Sandra Ruiz's Blog

Blog #16: Gender Politics, Food, and Cyberspace

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:18:08 +0000

The reading about Ms. Lawal really caught my attention because of its irony. I could not believe how trying to get international help could have potentially made the situation worse for her, but I guess I understand it. As foreigners, we have to respect the rules and laws of other countries, in this case Nigeria. Being a very religious country and having very sensitive religious laws, the petition to protect Ms. Lawal shocked so many people; how could people be protecting a woman who commited adultery? At least, that is the way the women and men of Nigeria feel. None of the judges were interested in outside views, which really shows how and why countries have developed the way they have. The more ”stubborn” countries, I guess you can say, are still extremely strict with their punishments when a secular law is violated. Why is it so different in the United States? I would assume it is because of all the different cultures and religions; it would just be way too hard to set laws on many things if we based it around Roman Catholicism or Islamic Religion, since those are the biggest religions followed in our country today. Children outside of marriages happen all the time here; it almost sounds crazy to imagine the government being involved in every case and punishing the women for it. If anyone is going to somehow abuse the woman who commited adultery, it would be the people involved in the situation. In Reading B, I liked the statement that said “the internet was first used as a means of communication between members of the military’s scientific digerati under the name ARPANET.” The internet today definitely has a completely different meaning and use than what it did just a few decades ago. Facebook, Twitter and other personal profile sites are probably the top visited sites around the world, you can literally find ANYTHING on the internet, it’s actually kind of scary how much we depend on the internet for nowadays.

Blog #14: Displacements and Relocations

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:12:40 +0000

The reading by Mankiller was especially interesting to me in the readings this session. My dad got me really interested in Native American studies, he would always tell me the real stories behind the B.S. they taught us in elementary school about indians and pilgrims living together happily ever after. The injustices native americans live through everyday are absolutely senseless. Reading about Mankiller and what her family went through was dispairing. “We were a wild bunch. We must have looked like a darker version of the Joad family from John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.” I point out this quote because the Indian family was only going throught this because of their ethnicity; not because of the dust bowl or because of the Great Depression like the Joads. It was almost angering to hear how they tried to be more like the “white” kids and tried to change their accents because society made them the outcasts; ironic how Wilma and her sister felt the need to fit in with them, when it was their ancestors who were the REAL Americans. Overall I think the reading hit pretty close to home because like I have said before, my parents both came to this country in their 20′s. Trying to learn the language and being here on their own was very tough. Being the first person born here in this country out of anyone from my mom or dad’s side of the family is something I am truly proud of. I would say we “fit in” but we still hold our traditions and practices very closely. People are intrigued to the art we have around our house, to the music my dad and his band play, and to the food my mom cooks every night because they are all very particular to Peru; and I would not have it any other way.

Blog #12: Playing Unfair

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:30:42 +0000

The reading about the tanning was very interesting to me. I have a friend who tans all the time, and I also know so many girls who love to go tanning multiple times a week, especially in the summer time. Personally I see tanning as a waste of money, especially because the girls who I know that tan, all go more during the summer than winter. Why not go out to the beach and just lay there and relax? I loved that the reading pointed out how long ago, being pale was a sign of wealth and status, because it meant that the woman stayed home and did not need to go out and work. But now that is completely different, women who are more tan are actually the ones who are seen at a higher status because they can lay out and vacation all day. I am already tan and some girls say they are jealous or that they wish they could just be tan all the time; honestly, I would rather a girl be pale than have a fake orange glow.

