Blog #10 : Sexuality & Gender

In the article "Night to His Day" the author states, "As a social institution, gender is one of the major ways that human beings organize their lives". In the article the author talks about how gender construction starts right at birth and we decide how the infant should dress based on their genitalia.  “Most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and are the texture and order of that social life”.

I found this article to be very interesting because I always thought of gender as my sex but that is not true at all. Gender is the “role” we are given, or give to ourselves. As I continued to read throughout this article I thought more about it. When I was little all my clothes were dresses and all were pink! Light pink, dark pink; I never liked them I hated all my dresses I always thought that it was to “girly” I always preferred clothes more comfortable such as pants and shorts my mom always made fun of me but then with the time she herself started to buy me the type of clothes I really like including all types colors, even she buy clothes like that for herself. Gender is created by a continuous process of teaching, learning and enforcement by generations over generations. Gender begins when we’re small by the assignment of gender on the basis of external characteristics. The socialization continues until we’re older though social conformity. Sex and gender are two different things; Sex is about the physical difference in men and women bodies due to difference in gene and chromosomes. But these genes cannot define social construction of gender that follows in every society.

Gender is a way in which human organize themselves. People always want to put themselves in particular gender. It provides different gender with different status and position in society. It also categorizes same gender of people with same types of works than other. And these distinctions led to greater gender gap that exists in our society. These gender roles also change. Because they are based on society, they can differ based on the values of that society. Gender roles produce different status levels: male/masculine is considered norm, and female/feminist is considered ‘other".

DEFINITIONS

Sex – A determination made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying a person as male or female.

Gender – A collection of expectations and privileges that we assign to people of a different sex.

Blog #9 : Race & Ethnicity

 As a result of the civil rights movement and immigration, United States society is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse societies in the world. Why race matters? If “race” is just a word man-made why it matters? It is the way that the dominant culture defines us; the minority group, that one that doesn't have power! No one can, or should, deny the long and horrible history of racial oppression in this country.  Racism is still a reality and, though it can never be abolish entirely. But, by any objective measure, you would have to say that the last fifty years have seen a tremendous amount of progress in the area of racial relations.  It is simply ridiculous to compare the status of black Americans today to that of blacks fifty, a hundred or two hundred years ago, when slavery existed, where the segregation was one of the principle laws in the United States!  I agree with Cornel West “race matters” basic assumption: that “race” does “matter.” Our society has been and remains tainted by race divisions. Through West's critical eyes we see the various, often unfortunate, ways in which race has become America's national obsession. “The common denominator of these views of race is that each still sees black people as a “problem people,” To engage in a serious discussion of race in America, we must begin not with the problems of black people but with the flaws of American society, flaws rooted in historic inequalities and longstanding cultural stereotypes.” Discrimination still exits and it is a problem since ancient times, it is not something that can be forgotten so easily and for many is just another definition to justify inequality but it is right to be prejudice? It is right to think that one “race “is better than another? 

