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__**Week 1: Too Fat or Too Thin: The scrutiny of pregnant bodies by the media**__

During today's lecture I was thinking about Princess Kate and her pregnancy, which left me with the thought about weight gain and pregnancy. I remember in April, tabloids running with stories comparing the weight gain of Kate to Kim Kardashian. At the time these stories were running I was in very late stages of pregnancy and having some pretty bad body image issues, mainly because none of my clothes were fitting and looked like a small whale. Although I think some people think you want to hear compliments on the size of your stomach - I think in the majority this isn't the case. During pregnancy, your body changes rapidly over a short period of time - only 40 weeks. According to Skouteris et al. (2005), women are likely to reevaluate their body image over time, potentially allowing for greater body dissatisfaction than at other times in women's lives, when body shape remains relatively stable. In a study of healthy pregnant women in Victoria, it was found perceive socio-cultural pressures to lose weight from significant others and the media contributed to pregnant women feeling less attractive and feeling fatter (Skouteris et al., 2005).

In the tabloid previously mentioned, Kate and Kim were pitted against each other, showcasing their too thin - too fat weights as a cause for concern. I believe this fuels the unreasonable expectations placed on pregnant women about what an ideal pregnant body is, and whether you have out on enough or too much weight. Health isn't necessarily shown in size, so I think people should lay off pregnant women - celebrity or not.

NOTE: Even this week (week 2) there have been articles about Kim's post pregnancy body and speculation about when she is going back to the gym. This kind of focus on women's bodies is very unhealthy, especially during this period. Expectations that celebrities will lose baby weight quickly creates unrealistic demands on the normal woman. It is unhealthy to lose too much weight straight after pregnancy, especially if you are nursing (as toxins can be released into the breast milk). Instead of focusing on this new baby and supporting the parents we are focused on scrutinising women's bodies at one of their weakest moments. (In a side note - I didn't think it was fair that Kate Middleton could look so fabulous less than 24 hours after birth!)

Skouteris, H., Carr, R., Wertheim, E. H., Paxton, S. J., & Duncombe, D. (2005). A prospective study of factors that lead to body dissatisfaction during pregnancy. Body Image, 2(4), 347-361.

__**Week 2: Gendering housework: Upbringing, personality or both?**__

This week was an interesting lecture, posing the question of how gender is defined as opposed to sex. While I was reading the news this morning I came across this article: Work is killing the weekend (here is the link: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/work-is-killing-the-weekend-and-it8217s-hitting-our-kids-the-hardest/story-fnet085v-1226690495836)

There were a few points in here that I thought were interesting and very relevant to the week that was.In a nutshell the article looked at how weekend work was affecting the amount of time parents could spend with their children based on research from the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of NSW. They found that mothers spend 40 minutes less time on 'leisure activities; with their children when their partners work weekend, fathers spend an extra hour with friends on leisure activities when women work on Saturday. It was suggested that this was due to women having more responsibility for household and care work. In addition they found that men spent an average of 18 hours and 20 minutes on housework while women spent 33 hours and 43 minutes. I know how hard it can be to juggle work, housework, study and spending time with kids. It is a hard thing to balance and requires negotiation and cooperation between partners to ensure everything is divided fairly so no one is overworked. In a study of postpartum women returning to work, the development of social support networks and fairly dividing household tasks were identified as key coping strategies to maintaining a work-life balance (Vujinovic, Williams & Boyd, 2013). I believe it is when this is not done well between partners that it leads to an imbalance, which is influenced both by upbringing (which can often be influenced by their parents perception of gendered roles) and the partner's personalities. Coming from a single parent family, where everyone was female, my sister and I were bought up without a notion of gendered roles. Instead we were taught the importance of helping around the house as part of contributing to the team and ensuring everyone pulled their own weight. I translate this philosophy into my current relationship and have taught my partner that housework and looking after the baby is just as much work as cutting up chicken for 8 hrs. Therefore we share the cooking and cleaning to make sure both us have a chance to relax and bond with the baby. In contrast, my best friend (who works fulltime like her partner) does all the cooking and cleaning at her place for herself, her partner and his brother. She honestly believes that it is her role and enjoys doing it. She has 2 sisters and neither of them have the same view as her but they all had the same upbringing. Furthermore, in her family, her father works full time and does all the cooking and cleaning. I believe that it isn't just upbringing that influences how a person perceives their gender and their role but is also an influence of a person's situation and personality.

