The Little Mermaid

In the clip of the Little Mermaid we watched today there were a lot of things Ursula said that was annoying and demeaning towards women in relationships. But one of the most untrue things I thought she said was the Ariel’s requirement to get a kiss of true love within three days of meeting Erik. You can’t fall in love with someone in three days, even if you spend the full 72 hours with them. You can be very attracted to them and obsessed and maybe trust them but that definitely is not enough to get past the surface of love and truly knowing. So the fact that Ursula even said it possible to fall in love with in three days was untrue. That could make kids think falsely of what love really is. And like I said in class some kids associate being in love and having sex so things like this could subconsciously contribute to the decreasing age of kids having sex. But I still love the Little Mermaid.

Magazine Quizzes

The article “Always Stay In Love” by Lily White gave suggestions for love to never end in a relationship. The suggestions all seemed like things that could help or be nice for your partner but cannot ensure that love will last. Every relationship is built differently and needs different kinds of activities and support. For example, a point given was “do not compete with each other.” In some relationships competition is vital and keeps the spark in their relationship. It’s good to win or lose to your partner once in a while to keep you in check. Well that’s my opinion… and that’s my point, that relationships are circumstantial. People just like to be told what to do because they’re not sure, but that’s the thing, there is no right answer.

Boys Do Cry

In the “Boys Do Cry” Article, there are many different points but one that stood out to me is the “Men Should Act Like Boys” part. I think it very well describes the persona given off by media today of how men should act. Instead of instilling responsibility and respect in men, were teaching them to be demeaning and childish. An example mentioned in the article is the saying "bro’s over ho’s." Treating women with disrespect with name-calling is not something we want to teach younger generations. Commercials and media have represented manhood as watching football, drinking, spending money, having sex, and freedom whereas women in the mix are just nagging, and annoying. Nowhere in there does it represent responsibility for men. That is what used to be men's job.. the responsibilty of his family and it you took care of your family you were a man. Now if a dad leaves his kids behind without support he isn't looked down upon nearly as much and it is more of a common occurance. And I definately think it has become more popular because of medias influences.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters

So I volunteer for Big Brothers/ Big Sisters of Huntingdon and I've been mainly just assisting to the main supervisor. I've learned the way for matching up Big Brothers/Big Sisters and recently learned something new about the pair up process. Big brothers and sisters are matched up with a little brother or sister, but there is a rule that big brothers can only be matched up with a little brother, not a little sister. Big sisters can be matched up with a little bother or a little sister. Isn't that crazy? I do understand some of the reasoning behind it but i'm just surprised such a well known organization can be so obviously sexist. And I know it's for the safety of the children so young girls don't get pressured by older boys but an older girl could just as well pressure a little brother. You can't just assume in either circumstance what could happen.

Breast Cancer

My grandma had breast cancer. It was so bad that she had to get a mastectomy for both boobs. Her boobs were really big and she thought she looked awkward without them so she considered getting breast implants (she was only 50 when it happened). She was going to through with it until she decided she didn’t want to be artificial. As much as she wanted to look “normal” and have boobs she realized that it really didn’t matter what other people thought of her. She had breast cancer and had to get her boobs removed... its life, get over it. She also was worried about her husband’s sexual attraction to her but he totally supported whatever decision she wanted to make. It was a really hard decision for her to make and at first she looked very different. However, then i got used to it and she looks totally normal to me now, and she looks beautiful.

Skinny

I agree with Kara on parenting. Each step can make a difference. And like she said, I also think media has such a great influence on our society that even with the best parenting, people still want to have the perfect body. I just find it interesting how trends change. I don’t know the exact facts, but just that people used to want to be physically bigger because it meant they had more money to buy food. Why can’t it still be like this?? Haha. Trends could change again. Maybe we’ll have a depression and people will become weak and skinny because they won’t have the money to buy food… and we won’t find it attractive again. It is doubtful but possible. It’s just interesting… why do we find skinny attractive? Does having more money and easy access to food have anything to do with it?

Life Cycle Discussion

I’m taking a class called Life Cycle and we have several discussions where we take the material from class and discuss it relating to our lives. Today we had a discussion about marriage and family. We talked about what we are interested in finding in a spouse, when we want to get married/ have kids, whether we would take time off of work when we do have kids and other things like that. We had one male in our group and he had his life pretty structured and planned out. It was interesting because he actually had exact ages too; where as the females in the group gave time periods. For example, he wants to get married at 30, while most of the females in the group mostly said high 20’s or low thirties. It was around the same age area but he was just more specific with his and I was surprised to learn how much he really did think about the future because I feel like most men just kind of “wing” things like that while women plan them out more. I’m wondering why this is exactly? I’m thinking it may be because women are more scared to give up their body and don’t want to plan an exact time? Or maybe women are more realistic and understand more that you can plan things out as structured as that? And I know there was just one guy, so I can’t really make assumptions but I just thought it was interesting.

When I was Growing Up

I chose to write about this poem from class because it reminded me of a close friend. Not only does the author pretty much have the same last name as her but they're also the same race. Nellie Wong wrote about the internalized oppression she experienced and currently still experiences. Wong feels underprivileged because her skin is “dark.” As she was growing up, she put these weird assumptions in her head that made her feel inferior because she wasn’t “white.” Reading the poem makes me feel really bad, and angry that our society puts such pressures on each other. My friend, I feel has internalized oppression. She may not talk about it directly, but I can tell through her reactions to things people do, or when she talks about high school, fashion, boys and having kids. In a group of friends, usually you all playfully make fun of each other and it’s normal, but sometimes she’ll freak out about random things that are a joke and I think they are things that she oppresses and doesn’t talk about. When she talks about high school she says she never fit in and she was one out of a couple Asians. She always wants to be on top of fashion and talks about it quite often and even dyes her hair so it’s not jet black. And then when talking about guys and having kids, she always talks about white guys and biracial kids, like she never even considered it any other way. My group of friends calls her the “white girl” because we feel as if she’s “whiter” than us. We find it funny, but I’m sure deep down she’s hurting.

And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You

Jo Carrillo wrote a very powerful poem about race and privilege. “White women” that may have pictures of minority labor workers on the wall may not have them up for the right reasons or not understand the actual things they experience. Instead of helping people for reasons of fixing the problems, they may do it for show or for their personal benefit which are the wrong reasons. I know whenever I volunteer I hope to help and change people’s lives for the better but it definitely gives me a personal benefit. I thought the saying we discussed, “We take what we like but do not acknowledge or except what we don’t like,” was an interesting view. When I thought about it more, although we probably wouldn’t want to admit it, a lot of people do that, whether it is because we actually are or just act oblivious towards it.

The Bridge Poem- Class Dec 1

In The Bridge Poem from today’s class, Donna Kate Rushin described her feelings of being a selfless minority. She’s tired of being the mediator in many aspects of her life. In her poem she talks about how she has to serve to everybody else’s problems instead of focusing on herself and her own needs. She can understand other people’s viewpoints because she can put herself in other people’s shoes so she uses it to help compromise other people’s differences. She’s tired of it and wants to express herself! I really enjoyed the poem because, on a smaller level, I feel the same way with my group of friends and family. I’m always the one who see’s both sides of an issue and tries to solve it to avoid conflict. I just don’t understand why people are always trying to start new problems. Because of this, I understand why she says being privileged is being able to express your true self. When I’m always trying to keep peace and represent sides, I don’t have time to represent myself a lot because I’m too worried about fixing other “drama” instead of my own opinions.