Integrity

Integrity to me is a standard that sets the boundaries by which I think and behave. Integrity is doing what is honorable when no one knows but me and God. In order to live a life based on honesty and integrity, you must know who you are and what you stand for, and you must also police yourself on a daily basis, ensuring that you aren't doing anything that conflict's with your own values or moral code. For example, if you told someone that you value honesty in a person. But then become upset when they told you their honest opinion of you, that wouldn’t show good integrity on your part. Or when you tell someone that you believe in treating everyone with respect, and then get angry with a sale clerk because they miss priced something in the store.

So what is the big deal if you tell yourself one thing and then go and do another? Besides the fact that you are only lying to yourself...but still...what’s the deal? Well, when you lie to yourself it is a big deal! When you justify lying to yourself by thinking that you are the only person who will know about the lie, you automatically imply that your judgment is unimportant and that only the judgment of others is what counts. Which in time you will trust yourself less and less, and eventually not at all. Who wants that? Not me!

So when you get confused and don’t know what to think…think about the people who you trust and respect. Most likely they are people who do what they say, and say what they mean. They are people of integrity.

Health Care

Women are taking a much more active role in their health care. Several organizations such as the Society for Women's Health Research, Caucus for Women's Issues, the National Women's Health Resource Center, and the American Medical Women's Association have emerged as advocates to publicize and influence health policies. More women are entering the health care field as physicians, especially as gynecologists and hospital administrators, assuming more responsibility in decision making processes. The concept of a health care team tied to a holistic health perspective has helped in this regard.

The women's health movement has emerged as a challenge to mainstream modern medicine. Blatantly sexist attitudes regarding the sexual inferiority of women still run rampant in this system. The movement is helping to empower women with the belief that alternatives to traditional health care are not only possible, but beneficial. Women are encouraged to take an active role in all phases of health and health care.

A basic assumption of the movement is that women have not had control over their bodies or their health. It wasn't until 1994 that research was required to be done with women and minorities as test subjects. Most of the knowledge that is in use today was done on white males. Dosages for heart medications were achieved by conducting trials on only males. There are important physiological differences between men and women; women have not had a sufficient amount of medical representation. The specific diagnosis and treatment of diseases in women is based on a male-dominated system where actions can be harmful to the health and well-being of women.

Violence towards Women..

I think men show violence towards women because they don’t want women to be considered equal to them. They want to have the upper hand. They want to always be in control and when they aren’t they seek other ways to control their anger, sometimes by violence. By definition, domestic violence is a pattern of abusive and threatening behaviors that may include physical, emotional, economic and sexual violence as well as intimidation, isolation and coercion. The purpose of domestic violence is to establish and exert power and control over another; men most often use it against their intimate partners, which can include current or former spouses, girlfriends, or dating partners.

The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women describes violence against women as “a manifestation of historically unequal power relationships between men and women.” At the same time, violence is used to perpetuate and enforce women’s subordinate role. In the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations and its member countries denounce domestic violence as one of the “crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate [positions] compared with men.”

Some men just don’t understand that women can have good jobs, be the primary care provider for the family, and still have a stable relationship with their spouse without violence occurring. Just because a woman may have a better paying job doesn’t mean that a man should get offended and take their anger, frustration and depression out on them. Learn to accept equality. Everyone should be treated the same regardless of gender or race.

Marriage for the wrong reason?

Marriage proponents claim that marriage provides a route from poverty and welfare dependence for single mothers, while having the salutary effect of reducing welfare caseloads. To be sure, married women have substantially lower poverty rates than single women who head families (5.3% vs. 26.5% in 2002; U.S. Census Bureau 2004). But critics worry about government intrusion in personal family matters and raise concerns about creating perverse incentives that encourage low-income women to marry unwisely or to stay in abusive or unhappy marriages.- allbusiness.com

With that stated I do not think that encouraging marriage will help pool women’s economic status. I think is a silly reason to marry someone. You should get married for the right reasons, not just for the money aspect of it. Right reasons being you are in love, you want to share a life together, you have found your soul mate, and you have realistic expectations for the two of you. If you need help, there are plenty of grants that you can apply for that will help.

Sharing Chores?

