity match? As feminists, we cannot help but be conscious of how strongly society pressures women to “feel safer starving than when eating” (Chernik 602), and to ultimately reject the bodies they feel most comfortable in to gain social acceptance. Similarly, transgendered people are often faced with a choice between feeling comfortable in their bodies and genders or feeling socially accepted. From the planning meeting with Rebecca, it seems as though our project will help to alleviate the hostile attitudes that impose this choice on the transgendered and gender-variant communities, making at least the UCF campus a bit safer.
Reciprocity
I am extremely excited about the change in our project focus from sexual orientation to gender identity. First, this means that sexual orientation has already been successfully added to the Golden Rule; hopefully, this is an indication that the Golden Rule committee is sensitive to and supportive of activism supporting the needs of the LGBT community, which would certainly be a positive thing to know going into our activist efforts. Second, while I support gay rights on general principle, I have more of a personal connection to issues surrounding the transgendered and larger gender-variant communities. About a year ago, my cousin came out as trans. My family whole-heartedly supports her, but we worry constantly for her safety, especially because violence against transwomen is so frequent and aggressive. For me, this project will be a way to ease my way into LGBT activism, as well as a way for me to feel like I am actually doing something to help make the world, in some small way, safer for my cousin and the general transgendered community.
Works Cited
Chernik, Abra Fortune. “The Body Politic.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 599-603. Print.
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
14 February 2010
Activism
This week involved mainly planning. We met with Rebecca Marquez, our contact in Equal, in the UCF library this past Friday afternoon, 12 February 2010. Although fairly short (the meeting lasted only about an hour), we used the meeting to discuss changes to our project and the general plan for implementing it. We learned that because sexual orientation was just recently added to the Golden Rule, we will instead be tabling and raising support to add gender identity. Mainly, our responsibilities will include tabling in front of the Student Union, collecting petition signatures in our classes, and generally promoting the cause through social-networking—Rebecca mentioned creating a Facebook group and online petition for this initiative, both of which should be useful in publicizing and gathering support.
Reflection
A common point in this week’s readings was our society’s general refusal to accept women’s bodies. For me, this is an especially relevant point when discussing the transgendered community because of the further perceptions we have of transgenderism as being unnatural. If society teaches us that it is unacceptable for women to be larger than stick-thin, how can we expect it to accept a person wanting to change his/her physical anatomy drastically through sex-reassignment surgery so that the external sex and internal gender identity match? As feminists, we cannot help but be conscious of how strongly society pressures women to “feel safer starving than when eating” (Chernik 602), and to ultimately reject the bodies they feel most comfortable in to gain social acceptance. Similarly, transgendered people are often faced with a choice between feeling comfortable in their bodies and genders or feeling socially accepted. From the planning meeting with Rebecca, it seems as though our project will help to alleviate the hostile attitudes that impose this choice on the transgendered and gender-variant communities, making at least the UCF campus a bit safer.
Reciprocity
I am extremely excited about the change in our project focus from sexual orientation to gender identity. First, this means that sexual orientation has already been successfully added to the Golden Rule; hopefully, this is an indication that the Golden Rule committee is sensitive to and supportive of activism supporting the needs of the LGBT community, which would certainly be a positive thing to know going into our activist efforts. Second, while I support gay rights on general principle, I have more of a personal connection to issues surrounding the transgendered and larger gender-variant communities. About a year ago, my cousin came out as trans. My family whole-heartedly supports her, but we worry constantly for her safety, especially because violence against transwomen is so frequent and aggressive. For me, this project will be a way to ease my way into LGBT activism, as well as a way for me to feel like I am actually doing something to help make the world, in some small way, safer for my cousin and the general transgendered community.
Works Cited
Chernik, Abra Fortune. “The Body Politic.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 599-603. Print.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Beauty (Not Quite) Standards
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
8 February 2010
Body image is one of the most prominent obstacles the feminist movement faces in its attempts to empower women. As members of a patriarchal society, we are inundated daily with images and messages that instruct us to accept as natural “women as objectified sexual property valued primarily for their usefulness to men” (Johnson 74-75). We are told that certain traits create a standard of beauty, one that is “defined as thin, lean, tall, young, white, and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). The issues with this beauty standard are obvious and plentiful: it marginalizes and others women of color, older women, queer women, and women of body types other than thin. Just as importantly, however, the very term “beauty standard” is an issue in and of itself, as it implies that this type of beauty is something normal, something that every woman should have little to no difficulty achieving and maintaining—either on her own or with the help of beauty aids like cosmetics, diet programs, and clothing—even when reality couldn't be more different.
