Women of the World: Beauty

Being a female made this article more interesting and personal. I have seen a lot of people including friends of mine obsess over their bodies and image. High school is the best place to really see this happening. Girls at such young ages are becoming obsessed with how they look and what they wear so much that it is sickening. For those that do not meet the standard norm of how one should look are teased, bullied, and pushed to the side. The magazines and tv shows on display today are perfect examples of where a lot of this "beauty ideal" comes from. There are reality shows like, "Beauty and Beast", "America's Next Top Model", and multiple make-over shows. All this does is teach people that unless you already fit this certain profile you need to "fix" yourself with diet, tanning, hair color, whitened teeth, and new clothes. In some ways we need to blame ourselves for falling into the trap of the media and peer pressure. Unfortunately, these images are getting to our children who are more impressionable and vulnerable to peer pressure. People need to be more responsible, but the media needs to consider the idea of morales and realize image is not the most important attribute in life.

Women and the Military, War, and Peace

Facilitation: Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Women and the Military, War, and Peace,” Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives Fourth Edition, New York: McGraw – Hill, 2007, 483-500.
Key - Words: Military, human security, racism, militarism, opposition, violence, crime
Key – Phrases: Responsibility to protect, “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, see reality in oppositional categories, “specific policy prohibiting sexual harassment”
Key – Names: President Bush, Francine D’Amico, Laurie Weinstein, Guenter-Schlesinger, Kristin Henderson, Betty Burkes, Scharnberg
Key Ideas: There are always two sides to every story. In this chapter the side for military and the side against military are discussed. What is focused on is the woman’s point of view of the military and their jobs through support, active duty, reserves, and contributions. For some women the military is an opportunity for employment with better pay, benefits, education, travel, and escape from crisis-torn inner cities in the United States.
While the military has taken giant leaps in the past few decades towards rights for women within the institution, there have also been reports of crime, harassment, racism, and a stigma held over many women soldiers. Even those women not contracted with the military are finding faults with militarism believing that it is not providing human security.
Questions:
1. Do you believe genuine security is created by militarism?
2. Why has the issue of gays in the military become an issue in mainstream U.S. politics?
3. Do you believe women should be allowed to perform any duty or position in the military no matter the physical requirements, added stress, and danger the position entails?
Quotes:
A young soldier jumped into the gunner’s turret of an armored Humvee and took control of the menacing .50-caliber machine gun. She was 19 years old, weighed barely 100 pounds and had a blond ponytail hanging out from under her Kevlar helmet.
“This is what is different about this war,” Lt. Col. Richard Rael, commander of the 515th Corps Support Battalion, said of the scene at the time.” “Women are fighting it. Women under my command have confirmed kills. These little wisps of things are stronger than anyone could ever imagine and taking on more than most Americans could ever know.”
(Scharnberg 2005)

Abstract

When we think of soldiers we tend to think of all the work, training, and will power these men and women put into their jobs, but what about the families of these soldiers? This study examines the effects of deployment and training on the lives of the families left behind. Many families are moved on to military bases and subjected to relocations on a regular base. The rules and regulations on a military base are unlike those seen outside the base. Organizations have been designed for the study and research of military families in order to provide better support groups and facilitations. For instance, the Military Family Research Institute is based at Purdue University as an outreach organization designed to provide insight into the experiences of military members and their families and to design and implement outreach activities to assist families (MFRI 2008). While steps are being taken to apply the necessary tools to further help military families, statistics show military members are experiencing deployments at a rate not seen in previous wars or conflicts which is causing unknown effects on families, especially those in the National Guard and Reserves (MFRI 2008).

References:

"Sesame Street: Talk, Listen, Connect." Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University. 2008. Purdue University. 1 Apr. 2009