Extra Credit: Race: the power of an illusion

What is "race?" Race is one topic where we all think we're experts. Yet you can ask 10 people to define race or name "the races," and you're likely to get 10 different answers.  I as one those people didn't know the real true about race into in class we started to talk about that topic, what I discovered was that most of our common assumptions about race are wrong; one of those assumptions is that race it originated biologically. The division of people into distinct categories such as white, black, yellow people has become so widely accepted and so deeply rooted in our society that most people would not think to question its veracity.  In the video “Race the power of an illusion” show us the theory of race originated by biology, tracing the idea back to its origin in the 19th century. In the first part of the video: The differences between us, tell us that we have being using visual differences such as skin color, hair color, eye shape, to classified people into two or three groups; groups that we called races. Most of us assume that we can identify someone by just looking at them, that isn't necessary to look at their genes because it will be obvious from what race they are, an example someone with small eyes would be likely classified as a Chinese race, but what if that person is Korean? In this video they show us an experiment with various students where they explored the biology of a human variations, they compared they skin colors and type of blood to see their genetic similarities and differences. The students began the workshop with the same assumptions that most of us have, we use to think that we are genetically more similar to those who look alike in the outside to those who have different characteristics such as skin color. I learn that we have more similarities genetically speaking when we compare our genes to different people, example a white person would have more similarities with a black person than two people with the same skin color.In the second part of the video: the story we tell; the video start with the phrase “All man are created equal” by Thomas Jefferson this quotation had being a hot point through many years in the United States, it was created on a time where the slavery exited, where man were captives which didn't have the rights to their own life and much less to property. The way in which the American society classified unequal resources based on skin color and national origins was through “race”, the word created for their own benefits, which with the time become racism, which become segregation which become stereotype. “Race is not how you look but how the people with more power decide how you look”
In the third part of the video: “The House We Live in” Asks, if race is not biology, what is it? This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions "make" race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people. It focuses not on individual attitudes and behaviors but on the role that our institutions and public policies play in shaping life opportunities and one's ability to accumulate wealth.  The Government housing programs and policies helped generate much of the wealth that so many white American families enjoy today. By lowering down payment requirements and extending the term of home loans from 5 to 30 years, revolutionary New Deal programs like the Federal Housing Administration made it possible for millions of average Americans to own a home for the first time. Those who were able to purchase homes saw their property values fall since 80% of the market, the white population, refused to buy in their neighborhoods, as the whites left, all the grocery stores and services and many of these communities fell into a cycle of decline.If race doesn't exists that it man-made why we do still being racist and discriminate others by the type of “race”?

                   

Extra Credit: TED talks education

The video of “TED talks Education” is about sharing a deep commitment to addressing the high school dropout crisis. In this video different people with different careers on the branch of education got united as colleagues that are fitting for the same reason: stopping the school dropouts and become better teachers. Some of those people are Rita Pierson, Ramsey Musallan, Angela Lee Duckworth, Bill Gates, Geoffrey Canada and Sir Ken Robison. Rita Person is an educator who believes that connections (relationship) between students and teachers are very important to maintain a very high level of understanding. She emphasized that the reason why kids dropout is poverty, low attendance, negative peer influence and many others. There exists teachers good and not so good, an example that she gives is about a colleague of her that said to her: “ they don’t pay me to like the kids, they pay me to teach a lesson, the kid learn it case close” now do you think that’s the way a teacher should behave? Of course not! I believe that a good relationship between students and teachers are those that have a powerful connection and understanding, united both of them for the only reason to become a better a person, to be successful!  Ramsey Musallan a chemistry professor spoke how that easy way to maintain his students motivated was through the method of curiosity. Kids are natural learn it and it is normal that the want to learn something that they don’t know and find really interesting. He said that teachers most form new methods of learning which will encourage the  students to get involved in the lessons, that will made them curious to the point that they want to ask questions.

What it takes to be successful in school? Angela Lee Duckworth acknowledges us with her theory that in order to be successful we have to be greedy, greedy on achieving all what we want. She said “what we need in education is a much better understanding of students in learning from a motivation perspective”

It shows a girl named Melissa Perez who was at risk of dropping out of school, she wasn't interested because she dint have a motivation that could help her to keep fitting. She was a mother at an early age and with the support of her math teacher she could fight and stay in school and become the first person in her family that graduates from high school. This is a good example on how many students feel alone, with no one that can help them and without motivation, this sort of stuff make them drop up.  

Bill Gates argues that the system is not fair for the teacher and neither the students, the teachers are not receiving the necessary feed-backs that would help them to be better. He said that unites states is in first place in failing in giving our teachers what they need. They want to create a new system called MET- Measures of Effective Teaching, this system will be based on the system of China where they help teachers improve and find the better way to teach. He said that provide that system and the tools that the teachers may need an investment of 5 billion would be need it which is only less of 2% of a teacher salary. Sir Ken Robison argues that education is based on conformity, that principal reason of teaching is learning. He also emphasizes that dominate cultures imposed that we don’t need teaching and learning but testing!  We live in a place where to be someone we need to have a good level of education otherwise we are nothing for the society that’s why they will isolate us and forget about us!

Blog# 8 Class and global inequality

In what social class do you belong? What are your privileges? How those statuses shape your life? In the video “people like us” show us how the people are rank in different social classes based on how they look and what they wear.

Measurement of class in America:

·         Fallen Gentry- well-born and well-bred people.

