The Other Version of My Video

Ok yall. This video has a song in the background.

My video

Defining Women

It finally worked. Here are the quotes that are supposed to be read in conjunction with the pictures. I wish this would have worked in class.

“For women…bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of commercial, idealized feminine images that our real and diverse female bodies can’t possibly fit. Without these visual references, each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique.”
-Gloria Steinem
“Curve: The loveliest distance between two points.”
-Mae West
“One is not born a woman, one becomes one.”
-Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
“I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.”
-Alanis Morissette
“The basic Female body comes with the following accessories: garter belt, panti-girdle, crinoline, camisole, bustle, brassiere, stomacher, chemise, virgin zone, spike heels, nose ring, veil, kid gloves, fishnet stockings, fichu, bandeau, Merry Widow, weepers, chokers, barrettes, bangles, beads, lorgnette, feather boa, basic black, compact, Lycra stretch one-piece with modesty panel, designer peignoir, flannel nightie, lace teddy, bed, head.”
-Margaret Atwood
“Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.”
-Mary Wollstonecraft
“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says ‘It’s a girl.’”
-Shirley Chisholm

Altering the body

I was thinking of the phrase "altering the body", I usually think of extremes like plastic surgery, or "The Body" exhibit.  But when you really break it down altering the body could include things that most of us hear about everyday, such as diet and exercise, pregnancy, and tanning.  Don't these things count at altering the body too?

The Duggars- We Are Family

I think it worked! Hooray!

Comment on Julianne's House episode

My computer won't let me post comments. I've missed several over the course of the semester and just noticed it, so I'm posting this comment as a blog.
How old was the kid that the mother 'makes all the decisions'? I can sympathize with the hearing mother; I am grateful everyday that my son doesn't have a disability. It would be difficult to embrace that sort of thing, as a parent, likely more difficult than a child who has never heard before.

House

I watched an episode of House last night and it tied together a lot of things that we have discussed in class dealing with disability and parents span of control over making decisions for their children.

In the episode a deaf teenager experiences explosions in his head so he is taking into the hospital. They test him for many different diseases and one of the procedures involves brain surgery. While the teen is under the knife House calls for the doctor to put in a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is a device that allows a deaf person to hear. When he wakes up he is shocked and extremely upset that he can hear. He doesn't want to hear because he has embraced being deaf and the lifestyle that goes along with it. He even attends an all deaf school and has a girl that attends the same school. The mother is also upset because she did not consent of the surgery, but she asks her son to give it a try. Well the boy is so upset that he rips the implant out of his own head, very gross. After this they end up curing whatever the boy had and the last scene is the mom telling her son that she is going to have the cochlear implant put back in. She wants her son to really give it a try, it takes awhile to really get comfortable with the implant and integrate into a hearing society. When the son asks her "why?" she responds by saying something along the lines of "because I am your mother and I am in charge of making those decisions.

Anyway it was a good episode, and as you can see from my synopsis, really deals with issues we have been discussing. Something else that is a topic in the episode is electing to be disable, which is what the son was trying to do to himself.

Joel Madden's Tattoos

Here is a picture of Joel Madden and his tattoos.

Joel Madden recently went to board a British Airways plane and was refused entry because of his tattoos. The staff told him that until he covered up his tattoos he wouldn't be allowed to board the plan. They claimed that his tattoos were offensive. Joel Madden says that all his tattoos are either of religious or family nature, in now way offensive at all.

I think that this story goes along with our final question regarding being able to do whatever one pleases with his/her body. Is it really fair to say that someones tattoos are offensive? What if Joel had tattoos on his face, would he be expected to cover them up or just refused access to the plane? After all we learned in this class tattoos seem to be one of the less severe things that one can do to their body, so I was surprised at this story.

Man or Woman?

So apparently one of the Matrix directors, Larry Wachowski, has completed his change into becoming a women. Larry, who now goes by Lana hasn't been seen for two years but is now out and about, this picture was taken at the Los Angeles Airport.
I looked at the picture before I read the story that accompanied it and was surprised to find out that she had once been a he. I honestly thought it was the actress Diane Lane. But anyway here is the photo of Larry now and next to it is a photo of Diane Lane.

