#post seven

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One of these strange things that society is not necessarily okay with but pro-life people support is children having children—that if a girl in high school gets pregnant, then she has to have the baby. Someone so young having a child can be a positive thing—a lot of young mothers are great, but there’s also some young girls who are not ready to take on that responsibility. They haven’t had time to grow into who they are as a person. Adoption and abortion can be solutions to this and those options should be respected since it’s the woman (or in this case the girl) carrying life for nine months. It’s not a male issue. Yes, men are a hundred percent responsible for creating babies (they are the carriers of the sperm train), but that’s as far as it goes physically. Additionally, Maggie said she hates it when couples say that they’re pregnant because the man has nothing more to do with the pregnancy but watch it play out. 

“Acting like the husband or man is doing something really amazing by supporting his wife while she’s pregnant,” Laura said. “Wow, congrats for doing the bare minimum.” 

Ok, this blog is not about hating on men as you may associate feminist blogs to do. Men are involved in a child’s life and that’s something special. What Laura and Maggie do point out is that it can seem wrong to make a man out to be a hero or on the exact same level of pregnancy as the mother. Men do not know what it will ever be like to carry a child, so maybe it does seem a bit egotistical to take credit for the pregnancy or overpower the mother’s journey with it. But that doesn’t mean that men shouldn’t be allowed to be happy and excited for their child and to do the best that they can to be prepped for fatherhood. It seems there might just need to be a line of accountability for where a man can overstep his role.  Now, Laura said another toxic part of society’s definition of motherhood is that there can be an expectation that women fulfill their role by having children but, in the process of being pregnant, a woman is considered to be nothing.

 “In some cases, women can actually be discriminated against for being pregnant,” Laura said. “And as a mom of children, you have nothing. You have no life or personality outside of your children and I think that’s messed up because I thought I was doing what society wanted me to do?”

 She said that for the amount of time a woman is pregnant is that society and men can just consider her a vessel for a baby and not a person anymore. Now, that can sound very harsh and maybe a tad black and white but it’s an interesting point to ruminate on. Pregnancy announcements are a big event for women because society encourages you to be proud of having a child. Hey, having babies is a good thing but it’s strange to see how baby announcements have to be a very social spectacle. Everything changes once that announcement is made; a woman isn’t asked how she is anymore but how the baby is. People don’t view a woman as who she was before but who she will be to her child and that’s something that doesn’t get talked about a lot. Alright, next week will be a little reflection about the happenings of this here blog and what’s been covered so far. Thanks for reading and stay cool, sodapops!

During the school’s spring break, I had time to sit around and relax and take an actual break. The reality is, I worked, I took class, I stressed, slept and auditioned. I got some news from the doctor that I am very neutral about – I have benign vertigo that I’m going to need to just deal with and work around as I catapult my professional career and end my university education. My self-confidence in my ability to be a professional took a bit of a hit. The end of the break was purely auditions, so it was bad timing. The first audition I have no feelings about; if they hire me, great! If not, I can move on peacefully. The next audition however has given me a large ego boost that I desperately needed as I start to think about the future. I made it through several cuts and was there until the audition was officially over. I felt very interested in the company and, not to boast, but I felt they were interested in me. All this to say that confidence is something I struggle with and something I’d like to look at building as I move into the process of performing my work and putting myself out into the world.

That brings us to building confidence in yourself in totality as I move into performance week. I’m terrified! But a quote that I pulled from an article that I’ll be referencing to for most of this post is as such; ‘confidence in myself and my abilities would make me successful, not success making me confident,’ (La Rae Quy). I’m going to strive to remember this as I finish this capstone and perform my work. As for my questions for this blog, I’m asking myself if I am positively working towards better self confidence in reference to the article.

There are seven steps that Quy offers as ways to develop self-confidence. The first is to expose yourself to different situations and push through uncomfortable moments. I’m currently doing this as I put myself in a setting of showing my work and doing so solo wise. The second step is to not confuse your memory with facts. The memory is riddled with inconsistencies because it is exposed with irrationalities and emotions. That is why I’ve really wanted to push journaling and blogging as a habit, so I can compare my memories to a day by day account. It may help with future anxiety issues and fear of rejection.

The third step is to talk to yourself and make things a challenge, not a problem. I love this, for the most part. I think this depends on the type of person you are. The fourth step is to think positive thoughts. A 5:1 ratio of positive to negative is said to begin the habit changing process. Step five is to raise curiosity levels so that the self and mind continues to grow and respond to things as an adventure. Step six is overcoming the self-doubt ‘victim’ mentality because no one but yourself is stopping your confidence from growing.

