Night to His Day & Tough Guise

Tough guise is a really interesting film, it shows how the dominant culture, men, cause more violence then women do, and no one really acknowledges that men are doing it. for example, when school shootings occurred, all the killers were male, but in the news papers what the title will be are "kids killing kids" instead of "boys killing boys", yet if a female would commit so much crimes and do something illegal, the main topic would be "a WOMAN is committing murder."

• 85% of murder is committed by men
• 90% of assault is committed by men
• 95% of domestic violence is committed by men
• 95% dating violence is committed by men
• 95% child abuse is caused by men
• 99.8% of men are in jail because of rape

yet, no one really puts the thought on why men are doing these crimes, well as i said before, men have to live upon this "man box", in the man box men have to behave a certain way, physical, strong, dominant, etc. and because of the media, and over exaggerating what a man should be, men feel the need to act a certain way to prove they are men, when in reality some men act tough, and when behind close doors, they are the most emotional, loving beings. 

The media has portrayed black people as the "gangsters, and always in the hood, causing trouble and hustling", the media has portrayed latinos as "boxers and tough guys in the barrio", and asians are always portrayed as "kong fu fighters, assassins, ninjas, etc." (Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan) so the boys and men feel as if they need to live up to this expectation. In the video, a few teenage boys were asked what will they be called if they don't remain in the man box, they're response was:

• wuss
• wimp
• mommas boy
• queer
• weak
• soft
• emotional
• sissy
• and much more horrible words that will really drive someone over the edge

The wizard of oz represents that being a tough man is an act, in the video they explained when toto uncovers the curtains to the great wizard where he is mechanically portraying a tougher version of himself as an act, the wizard explains he's actually a nice person. if a child is abused, most likely when they get older they would become abusers and usually men take out their anger on other men (men are the main victims violence committed by other men)

the reason that violent men are not the main topic of discussion is because we focus more on the subordinate group instead of the dominant, in the video they showed a little chart that explained this:

• when we hear the word race, we think of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans, and never think of White, because they already are the dominant race.
• when we hear the words sexual orientation we often think of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, never we think of the dominant group which are the heterosexuals.
• when we hear the word gender, we think of women, not of men.

what this is trying to explain is that the dominant group (white, heterosexual, and men) are somewhat invisible.


The article "night to his day" written by Judith Lorber, is an article explaining that there would always be a difference between men and women, besides the biological perspective of it. even though now a days there are more tom boys in the world, more women working at either the Marines or the Army, and more children having unisex names and clothing, there is always something different about boys and girls. In the mid 1950's women just began to be allowed to join the Marines yet, a woman in the Marines had to take hair care classes, and make up classes, and also had to wear make up (at least eye shadow and lip stick) a tom boy would always have earrings on and so on, so the point is there will always be a segregation agents men and women.

Beyond Black and White and Race Matters

Beyond Black and White: Remaking Race in America, written by Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean explains how intermarriages are more common now then it was before, now its legal. in 1967 intermarriage was illegal in 16 states, the government did want to allow intermariages because that would give liberty to the minorities for Voting Rights, less help for minorities will be provided, and because it was hard to determine who is actually an America. Although blacks were considered the lowest race in the nation back then, they were still considered American, because many didn't come from Africa. In the census blacks were categorized as a race, yet as the number of multicultural families began to rise, the census began to change, in 1850, the census added the words "mulatto", "quadroon", and "octoroon", to define the percentage of black people were:

• Mulatto: mixed black and white
• Quadroon: one fourth black "blood"
• Octoroon:  one-eighth black blood

Quadroon and Octoroon were removed in 1900, because there was many confussion and Mulatto was removed in 1930 because it was concidered racist.
After this people were only aloud to mark one race in the census, which was called the "one- drop rule", later on in 1980, there was a debate if Hispanics and Asians were considered as Americas, so in the 1980 census, Hispanics was not a race, they were separated. So in other words, if you were a Hispanic or Latino, or Asian were labeled as "other". Years passed by and in 1997, an announcement was made that Americans could now identify themseleves on more then two races. When the 2000 census came, people could classify themselves and their children as more then one race; except Hispanics and Latinos.
In the 2000 census the options were:

• Black
• White
• Native Hawaiian
• Asian
• Other Pacific Islander
• American Indian
• Alaska Native
• Other

they concidered that Latinos and Hispanics could be any race. Though as years passed by, it was noticeable that more and more Latinos and Asians, were getting mixed with "white" blood, meaning they had to be considered American if you are born here or become a United States citizen.

