Music Monday: Gender & Song

On the drive back from GenCon, my iPod randomizer played two songs back-to-back

The first was The Doubleclicks, "Nothing to Prove."

Gender roles (for Grown-Ups)

This is the third post in my series on Biblical Patriarchy. For previous posts on this topic, I'll refer you to the Introduction and Gender roles (for children), both of which define terms and clarify the particular splinter of Biblical patriarchy that I grew up under.

I want a number of links on this subject, which may take longer to locate. Therefore, I will probably intersperse this series with posts on other topics. I still plan to continue with the posts outlined in the Introduction.

Gender roles (for children)

This is the second post on my experience related to the Biblical Patriarchy movement. As stated in the introduction, my own experience is different from the "typical" Fundamental or Evangelical homeschooling crowd that may also be Quiverfull. My family of origin was devoutly Catholic, with Charismatic influences.

Since I was not raised within that "more common" set of groups, I'll start with a link to Love, Joy, Feminism's definitions and breakdown of the definitions: "Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Christian Patriarchy/Quiverfull, and the Homeschool Movement". With one caveat. In this link, Libby Anne links Christian Patriarchy/Quiverfull as synonymous. I distinguish Quiverfull as a subset of Biblical Patriarchy.

Also, I say "Biblical Patriarchy" rather than "Christian Patriarchy," because I am peripherally aware of Jewish Patriarchal groups as well. However, I'm currently writing about what I know, at the intersection between Catholicism and the above movements (within Christianity). I may choose, in future posts, to do the research that would link in Jewish Patriarchal blogs or articles, if my time permits.

Gender roles for children within Biblical Patriarchy

Breaking things

MIT Press has a book, "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing," (Title link goes straight to the book on Amazon) which discusses how family, education, and institutional barriers often keep Computer Science a women's field.  (Photo link below connects to my Amazon Associates account.)

A short synopsis is that boys are often encouraged to take things apart and "break things," while girls are often conditioned not to do that.

First summer on-campus (Part 1: Work & School)

I had been writing about the journey that got me here.  Last time I wrote, I was up to my first internship.  While I had worked temporary positions since high school, this was my first "real job" out in the corporate world.  As I wrote, it wasn't the easiest of journeys.

There are a lot of movies and tv shows out there about U.S. culture, that promote one's Sweet 16th birthday as a time for a big celebration, lots of presents, possibly even a car.  My Sweet 16 was nothing like that.  I was allowed to invite a handful of friends over for the night, and I asked for no presents, and I certainly didn't get a car of any age.

During the internship, I was able to get a ride to work with another intern.  My roommate and I, both car-less, could also get rides to the grocery store, the bank, or the post office, when we needed to, but the apartments were not in walking distance of most of those needs.  I walked to the library, I walked to church, and mostly stayed in the apartment and read when I wasn't at work.

But as the semester wound down and I prepared to move back to campus, I needed my own ride.  It took a lot of looking, a lot of evaluating what I could afford, where I might get a loan.  I had tried saving up during the semester, but did not have enough.  In the end, an uncle lent me the money, and I paid him back over the next year.

My now-husband worked out the details for how we would make it through the summer.  Since he was in school the usual spring-fall terms, he usually went back to live with his parents over the summer.  When I first got the job, I had feared that we would be living in different cities the entire year.

Attachment parenting

As I wrote last time, May was a VERY busy month for us, and it looks like I'll be busy much of the summer.  I don't have any intention of stopping blogging, but updates may not be 2-3 times a week the way I had intended.

Attachment parenting has been in the news recently, in part due to the provocative (or inflammatory) Time Magazine article the week of Mother's Day.  As someone who tries to practice attachment parenting, I find that I have a lot to say about this article.

The trouble began with the cover photo and headline.  Other critiques have pointed out that the very pose is unnatural, nothing like what breastfeeding a toddler is like.  I know, because I breastfed my son until he was about 3.5, about the age of the boy on the cover.

