Campus engagement: "Taking up space"

On Monday, April 16 I attended “Taking up Space: Middle School Girls’ Responses to (cyber) bullying. I was excited to go to the event because bullying is something that I feel commonly occurs and is experienced my many. I thought the event was going to really focus on personal accounts of girls that have been bullied. However, the event really emphasized the process of gathering and analyzing the data. The main purpose of the project was to examine the relationship between anti-bullying instructions in a local mentoring group. According to the speaker, the program has had very positive feedback in schools, from both parents and students.

            The members of the project really wanted to see the responses of girls in middle school towards bullying. According to surveys conducted, discriminatory language is ok among friends.This did not surprise me. I have heard the way students in middle school refer to each other, using degrading language is now the “norm.” All of the girls that were interviewed in regards to their experiences with bullying were asked open-ended questions. Responses from parents were displayed and they all basically said something along the lines of how the school really didn’t step in to stop bullying.

            I was also surprised at how hard the Seminole county public schools made it to conduct the research by denying study requests pertaining to cyber bullying. The school systems reluctance to participate made me think that they know about the bullying that occurs in their schools, and they just turn a blind eye on the matter. The parents’ responses all basically said that the school did nothing; the bullying was prevented due to the course of action the parents were taking separately from the school.

            I think the research being conducted is a great idea that hopefully brings to light an issue that is often times swept under the rug. I think that focusing on seventh graders is a great focus group because I really do believe middle school is the time in which bullying really starts to take place. For me, middle school was honestly terrible. I was going through my awkward phase and I can remember getting teased. I hated going to school due to the harsh things kids would say. So from my first-hand experiences, I can say that bullying is very common and needs to be stopped. Teachers and faculty should know when a student is crossing the line and enough is enough. I think by bringing light to the issue and really talking to girls will help soothe the problem.

Service Learning 2

During the week of April 2^nd, I had a lot of contact with my community partner, in which I received most of my service learning hours. I tabled with VOX on Wednesday, informing the student body about “Let’s talk about sex, baby.” I then went around to different businesses in the Orlando area, informing them on the upcoming event and asking if they would be willing to make donations. On Thursday, I handed out flyers in the student union, which gave information about the event. Friday was the actual “Let’s talk about sex, baby” event, in which I helped set up, and sold guests raffle tickets. The week overall was very successful. The activism I did this week relates to women on a macro level because I feel that much of the work I did was empowering to women and their sexuality. In the reading Women’s sexuality, it really hits on the point that there is a double standard in our society. Men can be open about their sexual encounters and are frequently praised by their peers, friends, etc. Women, on the other hand face repercussions when being open about their sexual encounters. “This fundamental contradiction between encouraging men’s sexuality and expecting women to be chaste results in the construction of two categories of women: good and bad women, virgins and whores” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 151). Women cannot speak as openly as their male counter parts because most women do not want to have a negative label such as “whore” associated with themselves. In the reading “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess,” la Virgen de Guadalupe is very ashamed of her sexual desires and body due to the culture she was raised in. However, as she gets older she comes to terms with herself and finds her sexuality empowering. “I have found her. She is Guadalupe the sex goddess, a goddess who makes me feel good about my sexual power, my sexual energy” (Kirk-Okazawa-Rey 166). Sandra Cisneros discovers her sexuality and comes to terms with her body image. She really embraces her sexuality. “Let’s talk about sex, baby” was similar to Cisneros experience of embracing her sexuality. The event was actually pretty raunchy and made me feel that one’s sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of. Sexuality should be explored in a safe way and what a woman does should not be scorned upon in society. I feel that after all the engagement I had this week, what I personally got from my experiences was that despite ones ethnicity, gender, or race, one’s sexuality is something that should be free to safely explore without having to face negative and hateful judgments by others. One’s sexuality does not entirely define a person; it is a piece of who they are that they should be able to express safely.

Works cited

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. NY:
McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.

Service Learning week 1

During the week of March 26, I went around to different businesses in the Orlando area and asked if they would be willing to make some kind of donation to the “Let’s talk about sex, baby” event. The successes that I had were that all the businesses took the letters, and a few even seemed willing to donate. The pitfalls I faced were that many of the businesses I approached were chain corporations so they couldn’t really commit to making a donation before speaking to their corporate manager. I fixed this problem by going to smaller local businesses instead of such large chain businesses. The activism I did this week relates to women’s lives on a macro level because I saw first-hand how uncomfortable some of the business owners were when I explained what the event was, and that it was supported by Planned Parenthood. The week’s events have influenced the way I view feminist activism and women’s issues quite significantly. After reading the “Women’s Sexuality” chapter, I definitely saw a lot of truth behind how society oppresses women’s sexuality. However, after going to different businesses, my eyes were opened even more after an actual real life experience. When I would say the word sex and explain that the event would be informing the Orlando area about safe sex practices, I could feel customers in the store looking at me. Many of the women managers seemed to not be phased when I explained the event, yet male managers were definitely a lot more uncomfortable. I feel that my community partner would think the differing reactions enforce the oppression that women face. You would think that because the whole purpose of the “Let’s talk about sex, baby” event is to promote safe sex practices among society; everyone would be all in to help support this event. However, I could tell how uncomfortable many of the male managers were when even mentioning the word sex. Researcher Heather Boonstra, reviewed evidence that abstinence-only programs do not end or even delay teen sex (Kirk-Okazawa- Rey 153). So you would think that businesses and society as a whole would be willing to donate to a cause that would teach and encourage safe sex practices. However, this is not really the case. In our society today, images of celebrities such as Brittany Spears and Beyonce are everywhere and display stars reveling in their sexuality in public (Kirk-Okazawa-Rey 151). Sex is everywhere and I feel that it is better to openly talk about it and be informed than feel uncomfortable and be in denial. After this engagement, what I gained from this was a close and personal experience. We read in class about the accounts of discrimination faced by many different women. Well, I got to experience first-hand how different people react when sex is the topic of discussion and how uncomfortable this word can make people feel, especially when it is coming from me, a young female student.

works cited

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. NY:
McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.