The Class System in a Classroom Setting

Growing up, I never thought much about the class system. We discussed it in school, but it was extremely difficult for me to put it into perspective until I got into college - when I was blindsided by a storm of social science classes that discussed just how much our culture's class system affects us.

My ignorance of this system I blame entirely on where I grew up, but I'll describe to you why. I grew up in a small town south of Pittsburgh and went to a school district that is the largest (in terms of mileage covered) in all of Pennsylvania. Because of the size of the land area that my school district had, the diversity in my school district was unbelievable.

In all, Ringgold School District covers nine separate towns, each with their own unique dynamic and environment that contributed to our diversity. One of those townships, Nottingham, has a median income of $72,212 and a median house value of $233,927. And at the other end of the spectrum, the borough of Donora has a median income of $27,872 and a median home value of $51,653. (Statistics from City-Data.com)

Even without visiting, you could imagine the difference in the living conditions of Nottingham and Donora with nearly a $50,000 difference in the median income. The towns are vastly different. One a brand new, developing town with only 5 percent below the poverty level, and the other an old, half-abandoned steel mill town with nearly 20 percent below the poverty rate and gang-related shootings on a nearly-regular basis. Over 70 percent of students at Donora Elementary Center are on a free or discounted lunch program, while only 30 percent receive discounted or free lunch at Gastonville Elementary Center, where Nottingham children attend.

But the fascinating part of all of this is: we all went to school together and got along.

The fights I saw in school (and believe me, there were many) were not over money or race or class. Very seldom was there an instance where someone was teased for their parent's income or even acknowledged the fact that such a stark difference existed. Even more rarely was there an instance where race was an issue, even though the minority rate in Nottingham is below one percent and the minority rate in Donora is over 25 percent. Perhaps this was because most of the teachers that worked at my school district grew up up in the area, went to my high school, went to colleges and universities close by, and returned to the area.

Or maybe it’s because we were a school of only 1,128 students with a “small town attitude” in which everyone knew everyone’s business. We knew each other’s families, most of our parents went to high school together, and we knew that some kids had bigger problems than who they were taking to prom – like domestic violence, shootings down the street, or parents losing their jobs. It was almost as if my entire school district separated themselves from situations so that 7:21 to 3:10 every day was an escape from what they had to deal with at home.

I never realized just how much of a psychological wonder my high school was until I came to college and was shocked by the way people treat each other in an environment outside of the Monongahela Valley. I come from a place where seeing my classmates' names in the headlines for shootings happened on a biannual basis and graduating with 17 girls who had babies of their own at home was an accepted thing, but everyone was treated just the same as those who carried around Coach purses and got cars on their sixteenth birthdays.

As much of a fairy tale as this may seem to some who went to high schools where "status symbols" declared where you sat at lunch time (I had never even heard of a North Face jacket before I came to Ohio University), I can't help but wonder if my upbringing set me back from other students. Despite the fact that my senior year, my school district was ranked in the bottom 10 percent of high schools in Pennsylvania, I was completely oblivious to many of the social problems we read about in political science, women's gender studies, and sociology classes at Ohio University.

It blows my mind, based on everything that I’m learning, that people from polar opposite situations can come together and be friends without any sense of class system. Talking about this in class sparked my interest in analyzing the social stratification situations I face at home and realizing that it isn't all relative around the United States or even in Ohio. Referring back to the class system subject we are learning in class, I think the way that people are “organized” socially differs everywhere. What I’ve been learning in class about contrasts with what I’ve experienced my entire life, and it is fascinating to me that I have been so ignorant to other methods of social stratification until this class.

Here is a book called The Shape of Social Inequality by David B. Bills which discusses largely the way my are reacted to the crash of the steel industry in shaping our economic and social situations. It discusses the way that the Pittsburgh area was affected by the loss of tons of jobs and how it changed the outlook of Pittsburghers on social stratification.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Lf3q3zePi2UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+shape+of+social+inequality:+stratification+and+ethnicity+in+comparative+perspective&hl=en&ei=IVSrTs7qIefz0gGV2MiCDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Where is the Justice?

(Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer)

The women pictured here, Stacy Schuler, was my freshman gym teacher. Within the last ten months, she has been arrested for, charged with, and convicted of inappropriate sexual actions with minors. Most details of these events are too lurid for polite conversation, but a summary is necessary. Over a 3-4 month period last fall, she provided alcohol and marijuana for five male students (who were minors), and slept with all of them. These events occurred multiple times, all at her home, which is approximately 25 miles from the high school (mine) she was employed at.

So what was her punishment for these indiscretions? Four years in prison, and a possibility for parole in six months. This women used her position of status and privilege to seduce five minors, and yet at the maximum will be out of prison when these (now) men graduate college. They are affected for life, and some are still seeking counseling for these events. Two (that I know of) are now students at this university, and are using this school's counseling services. Families of the victims have almost been torn apart. During her trial, which was this past week, the high school essentially shut down. Her actions keep resonating, and yet, she will only face four years in prison. Pathetic.

This all brings me to my mine point, and that is a double standard that exists in these cases. I have talked to men who were unaware of this case, and they all wanted to congratulate her victims, as if to say job well done. Comments under news articles claim she was only fulfilling the male fantasy of a dirty teacher. This is all repulsive to me. If a male teacher did this to five 17 year old girls, we would be rightfully clamoring for blood. We can talk about privilege and oppression in class, but when someone uses their "privilege" in the manner that Schuler did and only faces four years in prison, it is meaningless jabber. Let's address this double standard in our justice system; everyone suffers from this kind of inequality.

One Child Policy and Gendercide in China

As we know, there is a huge population, which is 1.3 million in China. The huge population not only reduced the average income and made the cities more crowed. For this reason, Chinese government passed the One Child Policy to strictly limit the growth of the population.

In fact, Chinese government did not limit the growth of the population at the begining; on the contrary, Chairman Mao believed more population meant more power, soldiers and labor. It should be good for the country as he thought. Therefore, Mao encouraged families to reproduce more to contribute for the country. As a result, one family usually had born seven to eight children. For instance, my grandma, who was 80 year-old, had eight kids. My father is her fifth child. At the period of Mao, one expert, Yinchu Ma already suggested Mao that according to the trend of growth, the population would be a serious problem in the future; however, Mao did not accept his idea because Mao ignored that the resource in a country was limited. 

Until now, one child policy has already executed for about 30 years. We cannot say this policy is totally wrong as general opinion because all the countries criticizing it will not share the pressure of the growth of population. One American president told Deng Xiaoping, one prior leader of China that one child policy violated human rights. Deng asked him, “If I gave you 0.2 billion Chinese immigrants, do you accept?” The president kept silence.This strict policy does work on reducing the population growth rate. According to the statistics, in 2030, the population will reach 1.5 billion, and start negative growth. At the same time, this policy also caused a series of problems.

It violated the reproductive right of families. At the initial stage of one child policy, women were forced to do abortion although now they are not allowed to do that in law. Sometimes, the fetuses might live if they were delivered. People who violated the policy would face huge amount fine. In case of my family, my parents have three boys because they expected to have a girl. They paid about four years’ average income at the time for me, and three years income for my old brother. To pay the fine, they borrowed a lot of money from relatives and friends. Moreover, my father was forced to do sterilization as the requirement.

In addition, this policy also caused the unbalance in sex. In China, boys will tanditionally live with parents and finically support them after marriage ; however, girls will leave their families and move to husband families although more and more younger urban couples do not follow thistrandition anymore. All the children the couple born are seen as the descendants of husbands’ family. For this reason, if a couple only have one chance, they would value more boys than girls. Although the government forbids hospitals tell the sex of the fetuses while examination; however, people still can get many illegal channels to know that. In avoiding the huge fine, some families prefer to do abortion or send their daughters to abroad families (like the U.S.) when they knew they are having a girl inside. Now, the proportion between males and females in China is 117: 100, which means there will be 17 males cannot get wives or have to wait for longtime. This situation is more serious in rural area because of the tradition. For this reason, the government changed the policy that giving one more reproductive chance to the rural families who had a girl for the first birth in order to persuade them not to do gendercide.

