Event #1

            Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battering

I was trying to think of a clever title but my mind's not working correctly so I just gave up.

In any case, a few weeks ago, I decided to go to the viewing of Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battling. And y'all, let me just tell you that wrestling is some screwed up shit that brainwashes everyone (mostly men) who watch it. And it's funny, because people don't realize what's going on. They think it's "just entertainment" and "nothing is meant by it". When will people comprehend saying something just "is" is not a valid excuse for anything? Everything comes with baggage, whether you can read into it or not.

One of my favorite things that men were saying, in the film, when asked about wrestling in general was, "It's just a soap opera for guys". I just--. Literally, I had no words.

And then the movie began speaking on women, and the effect that wrestling had on them. Not only are women sexualized (like every other form of medium that's controlled by men with minds of thirteen year olds), but they pretty much stripped of everything they have. They are used as sexual figures to satisfy the need and desire of every man who watches in the audience. They are dressed up in clothes that reveal a lot of their body parts, and not just that, they need to fit the archetype that's given to them. There's this ridiculous and disgusting audition procedure for the women of the WWE called "the ho train", where they go around the country to pick up women. Like, honestly? "THE HO TRAIN"? If that doesn't scream misogyny, I don't know what does. Oh wait, I lied, I know what does. The fact that they literally beat these women up on stage -- men, that is. They are constantly being humiliated and forced to do acts that are just...plain sick (e.g. putting her head inside a "bucket of bile", or forced to get on her knees and beg for her job, or being stripped down in front of the whole crowd). You don't have to be a feminist to know that this is disgusting.

Women in the WWE are used to pretty much reinforced men's heterosexuality. They are often made to fight with other women in sexual positions, forced to kiss, and made to confused the "hatred" and anger  for sexual tension. It's funny though, because when we looked at the fighting between the men, it was almost the exact same thing, except people didn't make a big deal about that because the men were being manly and fighting and bullying each other and everyone knows that that's what being a man is about! The best part was when we were shown some fighting positions between men, and in the background and sensual tune played in the background, making us realize just how homoerotic wrestling really was, except everyone who watches fail to see that part of it.

When the audience was presented with a legitimate homosexual couple, they boo'd. Chuck and Billy weren't introduced to show diversity in wrestling, it was to enforce yet again how manly the rest of the men were. It also enforced the bullying and humiliation through homophobia. Ugh, it made me so angry. But what made me the most angry was the fact that people were buying into this bullshit. They were still saying that "IT'S JUST WRESTLING. IT'S HARMLESS FUN." Dude, are you kidding me? Do you really think you're four year old son is going to be able to tell the difference between reality and television? Do you really think this is going to go unnoticed for the rest of his life? Or do you think he's going to go to school and try this with one of his classmates?

One good example of what I ended the last paragraph can be seen in the film when one of the wrestlers brought his three and four year old offsprings (I guess children is a better word, but whatever) to one of his match. Before the match, he told his kids that it was all fake and that he was friends with all of the people he was going to fight. And yet, when he was in the ring, his children started crying and asking for his daddy. If they got the backstage pass and told it was all fake, and they couldn't differentiate between the two, what does that say about the youth that's watching this at home? Who have a tough time believing that it's fake?

make me a sandwich

I just had to share this with y'all because it made me laugh. 

UPS Threatens to stop funding Boy Scouts due to anti-gay policy

Okay, so there's a reason why I'm not studying to be a journalist. Plus let's be real, making up a headline would be too much work that I'm not in the mood for right now. IN ANY CASE! This news made me rediculously happy. Mainly because it's a step up in destroying the ideology that people pass on to children at such a young age. Sure, they don't blatantly teach it, but it's there. I just think that it was such an amazing move from UPS to do this, and I'm excited for things to change in the Boy Scouts . Because if they do budge, that's a step closer toward equality. One more domino down, y'all. The others should follow suit right away. :3

The United Parcel Service (UPS), Inc. will soon adopt a non-discrimination policy that disqualifies the BSA from future funding, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reports. UPS follows the Intel Foundation in withdrawing corporate sponsorship from the BSA, GLAAD officials note in an email statement.

"UPS and The UPS Foundation do not discriminate against any person or organization with regard to categories protected by applicable law, as well as other categories protected by UPS and The UPS Foundation in our own policies," UPS officials note on the company's website. "These include, but are not limited to race, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, pregnancy, age and religion."

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/ups-boy-scouts-america-donations-anti-gay-policy_n_2118878.html

Election Post

Like others, this was the first time that I had watched the election with such intensity and interest. It was also the first time I had seen my parents taking part in something that I honestly didn't think they would ever take part in. I got home a little bit after 8 in the evening from hanging out with a friend (that experience was also interesting because we talked about so many topics that we cover in class, but mostly race and it made me feel so fancy and educated), and my family had been watching it. They caught my up in the whole thing and I sat down with them. We spoke about the issues that were at hand, but just over the surface. My sister in law can be quite judgmental sometimes, so in order to not sound mean, she asked me to clear things up for my mother. It being my first time taking interest in the election, I had to look up some things in order to kind of understand what was happening, one of those things being the whole electoral vote per state thing, and their distribution. I didn't know how many votes went per state and how that number was determined. A quick Google search helped with that though, but only to a certain extent. By the time I was going to sleep, President Obama was already assumed to be re-elected, but Ohio still needed to be counted. My brother was watching Fox News ("Why?" was my question seeing as though that channel is so biased, but another post on that some other day), and they were making a fuss as to why he had been re-elected if one more state needed to put in their votes -- they thought Romney still had a chance. I was too sleepy to keep up so I went to bed. The day after, I found President Obama had been reelected. My mind was put into some kind of ease.

