Final Reflection

              There are so many different things I can take from this class. I tend to explore things I never have before and this class gave me the perfect opportunity. I was opened to many different ideas, opinions and concepts I would have never known otherwise. I have never realized all the little things that I tend to overlook. This class really made you analize things that go on around me or even things going on around the world. You can really be exposed to the nitty gritty of todays society suck as nature issues, steriotypes, and biases in religion. Being a highschool student, you really only know what happens in the four walls of our class rooms. the people who surround you are offten like you and you don't really get the full picture of whats out there. This class helped me explore the differences between culture, gender, and lifestyles in general. Not only all of that but I have also become a better writer because of this class. I have needed to explain difficult concepts in my own words which can be difficult. I have also learned alot more about famous texts and authors. Even those not so famous have been benifitial. I have had a wonderful experiance in a class like no other. hearing what my teacher and class mates have had to say on what we are disscusing also made it easier to open up and share my own ideas. I may not remember every detail of this class because there is just so much we have done, but will definitely maintain those life skills forever.

Diversity: Gender

Male Privilege Checklist-
         In the begging of this article it talks about how some privileges are invisible. In most cases today and especially for men, they pretty much go unnoticed. it made me think of how back in the day some privileges were very visible. For instance when there was segregation between blacks and whites, the whites privileges were clearly stated, "WHITES ONLY". The list that McIntosh comes up with is really interesting because I have never thought about a lot of the things mentioned on this list before. Yet when they are pointed out to you, you realize how true they really are. It is hard to relate to relate to those about jobs, because although I have a job, I only work with women. At Claire's it is never stated that men cannot work there it is almost that none would hire a man to work there.
        As I was going down the list, mouth wide with astonishment, I read a few that talked about body image and weight differences in men and women. It reminded me of a video that I wached about boys saysing that they like women to be thin yet it bothers them when she avoids eating junk food and doesn't bake all the time. Men dont have to worry about that kind of confliction. Its not quite fair, how men dont worry about apearance and dislike women who spend alot of money on themselves but still expect they woman to look good and wear nice things. How does this add up?

Media Portrayals of Men and Masculinity
          In the media "real men" are portrayed in a very specific way. For the most part this means unrealistic for the adverage guy. The stigma for men to be a certain way can lead to self essteem issues. I have noticed differences between male and female media portrayal. When it comes to advertising a product, they fit the advertisment to fit the intended audiance. For women they advertise a product by basically saying, you will be more beautiful if you buy this. For men the approach seems different, it is more like saying all real tough, hadsome men use this product. Yet obviously the real world doesnt work that way. the media is painting a very unrealistic picture of real life men. This is one of the examples that I thought of when i read the list of different male actors character types.

The Joker



If you have seen Pirates Of The Carabbean you know that Captain Jack Sparrow is portrayed as a very powerful smart and also man. He is a pirate which automatically means he is strong, mean, and very masculin. I have also noticed that he also in unafraid of making a fool of himself and takes nothing too seriously. He is put into horrible situations and still make light of it.

Graduation

Graduation

                This one really scared me. I had a hard time even thinking about what I was reading do to the fact that I am graduation in a couple of weeks and I am scared to death. Everything she said worried me more and more and made me think of completely different things. Such as how she was talking about graduating from the eighth grade. I started remembering graduating from sixth grade and from the 9^th grade. And to look into the future about 20 days and see myself graduating high school is really weird. When she described the dress and the outfits they were wearing I could help taking a mental shopping trip to find what I would wear on the 1^st.  I can picture it now, going through the whole mall and not finding one thing that I either like, fits me or is in my price range, simply horrifying. 

                I have noticed a lot of people at school starting to give up as a result of senioritis. And I can’t count the amount of times I have heard disrespectful kids ask the teacher when in their life they will ever need to know what they are learning. They think it is better to simple learn nothing than learn something that may help them in the future, but that just means that these kids probably don’t have very high expectations for themselves after high school. I thought about this when I read the section where she talks about how the accomplishment of graduating means nothing because to others she is a maid, farmer, handyman, or washerwoman. Her lifestyle is dependent on what others expect from her, not what she expects from herself although she knows she can be successful.

Shocking Story

Narrative response to The Shocking Story

                I think that there are many different interpretations of this story. But I believe them to be exactly as it is told. A young boy does something harmless and is killed for it, not because of what he did exactly but because he is black. Others may think that what Emmett Till did was extremely wrong and inappropriate and he got what he deserved. And some might think that it was all made up and blown out of proportion or that it didn’t happen at all.

                I actually find this story very interesting because it just shows the great lengths people would go to discriminate. Not only the men that killed Emmett but the people who know about what happened and didn’t tell and did nothing about it. Or the men who heard the trial in court and didn’t convict the men of murder or kidnapping because the necessary evidence was lacking, even after they admitted to everything.

                I looked at the pictures of Emmett’s funeral online and the images where horrifying. How can anyone deny this was a murder of an innocent boy.  After reading the letters to the editor it really made me wonder what goes through people’s minds.  It’s obvious that people can still be extremely racist after hearing stories like this and can either be totally okay with it or can be like Mrs. W.R Prevost and say it is filthy and dishonest.

Hughes

Narrative response to Hughes

                When I read these poems it just makes me think of how far we have come in the last hundred years. I wanted to relate to something in class but never got the chance to. After Katie talked about how her grandmother was made fun of in school for being brown when she really wasn’t very dark, she became ashamed of her heritage and had low self esteem. I had a relevant story to tell to follow hers but the subject was quickly changed so I will tell you now. My mom is not white at all. Her father is African American and her mother is Hispanic. She looks back at the times these poems are talking about and is more proud than anything to be a woman of color. She sees how things use to be and how instead of being broken down, these people of color stood up for themselves and finally got the respect they deserve.

