en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2449195 Comments by getout604 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143215405 After reading this article, its clear to me that his former employer fired him over such a personal subject matter. They are obviously wrong as hell for doing this and he has every right to sue the shit out of them. It really bothers me that people are still so unaccepting of the differences between us as human beings. Like the other 7 billion of us on earth, this man didn’t get to choose which gender he would be born, its simply chance. And it’s that factor that makes me so angry. In the article, his former employers tried to make it seem as though he intentionally worked there, knowing he was born a female, to spy on male costumers. Not only that, but his boss really asked him if he was transgender! He replies, “It’s private and I didn’t have to answer,” so immediately was fired. I mean, if this isn’t blatant discrimination in the workplace then I don’t know what is. Based on biology and anatomy, I can understand how many people believe that a person born with a penis is a man and a person born with a vagina is a woman. As evident in this case, once these physical attributes are altered, the situation changes completely. This is where society’s perception of gender comes into play. If the man featured in this article has always felt a strong relation to the male gender, even though he was technically born with female reproductive parts, he could be viewed as more of a male. In most of these cases, the person’s mind is telling them they are one gender, but their bodies are showing something else. In order to try to fit into the world’s view of gender, these people end up surgically altering these inconsistencies. Such processes are being used to help these people fit in to such a narrow-minded culture. And now that people such as the man in this article faces troubles regarding employment, society is eventually just going to have to accept those viewed to be “different”. Let people live their lives the way the want to. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:49:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143215405 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139252086 I’ve been debating whether to talk about this subject matter for weeks now, but after reading this letter I felt compelled to finally share what is on my mind. My father has been in prison my whole life and still has many years more to serve. When I was younger we use to write one another back and forth quite often even though I never knew the man I was writing to. Although he is my dad, I never really felt he was. And as I got older, the letter stopped. I guess I just stopped caring. But how can you blame me? My whole life the word ‘father’ has been completely irrelevant to me. As a matter of fact, just to think of having a dad in my life seems strange. I’ve always felt bad about thinking this stuff and that’s why I never really felt comfortable talking about it…until now. I am 19 years old now and I have accepted the fact that I can never take back all the years my father wasn’t there for me. Although it pains me to do so, I have reached this point. But after reading this letter, I feel as though I should also be held responsible for not being in his life and supporting him throughout his sentence. It really sounded as though not only the inmate who wrote the letter, but the majority of the prisoners around him really value the support from their friends and family. That really made me think about my family situation and how I’ve been going about that. I mean, am I just as wrong for not being there him? But once I’m done thinking about that, I get angry. I get angry because it shouldn’t be this way! It’ not fair that my whole life…my WHOLE life! I’ve had to pay for his stupid decisions. I get angry because there shouldn’t even be such things as prisons! They ruin families, break an individual and keep changed prisoners from receiving a fair shot at changing their lives around once/if they get our released. It’s really clear to me that America really doesn’t give a shit about its citizens, so fuck em’. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 01:25:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139252086 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531508 This simply isn’t true. If anything, it makes you a more well-rounded, open minded and responsible individual because you don’t have a religion doing all your thinking for you. All the countries that were listed in this article are some of the best countries in the world with little to no issues. This is because they aren’t slaves to this evil thing we call religion…good reddens. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:26:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531508 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531487 With that said, I don’t believe it’s ever, ever, ever okay for religion and politics to come together. Whenever this happens, the result is always bad. A great example is America. America, although one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it’s also one of the most screwed up places to live because of this. Over 70% of citizens in the United States of America claim to be Christian. This 70% also includes our politicians, presidents, CEOs and overall the people in power. A huge part of them gaining this power and trust from people is from them claiming to be Christian because in the eyes of most Americans this means they have “morals.” If you say you the words, “Atheist” or “Antitheist” people automatically will assume that it means you no morals and you are a reckless human being. