blog 10

The story “A Horrific Crime: ‘Til Death Do Us Part from the Oprah Winfrey Show just shocked me to no end.   I just can’t believe that it is a true story.  I have thought so much about it and the fact that it probably happens more than I even imagine.  I was so upset to read that the judge lifted the restraining order at the suggestion of the husband, especially since the wife did not want that.  I wonder what made the judge do that.  I if remember, it stated that it was a clerical error? What was the fact that the judge ordered for it to be removed? That confused me.  After carrying this story with me and sharing with some friends and family it reminded my friend that of abuse she went through.  I had never heard her story until now.   She was married previously to an American man that brought her here from another country.  She came here in hopes of a better life.  Not only was it hard being away from family and everything else she ever knew she also had to deal with physical abuse.  Her husband did so many terrible things to here.  There were several things but one that makes me sick is that he broke both of her arms.  She tried to get help from his family and they just did not believe her.  His family started to resent her and treated her bad too.  I just can’t image why someone would do that to another human, even animal for that matter.  I am so sadden by violence especially domestic violence.  My friend was lucky enough to get out of the marriage alive.  She is a happy girl now and has so much going for her.  I hope that all women will have the courage to get out.  The story on the Oprah Winfrey show is such a sad one.  A woman tries to do the right thing and is nearly killed anyway, all because of a clerical issue.  I think that it sends a scary message to women that are too afraid to leave just for that reason.  According to my friend leaving is that scariest thing.

blog 9

The Girls Gone Wild franchise, started by Joseph Francis but the production company Mantra Films, Inc., is a video series that films basically some form of pornography.  I was pretty intrigued by the Girls Gone Wild articles.  I was not that familiar with the organization until I read the articles and did some searching on my own.  It seems that the camera crew for GGW goes around looking for young drunk women to film.  Usually the women are attractive and are willing to expose themselves for the cameras.  These women will do anything from exposing their nude bodies to engaging in actual intercourse with each other.  The thing that really got to me was when I read that Joe Francis, the owner, had gotten himself into some trouble because he failed to check the id’s of some women or should I say young girls, and these girls ended up being underage.  These young girls knew what they were doing and it is no one else’s fault but their own.  That is the problem in today’s society, no one want to take responsibility for their own actions.  We all want to blame the next person.  Joe hires young attractive young men to run the camera so that it will be a bit easier to entice the young inebriated young women.  The company likes to film amateurs not porn stars.  One of my favorite articles was, 16 Arrested in “Girls Gone Wild” Sting.  In a town called Yulee, Florida it came to the attention to police officers that GGW was going to be at a local night club.  The local police department set up an undercover operation and busted women inside the club exposing themselves to the GGW camera crews.  These women were being encouraged to have their breasts spray painted while the bar patrons looked on.  Amongst some of the others arrested in relation to this were the club owner, two others at the bar and then a few random patrons for disorderly conduct.  Glad that this time it was all involved getting in some trouble.

Blog 8

I enjoy writing these blogs.  I have found that in each of the weekly readings, I am able somehow to relate to my own life.  I enjoyed the audio on Womenomics.  I had a baby 9 months ago, so this really hit home for me.  I work amazing hours, Monday – Wednesday 8-5 and Thursdays 7-1.  I get to spend a lot of time with my daughter and that is great.  During my pregnancy I was torn as to whether I was going to work less or just go back to my 3 ½ days (which is out full time schedule).  I never saw myself as a stay at home mother but I can see why a lot of women choose to do so.  Being off with my daughter for 3 ½ days is great!!  It is always hard to go back on Monday; once I am there it is fine.  I work in a dental office and between the flu and the economy; we have slowed down a little bit.  After listening to Womenomics I went straight to my co-worker and talked to her a bit about the audio.  Due to the down time we have had we both agree that there is a lot of down time?  We have a system and are pretty efficient when it comes to getting our work done.  Not sure if our boss would ever go for such a thing but we worked up a preliminary proposal for each of us to have less time at the office and do more of the work from our home.  We would have to alternate but as long as we each could get the program on our home computers, it would only be necessary for one of us to be at the office at a time.  We realize too that this is a very preliminary proposition.  Almost wishful thinking, but the audio really inspired my to figure out a way that I could be home with my daughter even more yet be just as if not more productive for my employer.

