TheAmericanDream: Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.
The problem with the American Dream is that it is not just easily obtainable by the average American. There are not enough people that believe that the American Dream is about placing emphasis on a simple life and too many that place emphasis on driving only the best cars and living in the biggest houses. The American Dream is no longer just about being happy. It has become about being flashy and showing off what you can afford. The interesting thing about the American Dream is that it is almost completely centered on the perfect family. Indeed, you have not achieved the American Dream until you have achieved the perfect family and in a country where almost 50% of all marriages are ending in divorce, this is growing harder and harder to achieve. Unfortunately, our culture has failed to update the role the woman plays in the American Dream to match the more modern times. As seen the picture above, the woman is catering to her husband. She has breakfast made for him on the table and both the husband and the wife in the picture have huge perfect smiles plastered across their faces. The picture or possibly ad promoting the American Dream is trying to tell us that this is what we need in order to be happy. There is no other way. In a way this objectifies women. They are supposed to be the perfect homemaker without a hair out of place even though they never leave the house other than to go to the grocery store. Everyone’s definition of the American Dream is different, but we are influenced by what we see in media, photos, and advertisements. For example, the first family of America is under pressure to give the impression that they are the perfect family and that absolutely nothing can go wrong in their lives even though the husband and father, currently Barak Obama, is the president of a country and plenty could go wrong. Michelle and Barak’s two little girls are always in perfectly pressed little dresses and Michelle and Barak always have huge smiles in every picture that is taken of them, similarly to the people in the first picture I talked about.
Sometimes it doesn’t even seem natural. Many people think “there is no way they are that happy all the time,” but the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t have to be true…you just have to pretend it is.
Find out more at: http://www.americansc.org.uk/online/American_Dream.htm
Growing Up Girl In America: I think this picture kind of speaks for itself. It is a picture of a young girl, probably around the age of six, baking with here Easy-Bake-Oven. Below the picture, there is a caption that reads "Easy Bake Oven. Teaching girls their place since 1963."
Even as a young girl I was aware of the socially accepted roles that as girl I was expected to fit. I was also aware that these roles are very different from that of a boy. Though I was not yet nesessarily conciously aware of these differences just yet, I was aware that it was not right for a boy to wear a dress or to play wit dolls and that is as also strange for girl to delve into the world of Tonka trucks and Power Rangers.
So the picture is basically insinuating that girls belong in the kitchen. We joke about it nowadays. There are groups on Facebook promoting the exploitation of women with phrases such as "woman get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich." or "not every man just wants sex...some just want a sandwich." It is groups like these that lead to the idea that it is okay to treat women as though they are lesser than men.
I decided to focus on the Easy-Bake-Oven because it is a great example of how the portrayal of these heinous ideas start from the time children are very young.
The Easy-Bake-Oven in general seems pretty innocent...on the surface. However, once you look deeper and start to truly analyze it, it's easy to see that it's not so innocent. It is a toy aimed directly for girls. They only come in colors like teal, pink, and purple. Not to call them "girl colors", but they are colors well known for being directed toward girls, while toys aimed toward boys are colors like bright red and blue.
Toys like these give young girls the idea that their place is in the kitchen and on some sub-conscious level discourage them from the workplace and teach them that their place is in the home, taking care of children and their husband. In a world where we are trying to teach girls that they are worth something and useful in our workforce, toys like these could potentially be a setback. Do I truthfully find anything wrong with the easy bake oven? No I don’t. I find nothing wrong with developing an interest in cooking and baking. I myself am going to culinary school. However, I do not think that toys like these should only be marketing to one specific gender group because this send out the wrong messages to children about what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl.
For more information on the gender revolution visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/gender/gender22a.htm
Representation of Difference: Being gay in America. The story that begins through the back door: AIDS, poverty, the casting off of cultural constructs.
