women who opt out of work

I thought the Belkin article is very interesting, and could definitely see both points of the "Opt Out" argument. Obviously the article generally refers to middle and middle class white women, though it could refer to any race of women that are middle to upper middle class.

I think on one side of the argument, one could make find it admirable that women may want to spend more time with their family. I do believe that family is very important, and I believe many women (as well as men) may sometimes put too much emphasis on trying to climb up in their career than taking care and having good relationships with their families. Many women feel its much more largely their responsibility to be the one who takes care of the home and relationships. It may also be a good testament to the feminist movement that more women now feel they have the option of either working to get to the top or not.

On the other hand, many marriages end up in divorce, and many for reasons other than the woman having a career. In today's society, it cannot be established that a marriage will last; therefore quitting a career and living off of your husband's paycheck may put you in jeopardy if you choose to sacrifice a career for more family life. Also, more women will never be fully represented in high offices for change in how society views women in the workplace and the types of jobs they do, if many women choose not to persue their careers and "opt out."

My mother stayed at home with me when I was younger. I do appreciate the fact that she did this for me, and since I think I turned out pretty well, I would do the same for my children. I just do not feel I would be comfortable leaving my children with another person if I can stay at home with them and be okay financially. This is not to say that people who leave their children in daycare or with a babysitter/tutor for the day are bad, but I do not believe it is what I would choose.

Movie Review

The movie I chose to review is The Devil Wears Prada. Most may not think this has anything to do with gender, but it could in many ways. The fashion industry is very influential in the lives of women. Does the fashion industry's standards have anything to do with low self esteem that we see in younger and younger children?

The main character in the movie is someone who is not obsessed with looks and fashion at first. However once she starts working for her boss, she becomes more and more obsessed with pleasing her and fitting in to the fashion world. Is that not what many women, and especially girls, go through all day at work or at school? Trying to fit in with your co-worker or peers at school for the latest in everything in style?

The readings for the week were about marriage and the deterioration of marriage, especially over the last few decades. I think it just has to do with people who do not take seriously marriage any more. My father and mother have been married for over twenty years, because they help each other out and try and work out any differences. Today, whenever something goes wrong, divorce is always brough up as an option. I think divorce is too easily sought now. It should not be that easy to get a divorce, unless there is abuse, physicall or psychological, going on or something to that effect. I do not believe one should be able to get a divorce just because they are having problems in bed or many of the baseless reasons some couples today actually get divorced!

advertisement

There are many negative ads that feature women, having to do solely with sex objectification. However, I think this is a positive ad for women who consider themselves feminists. The ad for Aeropostale shows a female by the phrase "I think a lot about world hunger, I think a lot about environmental issues, I think a lot about my hair." I think it sends an important message to women and especially girls that it is okay to be smart and be "girly."

As discussed in class, the stereotype of a feminist is always a rather butch woman who does not put any stock into her appearance and hates men. We see in this ad, a normal looking girl who pays attention to world issues, but is not what one would describe as a stereotypical, in every bad sense of the word, feminist.

I think whether or not one calls themself a "feminist" does not necessarily matter. Yes, it would be good if everyone self-identified as a feminist and gave it a more positive meaning, but I do not believe that is the most important issue when it comes to women and women's rights. Just the common belief that a woman can have a brain, pay attention to things like politics and influence it, and pay attention to her own self and her own beauty is a healthy thing. That is why I like this ad; it seems to be an example of that.

Playlist; Fife

I had a lot of fun doing this blog. A lot of songs speak to me about gender. One song was Creep, which is about a relationship that is not working well; the guy is cheating on her. Therefore, she feels she can cheat also, because the guy is not showing her any affection. I think its probably not a great message, since you shouldn't be with a guy who does nothing but cheat on you if you're supposed to be exclusive; but this is coming from a woman who may love a man and want to stay with him, but basically she needs to find affection else-where. Most songs I chose mostly had to do with relationships and the roles of men and women in them, because I can relate to them. One of the songs is called "She Got Her Own" by Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx and Fabolous. It describes how a woman works on her own and does not need a man to take care of her. He loves the fact that she is independent and does not have to depend on him or isn't just with him for the money but for love. Most of the other songs are describing being in a relationship, or how one should treat the person they love.

