Bribing the Kiddies

I was walking through the store today, and since it's so close to Christmas, I noticed a lot of, "Be good or you'll be on Santa's naughty list." Even when it's not Christmas, I notice a lot of parents bribing their children these days. It's not just men or just women, but a pretty equal mix. Quite honestly, I think if it works go for it, but there must be some line that good parenting can't cross.

As younger women, I suppose we don't have to worry about this too much, but babysitters, cousins, and aunts use the technique too. When do you think bribing kids to be good becomes a problem?

Chivalry v. Sexism

I remember one class that we had earlier in the semester, where we discussed chivalry and if we considered it sexist or not. I was really surprised by how many girls thought it was because it allowed the man to feel like he had to take care of the woman.

I still can't agree with it, and it's actually been bothering me because my boy friend is one of those plain chivalrous guys. He walks on the outside of the sidewalk, opens all the doors, and so on. But at the same time I don't think he's belittling me by doing so. It's nice to have mutual respect for people and to do nice things for one another. I'm not trying to make this sound like a rant, I really am still just plain, old confused about the other side of the argument.

Any extra thoughts?

Women in ROTC

I used to be a cadet in AFROTC (that's the Air Force branch) over at ND. I had a blast in it, and I was sad to go, even though it wasn't for me, but there were some things now that I look back on the experience that should have been changed for women cadets. While there was never any blatant sexism in the wing, I remember a few aspects of the program that were definitely male-oriented. Such as the mandatory amounts of push-ups or even the uniform we had to wear. Our short-sleeve blues outfit was uncomfortable and not designed for a woman's body.

I was just wondering if any of you girls had ever been involved in a club or organization that had small aspects that would seem completely find from the outside until you experienced them yourselves, and if so, what were they? I think we still have a love way to go until we are a completely equal society, and it's often these little changes that make a huge difference.

Senior Comp Results.

I thought I would share my comp results data with everyone... Again, my hypothesis was that religiosity would increase benevolent sexism (women on a pedastool) and that Catholics would have higher benevolent sexism than non-Catholics. The charts show that religiosity does effect benevolent sexist views, but that Catholics actually have lower attitudes of benevolent sexism! I think my results may be a bit skewed however because my population was heavily Catholic and I did not have an even distribution of participants.

Class Petition!

Katie and I have created the petition for the WOST requirement course online! Please click the link and sign it!!!

According to its mission statement, Saint Mary’s mission is to educate women through a “broad-based course of study” that encourages “depth and breadth of knowledge, competence in quantitative skills and modern languages, the ability to think clearly about complex problems, and the capacity to communicate with precision and style”. It also states that our college is committed to forming a “liberally educated woman” who is prepared“for roles of leadership and action”.

In the spirit of our college’s mission, the intent of a liberal arts education, and the importance of feminism in our culture, we, the undersigned Saint Mary's College students and faculty members are requesting that Introduction to Women’s Studies, or at least a WOST program course, be made a part of Saint Mary’s College’s core curriculum. Philosophy, religious studies, art, math and other graduation requirements of a liberal arts education create a well-rounded scholar. 

We believe that at a women’s college, the core curriculum should create a well-rounded woman scholar. Introduction to Women’s Studies, and the WOST program courses give young women – a demographic shown to disdain feminism today – a fresh perspective on how their gender has influenced their lives and choices. They are empowering courses with unique material that may not be encountered in other core requirements. 

Our mission states that, “Saint Mary’s pays particular attention to the rights and responsibilities of women in the worlds of work, church, community, and family”. We believe Introduction to Women’s Studies best exemplifies this focus, and is a necessary piece to the liberal education of women at Saint Mary’s College.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SMCWOST/

I am also going to send my letter separately. I would encourage everyone to do the same if you have time - the more letters and signatures the more seriously they will take us!

Good luck with finals!

Twilight

So we have talked about Twilight a little in class. What we didn't talk about is the director Catherine Hardwicke. The opening of Twilight, which was around 70 million dollars, is the biggest opening for a film directed by a woman ever. Now, you can argue that Twilight has a built in audience that would have gone to see this movie regardless of the director, but I think it is still really cool. However, Hardwicke has been dropped from the sequel and was replaced by a guy. She was dropped because she refused to have the next movie shot immediately, so it could be released by next fall, a ridiculously short time period. OK, I get that the producers want the movie out soon, but why couldn't they get another female director?

Jobs

Lat week in the NYTimes there was an interesting op-ed piece about Obama's plans to create new jobs. The author talked about how the bulk of his plan will create jobs for men because the plan is to work on road and bridges. This work obviously creates jobs in construction, a field that is only 9% female. However, Obama also plans to work on repairing our schools. He really wants to improve early childhood education, a female dominated field (98% percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women). I like that even if this is done unintentionally, these two plans will create jobs for both men and women.