Final Essay 1

Women Studies Final Essay 1

Women studies can mean so many different things. It covers a broad range of topics such as sexuality, racism, and equality. The topic that was discussed in class and in our readings that influenced me the most was all the many different ways women experience inequality. We discussed how the inequality women face can come in many different forms. Some of the different forms are in the workplace, in the media, and in the way women are viewed. My argument is that women face many different forms of inequality compared to men.
In these 5 readings the author(s) argue against inequality in the different forms for women. The five readings that I chose to write about all in some way talk about the inequality for women. I tried to write about readings that covered several different aspects that represented inequality. The readings I am writing about are Jessica Valenti’s He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut, the combined work of Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier and Leila J Rupp’s Feminist Frontiers, Jacquelyn W. White’s Taking Sides, Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, and finally a section of Kristin Rowe Finkbeiner’s The F Word. I chose these readings not only because they were what I found the most interesting but also they all have to do with my topic of inequality and helped me to better understand how serious of a problem inequality is for women. After reading these readings I learned that the majority of inequality comes from the workplace such as the fact that women who have the same job as men make less than they do. The articles about body image especially opened my eyes to the inequality women face in the media. I had never noticed it before but women’s bodies are advertised everywhere. This helped me better understand the pressures women face to in trying to fit in with what the media says is “beauty”.
To tie my paper together it is first necessary to understand what each article or story was about and what the author(s) were trying to argue. My first article I will discuss is He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut. This article is composed of nine different short stories of different ways double standards apply to gender. It covers topics like sex (He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut), toughness (He’s Tough, She’s a Tomboy), and leadership (He’s The Boss, She’s a Bitch). At the end of each section it gives ideas of how to help fix the problem that was discussed in that section. Valenti’s argument is that is not actually stated, but after reading the articles it is clear what her thesis is. She is arguing the fact that men are not judged like women. This relates to my argument of inequality by it relates to how portrayals of women are used in society. Women are simply judged more then men are. The actual article He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut within the book is a great example. It goes on to talk about how women are viewed when it comes to sexuality. If a man sleeps around he is positively viewed as being a “stud” but if a woman sleeps around she is negatively viewed as a “slut”.
The next reading is Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. This article is composed of 2 chapters of the actual book. The two chapters are “The Beauty Myth” and “Beyond The Beauty Myth”. “The Beauty Myth” discusses topics such as the way women are viewed based on physical appearance and things like clothing. “Beyond The Beauty Myth” discusses topics with how the “Beauty Myth” is spread throughout society and the “problem” with “The Beauty Myth” for women. Wolf’s argument is simple; she argues that with the “Beauty Myth”, women have lost a since of one’s self being. This fits into my argument by showing how women are targeted more in the media compared to men as to what makes someone beautiful which in turn is beginning to cause self hatred amongst women. I argued that beauty is something that is bought in stores now, not what is on the inside. Wolf argues the same thing. Research shows that the West’s attractive and successful women have a secret life, one that is full of self-hatred of beauty, age, and control (Wolf 10). Recently over the last few years men being targeting in the media has grown.
The third reading was the combination work of Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp’s Feminist Frontiers This reading was composed of a few pages about how women are treated unequally in the work place compared to men and what certain women rights organizations are doing about it. The authors are arguing that world wide women are getting paid less to do the same work as men. The use of hourly footwear factory (such as Nike) wages was used to compare the inequality. This fits into my argument because it deals with issues of inequality between men and women in the workplace. Un-equal conditions in the workplace are without a doubt the biggest form of inequality for women. Taylor, Whittier, and Rupp say that women in South Korea were making 45 percent of what men were making (460). This hardly seems equal to me.
The fourth reading was Jacquelyn W. White’s Taking Sides. This reading was about the comparison on if women and men are more similar or different from each other. It gives two sides of the argument, a yes and a no. The no side of the article argues that gender differences are very little on most psychological variables. The yes side of the argument argues that differences in equality are natural. It gives examples such as competiveness and how being competitive is a more “natural” thing for boys than girls and how male dominance is a natural. This fits into my argument because again it deals with both the equality and inequality of women. The equal side comes from the fact that the psychological differences are very minimal in areas such as abilities and social personalities. The unequal side comes from the fact that male dominance comes naturally for both genders.
The fifth and final reading was one of the topics discussed in Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner’s The F Word. The section I chose to write about is in chapter 4 and is titled “Gender Equality”. This section of the chapter talks about different ways in which women are treated un-equal compared to men, with most of the focus on the work place. Finkbeiner’s argument is that even in modern times women are still treated unequally in the work place. This fits into my argument because my argument was about the inequality of women compared to men and the workplace is probably the best example of inequality. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that women earn 76 percent of what men make with mothers being paid less and single mothers being paid the least (Finkbeiner 60).
With all the readings being summarized briefly and related to my argument, it is now necessary to briefly explain how the articles are related to what we discussed in class and how the articles are related to one another. We discussed many different topics in class but inequality was one of the first if not the first thing we really discussed. The movie Iron Jawed Angels dealt with issues of inequality. The women were trying to get equal voting rites that the men already enjoyed. Also some of the group presentations dealt with issues of inequality. A few group projects dealt with the issues of body image, how women are viewed in the media, or women in the workplace. Simply put these articles all relate to each other because they all deal with current issues of inequality, which were stated earlier in the paper.
I have honestly learned so much from this class along with the input of other students. I did not realize how big of a problem inequality was for women. I learned everything from body image, to politics, to media, to inequality. I can not go a day without seeing an ad in a magazine or a commercial on television without thinking about this class. I believe this class will impact my future schooling by making me realize all the problems women face in society and to better understand the hardships many women go through. This class was truly inspiring.


