139). Thinness is also a type of privilege, as is external or socially acceptable beauty. Beauty ideals and norms are also tied in with race, culture, and class. Economic class and social class often determine access to healthy food, which is why low-income people are more likely to be obese and have related problems. Although generally, African-American women have healthier body images than white women, white cultural hegemony has started to infiltrate black culture, especially in what Riley (n.d.) calls "bourgeois black families," (p. 358). Riley's (n.d.) experiences reveal the interconnectedness, or intersectionality, between race, class, and gender. Just as it is important to recognize different gendered identities for women from different cultural backgrounds, it is also important to acknowledge that not all women subscribe to the same notions of beauty. Women's studies also embrace the difficult dialogue related to gender and sexuality in ways that are not discussed in other departments. Gender and sexuality are related topics, but it is important to remember that gender does not determine sexuality any more than biological sex determines gender. We are just now starting to recognize that the binaries of male/female and heterosexual/homosexual are detrimental to psychological and social health. Human beings are too complex, and their sexual and gendered identities too complex, to allow for artificial binaries...
Learning about the fluidity of both gender and sexuality, we become liberated to explore our own personal identity. Women's studies asks each person, no matter what their background, gender, or social status, to forge a strong identity and be assertive enough to express that identity. This is the personal dimension of women's studies. Women's studies also has a powerful political dimension. From a strong personal identity, we become empowered to take action in the world. We may make a difference in someone else's life, perhaps by sharing our story or starting an organization. Women's studies are about personal and social change.In this sense, it is pointed out that women are not necessarily the embodiment of supermodels; they are in fact regular human beings who must love themselves for who they are and not try to improve themselves through artificial means such as silicones. Indeed an important part is played by the family, as she clearly states out. Her mother was the one to integrate these values of self-love and it
Communication Studies Key Concepts Communication Studies examine the way human beings communicate with one another and how that communication reflects meaning. Thus, there are a number of key concepts which relate to the process of communication itself and how those concepts reflect a larger cultural structure or phenomenon. First, symbols are those elements which we use to describe particular objects and/or phenomenon. Meaning is the associated definition of the symbols we work
From the police officers' perspective, it did not matter whether I was a member of the upper class, educated, affluent or even an important person in the community. The only identification that mattered was my skin color. On that day, I encountered all three types of oppression. The state institution on my group and I oppressed us by unlawfully labeling us. Interpersonal oppression because I started to hate the
The Ministry of Women Affairs had been present always; however it was a waning organization under the military rule. In some of the states the Ministry of women affairs was headed by men, but ever since the initiation of the democratic era, the Commissions are presently made responsible to the Ministry of Women Affairs since they are functioning collaboratively with civil society functionaries. (Nigerian women fairing well) Nigeria authorized the
Women's College For the past one hundred years, women's colleges have been helping young women achieve their intellectual ambitions. Indeed, graduates such Madeleine Albright, Emily Dickinson and Hilary Rodman Clinton have gone on to pursue distinguished careers in their chosen fields. Many of the seeds of their various achievements have been sown in the various women's institutions of their youth. For me, going to Name College is taking part in this
" (International Conference on Population and Development ICPD) (ibid) However the meaning of reproductive right extends into other areas. For example, this includes the right to non-discrimination based on sex/gender and the right to privacy as well as the right to information. The issue of the reproductive rights for women becomes problematic and often fraught with controversy when it is applied to those infected with the HIV virus. This dilemma has
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