Saturday, June 30, 2012

why did I ever decide to take this course....


I am also taking this course because of online convenience, my love for technology (of course!), and I have a few ulterior motives.  I need 3 more credits of a technology focused English course, and this course will complete my minor requirements.  Also if I am able to monopolize her attention (just for a few moments), I hope to make Dr. Almjeld super-stoked about being on my dissertation committee! (we talked about this once).

I am also hoping that some enlightenment will befall on my parenting techniques, as I help my daughter navigate through her own girlhood.  I need to teach her the importance of developing an identity unaccompanied by negative gender or societal influences.  Like any parent, I want my daughter to strive toward her own personal goals.  If this class provides me with the tools to present mature feminist concepts to a very impressionable young girl, it is best investment that I ever made in our future.

When I was a young girl and woman, not unlike many of us, have been influenced by societal standards.  I have also encountered prejudice and misogynistic treatment.  So, I want to be pro-active and encouraging to girls and young women.  I want to be able to provide some eloquence to my claims of need for equal treatment of men and women, and most importantly be an advocate for confident female generations.

I am also focusing my dissertation on females in technology.  More specifically, how females have been overshadowed and made to feel inferior within technology.  I am hoping that participating in this course will bring me closer to a research question.

I also want to participate in the technology camp, but my daughter is with me during the day.  So if I can find a way to provide care for Jenna, I want to participate with Girlhood remixed.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Yolonda! Nice job on being sneaky to lure me to your committee :)

    I love the way you see this class bringing together your personal and academic goals. I feel the same way about teaching it. Girlhood studies speaks to me as a girl who grew up overweight and insecure always and as an Aunt Jen who worries about kiddos in my life. It also speaks to gender gaps in technology-focused careers and ways we value and pay women in our economy.

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  2. Hi Yolanda! Your daughter is lucky to have a mom that is interested in her and in technology. Just this past semester I began considering females as mainstream video game creators. My sons play a lot of XBox, which allowed me to take a look at gender representations for both male and female. I wondered about how many females have a hand in making the aesthetic decisions and characterizations of females within the games. It seems that the obvious duality of damsel in distress versus overpowered butch-fem representations abound, but there's got to be a middle ground, right? Women don't need to wait to be rescued, nor do they need to be capable of maneuvering a tank in order to be validated as a modern female, or do they? Ahhhh! The questions, the questions alongside the opinions, the opinions. I am sure you and I both with learn so much about parenting and where we've come from as we stand in this village of academic reflection. I look forward to learning with you. - K

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