Finding Dawn Paragraph

The two articles that I read were both about the Robert Pickton case and the Missing Women inquiry. I find the attitudes that many police officers had towards these women absolutely appalling. Just because most of these women were drug-addicted and sex-trade workers, they should not be treated as less than any other person. They are still human beings, and their lives matter too. The fact that many of these women were first-nations women, should not have mattered at all. People are people. Racism should not have played any part in this investigation, but unfortunately it did. I also find it upsetting that even though they had detailed tips from as far back as 1998, it took police until 2002 to catch Robert Pickton. I think that the police did a terrible job of handling the Pickton case, and the Missing Women inquiry is well deserved.

Women: A comparison of sexualization vs. desexualization

Women’s sexuality has been used to remove women’s power for decades. Both the sexualization and desexualization of women take away a woman’s power by only focusing on her sexuality instead of her whole self.

Sexualization is when someone’s value only comes from their sexual appeal or behaviour, excluding other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified. The sexualization of women happens very frequently, and removes a woman’s power. The sexualization of young girls has become a huge problem in recent years, especially through the media. One example of the sexualization of girls are dolls such as Barbie’s, with their unrealistic body proportions and skimpy outfits. Another example is beauty pageants, especially child beauty pageants. In child beauty pageants, young girls are all made up until they no longer look like themselves. They put on fake hair, a fake tan, fake teeth, and cover their faces with makeup. Then they put on often inappropriate outfits, all in an effort to look older and “perfect”. Women and young girls are sexualized in advertisements, movies, music videos, and all other forms of media. The sexualization of women that we see everywhere is linked to a variety of severe problems for girls of all ages. Some issues that are linked to sexualization include a negative self-image, low self-esteem, feelings of anxiety and shame, eating disorders, depression and self-injury. Sexualization can also have a negative impact on a girl’s sexual self-image. Another way that women are sexualized is through the sex trade. Women in the sex trade are valued only for their body, and are often devalued as human beings. They have little to no power and are completely controlled by men.

The desexualization of women also removes a women’s power. Desexualization is to deprive someone of their sexual appeal, characteristics, power or qualities. A very severe, yet common case of the desexualization of women is female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation consists of procedures that alter female genital organs for non-medical reasons, but rather for social, religious and cultural reasons. These procedures have absolutely no health benefits, and are recognized as a violation of human rights. These procedures can cause severe bleeding, bladder infections, infertility and an increased risk of childbirth complications. There is an estimated 100-140 million girls and women across the world living with consequences of female genital mutilation, most of them in Africa. One of the main reasons that these procedures occur is to desexualize girls. People believe that these procedures are linked with premarital virginity and marital fidelity. Female genital mutilation is often thought to help women resist sexual acts.

While the sexualization of women focuses solely on a women’s sexuality, desexualization is about a woman’s lack of sexuality. Both remove a women’s power by ignoring all of a women’s other traits and characteristics. The sexualization and desexualization of women have both got to be stopped in order for women to gain more power and be treated as equals.

References:

· Cacciato, Diane. "Women, Sex, and Power." Mrs. Cacciato's Social Justice 12 Class. N.p., 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. .

· Paddock, Catharine . "Sexualization Of Girls In The Media Is Harmful." Medical News Today. 21 Feb. 2007: n. page. Web. 4 Dec. 2011.

· "Female Genital Mutilation." World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 02 Feb. 2010. Web. 8 Dec 2011.

How Are Women's Issues Also Men's Issues?

Women’s issues are also men’s issues because men and women are all people. We all live together, and therefore anything that affects women will affect men in some way as well, and vice versa. The women’s rights movement is essentially a human rights movement. It is all about freedom and equality. For example, the freedom to work whatever job you want, and to be paid fairly for that job and the right to be treated equally and to not have to face gender-based discrimination. Many of the issues faced in the women’s rights movement are issues that face all minority groups. Another issue that women face is the unreal expectations and standards that are put on them by society because of their gender. This is an issue that men face as well. If we could eliminate all the stereotypes and expectations placed on women, then we could also eliminate those that men face. Women’s issues and men’s issues are intertwined; by improving the situation for one gender, we can in turn change things for the other gender.

LGBT Homework

Gay rights activists are important for so many reasons. They have done so much for gay rights over the past few decades. In 1978, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Harvey won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for his district. He was an advocate for gay rights and was responsible for a strict gay rights ordinance for the city. Harvey Milk was one of the most important gay rights activists, and an inspiration for LGBT people everywhere, even in his death. Another important gay rights activist is Brian Burke, an American hockey executive, and founder of myGSA.ca. Brian is a very powerful agent of change in fighting homophobia in sports. He was a part of the “Anything But Straight in Athletics” series and has been working on gaining acceptance of homosexuality in hockey. Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP party, was also an important gay rights advocate. He was one of the Canadian politicians that the queer community always counted as an ally. He always supported gay marriage, and was a big part of making it legal in Canada. He was also played an important role in supporting anonymous testing for HIV. Without these people, and countless others like them, the gay rights movement would go nowhere. We need people like these in order to change things and make the world a better place for LGBT people.

We still need gay rights activists because homophobia still exists, the LGBT community does not yet have equal rights, and they still face discrimination. Every day, people are bullied and discriminated against for being gay, lesbian, transgendered, etc. Same-sex marriages are still not legal in most states. In many places, LGBT people are still treated like second-class citizens, which is unacceptable. And every day, kids and teens are bullied and harassed by their peers because of their sexual orientation. We hear stories all too often about youths being bullied for being gay, and committing suicide due to such harassment. Young teens such as 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, 15-year-old Jamie Hubley and countless others. All these kids and teens could have done great things with their lives, but due to bullying, they will never get the chance. Then there are the horrific stories of young people such as Matthew Shepard, and Lawrence “Larry” King, who were both killed, all because they were gay. While Matthew Shepard was killed over a decade ago, in 1998, young Larry King was murdered only a few years ago, in 2008. Ten years later and these terrible hate crimes are still happening. This is why we still need gay rights activists. Kids should not be bullied or harassed due to their sexual orientation. It is unacceptable, and it needs to stop. LGBT activists are just as important now as they were in the time of Harvey Milk, or Matthew Shepard, if not more important.

Tories Unveil Crime Bill, But Not The Costs

While I do believe that tougher sentencing laws are a good idea, I think that the fact that the government has not released the costs involved in this project is troubling. With an influx of over 4000 new inmates, many changes are going to need to be made, and they can't be cheap. There will need to be renovations done to many of Canada's prisons, and a few thousand more employees will need to be hired. If the government is able to find the funding for this project, without major cuts to the funding of any other programs, then I am all for it. But if the cost is too great and takes away funding for other important programs, then they may need to re-evaluate.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The boy in this story faces many difficulties in his life. He was born with "water on the brain" and had to have surgery to remove the fluid at a very young age, which caused many problems. He has a really big head, huge feet and is very skinny. He also speaks with a stutter and a lisp. His appearance combined with his speech impediment made him a huge target for bullies. He was often beat up and called "retard". His family was also very poor. They would often have to skip meals as they did not always have enough money to buy food. He only had one true friend, his dog. But when his dog started to get very sick, his family did not have enough money to take the dog to the vet. His father had to shoot the dog to put it out of its misery, and the boy lost his only true friend. This boy faced a very rough childhood.