Donald Trump vs. Pope Francis

When it comes to women's rights, two people that have completely opposing views are Donald Trump, and the greatest Pope of all time, Pope Francis. In order to compare these two I am going to use REAL quotes.

Donald Trump:
“Women have one of the great acts of all time. The smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person who came up with the expression ‘the weaker sex’ was either very naive or had to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye — or perhaps another body part.”-Donald Trump in "Trump: The Art of the Comeback"

Pope Francis
"Women of strength, fighters, with that spirit of courage which puts you on the front lines in the proclamation of the Gospel, I wish to say 'thank you,' a big thank you... and to tell you that I love you very much."

As you can see here, Donald Trump, accused women of being manipulative, and "real killers", Where as Pope Francis says that Women are strong and courageous  and appreciates all they do for the Church and our Families. 

Donald Trump
"It's certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on 'The Apprentice' were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal." 

Pope Francis
"Women are too often looked upon in the Church as servants and not as sisters, who are as much in charge as brothers,"

Donald Trump believes that in order to get success, women need to be dependent on their sex appeal. Pope Francis however, believes that women's role, in the Church and outside the Church is to be supportive, and equal to their male counterparts, rather than a slave to their male counterparts.


To wrap it up, I would like to share a REAL tweet by Donald Trump

Donald Trump:
26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?

Donald Trump assumes that when you put men and women together, it is human nature that there will be sexual assault, when in reality, the way society sexualizes EVERYTHING, leads to Rape and Sexual Assault.

In conclusion, Pope Francis for President.

PSAs and Passion Project Progression

This week has been pretty productive! Last week I reached out to the Gender Studies department at UNCC to look for a speaker, and the response I got was incredible! I had one of the professors email me, just to tell me about the importance of my project and how she was impressed by it, and that really meant a lot to me. I was able to find a speaker, and will be meeting with her in the next week or so, to discuss my plans, and intent with my project.
In class this week, we have been working on Public Service Announcements, and my group was assigned online safety, I think the video came out really well and I hope people get the message from it. They will be published next week, and so I will like the video to my blog. It was cool working with software such as iMovie and Garage Band more to create the project, and I am starting to feel more and more competent with the software.

I also am in the process of working on the video, and have finished interviews and I think the material I have will work really well.

This week I found a campaign and organization that I'm really interested in. The organization is called The Representation Project. They produced a couple of documentaries, including Miss Representation, a very popular movie on the representation of women in media, and how women view themselves as powerful from their beauty and sexuality rather than their ability to be a leader. Not only does the campaign work with women's portrayal, but they talk a lot about the mask that men wear to seem "manly" and "strong". Here are two videos by Representation Project!!!

The Mask You Live In (Trailer)

Demand Better Media in 2015

I recommend you check out those videos, and take a look at The Representation Project website at the link below!!

The Representation Project

Peace and Love!
Kate

Character Building

This week was a character building week. At the community pitch, there were some people whom you could tell didn't quite want to to be seen as a feminist or have their picture taken. Then, that evening and into this morning I had a twitter debate about "meninism" and what it stands for. With all this in mind, it made me scared for the day of the girl. I don't want to make a fool of myself by spreading awareness of a movement, but at the same time, that cowardliness is what I'm trying to fix. So often women feel incompetent and aren't willing to stand up for what they believe. If I were to bow out, I would just emphasis that feeling. I am going to find people who don't agree with me, and I can try  my hardest to try and change that, but some are so stubborn, they won't even think about changing. Women need to know that they are strong, and defending an opinion doesn't make them annoying, or whiny, it makes them strong. If no women had ever stood up for what they believed, we would still be objectified, and owned by males. We wouldn't be able to vote, and we would all still be wearing skirts. Feminism has come a long way, but we are still far from equality. While it is not quite as visible with individuals, the institutionalization of sexism can be blatantly seen with sex trafficking and the necessity of laws such as Title IX.

I have to support this through and through. I will not back down. Without strong women, the movement would be nothing. I may be opinionated, but I am well informed, and that's what this movement needs. People won't take anyones opinion seriously unless they are well informed, and even some won't take informed people seriously.

