Hello again lovelies!
So the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. The Purity Myth is serious business! It made me realize, I have so much more to learn about this world. On one hand, it's understandable to think that in less developed countries, women do not have the same privileges as men. They do not have many resources, they don't have birth control options, there aren't that many doctors to look over their reproductive health and they are seen as just property for men. But in America? In the country that I live, just a few states across there are women who are still being lied to, and forced to conform to traditional gender roles and ideals. That terrifies me. I lived in New York my whole life. Considering how privileged the women in this state are, to have the ability to get an abortion or have birth control options, it's mind-boggling that other states, that are just as a part of the US as New York, do not have the same privileges.
I believe the worst part about the purity myth is, one, the women subjected to the purity movement are being lied to and judged solely on their sexuality. They are told that contraceptives do not work. They are prevented from getting vaccinated (that will only benefit their health) solely on the fear of being promiscuous. They are told that staying "pure" until marriage should be their ultimate goal. They are also told that without purity, no man will ever want to marry them and they will be damaged forever. This is all complete crap and no woman should ever be told that their worth is solely based on if they are sexually "pure" or not. There are so many more characteristics a person can have. A person can be a good or bad person and it's not because of their sexuality. Second, the stories of the physicians and pharmacists who refuse to provide care and medicine to women who want to obtain birth control pills or an abortion are despicable. Whatever happened to the Physician's Oath? Science? Objectivity? How can a doctor, a person in a position of authority who has the trust of innocent people, disregard research and science? A doctor who refuses to provide care to a patient solely because of personal preference should not be a doctor at all. A pharmacist who would lie to a customer and would prevent a woman from taking care of herself is disgraceful. There is a serious lack of professionalism here! It isn't fair that some women are not getting the proper care they need to protect themselves.
The purity myth made me realize, and reassured me, that I am on a path to a very rewarding and a very needed career. As a young woman who strongly believes in science, the medical field and the right to choose for all women, I want to be able to teach women about their bodies, birth control and how they can be the healthiest woman they can be. This makes me want to be a midwife even more because every woman deserves someone who will look out for them and their best interests. I want to be able to tell as many women as possible that they have options, they do not have to have children if they do not want to at this time, and they can be as free and sexually liberated as they want to be and still be healthy, protected and respected. It makes me proud to be on this path towards midwifery because I can say that I help women become more empowered, more in control of their body and life, and I can deliver more babies into the world and leave them with a mother who is stronger than ever before.
I'm so gonna kick this purity movement's ass!
Stay Strong, Stay Beautiful, Stay Empowered
(...and most importantly, stay AWAY from purity balls...seriously) hehe.
Love,
Rosely
Monday, March 6, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
2 Dope Queens Podcast is BADASS!
Hello lovelies,
So over the weekend our professor Dr. Fairchild recommended we listen to the podcast, 2 Dope Queens with Phoebe Robinson. I've got to say, it was so crazy I really liked it. She is so badass! The most recent podcast she uploaded was about the women's march a few weeks ago and she was talking about how she went to the march in DC. If I remember correctly, I think she performed there that night and had a few guests come to do stand-up and to talk about their experience at women's march. Just by the way it sounded, made me wish I could've gone to her show. It is so funny! She's so crazy and so unfiltered, as well as all of her guests comedians, that the show just hits you like a brick wall, like WHOA! But you know, I feel like it's something we all needed to hear. In this day and age, it seems like there is more sensitivity to what is said in the media and sometimes you have to walk on eggshells and be politically correct as to not sound like a racist, sexist or just a plain douchebag. In this podcast, she tells it like it is, she does whatever the hell she wants, she says whatever the hell she wants and she breaks the female stereotype. She's funny, rugged, grungy, she's unfiltered, she's very vocal and opinionated. I think it shows that women are not just a mannequin to only be seen, not heard and used for their bodies. They don't always have to be modest and lady-like; they can curse and act the way they want to act. The best part of it is, if anyone doesn't like that, they can just leave because being a female means a lot of things not just a pretty little princess that likes pink and sits on her chair all day.
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. I can only imagine how funny her book is. I can't wait to read it.
Go check it out! http://www.wnyc.org/shows/dopequeens
Stay Strong, Stay Beautifull, Stay Empowered.
