Group Activism Blog: Week 3

Madison Zierk
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
2/26/10

Group Activism Blog: Week 3

Activism

Cecily hasn't been to class in the past week so our group can only come to the solution that she has either withdrawn from the class or just decided not to go to class alltogether. The possible loss of a group member can hurt the outcome of our project greatly. Not only did we unexpectedly lose a group member we still don't have a community partner. Grassroots movements depend on the support of its followers and leaders. Since we have no leader and lost one of our followers the goals of our causes seem a little bleak. I'm hoping things start to turn around for us because this project means a lot to me.

Reflection

I'm a little upset to see the loss of Cecily. I really enjoyed having her in the group. I also think that she was really dedicated to the project and wanted to see changes made to our Florida sex education system. In the beginning of our group meetings it was apparent that Cecily was having problems making it to class and meetings because of her work schedule. This schedule conflict was what probably ultimately made her choose work over school.

Reciprocity

As a sex educator I want to teach teens and young adults about how to have a safe, healthy sex life if they choose to have sex. I also want to empower the young women in my classes that they shouldn't be afraid of who they are as sexual beings. They have a right to own their own sexuality and take control of it. Young women should also not be ridiculed or ashamed for enjoying and accepting who they are. Sandra Cisneros's essay "Guadalupe the Sex Goddess" greatly illustrates my goals for the young women who I wish to teach someday. With each new depth of Cisneros's personal sexual discovery she found out things about her that she didn't even know she knew (Cisneros 166). I had that same experience. I found through my own sexual discovery that I wanted to become a sex educator. I want to teach other young women like myself that there are great people inside them waiting to come out. All you have to do is be honest with who you are.

Work Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. "Guadalupe the Sex Goddess." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 164-67. Print.

Group Activism Blog: Week 2

Madison Zierk
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
2/19/10

Group Activism Blog: Week 2

Activism

In the second week of our activism project the group and I met and shared with each other what we had done with regards to the tasks we assigned each other the previous week. Heidi had problems finding the exact wording but, with the help of Dominique, we were able to find the bill and who was sponsoring it. I found one article in particular that really stood out to me as to why The Healthy Teens Act needed to be brought back to life and needed all the support it can get. There was not only a health concern for young women when teaching comprehensive sex education but a social concern too. Abstinence-only programs not only give out false information regarding pregnancy, condoms, and contracting STIs, these programs also perpetuate stereotypes among men and women. Ryan and Cecily came to the meeting offering nothing in the form of group contact so we discussed possible school clubs and groups that we could get to support our cause. We considered VOX and NOW and since Cecily has ties with the sororities and fraternities on campus we considered getting their involvement too.

Reflection

I never thought much past the health aspects of the necessity to teach comprehensive sex education to young men and women as well as children until I did the research I did. I found that abstinence-only programs continually teach girls that they need to safe guard their virginity from boys because boys are, by nature, sexual beings. These curricula also condemn girls and women if they choose to be sexually active. They claim that these girls are no longer pure, unspoiled, or fresh because they choose to loose their virginity. These curricula at the same time don't mention why a boy should hold on to his virginity or how he will be perceived if he chooses to have sex before marriage. According to the article Women's Sexuality "This fundamental contradiction between encouraging men's sexuality and expecting women to be chaste results in the contradiction of two categories of women:"good" women and "bad" women, virgins and whores- the women men marry and the women they fool around with." (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 151) These abstinence-only curricula are only causing these girls the constant worrying about how they are being perceived by their peers and the rest of society.

Reciprocity

I'm really hoping this project goes somewhere. The more I learn about this subject the more I'm convinced that I want to be a sex educator to teens and young adults.

Works Cited

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Women's Sexuality." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 149-60. Print.

The Crowned Prince of McDonnagh Electric Meets The Crowned Princess of The Noble Poor

Madison Zierk
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
16 February 2010

The Crowned Prince of McDonnagh Electric Meets The Crowned Princess of The Noble Poor

Pretty in Pink tells the story of a working class teenage girl named Andie who questions her need to go to her senior prom and in the process falls in love with a “richie” named Blane McDonnagh. This movie focuses on a wide gap of social classes in Andie’s high school. It seems that every student is either a member of the working class or a member of the upper class. Pretty in Pink doesn’t show any kind of resemblance of a middle class (unless you want to say that technically the teachers in the school could be considered members of the middle class). Either you’re rich or you’re poor.

Andie grew up in what most people would consider to be a typical working class home. Her mother left her and her father when she was young. Her father never holds on to a job for any length of time, and as a result, works many different odd jobs. From the very beginning of the movie Andie is nagging at her father to get out of bed and start job hunting. Andie, on the other hand, is “hard-working, ragged but clean, and intrinsically noble” (Allison 115). She focused herself on her schoolwork and even earned some scholarships. When she isn’t at school Andie works part-time at a record store. Her money is barely spent on recreational items. She is known to make all of her clothing and is often praised by her fellow working class friends and her father about her “latest creations”. The only people who don’t praise her hard work was the other half of the school, the “richies”, the upper class.

