Posts by Ashley:
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
- Collecting an oral history – If you do this and present it without analysis, you can fully disclose your participant’s identity without IRB approval
- Working with any kind of public writings or behaviors (ahem… blogs, anyone?)
- Researching any kind of existing data or documents (again, blogs?)
- Find feminist bloggers willing to participate.
- E-mail them the consent forms.
- Have them sign, scan, and e-mail the consent forms back to me.
- Send the interview questions to the bloggers.
- Have them answer the questions and send them back to me.
- Analyze the results and publish them on my blog.
- Find feminist bloggers who are willing to participate.
- E-mail them the consent forms. They have two options: A) I may disclose their identity within my research (not on my blog!) and cite their blogs within my research (not on my blog!), but they must have their consent forms notarized. B) I may use a pseudonym or pen name (still not on my blog! See a theme here?), in which case they do not have to have their consent forms notarized, but I can also not cite their blogs in my research. So, if they want me to cite their blogs, but also use a pen name, they must have their consent forms notarized anyway.
- They will send those forms back to me, and I will e-mail them the questions upon receipt of their consent forms.
- They will respond to the interview questions in a Word document and e-mail the questions back to me. They must only use ONE e-mail address – the one they used when they started corresponding with me – for this project, too, just in case they really aren’t who they say they are.
- I can analyze their responses once I receive them, provided I have signed and notarized consent forms in my possession and they have only corresponded with me using one e-mail address.
- Image by chase-me via Flickr
Another Open Call for Feminist Bloggers
February 2nd, 2010Female Students, Female Teachers, and Math Anxiety – Oh My!
January 27th, 2010This study has shown up in many places this week, and it bothered me quite a bit. When I first saw it on City Room (the first link provided here), I was angry. The study touts that female students learn math anxiety from their female teachers, but no male teachers were studied. The research here included only female teachers, and examined how female students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety versus how male students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety. What the study really found was that female students were more receptive to female teachers’ math anxiety than male students were. What the study said was that it is clearly the female teachers’ fault that their female students hate math.
From the Yahoo article:
Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.
Female Students, Female Teachers, and Math Anxiety – Oh My!
January 27th, 2010This is a cross-post from Equality 101.
This study has shown up in many places this week, and it bothered me quite a bit. When I first saw it on City Room (the first link provided here), I was angry. The study touts that female students learn math anxiety from their female teachers, but no male teachers were studied. The research here included only female teachers, and examined how female students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety versus how male students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety. What the study really found was that female students were more receptive to female teachers’ math anxiety than male students were. What the study said was that it is clearly the female teachers’ fault that their female students hate math.
From the Yahoo article:
Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.
From the L.A. Times article:
Girls have long embraced the stereotype that they’re not supposed to be good at math. It seems they may be getting the idea from a surprising source — their female elementary school teachers.
The sentiment is clear: those poor little girls, being subjected to math anxiety from those awful women teachers who hate math. (Please note my sarcasm) But could the girls’ math anxiety be passed on from their male teachers as well? We won’t know from this article, because no male teachers were part of the study.
Please don’t get me wrong: I believe we, as a teaching community, need to find out why fewer women end up in math and science related fields. I also believe that this study does show us some interesting data about female teachers and their female students. But I also believe we cannot blame female teachers for this whole problem, and in order to figure out what really changes girls’ attitudes toward math and science, we need to conduct a study that is fair to the teachers and the students, and that requires a study that includes teachers and students of all genders.
And, in the interest of opposing viewpoints, check out this article, which says that there are actually very few gender differences in math ability worldwide.
How do you feel about this study and these articles? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
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On Body Image: An Admission
January 26th, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve admitted before that I’m skinny. Today, I’d like to admit that I work out and track the food I eat.
I don’t work out as much as I used to. In college, it was at least twice a day. While at my first job, it was at least once a day. Now that I have other things to do, it’s about 2-5 times a week. I work out for my physical and mental health, yes, but I also do it to maintain my appearance. As far as tracking my food, I use the site Livestrong.com as a food diary and not much more. It tells me all sorts of useful things, like how much water I need to drink to reach 8 ounces; how much protein, fiber, cholesterol, sodium, etc. I’ve consumed; how much exercise I’ve done. And how many calories I’ve eaten.
I don’t need to count calories. I don’t really. I truly do log the food to keep track of protein, fiber, sodium, and cholesterol. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that the calories section takes up so much of the screen.
You’ll have to take my word for it: When I don’t work out, I feel crummy, so I work out. Also, I don’t get upset if I go “over” my calorie allotment as according to Livestrong.com, and I certainly don’t try to make up for it the next day, or anything like that, but part of me feels a little bad that I talk so much about healthy body image, yet I still do these things.