The reading "Race Matters" by Cornel West explains that no matter what happens and how this world has evolve they believe black people are still a problem in America. Conservatives still see black people as a problem, they don't care about problems blacks have, they believe that in order for black people to fir in their "society" they have to:

• Behave properly
• be worth of acceptence 
• and have to follow the way of living of the conservatives (the life style)

as of liberals they believe that black believe have to be included into one society, like put in a corner or something, and what Cornel West explains in this article is that black people don't that away from America as they seem to be portrayed to the liberals and conservatives, but "rather constitutive elements to that life." Meaning American society has problems all around and the finger shouldn't be pointed to black Americas. 

its sad to see that Americans can't move on from the past.

People Like Us (documentary)

The documentary "people like us" was so eye opening for me and it was so interesting, i wanted to hear more stories and more opinions on other peoples perspectives of each social class. Its funny how the documentary says that there are over 1000 types of social class in the United States and how difficult is is to change from the class you were born in. We are labeled by the clothes we wear, types of cars, way we speak, our income, friends, education, were you live, where you were born, and so on. Yet its funny to me how a young teenage girl stands in the middle of the school hall way and watches her classmates walk by, and judges them just by giving them a glimpse. She would just look at the way they walk, and clothing they wear an immediately says if he/she is a "dork", "popular", "jock", "geek", so on. 
Throughout the film, it was shown a group of upperclass young adults going to a bar a poor side of town, and they communicated with the people in the bar, had a few drinks with them, played games, and though the upper class people felt comfortable because they were not being judge by their action in this bar (because in a bar from their town they would be judged), the working class in the bar immediately know that these people don't belong in their bar, "they don't belong to our family, they just come here so their neighbors won't see what they are really doing." says a working class man from the bar. which takes me to  theory that a man said in the documentary, he said that its almost impossible to completely change from social class, even if you marry a rich person and move to mansions, you will always have the working class norms and values inside of you. These young adults that were at the bar were trying to fit in a small class but people still knew they didn't belong in that area. Which is really upsetting because no matter what you do people will always categorize you.

Poor vs Rich

This week I was assigned a reading, "Positive Functions of Undeserving Poor: Uses of the Underclass in America" by Herbert J. Gans. He described thirteen ways that poor people have a positive contribute to society, even when it seems wrong.

1. Risk Reduction
2. Scapegoating and displacement
3. Economic banishment
4. Supplying illegal goods
5. Job Creation
6. Moral legitimization
7. Norm reinforcement
8. Supplying popular cultural villains
9. Institutional scapegoating 
10. Conservation power shifting
11. Spatial purification
12. Reproduction of stigma and stigmatized
13. Extermination of surplus

This reading was very interesting to read, it opened my eyes to view things from another prospective and helped me think outside of the box when it comes to how the poor people are seem as today. Herbert explained how the poor are useful to rich people in multiple ways, for example if criminals continue in the street, the security job rates wouldn't go down. So therefore, judges, lawyers, police officers, etc, have jobs because of criminals being the the street.
Herbert also stated another way that the poor are useful to rich is that the poor exist! (page three, paragraph 5) without poor their wouldn't be teachers, doctors, school for the "special" in need, drug treatment centers and anger management programs and what not, because if they are trying to control they poor, they have a job, so as people are trying to lower the poor population and try to create a positive life for them, for example teaching them and persuading them to go to school, teachers have a job. And while, the government is trying to prevent the poor from spreading diseases such as HIV and AIDS, and are trying to inform them about how to stay healthy, doctors continue to have a job. And what Herbert is trying to say is that no one looks at the poor as a positive contribution but as a bad thing.
Herbert states that this shouldn't continue but without it the world as we know it wouldn't be the same.

Deviance

Deviance is refusing to follow the norms and breaking the rules, its kind of being a "bad girl" or "bad boy" or just simply sticking up for what you believe in. Sometimes people break rules just for the fun of it, to make their parents mad, to make a statement, to feel grown up, whatever the reason most of us just do it for fun. I must admit I have done deviant acts before, in highschool junior year I would skip class just for fun to hang out with my friends, I would talk back to the principal to make a statement as if saying "I do what I want." or just because I would be bored and wanted to do somthign fun. I never went as to do a crime though, a crime is a law that we break, for example selling cocaine, steeling, or killing another person doesnt matter what the curcumstances are. Although some things that are concidered crimes or deviant isnt realy a bad thing from our point of view- what may be legal in some places may be illegal in others. For example, in vegas people could walk around topless, yet in New York or New Jersey walking around topless is a crime and you could serve jail time for that.
I believe that in order to be a criminal or be deviant you need to know the rules, because sometimes we dont know the rules and are unaware of what we are doing, and we also need to learn the concequences, the people that are selling cocaine know that if they get caught they could be sent by to go to a rehabilation center, go to jail, and will have a criminal file forever. Other deviant acts such as speaking loudly in the library aren't as bad and dont have much concequence. But how would we know when breaking a rule is being too deviant?