The Estée Lauder ad promotes one such beauty aid: a radiance lift makeup crème designed to restore “the radiance, the moisture, the resilience of youthful skin.” The purpose of the product alone marginalizes and demeans women. To be beautiful, it implies, a woman must not age; by consequence, all women who do choose to allow signs of aging to show are not beautiful, simply because they do not appear young. This “standard” is both impossible and nonsensical, most noticeably in its refusal to acknowledge that aging is a natural, inevitable process. Further, the youthful appearance it defines as beautiful strips a woman of visible experience and the social respect that accompanies it, instead causing her to appear vulnerable and naïve—two stereotypes commonly associated with youth—and ultimately putting her at an automatic disadvantage to any men of similar age she encounters, who will likely treat her as the age she appears, and not the age she actually is.
The accompanying images are just as problematic. First, examine the model. Her hair is pulled back, and her neck and shoulders are completely covered, drawing all attention instantly to her face, which presents a perfect visual representation of the Western standard of beauty. Her skin and eyes are light; her lips are pink and full, parted to create a deeper impression of naivety and openness; her eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair are all perfectly groomed; her complexion, presumably through the help of the advertised cosmetic, is smooth and bright, radiant. She embodies every standard of beauty women are pressured to hold themselves to, and she does so flawlessly, seemingly effortlessly—perpetuating the impression that this type of beauty is standard and easily achievable. In reality, photographs and ads like this are often “airbrushed and digitally enhanced” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). But because they are presented without disclaimer, we accept them as attainable standards, ignoring both the marginalizing implications doing so has for any woman who doesn’t fit the thin, fair-skinned, youthful model and the fact that these standards are, in most cases, completely unrealistic, and not something women should pressure themselves to be.
Next, examine the makeup itself. As pictured, the cosmetic comes in three shades, all of them designed to match light to medium skin-tones. According to the product’s extended web advertisement, it actually comes in fifteen shades, although, again, they all appear designed to match relatively lighter skin-tones, which clearly excludes a large population of women. Combined with the fair-skinned appearance of the model and the ad’s failure to mention this range of shades (limited as it looks), the product seems targeted primarily at White women or women with similarly lighter skin, even to the exclusion of women of color. Which begs the question: if a youthful complexion is something all women need to be beautiful, how are women of color supposed to obtain it and feel confident, socially-accepted, and pretty? Apparently, we can conclude, not with the help of Estée Lauder.
Works Cited
Johnson, Allan G. “Patriarchy, the System.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 68-76. Print
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Health.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 207-224. Print
Resilience Lift Makeup by Estée Lauder. Advertisement. Estée Lauder Official Site. Web. 7 February 2010.
Resilience Lift Makeup by Estée Lauder. Advertisement. Playbill January 2010: 22-23. Print.
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
8 February 2010
Body image is one of the most prominent obstacles the feminist movement faces in its attempts to empower women. As members of a patriarchal society, we are inundated daily with images and messages that instruct us to accept as natural “women as objectified sexual property valued primarily for their usefulness to men” (Johnson 74-75). We are told that certain traits create a standard of beauty, one that is “defined as thin, lean, tall, young, white, and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). The issues with this beauty standard are obvious and plentiful: it marginalizes and others women of color, older women, queer women, and women of body types other than thin. Just as importantly, however, the very term “beauty standard” is an issue in and of itself, as it implies that this type of beauty is something normal, something that every woman should have little to no difficulty achieving and maintaining—either on her own or with the help of beauty aids like cosmetics, diet programs, and clothing—even when reality couldn't be more different.
