Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

Teen Mom Shaming

In the article on the F-Bomb By Natasha V, she makes a lot of good points. She talks about how teen moms are shamed and shunned when in reality that is not the whole problem. Natasha states that there are also men to be blamed and how it takes two to make a child. I agree with this considering most of the time the women are the ones that get most of the flak when men should get an equal amount too. She also talks about how birth control comes into play when you are taking about teen moms. Natasha says that there isnt enough focus on how birth control should be more regulated and sex ed should be required for schools. This would lower the amount of teen pregnancies because there would be more awareness of birth control and the issue of teen pregnancy. Overall Natasha makes a goof point and i agree with her.

Women's Health in the Industry

In a recent Sports Illustarted article, Kate Upton shows off her body in a bikini bottom and a winter coat.
But, as said on the website Women, Action and the Media.org, the  artic photoshoot was actually shot in Antartica. She began to experience hypothermia as a result of her clothing and the temperature conditions, but she still went through with the shoot.

Sounds crazy right?

This is just another example of how women are portrayed as just perfect props, and not real people. The message that this magazine sends to women and girls is: this is how your body should look, and you should act. Kate Upton shows off her breats, has a flawless face, and is portrayed as a bombshell, which is what most women think they should be. 

Kates health became at risk, whch would be probable cause to stop the shoot, but it wasn't enough.

I think women are still not as important in the media industry as men, they are there simply as "dolls" to make the product that is being sold look better, which sends a very negative mind set and body image to young girls and women.

Feministing about getting expelled for being raped..

I have recently read an article on feministing.com about a student who had been raped and when she pubicly told her story, she was sent to the school's honor court because it is a violation to say that she was raped. The school has even threatened to expel her for publicly speaking of the rape, even though she hasn't even revealed her attacker. Along with this article, I also find this to be extremely wrong. She is just trying to spread awareness but because she makes the school's students look bad she has to keep her attack quiet, making it hard for to cope with and making her feel like the victim. "They made it seem like my assault was completely my fault." says Landen Gambill the female student who was raped about the school getting upset over her speaking of her attack. It's absurd that a school would make a student feel that way and worse, not even help her out in any way when she had reported the incident. 

The Wrong Aspect on Women's Body

In our society today a lot of girls rip off magezine covers of girl models and put on their wall and think "I want to be just like them". When I read the Sports illustrated article I felt so bad for that model. She must have been freezing. In today's society girls turn for the media to help them have a better body. Our society would run so much easier if everyone was the same weight. Unfortunately that is not how it works. Everyone is into the magezine covers because they think models are perfect. Trust me their not. Everyone is too busy loving the picture they are not fully understanding what the model went through to take that one perfect picture. People need to start understanding it's not about the beauty in a person, its about the personality and your outlook in life. Be who you want to be. Don't let some picture on a magezine cover persuade you to make the wrong decision.  

Becoming a Feminist Critic

For the next blog post -- due Friday, 3/1 -- you should visit one of the following sites:

The F-Bomb ("TheFBomb.org is a blog/community created for teenage girls who care about their rights as women and want to be heard. All young feminists who are just a little bit pissed off and very outspoken are more than welcome here." -- learn more about them).            

Rookie ("Rookie is a place to make the best of the beautiful pain and cringe-worthy awkwardness of being an adolescent girl. When it becomes harder to appreciate these things, we also have good plain fun and visual pleasure. When you’re sick of having to be happy all the time, we have lots of eye-rolling rants, too." -- learn more about them)

Feministing ("Young women are rarely given the opportunity to speak on their own behalf on issues that affect their lives and futures. Feministing provides a platform for us to comment, analyze, influence and connect." -- learn more about them).

About-Face ("About-Face means a reversal of direction, attitude, or point of view. We equip women & girls with tools to understand & resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem & body image." -- learn more about them)

Women, Action and the Media ("WAM! connects and supports media makers, activists, academics and funders working to advance women’s media participation, ownership and representation. Our work is part of an advocacy movement for gender justice in media." -- learn more about them)

On our own blog, write a post that either agrees or disagrees with an argument made in one of the posts you've read (make sure you *link* back to that post -- and feel free to quote from it as well). Don't forget to give your post a category.

As far as commenting is concerned, you'll get credit if you comment on the websites above or on one of your classmates' own posts.

Political Topics of the Week: Women's Health and the Environment

On Friday we will be discussing two issues in the presidential campaign: women's health and the environment.

As usual, we're looking for you to get the discussion started on the blog this week by stating your opinion on one of the two issues -- or your response to one of the articles below concerning the issues.  Avoid just talking about Romney and Obama; we'll save their opinions for Friday.

