I agree, they are creating a negative image upon them selves especially with signs they made. If I was a Mexican I would get offended and find it just immature for a group of girls to put a picture up on the internet to have that picture represent them. Sororities are suppose to be made for a good cause. and is suppose to represent good. Many girls who come to college first thing they want to do is join a sonority, but if I was a parent I would not want my daughter to partake in a group that is supporting marijuana. It should be the opposite, they should set an example of no marijuana. It is a shame that this received world media, and made Penn State look bad. Penn State has gone through enough and is doing its best to gain back the respect it lost. The last thing our school needs is negative media.

Sociology 119 has definitely been the most eye-opening, honest, informative, and unusual class I have ever taken.It also made me realize my own views on these topics on another level than I ever envisioned. Coming in to this class, I didn’t know what to expect; we covered topics of race, identity, gender, love and more. This class covered topics that I would never imagine would ever be covered in class. Sam really did a good job keeping the attention of 700 plus students. My favorite part of this class was my group discussion section; I enjoyed meeting new people and becoming close with everyone and talking about the former classes. It was a chance to meet new people and listen to their opinions. Each group discussion I took something new and meet great friendship. It is hard especially in class of 700 plus students to meet each other and make friends. My favorite part was especially raising money for Haiti. My group did a very good job raising money we all came together, made a plan, followed through the plan and made it come alive. We were all proud of ourselves that we were all able to raise money for Haiti. Everybody in my group has been really open and friendly, and I learned a lot about each one of them that I never would have expected. We talked about everything from judging people to the opposite sex to relationships. I was very comfortable with my group, and each person had a story to always tell. Another topic that I learned a lot about in this class; that it important to interact and socialize with new people especially people from different countries who come a different lifestyle then we do. As college students, one of the main reasons why we are in college is to graduate, to find a job and make money in our future. We will be working with people from all different countries; we need to understand people who come from that country and how it is important to learn about them. Altogether, I am very thankful that I decided to take this class this semester. It has definitely been an entertaining and a mind opening adventure.
Overall, sociology 119 taught me a lot about our society that I never knew and maybe would have never known if I did not take this class. I was able to express myself and learn a lot about our society. After this class I am less judgmental than I was before, I realized everyone is a certain way for a reason and that is what makes this society so unique and different.

I agree interracial dating is so difficult even in today's society, coming from a Arab background it is expected for Arabs to marry Arabs; when Arab girl dates a white male it is not accepted as quickly as a Arab women dating a Arab man or vice versa a Arab male dating a women from another race. I think this has a large part of not wanting to change the cultural of the race, but I believe if a person is so passionate about his/her race I don’t see what the problem is. I also think a lot people do not like to date someone from another race because they are afraid that people will judge and stare at them. It amazes me how much people are still judge when a person dates from another.

I think it is true all women do dress up to for attention, whether it for gaining attention or losing attention women do dress up for the men gaze. Before, this lecture I never realized it, but every day as I get ready to go to school or to go out for night. I make sure I have clean clothes, and I match. Because I do get scared that men are going to make a judgment about my clothes not looking neat. And, there are times when I do dress up and wear my best clothes, because I am trying to impress the male glaze. However, at the same time I do dress down to detract the male gaze depending on how I feel and the mood of my day.

The way I dress regardless where I go, I make sure I am not showing off to much cleavage or revealing too much. So again, I am dressing for the men glaze, when asking the question what type of people are you trying to attract the obvious answer is men because that’s who I would want attention from because I am attracted to men. To me it is important to dress a little conservative only because I don’t want men to look at me in a negative way. The way I dress is to catch the male gaze, is for men to look at me for my style and not want to talk to me because I am dress showing a little too much skin. There are times when I said bumming it to class because I am not trying to impress anyone; but this made me think I don’t want to impress anyone; however I am trying not to gain any attention from the male gaze.

