FORE!

It seems like the only thing in the news for the past week has been Tiger Woods' accident. It is funny because I will be watching the news thinking that I might actually get by without hearing about it, but it never fails that they will sneak it in at the end! I think Tiger's biggest mistake was not making a statement about the accident right after it happened. The only information the public was given was that he had a wreck at 2:30 in the morning, alcohol was not involved, and his wife broke the back window with a golf club. Of course the public is left making their own assumptions which is what leads to rumors and stories being spread around. All of this ended up biting Tiger in the butt because those rumors and stories ended up being somewhat true and he ended up having to come clean. While all this is fine and dandy, I believe that there is a bigger issue here. My roommate asked me the other day what kind of response I thought Tiger would get when he won his next tournament. Sadly enough I had to reply that I thought that it would be the same response that he has always gotten, if not bigger. The same thing happened with Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez when they came out and said they were (in other words-got caught) cheating on their wives/girlfriends. Their careers didn't go down the drain at all...if anything there was more attention placed on them which made them more popular. I was watching Chelsea Lately a few nights ago and of course Tiger Woods came up and she made the comment that all professional athletes basically have the go ahead to cheat on their wives. It is such a sad statement, but in some sense it is true...Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and Alex Rodriguez being prime examples of this. The wives/girlfriends are always the ones that look in the wrong. Something isn't right here.

Prada vs. Air Jordan

This week in class we talked about women in art. The articles in this chapter talked about how women, whether it be in art, comics, or even music videos, are usually also depicted as sex symbols while men are the tough guys or the hero. I mean there is nothing I love more than a good rap song, but I hate it when I turn it to a music channel in the mornings to get ready or something and I see the video for one of my new favorite songs, and all these girls are wearing booty shorts laying on the floor shaking everything they have with a guy in a tall tee behind them shaking his head like "yeahhh, that's right. I'm a B.A." I mean REALLY?? All of this talk also got us thinking about homecoming and clothes and fashion. It absolutely SUCKS that girls have to get dressed up and look really nice for occasions like homecoming or going out for the night, while a guy can throw on a t-shirt and some ball shorts and it be totally fine. I'm not saying that a girl couldn't throw on a t-shirt and some ball shorts, but it would DEFINITELY be socially unacceptable and she would be ignored and talked about by the rest of the girls who are all dolled up. And as much as I try to dress up and look cute to go out, it never feels like I'm dressed up enough. Why can't girls be just like guys and not have a care in the world about what they look like to other guys. I really want to trade places and make the guys walk around in the Pradas for a while and let us take a break and slip into some Air Jordans!

Watchers

The article that Dr. K sent us about the gang rape at a high school prom was super disturbing. I can't imagine what the little 15 year old is going through right now. However, what I am almost more disgusted with is the 20-plus people that stood by watching and didn't do A SINGLE THING! The fact that there were other people around that could have at least picked up their cell phone (we all know they have them because what high schooler goes anywhere without theirs?) and called the police! This article brought me back to the next to last week of classes my senior year in high school. My AP English teacher was teaching her junior English class and one of the girls started getting upset with her. My teacher told her to go to the office if she was so upset and pointed to the door. All of a sudden the girl just snapped and went after my teacher, jumping on top of her, punching her in the face, basically just beating the crap out of her. The whole situation was a mess and really sad because here my teacher is, a TINY 63 YEARS OLD...up against an 17 year old THICK girl. But just like with the gang rape at prom situation, there was a whole classroom of students who just sat back and watched. What made me the maddest is that I know for a fact that there were at least 5 junior football players in that room that could have EASILY have gotten that girl off of my teacher. Thankfully a SENIOR boy student aide happened to be walking by the classroom and heard the commotion and went in to break it up. My teacher went to the hospital but ended up being okay, and the girl went to juvy for like 2 weeks (not nearly long enough). However, I still can't get over the whole class just being watchers. UNACCEPTABLE.

