Book

I know I'm a little late on this post, but I fell asleep last night. Anyways, here's a book review I found that looks pretty cool.
http://www.elle.com/Pop-Culture/Movies-TV-Music-Books/Book-Release-Girldrive

I just might have to buy this one...

Can someone be more of a monogamist than someone else?

While my boyfriend and I were out to lunch today I was telling him about the Womens Studies class I'm taking and for the millionth time how much I like it. We were discussing the audio clip that we heard in class and that led to the topic of monogamy. He said I was of a monogamist than he was. I feel like because we are together in the relationship and have never strayed from each other, that we are equal. I don't understand, what could make me more monogamist than him? I don't exactly remember what we talked about after that because I was thinking 'what?' and totally tuned out. Maybe I'll take this up with him later to see what he meant.

Women's Rights in the Middle East

I may be naive, but I never knew that women in the Middle East had as many rights as they do. I know that sounds horrible.I guess before this class I never bothered to learn about their rights and probably would have never read this article if it wasn't assigned. But, honestly I'm glad I read it. It gave me a new perspective so to speak.
The first part that hit close to home was the education part; the "proof of unchastity" as a valid reason for expulsion.This is absolutely ridiculous! I'm studying to be a teacher, so anything related to education is very important to me. I cannot even begin to explain how wrong this is. I'm sure any girl who reads this understands what I mean. Even if a girl was seen walking with a guy, they were tested. Can you imagine if this was to happen now in the United States?! There would be a significant reduction of the student body in almost every middle and high school in America. Luckily in 2002, this was banned. Hopefully for good!
The second part that made me angry was the North and South Yemen part. I can't decide whether I feel worse for the Northern Yemen women or the Southern Yemen women. Southern Yemen women actually had a chance with the change in laws about marriage and divorce laws, but then they were taken away. I feel bad for them. But, on the other hand, you have the Northern Yemen women who see a glimmer of hope in what's happening in the south, but then quickly see what they could have had fade away again.
It's like that for many of the women in the Middle East; they see the one glimmer of hope and then see it taken away. But, fortunately, the increase in women's groups there and the changing of the attitude towards sexuality are changing what they have grown to know. Let's just hope it's more than a glimmer of hope this time.

Cosmopolitan

I was thinking about what I should write my third blog about this week. I thought I'd check out my Cosmopolitan magazine to what somewhat degrading things are on the cover. I love that magazine, but I think that you should be yourself on a date instead of making sure you say 'what he's dying to hear during a date!' A recent article title... While I was flipping through the October 2009 issue I found an article called Abducted By A Monster, which was advertised as How She Outsmarted a Brutal Rapist on the cover. I read it and it scared me. So much in fact that when the phone rang I jumped. I was going to copy the link for the article on here, but I can't find it on their website. But, while searching for it I found this, http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/tips/obama-stance-on-womens-rights?click=main_sr . Not exactly what I was looking for, but I had no idea about his issues on this. I thought it would be good to post. Anyways, I have the magazine with the article if anyone wants to see it.

Gender Equality

Talking about Yahoo Answers in class the other day inspired me to check out some of the questions on the Womens Studies page. I was reading and answering questions when I came this one : what happened to the traditional gender roles. Because I've always wanted to be a housewife, you know taking all day to get ready for my husband to come home, slaving over a really nice dinner, cleaning everything, I thought I should check it out. I didn't bother to answer because I found one answer that I was more focused on. Jas B said:
Traditional gender roles treated women as second class citizens.

You can call it traditional gender roles but the reality was that this was the oppression of women.

As another person has said women realized during the second world war when the men were away fighting and they had to work in the factories, as engineers and mechanics and all the other jobs which had been traditionally men's work that they were just as capable and they liked the independence it gave them to earn their own money.

Then after the war when women were told to go back into the homes, they decided there was more to life than babies, dishes and happy husbands. They felt that their contribution to the war effort had been forgotten and realized how constricting their lives were.

Women got sick of being treated as second class citizens and demanded changes in society and to all the laws which did not treat them as equal to men.

God had nothing to do with it. it's about equality.

The last part relates to a on going conversation between the other people. Anyways, this made this about a book I got from my grandma. It's Emily Post's Pocket Book of Etiquette. It was published in 1965. I find it absolutely hilarious to read. The majority of the book it dated, but the information is helpful. Part Fourteen is the last part in the book, but the first part I read. Page 462: A Happy Marriage. The last two sentences of the third paragraph of The Wife's Part is my absolute favorite line, just because it's so bad. ' And the wife who sees her husband off to work in a dirty bathrobe, with hair uncombed and face unwashed, send him off with a thoroughly unflattering picture of her in his mind. He may find his neat, efficient, pretty secretary more appealing than his unkempt, uncaring wife!' What a horrible thing to write! If your ugly, expect your husband to be cheating on you with his secretary. Ugh.

I went on to read The Husband's Part and one paragraph stood out to me. ' The husband that keeps his wife company in the kitchen while she is finishing the dinner preparations and gives a helping hand with the dishes after dinner, rather than retiring to the TV set or his newspaper, will find himself more repaid by his appreciative wife.' This is like what we talked about in class. Are we (women) supposed to sleep with a guy because he buys us dinner? So, are we supposed to 'pay' our husbands for actually helping us out in the kitchen?  I thought a relationship was a partnership, a team, not I'll help with the dishes only because you'll have sex with me for. I think if I ever had a guy say that to me, I'd drop the dish rag then and there and those dishes would never get done.

After reading certain parts of this book, it made me realize this all has come a long way. There's more to life than having babies, keeping husbands happy and doing dishes.

"Rape Schedule"

When I read this chapter of Full Frontal Feminism I was astonished. It also made me quite scared. Who do I know that would do something like that? I don't even want to think about it.

