Nicole's Argument/ Evidence Sources

Sorry this is really rough...I am going to have to work on it more after class.
I am having trouble finding sources that talk about different functions of Guernica, other than as an anti-war sentiment....so I was trying to find sources that talk about art in general.
Argument Source 1: "Abstractions in art with implications for perception"
by Robert Zimmer
He talks about the purpose of art and how there is this "two-way effect" of how artworks are creations and yet we are also created by artwork.

Evidence 1: "Picasso's 'Guernica' in Its Historical Context"
by Werner Hofmann
This will help me get some background information on the bombing of Guernica/ what motivated
Picasso to make the painting.
Evidence 2: http://records.viu.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm
Image itself
Evidence 3: http://www.isreview.org/issues/52/guernica.shtml
Picasso describes art as being "an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy."
Evidence 4: http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/glevel_1/5_meaning.html
Picasso talks about the painting's anti-war sentiment and talks about the symbolic meaning of the bull/ other images in the mural.

Straying from the Limelight: The Release of College Partying

For my research essay, I plan to explore how the partying culture of college operates as a form of release from societal pressures to succeed. Partying – being generally defined as sex, drugs and alcohol – allows one to enter into an alternate form of reality, essentially an escape from the intense pressure to be accepted into a good school, the pressure to get outstanding grades and an outstanding job. American society sets these intense pressures to succeed while simultaneously encouraging partying as an outlet. This outlet – this release – allows one to return to the vigorous, fast paced and burdening roles one is forced to carry due to societal pressures. I will specifically show how the April 26 2007 car accident of two high school seniors in Bellmore, New York demonstrates that persons extremely involved with societal pressures to succeed need a form of release. Two 17 year old seniors, intoxicated and reaching speeds up to 98 mph on the freeway, crashed and were ejected from their car on Long Island in April 2007. These teens were otherwise ‘perfect kids’: excellent grades, good reputations, volunteers, and were accepted to prestigious universities. This pressure to succeed forces young people – from middle schoolers to college students – to search for a way in to escape from this pressure. Historian John F. Kassoon makes a similar argument about amusement parks in his book Amusing the Million. Kasson says, “Coney Island acted as a safety valve, a mechanism of social release and control that ultimately protected existing society…In an age of mass culture, amusement emerged as the new opiate of the people” (109). In short, Kasson argues that Coney Island – and amusement parks in general – allowed a physical and psychological release from the new industrial pressures of society. I am building on Kasson’s message by arguing that partying in college offers the same form of release that amusement parks offered in a newly industrial society. It allows one to escape from the everyday pressures – and, through this escape, reaffirms these pressures. I will also build on Asher Roth’s latest song “I Love College”. This song’s chorus: “That party last night was awfully crazy I wish we taped it/ I danced my ass off and had this one girl completely naked/ Drink my beer and smoke my weed but my good friends is all I need/Pass out at 3, wake up at 10, go out to eat then do it again” illustrates that society actively encourages students to use this as a release. I will thus argue that just as industrial society of the early 1900s set Americans up in search of a release, societal pressures to succeed placed search of a release – to college students, what becomes known as partying.

research paper

For my research paper, I will continue to look at the issue of steroids in baseball using the exhibit of the recent Alex Rodriguez scandal. I want to see what impacts the scandals surrounding steroid use has affected the game of baseball. This is different from looking at the use of steroids itself, which has led to more power hitters, home runs, etc. I want to see whether or not the game has been tainted and how players, managers, and fans perceive the scandals and what it says about American culture and society.

article link: graffiti

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4946378.stm

http://www.newstrend.com/2005/09/graffiti_tags_murals_outlaws_a.html

Research essay topic

My topic is street graffiti and the controversial question weather graffiti is a form of expression or vandalism. My prime exhibit is an on-line article from BBC News listing the pros and cons that come along with the world of graffiti art. One distinction that must be identified is the idea of illegal and legal graffiti that takes place. Private property is an obvious situation of where graffiti is vandalism but the question is what about graffiti that is painted on empty walls within the city. Areas where there is a sense of dullness and available space to paint on a wall. The exhibit recognizes this and sympathizes with property owners, but graffiti art is a form of expression. This expression creates communication and color to the city therefore not all graffiti art is vandalism.

Research Essay Exhibit

For my conversation research essay, I will explore the world of drug trafficking and drug wars in Mexico and the countries it does the illegal business with. My exhibit will be a crime committed by a drug cartel against an innocent victim. This will illuminate the sources of the drug trafficking problem and its close ties to violence and politics. The conversation will be about the best possible solution to this severe problem. The conversation will be between experts who believe drugs should be legalized to take the money and power out of the system, and those who believe that legalizing drugs would cause an increase in junkies, further fueling the business. My own opinion will probably be a middle ground, with a heavy government involvement. 

Blaise's Research Topic

For my research essay, I am going to look at the architectural advancement. My exhibit will be The country of Dubai because in the last 20 or so years they have become the frontrunner in the architectural innovation (ie. rotating buildings, underwater hotels, the world islands, etc.). There are many arguments on whether these multi million dollar investments are beneficial  projects and I plan to take a closer look.

Emilia's Essay Topic

For the research paper, I would like to analyze Amazonian Indians and their role in the “eco-politics” of rainforest conservation efforts. Specifically, I will look at how the interaction of Brazilian Amazonians and Western environmentalists is creating a convergence of the two cultures; incidentally, the meeting of native and foreign societies has allowed Indian shamans to gain political leverage in the indigenous rights/rainforest preservation movement. Although the shaman’s emergence in global eco-politics has been beneficial in raising awareness of the Amazon’s environmental issues, it has also prompted local non-Indian Brazilians to label them as pawns of Westerners intent on implementing environmental “imperialism.” I was intrigued by the domestic issues at play here – namely, how the creating of a new political role for native shamans has led to an internal rift between different groups of Brazilians. To me, it was interesting to examine the merging of Amazonians and Westerners under the banner of environmental action as having possibly divisive implications for local Brazilian society.

Geoff's Research Essay Topic

For my research essay, I would like to investigate the role of mathematics education and how it is relevant to everyday life. The main question that I will try to answer is "Is Everyday Mathematics Truly Relevant to Mathematics Education?" My exhibit will most likely focus on a mathematical equation and its application to everyday life. One of the sources I will use to explore this topic is David W. Carraher and Analucia D. Schliemann's work in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, which I found at JSTOR.

Nicole's Research Essay Topic

For my essay, I think I would like to try to answer the question of what is the purpose of art. For my exhibit I want to look at the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso and possibly some quotes written about the painting as well. I think that this painting will be an interesting exhibit for my topic because the painting itself has multiple functions: educational, cathartic, eye-catching, etc. It will be interesting to see what my conversation authors include and leave out of their analyses on the purpose of art and how the painting Guernica might add to their analyses. 

essay idea

I would like to expand on the Kimmels idea of baseball as a way of reconstructing American masculinity and a way of teaching values and ethics and apply them to sports in general, particularly football. As an exhibit I would like to use ivy league football which was dominant and extremely popular at the time. I would use "Ivy league football, orgins of an American obsession" by Mark Bernstein for a possible source of evidence. I would also like to talk about why the Ivy league was so proud of athletics and why schools felt it necessary for a complete education.

Sarah's Essay Topic

I would like to examine street performers in society.  So far, I have found evidence that street performers (buskers) do not merely perform as they wish, interacting only with their audiences; rather, they are heavily regulated by the government, which defines busking and restricts the times and places in which it may occur.  This fascinates me--busking seems so spontaneous and free, yet there seem to be actors at play that might be shaping the spectators' cultural experiences on the street.  For an exhibit, I would probably use a written government policy that I found from Ballina Shire, Australia, which lays out the Shire's definition of, and restrictions on, busking.

Essay idea

I want to look into the influence of journalism on young kids.  Specifically I would like to look at magazines influences on young girls.  Either looking at a magazine like Cosmo or Vogue and see how it influences girls sexual relationships or eating disorders with young girls that would like to be more like the models in the magazines they are reading.

Citations for Lethem Essay

1. We have to remain constantly vigilant to prevent raids by those who would selfishly exploit our common heritage for their private gain. Such raids on our natural resources are not examples of enterprise and initiative. They are attempts to take from all the people just for the benefit of a few. Truman, Harry S. “Address on Conservation at the Dedication of Everglades National Park”

Jonathan Lethem quotes Harry S Truman when he is talking about the “cultural commons.” He uses the quote to emphasize the necessity of protecting the commons so everyone can use it, rather than having one individual control everything. I chose this citation because it was well written; I had underlined it during my first run through of the essay. I was surprised to find out that Lethem ripped it out from Truman.

