I found that poems can tell a lot more then what they actually say. Since poems are mostly an interpretation you can also interpret what the author is thinking when they are being written. I was raised on listening to poems as a child because my mother always would write them. she would always ask me if I liked them and I would have to say well since I now how you feel right now I can see where you are coming from in this poem. so since I understand how poems can convey different things I wonder what this author was thinking in this poem. I mean was she mad, happy or indifferent. I feel that Poems are like photography or paintings. they both convey something that may not be understood the first time. also the very cool thing about poems and other forms of art is they also reflect what you are feeling as well. if you are mad or angry you will see a poem or a picture in a totally different light then if you were to look at it in a regular state. this poem for today seems to have a sense of urgency as well as a hint of anger, but once again it is hard to say as to what the Authors mood really is although it may seem quit apparent. Poems can be about the abstract as well but this one seems to be very typical and normal (meaning that it is about real events and actions). just like pictures and paintings they can be about things that are not even real which sometimes these ones can be more powerful then ones that are about real life situations. I think of poems as almost like songs. songs are almost the exactly the same thing except for the fact that sangs have music behind them. It would be interesting to see how close a poem could be to a song if it did have music behind it. the only thing that would honestly separate it would be pace of the music, but essentially music is very poetic. this poem has a music like quality to it as well.

I Rise

Still I Rise You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. Maya Angelou As I read this poem, I am reminded of the feelings that arise within me when I think of the recognition of my own feminist mystique. I have been through much but remain strong and able to assert myself in my own brand of femininity. I do not have to be the woman the patriarchal system tells me to be. I do not have to wear makeup, be a size 4, or cook the perfect meatloaf. (This last is a good thing, as I don't eat meat.) It is not necessary for me to feel like less of a woman because I don't enjoy housework or feel obligated to make sure my boyfriend has a hot meal and a foot rub ready for him when he gets home from work. I am a woman of the third wave. I am a woman who is sure of herself. I am a woman who isn't afraid to assert herself or participate in some form of activism towards the advancement of human and women's rights. I have found new role models in women like Enloe and Arditti. I have a newfound respect and admiration for those women who have paved the way for activism before me such as Betty Friedan and Elizabeth Stanton. I am inspired to participate in local and international politics and to challenge those laws which do not advance the rights of women. I am a feminist.

A revelation?

"Now women had earned the right to treat men as selfishly as we had always treated them."
-Douglas Rushkoff "Picture Perfect"

Is this what a feminist version of society is? Are we to treat men as they have treated us? Is this the way we are to be equal?

I think the answer to all of the above questions is a simple yet profound NO! If this were the case, blacks would have been fighting for this same kind of equality. Being treated as an object is certainly not being treated equal, even if everyone is treated this way. The only equality we have here is the equality of objectification but not equality of scale. Some think that the media is started to treat men the same way they've treated women all along. As Kilbourne points out, this is not the case as objectification does not have the same consequences for men as it does for women. Men do not have to worry about "a romantic excursion with a shadowy stranger." (I used to live in Milwaukee, WI and, whenever I saw a shadowy figure following me, I darted into the nearest public establishment so as not to be mugged or raped as a few of my friends had on the very street on which I lived. I can honestly say that I never fantasized about a romance with one of these men which preyed upon women. I saw them as monsters, disgusting men that did not deserve to be out in public.)

This justification for the violence of women is disturbing to say the least. I did not realize how many advertisements actually implied, or even directly stated, that violence against women is acceptable. With all of the talk about how abuse is wrong and that no one deserved to be treated this way, it sure is prevalent. Having been through abuse myself, I feel it is my duty to help inform people of the impact even these subtle messages can have. Binding a woman to an advertisement with watches, as seen in "Killing Us Softly 3," is saying that women need to be bound and controlled and that having the watch advertised will give you that power and control over women.

http://responsiblemen.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/dolce-gabbana-ad-sexist.jpg

http://blog.shankbone.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/safe_sex_ad.jpg

These ads are extremely disturbing to me. The first is a Dolce and Gabbana ad. This company is associated with wealthier, "classier" folk than myself but I see nothing classy about this ad. The men are participating in a gang bang with one man having sex with the woman while the others watch and wait for their turn. Is this what people who can afford to wear these clothes do? I always thought gang bangs were stereotyped as something done in a poorer, more urban setting.

As a model, I do not appreciate the things ads do to women for the sake of turning a profit. I am very selective in choosing the jobs I take and am very direct about my abhorrence toward the violence against women in ads. As a result of this, I have not had any paid photo shoots. My experience in the modeling industry has not been one of encouraged faith in the media but rather an eye-opening one as to the lengths industry executives, not always male, expect you to go to in order to be a model. I am 5' 10" and weigh about 130 lbs. I have been told that I am too short and too fat to do runway work. Too fat to do regular catalog work other than plus size. I was a size 7 at the time that I was offered the plus size job. All of these unreasonable expectations are telling women that they deserve to be seen as sex objects and should be grateful to have anyone look at them at all, considering they are imperfect and ugly the way they are.