Back when I started This Is What A Beautiful Bride Looks Like, I caught some heat for saying that I wanted to do some workouts for my arms because of my strapless wedding gown. I was told by several people that this was un-feminist and totally against the spirit of my project. I, however, don’t necessarily believe this is true. The spirit of the project, as well as this series of posts, was not to say that people should not try to lose weight or look and feel good through exercise and diet if that is their choice. It was to say that no one should feel that they need to reach those unattainable magazine images of models and actors, and that everyone is beautiful, truly.
So, should I feel like less of a feminist or body image activist because I work out and log food? Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. I guess the jury is still out on this one. Thoughts welcome in the comments.
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The Laramie Project
January 22nd, 2010On October 6, 1998, a young man was found tied to a fence in the Wyoming countryside. He had been beaten within inches of his life and left there to die, all because he was gay. Matthew Shepard was still breathing when he was found the next morning, and remained on life support until he died on October 12, 1998. The unusual, pristine nature of the crime scene lead to the quick arrests of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, who eventually pled guilty to the crime, citing “gay panic,” or temporary insanity caused by a fear of sexual advances from a gay person, as their defense.
The murder and subsequent trials gained national attention from celebrities, politicians, and news media. When the media descended on the small town of Laramie, Wyoming, “all dialogue stopped” (Laramie 11). It was as the case gained national attention that Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie on six different occasions to interview the residents of the town. They interviewed over 200 of the town’s residents – priests and pastors, ranchers, townspeople, friends of the victim and the accused, policemen and women who were on the case, the doctors who attended to Matthew Shepard, etc. The direct transcripts from these interviews, as well as journal entries and experiences of the actors themselves came together in the amazingly powerful play, The Laramie Project.
Dual Credit Courses
January 20th, 2010I stumbled upon this article from the New York Times today, via NCTE, and was a little surprised. I haven’t been teaching that long, but for as long as I have been teaching, there have been dual credit courses. Is it just in the Chicago suburbs that this isn’t touted as a brand-new thing?
I, personally, think dual credit courses are great for high schools. Students get the chance to be challenged beyond the high school curriculum and earn college credit for free. As far as the argument in the article that these courses are often useless because top-notch, Ivy League schools won’t take credit from community colleges and therefore these courses should not be offered, I say phooey! These courses aren’t replacing AP programs, just offering another option for students. And, hopefully, a student could take, say, an AP English course but a dual credit biology course, if science wasn’t his or her forte.
more – Read the rest of this entry “
Teaching Feminism: Everyday Activism Part 2
January 19th, 2010Cross-posted with Gender Across Borders
I wrote a post a little while ago about teaching everyday activism to my sophomores. I was so energized at the end of this two-day lesson – totally jazzed that they had caught on to the concept of activism so well that they had started talking about what they could do to speak out and raise awareness for their personal causes.
As interesting as it might be to follow my students’ activism, I think it is equally interesting – and important – to discuss my students’ original perceptions of activism. In my original post, I mentioned that I put a list of actions on the board and asked my students if they considered each “activism.” The following is the list again, but this time, I’ve put the number of students in each of my three classes respectively who believed each action is considered activism. There were 22 students in my first class, 28 students in my second class, and 17 students in my third class.
Which of these are “activism?”
1. Donating money 4, 12, 2
2. Writing an article 1, 5, 2
3. Discussions 17, 14, 8
4. Signing a petition 17, 22, 17
5. Writing a letter 3, 5, 1
6. Protesting 17, 28, 17
7. Creating a petition 17, 23, 17
8. Blogging 5, 3, 1
9. Risking your life for someone 15, 14, 8
10. Going against what people think 16, 23, 17
11. Being a lawyer 3, 4, 11
12. Being a teacher 2, 2, 5
13. Being a doctor 7, 4, 11
14. Volunteering 18, 18, 13
15. Starting a group 17, 18, 12
16. Adopting a pet 3, 4, 3
17. Adopting a child 3, 8, 6
18. Making a speech 17, 14, 11
19. Making a sign 6, 10, 6
20. Talking to a friend 4, 3, 4
It is interesting to note, here, that discussions, signing and creating petitions, going against what people think, volunteering, protesting, starting a group, and making a speech were all highly recognized as activist activities, whereas very few students thought of writing an article, writing a letter, blogging, being a teacher, adopting a pet, adopting a child, and talking to a friend as actions of activists.
I was not surprised that my students thought of petitions, speeches, discussions, protests, and volunteering as activism. After all, they are taught that activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. give speeches and do interviews and hold discussions. And in this day and age, protests are probably the most common form of activism students see on the news, and petitions are probably the most common form of speaking out in which students have participated. I was, however, surprised that writing an article or writing a letter was not seen by them as activism. So, I asked them why.