2. The kernel, the soul--let us go farther and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances in plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second hand, consciously or unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources and daily use by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral caliber and his temperament, which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing. Letter to Helen Keller from Mark Twain excerpted from Copyrights and Copywrongs by Siva Vaidhyanathan.

Lethem employs this quote to drive in one of his main points: we all plagiarize. Plagiarism can be found in all sorts of texts. I chose this citation because I thought it poignantly summarized his argument. Lethem’s citation section explains that this phrase came from Mark Twain’s letter to Helen Keller when he was trying to cheer her up after she was accused of plagiarism. I never knew that these two famous American figures were friends, so I wanted to find out more about this letter.

3. But Jefferson's vision has not fared well, has in fact been steadily eroded by those who view the culture as a market in which everything of value should be owned by someone or other. Boynton, Robert. “The Tyranny of Copyright?” The New York Times Magazine

Boynton doesn’t make any claims in his article, “The Tyranny of Copyright?” Instead, he illuminates the conflict between the government and the Copy Left. The Copy Left says that the government should loosen up on copyright laws because the copyright laws are hurting creativity instead of nurturing it. The internet is one area of contention because people disagree on how it should be used. Should the public have total access to everything posted on the web, or should a select few entities be able to regulate the public’s access to certain materials? This type of question is relevant to Lethem’s idea of a “usemonopoly” since he defines a usemonopoly as a “government granted monopoly on the use of creative rights” (64). Lethem asserts that monopolizing the rights to creativity hurts the public.

I chose this citation because I’m interested in how copyright laws apply to us and how they are enforced by the government. At times, it seems that a corporation arbitrarily sues someone for violating copyright laws. For example, the RIAA sues people who download music illegally. Yet, people continue to download music. Piracy of this sort is a cultural thing; it would be very hard for the government to prevent everyone from illegally downloading music. Should the government even bother trying to enforce these copyright laws? That was the question I had in mind as I read through this passage in Lethem’s essay.

Sweatshop Sublime Citations

Robbins quotes Raymond Williams in his Culture and Society; The quote specifically talks about the "pulling the wrong thread" out of the metaphor for society as a "tangled web." When trying to untangle this web you can't tell which thread to pull because each has a different result that creates a different outcome. This specifically interests me because I have always been interested in the past and the future and how each decision you make creates a different future. I always find it interesting to examine what could have been done. 

Robbins quotes Barbara Ehrenreich and her view on menial labor. Ehrenreich talks about how "everything we buy is a product of some other person's suffering." This interests me because she states that there is "no way to avoid it all together unless you live in the wilderness on berries." Throughout my childhood, my parents taught me to buy things made in the U.S. I'm not sure what the reason for this was, bug I guess that from Ehrenreich's point of view this did nothing. Ehrenreich's essay is one that we have already read, "Maid to Order." The main argument in this essay is to depict how maids are primarily women and of a minority group. 

Robbins quotes Fredric Jameson  and his opinions on products produced by sweatshops. He states that people are in a sense freed from the guilt induced by knowing how their toys and furnishings if they don't remember how they were created. This interests me because today it has become a habit to not even check where your clothing came from. If this ignorant habit were not in existence, would something have been done about this sweatshop labor by now?

Citations for “The Sweatshop Sublime” by Bruce Robbins

1) Robbins portrays the consumer’s momentary insight into the complexity and immensity of the labor process as something that is sublime; in doing so, he quotes passages from George Eliot’s Middlemarch, including the following:

“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all
ordinary human life, it would be like
hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s
heart beat, and we should die of that roar
which lies on the other side of silence” (88).

Here, Robbins is able to connect Eliot’s poetics with his argument that one’s realization of being “the beneficiary of an unimaginably vast…social whole” (84) is often so transcendental that it makes one become a “purely disinterested” (88) person of apathetic inaction. In other words, when we “hear the grass grow” by recognizing the tremendous intricacy upon which the commodities of our daily life depend, we “die” and accordingly retreat back into the safety of our “everyday smallness” (Robbins 85) to escape the world’s deafening “roar.” My interest lies in how the effects of the latter compare with the influence of the inherent inaction that Robbins states is “built into [our] conceptual structure” (89) and that appears when action is called for. Does our failure to act then result from the stagnation that already exists within our natures or from the inertia that overwhelms us after we experience moments of “hearing the grass grow?” After reading this passage, I was thus intrigued by the relationship between these two seemingly separate descriptions of the origin of our inactivity in light of the sweatshop problem.

2) In addition, Robbins makes use of the term “national-popular” that appears in Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (compiled by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Smith). Specifically, Gramsci expounds on the capability of linking “the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people to the fate of others” (Robbins 86) in order to trigger nationalism. I was interested in how Robbins extended Gramsci’s idea of collectivizing fates from a national to an international domain in order to spur anti-sweatshop action [hence his conception of the “international-popular” (86)] and how specifically he would suggest the implementation of this. Where would the movement start – at the level of the individual consumer or at that of a global organization?

*3) Frederic Jameson states in his Postmodernism; or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism that “in consuming culture, [we do not] particularly want, let alone need, to forget the human producer” (95), and thus effectively makes the claim that there is a common desire to not hide the “traces of production” (Robbins 95) that go into the making of art. Jameson justifies his point by arguing that because these products of culture are “signed” (Jameson 315), the consumer wishes to recognize the artist behind the signature. According to Robbins, if this yearning to actively acknowledge the human producer in art can be channeled into realms that generate other products, it can be used as a motivational force for action in support of the anti-sweatshop movement. The shared sentiment of wanting to “remember” (Robbins 95) the human producer, in other words, can serve as a means of uniting people and inciting universal action through a shared recognition of the many actors who occupy the stage of global labor. I was interested in this citation because of the way in which Robbins compares its original conception of the consuming of art to the consuming of other parts of culture (in the sense that in both these cases, the consumer may want to know who “signed” the product). In short, I wondered whether another parallel between the two “products” also applied, namely that of the “artist” sometimes forsaking his signature and preferring to remain anonymous. Even if we desire to know the identity of the human producer, the creator of the culture we consume, is it possible that the individual artist might conversely desire to shield what we want to remember in an effort to preserve his or her anonymousness? Or does that phenomenon occur solely in the realm of art, and thus should we assume that other human producers (including those working within the division of labor) generally do wish to sign their products and have their presence be known?

3 citations- Cronon

The Trouble with Wilderness- William Cronon

1. Cronon uses William Wordsworth's poem, The Prelude, where he recalls climbing the Alps and going across the Simplon Pass.  I like this citation because I think that it adds another element into Cronon's essay.  It is no longer just his words or prose for that matter.  By adding in the poem there is a change in the wording and flow of the paper.  I also think that the description poem is able to give is a lot easier for the reader to relate to so it adds even more emphasis on the visual and emotional ties humans have with nature.

2. Cronon references the historian Frederick Jackson Turner from his writing in 1893.  Cronon uses him in three paragraphs right in a row, emphasizing Turners points and linking them to his own.  This part of his essay talks about how the frontier was being lost and the free land that Americans were taking to live and survive would be gone because it would all be settled.  The losing of the 'free' land was during Turner's time and with Cronon quoting his writing there is a direct reference to the time period Cronon is describing.  This adds strong evidence to back up what Cronon is trying to get across to his readers.

In Turner's essay The Significance of the Frontier in American History talks about how in this time, around the 1890s, most of the frontier had been broken up by isolated settlements of people.  He uses census facts to show how the frontier was limited in the beginning of the essay.  He also makes sure to distinguish the difference between European and American frontiers.  Throughout the essay his strategy seems to be an attempt to describe the advances of the Americans throughout the expansion from east to west.  He also touches on reasons why people would move; ranching, hunting, or for fun.  He argues that exploring the frontier is what brought America to the point it is at today, including its customs, development and power.  Turners essay goes together with Cronon because Cronon sets up his essay with the idea that the wilderness, which had perviously been seen as the frontier, was only present in areas where humans distinctly kept it.  Where Turner saw how how unused land was becoming extremely scarce and therefore land opportunities were diminishing, Cronon sees that this land serves a different purpose now.  This citation interested me because it made Cronon's argument more concrete in the past as well.  I think using Turner utilizes American history and how in his time the free land was diminishing.  This was a turning point for America that eventually led to the fight to preserve what wilderness we have left.   

