Wednesday, February 18, 2009

It's Sing Along Time! *snicker*





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I'll try to explain these song by song, but who knows how far I'll get.

"Stealing Cinderella"
Fathers are supposed to cherish their daughters. Their daughters are their Cinderella. They are special, daddy's little girl, and not just any one will be good enough for them. This is ideally how daughters are seen by their fathers, however, it is not always the case. I know from personal experience.
"High Maintenance Woman"
In this song, the woman is a stay-at-home wife who is used to the high life. She only wants a man who can give her everything she wants. This is how some men see women, as gold-diggers. While there are those who fit this stereotype perfectly, most do not.
"Stupid Girls"
This song is about the stereotypical sorority girl, the girl who is rich, pretty, and preppy. It asks "where have the smart people gone?" This song appeals to those who don't want to be seen as an airhead, "blonde," or not ambitious. However, this is usually just an image portrayed, they use it to get where they want to be. Take Jessica Simpson, for example, she capitalizes on her "blondeness" to make money.
"Bootylicious"
Is about women finding themselves sexy and in demand. It exudes self-confidence, with an underlying of being almost conceited. It can be taken too far, this song pushes that limit. Self-confidence is sexy but by being so blatant about it, women are seen as high maintenance.
["Show Stopper" played when I added it but doesn't now :-( ]
"A Cause des Garcons"
A song by French artist Yelle. It basically says that everything women do, whether it is getting their hair done or dressing up, is for men. It goes on to say that this is caused by the magazines we read. (Translation: http://top40-charts.com/songs/lyrics.php?sid=22328&onlylyrics=1, Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmLjZrH0VlY)
"Boys"
Basically this is about a girl expressing her sexuality. It is expected of girls to want boys. While there is nothing wrong with wanting the opposite sex, it is not the only option now. This song is somewhat stereotypical of how boys expect girls to be about wanting them, when in fact many of us are not as up front about it.
"I Kissed A Girl"
While this song is about a drunk girl kissing another girl, which is supposedly every male's fantasy, it speaks about the other types of sexuality. It also speaks openly about being casual and not serious about someone in particular. It was very controversial when it first hit the airwaves, and still causes a stir.
"Shoes"
While the song in itself doesn't really speak about gender, it is by an artist named Kelly. The sex and gender of this artist is somewhat questionable. I've tried to find out, but found nothing to point either way.
"I'm take a lot of pride in what I am"
This song speaks of men being proud.
"Here I go again"
A very popular song by White Snake. It is about being a man who continuously leaves girls to be on his own. It makes women out to be expendable and just objects subjected to the whims of men.
"The fightin' side of me"
Merle Haggard wrote this song about how people disrespecting his government/country are basically pissing him off. He speaks of his pride in his country and insinuating that real men are proud of their country and defend it against those that dare to speak lowly of it.
"Good Ol' Boy"
Waylon Jennings wrote this song about men "just being boys," getting in trouble, and running from the law. In a way, he is saying that real men take risks and don't bow to authority.
"Sexual Thing"
Ah, Poison. Making women out to be sex objects only. The song itself is good in my opinion, but if I really listen to the message it doesn't take into account any other aspects of women; they are only sex objects.
"Bitch"
Woot! Meredith Brooks! This song is on here solely for the fact that it describes me almost perfectly. I can be anything any given day. I can be sexual, innocent, a bitch, or your dream. This is how I think all females should be: versatile.

On to the Readings
I totally agree that the feminist movements have been segregated within the ranks by class and sexual orientation. It makes the movement weaker to have factionsworking against each other. It does no good to fight for the rights of only certain women, there will still be women being discriminated against. Why should only one section get more rights? Isn't the idea equality? Why is it that only some women are worthy of those rights? That in itself is the bastard child of the patriarchal culture. You are only strengthening that by denying rights to other women. Go for it all, or none at all.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Courses for Me

At the moment, I am unsure what my career will be. With a major in Political Science with at least a minor in Women's Studies, I've been told there are many things I can do. The ideas I've had have covered a wide range of things: women's outreach, UN Human Rights' Council, politician, and so many other things. Basically I want to help better the lives of others. I've realized OU offers a wide range of courses through the women's studies department that could be of some use: Gender, Power and Leadership in Politics and Administration, Women Creating Social Change, Women and World Politics, Contemporary Feminist Thought, Women and the Law (which I have already taken), Women in the Military (which I have also taken). The titles of these pretty much tell you how they would assist me. I really would like to take all of the courses available, however, because I find the the histortic and contemporary issues so enthralling.

I think some people would say I want to help others because I am a female and it is supposedly my nature. While I do believe it is partly a maternal instinct (I've always been very motherly, ask any of my close friends. They say its cute), I really just want to better the world. Not because I'm a woman, but because I am a human being. Gender comes into play in any profession, whether you realize it or not. I'm not sure how it will play a role in mine, all I know is that I will come into contact with many different people and each will have a different gender identity.

I have mostly worked in the food industry up to this point. I worked at Simple Simon's Pizza for several years, Red Lobster, and now I work at the cafe/coffeeshop at Hastings. The only job I've had that wasn't was as a Resident Assistant (RA) at NSU. I was first hired at Simple Simon's to work the front, looking back I think they only hired girls to work the front (they underwent an owner change later, and I worked wherever I wanted), but soon I was doing the manager's duties (without the same pay, of course). I was a hostess at Red Lobster, which sounds like a typical job for a female, but I was trained with a guy for the same job. We ended up working together a lot. He was the only male that was strictly a host/busser (we had one or two that would take a shift if needed, but weren't hired to do it), however, so I'm sure they had to do it for some sort of quota. At NSU, I lived on an all girls floor, in an all girls wing. They hired different numbers of each sex based on how many floors they had of each. There was a guy who was an RA on a girls floor, but he was gay so he posed no "threat" to the girls. They were very open to different life styles, the assistant housing direct was a lesbian and there may have been a few bisexual students working there but I can't be certain. Now, Hastings is probably the most laidback place I've worked in regard to gender. Again, my position is what you would think would be a typical female position, but the cafe manager and one other worker are males (we don't have many positions at all, which is why only one regular employee). I only know for sure of one homosexual employee, for sure, at Hastings, but this is mostly due to the fact that I really don't care about a person's orientation, just about the person themself.