I started by grouping together the actions that had the highest number of votes, as I did above, and asked them what all of these had in common. Every class said the same thing: In order for an activity to be considered activism, it must involve other people – an audience, a group, several signatures, etc. When I asked them if articles and blogs had audiences, they said yes, but activism must be loud and directed. Protests are directed because they are stationed outside of the building of whatever company is being protested; discussions and speeches are directed because people are talking about one specific issue. When I mentioned that blogs have wide audiences, they replied that this may be true, but anyone can write a blog about anything, which makes it unreliable. To protest or discuss or create a petition, you can’t hide behind a computer screen writing a post or an article. You have to be out there, literally taking a stand for what you believe in.
While I still believe that blogging and writing are important forms of activism, my students have reminded me of the importance of literally taking a stand for your cause. We can write and comment and share all we want, but it does not take the place of active activism – actually doing something. As I pointed out to my students, Miep Gies actually did something, and what she did was not only the action of an activist, but the action of a hero.
Equality 101
January 16th, 2010
I’d like to introduce to you a brand new blog for teachers and activists! It’s called Equality 101, and yours truly is a contributing writer in the company of some seriously awesome teacher-writer-researchers!
Of course, I will still be posting education-related posts here, but I will include much of what you find here over there. So if you’re a teacher or if you’re interested in education at all, head on over and check it out!
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Teaching Everyday Activism
January 16th, 2010It has come to my attention that my so many people either don’t know what “activism” is (“It’s like we need to be active to be healthy?”) or that it is for “other people” (“Angelina Jolie is an activist, right?”). For some, it is a dirty word (“Those animal rights activists throw blood on people!”). They do not understand the importance of everyday activism, or just doing what is right.
I was inspired by a recent Gender Across Borders article about Miep Gies which touted her as an “example for all activists.” I’d like to take that a step further and posit that she is an example for all people and, as such, I felt my students needed to know about her extraordinary acts during the Holocaust, and they needed to understand activism as something that isn’t just for other people.
more – Read the rest of this entry “
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Teaching Feminism: Everyday Activism
January 16th, 2010It has come to my attention that my so many people either don’t know what “activism” is (“It’s like we need to be active to be healthy?”) or that it is for “other people” (“Angelina Jolie is an activist, right?”). For some, it is a dirty word (“Those animal rights activists throw blood on people!”). They do not understand the importance of everyday activism, or just doing what is right.
I was inspired by a recent Gender Across Borders article about Miep Gies which touted her as an “example for all activists.” I’d like to take that a step further and posit that she is an example for all people and, as such, I felt my students needed to know about her extraordinary acts during the Holocaust, and they needed to understand activism as something that isn’t just for other people.
I began my two-day lesson with my sophomores by asking them to write a journal entry defining activism. Many students responded to this as stated above. We discussed activism and what it means, and then I put the following list on the board:
Which of these are “activism?”
1. Donating money
2. Writing an article
3. Discussions
4. Signing a petition
5. Writing a letter
6. Protesting
7. Creating a petition
8. Blogging
9. Risking your life for someone
10. Going against what people think
11. Being a lawyer
12. Being a teacher
13. Being a doctor
14. Volunteering
15. Starting a group
16. Adopting a pet
17. Adopting a child
18. Making a speech
19. Making a sign
20. Talking to a friend
We spent some time talking about each of these, and the students selected which they considered activism. Then, the students wanted to add a few to the list like voting, recycling, and participating in a club. When this was finished, I asked the students if they remembered Anne Frank. Of course, they all did, having read her diary in 8th grade. Inevitably, one student asked me if Anne Frank was an activist, which sparked a few minutes of debate about whether or not she was (“What was she fighting for? She was hiding because she had to!” “But she was fighting for rights for the Jewish people!” “But she didn’t mean to be! She wrote her diary because she was bored!”). After this died down, I said “What about the woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family?” The students almost unanimously agreed that she was an activist, even though her activism was very different than the types of activism we discussed on the list.
I then handed out the Gender Across Borders article and we read it aloud and I asked them questions as we read. When we were finished with the article, I asked them what the difference between her activism and the activism on the list was. They came up with answers like: “Now, people want to be famous and make money, which is their only reason for doing good things” and “Now, in the United States, people don’t have to risk their lives for others.” Then, I left them at the end of day 1 with the question: What cause are you passionate about?