I find it very disturbing that men can do this to women (concerning Rape). I think that men buy into what it means to be a man way to much. I want to be my own person, I do not want someone or someones who have no right dictating what my life should be, decide what I should be. If I want to be a nurse or social worker I should be able to whether society says it is right or not. I think that people Liston to society way to much and forget really who we are. I think it is healthy to go against norms on a regular bases so we can understand the difference between norms and what we are. These stereotypes are now being challenged by everyone in today's society. Which is good because if they can be disregarded all together then we will not have to fit in a certain social spectrum. I found it very cool that there is a group concerning the advancement against the stereotypes concerning masculinity. This type of group would not have been accepted in society like 30 years ago, so to have even this type of advancement is pretty amazing. another sign of advancement is the fact of all the people that have came out and now are openly gay. If this would have happened 30 years ago these people would have been the focus for hate crimes. It is sad that it has taken this long for there to be people to understand the problem with stereotypes and labels.

Women and Islam

Clothing can be used to symbolize culture at times. I say at times because that would sound stereotypical as I have noticed from people all over the world making that assumption especially when it comes to Islamic women. Islamic women usually cover their heads with something called the Hijab, which is some type of cloth wrapped around the head or at times even the face. This cloth's significance to some Islamic women cannot be disputed. It is sometimes used for status purposes but usually for avoiding attracting people of the opposite sex, i.e. men. Hair in most cultures is often cited as a feature that defines a woman's beauty. In most cultures women cover their heads to avoid attracting males. A good example would be my own culture, which is very identical to most African cultures. To be more specfic, in my culture women that have children are supposed to wear a scarf to cover their heads when they are visiting their in laws. The covering of women hair is a global practice that can be defined separately by means of culture. In Western culture, a woman covers her face with a veil to show that she does not have children or she is still a girl.

To return back to the topic, Islamic women have been identified stereotypically as women that cover their heads with the hijab. That is far from the truth because some Islamic countries such as Turkey permit women not to wear these covers if they choose not to. In fact people in the West have often assumed that women wearing it are oppressed and have no choice. I can agree to some extent but some Islamic women are born into the culture and grow up believing that it should be worn. They are not forced into wearing it. They just grow into the culture with their parents' backing that it is the right thing to do. It is interesting to note that most Western societies, including Turkey are secular. Turkey once banned the wearing of the hijab completely. Secular societies are usually against what is called "religious extremism". That may not be fair to other people such as the women in Islamic culture because whenever they follow their culture by wearing the hijab (not all Islamic women want to wear it therefore it is wrong to generalize that every Islamic women wants to) they are portrayed in the media as religious extremists. That is what perpetuates stereotypes. That is what creates the backlash against some people, in this case the Muslims. Muslims are not a monolith. they are divided in other aspects. Westerners often see Muslim women as objects (to the Muslim societies) and people locked up by extremism when in fact some women wear the hijab by choice. I think we as people should stop assuming that and be willing to meet more people that are Muslim and female so that we can learn more instead of basing our conclusions from what we see in the media.

gender is a social construct

Gender, which is the role that we are supposed to play in society is usually constructed by society itself. We as humans, depending on culture are expected to perform in a certain way. we also have certain chores that we are expected to take care of primarily according to sex. I would say the construct is not universal because I have been through three cultures already (Swaziland, Italy and the USA) and what I am expected to do here is definitely not the same as what I was expected to do, years ago back home. Simple examples are chores like cooking. I am 21 years old and surprisingly I do not know how to cook anything except for rice because my mother believes that it is a woman's job. When I was younger, she would even hire a maid so that the maid would cook because all 3 of us were boys in the house. In Swazi culture cooking is a female's job and culturally, men are not supposed to even sit in the kitchen. Here it is a different case. There is no male or female chore. Almost everyone is expected to play an equal role in such a case.

There are hundreds of examples that can be used to support how gender is definitely a social construct. Generally the roles of our parents is to guide us on how to behave according to society's expectations. They try to teach us basketball or American football as kids when we are male and give us dolls if we are female. That is something that a lot of people have experienced before and it is not an exaggeration. As humans for the betterment of society we are always channeled somewhere according to our sex. If we did not have such, there would be no disparity on the way males and females behave. The only problem arises when a child is born with both male and female organs. Parents are usually faced with a task of choosing the appropriate sex for the newborn child. Usually the child undergoes a sex change between the two because society believes that there is no in between. They then raise the child according to the sex they have selected for him or her. Sometimes the kids grow up and realize that the sex that was chosen for them was the wrong one. They then change and accept that fact by undergoing a second sex change procedure.

One story that struck me this week was a story about a girl called caster Semenya from South Africa. Well maybe I shouldn't refer to her as a girl or boy because she is a hemaphrodite. She has a female genitals but she does not have ovaries and has 3 times more the level of testosterone compared to a normal woman. The sad part is that she won a gold medal in Berlin in athletics. She overpowered her opponents and there was a dispute on whether she is male or female. The hermaphrodite issue appeared after tests had been undertaken. The sad part is that now it is not clear on whether she would be allowed to compete with males or females because on both she doesn't fit. Now she is in hiding after being the face of ridicule to the public. This shows how inadequate the idea that there is only one choice, either male or female and we have to do everything according to our sex. Only society decides that and genetics usually clashes with what society demands at times.