(More Than) Grrrl Power! Girls Studies at UCF

The essays in this week’s Red were incredibly touching, honest and revealing. I felt like I related to almost every story. I was chubby growing up, and got teased a lot about being the “fat girl,” much like Amy in “Sleeves.” I never thought I would be the pretty girl that all the boys liked. However, when I did martial arts, I lost a lot of weight. I was tiny, but muscular and in shape. My experience was a lot like Alison Smith’s “Curve.” Strangers constantly told me how thin I was and that I needed food. Yes, I was thin, and aware of how skinny I was. No, I did not need food. I ate a LOT. I love that Alison embraces her hips, her one curve (9). I also loved the juxtaposition of the two stories- “Sleeves” and “Curves.” Both girls want what the other has, both girls strive to be “normal” (7, 9). (As a side note- now in college, not doing martial arts, I have gained some weight. However, the only person that makes me feel bad about my weight is…me, if I’m having a bad day.) ...

My body was a mess when I was younger. I had long hair which was once pretty and straight and all the sudden turned into a poof ball. I was tall with big feet, a big butt, and a chubby stomach. Looking back, you would have never been able to tell what I’d look like now. My body went through changes before a lot of my friends. I got my period on Thanksgiving weekend of my 6th grade year. My mom was taking my sister and I to the beach and I woke up and found I had my period. I knew what it was because my mom was always open with me, but I was still embarrassed to tell her. Finally after waiting two hours I realized I’d have to tell her so I could swim. It wasn’t as bad as I though, she grabbed me some pads and we were on our way. That night was the worst, the blood ran down my back and bleed all over my bed. My mom bought me the biggest pull-ups they had and I was humiliated then but now I think it’s’ funny. For about the 1st year of having my period, I wore pull-ups to bed every night....

One of my former Girls Studies' students emailed this to me. Contact Valerie if you are interested in working with them. Leandra I am interning for the girl scouts this semester and my intern receptor is amazing and I had a few ideas I wanted to throw out there for service learning. 1) She is always looking for volunteers to help out with the events she sets up, so it would be an easy way for someone to fulfill their 15 hours 2) I mentioned a zine workshop for a national project they have going on, it's called Forever Green, and it's all about the girls actually getting involved in their community to make a positive change in the environment. I thought maybe someone might want to do this next semester.....? And I'm sure she has some more ideas that will come up before next semester. I think it would go great for all your classes but especially gurl studies!!! She can give you all the details, or if you have a question you could always shoot me an email. Her contact info...

Not until seventh grade was I exposed to girls wanting to be skinny. I had gone to public elementary school but in sixth grad and half of seventh I went to a Christian private school. Which was fun while it lasted; I was at the time a firm believer in Christ. I had settled into a group of friends 3 girls that seemed very nice and in fact one would be my very best friend till my move to Florida in 10th grade. During one of my first lunch experiences with them, one girl (I honestly can not remember who it was) said that she was not going to eat lunch because she wanted to loose weight. I was shocked, the highest pant size there had to of been a 4. I am proud to say that I gladly ate my lunch that day however, I am sad to say that soon I was skipping lunch daily to “fit” in. I do not know when I stopped pretending to hate my body but soon after I did actually believe the lie that I was not skinny enough. It pained me to read “Sleeves”, Amy Hunt’s view of her body makes her not parti...

When I reflect on how I used to feel about my body image when I was younger, I think about when I was in 8th grade. At lunch I would buy a cookie and a drink and that is all I would eat for lunch. For dinner I would try to eat crackers and cheese. I was so concerned with being skinny and not eating a lot. I also experimented with bulimia, but I think many young girls experienced that. I think it’s funny that I used to do that, because now I eat whatever I want, and in my personal opinion , I have a perfect body. Everything that most girls strive for, I already have and I can eat what I want! Please don’t take this as me boasting, I’m just using this as an example because I used to be so concerned with my weight and how my body looked, and when I stopped worrying about it, my body was still the same, probably even better! There was no need for me to worry about my weight. What I realized is that everybody’s body is different, we should all embrace our bodies as beautiful, no matter wh...

