"And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You" by Jo Carillo

When I first read "And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You" by Jo Carillo I thought it was so full of anger and I did not quite understand the reason for it, although I must say that I did not grow up in the United States mainland, and the racial composition of the island where I grew up is very mixed, and race relations had not been a major issue there as it has been in the United States mainland. When I came to understand the author's feelings in this poem, was after reading the discussion about privilege in Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies".

I think McIntosh's thesis in "White Privilege and ...." explains Carillo's perspective in "And When You Leave...". Part of McIntosh's explanation of the anger racial minorities feel towards white liberals, male and female, is that white people, liberals and conservatives, enjoy a privilege in this society for being white, but they do not realize that they are enjoying such privilege and this makes minorities resentful against whites, even on the occasions when white people are trying to be allies in the struggle for minorities' rights. "At the very least, obliviousness of one's privileged state can make a person or group irritating to be with." McCintosh, Peggy "White Privilege and Male Privilege..."  . If people enjoying a privilege do not recognize that they do so, then they cannot work to end it. I think McIntosh's reading also ties with "The Bridge Poem", that until you really get to know yourself, including any privileges enjoyed, you cannot be a bridge. You have to realize whether or not enjoy privileges, in order to be able to work to make society function more on the basis of merit rather than on personal traits that have nothing to do with merit.

"And When You Leave..." also touches on class. The black and brown women in the poem are working class women, farmers and factory workers, while the "white sisters" background is not really described in the poem, but it is pointed out in several parts of it that the white sisters "own pictures", which give a sense of economic power, to be able to "purchase" an image in order to give the message that you care. I believe the poem clearly depicts the big schism between the poor and the upper middle class, which is more significant than the fact that the poor brown and black women are "sisters" with white women. I believe that this poem's theory is that in the hierarchy of societal factors to unite or separate groups, class is more significant than gender too. 

Coming Apart

I really liked this reading section because it presents, through a fictional story, an explanation of the complex relationship of an African American couple, the feelings of oppression because of race and because of gender. She feels oppressed because historically the black women was subjected to the power and aggression of the white man, she knows that women of her race were used and abused by white men exercising their power as slave owners, her feelings of oppression come from her race and the unfair treatment committed against her race. But I believe that besides feeling oppressed because of the unfair treatment her ancestors received because of their race, she feels oppressed and indignant because of the treatment she receives because she is a women. This feeling of oppression due to different gender perspectives becomes clear to me when she feels angry and horrified at what she observes while she and her husband walked down 42 second street in New York City on one of his business trips, while his reaction to the circumstances faced by them during that New York visit was merely curiosity and sexual interest " For her this is the stuff of nightmares-possibly because all the dolls are smiling. She will see them for the rest of her life. For him the sight is also shocking, but arouses a prurient curiosity. He will return, another time, alone." "Coming Apart." After reading the passage about the New York visit, I am convinced that the wife, a black women, feels oppressed by her husband, a black man, when she perceives from him that he has an interest in white women and reads pornographic material that is insulting to all women. "To share the power of each other's feelings is different from using another's feelings as we would use Kleenex. And when we look the other way from our experience, erotic or otherwise, we use rather than share the feelings of those others who participate in the experience with us. And use without consent of the used is abused." "Coming Apart".

The other interesting aspect of the relationship between this couple is that the husband, in his wife's eyes an oppressor, feels oppressed by his wife because of her attempts to understand her feelings and react according to her new understanding of her circumstances. " He feels oppressed by her incipient struggle, and feels somehow as if her struggle to change the pleasure he has enjoyed is a violation of his rights." "Coming Apart." The husband's sense of oppression does not have the complexity of the dual level-race and gender, that the wife's sense of oppression has, because the husband's thirst for pleasure has made him forget that the objects of his desire are not merely female sexual objects to his eyes but black women as much as he really is a black man, even if he has forgotten that.

