Service Activism Log #6

1. The event was successful! I certainly expected the turn out to be much more astounding, yet I was still pleased with the crowd. It was nice to finally be able to chit-chat with Jackie, since we've only been communicating via facebook and e-mail. When I arrived, Jackie didn't have the movie, which obviously was a concern. Suddenly I remembered that I had Netflix and thankfully it was on Instant Play. I thought that having the actual movie would be the easiest part, yet I guess in the whole process of planning I forgot the simplest and most important responsibility! I guess next time I do something like this I will make certain that I have all the necessities for a successful movie extravaganza!

2. This week was exciting. I learned a lot from the planning and I definitely realized how easy it is to pull a group of people together for activism. Seely gives 12 simple steps to follow for creating an event for feminist activism. Although events are exciting to plan, sometimes I think people can get too wrapped up in their day-to-day lives, which is why I found an excerpt from "Fight Like A Girl" so inspiring; "I live my life as an activist. I live my life politically. We can all do this. We all have it in ourselves; titles don't make us leaders. It is our actions that mean something and impact our community. It is our voices that inspire. And our commitment to justice that makes a difference (Seely 24)."

3. I was impressed with the encouragement that NOW supported me with. It was definitely difficult not being able to go to my community partner's meetings since I had class at that time, but I managed and they were very excited to have me working on an event. Hopefully next semester I won't have class during the meeting times and I will get to join in on even more events, but if not at least I will know that they are extremely responsive to me.

Works Cited

Seely, Megan. Fight Like A Girl. New York, NY and London: New York University Press, 2007. 24. Print.

Service Learning Activism Log #5

1. This week I e-mailed and Facebook messaged Jacqueline Sheppard about the upcoming event. Since Patricia won't be able to attend, I offered any extra assistance they might find neccessary. I am still waiting for a response. It's making me feel very antsy and I just want to fast forward to the event. I will be missing one of my classes, which is definitely a downfall but I think that the event's success will certainly be worth it. Something I find exciting is that "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" will be screening for the event. I'm anxious to be in an environment that is contributing to the masculine community, since it will be a polar opposite to what I've been learning about in my Women's Studies class.

2. In the trailer for "Bigger, Faster, Stronger," it asks the audience, "If you had to take a drug, with the known side effects of anabolic steroids to keep your job right now and support your family, would you do it?" This quote has the most obvious correlation to the global war on drugs, which is analyzed in further elaboration in the text. Clearly, there are medicinal purposes to steriods just like there are for other drugs. In 1986, however, Ronald Regan passed the Anti Drug Abuse Act which made a "critical break with the concept of drug users as a medical population in need of treatment and instead targetted them as a criminal population (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 484)." My community partners understand that women will do anything to support their families and that although there is no justification for the illegal trafficking of Class A drugs, minimum mandatory sentences for crimes such as treatment programs and community service have become the most common forms of punishment (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 484).

3. Although I know a little about anabolic steroids, it will be interesting to see how it will be defined through perspectives of masculinity. Not only will it be interesting but I'm hoping it will be beneficial to my understanding of gender roles in our culture. Extremely excited!

Okazawa-Rey, Margo, and Gwyn Kirk . Women's Lives - Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 484-485. Print.

Women and the Workforce Assignment

Last night I finished the first season of Dexter. If you are unfamiliar with this TV show, it is primarily based on a serial killer who works for a Police Department in Miami. He works as a dective and a blood analysis specialist.The show follows Dexter Morgan through his many trials and tribulations at work as well as at home. There are three main women that I found had the most prominant characters in the show. His foster-sister, Deborah, works alongside him at the Police Station as an officer. He is dating Rita, a single mother of two children whom works at a hotel. Dexter's lieutenant, Maria has a major role in the TV show as well. Although there is a main plot for each episode that follows Dexter himself, there are side stories that follow these women as well and the correlation with how the media and society depicts and percieves women in the workforce is astoundingly conspicuous.

Rita is always being depicted as distraught. Although she is portrayed as a sweet, calm, and happy woman, her hair is never in place, she is always picking up after the kids, and she is constantly trying to avoid confrontations with her ex-husband. Initially, like for most viewers, I was oblivious to the message that the media is trying to send regarding working, single mothers. I asked myself, "Why isn't Rita impeccable, vivacious, and confident? Why does it seem like she never has anything completely under her control?" It can be "...argued that it is not motherhood itself that is oppressive to women but the way our society constructs motherhood (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 307)." The only plausible reason for Rita seeming like a complete mess is that she is a single mother and needs to juggle her work as well as giving her children a sufficient amount of 'TLC.'