When reading about the "rape schedule" my first thought was I don't have one of those, but really the more I thought about the more I realized I do. First, I have extra locks. My doors came with just a bold, but my dad installed extra chains and a peephole on both the front and back doors. All my windows, with the exception of my bathroom one, has a lock on it. I don't want to turn out liek the woman in the hypothetical situation. My keys are dropped in my backpack when I leave my apartment, but the second we're released from class they're in my pocket. I try my best to stay out of the allies. Sometimes that's very hard though. If I have to walk I always talk on the phone. I read once that it would be better to not talk on the phone, but I just feel safer doing it. I normally call my dad or older sister, but I always tell them which ally I'm in just in case something happens. I also got the gene of being overly aware from my dad which makes me watch everyone I walk near just in case.

I don't think the rape schedule is such a bad thing. It's better to keep an eye out and make sure you get home alright. You can lock your doors and know your safe, that you've made through another day without being raped. You can take self defense classes ( the VCU police offer one for free!--> http://www.vcu.edu/police/rad.html) and you can buy pepper spray to try to ward off predators. It's up to us to protect ourselves and it's up to us to learn us much as we can to not only protect ourselves, but to help others that have either been hurt already or help educated others.

Other note: I sell Avon and before I started selling I had no idea how much they funded to help not only Breast Cancer, but Domestic Violence too. We sell a Empowerment necklace and bracelet. All the money is donated to the fund against domestic violence.

Guide for Hiring Women

I was stumbling around the internet and came across this 1943 Guide for Hiring Women.

http://i28.tinypic.com/2ih75hg.jpg

Two Sexes Are Not Enough

Before I started reading this, I only thought that there were two sexes and that everybody had to fit into one of the two categories. You're either male or your female. I never really thought that we needed anymore and we couldn't possible have any less, so I never thought about it.
My best friend got pregnant right out of high school and we would often discuss what we thought the sex of the baby would be, so during a lunch date I thought I'd ask my boyfriends opinion. Our conversation went something along the lines of this:
"So, Bryan, let's take bets on the sex of Laurens baby. I think it's going to be a boy. What do you think?"
"I think it's going to be a hermaphrodite. What do I get if I win?"
I thought his answer was ridiculous. Babies are girls or boys. Blue or pink.

It wasn't until I read this article that it really made me think. There doesn't have to be just two sexes. There are so many different types of people in the world, we can't all fit into only two categories. I think it would be sensible to open the world to different possibilities and open arms to include everyone. Opening the world to numerous sexes will eventually lead us closer to equality, maybe not fully but creating more than one will be a giant step in the right direction.


( We both lost the bet. Mikayla Paige was born on November 11, 2008.)

DQs

I was reviewing chapter 7s intro before making dinner tonight and thought of some questions.

Why do you think birthrates are declining in numerous parts of the world? I would have thought the opposite...

I thought about the Learning Activity on page 380. It asks you to conduct interviews of dorm mates or people around you. I only have me and my boyfriend right now. I'll just answer. It asks who you consider family. Well, I consider first my parents, sisters, cousins, etc family. I had a best friend growing up who became family, like another sister and her family became my family. When I started dating Bryan he quickly became family. After I met his family and spent more and more time with them they became my family. We don't all live together, that would probably be one cramped house. My dad took care of me and my family, but my mom was in charge of the financial well-being because she was the bread winner. I'm not so sure how to answer the extended question family. We (my immediate family) are attached to our extended family.

So, can any of you answer the questions for we can compare?

Ok, I ran out of time. I have to make dinner.

Sometimes You Have to Use What Your Momma Gave Ya

To fill the random voids in my day I normally spend time on the internet. Today while filling a void I stumbled upon this story about one awesome woman. Introducing Blenda!

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/blenda.html

Divorce Rates and such in Virginia

So, a few years ago my parents separated. They are in the process of divorce now. I never knew much about divorce, I think I had only two friends growing up whose parents weren't together any more. So, it really wasn't something I had to think about. Their separation was very bad on my sisters and I, worse on others, but still bad. So, considering this is so relevant in my life, I thought I'd look for a website to answers on page 388.

I found a website called DivorceSource.com; they have any different pages connected to their website and have tips at the bottom of the pages such as "Divorce Tip: #71 Women who are suffering from domestic violence should always have a safety plan in case of extreme emergencies."

Pretty interesting website and probably something I'll refer back to later.

http://www.divorcesource.com/info/divorcelaws/virginia.shtml

sad

Monday night was karaoke night for me and a group of my friends. I didn't sing thought. We hung out at Bogart's and watched people do karaoke and my boyfriend and I were put in charge of finding songs for our friends to sing. After they closed at 1:30 am, a few of us decided that we were hungry so we decided that 3rd Street Diner would be amazing then. I love this place. It's so delicious. The waitresses are really nice and the people that run it remind me of my family. The waitress we had I've seen there before. She took our orders and brought us drinks. While we were eating she randomly came over . "You all know those rowdy guys that were sitting here when you came in?" she said pointing at the booth next to ours. We all answered yes. "There's this kind of gay guy at the bar and they were pouring beer on his head and being mean to him." I was mad. Very mad. I still find it really hard to believe that people can be that mean to someone. Part of me wishes that those guys were still there for I could pour beer on their head and when they get mad and yell at me, I would just say "I'm pouring beer on your head because your different than me, your a man and I'm a woman. How does it feel, huh? Pouring beer on his head just because he's different than you. That's terrible and now you know how it feels." My vision of what would happen goes further than that, but I would probably end in me getting arrested. Unfortunately I can't do anything because it happened before we were there. I wish there weren't people like that in the world.