The other interesting part of the reading was about women being more malnutrintioned than men. It is very true, at least in my household that the men definitely eat more than the females. My brother is only ten years old and he gets served the same amount of food as me at dinner. If for some reason there is not enough food, my mom always gives up her plate to make sure my dad has enough to eat, and where some people would see that as maybe wrong or strange, in our family it is just like a given. I always give my brother or dad the bigger slice of pizza or the extra piece of chicken not because my mom tells me to but because that is just I guess how I was raised. I am not malnurished and neither is my mother, and I do not believe it affects “mental capacities,” at least definitely not in our household. Girls are always going to be smarter than boys, everyone knows that! =P

Blog #11: Storytelling and Social Justice

Sandra Ruiz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:21 +0000

I did not really connect with the reading on blackboard this week. Irani wanted to change street names to reunify her city, and then also wanted to tell stories to try and reunify her city? And then in some spots scattered throughout the article, the tragic events of 9/11 were brought up. I did not exactly see the connection between the names they proposed for the streets and the tragedy on 9/11. I do not particularly think changing a street name to an important person in Black American History would really “simplify and unify the diverse borough.” If anything it would just cause conflicts amongst the people who feel the original names should be kept, actually that is exactly what happened. I thought the theme of the article was pretty much the strength storytelling and its effects on people, which is why I thought the beginning of the article was kind of random/out of place. Though I do believe that story telling is a great way to feel like you are in a different world, I never thought of it as having much “radical potential.” After reading this article I definitely understand what the art of storytelling has done for Irani and how much it has influenced other people but I do not necessarily see it as a most effective or great way of getting your point across to people. I really like the idea of “The Story-telling Project” but it honestly does not seem like something I would join if it were provided in my high school. I guess story telling carries such a fictional connotation every time I think about the word and the topics Irani discusses are so serious and important, I don’t know, serious topics like these and story-telling just do not exactly pair up in my mind.

Blog #10: Media Representations of Gender

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:09 +0000

There will always be beautiful men and women on the cover of magazines, billboards, advertisements and in commercials who have the perfect glow, hair, teeth and smile. Younger girls strive to look like these people and sometimes the measures they are willing to take are extreme and unhealthy – emotionally and physically. Society tells us that if you do not look a certain way, you do not fit in. I definitely think girls of all ages and races have these pressures from the media, even though the reading said mostly white girls. Every form of mainstream media likes to promote an ideal vision that a normal person can not reach. The tricks a simple program on a computer can do to make a girl ”magazine-perfect” is what is ruining pre-adolescent girls. Girls are automatically the subject of ridicule when they do no look a certain way. The media really is a business; they will do whatever they can to sell you their products. Magazines and ads try to stress the idea that physical appearance is really all that matters and because younger girls are usually not very opinionated and just want to “fit in”, they fall into that trap. The media has the ability to molds girls’ minds, especially at a young age. Very provocative images of women are prevalent in the media and girls feel the the need to look more ”sexy” to feel any kind of acceptance. There are many models who have no idea what is going on in the world around them, and it is because they do not need to know; they are making great money because of their physical appearance not because of their brains. Everyone wants to be more beautiful and more skinny. That show on TLC, “Toddlers and Tiara’s” really sticks out in my mind. It is very hard to come across girls my age who are confident and completely happy with the way they look, and the fact that girls are getting younger and younger and worrying about their physical appearance is frightening to me.

Blog #9: Masculinities

Sandra Ruiz — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:10:25 +0000

“One could say that homophobia is the hate that makes men straight.” Why is this statement acceptable to so many men, and even women? Why do so many men feel the need to prove their masculinity with violence? Hating a gay person will not make someone more straight, it makes them more ignorant. Hitting a woman will not make a man more masculine, it makes him a complete insecure jerk (it probably would not be appropriate to use the word I am actually thinking of.) I feel that when certain men really begin to feel as though they are being over-powered or out-smarted, they turn to violence to scare the woman into silence and obeying. I also feel that stereotypically, men feel like they should have this very “I’ll show them who’s boss” attitude, so when they are bullied and mistreated enough, their emotions will explode and can lead to horrible things, like school shootings and murders. The reading summarized that most men generally feel the need to prove themselves by somehow putting other people down. When someone is called a “faggot” or pushed around enough, I guess they need to take a stand for themselves in a way that might make sense at the moment because they listen to their emotions rather than their conscious. These actions can obviously have very long lasting consequences.