Sheela na Gig

A Celtic goddess, I posted a picture as a comment to the Annie Sprinkle/speculum photo since it reminded me of depictions of this creation goddess. Since the images are often so old, most of what I could find is speculation and conjecture, but it's an interesting goddess since I was raised Catholic and we hide stuff like that in my religion.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.celticsymbols.net/SheelaL.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.celticsymbols.net/sheela-na-gig.html&usg=__kjqnU_hNnRTG_OTrRhg57pGDHcA=&h=613&w=419&sz=63&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=l9uOXSHU06nq-M:&tbnh=136&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsheela%2Bna%2Bgig%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Sexy Burqas

It seems that women are finding ways out of the confines of their burqas and sending textmessages with a digital layer of the cloth. Nearby cellphones with text and picture capabilities can pick up an image that the wearer of the burqa wishes to identify herself. It seems that interpreters of Sharia laws have never been faced with such a blatant defiance of tradition while still covered completely that it is not outlawed in many countries yet. Sexy Burqas

Gender Toys

My teacher told us a story that I thought I should shared...

It was Christmas time and she was shopping for her son's gifts. She asked him what he wanted and he said I want an easy bake oven. She replied, no no hunnie that is for girls lets get the bob the builder grill...its more of a boy toy and you will like that better.

I really do not understand why she could not get the easy bake even my dad bakes all the time and it does not make him any the less manly or a great husband and father.

What is the defintion of beauty?

I always wonder why women have to do so much to be considered beautiful...have cosmetic surgery, wear make up, add enhancements such as extensions, gloss that makes your lips look pleasantly plump and etc...

Why don't men have to go that extra mile in the morning in order for someone not to look at them in curiosity?

I just had to post it

So I was doing more research on my topic of sex trafficking and I ran across this photo...If its not girl its of a little girl holding a gun with the word feministe behind her. What do you think of this picture?

Embroideries & Chicken with Plums

I just found two more books by Marjane Satrapi. Embroideries is all about the sex lives of woman in Iran and an embroidery is when a woman gets 're-virgin-ized' before she gets married. Her stuff gets sewn together to make sure she bleeds and does not get honor killed. Included are the sexually frustrated wife, the wise grandmother with a checkered past and the artist that feels the strain of breaking convention tug at her soul.
Chicken with Plums is about her uncle and is set over nine dys in 1958 with flashbacks to events leading up to the event.

Windows Movie Maker

Hey guys! Since so many people are using this program for their project, I thought I would post a few troubleshooting things I ran into. I don't know if any of you have been or will be having these same issues, but I thought I'd save you some time by telling you what I found about them.

I wanted to load a music file from a CD I burned on Mediaplayer on my home computer. This same file is in my itunes. For some reason, the file was formated in .dca which is not supported by moviemaker. The file has to be converted to one of the supported files. My ex found a program online to convert the file and he converted it to an mp3 for me. When you go to "import audio" you may need to select from the "all files" section to find an mp3 file.

When you put your image files in your storyboard, you can edit the timeline by clicking and dragging. My problem was that I couldn't shrink the timeline as short as I needed it to be. If you are having this problem, you may need to maximize the storyboard to shrink the time for the frame to a shorter period. The maximize icon is the third from the left on the storyboard pane. You can also increase or decrease the time for the frame by going into video effects and scrolling down until you see the icon "speed up double" or "slow down half." Drag the icon onto your frame. You can do this multiple times to keep reducing or increasing the timeline for the frame. If you want to remove an effect (either a video effect or a transition effect), you can click on your frame and then on "video effects" in the menu. You can add or remove effects from this window. You can also remove a transition effect by clicking on the effect and selecting "delete."

Also - this may be common knowledge, but it was new to me and it made life MUCH simpler when I figured it out. If you drag all your images into a powerpoint file and edit them, you can go to "save as" and choose "other formats." Then at the bottom box under the file's name you can scroll down and select "JPEG something or another" and save every slide as a JPEG. Then, when you go to import pictures, you have all of your slides in picture format and you can select which slides to use from here. This was particularly useful because I could put my slides in the order I wanted them to appear in the storyboard in powerpoint, then save the slides as a JPEG, and then have them in order to drag into my video. If you make changes to the file, be sure to go back and save every file again as JPEG to do updates. I keep saving mine to my desktop for easy access, but I have to be sure to select "desktop" every time because it defaults to my documents and I keep opening it three or four times wondering "what the heck is wrong with this? Why didn't it save my stuff?" before I realize what I did wrong.

