Pussy Pouch versus the Penis Shirt

So as I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed this morning, I came across this, and had to stop.
http://www.bustle.com/articles/72169-how-the-damnsel-pussy-pouch-can-change-the-way-we-think-about-being-a-woman?utm_source=bustle&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=fbpost
Essentially, what I saw as the thumbnail was the image of a purse with a vagina on it, and that lovely purse is called the Pussy Pouch. I would definitely recommend reading the article because it is really interesting and deals with how women don't take up a lot of space and sit in a state of fear, while men do not, and how this led the designer to designing a purse that flaunts her femininity openly and provocatively. However, the major takeaway I got from it was how afraid the author of the article was to first, look into the purse/project, and second, how she felt if she owned it that it would take her a week to build up the confidence to carry it outside. That brought me to this (and it is quite graphic... its a photo of a penis on a shirt:
http://www.betterthanpants.com/white-penis-shirt-t-shirt.html 
Now, I would like to believe that I know no guys who would wear this shirt, but unfortunately, I can think of one or two guys that I know that would have no problem wearing this out in Vermillion and would find it hilarious. I thought this was a really large contrast to the Pussy Pouch, which is not nearly as sexually explicit as the shirt. This led me to all kinds of ideas about how phallic representation is seen as more acceptable than yonic, which is used so much less that google chrome is telling me it is not even a word. Anyway, all of these thoughts filled me to the point that I felt I should probably share this here! So here you go! The Pussy Pouch and the Penis shirt.

Transgender: Diversity Symposium

    Last Thursday, I attended the Transgender/Transsexual workshop during the Diversity Symposium; it was interesting to say the least! Kendra was the presenter, and I think that she did an awesome job, not only with providing resources used to educate, but with sharing her own personal experiences and relating them with the changes that she would like to see made within our society.
    I think that I definitely live my life with a sense of "straight privilege", meaning that I never really have to worry about my sexual orientation, hiding who I am, or being discriminated against in that aspect. This may prevent me from seeing things from the perspective of others of different orientations in the LGBTQ community, which is really discouraging. However, that is the point of these workshops, I suppose- to gain the ability to relate to those who you do not normally relate to.
    Kendra started the session off by, after kicking off her heels and complaining about hot flashes due to hormone therapy, educating the crowd on what it meant to be ignorant versus what it meant to be a trans person. One was a choice, and the other simply was not. She had us write our names with our non-dominant hand, then with our dominant. The audience commented that the non-dominant handwriting was "out of control", "messy", "challenging", and "didn't feel right at all", while writing with the dominant hand "felt natural". She then compared this with someone being born as the wrong sex- writing with your non-dominant hand. She emphasized the term "living authentically", which really put things into perspective for me! Hate, ignorance, and prejudiced are all choices, while wanting to live as who you really are is not.
    My favorite quote from the session, which I felt provided an overall theme for the topic, was "Gender is what is between your ears, sex is what is between your legs." Kendra explained to us that, while she was born with a  penis, her heart, her brain, and her feelings were all that of a woman. Leaving the session, I felt more informed about trans people and the issues that they encounter in their every day lives that I am lucky enough not to have to worry about. Although I cannot empathize, I can be an ally for the LGBTQ community and provide sympathy, support, and empowerment for those different than me. I really admire Kendra for standing up, speaking out, educating our society, and rockin' those heels better than anyone I know.

Things Haven't Changed Much, Warning: vulgar language and topics..

I can completely relate to Susan J Douglas. I grew up in a very very very Catholic home. When rumor spread amongst my family members that my slutty cousin, who is the exact same age as me, had lost her v-card to her scandalously older boyfriend, my mother encouraged me to stop talking to her. And when that same cousin moved in with the same boyfriend, well all hell was about to break loose.  She was no longer invited to family events and became a topic that was never to be mentioned. But suddenly, all was right with the world the day that she got married to her boyfriend. Suddenly, everything was okay because she was a married woman. The shame and disappointment that was once a heavy shroud covering every family gathering seemed to have been shred to bits. I never understood why she was a “bad girl.” She was always so nice to everyone and did well in school. Douglas talks about this confusion in the third chapter of her book and I know exactly what she means. While she is talking about the Sexual Revolution of the 1950’s and 1960’s, it is obvious to me that some of these thoughts have not disappeared. When I first came to USD, I was prompted to join a sorority.  But no good, respectable girl is going to be in a sorority. I knew absolutely nothing about Greek life but had been told by my family and the peers that I had grown up with that the only girls there would be slutty bitches. Please excuse my French. Now, I am currently in a sorority and let me tell you, that is hardly the case. In my unique perspective of being a non-affiliated college student that later joined the Greek system, sorority girls do not have sex any more or less than other girls. I had in my head when I was in high school that girls in college did nothing but go to class and then go to parties and have sex. And while that may be the case for some people, it is not exactly a rule of thumb. When I heard about sororities, I assumed that they would be even worse than average college girls! It does not help that the media likes to portray negative connotations and focus on those that perpetuate stereotypes. Last year, FOX did a special expose to the happenings of Spring Breakers on beaches in places like Florida, PCB, or Cancun. My mother watched it and was assured that if I ever went to a beach with friends, I would instantly take part of a massive orgy ridden with alcohol and drugs. Not to say that that might not happen with some people, but I’m not one to think that a person would just drop all their morals because they came to college, joined a sorority, or went to a beach with some friends. Yes, people can change and make decisions that they wouldn't have before. But I hardly think that you can do a complete 180. Is my mother just being a very traditional, religious woman? Am I being unrealistic with so harshly disagreeing with her? Can peer pressure and the values that you surround yourself really change you as a person? And if you did change, and if that was the life you lead, would it really be so bad? 

