Sex Trafficking

Did you know that every two minutes a child between the ages of 5 and 10 is prepped for the sex trade industry? Or that the US is in the top three for sex trafficking?  Shocking? Yeah, I thought so too.  Today my group presented the world of sex trafficking and all that it has to offer.  Children as young as five are being sex trafficked, 600k to 800 people are trafficked a year and 70% of them are women and 50% of the 70% are female children.  Sick right?  Majorly..... but today in class some question arose that made me think; for example what if prostitution was legalized? Would sex trafficking decrease due to the fact that women can voluntarily enter it without being caught and sent to jail?

Here is how the sex trade industry works.  Let's say you are a single mother working 2 dead beat jobs and you want a change.  You look in the HELP WANTED section of the newspaper and then see the perfect job: "Wanted, women looking for housing and job. Will fly you to Russia to work" . Sounds perfect right? Well, then you get to Russia and find out you have to repay the cost of the flight, housing, and food.  So guess how you are working off your debt?  The job they are providing you with like written in the ad? No, WRONG! Instead, you're going to be working in the sex trade industry and see up to 30 clients a day.

Maybe the sex trade industry will change soon...not in the immediate future, but maybe by 2030.

Women Wages

As I was reading Material World by Valenti I became highly pissed off.  We're in 2010 and the wages for women are still at a measly 76% of what men make.  What got me even more heated up was the fact that in 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics "decided that reporting women's wages wasn't a priority anymore-she they stopped". The BLS thought it was a good idea to stop reporting one of the biggest problems that women are facing...wages.  In addition, UNC did an interesting study on how women can narrow the pay gap.  All we have to do, is strive for the senior VP level and we can make up for what is lost.  Funny thing is, women have the worst glass ceiling you can possibly think of!  How is this world going to finally understand that women can hang with the big boys and vice versa.  Gender shouldn't matter, but it does.  You can be a head honcho of a company and still report to a man or female, maybe one day without discrimination, but I don't see that anytime soon. 

Princess Boy

Princess Boy Video
This is a video I saw on facebook that someone had posted about a young boy who prefers to dress up in girls clothing. What I love about the video is the support system he has from his whole family and his teachers at school. I love the fact that in order to make him feel more comfortable on halloween, three men from his school put on a ballet performance for his whole school to teach other children that  it was okay. The tolerance that they are teaching I think is something that needs to be taught in every school. These days children are so mean. I think all parents should take a cue from the older brother of this little boy and just be proud of their kids no matter what they like to do and teach them about acceptance of everyone.

Male vs. Female Sex life

The last class we had was very interesting. I never realized how differently men and women were treated relating to their sexual life. Men could sleep with a ton of females and be a hero, versus a woman in the same situation would be considered a slut. It's very interesting how the perception changes with your gender. Another example is an older man is considered a pervert when looking at a younger woman, versus the female in the same situation would be considered a cougar. Both of those terms have negative meaning. An image can last a life time, and it causes women to stay on their toes and watch what they're doing when they shouldn't have to. I would hope that someday this will change, and harsh words could not be used to diminish people for their actions. A persons personal life is their business, and their choices are their choices, and they do not need to be labeled for it, especially in a diminishing way.

Virginity = Slut

In our class Thursday, we had a huge discussion on the unwritten rules of being a slut and being a virgin.  When your a slut you are sleeping around with everyone, when you are a virgin, you are obviously sleeping around with no one.  Now though for our society you have to choose which category you fall under.  Are you the slut or are you the virgin?  A guy brought up in class that if a woman were to make out with 5 different guys at a party, she would be more of a slut than a woman hooking up with one random dude.  If the "virgin" wants to make out with random people who cares?  She isn't contracting STD's and putting herself in risky situations sexually.  The woman sleeping with a guy she just met at a party is extremely more sluttier and she shows having little respect for her body.  Just a personal observation and thought.

Aside from that, I find it humors though that woman are judge constently of how many sex partners they have had.  Not trying to generalize here, but I have known that men like to have goals for themselves.  Maybe 15 sexual encounters for the year, more or less.  And guys friends egg it on and cheer for their boys cause our society sees no wrong in men having a lot of sex with a lot of different women because it is expected.  Women on the other hand are either being judge by guys for not having enough sex or too much sex and other women judge women for engaging in waaaaay too much.  Why does it matter???/

Clothing....

So, I was getting ready for bed the other evening and something so random came to mind; women can wear men clothing to bed BUT men cannot wear women clothing.  Women are allowed to wear the baggy gym shorts with over sized t-shirts and not have their gender challenged, whereas men will be called gay for wearing any thing looking like women clothing.  I guess it is just kind of ridiculous to me.  Women have always been trying to be seen as equal to men but now as women are allowed to dress like men and have it be socially acceptable, men are still far behind.  In a sense I feel bad for men because if they are comfortable in the women attire then they should be able to wear women attire and NOT be made fun of. 

War and Gender

I have to say, today's class was pretty interesting.  We broke into groups and discussed "how masculinity and femininity re-defined in processes of conflict and in ways which serve state military and nationalist objectives".  We can up with this: Women are seen as the care takers... so they are expected to stay home and take care of all the household chores, bills, and maintaining an easy living environment for the children.  If a woman does decide to enlist, then she is more than likely to be a nurse, not apart of the front line.  Women are pretty much just the background of the situation. Fair? No.... Definitely not.  Men on the other hand are to one's to do all the fighting. They are the responsible party for defending their country. But they also have a double wammy for war. If they do not enlist then they are looked down upon and then shunned for not defending their country along with being called names like chicken,  wussie, or unpatriotic.  So then men are forced to make a decision of defending their humility and possibly die or risk being shunned and removed from society.... I personally like being alive and dont really care what people say about me soooooooo I pass on war.

Conflicts of Women

In Wednesdays class, we talked a lot about aggression and Burton's model of conflict.  We learned there are 3 pieces to the conflict puzzle: issues, attributes, and behaviors all of which feed and build off each other. If a woman was driven by her career then decided to stat a family, she would encounter some MAJOR conflicts within her job and at home. Her boss could persuade her to rethink her decision and her husband could be pushing for having children.  The woman is stuck in the middle and her arms are being pulled in opposite directions and she has to decide because in the business world its all about making choices (especially for women). You cannot have your cake and eat it too. It's messed up if I say so my self.  Women have to conform themselves into men once they hit the CEO, Director, President, Vice President position because of the expectations set upon us. We can't have children, must work late nights, hardly ever see our husbands, get calls from coworkers and such throughout all hours of the day, we would miss all the soccer, basketball, football and baseball games of our children and best of all.... WORK COMES FIRST. Fair... no not really.