en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2425639 Comments by mijimiji http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143234642 I do not think non-straight people do not need others' affirmation to be who they truly are but to live their life like other straight people, I think our society has to be easier to live in for them. In class, we have been told that it is important to put yourself in other's shoes to think in a sociological way of thinking. It seems not very hard to practice but in fact, the issues like this man's case happen because many people cannot think things from another perspective. Maybe there are many things out there to explain the western notion that male and female are the only legitimate genders but if we can think in a different way, if we have a broader way of thinking, I believe we can make a change. It would be a long journey until everyone will be treated equally since it is so hard to change the notion because we think it is right. However, this issue has to be resolved because everyone should not be discriminated based on their sexuality. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:19:36 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143234642 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143234502 Many things were running through my head when I was reading it. First of all, gender is more complicated than many people including me think. As mentioned in a class textbook, in western culture, there are only two genders, male and female. If you are gay or lesbian or transgender, you are usually recognized as unusual or abnormal. I am straight and I have never worried about my gender when I think about who I am. Moreover, no one has ever told me something about my sexuality. I also think I will never be discriminated when I want to get a job or after I get a job from my sexuality unlike this man. From that point of view, maybe I am lucky. I am from Japan where many people are still biased against people who are not straight. Many gay, lesbian, and transgendered celebrities are on Japanese TV like every minute since I can remember but they are treated as abnormal people and sometimes they are looked as some kind of 'show.' Many people still enjoy the show on TV but it does not mean they affirm sexuality of those people. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:18:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143234502 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143233728 I do not think non-straight people do not need others' affirmation to be who they truly are but to live their life like other straight people, I think our society has to be easier to live in for them. In class, we have been told that it is important to put yourself in other's shoes to think in a sociological way of thinking. It seems not very hard to practice but in fact, the issues like this man's case happen because many people cannot think things from another perspective. Maybe there are many things out there to explain the western notion that male and female are the only legitimate genders but if we can think in a different way, if we have a broader way of thinking, I believe we can make a change. It would be a long journey until everyone will be treated equally since it is so hard to change the notion because we think it is right. However, this issue has to be resolved because everyone should not be discriminated because of their sexuality. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:15:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143233728 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143231901 In class, we have been told that it is important to put yourself in other's shoes to think in a sociological way of thinking. It seems not very hard to practice but in fact, the issues like this man's case happen because many people cannot think things from another perspective. Maybe there are many things out there to explain the western notion that male and female are the only legitimate genders but if we can think in a different way, if we have a broader way of thinking, I believe we can make a change. It would be a long journey until everyone will be treated equally since it is so hard to change the notion because we think it is right. However, this issue has to be resolved because every human being should be equal. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:06:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143231901 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment141121750 This article was very interesting to me as a woman. The author begins by painting a very idealistic picture of a man, a picture that many women, especially the younger ones, might not be convinced even exist. It is so idealistic that it is also unrealistic. All men have their weaknesses. But at this point in my life, I definitely keep hope that a man like this actually does exist. It is every woman's dream to find a man like this. C is right about that. It is incredibly unfortunate that he did not figure this out from the beginning. He suggests toward the end of this article that he had to go to prison in order to figure this out. He suggests that he was once a man that did not believe women were as good as to look for a man with these ideal qualities. He thinks we only want money and sex. Money and sex are great, but at the end of the day, we want someone to cuddle up with and who will listen to our problems and provide comfort for us. No woman likes going to sleep alone. I have to agree that woman often are portrayed in negative sense in movies and television. Some TV women will do whatever it takes to get what they want, even if it means abandoning their dreams of finding this ideal man. It is unfortunate if men like C stereotype all women like that. While these evil women may exist in the media, I can say for sure that a real woman would never sacrifice love and happiness for money and sex. Tangible happiness is good, but I happen to value companionship over anything that money could ever provide me. C provides me with some assurance that even the worst of men can change mature and change their ways. I have run into some truly selfish and heartbreaking men in my life. It is hard to give guys like that a second chance. We always want to believe they can change, but changing someone's ways can be a seemingly impossible task. Sometimes it feels hopeless. If the author was truly so bad that he went to prison from his experiences with women, but he managed to completely change his frame of mind, then maybe all men deserve a chance to change. Hopefully C will get the chance to prove this to someone. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 00:08:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment141121750 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139201054 In this video, he says that it does not matter what sexual orientation you have to make a healthy and happy family. He says that whether you have love matters. I totally agree with him. Even your parents are a heterosexual couple, if they do not have love, your family will not work. I think there so many things out there that we really need to care rather than caring others’ sexuality and even deny them because of their sexual orientation. