Many of the countries that had many searches for gay/lesbian porn I think is because of the fact that their country might be suppressing the idea that there might be such a thing. For example, in Peru, we discovered that all of their top searches consisted of gay/lesbian porn. I think this is because their country is not ok with gays and if this is true, then it becomes a taboo issue to discuss. When something is taboo, no one really talks about it, its something that is hidden but that does not meant that it does not happen. The only way then for people to understand what the meaning of gay, lesbian, transgender, etc. means is by looking online. The first thing that’s most likely to pop up is going to be some porn site and that is where they will learn what it means. Although a lot of people might think that is in incorrect and that people should not be looking this stuff online, instead someone should be explaining it to them, I wonder who would actually talk to them about the meaning of these terms. I feel as though sexuality is something that often times means self-discovery. No one in those countries wants to explain or pass on knowledge of these terms and so they have to take the responsibility for people still wanting to know and for the possibility of those people who are still curious that might learn the wrong meaning. This is the only thing that I think is wrong about self-discovery. Some things need to be passed on or else someone might learn the wrong thing and be left with knowledge that is not true and can essentially harm themselves and others. Apart from sexuality I think that it was very interesting that some of the other countries had different types of porn. What I specifically thought was hilariously ironic was that the southern states in the United States that are known for their racism were found to have top searches of “ebony”. This goes along with what I was saying before about something being taboo. I think that this could either be a twisted form of hatred or it could be because there is peer pressure to be against black people and therefore they don’t know anything about blacks and therefore do the whole self-discovery thing. It could also be that black people are the ones looking at the porn and they are raising the ebony porn to the top ten but I find that highly unlikely. Overall I think that some of the different countries top searches are very surprising or hysterical and I wonder for some of them if there is any correlation from the searches directly to the culture of the corresponding country.

Yes, the media and society is somewhat geared towards seeing through the eyes of the male. It’s like we are solely looking through the eyes of the mal perspective. This is seen through media, and across the face of the planet in so many different countries. I don’t think there is any country in the world that a society is grown to see through the eyes of a female or aspires to please the females over the males. In our society, there is a lot of sexism because of the fact that when girls grow up its like a factory, we all go through an assembly line as the object that is being touched up. We are told and shown since childhood that women who are beautiful are tall and thin and have curvy hips and big boobs and juicy lips and great complexions and long hair and the list just goes on and on. The point is we are always striving to be an accumulation of all of these things, which is essentially impossible but it is the way we have been brought up. I think this is sad because and ironic because women aren’t realizing we are growing to be someone who is idolized through the male perspective, instead of being shocked by this upbringing and trying to change this view of the “perfect women” we make the ideal woman even more unreachable to women as a way to sell products. Selling products to women is pretty genius in a way, the company basically shows that ideal women and shows that she her man loves the new her and is more attracted to her and basically makes the audience feel insecure and feel as though if they don’t obtain that item then they will be outcasted by society and the entire male species. Maybe this is me being feministic but I am really against the media’s view of how a woman should be. Now lets shape all this around a world where the women are on top and the men are pressured to become an unreachable perfection. A world where men have to work a lot harder and are viewed as a sex symbol rather than a human with intellect. I think this changes things completely. In this world, women don’t have to belittle themselves, they don’t have to be wary of speaking their minds or being sexual. They wouldn’t get dismissed or get called demeaning names. Instead the men would have to watch how many people they slept with and who they told or else the women would not want to associate with him and would treat him as an outcast. They would be silenced in a job filled with women. Everytime they would try to speak up to share their intellectual view on something they would have to take the risk of being ignored. They would have to deal with rape and being mistreated and harassed by the majority.

