Children's dolls...

Have you ever walked into the toy section to where the dolls are located? Do you notice anything? Noticed that majority of the dolls are "white" and a couple of the dolls are "black". There are hardly any dolls that are Asian, or hispanic or Indian or any other kind of race? Know why is that? We live in a world where there is a diversity of people of different ethnics, shade, sizes and so on, so why is it that the only two kinds of dolls for sale or either black or white. Growing up, I don't think there were very many different shades of dolls available and there is still not very many today. Myself being Asian, I wonder why there isn't any Asian dolls for my kid to play with. Not that I really care, but why is there not? It's not a Black and White world, it's a melting pot of many different cultures.

Look here I found from targets website...

Cabbage Patch Kids Preemie Dolls - Caucasian

Circo® My First Baby Doll - African American (12")

Hasbro Baby Alive Hispanic Doll

Don't you think these names are a little offensive? I was going to go into the store and take pictures of the dolls and post it up in here but I don't think that the stores allow you to take pictures. I wanted to show the amount of dolls from different ethnic backgrounds.


Myself being Asian, this is coming from my point of view. Check out this video pertaining why Asians are overlooked and how this kinda fits into what I am talking about.

Rape in Prison : Male vs Males

Have you ever heard the saying " Night, night, sleep with your but hole tight?" or "Don't drop the soap"or something close to that? What do you think when you hear violence, Rape and sexual abuse and such? Many of us probably don't consider that men also face these as well as women. Maybe because men are stereotyped as being masculine and dominant and having more power than a women. As we all know, in prison cells men are victims of violence and are raped. So why do you think that men are raped in prisons anywyas? Is is because there is no female there to satify their sexual needs?



Sex, Violence and Power

Rape in prison is rarely a sexual act, but one of violence, politics, and an acting out of power roles.-- Journalist and prisoner Wilbert Rideau, in "The Sexual Jungle"⁽²⁶⁶⁾

Of course rape is a crime of hatred. I'm ugly as a mud fence, why would W.R. want to have sex with me?

-- A Texas inmate, October 8, 1998.

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/prison/report5.html#_1_36

Here are some excerpt from that I picked out that I think are very interesting and deal a lot with what we have been talking abo9tu over the semester.

• Locked in an all male society, lacking other sexual outlets, prisoners might be assumed to commit rape as a means of sexual release. Yet the cruelty and degradation so intimately connected to rape in prison undermines this facile explanation, suggesting that inmates' real motivations for committing rape are more complicated.

^I guess this paragraph is saying that many people think that since in prisonm there are no women around they turn to rape of another inmate ( male) to act out and replace the feeling.

• People in prison are deprived of sex, but perhaps even more fundamentally they are deprived of almost all choice in or power over their lives. The most basic decisions affecting them--what to eat, when to get up, where and with whom to live--are outside of their control. As Louisiana prisoner and writer Wilbert Rideau has pointed out, "The psychological pain involved in such an existence creates an urgent and terrible need for reinforcement of [the prisoner's] sense of manhood and personal worth."⁽²⁷⁰⁾ One means of doing so is by establishing absolute power over another prisoner via rape

^This is a way for the Rapist to can some kind of control over their victim. It's sad really how they can not escape and run away. Because it is a prison and so they really have no where to go. Even if the tell teh police people, I don't think that they would even do anything that would help the victim. I could be wrong. I don't know enough about this matter.

• Numerous prisoners confirmed this portrayal of rape as a means of expressing power in a situation of powerlessness. Explained a Virginia inmate: "In my view the perpetrator of rape is an angry man. He lacks power and decides to steal it from others through assault." Interestingly, this same inmate drew a correlation between the imposition of a more oppressive prison regime, in which officials treat prisoners unfairly, and the likelihood of a sexual assault. He explained that he had noticed that "the more oppressive the system the higher the incidents of assaultive behavior in general . . . . Fair and objective treatment seems to create a less-assaultive environment."⁽²⁷¹⁾ Indeed, if prisoners' quest for dominance over others is to some extent a consequence of their lack of power in every other area of life, then it stands to reason that a harsher and more arbitrary prison regime would exacerbate the tendency.

^This goes back to what we have been talking about the one week how power and dominance and oppression can leave a peson without any power and the dirt kind of.

• Still, to think that there is a strict dichotomy between rape as a sexual act and rape as a violent assertion of power may be somewhat misguided. Rapists are, in the most obvious ways, sexually stimulated by what they are doing. "[N]o matter how one characterizes it, i.e., 'control'; 'violence'; 'rage' etc.," suggested a Colorado inmate, "it is sexuality."⁽²⁷⁵⁾ The fact that the victim of rape is injured and degraded may itself be a source of sexual arousal to the rapist. Daniel Lockwood, an expert on prison rape, has posited that sexual aggression in prison can be traced to men's sexist attitudes toward women, which, in prison, translate into a bias against men placed in female roles.⁽²⁷⁶⁾ The fact that stereotypically feminine characteristics are so despised in male prisoners may reflect a more general contempt of women, not just men who are considered to be like women. Although misogyny would appear to be an unlikely cause of male-on-male rape, it may be an ingredient in the volatile mix that results in sexual abuse in prison.

I never really thought about rape in prison in this kind of way. I really only thought about it as they wanting a sexual feeling and or the person was gay. Maybe it is the media portyes it in the movies. This topic talks about some of the things we discussed in calss a few weeks back in the begining of the semester.

An Akward situtaion...

