The Business of Being Born

I think that I am pretty highly susceptible to movies like this because right after I saw this documentary I was pretty convinced that if I ever had children, I was definitely going to want a home birth with a midwife instead of going to the hospital. I told my friends this and they were not as convinced. They were still pretty sure that if they ever had children they would go to a hospital. Which is fine, to each their own, but their largest reason was "what if something happens?"

And I think that the point of the documentary is that like 98% of the time, for those who choose midwives and are healthy, nothing will happen (that is not a real statistic, there is a real statistic in the movie that I can't remember, so don't quote me on that). Okay just got a stat  from the American Pregnancy Association: 60-80% of pregnancies are low risk and in these pregnancies there is no advantage to going to a hospital over having a midwife. We have come to an age where women have been convinced that something bad will happen to them during birth; so they go to hospitals, listen to doctors, and are partially removed from making their own choices regarding their own birth. 

It's interesting. When the documentary began and it started by telling the audience that hospitals are all a business to make money, I was pretty skeptical (partially due to the fact that for a period of my life I wanted to be a doctor and I currently have like 4 or 5 friends who are going to med school). But it all makes sense. Ambulance rides are expensive, the ER is expensive, everything is expensive. Granted this high expense is partially due to the high risks and expense of being a doctor (who have to have like the highest malpractice insurance fees), but it partially seems ridiculous. 

Back to birthing babies though. When women go to hospitals they have their autonomy removed regarding their body when it really isn't necessary and that bugs me. I guess that is largely the message I got pertaining to the documentary. Ugh, maybe I just won't ever have kids.

Our Bodies, Our Crimes

Once during eighth grade I was hanging out with two of my friends and the topic of abortion came about. I remember saying quite frankly that if I ever became pregnant as a teenager, I wouldn't hesitate to seek an abortion. The two friends I was hanging out with seemed shocked and their responses surprised me as much as my statement surprised them. They talked a little bit about God and church and fetuses being babies, but I held my stance.

Suffice to say, I have never quite understood why abortion has always caused such a fuss. But then again, I have gone so far to say that I am not just pro-choice, I am pro-abortion. And after reading Our Bodies, Our  Crimes I stick by that statement more than ever. The auther, Jeanne Flavin, talks about how by labeling the argument for the right to abortion as pro-choice we assume so many things. We assume that women are in a financial situation where they can abort, we assume that the barriers to abortion do not exist for every woman. I personally have never liked the phrasing "pro-choice" because it seems to imply that there is an agreement with the "pro-life" side that abortion is still a taboo topic and a last choice option. I like pro-abortion because I believe that every woman should have the right to have an abortion with no obstacles like money or invasive ultrasounds or fetal heartbeats standing in their way. I also want to make it clear right now that I also support women who do not choose to have an abortion as well. 

I also like how Jeanne Flavin discussed how the argument for abortion often makes women seem powerless as well. Currently, a lot of talk about abortion is that there should be exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. Right now, I am all for these arguments if they prevent states from enacting laws that could outright ban abortion using very specific concepts, but overall the argument is flawed. As Flavin points out, women are seen as powerless victims or sexual harlots. There is no in between. By framing the case for abortion in terms of just taking action for victims, it draws back to the idea that women are powerless. And I think creating that implication is what stunts the argument. We can't argue for something that should be empowering for women while at the same time framing it in terms that cause women to be victims.

Another conversation I had with a different friend, this time during my senior year of college:

Me: I would totally carry on an illicit Republican affair with Paul Ryan.

Friend: But what if you got pregnant? You're baby would be half Republican.

Me: Are you kidding? I'd abort that shit.

Friend: I am going to make you a shirt that says that. "I'd abort that."

I don't suppose I am ever terribly politically correct. But I like the shift in the tone of my conversations. I can't imagine speaking to my friends during high school and them having the same reaction. I am actually that kind of joke would have gotten me ostracized from certain social circles, well that joke and my casual attitude towards abortion. But abortion will never be a basic right for all women until we can talk about it casually: remove the stigma and its taboo status. 

And I don't think the US currently recognizes that by increasing access to abortions we have less teen mothers, fewer mothers that are forced to raise children in impoverished conditions, we stop condemning female sexuality. Flavin discusses neonaticide and a significant contributer to neonaticide: a climate of moral conservatism. If women, particularly teenagers, did not feel so condemned by society for having sex, perhaps they would see out contraceptives, perhaps they would tell their parents that they were pregnant, perhaps they wouldn't deny their pregnancies. But we don't live in that society. We live in a society where abstinence only sex education is promoted (and I know first hand what abstinence only education was like), I mean, condoms weren't really talked about in my high school. I didn't even receive a proper education on how to use a condom until college (and there are a lot of ways to break a condom that I am sure that some of my classmates in high school would have liked to know how to avoid and save themselves some stress). 