I want to share this amazing site/program I discovered a few weeks ago. OperationBeautiful.com is wonderful. It is run by a local woman named Caitlin and it is her brainchild. When she was trying to get fit for her wedding day, Caitlin began posting positive post-its to herself, like “You are beautiful just as you are!” She started a webpage/blog about it. It has since spread across the globe. Women and girls are sticking post-its in public places for other women to read. For example, they will post them in bathrooms in stores on the mirrors and on scales at the gym. I cannot recommend this site enough to females of all ages. Caitlin encourages people to take pictures of themselves putting the notes up or to write to her about it. I recently posted a bunch at my gym. (She is adding my story about it to the site this Friday.) You can see the pictures and notes on the site. You can also read how these simple acts have helped and changed the lives of many girls & women. ...

This week was all about media. There were a few things I really enjoyed reading and exploring. Sarah Schelde’s “What Truthiness Taught Me About Being (Un)Cool” was very amusing. Sarah’s obsession over Stephen Colbert is hilarious (in a good way). She says, “I write a forty-three-year-old comedian’s name all over my notebooks and preach the (faux) evils of Nancy Pelosi to kids who don’t even know what the Speaker of the House does” (212). I, too, adore Stephen Colbert, along with Jon Stewart. My knowledge that the title of Sarah’s essay is a reference to Stephen should be proof enough of that. What is great about Sarah’s essay is that while she clearly does not fit in with her peers, she continues to be herself and profess her love’s (Colbert) greatness. This is “truthiness”. She goes by her gut and follows her own version of the truth. As a matter of fact, Sarah sees her individuality as an advantage. “People who have a drive to do things their own way have a certain advantag...

It is really hard for me to tell you how I felt about my body when I was younger, because 20, 30, and now the 40’s are all younger to me! I do remember my Mom and my grandmother were always on a diet and my dad used to say really derogatory things about women who were over weight. I always felt like I wasn’t womanly enough, because I was such a tomboy. This was reinforced when both of my sisters, who are 1 and 2 years younger than me, started their periods before I did, and started developing breasts, where I had none! This made me very self conscious and I don’t think I ever felt comfortable about my body until I was in my thirties. I went to my sister and asked her what to do when I started my period because I didn’t want anyone to make a big deal about it. I do remember my Mom telling me before I started, when I was upset about my sisters starting, that I would be glad some day that mine started later! Boy was she right! Now that I haven’t had a period in over two years, I almost wi...

(click title for article with links-- recommended ; and check out her blog , perfect for our class!) The “Slut List” as Badge of Honor: Breaking News? By Rachel Simmons | September 27th, 2009 | 1 comment millburnhigh480This week, New Jersey’s Millburn High School found itself at the center of a media storm over a hazing incident. A group of senior girls apparently publish an annual “slut list” of incoming freshmen, which is followed by intimidation and assaults. The New York Times has covered the story generously. Today, in its supposedly analytical “Week in Review” section, the paper proudly introduces the insight that it may be a “badge of honor” to be called a slut. Is this really headline news? Girls have been making hay out of their own sexual objectification for a while now. The assumption that all girls would find their presence on a “slut list” disappointing stems from a knee-jerk belief that girls are victims, especially where sexuality is concerned. The truth is much more com...

Red… I loved the Johnny Depp Story! It brought me back to my Backstreet Boys obsession. Brain was my favorite out of the five boys. He was my perfect man. Then the day came when I read in a magazine that he married his long time girlfriend. I cried for hours. HOURS! I was so convinced that we were going to be together. I did all I could to learn everything about him. It was intense. I was depressed for weeks. I think it was because I turned to them when it was an awkward time dealing with boys. Although I don’t think my obsession was much on an intellectual level as the girl felt in the story. I found Just Watch to be very interesting. I feel the exact same way about T.V. It sucks people in and it sucks away time. It’s almost lazy in a way. Families don’t have to make any effort to connect when the T.V. is on. Don’t get me wrong. I think family movie nights are great, and I have my own “shows” that I always watch. A young girl needs the support from her family th...

