During this semester of English 1302, I feel as if this was way more interesting than 1301. In fact, I did learn a lot of new things about gender and how it takes its role in society. I never understood why it would actually matter, but it really does matter.
The first assignment I remember having to do dealt with toys and gender. After I saw the video, I thought it over and came into realization that toy commercials really attack the specific audience it is trying to get. Growing up, I don’t recall hearing a male narrate a commercial for a girl’s toy commercial. I guess you can say as I wrote my response I had this little spark of an “aha!” moment as I typed away, keeping the quote in mind: "As a process, gender creates the social differences that define 'woman' and 'man.' In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order" (Lorber 60).
The video and the quote complete each other. Society wants to shape younger children into what th...
“The Boat”, narrated by a Mid-western university professor, Alistar MacLeod, is a short story concerning a family and their different perspectives on freedom vs. tradition. The mother pushes the son to embrace more of a traditional lifestyle by taking over the fathers fishing business, while on the other hand the father pushes the son to live more autonomously in an unconstrained manner. “The Boat” focuses on the father and how his personality influences the son’s choice on how to live and how to make decisions that will ultimately affect his life. In Alistair MacLeod’s, “The Boat”, MacLeod suggest that although dreams and desires give people purpose, the nobility of accepting a life of discontentment out weighs the selfishness of following ones own true desires. In the story, the father is obligated to provide for his family as well as to continue the fishing tradition that was inherited from his own father. The mother emphasizes the boat and it’s significance when she consistently asked the father “ How did things go in the boat today” since tradition was paramount to the mother. H...
Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education." Review of Research in Education 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.
George Orwell quote, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” The documentary, “The Mask You Live In”, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom shows different ages of males who struggle to be themselves while battling America’s limited meaning of manliness. George Orwell quote, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” Influenced by the media, among their age group, and the grown-ups in their lives, adolescents dissociate their emotions, disrespect women, and is aggressive. Society gender stereotypes affect young males to change to fit into the societal norm as they characterize “real” men.
My children, and the men they become, are extremely important to me; I often wonder what to teach them and how. Confronting ostracism remains a constant reality for them due to neurological challenges, such as Autism, ADHD, and Dyslexia, and developing their self-advocacy skills is a struggle, yet imperative to successfully navigating society. Consequently, their open inquiries regarding reasons for doing things often teaches me, as it challenges my perceptions. Therefore, my perspective fluctuates daily; things I trust today, I perceive differently tomorrow and I hear their voices in the words of Jackson’s anecdote, contributing validity to her message. Abdicating responsibility for worldly happenings through lack of participation in negative deeds is not acceptable, thus, by heeding Jackson’s cautionary tale, I realize what I must teach them. In seeking to improve the world, it is vital to resist the tendency towards silence regarding conventional practices, vocally respond when perceiving something as unmerited or inhumane, and help to fight for those unable to speak for
Parents and guardians are the foundations of a child’s morality. If a juvenile grows up without a guardian present, they are consequently more susceptible to media influences than teachers in the classroom. Barber studied the hours of kids in and out of school, “Our kids spend 900 hours in school and from 1,200 to 1,800 hours a year in front of the television set.” Children without a parent present believe the influences they view on television more than what they learn in the classroom. But, if a guardian teaches their child about the value of education, children will be active in the classroom and will be motivated to achieve academic excellence. But, if a parent takes an active role in a child’s life, and they expound on the importance of education, their child will strive to value education as well. If a parent is present in a child’s life and deems education unimportant, this will cause their child to not value education either. Barber did a study on what seventeen-year-olds know and what forty-seven-year-olds know and the results were the same. In response to the study, Barber says, “The illiteracy of the young turns out to be our own reflected back to us with embarrassing force.” Children look up to their parents and if parent’s value materialism, but preach about school, children ultimately value materialism because of their
James Scurlock strongly emphasizes this problem throughout the whole documentary. Students, ranging in ages from 18-22 primarily, are young, and naive. They are out from under their parent’s rule and free to make decisions on their own. This means that many are going to take certain steps necessar...
...The lack of a an authority figure leads to the child making ignorant decisions. Doing unlawful things for most of these individuals isn’t considered wrong. Their parents did it so why shouldn't they follow their footsteps? In today’s society the lack of parenthood is an ongoing cycle that needs to stop. Raising about the influence will lead many generations to achieve impressive accomplishments.
