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!