3. Cronon cites Dave Foreman, founder of Earth First!.  Foreman talks about the separation of humans and wilderness.  I think that the Earth First! sounds like an interesting organization benefiting Cronon's argument with more recent data.  Foreman hits on the main focuses that Cronon has so it reinforces that what he is trying to say is actually relevant.

1. Kimmel quotes Donald hall's book , "Fathers playing catch with sons" I find this quote interesting in that he claims baseball is something fathers and sons do together but football is something that only brothers do together. I think the idea of a father and son playing catch with a baseball could easily be replaced with a father and son playing catch with a football. Also in this quote he links all generations together simply by the fact that everyone has played baseball and because of this it encloses what we are.

2. Kimmel quotes Chief boy scout Ernst Thomson Seton in David Mclouds book " Building character in the American boy" saying that consumer society had " turned robust manly , self reliant boyhood into a lot of flat chested cigarette smokers with shaky nerves and doubtful vitality" I find this quote interesting because it adds to his argument of the crisis of masculinity at the time. I also found this interesting because of the general theme of what was considered masculine or in masculine at the current time.

3. Kimmel quotes Teddy Roosevelt in Thompsons book Vigorous men, A vigorous nation, " the greatest danger that a long period of profound peace offers to a nation is that of creating effeminate tendencies in young men". This quote from Teddy Roosevelt adding to the general theme of what was consider masculine at the time period. I found this interesting because he also quotes Teddy in other places in the essay, he seems to be an ideal figure of what was masculine at the time.

Oops! These are Sarah's citations

Citations from Jonathan Lethem's critical essay The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism

"Art that matters" to "bought and sold." Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World.  Knopf Publishing Group, 2007.

In The Gift, Hyde proposes that art is not only bought and sold, but it is also a gift to those who experience it.  This is because a work of art produces an effect (emotional, spiritual, intellectual, etc.) on its audience that cannot be quantified, or even adequately described.  This experience is the artist's "gift" to his audience, and it coexists with the commercial relationship between audience and artist (i.e., the relationship in which the audience members pay a fee to experience the work).  Hence, there are two economies, a gift economy and a market economy.  The gift relationship in the artistic world constitutes the main difference between the artistic and commercial spheres, and it is also what allows works of art to endure for long periods of time.  Art could survive without the market economy--yet without the gift relationship, art necessarily perishes.

Jonathan Lethem uses exactly this concept of two economies in The Ecstasy of Influence as part of his argument that plagiarism in the cultural sphere may be acceptable, even desirable, despite current laws regarding intellectual property.  The artist, by displaying his works, is giving his audience a gift in the form of whatever they take away from it spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, etc.  Thus, because of its status as a gift, art should be part of a cultural commons (public domain is another way to think of it) in order to allow all potential artists to build upon the ideas set forth in any particular work--without being penalized.

I chose this reference because I find the concept of two different economies that can coexist highly interesting.  I also gained a new perspective on the split between the artistic and commercial worlds: before, I had accepted that the two were separate and in some ways fundamentally different, but I had never thought of them as two economies.

"...enabled by a kind...freely reworked."  Mcleod, Kembrew.  Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity.  Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Lethem uses this source to discuss blues and jazz musicians who have freely and directly copied others' works (melodies or song fragments) without anxieties about originality and with positive results.  This caused me to think further on the merits of plagiarism.

"the primary objective..." to "unfair nor unfortunate."  Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co.  No. 499-340.  Supreme Ct. of the US.  27 March 1991.

This reference offers a new perspective on the purpose of copyright: Lethem proposes that the objective of copyright laws is not to "reward labor" (68), but to encourage the growth of the arts and sciences.  People should therefore build freely on what others have produced, an idea Lethem believes to be perfectly fair and beneficial.  I chose this reference because I had never considered the purpose of copyright in this light before.

Sarah's Citations

Kimmel Citations

1. Kimmel uses several quotes from Roger Angell. Angell is an author who primarily talks about baseball and the various issues, concepts and ideas that baseball presents to any viewer.Specifically Kimmel uses Roger Angell's book Late Innings written in 1982. This book is one of many books and essays Angell has written and helped him gain the title of one of the best baseball writers ever for his analysis and deep insight he has on the game of baseball. I found this citation interesting be4cause of the quotes Kimmel used from this work. The citations help support Kimmel's view on baseball as a cultural past time because it brings together many generations together creating a common bond within family and friends.

2. The second interesting citation is from William Mckeever's book Training the Boy. In this book Mckeever has a section titled "The Baseball and Accessories" which explains the importance of baseball at a young age for a child. This caught my eye because it is used to support Kimmel's concept of a child growing into a man through the sport of baseball. Both Mckeever and Kimmel mention and agree that baseball equips a young child to develop traits to be able to become successful. I t allows a child to communicate and relate with other kids who have the same interest in baseball which will enable him to become successful as he goes from childhood to manhood. I found this citation more interesting because the parallel claims Mckeever explains in his various short essays in the book. He lays the pathway in the idea of baseball not being a sport of violence but a sport in which each individual can help each other in a more manner and civilized way. It portrays the numerous traits baseball instills in those who participate. Kckeever mentions it as a "moral refinement" (101) because it teaches valuable lessons and aids young children to be successful and strong men when they grow older and this helps America grow too.

3. One citation that really helped Kimmel convey and grasp all these various ideas and concepts throughout his essay was from Alber J. Spalding's book America's National Game. This quote listed every aspect and corner Kimmel covers in the idea that baseball is not just a sport for pleasure but a social event in where many people can relate and build bonds. Baseball builds and creates the traits of determination and discipline in a young boy and any individual that participates. it also mentions how baseball plays a vital role in America's success as a nation creating this sense of "American spirit" (Spalding 4).

Three Citations -- Kimmel essay

1. Kimmel quotes Albert J. Spalding's book America's National Game when he talks about the values that baseball players embodied. Two things were interesting to me about this particular citation: First, that Spalding's book was written in 1911, so it shows that the values of baseball trace back to its birth and that the idea of it instilling morality on the American populace can be linked to its popularity. Second, many of the values in Spalding's quote contain the word "American" (e.g. "American Courage"). It is interesting that American courage seems to be differentiated from "normal" courage and that baseball is uniquely able to provide that former.

2. Kimmel quotes William McKeever's Training the Boy when he talks about how the playing of baseball is necessary in the development of a boy. This quote interested me because it shows how as early as 1913, sports had been an integral part of the American childhood and that this idea that Kimmel talks about seems to be the origin of the phenomenon of every parent these days signing their children up to play AYSO soccer or Little League baseball at some point in their lives -- no matter how incompetent they might be at sports or how competent they might be at other, non-athletic things.

3. (I think all the things Kimmel quotes are books so I just chose one of the books and read a review of it on Jstor rather than skimming the whole book...) Kimmel quotes Donald Mrozeck's book Sport and the American Mentality: 1880-1910 and says that although baseball was originally a sport of the elite -- like many other sports -- it soon became a game played by and watched by lower-class men as well. Mrozeck's book talks about the development of sports in general (not just baseball) in America at the end of the 19th century. Mrozeck argues that sports came about as a form of physical regeneration to counteract the degenerative nature of factory/industrial work. Americans approached their recreational activities with all the same values that they approached other things (like work). Eventually, sports, and physical activity in general, became such a big phenomenon that it even supplanted religion as a major form of catharsis. Additionally, sports could be undertaken by anyone, not just the ultra rich.

3 Citations (Cronon)

1. Cronon uses William Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem "The Prelude" to illustrate the previous definition of wilderness. This poem exemplifies terror in the face of the divine sense of nature. Cronin uses this poem to trace the changing definitions of wilderness over time in order to eventually set up the current ideology of wilderness, and then critique it.

