Passion blog:
I would really like to continue my exploration on women of the past and present who have shaped the way we think of feminism and women today. I recently have come upon new material and Think that I could tie my passion blog into my civic issues blog on how certain women of the past have impacted the education of women today (ex: Malala).
If this doesn’t pan out the way I would like it to, I may shift the focus onto women behind the scenes of history (Betsy Ross, Josephine Baker) who had significant impact without any of the glory. I seemed to focus on more famous women last semester, so this could add an interesting twist.
Civic Issues Blog:
For my civic issues blog, I want to focus on education: how the education system operates and how it could be improved. as someone who has been taught the value of education, I would like to explore how other value their own education or not, and how that can play into adjustments made to the system (do standardized test really show who you are as a student, teaching to the test rather than the student)
A different angle to this topic would be to look into how the history of our country/world has played into how we have shaped the education system and why some schools thrive while other struggle to keep their graduation rate at an acceptable level. how do our social views/prejudices effect how we how the system decides to teach certain groups of people versus others. This angle will also most likely have some political influences as well, but the main focus would be fairness in the education system.
This I Believe Podcast:
I am a big believer that the amount of work you put into something will be equal to what you get out of something, whether that is studying for days to earn an A on a test or putting countless hours into a volunteer service for other people to thrive, your work is always equal to your reward, even if you don’t see it that way. I think this would be a really good topic for this podcast, especially because it is a mindset that I buy into every day.
My second idea for this Podcast would be to express my believe that social media and photoshop has destroyed the image of what a “healthy female body” should look like. We are shown so many images everyday of size 0 or 00 women who are either starving themselves or photoshopped or both to look that way. This constant content is terrible for not only are self-esteem, but also for our own mental health, and many women suffer from eating disorders or body dysmorphia because of it.
As a huge Josephine Baker fan, I absolutely adore your passion blog idea of underrated female historical figures, as many women and their impacts on society are often written out in favor of patriarchal, white-washed history. It would be interesting for you to focus on women from other countries and cultures to broaden both your audience’s and your horizons. For your education idea for your civic issues blog, I think it would be helpful for you to get more specific; what is one aspect of the education system that you believe is wrong and should be fixed? I really enjoy the second I Believe idea, as it’s an important issue.
Your idea about women in history who aren’t super famous sounds like an amazing passion blog idea – my immediate thought was Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double helix structure of DNA before Watson and Crick who got all the fame. In terms of civic issues, I love the idea of looking at education, especially the issue of standardized testing. Both podcast ideas are amazing, I especially love the “healthy female body” one, as it’s a huge and relevant issue that many can relate to .