Women in the military

So a topic that I often confront is gender equality and the military is often a prime area where the discrepancies between the way men and women are viewed is the most clear. For instance, in this this story about a woman who served during WWII, her bravery and leadership in battle couldn't be rewarded because women were ineligible to receive certain honors. It's easy to think that in today's more gender equal world that women would face fewer restrictions, but that is not true. There are plenty of positions within multiple branches of the military that are completely off limits to women and as recently as 2005 there was discussion in Congress over whether or not to regulate some of these restrictions by law rather than simply military bylaw. My really good friend served in the National Guard and was a door gunner, but she ran into the problem of being infrequently selected for missions making it hard for her to rack up the number of hours she needed to become eligible for further training and other various positions. I understand that women are also not drafted, so quite obviously their role within the military is different, but I think that it's intolerable that a great woman who has sacrificed just as much for her country would be unable to be given the appropriate level of recognition. I don't know a lot about today's military, but I really hope no awards or honors have gender limitations or requirements.

Sexual Assault Awareness Week Events, I

So, this week on campus is Sexual Assault Awareness Week. The event is participated in by a variety of different organizations and offices and is composed of a variety of events both enjoyable and educational, informative and "just for fun."

The event I attended tonight was a double film screening of Svetlana's Journey and Cargo: Innocence Lost presented by two students from the Third World Feminisms class being taught by instructor Hilary Marcus. The event information also linked the wikisite the two have produced in the course of their classwork.

Svetlana's Journey is a film by director Michael Cory Davis about a Bulgarian girl forced into prostitution. The project was an attempt to depict the brutal reality of sex work with three main purposes (as espoused by the website): show that that the victims of forced prostitution are not to be blamed for their situation, change the minds of any girls who had considered sex work as a viable option and to demonstrate that Bulgarians care about the rights of women. I would have to say that while I thought the film was able to show how terrible life was for one girl and did depict her struggles graphically and realistically, I didn't think it did a terrific job of meeting some of its other stated goals. If I hadn't been watching the film in an academic environment, I am not sure I would have understood that this was specifically a Bulgarian film or had access to information about how and why these women end up in forced prostitution situations. Certainly the project at large does raise awareness for the issue and the website provides a link to Face to Face, a non-profit group actually working against child and forced prostitution in Bulgaria.

The other film being screened, Cargo: Innocence Lost, was also directed by Davis, but did a much better job to to paint the bigger picture of international sex trafficking and the United States role within the larger transnational industry. Cargo blends reenactments of various parts of the trafficking process with interviews with victims and others involved in the fight against against forced prostitution including police officers, social workers and people involved in attempting to persecute the traffickers. The film illuminated the trafficking process, explaining how and why women were able to be convinced to come to the U.S. in the first place and showing the process of how they are eventually, often violently, wrangled into prostitution. I definitely thought this was a much more informative and interesting film and really thought the screening would have gone better had Cargo been showed first. Still, though, it was a worthwhile event and I am looking forward to the rest of Sexual Assault Awareness Week.

Continuing to explore the potential of the Internet

So, I posted part of this as a comment a few days ago, but enough has developed with this situation recently that I wanted to put it on my main page:

Last night one of my good friends from high school contacted me to say that he found my weblog "inspiring." He and some of his friends who are at U Penn architecture school have thought about starting a weblog with a variety of information related to their field of study. It was cool to know that people are starting to use this sort of tool as an extension of their academic study.

I have recently started talking with a graduate student here who has some academic interest in the Internet who is also keeping a blog. Right now it's largely just random thoughts, but a lot of them are based with the work he is doing in anthropology.

I would love for this sort of use of the Internet to be a growing trend, but I know one important thing will be for there to be some sort of way to make sure that people can actually find these blogs when they're looking for things online. I really do think that these links need to be all collected together in one place. I know that my old study abroad program used to link all student blogs from the college's homepage. Maybe if universities provide students with the ability to link their work from the Arts & Sciences page or even a subdivision of it it would allow these things to be getting read by other people interested in the same field. That's an issue I'm still working on.

