Sexuality Quiz

Over time, different words used to refer to women and sexuality have changed in meaning and connotation. For instance the word bitch, meaning “female dog” is now used to insult women or used as a synonym to outspoken/headstrong. The word erotic is also being separated from referring solely to physical sexual acts to, as activist Audre Lorde puts it, “our most profoundly creative source.” Lorde argues that reclaiming this word in our language and recognizing the power behind this word will give us the energy to pursue changes in our world (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 149).

The slut walk movement attempts to do the same with the word “slut”. Its goal is to reclaim words like these and empower people to go against their negative connotations in to order to stand against internal oppression and victim blaming. Whether you’re a “slut” or not is irrelevant when it comes to sexual assaults. Women involved/aware of this moment will know that if they're ever assaulted they have the right to stand up to officials and fight the ridiculous notion that we become victims because of the way we present ourselves (Slutwalk Toronto).

The main issue at stake within the Slut Walk debate is how to support this important cause while still being inclusive and respectful of women from all backgrounds and ethnicities. The founders of the Slut Walk state that this movement is all about re-appropriating the word ‘slut,' declaring that “being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence.” This claim is something we can all agree with but the idea behind “re-appropriating” the word slut into something freeing and empowering is what some feminist groups have a problem with. Groups like AF3IRM argue that “as women and descendants of women from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, we cannot truly “reclaim” the word ‘Slut’. It was never ours to begin with.”  Due to the fact that this label has been forced upon people by colonizers, accepting them would basically be like spitting on the struggle women (including family) living in these countries are still enduring (AF3IRM).

 The only way issues like these can be resolved is by historizing our backgrounds to be able to create dialogue among different groups of people. The add/stir approach wouldn’t make a difference because we’re still not addressing the deep-rooted issues some of these ethnicities are facing. It would be important to have a movement that focuses on the problem, so as a group we discussed the idea of participants dressing up as their oppressors, mocking their ridiculous comments in an attempt to empower women as well as give them an opportunity to speak up and share their personal stories. Because we live in such a diverse country, there will always be differences among each other when it comes to our daily struggles and walks of life; only through common ideals changing institutions will there be any social chance.

Works Cited

"AF3IRM Responds To Slutwalk: The Women’s Movement is Not Monochromatic." AF3IRM.org. AF3IRM, Sept. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.  <http://af3irm.org/2011/9/af3irm-responds-slutwalk-women%E2%80%99s-movement-not-monochromatic>.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

 "WHY." SlutWalk Toronto. SlutWalk Toronto, n.d. Web. 27 Oct 2011. <http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/about/why>.

Activism Log Week 1

This week we began the preparation for Feminist Coming Out Day, mostly with advertising. NOW at UCF promotes the club and upcoming events every Wednesday outside of the Student Union. We’ve therefore been working on making and printing a functional flyer that will promote our event and inform UCF students. The flyer will begin to be passed out through the NOW at UCF table next week as well as by our group members to friends, classmates, bulletin boards etc. Next week we need to print more flyers, finalize the date (because there’s been talk about changing it) and help with the NOW at UCF table on Wednesday to keep promoting.

The activism we’ve done this week hasn’t been much other than getting the word out. But even that has been impactful to my life, just by seeing other people’s reaction to “feminists” being prominent on campus. It’s funny to see people’s face, even girls when you mention the event/movement. Some girls will even become annoyed at the idea of feminism, arguing that they “experience no inequality and everyone needs to stop hating on men.” We had an incident on Facebook where a girl kept commenting things like this to a wall post our group member, Nicole put up about Feminism. It was interesting to see how mixed up people are about feminism and how the negative stereotypes are still very prominent among college students. People saying things like this encourage me even more to be a part of Feminist Coming Out Day. Our goal is to reach as many people as we can to realize that feminist ideals are not as old school/radical/dramatic as people think. We need to be realistic here, just because you personally feel that you’ve never experienced inequality in your life, doesn’t mean that it’s not a real issue affecting our country/world.

Women are still dealing with domestic violence/abuse. Rapes haven’t seized, they still happen and can very well happen to any of us. Sex slave trades are still going on worldwide. Women are still not getting paid equal wages as men in the corporate world. Reproductive justice is still something that’s not available to everyone, the resources aren’t cutting it. Women’s rights and feminism is not about whining women trying to end men chauvinism, it’s about equality for everyone, and that’s what many people don’t understand. In a lot of ways I can’t blame the smiles and eye rolls people give us when we talk about feminism because I probably would have thought the same things before I took this class. It feels good to have this new perspective on women’s issues, hopefully we can widen other people’s points of views as well.

