Mad World

Today was another one of those emotional days. Two major reasons, or classes I should say. First, from my women's studies class we started our presentations [which will go on for two weeks total] in which is based off our final papers. Our final papers are about some sort of thing in popular culture that promotes social change, whether it be positive or negative. These things can be film, songs, bands, albums, art, television, literature, whatever so long as it is in pop culture. I have yet to begin my paper but I have decided to write it on deafness. This will definitely be posted here, don't worry. I have decided to focus on the television show C.S.I. and a couple of it's episodes that focus on deafness, particularly one episode that makes me cry every time. I will definitely be posting all sorts of stuff about this once I get into the writing or when I'm done, but this is not the focus of this post. A majority of the presentations today were of topics focused specifically on women, granted it is a women's studies class and I would have liked to do any such related topic. But because we have been learning about that so much, I have decided to TEACH my class about something they may not have paid much attention to, if at all. And of course it is something deeply personal to me and something I am intensely passionate about. This will be the second time I have focused on this topic [with the exception of my sign language classes]. I spent an entire semester of an English class creating various writings in regard to all sorts of topics of deafness from cochlear implants to sign language. I'll have to dig up those papers and share them here as well. But back to the presentations, I took note of each social changing agent that was discussed and will list them here. Most of which had provoked tears and definitely inspire me to look further into them. If you are interested, please research these things, for there is far more information than what I am providing. Or you can ask me.
Iron Jawed Angels: film about women's suffrage.
Reflecting Truth: a photographer's series of self-portraits with contradictory titles and imagery depicting women's social gender roles.
Mujeres presas: Adriana Lestido's photography project of women and their children in an Argentinian jail.
9 to 5: an 80's comedy film about the role of women in the workplace.
Tyra Banks Top 10 Moments: this definitely got me teary-eyed. Tyra telling people to "Kiss her fat ass!" For some reason I actually didn't know she did this.
North Country: a film about sexual harassment in the workplace. Definitely added to my must-see list.
Rent the Musical: a lot of you know about this. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews on the film and that the musical itself is much better. So I must also say that I have not seen the film, but am interested in seeing the film or performance or both either way. The girl presenting specifically showed the clip of the AIDS life support scene, hence that is where the link will take you.
The Price of Beauty: This is a show that Jessica Simpson did, another of which I was not aware of. This would gain a bit more respect towards her from me.
Please take the time to check out the links. Most of which are short video clips. I'll probably do this for the remaining 3 days of presentations that we have left.

As for the second major emotional part of my day, well once again, it is from my Courtship & Marriage class. This week is the unfortunate week in which we have to discuss, in depth, family violence. We started off today's lecture with fact that there are at least 600,000 cases every year of family violence. Alllways, always keep in mind that numbers like these only represent those incidences that ARE ACTUALLY REPORTED. The real number is AT LEAST double that. There are also 3 million cases of child abuse every year, but also keep in mind that generally children do not report these things, hence the potential number is that of 12 million abused children. Yeah, I'm not fucking lying nor exaggerating. Two other extremely significant pieces of information I learned but will not discuss at any great depth is that engaging in violence is a CHOICE. Just like cheating is a CHOICE as my professor consistently drills into our heads. As well as if someone hits once, they will most definitely hit again. There is no time frame for this, so the next hit could be from several weeks, to months, to years later. People do not change. If they got away with it once, they will more easily do it again. In cases like this, if the abusive partner "wants to get better" they are doing it to keep you there, still managing to control you because you believe they will get better. If a abuser seriously wanted to change the only way that will happen is if they do it alone. By themselves and only for themselves. Really think about it. The stories you hear are real. This is REAL.
Next lecture will be focusing on sexual abuse and incest. I'm already starting to write down the notes...it's hard to bear.
Below are two pie graphs depicting the relationship of the abuser to each female and male victims. Take note that up to 78% of abuse done to females are in the household. IN THE HOUSEHOLD! Another thing my professor has said countless times "The family is the most dangerous social institution of them all." That there, is a fact. The family is not the safe haven that the myths make it out to be.

And here is the percentages of the type abuse that goes on [that are reported at least]. And the percentages of each victim by race and ethnicity. Keep in mind that these numbers basically run equal when you cut across each group because the numbers of the population of each group also varies. For example, whites are the majority, hence they seem to make up a lot of the victims, but this merely reflects their high numbers in the general population. Ugh, I just wish the whole world took a statistics class.

It really scares me. It scares me, when walking amongst others and wondering how many of the men and women I have passed by that have abused someone in their life. How many of the victims have I walked next to. How many of the victims have I helped or rung out at work. How many of the abusers have I opened the doors for or that have opened doors for me. These are things a lot of people don't like to think about...but the truth is, that it happens and it is all around you. It's a mad world.