The next day, they entered the room, and written on the board was “What cause are you passionate about?” Most students came in and sat down, looking puzzled. A few told me they couldn’t think of a cause the night before. A few others asked me what I meant by cause, or if standing up for a friend being bullied was a cause. I put the list back up on the projector and said: “How many of you have done at least one of these things?” They read over the list again and, gradually, their hands started raising one by one, until every single hand was in the air. “OK!” I said, “Why did you do these things?” And causes started flying around the room. Cancer research, school violence, cleaning up a park, speaking out against racism, human rights, feeding the hungry, giving clothes to the homeless, working at animal shelters, fighting genocide around the globe… and the list went on and on. When we had talked about a few of these in depth, I asked them to each write a journal about what cause they were passionate about, why they cared about it, and what they have done or want to do to make a difference because of it.
They were silent and writing furiously for the last 20 minutes of class.
Were they inspired to be activists? I don’t know. But are they more socially conscious now than they were before? I’d venture to say yes.
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Haiti
January 13th, 2010I’m blogging quickly from my phone as I’m watching images and videos from Haiti. This is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
I’ve been hearing that the best way to help right now is to donate money or clothes to organizations that are already there. A comprehensive list of charities can be found here: http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2010/01/70-earthquake-hits-haiti.html and I’ve been pointed to http://www.care.org a few times.
Please find it in your hearts to make a donation. We cannot even imagine the extent of the devastation right now.
This is NOT a food blog, but…
January 10th, 2010… there were quite a few Tweeps and family members that wanted to know how my impressive dinner for Tim went yesterday, and when I’m asked, I deliver.
I started the morning yesterday motivated to do something, but not so much motivated to do any actual work. So I spent the day scouring my Woman’s Day Cooking Assistant iPhone App for good recipes to make. I sent out a tweet and a Facebook status update for suggestions, and ended up deciding on the following menu (click on them for the recipes I used):
I knew this would be a lot of food, but Tim is a big eater, so I figured we’d be OK. Needless to say, we ended up with a lot of leftover risotto and asparagus. But we did eat all the scallops. They were too good not to eat.
Any cook will tell you it’s always the timing of the dishes that gets confusing, even when the recipes are simple like these. So I started by chopping up the veggies…
Chopped Tomatoes
Sliced Onions
…and de-thawing the scallops. (I wanted to buy fresh scallops, but by the time I got to the store, they were out.)
Frozen Scallops
Once all that was done, it was time to get the rest of the ingredients together and start cooking! I set up the asparagus first because I figured it would be easy to throw that in the oven for 15 minutes once the risotto was started.
Asparagus Pre-Oven
Then, I started on the risotto. I began caramelizing the onions first, and after that was going, I started boiling the water and butter for the risotto. Once the water was boiling and the risotto was in it, I put the asparagus in the oven. The asparagus, risotto, and onions were all done at the same time. I took them all off/out of the heat and stirred the tomatoes into the onions. I covered them all to keep them warm, and started on the scallops. This was really my first experience cooking meat, and although they turned out OK, I’d say next time I should use less oil and let them brown a little more. I used more oil than the recipe called for because I just thought it wasn’t enough! But it would have been… oops! So the scallops turned out a little moist for my liking, and the sauce ended up a little watery, but, all in all, the dinner was very good.
The Plate!
My impressive dinner was a success! It smelled good, looked good, and tasted VERY good. And only one wine glass was destroyed in the making of this meal. (The ones on our registry are apparently not very sturdy!) If I were to do this meal again, I’d make two of the three dishes – perhaps risotto and asparagus or scallops and asparagus and not all three. I would also definitely make less food! And I’d be sure to keep the wine glasses away from flying spoons. (It totally wasn’t my fault, I swear! The spoon just had a mind of its own!)
On a side note, I do believe that food is a part of feminism. From deciding what to eat because of body image and health to making a political statement with our diets to feeding a family, food is central to many feminist issues, and its important to consider food as a piece of activism. Go food!
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Teaching Feminism and Body Image: What is Dove Really Selling?
January 7th, 2010Yesterday, during a lesson on persuasive rhetorical techniques, I showed my students a number of commercials, asking them whether the technique used was Logos, Ethos, or Pathos. Along with this, I asked them what the ad was trying to sell, what it claimed about the product, if there was any bias present, etc. A friend pointed me to the Dove Evolution commercial as an example of using Logos, or logic, to persuade an audience. The commercial can be seen below, and you’ll need to watch it before you read on:
As soon as I saw this, I was totally ready to show it to my classes. Not only is it a great example of Logos, but it has a great message, too. A double-whammy! I was expecting all sorts of teachable moments today when they saw the photo-shopping of the image and were as astounded as I was that this can be done, and is done all the time. I expected to launch into an interesting conversation about the persuasive nature of magazine images in general, and how they persuade young people to be unhealthy to get closer to that unattainable ideal.