Something else, though, is that reading these other blogs has made me realize how my own writing can be a bit pretentious sometimes. A la the discussion that was taking place on Will's livejournal about how college kids can use crazy terminology that makes everyday problems into these academic concepts and arguments, I think it's really true that a lot of what is said is inaccessible to others. I want people to read this and get it...not feel like they've opened up a text book or something. I think that's going to be a continuing goal of mine: to ensure that what I am writing isn't a Judith Butler piece, but is instead something that could be read by a college freshman endeavoring to understand female sexuality for the first time.

two recent poems

These poems aren't super recent, but they do both mention some of the issues I've been thinking about with my independent study, though in a bit of an indirect way. I still wanted to link them here so that you could explore them at your leisure.

Train to Brugge


night driving


Also, I posted links today on Fork... for people to hopefully follow. I would love to get more regular traffic because that would encourage me to actually post every day instead of only once in a while. I also finally posted some information about my first sources although its way back in the archives at this point. I have a lot of other notes to transcribe from my notebook, but it's sort of a slow process since they're a bit scattered.

Internet as academic dialogue.

I have been engaged recently in a debate on one of my good friend's livejournals, Fork.... I have talked about it and linked it here before.

We've been talking about one of his posts that included his views on the relationship between his friends from his high school days with his college friends, especially when it concerned academic dialogues. One of the key examples was racism.

I sent him an e-mail of a post I had written that I couldn't publish because it was too many characters and started a correspondence with him. It felt good to be talking to other people in my community about real issues we both care about. Even more than that, I felt like the forum of a blog or livejournal does provide a class-like atmosphere. The moderator is the owner of the blog; they teach us something, even if only how to start thinking about the issue.

I have considered most of the people whose livejournals I read religiously (Fork..., pragueislife, XCKD, subtled) to be my teachers. I have learned about male sexuality, poetry, gay life, teaching English overseas, physics math and humor all in the same package and the military, but not just from anyone--from my friends.

I love that this is a community I am participating in more actively. I think it is one of the most important learning and educational tools we have ever created. Now, with a stable cable or phone connection, the world is at one's fingertips even with very few other resources available. Bloggers have been looked at as maybe an unnecessary trend, but maybe that's because we're reading the wrong types of blogs. I think if there were a site to connect all of these really important conversations together in a moderated way that it would be really incredible. A way to provide a space for certain topics of common interest. Maybe this is one of the things that could eventually develop into an opportunity. I already know girlfriends that I would hire to help with the operation and people I would ask to contribute.

I realize that I have so much information right now on my hands with regards to my independent study and I have been having all of these very tangible conversations about my subject matter but I sometimes forget I might not have actually published a post on these things. I need to find the right balance between these non-visible experiences and ones that result in academic dialogue.

words for women writers part one.

Don't tell long stories that don't change subject or have a greater meaning.

They're never as interesting to everyone else as they may or not may be to you.

I know that probably sounds pretentious, and that's not my purpose, but it's not fair to you for you to go on in life not knowing that. It's one of those things that your friends will never tell you because they love you, but it is not one of your more redeeming qualities.

I wouldn't call it child pornography...

One of my most meaningful continuous dialogues about literary expression of sexuality, kids and all things worthwhile continued tonight and culminated in this post, a poem, on that individual's livejournal. Just thought I'd share since one of the discussed topics was the question of the nymphet (think Lolita) and the difference between kidding and not and the fine line of appropriateness.

This was a topic that had been breeched earlier in the day at dinner when a few girlfriends and I were talking about what it means to take naked pictures of your own children and how careful you have to be about it because of the media's obsession with child pornography. My one friend, who works as the assistant director of an art gallery and is quite aesthetically savvy, mentioned a woman, Sally Mann, whose photographs bring the aforementioned fine line of appropriateness into question. It should be noted that the pictures she takes of naked children are all her own, but her exhibit (later turned into a book) stirred up controversy. She also has a book called At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women which is a series of pictures of girls on the verge of womanhood. I am excited to look over this book which we do have at Swem and to respond to the way that these pictures portray these girls. Another interesting thing to note about Sally is that she is from Lexington, Virginia so I feel like she's of particular interest to those of us here in the state. And a personal "cool fact" is that she attended Friend's World College, now Global College, the program through which I did my semester abroad.

Also, I came across this news story this evening and thought it was worth linking.

