Women Only Spaces

Lately, there has been this talk that Women-Only spaces are reverse-sexist. My co-worker brought this up to me Fall Semester after our Residential Hall Association funded a 'female-identified-only' event. First of all, the event was on breast health. Second of all, we allowed men to go to the educational video, just not the activity where we stripped and casted our breasts.

When I told him this, he was all like, "oh I agree it was a good event, but it was just sexist to give as much money as we did to an event that excludes half of our students. "

We are not excluding anyone, I told him, any male could have attended the educational video.

He dropped it. And we went our ways of life and never discussed it again.

Lately though, more and more, I hear that women-only spaces (and by women I mean individuals who identify as women) are sexist. And I can't really see why.

It's one thing to have a 'Ladies drink free night' at a bar (obviously benefiting women over men) but having an educational event about women's health be women-only is not sexist. Or having an activist group be women-only because they choose to do so is not sexist.

I think the problem is people are not defining sexism correctly. So can I help you with this.

Sexism: attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles. (I found this in a regular dictionary!)

So what does it mean to be sexist then?

Sexist: pertaining to, involving, or fostering sexism. (Also found in dictionary!)

Hmm. So does having Women-only spaces pertain traditional stereotypes of sexual roles? nope. Does it involve the use of traditional sexual roles? I don't think so. Does it foster attitudes based on sexual roles? NOOOO.

I really do not see how people choosing to meet in a women-only space is sexist. Or any -only space being discriminatory? Don't we have our own right to who we want to see?

However, I do think it is important to add, that women-only spaces are important, but we should not exclude groups of willing people to our causes. We all need allys and denying them a chance to help is not going to help us achieve our goals any faster!

Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm vegetarian!: Life Lessons on Acceptance

I've been in a wonderful mood to change my life for the better lately! At first it was just making sure I was a 100% student, Community Advisor and friend, but I've widened it to include making life changes about myself.

So since the only meat I eat was Salami and Chicken, I decided that it's time for me to finally become my 13-year-old self. I made the rash decision to become vegetarian. (I guess it wasn't really rash because I've been debating in my mind for the past 7 years!)

And much like everything else, I am excited for it!!! It seems lately I have been becoming the adult my 13 year old self has always wanted me to become.

Here is the time for labels, and if you are a regular reader you would know how much I dislike confining myself to those labels. (Read more here about that.)

Pretty much when I was 13, I wanted to be a hippy. Yep, a hippy. I had these great dreams of going to Vassar University in New York and majoring in women's studies. I wanted to love all and not care what others thought of me. I wanted to be a vegetarian, listen to cool music, write poetry and fight for the rights of women. And you know what, I wanted to be single, too.

Of course, life happened and by the time I was 16, I was far from believing in those ideals. I was far from accomplishing those goals I had set out for myself. I had a boyfriend, I considered myself a pro-life conservative and I wanted to be a business professional. I don't know how I changed so drastically...but I did.

Then I went to college, I entered college as a conservative women with a controlling boyfriend and no opinion on anything. After the first 3 weeks of college, I had dropped the controlling boyfriend and the conservative views and never looked back. My first year of college was very difficult for me, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I lost 15 pounds, I started working out and I really gained a healthy image of my body.

It wasn't until last semester that I told my business major good-bye and entered the world of women's studies. Lately, through this blog and my classes, I have been redefining who I am and what I want in life. I still don't know what I want to do after I graduate. The future is so uncertain for me, but right now, I am concentrating on making this an amazing experience. I am concentrated in the now.

Although I am not going to the college of my dreams or fighting injustices everyday in my life. I know my time will come. But I know is that 13-year-old Hannah would be proud. Note: The reason why I share this is that I think it is important to yourself and others to share how you metamorphed in to feminism. No story is the same!!! Sharing why or how you found feminism is important, feel free to share in the comment section! I want to know! I'm curious!

Activism: What to Do

I am actually not pro-life. But there activism techniques are going to get them what they want: an end to abortion. They realized that our youth is crucial for change and this is really important for a cause.

So what should pro-choice people to to keep the choice in the women's hands? Help the youth step up and help the cause.

On another note, I am so excited to see Courtney Martin talk about activism on Tuesday!!

Hairless Beauties....BUT DON'T SHAVE YOUR HEAD!!!

DISCLAIMER: This may be a little too much information, but I warned you.

Today as I forgot to grab my razor to go in to the shower, yet again for the 7th time in a row, I realized how our society asks women to shave their body hair off to be beautiful. Last summer, for the first time since I was 12 years old, I let my pubic hair grow out for a whole month! It was one of the most freeing things I have done! At first I thought it was going to be so uncomfortable, but I actually liked it. (I have since, then trimmed!)

