Final Blog

This weeks blog is a chance to reflect on women’s studies 250 as a whole. Over the course of the semester I had been introduced to many new topics and artworks to help define the topic of women’s studies for me. This class allowed me to further expand on some knowledge that I already new as well as teaching me many new topics.

            I came into the class with the idea that this class was mainly going to be about fighting for women’s rights and yes, we did discuss some women’s rights but the themes of the class were much more than that. We learned how women are portrayed negatively in advertisements, the Urban Bush Women’s “Batty Moves” portrayed African Americans bodies in a positive light, women experience oppression and privilege, we analyzed art work by Gloria Steinem, the Los Hilos De La vida Project, and were became aware of violence against transgenders in Boys Don’t Cry.

            Throughout the weeks of this course the one theme that I think is touches upon in all of the quilts, films, dances, novels, and visuals arts and especially within all of my blogs is the theme of oppression and privelege. In my opinion oppression and privilege can be the reason for stereotypes created against different groups of women. For example, most recently in the film Baghdad Burning Riverbend goes from being a privileged women with many rights equal to those of males to an oppressed female who can not do anything without a male family member by her side. Oppression and privilege is seen in the film Boys don’t Cry which I touched upon in my blog, it is seen in the documentary Killing Us Softly 4, as well as the quilts and the art works we saw at the National Museum in DC.

            This blog has allowed me to reflect on the course readings and lectures and ass my own opinion into each post. This class has allowed me to learn how to analyze art and taught me the various aspects of what is considered art. The formal elements of a piece such as the color and lines, metaphors and smiles, and the placing of dancers on stage help to tell the story of each piece of art and add to the analysis of each piece. This class expanded my knowledge past what I thought feminism and women’s rights were. I really enjoyed taking this course and have definitely learned a lot along the way. 

Blog #11

For this weeks assignment we read the book Baghdad Burning. This book portrays the blog of a 24 year old Iraqi woman named “Riverbend” telling her side of what was happening during the war against America. She shares her personal experiences a long with many other stories of the horrors taking place in Baghdad. As an American I had a one sided view of the war and this book opened by eyes to the other side.

            The media was also very influential in spreading their take on what was happening during the war. This blog gave us insight into the first hand experiences of the Iraqi people instead of the power hungry newscasters and political figures points of view.

            Riverbend starts the novel by explaining her life and how she has a college degree, and had a job but that has changed and she is now unemployed. In my opinion the war with America has been the hardest on the women. Women went from having 50% of jobs to most of them losing their jobs. Women also cannot go anywhere alone, they need a male with them at all times. I feel this is unfair to women. The Iraqi people live in constant fear everyday of bombs and raids. One thing that stuck out to me while reading was Riverbend’s description of raids of troops just storming into theirs homes and taking their belongings and destroying their homes while making them leave the house. Raids can also go terribly wrong if an Iraqi takes out a weapon many can end up dead or wounded. One instance Riverbend discusses is a time where a large tank was on the main road leading to their home and her and her family were afraid the entire night that they would raid their home and take their gold or someone will be hurt. It upset me that Riverbend was nervous to even put on her pajamas in the case that the troops would come into her home. Iraq is not only having troubles of being scared of raids and bombs, they have economic issues, schooling issues, and political issues.

            It is funny to me that Americans have had views about Iraqi people that are not always true. Many Americans believe that it is a custom of Iraqi people to marry their cousins, and that all women wear “veils” surrounding their entire face and head. These stereotypes of Iraqis are changed when Riverbent describes that many Iraqi women find their husbands in school and at work and are not related to one another. Marrying your cousin was a custom of the past and the times have changed drastically. Women also do not wear “veils” around their head. Although some do, most Iraqi women wear “hijabs.”

            Americans do not understand the struggles that took place in Iraq during the war until reading this blog. At the end of the novel I was intrigued when Riverbend stated “We have 9/11’s on a monthly basis. Each and every Iraqi person who dies with a bullet, a missile, a grenade, under torture, accidently—they all have families and friends and people who care. The number of Iraqis dead since march 2003 is by now at least eight times the number of people who died in the world trade center.” (p.286)