Feminist Force

I couldn’t resist. Check this out, it’s so worth it! 🙂  http://policymic.com/articles/76145/28-most-iconic-femisnist-moments-of-2013

Presentations 12/12

I absolutely loved Richelle’s presentation.  The piece without her personal story would have been powerful, but by being open and honest about her own experiences took it to another level.  Being stereotyped based on appearance is something that everybody can relate to and I think it took a lot of courage to relate that to sexual assault and her own personal experience.

I was also taken with Faith’s presentation.  His depiction of Wonder Woman without a mouth was especially striking.  I thought it said a lot about how women’s voices are lost even though they may be a powerful presence, like Wonder Woman.  I also liked the Selkie picture as it showed how men are sexualized and oppressed as well.  Sexualization isn’t only limited to women and I feel like male sexualization is brushed under the rug in society today.

Sri’s comic was great as well.  I loved that it was personal and it seemed like she was telling her own story.  It was entertaining and well done

Stereotypes in Society

When it came to the posts one that really stuck out to me was Richelle’s. She made so many good points about the stereotypes in our society and how wrong they can be. It’s ridiculous that people have to deal with this everyday of their lives. It really hurt me when she spoke of people saying things like you wouldn’t have to worry about getting raped because she doesn’t dress in scandalous or colorful clothes. Things like this really upset me and I think her presentation really touched a lot of people. I also think it was incredibly brave to explain such a personal experience and I look up to her for doing that because it really puts things into perspective. When people are able to open up about things like this and share it really changes the way people see situations and those presentations or lectures that people will do are much more effective than people speaking without experience. 

Depictions of Males and Females in Relationships-Selkie Style- My Thoughts

I overall enjoyed this presentation.  It was nice to see the two sides of the selkie coin examined in this presentation, and I think Joe did a great job of it.  I feel that there was a missed opportunity however (because I am a nit-picky jerk), what about the Bird Bride?  While not a selkie exactly it fits the them perfectly.  You could address the man’s confusion and how this reflects on the other selkie legends.  Overall, I liked the presentation though.  If anything you should have been paired up with Faith so that his pictures could have been behind you while you discussed the Robin Greene story.  That would have definitely been an A+ presentation in my book.

Take a Picture of a Real Indian

This was my favorite presentation out of all of them I think.  I appreciated the rest of Lauren’s presentation, of not judging people by their covers and keeping an open mind, but the video.  Man that video!  Amazing.  Just an incredible find.  I had never seen anything quite like it before.  She could have easily done an entire presentation just talking about that 2 minute clip.  Lauren did an excellent job contextualizing it in our class however.  It fit perfectly well in her speech and was ultimately incredibly eye opening.  Bravo Lauren!  Bravo indeed!  Ok, that was a little campy.  I would have one criticism to her thesis.  I think that sometimes there are not two equally valid sides to a story.  Occasionally we can see something as being objectively bad, or wrong.  Encouraging people to always see the “other” side will sometimes give weight to arguments that do not deserve it.  I feel Lauren adequately covered this as well however, that is just my two cents.

Wonderhawk

I thought Cheryl’s presentation on The Hawkeye Initiative was really cool. As an avid reader of Wonder Woman comics, I have noticed that she is many times illustrated in highly sexualized positions that really make no sense when you look at what she is supposed to be doing. It’s annoying because that’s not how her original creators intended for her to look. Wonder Woman is supposed to represent strength, and empowerment, but she has unfortunately become somewhat of a sex symbol for the comic book world.

Before Cheryl’s presentation, I didn’t know about The Hawkeye Initiative. Earlier this year, I read an article about the extreme sexism and sexual harassment that exists in the comic book world – which most people tend to think is a wonderful land full of cool superheroes – and was disgusted. There is so much misogyny plaguing the comic book industry, and I am really glad to see that women are rising up against it and cleverly pointing out just how ridiculous the representations of women in comics can get sometimes. I mean, what’s Wonder Woman supposed to do? Save the world with her thigh gaps and double d boobs?

Presentations 12/10

I though Chloe’s story was hilarious. She included a lot of different stereotypes in her retelling of Snow White to show just how ridiculous these stereotypes are sometimes. For instance, the huge black man with grills who Snow White found to be very funny played upon the popular belief that black males who may fit this description are tough, or dangerous, or generally unwelcoming.

I also liked that Chloe not only focused on race, and appearance, but also other forms of identity such as homosexuality. The girl that the evil queen sends to seduce Snow White is an example of how many people in society view homosexuals – they are seen as devious, and people often buy into conjecture that homosexuals “lure” straight people into being gay.

The golden dildo, however, was probably my favorite part. Now, I don’t know if how I interpreted it is how Chole intended for her audience to, but I felt that the dildo was also a satire of how the hegemony views lesbian sexuality. People are always asking how lesbians have sex, and how it (sex) can be enjoyable for a woman who does not have a male partner. Dildos are pretty much fake penises, and it just seems to me that most people think dildos are absolutely necessary for lesbians to enjoy having sex with each other.

Chole did touch on a lot of other stereotypes about typically oppressed groups of individuals, such as transgendered people, but these were the ones that stood out to me the most.

Good job, Chloe!

12/12 Presentations: Richelle & Faith

Richelle’s project was amazing. Like the other blogger (alblanken) stated, it was awesome. Her piece blew me away as well. Her presentation was amazing and I’m sure that it was wonderfully written. I’m really glad that Richelle presented and I really appreciate that she had presented such a personal story. I can’t really say much more. Her piece was just wonderful.

I also really enjoyed Faith’s artwork. They were done really well! My favorite of the series was the picture of Woman Woman. It looked great! And I thought that it was really symbolic that he did not give her a mouth. Representing that women are silenced and aren’t given a chance to speak because they literally can’t. It was nice that all other parts of her face were finished, like the next part to be drawn are her lips. Symbolizing that she is being given a voice.

12/10 Presentations: Jordan

I found Jordan’s presentation about True Blood really interesting. I used to watch a lot of True Blood, but stopped watching because I found it too graphic. But I do find the characters in the show really interesting. I was really happy that Jordan talked about Jessica and Hoyt. We discussed in class a lot about Sookie and Bill, but I was curious to know more about Jessica and Hoyt’s relationship differs from the main characters. I think True Blood is a great show to study about (it would also be interesting to study the viewers of the show). Overall, great presentation!! It was really interesting and Jordan did a great job presenting!

Fatima’s sex and violence

I was amazed by her art piece.  I liked the idea of the drawing being ambiguous, thus, emphasizing the belief of the private sphere when it comes to sexual violence.  Also, it is true that society and our justice system act as if violence is physical and that we need visible bruises or scars to show how we have been impacted.  What was significance about her project was that it was such an uncomfortable topic to discuss but the more people talk about it the more it can be normalized.  The discussion of sexual violence needs to be normalized because it happens so often and it is wrong that the victim is always blamed.