Self Portrait Option 1

This first self portrait option made me realize there is actually more to gender. I am more than my gender. A photo of the back of someone's head, although in my case I am clearly male, doesn't always reveal one's gender. It shows that I am not barred by my gender to make my own decisions. The plain background of the photo emphasizes that all of us are the same, we are people who have to make decisions. The emptiness around my head represents the fact that I can influence my own decisions, my surroundings don't have to influence anything, regardless of our gender. A person's gender shouldn't dictate what the person can and cannot do. According to our readings, in higher classes during the Middle Ages, women and men worked side by side, it wasn't until later when gender specialized and categorized people into certain roles, at least in the trade aspect of life. Gender, is merely that, our sex, it should have nothing to do with what we decide to do with our lives. There is so much opportunity out there in the world that gender should be the last thing that controls where and what we do. This photo demonstrates clearly that I am male, but more importantly that gender is not everything, women and men are above anything, people. The back of my head shows you no facial features that lets you know how I carry my gender, it shows you only that I am male, and that I will probably be guided through life by the fact that I am male. This self-portrait is hard to hide the fact that I am indeed male, but it doesn't hide the fact that I can make so many decisions without even thinking of the fact I am male, being male sometimes just shouldn't matter, because after all, we are all people, and all deserve to do what we want with ourselves regardless of our gender.

Women's World

Initial warning: This room and blog was not designed to be stereotypical in anyway, I am indeed a male in this Women's Studies class and know little about the wants and desires of women unfortunately. Being a chauvinistic person is the last thing I am trying to do, so here it goes...

Before I began this project I didn't think it would be entirely difficult. The further I dove into it... The more I knew I was wrong. At first thought, designing a house would be fun and interesting, I found myself wanting to design the perfect house for my own wants and needs, it was hard to get away from that. I had to keep telling myself this house is not for me, not even for a male like myself. I had to come up with the perfect house for a woman. What did I know what women wanted in a house!? I've only lived with one woman my entire life: my mother. Most of this house is based on my life experience living in a house with three men and only one woman. I tried to create a house that I know my mom would like to have complete control of, and this I what I came up with.

First off, all though the house is square like most houses, my focus was on making the interior different than most traditional houses. I went for a circular design where all the rooms are on the outside of the circular interior main hallway. The house opens with two beautiful giant french doors that create a welcoming look to the front of the house. I will now explain the structure of the house and why things are where they are. I put the rooms in order by amount of use from the front of the house to the back. The bedrooms where the women will probably spend most of their time is right by the opening of the house, followed by the kitchen and living room areas in the middle, and the bathroom and special workout room in the back. After a long day of school or work, I know some women that just want to get home and crash, they love their sleep. In this house, they don't have far to go to get to their own personal bedrooms located in the front of the house. The most common rooms (kitchen and living rooms) are in the middle where all the occupants of the house don't have far to go to get there. And the bathroom and workout rooms, the specialty rooms as I like to call them, are located in the back to provide privacy.

Now, let me explain each room in a little more detail. My house specifically designed for women has two major themes, sensuality and comfort. Knowing this, the bedrooms are equipped with the biggest most comfortable beds and each bedroom also has a giant couch to sit friends or any kind of visitors. The bedrooms do create a problem though, they are in the front of the house and could create less privacy than desired. I know that privacy is extremely important to women so I decided to fix this with a window that doubles as a mirror. It may look like a regular window from the outside but it is actually a mirror (it is known that all women need a mirror in their room) that displays a reflective glare on the outside to passerbys. This allows the women to walk freely in their room without the fear of people outside seeing them in their most personal place of the house. But don't worry, there is an actual window in the bedroom located on the side of the house. Possibly the best feature included in the room, that I almost forgot myself, is a giant walk-in closet. Women love to have plenty of room to organize and store their belongings and or clothes and shoes.

Next comes the living room area, with wall to wall couches to maximize comfort for any woman who wants to curl up and watch a movie or anything on TV or even just to take a nap. Another important room in the house is the kitchen. some women enjoy cooking and take it up as a hobby, this kitchen allows for all kinds of cooking and also comes with a circular table allowing for classic female to female chatting time after creating that amazing meal. Now possibly the most interesting part of the house is the central atrium. Most of the women in my family love to garden and if they don't they at least love to look and smell flowers usually. This atrium allows for both, the woman have their very own garden inside to plant any thing including flowers or vegetables and provides the most beautiful scents and sights of various floral arrangements.

