Feb Blog: What's your damage?

Ron Price

Blog #2

Christina Ivey

02/28/2017

“What’s your damage?”

Eighties icon John Oates once said “My mustache has become this weird iconic representation of a certain era.” Other representations of 80s iconic images include (but are not limited to) Madonna’s white dress from her infamous “Like a Virgin” performance, Michael Jackson’s red jacket from “Thriller” (and other videos) or Tom Cruise rockin’ aviators in “Top Gun.”  Each of these material items symbolized different aspects of specific narratives found in the American consciousness; liberation/women's sexuality, the universal appeal of music, and the role of masculinity in the male psyche. One concept that helps explore the meanings of symbolic representations or emblems is the study of rhetoric. As defined by the textbook, “Rhetoric is the study of symbolic action, it studies not only symbols and their meaning, but also their consequences . . .Symbolic action is expressive human action, the rhetorical mobilization of symbols to act in the world.” What this means is that the words we use have meaning and real world implications. Through various applications of verbal and nonverbal symbols, the “real world” is continuously shaped and reshaped to reflect the narratives that make up our social fabric.  The text continues, “Social reality is reality as understood through the symbols humans use to represent it.”  As alluded to earlier, there are various methodologies, artifacts, and narratives that help construct, form and understand the world around us.

Much like how Eminem galvanized angry white men in the late 1990s’, civil rights activist Audre Lorde utilized anger as one method to combat misogyny and racism. Unlike Eminem, Lorde’s interpretation addresses inequalities not easily solved by simply being angry and crying white male fragility. As outlined in the essay “Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”, Lorde states “Anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change. Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.” Lorde’s interpretation allows for anger to be used as a positive force for social change and justice. Example manifestations of the anger model for can be found in social justice movements like Black Lives Matter  and S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men). The long term impacts of #BLM are still up for observation. Similar to the #NoDAPL movement, the “verdict” is still out on whether or not these movements will be viewed akin to angels or to devils. The public perception of  S.C.U.M., however, equates this particular radical group to feminazism and is viewed as one extreme interpretation of feminist theory.

Whether it be the 1800’s, the 1900’s or the 2000’s, addressing societal inequalities and injustices will be a battle that current and future generations must take up and resolve if humanity is to progress as a race. Symbolic action does not happen in a vacuum and serves to illuminate “problems” within a dominant power structure. Acting from a standpoint of positionality, our individual stories serve as a counterpoint to the reproduction of prevailing narratives that saturate mass media and culture. The unique perspectives that we each bring to the tapestry of American culture reflects our history, our accomplishments, and our struggles. As Americans, we take great pride in our individuality and sense of self.  However, as Lorde eloquently states “ I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” We must remember where we come from if we are to have a clear picture of where we are going.

February Blog #2 - Victor Barrios

Victor Barrios

Christina Ivey

Communications 160

28 February 2017

Blog Post #2

The sentence I chose from “Fear: Beneath the Facade” chapter was. “Men are not allowed to be afraid. Or we have to qualify it by saying we were just “startled for a second,” but never afraid.” While reading the very first sentence of this chapter starting with how men are not allowed to be afraid, it made me mad at the very first start. It was the gender equality in me kicking in when I saw that. But later reading Andres Gomez chapter about fear made me understand more about what he was talking about. To be honest I understood what he was talking about. Growing up as a Mexican-American myself.

Growing up in my culture there was always theses role, that I needed to follow. I had to be a “man” at a very young age, I had to do sport, I had to play with cars, I had to be into this and I shouldn't cry because I'm a man. Luckily at young age I decided to rebel against those specific roles, but it was still in the back of mind as kid. I always had those fear just like Gomez of “not being man enough” the fear of not living up to my mother and father expectation was hard on me. Growing up of not doing what my gender role is suppose to do has been great. I have been trying to break those gender barriers with my parents and people around me. By saying boys or men can have feeling, that we all don't have to follow our culture by being that stereotypical man, who is strong and dose manly things. Same goes for women, that they don't have to be nice and poise women, but that they can also be strong and hardworking like anybody else.   

Gomez stated that “fear is the fuel behind everything great that I have ever done.” To me this quote tells me that although having the fear of not living up to the expectation of how your specific gender is suppose to act, those fear fuel you to break the barrier. And make you become the person you want to be. To turn those fear into braveness. Which is something I have been through myself, my fears help me do better and become the person I want to be, not what my parents or society want me to be. But who I want see or be myself growing up as a Mexican-American feminist man. Here is a Link of Carlos Andres Gomez the author of this chapter, speaking at a poetry slam about the stereotypical of how a Hispanic should look like. It was interesting to see not just him talking about gender role like in this chapter but also the Hispanic/Latino roles.

February Blog Post!

Madison Kemnitz

Christina Ivey

February Blog Post

28 February, 2017

            I am choosing to talk about Gomez’s Book, Man Up, but more specifically chapter two, which is titled Fear: Beneath the Façade. This chapter explains the fear a little boy, Carlos had great fears of the real world, and of what his future held. At the beginning of the story Carlos lists many things that he was scared of as a kid, and unfortunately I can relate to many of them. I pride myself now being outgoing, and not afraid of others or what others might say, but I can admit to the fact that I have not always lived my life in this manner. Until reading this story, I didn’t know what exactly I was afraid of as a child, or could not effectively place the memories, but this did assist me.

            By reading throughout the thoughts that passed through Carlos’s head as a child, I was able to identify with many of them. The first lines that I felt related to were, “I was afraid of the dark” and “I was afraid of monsters under my bed” (pg. 1). Looking back, I remember crying in my bed at night, but I do not think that I necessarily knew why I would be crying. At this point in my like I can relate it to the fact that the dark or possible monsters under my bed could have been part of the reason in a few ways. I know that most nights I would go to my parent’s room if I were crying or scared, and everything would be alright. Their lights would still be on every night, so that took care of the dark, and I knew that I was safe from any possible monsters in my parents bed. This extra net of safety allowed me to then peacefully fall asleep.

