In her article, Frye makes a distinction between oppression and feelings of misery. Oppression differs from misery because it is a set of barriers or obstacles that are systematically related to each other without a positive outcome. Misery, on the other hand, is only temporary and offers a positive outcome in the end. For instance, if a wealthy person is injured in a skiing accident, they will experience temporary misery due to the pain of the broken limbs. Yet, they will end up in a superb hospital with excellent care and in a few weeks, they will no longer suffer. Frye relates temporary misery to a bird cage with a single bar. If the bird wants to escape, it may be inconvenienced to fly around that bar, but it can still get out. Oppression, on the other hand, is a bird cage with a continuous series of bars, systematically placed to prevent the bird from escaping. No matter how hard the bird tries, it cannot escape.
In class, we used the example of wearing glasses to demonstrate the difference between oppression and temporary inconvenience. If Celia decided that she were only going to give As to the people in the class with glasses, there would be ways around that oppression. You could talk to the dean, drop the class, transfer to another college, etc. However, if the fact that only people with glasses got As was a universal standard, there would be no way for those without glasses to do well in college. This situation has no positive outcome for non-glasses wearers, because they cannot escape the cycle.
I really enjoyed this article by Frye, because I thought she did a really job of pin-pointing what constitutes oppression.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Cudd
Cudd presents an article on how oppression against women manifests itself in society. Cudd argues that the oppression of women stems from the institution itself, and that rational decisions do not change the fact that a woman is being oppressed. If a woman decides to stay at home instead of her husband because he earns more money than she does, this choice both rational and oppressive. Due to the institution and unequal salaries, the man automatically earns more, giving the woman no other choice than to remain in the household. By remaining in the household, the woman is choosing to continue the cycle of oppression against women. The same is true for prostitution. If a woman chooses to be a prostitute because she has no other way of earning money, she is oppressing herself by continuing the cycle of prostitution. Cudd discusses the irony in society, because oppressed people often play a key role in continuing their oppression. In class, we mentioned the idea of marriage. While the woman have the freedom to say "yes or no" to a proposal, they lack the liberty that men have to decide who they want to ask to marry them and when they want to get married. Yet the majority of women, myself included, want to be proposed to. The idea of a proposal is a romantic ideal that women would have to forgo if they were to pop the question.
There are 4 criteria that Cudd considers essential to identifying oppression. 1) physical/psychological harm is apparent 2) groups are identifiable independent of oppressed status 3) someone benefits from the oppression 4) the oppression involves coercion or force. If we apply the example of prostitution, it is evident that, regardless of rational decision, prostitution is a form of oppression. It causes physical or psychological harm to the woman, because she partakes in sexual activity against her desires. The prostitutes are identifiable from other people, because they sell their bodies. The men who hire the prostitutes benefit from the oppression of these women. Prostitutes are often forced into work, because they feel there is no other method of earning an income. Therefore, while some women choose to be prostitutes, they are oppressed and ironically contribute to their own oppression.
There are 4 criteria that Cudd considers essential to identifying oppression. 1) physical/psychological harm is apparent 2) groups are identifiable independent of oppressed status 3) someone benefits from the oppression 4) the oppression involves coercion or force. If we apply the example of prostitution, it is evident that, regardless of rational decision, prostitution is a form of oppression. It causes physical or psychological harm to the woman, because she partakes in sexual activity against her desires. The prostitutes are identifiable from other people, because they sell their bodies. The men who hire the prostitutes benefit from the oppression of these women. Prostitutes are often forced into work, because they feel there is no other method of earning an income. Therefore, while some women choose to be prostitutes, they are oppressed and ironically contribute to their own oppression.
Microfinancing
The microfinancing lecture was very interesting. I have always seen microfinancing as a very helpful way of helping people get out of poverty. I now realize that it can often have quite the opposite effect. People can try to use the money productively, but buying a cow is not going to do much for their financial status. The milk productivity cycle of the cow as well as the costs of feeding the cow will most likely leave the family in the same position in which they started. Loans do not usually result in increased women's rights, as the inability to pay back a loan can sometimes result in women being forced into sexual favors to receive more time to pay back the loan.
Dr. Pelkey does some microfinancing in India, but he works more to teach women various trades. Once a woman learns a trade, she has a valuable skill that can bring her money for the rest of her life. This further promotes women's rights, because the woman gains financial independence from her husband. Statistically, women are more likely to spend money on education and health care than men are, so having financially independent women will benefit society as a whole.
It was really neat to hear Dr. Pelkey talk about microfinancing, because he has hands on experience in the field. I would love to go on the summer India trip to further understand the process Dr. Pelkey uses to help the local woman. The whole issue really fascinates me.
