Wow, this is not what I expected to see from life inside the Haitian tent cities. It is amazing to see people conduct anything close to what their lives were before. It is not entirely surprising to see people start up businesses to make money right away. What else are they really to do with themselves? What is surprising is that there is still enough money to be spent on things like manicures and pedicures. With the banks being destroyed and people only having so much cash on them, it’s amazing they aren’t just saving it for the essentials. While this may seem somewhat like a shallow thing to do in a time of crisis, I suppose it is one of the few ways they can find pleasure in their day and feel better about themselves. They have all day and nothing to do with the time and it is interesting to see how they manage.

From the video it appeared that the tent communities were pretty safe as well and that people seemed to come together and help each other out. The man that ran the “theater” even said it was about helping out and keeping the children occupied during the day. For a country that is so displaced and in devastation’ it is amazing how much they have been able to organize and pull together. They even find the energy and spirit to sing and dance and celebrate for what they do have. I can’t imagine the same type of attitudes could be found in this country after such a natural disaster, but it is hard to tell how people would react in such situations.

This video just reinforces the points made in class. As Americans, we are seeing this tragedy from afar. We view these people as helpless and assume they need taken care of. Of course they need our help, but the video shows that if we spent more money on helping them develop and less time giving handouts than these people are completely capable of providing for themselves. I’m sure it was vital for us to be handing out water and food when the devastation initially happened, but now it is time to start rebuilding.

I think class was the first of the semester that truly did open my eyes because I had no idea what donating our goods would do to Haiti and never expected that they would actually be detrimental to rebuilding the country. While the class was enlightening, it was also disheartening. I can’t help but want to defend those supplying basic needs of food, water, and textiles to the people. It also made me feel more helpless in this massive catastrophe.

I am not necessarily angry or offended by what this man is saying, even considering I am about to graduate college. This doesn’t mean I agree with everything he is saying either. A lot of the things he states as fact aren’t really backed up by facts and it seems to be just his opinion. I think to some extent, he has a point. Much of school is just following rules and listening to authority. There are plenty of times where I could tell I was just doing busy work and giving teachers material to grade me on. But I have also had experiences in school where teacher wanted to hear from their students and force them to open their minds.

I have never had the opportunity to visit a prison, but I think it would be an eye opening experience even if you go in there with an open and understanding mind. This is a beautifully written letter and it is obvious that he has spent much of his time thinking about the compassion he sees behind the cement walls of the prison. I guess with nothing else to look forward to, all that you can really do is self reflect on the choices you’ve made and how life has turned out. It is letters like this that make me feel even stronger about my position on the death penalty. Many of the men we have killed in this country have had the same sentiments as the man that wrote this letter.

I found this class to be one of the most interesting of the entire semester. It was interesting to hear so questions and the different views us women have on each of them. Laurie play gave us an interesting perspective of just how ridiculous our beauty constraints our in this and most other societies. As a woman, I knew some women hated their small boobs, while others despised their large ones, but I’m curious if any men in the class were surprised to hear these complaints. I, for some reason, never felt uncomfortable with my small size and for that I feel lucky, but sadly most women hate at least one part of their body and I am no exception to that.
It is important that us women know that we should love ourselves despite if we fit this society’s views of what is beautiful, but it’s not that simple. Sure I know that I should be happy with myself and I try to tell myself that, but it is hard not to fall under the influence of what we see in the media and all around us. I think it’s especially a problem among women because we judge each other so much and are so critical of how look, dress, and what even act. I think the first step toward changing and being more confident is to quit playing into what society is telling us.
As far as the conversation about whom women dress for in class, I definitely think it is for other women. Sure when we go out on the weekend we may dress in less clothing, but those are secluded occasions. When dressing for a regular day where you have class, are you really hoping that some guys going to notice your cute new ballet flats? Probably not, you feel good about yourself when your friends say how much they like them. In fact, I know plenty of guys who hate a lot of the new trends women are wearing, but they could honestly care less.
This is why I think the majority of our pressure comes from those around us, it no doubt stems from the media. We do have a certain hand in the way we are portrayed. For instance, if we stopped by magazines that promoted unrealistic images of women then there would be no market for it. But we do buy these magazines and even I am victim to it. It is so engrained in our culture that we don’t even realize we’re supporting it. Of course, magazines are not the only source of these images of what beauty is. They are everywhere which makes it seem even more impossible change things.

This is a really good question and one I think about a lot, especially in this class. I think that complete race equality and unity is a far reaching goal that we may never actually get to, but I think what is important is that we keep trying to reach these goals because as soon as we give up that is only taking a step back. The real goal may be always trying to move up a step in our race relations with one another. There are probably always going to be obstacles and disagreements, but whether we see an end in sight is not the important, the fact that we’re trying is.

