Drinks Made For Women

I was watching TV after discussion today and this interesting, 30-sec advertisement popped up: http://youtu.be/FSQVT3IwMas

I thought it was really interesting that Crystal Light's target to attract an audience was to make an energy drink for women...because drinking other energy drinks are seen to be tough and manly...is this to mean that women are only restricted towards drinking frilly, fruity drinks while men are only allowed to drink tough, raw, hardcore drinks?

But the most important part that was cool was that it depicted women to be tough as well. The woman, who was running, was able to catch up to the robbers, who were on motorcycles. I just thought it was interesting that Crystal Light showed women to be somewhat invincible, being up to par with men. In a way, it depicted women to be more in power, being able to scare away the robbers in the end.

However, I watched the commercial a second time and "Fictionalization. Do Not Attempt." was at the bottom of the screen. Does this mean to say that its just fantizied that women can catch up to men? In reality, are they still subordinated to men?

I just wanted to word vomit some thoughts that came to mind when I was watching this commercial. Feel free to add your thoughts :)

more on hegemony

Since there was a lot of confusion about hegemony today in class I thought I would do some more research on the definition of hegemony to see if I could get a better understanding of it. The dictionary definition of hegemony is: authority or control- the control or dominating influence by one person or group, especially by one political group over society or one nation over others. Synonyms include  domination, control, supremacy, dominion, power, authority. In class we are focusing on hegemonic masculinity which is the  belief in the existence of a culturally normative ideal of male behavior via the encouragement by society of men to embody this kind of masculinity. It is the tendency for the male to dominate other males and subordinate females. However, there are many different kinds of hegemony and I found that understanding some of the different kinds, gave me a better understanding of hegemonic masculinity. For example I found a very interesting video on cultural hegemony as linked below. In the video, the woman explains that cultural hegemony as the sociological theory, by Marxist Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be dominated  by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is perceived as a universally valid ideology. I know it is not exactly the same thing that we learned in class, but I found the video to be an interesting way to demonstrate the concept.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxmzCVFLu8

The Art of Manliness

I almost feel bad posting a link every week, but I always find myself connecting what I learn and think about during this class to things online I've seen and/or stumbled upon recently or years ago. This one is from a while back. It's a website called The Art of Manliness and claims that it is "Reviving the lost art of manliness". The website preaches advice for really "being a man", such as "Do More Than One Stinking Pull-up", "A Beginner's Guide to Whittling", "Make a Dining Room Table by Thanksgiving", "How to Parallel Park...Like a Man!", and other articles that promote a stereotypical view of being "manly". While I find this website interesting and while I may or may not have read a few articles, I can't help feeling that while this website acknowledges that it's borrowing from the past, it's also taking a fundamental step backwards. It preaches how to be like a man in the 40s or 50s and promotes ideas of manliness that are outdated (or should be) and that this class is trying to correct. Who says how many pull-ups you can do makes you a man? Who says men should be good at making things from wood? Well, men do. Men keep themselves in line (hegemony, right?) by subscribing to websites like this one, helping to uphold these outdated ideas of "what makes a man." Absolutely preposterous...



...now excuse me while I read up on "How to Shave Like Your Grandpa"


http://artofmanliness.com/

Hegemonic Masculinity vs. femininity

In an article I read from Entertainment Weekly for my Writing 140 class, the author points out that the entertainment industry does not produce a lot of strong female characters, to which she later expresses her excitement and liking towards these heroine figures in upcoming films such as Katniss from The Hunger Games and Lisbeth from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is because they are "strong women", which she describes as being "tough, stoic, unfussy, fighther, resilient" among many other adjectives. At the same time she points out her annoyance towards "weak woman" that are frequently portrayed in movies; they are those that are silly and lovestruck she says. Basically, when describing a strong woman, she essentially outlines the characteristics of a typical man, and when defining a weak woman, she describes a typical woman. Here, we can see that there's really no distinctive types of woman (like a strong woman vs. a weak woman) to which we can marginalize and thus define a dominant form of femininity - it's just masculinity - the dominant, hegemonic force, versus everything else, which is feminine in various degrees (e.g. gay, wimp, geek).

Hegemony-Masculinity

Discuss the relationship between hegemony and masculinity. You can refer to femininity or gender as a whole, but you should remark on specifically on masculinity as this is the topic of our reading for the week. 


Personally, I do not know the meaning of "Hegemony" before taking think course. However, through the lecture, reading and searching myself, I figured the meaning of hegemony. In shortly, the hegemony describing as leadership and some influence to an entire group. Also describe as power of a society. Masculinity is very familiar with me because not only I am a male but also my parents often talked about when I was young. My old sister always act like boy and my parents worried about to her. She would like to play with boys and learn Taekwondo. My parents had liberal personality; however, they alway worried about my sister's masculinity of her acts. Masculinity could apply all the male superficially, also often would apply to female. For example, people often say about to girls that 'Be a brave girl', 'Be protect yourself'. I think this is sensitive quote that both male(boys) and female(girls) because impose to them the masculinity sometimes not applicable to everyone.

