Article Critique of 'Empowerment Through Photo Novella: Portraits of Participation'

Half the Sky; Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn relates the daily abuse and massacre that women have to endure in the developing world. In order to highlight this issue, Kristof and WuDunn successfully raise awareness on gender inequality by outlining many ways in which human rights are inflicted on women. The first section of the book employs a compare/contrast methodology between, the lives of poverty-stricken girls, and the lives of successful girls who managed to escape oppression.

In discussions about raising children in different cultures between Chinese and Western families, Chinese mothers and Western mothers raise their children differently from each other. Amy Chua, in her essay entitled “How Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” argues that Chinese mothers are extremely more strict and harsh when it comes to parenting their children’s self-esteem while Chinese mothers do not while they assume “strength, not fragility” from their children. She also believes that it is necessary to limit the children in their daily lives in order to achieve greatness and honor to their family. Amy Chua is led to this conclusion due to research and examples of her own life as a Chinese daughter as well. My own view on the issue is that Chinese

Author, Susan Sontag compares and contrasts how women and men are depicted in the media, photography and in the general society of the world. She begins by asking her readers to consider to visually produce a photography book compiled of images of everyday women and also to visualize how the images would be composed. Susan Sontag continues by explaining women are minorities in all categories with an exception of population and are depicted differently by the media, as well as, scrutinized differently from one another by the public viewers.

In studying Chinese women and American women the research clearly shows that there are some similarities than differences in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, domestic life and health care. Subcultures can add variations to the average women in both cultures, but for the most part American women have fought for women’s right for a longer period of time and now enjoy more cultural freedoms then the Chinese women that are just beginning to fight for them freedoms.

In today’s society, women impact the world around them in many different and significant ways. Some women influence their communities with great force while others never notice their true importance in their societies. In India, Mishri Yadav is bound to her life as a modest, confined woman who cannot talk to men and must remain in the shadows. In the United States, Michele Noonan is bound to her life as a caretaker for her family who can express herself in whichever way she feels. These two defined people show the importance of how women are viewed extremely different as their countries vary. Some women, such as those in India, are viewed as lower than men with less value, knowledge, and potential. These places do not believe that women contain

Prior to taking this class, my feminist knowledge was not lacking, but I do feel like I know more about the different perspectives after completing this course. I also feel like I have more knowledge about the issues and oppression women face in today’s society. My expectations of this course were a little different from the reality of it. After the introduction post, I thought that the focus would be very much on stereotypes, but in fact there was a broad range of study. In the rest of this paper, I will be talking about how my awareness of the history and experiences of women has grown, feminist concepts and feminist explanations (theory), how family, culture, and society shape us, and finally understanding the gendered dynamic

Photo essays are collections of photographs used to present an argument, express ideas and evoke emotion from the viewer. The difference between this and a photoblog is that photo essays are sequenced together to tell a story over a period of time. “The genre is often used to persuade viewers to sympathize with a point of view or to take a specific action” (pg. 79). This shows that although photo essays tell stories, the genre itself has its’ own purpose. “Most photo essayists do not provide much detail in the text of their essays” (pg.80). Some essayists let the details of their photos do the talking. “The introductory images, which function like a written essay’s introduction, need to establish the subject matter and further the purpose

The behaviors practiced by a culture, especially those concerning the treatment of men and women in a society, are reflective of how a society views its members, both by age and gender. Many societies, such as rural China and Taiwana, view their women as inferior, and the men dominate them. Women are basically powerless and at the will of their husbands. Viewing women as inferior to men often stems from the idea that a man’s work is important and a woman’s work, mainly around the house, is unimportant. This severely hinders a woman’s ability to reach their potential in both the household and society. The !Kung San and the Mbuti hold a woman’s work as a great asset and value it. It is no surprise that these societies respect both men and women as one and the same. This is portrayed by the Mbuti’s tug-of-war games between the men and the women in which neither side dominates the other, and the game ends in a truce with laughter on both sides. This is to teach the children that men and women are both equally important.

