Sex Trafficking group Presentation

32 billion dollars??!!!!!! Really??!!!!! 32 billion dollars is profited from the human trafficking trade, 80 percent being women and small children. And 70 % of the female victims are for the sex slave industry. American is one of the top three importers of human trafficking. Suddenly everything I touch seems unclean. Have I touched money that exchanged between the hands of a trader. Was this 20 dollars in my pocket used to buy an hour of  some dark fantasy realized in a small room at the back of a massage parlor. They say you can tell a man's character by how he treats his dog. Does this apply to humans? Can you judge a countries character by how it treats its most unfortunate citizens? Then again these victims, these are not our citizens so what jurisdiction do they fall under, should they depend on for justice if their own country refrained from saving them.  

Relief...thats all I felt when I found out I was a man ( Gender a biological concept?)

Two days ago while frantically preparing for my exam, I came a across a story in my in psych book about a boy raised as a girl. The mother was pregnant with identical twin boys. Months after their birth, one of the twins sustained an injury that damaged its sex organs; a botched circumcision that caused massive bleeding and later infection. During their son's surgery to remove the infection, the parents decided that the surgeon should continue to remove his entire penile organs and create a vagina instead.

"Oh baby baby how was I suppose to know, that my director was in Porno" - The actual accounted lyrics of the Britney Spears song

So basically my jaw hit the floor when I found out two classes ago that Mandy Moore and Britney Spears first debut videos were directed by a former porn director. Now I would like to think that maybe someday I can live by the code of benefit of the doubt, but if 95% of the videos the director made before were porn then he must use the same directing techniques in these videos. Our society is sick! I am all out convinced and at this point, I pray I have good sense to really think before I have kids. Our culture has deeply rooted pornographic values all through out our schools, workplaces and media. Porn creates a revenue of 10 billion dollars within our society; that's 10 billion dollars of porn movies/events/ and other paraphernalia that our economy banks on from U.S consumers. I am a huge proponent of one's personal rights/freedoms and sexual exploitation bought in a CD or online value packages is an example of those rights. However, there are those who wish to not have porn in their bought and paid for media. There are parents who do not wish for their little boys and girls to witness overt porn-like sexuality of their Disney hero. But maybe ignorance in bliss. If they do not know that Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore had their billboard #1 hit music videos directed by a porn star then maybe they wouldn't be susceptible to ideals of the porn industry.  And maybe breast implants can provide children with natural milk and Viagra can turn your sex life into a never ending roller coaster of orgasms. But we don't live at Walgreen's and the world is prone to cause and effect. my nieces love the younger Britney spear videos and songs and they love Miley Cyrus even when she dances in bird feathers behind a cage. I am scared really scared because they are so young and brilliant but they will not recognize their potential if they are bombarded by sexual images of their idols. I see them so easily feeling inadequate and ugly because they do not fit these ideals. All because the music industry saw dollar signs at the prospect of hiring a porn director for their upcoming teen stars. I see no difference between "Girls Gone Wild and these videos.
There is something wrong with our culture, some dark lust for sexualized young, hairless girls and boys. We are one of the top three importers of human trafficking, more than 70% being women and young children. Is anybody out there? Can anybody see this? Its too obvious!!! Its in our faces!!! Or is it that nobody wants to see, hear realize that each and every one of us is part of the problem.
" A hideous truth is a terrible thing to waste"

A strength of a man is what he endures, a free man is never conquered.

I can smell the sweat, feel the whip thin reeds, see the endless cotton among which appeared shadows drifting across fields of clouds. Acres and  acres of high grade soil enriched with the black blood and toil of slaves. The Cotton Gin a powerful symbol of the economic glory of the confederate south. Frederick Douglass was simply another form of the labor and capital exchanged among the various markets, stud men, good workers, dumb too. This kind of suppression leaves no room for the maturation of the soul. Under constant ridicule, subjugation and dominance, African Americans identified themselves as inferior, feeble, powerless. This state of mind passed on through to the generations that preceded them. Generations until men, like Frederick Douglass broke through the barricade of his conditioned mindset and became the impossible, free.
Historians believed that the first moment that Frederick started living his destiny was the day his owner sold him to a cruel farmer on a neighboring property. This new master was known for his ruthless treatment, his discipline, his inflexible expectations of good crops and premium profits. Not one slave remained unbroken on his land if the chose not to, death would be their only gain. Douglass was a young boy, anxious, scared of his new home. So what made him do it, what made him rebel?  After over 400 years of oppression molding his culture and identity was stirred the man to fight?
After a day of strenuous work, Douglass fainted and lost the strength to get up. The overseer called the owner and the owner preceded to whip Douglass. Douglass was beaten until he bled from his skull. He fled after the beating to his old master who simply sent him back to the plantation. Frederick and his owner clash and rather than cower, he fights back and beats his master.
The readings are great because they idolize Frederick Douglass, but identity this moment in time is a condoning of physical violence in order to gain worth. Frederick was a slave, third class at best. He would always be inferior, no matter if he was smart, honest, talented or insightful he was a slave, property. I hate the fact that in historians eyes ( who were definitely all male), regarded this event as defining Frederick Douglass of ultimately making him a man. He had to beat the dominant man down and only when he did so did he gain worth. Therefore this says to me that violence, dominance is what equals freedom.

