Assignment #4: Learning Analysis

Learning Analysis

Deciding to take woman studies was not my personal choice, but rather it was to fulfill a core requirement. I came into the class with no feminist, women art or culture knowledge. After this semester, I have a better understanding on women, feminism and art. Before taking this woman studies course, I never thought about my assumptions or even paid attention to them. Likewise, before taking this course I also did not paid much attention to where the power lied in my everyday life. It was not until I took this course and was told to write a paper analyzing the different power structures in my everyday life. The assignment allowed me to realize how much power and oppressions that is present in my life.

Based on the assignment that analyzes our assumptions on the museums, I learned that anything can count as art and art can be in many forms. There were many shocking artworks that I encounter during my experience at the art museums. For example, artistes using their own bodies as art to convey a message to the public were quite shocking because I thought they were too extreme. Therefore, it does no matter what it is, whether an object, a living thing or even one’s own physical self, they all count as art. The perception of art depends on how the individual looks at it because each individual has his or her own thoughts. Another fact that I noticed about my assumptions was that prior to attending the art museums, I knew that many forms of art involved the human body. My assumption was that I already accepted this fact in which there will be some pornography in art. However, to my surprise when I went to the museums when I saw some of the artworks that involved the body parts, many were the female body, I felt disturbed and uncomfortable. First time paying attention the ‘before and after’ effects of my own assumptions were quite interesting and surprising. There is a connection between my uncomfortable feeling when I saw the female body part to the idea of respecting the sexes. Throughout my life, I have always assumed that presenting or showing the female private body parts were wrong. Hence, when I saw such graphic images of the female body I felt disturbed and somewhat embarrassed. The embarrassment comes from the fact that I am a female and I see an image of the female body of my own sex embarrasses me. Whereas, when I came across sculptures of the male body, I was less embarrassed or disturbed.

Moreover, the assignment in which we were told to analyze our privileges and oppressions allowed me to have a better understanding of all the positives and negatives in my daily life. In our daily lives, there are many things we do every day, however because we do them so often, we do not acknowledge that they could be a privilege or an oppression in our life. This assignment assisted me to learn of my privileges and to cherish my advantages. Also, I think the most important part of this assignment was that I realized that while a privilege may not seem much of a privilege, but there are many people out there that may be oppressed by that privilege. For example, the rigorous academic program I am may seem more like a lack of privilege, however, in some ways this lack of privilege, can actually be an oppression to other people. In addition, I learned that sometimes my oppressions are someone else’s privileges and vice versa; they overlap. This is how our daily lives are interconnected and balance out because each individual has their own oppressions and privileges.

I feel that “But is it art?” by Cynthia Freeland was one of the readings that I found interesting and that I learned from. The book provides detailed explanations on the different types of art and how one can approach thinking about art. Art can be as extreme as using blood, urine or plastic surgery to convey subjects such as war and violence. Other forms of art could be completely on the other side of the spectrum as some artistes use gardens and flowers to depict something. This book was meaningful to me because it allowed me to have a better understanding of the different point of views of art and why people uses certain methods to message to their audience of the artistes ideas. I feel more fascinated by the fact that there are individuals out there who would sacrifice their own flesh just for a piece of artwork. This definitely changed my views on what art can really do to an individual. That is, causing them to have the mentality to sacrifice their own flesh, such as blood for art. It connects to my life because in the future, I will know how to analyze art in a more intelligent way.

The next book that caught my attention was “Feminism is for Everybody” by bell hooks. Because I had no knowledge of what feminism actually is before taking this class, I found this book to be helpful. The only knowledge I had on feminism was that it was a movement which involved fighting for woman rights and equality. However, after entering this course of study, I learned that feminism is not just about those two topics, but is much broader. Hooks effectively explains her point of views on the feminist theory. She discusses about the issues that revolve around men and women equality. Even though women are the leaders in many households, but whether men are part of the leaders in the household or not, they are still overriding the domination of women. Hooks also talks about how feminist education should be expanded and because they failed on expanding academic wise, hooks feels that feminist should raise the awareness outside of the academics. Because some feminist were so radical on how they view men, society adapted to thinking that feminism is about anti-male. Instead hooks suggest that feminism should incorporate masculinity to drive society away from thinking that the feminist movement and theory is anti-male. Moving on, hooks discusses the early theories of feminism and how they separated themselves from men. Not only did early feminist theorist disliked men because they felt that men were “cruel, unkind, violent [and] unfaithful” (hooks, 12). Early feminist wanted to fight for their equality and reach beyond men, as men always seem to be above women. Another issue that hooks brings up is the views on who has the right to decide what females should do with their bodies. She refers to one of the largest controversy for her argument, abortion. Hooks argue that women should have the right to choose what to do with their bodies. Not because it is illegal to abort a child or because many feel that the female is murdering a human being, but simply because having the right to choose is one of the only freedoms women can have.

Overall, I learned much from “Feminism is for Everybody” about the different aspects of feminism. As I read through some of the chapters, it was interesting how bell hooks thought of the topic. For example, the section about Our Bodies, Ourselves she talks about how the decision of abortion should be placed on the woman, because it is a reproductive freedom that no one other male has. When I read this part, I felt that we, females are the only ones who have this type of reproductive freedom, the abortion will happen in our bodies physically. This feeling is a quite special as it is one unique aspect of the woman body that males do not possess. Some of the ideas that hooks brings up are the same thoughts I originally had on feminism. I, like the rest of the society thought that feminists were anti-males and that were generally lesbians. However, the section where hooks speaks about Feminism Masculinity, I agree that feminist should be approaching feminist theory while incorporating masculinity in it. The approach will help gain a positive impression on feminism to society.

The final book that was appealing to me was “Kindred” by Octavia Butler. The novel was captivating because of the theme, time traveling. It was interesting to read about how a woman from the future could travel back in time to experience the life of her ancestors. The topic of book revolved much on slavery, race, and the power struggle of race and gender. Dana, the main character from the novel is an African-American female who is married to a White male. When she suddenly travels back in time into the world of her ancestors, it is discovered that her ancestors were originally White also.

I thought this book was meaningful because there is an opportunity for Dana to personally experience the struggles the past faced. Not only the hardships of her ancestors, but also her race in general. Another reason why it is meaningful was because the time travel story allowed Dana to be part of her own history. She along with the readers are taken back into the past to learn the lifestyles of Whites and Blacks. In addition to the novel being meaningful, the topic is also very important. It is necessary for readers to acknowledge that slavery and issues with race and gender in the past more or less shaped society today. The novel did not necessary change my feelings about the course because before reading this novel, I already knew some facts about the subject. It is just that the novel brought a live experience to me.
In conclusion, during the course of this class I have contributed to the class mainly by being part of the group discussions and occasionally giving my opinion on certain topics. The small group meetings helps me be included in the story simply because I am personally experiencing the course along with the rest of the group. I have missed a few lectures, but never discussion. Missing lectures, of course is at my disadvantage as I am missing the material and this causes this story to be halted. The effect of missing lecture is that I am unable to contribute into the story as I do not have the knowledge. I believe in the beginning when the story first started there was less contribution because I was not as comfortable, but as we move through the course, things change. Now at the end of the story, I try to contribute more into the story.