2nd Service Learning Blog

As we had planned my group and I had our tabling event on February 28th. It was very successful and really fun! Each one of us brought the baked goods that we said we would and tabled from 10-2 but we got there at 9 to set up. As a group we made over $30 and for a baked sale where we were only selling things for $.50- $1.00 I'd say that was really good, and Rachel the VOX president was very happy with the out come. 

Since our first bake sale/ tabling event we have decided to have another one on Monday April 3rd. I am looking forward to it as I am really enjoying this Service Learning Project. With everything that is happening in the country in regards to the Republicans/ Tea Party trying to stop the federal funding of Planned Parenthood it makes it especially important to me that I chose to work with VOX for the Service Learning Project. It is an organization I really believe in and have learned a lot more about. 

Planned Parenthood/ VOX are so helpful to the community, and without them it would be a great disservice. In our class readings this week we discussed sexuality and the idea that it does/ can mean so much more then what we think of it and it relates so much to the service that Planned Parenthood plays or can play in one's life. It is so important for girls and women to understand that their bodies are beautiful and one's sexuality is nothing to feel ashamed of as often times girls can feel. In Cisnero's article she describes the tremendous shame she felt as a youth. She says "we hid when we undressed, modestly facing a wall... Womanhood was full of mysteries. I was as ignorant about my own body" (Kirk, Gwyn, Margo Okazawa-Rey 2010, pg 164-165). That shame that societal institutions can inflict can be detrimental to women and girls. It can cause them to become ignorant of things like the importance of going to the gynocologist for checkups and safe sex. 

In the book it says that "for many teens, sex is a 'rite of passage' "(Kirk, Gwyn, Margo Okazawa-Rey 2010, pg 153) and I think that is true. For those girls that are in high school and want to have sex or are having sex they may not feel comfortable going to their parents to discuss the issue so a place like Planned Parenthood is good for them because they can go there and at least ask questions about things they may be feeling or questions about their bodies that they have. "The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate among industrialized nations"(Kirk, Gwyn, Margo Okazawa-Rey 2010, pg 153). That is crazy when you think that in this country we spend so much money on making war in other people's countries and trying to make them "better" but we want to cut spending in this country to the programs that could and or do make this country better.

Work Cited:

Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Okazawa- Rey. "Women's Sexuality." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives.  Kirk, Gwyn and Margot Okazawa- Rey. McGraw Hill, 2010. 153, 164-165.