It's interesting how people assume because I am a Women's Studies major that I am a traditional feminist and how they assume that I do not follow beauty standards, like shaving your legs/armpits/body. I don't shave my legs because I do not have the time, not because I am a feminist. I do not shave my armpits because I forget my razors, not because I am a feminist.

But today, as I forgot my razor, once again, I thought, you know what? I am just gonna stop shaving there.

And then as I sat there doing my hair (on my head) I realized that although I get tons of compliments on my thick blonde hair, I really actually hate doing it...So maybe I should stop that too.

Women must be hairless in our society to be beautiful, but they dare not to shave their heads...

Is beauty a social construct or an individual one? People say that 'beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.' But is that really true? I'm starting to think NO.

Now, I know, I'm a lucky person. I'm gonna admit it right here and right now. I'm actually attractive. I have my bad days with body issues, but I have never suffered from low-self esteem in the body department. I have always thought I was beautiful. There are things that I want to change at random times of my life, but it's never really made me suffer self-esteem wise.

I'm also lucky because my beauty is one from the social construct. I have blue eyes and blonde hair. This is what society usually shows as attractive. For the record, I have always wanted to be an Audrey Hepburn beauty, but I have settled on Marilyn Monroe.

Tomorrow, I am going to shave my body for the last time. Not for forever, just until I decide that I can be beautiful with out changing what my body gives me. (in hair terms, I sell makeup so I can't give that up)

My last question: Does this now make me a traditional feminist? haha

Life Resources: Photography

So I searched "photography for dummies" thinking I'd get a bunch of advertisings for the "for dummies" books. Instead I find this website which actually gives me good advice on learning my new DSLR camera, whom I named Cameron.

Now Cameron is a BRAND new CANON Rebel T1i. I have been wishing to get a camera as cool as Cameron since, well, I was 1o years old. According to my mother I have been asking for cameras since I was 8 years old. I got my first film one in third grade, my first (really lame) digital in fifth for christmas, respectively.

I bought the next camera I owned in 9th grade. I was super duper excited! I don't even remember the brand. All I know is that I babysat two little "angels" (you can guess by the quotations that I am being very nice in that description) for hours and hours to save up enough money for that camera. I think it was almost 200 dollars with the memory card.

My next camera was a gift from my boyfriend (now ex). It was the camera I really wanted and it gave me 3 and a half years of good photos. During this time, my boyfriend (the same one and still my ex) got a Canon Rebel XS and I fell in love. I knew that by the time I was out of college I wanted to own one of those.

Tada! I finally got a DSLR. With the support of my Aunt Suzanne, she talked my financial brain in to allowing me to spend my savings (not all of it thank goodness!) on an investment.

So, now it is just learning how it works. Which this site would be really helpful to start. I was actually thinking about buying the book, but since I know it is online, I will use that!! :)

So this project actually saved me a few dollars!!! Cool!

What Does Feminism Look Like?

http://www.badreputation.org.uk/2011/03/07/what-does-feminism-look-like/

This link has a lot to do about what we are working on in class right now. It involves image searching the word 'feminism'. It was an interesting read and it saved me some time for research. =]

Feminism && Relationships

"Someday I will find myself my own Edward Cullen" Hmm, yes. That's definitely what I want in my life. A Edward Cullen. Some ladies wish to be one with their partner. 'Two halves make a whole' sort of thing. That's not me. I want to be an individual, I want to have someone in my life that helps me be a better individual but is not necessarily a part of me.

Maybe that's why I don't have anyone? Because I don't accept that I am a half of a person. That I am not searching for my other half. I'm searching for an equal. I'm searching for a life partner.

Forgive me for making this personal, but in the past 8 months, I've been dumped 3 times. Each time, it was for reasons "it's not you, it's me". 3 times it wasn't me. I can't help but believe then, it is me.

First, I turned back to my first true love: books.

I mean, if Bella can get her Edward, I can certainly get a so-and-so.

The Twilight series was the last teen series I read. And I am sad, I wasted that amount of time on those books.

So after returning for a millisecond, just to figure out the majority of books support the 'two half makes a whole' theory, I turned to music.

And I am not a very big music person, I listen to the songs my sister puts on my iPod.

I found Music that sympathized with what I was going thru, which I appreciated. People actually feel the way I am thinking or they sing the way I am feeling.

But searching deeper, when I found songs about relationships, they also supported the two halves make a whole.