Now, I have a question for all of you if anyone knows. My video is coming along great except for one issue. I am doing a rapid succession of images and they are stuttering sometimes. I think this may just be because of the memory on my computer or because I have so many other programs open at the same time, but I'm not sure. Sometimes it works just right and sometimes it doesn't. Does anyone know if this problem will go away once the video is published?

I'm really getting the hang of this, so if you have any questions I might can help (or at least empathize if I can't!) I'm going to be hanging out in my office some this weekend so you can email me at my work email (you should all have it in the last email AKB sent) or I can give you my phone number if you want it. You know I'm all worried about displaying that kind of personal info online so feel free to email me today before 4:30 and I will send it to you via email (or send me your number and I'll send it to you via text!)

I'm loving this project thing. It's the coolest thing I've ever done and I'm feeling a real sense of accomplishment from it. I hope you guys are enjoying it, too!!

Medical Decisions for a Child

I was thinking about the My Sister's Keeper post and I wanted to pose a question.

THe parents in the story have conflicting feelings about what is best for Anna and Kate and the kidney transplant. What happens when parents don't agree? Who gets to make medical decisions for a child? Should one parent have a greater say than the other?

Going back to my son's kidney thing - when the doctor first told us about it, he said that if it becomes a chronic problem, they will do surgery. My ex-husband's first response is, let's do surgery anyway and then it won't be a problem. My response is let's do whatever is the least invasive, least intense protocol. Let's only do surgery as a last resort.

The mama bear part of me flared at my ex-husband and I realized that even though we have joint custody and generally agree on all aspects of our children's care, I feel an intense sense of possession when it comes to these medical decisions. How far would I take it to make sure what I wanted done was done?

Do you think that one parent should be given priority over the other when it comes to these decisions?

Cyborg???

So I know we discussed this in class. However, I am still confused on what actually is it. I tried to research the true meaning but its still a little unclear.

Any suggestions on where I can find out about this or can you explain this concept to me?

sex trafficking

I read another book called Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey and it is a historical fiction that centers around one woman who works in the Court of the Night-blooming Flowers (she's a very highly trained, well-paid and much respected whore). Their society sort of revolves around the 'teachings' of Kushiel, an angelic disciple of Christ who I think fell to earth after Christ died. I did a little research and I believe Kushiel is the name of a seraphim in Jewish lore, a very sex-oriented seraphim. The children sold into the Court are able to earn their 'marque' which is a full-back tattoo. When they earn enough to complete their 'marque', they are free to work for themselves or retire. It was a very interesting story and it sort of glorifies the sex trade in a historical context.

Sex Slaves

So I know that I was talking about the frontline video in class today on sex trafficking. I just find it to be really interesting so here's the preview.

The whole frontline page is pretty interesting. I went to the section called join the discussion and read a few comments, some of which were not helpful at all but some of which discussed how factors like poverty levels lead women to become trapped in theses situations. I just thought I'd share! I think what's interesting here to me is that one of the traffickers is female (Olga) which is something that I had previously not considered before we viewed this video in class. I suppose I just assumed that all sex traffickers were male but that is certainly not the case!

Sex Slaves Frontline Page

I just re-googled it and it actually looks like you can watch the whole video. But if you don't have time at least watch the excerpt!

Cyborg Theory

I came up with this idea regarding cyborgs, it may be crazy or not even make sense but Ill share it regardless.
I think that we are moving swiftly toward a society that is made up completely of cyborgs, because of our reliance on internet. So many people have the internet, their cell phones, and/or laptops that they are never not connected to the world wide web. So in a way I think that cyborgs are all around us, just not in the classical sense of say The Terminator. We have become so dependent on the internet that it has become a part of who we are.
Also, I think that this could tie into Marie's presentation on online identities. So many people have some form of identity on the internet, this personality is part of who they are.
On Wikipedia it says that "the cyborg is often seen today merely as an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology." Couldn't this explanation apply to many of us?
I'm not sure if this makes sense or not but just something I have been thinking about, I would like to think of it as my own condensed cyborg manifesto :)