The Message Sent by Pregnancy Melodramas and the Sexual Revolution

While reading chapter 3, "Sex and the Single Girl," it made me wonder if the Sexual Revolution and the messages that went with it were contradicting.  The chapter begins with the reversal of the notion that “sex is sin” and the rejection of staying abstinent until marriage.  Helen Gurley Brown’s message was that girls could be successful, have jobs, and have a sex life without having a husband in their lives.  I agree with this, but later in the chapter, where pregnancy melodramas are discussed, I find a different message being sent.  The premise of pregnancy melodramas was that girls get pregnant without being married but everything ends up happy and okay.  I can’t see this being the reality for girls at the time, and it isn’t really the reality for girls today either.  While there are many exceptions to this, but often times, girls who get pregnant before marriage end up without support from their parents or the father of the baby.  If this is the case, why did pregnancy melodramas glorify this kind of pregnancy?  Especially, since the book states that when we watch movies we try to identify with the characters.  Girls were sent the message to be single and pursue careers while also being sent the message that if you get pregnant, your mom will cover for you and the guy you’re with will be there for you, even if you lied to him about it.  I find it contradictory that women were sent these competing messages, while also dealing with the overarching message that having sex in general was bad and sinful.  

I equate these movies to what we see on Lifetime and Hallmark during Christmas.  Even if the movie is cheesy and the characters are annoying, we like to see a happy ending.  However, I don’t see these dreams coming true in real life for the girls of this time; pregnancy out of wedlock was not a desirable outcome for many girls and most likely didn’t give them a happy ending. 

"Girl Crush"

So, I’m not sure how many in the class are country music fans, but I am a BIG one. Recently a country band, Little Big Town, released a new single called “Girl Crush.” Lately there has been a little controversy about what the song is really about. This news article talks about the misconception of the lyrics. The whole problem has to do with country music fans believing the song has to do with a lesbian relationship. Although this is not true if you really listen to the lyrics, I find it very interesting that it would even be an issue. The article is definitely worth a read and the song is also embedded in the article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/03/25/why-stations-are-pulling-little-big-towns-girl-crush-from-the-airwaves-and-what-that-says-about-country-radio-today/

Diversity Symposium

So today I went to the brown bag lunch dialogue for the Diversity Symposium. For our small group discussion, our topic focused on a certain Congressman calling Native American reservations "wards" of the U.S. government. Right off the bat, I was stumped. I felt like I had absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation because I knew absolutely nothing about the relationship between the government and Native American reservations. That was until we started talking about the fact that most of us are ignorant about these issues, irrespective of whether we were from the Midwest or not. It appalled me that even those who had spent their entire lives in South Dakota knew as little about this subject as I did. What I really took away from this experience was the discussion about how there are different worlds when surrounded by different crowds. One example is the notion of locker room chat. People are more prone to say things that would publicly be inappropriate when in a setting with “friends.”Sometimes these dialogues are not even what a person actually thinks, but there is this pressure to conform and to do, say, or believe what everyone else does, says, and believes. Personally, I’ve been in situations similar to this. I once hung out with my boyfriend’s friends and I really wanted them to like me. They are in the cross country team and I wanted to seem like I was interested in running and things they liked even though I hate running. We were staying in Okoboji and when it got late, they had an idea to go for a run to the lake and go for a night swim. Never in a million years would I have done this if I was alone or even with my own friends. But I felt the need to conform and do reckless things to prove to them that I was cool. The same thing happens all the time to others; except, sometimes it can be about degrading comments and views. This topic was very similar to my discussion for Voices of Discovery. I am actually very grateful for having attended the symposium because I think that these discussions, if anything, at least increase awareness for the abysmal behavior that is going on around us. 

