Women and the Environment

Issues of place and location are intricately related to women’s agency, or their ability to determine and decided their own lives and identities. A person’s location will be a large determining factor for their economic standing in the world, both in terms of the work that they will do and their proximity to the worst facets of environmental destruction.  In “The Story of Stuff,” they talk about the material economy and its five parts: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The book refers to an “ethical dimension to living in any location,” but these ethics are not followed when the parties with power to control materials and production, and in turn resources and the labor force, live elsewhere (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 535). The movie mentions that 51 of the world’s 100 largest economies are corporations, which explains why so many governments around the globe have sold the rights to natural resources to corporations, privatizing industries like water and electricity. This global restructuring of the world’s economy has drastically changed women’s work. As the agribusiness is taken over by corporations, women’s role as cultivator of locally grown foods diminishes, and her work changes. The work of providing food for her family, deemed unproductive, is replaced with something else, perhaps factory work, that will be “productive” because value is given to those who consume, therefore it is vital to have a work force there to produce. Because of the linear and expanding nature of the material economy, new resources and industries must always be created. Water is privatized to become a for-profit industry, at the same time as “water supplies are polluted,” making more work for the women who have to travel farther distances to provide clean water to their families daily, or who have to find greater income to pay for access to a resource which was assumed to be “available to all to fulfill our basic needs” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 545).

This system, in addition to women’s work, affects the ways in which women organize. Women are likely to organize around issues that affect them and their environments, so depending on what aspect of the market economy a woman is most directly implicated with, she will likely identify accordingly. If she lives in Mexico and work in a Maquilladora, she may organize around labor reform. She also may organize around issues of pollution and reproductive justice, as her location has determined the effects on her environment, which will affect her health and the health of any future children. These issues of production, consumption, labor, and the environment are all connected at intersections, all of which will shape women’s work, identity, and autonomy in these decisions.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. “Women and the Environment.” Women’s

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. By Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo.

New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 535-549. Print.

Activism Blog 2

Activism:

Take Back the Night was held on Thursday, March 22. I arrived early to set up, directing organizations and representatives of student groups to their tables, handing out nametags and ribbons, and sharing the night’s itinerary with all speakers. Kelly, Nicole, and I worked well as a team to facilitate and direct the event. The schedule had to be rearranged when one speaker could not attend, and I had to do an impromptu introduction for the representative from Victim’s Services of Central Florida. I never made up new chants, and was disappointed with the problematic nature of the ones we used.

Reflection:

Chants like “We are women, we are men. Stop the violence, make it end,” are not inclusive, as they do not acknowledge the presence of the LGBTQ community within the discourse of sexual and domestic violence, both as victims and survivors, perpetrators, and allies. The LGBTQ community should have a prominent voice within this dialogue; as a community they have been “subjected to intimidation, physical and verbal abuse, and hate crimes” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 258).

In the future, Take Back the Night-UCF and NOW events in general should strive to be more inclusive. This is not to say that NOW UCF does not currently strive for inclusion—of the first speakers, typically marginalized groups (within the discourse of sexual and domestic violence) like queer bodies, women of color, and surviving men were represented. It is important that

Take Back the Night is a space for agency, where survivors and allies can tell their stories, which is vital to turning the dialogue away from victimization and toward reclamation, “the need and obligation to leave victimhood behind,” to have every “part of aliveness,” and live up to the responsibility to take charge of things (Morales 284).

Another aspect of the shifts that need to occur in this dialogue is confronting “the myth that rape is about sex…rather than power and control” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 267). This can be done by incorporating the issues of sexual and domestic violence into the broader discourses on gender, race, class, heterosexism, white supremacy, and nationalism.

NOW at UCF can begin to address the intersectionalities of these issues, both with the work and community engagement it does, and in its own organizational body. Inclusion does not mean tokenization, and one voice cannot speak for all Others.

Reciprocity:

This semester has been a time of great growth and cultivation for me as a woman, student, and feminist, and being. I have been challenged to examine my views, my self, and my loyalty in the midst of a politicized world. I’ve come to one of many conclusions—I must continuously allow myself space to reflect and grow, I must always ask questions and communicate without regard to fear of misstepping, and I can have multiple loyalties. Things are not mutually exclusive, and I hold my own particular space within a discourse. I’ve made the decision to bring my limited but ever-expanding knowledge on what inclusion looks like to NOW at UCF, as I hold with those who deradicalize and disidentify, who recognize their flaws and limitations, but refuse to be made complicit in them.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. “Violence Against Women.” Women's Lives:

Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

Morales, Aurora Levins. “Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood.” Women's

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. By Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo.

New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 283-284. Print.