Growing up, I definitely had a relationship with pop culture. It did not control my life or dominate all of my activities. It was just very prevalent in my childhood. I think growing up with two sisters, and no brother is a big reason as to why pop culture was in my life. My sisters are only two years younger than me (yes, twins) so we found it easy to relate and play when we were younger. Ten years ago, the Spice Girls were big. They had a clothing line, candy, Barbie dolls, and much more. You name it, they had it. My sisters and I loved their music, and everything about them. So did every other elementary school girl we knew. I remember my sisters, and my two cousins and I would each be assigned a Spice Girl, and we would have to play that role for the day. I would always be Sporty Spice which seems kind of ironic considering I have grown up to be the least athletic person I know. But, that’s beside the point. The Spice Girls were there before I had an interest in boys, and they wer...

Technology Has Taken Over Saskia, the author of “Just Watch” from “RED” sounds like a very confused girl. On one hand, she has such disdain for television’s impact on her and her family’s relationship. She talks about how television was supposed to be something you watched “when you were sick or it was hopelessly rainy outside and you had nowhere to be” (224). However, it ends up taking over her family. By sixteen, television is the focus of the family – whether it’s That’s So Raven, The Colbert Report, or, as Saskia admits, her Food Network channel . Saskia sees this evolution destroying her family, yet she refuses to do anything about it. What is most fascinating is how she relies on other technologies to soothe her hatred for television. Instead of watching television with her family, she’ll run off and listen to music on her headphones. I would argue that putting yourself in solitary confinement with your headphones and RENT CD while your dad is watching MASH is worse than ...

Music has always been a spiritual experience for me. I was raised in a church and when I was a young girl I believed there was this thing called God and I honestly thought that music was God’s greatest gift to mankind and that music made God really happy and that anytime I got God mad, if I just sang to HER all pretty-like that it would melt all the tigers in her heart to butter and life would be brownie a la modes and rainbows. So I’d sing to God every night. Then one day I heard Fiona Apple or The Flaming Lips or Neutral Milk Hotel or John Coltrane or Nina Simone or Kimya Dawson or Sonic Youth or whoever it was and instantly I got swept away in the sinful world of secular music. Now I literally spend all my time listening to music. Whether I’m studying, drawing, reading, writing, sleeping, eating, playing with my cat, you get it: all the time, music. I once spent an entire year listening to nothing but Joni Mitchell. I’d lay in my bathtub for hours completely enthralled with her uniq...

The link to the song above has a line in which Morrissey says "I'm a girl and you're a boy." It came to mind so I thought I would throw it in there. I first want to go to the "scientific" considerations of sexuality and wonder if testosterone and estrogen play a role. I mention it because I am not a girlie-girl: I am not butch, I am not gay, I am not completely straight, I am not anything. I prefer men and this is the only thing in which I am certain. However, I don't have any fashion sense (Gwen Stefani) as Stacey London told me ("Why do you dress like you're Amish??") so I went to Kohls.com to help out. Haha. How does a girl feel pretty when she can't conform to the standards of her community in terms of femininity? I admire Gwen Stefani's fashion sense (is it hers or her designers?) as it is very feminine and I have NO IDEA how she does it. "Beautiful Girl, love the dress, high school smiles OH YES" (The Violent Femmes)...

