Posted: April 28th, 2015

interview a woman in your life that you consider to be the strongest you know.

In ten (10) pages  interview a woman in your life that you consider to be the strongest you know. Use information that recreates her life, spirit, and determination and write an essay that helps both you and the class get to know this person on a personal level. The paper should include your subject’s thoughts on being a woman as well as the ups and downs of feminism. Use vivid detail and honest, evocative, unclenched language. Make this essay yours. How you decide to shape the essay is up to you.

You might:

*Start with a vivid scene you think captures the essence of your subject and then go on to explain and show more about her, emphasizing key traits and nuances as you proceed, including the ups and downs she’s experienced in life.
*Start by focusing on the central trait that makes her a strong woman, and then go on to show how this trait recurs in several different scenes and places in her life and so yours.
*Decide to narrate her life, emphasizing the most significant moments and interweaving that narration with what she thinks were the high points and the low points, or the formative moments in her life.
*Start with a really strong quote from her and then go on to show her full character, using her answers to your questions to shape a full portrayal of her life.
*Start with the first time you met or knew her and go from there to discuss how your relationship deepened and changed over time.
*Focus on the interview and what you learned about her in the process.
*Do something totally different and creative!

WHATEVER YOU DO: – Be particular, probing, and vivid as you try to recreate the strongest woman you know in such a way that we come to know and admire (or not admire) her too.  Remember that good writing involves EXPOSURE (taking vivid pictures of a person, scene, or moment) and REFLECTION (taking time to think out loud, to let us see and feel the depth of your thought and presence as you reflect on her).

Do NOT use a question and answer format. Write an essay, using full paragraphs with a purposeful sense of progression. I am sure most of you will be tempted to use your mother as the subject and that is perfectly acceptable, however, I think it may be interesting to get to know women outside of your immediate family or strong women from another generation – such as grandmothers or even professors.
I also want you to ask her a number of interview questions, including who her female role model was, what her definition of feminism is, and what she believes it means to be a real woman. Please also inquire about the following 10 things and include all of these answers, anonymously if you wish, in the SHERO post:

1. Have you ever worried you were not pretty enough?
2. Have you ever changed your diet or exercised to change your body size, shape or weight?
3. Have you ever felt less important than a man?
4. Have you ever been called a bitch, slut, cunt or whore??
5. Have you ever been afraid of a man’s anger?
6. Have you ever been lied to by a man so he could get something that he wanted?
7. Have you ever stopped yourself from showing affection, hugging or touching another woman because of how it might look?
8. Have you ever drank or took other drugs to cover your feelings or hide pain?
9. Have you ever felt completely responsible for birth control?
10. Have you ever been pressured by a man to say yes when you wanted to say no?
Now reflect on what you have learned about YOUR strongest woman and how her answers to these and other questions you asked made you feel. Do these answers explain anything about her personality or about her behavior?

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/555978_530824340291375_548783635_n.jp

Most importantly, please tie this paper in with everything you have learned in this course as it relates to the textbook.  This project should also contain a minimum of three (3) citations from outside your text.  Please also use three (3) Sakai glossary: Empowerment
Discrimination
Privilege

terms you have not previously used for your mid-term project to explain how they relate to not only your SHERO, but also everything you have learned in this course throughout the semester.