A third conversation with a different friend from college, a friend who labels herself as "pro-life":

Her: Every time I have sex I am afraid that I got pregnant until my period comes. And I swear it is always late after I have sex.

Me: I don't have those worries. If I get pregnant I am just going to take a trip to Planned Parenthood.

Her: I know that and I respect your choice to do that. 

What she doesn't realize is that her last statement makes her basically pro-choice. Although she herself would not get an abortion, she respects my hypothetical decision to get one. And the conversation on abortion ended with that. She did not try to change my opinion, she just respected that. And that makes her pro-choice.

Abortion is a topic that I always will get in fights about. It just makes me angry. It makes me angry that Roe v. Wade was passed 40 years ago and state lawmakers are still trying to find ways to ban abortion. It makes me angry that it is 2013 and we are still fighting for basic women's rights. I don't really know that I will ever not be angry. At least not until I have the same access to abortion as a cis-gender man does to his Viagra.

Jason Collins, Masculinity, and Sports

I always liked playing softball. I played every summer recreationally from when I was a kid living in Arizona through high school. When I played in my high school summers, it was probably the only place where it was normal not to wear makeup or jewelry. Makeup will just sweat off and jewelry (like earrings) could be caught or ripped off. Playing softball was probably the only time that I fit in because I don't wear makeup or jewelry.

I lead off with softball because we talked in class about gender in sports. Specifically the masculinity that partaking in sport imbues on its players. Sports is one of the few areas that I can think of where men can interact closely without the "gay" label placed upon them because of the perceived inherent masculinity of sports. This masculinity applies to not only men but women as well. And that's the reason why it isn't a big deal when women come out in sports.

When women come out in sports, it isn't unexpected. On the other hand, Jason Collins's coming out story will probably be the biggest sports news of the year. Of course, a part of this is due to the importance that the United States places on the Big 4 male sports (baseball, football, hockey, and basketball) because many others in different sports have come out over the years (here is even a top 10 list of those who came out last year) some during their tenures as professional athletes and a lot from after their retirements. But also, because being gay somehow clashes with the ideal of masculinity that is inherent in sports. This article gives a good breakdown of these ideals. This isn't to demean Collins's coming out or make it any less of a big deal, because it is a big deal. And I think that whenever a famous person comes out it will continue to be a big deal for a long time.

The inherent idea that to play sports you have to be hegemonically masculine is problematic. It prevents both men and women in sports from coming out. For men they are going to have to fight harder and play more aggressively to be seen as equally as masculine and capable as their heterosexual teammates and for women they have to fight to maintain an image of femininity.

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

This video is uplifting but at the same time incredibly tragic. It is kind of the epitome of how society shapes women to believe they aren't beautiful. It is the result of how the cosmetic industry and the entertainment industry force women to believe they aren't beautiful because they aren't "perfect." And it's all tragic.

Equal Pay Day: The Swiss Version

I wanted to do nothing more than just post this video.

Equal pay is something that doesn't exist. This graph comes from the OECD:

I am sorry that it is a little small, but it gets the point across. I want to point out that the United States is in the higher end of the gap. This isn't something that can just be explained away by "men choose higher paying jobs" or "men are more likely to work longer hours" or "men negotiate higher salaries more frequently than women." The fact is that men earn more than women in comparable jobs pretty much regardless of the field.

Furthermore, in an article we read in class, "Selling Women Short: Gender Inequality on Wall Street" by Louise Marie Roth, she discusses that women have to work harder to get into the same positions as men. And when they are in those positions they have to work even harder to ensure that their positions are still seen as equal. And that is in a supposed merit-based reward system. Women always have to be at the top of their game and men can afford to be mediocre. 

And that information does not pertain to just Wall Street. In this study published by PNAS, shows that there is a gender bias for males in the sciences. Even being given the same background, resume, and qualifications, John was favored over Jennifer. As somebody going into science, that kind of upset me.

And not only do the majority of people just accept it, there is constant blocking of bills in Congress to ensure that no law is passed to ensure that women have equal pay. That there won't be an amendment passed to ensure that pay is equal regardless of sex, race, or sexuality. And it's ridiculous. The gender wage gap pisses me off. Because propagating this gap just sends the message "You have to work twice as hard to be seen as equal." And that is just not how it should be.

Current Jamz: A Playlist

I listen to a lot of music. And there are a lot of songs written by men about women. And there are a lot of songs written by women who want a man. This playlist is about none of those.

This playlist is a Power Jamz playlist with a particular emphasis on songs by women. Expect some commentary not related to the music underneath each song.

Power Jamz: 

1. "Run the World (Girls)" by Beyoncé
Beyoncé has publicly commented that although this song is about women running the world, the reality of it is that women do not run the world. In fact they are far from it. From GQ:
"You know, equality is a myth, and for some reason, everyone accepts the fact that women don't make as much money as men do. I don't understand that. Why do we have to take a backseat?" she says in her film, which begins with her 2011 decision to sever her business relationship with her father. "I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let's face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what's sexy. And men define what's feminine. It's ridiculous."

There is no doubt that Beyonce is a powerful figure. But a great factor in her power is that she doesn't shy away from it. Her new tour may be called "The Mrs. Carter Show" but there is no doubt that she is 100% Beyonce.



5. "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" by X-Ray Spex
This video isn't the greatest quality, but if you choose a different video, you miss the beginning when frontwoman Poly Styrene "Some people say little girls should be seen and not heard," which leads pretty gloriously to "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" There isn't much more to the song lyrically, but there doesn't need to be. This song is pretty incredible for a couple reasons beyond the message, the biggest being that in 1977 Poly Styrene, a 20 year old female, fronted a punk rock band. It's pretty progressive stuff.

3. "Rebel Girl" by Bikini Kill

The next two songs come from the Riot grrrl movement. Riot grrrl is one of the only musical movements to specifically address women's issues. This song is perhaps Bikini Kill's best known song. It's pretty cool in that it is a rockin' song about a sexual relationship between two women. One of whom is implied to be like the shit.

4. "Ballad of a Ladyman" by Sleater-Kinney
This is not my favorite Sleater-Kinney song. But it works the best probably for the purposes of this playlist. This is a song worth looking at the lyrics. Particulary this half of the last stanza:
"I'd rather be a ladyman
how many times will you decide
how many lives will you define
how much control should we give up of our lives"
This is a particularly great song about how not only are standards of femininity, but if a woman dares to break these standards they are labeled as "manly" by men.

5. "You Don't Own Me" by Leslie Gore
Going from a song about not letting men define women, we move onto a song about not letting men dominate women. You don't own me is a staple feminist song (and one used extensively during the second wave of feminism in the 60s).

6. "Werkin' Girls" by Angel Haze
Sorry for the tonal shifts, but I start to call this section of the playlist "Fuck you, Macklemore." And by that, I mean we are about to feature three songs by QPOC rap artists. All female to go with the playlist. I don't really mean "Fucky you, Macklemore" but there is a lot he could be doing with his privilege. If you have stumbled upon here, I am sure that you have stumbled upon this article. It's pretty great and acknowledges that although Macklemore acknowledges a problem that is pretty rampant in the hip-hop community, he does nothing to address the fact that there are plenty QPOC artists in the hip-hop world. Particularly two rising female stars, Angel Haze and Azealia Banks, both identify as bisexual. And Angel Haze just slays in this track. Her flow, rhythm, and rhymes are top notch and it is no wonder she is carving out an impressive fanbase.

7. "212" by Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay
Where Angel Haze represents a very current take on rap, a lot of Azealia Banks's stuff could very much fit in the 90s (though this song doesn't). There is no doubt that this is her "I have arrived" song. And she arrives in a big way. She isn't playing with this song and proclaims multiple times "I'mma ruin you cunt." And continues on to describe how she is going to dominate.

8. "QueenS" by THEESatisfaction
I am pretty sure that THEESatisfaction is revolutionary for the sole fact that there are two out lesbians making hip-hop music. I like "QueenS" because it really has a funky beat to it. And even more I like the "Don't funk with my groove" message.

9. "Cherry Bomb" by the Runaways and "Damn Reputation" by Joan Jett
Joan Jett gets a combined entry. Because you can't forget these two staples. I use these as the penultimate songs in order to tie the playlist back to the beginning. There is pretty much nothing to say about why these songs make the playlist.

10. "Drive" by Melissa Ferrick
The playlist ends with a song a little from left field.  But the reason that this song is on here because the sexiest song about having sex with a woman was made by a woman. All those songs men make about loving women all night long cannot compare to Melissa Ferrick's "Drive." Because damn.

Coming Out in Glee: Kurt Hummel vs. Santana Lopez

Yup, I am doing a Glee post. I want to eventually do a whole, gay men vs. gay women in the media, but I have to watch many more shows to do that. But what I really wanted to do was show the stark contrast that the show took in their coming out stories because I feel that it is actually pretty representative of stories of gay men and lesbian women on television.

1. Kurt Hummel

Glee does a marvelous job with Kurt coming out to his father. It is incredibly sentimental and perhaps the best scene that has been on the show. Kurt's coming out to his father is handled gently and pretty perfectly and I think will probably stand as one of the best coming out scenes on television. This scene shows all the potential that the show had in season 1 and all the places it could have gone.

