Week 13, Blog 10

For this project I chose to do women's rights specifically focusing on violence against women.  I stumbled across this organization actually called The National Organization for Women (NOW).  They pretty much deal with any kind of issues that involve women's rights.  Such things that NOW works with are Abortion and Reproductive Rights, Economic Justice, Ending Sex Discrimination, Lesbian Rights, Promoting Diversity and Ending Racism, Violence Against Women.  One of their latest workings is that the NOW is trying to stop sexual assault in the military.  The NOW proposed a bill on Feb 3 2009 called Military Violence and Sexual Assault Act.  If this bill is passed it will pass a Victim's Advocate office which will be responsible for helping the victims of sexual assault and bring justice to those who cause such acts.  On top of that it will be making sure that every branch of military will provide victim's advocate programs.  I really like this organization not just because they are trying to provide approaches to end violence against women but they deal with pretty much everything that involves women's rights and seem to have good approaches in doing so.  NOW offers membership or donations of money on their website.  To be a future advocate of this organization I honestly do not see myself joining but definitely donating money to help out with their causes.

Castellanos paper

For this project I decided to do one of the first scenes, the honeymoon scene.  I chose the Honeymoon scene because it shows prime examples of male and female roles, they may be taken to the extreme by what we Americans understand, but still show the gender roles.  Important questions that need to be answered are things like what are the male and female roles, why do we as humans fall into these roles, and what can be done to fix these stereotypical roles.  Costellanos has written a prime example of past problems but are still problems in modern times.

All through out the Honeymoon scene, Juan is shown as this dominant almost as a monster like man.  He bosses Lupita around and seems to have a very angry tone of voice.  He even says at one point “You made an oath on the alter to obey and do what I say at all times”. This to me seems to be the image of men when we talk about gender role that pops into my head.  Maybe not so much the angry tone of voice but still the fact that the man is seen as the tougher and dominant one.  It is everywhere you look in the media.  It starts from an early age.  In the video we watched about women in the media, she made a reference to how men were shown as these tough and almost emotionless characters walking around, while the women was always smiling and trying to get the attention of the man.  Lupita seems to play the role of the “innocent” virgin.  When talking to Juan she tries to express her feelings but without crossing the boarders that society has set up for men.  Women seem to almost always take this back roll in society.  Almost as to say “screwing in all the loose screws” of society.  A stereotypical family would consist of a man going to work and the women staying home cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children.  I think these type of gender roles come in naturally though.  It seems that men automatically take the stronger and leading roles while women take the more supportive and caring roles.  This is just how we are designed as human being to operate; however, I am not saying that this is true in all cases, just generally this is how things seem to fall into place.  Men have much higher levels of testosterone, which causes us to be a little more aggressive and have that “alpha” attitude then women do.  Things; however, seem to be changing in recent years.  More and more females are beginning to have jobs and are at higher positions in those jobs then they were several years ago.  It is no longer strange to have both parents working for a combine income.  No longer is it not normal for the man to stay at home and the women go to work.  Castellanos seemed to have very strong feelings about these type of problems or issues.  In the Honeymoon scene she made the man basically a monster while the women was innocent but still a rebel.  I believe she is sick and tired of how women take the back seat to most things in life.  In a more modern setting I believe she hates how when a man sleeps with a lot of girls he is a “stud” but when a women sleeps with a lot of men she is a “slut”.  Society has made this seem natural and okay.  Castellanos seems to be very upset with the way society looks at gender roles; however, and is trying to make a point to change it.

All throughout history men have been seen as the dominant and more powerful sex.  Women have been seen as the caring and compassionate sex.  These ideas are changing as we speak however.  No longer do men always take the “alpha” roles in the family.  More and more women are beginning to work and supporting the family.  Times are changing, but will society allow for gender roles to switch?  I honestly think that society will not allow for gender roles to switch because of how we are programed as human beings.  It comes naturally for humans to have men as the “alpha” and the women as the caring ones.  Castellanos offers good idea’s and examples of modern day problems.  She expresses her opinions in a very clever and creative way throughout the story about how women are treated.  Hopefully one day we will see both genders as equals; however, as of right now men will be the providers and women will be the care givers.

Blog 9

For my non governmental organization that works with women's issues I chose The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At first glance I was really not impressed just because it looks like the website has not been updated since sometime in 2008; however the convention only gets together a few times a year to discuss topics, so the website is updated at those certain times. This organization has been around for 30 years and was adopted in 1979. Not onlt does CEDAW work with the United States, they also work with all other countries around the world. The last session, the 41st, was about inequality in the workplace. This took place back in July 2008. The goal of this was to help women with equal pay. The argument was mostly against the United Nations. Certain things such as how women feel, why they are just as capable as men if not more qualified for certain jobs, and how women get paid less for the same job that a man does. Instead of offering solutions so to say, CEDAW shows how and where there is inequality and asks that it be recognized and worked with. By the end of the 41st session a letter was sent to the President of the United Nations. CEDAW is worth donating money towards because it has been a very strong group helping women advance forward in the workplace and in other social aspects for 30 years strong. They have made many advancements in the workplace for women over the course of 30 years. They are dedicated and not willing to stop until the workplace is a socially even playing field. When I read the reviews on CEDAW all I could find were possitive things. One women was talking about how CEDAW gives her hope that one day women will be treated just as equally as men are. The only negative thing that I read in the reviews was that people wish that CEDAW had more session's per year than just 2 or 3. This is a gender issue because it deals with the inequality of women in the workplace or any other social area like that. This is a serious problem that needs to be delt with and CEDAW is working on it.