Height Matters: Face to Boobs

A women reaches puberty when she develops curves, boobs and receives that monthly down payment from mother nature. A man reaches puberty when he develops a deeper voice, develops body and muscle mass and grows taller. But if a woman happens to not embody one of these characteristics, it would not take away from her femininity. As long as she had feminine features if not a developed body, or dressed feminine if did not have the features. However, I believe that men have to obey all criteria of masculinity in order to be called a man. A man will never wear dresses, talk with a high voice or not partake in the physical pursuits. Men must cannot have women that are taller than they are. Women cannot be in a relationship with men who are shorter than they are. Okay here is the problem: I once had a friend who I began to like after a serious of hangouts and talk sessions. He was charming, real smooth and had confidence, positive confidence. Yosef was a person who got along with everyone, saw the humor in everything etc. Being a rather small guy never seemed to bother him at all. In fact, where Yosef grew up, the middle east, men of short stature was the norm. Women that he had previously interacted with were of relatively small builds with petite figures too. So perhaps he saw no issue of his physique because where he once lived there had been no issues of height which was why he was content and self-confident. I had liked him a lot, I loved hanging out with him and my friends. However, I never thought to tell him how I felt for I was 5'10 and he 5'6. In those four short inches stood the concrete wall called height, a universally accepted norm of men being bigger than women.
He was amazing but I kept thinking how uncomfortable I would be when he hugged me. The awkwardness of the vision set me so ill at ease that

Radical this Eco that

I firmly believe that if we are to overturn the masculine ideals which shape our society, we need a complete overhaul of the structural system that is our culture. Radical feminism calls for the total breakdown of the patriarchal system, education, politics, home life and language. That is ultimately what we would have to do if we want immediate results. I believe we are in danger of believing that as soon as women are equated with men then there are no more gains to be made. Yet, I believe it would lead us to the same end result we have now, glorified violence, sexualized TV and the continual objectification of men and women in their sexual roles. There is a problem that we continually ignore. A woman's worth is still determined by superficially, by her looks, her sexuality and her ability to be ageless. Women must always attain this double standard of being smart, ambitious but charming, feminine and definitely not a bitch.
It is the conundrum of the virgin slut. It is worse if your a tease than if you are a ho, however, both will result in your reputation being tarnished. But girls do it because it is seen as a trait of the ideal woman, to be a seductive innocent. But what is this word innocence, what exactly is so pure, sacred about virginity, is it a biological barrier

The Liberal Feminist is.........

    Last class we were split into groups where each group was to define a term that was discussed in our readings. As we were discussing gender concepts of labor, Cecilia talked about the dichotomy of the home. Traditionally with stay at home moms, the woman provides the free labor for their husbands who can then spend the time at a job making money. This money then comes back to the wife who can spend the money at her leisure. This interdependent process is a very interesting insight into what a marriage is. A business arrangement where labor is exchanged for money and success in money equals harmony. So where is the love? Or does love grow from security and comforts. And if so should we pick someone who is wealthy since money and security are what promises a happy marriage? How many American marriages are happy when the spouses live a low socio-economic lifestyle?
Liberal feminism also gets a lot of shit for being anti- male. Most movements were centered around women trying to overcome obstacles reserved exclusively for men. The "old boys club" as Celia termed it in class on day. Yet,  I think it has all  been misconstrued. Look, we come from a patriarchal society. We are held by standards, the majority of which were discovered by men. When women sought equality or liberation in her society, she asked that the standard rules that prevented her from doing so, would change, expand to include the opposite sex. But this means highlighting a fallacy within the very fabric of common thought. The ideas of Descartes, Niche, Freud, Marx, Smith, Locke, all male historic figures which have shaped the American dream, created democracy and laid done the premise for the global market, would fall under doubt.
 Humans have a remarkable evolutionary skill to change and adapt to different environments. Yet, we have  a remarkable ability to be so stubborn in our ideals. Any great social change has always resulted in some type of conflict (war). And yet the change is more apt to do us more good than harm. Radical feminism calls for the over-turning of the social structures which causes the oppression of women everywhere. This means confronting those good old boys and forcing them to meet women at the negotiating table

