Compulsory Heterosexuality

Probably following trend to everyone in the class, I had to go outside the text to understand it. Finding the definition of lesbianism, compulsory heterosexuality.
Lesbianism, defined by my best friend who is a female and who is gay, defines it as being sexually attracted to a female, and being a female yourself.

A standard response in my eyes. However, there tends to be more to the issue than just the typical response.

Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality, thanks to Jessica Parenteau for the link, explains things in a different manner. Rich says that women should focus their energy on other women rather than men to show that lesbianism is a branch of feminism. Now feminism, is defined differently to many people. To the majority, it's fighting for the equal rights of women and everyone alike. Now, there is definitely more to it, and I am still unaware of what it means to be a feminist. Rich makes a good point that in the 1980's, when the sexual preference of someone had to be heterosexuality, it was tough on lesbians because they were either told to keep it a secret or they would tend to get fired. And not only is it tough to be a lesbian, but being a lesbian of color is worse. Also, the statement made that lesbians have only an innate sexual attraction to men but act out in the bitterness is an interesting statement. To say that lesbians only associate themselves with other women because they have some unknown bitterness towards men is an ignorant statement. Just because someone is attracted to the same sex does not mean that they have some unspoken bitterness towards the same sex. In my opinion, it's not really about the sex of someone you are attracted to. I'm not one to judge either, so love who you want to love.

A quick interview with my best friend:
Me:"Do you feel like you are a lesbian because you have a feeling of bitterness towards men?"
PG:"No, because it's like needing glasses." (Which is a reference to Greys Anatomy)
Me:"Have you had a sexual relationship with a man before?"
PG:"Yes, we dated for two years"
Me:"During that time,did you find any satisfaction?"
PG:"No, it wasn't something that felt right, and it goes back to that glasses statement"

This is the video that my friend showed me to explain how she knew she was gay.

Wage Theft

So I cannot guarantee that this blog will make sense by any means, I am currently writing this in the midst of the New England Patriots game and I am heavily distracted. So I do apologize if there is any miscommunication or if there are any sentences that tend to not make sense. I am not held accountable for them.

So equal pay is this weeks topic of discussion, well among other things, and this is a topic that has been an issue for years. Women have been fighting for equal pay for years. Why should someone of a different gender get paid less? This is where things get interesting and where the video needs to be watched. Now, I realize that I'm referencing a source that was not given, however, the video does throw out some statistics that are pretty mind blowing. In the past 45 years there has been only a 19 cent pay raise from 1965 to 2010. Woman make an average of 77 cents to every mans dollar. The margin of 23 cents is a major ordeal. So throwing some simple math out there, a CFO of say, Google is a man, and hypothetically he makes $500,000 a year. Now a woman who has the same exact qualifications and years of experience would only make $385000. That's a difference of $115,000. Really? Now of course the above math equation was all hypothetical, but it puts things into perspective.

Now on another note, PBS's little section on the stories of different people is quit the eye opener. Just to get a sense of how other people are treated and looked upon based off of their class. Ridiculous.

Now as for the other website, that talks about Wage Theft, is with any company. They, the company, just don't want to spend money and try to cut expenses as much as possible. However, they tend to take to try to spend less money on their female employees. Blasphemy!

Below is a a video that I found on youtube that kind of put things into a clear image.

Obama: Education

Education is a major topic is the upcoming election. Each presidential candidate has their own views on education. Each candidate has a different view on how education should be handled. Unfortunately, Romney is in the loosing category when it comes to education. Obama is looking out for all students, future and current, by signing bills that allow debt to be forgiven. He also signed a bill that allows students to pay no more than 10% of their disposable income to help pay for federal loans. His plan of action helps benefit a lot of student both future and current. Obama is looking out for the well being of others as a whole. The laws that he has passed, and are in the process of passing, has helped more than 9.4 million students. Obama has some serious plans for students that will benefit them in the long run. Lets just see how his ideas come into play and how they end up working out.

Both candidates have strong views on education so the debate side of this topic is slim to none. Both believe that education plays a major role in life. Romney is more focused on a private level and that a public but does offer bonuses to teachers for teaching at a certain level. Obama is looking at the bigger picture though, stating that no child should miss out on an education because of a failing school.

So what I'm getting out of this is that Obama and Romney both have good views on education. However, Obama is looking out for the greater good. Making sure no child is left behind and misses out on an education. He does not in believe in the "No Child Left Behind" program because it focuses too much on standardized testing. With this the child is not getting a well rounded education.

Here is all of Obama's views on education

The Second Blog of The Semester!!!!

Pennies for your thought

Fryes piece on oppression, cleverly titled "Oppression", starts out with a bang. She states that "oppressing is oppression to those who oppress as well as to those the oppress", which leads me to think that people who oppress, oppress everyone regardless of gender, race, or sexuality. She makes this argument clear by stating that men are told that they need to be tough and nothing else, so crying is not something that is acceptable. Which to me is very accurate. When I was younger I lived with my mother and visited my father on the weekend. Now my mother was very open with her emotions and told me to do the same thing, however my father is a very closed off man so I had no true direction on what to do. So the idea of oppression is in everyday life no matter what your age may be. However, Frye states that the word oppression is being over used and its meaning has become meaningless. Fryes break down of the word oppress is immaculate. From just taking the "op" from "oppress" and just having the word press, and state its definition was very well written. The fact that she made one word turn into something horrible was striking. Frye touches upon some great points in her article, another being that a young woman who is sexually active is looked down upon, as well as a young girl who is not sexually active. As a whole the reading opened my eyes, even if it was just a little, because I tend to not think of the facts that were stated and just live life not worrying about them.

This song does not necessarily relate to the article, however it does degrade women throughout the entire song. And I used the actual video because the video was never released to the public, for obvious reasons.

The F Word

I know this is a little late but anyway....

In "Fear of Feminism" the author makes some very good statements about young women and how they are naive to the idea of being a feminist. This fear isn't just secluded to the fact that they are naive about what a feminist is, but how to identify what a feminist is. It's a way of life that is unfamiliar with most people. According to Hogeland the life of a feminist is a life with consequence because women who fear feminism fear living in consequences(Hogeland, page 3). Just knowing that the Feminist movement was lead by intellectual leaders is a great start. This article has opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities to how the feminist movement came to be and has played out.

A Tsunami In History
The connection of the girl passed down from generation to generation is quit symbolic. It shows the pride and the strength that the elder women had. In the passage, a quote from Susan B. Anthony was quoted as "It was we, the people; not we, the white mal citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens,; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union...Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less" (Rowe-Finkbeiner, page 20). This quote has a lot of meaning behind it in the sense that nothing was ever equal. It took some redefining and amendments to get the equality right. The history given in this reading is very detailed and inspirational. The ring signifies a lot more than originally

-Mike