Approximately 10% of Catholic priests are gay

Isaac/Fiona/Cassie:
Focus: Squatting
Presentation: They seemed to have everything together. My only concern was how well they would be able to follow through on the human part of this project (making squatting contacts while in Amsterdam). The fact that there is public squatting (the cafes and whatnot) should help, but the homelessness aspect of Cassie's project seems like it might be a little bit difficult to make a reality. Nonetheless, the group covered all their bases and most potential problems and seemed like they had a well developed project and presentation fairly early in the game.

Ruben/Emily
Focus: Religion/politics
Presentation: My only question about their presentation is how they will draw conclusions about such a broad topic with so little time/information to go off of. I liked their idea of close-reading documents in the various religious institutions they plan to visit, but interviewing three religious leaders didn't seem like it would give the whole spectrum of responses one might need. For example, my one brush with Catholicism (in which I almost threw a used tissue in some holy water and nearly dumped my Catholic boyfriend... but that's a different story) was a Sunday service in Philadelphia that commenced with one of the church members urging everyone to rally for some anti-gay marriage legislation that was being considered. However, I do know that the Catholic church in my hometown has several out and proud gay attendees and the politics of the Pennsylvania service were not necessarily representative of Catholicism as a whole. The views of one religious leader can not necessarily represent the whole spectrum of a religion, so drawing conclusions from one place may not be wholly accurate.

Lauren/Emily
Focus: Access to health care
Presentation: I like the idea of this presentation; however, in my mind it seemed a little bit broad. Perhaps the questions needed to be less open ended, although I know that they did them just a little while before so they don't have everything ironed out yet. I think maybe another problem I had was that the some of the questions they asked seemed like they could be whole projects within themselves; access to abortion and contraception are politically and religiously loaded issues that might require a more in-depth examination, and access to women doctors for Muslims could be a very interesting research paper on its own (pipeline issues, religious issues, etc.). A final issue I had was how they were going to get their women to talk to them. They addressed this issue a little bit, but I also wonder what incentive there will be for women to take time to talk about this very personal information.

Hands didn't make it to the deck

Synechdoche seems to be my project as a whole; namely, I plan to use advertisements as a representation of Dutch culture altogether.





An example is conclusions that might be drawn from the advertisement below.

This advertisement, for a Turkish women's migrant conference in Amsterdam, stands in for Dutch culture in that shows just how many migrants there are, enough to have a whole conference around. It also stands in for Turkish women's migrant culture. The woman has a suitcase, to represent her migration, and a worried look, perhaps to show her feelings on her lifestyle change. The sky and birds in the background shows how the women might view their migration as "opening doors" to a new life or some sort of freedom. The child and the imagery of the homes in the background may signify the role of women in Turkish society, while the fact that the title of the conference is "Raise Your Voice!" may signify that Turkish migrant women face some issues in their new lands. This is just a quick overview, but this poster seems to stand in for the whole, the whole being the migrant subset of Dutch culture. Through advertisements such as this I hope to gain a greater understanding of Dutch women's roles in the culture; the advertisements will stand in for the whole of Dutch culture.

To Caffeinate, Divine

The preliminary research question for the group portion of the Amsterdam project is: "How do stores, advertising, and couture reflect Dutch/Amsterdam culture both in intended and unintended ways?" My prong of this research would be advertising, with a focus on how advertising reflects the culture in regards to women.

To do this, I plan to take a two-part approach to the project. Part one would be analysis of advertisements in Amsterdam to see how women are portrayed. It would be an outsider's view of how women are regarded overall in Dutch culture, and would also give me a chance to research the history of women's rights in the the Netherlands. Part two would be how Dutch women themselves feel about how accurately advertising represents the culture and their own role in it. This would be done through interviews with women in Amsterdam in which they would rate various advertising campaigns for "accuracy" under a variety of factors (culture as a whole, how women are regarded, etc. This is just a very basic idea at this point).

Potential ethical issues are that I would perhaps accidentally guide the women's responses through the advertisements I choose to present them; I may not get an accurate cross-section of Dutch society with my survey; and looking at advertisements is fully a subjective exercise, and open to my own preconceived notions about the culture, which could be degrading to the culture as a whole (i.e. I might be more likely to represent Dutch culture as "backwards" now that I know that women didn't get the right to hold their jobs after marriage until 1954). I am not sure how I could best objectively choose advertisements to present for the survey. However, I would like to try to be as representative of the Dutch demographics as possible (trying to look at different classes and races, which would also perhaps be factored into my project as a whole- if different races of women are represented in advertisements). My awareness that I do have preconcieved notions should help me deal with them, and I think the surveys will balance out and represent opinions beyond my own.

