"Like A Girl"

It's finally Wednesday, and lets dive into the meat of the day. Class today is probably my favorite so far. We began our morning finishing up the ideas for our action plan. I went to say that I wanted to be the music arranger for my school because I felt as if the musicians, at our school,  do not get play songs that are available to us. It makes me depressed to see how our band and orchestra are not ignored by our peers. At school rallies, the students don't even clap for the hardworking band players. I would like to able to arrange more pop music, and possibly more genres when I get the hang of it. I'm hoping that it will be praised by my fellow peers in their minds, and I'm glad about telling everyone about my true intentions. During our time in class, we watched two amazing and powerful videos. The first video was the Always P.S.A. about the interpretation of being "a girl." How people respond to when they hear the phrase "like a girl." I watched this Youtube video before, and had a different opinion on the saying ever since. The other video, or documentary, is about how inferior women are. It also goes into details about hoe social media has shaped us to think that our body is what men want, not our intelligence. This film was really moving for me, and now I understand how the media misinterprets certain aspects of women. For example, the media focuses on what certain women wear; and usually it's all about showing off the cleavage. I learned a deeper meaning today, and I wonder why women get the shorter end of the stick, and how different it would be if society did not give women certain images. Statistics started popping up about eating disorders, and women in high government positions. There is a quote that was eye-popping to me, which talked about how people should measure their image by their accomplishments. It's because if you think about it, women, girls, females, probably spend more time looking at their body than actually focusing on school. It's terrifying to know that, but I can't deny that I haven't looked myself in the mirror. May women be able to break through the image that society has placed on us. 

To elaborate more about how I felt, I felt disappointed. I didn't like how women anchors had to look young while the men were about 50-60 years old. Social media influences how girls should wear and be like. I heard that magazines photoshopped models into anorexic aliens, and that's not a picture of role model. My picture of a woman role model is someone who accomplishes a lot. For example, Dean Almandrez is someone who has accomplished a lot. She is the Assistant Dean of Brown University, and is the Director of the Third World Center. She has done a lot more, but I believe you get the point of her achievements. Women who praise themselves by their intellectual, and strengths besides what physical aspects they have. Did you know that the U.S.'s beauty standards are usually gained by plastic surgery? Scary right? I find it negative for women to think about plastic surgery because I believe they are trying to cover up their imperfections with a fake mask. The mask may be not fulfilling mentally, but maybe physically.  After watching the video, I had an urge to change my action plan but there is a chance that I can intersect both ideas together. LETS CHANGE HOW WOMEN LOOK AND FEEL.

After class, we had another amazing workshop. This is by far the most influential workshop for me because I was able to be honest to myself and everyone. The focus on today's workshop was to identify ourselves in the seven categories of social identity, race/ethnicity, age, religion, SES, sex/gender, sexual orientation, and abilities and disabilities. It was mainly a moving around workshop which was definitely okay for me. Isabella, our T.A. or teacher assistant, and Claire, our R.D. or resident director, facilitated the workshop. They both gave us questions, based on the social identities, and it was surprising to see everyone's choice. My first choice for the question, " What part of your identity are you most aware of," was sex/gender but it was originally race/ethnicity. I decided to switch because I wanted to talk to Theo about it. Theo and I had a pretty interesting conversation about why we chose this and how it impacts our daily life. I really like talking to Theo and I believe we had similar points here and there and I liked to learn new perspectives. I did bring up a question, "why men are not a part of this program?" We both feel if some 16-17 year old males are presented in the W&L program, it will portray them as open-minded. The next question was, " What identity we are least aware of." For me, it's religion. I am Catholic, but I don't associate myself as religious. Izabel made a good point about this, and to summarize, she has her own God who loves everyone. Her God is the most accepting God because she is accepting as well. We did have other questions as well, but there is this one thing that I wanted to talk about. All of us, the whole class, got in the circle and did a step in step out activity. If none of you know what it is, everyone stands in a circle and the facilitator reads a question; if it applies, you step in, and step out once the facilitator said so.  I was able to do a self-reflection and observe what my other friends stepped in for. I felt like it was a silent heart-to-heart and I loved it. To be honest, I was able to express more at the workshop than at home.  I can't believe that I was able to share more to my fellow classmates on the third day. I LOVE BEING A PART OF THE W&L CLASS!! 

Having a Heart-to-Heart with the Homies

P.S. We all got merchandise at the Brown Bookstore. It was a long while until we got our items.

Modeling Status!