2. Cronon uses journalist Bill McKibben’s book "The End of Nature" as a tool: he introduces it merely to criticize it, and thus furthers his own argument. McKibben, an environmentalist focused very much on global warming, published his work "The End of Nature" in 1989. This book is often argued to be one of the first books available to the general audience about climate change. In this book, McKibben argues that humans will eventually kill nature because the human and the natural cannot coexist. In a passage discussing the greenhouse effect at another point in the book, McKibben writes, “We have built a greenhouse, a human creation where there once bloomed a sweet and wild garden” (78). McKibben thus argues that human impact directly contrasts this “sweet and wild garden”, or ‘true nature’. This idea of ‘true nature’, which separates the human and non-human and essentially makes nature the ‘other’, is the very argument Cronon critiques. Cronon argues that nature should not be viewed as this pristine “sweet and wild garden”, something that should not be touched by human activity. Instead, his main argument is that humans are just as much a part of nature as this garden, and our ideology which separates ourselves from nature is inherently limiting. Through the use of McKibben’s portrayal of nature as an ‘other’, Cronon reveals how this can only be the case if we view nature as solely nature if it kept pristine. He therefore argues that the natural is inherently part of human life, and not as separate as our current Western ideology argues.

3. Cronon uses historian and environmentalist Wallace Stegner’s exploration of wilderness in order to help convey his final message that we need to acknowledge that we are a part of nature and then decide what impact we should have on it. Stegner writes that “we are the most dangerous species of life on the planet”, meaning we as humans have a large responsibility because we can impact our environment so significantly. Cronon essentially uses this to feed into his argument that we need to find the appropriate balance between our human creation and the nature that lives within us.

Three Citations for Robbins

1. Robbins' cites Antonio Gramsci's idea of the "national-popular". In Robbins' own words, this is "an imperfect and historically determined version of common sense...that links the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people to the fate of others in a larger collectivity" (86). Robbins says that the only way for an international antiglobalization movement to emerge is for there to be a moment of consciousness experienced by an ethically-aware consumer. Robbins therefore proposes "the international-popular" (86). This is interesting because it means getting consumers involved in events that are physically and mentally extremely far removed from themselves, so inciting interest is extremely difficult, however necessary for the international antiglobalization movement. 

2. Dana Frank's novel Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism is cited by Robbins because it provides the example of an American consumer who is upset that she cannot buy any goods that were made in the USA, therefore American workers were losing their jobs. This interests me because of the nationalism and anti-foreign sentiments that are paired with it. As Robbins says, these feelings usually lead to action, but of a counter-productive nationalist kind, like destroying Toyotas or lobbying Congress not to do trade with China. I guess my interest is rather a critique, as in, why do people think like that? Why are they so misguided?

3. Naomi Klein's book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies is about how brands have turned corporate and stomped on people in their path. Her main claims include that brands went from being "friendly faces" to "selling lifestyles". The marketing of the brand name became more important than the quality of the product itself. Also, brands like Wal-Mart and Starbucks give consumers virtually no choice when they take over prices or regions. Her other claim is that the jobs moved to foreign countries where there are different working conditions and usually fewer labor laws causes a lack of manufacturing jobs in the USA, which makes an influx of jobs to the service sector. Klein then goes into detail about various movements aimed at putting an end to sweatshop labor. These claims are made by using various multi-national companies as examples, and citing their influence on consumers and the economy. Its relation to "The Sweatshop Sublime" is in its main argument, that sweatshop labor is bad and alternatives must be found. This book was interesting to me because it provides concrete examples, like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Nike, that manipulate consumers and labor laws through globalization. In addition it talks about how brands target younger and younger audiences every year through ad campaigns that sell "lifestyles", and I've noticed how I'm a victim to that!

THREE CITATION ASSIGNMENT

1. In the very first paragraph, Cronon cites a statement made by Henry David Thoreau. It seems the reference is a rather important one. For one, it appears at the very beginning of the essay "The Trouble With Wilderness." This is one of the first pieces of information Cronon presents to his reader, so he must see it as important. Secondly, Cronon cites Thoreau on multiple other occasions throughout the paper (for example on p.85 and p.89 as well). Cronon takes a lot of time and though in refuting Thoreau's statement that "'In Wildness is the preservation of the World.'" Rather, in Cronon's opinion, wilderness is itself a human creation, not at all distinct or separate from the human world.

2. Cronon also cites lines written by William Wordsworth in his autobiographical poem The Prelude describing his ascent of the Alps and his travels across the Simplon pass. The fact that Cronon takes the space to directly quote eighteen lines from Wordsworth shows the importance he believes the lines have in showing the emotion evoked from a sublime landscape. According to Cronon, what Wordsworth describes is "nothing less than a religious experience" (89). 

3. However, it seems the development of Cronon's own thesis is most influenced by the words of Earth First! founder Dave Foreman. Cronon explores the "problematic consequences" that arise from Foreman's vision of wilderness as the "ultimate hunter-gatherer alternative to civilization" in order to develop his own theory on the coexistence of the "human" and the "nonhuman" (101). Cronon finds fault in Foreman's emphasis on preserving wilderness, emphasizing issues that affect the native diversity as opposed to issues that affect humans more directly, for Cronon develops this concept of "a middle ground" which incorporates the dualism of wilderness, both the "human" and "nonhuman" aspects together (103). 

In his essay "Rewilding North America," Dave Foreman explores the challenge to protect what he refers to as an "enduring resource of wilderness." He recognizes protected areas such as national parks, wilderness areas and national wildlife refuges as being the best way to "safeguard species and habitat." The main purpose of essay is to present "both a vision and a strategy to reconnect, restore, and rewild Four Continental MegaLinkages that will tie North America ecosystems together for wide-ranging species and ecological processes, and to accommodate climate change." The article provides historical facts and interpretations of how humans have caused extinctions and what must now be done to prevent more extinctions from happening in the future, of how we as humans can be more effective in restoring and preserving the diversity of life. However, Cronon finds fault in Foreman's idea of native diversity and the human world as being entirely separate from one another. As Cronon states, "it makes wilderness the locus for an epic struggle between malign civilization and benign nature, compared with which all other social, political, and moral concerns seem trivial" (101). By exploring the "problematic consequences" that develop from this vision, a vision viewing the relationship between the "human" and "nonhuman" world of wilderness as a dichotomous one, Cronon is able to develop and articulate his own vision, what he defines as "a middle ground" (103). 

Kessler-Harris questions

Your essay is pretty limited to sexual division of labor. What are your thoughts on racial division of labor and international division of labor.

What is your solution to eliminating the sexual division of labor in the US?

How long have you had an opinion on this sexual division of labor? And was there a specific event in your life that made you want to express your opinions to readers?

Kessler-Harris Questions

1. What do you think of the economic forecast for America that women may surpass men in payroll this year? (This is from a New York Times article.) Would this change be a temporary thing due to America's dire economic outlook, and could it lead the way to women gaining equal status with men in the labor force? How long do you think it will be before this happens?

2. Do you think your theory of sexual stratification in the labor market applies to the black labor market? Is it even possible to draw any conclusions about the racial or sexual stratification of the black labor market?

3.In your opinion, how well off do you consider women in today's society? Do you feel that they are still being visibly discriminated against as often compared to a decade or two ago? Do you think the incorporation of the ERA into the Constitution would change anything for "disadvantaged" groups?

Questions

1. Where do you see fathers roles in the family today?  With more mothers entering the work force there have been more fathers staying home with the children.   Are fathers still seen primarily as the provider or are the gender roles blurring enough to allow there to be the possibility of a switch or a combination?

2. A lot of your essay focuses on the development of women in the work place and how things gradually started to change.  Where to do you see women at now in the working world?  Do you think it is possible for women to have both a successful career and a well run family?  Or is it even all still put on their shoulders to make sure the home is in order?

3. Do you think there is a significant change in family dynamics with a lot of families now having both parents working?  If there is a change is it bad enough to make you think that the family structure would be better off with the mother staying home and taking care of everything?  Or if someone has to stay home could it be the father? -- What is your ideal situation between the parents, home life and working?

Questions for Kessler-Harris

1) How do you think matriarchies affect the dynamics of the family and of the community? If the social roles that you mention are reversed and men were to become the primary caretakers of the family and the household, (while women assumed political and economic authority), would they feel as exploited by an unbalanced distribution of domestic labor as women generally do? And with women occupying the seats of power as legislators and employers, would you predict that there would be the same degree of labor segmentation? In other words, is this stratification a product of a purely male or purely female social dominance, or can it be attributed to human nature in general? Do you think it is a natural instinct for the stronger gender (whichever that may be at any particular point in time)to allocate the most unfavorable conditions and most undesirable jobs to the weaker gender? Or are there certain qualities in males and females that make one gender more prone than the other to enforce the division of labor when it is in control?

