Monday, March 9, 2009,

Madeline White is a very bold and strong minded person. She's definitely not afraid to express her views, opinions and thoughts about subjects such as feminism. From reading the two articles (including Where Have all the Feminists Gone?) I begin to wonder the same thing.
In the past, like Maddie has mentioned in her article, people have protested to speak out about this issue.
However, recently I think that there are very few feminists left. I think that a lot of people who believe in feminism are scared to admit that they are feminists because of the reaction they would get.
As Maddie said in her article, "When I state that I'm a feminist, people respond with an open-mouthed stare. The fact that this label can still conjure up a negative stereotype tells me that oppression against women still exists."
The "negative stereotype" which Maddie speaks about is the fact that people assume that a feminists is a woman who hates men, and doesn't take care of herself. When in all reality a feminist is someone who believes in equality between the two sexes.

Getting back to the question....
What does feminism look like in our day and age?
I think that in our day and age feminism exists but in a different way than it did back thirty or forty years ago. I think that nowadays it is much easier to express yourself. Whether it is through a newspaper (as Maddie has done), online blog or 'vlog', it is much easier to get a point across.

To help get a better idea as to what feminism is, I'll give a definition;

Feminism (fem-i-nism)
1. The theory of ecomoic, political, and social equality of sexes.
2. Organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.

2:01 PM

Thursday, March 5, 2009,

During this J-Talk with Madeline White I learnt that you should never take no for an answer. In the case of the article "Gender Studies Missing from High School" Maddie went to interview a teacher about it, but admin had come back saying "no comment" relating to the subject.
Instead if sitting back like most reporters would do; Maddie didn't give up hope.
The article entitled "Gender Studies Missing from High School" talks about the sexism that goes on day to day in schools. It talks about different phrases, words and other things that can be degrading to women. For example sometimes girls call each other "sluts" and "whores" which are very derogatory and degrading words to use against women.
Like in the movie "Mean Girls" with Lindsay Lohan they have a serious talk with the girls. The teacher makes it clear that by girls calling each other words like "Slut", "Whore", "Skank" and are ok with it. But when guys start calling other girls "Sluts", "Whores", "Skanks", "Bitches", etc. it is considered to be a bad thing. But by the girls not throwing the words around like its nothing, that is exactly what guys make of it.
Getting back to the article, the way that Maddie handled the article was very mature. Instead of lashing out and calling them "sexist" she took time and tried her best to get legit answers from admin. She handled it maturely and the way any journalist should handle a situation like that.
Using a variety of sources like Maddie create different varities. She used people who were victims of this sexism and people who have witnessed or been part of.
I think that Maddie's opinions are very strong and well backed up. She feels very strongly about this and will do anything she can to try to help the situation to get noticed. By reaching out and writing it into a newspaper article, that is read by many Torontonians it could help for this problem to be rocognized.

11:09 AM