Dr. Pelkey does some microfinancing in India, but he works more to teach women various trades. Once a woman learns a trade, she has a valuable skill that can bring her money for the rest of her life. This further promotes women's rights, because the woman gains financial independence from her husband. Statistically, women are more likely to spend money on education and health care than men are, so having financially independent women will benefit society as a whole.
It was really neat to hear Dr. Pelkey talk about microfinancing, because he has hands on experience in the field. I would love to go on the summer India trip to further understand the process Dr. Pelkey uses to help the local woman. The whole issue really fascinates me.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Gender and Musical Instruments
As a saxophone player, I have often been prompted to consider the gender of instruments. When looking at a concert band, there are definitely some instruments that are considered more traditionally masculine than others.
Percussion, for instance, usually has a very masculine image. It is a field dominated by men. The strict rhythms have little melody (unless accompanied by bells). Percussion is essential in keeping the beat and holding the band together, especially in a marching band situation. The Penn State Blue Band percussion section demonstrates their masculinity by throwing down their cymbals and engaging in a series of rhythmic push ups.
Low brass (tubas and trombones) are the lowest wind section in the band. These sections, like percussion are heavily dominated by men. Low brass is important because the low tambors drive the crescendos and dynamics of the wind instruments.
Flute, on the other hand, is primarily dominated by women. The higher notes tend to float above the other instruments. It is a quiet instrument, and does not have nearly the amount of influence that percussion has in holding the band together or that low brass has in driving crescendos.
I would consider saxophone to fall very close to the middle with its gender ratio. The saxophone is a middle-ranged instrument; playing equal amounts of higher and lower music. Its influence on the beat of the band is not as great as percussion or brass, but greater than flute, because it is a lower instrument.
The point of this blog is that I find it interesting that the "less powerful" instruments are dominated by women whereas the "more powerful" instruments are dominated by men. Within my high school marching band, there was always a huge push for drum corps. from many of the guys. Drum corps. are marching bands that use only percussion and brass instruments (tubas, trombones, melaphones, and trumpets); i.e. the majority of the male-dominated instruments. The flute and clarinet players used to get angry with the pro-drum corps. guys, because such a band would mean that their participation was not needed. I realize now that this idea could have been an unconscious (or conscious) form of sexism.
Ending the gendered instrument stereotypes in the music field could be a very difficult process. It would mean that elementary music teachers would have to encourage guys to play flute just as much (or more) than girls to help them overcome the "flute is for girls stereotype" and to allow them to feel comfortable with their instrumental choice.
Percussion, for instance, usually has a very masculine image. It is a field dominated by men. The strict rhythms have little melody (unless accompanied by bells). Percussion is essential in keeping the beat and holding the band together, especially in a marching band situation. The Penn State Blue Band percussion section demonstrates their masculinity by throwing down their cymbals and engaging in a series of rhythmic push ups.
Low brass (tubas and trombones) are the lowest wind section in the band. These sections, like percussion are heavily dominated by men. Low brass is important because the low tambors drive the crescendos and dynamics of the wind instruments.
Flute, on the other hand, is primarily dominated by women. The higher notes tend to float above the other instruments. It is a quiet instrument, and does not have nearly the amount of influence that percussion has in holding the band together or that low brass has in driving crescendos.
I would consider saxophone to fall very close to the middle with its gender ratio. The saxophone is a middle-ranged instrument; playing equal amounts of higher and lower music. Its influence on the beat of the band is not as great as percussion or brass, but greater than flute, because it is a lower instrument.
The point of this blog is that I find it interesting that the "less powerful" instruments are dominated by women whereas the "more powerful" instruments are dominated by men. Within my high school marching band, there was always a huge push for drum corps. from many of the guys. Drum corps. are marching bands that use only percussion and brass instruments (tubas, trombones, melaphones, and trumpets); i.e. the majority of the male-dominated instruments. The flute and clarinet players used to get angry with the pro-drum corps. guys, because such a band would mean that their participation was not needed. I realize now that this idea could have been an unconscious (or conscious) form of sexism.
Ending the gendered instrument stereotypes in the music field could be a very difficult process. It would mean that elementary music teachers would have to encourage guys to play flute just as much (or more) than girls to help them overcome the "flute is for girls stereotype" and to allow them to feel comfortable with their instrumental choice.
Gender and Education
The presentation on Gender and Education was very interesting. Below I am going to discuss some of the new ideas I learned.
