The article written by Stanton struck me as very interesting since we are discussing some of the same issues in my women’s studies class that Stanton brought up so long ago. The issue of the right to vote was obviously resolved, but from some of the videos from the presentation on Monday, it was easy to see that many people think all of women’s issues are now resolved and do not need any improving. I thought this was interesting because I also never realized what women in other countries, and even in the U.S. to an extent, are still having to go through. One of the things here that I realized still needs a lot of work is peoples’ perceptions of what it means to be a feminist. Many people associate the term feminist with negative things such as angry women, women trying to overpower men and that all feminists are lesbians. Some of the men in America seem to think that women aren’t oppressed anymore simply because they have the right to vote and can go out and get jobs. Today, it is not even noticed how frequently women are subjected to being objectified in the media and in magazines and ads. If you go through a magazine right now, try to find how many times there are women that are related to objects, especially sex objects. I guarantee you will find many connections between what Stanton was saying and how women are still seen now.
One of the most shocking things in the videos was how women were not willing to call themselves feminist just because of others’ thoughts about it. In third world countries, if you asked someone what it meant to be a feminist, I bet many of them would not even know. Many women there are still oppressed, have no choice in many of their daily activities and are also being raped and beaten during wars. These women have no choice to be a feminist or not like we do. I think that it is hard for us as Americans to relate to this because many of us barely ever see these things or know that they are still going on in the world. We also talked a lot about religion and how it plays a role in women’s rights. Some use religion as a way to justify the oppression of women, like the man in the video that referenced the bible. I feel like that is the exact opposite of what religion is about. Many times we are told to love one another and treat each other as equals, yet some men still use the bible as justification for treating women as inferiors. One of the things that I wanted to express which I think plays a part in how you view women’s rights is the way that you are raised. It could even tie back into the religion thing; whether or not someone was raised in a religious environment or not has an effect. One of the best examples that I can give of this is about my boyfriend. He was raised only by his mom who at the time was a deputy sheriff (which was brought up in class to be the “man’s” job). By only having her there to raise him and show him how she does things, he has grown up to view women as a powerful force that can do anything they set their minds to, including the things that are said to be only for men to do. I guess the question raised with that is the nature vs. nurture thing. Are people programmed to view things the way that they do or do they get these ideas about women’s rights from their environment and the views put upon them by their rearing?
1 comment:
I believe that nurture plays a very large role in one's life. During the summer, I work out at a camp and 9 times out of 10 it seems like the disrespectful, rude children come from homes where parents to not enforce the rules. The children that are well behaved and follow the rules come from homes where rules are more enforced. I also find that one can usually tell if someone was rasied in a community were a majority of the population has money including their family. They sometimes seem to look down on others. So nurture does play a very large part on one's views. This does not mean, however, that there are not those that people who raised one way and act another.
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