Response to Classmate's Ad

The website doesn't allow me to comment on other people's blogs for some reason so I posted my response to Sarah Zatkovich's ad here:

I'm surprised that this company, when working with an advertising team/copywriter even thought this would be a good idea that would actually appeal to anyone. As Sarah states "This ad is using the classist, heterosexist, and ageist ‘Beauty Ideal’ to sell their salon services" but I don’t think it can even work at reaching any of the privileged people in our society to relate to the brand and what it represents. Usually images of beautiful, luxurious women standing next to handsome men appeal to certain audiences that aspire to have this life or relate to it, but the controversial twist here: the bruised eye with the accompanying text I don’t feel can appeal to any woman. The text saying “Look good in all that you do” implies that even when we’re getting beat down in society figuratively and literally we should still look dolled up. It’s a constant cycle of having this be the way things are, amplified by media influencing people to think this is the way things should be and then completing the cycle by having people imitate what they see in the media/society. Does art imitate reality or does reality imitate art? I feel media has a strong influence in our society and any woman that is okay with an ad like this, is also conforming to the second place, “trophy wife” expectations this patriarchal society has imposed on her.

The Business of Being Born

After watching both media portrayals of birth, I’ve definitely developed a different perception of the birthing process. While both make sure not to sugarcoat the difficult, yet rewarding process and all the decisions that come along with it, they definitely display it from different angles and point of views.

As the documentary argues, many women in the United States are unaware of all their options as well as the effects of each one. For this reason, many trust their doctor’s blindly, feeling that should rely on the experts. However as the film points out, the United States has the highest birth mortality rate for an industrialized country due to all the interventions used to speed up the process/numb the pain. Often times, as the title reveals, the birthing process is viewed as a business negotiation between families and hospitals. It’s convenient for hospitals to have the births happen quickly and smoothly to move on to the next one, therefore surgeons will intervene with whatever procedure they deem necessary.

For instance in the episode I watched, “Mama Knows Best” one of the mothers was having a difficult time inducing her labor and after 16 hours was told by one of the nurses that she would most likely need a C-section. The mother immediately began to cry and complain that she did not want her baby to be isolated away from her and that she really wanted a natural birth. However, after 24 hours she was too tired to fight it and was brought into the surgery room. The documentary on the other hand, I feel empowers women to view themselves as the sole decision makers and to trust their bodies’ abilities. Home births were portrayed as beautiful moments that although looked very painful because of the lack of drugs were still more comfortable for the woman. The women in the film were free to take their time and connect with their babies immediately after birth, sometimes even pulling out the baby themselves. Essentially proving to viewers that women need to have control of their health and their baby's health and that they're strong enough to make it happen without the need of drugs and surgeons unless it's necessary.

Be Stupid: Diesel Ad Campaign

The ad I decided to feature is from Diesel’s 2010 Be Stupid campaign. The campaign consists of various print ads including images of young people doing “stupid” things beside slogans like “Smart Critiques. Stupid Creates” and “Smart Says No. Stupid Says Yes.” The idea behind the campaign was to redefine the word “stupid” to mean brave, rebellious and creative in an attempt to have people identify with this entity and to the brand. In other words, if you can relate to the ads you will feel that this brand of clothing will make the kind of jeans someone like you will want to wear (an advertising strategy used to build connections between the brand and their consumers).

The appeal to this campaign is the carefree and fun tone behind it. You can tell that this ad is targeted to young people who would most likely find this humorous and light-hearted. But not just young people; the ads were primarily featured in women/fashion magazines including Grazia, Dazed and Confused and Nylon. For women who consider themselves fashion forward individuals with urban, out-of-the-norm styles this ad could be very appealing. The ad is displaying a young woman who is comfortable with herself, dressed in cool clothes and doing something that requires having “balls”, as the text implies. For a sub-culture of women wanting to deviate from the ordinary, the version of stupid that Diesel portrays is liberating and intriguing. Even the waves caused by the controversy of the ad can be appealing to brand supporters. According to The Guardian, although the campaign “won a top award at the Cannes advertising festival [it was] banned by the UK ad watchdog for being offensive and encouraging antisocial behavior.” The Advertising Standards Authority decided to clear the ads to run in magazines but not in posters because they would be an “untargeted medium” that was “likely to be seen by children and cause serious or widespread offense” (The Guardian).

Essentially, the purpose of this ad was to be controversial and therefore be appealing to strong women who feel they are in control of their bodies and style. Diesel backed this up by stating that the image displayed "a very strong and unexpected image of femininity," that the woman on the ladder was shown in a "non-exploitative way and that the message tackled society's pre-occupation with 24/7 camera surveillance in a light and non-threatening way" (The Guardian). However, it’s interesting to see that it’s a woman exhibiting the “explicit” and sexual behavior found in this ad. Although the ad references a male body part (balls), it’s definitely not a man on the ladder pulling his pants down in front of the camera. In a sense the ad is objectifying women to sell a product and through the process is also contributing to the set concepts about womanliness (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). According to the way our society is constructed, it makes perfect sense to have a sexy girl flashing her boobs because women are the sexual objects, not men. 

It’s also ironic that Diesel considers this ad to be an “unexpected image of femininity” when the woman in the ad is young, has a perfect body, shiny hair and fashionable clothes—nothing unexpected about that. She looks just as perfect as all the women found in advertisements used to set up the beauty ideal that keeps women and girls in line (lean, tall, young, white, heterosexual, flawless skin etc.) (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208).

Word count: 497

Works Cited:

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Sweney, Mark. "Award-winning Diesel Campaign Banned by ASA.” Guardian.co.uk. The Guardian, 30 June 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/30/diesel-asa-advertising>.