Adverts

My project could nearly be an example of synechdoche. Through advertisement analysis, I plan to see if I am able draw conclusions about how the adverts reflect Dutch society and women's roles in it. Thus, the advertisements become something that represent Dutch society as a whole.



An example of synechdoche within the advertisements themselves is

Cheap Thrills

For this assignment, I focused on just one of my many scattered research topics, that of advertising. I would like to focus on women in advertisements were I to do this topic, and tie that to womens issues and rights overall in the Netherlands. The best link I found for that was the Memory of the Netherlands website. This site had a backlog of thousands of advertisements from the past 150 years that I think would be useful to see how the view of women in the Netherlands has perhaps changed.

Too Much Hot Chocolate, Part II: Today, a Lack of.

Part Two: Amsterdam!
Reflect on your Amsterdam research interests/preliminary questions(s).

Today, we will be consuming a Seattle favorite: Jones Soda! The rain makes it difficult to go out for good hot chocolate.

In regards to what I want to study while in Amsterdam:





I have no idea.

This is not totally true. I have a lot of half formed ideas that I need to explore further but feel like I don't have the context yet to put them fully together.

Some general options:
Prostitution
Third places
Bike culture
Judaism
Environmentalism
Hemp
Advertising
Sports

Note: It's probably okay not to read past this point, I will now be rambling on in a stream of consciousness fashion until I figure out what I am doing.

Prostitution: One of the things Amsterdam is famous for, also falls in well with the Womens Studies bit.
Question: I don't know how to approach this one, but I think it would be an interesting topic of study...

Third places: Sitting in a cafe in the early evening while looking out over the water seems to be what people expect in Amsterdam.
Question: Where do people gather in Amsterdam? Who gathers where (How do people choose where to go? Culture? Sexuality?)? What do they talk about? How does this vary from place to place? Interviews with owners as to how who/how many people gather has changed over time; how does the internet and new ways of communicating play into use of these third places?

Bike culture: Our readings so far have murderers pedaling up to the their targets on bikes. Our culture, in contrast, would be more likely to accept a driveby (or someone wielding Catcher in the Rye). The bike thing would be slightly ridiculous. Yet in Amsterdam bikes seem rather important.
Question: I can't think of anything that doesn't include public transportation, and that strikes me a terrible place to go.

Judaism: Also a large part of our readings.
Question: Again, no idea. Also seems interesting, however.

Environmentalism: A sweeping movement in the U.S.
Question: Environmentally friendly ways of life overseas: a comparison? Views/knowledge of environmental issues in a progressive city.

Hemp: Legalization of marijuana is also something Amsterdam is known for.
Question: How has this affected hemp use? Is hemp popular in the culture?

Advertising: Just something I am interested in.
Question: With the Womens Studies thing too, I think it would be interesting to look at how portrayal of women in ads is done in Amsterdam. That would also connect to how women are looked at in the culture overall, which would be interesting...

Sports: Honestly, I just want an excuse to go to a soccer game.
Question: I could also do something about women and sports... but seriously, a soccer game is imperative.

Right now I could do any of these happily, although some seem more developed than others. I think I am mostly interested in joining up with somebody who has a similar interest but is far more passionate about the one thing and not as scattered as I am.

If you are that person, send me a postcard, or something of the like.

Too Much Hot Chocolate

For this assignment, Isaac, Ruben and I spent a rainy afternoon trekking from coffee shop to coffee shop to address the pressing question of how the physical properties of the shops affected their ambience and use. Primarily, we compared Star Life (a coffee shop off the Grand Illusion Cinema on 50th) and Trabant Coffee and Chai (just off the Ave on 45th), but also factored in the major elements of Café Solstice on the Ave as a point of reference.

Solstice
Café Solstice is on the Ave and fairly close to the University. It had very little in the way of street advertising, but outdoor seating gives a clue as to its purpose. The inside is not that bright, despite the numerous windows in the front area. The entrance opens into a little hallway type thing that leads to the baristas, who stand behind a bar-style seating area. The café has large tables and chairs, fairly close together, and also a raised platform with a couch and additional seating. The music playing in the café was almost overwhelmingly loud and had lyrics. There was a mixture of people talking, studying and just generally chilling. Solstice was our meeting point and not really a point of study, more a reference for comparison of the other two shops.