Love,
Rosely
So over the weekend our professor Dr. Fairchild recommended we listen to the podcast, 2 Dope Queens with Phoebe Robinson. I've got to say, it was so crazy I really liked it. She is so badass! The most recent podcast she uploaded was about the women's march a few weeks ago and she was talking about how she went to the march in DC. If I remember correctly, I think she performed there that night and had a few guests come to do stand-up and to talk about their experience at women's march. Just by the way it sounded, made me wish I could've gone to her show. It is so funny! She's so crazy and so unfiltered, as well as all of her guests comedians, that the show just hits you like a brick wall, like WHOA! But you know, I feel like it's something we all needed to hear. In this day and age, it seems like there is more sensitivity to what is said in the media and sometimes you have to walk on eggshells and be politically correct as to not sound like a racist, sexist or just a plain douchebag. In this podcast, she tells it like it is, she does whatever the hell she wants, she says whatever the hell she wants and she breaks the female stereotype. She's funny, rugged, grungy, she's unfiltered, she's very vocal and opinionated. I think it shows that women are not just a mannequin to only be seen, not heard and used for their bodies. They don't always have to be modest and lady-like; they can curse and act the way they want to act. The best part of it is, if anyone doesn't like that, they can just leave because being a female means a lot of things not just a pretty little princess that likes pink and sits on her chair all day.
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. I can only imagine how funny her book is. I can't wait to read it.
Go check it out! http://www.wnyc.org/shows/dopequeens
Stay Strong, Stay Beautifull, Stay Empowered.
Love,
Rosely
Monday, February 6, 2017
Gender Stereotypes and Children
Hello again my empowered lionesses!
So I have uncovered a few YouTube videos that pertained to the discussion we had last week about Sex, Gender and Stereotypes. That discussion kept me wondering. We all have gender expectation that are put on us and we carry it everywhere we go. Throughout our whole lives, we were expected to act like girls if we were girls or act like boys if you were a boy. Growing up, I was given every type of doll known to man, I had so many baby dolls I swore I was a mother of 12 (Thank God I didn't actually have to birth them all, Phew!) and I had a little barbie kitchenette with an attached washer/dryer set where I learned how to cook and do laundry. Meanwhile, my brother had the bob the builder power tool workshop and action figures. Fast forward to the present, even though we are more aware of the meaning of gender roles and we are starting to choose for ourselves what we want to be despite societal views, those expectations are still pressuring us. We may not remember how we felt about gender roles when we were younger because we weren't expose to it as much as we are now, but it made me think; how do the children of this era feel about gender roles? They may have more opinions about it than we think.
I found two videos. The first one, called "Teaching Children about Gender Stereotypes", was about a student who wanted to interact with primary school-aged children to see what they know about gender stereotypes. Our society and our family life have a tremendous impact on everyone, especially at a very young age. These children had such strong views on how boys and girls should be. The male children were adamant about what they liked and what they don't like. They said things like "Pink is for girls", "Boys don't do ballet", "Ballet is for girls because there is a lot of pink in ballet", "Boys like sports", "Girls can't play sports", etc. It was really sad to see that because children are so observant. They see everything and learn so fast! Watching and listening to what they were saying really made me realize how easy we can stay trapped in these old views of gender stereotypes because they can continue to live on as we teach the younger generation. It doesn't matter how many marches, protests, and petitions we participate in; if we don't start from the source, we will never see change. Where is the source, you ask? Our homes. Although media makes a strong impact in our lives, nothing makes a bigger impact than what we observe in our homes every single day. If we demonstrate and teach our children that they can do whatever they put their minds to regardless of their gender and that they don't have to follow traditional gender stereotypes, then slowly but surely we may diminish the gender stereotypes. Thankfully by the end of that video, the student read the children a book that taught them a very good lesson on gender stereotypes. They responded very well to it and soon thought that it is okay for boys to like "girl" things and for girl to like "boy" things. This just shows that kids will take in anything you tell them. It's so easy to mold them, so why not teach them the best way to live and to interact with other people so that we can change societal views in the long run.