Of course, our cultural views on being homosexual have changed greatly. We now know that HIV/AIDS is not just a gay man’s disease but that anyone can get it and we know that homosexuality does not originate in poverty. Anybody can be gay, and while many people feel that being gay is a choice, beliefs generally tied to religion, it is not. A person cannot choose to be gay. They just are, and should we really count someone out and label them worthless due to factors they cannot help. We no longer just kill people with disabilities in America because we “have no use for them”, so then why should we discriminate against gay people for something they truly cannot help or fix.
I am fully aware that the fact of the matter is that a large part of the population still suffers from some degree of homophobia. The problem is that we do not like anything that differs from what we consider “normal” and since a large majority of the population of America is not gay, being gay is therefore considered not normal and thus frowned upon in society.
To compare it to something far less serious, it is sort of like being left handed. It is not something you can help, however we use to think that people who happened to be left handed were the spawn of the devil. My Grandma use to tell stories of how she was smacked with a ruler in school when caught writing with her left hand. However, now we accept them but life is made just that little bit harder by being left handed because the majority of the population is right handed so we cater more to that majority because it just makes it easier on ourselves.
Being gay however has become more and more acceptable in our culture no-a-days thanks to stars coming out to the public, like Ellen Degeneris and Chely Wright. Thanks to people like those more and more people are becoming less afraid to become themselves and stop hiding themselves. Granted we still have a long way to go. We will never fully understand but if we can just manage to accept everyone for who they truly are, than society as a whole will be a lot better off.
Find out more at: http://gaygenderissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/homosexuality_a_lifestyle_repressed_by_religion
Political Landscape: 1993 was not a good year for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgenders) equality. President Clinton signed into law a policy that effectively bans gay, lesbian, and bisexual service in the military. Don’t ask, don’t tell, otherwise known as D.A.D.T. is a policy within the United States armed forces that makes it so the army servicemen cannot be searched for suspicion of being gay and that they are also not allowed to disclose the fact that they are gay while serving in the American Armed Forces. Discrimination and oppression are inherent to D.A.D.T. A gay soldier must lie and hide his or her true identity on a daily basis. Gay service-members who live openly and share information about their spouses, significant others, or dating life risk investigation and involuntary expulsion. Under D.A.D.T., any statement that one is gay, to anyone, at any time, before or after enlistment , can be reason for investigation and discharge. Your life is a constant liability to your career when you are gay in the military.
D.A.D.T. does not fulfill its promises to the soldiers who serve in silence. There is a lack of protection for gay soldiers because harassment cannot be openly discussed. Reporting a verbal or physical threat that involves references to sexual orientation can spark an investigation that leads to discharge.
While we have come a long way in our society as a whole, the don’t ask, don’t tell policy of the military shows that we have a long way to go before we are fully accepting of differences among people.
For news on the current DADT repeals visit: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/mullen-wants-the-congress-to-delay-the-dadt-repeal_100372892.html
Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.
The problem with the American
The interesting thing about the American Dream is that it is almost completely centered on the perfect family. Indeed, you have not achieved the American Dream until you have achieved the perfect family and in a country where almost 50% of all marriages are ending in divorce, this is growing harder and harder to achieve. Unfortunately, our culture has failed to update the role the woman plays in the American Dream to match the more modern times. As seen the picture above, the woman is catering to her husband. She has breakfast made for him on the table and both the husband and the wife in the picture have huge perfect smiles plastered across their faces. The picture or possibly ad promoting the American Dream is trying to tell us that this is what we need in order to be happy. There is no other way. In a way this objectifies women. They are supposed to be the perfect homemaker without a hair out of place even though they never leave the house other than to go to the grocery store.
Everyone’s definition of the American Dream is different, but we are influenced by what we see in media, photos, and advertisements. For example, the first family of America is under pressure to give the impression that they are the perfect family and that absolutely nothing can go wrong in their lives even though the husband and father, currently Barak Obama, is the president of a country and plenty could go wrong. Michelle and Barak’s two little girls are always in perfectly pressed little dresses and Michelle and Barak always have huge smiles in every picture that is taken of them, similarly to the people in the first picture I talked about.
