Blog 13 Peace on Earth

Is it possible to achieve peace? This is a question that has been asked for probably thousands of years. Peace on earth is a common motto during Christmas time. Why cant the giving and activism continue throughout the year. Is it that people are not capable to do so. Is out world set up so that people try to be good humans only for a short amount of time and go back to screwing up. Maybe, most humans are programed to try but fail, but deep down I believe that humans are capable of much more than what meets the eye. Humans were born with a soul and a brain if you but two and two together people have all the qualities that one would need to give and create a peaceful environment all year long. Now, I am not 100 years old and I am no professor but it seems to me that humanity has become so trapped in fitting into the social norms of their cultural society that they have lost sight of the true and beautiful ideals of life. One thing in America that is socially acceptable is for people to work around the clock. What happened to taking a small amount of time lets say 30 min. to breath or laugh! All I am saying is that perhaps the pop-culture is not all that it is cracked up to be. Perhaps we would all be better and have more peace in our lives if we went against the social and popular norms of our society through creating an environment full of peace and love as much as possible. Maybe just maybe their would be more peace on earth and joy if people were less hedonistic and more giving all year long the world would be a better place! Until then I will keep on keeping on with my life philosophies and I will keep hope alive.

OBAMA :) Blog 9

This bog is not directly in reference to this weeks reading but I found it necessary to touch on the topic of the Presidential election. During the last couple months Americans have found themselves in quite the dilemma over whom to vote in to be the next president. This situation has affected our society in both positive and negative ways. There was much turmoil over the Republicans choice for V-P. And there was much turmoil over the Democratic Party’s choice for President, Senator Barack Obama and his religious values and who he affiliated with. Throughout the long and tedious process of the campaigning trail the media had great affect over the way they chose to portray it to Americans. As the campaigning was unfolding most media sources chose to leave specific information about the candidates out of their media delivery. I will not get into the important information they chose to leave out of their delivery but I will make it clear that they could have chose to make paranoia and drama not key points of their coverage process. The point is the media has their own agenda and that we cannot just blindly accept their pseudo- environments and make them our reality, instead we must fight for the truth and try to create balanced messages about issues that occur in our society and around the world. We can choose to accept the media messages as our truth or we can choose to differentiate the messages and find truth for ourselves.
These realities that the media feeds Americans created for an unsteady and vulnerable environment for the American people during the election. Since the media created a reality filled with uneasy emotions, American society mirrored those emotions in their daily lives though talking about what the media displayed about the election. This week Obama Won the Election, he is now the new president. Though he has changed the course of history and opened up doors of hope to all people in America, his job will be extremely hard for he has extremely high standards to meet! He has to fix America what a job! In addition, I know not everyone is an Obama believer but people should at least try to support him even if they support the Republican Party’s candidate. Unfortunately, I know many women in their forties and fifty’s who went to pity parties this week to morn the loss of the Republican Party. Though I am sure they could have spent their time more productively, but instead they decided to make insults towards our new president, but perhaps they felt it necessary to cry over McCain’s loss. Well, what ever the case we women and men, of all cultural backgrounds, must join together and support our new president though prayer and positive words. So, Obama rock on and rock out the White house!

Its not over untill the cute white lady with square glasses cries... Blog 8

As the days draw near the questions begin to rapidly arise about each candidate and their ideas. I am pretty sure that almost every person in American can agree on one thing, that this election has been one of the most controversial and flat out weird elections in Americas History. Both candidates are very interesting characters. You have an old white conservative man, partnered up with a Woman for VP and then on the other hand you have a less conservative, more liberal Black man partnered up with a white man who is older. These generalizations in themselves are interesting. The main point that I would like to bring up for this week’s blog is how the media is still scrutinizing Governor Palin with a very fine magnifying glass. This week CNN.com posed that “Palin’s Future causes Republican Rift”. The article highlighted the fact that many republicans believe that Palin has hindered John McCain’s voter status, thus causing him to eventually lose the race. It also touched on the point that many people could see her running for the President independent from McCain in 2012 this idea has caused many people to think that if the GOP loses, it will face a huge identity crises. As I read through the article I found that people are questioning Palin’s ability to be in the White house. For example Peggy Noonan wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal column ,in regards to Palin, that, "She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? It's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just ... says things (cnn.com), what a clear cut opinion about one aspect of the GOP’s current situation. In addition, CNN.com stated that, it’s an argument that has been echoed by a string of conservatives -- including David Brooks, George Will, Kathleen Parker, and David Frum -- who believe Palin exhibits a poisonous anti-intellectual instinct of the party that threatens to ultimately destroy its foundations. All in all, the real concern that I have is that all of the clutter that is discussed about Palin has taken away from the main messages that the GOP should be sending to the people which has caused even more problems for the GOP. In regards to my ideals over the CNN comments, I feel that throughout the campaign Palin has clearly tried to do a good job in dealing the crazy and overwhelming political world, but through many of the conversations that I have watched her have with interviewers and such she has demonstrated that at this current moment she is not ready to be in office. But, I am not saying that she does not have the potential to someday be in office, all I am saying is that she has quite a ways to go.