I'm my own damn person. Forgive me for the language. But it's true. I am...or I try to be.

Our media is telling us, in order to have a healthy relationship, we have to be a half of a person.

I like my left and right side equally. I'm not giving up either side of me.

Is a equal relationship where two individuals support each other that hard of a task?

One of my co-workers told me that I couldn't date guys because that would be against the feminist way. First of all, this guy loves to push my buttons, so I didn't really take it up with him. Second of all, does being feminist (which I don't even claim I am the majority of the time) make you unable to have real long-lasting relationships?

Originally written on 3/19/11. With held publishing until 4/6/11. Thank you all for the positive feedback.

Planned Parenthood: Support oppresses Trans, Ignores Male Benefits, & Promotes Gender Stereotypes!

This video is pretty amusing and it makes a point. That's my first admittance.

There is a few things I find that this video ignores and actually does not help the cause.

Point #1: We are ignoring two groups that CAN use Planned Parenthood and may or may not have Vaginas.

First of all, not all women have vaginas. Hello, transexuals/transgenders? Anyone? In fact, many trans are turned away from sexual health care because of who they are. Not because they aren't sick, but because who they identify as doesn't match their 'goodies.'

Second of all, men can use planned parenthood too. STD testing and sexual health, etc. And they should use Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood may seem like they are focusing on women's issues, but they will not turn down a man that needs important health services.

I feel like this video makes a really good point. But I also feel like they are supporting the fact that Planned Parenthood is only for Cis, straight females. And it is not, just for them.

Planned Parenthood is an amazing, amazing, amazing creation. If this is how you show support, go for it. But is all support good support? Or by ignoring two (or more? Let's not forget they ignored L and G groups.) groups of people that can use this clinic, are we hindering the movement? We are oppressing one group and ignoring the fact that another can use this services.

But this video also tells women that they should be able to control their sexual life.This is a very good thing! Be proud of your sexuality and sleep with who you want to! At first, I was like "Heck yeah you go girls!! You choose with who you sleep with and you dump those bigots!"

Women have power in their sexuality and I think that if you need to use it for survival, you should use it. That means, that sometimes, women do not have the choice of who they sleep with. Women having the choice of who they choose to sleep with is a very privileged and somewhat Western ideology. With men having most of the political say in most countries and most of those men being straight, will women control these men by holding off sex?

Point #2: Which brings me to the next point of why I find this video harmful, it promotes gender roles and stereotypes. They are saying that all men think with their 'goodies' and women have the power to control that thinking. If the only control I have in a relationship is sexual-based, I don't think I would consider that a healthy or safe relationship. How far does sexual control go? And if men really think with their 'goodies' then what stops them from going out and buying sex from a exploited women? (Which makes the whole logic of the stereotype, men only think with their 'goodies', out the windows and not valid.)

I don't know, if this video is going to help Planned Parenthood or not. I do not know if it is even going to help "straight cis-females" and that is what the video says Planned Parenthood helps in the first place. We are conforming women to their sexuality and forgetting the fact that women have other things to offer. (Like intelligence, talent, BRAINS?!?!?)

If you support the mission of Planned Parenthood, which is to educate young adults on their sexual safety. Please sign this petition now. Remember, Planned Parenthood is not all about abortion, it is not all about women and it is not all about sexual health.

(Update: Hey, look! It's all 'white; woman in the video too! I mean, there is a woman of Asian descent and perhaps another woman of different ethnic group, but they are both very light in color...)

Comparison of Two International Feminist Websites

I choose to compare, in class, two different feminist websites from around the world.

The first one I choose was from the UK. I choose it because it looked simple and not too busy. However, I scrolled down and discovered that, it was in fact, way too busy for me. I included a shot of it above, I mean, doesn't it look promising.

Well, the menu on the right side was quite helpful. And I could see that this website gave a lot of information. It just had too much text for me to concrentrate. I loved the idea of the F-Word Blog tab. You can get reliable factual information on the home page, but if you want articles with a more biased feminist perspective, you can have that choice.

The next one I looked at was something a little bit different. Just because I wanted to compare cultures as well. I clicked on it because I thought it would portray to my project I will do later in the semester. (On Visual Aids and Feminist Activism) And at first, I didn't like the layout, but I grew to like it as I explored it.

This website was not like I expected it would be, it was so much better. I am impressed with how 'high tech' the arab world is. It was so much better than the UK website!! And I got a lot more information, then I did at the UK site.

So overall, even if there is a lot of information, it is best if you keep it as simple as possible. I am definitely coming back here for my project!

