Do It Like a Girl

Being called a 'Girl' has become a statement of weakness in our society. Girls have become oppressed and sexualized in everyday life. This is leading to things like rape culture and victim blaming. Females self worth is also declining. We are seen and even think of ourselves as objects. From today on I can confidently say that I am a proud feminist.

I woke up feeling sick. My throat hurt and my eyes were red and glossy. I guess I'm beginning to get a cold. I hope it goes away soon. I rushed to get ready to meet my cohort at the ground floor to go to the Ratty for breakfast like usual. We chatted about the materials we read and watched for class. We found interesting how unfair things were to intersex people. Even as I'm typing this, the laptop is telling me that word is wrong. How ironic. From the Buzzfeed we watched, we learned that intersex people don't fall with in any of the two categories, male or female. They are discriminated against. For example one of them, his doctor when he was born removed his testes and told his mother to raise him as a girl but he wasn't. Some thing that was also very interesting was all the terms there are to identify ones sexuality. I think it has to do with the fact that people want to be identified and feel like there's more people standing with them instead of being oblivious to the idea that they're not only one. But I also feel like people might be confused by so many terms. At least me, I wondered why there are terms only associated with only romance and other with just sexual desire.

Once we were in class, Mary Grace was having technical difficulties with the projector so we pushed back a movie we were supposed to watched in the morning block. instead we split up into two groups and began brainstorming what being a man and a women was. I was with the group defining men. We came up with the very stereotypical things everyone just assumes a man is. For example, strong, heroic, mean, emotionless, breadwinner etc... The second part of the activity was to make three skits depicting what we wrote. We actually went with a very long skit that covered various gender typing scenarios that were ridicules but the sad truth was that it actually happens in the real world. afret having a short discussion, we were let out early but not without an assignment. Mary Grace told us to ask various people what the thought feminism and misogyny are. most people had a vague idea of what it was to be a feminist but almost no one knew what misogyny was. Two ladies at the end gave us both of the correct answers. They were the only people who got both answers right.

When we went back to class we discussed our findings and some people said that men were actually more aware of the answers. after we got to watch the movie Missconception, spelled like that. It presented how women were portrayed in the media an how they have become targets to harassment and no that no one, not even women, take other women seriously. I found the movie very interesting because I realized I had been conditioned to see images like those and feel like it was a norm to degrade women. One picture in particular caught my eye. It was a women almost on the ground motionless, surrounded by various men. What immediately came to mind was gang rape. The women was put in a submissive position and and the men were in higher power. This resonated with me because it reminded me of what happened in RHS around five years. A girl was gang raped and I remember people saying she shouldn't have gone outside or been dressed like she was. This is what rape culture is. We have become so used to men oppressing women that we blame the victim instead of blaming the guys that did the actual rape. They forced her. Women should be able to dress however they want without being threatened, harassed, or worst.  Everyone had very strong opinions about this.

Perfume picture depicting gang rape

After we went to the Blue lounge to wait for our diversity workshop. The we got snacks from the cafe and worked on our essay that is due tomorrow at 9 AM but that I already turned in. Once the time came we when to the conference room. Everything was pretty average until we got up and chose a choice that fitted the most with us. Everyone was very apprehensive about sharing towards the end. Things got more and more personal. Everyone had things about their identities that they wanted to keep to themselves. It was specially hard for me the very last question and how fast my brain knew the answer to it. I walked slowly to the the answer, I was surprised to people there that I didn't think would feel that way about themselves. No one talked at first but slowly but sure we began sharing. For some reason this really hit home and things got very emotional really fast. No one was judgmental but on the flip side, they were very supportive. I hate getting emotional in the presence of people because life has taught me that people can and will use your weaknesses to make you miserable. I know this is not everyone but it doesn't mean people don't do it. After the workshop, everyone was overwhelmed with emotion.

We went to get dinner to go so we could keep working on our essay. We came to the dorms ate and went to our rooms to work. A few hours and thoughts later, I was ready to get help with APA format citations. I headed down my hall to Tori's room. She helped me and old me the ropes of citation in this format that is used for social sciences. I came back to my dear room and sent it hoping for the best. After I began blogging but as you may notice from the time this will be posted I was up pretty late trying to digest what had happened during this day.

I was emotionally and mentally exhausting. Today has taught me that we all have baggage that we carry around everywhere we go. I am glad I am discovering so many things about me. I didn't know how much certain things affected me so much. I guess it was always on the back of my head but i never gave it much thought and I think maybe should. For now I'll got to bed to get rest for the Challenge Course tomorrow in the woods. We even got tick socks to be safe. Whatever we do, I know it will be fun and a big learning experience.