Being Ambidextrous

I have always been jealous of people who are ambidextrous. How sweet is it that they have the ability to do and make things with their right AND left hand?! Just a thought I will return to later...

So this week, for my Diverse and Exceptional Learner class, I was given the task of interviewing five people about what white privilege means to them. Thinking that my family members would all provide deep and intellectual answers that would be on the same track as my own thoughts about race and privilege, I made the wonderful mistake of interviewing them. Why a wonderful mistake? Well the mistake comes in because they pretty much gave me answers that were entirely the opposite to the ones I was looking for: instead of being insightful, their answers were mostly filled with ignorance and colorblindness. But why wonderful? Allan Johnson notes that acknowledgement of privilege is one of the most important steps in beginning to unravel negative powers and oppressions. By conducting those interviews with my family, I realized that I have acknowledged, to some degree, my privilege as a white person. I am no longer colorblind, which goes against everything I was ever taught about growing up when everyone was "equal". But I actually prefer my non-colorblinded world right now: it has completely stretched my mind and caused me to think about issues that I had never acknowledged. As a result of my interviews, I recognize that I don't believe "white privilege is an archaic phrase that isn't relevant in 2009," as my mother said. I don't believe that "White privilege is something used as an excuse for some people of minority groups to not be motivated to be successful," as one family member put it. I don't believe the prediction that "The 2010 decade will be the decade of 'black privilege' because they have a ten times better shot of being hired in D.C. being black," as the 26 year old radically republican and conservative lawyer brother claimed. Instead, I believe "white privilege" is very much like being right handed, a metaphor from Bill and Otter, a gay couple from Decorah: not being forced to think about how you are 'different' or wonder if why the reason you are being treated a certain way is because of your "difference".

So I know you are sitting there thinking, "How in the world does 'white privilege' have anything to do with women and gender studies?" It has everything to do with it. By understanding myself as a young woman and therefore as a member of a group that has been oppressed throughout history, and being passionate about looking and acting for change, I can better understand and identify with people oppressed by other factors, such as race. I can better understand their feelings, their struggles, their passion, and their vision. In other words, in this aspect of my life, I get to be ambidextrous. I get to make things better and create things out of my right-handed privilege and my left-handed way in which I am oppressed.

But where do I, where do WE, go from here? A truth that I really like thinking about comes through a quote of Henry Adams: "A teacher affects eternity: they can never tell where their influence will stop." Why do I know this is truth? I have witness and experienced it. I bet any of you can look at why you are sitting in a women and gender studies classroom and attribute that reason to a variety of people in your past that have influenced you for the better. As people, we are truly like ripples, like Kim suggested. We have the ability to start something, or fight for something, and be comforted by the fact that, even though we might be unaware of it, we are influencing people. And like my favorite stanza from the last poem reads,

"Somebody may stop my voice from singing

But the song lives on and on.

You can't kill the spirit

It's like a mountain,

Old and Strong; it lives on and on."

"Being mountain. Being ambidextrous. Creating Ripples" is my artwork for the week.

Nike and The Lorax

Did anyone else feel guilty when they started reading "The Globetrotting Sneaker" and looked down at their feet and realized that they were wearing a pair of Nike's? Because I did. Which is why, in an attempt to make myself feel better, I looked into what Nike has done in the past 15 years since that article was written in order to improve their ethical and moral image.

One thing that has changed in Nike's policy since the 1990s is the allowing of random inspections by the Fair Labor Association. In addition, Nike has created a sector of around 100 employees whose jobs are to travel to supplier factories, grade the factories on labor standards, and work with managers to improve labor conditions. I also found problems that had been somewhat solved by Nike that weren't even talked about in the readings. For instance, did you know that women in Nike sweatshops used to have to prove they were menstruating before given their legally guaranteed leave? They no longer have to do so. In addition, and the article minimally touched on this, Nike workers were beaten more than once with machetes and threatened at gunpoint if they were perceived to be involved with union organizing activity. This is now no longer the case. Nike has also made tremendous progress in reducing the use of toxic chemicals in their shoemaking factories.