While there was quite a bit of that going on yesterday, and the students’ outrage at being “tricked” by the media was heartwarming, the initial response I received to the question about what product was being sold was interesting.
To me, this commercial is clearly “selling” Dove’s self esteem workshops, which I think are brilliant and necessary (although, I must admit, I haven’t done much research into them). When I asked my students what this commercial was selling, they instantly said: “Dove soap.”
Is this because the commercial is unclear? Did they tune out before the end of it? Did I see it because this issue is constantly at the front of my mind, but maybe it isn’t at the front of theirs? Or is this their mature and acute cynicism of the advertising industry showing through? Did they think outside of the box to note that this commercial and the self-esteem workshops actually do promote Dove products (if they do these good things, their product must be worthy of buying)?
I don’t know, but I do know that it made me look at Dove – and any other corporation-sponsored initiative – a little differently.
How do you feel about the Dove self esteem initiative? Leave thoughts in the comments.
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Wedding Woes
January 4th, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Ok. I need to do some venting about the bridal industry.
You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged about wedding plans in quite some time. This is because I have the good fortune to be very organized and relatively decisive and to surround myself with people who are the same. Once I decided on a venue and a dress, the rest has been relatively simple: I like this save the date. Done. I want my uncle to marry us. Done. I am a vegetarian so I don’t really care what kind of chicken the guests eat. Mom and Tim will decide that. Done.
Once all of those big things were decided, I was afforded the luxury of taking a little break, which was perfect because I have had a few other little things to concern myself with like my job and my thesis. Oh yea, and my sanity.
So picture this: I’m working out at the gym for the first time in two weeks. It is the first time in two weeks that I haven’t been sick or had a ton of grading to do or had to write just one more section of my thesis. The gym, when I’m able to get there, has been a sanctuary for me this year, and something vital for my sanity. When I’m there, I’m able to use my iPhone to catch up on e-mails, read blogs, tweet, and play music in my headphones to tune out the world. A major benefit of my iPhone: I’m constantly connected and can catch up at any time. A major drawback to my iPhone: my phone can ring at any time.
I’ve been at the gym for about 20 minutes and just starting to feel really good about my workout when my phone rings. It’s the golf club where we’re having our ceremony and reception with a few questions. It’s a cardio day, so I’m not counting reps or anything like that, so I answer. Just when I get back in my groove after hanging up, my phone rings again. It’s a wedding photographer wondering if I want to set up a meeting with them. I politely told them I had just chosen my wedding photographer earlier that week (which was actually true). Back in my groove again, the phone rings and it is a store calling to tell me about their wedding jewelry. After a few “uh huh”‘s and a “thanks” I hang up. At this point, I’m wondering what sort of calling list I got myself on recently as I continue my trek on the treadmill.
Then was the call that broke the camel’s back, or however that saying is supposed to go. It went like this:
Me: (treadmill breathless) Hello?
Vendor: Hello, this is _______ Limousine Service.
Me: Hi. I do not need a limousine for my wedding if that is what you’re calling about.
At this point, I’m expecting the person to say “OK!” and hang up. But no, it would not be that easy.
Vendor: Well, how are you getting from your church to your reception?
As if it is any of their business.
Me: That’s a little presumptuous of you to assume I’m getting married at a church, isn’t it?
Vendor: (a little put off, but not giving up) Oh. Well. Yes, I suppose. Well, how are you going to get from your reception to your hotel?
Me: A cab.
Vendor: Oh! You don’t want to take a CAB to your hotel!
Now, the NUMBER ONE thing that has bothered me about wedding vendors since this whole wedding planning process started has been when they tell me what I do and do not want. You may not know me very well personally so you’ll have to take my word for it, but there isn’t much about me that says “I have no idea what I want, so please tell me how to feel about this.” And there certainly wasn’t anything about this particular conversation with __________ Limousine Service that said “Please sell me a limousine because I have no idea if I want one or not.” So I told this guy as much and hung up, irritated, contemplating what is wrong with the world and the wedding industry.
Please don’t get me wrong; I am SO EXCITED for my wedding I can’t even contain myself. Every time I look at a picture of my dress, I get giddy. Every time I talk about it, my friends and family can’t shut me up for a good hour. However, I’m finding more and more that the wedding industry is inherently problematic and is set up to prey on people who A) don’t know what they want and will spend money on what other people tell them they want, and B) don’t think about how problematic it is in the first place. For someone who A) pretty obviously knows what she wants and B) deals with and thinks about “the problematic” (I put it in quotes because it is a noun in this sense…) on a daily basis, this can be frustrating.
