Tag Archives: babcock

Evolutionary Feminism?

This semester, I decided to submit to the fact that I have to take more than a few science courses for my Art and French majors (hello Gen Ed debate), so I decided to knock out one of my GN’s and take an Anthropology course. Guess what? It’s my favorite class I’ve taken all year.

It’s called ANTH216: Sex and Evolution. Okay, yes, I’m taking a sex class, but it’s a super interesting, science based sex class that I would recommend to everyone. Dr. Puts is an extremely engaging lecturer who really knows his stuff, and the material spans from understanding basic biology like heredity and genes to learning about why marriage exists as a human universal. Taking this class has really helped me understand why the world is the way it is. It’s helped me answer questions I’ve had since high school concerning the discrimination of women, and here, I’ll explain the theories evolutionist scientists have come up with to answer one of my questions. Keep in mind that social scientists would answer these questions in completely different ways, and that here I’m just looking at the question from an evolutionist’s perspective.

Before that, though, I have to preface the discussion with the introduction of something that’s called the naturalistic fallacy. This is an idea that basically says just because we can explain a phenomenon through data/theories/science, it doesn’t make the act morally right. For example, just because scientists have ideas that explain why rape evolved to become an act that humans do, it doesn’t make raping someone morally right (obviously). Yet, understanding the situations in which rape occurs can help us educate others and create a society in which the frequency of it occurring reduces. Keeping that in mind, here is a question I grew up wondering about as a young woman in high school:

 

Q: Why are women pressured to physiologically look a certain way while men are considerably less pressured in this area?

A: In regards to investing in offspring, men and women have very different roles that they can perform. Women are the only ones that can physiologically invest in their offspring; only they have the capacity to become pregnant and perform gestation (breast-feeding) for their newborn. Women can also invest economically in their offspring, providing resources such as money and good home. Yet, men cannot invest physiologically in his newborn, so he can only support his offspring through the resources he gives them. Knowing this, scientists have hypothesized that when choosing mates, women would prefer men who could provide sufficient resources for themselves and their offspring, while men would prefer women who show that they are physically able to invest in their offspring. This means the woman would ideally be youthful, healthy, “beautiful” (meaning their facial features are symmetrical and their skin is clear and healthy, both factors showing that they contain few harmful parasites in their bodies), and physically capable of carrying a child to term. This last factor can be viewed in men’s preference to a certain waist to hip ratio. Before I explain what this means, take a look at these lovely ladies below:

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Which do you think is the most attractive?

In this study, men consistently found that the first woman in the second row (“N7”) was the most attractive. This woman has a waist to hip ratio of 0.7, and she has a normal weight. With this ratio, a woman is more likely to successfully conceive. An increase in 0.1 in waist to hip ratio decreases the probability of conception per cycle by 30% (Zaadstra et al. 1993). Interesting, right?

Another study that demonstrates male vs. female preferences:

Females almost always prefer that a male has great earning potential (to economically support offspring) while men almost always prefer that a female is physically attractive and young (to physically support offspring).

So my question was answered: men are subconsciously basing a woman’s beauty off of their ability to conceive and give birth to offspring so that child will carry on their genes. This can in part explain why in our society we put much more pressure on women to look beautiful, and why we have more ways to enhance her look to make her look more youthful, beautiful, and healthy including botox, augmentation of breast size, liposuction, and the adding of fat to the buttocks or cheeks.

Learning this brought a huge breakthrough for me. It may not just be that our societies are putting pressure on women to fit a certain look, although they are in part to blame for the intensity and frequency of which women are reminded to look a certain way. In fact, as humans, we have been evolutionarily designed to look for certain things in mate in order to ensure our genes are successfully passed on through our offspring. It’s been engrained in our brains, and even though we may not consciously think about these things when choosing a mate, our subconscious “wirings” in our brain play a huge part in that decision.

I don’t have a solution on how we can change our societies to pressure women less. If men were the ones who carried babies during pregnancy, we would pressure men more to physically look a certain way. Now that I know this, I’m comforted in a weird way; I always thought the world was unjust, pushing women to insane lengths to change themselves physically, and yes, our society is still in part to blame. Yet, humans are the way they are now because we’ve evolved to increase our reproductive success. That’s just the way it is, and that’s not really going to change. I hope in the future societies will bring more and more empowerment to women, but for now, I’m just content with the fact that one of my many questions about life is about the closest to being answered than it will ever be. In short, I’ll take it for now.

 

 

 

La Fin

For my last post, I guess I’ll talk about the end of my exchange year and the benefits I feel like I’ve gained from this experience.

