Activism Log 4

Sarah Jackson

Professor Nina Perez

WST 3015

March 27, 2010

Activism Log 4

Activism

After our two main visits with the Brownie troop, group members worked to reinforce concepts learned by assisting with cookie sales around UCF campus and in the Central Florida area. Cookie sales are a time when the young girls become assertive and proactive. Adults are meant to act as advisors and observers only. Girl Scouts are meant to do all of the selling, discussion with customers, and the handling of money and cookies. While working with them on campus to help sell cookies, I assisted the girls with sales by holding on to the money and change. When a girl came up to state that she had made a sale, I would walk her through the math required to find the sales total and also confirm the change required for the customer. All of this helps the girls play an active role in their cookie sales so that they are responsible for achieving their troop’s sales goals.

Reflection

It's interesting to see how the Girl Scout troops of America work so hard to sell these cookies. I've never really noticed before but they have so many different locations and times for sales. They sells thousands of boxes, just as a small troop, going through boxes and boxes of shipments. All of this money earned for this Outreach troop went towards their goal of a sleep over at the Nickoloden hotel. It was fun to see the girls go into "Sales-woman" mode in front of all of the costumers. The younger girls seemed nervous to speak, but the older girls had a memorized list of facts to say whenever anyone asked one question. The older girls were also alittle better at the math than the younger girls. But all they all seemed to have to count on their fingers no matter what the problems were. I didn't know if I just don't remember if this is normal for girls this age (since I'm soooo old now) but I wondered if this had something to do with the fact that "girls don't do math as well as boys." I hope its just because they're so young and not because they are not getting the attention they need in school during math lessons.

Reciprocity

"A psychological explanation of poverty may argue that people are poor because they have low self-esteem, lack self-confidence, and take on self-defeating behaviors," (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey 52). According to materials provided by the community partner, 90% of all women will be solely responsible for their financial self-sufficiency at some point in their lives, and 48% of single women ages 21 – 34 say they live from paycheck to paycheck (Girl Scouts of America). With numbers like this, it is also fair to say that a large percentage of women run the risk of dropping below the poverty line at some point in their lives. Because of these statistics, "The Penny Project" proved to be an important seminar for the young girls. Especially coming from lower-income families, the lessons taught to these young girls will better their chances of managing their finances to keep them out of poverty.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.

—. "The Penny Project: A Guide For Adults." New York: Girl Scouts of the USA, 2005.

Mothers and Wives Assignment

Sarah Jackson

Professor Nina Perez

WST 3015

March 17, 2010

GLEE!

"Glee" is a television show on the FOX network about a high school Glee club and their struggles. Seely makes the point that television, although "a powerful influence on our idea of reality" (Seely 102), is rarely accurate or a proper example of reality in terms of ethnicity, sexuality, and body type. "Glee", however, does a fine job of showcasing different races, sexual preferences, and body types on this Golden Globe winning show. Particularly on the topic of motherhood, "Glee" boldly displays non-traditional types of pregnancies and parenting situations that are rarely talked about in society, let alone shown on television.

Early on in the season, we discover that Finn's girlfriend Quinn is pregnant. In the episode "Throwdown," Quinn's fears and confusions about her pregnancy are shown more intensely. During a doctor visit, the two teenage parents-to-be are asked if they have given any thought to what will happen after the baby is born. As mentioned in "The Mommy Tax," a child can end up costing a couple "easily greater than $1 million..." (Crittenden 338) in lost earning wages alone. For an unwed teenage couple with no income, this is an unimaginable amount of money especially since Quinn can fear never fulfilling her professional goals due to her child. Since "[t]he pay gap between mothers and nonmothers...is now larger than the wage gap between young men and women," (Crittenden 338) there is a good chance that even if Quinn chooses to work after high school, if she keeps the baby she may never earn as much money as her childless co-workers. The topic of teenage pregnancy is rarely addressed in society as much as it should be and is almost never a topic on main stream television. By making such a controversial storyline, the show opens up discussion on many social issues concerning teen pregnancy.