Women, why do they have to be so catty Blog # 7

Some times I wonder how women can have women friends. Ok, so this is a stretch but, I can’t help but look around me and see so many catty women. It is crazy. I always thought that when I grew up and got out of grade school I would not see this kind of behavior any more because the women would be older have more self esteem and be more respectful of others. Unfortunately, I am in college now and this is not the case. I have found that the queen bees of my grade school are even more demanding, dramatic, that they have more followers, and they have accumulated more malicious ways to belittle other women. It is quite a shame. Even the christianly women, who think that they are not gossipers, really are in reality. For example, I was at a golf tournament, practicing for the next day of tournament play, when a girl from another team came up to me and started talking maliciously about a girl that she had played with from the previous day. I was in shock. I am one to who carefully chooses my words before I speak in order to be kind and not offend any one. My ideals go back to the fundaments of what most mother’s say to their children, “if you don’t have anything nice to say than don’t say any thing at all”, what a great quote. This quote if followed properly could save a lot of people from being hurt. In addition to my personal example, women in the media are eating Sarah Pailn up again for her spending 15, 000 on her wardrobe. The, latimesblogs.com stated that, “it seems you can take the girl out of the beauty pageant, but you can’t take the beauty pageant out of the girl… voters must find it unfathomable for Palin, who has been presented as a woman “like us,” to spend that kind of money on clothes in these difficult financial times, to see her speaking so passionately about Joe the Plumber while plumbing campaign coffers for Valentino jackets and pencil skirts… In Palin’s defense, being a woman in the public eye has its own kind of pressures.”(Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times Fashion Critic)These quotes are an example to a degree of cattiness that is being pushed upon Palin.
One must wonder what it must be like being in the public eye and being constantly spoken about from women in the media and the general public. Any ways, my point is that women can be catty and can hurt the feelings of other women. If we as women could just follow the golden rule that many of our mothers taught us society might not me so crazy!

Why does Food get such a Bad rap?Blog 6

In keeping with the body image theme, I wanted to bring up a hidden factor that many women commonly tend to forget, "Food is Good for the body". I mean when did food start getting such a bad rap? Women these days complain about how many calories are in their food and they complain about how much they eat, or how much they should not eat, and the weight that they lost from not eating. So, when did people begin to forget that food is great for your bod. Perhaps as society has evolved and has become faster- faster- and more rushed-rushed health and eating well slowly slipped onto the back burner. The more rushed one’s lifestyle became the faster people needed to eat. Convenience foods were brought into the lime light, and sooner than later Valhalla eating quick mass produced meals was easier than ever! This fast food created people to gain weight and forget about good foods that would nourish one’s body. According to Shape magazine, "Americans spend just 67 minutes a day (that's 20 minutes per meal!) eating". (October 2008) Geez isn’t that crazy. With women rushing around multi tasking eating has become an annoying necessity. Also it has become an emotional crutch. Women eat when stressed, lonely, tired, exc. Which is no good for ones waist line? Ultimately, when it comes to food women especially need to revamp their eating style. We can start by taking time( through a little bit of planning) to savor the right food( which is fresh, not fat laden convienience foods). The key is to slow down and be mindful of each bite, and hey while you’re at it BREATH it does the body and mind good!
Good Luck