I think this is a very good question that we need to address. Seriously, why don’t we help our own people first before getting involved with other countries? We can’t be strong as a nation if we’re having fights within our country and a ton of problems and then engage in fights with other nations. It doesn’t make any sense. I was speaking to my roommate last night an we talked for hours on the issue about Native Americans and their land versus our land. It is a very interesting topic and one that I only recently learned details about. I never knew that the biggest genocide to happen happened in our country, or that the Native Americans still exist but in poverty and in despair. I think this is a problem that needs to be spoken out to the American people and it shouldn’t be hidden. Like Sam was saying in class, the reason for bringing all of the past up is not to make people feel guilty but to learn from our mistakes so we don’t repeat them again and it is also so that we can strive to be better. Plus there is no con in learning history, especially the history of the land that we currently live on. When Sam was talking about the Native Americans and kept pushing the notion that we are all living on Red land and that Penn State, Thomas building, our very seats is the stolen rightful land of the Native Americans, it really struck a chord in me. Then followed by the videos of the Native Americans and the conditions of how they live and how their way of life has been squashed. They live so poorly now that it is almost impossible to keep up their spirits and with this their traditions. Now many Native Americans are suicidal, alcoholics or are a part of domestic abuse. When the interviewer in the video said that there is a conspiracy theory that the U.S. government was pushing the Native Americans on to reservations and keeping them poor to make them extinct, my eyes widened but to me, as horrible as it sounds, it made a lot of sense. It is now the 21st century and we are still suppressing the Native Americans on their land and we are doing nothing to address the problem, in fact we even keep it from our history books and younger generations as if it will all disappear including the people themselves. I know the genocide is a bad representation of America but guess what, IT HAPPENED. It angers me to know that as a U.S. citizen this was kept from my schooling and only until I got to college did I really learn the truth. My answer to this question is we have no right to be in other countries affairs when we can’t even fix our own problems.

I think no matter what, if one group receives benefits and the other group does not there will always be turmoil. It simply is not fair that one group holds higher benefits than the other. I don’t really understand either how one group could benefit from another’s benefits. For example, if minorities get into college based off of their color I’m not sure how this benefit could have a co-relation towards another group. It is simply that one group is receiving something the other is not. I think giving handouts to one group too is also a silent way of making the separation between racial groups even bigger. If one group is getting benefits while the other is left in the dust there are going to be complaints from the latter group, it’s just the way it is. I know that I would be angry if I was working hard and then some group got a handout purely based off of their gender or race. It’s simply not fair. I understand that many people want to give handouts to the minorities because they have been discriminated against but I think this is wrong. We should simply all be on the same level and not one particular group should get more benefits. I feel like a lot of minorities even might feel offended if they were given a handout because it almost seems like pity. Like, we looked down upon you and discriminated against you in the past so the quickest way for you to feel equal to others is to get a handout. Speaking as a minority I know what it means to get handouts because of your race and yes it is nice but in a way it almost is like cheating. I get favored over another because my race and gender is looked down upon and therefore people feel the need to give me a free pass to get ahead as opposed to someone else who might work harder and simply could not get that handout because they were not a minority. I don’t understand affirmative action too well but if it were actually put in action I think for the most part it would be very effective. The idea behind it is that every employer should evaluate his employees on their effort and dedication and credentials and not based off of the color of their skin or whether they are a male or female. This is a very hard thing to put in action though because how do you know if the person is actually abiding by affirmative action. Like Sam said, everyone has a predisposition to judge and even if it’s not intentional, we all tend to do it.

I do not think that America should continue to give aid to Haiti based off of what Sam told us two classes ago. If anything it sounds like we are hurting their economy not helping them. If they can sustain themselves I’m curious as to why we are continuously giving them easy aid. For instance I think it is wrong when someone considers giving out aid to be thought of as handing out money or just giving someone what they look like they need. I think it’s like the old saying goes, “give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life”. I think this is very applicable because although our country or sympathetic citizens might think the best way to deal with a poor country is to give them handouts it’s actually more beneficial to offer them knowledge as to how is best to deal with their current situations, which is why I completely agree and am on board with people who are insistent on trying to construct job in Haiti and teach them how to live sustainable lives. I think its counterproductive if our country is in Haiti’s affairs and we are actually the reason that there is a decrease in jobs available in their country. So in the end one could say that we are responsible for the current stand point Haiti is in. Sam said that America feels somewhat responsible for Haiti and this is why were are “helping” them by giving them rice. I think this is the opposite of what they need and if we really felt guilty we would wake up and realize that Haiti is capable of bringing back their country on it’s two feet. What I think people are confused in is that Haiti does not need us necessarily involved so much as they need us as support. They need support in terms of structure in order to rebuild their country but they don’t need our country benefiting off of their way of living by selling cheaper rice than what rice farmers are producing and selling there. It doesn’t make sense to me how our country is doing this. Something I find very interesting about the word Aid though is that when I think of Aid I think of a country being completely selfless and going out of it’s way to help another country but in this case, there is a lot of history that is not uncovered or gone into when the news, “America is giving Aid to Haiti” is said. I wonder if a lot of peoples’ perceptions of aid would change if they knew the reality of this business and that America is actually benefiting from it.

