Middle Sexes

The film “Middle Sexes” was an entirely new perspective for me on where views on transgendered people originate. The film focused of how transgendered people are viewed in different cultures around the world, and how different cultures identify gender. The idea of being Transgendered has not been accepted in the west, yet it is more widely accepted in eastern countries. This is due to the fact that being transgendered is not accepted by most “western” religions, like Christianity, and is accepted by “eastern” religions like Buddhism. Religion, especially Christianity, has always been a driving force as to what is, and is not accepted by our society. This fact is very disheartening to me, as an agnostic I don’t believe in the rules set by the Bible or any other religious institution. I feel that we should look to the East and notice how their tolerance for others has NOT brought them to impending doom, and has only brought happiness to more people. Although being transgendered, gay, or lesbian has no scientific marker, one must realize no one would ever make the choice to be ostracized, and if there really is this all powerful God who created us, he(or she) created them for a reason as well.

Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game

I never realized before reading this article the importance that can rely within something as simple as just a name. Someone’s choice of words really can change the connotation of the entirety of what they are trying to say. This reminds me of the ESPN writer who was recently fired for using the headling “A Chink in the Armor” when referring to Knicks’ point guard Jeremy Lin’s first loss after his explosive first couple games with Knicks. Although “A Chink in the Armor” is a commonly used expression and headline in sports, because Jeremy Lin was the topic of discussion the headline was seen as exteremly offensive and the author was promptly and publically fired from ESPN.

I was surprised to see just how in depth the thought process behind military operations in order to manipulate public opinion. However, I shouldn’t have been so surprise because this has been common practice for the governments since before World War II, when Hilter used words to manipulate the people into believing his military operations were for the good of the people, instead of the horrors we now know them to be.

New Indigenous Reserve Aims at Saving Fading Culture

While reading the Huffington Post, I came across the article New Indigenous Reserve Aims at Saving Fading Culture. It reminded me of the reading "The Kayapo Resistance," because they both have to do with indigenous people fighting to save their culture. In the Huffington Post article, the Maijuana people of Peru were granted a reserve that is close to a million acres. The article makes it sound like a step forward for the people, and I really hope it is. I like to think that this is part of a snowball created from the "Kayapo Resistance" and that because of the Kayapo, indigenous people around the world are finally getting justice and the rights to the land that they deserve.

Arrested Development

The TV show "Arrest Development" is a hysterical show that is based around satirizing kinship and what it means.  The show's storyline centers on the Bluth family, a formerly wealthy, habitually dysfunctional family who loses everything and has to depend on each other. The show pushes the envelope about familial relations and what and who constitutes family and why. If you have never watched this show you missed a gem and I highly recommend you start.

http://www.hulu.com/arrested-development

My Crazy Family

Above is a kinship diagram of my extended family, if you look at the key I symbolized by the yellow circle. Although I live with my father, my diagram is heavily matriarch\ favored. I am much closer to my mother's family and have not met the majority of my father's biological family, partly due to them being deceased and partly due to unknown reasons to me. My mother's side of the family is 100% Belgian, I am in fact the part of the first generation to be born in the United States. I also decided to create a diagram of my fictive family.

I added a diagram of my fictive family because they are the family I grew up with, which is why I made the background pink. My fathers parents died when he was young so he was practically adopted by his best friend's family. I consider them my family and call them my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.Before I came to college I had never lived more than 2 miles from any member of this family, which is why I am the closest to them. My father's best friends daughter is my best friend and sister, I even lived with her family off an on during middle school and high school. My fictive family is a giant stereotypical Italian family, and even though I don't have a drop of Italian blood I have a lot of Italian mannerisms and can make insanely good marinara sauce due to their secret family recipe.

I definitely do not have the typical American family. But I am lucky enough to have a big Italian family and a big Belgian family and I would not trade it for anything.

Five-year-old boy lives as girl in youngest case of Gender Identity Disorder

I stumbled across the article Five-year-old boy lives as girl in youngest case of Gender Identity Disorder when I was browsing on barstoolsports.com. The link goes to the original article posted in The Telegraph. After reading the article I could not help but think that 5 years old is a little young to be making long lasting gender decisions. Although it is great to see the parents and school system supporting this boy's decision, what if he changes his mind? Then the entire diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder becomes less of a disorder and can be seen as a personal choice which degenerates the validity of the disorder, which is unfair to those who are old enough to know that they will always feel the way they do. I also am very surprised that it is referred to as a "disorder," to me the word "disorder" has a very negative connotation, meanwhile the rest of the story has a supportive tone,

AAA 's "Official Statement on Race"

 Race is defined as of now as an unscientific judgement of someone's culture and society. Biological factors and evolution have proven to be the source of the color variation of people and how the cultures interact with each other. The AAA has attempted changed the idea of "race" by studying other cultures, in order to better understand other cultures and improve relations between cultures. The variation of physical traits and biological backgrounds help the AAA to find a better understanding for people across the world.

