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.

Activism log 5

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST3015

3/19/10

Activism log 5

Activism: This week was a lot of word of mouth activities. I use a lot of my connections to spread the word of our event taking place on April 11^th and let people know that we would be taking donations and supplies. I also printed quite a few flyers in the anticipation that I will be handing them out at today’s Green Waves Festival.

Reflection: Being able to get back into the active part of this process was very refreshing. Contacting all the people and simply getting the awareness out there felt rather rewarding. I feel as though if I bring one more person that would have not come that could be making all the difference. While at the greenwaves festival I noticed that many of the people who were in the booths said that they were doing whatever they were doing because it was their passion. This made me think of the "Uses of the Erotic" chapter in our woman's lives book. If your erotic "the personification of love in all its aspects" is something that can make a difference in the world, then there is no reason why you cant also be an activist (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 162).

Reciprocity: Understanding that I am doing this for myself or even your own well being is enough to give me the push that is required to get the awareness out there. Of course, activism is all about taking action and what better inspiration is there than to take action for those who are incapable of doing it themselves.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Uses of the Erotic." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 161-164.

Activism log 4

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

3/19/10

Activism log 4

Activism: This week was essentially a lull in the activeness part of Activism. It takes a special person to correctly balance the work loads of school, work and life and also participate in activism. I unfortunately have not yet acquired or adapted this skill. Hopefully I will find it soon enough.

Reflection: As always, my appreciation for the avid activist was yet again renewed. I feel as though I should have done more but we hit a niche in our abilities to be activist. We really just got as far as we could and were just awaiting the next step. The readings for this week included an essay by Seely which talked about the womans ability to fight back when she finds herself in certain situations. She discussed the topic of intimate partner abuse "The person who hurts us is the person who is supposed to love us" (Seely 187). This chapter when related to help needed for the women and animals of Animal Safehouse has, in essence, but a fire under my butt and caused me to want to become an avid activist and do everything in my power to make a difference.

Reciprocity: I feel that the feeling of not really knowing what to do next is somewhat frustrating. I want to make a difference and I want to get the word out, but when you’ve reached a certain point in the process there just comes a time when you have to realize that for this week, you’ve done all you can do.

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

Episode Blog

Janet Audette

Perez

03/17/10

WST 3015

Analyzing the female role using an episode of family guy presented itself to be a rather interesting endeavor. Anyone who is an avid family guy watcher is aware of all of the stereotypes represented and mocked throughout the episodes. The one presented in the blog is in no way different from the norm. A general synopsis of the episode is that Meg (the odd-ball daughter) has found herself a normal boyfriend who proclaims his found attractiveness for Louis (the mother). After Peters (the father) constant berating of Louis’s appearance she decides to cave into the feelings she has towards her daughter’s boyfriend that are developed simply from her own insecurities and attempt to seduce Megs boyfriend. She then confronts Peter and realizes that the only reason he was continuously diminishing her confidence was due to his backwards attempt to make himself feel better about his own appearance.

As portrayed in the episode, it is the general media portrayed belief that woman need the confirmation of men that they are desired and wanted. When Peter does not give Louis what she is looking for in the means of physical satisfaction or the verbal confirmation of her beauty, she is immediately seduced by the innocent complement of her daughters’ boyfriend. Since Louis has very little social interaction (as displayed by the previous episodes) as she is a homemaker and has very little friends or people to confide in, she relies on the words and feelings of her family to determine her actions (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 340).

Throughout the many episodes of family guy, especially the one required to view for the blog assignment women are portrayed as individuals who have no ability to do anything other than to be housewives or inferior beings to men. Although the cartoon Family Guy is meant to portray the utmost extreme of the stereotypes it is doing nothing to help in the fight for equality. In order to make a difference everyone must join the fight and do something to end the injustice against woman (Seely 113). The mere idea that Louis is so starved of attention and appreciation she has to seduce a young boy to quench her lust proves that woman has very little respect in the media. If the circumstances were reversed I have a feeling that very few people would find it humorous. Due to the inequality of woman it has become perfectly acceptable to exploit the sex in every possible means with little or no repercussions. The media and shows such as Family guy that sensationalize such inequality only add to the issues existing (Seely 102).