Oh Ellen I heart you! Blog 5

Now days there are some pretty controversial shows on day time television. One in which I take a particular likening to is The View. This show is great because there are five completely different talk show personalities that reign on the show. The five co-hosts are, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd. These women wake up go to their job and talk about the main issues that are hot topics in the media and in society in general. For instance today they got in a 15 minute argument over how each of them predicted Gov. Palin might do during Thursday’s debate. I mean if you want to get anyone heated up over a topic POLITICS would be it. Now Whoopi is a strong feminist and she was concerned about Palin representing the Republican Party because of how Palin responded to Katie Couric's interview questions a few days ago. Just for the record that interview was quite a blunder in my opinion and many other people’s opinions as well. It was a blunder because Palin was not answering with clear or concise answers. Actually, her answers did not even make much since. I know I shouldn’t but I feel for the woman, she is being scrutinized for her every move and if she were to get elected in to the white house with Mc Cain it would only get worse for her. But that is the card you receive for accepting the nomination. Any way back to the view… so today the co- hosts got very fiery about Palin’s previous interview with Mrs. Coric and also they were slightly yelling in disagreement over how they thought Palin would do on Thursday’s debate against Biden. Every host on the show seemed to be a democrat except for Elisabeth who is the youngest woman on the show this caused for major arguments. In the end Elisabeth had no chance in winning because she could not provide enough background information in support of the Republicans.
In my house hold (which consist of just two people (my roomy and I) we have arguments over politics and it can get pretty heated. For instance, I was speaking with my roomy and she stated that she was not going to vote during this election and I looked at her in shock, then I replied WHY? She stated that she felt that she should not have the right to vote in this election because she did not know enough about each candidate, thus showing me that she did not want to put in the effort to research them out. I looked at her and said; look I would highly recommend that you put in 20 minutes of research and vote for a candidate because the women who fought for your right to vote would not be pleased if they heard you neglecting you right as a woman to vote. I mean c’mon take advantage of your rights and vote wisely. Like Ellen DeGeneres said “Laugh, dance, vote”. At the end of the voting day I feel that in order to make our ancestors who fought for our rights proud all women who are able to should vote. It just makes sense.

Beyond the Media?

As I was thinking about what I would post for this week I came across a website that gave me my idea. The website is called http://www.beyondmedia.org/ and its primary purpose is to depict the overall diversity of women in different cultures through promoting free individualistic self expression. I was instantly fascinated by this websites collaboration effort in presenting to society many women’s stories through media arts forums. Here is Beyond media’s vision, “Beyond media Education envisions a compassionate and just society where universal access to media tools and information equip women and youth to document and communicate their stories, serve as educators and role models for others, influence public policy, and generate social transformation”. What a great idea that is in action. This web site offers a variety of positive ideals which can have a great effect on society and the way people in society view women. I feel that this website can show people the greater sides of powerful, smart, innovative, women.
I really liked their preference ideal over what media education should be like, they stated that, “Beyond media, defines narrative agency as the linchpin of personal and global transformation: to frame and speck one’s point of view, and derive response”. This is a very important concept that should be taken very seriously in a world where people are conditioned to view our society as a place where ideals are to simply be accepted and not questioned, but rather that should simply not be the case. Instead all people should constantly be questioning the roles that society plays in our daily lives. If more people did this than people may not stereo type women into one main group, or judge people based off of the designer label they are wearing on their backs. I think that Beyond media, has got it right. It is imperative for more people to discern the idea that the media is a forum in support of the greater social structure.
As a result the media allows for diversionary tactics to occur in their forums in order to allow for main issues to be conveniently forgotten. This clutter provided by the media, (which is false consciousness), allows for the main issues to be diverted away from. False consciousness ultimately keeps people away from the truth because of the illusions that take the main issues out of focus. Ultimately these events in the media create the perfect grounds for our current socioeconomic structure to stay the same. I do think that Beyond media is a website that I will continue to investigate because they are on to something that has the potential to help many people gain more knowledge, creating a better world.

