Quick blog 6

My social sphere is mostly composed of young adults, other than my parents and a few family members mostly in mid 50s. I do wish I had more interaction with elderly people because I feel that they have a lot to share and talk about and I love hearing old stories.

Our society is defiantly segregated on the basis of age. Since it is customary in our society for elderly to live in nursing homes or on their own compared to other societies where grandparents live with their children and grandchildren. Young adults and middle-age adults are more advantaged because they are able to keep up with the astonishing fast pace in America. If our culture was more of an island culture where the pace is much more relaxed I believe that the elderly wouldn’t feel so disadvantaged.

As a culture we need to realize that the elderly have so much wisdom to offer us. As a culture we could begin to create community services where we help individuals with their housework or chores.  We could also create more adopt a grandparent programs which provides interaction between the young and old.

Question O

This class has opened my eyes to the real problems in our society. I always knew there was racism and discrimination against people but I never was forced to submerge myself into the details of it all. This class made me feel uncomfortable at certain points. I knew at some point in my life I was the reason discrimination continued. I have always taken a back seat and never wanted to confront others or share my opinion of what I’m thinking in fear of conflict.

            I know now what I can do to help make a difference. As I mentioned, I have always been on the sidelines afraid to step out. This is not helping anyone as I thought it was, and I will learn to be more proactive. I will not be afraid to say what is on my mind because I could make a difference if I just tried. Maybe once I make more of a stand, my friend and family will start to see what I am trying to do and follow me.

            I hope that I never have to see anyone being discriminated against but I know if I do, I will think back to this class and think of the bigger picture and realize that it is more than a onetime occurrence. I am currently looking forward towards a career in Human Resources and I will take everything I’ve learned to be a better listener, be more compassionate and have the confidence to find a solution to any discrimination I face in my future work place.

Question N

For this blog I choose to watch The 12 keys to spiritual activism. After observing the 12 keys to spiritual activism I believe that the best attributes, qualities and strengths of an effective agent of change is understanding, honesty and compassion. Compassion is the essential to being a good activist. Without compassion there will be no solution, and simply more problems. Compassion is what the world needs more of. The next quality is understanding. A good activist has an open mind and an open heart, and can sympathize with others. Honesty is the last component. Honesty is extremely important when becoming good activists. It is important for everyone to be honest with themselves, and others.

The activist that I admire the most is Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was born as a slave and wanted to make a difference for herself and others.  Tubman saved hundreds of slaves by risking her life every day. She had tremendous courage, and perseverance. When I learned about her back in elementary school I was amazed by her. She hid out in peoples house’s and travel back and forth from Maryland to free slaves after she had already freed herself. There aren’t many people like her and that is why I admire her.

Question M

The video I choose to watch was Once we were young. Once again I was saddened to watch another video where we see someone struggle. The older woman in this video lived by herself, walked and took the bus to run errands by herself and was basically isolated from the world after losing her husband. We then start to see flashbacks of her when she was young, and how full of life she was.

            I feel that the root cause of ageism is ableism. Since older men and women may have a harder time doing things or be slower keeping up with the pace of life we may see this is a disability. I think this particular ism is so seldom talked about because we will all become old sometime, it is something we will all experience and we deny that we will ever look older and walk slower. Children never think they will get old, and think that their parents were never young. As I think about getting older, I think of how I don’t want to end up alone or treated unfairly because I am a 75 year old woman buying bread for my sandwich. I have always respected my elders, and although I have never had a grandmother I have always loved my grandfather. He was the kindest man I knew and never wanted anything from anyone. He was strong and never needed help, and I can only hope that when I am 90 I will be able to go shopping by myself and walk around with no assistance like he did. I have never thought of someone older as a burden, and it makes me so angry when I hear other people talk like they will be young forever, and treat the elderly so rudely.

Question L

The video gimp was truly inspiring. Being able to see people with disabilities dance like that shows me that there are no limits. The people in this video could dance even better than me which proves to me that ableism is just another excuse for people to discriminate against others. Ableism is defined as discrimination and exclusion of people who live with developmental, medical, neurological, physical and psychological disabilities. The dancers in this film have a great opportunity to show the world that having disability does not mean that they have to spend their whole life living with handicaps.

