Creative Project: Survivor

Lindsey Flicker

18 April 2011
Women’s Studies Creative Project

Like most young girls, growing up, I idolized my mother. My twin sister and I both always leaned on her for guidance, or when we needed a friend. To us, Mom was everything.

When we were about seven years old, my sister and I started noticing inappropriate behavior between my dad, and our neighbor’s mom. After months of speculation, our mom and dad told us they were getting divorced. We were told it was because they couldn’t get a long anymore, but we knew that wasn’t the real reason. Even though we were so young, we could feel it. Even though my dad had an affair, our mom stayed strong and didn’t show my sister and I weakness.

About a year after their divorce, I was listening to the radio, and the song Survivor, by Destiny’s Child came on. I looked to my mom, who was cooking dinner, and I said, “Mom, this is your song.” We listened to it together, and it made her tear up. It was true, being away from my dad, she quickly picked herself up, and became strong. She showed my sister, Laura, and I that you don’t need someone else to make your life worth something. She had gone from a doormat, to an outspoken, self-reliant, woman. That small moment in our past, was a milestone for us.

My mom is a working women, making a life for herself and her daughters. She is strong, and powerful, and not only is she a women, but she doesn’t need a man. “Recent transformations in female adolescents subjectivity and girls’ culture (specifically the feminist youth movement, riot grrrl” are seriously challenging previous conceptualizations of girls and female youth cultures as only consumption-oriented. Because of the success of the feminist movement in decreasing discriminatory practices based on sex, as well as in empowering females of all ages..” (Kearny). As Kearny stated, women have been challenging their role as housewife, and my mom is part of that group.

Recently I read an article by Tanya Erzen , about the Twilight trilogy. She talked about how Twilight fans sometimes forget reality and jump into the story. They think there are these perfect men out there who will love them for eternity. She comes up with the concept of a “Twilight Oath” which reminds me a lot of how my mom and I started to look at the reality of our future relationships. “I imagine a new “Twilight Oath” where fans promise not to base their entire lives on a man, where marriage isn’t the pinnacle of relationships, where we don’t expect love to be a matter of fate, where sex doesn’t necessarily lead to pregnancy or near-death, where men can cook for themselves, and where everyone gets communal childcare and the benefits of extended, non-biological families. That would certainly be a form of enchantment.” (Erzen)

Although this story has a lot to do with my mom, my mom has had the huge impact on my life. Watching her change and develop into an independent woman, taught me to do the same. Listening to the song Survivor always reminds me that I am the one who determines how my life turns out, and that I can do anything, with or without a man. It reminds me to be strong, and more importantly, it reminds me of my mom, and sister. That we got through the hard times, and that we survived.


Erzen, Tanya. 8 July 2010. AlterNet. 2011 .

Kearny, Mary Celeste. "Producinng Girls: Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culture." Inness, Sherrie A. Delinquents and Debutants. New York: New York Universtiy Press, 1998. 289.

Survivor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_RVId9OkgI

GWS 251

Lindsey Flicker


15 March 2011

Crossing Cultures: The Color of Friendship

The Color of Friendship is a Disney movie based on a true story of an African American family who take in a South African foreign exchange student. Ron V. Dellums, a Congress man in D.C., is the father of Piper, who was the one who wanted to bring in a student from Africa. She hoped she could learn a little more about where she came from. It was the peak of minority rule in South Africa at this time. When her and her family realized her new guest, Mahree, was white, they were all surprised. Mahree grew up in a wealthy white family in South Africa. Where she is from, blacks are nothing but servants and criminals. She was just as shocked, and horrified, to find her host family was African American.

After their rough start, they were able to see that they were not as different as they thought. Once in America, Mari saw a whole new prospective of race. Her father was a policeman in South Africa so she lived her life fearing most blacks, thinking they had no rights, were not wealthy, and were all bad people. Certain books, movies, television shows, and other media was banned from them by the government. The South African government was keeping them ignorant so they could run it the way they desired. Coming to America, she had a complete culture shock.

Mahree was much like Marji in the story Persepolis. She was living around all this hate and rules that she did not understand. There was war in Iran, just as there was an uprising in South Africa. Marji was sent to live in Austria, away from home. She meets a girl her own age, and finds a whole new culture. They do not have the same background she has a hard time understanding where this girl is coming from. Mahree and Majri go to places where their look on life is different from most of the people they come in contact with. They learn new ways of life, and it makes them more understanding people.

With the event of Mahree coming into her life, Piper also learned some things. She was appalled by how her new guest could feel about blacks. Piper grew up in a culture where there were no longer slaves, African Americans had rights, and were not looked down on for their skin color. She could not believe how this South African girl could feel the way she did, about people that looked just like herself.

It was not Mahree’s fault she felt blacks were inferior. She grew up being told that’s how the world works. Just the same, Piper grew up in a place with equal opportunity. She knew it was not like that everywhere in the world, but she was confident she could do what she wanted, regardless of her skin color. “Growing up “right” has always been a highly managed process for girls in order for particular forms of gender relations to be maintained. Female adolescence has typically been represented as risky business that must be carefully navigated, usually with the help of professionals, to ensure that girls make a successful transition to normative adult womanhood.” (Harris) Their parents brought them up the way they thought was right. What is “right” for someone, may not be agreed as “right” for everyone. That was very clear in this movie. Both girls believed they were taught what was right. Unlike Piper, Mahree was not taught much at all about any other race but her own, and that it was superior.

