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 (:

isolation

the past week we discussed feral children. I found this disturbing but quite enticing. When i say enticing i dont mean that i liked what i saw or heard but it was entriging and i was almost in awe watching these children behave like animals or creatures that I thought was never possible to see from a human. One girl acted like a dog and another boy acted like a human. The most frightening case was the story of the girl called genie who was locked in her room tied to a potty chair for what seemed like ever. She had no interaction with her family or humans ingeneral. It made me stop and think how much different my life would be if i were kept locked up and didnt have the influence of my family. It is scary to think of even being in that situation. and also very hard to believe because of the nuturing, loving family i grew up with. but i would be a totally different person. This made me realize how much my family friends and the world around me has an impact on the person i am today.

tuesdays with maggie

If all I had was a few days left of my life, oh would I change how I do things. My quick response isn't because I lack joy in my life now, I am just more cautious of myself because I would like me life to continue on for much longer. I like to keep to my self, I hate confrontation, and I am what people would describe as a "good girl". Now with that in mind, I do have wild adventures and do crazy things, just not all the time. If I only had a few days left I would no longer be considered a "good girl". I would try and experience things that I would never normally do. I wouldn't always think of the what ifs and just act instead. On the subject of death, I believe that dying doesn't end your journey but instead is the beginning of another. We are all placed on this world to live. We associate happiness with life and saddness with death. But in my eyes, I think your happiness carries on into you death. While others around you might be sad for the loss, I believe everything happens for a reason...and because that reason might mean death that doesn't mean you aren't happy anymore. I believe in an afterlife and where ever that afterlife maybe is the start of a new journey.

unity.

During the past two weeks in class we have talked a ton about culture. It was so interesting to partake in the activity where we went around the class room and tried to name where the people were located based on their possessions. I found this to be very informative and actually fun. You think you may know someone based on their culture and what we, as Americans, assocate as their culture. One thing that alot of places valued was family and technology. those were the most common things i noticed that united all the places as one to make up the world. We may all live a thousand miles from eachother but we do have certain things in common and i think that is important to remember because although I may be more comfotable with my own culture that doesn't mean I can't connect to another.

yes, I'm watching you.

hahaha. I know my title is kind of creepy but point blank it is a true statement. You are always being watched, whether it is by me is a different story. But somewhere, somehow, someone has there eyes on you and are judging what you wear, how you talk, who your friends with, etc. Most people like to say they live in a judgement free world but seriously..I find that hard to believe. I am not saying judgement is bad because a lot of the times you may get a nice compliment, but judgement is an opinion. this whole idea of judgement and watching was sparked from an activity we did in soc class this week. I was in a group that choose a research method of obervation. we had a "good" girl and "bad" boy walk up to an all asain table and an all girl table during lunch and yes at different times. We were testing the effects of appearence and gender. The people at both tables didn"t really interact with the student that sat at their tables but as soon as said student left they would start giggling or talking again. this showed me, the observer, that judgements may not be said but are always occuring and not until a situation is comfortable are they spoken about.

silence?

During soc this week we did a rather interesting experiment. It consisted of people being on a boat and having to be kicked off. The word to describe this scene was chaos. I was playing a med student who was single, young, and honestly didn't have that much to offer. I was a lucky one. The others on the boat assumed they needed me incase of an medical emergency. My value of life was never questioned. But almost everyone else was being judged on what they knew and if they had family..blah blah blah. People started getting frustrated and "commited suicide" by steping outside the lines of the imaginary boat. What I took away from this was how important silence can be. I said close to nothing and survived. Sometimes less is more. This lesson is really useful in a real life situation whether your fighting with a friend, teacher, sibling, or parent. Your silence allows you to survive in stressful situations like I survived on a chaotic boat.

changing the world one heart at a time.

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
My name is Maggie and I'm in my last year of high school. Honestly I feel kind of weird writing about myself because as a person I am not normally a talker much more of a listener. I am told that I am very understanding, determined, and patient. The person that has shaped my life would have to be my brother. He is a giant influence and has made me the person I am today. His life is complicated with a disease called Cerebral Paulsy. This challenges his life by making it harder for him physically and intellectually. He suffers everyday but amazingly overcomes these issues baby steps at a time. Seeing him struggle then succeeding has changed my life. He makes me take less things for granted and appreciate what I have. I view him as an average kid with extraordinary abilities to overcome his problems. Not many teens can say that about themselves. Because of him I have decided to go into psychology and special education when I go into college. I want to help change the world as he has done for me.