The only reason I think women didn’t feel free that day in class to raise their hands and say that they were menstruating was because they feel as though the men will look at them differently. If the room was filled with just women I don’t think anyone would be so apprehensive to raise their hands. In my discussion group we talked about how men are uncomfortable talking about periods and sanitary products and personally I don’t understand why it is that men are uncomfortable around this topic. I suppose it could be because of the fact they never have had or never will have to deal with this monthly visitor and therefore cannot feel empathetic. So instead of men simply not being able to talk about it they feel the need to have to act repulsed by the fact that women get their periods or bring up the topic and I do not feel like this is fair. It’s something that occurs naturally and if they are able to talk about the fact that they masturbated last night then why can’t we talk about something that we plainly have absolutely no control over whatsoever. I do not think that men should have the ability to bring out shame from our selves. This is why I think all the girls in the room didn’t raise their hands and I think this will always be this way. I have never thought about it before but it’s because I grew up in a family where I was able to speak my mind and learned to never be afraid to say what I think or feel. So therefore I have never felt ashamed to say I am on my period but at the same time I have never felt the need to shout to the world that I’m menstruated either. I remember this one time though I was speaking to a guy and said I was on my period and he actually stepped away from me and gave me this face of utter repulsion and I felt terrible about myself but then realized that he was the idiot because when I tried to ask what was wrong or why he was so disgusted he tried shutting me up and left the room because he said he just couldn’t talk about it because he thought it was really gross. I’m sorry but if anyone is going to feel that way it should be me because it’s happening to me and no one else so that’s why I get annoyed when men act like that and think they have the justification to act like they are afraid of our menstruation cycles. Most men don’t even know how it works which is sad all on it’s own. All in all I do not think women are free as long as the constraints of society are all around them and they are not allowed to speak their minds without being afraid of judgment.

When I was a little kid I used to always look at myself and at others and question what life really meant and whether or not I was real or the people around me were just figments of my imagination. I know that is a very strange concept for a child to think about but at the time I did not see the connection I had towards death with this theory that I had made up. I often felt as though I was alone in my thoughts and I was alone in the world. It is difficult to explain but I could not comprehend how I could possibly only see out of my eyes and feel as I feel and be inside my body without being able to look at myself from the outside while I could see others. I could only feel my own thoughts and understand myself but I was unable to breach other peoples minds and truly understand them and become them. This is very confusing I can imagine to others but for me it makes perfect sense and to this day it is a thought that frightens me and what frightens me more is that others have not even thought of this or do not understand what I mean when I try to explain this theory. The reason it scares me is because if I can feel myself and who I am physically and hear my own thoughts then I cannot POSSIBLY comprehend how on earth I can vanish and turn into nothing. I think this is why people often come up with theories as to how they will go somewhere else heavenly when they die and that their true being will never die. Although this thought is romanticized I do not think that it is true, we are no better than any other species born onto this planet and if all the other animals do not go to this place we have imagined then I do not think we go there either. It is egotistical to think that us humans go to a place that gratifies us just because we have “higher” intellect and we can question our existence. I think to an extent this characteristic might seem like a great attribute to our species but I think it can also be a flaw because our questioning of our own existence does not lead to more curiosity to understand why we are here, we usually fall back on an assumption that has been built and taught by others and with this assumption we feel as though we have an escape from death. At the end of the day I am afraid to die because I am afraid of the unknown, I am similarly afraid of die as I am to the depths of the ocean. It is just something that we cannot know and to each his or her own. If it were known I think it would ruin one of the great wonderments and mysteries of life.

