crash into me

A couple of weeks ago, we watched the movie crash in class. This movie was basically about how different types of people rely so much on assumptions of other people and how these assumptions affect how we see people. It was really interesting to see how how race and class play a huge part in how people act around one another. this movie really opens your eyes and makes you wonder how our own assumptions and actions may affect the others surrounding us. Our actions may be subtle but still have such an impact. If you are able to get past the assumptions and see the person for who they are, the world wouldn't need to "crash" into one another to realize that we all are so different and no one is superior to the inferior.

class

this week in class we watched and talked alot about social class structure. Living in the upper middle calss you realize how much your truely take for granted. This was seen in the episode of 30 days. Morgan and Alex decided to live on minimum wage for a month and seeing the lifestyle they had to live wasn't nearly as bad as the people who are actually stuck in that class. Having to live pay check to paycheck and budget is extremely hard. It makes me realize how lucky I truely am. I wish there was more that we could do because these people can't afford medical insurance but when they need to go to the er for health issues they have to pay a bill that is so expensive that it might just be the amount of living they make that month. We need to make a change and not be so self-center about our desinger clothes and cars and houses..when people can barely afford any of that.

kindness trumpts all.

Julio Diaz's response to the mugger was different than the normal response meaning that his kindness and offering to take the mugger out for a dinner and to just talk to him instead of judging him and reacting in a such a way of screaming and running away. He treated his mugger like a human and when they were confronted with the problem, they acted civilized and talked things out over dinner which resulted in a positive impact on the mugger. My act of a positive deviance was making my family dinner without mentioning that I was going to. I surpirsed them to a hearty meal of spagetti and meatballs. This is qualified as an act of positive deviance becasue I never make dinner and always rely on my parents to feed me when infact they have just as busy days as I do and don't necessarily have time to plan dinner. They walked into a set table with a great meal. I sweetened the act by doing all the dishes as well. My family was extremely pleased in fact my mom cried tears of joy because she has been so stressed lately and the fact that someone besides herself thought ahead and prepared something for the family took a chunk out of her day to relax. I felt really happy afterwards. To make me family so happy and to allow my mom to relax for a small portion of the night was satisfying for myself. This experience has influenced my thinking about norms in the culture by realizing that sometimes norms are safety nets and if we pushed the boundries with kindness we can really affect peoples lifes in a postive way.

saint vs roughneck

This week in class we had an assingment that included us reading an article about the difference in two groups of guys and how they get treated differently due to there appearance and social standing even when the two groups of guys acted equally as bad outside of school.
One group, the saints, were upper middle class and acted polite and dressed a certain way and had to live up to a standard. They got viewed as being well behaved kids when in reality they did worse things then the roughnecks who were lower class an appeared a certain way to the community. The saints were deviant and used their social structure as a means to go out and drink and vandalize and cause dangerous situations. While the roughnecks weren't "saints" themselves they kind of lived up to the potential that society gave them and were accused of things sometimes they didnt do because the community was biased toward them. I see myself doing this even tho it is wrong. For example, when we get into a wrong part of chicago considered dangerous or a part i am unfamilar with i tend to assume the worst and put these people into a social structure. My actions define the way roughnecks will  behave because of the status and lower potential i give to them. Its ironic to see that even some polite kids who get good grades and come from good families act just as unjustly as the roughnecks who come from totally different backgrounds.

gender role questions !

1. The most challenging part of the gender role given to teens through the media is appearance. We see ads everyday of these stick figures that truthfully not even those models look like. It hard being an average girl in a world of media of "gorgeous" models. It is hard to live up to an potenital that can never be achieved. When comparing yourself to others you just learn to critize yourself instead of prasing yourself. We nit pick everything about our bodies and images which then expand to an even larger problem. We started finding flaws and faults in everything we do. Trying to fit the ideal image of a teen girl is impossible when the ideal image is unheathy.

2. The message I do like about females is our mother instinct. I know no women can be the number one mom and some women don't even wants kids but this message alludes to so much more about our characters. We get seen as caring, compassionate, loving, kind, helpful. All these qualities I want to be associated with now and in the future and most messages about moms shows the nurturing side of a women.

3. The media normallly projects the ideal relationship to be a women and a man. This relationship tends to have the man being the dominate person and the women falling at his everyword. We see women as being dependent on a man and while she tries to live her own life she always goes back to the man for ultimate support. In the media I see women as being needy and men as being jerks. I know that in reality this isn't always true but the media has an interesting way of making man superior when it comes to relationships. Although the norm is a man/woman relationship, lately there has been more tolerance of man/man and woman/woman relationships. I think this is due to the increasing number of people who have spoken out about these kinds of relationships.

media

This week we talked about media's effect on gender and people in general. It actually freaked me out quite about. As much as people don't like to admit it we all are trying to fufuill the stereotype the media creates for our gender. Girls try to be as thin as models and boys try to have a body like hercules which in reality can't exist. It's sad to think that media is setting us up for failure because no one can ever look like and image that the media creates and manipulates. As much as we try to  get away from media it is everywhere starting from when you are born. You get consumed by tv commercials or websites that send messages to kids at a young age trying to brand or mold them into something they can never become. I have become quite angry over this issue because I guess I feel hopeless about the situation and kind of used. It makes me feel that in life there is always and alternative reason for doing things and that is what angers me most. I partake in everything that I've written here but I wish there was some way to stand up against media companies sending out unrealistic ideals.

the placebo effect

This week in soc we watched an episode of freaks and geeks and it demonstrated the different type of people or situation the impact our socilization. the episode was about when lindsay parents go out of town and how she is pressured into throwing a party. throughout the epsiode you see how aspects such as school, friends, family, religion, and media afffect these characters. my favorite part of the episode was lindsays brothers idea to switch the keg to a keg that was filled with nonalcholic beer. Her borther was influneced to make this choice becasue of the tight knit relationship he has with his family. He wanted to keep lindsay safe and was influnced from the actions of his parents. Another way media influneced the kids at the party is their behavior like drunken fools when in reality they weren't drunk at all. I find it funny how all of these factors combine to create a person into someone very unique. Every person is raised with different values and interpertates situations differently. This is showen throughtout our actions as we develop and experience new instances. I know that if i didnt have the family and friends that i have,, i would be a totally different person and i am thankful for how i was raised (: