my weblog not posty?!

ok apparently my last two weblogs from yesterday didnt post yesterday so im postin them now. they are above

Little Miss Sunshine Weblog

The people in the movie seemed to be somewhat off. The officer was the most shocking one person because he paid more attention to the dirty pornographic magazine and not the big lumpy dead body in the back especially. The gay suicidal uncle, the crazed disturbed teenager, the stressed out mom, the drug-infested grandpa, and the failed motivational speaker/father figure were all disturbing characters. The only one who seemed to keep her head up throughout the movie was Olive who seemed to be blind to all the troubles and just focused and determined on her dream moreso than anything else. So instead of known famous celebrity faces taking over the screen, the writer put the focus on the pudgy little girl.

Little Miss Sunshine shows the differences between generations of a family and how they bond despite their odd differences and personalities. One of the qualities of this family that stuck out to me was how they had the ability to find a way to overcome their obstacles no matter what and how each of the family members contributed to helping them make it to the pageant. I do not want to get into detail about the movie however due to the fact that I have to write a paper on this later anyway that will of course be more detailed.

Women In Science

Gender stereotyping starts at an early age due to what society portrays. Little boys are pushed to want certain jobs like to be a firefighter, engineer, or doctor. They are usually seen as mastering mathematics and sciences, but that’s not completely true. Not all men can master in those subjects. On the other hand little girls are pushed to be in other fields such as nurses, teachers, or secretaries although they are perfectly capable of completing tasks in other job fields.

Despite so many years of struggling to break the glass ceiling and get into the men’s job marketplace in an attempt to close the gender gap, there is still a huge gap. During the hiring process there are always more men in line to be hired than women. Then as jobs become available men are still first in line to receive them supposedly due to seniority. One of the toughest fields for women to try to get into is still science and engineering although they have come a long way. As of 1995, women in technology, sciences, and engineering accounted only for approximately 10% of top professorship jobs. Why are women still given a tough time with trying to be in the scientific field from childhood all the way up until adulthood? This discrimination affects women’s choices and decisions to try to get certain jobs or study in certain fields and even today this discrimination still remains.

Continuance On Women In Civil Rights Movement

This semester I have been learning about how different social movements are connected and something interesting that I found out was that Coretta Scott King tried to link the struggle of civil rights with that of Lesbian Gay Bi Transexual Equality. She was extremely against homophobia or the fear of homosexuals. She believed that it was very much like racism because it was hatred for a certain type of people. King believed that it “seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood” and there was nothing right about that. She followed her husband words that stuck strong to America that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” That to me is a good quote to live by. She believed we should fight for equality for all people and I myself believe everyone should be equal and have fair rights that is why I thought that that was so intriguing. I began to read about it at the Civil Rights Museum in Atlanta, GA, but read more about it online on yahoo. If you’d like to know more about that then you should too.

Male v. Female Ratio at Mercer

Lately I have been noticing that there are not many women represented in the liberal arts department. Why is that? Professor Kantor in the Sociology Department pointed out that on our music building there are all men statue heads on the top of the building and just a few years ago they finally put one woman up there. Is that supposed to be a cover up or our little token to say that we don’t discriminate against women that we do kind of support them? Or to say ok ladies you have one woman up there so stop complaining? It is not only in the music department, but also in the art department. Maybe I am looking into it too much though, but there are all men professors and only one female professor in the Art department. Is it just that women do not want to be art teachers or do not try to be or that they were discriminated against or simply that there are not any women as qualified as the men in the art department who work here?

 I have been reading about how the traditional jobs for women have always been nurses, secretaries, housewives, etc. I thought about how it is interesting that to this day I have never seen a male secretary especially not here at Mercer. In the Registrar’s office and many of the offices in the departments here there are all women, no men. Why is that? Is it just that some jobs just fit females better and some jobs fit males better or is it that men have no interest in being secretaries? I just wonder what it is.

Concerned About Society…

This is a letter I wrote to the Office of Violence Against Women in response to some of the activities that have been going on around Macon and the flyers we have received on sexual harassment here at Mercer University this year. The more I attempt to help women the more I begin to feel like I MIGHT just be a feminist.

 

Dear Mary Beth Buchanan:

My name is Ashley Redden. I attend Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. I, as well as two other group members Latoya Hutchinson and Nicole Leonard, are a part of a small social movement organization Women Above the Law in a class called Social Movements. In this class, we read about and discuss different social movements and the issues that lie within them. Through reading about all of these movements, we became interested in some of the problems and issues women have that we did not know women still have today. We read about groups such as NOW or the National Organization for Women which aims to bring women into full participation in society just as men are, and INCITE which is an organization of colored women against violence. Despite the many issues women are involved in, we decided to focus on raising awareness on domestic violence and sexual harassment specifically. We also decided to aim to ensure equality of all women and promote a steady push for respect for women of all ages.