Activism Blog Post 1

Emily Helm

WST 3015

Prof. Tweed

March 18, 2012

Activism:  Thursday I attended the NOW meeting on campus. We made posters and a banner for the Take Back the Night event next Thursday, the twenty-second. I made a nice cloth banner for Take Back the Night. The markers we were using for the banner bled through the cloth and stained the table, so now I know for next time to put another paper between the banner and the table surface. I also typed up driving directions to UCF to give to attendees. Next week I’ll come up with new chants to use at Take Back the Night. This may be challenging because I want them to rhyme, but they need to be appropriate.

Reflection:  My experience working with NOW UCF reminds me a lot of Megan Seeley’s “Fight Like a Girl.” In organizing Take Back the Night, NOW strives to bring together members of the UCF community by “finding commonalities with one another so that we share the common goal of ending all discrimination and creating a world where we are not only treated but also regarded as equal” (Seely 15). NOW does this by allowing all to realize and reflect on the ways in which violence affects the entire community, even if one has no personal experience with the issue. A goal of Take Back the Night is to “stand up and speak out against sexual violence” (History 1), which is what Seely Means when she says, “we can raise our voices to speak against injustice” (Seely 16). NOW has done many of the actions Seely lists as tools to promote Take Back the Night and its message, including tabling, vigils, rallies, marches, poster awareness, and house parties. I believe NOW has accomplished Seely’s overall goal in terms of activism—politicizing one’s life and extending that to community outreach, and has done this while making the activism process “something that is creative and fun” (Seely 19).

This is where I see NOW UCF and Seely’s approach to activism hitting a wall. Spreading awareness and gaining community involvement on an issue are absolutely vital to activism; it is the space from which the real institutional change emerges—but rallying a community together is only the beginning. Empowering participants is really important, but their involvement against the issue needs to be sustained. Creating a situation where people show up, smile and hold a sign, and go home feeling really good about themselves isn’t the most productive form of organizing. It’s important to empower people and then hook them into participating more. If I were to help organize a similar event in the future, I would hold a group reflection after the event, or invite them to the next meeting or action; make sure they know that he fight isn’t over.

Reciprocity:  Through this experience being on a planning committee, I have gained personal empowerment. I notice a change at NOW meetings in the way other members treat me. Because I am in a position to organize and give instructions on how to promote Take Back the Night, I find that others come to me more with questions on what actions to take. I’ve gained leadership experience and insight into organizing events on a feminist issue. I’ve realized the importance of connecting macro-level issues to the community and individual, and of empowering all participants in an action.

Works Cited

"History." Take Back The Night. Web. 18 Mar. 2012.

<http://www.takebackthenight.org/history.html>.

Seely, Megan. "Fight Like a Girl." Fight like a Girl: How to Be a Fearless Feminist. New

York: New York UP, 2007. 15-25. Print.

Women in Advertising

The ideal of beauty held by Western society projects an image of a flawless white woman. Promoters of cosmetic surgeries like rhinoplasty attempt to create “faces that are universally felt to be beautiful,” in accordance with a Western aesthetic ideal (Ideal 1). In a society that “sees women’s bodies as a series of problems in need of correction,” women who do not fit the beauty ideal become targets of “cosmetic surgeries marketed to remedy our alleged deficiencies” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). The trait of a large nose, “sometimes named explicitly as a Jewish nose” (Kaye/Kantrowitz 121), conflicts with this ideal, as the appearance of the nose is seen as both a flaw and a marker of non-whiteness. “To say someone looks Jewsish is to say something both absurd (Jews look a million different ways) and commonsense communicative” (Kaye/Kantrowitz 121). This stereotype has become a marker, a way to spot difference and act accordingly (both my brother and I are often informed by acquaintances that we bear Jewish noses; they feel that they must remind us that we “look Jewish,” lest we forget that they can tell we are not “like them”).

            As the media perpetuates and expands images of the dominant culture, one can easily “internalize ideal beauty standards” and continue down a never-ending path, striving for an idealized image “that is largely unattainable” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). While she can never be white, she may have a nose job performed so that she, “a Jewish woman, does not look like a Jew” (Kaye-Kantrowitz 121). In this act she not only erases her own marker of race, but also and perpetuates the dominant culture, both by conforming to the beauty ideal and by literally spreading the visibility of the beautiful Western woman’s face.

Word Count: 293

Works Cited

Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie. "Jews in the U.S.: The Rising Cost of Whiteness." Women's

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. By Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 119-30. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Women's Bodies, Women's Health." Women's

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 207-23. Print.

"The Ideal Nose." Revision Rhinoplasty:. Web. 01 Mar. 2012.

<http://www.revisionrhinoplasty.com/ideal.html>.

