Step 2 service (number 3)

This Wednesday I went to Bernie's Book Bank with my church after school until about 6 pm to sort some books. Greg was in charge and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the people who were there. It wasn't much different than the other times that I was there, except I tried to talk to more people I didn't know to see what they were there for and who they were there with. I enjoyed it and will probably end up doing the rest of my hours here, and I will definitely try to continue going over the summer because Brian and Greg are both pretty cool guys to work with and I really appreciate what they are doing for these kids.

Social Construction of Masculinity

This week in sociology we talked about how masculinity is viewed in our culture, and what we have constructed for masculinity to look like. In our culture, men must be strong, to the point of invulnerability and unreasonable rash behavior. Violence is idolized, and sexualized, yet at the same time when violence occurs we blame the individuals rather than the social construction that made them think the way they did. While I do not think that people who commit terrible crimes against people should be written off as healthy or normal, I think that it is not entirely their fault. The society we live in as Americans both loves and hates violence. We love violent horror films, and the more violence is shown in a movie the more appealing it is. If they can figure a way to fit sex into it too, then we're sold. It isn't a matter of people consciously perpetuating this more in society, but the way that males are shown is completely the opposite of how they should really act in a way that is respectful both to their fellow men and to women.
It is considered so strange for men to open up and talk about anything that has happened to them, and you never hear men talking about going to therapy or counseling for problems that they have in their life. It's ridiculous to think that humans, in their struggle to gain power over nature would reject complex emotion, one of the things that makes us truly human and actually sets us apart from the rest of nature. Challenging the ideals of the culture only get you to a place where you are attacked for "not being a real man" or "being a girl," which truly makes no sense.
To me, all of the most manly people that I know are men who I know aren't afraid to challenge the cultural norms. They live their lives in ways that take much more strength. To sit and take the abuse that they get for challenging the culture takes much more strength than passively attacking someone because you don't want to think what it would actually feel like if someone said that to you (because of course you aren't allowed to feel to begin with). I think that this is a norm that needs to be challenged, and a profound change needs to occur in our culture. The way men treat each other, and especially women is a disgrace to who we should be as people. We should be better than this.

More service!

Yesterday, instead of going back to Bernie's Book Bank with my church, I decided to go help out at a PADS homeless shelter. We played with kids for a couple hours and helped others with their homework. It was extremely far outside of my comfort zone because I don't normally spend a whole lot of time playing with little kids, and I don't really know when the last time I did something like it was. It was definitely eye opening to me to see that these kids love being played with and don't care if they don't know you very well, they're just happy to see people there. It was also fun because I was able to go with some of my friends.

Agents of Socialization

This week in sociology we talked about how different aspects of our lives can influence who we are as people, specifically the media and schools and their influence on our perception of gender. In schools, from a young age, kids separate themselves on the playground based on gender, guys go and play sports, while girls stay and play their games. Being a guy, I honestly have no idea what they would do because of the fact that it was so separated. Girls are shown by ads that they have to be perfect, and they compare themselves to something that could never anatomically exist, so they always feel like they will never be good enough. It is pretty disgusting that we as people will invent an ideal that doesn't even exist just for our own personal gain. Guys are no where near as often discriminated against, but are shown from an early age that if they are not strong, not athletic, not able to protect themselves, then they are seen as not masculine, weak, pathetic human beings. It is really sad to see the way that kids are shut out and pushed away because they don't live up to the norms that are shown to kids from such an early age.