Blog 12

All too often in today's society young girls are pressured to have a specific type of look. They are supposed to be skinny, and beautiful with perfect teeth etc. Because of these preconceptions, too many young girls develop eating disorders. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders is an organization that attempts to help women of all ages who suffer from eating disorders. They try to provide healthy alternatives for females who are working to overcome disorders. They have over 200 support groups nation wide and are totally funded through donations and gifts. The ANAD has special workshops and goes to High Schools across the nation attempting to teach young girls about the disorders and how to either seek help for themselves of for friends. I think that targeting high school students more so than older women is a very smart tactic. Younger girls tend to feel more pressure to fit in and therefore will result to more extreme alternatives in order to do so. One way that I can help is by donating to this organization . They use donations to do everything from help girls seek treatment to printing off flyer's. They also ask for volunteers to serve as group leaders for the support groups that they offer. The ANAD trains the group leaders in a variety of fields and fully equips their leaders with the necessary tools to make a difference in someones life.

Kabul beauty school

For several centuries, American feminists have criticized the lifestyle of Afghan women. Americans tend to view these women as oppressed and helpless because of the requirements that their religion and culture demand. After viewing the Kabul Beauty School film I was able to better understand some of the reasons why the Afghan women conform to such seemingly stringent customs. Although the Kabul Beauty School film focused mainly on the establishment of a beauty school, it also allowed me to see almost firsthand some the problems that Afghan women face today. Although Afghanistan is working to try and equalize gender, very little success has been achieved. As a result, I believe the reasons why the people of Afghanistan have been unsuccessful in modernizing their lifestyles are deeply rooted within gender inequality.
First, I want to discuss some of the stereotypes associated with Afghan women. Afghan women usually dress extremely conservatively and almost always wear a veil when they are anywhere but their own homes. Americans tend to assume that this is one way that the men oppress the women. However according to the assigned reading, Understanding the Other Sister by Susan Muaddi Darraj, the majority of women are not forced to wear the veil but actually choose to do so because of personal religious beliefs. This example shows that Americans are not properly educated on the practices and conditions of the Afghan people.
Second, Afghan women, compared to American women, do in fact have less freedom. Women have very little say, if any, in whom they marry. They are expected to obey their husbands and men are permitted to exercise drastic forms of punishment upon their wives whenever they see fit. These examples prove that men are viewed as superior to women. Throughout the film, the Afghan women struggled with problems that gender inequality has produced. The simple fact that they are not viewed as equal to men accounts for a large majority of their problems. For example, throughout the film the Afghan women had to remind their American teachers that they were not permitted to do some of the things they asked of them such as wear makeup every day. Some of the women admitted that their husbands did not allow them to wear makeup unless they were attending a special event.

Third, the fact that women are inferior to men is exemplified when a child is born. When a woman reproduces a son there are huge celebrations but if a daughter is produced then the celebrations are much smaller and a lot of the time do not exist. This example clearly shows just how little females are valued within the Afghan culture. From birth, females are unequal to males. Afghan women’s opinions and feelings virtually do not matter. It is extremely common for an Afghan male to have multiple wives. If a man’s wife is unsuccessful in providing him a son, then it is completely acceptable for him to take another wife regardless of how his initial wife feels. If women are actually permitted to voice their feelings and opinions the majority of the time, they are still completely disregarded. The amount of authority that men exert over women causes the women to fear their husbands and ultimately allows the men to continue controlling them.
In conclusion, the Kabul Beauty School allowed a sort of safe haven for the Afghan women. It created a place where they could go and remove their veils without fear of chastisement. The school helped bridge the cultural gap between Afghanistan and America. The film helped me to better understand that even though gender inequality is extremely prevalent, some of the things that American women define as oppression are in actuality, deeply rooted religious and cultural beliefs. A large majority of the problems illustrated in the film are a direct result of gender inequality. I believe that in order for Afghanistan to move forward and modernize their country, the current mindset that women are inferior to men must be discontinued.