Whats expected of us

The documentary "Killing us Softly" takes us outside of the box when we look at ads around us- we simply see women advertising wine, foods, clothes. But if we look closely and examine these ads we could notice a stereotypical message that these ads are trying to portray into the American society. The ads show women with large breast, amazing barbie- like bodies, and having a vulnerable sexual appeal to them. The creator of this document, Jean Kilbourne, demonstrates pictures of magazine, news paper, and billboards ads that tell us everyday that women are here to do nothing but to be objects for men, not subjects. Most of the bodies, faces and skin of women that are shown in these ads are photoshopped by computers, which it would be impossible to get in real life. Kilbourne informs us that ads have become a main priority in America, yet they do much do then just sell. In the year 1979, advertisers would use about $20 billion on ads per year, today advertisers use over $180 billion in ads. An average American watches 3 years of commercials during their life time and believe it or not we see around 3,000 ads per day!
this is terrible considering the fact that what these ads are portraying is a negative image towards women and these ads even cause violence! Some ads show images that resemble violence and hostility as erotic and they imply that women want sex at all times- forced. Kilbourne show ads that quote "he said he liked you for your personality- he lied." and "if you you got it, flaunt it. And if you don't, create it." these messages give a green light to men so they could treat and see women as nothing important. Ads tease us that in order to be accepted we have to be "painfully and naturally thin" and that sex is used to sell everything and get anything. And because of this, America has the highest teen pregnancy in the world. though some messages out there express equality and beauty of any size, age or color there still isn't 100 percent equality with men in women in America because today the ads still show what they believe women should be- objects.

The "Call to Men" was a short video of a man telling the audience the difficulty of growing up and becoming a man the way everyone expects you to be a man. He tells us that he has two children, a girl and a boy that are 15 months apart. when the girl comes crying to him, he hugs her make her feel comfortable yet when the boy comes crying to him he says things like "hold your chin up!" and "stop crying." then he remembers when he was growing up, when his brother died and his father never cried until all the ladies stepped out of the limousine- he didn't want the women to see him in a moment of weakness. And his father would apologize for crying and was congratulating the son for being so strong and not crying in his brothers funeral.

He explains to us what a man box is, a man box is a imaginary box that holds what a man should be: aggressive/ dominant, heterosexual, don't be like "like a woman". And in some societies, if you walk out of this man box you are not a man. He remembers a time when he was 12 and he lived in the Bronx and he looked up to a 16 year old trouble maker, and one day the 16 year old takes him to a room where a girl was in and the 16 year old tells him to have sex with the girl. He is petrified because he didn't want to have sex, so he made believe he had sex with the girl, unbuttoned his jeans and walked out, and when his friends asked him how was it having sex with the girl, he said " it was good". He felt relieved he didn't get caught an everyone saw him as a man but he felt terrible and that poor girl was being used and looked at as an object. And as he grew up he came to the conclusion that society has to teach men that it's okay to cry, to hug and to feel weak at times, because if a man is out of his "man box" he will be free.

These two videos are related to socialization because socialization means to become aware of ourselves as part of a group and 'learn behaviors expected of us' what's expected of women is to be weak, innocent, and to depend on men. A mans expectation is to be dominant and strong, and get what he wants. In every religion this concept exist- Women are less dominant then men, a always in any group theirs a dominant leader.

Todays Society is Unequal

In my opinion, todays society is the complete opposite of what it was back in the old days, 50, 60, 70 years ago. Back then the people who had the Superodinate power (parents & bosses), got more respect and more honor than what they are given today. Its like if the people who are suppose to be Subordinate (children and employee's) are claiming that they have the higher power, which they dont. But the society today has made them all believe that they do, and frankly its ruining our society. There are more criminals in todays society than 70 years ago, and its because of the diffrent statues that are around us that people behave the way they do. If the government knows that there are "cliqs" out there that have do illegal drugs, get together to plot deaths, and to hurt others and society then why don't they stop them. More order needs to be put on to society before it completly takes control of the government.
Society has made other people believe that their are less, thats why theres more teen suicides and that is why I completly agree with Emile Durkheim's theory that "suicide is not an individual act." And also this is why there are more girls with low self esteem, more children bullied and beat up because they are diffrent, and more depression into younger adults. Everyone should be equal.
Another reason why I believe society is only getting worst as the years so by is because of Role Performance. People are acting a certain way in certain environments, meaning they arn't taught manners and are just being fake throughout job interviews, meeting your wife-to-be's family and what not. And all the groups that society has created are just seperating us which makes racial inequality happen in many cases. Which is why I am very glad that the Koni 2012 act is taking place, because its the first time in years that people throughout the world, no matter what the statues, group, role, or culture tehy come from are getting together as one to fight for others liberty. And hopfully some day this act will make a big diffrence in the world and in our society and eventually gropus will be extint and and we will all become one.