Repost of Title IX Event

Hey - I reposted this so that you could find it easier! thanks!


I attended the luncheon on Title IX. The speaker was Kelly Belanger, a member of the English Department here at Virginia Tech and a former basketball player at Michigan State University. Kelly informed us about the components of Title IX such as employment, career education, sexual harassment, and technology. However, she decided to focus on sports represented by the Michigan State Basketball program. The idea before title IX was that women should not overexert themselves. They were not physically capable of such strenuous exercise such as sports. Title IX was a fight to change this social norm of women by creating equal participation and equal scholarship money for female athletes. Women were allowed to participate in sports; however, they had seasons which conflicted with other major sports. This caused a decreased audience level. They also did not get equal treatment in the form of what kind of monetary budget they had for uniforms, travel, food, etc. For this reason, in 1972, the fight for equal representation in sports began.The women who decided to lead the fight for Title IX decided to stay away from association with “radical feminist.” I found this interesting. They seemed to have the same stereotypically views as the rest of society about these feminists although they too were feminists. However, I believe by not associating themselves with the radicals, they were able to gain better support from the rest of the community. Kelly described the fight for the women’s basketball team, the same team that was there during the era of Magic Johnson. The Title IX director, Mary Pollock, was a hard advocate who actually lost her job by doing her job. The team members were happy with everything and anything they received, however, others still wanted better benefits for the team. Eventually, Federal Judge Noel Fox put immediate orders on the university to give the girls team equal food and lodge. Michigan State rejected the order stating they were already planning on doing that.The fight for equal representation in sports of women was a long lawsuit that was not settled until 1986. There are still arguments about it today. These include those that men are now being discriminated against in sports. Also, the idea that women simply aren’t interested in sports is common. However, this idea could easily be proved or disproved by the third check of Title IX, a survey. I found this talk very interesting. As a participator in sports during high school, I could easily relate to the facts that were presented. My team defiantly did not receive as good of treatment as the football team or boys soccer team. I also believe that it is important to continue to discuss the long struggle of Title IX because now we take such advantage of it. I did not even think about the fact that thirty years ago, girls might not have even been able to be on a sports team. I also enjoyed the speech because it was a small group of women and we got to have a group discussion at then end.

CRJ 11 (the real last one)

Feminism has many stereotypes such as being lesbians, man haters, rebellious, and against family. However, none of these are true. Feminists are women who want success for their sex, who want equality between men and women, and who are not afraid of challenging the norms of society to get what they want. Some feminists are activists, protesting against inequality and fighting for more women’s rights. However, many women are feminists and don’t even realize it. My classmates, who are competing with males in the classroom for positions in the workforce, graduate schools, law schools, medical schools, etc., are feminists who want equality. They want an equal opportunity to get the position they want, they want to prove they are just as good as a man. I believe I am a feminist because I want to change the distribution of doctors, I want to be a female surgeon, and I will work hard to get there.
I think the experience in the feminist classroom as been a good one. I also think it is good for me that it was an online class. I will be honest, if I had come to the first day of class and was surrounded by hard core activist feminists I would probably not come back. But because we got to read what other people thought instead of sitting in a class and discussing (which I am sure would turn into an argument at some point), I was more likely to listen to what people thought. I enjoyed this class because it made me realize that women are not necessarily equal, we still need to fight for what is ours. We still need to try to make a difference in the lives of women all over the world.
Being a doctor is something that I see in my future. One of my major options is OB/GYN; therefore, this class has a lot to do with my career. I understand that there are women who are victims of abuse, sexual and physical, and often the doctor is the first one to find out. I understand the importance of helping my patients, getting them out of their bad situation into a better one. I also would like to travel abroad and practice medicine for sometime in my career. It is important to me that all women have equal rights. While traveling abroad I hope to educate women about their rights and possibly set up clinics for them to be helped.