Friday, May 25, 2018

Boy or Girl

The topic that I have for you today is a heavy one, it is one that is prominent in our society today, and is something that I want to make sure to approach with sensitivity and care. The topic that has been a challenge even for the youth of the world, is that of gender. What is it that makes this topic extremely controversial, it is that we as a society have twisted gender into something that is an option and then those who do not feel that they fit in with the group that they have been placed in at birth decide that they need to try and be something else. I wonder why it is that we sometimes that we don't fit in with our own genders. Try something with me for a moment, think back to when you were in elementary school, did you ever here the phrases, sissy, wuss, femmie, these are common phrases that young men could get called if maybe they enjoyed things that typically girls enjoy. they are made fun of for the hobbies that they find joy in. The thing with that is, do we understand at that age that those things are hurtful to say to someone else, or do know what is happening in that persons home life. I beg to say that we do not. We don't understand the different factors that anyone has playing into the that they act, speak, or dress. That is why it is so important for us to be kind, but that it is even more important that we teach the future generation what kindness is and how it looks. Sorry there was my little soap box tonight. I want to explain that there is more to this idea than just opinion, the research that has gone into this subject is fascinating. When researchers start looking into this they examined they would ask those who identify as gay when they realized they were "gay" and a majority of them would fall ages 4-8 is when they realized that they were gay. Another interesting thing that they found was that a lot of the men discussed having a want for acceptance from the male gender, because they had hobbies like cooking, or playing house. They wanted to feel love and acceptance from the male gender but a majority of them were not able to find that acceptance at a young age.

There is thing called gender dysphoria, and this is where our view of gender is twisted into something that it is not, When looking into the numbers of those people who successfully transition into a different gender, they are more incline to commit suicide. Why would that be, well looking at those with gender dysphoria 98% overcome it by the age of 18, but if they have successfully transitioned into the other gender then they are stuck in the same situation as before where they are stuck in the wrong gender's body. How confused would that make them. I honestly don't think they would have the easiest time figuring out who they are. Then what happens when you go to get married, how do you explain to your significant other that you are not the gender that you say you are, that would be an interesting conversation to sit in on. With all that has been said here there is never a situation that is the exact same as the last, and there will always be something that is unique to others situations, so i think that it important that we remember that even though we ma have different views, remember that there is something in this world that is bigger than us and that we need to just be our best selves. 

Friday, May 18, 2018

Social Class and Cultural Diversity

Does the Untied States have an class system? What do you think? I wish we could say that we have put the class system behind us and that we think of each others as equal sharing and remembering that we all have beauty within us, but sadly I don't think that I can say that about the world yet. It seems that we get stuck on a scale, we either have nothing, or we have a substantial amount of objects. We know that there is stress that comes with having nothing because you have lots of work to get done, and you are trying to provide. Depending on the situation there is usually stress involved with trying to make sure that everything is getting taken care of. May I propose that there is also stress involved with having everything you want at your finger tips. We as humans seem to always want more and don't seem to know when is enough. Now what do we base our social economic status on, there are a few thing that seems to be the first things that we notice about people their career may influence the way we see people, their academic achievement whether they graduated from high school then continued on to college, and what degree they received in college, appearance how people look the way the do their hair and the way they dress, behaviors how people act around others, locations where we meet people and the situations we meet them in will influence the way we picture them. I do feel the need to say that we need to remember that we never fully know the full story.
In some situations there is a parent missing, both on the higher class end, and the lower end class. the different situations have different affects, i would like to discuss the situation that there would be no father in the home. When there is no father in the home, the sons of that family no longer have an example of what a father is, they have an example of what not to be. When the father is missing the mother takes the responsibilities of providing, and protecting. She is also still trying to continue teaching and fulfilling the different roles of mother.
In the situation of the wealthy there are challenges involved as well, An issue that they may run into is the problem of not being able to spend the same amount of time with their family that middle class people usually get to spend together. With the time problem there could be different things that the family unit misses out on, when time is not managed the then families may miss out on things such as learning from their parents, being together, teaching moments and more. Something that i have been taught in the past is even though it would be nice to have everything bought for you and given as a gift we grow closer because we struggle which forces us to work together and there is no shame in struggling. We want to work at building a strong family unit and struggling together is one of the best ways to grow closer together. You learn by example, and being able to find emotion behind experiences is going to help you realize that the way others see experiences is different. You may see it one way and they see a completely different side of the story and when discussed can lead to many insights that you may not have ever found. I would like to leave with some food for thought, I have been told, that on of the worst thing you could do for your children is spoil them.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Family theories