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:26:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531487 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531360 **Religion in this case refers to Christianity since we live in a majority Christian country** I think this article is beyond interesting and exciting! Although I believe most human beings need religion to cope with the ills of the world, I also believe that religion is dangerous and responsible for not most, but ALL things bad on earth and needs to be put to an end. Religion has caused countless wars and justifies hate with mind control and propaganda that plays off the emotions of human beings, it makes me sick. It makes me sick because religion, more specifically Christianity, uses this ignorance as a way to keep its members in check by putting fear in them if they do otherwise. For example, in Christianity if you are not saved then you are going straight to hell when you die. I don’t know about you, but this would scare the shit out of anyone who doesn’t know any better and/or think for themselves (ex. Children). Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:25:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137531360 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134358319 As far as the male in the video, I guess when you look at it in a simplified point of view; yes he was acting extremely “white.” Not only did he have his shirt tucked in and pants pulled up, but the way he spoke was “white” as well as the product that he was reviewing. I mean, who else other than “white” people would spend $50 on that? A “black” man certainly wouldn’t, although they all carry guns anyway. I’m one thousand percent positive that if you were to blindfold 100 people and made them listen to this video, all 100 would agree that this male is “white” simply based on how his voice sounds and his proper English. It’s a shame that most people think this way, but we’re all taught that if one person of a certain race acts one way, anyone else of that color acts and sounds the same. It’s a serious issue in our society and will take every single one of us to change our ignorant thinking. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:14:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134358319 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134358272 Just the other day I had a discussion with my uncle about this topic. I started off by asking him why race exists. He didn’t have an answer to my question, but I believe I have a good idea as to why. Race exists because we as human beings try to find ways to simplify the things we see around us daily. Once I explained this to my uncle, he agreed and backed me up on that. In fact, he gave me an example as to how we do it all the time. Say there are a group of men across the room and you wanted to bring someone’s attention towards them, then you might say, “Look at those three white guys over there” because you don’t know any other way to describe them. He doesn’t believe there is an issue with describing people in this manner; it’s when you begin to place titles and descriptions on those people that you categorize. For example, black people love chicken, Asian people are really smart, white people can’t dance and Hispanic people are all from Mexico. It’s these stereotypes that get us in trouble. And again we can blame this on our habit of wanting everyone that is similar in looks to also fit in the same category behavior wise. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:14:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134358272 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130743136 After watching this video, I can understand why parents are so concerned with their children talking to “strangers.” You can’t blame parents today for being scared. Think about it, if you see stories like this on the news then it MUST be an issue and MUST be happening often, so therefore their children MUST be taught to stay away from strangers. These loosely based concerns and fears come from the media and how we perceive reports such as this. Like most issues in our society, it has been blown out of proportion based on a couple of examples. For human beings it’s easier to simply avoid further assessment and place everything in simplified categories with predetermined labels. This is why racism is such an issue in this lazy ass country. That’s not the worst part though; the worst part is that we all are naturally afraid of things that are different or “strange.” What’s so bad about this? Well, first you have to ask yourself, “What is different?” or “what is strange?” Although you may think you have an answer, these questions simply have no solution because there are no concrete definitions to base our assumptions off of. As a matter of fact, if you want to get more technical, we are all different from one another…does that make us strange? Another interesting thought I have has to deal with the role of sociology and technology. We all know sociology is the study of how our surroundings influence and shape the decisions we make. Our current day society is greatly focused around technology. Technology has influenced us to become less sociable, thus influencing us to act this way. I think it is technology is great because it brings us so close but at the same time it makes us so afraid of one another. My final point, I think that Sam is right and the chances of one of our children being harmed by a stranger are very low. We should lower our guards towards one another and start to have more faith in each other instead of always pointing a finger and excluding people. