War Quotes

The first quote on the War Quotes page had an interesting aspect to it. It explained the contrusction of a male soldier's gender identity: "Masculinity," and how it relates to his ability in combat and how it may exclude women from combat. But then it also mentions how masculintity depends on the construction of femininity. I'm sure there are many different interpretations of that. To me I took that as a man needs a woman to help guide and nurture him so he can have his emotional side in order to have a "physical" or "aggressive" side. I dated a guy in the Airforce, and as manly and strong as they want to seem to be, they are weak as well and need support from a woman. Therefore I've come to the conclusion that this poem describes one of the main reason's the military suggests men to get married.

Crash

I watched Crash recently, one of my favorite movies! In the movie, a racist/bias cop pulls over a mulato (biracial, I don't know how to spell it?) couple (in a vehicle) for public indecency. The cop tells the woman to get up against the car to search her. As he searches her, he inappropriately gropes her and touches her private areas. I feel like this would never happen to a man, or very rarely anyways. It’s not right that women are being “molested” by authority figures. In a way I think the wrong people want to be cops. A lot of people I know who want to be them, break the law in ways such as underage drinking and smoking pot. They want to be a cop so they can break the law without worrying about getting caught. Being a cop is also another profession that is mainly viewed as a man's job. Occasionally women are cops but i don't think for the same reasons? Sorry no offense if anyone wants to be a cop and I’m sure that’s not how it is for everyone. But as a woman, if I was ever pulled over by myself in an area without people around I would be very hesitant and nervous… not that I wouldn’t be in the first place anyways haha.

Oppression

In the Discussion on November 17^th about Oppression, my group talked about women’s choices and used the analogy of Pepsi verses Coke. As I thought about it more, I thought this was a really interesting view. Not only in the perspective of an analogy of women’s choices, but looking at it in a literal way: I don’t even like coke or pepsi, or even pop in general. So is that why girls take on the role of a tom boy or transsexual because they don’t like any of the choices, whether male or female so they make their own version? Males are oppressed in certain ways but I don’t think it affects them in the ways or degrees it affects women. Males are treated as inherently aggressive and violent. If they don’t follow the certain social roles given to them then they may be seen as a “wimp” or “sissy.” However women are discriminated against in bigger ways such as job opportunities.

Security

This is in response to the paper on security. The first question is “What does it mean to be secure?” I looked It up on dictionary.com to find definitions of secure. There was a lot and they all have words that might be used to describe it but security I think is a little different for everyone. Since we can’t experience how other people think, we actually can’t really understand what security is for each person. There are so many different levels of security. One would think that a model or famous person should be totally secure in their own bodies; they’re famous for one, and usually have some talent that they are great at to have gotten where they are. But then there are so many models who have eating problems, and so many famous people who abuse drugs. Why? Because they are insecure. For some reason the society influences people to think they are never good enough. Humans are so competitive, even if not up-front about it and are comparing themselves all the time. I believe that there is never someone who is totally secure. They may be at moments, but there is always something lingering and waiting for your confidence to slip for one second to change it all around.

Life Without Zoey

In Intro to Sociology, I watched a movie called, “Life Without Zoey.” It’s about a girl who mainly took care of herself because her parents were always traveling with their jobs. I wanted to write about it because I thought the relationship between her parents and her was interesting. When they would come home, she would disrespect her mother, and tell her all her flaws and treat her as if she was a friend. But when her dad came home she would be right by his side answering to his every word. As her mother walked in she started perfecting her and when she saw her father she gave him a big hug and asked him if he wanted a drink. Would this be called a “patriarchal” household? To me, it was just crazy how she could so obviously show the difference in preference for her parents. I could never do that even if in my head a disrespected one more than the other. And it makes me wonder what cause this? I didn’t notice disrespect from the father towards the mother so where did she learn this behavior? From the media maybe?

