The guest speaker, Diane Rhodes, on Wednesday really intrigued me. She first had us do an activity where she said a key word and we would walk to "strongly agree" or "strongly disagree" as to whether we thought it was a social problem. She said thinks like poverty, education, wealth, teen pregnancy, family violence, cancer, access to health insurance, gay rights and voter apathy.
After this activity, we discussed what influenced our choosing if something is or isn't a social problem. I realized that really anything could be considered a social problem, but our family, our background and our experiences all are combined to influence our opinions.
So the class continues, and we talk more about this inner barometer and how sometimes we have to choose between two ideas. Some examples included the Austin Oak tree, where the city spent millions of dollars on saving half of an oak tree that was poisoned- this is all good, except when we imagine how much good that money could do for real people in Austin. Our teacher, Mrs. G, shared how she was also torn when the dog fighting of one football player overshadowed the multiple women who came forward claiming another football player raped them.
Our barometer is constantly swinging, and sometimes we anchor down just to find the chord breaks and we are moving again.
Other points-
After this activity, we discussed what influenced our choosing if something is or isn't a social problem. I realized that really anything could be considered a social problem, but our family, our background and our experiences all are combined to influence our opinions.
So the class continues, and we talk more about this inner barometer and how sometimes we have to choose between two ideas. Some examples included the Austin Oak tree, where the city spent millions of dollars on saving half of an oak tree that was poisoned- this is all good, except when we imagine how much good that money could do for real people in Austin. Our teacher, Mrs. G, shared how she was also torn when the dog fighting of one football player overshadowed the multiple women who came forward claiming another football player raped them.
Our barometer is constantly swinging, and sometimes we anchor down just to find the chord breaks and we are moving again.
Other points-
- How do men shy away from violence when we live in a society that highlights violence in "manhood"
- One history idea- the first child abuse case that came to court was filed under ASPCA- under the precedent that you can't abuse animals (ownership), so you also can't abuse your kids. ownership is the precedent, men owned land, homes, wives, children-- men owned it all.
- How do we stop violence? There are no preventative measures taken for adults- we as a culture don't believe in this- except for children. Does this make sense? Well, if children are taught it is wrong to be violent, but go home to dad hitting mom, it doesn't make since. (The speaker mentioned Twilight as teaching young girls that violence is sexy-- this sparked a frenzy among those around me, but I agree!!) How do we stop the social problems when we go at them only from the consequences perspective and not the systematic perspective? I think the solution is: DO BOTH!
Confession: I Loved Twilight when I first read it, even though all throughout I realized that Edward was sort of a creep. Why does this girl like having a guy watch her sleep again? Ew. I know I'm not that attractive when I sleep. Clearly this guy needs more to do.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting video from a series about feminism commenting on Twilight. Accurate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQwqepW97zs&feature=relmfu
one comment from that video that I think sums up my feelings toward it:
ReplyDeletekakapocc says-
I worry about 12 or 13 year olds who think Bella and Edward are an example of a perfect relationship. It will make them a lot less likely to notice the warning signs of an abusive relationship, such as the stalking, isolating her from her friends, and protectiveness.
NOTE: I have not read the books myself, but both my mom and younger sister (age 13) are obsessed. Really I just don't want Madi to feel like she needs a boy like this book seems to make her think. She is strong and INdependent.
OK, that's all.