September Blog Post

The whole idea surrounding social construction and norms—specifically mythical norms—in Chapter 6 were very interesting to me.  Our social world emerges through our actions and rules/norms that we follow.  The more I think about norms, the more I get frustrated with the way society often praises these things.  Granted, some norms are good to follow such as forming lines or not picking your nose in public, but majority of societal norms are complete bogus. 

Mythical norms are Audre Lorde’s metaphor for those who occupy positions of power in society; that they are “the norm”, or even average or typical is a myth.  The book provided an example of the mythical norm in mainstream US culture as male, white, Christian, nondisabled, young, thin/athletic, heterosexual, and either upper or middle class.  This makes it difficult for men who are not all of these things to find their place or even their own identity because they don’t match up to what is perceived as what is “normal”.  An example of this would be from the movie Love, Simon.  The movie is about this guy named Simon and he lives a pretty normal life, except for the fact that he is gay, and nobody knows.  Throughout the movie, Simon does not get to be who he truly is because he is fearful that people—especially his friends and family—will think of him differently.  He is hiding a huge part of his identity because it goes against what most people view as “normal”.  Not everyone carries the mythical norm that everyone should be and is straight. 

It is frustrating that norms like this even exist in the first place, because is there really such thing as being “normal”?

Love, Simon Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0cbWdlQg_8

Blog #2

Sister Citizen:

what it means to be a Black woman and an American citizen,At the same time, she shows how Black women resist this mislabelling and strive to define themselves and their experiences.In Chapter 1, the author explains that she uses the study as a metaphor for Black women's experience in the United States, as standing in a ‘crooked room’ and trying to navigate their way through the stereotypes.

Man Up:

In man up chapter 2 The narrator is writing about his past and present This book is primarily a study of Man and ultimately embraces

all the great qualities and problems of Man. As a study of Man

it takes into consideration all the characteristics which make Man what he is. If some readers do understand the absence of certain expressions familiar to them, it does not mean that the author does not feel or think as many other people, he does and understands but in this book he has approached the problem of Man from a scientific point of view,

and therefore great pains have been taken not to use.

Blog #2

In this post, I just want to focus on the stereotypes given to Black women. First, a stereotype is an easy cop-out, easy conclusion, or predetermined notion about a certain group of people. Stereotypes in the US have always been a problem, and for the most part many stereotypes are very untrue. Now, in my opinion there is some truths in every stereotype, but that still doesn't mean they aren't hurtful or annoying. Now, there are three stereotypes that we discussed in class that are given to Black women; these stereotypes include: Mammy, Jezebel, and Sapphire. Mammy is suppose to represent the black women that is extremely unattractive, but does a good job of taking care of the white kids. Jezebel represents the Black women that is viewed as super attractive and she is also hypersexualized. Next, Sapphire represents the angry black woman that always has an attitude about something. I'm simply here to connect this particular topic to my mother and sister. My mother is 48 years old, and my sister is 26 years old, and neither one of them fit into the three stereotypes I mentioned above. Both of them are extremely educated with masters degrees, and they both have successful careers. They are extremely beautiful, but have respect for themselves, and they both care so much about other people. Also, I think it is important to note that my mother, with the help of my father, helped raise two children of her own, not any white kids that weren't her own. This just proves that although some stereotypes might be true, there are many stereotypes that aren't even accurate representations of a lot of individuals in this society. This concept of stereotypes is important because it is an issue that has been going on since the beginning of time, and a lot of the times stereotypes are negative, and they generally have a negative impact on individuals self-esteem. I think as a society we need to do a better job of eliminating stereotypes, and stop jumping to conclusions on different groups of people. Lastly, I'm a Black male, and life is hard out here for Black males, but in my opinion, Black females have things way worst. They are a double minority, which means they fit into two different minority groups. But, I simply want to applaud Black women, like my mother and sister, because despite all the stereotypes, and negative backlash they get they still find a way to take care of their kids, be beautiful and attractive, and still have successful careers out here in society. They continue to beat the odds, and that's what it's all about.

Blog#2

   In communication class we talked about two types of stage metaphors frontstage and backstage, these two metaphors had a lot of things going through my head as we went through the lecture. Front stage and back stage are concepts within sociology that refer to different modes of behavior that we engage in every day. I picked this topic because I feel like we all are familiar with this stage because we place people that we want to know are business into these two categories. For example, my family only know my back-stage information because I only feel comfortable sharing problems and embarrassing things to them because I know they won’t judge me. Front stage is what we do when we know that others are watching or aware of us so therefore I think of it as something that you’re not afraid to hide from people and something that you’re not afraid to share with friends, teachers etc. This go even deeper because as human beings we rely on these two categories to place people in the front and back stage metaphors. The way we place people into the two categories can be variety of reasons like values, beliefs, and common culture practices of social group. This is something I’m definitely proud I learned about because I think its nice to know how we place people in the two categories so many spectacular things that we see each other do every day to build some form of relationship with each other to create that front and back stage relationship with people all over the world.

September Blog Post

Throughout the month of September, the concept that has resonated with me the most has been the stage metaphor. I think the key thing to keep in mind about the stage metaphor is looking at it in its entirety. Within the stage metaphor, there is a ‘front of stage’ and there is a ‘backstage.’ The ‘front of stage’ is the self that one presents to others, one’s best self. The ‘backstage’ is the self that only the closest confidants get to experience. However, the stages have a tendency to be looked at as two separate parts. Nonetheless, both the ‘front of stage’ and the ‘backstage’ coincide with each other and shape who a person truly is.