As Women Above the Law, we feel that society is still unaware of the many difficulties women face daily. We also feel that there is not enough being done to solve the problems either. As a member of Women Above the Law, our group would like to help spread the word about sexual harassment and domestic violence. Women Above the Law interviewed professors, activists, and others about those issues and the Women’s Movement in general. In our first attempt to raise awareness, we interviewed one of the professors who was the former District Attorney of Macon, who gave useful information on his attitudes toward domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment. We also held a fundraiser during Breast Cancer Awareness month to raise money to donate to women’s groups in Georgia. Lastly, we, Women Above the Law, believe that the best way to handle such a big issue is to address the issue with someone who knows about sexual harassment and domestic violence and to see what can be done. What can we do? What is being done to alert the public and fix these problems? We would greatly appreciate it if you would enlighten us on what we can do, and possibly how we can get stricter laws enforced against these issues. Thank you for your time. We hope to hear back from you soon.

Mercer Univ. Women’s Movement Activist

         This week I conducted an interview with Joanna Watson, a founder of the Crisis Line in Macon, GA and a Mercer University professor. She was dressed rather professionally. She looked like a businesswoman. Professor Watson has been an active member of the women’s movement for years. She informed me that she in not as active today as she used to be, but that she still plays a behind-the-scenes part. Professor Watson used to give job-training lessons, conduct dress for success classes, and teach employment skills. Their 1^st goal was to “awaken women’s possibilities for doing non-traditional jobs such as teaching and nursing.” For example, Prof. Watson said they brought in women who were fire women and pilots to also talk to the women and encourage them. She also used to give lectures and hold lots of workshops in the late 1980s and 1990s. She taught classes on how to get into the men’s job marketplace. Apparently she was successful and now many women are getting some of the same high paying jobs as men.

Professor Joanna Watson also told me that she and others founded the Crisis Line in Macon, Georgia in the 1970s. Interestingly enough she told me that she taught a class called Women in Society in the mid-1970s and that during this class they began to talk about rape and how women who were rapped needed help and support so they established the rape crisis line. It originally started as a support group with volunteers then morphed into the Crisis Line, an agency funded by the United Way. Their goal was to form a network of support for women with problems such as rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence victims.

When asked if she is still involved with any very influential representatives of the women’s movement, she mentioned many names. Professor Watson specifically mentioned Lee Laughter who is a leader of the Middle Georgia Girl Scouts. She told me that she would be a good resource because she helped Professor Watson and some other students put together a Women’s Resource Manual in her Women and Gender Studies’ class. The resource manual provides women with any type of help they need in anything. It also provides them with names and numbers of people to contact with any problems or to find jobs and just anything. It is a very useful tool.

          Today, Professor Watson still believes that although women have a lot more rights and are entitled to a lot more opportunities than they were in the past, the women’s movement and the struggle for equality is not over. She said, “When someone says the women’s movement is over, I have to sit them down and explain to them why it’s not.” She says she feels it is her duty to persuade them that women still have problems that’s why there is sexism and racism. That is why she says she is a “doer of activities.” She is still a very active member in the Career Women’s Network. She’s on the founding board, which now hosts 120 members and involves women in business. She is always trying to support women. Watson still receives phone calls for women trying to come back to school such as working mothers or just regular working-women. Professor Watson helps them find jobs. She also teaches a class at Mercer University called Women and Religion, which is a class that discusses how women are struggling in church. She feels like she is helping younger adults through coursework. Through looking at Professor Watson’s face, she seems to be really excited about her job, but disappointed in herself for not being as active as she used to be because she does not have as much time. She has accomplished a lot in helping women. My interview with her was both informative and motivational.

So About Transamerica…

Weird movie. It disturbed me from the beginning with the woman making noises to herself. Anyway the boy Toby without his mother or father like most troubled and confused teenagers today, he turned to drugs and the streets. The movie to me was more about judgement and the journey of finding yourself and who you are. In the movie, Toby and his father/mother find their true identities. Toby needed someone to rely on and go to and moral help and support. His father needed the same, but he didn’t know that. If his psychiatrist had not have told him to go call his son I do not think he would have ended up being happy or complete knowing he had a son who was not in his life. Believe it or not I think he actually needed him. All and all I think the movie was somewhat about judgement as well, about not judging a book by its cover and about acceptance. Although Toby’s father was dressed as a man and considered to have a mental disorder (being a woman in a man’s body supposedly), he turned out to be a pretty cool person and a person that could support his son as well as be supported. However, through his actions letting his son kiss him and not stop him, leaving his family, and pushing everyone away, as well as many other things, he needed a lot of help for himself.

