Proposal for Project 2

The "othered" community I have chosen to examine is the poverty community. Those in poverty have been looked at in a negative light. What has driven me to take a further look into poverty was a film from the "A Path Appears" series, here is the link to the episode that opens your mind to really think about those in poverty, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/path-appears/episode-cycle-poverty.html. We all have our idea about people in poverty and it is not always the best idea. I think I will look at texts about the group, just so we can see how others perceive those in poverty, but also look into texts that the group represents themselves. In general I will use articles of any kind and I want to really focus in on this film "A Path Appears" that talks about breaking the cycle of poverty.  Right now I don't really know what direction I will be going with this project and input is welcome! 

Social Construction: Blog 5

When looking at Hanfler’s explanation of “social construction” we this another ‘meaning’ of how social construction can be represented. Hanfler talked about 4 assumptions about the theory symbolic interaction. These assumptions talked about the ‘meaning’ we pull out of everyday experiences. One solid example of meaning was a cow. A cow to Americans is dinner, but to Hindus a cow is sacred, two meanings for one thing. Gender can also find many meanings and interpretation behind it. In the Tedx talk The gentleman talking was trying to help us understand the complexities of gender. Hanfler’s third assumption was that, we learn meanings. We learn that boys wear blue and girls dress in pink.  During the Tedx talk, there were three main topics that helped him talk about gender. The three were, “gender identity, who you know you to be, gender expression, how you present gender through actions and biological sex, physical characteristics you are born with,“ (tedx talk). Gender is what is in your head. We conformed this idea that boys are to have the hard working jobs and girls stay home to have babies. We teach this from birth, by putting a pink blanket on a girl and giving her dolls and him trucks. Social construction is how we think towards others, how we interact with others based on what we think about them. Social construction is the overall meaning that has been placed in our heads, just like gender. No matter what we will always see gender as pink and blue, even if we believe something different, when you go to a boys birthday party you will be attracted towards the trucks.

My thoughts on social construction are all over the place at the moment. We are socially constructed to think a certain way, its almost like we are being brainwashed. This brainwashing isn’t always negative, but it doesn’t give you the opportunity to fully decide for your self. For example, when we were in class and we saw all those pictures, we were given the opportunity to pick out adjectives to describe what we saw, but even that was questioned.  We couldn’t just have an opinion with out it being questioned, for the good or the bad.  Which is why I’m torn when it comes to social construction. We are in a generation where we want to make a name for our self and be unique! But no matter how much we are like “who cares what others think” about X, Y or Z, we do care. So I agree and disagree at the same time about social construction. I recognize that we have this general idea and its okay that I form my own idea, but there will always be that “skeleton” idea.  Lorber stated, “Gendered roles – change – today fathers are taking care of little children, girls and boys are wearing unisex clothing and getting the same education, women and men are working at the same job,” (Lorber article). As you can see we can change, but we still know the original roles and we go them daily.

For me I know that everyday I have mental battles about things, sometimes they are dumb battles, but they are mostly about social construction even if I’m not directly thinking it is social construction. When I was interviewed for the job I am currently employed at I was asked about stereotypes and things that I might have troubles with in my day-to-day life I was honest and did not lie. A lot of it had to do with race.  I come from a very bland background, meaning I grew up solely with white people around me. I told them if I saw a black man on the street and he was coming toward me I would be cautious and feel uncomfortable and think negatively towards that man in the moment. That didn’t mean I was a racist, but that I have been socially constructed to think that a black man wasn’t safe. I’m happy today to say that I actively try to learn about others and their backgrounds, because we are all different, so for me to let society guide my judgment would just make me ignorant. Race is one thing, but there are so many more ways society guides our judgment.