Blog #12 The Dove Self-Esteem Fund

The topic I chose that was most interesting to me was self-esteem. It is important to me that all people regardless of their gender, age, out side appearance or whatever to have high self esteem and know that they are beautiful just exactly the way that they are. I found an organization that is actively trying to make girls have high self esteem. The organization is called the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. They create thought-provoking ads, confidence-building programs and messages that embrace all definitions of beauty. They even donate a dollar to a charity of your choice by entering your dove UPC number at their website. They are most famous for their commercials and advertisements with pictures of women of all different shapes and sizes in their bras and panties saying that they are beautiful. The society has so many assumptions as to what is beauty. It can really hurt one's self esteem. By showing all different types of women that are average and are not famous saying that they are beautiful, shows that real beauty is in the inside and is not what society makes it seem like. The Dove self esteem fund provides products to make us feel even better about ourselves and know that we are all beautiful. On their webpage they have picturs of little girls saying "i know my hair is beautiful" and it is fizzy, a little girl with freckles saying " i know my freckles are beutiful". The dove campaign has helped girls everywhere realize that they are beutiful just the way that they are.

Paper #2 The Kabul Beauty School Film

A main issue that Deborah Rodriguez addresses in the film The Kabul Beauty School is that women are inferior to men. No man seemed to really want to support the beauty school. As american women went around Kabul telling people what they were doing, men just laughed in their faces. Women do not drive in Kabul. Only men do. When the American woman drove around in her car everyone just stared at her. Men would look back at her and put their hands up at her and point and laugh. Men walking in the streets would not move out of her way , they just would stand their and shake their heads. The women are not allowed to show too much skin. When the Tailiban was there, they were only allowed to show their eyes. If they were too revealing they would get beat up. For years Kabul was under attacks from the war. It was bombed daily. Many of the women in Kabul felt depressed and hopeless. Doing their hair and makeup was the only way to keep their spirits up and feel good about themselves. That is why the Kabul Beauty School was opened.
Women would have salons secretly during the war. Most of the time their husbands did not want anything to do with it for fear of being exposed and harmed by the Tailban. Nafisa, which ran a salon in her home said that women would come all the time to her house to get their hair and makeup done. Even the Taliban’s wives would come. But after they got their hair done, they would just cover up their faces anyway with a veil. They were not allowed to feel good about themselves and show off what they had. Only men could show some skin and their faces.
In Kabul, being born a male made you very powerful. Women were just expected to take care of the house and the children. They are not allowed to make their own decisions. Men do not look at them as being attracted or anything like that, it seems they only wanted women to bear their children and take care of them. Some men even live double lives with more than one wife and several children with each wife. Women could barely even run a salon. There is not was that it would even be possible for a woman to live a double life. They have absolutely no freedom .
The Kabul Beauty School was just a place where the women could gather around and give them more self esteem and be able to be themselves and not just be a person to take care of the house and their husband. Being at that school gave them a sense worth. It also helped to give understanding of the similarities that us as women, regarless of our religious backgrounds or where we are from, have. Gender inequality needs to end. It should not matter what gender you are. We are all people and should be treated equally.

Blog #11 International Council of Women

There are many issues out there are are centered around women. For instance abortion rights. Rather a person is for or against abortion, having the choice to have it done legally or not touches on the freedom that women have to make choices about their own bodies. The International Council of Women also known as ICW, is a worldwide federation of National Councils of Women, which work together on international issues of concern specific only to women. International council of Women is an umbrella organization whose membership consists of National Councils of Women from many nations. This organizaions promotes equal rights and responsiblities for all people regardless of their sex. The elimanation of all forms of discriminations is the ultimate goal. Back in the older days, men had all the power. Women's issues were put aside. Many women's organizations were founded in order to promote peace internationally, general well-being and the right of vote for women. ICW just tries to save the progress that those women have made and make the pain they went through worth while.