FINAL blog assignment

As a white, middle-class heterosexual female, who is pretty girly at times and used to be a poms dancer and cheerleader, I have done my fair share of upholding societally induced dominant norms and expectations.  However even though I feel like a lot of norms can be harmful to society, I don't believe what I do is harmful in itself.  What is harmful however is schemes like the marketing industries, and how societies can pressure people into conforming to ideals that they don't personally believe in.

However since I've been in college, and met and learned about new and different people I've been able to compare the environment that I grew up in, Colorado Springs, with Boulder which I consider a pretty safe environment when it comes to expressing one's individuality and not fearing repercussions from people who disagree.  As for personally protesting these expectations, I'm still not too sure how to do that.  I do see myself as helping because I try to face discrimination in anyway with a strong and determined face and educate people that essentially, people are people, and they should not be judged for their character based on their personal preferences and/or appearance as in terms of race, religion, etc.

I think however that this time in our country, with the impending presidential election, is starting to bring about a great deal of change that involves such acceptance.  The possibility of having the leader of our nation be either a black man or a white female, has the potential to open up people's eyes to the fact that the world does not consist of one singular type of person.  Already the fact that these two candidates have made it this far shows that our country has grown enough to start a sort of societal revolution.  As for me, I think that living in the U.S. at this time makes me kind of understand two things: one, that as society makes progress towards breaking norms, there will always be those who oppose it; and two, that a lot of things previously deemed a 'choice' because they are supposedly just now appearing, are beginning to be seen as 'natured' rather than nurtured.

9th Blog

I've actually thought a lot about the notion of choice in one's sexuality.  I have an extremely born-again Christian family that does not necessarily grasp concept of Darwinism and instead place their faith in the divine creation.  As a result of this, they also do not believe in a 'gay gene' so to speak of, and believe that homosexuality is a choice, and thus can be prevented.  Growing up half a country apart from the majority of my family I wasn't influenced in their beliefs, and thus have been able to make up my own mind about this matter.  

I believe that one's sexuality is not a choice, but it's biological.  Not nurture, but nature.  There are too many cases that show that simply trying to suppress an attraction to the sam sex is useless and usually only results in a bad ending.  I think that who you are attracted to is only socially constructed in the type of person; for example physical attributed and personality types, but the sex of the person in question cannot be personally chosen.  In addition to this I believe that people can also be attracted to both sexes, and it doesn't have to be secluded to just one specific sex.  

Society can and does influence a lot people behave and their beliefs, and I think that the normative heterosexual relationship is most definitely influenced and is portrayed to be what people should abide to, but just because people put on a show doesn't change who they are truly attracted to.

Cont. Chat Room Assignment

I'm attempting to not completely give up on this blog, and so I downloaded (ughhh) Yahoo chat and joined a music chat room, Rock Lobby 1.  And so to showcase the point I made earlier, the following insert is a sample of the chat taking place.

Hopefully this insert works, I'm not sure if it will or not.  But chat itself, which I assumed or hoped would be revolving around rock music, is instead a bunch of comments about Chuck Norris and questions of availability, I don't really understand how legitimate, coherent conversations can take place in this sort of environment. 

Again, if I'm getting this all wrong and just can't find a suitable chat room, let me know because I really do find this assignment intriguing, however it is finding the appropriate context that's turning me off from this task. 

The chat insert is not working right, and I can't find a way to attach it, so I am going to just e-mail you the chat!

Chat Room Assignment

So, I am still trying to complete this assignment however at present it's proving difficult for a couple of reasons.  The first of which being that it is extremely hard to find a chat room that is not explicitly or implicitly revolved around sex.  Second, because I am a novice when it comes to chat rooms, it increases the difficulty of my navigation around anything involving chat rooms.  Third, I don't want to download any sort of program or messenger onto my computer, so the availability of non-sexually oriented rooms is deduced.  

While I think this is a good assignment, I really am not into chat rooms, and I don't feel comfortable participating in them especially when unnecessary and irrelevant sexual comments are thrown onto the board every 3.2 seconds.  I'm not sure if this is something that you wanted us to take from the assignment, that there are a lot of perverted, and/or sexually deviant people who use chat rooms and the internet as a way of being able to freely express their thoughts without retribution, and if that was the assignment than I most definitely grasp the main idea.  

