Quick Blog 6

I would say my social sphere is very diverse in ages. I am the youngest of five kids and my oldest sister is 20 years older than me. I know 20 years doesn’t sound like that much, but when it comes to some things it can show a huge difference. I also have two nephews and a niece so I’m surrounded by children all the time when I go back to my hometown. When I’m at school I don’t really encounter young people or elders at all. I’m surrounded by students of my age each day and I live with five other girls that are my age, so being around young people is extremely rare and elders just as rare too.  At work I work with people of all ages since one job I work at a retail store and my other job I babysit three kids.

Young adults and middle age adults are the most advantaged and privileged because of their maturity level and their capability.  They’ve passed the big ages of 16,18, and 21 that allow them to do certain things. Young people are seen as irresponsible and incapable of taking care of themselves. As for old people they are often seen as incapable of taking care of themselves as well. These statements aren’t necessarily true for everyone but that’s how our society sees it. A big problem is that people don’t understand or realize that this discrimination is out there. We need to start realizing that it is a problem and disregarding the stereotypes that always get in the way.

Changes

We all have to remember that every little bit counts. If one person begins to speak up then the next will and so on. Before that even happens we have to realize what the problems are and how we can fix them. The dominant groups have the most power therefore they should go out and do things. Taking this course has helped me realize what is going on in our world and how to make changes. If everyone in this course takes something from it then changes are more bound to happen than before. I’m definitely not a very powerful person, but I can speak up to the people that surround me everyday like my family and friends. My friends and I will jokingly make racial comments or even sexist comments thinking it’s funny, but in reality I’m sure some of those comments we make we actually believe. Most of the comments the people around me make are based off of stereotypes. Stereotypes have such a powerful impact on a person’s thoughts and if my friends and I continuously joke about them, it does nothing but spread racism or sexism. So what I can do to make the world a better place than when I first entered it is to stop these comments. Whenever I hear the word “retard” I get extremely offended and I ask people to not say it. I get offended hearing that word because my aunt who passed was mentally challenged and my best friends sister is as well mentally challenged so it makes me angry because that word affects me personally. If it hurts me when people say the word “retard”, it must hurt some people when they hear racial or sexist comments. I and everyone else need to start thinking about others. The simplest and easiest way for all of us to start making changes is to speak up about the problems to people that surround our lives every day; family, friends, classmates, neighbors ,etc.

Activist

By the dictionary definition an activist is an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause. But more importantly what is a good activist? There’s definitely a difference between just an activist and a good one. A good activist not only is active in their doings, but they are true and loyal to their idea. A good activist should be able to inspire others and should be convincing to others. A good activist is proud of what he or she is doing and they’re not afraid to speak up no matter how shut down they get. I believe a good activist is very strong and never backs down no matter how hard times get. A good activist speaks out loudly and acts out. 

            A positive as well as effective change agent would be someone who is believable. Some activist can be quite obnoxious and too aggressive. It’s awesome to speak out loudly, but fighting too hard might just chase people away. A strength that is associated with an effective agent would be someone who speaks up in a believable manner, meaning they have a reason for speaking up in a calm powerful meaning. I found a lot of the videos very inspiring and meaningful. It makes me sad watching these videos knowing that people fight for their rights every day. I would have to say that I would never be able to be an activist; I’m definitely not that powerful or strong. What these activist do is amazing and I give a lot of credit for everything they do. I wish that everyone would listen to them, but unfortunately not everyone does. The activist I admire the most is Martin Luther King. I’m sure that many people could agree with me that the King was an amazing person. He was incredibly inspiring and he spoke up at a very rough time of life. We can all learn from the King to speak up rather than sit back and watch injustice.

Ageism

In my estimation the root cause of ageism is mainly the elderly and their stereotypes. When we think of an elderly person we think old, out of date, slow and handicapped. Fortunately that’s not the case for every elderly person. It’s clear that ageism is mainly to do with the elderly and no other age group. Ageism has definitely more to do with looks rather than the number in years. By looking at someone you can’t always tell how old they are, but if they look old then you assume they’re elderly and people apply all those stereotypes to them. Honestly I think I’m an ageist in the slightest way. I obviously respect elderly and I’ll help them when they need help. The only case where I can be seen as an ageist is with my patience. In the video Once We Young, a young teen in a grocery store had absolutely no patience for an elderly lady and rudely spoke up and asked to pay first because the elderly lady was taking so long. I would never do such a thing, but when an elderly person is taking so long or even driving several miles under the speed limit I get frustrated. I feel a lot of people get this way; some people speak out and show they’re frustrated and some don’t. I’m definitely a person to not show it but I’m still discriminating them in my head which is still wrong. Just like race and sexual orientation, people can’t help their aging. I feel that ageism is talked about so seldom in our society because most people don’t realize that it’s actually a problem. Honestly before watching the videos I never thought ageism was such a problem or it was affecting anyone. Clearly after watching these videos it does. Elderly are discriminated for their age in employment as well as driving skills and ability to do things. Once again we can’t judge a book by its cover. Our society runs off of judgment; elderly can be just as intelligent and they aren’t “slow” as everyone seems to think they are. Most elderly people are lonely and feel that they have nothing to live for so we shouldn’t let ageism bring them down anymore than they already are.