Campus Engagement Reflection--CIW

Emily Helm

WST 3015

February 29, 2012

Campus Engagement Reflection

 

Last Monday, YAYA hosted an event to educate students about the campaigns and conditions of farmworkers in Central Florida. Representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based organization of immigrants working throughout Florida, spoke about the labor-intensive environment in which they work, poor housing conditions, and lack of respect from farmers. One man, who is a leader in the CIW, spoke while the other translated for him.

Language, a barrier in that both his words and my questions were interpreted, simultaneously became a way for our ideas to connect. The words he used were familiar to me as part of an activism discourse. He spoke of solidarity and justice, fair food and improved housing conditions. He spoke about concepts that I read about in textbooks, but applied them to his own life, showing how I am implicated.

I also realized that, despite a language barrier, I was able to pinpoint his persuasive rhetoric. To make an emotional appeal he talked about how the enforcement of minimum wage improved his life in more ways than by just increasing his pay. The workers now have punch cards, as farmers don’t want to pay them for the four hours they used to spend waiting for work to begin. They are picked up later for work, which enables him to eat breakfast with his family and take his children to school.

When describing how his wages have not increased since the 1980s, he asked how much a coke cost to buy in 1980, which was roughly 25 cents. With the 50 cents he earned per pail of tomatoes picked in 1980 he could buy two cokes. Now, with that same 50 cents, he can buy one half of a coke, sometimes less depending on the vending machine. I thought that was a really accessible example to communicate why an increase in wages is so vital.

            They talked about the fair food action they’re planning on March 5-10^th. They will hold a six-day hunger strike outside of the Publix headquarters in Lakeland to protest Publix’s refusal to raise their prices by one cent per pail of tomatoes. This idea literally hit me close to home, as I live five minutes from Publix headquarters and know countless people who work for or with Publix at an executive level. This really made me realize how close to this movement I am, as well as how implicated my entire community is in the oppression of farmworkers. So now I guess I’ve finally made Spring Break plans…

            I think I’m choosing to participate in solidarity in their hunger strike (I won’t be fasting for the duration) in part out of guilt—I have received scholarships from Publix, I’m zoned for George Jenkins High School, I used to babysit for their CFO—but mainly because I want to communicate with the farmworkers. I can read endless theory and texts about Marxism, grassroots movements, and worker’s rights, but I’m realizing that I will never understand any aspect of my ever-more complicated world without communication that leads to relationship building, that leads (hopefully) to mutual understanding.

Word Count: 515

SL Proposal

Contact Information:

Service Learning Proposal for National Organization for Women at UCF

By: Emily H

February 16, 2012

Meredith Tweed

WST 3015-001

Community Partner Profile:

Community Partner: National Organization for Women (NOW) at UCF, Take Back the Night

Contact: Kelly Quintero, nowucfcan@gmail.com

Community Partner Mission Statement: A campus chapter of the National Organization for Women, “NOW UCF works to provide a strong feminist presence and to impact our campus, our community and our country” (NOW UCF).

Political/Social Basis for Organization:

 “Political, economic, and social forces still combine to deprive women of safety from violence” (NOW UCF).  A large aspect of women’s studies “focuses on violence against women in this country and the many efforts to stop it” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 257).  A large portion of this violence occurs at night and often takes the form of street harassment or sexual violence. NOW at UCF believes that it is imperative to spread awareness of this problem while providing support for victims and survivors. One way we do this is by organizing “Take Back the Night marches and rallies on campus …where women and men speak out about their experiences with sexual violence” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 269). “Take Back the Night” is an event held around the world, and in the United States since 1975, in response to women’s fear of walking alone at night. “Take Back the Night [has become] known internationally as a visible way to take a stand against sexual violence, specifically violence against women” (History 1).

Community Partner Needs: NOW at UCF needs volunteers to assist in organizing and running this year’s “Take Back the Night” event on campus. Members are needed to be a part of a working committee for planning the logistical aspects of the event.

The Proposal:

A long-standing problem for women (and men) is the definition of a public street “as a male space where women without male escorts may be considered fair game” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 266). This fear of walking in public spaces at night, and the accompanying attacks that legitimize it, contribute to the statistic maintaining that at least one out of every four women will be the victim of a sexual assault during her time in college (Hirsch 52). The UCF Police Department reported thirty-two sexual assaults between 2008 and 2010 (Smith 1), but we know that as few as five percent of rape victims ever report their attack (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 262). Night violence is not by any means exclusive to rape—it includes other forms of sexual assault, harassment, stalking, and non-sexual violence. “Take Back the Night” provides a space for survivors, women and men, to speak out about their experiences while continuing to raise awareness about these problems.