So should we give credit to Nike for these improvements? Jim Keady, founder of Educating for Justice and Team Sweat says absolutely not. "Nike did not make any of these improvements voluntarily; they needed to be publicly embarrassed and pilloried to make each of these changes. Congratulating Nike for discontinuing these corporate crimes would be like congratulating a thief for no longer stealing or congratulating a rapist for no longer raping.And besides that, Nike still has a long ways to go in reaching justice in their labor division. Many workers are still coerced into working 70 hour work weeks, and note that it is very difficult to take sick leave or vacation because of the pressure their under to not get threatened with dismissal. In addition, Nike still refuses to pay its workers a figure able to be lived off of. Nike workers today barely get paid enough to survive, not to mention serving the needs of their children.

So what are we helpless and powerless college students to do? Well, as you may have heard, Luther College was recently part of a boycott of Russell Athletic wear after allegations that the company fired 1,200 workers in Honduras after they began unionizing. Due to the pressure of students across the nation, on November 17th, Russell rehired the 1,200 workers. UW-Madison, after being a part of the Russell boycott success, has now turned their heads to Nike. According to The Capital Times based in Madison, WI, "Two factories Nike subcontracts with in Honduras, Vision Tex and Hugger de Honduras, closed in January without paying more than $2 million in legally mandated severance and back pay to 1,800 workers." As a result, Madison is hosting a $50,000 educational program to inform the university’s licensees about the code of conduct regarding the treatment of workers in labor shops. After seeing the power students had in the Russell case, they have faith that if they act to raise awareness that poor labor conditions of big athletic apparel companies all reflect poorly on universities, administrations will come to realize that these big companies don't deserve the opportunity to market to university students. Don't be surprised if this cause against Nike spreads to the Luther campus...and don't feel powerless in the difference you can make.

Ditching "Happily Ever After"

Addie, a three year-old girl that I babysit, recently feel in love with the movie Enchanted: a Disney fairy-tail about a princess who escapes her cartoon form, enters the 'real world', falls in love, and ends up living happily ever after. The movie opens with the main character, Giselle, singing as her bird friends fly to her window. One day, after Addie had watched Enchanted continuously for a week, she ran down from her room, hysterical. When her mom asked what was wrong, Addie, through tears, answered, "I sang and the birds didn't come flying to my window!"

Although as we age, we don't respond as dramatically as Addie did when "fairy-tails" don't come true in our lives, we still experience disappointment. We live in a culture where we are constantly bombarded with the notion that fantasies, grown-up fairy-tails, are realistic. But unfortunately, these fantasies are what they are: unattainable lives of perfection. Fantasies are not destructive when they are viewed as such; in many cases they can be stress relievers and vacations from the real world. It is when we start to see fantasies as normal and realistic that we set ourselves up for discontent and unhappiness.

For instance, many of the women of Jennifer Maher's article, "What Do Women Watch?," revel in the pleasure of watching "reality TV" on TLC because of the content they feel when they see that "perfect love and happiness" is possible. And then, when these women discover that the "real romantic life is not as exciting as the televised narrative," they begin the painful and destructive cycle of watching fantasies that evoke the same romantic emotions and continually becoming discontent with the lack of perfection in their lives (Maher 90).

These fantasies we are bombarded with not only inevitably lead us to dissatisfaction and unhappiness if we understand them as realistic. They also serve to cause us to objectify other people of this world. In his article, "Picture Perfect," Douglas Rushkoff shares that after relving in the fantasies that the American media had overwhelmed him with, he looked for a partner of perfection. But he recognized the problem with this: human's aren't perfect. He wasen't relating to these potential partners as real people; he was relating to them as objects...potential trophy wives. He reflects that, "Looking at a potential romantic partner through a lens like this (one that demanded perfection) was doomed to failure."

So what are we to do in a world that falsely brainwashes us into thinking that "happily ever after" is a reachable ideal? Rushkoff writes that he has "found 'the one.' precisely because she's the one who's forced [him] to realize there's no such thing." He ditched the scripts that demanded that he find perfection. In other words, to be truly HAPPY, we must grow up and ironically realize that "HAPPILY ever after" is truly a fantasy: it doesn't exist in our world.