Before I dive into the theories of a family, what is a theory? A Theory in social science is defined as an attempt to explain a phenomenon. When we come up with theories we tend to drive for the treatment, and the solution.
    There are a few theories that are entwined with the family here are some that may interest you:
1. Exchange theory: I do something nice for you, and now its your turn to do something nice for me.
2. Symbolic interaction theory: When a persons interactions and experiences are influenced by interactions and experiences. Suggests that everything we do has symbolic meaning
3. Conflict theory: All societies are characterized by inequality, conflict, and changes as groups within the society struggle over scarce resources.
4. Family Systems theory: Looks at the family as a whole, showing that a whole is greater that the sum of its parts
Of all of these theories I find the symbolic interaction theory the most interesting to me. Because our behavior will always symbolize something, but it is a little more complicated because we never know what the other person is thinking. For example if you have a father who is upset and angry at his son for walking on the carpet with muddy shoes, and the son talks back to him and then the father walks out of the room. The son may look at the fathers actions and think my dad doesn't love me my dad hates me, I am a terrible son. Whereas the father walking our may be thinking " I need to calm myself down before I do something that I will regret," or he may be thinking " I need to rethink how I am going to teach my son." Looking at both sides we can see how both parties see their side. Both the son and the father created a theory about the other party, they created the thought process of the other person without knowing what the other person was thinking. We as humans create theories all the time as another example is when a person of the opposite gender texts you " hey what are you doing?" what is the first thing you think, They want to do something, or they are bored and want to talk, or they simply are curious about what you are doing. We come up with theories all the time, but it is important to remember that we can know what others are thinking and that we need think things through before we react in an extreme way.
       Families are driven by rules, and we are always communicating with each other but it is the effectiveness of that communication that creates either peace or tension. Communication is a great way to solve conflict but the main problem of communication is not that we are not communicating it is how effective we are in communicating. When we are looking into the rules of the family we need to communicate with each other what the expectations and boundaries are clearly. Salvador Minuchin is a family therapist he has three types of boundaries that most families follow, the first is a clear boundary and this is where a family is open with each other but their are boundaries between parents and children and children to children. Next there is a open or diffuse boundary this is the boundary where there are not very many rules, and things are very open in the relationships of the family members. The last boundary is the rigid or closed boundary this would be the family that has many rules and tends to keep things to themselves.
      All the different rules and theories that we have discussed make up what is the family.

Friday, May 4, 2018

Family in the World

What does family mean to you? Family tends to be the center for most of our lives, and holds many benefits to us and our well being. Love that we feel in a family is one of the most nurturing things that we can experience.  Why discuss family today? The family has been a hot topic for a little while now, the ideals of a family are changing, and with that have come unexpected outcomes. What are the trends making the family controversial? The world is changing in the aspect of family, some of these changes may be due the social trends of humans outlook on children, the idea of overpopulation, and the attitude of a traditional family.
 Children are the next generation, they bring light and life to the world. Why then is it that we as a society are hesitant to have them? In a demographic winter video put out by BYUtv they interviewed a group of people from around the world and their views on children. When asked what is a good number of kids to have interveiwees answered one or two, only some thought more than two kids would be ideal. If we looked back 70 years would two children be the most typical response, i wonder how different it would be. In the same interview they asked the question why? Why one or two children is the best number, responses were less unanimous, some said that they are too expensive after two, some said that you don't have enough love to go around, and the other response was you no longer have free time with yourself and your spouse. While these are all things that should be concerns when looking into a family, we must remember that the children we bring into this world are the next generation and that if they don't come know one can grow up and run the world.
The book The Population Bomb, written in 1968 by Paul Ehrlich, has changed the mindset of people around the world. In this book he presents that the world is overpopulated and that we will have massive starvation, because the world can sustain 2 billion people.In 1968 the world population was 3.5 Billion the population today as of May 2018 is 7.6 Billion people. I believe that the starvation that we saw in 1968 and the starvation we are seeing now is not from the earth providing less than we need, but mainly from the political choices of leaders around the world. The idea of overpopulation is becoming false, as times continues we are just barely replacing the last generation. The average fertility rate in the united states today is 2.1 the regular rate that we want as a society to be at a healthy replacement rate is 2.13. So we are close in the united states to the rate we need to be at but then again we are just enough under that we should be concerned. Why has the fertility rate dropped in the first place? There were five main points in our history that have brought us to where we are today.
1. The industrial revolution: This revolution changed the outlook on children after the child labor laws, after the child labor laws were created children lost their economic value. They became someone that you have to take care off and is not contributing anything back to you or the family.
2. The first demographic Revolution : This revolution was a slight one in coming, people slowly started to choose materialistic things over the things that are important to the family.
3. The women's revolution: The women's revolution had many great and beautiful blessings and achievements that came from it, but in the sense that we are discussing the women's revolution had a slight negative effect on the family, because women can focus on their career less women are wanting to stay home with children, they want to be in the career that they built up to.
4. The sexual revolution: Birth control made it possible for women to control their fertility, so now if they wanted to work then they could work and not worry about an unexpected pregnancy.
5. The divorce revolution: then Governor John F. Kennedy passed the no fault divorce laws in California. Before this point you could not divorce unless there was abuse, adultery, alcoholism, or Abandonment in your marriage, so when this law was passed in the state of California the divorce rates sky rocketed.
All these events lead to us as a society further away from a traditional family. hopefully as time goes on we can look to the future with hope that our societies and populations will have healthy and happy people in them.
XOXO, Jenna