            Because of unbalance of gender, girls are becoming more valuable in China.  In China, parents will purchase house for their sons. Hence, some girls set high material and surface conditions for marriage such as large houses, luxury cars, and remarkable income although their economy condition may not good and they probably do not know how to do housework. For instance, the brother of my sister-in-law has gotten a girlfriend for long time, but the girl require him purchase a house in full price without mortgage in a city. For his family income, they cannot afford the urban house price at once.

Since one child policy, whatever girls or boys, they are the only one in the whole family, six family members including four grandparents and parents will do everything for their only kid. For me, although the economic condition is good, my ex-girlfriend does not want do and do not know how to do housework because she is the only one kid so-called “little emperor” in his family.  As a result, I often cooked food and cleaned apartment for both of us by myself. She also tried to cook, the result, as you know. 

Further more, prostitution is becoming popular beacase more single males cannot get girlfriends or wives. Prostitution has created a “better way” for some girls for earning money quickly.

"Stop at Rape"

People constantly see t-shirts that reinforce gender stereotypes, little girls wear shirts that say "Too cute to do homework" or "Too pretty for Algebra," but now there's another t-shirt causing controversy for boys. It reads: "Calm down dear, let's not turn this rape into murder." Cute right?

The shirt is sold through a British website, Jamrags, that proudly boasts if you don't like their apparel to "fuck off." The site specializes in offensive t-shirts, which is obvious considering the topic of discussion.

The most positive way to look at this is to say it's a joke. But even then it's probably one of the most disgusting ones I've ever heard. This shirt ties in two different ideas from class. First, the socialization of gender, and second, gender-based violence. It backs up the norm that men are supposed to be powerful and dominating, whereas women should be submissive. As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of shirts for girls that reinforce the stereotype of females relying on their looks to lure men into doing their work, but many people, especially mothers, are particularly outraged with this shirt from Jamrags.

Cafemom stated that this shirt is not only "perpetuating these disturbing gender roles," but it's also encourage men to "stop at rape." As the article pointed out, this shirt is made by people for other people, and that this is considered an acceptable form of attire.

At it's center, the message is basically that a person should be happy they're just getting raped and not murdered. Because I'm sure that's what runs through a rape victim's mind. I agree with the article that it is perpetuating the idea that sexual violence is okay. Which it isn't. At all.

The "Kind Campaign"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=-RooDSW5gfI&v=woZTiMgWYDo&annotation_id=annotation_472188

Throughout growing up every girl I know has been in a situation where girls made them feel outcasted, ugly, have been made fun of, talked about behind their backs etc. Why is it that girls feel the need to continue to put one another down time after time? The "Kind Campaign" was started by two college girls that wanted to change the way girls treat one another and make a change in the world. We all do it, everyone is guilty of saying or doing something that has hurt another female, and the outlook on it is that " oh that's just girls being girls." Why should we justify something that hurts so many time after time? This video is an extremely heart wrenching film that truly shows how much words and actions of others can truly impact the lives of others.

In some of the articles we have read we have learned about females struggle for body image, looks, and the pressure that is imposed on females starting at such a young age. We all know how it feels to try and meet the standard society puts on us to be "perfect," so why then do we put more pressure and negativity on ourselves by putting each other down on top of that. Some of us may not realize how hurtful our actions and words really our, but in reality we all have been in the shoes of the person who is being made fun of. This campaign is something I feel everyone should become a part of. It's true in its word that everyone is different but EVERYONE CAN BE KIND.