Programming

One of the classes I took in my first semester was C programming.  The class was held in the huge lecture hall in the Class of 1950 building.  The class looked to me to have a decent mix of guys and gals, but then we were divided into sections for our lab homework.  While I had a female Teaching Assistant, I was one of only three female students in the lab.  The rest were all guys.

Gender Roles

I'm set up to start talking about college soon.  Definitely this month.  This week, though, I think I'll continue to talk about different things instead.

I got into Glee just last summer, which means that I've been processing 2.5 years of material in about 6-8 months, where most Gleeks have had that much time to think it over.  I'm beginning to think that those 1- 2- and 4-week hiatuses actually give people time to go back over the previous episodes and think about the implications.

I am... often... slow to declare my favorite shows and favorite characters in public.  With Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was Wesley Crusher.  Hey, I was a geeky teenage girl.  I've already said that my crushes were usually based on intelligence more than looks - though Wesley had both.  And maybe my father was just trying to protect his little girl... although how a fictional character could really be a threat to one's virtue, I do not know.  But my father made sure I know about every criticism his co-workers had.  How they wished the character would leave the show, one way or another.

What I learned was to keep my cards close to my chest.  That to talk about the things I liked the most, just brought on more criticism.  Perhaps they didn't mean to attack me by attacking the things I liked.  But neither did it encourage me to be myself.  So perhaps I am making a mistake one more time, when I talk about my favorite Glee character.

Giving Arts a Chance: Junior year

So we moved from Nebraska back  to Indiana.  The place that is home, but not mine.  My mother's family has lived in Indiana since at least 1920.   My father's side of the family has been on the Indiana/Ohio border for about 200 years.

Mom grew up visiting her grandmother on Sundays, and playing with her cousins regularly.  I was lucky to see my grandparents once a year, and my cousins less than that.

We moved to a small town in northwestern Indiana.  Starke County, just north of Pulaski County.

I don't recall registering for classes, so I am guessing my parents registered me.  I'm not sure why I didn't take band that year.  Did I consciously choose not to?  Did they simply forget to sign me up?  Or did it have activity fees that they balked at?  It might not have fit the schedule that I had.  Regardless, I didn't take band.

Good teachers

I'm sorry I didn't get a post ready for Friday.  I was trying to decide what direction to go.  There were a lot of other things that happened from 7th grade through my sophomore year of high school, things I haven't described.  The summer between my sophomore and junior years, is really the pivotal moment.  That is when my world was shattered.

And I don't know how to write it.  I decided to finish the last two years of high school in this Giving Arts a Chance series, and then I can go on to other topics.  I have written the posts, and they will be posted.  But the order the facts are presented in, makes a huge difference in what the posts mean.

Giving Arts a Chance - Sophomore Year

Continuing my series of thinking about arts in my life.  My Sophomore year of High School, I was actually enrolled in band.  We had two bands: Intermediate and Advanced.  I was in the Intermediate Band.  This was the year I learned that the only other clarinet player in the school was a Senior.  I got to know her a little better that year, as the only other clarinet player.

Then again, she was out in front of everybody a lot that year.  She was selected as Mother McAuley for the senior's Mercy Day play, she got the lead in Godspell, the Fall Musical.  The school did that with an all-girl cast, it was cool.  And she was the lead for Cinderella, the spring play.  I was so in awe of her.  We exchanged pictures towards the end of the year, she wrote a note asking me to take care of Mrs. Jensen the next year.  I wish I could have done that.

Giving Arts a Chance - Freshman year

In my last post I wrote a little about the arts offerings at my first high school, and I thought I would elaborate on the classes I mentioned, the plays my friends were in.

Being the only student from my elementary school to go to that high school, I didn't walk into school with friends.  The day that we had class retreats, one of the Freshman activities was to make friendship bracelets, and then give them to someone in the class.  I guess the teachers figured out that nobody knew me well enough to give me one, so Mrs. Wells (my Academic Advisor, who was there that day) made up a bracelet and when we did presentations, she gave it to me.

Intro to Arts was required for all the Freshmen.  The school operated on a quarter/semester system, so the class was divided into four groups, and each quarter we rotated to the next class.