the dog ate my homework

Max's puppy is just over two months old and as I was sitting at the computer this morning searching for a topic for yet another blog posting, the puppy devoured Monday's issue of the New York Times. I got up to clean up the mess and noticed she left a page open for me with a large drawing of a covered woman reading a book. The title was Afghan Women March, America Turns
Away. How fortuitous that Sofi left me the page devoted to women's issues in Afghanistan!
Democracy is hard to come by in some of the Middle East and the article addresses America's involvement, deploring our 'lack of attention' to the matter of their democracy. The author states that almost 65% of Afghans are under the age of 25 and came of age not under the traditional tribal culture that many Americans associate with Afghanistan. The article addresses the issue of America's economic difficulties, stating that perhaps helping Afghanistan democratize is a luxury American taxpayers cannot afford or a charitable cause they can delay, and asserts that without the help fro the United States, they may not achieve their goal. The radical regime takes the lack of aid as a weakness in their governmental structure and the Taliban remains strong. To prove the strength of Afghan determination to over rule the current circumstances, the article begins with an event that ended with several young women attacked for attending school. Even though they were severely burned and some disfigured, they returned to school as soon as they were able. The girl's determination seems to fit the typical opinion of Afghans as "'fierce independent fighters' who mercilessly defy external influence" since I'm not sure I'd be bold enough to return to school if I had acid poured on me just for attending; that's an external influence I'm glad I don't have to worry about.

what is a feminist?

LC declared her feminism a few posts ago, and opened a discussion of how we define this term. As we approach our last day of class for this course, this might be the perfect end note. So, my dear students and other blog readers, please respond and give your definition of this word -- what does it mean to you to be a feminist? Or, and perhaps more interestingly, why do you not identify as a feminist?

At the risk of pushing all other posts off this page, I'm going to paste a bunch of quotes that answer this question for me:

Feminism as bumper sticker:

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people"

Women's Rights Manifesto

Because woman's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and ...for lots and lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.

"Well-behaved women seldom make history."
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
-Madeleine K. Albright

"Considering how dangerous everything is nothing is frightening."
-Gertrude Stein

"It is not possible to address society's needs at any level while ignoring the perspectives, priorities, and knowledge of more than half of the world's population."
-Rosina Wilshire of UNDP

"Women give life. We have the capacity to give life and light. We can take up our brooms and sweep the earth."
-Isabelle Letelier

"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
-Alice Walker

"Violence against women will end when legal, philanthropic, governmental and non-governmental organizations and impassioned individuals unite and stand up to say it is a priority, to say that the time for ending violence is now."
-Eve Ensler

"And ain't I a woman?"
-Sojourner Truth

"Also we've found that when we discuss women's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do about the problem. And so that they can learn as well. If they don't learn, they don't progress."
-Rigoberta Menchu (222)

Blackbird

By Jennifer Lauck
Has anybody read this book? The subtitle is A Childhood Lost and Found
It's about a little girl growing up amid a lot of trouble. Her mother is very sick, but she never knows why. She starts out as a very little girl and describes her mother: Mama is coffee and cigarettes and Big Red chewing gum. There are a lot of very tangible descriptions that bring you into her story as if you are there. Her wicked step mother makes her move her own furniture from one house to another and she describes it: I dragged my princess bed up eleven blocks, through seven traffic lights, up the steps, etc. And then she had to go back for the rest of her special princess furniture.
The story is all tangible, how she moves in the circles she's thrown into. She doesn't seem to relate to anybody else except that they are in close proximity to her physically and it was interesting, after this class, to recognize how detached she really was from the physical world throughout the story.

one more thing for tonight...Identity!

ok I'm really sorry because I don't even really need more posts but I found something else

Ok so this video is a clip with the bodies world director. In one part the reporter asks who will benefit and the director says "all of humankind." I think that in lieu of the story about the French court that is an interesting perspective. I promise that this is the last I'll post on it!

more bodies exhibit!...

Hey guys, I know I've posted a ton on this already but I just thought that this article was very interesting. I've been looking at different articles on bodies exhibits for a different class this semester but I came across this one. It's about how they're shutting down a bodies show in France because it was declared indecent. In fact, the decision could apparently make all French museams to remove bodies and skeletons from display. I just think that it's such an interesting contrast compared to how the body exhibit is viewed here. Although the French still flock to view the visit (I'm fairly certain that the article says that they have had a steady stream of visitors), their law is actually trying to stop it. This is the first article that I've come across showing a country or region with this kind of reaction. I think that there's something to be said for both sides the more that I look at the issue but I just thought that I would share since I've posted so many other things about the bodies exhibit.

