Pop Culture Gone Wild

I found this article to be very accurate.  We live in a world where we are told to be two different people.  We are to be the saint and the sinner, the virgin and the slut.  We put on a show to appease everyone; when in reality we aren’t appeasing ourselves.  Pop culture encourages this type of behavior with shows like the Girls Next Door and Maxim’s Hot 100.  The younger, more impressionable generations look up to these celebrities and think that their behavior is acceptable.  We need to learn to make decisions for ourselves and not because society thinks that it’s cool. 

My four best friends and I went to grade school and high school together.  Our similarities and differences bring us together but yet make us unique.  Rose is the eco-friendly leader pushing us to be green.  Katie knows more about history than any history book I ever read.  Both of them are going to Law school.  Francesca is the Donald Trump meets Miss Vogue of the group, destined to employ the world one day.  Molly and I were the science nerds.  She’s in pharmacy school now and I am going to Medical school.  We all have different styles ranging from boho to classic to professional to edgy to the girl next door.  We all have our own causes that we advocate and are all very strong-willed.  We have never let men’s definitions of what we should be come in the way of our aspirations.

So what does this have to do with anything?    We went to Catholic grade school together and then went to public high school.  Walking into high school together we were the minority because there were only 7 of us that came into the high school from our grade school.  The other 240 students came from the feeder middle school.  They all had their cliques and knew everyone.  I remember us sitting in the cafeteria one day trying to figure out where we would fit in.  Most of the girls were far more experienced than us.  It seemed as if everyone was having sex, drinking, and doing drugs.  None of which we participated in.  At this point it would have been really easy to just conform to chaos, but none of us wanted that.  Instead, I believe that we really came into our own.  We started caring less about what others were doing and were just ourselves.  We made friends with everyone but didn’t participate in the things that made us feel uncomfortable.  We focused on academia and dove into our extracurricular activities.  Yes, we enjoy some of the girl stuff like shopping but we’ve never let being a girl or pop culture define who we are.  

Biology

Since my POE is in Biology, and I am taking Dr. Widman’s Biopsychology class this semester, I was very interested in his discussion today.  He presented us with a vast amount of informational studies.  I did not realize how much research has studied sex and behavior.  I do believe that a good portion of who we are is based off of biology.  Dr. Widman confirmed much of that today with his knowledge in that area.  I found it fascinating how the hypothalamus and corpus callosum differ in males and females.  I didn’t realize that there are differences in heterosexual and homosexual males in the nuclei.  This information should make homosexuality more acceptable in the eyes of society.  Sometimes I think we forget that we are animals, highly evolved but animals all the more.  Most of the time women are looking for providers, and men are looking for beauty and fecundity.  We are prodigies of Darwin’s natural selection.  We choose who we want to produce offspring with, and we select the mate who we think will be most successful.  Obviously in our progressive society these roles are not the same in each family.  While both of my parents work, they are great about balancing their work life and our family life. I believe that we should not allow our sex to determine our gender roles, but we should understand the biological differences between males and females.  It is critical to learn as much about our behavior as possible, and in doing so, we need to be conscientious of both biology and social construction.

Nature vs Nurture

Nature versus nurture is a common debate.  Are we the way we are because of our genetic material or because of the environment in which we grew up?  Hubbard and Dobson have different opinions on this subject.  Hubbard believes that we are socially constructed; whereas, Dobson believes we are the product of biology.  Hubbard states that women and men are not born women or men but become women or men.  Hubbard believes that people are trying to fit into society’s interpretation of what is the norm.  She feels that women and men are fulfilling these predetermined lives.  Boys are taught to play with action figures, and girls are taught to play with dolls.  As an aside, that didn’t work out for me.  I played power rangers and ninja turtles, and I hated barbies.  Hubbard says that there is more overlap in the height, weight, and strength of men and women than we realize.  She thinks that the differences between men and women in these areas are due to the types and proportions of foods that men and women eat.  Many social factors, such as diet, exercise, and stress, contribute to the ways in which we develop.  Society’s view of what is beautiful pressures men and women to conform to these ideal shapes and sizes.  On the other hand Dobson shows proof that there are biological differences between males and females.  He states that males and females differ anatomically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically, and biochemically.  Some of the differences include the way the brain is wired and the way hormones are secreted such as during menstruation.  He argues that women are more future-oriented because they are concerned for their children.  Personally, I don’t think we can say that biology determines gender roles or biology does not determine gender roles.  We are a combination of nature and nurture.  Understanding human behavior is far more complicated than I think we, as humans, will ever be able to understand.  No one fits the cookie-cut mold of what a male or female is suppose to be like.

