Final Paper

Lolita Jadotte
May 13, 2008
WMST Sec #0101

Analysis and Learning Paper

Throughout the course of this semester, I have learned a new outlook on the life of women and the meaning behind feminism. I came into this class expecting to learn certain things about women and their culture. This class was not at all what I expected. I expected to learn about influential women from the past and influential women today. I also expected to learn about how women have been portrayed in the media and about their sexuality. But, instead I learned how to relate feminism to all types of art. This class also taught me how to look at situations in a different light and not to think in the conventional way. The assignments we had to do along with the readings helped to expand the way we think about women and art. These assignments were fun, which helped to add to the positive learning experience. These assignments were interactive and also gave us a chance to see how other classmate interpreted certain topics. This class was based a lot on the interaction among classmates, which also helped to expand my learning and different ways of thinking.
The first assignment we had to do was to go to four different museums and look at the different exhibits, which displays the different art works done by women. These art pieces were not just paintings, but sculptures, clothing, and written pieces as well. Before going to the museum we had to write down a list of assumptions about what we expected the museums to be like. I expected for the art to have a lot of the stereotypes associated with being a girl, such as incorporating the color pink and having flowers. Instead, there were paintings displayed the oppression of women. My favorite museum was the American Indian Museum. This was my favorite museum because; I liked the identity by design exhibit. This portion showed the culture of American Indians women and their roles in their society. Their art were displayed by their clothing. I liked this because it was different the traditional paintings to express themselves, and because these clothing told their story. The clothing tells a story through the different patterns and colors of the outfit. A young woman was not considered a woman until around the age of 13 and has completed making their first dress.
The second assignment we had to work as a group and create a flyer/leaflet describing an event we had to make up. Our event was t o raise awareness about feminism within the community. A lot of young people such as myself are either not familiar with or do not fully understand the concept of feminism. Our definition that we came up with was feminism is a fight, through art, speeches, and many other methods to raise consciousness to society about the oppression that women go through. The movement of feminism has progressed over the years but far from being accomplished. It was important to us to send the message out to the young people to our event we had celebrities that the young people are more familiar with are more likely to listen to. This assignment really allowed me to realize the amount of inequality still today between women and men. I knew inequality still exist but not at the level at which it does. It was shocking for me to find out that until this day women are not getting paid the same as men in the workforce. This is a prime reason why the issue of feminism and equality that is great need of being promoted and dealt with.
The third assignment we had was to work with a partner and explore and explain the different matrix of domination. I really liked this assignment because there was many we could have approached it. It was nice to get a chance to listen to other group’s presentation of their project because it made you think in ways you might not have thought about. This assignment helped me to think about things in different aspects. My partner and looked at our lives separately and saw which powers we were able exercise and the reasons why we are able to exercise these right. Then we looked at aspects in our lives in which we were not able to exercise certain powers and the reasons why we were not able to exercise certain powers. Then finally we look at our lives together and compared the ways in which we were either similar or different. I was able to really think about situations in my life that I never though about in that way before. The presentations were an important to help us learn about how my classmate interpreted the project and the extent to which they took it.
Along with these assignments, discussions also helped to further my understanding of this course. The most helpful thing to me was the free writes during class. The free writes gave me a chance to just write non-stop, which allowed me to write down I how I really feel about without and judgment or things like that. The way this class was structured was to help bring out not only the creative side but also the intellectual side of the students. The course was designed to not only think on the surface but beyond and deeper than the surface. The reading and the free write help to develop our intellectual and creative thinking. Being also to post information on the blog and continue with previous conversation was also and helped us to express our thought. The blog also gave us feed back on our comments because other students would comment on things that were said. Being able to have other student comment on ideas posted blog helped to expand are understanding of various topics.
Throughout the course we were required to read certain books all pertaining to feminism and art. Among those books, I had three favorites, Kindred, Feminism is for everyone, and Fight like a girl. The book, Kindred, by Octavia Butler had many examples of inequality. This book was bout a black women who is married to a white men. The women whose name is Dana periodical gets sent back to the past. She keeps randomly traveling back to the 1800s in a place in Maryland. During those time racism and inequality was a major issue with which she was faced to deal with on many occasions. There were issues of violence on women in the act of rape. Dana being black women of that time had a lot of hate and racism being thrown in her direction. It was sort of ironic how she was married to a white male in the present but in the past he would been her oppressor.
I enjoyed the book Feminism is for everybody by bell hooks because it addressed the issues surrounding feminism. There are many women who do not considered themselves a feminist because of the misinterpretation of the word. The word feminism associates women with words like lesbian, bitch or man bashing. This book mentions feminism in many different aspects such as race, gender, workplace, class and violence. Bell Hooks emphasizes that feminism is not all about being a woman but much more than that. It is a movement, which involves all different types of people not depending on race or gender. I was already familiar with the author, bell hooks because we learned about her in my English class. I was familiar with the way she thought about feminism in general, so interesting to get a chance to read more of her books.
The book Fight like a Girl by Megan Seely was attractive to me because of the title. My first thought was how do you fight like a girl? I liked this book it was all about issues both women and girls have to deal with, and the way in which they deal with them. This book was all about ways for women to empower and strive for equality economically, politically and socially. This book is a form of resources or answers in what to do and how to overcome, despite inequalities. This book was very empowering and taught me a lot. It taught me how to go about being a female in certain situation, like how to succeed in the workforce, education and all the different that helps you become successful in life.
This class has really helped me to understand more, not just about women but for all inequality, whether it is within race or gender. This has helped further develop the way issues are thought about. The various books promoted women being strong and striving for equality, but in different ways. The learning experience in this class has been fun. This class taught me the different ways in which females are portrayed. I also learned how ideas are not only expressed by words, but by paintings and other art form. Women expressed themselves in all sorts of ways to try to get their point across. They showed the world through their art the oppressions in which they were forced to deal with.