"Oppression by Choice" by Anne E. Cudd

I tried to apply the first tier analysis of Cudd's oppression test to the husband's situation described in "Coming Apart." My first impression was that the husband character did not meet the first tier prong of the oppression test.  According to Cudd's  "... one of the criteria of oppression ... is that one suffer harm as a result of coercion." Cudd. "Oppression by Choice." I cannot see how the husband's character is coerced to buy pornographic materials. Quoting for Cudd's article, which cites Michael Levin " ... a person is not oppressed by  feature of society if it is unintended result of "her" choices." "Oppression by Choice."  Every time the husband decides to buy pornographic material he is exercising his free will in a consumer society where we are all free to buy whatever we want so long as we have the means to pay for it. He has not been oppressed because of any coercion to buy pornography. He feels oppressed because his wife has started to question their relationship in light of her new understandings of the relationships of power that have shaped her and her African sisters' lives through history. " A necessary condition of coercion is that one lacks a choice,..." "Oppression by Choice." He lacks a choice because under his wife's new perspective of their relationship he cannot control her views or her understanding of their relationship with the American society anymore. He has no choice but to let her be her new being. She is walking away from oppression, finding choices for herself, while he has lost control over her and this leaves him without a choice over who is this person he is in a relationship with.

"White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies" by Peggy McIntosh

I really enjoyed reading "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies" by Peggy McIntosh. It was written in a straightforward manner, easy to follow, full of everyday examples of privileges that I guess people do not notice because such privileges are so common and people are so used to them that they do not consider them privilege, and finally because this reading selection helped me understand better the other two poems I read: "And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You" by Jo Carillo and " The Bridge Poem" by Donna Kate Rushin.

An issue I think McIntosh does not discuss in any detail in the selection, and that I believe is of some importance, is that once people recognize that they do enjoy a particular  privilege, they have to decide how to go about solving the privilege problem. I can see two ways in which this can be done, either by providing the privilege to the other group that did not enjoy it, in which case the privilege ceases being a privilege because everyone will enjoy it,  or by the people who are enjoying presently relinquishing the fruits of that privilege so that no one will enjoy that privilege. Because race and gender issues depend a lot on personal attitudes and beliefs I do not think that it will be feasible to end privilege by granting everyone the living conditions of the white male in the United States. It would require a major change in personal attitudes. I think that though affirmative action this country tried to effectuate the second alternative to ending privilege, relinquishing privileges, that white males have enjoyed and give it to those who do not enjoy the privilege, for example seats in colleges and universities.  The problem with this system is that the group "white male" selected to relinquish a privilege is also defined by class, and poor white males do not understand that they have enjoyed the privilege that they are being asked to relinquish. I am coming to the belief that to really understand social issues you cannot artificially divide and focus groups into isolated variables  such as : gender, race, etc. This is really complicated.

"The Bridge Poem" by Donna Kate Rushin

I like the " The Bridge Poem". When I first read the poem, the title of it made me think that it was going to say something positive about being a bridge, because from my personal perspective a bridge is something I relate with unity and service, something useful. I was surprised when I read the poem and realized that the author did not want to be a bridge anymore. But after thinking about it, and reading the poem once again, I can understand the reason why the author does not want to continue being a bridge. If she continues being the bridge between her friends they are not going to make an effort to reach out to each other. Her friends, the groups she mentions in the poem, are groups that are supposed to have common ideals, nonetheless they do not seem to understand each other. There is something that separates them that is stronger than the ideology that is supposed to unite them. The author seems to say, and I agree, that people need to understand, without a "translator/bridge", why they seem to feel like they are all like separate islands instead of like one group of people sharing a common history, common goals and probably a future together, and then resolve those issues so that they can move on together. But this process of understanding oneself is a personal individual experience,  if you do not do it by yourself you do not learn. The author also admits that she needs to go through that introspection process herself before she can be a real bridge. Perhaps she has to continually be a bridge because she really has not been an effective bridge so far because she is still learning about herself,

" I must be the bridge to nowhere

But my true self

And then

I will be useful" By Donna  Kate Rushin.