What I have noticed, and correct me if I am wrong, is that generally women tend to hold in their emotions or keep them to themselves while men tend to take their emotions out on others. I think it is rather interesting actually, for example, more women inflict emotional/physical pain on themselves due to bullying (and to be more specific, a higher percentage of females resort to cutting, anorexia, bulemia, etc.) while more men partake in violent acts like fighting and physically hurting other people/objects. Of course some women are more physical than others but I am putting this in a very broad perspective. The people you grow up with will truly shape and mold your personality. Bullying is a very serious issue because it can cause disastrous insanity in a person and will socially handicap that person for the rest of his/her life if it is bad enough. This reading really raised my awareness about school shootings. The cold hard reality of the situation is really frightening.

Blog #8: Communities, Nations and Feminist Activism

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:34:17 +0000

Internationalization. The one word that connects us to every single woman, whether they are black, white, green or purple. This word is of great importance to me, mostly because of my South American heritage. In earlier times it was mainly the Europeans leading the “Women’s Revolution,” and then that sparked interest in the United States; but not much was being done in the southern hemisphere (, according to our book at least.) If it were not for internationalization, who knows how long it would have taken for South American women to gain their freedom. The idea alone that women have jobs is still new to people like my grandfather. He is a very conservative man who thinks women should stay at home with the children and have dinner ready by the time their husbands get home from work. His beliefs clearly did not influence his daughters at all; my mother is a successful woman who has her own business and actually happens to make slightly more money than my father. My aunt is also a successful woman, she is a single mother with two children to feed and she is doing her best balancing work and my cousin’s soccer games and dance classes. My mom and aunt, along with all of the females sitting in our class, especially including our female professor, are all good examples of what the feminist movement has resulted in amongst our society. A few decades ago the idea of a woman being the bread-winner, or getting an education was outrageous. I truly enjoyed reading how women from around the world came together with their strong belief in the old phrase “together we stand, alone we fall apart.”

Blog #7: Identity Politics

Sandra Ruiz — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:06:41 +0000

It is frustrating to realize that there is a practically inevitable labeling system in our society that is not completely substantial. Though identity politics has proven to create a sense of belonging to some people, it also creates alienation of all the people who do not belong in that certain group. And then there is the problem of intragroup alienation; for example within the women’s movement. There is bias, in a very broad sense; it is the white females vs. the colored females. Reading this section definitely hit close to home. Coming from an immigrant family, the story of women being forced to stay with their violent husbands, in fear of being deported, is not new to me. In many cases, these victims are mothers who had their child or children born and raised on U.S. soil. These mothers are obligated to remain silent in fear of not only being deported but losing their children. Honestly it almost brings tears to my eyes because I personally know strong, determined, intelligent women who have gone through these injustices, all because they wanted a chance in this “land of opportunity.” The story of Mildred and her teenage son was hard to get through. A safe place to stay and sleep at night, something that most of us take for granted, was so incredibly hard for her to obtain, and why? Because she could not speak enough English. This doesn’t upset me as much as it infuriates me. Just because she was an immigrant did not mean it was ok for her to go through what she went through.

Reading “Making it Perfectly Queer” was an interesting part of the reading. I am completely supportive of the “Queer Nation” the book talked about. Love is love, no matter who it is between. I agree with Adele Morrison who spoke in the interviews published in OUT/LOOK; she said “Queer is not an “instead of,” it’s an “inclusive of.”… It’s like the whole issue of “people of color.” I hear people all the time saying things like “I don’t mind gay people as long as they’re not around me.” But let’s backtrack; not too long ago, in a very shameful part of our American history, white people were saying the same exact thing about black people. To be anti-gay is, in my strong opinion, complete discrimination.