blog 7

I really liked this weeks reading about marriage.  I was personally intrigued by Emma Goldman’s article, Marriage and Love.  I come from a family with a very different cultural background.  I felt like I could relate to a lot of the things that Emma was saying in her article (even though it was written in 1910.)  My mother grew up a bit in this manner.  She was very young when she married and then shortly after had me and moved to this country.  Her culture was/is basically as Goldman explains it.  She went from her father to her husband.  From what I can remember growing up my mother always did exactly as my father asked.  She cooked and cleaned for him even after working all day herself.  My father never really lifted a finger around the house.  Looking back and now being married and having a house and family and a full time job, I realize she worked so hard with very little reward.  She must have been tired, but I don’t ever remember her complaining.   I think she knew what was expected of her, that is how she was raised and these are the things that her mother taught her.  She knew that the lifestyle was what my father expected.  Even now she does all the same things.  She still does not complain.  My mother did loose her identity if not to my father then to her children.  I see a lot of myself in my mother.  I am lucky and have a husband who helps out so much.  I don’t mind though, doing the house work.  I really enjoy cooking for him and taking care of him.  I think that marriage is quite a bit different now a day and so are we as men and women.  It shouldn’t be a battle of who does or doesn’t do something, or if a woman marries she has to loose herself to the marriage or any of the other ridiculous things Emma Goldman suggests.  She paints such a terrible picture.

blog 6

I was going to write about Anna Quindlen’s article, “How Much Jail Time?”  I received a good reply to my chapter summary post and wanted to post it on my blog.  After watching the video and listening to all the responses I was surprised that these people who wanted abortion to be illegal could not come up with a punishment.  They stand with their signs and they preach but when confronted with a logical question of, “If abortion becomes illegal, what should the punishment be?”  No one could answer with anything but the typical I am not sure, prayer; the punishment should be between the woman and GOD, etc….  I guess I was looking at it from a stand point of why should one illegal act, be treated differently from any other.  Should the person that just ran over that girl on Lahymeyer Road and then fled, should that persons’ punishment be between that person and GOD?  This person felt that fleeing the scene was what was best for him/herself.  Should the drug dealer that sold cocaine to the high school kid that just shot himself, should his punishment be between him and GOD?  I am sure that drug dealer felt he was doing what was best for himself, selling drugs is what is paying his bills right now.  Should those young teenage boys that set another boy on fire, should their punishment be between them and GOD?  They felt that setting him on fire was what was best for themselves so that they wouldn’t get caught for a different illegal act they committed.  I am not judging anyone by posing these questions; I have no right to pass judgment on anyone.  We can pray and educate these people BUT IF abortion becomes ILLEGAL, there has to be punishment.  I am not saying it is right or wrong.  If we didn’t have punishment for ILLEGAL acts this country would be an even bigger mess.

Blog 5

I am writing about my friend Lisa who has always wanted to become a model.  Lisa is approximately 5 feet 9 inches and very slender.  She has beautiful tan skin and looks amazing with no make up and she has to do very little to her hair.  Several years ago, maybe seven to eight years to be exact,  Lisa decided that she wanted to get into modeling.  She knows that it was probably a bit late but she just really thought she had what they were looking for.  She took all the necessary steps to start promoting herself. She had an amazing portfolio of pictures.  She did land a few local things but was lucky enough to be noticed by a bigger agency.  I remember her getting ready to fly to Florida where this particular event was taking place.  She knew that she was in a tough competition.  Lisa came home a few days letter in a major state of depression.  No one could get a hold of her for days, she would not return phone calls.  Come to find out this wonderful model search we can call it told Lisa that she was too big to be a model.  Big as in FAT, as I stated earlier Lisa is 5’9 and probably 110.  It was so upsetting because from that day Lisa spiraled out of control as far as her weight.  She started loosing a lot of weight.  This all ends on a good note though, one day Lisa just came to her senses and realized that she was happier before she ever decided to get into modeling.  She started to come around again and live a healthy fun lifestyle.  From that day forward I totally looked at those things completely different.  I am sure those young girls are put under so much pressure to look a certain way, to be under a certain weight cause if they are not, the next girl will be.  This is why I really love all the DOVE commercial and advertisements.  They use real women of all shapes and sizes as the models for their brand.  We should all really try to support DOVE and switch to their products.  We need to teach our young girls that there is nothing wrong with them if they don’t look like Hollywood.

