Mom,Doug is a good babysitter.

When we talked about the gender stereotypes and roles in class today I was reminded of a conversation I had with my mom the other day. It was last minute and we were franticly looking for a babysitter for my brother because our usual one had called in sick. I started going through my phone calling every person I knew to be available, and all of a sudden it hit me. Doug! He would be perfect, he’s always saying how bored he is and he lives right down the street and I KNOW he wouldn’t mind. When I pitched the idea to my mom she blankly stared at me for a good 5 minutes, and then walked away. Apparently my mom had thought I was being sarcastic and was offended that I wasn’t taking the task seriously. My mom’s lack of confidence in our neighbor was hard for me to grasp because we all know Doug to be moiré responsible than myself, if anything I am probably a bad influence on him. Despite this my mom was simply “not comfortable” with the situation. When talking about gender stereotypes we hear the same old story that women get paid 3 cents less than men per hour and that woman should stay at home all day and pop out babies. We rarely hear about the things that guys have to go through. So instead, my mom stayed home from work, and I hung out with Doug at the mall.

Why women are better than men...

Female V. Male

Why Is It Always The Media's Fault?

In almost every documentary, news clip, etc that discusses violence in children they drag in the media. What has the media ever really done? Wow, violent video games, fake characters killing the enemy or aliens or mythical creature, because Fox news, and CNN doesn't repeatedly show real people killing other real people. Or wait wait, it must me the lyrics from a rap song, or punk band, that must be the reason why some 13 year old boy took the life of another human being. It has nothing to do with our government reinforcing violence, by getting involved in pointless war. No it has to be Martin Scorsese's fault, because Goodfellas always make me want to murder people, abuse my boyfriend. Now that i think about it I feel stupid for even thinking that it could be anyone but the medias fault. It's not drugs, or abusive parents, it's the film industry, the record companies, and Grand Theft Auto's influence. I just wonder how all these kids are getting ahold of such violent material? Probably their parents, but it's not their fault they don't monitor their children's activities. It's the medias fault all the way, because look how long people have been killing eachother and look how long we've have major motion picture films. I mean honestly we never killed eachother for no reason before sega genisis came out.

Thoughts on Morals

Today, we were discussing the two essays, “Women’s Magazines Flip Past Feminism” by Alex Kuczynski and “How Boys Became Men” by Jon Katz. Each author was the same gender in which they were writing about. I agree with Kuczynski’s article in that magazines are more focused on body image, pleasing your partner, and how a family should act. The magazines only focus on one cookie cutter image, but in the world today, everyone is different from one another; they can’t always fit into that one perfect image. I believe that if the magazines didn’t focus on body images and sexual relations, then women wouldn’t be so self conscious; instead women could focus on other issues whether it is political or economic. Jon Katz’s essay is the opposite of Kuczynski’s essay because Katz is talking about the stages of men. Katz explains that at a young age boys are taught to be tough and to be a “man” not a “sissy”. Boys would rather fight each other than express their feelings through words. It seems as if both essays are trying to express that no one is the same person and each person has their own personal feelings. I have to be honest though because I do read those convincing woman magazines, but I have come more accustomed to ignoring some of the topics dealing with body images. I get to the point where I stop caring about what other people believe what the best body or the perfect makeup is suppose to be. What does everyone else think? Are these stereotypes true for everyone? Do you fit into any of these stereotypes?

Elementary School Lessons

Fahrenheit 9/11, directed by Michael Moore, and “Unfairenheit 9/11,” written by Christopher Hitchens, have one glaring commonality- bipartisanism. Both pieces reflect only one side of the story in an exceedingly frank way. Fahrenheit 9/11 is openly Democrat, while “Unfairenheit 9/11” is openly Republican. I don’t hold either party close to my heart, but pieces of work such as these make me strongly dislike both. Many Americans complain about politics; bipartisanism is a reason why. These already heated pieces fueled more intense debate and argument between the already dissonant parties. Moore and Hitchens are showing Americans that even after a national crisis, the two main parties will point fingers and bicker as young children do. When Americans were calling for unity and truth, these men were causing a ruckus.
What would have made either piece better was if someone had presented an argument that went against their own- even if the argument was later disproved with concrete evidence. Both men are utterly and bitterly opposed to opening up to the possibility that the other man might have a couple rational points. Neither man is completely right, nor is either completely wrong. Children learn at a young age that they can’t always have their way because they are not always right. People learn to compromise.
Perhaps these men should go back to elementary school and learn to play nice.

What Was Moore Thinking?

Micheal Moore's controversial film reflects his ability to use extreme methods to attack President Bush. The message Moore was trying to portray is that if George Bush wasn't elected in the first place, then 9/11 wouldn't have occurred. Moore used sensory details in his film through different music clips, comidic comments from President Bush, and photographs. While watching the film, I found Moore's documentary to be over the top and unnecessary. His piece doesn't amount to rational discourse because he is too biased toward President Bush being the only culprit of not preventing 9/11. I don't agree with his approach to portraying his feelings in his documentary. The music was unnecessary and somewhat offensive because it defeated the purpose of the true facts. The music almost discredited Moore's creditablity because it was childish. I did agree with Moore's main point that Bush didn't work as a President should have, but I was distracted by the extra nonsense. It was one thing to discredit President Bush, but it was another to degrade the President with untrue facts. Micheal Moore's documentary went to the extreme in the absolute inappropiate way. Therefore, it doesn't appear to have credibility or rationality.