                Because my mother is married to a white man most people see her as white. Even I didn’t understand for the longest time that she wasn’t white. Father died when I was young so I never really got to see the full aspect of it all. So in her view things are the opposite, she wants to be seen as different because it’s rare and not everyone understands.

Tristan

Tristan

Gottfried von Strassburg

                The first section of Tristan is the prologue. I made many connections to this paragraph. When I read it, it was basically talking about how you have to know one thing in order to know the opposite. If you never experience sorrow than you have never really experienced love because they go hand in hand, at least one time in every one’s life. I connected the song Big Yellow Taxi, it talks about you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I think many people take advantage of what they have, love is included in that. I also thought of the relationship between good and evil. When I was little and I saw someone do something horrible on the news I would ask my mom why God made such bad people, and she would always tell me it is because it gives everyone a reason to become better people, and that good defeats evil any day. Which brings me to the next section, enduring sorrow for the sake of love.  People do so much for love. Every love story or movie ever made is based around this. People go through hell just to be with someone. Although that person doesn’t seem that different to anyone else, to that person that is all they need to life. Just being with them is enough and nothing can between the two.

I don’t remember what section made me think about this, but I think it talked about how people sometimes hide they way they really feel around the people they love. I have never personally experienced this but I feel like that’s one of the reasons these relationships that seem so perfect at the beginning never work out. People change they way are to impress the other and then when they are far enough into the relationship they start to loosen up and show their true colors.  Then what, they are no longer that person their partner fell in love with. For instance, my manager told her boyfriend 6 years ago that she loved the same football team as he did so they could have something in common, and he really like that about her. She really doesn’t like football that much but now they are married and she always complains to us about having to watch all the games! That ridiculous!

                I really liked this article even though I didn’t really understand the whole last page because It was really random, not to mention I was really tired and it is hard to read anything at that point. I thought it was very interesting and realistic.

To his Coy Mistress

Sidney Rogers 3^rd

To his coy mistress

A poem like this I feel can mean so many different things, and everyone can interpret it differently, but when I think about it in the terms of love I think it is talking about two young lovers that had the whole love at first sight thing. They have the have their whole lives ahead of them and plan to spend every moment together. I think he is describing how every day his love for her grows stronger and if he could he would have met her long before he did.

                I love the thought of meeting a guy who knows the little details about me, for instance not only does he knows that my eyes are green, he knows that they are darker on the outer side and fade to lighter green towards the center, and there are little hits of brown and yellow mixed in. Such as in the way he says  “ An hundred years should I go to praise, thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze.

                Another random connection that I made to the text was this. When you are in love with someone so perfect for you it is hard to settle for anyone less. I have seen this so many times in high school, people share certain experiences with people where they think that they are the one, then when things don’t work out for so many reasons people can have a hard time getting over it. Yet I think in this relationship described they knew from the start it was right and neither where afraid do make a commitment to each other. And although everyday will be a journey and adventure they are willing to go through it together. I just realized, I could be completely just hearing what I want to hear. I guess this is just what I wish for myself. I hope what I have said does relate to the text anyways.

The Art of Love

The Art of Love

There is a connection between love and war. People will use the same tactics in both, yet in slightly different ways. “Love like war is a toss-up”(pg 295) I thought that it was interesting when it talked about love can drive people to do things and can almost control them when it is powerful enough. Love is truly powerful just like weapons. Men in the war will continue to tread on through struggle if they are making their way towards their love. It doesn’t even have to be a woman, men will travel many miles if they know there is even a hamburger waiting for them at the finish line. I realize that there was s story here, but not quite sure what that was. All I know is that all of a sudden he’s on a bed and there’s a naked girl there. I’m pretty sure this man is sleeping and this is a dream, because that doesn’t happen in real life. “Oh look at that! Magically a naked girl appeared in my room, I sure am one lucky man!”

Song of Songs

Sidney Rogers 3rd

Song of Songs

                I would describe this as three things. Confusing, detailed, and what I imagine to be romantic if I were to understand it. I related it to what I was talking about in the Intro. How to describe something that cannot really be seen people use other objects to describe it, as beautiful as a rose in bloom. Yet in this poem, these metaphors made it even more confusing. Such as “My beloved is like a gazelle, like a young stag”. Now if someone said that to me I wouldn’t know whether or not to be flattered or appalled. “Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes as they come up from the washing.” See I imagine a bunch of white feathered emu’s by a water’s edge scrubbing their undies, so romantic. 

What is Love?

Sidney Rogers 3rd

What is Love?

Helen Fisher

                The general argument made by Helen Fisher in her work What is Love? Is that love is a chemical reaction in the brain. More specifically Fisher argues that is has nothing to do with your heart like most people believe and that your brain is in charge of making all of the emotions people feel when they are in love. She writes, “Romantic love is a universal experience deeply embedded is the human brain. (Page 335)In this passage, Fisher is suggesting that men and women’s brains react differently to stimuli, such as men are more visual based and their brain is more active when they are shown a picture of someone they adore, while women are more memory based. Her research shows that this is evolutionary and instinctual. Men chose women based on their physical health and ability to bare young while women were attracted to men who could provide and protect. In conclusion, it is Fisher’s belief that love is strictly connections made in the brain and that it has been proven that emotions create certain activity in the brain.

                In my view, Fisher is right because as much as I want to believe that love comes from the heart or that it is a spiritual experience that people have, I think that it only makes sense that it all is created in the brain. For example, some people say that when you in love your heart starts beating fast because the love is in your heart. But in reality, your brain is more active so it tells your heart to start beating faster so your brain has more blood to function. Therefore, I conclude that it must be true if she had discovered this in such extensive research and has proof of what she is talking about.