Blog #16

This time I was very interested in the article about women and agriculture. I already talked about this topic in various other classes since it belongs to my field of study and it was interesting to read how feminists perceive this topic. What I did not know was that most of the small farmers are women. Contrary to the book I do not think this is a bad thing or that small farmers (no matter if male or female) are therefore regarded as weak. I think that women do have the role of the “provider” in these cases which normally belongs to men. I also remembered the movie “we feed the world” while reading the text. In my opinion it is insane what Third World countries are put through just so that we can live in luxury. One of the worst things I remember of this movie are the cash-crops. These are crops, which are not produced for the people who tend the land but for export only. While their vegetables and fruit are shipped off to western countries they starve because they do not have enough for themselves. To me this is a matter of race as we discussed before. White people want to show that they are stronger and destroy small farms and with them the livelihood of people in Third World countries (willingly or unwillingly). I think a solution would be not to buy as much from Third World countries but to show them how to help themselves by supporting small farms with money. In Europe (I don’t know about the US) there is a trademark called “Fairtrade” where you can be sure to support the farmer with every banana or coffee you buy. I think this is a good start. (Website Fairtrade: http://www.fairtrade.net/ )

Blog #15

I couldn’t help but notice the contradiction in the article about the Thai women. They chose to be sex workers so they would be able to be free of marriage and men but at the same time their only source of income are men. One of them even contemplated marrying a Japanese man and paying him for it so she could stay in Japan. For me the question is now what is worse, marrying at home and not be able to live a “western life-style” or going to Japan and making this life-style at least for your family possible while selling your body. Some of the mothers of those women even seem to request the last option. This is what I found really shocking: a mother that talks her daughter into selling her body so she herself could live a better life. On the other hand this is what defines Asian culture; the children have to take care of the older people. I also doubt that those women really have a choice. They might have one at the beginning of their “career” because nobody tells them that they must do it but I highly doubt that they have other options as they keep on doing their job since they are in debt or have to work for protection by the yakuza.

Sadly but true the fact about the pregnancy tests for women in Mexico didn’t shock me at all. I figured that if women are asked about their intention of getting pregnant in western countries it would be worse in other countries. I think this is comparable to other differences between men and women such as the gender wage gap. In my opinion the only possible way to work against something like that would be to put big companies even more in the spotlight and therefore under pressure with the help of the media since most people out there don’t even know that something like that exists.

Blog #14

Migration is a global issue even more so nowadays because globalization makes it possible to go to other countries relatively fast and without many problems. But are there fewer problems? The story of Mimi and other women suggest otherwise. Although people are not brought into a country to be forced to work for a rich white man anymore there are still some issues that have to be taken into consideration. Which seems to be the biggest problem to me is losing the feeling of “home”. Mimi for example never even knew Vietnam but she was still associated with it because of her looks and therefore was never really seen as American. She knew that she never really would fit in at her new “home”. I think it is even harder for grown-up women to make a new life in a different country. For example in Austria there are many families from eastern European countries as well as Turkey, most of them are Muslim. In many of those families only the men are allowed to work and the women have to stay at home. This makes it easier for men to integrate themselves and to learn the language, which I think is an important part. Because of this women have no social network other than women who also emigrated from the same country. This makes it impossible for them to feel at home in Austria but on the other hand they cannot go back either because of persecution or economical reasons. Personally I do not think that you know how to identify yourself if you do not have a home.

Blog #13

First of all this text makes it look like that only or mainly women are affected by mass tourism which is certainly not true. Everyone in the country is somehow affected by tourism, even if it is not directly. For example a farmer somewhere in the middle of nowhere might never have heard about any big tourist destination hundreds of miles from his farm. But the milk which is produced on his farm might be delivered to this destination and he gets money for it. Because of tourism there are new jobs in third world countries which in my opinion are almost always better than working in a big factory. Of course tourism could have negative impact too for example on the environment or even on the local people. An example for that is sex tourism and this is certainly something that especially concerns women. I also do not think that mass tourism only concerns third world countries. Austria is one of the 10 richest countries in the world and tourism is a very big part of our economy. A lot of effort goes into marketing campaigns in order to get people to come to Austria for a vacation.

I completely can relate to the topic of women and travelling. I love to travel and since my field of studies requires some travelling I have the chance to see at least some parts of the world. My grandma for example doesn’t like these circumstances very much. In her opinion a girl should stay home instead of travelling to god knows where especially alone. I think that it is important to travel in order to see other countries and cultures and to learn from them.

Blog #12

I think what this reading is all about is how much power the media has over nearly every part of our lives. It doesn’t matter if it is how we show our sexuality or what rights we have or don’t have the media plays a very big role in it. For example the perfect body image is also dictated by the media. At the moment, and for quite some time now, women have to be skinny. There shouldn’t be a gram of fat on their bodies. This topic is so prominent that some women can’t stand the pressure and take drastic measures like crash diets, which are neither healthy nor do they really help. But not only women are affected by this kind of body image. More and more men become anorexic by trying to become what the media defines as perfect. Most of the models which are supposed to be role models don’t even look like that in reality but with the help of Photoshop they do. Another part the media influences is as mentioned above our sexuality. Companies realized that if they couldn’t stop the gay and lesbian movement they might as well profit from it. Now the media is promoting all kinds of products especially for homosexual people. I don’t know if this part is good or bad. One the one hand gay and lesbians don’t have to hide anymore on the other hand though they are under even more pressure to act and to look the way the media dictates.

