One of the biggest differences that struck me between the movie and the television show was the lack of intimacy and, to some degree, respect for the mother by the ones facilitating the births. What I mean by that is in The Business of Being Born the parents who chose to have a homebirth with a midwife seemed to have a higher level of respect, not only from the person delivering her baby, but from the people who were present for the birth as well. It also appeared to be a more pleasant, personal experience for the mother. The homebirth mothers had the same midwife throughout the pregnancy and the birth—a constant that I imagine made the whole ordeal slightly more comforting. In the television show, however, there are multiple instances of nurses switching shifts, occasionally without even informing the expecting family that they were doing so.
It was obvious in the television show that the women giving birth were not viewed as being terribly knowledgeable about their situation. The doctors and nurses were shown coming in and adjusting medication or running tests without always informing the mother of what they were doing or telling her after the fact. The nurses were also usually talking amongst themselves instead of spending any more time than needed with the mother. In the movie, however, the midwives all seemed to have a deep connection to and involvement with the whole process. They spent every moment of the labor with the mother and always appeared to be just as overcome with joy as the new parents once the baby was born. So I guess, for me, the most obvious contrast came from the treatment of the patients. Not to say that the hospital mothers were treated at all negatively, just that their experiences seemed to be lacking a personal touch.
One similarity that I noticed was that all of the women were viewed by at least one person—be it their doctor, nurse, midwife or partner—as strong. There were many examples in both the movie and the television show of the father of the child speaking about how strong the mother was for giving birth, especially the ones who had wives or partners who had had a difficult delivery with a previous child. Whether the mother gave birth at home or in a hospital, the baby’s father always spoke with obvious respect and pride at the woman’s strength and seemed more than willing to take a backseat and let her prove what she is capable of.
Both the movie and the show seemed to portray birth in a positive light and as something that can be a struggle and occasionally very scary and painful, but ultimately worth it in the end. The movie did more to shed light on the fact that every birthing process is unique to the mother. This was also evident in the show but to a lesser degree, in my opinion.
Word Count: 493
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Advertisement Analysis
I found this advertisement while browsing the website for Seventeen magazine, which, as the name suggests, targets adolescent and young adult girls. It appealed to me as a good candidate for analysis almost immediately because the woman who is being used to sell the product is an obvious example of the beauty ideal, defined in the text as “thin, lean, tall, young, white and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). The mood of the ad appears to one of activeness and health. The woman is wearing casual clothing and boots while climbing a tree, suggesting that the product provided her with the energy and motivation to do so. This also ties into the implicit meaning of the ad, which to me seems to be that the girls who use this product—in this case, milk—will be active, thin and attractive for doing so. Explicitly, the ad states as much by using words such as “lowfat” and “best”, which could easily plant the idea in a young girl’s head that in order to be her best, she must also be like this woman—that is, like the beauty ideal—and in order to do that, she must use this product.
The aim of the beauty ideal, and, by extension, ads such as this that encourage it, according to the text is to “promote insecurity, self-hatred, and distorted perceptions of size, appetite and attractiveness” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 208). While I don’t think that this ad is trying to promote self-hatred (if anything, it does seem to be slightly more skewed toward the health benefits of the product), I do feel that it is a good example of the kinds of ads that make young girls feel that for them to be considered attractive and their “best” they have to live up to the standards of the woman in the picture. It also definitely has elements that could distort a girl’s perceptions of factors such as size. To me, this ad says that the only way to be healthy, active or attractive is for a woman to also be thin and conventionally pretty, which is not true.
Works Cited
http://seventeen.com Web. "Hearst Communications, Inc." 2011.
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Word Count: 360
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Service Learning Proposal
Service Learning Proposal for Young Women Leaders Program
By: Keysha R., Samantha D., Kassie M., Genesis A.
February 10, 2011
Meredith Tweed
WST 3015-001
Community Partner Profile
Community Partner: Young Women Leaders Program
Address: 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816
Contact: 407-823-6502
Mission Statement: “The Young Women Leaders Program is a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program . . . YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls. In mentoring pairs and small groups of Big and Little Sisters, participants focus on learning competence and autonomy, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and encouraging girls to think about their futures.” (http://womensstudies.cah.ucf.edu/ywlp/)
Political and/or Social Basis for Organization: As stated above, the basis for the organization is to promote positive self-image and encourage leadership skills in young girls who are at an important part of their developmental stages.
Community Needs: Members of the YWLP will benefit from extra assistance organizing and running alumni events and especially UCF day in the form of bringing extra food, spreading the word, running tables, etc.
The Proposal
TO: Meredith Tweed
FROM: Keysha R., Samantha D., Kassie M., Genesis A.
DATE: February 10, 2011
RE: Proposal to discuss the benefit of the Young Women Leaders Program
The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rational and problem-solving that the Young Women Leaders Program addresses. The following proposal showcases the objective of the program, the work mentors plan to do, a schedule of meetings and activities planned, as well as the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015.