After reading Mass Psychiatric Causalities by Dave Grossman I noticed that our culture once again focuses too much on appearances. This article focuses on the psychological damage done to soldiers at war, and how people only seem to notice the physically injured.

People with disabilities, if given the chance can achieve the same success as any of us, or even greater. I believe that simple idea of acknowledging and accepting this concept will help the world understand that ableism is just another paradox we create.

Quick Blog #5

I don't necessarily believe that pornography contributes to the way men see women sexually. Although there is porn that are abusive and tortuous I'm sure there is other porn that shows equality and respect. I believe that if people are going to watch porn, they have a choice of what type of pornography is acceptable. I do believe that watching negative images does alter our consciousness, but we have the choice on what images to watch and if someone chooses to watch pornography that degrades woman then that is already their view. I just hope that in all cases of pornography, that men and women are able to separate reality from fiction.

Question K

 I defiantly learned a lot from reading the article by Julia Serano and watching the film “Beautiful daughters”.  I found the film to be really inspiring. I felt guilty as I was watching this film because I could not believe that all the women in this film had all gone through operations. And I grew to sympathize with these women because not only have they all gone through the sexual oppression of how men are towards women; they’ve also experienced the expectations of being a manly man.

                After watching the film I feel that I have more of a grasp on my opinion towards transgender oppression. Men and Women who feel that they weren’t born in the bodies they belong to and are given the chance to fix it, should not be discriminated for wanting harmony in their life.  The part of the film that really got to me was how these women feel they have to hide this part of their life to people, and when they fall in love they are terrified to share the truth. The women who choose to keep this a secret live in fear everyday that they may lose a friend if they find out the truth. No one should ever have to live this way. Cisgender’s can act as allies to combat transgender by learning to accept that a person’s soul matters more than appearance.

Process Piece

When I first read about the creative video project I was extremely concerned. I have zero experience in media making other than power point. I spent days thinking about what I could do that would give me the best results. Then I saw a commercial made by xtranormal.com and was immediately hooked and the ideas started flowing. I browsed the website and saw several scenes set up as a talk show which allowed me to decide that my project was going to be based as an interview.

            I had a lot of fun putting together my video. I loved that I could choose my characters, add background music, and adjust camera shots. Using xtranormal I found I had to adjust a few sayings and add more pauses than you normally would when speaking. I probably spent more time tweaking my video than actually putting it together. I am very pleased with how my video came out, I feel confident that I incorporated all of the requirements needed for this project and that I will get a good grade. I would love if I got a chance to do another assignment like this in my other classes.




Resources:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-sexism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexism
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0341/is_1_57/ai_75140960/pg_2/

Question J

I choose to watch the film Queer Streets. This film takes place in a New York City shelter for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender individuals (LBGT). The film crew interviews a handful of shelter residents and the director of the shelter. I was shocked to see how much drug use there was and that the majority of these people choose to come to New York for a better life.

            It always amazes me that people seem to believe the idea that everything is better in NYC. That it is the key to success and happiness, and you’ll get exactly what you want. To me, NYC seems to be the place that people struggle the most and unfortunately, if you are not what everyone expects you to be, you will be judged.

            In this film we see that heterosexual oppression jeopardizes people’s lives. LBGT become the victims of this oppression and sometimes are forced to live lives that they wouldn’t have to. As seen in the film, a girl who is applying for a job and doing well in the interview ends up being dismissed for the job because the gender on her application did not match her license. Details like these should not affect the application process for a job or limit someone’s success.

Quick Blog #4

All in all the music video by Willow Smith is innocent enough. For girls her age, she is providing a fun video that projects self confidence. This video has a lot of body motion and could be perceived as being sexy but in todays pop industry, the clothes she is wearing and the hip hop dances she is doing are simply part of the act and are not anything special or to be concerned about. I did notice she wore a lot of body glitter with crazy nails and hair. As a new artist, I think it is perfectly normal for her to be all dressed up and glitzed up.