Masculinity in linguistics

Now that the class has moved from talking about femininity to talking about masculinity, we are once again trying to define the term. Just as when we were defining femininity, I thought it was strange that despite the word's widespread use, we can argue about its definition so long it seems there is no real concrete answer. I think this is a matter of linguistics.

And this is what Marriam Webster says: "having qualities appropriate to or usually associated with a man"


The use of "Characteristic" and "Usually associated" in these definitions leaves the definition un-concrete. What is usual is determined by society, which could never be truly decided on because people share different opinion. It's understandable then that we fail to completely agree on the definition. It's possible to look into it even more though. Of the word 'usual', Webster says it means "accordant with usage, custom, or habit." This choice of wording really tiers 'usual'. Usage is a pretty universal thing, custom is a cultural thing, and habit is a personal thing. Masculinity, then, is defined in these tiers: there is a non-specific but concrete definition of it worldwide which is mostly biological; there is a cultural definition which relies a lot on media and history; and there is a specific but fickle personal definition that is defined by experiences.

masculinity & hegemony

In our class we have discussed that men are the strong, family providers and have more of a dependence upon. Females have been given the role of care giver. Men in society are more hegemonic than women, but as we can see the times are changing. Women are becoming more empowered, for example when we look at Disney and the new Black Princess in "The Princess and the Frog." Another more common example is Tomb Raider where Angelina Jolie plays the role of an archaeologist who also has amazing marital arts techniques which moves away from the common misconception that men can only do battle.

Masculinity and femininity

As we have stated during class, the ideas of what masculinity and femininity is are products of society. Currently the idea of masculinity means to be a strong man who plays sports or a strong business figure. To be feminine means to be a care giver, and to dress and appear what society finds attractive. However, this hegemony currently in place is changing. We now have movies like Columbiana, where the lead female character is a strong action hero. We also have an increasing popularity in women mixed martial arts fights and women's boxing is now an olympic sport. I predict that some time in the near future the hegemony will be different than what it is now.

feminism

I just want to write about what I experienced this weekend at a church retreat.  It was time for activities where everyone gathered to play soccer.  I was just watching because I had midterms to study for that night and didn't want to drain my energy.  My girlfriend, who is very competitive shocked many of the men on the team and even women.  She is very pretty and petite, 5'4", 110 pounds, loves make-up, fashion, jewelry and likes everything else a "girl" would be interested in.  On the field, her masculine side came out as she is very competitive business woman and losing is not an option to her.  She would scream and yell, like how men react when it comes to scoring.  She ended up scoring the most points on the team and outperforming many of the men on the team.  All the women on the team were complaining about their feet hurting and their nails breaking and it's something guys would expect girls to say when playing sports, but she was completely the opposite.  All the guys on the team were shocked to see a girl act that way and didn't expect to see such a masculine side of her.  I think that most men think women as being feminine and don't expect any masculine traits from them.  Is it okay for women to show signs of masculinity?  Normally, when men show signs of feminism, they are usually downgraded and portrayed as a homosexual even though they are not.

masculinity or femininity

The distinction between masculinity and femininity is not a absolute contrast. Instead, they interact with each other because nobody has a pure masculinity characteristic or a absolutely femininity. All those people who was labeled by one of them are just relatively masculine or girly. Furthermore, these two characteristics are actually defined by the people. If people regarded playing football a "girlish" activity at the very beginning, then today we will call those players "femininity", opposite to what we actually think nowadays, although the play still doing the same sports. It reflects the fact that the nouns themselves are actually meaningless, unless we define them. The reason why masculinity is much adorable than femininity is due to the male dominate economy. without this factor, women would not fall to the subordinate class. Similarly, the definition of masculinity and femininity are also compiled by wen. That's why masculinity always seems to be more strong than femininity, while women can act as tough as men.

femininity and masculinity.

Masculinity and Femininity are governed by sex. The terms  make distinctions between gender, what is feminine and what is masculine, but this is wrong. It is more appropriate to think of these terms as fluid and not being constrained by sex. We must acknowledge that masculine and feminine traits exist within all of us. But once we acknowledge this, the meaning of masculinity and femininity become obsolete. First off, it is difficult to define what is masculine and what is feminine to begin with. It is silly that these terms exist in the first place. There is no person who is one hundred precent masculine or one hundred precent feminine. So then what is the point of making these distinctions in the first place? Maybe they came into existence through simple observation, where people observed a group of female behaviors and labeled them and feminine and then a group of male behaviors and labeled them as masculine. The main problem with this that there will always be individuals that will define this norm. Instead of making strict distinctions we should recognize that we are similar and not that different from each other after all.

hegemony and masculinity and femininity

The masculinity and femininity are terms that basically defines what is girly and what is manly. However the character of what defines being girly and manly are just things that society socially has categorize into these terms. If I was to describe a person as someone who has the hobbies of fishing, golfing, grilling,  and sports, many people would expect this person to be a male. Because these are the activity that are "suppose" to be masculine and things that men like. In many ways, it is society that constructed these masculine and feminine activities/traits and which ever has the dominant in power is the one that will have hegemony other the other.