Jessica Simpson/Brittney Spears/Paris Hilton:::: The Rise and Fall of the Barbie Doll

The other day I watched a 30 minute news report on Paris Hilton's 10th arrest on drug charges. I couldn't help but notice the way her demeanor showed her state of mind. She flounced into the court room in her designer jeans and thousand dollar blond extensions. For a moment it was if she was untouched by the circumstances that brought her to the hearing. It seemed almost as if the drug charges were unjust, over exaggerated for how can such a beautiful girl, be harshly prosecuted to such an ugly crime. And this is where Valenti's article, Pop culture gone wild,  hits it right on the head.
Valenti argues that our sexual culture has labeled girls as beings whose worth is rooted in their looks and willingness. Paris Hilton is a pop culture icon, a blond bombshell whose image is both rich heiress and sexy, promiscuous bad girl. Her fame was born not of acclaimed films or even her wealth, instead she became known for a sex video and the following explicit knowledge of her body that is shared with the rest of the world. But its the norm, rather than society being horrified at such exploitation, it clamors for it. Films like Girls Gone Wild make a net profit of 40 million dollars, all on the exploitation of drunk young teen girls on vacation who are willing to exploit themselves for 15 minutes of fame. Its child pornography sold in a silver disk in the movie section at the all or Walmart, Target etc. The producer of those movies do not ask every girl her age, and  we all know that age is so skewed with girls trying to be women and women trying to be girls. But as long as you are considered hot, such are the sacrifices of  being desirable.
Sex, sex, sex is what sells and beauty equals happiness and what girl doesn't want to be called beautiful, what girl doesn't want to be happiness. And thus is the vicious cycle. In order to be worthy, you must be attractive, hot and in order to be hot you must be sexy, carefree, willing. In order to achieve these labels, you must make sacrifices. 
But the price of being labeled beautiful is all too clearly seen, as publicized by our beloved media. Paris Hilton, the ideal hot girl, was arrested not once but three times on drug charges. Brittney Spears, whose come out video featured her as a school girl in a tight uniform,was rumored to have done drugs and in the wake of a mental breakdown, shaved her head. Jessica Simpson, noted singer whose been labeled in the past as having the hottest body, had a break down as well because of the pressure of being labeled the sexist woman. These women are being crushed under this ideal, this ideal that many women pluck, tuck and starve themselves for.

I had noticed that a classmate of mine was also dating a girl who fit the usual standard of "hottness". Blond hair, blue eyed, tan and the perfect body. He acknowledged that she did indeed fit this beauty standard and that this standard was highly desired. I was sad for a split second, wondering if he understood the implication of his words. I wondered if he ever understood the pressures his girlfriend must feel in order to attain these standards. It is not my place to tell him what I thought. But it is proof that this ideal is accepted, revered, powerful and spreading. I for one feel lucky, my skin and body have no chance of fitting the ideal and because I can't play the game, I decided the rules don't apply to me. Being different can set you free from the pressures of being hot and desirable but that doesn't mean you are not susceptible. Exhibit A: Me
So I send a prayer to all pop culture icons I wish them a peaceful breakdown with all their hair intact.

September 23 ( Widman," Goldiggers and Pigs) ...at the Holiday Innnnnnnn!

 Wow, wow. wow I am pretty sure this sums up my reaction to the class today. I saw so much connection today in our biological makeup and its role in gender behavior. Humans are serial monogamous, men marry women with wider hips. Testosterone makes men stupid, the hippocamus (spelling?) nuclei appears to be less ordered in women therefore indicating scatterbrain behavior. And then Toria's passionate reaction to these psychologically theories of male and female biological interactions. I felt lifted after class yesterday, practically overjoyed. I could link my annoying needy behavior to a biological tendency developed during the ovulation cycles which serves as a subtle reminder to find a mate. Of course I will not give all credit to this biological characteristic. After all, our sentience and ability to reason is what allows us to override our biological tendencies.
But then what is it then that drives women or maybe just me to seek out male companionship on the weekends? What motivates me to drive up to Penn State so as to hang out with my girls and LOTS of men? To have fun,sure but I believe it is something else as well. I think despite our birth control, plan Bs, and surgical procedures to halt fertility and promote fertility, we still have little control over our biological impulse to want procreational sex. Especially during college, we are at our prime, we look better now than we ever will. We are fully matured and looking to find and create our unique personalities. The biological interaction  between the sexes is one of the key experiences that shape a man or a woman's outlook on society/gender. For example, men are innately attracted to a certain hip to body ratio on a women, ideally the hourglass figure. As well as a symmetrical face and fat on the hips of a youthful woman, is seen as attractive to men. Which is why I believe that biology still underlies most behavior that occurs during male and female interactions. No matter how we suppress our biological urges to mate, give birth etc, we are highly susceptible to their influences.