Question I

Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 3 shows the audience how media perpetuates a narrow view of femininity. Kilbourne mentions that woman are expected to be innocent but sexy, virginal but experienced. She shows the audience several ads that portray women with flawless bodies, looking sexy and helpless. These images lead to unrealistic views of women’s bodies and personalities.

            The part of this movie I found to be the most amusing was when Kilbourne shared her opinion of the special K commercial, and how she appreciated they took a different spin. This commercial showed men being self conscious and at the end asked their audience why should we care so much about our bodies, men don’t. Simply eat healthy.  The reason I find this so amusing is because of the current commercials for special K cereal. These commercials promote their new diet scheme “lose up to 6lbs in 2 weeks.” This diet includes eating their brand snack food and cereals while only eating one real meal a day.

            Commercials such as these only promote insecure women to spend money for quick temporary fix.  I have tried the special K diet for one week and I found myself hungry all the time and knew there was no way I would be able to stick to such an outrageous diet. Commercials make real women feel that they are not sexy until they have big breasts, are a size 2 and have perfect skin and hair.

Question H

For question H, I chose to write about option 2. The movie Divided We Fall is about the aftermath of 9/11 and the views of some Americans towards the Sikhism religion. This film focuses on the religious oppression of Sikhs. The attack on 9/11 shook up this nation, and unfortunately created a large scale fear that anyone with a turban is a terrorist.

            The creator of this video drove 3000 miles to NYC. She goes from person to person and listens to their stories. The first story she came across was a gentleman heading to work the day of the attack. He had no idea what was going on and ended up running away from the scene. As he got further he was beginning to get threats and was being chased. He was being labeled as a terrorist because of his religion.

            America has always been a melting pot and provided religious freedom for everyone, but the aftermath of 9/11 caused great fear which leaded to irrational behavior and revenge. This video was extremely difficult for me to watch. 9/11 is an extremely emotional moment in our lives. It is heartbreaking to hear stories of Americans turning on each other when we all should have been uniting as a country.

Quick Blog #3

An experience where I was privileged due to my class or socio-economic status would be that I can attend college, afford my car and live in a house. I feel that my families economic status has given me a lot of opportunities that I would never have had if we couldn’t afford these things.

The experience where I was disadvantaged due to my class took place when I entered high school. Coming from a poor middle school and entering into a semi-private academy I noticed during the first few months, my freshmen class was being treated differently than some of the other students that came from a different “better off” high school.

A time I witnessed an incident of classism was when I went shopping with a friend and her cousin from west palm Florida. Her friend Laurie refused to go into Wal-Mart with us because she felt it was ‘below her’ and she insisted we went to Target instead. I really didn’t understand her problem but I decided since she was a guest I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. I suppose if I had to go shopping with her more than once I would have said something about how spoiled she was acting.

Question G

From the classism chapter I choose to read “At the elite colleges” by peter Schmidt. This article focuses on the application process within Ivy League universities. Institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and Wellesley pride themselves on being the best of the best. As Schmidt suggests their websites are listed with press releases that brag about their increased black and Hispanic enrollments and how they are the top choice for high school valedictorians.

            As I started to read this article I was thinking “okay, so what’s the issue?” and then I came across this sentence “What they almost never say is that many of the applicants who were rejected were far more qualified than those accepted.” Although these institutions claim their black and Hispanic enrollments have increased, the majority of students accepted are rich white kids with connections. According to research, 15% of freshmen enrolled in these highly selective schools are white teens who failed to meet the minimum admission requirements. I find this extremely unfair. There are many students in high school who work extraordinarily hard to have the chance to apply to schools like these. Not only are these colleges collecting money, they are giving very little back in financial aid according to Schmidt.

            Universities such as these are becoming too corporate. The job of a university is to provide the opportunity to a better life. How is society expected to improve if the entities providing such opportunities are greedy and not choosing the smartest and brightest students for their schools.

Video treatment

Topic: I chose to cover sexism in my short video. I feel like I can relate to sexism, and find it an interesting topic to discuss.