Article about French and Bodies

Fun time: What body shape are you?

So the semester is rounding up not so smoothly and I am trying to catch up with my blogs...slacker I know but here is a quiz to inform you on your body shape. After you take the quiz reflect on your results...please and thank you =-)

http://quiz.myyearbook.com/myspace/HealthBody/252394/Which_body_shape_are_you.html

BEWARE: FACEBOOK

Since we were talking about it today I decided to blog on it ;-)

I personally think that facebook should be used to hire because the internet is a public sphere and facebook is a website so you should be cautious on what you put on a public sphere such as the internet.

http://campusprogress.org/features/769/what-you-dont-know-about-facebook

CRASH

I saw this movie for the first time last year and I fell in love with it and the meaning behind it and I thought I should share the trailer with you all. It is dealing with race, class, and gender issues, it is intertwine with several stories within two days in LA.

If you have a chance to watch this movie please do =-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es7UbHPeOhs&feature=related

Trade

I think I mentioned this movie back when we were first exploring our paper topics, so I'm sorry I waited so long to talk about it again.
This movie gives a really frightening journey of being kidnapped and forced into being a sex slave, and how family members are affected. I don't want to give anything away, but this movie is great and definitely worth watching. It begins with two girls who travel to Brazil and once they arrive are kidnapped by the "travel agency" and taken into the sex trade. It follows the story of these two girls but then there is another storyline going on, which I won't reveal!
Here is the trailer for the movie, if you are interested I own the movie so anyone can borrow it but I will need it back. Just a disclaimer: it is a very intense/sad/shocking movie.


On another note, I wonder if there is a market for sex trafficking of men? It seems that when we hear about sex trafficking it is always about women.
I also wonder how the numbers compare between men and women being sex trafficked or if data is even available for men in the sex trade?
Finally, as far as running these trades I wonder the percentage of women being in charge VS. men being in charge? I think it would be surprising to see how often women run these sex trades and just use men as the muscle to control the girls.

Sex Trafficking

Since I am doing my presentation Thursday I did not want to spoil my other video but here is another video from a news documentary on sex trafficking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2MOgi0uCPs

I was just wondering...

So I was reading the logic of LC....I am a maniac!!

I have a mind boggling question...

What is the meaning of a feminist?

I'm a Maniac

So I  just have to post this one thing and I won't anymore for a few days!

My experience in college has been quite the roller coaster ride...one of those ones where you have to sit backwards so every surprise has an extra kick!  I've learned so much about myself and other people.  I can't believe that I am the person that I am today.  I'm not perfect but I am content where I am.  

One of the things that I've really learned about myself is that I am a feminist.  I never wanted to admit that before because I wasn't sure how to define it but I think I finally got it!  Last Thursday in class we talked about Haraway article and how she's an anti-essentialist feminist.  I remember rolling my eyes at the idea that women should fall into categories and be happy there.  Instead I have decided that I am an essentialist feminist and women can fall into any category they please and society should accept the two genders, and all those in between, as equals.  Someone fought for my equality and I'm going to be gracious and accept it.

Whew~ that was really opinionated of my but I just wanted to get that off my chest.  No pun intended.  See you all in class!

Too Much TV

Khloe Kardashian

So I watch a lot of TV and one of favorite shows is Keeping Up with the Kardashians.  One of the more recent episodes Khloe was asked to pose for PETA, nude of course, as a part of their anti-fur campaign.  The episode was a little sad but also eye opening because poor Khloe isn't 5'3", 120 lbs on a heavy day like her sisters.  Instead I think she's about 5'7" weight unknown but fly nonetheless.  I was proud of her for eventually standing up and posing for the campaign because it really showed that she cared about the issue and she finally gained enough courage to show off her body.  I posted a link to the picture above.  Don't worry, it's know graphic.  

What pissed me off though was the way her step-father Bruce suggested that she lose a few pounds!!  Ugh!  When you see the pictures you can see that the girl doesn't need to lose anything...I mean really Bruce?  Ugh makes me sick.