Deborah represents the 'Ultimate Mommy Tax," in reference specifically to 'childlessness.' A steady increase in the percentage of middle-aged, educated, American women who remain childless went from about 9 percent in the 1950's to 10 percent in the late 1970's, and in the 1990's about 17 percent (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 344). Deborah is loud, assertive, very committed, and attractive. Her schedule is flexible - she works when she's not on the clock and enjoys it. Don't let all this fool you, however. Deb still has a soft spot for love, and this is shown when she begins to date a doctor named Rudy (which happens to be a serial killer). Although Deborah probably dreams of having a family, contemporary work ethics show that "...the longer a woman postpones family responsibilites, and the longer her 'preparental' phase lasts, the higher her lifetime earnings will be (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 342)." Society molds Deborah into a delineation of the equivalent of idealogies of a man, "but trying to be a man has its own risks. Many baby-boomer women postponed families only to discover that they wanted to become pregnant, it was too late (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 342)."

Maria also faces the same desires Deb does. In one episode when she saves a little boy from a murder scene, her motherly instincts get the best of her and she is reluctant to give the boy back to his family. What I find the most interesting is that Maria and Deb never openly admit to wanting children, which supports the idea that, "Americans have a hard time realizing that such deeply personal choices as when or whether to have a child can be powerfully circumscribed by broader social or economic factors (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 344)." In confliction with popular beliefs, making decisions between family and work is much more of a deal-breaker in America, than in European countries where there are more 'favorable' policies that encourage pro-family ideals (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 344).

Okazawa-Rey, Margo, and Gwyn Kirk . Women's Lives - Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 301-369. Print.

Service Activism Log #4

1. This week was uneventful mainly due to the fact that from this point on everything should go along smoothly. The anticipation of the event is absolutely dreadful since I'm looking forward to it so much. I have been telling my friends as well as strangers about the upcoming event and they also seem to look forward to it. Honestly, other than spreading the word there really isn't anything on my to-do list. Patricia invited me to help her make food for the event but she lives really far away from me and I'm not quite sure to get around Orlando yet so we'll see. Still looking forward to tabeling with her outside of Publix to fundraise for Animal Safehouse!

2. This week we read and discussed about women in the workforce, which directly correlates with our service learning project specifically under the topic and reading "The Mommy Tax," by Ann Crittenden. Because this reading was based on an issue that is critical for pregnant women and mothers today, I found this reading especially appealing. I had heard of the concept of the "Mommy Tax" but never really read or looked too much in depth with it, so I feel as though this was a good opportunity to become more knowledgeable about issues our mothers are facing today. In order to support her context, Crittenden writes, "...research reveals that working mothers not only earn less than men, but also less per hour than childless women, even after such differences as education and experience are factored out (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 337). " I found this fact extremely startling as well as unsettling. Furthermore, in reading and a class discussions about feminists' solutions to this obstacle, my classmates and I concurred that by creating an equal wage for comparable work could offer more stability. Aside from the unequality of equal labor, however, I find myself struggling to interpret the hypocrisy of the employers' perceptions of women's worth ethics. In a comic, a boss says to his worker, "This society doesn't value children anymore! You women would rather persue a selfish career than stay home with your kids!" In the next drawing, the woman is seen holding her child in a non-work environment and her boss says, "This society doesn't value work anymore! You welfare mothers would rather stay home with your kids than get a job!" (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 303).  I think this comic depicts the confliction of what mothers are going through in the workplace perfectly.

3. I'm really looking forward to the event because I feel like I will take a lot from it during as well as after, in retrospect. I'm hoping to take a lot away from the event with a more solidified feminist perspective on expecting mothers and hopefully this knowledge will benefit me personally as well.

Okazawa-Rey, Margo, and Gwyn Kirk . Women's Lives - Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 211. Print.

Service Learning Activism Log #3

1. VOX has decided to converge another movie night that was supposed to be held in November with ours. Having two movie nights in one month seemed excessive to Anjella. I found myself relieved that this was happening because I was beginning to stress about the dilemma of being able to rent a room/be provided with multimedia technological devices/have a supervisor, etc. The change of plans is an ultimate success, provided that our project isn't going to be as independent as we had initially hoped (which could be considered a pitfall if you look at the glass half empty)! Next week I plan on getting more information, relaying the event information to my friends, getting the DVD, and begin to think about food/drink that will be provided!

2. I feel adamant in my belief that VOX contibutes greatly to the progressive community in the aspect that it promotes and encourages safe sex and reproductive health, which is crucial to age bracket of students that attend UCF. Aside from the numerous reasons for why women become pregnant, although the experience is considered extremely personal it is also something that is highly concentrated on a macro level (Okazawa-Rey, and Kirk 211). It is apparent that VOX firmly supports the freedom for women to make decisions regarding the health of their child and themselves.

