Feminism, Sexism, and Heterosexism

    The readings this week as well as the class discussions have all been really intense yet extremely helpful in understanding the problems we are still facing today. The beginning of the reading starts talking about feminism and about the wrong way we are compared to men. One of the most disturbing yet very true thing I read in the book was on chapter 70 with the comparisons. Some of them like the meeting with the boss, having a child, getting married, made me really angry. Why if a man and a woman do the same thing, the woman has to be looked at so bad? I want to be a lawyer one day and I know I'm going to be facing situations like this since this that is male dominated profession. It just makes me sad that i will be doing what I love to do and I am going to be emotionally suffering so much! Reading chapter 73 also made a great impact. "To stop violence, against women, women must stop violence against herself" I love this! A lot of us tend to look down on ourselves, abuse ourselves. We also attack other women in our life. It is very important to stay strong and stay together.
This video down here is one I came across. It shows the manly figure in disney movies. I love disney movies, I have been watching them all my life. But honestly I had never realized how sexist they are. They just make this manly figure so much! Especially Mulan OMG i can't believe I had not noticed. Anyways I leave it to you guys to watch.

     The last reading began talking about heterosexism and I can say that I learned something really important, the definition of the term, Heterosexism is the "overarching system of advantages bestowed on heterosexuals, based on the institutionalization of heterosexual norms or standards" and pretty much excludes everyone who is not. The reading them goes on to talk about oppression and religion. It is pretty obvious how much heterosexuality is superior to anything else. Its crazy that we are such a free country yet anyone who is not heterosexual is just seen as a bad person. I really think it is just something that will never change no matter how much we try. Its pretty much like asking for equality for women, we know that no matter how much we strive for it and fight for it, there will always be those who are will not let it happen...

     

RACISM and SEXISM- yes, they still exist

    Let me just start with the Trayvon Martin murder and this controversial cartoon. I was in complete shock. How could this girl do this and get away with it?? The worst part is those who defend her and think she did nothing wrong. All of this angers me. But I guess some people that cant relate to it dont see how bad it really is. Hearing professor Gerstenblatt fear for her son, President Obama fear for his children, and Dr. Aguilar's mother fearing for him, just shows us how this case can really affect some of us. Now why is this girl going to draw something about this murder especially 1 month after the death of this child?? Not only his family but the majority of our country is hurting for this boy, it was just to early for all of that non sense. And honestly I dont think publishing this cartoon will ever be okay. Ugh can yall tell how angry I am???
    Now the videos we saw Monday really bothered me too. I honestly did not know there was that much oppression against women. Like I told professor Gerstenblatt at first I was mad, but then decided that wasnt going to take me anywhere, so then i began to think of my future and my dreams of becoming a political representative and felt much better. I am outspoken and strongly believe in equality so I will make sure to address any comments made to me by those ignorant men. As for now I will continue do my part in my community and advocate as much as I can :) What a week! I truly love this class! Although it may bring some horrible feelings inside I am glad I am aware of all of this. I believe it is better to be upset than ignorant because only upset will I be able to do something about it :)

Gender in our society

        Oh gender, gender, gender, so much to say! Honestly i had never really thought so much about gender and how much it plays a role in everyones life until coming to college. When I told my family in Mexico that I was going to the University of Texas, they were really happy for me but really surprised especially because my older brother did not go out of town to college, they were concerned. I was expected to simply graduate from high school and get married and have kids. Actually 95% of the Hispanic girls from back home did just that. Society and our culture has a specific plan for us according to gender.
      I really enjoyed the readings for this week. There were some quotes from the Adams book that I was like wow, but so true. One of the ones I found really funny was when men search to be approved by other men to have their manhood. I was confused in one of my French classes when I was asked if I was feminist. At first I said no, because I wasn't sure what it was. But I am, because I believe in equal rights. I found it really funny, but true, that it said in the book women want to be equal to men, but what men? Men are not equal, they are all different races and ethnicities. This comment left me thinking a lot! I can't even answer that. The whole violence agains women kind of threw me off too. Why should rape and assault done by men be a woman's issue? Women always have to be on guard and be careful because of men. Its funny because now I don't really like going to many places without my fiancé because of other guys. I feel threatened that I only feel safe with him.
    One of the things that affected me to most was the women's pay section. Now this really angers me. Why if we can do just as much or more than men do we have to be paid less? My fiancé is concerned since I want to go to law school. He is not to happy at the fact that I will probably be making more money than him. Why is it such a big deal? Again, i think this affects some cultures more than the others. Culture plays an immense part in gender. Reading about gender had never affected me as much as it does not that i am learned and realizing so much about it.
      I leave you guys with this really cute but very true and interesting video!