From what I did see on some of the chat rooms I visited I observed most of the male identities to be asking questions and the female identities seemed more subservient and coy, merely answering questions and throwing out cute little -isms and flirtatious remarks.  The gender binary we've discussed in class throughout the semester is definitely only exaggerated in the rooms that I found.  I am not sure whether it's all males playing the 'man card', and vice a versa for women, however whomever is doing what generally plays along with the stereotypical gender rules/mannerisms.

Female Circumcision

I think this article was written extremely well, and I liked how we were able to grow and learn through the writer, as though we were learning ourselves.  Honestly I don't really know much about female circumcision except that it can be used to torture, and most females in the english speaking world are un-circumsized.  I understand why the UN wants to ban circumcision but in cases of religious/cultural practice, I disagree with the stipulations.  Who is the UN or anyone else for that matter to say what you want to do for your body?  It's part of tradition, and isn't done with an intent to harm.  One could argue that when performed as in the article the child is too young to defend her right, but I think this is a bunch of bullshit because this is how her parent's chose to raise her.  Children's rights as far as choosing what to believe in for themselves can get a little ridiculous at points because parents also have a right to raise them.  And if they want to raise them in a religion where circumcision is a step in that, than so be it.  Abuse and torture and mutilation are different stories, however a lot of this is just the skewed point of the American opinion, and this opinion is very obnoxious and egocentric.

Privilege Knapsack

An invisible privilege knapsack, hmm, it's really not that hard for me to think of all the privileges I've acquired simply because I was born a white, hetero-sexual, middle-class female.  The female aspect is really the only factor that makes me non-elite, in terms of our current social ladder, but I've found ways to use my femininity to benefit me and even gain a profit, so that's not really a big deal either.  I am in no way unfit to the iconic American girl.

My privilege knapsack would include not worrying about anything really.  The list that McIntosh gave most definitely applies to me, and now that I am receiving a college education, I'm pretty much set in the world.  As for being a girl, this has been no problem for me, in fact my vagina and tendency to be girly is what got me a job at Hooters, where I happily gave into my sexuality and used it to my advantage to receive bigger and better tips on a smaller bill.

If I had to list some items in my privilege knapsack they would go like this...

1. I can legally marry the person I love

2. I can apply for a sales job in most places (rest. grocery, dept. stores, etc.) and not be worried about being turned down because of the way I look.

3. I can easily find flesh toned products that compare to my skin tone (i.e. tights, band-aids, etc.)

4. I can easily match my skin tone for make up and eye shadow

5. I can not be afraid of racial disricimination in the legal/justice system.

6. I can easily find a hair dresser who knows how to style/color/cut my hair type.

7. I can afford to go to college

8. Doors are opened for me and if someone is yelling at me in a threatening manner I can depend on a nearby stranger/man to speak up for me

9. I have the oppurtunity to go to an accredited university for a higher education and thus can broaden my horizons by exposure to new cultures.

10. I can count on my looks and physical attributes to receive a job/position

Of course there are many other things I have the ability to do simply because the way I look/act is the social norm.  However I have to wonder what the social norm is anymore?  A couple hundred years ago when slaves were in existance and aristocracy ruled the social elite, I was most definitely the social norm, but now?  In todays world, not society, we are connected by an array of media and communication, so the 'social norm' really isn't the norm anymore.  The world today is a diverse planet in every aspect of features and landscapes and cities and especially people.

The only logical start of a resolution to me for this problem would be for people who have all these born luxuries to go on strike, so to say, until everyone has the same luxuries, however in reality I don't see this solution ever coming to being.  The problem with people is greed, and there will always be those few who refuse to change if that change means a distruction of their power.  I'm not saying it will always be the heterosexual, white man who is the elite, but I am saying that there will always be 'the man' who stands on top.

Gender socialization in action!

When I first read this assignment, the first thing that popped up in my mind, and also the easiest example, was baby Gap. So I go to the website, and what do I see on the first page?  A section about boys and girls, and  the little boy is in bright blue and the girl dressed in a vivid pink.  It's not even just baby Gap, but of course the 'regular' Gap, and generally any clothing store in general.  Even equipment shops for bicycling or rock climbing, etc. have different departments for guys and girls, and there is always pink in the girls and blue in the boys.  

