Last Post :[

I can not believe it is already the last day of class... this is so sad !! I absolutely love this class and it has really changed how I look at myself and life. I never really realized how different things are for different people. I always knew I was very blessed, but through community service projects and units in class I really saw how blessed I am. Now that I have taken this class I am going to try not to use stereotypes because I know how they can hurt people and how they even affect me. I hope that all the lessons I learned in sociology I will never forget and carry them through out my life. I hope to show other people all of these valuable lessons as well. Sal, thank you for a great semester & best of luck with the rest of the year!!

Race... what is it really?

It is so interesting how we have "made up" race. I never realized that race has nothing to do with biology... to me it is very interesting how people, including myself, try to categorize people by their skin color, looks, and so on. I should know very well that you can not do that.

When I tell people that I'm cuban, they NEVER believe me. Everyone is always like "well you don't look black!" or "you don't have dark skin!! how can you be cuban?!" I have to explain to them that just because I am cuban does not mean I'm not white. It is true with many other "races" too. Like Italians, many people think of them as dark hair, dark eyes, & "non-white" For me, I understand that that is not always the case because I have Italian cousins and they have brown hair and have light skin. So, although I am VERY guilty of trying to put people into races based on what they look like, I am trying not to do that because I know how much it bothers me when people do that to me.

In class today, we talked about how when you are with certain groups they look at you differently then when you are with other groups. This always happens to my mom. She works at a high school where there are many different types of people. When she is with the "white" people they call her "the cuban... a person of color" but when she is with the hispanic group (mexicans, puerto ricans, etc.) they are rude to her because they look at her as "the white girl" because she doesn't have dark skin. There is a difference in "roles" so-to-speak when we are with different people.

In the clip we watched today from the Chappelle show, the hispanics pick the cuban boy to be "drafted" as a hispanic instead of a "white person." We as a culture have to understand that just because a person may be Cuban, Italian, Irish... whatever it may be they can still be white. The same can be said with Cubans who are black. Yes, they are cuban but they are also black. Skin color has nothing to do with where you came from or what your background may be. It is a very complicated system that we have for classifying people!!

final comments.

Since our class has been having huge debates in class about the issue of poverty, I decided to say a final statement about it. I agree that I am very blessed, but sometimes it makes me really upset when people are trying to make others "feel sorry" for people who don't have as much as I do. I know that not everyone is trying to do that when this issue comes up and I don't want that to come off as snobby or anything like that (because I know it sounds that way) it's just that my family came to this country with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs. They came from communist Cuba, where all of the things they worked their butts off for were taken away, so this topic is a little sensitive for me for that reason. It feels as though, many people want others to feel guilty about the things they have worked so hard for. I know that some people actually do have it really hard and those people I do feel bad for. It is sad because not everyone has been blessed with the great family, friends, schools, and even material things that I have. Again, I understand that I am very blessed, a lot more than many other people out there and that's why I think it is a good idea to do community service. It really is a huge wake up call. Sadly, there is no solution for this problem yet, but maybe some day we will be able to find a way that we can help everyone out without taking from the people who have worked their whole lives. I do not want to come off as a rude, or snobby kid (as I said before) because that is far from the truth. I just get a little annoyed with this topic sometimes because I know all the things my family went through. They pretty much were poor when they came here. My uncle had to redo college so he would be able to be a doctor in this country. It was like starting all over again with nothing, so when I see people who have like 10 kids and they are spending all their money on drugs instead of trying to send their kids to school so they could have a better life then they do, it really makes me mad. I find it irresponsible to be having so many children when they know that they can not take care of them. It sucks for the kids because now they will suffer because of choices made by their parents. Yes, this is not the case for everyone, I do understand that but for the people who do do this I find it very irresponsible and just plain rude.

I would like to say that I am by all means not trying to offend anyone. I am just saying some final words so that this "great debate" will be over with in class. :]

tough guy?

So, I missed a post a couple weeks ago & this is it.