I felt that this is something that truly relates to this class in a large way because when talking about obtaining equal rights among gender and other issues we all have to first unite as a whole. This can't happen if we continue treating one another the way that we do. As I have become older and talk to the girls I babysit whom the youngest is age 5, it breaks my heart to hear that they too have to go through the cruel actions that girls do to one another. This is something that should not be the norm but something that we should all strive to change. Next time you watch a female walk into a room don't think " why would she wear that, she's not cute etc." We all have a right to be who we are, and no one should be judged for that. If anything spread the word and BE KIND.

saying no/educate possible threats

I agree with the other posts about this topic that a lot of girls will do a lot of things that maybe she doesn't want to do, just to keep the attention of a guy she likes or is dating. I think that because of this some men don't know how to take no for an answer, because just like the family guy skit that was posted, a lot of times a girl will cave in... so when a girl stands up for herself and says no.. especially if a guy has been drinking, he may not know how to take it and I think this is when a lot of "rape" and sexual assaults happen... because guys never learn to take no as an answer!! And I am not making an excuse for guys if thats what that sounded like...This means that in some cases girls are either unfairly pressured to say yes, and if they say no, something might happen anyway... a lose lose situation when a guy cant take no for an answer...

This brings up my next point, I think that in order to join a fraternity that guys should have to take a class informing them everything that could be considered assault and rape and the consequenses that can ensue... Not that only frat boys are the ones doing this but it is a start... I Think freshman should have to take an online class at the very least educating them on what is sexual assault and what isn't... It would by no means solve the problem but if it saves one victim then hey why not??

Sexual Assault and Women

In class we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about Sexual assault. She talked about the facts of sexual assault and how sometimes rape occurs even though it seems like the woman wants sex. The video I posted below is an example of how men can sometimes force themselves on woman, and even though she says yes, she obviously does not want to have sex.

Link is Here

"See that, 50 No's and a Yes, means Yes."

Link Up There ^

What happens in the video is called Verbal Coercion. Coercion is the use of emotional manipulation to persuade someone to something they may not want to do – like being sexual or performing certain sexual acts. Examples of some coercive statements include: “If you love me you would have sex with me .”, “If you don't have sex with me I will find someone who will.”, and “I'm not sure I can be with someone who doesn't want to have sex with me.” Coercive statements are often part of many campus acquaintance rapes. Being coerced into having sex or performing sexual acts is not consenting to having sex and is considered rape/sexual assault.

Sexual assault can be verbal, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. Examples of this are voyeurism, exhibitionism, incest, and any form of sexual harassment. It can happen in your home by someone you know, on a date, or by a stranger in an isolated place.

Rape is a common form of sexual assault. It is committed in many situations: On a date, by a friend or an acquaintance, or when you think you are alone.

Rape and sexual assault are never the victim’s fault — no matter where or how it happens.

Eugenics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaH0Ws8RtSc&feature=related

When most people are looking to get a new dog, they find a dog breeder. They go to a breeder pure-bred parenting dogs, notoriously producing healthy dogs. Hearing the word pure-bred gives the impression bigger, stronger and intelligent. The new owner will take the dog to get neutered “sterilized”, so it won’t produce with a mutt running around the neighborhood. Humans control the reproduction of dogs making sure a line of pure-bred dogs is out there. Dog shows such as The Westminister are dedicated too showing a line of superior pure-bred dogs and awarding this accomplishment.

Something they don’t teach in a high school history class is the United States government trying to control people like pure-bred dogs. By the year 1920, 33 states in the U.S. permitted forced sterilization. This means the government could tell who must be on birth control. Scientist found through testing plants and animals degenerate traits can pass through generations. The thought was to make America a utopian society free of mental/physical illness, deaf, and dumb people. They figured the best way to accomplish this was by controlling who was allowed to reproduce. The people prescribing who should be sterilized were making many outlandish assumptions. They would look at things such as head size thinking the larger, the more brain capacity. People were being deemed as imbeciles without proper investigation into their actual lives. The people with power were controlling the weaker American citizens like dogs and running their lives. How would you like someone today to look at your ACT score and deem you unfit to have children because the score was too low?

In the film it talks about how eugenics became integrated into popular culture. Words such as race hygiene became household related words used in everyday life. People were preaching the importance of healthy marriages and how to raise a strong household. A startling display in the film very much related to the idea of the Westminister dog show was the contest on having the healthiest family held at many state fairs. Awards were given out on basis of purest pedigrees and most attractive phenotypes. One other very disturbing aspect of eugenics in the United States was that Nazi Germany based many of their ideas off this. The genocide which took place in Germany was a way they were trying to cleanse their country of what they thought as inferior people. They wanted a country of strong healthy people. It’s crazy to think of the Nazi brainstorming their ideas based off a model already being used in the United States.