2) You mention the protective legislation that reduced “the economic desirability of female employees” (Kessler-Harris, 111) by placing restrictions on the conditions within which women were allowed to work. Although you state that it first appeared in the US at the start of 1900s, do you feel as if there are forms of protective legislation (not necessarily for factory workers but for more white-collar jobs) that are a hindrance for either male or female laborers today?

3) Which do you think is currently the most significant and prominent factor in the segmentation of labor - gender, class, or race?

Questions for Kessler-Harris

1. You mention that the middle-class women working at the Lowell factories were replaced by Irish immigrant workers. These Irish were clearly later replaced by other immigrants. What do you have to say about this "replacement process" and what happens to the first group of immigrants that has been "replaced"?

2. In an age when it is now not that unusual to see the woman in the family making more money than the man, how would you say this has affected gender relations and the structure of the family in those particular families?

3. What would you say the effect of more women working full-time jobs has had on the domestic sphere? Has that impact been positive or negative?

What motivated you to write "Stratification by sex"

Do you feel that the stratification by sex is improving or is it currently at a standstill.

How do you feel about how children are effected by two working parents

questions

In all the essays we have read in class there was a pattern of not acknowledging subgroups affected by domestic workers. One group is children; What is your take on the children who do not have their own mother at home? Why are not they acknowledged as an important group effected by domestic workers?


Relating to the children again, as you were writing your essay and collecting data did any of the mothers mention the difficulty of leaving their own households to serve another? and how did the family deal with it?

Watching and observing different studies and other methods to compose this essay, did you see or were you told how the family dealt with the mother leaving home? Can you give a specific example?

Questions for Kessler-Harris

1. You wrote, "The belief that women belonged at home permitted employers to exploit working women by treating them as though their earnings were merely supplemental" (103). This is referring to the early 1900s, but are women still paid less than men today? If so, and if this was the initial reason women were paid less than men - do employers today still think this rings true, or what's their new reason?  

2. What do you think of the place for male-homemakers in today's society? How is public opinion about gender roles changing or not changing? 

3. In the late 1800s, "for one's wife to be working meant that the husband had failed" (106) - is this still true? If so, how is different along class and race division lines?

4. You go into a little bit of detail about "the glamorous flapper" (113) - what was the real effect of this for women during the 1920s and beyond?

Kessler-Harris Questions

1. Your article "Stratifying by Sex" gave a detailed critique and history of the sexual division of labor, yet doesn't explore as much the recent phenomenon of educated women being called to a career, while simultaneously feeling driven to uphold the cult of domesticity. What are some of the roots of this? Does this represent a a positive movement forward for women, or is it instead a sort of self-inflicted glass ceiling?

2. Your article obviously focuses on working women. I am interested to know, however, what you think about the role of men in the home. You argue that the home and the workplace are mutually dependent on each other. Is this true for working men as well?

3. In Andrew Wiese’s article, “The Other Suburbanites: African American Suburbanization in the North before 1950”, Wiese writes, “Middle-class white suburbanites could generally afford to live on the salary of a male breadwinner alone, and the limited research on working-class white suburbanites suggests that few married women work outside the home. In contrast, working-class black families who aspired to a home in the suburbs often relied on the income of both parents” (1510). He goes on to give statistics that show that black women were primarily employed for economic reasons. How have women, such as the majority of black women post-1900s who have always been employed thus dealt with the tension between work and home?

Kessler-Harris Questions

1) How did the large number of children working in factories affect the family structure, women's roles at home, and women's roles in the workforce?

2) Is the participation of women in the American military a step toward eradicating the stratification of labor by gender, or is the military merely an extension of this stratification? Do women still occupy mostly "female" positions in the military (i.e., are their positions the most closely related to the "social reproduction of labor")?

3) In the 1950s, many men and women encouraged working women to quit their jobs and claimed that the woman's place was in the home.  It is interesting to me that many women went along with this notion.  Why do you think this is?

Questions for Kessler-Harris

1. The essay seems to be somewhat limited geographically, focusing mainly on the sexual division of labor in the labor market in the northeast of the United States. What about outside this region? Can the sexual division of labor be thought of as the same? Different?

2. The essay discusses how technological advances in the mill industry affected women's roles. What about technological advances in the home? How did the inventions of the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine affect women's roles for example? How did the women make use of the new time they had?

3. We see how women fit into the labor market, but how does the father fit into the household? What is the moral role of the father?

4. How does the presence of children in the labor market affect the family structure?

3 Exhibits for Work

“Working Mother” is an interesting product of a society in which educated women are becoming more career driven and thus work more outside the home. A magazine targeted primarily toward career-oriented middle class educated women, this magazine deals directly with the tension many women feel between working outside the home and upholding the remnants of the ‘cult of domesticity’ as mentioned in Kessler-Harris’ article. It is interesting to note that the magazine is not entitled ‘motherly worker’, but rather ‘working mother’: the adjective describes the primary role of motherhood, with ‘working’ just being a description of the type of mother. The title ‘Working Mother’ thus emphasizes that you are primarily a mother. The articles we read skirt around the issue of career-driven women: Kessler-Harris’ “Stratifying by Sex” addresses history of women in work, but does little to address the tension many women now feel between their pull toward the work force and their simultaneous maternal desires. Parrenas’ article merely addresses the effects of the tension between work and family: hiring of cheap domestic work to fill the void that women leave in their 9 to 5 job. “Working Mother” explicitly addresses the gap that these three articles leave. While it appears to be a modern and forward magazine, the magazine actually embodies the suppressing of the continuously resurfacing social piranha of women’s equality in the workplace. By saying that women are working mothers, we do not have to address that women are just as qualified as men. Magazines such as “Working Mothers” continue to emphasize the fact that women are mothers before they are ‘workers’. This tricky tension eventually causes women to form a self-created glass ceiling: women are continuously called to their place in their families by society. They thus give divided attention to their job and cannot succeed as much as their male counterparts. Educated, career-driven women thus crash into their own self-created glass ceilings.

“Indonesia: Protect Child Domestic Workers” is an article addressing the increasing use of female child domestic workers in Indonesia. The article addresses the fact that thousands of young girls ages 11-18 are employed in domestic work, primarily “cooking, cleaning, laundry, and child care”. More significantly, these girls are often mostly underpaid and abused emotionally, sexually, or physically. All of the articles we have read overlook the use of very young women in domestic work primarily in poorer countries. This early use of girls in domestic work very much limits their perceived potential. One 16 year old Indonesian girl says, “I work from 4 AM to midnight. I am not allowed to rest”. This article thus presents a new case of women being employed from the age of 11 in domestic work, thus placing the effects of servitude that Glenn mentions on women of a much earlier age.


The three articles also overlook the fact that many women were forced to work alongside their husbands due to economic need. In Andrew Wiese’s article, “The Other Suburbanites: African American Suburbanization in the North before 1950”, Wiese addresses the ingrained idea of the black working woman. He writes, “Middle-class white suburbanites could generally afford to live on the salary of a male breadwinner alone, and the limited research on working-class white suburbanites suggests that few married women work outside the home. In contrast, working-class black families who aspired to a home in the suburbs often relied on the income of both parents” (1510). He goes on to give statistics that show that black women were primarily employed for economic reasons. All of the articles we read overlooked the need for certain women to be employed. How have women who have always been employed thus dealt with the tension between work and home?

Exhibits for Conversation Essay

1. Women's Roles in the South Korean Labor Market

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3487187?seq=9

In their paper titled "South Korean Labor Market Discrimination Against Women: Estimating Its Cost," Elizabeth Monk-Turner and Charlie G. Turner examine the role of women in the South Korean labor market and the economic implications of a sexually segregated labor market. This exhibit adds to the Kessler-Harris essay by explaining how equality in the labor market could benefit the South Korean economy. The Turners explain that if women were to be treated as equals in the work force, the Korean economy could realize its full potential. Kessler-Harris never went into detail about the benefits come about in an equal labor force. The Turner's analysis could be used as an argument to convince a government to impose equality labor laws in the labor market.