The end of my year in France was by far the best part. By this time, I was extremely comfortable with the language so I could easily converse and joke around with my French peers and host family. There were also a lot of events during the end of my year that contributed to its greatness. My European bus tour ended on April 22, and on the following week, a musical festival called le Printemps de Bourges (“the spring of Bourges”) was held in my town. People from all over France came for the week to listen to bands, sell merchandise in the stands, and enjoy the overall atmosphere that a music festival usually fosters. My friends and I went to see C2C and Mika; Mika turned out to be a great performer, and you can listen to one of his major hit French songs that he performed at his concert, “Elle me dit”, here.

In May, I took a 4 day trip with my host sister Léna to Paris; her brother Johan lives there with his girlfriend, so we showed us around and took us to all his favorite spots including le Parc Chaumont;

Montmartre, the artsy neighborhood home to the church le Sacré Coeur, where we also got to see this guy perform (skip to 6:17 if you want to see some really crazy stuff!); the Eiffel Tower, and much more.
At the end of May and the beginning of June, my family came to visit me! We spent a few days at Bourges where my host families met my real family, then we traveled to Nice in the South of France for 3 days, and flew back to Paris. This was the first time I saw my parents in 9 months, and it was the first time my parents went to Europe, so it was a really special moment in all our lives.
June brought the end of school (finally, done with high school!), lovely weather, and hanging out with friends each and every day. I felt closer to my exchange friends more than I ever had before; since the bus trip, our bonds only continued to increase, and when my first friend left at the end of June, it was extremely hard for all of us to say goodbye. These were the first friends I made on my exchange year; they supported me in the beginning went things were hard and I missed my family; they were the ones I looked forward to hanging out with after a long day at school where I was that quiet foreigner. With my exchange friends, I was just like them, away from their family, away from their “life”, always eager to taste something interesting or go somewhere new. These people understood me the most during my year, and they understand me the most now when I talk about the experiences we shared. Now, it was time to say goodbye, and it wasn’t easy.
By July, there weren’t a lot of us left. During the first week of the month, I spent a week in Noirmoutier, a cute town on the west coast of France, with my boyfriend at the time, an exchange student from Paraguay, and his host family.
I spent France’s independence day, July 14, in Paris, where I saw the fireworks show next to the Eiffel tower. I left on July 16.
It’s the weirdest thing going back home after not being there for over 11 months. I was so ecstatic to see my dog, and of course my family, but once I was back in my house, I felt like I had never left. I felt like the entire year was some sort of dream that never actually happened because all those relationships I built during that year were now so far away from me that they hardly seemed real. To this day I sometimes feel like the entire experience was a dream, and I tend not to talk about my time there. It might sound snotty when I say no one here will really understand me or my experiences in France, but it’s true. An exchange year is a lot deeper than a vacation or a year of traveling; I became much more confident, more comfortable in my skin, and more independent. I guess you could say I grew up a lot in this year.
I’ll leave you with this video I made during the last few weeks of my time in France, and hopefully you’ll understand more of what I’m talking about.
(music: 4,000 Iles by Fauve)
FIN

Reinventing the “f” word

Feminism, that is!

For this post, I’d like to bring up the issue of the inequality of female and black artists represented in museums and galleries. The first group to really bring attention to this issue was the Guerrilla Girls.

“Reinventing the ‘f’ word: Feminism!” is the motto coined by the Guerrilla Girls, a group of feminist and racial activists that formed in New York City in 1985. If you’ve never heard of them, here’s a little bit about them. This group of anonymous female activists create art and other media that bring attention to the fact that the art world is extremely white male-dominated and that it undervalues works created by women. During protests, the Guerrilla Girls wear gorilla masks, keeping their identities anonymous.

Probably their most famous work is this:

The body of the woman is taken from Ingres’ pice Grande Odalisque in which a harem woman longingly gazes at the viewer in a sexual pose. Yet, topped with an ugly gorilla head, the activists draw attention to the issues that this painting poses on women. This kind of work that represents a woman as a thing merely to be gazed at and enjoyed aesthetically is an example of the kind of work the Guerrilla Girls critique and emphasize as sexist. Their argument in this piece is that women are more likely to be shown in the Met as nude figures, as beautiful objects to look at. As a female artist, it is extremely difficult to have your work shown in huge museums such as the Met, even though your work may have just as much quality as a man’s. In this way, the Guerrilla Girls bring attention to the issue that women have faced for centuries and continue to face today: a woman’s physical attributes are often more valued than her ideas and work.

