G-Word

G-Word

You have to check out this video!!! It's from my favorite show Whitney on NBC in this episode they discover that their friend that was about to get married is Gay. The way that they go about telling his ex fiance is hillarious! And the line that his ex-fiance says when he tells her is might be gay is earth shattering!

I beg the question: Have we gotten more Gay-friendly in media and more gender nutral this video really brings hope to a gender-free world

Also, pay attention to how whitneys boyfriend is so oblivious to all the signs that his friend is gay, showing the idea that we discussed in class that men are often oblivious to social ques and do not read signals, like body language, as well as women!

"People fall in love with people, not gender"- best on air quote this year!

Tell me what you think of this new advertisement!

Me and most of my friends and family are now Boycotting Hardee's because of their new commercial depicting a woman eating one of their new spicy burgers. I feel like it is boarder line soft porn and cannot believe that it is allowed to be aired at all hours of the day one nearly any television station! It is yet another degrading image of women, depicting them as sex machines who's only way to get recognized in life is to "put out" or be overly sexualized. I feel like it is an exploitation of females everywhere. And the restaurant has even been quoted as saying "we hope our new add will entice more MEN to consume our products!" Hardee's has also had a commercial banned using paris hiton! Why do your giant burgers need to come with a side of sex!!!

Take a look for yourself... The first one is the banned one and the second video is the one that I have seen like 10 times a day on different channels! I hope it gets banned soon as well...

I'd even be willing to start a protest to get this filth of the TV

Attention: who's got it?

In class we talked about the idea that men have shorter attention sands and that it seems that society is loving the "quick fix" of putting boys on medications and labeling them with ADD or ADHD. We discussed a lot about many things it could be attributed too. However, I feel that in actuality boys are just naturally more active than girls at a younger age. Research has shown that a man's activity and energy level peaks in their 20's where as a woman's activity and energy levels do not peak until their 40's! I remember in school the girls sitting around and being so attentive to the teacher because it made them feel older. And as we notice in media today it seems that girls are more often the ones to try and dress and act older much earlier in life than boys. Boys need a more active environment because they have more energy in their adolescence. I think a great solution to the issue of having boys more involved in their learning and keeping them from acting out would be to give them important roles in the class and make the class more active and fun every now and then rather than just sitting them in front of a chalk board or worksheet. I am a drama teacher at an elementary school in Harris County. In one class I have only one boy and he was always to active and wouldn't stand in his spot or be attentive. So I made him the "stage manager" he was in charge of collective every ones book bags and hanging them up and handing out things and stuff like that. He now looks forward to class and he feels like he is important to the class and therefore wants to set a good example by standing in his place on stage and following directions. Also, putting the book bags up and helping me more props and tables gets out some of his energy making him more inclined to focus.

I was looking up cartoons about ADD and ADHD and almost EVERY ONE had a boy as the child with the disorder! Here are a few...

Genderized Childhood

In an extension from the questions in class Tuesday: (#4- What did you do with your guardians? Did you engage in different activities with your father that with your mother?

I was raised in a much different household. My father was a special forces and airborne ranger drill Sargent so I was always held to higher standards than my peers. Which led to an overly competitive attitude in everything no matter the sport or activities standard gender ideology. For example, I started hunting at the age of 5 and killed, gutted, and cleaned my first animal at 6 years of age, the same year my little brother was born. Since I was already so "tough" tomboyish and active, my father assumed that my brother, being a boy, would be even more so than myself. He was dead wrong! My father tried very hard to get my younger brother to be interested in the things that I was, which was mostly boy things, and my brother always rejected it. He hated to get dirty and begged to quit "pee-wee football" to do speed skating or dancing because he liked the spandex outfits. That was the last straw for my father! I then began to spend most of my time with with my father while my brother spend most of his time with my mom. Then when my dad left when I turned 18 I was forced to become the "man" of the house because my mother would not. She refused to scold my brother on most occasions and let him get away with everything so the house got very unruly for a while until I took charge. Me and my mother do not get along much now because I feel like she should have been harder on my brother and she feels that I should be a more caring and sympathetic person. She reminds me nearly every week "you know Kenna as hard as you think you are you are still a girl." I know my gender and I follow my gender roles in every way except my attitude. I am not a submissive person and I hate trying to be sympathetic and "mushy-gushy" stuff. So in the end, because I was raised my my father, I fulfilled his wishes of a rough and tough "ranger type" child, like he wanted for his boy, and my brother fulfilled my mothers needs for love and affection, sympathy, and constant understanding. So ultimately me and my brother seemed to have almost switched gender roles within our own family.

