Activism Blog 3

Activism:  

This week, on behalf of NOW, I tabled from 10-12 on Wednesday before my class in an attempt to get more signatures for CEDAW (the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women). The petition sponsored by CEDAW is meant to get the United States to cooperate in its global feminist goals and to ratify the CEDAW treaty. There have been three Presidents that support CEDAW, the latest being George W. Bush who later changed his position from favorable of, to against the ratification. Essentially the main opposition for the ratification of CEDAW comes from conservative groups and the religious right wing. A prime example of their concerns comes from an organization called Concerned Women for America who expect that the ratification of the treaty will negate family law and dispute “traditional values” by redefining “family”, it will force the U.S. to pay men and women the same work and that will apparently “go against the free market system” and another huge dilemma for these ultra conservatives is the fear that the ratification will allow same-sex marriage, prostitution and negate parental rights by reinforcing the importance of gender equality.

Reflection:

 I will get to my opinion of these ridiculous notions in “Reciprocity” because what I got out of learning about CEDAW and its opposition was a reignited sense of vigor and complete and utter anger at these ignorant people as well as a new perspective on my activism and what my purpose as a member of NOW is. For now, I will continue to connect my experiences with the text. So here we go: Essentially the two subjects we talked about in class this week were women in the workforce and rape. There are examples from each of these topics that facilitate female advancement and agency in a patriarchal society; however, the organization Concerned Women for America, a religious right wing conservative group, happen to be in opposition to each. This works out fine because these examples are also supported and recognized as positive advancements by global feminist organizations like CEDAW who also happen to have the honor of being rejected by CWA. Firstly, CWA as I mentioned earlier is against the equal pay for equal work between men and women and the advancement of women in the workforce. Most of the legitimations for CWA’s “pillars of truth” come from the New King James Version of the Bible. The NKJV also (if we use the same method of analysis as CWA in the passages presented on their website), sanctifies the hierarchy of men over women and female subordination which evidently permeates all aspects of life including economic institutions. The conversations we had about rape and rape culture in class today were aimed at a feminist perspective of regaining agency after being victimized and possibly revictimized by society. Organizations that are most prominently known for atrocities like victim blaming are usually right wing organizations and conservative media because the victim would have theoretically done something to “deserve it”. I’m not saying that CWA victim blames, I’m also not saying that based off of the information on the website that it is an organization free from judgment about anything involving sex, or the subservience of women. Organizations like CEDAW however are those who would support the notion of a rape survivor gaining agency over that experience and reclaiming his/her sexuality in order to reclaim his/her life in all its aspects. As Morales says “to shamelessly insist that our bodies are for our own delight and connection with others clearly defies the predatory appropriations of incestuous relatives and rapists” (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 284). This quote signifies the agency women gain from reclaiming their sexuality and by extension their lives- to no longer be a victim everywhere they go; to no longer have to hold onto your victimhood in everything you do. Organizations like CWA in denying females the ability to gain access to progress in everyday life without shame or guilt thus denies them the ability to step out of the shame perceived in being a rape victim and move on.

Reciprocity:

In my opinion, those against US participation in the globally progressive goals of CEDAW and mainly those who call themselves “traditionalists” are blindly lost in complacency. Furthermore, change in this country is apparently optional and non-beneficial for them because they value the “sovereignty of America” (as if same sex marriage is going to completely undermine our entire government – which was originated for white men only, by the way). It’s too bad that the women of color that identify as a part of these conservatives don’t think about the change that it took to move away from slavery, forced labor, Jim Crow laws and forced segregation. But clearly the “radical” idea that people of color are people too is not the same as the “radical” notion that women are people as well and deserve equality. This notion of gender equality however will send America spiraling out of control because of our menial little brains that will implode if we are exposed to too much information.

References:

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. N. pag. Print.

Concerned, Women For America. Biblical Support for CWA Core Issues. CWA, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.cwfa.org/coreissues.asp>.

Film Analysis of "The Secretary" (2002)

               

                The film The Secretary casts both a dark and a light shadow on women in the workplace. For one, it enhances the notion of female subordination, gender typing in jobs and the helplessness of women to propel themselves. However, the other side of the coin is that the film actually has a sense of fulfillment for the main character – the secretary – in that she found her perfect match, her opposite while working for him and thus accessing her full erotic power at work literally and metaphorically.