2. Santana Lopez

On the other hand, Santana Lopez is forcefully outed by Finn Hudson. A moment which left a lot of commentary by fans of "she deserved it" (which no one deserves to be forcefully outed). It is also a moment that led to the most perfect musical performance on Glee.

This really has nothing to do with her outing, but I just posted it because it is like I said the most perfect musical performance on Glee. The following episode deals with the aftermath. Now remember Kurt gets a heartwarming coming out story with his father. Santana gets a mention of "oh my parents just accepted it." The other Glee women, to show their support, sing "I Kissed a Girl." A song about kissing women in order to sexually arouse a boyfriend. Glee treats this very seriously and okay by the way. Like no mention is made of how offensive that is. Santana's big moment is with her grandmother. A character never mentioned by Santana before and thus what should have been a deeply emotional story bears little impact.

In Glee the show makes some things very clear: if you are a man your homosexuality is treated with deep importance and in fact, we will devote an entire season to it; however, if you are a woman, you get one of the shittiest episodes in Glee history and no major coming out scenes to those you have shown to value in the show.

Why I Don't Reddit

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2 Marriage Stories

I have a lot of mixed feelings regarding marriage. Probably because of all the marriage stories I have been told. I think I should tell two of them here. I want everybody to kind of get a feeling of where I am coming from in regards to my opinion on marriage.

The first story: A Kind of Love Story

Juanita "Jennie" Garcia was 33 when she got married in 1959. Even by today's standards that is "old" to get married. In the 1950s, she was nearly 13 years older than the average marrying age. From what I understand, Jennie lived a bit of a scandalous lifestyle. I won't go too much into it, but I am pretty sure that it stems from having a little bit of a scandalous family. Oh, and it can't be like 100% confirmed but I am pretty sure that Jennie was involved with Cesar Chavez's civil rights movements. But then again, that could be family legend. But back to Jennie's marriage. That is the topic of the post.

Jennie met Bill when she was 33. She had a boyfriend. She had actually been engaged more than once, and had more than one boyfriends in her lifetime. But she met Bill in the summer of 1959. He was a 21 year old freckly red-headed marine from the deep south. Jennie was a 33 year old Mexican belle of the ball from a town just north of the Mexican border. They met each other and 12 days later got married. They have been together for nearly 54 years.

Bill didn't actually know Jennie's real age until their first child was born about a year later.

Through most of their early marriage, they traveled a lot. Bill was a marine, it was kind of required. But they traveled even more than that. Beyond traveling from base to base (whether it was in North Carolina or Okinawa, Japan) with their children, or just traveling to Ireland alone together. When they settled for good, Jennie worked as an orthodontist's assistant. Bill and Jennie raised three children. They also played a part in raising a lot of Jennie's nieces and nephews as well. When their children left the house, they took care of the grandchildren. When their grandchildren grew up, Jennie took care of Bill.

Like I said, it is kind of classically romantic.

The Second Story: Kind of the Opposite of a Love Story

Kane Nunokawa was from a rural part of Japan in 1932. To give you an idea of how rural, her birthday is September 1, because she wasn't born in a hospital and her parents knew the month but had no idea of the actual date. She has lived a mostly tragic life. Her parents died in the fire bombing of Japan in WWII. Well, at least one of her parents did. Her background in general is kind of choppy. When Kane was older, she and a friend would go on the marine base to dance with the young men. It was here that Kane the only man she had ever loved. Unfortunately, he returned to Minnesota before she was ever able to be with him. Robert from Arizona was her second choice. It was a mutually beneficial. Robert gained the perfect housewife, and Kane gained a free ticket to the United States and subsequently US citizenship.

But like I said, this isn't a story of roses and love. Kane never fell in love with Robert. And Robert was never a good man. He was angry a lot and drank too much. Because of the language barrier, Kane was isolated from most of their neighbors and never quite assimilated the way that I am pretty sure that Robert would have preferred. I am actually not to sure if they ever really liked each other most of the time.

Kane and Robert had 4 children. It would have been 5, but Kane illegally aborted the first child, and nearly from it. Like Bill and Jennie, they traveled the world due to Robert's military status. When Robert retired, he got a job that required him to be gone most of the time. It was during this period that Kane attempted to run away. It didn't go well. I don't really know much about their marriage after that.

Robert died nearly 20 years ago. Too much alcohol and too many cigarettes. Kane has friends now. The other Japanese women in just north of the border Arizona.

I don't know that I have ever really seen Kane happy though. Like really happy. But she is kind of hard to read.

I’m not a real woman…I’m a shark!