The information can discover opportunities that may convey improvements for this type of research. Understanding and engaging participants in order to analyze their perspectives is crucial in order to understand how their personal experiences will systematically impact the research. This framework approach will use an phenomenological research, which will helps gauge information from participants description of their experience in order to comprehend the degree of the phenomenon. (Maxwell, 2013) This framework is unique because researchers are able to engage with participants in an environment that articulate conversations that could offer personal rich life experiences that becomes vital to the study. The research will be guided by two main questions. Research Question 1. What are economic and personal barriers that prevent women from seeking services? Research Question 2. What will make women more receptive to seeking

As I recently wrote my autobiography, I was able to reflect upon and gain a better understanding of my life and the influences that shaped my character and beliefs. I then composed a biography of an individual from the Chinese culture named Faith. Writing her story has given me the opportunity to gain a great deal of insight into the influences her different culture has had on her development. There are kindred attributes and stark differences when comparing our two extremely diverse cultures. Nonetheless, I am convinced it is within the differences that subsist between any cultures that the greatest value and benefit to society will be realized. A comparison of our ethnicity, culture, gender, and socioeconomic status is listed below along with an explanation of the benefits that are achieved when our cultures interact, learn, and work together.

Women’s access to education in China is much more limited than it is to women in the United States and one main reason for this is something called the one-child policy. The one-child policy basically states that families in China are only allowed to have one child. Before the one child policy existed, parents had families with more than one child; this often led to parents favoring the male child (Lee, 2012, p. 41). When parents favor their male child, this is referred to as “son preference” and son preference is something that has continued in China among most parents for centuries (Lee, 2012, p. 41). Male children, therefore, are preferred and more privileged, leaving little or no opportunity for the female children to progress educationally. “This gender bias has resulted in significant gender inequalities in many respects, such as the large gap in the literacy rate or in educational attainment between the genders” (Lee, 2012, p. 41). Both the gender bias and son preference have led to the wide literacy gap as a consequence and this is something that needs to change.

Photography gave a face to the people that were often over looked; women, slaves, and non western now were being portrayed in greater numbers than before. Even as the portrayal of these people grew, the depiction of these groups were manipulated by the photographers in order to convey and fulfill the desired perceptions of the western society. These groups of people became a commodity in western society due to the the efforts by photographers to shape the portrayal of the photo’s subject(s), but these efforts were overridden by the agency that the subjects utilized, either by reshaping or refusing to fit the stereotypes placed upon them.

Third world women are spoken about, however, are never spoken to. McKenzie argues men being involved is problematic explaining, “telling men that they should care about gender inequality because of how much it hurts them, centralizes men and their well-being in a movement built by women for our survival in a world that degrades and dehumanizes us daily” (McKenzie). McKenzie is oblivious enough to think that men could be the cause of taking the spotlight of a women. White feminism dehumanizes those who differ from them by ignoring and erasing the voice of a third world women. It asserts that white feminism is the only voice that will be heard and reached. White feminism is usually broadcasted globally when initiating a helping hand to a certain country or issue but in attempts to save women of third world countries has not developed a change, in fact, it has done the opposite. Their pursuit to save women in developing countries blinds them to the very realistic experience of immense oppression, degradation and sexism, the ones they claim to “suffer” are also in the “land of the free”. Though it seems like women of third world countries seem helpless and deprived of their own situations, white feminism pushes them further to the ground - limiting them to liberate from inferiority. Globally, there are women who suffered through extreme oppression and understand the complicity of women’s rights, and agree that we

Just try to imagine it, you are being pushed out of your job, and your fellow kin are being taken by the police with no justifiable reason. This is the reality for women in China. They constantly face injustices, whether it be at home or in public places. Women in China are not treated equality in terms of employment, wages, and freedom of speech. Beginning in the 1970’s, women’s rights in China began a continuous downfall that still is occurring today.

When finish, students will return to desk and class will discuss the different community heroes.