A superhero is seen as a character who has power and who is present to bring some kind of balance to the world. But the superhero world created by Marvel is not very balanced in terms of gender balance. To change this disparity, Marvel decided to make a movie about a superheroine named captain Marvel. The movie was a success and I think that it also had a strong feminist message to pass. Captain Marvel is the story of Carol Danvers, who will become one of the most powerful superheroines in the universe when Earth is threatened by a galactic war between two extraterrestrial races.

  To begin, the main character of the movie is a female, and this female is a superheroine. It’s very interesting and something rare in the comix world. I think that this alone is a feminist message, because it shows that women can be very strong too and can even save the whole world. It’s not the first time that we have a superhero movie where the main character is a woman, but it’s still something rare and I’m glad to see that big companies like Marvel are doing some steps to make the comix world more gender balanced.

  Another thing that I found interesting is the fact that captain Marvel considered the strongest superhero in the Marvel world. If we closely follow the Marvel universe, we can even see that captain Marvel is supposed to save the whole universe in other movies. It transmits the message that women are equal to men and that we all need each other to survive.

  A scene that I found very inspiring for young women is the one where a little girl watches captain Marvel fly away in the sky, and this little girl wants to be as strong as her idol. This scene shows us that female characters can also be very inspiring, and it shows that young women should aspire to be as good as they can and that there is no limit for their growth. It’s a great message for everybody!

  Finally, I would really recommend watching this movie, especially if you’re into the Marvel universe. Captain Marvel represents a strong and ambitious woman who worked hard and never gave up on her dreams and friends, it has a lot of progressive messages in the whole movie. It’s a truly inspirational character and is in fact some sort of revolutionary movie for the comix world.

  Masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviors and roles associated with boys and men. Masculinity defines “what men are supposed to be”, explaining and defining such things as body characteristics, behaviors and ways of thinking that are expected from a man. Masculinity also defines the place of men in the society and the roles that they have to complete. Masculinity defines men as the superior to the women and they are expected to be more successful then women in general. It also makes the perfect man appear as a strong, tough and brutal, but also as someone who doesn’t show emotions.

  A great point that MICHAELS.KIMMEL expressed in the article “Masculinity as Homophobia” is the fact that homophobia is in fact something more complex and deeper then just the fear or homosexual people and relationships. It goes beyond that. She says, “Homophobia is the fear that another men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men.”. Personally, being a man, I couldn’t agree more with that statement, it would be terrifying for a man to get exposed for not being a “real men” in front of his family or friends. Also, I think that a lot of men don’t relate to these fixed standards of a a real man. The cancellation of these stereotypes and the change of what is masculinity would actually benefit men, because the present definition of masculinity is toxic and bad for men and for women.

  Another very important point made by the author was the fact that this toxic masculinity and homophobia is not healthy for men. And she also points out that the homophobia should be treated and shouldn’t be present at all. I think that she’s very right about that. The disappearance of homophobia will also change the way we see masculinity and the criteria of being a “real men” will change with it. This part is very important, because toxic masculinity is not only bad for men, but for women, racial minorities and homosexuals too. In fact, classic masculinity teaches young white men that they should be superior to women and other minorities and dominate them in every aspect, which is completely wrong.

  Finally, how can a change be made? Men can redefine masculinity by not being homophobic and by simply not living and not believing following these principles. Men should be allowed to show their emotions and shouldn’t be ashamed if they are not tall, muscular and manly. If all men agreed to be honest and simply be themselves, everybody will be happy, even themselves. This will impact all our lives and will probably make all of us happier and will make our society more healthy.

  I chose to go see the Slav and Kanata presentation. The presentation exposed a major issue in the modern artistic world. This issue is the fact that cultural minorities are not present enough on the scene and their culture is being exploited in an unfair way. The two women talking about this issue accuse Robert Lepage of being insensitive to the first nations, in particular by not leaving room for the members of these communities whom he had to represent on stage. The same criticisms of cultural appropriation for Slav, a show which denounced slavery in good faith, but which presented very few black actresses on stage and expressed black culture in a false way. These pieces are very controversial because of cultural appropriation and for their predominantly white distribution. Also, much of the information on which these plays were written is completely false and does not represent the reality of the cultures and of the stories represented.

  Most people in the public agreed with the views of the two women who presented this critique. It makes sense because they explained to us that some facts in these two controversial shows are simply false and completely irrelevant to the real cultures that the stories were supposed to represent. But, the main argument of the writer of these shows was that these shows were artistical presentations and he can present whatever he wants, because it’s his imagination and his artistical ideas. Some people may agree with this statement even if most of the people in the public didn’t, including me.

  One thing that I found very interesting, is how much coverage this scandal got. After doing some research, I found out that a lot of people and even entire communities criticized this “piece of art”. Mostly black and western Canadian first nations communities. These communities expressed their frustration and didn’t support these shows at all. It is very understandable.

  To conclude, I would highly recommend this presentation to everybody, because it shows how art can make people believe things that are false and take possession and modify different cultures. This presentation really shows how unfair these shows are to the black and Aboriginal cultures.