From: http://wealldraw.tumblr.com/post/42848072260/real-women-have-curves-real-sharks-disguise

This cartoon made me laugh out loud. Because, as we know, everything dealing with sharks is super hilarious. I swear, just add in a shark to something unexpected and it instantly becomes a major point of hilarity.  This hasn't been statistically proven, so I think that I should probably write a grant to get that funded. Then all I would have to do is look at shark comics all day.

But the main reason I like this comic isn't for the shark, it is for the message. I am pretty sure I just phrased that in the lamest way possible, but it is true. Women are told they have to adhere to a specific image. And if they don't adhere to this image then there is something wrong with them, and more likely than not, it isn't them secretly being a shark.

This is the video that we watched in class. And what I enjoy about this movie is that it points out the severe disconnect about what women are supposed to look like according to the media and what women are actually able to look like. But most specifically, it points out how all these contrasting notions of a woman's beauty are largely created by men. Women aren't supposed to look good for themselves, they are supposed to look good for men. And if they can't achieve that naturally, well, then, they are going to have to buy it. Everything in the world comes back to money and the cosmetic industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. That is billion, with a "b" in case you misread that. And if you think that you avoid that industry think again. I mean, I know that I probably spend greater than $200 a year on haircuts alone.

But you can see the harm of this ideal body image created by the media everyday. Or at least I see it everyday. Especially as spring break approaches. Most residents in my hall are stressing about their diet and their figures because they are going to the beach. They want to do Insanity three times a week. I get wanting to be fit and healthy, but things like Insanity or P90X are just crazy to me. Also, wanting your body to be perfect for the beach is just feeding into the power of the male gaze. You aren't really doing it for yourself (and if you are, that's awesome! but trust me, my residents aren't), and you certainly aren't doing it for your friends (and if you are, your friends blow, find some new ones because I know that my friends would never pressure me to change my body), which means you have to be doing it in order to be seen as sexually attractive. Like I mentioned, there is nothing wrong with wanting to look good, but make sure you do it for you? Because if you always have to look your best for somebody to want you then what is the point? That is too much time, money, and effort spend in conforming yourself.

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games from Feminist Frequency

I am in the process of writing a blog post about body image, but for now, here is a topic that I am a little bit more excited about. I will add my own two cents in later, but for right now I just waned to share the video. You can find the rest of Anita Sarkeesian's videos here but her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games has just started.

Here is the first of the series:

The Disney Princess Culture

There is a documentary out there called Mickey Mouse Monopoly, and I am going to write about it so you don't have to watch it. It isn't that I found the movie incredibly offensive (I didn't) or that it wasn't making good points (because it was), but rather, it was filmed very poorly. If I wanted to point to one movie whose message was almost destroyed by the quality of the film making, this is the movie to which I would point. But this isn't a blog about cinematography, so I will proceed with only making one note on how the zoom function on the camera was basically abused. So keep that in mind, filmmakers of the future. Closeups are not always your friend.

But cinematic criticism aside, this documentary made some good points. While I will admit they weren't my favorite points, and would have been strengthened given a more objective point of view (you could practically smell the bias coming off this movie, and it just felt like one of the subjects had a personal vendetta against Disney). I swear that is my last criticism that I will level against the documentary as a film. Obviously, the movie concentrated on how Disney owns a lot of the media, which is true, and how that is not necessarily a good thing. Because Disney's main goal is to make a bunch of money. But I am not going to talk about that. That is a post for a different blog on a different day. I am here to specifically discuss the criticism leveled at the whole "Disney Princess" culture.

 From: http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/just-another-princess-movie/
Image by Imp Kerr

In short, the film argued about the harm and negative reinforcement of gender stereotypes that is caused by the Disney Princesses. Looking back at all my favorite Disney films (including Pixar in this too), my favorite movies have never been the "princess" movies (my childhood favorite was Toy Story but in contrast, my younger brother's childhood favorite was Cinderella). I think that the early ones are all works of art (really, they are just stunning) but the characters fall flat (universally, pretty much, not just on the women's side).  But the early Disney princess movies (think Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty) pretty much fall into the pitfalls of their time. Women in these movies are meant to be saved by men. And they pretty much rely on their beauty for that to happen. Like I said, pitfalls of the time period in which they were made in. You can't expect some kind of deviance from this because Disney isn't really out to make a statement. I will give all these movies a pass because I am pretty sure that eventually everybody learns that the times have changed.