Eyeing New Worlds

This week's readings focused on very modern dilemmas of family. To begin a discussion on family, we must recognize some very important changes that have occurred within our own lifetime regarding the dynamics of American families. Not even as little as ten years ago would our culture have been as open as it has become to adding gay couples and their children to the definition of family, or allowing room for "stay at home dads" to be accepted. Our generation has truly been one of the first that has gotten to witness how a world can begin to alter its perception of things as ingrained into society as family. With that being said, however, there are still battles to face before the definition and dynamics of family become truly all-inclusive. And one of the most vital areas of change needs to focus around the accepted roles of fatherhood.

I grew up in what I would consider a feminist household; and that included my dad. Actually, my dad is one of the biggest activists I know when it comes to fighting for things on the feminist agenda. There is no question, in my mind, that female athletes in Minnesota would have less amazing opportunities, such as playing in the State Tournament at the Xcel Energy Center, had he not fought battles with the Minnesota State High School League regarding the inequality of treatment of male vs female athletes; and that is just one example. None-the-less, even with my dad's feminist influence, we are not a household completely free of the gender-dynamic influence of our society. When my sister and I were young, my mom was a stay at home mom. I guess I never really asked why it was her who chose to stay home versus my dad, but it would not be out of the question that my dad, like the men in Gerson's article, "felt too 'demoralized' to consider staying home." This more than likely wasn't because he felt as if my mom was incapable to work. It was instead because he felt it was his job to be the Alpha male: the one protecting and providing. It is my assumption that it is for this reason that he has to be the one who drives when the whole family is in the car together. He often reasons, "I don't want anyone else to have to take the responsibility of making sure this family is safe." My dad may be one in a million to me, but in reality his feelings aren't uncommon of fathers in our society.

So what are we to do in a nation where women are coming closer and closer to making up the majority of the workplace? To have a stay-at-home world that is all inclusive, as Gerson suggested, we need to "...prompt wider social acceptance of egalitarian households, bolstering the option to make such choices." This movement towards domestic equality demands an ability to overcome the obstacles to change social constraints (Gerson 328). Our culture must eventually come to recognize that fathers have a tremendous ability to be great role models for their sons and daughters, and for society in general, by taking up the mammoth job of stay-at-home dad. Not only do children benefit from their unique perception of alternate gender dynamics in this instance, but they also "develop a flexible approach to building their own lives." (Gerson 327) This is perhaps the greatest gift we can give the children of this nation...the idea that they can truly become what ever and who ever they want to be.

We are coming to a point where we are at least considering what this world could look like with all-inclusive parenthoods; meaning that society allows room for "stay-at-home dads" to be accepted and valued. But, we are not there yet. So today, it is still a vision we look to and consider, while some battle society's expectations and try to enter.

Screw you society. I am a REAL athlete. DEAL WITH IT.

Before writing this blog, I thought of this past week's subject, embodiment, like it was a cloud floating above my head; I knew it was there and it existed, but I felt unable to fully grasp it. The notion that society constructs gendered bodies in unhealthy, unrealistic, and disempowering ways was built by a wide variety of texts; from the one about Magic Johnson to the one about a dying anorexic young woman. And yet, I was stubborn and did not allow myself to see my reflection in any of them. You see, I thought of myself as a girl who had skipped the whole attempting to conform to society's expectations thing. And therefore I felt unable to relate and fully understand it. Unlike what seems to be 99% of young women my age, I really have never felt a need to eat less, lose weight, or go on some sort of diet. I mean, I would prefer any day to have the bulging biceps of a gymnast versus the upper arms of a runway model that are as tiny as my wrists. And I happen to love the quote, "Real girl's have six packs; other girls just drink them." (Even though I have a lot of ab exercises to do before I can claim owning a six pack!) But as I reflected on this truth, I came to realize that although I personally did not care about conforming to society, I did find myself becoming self conscious as a female athlete and wondering how me and my body could fit peacefully in this society.

Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, girl's participation in sports has increased tremendously. Today, female athletes make up only a little less than 50% of all athletes in the United States. And with this trend, you would think society (as it worships it male athletes) would at least modify itself to fit these females who are working to empower themselves through athletics. But sadly this is far from the case. Look no further than the fashion industry. Male models= athletic build. Female models= sticks with virtually no muscle (actually I would like to hypothesize that they have negative muscle mass. No joke, I think by their example this is possible).