Final Essay 2

At the beginning of class we were asked to define what feminism meant to us. At the time I had no clue what it really meant so I put “the idea that women are better then men”. After about the first 10 minutes of class I realized what I had put down was wrong. Never would I of imagined that one word could mean so many different things from person to person. Every time the topic of what feminism meant was brought up, an argument seemed to break out. With so many different factors affecting its definition such as politics, gender, and social equality, it can be difficult to figure out what feminism actually means. Through out the class we discussed many different things that could help in defining feminism. Personally I believe this is just one of those words that depend on the person defining it. I am going to argue that my definition of feminism is correct for what I define feminism as. Feminism to me means the act(s) of people fighting for women’s equality in different aspects of life. In this paper we will look at different aspects that discuss feminism. I will talk about the history of feminism including the first and second wave of the feminist movement and the more contemporary ideas which make up the third wave. I will also discuss how Women’s Studies relates to my definition of feminism. To do this I am using sources from class discussions, articles, and the internet. To sum the essay up I will then discuss whether I am a feminist or not.
The first thing needed to be discussed is the history of feminism. Feminism can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece with people advocating for the basic human potential of women. The first real wave of feminism began in 1948. Around 300 people got together and rallied for equality among men and women. This was the movement that involved Sojourner Truth who is famous for fighting for equality among genders. The movement fought for many types of equality and accomplished a great deal. The first wave of feminism accomplished things such as reforms in professions, health care, and education. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the first movement was the fact that women were granted voting rights, which is what is said to have ended the first wave. The second wave of feminism began not to long after. This wave lasted from the early 60’s to the late 80’s. The wave began at The Miss America Pageant in 1968. Feminist were fighting for the fact that the Miss America Pageant was demeaning to women because it made them objects instead of people. This wave gave birth to many different minority groups throughout the world. Things such as Title 7 of civil rights act of 1964 which accomplished several things but main goal was to provide equal employment opportunities, along with the formation of the National Organization for Women was created. Along with these achievements women began publishing magazines that were meant for just women such as “The BITCH Manifesto”. The main issues of the second wave were issues on sexuality and reproductive rights. There were still feelings of unsatisfactory or failure with the ending of the second wave, which in turn gave birth to the third wave. The third wave began in the 90’s and is still being carried on today. This wave; however, rejects some of the older ideas from the first two waves. Feminist were no longer ashamed to wear lip-stick, high heals, fixed hair, and push up bra’s, which were looked down upon because they were viewed as making women objects, instead they said that they are subjects rather than objects. Sexuality is a big renovation of the third wave. Along with the third wave came a large amount of new groups over the internet. The third wave is said as being the “girly” wave but feminist of the third wave will say that they are just breaking boundaries. Its hard to say where feminism will go from here. Many older feminist from the earlier waves think that the third wave of feminist are not making any progress and perhaps backtracking from what they accomplished.
Next I will discuss how Women’s Studies and feminism relate. I will relate my definition of feminism which was the act(s) of people fighting for women’s equality in different aspects of life to what Women’s Studies is. Women’s Studies is a field of study that does deal with feminism but also deals with the theory of feminist and usually talks about the history of women such as women’s suffrage and women’s health. Obviously Women’s Studies and feminism relate in the fact that they both revolve around women. Without Women’s Studies feminism would be a very rare thing to come by because Women’s Studies discusses what the history of feminism is, where its going, the ideals of feminism, and allows one to develop their own opinion about it.
Now its time to discuss whether or not I am a feminist. To me the rights of women are very important. I believe that women should be treated as equals in all aspects of life, but do I consider myself a feminist according to what I defined feminism to be? No, I do not. I do not consider myself a feminist because I will probably never take any action as far as rebelling or fighting for the rights of women. According to my definition of feminism, I defined feminism as the act(s) of people fighting for equality in different aspects of life. The key word here is act(s). Since I will probably never take any action, at least as far as a protest goes, to further the equality of women, I do not consider myself a feminist. I will leave that up to people who understand women better than I do, such as women!




Finkbeiner, Kristin Rowe. The F Word. Chapter 5. New York: Avalon Publishing Group, 2004. 85-107.
Finkbeiner, Kristin Rowe. The F Word. Chapter 2. New York: Avalon Publishing Group, 2004. 19-35.
Taylor, Verta. Feminist Frontiers. 459-461.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/392800/feminism_in_waves_a_brief_overwiew.html

http://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/2008/fall/echoes/feminism.cfm