Time, March 31, 2008 "A Village Women's Legacy" p.62

I really liked this article. After doing a presentation on women's activism, where I spoke about some famous women who either used their notoriety to be politically active, like the Dixie Chicks, or who became famous in certain circles because their causes succeded in part due to their activism, this article presents the example of a quiet personal approach to activism that saved a whole village in Ghana. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady, Rosalyn Carter decided to take the cause of eradicating the guinea worm disease in the village of Denchira in Ghana after they met a young women who greeted them while in great pain, and that during their meeting, they had the opportunity to observe how a worm of the kind that causes the guinea worm disease came out of the woman's nipple. This was so shocking to the President and Mrs. Carter decided to use their power and influence of the Carter Center to work to stop this disease from decimating villages in Africa. This disease would make villagers so weak that they could not work the land to make a living. "Sometimes it's the quietest voice that speaks the loudest"... " I never did see the young women again or find out what happened to her. But the following year when we returned to her village, guinea worm had been nearly eliminated there, .... Having seen her the day in 1988, I came to see life differently- in a micro way. I now believe that the vitality of one person's life has an impact on the health and harmony of the surrounding world."

Time, March 31, 2008 "Why Women Need Better Sleep" p.64

As soon as I saw this article another article came into my mind- "Biology Does Not Determine Gender Roles" by Ruth Hubbard. Hubbard's article made the statement "Women's biology is a social construct and a political concept, not a scientific one,..." The Time article seems to say that women's biology is a scientific concept and that based on biological differences women develop more adverse effects because of lack of sleep than men. The reason why women develop more negative effects for lack of sleep than men is that men produce more testosterone than women. Dr. Suarez, from Duke University, did the study that reflects the finding. " I kept trying to disprove the findings, Suarez says. I put in age, but age did not do anything to destroy the results. I put in race because blacks often report worse sleep than whites, but nothing happened. Smoking and, for women, menstrual statues did not eliminate the gender gap either." According to the study women do not get enough sleep are more likely to develop risk factors for diabetes and heart disease than men under the same circumstances. If we accept this findings as correct, is it not true that in our society well-paying and prestige require long hours of work and attending social events at night which means these positions may mean that women will have to trade their future health for their dream job ? If these biological results are true, then society has gendered these high-powered-well-paying jobs by the way society has defined and crafted them or else women's physical health will pay the cost.

FEMINITY by Sigmund Freud

I agree with Freud's premise that we cannoassume that "masculine" means active and "feminine" means passive. He points out tht in the animal kingdom many females have very active and aggressive behavior while males are passive and sometimes are solely devoted to caring for offsping. Freud indicates that the passivity associated with women's feminity comes from social impositions on women's behavior. He explains that in general terms the behavior of young girls and boys are basically the same, "Analysis of children's play has shown our women that the aggressive impulses of little girls leave nothing to be desired in the way of abundance and violence." Freud, "FEMINITY", p.4. Freud labels this early stage of girls' development, in which there are not marked differences in girls' behavior when compared with boys' behavior, the "masculine phase" of the girls' development. So although Freud disagrees with the inference that "masculine" means active and "feminine" means passive he validates this inference by his choice of language in his study.

I strongly disagree with Freud's statement that the development of "femininity" may have its psychological roots in the girls' envy for the boy's penis. He does not present any examples or arguments supporting this statement with regards to studies with children in environments where they carry on their regular daily living experiences. Freud knows the weakness of his report when he declares, "Accordingly we are on within our rights if we study the residues and consequences of this emotional world in retrospect, in people in whom these processes of development had attained a specially clear and even excessive degree of expansion." "FEMINITY", p.6. The subjects of his studies are people undergoing psychoanalysis and this population is obviously going to give skewed results since they are a special population limited by their own traits and circumstances. Based on the "penis envy" theory Freud goes on to make insulting inferences about women such as; "The wish to get the longed-for penis ... may contribute to the motives that drive a mature woman to analysis, and what she may reasonably expect from analysis-a capacity to carry on an intellectual profession- may often be recognized as a sublimated modification of this repressed wish." "FEMINITY", p.9; and "The effect of penis-envy has a share, further, in the physical vanity of women, since they are bound to value their charms more highly as a late compensation for their original sexual inferiority." "FEMINITY", p.13.

I cannot imagine the terrible impact that some of these assumptions may have had on women in need of treatment because of mental health problems at that time, since this may have been a good example of the theories used as the basis to provide such women with diagnosis and medical treatment.

Much of Freud's analysis and inferences come from the framework of the typical nuclear family at the time, mother, father and child. I wonder if he would have been able to develop this theory of femininity with the same conclusions he reached at that time in today's society where the nuclear family and the roles of mother and father are definitely different from those at the time he conducted his analysis.

Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, and Threatened Identities, Patrick D. Hopkins.

I do not think that this essay gives enough of an explanation of the connection between masculinity and homophobia to persuasive as to its thesis that homophobia comes about as a result of the masculine identity feeling threatened at the individual level. The essay states that much of our identity, our "personhood" as Mr. Hopkins puts it, is based on gender notions, and I agree with this point. But then Hopkins goes on to say that anything that does not clearly fit within the "binary" categories created by the two gender classification system is viewed as a threat to a man's developed identity. However he does not explain why a behavior that does not fit into the binary categories becomes a threat, why and how having a third category threatens the concept of masculinity. Hopkins does explain that the binary gender classification has an effect on many other categories in society, "They affect-if not determine-labor, reproduction-associated responsibilities, childrearing roles, distribution of political power,....", but he fails to make a convincing argument as to why having only two categories is the magical solution for having this societal order, as opposed to a society that may have three or more categories with respect to gender, or no categories at all.

Hopkins touches a little bit on the definition of masculinity, as mostly a definition as to what a male person is not, a negative definition. " For a man to qualify as a man, he must possess a certain (or worse, uncertain) number of demonstrable characteristics that make it clear that he is not a women, ... ". Hopkins does not clearly state how the definition of what a homosexual is- which he does not define in this essay-infringes on the definition of masculinity in such a way that it becomes a threat to it. It seems to me that the threat to masculinity comes from being an alternative, a third category, to the established categories, and not because the definition of masculinity as such. I found the essay kind of confusing because, as I understand it, Hopkins' arguments support the argument that homophobia is the result of a binary system, and not the result of preconceived definitions or roles. That seems to suggest that homophobia is a structural problem in society which may be more difficult to deal with rather than merely dealing with it at an individual personality level. Yet the title of the essay suggests the author's theory is that homophobia is the result of the definition of masculinity and potential personal identity crises, as opposed to society's reaction to a threat to its stable classification system based on only two genders.

Newsweek Magazine "Don't Judge Me By My Tights"

I just read an article in Newsweek magazine, the March 17, 2008 edition on the internet, written by Sascha Radetsky, an American male ballet dancer. I though this article presents a gender conflict of male versus male. I though of this when Radetsky explains the struggle he has had since he was a boy interested in ballet, an art form that society has earmarked for women. He gives the example that when he was at school and the other school children learned that he was taking ballet lessons the boys would make fun of him. He was involved in several fights at school because of his interest in an activity the society has determined is a classic female activity. Radetsky also explains how parents play a role in maintaining society's choices for gender when parents will buy ballet outfits and pay for ballet lessons for little girls but will not do so for boys. He praises his parents for being open minded and for exposing him, a hyperactive five year old boy, to the art of ballet dancing.

An interesting point I believe he made is how the Russian society has given the world great male ballet dancers because they love ballet as art and have not imposed gender based limitations to the practice of ballet. Perhaps Americans have not produced world renowned male ballet dancers of the caliber of a Baryshnikov because American society has imposed gender roles on the practice of ballet. In the United States is you are a man it is okay to be a great quaterback, if you are a women it is okay to be a great soprano, but when you as a person have an interest in a field that society has determined is not appropriate for your gender then you are in conflict with society as a whole. This can be seen when Radetsky explains how uneasy he feels when he describes what he does for a living to people.

Newsweek Internet Version March 17, 2008("Don't Judge by my Tights")

Based on an article on Time, "Why Girls Need Gym Class March 24, 2008 pp 14-15

Reading "Why Girls Need Gym Class" in the Time magazine this week, I thought of the article by Christina Hoff Sommers "The War Against Boys" and her thesis that radical feminists and the government are in some sort of concerted action to blame boys for girls' under-performance in certain aspects of education. The article briefly summarizes the results of a study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that reveals that girls from Kindergarten to Fifth grade that during the week have exercised for more than one hour and up to five hours, do "consistently higher on standardized tests". The article indicates that the study revealed that for boys there is no correlation between "gym class and test scores". The rationale is that perhaps since boys are generally more physically active than girls gym class does not represent a difference in boy's testing performance.

