CRJ #1

CRJ # 1
It’s crazy to think that only forty years ago women and men were treated so unequally. It is amazing to think how much equality women have gained in such a short amount of time. In Reading Two, “A Day Without Feminism,” it explains how things were for women in 1970. It’s so hard to believe that we had so few rights then. The way we live today has no comparison to how women used to live. Things like magazine articles, popular novels, and who can and can’t take certain classes never crossed my mind as something that women should have equality issues with. We live in a day where women have more rights then we ever did, but the reading also pointed out things that I never really thought about that still are very sexist. Things like whether your teacher is a male or female, whether or not a women can be in the religious front, and losing a spot on the National Honor Society because of a pregnancy are all issues that females still have to deal with today. Therefore, not only are feminists still out there, but also they need to be, due to the fact that there are still problems with our society today with equality for women.
The feminists these days are very different, or at least are seen very differently, than they were back when feminism started. There are many stereotypes and myths about feminists. One big stereotype is that if you are a feminist, you are a lesbian. This assumption is definitely not true at all. The reason this is a common idea in society is because of the idea that feminist also hate men. It is thought that lesbians, since they love women, hate men, which is not true at all. A feminist can be either a heterosexual or a homosexual. People need to get this stereotype out of their heads. A myth people often have of feminists is that they want to be like men. Instead, people should start thinking of feminists as women who want to be valued for whom they are. Though I am not sure if I am a feminist myself, I do believe that women should be valued the same as a man, and with each day that passes more and more efforts are taking place to make sure that it happens.

Activity 2

I interviewed three people about Women’s Studies and what they thought of feminism. I talked to my best girl friend, a guy friend from home, and my mom. My mom and my girl friend’s answers were about the same and then my guy friend’s answers were totally the different. In the first question when asked what they reaction to me being in Women’s Studies was, my mom and my girl friend were both glad for me and happy I was in it. In fact, my girl friend thinks more people should take it. My guy friend though just thought of it as another class to fill a requirement to graduate. In the second question, both the women I interviewed thought of someone who wants equal rights for women when I asked what they though a feminist was. My guy friend said it was crap and is obviously not for it at all. Though he said that he said if I were to become one he would respect me for being one. My girl friend and mom both said if I was a feminist they would support me, and my friend said this because she is kind of a feminist as well.
When I first signed up for this course, I thought of it as just a way to fill my requirements for my major, but the more I talked to my friends and family and thought about it the more interested I became in learning about it. I don’t think I would call my self a “full blown” feminist, but I do believe women and men should be treated equally and women should have the same opportunities as men do.

Assignment 1-introduction

Hi! My name is Sara Shapiro and I am from Nashville, Tennessee. I am a sophmore majoring in Psychology. I am currently in Blacksburg taking this class. I chose this class because I need it to fill one of my area requirements and I chose it over other classes because I have had a friend take it and she found it intersting. I have never taken a WS class before. I am not really sure what I want to be when I grow up, maybe something with . I am currently on the VT Swim and Dive team. I dont know what to expect in this course so I really dont look forward to covering anything. I dont have any reservations about this course. I also dont relly know much about women studies so i dont really know/have any stereotypes. My aim screen name is saras1052.