Resolution: Get Healthy

Like I wrote last week, I’ll be documenting how I’m applying five resolutions to end sexism and eradicate gender stereotypes, as set out by MissRepresentation.org.  The first resolution for 2012 is this:

Get healthy – It is not about dieting, it is about a lifestyle shift. We are taking a 360-degree view of all that we consume in 2012. Watching less reality TV and educating ourselves instead through documentaries and books will make us – and those around us – smarter and healthier. This year we are celebrating alternatives to tabloid media, expanding our educational efforts and giving our supporters new and exciting ways of staying involved.

I don’t watch much reality television to begin with, unless you count Storage Wars.  Instead, as inspired by Alex, I’m getting healthy by becoming more active.  Strong is the new skinny.

I’ve never been the type to work out or go running or play on a league team of some sort, but I’ve noticed the countless hours I spend studying, reading, and writing has taken on my body.  My joints ache, my muscles get sore, and I run out of breath climbing the stairs to my classes.  So instead of getting my hair done, I decided to put $60 towards a fitness pass at school.  This means I get to take unlimited fitness classes at my university’s rec center this semester.  I’ve been attending a class called Sculpt & Stretch, in which the super adorable instructor tells us things like, “You’re strong!” and “You’re doing great!”  On top of that, I’ve been making an effort to drink lots of water, keep up with my vitamins, and eat fresh foods.

It’s exactly what I need this semester.

How are you getting healthy in the new year? How do you define healthy?

Teaching & Empowering – Powerful Woman Monologue #2

About the author: Amanda is an alumni of Teach for America still teaching high school English in Los Angeles. Between grading papers and generally battling educational inequity, she can be found dancing in LA bars and her room, attempting to cook fancy meals and take pretty photographs, and trying to be as good a runner as her marathon-running parents. Information about her pursuit of these endeavors can be found at lifeindevelopment.net.

On Friday, I asked my class of 11th graders if they had any exciting plans for Thanksgiving Break. As I had wanted and expected, I got stories of big turkeys, cooking tamales, and sleeping in. I also got, from almost every single girl in the room, an excited, breathless cry that she was going immediately after school to see Breaking Dawn. I sighed to myself, not quite sure where my disappointment was coming from, as I too plan to see the movie on my break. It was only after finally sitting down again to watch the entirety of the maddening and eye-opening documentary, Miss Representation with my sister that I finally realized why:

Looking down at the faces of my female students – my bright, hilarious, hard-working, beautiful, and wonderful female students – I realized that their heads were about to be (re) filled with images of female inferiority, weakness, and inherent passiveness. (I apologize to any Twilight fans; those are just my personal feelings on Bella Swan.) They were about to look up to and envy a girl who can barely speak cohesively and make sound life choices, to a girl who has to be physically carried around by her boyfriend a large portion of the time and who broke down for months after being left by him. These girls, full of potential and fully open to influence, were going to hope and pray that one day, they too would be so lucky as to have not one but TWO hulky, handsome boys fight over them like a prize to be won. They aren’t hoping and wishing for power, for respect, or for accomplishment. They are hoping for boys’ attention and love, and while I do not think that love is not something to hope and pray for nor do I think it is a bad thing to have boys like you, I certainly hope and pray that it is not the only way these bright and amazing 16 and 17 year old girls judge their worth and assess their futures.

It was after that moment and this documentary that I suddenly realized that I have incredible power. I have power to show these girls what they are capable of and the power to show them more images, better images, images that show the totality of what it means to be a woman, images that show the array of options they have and the fulfillment that can come from doing something that is wholly your own, that’s worth does not come from the approval of another. I can show these girls that I am a leader, an independent 20-something woman who lives on her own, supports herself, and finds fulfillment in her work. I can teach them to write their own stories and find their unique voices. I honestly have never felt so powerful as when I realized I could work to unleash the power inside them.

