Final Reflection

          Overall, this class has been awesome. It has opened my mind to so many ideas and taught me to be open minded. There are always two sides of a story and not necessarily does that mean that those are the only two sides or that either of them are correct. Questions need to be asked, and argumentative thoughts need to be made before jumping to a conclusion. I feel like this class has made me a much better writer because I feel like it's the first class I have been in that has actually let me write down my personal thoughts and feelings. I didn't have to write research papers, or informative papers I got to write about my own thoughts which was a great change. I got to be creative and had the freedom to create whatever I wanted. I think it is a helpful class, although a little wierd. It made me a critical thinker and allowed me to learn about myself more and form opinions about worldwide topics.

          This class has taught me so much. First off i had no clue how to make a blog, and I acutally have kind of enjoyed typing out my feelings. I wish I could have talked more about what I wanted to talk about but some topics that we discussed were really fun. I loved the nature section that we discussed and wrote about because it is such a huge issue. It's something that means something to me also which made it interesting. I love hiking and being outdoors so it's important to me that the environment is perserved. My favorite section by far was the love section. I have an amazing boyfriend that makes me feel in love every day and so it's something I could relate to. It gave me insite on why I love him and how great he takes care of me. The main thing that I learned from the love section though is that love can make you think irrational. It is such a strong emotion that needs to be controlled or else it will lead to heart break. Love is hard, it is not easy no matter how strong in love you think you are. It takes work and communication to be a forever love.
        

Reflection #8 - Gender

        This section I found almost irrevlevant to me. I think that gender doesn't matter now near as much as it used too. Men and women are almost considered equal and are especially considered equal in the work place. I hardly no a mom now a days that does not have a job and a good one at that. I actually no a few women who make more than there husbands do. I think it was important for me to read these passages because it opened up my eyes to how unequal things used to be but it was hard for me to relate to. I grew up watching my parents have an amazing relationship where if anything my mom had more power than my dad. I am grateful to be a woman and extremely grateful for amazing women in the past that have changed the way the world looks at us. I feel blessed to have my independence, and respect that many women in the past did not have. I think men are great but it was unfair for them to think that they were better than us. Women are amazing and need to continually be appreciated. Gender should never determine anyone's worth or status.

Media Portrayals of Men and Masculinity - Media Awareness Network

         I absolutely found this intrigueing. I never really thought about how the media affects guys before, usually there are only articles on women and the media. This I feel made me understand men more and the pressure they feel to fill stereotypes. They have to be tough, they have to be a provider, they usually are expected to be funny and not emotional. I never realized how hard it must be for some men to actually be that way. I know a lot of guys that in heart are big baby's. They are scared of pain but yet in front of their girlfriends or crushes they never let that fear show. They know they would get judged by people if they didn't act like super heros. I also have realized how scary being a provider is. I am graduating in one week and have realized how scared to death I am that i won't be able to make it on my. Gladly i don't have to move out anytime real soon, but if I did I would be screwed. Guys have to worry about that a lot more than girls because even with women and men becoming more equal, it is still mens job to provide for the family while women have the babies.
          This article made me appreciate men a lot more than before. I understand that they have problems too even though they don't P.M.S. It made me understand why they act the inconsiderate ways that they do sometimes. It is what they have been taught to do their entire lifes by the media. They are protrayed as horny pigs in the media and so try to act like those men in real life sometimes. Men are amazing and deserve more credit than they get sometimes. They shouldn't have to be tough all the time.

Looking For My Prince Charming - Shalali Pal

            This story was hilarous to me. Who knew that height mattered so much to some people? It's funny that mother's lie about there sons height thinking that is going to get them a date. Women don't care about height too much as long as they still feel feminine around there man. The man perferrable should be a few inches taller but women look for much more than height in a future partner. Like the girl in this story we look for a personal connection, some physical attraction, stability, and a balanced personality.

