The Angels

On March 7, Guatemalan women living in a shelter called ‘Safe Home’ came out against their government (that ran their shelter) that the women living there were being mistreated, abused, raped, and starved. In addition to these already horrible conditions, there were 750 women living in a building that is only suitable for 500 people. After speaking out, the women ran away from the ‘safe home’ but were soon captured and brought back by their government.

The next day, 39 Guatemalan women were burned to death. The government claimed that the women were protesting because they did not want to return and as a result the women set the mattresses on fire and refused to leave the building, killing themselves. However, there is also much speculation that the setting of the mattresses on fire and locking the women in the building was a form of punishment from the Guatemalan government to punish the girls for speaking out and running away.
A few days after these events, my LOVE group and I were walking through Guatemala City where we approached a protest. This protest was outside where the leader of Guatemala lives and there was a huge mass of people. Although everything was in Spanish and I do not understand Spanish, there was so many nonverbal events taking place where I could feel the intensity of the protest. There were drums pounding and vibrating in your chest. There were women dressed as Lady Liberty with a blindfold to show that justice is blind. There was an angel to symbolize the 39 women that were killed that are now referred to as ’The Angels’. And both of these were looking down onto a girl sleeping peacefully on a mattress. At this moment, I truly realized the impact these events with the 39 women had on a country of people. All flags were half-mast to mourn the souls of the lives that were lost. The only flag that was not half-mast was the flag on top of the building in which their leader lives - another way showing that the government does not have much sympathy for the events taking place.

One moment of this protest that truly stuck out to me was when a mother of one of the women that was killed was on a podium talking about how the government is responsible for these 39 deaths. She even stated that there was gasoline poured by the government that initially started the fire and then locked the girls in from the outside. Although this was all translated to me, I could still hear the hurt and unbearable emotions in the mother’s voice as she stood in front of a crowd and talked about her daughter’s untimely death.

This protest opened by eyes to many issues that women face in other countries. When I first started taking Psychology of Women, I was mainly thinking of issues of abortion, cat calling, rape, unequal pay, and gender stereotypes. However, by sitting in this protest, I realized that women in other countries, particularly developing countries, face a whole other level of inequality. Particularly in Guatemala, women do no have rights in any way. Seeing this social injustice towards women in another country made me realize that women have more to fight for than I had originally noticed. No one deserves to be mistreated by their own government that is supposed to be helping and caring for them. No women should ever be used for the sexual pleasure of another individual. No women should ever be mistreated, starved, raped, beaten, etc. Standing with the Guatemalan people in this protest really touched my heart and made my passion for women’s equality all around the world much, much stronger.

I believe it is easy to overlook the issues another country faces while our own country has so many issues of their own, however, this experience has made me realize, as horrible as it sounds, that I would much rather live in New York and get cat called (as I have many times before) than live somewhere else and live in a constant state of fear because God made me a female (and God doesn’t make mistakes or create individuals unequal).

Period Projects

Women’s periods have been something society has kept so secret for so long. In the late 1800s it was seen as a medical condition that needed to be fixed and ever since that time men been trying to control women's bodies ever since. Periods were meant to be seen as a disease as if it was something wrong with the woman. Kotex has decided to start the Period Projects, which is their way to destigmatize woman's menstruation and end the stigma that a woman's menstrual cycle is something that needs to be silenced and never discussed. This project is led by women who share a passion and do not want a woman's menstrual cycle to stop her from living her life. This site by Kotex has videos of women speaking about the stigma around the menstrual cycle, and Instagram of uplifting pictures and messages for women to show them that their menstrual cycle is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be silenced it out. One of the photos on the main website says "It's not my PMS, you're just annoying”. Personally, I love the saying, men use this saying ‘oh do you have your period?’ all the time to get women to feel bad about the hormonal changes and being very agitated. However, a lot of men use it as a joke whenever a woman gets mad at them and try to play the victim and make a woman feel like her feelings are not valid because he's just pushing it off to being her PMS when, in reality, he may just be annoying. 

I believe that the menstrual cycle needs to be destigmatized. I believe that something that women needs in order to be able to conceive a child one day should never be silenced. Women did not choose this to happen to them and this is something that God made women get starting at around 10 to 12 years old and it's something that women have for the majority of their life. It's nothing to be ashamed of because it's normal to get and I believe that men need to stop thinking of a woman's menstrual cycle as something disgusting and gross that they don't want to talk about because it is necessary for a woman to get this in her lifetime.