I could write about this for years and years, as I am beginning to feel how passionate I am about this. This is the thing though. These are the points I want to get across:

-Feminism is not a joke
-Feminism supports both male and female rights, and there is a movement to eliminate the amendment stating that females are guaranteed parental custody, started by feminist.
-If I were to back down, I would be opening a door for people to continue to see women as weak
-Feminism is a unified movement, and while there are different types of feminists, anyone and everyone can be a feminist
-Feminism supports equality all people, any race, any gender, any sex, any sexual orientation, any religion.
-While conversation isn't always the most fun, it is the only way to get people to think about the issues at hand

-Silence is never the answer.


Peace and Love,

Kate

Glitter....everywhere

Unfortunately this week I missed Monday and Tuesday of school for the Golf State Championship. When I came back, we were working on our Passion Project community pitches. Fortunately, this week I was able to track down many more interviewees, and I have a date picked out to interview. This week I came up with an idea to get media for the video easily. I am going to have people at our community pitch take a picture with a sign that says this is what a feminist looks like, and put them in the video and have it flash through and stuff. Hopefully this week goes well and I get some good footage. Even with everything going on, I can see my project starting to come together!!

My community pitch poster is finished and I am really proud of the product. I included some information about feminism and some of the misconceptions, hopefully to get my point across to the people. I also included some quotes, including the one below, that shows the point of view I am taking. To add some eye-catching stuff I glittered a couple of things on the poster, and I keep finding glitter in all my clothes, and even in my hair. Fortunately, the glitter serves as a reminder that I need to prepare for tomorrow, and I need to finish my digital portion of my set up. I'm excited to get some feedback from the community this week!

Busy Busy Busy

With the end of the quarter a few weeks back, I'm starting to really see how much I have to do and I see the due date of the community pitch fast-approaching. Unfortunately, this is the busiest time of year for me, with golf post-season leaving me missing multiple days of school a week, and I am really having to scramble. This week I was able to start story-boarding my video and collect interviewees. Also, I have been in contact with school administration to try and get a date on the calendar. I am much further behind than I thought, and I kind of feel like I am swimming in to-do lists and sticky notes. I am hoping to get a speaker picked out and contacted within the next week or two, and begin filming the video.

Hopefully, by the end of next week I will be almost fully caught up and ready to move forward, considering the main obstacle I'm facing is my own time. The good thing is I have finished all my college applications and can officially relax and start to focus my time more on this project.

With all this in mind, I hope you all can learn from my mistakes, and plan ahead, so you aren't left swimming in post-it notes like me.

#WeAreAllUncool

This week in class we talked about Social Media, and its impacts on people. Being an avid social media user, I really enjoyed the lessons. Something that I connected to was the idea of Social Media only showing the best parts of peoples lives. So often people just gloat about where they are, who they're with, what they've done, etc. This leaves people comparing them whole selves to only the best part of other people. This is what the #WeAreAllUncool Campaign is all about. The #WeAreAllUncool campaign wants to put stereotypes and make people more confident in themselves. Here is my #WeAreAllUncool post:)

1) When I was 5 I decided to stuck a bead up my noise and almost had to go to the hospital. 

2) When I was in 8th Grade I was obsessed with Justin Bieber and actually thought I was going to marry him.

3) I have the tastebuds of a small child.

Teaching Teachers to Teach

This past Friday our class was given the opportunity to lead the professional development that the teachers are required to attend. We split up into two groups, one to talk about technology in social studies classes and one on science technology. I was in the social studies group and I covered the idea of implementing vertical learning using schoology discussions. I wanted the teachers to set up groups with both middle school and high schoolers to help each other learn. 

This was something I wanted to do because I don't like the idea of being tutored by people in the same class as me. I felt like they would look down on me for not being able to absorb information as well and I didn't was other people to experience this feeling. By setting up groups between younger and older students, they are given an outlet without feeling incompetent.

Going into the day I was a little nervous, since I had heard that teachers are the worst teachers, but once the teachers started to get there my nerves relaxed. My presentation went pretty well but I felt almost as though it was really short. I am really hoping that I got my point across even though I did spend that long talking about it.

The best part of the afternoon was seeing some of the teacher whom I haven't seen in years and catching up with them. One of my favorite teachers was there and she and I talked for a while and while it wasn't what we were actually supposed to be doing, it was awesome to see her.