I understand, this is how these people make their money in a tough economy. They need to sell their goods and services because, let’s face it, the first thing to go on a tight budget is probably the limousine and other excessive details that won’t really matter in the long run! However, I feel sometimes that the industry itself is just unfair. First, there are these women who are conditioned by the media to want all of these things at their weddings, but they are so overcharged with emotions and life changes that there’s no possible way they can make all of these decisions. Then, take all of this glitzy stuff that is already overpriced just because the word “wedding” is attached to it, show it to a woman who doesn’t know what she wants or hasn’t even thought and tell her she wants it and, yea! Of course she wants it. In fact, she NEEDS it! And why shouldn’t she have it? This has been the day she’s been dreaming about since she was a child, so the story goes.
Honestly, this is all coming off as a bit harsh. I’ve bought in to a lot of this wedding industry stuff (both mentally and monetarily) through the past few months. But thank goodness I have been able to make decisions before even walking in to a store or a vendor’s office.
And thank goodness even MORE for my sensible mom, fiance, and bridesmaids (mostly my mom, honestly, and I’m not just saying that because she reads this sometimes; she has the BEST mom look that she gives me when I say I want something ridiculous for my wedding) who have kept me on a relatively practical path, even when I’ve wanted to stray. I don’t know how women do it without someone constantly keeping them in check!
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Happy 2010!
January 3rd, 2010Hello there, everyone, and welcome to 2010! I’m excited for this upcoming year because I think there are some great things in store for me. For one, I’m getting married this year. Secondly, I’ll be finishing my master’s thesis, presenting it at a conference at San Diego State University, and I plan on blogging and becoming more active in this community.
2009 was an eventful year for me to say the least. I got engaged, started my master’s thesis, started this blog, got my very first paid writing job as a blogger for Witur, defined and redefined my feminism, and have started to explore many important things to me. I hope 2010 offers this much excitement without all the stress. 🙂
I know I’ve been neglecting this blog the past few weeks, and this is mostly because I’ve just needed a break from it all, but never fear! I’m refreshed and ready to go. In the coming months, you’ll be reading even more about my wedding plans, a few guest posts and a continuation of my own thoughts about body image, and some posts about teaching and feminism to say the least.
Thanks, readers, for sticking with me through my mini-hiatus. It feels good to be back!
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The Chicago Feminist #chifems Tweetup!
December 29th, 2009
ChiFems
Last night was the very first EVER Chicago Feminist Tweetup, and it was a huge success, if I do say so myself. It was so wonderful to finally meet so many of you wonderful tweeps with whom I’ve had several great conversations on Twitter.
I have to admit, I was a little nervous about this tweetup on my way to meet everyone, partly because I am usually pretty good behind a computer screen, but not so great in front of people I’ve never met before. I was also a little nervous because I wasn’t sure if we’d all get along! I mean, realistically, we had never met face-to-face before, and no one really knew what might happen! There could have just been long periods of silence ending in an awkward good-bye. But I should have known, if you get a bunch of people with common interests and passions together, conversation is easy. And that’s just what happened; there was a lot of great mingling, some wonderful conversations, and a lot of laughter. It was the perfect night!
A list of attendees is forthcoming (Who ended up with that?), but if you couldn’t make it and want to be added to the list for the next tweetup – yes, there will be a next one! – just let me know!
Thanks to all who came and made it such a wonderful evening!
IRB Approval
December 17th, 2009The IRB recently reviewed your research proposal and the committee had some concerns.
Modifications should be made to your proposal which address the following minor concerns. An explicit statement should be made in your informed consent document which informs the reader that minors are not eligible to participate. Within the first paragraph of the informed consent document the word literacy should be explained in more simple terms. In your application (12. Safeguarding Subject’s Identity) you need to explicitly state that you will safeguard all the physical and electronic data collected, and briefly describe how this will be accomplished (e.g., physical data sheets will be stored in a file cabinet in a locked office).
Besides these minor changes, the committee’s major concern was with respect to your planned means of dissemination. Most specifically, we were concerned with the option to eliminate investigator-participant confidentiality…an interview/survey conducted electronically, via email as suggested in this proposal, allows for misrepresentation. Authorship is essentially unverifiable. This can be a risk to the value of the data collected, but this risk is accepted by the investigator. However, in this instance, unverifiable authorship places the community at risk because interview answers can be displayed in the public domain and associated with a participant’s identity, an identity which cannot be confirmed…
There is also a concern as to the motives of participation if financial compensation is awarded due to internet traffic to a participant’s blog/website which would be linked from your own blog…
Given these concerns, the IRB did not feel we could grant approval of this project in its current form. We encourage you to modify your proposal and resubmit.
