Seriously.

I think it is crazy that people can be watched and followed for weeks plus and never know it’s going on. Especially when some people are so dense about what they put up on the internet. There are so many people, girls and boys both, who put all this stuff up on their face book and leave it open to the public. You never know what kind of creepos are looking at your pictures, your birth date, your email, and whatever else you have decided to put on there. Also, back when everyone had AOL or AIM, and I know I’m guilty of this, but there was a think you could find just a list of people from different age groups you could talk to. Living in a small town when you’re in middle school with no car or anything brings you to entertain yourselves so we would talk to a bunch of random people just for the hell of it. Because we had nothing better to do. And it was nothing inappropriate-don’t get the wrong idea-it was just funny more than anything I guess. We didn’t think too much about it then but as I got older I realized how stupid we were being. We lied about our age and where we were from most of the time and I can say with confidence a good majority of them were lying about it as well. With all these stories of rape accounts and abductions based on meeting strangers on the internet it seriously astounds me people are still so relaxed about it.

Enough

The idea of domestic violence is terrible to think about. It’s scarier more often then not people don’t even realizing what they are falling into. The abuser is usually very manipulative so the one being abused many times believes that they did something to provoke the abuser and therefore defend the batterers’ actions. I have thankful never been forced to deal with this myself or personally seen it happen to someone I knew directly, but in cases I have heard about, and how they often represent it in the media, the violent partner starts out really sweet in order to gain the trust of the other. Eventually they start building guilt and becoming angry increasingly more. This way the other partner looks past the first few episodes trying to brush them off as a ’one time thing’ or otherwise thinking about the relationship before this point and using that as hope that it will pass or it’s worth it to stay with them for the times when you’re both happy. People who are close with the couple will begin noticing but usually the one being abused is not able to be convinced there is something wrong with the picture. If you guys have never seen the movie Enough with Jennifer Lopez I would definitely recommend it. She plays a mother who is controlled by her abusive husband and eventually learns she has to take control and get herself, as well has her daughter as far away from him as she can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGCB-USc0uU

A brief history

From the reading “A Brief History of Working Women,” it seems that the Native Americans had the most equal life between men and women than whites or African Americans. In the Native American society women had important parts in the economy and though they still seem to be doing more work, they’re still seen as powerful and an important part of culture. In most Native American cultures, women are very agricultural. They go out and gather plants and herbs in order to produce food as well as create medicines and dyes. However, aside from this ‘housework’ they also work out in the fields, planting seeds, cultivating, harvesting, and in some cultures they even help out with hunting. Although the women play many roles in these societies, they are broader roles that are often times done by men in other cultures. Men are generally the hunters and women typically did agricultural work, but neither was seen as less important than the other. Whichever was more key to “community survival” was more powerful; if it was hunting, men would be seen as a greater asset, if it was agricultural work, women would be of greater importance. In these societies, aside from the fact that women had control of the land and the tools, they also lived by a matrilineal family structure, so the family name and the inheritance came from the women’s side. If more cultures had accepted this way of living, instead of becoming sexist and racist and putting women below everyone else, our society today would be a completely different place.

Household work

In my household chores always seemed to be split pretty evenly to me. I’m the youngest of four kids, two sisters and a brother, and we had chores divided up among us. When it came time to mow the lawn, we would have to switch off. Other than that, we all vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, helped with dinner, cleaned up after, etc. My parents got divorced when I was four, and though I can’t remember how my they divided it when they were together; I know how they do it now. At my mom’s house I definitely think she does more work than my step dad. He fixes the cars and mows the lawn now that all the kids are gone, but my mom always cleans the house, does the laundry, makes dinner, does the dishes, clears the table after dinner, goes grocery shopping, and I’m sure I’m still forgetting a few things. When I’m home I always help with dinner then help clean up the kitchen afterward, but my step dad, without fail, always leaves his dishes on the table then goes to sit in the other room to watch TV. That definitely has to be one of the things that bothers me the most when I’m home. At my dad’s house they have it sorted out a little more evenly. When my step mom cooks, my dad cleans up, and vice versa. They take turns doing the laundry and cleaning up the house as well as going out to go grocery shopping. I think this way provides a more relaxing household day to day and would help take off the stress from other things.

