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.

Blog #9........

Personally, I plan to leave my children in some sort of home day care facility. I have worked in both private and public child care facilities and can defiantly tell a difference between the two. Since turning sixteen, I have worked in 4 public day cares and 2 private home day cares. The atmosphere of the two environments is completely opposite. Home day cares are not licensed to carry as many children as public day cares therefore, I feel as if my children will be better tended to as opposed to being in a facility that although may be appropriately staffed for their amount of children there are more children to tend to and therefor less time for each worker with each child. Within day care facilities the meal program is regulated by the government. Cooks must keep meal logs and the meals are required to provide the recommended amount of each food group as is decided by the government. By law, milk must be served with breakfast and lunch, children must be given a fruit and a bread every breakfast. The same rules apply to home day care facilities but the children to staff ratio is much smaller. In public child care facilities the child to staff ratio of 2 year old to 5 year old are 8 :1 which means that I can have 8 children ranging from diapers, to potty training, to being potty trained all at the same time. Its very difficult to balance changing ones diaper and still control the rest of the kids in your classroom. After working in a private home facility I truly enjoy it more. It is much less stressful and therefore much more enjoyable for the children as well as the staff members.

blog 8.....single mothers

With the allowed budget of $1048 a month I began searching for housing. I couldn't find anything in my price range that had enough bedrooms for myself and my 3 children. I found a two bedroom apt on the west side of Moore for $409 a month. But this price doesn't include utilities and its in a neighborhood that isn't considered "safe".This means that the 2 older children would share a room and the baby would sleep with me. After subtracting rent, my budget was $639. I then added utilities which brought my budget to $330. I allowed $200 for food which left me with $130 for childcare, gas, car payment,medical expenses, insurance for both yourself/kids and your car, clothing, school supplies, phone, cable, and personal items such as shampoo and tampons. It is almost impossible to live in this area on this specific budget. The cheapest childcare i could find was $400!! Threes no way that I could even attempt to pay for that! Needless to say I would be in serious debt. Trying to raise a family on this budget is nearly impossible. There would be no money left over for any type of fun activity's family's do. I would imagine that home life would be boring and stressful. With this budget there is little to no varitey in food. the grocery budget I created contained a lot of ramen noodles, Sandwhiches (not PB&J wich it cheaper than meat because I am allergic to nuts) cereal, and mac and cheese. I imagine that the childrens friends would never want to come over to their house and that the mother would be extremely stressed.

PriviLedges

Privilege is a very complicated thing. Some people believe privilege has everything to do with their life and some do not. Personally I believe that discrimmination and being non privileged will make you stronger if you make yourself overcome it and do not let it get you down. Everyone has been discriminated aginst in some way or another throughout their lifetime. It's just something that everyone eventually has to deal with . Though it is sad and unfourtnate, it happends. All women have been called some sort of hurtful name due to their gender and most minorities have had derrogratory statments made twords their race. It's a sad fact, but its true fact.


1. I am privileged to attend the University of Oklahoma. Many people are not afforded the luxery of a college education.


2. I have an amazing family. My family believes, encourages, and supports me through every phase of my life.


3. I have never experienced poverty. Although I am not wealthy, I am not poor and I have always had everything that I needed.


4. I am surrounded by people who love and support me.


5. I am intelligent. Intellect may very well be my favorite privilege.


6. I grew up in a small town that was successful in teaching me morals and kindness.


7. My boyfriend survived a terrible car crash. The privilege of living is amazing.


8. I am healthy. If I need medical attention I have the luxery of going to the doctor.


9. My mother is in my opinion the strongest most caring woman in the world. She can get me through anything.


10. I have the use of my legs. I have a friend that recently lost feeling in his legs after a car crash and I see daily how difficult it is for him to live.


11.I have the luxery of buying items I want not only need


12. I have a wonderful job, I take care of children and I love it!


13. My brother is my best friend, and he would do anything for me.


14. I own my car. i worked very hard to save up the money but I did it and it feels great!


15. My roomate is the best! Im so lucky to have been allowed the privilege of a great roomie instead of a creep.


16. I have been encouraged my entire life. I have always been told I was beautiful and that If I set my mind to it I could achieve any thing!


17.I have never gone to bed hungry because there was not enough food. If I was hungry it was on my own accord.


18. I have never been watched closely in a store because the store owner feared I might steal something simply because of my color.


19. I have never had my vehicle searched simply because of my color.


20. My entire family saves money all year so that at the end we can all take a vacation and spend quality time together!!!!!!

Gender and Advertising blog # 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw9i7vIWxgc


I've attached the link to the commercial that I chose. This is a Viva Paper towel commercial. The images in this commercial are geared directly towards gender. The female of the household is always the star of these types of commercials. In this specific video, the woman is home rearing her child. I find this very stereotypical. The majority of the time it is the female that is expected to stay home with the children. Household cleaning commercials rarely ever feature a man raising the children and cleaning up after everyone. While reviewing advertisements for this assignment I couldn't help but notice a pattern. Almost every single advertisement features a woman doing all of the cleaning and household duties. I personally think think that this is sexist. Why can the men never be doing the cleaning or the laundry? It is advertisements like these that are continuing to encourage gender inequality. These types of commercials assign labels to certain members of the household simply by following traditional mindsets that women belong in the home and not in the workplace.The F.I.F.E reading strongly ties into how the media represents women. Bell Hooks said that to achieve success you must first love yourself. I as a young girl struggled with loving myself for me and not what everyone else wanted me to be. I completely understand why our young girls feel pressured to be this stereotypical type of women. From very young ages children are pressured by society to conform to the gender roles that society has created. I mean walk into your local Walmart store and look around the toy isle. The boys and girls toy sections are clearly separated. Young girls are encouraged to play with dolls instead of cars. In order for gender equality to be achieved women have to stop allowing themselves to be objectified