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:04:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130743136 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/15/social-structure-shapes-free-will/#IDComment129036383 After watching this video, I think it’s a great example of how our free-will is consistently directly affected by the customs of our surroundings. I had no clue this type of marriage arrangement was practiced in the world. Not because it’s weird or stupid, but because in America it would be considered weird or stupid. For these Chinese couples, it works and works well. Not only that, but the whole family sits down and discusses whether or not a marriage as such would benefit the greater good of everyone. In my opinion, this type of togetherness is really refreshing to see because in western societies most of what we believe in has been shaped by religious beliefs. For example, according to Christianity, we are to have one partner not three. Another thing I noticed about this story were the reactions of friends and fellow classmates who after watching the video were almost shocked that a women had multiple partners and the men were the ones who took care of the home and cooked. We are so used to seeing and hearing men, who have multiple women, work and “bring home the bacon.” This story caught me off guard initially and I thought I heard it wrong. As the documentary continued, I began to question myself as to why I felt this way. I strongly believe that men and women should have the free-will to behave equally no matter what it is, so why did I feel this way? Because as humans we all are born almost programed to think a certain way according to where we grew up. In America, everything is run by men and the people who are really in power are men, not women. So no matter what I personally believe in, these values that were programed into me will always be a factor until I teach myself to break loose of them. Every week I say the same thing regarding our “freedom” to make decisions and how little say we actually have in what goes on in our lives, but this week I’ve reached the point mentally where I don’t think it’s even possible to get rid of this! It’s like no matter what we do or where we are, it WILL affect how and what choices we make. Am I right? If not, please tell me otherwise. It’s kind of depressing to think this is the case always and forever. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:25:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/15/social-structure-shapes-free-will/#IDComment129036383 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127460616 For example, September 11 th. Every American knows what that date means. It marks the day 10 years ago that we were attacked by a foreign country and lots of lives were lost. I believe from that day since Americans have lost a sense of trust in everything NOT American. We have no clue why we really feel like every other country is weird as hell. We just feel this way! Why? Because we are influenced to think and feel this way by television, government and religion. We didn’t freely make the decision to have any type of negative feelings towards anyone. At least this is what Sociologists argue. I agree with this perspective. All of our actions, thoughts and feeling are influenced by our society. And if you think about it in those terms, you begin to understand that we really are not in control. We have very little say in how our lives turn out and we have no way of changing this. It makes me wonder what the world would be like if human beings were not shaped by their surroundings. What would we be like? Is that even possible? Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:51:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127460616 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127460603 After reading this article I was very clear on why Americans don’t travel outside of the country. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. America isn’t the greatest country in the world because we’re wealthy, but also because everything we want and need is here in America. There are so many different sites to see amongst our 50 states. The value of our worldly contributions makes us important and the world runs around us so why would we need or want to travel anywhere else? Let’s get real, we’re an arrogant country. Everyone knows that no matter how much the government may piss you off, The United States of America is number one and that’s how it is and how it will always be. So you would naturally think that Americans would have no interest in countries outside of our circle. Well, if you thought that you would be wrong. It’s America that doesn’t accept different cultures, not the individual. We think that we are free to travel where we want and that is not the truth. We are influenced by so many outside facts that are out of our control. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:50:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127460603 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125788722 This video is an accurate depiction of how we as human beings naturally conform to the norms of our environments. We are afraid of being different, especially in such an intimate setting as an elevator. The strange part is that we are able to watch this video, laugh at the gentlemen, be aware of what was going on, swear to ourselves that we would never be as stupid as them and yet when push comes to shove, we would in fact do the same as the subjects in the video. I know for a fact that I would have. Regardless of your race, sex or age, human beings are more similar to one another than we make us out to be. We all unconsciously behave and think in a similar matter. One average healthy human being is no different from another one on a humanistic level. It blows my mind to try to sit here and think of what it is that makes us all act this way. Its like we’re all slightly personalized robots. Each of us has our differences (appearance & experiences) but we’re still all robots so we also all have our robot kinks and tendencies that we have no control over. If this were not the case, then we would not have things like style or morals because no one would be able to agree on what is “right.” Realizing this is quite depressing because it’s wild to think how little control we actually have over how our lives turn out. I believe that this is why religion is such a big deal to so many people. Religion is a way to reveal your deepest thoughts and desires. All we really want is someone to listen to us