The Estée Lauder ad promotes one such beauty aid: a radiance lift makeup crème designed to restore “the radiance, the moisture, the resilience of youthful skin.” The purpose of the product alone marginalizes and demeans women. To be beautiful, it implies, a woman must not age; by consequence, all women who do choose to allow signs of aging to show are not beautiful, simply because they do not appear young. This “standard” is both impossible and nonsensical, most noticeably in its refusal to acknowledge that aging is a natural, inevitable process. Further, the youthful appearance it defines as beautiful strips a woman of visible experience and the social respect that accompanies it, instead causing her to appear vulnerable and naïve—two stereotypes commonly associated with youth—and ultimately putting her at an automatic disadvantage to any men of similar age she encounters, who will likely treat her as the age she appears, and not the age she actually is.
The accompanying images are just as problematic. First, examine the model. Her hair is pulled back, and her neck and shoulders are completely covered, drawing all attention instantly to her face, which presents a perfect visual representation of the Western standard of beauty. Her skin and eyes are light; her lips are pink and full, parted to create a deeper impression of naivety and openness; her eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair are all perfectly groomed; her complexion, presumably through the help of the advertised cosmetic, is smooth and bright, radiant. She embodies every standard of beauty women are pressured to hold themselves to, and she does so flawlessly, seemingly effortlessly—perpetuating the impression that this type of beauty is standard and easily achievable. In reality, photographs and ads like this are often “airbrushed and digitally enhanced” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). But because they are presented without disclaimer, we accept them as attainable standards, ignoring both the marginalizing implications doing so has for any woman who doesn’t fit the thin, fair-skinned, youthful model and the fact that these standards are, in most cases, completely unrealistic, and not something women should pressure themselves to be.
Next, examine the makeup itself. As pictured, the cosmetic comes in three shades, all of them designed to match light to medium skin-tones. According to the product’s extended web advertisement, it actually comes in fifteen shades, although, again, they all appear designed to match relatively lighter skin-tones, which clearly excludes a large population of women. Combined with the fair-skinned appearance of the model and the ad’s failure to mention this range of shades (limited as it looks), the product seems targeted primarily at White women or women with similarly lighter skin, even to the exclusion of women of color. Which begs the question: if a youthful complexion is something all women need to be beautiful, how are women of color supposed to obtain it and feel confident, socially-accepted, and pretty? Apparently, we can conclude, not with the help of Estée Lauder.
Works Cited
Johnson, Allan G. “Patriarchy, the System.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 68-76. Print
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Health.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 207-224. Print
Resilience Lift Makeup by Estée Lauder. Advertisement. Estée Lauder Official Site. Web. 7 February 2010.
Resilience Lift Makeup by Estée Lauder. Advertisement. Playbill January 2010: 22-23. Print.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Well Done, Sister Suffragists: The Suffragist Movement in Mary Poppins and Iron Jawed Angels
Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
1 February 2010
Mary Poppins follows the activities of the Banks family, consisting of George and Winifred Banks and their two children, and the titular nanny’s efforts to reunite them. Both George and Winifred are, for the duration of the film, shown as largely-absentee parents: George is consumed with work at the bank, while Winifred spends her time at suffragist protests and meetings, and the movie makes it clear that those activities are just as described. George’s work provides steady income and allows the household to continue, and is accordingly shown with general respect (even if his verging-on-obsessive devotion to it is not). Winifred’s work, on the other hand, is consistently shown with a mocking air. She speaks of women tying themselves to stagecoach wheels, serving time in prison, and throwing spoiled food at the prime minister, but always with a gleeful, cheery tone. For her, the suffrage movement is a game, entertainment in which to indulge herself before returning home and again becoming the dutiful and subservient wife. With Winifred as the only glimpse of the British women’s suffrage movement Mary Poppins shows us, we are led to believe that all suffragists were the same—flighty, upper-class, White women with only a passing dedication to the cause as a social activity, not a political movement, and often at the expense of their family’s stability. In the end, Mary Poppins’ intervention forces Winifred to realize that her place is at home with her children, and she both metaphorically and literally ends her time a suffragist. Her suffragist sash is used as a tail on her children’s kite and she puts her involvement in the movement to the side, leaving us with the impression that the suffragist cause for British women, while disruptive to the functioning of families and larger society, was short-lived and generally ineffective—even when history tells us otherwise.