In contrast to what we are used to use to seeing, there are some parts of the world where there is a female dominance on the male. In these tribes, the women will be the ones that are more aggressive and act in ways that we consider to be "masculine." These women would be the ones that hunt, and make decisions, while the make would put time in trying to look good, gossip, and do housework. In this kind of society the gender roles that are assigned are switched and therefore the hegemony would be usually be dominated be the roles of the women.

A prime example of how society effects gender roles would be to look at Marget Mead studies as a cultural anthropologist. In her study "Sex and Temperament" he discovers 3 different types of cultures that has is very different to the one we have now.

Here is a link to her findings regarding the subject.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mead/field-sepik.html

The mere idea of "masculine hegemony" is an oversimplification in itself. It assumes that anything and everything "masculine" is automatically of elevated status, and it is often misinterpreted to mean essentially the same thing as "male hegemony." But these are quite emphatically not the same thing.

Hegemonic power is exercised by those who conform to the traditional definition of masculinity, not necessarily those who are male. It is critical that we understand this.

I invite the doubtful reader to consider the case of a male who identifies as homosexual: is he "masculine?" If we understand "masculine" to have one simple definition and if we assume this question to have a simple yes or no answer, we've already strayed into tricky territory. The assumption would be, no, he is not "masculine," at least not by any traditional sense. But what if his sexual orientation is unknown, and he is a tough, six-foot-three construction worker who has completed three Ironmans and supports a family (without knowing that his partner happens to be male?) Without knowing his orientation, in this case, we would assume him to be "masculine."

The homosexual male, to take just one example, of course does not enjoy the benefits of being of the hegemonic sex. Other possible counterexamples include metrosexual males, those who identify as transgender, asexual males, or maybe even heterosexual males who fail to conform to masculine expectations--someone who is abstinent, maybe.

We must therefore be careful to differentiate between what is male and what is masculine. When we speak of "masculine hegemony," we are speaking only of a very specific type of masculinity, one that does not automatically apply to anyone with a Y chromosome. Plenty of biological males find themselves oppressed by masculine hegemony.

hegemonic masculinity

According to R. W. Connell, “Hegemonic masculinity can be defined as the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominant position of men the subordination of women.”

In my opinion “currently accepted” is a tricky phrase. Unlike the real “hegemony” which refer to the common impression that an emperor use his power and military to deprive the people of all their freedom. In contemporary world, both sides accept the “hegemonic masculinity”, that is, the subordination side accepts their situation as cultural ideal. Also mentioned by Connell “A great many men who draw the patriarchal dividend also respect their wives and mothers…bring the family wage” This explains why most female are willing to subordinate. Since the masculinity side seldom do harm to the female side and even more, they also make the family life better by earning money. While the economic position has always been considered as the premier factors in the leading of a group, men who stand higher on this position are easily regarded as leaders. Although some individuals may violate this normal situation, men in general still gain the overall control over women.

Interests and fear of being judged

It is still commonplace in our society that we depend on acknowledgement of others to determine if the activities in which we engage ourselves are acceptable, or "correct". Tori's entry reminded me of my classmates who approached me when he decided to be part of the LGBT organization on campus. He is straight, with a strong interest in learning more about issues related to non-traditional forms of gender. He looked forward to be part of this cluster on campus, but at the same time, afraid that he might be judged for what he is interested in, especially by his roommate, who is slightly inclined towards the homophobic zone of the spectrum. I understood his dilemma, but I still encouraged him to pursue his passion. My friend and I are from a society in which gender-queer issues are not widely accepted and discussed, which is why my friend saw this as an opportunity to open his mind. He did eventually joined the organization, and never regretted the decision. My friend's fear surfaced from the thought of being misunderstood, but he outgrown his own fear to get involved with the things he is interested in, and he did not let others' judgment hinder him from doing the things he like.

The New Definition of Manliness

As discussed by some of our classmates in the earlier posts, there are certain activities that are prohibited from males to do and so do females. Not only activities, but also gestures and ways of communication are also affected by gender. Do those “appointed missions” really define the ideal standards of men and women?

From my point of view, they did in the good old days but not for nowadays. Even though men are still the owner of masculinity, the way they express it has shifted. When we think of the goal of life, all we want is to achieve what we want—a happy, wealthy, and meaningful life with our loved ones. Therefore, masculinity, which used to be power, oppression, and sexual dominator, has become men’s openness for women—success in career, making family decision, and etc. Otherwise, women can choose to divorce. In the case of homosexual family, both male couples and female couples also have equality in sharing masculinity—an equal power no matter what sex they are. In this century of freedom, we should always able to dress in the way we want and do activities that we like without being restricted by gender.

