Women's Studies
As I begun to read chapter four I thought that it would be one of the most interesting and informative for me. The further I got in to the reading I realized I couldn't relate too much of what was said. The first concept I chose was a basic for the chapter, sexuality is not instinctive but learned from our families, our peers, sex education in school, popular culture, negotiations with partners, and listening to our own bodies. I have never thought about my sexuality in that way. As I read I was asking myself, where did I learn to be so sexual, where did it come from? I never realized what I had learned along the way or who from.
The second concept I found interesting was that of the word "vagina." As the book has said, for many women the word vagina is associated with shame, embarrassment, and silencing, even violation. As I remember I saw a version of The Vagina Monologues at Portland State a few years back and as comfortable as I thought I was with my gender and sexuality I did feel embarrassed. I felt a little ashamed, but as the production went on I found it entertaining. I grew more and more comfortable as the play went on. I also found interesting V-Day College Initiative, a nationwide project to celebrate women and oppose sexual violence. I have never heard of this "V-Day," a day for women to come together.
One fact I found very interesting was that of the law passed in the state of Alabama on the ban on the sale or distribution of vibrators and other "devices designed or marketed as primarily useful for the stimulation of human genital organs." Politics, religion, and other social institutions put limitations on women's sexuality and sexual expression. It's not fair for old men passing these laws to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body; it disgusts me and it hard to think that it still happens today.
The third concept happens to be a definition that struck me as interesting, virgin. The word virgin did not originally...
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