Blog #5

1) Which clip do you think portrays each respective time? Do you think there is a racial bias in either of these representations and why? What motives do you feel white women would have in practicing discretion with respect to race during these liberating times?

The first is for the women’s suffrage movement, the second is more for the civil rights movement. However in both clips we can see the fight for the rights of women. I think there is a little racial bias in the first one, only because I have never heard anything about African American women in the women’s suffrage movement. Motives I feel white women have in practicing discretion with respect to race during both of these times were probably fear. They were probably a little nervous to go against the grain, I am sure Rosa Parks was scared to death not to leave her seat. It was a bold move I am sure many African American women had thought of but where to scared of the consequences to try it. With the women’s suffrage movement I think that the women used the fact they were white to have just a little more leverage, I think punishment for African American women would have been far worse then that of white women.

With the women’ suffrage movement (and I know I am not that educated on it so this is kind of just my opinion) I think of these women are being classy and powerful. And my first time learning about this movement was when I got my first American Girl Doll Samantha. In Samantha’s story her Aunt is apart of the movement, but her grandmother (who Samantha lives with) does not approve of the situation. Kind of random but everything I think of women’s suffrage movement I think of my American Girl Doll :)



2) Do you feel this "evolution of perspective" is paralleled in our generation today with respect to the many issues of humanism such as sexism, racism, agism, violence etc? What external factors perpetuate this change? Do you believe this to be positive or negative?

Yes I feel that the “evolution perspective” is still around today. I think just our generation does not feel the oppression that our ancestors did. I can vote, I can own land, I can buy my own house, I can get a good high paying job. I just do not think our generation has ever felt the oppression that the women’s suffrage did. Some external factors I think that really push this change is pop culture and the media. There are successful and powerful women all over the US. I say the US because I think this question needs to be United States based, because there sadly are many countries that still do no consider women to be anything but a tool to make more men.
I think it is positive that we are not still stomping around Washington asking for equality. I doubt it would go anywhere, I think we need to sit back and look where we have came. Like I said I can vote, that is more then some women around the world. I think it is also positive because with media we can see that there is a long ways to go in the feminist movement and I think it keeps us grounded.

Ch11
1) What do you think could be some of the underlying causes of this violence? Hooks also notes that much of the public refuses to link the violence to patriarchal thinking or male domination, why do you think this is?

I think a lot of male violence comes from these men seeing there own fathers acting like this towards women. I completely believe it has to do with how a man in brought up, and the values that were instilled on him as a child. A popular media star that we see this in is Eminem. He talks about hitting/killing Kim (his daughters mother) in many of his songs. But he also talks about the abuse he had as a child with his own mother. I can not help but wonder if they are connected, him being abused as a child to him abusing Kim? I would post a video but they are kind of graphic…

I think that the public has a hard time connecting patriarchal and male domination because the patriarchal thinking is so common, and so natural in almost all families. It is hard to say “oh okay you have a patriarchal thinking therefore you are abusive”.


After watching this video and thinking of some responses on your own, how do you think domestic violence between spouses and children can be related? Also, after the video, how do you think this issue of the two forms of violence being closely related each other can be brought more to light so that the issue can be more of a topic to be worked on being resolved? What steps do you think need to be taken to resolve this form of violence?

I think that if someone is abusing there spouse, what is going to keep them from abusing their child (or vise versa). I do not think we see a lot of news on violence on both the spouse and the child; it is usually just one or the other. I think it is hard to people to wrap their minds around such horrible acts to begin with. I think it could be brought more publicly if we talked about it more. People do not like talking about abuse of any kind for a lot of reasons and we need to put those issues aside and talk. I think steps that need to be taken are making sure spouses and children know they can talk to people. I think that a lot of people are scared to tell people about what is going on. People who have been abused are so emotionally distract they do not think they should tell anyone.