Sometimes it doesn’t even seem natural. Many people think “there is no way they are that happy all the time,” but the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t have to be true…you just have to pretend it is.
Find out more at: http://www.americansc.org.uk/online/American_Dream.htm
Growing Up Girl In America:
I think th
Even as a young girl I was aware of the socially accepted roles that as girl I was expected to fit. I was also aware that these roles are very different from that of a boy. Though I was not yet nesessarily conciously aware of these differences just yet, I was aware that it was not right for a boy to wear a dress or to play wit dolls and that is as also strange for girl to delve into the world of Tonka trucks and Power Rangers.
So the picture is basically insinuating that girls belong in the kitchen. We joke about it nowadays. There are groups on Facebook promoting the exploitation of women with phrases such as "woman get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich." or "not every man just wants sex...some just want a sandwich." It is groups like these that lead to the idea that it is okay to treat women as though they are lesser than men.
I decided to focus on the Easy-Bake-Oven because it is a great example of how the portrayal of these heinous ideas start from the time children are very young.
The Easy-Bake-Oven in general seems pretty innocent...on the surface. However, once you look deeper and start to truly analyze it, it's easy to see that it's not so innocent. It is a toy aimed directly for girls. They only come in colors like teal, pink, and purple. Not to call them "girl colors", but they are colors well known for being directed toward girls, while toys aimed toward boys are colors like bright red and blue.
Toys like these give young girls the idea that their place is in the kitchen and on some sub-conscious level discourage them from the workplace and teach them that their place is in the home, taking care of children and their husband.
In a world where we are trying to teach girls that they are worth something and useful in our workforce, toys like these could potentially be a setback. Do I truthfully find anything wrong with the easy bake oven? No I don’t. I find nothing wrong with developing an interest in cooking and baking. I myself am going to culinary school. However, I do not think that toys like these should only be marketing to one specific gender group because this send out the wrong messages to children about what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl.
For more information on the gender revolution visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/gender/gender22a.htm
Representation of Difference:
Being gay in America. The story that begins through the back door: AIDS, poverty, the casting off of cultural constructs.
Of course, ou
I am fully aware that the fact of the matter is that a large part of the population still suffers from some degree of homophobia. The problem is that we do not like anything that differs from what we consider “normal” and since a large majority of the population of America is not gay, being gay is therefore considered not normal and thus frowned upon in society.
To compare it to something far less serious, it is sort of like being left handed. It is not something you can help, however we use to think that people who happened to be left handed were the spawn of the devil. My Grandma use to tell stories of how she was smacked with a ruler in school when caught writing with her left hand. However, now we accept them but life is made just that little bit harder by being left handed because the majority of the population is right handed so we cater more to that majority because it just makes it easier on ourselves.
Being gay however has become more and more acceptable in our culture no-a-days thanks to stars coming out to the public, like Ellen Degeneris and Chely Wright. Thanks to people like those more and more people are becoming less afraid to become themselves and stop hiding themselves. Granted we still have a long way to go. We will never fully understand but if we can just manage to accept everyone for who they truly are, than society as a whole will be a lot better off.
Find out more at: http://gaygenderissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/homosexuality_a_lifestyle_repressed_by_religion
Political Landscape:
1993 was not a good year for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgenders) equality. President Clinton signed into law a policy that effectively bans gay, lesbian, and bisexual service in the military. Don’t
D.A.D.T. does not fulfill its promises to the soldiers who serve in silence. There is a lack of protection for gay soldiers because harassment cannot be openly discussed. Reporting a verbal or physical threat that involves references to sexual orientation can spark an investigation that leads to discharge.
While we have come a long way in our society as a whole, the don’t ask, don’t tell policy of the military shows that we have a long way to go before we are fully accepting of differences among people.
For news on the current DADT repeals visit: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/mullen-wants-the-congress-to-delay-the-dadt-repeal_100372892.html