The Lady is a Feminist…Or Is She?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by

Rossetti, Lady Lilith

I recently published my first piece over at Sociology in Focus! It’s called “The Lady is a Feminist…Or is She?” Here’s the abstract:

There has been a recent rise of conservative, evangelical women identifying themselves as ‘feminists.’ And there has been an equally strong backlash among prominent feminists who take issue with these women claiming the ‘f-word’ for themselves. What is a feminist? Can one who believes in separate gender spheres also truly promote gender equality, or are they merely kidding themselves, or worse, promoting a wacked-out femogyny? In this post Angie Andriot explores the many faces of feminism for answers.

I also discussed the various forms and waves of feminism with my Social Problems classes. We went over the basics: What is feminism? What are the waves of feminism? What is the difference between liberal, radical, and cultural feminism? Then I added in some back-and-forth between Sarah Palin and Gloria Steinhem, and talked about “new feminism,” and how many liberal feminists argue it doesn’t count. Then I gave them pretty much the same links I have in that article there, and set them loose in the online forums to hash it out for themselves.

Results?

The vast majority of my students think cultural and conservative feminism is a legitimate form of feminism. Regarding the abortion issue, thoughts were a bit more mixed. Most of them did not identify as feminists before my feminism unit. Most of them still don’t, because they decided that engaging in political action, or at least real positive action, towards gender equality, is a necessary component of taking on the mantle of “feminist.” And they may believe inequality exists, and believe it’s a bad thing, and that someone should do something…but they are not. However, I did snare a few newcomers to the feminist fold, and I did change a lot of negative opinions about feminism.

Oh, THEY’RE the ones that are Out There Doing Something about Gender Inequality. Yeah…I suppose that’s a good thing.

It’s a start :)

Posted in Sociology, Teaching

Fancy Banana Muffins

Posted on August 28, 2011 by

20110828-010719.jpgDelicious banana muffins made fancy with a special pan!

Posted in Everyday Living | Tagged

BlueBirdHeaven Jewelry Display

Posted on August 27, 2011 by

BlueBirdHeavenBehold my lovely new printer drawer jewelry display from BlueBirdHeaven! My lovely husband got this for me for my birthday. It now hangs in my bathroom, and looks splendid!

Posted in Everyday Living

Sociology in Focus

Posted on August 26, 2011 by

Hark! Check out Sociology in Focus, an exciting new blog – “an interesting, fresh, and sometimes irreverent sociological look at the world around you.” You there? Now check out the list of authors. See my shiny mug?

Oh yes, I will be writing for them. I already have my first draft in the queue, with more to come!

Posted in Sociology | 2 Comments

I have a new hobby!

Posted on July 9, 2011 by

Oh this blog has been neglected, as has many of my other hobbies. For I have found one that encompasses all my loves! It requires me to do historical research, social psych research, learn about marketing, and business, and WEB DESIGN. Oh how I love web design. I can get sucked into Dreamweaver for HOURS.  (ooooooohhhhh preeeeeettttyyyy).

My new hobby is also an excellent creative outlet, and one that allows me to play with test tubes, graduated cylinders, Erlenmeyer flasks, vials, and funnels. Awesome!

It even comes complete with its own blog. What is this new hobby, pray tell?

Artisan Perfumery. As a business. See? I can even make money with it!

Posted in Everyday Living

The Utility of In-Class Reflections

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

In Sociology Source, Nathan Palmer recently discussed the utility of mid-term evaulations. I don’t do that, but I do something similar, and today was one of those days in which the importance of these activities was especially evident. You see, sometimes it’s hard to “read” my audience. For example, in my Social Problems class yesterday, I lectured on Gender Inequality. It was almost a straight hour of lecture, because this particular class was NOT engaging.

Or at least, it didn’t seem like they were. They just sat there. Looking at me. The whole hour. As I talked.

It was weird, and disconcerting. They barely even took notes.

I left feeling like the whole lesson flopped. But, at the end of almost all my classes, I have the students write a brief reflection on the day’s topic. Three minutes, basic “What did you learn? What are your thoughts? What is still confusing?” I try to point out things to think about throughout the lectures – What do you think about this? What does this remind you of? Can you think of any other explanations that might compete with this one?

But nobody contributed answers during the lecture.

So, I just read the reflections for the day, and all but one were awesome! They were surprised, some FLOORED, by the things I pointed out. Many of them discussed how INTERESTING it was, and all the wheels it started spinning in their heads.

Invisible wheels, apparently.

I guess they were just sitting there staring because it was all just so interesting, and they were just soaking it all in? All nice and still and quiet-like?

Strange.

Posted in Teaching | Tagged | 1 Comment

Food and Stuff

Posted on March 11, 2011 by

I have had some delicious food and drink here so far. Most notably was were the following:

1. Taphouse. I couldn’t decide on a beer, so I got four.  It was a local beer sampler, but man were those glasses big and full! I also got a tasty sushi sampler. Great feel to the restaurant, too. There were so many choices, it was paralyzing. Which was particularly noteworthy in light of the recent Atlanta article, Toothpaste, Dating, and the Hazards of Too Many Choices. Awesome for people who live here. Sad for people who are just passing through.

2. Then, for lunch today we went to Serious Pie, which was recently featured on Food Network as one of the places to go for the best pizza. Their pizza was certainly quite good.  I got a mushroom pizza that was just awesome. My conference buddy Jess got a pizza with lettuce and entire cloves of roasted garlic on it. Pictured here is a big thing of cheese, that they brought in and hung from that hook while we were eating.

3. Tonight we go to Wild Ginger. Yum.

Oh, and I presented. And it was good. I forgot how fun it can be hanging out with like-minded people.

Posted in Sociology | Tagged