After reading this article I thought how easily this study could be used to claim that there exists " a war against boys" since this study was paid for with public funds and it seems to indicate that funding for gym class is necessary for girls, but not for boys because by the way boys play they really do not need gym class. Maybe what the study is telling us is that the difference in the way girls and boys play are causing a difference in performance and that we as a society need to review the way we socialize boys and girls so that we do not cause this disparate impact on children's future performance.

"What Would Meg Do?" by Erika Brown Forbes Magazine May 21, 2007

This is an article that I believe is evidence that, contrary to Christina Hoff Sommer's argument that it is just feminists like Carol Gilligan who holds the idea that there is a "distinct male and female moral orientation..." Hoff Sommers, "The War Against Boys", page 6, other people in the media and in business/economics power circles also seem to believe that such dichotomy exists. The article in Forbes profiles the best performing bosses for the year 2006-2007 and the top performer was the CEO of Ebay, Margaret (Meg) Whitman. The author of the article profiles Meg Whitman in a way she does not profile the rest of the top performers, who all happen to be males. She describes how Ms. Whitman took personal care in securing medical services and a safe return home for one of her top executives who became ill during a a business trip they did to Tehran. The article then draws the conclusion from this one example that with women top executives it is not all about the bottom line, it is about caring about the company's human resources . It is a different style of management. Although this type of article is just an anecdotal account, and may not provide the empirical raw data that some studious of the matter in academia would need in order to accept as valid supporting evidence, it is still good food for thought. It also reveals that it is not only merely certain feminist groups that have embraced some of Professor Gilligan's thesis, but other people in the media and the business world have also had the opportunity to document behavior of females that is different from other male performers in the field.

Review of "The War Against Boys" by Christina Hoff Sommers

I really did not like this article - "The War Against Boys" by Christina Hoff Sommers- because I believe she depended to much on bashing the author of "In a Different Voice", Carol Gilligan, as the basis of Hoff Sommer's thesis that boys have been abandoned by the educational system and that boys have been blamed for girls allegedly falling behind in achievement in the school system. I do not believe that Hoff Sommers proves her point that there is a "war against boys" by just calling into question the empirical data, or lack thereof, which is the basis of the report written by Gilligan that allegedly claims that "... girls undergo trauma as they enter adolescence,..." See Hoff Sommers, "The War Against Boys" at page 10, and by offering some statistical data that supports Hoff Sommer's argument that nowadays boys have fallen behind girls in some of the factors used to measure educational engagement of students. Although that argument a sufficient basis to prove the thesis of "The War Against Boys". The author of this article is too negative in her tone. For example, the title of her article, to begin with, is negative and definitely a hyperbole. She does not point out who has declared the war against boys, but claims there is one. I guess that from the article the reader could infer that the war was declared by the "feminist radicals" or the government influenced by the feminist radicals, but as a rational person, you must ask the question, does it really make sense that society will declare war against close to half of its future adult population ?

Gender Conflict and Money

"Life", Time, February 11, 2008. Page 59-60.

This article caught my attention because it is about making money out of some of the personal circumstances we sometimes face due to gender conflict. Specifically this article is about an industry which is being developed that specializes in selling items reflecting our feelings when we face divorce or a break-up in a relationship. Companies are now selling such novelty items as a "wedding-ring coffin", "voodoo dolls" of one's past partners and a "wheel of wisdom". I thought the article was pretty funny. Capitalism knows no limits, you can make a buck even out of personal pain. The article shows "divorce cakes" and talks of parties which include even going so far as to rent a hearse to celebrate the death of a marriage or other relationship. I guess that somehow it is not enough that gender conflict may drive you to use psychological and/or psychiatric services, support groups and / or to a need for medication. You may also have to mark the event with a "celebration" to achieve some catharsis or to buy a gadget that will be visual material reminder that the relationship is over and that it is time to move on.

Women Looking Like A Man

"The notion that a contemporary women must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying. This is America, not Saudia Arabia." Time Magazine, page 18, February 4, 2008, quoting Ann Wintour, Vogue Magazine editor, reacting to Senator Hillary Clinton's supposed reasons for refusing to appear in Vogue because allegedly she would look to feminine.