White Privilege

Although many people believe that racism is over, too many people it is very real and active in their lives today.  This article talks about all the privileges that white males unconsciously receive and may not even notice. The fact that these white men don't see this preference is the thing that makes women and men of different races feel inferior. White women also get privileges, like finding the right foundation, but not nearly as many as men do because of the large amount of sexism in our country. I liked how the author did not blame the white people for their privileges because these privileges are now part of our culture, no matter how unjust it is, from history and our current generation is not the ones who imposed the privileges.

After reading "Mixed blood," I began questioning what I believe constitutes a persons race. The Google dictionary defines race as "each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics." However, Fish makes an interesting point about how in different countries, specifically Brazil and the United States view races based on either the "worse race" or distinctive features. It is horrible to think that some races are still seen as worse than others. Evolutionary differences do not make people better or worse than another, people just needed different necessities to survive when we were evolving.

Letters from the Other Side

The economic situation in Mexico is very unfortunate, it is sad to see how big nations like the United States take advantage of other nations like Mexico and Jamaica when creating trade agreements. However, I think that it is unfair to blame the United States for the increase in deaths while attempting to cross the boarder illegally. I am a child of an immigrant, my mothers family emigrated to the United States when she was a child from Belgium, and my grandparents just recently became US citizens. America was founded on legal emigration, however now we do not have the economy or resources to take in the world's impoverished people. Plus the money undocumented workers make that is sent back to Mexico hurts our economy because that money is taken out out of our economy and put back into Mexico's economy. I also strongly disagree with allowing a guest worker program, there are plenty of US citizen's that are out of work that could use those jobs. While I feel for the plight of the Mexican's in this film, if they want to use America's resources to create a better life then they should do so by emigrating legally, that way they are a part of the American economy instead of just a parasite on it.

I thought this comic was interesting because it depicts what we discussed in class in relation to the film "Covered Girls" and it makes an interesting point about how women dress in the US can make the US look like a male dominating culture, just as the burqua makes the Islamic girls seem like they are subjected to a male dominated culture.

Cant Do it in Europe

The film "Can't Do It In Europe" describes a new type of tourism called "reality tourism." "Reality tourism" is when American or European tourist go to destinations (usually third world) to live like the people there for their vacation experience. In the film, a group of  tourists visit the mines in Bolivia, as a tourist destination. I found the interaction between the workers and the tourists to be extremely uncomfortable, which is understandable because I feel like if I was one of the miners I would feel like the tourists were looking down on me. Also, it was surprising that the mines allow such tours considering the dangerous conditions. I really hated the fact that even though the tours increased revenue for the mine they were doing nothing to improve the conditions for the workers so that the mine tours would remain popular.

“Federally Sponsored Mexican Migrants”

I was very surprised by the reading "Federally Sponsored Mexican Migrants" because I have always thought of the South as a very "American" place. I say that meaning that from what I have seen since I have been living down here is that people like things that are made in America,  for example American cars. The song "Made in America" by Toby Keith sums up my experience living in South Carolina. That is why I was surprised by the article, it was hard for me to believe that North Carolina is one of the top states using seasonal immigrants for labor. I understand that these people coming into the country are in need of work, but with the state of our economy and our current unemployment rates I think that we should stop importing labor. If we stopped importing labor then more unemployed would have jobs, creating more disposable incomes which would help our economy.

Just Another Job

The reading "Just Another Job" describes the "commodification of domestic labor due to women in the US and Europe leaving the home and joining the workforce. Since women are now in the workplace child care, cleaning, cooking and other domestic responsibilities are now being outsourced to people outside the family rather than being taken care of by the wife/mother. It makes sense that those who are taking these jobs doing the outsourced responsibilities are not paid very well because in order for working to make fiscal sense for women, they must be paying the domestic laborers significantly less then they make. That however does not make the low wages fair to those doing the work. Growing up my mother worked part-time, which meant there was always a nanny, to take care of my sister and I, and a housekeeper, to look after the house. I can say from experience that these women deserved more respect for the work that they did, especially the ones who had to take care of me and my sister, cause we were definitely a lot of work.

Why Tourism Matterss

It is not surprising to read how much  tourism there is in the world today. However, it is sad to realize that because international travel is so dependent on money, the ability to travel is limited to  those who are well off. This is shown by the fact that 80 percent of international tourists are citizens of twenty rich nations. Advances in transportation have made travelling less of a luxury, and now things such as flying from city to city in the Northeast have become common place instead of reserved for the inexplicably wealthy. Advances like that, are examples of how tourism has had a positive effect on our economy. However, in less economically advanced countries tourism does not actually help countries as much as it may seem. Instead of bringing money into the country, the money goes to foreign corporations while the destination country is left with pollution and depleted natural resources.