Blog #6: A woman’s place

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:53:16 +0000

It is a widespread idea in our society that males should head the state; they are in fact more dominant in the political atmosphere – and why? Because women are biologically unfit. Do you see any logic in that because I certainly do not. In the movie we watched on Tuesday, A Woman’s Place, there was a quote that said something like “a hen knows when it is morning but waits for the cock to crow, which metaphorically parallels the idea that women are used to being controlled. Is it our fault then? Unfortunately I think the majority of women are used to men stepping in and taking control and have no problem with it. A lot of the reason why authority sees men as more acceptable than women has to do with female individuals being too passive. When will we see the first female president? I hope I will be able to stand here to witness such a tremendous day. In the book it states that the white man supremacy was overwhelming decades ago. It was widely understood that black males were less powerful and less than men, unlike white males. And now, we have Obama as cold hard proof that those days are practically over with. I tend to forget how relatively new the idea of sex equality is. Reading statements that women bodies were ever even thought to be owned by men and used for their satisfaction is very upsetting, almost surreal. Women are proving day by day that we are becoming more active; rather than being a man’s dependant, we are becoming the bread winners. The truth is, I think every woman should be proud enough of who they are to stand up for themselves.

Blog #5: Individuals, Nation-states, and Women

Sandra Ruiz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:37:35 +0000

All my life I have been asked my name, address, sex, race, age, etc., so it has never really phased me that these certain facts are placing me into certain groups/categories, hence excluding me from other groups/categories. I guess I never really thought about it that way because I have become used to filling it out on every form. Truthfully, I do not know if I completely disagree with this idea. I mean, of course there is a bad side to it but for the most part, being placed into groups with people who are somewhat like you – in any sense of the word - is a positive thing. It said in the reading that basically our identities are forced on us, they are not necessarily things we can choose; but everyone in your “group” is in the same position as you are, are they not? I personally think it can build good connections with the people around you. I am not completely sure I understood certain parts of the reading, like when it said that “people’s identities were primarily formed in relation to families, kin groups, or tribes instead of states with mappable boundaries and borders that are patrolled by soldiers.” They were still being identified a to a certain group though; I almost feel as though it is easier to know what state a person is from to understand the general kind of environment they live in rather than knowing their relation to families. Does the author disagree with being put into groups in general or groups based on ethnicity/sex/age? Generally tribes, families and kin groups are of the same race/culture anyway, aren’t they? Again, I am hoping someone can enlighten me if I am misinterpreting the text. In recent times, many new groups are being formed to stand up for that groups certain beliefs and ideals. I think this is great; the more people partake in this kind of activity the louder their ideas will be voiced and even accepted by other groups. I do believe that feminists have been creating a social movement for a very long time now and that it is just growing and becoming more powerful everyday. I do think it is fair to emphasize differences rather than similarites in today’s world so that they can be focused on, worked on and then eventually solved.

Alluding to the “Opt-Out Revolution,” this statement made by Sarah McArthur Amsbary caught my attention : ”Timing one’s quitting to coincide with a baby is like timing a breakup to coincide with graduation, it’s just a whole lot easier than breaking up in the middle of senior year.” I would think being a mother is the hardest job in the world. Maybe it is because I am like a mother to my younger brother I can understand the difficulty a little more than maybe some other people but the way she compared the two just caught me off-guard. Like having a baby was an easy way to quit a job that “just wasn’t cutting it.” Of course all of these women are also well-educated, professional women but not much is discussed about mothers who are more average, or ”lower class” citizens, or even teenage moms. I am sure many of “those” mothers would rather work than stay at home with a newborn because of the pressure and constant attention the child deserves, (and though this is off topic, this is probably why stay-at-home-dad’s are becoming more popular in modern times.) Overall, I feel a good mother (and father) is one who is willing to sacrifice a lot to make sure his/her child can have more than what her parents had. One day those daughters will become mothers too and that cycle – which involves great sacrifice (for a greater good of course) - will become never-ending.