On a brighter note I wanted to post this article to show how some of the most oppressed women in the world are speaking out against the social constraints placed on them as a women in their society. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-26/an-burka-clad-cartoon-superhero-to-battle-for-girls27-educatio/4845046

The crux of the article is that a new cartoon superhero disguised in a burqa is debuting in an animated series on Pakistani television to battle for girl's education in Pakistan. I thought this was a cute article and shows that women across the globe are changing to fight for their gender.

Vujinović, N., Williams, P., & Boyd, C. (2013). Mothers' integration of work, home and community in master planned communities: what's different?.Community, Work & Family, 16(1), 68-87.

__**Week 3: Mother or father: who is responsible for the kids?**__

This morning I read an article in the courier mail which had involved a lot of the women's health issues addressed in the lecture today. http://www.news.com.au/national-news/queensland/mother-of-starved-twins-tells-court-she-was-too-scared-to-seek-help-for-fear-of-losing-them/story-fnii5v6w-1226691671486

My biggest problem with the article and the case is that the mother is being trialled for murder while the husband was charged with manslaughter. I believe that it is wrong to insinuate that it is more the mother's fault that the poor twins died when parenting should be the equal responsibility of the father and the mother. The basic scenario that lead to the twin's death was she stopped feeding her twins freshly cooked solids in favour of baby food and formula and when they began to this was unsuccessful in reintroducing solids. The system failed this poor woman - she has some obvious mental health problems which sounds like it included PND and was afraid of going to the authorities for fear of losing her babies and four other children. Her husband was often out of the house at work, drinking or playing poker at the pub and not at home to support the woman despite agreements they made before the pregnancy. Furthermore, the woman was afraid of her husband as his drinking reminded her of abuse she suffered as a child. I think that the perfect mother image that is constantly portrayed on the media made this woman feel inadequate as a mother and contributed to her mental health problems. It is really hard to be a mother, especially to six children, and it is horrible when we have such problems with a society that a struggling mother is afraid of reaching out for help and support for fear of losing her children. I struggle to comprehend how the father can use the excuse that he was never home or saw the twins as an excuse for not realising that they and his partner were in trouble and his actions can be seen as not as bad as those of a mother who thought she was doing the best she could for her children and is a reflection of the greater emphasis placed on the female in parenting roles.

I think this reflection of society towards placing a greater emphasis on females in the parenting role is also seen through recent articles about dad's seeking parental leave from the Queensland Government. In the two articles, fathers have been denied the equivalent of the 14 weeks paid parental leave when they want to be the primary caregiver of their new baby. Where men who adopt or have a child through surrogacy can get the 14 weeks of paid leave off work, as biological fathers they cannot - instead being forced to use annual leave and unpaid leave.Surely we should support fathers who want to take an active role in their child's development. Although they can access the 18 weeks leave provided by the government, this is at minimum wage and well below what they earned in their roles at the Queensland Government.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/male-nurse-loses-discrimination-test-case-in-fight-for-maternity-leave-to-care-for-first-child/story-fnihsrf2-1226682722278# http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/lawyer-takes-on-queensland-government-in-battle-for-right-to-paid-maternity-leave/story-fnihsrf2-1226690249824#mm-breached

NOTE: I saw this article today and I had to share - lucky we have coffee is bring out the full bodied buxon wench in me! http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/coffee-roaster-creates-blend-for-men-and-women/story-fneuz92c-1226693214343

__**Week 4: Complementarianism in an Australian context**__

The reading for this week by Peter McDonald was an interesting read. The whole concept of complementarianism or the 'bread winner' model and its relation to fertility is quite interesting. I guess what made it so interesting to me was that since my mum was a single mother I never grew up exposed to the whole breadwinner concept. Since my partner and I have had a baby since we are now on a single income and I am still studying, I guess Joel would be the breadwinner. But I don't think this a role that is set in stone, particularly in a country like Australia where we continually have advances in our equity between males and females even though there is still a distance to go. I know that my partner and I plan to switch roles at the end of the year where I become the higher income earner so he can return to study. In addition, when we have our second child, depending on my new job we are planning that he would stay home with the child. I think that it is good that the government - through allowing the parenting allowance to be paid to either parent allows this. It will be interesting to see whether the changes that Tony Abbott is proposing to the paid parental leave will continue to allow the dad be able to be the primary carer. In addition to these changes, I think it will help with the superannuation that Tony is proposing mothers get paid super while they are on the leave.

