doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
women
constructing identity
04 years ago
My world these days is full of thinking about how we create identity in online communities (specifically women). We create multiple identities (as we do in our offline lives — mother, student, employee, etc) and sometimes those identities are fractured or are portraying us in ways that are not as flattering as we would like.
This video shows some of the issues I’ve been thinking about. How far do we go to project ourselves in certain ways or how much attention are we paying to how we do project ourselves?
I’ve been wondering what kinds of responsibilities we have to ourselves, to other women, and to the girls coming behind us to create identities that avoid sexist stereotypes, contribute to stronger female images, and that build up women instead of tearing them down.
There is so much out there already tearing us down. Why do we persist in doing it to ourselves as well?
onslaught
0This is the best Dove commercial yet.As I wrote to my brother, this little girl reminds me of my niece, Willow; not only because she’s a redhead but because I have wondered what she sees every day.
It makes me want to be a better woman so she has one more woman (besides her mom) who she can see as strong, independent, and not willing to compromise my beliefs to fit in with what society deems is appropriate (and what may go against my own ideals).
love = violence
0There is a problem mixing alcohol and a highly viewed video podcast that is watched by a lot of younger men — especially when you make a stupid comment about punching a women with a ring-encrusted fist to show her some love. Seriously. I kid you not.
Alex Albrecht made this comment on Diggnation this week.
I’m happily going along, listening to the podcast as the guys (Albrecht and Kevin Rose) talk about a marriage proposal that had made the top diggs, when they start discussing how they would top this particular proposal. That’s when he says it. The video is right here. Check it out. I made it short (37 seconds) so all of you could watch it.
What makes me really angry (besides the fact that no “girls” watch their show) is that they giggled about it afterward. And not only that, but a lot of young men follow them. Oh, sure, you might want to say I’m overreacting, that he was just horsing around. But it is exactly this kind of attitude that gets us into trouble. The man actually advocated punching someone to show love.I’m not laughing. Neither of them should be, either.
all in
04 years ago
One of my favorite things about the blogging community is how there is a lot of interaction. People want to be heard and to hear what you have to say.
While many of the blogs that I read are technical, political, and/or feminist in nature, I also like to check out new blogs or find people who are creative and interesting — who give me insights into issues that I wouldn’t normally encounter or would approach from a different angle.
I found Jaycee’s Semantically Driven through BlogHer, a site that is geared toward promoting women bloggers. How could I not be drawn in? I mean really…the title of her blog is all about language. Have I said how much I love language? Whee!
Seriously, though…Jaycee helps women promote their blogs through an exercise called all women blogging carnival. It’s a nice way for people from all over the world to see what one another are engaged in and to be introduced to some new bloggers. I’m going to highlight a few that caught my attention.
- Becky, at Just a Girl in Short Shorts, writes about spanking her daughter and wonders if others feel the same way about corporal punishment. Anyone who has ever been a part of the torrential downpours that occur during the season and have seen the powerful walls of water that go through normally dry beds will understand her fear, her concerns, and her overwhelming need to teach her daughter about this subject.
- Klamath Design writer, Linda, reminds us about the importance of backing up our databases — information that we should always remember but rarely do.
- Jill, from Writes Like She Talks, shares a YouTube video that isn’t quite the rhetorical response to female legislators that most of us would prefer to see.
- At Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker, Patricia writes about her friends, the love she has for them, and how death can’t supersede that love.
I probably would have never seen these blog entries if I hadn’t gone to Jaycee’s site. It’s a good thing to go outside of your communities. There are wonderful and interesting things to read and see.
blue blanket
0Andrea Gibson performs Blue Blanket from her album, Swarm.
This pretty much left me speechless. Can’t add much more to her words.
found via feministing
telling
4 
Yesterday I wrote about a woman being branded by a group of people for calling CPS to protect children.
Today, I’m going to write about the way a female candidate is treated by a certain male journalist.
But first, confirm this for me. We are in the year 2007, right? And people keep saying we’ve reached the threshold of equality, right? I mean, I keep hearing younger people saying that we have complete equality between the sexes.
But…the disparity between us is still huge. Take, for instance, the election for President of the United States.
MediaMatters reports that on the Chris Matthews Show, this took place:
Asked by Time managing editor Richard Stengel, “What are you suggesting by asking does this diminish her as a commander in chief by being surrounded by women?,” Matthews replied: “No, the idea that it — well, let me just get historic. We’ve never had a woman commander in chief.”
Right…historic. Because everything should be based on what has happened in the past. As if going with the status quo — John Wayne and General Patton — has been so great for us.
What really gets me, though, is that people are actually discussing the fact that Clinton has other women surrounding her. That’s a bad thing? And then discussing their hair color. WTF?!?
“It makes a case with a certain demographic, and I noticed the picture on the front of The Washington Post the other day showed her with all these women and her crew, and did you notice, there was only one blonde out of about 15 women, so it sort of — I thought that was very telling.”