I have been raised that both parents play a role in everything. My mom and dad both cook, clean, take care of the animals and kids. They compromise on pretty much everything. But I realize that’s not how it normally is. Many people think that the women’s role in the family to take care of the house and children. Meaning they are responsible for all the inside cleaning, cooking, laundry etc. The men are supposed to be outside taking care of the yard and doing project that their wives asked them to do. But how are women suppose to work full-time and then be expected to fix a well balanced meal for the family, followed my doing the dishes and cleaning up after everyone?

I found a USA Today article online talking about how spouses don’t share chores equally: “While the roles of females outside the household have changed dramatically as more women get jobs, responsibilities in the home have shifted only slightly, maintains Vicki Fitzsimmons, a professor of family economics. Female respondents said they did 18 household tasks -- those largely perceived as "women's work" -- either more than their husbands or by themselves. Among the chores were planning meals, shopping, preparing food, making appointments, doing the laundry, balancing the checkbook. cleaning, and caring for children. This is despite the fact that at least halt the men and women surveyed agreed that some of these should be shared equally, including shopping for food, daily care of the children, laundry, cleaning, and making appointments for the family. The wives said that other tasks should be shared as well, such as preparing food, taking children to appointments, shopping for clothes, and vacuuming, but their husbands did not agree.”

I think I’m pretty lucky because my parents have shown me both sides. I have done my far share of washing the dishes and helping mom cook dinner but I have also mowed the lawn, learned how to change my own oil in the car, and change tires. I know when I get older and am off leaving by myself I won’t have to rely on a man to do something for me.

Hegemony

By definition hegemony is the process by which dominant culture maintains its dominant position: for example, the use of institutions to formalize power; the employment of a bureaucracy to make power seem abstract (and, therefore, not attached to any one individual); the inculcation of the populace in the ideals of the hegemonic group through education, advertising, publication, etc.

Now, dealing with women’s rights, I think that everything is based on equality. Without equality nothing will be considered “fair”. If you were looking into a job and it was going to be decided between you or a male, you would hope that they wouldn’t even look at the sex, just the resume and qualifications. But that doesn’t always happen, people still think that there are jobs that only men qualify for. What I am trying to get across is that women must stick up for themselves. Men shouldn’t think they have the “power” over anyone. Women can do the same jobs that a man can do, and sometimes even better. Women should be able to hold the same power that men have. In same counties women don’t have a say in anything, and although there are still people that look down upon women, the US has come a long way for women’s rights. We have so many privileges here that many women don’t have overseas.

Homosexuality

Long confusing story ahead….One of my guy friends, best friend is gay. Make sense? My friend (guy) + his gay friend = best friends. Anyways, they met a few years ago when they were doing an internship in Florida, and even though they both are from different states they stayed pretty close. At the beginning my friend, just thought this guy was really funny and cool. They would talk about sports and girls…the normal guy stuff. One day, his friend told him that he was gay and that he had a crush on him. My friend at the time didn’t know how to handle that. He never in a thousand years would have thought he was gay. He would even bring girls over to hang out at their place, so he just automatically thought he was straight. After their internship, they both went their separate ways but kept in touch for the most part.

Well, my friend decided to go back to school and now his gay friend wants to get an apartment together. My friend’s family knows that his best friend is gay and don’t really see a problem with it except for the fact they are very very religious and that is a sin. He is scared to tell the rest of his family because he thinks they will think he is gay if he lives with a gay guy. His uncles especially will not approve of this. So as of right now, he is in his predicament as to what to do. Go for it and not care what people think? Or let fear get in the way and pass this opportunity?

I personally think he should go for it. It’s the 20th century; there are plenty of homosexuals in the world. It’s not unheard of. Plus, it’s his best friend. They would have a blast together and combined they are probably the two funniest guys I’ve ever met.

Disability...what?

By definition, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) considers disability as a person who: (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; OR (2) has a record of such impairment; OR (3) is regarded as having such impairment.

“Weak”, “Feeble”, “Frail”..All of these mean nothing to me. I am not weak, feeble, or frail. Some guys look at girls as these because they are comparing them to themselves, which is impossible to do. Obviously guys are normally bigger, stronger, and less emotional than girls but that does not give them the right to say we are “weak”. Are they meaning physically? Because physically they are normally stronger. Males are generally capable of inflicting gross injury more easily than the average female. A typical average male has a longer reach, more upper body strength, and more muscular arms than an average female. Although, that does not mean that a female of smaller stature can't inflict pain, or that a female won't inflict pain if she wants to.