Miss North Dakota 1997

Was recently arrested in Iran for "spying" for American interest. Her charges were vague, however, according to her father, and he had never seen what the actual charges were. She was writing a book about the culture in Iran.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_us_journalist

Ya Ya

I read the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood over spring break and was really moved by how very traumatic relationships between mothers and daughters are so commonplace. The characters were very close friends and, growing up in the deep south, comfortable with their bodies enough to sleep nearly nude on their front porch during the summer! A far cry from the books on Muslim women, who are taught to deny their earthly bodies, it was so refreshing to read the story of women who are so deeply in tune with their bodies. I'd never even seen the movie, so I had no idea what to expect from the book, but it was a great read.

just for fun...but it's about prostitutes!

So perhaps this is not 100% relevant but it's kind of funny. Today I was sitting in Dr. Brainerd's class (Systems and Theories...it's super exciting, let me tell you). And we were talking about Freud (which we have talked about in class so this is semi-relevant) and his defense mechanisms. Specifically we began talking about reaction formation (deny the unacceptable emotion but you substitute the exact opposite emotion in your mind) and he just likes to give lively examples. So he's in the middle of giving a very loud rendition of a televangelist yelling about prositutes and wanting to put them all in the grand canyon, fill it with gasoline, and burn them all ALIVE. He was yelling and going on and on about it and the room that we meet in is one of the rooms that is right off of the main entrance to Brackett so it is, of course, at this very moment that a tour group walks by. Everyone is peering into the window and looking alarmed while he's yelling about prostitute and burning them alive. I'm quite curious as to how many were scared away from Clemson (or at least their parents)!

Anywho, the televangelist was caught with a prositute showing that while he hated them and truly believed that he hated them, some despicable part of him loved them (at least according to Freud). It was kind of funny and made me think of this class since we were talking about prositution on Tuesday.

gender and experimentation

Two interesting articles in the NYTimes today -- one on how Disney is doing market research to gain more young boy viewers and consumers, another on "postnature" and Stelarc (who we mentioned in relation to Orlan), and Stelarc's extra ear (the one implanted on his forearm). Take a look!

Toddlers and Tiaras

I just saw this commercial on TV for a new show that just came out, and I thought I'd share it with you all.  The new show called "Toddlers and Tiaras" focuses on young girls (ages 18mo- 13 years old) who compete in pageants.  Being that we are living in the south I never thought twice about the girls that compete in these pageants.  After watching this opening though, I began to think from the other side of this argument.  Are we exploiting these girls? Is it right to have them wear fake hair, fake teeth, fake eyelashes, and get fake tans, so they can look beautiful? I think this sets these girls up for unrealistic expectations on what their bodies should look like.  I also wonder what are these girls going to think of their bodies as they get older, if this is what they are exposed to at such an early age?! Take a look and tell me your thoughts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxHHBUgDGq4

Random Post

So the other day in class we were talking about face transplant stuff.  I am obsessed with AOL.com and their news so today I was shocked to look online and see something about face transplants becoming more popular.  I posted the link so you all could take a look.

Face Transplants

Sprinkle and Stuff

Today's discussion was pretty intense!  LOL As I said in class, I wish Williams was more direct in her thinking.  I really enjoyed the article but she was very ambiguous about her stance on things.  And I thought I was really weirded out by waht Williams was saying about Sprinkle but then I goggled her name to see what would happen and below is one of the images I found.  It's really graphic so look at your own discretion.  I think in showing this image, it reinforces the idea of comfort and what I would associate with feminism.  In this picture, we can see how truly free Sprinkle is, not only in her sexuality but also with her body.  I wonder if this is the same freedom that Olan has with her body.  She must feel some sort of freedom is she chooses to do whatever she wants to her face and body and come under the gaze as she does.  Even though I didn't understand why she was showing her body, it must have also been to make a statement.  Anywho...click the ling to see the Sprinkle image...which I found on the broolynmuseum.org website...how sheltered could she have been!?

Sprinkle and Her Cervix

Also, if it's here then it must be art...or at least someone thinks so.

Isabelle Dinoire

Hey guys! Here's some of the news stories on Isabelle Dinoire in case you're interested. I think that there are some interesting comments about Dinoire being "satisfied" with her new face. Particularly in the Washington Post story, there is a part that talks about how she has not had a formal psychological evaluation and alludes to the potential problems that she may be experiencing. I think that it's an interesting link to some of what we were discussing in class this afternoon about how a facial transplant affects the sense of the body and sense of self or lack thereof that a person might potentially experience in this situation. I'm curious as to how she does feel about all of this!

