A Small Focus in Gender Violence

This week in Gender Comm we studied the chapter of power and violence. On Tuesday we broke up into groups and discussed different sections of the chapter (something we do on the regular). I found myself in the group that covered genital surgery as well as gender murder. A topic of particular interest to me was the circumcision differences between men and women. For instance a male circumcision seems almost pointless. Its kind of like a tradition that has been going on under the guise that it is heather. Our book however tells us that it is not. Not only that but it doesn't make sex more or less pleasurable. To me it's kind of like the difference between a belly button that's in and one that's out. When we look at female circumcision it becomes a whole different topic. In the book we read about a few different female circumcisions which are Sunna, excision or clitoridectomy, and infibulation. On a side not as I type this my browser is showing me that it doesn't even have these words in it's dictionary. That's kind of just a show of how little is known about these surgeries. Personally I don't want to get into describing each one because its pretty painful just to think about. In general these types of surgeries are much more painful then male circumcision and usually prevent females from experiencing sexual pleasure. That is just downright evil on a the most basic level. I believe they are done out of fear. Men fear that women will be promiscuous and they do these things to "protect" the idea of a sacred marriage. That's were it ties into this idea of power and control. These things are built around fear and feed off of it. It's not to say that women don't struggle for power and control in a relationship and then abuse it but men seem to be the majority in this case. Either way it comes down to say that we all have to freedom do with our bodies as we please. We don't however have the right to force others tho treat their bodies in certain ways. Especially when those ways are based in fear, power, and control rather than the overall well being of the person. Doing something because it's the tradition is not an excuse either. If someone wants to mutilate their body in that way that is their choice and no one else's. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more click on this link to view a great document by the World Health Organization: Eliminating Female genital mutilation

Gener and Medication in Schools

It has been a few weeks since we discussed this topic in class, but I did want to make sure and blog about it because of the interesting conversation that we had. The topic at hand was gendered education. Now after a hospital, a school is the earliest gendered institution that we as 1st world children are introduced to. There, kids are expected to act a certain way, use certain bathrooms, and are subject to being criticized by peers by the way they act. A big thing that has come up in schools in the last 10 years or so though has been the use of medications for children who have A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. Some of us in the class had taken medications such as Ritalin before and some of us still take them. Personally, I had been on them for about 8 years from 5th grade till my sophomore year in college. One of our supplemental materials was talking about the increase in diagnosis of children specifically young boys. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated in 2007 that boys were about twice as likely to be diagnosed for either of these disorders. I'm surprised that the number isn't higher. So why is it that boys are more likely to be diagnosed? Well young boys are more likely to be active and rowdy in school. I think most people can agree with that. Public education is just not tailored for that kind of behavior. In class, we debated whether this was an institution problem, or if students really have this disorder. Does it make sense to drug our children in order to make them conform to public education? It certainly is the easy way out. In my opinion I think we need to work towards alternate education that will keep kids interested. Public education has been so generalized it's no wonder it doesn't work for everyone. Medication should be a last resort but instead it's being used as an easy way out. There's a reason that boys are being diagnosed more then girls and it's because sitting quietly at a desk for 6 hours is not what little boys want to do. There is much more that goes into this discussion but unfortunately this is all the time that I have. It is not only about gender but also of our society as a whole.
Here's the the information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention if your interested in more scientific data: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html