Now things are a little different, and I think that you see that with the most recent Disney princess movies: Tangled, The Princess and the Frog, and Mulan. I will even add the 90s princesses into the mix as well (although Jasmine should be considered separately because the movie was not about her). You see a shift from characters being driven by beauty and love to being driven by motivations of their own. Rapunzel wants to escape the castle, Tiana wants to own a restaurant, Mulan wants to fight for her family, Jasmine wants to escape the palace walls, Belle wants to leave a life of monotony, etc. Even Ariel wasn't motivated by Prince Eric, she just wanted to walk on land. Do the stereotypes exist? Yes they do. But as the movies continue to be made, they exist to a much lesser degree. Which isn't something to necessarily be praised for (It's like "yay you are less sexist than you were in the past!") but it is something to be noted. I would still like to see more change being made, but it's a start. And hey, there is always Pixar (which gets really into making statements...aside from Cars). 

By all accounts though this should be expected. By creating a princess culture, Disney has basically created a giant pot of money on which it can always rely upon to exist. I think that this is more harmful than any movie. Because the princess culture is what perpetuates the importance of beauty, not the actual movies themselves. And by doing this it can sell dolls, makeup, dresses, costumes, and other various toys. Disney convinces children to buy their toys and at the same time convinces them that all they need in life are beauty and true love to get by. It's a business model that works but not a business model that is the best from a stereotype perspective. Unfortunately I don't see this changing anytime soon. As long as Disney is making loads of money, why should it change?

In the interest of words, I will leave it here, but at another time I will definitely discuss what modern animated films have defined as a woman's place in the world is under a different perspective. And not just through a business model.

The Persisting Fag Culture

Reading CJ Pascoe's Dude You're a Fag made me think a lot. In high school, I hung out with the theatre kids most of the time. They were just my crowd. And like the theatre kids in the book, I was pretty isolated from the "fag culture" that pervades a lot of high school. As I was reading the book, I was a little appalled at the behavior described and I was appalled by the behavior that teachers just allowed. But as I was reading it, I could imagine that if my high school experience wasn't so isolated from the normal high school crowd, if I didn't spend my time in the "smart" classes or if my extracurriculars consisted of more than theatre, math club, and scholar bowl, that I would have easily seen this kind of behavior. I would have been more exposed to the culture that Pascoe described.

But as I was reading, the one place that it really stood out to me is the residence hall I live in. Pascoe mentioned that females didn't carry out the fag discourse as often as males did, so it is a little surprising that where I see this behavior the most often is the all female dorm. And it is used very much in the same way. It isn't ever thrown at one resident to another, but most often it is used by the female residents when males come to visit. When a male jokingly imitates stereotypical behavior or hangs around like a love sick puppy dog, you can hear down the hallway "You're such a fag." Whenever, I am around, I attempt to stop this language (something that is very ingrained into us during our 1 week of intensive training), but it always strikes me as odd. I hear "fag" used offensively way more than I hear "gay" used offensively which really surprises me.

It goes back to what Pascoe said, it wasn't about being homosexual, it was about masculinity. Being called a "fag" reflects a loss of masculinity. As she says, you can still be gay and masculine (as one boy said, it doesn't stop you from being able to throw a football), but it is that loss of masculinity which really drives the fag discourse.

Again as much as I am surprised, at the very same time I am not. Most of these women were popular in high school. The students that they hung out with weren't the theatre kids, they were the jocks. They were the cheerleaders and they were the popular kids. In a way, they were the ones that most adhered to the stereotypical norms in regards to gender. It shouldn't surprise me that they enforce this idea of masculinity that arises from high school. I think what surprises me most is that I didn't see this around me until my senior year of college. Because there is no way that it hadn't been happening before.

Anyway, if you get a chance, I would recommend Dude You're a Fag, I might reference that book again sometime later (especially the chapter regarding female masculinity, which probably resonated with me the most), but for now this is all I have regarding it. Except, I will say, I wish that maybe she had talked a little bit more about how women partake in the fag discourse. I believe she mentioned that women were not nearly as involved in it, but at the same time, through my own observations, women are as embedded in the fag discourse as men. It would be interesting to observe how different women see and partake in the discourse. 

Wonder Woman...Or Why It Is Rough to Be a Woman Heroine

Let's start with some bare bones things first. I am a Marvel person. The majority of their media (that is comics, television, movies, etc.) just tends to resonate with me more. Possibly due to the fact that I feel that Marvel handles its social justice issues with such aplomb. I mean, I will admit that the DC does animation better (I am pretty sure that anything in the DC Animated Universe could qualify as top cartoonage) but on the whole I tend to be a Marvel girl. I say this because I want to lay all my biases out in case at any point I seem unnecessarily rough on Wonder Woman.

But there is no denying that Wonder Woman is an icon. She was really the first female superhero. She became a staple of the feminist movement. Never mind that her story nowadays does not reflect her early female empowerment vibes that she embodied (really, it sucks right now), but there is no denying that Wonder Woman changed the presence that women, especially women that took action, had in pop culture.

