Activism log 10

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

4/25/10

Activism 10

Activism: This week we were preparing for the presentation in class. Luckily we had a step by step process that we were able to follow. We met up to go over how we would set up our timing and to synchronize our speeches. We compiled information and we all compared notes on our experiences in Animal Safehouse.

Reflection: Using Seely’s approach to activism she states that the last step of activism is to “listen to everyone’s feedback and follow up on any final detail…” (Seely 22). As a group we did this several times before our presentation and we related our experiences to what we have learned from the text throughout the semester.

Reciprocity: This was a very rewarding experience. We were able to collect many donations and make an impact on the organization. I am defiantly planning to stick with this program after the semester and continue to help with donations and the animals. I feel that our event was extremely successful and we were able to spread the world to fight against violence towards women and animals.

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York and London: New York UP, 2007. Print.

Activism log 9

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

4/18/10

Activism 9

Activism:

The week after our event we were focused on getting our hour sheets taken care of and getting the rest of our donations to Arielle. I also had the responsibility of getting the show boards and adoption information boards to Arielle. This week went pretty smoothly, with the conclusion of our event and our service learning hours completed there really wasn’t much else to do.

Reflection:

I brought this week back to Seely’s text of “How to fight like a girl”. “Once the meeting is over, have a meeting to debrief on how it went” (Seely 22). We were also planning to use this topic as a way to organize our project for next class.

Reciprocity:

As we close up our service learning section project and reflect on what we have done so far I am very certain that I will remain working for this organization. I am starting to prepare for the project next week and I am enjoying reminiscing about all of the things we have done for this event.

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York and London: New York University Press, 2007

Activism log 8

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

4/11/10

Activism 8

Activism:

This week was our event. It was very rewarding to see all of the donations we have collected and to see that the event we spent so long planning fell so nicely into place. We spent about 4 hours at the venue setting up collecting donations and finally helping Arielle bring most of the items to her car. We all made boards, boxes and other display items for the event, with the help of some of the Animal Safehouse items we were able to have a wonderful display. Overall our event was extremely successful.

Reflection:

When I got home, I began to analyze our project throughout the semester. I recalled one of the earlier articles we read by Seely. The “How to fight like a girl” section explains how to be a successful activist. She also goes on to give specific steps all of which we followed to a T. I feel that one of the most important pieces of information she gave was that “we can raise our voices to speak against injustice at every level—individually and institutionally” (Seely 16). By organizing this event and brining the attention to many individuals we hopefully empowered many people to speak against the violence against women and pets.

Reciprocity:

All of the donations we collected and the success we had in spreading the world about this organization I feel show the grandeur of our success as a service learning group. Arielle was very satisfied with the amount of items we were able to collect. We were also able to find a few people to sign up to be foster parents, all in all a very successful event.

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York and London: New York University Press, 2007

Activism log 7

Janet Audette

Nina Perez

WST 3015

4/4/10

Activism log 7:

Activism:

Next week is our event so it was crucial to flyer as much as possible and do everything we can to get the word out. I spent a lot of time flyering my neighborhood and talking to people about the event. I also relied on the “friend network” of word of mouth and that actually seemed to generate a lot of interest. Never underestimate the power of contacts.

Reflection: As I thought about what was involved to get people to attend our event and acquire enough donations to make an impact I began to think about the article by Antrobus. The Global Woman’s Movement discusses the characteristics of the movement and what is involved to make something a movement. “A woman’s movement is a process, discontinuous, flexible, responding to specific conditions of perceived gender inequality or gender related injustice” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 631). Our own movement is much the same of process of Antrobus women’s movement.

Reciprocity:

This event is monumental to our group. It is pretty exciting to see what we can accomplish when we set our minds to something. I am really hoping that we get some people to foster and care for some animals. I am also hoping that we get enough donations to make a difference. I have collected a few things myself and am excited to pass the items along.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "The Global Women’s Movement." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 629-636.

Eco feminism

Erin Brockovich is a movie about a young, out of work, single mother who lives in California. When Erin finds a job working with her lawyer she begins to investigate a local community because she notices the strange way their land being bought up by a giant oil corporation. She quickly finds that most of the people who are living on this land are extremely ill. It is made clear during the movie that this oil company (PG&E) was illegally dumping hazardous waste in the land and is buying it to cover up what they have done. As Erin fights to save the people and the land she represents many common stereotypes of women. She plays the role of hard working woman, single mother, and shows her attempts at a failed social/sex life.

Ecofeminism is very prevalent in this movie since Erin is constantly trying to justify her actions because she is a woman while she is trying to stand against a great treat to people and the environment. Erin tends to relate to the women and children in this community right away and gains their support from the beginning. As stated in out text “Environment crises affects men as well as women, of course, bit in terms of environmental health, woman and children show the effects of toxic pollution earlier than men do…” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey). Erin instantly feels sympathy for these women who are too ill to take care of their ill children and decides that she will do everything in her power to seek redemption for these people.