Quick Blog 5

I read the article Stop Porn Culture. I’m honestly going to have to say I disagree with the whole article. The very first line of that article is “Do you ever feel overwhelmed by pornography?” and I would answer no not at all. It’s not like porn is in my face all the time and I choose not to watch it, so it doesn’t overwhelm me at all. Pornography may have a slight contribution of how men see women sexually though. When men watch porn most get aroused so they want to experience it in their own sexual life, and that’s when the women come in hand. Men get this bad image in their head because pornography arouses them.  It can be very degrading to some women, but men have to realize that not all women act the same. It impacts young men in a bad way though.  In porn men are always the dominant ones and can just treat women however they want. Obviously this could potentially put the idea in young men’s heads that every woman works that way, that the man is always the controlling one. People just have to realize that the media sends out these ridiculous ideas and not everything is true. I’m sure many people would have to disagree with me on this one, but I think porn is so silly and I honestly can’t take it seriously

Ableism

I thought this video was extremely beautiful. When most people think of a dancer they think of a healthy person with two arms and two legs. The video Gimp just goes out to show that being disabled doesn’t hold you back from anything. These people with disabilities could dance just as well as those without disabilities. If we weren’t able to see their disability and only the dancing, no one would know they were disabled. I also chose to read the article What I’d Tell That Doctor by Jason Kingsley. Jason Kingsley was born with Down syndrome and when he was born with it his obstetrician told him that he could never learn, could never see his mom or dad and sent him to an institution. Jason goes on to explain that if he could see his obstetrician and talk to him he would clarify a few things so that the obstetrician would never say to the parent of a baby with a disability any of things he said to Jason’s parents. Jason went on living a full life as if he wasn’t disabled. Were told to not baby or treat disabled people differently for a reason. They’re just as equal as us and they don’t want to be treated or seen any differently. My best friend’s sister was born with Down syndrome so I’ve had the opportunity of helping out with Special Olympics. Watching these kids and adults with disabilities, some even in wheel chairs perform these sports is amazing. Not only are they extremely happy, but they have the ability of being just as decent as someone without a disability. It’s terrible that ableism exist out there. The hardest thing for someone with a disability is realizing that they might not act or look the same as someone without one. It doesn’t help that people in our society criticize a disabled person, people tend to make fun of them or even just stare. I feel as we get older we get more understanding of disabilities as far as making fun of them, but maybe not understanding that they are just as capable of doing things of those that aren’t disabled. At school children tend to point, stare or even make fun of disabled children. I feel parents need to do a better job of teaching children that it’s not okay and maybe explaining to them what it means to be disabled.

Video Process Piece

When I heard that we had to make a video with a choice of using MovieMaker I was extremely excited because I have worked with that program several times before and I really enjoy it. It took me awhile to decide how I wanted to go about my video, but I knew that from the beginning I wanted my “ism” to be racism. I thought the best way for me to get my message across was doing a video poem. This way I could add music as well as pictures, and show my feelings through a poem. The poem took me a bit to come up with, but I enjoyed putting everything together. I tried to target my main concerns for racism as well as to get people to realize that it hurts many. I felt that mainly whites don’t realize the damage they do to some people. I wanted to target the main ideas that we had been focusing on for racism, mainly the ideas from all the videos we had watched prior to the project as well as the class readings. I feel over all that my project came out pretty well. I enjoyed putting my feelings into a poem and then adding music as well as pictures. I never write poems so it was quite a challenge, but I’m pleased with the outcome of everything and I hope everyone else is too.

Davis, Kiri, dir. A Girl Like Me. Prod. Stephanie W. Williams, John C. Williams, and Deborah Rudolph. 2005. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg>.

 

Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.