  Elin Wägner was born on May 16, 1882 in Lund, Sweden and died on January 16, 1949. Her mother died when she was only three years old and her father worked as the director of a school in the town of Nyköping, so she didn’t grow up in a very rich family. Social issues such as women rights and ecology became her priority and she started to get interested by these subjects at a very young age. She also takes part in a movement for the vote of women and she is a true pacifist. She simultaneously develops the same themes in her literature, tackling the problems of real life in her works of fiction. She was also very implicated in journalism and wrote several articles criticizing some social injustices, she equally wrote a lot about ecology and was very concerned by this serious issue. This woman has some things in common with me, one of these things is the fact that she is concerned by social issues since she was young, she even started writing articles in her school journal at a relatively young age, even if it wasn’t something very appropriate for a young lady like her at that time. But she is also very special and unique as a personality, her life wasn’t easy at all and her childhood was very different from mine. Also, I don’t agree with some of her pacific ideas because I find them a little bit too Utopian, but I do support most of her opinions and ideas. What made me chose this woman is the fact that even if she had a difficult life and suffered the lost of very close people, she remained a good person and pushed through all the difficulties and really fought to prove her vision of how our society should evolve. I find her very inspirational in many ways, but if I had to chose one main reason, it has to be her determination and strong character. She was truly a unique person with a great charisma and with very modern ideas for her time. If I had to give a definition of “inspirational”, I would simply say Elin Wägner, but on a more serious note, I would say that someone inspirational is someone who motivates people around them and gives them hope and will to make a change.

  First of all, the cultures described in the text are very different from my culture. In French and English culture from that time, the woman was clearly a less important member of the society then the man. The women had very little freedom and had to listen to the husband that they can’t even chose. In French culture, women were oppressed and were considered less important then men, the only important women were the nuns, because the nuns were responsible for important institutions like the hospitals and the schools. Of course, in my culture, these things don’t really exist anymore. Women can choose who they want to marry and can decide pretty much everything concerning their life.

  What stuck me the most about Indigenous culture is the fact that women could actually be more important then men in the family, because at that time, a woman to be more important then a man in the family was something unimaginable in the European culture. Also, women were equal to males and were very respected by everybody in the society. It’s very surprising, because even in our modern society, we have problems with equality between genders, but the Indigenous society from that time was more advanced in this aspect then the present Western world. So, our society should really learn and understand that women are just as important as men in the family and in the society.

  Society should be a place where both men and women work together to make our world a better place. Women are just as important as men in a family and it’s something that everybody should understand. Through the years, the place of the women in the society changed a lot.

  Professional sports is one of the biggest industries in the modern society, a lot of money is invested, and modern athletes earn serious amounts of money. Most of the mainstream sport leagues have enormous budgets, but this money isn’t always fairly distributed between genders. For example, the average salary in the WNBA is around 75000$ and the maximum goes to 115000$. It can sound like a normal revenue, but the average NBA player makes 6,388,007$ per year and it goes as high as 37.5M$. We can definitely see that there is a huge wage gap. This huge disproportion is present is most of the professional sports leagues.

  The first question that comes to mind is why male make so much money compared to female. The answers can vary, but I think that the main reason is the coverage and the publicity the different sports get. For example, the leagues like the NBA or the NHL make a lot of publicity and this publicity creates a bigger fan base and more money. It’s very different for women sports. When did you see a WNBA commercial? The fact that the male leagues have more publicity then the female leagues makes a huge difference. Another interesting thing is the fact that some people say that male leagues are more entertaining, but I think that they are not right. In fact, women hockey and gymnastics are some of the most watched events at the Olympics. This proves that women’s sports are not less interesting, but professional women athletes make so much less money then male athletes.

  There is always a solution to a problem. The International Swimming League (ISL) proved it. This professional swimming leagues gives equal winning bonuses to men and women, also both genders make the same amount of points during the season and both genders get the same public attention and contracts. It’s the first professional league to give equal revenues and budgets to both men and women athletes. Even the MVP of the league is chosen between men and women, and the 2019 MVP was a Sarah Sjostrom, a fantastic women athlete!

Sources:

https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-highest-paid-players-2018-10

https://www.blackenterprise.com/wnba-salaries-nba-salaries-2018-update/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Swimming_League

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_plus_gros_contrats_sportifs

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2656664-ranking-the-top-ten-olympic-sports-to-watch#slide9

  Feminism was defined by a lot of persons in very different ways. It’s often seen like something negative and can even be perceived as an anti-men movement. Jessica Valentini and Bell Hooks explain that feminism is not something made to suppress men, but rather a movement to support women’s rights and give them the same treatment and opportunities that men have. Feminism is something that should be supported by everybody, because it’s all about making our society a better place for everybody, no matter what gender they are. But, these two authors have some differences in their definitions. The main difference is that Jessica Valentini doesn’t have a precise definition of feminism and Hooks thinks that it’s really a movement that fights for equal rights for all sexes.

  After reading these articles, my perception of feminism changed a little bit. I think that feminism is made to fight for equality and to simply make our world a better and a more fair place. The one thing that changed is that I finally realized that sexism is more present in our society then what I thought. Sexism against women is not just about making less money then men, but also in little things like insults. As said Jessica Valentini, most of the insults are linked with females, making it seem that being a female is a bad thing. Some people will say that it’s just a detail, but I think that these details make all the difference. I realized that feminism is not only fighting for basic women rights, but also for the way everybody perceives women and their role in our society. Another thing that made me think, is how Jessica Valentini thinks that everybody should be a feminist, I think that her opinion on this subject is mostly true, because as she says feminism is all about making a fair world for everybody, so feminism should be supported not only by women, but by everybody.

  I also did some research about these two authors and found out how Jessica Valentini got into the whole idea of feminism and how she helps people around the world to understand it, she’s also very passionate about this subject and is a very active member in the society. Bell Hooks is really a special persona, she had some very difficult tasks in her life, but she always fought for what she thought was right and I find her very special.