It’s not hard to tell who in the school has money and who doesn’t. The poor girls wear dark colored, worn-looking outfits that had a grunge, punk, and off-the-wall look to them. The rich girls at school wear preppy outfits that are white or pastel colored. Before class and during lunch the poor kids sit outside while the rich kids rule the hallways. This deep class segregation amongst the school causes a silent uproar when Andie and Blane first start talking. Whenever one of them crosses over into the other social class’s territory they immediately receive poor judgments from the members of that certain party. When Andie goes on her first date with Blane she dresses up nicely in an attempt to impress him and not look so poor compared to him. From the very moment they walk into Blane’s friend’s party she receives criticism. One girl at the party says to her “Nice pearls. This isn’t a dinner party honey.” (Hughes) This separation between the two social classes is what eventually causes Blane to break up with Andie within days of asking her to the prom. Instead of moping about and crying over Blane breaking up with her, Andie decides to make a prom dress and go to prom with or without him. Her reasoning is that she wants to “let them know they didn’t break me” (Hughes). The they in that remark refers to all of the rich kids who ridiculed her for being different, for being poor. In the end Andie goes to her prom to avoid feeling bad for not going and wins back the love of Blane. In the end Andie holds on to a sense of who she is while winning the affection of someone who the upper class would deem to be superior and legitimate (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 96)



Works Cited


Allison, Dorothy. "A Question of Class." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 112-19. Print.

Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Social Categories, Classifications, and Structural Inequality: Macro and Global Levels." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 95-96. Print.

Pretty in Pink. Dir. John Hughes. Paramount, 1986. DVD.

Group Activism Blog: Week 1

Madison Zierk
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
2/12/10

Group Activism Blog: Week 1

Activism

In our first week together as a group we met up and discussed the project as a whole, where we would like to see it progress, and who to get in contact with in order to get our project going. Since we were not affiliated with any organization to begin with we thought of contacting Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando in a means to see if they were currently doing anything with regards to the Healthy Teens Act. We also researched the Healthy Teens Act and sought to find the actual wording of the bill. We set goals for each of the members of the group. Gryphyn would be in charge of researching all of the legal jargin of the bill and where it stands right now in how actively it's getting pushed. I would be in charge of finding out how The Healthy Teens Act and teaching comprehensive sex education pertains to the Women's Rights movement. Ryan and Cecily would be in charge of contacting other groups (on and off campus) who might be interested in helping our cause along.

Reflection

In researching sex education among the country (but mostly Florida) I found that Florida has the sixth-highest teen pregnancy rate and the second-highest rate of HIV and AIDS cases. According to the essay in Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives, entitled Women's Bodies, Women's Health, "Sexually transmitted infections affect some 19 million people each year, almost half of them aged 15-24."(Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 215) Florida's continuance of teaching abstinence-only programs in their school systems is only hurting the future generations of teens and young adults. Most of these young men and women are becoming sexually active without any form of proper sex education to guide them to a safe and healthy sex life. These abstinence-only programs are only scaring these children into believing that if they don't have vaginal sex they're fine in the "Lord's Eye", so to speak, while at the same time giving absolutely no information to the young LGBTQQI community who is already being "condemned" for not following the heteronormative way of life.

Reciprocity

This project really appealed to be from the beginning because I have long since considered becoming a sex educator. By participating in this project I will have a hand in bringing comprehensive sex education to the Florida school systems. I feel that it is rewarding teaching the young men and women about how to have a safe and healthy sex life while teaching them that while abstinence is the safest way to prevent pregnancy and the contraction of STIs, it isn't the only way to protect themselves if they completely feel that they are ready to take on the responsibilities of having sex.

Works Cited

"Women's Bodies, Women's Health." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 207-24. Print.

Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal
For Healthy Teens Campaign

Heidi Hosmer
Madison Zierk
Cecily Bowen
Ryan Holmes

2/3/2010
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 sec. 0002


Community Partner(s): The Healthy Teens Campaign
Address: None available
Contact: (941) 923-4555

The Healthy Teens Campaign Mission Statement
“The Healthy Teens Campaign is a broad-based coalition made up of education, public health, and faith-based organizations that seek to improve the health and safety of Florida teens through comprehensive sex education. The Healthy Teens Campaign supports The Healthy Teens Act, which will require that Florida public schools receiving state funding provide comprehensive, medically-accurate, and age-appropriate factual information when teaching about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, family planning, or pregnancy.”

Political Basis for The Healthy Teens Campaign
The Healthy Teens Campaign works to pass The Healthy Teens Act, an act that will help to bring comprehensive sex education to teens all across Florida.