Gender Neutral

The article, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” states that the government should aim to eradicate social behaviors where women are forced into subordinate positions.  I feel like this is the part where Miss America says she wants world peace.  To accomplish complete and total equality is like achieving world peace… doubtful.  I am an optimistic person; however, we don’t even know what standard of equality we are seeking.  Every woman in the world strives for a different form of equality.  Some women want equality in the workplace, home, politics, and religious institutes.  Some women want safety and protection.  Some women are content with the man being the provider because they like having less responsibility.  Some women want to be the provider because they want a gender neutral.  But what is gender neutral? Can we even define this?  How do we strive for something we cannot define?  Even as our society becomes more progressive and open to new ideologies, we still look subjects like homosexuality, transgender, and male-female role reversal as “weird.”  Our society likes to say that we are open to new things, but then we say little Billy Brown down the street plays with dolls.  “They better straighten him out or he’s going to turn out odd.”  While society has made great strides in race and gender, we have a ways to go.  I wonder if we will ever be content with the level of equality between different genders and races. 

Conflict

A conflict is when two parties have different goals, ideologies, needs, expectations, etc.  In essence, conflict is present everywhere among us.  In our classroom alone, think about the differences in religious and political beliefs.  Each of us is from a different background and feels strongly about certain subjects.  In some cases, conflict can be a positive thing.  It is important to have people representing opposing opinions.  If we were all clones and had the same goals in life, we would either have very boring lives or extremely conflicting lives.  Our lives would be boring because no one would ever challenge our ethics and beliefs.  We would always be right.  Certainly, that’s not any fun.  Some of the best ideas have come from collaborations between opposing viewpoints.  On the other hand, our lives could be too conflicting because everyone would be fighting for the same needs and wants.  In a positive perspective, conflict creates balance.  People push each other to learn more and advocate our ideas. 

In the negative perspective, conflict can lead to aggression and violence.  Sometimes people of contradicting religions or political standpoints degrade others who do not believe in the same things.  Sometimes this derogatory behavior leads to acts of violence.  For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed for his belief that we were all equal despite race or gender. When people have conflicting views, they will often times block out the other person’s views.  This wall does nothing but lead to animosity.  Pro-life versus pro-choice is a huge conflict in today’s society.  Transgender and homosexual rights are another issue.  Oil companies want to drill more, but environmental groups seek other options.  All of these conflicts can lead to acts of aggression and violence, some more extreme than others.  Where do we draw the line between a positive balance of opposing views that shape the world we live in and the aggression and violence that result from hostility between disparate views?

Home and Work

Going into the medical field, I have heard many opinions on whether this is a wise decision or not.  Several male doctors have tried to persuade me into another health profession because being a doctor is so time consuming.  After I graduate, I have four years of medical school followed by three to seven years of residency.  They keep telling me that there is never an appropriate time to have children.  Maybe there is not an ideal time to have a child, but when does everything go according to plan in life?  As women, we learn to adapt to the situation and the challenges that present themselves.  Yes, it is easier for a male to be a doctor.  He doesn’t have to worry about taking maternity leave, but nothing will stop me from doing what I know I am destined to do. 

