Politicians Crying

I was watching 60 minutes today when they were doing a special  on the future speaker of the house, John Boehner. John Boehner has a history of crying in public when giving emotional speeches. Boehner even teared up a bit during the interview. Boehner is not embarrassed of his ability to control his crying, or lack there of. He says that it is "who he is." 60 minutes compared him to a couple of politicians back in the day who have cried, and lost the elections because they "didn't have a back bone," or "weren't man enough." Today, it is a little different. showing emotions in public is not criticized as harshly, and is thought to be good in ways. President Obama cried the day before the election, and now we have Boehner. The news caster said she believes that Boehner will not be criticized harshly today because of our changing society, and I agree with that. I believe that he will be just fine and that even if he is a man, it is not embarrassing to show your emotions in public, it almost makes you more of a man. For the 60 minutes overtime video the link is http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20025417-10391709.html?tag=exclsv

Film: North Country

I think it would be a great idea to show the film North Country in future classes. North Country is about a woman overcoming adversity in life and in the workplace when she is constantly abused physically and mentally by men. Although she paid in to the union, the union did not treat her as well as it did the men. She faced trouble with the other women as well because they felt that by escalating the issue they were making things worse for themselves. I believe this would be a great film for class because it really shows the conflicts within gender, and how we have overcome these flaws that were accepted years ago. It not only portrays it in the sense of the workplace, but in her life as well. When watching it I could not believe what she had to go through just to file a lawsuit, not just to win it.

Bridges

The poem I read in class today hit home for me, as well as for the rest of my group. The poem was about being  a bridge between different people of race, background, gender, and attitude. You talk with these people about things that may not agree with the other people. It becomes difficult to manage all of these different attitudes when around different people. I face something like this with my own friends. The only way friends from school know friends at home is through me. Sometimes they get along, sometimes not. It becomes difficult to bridge these two lifestyles and manage them efficiently, it can become sickening. When an argument does break out, it is tough to take sides, and you feel like you have failed at being that bridge which is a terrible feeling. This has been shown in a more extreme manner in the poem read in class. There are bigger issues out there than just friends, like being a bridge between a mother and father, or having black and white friends.

Placing tags on women of different race

The previous presentation and readings to our class really made me think about how we view women of different ethnic backgrounds and races. We tend to place tags on them based on roles they play in media of how they act and what their personalities are like. For example, Asian women in our views seem like delicate women but with a mischievous side. The mischievous side tending to relate to sexual activities. Another example relates to Latino women and how they are perceived as sexy tough women. They are portrayed as deceitful as well. These are personalities that we place on these women based on what we view in the media. A lot of these views are incorrect for the most part, which shows us how much the media has an effect on our views today.

I also found it interesting that a lot of women try to be part of a race they are not. For example, whitening creme. A lot of women from other countries use whitening cream to make their skin lighter because the men are attracted to lighter skinned women. In contrast, white women in the US use tanning beds to be darker. Why do we try to be who we are not? I want to raise the question again if the media has an effect on why we want to change our own race and backgrounds. 

Roles in relationships

I believe our presentation in class today went very well. The audience really took part in responding to our survey and giving us suggestions for the research we are doing. The result of our survey shows that the younger generation would like to evolve into a more egalitarian relationship type with a small emphasis from traditional relationships. One of the most interesting comments from the class is that we prefer a mixture of the two because both males and females enjoy certain parts of a traditional relationship. For example, a female enjoys things like a man opening a door for them. It is things like that, that make that mixture more appealing to the younger generation. I also found it interesting that we are emotionally, as well as economically motivated into accepting these egalitarian roles in relationships. I really appreciated the feedback from the class, it will definitely help when writing our paper.

Sex ed.

I went to a small high school about a half an hour outside of Huntingdon. At my high school the males were not educated in sex education other than in health class. In this class the information was vague, and it was 11th grade, students were already partaking in sexual activity at this time, so it was a little late. I do, however, remember when the females were educated about their period in elementary school. They were pulled out of class in to the library, and the males in the class bugged them all day about what they were pulled from class for and why we were not invited. Not one of the girls ever spilled what happened in there, almost like it was an embarrassment to them. I do think that we should have been educated in sexual education at an earlier age, but from an angle in which it did kind of scare us. I think that teaching sexual education in a positive manner and to wear protection will almost make younger people more curious about sexual activity. Not having these education experiences could also have an effect. What to do, What to do......

11/09/10 presentation

The presentation yesterday was focused on sex trafficking around the world. It seems as if these women who get involved with this one way or another really have few resources to depend on to save them from this cruelty. Looking back on the debate in class which arose from the suggestion that making prostitution legal and regulating it,  my opinion really swings both ways. While I do not have a good suggestion on how to stop these acts, I am leaning toward the fact that legalizing prostitution is not a good solution. First of all, prostitution is degrading to women and I do not agree with that. Second, regulating something like prostitution would be very tough. Third, while decreasing the amount of illegal sex trafficking, by legalizing it per-say, I do not think it would have a huge affect on the amount of illegal sex trafficking that would still be taking place.

I also could not believe the US was on the top 3 of imported sex trafficking. I am from the country so I do not have the opportunity to see some of these thing that I assume happen in larger cities. I think that instead of claiming that it doesn't happen here in the US, a stronger focus needs to be taken on these illegal acts so that we don't get to the point where we realize it is a large problem, kind of like "nipping it in the bud."