Blog #11......R & R

The NGO that I chose to blog about isn't widely known. It's an orginization that I hold very dear to me because I personally helped create it. When I was 16 my first "real" job was a teachers assistant in a local day care facility. Our day care was different because it's schedules and structure was designed for children who have been removed from their original homes and placed in government care such as foster homes. After working there for a period of time some of the ladies and myself began to notice a pattern within the children. We were constantly dealing with disruptive children and we noticed that they were acting out for attention. They didn't care whether the attention they recieved was negative of positive they were just desperate for it. So we got together and devised a plan. We took the facilities most problimatic children and assigned them to a specific worker. The workers were instructed to spend quality time with their child and give them just a little extra attention whenever the scheduled allowed. Now this may seem unfair to the rest of the children but at this point our plan was only in the testing phase. We believed that if we gave these children positive encouragement and positive attentive role models then maybe , just maybe , their behavior would improve. And lucky for us, we were right. So we took our idea to the community and asked for their help. After several weeks and tons of help and support form our community we were able to establish R&R. R&R stands for Real Relationships and is designed similar to the big brother program. The team is completely mad up of volenteers from our community and surrounding towns. R&R is funded through donations, sponsers, and pledges.Membership in R&R is completely free and mentors will even pick the children up for their play dates and drop themn off. We, as mentors, strive to engourage the children to strive for something and to believe in themselves. We are dedicated to improving self esteem, helping the children realize the importance of education, and about all promote positive thinking. Lots of thought and consideration goes into the process of selecting children for specific mentors. We try to assign children to a type a mentor that they don't really have in their lives. For example, we know that a child grew up in a broken household with a single mother parent we try to assign a mentor that is male and can demonstrate how positive men live. We strive to assign mentors that can provide for the children whatever it is that they are lacking in their lives. The originization is extremely important because in todays society children are forced to grow up way to early and are losing their oppertunity to just be kids. Throughout the last 3 years we have noticed that the majority of the time, children tend to respond and relate better with a mentor of their gender. having a positive role model that is similar to them helps the children learn how positive members of our community function in thier day to day lives. Our mentors are friends. They play with their kids, attend their school events, take them fishing, ect. They basically take these children as their own and help them deal with whatever life throws at them in the most constructive way.

Blog 10..... "Tough guise"

Society has created this mindset that masculinity is determined by how tough one appears to be. Society teaches boys from a very young age that certain things are girlish or make him weak. Young boys are taught to look after their siblings and female family members. In my opinion society has created a double standard, boys are taught to stand up for themselves and literally fight for themselves and their loved ones yet girls are taught to stand still and look pretty. Some people consider pointing out that men commit the majority of violent crimes "male bashing" but i personally believe that if the facts that are being stated are true than in no may is one male bashing. It is a fact that men do commit the majority of crimes and no one should be criticized for making that information known to the rest of the population.It wouldn't be considered car bashing if someone said that the Bugatti Type 41 Royale was the most expensive car ever sold in the US. As if gender issues aren't enough, we also have to discuss issues of race among buys in America. The media has done a terrible job of portraying men of color. Last semester we did an assignment in my African American studies class where we had to turn on local cable and flip through the channels until we found a show that portrayed African Americans in a positive light. To my surprise, I could hardly find anything to watch without going specifically to channels such a BET. When the day came to present our findings i realized that everyone in the class had trouble completing this assignment because the media doesn't portray minorities the way that whites are portrayed. I believe that the reasons that minorities are seen less and in poor light throughout the media is because the people that regulate the shows we watch are a bunch of rich old white men who still themselves hold racist values and therefor attempt to ignore any race that isn't the majority by allowing minorities to be scarce throughout the media. by allowing the media to promote men of color as dangerous criminals we are encouraging young boys of color to mimic the actions of the older members of their races.