September Blog Post-McKenna Kynett

From the reading Man Upby Carlos Andres Gomez, something that really stood out to me was the certain stigma that boys are not allowed to have fear in order to grow up and become a man. When talking about perception this week, this piece tied in very well because this is something that has been going on since forever and it is something that affects a boy’s overall perception of who they are and how they should act. One thing that Carlos Andres Gomez said which capture this very well was when he stated, “Every day I watch men around me struggle with the burden of concealing their fear, like I did for so many years. Men puff up their chests and curse and yell and fight and even die to avoid being called afraid, as if it were a mortal sin, the worst one of all” (p. 39). This was very interesting to me because I never realized how hard it can be for boys to grow up with that certain pressure society puts on them. Carlos talks about how at a certain point, his fear was controlling his life and the way he chose to act so he decided he needed to change. He wanted to ‘be a man’ and he couldn’t do that without getting rid of his fear. I think many boys growing up are expected by their peers to be rugged and aggressive so they hide their true feelings in a lot on situations. This can ultimately influence their perception of themselves and the overall world, and also their identity and how they shape that growing up. 

One example that I thought of for this would be from the movie The Outsiders. A group of tough young men were constantly under the pressures of being the ‘man’ and being ready to fight whenever they walked the streets. They were looked down on when they showed fear or held back from a fight. They were expected by their peers to be tough, mean, and aggressive because if they weren’t they would probably lose their life. This never ending battle to ‘be a man’ was especially evident in the character Pony Boy. Whenever he showed fear and weakness, he was pressured back into being ruthless and strong. He was never fully able to show his true emotions, and that ultimately affected the way he carried himself, and the way he looked at his role models. 

Overall, the perception that we have of each other and ourselves ultimately shape who we are. We are influenced by the ‘social norms’ of our world and we conform to them in order to be accepted by our peers.

Blog Post 2

Throughout our lives in one way or another, we have acted differently when it came to certain people and certain situations. We have put on a "performance" - who we are as the result of repeated, patterned actions - for our family, and our friends without even realizing it. However when we put on this act, we sometimes may find ourselves in the front of the stage, presenting our self as we are. This usually happens when we know we can trust the audience in front of us, or else we wouldn't be executing such a role. As the old school saying goes -just imagine the audience in their underwear and it will be easier to present. But other times when we find ourselves nervous or unaware of the people around us and unable to imagine an easy crowd, we make our way to the back of the stage where we hide our whole, or part of our self. This plays in a big role in identity, and who we are personality wise. We may always be at the front of the stage because we're outgoing and automatically trust those surrounding us without even second guessing. However, if we're introverted and not accustomed to our environment, showing our true traits may come with time. Role-playing is one of the most important ways we show our gender, since that in itself is a performance for some individuals in our world today. And sometimes when this happens, those who watch may react negatively or positively, depending on how difficult our gender choice may be.
Personally, I would say that the biggest example of me giving a performance was during my high school years. I always found myself at the front of the stage; comfortable because I knew the kids I went to school with since we were kids, and I was able to find for myself an identity quickly. No matter what environment or situation I was in, I was always my goofy and nice self to everyone I met and spoke with on the daily basis. However, as high school ended and I found myself searching for colleges, this outgoing self slowly disappeared. And when I arrived at my chosen university (obviously Boise State), I quickly ran to the back of the stage. Without touring the school or the city, I found myself coming into a world blind and without any guidance which made it difficult for my true self to shine. This soon became my new identity, and it was something that was very hard to adjust to. But, as time has gone by and leaps have been taken, I have seen that it is possible to make it back to the front of the stage even when it seemed intimidating and impossible to reach. With perseverance and time, its possible for us to to look at our audience in the crowd as just somebody in their underwear.

September Blog Post

I decided to do my blog post on identity and the idea of stereotypes. The book defines identity as "more than a collection of traits, more than skin or physical features..." The continue with, "identity is always a historical idea, a product of social norms and patterns of thinking that, solidified over time, have become taken for granted and seemingly 'normal'".

I think identity and stereotypes go hand in hand, because this is how people categorize and remember people. Stereotypes can be positive, but they can sometimes leave a pretty negative connotation on people before they even get a chance to show who they really are. I have had this happen to me quite a few times. I was a cheerleader in high school, and I had people tell me that they thought I was going to be mean until they actually talked to me and found out otherwise. When I asked them why they thought that, I found out that they put me in a category because of the activity I did and the friends I had. It was super interesting to see a stereotype actually play out because it really did give me a negative appearance for no reason other than something I was involved in and blind accusations. Identity is should be something we grow into, along with some traits we were born with. I totally think that how you are raised and the environment you are surrounded with have a huge affect on the type of person you become. It was super interesting learning about Identity and negative or positive roles it can play.

