Sexual orientation is something that can be difficult or confusing and many of us growing up have questioned which sexual orientation we follow or should follow.  Personally, I grew up confused and questioned whether I was straight, gay or bi-sexual as I found myself being attracted to members of both sexes.  People may think thats wrong and but I honestly don't care.  After a period of time and experimenting I am sure that I am straight as I am very much attracted to men and believe that is who I should be with but can appreciate the beauty of a woman.  I am very open to love wherever one may find it, whether it be in a man or woman and we should follow our instincts to what makes us the happiest and what we are most comfortable siding with.

I found it very interesting to read about the balance between heterosexual and homosexual individuals and the classification(s) of both.  It was also to read about men and not much to say about women.  I think a lot of it has to do with judgements but found the most interest in how a homosexual or heterosexual person is made up by 3 classifications; their physical, psychically and spiritual elements.  The last paragraph about how "males do not represent two discrete populations" or "not all things are black not all things are white."  it is rare that we find people are only one thing or the other.  We are made up of so many different things that make our individuality and we more people need to understand that when we stop only focusing on a title and behaviors and focus on the sexes as a whole.  We should be able to learn from one another not judge because of differences.

Are we supposed to only act one way or the other in order to be considered part of each sexual orientation. Like does a gay man have to be flamboyant and feminine and express themselves through girly gestures....these are all stereotypes as we talked about in the previous class discussions.  Some people do act more flamboyant than others but the most masculine man you see walking down the street can be that other man's partner.  I hate the stereotypes that come about for homosexual or gay men and women more than almost any other stereotype being used.

A lot has changed from the time this article was written and today's society but not enough to say that people do not have the exact thoughts and assumptions that are written about in the study in this article.

Race and Ethnicity

I was originally drawn to the article How Did Jews Become White Folks? because I'm Jewish and it seemed interesting from the start.  Most jewish people are white so I was intrigued to see how the author explained for Jewish people became white folks.  I knew it had to do with the characterization of what it is to be Jewish in comparison to just being white.  It was believed that Jews were part of an inferior race and because their beliefs and traditions were not the same of the majority then  they became part of a sub-culture inside the larger.  There were right there next to African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, everyone who wasn't white.  I liked the bit about the division of the inferior and superior races and how the Jewish people were categorized into that division.  It gave me a history of the immigration process and I learned that before the 19th century it says we resembled the white people but were still not considered white folks. 


I liked the idea that there could be a “race suicide” because of the integration of the different immigrants from all over.  Couldn't people realized that multiculturalism is good!  I understand that it was a different time but come on!  It was a different time when everyone was used to people of one "origin" and similar in most of their characteristics and change was different and scary. But it is also educational.

"The existence of anti-immigrant, racist, and anti-Semitic barriers kept the Jewish middle class confined to a small number of occupations." As they came into society and people began to realize Jews are smart and resourceful and education oriented, they were limited to a few occupations.  Assumption they should just stick to what they were good at?  Not allow them to branch out?  I was confused but understood the confinement.  This was the societies way of integrating the Jewish people into their already integrated society but keeping the confinement to only certain neighborhoods and jobs.  Their way of acceptance but confinement? Seems kind of contradictory to me.  I think depending on how religious a person is depicts today how "isolated"they may be and how surprised people might be if they knew how many Jewish people walked among them never knowing they were even Jewish.

                                                                                                                                                                  

Just look around today.  Who seems to be the majority in our society today doing so many of our lower paying jobs.  How do we think they came here and became so integrated into our everyday lifestyles.  It is more interesting to me to study how the behavior or lifestyle of Mexico-born Mexicans and U.S-born Mexican Americans and how much of our lifestyle has been adapted and what has stayed the same within families.  The integration process has changed greatly over the last century as it does in every society but I think the isolation is less seen with Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.  They are in every neighborhood, every job occupation.  I think we learn from them just as much as they learn from us about family and values.  Deportation is a whole other story and the increasing and decreasing and increasing amount that we've seen over the last century.  

There are other factors that are seen in Mexican culture seen over the generations.  Education levels seem lower, people tend to work jobs at lower pay and less prestigious job titles and tend to marry within their own race.  I think that has to do with a level of comfort and where they are in status.  In today's society unless you are here on a visa or work passport it is harder to establish a success high paying life in fear of deportation.  It is also so much harder for those people who have been here for decades to establish residency and citizenship without being deported first.  Before one could just pay a penalty and gain citizenship now everything is carefully considered and those sort of penalties don't exist.  Citizenship is earned and not so easily given away.  

"Mexican Americans in San Antonio had more ethnic lifestyles and behaviors, including retaining Spanish fluency into the third and fourth generation" In areas that are closer to Mexico where many people integrate into the United States there is more spanish spoken are lifestyles are different but its the idea that people from Mexico want to come to the United States for new experiences and a new life from their homes but the process is changing so raidply and more rules put into place that makes it so much more difficult.  Some of my best friends are Mexican and few are Mexican-American so the process of citizenship and gaining residency is something that affects me personally.  This is also why I chose this article to focus on because I was more intrigued to learn the history of the incorporation process in the United States.  I think it is important to keep different cultures and identities rather than trying to form immigrants into white americans that fit one type.  It is important to keep multi-culturalism in every society and without that we can't grow.

