blog 12: EVERYONE TAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THE VIDEO IN THIS BLOG! JUST 5 MINS

This week we talked a lot about technology and its newer role in society.  Everyone was able to communicate and get in touch just fine before, but as always, everything can be better.  All people ever do is use their computers, phones, tablets, etc to communicate.  I mean, people have phone interviews now-a-days instead of in person interviews, which is pathetic if you ask me.  Nothing is personal anymore and conversations aren't valued like they used to be is what I get out of this.  In our group discussions we were also talking about how a lot of people aren't completely themselves when you talk to them over the internet or the phone, especially if you have never met this person.

This is a simple picture but reflects exactly what our world has become.  Always juggling technology, no matter what it is for.  It would be a challenge for anyone to be able to cut out technology from their lives for just one day!.... AND EVERYONE MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO....!!!!

blog 11

I enjoyed watching the movie that we viewed this past week in class.  Watching things like that, unfortunately, makes me realize how unbelievably easy Americans really have it!  The living conditions that exist there are almost unbearable to think of.  I really don't know if I could live like they do.  I know that it isn't a choice for them, but just the fact that they actually have to TRY to survive each and every day makes me very sad for them.  Something that made me angered was the fact that, that husband wouldn't allow his wife to accept this opportunity and she had to fight so hard and threaten that she would leave him and her children behind just to be able to make her own decision!  I related this a lot to the term that we learned, global inequality, which I think will always exist. :(

I think what really hit home with the video is the amount of poverty shown and the fact that it is so hard to get out of.  Even with this opportunity to these women, they most likely won't be able to move away from those terrible places because it is so hard to get away from.  The picture below demonstrates exactly what I was thinking.  Poverty is like a ball and chain, you are always with it.

Blog 10

For this blog I wanted to touch on media and fear in the context that we spoke about it in, in class this week.  We talked about how people put blinders on and see and believe what they want to.  We also talked about peddlers and how media is a huge peddler, or enforcer of fear.  Media always shows people what they want to see so they can keep their viewers and keep their own job, even if all of the information isn't 100% true.  In my political science class, we are watching some of the episodes about politics in the media so I chose a quick clip from one that talks about the truth in media coming from a news broadcaster.  It is very interesting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_i9fw43Moo

Go to this URL and watch the clip!  I couldn't get it to work any other way!

blog 9 ideologies and the media

This week, I thought the concept of ideology was a very interesting term.  We discussed in class that it is a system of beliefs of how the world should be ran.  Comparing this also to the topic of media that we talked about this week, it was hard for me to understand ideology actually.  I think that media shapes so much of the world and shows us what they want us to see and believe.  That sounds like they are shaping our ideologies to me...? The definition of media we talked about was the means for delivering impersonal communications to a vast audience.  We also went over the one way media, from media to mass.  Example would be watching a movie or reading a book because there is only one way of communication.  And there is two way media, back and forth from media to mass, examples being Facebook or Twitter.  The world depends so heavily on media.  Think about all of the people that have to read the newspaper with their coffee every morning or how many millions of us college students sit on twitter or Facebook instead of writing our papers or listening in class...  It's a crazy amount of time and reliance on the media.  So back to my confusion... how is it that we, as individual people decide the worlds ideology when we have so many things thrown at us every single day that could be leaning us a different way because of how media is portraying certain things?

I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed earlier (imagine that!) and came across this picture and thought it would be perfect for this blog!  Make sure you pay attention to the details and it portrays my point exactly!

SB 8

Okay you guys, I must rant about something my entirely inappropriate and insane boss said to me two nights ago at work... We were for some reason talking about how men have to sign up for the draft to go to war and such and how it isn't fair that women don't have to.. and then he continued to say that women want equality and equal rights so we should have to go to war just like men do.. Oh my gosh the things that come out of his mouth are unbelievable.. Anyways, this of course relates to any part of our class but it reminded me of when we played Monopoly and no one was equal.  I found this way of playing the game super interesting! I think it actually represented a real life situation that everyone goes through.  There are also more and less fortunate people when it comes to financial issues. Sometimes I just think to myself, why can't I just be rich?  Life would be so much easier, and it is unfortunate that the world relies on money and income, but jeez, this stuff gets stressful!!