Although it is initially only Erin who feels and understands the hardships people are enduring, she eventually convinces her boss that it is a case worth looking into. As soon as he sees the people and reads the case files he is also overcome with the desire to help. When they start to work together the people of the town begin to have hope that something will be done about the torture that they were forced to endure. While watching the movie I was reminded of the article “Rose Moon” we were asked to read in class. Throughout the article Steingraber explains the importance of taking action and not simply accepting that people should revel in their ignorance and accept the fate of toxic waste but they should act to do something about it. Erin Brockovich is a perfect example that environmental issues need to be taken out of the private and into the public.

In this case it was an organization on the public level that was affecting the town. However, they were attempting to make it a private issue by individually buying the land and ignoring the health issues of the town. Erin finally makes enough of a case to actively bring down the system involved with the dumping of the toxic waste in the town.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women and the Enviroment. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010

Steingraber, Sandra. Rose Moon. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5 (2010)

Riverbend blog

The blog posting by Riverbend titled Baghdad Burning explains the difficulties and hardships of life in a wartime place. The focus of the blog was on a young girl, M, whose life was forever changed when her family (mother, and brothers) were captured, tortured, and jailed because of an anonymous tip that stated they were harboring money for the support of killing American troops. Naturally, her and her families’ lives were halted as they were all forced to spend time in jail as innocent people. M was released and began concentrating on locating and releasing her mother and brothers.

M continues to explain the difficulties she has had with finding a lawyer who is willing to represent her and her family since the government is so corrupt. Despite the many odds coming against her she was still admit about making things right and just with herself and her family. I feel that Riverbend feels such a connection to M because when they first meet each other M is hiding in the shadows much like Riverbend does while writing her blogs. As she stated in the Kirk, Okazawa-rey text she wouldn’t feel free to write about her life if people knew who she was. M also shares something like this stating that if she were to go to the media and make light of herself and her story her family would surely be tortured and all hope of them being released would probably be lost.

Riverbend takes a moment in this blog to talk about the ever worsening living situations of her community and the overwhelming power the troops seem to be embracing. She brings it to the attention of the reader that although most of the Iraq culture is suffering from some sort of hardship and forced globalization woman are quite frankly suffering the brunt of it. Since M’s father died her and her mother have been relying on the small checks from a local business and the ability of the brothers to work leaving the women with not much of a foot to stand on to protest. The text talks in detail about the effects of the war on woman and families because of deaths and culture changes and the normalization of violence. Although it still upsets Riverbend that she hears gun shots and sees the troops angrily invading homes, it no longer surprises her. As she asks M why she doesn’t go to the press or the media Riverbend is reminded of just how violent her world has gotten. M immediately reminds her that because of the violence and corruption that has taken such a common place and publicity of her situation would only ensure her families prolonged captivity.

It is hard to imagine from my privileged perspective that such a world can still exist. Although I may be ignorant to the explicit wartime details, I find it rather counter intuitive to “liberate” a peoples who simply have no desire for our presence.

Works Cited:

Baghdad Burning. Riverbend, 26 Dec. 2003. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women and the Military, War, and Peace, Women's Studies. Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 493-510.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women Living in a Globalizing World. Women's Studies. Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 371-391

Activism log 6

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

3/29/10

Activism log 6

Activism: The only thing major left to accomplish before our event is to flyer and raise awareness about our Animal Safehouse. I have spent a lot of time passing out flyers in my neighborhood and the local dog park. I have also been talking to my roommates grandparents who are the head of the event comity in their neighborhood. I figured since they all own homes and are older or with families (a 40+ neighborhood) it would be a perfect target group.

Reflection:

Whenever I feel like I should take a break or stop raising awareness I realize that I am not doing this for myself. There are other people and other animals that are depending on me to help them through their day. Even if they don’t know who I am and I’ve never have and probably never will meet them I am still helping them. The reading "The Mommy Tax" caused me thought when taking it back to my activism. The places that I have been flyering all involved families of sorts with children. The mommy tax discusses all that woman have to give up in order to be a mom "The mommy tax is obviously highest for well-educated, high-income individuals... (Kirk Okazawa-Rey 339)." For me, this made my part in activism that much more important. Since women already have so much to lose, they shouldn't also have to worry about losing their best friend if they have to flee an abusive relationship.

Reciprocity:

Although the act of raising awareness is daunting and problematic you have to keep focused at the end result. For us, the upcoming event and the hope that we will find fosters for pets and many donations to help support the people who are struggling is our end result.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "The Mommy Tax." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 337-344.