                This film adheres to the gender stereotypes of women in the work force; Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a paralegal which has been gendered into a female occupation. It’s a subordinate position in the office and not only is it subordinate because the tasks are menial, but it’s subordinate because she is the masochist to his sadist and is continuously bent over the desk and spanked repeatedly when she makes a clerical error. Although most secretaries in the United States are not subject to this kind of humiliation, the social stigmas of being secretaries, nurses, maids or strippers, is perpetually humiliating in the way that these occupations are not as respected as predominantly male professions because they are considered weak and trivial, and relatively low brow. The social constructions of these occupations are less than appealing and the film facilitates this notion of women’s work having the sole purpose of serving the dominant male. Furthermore, women’s work is seen as less than productive when the female does not conform to the beauty ideal relevant to that job; most jobs that women fill may require the women “being on display and meeting dominant beauty standards” (Kirk &Okazawa-Rey, 305). A secretary in particular is on display for all of the clients and is the first thing one sees when walking through the door, so women are then constructed as a cookie-cutter for what the office’s standards are, as opposed to an employee. This places a lot of responsibility on looks and demeanor rather than individual professional performance. In the case of the film, Maggie Gyllenhaal is a mess when she first applies; she spills everything, she is scatter-brained, she is essentially pathetic and in need of saving. However, after her male boss starts to dominate her, ask her to perform obscure and outrageous tasks for the sole purpose of pleasing his whims she starts to take more of an interest in her looks and her demeanor because she is aroused and as the domination progresses, she becomes more beautiful. The implicit message of this correlation is rather blatant – the more a male boss dominates his female subordinate, the more effort she puts into her looks to compensate and thus the less access she has to progression in the work force. It is rather difficult to ignore this phenomenon, as we see it everywhere in our society and now once again perpetuated in popular culture.

                One the one hand, this film highlights the perceived, male-centered advantages of female subordination at work, but on the other hand the film simultaneously gives the main character a sense of agency over her own erotic existence. Audre Lorde discusses the power of the erotic in all aspects of life; not only in family and relationships but also at work. Lorde says “Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes  a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their relative meaning within our lives” (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 163). This statement places the responsibility on the individual to no longer settle for what was natural before the discovery of the erotic, and to now try and access their erotic power in all aspects of their life; the power by which they will no longer accept powerlessness. In the film, the main character who is initially fractured, finds this sense of the erotic when she begins being dominated in a predominantly sexual manner at work. Although the sadism-masochism attraction is based on sexual desires and arousal, the main character uses this power when she feels rejected by the man who once dominated her. She then no longer accepts powerlessness and proves to him that she loves him, not just his domination. When her boss told her to not move from his desk until he returns, she uses her own personal drive to do just that. Although this is yet another act of submission on her part, it is no longer submission due to helplessness or the need for sexual arousal, but submission facilitated by her own agency and individual drive. This progression from helpless to powerful is subtle in the movie, but creates a needed contrast to the constant male domination over a seemingly powerless female.

References:

Gyllenhaal, Maggie, and James Spader, perf. The Secretary. Dir. Steven Shainberg. 2002. DVD.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Uses of the Erotic." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. N.p.: n.p., 1984. 161-64. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. N. pag. Print.

Activism Blog 2

Activism: 
 This week I got the opportunity to table with NOW twice to market our event “Take Back the Night” which was an event bringing awareness to the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual assault against all people. I tabled on Wednesday from 11am – 2pm and on Thursday from 1030-12. While we tabled, I advertised for “Take Back the Night” and VOX’s event “Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby”. I went to the free speech lawn for a few hours and handed out fliers, which actually turned out to be an educational experience because I learned what the best ways were to get people to stop avoiding me and to take my flier. I never knew how many ways and to what extent people would go to in order to avoid people with fliers. Furthermore, helped the VP of NOW, Kelly Q, set up for “Take Back the Night” and present a few speakers. In preparation for the event I went to Kelly Q’s apartment and made a few posters for the march which took about 4 hours. All in all, I’m really happy about the amount of work I was able to contribute to NOW this week.

