What do we consider the norm...

The stories that were discussed in class from everyone's experience, what they have witness and maybe not witnessed were very interesting to hear. The whole sense of how media portrays the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) community is very intriguing as well. Yes, we all know that the media is a big influence in how we perceive things and it reflects what mainstream society believes. Of course people are going to have misconceptions of what a transgender really looks like if all you see on TV shows are transgenders being promiscuous with their dress and actions. Of course, people are going to believe that gay men are supposed to be flimsy and weak and not masculine and muscly (hence, the ignorant comment my significant other made). Of course, those young children, adolescents, teenagers and even grown adults struggle with their self identity and self worth because media has allowed them to believe that it is NOT okay to express yourself freely. Media has this enormous yet disgusting influence how our mainstream society views many aspects of life and it is just saddening.

Like discussed in class, in this generation you see the younger population more open to maybe "coming out" or more open to the idea of homosexuality. Could we possibly be slowly creeping up to the idea that heterosexuality is no longer the norm? That it could possibly be okay for a teenager to not fear his sexual orientation and "come out" freely to the world? I really do hope that one day this is possible. Call be optimistic or liberal but in my mind this is where I would like to see the world reach. It would be a magical moment and pivot for our society. I understand that this may only maintain as a dream but as long as there is enough of "us" who believe it can happen and believe the LGBTQ deserves to be treated equally then there continues to be hope. If this pool of "us" who believe in this is all we have at least that community has a place to go and they are not alone.

Let's continue to share our stories and to portray the message that heterosexuality might not be the answer to this "normalness" that mainstream society believes in.

I leave you with your thoughts...

Sexism just for women???

I always believed that this idea of sexism revolved around the idea of women being oppressed. Women women women. After reading the Adams text I can now see that that is not the case at all. It involves realms such as heterosexuality, transgender, bisexual, masculine and feminine roles to just name a few. LIke many other subjects we have discussed in class this area is yet another one of those socially constructed ideas that has lived on for too many years now.

With the area of sexism I can discuss several topics but I have decided to focus on feminism. A quote that I liked quite a lot and even went as far as to post in on Facebook as one of my "status updates" was "...feminism is the radical notion that women are people." I had to re-read the line a couple of times until I understood that feminism is not an attack toward men but just the advocacy of women to be treated as what is suppose to be their equal.

Our society has allowed us to believe that the system is one that will always favor men. Let that be with abstract ideas as to not being afraid to walk at night alone or concrete ideas like that we as women have been paid less since we entered the work field. This binary of masculine and feminine have not only allowed us women fight for our rights and stand beside the idea of feminism but has deteriorated the many other ideas that society sees as vulgar like the LGBTQ community.

Two articles in the Adams text I especially liked are "Violence against Women is a Men's Issue" and "Out-of-Body Image." I am guilty of not seeing violence against women as a man's issue before reading the article. I had always believed that this was a battle that we as women would have to carry out ourselves but now I understand how men have an enormous responsibility in doing so as well. I couldn't agree more over the image issue. I myself fall in the category of women that feel compelled to fit the image of this model in the front cover of a magazine. I constantly struggle with my self-esteem and confidence and I am a firm believer that the media has constructed this idea in my head. It is a battle that I continue fighting and will not let it beat me.

Let's move on to something less heavy than what was just said. While reading through all of the text even the Zinn reading I had the silly Miller Lite beer commercial running through my head so here it is:

C'mon men, you wouldn't want to loose your "man-card" (sarcasm). They loose their man-card by drinking the wrong beer but we, according to Zinn and according to history, we as women loose all of our rights as soon as we marry??? Compelling huh?

I really liked this quote: "No people does down until their women are weak and dishonored..." gives us women a sense of power and I love that.

I leave you with your thoughts...

I'm Not So Sure About This...

