Inspiration for Research
For the three common themes regarding Feminism research, I have chosen to look into:
Social Media, Pop Culture and Advocacy
The first theme I will look into is Social Media.
Specifically the HeForShe campaign.
1. Jon Lechliter of Conscious Magazine wrote a news article on Emma Watson's United Nations speech on gender inequality. Through her speech, Emma talks about gender inequality in a way that both men and women would be affected in our society. She encouraged men to get involved and to help this change come about because without the support of men, the movement cannot reach the goals it intends to reach. She makes a wonderful point that apathy can keep our society from making a real change. The author agrees with all that Emma said in her UN speech and encourages readers to go on and learn more.
2. The image I have chosen to share branches away from the specific HeForShe campaign and reaches to other social media campaigns relating to the movement. The commercial I have chosen to relate to the Social Media theme is the GoldieBlox 2014 SuperBowl Commercial. This commercial shows that girls do not have to have "pink toys" they can do what boys "like" to do, they to can be the engineers of the world.
3. I chose a scholarly article written by Jessica McLean and Sophia Maalsen that touches on the way the feminist movement is affecting the world. This specific article talks about how new media/social media touches and influences the world regarding feminism and the true meaning. Since geographically, the world has different thoughts on the placement of women, there must be articles to educate people around the world, especially since social media is the largest influence on our society.
The second theme I will look into is Pop Culture.
1. On the Feminist Current website, there is a very interesting news article about Rihanna's BBHMM music video. The author of this article, Raquel Rosario Sanchez, is an avid supporter of non-violence especially towards women and girls. She works to help these females rebuild their lives after gendered abuse. Throughout her article, she talks about the anger that this video brought her. She talks about the responses from women and how allowing violence is not okay especially towards other women. Now the reason I chose this article was because of how much I love Rihanna and believe that she is one of the strongest women out there. She has gone through a lot especially with the media constantly covering it and has made a much better impact on women. This article made me really think about the video and honestly, I cannot decide whether or not it was okay for young females to watch or not. The article made it controversial so I thought sharing it would be interesting especially to hear others opinions.
2. Pop Culture is a great influence on society. These are the women our young females are looking up to. I chose an image of Alicia Keys and her movement of "shredding the makeup" or going natural. She debuted this look at the Democratic National Convention and at award shows. Through showcasing her beautiful natural hair and skin, she inspired other artists like Gabrielle Union to do the same. She demonstrated that going natural is nothing to be ashamed of. This is regarded as one of the top ten feminism moments in the year of 2016.
3. I chose a scholarly article edited by Adrienne Trier-Bieniek. She wrote about Feminist Theory and Pop Culture. This article delves deep into gender and sexuality relating it to Pop Culture. I believe that this article would definitely be able to educate someone on how important Pop Culture is when talking about feminism. The women of Pop Culture are the ones who showcase what it is to be strong, independent and proud to be a female.
The third and last theme I will look into is Advocacy.
1. News articles on advocating for Feminism are surprisingly difficult to find. For this one, I used an article from the Huffington Post written by Shasta Nelson. She talks in her article about how she ultimately came out as an advocate. Shasta writes about how difficult it was to accept the word Feminism at first due to not understanding the entire meaning of the movement. She speaks of an awakening she had where she realized how women needed to speak out more, run more important offices and offer the best to the world. This is when she turned into becoming an advocate not only to her friends and family, but to the rest of the world. I really enjoyed the article and thought it was a great piece to share.
2. There are so many advocates for women's rights and the movement. We have spoken about Beyonce, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alicia Keys, Frida Kahlo, etc. I believe that Malala Yousafzai is another very important advocate for women. Her story is absolutely inspiring and she should always be recognized as a young female fighting for education for females.
3. I chose this scholarly article by Kristy Evans. The book is called, A Guide to Feminism Advocacy. I have actually read this before for another class and feel as if it educated me a lot on the movement. It is a really amazing look into advocating for feminism.
All of these themes are very inspiring to me. I have definitely chosen the route of doing Social Media because I feel like this is a very important influence on our society. Current issues, visual and conceptual modes of knowing are all needed when researching for the theme of Social Media. I am choosing to look into the HeForShe campaign and am really excited!