and understand love us for who we are and give us a sense of control of our lives. Although I am strongly opposed to religion, I believe it’s important to have it in the world because those reasons. It destroys people’s ability to think for themselves and realistically, but at the same time it helps them develop morals and be the “good” human being. Thu, 3 Feb 2011 23:43:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125788722 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124200481 If you disrupt this pattern by inserting some type of outside organizations, and thinking such as after school programs and pregnancy awareness programs then I strongly believe that teenage pregnancy in this neighborhood will go down. As human beings, we naturally want the best for the next generation and for them to learn from our mistakes, and I think this is one of those situations. After hearing this story I immediately thought of my childhood. My mother had two children before turning 23, my older sister and myself. Not only that, we lived in a very low-income neighborhood where teenage pregnancy was normal. With all that said, both my sister and I were lucky enough to brake the mold of what we “should” be. I credit this mostly to my mother and the fact that we moved to a different neighborhood in our early teenage years. In this community, teenage birth is frowned upon and people that continue on to higher education are highly praised. The more I think about, its actually beginning to scare me as to how little control I have over my life. I have a million questions in my head that I need to get out! Question: How would a sociologist explain horoscopes, signs, etc? Part 2 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:49:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124200481 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124200439 It’s crazy to think that such a high percentage of this school’s population has already or is expecting parenthood…but then again when you think about this situation in the perspective of sociology this is almost expected. Sociology argues that, for the most part, we are in fact NOT in control of our lives. Instead, our social surroundings shape a great deal of not only the decisions we make, but also how we go about them. In the case of this Memphis high school, I believe that this story supports sociologist’s view as to why this has been a growing issue in that neighborhood. In the story, the reporter said that, “100% of the students at that school qualify for free or reduced lunches.” To me, that statistic says that the whole community and its citizens are stuck in the same position financially; low income. Typically lower income neighborhoods in America as such consist of minorities. In terms of Sociology, those two huge similarities alone would make a young minority woman more likely to have a baby at a young age. Part 1 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:49:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124200439 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cp%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment123544283 Soc 001 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:45:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cp%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment123544283 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626699 According to these feminist, most women in America feel oppressed unequal to men. But my thing is that if this is the case, why are so many women okay with showing off their daughters like this? Why aren’t they taking the blame for how they are being treated? Why are men always at fault? This little girl very may well go through life thinking she has to be all prettied up to get attention…thanks to her mother, not men. 3rd part Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:04:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626699 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626672 Another perspective I looked at this story involved the issue of sexism. This semester I am taking two courses that are solely focused on that topic and both are very interesting so far. I don’t necessarily agree with everything that we learn and discuss, but there are a few things that I strongly agree with. One of those things being how we as a society acknowledge the topic of male and female. From the day we are born, our parents have these standards as to how their son or daughter should act or dress based on their gender. For example, baby girls wear pink and boys blue, of course. As males we are expected to be strong, smart, respectful, and the breadwinners of the home. For females, they aren’t taught this or expected to do the same. It is these ever so natural responses to these situations as human beings that Feminist want to correct. 2nd part Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:04:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626672 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626645 These beauty pageants make me sick! It always bothers me when people try to force their beliefs or opinions on young children. Not only that, but this woman tries to rationalize letting her two year old daughter walk around on stage in front of hundreds of strangers half naked by making it seem as though it was the child’s idea. She is two years old! She has absolutely no clue what is going on! I would have a huge smile on my face too if all those people were smiling, clapping and cheering for me, but it doesn’t in the slightest justify it. I strongly believe these mothers are in fact living out some type of sick fantasy that they were never able to achieve themselves. There is no other possible explanation. Can you imagine a one in a half, two year old going up to her mother to ask to be put into one of these events? Neither can I. 1st part Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:04:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment122626645