Dependency between Hegemony and Masculinity

In the long history of man domination, our social structure is built upon both hegemony and masculinity working together—like the wall and the roof, which a house cannot live without either. Hegemony represents the power differentiation while masculinity represents the gender differentiation. In a society, there has to be someone playing the leading role and control the power, such as kings or emperors, and within that level, men and women also have to be distinguished so that men play the stronger role and women are everything else. The two differentiation very often works together in order to achieve a balanced and peaceful social where all people hold their own responsibility. For instance, when the king is responsible for solving problems of the country, the queen would be responsible for taking care of the royal family. When a farmer has to farm, his wife would cook. This is the culture of roles.

However, the social order created from the combination of hegemony and masculinity results in the inequality of women. Can feminism works with hegemony? I would say it can but everything would be chaos before everyone demands, negotiates, and settles down on their roles. For the sake of easiness, people usually just go with the traditional form of power given men; but for this twenty-first century, I suggest that women should never give up their right just because of the way they got used to.

Hegemony at the Oscars

With the Oscars coming up, there have been more and more articles about the nominees, favorites and underdogs, and pre-Oscar parties. I came across this article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/25/selena-gomez-gwyneth-paltrow-women-pre-oscar-party_n_1301103.html) about the Women in Film’s pre-Oscar party, where female Oscar nominees and filmmakers gathered to celebrate before Sunday’s Academy Awards. Of the 200 Oscar nominees, only 45 are women; consistently, women make up about 25% of the group of nominees. This led me to think about how hegemony was infused throughout the entirety of the Oscars; why is it that despite the presence of a strong and talented group of actresses, the industry is dominated by men? Could this have been a result of the initial, all-male actors in the entertainment industry, and that ideology has carried over even today? Or maybe it’s because of the male-dominated lead roles in films, which showcase talented male actors and suppress potentially Oscar-worthy performances from supporting roles played by women? Maybe it’s the 94% white, 77% male group that comprises the Academy, with a median age of 62, says a L.A. Times study conducted this month. 33% of members are previous Academy Award winners or nominees. It can easily be speculated how this majority’s bias influences Oscar nominations and decisions. Some or a combination of any of these factors could explain why the film industry, and the entertainment industry in general, is dominated by men. This masculine hegemony, as described by R.W. Connell, is established by the correspondence between “cultural ideal and institutional power” (Connell 77).

Also something to think about: why even have a Women in Film pre-Oscar party? I’m pretty sure there isn’t a Men in Film organization that’s hosting a pre-Oscar party. Making this distinction, of separating men and women, seems to be furthering the divide between the sexes. And as Gwyneth Paltrow, co-host of the party, is quoted in the article: “’We’re smarter than men and better than men’”.  And so the divide continues to widen.

A Homosexual Child

I feel like parents put a lot of "responsibility" on themselves if their child is gay. It isn't their "fault." It shouldn't be considered a "fault." I think a lot of the homophobia stems from religion and from tradition. I recently wrote a paper about legalizing prostitution. Some people do not believe sexual acts are appropriate or right before marriage. Extremely promiscuous women are often frowned upon. But, if the views of sex changed, the views of prostitution would change. People do not accept and refuse to accept many different types of people. This could be because they were raised in a certain way, believe in certain morals, or become extremely uncomfortable around people who are different. Some parents feel like they did something wrong when their children turn out in an non-traditional way. I don't know if homosexuality is something you are "born" with or become over time but it shouldn't matter and it shouldn't be seen as something that is wrong.

I've Got a Dream

Based on the readings and what I've picked up in class, discussion, and the blog posts, I feel as though a lot of our understanding of what masculinity is has to do with assumptions and perceptions society has.  Men are supposed to be strong, unemotional, and like "manly" things. Girls are supposed to be frilly, fashionable, smell good, and like "girly" things. The definition of masculinity is having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness. So by this definition, if men stray outside of what is "traditionally manly", then they are effeminate. However, in the movie Tangled, there was the band of ruffians who came across as very tough, aggressive, and were feared. They had hooks for hands, armor, weapons, and were very built. However, there is a scene with all of them where they are singing about their dreams. Some dreams included were making tiny ceramic unicorns, being a florist, and making superb cupcakes, which to me, don't seem like typical qualities associated with men. Interestingly enough, the ruffian who had the dream of being an interior designer was dressed quite effeminately. Of course it's a Disney movie so there is going to be a song, but the fact that they were given dreams such as the ones described and can yet be given those appearances goes against the definition of masculinity. There's even a jab from Flynn Rider, the main male character, who says he has a dream that's less "touchy feely", implying they aren't masculine dreams either. There should be some middle ground with masculinity though. Just because a man likes to bake or sing and dance or arrange flowers shouldn't make him effeminate if he has other qualities that would make him masculine. It should just add to his character. 

I really do enjoy that scene though, so you can watch it too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFHbQ3agvE&feature=related

Ballerina, Ballerino?

I started to think of activities that are thought to be "boy activities" and "girl activities."  We learn how to categorize activities as children and then these ideas stick with us all throughout our lives.