And that is what I plan to do. I’ve already started planning a project next semester in which my students analyze and write research papers about an underrepresented groups’ portrayal, or lack thereof, in the media. (As a teacher of predominantly students of color, I also think its vital to open their eyes to the media stereotypes of the other groups to which my students belong.) I then plan to unleash their voices – arming them with keyboards and cameras, I’m going to ask my students to tell their stories, to find those who represent the powerful and inspiring people in their families and communities, to show that we as women and, really, all Americans, are much more than the media is currently showing.

And I couldn’t be more excited.

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About the series: Powerful Woman Monologues are compiled in response to the media’s representation of women as inspired by the film Miss Representation. If you would like to participate, email me. Any kind of creative contribution is welcome from anyone.

Special thanks to Ashley of Little Leaf Photography & Design for graciously creating the badge for our series!

Resolutions for ending sexism and eradicating gender stereotypes

If you are a subscriber to MissRepresentation.org’s action updates, you’ll recognize the letter below.  They have set out five major New Year’s resolutions that aid in the commitment to end sexism.  Being a feminist does not mean a lifestyle overhaul, rather small steps towards equality in our own lives.  It’s surprisingly easy.  Over the next several weeks, I will reflect on these resolutions and how I intend to apply them to my own life.  I invite you to do the same, either on your blog, in the comments here, or in the form of a guest post for our Powerful Woman Monologue series.

Dear Friend,

Happy New Year! At MissRepresentation.org we are as committed as ever to ending sexism and eradicating gender stereotypes. To accelerate our efforts, we are focusing our energy on five major resolutions in 2012:

1. Get healthy – It is not about dieting, it is about a lifestyle shift. We are taking a 360-degree view of all that we consume in 2012. Watching less reality TV and educating ourselves instead through documentaries and books will make us – and those around us – smarter and healthier. This year we are celebrating alternatives to tabloid media, expanding our educational efforts and giving our supporters new and exciting ways of staying involved.

2. Value ourselves – This can be hard in a society that seems to only value the superficial, but celebrating our true selves and our accomplishments, while taking moments to recognize our worth, is essential for us to reach our full potential.

3. Be a model, be a mentor – Being a model is about personifying the characteristics we hope to see in the world around us. It is as simple as remembering that every time we look in the mirror and criticize our looks, it is very possible that a young girl or boy is watching and learning from that behavior.

4. Get involved – Whether it is volunteering at a beach cleanup or chairing the local school board, by becoming active in our local communities we are taking ownership of the change we want to see. Change requires action so at MissRepresentation.org we will continue to encourage real world organizing and activity in 2012.

5. Be a leader - We are taking on stronger leadership roles in our own communities, cities and states. Only 18% of America’s top leaders are women. This is the year we significantly change that number. In 2012 we encourage everyone to step into new leadership roles and to support women in leadership wherever they can.

Over the next year we will dig deeper into these five categories and provide easy actions all of us can take to stay true to our “resolutions.” Join us as we embark upon the best year yet for each of us personally and for women and girls around the world!

Warmest,

Jennifer, Amy, Christine, Cindy and Imran
MissRepresentation.org

Grad School: Not exactly another two years of college

As we approach my last semester of my MA program, I’m starting to feel I am credible to speak on The Graduate School Experience.  So here are some hypothetical questions and actual answers that I imagine folks may have.

A degree in Communication? So, like, broadcasting?

Well, in high school, I wanted to be a broadcast journalist and that’s what initially got me interested in Communication.

What’s your schedule like?

It’s actually pretty great, but you have to have epic time management skills to see how great it is. Last semester, I taught three days a week in the afternoons and I took two of my own classes in the evenings. This kind of schedule is not necessarily conducive for Annoying Morning People like me, but I’ve learned to make the most of it. I got to school around 8am, hit the gym, and then get to work in the office I share with 15 other teaching assistants until class time.  Sure, it means two days a week I’m at school from 8am to 9pm, but those are my productive days.  At the end of the semester, my weekends are spent writing, so it doesn’t feel like I ever have a weekend, but I guess that also means it doesn’t feel like I ever have a Monday, either. The bottom line is I get to work on my own time and set my own schedule (aside from class time). This semester, my commuting is a bit lighter as I only have to be on campus three days a week, but the work is more rigorous as I prepare for my comprehensive exams.