Just like my title describes it, religious is not a something I am not very competent in. What I know about the Catholic church (what I identify with) is what I grew up with. At the moment I don't fully practice my religion but do find a sense of spirituality from it. When I read the syllabus that the upcoming topic was religion I got a bit nervous for that reason. The thoughts that ran through my mind: "How was I suppose to discuss religion when I myself wasn't sure about it? I don't know anything about other religions. What will this section entail?" Little did I know that my knowledge about religions wouldn't be necessary.

Just like Professor G informed us, many of these topics will interconnect and there you have it. Religion interconnecting with oppression. The thought of being part of a dominant group because of my religion (one of the most common ones down in the Southwest) and being "privileged" by belonging in this group had never really crossed my mind. This struck my mind as I read the "Breaking a Sacred Taboo" essay in the Adams text with eighteen examples of the "Christian privilege."  Things as small as having restaurants provide fish during lent like mentioned during class as well was mentioned in the list. Other things mentioned in class and also in the list was having Sundays off with the connotation of our religion. One of them that made me think was the fact that a child receives all these Christian holiday symbols from school and that's okay. I understand that the Easter bunny or eggs doesn't mean much for a 6 year old other than a holiday where they hide plastic eggs filled with candy but in the background sense of it its a Christian holiday. So much for separation of state and religion huh?

Something that was address quite a lot in the text and also during class was the Jewish religion. I can't help but try to imagine those days that the Jews were oppressed and ask myself how these people would be identified. Sorry for the stereotype but like Proffessor G has stated, usually people think of Jews as white, blue eyed and blonde (our typical white person). This topic in class has sparked an interest in learning about more religions, for example that of Jews, to not only become more informed for the purpose of my career but also for my own personal growth. I leave you with a quote that hit me close to home just for the fact that I don't know who I am completely; "...the fear that we do not know who 'they' are or perhaps that we do not know who 'we' are. As Americans, we are literally afraid of ourselves."

I hope that this nation becomes aware of who they are and allow others to identify with what ever they may identify with without fear of themselves or of others.

-I leave you with your thoughts...

What I Came Across on FB

As I was "surfing the web" aka "on facebook" I came across friends post. Mind you that I usually overlook looooong status updates because it's usually a rant about how a guy cheated on who knows who, or how much someone "loves" their significant other of 1 month and what not (sorry for my bluntness). This post caught my attention because it's a friend from high school who rarely updates and hence in seeing it I read it. Just thought it would be good to read because I'm sure he's not "friends" with all of you I copied and pasted it below:

"I don't often voice my opinion publicly about political issues, but this is not something I can remain bipartisan on.

Just got out of my all-white Honors American Politics class, minus myself of course, where the topic of discussion was Affirmative Action; Could you guess where the discussion went? For 30 minutes I heard how Caucasian and Minority, more specifically African American, students have the same opportunities and if a Caucasian student performs equally academically then they have the "same work ethic" and that if they perform better than they had a "greater work ethic,' nevermind the fact that those speaking were inherently privileged with professionals/college graduate parents, often times with Masters and Ph.Ds, easy access to college information and preparation, attended private high schools and were likely lavished beyond necessity from a young age.

This ignorance is not bliss, and this blatant disregard for understanding equality does not have merit. Until the equality of opportunity and outcome in America stabilizes further for underrepresented groups; Women, African Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, Native Americans, the Disabled, The Poor, and the Disadvantaged I say, as would former Governor of Alabama George Wallace, if he were Black, 'Affirmative Action then, Affirmative Action now, Affirmative Action forever!'"

— at TCU – Texas Christian University

 

I leave you with your thoughts... 

What We Over Look... Too Many Times

Let's leave the racism topic and go on to classism... Well, not really "leave" but lets shift focus because I'm sure we are bound to see the area of racism crossing within classism.

