Sex Politics- Presentation 5

           Our Sex Politics presentation focused on the gender within politics as well as the history of women’s ownership of their sexuality. In our presentation, we displayed Bill O’Reilly presenting his misogynistic views that women were incapable of being leaders in politics. To the audience his point of view is nonsensical and repulsive. He wants the woman to be a weak figure, but through his interviews and throughout history, women have proven to be resilient and powerful beings.

The power of the woman is demonstrated when discussing woman’s sexuality, her right to reproduce and the choice taken away from her. Before the legalization of abortion in 1973, women went to extremes to have the right to choose whether they want to have children. They poisoned themselves, threw themselves downstairs, beat themselves with meat pulverizers so they can regain the choice of being pregnant or not.  It is important to state that there were wide efforts that helped women get illegal abortions before 1973, but many women who were incapable of getting abortions were often poor women. Victimized by the class and lack of money, poor women had to do anything that was best for them.

Many women of color did not get the opportunity to choose whether they would have children. Many poor women of color were sterilized without their consent and often by the hands of the government. In an effort to control population and reproduction, sterilization became a norm, and the ultimate violation of the poor woman. Not surprisingly, the majority of the women who were sterilized were black.

It is important to understand that through time women have fought to win a battle of controlling their bodies and doing what they please. They have fought to regain a power that they have lost numerously throughout history. Women fight everyday saying “My body is my body. And I have the power to choose how I live with my body.”

Sexuality is such a taboo subject that society chooses to misinform future generations about it. To create a world that understands sexuality we must invite younger generations to try and understand a concept that will be ever present in their adult life. If they are taught with wrong information, how can they make the right decisions?

Questions from presentation

How is it that you feel that you exercise your power?

How are other bodies besides (poor) women (of color) politicked?

How can we invite sexuality into our classrooms, without crossing lines, or is it impossible?

Black Woman's Truths

As my final project for the Women and Media class, I will create a platform for black females allowing them to relate to each other and form an understanding about today’s perceptions of beauty and the black woman. The foundation of the platform will be a series of interviews conducting with women of various ages.

The first group will be of young black girls, around the age of 8-12. It will not be a large group of girls but it will provide an insight on how young black girls view themselves, their skin, their hair, and other physical features and its relation to how people act with them. A few questions that will be asked are “In what ways do their parents/family affect their perceptions of beauty? Do you have any role models that you see as pretty? Why do you think you are pretty?” It is extremely difficult for young black girls to find well rounded role models in media, is it possible for them to have that in their daily lives? Another important question to ask is whether media is so pervasive, has it affected the young girls thoughts surrounding beauty and the black female body. It is important to create a way for young girls to actually speak about this because it is imperative in the development of their thought process and how they interact with society. It is also important that a young girl can see herself on the screen as a beautiful well spoken being.

The second group of young women will range from the ages of 20-27. the main focus of the questions will mainly be concerned with beauty. Questions such as the standards of beauty, ideas internalized, messages portrayed by mass media, and how that particular female was/is she able to attain? Was it important for her to challenge the American standard of beauty? And to aid future generations are there ways that she can help someone else?

The last group that will be interviewed is a group of older black women, perhaps 30 and above. As the eldest group, these women will provide insight into how they attained their confidence and kept it throughout the years, or even if it was recently attained. Having role model for women to just look up to is important to create a well-rounded image of actual beauty in the real world.

The platform creates a transition for black girls and women of all ages to create a narrative of how they see themselves. The world around them, and their interactions with  it.

The interviews will be placed on a website. My intention is to create a website in which each woman that I interview will have her own profile that stems beyond her discussion of beauty, but what actually makes her beautiful. I will take photos of what is important in her life, have a quote that she bases her life around, her family, anything that helps define her. It complicates the images that presented by media, challenging the simplified nature of women and adding complexity. The interview will be just a snippet on the webpage, but the entire, edited, interview will be linked to YouTube. I will also post snippets of the interview of Tumblr, as gifs and as video.

I intend to use an iPhone to capture the footage. The ease of caring it around and the technology it has enhances the ease to capture the footage.