Facing your fears is step seven. It’s easier said than done. Involving breath and getting closer to the source of the issue changes the interactions with the fear overall. I like to think I’m working things out like this currently.

This will all help me as the artistic world is a vulnerable and scary place. I know that I like have validation, but that won’t always be possible. I need to remember that success is how I feel, not my achievements.

 https://www.mindtools.com/selfconf.html

Post Seven: Building Codes… Big Obstacle

           Public bathrooms have not always been necessarily separated.. "Historically, shared public latrines have been a feature of most communities, and this continues to be true in developing countries such as Ghana, China, and India," Olga Gershenson and Barbara Penner. The work force is what brought about the need for more bathrooms, particularly women in the work force. Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law mandating women's restrooms in workplaces with female employees. Due to this not being the law of the entire land, other places were allowed to refuse to build bathrooms for women. 

           Due to laws being created after this regulating the makeup of these bathrooms it has now made it a task for folks to change these building codes. Existing building codes tell you how many of each bathroom there must be depending on how big the population in that area is. Only in recent years (2012) in places like New York has it been given the go ahead for places to make rooms with two water closets gender neutral bathrooms.

By law establishments follow a fifty fifty rule assuming there an equal amount of men to women which has changed so places can have two women’s bathrooms for every male bathroom’ this is why if multiple stall bathrooms are to be changed to gender neutral it tends to be the women’s bathrooms. The codes are all calculated by number of specific gender per toilet which has to be reformed in order to take some of those bathrooms and transform those into gender neutral spaces.

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The first community organization that we passed by since University Avenue was West Neighbourhood House, just passed Bathurst street. I found this in line with my recognition of just how commercialized and transitional a space Queen West can be. 

An interesting documentary I watched in class about human obsessions with creating art of human form which dates back tens of thousands of years ago and it is still popular today is particularly intriguing. 

I took these pictures at a park in Minneapolis MN this past summer, I like to look at art and try to understand what the artist is trying to tell his/her viewers. I found these particular pieces interesting: A half of face featuring the lips, and a black coat.

I have no Idea what these pieces mean, but my family and I had a fun time speculating what it could possibly mean. My 2 year old cousin was able to fit inside the coat and it looked like she was wearing the coat which was cool to see. 

As a person who traveled to a number of places, I see these types of art quite often, different countries, different continents.

A New York-based flight attendant has sued NBC Universal Media, "The Tonight Show" and Jay Leno for defamation, claiming Leno falsely accused her of smuggling rats onto a plane in her underwear, according to a Courthouse News Service report.

Louann Giambattista, 55, said Leno's depiction of her has wreaked havoc on her marriage and made her an outcast in her community.

Leno showed a photo of Giambattista and had three panelists comment on her story during a July 18 segment called "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda."  She claims the panelists "systematically criticized, defamed, and humiliated her," and Leno "indulged panelists' outlandish comments and laughed as his guests attacked Ms. Giambattista's character."

Giambattista claims her husband "now suffers from severe sexual dysfunction and inability to perform sexually" as a result of the segment, the report says.  

She also claims Leno knew the story was based on "blatantly false and malicious rumors."

Giambattista originally sued American Airlines in July after she claimed she was discriminated against because of a perceived mental disability, an ABC News report said.  

Giambattista said she was subject to detentions and interrogations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she worked international flights because two flight attendants told American Airlines she was bringing her concealed pet rats onto work flights, the report said.  

Giambattista's lawyer denied that she brought rats onboard flights and Giambattista no longer works for the airline.  

Giambattista will struggle to win her lawsuit against Leno and NBC because she will have to prove actual malice -- a reckless disregard for the truth -- since she is a public figure under the Gertz standard.   

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gertz that there are three categories of public figures: all-purpose, limited purpose and involuntary.  The court defines limited purpose public figures as those who voluntarily inject themselves or are drawn into a controversy.  

Giambattista qualifies as a limited purpose public figure because she initiated the lawsuit against American Airlines, thereby prompting the controversy.  She is also an involuntary public figure because the bizarre nature of her case immediately generated media attention.

Giambattista will also have to prove falsity -- that Leno's claims weren't true -- because bringing rats onto airplanes is an issue of public concern.  The Supreme Court ruled in Hepps that plaintiffs must prove falsity in cases of public concern.