Movie Event Post

"Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battering"

I attended the movie shown by Gender studies film series.  This movie was about men and wrestling and how woman are portrayed to be mistreated.  I attended this event with Jessica and she say "the world of professional wrestling creates a culture of men being dominant. It’s about violence and power and more. Young men watch these shows and are influenced by it. Shows like WWF, RAW and Smackdown are some of the most popular shows on cable TV."  This clearly explains that young men look up to mistreating one another and are growing up violent.  The film explained that the wrestling was fake and is just for entertainment that men enjoy seeing.  This film was very disturbing to watch first of all I don't like to see people get hurt and "entertainment" really that's just a stupid way of showing inspiration.  This film was broken down into several parts: Divas, Gender violence,   and "Its only entertainment".  
I have taken some notes and here is what was being taught to me through this film:

• If they decide to be a man than they should be treated a man.  This quote all shows the scenario of what is expected to happen in the film.  
• The toys of WWE- they have action figures for little boys that shows that WWE is showing a strong and tough man figure in a child's life as kids own the figures and look up to them.  
• "Is it real or fake" they sated that its all FAKE and their just putting on a show.  I think that its crazy to know that their creating a violent atmosphere for viewers and young men.
• They had described WWE to be like a soap opera for guys.
• Its a conversion of masculinity, and resembles a bullying behavior.
• Resembles in school how boys bully and get intimidated.  Also how real men show being bullied/s.
• It was a fact that a child is bullied every 7 minutes on the playground.  Those facts were hard to believe as a viewer but it happens and its hard to prevent.

Divas:

• It shows women getting implants to look better and it compares them with looking good on the WWE show as they are "fighting".  

Gender Violence:

• Men killing domestic partners which then leads to media news.
• The violence is between both men and women.
• Another fact was brought up in the film it stated " a woman is raped every 90 seconds in the U.S." Also "a woman is battered every 15 seconds.
• The audiences reactions is the most important part to the WWE wrestlers. 
• There was a lot of trash talking also in the film and it was said that " woman deserved it because shes a slut" and its only for entertainment.
• The viewers just laugh and look at the images of people like women being abused too.

This movie relates to "What Little Boys are Made of" it shows the characteristics of young boys being involved in bullying and violence.  They are in violence already and the wrestling just provokes it for the boys as they are inspired by it then they start acting tough and they ruin their image of being a nice guy.  The wrestling show is just shows the kids how to be more violent.  In the film it was stated that its like a mans cartoon just like women have their soap operas, wrestling is like their cartoon and even though its a fake fighting act they make it seem real, which is the weird part.  So do they really get hurt, do the injuries happen accidently, is a question to ask? This film also relates to Cinderella Ate my Daughter, that story had pinks involved and how it is to be a girl well its the opposite for boys.  Wrestling and violence is the opposite of the short read.  The films shows the resemblance of how boys are into violence and girls are into being polite and respectful.  That is how I see both sides of the spectrum for this situation.  

"Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression" - Ayvazian, Combatting Intentional Bigotry and Inadvertently Racist Acts"- Blanchard

Quotes
Ayvazian- "Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression"
So to start off I noticed that the author is or must be Armenian because of his "ian" name ending, so this is something to relate too.  As I was reading I came across  three quotes.

1. An ally is a member of a dominant group in our society who works to dismantle any form of oppression from which she or he receives the benefit. 
• So its saying in order to be an ally you have to be apart of a "dominant group" to make a difference in something. So its basically saying to support someones ideas and be apart of the group promoting/supporting the fact?
2.  In the second quote I chose its mentioned that "it is difficult for young people to grow up and become something they have never heard of.  It is hard for a girl to grow up and become a commercial airline pilot if it has never occurred to her that women can and do fly jet planes.  Similarly, it is hard for young people to grow up and fight racism if they have never met anyone it describe who does".  
• WOW that was a powerful quote. It is really true that if you don't grow up around something specific for instance like mentioned being a pilot, one may not know the choices out in the real world.  Also that if you learn something you grow up and know your expectations more that way because your goal may be to succeed in something that you have been taught.  
3. Lastly, "the best we can hope for is to strive each day to be our strongest and clearest selves, transforming the world one individual at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time.  May we summon the wisdom to be devoted allies today.  May we walk the walk, living as though equality, justice and freedom for all have already arrived".
• I chose this quote because it describes everything clearly.  That everything is willing to change if there is power and knowledge involved, everything or anyone can be strengthened by learning. Everyday holds something different occurring in society whether its rights or equality there are many ways to sort things out and learn how to overcome any obstacles.

So after reading the article I thought that Ayvazian had a lot to say about everything.  I learned what an ally is by reading this article which was a big help for class and I learned to question myself to see if I am an ally.  All of my questions were answered whether it was clarifying something or just struggling to have background information.  But overall this article was a good read. 
http://www.uakron.edu/groups/lgbtu/allies.php