The next day my father had friends over, and they were drinking, and I was in the next room re-watching 30 Rock or playing Assassin's Creed 3 (I will be making a post about this later), or something. And at some point I had to pause to listen to my dad's discussion with his friends. My parents aren't very educated, especially my father, but somehow he had learned quite a bit about the politics of this country. My father doesn't know about my sexuality (long story), so when he struck on the topic of "the gays", my ears perked up. He was saying that there was no way Romney was going to win because he was denying gay people their rights, and because he said the whole "Marriage is between a man and a woman". And he said something that kind of made me smile. He said that gays have a lot of power (I guess more than given credit to), and that they played a big part in President Obama's reelection. He said this as if he was being accepting of gay culture, something I thought I was never going to hear. See? Humanity does have some sort of hope even in the older generations. My dad is kind of racist and not to mention homophobic, and yet, he voted for Obama (and praised him, really) and voice his (kind of) acceptance of gay people.

I am probably the most cynical person I know, which is why it surprises me that I have hope in people's positive views of feminism and the issues that it wants to abolish. It might take a while, but it's not impossible!

Sex positivity

I'm really glad we got to read about this in class because it was always something that I kind of knew, but in a kinda sort of way - basically, I never knew how to put it into words. I loved the wikipedia article because it finally gave me the words I want to use when I wanted to argue how porn is not an anti-feminist medium (can we call it that?). Well, it can be, but that all depends on the type. I know that it can represent sexualized violence against women, which isn't feminist at all. But at the same time, there are more ~friendly version that give women the position that men have in the porn industry. "Sex-positive feminists argue that access to pornography is as important to women as to men, and that there is nothing inherently degrading to women about pornography. Anti-pornography feminists however disagree, often arguing that the very depiction of such acts leads to the actual acts being encouraged and committed." See? It's still so conflicting to agree with either one of these views because I can see truth in both of them! But like I said, I guess it all depends on the type of porn that's being watched? Ugh, this is one of those things that I wish had a straight yes or no answer, but there's such a long gray area in between that makes me question one opinion from the other. So, where should I stand with this? On the one hand, I agree that it is a form of expression of women and freedom of speech. But on the other, seeing as though the porn industry is dominated by men, we often get the degradation of women (not saying that all men are misagynist but you know...). SO I'M CONFLICTED AND CONFUSED! But at the same time enlightened. Sigh, welcome to feminism I guess.

(Reflection~).

The World of Advertising is Screwed Up

I've been trying to think of the perfect time to introduce this video to the class, because I really like it, and after reading Peggy Orenstein's Cinderalla Ate My Daughter, I finally found the opportunity to think so. The video is called Toy Ads and Learning Gender by YouTuber Anita Sarkeesian focusing on the double standard and sexist advertising targeted to young boys and girls. It's a great video that shows just how early gender roles (and also masculinity vs. femininity) are established by the advertising world.

This is another video of Anita that focuses on LEGO and how they clearly target boys and girls differently, where a boy gets to build a castle and defend the land, and a girl gets a pink house where she can bake and look pretty.

(P.s. this is the hyperlink!)

Boys Will Be Bo--Oh shut up.

I absolutely agree with every point Jessica raised in her post. My favorite one had to be the quote she chose with gave light to the fact that these authors were only focusing on one type of "boys" and generalizing it for the whole gender. Like she said, it is unfair and excludes the rest of them. I know that different cultures teaches their boys different ways of behaving, however, I also know that in the end, the "boys will be boys" mentality is still there. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are different ways to get to that mentality, and these authors are talking about just one: being a white, privileged boy who grew up in a setting where he was surrounding by people who are like him. How are Black boys, or Hispanic boys, or Asian boys influenced by all this? Is it still in the media for them? Or is it in the way that they are raised? Lets not forget about those boys who are gay. Where do they fit in all this. Do they still have to follow the Boy Code and give into the pressure placed on them and act "manly"? I find this whole ideology of masculinity (yes, I do think it's an ideology and not in our nature to be violent - I don't speak for my whole gender, but look at me; I've never been in a fight, and I cry whenever I want, dammit) ridiculous and I'm so glad that I managed to get a new perspective on it; the feminist perspective. I can finally see how feminism can be one (and maybe the only) way to eradicate the idea of masculinity.

In the end, I agree with the initial point that Jessica raised in her post. We need to see studies done on many types of boys (race, sexuality, backgrounds), and then come back and tell share your findings. Because that is fair.

(Oh, this is extended comment btw~)