However none of this really surprises me much anymore.  It seems like the more and more I look around, the more I realize how gendered our society has gotten to be.

Homosexual Levi's Commercial = 1 point for societal change

Firstly, I would like to thank Levi's for having some balls but making AND airing this commercial.  I think it's a sign that society is starting to be ready and more accepting of a world in which a homosexual lifestyle is more than just tolerated, but integrated as well into the rest of typical culture as well.  

This commercial doesn't necessarily depict a homosexual relationship, but it most definitely suggests one, and I think that itself is progress.  It shows that we, collectively as a culture, is beginning to be more open to meeting and greeting people as people and not immediately classifying a person into a category the instant we meet them.  I don't mean to assume that every single straight person is discriminate against non-straight people, however the 'typical' person has some sort of stigmatism towards a relationship other than male-female.

All in all, I believe this metamorphosis of the original commercial is for lack of a better vocabulary, awesome.  Hooray for societal revolution!

So are you Male, Female, or umm.... other?

When it comes to our society's present gender binary, I find myself morally, ethically, and socially confused about which side/s to join in on.  I am personally disgusted that we deem in necessary to classify every organism/being that is encountered, although I can see a scientific advantage to this.  With classification and dissection comes knowledge and a better understanding of whatever organism is under the microscope.  However as for people, why do we feel a need to classify different personality traits and mannerisms, associate them with physical features, and combine all of that into science?  Beetles aren't stereo-typed between gender based on what they do that's more feminine or masculine, so why humans?  

It goes back to the need to classify and categorize what we encounter to be more prepared to react or expect certain actions.  This, too can be excused for mere survival skills, but modern society has taken it one step further into discrimination based on these specific actions and tendencies.  So on this perspective, it's my humble opinion that the entire class system should be disregarded and people should be met and considered as people.  Not judged by who they are and what they do, but rather how they do it (a little Beatles philosophy for you).

Yet there is also another side of me, that agrees with the scientific approach.  And here is one of my biggest dilemmas: I feel more comfortable if I can categorize a person when I met them, so I know what to expect from them and as a result can effectively react to specific remarks and actions.  While I want to blame human nature on this tendency of mine, I also have to remind myself that it isn't really 'human nature' that is responsible for this, but society!  So in reality, my mixed emotions on this seem to result from one big vicious circle that society began and continues to impose, and being a part of society, and feeling the need to participate in the gender binary, I only add to my own confusion.

So there we have it; categorization of society can be beneficial because it allows pre-conceived notions to dictate interactions, which can help prevent certain insults and arguments that may have been based on gender differences, but it also helps to promote the arguments that may have resulted in the first supposition.  The entire thing is extremely confused and complicated when I place my own thoughts on the subject.  I do feel it is necessary to say that on an explicitly ethical level, people would be judged by their actions, not their actions associated with their sex and then judged.

React to the first couple classes we've had. Is this stuff new? Old hat? Exciting? Bullshit? What do YOU think??

I signed up for this course hoping to thoroughly enjoy lectures and all the time spent in/out/ and on classwork, so far my expectations have been surpassed.  I really am already enjoying all the discussions and activities going on in lecture.  Which is quite a feat since lecture time is 3 hours long, and as of yet, the time has flown by.  

As for the course content, what I really like is that it's a safe environment where I can feel free to express my true opinion even if it's not the liberal typical Boulder view, or likewise a close-minded conservative perspective.  As you can see I already have somewhat of a bias going into this class, but I am hoping to hear different views from all the students and learn more about gender, and people's thought on gender and our society that I have not considered yet, or haven't understood.

I also am surprised at what I've already learned in lecture.  For example the phall-o-meter.. are you kidding me?  The fact that a society that is so technologically advanced and is yet so far behind when it comes to cognitive and logical, not to mention equal thinking really astounds me.  I have a feeling that I'm going to learn and be surprised by a lot in this course.  I was raised in a military, republican family in Colorado Springs with Focus on the Family dominating much of my media, so I think that this course is going to be very insightful and relative to my future ideals and methods of thinking.