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:25:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139201054 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139200965 Not only in West but also in Japan, we are told that heterosexual is the only ‘normal’ sexuality ever since we can remember. It is so hard to eliminate the notion because it is already shaping how we act, how we think and even which sex we should be attracted to for such a long time. There are people who never want to accept homosexuality and be able to respect other’s privacy. However, I do personally think it is none of their business. When do homosexuals give troubles to heterosexuals just by being homosexual? Those heterosexual people tend to barge into others’ privacy- sexuality and moreover, make a difficult situation for homosexuals. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:24:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139200965 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139200880 First of all, his speech was absolutely amazing and inspiring. To be honest, I could not understand what he speaks in detail but I could catch the main theme of his speech. I was so moved by how he speaks and what he is trying to tell us so I would like to write a response to this video. The issue about marriage equality is the one I have been interested in since I met my best friends right after I entered my university in Japan. I have learned so many things from them especially about gay communities. I had never even thought that there are any communities like that. It is still kind of a taboo to talk about sexuality in Japan so I think I am lucky to have such friends who taught me something really important which changed my point of view. The reading “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough” mentions that the Western notion of two sex is false and suggests that we should have a wider view toward sex. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:24:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment139200880 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529468 However, although the recent earthquake in Japan made us stand up for our country and the victims but the conscious feeling that you are a part of the national crisis also has leaded to the problem like the selfish people buy up food and water even though they are from low-risk areas. I guess what makes them do so is that in the end, their first priority is to help themselves. If things become the worst like everyone cannot care about other people and becomes so selfish, it is time for the government to place its nation under its control by its rules but if the government is not reliable like Japanese government today, it is understandable that people act crazy. They need someone to lead them into a right direction. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:18:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529468 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529423 However, this time, I have been feeling so much different. I have had a sense of impending crisis so I have donated twice and I plan to do it more. Donation is what I can do right now but I want to get involved in what my country has been going through and people are trying to get things better. I know so many people feel the same way as me. This is natural disaster so I am not sure if I can relate this to what I have learned in class. However, like the issue about appropriation cut in Pennsylvania, the feeling that you are involved in the problem or issue is important to make a change. Moreover, it is also important to make people think that they are a part of it to manage crowds. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:18:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529423 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529342 I found this article very interesting since the massive earthquake hit Japan and I can relate it to what I have heard, seen, read and thought since that day. As a Japanese, I have been paying attention and checking news more than usual. Maybe it is because the earthquake is the largest one ever recorded in Japan. This is not the only reason why I care about this event so much. However, I think this “the largest” is a key to think about this issue. I had never donated before this disaster happened. I got upset when the big earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture in Japan in 2007 but I did not go into action at all. I felt so sorry for the people who were affected by the earthquake but at the same time, I felt like I was not involved in it. It was because Niigata is far from where I live and the earthquake was not big enough to affect Japan as a whole and its economic either. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:18:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/23/managing-crowds/#IDComment137529342 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950786 I was bound by preconceptions that if he or she is from another country or culture, we are not the same. I think I was always trying to categorize everything unconsciously. Races, cultures, countries and religions are maybe in/visible strings that shape us our acts and opinions and influence how we think about ‘other’ people. However, through interaction with my friends from overseas and knowing them in depth, I realized that we are all the same as human beings. I found my answer that I am a citizen of the world like this man. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:19:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950786 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950738 I personally like this letter very much and the line “I am citizens of the world.” I was born and raised in Japan. I did not have any chances to make friends with people who are not Japanese until I entered my university in Japan. My university stands for foreign studies and welcomes about 400 international students per year. In my freshman year, I made lots of friends from overseas and often hung out with them every weekend. Meeting new people from different countries was one of the most exciting things for me. However, in my sophomore year, I started realizing that we are all the same basically. At first, I treated my international friends as if they were celebrities from T.V. or Hollywood movies but I was wrong. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:18:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950738 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950673 “Who am I?” This question is so simple and at the same time, it was so hard for me to answer. This blog’s title attracted the interest of me so much. Moreover, I was also curious about what other people think about themselves and how they found their identity / who they are. Getting Life is my favorite category on this website. I have read three prisoners’ letters so far and written my responses to those. Their letters are always so inspirational and give me an opportunity to think about my life from different types of view. However, this time, this letter written by this man has different atmosphere. He does not refer his life in prison and remorse for what he did at all. He has a positive attitude and simple yet strong opinions. To be honest, I did not except energetic letters like this from prisoners. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:18:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment135950673 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment133236253 I was remembering what my Japanese friend who really loves Finland used to tell me before while I was watching this video. She told me that suicide rates in Finland are really high because of its weather condition in winter season. She also mentioned that people in Finland tend to get more depressed when they do not have sunlight hours very much in comparison with other countries. I was wondering if its weather condition and suicide rates are really related to each other but I did not think about the relation seriously at that time. After I finished watching this video, I tried to think whether winter season has affected how I act and how I feel and think about the things around me, and moreover my life. I am originally from Osaka, Japan where it does not get relatively too cold in winter so I do not think I have gotten depressed from its weather condition of winter in there. However, the last semester that was my first semester at Penn State was so depressing. I do not even want to remember but it was one of the hardest periods in my entire life. As an exchange student, I was so nervous about everything all the time and it took really long to get used to everything including this really cold weather. I often skipped class because I did not want to go outside. Needless to say, my grade was getting bad while I did not feel like studying all the time. The situation got worse when the sun started setting at around 5. The pressure that I had to fulfill the requirement of grades from my home university also made me depressed so much. I found someone who really cares about me and helped me get through the situation so now I am here studying and did not need to go back to my country. Now I feel that how much this cold winter in State College affected my behavior and the way of thinking. I thought it is really nice that the Finnish government has found negativity which cause from the cold weather and worked in order to help people from affection of it. Tue, 8 Mar 2011 00:37:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment133236253 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588600 If I was a parent, I will probably freak out when this kind of news is on TV every day. However, as a parent, I should think about the things calmly and critically and raise my child in the best of both sociological and my parents’ ways of teaching and protecting children. Recently, I have been really interested in family studies so this blog and the lecture gave me interesting information and will help me a lot in the future. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:38:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588600 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588560 Children today should also have opportunities to experience lots of things as much as their parents and grandparents. However, it is also really understandable for me that parents become too susceptible to children’s safety and want to secure a safer space and environment for children. Although my parents were not nervous too much about events like this child abduction in particular, they always told me that if I do not take a responsibility for my behavior, it leads me to the situation like this. I personally think that it is also necessity for parents to let children know there are some strange people out there even though they do not do harm to them directly. By knowing that this world is not always 100 % safe, children can naturally learn how to protect themselves I guess. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:38:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588560 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588494 This video tells the reason why we are afraid of things that are so uncommon. The power of mass media today is enormous. Not only TV news like this, but also magazines, newspapers and internet have too much influence and information to brainstorm our way of thinking. Almost all of us have access to one of the media every day and get information from it. Therefore, it is really easy for us to believe those sources immediately if we do not have media literacy and an enough ability to think critically about the things in our daily life. Now, I have learned how to think critically in a sociological way in class. “Don’t teach children not to talk to strangers. Teach children how to talk to strangers.” It was kind of surprising and shocking for me to learn this sociological way of thinking but at the same time, this really made sense to me. I also think that if we sacrifice our freedom to the things that rarely happen to us, we have to be a victim of fears and unfreedom all the time. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:37:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130588494 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment129003605 This “not-so-invisible” fact can explain the reason why the American do not go abroad very much. At this point, sociological way of thinking helped me look at and think about things in a different way. I wrote that understanding invisible strings is hard and vague but I interpreted that everything happens for a reason by knowing how “not-so-invisible” strings shape us. Moreover, ‘a lot of fears’ is mentioned as one of the reasons in this article. I just learned about fear in today’s class so I also found it interesting too. As learned in class, if we can stop feeling fear to the things that we do not need to, we can get more freedom and enjoy it more. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:52:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment129003605 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment129003557 I was kind of a person who always said “I don’t care what it means. I don’t even wanna know!” when my friends and I were talking about some stuff before I took this course. I think I rejected ‘thinking’. Maybe I was bored of my way of thinking and looking at things so knowing that we can also connect this article to sociology also surprised me in a good way. I found this article so interesting because I had been thinking that American people are indifferent toward other cultures. However, actually they are not. This country is composed of many cultures and many races. In other words, those facts and people’s various backgrounds comprise America. In their daily life, they come in contact with other cultures. Therefore, as written in this article, for them, they do not need to go to other countries to experience their cultures. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:52:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment129003557