Hello lovely class, Just wanted to let you know that we no longer have a teaching assistant in this class, so please address any questions/concerns/needs to me and I will assist you. I will definitely work hard to get your grades up in a timely manner (working on Week 3 right now) and maintain the best online class for us this semester. I'm really loving the class so far and appreciate the work you are putting into your responses and service-learning plans. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns (as always). :D Leandra

I was always the loner in school. Very different from everyone else, but too scared to let it show, so I just stayed to myself. I can relate to Sara Schelde age 14 and I can learn from her. Where I tried to disown my strange personality she embraced hers and loves herself for being different. I wish Sara had been around when I was in school, maybe I wouldn’t have hidden my weirdness, because the truthiness about it is weird is good—-its what sets you apart from the crowd and gets you noticed. "I’m just a girl” was and still is one of the greatest songs during my girlhood. The article titled “just a girl? Rock music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female youth” attempts to make sense of what female rock musicians and what their images are invoking in girl culture. I am not totally sure what the author was trying to voice, but I think it was the fact that men own the media or music industry and men are selling the contradictory images of female rock stars, which are s...

When trying to think up a response to this week's readings I was kind of taken aback by how little I had to say about myself in relationship to movies, music and other media. Thinking back I can't really remember any specific obsession with an actor or actress. I even remember writing in my diary, circa age 12, that I "wasn't that into music" while I watched my girlfriends listen to their favorite pop singers over and over in their Walkman CD players - oh so 90s :) Growing up in a home with parents who could care less about pop culture and would rather take an exhilarating bike ride than sit in front of the T.V. I still am kind of 'out of it' when it comes to the latest celebrity gossip or the newest music. But thinking harder I remember fifth grade and performing as Baby Spice in the Spice Girl's tribute (a.k.a. avid lip syncing and choreographing in my friend's back yard). I remember my first Walkman and listening to Sugar Ray's self-titled a...

I plan on working with the Beta Center and NOW. I have signed up for NOW and I already go to meeting on campus. However, I want to split the two because I am not sure how much time I can put in at the Beta Center because I work 20 hours a week on top of a full time school schedule. I am also a member of AAUW and we go to the PACE Center every once in awhile so, I think a combination of these three will work well. Natasha

Week 4 & 5 When I looked at the schedule for these two weeks, I immediately became excited. Anything related to the media, pop culture, or music tends to instantaneously grasp my attention. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type of person who becomes completely enthralled in the latest issue of People or wants to know every intimate detail of Brad Pitt’s daily life. No, that’s not me. I love analyzing the effects of the media, pop culture and music on our society; specifically, when it pertains to young girls. That’s why I was excited. And now, on to the readings. :) I found the Red stories to be pure, honest, and real. It always amazes me how eloquent these young girls are. Their stories and accounts are so expressive and they frequently share powerful messages. The first story was about 14 year old Sarah’s love for Stephen Colbert and his philosophy of truthiness, or “the state of something being true because you find it to be so” (Red, 211). I am not a part of the faithful “Col...

I identified specifically with one of the entries in "Red" this week. The entry about Johnny Depp. I could have written that myself. From the time I watched "Cry Baby", to when Pirates 3 came out, it is safe to say I was obsessed. I have watched every movie he was in, and am anxiously awaiting Alice in Wonderland and hoping for Pirates 4. I don't want to appear as a psycho or a stalker, but honestly - have you seen those eyes? haha... Now that i'm older, i'd like to think this is "obsession" is more of just a healthy admiration for the man. He honestly is someone that I idolize because he doesn't give in to the "hollywood lifestyle" that so many other stars do. He has his career and his family, he wants to live like a normal person. It's funny that I should be writing about this, because the Biography of Johnny Depp is on TV right now. I am trying my hardest to do this homework instead of watching it. A few years ago, this wou...

Revolution! Grrrl Style Now!!! Support female artists “Female artists have ventured to celebrate girlhood as a means of fostering female youth subculture and of constructing narratives that disrupt patriarchal discourse within traditionally male rock subcultures” (Wald, p. 588). Music as a medium for self-discovery and progression, personally and politically, remains consistently operative and successful in its far reaching capacity. I know it has been a passion of mine since I can remember and this week’s reading all about feminism, girl culture, and music as an outlet and channel is right up my alley! Since I could write a novel with all my thoughts, opinions, insights, and inquisitions on the matter of females in punk and indie rock I will stick to those I am most familiar with. I loved Wald’s article based on Gwen Stefanie circa No Doubt because she was a staple character in the anti-corporate girl power movement. Wald does not attempt to argue the positive or negatives of the matt...

