So we did it! The first Fellsmere community Garden trip is done. It was honestly one of the most stressful and rewarding service learning projects I have ever done. Getting everyone on the same page was very difficult, but seeing all of my classmates interact so well with the Fellsmere community was truly beautiful. This semester I have started to learn how to look past individual differences and focus more on a groups’ shared goals for the benefit of social movements. Its bittersweet that this first trip is over because I have formed stronger bonds within classroom and Fellsmere communities.
I believe that this project has greatly shaped and strengthened my leadership. This project has also allowed me to grow and develop my feminist leader skills, and it has taught me a very valuable lesson, which is that no matter how much I try, anything and everything cannot be all-inclusive. It has taken me a while to wrap my mind around it, and honestly, Im still not 100% comfortable with it, but I do realize that this is a fact. This thought takes me back to the beginning of this semester and one of our first readings where feminist leadership was first defined. Although Batliwala had a great ‘working’ definition, she even states
“The above definitions are by no means a comprehensive or representative sample of the full diversity of feminist thinking. We cannot homogenize the feminist discourse…as though there was one single global conversation about it.”
I remember how critical I was on this text and skeptical that the writer had tried ‘hard enough’ to comprise a more inclusive and diverse definition in the first place. It is not until I had to devise plans and organize an event that I finally understood how impossible it is to include everyone. Sometimes I had a hard time connecting with my classmates and sometimes I had a hard time communicating with the women in Fellsmere. There were times were I would just sit down and cry because I felt that there was this goal that needed to be reached, and that there was one clear and easy way to get there, but I got so frustrated when people navigated differently and as they saw fit in order to get there. This is a great example of the leadership labyrinth that we have been talking about all semester. Everyone has a different experience within this labyrinth due to everyone’s unique ‘story’, its unfair to assume everyone will look at something in the same way that I do, especially considering that I don’t appreciate when this assumption is placed on me. Leadership is very individual and every cis-gendered woman will enact it whatever way she sees fit. What is important though, is for feminist leaders to get past the first stage of judgment and to help foster and grow each other’s leadership. I have seen so many of my classmates and young girls in Fellsmere grow within their leadership. I remember getting to Fellsmere and having Christina (Yolanda Daughter) ask for a small delegation of students from Orlando go with her around the ‘barrio’ in order to encourage more participation from the community. It was amazing hearing her talk and be inspired, watching my classmates ring door bells along with her and share their thoughts on the importance on this project. I understand that feminist leadership has a long way to go, and that it can too grow and learn to include more folks, but I think project like these that unite feminist leaders together for one cause is a great way to get us to that ‘more’ inclusive definition of what it is we are doing.
Batliwala, Srilatha. "Feminist Leadership For Social Transformation: Clearing the Conceptual Cloud." Crea (2011): 66. Print.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Media Watch
There has been a lot of negative press regarding women entertainers this year, whether it deals with their weight, authenticity of a pregnancy or music collaborations with former partners the overall climate in the media mirrors the control of women’s bodies and choices sentiment of our culture. But why do we feel the need to determine what is right or true concerning women in and out of the Entertainment business and what does this mean regarding women’s leadership or how we construct it? Eagly and Carli write about gendered stereotypes that limit women’s leadership and the strong emotions that arise from society’s’ construct of how a woman leader should act and the decisions she should make.
