Lately I have been reading a lot of articles lately that had to do with women's rights and how many people view them. I found a particular article titled, So Men Really Are Jerks? Study Shows That Men Really Do View Women as Objects. Susan Fiske, a Princeton University psychologist, has assumed for quite some time now, that women in bikinis and other revealing attire tend to be viewed by men as objects. Most men will admit that seeing a woman in a bikini or revealing attire can have a temporary tranquil effect on the male heterosexual brain. Thanks the MRI scanner, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan, Dr. Fiske has managed to actually prove this theory.
Dr. Fiske showed photos of women in bathing suits and women wearing rather revealing clothing, along with control photos of fully-dressed men and women and men that were dresses revealingly to 21 heterosexual males apart of the test. This was happening while they underwent MRI scans. Fiske found that the premotor cortex, the region of the brain we use when manipulating tools, lit up like CRAZY when the photos of the partially dressed women were shown to the male participants.
What was even more disturbing, was the fact that Dr. Fiske found that the region of the brain responsible for social cognition failed to activate. Social cognition is the process by which we evaluate the feelings and intentions of others. It is also the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations.
Without any activity in this area, the men were effectively looking at objects (one they wanted to manipulate like a tool) rather than another person when viewing the photos of partially dressed women (Clark 1). Seeming as tough Fiske's findings could not make men in general look any worse, when they were given a memory test of the photos they had just been exposed to in the MRI, the majority of the men remembered the photos of headless women in bikinis the best.
These findings should not be surprising to any woman at all. Men view women as objects on a daily basis. I see it everywhere I go. If there happen to be two women walking next to eachother down the road, one is "prettier" than the other, men's attention is drawn to them immediately. This shows that they are thinking with something other than their brains.
I am very interested in more studies like this one and will continue to do more research on this topic.
Clark, Josh. "So men really are jerks? Study shows men really do view women as objects." How Stuff Work. Word Press VIP, 23 Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Sept. 2009. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/02/23/so-men-really-are-jerks/.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Women cultivate, plough and harvest more than half of all the food in the world
Today I read an article that is titled "Women cultivate, plough,and harvest more than half of the food in the world." This title stood out as I was browsing and I just had to read it. All of the information that I found was according to the Inter Press Service. In countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, the women there produce more than 80% of all the food an food products used there. In the food production category, they are actually producing more than 50% of all the food. As well as cultivating, ploughing, harvesting and producing the women in those countries are also raising the live stock that are to be used for food and food processing. These women are severely underpaid and receive no recognition for the work that they do so that everyone can have food. The women are running out of money for supplies and tools that are needed to do the jobs that they do because they are paid so little. Compared to the men, in any country, women are usually getting paid less because the work they are doing is considered "low-status."
I have always wondered why women were always paid significantly less than men. In doing some research , I have found that that is not always the case. For example, women in Brazil, who are under the age of 25, earn a higher hourly wage than the men who do the same jobs. This was the only example that I could really find that was as general as it is.
Many people do not recognize the work that women do everyday and never get paid for. In most cases, women are running the household. Some of the duties that this job entails includes food shopping, cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and common rooms, restocking food shelves and supplies, driving children to and from school, preparing breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, and childcare in general. All of these jobs are jobs that people get paid to do outside of the home. Women who run a household have all of these duties on their shoulders, a lot of the time with no help. The job of being a mother, wife and house keeper takes of most of a woman's working hours. What i don't understand is why women, who run the household have less power over the household earnings...?
I have always wondered why women were always paid significantly less than men. In doing some research , I have found that that is not always the case. For example, women in Brazil, who are under the age of 25, earn a higher hourly wage than the men who do the same jobs. This was the only example that I could really find that was as general as it is.
Many people do not recognize the work that women do everyday and never get paid for. In most cases, women are running the household. Some of the duties that this job entails includes food shopping, cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and common rooms, restocking food shelves and supplies, driving children to and from school, preparing breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, and childcare in general. All of these jobs are jobs that people get paid to do outside of the home. Women who run a household have all of these duties on their shoulders, a lot of the time with no help. The job of being a mother, wife and house keeper takes of most of a woman's working hours. What i don't understand is why women, who run the household have less power over the household earnings...?
Friday, September 11, 2009
Women's Justice
I have recently done a lot of exploring regarding the topics I would like to write about for this semester. So far I have narrowed it down to the abuse, rights, justice and feelings of women. That is an extremely broad category, but i would like to narrow it down a lot more in order to focus in on a specific topic. I took a women's studies class last semester and I loved it! I learned so much about the things that women have to face everyday and I realized that many other women have been through many of the same things that I have been though myself. I am excited to explore this topic and see what more information I can find.
