For today's class we watched a full documentary about sexism in media. Although I find a lot of what goes on in these documentaries very touching and opens my eyes, I find a lot of the footage talking about equality, but it's constantly generalising men and pointing at men for being the issue. Only once throughout the footage did they mention that men have it very hard to in terms of media portraying men and how they are supposed to be. For example, it took me a long long time before I believed my girlfriend when she told me that she likes how I look and she likes my body. But everyday I still have it in the back of my mind that if I don't get more muscle, or get toned or get abs, then I'm going to lose her. And in the film there were teenagers that were crying about how hard it is for them and that they will be laughed at and bullied if they don't put on ten tonnes of make up and lose weight then they will be bullied and that will bring them to cut themselves, but they get no sympathy from me because I had to deal will that when I was younger too, every single day. I do admit that women as a whole have it harder because girls tend to bitch about those sort of things more often than men, but guys bitch about those and other physical issues so much too. Also in the film they mention the fact that men have to have this masculin manly image and that is entirely true. For years I've been a fairly feminine guy and when I was in secondary school I was bullied for being 'gay', 'faggot', (comments not made because of my sexuality, but my personality alone.), 'fat fuck', etc.
It truly is horrible how women are treated by a lot of men, it really is. But it's not a problem for women. It's a problem for EVERYONE and it has to be sorted out one day or we'll have a lot more suicidal kids missing from schools and a lot more people who can't support a family because of a job that they can't get for how they look/are.
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 8
Okay, So I was really sick this week with a fever and asthma attacks and there wasn't any chance of me going in to college. Which annoys me because I was doing so well with these blog posts by going to every class, taking notes and then knowing what to write about. But now I have to look up the notes only and then ramble on about them, hoping I get it right. and without further ado, I bring you my next ramble which is about 'Moral Panic'.
When I first read the line 'moral panic' for some reason my head went straight to the over the top ebola panic that was across the world. But then I read a bit more and I then assumed it was talking about how media reacts to some form of Youth Behaviour and I thought about the implementation of twitter/facebook to reality shows for example.
But now I think the idea behind it is how youth always have something new that spreads out and gets lot's of coverage. Punks, Rockers, Mods, Emo's ,(like myself... that was a joke because of my fringe), hipsters, etc.
Then Moral Outrage can lead to group solidarity. Moral Outrage is like when people go overboard to show everybody how wrong this new thing, that they don't bother to understand, is.
Boy was dared to kill a girl by his facebook friends? Facebook is clearly the problem.
Emo's wear black and are antisocial? Must be an evil satanic cult.
Party Goes Viral? There is a threat here, somehow...
My closing statement is that people judge what they cannot bother to understand. And the media feeds on this because it adds new stories and attention through these misunderstandings. We don't consider that fact that we are hurting people by judging them without reason. And that is why people are idiots.
When I first read the line 'moral panic' for some reason my head went straight to the over the top ebola panic that was across the world. But then I read a bit more and I then assumed it was talking about how media reacts to some form of Youth Behaviour and I thought about the implementation of twitter/facebook to reality shows for example.
But now I think the idea behind it is how youth always have something new that spreads out and gets lot's of coverage. Punks, Rockers, Mods, Emo's ,(like myself... that was a joke because of my fringe), hipsters, etc.
Then Moral Outrage can lead to group solidarity. Moral Outrage is like when people go overboard to show everybody how wrong this new thing, that they don't bother to understand, is.
Boy was dared to kill a girl by his facebook friends? Facebook is clearly the problem.
Emo's wear black and are antisocial? Must be an evil satanic cult.
Party Goes Viral? There is a threat here, somehow...
My closing statement is that people judge what they cannot bother to understand. And the media feeds on this because it adds new stories and attention through these misunderstandings. We don't consider that fact that we are hurting people by judging them without reason. And that is why people are idiots.
Understanding Culture and Society Post 7
Today's class was only a short few days after the ISIS attacks on Paris. So this week's class was very ISIS themed. We went through a few slides on Cultural Identity and Alienation. As in how people are persecuted and alienated just from growing up in a certain society. The Muslim society are a prime example of this. There are still fights going on in the whole 'Black vs White' situation, especially since after Ferguson, However ever since 9/11, the entire Muslin Religion and Community are seen as 'terrorists', simply because of the fact that most the hijackers of the planes were Muslim. If I was judged based on what past Catholic's have done, I would be f*****.