What kind of stuff do you write?

I’ve discussed this before, but last semester I wrote a paper on the global movement of the Iron Chef format, a review of Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy, and my thesis.  My thesis is a critical analysis of life-coaching blogs and image aggregators (think: Pinterest) and the proliferation of postfeminist ideology in social media. I’ll probably post snippets of it on the blog if there’s any interest.

What do you want to do with your Masters?

I’ve applied to Ph.D. programs and am waiting to hear back. Big dreams include being a professor, writing a book, and traveling to conferences.

Would you recommend going to grad school?

It’s certainly not for everyone, but it’s right for me. I am passionate about learning, thinking critically, discussing, and reading. Grad school provides the opportunity to do this at a level I didn’t think possible.  And it’s catered to your specific interests… no need to take biology or religion ever again. But you have to really want to go to school. The choice to go into a graduate program, especially in the humanities, shouldn’t be “Because nothing else is working out.” The choice needs to be deliberate and because you want to go. Be prepared for a lot of hard work, a lot of stress, and little immediate gratification. If you don’t feel like a total failure in your first year, you’re doing it wrong. But if you stick with it, you may begin to actually enjoy it, and then you’ll know it’s the right choice.

What’s been the best part about being in grad school?

Being around curious, inquisitive, like-minded people is my favorite part. I can argue with dear friends whether or not objectivity is possible in research, why exactly I prefer Leslie Knope to Liz Lemon, and the social construction of race.  In fact, at this precise moment, my peers are discussing Aristotelian enthymemes in rhetoric. Yup.

My friend went to grad school. She said it was just like another two years of undergrad.

It’s not.  It’s more like a job than it is school, especially if you go full time. I don’t stay up late like I did in undergrad, I don’t party like I did in undergrad, and I’m a billion times more focused than I ever was in undergrad. I’m much more responsible in every aspect of my life now that I’m in grad school.

Any other questions?

The Power of You – Powerful Woman Monologue #1

About the author: Heather writes at The Sunset Won’t, a blog all about learning, and sometimes relearning, life’s lessons. It’s about remembering that there are many things in life that can wait. The dishes will still be dirty tomorrow. That list will still be there in the morning. That call can be made later. Those things can wait, but the sunset won’t.

It amazes me in life how often it is the smallest words that have the most impact. Love. Hate. Why? Why not? It’s amazing the amount of influence those words hold.

One of the biggest little words is power. Five letters when separate mean so little, but when strung together mean so much. These small words can often be the hardest to define. Which is why I’m not going to try in this small space.

The media tells me I’m not pretty enough, skinny enough, smart enough. And I take that to heart. I think many women do. But we have a power that no one else has. We are strong. We are smart. The world wouldn’t exist without us. We all have power. It’s just up to you to find it.

Finding my own power is something I am struggle with. Figuring out who I am, and owning that can be a challenge in a world of negatives. So how do we find our power? It starts small. It starts with looking at yourself and figuring out who you are. Who is your authentic self? Then it’s holding on to the knowledge that you are exactly who you are supposed to be. That life is a journey, and it’s constantly changing. Just as you are constantly growing. Constantly moving towards that person you are supposed to be.

Self-awareness is powerful stuff. Because when you know who you are, no one else can take that away from you.

Now, if you are anything like me, even the tiniest bit, you would be sitting there reading a post that someone else wrote telling you that being yourself is powerful. And you would laugh. You would laugh and say, “that’s easy for you to say. But I don’t know who I am. I don’t feel powerful.” That’s okay! It’s okay to not know who you are, as long as you are willing to find out. As long as you TRY to find out.

