Expectations about Smart Girl

One of my expectations about working with Smart Girl is that it will be a very good learning tool for myself when I graduate from college and start teaching.  The sessions for Smart Girl are set up like a teacher's lesson plan because it has a step by step plan for implementing what is about to be taught.  I also get a lot of practice working with middle school aged children and my degree is for secondary education.  I want to teach middle school aged children in Math when I graduate.  I feel this expectation comes from the Smart Girl manual I received with all the sessions in it.  It also comes from the fact that during the training we had to teach the other girls a session and I feel it is going to prepare me for teaching in the future.  The expectation of Smart Girl helping me with teaching is founded because their program is researched based to help middle school girls make middle school suck less.  They have professionals working for them and teaching the volunteers what they are looking for when the session are implemented.

Another expectation I have about working with Smart Girl is that I will be able to the techniques I have learned about classroom management to help me in the future.  During the training, Sameen and the other Program Directors, told us a few tricks and tips for keeping the group together and not losing them by distractions.  One of the suggestions was to circle up the chairs the girls are sitting in so everyone can see everyone.  Another reason why to circle up the girls is so that none of them feel like they are better than the other and they are all equal.  These tips about classroom management has been implemented in my own Gender and Communication class.  My professor tells us to circle up so we can see the whole class and also to feel like we all play an equal role in the class.  The expectation of being able to use these techniques come from the fact that circling chairs up has worked in the past with Smart Girl sessions and it has been used in my own college class.  This expectation is founded because again Smart Girl uses researched based methods in their sessions. They have also said they don't want us to be unprepared to run a session.

Gender Movement I Most Identify With

I have learned a lot about gender in the past couple of weeks in my Gender and Communication class.  I am suppose to pick a movement that I most identify with, but within specific chapters of my book.  I read the chapters and there is not a specific movement in the chapters I read.  My solution to this is to talk about what I most identified with in the chapters I read.  In Ch. 8 of Julia Wood's book, Gendered Lives, Communication, Gender, and Culture, she talks about the pressures to conform to femininity and how college females cope with the pressures.  The most intriguing part of the chapter talks about how college females feel pressured to achieve "effortless perfection : to be beautiful, fit, popular, smart, and accomplished without any visible effort (Wood p.198)".  I identify with theory of effortless perfection because when I started college I wanted to look sexy and smart without lifting a finger.  I wanted to be the one in class who knew all the answers, but also the girl that every guy wanted to go out with.  It sounds a little egotistical, but I was still young at the time, and it was my first year at college.

Another part of the effortless perfection is the culture of romance.  The culture of romance deals with the fact that college women are "discouraged by barriers to their academic achievement" and the "intense peer pressure that emphasizes attracting men as more important than anything else woman do (Wood p.199)".  I was personally in a culture of romance my freshman year of college. I started my freshman year at the University of Northern Colorado as a Chemistry major.  After my first semester, I went to talk to my adviser in the science department about my academics and what I wanted to achieve with my degree.  My adviser told me that it wouldn't surprise him if I changed my major soon because I was a woman in a man's field.  He also went on to say that he didn't see me going any farther in the field of science because I wouldn't be accepted in the field and the only way he saw me getting anywhere is with my looks.  I felt very discouraged after this meeting with my adviser.  Right after the meeting, I went straight to the English department and switched my major.  I know I probably should have stood up for myself and told someone about my meeting, but I felt powerless.  I stayed at UNC for three more semesters til I decided I wanted to go to a different college.

The culture of romance and effortless perfection impacted me enormously.  I switched schools because of it, but it also did something positive.  It made me realize that I wanted to go to school to learn, not to pick up guys.  Once I realized that, my academics started to rise to another level.  My self esteem also went up. I still cared about how I looked, but not for other people, but for myself. I wanted to make sure I looked healthy and happy for myself.  I feel that my experiences with these theories or movements will benefit other women who have the same experiences that I had.  It will also benefit younger girls who haven't experienced them yet and can be a cautionary tale for them.  These experiences that I went through will be able to help girls, like the ones I will be helping at Smart Girl, and I am so glad for that. 

What is in a Name?

On Tuesday, in my class, we were talking about how language shapes awareness of gendered issues.  I started wondering about this topic.  How does language shape awareness of gendered issues?  Well, my book gives the example of using the name "date rape".  In the past, women were getting raped by their dates but didn't have a name for what was happening to them.  Now we have a name for it, "date rape", and it is now in the forefront of the public's eye because we named it.  It got me thinking about how we as a society name things that are important to us.  Even in a personal relationship, people give nicknames to their significant others because they are important to them.  For example, when I first met my boyfriend I called him the name that he introduced himself as, "Tom".  Now we have been dating for 2 and a half years and I have the nickname "Bubba" for him.  I named something that I think is important to me.

Naming things gives them a certain power.  If I call myself a female, it gives me a certain empowerment over others who are not female.  I have the power to bear children, something that men do not have.  Giving a name to something helps us as a society to recognize what it is and what power it has.  Take the word "terrorism".  It wasn't really a big word in American society until 9/11.  When 9/11 occurred, we had an specific idea, because it happened to us, what terrorism was.  Every time the word "terrorism" was used on television, radio, or the internet, we could associate that word with 9/11.  It gave it a power that now is recognized around the world.  We have always been fighting a war on terrorism since we have been a nation, but now, because we gave the word recognition and power, it is the war on whoever tries to threaten the U.S. like on 9/11.  Language is very powerful. It helps raise awareness where awareness should be raised.  It changes with the times to help us understand things that were not fully understandable in the past.

Finding my Gender

Gender identity is a person's own identification as male or female (Wood p.23).  Society usually dictates what a person thinks is feminine and masculine.  I identify myself as a female.  I have long hair, wear makeup, wear earrings, have my belly button pierced, and wear tight fitting clothes.  I do know that I have masculine qualities, but my feminine qualities out weight them.  My earliest memory about an interaction that communicated the expectations of my gender happened when I was 3 years old.  It was on Christmas Eve and my sister and I were opening presents.  We opened all of our presents and were so excited about what we got.  My sister received a makeup kit and I received a princess barbie doll.  After all the presents were open, my parents surprised us with another big present that was around the corner.  My sister and I rushed over to it and opened it.  It was a huge, life size barbie doll house, that was taller than me at the time.  I was so excited about it, I ran and gave my parents a big hug.  This memory was the first that communicated to me that I was female.  I played with dolls, instead of cars, and I received a big pink barbie house for all my dolls.  The fact that the doll house was pink made the point that I was feminine.

My most recent interaction with someone who communicated expectations for my gender was my mom.  She has told me that it is time to settle down and get married already.  My mom comes from a generation where females are suppose to settle down as early as possible and start popping out kids.  I told my mom I wanted to finish school first, but she wants to have grandchildren by the time I am 25 years old.  I am currently 23, so that gives me 2 years to get married and have kids.  I also have 2 years til I graduate.  I feel like the society's feelings about females and males have change over the years, but older generations have trouble keeping up with the times.  I will get married and have kids one day, but not anytime soon.

Wood, Julia T. Gendered Lives, Communication, Gender, and Culture. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011.