Magnified with the instant internet connection we have today, mass media has thrown countless inaccurate stereotypes into our database for life. The quiet, African- American kid in the back of the room? He's obviously a drug dealing gangster. The girl who wears a shirt two sizes too tight and shorts two inches too short? She definitely is blonde. Stereotypes reaches farther beyond entertainment and into how we interact with others.
However, the concept of stereotypes isn't modern. Anne Bradstreet was supposed to be a timid writer of Christian poetry with no passion for anything or anyone, but God. Her expression to her spouse in To My Dear and Loving Husband shocked her society and caused her to be put in disgrace- even though her works were wonderfully pieced and still read today. The Native American's William Bradford describes are merely "savage". Though they helped his colony through the harsh winters and offered food, they were viewed like animals. In addition to these writers, Olaudah Equiano coined the hypocrisy of the the white, Christian man during his captivity on a slave ship. These three great writers broke, created, or recognized stereotypes, but they weren't the only ones.
After an assembly with Mykee Fowlin, many students were forced to reevaluate how they viewed others. Except for the 5% of the student body who views everything with rose-colored vision, most noticed the walls they put between themselves and those they stereotyped. Though most won't admit it, everyone has certain degrees of racism, sexism, and agism. Currently not a historical event, maybe in the future everyone can recall the time teenagers across the United States surpassed expectations of being careless party animals and became a generation of open acceptance and reformers of social acceptances. Wouldn't it be great if everyone stopped assuming "facts" about each other and shared his life and ideas instead?
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Native American Lit
The feminist theory is a collection of many theories to try to understand the relationship of women to men and they way they are portrayed throughout history. Through the Native American stories we've read, the role of a women is always considered less or inferior to a man's.
In the Coyote and the Buffalo trickster tale, the women offers to cook his meal because "why should you (Coyote) do a woman's work?". As Coyote blindly falls for her trap and loses his food, a deeper interaction occurs. The woman, aware of how the men of her time view her, is taking advantage of her situation- not only showing her more cunning side, but also that she's used to being stepped on. She tricks Coyote with her skillful knowledge on her "social role" for being the "head of the kitchen". Men throughout the ages, and especially in this story, believe women belong in the kitchen and out of political, medical, and economical events. Though always lessened to the level of an object, women, overall, are strong enough to not only participate in such events, but can also bring brilliant insight to any situation. Coyote should have degraded the women like he did.
The suffrage movement of the 1920's proved that women had the capability to influence the world and, also, gave the them the right to vote- a major step towards gender equality. Without the movement there would be a biased democracy with laws, acts, and bills only passed with the approval of the males who vote. Also, banding together, females showed that they could stand as strong as any male dominated union and achieve a common goal. In the recent years, the new fight has been to get equal pay between the genders because a women only makes 80 cents to a man's dollar.
In the Coyote and the Buffalo trickster tale, the women offers to cook his meal because "why should you (Coyote) do a woman's work?". As Coyote blindly falls for her trap and loses his food, a deeper interaction occurs. The woman, aware of how the men of her time view her, is taking advantage of her situation- not only showing her more cunning side, but also that she's used to being stepped on. She tricks Coyote with her skillful knowledge on her "social role" for being the "head of the kitchen". Men throughout the ages, and especially in this story, believe women belong in the kitchen and out of political, medical, and economical events. Though always lessened to the level of an object, women, overall, are strong enough to not only participate in such events, but can also bring brilliant insight to any situation. Coyote should have degraded the women like he did.
The suffrage movement of the 1920's proved that women had the capability to influence the world and, also, gave the them the right to vote- a major step towards gender equality. Without the movement there would be a biased democracy with laws, acts, and bills only passed with the approval of the males who vote. Also, banding together, females showed that they could stand as strong as any male dominated union and achieve a common goal. In the recent years, the new fight has been to get equal pay between the genders because a women only makes 80 cents to a man's dollar.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
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