Diversity Symposium Schedule

Because we were just talking about it, here's the schedule for the Diversity Symposium:

Thursday, March 26th

10:30 am – 5:00 pm | MUC Ballroom

USD Annual Diversity Symposium “Be The Change”

10:45 am Keynote Speaker: Zach Wahls

12:00 pm Brown Bag Lunch Dialogue “Race In America: A Continuing Conversation” (lunch provided)

1:00 – 2:15 pm

Workshop – Islam 101 Dr. Musheera Anis

Workshop – When Race is Real and When is it Not? Dr. Matt Sayre

2:30 – 3:45 pm

Workshop – Where We Have Come From & Where We Are Going: Feminism for 2015 Dr. Sara Lampert

Workshop – The T: Transgender 101 Kendra Heathscott (The Center for Equality)

4:00 – 5:00 pm Closing Reception (refreshments served)

Lesbian Pulp Novels: Defining a Generation?

    I found this reading to be full of interesting points, facts, and excerpts from lesbian pulp novels. I feel like the text was an easy read, and I learned A LOT- to be honest, I did not even know such novels existed, let alone their lasting impact on our society!
    First, on page 272, Keller analyzes a text written by Lillian Faderman, which seems to make the argument about these lesbian pulp novels kind of "setting the tone" for a generation of women; the novels helped young women discover who they were by reading stories about others like themselves. Faderman writes that, "...I began to consider myself a lesbian. Almost as soon as I claimed that identity...I looked around for literary representations that would help explain me to myself. I did not have far to look, because the pulp book racks at the local drugstore exhibited a dizzying array of titles...". To me, the author makes it sound as if the novels helped her to become who she really was, in a way, which I think is an awesome argument.
After further analyzing the text, I began to think about how I used books, fiction or non-fiction, to help define myself. I remember trying to find characters like myself, maneuvering through situations that I had encountered or had dreamed about being in. I believe that it's important to identify with a character, not only to have a more relative interest in the reading, but to help create and develop your own identity, who you want to be. This was the first step in creating an inclusive environment for all sexualities and genders, in my opinion. I understand how these novels influenced and helped define a generation of strong women, no matter of what sexual orientation.
    Secondly, I found it to be kind of odd that lesbian novels were so much more numerous that gay novels (page 272-73). Why is this? Why are lesbian characters and storylines somehow more socially acceptable than their gay counterparts? To me, it seems to be a problem with homophobia in the case of the heterosexual male audience- a concept which I think is still an issue in our society today! Lesbians are "cool", "hot", and "sexy" to straight guys, while gay men seem to gross them out. It's weird and not cool- in my opinion, everyone should be considered equal, but I don't want to get started on my soapbox. I hope that our in-class discussion helps to clear this up for me.
ALSO, THE IDEA OF THE FEMININE VS MASCULINE LESBIAN COMES UP YET AGAIN.  UGH.

Final Project - Toddlers and Tiaras

As I have mentioned previously in class, I would like to focus my final project on the sexualization of beauty pageants, specifically those for children. After the release of The Learning Channel’s hit series Toddlers and Tiaras in 2009, child beauty pageants became more prominently featured in the media. One incident in particular, which was mentioned during one of our class discussions, involved a little girl named Paisley dressing up and performing a routine in a Pretty Woman prostitute costume. I think I would like to focus my project on Toddlers and Tiaras and possibly, more specifically, on Paisley and the “prosti-tot” incident.

 As I was reading some public reactions to Paisley’s costume, I couldn't help but wonder exactly why people were so outraged. Her outfit wasn't necessarily any more revealing or slutty than other toddlers’ pageant-wear. I am curious as to whether it was the outfit itself or the character she was impersonating. I think an interesting path would be to look at various toddlers and their outfits to see which ones raise the most public outcries and see if there are any similarities. I am really not 100% set on an idea, so I am completely open to suggestions, either to how I can accomplish my idea or to other alternatives!   

Project Idea

After reading a blog post about a woman who chose to no longer wear leggings/yoga pants because it is tempting to men, I knew I wanted to write something about women’s dress. I was intrigued by how viral her post went and the subsequent debate it sparked. Realizing that a ten page paper on yoga pants would be a stretch, I knew that I needed to use this as an example of something bigger.

That’s when I found articles on rape culture, linking it to the idea of female dress and dress codes. I had previously dismissed this term as feminazi nonsense without looking into at all. But rape culture is the way that a society collectively thinks about rape. According to Everyday Feminism, “it’s situations in which sexual assault, rape, and general violence are ignored, trivialized, normalized, or made into jokes.”  Our culture constantly objectifies women, and this affects how they are treated and viewed by society as a whole. Another facet of rape culture is that women can control whether or not they are assaulted by how they dress. This is the aspect I will probably look into further.