Although not everyone would agree with this, I think that the decision to have a baby and what impact this has on their life is a lot more dependent on a person's situation, personality and their partner's personality. Australia as a country is a lot less complementarianism when compared to countries in South East Asia where no accommodations are made for new parents and it is a country where often there are families that are in the position where they don't require two full incomes to survive. So if the mum wants to stay at home and not go back to work - often she can and I don't think this is a reflection of Australia and its gender equity but more of a reflection of the better economic position Australia is in compared to some other countries.

McDonald, P. (2013). Societal foundations for explaining low fertility: Gender equity. Demographic Research, 28(34), 981-94. DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2013.28.34

__**Week 5: Women, fashion and the body: working towards a holistic model**__

Yesterday's lecture and the accompanying readings were very interesting and have raised a few points that I wanted to talk about that I thought were interesting.

This article was published yesterday on news.com.au and is a reprint of an original article published in Vogue in September 2013 (so it must be in the latest or next issue). http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/the-truth-about-modelling-what-i-wish-i8217d-said-to-my-fans/story-fnet01u7-1226700441983

The article directly relates to what we were talking about yesterday with Ang about the pressure places on models to stay beautiful and how this can affect young girls. The whole crux of the article was about the lies Carre Otis told young girls when she was a model in response to letters she received. The first point I found really interesting was that the article was published in Vogue - a fashion magazine. In addition if you look at the front cover it is a beautiful photo of Victoria Beckham with a small heading at the top right about this article. I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition as Victoria Beckham has constantly been criticized on being too skinny. I also thought it was interesting that it was published in Vogue - as in my mind - the little girls who wrote to Carre when she was younger are probably the right age group to be the current audience of Vogue. Carre said that the majority of fan mail that she received was from girls ages 10 to 15 with a variety of questions asking how they could be more like her. By giving false answers she was helping to contribute to the modelling worlds unrealistic perception of models. Even if these girls tried to follow Carre's advice they would not have been able to ever look like her or be a similar size due to the heavy doctoring of photos. I think this would have lead to mental health issues and eating disorders around this age group - and it would be interesting to see whether there is a theme amongst this group who would be 35-45 years old now.

The second point I wanted to raise was also about an article I read this week, and a topic Ang mentioned yesterday - the 'pro ana' sites and the dark side of instagram. There are actually two articles that I am going to post here because both I think are quite interesting: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/shut-down-instragram-crackdown-on-pro-ana-loophole/story-fneuzlbd-1226615742415 http://www.news.com.au/technology/is-instagram-a-sewer-a-leap-down-the-dark-side-of-the-internet/story-e6frfro0-1226697903307 The first is about Instagram cracking down on pro ana and thinspo hash tags and these things. It then raised the point that youth are still posting these photos and associated comments by slightly altering the spelling in tags and account names. It makes it hard for the websites like Instagram to control and monitor the problem amongst the huge influx of new names and tags as the popularity of sites increases. The second looks at additional dark sides of Instagram such as child pornography and drug abuse but also raises the idea of an online community interested in eating disorders.

Social media has become an extension of every day life for young people and teens and they extend the social relations they have in the real world into the online world. To me - this means the lines of social relation are then blurred and online relations are given so much more power and weight to young girls. While social media has the power to have a positive influence on health by creating and facilitating social support groups, it can also act in the opposite way, connecting young girls with other people with eating disorders creating the illusion that it is a normal thing and giving them reasons to justify their beliefs for an eating disorder. In addition fashion magazine and the industry can more easily bombard young girls with photos and negative advertising due to laxer rules on the internet compared to television and advertising regulations. With the popularity of social media I wonder whether it has moved to have a bigger influence on young girls and their views than traditional media formats.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the positive role models that fashion icons such as Miranda Kerr and Jennifer Hawkins can be and how they could support the holistic model of body image proposed by Wood-Barcalow, Tylka and Augustus-Horvath in their article "But I like My Body." While both Miranda and Jen are of a typical shape - the fact that they both like to show their real life - like Miranda getting photos done while she is pregnant (even though its hard to believe she could still look so stunning) and photos of Jen with her family raises and reinforces the idea that models are real people too. I think this helps with the society/media aspect of the model as well as helping to build filters of young girls as it gives them the idea that these photos on the runway are staged. While Yesterday Ang mentioned that Kate Moss making drug use sexy was a negative thing - I think it can also have a positive effect - as it gives parents a platform and stimulus to launch a discussion with their kids about the dangers of drug use and the negative effect it can have on your body - as even Kate Moss didn't look good in those photos! There are so many things and issues parents have to talk about with their kids, articles such as the ones about Kate Moss' cocaine use and the anorexic model example Ang had on her slides are both reminders to parents that these are issues they should discuss with their kids.

