November Blog Post

Cultural Diversity

A quote from one of the readings, “Cross-Cultural Diversity” stated “Culturally determined differences in values, beliefs, and assumptions cause at least two types of problems for conducting business across cultures”, it then goes on to describe these problems. For example, people misunderstand when others use a similar gesture as they do but it means something completely different this leads to confusion disappointment when people do not fulfill other’s wants. This quote and the idea behind it reminded of some of the currents issues that have been going on recently.  Because there is such a diverse range of cultures in America now, it can cause barriers when trying to communicate with one another. However, it is important that both parties communicating try and meet in the middle in order to hopefully avoid some of the barriers.

An article that helps to illustrate this is, “How Does Cultural Diversity Affect Communications?” The article starts out by explaining how important it is to handle your communication with others correctly because it influences how they perceive you. A person’s culture can be affected by many things, religion, values, beliefs and even region. Every person that you come in contact with is going to have different values and a different culture and it is important to be aware of those things in order to communicate with them in the best way possible. A specific example of this would be in the workplace, if a coworker values accuracy over speed while working and you value the opposite it is important to know how to communicate your values to that person in a way that does not seem rude or judgmental. If you communicate this the right way it can be the difference between getting that person to agree with you and causing them to feel judged.

Remembering that there is a lot of cultural diversity around us is a key component when it comes to communicating with those around with us. If we are able to remind ourselves that everyone’s culture differs from our own it will make communicating with others easier in the long run.

Reference

http://theanalystcoach.net/business-analyst-careers/how-does-cultural-diversity-affect-communications/

Family and Societal Bullying

Carson Sandau

My whole I've been called a bully. I've always been bold and sassy, so when I say what everyone else is thinking, some people find it rude, mostly my family. After reading the article "Family Bullies" by Keith Berry and Tony E. Adams, I was shown just how damaging bullying in a family can be. Me and my sister have always fought, and most likely until we are a 1,000 miles apart, we will continue to do so. However, after reading this article and seeing just how detrimental bullying in a family can be, I might easy up on her. In the article, it talks about different types of bulling. Victoria used a more defensive type of bullying, while I use a more offensive type. Mostly I just want to make people laugh, and this is easily accomplished by making harmless jokes about the person. This type of being "funny" can be misconstrued as offensive and  can make people actually feel bad. This could be considered a type of bullying if there is not clear communication that it was just a joke. A lot of bullying could be fixed if people would just communicate how they felt. Hopefully informing people to share their differences rather than just fight about them will help resolve issues and make people get along better.

November blog post

What does it mean to be an advocate or an ally?

Tami uses this definition of what it means to be allied: "join[ing] together to advance a common interests or causes." Why is it important to be an ally? According to GLSEN, "allies give us hope and the support we need to keep being ourselves, a seemingly simple idea, is more difficult to accomplish than it sounds."However ally can be a misused term. If being an ally is just being supportive, can everyone who is supportive to a group of people call themselves an ally? So I ask myself, what makes someone an ally. It isn't just retweeting "#BlackLivesMatter." While this is an important movement that is spanning across the nation, but someone is not an ally just because they can tweet. Maybe being an ally means participating in activities that support an oppressed group. This can be participating in protests, or just being there to listen to those that need a hearing ear. 

I think a lot of people are guilty of considering themselves an ally and an activist, but are actually slacktivists, a term that has been coined for the Twitter and Facebook active people that don't actually do anything beyond reposting articles. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as "actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g., signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website." However, there is something to be said about people reposting articles, retweeting hashtags, and getting the work out there to potentially hundreds of people. But then I think about all the people that are reposting and retweeting, and imagine what could be happening if all those people were taking action. 

Advocacy is defined as "a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy" by the Oxford Dictionary. However, I don't think this definition is really encompassing what it means to be an advocate for an oppressed or marginalized group of people. Advocates want to make an impact, and by publicly supporting a cause or policy are they really making an impact? for some people I'm sure that can be the case, but for many of us lower profile peasants, I don't think that holds true. Time online magazine offers up the idea of "immersing yourself" in the issue. Become familiar with it and dig for more. 

