Blogs

Best of luck to you all in Ghana!  My due date is this weekend ... but I will tune in whenver I can to the new Ghana trip blog.  And then... "see" you all online for the rest of the semester!

There's a timely feature on the NPR website coinciding with your trip... Check out this recent Black History Month spot on a trip back to the ancestral home in Ghana from Tell Me More:

http://n.pr/zB5i7t

• Monika Treut - Female Misbehavior 4 perspectives
• get too caught up in otherizing communities
• bridge them into complicating the mainstream
• Buck Angel etc might be too "special interest" - not related to academics? bridging the gap
• Posse Plus retreat - gender and sexuality
• usually very rejuvenating --> exact opposite
• What do we really know?
• gen/sex for straight girls
• queering the retreat

• How would we make this useful for intro studies and interesting for the more experienced students
• pretty difficult already - studying literature is different. used to looking at things in a different way
• anti-feminist to give power to theories
• "i don't know anything, i'm ignorant" --> that's not the POINT
• people getting too caught up in definitions
• reinforcing structures of expertise and power
• terms good, but don't want to get bogged down... 
• not very empowering.
• things like women-centered language...personal interest...important to bring up, but may unnecessarily derail the class
• no empowerment, product of whatever (teaching, learning, background)
• Not productive to get upset about it, to deny it.
• The most helpful thing you can know is you're not unique.

I have known two things for a while:

1. I like music, and I have feelings about it

and

2. I like feminism, and I have feelings about it

I realized in class that even if we don't end up with classes dedicated to music and feminism/other cultural movements, I would really love the opportunity to talk about it incessantly with other people. And then I realized we have Serendip and good ideas just abounded.

A SERENDIP FEMINISTY PLAYLIST, DAY/WEEK/INSTALLMENT 1

PROTOCOL: Anyone can offer up a playlist, preferably with links to where we can actually listen to the music. If there are music videos, please post them! Even if it's not the official video and just someone's project, if you like it share it! This particular part does not have a theme, but if someone is inspired to do that sort of thing that would also be totally sweet. The music you post does not necessarily have to be explicitly feminist, it can talk about issues you think are important, or maybe even just have certain lyrics you really respond to. You can also edit and post multiple times, because music is wonderful and I don't think anyone is going to get angry if you add more. If you feel like adding commentary that would also be really cool, but feel free to just post the links and let us ruminate on our own. Interpret this entire activity as you will, there is no "proper model".

My initial contribution:

PLEASE POST AGAIN BY 5 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, SO I'LL HAVE TIME TO SORT/THINK THROUGH OUR VARIOUS PROPOSALS...
since in class on Thursday we'll need to construct a shared syllabus that allows us to go on exploring critical feminist studies in ways that will continue to interest us all. I'm seeing below several postings that list multiple, multiple possibilities--for which yeah!...

Here is what I think is an excellent advertisement for doing self breast exams:

http://i.imgur.com/aCoPs.jpg

Here is some more background.

It brings to mind a lot of thoughts about how women's bodies are used in advertising, and while most of the time it seems very objectifying, I think that this is fantastic. It's using women's bodies because it's about women's bodies. Yes their eyes/faces are cropped out, but I thought it would look weirder or even more pornographic for their eyes to be there. I also don't think that that is a terribly uncommon attribute for ads or information about breast cancer screening.

But one of my friends brought up the point of: who is the target audience?

Nonetheless, I really like the idea of "You are not immune."

This post is in response to my groups presentation on language diversity in Ghana. 
I really enjoyed presenting on the languages pidgin English and twi in Ghana but I was more interested in pidgin. I found it fascinating that in using English as a medium where all ethnic backgrounds could interact, Ghanaians, particularly young people, made English their own in the form of pidgin/slang English. The concept and use of pidgin English reminded me of Decolonizing the Mind where the author writes about ways in which Africans should and could share their history and culture. However, in contrast to Decolonizing the Mind, I found it interesting that youth were, to some extent, using a combo of English and their native tongue to spread their culture when at first English was used to eliminate it.

For that reason, it is frustrating to know that pidgin is considered as an inferior language. Personally, I find pidgin to be a powerful language because it defies the dominant discourse (Western culture) forced upon Ghana by using English "improperly." 

Global Feminism (Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, America, Middle East)

  -what is life for women like? Transgender or LGBQTIA

  -key feminists in these areas or what movements have happened here

  -is feminism inherently western?

 Religious views/ conservative views on feminism is feminism only a liberal/non-religious view?

 Women succeeding on men's terms in a man world

 Men's view of feminism how to men fit into feminism, what makes a man a feminist? 

 LGBTQIA in relation to feminism, what kinds of movements, writing by people 

 Exposure to distinct feminism 

 Autobiographies, articles in the news, watch more documentaries 

 Feminism in mass media 

Feminism in sex work

  -documentary annabel chong

  -does sex make you feminist or not?
"the rise of raunch culture" - ariel levy 

PLEASE POST AGAIN BY 5 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, SO I'LL HAVE TIME TO SORT/THINK THROUGH OUR VARIOUS PROPOSALS...
since in class on Thursday we'll need to construct a shared syllabus that allows us to go on exploring the emergence of genre in ways that will continue to interest us all. I'm seeing below postings from froggies315 and dglasser that list multiple, multiple possibilities--for which yeah!...

For me one of the most fascinating aspects of sociology is the ability to study social problems on many different, seperate but interacting elements of people and power. One of my biggest frustrations when learning and trying to understand the unfamiliar is not knowing where problems or phenomenons are situated in and what elements influence them. I wish our education, was less linear but more cyclical, converging or intersecting. 

When I was in 10th grade I first learned about the IMF and World Bank in my humanities class. I did not fully understand what it meant. I didn't know just how powerful it was or how it was connected to and related to people across all levels of power, privlege, access and suffering. It is through my sociology courses that I learned about how the IMF and WB affect the Global South in detremental ways--feminizing poverty, exploiting labor, stripping access to resources and perpetuating neocolonial ideology and structure. I think it is important that how we learn, question and inquire goes beyond what is in front of us. Socio-historical context needs to be explored. Macro forces and institutions need to be taken into consideration just as much as micro forces and interactions between people. 

This is one of the most exciting and challenging assignments I’ve ever received. Laying out a syllabus that uses science fiction to exemplify how and why genre borders blur is daunting. I’ve done the best with what I know, while striving to keep away from works I’ve already read. After all, if we are all going to read together, we might as well all start from A.

Anyway, we have 9 classes so I’ve chosen three books. I think it’s fair, and not too slow to explore one book for three classes. I’ve tried to choose books based on author, summary, theme, and recommendation. However, being that there are so many science fiction novels, I’ve also offered a supplement to try and feed everyone’s “English” hunger.

1st BOOK: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.

                I thought it would be best to start with a classic, and read a book that is “obviously” science fiction, just so we can all get our footing before being knocked over. This novel has also been made into a movie and has resulted in many adaptations on tv etc. This can provide us with a multi-media view if we want to go there.

2nd BOOK: Jay’s Journal by Beatrice Sparks.