The TV and Film Industry’s Portrayal of Women has drastically affected many of their lives, much too often women compare themselves to the female images they see on television, film, and advertisings; at both the conscious and subconscious level, these media images of women lower self-esteem and affect behavior at every age and stage of life. We know they are unrealistic, yet they apply so much pressure on women to conform, and influence how we live, love, work and play. This gender role that society has generally considered appropriate for women is wrong. It makes so many of us women want to buy materials we don’t need, with the money we don’t have only to impress people we don’t know. So many teenage girls are unwarily developing eating disorders and dieting without realizing that they don’t need to live up to the ridiculous standards that society has set for us. It’s difficult to be who you want to be without having someone look at you a certain way when it’s all around us, the constant pressure put on us to be like all women on television, commercials, movies and advertisements, these industries’ powerful influence on society has given everyone around us the wrong idea of what “should” and “should not” be. A woman should be able to express herself and feel free to do what she wants with no judgment.
I chose the topic of transgenderism. Transgender is when an individual tries to switch genders. Transgender comes from the Latin words trans, meaning “across.” Transgender literally means “across gender.” Many trans-individuals decided later on in their lives that they want to switch genders, and other people argue that they were born the wrong gender. Trans-people experience many difficulties throughout their lives. Switching genders makes their lives more challenging, because of many reasons. Their lives are more challenging because of their religion, whether or not they are accepted. The military is very strict, and will not accept trans individuals whatsoever. Insurance companies sometimes will not accept them as well. Trans people are not always accepted by certain occupations. Growing up in schools, trans people are all treated differently regarding to which bathroom/locker room to use. There is a huge debate whether or not trans students are even allowed to participate on sports teams, and if they are, which team to be on. Other obstacles such as birth certificates, passports, and driver’s licenses are all major issues as well. Trans people have to decide if they are willing to come forward, and say ‘This is who I am.’ But before trans-people can come out to other, they must come out to
Children have been tought to never trust anyone that they meet because they never know what secrets that person keeps beneath the surface. For example, take the college student whom was walking around on the University of Texas’s campus late one night. Years ago, she wouldn’t have had to worry about that night being her last. But now, there was always a possibility that her previous breath would be her last, and sadly, one of them was. Humanity is constantly changing, and there is nothing we can do to stop the progression. All us humans can do is change how we see the world and how we react in order to survive in this unhealthily violent
Sarkeesian, A., (2010), You Tube, Toy ads and learning gender, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZn_lJoN6PI [Accessed 31 Oct 2013]
Children have been seen to act in a free manner, worrying mostly about themselves, over time learning to consider other’s views and feelings when completing an action. Typical adult actions, however, are almost entirely controlled by thoughts and feelings aware of the world around them. Children act on impulses, while adults have been mentally trained to act against these impulses, acting in a way to appear acceptable in their society, generally. There is a lot of pressure on adults to conform to act a certain way, as there is for children, but only adults feel this pressure. Children are somewhat aware of what they can get away with, as figuring this out is one of the basic ways they learn how to act. By the time they reach adulthood they understand what is acceptable at what times and what is not. Whether they conform to these standards or not is their choice, but they are aware of the fact that the standards do exists. Others around them know that they are aware of this, and have expectations, increasing the pressure to act that way. Children aren’t expected to be as aware, and other’s expectations are lower for them, allowing children more freedom under this pressure. So as children act on their impulses and learn what is acceptable, they begin to understand how to control their actions. This knowledge is always present in their actions as they become adults, as they now wear the pressure of conformity with every step they
Once I learned a little more on gender expectations I began to realize how glad I was that I never was forced to follow them. When I got to middle school gender roles hit an ultimate high throughout my peers. So many people were using them that I got stuck in the expectation of what girls were supposed to follow. I
...om humble and non-violent to harsh and violent. It can also may lead to a person awareness of one’s environment and taking responsibility for one's actions which is what the world requires(Rosengren, 2000). Society is able to transition from the past to the future through real-time information on the present (Hiebert & Gibbons, 2000). Society therefore becomes a living organization, complete with a feedback loop provided by the media, well equipped to sense oncoming danger and learn from its mistakes in readiness for tomorrow (Preiss, 2007). However, caution needs to be put in place to prevent the youth and children from participating in actions they do not have a clue on but do them on the justifications of the actions watched over the media (Wells & Hakanen, 1997). Mass media will remain beautiful but when precautionary measures are not in place, it becomes ugly.
...ce to grow and be successful, that is not always a right for today’s children. Parental influence should be the first line of defense to protect children. The increase in youth violence is directly related to demise of family values and structure. Society has allowed technology to take the place of parenting, making excuses rather than being accountable. Schools and communities are facing the end result from children not having the necessities for becoming a confident, loved, and properly discipline individual. It time society takes a whole of today’s youth and demonstrates a better example.