To me this all comes down to being educated about the issues at hand. Become educated about how to get involved, how to effectively help. Everyone who wants to be an ally or an advocate has the opportunity to educate themselves. 

http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/20/how-to-be-an-effective-advocate/
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/advocate
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/slacktivism
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/11/things-allies-need-to-know/
http://www.glsen.org/learn/about-glsen
https://www.csusm.edu/sjs/documents/beingally.pdf

November blog post

When I read “Making My Narrative Mine: Unconventional Articulations of a Female Soldier” my eyes were opened to the first-hand experience of a woman in the military.  I have never thought about the way a person could be treated in the military. We have all heard some short boot camp story from our grandparents or from a Hollywood flick. I think it’s wildly known that boot camp isn’t easy and the conditions are rough. Drill instructors are there to belittle you and make you feel weak. There positions require them to break you down mentally and physically to push you to your limits. They yell and belittle you leaving you feeling worthless and lost. They make you question whether or not this is what you wanted for yourself. After you have reached your breaking point they build you back up shaping your character. The adversity that you faced during boot camp will help you not only in times of war but for everyday life. At one point in my life I considered joining the military.  I took in consideration the things that come with joining the military, and the military life is just not for me. I think the military takes a certain person to join the military. Joining the military takes courage and requires a person to put their life on the line to have the free county we do today.

I have heard good and bad things about the military but nothing like the story Manda V. Hicks story. I have never thought about a woman in the military and the way she gets treated. I believe a person should be treated respectfully until proven otherwise. The way this woman was treated just because she is a girl is wrong and unacceptable. The constant reminder that she was a girl was eye-opening for me. The military is supposed to be a respected establishment and they should be treating hicks as one of their own. I think the men that treated her badly or made her feel this away are ignorant. This is someone who went through the same training as them and will be the one fighting along next to them so they should have acted like it. They should have treated her based on what she brought to the table not her gender. In an article from the Baltimore Sun talks about how they lifted a ban on women being able to join special forces units. The article also talks about that now the ban is lifted woman will be based off their ability not their ability not their gender.  This is how hicks should have been treated from the beginning. She should have been treated based off her qualities she brought to the military not her gender. This is the first step in many to change the way the military treats woman. It’s important we make this change. I think allowing girls to join the special forces will open up new possibilities for woman giving them a voice. A voice that will help continue grow this great country

References:

Gender equality in the military. (2015, December 6). Retrieved December 1, 2016, from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-women-military-20151206-story.html

November Blog Post

When I got home after the class in which we watched "Mickey Mouse Monopoly", I asked my sister to tell me what she thought about them. My sister being a bi-sexual, gender-fluid, well read 15 year-old, I knew I would get some creative answers. A part of me was worried that she was falling into the trap that these Disney movies provide, and I wanted to make sure she knew I was a resource for her if she ever needed someone to talk to.

I first asked her what she thought of the princess movies. And her answer surprised me, "I don't really know. I didn't really watch those movies. I liked the movies with animals, Jungle Book, Lion King, Lady in the Tramp. Stuff like that."

This kid is one of the biggest animal lovers in the world, so it made sense that these were her favorite movies growing up. I remember watching "Finding Nemo" with her on repeat when it came out on DVD. I was relieved that she didn't watch the princess movies like I did as a kid. When I was growing up it was princess everything. i watched those movies religiously and I wanted to be just them. I wanted my prince charming to find and rescue me. My sister on the other hand would pretend to be animals around the house. She would make "dens" out of pillows and would strip of her clothes and roar at people who came through the front door. I think these Disney influences had a part in how we were as kids, and as we continue to grow.

State University quotes the American Academy of Pediatrics in saying that, "Children are influenced by media-they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors of their own,". My sister and I have shown this with how we perceived our bodies and appearance.

I have struggled my whole life with my weight. I've always wanted to have a small hourglass figure (princess). I always thought long hair was more attractive (princess), so when my mom cut my hair when I was 8 i had a meltdown. I thought I was supposed to marry a "prince" (princess), so i struggled with coming to terms with being a lesbian.

My sister on the other hand enjoys her tall and muscular frame (because according to her, animals are strong), has always had short hair (she says it gets in the way) and didn't have a problem with coming out as bi or gender-fluid (she says nature is nature).

Im not holding Disney responsible for every decision and trait my sister and I have made, but I do think there was influence with what we watched as children. Disney was, and continues to be a big part of our lived. Disney movies have made appearances under the Christmas tree every year, and my sister and I have a huge collection. it would be impossible for something so common in our household to not have influenced us in some way.