Sept 21: Social Change ( You wanna hear a joke?) "Yeah" (Women Rights)

Today we were split into groups and given the topic social change. I was surprised to get this topic because I forgot the color coordinated slips of what was what and just choose at random. Social change. When Cecila asked our group to define it, I stuttered because in my mind I realized a connection. Social change is the morphology of societal evolution. Ultimately, we're modifying our way of thinking during the exposure and development of our intellect through the many diversities of knowledge and ideas. As I had said in the past blog, conflict is simply an indication of a necessary change, as well as social change, being a catalyst in the growth of ever-evolving, advancing, growing societies. Social change is not so much as a necessity but one of the many structured progressive stages of our modern society.
I was reminded, however, that social change and conflict must be remembered for its consequences. In class, a group had gender and war. They brought up rape and how its function serves as a psychological and emotional attack on the opposition. "We destroy your way of life and rape your women so that your attempts to reconstruct yourselves is forever tainted/scarred."
Celia brought up a notion that during war, there exists this notion that the one of the main causes of that war was the desire to protect the vulnerable, the innocent. Women and children were the vulnerable, the innocent and I cannot think of worst act than to have that innocence mutilated. Women have always, I believe carried the psychological burden of wars. Their wounds lasting lifetimes, crossing generations, infused deep within their culture so as to remember the atrocities/loss. Hence why social change is a profound and common endeavor. Many past grievances have not been addressed, many ignored, some, never spoken of. Example: King Leopold,  Maori extinction, human trafficking, massacred immigrants along the Mexican border. It goes on and on. And so will social change so as to address these grievances  and prevent similar events happening in the future.

Sept 16-- Conflict: You have no idea (you never will)

  Conflict, conflict, conflict, to me it seems such a simply word to describe the cause of wars, genocide, extreme poverty. Yet it has been a solution, a catalyst for solving centuries-old suppression, discrimination and prosecution. Without conflict between people of the caste systems in India, Gandhi never would have invented one of the most successful nonviolent strategies, Satiagraha. Susan B Anthony and Alice Paul never would have won great concessions for the suffrage movement without conflict towards the patriarchal notion of women roles in society.  So what is conflict really? An instance of incompatible goals creating contention between two or more parties. Or an instance of stimulation to our cognitive realities, a challenge of ideals that produce an opportunity to improve and expand our preconceived notions of who we are. I believe that conflict is simply an indication that a change in that particular area of dissidence, is eminent and necessary.

This class means to me a place where our ideas of gender will go through necessary change. We each have our experiences, our passionate moments where we felt that rearing identity of being a man or a women or both or neither. These very moment define us, they steer the way for how we think about our sex.
I remember in middle school, after summer break on the first day of school, gym class became a year long torture. Everyday my more developed body would have one comment or another tossed around about it. Being one of two black girls in my class, my sexuality was already guessed by my classmates through their view of a black girl. I was a slut before age 13. They would make jokes and say I had five guys already and an abortion. Crazy stuff, ridiculous things they said but still painful. I felt that puberty had betrayed me, I was branded a loose girl by my figure. But I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I grew strong in my mind. I learned how to soften the blows, roll with the punches. The ironic thing was I kept using the mantra, "Just act like a guy, don't give  a shit" and lone behold, there I was, iceman. No one knew how I felt, no one knew how sensitive I really was. I have gained from this experience tremendously but I keep thinking about the experiences I lost by being so closed up. Conflict teaches us new ways of behavior, resolving things. The key thing to remember is that what you learn is ever-changing. One day you might have a conflict that might reveal a significant part of you. Two weeks later a conflict may flipped your newly found notion again.
The point I guess I am trying to make is that we gain more from being open to conflict and change than being rooted and guarded against it. Yet conflict has always had a bad connotation so we are more aped to despise conflict, to avoid it at all costs, and likewise avoid change.