What was interesting to think about was how some activities and things can overlap within genders, and how some overlapping of activities is accepted, while others are not.  If there is a girl that is really into sports and has an interesting fashion style that is perhaps more masculine, this girl could be considered really cool and hip even.  However, if there is a boy that is very passionate in activities that are typically feminine activities, he is not usually considered to be that cool.

I started to think about this because this semester, my straight guy friend decided to take ballet classes.  I thought that was great - if he was interested in ballet, he should absolutely pursue that interest and take the class.  My other girl friends also thought that was really cool and thought it would be good for him.  However, he didn't tell him roommate that he was taking the class.  Yet, when his roommate found out, despite the initial joking around about it, he also told him he should go for it if he was interested in it.  He thought it was cool too.  Still, the fact that he initially kept it a secret makes me wonder why these categories must exist.

Sport and Masculinity

Upon reading R.W. Connell's "Masculinities" I came across a part in a passage where he mentions Michael Messner's interview study of professional athletes (page 35). I was so shocked to see this name because I actually just learned about Messner's interview in my other class EXSC 310- Sociopsychological aspects of sport and physical activity so I thought I would give some background information on this study and see how it relates to our SWMS class.  Mich Messner observed soccer teams of four and five year old boys and girls and they ways that they interacted with one another, there was a particular situation in which the boys made fun of the girls for being called team Barbie.  Messner wondered why parents at the soccer game accepted without question the idea that boys and girls are naturally different, even though boys were initially interested in the play ful actions of the girls and their use of the Barbie IconHe also wondered if people who use nature to explain the actions of their children tend to overlook similarities between boys and girls and feel no need to discuss the actions with the children. Even though the boys were "just being boys" as many of the parents said, and their playful actions did not physically hurt anyone, Messner wondered if certain sports are organized to reaffirm ideas about gender and nature so that many people believe it is normal for boys and men to express aggression by intimidating others.

I just thought this was an interesting point and a good demonstration of how to start to develop a research question. I think a lot of what we teach our kids has to do with our own impressions of how society works and many parents may think that it is okay for boys to act certain ways that they do towards girls because of the excuse that they are "just being boys". But if we changed the way that we taught our kids to act towards one another,  is it possible that we could change the way adults start to look at gender as well?

You've got a friend in me....I think.

Oh toy story, thanks for that song.

Anyways, our talks on hegemony and masculinity focused on societal trends, but what about relationships? Take friendship, for instance, which is already hard enough to define. Some say friendship is about honesty and loyalty. Others emphasize compassion and care. There come gray areas when being loyal means lying or being honest means not being loyal. Friendship itself is already a difficult enough concept.

Now add in hegemony and masculinity, and we've taken the issue of understanding friendship to a whole other level. Friendship between girls is different than friendship between guys. Where girls talk everything out - guys keep emotions on the down low. It is seen as un-masculine to be too emotional. The hegemony is that guys aren't supposed to talk about their feelings - a masculine trait. So most guys don't talk about their feelings - especially with each other. Girls on the other hand can talk TOO much about their feelings. I've heard so many girls say that it's easier to be friends with guys because they are less drama. Similarly, I've had guys tell me things they say they just can't tell to their guy friends.

If these are gender roles constructing our basis for human relationships - how do we even know what's real?

Sexy and I know it.

...sorry I tried coming up with a witty title. And sorry to let you all down--this passage isn't about LMFAO either.

BUT something I think that's interesting is the division between men and women in the workout room. I know we've touched on it in class a little bit but I was randomly thinking it on the treadmill today.

Why is it that women should be more focused on cardio machines while men are supposed to be seen in the weight lifting area? Is it because cardio machines are seen to be more frilly, more dainty while weightlifting is more macho? A human needs both parts to maintain a healthy lifestyle; yet, sexes hardly are seen crossing the other half of the room. How is it do you think these norms have come about?

What happens when an individual crosses the other half of the room? How have you reacted, personally? Be honest!

Sexuality

Many people have a problem with homosexuality. It is weird to think that that word did not exist and has not existed for a long period of time. Gay was a word that entered my life in middle school. I did not think much about it until I developed a gay friend. He came out of the closet mid way through our relationship and it didn't change my feelings about him. People who feel so strongly against homosexuality may be feeling homosexual pressures themselves and are afraid of it. It is such a complicated issue with such various beliefs. Many oppositions stem from religion but, in class, the words of the Bible can be interpreted differently. Everything can be interpreted differently depending on expectations and beliefs.

Acceptance of Homosexuality within the Home

The following is an article that I found in the Huffington Post during the week:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Amelia/when-your-7-year-old-son-announces-im-gay_b_1277910.html

It tells the story of a mother and her approach to her young son announcing his sexuality at age seven. It ties into our discussions on Frued bringing up ideas of childhood sexuality. I feel that the situation described here isn't one that would be handled in the same way about fifty years ago. The child may have been told that he was "wrong" and shouldn't mention any of that at school. These parents, though, have really made efforts to make their child feel comfortable with what he likes at home, and have requested teachers to be as understanding as possible. Some people may feel that the child is simply parroting a term ("gay") without understanding what it implies, which is a possibility. Regardless, the reaction of the parents give the child the early impression that he will be loved regardless of what sexual preferences he develops later on in life.