Civil Rights Movement, Women, MLK Jr.

            Whenever people think of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. is the first name that comes to mind. But did you know that women influenced Martin? I learned that many women were in Martin Luther King Jr.’s life from early childhood until his death and even beyond his death influencing him and other men and women. One noted person that is barely ever mentioned in anything is Jennie Celeste Park Williams which was Martin’s maternal grandmother. She was known as “mama” to him, and when she died he became upset with himself because he was out at a parade that he wasn’t supposed to be at instead of at home that day. He cried for days over her, but years later he wrote about how her death influenced him to become very religious.

            Alberta Williams King, Martin’s mother, was once a teacher, but because of laws women had to stop working when they got married. So she gave up her job, but she still played important roles at the church where Micheal King, Martin’s father, and Martin Jr. preached such as choir director and pianist. Alberta also taught her kids to respect themselves as well as others and supported them in their activities they took part in. She was a strong woman and proved to stay strong even after Martin’s death.

            Martin’s attempt to reach out and speak to people started in the church where his mom taught him and brought him up and through his grandmother Jennie’s death that he developed a real love for religion. His lectures and speeches started at the church he had always grown up in where his family was brought up and his grandmother and grandfather once owned before their death, Ebenezer Church.

            Coretta Scott King later became Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife. She helped support him and push him to become a great leader in the Civil Rights Movement and the Poor People’s Movement. Coretta King marched with him. She even gave speeches for him when he could not make it or had prior engagements. In one of Martin’s speeches that he wrote, he tributed to his wife and her words of encouragement and help when he needed it. He also talked about how she stood beside him all the way. When Martin was killed, instead of Coretta King stepping out of the limeline and mellowing down, she stepped up and took his place in the fight just as she always had. She stepped up as a civil rights leader leading a march in Memphis, and later in Washington on his behalf. She accepted many awards he had been granted before his death and preached at places he had already made arrangements to preach at all over the world such as in India and Italy. She also became the first woman to preach at St. Paul’s Cathedral in front of the Pope. She founded the King Center in Atlanta, which I visited and helped Martin Luther King Day become possible through the law. She also remained active in organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women.  She shared Martin’s dream of all people equal under the law. She spoke out against all injustices for the rest of her life hoping for equality until the day of her death in 2005. Martin’s dream never died, it lived on through her. Through her he had immortality which Martin Luther King Jr. was a firm believer in because of his grandmother.

            While at the King Center in Atlanta, GA, I also learned that many important people including men can sustain from violence and still fight for their rights and win justice and equality (of course a fact that I already knew but I learned more about it there). However, Men are usually and traditionally seen as a violent group, but men can be nonviolent also. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. proved that and showed that through nonviolent resistance all their lives. So men necessarily being associated with violence is a stereotype like many stereotypes and thoughts ingrained into our society by the media.

Music – Strong Women

Did you know that nowadays women in hip-hop and rap have been seen as hard core? Is it possibly because they have street smarts and are not afraid to speak their minds? Most people probably think that men rappers are only seen with power and as hard core and masculine, but it’s not true. Women who are rappers or hip-hop singers tend to have power also and are aware of the differences between men and women but don’t let it stop them from doing what they do best which is make music.  They also represent symbols for women.  Some of them demand ultimate respect  and express their dominance and not submissiveness to others.  Most of these ideas are associated with black women.

Of course these women are seen negatively too by critics and other people who observe them as well as themselves. Some women rappers tend to refer to themselves as bitches (a derogatory term used to refer to women). Why? One reason is because they are aware of what they are possibly seen as by others. Lil Kim, for instance, refers to herself as a bitch because she grew up on the streets and that is what men and others have referred to her as. She says in one of her most famous songs “I’m a bitch!” She even calls herself the sexy “Queen Bitch”. She uses the word bitch to represent her empowerment and her sexual femininity. Whereas most people reject the term bitch as a name for a woman, Lil Kim, like many other female rappers accept and welcome the term bitch. Lil Kim is fiesty and bold. She is also rebellious. She rejects the negative implications of the words and thinks of them as positive and therefore embraces them. Lil Kim like some other rappers such as Foxy Brown, Rah Digga, and Lauren Hill, teach their audience that men are not always dominant and women should not always be submissive. Through their music they also teach their audience to respect them and that power is in the hands of those who believe it whether male or female.