Cash Money Heroes

In class we learned about social class and how many families are mislabeled. Growing in a moderately wealthy neighborhood, I've to some point understood that my family was a bit wealthier than other families across America. I knew we weren't "rich" but I was also fully aware that we weren't "poor". We're middle class. When I went to work on Wednesday I had to sub in at a neighboring theater, Rivertree, in Vernon Hills. Everyone who has been to that theater is aware that it is gross and smelly. This was a major turn off for me when I went in for work hesitantly and in an uninterested manner. Once I got there, there was a regular staff member working concessions. He looked at me and asked me if I was in high school. When I told him I go to Stevenson he immediately asked me if I "was rich". At first, I was taken aback from the question. I was thinking to myself "who asks someone that kind of a question". Then I thought of the movie that we watched in class If I said yes I'm rich, he would think I was some upper-class snob, which I'm not, and if I said I was poor then he would think I'm lower class and poor, which I'm also not. I ended up saying I don't know what I am, which was kind of awkward. He then asked me what kind of cars I drive. It was very strange. I felt like he had this inferiority complex because he is from Mundelein and I'm from Linconlshire.  It was really strange. Then when I made a comment about how gross the theater was, he looked at me and said, oh it's because you're too good for this right? It was so AWKWARD. He didn't know me and he was passing this judgement on me.

So awkward.

All Locked Up

I have seen shows such as "Law and Order" that depict situations where criminals are locked up. There aren't situations where on the show there is help provided to the inmate. It's as if once they're locked up, they're left to rot away. Many Americans are locked up for reasons that aren't murder and other extreme felonies but for reasons that reflect on laps of judgement. There is little help provided to those criminals. In a way, it is as if our society has put up a social standard upon the men who go to jail, denying them any opportunity to better themselves and their name. It's sad.

Drugs

It seems as though drugs have become a major factor within societies, urban and suburban. When drugs are discussed, they are assumed to be linked to more deviant societies. These deviant societies create a new name for drugs. For example, nicotine, one of the most dangerous drugs out there, is seen as less deviant as marijuana, a non-addictive drug. Nicotine is sold to 18 year-olds all over the US. Although it is such a bad drug, our society  makes it out to be less than what it is. When something else is used (some other type of drug) our society seems to be deviant. As a society, we classify which drugs are okay and which aren't. Sometimes, we don't even take into account the severity of the drug that we are classifying.

"Bad Boy Soup"

We read an article about how authority has an effect upon the future of individuals. The way the authoritative figures behave has a direct impact upon the growth of teenagers. When boys act out and then receive positive feedback from either their teachers or local law enforces, they not only do more crimes, but they also assume that they can get away with it. This tends to happen with boys who are white. For minorities, teachers and cops are said to treat them poorly from the beginning, causing them to resent their society. It seems like societies prefer white teens over minorities, even when they commit equally bad crimes. I've recognized this trend when I watch movies like "Coach Carter" and "Freedom Writers". Those movies portray black kids in a society that resents them. It's almost as though their society sets them up for failure. Because of that, they tend to not have a future ahead of them.

Deviant Me

In class, we were talking about doing things that are socially deviant, like talking on a blue-tooth in public. There are so many people who talk on their phones, but things get confusing once people use their blue-tooths. We don't know whether that person is talking to us, themselves, or someone on their phone. This reminds me of an MTV show called "Boiling Points". In the episode, the cashier was wearing a blue-tooth while she was helping her customers. The purpose of the show is to annoy people for a time limit and if they last they receive $100. So this cashier would be talking to her customer but then switch over to her blue-tooth conversation. She was behaving deviantly. We assume that it's weird or even rude to have a blue-tooth for we assume that the conversation that the person is having is directed towards us. It makes us feel awkward and out of place.

In a way, I've experienced this awkward feeling. On my phone, I have ear-buds that have a built in microphone so that I can be listening to music on my phone and when I get a phone call I can just talk and the microphone will catch my voice. One time I was on the bus and my mom called me. I answered the call and started talking normally, not holding up my phone or even the wires. I looked like I was talking to myself. People are around me thought I was socially deviant. I did something that was away from the norm of my society.

Maybe in the future, we'll be more accustomed to blue-tooth use, and so the people who use them won't seem so socially deviant.

Rude Boy

Being older than my brother has caused me to see the developmental changes in gender behaviors. Every time my brother comes home with a problem that he had at school, it would involve some sort of "fighting". My sisters and I never understood why he seemed so aggressive, for we never had such problems and we all went to the same school and had basically the same teachers. Then, after learning about how boys have this inner problem of "being a man" and not being a "sissy" I began to understand. Boys like my brother are faced with "manhood" defying issues everyday. For girls, it doesn't seem that big of a deal, but for guys it is.

I've learned that I need to be supportive of my brother as well as towards every other guy in my life, be it a friend, a cousin, etc. Today, guys need a little help.

Gender Babies

I was unaware of the fact that even babies start establishing gender roles. It's not that they are taught who to like but rather how to behave. As soon a baby is born, they're wrapped up in a gender influencing color. Girls are wrapped in a pink blanket and boys are in a blue. From then on, parents start treating their kids according what they believe their gender should be like. Mother's tend to be more attached to their daughters and more distant with their sons, which cause them to behave differently as toddlers. By the age of 1 or 2, girls are more attached to their mothers and boys are more adventurous and independent. This fits along with their gender roles where girls are dependent and boys are independent.

It's strange that this is how many parents are. I realize that when my sister was born, my dad would always call her "my little princess" and then when my brother was born he would call him "my brave young man".  It wasn't as though my dad was trying to fit my siblings into a gender mold intentionally, but that's what he was doing.

Weird.