Abortion Diaries

Abortion is a very hard topic to discuss in Americas society today; it is also very hard for people to choose which side they want to be on, pro-choice or pro-life. Once I was old enough to comprehend what abortion was I chose to take the view of pro-choice. The view of pro-choice is women having the right to deicide if she wants to keep or terminate a pregnancy. I feel that abortion should continue to stay legalized in all 50 states. I feel if the option to an abortion is taken away, the rights of women will just continue to decrease from then on.

Before abortion was legalized, a lot of women ended up hurting themselves just in attempting to get an abortion. I once watched a documentary called "The Abortion Diaries", which had several different women telling their stories about their abortion. One woman traveled all the way to another country just to receive an abortion. This doctor performed the procedure wrong, which led this woman to never be able to have kids. Since women were not allowed to have reproductive rights, they became uneducated about their own bodies. If this woman knew that this doctor wasn't performing the abortion procedure correctly, she could have stopped the procedure and would have been able to have kids when she was ready, but instead this woman will never get the opportunity to even have a baby. If this woman was allowed to obtain the right contraceptives, then she could have prevented the abortion entirely. I feel that if the legalization of abortion is taken away more women will have this exact story as this woman.

Even after abortion was legalized some men still feel like they have control over women and our reproductive rights. In “The Abortion Diaries”, a woman was having sex with a man and this woman was not on birth control, but the man still came inside of her. Even though the woman had "legal" rights over her body, her rights didn't matter and especially didn't matter to that man. In class we talked about who was interested in women’s reproduction/fertility control and of course men were at the top of this list and women were no where to be found on that list. To me, this story represents this list and even though women are supposed to have control over our bodies, we don't. Women should now be at the top of this list, but in some cases and to some people we aren't.

I feel that this video relates to our most recent class discussion because to me, its all about the control women have on their own bodies. I do feel that women have come a long way since the mid-nineteenth century. We have gained legal rights to our own bodies. We are allowed to obtain contraceptives. We are allowed to have an abortion. Although we have gained all of these rights, I still feel like women do not have complete control over their own bodies and these stories can attest to that. I feel that one day we can have not only our "legal" rights, but actually feel like our "legal" rights are respected and taken seriously.

http://www.theabortiondiaries.com/links.htm

a link to the abortion diaries website

http://vimeo.com/3195236

a video of an interview from the abortion diaries

Sexual & Gender Based Violence in the Media

Many times sexual and gender based violence goes unreported in the United States. People believe that if they report such a crime then they won't be taken seriously or even if they are nothing will be done to help solve their case. For example in the reading "The Rape" of Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith is asked very ludicrous questions concerning the details of what actually happened to him as if his case was not important to the interviewers. Even though that was the circumstance of Mr. Smith's case that does not mean that everyone involved in a sexual violence case will have the same results.

If a violent action is reported by a male they normally are not taken as seriously as women reporting the same crime. Men are supposed to be stronger more powerful people than women so it should be harder to "take advantage" of them than it is women. Since women are viewed as weaker easier people to be able to control, then in the public eye it makes more sense for women to report sexual gender based violence than men.

A great comparison of male to female reports of violence would be Mr. Smith's case to the case of the Duke Lacrosse players being accused of sexually violating a dancer after a party they had held . Immediately the media blamed the players and took the side of the female who had reported the encounter with the three players from the Duke Lacrosse team. People couldn't believe that these men, especially with the standards they held being an athlete at a college, would do something as violent as this. Even when people tried to back the three individuals and say there is no way they could have done something of this nature, reporters in the media such as Nancy Grace would cut them off and accuse them of being wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtWNVxnmG_4


What I found interesting about the whole situation is the charges were dropped and the men were falsely accused of doing something they didn't do but yet everyone, especially the media, wanted to automatically say the men did it. However, in the case of Mr. Smith nobody would believe what he had to say and he was actually telling a legitimate story.