By high school, it was clear that the fashion sector of our society hated me: I could not for the life of me find a pair of jeans that were the right waist, hip, thigh, and length all in one. Jeans apparently aren't made for the 3 million female high school athletes that live in America. Wait...no...I take that back. They ARE made for female athletes- but only the ones who fit society's definition of "female athleticism": having no fat and no muscle. But excuse me...what kind of real athlete has no fat and no muscle?! I think a female like this would break in half if a ball accidently hit her or she attempted to swing a tennis racket. Never-the-less, this is the expectation constructed by society for female athletes. Therefore, I, as a female athlete, am encouraged by society to hold a glass ceiling over my head. It is acceptable for me to work to become a "beautiful athlete" by slimming up; not a "good athlete" by bulking up. Society expects us to look good; not play good. Girls like myself must never believe in the opportunity to reach our best potential because God forbid we gain a little healthy fat or work hard for some muscle. Thus, it is acceptable for female athletes to be entirely unmotivated to increase their muscle mass and muscular endurance; and therefore we are encouraged to slam the door to the world filled with true female athletes: one's who refuse to give up on a dream just because society craves something else.

But when we refuse to slam the door, we as female athletes do not find ourselves alone. As a high schooler, I became self conscious about being an athlete with an athletic build. Why did I have to give up fashion (aka skinny jeans and the like) in order to be an athlete? Why did I enjoy EATING at lunch instead of sitting and gossiping about boys and make-up while pretending to nibble at my salad and obsessing over trying to get my body to become skin and bones? Why was I one of the only girls in the weight room after school? However, just in time, a couple role models of mine gave me the below ads from Nike. These images from a Nike Women's campaign ad can be both inspirational and empowering for young female athletes. They have the ability to teach girls that athleticism is a part of them that they should not let go of, and instead work hard with; no matter what society thinks or says about how their bodies should look. Every one of the ads speak to motivate female athletes to stand up and say, "Screw you society...I am a REAL athlete...deal with it."

green leaves and snow

Ok weird week, right? The leaves are still green. And it snowed. Doesn't seem right, does it? But maybe, against all odds, green leaves and snow can exist together. I will get to that later.

Ok, to recap, this weeks readings and discussion revolved around the discourses of privilege and patriarchy. There is no doubt that our society is a quintessence of a patriarchal society. Allan Johnson describes our system as one that "...[values] masculinity and maleness and [devalues] femininity and femaleness." We have standards of "...feminine beauty, masculine toughness...images of older men coupled with young women..." and call it "natural" when men are full of "aggression, competition, and dominance," and females of "cooperation and subordination." And if we as a class had any doubts about whether a strong patriarchal system was still in place in the United States, they came crashing down as 50 magazines were placed in front of us and not one stood out as un-patriarchal. Headlines that screamed to females "Hey you! We know how to make you look skinner, younger, and therefore more beautiful!" Pictures of men that couldn't have been less obvious in their idea of the fulfillment of ideal manhood: dominance, six packs, and independence.

Clearly, when it comes to the feminist agenda, we ideally would like to fight against the patriarchal system that is strongly in place in our society. And this week, we started formulating ideas of how we can go about fighting the system. One such idea, as discussed in class, was to not follow the path of least resistance. In other words, take the path less traveled or forge a new one. But, I am sitting here confused. LeAnn Womack sings, "Never settle for the path of resistance," but what if I like the path of least resistance? What I mean to say is that there are some things in our Patriarchal society that I might actually prefer to a non-patriarchal one. I mean, what if I like how guys sometimes find personal satisfaction in opening a door for me? Certainly, there were days of the past where I would find it rude and degrading if a guy opened a car door for me. I mean, honestly, I can open my own door. It took me awhile for me to realize that boys are fully aware that I am physically and mentally capable of opening a car door, but enjoy to open it for me anyway because they feel it is a way to show that they care. And besides self-sacrificing my ability to open a car door, what if I also sometimes find comfort in the fact that I have guys around me of whom I feel protected by? What if I take ease in the fact that I am not the one expected to fight-off the bad guys? What if I like being labeled a tom-boy and find it pretty amazing e that the females of my generation can get away with not fitting into the boundaries of femininity most of the time? Lastly, what if I find it pretty convenient that there isn't much, if any, pressure on me to become a specific something or live up to a legacy I was born into? What if I find it pretty awesome that I have the freedom to create my own legacy without it being compared to a relative of the past? Does this make me anti-feminist?