Once they spent some time together, they realized they were not all that different. Both young girls, they had similar interests and hobbies. Piper was able to understand how things were in Africa, and in turn, teach her new friend that your skin color doesn’t define who you are. Mahree was able to see that there was a lot going on, outside of her sheltered life. In the end, the experience helped both girls to mature and learn. It was a good twist to see the difference between two, very different, girls’ coming of age experience.


Bibliography
Harris, Anita. "The "Can-Do" Girl Versus the "At-Risk" Girl." Harris, Anita. Future Girl. Taylor & Francis, 2007. 15.
Satrapi, Marji. Persepolis. New York: Patheon Books, 2007.
The Color of Friendship. Dir. Kevin Hooks. 2000.

Jersey Shore: Is it More Than Just Entertainment?

Lindsey Flicker          

13 February 2011

Jersey Shore: Is it More Than Just Entertainment?

In the world today, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a cable television show that has real substance.  Especially ones made to entertain the younger population.  It’s all about sex, drinking, and having a wild time.  Not exactly something our younger generation should be looking up to and aspiring to be like.  Don’t get me wrong, it is entertaining. But is idolizing this type of lifestyle really healthy for our future?  Since two years ago, a new type of language and lifestyle has been exposed to the world.  Now everyone knows the acronym “GTL” and the word “grenade” has a whole new meaning. 

Two years ago, the phenomenon began.  People all across the nation tuned into MTV to watch the first episode of Jersey Shore.  The show was taped on the Jersey Shore, a popular vacation spot in the northwest.  Camera crews followed around eight young people, native to the area, who loved to drink, hook up, and party.  They were also known as gweedos and gweedettes. It was an instant success.  After time, not only were teens watching the show, but idolizing it.  Jersey shore glamorized going out every night, hooking up with strangers, and getting intoxicated.  Soon enough teens were aspiring to be like the cast they watched every Thursday night.

These young adults are being exposed and representing our generation, and they are giving us a bad name. Kearney points out how young women are taking the opportunities they are given to work and be producers of culture, and using it the wrong way. “With regard to representations of female adolescence in contemporary U.S. teen magazines such as Seventeen and Sassy, we can recognize that, in spite of the growing number of opportunities encouraging girls today to become active producers of culture, as well as magazines’ increasing attention to female youth who seize such opportunities (especially media celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, Claire Dances, and Brandy Norwood), most girls’ magazines continue to over-privilege the spheres of  consumption and leisure in comparison to production and work.” (Kearney) 

Although she speaks of magazines, television shows are no different.  Television is no longer idolizing people who make the world a better place, who work hard, or who are good role models for adolescents.  That’s not considered exciting enough to show as entertainment anymore. Now all you see on T.V. is young people who have it all handed to them, and use it in all the wrong ways.  They exploit themselves with sex and risky situations and make it look like the good life.

In this show, the young adults go out, get drunk, and try to find someone to hook up with.  Not only are just the men participating, but the women as well.  They dress up in little clothing, and make themselves look as available as possible. It usually works to their advantage, and they bring home a new stranger to have sex with multiple times a week.  I have fear that even more people, outside the Jersey Shore, are going out and doing the same after seeing it on the shows.  They are putting themselves in compromising situations where they could be raped, taken advantage of, or get STD’s.  “Research indicates that the presence of alcohol is one situational factor that often plays a role in risky sexual encounters.  Therefore, the CMM specifically focuses on the role that alcohol may play in influencing women’s risky sexual decision-making processes. The CMM posits that alcohol consumption can affect women’s sexual decisions directly through its physiological effects on cognitive appraisals of the situation.” (Kelly Cue Davis, Jeanette Norris, Danielle M. Hessler, Tina Zawacki, Diane M. Morrison, William H. George)  These girls are drinking daily, and heavily, and then going out to find sex.  This is not the lifestyle that we, as young adults, should be aspiring to have.

When it comes to entertainment, should we be compromising our youth’s future?  Exposing the younger populations to these lifestyles could be a risk.  The more types of this behavior they are exposed to, the more it will be accepted as ideal.  We should not be idolizing people who live a life of drinking, partying, and hooking up.  Whatever happened to good ole fashion, wholesome entertainment?

Works Cited

Kearney, Mary Celeste. "Producing Girls: Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culutre." (n.d.): 291.

Kelly Cue Davis, Jeanette Norris, Danielle M. Hessler, Tina Zawacki, Diane M. Morrison, William H. George. "College Women's Sexual Decision Making Cognitive Mediation of Alchohol Expectancy Effects." JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH, VOL 58, NO. 5 (2010): 482.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=113&sid=58d0a77b-9165-4fab-b81f-ef1aa7755aba%40sessionmgr111&vid=30