Vagina Dentata

When professor Velasco was lecturing about Vagina Dentata or Vagina with Teeth, I thought it was only a myth. I did not believe what she was saying. She also mentioned that men have the fear of losing their penis during intercourse. However, I found a video where it talks about Vagina Dentata. I was surprised that this condition really exists. It is a rare condition among women. Those women should not feel ashamed for having this condition because it can be treated and they can also have a normal life.

Girl Drummers

If there is any musical instrument that seems to be the most gender unbalanced, it has to be the drum set. When you look at singers, guitarists, piano players, and bass players, there is always an even mix of males and females who play each of these instruments. When it comes to drums, however, it is almost shocking to find a girl who plays. Why is this?

In the Popular Music major at USC, there are multiple males and females at each instrument except for one- you guessed it. In fact, out of the 15 drummers in the program, not one is female.

Are drums considered a manly instrument? How so? At what point in the instruments evolution did it become exclusive for men? Sure, there have been a fair share of crazy party-boy drug addicts who have held down the drum throne at some point or another (RIP Keith Moon and John Bonham), but there have been plenty of successful female drummers as well, such as Sheila E., Cindy Blackman, and Meg White. Yet, it is still rare to see many younger girls picking up the instrument.

Tena Clark is a famous songwriter/producer/composer who got her start as a drummer. She explains that her original goal as a drummer was to not be labeled as "good...for a girl," but thought of on the same level as her male peers.

It will be interesting to see how the gender constraints of the drum set will change as the years go on.

George Carlin on "Dick Fear"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfQSspNKUJ8

While reviewing about talking parts during several of our lectures, especially after viewing the South Park episode of the singing penis/mouse, I was reminded of this video. I think George Carlin really takes a funny (but somewhat relevant) shot at how certain men are completely ruled by their genitals. In relating this "Dick fear", (the fear of having a smaller sized penis than the next guy) to what starts world wars, I think Carlin is making an interesting observation on the separation of mind between a male's brain and penis. He goes on to say "basically men are killing one another to improve their self esteem" leading to his "Bigger Dick Foreign Policy Theory", those with bigger "penises" bomb them! "Even the bullets and missiles are dick-shaped!" which is clearly just a humorous observation but it does ultimately make one consider this idea of genitals having a mind of their own.

"Hetero-sexualization" of LGBT culture

The use of the lesbian scene in movies is something that is becoming almost a stereotype in popular culture. Not only are they being incorporated into all sorts of movies ranging from American Pie 2 to Black Swan, they seem to be placed in these films merely to attract buzz and attention from audiences, especially males. However, this is not the same for gay scenes being placed in movies. It is not a common sight to see a straight man declaring excitement in going to see a movie where two males show each other physical affection. The image of two females showing each other affection is something that men hetero-sexualize, and thus it is more acceptable to see in popular culture. Americans seem to be more comfortable and accepting towards the LGBT culture when it is approached in safely put together, familiar heterosexual imagery. We like to view LGBT rhetoric through our own hetero-filter in order to “euphemize” certain homosexual situations. It is true that we see much more of LGBT rhetoric in today’s culture, with movies like multiple Oscar award-winning Milk and songs like “Born This Way” being honored at the Grammy’s. However, these achievements are merely scraping the surface of the American tolerance of homosexual themes.

Woman accused of trying to cut off husband's penis

After seeing this article in the Los Angeles Times, I though I would share it with the class for it has some relevance to what we have been discussing.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/husband-penis.html

L.A. NOW

Southern California -- this just in

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Woman accused of trying to cut off husband's penis

December 4, 2011 | 9:16pm

A 69-year-old Palm Springs woman was accused of attempting to cut off her husband’s penis with a pair of large scissors this weekend. Her effort failed, although the husband was treated for a non-life-threatening wound in the genital area and released from a local hospital, police said.

Virginia Valdez was charged with mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and felony domestic violence in the alleged attack Saturday evening, according to Palm Springs police. She was released Sunday on $100,000 bond and faces a court hearing next month, they said.
Palm Springs Police Sgt. Kyle Stjerne said the couple had been married for 32 years and the cause of Saturday’s fight at their home in the 1700 block of Rochelle Road remains under investigation.
“It was just a long-standing marital dispute, and we are not sure what caused her to do it,” he said.
The 62-year-old husband’s name was not released.
Police recovered the scissors and will retain them as evidence. Stjerne described the scissors as resembling poultry shears. “They were more heavy duty than the standard office scissors,” he said.