I’m still researching and looking into exactly how I’m going to tie it all together. So if have any suggestions or input, let me know!

Final Project

Until recently, the portrayal of transgender characters in the media has been rather negative. GLAAD has catalogued 102 episodes and non-recurring storylines of scripted television that contained transgender characters since 2002. They found that 54% of those were considered to contain negative representations, 35% contained problematic to good representations, and only 12% contained groundbreaking, fair, and accurate representations.  They also revealed that 40% of the time the transgender character was cast as the victim and that anti transgender slurs and language was present 61% of the time. Along with the negative portrayal, the actors that play trans characters are most of the time not transgender themselves. They are know as cisgender, which is a term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one they were assigned at birth.  The problem with this is that it does not allow for the accurate portrayal of a trans character, because the actor themselves is not trans. In other words, a trans woman is a woman and a trans man is a man.  For example, Laverne Cox has been praised with offering the most accurate portrayal of a trans woman in the media, because Cox is a woman, not a man playing a woman.

Thus, for my final project, I would like to analyze the portrayal of transgender characters in film/TV.  The questions I would like to answer are how accurate the portrayal of trans characters are, how those representations are connected with society’s views on transgender individuals at the time of production of the film/TV show, and the impact such films/TV shows have on shaping society’s attitudes. To do this, I would look back at a few films and TV shows that have introduced a transgender character such as, Boys Don’t Cry, Orange is the New Black, and Transamerica and analyze the portrayal of the trans character. I would also like to find evidence of society’s awareness of transgender individuals and their attitudes, which might be a challenge, so that I can see how the films/TV shows played on society’s views or challenged those views.

Women in Hip-Hop

I want to do something with the progression of women in the music industry, especially in R&B which has some ties to Hip-Hop today as R&B has become a little less popular. At this point, I have been looking at biases against hip-hop in the past in general, how women got involved in hip-hop, the biases against women in hip-hop, and how hip-hop is viewed today. 

So far, I have come up with hip-hop being unpopular at first because it was mostly recorded and produced by African Americans. Also the lyrics, like the lyrics we listened to in the early blues music, were considered inappropriate for mass audiences. However, like early blues music, the lyrics were things that most African Americans could relate to and understand. The songs were about things that a good portion of people in that culture had in common.

As far as how hip-hop is viewed today, I have seen mixed feelings. As it has become more popular, artists are able to be more lenient with lyrics in a sense. As our culture progresses, it seems that lyrics of hip-hop songs are becoming more and more offensive. Yet on the other hand, there are still many artists who write and sing about everyday things that are not necessarily offensive, but paint a realistic picture of what many people deal with on a daily basis. I came across an article that talked about how many of the hip-hop songs that are popular today are basically twerk anthems, not songs that actually say anything meaningful in them. Many of these popular songs are written by male artists who talk about partying, drugs, and sex, all of which often degrade women. Because female artists obviously are not going to write songs that degrade their gender, the space for women in hip-hip is getting smaller. I would like to look at what makes songs that are so offensive so much more popular than songs that have meaning such as the song Eve released right before the 2014 BET awards about domestic violence that almost no one even knew existed. There are a lot of female artists still making great hip hop songs, but people don’t seem to be listening to them, and I would like to figure out why in my project. 

Side note. There is also a big buzz around Iggy Azalea because she is a white rapper and won a lot of music awards in the past few years when in the past very few hip-hop and rap artists got large amounts of awards other than in hip-hop specific categories which I find kind of interesting as well. 

Internet Feminism

For my project, I plan on analyzing the portrayal of feminism online, which is sometimes called the Fourth Wave. Although still debated if it is a “new” wave or just a continuation of the Third Wave, the Internet and social media have become a platform through which feminism can actively be promoted.

Feminism online can increase awareness, has the ability to quickly garner support for feminist campaigns and connect women on a global scale as well as provide a forum to discuss and comment on social issues facing women today. Others voice concerns about this recent rise in popularity of feminism and question its effectiveness. Ealasaid Munro, a researcher in the Center for Cultural Policy Research at Glasgow University points out, “There is concern that online discussion and activism is increasingly divorced from real-world conflict.” By looking at a few websites that promote feminism, I want to compare and contrast them and see if they fall into this new category.

I want to look at two websites in particular, Everyday Feminism and Jezebel. I plan on analyzing a few of their articles to see how they promote feminism as well as examine them in light of the criticisms surrounding Internet activism. I think that the promotion of feminism online has brought awareness to many issues and has affected real change in our society already, but I think it needs to be examined in the larger context of the feminist movement.

I think my biggest challenges for this project will be to focus it and take it in one particular direction. There are just too many options!