I know I would probably be answered with a resounding yes by many feminists for my question and ideas posed above, but for one second I needed to brutally honest. And here is why. I think I can exist as someone who both likes some things of patriarchal rule AND as a feminist. In fact, I am going to be cocky and say that I have the potential to be a stronger activist because of it. My ideas, interests, and thoughts do not exist in a black and white winter. Instead, they exist in this weird season that allows for green leaves and snow to dwell together. And maybe, just maybe, this season is part of the answer I was looking for earlier: perhaps it can help to explain how I can fit with all sorts of different ideas, beliefs, and viewpoints under the one umbrella of feminism.

"Green Leaves and Snowflakes" by Lindsey Weaver

getting out of a comfortlicious bubble

You know that annoying kid back from high school that would always, after getting back a text, go and argue with the teacher about a question that they thought they should have gotten more points on? Yea...hate to break it to you, but that was me. It may have not been worth it all of the time; I did cause myself some trouble as I destabilized some relationships with even my favorite teachers, but my arguments were always legit and I was always fighting for something I believed in. And because of that, I have ultimately never truly regretted being that kid; being an advocate for myself. Each teacher, in response to my challenge, handled their reaction differently. Some loved the game with me, and found it amusing when I would relentlessly try and find holes in their logic time and time again, and were eager to give me credit for at least trying. However, more often than not, teachers became immediately defensive and knew that they were the only ones that were right. They refused to open their minds to a different perspective and an alternate understanding. They were unwilling to recognize the possibility that there was not just one right answer. And, as was reinforced this week, this type of character does not just fit into my own personal stories and contexts. It is these type of people who, unfortunately, make up a large portion of American society- and humanity for that matter. It is these people, in the discussion of feminism, who narrow the ideas and goals of women's movements into an ideology that is one-size-fits-all; a one-size-fits-all that might as well be a size 0 women's skinny jeans that is expected to fit all of humanity.

The Women's Movement, historically, on a public level, has focused dominantly on fighting for the rights and attention to issues important to white, high to middle class women: issues such as equal pay for equal work, academic opportunities, and rights to make their own decisions for their own bodies. And, although issues like these are often important to the feminist circle that exists outside of the white upper and middle class realm, other issues important to minority women and even men have more than often been ignored or shoved to the side. Kate Shanley, a woman writing on the feminism experience of Indian women, works to expose the fact that feminism in not a "single, well-defined organization." Instead, in order to be successful, we must open our minds to the struggles of other women in the world, and what gender fairness means in contexts outside our own lens. As Shanley puts it, "...rather than seeing differences...we must practice a politics that allows for diversity in cultural identity...Feminism becomes an incredible powerful term when it incorporates diversity."

But what does "incorporating diversity" mean in terms of feminism? Easier said than done, right? In her article about Third World feminists, Uma Narayan, suggests that we must become aware of "the boundaries of [our] vision." In other words, I myself, as a human who grew up in a community of people who shared the same values, ideas, and experiences must recognize that I am extremely limited in my perspective. This self-account of myself allows me, as Narayan put it, "to see, with humility, and gratitude, and pain, how much one has been shaped by one's context".

But what happens next? I think this, for me, is something I have been struggling with as a sophomore Luther student. How can the context in which I am living make room for influences that live outside of it? How can I escape the power of the American media, the monopoly of people at Luther who grew up in my culture, and the influence in shaping my ideas ran by the demographically un-diversified group of people that exist in my day to day life? I don't know the full answer of that question yet. But through time I have come to recognize that I am not helpless: there are things that exist in my bubble that allow me to work on popping it. Things such as keeping an extremely open mind to all ideas and knowing that my ideas and values are not everyone's. And with this, we must be careful to recognize that there are people out there who have, not without difficulty, learned to become advocates for themselves, but there are also others who are not ready to move against the flow. Above all this, I have learned to seize opportunities, no matter how big or small, as they come to get out of my cultural "comfortlicious" bubble, such as signing up for a J-Term class in South Africa.

Although I don't have all the answers, I do know this: I have the desire to work to not become one of those teachers that I referred to in the beginning. I never want to be someone who refuses to open their mind to a different perspective and an alternate understanding; someone who is unwilling to recognize the possibility that there is not just one right answer.