Sexuality and Gender

Just on the topic of how "doing" sexuality and gender are connected...

Click here to see more Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses on the source site, Petapixels.  Please do not respond to this for the class assignment (although you're welcome to respond NOT FOR CREDIT!!).  Instead, please respond to one of your colleagues' posts.

Have a good weekend!

Richard/Renee played tennis

Richard Raskin grew up in New York and spent the majority of his life fighting a feeling from deep inside. Richard went through most of his life trying to be a 'mans man.' His biggest accomplishment was as an amateur tennis player and eye doctor. But despite all of the success in tennis and in life, being married and father, Richard was in distress. Deep inside, Richard was fighting the battle of being a woman. Richard Raskin ended up becoming Renee Richards at the age of 40.

ESPN is now airing a documentary showing the life Renee Richards, who had to sue to play professional women's tennis. But the documentary does a great job of interviewing the friends and family in Richard's life. One of the quotes from Renee's friend is "Be gay! Wear women's clothing! We don't care!" This shows that Renee's friends just looked at the sex change as being about attractiveness. Renee was attracted to men, so she might as well call herself gay. But we have discussed in class that being transgender is more than sexual attractiveness. It is a deeper personal experience. It is how someone is wired to feel, like being born in the wrong body. The feeling I got from the interviews from the friends and family was the damage and pain that Renee was going to go through with the surgeries. When Richard first started the process in becoming Renee, he met a woman and fell in love. Even though halfway through the process of changing sex, Richard was confused and stopped the process to have a family. But after only a few years of marriage, Richard felt the need to continue the transformation he stopped a few years ago. The pain was too much and the thoughts of suicide were too strong for Renee to ignore anymore.

The interviews that were done with the professionals that competed against Renee, they didn't really focus on being transexual male-to-female. They focused more on her age (40s when playing professional) against women in their late teens. The athletes felt that their youth would be an advantage over a person in her 40s.

The film focuses on the struggles that Renee went through in her life with her change from male-to-female. Renee speaks very openly about the struggles with becoming a female and the additional stress of being a transexual spokes person. She wants to show that a transexual person is still a caring person, despite the changes that are done physically. This film does more than just focus on the struggle to go from male-to-female. It shows how Renee's changes impact other people. The film goes into great detail about how other people deal with Renee's changes and how they themselves deal with the sex change. Most of the people viewed Renee as a person and a competitor, not as a freak.

That is the way that I think everyone should look at transgendered people. As people.

I'm having issues with getting the video to load, so here is a link to the trailer on Youtube.

The media and image

If you look at any model on a runway, you will see a really slim (almost scary slim) model with very little figure. Fashion designers put their clothes on women that they think their consumers will idolize. If you look at this model's arms, they are really, really thin. So I decided to look at certain ways the fashion industry and commerical industries have tried to incorporate a "real" image of women.

America's Next Top Model is a show that has women compete to be a top model, but the models are usually taller than 5'7" and are below a size 4. However, Tyra Banks decided to do a plus-size season of this show. The beginning credits are below. The "plus-size" women all seem pretty average looking and not what you would think of when you think of "plus-size." Plus size is considered to be (on average) size 14 and up. However, most of the women on the show were between the sizes 8-10. Although this was a good idea in theory, Tyra kind of missed the mark when it came to including a different image (although these women looked more real than in her other seasons!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmtg0jQA-z0

We also mentioned in class the new Hanes ad. They show women of varying races, sizes and shapes. While this is also a good step towards a better image for women, we mentioned that it has become fashionable to "pretend" like you are reaching out to women of all sizes. I thought this editorial was interesting that shows this viewpoint.

http://collegecandy.com/2010/01/15/stop-exploiting-plus-size-women-fashion-magazines/

Another thing I would like to mentioned is Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars. This refers to our earlier talks about transgender and inscribing gender. Chaz is transgender and they placed him to dance with a women. There was outrage over this because some people said it was confusing to children (how would they know he was a girl before that, if you ask me?) and was sending the wrong message. I think this is pretty ridiculous, but a lot of people felt very strongly about it. This is an interesting news story below that talks about the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS8EtnJRrq4

Body Image

Women of all ages have one time or another felt the stress society places on them.  The image of the ideal body has caused many negative effects on women's bodies. Society teaches these girls that they are suppose to be thin and beautiful.  That by being thin, they will become happier. These norms, caused by main different factors in our society, have been the reason why so many girls and women have experience eating disorders.  