Runaway Penis

As we saw in the last lecture of our SWMS class, we saw this clip of a Southpark Episode, in which Mr. Garrison's penis, was attached to a mouse and the mouse ranaway.
in this comical portrayal of personification, the theory of a talking penis is pointed to.

we talked a lot about theory of penises and vaginas talking with their own minds, and in this clip, a personified imagery shows the actual penis talking. the male gender is often looked at with having two minds, one of the brain, and one of the penis. the male mind is argued to have difficulty making decisions when the penis' mind intercedes, which is not literal, but an image of what seems to be happening, especially when a male is sexually aroused.
this conveys that there is a certain sexual drive within our anatomy in which we cannot always think or make decisions based on objective analysis alone. in this clip, the penis is literally detached from mr. Garrison, and it's hilarious when the penis actually sings with this mouse, but it also makes males think about the way they control their sexuality in their gender. how much control do we really have over our sexual desires? does it have a mind of it's own that we don't have full control over?
this answer is open ended and does not have a solidified answer, but it's just intriguing to think about. why the penis? what makes sexual activity so separate from the rest of our brain/body?


-Fred Kim

LGBT in Education

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-glbt-20111019,0,4748555.story

Editorial

Gaps in the LGBT lesson plan

California's teachers need better guidance on how to meet a state law requiring positive messages about gays.

October 19, 2011

This is what happens when school laws are passed for political reasons rather than educational ones. Starting in January, public school teachers from kindergarten on must include some sort of positive message about gay people in their lessons, but as The Times has reported, they have little idea how to comply with the law. What's more, the state lacks the time or resources to develop lesson plans or a curriculum to help guide them.

GLBT: An Oct. 19 editorial about a new state law suggested that it might lead to the teaching of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender "issues" and that one appropriate place to do that would be in sex-education classes. In fact, the law specifically requires schools to teach about the "role and contributions" of GLBT Americans in the social science curriculum.

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It's appropriate for state lawmakers to ban discrimination in public schools and to require that students not be harassed or tormented. It's another matter when the Legislature interferes with issues that are properly the jurisdiction of educators and textbook authors.

There is nothing wrong with teaching about people of various sexual orientations and the issues that affect them. But the California curriculum already is rightly criticized for packing in too much information at the expense of delving into subjects more deeply. Decisions about adding new subjects should be made by educators with an overall grasp of how best to structure education in the coming years. For each new subject that enters the school day, legislators should realize, another one has to leave or be given shallower treatment. Politicians, driven in large part by their desire to please one constituency or another, are not the best arbiters of what students should learn.

Meanwhile, what's a kindergarten teacher to do? The state Board of Education should step in swiftly with interim regulations that provide local school districts with significant flexibility, while also clarifying the minimum requirements so that schools are protected from legal claims that they're flouting the law.

During the first several years of school, those requirements should be truly minimal. Young children can learn that there are many different kinds of people and families and that all must be treated respectfully. But too much detail is not necessary at this age.

Beyond that, many schools will need suggestions about where instruction about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people or issues might best fit into the existing curriculum. Such information should be relevant to the subject under study. So where might this schooling be appropriate? In sex education, definitely. (The Los Angeles Unified School District already addresses the issue in its health classes.) In civics classes about the California initiative process, perhaps, where a discussion of Proposition 8 might be germane. Public schools have been given a poorly crafted, politically motivated mandate; the state board will have to be thoughtful where legislators were not.

Analysis:  During our last discussion class, we shared our thoughts on how the class has changed our understanding of gender and sexuality.  As mentioned in discussion, this class, Gender Conflicts in a Cultural Context, has increased my knowledge of many gender identities and made me feel comfortable in explaining topics I would have been unable to talk about otherwise.  Because of this class, I find myself discovering how various topics can be related to my everyday life. With this said, the article, Gaps in the LGBT lesson plan, in the Los Angeles Times newspaper describes how public education will begin to incorporate lessons about gay people and educate students on their positive contributions in society.  Teaching children on this particular matter is advantageous creating a better understanding of the LGBT community.  Through the educating of children, the discrimination and the hate crimes towards the gay community could be reduced in the future because people will recognize that gay people are no different and can have a positive impact on the world.  Being gay does not affect one’s ability to succeed for there are many gay successful gay people in the world today.  Some of them include the television host and actress, Ellen Degeneres, the fashion designer, Giorgio Armani, and the American feminist, Susan B. Anthony.