Immigration (outside link #3)

Immigration can be a sore subject for people to talk about. There are two clear sides to immigration; on one, people are completely against it. They believe that Mexicans should not be allowed in America because we are forced to pay billions of dollars for them to be here. The other side, however, supports Mexican immigration. 10% of all Mexican families depend on remittances, which is the money they earn in America and send back to their family in Mexico. If they cannot come into this country and work, they will have no means to support their families. I think either way, immigration is a very serious topic. It costs America over 113 billion dollars per year to support the illegal immigrants, but at the same time, they are completely dependent on the little bit of money that they make in America. I can easily see both sides of this issue. I thought this article was interesting and provided a lot of facts that I did not know about immigration.

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/beyondtheborder/immigration.html

Adoption: The Pros and Cons of Finding Birth Parents (outside link #2)

When I found this article, I immediately thought of the film we watched "First Person Plural". I commend Cha Jung Hee for having the strength to find not only her birth parents, but her entire biological family. She spent almost her entire life with her adoptive family, but still felt incomplete without knowing her birth parents. The scariest part would have been worrying about being rejected or disappointed. I think the fact that she took her adoptive parents with her really helped and made it a little bit easier for her. There are always pros and cons to finding biological parents, however, and that's what this article addresses.

http://www.life123.com/parenting/adoption/birth-parents/the-pros-and-cons-of-finding-birth-parents.shtml

Gender Stereotypes in the Media (outside link #1)

Over the course of the semester, we have discussed Gender Roles and Gender Stereotypes. I think that gender stereotypes are the most commonly seen in the media today. In movies, magazines, and commercials, there are so many unrealistic portrayals of men and women. As this article states, the media has an idea of the "desirable" traits a man and woman should have. Women should be thin, long-legged and dainty whereas men should be tall, muscular, with a full head of hair. By advertising people like this in the media, viewers are under the impression that this is what beauty truly is. This means that a man with a shaved head and a woman who is 5'2" should feel down on themselves. They are not meeting the "cultural norm" and for that, the media will not accept them. These warped ideas are shaping the world today, and this article does a great job discussing these issues.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports03/papers/mmcconnell.html

Life and Debt (film)

I thought the film Life and Debt was really interesting. It made me realize how lucky we are to live in America. In Jamaica, women are forced to work in textile factories five or six full days a week. In return for their hard labor, all they get is $30 per week. Thirty dollars could not even buy food to support one person for a week, nevermind a family. I think this film did a great job of portraying the terrible working conditions that these people are faced with. Americans do not realize that when they wear that sweater or pair of Hanes underwear that it was made for them by hand by an underpaid, overworked person. Jamaica is just one of the few countries that is faced with these issues. The Jamaican government made it so there could be no unionization in the Free Trade Zones. In the past, women who tried to form a union in order to achieve better working conditions were fired and black-listed, preventing them from ever working again. These people are just standing up for their rights and are being punished for it. This film was an eye-opening way to show us that Americans really have it easy. The Jamaican families struggle to make it day-to-day, while we sit here on our iPhones and Mac computers worrying about who we are going to get dinner with that night. It is unfair that people are forced to work in such unfair conditions. This film showed me the devasting effect that the International Monetary Funds (IMF) have around the world.

Life History Project

http://prezi.com/5gl_k9nonesa/present/?auth_key=5iz11xf&follow=lvebxg07zupz

Above is the link to my Prezi presentation on the Life History of Tom Giarratana. When I was asked to choose a person to interview for this project, I had no hesitation in making a decision. The man I chose is someone I've known for about five years and have always wanted to know more about. I've been babysitting for his children for years, but I wanted to learn more about their family and upbringing. At first, I thought the interview might be awkward because I would be asking Tom personal questions. Thankfully, we feel comfortable enough around each other that it wasn't awkward at all. As he recollected the events of his childhood, he told stories of his past in a clever and funny way. Tom always wants to make people laugh; by making his stories funny, I think he felt more comfortable telling them to me. I really enjoyed interviewing him the first time and had even more fun the second time. We sat around his kitchen table or in his living room, got comfortable and just talked. The interviews flowed so smoothly they were almost effortless. He was a great candidate for me to interview. Tom has had an interesting life; he has learned many important lessons and been faced with many challenges that have made him into the person he is today. I admire him for his strength, his confidence and his constant sense of humor. I could not have asked for a better person to interview. Since I conducted both interviews, Tom and I have become a lot closer. He contacts me much more often to see how I'm doing and tries to stay apart of my life, even though we don't live close to each other anymore. I think this life history project was a great way to get to know the person we were interviewing and see what their life has been like for them thus far.

"The Berdache Tradition"

According to Williams, a berdache is defined as a "morphological male who does not fill a society's standard man's role, who has a non-masculine character." In Native American societies, berdaches play an important role both religiously and economically. They are given specific roles in their religion and are not expected to support their family like a male would, but rather they are required to do some of the women's work and portray the behaviors and clothing of a woman. In their community, they are not viewed as a man or a woman, but their own alternative gender. It is not uncommon for a berdache to become a wife to a man, Williams explained in the article. In our society, the idea of a berdache would be so controversial. The idea of a man being a man biologically but taking on womenly roles would never be accepted in America. People would be quick to judge and not respectful towards berdaches because it is not what we as Americans are used to. We are used to the concrete idea of having two and only two genders. In Native American cultures, the idea of gender goes far beyond males and females. Berdaches are seen as visionaries and mediators in their culture; they are highly respected and play a major role in the Native American society. I thought that this article was really interesting because I have never heard of anything like this before. I was brought up thinking that there are two genders in this world, male and female; this article has made me reconsider my views on gender and gender roles.

"Nice Girls Don't Talk to Rastas"

This week we read the article, "Nice Girls Don't Talk to Rastas" by George Gmelch. It talked about a girl from New York named Johanna living in a village in Barbados. The Rastafarians that lived in the village formed an idea about her that she was "the Devil's child" and was a drug addict. They accused her of taking her clothes off with the Rastas and smoking marijuana with them. The Rastas judged Johanna because she was a nice, tall, pretty girl that was obviously not from Barbados. In their culture, it is not acceptable to just go up to someone that you don't know and start talking to them. Johanna had been getting close to a man named Joseph, a Rasta who lived in the village in which she was residing. This took the village by surprise. They saw the two walking together and spending a lot of time together. In Barbados, interracial relationships are frowned upon. Johanna did not realize the seriousness of her actions because of naive realism, which is the idea that everybody perceives the world the same way. In America, interracial relationships are very common and people do not think twice about seeing two races spending their time together. We are used to homogeneous societies where everybody basically has the same beliefs. In other countries however, social standings are different. Certain actions are not acceptable and will lead to serious consequences. Johanna was basically shunned by the village just because she approached the situation the wrong way. People need to realize that every culture has their own beliefs and what may be acceptable in one place is not acceptable in others.