1) I found the video of the parents playing with the kids to be very fascinating. When the mother and father both played with their son, the father tended to engage in more direct physical interaction with the boy, while the mother encouraged the boy to be physical with himself, but not towards her. The mother tried to play with the tea sets and other toys that were more gender neutral and that facilitated non-physical play.
2) Right from the time babies are born, they are treated differently. Boys are bounced around and held away from the body, while girls are always held close to the body and are stroked. The ironic thing with this is that girls are biologically stronger immediately after birth than boys.
3) My favorite case focused on the boy who told a story in which one character died. When the girls heard this story, they were angry, because they did not think that death was an appropriate ending to the story. They thought the character should have fainted. After a long discussion, the class concluded that stories could only contain death if a bad guy died. The incident with the story shows that girls are less likely to fantasize about violence or to be accepting of violence than boys. Even though many boys fantasize about violence, they usually do not have a true concept of death. In play, death only lasts a few seconds and they get upset if it lasts longer.
I really enjoyed this presentation, because gender and learning was not something I had thought about a lot in the past.
1) I found the video of the parents playing with the kids to be very fascinating. When the mother and father both played with their son, the father tended to engage in more direct physical interaction with the boy, while the mother encouraged the boy to be physical with himself, but not towards her. The mother tried to play with the tea sets and other toys that were more gender neutral and that facilitated non-physical play.
2) Right from the time babies are born, they are treated differently. Boys are bounced around and held away from the body, while girls are always held close to the body and are stroked. The ironic thing with this is that girls are biologically stronger immediately after birth than boys.
3) My favorite case focused on the boy who told a story in which one character died. When the girls heard this story, they were angry, because they did not think that death was an appropriate ending to the story. They thought the character should have fainted. After a long discussion, the class concluded that stories could only contain death if a bad guy died. The incident with the story shows that girls are less likely to fantasize about violence or to be accepting of violence than boys. Even though many boys fantasize about violence, they usually do not have a true concept of death. In play, death only lasts a few seconds and they get upset if it lasts longer.
I really enjoyed this presentation, because gender and learning was not something I had thought about a lot in the past.
Rape and War
The presentation on rape and war was really sad to listen to. Rape has always appeared to be a consequence of war. What makes me really upset is when rape is used as a tool of war. Rape during war has many physical and psychological effects on the women including bruising, broken bones, genital mutilation, humiliation, and loss of worth. Communities can be torn apart by rape, because it stimulates and normalizes violence within the society. This can result in more trafficking of girls and women, food insecurities, increased orphans, increased rape in the households, and diminished feelings of community security.
There are many wars in which rape was used as a method of warfare. During the 36 year Civil War in Guatemala, the theme of the war was "pacificacion y panzificacion," i.e. kill the men and impregnate the women. A similar technique was used in the war in Bosnia. Eve Ensler does a beautiful and tragic skit in the Vagina Monologues which commemorates the women of Bosnia who were raped. Here is the skit:
MY VAGINA WAS MY VILLAGE
My vagina was green, water soft pink fields, cow mooing sun resting sweet boyfriend touching lightly with soft piece of blonde straw.
There is something between my legs. I do not know what it is. I do not know where it is. I do not touch. Not now. Not anymore. Not since.
My vagina was chatty, can’t wait, so much, so much saying words talking, can’t quit trying, can’t quit saying, oh yes, oh yes.
Not since I dream there’s a dead animal sewn in down there with thick black fishing line. And the bad dead animal smell cannot be removed. And its throat is slit and it bleeds through all my summer dresses.
My vagina singing all girl songs, all goat bell ringing songs, all wild autumn field songs, vagina songs, vagina home songs.
Not since the soldiers put a long thick rifle inside me. So cold, the steel rod canceling my heart. Don’t know whether they’re going to fire it or shove it though my spinning brain. Six of them, monstrous doctors with black masks shoving bottles up me too. There were sticks and the end of a broom.
My vagina swimming river water, clean spilling water over sun-baked stones over stone clit, clit stones over and over.
Not since I heard the skin tear and made lemon screeching sounds, not since a piece of my vagina came off in my hand, a part of the lip, now one side of the lip is completely gone.
My vagina. A live wet water village. My vagina my hometown.
Not since they took turns for seven days smelling like feces and smoked meat, they left their dirty sperm inside me. I became a river of poison and pus and all the crops died, and the fish.
My vagina a live wet water village.
They invaded it. Butchered it and burned it down. I do not touch now. Do not visit.
I live someplace else now. I don’t know where that is.
The Rape and War presentation made me aware of another war in which rape was used as a tactic of war; the current war in the Congo. The video of the raped women made me want to cry. I cannot imagine living in a country, so torn by war and rape that more than 50% of the woman have been raped. The soldiers rape girls of all ages; from 4 to 84. They are not selective.
