Teya's Talk

Today's guest speaker, Teya Sepinuck's work at the intersection of peacebuilding and performance was fascinating.  The excerpts from Living with Life brought up a lot of questions.  The question of race came up in class and it makes me wonder if structural violence played a part in the races of the participants.  Similarly, I wonder if and how and structural violence played a role in the fact that there were no women "lifers".  Was that because the piece was structured around men and as a result limited the participation of women or was it because there simply weren't female "lifers" to have participate due to structural violence?  I also wonder if these performances have an impact beyond the healing process that is evident.  Are there ever policy changes or formal actions taken by authoritative bodies as a result of the performances?

Masculine, feminine, male, female...

So today's class was.... interesting.  The discussion was good and informative but at the same time it left me more confused then when we started.  I'm not familiar with many of the terms that were thrown out in discussion and while some of them were explained I struggled to keep them all sorted out in terms of gender and sex.  At the beginning I felt pretty clear about the differences between identity and expression and as the discussion went on I began to feel more confused about the two.  The diamond diagram was good because I'm a visual person but it provided me with more confusion because it seems as though the issue is much more complex than a four sided shape.

Reproductive Care

The notion of dehumanizing a women in order to humanize an unborn baby is fascinating.  It seems as though there is a cultural assumption that if a woman is pregnant she must be elated to be in such a condition.  As a result of this belief we think our excitement surround her baby belly is well received and perceived as excitement for and with the mother.  In actuality this may not be the case.  Just because a woman is pregnant doesn't mean that she is happy for it or that she is having the pleasant "I love being pregnant" experience. Due to this, the excitement surrounding the baby, instead of bringing joy to the mother, could just be detrimental.  I've never been pregnant so I've never had to think through this before but thinking on it now I find it fascinating that this discussion is not being held on a larger scale.  I wonder what it would take to get this discussion to be held on that larger scale.

Highway Beautification, Literacy and Healthy Eating

Dr. Plane shared in class about the ways Hillary Clinton differed from other First Ladies in terms of initiatives.  He made the comment that her initiative attempt was controversial and that people didn't respond well to it.  I wonder if it was because her policy wasn't strong enough or because she was a woman?  It was also fascinating to think that even though the First Lady is expected to further some "cause", she receives no salary and is not an employee of the government.  It seems a bit hypocritical to me.  If she won't get paid for her work while living in the White House, why is she looked down upon for wanting to work outside the house as Jill Biden does?

Liberia

During Tuesday's presentation it was interesting to hear about why the women of Liberia took up arms and the process they went through to de-arm.  It seems to me that by taking up arms the women were trying to navigate the peace process even though carrying guns isn't typically seen as peaceful.  Carrying guns was a way to begin ending the violence that was being perpetrated against them.  This act empowered them enough to form and work with grass roots organizations to work more collaboratively towards peace.  While taking up guns could have been very violent- and in many ways probably was- I think it is fascinating to think of it in terms of an act of peace.

Rape & Rape Culture

Before today's discussion I hadn't thought about how crucial the definition of consent was to defining rape.  The definition of rape itself revolves around an individual's consent and without a widely accepted definition of consent, there can't possibly be a widely accepted definition of rape.  

I was also unfamiliar with the term "rape schedule" before I read the reading for class today.  The discussion came up in class about how females view "rape schedules" on Juniata's campus.  A couple commented that they took caution walking across campus late at night.  Following those comments, both stated that it may just be their own "paranoia".  In these comments it almost seems as though these females feel responsible for their feelings of insecurity.  It's interesting because I think many of these feelings are placed on women by culture yet we still feel guilty for being concerned about it.