Essay. 1

Veronica Cantu
Women Studies
Paper 1
Growing up in a single parent home with my mom has taught me a lot of life lesson throughout the years. My mom is a very strong, independent, smart woman and she has passed thought’s traits do to my sisters and I. When we started kindergarten we moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas about two hours away from my dad. I remember one weekend when my dad wasn’t around my mom wanted to rearrange the furniture in the living room; my brother was at a friend’s house so the house was to us girls. I looked at my mom like she was crazy and said “I thought we needed guys to help us move furniture”. She turned to me and my sister and said “we can do this”. So we go out the vacuum and all the cleaning supplies and as soon as we realized we had rearranged everything from couches to chairs, and we did it ourselves. We took at step back to look at our newly rearranged and very clean living room. My mom turned to us and said her famous words “who needs a man”. Right then I realized that you can survive without a man around all the time. I realized my mom’s independent personality and I was intrigued. It might not seem like a big deal to someone else but to me and my sister moving furniture was a man’s job and we just proved that wrong.
Another gender experience in my life was when I was younger. I grew up around our brother since my older sister went off to college. He taught us how to shoot a BB gun and catch a football. One day we were playing outside and my brother needed to go to the bathroom, instead of going inside, he went behind a tree. I wanted to do it! I had never gone to the bathroom outside, let alone while standing up, so I had to try it. I went behind the tree, pulled down my pants and started to pee. Well of course it went everywhere, all down my legs and on the back of my pants. I was confused and upset that I had pee all over me and myself and my brother didn’t. I went inside and my mom saw what I had done and she was not very happy. She said to get in the bath tub and she would be in there in a minute. So I ran the water and got in, I explained the situation to her and she started to laugh. I didn’t know why she thought it was funny, but at least I wasn’t getting a spanking. She began to explain that only boys could pee standing up and girls couldn’t and other differences between girls and boys. Suddenly I came to grips and realized that boys are different than girls. I saw the effect of me peeing standing up and I never tried it again.
I went to school the next day and told my friends the interesting fact I had discovered over the weekend. That day I began to notice that boys were rough and a lot louder than us girls. I started realizing the differences between boys and girls first hand. The boy’s were always getting into trouble in class. I thought, who are these boys and where did they come from? In about the second or third grade the “boys are from Jupiter” saying became popular. My friends and I would say this to boys to make fun of them. I think about the saying today and it was very degrading to boys. What made us think we were better than boys and what made the boys think that they were better than us?
My mom has always encouraged us to be ourselves and believe that we can do anything we set our minds to regardless of gender. Listening to Dr. Lara on the way to my dad’s house was very helpful to my sister and me, when we were in our teens. I remember one program we were listening to about “men and marriage roles”. Dr. Lara was encouraging the woman to let her husband be the husband in the relationship and how it’s healthy to let the husband take on that manly role. It all made since. I understood what Dr. Lara was saying. Men need to feel like they are taking care of their wife and kids, when they don’t they began to fill like they are not needed and not fulfilling their duty as a man. This is when I realized that gender plays a part in many walks of life, from kindergarten all the way to marriage.

Blog 4

I just have to say that I loved when the panel came and talked about the Women Studies program and how it has effected there life. Listening to there stories and experiences has convinced me to add W/S as my minor. It got me thinking about class opportunities, and so I went to the course catalog and started researching the Women Studies program. I came across a Women’s Health class and a Body Image class that I am seriously thinking about taking. These classes would be perfect for my major and not to mention, better me as a person. I am a nursing major, and these days it is not uncommon to see male nurses in the workforce. Working as a CNA, I have encountered male nurses and they are just as good as female nurses. Some patience prefer a male nurse over a female nurse in order to feel comfortable. Its helpful to have that option for the patient, and it makes our job easier when the patient is comfortable. Some people may think that the nursing field is a "women's word" but its not. Men are filling nursing positions everyday, this is a good example of the world going through a role reversal. Watching the male nurses work with my dad in the hospital was great. They were wonderful, they encouraged him and could relate to him much easier than the female nurses, and most importantly he was comfortable. Working in the health field and setting with my dad at the hospital, has really made me a aware of how gender effects other people physically and emotionally. When people are constantly uncomfortable and embarrassed it can be hard on the body and can stress you out, then it starts to effect how your body is heeling. Having a female and male prospective in the nursing field is very important. It allows us to get that much closer to what the patient is feeling and explore different care options we can give the patient. Overall I think the Women Studies program will benefit my career and myself as a women. Is important to be aware of gender issues and be comfortable expressing them with my co-workers and that is what this program will do.