As I read the Adams text I can't help but to place scenarios in my mind that I have not only witnessed through life but I have personally lived through. Adams hits the spot in many of the writings. When the text goes into detail about paying for college and the debt that inquires within the years it left me dumbfounded. Those numbers have left me disgusted and wishing I had been around those days where government grants and scholarships was enough. Just like the essay in the Adams text reads "The Debt Trap" leaves me questioning how far this trap will be taking us.

Another reading in the Adams text that had me pondering so much that I had to stop reading after finishing was the text about the household workers that are hired by other women. As soon as I began reading this text it reminded me of my mom and how she has always been employed by people like this. I hate the fact that as a child I might not have known about the happenings of her employment. For us, it was a blessing for her to have this type of job and it sure was a blessing to receive the "gifts" that were given to us as of what I now know replaced the idea of receiving a bonus paycheck. My mom did complain about the longer hours she had to stay and about the extra work she had to do but in the end of it all it was a job that payed the rent. This quote summed everything up "... Thus, middle-class American women aim to 'liberate' themselves by exploiting  women of color- particularly immigrants-in the underground economy, for long hours at relatively low wages, with no benefits."

I had never explored the concept of classism until the texts that I am getting the privilege to read now and it is honestly a mind boggling concept. I'm looking forward to discussing this in much further detail in class and get a glimpse of what everyone else in the class has to say.

I leave you with your thought...

Mind boggled by racism...

This whole time I figured I had a good grip of what racism was actually all about. I actually went home a couple of weeks ago and a friend saw me reading our Adams' text and saw "racism" in there and asked me, "Well what is race? This always gets me confused when they ask in applications and what not." I sat there and pondered for a few minutes and I finally answered with i don't even remember what; because as of now I'm pretty sure what ever I told him does not even come close to being "right".

Reading over the Critical Race Theory, the Zinn book and our our Text (which I may add, I absolutely love some of the last essays) has me a bit confused and not to mention the articles as well. My mind can't seem to make up it's mind and my heart continues to be angry. As Gwen has mentioned in class before, this topic not one she likes to address and finds it hard for her and I think we can all agree that it's not a very easy topic for any of us to talk about.

Racism; a social construction at its finest dated ever since our land was discovered and only getting fed more and more by society. One can maybe even call it, societies worst success. And unfortunately, as much as we would like to change this as social workers it is way to powerful for us. This doesn't mean we will ever stop attempting. We've seen it through history which Zinn has allowed us to relive as well as our quick glimpse into the Fatal Flood in class and with the article; we've seen it in society which our text gives us a couple personal anecdotes about and lets not forget we've witnessed or experienced it ourselves.

Still confused over this matter I hope to slowly but surely gain more understanding of it and be able to answer the question that was posed to me weeks back with greater quality and less ignorance. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved some of the small essays written in the text so I leave you with a quote that hit close to home;

"Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war."
-Gloria Anzaldua

-I leave you with your thoughts...

Their History

As we get "assigned" the readings for the Zinn book, I think I can speak for the class when I say that, I am completely shocked. Well for the most part. I say for the most part because some of this had been covered through some of my history courses taken in the past. But nevertheless Zinn expresses history through a whole different perspective.

As I read Zinn and as we discuss in class about taking on perspectives and knowing about who is telling us our history I can't help about a recent event that impacted me personally and others in the community.

A couple months ago, those in charge of what the public education's text books presented were stuck in a dilemma. They had chosen to expel some significant components from the history textbooks that teachers would HAVE to use and districts HAVE to make MANDATORY. Significant figures like Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X would be taken out of the text and in response out of the curriculum. These significant figures are as important for a minority student to learn as any other student. Why take away from the U.S. history? Should this be considered lying? Is this a social problem?

"Is this a social problem?" the question asked by our guest speaker this past week and a very important question in a broad variety of issues. What we consider social injustice is in the eye of the beholder, and in my eyes the above topic is definitely a social problem.

Zinn in many ways has made me not only a more intense critical thinker but also a more open minded being.



-I leave you with your thoughts...