Final Project

Hello everyone!

For my final project, I am looking to piece together a variety of opinions on roles and characteristics of women from the female perspective (which means I'm only looking for other women to help me out, sorry guys!). If you are willing to be part of my project, all I would need is for you to answer a few questions on video and for you to email/send the video to me. It will probably take you about 10 minutes at most and would help me a lot!

I'm mostly addressing this to the students in Russia, as I have access to people in the US, but if you are a student in the US class and want to be a part of my project, too, feel free to reach out!

If you are interested please comment below and I'll give you my email and we can work out the details. The sooner we get started, the better! Thanks in advance!

Hello to all!
In Russia we have some discussions/scandals about sexual harrassment in MEDia. Below is a link in Russian and some in English  about our deputy (State Duma or Parlament) Boris Slutsky. Some women journalists accused him in sexual harrassment in Parlament and after thier statements near the Parlarment were  few pickets with posters - "Violence at home. Violence in Parlament. What next?" (first in the paper below), "Mister Slutsky, a little bit (E. - about touchimg) also accounting" (Amnesty International poster), " Mister Slutskiy, come out! I'm going to touch you a little bit" (boyfriend of one women), " Off your hands from journalists" (media trade union)
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-43330036
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/02/russian-journalists-accuse-politician-leonid-slutsky-sexual-harassment 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/11/russian-activists-arrested-sexual-harassment-protest-leonid-slutsky 
https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/03/23/the-kremlin-still-refuses-to-comment-on-the-sexual-harassment-scandal-exploding-at-the-state-duma 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-parliament-sex-harassment-speaker-volodin-female-reporters-women-farida-rustamova-a8243421.html 

But we don't have an official reaction like Ethical comission in Parlarment on this case :((
So we have a lot to do here.

What`s good, guys? I haven`t wrote anything about me yet, so let me do it now😊

My name is Lisa and I`m 19 y.o. I celebrate my birthday on the same day as french people do - 14th July is La Fête Nationale (Bastille Day) in France – and it`s kinda cool!

I was born in Apatity, small town in the northern part of Russia and spent wonderful 16 years of my life there, but now I live in a dormitory in Velikiy Novgorod and study linguistics. Unfortunately, I don’t have an opportunity to see my relatives very often, because I can go home twice (TT 😂) or once (more likely) a year, during winter or summer holidays. But living in a dorm is not that bad, to be honest it`s even funny, a lot of crazy (and not) things happen every single day!

I have different hobbies:

1) playing the piano (one of my favorite composers is Ludovico Einaudi, his music is incredible!),

2) me + video games = 💖 (Skyrim, The Witcher, Revelation online, Life is Strange and many more),

3) k-pop and k-dramas (I used to watch almost every day, but now I don`t, because I don`t have enough time for it. “Boys over flowers” was endless tho...),

4) youtube videos (mostly I watch letsplays (for example, Kuplinov_play) and some random vids) and various tv-shows (the last show I saw was “The Four” - Zhavia is sooo good!) and etc.

I`m not gonna write the whole story of my life here. But in case anyone is interested, let me know and we`ll probably have a chat on Facebook – I`ll create an account for this purpose 😉

I appreciate your attention and Nice to meet y`all ^-^

Dear Brockport and Novgorod Class Members,



Thanks so much for everyone's patience with our technology glitches on Tuesday.  I am so sorry that it took a bit of time to connect but so glad that we stuck with it so we could see and talk with everyone class-to-class.   There is, I think, a good lesson here, that,  faced with obstacles, good-will, innovation, and strategy prevail.



As follow up to our discussion on abortion, sex education, and gender violence, I want to pose a few questions on behalf of our class members about reproductive health, contraception, sex education, and gender violence  as we understand this in America and Russia. Please reply to whatever question or questions resonate most with your thinking.  Please don't feel obligated to answer all questions.



1. In the US, under the current presidential administration, women across the US are living in fear that Roe v. Wade (the 1973 court ruling that gives women the right to a safe, legal abortion) will be overturned. In Russia, do you feel that the right to a legal abortion can one day be repealed? Or is this not even a concern? Related, what is common consensus on abortion in Russia? Are most people for it or against it?



2.  Did you attend a high school where you had  sex education and did this education include information on  safe sex relationships?





3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?

4. In the US and Russia, if you desire birth control ranging from condoms to emergency contraceptives, do you have reasonable access to them? Would you feel comfortable seeking these out or would you feel that there is social stigmas and judgement that may steer you away from them?

5. What are the options for birth control in Russia for children under the age of 18? Can children get birth control without the consent of their parents? In the US and Russia, do you think parental consent is important? 