In the second video I watched, called "How Gender Stereotypes Affect Boys and Girls", what resonated with me the most in this video was how gender stereotypes affected boys specifically. We all talk about how women feel about gender stereotypes because we are very vocal and emotional, and we tend to express more than men. Men, on the other hand, aren't as emotionally expressive unfortunately and that causes significant negative effects because they don't have an outlet. Instead, they just conform to what society thinks a man should be and continue to feel sad inside. Boys have to deal with society telling them to "Man up!", "Stop crying!", "Stop with the emotions", "Stop being a pussy!", "Grow some balls!", "Be cool and be kind of a Dick", etc. A lot of boys that do not want to conform to the manly stereotype because that is just not who they think they are, feel very insecure about themselves. At a young age, some boys aren't really ready to "Be a man" and they just want to be whoever they want to be. Dr. Michael Kimmel makes a very good point in the video when he said that our idea of what a man is does not give a way for a boy to feel secure in his masculinity and the way we make him show his "security and manhood" is by going out and proving it to everyone all the time. The way they go out and prove it is by showing aggression and acting out. When that happens, we just think that the boy is a bad kid, but really, society made him that way and it did not let him explore his own masculinity in his own way. The reason why most boys act out in aggression is because they do not know how to express themselves in any other way because any alternative to aggression isn't manly. From this video, I learned that this can cause a boy to develop severe depression and self-esteem issues where they start to have suicidal thoughts, they don't seek help because it is not manly to ask for help, they feel ashamed and humiliated when they don't act manly enough, and etc. It's really sad and surprising to see that men are this deeply affected by stereotypes. This really shouldn't be surprising because regardless of gender we are all still human and we would all feel and think the same way if we were hurt physically and/or mentally. Unfortunately, we're just not conformed to seeing men in this light. But seeing this in front of me finally put it in my radar and made me understand that we need to change gender stereotypes not only for women but for men too. Women are not the only ones that can be weak, men can too. We all have weak points and putting this unnecessary pressure on ourselves and everyone else just makes this all worse.
Comment below and tell me what you guys think about this. Do you think women are the only ones getting the short end of the stick or do men also need a little freedom from these gender stereotypes?
I'll link the videos below so you can see for yourselves and develop your own opinions about this.
Stay strong, Stay beautiful and Stay empowered!
Love,
Rosely
So I have uncovered a few YouTube videos that pertained to the discussion we had last week about Sex, Gender and Stereotypes. That discussion kept me wondering. We all have gender expectation that are put on us and we carry it everywhere we go. Throughout our whole lives, we were expected to act like girls if we were girls or act like boys if you were a boy. Growing up, I was given every type of doll known to man, I had so many baby dolls I swore I was a mother of 12 (Thank God I didn't actually have to birth them all, Phew!) and I had a little barbie kitchenette with an attached washer/dryer set where I learned how to cook and do laundry. Meanwhile, my brother had the bob the builder power tool workshop and action figures. Fast forward to the present, even though we are more aware of the meaning of gender roles and we are starting to choose for ourselves what we want to be despite societal views, those expectations are still pressuring us. We may not remember how we felt about gender roles when we were younger because we weren't expose to it as much as we are now, but it made me think; how do the children of this era feel about gender roles? They may have more opinions about it than we think.
I found two videos. The first one, called "Teaching Children about Gender Stereotypes", was about a student who wanted to interact with primary school-aged children to see what they know about gender stereotypes. Our society and our family life have a tremendous impact on everyone, especially at a very young age. These children had such strong views on how boys and girls should be. The male children were adamant about what they liked and what they don't like. They said things like "Pink is for girls", "Boys don't do ballet", "Ballet is for girls because there is a lot of pink in ballet", "Boys like sports", "Girls can't play sports", etc. It was really sad to see that because children are so observant. They see everything and learn so fast! Watching and listening to what they were saying really made me realize how easy we can stay trapped in these old views of gender stereotypes because they can continue to live on as we teach the younger generation. It doesn't matter how many marches, protests, and petitions we participate in; if we don't start from the source, we will never see change. Where is the source, you ask? Our homes. Although media makes a strong impact in our lives, nothing makes a bigger impact than what we observe in our homes every single day. If we demonstrate and teach our children that they can do whatever they put their minds to regardless of their gender and that they don't have to follow traditional gender stereotypes, then slowly but surely we may diminish the gender stereotypes. Thankfully by the end of that video, the student read the children a book that taught them a very good lesson on gender stereotypes. They responded very well to it and soon thought that it is okay for boys to like "girl" things and for girl to like "boy" things. This just shows that kids will take in anything you tell them. It's so easy to mold them, so why not teach them the best way to live and to interact with other people so that we can change societal views in the long run.