A few weeks ago we watched a film and talked about the reproductive right of a women and the choice for her to have an abortion or not. In the Film "Tthe Coat Hanger Project" there were some scenes where there were protestors standing outside of clinic for and against abotrion. When I was younger, maybe around age 12 or so; not really sure but I was asked to go translate for a relative of mine because she had become pregnant and did not want to have anymore children since she had already had 9 kids. So I went along to help her translate. I used to live in Pennsylvaina and in my town where we lived didn't have those kinds of clinics so we had to travel about an hour and a half or so to Philiadelphia to the clinic. When we arrived, there were these peoples standing outside of the clinc just like in the movie. They were handing out pamplets about anti-abortion stuff. They weren't saying anything or getting all up in our face or nothing but I felt very werid because me; a twelve or so kid, going into a abortion clinic with a grown women. I felt them starring me down as if them thinking that I was the one who came there because I had gotten myself pregnant but that wasn't the case.

I don't really have a side on aboriton. I'm not for it but then i'm not agianst it. I think that it really depends on the situation. I guess I stand in the middle because there are both benefitical and not. I think that if a women wants to have an abotion she should go ahead and go through with the procedure. I Just think that before shs does do anything she should outweigh the "What if's" to terminate the pregnancy and the "What if's" if she had the baby, and to think about how doing so will affect her life, her partner's life and what could of been if the child were to be born or not. If a person wants to have the child or abort it they should consider the alternatives and consequences beofre they have sex to avoid being pregnant in the first place. Therre are many facotrs why people have abortions and I don' t really care why they do it, but if they want to the choice is up to them.

the ideal femine look

Over spring break my daughter and I went to the doctors and the Nutrition lady told me that my daughter and I were over weight. I was like omg.. you don't look so fit yourself. Being pregnant too, I want to eat for my baby, but they say for me to not eat too much because too much wt gained is not good not me and the baby which is understandable. I was like gosh, I already know I'm not the thinnest person...way to boost my self esteem.

When she told me that my daughter is over weight I was shocked because I thought they were going to say that my daughter was under weight. She is two and only 33 lbs and I don't know a little over 2 feet and she doesn't look fat or nothing she is just short.

Oh my word, not everyone is perfect and all the same size. Everywhere we turn something about sex appeal and skinny fit-good looking people are thrown at us for how we should look, act and be. Being compared to other people doesn't feel good. We live in a world where there is diversity of people with different shapes and sizes. It is cool that they want the world to be fit and look a certain way and to be healthy but is that the message that we should be conveying telling people? I think this contributes to a form of oppression not only women but men as well.

Stereotyping...

I am a fan of Tyra Banks show. I like how her show is fun and covers many controversial topics and things that needs to be heard. We talked about stereotyping in class. On Tyra's show she had some people together that watched some short clips about race and stereotypical and some very heated discussion on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhxsQV8JAmQ


In this section they watched a film on two different women with 3 kids each. One family black, one family white. "family and Race"

Why is is that when you see a "White women" you think that she is married and got it made. Why is it that the White woman situation is viewed more positively?
But when you see a "Black" women you think that she is going to be on "welfare" and have different fathers for each of her kids?

There is still racism today. Christian, a white male, says "well if the united states is so racist then why do we have a Black President?" And like what we have talked about in class, just because we have Black President it doesn't change anything or takes away the fact that racism still exists.

The one lady says "your not Black, you don't understand." And I think that this is true. Because no matter what subject we are on, race, ethnic, age, whatever, if your not that person and is being judged or is doing the judging and assuming, your not going to understand how it feels to be in that position.

"young girls testing the waters"

One of my myspace friends by "SUMO:Oblivious"; made a blog one day directed towards young women that I thought kind of relates to some of the things that we talk about. She titled it "Dear Women." She talks about how young "Hmong girls" are testing the waters and not being good little girls. I think that what she is addressign is not only for the Hmong crowd put for women and to inform them that htey are already looked down upon because they are women and should step up and defend thier sex.

Here is a bit of what she wrote:

She writes: "I believe it is just sad how some young girls overexpose themselves in photos and post it up or whatever having no shame whatsoever. I see it disgraceful of a young girl to let themselves loose and let everyone see who they are. It is like that one Hmong saying, "Cia luag pom yus lub qes"."

She goes on to address this: "You are a Woman. Hardly anyone respects You because You were born with a freaking vagina or pussy like my sister has put it. Have a darn head to learn and act like a Normal human being. Most of all, at least have some Respect for yourself if no one does. Stand up for your name even when people stomp on you. Do not just make matters worst for yourself when situations are already at its worst. Stop being a blinded fool and act as if the world is yours. It's not, stupid. If you feel as if Life itself is too hard on you and that's the reason why you need to free yourself in that way...Face It. Life is freaking hard. That is why we live to fight through it."

"Just to put it Simple: As a Woman, have some shame and Respect. For society already looks down on us for not being Men. Especially you Hmong girls. Trust me. Don't make matters worst for yourselves."

In the sentence were she says in hmong "Cia luag pom yus lus qes" translates to "Letting others see your body." I took what she wrote as a plee or something of that nature to address the Hmong girls on the way the dress and acting in certain ways that are making them not look good to the older hmong people. It not only is for the Hmong women, it is for all women as well. She focuses on why women shouldn't degrade themselves because like she and her sister put it are already born with an disadvantage becuase they have a vagina. Being born into this world as a women you are already marginalized by society. One of her friends commented on what she wrote. Houa Thao wrote :"Truth had to come out some time :P Careful Hun people may hate you for this." And it is true, things like this are very sensitive and many people who agree or disagree with things like this are very contraversial.