POWER TO THE PEOPLE

A Reflection. . .

Women and Gender Studies has definitely been an eye-opener for me. After talking abou all the topics such as transgender, sex, dominance, power and discrimination I have caught myself seeing examples of this around myself. I find this to be a rather funny thing. There have always been things around me that I have never paid attention to until now.

I have always had pretty strong views on quality between homosexual people and free choice. However, I never realized how many things out there that go on related to these two easy choices for me. Homosexual people are descriminated again weekly, daily and even hourly to this day. I feel that we have come a long way with rights for people who chose this lifestyle. I have posted a blog about transgendered people and their exposure that networks like MTV are now providing. This is a great way to create more equality. There may (and will always) be people that do not agree with this lifestyle. But with it coming more into the open I think it is becoming a little more accepted.

On the topic of abortion we touched on many interesting facts about the past. I never knew that birth control was not available for women until the past few decades. That is an example of how a small town keeps you sheltered. The fight that the women of the 60s and even before put on is amazing. Why would people want women to go through so much pain and hardship if they did not want it?! Why would people force women to keep children if it were going to kill them or ruin their body/life? I have no idea. I honestly think that men should have to have children to see how it is. They wouldn't be able to bear it! When I complain about my period my dad has always said, "that's what you get for eating the apple." Okay, I did NOT eat any apple. If we are talking about the creation story-- Eve was tricked into eating the apple and Adam ate of the tree too. Go ahead and laugh it off men. I think they always get the better side of the stick.

I still have a question lingering on after this entire class (and it will probably never be able to be answered). . . WHY do men still have it easier?

After all of this fighting and moving up from women we are still seen as the inferior sex. The funny thing is WE are the ones who keep the human existence going. Without us- there would be no human kind.

Oleanna, a play about real problems.

A couple weeks ago I went to a play with my mom at Triad Stage in downtown Greensboro. The play was about a student and a professor at a University. The student accused her professor of sexually assaulting her and therefore he was not able to receive his tenure. This caused great problems for his family because he was at the time trying to purchase a house. Throughout the play I noticed so many examples of power and dominance.

I wasn't sure what to expect before going to the play. I had no idea what it was really about but I was going to spend time with my mom (she invited me to come when my dad could not). There were actually only two people in the play and this turned me off at first. As I mentioned, there were many, many examples of power and dominance. The professor of course showed his power over the students' grades and her understanding of the material in class. He told her that if she were to continue to come to his office he would guarantee her an A in the course. There is a fine line between being nice and starting to be too nice. The professor never really touched the girl until the end of the play but the way that he spoke to her you could see her uncomfortability. The student by the end of the play was using her power of words to dominate the professor. She filed a court case against him saying that he had been sexually and mentally abusing her, which left the professor confused because he felt he did nothing.

I was a little confused about the entire outcome of the play. It ended with the professor literally beating up the student for accusing him of something he did not do and ruining his family. I am not sure who was "right" in the story. Both characters contributed to the dominance of their actions to control each other in many ways. The professor controlled the student's grade, the student controlled the professor's job and both characters took advantage of each other. Things like this happen all the time on college campuses. In a way our professors have a sense of power over us as students maybe because they have obtained a higher level of education, or because they control our grade or maybe even because we feel they have power just because of the way they teach their classes. I was intrigued by this play and I felt that I would write about it so maybe someone else could look at the story line. It apparently on it's opening night on Broadway created quite the uproar in the lobby after the show. We were told that a fight broke out because of the story. Interesting. . .

http://www.oleannaonbroadway.com/

MTV's True Life: I'm Changing My Sex

Last night I was laying in my bed ready to go to sleep around 11 and I flipped on MTV. There was a True Life episode on and I really enjoy them so I kept watching. After about 3 minutes I realized that this episode was about transgenders. I felt this was a perfect thing to write about in my blog, so I stayed up for an hour and watched.The episode was entitled: True Life: I'm Changing My Sex. It follows two people who are undergoing gender reconstruction surgery. The first was Elle, a girl that was born a man. She underwent breast augmentation surgery with the support and love from her mother. After only 2 weeks of recovery her mother developed a brain aneurysm and very sadly passed away. I felt such compassion for this young woman who lost her support system as she was transitioning. Her mother left her life insurance money to undergo the most expensive surgery- the genital reconstruction. She actually went to a doctor that was a transgender herself and born a man. Everything went wonderfully and Elle is successfully a beautiful woman inside and out.


The second story was of a man named Ed. He was born a woman and was just undergoing breast augmentation to remove his breasts. Ed is married to a woman happily now and his surgery went very well. He actually held a drag show where women dressed up as men and danced. It was quite entertaining. He was able to raise half of the money for it with the show and his parents paid the rest.


I think it would be hard to be born with "ambiguous genitalia" or born as a woman trapped in a mans body (or vice versa). The support that these people need is endless. Today in class the video we watched on middle sex completely intrigued me. I know that we have talked in class many times about the difference between sex and gender, the difference between chromosomes and the many differences in sexual orientations. I am so accepting of people that put themself in certain categories because other people in this world don't even give a DAMN that these people ARE PEOPLE. They have FAMILIES. They have LOVERS. And god forbid they have partners. It is rediculous that there are ignorant people out there who feel this is wrong and as a result kill these wonderful people just for who they are. The video made me extremely angry when the hate crimes and stories were being discussed. What a horrible and unaccepting world we live in!! People are blind to what is out there and need to get to seeing it.


if you would like to see more on this episode please visit the link: TrueLife:ImChangingMySex

Patriarchy all around us?

Currently I am in two courses at UNCG that are talking about some of the same topics, ironically. The two courses are Women and Gender Studies and English. In WGS of course we are talking about women and their issues in society over the years. However, in English I am reading Western Literature such as The Illiad, The Odyssey, Gilgamesh and Eumenides. Some people may wonder why I bring up the word "patriarchy". For those of you that aren't familiar with the word:

patriarchy- social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power

sounds lovely, huh? Well, we are definitely living in a society where women are supposed to be dependent on their husbands for protection and shelter. Sounds a little dominant to me. I grew up in a house where dad's word was the final word, as most other children were. There is a great example of this way of living back in the 50s and 60s with the dominance of "housewives".

Recently in English we read the above stories that I mentioned. These stories are all set in present-day Middle East in the B.C. times. Each story also involves gods and goddesses. These figures are their guidance and power as a society. There are hints of patriarchal and matriarchal tendencies in each cultural setting. Eumendies touches on an interesting topic. In the story the underground gods were predominately female. These were, at first, the only power consisting of goddesses such as Athena. She was known as the almighty in the story which created a matriarchal society. Women were seen as precious and to be followed. When the sky gods came into play everything changed. These gods were predominately male. We discussed why this happened in class. My personal opinion is that this very idea that was introduced has contributed to the over male dominance in society that we have now.

Is it ironic that the female goddesses were underground and the male gods were in the sky???

Gender roles according to I love Lucy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_uvsKpXszs

This is one of my favorite episodes of I love Lucy!! When they stuff the candy inside their mouths- such a hoot! I feel like this is a great example of roles in society in the 50s. The stereotypes that are outlined by Ricky are perfect: women lie around the house and do nothing all day. SO she tells him to learn to cook, clean, and what not that a "woman" is supposed to do. The women are challenged to go to work and "make the bacon". This is also a big stereotype for the men.

Now in society it is beginning to change. We see women going out and getting an education, obtaining leading roles in society and succeeding in breaking out the stereotypes associated with our gender. This is causing uproar with men as a result. The old fashioned men are beginning to feel that girl power is overwhelming. All I have to say about that is LET'S GO GIRLS!