Lee Welles Email

Dear Ms. Welles,
My name is Jen Ackerman and I am currently a student at the University of Central Florida in Orlando Florida. We studied the first two books of your Gaia Girls series in our Women's Studies class. While discussing the first book, we had a discussion on how younger girls and boys might interpret the actions of Elizabeth as far as her disrupting the Harmony Farms. And while I understand her intentions and actions I was wondering if you ever had any worries or anxieties that Elizabeth's Gaia-powered activism would be interpreted as vandalism or a type of allowed lawlessness? Thank you so much for this wonderful series.
-Jen Ackerman

Hello Jen,

Great question! I DO have some worries about that, especially as I anticipate the “fire-girl!”

However, kids are great at understanding the difference between story and reality. Just look at cartoons! When I go into schools, I take great pains to explain to kids that their Gaia-power is in how they spend their money. “Every time you spend a dollar, you are saying ‘yes’ to something.’” They get it.

I’m glad you enjoyed the books…spread the word!

Lee Welles, eco-author

Gaia Girls Book Series

Service Learning Log Week 9

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
4/16/10
Introduction to Women's Studies

Activism: Yesterday morning the SAFE board members presented our campaign to UCF's Golden Rule Committee, later that day I found out from Rebecca it was accepted. Today was the Day of Silence and the the Rally for our campaign. We met up in the morning and begun the day by being completely silent. During this time I handed out slips of paper explaining the silence and also handing out Don't Ask Don't Tell information. We did a quick march around campus and then broke our silence by screaming on the top of our lungs for about 2 minutes. Then the celebration rally for our project begun.

Reflection: After doing this whole campaign I am nothing but proud. I cannot believe Gender Identity and Expression got into UCF's Non- Discrimination Policy but also that I had a part in it. In the first chapter in our text it talks about the future and what we can do to make equality happen. "[inequality is] a major threat to long-term security because they create literal and metaphorical walls, gates, and fences that separate people and maintain hierarchies among us (16)." After getting GIE into UCF's Non-Discrimination Policy, I feel like something very small is going to make a huge difference in some peoples lives. I worry about the future all the time, not just my future, but what it is going to be like in general. And I figure that what we did over this semester is a really good step to making our campus a more equal place for everyone.

Reciprocity: I could not be more happy with how this entire project has progressed. I am so glad our group decided to switch to EQUAL last minute and I hope that they are as well. This project has made me feel like I can actually do something and has shown me how people are willing to step up if given the information.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Women's Rights, Women's Liberation, Women's Studies." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 3-17. Print.

The Village Self Destructs

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
April 14, 2010
Eco-Feminism Blog

The Village Self Destructs

Night Shyamalan’s 2004 thriller The Village is about a village that dwells in the center of the Covington Woods. This village, created by six men and women who wanted to shelter their loved ones from the dangers and greed of the modern world, lives in fear of “those we do not speak of” the monsters who live in the woods. The story’s protagonist is Ivy Walker, who not only blind, but also a women, is the only person willing to travel into these woods to get medicine for her lover. Though she has what many consider a disability, Ivy walker defeats nature in the nature versus human voyage at the climax of the film. This film shapes nature into something to be feared and is used by the elders to keep their people in line and by the end it is clear that Ivy’s disability is what saved her and her village.
This film is nothing if not a complete example of the Medea Theory. Adam Frank defines this as “Life is its own worst enemy” (Frank). The entire point of this movie is that the modern world had turned so ugly and vile that this group of people decided to create their own world. Society had gotten so bad in these men and women’s eyes that they needed to purchase acres of land, fence it in, hire guards to protect it, build some woods, build a village, and then keep up with the farce of “those we do not speak of.” At the end of the movie the character Noah Percy, a mentally disable boy, gets killed, but only because of the lies that the elders spun. The exact act of horror that prompted the elders to create this world, is what ended up happening even in their protected village. They can not escape humans and human nature, we cannot escape ourselves. We are our worst enemy (Perez 4/14).
The main character Ivy is the only willing person to venture into the woods to retrieve medicine for her lover that had been stabbed, another reality the village had never seen. Ivy goes off into the woods with two male chaperons, both of which leave her out of fear. Ivy then continues her mission and eventually returns to the village with the medicine. A female, alone, and blind in the woods is the only truly respectable character we are given in this movie. Right before leaving her in the middle of nowhere one of the men with her says “you are better in these woods than most boys, anyone would say so” (The Village). Just as good as a man is his parting confidence as he, the man, retires in fear. Within this plot we are offered a strong, able, woman. A women who we are to believe has been blind her whole life, uses her remaining senses skillfully and forcefully to get herself home alive.
Although Ivy is shown as a strong woman, she is also brimming with stereotypes. However, I consider these stereotypes secondary to what a positive model she presents. Besides this movie featuring a strong woman as their main character (a strong woman acting to please her man), this movie pits people against nature. The woods are seen as the enemies territory and it is what keeps everyone in place. They are not to enter it and if they do monsters will appear. When Ivy is in route for the medicine, the film again pits her against nature. She has to survive and since we love happy endings, she does.