Reading:
I agree that feminist education and discussion has moved from a public podium to one almost exclusively academic. We need to reeducate the masses about what feminism is really about, that is not just a bunch of lesbian, man-haters who want to force themselves above men in society. We are women who want true equality, not equality in a man's world, equality in the world of people both men and women. We shouldn't force ourselves to adapt to a world that was shaped for men to best adapt to, we should reshape the world so that it embraces every gender. This the message we need to be teaching to new generations and to old ones.
(Don't have F Word yet).

Iron Jawed Angels

First off I would like to say that this movie has become one of my top 10 movies. Its hard to really envision these women doing everything they did to help further women, and this movie really helps to give an image to what we have been reading about since junior high. The parade was a very powerful scene that gave me chills. The women were so brave to go through with it knowing they wouldn't have police protection. My heart went out to Inez when she gave her life for the cause; not telling anyone she was sick was very noble of her, even if it was very foolish. One thing about it I wasn't too impressed with was that in many of the scenes, the props and wardrobe seemed too modern for the early 1900s. It took away from it a little. Having modern music, however, was a nice twist and probably helped some viewers relate to the movie more.

Readings:
The chapter that really spoke to me was chapter 11. It made sense when it said that until we end sexism, we will not end domestic violence. The majority of domestic violence is perpetrated by men, it is a show of male power and domination. Until we do away with the belief that men are superior to women, we will continue to have this type of behavior.

Interview

I interviewed my mother. She was aware of the feminist movement, but she said she wasn't too involved. Before I was born, she went to some meetings where the topic was "women's lib" but she didn't do much with it because she was given a hard time by her male friends. After going to the meetings, she agreed with it but didn't have much support from her friends. She describes herself as a pacifist and wishes she had been more involved. When she was growing up, she remembers that she had a few friends that she thought could have been gay/lesbian but growing up in Oklahoma people didn't "come out of the closet." She really never heard of feminists being called lesbian man-haters, she was shocked when I suggested it. She did know a man in Houston who died from AIDS, who ended up being gay. It was weird at that time for him to die of AIDS because it was not a common occurance, at least not a known occurance.

Readings:
In the McIntosh article, I found it interesting that the author compared "white privilege" to "male privilege." However, she didn't elaborate on it, which bothered me. I understand that she is saying that as a Caucasian, she doesn't have to worry about any of the things we take for granted, but I'm not sure how that ties into sexism. I realize that in 1989 women didn't have the opportunities that we do now, but she didn't really tie it in well at all.
(I don't have F-Word yet).

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Back Pain Diagnosis---Pars Defect

So I went to my doctor appointment yesterday, only to be extremely disappointed. After 3 hours of poking and bending, 6 x-rays in 6 different positions, and lots of sitting around I was told I have a "pars defect" in the lumbar region of my spine (I have a fracture in one of the bones in my spine, not the vertebra itself, but the part that sticks out). This is a degenerative disease in your spine that is caused by hyper extension over time (can be caused by gymnastics and cheerleading, both of which I have done). This causes your vertebra to grind together at times. When I asked what could be done to fix the pain, he went into a long speech about how surgery would be a temporary fix (but the degeneration would start to occur above where my spine would be fused). He gave me exercises to strengthen my abdominal muscles/stretch my back muscles that could possibly ease my pain but not take it away. He prescribed physical therapy to help me learn to do the exercises correctly. After that he told me that taking pain medicine would not help much, but anti-inflammatory medicine would (however, gave me no prescription for any. Does he really think ibuprofen helps back pain???). He basically told me not to come back unless the pain got worse or it started shooting down my legs again (which actually all his poking and whatnot made it do that again).


While I'm supposed to trust that a spinal doctor is an intelligent person, I don't trust this man's recommendations. I have good reason to. When I first found out I had a spinal problem, I was told it was probably spondylolysis. I told him this, but he dismissed it and said after looking at my x-rays I don't have it. When I looked up pars defect, everything I found said the two go hand-in-hand. Wouldn't a good spinal doctor know that? An ER doctor (in Tahlequah, no less) sure knew what he was looking at. Second, I have a rib that likes to be dislocated. Said rib has been giving me problems lately and is sometimes so painful that I can't breathe. I mentioned this to him. His response? He'd never heard of ribs getting dislocated. Um.... hello?!?! Anything that has a joint or is attached to something else with cartilage can be dislocated. You don't have to be a doctor to know that. So now I'm in double pain because he's not the brightest. Third, he told me I'm very overweight for my height. Now I'm not going to argue that I may be somewhat overweight at the moment due to being sick, so therefore inactive, the last few months, but very overweight??? Come on now. He said the majority of my weight is in my upper body and therefore putting pressure on my spine. My question there is, did he even look at how I'm shaped? Most of my weight is in my butt and legs, you don't even have to take a good look at me to see that one.

This guy was not very observant and seemed to not know what he was talking about. While he was right about the pars defect diagnosis, he was way off base about other things (spondylolysis, anyone?). I'm getting a second opinion as soon as I can find a spinal doctor with a good reputation in the metro area.

I just thought I would give an update to those who have known what has been going on and wanted to stay in the loop. Thanks for all the support, I love you guys!