Questioning Child Birth Methods

In one of my classes the topic for discussion this week was female reproduction and the birthing process. We have all been exposed to the “process” of birth countless times through TV and media. The depiction of birth on TV in that of a women in a hospital, laying on their backs, screaming, and having faces twisted with pain (I know that this is what I think of). To my surprise there are many other birthing options that are covered up by our culture. Women today have so many options and choices to make when giving birth. It is very important for everyone to educate themselves. My professor also stated that women spend more time researching online shopping purchases then their pregnancy and birthing options. It is really important that women enact agency and do their research on the type of birthing process that suits them.

            One statistic that really shocked me was that in other developed countries (i.e. Great Britain, China, Japan, etc.)  midwives perform 70% of births. The United States tends to follow a Bio-medical model of birth which places a large emphasis on technology and medicine to provide a healthy birthing process. Is all the technology really needed?  In the United States the majority of births are preformed by doctors (OB/GYN and Obstetrics).These professionals are trained surgeons, and are hospitals full of the latest technologies and still the United States has one of the highest mortality rates for mother and child among developed countries.

Women In Sports: The sexualized nature of things

 When recently looking further into women's role in the world of sports I noticed that there was something off, something that set women athletes apart from their male counterparts. The fact of the matter is women are over sexualized in the world of sports. It seems that society doesn't like to present female athletes in a way that emphasizes their strength and power they portray in their sport. Below are a couple examples of ways female athletes are portrayed on the cover of Sports Illustrated (when they are actually on the cover).

Here is a cover that features Jennie Finch who has been the pitcher of the USA Women's Softball team. She has been photographed in a jean skirt and a relieving shirt, certainly not her traditional softball uniform. She is also posed in an unnatural position.

The cover above is just another example of how women athletes are portrayed. If this was the first time you had seen the women on this cover would you have any idea what sport she played? No. This is Anna Kournikova a world renowned tennis player. She has been posed in a way in which maybe be considered slightly sexualized.

Why do you think the way in which male and female athletes are pictured differ?

VS.

(*None of these covers are from the Sports Illustrated swim suit addition. Credit to Sports Illustrated through Google )

Feminist Perspective: What does it mean to you?

A couple days a go I participated In a large group discussion focusing on what the feminists perspective/ approach means at a personal level or what it has taught us to look for. For those of you who are not familiar with this perspective in its simplest for it looks to end oppression for all by asking the hard question or looking deeper into WHY things happen the way they do (in my personal interpretation). I thought it would be interesting to post some of the responses and idea that my peers and I came up with. These response aim to represent what we take away from the approach and can apply to everyday situations

The Feminist approach means:
-Agency
- Raise awareness
-Asking the hard questions
- Understand diversity
-Strive for equality
-Power/Empowerment
-Confidence
-Meeting women's needs and understanding our differences
-Social construction of gender and gender roles
-Access to information
-Choice
-Challenging traditional values

What does the feminist approach/perspective mean to you?

(Photos found via google www.planetmindcraft.com)

Blog Review: Feministing

Feministing is a blog that focuses on analyzing world events from the feminist perspective. There is a wide variety of topic that it covers; abortions, reader’s pieces, immigration, etc. While reading this blog it is evident that the blogger is trying to jump start action by using a forceful tone and selective information sharing. A large goal for the blog seems to be verbally tugging at people’s emotions to get them to support the cause. Lets take a look at the non-verbal cues that this blog is giving off.

This blog frequently includes pictures along with the written post. A lot of the pictures are bright and colorful and some are even contain mobile parts. These images seem to serve the purpose of provoking thoughts and interests in the piece. This blog is very text heavy and I found myself scrolling through it until I came to something that caught my eye. The people in the images are generally doing unique things (posing) or have some sort of caption that does not make sense with out the content of the blog post, in turn leading to and increased reading rate. I believe the purpose of the pictures raise a level of confusion in order to draw people into the article.

Through out the blog there are posts that extract terms from through out the content and present them in an isolated fashion. In turn you can click on these words and be linked to additional articles. The fashion and manor in which these words are phrases are isolated provokes a deeper interest in readers and leads them to feeling or happiness, anger, confusion, or sadness depending on what the post is. For example, one of the isolated sentences read:

“Accidental Racist” is just… racist.

