Event 2--Eating Disorder Conference

So throughout the semester it's come up a couple of times in my blog how important the issue of eating disorders are.  Well this past October I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go a conference in Florida for the weekend.  Although I didn't go to every lecture (I kind of chose the ones I thought would be most interesting and most beneficial to me haha)  With this class in mind (& remembering I would eventually be needing a social justice event)  I decided to attend a lecture entitled: More Alike Than We Are Different: We Can All Be Affected, We Can All Recover.  The speaker was a bi-racial woman who opened by describing herself as a “crusader for joy and our common humanity.”  In her speech she talked a lot about how the media places these unattainable standards on woman, one of them being that they feel they must be of a single race.  She herself grew up bi-racial and although she was accepted amongst her peers and in her own community she sometimes felt that stepping of her own comfort zone opened her up to a world of judgment that somehow surrounding herself with others who did not know she was bi-racial would allow people the opportunity to judge her.  But of course as she got older and understand more and accepted herself this became a non issue.  This brought me back to the Anzaldua article about her being a mestiza—a person not belonging to a single category but multiple categories and that these categories intertwine.  The speaker of course also talked about how hard it is to be a woman in today’s society; having to constantly live up to impossible demands that society and the media are continually placing on us.  I also related the speaker’s points to Cinderella Ate My Daughter and how the media speaks to different sexes.  The speaker talked a lot about the media and how young girls are forced to look at pictures of women that are unrealistic—this reminded me of Noelle’s blog post about the media article. She posted a picture of a girl wearing a shirt that says “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!”  This is actually a popular picture in the eating disorder community.  In her speech, the speaker also touched upon men being affected by eating disorders as well and how a man with an eating disorder is seen as weak and less of a man.

Before this class I wasn’t exactly sure eating disorders were a feminist issue but now I understand how they are.  Eating disorders are a feminist issue because of the simple fact that it is an inequality an discrimination towards a group of people who don’t feel comfortable in their own skin because of the unattainable standards media has put in place for them.

Eventually, I hope to one day be the standing in the speaker’s shoes giving my own talk <3

Event 1--The Bro Code

The Bro Code was about how the media such as: TV shows, movies, magazines etc have their own set of ideas and values about how the men of today are supposed to act. They portray men as being ‘big’, strong and powerful people who can basically get women at the drop of a dime.  The film was broken down into four steps: Step 1: Train Men to Womanize, Step 2: Immerse Men in Porn, Step 3: Make Rape Jokes and Step 4: Obey the Masculinity Cops.  As the movie takes you through each step, it shows you how basically the men and more so the youth of today, are taught to disrespect men in order to gain a sense of power.

Step 1: Train Men to Womanize

This segment focused largely on how men are portrayed in the media.  Men in popular media today are pretty much just looking for sex.  Keith used the show Jersey Shore as an example.  This show could not be more about men wanting sex.  Personally, I’ve never seen an episode because I feel like I would lose brain cells if I did but of course I know about the show and it is totally ridiculous.  Once this show aired it was like every guy wanted to be Pauly D and every girl wanted to be Snooki.  Men see other men getting women and having sex with them as if it is a reward and they feel they need to earn that same honor.

>>I found this xtranormal I thought was funny! Snooki & Pauly D

Step 2: Immerse Men in Porn

This segment focused on porn and how easily accessibly porn has become.  Keith mentions that boys as young as 12 years old are being submerged into the pornography world.  As I was watching these segment I couldn't help but agree when Keith was saying that porn transforms how men see some women.  While writing this post I referred back to our sex positivity reading and how pornography was the first issue to unite sex positive feminists.  Basically pornography was viewed as a civil rights issue, arguing that porn was sex discrimination against women.  The sex-positive movement responded with the argument that the legislation against porn violated a woman's freedom of speech.  It is a woman's freedom of speech, men just take it in a disturbed direction sometimes because of how the media has taught them to use it.

Step 3: Make Rape Jokes

This segment focused on how "boy culture" makes rape jokes okay which is false.  The use of rape jokes offends rape victims and is violent towards women

>>I found this tumblr of why rape jokes aren't funny! I really liked it...http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rape-jokes

Step 4: Obey the Masculinity Cops

This segment focused on the men in a boy's life reinforce how he is supposed to act.

This segment made me think back to the Kimmel reading about how boys are supposed to be a certain way--violent, etc.

being an ally. talking point 12

* I just want to say this piece was my favorite piece we read all semester.  Although it was a short and easy read I thought it was really powerful and raised a lot of important points.


As I was reading through this piece I sat back and was like, I don't think I've ever actually thought of myself as an ally before this class.  For a while I was always like "well, I think I am but, I'm not really sure and I don't know blah blah..."  let me explain--I mean sure it drives me f***** bananas when people use the phrase "that's so gay" or "that's so retarded" or when people make racist jokes or fat jokes or gender jokes or any type of discriminating jokes.  I'm the first to stop someone mid sentence or mid action when I see bullying or harassment or any type of situation where one person is making another feel uncomfortable.  I have no problem taking on the challenge of defeating oppression so if all that is what makes a person an ally...then I guess all my wondering can be over!

I kept relating this piece back to something I had heard last year at an event during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week... one of the speakers at the event kept saying throughout her speech that she was in recovery and was now a voice for those couldn't find theirs or maybe, unfortunately no longer had one.
>I thought of an ally as kind of being like that...a voice for someone else.  When it comes down to it, everyone knows somebody who needs an ally.

My favorite part of this whole piece was the Jesse Jackson quote:
"When a critical mass of white people join together, rise up, and shout a thunderous NO to racism, we  will actually alter the course of history."
it actually made me stop & stare at the paper and just kind of smile to myself.  In my head I was like how awesome is that, right on.

I also thought the point "we are all dominant and targeted simultaneously" couldn't have been any more true.  She used the example of a white able-bodied man--who, based on that is seen as dominant in those categories but yet can be targeted for being Jewish or gay.  I love how she pointed how that even if a person is dominant in every aspect of their life, they won't be forever! (I found that pretty clever :p)



**I thought this was an awesome piece to end the semester with & I'm really sad this class is over.  BUT I can't wait to take your class again in the spring!  I feel like this class really opened my eyes and changed my perception about a few things--definitely for the better!