Blog 3

OK I know how bad it sounds but I did not realize how much suffrage the ''women suffrage movement" faced until I watched the movie. It was very disturbing to see what kind of torture these women went through. Its funny how history classes skim right over the women suffrage movement and women's right to vote. In the parade seen it showed that the women of the suffrage movement have a back bone and independence. The end of the parade where the women were voicing there opinion about equality and it turned into violence, was an eye opener to how violent the public was towards this movement. I'm amazed at how much I now know about what women had to go through for equality. The theme of the film was women suffrage and women fighting for equality. Some women thought started having doubts about all the ruckus they were stirring up, and some started to give up. Alice Paul quickly stepped in and encouraged them to hang in there and fight for what is right. When the women were put into jail, they were treated horrible. They went on a hunger strike until the government saw that they were not joking around and pulled them out of jail. With force feeding and all Alice Paul and the other women weren't going to give up, they believed in what was right. In chapter one of FIFE, it was talking about how the focus shifted from a stereotyped group of girls to a sisterhood, giving emotional support while trying to gain equality and put an end to the sexist oppression. Chapter 2; they talked about awareness of feminism and they organized grouped to talk about these issues. (CR) meetings took place in others houses so they could understand and the nature of the male perspective on feminism. Chapter 3: the women studies program began in universities. She transferred to Stanford University, she felt that women did not have a voice, it lacked in confidence. She was constantly reminded that female professors were not as smart as male professors. These women had a vision and an understanding and encouraging women to be themselves while educating them about feminism. They proved that sisterhood was still powerful.

WAGS: Blog 2

Well my mom hit 50 this year and she took it pretty hard. I decided to interview her since she is a very experienced women not only in years but in the work force also. She works as a Banker in Tulsa, OK and if anyone knows banking most of them are ran by MEN, so i knew this interview would be good.

• Experience with gender-I started asking my mom about here experience with gender and she stated to think back when she was a little girl. She said " when I was a little girl my daddy was the one that worked, he was the bread winner, on top of work he ran the farm. Momma was a stay at home mom taking care of us five kids and household chores. Mom wasn't even on the bank account until most of us were out of the house, Dad would just wright the checks for groceries and other things as she needed them." "Growing up in a little country town parenting in our house was by the book, there were no role reversal or anything or the sort it was the way it was, mom had her job and daddy had his" I guess in this day and age this life style would be a culture shock for some but my mom did not know any different. My Grandma has always felt that it was important to let the man be the man in the marriage and woman be the woman. This idea has carried on to my mom, shes always enjoyed letting a man take care of her and open doors and such.
• History with feminism- "From the Gloria Steinham era, the articles I read and the stuff I saw in the media, I had a very negative impression on feminism."
• Feminism defined- "a belief or "doctrine" that equalizes rights for women."
• Experience in life- " When your dad and I opened the restaurant I was going to go to the local Chamber of Commerce meeting. I went to one meeting and I was the only women in the room and I did not fill comfortable, they did not welcome me at all. The next week I sent your dad and and fit right in and they welcomed him just fine." "This experience was a slap in the face, it was very obvious that it was a Man's World and No Girls Were Allowed."

Reading response: Ch. 3 A New Cultural Landscape: The topics of this chapter was about sex, "the pill", birth control methods, identifying a women's sexuality, and teen pregnancy. In the beginning of the chapter they talk about how the Pill was introduced into society and what women had to go through to get it. I did not realize how important the pill issue was back then, compared to today. I think of it today as protection, planning and being responsible. Back then it was a decrease, the fact that "women no longer need to get married to have sex without risking a unplanned pregnancy."(pg.37) As I read about teen pregnancy and identifying my own sexuality I start to notice that it is easier for me to identify with issues in the chapter. Coming from a small town where teen pregnancy is a norm and word gets around, I can relate to this chapter. My values that my parents have instilled in me start to blossom and my own personal opinions start to bounce around in my head. Society has definitely changed and views and opinions have too. The pill and birth control methods were seen as liberating and careless. It was throwing a women's purity out of the window, in a since and so did feminism in the first few chapters. How different do we view a woman that had a unplanned pregnancy today compared to in the 60's?

Reading response: ch. 5 Signs of The Times: Defining the Third wave: The topic they discussed a lot in this chapter is "The Third Wave" Modernizing seems to be theme of this weeks readings. Opening a new door to woman and society that opens our eyes to new and different views of feminism issues. Media issues like, Whats hot and whats not, or the ideal woman and how pop culture can brain wash us into thinking that. Introducing the Riot Grrl movement, that started in the early 90s and expressed the views on feminism through rock music and the pop culture. "This is where woman could be seen as individuals and not as sex, race,ethnicity, or cultural orientation claiming the voices of young woman's as art, music and written word, and turning traditionally confining pop-culture images of women around to empower"(pg88) This 3rd wave feminism is a combination of the 1st and 2ND wave plus focusing on global feminism and the empowerment of women than the male oppression. (pg90) This chapter I felt was more in your face and I felt better after reading it, I feel inspired and I have an extra kick in my step. - Veronica Cantu (WAGS Blog 2)