Blog Post 10: The Culture Wars

What are the culture wars, and what do they have to do with feminism? (Use the Faludi and Heywood readings to find an appropriate definition—whose definition are you using?)

The Culture Wars were two sides fighting for the same thing but didn’t even know it. Both sides are fighting for equality but are letting other problems get in the way of seeing the common goal. White women have more privilege over women because of the color of their skin, but they are not seen as equals with men because in men’s eyes, they are the weaker gender. Black women are at a disadvantage both ways. We are already at a fault because of our gender, but when you throw skin color into the mix, it’s even worse for us. We would have to work twice as hard to reach the white women of our society. Both sides aren’t good enough overall because of their gender.

Final/Independent Study

What do you need to know about in order to contextualize and discuss your subject? Meaning, what academic subjects does your project relate to? Through research at the library and on the web, identify the different facets of your project, including whether it concerns contemporary news/events, race, gender, sexuality, history, important countries (the US, India, China, etc.), social status/class, media (which media? film, broadcast tv, streaming shows, social media) and any other salient factors.

The hypersexualization of black women’s bodies has been a subject fought through the years since the 1600s when slave women and children were put on display due to their large buttocks, lips, and hips. Since then, the image of black women in the United states and all over the world has been coveted for their sex appeal, while simultaniously being mocked and ridiculed through history. According to Connie Johnson’s research, “images of minority women are distorted to fit the dominant group’s ideals and cultural relevance, which affect the identity of minority women.”(5). Johnson’s research on this subject focuses mainly on magazines, where black women were seen as being representative of only 4.7% of images. These images, though low, have a huge impact on black girls who are being fed this white washed image of those of their race throughout their lives. Featurism was very obviously applied in these select few women, as select black features deemed as unattractive such as large noses and kinky-curly hair were ostracized. The featurism and hypersexualization of certain features are still shown today, where social media plays a big part in it. Things such as “blackfishing”, a term made up by black twitter to represent white women who use select black features as a dressing tool for likes and attention, are still in use today. White influencers on social media are known to get lip injections to plump their lips up, melatonin injections to make their skin darker, and surgery in order to give the appearance of rounder buttocks. This sends the message that black women are only accepted in this society if body parts that are hypersexualized by men and women alike are present. This also gives the impression that while black women are looked down upon for having these features, women of other racial groups will be praised and given more opportunities because of these same features. 

Material Feminism

Material feminism puts capitalism and patriarchy as the focal point of women’s oppression. Gender is a social construct and material feminism is one tool used to construct it. Gender roles come from society. what society tells us woman should do and what men to do. Gender roles are like women being the caretaker of the children and care for the house and men being the breadwinners and going to work and mow the lawn.

Independent study

Statement-

Hi guys, this is my final project. I chose to create a visual representation of all of the body positive campaigns there are on social media. In my statement (which I have attached in pdf form), I discuss the various campaign hashtags I see on instagram, tik tok, twitter and snapchat. I also discuss the correlation between idealizing womens bodies on social media and the development of eating disorders among women of all ages. This painting has letters that spell “LOVE U FIRST” hidden in it. The representation of the women that I have put in the center of the “O” has the word “first” written in her stomach. I chose to write the word “first” in the women’s body because a women should focus on self love and constantly tell herself to “love yourself first”. She is in the center of the letter “O” because it looks like a loop and this women is in the loop of poor body image and the never ending cycle any type of eating disorder can feel like. She looks like she is purging and her hair is attached to the eating disorder symbol because she will always have an eating disorder whether she is recovered or not. I chose to make the background white because it represents perfection and that is what idealizing women’s bodies causes them to want.
Steps-for-idendependent-study-project-1

Final Reflection

For the last post on this class sight we are to post 3 topics that were most important or impactful to me. I am going to be boldly honest, none of them were very impactful for me. Maybe it is because of the shift In learning and I was not learning but rather than submitting work. The only one that I really likes was week 8 and how the bridge on my back related towards me and my family. I really connected with that one but I think that is the only one that was impactful. As for my definition for feminism, it has not changed. Feminism is still advocating for women’s rights on the basis of equality between men and women. Im sorry. Maybe it is because I was not really invested in this class to apply myself harder.

Blog Post 11. Judith Butler

Butler is talking about how a woman and a man are not born that way. The female and male is born as part of your biology. But man and women are not just that it’s a gender. Gender is not something you are born with it is something that is ascribed. You perform gender on a daily basis and the things you do are gendered and therefore it because of your actions a gender is given to you. Cooking and cleaning are usually women’s tasks while mowing the lawn or taking out the trash are men’s tasks.

One example of performing gender from a personal/cultural appearance is cooking. The women do most of the cooking and sometimes all of the cooking. I tend to do a lot of it and although I have many brothers that know how to do somethings in the kitchen it is mostly me. And the housework usually falls on the women aka me and doing gender also means the taking care of children.

Blog Post 5: Checking In

I know that I am kind of late with this post but I do remember how I was doing this day. I was doing okay this day. It was my second week of quarantine and less than a week of me starting online classes. Everything was going smoothly so far and my stress levels were low too. I was up to date on everything, I was in a good mood all the time. I also remember that it was this day where I started running out of ways to keep myself entertained since everything started to feel like I was on a loop. I was experiencing the same day over and over again. There was nothing exciting to do or see. I was around my family all day will is nice since I have not been around them much with the early commutes to the college and the late commutes back, and the extra homework assignments. In all honesty, after the first week in quarantine. I got tired of seeing the same four people everyday. They were also starting to get on my nerves.

Blog Post 14: Final Reflection

Show that you have learned: Choose three posts/reading responses that you have done that were most important or impactful to you. What about them or the week’s topic was  most important to your understanding of feminism, or the world more generally? Has your definition of feminism changed? If so, how?

The most impactful blog posts were blog post numbers 2, 4 and 12. Before these blog posts, I always thought that feminism was the female version of racist. I used to think that feminism applied to women only, that feminism is a word that could start wars between the two genders. Feminism would be a secret community of its own filled with only strong women and comforting the weak ones. That all men do not see women as their equals and walk all over them and take all the power just for the fun of it. Turns out I was wrong, a man can be a feminist too and there are decent men out there that believe that both men and women are equal and that they deserve equal opportunities. Feminism will always be a term that sparks hate and anger to the men with big egos and poor mindsets. Thank you for everything you have taught me and I wish you all the best of luck in the years to come.

Blog Post 12: Material Feminism

Material feminism is a type of feminism that does not want to deal with any gender hierarchy. They do not want to be told what to do or how to act based on a stupid pyramid full of unnecessary obligations. They instead observe gender “roles” based on physical and social interactions with other people. They are more likely to see each gender as equals compared to other kinds of feminism.