Wood-Barcalow, N. L., Tylka, T. L., & Augustus-Horvath, C. L. (2010). “But I like my body”: positive body image characteristics and a holistic model for young-adult women. Body Image, 7(2), 106-116.

__**Week 6: Having a baby: what do you really need**__

The first thing I wanted to talk about is the discussion we were having in the tutorial about the perfect time to have a baby. I thought it was interesting listening to the others students opinions on the things you needed to have before you had a baby. In my opinion, the first time you look at your baby will be a million times more special than your university graduation or your first home or even getting married. Watching that little baby look at you with such adoration and love is such a special moment and all the other things on that list are dull in comparison. I don't think you need anything to have a baby. My mum was a 21 year old student when she had my sister and I and she raised us as a single mother and has achieved all those things on the list (except for a husband). Now she is in her early 40s and she has the freedom to explore the world and have opportunities such as teaching overseas which she could never have done if she had babies at a later age (and whose to say she ever would have had children). In addition, my partner and I are both working towards meeting our goals such as buying a house with a young baby. I totally agree with Michelle's statement that if you want a baby then these other things are arbitrary. The only thing you need to have a baby is the ability to love it as much as you are capable and no amount of material goods or work success will give you that. A baby isn't a barrier to achieving goals, it can be a facilitator by motivating you to better your own lives for the sake of the baby.

The second point I wanted to talk about was about Yvette's lecture on birthing in Queensland. Having given birth earlier in the year in a public hospital I have a very fresh memory about what the whole process was like. In my case, I was really glad that birth was seen as a medical condition and I don't think it is a negative thing. I believe the medicalisation of birth gives more power to women, as it highlights both and pregnancy as a dangerous, tough and painful thing.

Sure birth used to be left up to women but there were high rates of women dying during labour and infant mortality. by making birth medical, it stops it from being just a women's problem and an inconvenience to a proper condition that deserves treatment and concessions to the sufferer like not having to pick things up and getting a seat on the bus. Furthermore, i pose the question, if birth wasn't medicalised, would women receive benefits such as paid parental leave to recover from the process. In a male dominated political sphere where the rights of women after giving birth on returning to work are debated by men in power, if birthing was not medicalised, and remained a 'women only' issue, there would have been not solid grounding for feminists to advocate to the government for paid paternity leave and discrimination laws surrounding lactation.

__**Week 7: why should only the poor be supported to have a baby?**__

This week I wanted to talk about something I feel quite passionately about, which is paid parental leave. Firstly, I want to criticise the Labour ads with the pensioner saying that we shouldn't be funding parental leave for women earning $150,000 a year. About these ads:

1. Why should women take a pay cut and superannuation cut to have a baby (under the old labour scheme). Having a baby is important to ensuring the economic security of the country and it is hard work. I think it makes complete sense that a women should continue receiving her wage if she has a baby - after all when you take any other kind of leave you aren't paid a reduced amount

2. The amount of tax that a lady earning $150000 pa is paying on that wage is $43447 (based on the 2013 tax rates). Thats over half of what it would cost for her parental leave and she would still be paying tax on that $75000 paternity leave.

3. It should be economically viable for any family to have a baby. Even if someone earns more, their expenses are probably higher meaning they require parental leave just as much as anyone else to cover things such as mortgage and living expenses.

4. The tax is being funded by a tax increase to businesses, so it isn't using any of the taxpayers dollars as the ad is suggesting. I completely agree that businesses should be fronting the cost for parental leave, as if they are more supportive and give their employees adequate time to celebrate the new birth, i think it's more likely the employee will go back to work sooner.

