Davies Forum Workshop

The Davies Forum workshop was truly a great experience. From the discussion I acquired new information and heard different perspectives on feminist research. I loved that the workshop allowed us the opportunity to hear from four very different women. I enjoyed hearing about their research and methodologies. I thought the workshop was beneficial, however I do wish we had more time to sit and discuss topics. I can only imagine what knowledge could have come out of a week's worth of conversation with the panelists.

One of the opening exercises that we did during the workshop was to draw three images of violence. I was very surprised at the many different perceptions of violence within my own group. Some of the images included depictions of violent acts, words such as “silenced” and really abstract lines and circles. I was very surprised by my own drawing: a depiction of violence on animals and nature. We had never discussed violence in that way, however, that was one of the things that I thought about so I decided to go with it! 

One of the instances that struck me during the discussion was Caron’s comments on the issues of the books Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight. She stated that women are always depicted as falling in love with their captors. I was intrigued by this statement because surprisingly I had never heard anyone reference either story in that way – I had only heard people reference both stories as “romance novels”. I am completely disgusted with the Fifty Shades of Grey series, and it still surprises me how the series could receive such high levels of popularity. Caron’s comment made me think of the way that both books could influence readers to change their perceptions of “romance”. The books essentially romanticizes violence and promotes physical and psychological partner abuse.

Overall, I thought the workshop was a success and it was nice to interact with our guest speakers, even if the time was limited!