WGST 2010: Ch 4 Essay Writing Assignment PDF

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These are the summaries/answers to the Chapter 4 essay writing assignment for Ms. Anna Brogan-Knight's WGST 2010 course. It includes the author of the essay and the title of the essay. These are found in the textbook. ...

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Lily Kilpatrick Women’s and Gender Studies Intro to Gender Studies Ms. Anna-Brogan-Knight

23. Breast Buds and the “Training” Bra by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1997) Brumberg talks about the history behind the development of the bra into the modern-day. The essay discusses who younger females led the charge to wear bras versus it being forced upon them by their parents or adults. It is interesting how important a female’s body is to her when they are “coming of age.” Even poor females made their own or had their mothers make them bras so that they could fit in with the new societal norm. I think this is an interesting contrast to today’s norm as women are going braless more often or even the memes that exist about taking off a bra after a long day of work. I personally hate bras, but I still wear one because I am a walking contradiction.

24. If Men Could Menstruate by Glora Steinem (1978) Steinem gives great details about how society would change if men could menstruate and women could not. It would have negative impacts on the social standing of women as they would be viewed as inferior (worse than now) and would be judged and ostracized for it as they wouldn’t understand “life or death.” (how dramatic and fitting for men to say) I thought it was interesting as Steinem made a point to state that menstrual products would be free. This is something women have been fighting for since basically forever. It has been accomplished in

small settings like public schools, however, it’ll never happen due to capitalism.

25. Race, Online Space, and the Feminine by Nicole Danielle Schott (2016) Schott describes the different eating disorders that affect the body, but how they also affect races differently. African American women are typically more satisfied with their appearance than caucasian women. However, that does not mean that African American women don’t have eating disorders or self-esteem issues when it comes to their bodies. It is also a misnomer that poor people can’t have an eating disorder. I personally have had body issues my whole life, but I have never starved myself for beauty. I do follow Youtube workout routines or yoga videos for the purpose of inspiration, but for some people being thin becomes an unhealthy obsession.

26. “I Click and Post and Breathe, waiting for others to see what I see” by Minh-ha T. Pham (2015) This is an interesting essay about the culture on social media about selfies and the need for validation through likes and comments by family, friends, and strangers. Pham also includes actual selfies and tweets about feminism and selfie culture, which I find to be interesting as these tweets and images may not show up in our feed as not everyone is focused on these topics. Pham also addresses the issue of vanity versus narcissism and how the two topics can be related and unrelated to one another. I relate to this article as I once was obsessive over my Instagram and the number of followers I had. It got to the point where if I didn’t get a certain number of likes on a photo, that I would delete it and try again. So I deleted my Instagram when I got to college. I have a new Instagram, but I rarely use it so that it won’t become an issue again.

28. Fat is still a feminist issue by Susie Orbach (2018) Orbach goes back and discusses her book that she wrote in 1978 on eating disorders, women, and inequality. Now she discusses the societal changes that have occurred since then” like mainstreaming pornography, sexual advertisements, surgery apps on cell phones and the development of the dieting industry (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc). It creates this notion that women’s bodies need to be changed to fit society’s expectations.

29. UNDERSTANDING TRANSGENDER AND MEDICALLY ASSISTED GENDER TRANSITION JAMIE LINDEMANN NELSON (2016) To start, I don’t believe the whole article is uploaded to BlackBoard, but from what I can gather from the introduction Transgender individuals are now in positions of power or more normalized through social media rather than being ostracized for who they are....