Although there have been many times where I have found myself laughing endlessly at the Family Guy sexist humor I realize that this in fact makes me part of the problem. If I as a woman am taken in to the media portrayal of the female stereotype and am not willing to object then I am doing nothing to end the injustice.

WORKS CITED

Woman's Sexuality." Woman's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010

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

McFarland, Seth. "Go Stewie Go." Family Guy. 2010 Season 9. CastTV. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .

Activism log 3

Janet Audette

Prof. Nina Perez

WST 3015

3/5/10

Activism log 3

Activism: This week was rather hectic. The other members of my group were actively searching for venues and we were all planning on how to get attention to our benefit. I scoped for places to potentially flyer and that was rather interesting. I also spoke to my parents and a few friends about rummaging up some supplies to donate in an attempt to get the ball rolling with the donations.

Reflection: I probably should have concentrated a little more on activism this week but is rather hard to balance with my exams and essay writing. It gave me new appreciation for the people who are involved in raising awareness full time and are also working full time jobs and attempt to have a social life. Our text "Violence Against Woman" discusses how important it is to raise awareness against woman violence and at times I seriously underestimate how much time I should dedicate to this. The reading defines violence as a "relation, process, or condition by which an individual or a group violates the physical, social and/or physical integrity of another person or group. (Kirk Okazawa-Rey 258). This is obviously exactly what we are working to prevent with our attempts to bring awareness to the situations that these women and animals are involved in.

Reciprocity: Although it is time consuming and I sometimes feel as though I should push it back for another time I know that everything we are doing is for the greater good. I know that if I just keep making an effort I could be saving the lives of people and animals who are suffering from domestic abuse.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Violence Against Women." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 257-273.

How do you hear a song?

Janet Audette

Perez

03/05/10

WST 3015

The song “Rape Me” by Nirvana gained popularity in the early 90’s. The song although rather short has a huge meaning behind it. The first verse “Rape me, Rape me My friend” allows the listener to know right off the bat that the person committing the crime is someone close to the victim. According Catalano 73% of women are raped by their partner or date. Intimate partner violence includes everything from mental to physical abuse and every year 4 million people are subjected to abuse (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey 262).

This is exemplified in the second verse “I’m not the only one”. This is saying that although she is the victim and she has been raped, she is not alone. There are countless other survivors in the world and this person is aware that there is a support group and power in numbers.

The third and fifth verse is where most of the passion in this song shines through. “Hate me, Do it again… Waste me…” At this point in the song it appears that the person being raped is essentially giving up and giving in to what is happening. As if they are aware society will do nothing for her and that as a system we will “waste” the victim as the rapists is doing by their actions (Seely 195). However, by the fifth verse the victim is starting to become aware and surer of themselves. “My favorite inside source” is referring to the strength and power they are finding within themselves that is giving them strength to overcome their rape.

The repeat of the verse “I’m not the only one” is now referring to the idea that there are thousands survivors who are also finding the light within themselves. Although this song comes across as rather forward and when looked at superficially could be assumed as condoning rape, it is actually very powerful in the movement to stop rape.

As a popular source this song could be very beneficial towards the education of sexual abuse and violence. Having the media publicize this type of positive influence can change both the view points of survivors and the perpetrators. It can allow the survivors to know that they are not alone and that there are countless other people who have experience the same cruelty. It also shows to the rapist that their victims are not broken and left for death they have a web of people who are there to support them.

Although as a society there is still a habit to blame the women for their rapes (Seely 195), hopefully with songs such as these is will become easier for women and men to understand that rape occurs because of the Rapist not because of the victims.

Works Cited

"Woman's Sexuality." Woman's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 149-60.

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

Nirvana, . "Nirvana – Rape Me Lyrics." Lyrics007. 37 MAY 2008. Web. 3 Mar 2010.