And now there is a group just as bad as al-qaeda, and they are know as ISIS or ISIL or IS (Islamic State). But it's very important to distinguish the difference and separate IS and Muslim's.
Muslim's are just another religion and community and are even in fear of the extremest group ISIS that occupy some of Iraq and Syria. There are also christian's that are in those countries that are under protection, but they still leave the country in fear of what Isis could do to them.
It was after going through a few of the slides that we watched a full hour documentary on the Islamic State. I try my best not to pay to much attention to attacks because to me it's pointless getting scared and riled up and then doing nothing about it, which is exactly what most of us do. But I have to admit, watching that documentary took the complete wind out of me. It's definitely hard looking at extremists look at a religion in a way that you could only be satisfied when everyone else is dead.
And now there is a group just as bad as al-qaeda, and they are know as ISIS or ISIL or IS (Islamic State). But it's very important to distinguish the difference and separate IS and Muslim's.
Muslim's are just another religion and community and are even in fear of the extremest group ISIS that occupy some of Iraq and Syria. There are also christian's that are in those countries that are under protection, but they still leave the country in fear of what Isis could do to them.
It was after going through a few of the slides that we watched a full hour documentary on the Islamic State. I try my best not to pay to much attention to attacks because to me it's pointless getting scared and riled up and then doing nothing about it, which is exactly what most of us do. But I have to admit, watching that documentary took the complete wind out of me. It's definitely hard looking at extremists look at a religion in a way that you could only be satisfied when everyone else is dead.
Understanding Culture and Society Part 6
I missed this week's class because I had to film, so the following blog will be based on my perception on the notes of Cultural Identity. Identity is how we see ourselves as being unique or different from other societies. Identity always starts out with self identification and then stems out like a web.
Class - Culture - Family...
Ethnicity - Sub Culture - Religion... etc.
It has been research that people start to actually think about 'who they are' between the ages of 12 - 18. For myself I properly started to think about who I was as a person roughly around the age of 15/16. At a point where I wasn't happy and I fully decided to change who was by putting on a persona based on reactions and likenesses that other people were happy with. In the end it worked out for the better and I had so many new friends and I was happier than ever. At this point in any movie this is the part where I'd be told to 'not be someone you're not'. However after a while of putting on the mask of identity that I had, I finally became that identity and I feel more like myself than ever. So I would totally agree with Schmitt et al.
There are ways to test out your identity, such as testing it out online, where no one can be embarrassed due to the disconnection from personal contact. But conversing online can actually gain you more friends from who you are as a person. The internet is a big place. You're bound to find someone that likes you for you and you're new identity. That alone can boost your confidence and aid you in finding yourself. There is a wide community to join and explore in many parts of the internet.
Class - Culture - Family...
Ethnicity - Sub Culture - Religion... etc.
It has been research that people start to actually think about 'who they are' between the ages of 12 - 18. For myself I properly started to think about who I was as a person roughly around the age of 15/16. At a point where I wasn't happy and I fully decided to change who was by putting on a persona based on reactions and likenesses that other people were happy with. In the end it worked out for the better and I had so many new friends and I was happier than ever. At this point in any movie this is the part where I'd be told to 'not be someone you're not'. However after a while of putting on the mask of identity that I had, I finally became that identity and I feel more like myself than ever. So I would totally agree with Schmitt et al.
There are ways to test out your identity, such as testing it out online, where no one can be embarrassed due to the disconnection from personal contact. But conversing online can actually gain you more friends from who you are as a person. The internet is a big place. You're bound to find someone that likes you for you and you're new identity. That alone can boost your confidence and aid you in finding yourself. There is a wide community to join and explore in many parts of the internet.
Saturday, 7 November 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 5
This week we talked all about Cultural Appropriation as well as other topics like arguements of Hybridity,
Diaspora, Cosmopolitanism and Translocalism, and finally Homage. This week I actually forgot to bring my
notebook with my because I had a busy weekend travelling and I forgot that I would need it. So I’m gonna try my best to remember as much as I can as well as look on notes from moodle.
