"Solving The Girl Problem" (15)

It’s been a few weeks since the article, “Solving The Girl Problem” was published in the Standard, our school newspaper. At first it caused quite the uproar, from both males and females. After a few days’ things seemed to clam down, until today during our class meeting a panel of six seniors, mixed gender, gathered to discuss the issues of the article and also answer any questions anyone had. The author of the article, was also on the panel, began the meeting by clarifying some things that he did not mean to sound they way they did, but also standing behind some of the things that he did. From that moment on the recent prom stories did not seem to matter, this was the topic of the day.

It was interesting to hear what people all over the school thought about the meeting and the article. I had the pleasure of sitting with Ms. Talley, my Women’s Literature teacher, and a small group of other girls in my grade during lunch, and we had the chance to discuss our thoughts. I am the type to sit back and listen to other’s points, but this is one thing that really frustrates me when it comes to this article. In the conclusion of the article the author says, “girls need to stop thinking of themselves as objects of desire, and start taking themselves seriously.”

We think of ourselves as objects of desire, because men view us as objects of desire. Do you think that I, or any other woman willingly wants to stress about how they look every second of every day? Yes there is also the point that you don’t have to care, but we are human, and we look for admiration. This whole “viewing ourselves of objects of desire” idea is not a one-way thing. I’ve been with my guy friends when I hear what they say about girl. Things like, “She gained so much weight in college” and “Why does he like her? She is so ugly.” Well guys, we have ears. We hear a lot more than you think we do. No one wants to be on the other side of those comments, so we bend over backwards not to be. So next time someone wants to place blame on a woman for thinking of herself as an, “object of desire” beware of the things that you might be saying to make her feel that way.

Another thing I would like to add is something that one of my close friends said today. She was talking about the meeting and said something that I found very interesting and something that I agree with 100%. She said, “I wake up every morning and put on nice clothes and wear make up because I want too. It makes me feel confident, so then I go into school with confidence, which then allows me to go through my day confident. I do it for myself.” I completely agree and I think that if you talked to most of the girls in our school they feel the same way.

Mothers (14)

Today in America everyone is celebrating mother’s day. This day is an entire day dedicated to honoring your mother. Our mothers do so much for us that we often forget to realize to be thankful. Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues and Jasmine, the main character from our new novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee are thankful for their mothers even though some of the things they said or did are not things that any child would want to hear about. They are two honorable women that see the compassion in their mother’s actions and have a positive outlook on life.

Eve Ensler was sexually abused by her father at a very young age. Her other two siblings and her mother remained untouched. In a recent interview with Eve Ensler that we watched in our Women’s Literature class, she explained that her mother had once told her that Ensler was her “sacrifice.” She then spoke about how she understood why her mother did that and as most children would be terribly angry with their mother, she was not. She said that her mother came from a very poor family and was not really going to be able to do much with her life, until she met Ensler’s father, whom saved her from her old life. She said that it would have been nearly impossible for her mother to leave everything and go back to the life she had once lived. Hearing Ensler speak so compassionately about her mother after knowing something like that is incredible.

Jasmine, a character in our new book was telling a mother with the name of Wylie and her son the story of when her mother tried to kill her. She said, “When the midwife carried me out, my sisters tell me, I had a ruby red chocker of bruised around my throat and sapphire fingerprints on my collar bone.” When Wylie hears this she hugs her child closer to her. Jasmine then goes on to say, “My mother was a sniper. She wanted to spare me the pain of a dowrylessbride. My mother wanted a happy life for me.” The Jasmine goes on to tell Wylie how much her mother loves her, and that her actions after Jasmine’s birth were done because Jasmine’s mother wanted her to be re-born into a better life.

These two women, Ensler and Jasmine, are two of the most honorable women. They notice the love behind their mother’s actions, even troubling ones. As humans we are so quick to assume that everything is done with bad intentions, when most of the time they are not, it just tends to come off that way to us. These women have a positive outlook on life and I think that they are all examples of women that we should want to be.

"My Vagina Was My Village II" (13)

The focus of my last blog post was that the issues around the world that we are presented with should not be dismissed just because they do not happen to us, because we did not choose the life we were given. It is something that is completely out of our control. You could have easily been born as a dragonfly and have a life span of twenty-four hours.

From a very young age, Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues, was sexually abused by her father. Her two siblings and her mother were never touched. During an interview that we watched in our Women's Literature class the other day, Eve Ensler talked about it very a very calm and upbeat tone. She mentioned that she lived in a middle class, all white neighbourhood. Bad things don't happen in areas like that right? Wrong. She was being abused by her father, and everyone was in such denial that they dismissed it all together, even though many of the neighbours knew what was going on behind closed doors.

I am guilty of this exact thing. Not under those circumstances, but there have been many things that I have seen or heard that I have dismissed because I was in denial that they actually happened. That is not okay. We are meant to make a difference for someone who can't, and we are failing at our job. So after watching a video about the work that Eve Ensler was doing in the DRC, there were many dropped jaws. We quickly moved on from the video and had a more upbeat discussion about the book that we were reading. But after class my close friend Simone asked if we could talk about it. We talked about how it was one of the most powerful video's that we had seen in a long time and we didn't just want to move away from the subject. So recently we have gotten a few people from our english class together to do something about this issue going on in the DRC. In two weeks, our two Women's Literature english classes are combining and holding a week long bake sale to raise money for the women in the DRC.

Its sad that we had to watched such a horrifying video in order to want to do something, but it definitely had an affect on all of us. I think that we should all try and do something to help those who need it, because we are part of this world, and we should act as if everyone is our brother or sister.