In class, Sam brought up four girls and asked the class who do you think is dressed up for the male gaze. Within the group of girls, one girl was dressed in yoga pants and sweater. The second and third were both wearing a hijab. The forth woman was dressed in jeans and t-shirt showing off her style. When asking the class, the class all answered the woman. The majority of the class chose the girl who was wearing hijab because she was dressed in style from her hijab to her attire it was well matched and she added accessories to make it her own style. It is traditional in the Muslim religion for women to wear hijab because they want males to look a women face and for her personality. In some countries such as Iran, it is the law for women to wear a hi-jab. One of the reasons is to repel the male gaze so again women are dressing for the male gaze because they don’t want men to look at them in a negative way.

Overall, I think female do dress every day for the male, and their main goal is for attraction whether it’s negative or positive. I really enjoyed this lecture and it opened my eyes to many things when it comes to the male gaze. This lecture was really empowering and fun to listen too.

I would have to disagree, Sam did not want us to feel as if we were informed. He wanted us to feel what it was like to be Arab Muslims. Arab Muslims who are living in the Middle East are facing many difficulties and going through very tough times. The war in Iraq and Afghanstain create a lot of problems and many families lost their home and family memebers. I really enjoyed this lecture and was glad that Sam did lecture on the Middle East. Many individuals are informed of what is going and have no clue that war is manily based off war.

Todays, lecture was one of my favorite classes of the semester in that it really opened up a new perspective towards the Middle East; even though my family comes from the Middle East. I still have a hard time understanding what is going on in the Middle East and why it’s happening. Even though I am Middle Eastern I am minority of the Middle East because I am an Arab Christian.  Like many people in class, I found it extremely challenging to envision myself as an Arab Muslim. So much of what we learn about Islam in the media is negative and violent that it’s hard to picture ever taking their side. However, Sam’s did an amazing job of reversing the perspective of the lecture and pretend as though his students were Muslim, which allowed us students to see the other half of the side us being Arab Muslims.
Even though I am Arab; you can ask me why is there war in Middle East and I would not be able to give you a straight answer. Sam, pointed out that one major reasons why we are in war with the Middle East is largely based on control of the world’s oil reserves. I don’t think its far that America can just go into war with another country to fight over oil control. Based off what I know America has a lot of oil that could be used in this country; however America just wants to save it. I do not know if this true or no; however the way I look at it is that creating a war for “oil” is horrible. Millions of innocent civilians are died to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I also really enjoyed when Sam compared radical Christianity to radical Islam. As Americans when we think of Christianity we usually don’t think of it as radical or violence that Christianity displays. But if we think back to what happened to Native Americans or Holocaust; majority of the people were Christian. However, the media does not show many cases of Christianity killings or terrorist groups, What stood out to me is that most Christians would be quick to defend their religion. To me with every religion there is good and bad, majority religion of America is Christianity, yet we have the highest murder crime compared to other countries. There is only a small portion of Muslims that agree with these radical views and actually practice them but as Americans we take the minority and apply the stereotypes. I also believe huge part of has to do with the attack of 911 and Osama Bin Laden. If, you speak with most Muslims majority of the muslims would say they hate Osama Bin Laden because he is a man that brought such negative images and thoughts to religion of Islam. Not that many people would ever think that or even believe it. Take the time one day and talk to some one of Islamic faith and asked them what they think of Osama Bin Laden. You will be surprised on what you hear and their reaction.

The immigration issue wil never be solved; there will be immigrations in this country forever as it stands. No matter what law gets passed or if every immigrant becomes legal that is living in this country there will be still be immigration. I do not believe that immigratins are hurting or helping us in any way, however I don't really think it is fair for immigrants to work with out paying taxes and still be able to attend school. If an immigrant goes to the hospital without any insurance they can get away without paying their medical bill. Children of immigration can come to public school, and get the same education. It does not really bother me about the immigration, it is always going to be in this country and never going to go way no matter what.