In basic terms, Cultural Appropriation is like making sure you don’t offend other cultures by using them to have
an image or make money. First example our Lecturer put up on the board is Miley Cyrus and posing herself using black culture. She also made comments about how even though she was born white, she had always felt as if she
was black. Which in her head, allows her to represent black culture. It doesn’t. Now, personally I think Irish
people have a thing where it is, in a way, part of our culture to ‘slag’ and make jokes about others and ourselves.
So we wouldn’t really care about or be offended by all this. But I, like Miley Cyrus in a way, feel like although I was born Irish, I don’t feel like I belong in this culture. I try to stay away from the accent of my hometown and I don’t like to make jokes about other people.
Then someone mentioned Marshal Mathers, Eminem, and how he is ripping on black culture. However there is a
line. He grew up in a lower standing from Detroit. A place where black culture is everywhere. He also isn’t
actually borrowing from black culture, he is using the society that he grw up in. However, he is not completely
exemplified because there were Music Videos like ‘My Band’ for example where he dressed up as a mexican and
played in a Mariachi band, which he earned a lot of money from. We also talked about plenty of other people such as Katy Perry and Victoria Secret models which completely ripped from cultures like Black, Japanese, Asian,
Native American, etc. We also discussed all the other topics I mentioned but I once again have gone way over the
limit so I’m going to say more next week.
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 4
This week we talked all about Social Class and we were also given our next assignment.
First, let's talk about scoial class. The first one Caroline brought up was the Three Stratum Model of Stratification. This is the one we here more about in our daily lives. It's the most used by everyone because we is simple to follow. You have your 3 classes. Upper Class, Middle Class and Lower Class. The definition of these are as follows:
Upper Class: The wealthy owners of production.
Middle Class: Professional Workers/Knowledgeable workers. They are also known as 'White Collar'.
Lower Class: People dependent on their hourly minimal wages. Also know as 'Blue Collar'.
These are of course very basic explanations.
This is the example I have drawn up. Think of Adobe Photoshop. Upper Class would be the owners of the company and creators of the software. Middle Class would be the Graphic Designers using the software for their companies. Lower class would be the ones who illegally downloaded the software to make internet memes. All of this, of course, would be taken with the smallest grain of salt.
Max Weber believed in Social Mobility, which is the idea that everyone can, in one way of another, get out of their social class and move up in the world.
Moving on, you have the Marxist Theory by Karl Marx. We learned all about this last year as it was our main focus. Class was split into two groups. Bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production, and Proletariat, workers of production.
Then there is Weberian Theory which we will be getting into later.
We were talking about TV Shows and movies in popular Culture that represent class as a high focus.
Boardwalk Empire & Downton Abbey certainly use class as a power struggle,
MacBeth vs The Field. Both have an incredibly similar story, though one is upper and the other is lower class.
Football vs Rugby. A student in class said "Football is a posh sport played by scumbags and Rugby is a scumbag sport played by posh people." I couldn't ever understand why rugby is a posh sport.
Hunger Games - I could write an entire essay on that.
Then of course, X Factor. Poverty Porn - Dirt we like to watch.
I'll leave it at that this week. I think I've gone way over the 300 words limit.
First, let's talk about scoial class. The first one Caroline brought up was the Three Stratum Model of Stratification. This is the one we here more about in our daily lives. It's the most used by everyone because we is simple to follow. You have your 3 classes. Upper Class, Middle Class and Lower Class. The definition of these are as follows:
Upper Class: The wealthy owners of production.
Middle Class: Professional Workers/Knowledgeable workers. They are also known as 'White Collar'.
Lower Class: People dependent on their hourly minimal wages. Also know as 'Blue Collar'.
These are of course very basic explanations.
This is the example I have drawn up. Think of Adobe Photoshop. Upper Class would be the owners of the company and creators of the software. Middle Class would be the Graphic Designers using the software for their companies. Lower class would be the ones who illegally downloaded the software to make internet memes. All of this, of course, would be taken with the smallest grain of salt.
Max Weber believed in Social Mobility, which is the idea that everyone can, in one way of another, get out of their social class and move up in the world.
Moving on, you have the Marxist Theory by Karl Marx. We learned all about this last year as it was our main focus. Class was split into two groups. Bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production, and Proletariat, workers of production.
Then there is Weberian Theory which we will be getting into later.
