Suffragettes is a British movie, it was directed by Sarah Gravon in 2015. This film talks about the struggle that women have to face to obtain the right of vote in England. It is inspired by real events that took place in London between 1912 and 1913. I found the movie beautiful because it traces the courage and will of Women to obtain gender equalities. Suffragettes concentrates on the difficult conditions that British women have to face everyday. They decide to make a movement known as the “Suffragettes” to fight for equality and freedom. The reactions of the government are really violent. During the strikes, women were getting beat up and arrested by police forces. In this film, Women are willing to do anything to fight for their freedoms. Maud, is the main character of the movie and she took a lot of risks. Her activism caused the loss of her husband, job and son.

The main character, Maud, played by Carey Mulligan is very inspiring. She is a mother and she works in a laundry. Her boss does not respect her, he insults her everyday for no reason and he also abused a lot of women workers in the past. In the beginning, Maud did not want to become an activist because her husband was against any feminist movements and she did not want to lose her family for that. However, one day, Maud decides to accompanies he coworker to one of the strikes. In response to the event, the police arrested all the girls. When she is released from prison, her husband kicks her out of the house and forbids her to see her own son, George. Maud loses her job as well because she was everywhere on the news since she was arrested. In response, Maud decides to continue to fight for Women’s rights because she felt like she was not treated equally since her husband would not let her see her son.

Emily Davidson is also an important character in the movie. She is also a suffragettes and she has been arrested many time by the police for supporting women’s rights. One day, she attended derby day with Maud, which is a popular sports event. There was a horse race and Emily ran out in front of one of the horses and sacrificed her life to send a message to the public. Her purpose was to show to people that women are suffering because they are not equal to men. Before committing this action, she told Maud to keep fighting no matter what happens. I found Emily really inspiring because she sacrificed her life for her feminism cause.

After watching the Suffragettes, I realized that anything can be possible. Those women were living in harsh conditions, but they still fought to death to get what they want. I feel like it represents a lot of women around the world. Today, there is still some countries where women are not equal to men, like for example in the middle east or Africa. This movie showed that anyone can change the world, we just have to fight and make our voices heard. I come from a middle eastern background. In my country, there is a lot of gender inequalities and after seeing this movie, it motivated me to change the world we live in.

To conclude, I found this movie amazing because it is inspired by real historical events. Through this film, we can see that women have suffered a lot and they have fought to death for their human rights. Thanks to them, women in American and European countries are now allowed to vote. It amazed me to see women risking their lives for their civil rights. I suggest this movie and I believe the director deserves an Oscar because she did a wonderful job.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette_(film)

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/01/25/films/film-reviews/suffragette-strength-women/#.XqyPDqhKjD4

https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/movie-reviews/suffragette

Society’s expectations put a lot pressure on individuals regarding the appropriate attitudes and roles that each sex should have and it often cause discrimination. As we all know, gender is socially constructed and because of that society has always said that men are above women. Society has taught us that men are known to be violent, women known to be polite, blue is a color for boys and pink’s color is for girls, etc. This means that in the society we live in, it would be unacceptable to see a woman being violent and speak loud because she would have been considered rude and dangerous. It is the same case for a male, a man cannot being gentle and sweet because he would be considered as too weak and feminine. These are known as double standards and they are created by society.

“Masculinity as Homophobia” by Michael Kimmel suggests that men are into homophobia because they are scared of feminity. “Homophobia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men” (Kimmel 1). This passage shows that men are scared of showing who they truly are because society has always taught them that it is unnatural for a man to be emotional, soft or kind. Because society has shown the appropriate behavior that each men should have, they are scared of showing their nature, they believe people will make fun of them. Most men hide from reality, they have always been told that girls are supposed to be emotional and if boys start acting like girls, people would think that they too weak and feminine.

In “Understand Patriarchy” by Bell Hooks, the authors explains and gives her opinion about patriarchy. She said that patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that male are dominating, superior to everything and everyone (Hooks 1). Hooks also said that her parents believed in patriarchy and at a young age they taught her many things like: her role as a female was to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and nurture others. Her parents also taught that it was considered as “unnatural” for a woman to be violent. Bell also shared a traumatic event with his brother. She announced to her brother that she would like to play marbles, and he replied by saying “Girls do not play marbles. This is a boy’s game.” The worst part is that her father didn’t defend her. He was being violent and he told her “You’re just a little girl. When I tell you something, I mean for you to do it”. This is a perfect example of patriarchy because it shows that men have much more privileges than women. Since then, Hooks realized that the world she lives in is a world’s men and she does not have much power.

In conclusion, I feel like that men should redefine the concept of masculinity not just for gender equality or to decrease sexism or homophobia, but it would be good for them. Imagine if they change the idea of “masculinity”, they would be able to act the way they want or dress the way they want. Men would stop hidding behind reality and they would actually show their real faces. I hope one day that society will change their gender roles perceptions because people are learning all these double standards by interacting with others.

