Shout That's What It's All About!

‎"It takes someone who has known relative freedom, who expects it and loves it, to help ignite social change." ~Jennifer Baumgardner in Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (p.222)

"But , if there's one thing I've come to believe about privilege, it's this: the worst thing you can do with privilege - whether it's money, education, beauty, or connections - is deny it. The best thing you can do is use your privilege in the service of changing the world."   ~Jennifer Baumgardner in Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (p.201)

Image taken from http://www.ethicalmedia.com Anonymity of the internet definitely changes our social dynamics in virtual worlds and virtual communities. Because anyone can be who they want to be on the internet, we often do not know who we are communicating with or if this communication is real or just a facade. We often don't know a persons true feelings, ideas, etc. because they maybe just telling people what they think they want to hear. Now obviously this does happen in the physical world as well, but online it is harder to tell the difference. This is seen on pinksofa.com the lesbian dating site by the way that straight men sometimes posed as women. They have different motives for making a connection and this may affect others on the site and make them less willing to share information. Anonymity is also see through a different lens with blogs like PostSecret . "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets ano...

Athletics and disability, not two categories that people would think to look at together with regards to misrepresentation in the media, however I think they should be as they are both considered to be at opposite end of the ability spectrum. They are complete opposites yet they both are equally misrepresented in the media. These social groups share some same themes with regards to media, these include: misconceived stereotypes, lack of point of view of the insider, and lack of communication by the insider and outsider. Both social groups are shown through misconceived stereotypes that are perpetuated by the media, through the use of cultivation theory media changes a persons reality with regards to athletes personality and behavior and what it means to be disabled. This is shown by the way that African American athletes physical strength is often emphasized over their intellect; thus reinforcing the stereotype to audiences that African American individual's are 'al...

I believe that body modifications such as tattoos, piercings, etc are considered negative stereotypes, where as modifications such as cosmetic plastic surgery are not because of the social norms that are within society. Cosmetic plastic surgery conforms to the dominant ideology of beauty. Cosmetic plastic surgery often makes the person look younger, thinner, etc all matching with what society identifies as 'beautiful'. Tattoos and piercings on the other hand do not follow this dominant ideology. Tattoos and piercings, etc. have a stigma against them as they are often used my marginalized groups and individuals as a form of self – identification. Tattoos and piercings are used by select groups and are not as mainstream as cosmetic plastic surgery (although tattoos are gaining in popularity). There is also a long history of oppression of tattoos and branding from colonialists to native tribes, who used tattoos, etc for religious and traditional practices. In Wes...

Brokeback Mountain (2005) is a story of two men (Jack and Ennis) who both work over one summer in 1963 and take care of a large herd of sheep on Brokeback Mountain for a ranch owner. Their work consists of taking the large herd up into the mountains for the summer, protecting them from coyotes, herding them through the valley. Through this desolate and isolated existence the two men begin to develop a relationship with one another, ultimately falling in love. But the summer comes to an abrupt close and they both return to their normal lives. Ennis marries a woman (Alma) who he started dating about a year before and owns a small ranch and eventually starts a family with and has 2 daughters. Jack on the other hand marries a rodeo rider, Lureen, and they have a son together. Jack does fairly well for himself working for his wife's father selling large farm equipment in Texas. Ennis on the other hand does not do so well, and struggles to make ends meet working on a ran...

Stereotypes are so ingrained and invisable in our society and that we must always be aware of them even in things that we may perceive as innocent, such as a Disney movie. The readings made me think of how even the most conscientious person in the world probably has some form of stereotypes that come up from time to time and that we must always take a critical look at everything that we see/hear, etc and that we must also be critical of the things that we think. We have to be aware of the things that we think and why we think them, so that we do not fall victim to being judgmental. All forms of media outlets uses stereotypes in order for the audience to remember and understand the information better, e.g. in the case of The Lion King it has been shown that children start producing some form of stereotypes from a young age, and Disney uses that information in order to make a movie that will be liked and remembered by many people. Media is also implicitly enforcing the st...