The Healthy Teens Campaign Needs
The passing of The Healthy Teens Act. In order to pass this act there is the possibility that this group will need help with petitioning, e-mail drives, promoting the act, etc.


Memorandum
TO: Jeannina Perez
FROM: Madison Zierk, Heidi Hosmer, Ryan Holmes, and Cecily Bowen
DATE: 5/3/10
RE: Proposal to Write a Feasibility Report for a Service Learning Project
The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rationale and feasibility for a service learning project to benefit The Healthy Teens Campaign. The following proposal contains background on the need for and benefits of a comprehensive sex education project, and outline of the work we plan to do, the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015, and a scheduled timeline. This proposal may need to be revised after beginning the project and must be flexible to meet the needs of the both the Service Learning project and the community partners.

Need for The Healthy Teens Campaign
This community partner has a mission statement that deal with wanting to bring comprehensive sex education to the Florida school systems. They are currently working to pass the Healthy Teens Act, an act that will bring medically-accurate, comprehensive sex education to teens across Florida.

Plan Proposal
Our group is currently waiting to hear back from our proposed community partners to see what needs to be done with helping to get The Healthy Teens Act passed. Right now we anticipate the possibility of having to petition, run e-mail drives, and promote the purpose of the act and the need for comprehensive sex education in the Florida school systems.

Rationale for Women’s Studies
Getting the state of Florida to pass the Healthy Teens Act will deal with two different problems pertaining to women’s issues. The first issue is the rising rate of teen pregnancies in Florida and the rest of the United States. According to the article “Could Sex Ed Be Coming to Florida’s Schools?” at the beginning of 2009 Florida was ranked number six in the nation in teen-pregnancy rates. In 2008 Orange County reported 1,678 teen births (ages 10-19) in a population of 1,115,248 residents. Seminole county reported 385 teen births in a population of 425,911 residents. Both of those counties saw about 10% of their population give birth to a child before they were 20 years-old.

The other women’s issue that arises with teaching abstinence-only sex education is the way the curriculum is taught. Many abstinence-only curricula place the responsibility to abstain from sex all on the girls. They teach that men have uncontrollable urges and aggressions and girls should know how to protect themselves from their advances. These curricula also teach teens to look down on any girl that has sex. They are taught to look at any girl who isn’t a virgin as being “no longer pure, unspoiled, fresh” (Community Action Kit). In other words, the girl is looked at as a lesser being and should be treated that way.

Teens of both sexes, and young girls especially, should have the proper education to protect themselves from unplanned pregnancy and STDs. More importantly, a girl should be taught that abstaining from sex is the most logical choice, but if they do decide to have sex they shouldn’t have to worry about how the public will view them. They are human beings that should be looked at no differently than a man who has sex before he is 20.

Action
The first step will be to establish contact with our proposed community partners and see what needs to be done. Depending on what work needs to be done (petitioning, e-mail drives, promoting, etc.) Ryan and Cecily will go around to different organizations and clubs here on campus and ask for support in helping our cause, and finding other volunteers to take action. We are looking at the possibilities of a debate between the College Democrats and College Republicans on the issue of comprehensive sex education being taught in school and the Feminist Radio discussing The Healthy Teens Act and comprehensive sex education on their radio program. If petitioning, e-mail drives, and promoting become the main focus of the project, Heidi and Madison will be actively participating in those actions, and helping to organize anyone else who is interested in volunteering. Ryan and Cecily will hopefully be able to obtain those volunteers through contact with campus clubs and organizations.

Timeline
We will deliver the final project on May 3, 2010. Here is our plan for completing the project:

1/25/10: Organizational Meeting
2/2/10: Research Meeting; Getting in contact with Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando
2/16/10: Organizational Meeting
2/17/10-3/23/10: Further Research
3/24/10: UCF Day at the Capital
3/25/10-4/27/10: Email interviews to congressmen, write and revise article/essay
4/28/10: Final group meeting
5/3/10: Present final project in class



Works Cited
Community Action Kit. "Sugar & Spice, Virtue & Vice." 2008. Community Action Kit. 3 February 2010 http://www.communityactionkit.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=1091&nodeID=3&stopRedirect=1.

"Could Sex Ed Be Coming To Florida Schools?" 23 January 2009. Orlando Sentinel. 2 February 2010 http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2009/01/could-sex-ed-be-coming-to-floridas-schools.html.

Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando. 2008. 3 February 2010 http://www.ppgo.org.

The Healthy Teens Campaign. "A Closer Look at Florida." 2008. The Healthy Teens Campaign. 3 February 2010 http://healthyteensflorida.org/node/8.

—. The Healthy Teens Campaign. 3 February 2010 http://www.healthyteensflorida.org.

Who Came First, The Woman or The Disease?

