Service Learning Log

Well last week was a slow week, but Saturday was the big day. That was when the Women to Women Conference was going on. This was when they had farm working women come to this event to talk about issues such as domestic violence all the way to self-care. I believe this was put on by YAYA and the person that supervised me was Dr. Santana. My successes was just seeing all the women and the children having these big smiles on their faces and seeing that they were learning so much things from the certain discussions that were going on. The chapter that we were discussing last week and this week ties in directly to the environment. We were talking to women that work as farmers and anything else that has to deal with that aspect. I do not know too much about the women’s working conditions and their pay, but I would think that neither of these things is adequate enough for them to support their families. Most of these women could not speak English very well, so they had discussions in Spanish which was very helpful to them and their children. As an aspiring social worker, I was definitely in my element seeing how the people that were leading the discussions did it in an open forum type of way which was therapeutic and enlightening at the same time. The impact that the Hope Community Center has on the community seems like it is a really huge one. It seems like they help these women in any type of way they can. Since most Latinos are Catholic, the Hope Community Center is faith based. I think that this is a good way to reach out to this population and to get through in order to make an impact. I felt like I got soooooo  much from this day. I saw many people take their time out of their lives to come and educate these women and give them resources if they should ever get stuck. And that;s exactly what I want to do when I get out into the real world.

Environment

This video and chapter put a lot of things in perspective for me. It made me realize how much my family, friends, and I use so many things and take for granted how these things came into to our household. The lady in the video made perfect sense to me when she was talking about how manufacturers make things to purposefully break in a few years and we turn around and keep on buying the same thing. It’s crazy to me how corporations and government take advantage of our money like it’s no tomorrow. But any who, while we are consuming all of these goods, we fail to realize what is doing to our pockets and wallets, but most importantly to our health. I was really shocked when the woman in the video said that breast milk has the highest toxins in it, due to all the waste around us. This is crazy. The one thing that I thought that was good for babies is messing them up in some shape or form. Another point I would like to bring up, is some of the women that work for the plants that are responsible for all these toxins, are at their peak of reproduction. While they are working in these poor conditions, they are soaking up all these harmful chemicals and at the same time damaging their reproductive organs. The lady in the video showed the cartoons of the women in the factories that were pregnant which another issue is. While the baby is supposed to be nice and warm and safe in the womb, the baby is taking in all of the toxins that the mother is soaking up. So, God forbid, the baby comes out with some type of illness, or some type of birth defect. The worst part about that is, the mother most likely won’t be able to pay for healthcare, which is already sky high (but I’m not going to touch that issue). 

Continuing the Conversation (EC)

Personally, I like the idea of the "Slut Walk" nor do I think that the name should be changed. The women who named the whole movement obviously had a purpose as to why they named it that. But by me saying this, it still over sexualizes (I guess I just made up this word) women. Someway, somehow women are all ways turned into sex objects no matter what skin color they are. Although, it's with every woman, we definitely see it happen a lot with women of color. The Hispanic community is often shown as having the most "sexiest" and "exotic" women around. In the article "Guadalupe the Sex Goddess", I love how she turned her stereotypical sexuality into spirituality. She made it no longer taboo. Also, with the Black community, we are obligated to hold up to the standards of having a huge behind, small waist, and big breast. And for what reason exactly? Me, personally, once upon a time, I have striven to have the biggest butt that I could possibly attain, but I learned that my body was not ready for all of that. Also, I realized that it was not making me happy; it was just stressing me out more because I wanted the ideal Black woman's shape. As for sexuality, I am one of the few people that are not afraid of discussing this type of issue. I don't think that anything is wrong with sexuality; I just think that it becomes something raunchy when people put more emphasis on what it is and means to be sexy.

Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal for Young Women’s Leaders Program
By: Tiy McIntosh

April 2, 2012

Meredith Tweed

WST 3015-0001

Community Partner Profile:

Community Partner: Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP)

Contact: Maria Roman

Community partner mission statement: “YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls. In mentoring pairs and small groups of Big and Little Sisters, participants focus on learning competence and autonomy, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and encouraging girls to think about their futures” (Young Women’s Leaders Program).

The Proposal: Growing up into a young woman from a young girl is tough already with the changes our bodies have to go through. Certain parts of our bodies get bigger, and things start to happen that might scare us. Then, while dealing with all of this with have to deal with our friends at school who might have developed more than us or the popularity standard. Sometimes we may feel as though our parents do not understand anything that we go through. This is when we feel like we need someone like a big sister to help us understand what’s going on with our bodies and changes in our social lives. This is where the Young Women Leaders Program comes in. They would help girls understand that the changes that they are going through are completely normal, and if they absolutely need advice or just a listening ear big sisters will be there for them.

This project relates to Women’s Studies as a whole. Women are always being defined by men (not to say that all men want to fit women into these conventional roles). And I would guess that most of them do not know what it’s like to be a woman. We are always trying to find ways to redefine our purpose in life and most of the time gets criticized for not conforming to the norms of women in society. This program helps to advocate for young girls, which is another form of activism. In my opinion, I think that’s what Women’s Studies is all about. One thing that relates to women and women’s studies is our body image. We are always conformed into being these perfect, slim, gorgeous, tall, straight haired individuals. But, in actuality how many real women do we know really look like this. So many women strive to be the ideal, but I think it is time that women strive to be their own ideal and live up to their own standards. Our text has so much written about this certain issue that it is kind of hard to write a summary of it. However, one chapter that I favor in the textbook is “Women’s Bodies and Health”. It really sheds some light on how society views our bodies and our health. I was really surprised by this because I didn’t realized how much it impacts every woman’s lives. While we try to be this impossible super perfect woman, we fail to realize that we have the younger generation looking up at us thinking that they have to do the same instead of loving who they really are.

What I would love to do is change the way social media views the way a woman should look, but I know that’s impossible. However, while partnering with YWLP, I would love to observe how they interact with this issue and how they help these young girls with this certain problem. While observing, I would be glad to help with any of the promoting and crafts that they might need and volunteering my time for anything that the organization needs.

Works Cited

Mission Statement from YWLP. http://womensstudies.cah.ucf.edu/ywlp/