As I mentioned in a previous email, the project could be greatly simplified with risk minimized if you explored www.surveymonkey.com or other similar options for the administration of your interview/survey. This type of option can provide anonymity to the participants, and a simplified informed consent process could then be utilized. Your proposed process of obtaining informed consent is burdensome, and could deter participation. I did check and was happy to find that surveymonkey does allow respondents to answer questions in an essay format and no word/character limit is imposed on answers unless you create one. This is an option worth investigating…
Oh, and then there was that bit about deterring participation with my cumbersome method. I guess they missed the part where I said I already had 20 participants lined up and ready to go.
After the initial shock, I sat down and thought about (and had many conversations about) some of the things I was absolutely not willing to compromise. First, I did not want to complete a survey. The entire point of the interview process was to: A) simulate the relationship bloggers have with each other using the very literacy practices they would be discussing in their interview, and B) find out about the participants’ own definitions of feminism, and I believe one’s feminism is as much a part of one’s background and identity as anything else. So I decided that I would use pseudonyms if I must, as long as I could talk about the bloggers’ personal experiences to some extent. I thought that not disseminating the interview responses on my blog was a viable option, but the verification of identity had never stopped me from posting guest posts before. However, I figured I needed to compromise something in order to do the research I wanted to do.
This wasn’t in accordance with with the English department wanted me to do, though. They were behind my project 100%, and felt that what the IRB committee told me wasn’t right. They were, to use the words of my professor, “embarrassed” that the IRB felt the need to dictate my method, even though that is not their job, and that they knew so little about research methods outside of their own fields. (Did I mention that only one IRB member was from any humanities field – and he said my project should be exempt? The rest were from hard science backgrounds.) They were also very worried about what a decision like this about my project might mean for future projects in the humanities. So I gratefully let them take the lead. After several long e-mails and phone conversations between the English professors and the IRB chairperson, they struck a sort of compromise. Here is my revised method:
And, are you ready for some irony? When I received IRB approval with my revisions, the IRB chairperson e-mailed it to me in an attached Word document. I was tempted to e-mail him back and ask how I could verify his identity, but I settled for this blog post, instead.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: GREEN LIGHT!
December 16th, 2009
Image by jonathanpberger via Flickr
I’m breathing a sigh of relief.
Remember when I blogged about my confidence taking a jab after some issues with my thesis research? Well, it has finally been approved, which means I can get started with interviews NOW!
My research deals with feminist activism on the internet. If you are a blogger and you write about feminism, feminist issues, women’s issues, body image, politics (from a women’s issues perspective), gender issues – pretty much if you write about anything having to do with feminism or women’s issues in any way – and you are interested in participating in an interview for my master’s thesis research, please e-mail me at samsanator (at) gmail (dot) com or leave a message in the comments.
I will be asking you questions about your definition of feminism, as well as about your reading and writing practices online, and I will be analyzing your answers with the hope of finding out how communities of activists use literacy (reading and writing) practices to create communities online. I also want to explore the possibility that one’s definition of feminism might affect their activism online.
So, if you’re interested, please contact me! I’d love to have you on board.
On Body Image: How Confidence Affects Self Image
December 9th, 2009I find it sort of ironic that just a few weeks ago, I kicked off a new series on body image. Why? Because this week, my self image has been the lowest it has been in a while.
I’m not saying I hate myself. No way. Not even close. But a few things have happened this week to make me lose confidence in myself, and it is amazing how quickly your self image drops when you lose confidence in yourself.
For those of you who haven’t yet been brought up to speed, there have been some issues with the approval of my thesis project about literacy in the feminist blogging community. This is a project of which, since its conception in June, I have been very proud. I feel very close to this project, partly because I am a participant-observer and, as such, care deeply about my participants. But it’s so much more than that. I am not writing this thesis just for the piece of paper that gives me a pay raise. I’m doing this as something that makes me feel enlightened and empowered. It’s personal fulfillment at it’s best, so when these issues with approval started arising, I felt it was an attack on me personally, rather than a committee’s response to my project. I’m sure you’ve all felt this way before, whether it was a commenter on your blog or a poor grade on a paper or project – when you are personally involved in something huge (whether it be a thesis, or a paper, or a project, or a blog), you feel torn down when someone doesn’t grant you immediate approval. And it doesn’t matter if they are just trying to help you, it still makes you feel like a failure.
I never thought that something like this affected my body image, but now that I’ve been thinking about it pretty much constantly since my original post a few weeks ago, I realized that it had more of an effect than I thought. Since the issues with my thesis came to my attention, I came home every day and put on my pajamas and crawled under the covers, not wanting to be seen by anyone. I didn’t want to blog or tweet or answer my phone. I went to work in bulky sweaters, and there was no way Tim was getting me out of the apartment this weekend. I just didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t feel worthy of seeing anyone.