Works Cited


Frank, Adam. "Is Life Bad News For Planets? The Medea Hypothesis." Web log post. NPR. 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. .

Perez, Nina. "Girl Studies." University of Central Florida, Orlando. 14 Apr. 2010. Lecture.

The Village. Dir. M. Night Shyamalan. Perf. Bryce Dallas Howard and Adrien Brody. Touchstone Productions, 2004. DVD.

Service Learning Log Week 8

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
4/9/10
Introduction to Women's Studies

Activism: This past week I went to the SAFE meeting on April 6th to finish my taping and also help make signs for Day of Silence. Rebecca recently let us know that we will be "breaking" the silence of Day of Silence by rallying for Gender identity and Expression Equality. The rally and events will be happening on April 16th. At the meeting I thought I got all the taping I needed however once editing I realized the footage I got from one of the people who participated did not come out good enough for the PSA. So last minute I myself appeared in the video so I would make the deadline.

Reflection: In one of the begging chapters we covered in this class there is a quote that I remembered when I was editing myself into the PSA. "At this level [micro level] we define ourselves and structure our daily activities according to our needs and preferences (92)." I wanted to go back to this quote for this reflection because putting myself into the video was not something I had any intention of doing. The one part I needed filled was the part of the transgender individual and I had a lot of concerns about filling the role. I did not want people to think I was actually transgendered and feared being prejudged. After realizing that this was my fear I taped the video right away because I was so upset with myself. I was afraid of the exact thing we are fighting for on this campaign. I remembered this quote because I had a very private, personal choice to make. This choice was as micro as it gets and then became macro as I released the video. I put myself into the video because it was how I wanted to define myself. As someone who cares about others rights and protection.

Reciprocity: This week I gained so much confidence in our project and mainly in myself. I finished the video and already have gotten back such a good response. I am very proud of how the PSA came out and can only hope that people watching it can understand the message and how important this all this. After this week i cannot believe how far we have come and that its really almost over.

" Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who Are My People?" Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk. Comp. Margo
Okazawa-Rey. By Gloria Anzaldua New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages,
2003. 91-100. Print.

Gender Identity and Expression Equality <------ VIDEO HERE

The Roof is on Fire: Burning in Baghdad Blog

Jen Ackerman
April 5th, 2010
Nina Perez


The Roof is on Fire

“Now my parents get to relive their childhood memories like never before because we've gone back a good fifty years.” Referring to the tradition of sleeping on the roof when the hot weather of Baghdad becomes to much, Riverbend seems saddened by the fact that her culture is diminishing along with the state of her homeland. The exert I chose of the “Burning Baghdad” blog, is simply just a run through of Riverbend cleaning off her roof because it is the most suitable place to sleep when the electricity goes out. Riverbend explains the atmosphere her and her family are living in, and goes into the important of an Iraqi’s roof. This specific blog defies many of the American myths that circulate about her culture as she narrates her days activities.
Riverbend talks about how important the roof of one’s home is to an Iraqi person. Explaining how much planning goes into the roof, she gives a quick glimpse into her culture and shows us a simple custom that I would have never known about. She lets her readers in enough to see that these people are not monsters but human enough to have something as basic as a rooftop to enjoy. Already a “sacred” place, Riverbend explains how in the past year, hers and other families have gotten closer to their rooftops because of how much time spent on it. Sleeping out there because of the heat, looking for the origin of bombs, collecting water, hanging clothes, etc., are many of the activities that take place out there, clearly ranging from serious engagements to frivolous chores. In the text Women’s Lives the effects of war are discusses and one of the main ones has a clear place in this excerpt, the normalization of violence (504). Riverbend casually mentions the things done on the roof. Her list goes from tracing smoke clouds to hanging wet clothes. Something like hearing bombs go off might have been a frightening occurrence once in these people’s lives, however now it is a known a sound that results in a hustle to the open air to see where it took place. I imagine my first reaction to a bomb would to be hide, inside, and the last place would go to my unprotected roof to look around. Riverbend and her family are so accustomed the war happening around them they don’t even really flinch anymore. Plus one can only assume it’s not much a liberation of the Iraqi people if they are then forced to sleep on their rooftops because a lack of electricity and air conditioning along with the many other sacrifices Riverbend and her family are forced to make.
Riverbend tells the story of her day in a definite and calm narrative, but she does it in an extremely educational way. As mentioned before she merely describes her day yet gives numerous insights into her life in Baghdad and makes it so personal. Riverbend is not pleased with the situation in her life, but she seems to have accepted it. While talking about having a clean roof, Riverbend and her family find simple pleasures around them. They drop everything to sit in front of the air conditioning vent when they have electricity and this is the best part of their day. The globalization that has clearly taken place in her home is something they are trying to work around (372). While Riverbend and millions of others long for the days before the “War on Terrorism,” they seem to be almost immune and carrying on. This blog tells the story of her life with this extraordinary situation thrust on top of her and she manages to make it intimate even though she is many miles away for her many readers.


Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Living in a Globalizing World" Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 371-390. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Women and the Military, War and Peace" Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 493- 509. Print.

Riverbend. "Baghdad Burning." Web log post. Blogspot. 1 June 2004. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. .

Service Learning Log Week 7

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
4/1/10
Introduction to Women's Studies

Activism: This week I continued filming for the video we are working on. Again I filmed on a Tuesday ( the 30th) at the EQUAL meeting at Tent City. Needless to say it was even more crazy than the meeting at Nature, but fun I guess nonetheless. At the meeting I found some of the same people that I already taped as well as new people I met at the meeting. The tricky thing about our PSA if that the message plays of stereotypes, which makes for a very awkward conversation when I was ask an African American girl I have just met to look right in the camera and say niggar. By the end of the night I mostly got everything I needed and continue to be excited about this part of our project.

Reflection: Because the EQUAL meeting took place at Tent City this week, there was even more of a diverse group floating about. Not necessarily gay, not necessarily transgendered or transexual in anyway, but just different people, some from all different groups around UCF and some that just wanted to see what was going on. With this diverse yet somehow connected group I was reminded of the Glorida Anzaldua quote from her piece "The Homeland." "The lifeblood of two worlds have merged forming a third country, or a border culture." This could not be a better description of the group that surrounded me at Tent City. I feel like most boundaries were broken this week and I saw a group of very, very, different people get upset about an issue that had nothing to do with them. Our border culture sees and comes from both sides of this problem and yet still finds a way to be apart of their world and our world.

Reflection: This week made me feel so good about everything we are working for. I cannot believe the reaction we are getting from even complete strangers. The more of I work on this project the more I feel inclined to just start approaching everyone I see about being in a video like I am making, simply to make them think.

""The Homeland" Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk. Comp. Margo
Okazawa-Rey. By Gloria Anzaldua New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages,
2003. 285-90. Print.

Service Learning Log Week 6

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
3/29/10
Introduction to Women's Studies

Activism: This week on Tuesday (March 23rd) I went to the EQUAL meeting that was taking place at Natura on University. I wasn't really expecting it to be a very serious meeting and it pretty much wasn't. I went there to finally begin filming for the PSA (public service announcement) for our campaign. While there I found the people that either I or Rebecca Marques had contacted prior to the meeting to start filming, and I also had some people do it who I just asked that night. I got around ten people for the piece and later that night went over them with Rebecca. Unfortunately it looks like I am going to need to do some more filming because a lot of the lighting and sound came out very poorly. Still thought I am very glad we have finally started.

Reflection: In the "I Am Not a Rapist," piece we read by John Stoltenburg, it is a complaint by one of the boys interviewed that he is sick of women just assuming he is a rapist or in some way dangerous (288). I feel like a lot of the people that have been helping us our with our project think much similar to this. Instead of a rapist, I think a lot of the people working on this project are sick of feeling like they aren't doing anything for others in their community, and also sick of being viewed by others as intolerant or not accepting and unsupportive. Many of the people that were taped for the PSA are not necessarily card carrying members of the queer community but this just didn't matter. Just as the young men in the interview with Stoltenburg felt a need to act for women, the people in our community feel the need to act and stand up for the "others," in this case being the transgender collective.

Reciprocity: Filming on Tuesday was really the only thing I did this week and it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. It was not easy for me to contact and ask people to participate in something like this because I was asking a lot. However after I registered the response I was getting it was such a great feeling.

""I Am Not a Rapist!"" Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk. Comp. Margo
Okazawa-Rey. By John Stoltenberg. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages,
2003. 285-90. Print.