For the international women’s week at Vanier, I attended the Slav and Kanata event. The main goal of this presentation was to denounce Robert Lepage’s culture appropriation. The event was presented by two speakers : a black and native american woman. The native american woman had meeting with Robert Lepage in order to understand his culture appropriation toward indigenous people. In fact, Robert Lepage directed a play few years ago about indigenous culture, and the woman was upset at him because first of all the play did not represent indigenous culture well – the quality of the costumes looked so “cheap”, but the main reason of why she criticized the play was because none of the comedians were indigenous people, so it did not represent their culture well. During the meeting, she asked him that next time he should hire native american actors and Robert Lepage said he wasn’t interested. The other woman also had a meeting with Mr. Lepage because he directed another play but this time about slavery, she criticized his work because she didn’t like how Robert portrayed black people. The main purpose of this presentation was speak out about the fact that white people have a lot of privileges and it is quite difficult to be a minority because will see you as “inferior” and they won’t take you seriously.

I really enjoyed the presentation because the two speakers are both minorities and it was interesting to learn about their past experiences. I also loved the fact that those two women were willing to do their best to defend their nation and culture. During this presentation, I learned that if there’s something that you dislike, you have too stood up and defend your beliefs and values. I come from a middle eastern background and when I was younger, I received a lot of racial comments because of how I looked – the colour of my skin, and these two women inspired me to not being afraid of defending my people.

I enjoyed the talk, the audience seemed so interested as well. A lot of students were asking questions. I learned to not being afraid of defending your culture and nation. If I could attend this event another time I would because a lot of issues were brought to the talk such as ; racism, cultural appropriation, propaganda, and etc.

Rachel McAdams, born on November 17 1978, is a canadian actress. She is known for her roles on many canadian movies such as : perfect pie, my name is Tanino and the comedy serie Sling and arrows. Rachel McAdams is also an activist, she is involved in many environmental causes. She directed an environmental lifestyle habits website called Greenisexy.org with her two friends for 5 years. She also believes that cars pollute the environment, which is why she doesn’t own one, she travels around Toronto with her bike. She volunteered in Biloxi, Missipi and Louisana, in 2005, to clean up the cities after the Hurricane Katrina. In 2013, she filmed two videos on the First Food & Water movement in order to preserve prime agricultural land and spring water in Ontario.

Rachel McAdams is an inspiring women and I chose her because I share some common traits with her. First of all, she is Canadian just like me. She also used to play volleyball back in High school, and I’ve always been a fan of this sport, I used to be on the Volleyball team in high school as well. I also see myself in her because she’s an environmental activist and this is what I like about her. She is so motivated to change the world in a better place and that’s what I want to do, I want to be like her and open people’s eyes about the environmental issues around us. Rachel McAdams is a brave women, she doesn’t fear anytime. Although, unlike her, I am scared to get more involved in environmental causes because I know some people will react in a bad way during conferences or even protests and I’m scared of the consequences. I don’t have the courage that she has. Rachel is an inspiring women to me because she’s really involved in the environment and by looking at her hard work, you can see that she wants change. What I love about her is that she use her popularity to promote climate change.

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

According to the text “Gender and Cultural diversity in the early contact period”, in Indigenous culture, gender wasn’t classified. In fact, both men and women were equal, no one was superior or inferior. Both men and women have their own roles in society. In indigenous culture, men hunt and gather, women take care of the children, prepare the meals and controlled the distribution of food in their communities. Both men and women could become shamans. Compared to Indigenous culture, European culture was different. Just like in Indigenous culture, men were also in charge of hunting and gathering and women of children, but the big difference is that women did not have power in society, they were not allowed to take any decision. A man was perceived as the ruler of the family.

Today, in Western Culture, the conception of gender changed. Now, Women are getting more right like example : the right to vote, to work, to divorce, etc. Although, there are still some inequalities between the two sexes like for example in some places, men are still getting paid more than women. Even though gender roles changed, people are still making stereotypes about men should be working and women staying at home. A lot of people think it is not “normal” to see a man cooking or taking care of the kids.

What struck me in the text is the part where the author said that in European cultures, the husband was considered as a firm and his wife had to obey him in all worldly matters. When I first read this part, I was shook and upset because back in the days, women were just seen as object, they did not have any authority and were not allowed to take any decisions. I was upset when I saw this part, because to me all of us are humans and we should all have the same rights. In some countries, men are still seeing superior to women and it is sad because in some places like in the Middle East or Asia, women do not have much freedom.