Family and second chances

What is family? A lot of people define family by what they know well-what they group up with. It might be two moms, two dads, a mom and a dad, four parents, etc. but it’s all family. These are the people that know you best and provide a home. Your family is usually your first trusting relationship and the people you come to when something exciting happens or if you need a shoulder to cry on. Even though many people still think of family as a mother, a father, and children, the many other ways a family can be are starting to become a more accepted idea. The more common these families are and the more familiar we are with them, the more comfortable people will be with the whole idea.

 Switching gears a little but still relating to family, as the video said, “there’s no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy.” Every baby is wanted by somebody, even though that somebody may not be their biological parent. As we saw, there are all kinds of families who are looking for a way to have children, through adoption, artificial insemination, etc. There are so many different reasons people can’t have kids of their own as well as so many children who don’t have a good home, or don’t have a home at all so really there’s no such thing as “oops” babies, to another person or another family they’re a second chance.    

Somebody to love?

I definitely disagree when people try to say people can choose whether or not to be gay. If they could, I don’t think they would be choosing to grow up and live the way they do a lot of the time. Like we talked about in class a little, when we were watching the video you could see how hard different aspects of their lives were with trying to have a family. It sounded like, more than anything, raising children was the hardest thing to do. Often times, like we read and as we heard in the movie, the children are mocked because of their family life, even when they’re straight. If parents were able to choose how to live and who to love I don’t think they would decide to see their children struggle through their school years and on. If people could choose who they fall in love with you would think they would decide to be with the person they could marry and get the usual benefits from by doing so. I just don’t understand the reasoning behind the logic when people actually believe that it’s a decision you can make out of free will. Things just don’t seem to add up when you look at all the pros and cons and the different aspects of being a heterosexual couple versus being in a homosexual relationship.   

Every boy and every girl- spice up your life

Speaking of female rock stars and ‘girl power’, I feel that the Spice Girls couldn’t have been avoided. They were the symbol of girl power and everybody loved them and all the sassiness and spunk they brought to the music industry. After being found and making an impact in Britain, they began becoming very popular in the United States as well. They were a big part of girl power ten or so years ago and definitely influence the confidence of kids. To see them, for example in their movie Spice World, always so sure of themselves, gave girls something positive to look up to; aside from their short skirts and smaller shirts of course. It’s the idea that they can joke with each other and laugh at themselves then get on stage and perform in front of thousands of people with almost a sort of arrogance about them.  As this article states, the adult actions, clothes, what have you, went over the heads of these kids. They looked up to the ones, like baby spice, that acted like they did themselves.

http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/pressreleases/spice.htm

you make my dreams come truee

I think the girls rock camp is a really good thing to have for younger girls with dreams of becoming a star. So many girls have this dream and many times their parents tell them that they’re just dreams and it’s never actually going to come true. The only example of this I can think of off the top of my head that people would actually know is the part in the beginning of the movie Taken. When the main character was a little girl she had dreams of becoming a singer. While her mom never took these dreams seriously, her dad took them to heart. On her seventeenth birthday her dad buys her a karaoke machine in order to encourage her to follow her dreams. He worked as a body guard one night for a singer his daughter really liked and, after saving her life, she gave him numbers to her vocal coach, etc. to pass on to his daughter. This is how parents should be encouraging their children, not going about it in a way that makes it seem like a childish dream. However, there are many parents out there who do really believe in their kids and help them accomplish whatever they need to. Misty’s girls rock camp is a really nice place where girls can be with others who share the same, or similar, dreams, discover new self confidence, and find new talents they may not have known they had before.