Women Furthering Their Knowledge

As I was looking through various news articles I came across this article: Iraqi women learn to read in new schools

I thought it was a good article because it shows that women are trying to show that they can do things too, and that it's just not all about the men.

I feel that as time goes on more women will be gaining more knowledge and even education(even in third world countries).

My Organization(NOW) and Me!

When I was looking through the lists of organizations, I knew in the back of my head that I wanted an organization that was there to help women from all over with anything that they may need. When I came across National Organization for Women(NOW) it really hit me. After researching the organization and calling the local branch I realized that I wanted to get involved in this. This organization impacts me because in this organization it isn't just narrowed down to one specific area, but it is focused on ALL of the rights of women and the daily issues. I really like how they help all with any issue that they may face in life. The people there are very caring and have the compassion about each individual and what they may be facing.

If I had more time I would love to be able to volunteer in this organization because all my life I have always wanted to help people. I may be able to this upcoming summer or longer. I can't wait to learn more as I volunteer.

Because my facebook isn't working right now...

I came across this article about women and the economy from Christian Science Monitor.
This article was written July 2nd 2008.

You can read it here.

Also listen to the author of the article speak more on the topic. There is a little media player off to the right of the article.

She quotes a lady about how things are actually looking up for women and it was also something I said in class. More women are in college than there are men now. This, I think, will give women a slight upper hand when it comes to finding jobs in the professional world. The jobs hit hard are more of the factory jobs IMO and since men worked more of those sorts of jobs, jobs that do not require degrees, they learned that "skill" and have no other real skills outside of the that sort of work (this is generally speaking and not speaking for all men who work in factories) so them finding a new job would be dependent on them learning a new skill.

Octuplet mom receives death threats

VS

(news.cnet.com) (tmz.com)

Ok I had to blog about this, might be a little redundant but I feel like it picks up on our discussion we had on Thursday...

http://www.feministing.com/archives/013707.html (very short blog article)

I think this is a fitting add-on to our discussion in class the other day about population control, it seems the octuplet mother is receiving death threats. I think this is a feasible outcome if we start to put bans on how many people children can have, and attach a stigma to it. Hmmm, kind of like abortion. These people who are threatening her probably believe they have some right to do so, since they are the ones paying ‘with their hard-earned tax dollars’ to take care of her children on welfare.

Also the contrast with the Mccauhey septuplets is very startling, but hardly anyone mentions it. I guess it is ok to have 7 children if you’re doing under the guise of good Christians.

This is a complete distraction to what is really going on in our culture, I am not going to be able to tease it all out right here but there is definetly something wrong. No surge of media covers child abuse this extensively or how African American welfare mothers have a higher percentage of births or how many other people willingly bring children into this world without giving a thought to whether they can afford to care for them (namely religious people who don’t believe in birth control) but somehow these issues go overlooked.

People have even gone as far as to say that Nadya has a baby addiction.. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29163803/

riiiight, she’s addicted. It seems like this is another way to ‘blame the victim’ and not look at her circumstances at all. Just say ‘you made your bed now lie in it’ is basically what I keep hearing. I’m not sure what circumstances could lead to this but I’m sure our crazy baby culture has something to do with it, and of course I am not trying to take away the responsibility she should have for these children, I just don't think she should be persecuted for it.

And everyone is practically laughing at her for asking (no wait begging according to this article) for help, http://www.parentdish.com/2009/02/11/octuplet-mom-asks-for-money-on-new-web-site/73

But meanwhile the Mccaugheys were given a house…and had much other support from the community, they knew they couldn’t do it on their own either but no one shunned them for it, or threatened their life. They actually have called Mccaughey a ‘wonder mom’ àhttp://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-756585.html

I think focus needs to be somewhere else besides banning choices on life, or deciding if the state has the power to take away these children. ( I think they already do). this is an unusual case..and complicated but it does not mean that everyone is going to go do this kind of stuff now. Just my opinion and I welcome all other opinion and criticisms etc. Thanks for reading my rant haha.

P.S. the deal with the first picture is that there is a debate over whether the photo was touched up to make her (Mccaughley) teeth look straighter...I found that a little bit interesting

Women commit crime too...

Perhaps you have seen it or read about it in the news, but recently, in my hometown a sex scandal between a teacher and a couple of students has hit the media. The teacher, who I know and who lives less than 5 minutes away from me, has been charged w/ sexual battery after being accused of having sex with two students.
There are many views that I could take on this issue. What happened between the teacher and students was obviously wrong. What I would like to point out is that it isn't always the male teacher who gets in trouble, it would seem though that they are the more likely criminal. However, I think that this might have something to do w/ the fact that we automatically would assume the male to be the criminal before we would accuse a woman of committing a crime.
Yet b/c the teacher was female, she has more than just a sex scandal on her hands. She not only broke the law, but she broke the notion of being the lesser criminal. Just something to think about...
And I thought I would share since it is so close to home...you can read the story at http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4523225

Interesting Links

If you guys come across other links that you find interesting and related to class, post them here as comments so we can have a list develop.


http://www.womeninandbeyond.org/