2. Black Labor Market

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14231

One of the underlying assumptions that Kessler-Harris, Glenn, and Parrenas made in their essays was that the labor market in which women participated in operated under the definition of a "market economy." In other words, all exchanges between buyers and sellers are free from outside intervention. This exhibit reminds us that the labor market does not operate under a "market economy" since external forces shape the market economy. In this case, the external force is the black market. Thus, one is led to ask whether the black market follows the same types of stratification as outlined by the aforementioned essayists. Are women sexually segregated in the black labor market, and if so, do class, race, and globalization play a role in shaping these stratifications?

3. When Men Clean

http://newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=611

This article explains some of the benefits that men may incur if they take up more of their share of domestic labor, such as better behaved children and "wives who find them more sexually attractive." It would be interesting to further explore how the relationship between a husband and wife would change if the man took up more of the household chores than the wife. Ehrenreich only considers the typical case of females doing most of the housework. Even if men did more housework, would families still hire domestic workers to clean their houses?

3 Exhibits

1) "Father's Care" by Charles A. Smith: This article talks about the different "types" of fathers there are, from "The Wallet" dad who just makes money and takes little part in the rearing of the child to "The Caregiver" who is cooperative in both child rearing and homemaking. The article deals with the changing role of the father over time, why now more fathers are caregivers instead of just wallets. The two explanations explored in the article are the rising number of women working, and the rising divorce rate. 

2) "Family policies 'dad-proofed' to give fathers bigger role - but no extra paternity leave" by Polly Curtis. This article appeared in The Guardian on 21 Feb 2009. The article talks about the recent reforms made specifically in Whitehall, England, to involve the father in children's caregiving such as sending school reports to divorced fathers as well as home addresses, and allowing the father to stay overnight in the hospital with the mother after a baby is born. The article talks about how father's feel marginalized in a "mother-dominated" family policy. The article sites some statistics about how the hours that fathers spend with their children have gone up this century.

3) "Role of Father" from http://info.ag.vt.edu/vce/offices/newsletters/role_of_father.pdf This excerpt goes into detail about how father's face a new role in today's society because women are working rather than just being homemakers. It talks about the "second shift" for mothers, and also delves into the problems facing fathers today who are balancing being nurturing and at the same time remembering the more traditional roles their own fathers had in their lives. 

Exhibit

My first exhibit is an article by Patricia M. Greenfield titled "What happens when parents and nannies come from different cultures? Comparing the care giving belief systems of nannies and their employers" This extends to previous arguments of domestic labor of a nanny as opposed to a house cleaner. The example used in the article is Hispanic nanny's serving white households in America. Adding to earlier readings this article discusses the effect on the children which was nonexistent in the readings.



http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W52-4SFY3VY-

1&_user=18704&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000002018&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=18704&md5=7f50441a3aa35f263d8d200e7ef2071f



My second exhibit comes from the Washington post and is written by Katherine Shaver and is titled "Stay-at-Home Dads Forge New Identities, Roles" This article is about the rise of the stay at home father and the fathers feel about the role reversal from the more traditional stay at home mother , which was discussed in previous reading. This adds to the other readings by taking the fathers view in the situation as opposed to discussing females taking care of the household.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601289.html

My third exhibit is an article from associated content and is written by Steve Thomson and is titled the "Pros and Cons of hiring a male nanny". This article describes the positives and negatives of a male nanny but then later goes on to say that it is all based on gender stereotypes and is based on the individual. This exhibit extends previous readings by the gender roll reversal that is portrayed by male nannies.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/160807/pros_and_cons_of_hiring_a_male_nanny_pg2.html?cat=25

3 Exhibits

1. Stay at Home Dads

The essays we read looked mostly at women that take care of their children or women that they hire.  A new angle to look at would be men that decide to stay home with their children and tend to give up their careers.  In the DC area there is a group called DCMetroDads which provides opportunities for stay at home dads to get together.  It is part of a larger national group called Daddyshome inc..  I think it would be interesting to look into this and how it changes the family dynamic and the previously stricter gender roles.  There is another article I found interviewing a few stay at home dads that find they can plan their time better therefore allowing for more leisure time which most women they have seen lack.

2. "Mannies"

The new phenomenon is catching on around the world with families hiring male nannies instead of the conventional female ones.  There is a facet of security along with the idea of being able to take care of the peoples children.  One family talked about the comfort they felt with leaving their kids at home with their male nanny.  Not only does he help out around the house but he acts as an older brother to the kids providing them with something new.  There are many stereotypes that go a long with male childcare providers so to look at how that is different to the pervious gender roles would be interesting.

3. Latino Domestic workers hired by Latinos

In an article I found it talked about how Latinos have often found it more difficult to work under another Latino then a white family.  The workers talk about how it is difficult when they are yelled at by someone of their own race because they feel like it is even more condescending.  I think this relationship adds something to the other essays we have been reading because most of them have focused on the idea of different races working together.  Organizations such as Mujeres Unidas y Activas provide help to Latinos trying to find work.  Looking into people that they have helped and other statistics may provide more information to back up the argument.

Exhibits

My first exhibit comes from Jacueline Andall in an essay she wrote titled "Working Woman: The Global Effects on the Female Workforce and Their Families." After reading the progression of domestic workers there were still some gaps that were not mentioned or completely. One such question is how do the children of these domestic workers feel about their jobs and what is the side effect of it. Andall does a better job explaining that "social and behavioral development" has a negative effect towards these children. It might lead to aggression and depression, and sometimes some of these children take the route of taking their own lives. Andall explains more of the mental and emotional state of the child without really producing stats. She bases her article on several sources and studies. Her essay falls exactly on the likes of Glenn and Parenas on how woman of different ethnicity leave their homes to ironically take care of other families. The concern of "insecure attachment" between the child and the mother is what Andall explains and what the other authors fail to explain on a deeper level. Only Parenas really made an effort of acknowledging the other groups affected by this globalization of domestic work and refers it to "rearing children."

http://www.readourpapers.com/anthropology/working-woman-the-global-effects-on-the-female-workforce-and-their-families.phtml

My second exhibit consisits of an article posted on the BBC News website in 2001 explaining the affects of working mothers as a whole. It does not follow Parenas essay of globalization but it does fit into the topic of working mothers in the United States. The artilce refers to several sources and studies and one study by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation based on a 1200 person population found that children who had mothers who went to work to early "were less likely to achiece A-levels." This study extended that the children would suffer down the road into their adulthoods because it created psychological problems as time went on. The study also emphasized the disappearance of the mother stating that the working mother had a bigger negative impact on the children than the absence of the father. This article nicely ties in with discussion on wednesday in class because their has been studies of making sure the children do not get lost in this whole globalization and domestic productive labor concept.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/1218905.stm


My last exhibit comes from indianwomenshealth.com which explains the negative effects of the working mothers. This article lits benefits, "plagues" and reasons of being a working mother and what it does to the family. It is clear and concise and dry listing reasons but it does support Parennas and the idea of "rearing children." Some reasons are the stress put upon the mother because they are away from the children. Because of the distance between the relationship their is a lack of communication and health issues rise to the top.

http://www.indianwomenshealth.com/Being-a-Working-Mother-241.aspx

Exhibits for conversation essay

1) Mail Order Brides-

This exhibit can be related to all of the essays that we have read, but especially relates to the Parrenas essay. In the article that I found on mail order brides, it talks about the fact that a majority of the brides are from the Philippines and that they are looking for a better life in the United States. In 1990, nearly 3500 Filipino brides were shipped off to the United States. 

2) Trafficking of persons

Anther exhibit that I found involved the trafficking of persons (immigrants). Major forms of this trafficking involve forced labor and child labor, forced prostitution, child soldiers etc. The exhibit goes over these forms in more depth, and illustrates how female and child minorities/immigrants are exploited. 

3) Benefits of a stay-at-home parent vs. a Nanny

This exhibit relates to all four of the essays. This exhibit explains how children are like sponges in their early development, and that they learn nearly everything by observing how the people around them do things. In the Parrenas essay, it talks about how Filipino women leave their children with someone else while they go to the US to earn money. Also in the Maid to Order essay it talks about the absence of parents. This exhibit explains how different a child can turn out if it's learning from it's parents is limited. 