Children's Literature

One of the things that I have realized is important over the last few months while I've been reading and thinking about the childhood development of girls is that there is a definite need to provide our female children with empowering and worthwhile literature that teaches them to believe in their own power and abilities as women rather than simply casting them as the "damsel in distress." While I was visiting with the Shakespeare & Company Bookshop writing group in Paris, France over Christmas break one of the other writers suggested to me to pick up a book his sister had written because it was a collection of stories from around the world that featured strong female heroines. I don't have the title with me right now, but as soon as I get into that section of my notes, I will make sure to post it. I have been looking to find it at the library or somewhere else accessible and hopefully will read it soon. Tonight while I was visiting with a friend I came across a book she had titled Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas by Sara Lorimer. I was really moved to read through it because it struck me as the perfect book for young women. It is about pirates-- a group of exceeding interest to and often of great reverence for young kids, who we generally only have male examples of. To introduce to young girls the female version of these off-color heroes is to entitle them to believe that they are capable of kicking ass, taking names, and being in charge. I will look over it and get back to you.

STI rate in teens

So, when people ask me why I focus on the body and sexuality within women's studies I consistently say that it is because I think we are approaching a crisis within the realm of women's bodies because of some mixed messages about weight and sexual activity. An article on BBC today confirmed some of my fears. A study conducted by the CDC showed that one in four girls aged 14 to 19 tests positive for a sexually transmitted infection and that the percentage is even greater for black teens. My fear is that if something doesn't change these numbers will continue to increase.

We live in a society in which sex is permissible for young people outside of wedlock and quite obviously many of these teens are choosing to engage in sex, but they are also obviously not being informed of how to take care of their bodies. I know that I personally went through a sexual education course that was based on the abstinence-only model and I know a good number of my friends had similar experiences.

I was even recently talking to one of my close friends and she said that since sex was something that "just wasn't talked about" in her home and because she always felt guilty and uncomfortable about sex, she has a fair amount of unprotected sex. She said that having a condom and using it made it more real and made her feel more like she was deciding consciously to have sex instead of just letting it happen without protection.

My question is "what do we do about it?" In my mind a lot of these problems could be solved by frank, honest, open, thorough discussions about sex and sexuality with young people in an attempt to help them through the challenging and frustrating process of figuring out their own bodies and how they work, but I'm pretty sure that at least some places in our country are too conservative for that type of sex education.

One of the things, though, is that if children don't receive thoughtful information about sex from reliable resources like teachers, parents, and counselors, they're going to learn about sex from pornography, television and peers instead. Some conservatives think that if we don't teach our kids about sex we are protecting them, but instead we're just leaving them to misinformation from these other sources.

Many teenaged boys begin masturbating to pornographic movies and magazines which they can download off of the Internet or get from friends and older brothers. For anyone who has ever watched a pornographic video or looked into an issue of Playboy or Hustler I am sure you must agree that this is a pretty poor source for boys to be learning about the complexity of sexuality, particularly female sexuality. Porn is even more easily accessible now with the Internet. For instance, youporn.com, an explicit version of youTube, provides hours of free videos and all a person has to do is click a button claiming to be 18. I know that I personally would never want my sons, if I ever had any, to learn about sex from a resource that promotes the message that it is okay to objectify women in the bedroom. Even if you do have a good content filter in place on your computer, you can't stop your young kids from getting messages about sex. Commercials these days treat sex almost like a joke. Men slathered in Axe have women licking them and crawling all over them. A couple dressed in costumes (one as milk) goes to the doctor to ensure that they don't have to worry about lactose intolerance as a barrier to sexual intercourse. It's a commercial (if I remember correctly) for some sort of food product, but it uses this idea of sex to sell itself. And certainly we all remember our first sex talk with our friends. We were all completely wrong in most of the things we thought about sex and our bodies, but we didn't have that many resources. Point being, kids are going to learn about sex whether adults want them to or not and I sincerely think a lot of good could come out of this sex education being purposeful, thorough, and sensitive to many of the issues that are specific to teenagers.