Rounding out the back of the house is the specialty rooms. Most women enjoy doing some kind of physical activity. Due to this I included a work out room in the house. This room is equipped with cardio machines, free weights and yoga mats to provide for any kind of work out. Another special feature of the room is the small dance floor. Women love to dance, this is a known fact, so when the mood should strike, the women living in this house can turn on the music and dance at any moment. Now, to the bathroom. This women's bathroom includes not on tub but two. Both tubs, of course, are larger than usual ones to provide a relaxing bubble bath at any moment. And one tub of course, is actually a spa. What woman wouldn't want a hot tub in her very own bathroom. Another special feature including in this bathroom is the giant skylight, what for you might ask? For a women's favorite pastime, tanning. When thinking of a house for a woman, this feature was one of the first I thought of. This sky light will allow a woman to not even have to leave the comfort of her own home to get the warming rays of the sun to darken that complexion and look great.

As I said earlier, another major theme for this house was sensuality. I tried to include elements for all the delicate senses of a woman. Right as you enter the house you are treated to a wonderful smell in the "Hall of Scent" where candles line the walls. This provides an instant sensual stimulation right as you enter the house. To adhere to sight, I included the beautiful atrium to provide the women with beautiful greens and colors of flowers. Touch is taken care of with the abundance of comforting couches and the sensual spa and tub in the bathroom. When the women need to hear their favorite song and just dance, their ears are filled with their favorite songs via wall to wall speakers in the work out room, and oh yeah, that awesome mini dance floor is always there to provide the women with their intense desire to just dance. Finally, the sense of taste is easily fulfilled with the wonderful chocolate fountain in the very back of the house. Now, it is located in the back because I know some women can be shy of their love of chocolate, but most cannot deny that they love the sweet taste of chocolate, which is why it was it was a no-brainer to include this in the perfect women's house.

Finally, I hope my thoughts were displayed with my drawing and this blog. I tried to keep the two themes of comfort and sensuality in mind at all times. Again, I know very little of what women want, but I tried to think of what my mother and the woman I am friends with would want. Hopefully this house would make some woman happy, as I think it easily could.

Sappho Translation

http://www.personal.psu.edu/kmh5091/Sappho%20Translation.htm

Firtsly, I extremely enjoyed this assignment. I enjoy writing lyrics for songs (I play bass and sing some in a band back at home) and this assignment was pretty easy for me seeing as writing meaningful words is a hobby for me. It was interesting to see all the translations for the Sappho Poem. Never before did I think that a poem or song or anything could have the same themes and meanings but still be so different. After reading the different translations it was obvious the format that needed to be followed. Most were 4 stanzas long and each stanza usually had it's own function in the telling of an either ecstatic of tragic tale. It was fun to see what I could come up with while still keeping my poem in the style of the other Sappho translations. It was interesting to work with the three figures of God, the beloved and the viewer of the beloved into a singular peice of writing. Also, before reading the translations and writing my poem I thought there was no way anyone could include all the figures, feelings and symbols we had to use in one poem. I was wrong, and found out quickly that a beautifully written poem can still be full with all these things.

My first stanza represents god-like figure that is embracing the beauty of this woman he himself has created. Instead of writing of a man who had the features of God, I tried to have known that in this poem I was in fact referencing God, who is enthralled with the beauty of the woman. In the second stanza we begin to see what the beauty of this amazing woman does to the "viewer" as we see just what he thinks of her. In the third stanza, the man begins to question if he'll ever be able to be with this woman and actually doubts it at all as he begins to lose all hope. In the end of the poem the reader gets the notion that the pain of not having the woman to the man is so much he is actually dying inside. I chose not to have the man actually die because all though I wanted my poem to be tragic, I didn't want it to be that tragic.

In conclusion, the poem assignment was a fun one that I enjoyed writing. I got to experiment with different emotions, senses, and symbols. I had never written anything this sensual and the process was one that brought up some interesting feelings within myself.