The Feminist Label

Upon looking at a definition on urbandictionary.com: I found that the word Feminist is considered a "radical" opinion. But that was just the first opinion, on scrolling down, I find out that some writers have more realistic definitions of a feminist. Which made me very happy.

I don't go a day with out someone calling me a feminist. And maybe, in their own world of definitions I am. According to most dictionaries, a feminist is someone who advocates for the rights of women. Sure, I try to do that, but in case and case, I don't consider myself one.

And it's not because I am against feminism, or the rights of women. It's because labels, to me, confine people to acting a certain way. It's because labels also make people a "spokesperson" so to speak on that subject. And that last one, is why I am not going to call myself a feminist.

Reality Television

I'm visiting my parents this week and I found that my dad watches a lot of reality television. It is actually kind of boring reality television, not a lot of drama happens with 'Pawn Stars' and 'American Picking'

But what I've realized is that these shows have 1 or 2 'regular' women on them. The women show up from time to time, in 'Pawn Stars' the women makes a complete fool out of herself by showing up late and talking back to the boss. And on 'American Picking' she has tattoos everywhere and takes credit from sale that her guy friend did for her.

This women are not representative of the American population. So I started thinking of the 'women reality' tv shows. One is "America's Next Top Model", where it shows very slender and light women cat fighting on their off time. This is again, not representative.

Another reality show that was popular was "Girls next Door", which followed the lives of three women-all who were dating the same man-Hugh Hefner. As much as I enjoyed that show, it was never really representative of American Women.

I would like to think that American women are intelligent, strong individuals that can get farther with their brains then their sexuality. However, what the televisions show the viewers is women are not getting farther with their brains. In fact, they show 'real' women using their sexuality to get money, using their beauty to be important, and in their spare time, these women are not very nice to their fellow women.

International Women's Day

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day.

It saddens me however, that America has not allowed women to vote for even that long.

Even though politics sadden and anger us, we need to pay attention. What has been happening in Libya and Egypt affect us too in more ways then money for gas.

We need to care about the women in our country and the women in other nations.

We are here today because of women and we will be here tomorrow because of women.

Cultural Feminism at it's finest.

Men On Mondays: "Boys Don't Cry"

I recently watched a film while visiting my sister called "Boys Don't Cry." I thought it was an amazing film. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was based on a true story!

The film follows Brandon Teena, who is a female to male straight man (pre-surgery). She is respectfully played by Hilary Swank. Since I was watching it with my sister and her friends, they couldn't accept the fact that everyone in the movie believed that she was a 'real' man.

I feel like the Transsexual movement is very, very ignored. There is nothing psychologically wrong, they aren't horrible people and so on! There 'was definitely nothing psychologically wrong with the character of Brandon Teena, which my sisters friends could not accept either. I am not a Transsexual person, so I do not personally understand their struggle. But I do consider myself an ally to that movement and have been trying to learn more about this 'misunderstood' movement.

girl=dumb, blonde=dumb, Hannah=MAD

Ever been called stupid because of your gender? Yes.

Ever been called stupid because of your hair color? Yep.

In seventh grade a guy told me that I didn't know anything because I am a girl. So when our math tests came back the next week and I got a much better score then him, I was pleased to say that he was very wrong with me 'not knowing anything'. From then on, I worked very hard to be 'good' at school and I have succeeded.

I feel like I need to be an example to my gender, everyday. When I have a bad day, people blame it on because I am a girl. When guys have a bad day, they have a bad day. I never hear about PMS, or PPMD or whatever they make up next with guys. So I've gotten very good at hiding my feelings around people because I know they'll minimize my feelings to 'oh it's just PMS'.

No, it's not PMS. It's because you are a butthole.

Starting with the Girls.

For the second time in a week, I saw someone referring to helping 'the next generation'. I would like to share those efforts. These women and men are finding the problems that feminists fight for everyday as monumental. They are saying that our society has problems and we need to change it. This is huge! This, by and by, does not happen on a regular occasion (accepting that our society needs to be changed rather than to be ignored.)

The first cause is about body awareness and acceptance. We all know that our pop culture is extremely, extremely supportive "slim" bodies. Not healthy bodies, but slim bodies. There is a difference. Now imagine where you would be if we were raised to love ourselves instead of constantly try to "look a certain way". We would be better people, right? Well I think so. If you are on tumblr, follow the love yourself challenge.

The next one goes deeper. I am so excited to have been shown this. I have no words to describe how much this video impacted me, watch it too. And if you agree, check out their website: the girl effect. The video does much better at explaining what they are doing then I would!

Thank you so much for reading! Have you helped a girl in need today?