Another rarely discussed issue brought up in this specific episode of "Glee" is the idea of father's rights. Although it is said that "in a patriarchal system that looks to ownership, property, and dominance of men over women as its basis, marriage long has been the focus of radical feminist revulsion," (Ettelbrick 317) Will and Terri Schuester's marriage seems to be the opposite of this. Terri is faking her pregnancy in the hopes of keeping her husband happy enough to stay with her. Will is shown to be a very nurturing and loving husband to Terri even though she is spoiled and selfish. Through of the course of her fake pregnancy, Terri is distant from Will which causes him to feel disconnected from his unborn child. He finally makes a point to demand that Terri take him to her next ultrasound appointment in order to involve him in the process that he has been so excluded from. Like Will, Finn feels powerless in his pregnancy situation. He makes the point that he experiences "all the stress and worry and none of the control" (Falchuk) when he refers to the fact that he has no say in Quinn's decision to give the baby up for adoption or to keep it. Quinn also blatantly states that Finn should not have an opinion on the subject even though it is (supposedly) his child.

All of these issues bring up many questions and concerns about how mothers and parenthood is perceived by society. The example of Qunn's pregnancy displays the fears and extreme measures that some teenagers go through in the attempts to conceal their pregnancy from their parents. Terri's fake pregnancy shows the very extreme measures some women may go through in the attempts to save their dying marriage because of their fears of being alone. And the examples of father's rights that are brought up in concern with Finn and Will give a broader look at different types of caregivers that exist in society.

Works Cited:

Crittenden, Ann. "The Mommy Tax." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. (2001): 337-345. Print.

Ettelbrick, Paula. "Since When Is Marriage a Path to Liberation?." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. (1989): 317-320. Print.

Falchuk, Brad. "Throwdown." Glee. FOX. 14 Oct. 2009. CastTV. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Print.

Behind the Music Assignment

Sarah Jackson

Professor Nina Perez

WST 3015

March 3, 2010

She Didn't Want To, He Had His Way...

"Sublime" is a reggae/punk band that was popular in the early to mid-90's. Their song "Date Rape" was featured on their debut album "40 Oz. To Freedom" in 1992. The song tells the story of a woman being raped by a man she meets at a bar one night and the legal action she takes against him. Although the song "Date Rape" attempts to portray the female character as powerful against the violence she endured, it fails to grasp the major problems concerning rape and its portrayal in society today.

First of all, the song depicts an incident of "stranger rape" not date rape, like the title implies. Date rape is under the category of acquaintance rape. The situation presented in this song is not acquaintance rape. The rapist and woman do not know each other; they are strangers who meet in a bar. Stranger rape, although it is the "most recognized type of rape," it actually "only accounts of 20 percent of all rapes that occur" (Seely 193). As the song choose to focus on this type of rape and this certain situation, it failed to show that acquaintance rape makes up "75 to 80 percent of all rapes" (Seely 193), giving the false perception that stranger rape is more common.

The song goes on to depict the rape scene when the rapist says: "Come on babe it's your lucky day, Shut you mouth, we're gonna do it my way, Come on baby don't be afraid, If it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid..." (Sublime). This line gives the impression that rape is about sex. Again, at the end of the song it is said: "The moral of the date rape story, it does not pay to be drunk and horny..." (Sublime). This goes back to the resurfacing "biological explanation of rape" that argues that "rape evolved historically as a form of male reproductive behavior," (Kirk, and Okazawa-Rey 264). This is misleading and false because "rape has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with power, control, and violence," (Seely 192). Rapists do not rape because they are horny and want to get laid. Blaming alcohol and biological "needs" only takes blame away from the rapist.

The female in the song is the protagonist and it is a happy ending at the end of the song when she fights back against her rapist and sues him. The song says: "The next day she went to her drawer, looked up her local attorney at law, Went to the phone and filed the police report and then she took the guy's ass to court, Well, the day he stood in front of the judge he screamed, "She lies that little slut!", The judge knew that he was full of shit and he gave him 25 years..." (Sublime). The good thing about this depiction of a court scene is that the judge is obviously unable to be swayed by the false allegations towards the woman's sexual history. This shows the important fact that "rape laws no longer require the corroboration of a victim's testimony...the sexual histories of rape victims are no longer a subject for cross-examination, unless shown to be relevant," (Kirk, and Okazawan-Rey 270). The bad thing about this depiction of the court scene is that it makes it all seem way too easy. The victim calling a lawyer "the next day" completely discounts the emotional trauma aspect of rape. A victim may not be able to report the rape at all, let alone the next day and would most likely be heavily questioned by police and fully investigated with the idea that she is lying. It is not nearly as simple as the song makes it seem.

Works Cited:

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Print.

Sublime, . "Sublime - Date Rape Lyrics." Lyrics007. 37 MAY 2008. Web. 3 Mar 2010. .