In the second video I watched, called "How Gender Stereotypes Affect Boys and Girls", what resonated with me the most in this video was how gender stereotypes affected boys specifically. We all talk about how women feel about gender stereotypes because we are very vocal and emotional, and we tend to express more than men. Men, on the other hand, aren't as emotionally expressive unfortunately and that causes significant negative effects because they don't have an outlet. Instead, they just conform to what society thinks a man should be and continue to feel sad inside. Boys have to deal with society telling them to "Man up!", "Stop crying!", "Stop with the emotions", "Stop being a pussy!", "Grow some balls!", "Be cool and be kind of a Dick", etc. A lot of boys that do not want to conform to the manly stereotype because that is just not who they think they are, feel very insecure about themselves. At a young age, some boys aren't really ready to "Be a man" and they just want to be whoever they want to be. Dr. Michael Kimmel makes a very good point in the video when he said that our idea of what a man is does not give a way for a boy to feel secure in his masculinity and the way we make him show his "security and manhood" is by going out and proving it to everyone all the time. The way they go out and prove it is by showing aggression and acting out. When that happens, we just think that the boy is a bad kid, but really, society made him that way and it did not let him explore his own masculinity in his own way. The reason why most boys act out in aggression is because they do not know how to express themselves in any other way because any alternative to aggression isn't manly. From this video, I learned that this can cause a boy to develop severe depression and self-esteem issues where they start to have suicidal thoughts, they don't seek help because it is not manly to ask for help, they feel ashamed and humiliated when they don't act manly enough, and etc. It's really sad and surprising to see that men are this deeply affected by stereotypes. This really shouldn't be surprising because regardless of gender we are all still human and we would all feel and think the same way if we were hurt physically and/or mentally. Unfortunately, we're just not conformed to seeing men in this light. But seeing this in front of me finally put it in my radar and made me understand that we need to change gender stereotypes not only for women but for men too. Women are not the only ones that can be weak, men can too. We all have weak points and putting this unnecessary pressure on ourselves and everyone else just makes this all worse.
Comment below and tell me what you guys think about this. Do you think women are the only ones getting the short end of the stick or do men also need a little freedom from these gender stereotypes?
I'll link the videos below so you can see for yourselves and develop your own opinions about this.
Stay strong, Stay beautiful and Stay empowered!
Love,
Rosely
Teaching Children about Gender Stereotypes
How does gender stereotypes affect Boys and Girls ?
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Women who are tarnishing Feminism!
Hello my empowered lionesses!
So, as you may all know, we just had the women's march last week and I think it sparked up a lot of debates all over again! Holy crap! There are videos, news articles, Facebook posts, basically everything under the sun circulating all over the internet on both sides of the feminist movement. Boy is it a mess out there.
Under all the chaos in the internet, there was one older Buzzfeed video that caught my eye. Honestly, it really rubbed me the wrong way too. It was called "36 questions women have for men". Apparently it's a "feminist" video but it is TOTALLY WRONG! It really made me wonder about the women in the video; are they true feminists or are they women who have taken this historically valuable movement way too far? As you will soon see, it's obviously the latter. The video just tarnishes feminism and it is not fair or right. Here's why.
So, the title of this video is self-explanatory. It is a bunch of self-proclaimed feminists sitting around asking 36 (idiotic) questions to men. Now, I understand that these women are trying to prove a point and defend women all around the world from the inequalities they face. But this video did the exact opposite. They asked the stupidest and most unnecessary questions on the planet and it truly just made them look stupider and disgraced true feminists all around the world. The questions just poked fun and mostly just attacked men for just being born male instead of directing the video to men that actually treated women as inferior beings.
There were questions like:
How does it feel to be the same gender as Donald Trump?
Why do men have to sit with their legs open?
Why are men surprised that women are funny?