The Male Privilege Checklist - Peggy McIntosh

• "Taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." (pg. 536) - The first thing I think of when i hear the word racism is acts of meaness & violence not ineqaulity or segregation so I agree with this statment.
• "Pointing out that men are privileged in no way denies that bad things happen to men." (pg. 536) - There are pros and cons to everything in life. Every gender, race, career, family situation, ect.
• "In the end, however, it is men and not women who make the most money; men and not women who dominate the government and the corporate boards; men and not women who dominate virtually all of the most powerful positions of society." (pg. 536) - This comment is definitely 100% false. It made me mad when I read it but I realized that it was written in a different time period than I live in. Back in older times it was true that men had more dominance over women. Now the tables have turned though and woman are completely equal to men and usually make just as much money.

Male Privilege Checklist

• "I am far less likely to face sexual harassment at work than my female co-workers are." (pg. 536) - I agree with this completely. Statistics can prove that women are more prone to sexual abuse/harrassment than men.
• "If I do the same task as a woman, and if the measurement is at all subjective, chances are people will think I did a better job." (pg. 536) - I disagree 100%. I do not believe that gender decides your talents.
• "Even if I sleep with a lot of women, there is no chance that I will be seriously labeled a "slut," nor is there any male counterpart to "slut-bashing."" (pg. 537) - AGREED!! It is unfair that guys get away with sleeping around. I don't think that sleeping around should be accepted among any gender but it is extremely unfair that men can get away with it and women can't. Almost girl at my school is considered a "slut" but not one guy is.
• "I can be loud with no fear of being called a shrew. I can be aggressive with no fear of being called a bitch." (pg. 537) - I disagree. I feel that in general most guys have huge egos and so they think that when they are loud and aggressive that no one gets upset or judges them for it. Guys have a talent of thinking that everyone loves them.

Reflection #7 - Racism/Segregation

         Thinking about what to say for this reflection has been hard for me. I don't know what to say except that racism makes me sad. I am glad that things are starting to change now and that in state terms blacks and whites are equal. We still have a lot of work to do though because in some people's hearts I'm not sure that they really believe that blacks and whites are equal. My own mother the other day said to me as we were talking about my best friend who is half black that she thinks the reason my friend doesn't have a lot of other friends is because she is ethnic. My mother is not racist at all but thinks that because she is ethnic she has a different personality and different communication skills than whites. That is supposively why she doesn't have many friends. I thought what my mother said was ridiculous because the reason she doesn't have a ton of friends is because she just moved here 1 year ago and didn't get to go to junior high or half of high school with all of the people that I did. I took into consideration what my mother said though because it made me realize that racism is not yet a battle won. By time my generation is grown-up and the ones in control I feel like racism will be a dead thing, but until then it will stay around because our older generation has not moved on yet. They grew up differently than my generation and still in their hearts believe that whites are superior in some ways to blacks. I honestly in my heart do believe that white and blacks are equal. We are all people and although different are still people. We all have the right to love and acceptance. I honestly hope one day soon that things become like this, the way they are in my heart.

Graduation - Maya Angelou

          Last night at 7:00 pm I had my seminary graduation ceremony. To be honest, I was not very excited about sitting for an hour and a half especially for something that I didn’t think was all that important. I would much rather have stayed home and had them mail me my certificate. As the ceremony started and finished, I noticed that during it my attitude changed. The speakers that spoke were very uplifting and made me fill proud of myself. They talked about all that seminary had taught us in the last 4 years and how much more we can learn moving forward. There was an amazing musical number and it ended up being a great night; I was happy I went and was proud of myself for sticking through seminary all 4 years.

           My experience last night reminded me of this story Graduation by Maya Angelou. It made me realize how hard it would be to want to go anywhere in life and accomplish/achieve any goals I had in my life. Without my parents, friends, family, church leaders, and seminary teachers pushing me to graduate, I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have. I would have stopped showing up to class or turning in make-up work. It made me think about how excited this little girl was of herself that she had graduated 8^th grade. She deserved to be proud of herself and to that have so brutally taken away from her even for a minute is extremely wrong.

            My experience last night made me slightly understand some of the trials that African Americans had to go through. You can hear about it all you want but it takes experience to understand the pain and suffering they actually endured.  Although it was small, and honestly not that relevant it made me appreciate African Americans and their heritage/culture/strength.