            Having a different perspective now, it amazes me that something so natural, and as common as the dark can have such a big influence on the minds of young children. According to Trisha Thompson, at the young age when kids are most commonly scared of the dark, or having monsters under their bed is when they are developing most of their imagination. At this point many children will have a hard time grasping the difference between fantasy and real life, so the dinosaurs they play with may come into their dream or thoughts as children drift off to bed, leaving them to the belief that these monsters are now under their bed. On the other hand, being afraid of the dark most commonly comes from the development of the idea that things can harm oneself, so the dark alludes to the idea that something will harm them when they cannot see, according to Thompson.

            Another thought that Carlos encompassed that I can also directly relate to is the belief that when you were left with babysitters, your parents would never return. When I was a young child, I hated when my parents had a babysitter, which was every Tuesday night, so that they could have date night. Each week I knew that we would get pizza, and watch American Idol and have a great time, but I always had an irrational fear that my parents wouldn’t come back from their date night alive. Every Tuesday night I would cry when out babysitter arrived, and as soon as I woke up Wednesday morning, I remember running down the hall to my parents room to assure my parents were home from the night before, and getting ready for work. Not only did this fear come from being very close to my mom, and never wanting to leave her side, but also, form the trauma I had heard stories about. When my dad was two years’ old he was left with his older sisters as babysitters when his parents were going to fly some costumers and their selves to dinner in Havasu, from Phoenix. Sadly, after dinner my grandpa crashed the plane, and for my two-year-old dad, every child’s worst nightmare became reality. I grew up knowing that I didn’t have grandparents because they died, and never came home from their date night which was traumatizing to me as a child.  Knowing that circumstances like these are more than plausible makes my perception of a menial event very real, and frightening.  I am grateful that I have outgrown these fears, and I was never harmed in the dark, found a monster under my bed, or woke up to the absence of my parents after having a babysitter. This writing, and Carlos’s thoughts were very relatable to me.

 Works Cited

Gomez, Carlos. Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood. New York: Gotham, 2012.

Print. 28 February, 2017

Thompson, Trisha. “Night Time Fears: Why do they happen and what to do about them.” Baby

Center. September 2016. Web. 28 February, 2017.

February Blog Post

February Blog Post

Out of all the readings so far my favorite is Fear by, Andres Gomez. I enjoyed reading this because it is very relevant in society today. This reading made me realize that in this course there are many different readings but in some way all relate back to one another. A quote that stood out to me was on the last page of the reading. Gomez says “Fear is what makes us great. It’s what makes us commit to the leap and dive in, full-bodied, and risk and dig and push.” This quote stood out to me because it is very true that when you face your fears you become a better and greater person than before. I believe life is all about facing your fears and growing as a person. If we all just sat around and kept living in fear, we would never progress or grow in life.

Personally I can relate to this fear, when I needed to make a decision about going to college. I knew I wanted to go somewhere away from home and I really liked Boise State even though it is very different from my home town in California. I decided in order for me to get out of my comfort zone and have new experiences on my own, I would need to face my fear of living on my own, and being a 16-hour car ride away from home. Although Andres Gomez talks about many different challenges some I cannot relate to, I think everyone can relate to over coming their fears.

When I first read this article it made me think about a video I had seen on Facebook. The video was a campaign in Australia to bring awareness to the number of men committing suicide. The title of the video is “It takes balls to cry” and it shows a couple different aged men, young and old crying on camera. The point it makes it that men are told to “man up” or “stop crying” and to never show their emotions leading them to bottle it all up inside instead of talking it out. I think this has a lot of relevance to the article Fear because Andres himself recalls being told to “man up” and not be afraid of anything because fear and emotions are weakness. In reality fear is also an emotion that shouldn’t have to be kept inside just because you’re a man.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3877258/Australian-men-urged-cry-Man-advert-male-suicide.html  

FEB BLOG POST!

In the month of February, this class has truly interested me in so many ways, from seeing the differences in communication between cultures to the positionality impact on communication in culture. Too me though, the part that stood out the most was what we went over today in class, which was Lorde's Writing Masters Tools and Uses of Anger.

           I found Lorde's writing so interesting because she truly spoke her mind, her writing was very straight forward and to the point, but that’s why I enjoyed it. One line I really like was, “My response to racism is anger” (131). This sentence is yet so simple and short but yet so powerful. Lorde had this bug that was eating away at her in the inside, she had to stand up for what she believed even in the toughest circumstances. Her anger fueled her passion and desire to push forward and stand up for far much more than herself, it was for the whole African American population who had felt the pain of this terror.

Lorde was not only black but she was also lesbian and a feminist. The ball was not in her court but she had he sights set for what she wanted. In one letter Lorde received a woman wrote, “Because you are Black and Lesbian, you seem to speak with the moral authority of suffering” (132). Lorde responded with, “Yes, I am Black and Lesbian, and what you hear in my voice is fury, not suffering. Anger, not moral authority. There is difference” (132). What she means by this response is that she is not high on the mountain preaching down to those around her, but she is a member of the crowd with a loud and booming voice. I think this statement is a perfect representation of Lorde and her efforts for standing up for what she believed in. She was not a held back and a timid character, she was fierce and aggressive in her steps towards her goals. She channeled her anger like a furnish channels fire. Lorde to me stood out,  because I got that sense of her being a powerful and impactful person, that’s why this was no doubt my favorite topic we as a class explored.