blog 4

I was reading bugsbunny’s blog and was very frustrated to hear that her friend had almost been a victim of a date rape drug incident. I am so glad to hear she had friends with her.  For those of you who didn’t read it you should.  I wanted to talk about something similar but a little more in our (women’s) control.  I was watching one of the news shows like dateline or something like that and they did a story on a guy that basically has his way with women once they get really drunk.  He does not do anything to them as far as drugging them or even getting them drunk.  You see these women would get so drunk at the bar that they were literally stumbling and falling all over the place.  He would just sit and watch from afar.  Once he spotted a women he would go sit with her and since she was so drunk she would not know any different. They had video surveillance of this guy just carrying a woman out of this high end club somewhere in L.A. I think.  There was even one incident where he not only carried a woman out of the club but he had to drag her down a flight of stairs and through a large crowd to get out and no one seemed to think much of it.  As I was watching I realized that I may not say anything either.  He made it look so easy.  He made it look as though he were the boy friend carrying his very drunk girlfriend or wife out of the bar.  This all became a big deal when one of those women ended up dead.  I guess this is how all the video tapes came out.  It was just really scary to watch.  He made it look so easy.  We have all gone out with our friends and had one too many drinks but to be out there alone like that is another story.  I wanted to share this with everyone so that maybe we would all think twice the next time we go out.

blog #3

Something just did not sit right with me.  I knew from the moment they walked in the door I was stereotyping these young women and I started to feel guilty for it.  I found myself thinking, “this is terrible, I am trying to not be so judgmental and here I go again.”  Not 10 minutes later two of the other gals in the office were taking the trash out when they were approached by yet another business owner in this complex who was inquiring about those same two young women.  Come to find out those two young women, just stole someone’s purse.  The ploy was to ask for a business card in hopes that who ever was at the entrance would have to step away from the area and they could take something.  In this last building they got lucky.  The poor gal at that office was not being judgmental or stereotyping, she honestly thought these two young women wanted a business card as did my co- worker, Sally.  In this case though, there was no one else in the office with this other gal and she had to step away from her desk in order to get this business card and as soon as she was out of their site, they snagged the purse and out the door into a car that drove off.  I was very upset at this whole incident.  One of the first thoughts that came to mind was this class and the chart I remembered seeing in our book.  I was trying to recall where these two young women rated on this chart.  Unfortunately they fell in the “Oppression/Resistance” section.

The next day, we were informed that these two young women stole an additional purse at a nearby business.  We are also informed that the two young ladies were arrested at the local Wal-mart trying to use the credit cards they had stolen.  They had just filled the van they were driving up with gas and now were on a little shopping spree.

I find it so difficult to just ignore such a thing.  Here I am taking a class that is teaches about the rise of women, we should be proud we are women, and here are two young ladies that bring women in our society down.

Blog 2

I didn’t really have any idea what I was going to blog about up until about 4:30pm this afternoon.  I was at work, close to finishing up for the day.  The desk where I sit has a mirror hanging on the wall about 4 feet in front of me.  This mirror is positioned so that when someone walks into our office I can see them, since my back is to the door.  I have a co-worker, we’ll call her Sally for the sake of her privacy, that sits to my left and she is the main greeter in the office.  I noticed two young women enter the office building.  My initial thought was, who are these girls and what are they selling.  I knew immediately they were not patients at our office.  I was in the middle of checking out a patient and so I did not hear the short conversation between the two young women and Sally.  Approximately 15 minutes went by and I saw the same to young women entering another building in our office complex.  That reminded me that I wanted to know what they were doing in our office.  I asked Sally and she proceeded to tell me that they were just asking for a business card.  I thought that was quite strange, I asked Sallie, why they wanted a business card.  She was unsure and didn’t think much of it.   She said “maybe they were looking for a new doctor?”  When I told her that I just saw them enter another building her response was, “oh, maybe they are gathering cards to do a mass mailer of some sort.”  I found it interesting that Sally was so willing to just give out our business card, no questions asked.  Had I been the one to greet them I would have asked the girls the same questions I asked Sally.  Here we go again with my stereotyping.  Why was I having such an issue with these two young women, I mean all they wanted was a business card, right?  So many things were running through my mind, what fraudulent activity could these young women do with this business card of ours?  Sally did not think anything of the interaction she had with the two girls.  (As I was sitting there at my desk thinking of several reasons why I was judging these two women, the chapter 2: Systems of Privilege and Inequality in Women’s Lives, came to mind, which is how this story relates to our class) 

 

TO BE CONTINUED….Tune in next week to find out what happens

Blog 1

Hello everyone, Yayyy!!! I am now considered a blogger!!