THE LAST LECTURE :(

Closing Lecture

"A woman brought you into this world, so you have no right to disrespect one"         - Tupac

For this last discussion we decided to focus on gender equality on a local scale. Statistically speaking, one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. And while this statistic focuses on the entire nation we, as young college students, decided to focus our discussion on the realities of the sexual assaults and rapes that involve young teens and youths in school. This first video is a CNN news report on two high school football players from Steubenville, Ohio who were charged with rape. 

We found the video controversial because CNN grieved for the two boys who were given the charges because it would ruin their bright futures. CNN strayed from admitting that the two boys were indeed rapists, and even sympathized for them. However it is questionable if sympathy truly is in order for them. At the end of the day they committed a vicious crime so should one feel bad because they had bright futures in football?

Other sources of media also touched upon this idea as well. Here we have a video that portrays a satirical understanding of the issue. 

While the video seems quite ridiculous, it brings attention to the "privileges" that American society gives to male athletes when associated with crimes like rape. Though much more extreme, it touches upon the opinions shared by the CNN crew casting the story about the Steubenville, Ohio rapes. People feel that because they are athletes they should not face the same consequences.

We also decided to look into and discuss sexual assault, and the overall safety for women as it pertains to our own campus. We found out that here at UC Davis there were forty cases of sexual assault reported in the past year, which is the most reported on any UC campus. But can we really trust that statistic? As college students many of us have seen the partying and alcohol/drug consumption that takes place on our campus, as well as the dangers that can come from, especially towards women. Sexual assaults are a very common occurrence, which makes it disheartening to hear when there are only forty cases reported this year alone. There are probably three or four times that actually taking place, but people are afraid to speak out and get help.

We also talked about media's positive impact on women's rights here in America. This next video is from the infamous rap artist Tupac in his music video performance of Keep Your Head Up. The song lyrics focus on empowering women and society's critiques on poverty and gender inequalities in the United States.     

We also looked at Queen Latifah's video UNITY music video, which also focuses on the empowerment of women. 

In American society, women tend to be treated as second class citizens. For example, in the work place women are not paid as much as men. Socially, many women are referred to by men as "bitches" and "hoes" which can undermine a women's value. As we see in these videos, both Tupac and Queen Latifah shine a light on these issues in hopes that there can be more cultural awareness towards gender equality. As a class we also decided that it is important to educate ourselves on these ideas and to watch what we say and do as well, because it could have a negative and demeaning connotation that could hurt the feelings of a minority. 

Lastly, we ended with a reflection of the book Half the Sky and discussed what particularly stuck out to us from this class. Many of us talked about the stories in the book, but a lot of people also talked about the current issues brought up in lecture. 

Here is the list that we made to talk about what we plan to do going forward from the new information that we learned in this class. These plans, if implemented into our daily lives, will allow us to positively impact the world and allow us to carry on the strong lesson shown both in this class and in Kristof's book Half the Sky.

On a personal note, it has been a pleasure getting to know all of you in this class, and I wish you all the best of luck with all your future endeavors!!