Men should not look down upon women, especially since they all came from women. Without us, they wouldn’t even be here. They should appreciate what they have in this world, and not worry so much about the “norm”.

White or Black?

I personally don’t care what color a person is as long as they are true to themselves. Being white should mean that you are better than others. It’s just a color of skin, nothing more. It doesn’t mean if you have white skin your smarter or better looking than the other races.

I grew up with a girl that had a white mother and black father. We went to a predominantly white school so growing up that’s all she knew. She dressed “white”, hung out with other white people and it never phased any of us. Now that she is in college she is having a harder time with fitting in. I can remember her calling me about a year ago, crying, because some black girls verbally attacked her because she wasn’t stay “true” to her color. She was so upset after that. Now she is still the same girl I met 7 years ago. She realized that those girls had no right to say that to her and she should care what they think. She was brought up in a great household, with family and friends that love her no matter what her skin color was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0

Theorizing Privilege

Well then I was younger my parents assigned chores that my brother and I both had to go. Some were the normal..clean your room, make your bed, make sure the bathrooms cleans, empty the dishwasher, but then there were also outside chores. The outside chores were to cut the grass, weed-eat, pick up the pine cones, weed the flower beds, and clean out the pool. Although I was never happy to do any of those, I'm glad my parents made us. We have become more responsible people because of it. Anyways, one day while my brother was mowing and I was weed-eating a guy that lived down the street who my family wasn't very close to came up to my dad and told him how wrong it was to make a girl work in the yard, he continued to say that women should be working inside and that's were they belong. Let me tell you, my dad is not one to told in his temper. He told the man that it was hes choose how he raised his children and that the man had no say in what I was doing. He told the guy it wouldn't have matter if he had two girls, two guys, or a boy and a girl like he had, we would still be out here doing yard work and learning how to take care of ourselves so someday if we had to do it, we could.

My dad has also taught me how to change my oil in the car, change tires, I helped him build our deck..he has made me a much stronger person because due to all of it. I know now that if I were ever on my own I could handle it. He has taught me so much in my 22 years...

Relationships

Family plays a huge role in relationships. I was in a 6 year relationship from the age of 14 to 21. Yes, I know that is young but that relationship showed me a lot about myself and how to handle certain things within a relationship. I learned that being dating someone who was the only child was difficult. His parents were really nice and sweet to me but I could tell they didn't like me being his center of attention. He was a year older than me so he was able to drive first..He would take me to a from school everyday and his parents use to think that was ridiculous. They didn't understand why I couldn't just ride the bus or have one of my parents drop me off at school. He was brought up in a Christian home which I completely support but his parents were very strict about certain things. He wasn't allowed to stay out past dark. He was only allowed to hangout with me after school a few days a week. I don't know if that was because he was the only child or because those were just his parents rules that they decided on before ever having a child.

On the other hand, I grew up with an older brother. My parents both treated us the same for the most part. I seemed to hangout with my mom more than my brother did and he hung out with dad. They had rules that we both had to follow but since there were two of us they seemed to be as strict on us as my ex's were. But I think that's because my brother and I looked out for each other, yet being a single child you have no one to do that for but your friends and family. I have now decided that one thing I like in a guy is a good family. A family that loves each other and anyone that comes into it. I want him to have a brother or sister, so he knows how it feels to have others around all the time.

Inscribing Gender on the Body

In today society all women can think about is their body image. They want to tall and slim. Slim meaning size 0 or 2 and weighting 100 pounds. The media has played a huge part in this. With all the shows on t.v. now and magazines you would think our whole society was trying to be something they aren't. The sad thing is that its not just women that want to look like this..it is young girls starting around the age of 8! Which leads to serious health issues. The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control; including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. This is not suppose to be happening!!

I found this very interesting: Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.

Another issue is the representation of ethnically diverse women in the media. A 2008 study conducted by Juanita Covert and Travis Dixon titled "A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women's Magazines” found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of color, overall white women were overrepresented in mainstream women’s magazines from 1999 to 2004.

Women and men should both be happy with their bodies. The media has killed so many dreams for people due to body image issues. People just need to stay strong and be true to ones self.