Gender and Society

When examining the effects on gender and society, it can be a rather ambiguous topic and open to interpretation. This week I looked at some book excerpts dealing with gender, the issues with defining it, gender discrimination, transgender issues, and the overall implications gender has on our society today. The first book I took a look at was Steve Harvey’s “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,” in which Harvey describes the thinking processes of stereotypically men and women. The chapter 4 excerpt focuses on the communication lapse between men and women, basically giving women the basic knowledge of how men want to fix issue instead of merely “talking” about issues at hand. I went on to read Susan Sontag’s article “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?” Sontag describes how the beauty of a woman is more important in today’s society versus the attractiveness of a male. So goes on to explain how in today’s day and age a women’s outward beauty helps her get ahead in society. In Vanessa Baird’s article “Transgender Indentities: Like Stars in the Sky,” she explores issues with transgender people throughout the world and how different societies deal with the issues. She also helps the reader to understand how complex and ambiguous the issue of gender really is. The last piece I looked at was “Suit Over Estate Claims a Widow is Not a Woman” by Jodi Wilgoren. In her article she brought up the issues that a transgendered male-to-female faced when involved in a dispute over her late husband’s estate. These issues with gender and society are ones that I think get “swept under the rug” more often than not and that in my opinion is very problematic. In Harvey’s piece, I thought the reading was humorous and I agreed that there is often a lapse in communication in all relationships. However, I took issue with some of the things he related to as far as differences in the thought processes of men and woman. This seems extremely stereotypical to me. In my opinion I don’t think what specific sex what necessarily defines what “role” we play in a relationship. In romantic relationships I agree that one or the other person involved in the relationship do have there differences in how they look at situations that may arise throughout the course of the relationship, whether one looks at the particular situation more analytically or more emotionally and vice versa. I do not agree that our particular sex defines that but rather that our personalities do. While I was reading Sontag’s article, I agreed with some of the points she was making, but I disagreed with her in part as well. I think that men also have to take care of themselves and their looks or attractiveness are just as important in getting what they want out of society. I realize that not everyone is drop dead gorgeous but either male or female, your level of attractiveness is a power source in today’s society. This is quite controversial and not always necessarily fair or just, but I think it is rooted into us and is biological in nature. Judging a book by it cover, unfortunately is something that we will be dealing with for a long to come. As I took a look at the transgender discrimination issues, I was taken back by the fact that other societies in other countries more readily excepted people with gender identification issues and moreover accepted them as leaders. That is amazing to me that America being the land of the free chastises these individuals while other societies raise these people to the level of spiritual leaders a shamans. Maybe we need to take a look at other societies and how they have dealt with these issues and learn how NOT to discriminate from them. After all, the society of the USA isn't always right. I think looking back at history, we would all agree to that.

War, Genocide, & Punishment

Reading Reflection #3
This week’s blog about war, genocide, and punishment is a tough topic, it is hard for me to fathom the undeniable atrocities committed by individuals in times of war and waging genocide. Looking first at the Nuremberg Trials in which leaders of the Nazi Regime where prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. The prosecution brought forth first documentary evidence in reference to the first of four counts of war crimes. This evidence was used to establish the criminality of the Nazi Regime as a whole. Then the prosecution brought to light the physical evidence exemplifying the horrible terror the Jews must have endured. The physical evidence included sadistic and disgusting atrocities performed on the corpses of Jews, things like a shrunken human head used as a paperweight and human skins tattooed then used as lampshades. This physical evidence was used to establish the criminal acts committed by the individuals. In all, 18 out of the 22 Nazi leaders indicted were convicted on one or more counts of war crimes. Punishments ranged from lengthy prison sentences to death by hanging. In Ismael Beah’s narrative “A Long Way Gone,” he takes the reader through the horrors of war and the life of being a child soldier. His graphic account of children soldiers in war is eye-opening and very saddening. Remarkably, Beah was able to survive and escape the drugs, death, terrible position he was put in. The last book that I took a look at was “Left to Tell” by Immaculee Ilibagiza. Immaculee tells her account of surviving the Rwandan genocide of 1994. When looking at these topics it is excruciatingly painful to imagine how people can commit these acts. These issues provoke some questions in my mind. Are the people who actually commit these acts truly these sadistic horrible people that the evidence leads us to believe, or do the ideals of one powerful leader influence the group to commit acts they normally wouldn’t? When we look at the issue of the group from a social psychological standpoint, it makes me ponder Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (1965, 1974). In these controversial experiments Milgram had a “teacher” who was told to administer electrical shocks to the “student” if a question was answered incorrectly. The level of voltage ranged from a minor shock to a lethal range; of course no shocks were actually administered. The study showed that in the presence of authority, seemingly good people will do things out of character for them. I guess it’s hard for me to believe that so many people are so innately evil to commit these viscous acts. I think the power of the group and obedience to authority played a significant role, and still does, in these acts of war. I was shocked to read Beah’s account of being a soldier with a gun, killing people at the tender and innocent age of twelve. It is heartbreaking, to say the least, that children are out fighting wars and being killed in the world we live in today. I can’t even begin to imagine what war, death, and genocide would have on a person’s psyche.