We were talking about TV Shows and movies in popular Culture that represent class as a high focus.
Boardwalk Empire & Downton Abbey certainly use class as a power struggle,
MacBeth vs The Field. Both have an incredibly similar story, though one is upper and the other is lower class.
Football vs Rugby. A student in class said "Football is a posh sport played by scumbags and Rugby is a scumbag sport played by posh people." I couldn't ever understand why rugby is a posh sport.
Hunger Games - I could write an entire essay on that.
Then of course, X Factor. Poverty Porn - Dirt we like to watch.
I'll leave it at that this week. I think I've gone way over the 300 words limit.
Friday, 16 October 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 3
This week we discussed how we broke the ‘norms’ of society for a little bit, then we moved on the
talk about our next CA which is based around Ethnography.
An Ethnographer is someone who would openly or secretly participate and study other people taking part in an event, such as gigs/concerts or conventions, etc,
We discussed the origins of Enthnography which were the following: Anthropology, Sociology,
Design, Observing the User Experience. Enthnography, (I hate typing out that word), is a means of
identifying significant categories of human experience up close amd personal. There are many
different ways that you could go about it and these are the best ways:
Participant Observation - Observing others by taking part in the event.
Artifacts Collection - Taking flyers, posters, etc.
Oral Histories - Taking note of what people say.
Documentary - Recording people’s opinions of the events.
Passive Observation - Secretly observing.
Group interviews - Interviewing people in a group... Okay that one was a bit obvious.
We also discussed many considerations to be taken during fieldwork. Such as Information Selection which is the information collected representative of all possible experience. There is also field
location and your timeframe. Determining your field site such as the people, like whether or not there would be too much or too little people taking part in the area or that may be too many passer bys.
The place and whether or not it is a good location to start your research and the practice... Which to
be honest I’m too sure what that means. Also it’s very important to not break a few morale rules.
Such as making sure that what you ask them to do will not bring harm to any of the participants.
That there is no lack of informed consent, no Invasion of Privacy and above all - no deception.
That is your education for the week. So long and goodnight.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 2
For this week we were given an experiment to following. Nowadays there are so many cultures that 'weird' isn't all that weird anymore. Who people are and they way they do certain things is becoming more and more acceptable everyday. That being said, there are still many things that are considered the 'norm'. A process that you would follow so that you wouldn't stand out. But I really like standing out from the crowd so I was pretty happy with the experiment we were given. What we have to do is 'break the norm' and judge the reactions of others.
The norm I choose to break was wearing women's clothes, I shaved my beard, I wore my girlfriends clothes, (ripped skinny jeans, a long sleeveless top and a small leather jacket that cuts off at the bottom of my ribs), and I wore mascara and eyeliner. The purpose of this was to show that people should be able to wear what they felt comfortable in. And yes, I felt comfortable in everything I was wearing. I also love eye make up because it puts focus on the eyes, which are, in my opinion, the body's best feature. I didn't wear a dress because I wouldn't feel comfortable in that and I didn't wear lipstick because I don't like lipstick on anyone.
The way people reacted very funny. People double took me walking past and my friends thought what I was doing was 'awesome' and we made jokes about how I wear the clothes better than my girlfriend. Then some were like 'RYAN!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!???'. I just kept smiling.
It wasn't all that different from what I normally do because I used to wear eyeliner on my right eye for years and I wear my girlfriends jeans or her jackets whenever I run out of clothes to wear, so that's why it wasn't all that surprising. I felt good breaking the norm. It's no secret that I like attention and I rarely buy clothes so it was nice to wear something different for a change.
Well, that was my day. :)
The norm I choose to break was wearing women's clothes, I shaved my beard, I wore my girlfriends clothes, (ripped skinny jeans, a long sleeveless top and a small leather jacket that cuts off at the bottom of my ribs), and I wore mascara and eyeliner. The purpose of this was to show that people should be able to wear what they felt comfortable in. And yes, I felt comfortable in everything I was wearing. I also love eye make up because it puts focus on the eyes, which are, in my opinion, the body's best feature. I didn't wear a dress because I wouldn't feel comfortable in that and I didn't wear lipstick because I don't like lipstick on anyone.