Exhibits for Conversation Essay

1. Mansura Espana Factory

The Mansura Espana factory incorporates all three arguments presented by Glenn, Kessler-Harris and Parrenas into a single exhibit. Located in Egypt and one of many factories in which the textile industry is outsourced, the Mansura Espana factory provides a physical manifestation, exemplifying the international division of reproductive labor. In addition, out of the 1,300 labor force, there are 750 female workers according to the Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch, suggesting that this factory has an element of the sexual reproduction of labor as well as presented by Kessler-Harris. Finally, these are mainly Egyptian women and children being employed which ties in Glenn's argument about the racial division of labor. However, the exhibit of the Mansura Espana factory presents these women as being much more powerful and strong-willed than they appear in any of the essays, Glenn's, Kessler-Harris' or Parrenas'. According to an article written by Anne Alexander and Farah Kaubaissy in January 2008, "Women workers have emerged as rank and file trade union organisers and are playing a leading part in challenging the corrupt government-run trade union federation." These female workers are playing a crucial role in organizing a huge wave of industrial action, acting as a formidable force not presented in the realm of possibility in either the Kessler-Harris, Glenn or Parrenas essay.

2. Nail Salon Industry in the United States

In her essay, Glenn discusses how the "dominant group ideology in all these cases was that women of color...were particularly suited for service" (14). Another interesting exhibit that incorporates both Glenn's idea of the racial division of reproductive labor and Kessler-Harris' idea of the sexual division of reproductive labor is the attraction of Asian Pacific Islander women, specifically Vietnamese immigrant women, to the nail salon industry in the United States. According to an article published by the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, Asian Pacific Islander women dominated the nail salon industry, representing over 40% of all nail technicians worldwide. However, in this case instead of the work picking them, instead of being considered "suited for service," these Vietnamese women originally made the choice themselves to work in the nail salon industry. According to the article, Vietnamese immigrant women choose to enter the nail salon industry for three main reasons. The increase in the number of Vietnamese-owned shops and Vietnamese instructors in beauty schools attracts Vietnamese immigrant women to the profession; the training required to become a nail technician is relatively short and inexpensive; finally, the job does not require a higher-English proficiency level. 

3. "No Room for Father, Children at Durham Homeless Shelter"

According to the article "No Room for Father, Children at Durham Homeless Shelter," a father and his four children were turned away from Durham's Community Shelter for Hope because there are no places for single fathers and their families. The same question is raised after reading all of the essays, that by Ehrenreich, Kessler-Harris, Glenn and Parrenas. What about single fathers? Where does the exception of the single father fit in respect to the sexual, racial and international divisions of reproductive labor?

Exhibits for Conversation Essay

Exhibit 1 – Class Demotion in India

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/photogalleries/wip-week84/photo5.html

This National Geographic image depicts an Indian man being blasted by police water cannons due to his involvement in a public protest in the streets of New Delhi. The more interesting detail about this photo, however, is that the man and his supporters were protesting to try to downgrade their Gujjar ethnicity group from the higher “Other Backward Classes” to the lower “Scheduled Tribes” status within the Indian rural social class system. This caste system is divided into the mentioned groups and the lowest “Scheduled Castes” (formerly know as the “Untouchables” for having undesirable jobs in dirty, unhealthy working environments). The demotion to a lower class standing would grant the Gujjars easier access to jobs, educational opportunities, and healthcare under the country’s affirmative action program. This relates back to Glenn’s perspective of a “racial hierarchy” (which in this case can be extended into an ethnic hierarchy that also determines a class hierarchy), as well as Kessler-Harris’ description of protective legislation. Here, India’s affirmative action policies can be likened to protective legislation in the sense that both are legal means of attempting to help certain groups (yet, while protective legislation aims at providing specific benefits to those groups to insure their wellbeing, affirmative action aims at equalizing the opportunities for those groups with those of majority populations). It is intriguing that both protective legislation and in this case affirmative action can cause conflict within the population despite their seemingly good intentions. Thus, this exhibit helps identify the class hierarchy that can dominate society, as well as the ways in which individuals will try to alter that hierarchy by challenging the legal policies that ironically were established to negate that same type of inequality. Why does affirmative action instigate further class division here? In addition, would it be possible for the Gujjars to have Parrenas’ concept of two class statuses at the same time?

Exhibit 2- Division of Teaching Labor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101545_pf.html

This Washington Post article elaborates on the 2006 decision by the Florida state government to base teachers’ pay on the improvements of their students’ FCAT scores. The FCAT is an annual standardized test given in elementary and middle schools that evaluates the students’ reading comprehension and math skills. The article documents the controversy surrounding the issue of whether the teaching profession should be divided by these means, and the concern that this legislation could disrupt the unity in schools. Can this segmentation of teachers be likened to a division of labor, and can this in turn lead to a socioeconomic hierarchy similar to Kessler-Harris’ gender and class hierarchy? Is it possible to divide schools in the way one would divide other factions of labor, and what are the implications of this emphasized connection between education and the economy? Is education being "commodified" by capitalism in the same manner as was the household?

Exhibit 3- Musuo Matriarchy

http://www.hiddenchina.net/img/ill/singing_mosuo_women.jpg

http://www.hiddenchina.net/web/eng/bilder_mosuo_pictures.html



(Note: if you go to the second link and scroll to the bottom, you can see this picture with more clarity)

These images portray some of the Musuo women of Lugu Lake, which is in the Yunnan province of China. The Musuo females constitute one of the few remaining matriarchies in the world; the women of Lugu Lake hold complete political, economic, and social power within the region. Men’s responsibilities are typically limited to childcare and procreation. In the first image, female authority is symbolized by their position atop the mountain, overlooking their domain and above everyone else. The second image showcases the women as the clear leaders in their community, capturing their supervision and regulation of the men in the background. These exhibits extend on Kessler-Harris’ reference of social ideologies by providing an alternative to traditional social roles. In fact, the idea of a matriarchal society contributes to all of the authors’ commentary on the sexual division of labor, except that in this case, the segmentation is in the women’s favor. How does a matriarchy impact the strength and prosperity of a community? Do the men have fulfillment in this unorthodox role, or do they share the sentiment of most females in non-matriarchal communities, namely that an unbalanced social reproduction of labor oppresses them?

Sarah's Exhibits

1. Slater Mill

Between around 1790 to 1840, this textile mill hired many children to produce textiles.  Indeed, around 1840, about 52% of workers in the carding department were children ages 9-12.  None of the authors describes the role of child labor in American history and how it has influenced women's roles in the family and in the workforce.  I wonder if the significant presence of children in the workforce during the 19th century had a strong impact on women's roles in society, and whether any of the trends in Kessler-Harris, Ehrenreich, or Glenn can be traced back to this.

2. The American Military All-Volunteer Force (AVF)

Currently, women/minorities may volunteer to enter the American military.  This places the women/minorities who do so in a position of high honor and prestige, since Americans value the military and these women/minorities play an active role in defending the country, a traditionally male job.  In addition, those who enter the military gain significant monetary and educational benefits that can further raise their socioeconomic status.  Does this represent a step forward for women that Ehrenreich, Glenn, and Kessler-Harris do not acknowledge when they discuss gendered labor?  Or are there more similarities in this situation to domestic service than might at first appear (i.e., do women/minorities still occupy inferior positions within the structure of the military)?

3. The Roomba

This technology requires really no effort--it vacuums the carpet automatically.  How has this technology affected domestic workers, in terms of the kind of work they do and perceptions of them?  With an increasing number of household chores becoming automatic, how might domestic workers' roles/status be changing?  How is this device advertised (i.e., are there any references to domestic workers)?

Parrenas Response

Parrenas’ article “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor” expands the topic of women in reproductive labor from reproductive labor within one nation to an examination of it as a transnational system. Her article addresses what she deems as a “three-tier transfer of reproductive labor” (Parrenas, 561): middle-class Western women hire Filipina migrants for domestic work, while these same migrants hire poorer women in the Philippines for the same purpose. I truly liked this article, because I felt that it introduced a new aspect of reproductive labor that our other articles had not considered. Parrenas concludes by arguing that women’s work has not truly been evened out among men, but rather transferred to other women so that Western women can work outside the household: women now participate “…in the transnational transfer of gender constraints to less-privileged women” (577). I believe Parrenas’ article is so intriguing in part because it picks up on many issues Glenn – and our discussion on women in reproductive labor – overlooked. In Glenn’s focus on racial stratification of labor and much on migrants, she neglects to examine these women migrants themselves, and the background they come from. In this way, Glenn ignores an important part of women’s reproductive labor – the women who have began to replace the now career-bound Western middle class. I enjoyed reading this article because of the new perspective it took on this commonly held discussion of women’s work.