·         Social climber- anyone that becomes friends with someone else if they have something that they want.

·         Working stiff- a guy who has to work for a living; not someone who has an easy and/or well-paid job.

·         Social critic- the reasons for malicious conditions of the society.

We classified the different class by how the people looks, popularity, money or how big their house is! But what it is exactly that made us belong to our class? If ones have popularity and a nice car it makes us belong to the upper class? Or just make us consumer and with good skills to have popularity? We never tend to have friends that are less than us but more than or equal to us, we separate our self from people that do not fit on our groups of social classes. “America is a country divide into thousands of different social identifications starting with:  the neighborhood you live in. what type of food you eat, how far you got to school, the way you wear your hair. “The choices that you make reveal your class- all the possessions and activities add up to a life style , and America today having money means having the freedom to create your own lifestyle as long you fit in with the taste with the particular social class”. To many it is a fact that no one want to feel less and that it is very important what the others may think of you; we being socialized that we have an equal opportunity that ones that keep everybody to fight and work really hard with the only propose of accomplish our dreams. We being socialized that if we work hard enough with can have class mobility- move from poor to rich! No one realize that it is not that easy and probably will take a whole life to change it. No all people fit to their surroundings you may have a lot of money but to those that have a lot of power you may not be enough to be one of them, they will not accept you!

  In the article "Media Magic: Making Class Invisible" by Gregory Mantsios; there is a strong emphasis on social classes and the mass media, and how the mass media has a strong hold on how we as a collective society feel about one another within our environment. He describes how each class: poor, middle, and rich, are affected by the media. Mantsios first speaks about how in the media the poor do not exist, are faceless, are undeserving, are an eyesore, and only have to blame themselves. In the United States, the magazines, movie studios and television are the major theme of the media that form part of our culture today. However the media does a good job hiding the inequities from public view; there seems to be a bridge between social classes from what is really the truth to what it actually being publicized, and the false truths attached to class distinctions, (poor, wealthy, middle class, upper middle class, etc). The poor virtually do not exist! It is stated that forty million people in our nation are ignored! When the media does address the poor it is said that it's contradictory messages and portrayals. The poor are reduced as human beings and have become a mere statistic (numbers). The poor are viewed as an eyesore, black, drug abusers, etc... However it is set that poor people are poor because "they brought it upon themselves".

My personal opinion is that the media it is hegemony that if they said it was snowing in the middle of summer, people would probably think it was. There are so much that the media keeps from the American people that it is unreal. 

Blog# 7 Deviance

                  

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words deviance or deviant? How would you define deviant behaviors?  Deviance is defined as behaviors that do not conform to basic cultural norms and expectations, norms that are man-made which means that it can change. Power shape what it is considered deviance created by those in power. Six deviance examples are:

      1.  From my own experience few days ago someone stole my phone; it is a deviance act because it is a crime to go against the basic social norms; that person broke the law in taking something that it wasn't his.

      2. From the media: doesn't matter how much ones is getting used to see people from the same sex together, there is always exists the rejection part, People from the same sex getting married it is a deviant act because it is  likely to face negative consequences and limited options in life.

      3.  Young girls and boys using drugs and drinking alcohol; it is a deviant act because it label those kids as drugs addictive and alcoholism.

 4.  Young girls and boys dropping out from school and colleges, it is a deviant act because the society labels them as failures, unable to fight for what they want.

  5.  Driving while texting- it is deviant because who ever do it is breaking the law. 

  6.  Code dressing- it is abnormal to go to formal dance in yours swimwear clothes, it is deviant because that person is not fallowing the rules.

Labeling people as deviant may have some effects such as Stigma and secondary deviance. Stigma- refers to the shame attached to a behavior that it is considerable unacceptable, secondary deviance- behavior that is a response to the negative consequences of labeling.

