MASKculinity

In the reading for this week it talked about gay-baiting. gay-baiting is using words such as faggot or calling someone gay. Sociologist have found that gay-baiting is more about boys not feeling like a man. gay-baiting is a way to strip away any feeling that a guy is a man. With day of silence coming up it will be interesting to see how gay-baiting plays out throughout the day. Going to a pretty acceptable school I thought naturally that everyone was ok with homosexuals but that is not the case. My friend who is gay was asked by another classmate if he gets gay slurs during the day directed towards him and he said everyday. That amazed me because he said that people say gay slurs and it make it hard for him and also that its easier to walk away. To me a real man walks away when they are made fun of because what will fighting accomplish....nothing. Men fear being called a sissy or girly becuase since birth they were told to be strong. I see this with my brother having to be manly and be just like the guys in his frat. You open a magaizine or go into a store such as Abercrombie and all you see is these sexed up versions of guys with bulging muscles. The fact is they aren't even real, just like women men too are digitally enhanced to have a better body.

What's Wrong With Me Today? (EvErYtHiNg!)

When your a young girl your mom hands you a toy. This toy becomes the thing you most play with. The toy for me was barbie. When I was a little kid I used to play with barbie because she was perfect in everyway, she had a skinny body, a big chest, perfectly toned legs, the perfect boyfriend (Ken) and of course that always awesome looking hair. As I grew up I started to see myself has having to be barbie because just as most girls I went through puberty and all the sudden cared what I looked like. Everytime I looked in the mirrror I saw something wrong but I would never let myself be mad about it or fix it because I am what I am and no one can judge me unless I let that in. Unfortunately I would see my friends not have the same attitude as me. Everytime you took your bathroom partner (for some reason girls can't go to the bathrooms by themselves!) they would look in the mirror and try to fix the hair, make up, talk about boys and be all stereotypical, they had become morphed into this socially conformed clone of one another that I couldn't tell who my real friends were anymore. In class we watched doves campaign for real beauty. This is what little girls watch, not these sexed up version of what a woman is supposed to be. Everytime I go anywhere I am confronted with that sexed up version of what a woman is. Its everywhere from ads to television to movies and to even the terrible rap videos. I refuse to give into the mainstream culture of rap and hiphop because on every video there are at least 20 girls mostly naked, but clothed enough to not be a porno. Everytime I hear a behind the music of the rappers convicted or found innocent of rape or abuse of woman it turns me off to that kind of gangster lifestyle. Everyday it kills me to see all these boys try and look and act like gangsters. FACE IT BOYS YOU LIVE IN AN UPPER MIDDLE CLASS SOCIETY AND YOU ARE WHITE!!!! My fear is that one day that these guys i've grow up with will just become another statistic of abusing or raping a woman. I also fear that my friendss that try so hard to be this perfect image of beauty that they will never be happen with themselves and that they may become a victim of rape or abuse. Every girl boy and girl in high school should be forced to take a class and how your shaped as a human being to act and show them what true beauty is not this sexed up version.

Agents of Socialization: School

In the agents of socialization reading, we learned that school shapes our values. The values that we were taught at home change when you get to school every morning at 8:05 when the bell rings and then everyone is treated the same, with the same school rules. As you progress thrrough school your values change because people form cliques. Cliques are groups of usually same gender and people that like the same social norms. The only way to stay in a clique is to do everything the same and not deviate from the rule of the group to conform to one specific way, unless you want to become the outcast. I say become the outcast because why do the same thing as supposedly "your friends" when you can be original and do what you like. We have been enstilled since birth with conforming to what are parents want to be, having to graduate high school and you must get married and have kids. Those that don't do anything of these are looked on as outcast, stupid and aren't very accepted because school has taught us to conform to these stone age ideas. For the ones that don't conform to leading a "successful life" they are conforming not to conform. Truthfully they are the smart ones!