The way people reacted very funny. People double took me walking past and my friends thought what I was doing was 'awesome' and we made jokes about how I wear the clothes better than my girlfriend. Then some were like 'RYAN!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!???'. I just kept smiling.
It wasn't all that different from what I normally do because I used to wear eyeliner on my right eye for years and I wear my girlfriends jeans or her jackets whenever I run out of clothes to wear, so that's why it wasn't all that surprising. I felt good breaking the norm. It's no secret that I like attention and I rarely buy clothes so it was nice to wear something different for a change.
Well, that was my day. :)
Monday, 5 October 2015
Understanding Culture and Society Post 1
For this first post I have been asked how I might begin to think sociologically.
I try to think of my social location and my worldview. For me to understand my worldview, it took a lot of years of personal development and understanding of myself to understand how other people feel and how they work. Growing up in a town where everyone is labelled 'scumbag', led me to believe that it is true. However I later learned that the is always a reason for why people are the way they are. Life is a long process where either a bias can be developed after many occasions or they can be made because of a single event that happened at one point in someones life.
I like to think I always think without bias. Whenever I hear something about someone, I might continue the conversation, all the while not believing it. I try my best to hear the story from the person in question or see concrete evidence for someone that could be a celebrity before I go on to believe what I am told. The reason why I think like this is because when I was younger and in school, rumours would go around about me, like they do to every child, and people would automatically assume it is true. Even when I denied it. I have always hated not being believed and being misunderstood, and I think it's because of the strong empathy that I have always had that I would give someone the courtesy to be heard before I pass judgement.
In terms with the 8 Social Institutions, I'll make this short. With Family, although I may be close to my family, My parents divorced when I was 1 and growing up I had an abusive older brother. I believe it's because of this that I don't value the importance of family, though I meet other people that can't live without them. I have been in many forms of education and I feel that it is very important that it should be made better and teachers should understand the issues student may have. I have Dyspraxia and I was never given a chance until recently to be understood or helped with my issue. This is why one day I would love to be a teacher. Religion is good thing as long as you don't push your views on others, The media is complex and bias. Economy... I have no views on other than my own personal wages. Government is important for structure and people always want more and it's easy to blame the government for everything. These of course are all quick and rough ideas of how I feel from my worldview and should be takien with a grain of salt until I give a longer explanation.
I hope I have gotten right what I have been asked to do, however I notice I may have rambled a bit about myself. I'll try to understand more about culture and society and see how my understanding of the subject changes throughtout the duration of this module.
-Ryan
I try to think of my social location and my worldview. For me to understand my worldview, it took a lot of years of personal development and understanding of myself to understand how other people feel and how they work. Growing up in a town where everyone is labelled 'scumbag', led me to believe that it is true. However I later learned that the is always a reason for why people are the way they are. Life is a long process where either a bias can be developed after many occasions or they can be made because of a single event that happened at one point in someones life.
I like to think I always think without bias. Whenever I hear something about someone, I might continue the conversation, all the while not believing it. I try my best to hear the story from the person in question or see concrete evidence for someone that could be a celebrity before I go on to believe what I am told. The reason why I think like this is because when I was younger and in school, rumours would go around about me, like they do to every child, and people would automatically assume it is true. Even when I denied it. I have always hated not being believed and being misunderstood, and I think it's because of the strong empathy that I have always had that I would give someone the courtesy to be heard before I pass judgement.
In terms with the 8 Social Institutions, I'll make this short. With Family, although I may be close to my family, My parents divorced when I was 1 and growing up I had an abusive older brother. I believe it's because of this that I don't value the importance of family, though I meet other people that can't live without them. I have been in many forms of education and I feel that it is very important that it should be made better and teachers should understand the issues student may have. I have Dyspraxia and I was never given a chance until recently to be understood or helped with my issue. This is why one day I would love to be a teacher. Religion is good thing as long as you don't push your views on others, The media is complex and bias. Economy... I have no views on other than my own personal wages. Government is important for structure and people always want more and it's easy to blame the government for everything. These of course are all quick and rough ideas of how I feel from my worldview and should be takien with a grain of salt until I give a longer explanation.
I hope I have gotten right what I have been asked to do, however I notice I may have rambled a bit about myself. I'll try to understand more about culture and society and see how my understanding of the subject changes throughtout the duration of this module.
-Ryan
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