This discourse that constrains women’s careers is frustrating because it is as if society is pressuring you to choose one or the other.  Apparently, you can’t manage both.  I completely disagree.  Males might struggle with time management, but every woman I know can handle ten times the amount that one person should handle.  My mom works 65 hours week, and she still manages to make dinner, clean the house, attend all of our events, etc.  As far as I’m concerned, women are more like superwomen.  We can handle schedules would have men running the other direction.  

You're a hardcore feminist I swear!

I never considered myself a feminist.  I would have classified myself as an egalitarian.  As Valenti explains, the word feminist carries this negative connotation.  Until reading this article, I would have agreed with that.  I envisioned feminists as intensely man-hating women.  I have always believed that we are equal partners and would not want to degrade the male race because that would be hypocritical.  However, my definition of feminism was incorrect as I learned in this article.  She defined feminism as the movement around the belief in social, political, and economic equality.  I agree with that 100%.  So I guess that makes me a hard-core feminist.  

Something that struck me in this article was that the worst thing to call someone is a woman.  I had never thought about it, but that is a valid point.  It’s the 21^st century.  We should be equals.  However, the most offensive thing one can say degrades women.  How can this be?  Being labeled as a slut, whore, etc, is typical for most women, but when a man partakes in these same activities, he receives accolade.  How do we change this behavior?  We need to change everyone’s mindset.  We are so accustomed to putting women down that we don’t even realize we are doing it anymore.  I hear girls call each other these names as jokes.  It’s not funny when you think about it.  We are just feeding into this derogatory world. 

The section titled, “Things are fine the way they are,” reminded me of my trip to Armenia.  Most of the women there were content with the lack of rights that they had.  With rights comes responsibility.  They preferred not bearing those responsibilities.  I think that they are so accustomed to this way of life that change is frightening to them. Yes, with rights comes responsibility, but some of the most responsible people are the women we know.

Conclusively, feminists should be looked at with respect. We are willing to accept the responsibilities of the rights we are fighting for.  We are willing to be labeled for a cause that we are passionate about.  Perhaps society demeans feminism because many fear this equality.  This knowledge should spark even more women to step up and demand equality.

The Social Construction and Institutionalization of Gender and Race

At first, sex and gender seem like easy words to define.  However, when we attempt to wrap our minds around what it means to be a female or a male, we realize it is far from simple.  Biologically, a male has the chromosomes XY, and a female has the chromosomes XX.  In terms of reproduction, the sex of a person is understandable.  Where the subject matter becomes more challenging is when we try to define the gender aspect of females and males.  Of course, we can describe gender in terms of physical appearance, emotions, and language.  Unfortunately when we tried to describe the ideal male or female, we described these fake people that none of us are or strive to be.  


I disagree with some of the media-made stereotypes that we were portraying in class.  While the media does use the "sex sells" campaign, they have started to show that beauty comes in many forms.  When I was younger, I remember seeing advertisements with models that were super thin and had straight, blonde hair.  I, on the other hand, had an athletic build and curly, brown hair.  With the pressure to conform to this "ideal" look, I straightened my hair and even used sun in (epic failure might I add).  Eventually, I feel that the media started to embrace different shapes and sizes.  They embraced women with curves like America Ferrera, and Tyra Banks decided to have a "real woman"  top model show.  I embraced my curls and body.  I think the thing to realize is that no one is perfect.  Even those who appear to have it all together don't.  The important thing is to let our true beauty shine through.  


I believe that many typical gender qualities that we associate with males and females can overlap.  Yes, our language may spin the adjectives to sound more masculine or more feminine, but when it comes down to it, men and woman are more of a Venn diagram than two separate concepts.  For example, my boyfriend and brother love cooking.  I prefer the so-called male chores like yard work, and I love sports.  In my relationship, I have always been the more outgoing, independent one. My boyfriend is the more emotional one.  In order to avoid being categorized as something we do not want to be, we use adjectives with a connotation that positively displays our gender.