Gender Roles

The difference between male and femal are biological, however the difference between a woman and a man are psychological. This is why there are drag queens and tomboys. What really separates a man from a  woman? It certainly does not have anything to do with what sex one is born with, clearly seen in "Drag U," where males are more "womanly" than the females they are trying to help "find their inner divas." The realities of being and achieving womanhood is deeper than one's sex. The Kinks said, "girls will be boys, and boys will be girls it's a mixed up muddled up shook up world, except for Lola," this song is about a transvestite named Lola who the singer almost fell for. It's not a mixed up world. Its reality. Judith Butler's "Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex," explains how people chose their gender and that it is separate from the body. There are people everyday who do not have the gender compatible to their sex, and they're happy and life goes on. So why do people get so freaked out when little girls play with fire trucks, or little boys play with barbies? Personally, I believe that social pressures contribute to what gender people chose. Since childhood we have been punished for acting the gender of the opposite sex, and rewarded for acting accordingly. On television, society's influence on acceptable gender roles is mirrored by the thought process of the majority of the population. Females are seen doing "girl" things, and males doing "boy" things. For example, on "One Tree Hill," Brooke Davis aspires to be a fashion designer, while Nathan aspires to be a pro-basketball player. If it was the opposite, well, people would be surprised. Even though T.V. shows feed into the gender role stereotypes and have since the invention of the television some shows are breaking through and recognizing the differences.  As the times are changing, so is what we are watching on television.  "Degrassi" has a transgender character, which is a major achievement for a teenage-targeted show. Television is part of every day life, when these topics start to become apart of television, they also start to become apart of everyday life.

"And the four right chords can make me cry"

I strongly believe that good music is felt and listened through emotion. As lead singer, Stephan Jenkins, of Third Eye blind sang in their most memorable song "Semi-Charmed Life", " the four right chords can make me cry", just showing the direct relationship music can have with the soul. There are so many different ways to listen to music nowadays, each giving or taking unique things from music. On a record player music is more warm and inviting. On an ipod it's harder to hear everything that is going on, and the listener might feel a little more distant with the message. At a concert the music is brought to life by the band. It's the opportunity for the artist to fully give their music personality. There is a connection between fan and artist; the atmosphere is full of emotion; each instrument is literally felt in one's chest. Each time I listen to a song on my ipod I try to find something new that I never noticed before. But there are certain effects that listening to music through an ipod has that cannot be heard from a record player, one important one is panning. With panning different levels of music are directly flowing through each hear, the brain interprets the different pieces as one. With this affect there is more interaction with the music but one still does not get the close connection that going to a concert or listening on a record player gives.

panopticon

In elementary school there was more fears of being watched because we sat with the same classmates everyday and had only one, maybe two teachers. This isn't the case for college, where nobody knows our business unless we chose to share it with them. Each level of school has had some relation to certain aspects of Jeremy Benthan's idea of panopticons in education. Once in elementary school kids learn based on reward and punishment. It's hard to keep a six year old's attention, so teachers put fun stickers on good test grades and send class clowns to time out. Kids show off their stickers if they get one and kind of hide away when they don't. The kids who do well like the positive attention they get by doing what teacher's and parent's consider "good" so they will enforce the standards placed by the teachers because it works in their favor. "The ruling person is a spy; in the latter he is a monitor." Kids watch what other kids are doing either because of curiosity or because teachers persuaded kids to be on their side and go against other kids if they are doing something wrong. This appeal of teacher, classmate, and parental approval is what creates the unhealthy competition in todays schools. Kids see school as more of a burden and learn what they are told because they feel they have to instead of for the sake of learning.