As a friend and I were watching TV the other night, we were skimming through the channels and he nudged me when a girl in a skimpy swimsuit popped up and told me to go back. I went back to see what the big deal was and it turned out to be the "25 hottest women in Hollywood" or something like that. I found it interesting that even tho these women were from a very competitive pool of actresses and movie stars, almost every single one of them were shown in bathing suits or their sexy underwear. Its almost like they are saying "nevermind their talent, put them in something skimpy!" It even gets better. Right after the "25 hottest women in Hollywood" went off...the "25 sexiest men in sports" came on. Every single guy was fully clothed, in uniform, doing whatever sport they do best. So basically, the men were sexy for the sole fact that they were good at a sport and it had nothing to do with their bodies. Kind of ironic, i think. This made me think of our slide show in class Thursday and how men are seen as the masters and women are just kind of viewed as meat. I mean I guess you could say we are used to these kinds of things being on TV. It's just become more prominent from taking this women studies class, that we (women, society, the world) shouldn't have to be "used" to it! In my opinion, they either need to focus on the success and careers of the "25 hottest women in Hollywood" instead of their bodies....OR....they need to take those uniforms off, show a little more skin and focus on the bodies of the "25 sexiest men in sports."

Sexual Harassment

So this week as we were discussing "Rape as Social Murder," we talked about how the victims often don't get themselves past the situations because they think that they cant....they are either too scared or they convince themselves that it is their fault. The same goes for not only rape victims but sexually harassed people as well either physically or emotionally. They tend to stay in an abusive or bad relationship because they are too scared to get out or they convince themselves that somehow they deserve the harassment they are receiving. This whole topic kind of hit home for me a little bit in a way. In high school we had a sheriff that was assigned to our school...we had the same REALLY nice officer for my first three years, but my senior year he retired and we got a new one. I worked in the office for my block of classes senior year so I was one of the first students that he met. I tried to make it a point to be nice to him and say hello whenever I saw him because he was new to our school and didn't really know anyone. However, by about the middle of our first semester, he started getting a little too friendly. At first I didn't think much of it, I just tried to ignore it. One day however, he crossed the line. Long story short, I was walking down an empty hallway and before I knew it my arm was twisted behind my back like I was being arrested and I was pushed up against a wall with him leaning on me so I couldn't move while he jokingly said "this is what I do to bad girls." I didn't tell anyone about it for the longest time. I thought that since he was a sheriff and obviously had authority over me that it was my fault, that somehow I had provoked it. Eventually he kept bothering me till the point that I had to tell someone. I ended up telling my coach who turned right around and told our principal. She called me into her office the next day and we had a long talk about the whole situation. Needless to say he was asked not to return the following year. Its crazy things like these when you start to realize that you can totally relate. Not that my experience was super traumatizing or anything, but it does make me take things a little more seriously sometimes.

Hazing

This week we read an article about high school senior girls hazing the freshman girls and getting away with it like nothing was wrong. These girls were doing everything from name calling to beating the crap out of these little freshman girls....and when the freshman girls were being questioned about it, they acted like nothing was happening. All of this is so bizarre to me! I started thinking back to my high school days and how scared I was to walk into what seemed like a HUGE high school. The only thing I was really worried about was getting lost and missing a class or walking in late and looking like the lost little freshman. I can't imagine what it would've been like to have to worry about that AND watching your back to make sure no one was coming to attack you! The only form of "hazing" that we really did was in sports...but it was no where near what these girls are doing. Occasionally we would have to carry a senior's bag off the game bus or fill up the water bottles before practice but that was about it. No getting our faces smashed in or any of that crazy stuff. I think what is the most shocking to me is that these are GIRLS doing these crazy hazing scandals. Its interesting to read different articles in class about girls and how we are supposed to act....in one article we are supposed to be prissy little well behaved girly girls....and in the next its okay to beat other girls' faces in because we can get away with it and no one will name names. Kind of ironic I think.

Why just girls? What about the boys?

As we were sitting in class the other day talking about "My name is not Maria" and how females seem to have to act a certain way when they get to a certain age, I started thinking about this email that I got after our first football game this season regarding tailgating. It was made clear that our President and other WKU officials were extremely disappointed in the behavior of students, especially the females. Later, we find out that the main issue was girls dancing on the back of trucks. Now, I'm not saying that the girls on the back of the trucks weren't dancing and having maybe a little too good of a time...but for every girl that I saw on the back of a truck, there was a guy right beside her...some dancing and having just as good a time as the girls, if not more! What frustrates me about the email is that it was targeted toward the female population on campus and nothing was said about the guys who were doing the exact same thing. So as we were talking about "My name is not Maria" and the rest of the chapter, I could relate a lot more to what the book was talking about. It DOES seem like females have to grow into this "acceptable" gender role that has all these rules and regulations, while males can do the exact same things we do and its okay because they are guys. Why is it okay for them and not us? Sometimes its just not fair being a girl!