It wasn’t really until today, with wonderful and encouraging e-mails from a few of my participants and my professor, that I realized that I am still worth something, and, when this thesis project is approved, it’s going to kick some major butt. And I made an appointment for a manicure – a little pampering never hurts. 🙂
I needed my confidence restored in order to look in the mirror and feel like I looked good. I guess I never thought about how much confidence and positive body image are entwined.
Do you find that, when you are brought down in another area of your life, that your body image suffers? Or is that just me?
The Feminist Lens: Juliet, Naked
December 2nd, 2009It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, eh? Well, I finally got a chance to sit down and read a book from cover to cover. For fun! I’m not surprised that I was drawn to the newest Nick Hornby book for my first dive into pleasure reading since I started grad school. Nick Hornby and I have a very complicated relationship – well, as much as one can have with a famous author one has never met. He was with me on my way to and from Europe. He was with me all through college and into my first job, saving me from endless nights of boredom. Or, rather, his novels were. Whenever I pick up one of his books, I can’t seem to put it down, but I always seem to both fall in love and take issue with his characters. Sure, they are charmingly twisted as well as passionate about the same things I am passionate about – mostly music – and represent some of the more interesting people I met in college and mostly don’t talk to anymore, but most of the characters are completely hung up on intimate relationships and, quite honestly, most of the interesting ones are men! It’s telling that the books he’s had made into major motion pictures have the typical lineup: John Cusak (High Fidelity), Hugh Grant (About A Boy), and Jimmy Fallon (Fever Pitch). Am I missing any? Sure, Drew Barrymore co-starred in Fever Pitch – and I admittedly haven’t read that novel – but I didn’t find her character in that movie particularly well-developed. She more or less just served to “even out” (read: suck the passion for the Red Sox out of) Jimmy Fallon’s character’s life. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of Drew Barrymore. Just sayin’.
But the exact issue I had with his previous novels of his I had read (the lack of well-rounded female characters, for those of you not following along) was turned on its head with Juliet, Naked. (If you haven’t read the book and plan on doing so, DO NOT READ FURTHER! Unless you don’t mind spoilers.) The super-basic skeleton of the plot is this: Annie and Duncan live together in England and have no children. Duncan is obsessed with a recluse, American singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe. Tucker gave up his music career suddenly and without explanation sometime in the 80’s, and was never heard from since. This gave his fans, namely Duncan, much to talk about on the internet. (Think Salinger.) Tucker’s final album was called “Juliet” and he releases the raw tracks of an album called “Juliet, Naked.” (Think Beatles.) Annie hears it before Duncan. Duncan gets mad and writes a glowing review on his website. Annie doesn’t think as much of it, and writes as much on Duncan’s website. Duncan cheats on Annie with Gina. Annie dumps Duncan. Meanwhile, Tucker reads Annie’s review and likes it and e-mails her, and they keep up an internet conversation. Tucker is not, in fact, the recluse everyone thinks he is. He has a rather complicated family situation that I will spare you from reading about here. But he ends up sparking a sort of e-mail relationship with Annie, meets her in person, and the end is left sort of ambiguous. The only thing we know for sure about Tucker at the end is that he’s seemingly found true happiness.
As usual throughout this love… polygon?…, Hornby’s characters are well-rounded and complex, and his writing style is such that, from beginning to end, it feels as if you’ve only been reading for about thirty minutes. The story itself is wonderfully funny. I laughed several times. Aloud. In the gym. This never happens, as I particularly like to keep up my tough and aggressive front while I am at the gym. I was warned by @megan_eb that I might cry at the end and, while I did not do that, I did feel suburbly sentimental throughout the majority of the novel.
Why was I so sentimental, you might ask? Because Annie’s character spoke to me. The most inspiring, lovely, refreshing, wonderful (and a host of other positive adjectives) thing about this novel was Annie’s character. She was painted as an endearing, slightly neurotic woman, stronger than she gave herself credit for, and determined to find some semblance happiness despite “wasting” fifteen years of her life with Duncan and finding herself childless – which is sad because she desperately wanted children. Being in her head was like being in my own sometimes. Reading her rationale for wanting children and a fulfilling relationship was like seeing my own thoughts on the page. Pouring over her sometimes obsessive thoughts about men and dating was almost like a mirror-image and, while I don’t normally like being reminded of what is and has gone on in my thoughts, this time I found it endearing and sort of like, maybe, I’m actually kind of normal. Or moreso than I previously thought.
So, perhaps Annie is not the everywoman, but I related to her, which I don’t usually do with female characters in novels, particularly those written by men (this is not a sexist thing; I just feel like, sometimes, they don’t get it!), and I would definitely recommend this novel. Especially to feminists! 🙂
Have you read this book? Or any other books by Nick Hornby? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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