Crossing "Boundaries"

by Elizabeth Lemuz

I recently came across an interesting article had an interesting picture and an interesting title to go along with it. The article “If You’re Not A Woman, These 5 Photos Will Give You A Window Into Their World”, is from Dose.com. I have never really been on this website before, but it is a lot like what Buzzfeed would have in terms of content. There are many things that can make you think like this article that I just found, and many that are just there for entertainment.

The images that are shown are from photographer, Allaire Bartel, which after the Santa Barbara shootings was inspired to do a photo shoot about gender inequality. I thought it was pretty interesting scrolling through my Facebook page and seeing a link to these images after we have recently been discussing sexism in class.

Bartel decided to do this photo shoot after realizing that women don’t tend to do anything against sexism in their everyday lives. Women are constantly being put down by men and the media and Bartel wanted to create a series that would bring everyone into a woman’s world.

The series that Bartel created is titled “Boundaries”. The images are powerful and can definitely make anyone very uncomfortable. There are many times when people don’t really think of what happens to women on a daily basis, but instead only focus on extreme cases that are shown in the news. Women are portrayed in such a horrible light in the media. A recent example of this is Hilary Clinton. Many of the things that have been said on the media have been horrible. Women are at fault many times when rape is the issue, but why is it this way?

These images are inspired by personal experiences that Bartel has gone through and it’s a sad reality. I commend Bartel for stepping up and demonstrating the world, what a woman’s world really looks like. To look at these images and learn more about these images, you can visit Allaire Bartel’s website. This will take you directly to the series that contains these images. It’s Bartel’s website where you can find much more information about her.

Citation:

“If You’re Not A Woman, These 5 Photos Will Give You A Window Into Their World”. Dose. Dose, n.d. Web. http://www.dose.com/lists/19633/If-You-re-Not-A-Woman-These-5-Photos-Will-Give-You-A-Window-Into-Their-World?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=pages&utm_campaign=4415_IIRUF6_6613

Dr. Michael Kimmel Comes to UNT!

by Elizabeth Lemuz

Genius

The Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of North Texas had Dr. Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor at Stony Brook University in New York, NY.

Dr. Michael Kimmel came to discuss masculinity with us students at UNT. He shared many great thoughts that I didn’t know would make me think as much as it actually did. Dr. Michael Kimmel has written the book Guyland. This book discusses how men that go off to college are constantly trying to prove their masculinity to each other. He mentioned a lot of these ideas why young men do this and he said without grown-ups there, young men are eager to prove their masculinity.

Other interesting points that Dr. Kimmel pointed out:

• balance of work and family has changed
• women don’t/can’t have it all, because men do
• women’s expectations have changed in the last 3 decades
• “privilege” is invisible to those who have it
• we have to make gender visible to young boys

Dr. Kimmel didn’t only discuss the extremes that young men go into proving their masculinity to all other guys, he also discussed what role women play in society. He gave many reasons as to why women have been absolutely fundamental in the last few years. One of those reasons is how women made gender visible. Today, gender is something that is completely invisible to men. Men can have it all, while women can’t achieve that. I believe that women can have it all but there are very little examples of it.

I think that Dr. Kimmel had some really good points in his lecture. I personally have not looked much into gender roles from many years before to where they are now. I have noticed that women do have more freedom when choosing what they want to pursue in life, but there is still so much inequality between men and women. I believe that privilege plays a big part in gender roles as it does in race. This we have definitely discussed in class before and it’s interesting to hear from young college students where their beliefs are.

Just like Dr. Kimmel addressed, I also believe it is important to teach young boys what gender is at a very young age. It all begins with our young generations and if we are teaching them that they are superiority to women, we aren’t doing any good for them and future generations.

Citations:

Dr. Michael Kimmel’s Lecture at UNT

Gender Role Image. Genuis. Genuis Media Group, 2015. Web. 23 April 2015. http://genius.com/2597275/Beyonce-if-i-were-a-boy/Verse-1

Sophia A. Nelson Visits UNT

by Elizabeth Lemuz

On Cloud Zen

Today in class we had the privilege to have Sophia A. Nelson speak in our class. Sophia Nelson is the award-winning author of the book The Woman Code. She goes around the country and talks about the importance of women and how they value themselves. We were able to have speak to our RGM class before she went ahead and was presented to a different audience on our campus at UNT.

Nelson gave many good points to our class about the importance of being successful in life. She emphasized mostly on the importance of knowing our own value and by standing firm on that. It’s sad to hear that people in this world, especially women, don’t know their value. I have been raised differently than the world. I know the value that I have, but it’s also because of the way that I choose to live my life. She repeated that it is important to know that everything that you need to win in life is inside of you, which goes along with the idea of knowing our value.

I think as a woman in this world, it is difficult to stand out from the world that is mostly run by men. The way that the media portrays women is also very negative. The media more recently has been doing a disservice to many things like gender differences, race, and class. All of these things we discuss in class and the discussions get pretty heated. Women, tend to be portrayed as violent, immature, and crazy in the media. The media doesn’t tend to focus on the high-educated and successful women that there are in this world. Why does the media do this? There may be many different answers. All I know is, women are much more than what is represented on the reality tv shows and Nelson believes this too.

