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.