As we read in class, if men were to get their period, we would not have any of these problems. Sanitary products would most likely be federally funded and free, first getting your menstrual cycle will be a celebration and there would not be this fear of germs and unsanitary this about a menstrual cycle.

I believe Kotex is doing a great thing to end the stigma around the menstrual cycle. It needs to become a norm about society people need to be able to talk about the menstrual cycle openly. Young girls need to know what their period is and they should not have to be silenced. Young girls need to be taught about sex and their cycle and how it works and why they're getting this, they can't just be blind to the reality for the entirety of their young teenage years. 

Link to Kotex's Period Project:

https://www.ubykotex.com/en-us/period-projects

"A Woman's Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?"

When I was a freshman in college, my writing teacher required each student to pick a topic that they wanted to present about and to find an essay that related. I chose the different beauty standards between women and men. There are two components of my presentation that I will post about. The first is the essay I chose was by Susan Sontag entitled “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?”, (The second is a video which will be a separate post). This essay is a very powerful work and Sontag touches on many major points of the differences of beauty standards throughout her work.

Many of Sontag’s points revolve around the notion that beauty has become a top priority to women, their character, and their concerns while men are preoccupied with being strong, effective, or competent. Society has set forth these standards that women must always be more interested in how they look rather than anything else. Sontag talk about women who have reached high levels in their careers such as: doctors, lawyers, and business women, and many of them confessed that they still worry and focus much on their physical appearance regardless of their amazing accomplishments. On the other hand, society also set the standards that men are more focused on what a man does or is and maybe his looks.

My favorite part of Sontag’s essay is when she explains that women are taught to see their body in parts. In society and the media today, bigger lips, bigger breasts, smaller waist, bigger eyes, thin, slender nose and many more features are glorified for women. From personal experience, I have been compared to these standards from society many times. There is nothing more devaluing than being told you do not fit the mold you are “supposed to” regardless of your acceptance of your own self. On the other hand, men are never told to dissect their body and to be certain measurements for acceptance, beauty, attractiveness, or worth. In fact, Sontag makes the argument that small imperfections on a man can make him appear more attractive. A small imperfection on a woman would never get a positive response in the same way. Sontag attributes this to a massive devaluation of women and I could not agree more.

Beauty is power. What is unfair and unacceptable is that this is the only power that women are encouraged to seek. Women are also expected to solely be beautiful objects that are good for nothing more than getting married and having and raising children. Many people find it outrageous and unbelievable when they meet a woman who is beautiful but also intelligent.

Many people believe that a successful woman is only successful because of her beauty. No one ever sees a successful woman as a hard-working, motivated, talented, ambitious woman. On the other hand, a man who is successful is always seen as respectable and inspiring. Nobody expects a man to use his physical appearance to upgrade in either society or the workforce, however, it is almost an immediate reaction for people to believe that a woman uses her beauty to her advantage, to manipulate people with her beauty, and to use that beauty to seek further power. 

Women are constantly being put up against other women. Women are taught to bring other women down to rise themselves up. Additionally, Adiche says that women are taught to see other women as competitors but only for the attention of men. Women are not taught to be competitive with other women for jobs or accomplishments (We Should All Be Feminists). On the other hand, men are not raised to be competitive with other men. This creates an unequal standard for women. Women should be empowering each other, lifting each other up, and on the side of their fellow women, not going against them to get short lived physical attention from a man. 

Society has caused women's beauty to be used in a malicious way. Women are expected to have their beauty at the fore front of their life and actions rather than being used in addition to the beauty of character and the nice, accepting, intelligent, giving, and thoughtful person that a woman should be. 

Link to PDF of Susan Sontag’s Essay, “Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?”:

https://mrglennjchs.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sontag-and-stanton.pdf

2 Dope Queens

Today, I listened to a podcast by “2 Dope Queens” entitled “Dude for a Day”. I found this podcast very funny and I believe that Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson try to appeal their audience on common issues in a very comical way.

While they were talking about Tinder, I thought it was relatable for a lot of people. A lot of people have tried Tinder and a lot of people have tried to see what the hype is about. I believed the story that was being told was very funny and I believe it appeals to young audiences. One point she brought up is that a lot of people ask about race. She was clearly upset that a man asked her if she was Caribbean or American black. I felt bad for her that she immediately had to be labeled and put into a category for her race. I was surprised that this situation kept occurring in her experience with Tinder. Unfortunately, I have seen this a lot in my own life as many people think I am Hispanic, however, I am not. People like to know people’s race or nationality before they know them. It seems to me that people are uncomfortable when they cannot put someone into a category. We talked about this in class recently and we talked about people needing to categorize someone as either: a man or a woman. If they are unable to do that, they believe that something is wrong with you since there is no clear difference.

