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)