September 14 GC Blog ( yeah I'll pick up a gun)

Its a tricky question when you ask yourself what would you die for? Family, absolutely, love, ideally, but your country? If women are to advocate equality with men we must understand what we are asking for. One of the conditions is, being susceptible to a draft when our country is at war. Equality meaning that what men get we get. If I were a supporter of equality of men and women I would say yes I will fight in a war for my country if called to do so. You can't fight for something and then place exceptions to it. But I don't believe that women should be equal to men in all aspects. Yes, we deserve equal pay and not to be consider a cheaper labor option by corporations.  Yes, we deserve to be given equal admission into all careers we desire/ are classified for. But, women do have children and this is one factor in which we cannot seek equality.
Today in class I was struck by how no one really brought up conflict between a man and a women, I mean it is gender conflict class. However, I understand how we were defining conflict not certain conflicts. I look forward to talking about conflicts between men and women. I personally, have a lot of trouble when I am in conflict with men because I often feel really threatened, or in the wrong. i believe this is due to my past encounters with men as well but i do wonder if it maybe its experienced by a lot of other women as well ( maybe a social construct)

Week 2 GC blog ...Race and Gender (2 sides of the same coin? or not)

  So there is this notion that has been bothering me since reading Evelyn Nakano Glenn's article on gender and race. Glenn brings up the paradox of being a woman as well as being a woman of color. Triple oppression or double jeopardy are some of the terms that she uses to describe the hardships that come with being a female minority. And yet she talks about the prospect of creating an integrative framework to address both racial and gender concepts, both define by the values/laws of society. I interpreted Glenn's article as her wanting to bring all women (men), despite color, culture, socio-economic status,together into the debate over the concepts of gender( whereas before, the movement to redefine gender was lead solely by white women (19th amendment, Equal Rights Amendment etc.)). I believe that Glenn was expressing how both race and gender are related in the processes how each social construct was created. 
  Now granted I mostly agree with Glenn and her analysis but I believe that in modern times, there is distinction in the process of engendering and racialization. In fact, I believe that in an individual who may experience both at once may have one social construct actually cancel out the other. I do say this because I have seen/heard instances where Hispanic and black girls have actually admitted that at times in society, they feel genderless. As if because of their race they often do not experience or realize that they experience engendering because their racial identities play a bigger part in their overall social interactions and lifestyles than their sexual identity.
 I, myself being a black woman, have experienced times where I felt that my color factored more in my everyday life than me bring a girl. In sports, it was pre-determined that I would be good. Not because of my skills or hard work but because of my genetics, because "black people" as my assistant basketball coach once stated, "are natural born athletes, its in their ancestry"   And so it was the case in tournaments and games that most opposing teams would refer to me as "number 32, the big black girl). I always focused on "big black", those words taking complete precedent over "girl", evening canceling it out because most ideal girls, in my mind (during high school) were skinny, pretty and white...never big and certainly not black.
So I guess my point is is that the certain kind of oppressions we experience in our society can differ in overall effect on an individual based on who that individual is, where they grew up and what experiences affected them the most. To treat race and gender in an integrative framework, may instead take away from the solutions and critiques by blending together the processes of engendering/ racialization, when really the processes are simply too different/complex to ever be understood as one.
Any who all food for thought!

Genderize yo mind

Our readings are pretty bomb but I can't help but feel that we are missing a lot of background on the main cause of the conflicting ideas of what gender is. Yes, in part it is our family, peers and our society but what drives the culture of America? Our economy!!! What drives our science? Our economy!!! In the article about the body and its biological differences shaping gender ideals, a great point was brought up. Science and its empirical explanations on the ways of the world has been manipulated to suit the chauvinistic differences between man and women. It explained how the female brain is more apt to skills of homemaking, nurturing, organization, rather than tedious work, driving and bring home the bacon. It really blows my mind, it really scares me that the very institutions in which we pride the advancement of our race has been used to perpetuate frivolous, damaging and demoralizing fallacies against women, minorities and cultures. Yet, before feminism, title 9, the 19th amendment came to be the sludge hammers that shattered these ideas, much of the U.S and the world believed them. Renowned scholars even supported these ideas with journals, lectures, experiments etc. Our education, even today, is still heavily entrenched in the ideas of these renowned scholars, scientists, academics and it makes me question what have I learned, what are these truths that I have accepted? Yesterday in class, when we discuses how are very discourse shapes our opinions about gender such as what home and work means, it further pushed me to analyze almost all aspects of our lives. How do we begin to measure this subconscious onslaught of gender ideals that appear in our discourse, media, education etc? And is there a feasible solution, can we really turn back generations and generations of instilled thought? Any who, all food for thought (no biggie).