In lecture the professor talked about how barbie dolls brought on unrealistic images of women to society. I found a parallel in an anime called One Piece. In this incredibly long anime, the women are mostly figured with incredibly large breasts and tiny waists. In some ways one could assume that the sexualization of women is very apparent even in Japanese cartoons that kids watch at a young age. Mostly the reason behind making women in cartoons look like this is to attract a higher fan base consisting of males.

japanryan.blogspot.com

This picture shows Alice Schwarzer, she is the most famous feminist in Germany and publisher of the magazine EMMA, which is a magazine for women.

I just read an article about her not paying taxes, which took her some credibility. Nonetheless, she established the feminism movement in Germany in the 1970’s. Her main topic was the abortion and the tremendous pressure that women have to deal with since it was not legalized at that time. However she fought for the legalization and was successful.

Another topic of her movement was the position of women in the society and equal rights. Since men had way more chances to get a good job and to get paid a better salary. However there is a big discussion going on right now about having a fixed percentage of women in leader positions, which i think is not a good idea since leader positions should be given to persons who are leaders and earned it to be in that position , which has nothing to do with gender.

Since we talked about feminism in the lecture, I think that the feminism movement has achieved a lot in the last decades but there is still too much inequality in easter countries, where more woman like Malala are needed to raise awareness of the situation in order to change it.

I was reading the news on a website called Al-Jazeera when I stumbled upon a photo gallery. It was of children who carried birth defects due to a chemical used in the Vietnam War: Agent Orange. It was very graphic and was tough to see but really highlighted how, to this day, the citizens of Vietnam still feel the affects of the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was a chemical used during the Vietnam War to clear forests and destroy vegetation. The objective was to use the chemical to clear any forests and jungles who may be hiding enemy soldiers. After the war ended, many U.S. veterans who served in Vietnam and were exposed to the chemical suffered from diseases like cancer. It was at this point that it was shown that the chemical had very long lasting and very unhealthy affects on those who were exposed to it. In the United States, many veterans who were affected by the chemical sued the government and were able to receive compensation for their maladies. The Vietnamese however, were not able to receive any compensation and to this day, three generations later, still suffer from diseases like cancer and birth defects due to this chemical.

 http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/2015/4/photos-in-vietnam-the-after-effects-of-agent-orange-persist.html

In lecture, we talked about how feminism was and still is important. Malala Yousafzai is an 18 year old feminist activist fighting for women’s education. Her persevering nature and effort through the arduous struggles she has faced has proved Malala to be one of the strongest feminist figures of today. Between her family receiving death threats and her eventual hospitalization due to Taliban attacks, Malala shows to be a steadfast and enduring activist for women’s rights for education in the middle east. Her story touched the people of Pakistan resulting in the ratification of the Right to Education bill. Her story that lead to tangible change through her acts.

http://www.malala.org/

To this day I’m not really sure if the Black Panther Party would be considered as good or bad..or both maybe? My roommate actually has the logo posted below as a sticker on one of his binders as a representation of the BPP’s primary motives of equality and fairness. In my personal opinion I think if I had to choose one or the other I would lean towards the side of the BPP being essentially good. However, this is not to go without mentioning that they definitely did commit crimes and were even involved with instances of violence, however I believe that their roots were ultimately planted with good intention.  

This picture represents how feminism has empowered the fight against rape. Instead of “Don’t get raped”, a phrase directed at women in the past, we should change it to “Don’t rape” to address the men or the rapist. As a society, we should shift the blame from women to men and place more responsibility onto the rapist in order to discourage sexual assault. From the 6th grade, girl’s and women’s dress code is tailored to the benefit of men. Everything we do is centered around the needs of men, which is a huge issue pertaining to rape culture. Women are afraid to speak up in fear of getting blamed as so many women have been. Take back the night marches and “walk a mile in her shoes” are orchestrated to turn the blame from the victim to the rapist. Just as the feminist movement of the 70’s changed women’s role in society, this movement against sexual assault will change life as we know it.

This week we’ve been talking a lot on feminism, and that in lecture the professor brought up the troubles that Mattel has been having with Barbie and her “unrealistic body” images. Today the toy company announced six new “sheros” – female heroins, because heroism has no gender, according to Yahoo news. This release of dolls includes many influential people, such as the director of Selma, Ava DuVernay, Kristen Chenoweth, Trisha Yearwood, Eva Chen, and Sydney “Mayhem” Keiser. According to the Yahoo News article, the campaign was meant to “empower young girls to continue achieving anything they want, while also honoring and celebrating women who have surpassed expectations on their own volition.” I find it really interesting that Mattel took this route with their new Barbies because instead of being the iconic bombshell that Barbie was known for, they took her and made her into successful businesswomen who have made their living on their own. I also found it interesting that Mattel felt that they had to take this route because of the backlash that they have been getting. As a girl who grew up with barbies, 6 year old girls are not thinking about how skinny or successful Barbie is, they just care about playing and buying more Barbies with more clothes and accessories. Despite what the kids are thinking, or lack thereof, at least the parents will be happy(er) that Mattel is trying to portray a better picture for Barbie.

-JW

Professor Putnam this week taught us that feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Feminism and women s rights was not really fought for untill the 1920’s. Even then in the eye of society woman rights were not as important as the rights of a man. This picture illustrates how woman were strong and ready to fight for what they deserved.

Last semester, I took an introduction to Women’s Studies, where we interpreted and tried to understand the wide definition to feminism. I remember listening to a TED Talk lecture by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, where she proclaimed that a feminist is “someone who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.” (you may have heard this quote in Beyoncé’s song “Flawless,” which is why I have incorporated a picture of her proclaiming herself as a feminist below.) Somehow, from that simple definition, feminism is misconceived as the radical hate for men and the subordination of patriarchy in our society. To me, feminism is more about standing up for yourself as a woman, and rather than diminishing men, empowering yourself with confidence to be whoever you want to be, without worrying about the judgement or oppression by men. Rather than fighting to dominate men or the concept of the patriarchy, to me feminism is about equality.

In this week’s lecture we discussed feminism and a large topic within feminism is reproductive rights. I am taking a Women’s Studies class this semester and we recently went over this topic. My teacher had us watch The Abortion Diaries which is a 30 minute long documentary in which 12 every day women discuss their personal experiences with abortion. Each woman had their own reasons for why they decided to get an abortion whether it was social pressure, or even life or death. It is a short yet powerful documentary that discusses the reality of abortion and the stigma around it.