The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP) addresses a problem amongst young women and allows for an opportunity to enhance the self-esteem of middle school girls and promote their leadership abilities. “Leadership, in this context, is conceptualized broadly as the ability to guide oneself first, and others secondarily, on issues that are important to one’s self worth”.
YWLP is an amazing program that will allow these young girls to face and discuss any issues and in so, better prepare them for a transition into high school. Every other week, big and little sisters meet and have an opportunity to spend quality time as well as, partake in fun activities with fellow little’s.
Plan Proposal
The YWLP Big Sister program runs throughout the entire semester and thus ensures ample time and opportunities to make an impact on the young girls with whom we will be working. The YWLP meetings are held weekly, with every other Wednesday’s meetings including the little sisters. Our proposal for this service learning project is fairly simple: we hope that through our work and interaction with the little sisters we will inspire them to be independent thinkers, to have a healthy sense of self-worth, to feel empowered and to learn leadership skills.
Besides the biweekly meetings with the little sisters, YWLP members make commitments to keep in contact with them during the time between meetings and even to spend time with them outside of the confines of the meetings if their parents or guardians allow it. There are also several scheduled YWLP alumni events for big and little sisters to attend. In February we are having an Around the World Potluck and UCF Day—a Saturday dedicated to showing our little sisters around the UCF campus—and in April we have events such as Jewelry Making and Girl Power Movie Night.
The members of YWLP genuinely believe in this cause, and it’s that kind of positive attitude and dedication that will no doubt have an impact on the young girls we are mentoring.
Rationale for Women’s Studies
The issues and goals tackled by the YWLP Big Sister mentoring program are based almost solely in third-wave feminism, which “emphasizes multiple identities, ambiguities, and contradictions” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 14). The women in YWLP are driven, smart, and—probably most importantly—diverse. Through this, we are able to show the younger girls in the program that none of these labels are negative for women, hopefully without it feeling like we are shoving the message down their throats.
The majority of the YWLP program works on the micro level; this is the level analyzes “the relationship among people and issues as seen from a personal or individual standpoint” (Kirk and Okazawa G-4). In other words, we in the program work with the younger girls to help them develop a healthy identity and sense of self-worth. This is especially important at their ages (between 12 and 13) because it is around this time that girls really begin to define themselves, often based on what they see in the media and through interactions with peers and authority figures. By extension, this program also could help on the meso, or community, level, by helping the girls to figure out how they want to be defined by their peers through defining themselves first.
Action
We all have attended the first initial meeting and have been trained with the YWLP rules and protocols for the middle school. Not only that, we all have been assigned our Little Sisters in three different middle schools Tuskawilla Middle School, South Seminole Middle School and Lawton Chiles Middle School. Within these three middle schools, we, the Big Sisters would be promoting learning, competence and autonomy to all the Littles. In these meetings we would be interacting with our Littles, doing some themed activities of the day with them, eat some food, and talk about issues through a discussion.
We would not only attend the interchangeable bi weekly Big and Little meetings, we would also participate on extracurricular events that would help the Littles from different middle schools interact and mingle.
Timeline
The Young Women Leaders Program is a semester wide commitment, and will include training, and meetings between the big sister mentors, and our little sister mentees. The mentors will also participate in alumni events to provide enrichment for their little sisters as well as a UCF day which will take place during the weekend, and focus on uplifting and providing the mentees with powerful positive knowledge that will help them be successful in their futures. Alumni events were created to provide extra time outside of mentoring meetings for bonding with little sisters, and for little sisters of multiple schools to interact with each other. The following is a tentative schedule of the events where the YWLP members will be mentoring with the little sisters or working on creating activities that will provide them with an avenue where they can think outside of the box.
*All big sister and little sister meetings are from 3:15-4:45pm
Sat January 15, 2011-Training Day 10-3pm
Jan 17-21, 2011-Fingerprinting Week
January 26, 2011- Big Sister Meeting
February 2, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
February 9, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
February 13, 2011-Around the World Potluck 4-6pm (alumni event)
February 16, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
February 23, 2011- Big Sister Meeting
February 26, 2011- UCF Day
March 2, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
March 16, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
March 23, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
March 30, 2011- Little Sister Meeting
April 2, 2011-Jewlery Making 2-4pm (alumni event)
April 6, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
April 9, 2011-Heavenly Hoofs (alumni event)
April 13, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
April 17, 2011-Girl Power Meeting Night 4-7pm (alumni event)
April 20, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Word Count: 1,196
By: Keysha R., Samantha D., Kassie M., Genesis A.
February 10, 2011
Meredith Tweed
WST 3015-001
Community Partner Profile
Community Partner: Young Women Leaders Program
Address: 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816
Contact: 407-823-6502
Mission Statement: “The Young Women Leaders Program is a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program . . . YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls. In mentoring pairs and small groups of Big and Little Sisters, participants focus on learning competence and autonomy, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and encouraging girls to think about their futures.” (http://womensstudies.cah.ucf.edu/ywlp/)
Political and/or Social Basis for Organization: As stated above, the basis for the organization is to promote positive self-image and encourage leadership skills in young girls who are at an important part of their developmental stages.