Why do you say that women are too emotional to be leaders but justify cat-calling by saying "men just can't control themselves"?
Why do you feel like it is okay to harass women or make offensive comments about women but when somebody does it to your sister, it is not okay?
How does it feel to interrupt me when I am in the middle of making a point during a meeting?
How does it feel to get kicked in the balls?
Do you ever get tired of trying to be manly all the time?
Why do I deserve to be paid less than you? In what world does 77 cents equal a dollar? In what world does 68 cents equal a dollar?
Why are you so afraid of recognizing your own privilege? It does not mean you are a bad person, just recognize it and do something about it.
And the needless questions goes on and on and on
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Seriously, come on is this necessary? Why is it okay for these women to say these things? They are just mindlessly ranting and attacking all men who are not all bad. You can't fight for equality and step on other people's toes just to get to the top. It is rude, it is not fair and it is unjust. Not every man has to suffer this ridicule for other men who do sometimes act in a way that is not fair to women; and adding #NotAllMen at the end of the video does not make everything better after generalizing every accusation.
Also, what basis do these questions have? If you want to fight for a cause, then fight with a strong, valid and educated basis. For example, a question that really bothered me was, "Why do I deserve to be paid less than you?" after that question, two other women said "In what world does 77 cents equal a dollar?" and "In what world does 68 cents equal a dollar?" First of all, why do these women have two separate sources with two separate statistics? If you are going to argue something, be consistent and be valid. If not, you're unreliable. Before speaking, they should have done the right research and discover that, although technically women are paid less than men, the "77 cents to the dollar" is an average of women (as a whole) being paid less than men. It does not take into account the jobs men and women work and the salary differences across the different jobs and careers women have. Some women are paid less than men, some the same and some more, but that statistic is an average and they are misrepresenting the statistic. Also, all of these questions mentioned above are just attacking men on a personal and unrelated level that has nothing to do with what feminists are actually fighting for. What is the point of asking "Why do men have to sit with their legs open?" "How does it feel to be the same gender as Donald Trump?" ...Really? DOES IT MATTER? Is that necessary? Do these questions do anything for our cause? NO! Gender association means nothing, just because all men are men, it does not mean they all have the same views, same personality, same everything. The only thing they have in common is the penis they have between their legs. That means nothing. A man can sit any way he wants because it is his body; just like we can do whatever we want as women because it is our body. It has nothing to do with gender. We are all humans and we have the right to do whatever we want and no one has the right to say otherwise because it is OUR BODY. Period.
It's pure stupidity. This video just made these women look like whiny little girls and disgraced every feminist that has tried to fight for our equality. They made a mockery of the movement and basically fueled people who believe in the post-feminism view, who believe in the negative stereotype about feminists, and who think women are just all a bunch of whiny little bitches. It's not right.
Every person should be treated fairly and equally regardless of gender. That is the real point of feminism.
Not this.
Well, that is my rant for the day. Tell me what you guys think of this video. Do you believe these women are true feminist? Are their questions valid? Are they tarnishing feminist reputations? Comment. I want to hear your thoughts! I'll link the video below.
Stay beautiful, Stay strong and Stay empowered!
Love,
Rosely
"36 Questions Women have for Men"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedvideo/36-questions-women-have-for-men?utm_term=.ykgkylezW#.yyX1np4q0
Also, here are other videos of people reacting to and criticizing the buzzfeed video. They are funny, harsh, but they definitely have some truth to them.
""Questions" for men answered by a woman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GGwfGSHJCY
"36 Answers to Dumb Women's Questions"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2NmbJ5iftM
So, as you may all know, we just had the women's march last week and I think it sparked up a lot of debates all over again! Holy crap! There are videos, news articles, Facebook posts, basically everything under the sun circulating all over the internet on both sides of the feminist movement. Boy is it a mess out there.
Under all the chaos in the internet, there was one older Buzzfeed video that caught my eye. Honestly, it really rubbed me the wrong way too. It was called "36 questions women have for men". Apparently it's a "feminist" video but it is TOTALLY WRONG! It really made me wonder about the women in the video; are they true feminists or are they women who have taken this historically valuable movement way too far? As you will soon see, it's obviously the latter. The video just tarnishes feminism and it is not fair or right. Here's why.