            With personal self-reflection, I am positive that everyone can agree that they have a ‘front of stage’ and a ‘backstage.’ It is human nature for someone to hide their flaws and weaknesses, thus creating a ‘backstage’ that only a select few get to see or experience. I feel as though this ‘front of stage’ mindset is greatly influenced by today’s day and age. As you scroll through other’s social media feeds, you are seeing their highlights while focusing on your lowlights.

            I have experienced this directly in high school, one of my dearest friends had posted a happy, upbeat selfie. Later that night she called me, expecting to hear about her great day, yet she was sobbing on the other end. Her boyfriend of nearly three years had broken up with her that morning. I had assumed that nothing happened throughout her day, basing my assumptions off of her smiley post. Yet, when she let down the veil of heir ‘front of stage,’ I was able to see what had actually been going on.

            The concept of stage metaphor is a crucial thing to understand in everyday life. The stage metaphor can serve as an explanation to why most people act the way they do. I also feel as though it serves as a beneficial concept to learn about understanding where others come from. Most people see the ‘front of stage,’ yet that cannot forget that there is always a ‘backstage.’

September Blog - Fallacies

Fallacies are everywhere. Most of the time we don’t even realize them. Fallacies are so common that it’s arguably becoming more of subliminal messaging than a misconception. You know what else is everywhere that most people don’t typically take note of? Fish. In my personal experience, when people are in bodies of water, they are conscious of fish around them and sometimes are visible and vocally uncomfortable with fish around them. More often than not, their efforts to avoid fish in water are more distracting than the fish themselves. Something else that’s weird: when people are searching, they notice fish, but not always red herrings - particularly the literary one. Red herring is a fallacy that redirects attention away from a problem or topic. I guess some would say that red herring fallacies correlate with how many red herring fish are smoked to be eaten in a day. Got you again, didn’t I? That’s a false cause fallacy, also known as post hoc, which is assuming two things are the result of each other but have no correlation together. Going back to my original point: fallacies are everywhere. In what I wrote previously, it probably seemed a little awkward and off track, but that can be how fallacies begin in other contexts. Once the awkward transition is over and the fallacy is in full swing, people can be oblivious to the mistaken beliefs.

People usually recognize fallacies in political contexts, such as speeches, debates, articles, campaigns, and then some. For example, the AT&T commercials where the man interviews a bunch of young kids, maybe in elementary school, asking them various questions that don’t seem to have any correlation to a potential advertisement. The man asks the group if it’s better to be fast or slow (implying the speed of cell phones, data use, and internet) and all kids agree that fast is better. He asks them why and one of the little girls begins to go into a really elaborate answer about running away from werewolves; she says that if you’re too slow, then you get bitten, then you have to stay in frequently, then you have to get shaved because it gets too hot, then you’ll wish you could turn back into a human… Ultimately, this girl used two different fallacies in a short few seconds - red herring and slippery slope. By reasoning about werewolves, she redirects the focus away from speed to potential outcomes of being bit by a werewolf. Additionally, her story growing longer and longer, becoming more and more in depth is a slippery slope fallacy. My favorite way to describe slippery slope is relating it to the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; things essentially start small and harmless then snowballs down the slope to grow and become something massive and challenging to stop. Although people usually look for fallacies in media, fallacies are also used in casual conversations and contexts too. An example of red herring fallacy in our personal lives is arguing or bickering with someone through a text/post/email and whoever is losing the argument, or on the weaker end of it, ends up commenting on grammar mistakes instead of the issue being discussion prior to the grammatical comment.

Fallacies can come off as light-hearted, silly, amusing. However, they go unrecognized too often. Fallacies have become subliminal messaging in a sense due to the fact that most people fail to recognize a fallacy. There are a plethora of fallacies and all of them describe something different, but they are so important to know. If we don’t recognize them, then we fall into the deep consumer hole of the average people, then we are overloaded with information that we can’t decipher as myth or fact, then all we know is a world of confusion and lies, then we are too deep in the hole of consumerism, then we consume all information thrown at us, then we go broke because all the money was spent on unnecessary items we were told to consume. Without being able to recognize and identify fallacies in our lives, we won’t ever be able to track where the problems are rooted. Identifying fallacies helps us to keep people, companies, and others in check. There’s a reason people say don’t believe everything you read on the internet.

September Blog Post

Blog Post 2

Imagine a soft, furry animal curled up on the couch next to you, purring loudly. I didn’t say a cat, but that’s most likely what you pictured, right? A term from class that I decided to focus on is semiotics, or the study of signs. The textbook defines semiotics as “The structure of language,” as well as giving us some background on the concept. Originally it was studied by Ferdinand de Saussure, who questioned how we could understand language using symbols and the objects they represent. Saussure wanted to understand how a specific word comes to mind systematically representing an object. Along with semiotics come three interrelated parts that are also important to understand; the signifier, signified, and sign.

The signifier can be understood as the form which a sign takes, such as a word or image. The signified, on the other hand, is the mental concept, or meanings, represented by the signifier. For example, if we hear the word “cat,” we may think of our childhood pet cat or maybe if you’re afraid of cats you might instantly be reminded of a bad experience with cats. The sign, then, is a recognizable combination of the signifier and signified. This would be the mental images of all the cats you see in your head as a result of the signifier and signified.

We experience semiotics in lots of art pieces through the use of specific colors or other symbols. For example, many paintings use the color white to signify purity. We see the color white (signifier), maybe associate it with bright lights, clean linens, or baby bunnies (signified), ultimately thinking of purity or cleanliness. We also see this technique constantly in media advertising, and throughout our daily lives. For instance, every time we stop at a stop sign or red light we are experiencing semiotics. We see the sign or light itself (signifier), associating the color red with danger, importance, or urgency (signified), and know that this means to brake. This concept is very important in society because it helps us communicate and understand more efficiently, and follow important social rules like stopping at a light or stop sign.