This reading also mentioned the power the internet as a means of communication has over the information we get. This was already discussed once in the reading “Communities, Nations and Feminist Activism” but what is new is that you shouldn’t take everything as it comes but be a bit suspicious. This can be very important in a case like the one in Nigeria. Yes, it is important to help and yes, the internet is a great way to raise awareness but we should also take into consideration that there are differences between countries and people and we should respect them.

Blog #10

My assigned article was “Gender representation in notable children’s picture books”.
People say that it is best to teach a child something when it is really young for example a new language because at a young age it learns the fastest. Obviously this is not only true for languages and such but also for how a child perceives gender and moreover how gender is perceived by society. In Psychology we learn that a child needs a men’s and a woman’s influence equally at different stages of its life. I think this can also be applied to picture books. A child needs to see men as well as women as a hero in one of their favorite stories because children also tend to idolize grownups and even more so when they are the mentioned hero of a story. So if men and women are equally represented in books, children will most likely perceive them as equal in real life as well.
This is also what we discussed in one of our first classes. Why do boys have to play with cars and girls with dolls? Because their parents were brought up like that and this is what they see as normal. My sister for example (she is two) got a doll for her first Christmas present whereas my brother got a car. This means that it is very important for a child to see that men and women are equal on every level in order to be able to teach that children 20 years from now. I think that in the last few years big steps have been taken in the right direction.

Blog #9

At first, I have to admit, I was completely confused about this article and it took me a while to realize that it was actually talking about American fraternities. It was interesting to read about them from this point of view. Since we don’t really have frats in Austria I only know the movie-version of them and I started to compare them to each other. All in all I think that this article as well as the movies pick up on every cliché there is about them.
Reading between the lines it also talked about acceptance of homosexuals in the American and Western society. Men try as hard as they can to be accepted as men in their group of friends and in society itself and not be associated in any way with homosexuality. I actually think that Americans do a far better job than other nations in the western countries at accepting homosexuals. They seem to be more open minded and therefore more understanding. There even are things like “coming out weeks” at our university of which I have never heard in Austria. I still can’t see why people are prejudiced against them. A persons’ gender says nothing about their character or their values. I also think that it is important to acknowledge who you are, and that includes gender, in order to be able to be true to yourself.

Blog #8

It seems like there always has to be a war or at least a major crisis in order for women to gain rights. This is what I don’t understand. Humanity has been through so many wars that one should think that they would have learned from it by now. After all human beings are supposed to be able to learn from their mistakes. Women can contribute to the nation state and make it stronger by giving their opinions and support. This is even what the state expects of women: their support. Some states just do not want their opinions but their submission and I feel that this is not the right path to a sustainable society.

When it comes to the internet as a tool to enforce feminism all over the world I think it is very useful. Although it is true that most of the world’s population does not have access to the internet it can help educate people in the industrialized countries. Even though we might think that people in the first world know about the oppression of women, especially in the poorest countries, this is not the case most of the time. This is something I experienced firsthand. One time I was talking about this class to a friend and the term “female circumcision” came up and she asked me what it was. So how are people supposed to help if they don’t know where their help is needed? I do not think that the internet is the ultimate solution for women to be able to work together all over the world but I definitely do think that it is a start.

Blog #7

At the beginning of this reading I was confused about why someone would think about splitting women up in different groups or classes, phrases like “all for one, one for all” and “we are stronger together” came to mind. I was thinking that women could only be taken seriously if they acted as one entity. What I did not take into consideration was that there are differences between classes as well as races. Some of them might even be intended. The problem is now that not every group in the group of women will be satisfied with one goal achieved. So how are we going to decide what the next step is? Should one group be the leader and when their goal is achieved should they help the others achieve theirs? Or is it more important to stop thinking in different classes, races or groups first so that women could agree on one action? But no matter where we start (and I really cannot decide where that should be) it always comes down to one thing: the various gaps between the genders as well as the races have to be closed.

Furthermore what I found very disturbing was the story of the Spanish speaking woman who was turned away from a shelter many times just because her English was not good enough, after all her safety should stand above everything else. This is one occasion where I think that the before mentioned concept of “one group as the leader in order the help the others” failed completely. On the other hand: would there even be such a thing as a shelter if one group hadn’t taken the lead? And here we go again…

Blog #6

What I found very interesting this time is the fact that the view of history depends on the current view of society on a specific topic. This includes the word “civilized”. This especially is a very elastic term since most of the practices in the 1900’s and earlier are seen as everything but civilized nowadays. For example slavery is something only primitive peoples have or had for a long time. A few hundred years ago owning a slave as a white man meant that he was superior to others and therefore more civilized. I think the circumstance that this perception changes over time is a reason to hope that someday women and men, no matter what race they belong to, will be treated equally not only by society but also by the state. Although I think that these two terms cannot be seen as completely different. After all the society votes for a candidate and therefore makes the state and as a result the law. To me this means that there has already been a shift in society especially in the Scandinavian countries where it is common practice to see women and men as completely equal.

On the one hand I see the necessity of having laws especially for women (e.g. maternity leave) because they are not yet able to cope without them. On the other hand I hope that those laws will not be necessary in the future because everyone understands the term “citizen” as men and women equally.

Even though there are a lot of different forms of sexuality and the difference should not go unnoticed, people should be treated equally. This is in my opinion the biggest challenge: seeing the difference and accepting it.