Although I agree with many labour policies, more in the past than the present with some ridiculous policies they are fronting, I believe these ads are purposefully trying to trick and misinform the general public. I think it is really interesting that Labour are so against these policies, when Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, a high income mother, was known for bringing her baby to parliament back in 2001. Surely as the health minister, she would support this policy that is better for women and better supports the continuation of breast feeding for the 6 months recommended by WHO, which is associated with health benefits for both mum and bub. Whether paid parental leave was a big issue at the last election no one will know. However, I was reading an opinion poll the other day and the newspaper found 1% of people were voting on that issue. With the interesting events that are folding out in the senate it will be very unlikely, unless Abbott can reach some kind of coalition with the bizarre minor parties, that this policy will ever be implement, which is a shame and a disservice to women all over Australia.

Tanya Plibersek with her 4-month old baby in 2001

__**Week 8: Domestic Violence and Health Promotion**__

What I wanted to talk today centres around the reading by Fisher, Hunt, Adamsam & Thurston about the relationship between Domestic Violence and the Health Care System. According to Fisher et al., domestic violence places an 8 billion burden on the Australian economy with 388 million of this attributed to healthcare costs. I think it is really interesting then that role of the health sector in the prevention and care of domestic violence towards women is secondary to that of the legal system. Unfortunately in the legal system, rape towards women and domestic violence are treated more as a family crime and of the major crimes have the lowest prosecution rates. In a sense, this punishes women for reporting these crimes as they are the ones left at threat of further attack from the perpetrators. Furthermore, current thinking in the healthcare and legal systems centres around tertiary care and looking and placing the responsibility on the victims to leave abusive relationships. Primary prevention and targeting the core social determinants that contribute to the occurrence of domestic violence is not currently achieved by the healthcare system. As a public health student, I firmly believe in primary prevention, mainly because I believe it is the responsibility of the government and healthcare system to do everything in their power to prevent citizens from having to suffer through horrible health conditions, and domestic violence is no exception. I was pondering about how if I was a health promotion practitioner how I would go about targeting the social determinants of domestic violence through primary prevention. To me, the ideal setting would be young high school students as this is the age when they develop their ideologies about the roles of women and respect (UNIFEM, 2008). I think that if you taught students at this age health ideas about the importance of women and maintaining healthy relationships it would go a long way towards helping to reduce the incidence of domestic violence.

Fisher, C., Hunt, L., Adamsam, R., & Thurston, W. E. (2007). ‘Health's a difficult beast’: The interrelationships between domestic violence, women's health and the health sector: An Australian case study. Social science & medicine, 65(8), 1742-1750.

UNIFEM. (2008). A life free of violence: Unleashing the power of women's empowerment and gender equality. Retrieved from []

__**Week 9: Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women**__

Undeniably there is a huge gap in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. However, based on current close the gap reports, Queensland is not on target to meeting its goals in reducing the gap in life expectancy and child mortality. Personally, I believe that this is because current efforts have taken a prescriptive approach instead of a more holistic and supportive model that ties in with the culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Instead of developing strategies with community members, they are told that they are unhealthy and ways to improve their health, often by Caucasian people who have no appreciation for their culture and the role the history of colonisation plays in the day-to-day health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I believe that QLD health should undertake a more of a new public health approach by acknowledging the conceptual, methodological, scientific, political and moral factors underpinning health and recognising the interdependency and interrelationship of the health of people, communities, and nations (Tulchinsky, & Varavikova, 2010).

Empowerment, I think is an important concept upon which to build health promotion efforts amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This semester I have been undertaking a review into the use of social media for health promotion with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at the Inala Indigenous Health Service. Currently, the dietician has been using Facebook to connect with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls at high school to try and encourage healthy eating and weight loss. She has found that the creation of that social support network has been really good for empowering the girls to make healthy choices. Through our research we have found empowerment and meaningful collaboration the main factors causing healthy behaviour changes amongst disempowered people such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons. Although to be most effective social media should be combined with traditional offline health promotion strategies, I think it is really important as future health promotion practitioners to realise the potential social media provides for helping to reach populations that have traditionally been hard to engage in health behaviour change.

