Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The F-Word

This reading, about the F-word (or feminism) by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner was an interesting read. 
In this REFLECTION post, I want to talk about the things that stood out to me. The three waves of feminism is a concept that really makes feminist efforts come to life for someone who is simply reading about them and not witnessing. The first wave - in the 1920s, the second wave - in the 40s though the 80s or so, and the third wave - taking place from the end of the second wave until present day. Each wave is comprised of a different generation (generally), so they each have slightly different efforts and standpoints towards the matter. 
I especially liked reading about how Alice Paul organized the demonstration of ten thousand strong at the 1913 inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. She organized this to protest his opposition of women's rights. I think that's really an incredible thing: for anyone to organized a demonstration of ten thousand people! That shows true devotion and an impressive effort. 

Then she continues her efforts and gets arrested while picketing outside the whitehouse, goes on a hunger strike, then emerges from jail to picket the whitehouse again. I don't know how she could "emerge" from jail so easily, but thats what she did.
So basically, Alice Paul was a determined fighter in the womens rights movement. She wasn't afraid to get arrested and that is admirable to see in someone who is fighting for something that they believe they should have the right to. 
Then, the reading entitled "Fear of Feminism" by Lisa Maria Hogeland talks about how young women are sometimes known to have some fear of feminism, because they don't want to be involved. Some think that this is because young women have a smaller stake in the system and fewer ties to it. They are less involved with it from the start, because a lot of the game changers (important things that happened that made a difference, or simply made a point to whoever was involved) in the feminism movement occurred before their time.
Another part I thought was interesting and memorable was the idea that young women were slower to jump on the feminist band wagon than others. This was said to possibly be based on the fact that "many young women believe that a feminist identity puts them out of the pool for many men." That's an interesting point. This might be because if women are feminist than that may make them come across as somewhat defensive in nature, and this is something that men don't even want to get into. They may simply want to date this woman without the complications of her strong opinions about something that the guy can't really relate to. 

Interesting concept overall.


-Eric Vincent

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Thoughts at the Beginning

Eric Vincent
Thoughts at the Beginning


I've never blogged before, so I'm eager to get involved in blogging to see what it's all about. I enjoy expressing myself, so I think I'm bound to like blogging.
Other times, in past classes that I've taken, we've used blogging as a learning tool, but I was never able to get into it, and thus never really used it very extensively. I was having a hard time understanding how to do it, and simply wasn't that interested in the idea from the start. But now I'm going into it with a whole new perspective. I'm eager to see what these exercises will teach me.