Hate and Bias Crimes in America

Reading Reflection #2
When looking at this week’s subject, “Hate and Bias Crimes in America,” I have consulted three different sources of information. The first area of hate crimes that I researched were actual active hate groups and what types of groups are out there today. The US Poverty Law Center breaks hate groups into 6 basic sections: Neo-Nazi, Racist Skinheads, White nationalist, neo-confederate, Black separatists, and the Christian Identity religious group. In Missouri and Kansas there is currently 38 active hate groups that fit into one of these sections. These groups may differ on their ideals and points of view, but they are all based on the same premise: hated. Hate and discrimination affects many different walks of life, people are discriminated on based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. The FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report (UCR) reports the actual number and types of these hate crimes that were reported by police agency into statistics. I am basing my opinions and the numbers off of the 2007 UCR. I am also examining an article and some comments of readers from The US Southern Poverty Law Center on iTunes and hate music. It is somewhat eye opening when examining the FBI’s 2007 UCR on hate and bias crimes. Hated is very prevalent in today’s society with crimes based on racism still being the most reported issue by police. In fact, almost 51% of the hate crimes reported by the UCR were racially motivated. Hate crimes based on religion comes in second with 18.4%, followed by sexual orientation at 16.6%, then 13.2 % based on ethnicity/nation origin, and 1% of hate crimes were against people based on a disability. There were a total of 7,621 hate crimes based on single-bias incidents report in 2007. I think these numbers show that even though our society has been changing and molding into a more excepting place; we still have a long way to go to alleviate the discrimination. We all can play a part in continuing to shape our society by standing up for what we believe in. Every one of us has seen acts of discrimination and hatred yet unfortunately most of us just turned our head and looked the other way pretending nothing happened. Just think what would happen, how much faster we could shape society if instead of ignoring these acts we stop them in the beginning stages and stop the cycle of hate. I hope we all can show the rest of the world how great and excepting place the USA is one day. This won’t happen if we don’t educate our generations today and to come that hate is one thing that can bring down a society as swiftly as war does. When I read the article, “When It Comes to Peddling Hate Music, iTunes Appears to be Selective,” by Sonia Scherr, I was somewhat surprised to learn the fact the iTunes apparently has banned anti-gay music but still offers music that is fueled by racial hate. I would like to hear their logic on this issue, although as somewhat of a gay rights advocate it makes me feel good the they removed some anti-gay music, it still makes me wonder how they can justify removing hate music again one group but not another. Now I know that there could be some first amendment issues if our government tried to pass legislation attempting to ban hate music, after all, people do have freedom of speech whether I or the majority of people agree with what they are saying or not. I do think the CEO’s and executives of these music distributors should consider an all or nothing approach on what they decide to offer their clientele or customer base.

Nancy Mairs "On Being a Cripple"

Reading Reflection #1
In her respective narrative, “On Being a Cripple", Nancy Mairs tells of her battles with a degenerative neurological disorder and the struggles she deals with on a day to day basis. Mairs defines the positive attitudes she must maintain in her life but also the depressing aspects of dealing with having Multiple Sclerosis. In the beginning passages, she talks about the stigma that comes along with having a disease and negative connotations it has. Mairs then moves on to tell about her life growing up symptom free, to the onset of her illness in her graduate school years. Multiple Sclerosis has some very horrifying symptoms and she conveys in her essay the constant power struggle of positive and negative thoughts when she deals with the effects of the disease.
Reading this article by Nancy Mairs brought up some provoking and personal thoughts. First off, It made me think of two friends of mine that both have MS. It was rather hard for me to read this account of her struggles with the disease, because it makes it somewhat too “real” of a disease that I try to not think about. I think that I like to focus more on the fact that I have my friends with me now to enjoy time with that are more or less symptom free. This, I believe also helps them cope, not focusing so much on what is going to happen in the future but on living life today. We don’t talk all that often about the disease my friends have, but when we do, I consistently admire them for their positive attitudes and outlook on life.
This article also made me think about all the small abilities that we so often take for granted. Things like simply going for an evening jog (that I very often pass up to watch tv), having good hearing, being able to speak well, or being able to merely get out of bed. These are things that we so often overlook and believe that losing these gifts is something that “will never happen to me”. The truth is when we look at those who are close to us, our family, friends, collogues, and associates, we see struggles that many of us often overlook that is debilitating for them. I have some of my own issues that can be debilitating at times, and I have the support of my friends and family to help me when I get in a funk. In the same sense, it is very important to be there for them as well.
This support system that I have with my friends and family, and they have with me, I think needs to be extended out into the community more. We all know someone out there who has been burdened with some type of disease or flaw and maybe shuts themselves away without much social interaction out of fear of embarrassment, shame, rejection, or sadness. Let’s start being more aware of these situations that occur so often, yet are more often overlooked and focus on bringing hope and a positive attitude to an otherwise negative situation. We need to learn from my friends and Nancy Mairs so to not focus of what might happen and focus on today. Afterall, those rose colored spectacles aren't always so bad.