Girls Rock Movie Quiz

First of all I loved the film. Any program that is created for girls to help them expand their conceptions of themselves and pushes them to be the amazing girls they are will always have a place in my heart.

I was most intrigued by how they constructed the spaces for the girls to lead and how they also constructed the girls’ leadership within those spaces. This camp seemed to go farther than YWLP in the sense that the girls had more agency and free-reign when to came to the decision-making processes. It was still a program based on community, encouragement, and girl power, just like YWLP, but this was a space where there were fewer guidelines and there was more freedom. The girls here were receiving more suggestions than they were receiving guidelines.

The girls formed bands, created band names, wrote music and lyrics, and then performed all on their own. There were teachers to help the girls tackle the basics of different instruments, and there were facilitators assigned to each band to make sure everyone in each group was being heard, but the girls had ultimate power when it came to how they were going to express themselves through their music. It showed me the possibilities past even the shared-power system to a place where girls seemed to have even more power than adults. It was certainly not as chaotic as I think I would have originally anticipated had I known more about the system of power within which the camp operates before watching the film.

It definitely made me reconsider the Ophelia discourse we’ve been reading and talking about. Especially after having discussed the articles in class today, it made me realize that perhaps even though a moment-of-intervention seems very pertinent to every girl’s success as a leader, there is always room for more compromise, especially within whatever power system is already in place while working with the girls. Letting the girls work with girls for the furthering of the girls’ movement is a great first step.

Word Count: 340

Community Engagement 2

Emily Vrotsos

Meredith Tweed

WST 4021

25 October 2011

Community Engagement: Women and Leadership Annual Forum

Ambassador Harriet Thomas, Director of the Global Perspectives Department introduced Dr. Samantha Nutt, the featured speaker. Thomas explained that the forum began five years ago to focus on women’s roles. Thomas shared that Nutt was a registered physician who worked first in Baidoa “The City of Death,” Somalia for UNICEF in the mid 1990s.

Dr. Nutt explained that her first book Damned Nations covers the last 16 years of her life at work in war-torn countries and an evaluation of how we work on war. Her mantra is: “people power, politics, and change.” She stated, “It won’t be enough for you to simply be better. We must redefine success in human terms; human-centered achievable values.” Somalia changed her view about her relationship to the world. When she first arrived she wondered what other people could do, but by the time she left she looked at it as what more could she do. She ascribed the title of story-teller to herself and how she gives presentations and asked the audience to imagine themselves in each anecdote that she told us.

One quarter of a million people died of famine, war, and diseases in Baidoa after health services literally stopped just on the heels of the Rwandan genocide. Somalia was drowning in weaponry with no functioning government. Children had not been to school but had fought and killed. Nutt said that the problem must be understood and acted upon in a global context. The billions of dollars spent on weapon development contracts every year is unsustainable in any economy and we should instead invest those dollars into development projects.

Possibly the worst place for women to live in the world is the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where the “War Against Women” is raging. Rape with extreme violence, gang rape, and amputations of women’s anatomy all play along the lines that rape is a crime of power and opportunity. There is very little stigma in the Congo against rapist but incredible stigma against those who have been raped. There is an international and national struggle to control the Congo’s vast resources and there have been mappings done that show that the closer to the mining areas one goes, the greater incidents of rape with extreme violence, and so people must make informed and ethical choices on a global level in a global context.

Nutt gave us four points to affect social change. The first point was to gain knowledge and information, often in the form of institutionalized education. Her second point was that individuals should make small contributions on a regular basis to development projects, such as programs of education or skills and employment training programs. Her third point was that we must be socially responsible consumers and have responsible investment practices. We should choose companies that are behaving ethically, such as those who follow their supply chains. Nutt’s fourth point was that life and loss are just as relevant “here” as it is “there.”

The talk ended with Nutt and audience members conducting a Question/Answer session. Nutt recommended many social development websites and relief organization websites. She also provided suggestions for traveling and participating as a volunteer or activist in a war-torn country.

Word Count: 532