So, the title of this video is self-explanatory. It is a bunch of self-proclaimed feminists sitting around asking 36 (idiotic) questions to men. Now, I understand that these women are trying to prove a point and defend women all around the world from the inequalities they face. But this video did the exact opposite. They asked the stupidest and most unnecessary questions on the planet and it truly just made them look stupider and disgraced true feminists all around the world. The questions just poked fun and mostly just attacked men for just being born male instead of directing the video to men that actually treated women as inferior beings.
There were questions like:
How does it feel to be the same gender as Donald Trump?
Why do men have to sit with their legs open?
Why are men surprised that women are funny?
Why do you say that women are too emotional to be leaders but justify cat-calling by saying "men just can't control themselves"?
Why do you feel like it is okay to harass women or make offensive comments about women but when somebody does it to your sister, it is not okay?
How does it feel to interrupt me when I am in the middle of making a point during a meeting?
How does it feel to get kicked in the balls?
Do you ever get tired of trying to be manly all the time?
Why do I deserve to be paid less than you? In what world does 77 cents equal a dollar? In what world does 68 cents equal a dollar?
Why are you so afraid of recognizing your own privilege? It does not mean you are a bad person, just recognize it and do something about it.
And the needless questions goes on and on and on
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Seriously, come on is this necessary? Why is it okay for these women to say these things? They are just mindlessly ranting and attacking all men who are not all bad. You can't fight for equality and step on other people's toes just to get to the top. It is rude, it is not fair and it is unjust. Not every man has to suffer this ridicule for other men who do sometimes act in a way that is not fair to women; and adding #NotAllMen at the end of the video does not make everything better after generalizing every accusation.
Also, what basis do these questions have? If you want to fight for a cause, then fight with a strong, valid and educated basis. For example, a question that really bothered me was, "Why do I deserve to be paid less than you?" after that question, two other women said "In what world does 77 cents equal a dollar?" and "In what world does 68 cents equal a dollar?" First of all, why do these women have two separate sources with two separate statistics? If you are going to argue something, be consistent and be valid. If not, you're unreliable. Before speaking, they should have done the right research and discover that, although technically women are paid less than men, the "77 cents to the dollar" is an average of women (as a whole) being paid less than men. It does not take into account the jobs men and women work and the salary differences across the different jobs and careers women have. Some women are paid less than men, some the same and some more, but that statistic is an average and they are misrepresenting the statistic. Also, all of these questions mentioned above are just attacking men on a personal and unrelated level that has nothing to do with what feminists are actually fighting for. What is the point of asking "Why do men have to sit with their legs open?" "How does it feel to be the same gender as Donald Trump?" ...Really? DOES IT MATTER? Is that necessary? Do these questions do anything for our cause? NO! Gender association means nothing, just because all men are men, it does not mean they all have the same views, same personality, same everything. The only thing they have in common is the penis they have between their legs. That means nothing. A man can sit any way he wants because it is his body; just like we can do whatever we want as women because it is our body. It has nothing to do with gender. We are all humans and we have the right to do whatever we want and no one has the right to say otherwise because it is OUR BODY. Period.
It's pure stupidity. This video just made these women look like whiny little girls and disgraced every feminist that has tried to fight for our equality. They made a mockery of the movement and basically fueled people who believe in the post-feminism view, who believe in the negative stereotype about feminists, and who think women are just all a bunch of whiny little bitches. It's not right.
Every person should be treated fairly and equally regardless of gender. That is the real point of feminism.
Not this.
Well, that is my rant for the day. Tell me what you guys think of this video. Do you believe these women are true feminist? Are their questions valid? Are they tarnishing feminist reputations? Comment. I want to hear your thoughts! I'll link the video below.
Stay beautiful, Stay strong and Stay empowered!
Love,
Rosely
"36 Questions Women have for Men"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedvideo/36-questions-women-have-for-men?utm_term=.ykgkylezW#.yyX1np4q0
Also, here are other videos of people reacting to and criticizing the buzzfeed video. They are funny, harsh, but they definitely have some truth to them.
""Questions" for men answered by a woman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GGwfGSHJCY
"36 Answers to Dumb Women's Questions"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2NmbJ5iftM
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