September Blog Post

Very recently we as a class have learned about identity and how we as people portray ourselves. The given definition of identity is the totality of someone's self attributes at any given time. Individually, we all have a few different identities within us and it is a matter of what circumstances we are in in order for one of our identities to become salient. The given definition for saliency is the most utilized identity in one moment. I find these concepts so interesting because if you truly sit back and think about it, there are so many different identities within one person that could come out at any given time. This also makes me question if a certain identity comes out in a situation, am I truly being myself? Think about it again and I know I am being myself because it is one of my identities. Not only did identities and saliency interest me but so did the idea of performativity. Performativity is the continual repetition of performances that produce a 'series of effects'. Ones' performativity can go one way in their head while someone else may see their doings as something completely different. The best and most interesting example I can think of is in the reading of Andres Gomez and his fears of the world. He let fear drive his performance because it motivated him. He became this very brave guy who thought he was making manly decisions. When Gomez's father came to have a conversation with him, it was a completely different perspective of Andres' performativity. His father told him that he was selfish, not disciplined, and never followed through on anything. How can there be this big of a difference in perspective when they have been around each other for most of Andres' life? His repetition of performance caused this 'series of effects'. A decision to perform a certain way caused his father to talk to him about being a man even though Andres thought he was making grown-up decisions. Perspective is such a big deal when it comes to trying to understand someone's identities. That is what I took from these lectures in the past couple of days and I can see it in everyday actions.

Blog Post 2

Blog Post 2

            Recently we learned about the 3 Orders of Signification which include: denotation, connotation, and myths. Denotation is the literal definition or dictionary meaning of a word. Connotation is the secondary meaning. Lastly, myths are the cultural value or beliefs that are expressed through connotation. Myth allows the connotative meaning of a something or an image to appear denotative, literal, or natural.

            First thing that comes to mind when I think of a myth is the phrase “knock on wood”. It’s been told that knocking on wood after saying something that may jinx yourself will not make it jinx you. I personally do this and have seen many people around me partake in this common myth. If wood is not nearby, some people may even knock on their head. The denotation of this phrase would be the act of knocking on wood without it meaning anything other than what you’re doing. The connotation would be the meaning some people know as preventing from jinxing yourself. Along with the myth of literally knocking on wood or your head. This phrase is monosemy which means it has multiple meanings. It’s interesting because the idea of jinxing yourself is also somewhat of a myth. The idea that just because you do something so simple, that it will automatically not happen. I don’t feel the universe takes our knocks on wood into consideration with how things happen, yet I still am guilty on knocking on wood or my head when I think about it possibly being jinxed by something.

           

September Blog Post

I am centering this months blog post around the idea of identity and perception. Within this topic comes the idea of stereotyping which are the easy conclusions we make about people that reduce them from unique individuals to predictable types. I see stereotyping on a day to day basis. We see it within society when we group individuals into different subcategories based off of our initial judgments of them. I have been in situations where I have been stereotyped and in situations where I was stereotyping someone else without intentionally doing it.
In class this month we read sections from Barthes Mythologies. In the "Toys" chapter, it exclaimed the idea of how French dolls are made for little girls in order to teach them how to prepare for motherhood. I see this as a way of stereotyping that all little girls will grow up to be house wives and taking care of the children. It stereotypes them into a group that they have to be mothers simply because they are girls.
We also see stereotypes on a day to day basis. When we make judgments about who somebody is based off of who they hang out with or what they wear, we are subconsciously placing them into a stereotype that we created for them. Whether the stereotype turns out to be accurate or not, we will constantly hold onto that preconceived idea of them now.

September Blog Post

September Blog Post

For the month of September, I have decided to focus my blog post on the idea of Symbolic Interactionism. I found this concept important for many reasons and I chose it in order to better understand how Symbolic Interactionism has altered and shaped my personal life. According to text Symbolic Interactionism “theorizes that the self is a product of the messages it has encountered in past interactions” (Warren, 2014). In other words, who we are today is a result of the things we have experienced and done throughout our youth as we develop our personalities and beliefs. Symbolic Interactionism is the understanding of how the environment around us can have an effect on our lives and shift us for the future.

The situation that I like to look at Symbolic Interactionism in is parenting. I think that an understanding of Symbolic Interactionism can have a major effect on how parent raise their children and, as a result, have a much greater effect on the lives of their children in the future. We see this a lot with morality and religion. Religious individuals will teach their children the importance of the symbol God or Christ, whatever the belief may be, and they will teach their children why this symbol is important to respect. This can eventually lead to the child developing a morality that believes everything should be done in the way their God would want it done, or everything should be done in a way to please their God. This interaction shapes the child’s life and will change the outlook of their future. An understanding of how the symbols we apply to our children’s life can change them for the future will lead to more effective parenting.

I think that Symbolic Interactionism is important to understand and learn about for an abundance of reasons. I believe that the benefits offered by an understanding of how the things we surround ourselves with shape our personality can lead to a more optimistic future. Symbolic Interactionism can also lead to a better understanding of others and a deeper empathy for the things they believe and goals they have. This understanding also creates a community that shares a much greater level of respect and consideration than cultures we may find ourselves in today. 

Sources:

Warren, John T., and Deanna L. Fassett. Communication: a Critical/Cultural Introduction. SAGE Publications, Inc, 2014.