As a member of NOW at UCF, I have joined the committee working to organize and facilitate the 2012 “Take Back the Night” event on campus. I will assist in planning the march around campus to raise awareness and give the event a presence. I will work with others to arrange for faculty and community members to speak out against all forms of night violence. I will work closely with Kelly Quintero to create a promotional flyer advertising the event to UCF students. I will contact both the English and Women’s Studies Departments to ask that they inform their students of the event by sharing with them a promotional press release. I will look into an organization called SOAR, Speaking Out About Rape, and present my research at a NOW meeting so that the group may vote on a recipient of the donations we collect at “Take Back the Night.” I will also work with other committee members to create a banner to be displayed and ribbons to be worn, in solidarity, at the event. My overall goal is to be a helpful and responsible contributor to the group in order to plan an effective and successful “Take Back the Night” event that benefits the National Organization for Women, a local organization who shall receive a donation, and the overall UCF campus. Night violence is a serious problem that affects women and men in my campus community. This event will broaden and reinforce awareness of this problem while simultaneously fostering an environment where survivors and allies can speak out against these crimes and abuses.

Timeline:

1/28—First committee meeting for “Take Back the Night”

2/11—Second TBTN committee meeting

2/19—SOAR research due, present at third meeting, learn how to complete a Safe form for event

2/23—Present SOAR research at NOW meeting, vote on which organization will receive donations

2/26—Receive TBTN press release, send it to English and Women’s Studies Departments

3/16-21—Make banner and ribbons

3/22—Take Back the Night event!

Word Count: 785

Central Florida Future - University of Central Florida. Central Florida Future, 8 Oct.

2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/ucf-

police-department-releases-2011-2012-safety-report-1.2649154>.

Hirsch, Kathleen (1990)”Fraternities of Fear: Gang Rape, Male Bonding, and the

Silencing of Women.” Ms., 1(2) 52-56.

"History of Take Back the Night." Take Back The Night. TBTN Foundation. Web. 16

Feb. 2012. <http://www.takebackthenight.org/history.html>.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Violence Against Women." Women's Lives:

Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 257-73.

Print.

Quintero, Kelly. "NOW UCF Campus Action Network." Facebook. 13 Feb. 2012. Web.

17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/2203630646/>.

Smith, J.C. "UCF Police Department Releases 2011-2012 Safety Report - News."

Roe v. Wade Anniversary Reflection

Emily Helm

WST 3015

January 25, 2012

Reflection Paper—Roe v. Wade Anniversary Event

            Last week I attended the 39^th anniversary celebration for Roe v. Wade, put on by Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando. The event included a number of diverse speakers ranging from activists to ministers to community organizers to students. The theme of the evening was “what choice means to me,” and most of the speakers addressed this theme when they had the floor.

            Each speaker was moving and inspiring, but one woman, I can’t remember her name, really struck a cord with me. This woman was brave enough to share her personal story of why Planned Parenthood and Roe v. Wade are so vital to her life. In 1973 she was a junior in high school, living with her deeply religious parents, when she got pregnant. Because Roe v. Wade had just passed, she was able to visit her local Planned Parenthood to get an abortion. She said that if she had been denied this care, she would have killed herself rather than face her family.

            After the speech portion of the event was over, I was discussing this woman’s story with some friends. One friend mentioned that she thought the woman’s comment about killing herself was overly dramatic and insensitive to those affected by suicide. I disagreed; I believed the woman was being honest and sincere. I tried to imagine first a life in which the religious fervor of my parents created a threshold between us which would prevent me from trusting them or shame me so severely that I would rather die than reveal certain truths about my life. I then tried to imagine living in this type of home environment and not just getting pregnant, but getting pregnant in a world which denies me my right to reproductive choice.

            This task wasn’t easy; my parents are liberal Jewish doctors who would never question my personal choice or deny me medical care. I’ve spent the past week failing to properly grasp this situation. I finally got somewhere last night while watching “Dirty Dancing” for the eighty-four thousandth time.

Through uncontrollable tears I watch the paternal hands of Jerry Orbach caring for Penny, traumatized after a botched illegal abortion, and wonder why I can finally feel the impact of the vitality of reproductive rights through a cheesy film I’ve seen more times than I should be willing to admit. I’ve never had this reaction to Penny’s abortion before, why now? Why could I not connect with the woman’s experience when she was right in front of me, when I looked into her eyes and watched her worried hands steady each other as she related the worst experience of her life to a room of strangers.

Maybe the reason is that I’ve been so privileged to live my entire twenty years with the freedom of choice that I am too far removed from the experiences of women in my mother’s generation. Maybe the reason is that now my own right to choose is being threatened by the very government that once vowed to protect my rights. Both answers terrify me; I never want to be in a position where my good fortune disconnects me from the experiences of those less privileged than myself. If the woman’s purpose was to scare me away from my position of privilege and inaction, she was successful. I refuse to allow my right to choose to be taken; this is a fight we cannot afford to lose.