Give me an A!!!:)

I believe that I deserve and A in this class. To justify this, I wrote the following reflection on the this course throughout the semester:

Well, the semester is over and I usually evaluate my work, what I learned and what I got out of my classes. I guess I do this because I am paying for my education and I’m not 20 years old anymore. During these last 3 years there have been good and bad courses and professors and sometimes it is difficult to understand why the heck I went through 16 weeks of torture; the answer – the university needs to get every penny it can before you graduate.

In the case of WGS310 I believe I got my money’s worth. Honestly, when this class began, I was not sure I was going to be able to comply with all the work and reading required for this class. I also had difficulty with your accent and my English deficiencies. I felt intimidated by all the young students and thought that maybe I should quit. I spoke to a student that decided to withdraw and I was really tempted.

I decided to challenge myself instead and it was well worth it. I really appreciated every single one of the readings; I have never read so many quality writings. This class made me want to keep the textbook as well, it is a good inspirational tool for the future.

The writing assignments were torture, I feel physically sick every time I have to write big papers; however, I need to get ready for Graduate School. During the semester I felt more and more confident about my writing, I was able to plan on what I was going to write about following the analysis made in class about the writings. By discussing the writings in class, not only did I understand them better, but also was able to connect analysis with my own writing and try to do a better job for my audience. This is a wonderful tool to have.

Last but not least, I feel that I have to explain why I missed one blog assignment. At the time of that assignment, my family was going through a crisis; I’ll spare you from the details…. Sometimes life catches up with you and at that point, I remember reading the assignment and truly feeling that it had little to do with my learning and considered it busy work. With more important things on my mind, I made a conscious decision of gearing my energy where it needed to be at the time.

The absences I had were all justified. I was truly sick for most of them and I believe there was one time my daughter’s school called. As a mother, priorities are not always centered on me. Furthermore, the fact that I even showed up on snow days, should show that I was in class whenever possible.

POST 14

For this assignment, I picked a reading that I had not read before from our supplemental reading list. I picked the speech from Barbara Jordan, Junior member of the committee for impeachment of President Nixon. It interested me because I was not in the United States when it happened; I was also 12 years old but very much informed politically at my young age. President Nixon had conspired with dictators in South America and my country was the home of one of the bloodiest dictatorships, in great part thanks to Nixon himself. Millions around the world watched these proceedings and I remember my parents glued to the TV during this time.

I think what struck me the most was her attitude on reason. From the beginning of this reading you can see how her mind works in logical, structured ways. She had a point when she said, commenting the proceedings, that it was a waist of everyone’s time to have 15 minutes for each member on TV time. She wanted to have discussions with her fellow members and come to a simple logical decision and not have emotions or political leanings obstruct reason. Of course, they dismissed her comments and the show went on.

The speech itself was amazingly well structured. When I read it, it reminded me of some of the readings from this semester because of the use of plain and simple facts and knowledge as a way to logically connect with your audience. The one that came to mind was Catherine of Siena of course, after my research of her but also even in the letter to her mother that we saw in our textbook. She as many other women rhetoricians, always pointed out facts and deduced simple logic from them that no one can argue with.

This speech made me teary eye, it was so simple yet powerful, and it reminded me of an era that changed my life forever. Maybe if there were more women in her position during that time, many lives would have been saved and the world would be completely different place these days.

Post 13

It took a while to choose a writer I wanted to present to the class because there is a couple of writers that fascinate me. I finally decided to present on Isabel Allende, a Chilean writer with whom I have a quasi personal relationship. Apart from being a feminist, she has lived most of my life experiences from the war in Chile and the exile to the US so I can identify with her very well.
My purpose is to inform the audience of this wonderful writer and maybe persuade them to read one of her novels. I will do this by calling their attention to movies done on her books, also famous titles that they might have seen at the book store. I will also explain her feminist views and her activism.

The presentation will be done in a power point slide show with pictures of her and the use of Youtube where I will show segments of her speech that the audience can listen to in its entirety through Ted.com.

Hopefully by the end of the presentation my audience will know Isabel and be intrigued enough to pick up one of her books. At the least I want my audience to know her name just in case the run across some of her work either in novels or activism in the future.

Bubbles

To take the pressure off at this point would have been madness… I needed a bubble bath, that’s all, wasn’t much to ask for was it? Hope the bathroom is free, I need to make sure I lock the door, we have my friend’s son staying with us so there is no privacy lately.

It’s getting late, I have one hour before I have to go to class. Did I read? Any homework I need to turn in today? So, after class I need to remember to pick up my daughter from school, she gets out early today. Oh that’s right, I need to take my friend’s son for some passport pictures and make sure they turn out good this time; then the photos need to be sent express mail to Canada. OK, so school, daughter, photos, then what? Dinner, what are we eating tonight? My husband is sick; I’ll have to cook tonight.

No bubble bath. I keep dreaming about it but just can’t get to it. I’ll have to make a date with myself and make sure it happens before I lose it. The pressure to take the pressure off is driving me mad.