There are many things I don’t know about myself. But here are some things I do know: I am a chocolate eating, coffee drinking, book reading, middle school teaching, Christ following, task perfecting, lesson learning, love seeking, sister, friend, daughter, mentor. I am all those things. But I am not only those things.

I am continually figuring out who I am. And that is powerful stuff. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or woman. African, Caucasian, Latino, Asian or anywhere in between. What matters is you. YOU. You matter. You have a purpose in life, even if you don’t know it yet. You, are powerful.

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About the series: Powerful Woman Monologues are compiled in response to the media’s representation of women as inspired by the film Miss Representation. If you would like to participate, email me. Any kind of creative contribution is welcome from anyone.

Special thanks to Ashley of Little Leaf Photography & Design for graciously creating the badge for our series!

Another election year

I’ve been a bit mum about the 2012 election.  Part of me isn’t too worried about President Obama.  Part of me is all, “Well, if Romney wins, it’ll still be okay. He’s smart enough, qualified, he can’t be all bad. “ And, isn’t that how I should feel? The folks running for president aren’t sworn enemies, right? We should genuinely respect anyone willing to serve the country in that capacity.  No, I don’t have to agree with every president on every policy; I doubt that’ll ever happen. But if I believe the candidate has the country’s best interests in mind? Well, I just can’t actively hate them. I plan to vote against Romney should he be the Republican candidate, but that doesn’t mean I have to despise, belittle, and curse him, right?  He wouldn’t be so bad.

But then I read this.

Aw, come on now. Really? You had to go there? You had to make those of us who are just scraping by, trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, trying to live the American dream, playing by the rules and making all the right choices and being blessed with all the right opportunities but STILL struggling… you had to make us look like jealous fools?

Now that’s disappointing.

 

GRAND OPENING: Leslie Knope’s Knapsack

I’ve been working on a super secret project for the last few weeks. Inspired by Pinterest, I went to the craft store for four different colors of felt and earring fixtures.  Then I began making felt flowers and attaching them to earrings.  Once I gained confidence, I got more supplies.  And yesterday I finally got around to figuring out the macro setting on my point-and-shoot camera.  The results?

I opened an Etsy shop!   I was inspired by the copious amounts of television I’ve watched over my semester break. Each item is named after a female television character!  I hope you’ll find everything is reasonably priced and the photos of my products are decent enough. Nothing is over $5!

For those of you with Etsy shops of your own, I would love any constructive criticism, suggestions, or advice you may have.
For potential customers, tell me what you’d like to see more of!
And for everyone, tell me what characters you’d love to see memorialized with a felt accessory and tell me why you like her!

Clockwise from top left: Monica Geller post earrings – $5; Rhoda Morgenstern hair pin – $2.50; Carrie Bradshaw dangle earrings – $4.50; Dana Whitaker sweater pin – $5

Powerful Woman Monologues – Call for participants!

In November, I ran a call for participants in response to the film Miss Representation. I plan to beginning running your submissions in January. Though I do have a few that I’m so excited to share, I would love to have some more and thought maybe you’d like a reminder!  To jog your memory, here’s what I wrote in November:

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There are no guidelines for this guest blogging series.  I encourage you to be as creative as you wish.  You may record a video blog, design a graphic image, write a poem or song, create a photo essay, or craft a personal testimony around this very broad topic.

Some questions to get you thinking:

How do I define power? How do I demonstrate female power? How do I or can I encourage and empower other women? What media messages piss me off and how can I counter them? What experience made me realize how much power I have? What experience undermined my power and how can I defy that and respond? When do I feel most empowered?

It’s time to reclaim our power as women.  Let’s start a movement together.

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If you’re interested, please email me: thereneeborhood (at) gmail (dot) com. I encourage you not to wait to be inspired by others’ submissions but to write what’s on your mind and in your heart, without hearing others’ stories first. However, I will continue to publish any submissions in perpetuity so if you’re swamped now, don’t think you can’t participate! Anonymous submissions are fine, as well.