Hetero vs Homo

When I was younger I felt that being homosexual was a deviant way of life. However, with maturity, education, and classes offered by USC and taught by Professors like Dr. Halberstam, I realize more and more that there are a number of ways that individuals choose to live their lives both publicly and privately that have no real affect on the rest of us in any negative way, except for confusing us when they don't conform to our preconceived notions of what is proper behavior. I believe, with time, homosexuality will become something normal and not considered deviant, but it will take time as much of our ideas of sexuality, masculinity, femininity, and man vs women are deeply engrained in our minds by a society that created these ideas for a specific purpose, and will look to hold on to them as long as possible. The homosexual is in a similar struggle as anyone else that wishes to stray from societal norms whether it be the older man looking to date a younger attractive female, the older woman looking to never get married but live a single life dating young men, a man or a woman who chooses to have multiple lovers in their life, to any other combination you can think of. The aforementioned hypothetical individuals can be heterosexual but they will still be viewed as deviants within current societal standards. Until we see these individuals as simply living a life they are comfortable living, anyone that strays from the norm can look forward to labels being placed on them which carry a negative connotation and a huge lack of acceptance by society.

So I Talked With A Pastor.

I'm what has come to be called a "progressive Christian," meaning my culture and tradition is thoroughly White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and my spirituality is much less clear. So many of my beliefs -- a majority, probably -- would be flat-out denied by any mainline or traditional Christian parishioner that I may appear to some to be hardly Christian at all. While I read the Bible for its spiritual guidance, beautiful prose, uplifting stories, and resonating symbolism, I don't always interpret it literally -- meaning I flat-out deny the veracity and divinity of such books as Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc.

But, still considering myself to be a "Christian," I am fascinated by the hard-line interpretation favored by so many churches. So I went and talked with a very good friend of mine who has been an ordained pastor for a few decades. I asked him very specifically about Leviticus 18:22, which reads thusly:

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." (King James Version)

"Yep, that's the verse," he began, "that is always mistranslated and taken out of context. On the face of it, yes, it appears to be a flat-out condemnation of homosexuality, a clear-cut 'thou shalt not.' But the most important part of this verse is where it says 'as with womankind.' That's the important part."

I asked him to explain further.

"The issue here isn't homosexuality --- it's sex positions. The woman would traditionally take the submissive position, right? On the bottom. Without getting into too much detail. So for a man to take that position -- to be submissive -- would be an abomination because it would be self-deprecating and demeaning, because men were superior to women. Homosexual relations between men were perfectly acceptable as long as neither took a submissive position."

And there you have it...from the mouth of an ordained Christian pastor.

Interesting, no?

We like facts

In Ruben's essay about sexuality, she explained how the oppression of homosexuality today is the result of a long chain. The sex oppression in Victorian England led to strict laws about sexuality in Amierica, which led to other things, which led to a crackdown of prostitution, which led to a crackdown on homosexuality, which led to negative opinions towards homosexuality. Today's homophobia therefore has a historical cause, but in the modern frame it doesn't actually have a legitimate justification. I began to ponder why the younger generations tend less and less to be homophobic than the old farts who run our nation, and realized that it might be because of the lack of justification. Today, we have such a big cultural focus on information, facts, and science. The internet, the sci-fi genre, and the competitive, streamlined nature of the education system, no doubt, all contribute to this focus. Consequently, there's less of an importance placed in tradition. It makes sense, then, that homophobia is waning: there's no logical, biological, or scientific reason that gays are bad or shouldn't marry, and apathy towards tradition causes a disconnect from the ancient culture that pushed its anti-gay agenda since the days of Queen V.

Acceptance of homosexuality.

I was reading a couple of posts made by our fellow Korean classmates and I agree on what they were saying.  In Korea, I believe that many people are homosexual, but they just don't want to come out of their cave because they would feel threathened by others.  If homosexuals have a difficult time coming out of their cave in America, it would be even harder for many countries, like Korea.  America is more open and homosexuality is more accepted than any other culture, but it's still very difficult for them to open up because of the hand full of people who have hatred against homosexuals.  I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so my perspective on homosexuals is completely different from my parents, who were born and raised in Korea.  Even though they moved to LA in the 80's, they are against it because they are very Christian and it was socially unacceptable in the culture they grew up in.  Even though I am a Christian, I have no problems with homosexuals because in general, they are very friendly people with a different taste and preference in whom they want to give their love to. America is a free country where they have the freedom of speech or freedom to love whoever they want. I think that Korea and other Asian countries are becoming more open about homosexuality because I see that many of these countries are trying to become more American.  I don't know how long it will take for these countries to socially accept homosexuality, but it will take a very long time since America still has a difficult time with acceptance.