As a woman I obviously can’t really answer this question. I just wanted to say that i feel men probably do feel some pressure to fit certain ideal body types. However, I don’t think it is nearly as much as women feel because we are bombarded with it on a daily basis. You can find men of all body types in movies and other mediums getting the girls and being the heroes. Just look at Seth Rogen films. But how often can you say you saw a heavy woman staring in a movie starring in a movie. Probably a handful at most.

I hope that everyone that sees this would be disgusted and extremely disturbed by these sorts of games. I honestly couldn’t finish watching the video because it disturbed me so much and we weren’t even able to see the truly awful things that can be done in these games. It’s amzing that these can sold in stores and aren’t just found on the black market. While many people here in the States may play these games, it is obviously underground and looked down upon by our society as a whole. I don’t necessarily consider myself a feminist, but these games have gone too far and completely belittle crimes against women. These types of games turn crimes against women seem like jokes. If this is as large and commercial in Japan as the video leads on, than I am sure this causes women in Japan to feel as though reporting assault is pointless.

This also leads me to thin about how big this actually is in Japan. While the video makes it seems extremely commercial, I would hope that the majority of the Japanese would also find these games repulsive. What I am trying to say is that I don’t think that this type of behavior is exactly exclusive to just the Japanese. Like the clip says, these games can and are being accessed in America. There are plenty of markets created in this country that are just as offensive and repulsive. Although I think Japan should try and ban the selling of the games, I wonder if it will really stop the purchase of them.

I don’t see the argument that a video game can act as an harmless outlet wither. Sure rapists may purchase and play these games, but this in no way helps them release their urges in any way. That’s like saying “Grand Theft Auto” help people who steal cars stop themselves from a life of crime. If anything, I think this would just feed their appetite even more.

Maybe my opinion is a little strong considering I don’t get the point of any type of violent video game. I’m not saying they necessarily create violent people, but I think they may make people who have something in them that much more violent. I don’t want to liken these sexual assault games to the shoot ‘em games we have here, but they definitely have their similarities. However, this one takes it too far. Being entertained by violence is not the same as being entertained by sexual violence. I think these games demean all women and make us into objects without any right and deserving of being assaulted. There is no justifiable reason that would make games like these Ok in any possible way.

I think many people have a misconstrued notion of affirmative action. When a company or school practices it, it doesn’t mean they just go up on the street and find the first black person or woman and give them the job. Believe it or not, there are plenty of qualified minorities out there and those are the people affirmative action benefits. That’s why I believe affirmative action to be better than nepotism. At least with affirmative action, you have to be qualified for the job. I really don’t think anyone unqualified gets the benefits of affirmative action and it’s definitely not creating reversed racism in the workplace. This should be obvious from the study Sam showed us in class about job discrimination.

It’s funny seeing this now because just the other day as my roommate was filling out her census form, she turned to me and asked, ‘Isn’t ‘negro’ a derogatory term?” I must admit that I would assume the same thing. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m white, I find it extremely odd that there are still people who refer to themselves as such. Of course, after Sam telling us about it in class, I obviously understand why it is on there. It’s how we don’t give the census any credit though. I mean, do we really think they would put something blatantly racist on the form, especially when it is suppose to help so many?

I have actually seen this video before, but it is just as heart breaking as before. It definitely gives many white people a look into issues they did not realize existed. As a white woman, I never had to deal with these sorts of internal struggles, especially at such a young age. I never had trouble finding a doll that looked like me, or thought the ones that did were ugly. I had the pleasure of seeing plenty of dolls like me, white and blond. I didn’t have to worry about whether my hair was straight or kinked. I didn’t even really know what the difference was until I started asking my black friends about it in high school. It was shocking to me to find out that many little girls preferred to get white dolls instead of ones that looked like them. I always just assumed that they chose the dark skinned dolls for the same reasons I chose the white ones. For some reason though, I did have quite a few dolls that were of black. I don’t know where or who they came from, but I don’t really remember feeling any particular way about them, but I definitely preferred the white dolls. I assume that this is how the girls in video thought too, until they were asked these questions. I think the video hit me even harder this time. The first time I saw it, I only paid attention to the statistics of it and that was surprising enough. But this time around, I notice how sad each child was and how some of them were extremely hesitant to answer the questions. While this is upsetting for minorities, I think it also sheds light on how from a young age all girls are force fed the ideals of beauty. The young girls in the video are already comparing themselves to these impossible standards and it only gets worse with age. While I didn’t feel self conscious about my skin color, girls will always find something that is wrong about them. The most disturbing part of the video is the skin bleaching, which I didn’t know existed until I saw this video for the first time. I have never thought to do something so damaging in order to fit in a little better or make myself more attractive. In the video we heard about young black girls straightening their hair and bleaching their skin. It would be interesting to hear what male minorities view beauty and such form an early age. I think no matter how strong your home life is, it is impossible to avoid the messages kids get from the media and especially from others at school.