Women Athletes in our Society

I began playing golf when I was 5 years old. My father cut down a set of means golf clubs in order to fit my small stature. He taught me everything about the game. We spent countless hours together, laughing, practicing, and playing golf. He always taught me the value of my mind and how I could compete against any one, male or female. As a child I looked up to my father for his golfing abilities and one day I knew I wanted to beat him. This drive eventually helped me to beat him and many other men in the golf world that I have encountered. My drive to win as a female helped me to be a division one golfer in collage. I distinctly remember playing golf with my dad and having men say to me “wow you don’t hit that like a girl” whenever men said positive or negative comments about me playing Golf which means (Gentlemen only Ladies Forbidden), I would always want to excel even more to prove that I as a ladies could play just as good and if not better then the boys. In our world today even though media feeds the ideals that women are less of athletes then males. I am living proof that women can compete against any one and win. Also, a professional women’s golfer Annika Sorenstam was the first woman to play on the PGA Tour in may of 2003. She stated that she was curious to see if she could compete in a PGA Tour event. The previous woman to contend in a men's professional tour event was Babe Zaharias, who played in the 1945. Before Annika played in the mens tournament there was no other woman on record to have played in a PGA Tour event. Even though Annika missed the cut she stated that she was pleased with her overall performance and that she had learned a lot in the process. Annika, took a huge risk that day as a female playing against men but she came out on top and she showed all female athletes that yes you can compete against the boys and do well! I have always admired her influential role as a female athlete, and two years ago I had the opportunity to meet her and in the couple minutes that I had with her I said this" Annika I want to thank you on behalf of all aspiring golfers for inspiring all of us to do better and to reach higher, I thank you".

Sara Palin ( What a spot to be in) Blog 2

When I first heard that John McCain selected Sarah Palin to be his vice president I automatically thought that he choose her because he wanted to get women’s votes Then I went on to read such head lines, “McCain needed Sarah Palin, icon of sex -- not gender -- to recharge his potency and the cultural oomph of the right” and also, “Palin should be laughing stock to all feminists, Instead, this fast talker is a star—and that scares me.” These head lines were ones that I predicted.

I began to research Sarah Palin and found out some interesting things. First she has a rather large family of five children. One child of hers has downs’s syndrome. Since she is a mother and has a four-month-old (D.S.) son she supports protecting the unborn children and she is against the trend of genetic testing and eugenic abortions in the past these trends have made such children a small, almost unprotected minority in America. Recently Palins’ daughter Bristol is five months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry the father of her child. Wow, what a full plate Sarah Palin has! I feel that feminists will not embrace this part of her views because she is against abortion and most feminist are pro-choice. This could actually bring the feminist communities to not want to vote for her, even though Sarah is the first female to be selected as vice president of the United States of America. If she does end up winning the vice presidency it will be a monumental day for women in America, but will most women be happy about it or will they feel that it was a loss because Mc Cain used her as a sex symbol?

Feminists in the World- What do they look like?

Knowledge is one of the key elements in acquiring a constructive balanced life. In our present society knowledge is power and it is crucial in understanding how different ideals work. For example, before I began taking this Women’s Studies course I did not truly understand what a Feminist was. Now with in the first week of starting this course my horizon has expanded into territories of ideals that I never had thought about. Now I would credit feminists under a light that states that most feminist are exemplary females who are humanists, power houses, innovators, and I would state that feminists are women who are grateful towards the women who have gone before them and fought for equality and justice.
Today I watched a video on You-Tube called “This is what a Feminist Looks Like.” I found this to be a wonderful eye opener for me. This video shows its audience that a feminist can be either male or female and is not a angry person who is a man hater. It defines and outlines what a feminist stands for. The video “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” declared how many feminist women feel about a feminism and it showed what type of belief system feminists were a part of. In general the women and men in the movie stated that a feminist is, “ social equality for women…a humanist, a smart, beautiful, fearless,strong,kind,intelligent,invinsable,active,impowering,individiual,cool,and funny, but most of all a feminist is a person who fights for equality for all people.”(http://www.youtube.com/ ) With these definitions in mind, I realize how important a fundamental understanding over the topic of feminism is in obtaining knowledge and a general comprehension of what is happening around you in the twenty-first century. Overall, feminism is a huge part of the dynamics of today’s society. Feminists today have more knowledge at their finger tips than ever and are using their knowledge towards producing media (through means of You-tube and other sites) for the masses in hopes to inspire others about what feminism is and what a feminist truly looks like.

Works Cited
Lynda Burnstyn and Cathee Weiss,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YA13GNT8Mc&feature=related (2, September 2008)