Monday, October 27, 2008

masculine or femanine?

This week we discussed how people view masculenity and femanism and how it plays a role in not just adults but even children as young as 9 years old. At a young age girls are looked upon as docile and extremely vulnerable. Boys on the other hand are expected to be tough and show no pain. Also in our culture if a boy cries he is looked at as a baby whereas if a girl were to cry it would be acceptable just because she is a girl. For girls they are suppose to not play in the mud or play with action figures, they are suppose to quietly play with their dolls in their room. When I was younger I always was around my older brother either playing basketball outside or playing street hockey with him and his friends. I did play with stuffed animals and enjoyed other toys like my Easy Bake oven, but I hated playing with dolls. I was very much so influenced by my brother. I believe that we way our mentality is set on gender is very unhealthy. If girls are always thought to be quiet and docile and if boys are thought to be tough and not to cry, then they are going to have such an unstable mind because they are supressed emotionally and mentally. Even as we grow older we are still in the same state of mind only it is altered a little bit. According to the media the thinner the girl is the sexier she is. The more buff the male is the sexier he is. All of this is based off of genetic structure and how we suppose to be. The upsetting thing is if people don't meet these standards then they are looked upon as a looser. School shootings happen because certain students felt like they had no control or didn't feel like they were treated well because they were different then everybody else. In the movie that we watched today in class, one murderer stated, "murdering someone is gutsy and daring." males want to show dominace and bravery to be accepted. Statistics show that females are not as violent then males are in which I believe because I think that males hold in their emotion because they don't want to talk about their feelings as oppose to females who almost talk daily to at least one person about how they feel about something. I firmly believe that our perspective on gender should change.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Our Society

After viewing the movie "Bowling For Columbine" it made me realize how scary our society is. Not only do we have a high murder rate due to guns but because of the gun access in our country we have had school shootings, and multiple people have been shot or have accidentally shot themselves while jokingly playing with a gun. In the movie that we watched they showed the victims of the Columbine incident and their wounds after they were shot. And they showed one student who was shot and is now permanently parazlyed from the waste down. Many young males in our society are influenced by gang members or killers in the media, and by watching these young men shoot people it influnces them to do the same. If we continue to have guns that are simple to get we are going to have the highest murder rate in the world. I use to live in Kentucky and I was about six years old and I remember during recess my friend and I found a rifle gun in a sewer grate. Any child could've picked it up and seriously have hurt themselves. We have too many guns in our country. I think that guns should only be used for the army or if you live in an unsafe area. And guns shouldn't be sold at Walmart or K-Mart they should be sold in a shop that is more secluded to the society. One that really surprised me in the movie was how they blamed Marilyn Manson and his music. Because he is a heavy metal artist they blamed him for all of the shootings that happend. They thought his music influenced people to act violent. This movie just really surprised me and made me realize how our society is and how my danger there is.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Happiness

After we watched "Tuesdays with Morrie" how our society views happiness. yea we might say we are content with ourselves because we have money and we have a stable job. But in reality so many people are not happy because American's are overworked. We have no time for ourselves anymore. We are all about being successful and being the best. In order to be happy our mentality is based off being number one, if we come in second we act like its the end of the world. As Morrie said "What's wrong with being number 2?" Despite what happened to Morrie he still lived life to the fullest. He enlightened those who needed enlightment and he taught people how to live. His friend Mitch was a typical American business man who was always working and never had time for himself until he started talking to Morrie again. Morrie showed and explained to him how much enriching and fulfilling it is to be alive and to enjoy being accompanied by loved ones. I think Morrie's life lessons should be honored and rememebered by everyone

Monday, October 6, 2008

Doing "Nothing"

So over the weekend I did my "nothing assignment" I thought hmm this is going to be a peice of cake I'll just stand there and do nothing no problem. I got to work and as usual it was crowded as ever. I worked for about 2 hours and then I was on break. I went through a crowd of people trying to find the best place possible for me to do my assignment. I finally found my spot and just stood there starring off into space. All in all I thought it was very relaxing. Because I had nothing to think about all the noise of children screaming and people talking about their day all just kinda drowned out. Occasionally I was interupted by several customers asking me "where do I pay for my pumpkins?", or "where do get corn or tomatoes?" One of my co-workers was on break with me and she came up to me and waved her hand infront of my face asking me if i was ok. When I was done with my assignment I relized that everyone is programed to look like we are occupied. What ever happend to using your imagination or cleansing your mind and relaxing? Our society is all about being fast and getting everything done in a matter of time. It's everywhere in America Dunkin Donuts slogan is "America runs on Dunkin" and underneath their slogan the have a cartoon business man running with a coffee cup. And the Dominoe's pizza slogan is "you've got 30 minutes" implying that they have 30 minutes to deliver a fresh pizza to your house. Not only is this an unhealthy life style but we are all just forgetting what its like to enjoy life. We are so wound up everything that we just can't enjoy simple things anymore. I am a victim of this my day revolves around school, field hockey, work, homework, eating, and sleeping. I think everyone needs to take a mental health day :)