Feminism

I had a dream last night that I was already taking the midterm. I was somewhat nervous about the exam when I woke up but I felt pretty prepared. I reviewed with a group of Freedom and Justice students last night in the lounge and we quizzed each other on each philosopher's political system,

Breakfast with Tess and Monica before the exam

Tess, Monica, and I ate a quick breakfast because we wanted to get to the lecture hall early. We arrived at about 8:45 AM so we had time to settle down before taking the test at 9 AM. The test consisted of one essay and 5 short answers problems. We were given 40 minutes for Part I and 20 minutes for Part II. The essay prompt I chose was a compare contrast essay. The short answers were either quotes or phrases, and we were to identify the source and significance of each. I finished right on time and we get our results next Monday. After a 15 minute break, Professor Kramnick continued his lecture on the origins of feminism. We referred to texts from Wollstonecraft as well as John Stuart Mill. 

Because we had our midterm in the morning, our session with Nolan was a mix of a writing and discussion session. Our discussion was very interesting, for our main objective was to decide whether Wollstonecraft would have been happy with how women are perceived and treated today. Though some felt that men and women today are equal, many of us brought up situations and examples that proved clearly that they were not. For instance, if a kid goes to McDonald's to buy a happy meal, the toys that are given according to  gender. The girls will always get the pink, princess-y, more feminine toy while the boys might receive an action figure. It's sad how we are conditioned to believe in gender roles at such an early age. We also discussed other examples of commercials and advertisements. Today, cleaning products are always advertised by women. This only shows that we really haven't gotten away from the belief that women could not and should not achieve anything other than their domestic duties. The list goes on and on, and it really shocked me how we really haven't changed enough.

Today's homework was to finish the rest of our readings on feminism. There is also currently a "dessert around the world" event in our hall held by our RCA's, so I might go check that out right now.