Service Learning Blog #2

 

Activism: This week I have been working on sewing more of the liners and it has not been easy so far. I am trying to figure out my sewing machine and so far my liners have been slow to be completed; but I am hoping once I get the hang of the machine I can start making them faster. This is definitely an organization I would like to keep volunteering for and I think even after this class is over I would like to keep sewing things for them.

Reflection:  As we’re reading “Are you There God it’s me Margaret?” in class and I’m working on this project to help provide sanitary supplies to women and girls in developing countries who don’t have access to them, it makes me think about how much we are a society of consumption. One quote from Brumberg’s The Body Project that it makes me think of is “At the moment when they begin to menstruate, American girls and their mothers typically think first about the external body; what shows and what doesn’t, rather than about the emotional and social meaning of the maturational process.” (29) It’s not about maturing and becoming a women anymore it becomes more about what products we are going to buy to make sure nothing is shown. Women and girls in these countries don’t even have access to these items we can buy whenever we want and then they have a huge stigma attached to them every time they are menstruating, which makes it even more of an ordeal causing them to lose days of work and school.

Reciprocity: I am glad I decided to work with this organization, they are helping a cause that I feel very strongly about and they have also forced me to finally learn how to use my sewing machine and to do something good with it. I am definitely going to continue my work with them and hopefully can perfect the art of sewing these liners and maybe move on to sewing the shields and the drawstring bags.

Works Cited

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, Inc., 1997.

Service Learning #1

 

Activism: Since I changed my Service Learning Project, I am now working with an organization called Days for Girls, which is an organization that puts together kits to send to women and girls in developing countries who don’t have access to sanitary items for menstruation. These kits are comprised of sanitary pads, liners, underwear, plastic zip lock bags and a washcloth; these items are reusable and can be hidden in the drawstring bag they come in. You can choose to make one item for the kit or to make all the items in the kit and I chose to focus on making the liners, because as I am still a novice at sewing it seemed like something I would be able to sew by hand if my sewing machine failed. I began this project by checking out the various craft stores to see who had the best deals on fabrics or the best coupons, and I ended up choosing Jo-Ann Fabrics because they had a larger variety of fabrics and also accept competitor’s coupons. I also was able to find someone to help answer all my questions when I was looking for the right kind of fabric. Once I had the fabric I had to wash and dry it and then I could finally begin sewing. Unfortunately I did end up having some issues with my sewing machine, which I still can’t figure out what I am doing wrong so I am going to hand sew all the liners.

Reflection: In this class we are learning a lot about girls and their bodies, especially during menstruation. To quote Joan Jacobs Brumberg in her book The Body Project, she says that “When contemporary American girls begin to menstruate, they think of hygiene, not fertility; and that is the American way, and it is taken for granted , as if it were part of the natural order” (55). Most of us grew up with access to sanitary napkins or tampons and were instructed on how to use them by our mothers or doctors. In other countries there are women and young girls who don’t have access to these items and menstruation has a huge stigma attached to it where the women and girls are thought of as unclean and will be kept at home, missing work and school. Missing work and school can cause these women and children to lose income and also be more likely to drop out of school.

Reciprocity: This class and everything we have read, plus working on this project has made me realize just how lucky we are to have access to the information and the sanitary products used during menstruation. It also has made me realize that there are other options for products to use during menstruation, items that can be reusable and more eco-friendly.

Works Cited

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, Inc., 1997.

Campus Engagement: Michelle Obama

On Monday November 5^th, the day before Election Day, I went to go see Michelle Obama speak at a park near Florida Southern College. Along with the First Lady, Ricky Martin, Mayor Buddy Dyer, Senator Bill Nelson and many others spoke. This was a truly inspirational and moving campaign event, because it was so close to Election Day, everyone was extremely excited and passionate about getting President Obama reelected.

            Something that I thought was interesting about this event was that there was a group of teachers and students that came all the way over from London just to follow the last two weeks of the election. The group was called Act Inspired U.S. and they give students from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to work on the 2012 U.S Elections. They had the chance to see Bill Clinton speak and also Governor Romney; the Michelle Obama rally was their last campaign stop before they headed to Washington D.C. after Election Day. I had the chance to speak to a few people from this organization and they were really inspiring how much they wanted to learn about our government and it was also amazing to see how much other countries support President Obama.

            It was also very interesting to hear Ricky Martin speak. We all know him well for his music but we don’t know much about his political activism. He spoke very passionately about his family and how he wants to create a better world for his children and electing President Obama would do just that. Hearing Senator Bill Nelson was also amazing because I had never heard him speak before. The most important thing all the speakers wanted to get across to everyone attending is how important each of our votes are and it is imperative that we all vote and help others to get to their polling stations to vote as well.

          Michelle Obama gave an incredible speech, she spoke about her and President Obama’s family, and how they were successful because they had people in their lives that believed in them. She also stated all the reasons why she loved and believed in her husband, which was so moving it made me tear up. Those of us who support President Obama know all the reasons why we voted for and continue to support him, but for those who were still undecided, she stated that President Obama supports women, our LGBTQ community, education, and many more reasons. Hearing our First Lady Michelle Obama speak was a highlight of this rather stressful campaign season, which seemed to be dominated by negative ad campaigns and constant fighting from both sides. This was a time for us to come together as a country and we did and (thankfully) reelected President Barack Obama.

