The f-word

Feminism- the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. The word is the basis of need for equality in all aspects of life. It is about fair representation in government, media, and global culture.

The word contains the prefix fem-, leading people to look only at the female side, but in actuality, it can be used for both sexes. The only problem is that women are most often at the short end of the stick. They are the ones that need the scales to be balanced. Feminism is driven by sexism: the discrimination based on gender. Sexism takes down one gender by building up the other, while feminism brings the hurt back to its rightful status. It can be either gender, but in our society females are the ones in the most need.

Examples of inequality are everywhere and not all of them will ever be equalized. The movement pushes to make as many wrongs right as it can by starting with the big ones. For example, the United States population is 50.8% female and 49.2% male, yet the government is a whopping 81.5% male. Out of the 535 congress members, only 99 are female. This means that the governing body that is creating and declaring laws about the lives and bodies of women is dominated by a sex that will never know the true impact of their decisions. The men are in control. It could be argued that this is a fault of world history and tradition, but that extremely long argument can be saved for another day.    

The word feminism is often met with uneasiness and a predisposition to hatred. It is presumed that the person describing themselves as a "feminist" must hate men or believe that women are the supreme gender. That may be true with the radicals, which is the same for almost anything, but normally this isn't the case. It is only seen as radical because of the way the media has portrayed it in the last few decades.

  
   *The reality of feminism                        *This picture came up on the first page of Google images when
                                                                feminism was searched

Feminism isn't what the media can portray it to be, and our culture and this movement are starting to reflect this. I hope to disprove the anti-feminist mindset throughout my project, while also showing, in an unbiased way, the disparities between the sexes, because feminism isn't a bad thing. it just has a bad reputation.

P.S. Here is a video that pretty much sums up why the world needs feminism.

Sources:
Images: google images
Video: YouTube- Channel: lacigreen
Congress facts/ numbers: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/cong.pdf

Kissing My Dreams Goodbye

So I decided that my last topic was going to cause me more stress than actual interest, and in thought, figuring out what people's dreams are and why they do not follow them is interesting and cool, but  almost unpractical when put into motion. I could not figure out what to do with my research or how I would research the topic outside of just asking people what their dreams are. So, since we have not really done anything with this project yet, I have decided to change my topic.

But to what? One thing other I love other than unanswerable questions is social change. The idea that society can start a revolution and change their culture is fascinating. The one "social revolution" going on today is feminism. It is bringing women's rights and women's inequalities into the spotlight of mainstream culture. But is it working? Is our culture really turning in favor of the feminist ideals?

Every six minutes a woman in the United States is raped, yet one of the first questions we ask is how much was she drinking or what was she wearing. Because a woman is more likely to be raped because she was "asking for it" rather than their being a problem with the education and morals the man had received his entire life. When a woman leaves a long-term abusive relationship, people ask why she stayed instead of why he would hit her. These are just two examples of why the world needs feminism.    

I want to research this more because I believe that every woman needs feminism. We live in a culture where we believe that everyone is equal, but, in reality, we have just been raised to ignore the differences in the lifestyles of a man and a woman. Turning our heads has been a way of life. However, this feminist movement is changing the game.

I plan to research for the real definition of feminism and being a feminist, then the history feminism influence in world culture (women's rights, suffrage). I want to look into the differences in the lifestyles and careers of men and women. Why can men go out at night without blinking an eye, but women are stricken with fear? Why do women still get paid only $0.77 for every dollar a man earns? Then I want to look at it through the media. How is the movement spreading? Why do so many people still think it is an anti-men movement? Looking into the leaders of it is something I want to do too. Stars like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Emma Watson are all self-proclaimed or media-proclaimed feminists, but what are they doing to promote it? And lastly I plan to look at the counteractants. Recently things like 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight have swept the media, but go against the ideal of women being independent and strong. Why does our culture love these things so much when they go against everything we are fighting for? As for people I can interview and have as mentors, I looked into professors at Pitt and Duquesne. I can talk to gender women's studies professors to get a professional opinion on today's culture shock and movement. Finally, as for what I'm going to do with this information, I do not really know yet. I want to bring a light to this issue, but I think I will figure something out eventually.      

My Project Idea

Sooo senior project? When Mrs. Hetrick gave us the prompt of curiosity and nothing else, I hit a wall. Even though there was so much to choose from I could not think of one idea. Then, after realizing this project had to last all year and be worked on every week, I realized I didn't want to research something with a definite answer. I figured that once I found the answer, my project would just be finished. So, I decided to pose a question as my topic that doesn't really have a clear cut answer...

Why don't people follow their dreams? Why do our dreams change as we get older? What factors in our life shape what we want to get out of it? I don't want to research the images in people's heads as they sleep (every time I explain my idea everyone immediately thinks that). I want to research peoples goals in life. What do children want to be when they grow up? What do grown-ups want to do with their lives outside of work? And, most importantly, why don't they do what they want to do? The idea of people having a dream and fighting for what they want in life fascinates me. These questions obviously don't have a definite answer, and I don't expect to find one, but I just want to see how close I can get.  

Right now my head is a jumbled mess of ideas on how and where to start and what I want to do. So, as of now I have no idea how I'm going to start, but that can obviously be my first objective for this project. I'm excited to get started and see where this takes me.