Here’s one of my favorites:

 

Can’t you just feel the passive aggressive angst emanating from this “public service message”? I love that these women use sarcasm to bring real issues to the forefront of debate. Since the everyday person might not be interested about the misrepresentation of females in the art world, the use of sarcasm and humor is extremely important in that it makes the issue more accessible. Plus, each work is simplistically put and straight to the point; it doesn’t take long to read the message, but the message punches you right in the gut, a perfect combination for an activist’s work.
This is an interesting work because here the Guerrilla Girls are even critiquing Black History Month and Women’s History Month, things that were initially created in order to bring positive attention to how minorities and women contribute to society. The activists bring up a good point in that dubbing a month women’s history month doesn’t help the overall issue of discrimination. In fact, a gallery may feel compelled to show a female artist’s work only during this month and not during the rest of the year. Drawing attention to a certain group of people at a certain time may in turn cripple them and discredit them during the rest of the year.
Turning to a more immediate issue (for me and other college art majors at least), today my art professor told the class a story that relates to the issue of female artists in a male-dominated art world. His girlfriend’s artwork was being personally critiqued by a visiting artist, and this artist told her that she was “trying too hard to paint like a man”. Her work is highly expressionist, showing a style that reflects the Abstract Expressionist movement that occurred in the mid-20th century.

Sarah Swist painting
Jackson Pollock, main artist of the Abstract Expressionist art movement
First of all, I find this artist’s comment irrelevant because any artist that makes work that references a certain art historical movement will inevitably resemble that of a man’s because the art world has always been dominated by males (besides the Feminist Art Movement of course!). Secondly, I would even say Swist’s work resembles more closely that of Joan Mitchell, who just happens to be a female:

Besides that, this comment is in general extremely condescending. This artist is implying that women should stick to only traditional female roles in the art world: quilt-making, crocheting, embroidering. Females have no place referencing male-dominated schools of art and movements. Most importantly, this artist’s comment is in no way constructive criticism.
Yet, comments like these are uttered by men and women everyday, sometimes without acknowledgement that they cut down individuals and their work. I feel like as I slowly begin to enter the world of art during my college career, I’m going to learn to tune ignorant people like this out and just do my thang. It’s a reversed thought-process since I know it’s the others that should change their misogynistic view-points and not me. But because I know common viewpoints and habits can change at an incredibly slow rate, for now, I’ll wear a gorilla mask and grow a thick skin.

Bus Trippin’ Across Europe

One of the major perks of participating in the Rotary exchange program compared to other programs is that Rotarians plan weekends and trips in which exchange students meet up and see a new city and cause general chaos in said city. Usually these get-togethers last no more than 2 days and you meet with only the students in your District (group of Rotary clubs in a general area), and you become really close with this group of international people.

Sometimes, however, the Rotary plans a major travel event for exchange students to participate in, and for students in France, we were invited to take part in the Bus Trip. While this trip wasn’t cheap, it was totally worth it. This is the Bus Trip in a nutshell: Twelve days traveling via bus, stopping in on major European cities for a day, sleeping in hostels, waking up early to get back on the bus again, all the while getting to know 50 other exchange students and their countries. Needless to say, it was a blast.

To kick off the trip, we all met in Paris in mid April. We were introduced to our four chaperones, two of which were older Rotarians while the other two were young volunteers. We toured Paris on the bus, stopping at some major sites like Les Invalides and the Eiffel Tower of course.

One of my best friends from exchange, Camila (from Mexico City), and I

One of my best friends from exchange, Camila (from Mexico City), and I

Day 2 of the bus trip was spent in Strasbourg, France, right on the border of France and Germany. This city has a gorgeous Gothic cathedral, along with a river that flows throughout it, which somewhat reminded me of Venice.

Strasbourg

Strasbourg

The next stop was Nuremberg, Germany, where we visited a carnival during the first half of the day, eating schnitzel and enormous pretzels to our heart’s content. Later, we visited the stadium where the Nuremberg trials took place, and even stood where Hitler stood when he gave his speeches. It would have been a more chilling place if it weren’t for the high class sports cars zooming around the arena. I found it interesting how the Germans transformed this historical site into a modern-day race track of sorts.

The rooftops of Nuremberg

The rooftops of Nuremberg

During the next day, my 19th birthday, I woke up Germany and fell asleep in Prague. I felt so lucky to have the chance to celebrate my birthday in such a beautiful place in the company of some amazing people. Of all the cities we visited during this trip, Prague was definitely my favorite. The city is simply gorgeous, and the Czech people are friendly and liberal. It has a good mix of historical beauty and a lively culture, making it a city with the best of both worlds.

The next day was mostly spent traveling/sleeping on the bus as we crossed into Austria to visit Vienna. By this time, we were all getting tired and a little bit cranky, but no one could really complain since we were having the time of our lives. Again, another beautiful day filled with much site-seeing and tired feet.

Vienna has a pretty sick cathedral too.

Vienna has a pretty sick cathedral too.

Venice was next on the journey. Again another wonderful city full of outrageously gorgeous buildings, even better food, and way too many tourists, but the canals make this city extra magical. Plus, our group of 50 formed a slightly-successful flash mob in Saint Mark’s Square!