This book is about a 14 year old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image.

Girls are being initiated into the world of dieting younger and younger these days. The book “Maggie Goes on a Diet” target demographic is girls from the ages 6 to 12.  This book teaches young girls that in order to be popular and a soccer star they must be thin. By being thin Maggie becomes more and more confident. The book implies that by being fat Maggie can never be happy. This is a typical view that many women has felt from society.  This book does not allow young girls to feel comfortable in their own bodies. The book implies that Maggie becomes a “normal” girl when she is thin. How does this book know what normal is? If a child is health and fit why should they have to be thin? Young girls should be taught that they should feel comfortable in any size of body. These types of book can lead girls to develop eating disorders at a young age.

Though eating disorders are usually seen in younger women, there have been recent studying showing that older women are starting to develop this disorders. In recent years there has been a 42% increase of eating disorders in women in their 30s, 40s and 50s. These types of disorders are known as midlife crisis disorders. Some of these women relapse for earlier eating disorders, other has developed these disorders from the pressures of their lives. Whether from divorce, economic reason or not being able to fit into clothes, this problem has been on the raise. The video from the NBC news, discuses these factors that women face in their daily lives that cause them to develop these disorders.

With the growing pressure women face at all ages the raise of eating disorders are going to continue to increase. There have been improvements to how these disorders are handle once these disorders are develop. Though society needs to changes how body images are view in order to stop these disorders all together. 

Transgender Children & How Children are Taught What is Acceptable for the Genders

How Children are Taught What is Acceptable for the Genders

These next few videos elaborate on the fact that gender is influenced by society. Society has its “norms” as proven in the first video below. This video interviews various children and asks them questions, such as, “Are you a boy or a girl?” or “Can boys wear dresses?” One boy says that if he wore a dress, “All the girls and all the girls would laugh at me”

The part that I found most shocking was the Barbie and Ken doll experiment. The children were asked which doll likes to clean the house, which doll takes care of the babies, and who goes to work? All the children answered the same way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g

Transgender Children

I wondered upon a Transgender children website while searching google. My first reaction was “Are you serious?! Transgender children?!” I thought that this was absolutely ridiculous. It almost seemed to me as though parents were influencing their children to “transform” into the opposite gender norms.

The TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation (TKPR) has a mission statement that says that the organization is, “Dedicated to funding research and education about transgender issues to build a brighter future for all TransKids. Our children aren't pink or blue - but rather - various shades of purple.”

The foundation further goes on to state specific goals of its mission. I have listed a few that I found particularly interesting below. If you wish to view them all, you can locate the information at: http://www.transkidspurplerainbow.com/mission.htm

“TKPRF is committed to the premise that Gender Identity Disorder is something a child can't control and it is society that needs to change, not them.

TKPRF will strive to encourage families to allow their children the ability to grow-up free of gender roles.”

What is your opinion of the organization? I feel as though the organization is almost trying to urge children to embrace non-typical behaviors. The fact that is wants “the ability to grow-up free of gender roles” is a ridiculous statement. This is never going to be possible with the impact of society. Unless the parent locks their child away from the world for his or her entire life…which may I add, would be HIGHLY unhealthy!

Transgender Children – PT2

I found a 20/20 special with Barbara Walters on the topic of transgender children. It has five parts, but I have only included the video for part 1. It is really interesting to watch and hear a family’s story of a boy who is transgender (now a girl). It appears to me that the parents did not influence this change and were in initial shock. It is a story of how they came to accept their child as they are.

Gender Identity Disorder is a recognized disorder in the manual used by mental health experts. According to the 20/20 special, transgender children are apt to high rates of depression, drug abuse, violence, and suicide.