Gloria Steinem

            Getting to hear Gloria Steinem speak on October 19^th was truly an experience I will never forget, especially because what she spoke about was so important; the upcoming election and the importance of voting. Ms. Steinem started out by telling us about the time she spoke in Florida during the 2000 presidential election and how out of the 700 people who came to hear her speak about 100 of them were in a situation where they could not vote or somehow their vote got lost or not counted. This really made me angry and kind of scared that something like that could happen again. It also made me realize how important it is to stand up for what you believe in and to fight for what’s right and our right to vote can help us do that. To quote Ms. Steinem, “if you don’t vote you are handing your life over to someone else; the power of the government stops at our skin and that’s how the belief in reproductive freedom protects people”.

           There was a moment during Ms. Steinem’s speech that really stuck out for me and it was when she was asked a question from the audience about women of color and activism/becoming an activist and she said “Don’t feel you have to fit into a slot that already exists”, telling this young woman and all of us to carve our own niche in society and that we don’t have to stick to the typical mold society tells us to. Ms. Steinem also went on to say that women of color are much more likely to be feminists than white women and that women of color are more likely to vote in their own self-interest like women’s lib, equal pay/rights, reproductive rights, etc.; “there are still some married, white women who are voting 50% against themselves”. She finished this statement by saying that we can have a feminist identity in different ways; we don’t necessarily all have to call ourselves feminists.  This is important because, while not all of us have the same views or beliefs, we can unite together and become the change we wish to see in the world.

           Hearing Gloria speak was truly inspirational and made me want to get out there and talk to people about the importance of voting and this election and how together we can make a difference.          

Weekly Readings

          The readings we had this week each involved some aspect of body modification; one where the author tattooed herself for self-expression and the other about cutting, where the author was unhappy with life, school, herself and the thing that made her feel better was cutting herself. Both readings made me think about having control and power over one's body.

            In Marked for Life: Tattoos and the Redefinition of Self by Silja J.A. Talvi; she talks about how getting tattooed she was "consciously taking a small step away from her emotional suffering and toward a radical new self-definition" (212). Tattoos in today's society are still seen as unladylike because women are still expected to have unblemished perfect skin. The author believes that women who get tattoos usually represent marginalized groups such as lesbians, female gang members, punks, runaways and other groups whose lifestyle or beliefs leave them on the fringes of society (212). The author always felt a sense of exclusion in her life starting with her childhood in Scandinavia and following her to her teenage years in California. She seemed to find a sense of belonging in the punk and Rastafarian scene and these principles provided her with a firmer sense of place and purpose in life. The author states that in a world that offers women few concrete ways to exert control and power over their lives, tattoos can bring a real sense of strength, identity and dignity (214). The way the author took control over her body in a world where she felt out of control was by tattooing things on her body that marked certain passages in her life.

            In Unwanted by Precious Angel, she talks about how she was very depressed about everything, life, school and home life and the only way she felt any comfort was when she cut herself. After the school counselor questioned her and found out she was cutting herself she was taken to the hospital and then the police took her home and her aunt still did not show any compassion towards her. After all of that and after all the counseling she went through she was still depressed and attempted suicide. I feel like the author felt out of control in her life, she was away from her family and being raised by an aunt who could care less about her and the only way she could exert power over her body was by cutting herself.

            Both of these readings made me think about the various things that we all do to have control and power over our bodies, especially when we are in situations where we feel like we are powerless and out of control.

 

Word Count: 509

 

Works Cited:

Lakota, Sicangu. "Unwanted." My Sisters' Voices: Teenage Girls of Color Speak out. By Iris Jacob. New York: H. Holt, 2002. 201-03. Print.

 

Talvi, Silja J.A. "Marked for Life: Tattoos and the Redefinition of Self." Body Outlaws: 

Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. By Ophira Edut. 2nd ed. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2003. 211-18. Print.

Introductory Letter

         Hi everybody! My name is Valerie Tindall and I am a senior here at UCF, my major is Women’s Studies with a minor in Communications. I am originally from Cooper City Florida, which is a small suburb outside of Fort Lauderdale, but I’ve been living in Orlando for about seven years now. Growing up I was raised in a very feminist, liberal household so going into Women’s Studies just seemed like a very natural thing for me to do and I was very interested in the history of Women’s Studies and how everything began.

 

         I am interested in studying about girls and body image because I’ve had to suffer through my own problems with negative body image from a very young age and I would like to learn about the things we can do to stop this cycle from occurring in other young girls. A positive self-image is very important for girls to have because when you think positively about yourself you will be more likely to go after things that you want or want to do, such as job opportunities, leadership positions, hobbies, etc…

 

         Popular culture impacts girls’ understandings of their bodies in so many different ways, with most of them being negative. Media today, whether it’s television, movies, magazines, websites, etc., provide us with a false idea of what beauty looks like; we are constantly bombarded with images of tall, skinny, models with perfect skin and hair, and frankly most young girls and women do not look like that, but society is telling us that image and beauty is the only way to define oneself. On a more positive note there are some aspects of popular culture that have contributed to girls’ understanding their bodies; I remember as a young girl my mom buying me “Are you there God? It’s me Margaret” as a way to explain what was going on with my body but in a more relatable, fun form because I loved to read. Dove has also started The Real Beauty campaign which features more natural women in their ads to portray the beauty in everybody and not what society tells us is ideal.

 

         Some of the major issues that I think are affecting girls and their bodies today are growing up with a negative body-image and self-worth and because of this negative body-image the prevalence of eating disorders and self-mutilation is also becoming more of a problem with girls today. I am very excited about this class and getting to hear everyone’s thoughts about this subject matter.