I believe that Sophia Nelson is a perfect example of what a successful woman looks like. She is trying to encourage other women to be successful by staying true to who they are and by encouraging that women put an end to being manipulated by the world.

There were three tips that she made sure that we understood before she left.

1. Know your value. Everything that you need to succeed in life is already in you. This is defined by the way that you love yourself.
2. Teach people how to treat you.
3. Live authentically. Be you.

I know in this world it is hard to go against what the world sees as “normal” but before Nelson came to speak to our class, I knew that weird and different is normal and should be the normal. Sophia Nelson encourages that relationships with each other is key and that we need to help each other especially as women. I live by these standards every day. Competition is good, but the healthy type of competition. The competition that causes you to lose friends or relationships in order to be in a “better” position isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Thanks to Nelson, I was able to think deeply about the importance of loving oneself and promoting that, helping each other achieve goals, and the importance of knowing that all we need in order to win and succeed is within us.

Who Are the New Angels?

by Elizabeth Lemuz

Lane Bryant

This week there was a lot of talk about the Lane Bryant ad campaign titled “I’m No Angel”. Lane Bryant is a fashion company that dresses women sizes 14-28. In the media there was a lot of heat concerning the campaign, which definitely caught the public’s attention.

According to an article “Lane Bryant Ad Campaign Takes Aim At Victoria’s Secret Angels” from CBS New York, this ad is “to prove that all women are sexy regardless of society’s traditional or stereotypical views on beauty”. The ad campaign was just recently released and it already has all the major news outlets writing about it and all the social media outlets are trending this subject.

The “typical woman” has been hard to define for some time now. There is always something that may put down women of some shape or size. Victoria’s Secret has been around for a long time and has caused controversy everywhere because of its super skinny models. This brand has been very successful and continues to succeed aside from all the hate that they get from people. Women’s body shape has evolved so much over time. Here is this video on BuzzFeed showing the change over time and listing what women’s bodies looked like before and how they are now.

I personally like to see the new ad campaign’s like the one Lane Bryant just released. It’s refreshing to see something new out there, other than your typical “skinny is best” or “skinny is perfect” type of mindset. Women on the street don’t look like Victoria’s Secret models. Just like before, women’s bodies are changing again and there isn’t one specific type of body anymore.

In an article titled “How Lane Bryant might be ‘bullying’ skinny women” in The Washington Post, it discusses how Lane Bryant is “skinny-shaming” women now with this new campaign. IT goes on about how women that are bigger can still wear cacique, but don’t necessarily have to have such aggressive approach.

There will always be two sides to everything and this is why it’s good that people can voice their opinions. Like I said before, I don’t think that the ad is “skinny-shaming” women at all. I think that one brand is finally stepping forward, taking a risk, and stating something that in recent time has needed to be mentioned. Today this, like many other topics, is very controversial. I don’t believe Lane Bryant created this campaign to go against Victoria’s Secret. I think they wanted all the women out there that don’t feel comfortable with the way they look because of today’s ideal look of women, and instead is giving them that extra boost of confidence and security.  

Citations:

“Lane Bryant Ad Campaign Takes Aim At Victoria’s Secret Angels”. CBS New York. CBS Local Media, 2015. Web. 9 April 2015. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/07/lane-bryant-ad-campaign-takes-aim-at-victorias-secret-angels/

“How Lane Bryant might be ‘bullying’ skinny women”. The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2015. Web. 9 April 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/08/lane-bryant-imnoangel-ad-campaign-might-be-bullying-skinny-women/

“Women’s Ideal Body Types Throughout History”. BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 2015. Web. 9 April 2015. http://www.buzzfeed.com/eugeneyang/womens-ideal-body-types-throughout-history#.aiQd9ko3X

Discrimination On Campus

by Elizabeth Lemuz

Clip Art Best

     I recently read an article on IJReview titled "College Redefines WTF Logic When They Kick Christian Group Off Campus For Who They Want to Lead Them", about a Christian group at California State University, that got kicked off the campus because of the decision of who would lead the group. The article isn't very long, but it does include enough information to understand what the university did.

     I don't know why the university would do such a thing. I agree with what Bianca Travis, Chi Alpha president, said that a Christian group needs a leader who is a believer and not a non-believer. What is the point of having someone lead a bunch of young Christians when the leader of the group doesn't have a strong faith? It's just like having a high ranking football team get assigned a dance teacher. It doesn't make sense.

     This type of thing definitely hits home for me. I am part of a ministry on campus and our leader is a believer. It makes sense. Who else could we get advise from or come to with questions that we can't answer ourselves?

     The article discusses how the university does this in order for there not to be any type of discrimination, but with this it's happening from staff at the university. I know that any campus organization should allow members from any background, and this allows for diversity in the groups.

     In my ethics and law class, we discussed the first amendment and how the government can't establish one religion for the country to follow, but it does allow the free exercise of religion. Schools can't conduct any type of religious act as a whole but it can allow students to do it themselves.

     Just like the first amendment states that students have the freedom of choosing their religion, they should also be allowed to choose their leader. Who better to lead a group of students after God, than a believer who also is this type of mission minded?




Citations:

"College Redefines WTF Logic When They Kick Christian Group Off Campus For Who They Want to Lead Them". IJReview. Dashboard. Web. http://www.ijreview.com/2015/03/283585-campus-christian-group-shut-down-for-wanting-christian-leaders/