I take issue with the interpretation that Ms. Wintour is taking as to Senator's Clinton's alleged reasons for not appearing in the magazine. Ms. Wintour seems to believe that if you do not want to look "too feminine" then you must look "mannish". This is a simplistic interpretation, since there are other "looks" that Senator Clinton may have wanted to project besides "mannish" , but that because of cultural interpretations of what feminine means, the posibility of projecting these other "looks" might have been excluded by adopting "Vogue"s "feminine" look. For example, having the look of an intellectual, an innocent, or a working class woman may not be related to the "feminine" image attributed to "Vogue". I believe that what Senator Clinton was trying to avoid by not appearing in Vogue was to project a "feminine" image that some people may interpret as frivolous, egocentric and/or cold, which regretfully are some of the negative interpretations that our culture gives to the word "feminine". Our culture provides enough negative interpretations of the word "feminine" that trying to avoid some of those interpretations by not appearing in a magazine does not necessarily mean "mannish".

When I Was Growing Up By Nellie Wong

I found this reading selection pretty alarming. It was sad that the writer Nellie Wong wanted to be white so badly and seemed to view white people as superior to herself and her culture. The writer seemed embarrassed by her dark skin color when compared to the white version of beauty that she aspires to. The apparent self-loathing of the narrator is disturbing as she perceives herself in the piece as dirty, feels ashamed of her own cultural heritage and foreign within her own skin. The writer also seemed to be lost and frustrated by the lack of any role models or prominent people in the popular culture that looked like her. In the end, this reading leaves you feeling sad for the author who evidently grew up feeling very uncomfortable with who she was.

Multicultural and Global Feminism

When reading the book Feminist Though by Rosemary Putnam Tong , it was interesting to hear about all the different types of feminism that exist. When you think feminist you don't necessarily think of all the different categories of feminism that may exist. The section on Multicultural feminism was superficial. It did not go into enough detail in my opinion. It did not talk at all about Hispanic/Latina feminism which I found to be a significant omission being that Hispanics are the largest minority group in the U.S. Based on this fact, it would have been good to have at least a page or two on the subject. The book also did not address the issues faced by bi-racial or bi-cultural feminists, which may be different than the issues faced by people of only one culture or race.

One section of the Global feminism chapter that I found interesting was the quote by Nawal el Saadawi "Western women often go to countries such as Sudan and 'see' only clitoridectomy, but never notice the role of multinational corporations and their exploited labor." Basically, the author talks about how we recognize other people's oppression of women, bot not how indirectly we oppress omen by support for certain multinational corporations. This made me think of how much damage we can do to the world through our shopping.

"Men as Gendered Beings"

I strongly agree with Michael S. Kimmel's and Michael A. Messner's theory in "Men as Gendered Beings", that people are not conscious of those things or circumstances that give them an edge, place them at an advantage, compared to the rest of the group. The example that they give is of two women having a discussion about sex and gender, in which the caucasian women says that when she looks at herself in a mirror she sees a woman, while the African American woman says that when she looks at herself in a mirror she sees a black women. This example shows the hierachy of societal and personal factors affecting our values and perspectives.

In the example the race- "black" comes before gender- "woman"(female). So for a female that is poor and black the hierarchy may be, in my opinion, first-Class,second-Race, and third-Gender. This may explain why African Americans are voting in such large numbers for Barack Obama and why it has been easier for Obama to make inroads in the group of caucasian voters. The caucasian voters are less likely to add into their hierarchy a race category because for most of them (except white racists) race is invisible, so they have no loyalties to weigh in the decision with regards to voting for a caucasian women and African American male.

With regards to class I put it first, although I do not believe it will be first in all circumstances. The closer you are to middle class, the more likely that the of class will become invisible in your hierarchy of issues affecting your perspective of things.