The Homophobia

Fifteen years ago, there was an actor coming out on Korean television show who is Mr. Hong. After two years later, a transgender who is Ms. Ha issued every television program in Korea. At the both time, people had supported Mr. Hong and Ms. Ha; on the other hands, the others was unwilling to show up on television. Moreover, most of my friends curse at them because they are not normal people who we have not seen before and fall in unnatural love with same gender. As we learned, the homophobia appeared 1960’s by an American psychologist George Weinberg. 

I would like to think about homosexual and homophobia towards current generation all of the world and USA too. ; moreover, what will happen in future.

There is a gay or lesbian in drama because it is now the vogue and at issue in whole world especially in Korean. As I get rid of my prejudice of homosexuality and stereotype by education and experience, homophobia will reduce rate because they will have direct or indirect experienced, educated and familiar with them when the current generation in live socially.

Do we really accept homosexual?

Last time when I was watching a mv, my mom happened to see it and she was kind surprised about those men with high heels dancing on the screen. My mom just thinks that the mv is awkward because those men dress in such a feminism way. similarly to her, many of my friends still consider homosexual love as a thing against nature.I personally hold a natural attitude towards homosexual, but I till can't imagine what if it happen on my surrounding people, like Ka Man Long post on the blog earlier. Maybe I should try to be more tolerant and open about this issue. Some people say that the society has been more open for gays and lesbians than before. Yes, I agree. However, I also believe gay must have a lot of courage to insist on his decision in an intolerant atmosphere, because if the society has already regarded homosexual as a normal sex orientation, why we always discuss  it on class and blog? In opposite, we almost never debate over anything about heterosexual since we think it is natural.Actually, we just no longer forbid homosexual, but we still consider it as a special case no matter how open we think we are. Homosexual will be truly accepted one day when we no longer have conversations about it.

Homosexuality in Asian Country

Homosexuality was not the term that I was aware when I came to America 6 years ago. Born and raised in Korea, my family was very conservative. Not much people was aware of homosexuality in Korea, either. Even now when the people in Korea are aware of the issue, they still believe that those kind of issues are not their problems, and none of Koreans are homosexual. In fact, there are many people in Korea who declare themselves homosexual but are afraid to speak out because of cultural barrier.

There was a news that was reported few weeks ago that one Korean applied for asylum in Canada. He insisted that if he goes to the army (every men in Korea must serve their duty approximately for 2 years), he will be embarrassed and bullied because he is gay. Some people responded to the news that now is the time that Korea should open up to more diversity where some others said that those people are insane and should be expelled from the country.

Spinning a Tale...a FISH Tail! (oof...puns...)

I saw this about a year ago and when I saw it then, I just thought it was hysterical (and watched all the videos in this series). After our discussion, especially about Disney princesses, I can see that this video is also pointing out some serious flaws (feminist-wise) in the classic Disney stories we all love. This one is a goof on Ariel (never explicitly stated probably due to major copyright laws) and while I find the whole video very funny, it is especially pertinent to our discussions/class at:

0:37
0:51
0:57
1:04

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, or if you don't have the means to watch these parts, basically what they point out is the fact that Ariel gave up her unique and incredible opportunity of being a beautiful mermaid in order to be an ordinary human. It also says how "if you don't like something about yourself, snip snip!"

I also find these videos humorous/interesting/relative to this class because the title for all of them is "Advice For Young Girls"--pointing out the fact that Disney is teaching young girls to be the hetero-normative, non-feminists society so desperately tries to make them.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8xCgC3w1zs

Because I liked to play sports when I was young I was labeled a "tomboy" when I was growing up.

Ever since I was young, I was never very girly. I spent most of the time running around and playing video games with my guy cousin and my brother. Although I did spend some time playing with dolls with my sister, I was always considered more "boyish" than girly to everyone in my family because I preferred to play with the boys in my family. As I got older, I started playing basket ball because my favorite cousin at the time really liked it. I actually became pretty good that during my lunch breaks in elementary school I would rather spend my time playing basket ball with the boys than mingle with the other girls in school. As a result this, many of my classmates labeled me as a "tomboy" because I was good in sports. My ability to play sports intimidated many of the guys because I was able to compete on the same level of them or even better than them.

Even until Middle School, the imagine that people had towards me had always been the same. I was known as the girl that is very good with sports that mostly had guy friends. At one point, I felt very discouraged because although I have had many crushes for other boys in my grade, I know that these boys would never look as me as a normal girl just because I always had this "boyish" imagine to them. For along time I was very sad to know that because of my hobby participating in a "masculine activity," people treated me differently than how normal girls were usually treated. This made me want to break out of imagine of being a "tomboy."

Everything became easier for me when I first moved to LA for High School. Because nobody knew me, people didn't label me as being a "tomboy." I was able to comfortably wear skirts because back when I was growing up, girls would tease me for wearing skirts. I was expected to be like the guys and act like them. It is very ironic because I felt restricted to act like a girl when I am a girl. Over time, as everyone matured, my imagine as being boyish did die down. I am able to feel more comfortable about myself because I able be myself with no expectations.

