CRJ # 5

A very important topic for me is reproductive choice. The book describes reproductive choice as being able to have safe and affordable birthing and parenting options, such as; reliable, safe, and affordable birth control technologies, freedom from forced sterilization, and the availability of abortion. I think that every woman should have control over her own body and be able to make decisions for herself.
There are many reasons why women might want to control their fertility. The five main reasons mentioned in the text are; health, being seen as irresponsible in society for having too many children, not being able to afford children because they are very expensive now, emotional stress and fear of isolating yourself at home, and the indirect cost or loss of professional identity. The two main reasons that stick out to me are; children are very expensive, and being seen as irresponsible in society. However, I think that you can be seen as irresponsible in society for more ways than just having too many children. I think that now people are seen as irresponsible if they have a child at a young age before they can support the child, and if you are dealing with other problems such as, alcohol addiction, or do not provide a good home for the child. It is interesting that women used to have children as teenagers all the time but now it is frowned upon.
Over the years, women have been having fewer children. There are three important facts to consider about women having children. The first fact is that the average family size has decreased. The second is that women are having children later in their life now due to health care technologies. The last fact is that there has been a large increase in the number of children born to single women. I also know a lot of women that simply do not want to have kids. A couple of reasons for women not wanting to have kids might be because of their occupation, or not wanting to pay for children because they have become more expensive, or maybe they are just satisfied with a husband. I think that attitudes have changed because women are seen as more equal to men now and are competitive in the workforce and do not want to be a stay-at-home mom.
Another topic that is virtually unavoidable is abortion. I would definitely consider myself a pro-choice supporter. I believe that abortion is a women’s choice and she should not be forced to have children against her will. Abortion was illegal until January 1973. The Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade overturned all states’ bans on abortion. It is now legal for women to have abortions as long as the fetus is not capable of sustaining life outside of the woman’s body. Over the years, a lot of groups have tried to limit availability and accessibility of abortions.
I found the statistics in this chapter particularly attention-grabbing. The top ten women’s health threats were very surprising because we typically think of men being more prone to them. The top causes of death for women in the U.S. starting with the most common are; Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Diabetes, Pneumonia and Influenza, Alzheimer’s disease, and accidents. Even more surprising is that, the most common cancer for women is lung cancer, not breast cancer. Another interesting fact is that more women die of colorectal cancer than men each year. The Alzheimer’s statistic was also a surprise to me because I mostly hear about men getting it and in fact it was my grandfather’s cause of death. About 35,000 women die of Alzheimer’s every year which is, over twice the amount of men that get it. This might have to do with the fact that women generally live longer than men and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease increases with age.

Activity #8

According to Killing Us Softly 3, advertising sells values, images, concepts of love and sexuality, of romance and success, and normalcy. Advertising tells us who we are and who we should be. It affects women’s self esteem and how men feel about women’s images. Basically, women’s bodies have turned into objects. We should care about gendered messages in advertising because it creates a climate where there is widespread and increasing violence against women. Our ability to have authentic and freely chosen lives and nothing less is at stake.
In the Onslaught film, the message is that young girls are targeted to start learning what is beautiful so that they will want to be like all of the models and eventually buy into the products and eating habits and plastic surgery. The Evolution film shows us that beauty is unreachable and even with all the make-up and gorgeous models, Ads are still getting transformed through computer graphics. This tells us that even if we wanted to look like that, it is not possible. Our ideas about beauty have become so distorted because of the media. We have no way of knowing what is real or fake and the media has put out an image that we are expected to look like. Therefore, we strive to look like these people that simply do not exist.
The advertisement that I chose was for Companhia Athletica Health and Wellness. The ad is a commercial where a baby is crying so the man comes and picks up the baby and carries the baby and starts to rock it a little and then sits down. After they sit down the baby starts sucking on the man’s very out of shape pectoral like it were a breast. Then the commercial reads get in shape and then they’re company name.
The main idea of this commercial is to look skinny. However, this commercial is also selling the idea that it is the women’s job to get the baby when it starts crying. It is also portraying that men should be skinny and not out of shape or have “breasts” like women.
I really liked this activity because it taught me about how I should look at advertisements and how I should look at the ideal woman from now on. The Killing Us Softly 3 ended up being a very entertaining half hour which surprised me. Although I have seen the Evolution ad before, it was cool to see it again and it really is crazy to think about. The Onslaught film was depressing but necessary I felt. I almost feel as though I can look at any commercial or advertisement now and be able to break it down into a gender analysis. It is a scary thought that all of our ads have become so gendered and centralized around sex.