I honestly do not really know what my reaction would be if I found out God did or did not exist. My whole childhood I grew up labeled as a Catholic which was thrust upon me from a very small age. The strict rules from Catholicism made me stay up sleepless nights praying because I thought I was going to go to hell if I did not pray a certain amount of times or if I make one silly mistake. Eventually when I grew into my adolescence stage of life, I started to question during my CCD classes (classes to prepare you for confirmation; a process to become true Catholic) and the teachers were really defensive and angry whenever I asked about anything that was not suppose to be questioned. Therefore I started to question my faith and thought I was going to hell because of my questions. One day my Dad shared with me his views on religion by showing me a video called Religilous and it was apparent that his opinion was that he did not believe in a God and was simply a scientist or a realist. I liked this take on life better and so life without a religion but I feel like if you’re a realist or scientist you are writing off all possibilities and science only takes you so far. This sociology class has actually made me think about what I believe and has taught me the lesson that I need to formulate my own opinions and faiths instead of trusting other people’s opinions and adopting them as my own.
With all this in mind, on the one side if the news presented the information that God did not exist I think I would be somewhat disappointed or lost because although I do not believe in any God I’ve thus far learned about, a part of me still wants to believe that there is something out there that is the reason for why we are all here on this planet. I don’t think science explains everything because for some things its just too simple. On the other hand if God was presented on the news as real, my first question would be what God? And my curious side would want to investigate further about this God and why he is revealing himself now. I would also be curious to see what people’s reactions to this God would be and how people’s perspectives and outlook on life would change. How would their actions change? Would bad people suddenly be good? I do not know, it’s a very complicated concept I guess. A worry I would have about a God being revealed would also just be, what if in this God’s eyes I am not considered a good person or worse, what if even though I see him with my own eyes, I do not agree with him.

I do no think there is any “correct” answer to this question. I mean as for someone who is mixed, whether they be Chinese with African or Native American and European, I think that they are just plainly mixed. Like Sam said in class, there are no racial groups. I personally completely believe in this because there are mixed people now and it’s almost impossible to categorize them because people contain genes that represent completely opposite sides of the planet. I also think it is very limiting to categorize someone as simply Hispanic or Chinese. These days there is hardly anyone who is completely one race or another: “pure”. Its just does not exist. I do not think that racial groups themselves exist because, like I said, we are all mixed and if someone is placing themselves into a particular group it is probably because they either identify more with that culture or they are choosing that culture or race because it benefits them. For example, I am white and Hispanic, this means that I am from South America (i.e. Ecuador) and I am majorly from Cuba, but somewhere down the line in my lineage I have Spanish blood (from Spain) making me European; white. When I was growing up I never felt like I identified with the “Hispanic” culture. Nevertheless I grew up with a diverse community but I still associated myself closely with the cultures of white people and actually thought I was not Hispanic since I was not exposed to those cultures until later in my life. I came to a certain age where I embraced my Hispanic side when I learned about it and when it came time to apply for colleges there was a great pressure from my family to put on my application that I was Hispanic. I did it because it benefited me but I am still unsure if I have the essence of the whole Hispanic culture in order to be identified as Hispanic. Either way I chose my Hispanic side. I think this is why there are no racial groups because in this day and age anyone can choose to pick out a small percentage of a certain race in their lineage and claim that they belong to that race. If everyone chooses to do this, there are no rules to be in any groups, everyone blends among one another and essentially we all become mixed into this giant blender and we all become one big group with bits and pieces of every culture. This is similar to how the U.S. is sometimes called a cultural melting pot.
I also think that if there is more classification to mixed people and people in general, these classifications will lead to more lines dividing us all. I mean what is the point or necessity of classifications and grouping anyways?

When Sam asked us if we considered ourselves as rich or not I thought to myself mostly yes but kind of no. I feel like a lot of people in the classroom did not know how to answer the question because yes there are different factors that you have to consider when answering this kind of question. There’s the factor that if he was asking us if we were rich strictly in the U.S. then most of us would probably not be considered “rich”, but if he asked us if we were among the richest people in the world then I would definitely say yes. This is strictly money speaking though. If we are to consider all of the other factors that come in to play in regards with the term “rich” then I think that would be a whole other thing. For example, I think I am one of the richest people in the U.S. partly because our family is middle class and I have a loving family and everything I want or could ever need. In my view, a rich person (depending on his/her view) is someone who has people who love them and that might be all they need. Some people attach the word “rich” with the word money. It really all depends on how you were raised and what you value most in life.
When compared to the rest of the world, my eyes opened to the fact that I am rich because I have my health, my family and friends who love me and I have an education and money in my pocket for food. I think that is really all a person might need, and it definitely is all a person needs to get further in life and make something of themselves. I could not feel more fortunate after Sam asked us that question that day and I was really surprised to be honest with the results of the clicker questions; that people did not view themselves as “rich”. When Sam sad that people tend to compare their happiness to the happiness of those around them, I found that to be a very true statement. I cannot say that there have not been times when I have received something that I thought was great and made me happy and then my friend or neighbor received the same item in a different shape or form and I questioned my happiness. I think these are our faults as humans, to question our happiness and compare it with others. Overall though I think that the poorest man on the earth can consider himself to be rich and that richness really is in the mind.