Boys vs. Girls

This past weekend, I visited my boyfriend at University of Iowa. Now, it took a lot of convincing, but my parents eventually agreed to let me go. My mom said she wanted me to drive as oppose to the other boy that I was going with. I have driven to colleges or other far places numerous times. However, each of those 6 or 7 times, I only drove other girls in the car with me. As soon as we got in the car, I immediately realized this wasn't going to be the car ride I was used to. Luckily, me and the other boy I was driving with get along really well and had lots of good conversation, however I noticed something very different. Normally, I print out Mapquest directions to wherever I am going, and I assign whoever is sitting in the front seat to be the 'navigator' and help me with the directions. First of all, my friends know by now that sitting in the front seat guarantees this job, and because of that very few of them ever wish to sit in the front seat. With a boy, however, he immediately took charge of the directions. He held onto them the entire time, and wasn't afraid to tell me exactly what the next turn would be or what are next exit was. Regaurdless of the fact that this was my third time driving to Iowa, and he had never driven there, because he was the 'man' of the car, I think he felt he needed to take control and help me. Now, I'm not saying he thinks I am weaker or that I needed to be helped, and it was in fact very helpful, but right away it made me think of learning in Soc about how males feel that they need to take control, and always know what to do and when to do it, especially when it comes to a female. Whereas my girlfriends would hesitate about the directions, afraid to lead me the wrong direction, often saying things such as "I think this is right..." the boy in the car always talked as though he knew for a fact it was right, and studied the directions carefully to make sure to direct me exactly where I needed to go. We luckily got to and from Iowa safely, but I think I could have done it without a boy helping me ;)

The Age of Independence

The question of when do young adults become independent is a very interesting and difficult question. In my opinion, it completely depends on the individual. For instance, there are boys and girls across the world, sometimes as young as 5 years old or even younger, that become responsible for one or more members of their family. There are young children, especially in poorer countries such as countries in Africa who have sick or dead parents and therefore the responsibility of parenting the other members of the family fall into their hands. In this case, these children are independent at this young age because they are forced to work, provide food, clothing, and shelter for their family. However, more typical in the United States, there are some 30 year olds that still are not independent. It is very common for teenagers to believe that they are ready to be independent before they actually are. However, I think once they enter college and realize how difficult it is to provide food for themselves and keep their dorm and clothes clean and tidy, they realize they are not as mature and independent as they thought they were. I, personally, believe I will be perfectly fine on my own in college. However, deep down I know that it will be extremely difficult to not have dinner ready at the table every night at 6 p.m and not having my mom to help me wash my clothes. I agree with Sal's post that true independence comes when an individual is forced to provide for themselves completely by themselves without the help of their family's money. Once someone has to provide for a wife or husband and a family of their own, it truly marks independence.

Men and Violence

As we have been discussing a lot lately in class, I wanted to talk about violence and males. It really is astonishing if you think about nearly all of the violence cases in the past 30 years or so, and consider how many of them have been committed by females? How many school shootings have occurred because 3 female students woke up that morning and decided that they wanted to kill innocent classmates? The answer is very few. As Sal mentioned in class, one example of a girl who was involved in a school shooting (which the plan was actually constructed with male students), the girl surrendered herself to the police without going through with the plan. The question is why? Why do males commit so many more acts of violence then females? There are many reasons, but in my opinion the main reason is because of our society and how we portray men. Men and all males for that matter are seen as strong, fearless, courageous. Therefore, when their masculinity are questioned, as many school shootings begin, males feel they need to prove themselves. Unfortunately, they do this in violent ways that harm and often kill other people. If society portrayed women as tough and strong, would the amount of women who commit acts of violence increase?

Bowling for Columbine

Last week we watched Bowling for Columbine. Knowing that it was a Michael Moore film, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I've seen Fahrenheit 911, and was not a big fan of his very  pushy and direct ways and extremely liberal attitude. However, I think through personal experience and through taking sociology I have learned to consider both sides of an argument, and I actually ended up enjoying most of Bowling for Columbine. Although Moore makes many tricky editing moves to get his point across, he does make many valid points. I think one of the strongest parts of the movie was interviewing a few kids from Michigan and asking them about guns they owned and had used before. One boy said that he was number two on the suspicious students list at his school, and was actually disappointed that he wasn't number one. By interviewing many different people, it showed that many people are far too laid back about the issue of fire arms. I think that this comfort may be one of the biggest causes of gun misuse and violence. This comfort goes along with how easily available guns are in the United States. As young children, you are taught to stay away from guns and that they are horrible things. However, as you get older, you begin to watch movies where the hero uses guns and play video games that include you actually killing people. These occurrences in the media along with the easily obtainable guns in the United States, in my opinion, are the leading reasons for why gun violence, especially among teens, is so large. Moore did a good job at showing both of these issues that lead to gun violence and many other reasons as well. 