Star Life
Star Life is a difficult place to get to, and therefore has little street presence. One must be in the know to get there, and entrance requires one to master the stairs, then go behind a fence, then turn into a nearly hidden storefront. Once inside, to the left one encounters the barista, to the right and front, seating. The barista is hidden from most of the customer’s lines of sight once they sit down, unlike at Solstice where the baristas were visible from all points. The noise coming from the barista was barely audible. The music was also light and had no lyrics. There was a lot of natural light, and lamps scattered throughout provided a brighter experience than that of Solstice. In fact, Star Life as a whole was a more comfortable place, not only in the bright lighting, but the fact that it resembled a home. There was a fire place, random plants, and none of the chairs and tables appeared to match or belong in a commercial environment at all. It was also a smaller area overall, and this combined with the pastel colors added to the homey atmosphere. Most people there were studying or talking quietly, and the mood overall was relaxed and subdued.

Trabant
Trabant is just off the Ave and fairly well known, but seems to have very little street presence. It is a completely flat store front, which gives it the ability to blend into the surrounding area well, despite the large front windows. The windows look in on bar style seating that surrounds the indoor perimeter of the shop. The shop itself seems to be separated into three different parts; upon walking in, one encounters part one, which contains the ordering area and couple of tables. One then can go under a giant arch to find more bar seating, tables, and stairs up to part three, a balcony with even more seating. The whole shop is industrial in appearance, composed of dark blues, steel grays and brown coloring. There were exposed pipes and steel railings, which added to this industrial feeling. The chairs and tables were uniform in appearance and black/brown. The large amount of square footage meant that the tables were far enough from each other that they seemed to be their own independent islands. Light music was playing, but it was barely audible, and the lyrics completely unintelligible. The barista was loud and audible in all parts of the shop, and the acoustics of the place meant that conversations were amplified. Not much talking went on overall, and a third of the people had laptops and were thus cut off from the people around them even more. Most sat alone. The lighting was less than in Star Life. There were a couple of plants, but they were dead/looked out of place.

Results
In this study, we used both Jacobs’ Looking at Cities and Zeisel’s Physical Traces and Environmental Behavior in our observations of the coffee shops. In all the shops we visited, there was a mix of people studying, meeting to talk, or just generally sitting/playing games/reading. However, it was noticeable that there were a higher proportion of students than one might normally find in a coffee shop in all three shops studying, due to the proximity of all three shops to the university. It was noticeable also that all three shops seemed to have a different use. Solstice had some people studying, but seemed more like a place to meet up; the tables were larger, and the atmosphere was more jovial. The loud music and dark atmosphere, as well as placement right on the Ave made this a place for groups to get together. Star Life, meanwhile, had a homelike atmosphere, and in fact, may have even been a house at some point. This physical trace made it feel like a more tranquil place, and people used it not only for studying but quiet conversation as well. It’s somewhat hidden location, as well as placement away from the main Ave hang outs, as well as the fact that it was smaller, quieter, and had only one barista meant that overall people going there were there for a purpose, such as studying or meeting someone, and the placement off the street made it an acknowledged place for quiet multipurpose use. Meanwhile, Trabant’s layout (the island tables) made it more multipurpose than the other two, as both a place to talk and to study, but the larger size made it far more of an impersonal experience, whereas one might go to Star Life for a community atmosphere. In addition, the large windows opening to the street made it seem more connected to the outside world, then like the haven from the world that was Star Life. Each coffee shop was used for similar purposes, yet each had unique characteristics that gave them different "vibes" and modes of use.

Two hours of sleep and what do you get? This, I guess...

“Fitna” and “Submission” were both slightly disturbing to me for different reasons.
“Submission” was artistic and useful: I still remember reading about a woman in the Middle East heavily punished for adultery while the man got off scot-free. The things these women talked about facing are issues in most societies at some level or another, but this movie did have an extra element of interest to me, due to the fact that what these women must contend with is brought about by a male-dominated society dictated by some of the women’s own deeply held beliefs. By speaking directly to Allah, they voiced their confusion over how they could follow these laws so closely, yet their core ideals could fail them. This movie presented real issues in a way that I thought was moving, albeit somewhat targeted.
The angry organized-religion-avoiding feminist inside of me would love to go deeper into my thoughts on this clip, but must be reined in to instead analyze the disturbing images and religious bigotry that was “Fitna”. As an introduction to the fans of this movie, the “Submission” clip was accompanied by an explanation of “Fitna”. “Submission” was posted by a user named “fuckmohammad” who voiced his support for “Fitna” with, “So let's support freedom of speech and not be intimidated by bunch of savages who are stuck in the 7th century and want to impose their throwback religion on the rest of the civilized world.” I felt that this explained the propagandist viewpoint of “Fitna” beautifully. “Fitna” was all smoke and mirrors, encompassing the extremist sect of Muslims that hardly represents the whole. The news waves are filled with suicide bombings, but on the ground stands average folk.
In terms of freedom of speech, all the power to the producers. Voicing opinions is a beautiful thing. The caveat is that this film was so extreme in its portrayal of Islam that I frankly found it offensive and misleading and wouldn’t advocate showing it to an undiscerning populace anytime soon.
I did find one bit of this film ironic. The misinformation included a large section about how Muslims are all supposedly out to get the Jews. Targeting Muslims for what appears to be religious persecution by showing them as targeting what is arguably the most persecuted religious group in history is right out of an O. Henry tale, a very scary and twisted O. Henry tale that pits person against person with hyperbole and lies.