I was searching for a video to kind of express how my father felt about my brother "acting like a pansy" and I found this disturbing video of a man who killed his girlfriends son for "acting like a little girl"

and as a side note I found this SO FUNNY video about a guy singing about how girls act in relationships
fast foward to 1:48 in the video to hear the song

FAST FOWARD to 1:48 in the video

Does she want more? Man's constant misreading of nonverbal ques

I found these two great cartoons about how society tends to feel that men have more trouble with the reading of non-verbal communication that women seem to.

 In this photo the woman has in mind that get nonverbal means that she needs help with homework. However, the man is reading her non-verbal to mean that she is intrested in him and he seems to be playing out a whole future for them (haha). Granted she might be sending mixed cues to get him to do her homework.

The next photo hits a little closer to the subject.

This photos shows that the woman obviously does not want the man to speak to her or have anything to do with her, yet he is open and friendly as if he might be about to advance toward her. This cartoon is a better represntation of what it seems that society tends to feel about a man misreading verbal cues. I was watching a law and order episode a moment ago that really sparked my idea for this blog, however I was unable to find the clip! In the episode a man had kidnapped a young girl and told police that they were in love because she always smiles and says hey to him. That is a bit of an extreme in the idea of misreading nonverbal communication. However, it actually happends more than we think! Someone smiles and is nice and open and then someone else takes the gestures to mean more than they really do. Take it for what you want I just thought it was interesting that nonverbal communication was the first thing that popped in my head during the episode :)

A Mind that Hates its Body- Body dysmorphic disorder

I was an on scene spokes model, pageant queen, and professional model most of my life so I have always been self-conscience about my weight, in my world bigger is NOT better! I watched girls all around me doing whatever it took to be thin, myself included. It was not until I had a close friend die from anorexia that I realized just how deadly this disease could be. In class, we argued a bit whether or not anorexia and body dimorphic behaviors should be classified as a disease or rather as a person’s own daily choices that lead to our own demise. Being a survivor of anorexia and after having dated a man with body dysmorphic behavior, I can tell you that it is a mixture of both. It starts out just wanting to be good enough to not be considered average. You start working out and the endorphins start bouncing everywhere then someone compliments you on how great you look so you want to lose more so people notice even more, and before you know it you cannot stop. I found this picture that kind of explains what a person with body dysmorphic disorders really see’s when they look in the mirror:

As gross as it looks a person with any type of body dysmorphic disorder never see's themselves as being skinny enough, or in a man's case, as muscular enough. Therefore, they keep dieting and exercising until either they get help or it kills them. I think the best way to really express my feelings on the disorder is through a few poems I wrote when I first realized that I was suffering from the disease...

(1)

Look in the mirror

Spit on your face

Bleed for perfection

Throw up in disgrace

You’ll never be good enough

At any pace

Needles replace nourishment

Pop pills to keep you sane

If you can’t hide behind a pole

You’ll drown in the shame

How far would you go…

To get the perfect frame?

(2)

When I look in the mirror

I guess I just can’t see

What in the world

Anyone would want with me.

I see only imperfections

And lack of possessions

I feel as though I’m only worth rejection

My eyes are to small

My nose is to big

My skins far from perfect

My torsos to short

My thighs are to fat

I’ll never move forward

If I can’t accept where I’m at

When I look in the mirror

All I can see

Is everything I wish I could change

Both outside and inside of me.

I’m to scared to move forward

To stubborn to look back

But I’ll never get anywhere

If I can’t except where I’m at.

(3)

Weakness tattooed to my frame

                --Scars of the pain--

Staring out a barred window

                --In the shadows of my brain--

Fashioned in prison orange

But wearing Abercrombie

In my game of hide and seek

You’ll never find me

I paint on a smile

                --With make-up and lies--

I corset my emotions

                --With tight pants and trim thighs--

Five foot three, heading six foot under

Shaking in these shadows

                --Of the mirror and the hunger--

“suck it in, pinch just skin”

                --You need to win

                                I need to win--

“Be thin, be trim”

                --better not bigger--

Smaller, taller, weaker, thinner…

Needles replacing nourishment

Maybe these pills will keep me sane

How far could I really push…

                To get the perfect frame?