Post 11

Well, trying to find something for this assignment was difficult without getting out of my usual BBC and LINK TV but I did find something that gives an example of how absurd rhetoric is still accepted by people. Here's his recent rhetoric concerning the possible future of the country: Gingrich’s latest warning came this week at the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, and was picked up by Politico: “I have two grandchildren — Maggie is 11, Robert is 9,” he said. “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.” OK, this is mindboggling to me. I really don't understand how even people who follow this guy and agree with his biggotry and fundamentalist views can not stop and question this statement. This is a sentence full of fear factors put together but it doesn't make any sense. I really question the intelligence of people sometimes, come on, a secular atheist country ruled by radical Islamists? I usually make fun of Gingrich and his speeches, however, absurdity is another thing. I'm imagining his followers picking up this concept and fearing the worst without even thinking that this idea is ridiculous! Either you have Islamist rule or you have secular rule or you have atheist rule, a combination of the three just doesn't fit in my head!

Posting 10

As a Latino woman in the United States, I believe that the political, legislative, and social reforms targeted by the Women's Rights Movement are still primarily for white, middle-class women and not all women. In my opinion, although much progress has been made; the simple fact that women from racial minorities still have limited access to education, employment, contraception and are, as studies have shown, more likely to experience violent attacks, demonstrates the need for much more to be done.

Yes, there are many more non-white many middle-class women today living fruitful and successful lives; however, in this country, representation is only accomplished through power and power is only accomplished with money. A Capitalist society will always be able to show false progress in social issues, it can show tokens such as Condoleezza Rice, or Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and will beat this horse to death in order to make believe that everyone in this country has the right to success. Furthermore, television and the media is still showing the Cosby Show like the example of what an African American family looks like in the United States. Well, the truth is very different, according to statistics, minority women are less likely to get into higher education, and, Affirmative Action or not, minority women are less likely of becoming CEO's or reach the glass ceiling. Furthermore, minority women have less access to contraception due to the lack of health insurance and because of the poverty in their neighborhoods and the unemployment rates, domestic violence has risen in the past few years.
As you can see it all revolves around money, poverty overall will keep affecting minority women more than it affects white women, therefore, in a Capitalist society, we will always be at a disadvantage.

For more detailed information about these disparities, please visit the United States Department of Labor website at http://www.bls.gov/cps/demographics.htm#race and http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/law_enforcement_courts_prisons/crimes_and_crime_rates.html report #309. These reports give you an idea of the reality we live today. Keep in mind while looking at these numbers that African Americans are only 13% of the population and that Hispanics are 15% of the population of the United States, therefore if we were equally affected by crime or lack of education, only these percentages of all crimes for example would affect minority women.

Post 9

As a feminist, I believe that there is a reason why society has developed the way it did. Factors such as gender bias, social perceptions, and political or economic interests may all have contributed to the lack of medical research targeted specifically for the female body. Putting women in second place when it comes to the important things in life – or death, as in this case – has a long history in our society. Fortunately, for women this situation is changing rapidly; however, as a society we need to know what went wrong in the past so that we do not make the same mistakes again. My personal interest in this topic arose from a simple family anecdote. One day at a family reunion, having recently had a mammogram, I commented on how modern technology had made these tests so much less painful. My 80 year-old mother wisely remarked that, in her opinion, had we been talking about testicular cancer, painful machines would have long been eradicated. This incisive comment, my academic interest in women’s health, and my Women’s Studies readings made me think about the differences in medical research when it comes to males vs. females.

At this time, I am still trying to connect this contemporary issue with two of the writers assigned. Hopefully if I continue to read their biographies, I will find the right ones. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

I picked the ad about the little Atheist girl that reads the Bible to make a statement. It caught my eye because of my beliefs and was intrigued by what a pre-teen would have to say about the Bible. First of all, I found this little girl to be very sharp and to have a strong personality. The rhetoric she uses is very modern, it’s a mixture of girl talk and media talk all mixed up. How to explain this? Well, first of all she speaks like a 12 year old girl, very simple language that anyone can understand and her pose is also very childish, lying on her bed with sweat pants on. She also plays with the sound effects and video effects that she has at hand, making the video red and her voice devilish to make her point.

Her basic argument is that young people should not have religion spoon fed to them and that they should form their own decisions later in life. She mentions how violent, sexist and overall contradictory the Bible or any religious book can be by simply exploring the pages of one. She does not try to pass as a Bible expert or anything of that sort, just a kid, exploring knowledge by opening a book to any page.

I believe that she knows that her audience could be anyone who has access to the internet and the reaction will vary depending on age and/or religious belief. Some will probably react by being offended by her comments, maybe even thinking that her parents did not raise her well; others, like my 11 year old daughter reacted by feeling very identified her words and by feeling that this girl reinforced her own beliefs. There will be many reactions to this video, maybe she will get kids to think a bit of what is being taught to them, maybe parents will shut down access to the internet to avoid having this type of talk in their home and maybe, just maybe, this little girl, as one of the comments said, will start a Secular Student Alliance somewhere.