Haley means hero, Haylee means hayfield.

Haley Anderson’s blog is fairly typical overall; the title, date and layout template are all run of the mill. What caught my eye was her April 24, 2007 blog post, in which she writes about her observations in regards to what she is wearing, both from the perspective of an outsider and her own explanation of why she chose to appear the way she does.
The personality profile that Haley gives within part one of this post was especially interesting. Each separate part of the personality profile is given its own line; the person’s general identifying characteristics (listed as “UW student”), sex, age, race and religion all seem to have equal weight due to their occupation of their own lines. This spacing imposes order; within the great realm of text that greets a blog reader are a few self-contained and concise information bubbles that give direct descriptions of traits that help the reader visualize and identify their soon-to-be-(figuratively)-dissected subject.
By ordering the traits this way, Haley also gives a nod to socially constructed norms. For example, her listing of gender so early on as an identifier struck me as interesting. One of the things I first learned in Women’s Studies was about the social construction of gender. Because people have certain conceptions about what gender entails (a woman will have “feminine” traits such as her way of dressing, a man distinctly “masculine” traits, for example, the way he walks), it is one of our most important social identifiers. Haley seems to rank gender higher on her list of identifiers than race or age, which are also important identifying characteristics in our society, yet not as identifiable or as socially acceptable to use as gender is. Oddly enough, perhaps because she is observing herself, or perhaps because UW students are the primary form of society hereabouts, Haley has “UW Student” at the top of her list of identifying characteristics. The use of these characteristics suggests that they are important and recognizable ways of creating identities. The spacing she uses overall in this list seems to add order and indicate the importance of these characteristics as well.

Blog Post One- An Angry Email Revisited

To close read this email may requires a little background. Due to a snafu regarding a lack of computer access during Spring Break, I did not get an add code I needed for a class. Despite a waiting list I was given the code anyway, but when I tried to use the code a day and a half later, it was rejected by the system. An email to the advising office yielded a rather terse response, the important parts of which follow.
“Haylee,”- This form of address struck me at once. Usually letters/emails begin with a rather general greeting (“hey” or “hello”) or some sort of modifier (“dear” or “to whom it may concern”). In this case the sender could have used the informal and all-encompassing “hello”, a more hands-off approach, or a modifier to soften and make friendlier the blunt beginning of only using my name. However, by simply choosing to use my name, the sender gave the email a direct, pointed, and almost unfriendly beginning, but also a sense of familiarity, almost as if they were a mother about to lecture a child.
The email body- The first sentence of the email seems almost condescending; the line “Yes…unfortunately,” begins by answering my question as to possible reasons the code didn’t work. However, the syntax of the sentence strikes me as odd. Instead of starting with “unfortunately”, the word is tacked on to the end, almost as an afterthought about the situation, and thus the sentiment is lacking.
“In the future… for you.”- This sentence embodies the spirit of cooperation. Interchanging the actions each party will take (“if you need”, “we’ll hold”) suggests working together for a common goal.
“We send out… from happening.”- This portion of the email had a tone of near rebuke. The section “we can prevent this,” seemed either an embodiment of Smokey the Bear or a momentary channeling of royalty and their use of “we”. In total, it seemed like another attempt to suggest that mutual support is occurring, but in fact, the problem that occurred is solely mine to prevent in the future, as implied by the beginning of the sentence which details the preventative measures taken by the Honors office.
The closing- This gave the information I actually needed (the lecture’s resolution) and a standard, and probably default, closing which wished me the “best” of something. Tradition leads me to believe this applies to me and is shorthand for “best regards” or perhaps the best for my future, and does not apply to the sender as the “best”.