Essay #1

Essay #1
This semester in Women’s Studies the class has discussed many topics that affect women. The topics we have discussed range in a wide variety from body image, politics, health, balancing, to the main topic of defining feminism and many more. The readings that have had the biggest impact on me this semester and the ones that I could best relate to were; The Opt -Out Revolution, Reviving Ophelia and the chapters four, five and six from The F-Word. Each of these readings are connected because they all have to do with either how the media shapes who we become and what we become shapes how we are when we get out on our own with college and then a job.
The article The Opt-Out Revolution by Lisa Belkin had a huge impact on me and how I view women that work and then the ones that stay at home. I honestly did not care for this article because I do not think this really shows how women are in the workplace. Belkin really put down my generation saying that we are becoming the women in the 1950’s, which is not at all true. I am here at OU to become a pharmacist and have had no thoughts of every giving up my job to stay at home. Though I do some day want a family I don’t think that I will have to give up my career to purse what I want. Belkin’s thesis in her article was that women are opting out to have kids and to get an easier life which is very much not true. Many news reports and journalist have showed Belkin’s thesis to be false. This essay fits into the topic that we talked about in class with the gender work roles. We had many discussions over why we thought more women are opting out and also what are some circumstances that are causing them too. We came up with a lot of conclusions and the one I thought fits best is that women have the choice to opt and stay at home. I think that a woman having the choice is good because that gives her some more power to do as she chooses.
The next reading that has greatly had an impact on me this semester was Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher. Reviving Ophelia is a book that really focuses on the true life of adolescent girls. Mary Pipher’s main point of her book is that girls’ attitudes and negative body image is the result of family, peers and the media. Pipher also has put together a video that we watched one day in class. This video is really what sold me over on Pipher’s idea that media really does shape how girls see themselves. She uses advertisements to show what little girls really see before they should even began to think about body image. She also tells about what kind of message these pictures are sending out to girls that if you aren’t skinny then you are not “beautiful”. When in all reality these women in the advertisements are stick thin and most have eating disorders. Pipher also uses statistics to show that teenage girls really do think more into advertisements then most people think. When the teenage girls see these ads the only thing valued to them is their sexuality. I really enjoyed reading Pipher’s article; I found it really interesting and very true of the society that we live in today. This article really fit in to the topics that we covered in class about body image and the effects that media plays. Also this article has now changed to way I view advertisements and television shows.
The third reading that I enjoyed and had an impact on me this semester was chapter four in The F-Word. This chapter impacted me because its main focus was college women and that’s what I am. The main point in this chapter was to find the reasons why women’s opinions are still not being heard today. The author of the F-Word Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner tries throughout this chapter to find the reasons why college women are kept so silent. She provides the reader with ideas throughout the chapter such as priority issues, gender equality, self identity and balance. She proves her points throughout the chapter by giving statistics from Harvard, Duke and the U.S. Bureau. Something that I found really strong about her findings was the interviews she conducted with college women. I found the interviews more interesting and they made the topic more real to me because it was something that people my age had said so I could relate more. This chapter really hit home to me because throughout college I have been trying to find balance in my life with school, family, friends and then have time for me. My favorite quote from this chapter was said by Hallie Flanagan “youth lives in an atmosphere of energy waiting to make contact”. The reason I liked this quote so much was because I do believe that while in college we have so much energy and want to do some many things but making our grades and getting into the schools we want is what is holding us all back. I believe our contact will come when we get out into the real world having our own families.
The next reading that has impacted me was chapter five in The F-Word. This chapter’s main focus was the women in the third wave and if there is even a third wave. This reading fell into the topic that we have been covering all semester and it’s the topic that the whole class is about and that’s the different waves and what they have accomplished. Rowe-Finkbeiner states in this chapter that “the first wave won the right to vote; the second wave won the right to enter the professional workforce and the third wave combines previous efforts”. She also provides information about how a lot of women think that the third wave does not even exist. I think that all these women are wrong because even though there have not been huge changes like the first and second wave gave us I do think that because of those two waves we are at the point we are today. I also think that we are building on to what they have created for us by going out to vote and moving up in the corporate ladder. Even though these may be gradual changes I do think the third wave is making progress. To prove my point Sarah Plain she was a women running for Vice-President and also Hilary Clinton was running for President if you cannot call that progress then I don’t know what progress is. Even though neither of these women made the position they were running for it gave some hope to many women in the United States. Also I think that if people really think that there is no third wave then maybe it’s because women today have lots of questions for the women of the first and second waves and these women should be willing to help us out and give is some advice.
The final reading that has impacted me this semester was the chapter six in The F-Word. This chapter’s main idea was the idea of post feminist in the areas of school, work and a nation in flux. This reading falls into the topic we discussed in class about the pay between men and women. The main reason that this chapter had an impact on me was because I am at a major university getting a higher education and also in a few years I will be out in the work force. Throughout this chapter Rowe-Finkbeiner used statistics from the SAT test that prove that girls are surpassing boys in test scores. Rowe-Finkbeiner states that “three-fifths of all high school National Honor Society members are girls and that girls outnumbered boys 124 to 100 in advance placement courses.” I really think that this is true because in my high school I was in the National Honor Society and the majority of the members were girls. She also states that “in America women now make up 47 percent of the paid labor force, with women aged twenty-five to thirty-four”. Rowe-Finkbeiner does also state that “these numbers give a false hope the women have won the war”. I do agree with her on that point because I do feel like women are making huge progress but there is still a lot of progress to be made. One area is in the workforce with the way women are paid compared to men. I think that it is just insane that men get paid more money for the exact same job. Though it may seem like we have made a lot of progress, the equality between women in race is nowhere close to being equal. Rowe-Finkbeiner states in this chapter that” in 2002 of the 32 percent of women that graduated college, 39 percent were white women, 18 percent was African-Americans and 10 percent was Hispanics”. This is nowhere close to being equal and the third wave of women should change that.
Each of these five readings are connected to each other in that they all have to do with how the media and society effect what kind of person women become. I believe that it all begins with the media and that why I chose Reviving Ophelia. Then women begin to move out on their own and the first step is college so that is why I chose chapter four of The F-Word. After college comes the workforce and that is why I picked Opting Out and chapter six from The F-Word. Finally all these readings tie into the big picture which is the all the different waves and the current wave that we are in now and that is why I chose chapter six of The F-Word. I think that these readings where the best choices for my theme because it is kind of the time line of a women’s life and each of these books depict all the facts that shape us along the way.
Since reading these articles I am now more aware of what is happening around me and what some of the factors were that shaped who I am today and what I will become in the future. One question I do have is why have Americans let the advertisements become so provocative and why hasn’t anyone done anything about them? It does not take a rocket scientist to tell that the way women are portrayed in them is wrong so why have so many people let it go by unnoticed? Another question is why in the world are women stilled paid less than men for working the exact same job? I honestly think that this should be the third waves biggest challenge is getting that changed. This is impacting all women not just a select few and this is going to greatly affect me here in a few years when I am out on my own working. I think that we should all get together and get that changed because who does not want more money or women will never be equal to men until that gets changed.


Works Cited
Belkins, Lisa. "The Opt-Out Revolution." New York Times [New York] 26 Oct. 2003: 1-11.

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Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia. New York: G.P Putmans Sons.


Rowe-Finkbeiner, Kristin. The F-WORD Feminism in Jeopardy. Emeryville: Seal P, 2004.

Belkins, Lisa. "The Opt-Out Revolution." New York Times [New York] 26 Oct. 2003: 1-11.