An Inside Look at S&M
Roy F. Baumeister explores the taboo lifestyles of sadomasochism. The main theme and purpose of the piece is to find out who are masochists, and what do they put themselves through in the name of pleasure. "Across the country, from sophisticated cities to subdued suburbs, men and women are acting out fantasies of sexual domination and submission." (Psychology Today 47) I believe that Baumeister describes a very accurate portrait of who one specific group of masochists is and what they do for pleasure, however, I feel that he fails to recognize the younger generation of masochists. I also feel that on the issue symbolic of sex change, Baumeister does not elaborate enough.
Baumeister's findings show that the majority of those participating in sadomasochistic behavior come from the upper class. He claims they come from high-powered jobs. They are people who make decisions everyday that effect the lives of many of their workers.
Baumeister believes that the characters' occupations are the reasons for their submissive behavior. He says, "Masochists seem to be drawn largely from the privileged classes; They are above average in education and income; Society's real victims do not seek out masochistic sex. Rather it is often the rich, powerful, and successful, the people with the heaviest burdens of selfhood, who need the escape of masochism." (Psychology Today 47)
What Baumeister means by ".burdens of selfhood." is he believes that "the self" is a very demanding entity. "It requires constant upkeep and maintenance." (Psychology Today 47) It requires that one be in constant control of one's self and surroundings. Those individuals that are so consumed with shouldering all the pressure or being the one that everyone counts on, that they sometimes need an escape. And for many of these people, their escape is masochism. It is a situation that requires their submission; it is a total role reversal. These people need this activity to be reminded that they are just normal humans, it is almost a grounding process for them. The masochist wants to contradict his or her own identity with these fantasies.
There are a wide variety of practices a masochist would enjoy such as loss of control, pain, and humiliation. But whichever activity they are participating in, it will always be consistent with the fact that one person is the dominator a...
... middle of paper ...
...ychology Today 47) WHY??? Why does he say this and not explain why this happens? I feel that he could have gone much more in depth with this subject. He could have brought up the character of Buffalo Bill, from the Tom Harris novel "Silence of the Lambs." In the book, Bill is a man who dresses up in women's clothing and posses for himself in front of a mirror. Or Baumeister could have showed some statistics on actual sex changes, to show that maybe more men change into women than vice' versa. But, he shows no such support for his claim.
He also claims that women fantasize about being submissive more than men, but men are more likely to act out those fantasies, but he never states why. He could have said that men act out on their urges more than women do because they are the more adventurous of the species, or shown some statistics or examples to better back up his claims.
All in all, I found "An Inside Look at S&M," very informative from a subjective point of view. However, there were those point had Baumeister elaborated on more, the essay would have been much stronger. It did however, stick to its theme of finding out who sadomasochists are and what they do for pleasure.
He would do anything he can to preserve and care for the field. This story is told from the point of view of the nameless main character. Its written in first person, by which the author gives us a deeper look in to the characters thoughts. This gave us an insight on how he succeeded with his dream to bring back...
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book “The New Jim Crow”, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve to maintain African American people controlled by institutions. In this book her analyses is centered in examining the mass incarceration phenomenon in recent years. Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration she points out that mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that works together –almost invisible– to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined by race, African American (p. 178 -190).
The Joad family members were facing hardships from the beginning. Before the journey, Tom Joad had been in prison and that was a downer to everyone. In the scenes of overcoming this problem, Tom was released and his family was so excited and full of joy to see him. Before they could celebrate too much, they found themselves having to leave the land that most of them were born on, raised on and labored for. They decided that as shady as it was to be forced off their own land, the drought had shattered any hopes of prospering from it anyway. With the hope of a better life out in California and a flyer that said pickers needed, they set out for the proclaimed promised land.
“The New Jim Crow” is an article by Michelle Alexander, published by the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Michelle is a professor at the Ohio State Moritz college of criminal law as well as a civil rights advocate. Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law is part of the world’s top education system, is accredited by the American Bar Association, and is a long-time member of the American Law association. The goal of “The New Jim Crow” is to inform the public about the issues of race in our country, especially our legal system. The article is written in plain English, so the common person can fully understand it, but it also remains very professional. Throughout the article, Alexander provides factual information about racial issues in our country. She relates them back to the Jim Crow era and explains how the large social problem affects individual lives of people of color all over the country. By doing this, Alexander appeals to the reader’s ethos, logos, and pathos, forming a persuasive essay that shifts the understanding and opinions of all readers.