Tulchinsky, T. H., & Varavikova, E. A. (2010). What is the" New Public Health"?. Public Health Reviews, 32(1), 25-53.

__**Week 10: Menopause: disease or life transition?**__

Unfortunately, while I was on maternity leave for 5 months, my boss didn't get any better at rostering, so I couldn't make it to this weeks lecture/tut. Despite this, older women ageing is an issue that I am confronted with often from working in pharmacy and having some relatives making the transition in 'older age.' I saw an article in Women's Weekly the other week titled 'The magic cure for menopause' or something to similar effect. I think it is interesting how women have become conditioned through social norms and advertising that menopause is a condition that needs to be treated as opposed to a natural life transition. Menopause does not automatically require any kind of medical treatment, which is why i was astounded that a dr was recommending a hysterctomy as a cure to preventing menopause symptoms. Just because a women is no longer able to bear children, she shouldn't have to undergo major surgery to prevent symptoms that may never eventuate. I think the cultural context within which an older women lives significantly impacts on the way she experiences the menopausal transition and whether she sees it as something that automatically needs to be treated. In the US, research has indicated that whether a women views menopause as a medical issue or a life transition is correlated with her socio-economic status (Winterich, 2008). Women who understand menopause as a medical condition rate it more negatively then those who view it as a life transition or symbol of ageing. In Japan, in 2005 of 140 Japanese participants, hot flashes were prevalent in 22.1% (Melby, 2005). This was almost double that of 20 years prior. Whilst the exact cause for this is unknown, possible contributing factors include significant dietary changes, increased medicalisation of middle aged women and increased media attention on the subject. For some women, the menopausal transition represents a major life change, similar to menarche in the significant of its social and psychological significance. While the significance of changes that surround menarche is well understood and often celebrated, in westernised countries such as the US and Australia, the social and psychological ramifications of menopause are frequently ignored or underestimated.

Melby, M. (2005). Vasomotor symptom prevalence factor analysis of climacteric symptoms in Japan. //Maturitas, 52//, 205-22

Winterich, J. (2008). Gender, medicine and the menopausal body: How biology and culture influence women's experiences with menopause. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York

__**Week 11: Liberation outside same-sex relationships (Note: no lecture)**__

This week, as we didn't have a lecture, I thought I would discuss the question for discussion Julie-Ann posted: Do you think liberation is possible for women outside of lesbian relationships? Ie, can you still be and live as female to male and not be subject to the patriarchy?

Liberation is the act of trying to achieve equal rights and status. Based on this definition, it is obvious how women can be liberated outside of lesbian relationships. Feminism is built about women's liberation in all societal contexts, trying to change the patriarchal roots our society is built on. Feminist criticisms of men's contributions to child care and domestic labour in the Western middle class are typically centred around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship perform an equal share of work outside the home. Shifts in these dynamics is an example of opposing patriarchal structures within a relationship.

However, I believe patriarchy still affects our lesbian sisters as much as every other women. I think the way the internet and media, in particular pornography, has constructed ideologies about what a lesbian is has patriarchal roots. In particular the propagation of 'girl-on-girl' action within pornography feeds into patriarchal ideologies that women's bodies are built solely for the pleasure of men - even if the females have no sexual attraction towards males. We can see how these ideologies are also reinforced through sitcoms. My favourite example of this is in the show //Friends// where Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Monica (Courtney Cox) make out for a minute to win their apartment back from their male friends. The males then go back into their own apartment to masturbate for the night obviously filling some sexual fantasy the characters had. I think the other extreme of how lesbians are portrayed as a men-hating, head shaven, radical women highlights how the media has constructed the ideology that if you are lesbian, you must hate men and this is bad - as the role of women is to love and look after males. Recently, Australian actress Portia de Rossi (married to Ellen Degeneres) said she didn't want to be a lesbian when she was growing. The media has made her think that being gay was 'strange' and that lesbians must 'hate men'. She then talked about how denying her sexuality had severe mental health problems for her, such as developing an eating disorder. Being part of the minority is hard in any instance. It is particularly hard for lesbian women in patriachal societies, where they have been trained from a young age about the patriachal roles and expectations that are placed upon women. While defying these roles is hard in every scenario, the connotations the media place upon the term lesbians means these women are on a back foot from the beginning in defining who they are and what they represent, which can be associated with mental health problems.

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