Misogyny, sexism and hatred toward women have always been present in society. Anti-Feminism has existed since modern times. Men who practiced Christianity were against women’s independence, moreover they were against the right for women to vote, work, make their own decisions and to be equal to men. In addition, male saw their wives as sexual objects which is why most of them forced their wives to have sexual relations with them in order to have kids. Since then, many stereotypes have been made toward women such as women that dress in a certain way are sluts, women that engage in sex are also sluts, and etc. There a huge sexual double standards between men and women. Let’s take the example of Kim Kardashian, when Kim posts a picture of her body on Instagram she gets called a “Slut, Whore, Attention seeker”, but if a male celebrity like for example Justin Bieber posts a shirtless picture, no one says anything, people do not seems to care about it. It’s the same case when a man cheats on his girlfriend people refers him as a “Playboy”, but if it’s a woman she is referred as a “Slut”.

The word “Slut” have been used for year against women. Slut Shaming consists of bullying a woman for her sexual practices or dress style. This concepts justify rape. In fact, many misogynists justified their actions by saying that some women deserve to get raped because of how they dress and they refer them as “attention seeker”. (Boaz 2016) Slut Shaming can take various forms. Bullies often use websites to post explicit photos of a woman, Many times, these photos and videos are taken without the target’s knowledge. Some boys have also been known to record their sexual activity with a girl and they then share it on the web. Many boys have also slut shamed girls by exposing the nudes of a woman without her consent. Slut shaming can impact someone’s life in a really bad way. Many girls committed suicide because of the bullying they received by their classmates. (Gordon 2019)

Amanda Todd killed herself on October 10, 2012. It all started with her having a conversation with a guy she met online. The man took pictures of her breasts and posted it on social medias. Since that happened, Amanda received a lot of hate and insults, she was being called a : “Slut, Whore, Prostitute, and etc.”. Due to this bullying, Amanda committed suicide. (Dean 2012) A lot of victims that experienced slut shaming spoke about their experience. Samantha confessed that she was slut-shamed back in high school and it ruined her life, she was getting anxious and didn’t want to step a foot outside of her house. Jennifer also said that she used to be slut-shamed by her ex husband and she was worried when he was drunk because he had anger management issues. (Laderer 2017)

In conclusion, slut shaming is a big issue in the world of feminism. There is a lot of sexual double standards between male and female. Slut Shaming can ruin someone’s life and I think we should educate people on how bad it is and the impacts of it.

Bibliography:

Boaz, B. (2016). Dangers of Slut-Shaming. Retrieved from https://rampages.us/univ200ramblings/2016/05/02/dangers-of-slut-shaming-multimodal-essay/

Dean, M. (2012). The Story of Amanda Todd. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-story-of-amanda-todd

Gordon, S. (2019). The Effects of Slut-Shaming on Teen Girls. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/the-effects-of-slut-shaming-on-teen-girls-460586

Laderer, A. (2017). Women share slut shaming stories- and admit why they do it on themselves. Retrieved from https://www.talkspace.com/blog/women-share-slut-shaming-stories-admit/

Feminism is a movement that fights for political and social rights for women. Feminists have fought for many big causes such as : The right for women to vote, getting access to education, the right for women to make their own decisions, and etc. Nowadays, feminism is still present, many women are fighting for their own rights around the whole world. Every single individuals have their own definition and thought of feminist. After analyzing, ‘You’re a Hardcore feminist. I swear.’ by Jessica Valenti and ‘Feminism is for everybody’ by Bell Hooks, I understood that both of these authors had a different view of what feminism is. Both of them agreed that feminism is not a sexist movement against men, it fights for the equality of both sexes. However, Valentin claimed that feminism is a huge movement for women, they deserve their places in society with respect. Bell Hooks believes that feminism is a movement to  end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. Both authors pointed out some stereotypes about feminist supporters such as : feminists are anti-men, anti-sexist, ugly, fat. Valentin and Bell Hooks believes that feminism is a big controversial issue because of those stereotypes made toward women. In reality, feminism is more than an empowerment movement for women to get paid equally or the right to vote, it is for women to feel good and respected in their bodies. After reading the two texts, I realized that women fight for feminism causes to have a good place in society and not just to feel themselves above men.

The section that really struck me is the part is when Valentin said ‘Most people think feminism is a bunch of angry women who want to be like men. It stuck me because, as I feminist, I can clearly see that these people do not get the point of this movement. This movement was created for men and women to be both equal in term of politic, economy and social classes. As I feminist, I fight for the equality of both sexes and respect toward women rather than feel above men.

I made some research about the authors and their past life. Jessica Valenti was a victim of online threat throughout her career. In July 2016, she took a break from social medias after receiving rape and death threats aimed at her and also her 5 years old daughter. Throughout her childhood, Bell Hooks experienced racist, it was not easy for her to live in an American society as a black woman. So, in conclusion, I understand why both of these women want spread feminism around the whole world because they’ve been through a lot of injustice.