Of course we didn't miss out on a gondola ride! We're professional tourists!

Of course we didn’t miss out on a gondola ride! We’re professional tourists!

Following Venice were day trips to Milan, Chamonix (where the tallest mountain in France, Mont Blanc, is located), Geneva (where we ate really good fondue and visited the UN building), and then headed back to Paris. Parting ways was not entirely difficult for me; I was exhausted and slightly sick from a cold (as well as slightly sick of some of the people on the trip). A part from that, it really was an incredible trip that I got to share with my best friends in Bourges, and I also became closer with some other exchange students in my District. I’ll definitely never forget this trip and the people I shared it with!

The ridiculously superb cathedral in Milan

The ridiculously superb cathedral in Milan

The group!

The group!

 

 

The Bechdel Test

Recently I was indulging in my greatest time-wasting strategy (when I scroll down through Facebook and click on interesting Buzz Feed quizzes and cheesy Huffington Post articles), I came across a slightly less-cheesy post that introduced me to the Bechdel test. This test categorizes Hollywood movies based on how female characters interact with each other. In order for the movies to past the test, one or more female characters must speak to each other about something other than a man during the course of the film. You might think that most movies would past this simple test, yet out of the top 50 blockbuster movies of 2013, only 24 of them passed this test.

For larger image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/hollywood-sexist-bechdel-test-vocativ_n_4536277.html

Yet, these 24 movies that did pass the test ended up gaining more money on a whole than those that did not. Exciting stuff, no?

I wasn’t surprised by the low number of movies that either under represent women in their movies, nor was I shocked that a lot of these movies don’t pass the test since their female characters only talk about a man. While I believe the Bechdel test is important, and that this study shows an interesting correlation between female representation and gross income from a movie, the test is worthy of critique due to its parsimonious basis.

Firstly, the Bechdel test rules out movies in which females do not have conversations with each other. While I understand that the basis for this criteria is to pass movies that represent more than one woman, allowing a broader representation of women to be shown, this doesn’t necessarily show that the females in the movies are not strong or complex in character. Just because they hold intelligent conversations with men and not each other should not rule the movie out of the equation. As Shannon Clarke writes for the website Lip:

“Films and shows about women navigating the maleness of their environments sometimes require them, for effect or historical accuracy, to underrepresent women. The first rule of the Bechdel test examines representation, but that is just quantitative. A significant female role can exist in a film that is overwhelmingly male in its casting.” http://lipmag.com/culture/strong-female-characters-separating-strength-from-the-bechdel-test/

An indie film I recently watched on Netflix, Sidewalls, would also not pass this test. This film focuses on just two characters, a man and a woman, and how they deal with depression, phobias, failed relationships, and much more. These two characters only meet at the end of the film, so during almost the entire film, the characters share their thoughts through voice-overs that only the audience can hear. When the woman performs her soliloquies (that, like that of the man’s, are rather complex and philosophical), is she not having a conversation with the audience? Just because another woman isn’t present to hear her out, this film which clearly transcends typical gender representation in film would not pass the Bechdel test.

Moving on, the basis of this test is found on the assumption that women cannot have meaningful conversations about men that in turn reflect the trials and liberties of being a woman. As Clarke points out, 12 Years a Slave would not pass this test because its female characters speak only about the males in their lives. Yet, the conversation between Patsy (Lupita Nyong’o, Best Supporting Actress of 2013) and Mistress Shaw is far from superficial. The two women speak about their white male owners, as well as the “psychological effects of sexual violence and the intersection of gender and race in America’s plantation system”. Yes, they are technically speaking about a man in this case. But does this conversation not only reflects wholly on the characters themselves, but women in general who have also been forced into events of sexual violence.

 

In addition, just because two women hold a conversation in a film does not make those characters deep in any sense. Take 10 Things I Hate About You (the film, not the gag-inducing TV show), the scene in which Chastity and Bianca talk about the difference between like and love.

Bianca: “You know, there’s a difference between like and love, because I like my Sketchers but I love my Prada backpack.”

Chastity: “But I love my Sketchers.”

Bianca: “That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.”

Chastity: “Oh..”

(Skip to 4:46)

While there are other scenes in which two females characters hold a powerful conversation (Bianca between her sister Kat later on), if there are films that pass the test based on conversations like this, then the Bechdel test is not fulfilling its own purpose of weeding out powerful female films from weak ones.

The Bechdel test leaves a lot to be desired, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. It brings attention to the male-dominated world of Hollywood, and it sheds light on the fact that there may be a correlation between the film’s gross income and its portrayal of two or more women holding a conversation about something other than a man. Critiquing the quality of this test is important; Sweden plans to integrate this test into their cinema rating system. I believe a far more complex test can and should be developed in order to determine if a movie poorly represents women or not.