I enjoyed leading the PD, and while it was really scary, the feedback we got was great and I'm glad the teachers were able to a the perspective of a student.

5 Reasons Why Everyone Needs Feminism

We have all seen the pictures of women holding signs that say "I need feminism because...." but I thought I would wrap all those thoughts into 5 reasons both Men and Women need feminism.

5) Gendercide

In countries in which there is population control, such as china, familie are aborting female children, so they can have a male. IN these cultures, males are considered worth more, as they are supposed to take care of the family, and work. This has led to a much larger male population than female population, limiting reproductive rates, and making it difficult for men to find partners.

4) Paid Parental Leave

In most countries, working parents are allowed a certain number of days to spend "parenting". In the US this is not provided, therefore enhancing the gender roles of men working and women parenting. The working parent is left wih a weaker relationship with their children.

3) Cat-Calling/ Street Harrassment

Yesterday, I was in Uptown Charlotte, walking down the road, and between the time I left the building and got to my car I was cat-called at twice. It made me never want to go Uptown again. Cat-calling is a form of sexual harrassment, and while much more prevalent in cultures other than ours, it is still something women face daily. People should never feel uncomfortable going places.

2) Rape Culture

Growing up, women are constantly taught how to protect themselves from rape with the littlest tips, like holding their cup a different way, or dressing certain ways. Men however, are not taught to NOT rape. It has become culture that women need to be educated on preventing rape, however constantly, jokes are made about rape, and it has become culture. If the idea of not raping was engrained in the brains of men as much as the ways to protect against it are for women, thousands of women would not be raped yearly.

1) Gender Roles and Slurs

Men are constantly told to "be a man" or that they do something "like a girl" They are expected to be the workers, to be strong, unemotional, and always prepared. Women are expected to be fully reliant on men, and to do more "womenly" things, like cooking and cleaning. Women need to learn to be independent, and Men need to be able to show emotions and not be considered "feminine".

Heres a link to a commercial shown during the super bowl this past year, that really hit me. I am obssesed with it. https://youtu.be/XjJQBjWYDTs

Chattin it up on Twitter and Sisterly Advice

So this week we talked about twitter chats, and I would say I was really surprised at how popular and useful twitter chats are. I am a pretty active user of social media, especially twitter, but typically all I see on twitter is people complaining, and retweeting funny videos. It was cool to kind of see how twitter can be used constructively.

Part of our assignment for the week was finding a twitter chat to participate in soon. I spent about an hour and a half trying to find one about women's rights. I found one on a twitter chat schedule, called #HERchat. The website called it a chat about women's empowerment and rights, but when I looked up the chat, they were discussing how to stay fit over labor day.... I wasn't impressed to say the least. I was shocked that there were no chats almost relatively about my topic, considering how much there is to discuss.  I ended up finding a chat called #SocialMillenial which talks about how millenials (People born from 1986-2004) such as myself, use social media to be a positive influence. While their weren't that many people involved last week in the chat, I'm hoping that maybe it will gain momentum. I would really like to hear what people say about this topic.

If I were to hold a Twitter chat, I would probably have it discussing the issues I'm covering with my passion project. I would probably have each week focused on a different side of institutional sexism. I would talk about Rape Culture, Societies expectations for Men vs Women, Street Harrassment, and things of that sort. I could use a twitter chat to get brains flowing on the idea. I have friends who I know would definitley join in on the chat, and I think the more people I get to chat, the more people who join. If I can get people to just start thinking about women's rights, and institutional sexism, I think it will draw interest into my event. 

Speaking of my Passion Project, this week I spent a while talking to my sister about some ideas to get the "Day of the Girl" to gain momentum. In college, my sister was part of the App State Women's Club, and from that experience she has some good contacts in the community for me. She has found a few people for me to contact about being a mentor, and I am hoping to have a lockdown on my mentor in the next few weeks. Another thing we talked about is how to get people to come. There is nothing people love more than free stuff and food, so she advised that I find some businesses in the community, like restaurants, to donate items like gift certificates that I can raffle off, and also contact local organizations to see if they can give me items like stickers to give away. I'm really getting excited about this project and can't wait to keep moving on it!

