Gender Panel

This week in sociology we had four students come in and talk about what it's like to be LGBTQ. Each student told us their story on how they came to realizing what exactly that meant. It was very interesting hearing their stories, and it takes a lot of courage to talk about the hard times in their life in front of strangers. I learned some things that I didn't know before. I learned what gender queer is and that is when they are not quite sure where they stand. One student made the comment that when they tell their parents they are LGBTQ it's like the death of a child. They had this image of what their child would be and they ended up being different then they expected. I'm really glad they came in to talk to us about their experiences and it gave me a new outlook on what some people go through.

Community service

For project dance our group had to raise money to participate in the fundraiser. Each person in our team had to make at least 30 dollars. I sold cookies and brownies to help out to help raise that money. I have been to project dance before so I knew what to expect. One reason why I really like project dance is because you raise money for a great cause and have a great time. You get to have a fun time while doing something for a great cause. There was a video from the people at Riverside who we raised the money for and it made me realize that every donation really helps. Over 60 thousand dollars were raised for the Riverside Foundation. 

Masculinity

Last week we learned about how women are portrayed in the media and in our culture, and this week we got to learn about how men are viewed. We watched a documentary about how men are viewed as not talking about their emotions and use violence as a way to show these emotions that they are not suppose to talk about. It was linked to the amount of school shootings that have occurred, and how teenage boys want to feel like they have power. In television shows and movies men are always shown as being the tough ones, and if you show any amount of weakness you are not a man.

In my life it has been a little different. My dad isn't the "typical"guy. My dad doesn't watch sports and is really open to talking.  I used to be embarrassed of him because he wasn't like my other friends dads. I soon realized that just because he didn't fit the typical definition of what many guys are he still did what he enjoyed.  I think from my dad not being your typical "tough guy" I learned that there are many different types of people and that you don't have to be a certain way.

Media

This week we watched a video about how toy companies market their products toward children. They take a television show or movie and make any sellable product possible and put their logo on it. We also watched a movie about how girls are portrayed to look a certain way because of them models being shown. This causes girls to feel depressed, and causes eating disorders. The movie also talked about boys vs girls and how girls and how each should fit the stereotype. We looked through a toy magazine and the girls were all in their rooms playing with dolls or with toy kitchens. The boy pages were boys who were all outside playing with toy machines and being masculine. It was obvious that the message they were conveying is that those are the ways it should be and that's the only acceptable thing.

Socialization

We started a new until called Socialization. We were given the growing man metaphor to better understand how children grow from just their genetics, and what they learn from the environment around them. Through socialization they grow into a more aware and conscience person. We read the story about Genie who was lock in her room strapped to her bed from when she was born until she was found at age thirteen. She had no contact with the outside world, and was not nurtured at all. This effected in every single aspect of her growing. She could not do simple tasks that we could all do because she was never taught how. Chewing, talking, walking, and even seeing were very difficult for her. Babies need the nurturing and attention to learn basic skills.