I may be totally overlooking it, but I couldn’t find the specific blog prompts for this week so I’m just going to go ahead and respond freely to the readings, as it appears everyone else did. I really enjoyed the readings this week- I definitely felt like I was reading my old LiveJournal entries (and my friends’ entries) when I read some of the “Red” essays, in particular the “Appeal” and “Depp” ones. “Play” also hit home with me, although I have to say Olive has a much better music taste than I did when I was in high school. “Willow’s Transformation” in Queer Girls was also really interesting, as I never really got into the show when I was in high school. (I didn’t have that much of an attention span for long series of shows.) I also loved reading the “Just a Girl” article, because No Doubt’s music took up a lot of space on my iPod when I was in high school, and I’ve never really thought about it critically before. Mostly, though, I want to respond to the readings by talking about my ...

I was reading some others' posts, especially about the Johnny Depp story, "The Depth of Depp" by Grace. I kind of agree that it's unhealthy to put THAT much emphasis on idolizing somebody who is virtually unattainable. However, the IDEA of this dream is great. Having goals to "work together someday" as Grace wrote is admirable. The IDEA of being able to achieve great things, wanting it, and going forth and trying for it is definitely praiseworthy. The "Appeal from an Angry Not So Emo" by Kali definitely left me with some insight as to how some girls' high school experience went. The halt of bullying is one of my passions that I hope to get more involved in someday. I myself have never experienced bullying- not in grade school, middle school, or high school. I realize how lucky I am to have never had to hate going to school, as Kali writes, "...it makes it very hard for us to ever be comfortable at our own school." I think I...

If you would like to post your Week Six discussion to the blog rather than Webcourses, do so here as a "reply." If your reply exceeds the word count permitted, break it up into two or three replies. This might help keep discussion organized and allow you to revisit discussion for replies to your post more easily. We'll see how it goes. We can always move 100% of discussion to Webcourses and post other relevant blogs on the blog site depending on how it goes. Blog Prompts: (which you may follow or depart from): Reflect on your relationship with your body when you were younger. What was your first period experience (or if you are male, how did you learn about periods?) Do you think there is any way to change the social stigma surrounding girls and their period? Do you think girls are educated enough about their bodies? If not, how can we change that?

Opening Remarks at Combating Violence Against Girls Event Event hosted by the Government of the Netherlands New York City, NY September 25, 2009 I want to start by saying something that I believe with all my heart, and, obviously, those of you who are here believe it also, that the issues related to girls and women are not an annex to the important business of the world and the United Nations, they’re not an add-on, they’re not an afterthought; they are truly at the core of what we are attempting to do under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is the guiding message of this organization and what each of us in our own countries is called to do on behalf of equal opportunity and social justice. So for me, this is a tremendous opportunity to speak about an issue that has basically been relegated to the backwaters of the international agenda until relatively recently: violence against girls and women, and particularly today, violence against girls. I wish that we could transport...

When last week began I was super stoked for this reading list. Why you might ask since it was a lot? Oh I will be glad to tell you that it was because of the readings in Queer Girls Willow’s Queer Transformations on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was at first forced to watch this show because of my partner, he loves everything Joss Whedon touches. While I hated most of this show, partly due to Buffy’s constant crankiness of being “chosen” but she was middle class, white and hetero, meaning to me she was more privileged than I could ever be. Anyway it comes down to this; I started to like this show because of Willow and Tara’s relationship. An issue that I did have with the show and was touched on ever so briefly in the text was the absence of people of color on the show. I mean they lived in California and there were no Latinas what so ever. I guess you could count Faith but she was very stereotypical that I don’t think she counts. Something that I loved so much wa...