Men and Women in Society

WOW.

I've always known women were victims to advertisers all around the world. The ideal woman is always in our faces, the advertisers put sexy, thin, white women on everything we know, clothes, food, sunglasses, everything. More than that "sexy women" sells more. After seeing Killing us softy it made me realize the gravity of this problem. It was sad and insightful all at once. It opened my eyes to how I visualize women and how I treat my female friends. Which is never in a bad way but I still feel a need to protect them from the world because they seem lost and fragile but I guess that was part of my programming since I was young. Growing up my friends always talked about girls mainly their looks never their qualities like intelligence or creativity or artistic aspects to their persona. I am ashamed of my world sometimes but I know things can change and it's usually taking responsibility one person at a time. I feel everybody should watch this video because it will enlighten everybody. A call to men was more relatable because I got a chance to mirror myself, to compare myself to the things being said. I am also from harlem and walking around my neighborhood you see bad things, not as bad as earlier times, but nonetheless you still see bad things. Usually the guys walk around with angry faces and a attitude or as some would call it "swag". When I was young I once got into a fight at school and I remember my parents both Mother and Father telling me to stop crying and to learn to fight back, they said if I came home crying and bruised again they would hit me. I was confused and scared. Since that time I learned to be tough and not get pushed around to never forget men are providers and leaders, we hunt. I think this relates to chapter five because through socialization we become aware of the spoken and unspoken rules of interaction, teaches us to think and feel. There within exist our societal makeup. Since this view of men and women dates back as far as the beginning of time we are born into a world which is already shaped, so we have to fit into this shape and if we don't we're outcast, pushed aside. See I was never born with a set of views I was taught them through forceful and subtle ways. Parents telling me what and how I should act, mass media doing the same. I still have hope for the future of the world because we are finding the means to spread information at rates that we couldn't before, thanks to the internet. Since we can share ideas like A call to men our children have a chance to change the world we have the power not to shape our children's lives but instead show them how to create their own. 

Society and my "Values"

Society is a strange thing. I believe it is undoubtedly a social science. It's the study of how people come together based upon a variety of similarities and differences. Now honestly I find this subject matter really interesting because I've lived my whole life just unaware of my surroundings physically and socially. The products man made that are a manifestation of society"Norms". How there's more liquor stores uptown rather than just fine wine shops downtown, I'm sure there are many reasons behind that but it speaks volumes to how unequal everything is. Yet both upper class and lower class societies wouldn't survive without one another. As I grow older and experience things for myself I've learned that one can not follow other's values. I know I have to create my own values based on things I know and things I don't know. Physical Fitness and diversity are things I believe are very important to me. Fitness is pretty much straight forward, we live in a world where anything can happen, it's important to be fit for safety. Diversity is a bit vague but what I mean is the more cultures you learn about or experience the better you can evaluate your life and the "norms", "values" we have. I'm a child of the universe is that ethnocentrism? 

SHOCK ing

This post is supposed to be related to the second chapter in our book. At first I didn't know what to write about, I wanted something fun. I feel that we're all becoming intrigued by sociology and we all want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. It doesn't mean it can't be fun. Cultural Shock is where comedy lives. We all know how to stereotype or at least have been stereotyped but I don't see that as a bad thing. It's just a simple way to generalize things you don't have a full understanding of. Where do we experience culture shock? everywhere. Schools, playgrounds, places where people of all races and color enjoy. I've found my place of culture shock where it's really exciting are basketball courts and the public transportation, especially in New York. One of the most culturally diverse places in the world is right here the very streets I walk. I take the subway all the time and it's interesting to see how people react to homeless people, break-dancing, singing. One time in particular was when I saw this mexican band playing and while I wasn't too fond of the music I understood the words and how it made sense, it gave me a vibe. As I looked around the train because I love catching people's reactions, they all seemed frustrated and confused. They looked at the band with pity but didn't donate it was weird. Mainly because I'm learning to detach myself from what I know and trying to understand different cultures. I have to admit its hard to not let your mind wonder off into the "life questions" of why this? why that? how?, when it comes to a subject matter like sociology. It's incredibly fun and it forces you to notice the little things, the things we don't pay attention to that make up our identity. Those people on the train had no idea what the words meant and just dismissed it, probably laughed at it with their friends later on. But it's because how they grew up they see the symbol of that "annoying mexican band" as something upsetting. 

Beyond Sociology

It's 1:33am and it's saturday I'm thinking about how to learn on how to view life beyond cultures and race and world history. What lies beyond life? isn't that a question on all our minds at one time or another? I find  myself perplexed. I wish I could know the secrets to life. How it was made..Why we are here?. Do we exist without one another? if I were to exist without anyone in the world am I even real? sociology is an engine to study human behavior and culture. But that leads to deeper questions I hate thinking about.