I think the main issue that both of these questions stem from is that women don't necessarily have to achieve an orgasm to consider a sexual experience a success, while for men it is pretty much the goal since there's the ever looming threat of being "Blue Balled". This causes the divide because men think that women need to orgasm and if they don't than the guy is unsuccessful and the woman is unfulfilled, and women sort of know that men think like that so they don't want to offend them after both people just had such a good time (presumably). This is also the reason that female's sometimes fake an orgasm, because if they didn't than the guy might get down on himself since almost every guy takes pride in their sexual prowess.
I don't think it is that weird at all to ask a girl if she had an orgasm, sometimes it's pretty obvious or you just kind of know, but other times it's not as apparent for one reason or another. I tend to always ask afterwards, obviously not right away, even if I already know just for the sake of conversation and also because it's lead to another go way more than once. It is definitely a little more awkward asking someone after your first time together, but I had never really thought it was that strange. The way I see it is that you both have already done the actual act so I have no idea why it would be weird to just talk about a part of it. I also just like to know for future reference.
I also think women should be more open to telling the guy if they had an orgasm or not, the reason i think they don't is because they don't want to hurt his feelings and piss him off, but if the guy is at all experienced they should kind of know that a woman's orgasm is also very mental, so it may not be because he did something wrong. Either way i think that everyone should be much more open about sex out of relationships and especially in them.

I had never really thought about this situation before but the more I think about it the more often i see how true it is. I am a white male and I can relate to only approaching white women when i'm sober, since I feel there is a sort of comfort factor. It's not that I don't want to approach other women, it's just that I feel that approaching a girl can already be an uncomfortable thing to do and any added pressure doesn't help. It's a whole different story when I am drinking though and I believe that also plays into the comfort factor. I have approached plenty of non-white women and my first girlfriend wasn't white either, but I don't think any of them were both sober and random.

I don't believe that the issue of race is as big of a deal as others perceive, but I can see how they would perceive it like that since white guys would only approach them when they are drunk. But at the same time like most other people are saying, I don't really see guys approaching girls on a regular basis while not intoxicated, so as I said earlier I don't think it's strictly a race issue. I think a big part of the issue is actually how approaching a girl is viewed, when a guy approaches a girl of any race a lot of people feel like they are doing so strictly for their own benefit and sometimes girls get defensive before there is any interaction at all. This is obviously going to slightly deter the guy from approaching women in the future and this is one of the main causes of the issue at hand.

Another reason that comfort is in the equation is that white men were generally raised by white women and around white women and because of that they will feel more comfortable by nature being around them in the future as people are more comfortable with what they are used to. I don't think there is really anything to remedy this situation which is unfortunate because if there was, then white males would feel just as comfortable being around minority women as they are white women which would help with any anxiousness they have when approaching a girl.

I too am pretty indifferent on this issue, because while I know our ancestors were responsible for all the terrible things that happened to the Native Americans, I was not around to have done any of them. And I do feel bad that they happened, but it wasn't me.

In class I felt like a lot of people were blaming us because of the fact that I am white. Everyone needs something or someone to blame, and that day specifically I felt like I was the scapegoat. I do understand that our ancestors did make life terrible for the Native Americans, but I didn't and I felt accused sort of.
On the other hand there is still somethings that white people are doing that aren't necessarily hurting the naive american population, but they aren't helping it either.

It's hard to help an entire population like that of the native american's rise out of poverty and I don't think there is very much that we can possibly do to do it. I wish there was something I could do that is more localized to help, but unless I move near there or start a charity or something I feel like it's all talk.

The problem with this is that since I am indifferent, I am in the middle. And being in the middle is worse than pocking a side. I feel like since I am not strongly leaning towards one side or the other, I'm split down the middle and people might see that as being weak.

The concept of taboo topics of discussion is a very interesting one because if there is one thing I have noticed it is that there are oftentimes more things that we can't or shouldn't talk about than there are topics that we can. Some of the main things that make a topic taboo or not are the people who you are discussing it with, and the place that you are having the discussion.

The first factor in what makes something taboo is the people you are discussing the topic in question with. If you happen to be discussing abortion or gay marriage with a group full of extremely conservative and/or religious people than you would be seen as discussing something that's taboo. Meanwhile having that exact same conversation with members of the LGBTA club would put the conversation in a completely new light. If you were to be talking about gay marriage with a group full of gay people, it would be the complete opposite of taboo since that is their life and they have been living it their whole life. In my opinion any topic can be taboo, it's just a matter of who else is participating in the conversation.

Another factor in what makes something taboo is the location you are discussing it in. If for example you are talking about our earlier example of gay marriage in a catholic church, it would be considered very taboo. Even if you are discussing it with open minded people, I would still feel that the topic is taboo. These two factors together combine to show that any topic could possibly be taboo and it really depends on your surroundings.

I find it interesting that many of the topics that are taboo are not spoken about in very many groups or places, but they are often times the ones that need to be spoken about the most. My earlier example of gay marriage is a perfect example of something that needs to be discussed more openly. The more a topic like this is discussed the more normal it becomes, and the more normal it becomes the better accepted in society it will become. I believe that taboo topics can change heavily depending on each persons individual surroundings, but that many of these topics should be accepted everywhere, if only to let them become a more natural part of society.

How has being white helped me out? Well I believe a better question would be how hasn't it? That fact that I can barely think of a few different occasions where being white has hurt me just shows how beneficial it really is. Off the top of my head that only thing that I think I have been negatively affected by in terms of skin color would have to be with college applications and the likes. The fact that affirmative actions helps so many minorities to get into better colleges or college in general would have been an awesome perk to have, but I am still going to a top 50 university and will hopefully be successful.