Argentina 1980 vs. France 2012

As I mentioned before, my inspiration for participating in the Rotary exchange program was initially my mom. My mom decided to participate in this program in 1980 during her senior year of high school. She wanted to take a year off between high school and college to travel, so this was the perfect fit for her.

Back then, the program was a little bit different than what it has become today, so by comparing my mom’s experiences going abroad with my own, I’ll explore how different our years were but also how they were essentially very similar.

The first major difference was the country. My mom had learned German in high school, so naturally she wanted to visit Germany during her year abroad, or somewhere in Europe at least. She had to list her top 20 or so countries in order of preference, and she tells me that at least the top 10 countries were all in Europe. She ended up getting her 13th choice — Argentina.

At first she was really nervous to take on a South American country. She even considered dropping out of the program, but decided that she was ready to take on the challenge of learning an entirely different language in a very different place.

I, on the other hand, had it much easier. My first choice out of the 5 top countries I listed was France, and I got my first choice. I definitely felt lucky to get my first choice, but at the same time I was like my mom; I was looking for an adventure and knew I could find that in any country. Being familiar with the language right off the bat was definitely a plus however. I got to become closer with my host families quicker, and I had less trouble in school making friends since I could get by in French even during my first month there.

A picture I took during one of my last nights in France.

A picture I took during one of my last nights in France.

My mother’s experience with getting by in the language was an entirely different case. She tells me that since she knew next to no Spanish when she arrived in Argentina, and barely anyone knew English in her little town on the coast (called Pinamar), she felt very isolated during her 3 months there. Plus, it was a different time; there was no Facebook, no Skype, no cell phones for texting and snapchat. When she felt homesick, she couldn’t log on and talk to her friends and family back home instantly like I could. During her entire year there, she made about 4 phone calls to her parents, and wrote letters. I can’t even image how difficult that would have been!

Pinamar

Pinamar — vamos a la playa anyone?

While it may have taken my mom more time to become accustomed to the language and culture than it did me, she overcame the language barrier and by the end of the year was fluent in oral Spanish. She even came back with a Spanish accent! This never happened to me because I heard English at least once per day while I was in France; I either spoke English with my international friends, or I read it while surfing the internet at night. Since my mom was so isolated in a Spanish-speaking world, she had no choice but to immerse herself in the culture and embrace it. I also had to do this, but to a lesser extent.

Finally, a huge difference between my mom’s year abroad and mine was the educational setting we were placed in. My mom went to the public school there which was a miniscule building which housed grades K-12. After a few months, the teachers told my mother to stop attending classes since she wasn’t contributing anything by reading her books in the back of the class! This was completely different from my experience; I had to attend a Catholic high school Monday through Friday, and if the Rotary found out I skipped a class, I would be in deep trouble! I think I prefer my mom’s educational experience during her gap year…

Even though our experiences were completely different and occurred during very disparate times, in the end we still describe our gap years as incredible, and as if they never really happened at all. It just goes to show that it’s what you do and the effort you put into your gap year (or your travels in general) that makes it memorable, not where you go.

The Journal

One of the things I missed most while on exchange in France was having access to the painting materials I was used to using at home. I love painting on large canvases using acrylic and oil paints, and I wasn’t able to bring these with me, nor did I want to buy them in France. Instead, I decided to pour my artistic flow into a sketchbook/journal to document the details of my life in France.

My first sketches were completed before I left for France. One of my favorite sketches is the one I did of my Rotary blazer and the few pins I had before I left.

I was most inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, Qin Leng. http://qinleng.tumblr.com/

Once I got to France, I sometimes found myself with nothing to do after school but sleep. Instead of locking myself in my room the whole evening, I would pull out my sketchbook and sketch something that happened that day, or sketch a recent trip my host family and I had taken. I found that this was a much better way to pass the time, and it allowed me to be more social and integrate with my host family. I know they really enjoyed seeing my drawings develop, and they especially liked the caricatures I would do for them.

Even at school, I would work on my journal during study halls, art class, and sometimes even during other class subjects (especially English class!). My classmates became really interested in what I was doing; they’d frequently ask me to flip through the sketchbook, checking to see if I had finished any sketches since last they’d peered through it. In a way, this sketchbook helped me integrate into the class because I’d share my experiences with the French country with my class mates, and they liked to hear about what I thought about French people and life in general. It was a way to start a conversation, which is not always easy to do in a second language. Plus, I would scribble down sentences in both English and French, so before I finished the sketch with pen, I’d ask a classmate if there were any grammatical errors.