Life and Debt

The story told in the film "Life and Debt" shows the struggle to survive that Jamaican citizens face due to the troubling economic situation in Jamaica. It is not impossible to see when you visit the island that there is a major break in the distribution of wealth, all of the money in Jamaica is in toursim, which is predominantly owned by foreign companies.  It is heartbreaking to see that the troubling status of the Jamaican citizen is because of the U.S. and other foreign countries economic agendas. From the outside looking in Jamaica's economic problems seem easily fixable, by taxing exports and by taxing imported of foods that can be produced within the country.
It sad to see that the rest of the world acts as though they are offering help, when they are intentionally running another country into the ground for their own benefit.

"Encounters With the Elderly in America"

This article had really interesting into the how we treat our senior citizens in this country. Americans view aging as a disease, which by some is avoided at all costs. American's are obsessed with youth, whereas in Japan, aging is something to look forward to becasue they gain the respect and admiration of the younger generations. Part of American's fear of aging may be due to the fear of becoming isolated in old age. Unlike in Japan, most senior citizen's do not live with family members. They are often on their own or in nursing homes, where they may fear of being forgotten. Most senior citizens try to stay active and young as long as possible to avoid having to be dependent on others. Maintaining independence is very important to American's, and with old age comes the need to become dependent which is most likely a reason for our less favorable view on aging. In Japanese culture the extended family stays together, so as they grow up they see how it is not shameful to depend on your family and respect them for the wisdom and knowledge they bring to the household.


***just noticed this didnt post...sorry**

Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in an African Society

Due to the fact that I, like most of America, have been living with a cellphone attached to my body for so many years now, I have forgotten how dramatically cell phones changed the way we communicate. The article gave an interesting perspective on how the introduction and widespread use of cellphones changed not only the way Nigerians communicate but how their social status is perceived. The economics of owning a cellular device in Nigeria are different than in the US, instead of signing up for a monthly plan and usually getting the phone included Nigerians have to buy a phone, access service and buy "recharge cards" which are like calling cards. Nowadays in the US, you barely hear about people counting minutes, but in Nigeria having minutes to spare makes you have a higher social status.

The Kayapo Resistance

The Kayapo Resistance was a major success for environmental activism.  I feel that although "Going green" is a popular trend at the moment, industry almost always prevails over pretty much anything. So many indigenous people have lost their land, culture and identity due to industry coming in and taking over their way of life, so it is amazing to see how an indigenous people and their collective allies can actually shape political policy, increase awareness, and induce change in order to keep their way of life. The Kayapo Resistance will hopefully give other indigenous groups the courage to fight for ethnic self-assertion in the face of industrialization, and show the modern world the importance of traditional cultural.

Covered Girls

The beginning of the short film "Covered Girls" caught me off guard. The girl wearing a hijab rapping was a great introduction to show that underneath the hijab they are just regular Americans. The girls story made me feel really bad about how they were treated after 9/11, because as someone who knows a lot of people who were lost in the World Trade Center I was definitely one of the people who harbored resentment for them. I realize now that the entire religion cannot be blamed for the actions of a few individuals. It is especially unfair tp blame the entire religion because a lot of the U.S's Islamic enemies are not even devoutly religious. I worked with the lead interrogator for Saadam Hussein this summer and he told us that Saadam isn't even religious he just acts religious in order to attract supporters in the middle east.

Deadly Inequality in the Health Care “Safety Net”: Uninsured Ethnic Minorities’ Struggle to Live with Life-Threatening Illnesses

I found the article "Deadly Inequality in the Health Care “Safety Net”: Uninsured Ethnic Minorities’ Struggle to Live with Life-Threatening Illnesses" to be very biased. Although it is unfortunate that some people are sick because of a lack of healthcare, I would disagreed with the author that "racism is structured
into the health care system," if anything the healthcare system is unfair to Caucasians because they recieve the least amount of government provided care and they provide the most funding for it. Medicaid and Medicare are paid for by taxpayers, AND Medicare and Medicaid raise the price of healthcare and insurance for those who actually pay for it.  If people neglect to seek Medicaid care than that is their own problem. Insured individuals are already paying for the uninsured to have health care, it's their own fault if they don't use it.

Number Our Days

The documentary "Number Our Days" was an anthropological study of a community of elderly Jews in Venice, California. I thought it was very interesting due to the fact that most of the time anthropological studies are about cultures which are immensely different then American culture. Listening to how this subset of American culture has struggled to maintain their identity and way of life throughout the years was heartbreaking. It was also a unique topic because it was a group of people that someday some of us are going to become. Although I am not Jewish, I have many friends who are, and who someday are going to be elderly Jews.