Beauty in Fairy Tales

http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/031111.Grauerholz.tales.html

The fact that our society is circumscribed by the ideology of heteronormativity stems from the elements that we carry with us since childhood. Fairy tales represent a significant part of our childhood; and the values that are embedded in the stories taught us to be kind and helpful to get our wishes granted. However, in the process of communicating the moral values to children, the motif of feminine beauty is prevalent in most, if not all the stories. The article (link) above discusses the disadvantages of reading fairy tales. The researchers mentioned that fairy tales revolve too much around beautiful women (princesses) who are kind and ugly people (villains, or witches) who are evil. This will cause children to believe that people without good looks are more mean, and that beautiful and feminine girls will be rewarded with happy endings. Fairy tales also shape one's thinking about gender roles, as children might believe that engaging in sports or work is not part of being feminine. They may also be hindered from being independent and be intellectually competitive against other women and men, because fairy tales make them believe that beauty is their saving grace.

Your True Favorite Color

Similar to the choice of favorite color, people always have their right to decide their preferred form of sexual orientation. I support both homosexuality and heterosexuality and would never consider them as different “categories.” Human rights are given as people are born, so no one could be deprived on exercising their rights. If people choose to have an opposite sex partner, would the society blame them? Surely not. What if people choose to have a same sex partner? Blames and attacks would come from all directions no matter they claim to be for God’s sake, for morality, or for human nature. I find it strange for the society to have such culture.

Do we categorize people who like different colors and give more rights to one category and deprive the rights of another category? For instance, people who like green can always wear green clothes and people who like blue can never ever wear blue clothes. Our cognition tells us that this differentiation does not make sense, so why does the society discriminate homosexuality? The meaning of life is to treat yourself truly—find what you truly like, but not to get restricted on what you are looking for.

Differences Between Generations - A Conversation With My Dad

I think our generation has made immense progress towards eliminating the idea of heteronormativity. Maybe it’s because our generation is increasingly liberal compared to previous generations, or maybe it’s because of the increasing presence of LGBT characters in the media, such as Glee and Modern Family, or maybe it’s because we have become more open to addressing the topic. The combination of these factors, I believe, have brought an awareness to our society, that there is not just male and female, heterosexuality and homosexuality, but rather a whole range in between. Although the change may be slow, I think what we really need is just time for people to understand these ideas. 

A personal example I have of the different ideologies of different generations is a conversation I once had with my dad. One night at dinner, we somehow got on the topic of homosexuality and although my dad and I get along really well and I love him a lot, there are some topics we disagree on, gay rights being one of them. Now, to preface this story, I have to explain that my dad was born and raised in Taiwan, in a conservative, traditional, religious Asian family. When he was a kid, the topic of homosexuality never came up; it was taboo, inappropriate, and disgusting. So as my dad got older, he adopted the same ideas. I, on the other hand, was born and raised in California at a time when I think people were starting to become more open to discussing these ideas. I made friends who identified with all different types of sexual orientations. I had a lot more exposure to these ideas, whether it is because of TV shows, movies, or friends. With these two opposing ideologies, I wanted to ask my dad why he felt the way he did about gays and lesbians because it was difficult for me to understand his viewpoint. So to try and express his opinions, my dad told me an analogy. He said, think about a race track, where there’s one road and one direction. Everyone’s expected to follow in the same direction, with the rest of the cars. Imagine, he said, if there were some cars going in the opposite direction. My dad asked how I would respond if I saw that happening. Wouldn’t I feel like those cars weren’t going in the right direction? He genuinely wanted to hear my opinion, so I told him, to me, I didn’t think of the cars going in the wrong direction as gays or lesbians who were going against the direction of societal norms. To me, they weren’t racing in the wrong direction on theses “tracks of sexuality,” I guess you could call them. To me, they were just racing on a different track. Not one that was inferior or wrong or negative. Just a different track. I was in no position to label what was wrong or right, nor did I think there was a right or wrong.

After lecture and discussion, I thought back to this conversation I had with my dad I realized that the ideas my dad was expressing (which I completely respect, because I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinions, regardless of whether they agree with mine) were ideas of heteronormativity. And that’s not to blame my dad for expressing this idea; that was the way he was raised and the ideas he personally developed based on society, his family, and religion as he was growing up. I guess what I’m trying to say is that our views on sexuality and gender are influenced by societal beliefs and norms, and vice versa. That maybe, we just need a little more time for people to truly understand that there really isn’t any right or wrong sexual orientation. What our society doesn’t need is to categorize and label people, but rather respect people and their personal decisions. After all, there’s a lot more to a person than just their sexuality. Eventually, I think we’ll reach that point of acceptance and understanding, in time.

I also wanted to include a YouTube clip of an interview of country singer Chely Wright, who talked about her experience about being lesbian, coming out, and the difficulties she faced telling her dad. The interview is with Ellen DeGeneres, who I LOVE by the way. I think she’s such an amazing, funny and kind person, and she really was a pioneer for starting the movement towards gay rights and awareness in our society, using her influence and power in the media. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hY9iA-yOSw