I read an article titled "Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System." The article discussed the feelings that women have after the incident occured. Some want to never speak of it again and tell no one but many others want to see justice come about. It talks about how many women do not want to testify and stand up for themselves because they are terribly afraid of there perpetrator coming after them again. This is completely understandable because it is a known fact that victims are often times revictimized within a few months after the first incident. Along with this, many women seem to blame themselves for what happened to them. This is wrong! They say that they should have been more aware of their surrounding, more alert and think of all possibilities. It is not the victim's fault at all. Justice needs to be brought to these situations and the abusers need to be punished.
This article really opened my eyes to the women's point of view. I have been in a similar situation and can understand to an extent what is going through a victim's mind. I want to further explore this topic as well as many other topics that relate directly to women's issues.
I read an article titled "Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System." The article discussed the feelings that women have after the incident occured. Some want to never speak of it again and tell no one but many others want to see justice come about. It talks about how many women do not want to testify and stand up for themselves because they are terribly afraid of there perpetrator coming after them again. This is completely understandable because it is a known fact that victims are often times revictimized within a few months after the first incident. Along with this, many women seem to blame themselves for what happened to them. This is wrong! They say that they should have been more aware of their surrounding, more alert and think of all possibilities. It is not the victim's fault at all. Justice needs to be brought to these situations and the abusers need to be punished.
This article really opened my eyes to the women's point of view. I have been in a similar situation and can understand to an extent what is going through a victim's mind. I want to further explore this topic as well as many other topics that relate directly to women's issues.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Second Class Citizens?
Following along with my theme of women's rights, I searched all week for an article that pertained to my topic, interested me, and would interest others as well. I found an article titled Afghanistan: Law Curbing Women's Rights Takes Effect. When I read the title, I was immediately interested. I knew before I began to read this article, that women in Afghanistan have little, to no rights at all. What I realized after I read the article, was to what extent there rights are being taken from them.
President Karzai has made a horrible decision to sell Shia women out to voters in return for the support of the fundamentalists in the August election. The Human Rights Watch found out this information when the bill was published in the official Gazette on July 27, 2009. This brought the law into complete effect. This was the same man that told many that he was in favor of women gaining rights.
Some of the laws that included giving a woman's husband the right to take away basic maintenance from his wife if she simply refuses to obey his sexual demands. This includes food. The law also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and their grandfathers. It requires women to get permission from their husbands to work and leave the house. It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid being prosecuted by paying what they call "blood money" to a girl or woman who was injured when he raped her. The powerful men who are using and controlling these women are taking over their lives. They are using the women of their culture and country to gain power in elections.
In 2001 when the Taliban was overthrown, these laws and rules were supposed to be taken out of effect. When the president of Afghanistan received them, he immediately passed them. After this, many brave and hopeful women protesters began to walk the streets telling anyone who would listen what is happening and what they can do to prevent and fix it. Several world leaders including President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer have spoken out to help these women. From the pressure of these world leaders, President Karzai has passed a simple law in favor of the women's rights. This has helped a great deal, but not enough. I believe that if more people knew about what was really going on, more could be done to help these women who need us.
President Karzai has made a horrible decision to sell Shia women out to voters in return for the support of the fundamentalists in the August election. The Human Rights Watch found out this information when the bill was published in the official Gazette on July 27, 2009. This brought the law into complete effect. This was the same man that told many that he was in favor of women gaining rights.
Some of the laws that included giving a woman's husband the right to take away basic maintenance from his wife if she simply refuses to obey his sexual demands. This includes food. The law also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and their grandfathers. It requires women to get permission from their husbands to work and leave the house. It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid being prosecuted by paying what they call "blood money" to a girl or woman who was injured when he raped her. The powerful men who are using and controlling these women are taking over their lives. They are using the women of their culture and country to gain power in elections.
In 2001 when the Taliban was overthrown, these laws and rules were supposed to be taken out of effect. When the president of Afghanistan received them, he immediately passed them. After this, many brave and hopeful women protesters began to walk the streets telling anyone who would listen what is happening and what they can do to prevent and fix it. Several world leaders including President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer have spoken out to help these women. From the pressure of these world leaders, President Karzai has passed a simple law in favor of the women's rights. This has helped a great deal, but not enough. I believe that if more people knew about what was really going on, more could be done to help these women who need us.
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