Summer Hiatus

Hello loyal readers,

The end of the semester is upon us at James Madison University, which means that Shout Out! will be going on our annual summer hiatus.

As always, we appreciate everyone who spends time reading and posting on the blog! Without you, there would be no Shout Out!

If you like the blog, be sure to subscribe so that you know as soon as a new post occurs. It is very possible that some of our bloggers will continue to periodically share content this summer.

Thanks again for another great semester. See you soon!

-The Shout Out JMU team

Links Round-up

This week at Shout Out!

It looks like an Ending but is just the Beginning!

So as you have seen, this is the last time many of us bloggers will be writing for Shout Out.  I honestly thought that this project would not have gone as fast as it did.  I feel like I have so many more things to say and talk about but I will probably just have to do it in a different medium.  I know I will probably always be writing about my point of view on feminism and discuss with my friends and family my thoughts on feminism.  From everything I learned from this blog, I was also able to bring my knowledge of feminism to my school work this year.

Recently, for one of my writing classes in my group final we had to focus on the rhetoric of comedy shows through the decades.  I was assigned the 50′s and 60′s.  The shows I chose to focus on during that decade were “Bewitched” and “I Love Lucy”.  The reason I chose both of those shows was because I wanted to focus on women who were probably the most influential at the time because audiences fell in love with these shows and the actresses.  I did most of my focus on “I Love Lucy” because I use to watch reruns of this show with my Mom and because of the impact she had on women during that time period.  I learned that the reason her character, Lucy, was always getting into weird and crazy situations, which usually ended badly, was because she was trying to portray the struggles of women at the time who were trying to enter the workforce.  Of course this was a little over exaggerated but she was trying to make a point in a subtle way that would still keep the audiences engaged in the TV show.  I also found out that she had one of the only women screenwriters at the time that helped her create this character.  I also saw the way men during that time reacted to women who were trying to enter the workforce.  Characters like Ricky, her husband, on the show would be against her trying to get a job.  Once he said “I just want a wife”, meaning he just wanted her to be a housewife and not a career woman.

The End? Or just the Beginning?

Well, this is it. Not only am I tasked with writing the last Shout Out post of the semester, but also the last of my career as a regular writer/editor of the blog. Naturally, I wanted to reflect about my time with Shout Out, and what this experience meant to me.

The Finale

As my college career comes to an end, so do my blog posts for ShoutOut!JMU. I would like to thank the academy, my mom, my manager, my kindergarten teacher….

But in all seriousness I am thankful for this opportunity. So for my very last post, I would like to go over some things I have learned, and some things I am thankful for.

Um. Or we could just watch sports too?

The cliche: night to never forget

It is that time of year again… PROM! The time when tanning, dress shopping, and worrying about who is going to ask you begins. The days when I would stress over finding the right shoes, getting my dress fitted just right, and panicking if my date would pick out the right color flowers are sadly over. Looking back on the five different proms that I attended (wow I know haha), I feel like I view it all so differently now… not better, and not worse, just different. 

I Won’t Be Doomed to Repeat It

Whelp, it’s that time of year again the libraries are filled to capacity where noise of any kind is met with evil stares and death threats, everyone is offering to use their dining dollars for you, and every student seems on the verge of hysterical laughter, or crying, or fits of rage and most likely a combination of all three.  It can only mean one thing!  The end of the semester is finally here!  And it has been quite a journey.  As most of the bloggers have done I would like to take this time to reflect on my experiences this year, especially as they concern my time with ShoutOut!

My feelings exactly

Ramblings of a Nostalgic Senior

So as my last post I kind of wanted to write I guess what would be considered a reflection of some shape or form.  There ultimately won’t be a general topic or subject heading, I honestly don’t know I’m going to title this…ramblings of nostalgic senior? I actually kind of like it but more to the point if I have one, I am a senior and have two weeks left of my college career, gosh it makes me feel so old.  I remember when I was a freshman older people would tell me to enjoy it while it lasts because it passes by so quickly and I never thought I’d see the day when I was that older person.

It feels like just yesterday that I was a little freshwoman, well I still am little but hopefully a lot wiser.  People always say that college is when you find yourself, you’ll experiment but along the road you’ll come into your own as a small person in this big world.  You make mistakes, you learn from them and grow plus hopefully don’t repeat them but there’s ups and downs, break ups, hook ups and fuck ups, you may get an underage charge, you may find a soul mate, or just a best friend that you will always stay in touch with and you may very well may streak the quad.  There are papers and tests but those aren’t the things that shape your college experience.  You won’t care what you got on your geology test Sophomore year but the night you stayed up all night talking to a complete stranger, you will.  Along this wild journey that people casually refer to as college, I found myself and I can 100% thank feminism for the woman I am today.

My 41st Post

It is hard to believe it, but this is it. My 41st and final post for ShoutOut JMU. We have shared three semesters of avid blogging my dear readers – but let’s take one last journey together. I want to reflect on my blogging experience, talk about the transformative power of the blogosphere (and how you can be a part of it!), and share two upcoming feminist projects that I am really excited about. So, one last time, here we go…

“Real Women Have Curves”: Why Understanding Transphobia is Important

While in class the other day, I overheard two girls talking about fat shaming, and one parroted to the other the old standby for empowering women who feel like they are too big: “real women have curves.” As glad as I was that the conversation was aimed at making one person feel good about her body, I was sad that it had to be at the expense of classifying women as real or not.

 

Can’t all women be “real” women?