Quick Blog #6

My social sphere is very diverse in ages. My friends at school range from 18 to 24 years old, while my close friends at work range all the way into their forties. I don't encounter elders very much, but I teach young kids and still consider my college friends young. I'm content with my interactions with people this age. Not that I wouldn't want to interact with elderly people, I'm just not really ever put in that position. I think our society is segregated by age because the young get mad at the old and swear and yell, then the older citizens make rules and laws to take away the youth's freedoms. It's a never ending game of cat and mouse and we're just poking each other to make each other angry. Young people are marginalized by their school status, what grade they're in, and whether they work. Adults are marginalized by jobs and schooling and even social activities. Young adults and middle-aged adults are privileged because it's the "prime of their lives". They are seen as fresh, young, and new while elders are too old and children are too young. Instead of enjoying your youth as a child, you want to be older so you can be like the adults and that's a big part of why childhood has changed so much.

Society can promote equality through age by not doing the "poking" I was talking about. If we stop attacking one another, we'll be able to communicate more. Stop taking things away from one another and we'll hear each other. I think the youth needs to respect adults more, but likewise adults towards the youth. If we work together I think ageism could be put to an end.

Quick Post #5

I read "Pornography as a cause of Rape" and I do agree with this article. While I have never thought of porn as a cause of rape I can see from the article how much it effects women and their views on pornography. Diana Russel defined pornography as material created for heterosexual males that combines sex and/or the exposure of genitals with the abuse or degradation of females in a manner that appears to endorse, condone, or encourage such behavior and I thought this was very rough. But viewing it from another perspective makes me realize how she is looking at it. I do think pornography condones how men view and treat women because they want to have these "fantasies" that the men in the videos get when in reality they are abusive and gross. Men are always depicted as dominant in videos and this does cause more sexism because the men then assume they are the powerful ones during intercourse. I think these pornography videos depict women as a minority because that's the mindset men want. They want to be strong and dominant and they are the ones producing most of these videos. I agree with the feminist view on pornography but I did think it's very harsh. I don't know much about the subject and the debate on pornography so this would have to be something I would look more into.

What can we do?

For our society to change, we all need to become one group of people. We need to stop seeing racial differences and know that we are all equal people. Like Johnson said, the best thing we can do is all take the blame for what our society has become and not just blame one person. I agree with this and I personally take blame for not putting in the effort to change things. Living with 3 Women's Studies majors has helped me see that we need change, but this class is going to help me actually put that change into effect.
 I think I personally could stop saying slurs/words that are offensive even if I don't mean them. I don't say gay or queer because that's not what the words mean. But words like retarded slip sometimes and I really want to stop saying things like that. I plan on being a teacher and I really hope I can teach students the right way to act/speak towards other people. Even though I'll teach music, I can still effect the mindset of my students. We all really need to work together to make a change in our communities and our lifestyles.

What have you done today?

   A good activist is someone who genuinely cares and wants change. They are willing to fight to see a change in the world and act out against people who oppress others. An effective activist needs to be strong, loud, and courageous. Every person can help, but I believe the people that make the most change in this world aren’t afraid to be heard. Nothing will change if you’re hiding away. Another attribute I think a good activist needs is to be able to work WITH people. Meaning, I think it’s really important that the activist has their opinion, but uses their strengths and the strengths of other to fight. I’ve met many activists who only see things one way, and if you don’t agree with them then you can’t be part of their efforts.

   One of the signs in the video “Activism is more than a word” that I really liked was “Not just a community, a just community”. I really think that is a good way to sum up a lot of things. It shows, first off, that we need to be a community. We are all of the same community and humanity is just one large community. We are all here to help each other along, not push someone back and oppress them. I think that’s where the “just” comes in. We need to help each other and give everyone equal rights.