Parrenas response

Parrenas essay builds with several of the previous isssues we have talked about in class , discussing reproductive labor, statification by sex and racial divisions of labor. Parrenas builds on this by taking the situation outside of the United States and brings it to internation globalization with upcoming countries requiring the need for reproductive labor. Parrenas main example is the use of Filipina domestic workers migrating for domestic work . With only the privalidged being able to leave there country and actually hiring Filipina domestic workers in their own country to take care of the family that they had just left. I thought the idea of the privialadged Filipinas leaving there own country to become domestic workers very puzzleing and if they were so privalidged and eduacated why leave at all, but just stay at home and remain in the higher classes in their own country

Glenn Response

In Glenn article "from servitude to service work" Glenn describes the division of labor based on gender, and also concentrates on race. Building on the Kessler Harris essay and even citing Kessler Harris several times Glenn says that gender and race are not two seperate catogories but are connected and build off each other when it comes to the further stratification of labor. Glenn also build on social reproduction of labor which has been mentioned before. When Glenn focused so much on race as a reason for the division of labor , I thought that the reason for this was economic class struture with lower classes taking up the divison of labor as opposed to a certain race. With better and higher salary jobs going to those who are qualified to do them

Response to Parrenas

I was particularly drawn to Parrenas’ commentary on the burdens of the “double day” (567) in her article “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor.” This term highlights the “plague” (567) of many domestic workers, namely the burden of doing paid reproductive labor all day and then returning to their own home where they must take up the same responsibilities again before they can rest. In other words, housework, childcare, and other related duties do not end for the domestic when she leaves her employer’s house (granted that she is not a live-in worker), but instead continue at her own abode. Needless to say, Parrenas characterizes the “double day” as an understandably undesirable side effect for the domestic laborer. However, Glenn makes an equally interesting point that the motivation of these domestics to bear the trials of reproductive labor as a vocation in the first place centers on providing for the welfare of their children. How then does the domestics’ “double day” (which certainly can be comprised of caring for their own children when they return home) relate to this mentioned motivational force of responsibility for their children? Does the “double day” encompass a universal sense of unpleasantness, or is there an psychological distinction for these workers between having to repeat their cleaning jobs and having to repeat their child caring duties? I would be interested to hear Parrenas’ perspective on whether a dread of the “double day” dominates other emotions or, conversely, if the intensity of a mother’s love of her children can alter her perspective on the dual labor that she is forced to perform.

Parrenas Response

After reading Parrenas essay we see that is very familiar with Glenn. She refers to her essay several times especially on the issue of 'racial division of reproductive labor.' (Parrenas 561) This essay is very interesting because she takes Ehrenriech's, Kessler-Harris's and Glenn's essays beyond American territory and relates it to the world. She refers this to as globalization and how this concept "has extended the politics of reproductive labor into an international level." (Parrenas 561) It seems she agrees with Glenn in many ways such as how priveleged women use their money to get themselves out of domestic work by hiring women, specifically "low-paid women of color," (Parrenas 562) so they can focus on other things. This raises the question who takes care of the domestic wrkers family and Parrenas explains that is usually family members who will reach out and support their own. Parrenas refers to Sakia Sassen how globalization has effected this migration of women worldwide. Sassen has said that "globalization has sparked the feminization of migrant labor." (563) The example presented are these Filopina domestic workers. As different nations begin to industrialize and increae their economy they need a big labor force for a cheap price. The global economy has prospered by these women but Parrenas wanrs us that these studies have to be loked carefully because they are "skewed." (564) She says it depends where work is available and what type of job opportunities. Filipino men tend to work in the middle east because they have opportunites in contrustion and tough physical jobs related to that. On the other hand Filipina workers migrate to Asia and Europe where there are low-wage domestic job voids; This extends to the United Sates also for inmigrant women are also rtaking advatage of the domestic jobs here. A big down side is the 'rearing children' (572) concpet caused by this movement across the world. These Filip[ina women and other mothers of different ethnicity sacrifice their niche because of the time they have to put into their jobs. Speaking from experience (my mom being a doemstic house worker herself) it does at times affect what goes on at home. Mostly my younger brothers who need more of a mother figure than me. My twin brother and I going to college has kept uis busy and occupied but for my brothers back home i can see it in their faces when i go back home that it does cause some problems. But playing sports and being involved with other activities is the solution because it fills in that void that my mom sometimes cannot satisfy at times.

Parrenas- Response

Parrenas' essay added an element to the readings about the social reproduction of labor, emotion.  Because of Parrenas' focus on race it can closely be linked to Glenn's essay about how gender and race are interlocking.  Glenn does make some comments about the difficulties that maids faced, for example being away from her home for up to two weeks at a time.  Although Parrenas focuses on Filipina migrant domestic workers primarily a lot of the same aspects can be applied to the domestic workers that live and work in the United States.  Both are often faced with the difficult task of taking care of their boss' children while they must leave their own children at home in the care of someone else.  Parrenas hits on the emotions that are brought forward in the Filipina women.  They either channel their desire to care for their own children into caring for someone else's child or they have to bare the distressed feelings every time they have to do a motherly act.  I think that this inclusion helps the reader to relate more to the domestic worker because you want to feel sympathy for them.  The other essays also had pats where I would feel bad for the those hired to do the housework but none of them made me see the real struggles that they went through.

I think that Parrenas and Glenn's essays work nicely together to show why a women might be more willing to get hired as a domestic server.  They each have interviews from women expressing their devotion to their families.  This devotion is what causes them to wake up every morning and clean up after someone else's family.  If what they are doing today can help their daughters and sons be in a better position in the future then that is a sacrifice they are willing to make.  For me information talking about family and emotions are something that makes me more interested what may really be going on, rather than just getting a bunch of facts.

Parrenas Response

Having had a Filipina live-in domestic worker when I was younger, this article was especially interesting as now I can realize the context and implications of her work. Having said that, unless I did a poor job of reading, I feel like this article didn't really do very much. Sure, it expanded KH's model of racial-ethnic women working for a higher class of white women to an international scale, specifically using the experiences of Filipina women. But apart from the obvious, and concepts that were already brought up in previous works (mainly KH), there were no real new ideas. Domestic work is hard/demeaning, mothers separated from their children are sad, white women not doing their own work is the reason why Filipinas migrate...this is not very ground-breaking.
Aside from that, though, Parrenas emphasizes that Filipinas doing domestic work abroad make more money than professionals at home. I certainly don't dispute that, but I do wonder exactly what percent of migrated domestic workers are professionals. Parrenas does say that 23 out of 46 women she interviewed in Rome had college degrees, and 11 out of 26 women in Los Angeles did. However, this data cannot be extrapolated because her methods for interviewing were not random, therefore her interviewees do not represent an unbiased sample size.
Something that I thought Parrenas was going to come to in her article, but did not, is what are supposed to do about all of this? Is the imbalance of economies at fault for labor migration just as much as gender or racial inequality? If so, what do we tackle? Should this issue be tackled at all?

Parrenas Response

I found it very interesting how Parrenas took the topics of the previous three readings we had and synthesized them all together. She combines the idea of reproductive labor found in the Ehrenreich piece, the idea of stratification along gender lines from the Kessler-Harris piece, and the idea of stratification along ethnic lines of the Glenn piece and applies those ideas to the international arena. In that way, the Parrenas is a sort of culmination of everything we have been studying for the last couple weeks.

I thought the most notable point that Parrenas makes in her essay is the idea that Filipino domestic workers who are working abroad are actually hiring other Filipino domestics to fill the voids that they are leaving at home. Much of my extended family lives in Taiwan, where everyone who is the middle-class and above employs at least one Filipino servant (and yes, they are referred to as "servants"). Unlike Americans who have one worker for the yard, another worker to take care of the children, a third worker for the cleaning, and yet another for the cooking, in Taiwan, this one Filipino lady does everything. Additionally, servants there virtually always live at the home in which they work. Most of the servants with which I have talked possess some higher education and view their current job as temporary. Many of them send the vast majority of their earnings home to support a large family or perhaps an ailing parent. I had no idea that these women must have been at least in the Filipino middle-class, so it would make sense that they employ domestic workers of their own at home, as Parrenas points out. Since the working visa system is very strict in Taiwan, few of these workers are able to stay for more than a couple years. I would be interested to hear what Parrenas would have to say about the short-lived nature of these jobs and whether or not she found similar views of these domestic jobs as "temporary" in her research.