Reflection:
While learning about women in the workplace this week, Veronica Chambers’ article “To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected: Successful Women, Family, and Responsibility (2003)” really stood out to me as a text with which I can relate the events of “Take Back the Night”. “Take Back the Night” was all about giving back to the community in bringing awareness of domestic and sexual violence. There were many volunteer speakers and performers from all different walks of life, some men, women, homosexual, heterosexual, victims and survivors. Chambers’ article relayed the idea that people should give back to their community in a way that suits them as individuals. Each individual whether in their performance or speech gave back to the audience and the community in a way that was pulled from their experiences and that is true to themselves. The event was not about over-exerting one’s financial means or completely draining their resources just to fulfill their responsibility to the community betterment. Furthermore, one crucial aspect of Chambers’ article is taking care of one’s self while giving back. The speakers at the event were people who knew of violence in their families or who have experienced it first hand – by participating in the event they were healing as well as helping.

Reciprocity:
Overall, I think I got a lot out of “Take Back the Night”. The march was the most empowering thing I think I’ve experienced in a long time and it was so exciting for me to be able to connect with so many different people – for a short time we all had one voice and one purpose. I met Leandra Preston, the closing speaker who is also going to be my Theories of Masculinity professor in the fall and talking to her was so empowering because I’ve heard she is such an amazing and powerful individual and hearing that she was just as excited about “Take Back the Night” as I was was inspirational. Speaking of inspirational, Michael Freeman, from the Office of Diversity Initiatives has always been a role model of mine, since I came to UCF and heard him speak in my sociology class. He is such a powerful speaker and he repeatedly said that he has committed himself to making UCF and our community a more accepting, safe place and I felt so inspired by his speech that I made a commitment of my own – I dedicate myself as a student and as an empowered person to make social change and to be someone who anyone can come to for help with demonstrations, change, petitions , anything I can do to help make our community a more accepting and safe place for people  to have a voice.

Activism Blog #1

Activism:

This week I tabled for NOW on Wednesday and Friday from 10-12pm. The experience was beneficial for me because a huge part of my service learning project was to increase awareness of NOW on campus and its mission statement as a student oriented affiliate. While tabling, we wanted to advertise more feminist literature like Bitch Magazine or Cunt: A Declaration of Independence and Full Frontal Feminism. In addition to tabling I also made two posters for NOW, advertising its presence on campus as well as associating its message to some quotes that may resonate with students and feminists on campus. Caitlin, Melissa and I met at Caitlin’s house to talk logistics over our core service learning project and if we wanted to do something along the lines of body image and beauty ideals on college campuses. We ultimately decided to focus on another topic but bring it to campus for maximum exposure to the NOW at UCF community. Lastly, NOW’s weekly meeting was held at the Pink Art II opening where we discussed the virtue of charity and supporting prevention and overcoming breast cancer as well as the significance of organizations like the YSC.

Reflection:

The Pink Art opening really reminded me of the Lorde article Uses of the Erotic; as we witness these women who have survived breast cancer or are still battling breast cancer we can realize that they are now looking at their lives through a new lens, a lens that will enable them to see everything from a new perspective and with that, Lorde says, comes responsibility. The responsibility is thus to always look at not only survival from breast cancer but every moment after survival as a moment that can be used to be completely in the moment and take everything out of that experience. This is the erotic power that comes out of survival. This power was also demonstrated through the art at the exhibit; the artists, through a variety of methods, used their erotic power to look at raising money for a cure for breast cancer through an artful lens and to truly take everything out of that situation. A quote that really stood out to me from Lorde was “In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression and self-denial.” This quote rang true especially because after hearing the leader of the YSC talk about her personal fight with breast cancer and not letting herself be in denial anymore about her infallibility and to not settle for the convenient notion of being “immune” to breast cancer because she was young and in great shape. These women who are survivors of breast cancer are those who are in touch with their erotic power, purely and truly.

Reciprocity:

By working with NOW I’ve been exposed to a lot of different people with varying feminist ideals. These different ideals have helped me to then think about my own feminist ideals from new perspectives. As Lorde touches on in her article, settling for convenience is to give in and to not fully embrace your erotic power; this includes the convenience of pre-established ideas and beliefs. I think it’s essential for continuous personal growth to constantly rethink and reevaluate ideals that are important to you and to really live them in every aspect of your life, which is what NOW is helping me do.