I am Christian, and I do believe Jorge is doing the right thing; Jorge is helping people in the name of God. He is a devoted Christian and believes that part of Christianity is to give back and help others. Jorge was once an immigrant, he struggled as immigrant and went through a very hard time. Coming from a family where my father came to this country as a immigrant, hearing my father tell me stories about how hard it was to make it in this country and he spend days without eating I can relate to why Jorge wants to help he people. A major part of Christianity is to be selfless person and help everyone out; majority of Christians believe that as long as they try their hardest to help others they will be rewarded in the life of eternity.
In the video Jorge, talked about how a lot of his money goes into the food, Jorge and his family stated how if they kept tracked on how much money that goes into the food. I believe that Jorge does not care about the money at all or about him self. It should a tour of his house and how they are living, If Jorge did not support his mom, brothers and sisters he could live a much better life have nice house, car or more material items. He comes home after a long day of work driving school buses and still cooks to prepare food for his people so they don't have go to bed hungry that night. Many people these days espically people in America care only about them self and forget about their past on how they struggled in life or who helped them. I can understand not everyone had a situation like Jorge however there has been one point in their lives where they have struggled and were in need of help, so I believe that it is important for everyone to take time in their life to help other people in need. It is also important to do it with love and not want anything in return back. The people in the video described Jorge has a God, Jorge stated that he reward are seeing each and every individual smile back at them. He does not want anything in return he just wants everyone to be healthy and not go to bed hungry.

I do not like the way Sam described Christianity in this class, he did make it seem like Christian people or selfish, judging and or uninformed. It made it seem like Christians live in a box and only know what it going on inside that box. I was glad that Sam should this video though, It was very nice seeing a man who has so little still giving back to his people and not letting a day go by not letting them down.

I agree, empathy does play a crucial role, and it is always important to put yourselves in other shoes because you never no what might happen to you. The issue of rape is is major issue, that many people suppport or don't support. This topic is becoming a very big controversial issue. But, it is not as simple as that women who get raped and have to have an abortion deal with so much pain in their life. It is a bad memory that never goes away. Women who are often raped deal with pain for their whole entire life. It is by far the worse thing that happens to women. It replays in their mind everyday and they have a very time getting over it. Many girls are too ashamed to admit that they were raped and do not want to even report it because they are to embarrassed that they went through that situation. Young girls who get raped at the age of sixteen and do get pregnant, by a person they hate so much. Each time that mom will look into their child's eyes they will get flashback about the time they got raped. How will they be able to explain that to their child that they were raped and their father is a rapist. I believe that religion has a a lot to do with why this abortion is not okay. In many religions, they believe that that having a abortion is considered to be murder.

I'am very glad that Sam brought up this topic in class. This is major issue that is going on this world, and its just not an American issue its an global issue. Every day all over the country women and young girls are getting raped. Taking away the innocence of millions of girls, living in America if a men raped a women thats automatic jail time in other countries if a women gets raped she looked down upon. This topic is becoming a very big controversial issue, I believe that religion has a a lot to do with why this abortion is not okay. In many religions, they believe that that having a abortion is considered to be murder. But, it is not as simple as that women who get raped and have to have an abortion deal with so much pain in their life. It is a bad memory that never goes away. Women who are often raped deal with pain for their whole entire life. This issue makes me especially angry since, I don’t have to imagine someone I know getting raped, I already know. It is by far the worse thing that happens to women. It replays in their mind everyday and they have a very time getting over it. Many girls are too ashamed to admit that they were raped and do not want to even report it because they are to embarrassed that they went through that situation. Young girls who get raped at the age of sixteen and do get pregnant, by a person they hate so much. Each time that mom will look into their child's eyes they will get flashback about the time they got raped. How will they be able to explain that to their child that they were raped and their father is a rapist. Any girl can get raped, if a girl got raped and had a baby that will impact their lives, they will not be able to go to college or go away to college, or even enjoy their youth like normal teenage girls should. Now, I don't fully agree on rape but I do support it when it comes to raping that a women does have the right to have an abortion if she gets raped. However, there are girls out their that should be more careful and make better decisions and be more careful what they do. But it is everyone personal choice, on what they should to their bodies. Having a child will change individuals life. If you don't support abortion, just think about the situation if it happens to you or your loved one, what would your response be. I think is very hard situation, and you can only judge if it happens to you or someone close to you.