One of issues that I am still confused about is how I will incorporate academic information into the project. I am thinking that I can use one of the pages on the website to have academic information, maybe portions of documentaries, or links to information that increase knowledge of the black women and their lives. I can insert into the interviews, but that is one of the challenges that surrounds the project.

I want to work on this project updating it regularly so I can have an extensive amount of black women that complicate the images of the black woman. I believe adding this to my portfolio will display my dual majors in college, Africana Studies and Media. It really gives me an upper hand when explaining my passions concerning the world, and how I want to help change that.

Project Proposal

My project proposal consists of an original song written and recorded.  I would like to include many topics but mainly stick around self-identity, gender representation, and racial stereotypes in media.  I am making this because it brings awareness to many issues that are constantly being overlooked or slighted in society. I would like to entertain the audience while informing and addressing issues that hopefully introduce conversations about resolutions to the issues. 

The challenge in this project will be keeping the song entertaining enough to listen to by general audiences, while having controversial content. I will distribute and share this through social networks, and mp3 files. This fits my portfolio of work perfectly as it is a published work of art specifically written by myself and shows a different side of my artistry in song and in writing. This will be made primarily for people that are into poetry, music, and dance. 

The motive is to have the song grow and progress after the semester is over by being an example of contemporary R&B/POP that has real life issues at hand. Perhaps if our music and media starts to change for the better instead of holding years and decades of traditions with a history of various forms of oppression, maybe it will make an impact on the equality our society currently offers.

Timeline

Week 1 (3/29 – 4/04): Instrumental

Week 2 (4/05 – 4/11): Song Written

Week 3 (4/12 – 4/18): Song Recorded

Week 4 (4/19 – 4/25): Final Touches

Week 5 (4/25 – 5/01): Mix/Mastered

Links about the challenge:
Pop Music Has Gotten Worse
A Generation's Vanity, Heard Through Lyrics
Sexual Lyrics Predict Pop Music Popularity

Final Project Proposal – “Inspiring to Aspire”

(Still working with the title)

     My final project will be either an animated power point or a short video on empowering young women/teens.  Since, in this day and age, it has become a challenge to raise confident girls into confident women, I want to empower and take part in shaping young women to learn how to use the following elements to help give them the potential to believe in themselves:

1.     Self Worth – I want to help them learn how to uplift their self-esteem and encourage self-love.  Teens today are influenced negatively by society and even within the families and homes, they are raised in. I want to help them, with examples of my personal experiences to show them they can get past the obstacles that may seem at the time to discourage them.

2.     Education – I will focus on the importance of furthering their education.  I always stress with my two daughters that education is the most important asset they can attain.  I will focus on the following reasons why education is so important:

a.     Builds confidence.

b.     Helps you attain your goals.

c.      Helps you understand the world.

     The reason why I chose both these topics is the experience I have had with my two daughters.   Recently my 18 year old experienced her first heartbreak from a close friend.   She went thru what most of us have experienced but because I expressed to her the importance of self-love and worth, it made it less painful.  In the end, she told me that it made it easier for her to accept and was able to move on positively. 

13 and 18 Years Old

    

9 months and 4 years

     

My 13 year old is all about education and learning all she can and we support every endeavor she sets out to do.  I am hoping with sharing some of my personal experiences and theirs as well, I will help inspire other girls. 

     I want to present the video to young girls in Junior High Schools, High Schools and the CYO Team.  I am going to speak to the principals and coaches to see if it can be presented in class or published on their websites.

    

Please let me know if any of you have any suggestions and/or feedback. I also have never done a film but heard it was easy with a Mac. Any advice would be appreciated.  

Project Timeline:

Week 1 3/30-4/3:  Research and working on small script.

Week 2 & 3, 4/6-4/17:  Working on recording video and editing.

Week 4 4/20-4/24:  Get in touch with schools and CYO Coaches and work on ways to distribute the video.

Week 5 4/27-5/1:  Distribution video and getting feedback.

Research

http://www.empoweredgirl.org

http://girlsincnyc.org/aboutus.html

http://www.gems-girls.org

http://www.ywcanyc.org