 

An Article that it is related to the chapter 8 deviance and social control is: “The Positive Functions of the Undeserving Poor “by Herbert Gans.  He discusses the strange alliance between the poor and the wealthy in American society. he argues that applying the label of "undeserving" to the poor should not persist. Society judges the poor by a stereotype, and feels the poor can be a threat to those in mainstream society. Gans notes that because of all the functions of the poor, whether they are positive or negative, society need the poorer class in society. Some functions he speaks of the micro social functions, economic functions, normative functions, political functions and macro social functions. I belief that no matter how hard one tried to become higher in the rank of classes it is like impossible because day by day the rich becomes richer and the poor poorer.  Gans applies the logic to the existence of poverty in a society that had so much material wealth and concluded that poverty had 13functions in society that was beneficial to non-poor members.

1. Risk reduction

2. Scapegoating and displacement

3. Economic banishment and the reserve army of labor

4. Supplying illegal goods

5. Job creation

6. Moral legitimation

7. Norm reinforcement

8. Supplying popular culture villains

9. Institutional Scapegoating

10. Conservative power shift

11. Spatial purification

12. Reproduction of stigma and the stigmatized

13. Extermination of the surplus

 These points include “the creation of jobs that provide aid for the poor, and the existence of the poor keep the aristocracy busy with charitable works, demonstrating charity to the less fortunate and superiority over the elites who chose to spend their free time making more money. He also gives several alternatives to poverty such as redistribution of the wealth in society, but ultimately concluded that poverty will continue to exist because disturbing the unequal balance between the poor and the wealthy in society would prove to be dysfunctional for the affluent and that will not happen.”

Blog # 6 Socialization

Today’s blog it is about the socialization, what we learn to be? What the agents of socialization teach us?

The way in which a child is raised have a lot of influence on the lifestyle the person will once live. Values, beliefs, knowledge, language, behaviors and common etiquette's are all passes on from generation to generation. A result of good values and mores to a child may result in a successful lifestyle, possible filled with expensive material objects. However, Terri D. Heath is not concerned with these results. In his article, “parents socialization of children” the concentration is more on personal feelings a child has, as he grows into an adult. In other words, Heath believes that a good influence on a child will give them good self esteem, a happier outlook, and the ability to be social. The point Heath is trying to get across is that parents do affect children heavily, especially in their formative years. Parents are a powerful influence, and with a good foundation children can live a satisfying life. Through many examples Heath shows worldwide proof that parents are the ones that influence their children’s life. Some of the examples are quite interesting because different international societies are represented and it seems that there are more similarities than differences in parents’ socialization of children across cultures. “This discussion of parental socialization techniques describes and illustrates how the balance and interaction of parental control, power, and support result in particular child behaviors. Although Chinese parents spend little time each week with their young children, they serve as powerful socialization agents in the development of their children’s personalities.” Also “although much speculation exists about why minority populations are over-represented in reports of child maltreatment in the United States, it is apparently not because corporal punishment is a preferred method of parental control for either native-born or foreign-born Mexican Americans. Finally, parental support of particular child behaviors encourages the development of what Israeli mothers describe as autonomy and Japanese mothers describe as obedience.”

I belief that an involved parent is not one who spends the majority of the day near his/her child but rarely interacting with the child but those who uses opportunities to share activities such as teaching, reading together or even playing; that supportive relationship will have greater expectations of the children’s behavior and the children will demonstrate better outcome!  

Woman are being told that they place is in the house, being a caregiver, and that they are better and faster than man in doing all the chores of the house. The article “retro wife” by Lisa Miller talks about a woman who had a nice career but at the end she give up because she decided to give her children’s all the attention that they will need of a mother. While she is at home that father is working and providing for them. That's why is called retro because is a woman that lives in the 21 century but her beliefs are similar to the woman of the past. It is true that it can be a dream when there are two people shearing the responsibility of being parents! But we leave in a society where that responsibility of two is rarely seems, where a woman have to be the two roles: mother and father, working and doing the chores of the house. We are being socialized that the man can’t have the two roles because they are not good as a woman in the house but there exists men that indeed are father and mother but the society seems them as guy!This is when the stereotype comes in ranking people for how they look and how they act.

My mother is an example of the article “retro wife’ even my grandmother but the difference between my mother and my grandmother is that my mother after all her 3 children were bigger enough to go to school by themselves she went back to work, living us with my father because he already was retire from work. The roles were invert but both were there supporting us and teaching how to behave!