Take for example the singer Rihanna and her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Over and over the media states how destructive and irresponsible this career move is, asking the public questions like ‘Would you willingly work with an abuser who bashed your face in after you confronted him about cheating?’ it is apparent that we as a society will always identify the singer by this experience and hold her and any decision she makes accountable as a role model to women and girls who have undergone abusive relationships, even if Rihanna hasn’t claimed that role for herself. Another example of scrutiny in the media are the many reports of singer Beyonce’s fake pregnancy, these articles have several picture albums analyzing the ‘fake bump’ and ‘before and after’ pictures claiming that the singers slim figure is ‘too good to be true’ due to her recent delivery. The last news article I wanted to talk about covers the comments made by a designer concerning singer Adele’s weight. When asked what he thought about the singer, the designer stated that Adele was ‘a little too fat’. The fact that the only attribute the designer identified the singer with was her weight illustrates how we as a society rarely identify women with their qualities of attributes and the fact that the article uses the word ‘fatty’ to shame the designer who made the comments is ironic. Like I stated previously, this year has been filled with negative press regarding women in the entertainment business, but this is not uncommon. Negative feedback and criticism is what fuels our entertainment television and newsstands, as a society we thrive on judging the ‘beautiful people’ in order to make them ‘more real’ and ‘human’. Our emotions are often caught up in our critiques, which is something that Eagly and Carli write about, they state, “Those who promote the status quo of male-female relations may also evaluate women harshly as leaders. Consequently, the stereotyping of women, sometimes accentuated by emotions, is an important component of the labyrinth in which female leaders and potential leaders try to find their way.” I feel that because this society feels the need to control women and their choices rather than focus on their accomplishments and contributions, we limit their potential as leaders. These women have all broken musical records, they write about their sexuality, their emotions, their families and all we see is their inability to stop eating, their inability to perform the ‘womanly’ duty of birthing, or their lack of common sense when it comes to their dating life. They have to make choices that will please the public regarding their bodies, lives and family on a daily basis, which restricts their ability to make choices for themselves first. I think that analyzing why we become so enraged when a woman makes a decision we do not think fit is something we must critique first, we as a society need to dissect why we feel the need to identify women with superficial things like weight rather than their talent or their positions as leaders of their field.
Eagly, Alice, and Linda Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Harvard Business School Press, 2007. eBook.
Articles Used:
Rihanna:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/953757/rihanna-rationalizes-working-with-her-abuser
Beyonce:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/317550/20120321/beyonce-fake-pregnancy-surrogate-rumors-blue-ivy.htm
Adele:
http://www.inquisitr.com/191409/adele-latest-target-of-karl-lagerfelds-bitter-former-fatty-comments/
Take for example the singer Rihanna and her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Over and over the media states how destructive and irresponsible this career move is, asking the public questions like ‘Would you willingly work with an abuser who bashed your face in after you confronted him about cheating?’ it is apparent that we as a society will always identify the singer by this experience and hold her and any decision she makes accountable as a role model to women and girls who have undergone abusive relationships, even if Rihanna hasn’t claimed that role for herself. Another example of scrutiny in the media are the many reports of singer Beyonce’s fake pregnancy, these articles have several picture albums analyzing the ‘fake bump’ and ‘before and after’ pictures claiming that the singers slim figure is ‘too good to be true’ due to her recent delivery. The last news article I wanted to talk about covers the comments made by a designer concerning singer Adele’s weight. When asked what he thought about the singer, the designer stated that Adele was ‘a little too fat’. The fact that the only attribute the designer identified the singer with was her weight illustrates how we as a society rarely identify women with their qualities of attributes and the fact that the article uses the word ‘fatty’ to shame the designer who made the comments is ironic. Like I stated previously, this year has been filled with negative press regarding women in the entertainment business, but this is not uncommon. Negative feedback and criticism is what fuels our entertainment television and newsstands, as a society we thrive on judging the ‘beautiful people’ in order to make them ‘more real’ and ‘human’. Our emotions are often caught up in our critiques, which is something that Eagly and Carli write about, they state, “Those who promote the status quo of male-female relations may also evaluate women harshly as leaders. Consequently, the stereotyping of women, sometimes accentuated by emotions, is an important component of the labyrinth in which female leaders and potential leaders try to find their way.” I feel that because this society feels the need to control women and their choices rather than focus on their accomplishments and contributions, we limit their potential as leaders. These women have all broken musical records, they write about their sexuality, their emotions, their families and all we see is their inability to stop eating, their inability to perform the ‘womanly’ duty of birthing, or their lack of common sense when it comes to their dating life. They have to make choices that will please the public regarding their bodies, lives and family on a daily basis, which restricts their ability to make choices for themselves first. I think that analyzing why we become so enraged when a woman makes a decision we do not think fit is something we must critique first, we as a society need to dissect why we feel the need to identify women with superficial things like weight rather than their talent or their positions as leaders of their field.
Eagly, Alice, and Linda Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Harvard Business School Press, 2007. eBook.
Articles Used:
Rihanna:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/953757/rihanna-rationalizes-working-with-her-abuser
Beyonce:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/317550/20120321/beyonce-fake-pregnancy-surrogate-rumors-blue-ivy.htm
Adele:
http://www.inquisitr.com/191409/adele-latest-target-of-karl-lagerfelds-bitter-former-fatty-comments/
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