I start off with Wonder Woman because she is the most iconic, but what I really want to do is change it to somebody else. Or multiple somebodies. This whole blogging thing is more free form thing rather than a thought out thing, like stream of consciousness and what not.

First I want to move onto Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley, and Clarice Starling. If you don't remember what they look like, here they are:

Sorry for the crappy image embedding, I never claimed to be like excellent with formatting. Maybe that is something I can learn as this blog progresses, and in the end I can just be like "LOL REMEMBER WHEN MY PICTURES SUCKED?" But that is not the point.

Getting back to Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley, and Clarice Starling. I chose these three women because I really believe that they were some of the first of their kind in regards to portrayal of women as heroines in pop culture. Of course, Ellen Ripley came first and then Sarah Connor and Clarice Starling (well, Clarice is based off the book character, but I am not going to look that up because I think that the movie image is most resonating and familiar to most casual people). But just look at them. They aren't sexual objects and they just look like they are going to fuck shit up. It just isn't something that you see as much. But when your current default action heroine is Angelina Jolie, what the fuck do you expect? Sometime after Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hamilton the action heroine turned into this:

I mean, Milla Jovovich is fighting zombies in a dress. Angelina Jolie's outfit is all about the breasts. You get skintight and form fitting instead of the loose functionality and practicality of the previous women's outfits. Or you get the most ridiculous of all:

I mean, how is exposed cleavage functional for battle? I mean, the answer is that it isn't, exposed cleavage is only useful for drawing more heterosexual men to the movie theaters.

I think this begs the question: why are action movies geared towards men? And why do women have to suffer or be sexualized because of it? Is an explosion not as cool if Megan Fox isn't running away from it in cutoff Daisy Dukes? If you can't see every contour of Angelina Jolie's breasts and thighs as she is tomb raiding, does it make her less of a tomb raider? I mean, to mean it seems like having pants would be more ideal. Because who knows what kind of weird jungle pants you are going to run your legs through. And for the record, I am pretty sure that most male explorer/grave robbers/action heroes wear pants (even though I am sure that most women might not mind seeing action hero thighs on display). I mean, Samus Aran's Zero Suit at least has functionality (and let's not forget that the majority of the time she is wearing the power armor:

I know that originally she wore like a bikini, but I am willing to put that more on video game design technology of the day than sexism (I mean, there was probably a lot of gender stereotyping there, but again, for the reveal of Samus being a woman to be most effective she had to be obviously a woman, which brings up a lot of other issues). 

If you type in female action movies into Google, I don't think you come up with a lot. There are very few action movies driven by women, and fewer which could be considered good movies. TV I think fares a little better and video games are almost dismal. I mean, I am looking at IMDB's list of Top 50 Action Females, and it stretches to include Keira Knightly...for Pirates of the Caribbean and Anne Hathaway for Get Smart (granted she is now Catwoman so that is like tons better). That's how dismal it is. Gone is the day of Linda Hamilton, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Lynda Carter, Lucy Lawless, and Pam Grier. Even Ziyi Zhang (#never4get House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). In are the Milla Jovovich's, the Kate Beckinsale's and the Angelina Jolie's. Because for some reason directors have it in their heads that woman need to be fetishized in action movies in order to be appealing to men.

Of course this is a gross over generalization, and I openly acknowledge that. So to leave off on a good note, here is Uma Thurman with blood all over face. Because this entire post has put me in the mood to watch some Kill Bill and love on Quentin Tarantino.

The BeyonceBowl...or Women and Power

All right guys, I am sure we all watched the Beyonce Bowl this past Sunday. Football game? Psshaw, who cares about the Ravens or the 49ers? I think that we can all agree, Beyonce was the true winner of the Super Bowl. In this day and age, having a post about Beyonce less than a week after the Super Bowl is still too late to really be a part of the cultural zeitgeist, but whatever. Let's be real, Beyonce is never culturally irrelevant. 

To start with, I am an RA in an all women's residence hall. So after the Super Bowl I asked like all of my residents about how they felt about Beyonce's performance (I was still on a super Beyonce high at that point), and obviously they all loved it (which is a good thing because I love all my residents dearly and it would be heartbreaking to have to disown one for not loving Beyonce). But what was interesting was that during our conversation they were struggling to find the word "power" and instead repeatedly came  up with "masculine." They knew that "masculine" wasn't the word they were looking for, but at the same time power wasn't something that immediately came to mind.

Both Prudence Carter and C. J. Pascoe discuss masculinity in their writings. About how masculinity is associated with dominance and power. And how for males, the idea of not being masculine is almost a sign of weakness. For females it is a different case. Showing typical traits associated with masculinity don't make a female weak, and Carter even mentions that females aren't supposed to seem to "soft" (that is, feminine) either.