The Story: I will be creating a fictional talk show interview. The guest speaker will be an author who recently wrote a book on discrimination. I will discuss what is sexism, provide some examples and it how effects people today. Then I will have the guest talk to the audience about how to fight gender discrimination.

Software: I am using xtranormal.com.  I have seen some of the commercials done by Geico using this software and have been playing around with the making of my video. I find this website extremely fun and I am excited to see the end product of my video

Research: I will be using content I find online. I will take definitions from the dictionary to help clearly define sexism and use statistics and facts I find.

Timeline: I have already begun to put together my video. I have most of the dialogue, and I am looking for facts to fill in any gaps. I plan to have it completed and posted to YouTube by Friday January 14^th.

Take away message: I want viewers to understand what sexism is, and that it is not specially about woman’s oppression.

Question F

After watching Jane Elliot’s blue-eyed/brown eyed experiment, I have mixed emotions towards the ethics of it all. I can easily see why someone would feel this experiment is unethical to perform on such young students. During the film, we see that this lesson causes the children to feel insecure and unimportant during the 6 hour school day. Some children even get into a fight during recess. If I was a parent I would not want my child to feel vulnerable or insecure, especially in a classroom setting.

            On the other hand, I feel this experiment creates a great opportunity to open children’s and adult’s minds. This experiment provides a powerful glimpse into the life of discrimination, and a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes or moccasins as Jane Elliot would put it.

            I believe that this experiment is a powerful tool when teaching about racism in our culture. Although Jane Elliot was cruel and sometimes out of line with the third graders, her adult workshop seemed extremely effective even if it became a little dicey at some points. All in all, I do believe the end justifies the means and this lesson should be taught as long as it does not get out of hand.

Article

The article below is about men and their sexism comments toward women. There are four examples used, and they are all comments that white men in power ( mostly newscasters) have said toward a specific woman. The argument in this article is if the first example just bad behavior or sexism? I work in a restaurant and I often run across comments like this. Some male customers feel the need to patronize me by giving me 'sweet' nicknames and using them in place of my name.


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6181096/espn_ron_franklins_sweet_baby_comment_pg2.html?cat=9

Question E: Chapter 8

In chapter 8 of Johnson’s book he talks about the things people do to avoid the issue of oppression. He opens with “No one likes to see themselves as connected to someone else’s misery, no matter how remote the link” (pg 108). He then goes into the strategies that dominate groups use to steer clear of conflict and the guilt of oppression.

            Johnson identifies several strategies and one of the strategies that I found intriguing was the section label “it doesn’t count if you don’t mean it”. This section refers to the actions we do every day that offend others.  These actions are ingrained into our behavior because it is what we have been taught. For example, when a man opens a door for a woman he believes he is being polite but in the opinions of some women he is being oppressive and making a statement that women cannot do things for themselves

            Other strategies include the dominate group creating the scheme of being annoyed with the topic of oppression or being too troubled with their own life to be bothered with others. These strategies put the blame on the victim by using guilt to turn the table on those trying to stand up for their rights. This only causes the cycle of oppression to continue by adding another reason to oppress the minority or under privileged.

            In my opinion, one of the ways to stop or interrupt the cycle of oppression is to identify these strategies we use. If we become aware of these techniques then I believe we will learn to stop pointing fingers at others and start looking at ourselves to find a solution to the problem. I know as I began to read this chapter I felt a lot of guilt towards myself. I never thought that not being a part of the problem is also not being a part of the solution, and silence is just as bad as causing the oppression.

Question D: Stanford Experiment

Wow, is my first response to this video. I have never seen the Stanford prison experiment and I find it extremely shocking and mind opening.

                When explaining this film in terms of racial differences, racial privilege and racial oppression I noticed the prisoners were clearly the oppressed minority group and the guards were made the privileged group. This privilege gave the guards the power to assume it was right to treat the prisoners as they did.  In this experiment, you see the prisoners rebelling with in the second day of the experiment. Professor Zimbardo states in his interview that the first rebellion was about the prisoners losing control and becoming anonymous people.         