As the strong-headed, independent and protagonistic Tom Joad heads toward the country to finally reunite with his family after serving four years in prison, he meets the preaching character, Jim Casy (ironically having the same initials as Jesus Christ). They both unfortunately observe how the horrific effects of a dust bowl during the depression impact the average hard working family. The Joad family prepares for the difficult journey across the country to the "promised" land where ignorance leads the Joad family to search for the American dream in the long lost land of California. Problems transpire contiguously as Grama and Grampa Joad die, their vehicle breaks down, money becomes a non-existant necessity, Tom gets into trouble after killing Casy's murderer, and the sickly, whiny daughter, Rose of Sharon, gives birth to a dead baby because of malnutrition. Grama and Grampa Joad cannot endure the difficult journey in the beginning, hence, at their old age, rot away ...
Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation. Mass incarceration today serves the same function as did slavery before the Civil War and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War - to uphold a racial caste system.
Tom Joad was released from the Oklahoma state penitentiary where he had served a sentence for killing a man in self-defense. He traveled homeward through a region made barren by drought and dust storms. On the way he met Jim Casy an expreacher; the pair went together to the home of Tom's people. They found the Joad place deserted. While Tom and Casy were wondering what had happened, Muley Graves, a diehard tenant farmer, came by and disclosed that all of the families in the neighborhood had gone to California or were going. Tom's folks, Muley said, had gone to a relative's place preparatory to going west. Muley was the only sharecropper to stay behind.
In Michelle Alexander’s article The New Jim Crow, she addresses the importance of educating people on the harsh reality of racial caste in America. As a civil rights lawyer and with previous work experience at the ACLU in northern California, Alexander knows the importance of getting relevant information to the public in order to inform them of important information. In The New Jim Crow Alexander uses a specific wring style through rhetorical devices to convey her message that the US justice system is turning into the modern day laws of Jim Crow, outlawing African Americans and taking away their basic natural rights while creating a new racial caste system and the possibility of the system to change.
Society suppresses and limits individual creativity and freedom by forming strict traditions and forcing conformity. When conformity begins to rule a human’s life, decisions, and thoughts, it creates a restriction of personal freedom, choices and beliefs. In The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham, Waknuk abuses authority by restricting individuality, creating cowards and a false sense of security. Conformity can result in a manipulative cult, which often forces people to blindly submit to a leader’s irrational traditions and beliefs. Members of an unstable group join because they seek a sense of belonging. These people are willingly dependent on authority figures out of laziness, in order to escape responsibilities and to cope with life’s difficulties.
What are the benefits of implementing early intervention and RTI’s for children with early signs of a learning disability? This is a serious topic because of the increase over the years of children with learning disabilities. Instead of just placing students in special education programs educators must assess and evaluate students. As well as try early intervention programs and responsiveness to intervention known as RTI to try to delay the disability or stop the disability from forming and progressing. I have gathered articles that show the implementing of early intervention programs and RTI models to enhance children that show signs of an early learning disability. The articles all show how these programs can help students progress in academics as well as behavior areas in the classroom.
Rosenberg shares the account of a physician on his experiences with “aggressive masculinity” in his field of work: “‘I regret,’ a self-consciously horrified physician recorded in the early 1880s, ‘to say that I have known some fathers to tickle the genital organs of their infant boys until a complete erection of the little penis ensued, which effect pleases the father as an evidence of a robust boy”. The trend of fathers trying to ensure that their young sons were masculine and robust was common during the 19th-century. Fathers sent their sons off to brothels, also known as bawdy houses. This was so important in the 19th-century because effeminate men were pitied and even hated, so they looked to establish and affirm their masculinity in whatever way they could, even if it meant having sex with a prostitute at a very young age. Their ability to perform sexually was taken very seriously, and was what essentially defined them during this
In chapter 1 of his book, Kimmel discusses how these differences are applied to men and women. We are
In conclusion, it seems as though all the positives of the response to intervention program outweigh any negatives about it. The RTI program is extremely helpful in identifying any student that is having academic difficulties at an early age. Whether these students should be considered in the special education program or not can also be determined by using the RTI program. There is no reason to allow students to fail before any intervention is even considered. Anything that is beneficial in helping students succeed in their academic achievements should be viewed as a
In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander states that we still use our criminal justice system to “label people of color ‘criminals’ and then engage i...
In The Grapes of Wrath, Grandpa Joad is a very outspoken person, he does not watch what he says, and he just says it. He is a hyperactive elder, everyone else wants to leave the family farm behind, and start over new, Grampa Joad is refusing to leave the family’s farm that he has always been on. The Joad family has been in the good zone when it comes to being in or paying off their debts, now they have gotten behind on paying them that they are forced to move off the family farm. Grandpa Joad has had some violent times in his past, so they do not want to aggravate him on the situation to much, but they began to leave the land after finally getting Grandpa Joad to come, as they start to head out towards California and leave Oklahoma where Grandpa grew up his entire life.