Dr. Widman

Having a professor come in that has committed his life to researching the ideas that we have been discussing on a biological level was a delightful experience even with the few problems that popped up though the discussion. Often times I find our class discussing weather or not research is valid and arguing about semantics when we are really just trying to focus on the question that is at hand. Today I was delighted by the responses that Dr. Widman gave, and I thought throughout the lecture that his descriptions about the information was very useful and articulated well for students that may not have had the background to follow without this type of assistance. While the readings about gender and biology were interesting, I thought they were often still trying to make some type of gendered argument instead of just saying what the statistics were on a subject. It was very refreshing to get this new perspective on the topics that we were attempting to go through.

Harm

Reading the article by Hatty was very difficult after a friend of my experienced is dealing with one of the most permanent types of bodily harm when her niece committed suicide. This bodily harm article made me think of how gender effects so many people and the delicacy that is associated with addressing the understanding or differences that are associated with such ideas. My ideas are scrambled as I try to find what to say about this. All I know is that this gender class has begun to hit home, and that in hitting home you don’t always find the most beautiful things in the world when it comes to gender.

Media and the real world

Reading Valenti is always a delight because of her brutal honesty for the topic. The reading for this week was no different. Her depiction of pop cultures roles on gendered rules brought in the new ideas of gender. While I have always discussed the portrayal of women, there was some disconnect as to what these type of ideas do exactly in the feminist fight. The discussion in class mirrored these ideas, and allowed us to share our own ideas about this new type of violence against women that is shown through the media. Often times the treatment of women is degrading and does not promote women as capable of taking care of themselves in the real world, and the subsequent consequence in violence in all parts of women’s lives is amazing to look into from an outside perspective.

Violence in War and in Men?

Viewing the role of men and women in conflict from an outside view was very interesting. This was especially engaging when Goldstein discussed how men and women both have biological attributes that would make them effective in conflict, but that men were used because of a few more strengths. I also enjoyed how he discussed how these biological attributes could have been used for peaceful purposes. By breaking apart men and women in conflict and viewing the type of jobs that both groups were engaged in and then again taking a look at gendered notions of the conflict was also very interesting. I was not sure if these notions are what taught conflict or fi the conflict roles ended up teaching these notions. Either way the lasting effect of such ideas has, in my opinion, created more violence among men who were before being labeled as so were not violent.

Female Genital Mutilation

After the discussion in class I could not wait to put more of my opinions on the matter. It was very interesting to discuss violence and how genital mutilation has been a form of violence for years. Several people in the class had differing opinions and I would like to touch on a few of them. It seemed as though there was a strong reverence for the history and heritage that such practices entail especially when they are done on adults that have been educated in other ideas and practices. The interesting question about this point is weather or not this is still violence. Such a question as it pertains to a choosing adult is hard to find an answer for because as someone who has grown up in a western culture that frowns upon such practices makes me believe that this is direct violence, but there is also a choice that comes with age that will allow people to abstain from such practices. That brings me to the other point. Is there really true choice when someone will be thrown from their homes if they chose not to get such a procedure done? In that case it brings me back to the original question and causes me to change the last part of my answer.

Such a discussion in terms of international relations and acceptance of cultural practices makes the entire conversation even more difficult to understand and interpret because there is often a disconnect in ideals and acceptance of these ideals at least in understanding by other cultures.

UNIFEM: “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”

Women’s Rights are Human Rights brought up topics that to this point I had not considered controversial, but when everything was laid before me in this article I began to see the connections that have been made. While I understand that countries oppress women because of their gender I did not know the extent of such treatment until this article. Much of this oppression is obvert and under the international level that would entail outrage and this oppression is in the form of violence weather that be physical or emotional.

While international treaties have been signed to protect women, these treaties do not completely eradicate such treatment, and education is very important to end such measures in the future. From this article I understood that often these treaties are focused on just on part of the issue, and in order to create lasting change the root of the problem must be addressed. Hopefully these types of measures will be taken up in the future.