Community Needs: Members of the YWLP will benefit from extra assistance organizing and running alumni events and especially UCF day in the form of bringing extra food, spreading the word, running tables, etc.
The Proposal
TO: Meredith Tweed
FROM: Keysha R., Samantha D., Kassie M., Genesis A.
DATE: February 10, 2011
RE: Proposal to discuss the benefit of the Young Women Leaders Program
The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rational and problem-solving that the Young Women Leaders Program addresses. The following proposal showcases the objective of the program, the work mentors plan to do, a schedule of meetings and activities planned, as well as the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015.
The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP) addresses a problem amongst young women and allows for an opportunity to enhance the self-esteem of middle school girls and promote their leadership abilities. “Leadership, in this context, is conceptualized broadly as the ability to guide oneself first, and others secondarily, on issues that are important to one’s self worth”.
YWLP is an amazing program that will allow these young girls to face and discuss any issues and in so, better prepare them for a transition into high school. Every other week, big and little sisters meet and have an opportunity to spend quality time as well as, partake in fun activities with fellow little’s.
Plan Proposal
The YWLP Big Sister program runs throughout the entire semester and thus ensures ample time and opportunities to make an impact on the young girls with whom we will be working. The YWLP meetings are held weekly, with every other Wednesday’s meetings including the little sisters. Our proposal for this service learning project is fairly simple: we hope that through our work and interaction with the little sisters we will inspire them to be independent thinkers, to have a healthy sense of self-worth, to feel empowered and to learn leadership skills.
Besides the biweekly meetings with the little sisters, YWLP members make commitments to keep in contact with them during the time between meetings and even to spend time with them outside of the confines of the meetings if their parents or guardians allow it. There are also several scheduled YWLP alumni events for big and little sisters to attend. In February we are having an Around the World Potluck and UCF Day—a Saturday dedicated to showing our little sisters around the UCF campus—and in April we have events such as Jewelry Making and Girl Power Movie Night.
The members of YWLP genuinely believe in this cause, and it’s that kind of positive attitude and dedication that will no doubt have an impact on the young girls we are mentoring.
Rationale for Women’s Studies
The issues and goals tackled by the YWLP Big Sister mentoring program are based almost solely in third-wave feminism, which “emphasizes multiple identities, ambiguities, and contradictions” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 14). The women in YWLP are driven, smart, and—probably most importantly—diverse. Through this, we are able to show the younger girls in the program that none of these labels are negative for women, hopefully without it feeling like we are shoving the message down their throats.
The majority of the YWLP program works on the micro level; this is the level analyzes “the relationship among people and issues as seen from a personal or individual standpoint” (Kirk and Okazawa G-4). In other words, we in the program work with the younger girls to help them develop a healthy identity and sense of self-worth. This is especially important at their ages (between 12 and 13) because it is around this time that girls really begin to define themselves, often based on what they see in the media and through interactions with peers and authority figures. By extension, this program also could help on the meso, or community, level, by helping the girls to figure out how they want to be defined by their peers through defining themselves first.
Action
We all have attended the first initial meeting and have been trained with the YWLP rules and protocols for the middle school. Not only that, we all have been assigned our Little Sisters in three different middle schools Tuskawilla Middle School, South Seminole Middle School and Lawton Chiles Middle School. Within these three middle schools, we, the Big Sisters would be promoting learning, competence and autonomy to all the Littles. In these meetings we would be interacting with our Littles, doing some themed activities of the day with them, eat some food, and talk about issues through a discussion.
We would not only attend the interchangeable bi weekly Big and Little meetings, we would also participate on extracurricular events that would help the Littles from different middle schools interact and mingle.
Timeline
The Young Women Leaders Program is a semester wide commitment, and will include training, and meetings between the big sister mentors, and our little sister mentees. The mentors will also participate in alumni events to provide enrichment for their little sisters as well as a UCF day which will take place during the weekend, and focus on uplifting and providing the mentees with powerful positive knowledge that will help them be successful in their futures. Alumni events were created to provide extra time outside of mentoring meetings for bonding with little sisters, and for little sisters of multiple schools to interact with each other. The following is a tentative schedule of the events where the YWLP members will be mentoring with the little sisters or working on creating activities that will provide them with an avenue where they can think outside of the box.
*All big sister and little sister meetings are from 3:15-4:45pm
Sat January 15, 2011-Training Day 10-3pm
Jan 17-21, 2011-Fingerprinting Week
January 26, 2011- Big Sister Meeting
February 2, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
February 9, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
February 13, 2011-Around the World Potluck 4-6pm (alumni event)
February 16, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
February 23, 2011- Big Sister Meeting
February 26, 2011- UCF Day
March 2, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
March 16, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
March 23, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
March 30, 2011- Little Sister Meeting
April 2, 2011-Jewlery Making 2-4pm (alumni event)
April 6, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
April 9, 2011-Heavenly Hoofs (alumni event)
April 13, 2011-Big Sister Meeting
April 17, 2011-Girl Power Meeting Night 4-7pm (alumni event)
April 20, 2011-Little Sister Meeting
Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Word Count: 1,196
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