After reading Fausto-Sterling’s article, Hormonal Hurricane, I guess you can say that I learned a thing or two about menstruation and menopause aka “the change.” Her article, I would say, describes the history of the study of the menstruation and previous thoughts that are now obsolete. The article discusses how menstruation was/is thought to have affected working habits negatively and therefore women couldn’t hold certain jobs. It was quite surprising to me when I read the part about how doctors thought that the symptoms that women experienced were simply just made up, fake. I also thought it was interesting how one person speculated that in the days when humans were still hunter-gatherers that women had fewer periods in their lifetime because of a low fat diet whereas today women can have around 400 in a lifetime. I have had encounters with such individuals that were on their period, actually just one, my sister. The end I don’t want to discuss anymore. Period. I knew when older women went through menopause, they had symptoms like hot flashes and mood swings but I did not know that actual physical changes occurred because of it, like increased amount of facial hair. I can only image what it must be like to encounter an individual going through “the change.”
I’m no poetry expert but I will do my best to decipher this poem by Anne Sexton, The Celebration of My Uterus. This is a very short poem so it does not really give me much to work with. I believe that Sexton is trying to express how she feels connected to women everywhere because of her uterus, and it is kind of like a celebration of women and their physical nature.
Valdes’ s article is about her desire to want to become a true feminist and not the stereotypical dumb bimbo who teaches aerobics classes. I think her outlook might be a little skewed, its like she cannot feel good about herself being a feminist while teaching fitness classes. Not all people go to the gym or a class just to loose weight, for some people it is something they enjoy doing. Me personally I like to go to the gym and workout because I leave feeling energized, a sense of accomplishment, and generally just feeling good about myself. Valdes is forcing herself to fit this mold she envisions that she should be apart of, to me it appears that she enjoys teaching these classes but for some reason she feels she cannot like it because men like to see women in spandex. Although it was somewhat ironic that after she went to grad school and was working as a writer and feeling like a feminist that she still had to write about fitness.
I agree with Andrew about Valdes' article. She feels bad because she feels that by being a fitness instructor, she is encouraging... we could say "anti-feminist" actions. But what if she enjoys it? My dad goes to aerobics because he enjoys it. Who is she to say that all the women who take her class are obsessive about their bodies. Valdes has some major issues, and I'm glad that looking back, she realized she was actually helping those women. As far as the poem goes, just like Andrew.. I'm not very good a interpreting poems. I think the bottom line is that women need to celebrate themselves. Every single part of them. Not just their boobs, or asses... but the other stuff too.
ReplyDeleteand that picture is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteSomeone feeling like they can't work out or go tanning because they are encouraging "anti-feminist", (or any other group) for that matter, are guilty of doing exactly what they try to prevent others from doing, which is judging or creating ideas without any sort of precedent. For Valdez to feel uncomfortable teaching aerobics classes is something that I can say is nothing short of ridiculous. I mean to each his or her own, and I am usually not one to judge, but in my eyes this is nothing short of ridiculous. If she can't even do that without feeling "anti-feminist" then what about those who are married or have kids that they tend to? I feel like there shouldn't be such rigid standards, or else feminists and any others won't be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marcus. As I said in my own blog post, Valdes should not be ashamed of teaching an aerobics class. Her embarrassment certainly reduces her "feminist-ness" in my eyes. In order to be a feminist, in my eyes, a woman must merely feel pride in whatever she does. Feminism should not tell women how to act, there is not shame with being a feminine feminist! Finally, I could not agree more with Marcus ending sentence--creating rigid standards will make feminism just as "bad" as the patriarchy they are fighting against!
ReplyDelete