Thrown in with the Sharks

This week we worked as a class to develop our ideas by doing "Shark Tank" style presentations. In these presentations we explained what we we are doing for our projects in just about a minute or two, and the class asked us questions to clarify the details. My presentation was less about the "Day of the Girl" event and more so about the ideas I am trying to get across. People asked me questions about my opinions on certain things, and who exactly I am trying to target. This really helped me clear up my thoughts, and what I want to include in the event, booth wise, etc. I am hoping to get help from my schools feminist club to help me work the event and things of that sort, but the club was just approved by the school and hasn't begun meeting yet. I am also hoping to have found a mentor and contacted them by the end of next week. I'm thinking of looking into professors of local colleges and universities who teach gender studies or women's studies. 

Listening to other people's presentations was really cool. It's interesting to see what some people are really interested in, and I've even been suprised with some. I've known some of my classmates as long at 7 or 8 years, yet I keep finding out more about them. Some of the idea's brought up some tough topics, such as the differences in sexual orientation, and awareness of mental health, and I'm really excited to see how they go about this and how they go about talking about these issue's with high schoolers. I'm really impressed with everyone's ideas and can't wait to see how they play out!!

Not a thing of the past.

This week I started to look into some organizations and projects that I could expand off of relating to my passions, and I came across a website called dayofthegirl.org. The website is about a UN started holiday about awareness of the issues women face, and the accomplishments of women. On the website they guides to holding an official "Day of the Girl" event. One of the options was a night of the arts, both musical, artistic, and written. This caught my eye because I am very passionate about music and wish to go into to the business side of music, so this idea would be combining two of my interests and passions.

In my event, I would have locals artists of all types perform, preferable songs or art with a message advocating for gender equality. Additionally at the event I would set up a series of booths with information on issues facing women today. To advertise the event I plan on creating a video, SoulPancake style, asking people basic questions about women in their life, and hopefully getting some really hardy answers. At the beginning I will ask them whether they think they are a feminist and then again at the end.

I think that the issues that I will be bringing up in the event, such as rape culture, the gender wage gap, domestic violence, human trafficking, use of derogatory language towards women and "The Trans Question", are really important because people think that the womens rights issues have been solved and that the movement is a thing in the past.  In reality, the injustices women face today, are institutionalized so people don't realize that they are being sexist or that they are taking away human rights. My goal is to help de-institutionalize sexism, and help people learn to pinpoint the problems. Feminism and the womens rights movement isn't a thing of the past, so why is it so stigmatized? 

Dissecting My Passions

In the past week we have discussed finding our passions and looking for things that we could focus on for projects. To take a deeper look we made heartbreak maps. A heartbreak map is an idea that came from Angela Maiers, in which you look at what breaks your heart about things you love. You can read more about it here->  ow.ly/PEeMc    
On a heartbreak map, you draw three layers, the things you love, the things that break your heart, and solutions. This is my heartbreak map.

                                        
As you can see, some of the things I love are Music, Human Rights movements, and the movement towards awareness of Mental Illness. I am very passionate about the human rights movement and would call myself a feminist. While I was going about making my heartbreak map, I was scared to put feminism as something I love and that got me thinking. The stigma around feminism is a prime example of the institutional sexism in today's society. If you ask many people what they think of feminism, they will describe a feminist as a men-hating pessimist, and while there are some feminist who are like that, the majority of the feminist population just want equality.  I think exploring into the stigma around feminists and the effect it has on society would be something I would be very interested in. I would like to give people the truth about gender equality and hopefully help to break the stigma.

Speaking of stigma's to break... another stigma that I would kill to break is the stigma around people with mental illness. Many times, people with mental illness are scared to get help because they think people will see them as crazy, and that is just ridiculous. About 25% of all people deal with mental illness themselves in their lifetime. I'm pretty sure that 25% of people aren't crazy. I would really like to get involved in spreading awareness of what mental illness actually is and to help break the stigma. So many people with mental illness go undiagnosed due to fear of judgement, and hundreds of thousands of people commit suicide each year. If people were more accepting of mental illness then lives would be saved.

The heartbreak map really helped me dissect things I am passionate about. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into these topics and really trying to make a difference in people's daily lives.