3. On a personal level, the experience of working with VOX has given me more insight to how hard the progressive community at UCF is working to make a breakthrough of undivided attention from peers as well as the community. Also, I have become more cognizant of the the fact that my future, in terms of reproductive health, is essentially in the hands of the progressive community.

Okazawa-Rey, Margo, and Gwyn Kirk . Women's Lives - Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 211. Print.

Service Learning Activism Log #2

1. This week was a bit stagnant in terms of progress. However, Patricia and I did discuss the route of which we are going to go about things regarding renting a room on campus - so it's good that we have that under control. I also spread word about the event and told friends I would keep them updated when we got our exact date for the event. A success of mine was being informed and cordially invited to assist Patricia with her personal project tabling in fron to Publix to fundraise for Animal Safehouse and learning that the hours I spend fundraising with her can be counted as Service Learning hours. No pitfalls - hopefully there won't be any. Also, next week we plan to create a facebook group for our event.

2. Although the reading's this week were not very relevant to our service learning project, we watched the documentary The Business of Being Born. This documentary follows the lives of several women in their stages of pregnancy and portrays what women in the U.S. face in terms of the maternal and financial systems, midwives vs. hospitals. I was completely oblvious to this entire scam before I watched this documentary. I feel as though our reproductive service learning project is even more important now since it regards reproductive health. I think it would behoove us to relay the incredible statistics and information we learned from the film to the people that come to our event.

3. Since my mother gave birth to me by means of a midwive, I felt I should discuss with her about the documentary. Sure enough, she told me exactly what other women in the film discussed, "I had an incredible surge of power. I felt like I was connected with all the other women who went through this incredible and indescribable experience." Among hearing this, I decided that I definitely want to consider this approach if I ever get pregnant and I feel empowered just by being cognizant of the infant mortality rate in the United States in comparison to other medically advanced countries.

Women's Health Assignment

Waris Dirie - FGM victim and now a Somali model, actress, author, and human rights activist.

1. "An estimated 135 million girls and women have undergone genital mutilation, and two million girls a year are at risk- approximately 6,000 per day. Although it is predominantly practiced in twenty-eight North African countries, FGM is not inherent to any nation or religion ("Amnesty International USA"). The procedure of female genital mutilation is almost always done without antibiotics/anesthesia and it is common for the surgery to be done in a barbian-like form. For example, the medical instruments used consist of broken glass, tin can lids, blunt knives, scissors,  or razors ("Amnesty International USA"). There are different types of FGM procedures such as clitoridectomies, excisions, or infibulations. The  two major concerns of this procedure is the rising number of women who are suffering the "...physical, sexual, and mental" ("Amnesty International") consequences of the surgery and women who are being genitally mutilated against their will.

2. Key concepts that we've been discussing in class like that of patriarchy and "gender stratification ("Amnesty International USA")" are extremely influential to the core concepts of why FGM is practiced.  "In FGM-practicing societies it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to marry if she has not undergone mutilation"("Amnesty International USA"). In societies where FGM is practiced, women find themselves succumbing to the discrimination because they have such little opportunities - they can't go to school or get jobs, which makes them extremely reliable on the men ("Amnesty International USA"). Because of this gender stratification and patriarchal structure of a society, women are forced to be considered "useful" for only two reasons: to bear children, and give men sexual satisfaction with no reciprocation ("Amnesty International USA").

3. I envision my Utopian egalitarian society to celebrate the rites of passage to womanhood with something comparable to a Bar-Mitzvah, a celebration. Women don't need to be degraded in such a violent form, especially when infection and disease comes into play. I think the ultimate goal to obtaining equal rights in this case (as in many others), would start with awareness. I honestly think a lot of women either A.) Think that we have equal rights, or B.) They are too scared to face the reality of the horrors that are taking place. And that's where feminists come into play, if we raise awareness we can make baby steps to creating a "prowoman" environment on a macro-level.

4. It is important to be informed and aware of the cultural aspect of FGM. Since FGM is a deepy rooted custom, you cannot stop it. Instead, a healthier and more positive way of promoting rites of passage to womanhood would be more effective in the longrun and essentially what this would do is give women back their rights ("Amnesty International").


Works Cited
"Women's Human Rights - Female Genital Mutilation." AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA. Amnesty International USA, 2010. Web. 14 Oct 2010. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/female-genital-mutilation--fgm/page.do?id=1108439>.