The term accidental racists may provoke a feeling or anger due to our nations history with the topic. Our nation is still striving to put and end to discrimination and racism. This term is associated with a deeply rooted history for lots of people.            This blog also attempts to appeal to the reader’s emotion by writing about and creating situations in to evoke an emotional response in readers. The initial emotion is what really draws readers into the topics and articles, because of this Feministing places a lot of focus and emphasis on articles titles.  The titles are presented in a much large font and in a different color in order to get the readers attention. For example, one of the titles read: This is how you teach rape culture to 12-years-olds. This title jumps out at readers not only in the way in which it was physically present but also in the content. When the issue of rape is presented a long side or in connection with young children it tends to invoke fear and create a sense of activism.

            Like many other blogs Feministing effectively creates an online environment that catches peoples interest by the manor in which it presents topics and opinions.

(photos from Feministing blog http://feministing.com/)

Alice in Wonderland..

One of my favorite websites is. This is a website that complies hundreds of fashion blogs into one place so you can scroll through and see some of the top looks. Fashion is a major passion of mine therefore the hours I waste on this site have reached infinity. While scrolling through I came across a post entitled Alice in Wonderland where a plus size female was dressed in a very fashion forward Alice in Wonderland spin off outfit. This blog post surprised me; I was surprised by the fact that she was only plus size women I have ever seen on this site. This fact was very frustrating. Our society pushed gender norms of beauty on girls from such a young age. We are expected to be thin, perfectly proportion, and very youthful. I give “Alice” a lot of credit from putting herself out in the world of fashion especially since it is the most critical beauty industry.

Perspective on Menstruation Ads

For many years women have been targeted and subjected to ads, commercials, and speeches regarding their monthly menstrual cycle.  Women’s menstruation has been turned into an industry. Companies competing to sell high priced “feminine hygiene products” to any and all women. Menstruation has turned into a market, a market that spends lots of money each year to target women and persuade them into buying their product.The dominant portion of society has taught women that their menstruation cycle is something to cover up, a bloody mess, and a smelly ordeal.  Companies use this stigma to their advantage. Society tells women that their periods are something to be ashamed of and something to cover up and hide. As stated in an ad layout by Tampax, “New Tampax radiant keeps your period invisible.”

This sends the message that this natural occurrence should be silenced.  Luckily, women have had enough. It is only normal to menstruate and unfortunately we cannot do a darn thing about it. There is a shift in marketing that is being seen through advertisements. In my analysis I would like to include two advertisements targeting women to shot that there is a change being made.The caption reads, “My first day with Stayfree Maxi-Pads.” Under the caption the young women depicted in the ad, riding a skateboard in white shorts, tells her story. In summary, she describes when using Stayfree Maxi-Pads you cannot even tell that you are on your period. All her guy friend had no idea. The Maxi-pads kept her menstruation her little secret. The ad closes with, “ They’re how active women stay active.” The occasion for this ad is female menstruation. 

This occasion is on going and ever is ever present in the life of women. The speakers are large companies who are looking to help women conceal their menstruation. The audience is all the women who have responded to the ad by internalizing that menstruation is a bad thing, that it is dirty, gross, and just socially unacceptable. These large companies are trying to play up the stigma society has created regarding periods. They are upholding the historically constructed ideals of what women should do in terms of menstruation.Today the message and occasion is starting to change in ads that target women. A recent print add by Kotex is taking a stand. They say enough is enough. Menstruation is natural and we should embrace it. They released and ad that said, “ I tied a tampon to my keyring so my brother wouldn’t take my car. It worked.” It goes on to say, “ Why are 40% of people uncomfortable with tampons? Break the cycle!” 

The ad is truly addressing the idea that many women and people are not comfortable with the ideas of the monthly period. The occasion of this ad is still female menstruation, but its timing is different. The creators of this ad are targeting new age women who are accepting the period for what it is and are not afraid to show it.The new Kotex ad pokes fun at the traditional ads that seem to say that menstruation is something better left unsaid. Through these ads we see a shift fro honoring historical context to nonconformity. One (Stayfree) upholds the ideas society has put in place. In contrast, Kotex is trying to break out of the historical context and the common presuppositions.  Kortex focuses on a different audience, women who aren’t afraid of their period, by switching their occasion to the new movement of feminism and female awareness. These ads fall into textualized the situation of the rhetorical situation. The actual readers and speakers are left unknown. We make assumptions about the people who write ads just how the people who right ads make assumptions about us. 

(photos via Stayfee, Kotex, and Tampax)