It is important to learn about how the media has dealt with issues in the past, because it allows us to make informed decisions about the future, and it can help to not make the same mistakes twice, also if we look at a problem in the past, we can work on how we would change things now, so that the problem no longer exists. Also by looking at how the media has dealt with things in the past, it might help change our perspective on that particular event, etc. as we realize that the media portrayal might not have been accurate. Some examples of how things can sometimes be negatively viewed from the media would include the portrayal of people who join gangs and do illegal activities, e.g. looting in the UK. They are often portrayed as either white individuals with a low socioeconomic status or people of color, although this demographic maybe true, the people in gangs are often shown as lazy and not having any purpose to their lives,

While completing this blog post, I had the television on in the background and up came a commercial for an Arm and Hammer cleaning product which I thought was a perfect example of what the social learning – social cognitive theory is. In this commercial a women (and only a women) was seen cleaning through out the commercial, this I thought just emphasized the perceived role of women in society, that is being at home, cleaning, etc, while the man is out working, although there was no man in the commercial, I felt like this was the impression. If a child was to see this commercial quite often, they might get the misconceived idea that only women clean and this would play into their schema's and perceptions about the world. I have also seen many examples of framing by the media, in order to emphasize a point or help the larger audience understand the information. One of the more recent ones was from 'The Telegraph' a newspaper in England that was reporting the ...

Political correctness, might actually promote stereotypes because it is often marginalized groups (African Americans, disabled individuals, etc.) rather than less marginalized groups (e.g. lawyers) that wish to be identified in a different way. By having to be political correctness it reinforces the fact that these individuals have been victimized before and so reminds us of how they used to be identified and which in turn can lead to the stereotypes being reinforced. (e.g. not using the word 'retarded' in common vocabulary anymore reminds us of why we can't use it, which in turn reminds us that there are some intellectually challenged individuals who identify as being disabled, and thus MAY reinforce the stereotype that disabled individuals can't do many things and always need help.) Also PC is also more prevelent in groups that don't identify as that identity, and this in turn leads us to consider why something should be political correctness and then...

So I was looking over some of my work for my JTC 316: Multiculturalism and the Media class and I found some of it to be blog worthy. Enjoy! (All the blog posts from today, the one below this one and the 8 above are all from my class.) I promise I will get back to my normal slower blogging habits later this week. :)

 Social media is definitely having an impact on social change and social activism. I think it is having both positive and negative impacts depending on the situation. Social media is having a positive impact on social change and activism as it is allowing more people access to information and resources about specific movements, etc. This in turn leads to more people being aware of the issue, so more people might be willing to get involved. Social media is connecting the world like never before and helping to keep governments, organizations, etc accountable for their actions as anyone (i.e. not just journalists, etc, but anyone that has access to the internet) has the ability to post information, blogs, videos online for all to see. In this sense people from outside an issue are likely to gain information from those inside an issue and so are more likely to understand what is really going on. There is some negative impact to social media however, one negative impact is that ...

Now I know I just wrote about caring, but I am just thinking beyond that and I have to wonder, is caring enough? Caring is a good and amazing thing, don't get me wrong. If we didn't care then nothing would get done in this world. But I am just wondering if caring is merely the starting block for our actions and emotions, or if it can accomplish things on its own. Caring is the first step to progress in my belief, because caring is likely to lead to more awareness of an issue by individuals. This awareness is likely to lead to the individual finding out more about the issue and finding different ways to get involved, or just talking to people they meet about issues that concern them. This increase awareness and introduction by others is likely to make people more concerned about the issue. This care and awareness might also increase an individuals likelihood to act on this issue, and it they act then change and progress really can happen. I think too often (certainly in my...

    You know what I think? I think people need to care more or at least in a different way. People care about their immediate selves, which is a good thing. After all, the present is all we have, the past is just memories and the future unknown. And if we don't care about ourselves, who else is going to?  I just think that we need to care beyond this, we need to take a moment and care about someone/something else, the environment, poverty, war....anything! Then we would be fighting for something, perhaps not for OUR future, but THE future. The future for people and things who are affected (directly or indirectly) by our actions.  Now I am not saying that we all don't care about things other than ourselves, because we do everyday of our lives, I just think we need to care more (myself included). Or maybe we just need to take a breath from our own lives occassionally to realize the world that is right in front of us.  A world worth caring for...