"The Five Sexes" by Anne Fausto-Sterling

I found the article "The Five Sexes" by Anne Fausto-Sterling very interesting. I only knew about male, female and hermaphrodites, and not about the two other categories mentioned in the article. It seems that the author is uncomfortable with parents or guardians making a choice early on in the hermaphrodites' lives to seek treatment for them to fit them into the two gender category established by society, but at the end of the article the author recognizes the difficulties that the hermaphrodite may face growing up in a society dominated by the perspective of two genders, the sense of isolation and perhaps the ridicule and suspicion these people will have to face. This reminds me of people that have to go through life having a mental condition. Although some people need to be medicated, if we medicate everyone who is different we will have a very boring society. There is no acceptance of "neurological diversity" in this society, and although parents could decide to medicate the person early in life and change his/her personality for the future, they may decide to let the person face society as he/she is. But the truth is that society is not ready to deal with people that are significantly different. For society the concept of freaks is alive and well. There is no easy choice, change the person early on, or let them decide after facing harsh treatment by society ? The author favors the alternative of letting the subject face society as the subject was born, but recognizes the pain and courage the subject and the parents will have to have if pursuing this alternative.

Meaning of Peace

After reading the selection "Women and Peace: The Meaning of Peace for Women" by Brigit Brock, I was left kind of confused with all the definitions and categories for classification of peace definitions. It was almost like reading a Math book on matrix. The reading was hard because it was a lot of information in just a few pages. I had to read it three times but by the last reading I realized that the real meaning of peace is at the individual level. The author divides the peace definitions into macro level- society or groups, and micro level- at the personal individual level. I believe that to achieve peace you have to make peace at at the personal level. Individuals are the basic elements of society. The societal structures, the "organized" actions or reactions are decided and executed by individuals, acting alone or collectively, but it is at the individual level- the basic unit of the macro, where the changes in beliefs and behavior have to occur.

Biology Does Not Determine Gender Roles

I agree with Ruth Hubbard that biology does not determine gender roles, as the author indicates "... our biological and social attributes are related dialectically ( that is, they act on one another in producing an outcome.)" The part that I was very interested in, and very surprised about the statistics, was the paragraph in which the author talks about physical strength and gives the example about the Boston marathon, and how in twenty years women have improved their performance by running the same distance about one hour faster than when they initially started running the marathon, but that men's performance has improved only 15 minutes since 1908.

That segment made me think about the recent scandals in which athletes have lost their medals and records because they have been using anabolic steroids to artificially improve their performance. I wonder if the statistics that some scientists have been relying on to prove that men are better performers than women in some sports have been biased because of men using these types of substances. I know some high performance female athletes have been using them too, but based on the news coverage it seems that it is more prevalent in men. An aspect that she did not cover in the "Physical Strength" section is the fact that in sports women and men do not play together in the same leagues or play together on the same teams. The biological and social rationale behind this could have been explored by the author as an example of the biological and social interaction that creates gender roles.

Review of Is The Anything Good About Men ?

I disagree with many of the arguments presented in " Is There Anything Good About Men ?". The first thing I disagree with is that I do not see how the title goes with the article, since the article talks about how supposedly culture assigns roles to men and women that make society more successful, and not about bad mouthing men. The issue the author does not address is who or which group within society makes the role assignments accepted as society's culture.

The author claims that culture assigns men to do very risky activities like sailing, going to war, etc. But he fails to recognize that nature assigned women the risky and at times the life threatening role of bearing children. In poor countries women are pregnant a large portion of their adult years risking their personal lives and their health to keep producing children to work the land. He also fails to mention that many women, especially in developing countries, are forced to work as prostitutes, an extremely risky activity forced upon them because of culture and the economic reality that they face. Finally, he forgets to mention the women workers in factories, meat packing plants and canneries that sufffer tremendous amounts of injuries because of the work society assigns to them. I totally disagree with his argument and after reading the paper I am left with the impression that his research was not very comprehensive.

The author mentions motivation as an explanation for the differences in salary. He says that men are workaholics and are more motivated by work, and that is why they get paid more and promoted more. I think he fails to take into account that it is not that women are not workaholics, but the extra hours the man is working at the paying job the women is working domestic work and child care, for which she is probably not being paid for, and obviously not being promoted either. Domestic work never ends.