My sketchbook wasn’t only fun to look at for my host family and my classmates; I tried my best to take pictures of my work and post them on my Facebook page for my family and friends back home to see. I thought this would be a fun way for them to follow what I was up to in France, even if I only finished a sketch of an event months after it happened.

Yet, around February and March, my sketching started to slow down. As I gained stronger friendships, I spent less and less time on recording new experiences and instead started making new memories with my friends.

Even now, I feel that I remember the trips and days I documented through my sketchbook better than those I didn’t. Despite the fact that I took lots of pictures, through my sketchbook, I could more easily depict the emotions I was experiencing at certain times.

I’ve only finished the sketches up until March, so I still have a long way to go! Here are a few pictures of the sketches I completed while in France.

Having trouble packing

 

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Barcelona!

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The cathedral and old houses in the town in which I stayed, Bourges.

 

Le Mont Saint Michel

If I were to ask you about the attractions you know about in France, I bet you could at least name a few in Paris: The Eiffel Tower, le Louvre, l’Arc de Triomphe, les Champs-Elysées, maybe even Montmartre and le Moulin Rouge? Could you name any outside of Paris?

Le Mont Saint Michel is probably the number one attraction outside of Paris that people recognize. In fact, it’s one of the most visited sites in the world. That’s not too hard since France is the country that is most visited in the entire world (the United States is number 2).

In October of my year abroad, my Rotary district in France (districts envelop different areas of the country, and in my district there were about 22 exchange students) planned a trip for us students to travel up North to visit the Mont Saint Michel. About 5 or 6 other districts were planning to do the same, so we were all really excited to meet with tons of other students.

We set out on a Friday from Bourges (the town in which I was living) to Normandy, the uppermost area of France. We met with the rest of our exchange students at the beach, and ate sandwiches and played in the chilly water. Later, we went on a tour at a WWII museum which was right next to the artificial port that was created for the American soldiers to land on and invade Normandy. Not far from that, there’s an American cemetery which we visited. There, we met an American soldier who had actually fought in Normandy, and tears were in his eyes as he helped fold the American flag.

American cemetery in Normandy

American cemetery in Normandy

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Holding up the flag with my fellow American exchangers in my district at the cemetery.

After this emotional experience, we hopped back into our vans and drove an hour to our hotel which was right outside the Mont Saint Michel.

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A little bit of history: Le Mont Saint Michel is an island commune just a kilometer away from mainland France. In medieval times, it was used as a fortification because it could only be accessed during low tide. When enemies tried to reach it during high tide, they would drown.

Currently, the commune has a population of 42 people!! Wouldn’t it be cool to live there..? No? Just me then. The French government is also trying to figure out a solution to the island’s main problem: it’s sinking into the surrounding soil and water!

For some reason the Rotarians made all of us 200 exchange students walk around the island in the ice cold water for about 3 hours. We didn’t mind though, it was the perfect opportunity to get to know the rest of the students and take pictures with out countries’ flags.

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Treacherous French (quick) sand

On the island-- these houses date back to medieval times

On the island– these houses date back to medieval times

Looking down at the village and surrounding water.

Looking down at the village and surrounding water.

Later that night, all the students and Rotarians piled into one room to eat dinner, and once we finished our meals, the Rotarians had us go to the front of the room in groups and sing our country’s national anthem. This took roughly 2 hours to get through everyone’s anthem, but it was fun to hear the students sing in different languages. After that it was dance party time.

I still think of this weekend as one of the best weekends during my exchange. I got to see a beautiful place that I normally would never have gone to because it was too far away from my city, and I got to meet so many different people from around the world, people whom I still follow on Facebook to check out what they’re up to. But mostly, I became much closer with the exchange students in my district, especially these 4 girls, with whom I became super close with during the rest of the year. My exchange wouldn’t have been half as great as it was without the support and friendship of these girls! As much as I love my French friends I made at school, it’s the exchange students who really understood me and got to know me better. And I miss ’em to death!

msm5

Lydia from Tacoma, Washington; Victoria from Toronto, Canada; Camila from Mexico City, Mexico

 

Jo from Perth, Australia

Jo from Perth, Australia

 

The Oppressed Majority

Prowling around for a good feminist topic to blog about, I came across a short French film,  Majorité Opprimée (Oppressed Majority), that is really giving me a lot to think about, and a lot to write about. Watch the 11-minute film here:

I’m going to break down the scenes one on one.

First of all, we can see that the director is a woman, Eleonore Pourriat. I think this is especially important because it gives the movie more credibility. Another thing to point out is the short description of the film: “On what seems to be just another ordinary day, a man is exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society ruled by women…” This little description caught my attention because I never thought about what it would be like if the roles between men and women were swapped so dramatically.