Are we constrained by the categories and labels that society puts upon us and that we embrace so willingly? To some extent I think so, sure having categories helps to explain and understand the world, but we get so caught up by these categories that are socially defined that we put such importance and weight to their value. We think that everyone must fit into a box, yet what if someone doesn't? Does it scare you? What would happen in a world with no labels, or at least ones that were a bit more fluid and less rigid and steadfast? Would it lead to chaos or just a nicer world in which to live? I do not identify as being disabled, sure doctors might tell me that I have a medical condition, but for me I am just me. Ok so sometimes there is a biological explanation for some of my actions and my physical movements, who cares. Everyone has things that are different from others and that they have to deal with, it is just that mine is a little more pronounced than some. I am one of the l...

It is time to redefine disability. I might have a medical condition called Cerebral Palsy (Spastic Diplegia), but I am not disabled. Disability does not exist, rather we are all at different places on the ability continuum. We all have different abilities (physical, intellectual, social, etc.) and we are all at different places with regards to our abilities. Let us not focus on what a person CAN'T ... do, but rather what they CAN. Identities are not a bipolar dichotomy, but rather they exist on a variety spectrum, we are not one thing or the other, but rather something in between. If you agree with this then please re-post and get people thinking. If you do not agree please comment and let me know your opinion.

It is interesting how something as simple as how a disabled sign is portrayed can change how individuals in society perceives a certain population and their abilities. I found an article that starts to look at this: http://adiamondinsunlight.wordpress.com/2007/09/08/enabling-the-disabled/ What are your thoughts?

One of these days I would like to be able to walk down the hall without getting awkward sideways glances from people. I know that they are just jealous, they don't need to stare :) In a world where we (try to) embrace diversity, why is it so hard to be different? The sad thing is that I think I would probably stare too, judgements are innate in us from society, how sad. Yet is it right for me to judge? It is not the judgements that are always the problem as they are part of our innate learned behavior that we learn from society. What is bad is when people make judgements that are unfair or unwarranted. Or worse they act on these judgements in an unjustified way.

I got this slideshow in an email from my dad from a friend of his. I think although the stats are portrayed in a shocking way, I think the information is interesting and really shows how sometimes we forget just how lucky we are to live the way that we do. The fact that I can even share this with the internet is amazing, I have so much power that I don't even think I have and I can put this power to good use.

We all live in a modern society where we are always wanting more and more. We are consumed by materialism. We feel that our status in society is defined by how much stuff we have. Yet did you know that the average annual income for the whole world is only $12,000? That means that the majority of individuals who live in Western society earn more than the average income, yet still feel as though they do not have enough. Obviously the amount of money needed to live varies for society to society because of their economy, etc. But how much do we actually need to live? Living for people means many different things, for some it means having enough food, clean and a place to sleep at night; for others it means having the newest accessory. I think that we need to learn to be content with what we have and not to want too much. Will buying that new handbag, tv, etc. really make you a happier person or make your life substantially better? I think not. We are all guilty of doing this, I kno...

I have started another blog which is more relaxing and just about my everyday life and interactions. If you would like to take a look follow this link! :) http://blogonthesidelines.blogspot.com/

Recycling is the easiest thing that an individual can do in this world in order to make a little change that causes a big difference. Is it too much to ask?  Don't people understand that if it is don't correctly that you are helping to preserve the world one plastic bottle at a time!? It is not just about Global Warming, it is about preserving the worlds resources and also not filling the world full of garbage, literally!! In fact some countries are running out of space to put their garbage, so now they are sending it to other countries, so that they have to deal with it. That is just plain wrong, we can't take care of our own problems, so we push them on someone else, that is unbelievable.  I know it is a lifestyle choice and that it may require a bit more effort, but it the right infrastructure is put into place then it is as easy as can be.  Even if you can't recycle at least believing in the idea of it is good. Yet some people don't even think that. They can...

Here I am sat in the basement supposed to be writing an essay, when here I am writing to you and helping my friends cook lasagna. I just can't seem to be motivated to do anything for school anymore. The homework keeps piling up, yet I don't seem to be fazed. Why though? That is what I don't understand. It is not like I don't like what I am doing, I do. It is just I don't see a point in what I am doing. Maybe I am just not seeing the results that I want. I feel that I am not really doing anything productive academic wise with my life at the moment. I am enjoying other things in life, like being with friends and being involved in things on campus outside of the academic realm. I mean that is all well and good, but I do need to motivate myself academically, because if I don't then the whole point of me being here will be pointless. If anybody has any ideas be sure to let me know!