Their first guest appealed a lot to the audience. She tells a story about her boyfriend wanting her to wear ‘traditionally sexy female clothing and stilettos’. I think there is a lot of issues with a man trying to control what women wear so that they can get pleased from their ‘sexy clothing’. I believe that a woman should be able to decide what she wants to wear and should not need to wear sexy clothing to be loved by her man. What was even more horrible about the story is that the boyfriend found someone else who would wear what he wanted and cheated on her throughout the whole relationship. Although she laughed about it and was talking about her situation in a comedic way, I still believe that situations like this are unfortunate and unnecessary as it is ultimately her decision what she wears.

One thing that Ashley mentioned is that a man told her that ‘if she did not smoke she would be prettier’. I believe that people are free to make their own decisions and that they should not have to follow other people’s ‘rules’ to be attractive. A lot of women believe that their physical appearance is not enough and to be told that something that they are doing is making them less attractive is not fair to them. I believe that if a man was smoking a woman would not say that ‘a man would be more attractive if he did not smoke.’ In my opinion, if a woman were to say that she would be put down for that due to the fact that they are ‘tearing down’ a man and his appearance.

Overall, I truly enjoyed listening to this podcast from 2 Dope Queens. I love that these two women were able to empower and lift people by using relatable life situations and making a comedy about it.

Women’s fight for equality is long from over and, in many ways, has taken another step in the right direction after the success of the Women’s March a couple weeks ago. The need for feminism has greatly increased as the rights of women have continued to be lower than the rights of men.

Women are constantly facing sexism and disrespect on a regular basis. Women are still cat-called on the streets and are expected to reach one particular type of beauty standard in order to obtain society's view of 'beautiful'. Women who do not reach this ideal body type are often judged, shamed and are conditioned to believe that something is wrong with them. In addition, women are often ridiculed and even denied the rights to make decisions for their own body and have many politicians, such as President Donald Trump, who believe that women do not have the right to make the decision to have an abortion by themselves and that the government must make the decision for them.

A feminist is "a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes", said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - a world famous Nigerian-feminist writer. Adichie states that women in Nigeria need the assistance of a man to do many simple things. For example, she states that women need the help of a man to enter a hotel because if they are alone they are automatically labeled a sex worker and denied access. Although I do not know much about Nigeria in general, I do not understand why someone would think that a woman would never be getting a hotel room by herself and why she is automatically labeled in such a negative way as a sex worker. This story by Adichie came as a great shock to me and although women in America do not face a problem as severe as this, we still face many challenges of our own. We live in a world where rape is still seen as the victim's fault rather than the fault of a man that forces a woman into doing a sexual activity she does not want to do. A woman does not deserve to have her body violated so that someone else can feel pleasure. No woman is simply an object. On top of that, women are often degraded while being slut shamed or cat-called. A couple weeks ago, while walking to my internship in New York City, a car pulled up next to me with three men yelling inappropriate sexual remarks. My first reaction was freight and decided to ignore them and keep walking. After I paid no mind to their outrageous comments, their sexual comments and verbally stating their desires of me turned into unpleasant and critical comments because I was not reacting the way they had hoped. After this unfortunate situation, I began to think of the mindset that someone must have to verbally harass someone innocently walking on the street. I have heard in the past that men only cat-call women in revealing clothing, however, I have seen this to be untrue as I was wearing dress pants, ballet flats, and a long pea coat; I have come to the conclusion that some men who cat-call do not see my value as a person and are just not thinking. In the end, I believe it is common occurrences such as this that increases the need for feminism and the continuation of the fight for women’s rights.

In fact, Kristen Anderson wrote in Modern Misogyny that the benefits revolving around considering one’s self a feminist are immense. Although often getting a bad reputation, feminists often have much better psychological health than women who hold more traditional values. Additionally, feminist women are less preoccupied with thinness of their body, are less likely to suffer from eating disorders, and experience better sexual intercourse. Moreover, they reject mass media’s idea of praising a thin, “perfect” body type.

Reasons like this are just a few motives for why I promote feminism. I believe feminist women are the women that will make a difference in the world and fight for what all women deserve including equal pay, more women CEOs, more representation in government, rights to their own body, less sexism, less emphasis on gender roles, and no more unnecessary degrading of women everywhere.