                In Privilege, Power and Difference, Johnson writes “ a ‘black woman’ in Africa, therefore, who has not experienced white racism, does not think of herself as black or experience herself as black, nor do the people around her.” This quote best explains the rebellion of the prisoners. Before this experiment, the prisoners came from a large culture known as the student body where they were all accepted as students. Then when the students entered this experiment they began to be identified differently because of the new labels they were given.

                This experiment clearly illustrates privilege, power and oppression in our society. Another experiment was shown where a teacher shocked a student when they answered questions incorrectly. As described by Professor Zimbaro, this experiment proves that when an individual is told by ‘authority’ to commit violence against others, the individual will do so for no logical reason. The Stanford experiment shows similar results on authority. The guards are given power over the prisoners. This power leads to the discrimination of their peers.

Question C Answered

There are many differences and similarities between men and women. Michael Kimmel discusses that men and women are more alike than we think. He focuses on the topic that our needs are all the same. We all want the same respect, careers and lifestyles.  He suggests that woman can be erotic sexual beings as long as they feel safe and don’t need to police themselves from men.  He also says the men that participate in the care taking at home have healthier children, healthier wives, healthier bodies and have more sex. The author John Gray thinks different than Michael Kimmel. Gray believes men and women are so different they may as well be from different planets.

                In this argument I agree with Michael Kimmel.  My opinion is that men and women are very much the same. We are the same in the sense that we need the same things such as pleasure and respect. Nowadays, women can easily become providers just as well as men can become nurturers. More and more women are climbing professional ladders and more men are staying at home than in the 1970s.  When Michael Kimmel listed of the survey answers from the 1970 and from 2005, I was interested to hear that women’s answers have obviously changed since they 1970s because of the change and confidence women have acquired in the last 30 years. 

Question B Answered: Feminism

My definition of feminism is that it is the belief that woman and men should be treated equally in every aspect of life. Many people do not understand this definition and have negatively stereotyped feminism from the beginning. The stereotypes that have been used in the past have been that feminists are bra burning, men hating, and lesbians with no sense of humor. These characteristics are extremely untrue to the feminism philosophy.

 In my opinion, feminism is progressing more and more every year. As Jessica Valenti stated during her interview with Stephen Colbert, she believes many woman have feminist values but are not able to identify themselves as feminists because of the negative stereotypes that coexist with the term feminism. In society, we are seeing more woman climbing career ladders, raising families and letting their husbands stay at home with the kids.

By using the definition stated above I would consider myself a feminist. I have always grown up believing that I could have any job or lifestyle that any male could obtain as long as I worked for it. My mother has always taught me to be my own person, and to understand that I don’t need to get married to support myself.

Lady Gaga

In some ways I consider Lady Gaga a feminist, and in other ways I think she is the exact opposite of what a feminist should portray. Lady Gaga is a successful young artist who doesn't listen to what she is "suppose to do". Similar to Madonna, she is breaking new ground and creating her own path in the music industry.

I do not consider lady Gaga a good role model for young girls and women.  As an entertainer, she uses sex to sell her music. As we all know sex sells, but it is not a value we should be supporting.

Question A answered. Bell Hooks:Cultural Criticism and Transformation

In Bell Hook’s video she discusses the superstar Madonna. She focuses on how Madonna’s early career started off as an advocate of feminism. As a rising female artist, Madonna broke new ground and challenged the sexism of the music industry. Unfortunately as Madonna got older she needed to discover new ways to stay on top and make more money.

I agree with Bell Hook’s opinion when she says that Madonna went from being a strong powerful woman to subduing herself to patriarchy and sexism. I also agree with Bell Hook when she states that Madonna symbolizes greed. Madonna reproduces sex appeal in order to make money as quickly as she can even though she is already extremely wealthy.  She also uses the media to portray a perspective of herself that is not necessarily who she is but is what society expects from a pop star.

Media is a strong tool that is often used to provide negative or unrealistic images.  The image that Madonna and other female artists often portray is sex.  As female viewers watch these artists they begin to think that in order to be “successful” and appealing, it is necessary to show some skin, kiss another woman, or be used as a sex object.