   As for my most admired activist, I had trouble thinking of someone really good. I really like Bell Hooks and I really enjoyed learning about her views in this class, but after reading another person’s blog I think I agree with them. I think John F. Kennedy was a great activist (props to Kelly O’Connell!). He worked so hard in the 60’s to fight for freedom and equality for all. He was one with our community and that’s why so much of what he did helped society. I did an essay on him in middle school, and it said that the day they died, they wanted to put a bullet proof shield over the car but he refused because he said he wasn’t going to hide himself away from the people of his country that he loved so much. I think this shows how close he was and how much he actually cared and wanted that change. Another reason why I picked him, was because he was a white male. Not to say that I’d only pick a male (let alone white) person for my most admired activist (like I said before, I really like Bell Hooks), but rather I think we NEED more white male activists. It’s important for everyone to get together and being part of the dominant race/gender, I can say from experience it’s hard. One of the biggest things that needs to happen in order to have change and equality is that white males need to help start the change. We need to be more than just a community, but a just community.

You're too old

   In my estimation, ageism is caused from the mentality of society today. Young people are much more “mature” today and they assume anyone over 45 is losing their mind. I definitely am NOT ageist. I know this because I’ve lived through many types of ageism. Like in the video “Too old to work”, my father has gone through everything they talked about. My father, who’s 56, has been ridiculed and told he was “too experienced and would be bored” many, many times. He’s had loads and loads and loads of experience but because he isn’t fresh out of his bachelor’s degree (even though he has two masters), he’s not good enough or how they put it “too good”.

   
   This ‘-ism’ is talked about so much because we as a society think people who are older can’t do anything. In Japan, people who are older are respected as elders and are much wiser. In America, we just assume they lost their mind and are useless which isn’t true. My father is one of the brightest people I know, and he’s an excellent worker. He’s patented many of his inventions and has been awarded by the country, yet because of this he’s too good for the job? It just doesn’t make sense to me sometimes. 

Gimp

   “Gimp” was very interesting to me. I have a background in dance (over 12 years) so I found a lot of the movements they did really interesting. They way they overcome their disability is so empowering to people with disables and just people in general! People look at someone who has a disability and assumes that they can’t do anything. They assume that they aren’t a normal person just because they do things in a different way or manor. The way these dancers portrayed movement and their emotions was frankly, amazing. They had so much passion behind every movement, whether it was a leap across the floor, or just a gesture of the hand. Each move had a meaning behind it and a message to portray.

   The dancer who didn’t have any legs, in my opinion, helped get the point across the strongest. When you hear dance, you automatically think “leg movement”… or at least that’s what pops in my head. When I did dance we learned the ‘steps’ first and the ‘arm positions’ after. The legs were the most important, but in this case, she proved everyone wrong. The amount of upper body strength needed to do that in the first place blows my mind! I can’t imagine dancing with my arms like that. Another dancer who I found very interesting was the dancer who only had one arm. She showed so much movement with that one arm you didn’t need a second one! That sounds a little weird, but that’s the best way I can get it across. She put so much passion behind her movements that it was more than just dancing, it was a story.

   Dances like this can address disabilities because it shows that people with disabilities can do just as much stuff as people who don’t have disabilities can do, just in a different way.

Process Piece

  Overall, I thought my movie was pretty good. I wish I had been able to find more useful facts in the context that my movie was in. It was difficult to get facts in my movie without just sounding like I was preaching. However, I think sometimes that's what gets the point across!

   Right away I knew I wanted to do sexism because I live with three Women's Studies majors so it affects my life greatly. I'm really interested in this topic and I thought it would be interesting to get some workplace facts and that's why I set my movie up in the office. As for xtranormal, it didn't allow me to make the movie exactly like I wanted. I had to pick only one setting so I couldn't move it like I wanted so it made it a little difficult and I got behind on the overall process of making the movie. Also, it was difficult to make the animations the way I wanted them to look, so overall I think my worst aspect of the movie was the technological side.

  I guess to conclude I'd say I was content with my movie. Had I not hit that technological barrier, I think I could have portrayed what I was trying to in a much better way. But at least I know for future video projects what to expect!

Works Cited:
Ryan, Joelle R. "The Top 10 Reasons Fore the Wage Gap Between Women and Men."Gender, Power and Privilege Blog. 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://ws405.blogspot.com/2011/01/top-10-reasons-fore-wage-gap-between.html>.


Women, Audience. "WB - Statistics & Data." The U.S. Department of Labor Home Page. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm>.


Women, Audience. "WB - Statistics & Data." The U.S. Department of Labor Home Page. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm>.