Women's health is a somewhat unusual issue for politicians to discuss -- outside of just talking about abortion -- so the following two articles provide some background and perspective:

"War on Women" (a wikipedia article giving an overview of a Democratic "catchphrase")

"In the 2012 campaign, women's health plays a role like never before" (Washington Post)

The environment is always a controversial political issue, but this year no one wants to talk about.  Below is an interesting slideshow of sorts that presents the opinions of several environmentalists and why we should be talking about it.

"Why Has 'Environment' Become a Dirty Word?" (Outside magazine)

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And oh, if you want to check out the NPR story on the war in Afghanistan that we debated this week (whether it was a true war story or not), you can click here.

Gay Marriage:Political issue of the Week

         Gay Marriage is not only a political issue, but it's an issue of culture, religious values, and tradition as well. I'm in no way opposed to legalizing gay marriage, I believe with everything in me that gay marriage should be legalized because everyone deserves love, happiness, and equality, Same sex couples included. Barack Obama believes in legalizing gay marriage, but Mitt Romney does not, beacuse of "traditional values." Barack Obama feels as if same sex couples should be recognized, and that DOMA shouldn't exist, because DOMA only shows recognition to specific same sex couples, who go by certain rules, and certain policies. Mitt Romney's views on same sex marriage are bias, and shouldn't be taken seriously because there are alot of things in America that you could classify as "untraditional" such as an African American president. Mitt Romney is very bias and culturaly unwelcoming. Romney believes that any child raised by a same sex couple is "unhealthy" or non benefiting towards the child. Romney is stuck in the past, where America was "traditional" religious" and everyone promoted and stood for certain values, but this current america, going into the year of 2013, is very far from how it used to be, when same sex couples wern't even accknowladgable. America has evolved, and so has same sex marriage. I believe in what Barack Obama is going to do for Same sex marriage, and not only that but love in general, whether it's two women, two men, or two women who have adopted a baby boy, love is love, which everyone deserves to possess at some point in life, and a child who has two of the same genders raising him/her will not lose out at all.

Call Me ... A Desperate Woman

A catchy upbeat tempo, the perfect person to sing it, people to dance to it, and it's a hit. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen has all three. The song expresses that she sees a guy that just, as some would say, took her breath away. Many females in there teens may have felt the same way as she does and even though many may relate, or just like the song, what is it really saying about females? Does it portray them as independent indivuals or someone else's shadow?

Many believe that a woman should not have indiduality outside of her mate and how he wants her to live. Her aspirations, dreams, and opinions will be pushed aside for his, and she should want to put his first willfully. Jepsen sings, "You took your time with the call/ I took no time with the fall/ you gave me nothing at all/ but still, you're in my way." She is giving him her time, energy, and thoughts, yet he gives her nothing. Women are supposed to have lower standards and be more accepting than guys. After that verse she expresses "I beg, and borrow and steal/ have forseight and its real/ I didn't know I would feel it/ but it's in my way", this shows that she would do anything for him because she feels that their relationship will have a future, even though she had previously stated that he gives her nothing at all. Society's view on women is very similar to how Ms. Jepsen expresses how she felt in this song, that women are to be available to do anything for a man, even if he does nothing in return. "I'd trade my soul for a wish, pennies and dimes for a kiss", this is part of the chorus. These words are fun to sing, but the fact that she would give her "soul", or indiviuality for one wish, which would be used for him, shows us the negative view of women in American society.

Madea, the Symbol of the Typical Black Woman?

Tyler Perry, other wise known as Madea,is a global symbol of the typical African Amercian woman.  Being naturally agressive, yet at the same time caring to others in the house hold.  Being a man of great sense of humor, could his symbol be seen as a racistal figure as well? think of Madea from another race's point of view, how would you react towards black females knowing they could be like this symbol and be aggressive at any moment? would you be afraid to aproach said females?  These are the questions that come along with modern day society. 

There are many things that can be used to descibe african american females, but tyler perry likes to stick to the "facts" and "stories" that come along with this culture of females.  In african american households, the female is portrayed as the ruler of the house.  She lays the laws essentially, but at the same time she isn't the ruler. The african american male obeys the females rules but he knows he is controlling, but doesn't need to say so.  Basically speaking, the African american female plays a strong role in her household.

Witch Crap. . .