In Fife, we learned about the divide between working class and upper class women and feminism. I remember hearing about this before on Oprah. For most of the early feminist movement, it seems as if upper-class, white women were the dominant people, and could sometimes forget other groups. I think its wrong that that happened; I think feminism should be for about lifting up all types of women and making sure all women are treated equally.

Blog 4!

My future will be in journalism and media. I'm not quite sure if I want to do broadcast journalism or work for some sort of magazine or news organization doing reporting online. I would definitely like to do my work online, as most people will start getting almost all of their news from the internet as opposed to magazines or a newspaper.

I definitely think gender will be an issue in my line of work. The media has a lot of influence on how people look at themselves and how people think, and it is especially true of the role that women in society have and are represented. I feel that studying women's studies will help me to be more aware of how gender roles become developed and are exacerbated by the media.

The Body Image vs. Reality class is a class that I would very much be interested in taking. I think many women get their idea of what it means to be female from the media. Many times I look at people in a video or in a magazine and see how much smaller they are and think that I should become the same way. In reality, I have to realize, this person was probably photoshopped many times to look a certain way. Being in media, I must keep an idea of how images effect our ideas of femininity and masculinity.

Iron Jawed Angels

I first saw Iron Jawed Angels my senior year in my Contemporary U.S. Studies class in high school. I thought it was a very inspirational film, and it taught me that women went through much more than what I was ever taught to get the right to vote. I had no idea that they went to some of the lengths that they had to go through in order to achieve this right.

I was not able to see the movie from again from anything other than youtube, so I have forgotten a lot from the movie. However, one of the things I remember that interested me was that the women's movement was not always united on how to get to equality. Many women did not feel it was necessary to go to jail or go on hunger strikes like I remember they did in the movie.

A scene that really was dramatic and struck me was the scene when Alice Paul is force-fed after not refusing to eat. It took a lot of strength for her to go on a hunger strike in the name of what she believed. I like how they start singing in support of eachother. It was just an emotional scene that really stood out to me.

Interview over feminism

The person I chose to interview was my mother. My was born in June of 1958 and always raised me to believe that I can be whatever I want to be, no matter what gender I am. She is a very strong and caring woman, who has a good heart, even though I disagree with her on a number of issues (for instance, she's much more conservative than me on many hot-button social issues).

Question: What is your experience with gender?
Answer: When I was growing up, it was very uncommon for a woman to work outside the house just like it is uncommon today for women to stay at home and not work.

Question: What is your history with feminism? Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Answer: I didnt really pay attention to feminism until I became much older. Feminism was never a word that was spoken about in the house. No, I'm not a feminist. Some principles that feminists have I agree with, such as women should be given the same amount of money for the same job. But I don't consider myself a feminist.

Question: Why not?
Answer: I've always seen feminists as women who believe they can do everything a man can. I believe there are some things that men are better at. Personally I think a man would be better at building a house than a woman. But then there are some women who swear that they could do just as good of a job, so I really don't know. I just think there are some things men are better at and women are better at.

Question: What is an experience in your life that made you aware of your gender?
Answer: There was a time that I was working on a job when I was younger that I was passed over for a promotion because they believed a man was better suited for the position. It made no sense to me why they thought this; they also had me train the man who I was passed over for, which didn't make sense to me.

Question: Who was more dominant at home, mother or father:
Answer: My mother was much more dominant than my father. They were treated equally, but I think my mother pretty much ran most of the household. My mother would tell my father what he needed to do, and my father would tell my mother what she should do.

About me & questions for Intro to women's studies

My name is Charis Cudjoe, and I'm am majoring in journalism at the University of Oklahoma. I decided to take an Introduction to women's studies course because I thought that it would be enlightening, as I've never really taken a class that has to do with gender and society. I also needed a western culture, and women's studies looked by far the most interesting to take. I think it is important for women to understand the ways women are daily marganilized in society and the ways the media and society dictate how we view ourselves.

Questions I would like to answer in this class:

1. What is feminism?

2. Why has feminism been so controversial as of lately, and why do younger women back away from identifiying themselves as a "feminist."

3 What are ways in which the media help shape women psychologically?

4. What can women do to get more power so that we have a larger say our government and in society?

5. Do women of a certain age view women's roles and women's rights in a much different way than women of another age?