So why is femininity such a sign of weakness? Why is power and dominance attached to masculinity while weakness and submissiveness attached to femininity? And why is it that those sometimes less desirable traits are the traits that are traditionally forced upon the women of society?

That's what I like about Beyonce though. She is somebody who is very classically beautiful, hot, and feminine  but at the same time she exudes power and dominance. She has obvious sex appeal but at the same time, it seems that her appeal is less for pleasing men and provocation, than it is a conscious display of power over her own image.

I feel like I got a little lost with some of my last statements, but I think it mostly makes sense. Whatever, chalk it up to writing at 2:00AM. Not sure what I am going to write about next, but I am guessing it is going to be some women in pop culture. But there is a possibility that something in Pascoe's book will inspire me to do something this week. I will leave you with this:

Articles Referenced:

Carter, P. "Between a 'Soft' and a 'Hard' Place: Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in the School and at Home"
Pascoe, C.J. Dude, You're a Fag

Welcome...and RuPaul's Drag Race

I won't lie that this is blog was created for class. But whatever, blogs for classes are kind of rad. Especially on a topic like this. Gender. It's a really fascinating topic just because it permeates so much of our world. Well, anyway, enough for the semi-lame intro to my blog, maybe I should just introduce myself (but super quickly of course, because really we all just want to talk about the genius that is RuPaul's Drag Race). So let's get down to the nitty gritty. I am a 21 year old college senior majoring in biochemistry planning on going to graduate school next year to pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry. I have always been a bit of a tomboy, moreso when I was young than now (which is also interesting that because I liked to play outside and play video games that I was characterized as a "tomboy" maybe in a later post I can discuss that, because you know RPDR stuff). I blog on some other stuff too (mostly pop culture things, especially television, and sometimes politics) but that has slowed down in the past year due to studying and graduate school apps and the like. So I am actually super excited for this class assignment because I would like to get back into the blogging game. 

Now for something a little more formal. Hopefully, I can have a fun conversational part and a more formal part to every blog post/journal entry. And when I say less formal, I mean being more specific than just saying "and stuff" all the time. I am still going to sound friendly. Don't worry. I wanted to talk about RuPaul's Drag Race for my first blog because what better way to start a blog talk about gender than talk about those who subvert it.

Watch Reality TV, Video and Movies - Logo TV

In case you were unaware, or you are not bothering to watch the video (I don't blame you, since you probably don't want to spend an hour just sitting on my blog), this is the first episode of season 5 (5!) of RuPaul's Drag Race. I like the beginning of this season for a lot of reasons (I mean, if you ever get a chance to watch it, RPDR is just a flat out hilarious and entertaining show) but for the purposes of this blog, I like that you see a range of queens. You get everything from the hyper-feminine "fishy" queens to the campy funny queens to the plain weird queens (there is, however, no definitive "genderfuck" queen which is a little unfortunate, but it is still early in the season and the first challenge wasn't exactly conducive for genderfucking).   

Anyway, I started this blog with RPDR because the way that the men on the show is not only a kind of pseudo-reflection on how women act and dress but also because in our everyday lives we work to put on the same costumes. Maybe it is not as extreme as when you see RuPaul the man become RuPaul the woman but, nevertheless, we do "put on" gender. Everything from the clothes that we wear to even the way that we stand are conscious and unconscious decisions based on what we view as our gender.

But where does this concept of putting on gender come from? And where do we learn how to put on our gender? Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman in their article "Doing Gender" observe that we learn how to "do gender" through our interactions with others. For example, we learn how to be a "woman" through out social interactions, the reactions that others have based on how we decide to be a woman, influence how we continue to carry on being a woman, especially in social situations where women and men are expected to act in very different ways. Zimmerman and West continue on to describe a case study done by Dr. Harold Garfinkel conducted by observing a transgender woman called Agnes. Agnes learned how to be a woman through the actions of her fiance. And perhaps surprisingly, West and Zimmerman conclude this is similar to how everybody learns how to "do gender."

Going back to how I started this, I believe that nobody does gender as well as drag queens. The art of drag is based on doing gender and gender is their performance art. Drag isn't simply a man dressing as a woman, but rather a man performing as a woman. Or perhaps not. Just like most other sects of society, there are hard and undefinable lines, especially as drag culture grows, it is harder to say that a drag queen is a man dressing as a woman, especially when you have those queens who border on androgyny rather than sticking to straight male or straight female stereotypes.

I am going to leave you with this video here:

Article Referenced:
West, C and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. "Doing Gender." Gender and Society 1:125-151.