Every day for the last week, my sister and I have been watching Disney princess movies and having a discussion about them. As I expected she didn't take them at face-value, and we were able to have in-depth discussion about what was ok and what wasn't in these movies. I'm glad she watched these movies when she was older so she could process them better, but I would encourage parents and older siblings to talk with children who watch these movies to make sure they aren't influencing their children in destructive ways.


1) AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY, and AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 2000. "Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children–Congressional Public Health Summit."

November Post - Bullying

Mallory Clark 
November Blog Post 
Bullying 


       In week 11 we talked about bullying and how its an omnipresent issue in everyday cultural and relational lives. We focused in bullying in families mostly which is something almost every person has experience with. The article we read, "Family Bullies" by Berry and Adams discussed a few different family bullying situations. Now when we think of bullying in a family context we usually imagine a bickering brother and sister, although that is a popular issue in families it is not the only way bullying exists in families. Cousins, step siblings, and even parents can be bullies. I think it's harder to escape bullying in families because you are constantly with each other, there's no real escape as opposed to leaving school and your bullies go home. It's also hard because when you spend a lot of time with someone you know all the bad qualities/habits that person has which can lead to arguments/disagreements and then fighting or bullying. It can rip families apart and lead people to depression, anxiety, low self esteem and many other issues. But it exists in every other corner of the world, its impossible to avoid being bullied all your life. 
        Different cultures experience different kind of bullying as well. One that comes to mind specifically when I think of specific groups of people that are targets of bullying are those in the gay community. According to bullyingstatistics.org gay and lesbian teens are two to three times more likely to commit suicide than any other youths. About 30% of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis. Students who also fall into the gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgendered identity groups report being five times as more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe after being bullied due to their sexual orientation. This is where the majority of the bullying occurs, that and online. Because those in the gay community go against what is perceived as "normal" by a majority of the population they are critisied and put down. In a 2005 survey about gay bullying statistics, teens reported that the number two reason they are bullied is because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression, the number one reason reported was because of appearance. In fact, about 9 out of 10 LGBT teens have reported being bullied at school within the past year because of their sexual orientation. The fact that these people are being bullied not only because of their sexual orientation but because of the way they look is absolutely heartbreaking, and it's not only those in the gay community that are bullying because of the way they look. For those in the gay community is mostly because they push the boundaries within gender norms, for others it could be something as simple as their hairstyle or the fact that they have their natural hair style. It's important to realize the things we say, even if it's a joke because it can be perceived a completely different way by someone else and hurt them. We need to protect those around us and make sure we stand up for those who can't on their own. There are too many suicides related to bullying, people need to understand that it's not a joke, and it's not okay to bully anyone for any reason. These articles helped me see even the subtle jokes I say to my brother constitute as bullying and I need to stop. The only way to make things better is to be aware. 

November Blog - Bully Sister

As usual, we discussed important issues this month in class. What stood out for me the most on our readings and discussions, was the article "Family Bullies" by Keith Berry and Tony E. Adams. It made me think about my own life and questions arose: Am I a bully? Was I ever bullied? Thankfully, the answer to both of these questions is no. Growing up with quite strict parents - my dad is a military officer and my mom a sociology professor - bullying was never tolerated at all and I knew at a young age that mental and physical abuse of other is wrong. I witnessed some bullying at school, but never thought people would be bullied in their own homes, by a family member. Family bullying, like in Victoria's example, can be as damaging and leave even more painful scars on an individual than bullying at school would. The problem is, there is no escape when a family member happens to be the bully and one has to live in a constant fear.

Bullying can become a cycle that is hard to end. When in the example on "Family Bullies", Victoria states that she later acknowledged that her behavior towards Lily was "a form of bullying", although more of a defensive and isolating type rather than active and offensive. Cycle like this easily grabs the whole family into it, and once someone, in this case the bully Lily, is seen as "the enemy", Lily probably got more threatened and aggressive. Victoria and Lily's family didn't have any other problems, but often there is something else going on in a bully's family that triggers one into bullying others. I was happy to read the semi-happy ending of Victoria's story: "However, the bitterness has left their relationship and they are working on a friendship." I personally think that building and maintaining a loving and respecting relationship with family is one of the most rewarding things in life. No relationship is perfect, but also nobody should have to stand bullying anywhere, especially in their own home.

Emma Hyyppä

Reference: Keith Berry & Tony E. Adams (2016) Family Bullies, Journal of Family Communication, 16:1, 51-63, DOI: 10.1080/15267431.2015.1111217