CBS News Story on Isabelle Dinoire

Washington Post Story

My Sister's Keeper

So I just finished reading My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult and I seriously reccomend it to all of you, if you haven't read it. It deals with issues regarding the body. Specifically, the story follows a family whose eldest daughter suffers from cancer. The parents conceived another child (Anna) as a perfect match for donating to her sister (Kate). After 13 years and when Kate is needing a kidney donating Anna seeks medical emancipation from her parents. That is the basic plot without giving anything away.
The book deals with some pretty heavy issues dealing with the body and organ donation. It asks how much say does a minor have over there body? When can a parent's intentions for their children cross the line? It also examines the relationships in families.
So I really think you all should read the book because it is amazing!!!!

Body Farm

I was reading the post about the body display in Atlanta and remembered an even more disturbing display of bodies: a body farm where forensic students get to study human decomposition.
There is one in Cullowhee, NC for Western Carolina University students and is only the second one of it's kind in the nation (according to the website). I saw it on the news, way before this class, and just checked out the site. I'm just glad I'm not a forensic student. I can't imagine how it must smell on that farm.

My Angry Vagina

Hey guys! I know that this is a little delayed because we were talking about the Vagina Monologues last week BUT I told one of my friends about the project that we're doing for our class and she told me that she had seen this video on youtube when she was looking for a rendition of My Angry Vagina. It says that it's a project for a Women's Studies class. I think that this is my favorite from the vagina monologues (although that depends on the day). I just love it! But I thought that it was a pretty interesting project (perhaps an idea? it totally relates to the class!) I think that I like this monolgue so much because it addresses a lot of the complaints that women are constantly making in jest...except that it's not totally in jest. I think that this is a really good version too!

more bodies exhibit and the black market

Hey guys! The link that I posted was just to see the link to the Atlanta tickets so I thought that if any of you were interested I would post the link to the exhibit. You can read about the systems they're preserving and the process that they go through to preserve the bodies and organs.

This is the real bodies exhibit link...that was just for tickets!

I read the home page and came across the bottom:

Countless visitors have remarked that the knowledge gained from the experience has provided them with a new connection to their own bodies. Others claim a new reverence for life and a desire to take a more preventative approach to their health care. To quote writer and philosopher John Conger whose words are displayed in the exhibition, “Without the body, the wisdom of the larger self cannot be known.”

I think that this was an interesting way to look at it. Instead of detracting from the body and how people view it, perhaps it puts them more in touch with their body and will take better care of it.

I also found this article on the bodies exhibit: Exclusive: Secret Trade in Chinese Bodies
It's a really interesting article about the exhibit and about how perhaps some of the bodies were executed Chinese prisoners.
There is also an article about the black market in bodies: N.Y., China Investigating Black Market in Bodies

Now this DOES mess with the sanctity of the body. I'm just saying.

making movies!

My loaner computer does not have movie maker so I made one with Marie and took notes. Anyone who was in class, if you have anything to add to my disjointed notes, please feel free to add to them!

making a movie with moviemaker
go to helmstreet.com/sample.wav and download to save file. Save somewhere that is easily accessible to use for this assignment. This is the audio track.
Assignment instructions under Course documents in bb
open Windows Movie Maker. Use Timeline mode, not storyboard. Open audio, import the sample.
Add title for the audio track under Edit Movie. Now we match the video with audio. To begin, there are 10 seconds before the track begins so drag the track back to the beginning.
In class, we titled it "who am I?" and added Spiderman pics. You can import pics from anywhere (when we each made our own, we used images from google, facebook, and myspace as well as just on the computer). To stop an image after the audio, for example the image with the title, just move the end of the image to line up with the green line that signals where the dialog I chose to illuminate ends so that the square with the writing has a common edge with the green line. It is quite simple to drag the image down to just above the audio track. After you've imported a picture into moviemaker, just drag down to the track. If you stop the audio just after he finishes the question "Who am I?" there will be a green line where you stopped it. Make sure the image is before the line so it will not show after the question is heard.
On the left side task pane, 2.Edit movie has transitions and effects. Insert transition effects between the images (by dragging) so they flow smoothly. Add effects by layering on top of the picture (also drag and drop).
Save project frequently while working!!! File>>>save movie file>>>mycomputer>>>my videos Make sure to publish and then upload to youtube. If you don't have a youtube account, you may need to create one. I'll add the movie when it has processed.