Conversely, Iron Jawed Angels presents a more serious, historically-accurate view of the suffragists. The film focuses on the later years of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, specifically the portion spearheaded by Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party (NWP) she would eventually found. The suffragists here are no flighty socialites; on the contrary, women’s suffrage is, for them, everything. It is their source of employment and their greatest passion; the thing they crave most, and the thing they are willing to suffer the most for. They eat, sleep, and breathe it, such that it is more than a political cause: it, and the burgeoning women’s equality movement, is their cause for existence, and they suffer significant social and penal consequences for making it so. Unlike the punishments Winifred Banks happily sings about, though, Iron Jawed Angels shows these consequences, which range from verbal attacks at public demonstrations to being force-fed in attempts to derail Alice Paul’s in-prison hunger strike, as intense and grueling. In further contrast to Mary Poppins’ image of suffragists, Iron Jawed Angels depicts the movement’s multiracial nature and the racism that accordingly followed, specifically Ida B. Wells’ refusal “to march at the back of the 1913 suffrage parade” in protest of “the ‘back of the bus’ politic of the women’s movement” (Seely 41). This inclusion of women of color introduces issues modern feminism is still attempting to reconcile—namely, the perception that feminism is a White woman’s movement, and the continued (albeit diminishing) reticence within the feminist community to properly consider the impact of race as well as gender on a woman’s life experiences. Overall, the film leaves us with the definitive knowledge that women’s suffrage was hard-won, and that, while women may presently have the right to vote, the larger women’s movement is far from over.
Work Cited
Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Print.
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
1 February 2010
Mary Poppins follows the activities of the Banks family, consisting of George and Winifred Banks and their two children, and the titular nanny’s efforts to reunite them. Both George and Winifred are, for the duration of the film, shown as largely-absentee parents: George is consumed with work at the bank, while Winifred spends her time at suffragist protests and meetings, and the movie makes it clear that those activities are just as described. George’s work provides steady income and allows the household to continue, and is accordingly shown with general respect (even if his verging-on-obsessive devotion to it is not). Winifred’s work, on the other hand, is consistently shown with a mocking air. She speaks of women tying themselves to stagecoach wheels, serving time in prison, and throwing spoiled food at the prime minister, but always with a gleeful, cheery tone. For her, the suffrage movement is a game, entertainment in which to indulge herself before returning home and again becoming the dutiful and subservient wife. With Winifred as the only glimpse of the British women’s suffrage movement Mary Poppins shows us, we are led to believe that all suffragists were the same—flighty, upper-class, White women with only a passing dedication to the cause as a social activity, not a political movement, and often at the expense of their family’s stability. In the end, Mary Poppins’ intervention forces Winifred to realize that her place is at home with her children, and she both metaphorically and literally ends her time a suffragist. Her suffragist sash is used as a tail on her children’s kite and she puts her involvement in the movement to the side, leaving us with the impression that the suffragist cause for British women, while disruptive to the functioning of families and larger society, was short-lived and generally ineffective—even when history tells us otherwise.
Conversely, Iron Jawed Angels presents a more serious, historically-accurate view of the suffragists. The film focuses on the later years of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, specifically the portion spearheaded by Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party (NWP) she would eventually found. The suffragists here are no flighty socialites; on the contrary, women’s suffrage is, for them, everything. It is their source of employment and their greatest passion; the thing they crave most, and the thing they are willing to suffer the most for. They eat, sleep, and breathe it, such that it is more than a political cause: it, and the burgeoning women’s equality movement, is their cause for existence, and they suffer significant social and penal consequences for making it so. Unlike the punishments Winifred Banks happily sings about, though, Iron Jawed Angels shows these consequences, which range from verbal attacks at public demonstrations to being force-fed in attempts to derail Alice Paul’s in-prison hunger strike, as intense and grueling. In further contrast to Mary Poppins’ image of suffragists, Iron Jawed Angels depicts the movement’s multiracial nature and the racism that accordingly followed, specifically Ida B. Wells’ refusal “to march at the back of the 1913 suffrage parade” in protest of “the ‘back of the bus’ politic of the women’s movement” (Seely 41). This inclusion of women of color introduces issues modern feminism is still attempting to reconcile—namely, the perception that feminism is a White woman’s movement, and the continued (albeit diminishing) reticence within the feminist community to properly consider the impact of race as well as gender on a woman’s life experiences. Overall, the film leaves us with the definitive knowledge that women’s suffrage was hard-won, and that, while women may presently have the right to vote, the larger women’s movement is far from over.
Work Cited
Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Print.
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