Women with needs, Matthews says. Yeah…because, really, we’re either needy, maladjusted women or supposed to be beautiful, barefoot, and in the kitchen waitin’ for our man. We’re not supposed to be ambitious, intelligent, or fraternizing with other ambitious, intelligent women. Cardinal sins, those are.
Be a good girl. Shut your mouth. Don’t try to work outside the box.
snitch
0 
The things that human beings do to one another never fails to surprise me. I cannot even begin to think up these things and yet, new atrocities happen every day.
In the Phoenix news today:
The suspects shaved off a portion of the victim’s hair and using a branding iron, wrote the word “snitch†on her face, then blindfolded her, officers said.
Her body was also burned with a propane torch, investigators said.
I am sick to my stomach over this. It pisses me off.
People are frightened enough about coming forward and reporting crimes — especially crimes dealing with domestic violence. Then some monsters come along and mutilate a woman for watching out for their children — children they should have been caring for — and I think this will scare people away from calling the authorities even more.
They waited for her. They waited in the house for her so they could torture her.
I can only imagine what their children have been going through. I hope the children find good homes and that this woman is able to find some semblance of peace after this.
Monsters.
do I look fat in these jeans?
04 years ago
In April, I wrote about the study of the sexual orientation of women and men. I discussed how we are bombarded with images of women in sexual poses from the moment we are born and how that may affect the way we view women sexually.
A co-worker recently sent me a video about advertising and the portrayal of women in advertising. It is 34 minutes long but I think it’s worth a half hour of our time. It will make you think.
One thing I do want you to consider while you watch this is the jokes made about men (the minute rice comment, for instance). While she does promote equality and advocates for less objectification of both sexes, there are still a few derogatory statements made about men — something that shouldn’t be a part of this kind of presentation.
Words are important. The way we use them along with images can give an entirely different meaning to the subject. Contextualization is everything.
women & sexuality
0
I was recently listening to a Scientific American podcast (you did realize I’m totally geeky, right???) and they mentioned a blog post of theirs that refers to a NYTimes article about men and women’s sexual orientation.
While I couldn’t read the NYTimes article (because I don’t have an account and I refuse to get one more account to a place that I may only visit from time to time), I did read the excerpts on SciAm’s page and on The Stranger’s slog. What I come away from these articles thinking about is that they aren’t realizing how much play pop culture would have on this supposed sexual orientation. For instance, SciAm quotes:
Presumably the masculinization of the brain shapes some neural circuit that makes women desirable. If so, this circuitry is wired differently in gay men. In experiments in which subjects are shown photographs of desirable men or women, straight men are aroused by women, gay men by men.
Such experiments do not show the same clear divide with women. Whether women describe themselves as straight or lesbian, “Their sexual arousal seems to be relatively indiscriminate – they get aroused by both male and female images,” Dr. Bailey said. “I’m not even sure females have a sexual orientation. But they have sexual preferences. Women are very picky, and most choose to have sex with men.”
This is my theory: We are bombarded with images of women and sexuality each and every day of our lives, from the moment we are born until the day we die. We see women in all modes of dress in ad compaigns, television shows, movies, and in life. We do not see men in the same way.
I think that it is also the norm for “red-blooded” American men to say that they don’t find other men attractive.
It’s not the same with women. We have been shown women all of our lives. “Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she sexy? Isn’t she stunning?” We have had women’s bodies literally shoved down our throats until we naturally agree that women are sexy and beautiful.
Would that not then translate into what we find sexually appealing? When we are told that a certain shape and form is sexy and desirable all of our lives, I can imagine that we’d begin to find them thus even if that wasn’t our “bent.”
I hear men saying that all women are bisexual. I disagree. I just think that we are able to say that we find women desirable because we are open to finding them desirable — even if we would never want to have sex with them.
one giant step
0
I am thrilled that a woman has finally been elected as Speaker of the House. This powerful position is in the number 3 spot for the Presidency of the United States (behind the President, himself, of course, and the Vice President).
What I’m not so thrilled about is that it is Pelosi. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s a decent representative. However, I think she plays favorites (as witnessed with her earlier nomination of a friend who had ethics issues) and this whole thing about being the mother is really starting to irk me.
I think that her play on “mothering five children so I can handle the House” is silly. Really. It belittles the members of Congress. They are not children (although, on occasion, some members have acted more like children than most of the kids I know). I think it also reinforces this whole attitude of women being mothers first.
We’re not all mothers. Some of us don’t ever want to be. Some of us will never get the chance. That doesn’t mean, however, that we, too, couldn’t make good leaders in government, commerce, or otherwise. Being a mother doesn’t mean you can be, either.
Yes, it’s an admirable job. In fact, I’ll be the first to say that I think parenting is the hardest job people have and those that do it well should be commended and looked up to for what they do. I admire good parenting. I admire the kids that come from good parenting. I don’t think parents get enough credit for what they do.
What bothers me, however, is that this theme keeps coming up with Pelosi. Great, she’s been a mom to five. Great, she’s a grandmother. That’s awesome. But what will she do for this country? And how will she do it without looking at all of us like we’re her children? We’re not. We are the people who pay her salary and we deserve to be treated as such, not patronized or condescended to.
That’s not good parenting.