We watch two videos one is called “A call to men” and the other one “killing us softly.” The video “A call to men” by Tony Porter, is about how the men are socialized in our society. Socialization is the process through which people learn their cultures basic norms, values and behaviors. Porter emphasizes that “men has to be strong, can’t show emotions with the exception of anger, that are to supposed to lead and being fallow, that men are superior and woman inferior and that woman are objects specially sexual objects.” Men still very rigidly socialized to repress all kind of human qualities in them self, incapable to show feelings. This socialization consists in “a man box” as Porter explains this man box is teaching how to build a man, to fallow those guides if they want to be a real men. Some of the examples are:

-          - Do not show weakness or fear

-         -  Do not cry or openly express emotions

-          - Do not be “like a woman”

The value and norms passed from father to son is never getting out of that box if you want to continue being a man. Many have fear of getting out, they fear that the society will not accept them if they do not fallow those norms. Tony Porter talks about his own experiences when his pride of men was more important than to help a girl that probably needed someone help emphasizing that it didn't matter what could happen to that girl because the most important thing was to make the others belief that he just had relations with the girl and that it was good. He shows an equation: less value + property + objectification = violence against woman arguing that those are the reasons why there is violence in this world against the woman. At the end of the video Porter said that it is okay not being dominating, that it is okay having feelings and emotions and that it is okay to promote equality.

The video “killing us softly” by Jean Kilbourne is about the image and descriptions of the woman in the media. Kilbourne emphasizes that “advertising tell us who we are and who we should be, tell us that the most important is how we look, surrounding us of image of absolutely beauty” woman from early ages learn that they have to spend a lot of time and energy trying to achieve perfection and felling guilty because they fail but failure is inevitable because no one can be perfect. She argues that we live in a time where a woman becomes real objects such as the bottle of a beer; woman body is turn into things! Turning a human being into a thing is the first step to justify violence, the person is being dehumanize and that message  that it is given to young girls is that they have to be impossible cute, extremely sexy, extremely thin and that they will fail because is impossible.

Many girls idealized themselves just like those girls that the media show to us telling them self: if they are like that why I can’t be like them or if she have that why I can’t have it; those girls spend most of their time trying to be like them and wanting all that they have just because the media show to us that it is right, but is it? I don’t think so many girls have eating disorders or even died just because they tried to become “perfect” just as the media tell us. The power of the media is being hegemony, making the people believe their perspective, making people believe that it is right.

Those two video relates to the chapter 5 “power” and chapter 6 “socialization”.  In the video “A call to men” the power it seems on how men are being socialized, they learn that they are the strongest one that one that rules, that one that had to be fallow that one who has the power. Many cultures indeed are formed by a patriarchy government; an example is the United States government which is ruled by a man not a woman!  Also we can see the matrix of domination between man and woman. The woman is the fragile one, that weak one but men are the strongest one. We still see inequality of gender no matter how hard a woman tried to be like men they will never be accepted as one in the society, an example of this is a men and a woman can have the same job but who will gain more money? Of course the men!

In the video “killing us softly” we can see how the power tactics are being used as method to control the people through the media. The media make us beliefs that we need to be just like those unreal people. The woman is being used by the media as an object, as an extremely sexy and thin object! Men are used by the media but always they are the one who have the power, the one who mistreat the woman. So if the media promote that it’s okay to hit a woman then it is okay to do it?

Blog # 5: Power

                                                    

 

 What is exactly power? Do you think you have power or others have power over you? The meaning of power is the ability to influence the behavior of the people; the ability to bring about an intended outcome even if others oppose to. Sometimes the power isn't that good if you are at the side that does not have power at all. According to the book Experience sociology powers its divide into two: empowerment which is the power to and domination which is the power over. The power to: is the ability to accomplish something whiles the power over: is the ability to dominate or rule others. The majority of the time the power over to becomes oppression- domination by a ruling group. According with the article five faces of oppression by Iris Young; oppression has five faces which are: Exploitation- the act of using people labors without offering an adequate compensation. In “macro-level” it focuses on exploitation by large sections of society. Marginalization- is the process of exclusion. The person with power decides that a specific group can’t enter in its organization; an example is the different races and even different cultures. Powerlessness – is the lack of power, situated to follow orders. Cultural imperialism – the groups that have power in society control how the people in that society interpret and communicate. Violence – the extreme aggression such as assault, rape and murder.