I think this picture illustrates the issue with any sort of inequality.. weather it is between men and women, blacks and whites, or poor and wealthy people.  There is always someone dominant in the equation and always someone that is being kept quiet for some reason.  Life isn't fair.

blog 7: inequality

I thought that it was very interesting to observe the actions that were allowed with boys compared to girls, as I'm sure many other people noticed.  the fact that boys didn't have to raise their hands but girls absolutely had to is just such a stupid thing.  Such a simple thing to share equality with and there has to be rules like that.  This is why society is how it is today.  I believe that everything that is how it is today, is because something in the past shaped it to be like that.  'Back then' little girls were taught to always have manners and be proper and be pretty.  Brains didn't matter, but they always had to 'know better'.  And boys got away with so many other things because well.. 'they're just boys and don't know any better.'

I think this issue has obviously gotten better through out the years but we will always have a lot of room to improve things with in society.

I think this picture really represents the point that I was trying to get across with this passage.  Women always have many more struggles than men because a lot of the time they get the easy rout because women should know how to  get an education and a job, were as men maybe don't?

Everyone has their story

I really enjoyed the movie that we watched about janitors last week.  It was super eye opening to me and really showed that every single individual has their own story for everything they do from their past.  It was also really interesting to apply the double  consciousness concept to this movie.  I liked listening to them tell the ups and downs of their lives and how they make the very best of everything they were given.  I can relate a lot so I think that is why it spoke to me so loudly...I wish we could have watched the ending though! This movie made me think of a custodian I had in elementary school that I am still really good friends with! He was the kindest man and always looking out for me.  He always had a smile on and his chin up!  I hope a lot more people get the chance to watch this because I think so many people categorize custodians as being less than them, when really they love what they're doing and people should see and support that.

I really think this photo speaks for custodians.  They put this picture together from the Washington University because they were cutting pay for custodians.  Custodians really do all of the dirty work for it to be pretty and nice for everyone else.  Props to this artist..

So, I just finished the activity we were supposed to complete for this week, and it was a real eye opener.  Money goes by so fast and there are so many unforeseen obstacles that can pop up at any time for no reason at all.  When I was doing the game I opted out of going to do fun things with my friends because I could't afford to pay a babysitter or take off work, but everyone needs a break.  I decided to be a waitress because I know that type of business well.  I remember when I got a job here in point I had to buy my pants, a black shirt, and a $60 pair of non-slip shoes, which was ridiculous. The cost of living and fending for yourself is unbelievable these days, and if minimum wage goes up to $10.10 like we were talking about in class today, just think how crazy the cost of everything will be! Prices will sky rocket.  There won't be $1 menus anymore.. you can pretty much be sure of that.  This game taught me a lot about everyday life and how much we struggle and I am definitely going to share this activity with my Social work policy class tonight!


I chose this picture because it is really something interesting to think about... Did we chose this path to have poverty?  Did people shape society to make sure we had inequality between people and we have rich people and people in poverty?  Can it be fixed if everyone changed their actions?

Double Consciousness

This week we watched the trailer for "The Butler" and I had to go out and rent it that night.  I watched it and it was so interesting!  I love movies like this, that actually show the past and what colored people had to go through to survive and make the population the it is today.  The movie displayed a really interesting view of racism.  They had the father that made it possible for his family to live the way they did but still had troubles with racism.  Just like how we talked about double consciousness with people's life styles.

I advise everyone to watch this movie to really understand how hard it was, and even is now, to live as a colored man or woman.  I chose this picture to portray double consciousness because I thought the abstract thought behind this was incredible.  He is a free man but is locked up with in his thoughts because of how society treats and thinks of black people.