Tuesdays With Morie- Work

When we first started the movie Tuesdays with Morie, the very first thing I realized about Mitch was how obsessed with work he was. It was clear how much his work and his striving for achievement over took his life and influenced every aspect of his life. For instance, Janine, his girlfriend, was fed up with Mitch nearly the entire movie because of how work obsessed he was. In the beginning of the movie, I thought that Mitch's work was going to cause him to only visit Morie a few times here and there, and that he would get easily distracted because of his work. Luckily, Morie had such a positive effect on him that he got ahold of his life and what was important to him. All it took was slowing his pace of life down, and taking time to "smell the roses." Morie taught Mitch about the difference between simply going through the motions of your life, and actually enjoying your life, which Mitch eventually learned how to do. I think that Mitch's character in the beginning of the movie: the work obsessed, always striving for achievement go-getter, is the exact replica of so many Americans today. Sadly, I think that we as Americans learn to have this attitude even in middle school and junior high. All throughout school when grades begin to matter, children are taught to always strive to be the best in their class, and work as hard as they can to get the best grades possible. Sadly, these ideas are carried with these young Americans forever, where they bring this demeanor to the work place. My brother's girlfriend just began teaching, and was telling us how upset parents got when progress reports came out for their kindergartner's. Yes, children in KINDERGARTEN are already receiving grades, AND parents are already concerned if their children is not performing well. How could a kindergartner possibly not perform well? What are they even being graded on: how well they can build blocks and paint a picture? It just goes to show that more and more kids are being molded at a young age to strive to achieve the most that they can, and those ideals are carried with them for the rest of their lives.

Reflection on the "Do Nothing" Assignment

The assignment ended up turning out similar to how I imagined it would. I needed to go Spring Break shopping, so I decided to do the assignment at Hawthrone Mall. I thought it would be better to go shopping before I stood and did nothing so that at least that way I would like a little bit less sketchy than if I simply stood there holding nothing. After buying a few things, I stood near the main entrance of the food court and faced outwards towards the stores. When I started, I felt very awkward. The hardest part of the entire assignment was making sure not to allow any thoughts enter my mind. I found myself beginning to think about what I was doing later, what my friends were doing, and what I was going to wear later that night. Once a thought began to enter my head I quickly acknowledged that I was having a thought, and cleared it from my head. At first, not much was going on around me besides people passing me, not paying any attention. Eventually, one couple walked past me staring me all the while, laughing and whispering to each other. I stared into space the entire time, which must have looked very strange and apparently amusing to these people passing. After finishing the assignment, I realized how important it is in my life to constantly be surrounded by someone else and always doing something. It felt very strange to me to literally be doing absolutely nothing at all. Americans are so programmed to be constantly doing something or moving around. This experience was very relaxing, and it made me realize why meditation is so important in many other cultures.

The "Do Nothing" Assignment

Today in Sociology we were assigned to do.. well.. nothing. The assignment is that we have to stand in a busy place for 10 minutes and do absolutely nothing. You can't talk, you can't people watch, you can't pretend like you're waiting for someone, you can't even think. Everyone in class had a lot of questions. I think this really is going to be one of the hardest assignments I have ever done. I understand that we are supposed to observe what's going on around us, but how are we supposed to observe what's going on inside of us if we're not even allowed to think? Hopefully when I start doing it I will understand. I'm sure if this is done correctly, a good lesson can come out of it, but I'm really not sure. I was going to do the ten minutes before school, but I know one o f my friends would say something to me, and I wouldn't be able to respond. Maybe if I run to Walgreen's or something I will try to do it there, but if I do then I think a worker will ask me if something is wrong if I simply stare in space for ten minutes. Well, I'll have to figure it out somehow! I'll post a blog after I actually complete the assignment, and hopefully it will have been a good experience!