In the video the “Milgram Experiment” the authority power was shown as a scientific professor, they made an experiment in which consisted to prove how far a person is willing to go following the person who is superior to them. They were 12 people volunteering to the experiment which they belief was a memory test; it was divide it into two groups: one was the student and the other one was a teacher every time that the student got a wrong answer the teacher has to give then a electric shock every time increasing the volts, the electric shocks were from 15- 250 volts. The majority of the teachers went to the end given then 250 volts just because the scientific reminded them that it was an experiment and they had to proceed. The teachers were getting scared because they didn't hear any more the student making them think that the students were dead. At the end they reveled that in reality nobody was receiving electric shocks that it was an actor which they record. It is evident that “the power of authority and the belief that the experiment is for good was enough to persuade to go to the end”.

In my life I have the power to become a more educated person, the power to accomplish all my dream but like many others there still a greater power that rules over me, in my house that power are my parents, in college my professors, in my country my culture!

Blog Entry # 4: My culture

Today’s blog is about a photo-voice based on my culture and related to the chapter 3 of the book experience sociology. Every society has its own culture, which is a result of the creativity of its members, the circumstances and its history. “The values of a society are the stamp that indentifies us”. My culture was developed from the Dominican Republic; one cultural object that represents every Dominican is the flag, its colors are blue- represents the sky, red- represents the bloodshed by the patriots and White- represents dignity, the peaceful character of the Dominicans and their dedication to peace. Its emblem is similar to the flag design and shows a bible, a cross of gold. There are branches of olive and palm around the shield and above on a ribbon is the motto “Dios, Patria, Libertad” meaning “God, Fatherland, Liberty”. Below the shield is the name of the country “República Dominicana”, Dominican Republic.  

          

Since I was a kid my parents even my grandmother taught me the religious fundamentalism: The belief on the catholic religion, the belief on god; its symbol, the cross and the bible.

I was in the same catholic school that my older bothers where, in there they encourage every family to go all the Sundays to church . a very important rule in my family is that we have to get married in the church besides legally, my grandmother says that the marriage will have the blessing of God.

The Dominican culture is recognized by its joy and fun, one of its memorable shows is the “carnaval” or carnival is celebrated during the whole month of February. This carnival is distinguished by its folkways -colorful costumes, which symbolize many religious and traditional characters such as “los diablos cojuelos” or limping devils. (Figure.3). Staring February, every Sunday Afternoon my brothers, my father and I  went to the Carnival, most of the times my brothers and I dress up with those types of costumes, others times we just went there to hear the music and walk around.  Other amazing folkways are from the folk dancing “baile folklorico” most of the costumes are with the color of the Dominican flag, its dance is at the rhythm of “merengue”. (Figure.4) I was at a dance school where most of the time they teach me different dance at the rhythm of merengue and others songs such as Bachata.  My culture is a multiculturalism, a combination of Taino, Africans and Spanish; some of the food are from those cultures such as “el casabe” which is originated from los Taino. (Figure 5) Every morning my mom gave me and my brothers Casabe with coffee as breakfast.  

Figure 3

Merengue instruments

 figure 4 

figure 5














My native language is Spanish but I also incorporate the English too, besides my language my family equally from most of the Dominicans has their own dialect. Sometimes those dialects are words that do not exist in the dictionary or do not have a meaning, that if you tried talking it with another’s from another culture they will not understand it. Ex: for a Mexican culture the word: “ahorita” which is later in English for them means “now” in Spanish. 







The ideal culture for every Dominican, including my family is getting married  have a number of 3 kids and have a good education,where the man have the role of provide, protects and gives discipline, while the women have the role of caring, nurturing and teach. But the real culture is that most of the time there women that have kids without marriage, that had to fallow both of the roles being the man and the women for their kids, other times the man fallow the role of the women and women fallowing the role of the men. I have a cousin that had her first baby at the age of 19 at first my grandmother was mad at her because she didn't get married, the man didn't want to respond her because he was married with another women; he divorced but they didn't get married, my grandmother still upset with that because she want that her another grand daughter be in a family with the bless of God.