6.  Grace and Tyler in our Brockport class mentioned this video to me as follow up to Kirill's question about feminists in Russia poring bleach on white males while riding on a subway if the males were “manspreading.”  Here is one video link about this that Grace shared:  

https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/26/student-pours-bleach-and-water-on-mens-crotches-to-stop-them-manspreading-7979562

I wrote to Grace that I have a lot of mixed feelings about this.  The radical feminist act in support of women's equality  and against male dominance and taking up space is courageous. So my initial reaction is a bit of awe. And also gratitude.  Which I feel in solidarity for anyone who fights the fight in such a way. But inverting a power structure never works.  So bad behavior never corrects bad behavior.  And the bleach is a bit violent I think. And I am against any form of violence directed at others. Perhaps some of the manspread is aggressive and could become violent. But it also is sociocultural. So it is learned behavior that may at times be unconscious vs intentional.  Not any less offensive or harmful or excused, but context is everything.  Importantly, what do US and Russian students think about this?

7. How does the Russian government at state or federal levels view gender-based crimes?  What about in the US?  Think about the Brock Turner case here:   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/brock-turner-appeal.html

For additional information about reproductive health and justice concerns in the US and global portraits, see the Guttmacher Institute: https://www.guttmacher.org/

Also interesting to this  topic is recent news from Ireland https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/27/ireland-to-start-abortion-law-reform-after-historic-voteAnd from Poland:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/europe/poland-abortion-women-protest.html



Thanks in advance for all your good-thinking here.
Peace and Da sveedaneya

Hello everyone! My name is Dasha and I am 19 years old. I was born on the 15th of May, 1999 in  Velikiy Novgorod is one of the ancient cities in Russia. I am a third-year student. I study english and french. I am trying to do my best to become a good specialist. I have a small family. There are only four of us: mother, father, brother and me.   My mother is a teacher of mathematics. My father is a driver.His job is difficult and requires endurance. My family is the best in the world , they are the ones who always stay by my side. I also have some close friends. I like going out with them, these meetings are rare but unforgettable. We are 6 in the company. We enjoy travelling together and going on picnics in summer and skating in winter. My friends also love visiting me because I always bake something delicious. In my leisure time, I prefer reading and going to the gym or dance classes.
Speaking about myself, I'm friendly and helpful person. Really like to know all of you.

Hi everyone!!!

My name is Alexandra and I’m studying linguistics at the Novgorod State University. I was born in the beautiful city St. Petersburg Russia. When I was 6 I moved with my parents to Germany. A few years ago I wanted to study in Russia so I moved without my parents back to Russia. Last year the University of Novgorod let me to study in Hildesheim, Germany. There I become friends with many people from Italy, China, Japan, France, India,  Mexico, Columbia and United states.

I can speak English, Russian, and German. I like to meet new people and hang out with friends.

Kirill is here!

Hey, guys! My name is Kirill, like Russian Patriarch.  Im 19 years old, but Fallout 2 is still older than me (3 months older than me, to be acurrate.)

I was born in Lensk. This place pretty distant from... everything. Actually I cant remember a thing about being in the city. It was flooded 2 times, so we were kinda forced to move somewhere else.
I've been living in Novgorod the Great since 2001.
I've graduated from school at 2016 and entered the University. I'm living with my mom in the flat, so I need to go 7+ km to the Institute building every day(A circle, going threre and back). I prefer riding a cycle, but the weather is changing right now and I dont think that I can ride a bicycle for a long time.
I usually visit my grandma's place at the shore of Baikal lake on the summer holidays. It takes 4 days to reach the palce by train. Long journey, but worth it.

I spend my freetime playing computer games (Such as Fallout 2 mentioned above. It's a classic RPG and I love it.) I prefer strategies and FPS games), watching films and cartoons. My favorite cartoon is 'My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic'. Some people can say something like:'It(the cartoon) was made for 12 y.o girls, how can you watch it?'I can. This cartoon is good, it teaches you how to manage crises of the friendship.

Before the University, I was engaged in karate for 10 years. But in 2016 I took a break. The study become more complicated and I cannnot focus effectively on 2 things. Sometimes I heed much more time to do hometasks.
 I also like to cook food for me and my mom. I did Spaghetti 3 times.(it's mine, so I can touch it)

I've been lerning English since six years old. Аnd now I am studying German. Rammstein really helps me to do it.
So yes, I am learning English and German with the help of computer games, cartoons and music. I prefer rock music, but ringht now I tend to country music (such as Big Iron). I think that studying languages opens great opportunities to me. I'm thninking about learning Chinese.
I'm glad to meet you all here!