There is a need for a change. The statistic tell us that. 1 in 4 girls 14-19 have a sexually transmitted infection. 1 in 4 college women have survived a rape or attempted rape. Something is wrong when this many women, 25% in each case, are falling victim to our imbalanced system of addressing sex and sexuality. Maybe a massive, universal change is not something that will be possible any time soon, but we can individually make a difference. I am planning on being open and frank with my children about sex and their bodies and would encourage all parents to do so. Make sure your kids are learning the real facts about sex from a source they trust instead of from porn or television. And if you don't feel comfortable talking to your kids about sex seek out other resources that can. I know that I personally would be more than happy to serve as a sex educator and I'm sure there are other people out there who would be more than happy to do the same: guidance counselors, sex educators, national touring groups like 1 in 4, etc. I also know there are great books that address issues of sex like the one I read when I was younger, All About Sex and Growing Up.

I personally think it's great that we have a sexually liberated system in a lot of ways, but I think we need to be making sure that our kids are better prepared to live and function within that system. Even something as small as providing your son or daughter with condoms, instructing them on how to use them and why they are important and offering to help your son or daughter seek out counseling or STI testing if these become issues can make a big difference. I just know I don't want the number of women who are being negatively affected by their sexualities to continue increasing.

Anatomy of Hell

I sat down to write the review for this movie and it felt strangely familiar to me and then I remembered why I never posted on it. I had written the entire review but my internet was out so blogger didn't save it and then my computer died and the post didn't get saved. I was totally bummed and gave up for a while, hence why I'm a little backlogged with movie reviews. Well, here it goes and hopefully I'll get quite a few done this time before I get fed up with the Internet.

It took getting a lot of distance between me and the film before I could actually produce this review. The French film by director Catherine Breillat was disturbing in a most real and visceral way and my first few days after having watched it I couldn't get it off of my mind. It purposefully reaches into the not-so-innocent pasts we all had and attempts to show the ways in which they have affected our sexual developments. It is literally written, at times, with menstrual blood with its provoking dialogue about the sexual relationship between a man and woman. It also really raises questions about the politics of looking and the fine boundary between looking and touching. My one complaint was that the film, while doing a great job about turning this woman's consumptive sexual and emotional crisis into a discussion of the psychological reasons for her sexual fears and compulsions, it completely simplified homosexuality into a condition of being repulsed by women. Obviously, it's far more than that and many men just prefer men and don't have a particular dislike of women. In all, though, this film prompted me to really do a long of soul searching about my own sexuality and relationship to my childhood so I would have to say that it is definitely worth watching.

You can see edited versions of this post on imdb, Netflix, and Amazon.

Back from Break

So, I am back from spring break now, and did a good bit of reading and thinking over the course of the week but was away from the Internet. One of the things I have been having a hard time with is posting regularly and in a timely manner. With weblogs, one of the important things is to post when things are happening, not weeks and weeks later, but I sometimes feel like I need a bit longer to really let my thoughts stew before I'm prepared to post about them. Basically, this is why I never ended up posting about the Sex Workers Art Show and I Love Female Orgasm, both really important, relevant things going on on campus that I had a lot to say about. I realized in retrospect that it wasn't necessarily as important for me to say everything exactly right as it was just to say something and get it out there while people were still thinking and talking about the event, so in light of this and in light of my recent return to campus, I am going to make an effort to post at least three times a week for the rest of the semester. I have a couple of drafted posts that will hopefully go up soon, but in addition to these, I'm going to try to have intermittent posts that summarize everything that I've been doing by way of my project.

This past week I led a service trip of a small group of W&M students and most of the reading material I took with me involved my independent study. Because of that, I ended up getting a chance to discuss a lot of the things I've been reading about and thinking about which was really wonderful for me. I've realized that I do actually have a lot to teach people when it comes to women's bodies and sexuality, especially since these are really sensitive topics and I am really comfortable discussing them, so hopefully I'll be able to continue formulating a conversation from my studies long after I'm done with the official independent study part of things. I know I'm already planning to maintain this weblog through my graduate work.

I've been watching at least two films every week on the broad theme of women's sexuality and bodies, and I have a lot of these I haven't written on yet and I've also been reading some poetry and a few books on the topic, so look for responses to these soon. Also, I would really like for my webpage to show up in searches, but I don't really even know how to go about getting it to show up on search engines, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!