4. Could we have another witchcraft hysteria in present-day America -- even if it's not exactly about witchcraft?

I honestly feel like we "could" have another witchcraft hysteria in present day america. I feel people got bored with themselves and started this whole thing anyway. Just because it all started in 1692 and its 2010 now there is no change in the way people act. Personally I dont believe that this stuff is real, and im sure there are other people that feel the same as me. It still amazes me that this topic was a HUGE problem back then. I feel humans go over and beyond for anything cause theres crazy people in this world!! If I were to yell "witch" and point at a random lady theres a select few people who would look and laugh, because yet again ill say some people really dont believe that witches, and goblins, and anything else in that nature are real. BUT then there would be the CRAZY people who would go along with me and fall out saying shes hurting them with her eyes.<-- CRAZYY PEOPLE BEING DRAMATIC!!! I strongly feel back 1692 they killed innocent people. I dont believe anyone was a "actual" witch. But this is where humans bring out there acting skills and once you tell yourself something and start to believe it, it becomes real to you and to others. Then people get out of control and start to go over board, and start lieing, and start acting as if something is wrong with them when its really not. No matter how old the world is or the time frame were all going to be the same. 

The Workout Plan

In the song "New Workout Plan", released by Kanye West in his first album, "College Dropout" ,in 2004, Kanye West has opened up a training camp, and has a new plan for the women. The song has verses such as, " It's been a week without me, she feeling weak without me". That verse reinforces the submissive gender role, that a woman obeys the man and needs him. Later in the song girls apparently 'enrolled' in Kanye's new workout plan sing, "Thanks to Kanye's workout plan, I'm the envy of all my friends". That passage reveals that women want to be the "sex object" stereotype and want to look better than all their friends. I love the song, but it also reinforces a lot of stereotypes of women

Stereotypes in Pop Culture

Gender stereotypes have been around long before the United States was founded.  More specifically women have five general stereotypes. Two of which, the seductress and sex object, play a huge role in pop culture. On the show "American Gladiators", amateur athletes play against each other and "gladiators" for money. The female gladiators, with names like Venom, Stealth, and Siren, fit in the stereotypes of seductress and sex object. All the female gladiators are attractive and only wear short latex. The show would not be nearly as entertaining with less attractive gladiators and would probably lose some of their fan base.

The Male Stereotype in Pop Culture

Most of us know that there is many male stereotypes as there are female stereotypes in today’s world, but are the male stereotypes as bad as the female stereotypes? The male stereotype is to be a brave, strong, and a unrelenting individual. Those are good qualities to have as a person, but at times a male protagonist shows to have little to no passion of peace or love, and tends to put himself in a hostile situation simply because he likes it.

Take male characters in video games for example, we see that the male protagonist has a hostile personality in many first person shooters. Such first person shooter games like Duke Nukem, Gears of War, Doom, and GTA have protagonists that hold the stereotype that was mentioned earlier. Many action movies exhibit characters that are strong, relentless, and always hostile. Chuck Norris’s has always played the role of the hostile protagonist who has “balls of steel.”  Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 and 3 plays the role of the impassive protector who is physically unstoppable.

I think that all men should dive themselves to be strong mentally and physically, but in no way does that mean they have to be cold and hostile individuals.

Characters in "Snow White"

In the fairy tail "Snow White" the character Snow White has the characteristic of the nurture women who will clean the house and take care of children. In the story she acts submissive and shows innocence. This story was the first cartoon movie ever and almost everybody saw it. The movie wanted to send the message to the women in America to act like Snow White and have all of her characteristics. The Queen in the story who is ruler of the kingdom is shown as the evil character. She is a women in power and she is evil this is in a lot of other fairy tales like "Cinderella" and "The Little Prince." The message from these women is that if women claim power then they will not do a good job and be wicked, horrible leaders. The stories are trying to send a message to mostly women but men to that women should never have power and should have domestic roles in society.

So Sick / irreplaceable

Why is it that boys dont understand that a girl needs to be treated right? Why does being in a relationship to them mean that they cant have any fun anymore. Im in a situtiation were i have been talking to this boy for like three years on and off. But suddenly this year he really wants to be in a relationship with me and i was like sure i mean we've been liking each other for three years and we got along as friends so of course i wanted to be with him.  All of a sudden the next couple a days he didnt really act like we were in a relationship so i was like whats going on but when i called him he didnt answer his phone and he told my friend that he liked me alot but he wanted to go back talking and i was like well i can see that because i felt like we kind of rushed into it. So when my friend came up to me and told me that he told him that he was talking to another girl.  It was a slap in the face because i couldnt believe that you would say that you wanted to be with me and then the next day brag about how you are talking to another girl.  Im so sick of it because all i do is think of how wrong he did me and how i played the game and looked stupid while he had fun with all these other girls.  I have news for him "your relpaceable and im not going to put up with this relationship with you any longer i feel used, and sick im and tried of being sick and tired"sorry if im scaring anyone but guys if you read this please understand that a girl is a prevelige to have and were not toys so if u treat us right will in return do you right.