Let's face it. Advertising wasn't very gender-friendly about 50-60 years ago. Society itself wasn't very gender-friendly either. The men were bred to get married, have a family, and be a responsible career man. Women on the other hand were often taught that their place was in the home catering to their husband's every whim while raising a family and keeping the house orderly and tidy. Who's job was it though when it came to preventing any unwanted consequences while having sex? This ad here clearly advertises to men that they need to protect themselves from these unwanted consequences (pregnancy and mostly venereal disease).

This advertisement depicts a white woman who is dressed in a fashion that was considered to be moderately conservative. She isn't dressed in a flowy "June Cleaver" dress, but she isn't in capris and a tank top either. Basically this illustrated woman is made to represent the majority of the women of that time. This "everyday woman" also has her body positioned in a way that would suggest that she's slightly suspicious of something. She may also be conversing with another man that isn't visible in this ad. This advertisement would have most likely been published in magazines and newspapers that catered to men. After getting a good glance at this ad most men would start to question what diseases their partners at the time might be carrying.

It almost seems that the goal of the marketers creating this ad at the time were trying to get the message out to men everywhere that women are promiscuous, disease-riden sexual beings. They were also sending men the message to protect themselves from these women (but don't stop your sex life because of it). About the only absolute truth to this advertisement is that prophylaxis (condoms) prevent venereal disease (if used correctly of course). To say that women are the only ones carrying diseases and spreading them to their partners is a bit one-sided to say the least.

That's the way society was carried then and is still carried today. Women in our society are damned by this double standard placed on them by the Patriarchal system. Either a woman is a "good" woman or a "bad" woman, the virgin or the whore- the woman that men will want to marry or the woman that men will fool around with (Women's Sexuality 151). The system controls what marketers put in their ads. Showing that a man needs to "protect" himself from the all too vunerable woman was something that was widely accepted during the time of this ad's publishment. Nowadays the marketers of this ad would be frowned upon and receive some negative critisizm.

Advertising today has definately made a giant leap for the better from where it stood 50-60 years ago when portraying gender equality. Commercials and advertisements for condoms in today's society show more of a sex-positive attitude for men and women. They also place the responsibility for using their products correctly in the hands of both partners involved in the sexual relationship (whether they be gay, straight, or otherwise). No one gender is carrying more venereal diseases than the other and yet both men and women should take equal precautions to protect themselves from these unwanted diseases.

Johnson, Allan G. "Patriarchy, the System". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 68-76.

"Women's Sexuality". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 149-160.

Women Suffragists in Two Different Lights

The women sufragist movement has been depicted in many different lights through many different movies. This blog entry takes a look into two movies, "Iron Jawed Angels" and "Mary Poppins". "Iron Jawed Angels" tells the story of the ordeal that the women sufragists went through to ratify the 19th admendment. "Mary Poppins", on the other hand, tells the story of a family who, disconnected at the beginning of the film, are brought magically back together through the quirky nanny that comes unexpectedly into their lives. While both movies have totally different themes, they both have women suffragists in them.

The word suffragist in both films was used in the same way when you look at the core meaning of the word. The suffragists in both films fought for women's right to vote. They were both admired by those who supported the cause and looked down on by those who opposed the cause. Most of the suffragists in "Iron Jawed Angels" took a very active approach to trying to ratify the admendment. The only exception was Senator Leighton's wife who gave monotary donations to the cause, but did not actively participate for fear of risking her husbands career. Mrs. Banks in "Mary Poppins" took an active role in the movement. She boasted and bragged about how much work her and her fellow suffragists accomplished that day to the housekeepers when she came home. As soon as Mr. Banks arrived home though she hid her suffragist sash and did not speak of her day with her husband because he did not support the cause.

The representations of the suffragist movement in "Iron Jawed Angels" was more realistic than "Mary Poppins". "Iron Jawed Angels" follows the herstory of the ratification of the 19th admendment with close accuracy from the marches, protests, picketing, hunger strikes, and strife that the women had to go through in order to fight for their right to vote. Mrs. Banks and her fellow suffragists in "Mary Poppins" were painted in a different light though. "Mary Poppins" made it seem like all that the suffragists did was throw rotten food at the prime minister and and sang songs all day long. While these things might have gone on at some time or another, that was not the only thing that these women did to fight for their rights. Let's face it, some rotten food and a positive, powerful song isn't going to earn equal rights for women all on their own.

By the end of "Iron Jawed Angels" the women still continue to be suffragists. They know that their fight is far from over. Through all of their hard work and struggle they were able to get a bill passed that helped 35 states ratify the admendment. There was still much more work to go. It seemed though that at the end of "Mary Poppins" Mrs. Banks quit the fight because her family was back together and to her that was all that mattered. She felt that staying home and being with her kids while her husband went off to work to be a far more wise choice.