*This post is a work in progress because my understanding of gender equality evolves and grows everyday. I would love for you to contact me with questions and comments.
Gender inequality in our society is something that I have paid a lot of attention to in the last couple years. This semester I am taking a Women's Studies/ Sociology course titled "Gender and the Law." I also have a first year seminar about social identity, justice, and community. One of the main social identities we analyze and discuss is sex.
There really isn't any disputing the fact that sexism is alive and well. Men are praised or overlooked for their promiscuity while women are disrespected and gossiped about for theirs. What can be done about the double standards that exist for women in American (and many other) societies?
The other day we studied an employment discrimination case that involved a woman not being promoted because she was not "feminine" enough. She would have been promoted to partner in an accounting firm. My professor said that "One of the criticism's her employer brought up was that she cursed and that 'professional women do not curse.' Fuck that." My professor's language made the whole class crack up but it caught my attention in a different way. I did not like that she cursed. I asked myself why. Cursing is such a double standard when it comes to sex. A man is just a man when he curses but a woman becomes trashy and foul-mouthed. Do I perpetuate this inequality by not swearing?
What about the fact that I dress modestly? It is recognized that a girl who covers up her body is usually more respected by men than those who keep their bodies on display. Is this not a double standard? Why can't I walk around in a tank top and short-shorts and be judged for what I say and do? Why do I have to hide my body to gain respect from men and women alike? Why is there a connection with clothing choices and honor only when judging a woman? Shouldn't we be judging women on their character and not what they do or don't wear? The girls that choose to cover up aren't even judged for their words and actions. They are just judged positively based on their choice to dress modestly.
Is gaining gender equality a game that needs to be played by men's standards, i.e. not cursing, covering up, etc. or is it rebelling: dressing how we want, and cursing if we please, until it is the norm?
Showing posts with label teen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teen. Show all posts
Monday, October 1, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Life in A2
Hello general first month of college post. This is a list of things that pop into my head as I reflect on my first four weeks as a Wolverine living in the dorms of Ann Arbor.
1. I never appreciated having my own bathroom until coming here.
2. I didn't know how many rich people there are until I came here.
3. There is a never-ending supply of delicious food in Ann Arbor.
4. How you design your schedule is SO important
5. Having your roommate become your friend is an awesome rarity.
6. There are 3 questions you ask and answer during Welcome Week: Name, origin,and major. You meet a million different people your first week here.
7. The schools enormous size is a good thing 99.9% of the time.
8. I really like blending in sometimes. I didn't know that until now.
9. Focusing on only a few clubs is the best way to go.
10. I never knew how many stereotypes and prejudices I carried. It's a process to clean yourselves of them.
11. Not that many kids here are on scholarships. That blows my mind. (see last post)
12. I am really lucky to live 40 minutes away.
13. Dining hall food here is the bomb compared to CA lunches.
14. Planners and weekly whiteboards are my best friend.
15. Things the University says are "mandatory" are usually not.
16. You see the coolest, weirdest, most hilarious things everyday.
17. Michigan is known as an arrogant school but we are very kind to each other.
18. The preachers who visit the Diag are not so accepting.
19. Democrats rule the land.
20. It takes about two minutes of knowing someone for a deep and intimate conversation to happen here.
1. I never appreciated having my own bathroom until coming here.
2. I didn't know how many rich people there are until I came here.
3. There is a never-ending supply of delicious food in Ann Arbor.
4. How you design your schedule is SO important
5. Having your roommate become your friend is an awesome rarity.
6. There are 3 questions you ask and answer during Welcome Week: Name, origin,and major. You meet a million different people your first week here.
7. The schools enormous size is a good thing 99.9% of the time.
8. I really like blending in sometimes. I didn't know that until now.
9. Focusing on only a few clubs is the best way to go.
10. I never knew how many stereotypes and prejudices I carried. It's a process to clean yourselves of them.
11. Not that many kids here are on scholarships. That blows my mind. (see last post)
12. I am really lucky to live 40 minutes away.
13. Dining hall food here is the bomb compared to CA lunches.
14. Planners and weekly whiteboards are my best friend.
15. Things the University says are "mandatory" are usually not.
16. You see the coolest, weirdest, most hilarious things everyday.
17. Michigan is known as an arrogant school but we are very kind to each other.
18. The preachers who visit the Diag are not so accepting.
19. Democrats rule the land.
20. It takes about two minutes of knowing someone for a deep and intimate conversation to happen here.
Monday, August 6, 2012
To be great is to be misunderstood
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that
envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for
better, for worse, as his portion" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Today I was working at my tutoring job and I had to read a passage from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." The bolded quote above is where the excerpt started. I was reading it out loud to my student and every once in a while I asked her if she knew what that word and this word meant. This was partly to strengthen her vocabulary and partly to gauge if she was as affected by his writing as I was. His intelligence blew me away. This is what I thought after reading the opening sentences: Envying others is bad, knew that. Calling it ignorance stresses that only people who have never been told "It is bad to envy others" should do it. I have been taught that and I still am overcome with jealousy at times. That is ignorance. As for the second point, I knew imitation was not the best thing to do. However I would have never thought to compare imitation and suicide. Essentially though, that is a just comparison. Imitation is willingly killing your identity to replace for another. It is disrespecting the identity that God gave you, trying to paint over His picasso. The third sentence is a rock solid word-to-the-wise to love yourself as you are, one of the easiest ideas to grasp and the hardest to put into practice. Needless to say, I was engaged for the rest of the reading.
Emerson said that "Whoso be a man must be a non-conformist." He stated that God uses brave men to do great things, not scared and hesitant people. "God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." He said not to be scared of being thought of as odd, as a freak, and to be outcasted. "To be great is to be misunderstood." His reasons were because some of the brightest, wisest people were thought as, well, weirdos. He named Copernicus, Galileo, Jesus and Newton. I was so inspired by that. Being counter-cultural is sometimes the best thing you can do. It assures you of who you are. It is acknowledging that you do not need man's approval to understand yourself. We are so afraid to be disliked, but maybe that is the cost of magnificence.
Today I was working at my tutoring job and I had to read a passage from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." The bolded quote above is where the excerpt started. I was reading it out loud to my student and every once in a while I asked her if she knew what that word and this word meant. This was partly to strengthen her vocabulary and partly to gauge if she was as affected by his writing as I was. His intelligence blew me away. This is what I thought after reading the opening sentences: Envying others is bad, knew that. Calling it ignorance stresses that only people who have never been told "It is bad to envy others" should do it. I have been taught that and I still am overcome with jealousy at times. That is ignorance. As for the second point, I knew imitation was not the best thing to do. However I would have never thought to compare imitation and suicide. Essentially though, that is a just comparison. Imitation is willingly killing your identity to replace for another. It is disrespecting the identity that God gave you, trying to paint over His picasso. The third sentence is a rock solid word-to-the-wise to love yourself as you are, one of the easiest ideas to grasp and the hardest to put into practice. Needless to say, I was engaged for the rest of the reading.
Emerson said that "Whoso be a man must be a non-conformist." He stated that God uses brave men to do great things, not scared and hesitant people. "God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." He said not to be scared of being thought of as odd, as a freak, and to be outcasted. "To be great is to be misunderstood." His reasons were because some of the brightest, wisest people were thought as, well, weirdos. He named Copernicus, Galileo, Jesus and Newton. I was so inspired by that. Being counter-cultural is sometimes the best thing you can do. It assures you of who you are. It is acknowledging that you do not need man's approval to understand yourself. We are so afraid to be disliked, but maybe that is the cost of magnificence.
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