Title IX

Title IX is a federal law that was made to “prohibit sex discrimination in any educational program or activity at any educational institution that is a recipient of federal funds.” I think this law was made with great intentions but in the end sometimes defeats the purpose of what it was intended to do like what was said in the presentation specifically with sports. I want to create equality among female and male athletes but I don’t want to decrease the amount of men’s programs because there isn’t as much money in the women’s programs. We should create more women’s programs and maybe try to find places in the men’s system where maybe we could cut a few dollars here and there without causing a problem. I know specifically, I would love to have a lacrosse club. Women’s lacrosse doesn’t need that many things so it wouldn’t increase the money as drastically as maybe another sport would. But I definitely don’t think we should take athletic opportunities from men because in a way that is just as bad as inequality among the sports.

Women in War

The presentation done on Women in war was interesting. The fact that they said that women are the main victims was a view that I hadn't really thought through much before. I think most people, included me, mainly think of soldiers which makes them think of men as victims of war. The reason we may not think of women is because the lack of wars we've actually had on our home teritory in the USA. (Or the lack of wars that I've experienced at all!) But also, if we did have a war here, Ibelieve our government would work alot harder to prevent women from being raped and killed. But the clip we watched actually showed us what really happens in other countries during war. It was really scarey. I Couldn't imagine being in a country where stuff like that happens and it's that chaotic. It was makes me apprecicate life in America and the government... that so many people complain about. We learned that many men leave their wives after they are raped. It's very sad and the opposite of what they need. They need support and comfort after something like that, not abandonment. Although I do in some ways understand why men do that. They would feel inferior that they couldn't protect their wives and family and maybe not good enough to be around them. Also seeing them and being around them could remind them of their lack of being a "man" by not protectong their family and make them feel depressed all the time and not good enough to be in their prescence. It could also ruin the sexual relationship. He might not want to have sex again let alone her not wanting to have sex again. I'm sure they would both be haunted by the gruesome images while they were haveing sex as well.

The Good Wife's Guide

I think it was October 15^th that we looked at “The Good Wife’s Guide.” It really frustrated me. What wife wants to be told what to do like that?? I mean I guess it makes it easy, you don’t have to think for yourself at all. The attitude the author gave out was as if women were put on earth to bow down to men. Here are just some random quotes from it and some of my thoughts:

“Remember, his topics of conversation are more important that yours”…fuck you. That’s ridiculous. No, I don’t need you to tell me how to clean, nor to be happy when my husband get’s home. I’ll be happy if and when I want.

“Make sure you prepare yourself.”- I’m not a sex slave

“Never complain about anything he does.”- Ridiculous. He’s perfect obviously.

“Know your place.”- Which Is the most demeaning thing I’ve ever heard.

I can’t believe people can write stuff like that and believe it… and not feel morally wrong. I watched Mona Lisa’s Smile this last weekend and it reminded me of this. The girls at Wellsely College all just got an education to have an education. None of them wanted to do anything with their degree because they wanted to be housewives. It was very frustrating for “Mona Lisa” because she was a successful unmarried woman and didn’t like the way the husbands thought of their wives as cooks and maids. I’m glad the perspective of women in homes has changed a lot since then.

My Brother, Robby

This blog was inspired by one of my younger brothers. The baby of my family, Robby, is “girlier” than my brother, dad, stepdad, grandpa, and most of the other men in the family. I know he notices it and sometimes we tease him about it. He looks forward for when I come home so we can put facemasks (cosmetic green clay masks) on, rub each other’s backs, and watch gossip girl together. Although I love having a buddy to do all this with, our society finds it odd for guys to do stuff like that. And I find it odd too. And it makes me wonder… did I make him girly because I take part in these things with him? My cousins and I used to dress him up in girl clothes when he was little… did that influence it? Will he be gay or does he just like to do things society believes is meant for girls to do? This weekend I went home because I wasn’t feeling well. I asked him to give me a back massage to make me feel better and while he was he said “Did you notice, I cut my finger nails.” I felt happy for him but yet kind of sad. I had made fun of him for how long he kept his nails. I know he specifically mentioned it to me because I had made fun of him for it before. He had acted like he didn’t care because he said he liked his nails longer because he could use them as tools and I didn’t think it bothered him that much because he shrugged it off. But that made me realize he did. And now I just feel bad. I wish I could help him to feel like he fit in more but not sure what I can do? Anybody that reads these have any suggestions haha?