"Obsession"

From the class that we had this week, the trailer to the movie "Obsession" really stood out to me, along with our discussion about how stereotypes have come about.  Just from watching that trailer of the movie...scared the hell out of me.  I would never watch that movie willingly, and the fact that people were receiving these movies, for free, in the mail for themselves and their families to watch is insane!  You can completely tell that it is one sided and biased. It's crazy that it was legal for this video to be sent out.  I thought it was funny how the new casters said that it was a must see film and everyone in America will understand the issues after watching it.  It's just crazy how people can be persuaded to believe different things so easily.  That is what is wrong with our society, I'd say.  People believe what they hear from their friends, the radio, newspaper, T.V., etc.  How are you supposed to have your own thoughts and beliefs when you have so many things being shoved in your face to believe.

Something that I thought of while we were discussing the fact that people always generalize Muslims and people that wear headdresses as dangerous and stereotype them as killers, was the emoji that my iPhone has of the "Muslim Man."  What is the purpose of that emoji?  Talk about categorizing people, to the extreme.

Blog 3 "Fag"

After watching the movie from weds, I was irate.  I have seen things like this before, actually on the UWSP Campus promoting these beliefs. These people get under my skin at a completely new level.  The things that they promote and how they state these things are unbelievable.  To run around with signs with the huge letters F.A.G.S written all over them, how is this at all okay?  I'm sure if you really wanted to get your opinion across that badly, you could find a much civilized manner.  How inappropriate and immature.  The thing that really bothers me is that they have children with them holding those signs when I'm sure they don't even know what they are chanting for or against or what the word fag even means.  

And the fact that they say same sex marriage..why can't it all just be marriage?  We are all human beings and love is love.  The views some people have with always appall me.  I say that people can be who they are and like, love, be with who ever they want to be with that will make them happy.  When people like this came to campus they would yell at women that were in rolled in this college and tell them that god hated them because they were showing too much skin or because they shave their legs and cut their hair.  It is just absurd. 

sumblog2

I really enjoyed breaking into groups and discussing our thoughts about the definitions of sex, gender, and sexuality.  The group I was in had the topic of sexuality.  This is a very touchy and widely discussed topic.  We were going to ask the class their thoughts on sexuality and if they thought that it was a choice or if you were born like the same or opposite sex.  No one in our group could agree on it.. so we figured it would be a very long class discussion. I found out some very interesting things from our group discussion, though.  Such as; the fact that if a boys pens is too small it gets detached and they live their life as a female instead of a male. Also that if you are born with neither a male or female part, your parents get to pick which gender you are... which I think is completely insane! I think that society and the media has shaped our world to think that this is okay, and its not.

I picked this video because it displays how "wrong" it is to be gay and how it needs to be fixed.. it shows and talks about things that are normal for gay men to enjoy or like...or at least that's what straight people think gays like.  He is trying to brain wash him into like females instead... so is being gay genetic then??

BLOG 1 Stages of reality

I thought a very interesting thing that we talked about was the stages of reality.  Thinking deeply about things such as how something became what it is now is a super confusing thing.  I haven't ever thought about why you sit on a chair, which was a class example, or something a little different like why you pour body wash into you bath to make bubbles?  Why and how have things become how they have.  The different stages are 1.) externalization: WE create meaning of things through socializations. 2.) objectification: The creation of this meaning is now becoming known through other people.  3.) Internalization: Everyone learns about this creation and this is what is "right", forever.  Another thing we talked about was the roles of men and women and how men SHOULD BE stronger than women and women SHOULD cook dinner.

Something that happened a few days ago at my serving job was, a man came in and sat at the bar and snapped at me because he wanted a drink, and then continued to tell me to "get used to that" after I gave him a dirty look.  He then told me that women were put on this earth for men anyways.  This is a perfect example of how society has been shaped.