In the first scene we’re introduced to the main character, a 30-ish-year-old slightly out of shape man who’s taking his child off to daycare. A woman neighbor stops to talk to him about a recent building meeting, addressing him as “my dear”. They chatter for awhile, and then as the woman is leaving she chuckles, “Oh I’m saying this to you? I should really be talking to your wife…” The man pauses for a second, but doesn’t really take offense by it. In fact, this line is so subtle that in real life, in our male-driven world, this remark probably wouldn’t register as misogynistic. But in reality, it is; why wouldn’t the male be as informed as the female on these matters? Why is one more worth talking to than the other?

The man sets on his way and is nearly knocked over by a topless female runner. Only the French are shamelessly not boob-a-phobics and I love ’em for it.

boom.

Notice this subtle comment as well? She’s only remarking on his looks. This happens over and over in a woman’s lifetime that she starts to base her self worth on her beauty.

Dropping his child off at work, he notices the nanny, who’s a man, has started wearing a hijab, and he asks if he feels trapped by his wife. The nanny replies no, that it’s the law and that he’s protected by God that way. It’s possible that the nanny is telling the truth, that he feels more comfortable wearing the head scarf, but it’s also a possibility that he’s changed himself to please his wife. Our main guy is concerned about this, because this is a real issue for men (our women) in everyday life. I’m not arguing about the hijab itself; as a Westerner, I see it as a misogynistic practice, but I wasn’t brought up in that culture. I’m arguing about the fact that women often feel like they have to change the way they look to please their significant other or the males in their life.

Leaving the nanny, our guy hops on his bike. On the way he’s cat-called by a homeless woman who offers to give him a blowjob. The man ignores her at first, but when she yells at him to give her money and he refuses, she blows up at him, insulting his looks. He stays silent until the light turns green and he rides away. His silence is really disturbing; it’s weird to see a woman insult a man and have the man be silent, subservient.

Riding off, the man makes it to outside his office building and parks his bike. Four young girls are standing in the road, one of them relieving herself in the alleyway. The girls start to heckle the man, and finally, he gets fed up and asks if there’s a problem.

Our guy finally sticks up for himself, but when he calls them bitches, they get angry and react violently. In the alleyway, with a knife to his throat, the girls tear open his shirt, play with his nipples, and unzip his pants. This scene gave me chills; it’s so strange to watch women violently dominate a man in this way. As a woman, scenarios like this frighten me enough so that I am afraid to walk alone in the dark. I feel pretty safe in State College, but the idea of being taken advantage of is so scary to me that I don’t like to take risks. I can’t possibly imagine a world in which the roles would be switched, that men would fear me and my girl friends at night, and so I think that’s why this scene was so poignant to me.

The film skips to the man at the police station, as a woman officer dryly recounts his story. After she condescendingly asks for a cup of coffee from her young male assistant, she says, “It’s crazy isn’t it? In broad daylight, with no witnesses…” Our man asks what she’s trying to get at, and she replies,

Her icy gaze is what gets me most; she has absolutely no sympathy for what he went through, and what’s more, she questions if this scene ever took place.

When his wife meets him at the police station, she briefly explains that she couldn’t come earlier since she had a meeting. “I think I really knocked ’em dead” she says proudly, and the man says “I’m so happy for you”. That really ticked me off.

Walking out of the hospital, the woman makes no effort to try and comfort the man who can barely stand on his feet. She looks so uncomfortable, and clearly doesn’t know what to do. Then, he breaks down.

One of the first things she replies is:

Screen Shot 2014-02-10 at 11.54.43 PM

When he says he dresses as he wants, she harshly replies, “Don’t complain then!”

This is the popular argument of the ignorant, that women are asking for it when they wear tight or suggestive clothing. Yet, if we wear baggy clothing, we’re accused of being uptight, boring virgins. It’s the kind of double standard that makes me crazy.

She walks away, and as the camera follows her down the long, dark road, male voices start to insult her. She looks afraid as she walks alone; in a matter of seconds, the roles are switched back to normal. I applaud the director, Pourriat, for this exceptional short film that brings attention to one of our biggest issues as a society, objectification and violence against women. I especially want to know how men react to this film, so share your thoughts.

 

 

Frozen: Feminist and Fun

Ladies and gents, the newest Disney phenomenon has swept the nation; yes, you guessed it (by the title I hope?), this post is going to be all about how Disney’s Frozen can be considered a feminist film.

For those of you who haven’t yet seen the film, here’s a short synopsis. (For those who have, skip down to the astericks***.) Two sisters, Elsa and Anna, are princesses in a snowy setting (probably in some Nordic country). Elsa, the older sister, was born with the power of magically producing snow and ice forms through her hands. She and Anna love playing with the snow, until one day Anna gets hurt. From then on, their parents don’t allow Elsa to use her magic, but it’s difficult for her to keep it in. They also separate the two sisters, and refuse for them to leave the house. One day their parents are killed at sea, so 3 years later, Elsa will be crowned queen of the land.

