Name: Ayelet Kurtzman

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Conversion Therapy & “Panic” Defense

Date of Fieldwork: February 18, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):The Paley Center for Media; Rebecca

Type of Fieldwork: Workshop

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On February 18th, me and several other classmates had the pleasure of going to the Paley Center for Media for a workshop on several issues related to women in media. Rebecca, the person who led this, brought us to a theater where we had a chance to discuss body image in our own lives. We were prompted with questions such as “what has the greatest affect on your body image?” and we had a conversation on different aspects of it.

After this we watched a compilation of clips taken from movies, commercials and music videos through out several decades. Most of the videos were ones that we were familiar with such as the music video of Britney Spears’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” or the theme of the power puff girls. We then had a conversation about the similarities and differences between the videos and the effects they’ve had on us. We discussed the extreme sexualization of teen girls and the standards that has put on us. We also talked about misogyny and toxic masculinity and how it affects our everyday lives.

Overall this workshop was really educational. I really enjoyed how they included aspects of things we are really familiar with as 13 and 14 year olds, and guided us into more complicated conversations about women in media and the effects it has on us. Not only this but it was a really fun experience to go with a group of my classmates and have discussions that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.