Service Learning Log #1

1)      This week in service learning, our group met with Abigail Malick, our community partner coordinator, on Tuesday morning and discussed service learning opportunities for the remainder of the semester. We definitively set on organizing a drive for Harbor House, the local Domestic Violence Shelter. This meeting was definitely beneficial, because up to this point in the semester, it has seemed as though our service learning has been somewhat up in the air. MVP is a relatively new and small organization on campus, with Abigail harboring most of if not all of the organization’s responsibilities on her own. This being said, our organization of what we planned for our service learning this semester has had to be revised due to time restraints for our original proposal of hosting “Amy’s Story”, a documentary illustrating a real story of a woman who lost her life due to domestic violence, giving a face and a name to the issue. Next week I believe that we should start to designate drop sites for the goods that we will be collecting, advertise for the drive, and start collecting the items that people donate. Next week when we actually being to accumulate donations, I’ll feel much more secure in the progress of our service learning.

2)      Harbor House Seeks to eliminate domestic violence by providing safety, shelter, counseling, and education while advocating for justice within Central Florida. Often victims of domestic violence, and especially sexual assault, are also victims of the phenomenon of “victim blaming.” A large part of violence toward women is blamed on women embracing their sexuality and the media’s exploitation of women’s bodies and glorification of violent acts. “There is a heavy emphasis on sexuality in advertising, news reporting, and popular culture sometimes characterized as ‘pornification’ of media culture” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey, 149).  This misrepresentation of female sexuality not only is detrimental to the self esteem of adolescent girls but also misinforms young men concerning the amount of respect that women should be treated with, romanticizing impossible beauty standards and increasing compliance with violent acts toward women.

3)      What I am getting, and what I expect to continue gaining through working with Mentors in Violence Prevention throughout the rest of the semester is a widened perspective. Learning that “domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined” (domesticviolencestatistics.org) and that “every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten” (domesticviolencestatistics.org) was startling and frankly they were incredibly disturbing statistics to hear. Post disturbance( if one could actually get past that), I felt angry that women were be preyed upon in such a manner, being utilized as human punching bags and thrown around like rag dolls, until one day things get a little out of hand and someone’s sister, mother, daughter, or friend ends up six feet under the ground. From a feminist activist’s standpoint, I feel the need to protect the women in the world from being subjected to this violence, and to encourage others to view women as human beings that should be loved and respected instead of objectified.

"Domestic Violence Statistics | Domestic Violence Statistics." Domestic Violence Statistics | 2010 and 2009 Abuse Stats. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://domesticviolencestatistics.org/domestic-violence-statistics/>.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Rey. "Women's Sexuality." Women's lives: multicultural perspectives. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 149-160. Print.