My Grandmother grew up in Austria during WWII. She has always told me about the massive number of rapes that she heard about in the surrounding villages. After the war ended, the German and Austrian territories were occupied by the Americans, British, French, and Russians to help keep peace. My grandmother said the Russians were notorious for raping women. She lived under the French. One day a Moroccan/French soldier grabbed her by the hand as she was headed to the store and tried to pull her into an ally to rape her. She was saved by one of the other local villagers. Unfortunately, this experience caused my grandmother to construct various prejudices, and she wasn't even raped. I cannot imagine how torn a woman would be who did suffer from rape during war.
There are many wars in which rape was used as a method of warfare. During the 36 year Civil War in Guatemala, the theme of the war was "pacificacion y panzificacion," i.e. kill the men and impregnate the women. A similar technique was used in the war in Bosnia. Eve Ensler does a beautiful and tragic skit in the Vagina Monologues which commemorates the women of Bosnia who were raped. Here is the skit:
MY VAGINA WAS MY VILLAGE
My vagina was green, water soft pink fields, cow mooing sun resting sweet boyfriend touching lightly with soft piece of blonde straw.
There is something between my legs. I do not know what it is. I do not know where it is. I do not touch. Not now. Not anymore. Not since.
My vagina was chatty, can’t wait, so much, so much saying words talking, can’t quit trying, can’t quit saying, oh yes, oh yes.
Not since I dream there’s a dead animal sewn in down there with thick black fishing line. And the bad dead animal smell cannot be removed. And its throat is slit and it bleeds through all my summer dresses.
My vagina singing all girl songs, all goat bell ringing songs, all wild autumn field songs, vagina songs, vagina home songs.
Not since the soldiers put a long thick rifle inside me. So cold, the steel rod canceling my heart. Don’t know whether they’re going to fire it or shove it though my spinning brain. Six of them, monstrous doctors with black masks shoving bottles up me too. There were sticks and the end of a broom.
My vagina swimming river water, clean spilling water over sun-baked stones over stone clit, clit stones over and over.
Not since I heard the skin tear and made lemon screeching sounds, not since a piece of my vagina came off in my hand, a part of the lip, now one side of the lip is completely gone.
My vagina. A live wet water village. My vagina my hometown.
Not since they took turns for seven days smelling like feces and smoked meat, they left their dirty sperm inside me. I became a river of poison and pus and all the crops died, and the fish.
My vagina a live wet water village.
They invaded it. Butchered it and burned it down. I do not touch now. Do not visit.
I live someplace else now. I don’t know where that is.
The Rape and War presentation made me aware of another war in which rape was used as a tactic of war; the current war in the Congo. The video of the raped women made me want to cry. I cannot imagine living in a country, so torn by war and rape that more than 50% of the woman have been raped. The soldiers rape girls of all ages; from 4 to 84. They are not selective.
My Grandmother grew up in Austria during WWII. She has always told me about the massive number of rapes that she heard about in the surrounding villages. After the war ended, the German and Austrian territories were occupied by the Americans, British, French, and Russians to help keep peace. My grandmother said the Russians were notorious for raping women. She lived under the French. One day a Moroccan/French soldier grabbed her by the hand as she was headed to the store and tried to pull her into an ally to rape her. She was saved by one of the other local villagers. Unfortunately, this experience caused my grandmother to construct various prejudices, and she wasn't even raped. I cannot imagine how torn a woman would be who did suffer from rape during war.
Gender and Security
The conversation about Gender and security was interested, because I never thought of security as requiring a single group to be "on top." A person/group who is "on top" feels in control of the situation and does not feel threatened. Therefore, keeping a high status and forcing others into oppression can guarantee security. A perfect example of oppressing others to maintain security is the United States' imperialistic politics during the cold war. In the height of the Cold War, the U.S. bombed many countries throughout Latin America who posed either communistic or economic threats to our country. In my mind, the bombings were not justified, because they were a form of oppressing "weaker," developing countries. Guatemala suffered U.S. bombings when they tried to give some the land from our foreign banana plantations to their poor. The U.S. owned 70% of the best farming land in Guatemala, while the vast majority of the Guatemalan population did not own a square foot of land to live on. The bombings in Guatemala resulted in a military regime and a 36 year civil war in Guatemala. While security appears to be a positive image for the people "on top," there are often many negative consequences for the people on the bottom. When creating personal and global security, it is always important to think about the impacts security poses for the lesser group. If the United States would not have bombed Guatemala, would they have posed an economic threat to our country?? My guess is no.
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