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.