Are the more "manly" men more deviant? Or, are all men deviant? Or none at all? It seems as though men who aren't the typical muscular, strong guy are looked at as more deviant. The men who are "stay at home dads" opposed to the everyday "stay at home mom" To people are culture stay at home dads are deviant. Men are supposed to be the "bread winners" of the house hold & when most people hear about stay at home dads they are like "oh...." I think this is because of the look when have always sort of been assigned by the media. They are given the look of the hot, sexy, buff, violent, guy. Women are supposed to find that attractive, & when a man doesn't look like that it may seem deviant.

It is interesting how men are stereotyped. Many would say that only women are stereotyped, but in this day & age that is completely false. Sadly, everyone is given some stereotype & until the day stereotypes are gone, the less "manly" a man is the more they will be judged. Society is an unfair game.

Status

This week in class we have been talking about social classes. When we looked at the chart about ACT scores & money, I was not shocked by what I saw at all. Going to the upper class high school I go to, most kids do get scores in the upper 20's & in the 30's. The kids I go to school with do have a lot of money & even I have it pretty good. Most kids will get tutoring, but even if they don't they still do good. I know we all do good on the ACT because we go to a great educational school. We have "the best of the best" every resource is at the tip of our fingers, so it is not shocking to people when they see our scores. It would be shocking if we did not get in the upper 20's.

Sadly, there are some really smart kids out there who have the potential to do really well on the ACT, but they just do not have the resources to learn everything they need and then they can't go to that good school. Many schools out there are not like the school I go to. It is shocking to some kids in my school that many schools do not have computers, or even enough textbooks for all the students. That is very sad because you never know who could find the cure for cancer or be the first person to discover something great.

Deviance

This week in class we talked about deviance, and how it can be good or bad. The study we read was very interesting, because it is very true. This guy does a study on the "saints" of the school, this would be the good kids who do not get in trouble & the "roughnecks" the kids that got in trouble a lot & were barely passing their class, if so at all. It was interesting to see that the Saints could be taking part in the same bad things as the Roughnecks, but since they were looked at like the good kids of the school because they came from wealthy families & had manners, they did not get in nearly as much trouble as the Roughnecks.

To me this study is very interesting to look at because the same thing goes on at school. There is that large group of kids who have a lot of money & are very polite, but they still do the same bad things as those kids who have less money & are looked at as the "druggies." One's status in society will be a label they carry on with them forever, whether it is good or bad. Kids tend to accept what others think of them & even more the kids who are given bad names. They tend to say to themselves "if others think I am bad then I must be." These kids then will keep that in their heads forever because that is what they have been told their whole lives, & will continue to act in bad ways.

Manly Man

Okay, so this week we have been focusing mostly on men & how they are shaped in our society. Let me get right to the point...

1. Disney movies... Alright, yes Disney always has the super hero who is extremely strong & all that, but come on.. are people really going to try to look like Hercules? Sure men want to be strong and able to stand up for themselves and the "girl worth fighting for" (this is a line in Disney's Mulan) but still. I have a feeling they aren't going to the gym trying to look like a buffed up Disney hero.

That being said, I do think that Disney can push the look of buffed men & very manly men to children at a young age. What kids need to understand is that not everyone will be the same. Not all of them will be the big tough, muscular man & that is okay. Guys as well as girls need to work on accepting who they are & being happy with themselves.

2. Men in the media. Yes, this is my same argument from when we were talking about girls in the media. Sex sells. That's the bottom line. It may not seem right to some, but it is what it is. I know that if someone who was not tight muscled like David Beckham was modeling men's briefs, no one would buy them.

Who is to blame for the mens look? The media... or the people who for so long have bought into the ideas of strong, violent, sexy men? Look at it this way... the shopping industry looks for ways to sell their products... if sexy men weren't doing the job why would they continue to use this tactic when selling their products? Don't blame movies, media, and the shopping industry for the "manly look" because we as consumers have bought into it & have made that look grow.