I'm not saying that being white benefits me in everything all of the time, but whenever there are any benefits to be had from being of a certain skin color it usually goes in my favor. One advantage I believe I have had is that i grew up in a nice suburban neighborhood and have lived a pretty privileged life. There are plenty of minorities living in all of the neighborhoods that I grew up in, but it was much more expected from my family to be there. Another perk that I have definitely experienced in my life has been that police will usually expect me to be innocent of anything until proven otherwise, whereas I feel that they are much quicker to assume guilt when dealing with minorities. There have been multiple times where I should have been in trouble but ended up getting away with whatever it was that I did simply because I was just able to talk my way out of the situation.

This is sort of off topic, but one thing that i have found very interesting regarding race is that I grew up in San Diego and there was a large population of minorities, Mexican's havign the largest percentage. But when i moved out here I realized that a lot of people I have talked to had never really even talked to someone who wasn't white until they came to college. I was shocked by how many people have told me that there either wasn't any minorities in their high school and town, or that there was like one family in their entire area.

Another time that being white has helped me out was when I went to China for an internship this past summer, I lived in a rather rural part of the country about an hour and a half away from Shenzhen, one of the larger cities in China. Being white there was awesome, there is really no other way to describe it. I felt like I had diplomatic immunity while there and all of the Chinese people loved me simply because of the color of my skin.

Being white has defiantly got it's advantages and it is something that I feel should change, I would love to live in a world where there are no real advantages to being of any skin color and people are based solely off of their personality and merit alone. Unfortunately I believe we are a while away from that yet.

How has the fear of death affected me? In all honesty I think the fear of death affects everyone immensely. I mean who doesn’t opt out of things that will lead to the inevitable constant that is death? I keep the idea of death in the back of my mind at all times, and I feel that because of this I am who I am.

When I was in middle school I remember reading The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and thinking about death in general and how when you die everything is over for you. I don’t believe in heaven or reincarnation so as far as I am concerned there is no second chances. This concept has led me to live my life with no regrets and to live a life full of experiences. I know am willing to try just about anything because if I don’t I may not get another chance. Some people may feel that this thought process is immature and reckless but I feel that it is immature to not try and experience everything that life has to offer because of any reason really.

An example of this is when I had two internship offers this past summer, one was at home and making a good bit more money over the course of the three months that I would have been working. The other one was only two months long and was in a very rural part of southern China. The downside to this was that I made much less money and it was shorter. I chose to take the internship in China because of the simple fact that I had not been there yet. Sure, I could take a larger income and stay at home comfortably and for free, or I could go somewhere that I knew only one other person and where almost none of the locals spoke English but it would have been something new. Another smaller example of this is that I am going to Penn State even though I am from San Diego, simply because I wouldn’t know anyone out here and I would have to meet new people and experience a different side of the country. I thought these choices were kind of obvious because I chose with no hesitation, but the more people I talk to here at school the more I found out that a lot of people would never be willing to go across the country for school, let alone the world for a summer. I’m always shocked when I talk to people who are from for example Pittsburgh and plan on staying there the rest of their life. I just can’t comprehend staying in one small part of one of 50 states in only one country for the majority of my life. I want to explore the world, try and learn new languages and customs, and generally just want new experiences.

I feel that this relates to the concept of death affecting me because if I wasn’t going to die, I would have no problem staying in one part of the world for extremely long times since I could always change it up eventually. But since I know that I only have anywhere from 40-80 years left in my life I feel that I have to try and experience everything that I can possibly fit in one life.

I don't know if i fear death as much as I fear no longer existing. While I don't necessarily fear the act of dieing, I fear that when I do die, I will no longer be able to affect the world in any way either positively or negatively. Another fear about our mortality that I have is the fear that when I die, any impact that I had made will no longer matter and I will not have made my mark on the world.

I am not religious at all and as such have come to terms with the fact that I believe that there is no afterlife, while it may not be the most pleasant thought, and that when someone dies they just cease to exist. I also do not have any resentment towards anyone who is religious and I fully understand why someone would choose to follow one. The idea that we will cease to exist, and that our remains will be buried or turned to ash is a very scary one and I can see how many people would choose to come up with an alternative hypothesis. The most interesting part about the idea of an afterlife to me is the whole concept that every religion believes that they are the only ones who are able to enter heaven.

Another minor tiff that I have with the whole concept of afterlife is the fact that I probably would not want to live eternally in heaven and just watch over the future generations. It would annoy me to have to be a spectator of this world and not be able to experience all that the future has to offer, while simultaneously not being able to grow as an individual. I feel that it would be frustrating to say the least.

But overall the biggest fear that I have of dieing would most definitely be the thought that I will not be able to accomplish everything that I wanted to before my time has come, and also that I will be missing out on all of the things the future has to offer. When I think about how many awesome gadgets and new technologies we have compared to 100 years ago, I often times feel bad for our ancestors because they were unable to experience all that we have accomplished. And at the same time I also don't want to miss out on anything live hover boards, and terraforming, and space travel to get to other habitable planets. All these currently science fiction concepts may very well come true one day and it saddens me to think that I won't be able to experience it.

While I realize my idea of death is very bleak, I feel that it is this way because of all the things that I hope to accomplish in my life. A lot of my fears have to do with the idea that I will be unable to fulfill everything that I want to and because of that am scared that my window of opportunity wont be large enough. Life is the greatest opportunity that we have and I just don't want to waste it.