WCMK + Christmas Cookie Week: Cranberry Orange Cookies!

Today is my final (and most delicious) installation of Weeknight Cooking in a Messy Kitchen featuring The Speckled Palate’s Christmas Cookie Week. And today I’d like to share one of my favorite cookie recipes I’ve discovered in the last couple of years: cranberry orange cookies. Original recipe can be found here.

You’ll need:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 tablespoons orange juice*
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional but I added them because I was low on cranberries)

*Here’s the deal. I bought an orange, thinking that would be plenty to make 2 tbs fresh orange juice. It wasn’t. Just buy orange juice and drink what you don’t use.

1) Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars together. Add in your eggs. Ignore the ugly hairstyle.

2) Attempt to juice THE LEAST JUICY ORANGE EVER. Throw that in your mixer with your zest. Also add flour, salt, and baking soda.

3) Add cranberries and walnuts, if you wish. Mmm, cranberries.

4) You can roll these cookies or just drop them with a spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I like them rolled.

5) Bake 12-14 minutes. When cooled, you can drizzle with a glaze made from orange juice… but because I had the LEAST JUICY ORANGE OF ALL TIME, I forwent this step, but check the original recipe for details.

About Weeknight Cooking in a Messy Kitchen: I love cooking blogs and blogs that post recipes and fancy pictures of adorable clean kitchens and the cooks in darling little outfits. I love to cook, too. But I don’t have one of those kitchens. And I certainly don’t cook in my cute clothes. Also, I don’t own a nice camera. And if I did, I wouldn’t know how to use it. I have a real kitchen and a real home… one with clutter and yesterday’s dishes and crooked rugs. My cooking utensils are in an old Boy Scout popcorn tin for heaven’s sake. And I don’t regularly cook from scratch or follow a recipe. But I still wanted to do those fancy cooking blog posts with pictures and recipes. But dammit, I’m going to do it my way. See more of my recipes here.

Holiday Party Girls’ Night In

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

To accompany all these fancy cookie recipes I’ve been posting (and, do not fear, I intend to post at least one more!), I figured I’d share last week’s Christmas party photos!

As you may know, my semester ended the first week of December, but three of my dear friends hadn’t planned to leave the area for awhile. So we decided to have a little holiday/birthday gathering (our friend Winnie turned 22!). I live quite a ways from our school, so no one ever visits me. But, because it is winter break, it was a perfect time for my friends to trek the 25 miles to see me! Winnie, Jessica, and I love to cook… but Jill has never had the desire to learn… so we took that opportunity to teach her. I must say, Jill made my mac and cheese recipe better than I usually do. I think she was successful!

Jessica is a vegetarian, so we made a list of veggie foods we like and then hit the grocery store. By 6:00pm, we had made sweet potato chili, corn bread, guacamole and chips, mac and cheese, stuffed mushrooms, and an amazing salad. And wine. A lot of wine. It was a bit of a bizarre combination, but it was delightful. (And grad student budget friendly.) I eat vegetarian quite a bit, so this wasn’t that big of a deal for me, but Winnie and Jill were impressed with how good everything was!

After dinner, we cleared the table to settle in with raucous game of Apples to Apples accompanied by cupcakes from a darling local bakery. The birthday girl, who added raspberries to her salad, appropriately decided on a raspberry filled cupcake. We added a yellow candle to match her sunny yellow dress (and disposition). Jill selected gingerbread, Jessica enjoyed chocolate peppermint, and I had pumpkin maple. At the end of the night, we curled up next to the Christmas tree to enjoy YouTube videos, photos from Winnie’s family in Nigeria, and made plans to do this more regularly.

I loved hosting girls night in my home. It sucks that I have to live so far from everyone, but we all discussed our schedules for next semester and, hopefully, we’ll have a chance to do this regularly.

Remember to check out Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.