People Like Us

I really liked the PBS documentary title People Like Us  and the various points that it made about class and struggle and the dimension of each one throughout the United States and in America.   We are broken up and classified based on our class and the amount of money that we make, the amount of money we grow up on.

I enjoyed the documentary and how it connected back to the idea we discussed in class about how we see ourselves growing up and the class we are in and in reality what category of class we actually do fall into. We fail to live up to the idea that all men are created equal when in fact we are not but as long as we keep striving towards that dream we are able to keep that distinction in society of the different classes and ranking among one another.  Can we actually move from one class to another and change our social ranking? or is that something that can whatever class you are born into is where you will stay your entire life?

The way that we are raised is very dependent on where we end up later on in our lives and it is up to our surroundings and our parents and how we are raised to determine where we end up.  I think it can either make us stronger or weaker and it helps to examine all of the people we are like us.  Although it doesn't relate directly back to this class lesson, we are constantly learning from one another and strive to be like another.

Positive Functions of the Underserving Poorn

The 13 positive functions of the Underserving Poor are completely interrelated and all piggy back off one another.  The circumstances that many of them come into play is in direct result to lack of resources and support.  Some are more positive then the others.

1.  Risk reduction
2.  Scapegoating and displacement
3.  Economic banishment and the reserve army of labor
4.  Supplying illegal goods
5.  Job creation
6.  Moral legitimation
7.  Norm reinforcement
8.  Supplying popular culture villains
9.  Institutional scapegoating
10.  Conservative power shifting
11.  Spatial purification
12.  Reproduction of stigma and the stigmatized
13.  Extermination of the surplus

In the explanations of each of these functions, the author Herbert J. Gans was able to show us how the underserving poor live their lives but how each of these functions work in or out of favor to those that are not necessarily poor.  Whether it is proven or just a theory but POVERTY is the biggest issue in the world and is not getting better as we progress everyday.  One of the most important factors that will make or break us in each society is education.  I am not only referring to schooling but understanding and education others about right and wrong, true and false and cultural competency.  Unemployment is taking its toll negatively, virus's and illnesses are changing everyday some we know more about and reduction factors but everything is constantly changing.

I like in the last paragraph of the document amount the exaggeration of the actual dangers that stem from the poor.  Are their actual dangers or just a conflict in opinion and norms and values?  People from a poorer class are in no way trying to bring upon danger to themselves or their surroundings but I feel danger will always come into play with the individuals that have the constant need and desire to be better than one another.  It is healthy to have some competition and to strive for a better life but not when it comes to putting yourself or other people in danger.

Who knows what the big issue will be next.
As long as there are people living in poverty and "hope of a second chance" there will always be those who will take advantage of the less fortunate and make themselves look better. The poor are always looked down upon and no matter how they may try to make good for themselves there is always those who will shun them.  There is this unequal balance between the classes and as sad as it sounds I think there always be.   The two positive functions that I think could really make the most difference are job creation and  scapegoating and displacement.  

Is deviance always a bad thing?

"Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms."  We know that norms are the rules and expectations that we follow in, in our everyday society and through our class discussion as well as the textbook reading I have gained more insight to what is deviance and what it is like to go against these social norms.


We know the obvious examples of deviance, but when I think of deviance and the definition all I can think about is not what it means to violate our social norms but why people do it.  I know we are supposed to go against being deviants, but I just want to have some fun.  As long as no one is seriously hurt or put in any real danger, I think it is healthy to be a little deviant in our lives.  We should all learn to let the "devil" come out and play in our everyday lives.  I don't agree with having a completely deviant lifestyle but to have fun.


Deviance can be a way of expressing our individuality and develop an identity and while it is going against social norms it is also better defining them.  It shows both sides of a culture or society's norms and in fact can bring people together.  I know this sounds bad, bringing people together through deviance but I am tired of always hearing about the negative associations with deviance and wish I would read more about positive functions of deviant people.


I think it is however important that we all be culturally component when it comes to what is respectful and not respect in certain cultures and religions as we don't want to intentionally offend another person or group.  This is something we can learn from other people.  Sometimes what we mean in one place is something different in another so just watch out for that and not try to be deviant when it comes to another person's culture.  Other than that, just got with it!!  


Do things you haven't done before and try not to get caught.  We only live once!