The author indicates that women prefer narrow intimate relationships while men prefer larger groups and less intimate relationships, which has resulted in men being more succesful in society. But the author fails to recognize that women's preference may be the result of centuries of staying at home doing domestic work assigned to women where the opportunity women had to develop relationships were with the other women also staying at home instead of with the broader group of business people and workers in town that the men were meeting. This isolation has economic implications. Men at work may meet more people that may be key to get promotions, change jobs or get your artistic piece out in the market where it may be appreciated, while women are isolated in the house. Perhaps the Internet will change this and become a factor in helping women achieve equality. I do not believe that women choose a sphere that led to less power within society than men's sphere. I believe women were not given choices. It seems that from the beginning women had the role of mother assigned to them by nature, and since then society did not give them a right to choose other roles that may interfere with women's role as a mother and child care provider. I believe that women are as workaholic, motivated and creative as men, but society has not provided women the choices it has provides men. Women were not provided choices outside the small sphere of interaction that according to the author women have chosen.

Macho Girl

"She's Got to be a Macho Girl" by Alex Kuczynski presents an interesting points as to how the media has influenced young women to assume the attitude that some men have about sex and relationships. The article calls it "the macho" attitude. It presents the comments of a doctor arguing that one of the ways young people learn about relationships is through the TV and Internet. The doctor argues that because the women presented by the media have an "aggresive" attitude in pursuing intimate relationships with young men, young women have adopted the macho approach to relationships. I agree with this point and I immediately thought of the role played by Cameron Diaz in the movie "In Her Shoes" and how the movie become very popular. But I have a problem with characterizing all behavior in which women are assertive as aggressive.

I believe that women can be assertive without necessarily being aggressive and that is a distinction that is not being shown by the media in their aired programs and songs. The article and the comments it presents do not get into this issue. If a young women takes the first step in seeking a relationship that does not necessarily mean she is aggressive. Aggressiveness depends on a individual circumstances surrounding the event. A women may also assume a "passive role" and may be acting assertively.

There are other comments in the article that seem to point out that a reason why young voters nowadays are "aggressive" in pursuing personal relationships is the result of the feminist movement idea that women should pursue equality with men in all spheres, jobs, school, sports, and therefore women should also "dominate in a sexual relationship". The problem with this inference is that "dominating" a relationship does not reflect equality. A relationship under those circumstances reflects that one party is superior to the other. To really pursue equality women must not imitate that behavior but make men abandon that behavior. I believe the real feminist take on the issue of relationships is that feminist women should be assertive, and this does not necessarily means aggressive or dominating the relationship. The feminist view is not that "She's Got to be a Macho Girl".

Full Frontal Feminism-Chapter One You're a Hardcore Feminist

I like this reading Full Frontal Feminism-Chapter One You're a Hardcore Feminist because it points a few themes that are very real current issues for us women at this point in time. It shows that many women will not identify themselves as feminists, and will run away from this label, because from some reason the word feminist is associated with a women being ugly, fat, masculine, or being a man hater. But the author indicates that if you inquire into those women's beliefs with regard to issues such as birth control, equal pay for equal work and rape, you realize that those women are in fact feminists, but they do not acknowlegde it.

The author says that when she was a student a professor asked in class who was a feminist and she did not raise her hand. She was also a feminist in hiding. But she does not give us an insight into what happened in her life that she evolved and decided to come out of the closet. I wish she would have shared this personal experience with us readers.

I do like it when the author says something about, why do people want to kill feminism if it is already dead ? Well, to me the answer is clear, feminism is not dead, but it isn't as strong as it could be because women are afraid of being labeled . Women need to get the courage to say something equivalent to the African American Community's slogan in the 60's that "black is beautiful".

I am a feminist, isn't that great ?

Themes I Would Like To Study in the Course

Some of the themes I would like to study in this course are: Eleanor Roosevelt's role in the peace process during World War II and the post-war period. I have always been interested in Eleanor Roosevelt as a historical figure, how she influenced the New Deal programs during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency and how she was interested in social justice in the domestic agenda of her husband's presidency. Nonetheless I do not know much about her role in international affairs, like the peace process during World War II and the post war-period.

I am also interested in learning more about the role of women in recent issues related to peace, like for example the group "Code Pink" and their use of creative tactics of civil disobedience in demonstrating against the Iraq War. Also I would like to research groups like Mothers Against War ("MAW") that were organized as a reaction to the War in Iraq and that use the Internet to create a network of women who oppose the war around the world.