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.