Kony

     I know I am a little late in blogging about the Kony issue I had no internet at home over the break :) But this is a topic that impacted me a lot! When I first watched the video, I watched it with Desiree and our first reaction was, "we need to help! We have to raise awareness and put an end to this man!" I immediately wanted to buy the kit to help out. When more and more people started hearing about it there were a lot  of negative comments about the issues. All their comments were really hurting me. I understand that people have different opinions about the issue but why make so many negative comments when people are dying?
    Now there is controversy about how the funds for the charity are being used and about the creator being arrested. Many people are now against this whole movement. Professor Gerstenblatt mentioned in class today that people are feeling offended with everything. With all of these controversies I still want to help. I can't help with money but I feel that it is important to raise awareness and let the government know that we care about this issue and that they should so something about it. And like I mentioned in class today, we shouldn't just step in but instead get together with the people of Uganda and see what they want from us. We must work together with them and figure out an intervention. i feel that as social work students we should create a plan for the movement that will take place on April 20th.

A Little More About Religion

     Since I read the readings about religion in the Adams textbook last week, it was what I blogged about last week. However, with our discussions in class yesterday about religion, so many more thoughts came up. And seeing that I wasn't the only one in the class who had mixed feelings made me feel a lot better about the inner struggles I have been facing.
     It is not very easy for me to be able to express myself in class, in front of people that I really do not know. But on Wednesday when we were discussing about religion, I just really felt the need to express myself. After I heard Nikki talk about how she is Catholic yet she is against many of the religion's beliefs, I felt a sudden relief. I finally heard another person who is Catholic that thinks just the way I do. At that moment I felt the need to let everything out and let the class know what I had been holding in for a very long time.
    The questions towards my religion and more towards the church have been going on for a while yet they have recently popped back in my head. Not only with the Adams reading and with the class discussions, but if I think back a little to some of the fist readings in the Zinn's book, religion had a big part in that. When the Spanish came to America, they attempted to turn all of the indigenous people into Catholics, they wanted to spread the word. But if they were so religious, why did they torture the indigenous people? Doesn't God teach us to love our brothers? Professor G mentioned how they built the beautiful missions along the western and southern coasts, yet while building them they tortured so many people. And then reading Adams book about how Christianity is a privileged religion in the United States makes me think about the ideas that this country was built on. Through torture, slavery, segregation, sexism, and all of the wrongful things this country has done, this just upsets me. And I am Catholic, I cant imagine how does who aren't feel. I love God, and I love the beliefs of the Catholic religion, yet there are a lot of things that the church has done and that the church believes that I am completely against. What was said in class really moved me and made me feel a lot better. After expressing myself professor G told me that even if I don't agree with bits and pieces of the church that it was okay. That there are somethings I'm going to agree with and some things I am not.
     After struggling so much with all of these thoughts, I can finally say I feel so much better! Before I felt as if I was doing something wrong. I felt I was being a bad person going against all of the beliefs that I grew up with. And although I know that I will probably never be able to talk about this subject openly with my grandma, I can honestly say I feel really great about myself! Who knows, maybe I'll sit down and talk to a priest one on one about all of my thoughts and questions. I feel like I have the courage to do that now. This class has done so much for me that I am so excited to see what the rest of the semester is going to bring us all!

Religion and other stuff

  So about religion, reading the Adams textbook about religion made me think a lot about my own thoughts, my own beliefs. I grew up Catholic and still consider myself one. For a time I was questioning the church a lot but just learned to believe in God and thats all I needed. Today, I have been attending church and reading the bible regularly trying to get closer to God, but this reading made my previous thoughts and disagreements come back up.
   A couple years ago I was very confused. My church said that God loved and accepted everyone. What I didn't understand was why was the church so much against gay couples and divorce. Of course my mom and grandma had a great explanation but I was struggling with my beliefs. Why can't two men or two women be together if they love each other? Im sure God sees that and understands love. After all he wants us to always love one another. And why if your divorced you're not welcome at the church? So is a woman getting beat and cheated on by her husband suppose to deal with it in order to not disobey God? Also when the Davinci Code and Angels and Demons came out I didn't question the existence of God but I did question my mom about the church. The only thing she could tell me was to simply believe in God and ignore all that. So I did but now its come back up. I will always be a Catholic but I will never hide my disagreement with some of the things the church does. The video I posted below made a great impact on me.

   I was waiting to talk about religion in this class so that I could share this video with you guys. When I saw it, it completely changed me. Seeing how religion is and all of the example this guy brings up, one of them being about divorce, makes me really upset. Another example he brings up is how the church has so much money yet there are so many homeless people to feed. This video just speaks for itself please watch it its amazing!
    Now Wal-Mart, lets just say I will never shop there again, not even on Black Friday! It is so disappointing that such a rich company, such a rich family, does nothing but bad for this country. I used to see Wal- Mart as a good thing. A store where you can find anything you need. I would think that any small town would be honored to have such a big store. Oh how I was wrong. This video brought tears to my eyes. Seeing all those families who owned those small stores for generations and were forced to close down broke my heart. What were they suppose to do? How would they make a living now? Its just not fair. And now that I think about it, when I am driving back home to Galveston and I pass through Brenham and Giddings, I see a lot of these small empty stores downtown. I always wondered why they were abandoned and why downtown was so empty. Now I know why. The worst part about all this was seeing how the Walton family, some of the richest people in the country, is so unfair and greedy. They can't help out the workers being exploited in China nor the ones here. This just makes me so upset and so angry!
   On a brighter note, the rest of the culture boxes were great!! I got to share mine and see learn a lot about others in the class. This is by far my favorite assignment here at the School of Social Work.