On her coronation day, many people from distant lands arrive to celebrate the new queen. One of these foreigners is Hans, with whom Anna falls desperately in love with right away. He proposes to her, and she says yes immediately. After the coronation, Elsa loses control of her powers, and the entire town, including Anna, learns of her secret. Embarrassed and scared, she flees the castle, and Anna vows to go after her, putting Hans in charge while she’s away. On the way she comes across Kristoff, a mountain man of a guy with a cool moose companion, who at first refuses to help Anna, but later she changes his mind.

Who doesn't love a Yeti companion?

Who doesn’t love a Yeti companion?

Kristoff and Anna eventually make it to Elsa’s North Castle, a fortress she made out of ice, and they find Elsa perfectly happy being alone since she can be herself. But when Anna tells Elsa she has caused an eternal winter, Elsa grows scared again, and accidently strikes Anna in the heart with her snow powers. Kristoff takes her to some cool little trolls who say only an act of true love can break that ice. Kristoff rushes Anna back to Hans, but Hans laughs in her face and says he never loved her, he just wanted to take the kingdom from Anna. Meanwhile, Elsa is captured, brought to jail, and then escapes. Anna is left to die, before Olaf, her trusty snowman she met along the way, finds her and suggests they go find Kristoff. At the climax, Hans finds Elsa wandering the fjord in a blizzard, and gets ready to strike her with a dagger. Anna, nearly frozen to death, staggers toward them and steps in front Elsa. She turns completely to ice and shatters Hans’ blade. Elsa, consumed with grief, breaks down and starts hugging her frozen sister, when suddenly, Anna’s ice melts and she’s normal again! By saving her sister, an act of true love, Anna broke her own spell.

Elsa realizes love can break the eternal winter, so she warms the land and everything is back to normal.

The sisters' kingdom (thawed)

The sisters’ kingdom (thawed)

Hans is taken back to his own land, Kristoff kisses Anna for replacing his broken sled for a new one and the sisters rule the kingdom happily together.

 *************

A pretty long summary, but I wanted to hit some of the more important parts that I’m going to analyze. In historical Disney films, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and even Tangled, it’s the man who ends up saving the downtrodden princess. I like Frozen because it completely turns this idea upside-down. At first, you think that it’s going to be just another Disney film; Hans and Anna fall madly in love the very first day they meet each other, and you find yourself shaking your fist at Disney, no! not another one of these unrealistic themes! At the same time, Elsa is told by her parents to keep her powers to herself, to hide her true personality. This theme can be seen even in real life, when girls are criticized for too strongly showing a certain characteristic, such as their sexuality, and are encouraged to hide it. Once Elsa is alone and is able to LET IT GO (the starring musical number in the film), she feels freer and happier. I like that Disney wanted to show that it’s not healthy to keep emotions inside yourself, and that little girls and boys alike should express themselves because it feels better to do so.

Moreover, the ending message really hits home. Instead of Hans turning out to be some great prince who rescues Anna, he betrays her, and it’s Anna who saves herself in the end. The tight sisterly bond between Anna and Elsa causes Elsa to figure out how to fix the eternal winter. The two sisters are happy to be reunited again, and they find a balance between allowing Elsa to use her powers and keeping harmony in the palace. It’s the sisters who figure out the solution, not some prince who sweeps in and saves everyone. Can anybody say GIRL POWER? Plus, having an older sister myself, I can relate to the film. Sometimes you fight with your sister, and sometimes you save your parents’ kingdom with her. Go us.

All the while, the film is fun to watch. Girls and guys of all ages can enjoy the cute musical numbers with Olaf the snowman (who steals the show btw), not at the expense of women or some other “dumbly-casted” minority (see characters such as Lightning McQueen in Cars or the Seven Dwarves in Snow White).

As for the sisters’ appearances go, Disney could have further pushed the message that individuality is an okay thing by possibly creating a curvier Elsa or Anna. The girls are still tied up in this rigid, impossibly skinny, model, and I would’ve liked to see a change in that. Like in Tangled, the princesses still have enormous eyes, small noses, beautiful locks that frame their pointy faces. I hate how Elsa, Anna, and Tangled’s Rapunzel all look like twins whereas the men in the movies, Hans, Kristoff, and Tangled’s Eugene are all extremely varied. If the importance of individuality is Disney’s intended message, the creators should have varied the girls’ looks and sizes a bit more.

Long lost sister?

Demeaning portrait of the perfect woman, or just long lost sister?

All in all, however, Frozen gets the Miranda Holmes feminist seal of approval.