Beauty and the Beast

Killing us softly is about beauty and the images of women and how our lives are represented.  The most influential way to illustrate the image of women is to take a look at advertising and how we are constantly immersed "foundation of the mass media".  It sells values, romance, success, of normalcy.  This was the quote that really stood out to me while listening to the clip.  Killing us softly explains about how advertising surrounds us with ideal beauty, what is female beauty and what it takes to succeed in this ideal.  Cultural climate illustrates how women are becoming things, seen as objects rather than actual human beings.  Within this process, violence starts to become an increasing issue because of this type of objectification.  The extent that advertising will go to to sell a product further objectifies women by dismembering the woman's body in order to sell products, most focus is on the breasts and a woman's butt.  Obsession with weight loss and being thin and beautiful becomes an endless issue in advertising and what is acceptable to be in advertising.  Visual images speak louder than anything that is said.  All of the ads illustrates active men and passive women.  On going issue especially from young age and what we are teaching our children to live up to.  What is the line we draw between eroticism and asking for violence?

A call to men is about the collective socialization of men.  "man box" this is the highlights of being a man and some things that are twisted that aren't right about being part of manhood.  These are all the things that we have to hold up as being part of a man, expectations and requirements of sorts.  He speaks through his own experiences and things he sees around him about the characteristics of building up themselves to become men and how it is appropriate to act. Being extremely rough on boys to "grow up" and "don't act like a boy, be a man" can lead to men learning to disrespect women, but not realize that is what they are doing.  "disrespect, mistreatment and abuse of women and each other."  Within the society, men have this constant competition of who is better, achieves the characteristics outlines in the "man box" better than anyone else.  Men are just as involved in violence in the problems and well as the solutions. It is okay to be equal with women, work together to help one another not make it all a competition.  Tony Porter talks about the way to truly be a man and the best man you can be, most well rounded and respected is to break free of the "man box."

Both of these video clips talk about socialization in the ways of what is expected of each gender in society and how we express ourselves.  Illustration of masculinity and femininity through words, images and personal experiences.  The speakers in both videos told their audiences about what is expected as a man and as a women in society and what happens when we go against those expectation. A common issue in both videos was the link to the relationships between men and women and between  men and men and women and women and how it all relates back to issues with violence.  Domestic, physical, sexual abuse and the messages that we send between the sexes in advertising and actions.

This is the photograph that I chose to represent how girls and boys are socialized in everyday society.

Society

Society is all about relating to one another through norms and values and expectations.  It is interesting to see how society and culture relate to one another and how culture and sub-culture are part of the definition of society based on the idea that it is made up of individuals that are part of the same culture or sub-culture  based on their norms and values and bring people stronger in a given society.

One of the most important parts of being part of a society is about the relationships that we form with one another on an individual level and as groups.  We come to together not just on similarities but through our differences.  We also build up in society through technology and communication in our economies and how advanced we have become over time.

Communication in our society is made up of both verbal and non-verbal and in my mind, non-verbal communication is more important in ways then verbal communication is.  Obviously what we say matters, but our body movements, the gestures we make and the facial expressions that we have say more than we might initially think. "actions speak louder than words."

Sub-Culture vs Culture

I have learned a small amount of information over the years about culture and what it means to be part of a culture but it wasn't until our class discussions and review of chapter 2  that I began to understand there is more to culture than just the simple definition.
 It was very insightful to learn about sub-culture and counter-culture and with the understanding of these two topics I am able to understand what it means to be part of a culture and the different components.  After reading "Teenage Wasteland" and the in class quick write, I was better able to make the connections of understanding what it is like to be in a sub-culture and how it differs from the dominant society.  "Teenage Wasteland"showed us all how the teenagers that together committed suicide stood out from the rest of society in how they expressed their own culture of with music and clothing inside their larger culture.  This also illustrated a sub culture because it illustrated a different way of approaching suicide rather than the individual taking their own life like we hear about everyday.

Who Am I?

To keep it basic, 22 blonde waitress/student living in NYC and loving every moment.  Everything I have done in the past has built up to who I am as a person today.  My father owns a restaurant in the west village in manhattan where I have grown up and learned everything I know about the restaurant business. Growing up in that business is not easy but I have learned a lot of my common sense by being in that work environment.  You tend to have to grow up fast when living in a fast paced fast moving environment.  Living in NYC everything is changing all the time, the same way everyone is changing all the time so I'm learning more about myself and about my surroundings because it's never the same for very long.  I wouldn't ask for it any other way.

I am taking classes in human services now, I don't know where that is going to leave me off when I graduate but I know with my personality and common sense I want to be able to learn proper techniques to helping someone else with problems and difficulties in their lives by making them realize the only way that is going to happen is if they learn to help themselves and not have to rely on others.  There is something about watching someone overcome an issue or difficulty and when they understand it makes you feel good and you know they feel good because they did it themselves.  We can't always rely on others to do things for us, its what makes up individual and unique as human beings.

I want to say my biggest influences are my family and my friends.    I have an incredible family and I have learned so much from them over my entire life but with all of the problems and difficult situations, I have had a chance to see how my family has approached the problem and seen how I would approach it differently.  My parents always gave me the opportunity to be my own personal and would offer guidance but give me the chance to pick my friends and choose what I do with my life.  It has gotten me into some trouble and I had to learn a lot of things the hard way at a very young age but I can say that I am such a strong person and feel I could encounter anything because of it.