I don't know if you guys are still following the blog, but I thought of sharing this shoking video that talks about the situation of rape in the Congo.
Here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/05/14/allen.congo.rape.cnn?hpt=C2
Have a great summer everyone!
While doing my research, I found this report that was part of the "XI Regional Conference of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean." I thought it might be useful to some of you in doing your final projects.
The report starts with a discussion on equality and development that could be linked to the book by Amartya Sen "Development as Freedom" that we read in class. It then discusses the status of women in society, touching on important issues such as women empowerment and autonomy, which is followed by a discussion on women employment. Finally, the report concludes by stating the importance of institutional support, and labor and social protection policies to achieve gender equality.
Here is the link to the report: http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/3/40123/What_kind_State_What_kind_equality.pdf
This article describes, in a general sense, how women have made it to the top of the corporate hierarchy in Latin America. It mentions real life examples of successful women who have taken executive positions at different companies, and it talks about the challenges they face in the business world.
I thought of sharing a quote that I really liked from one of these women: “I asked the shareholders to give me a year to put the company in order,” says Aufiero, whose company had operating revenue of R$573 million (US$347 million) in 2010. “That ‘year’ has already lasted more than a decade.”
Here is the link to the article: http://www.infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/features/saii/features/main/2011/03/08/feature-01
Brazil became the sixth country in Latin America, in addition to Mexico City, to extend rights to gay and lesbian couples but stopped short of legalizing gay marriage.
Check out the article: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2011/0506/Brazil-becomes-largest-nation-yet-to-legalize-civil-unions
http://www.plu.edu/~renfrodg/doc/sreanderson.pdf
This research provides the first look into the experiences of openly gay male team sport athletes on osten- sibly all-heterosexual teams. Although openly gay athletes were free from physical harassment, in the absence of a formal ban against gay athletes, sport resisted their acceptance and attempted to remain a site of orthodox masculine production by creating a culture of silence surrounding gay athleticism, by segmenting gay men’ s identities, and by persistently using homophobic discourse to discredit homosex- uality in general. Sports attempt to tolerate gay male athletes when they contribute to the overarching ethos of sport—winning—but try to taint the creation of a gay identity within sport that would see homo- sexuality and athleticism as compatible. Still, by proving themselves successful in sport, and meeting most other mandates of hegemonic masculinity except for their sexual identity, gay male athletes show that hegemony is not seamless and that there is a possibility of softening hegemonic masculinity in the sporting realm.
While doing some research for my paper I came across some interesting statistics (http://www.teensagainstabuse.org/index.php?q=statistics)
1) If trapped in an abusive relationship, 73% of teens said they would turn to a friend for help; but only 33% who have been in or known about an abusive relationship said they have told anyone about it. (Liz Claiborne Inc. study conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited; February 2005.)
2) Nearly 80% of girls who have been physically abused in their intimate relationships continue to date their abuser.(Liz Claiborne Inc. study conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited; February 2005.)
One of the areas of I am focusing on is why women cannot get out of abusive relationships, causing domestic violence to become worse and worse. Part of the reason is because when women get involved in these relationships, they become isolated from their friends and any other relationships they have made and they feel they have nowhere to turn. I have also found that kids and economic stability can be driving factors.
this story made lots of noise- a US journalist sexually assaulted by a mob during the Egypt celebrations. Of course many more stories happen daily and are not covered. She has a voice and is using it to take a public, political stand. Positionality.
Rape is not an isolated incident. It is the end of a long process, it is the result of little daily practices- words, judgements, silences- that build up to produce an environment in which rape materializes. The little things we do everyday can create incentives or disincentives for sexual assault to take place. We all have a responsibility there. And men, being part of the group that practices rape, have an either larger responsibility to take action.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/04/gay_marriage?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/unpopularclients
A Transvestite woman gets beaten at a McDonalds in Baltimore on April 18th, 2011 (a few days ago.) Check out the link, and sign their petition for justice.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/american-women-accept-climate-change-science-more-than-men.php
One thing this semester has shown me is how, even despite considerable academic exposure to the deep realities of patriarchal privilege that shape our society, most men (see: the "non-feminists" that have been repeatedly teased in class..) still have a hard time seeing the importance of aggressively identifying and deconstructing these biases (see: class discussion on women's constitutional right to sexual pleasure).
A personal task I've undertaken throughout the semester has been to bring the gender/race/class inequalities we've studied into dialogue with environmental studies, my academic area of [still limited] expertise.
A recurring theme in environmental work is that women play a special role in addressing the ecological challenges global society faces. I did not understand until this semester how women's subjugation by patriarchal culture provides them a unique ability to perceive subjugation, conquest, and abuse of other entities, such as environmental resources or alternative cultures that value ecosystems differently than Western economy and culture do. The unique ability to perceive and understand exploitation provides women a superior ability to understand many of society's problems.
Yes. It is conceivable that women could have a superior ability to men; not due to biology, as we usually think about inherent advantage in women vs. men, but due to the gendered experience. And the same goes for all marginalized groups-- race, ethnicity, or class.
So please, guys in the class, when your sisters speak up about such-and-such societal issue (or ANY issue), please resist the temptation to challenge or dismiss their observation/criticism too quickly. The truth is that women have the ability to perceive problems in a way you simply don't as a result of patriarchal privilege. Think about it. And the environment. Always :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
7:30 p.m.
Merrill 2
Hudson Taylor, founder of athleteally.com, will encourage all to take a stand against homophobia and transphobia in sports and bring the message of respect, inclusion and equality to their athletic community. Taylor, a former NCAA Division 1 All-American wrestler and current assistant wrestling coach at Columbia University, created the athlete ally pledge, which reads "I pledge to lead my athletic community to respect and welcome all persons, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Beginning right now, I will do my part to promote the best of athletics by making all players feel respected on and off the field." (see http://www.athleteally.com/ <http://www.athleteally.com/> )
Useful information on the epidemic of HIV amongst men who have sex with other men, anyone interested in learning more about this issue should definitely check it out.
There was an interesting raging of episodes about the neon pink nails of a kid on a JCrew add. Jon Stewart seems to have made the best out of it... this is a perfect episode to discuss masculinity, and to see the extent to which gender norms become instruments for political calculations.
The daily show: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-april-13-2011-tracy-morgan
A little visual of pleasure... in its most daily, un-glorious facets.
http://www.beautifulagony.com/public/main.php
While searching through the vast compendium of videos that is YouTube, I found this little nugget. I think the video itself is somewhat informative and offers up some good messages but I think what I got more out of was the video's existence and what if implies for the sexual atmosphere of society at large. The video entitled "Viva la Vulva" is a 7 minute-long video of Carlin Ross and Betty Dodson, sex educators discussing personal stories and answering anonymous questions about women's and men's insecurities around the vagina and women's search for sexual pleasure.
The existence of this video shows two things. One that there is a forum to seek out information and a willingness to educate oneself on this issue. Two that fear of seeming vulnerable or inexperienced in front of one's partner when it comes to sexual pleasure either giving or receiving is still shrouded in shame through anonymous questions. Though, we can't gather from the video for sure that the viewers asking the questions were not discussing these questions with their partners, I think it it is not far from possible that these questions were asked secretly so as to fix one person's "problem" rather than a couple's exploration of sexual pleasure.
Comments? Am I off the mark completely? Does any of this make sense? Do I just like writing "sexual pleasure" and getting away with it because it's a class assignment?