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.