POetry Cafe
In this project we learned about poetry and how to create well written poems. We started off by learning about different writing tools used in poetry such as meter and figurative langue. Then we had to memorize a poem and preform it in front of the class. After this we went into poem writing and at the final exhibition we preformed these poems in front of a crowd.
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Growth as a poet
By: Acacia Bryson The message of my poem is that there are a lot of social standards thrown at girls from a young age and we have to learn how to be proud of ourselves despite what society tells us. This message grew in a couple ways through my poem. The first way was the symbolism I used to get my message across. In my first draft I stated, “I learn what a woman should be. I was told.” I then went on and stated things that I had been told as a girl that I should be and how I should act. I changed the way I told this message by using the metaphor of the ten commandments. I wrote,”What a woman should be Magazines were my bible and social media my church ten commandments laid out like a map of how I should be.” This made my message stronger I feel because it creates a powerful feel to the poem. The ten commandments are commands that we are supposed to live by and that makes these things that I was told feel like commands of how I should live. Since these things I was told aren’t the most pleasant it makes an emotional impact. Another place that I think grew the way my message comes across is in the fifth commandment. In the first draft I said,” Have an opinion but never voice it because what would you know. You're just a stupid woman.” This I think was an okay way to get my message across but in the second draft I changed it to, “Have an opinion but never ever open your pretty pink lips to express it because the men are talking sweetie.” I changed this because I think it is a more compelling way to get my point across. It’s a concept of showing instead of telling. In the first draft I am telling exactly why I should shouldn’t express my opinions but in the second I am stating something that I have been told before by people. When you show instead of tell it creates a better and more vivid picture in the audience's mind. Both of these stanzas that I changed helped to make my message more powerful. I think that I used showing instead of telling and metaphors to really make the poem much more meaningful and it hits you in the heart. One of the most important changes I made in my poem I think is the ending. In my first draft I ended by saying,”I am a woman and I love myself. I am a woman and I am a human.” I liked this ending but I realized that it really didn’t get the message I wanted across. I want my message to be proud of being a woman and saying that I was human as well I think didn’t make it as powerful. It made it kind of seem like I was saying two things instead of the one message. That's why I changed it to,”I am a woman and I love myself. Go ahead and call me a conceited bitch I really don’t care because I am a woman.” This is much more of a statement because it ends with being proud of being a woman. It gives this emotional tone of being proud. I am accepting that people will say things about me but I am still proud of myself. It gives a touch of hope to the end of the poem as well. It makes it feel that even though I have had all these message mess with my head I have pulled through and learned what it really is to be a woman. This change really helped my poem have to message I intended for it to have. The other change that I made to my poem that impacted it the most was incorporating in the ten commandments of being a woman. I feel like this is something that makes my poem moving to the audience. One of the ten commandments of being a woman that I changed for the better was commandment four. In my first draft I had said, “Wear makeup but never let your makeup look real because we all love a natural girl and don’t want to believe that she is just a concoction of photoshop and tears.” The message I wanted to get across here was that we tell girls that they need to wear makeup but when makeup looks cakey or fake we make girls feel bad for it. After reading this through a few times I decided that I needed to change how I worded it because it seemed to harsh and not poetic enough. Through the first peer critique I changed this stanza to,”Paint your face with foundation and lip gloss but never let the fake paint look fake because everyone loves the perfect girl and we don’t want to believe that she is nothing but cosmetics and photoshop.” This change impacted my message much more than the first draft I think because it gives examples of makeup we are told to wear instead of just simply stating to wear makeup. Also using the metaphor of fake paint is so much stronger than saying makeup. This is because we never think of makeup as paint that we put on our face but that really is all it is. By putting this message of fake paint it hits the audience in a way that just saying makeup wouldn’t. I believe that using metaphors not only in this part of my poem but in all parts makes everything seem a little bit more powerful. |
I Am
When I was eleven years old I was told stupid would get boys. I was told that pretty girls were thin And ugly girls thighs touched. When I was eleven years old I was told that I would never Reach my dreams And I should stop reaching For the constellations Because clouds were my limit. When I was thirteen years old I looked into a mirror and saw It stare back with daggers piercing every part of my body that I thought was whole. When I was thirteen I learned What a woman should be Magazines were my bible And social media my church Ten commandments Laid out like a map Of how I should be One Be thin because thin is in but Never skinny or They’ll say you have An eating disorder Two Have curves in all the right places And fat is okay But only where it’s sexy Three Be smart but never smarter than him Four paint your face with foundation and lip gloss but Never let the fake paint look fake Because everyone loves the perfect girl And we don’t want to believe that she Is noting but cosmetics and photoshop Five Have an opinion but never ever open your pretty pink lips to express it Because the men are talking sweetie Six Be yourself they say but only if that self is tall, skinny, and hates herself. Seven we all love a confident girl Who doesn’t care like a leather jacket biker But if you say love yourself we’ll Call you a conceited bitch Eight Put out because you don’t want to be a prude Oh But don’t put out too much or we’ll call you a slut Nine Let men in power decided what you can and can’t do with your body Because it’s theirs Right? Ten Show skin but don’t show too much Or they’ll say you were asking for it. But I’m not asking for it I didn’t ask for any of this I was a girl with bright eyes Wide with curiosity who wanted to save the world I didn’t ask for my body to define me I didn’t ask for the stares of men on the street Inspecting me like a piece of meat And I sure as hell did not ask for my self worth to be measured by a number on a scale. I want to be a girl with bright eyes. I want to save the world And reach for the constellations Because I know that I can reach them And don’t you ever tell me what I can and can’t be because I am I women and I am smart I am a women and I have an opinion that I will voice And not apologize for I am a woman and I will show off my skin because I think it’s beautiful But it is not an invitation for you And I am a women and My thighs touch but That doesn’t make me worthless Because they keep my hands warm in the winter And I am more than My body I am a woman And I love myself. Go ahead and call me a conceited bitch I really don’t care Because I am a woman |
Happiness and meaning Project
In the Happiness and Meaning project we set out to find what happiness is and how we can achieve true, lasting happiness. To begin this project we read the book Brave New World which is a dystopian book that shows what "happy" society looks like. After reading this book we had a Socratic Seminar do discuss how the book tied to happiness and what we can learning from the themes in the book. Then we began to learn about positive psychology and what meaning has to do with happiness. The final product of the project was an essay about happiness and meaning and also an art project to represent what we learned about happiness.
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Acacia Bryson
Happiness Project
Section 2
The Happiness in Kindness
If you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have told you I wanted to be happy. From a young age I have been fascinated with the idea of happiness and finding it in my life. Most of the time when I thought of happiness I thought of having lots of nice things and making lots of money. Those were things that I associated with a happy life. In most cases people associate happiness with objects and money which can give you instant pleasure but only for a small amount of time before you are back to wanting more. Finding true happiness and meaning in your life comes from helping other and bringing happiness to other people's life. In a message Compassion, by the Dalai Lama, he says, “The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.” When we care genuinely about our friends, family, and the people we interact with everyday we become kinder to ourselves which in turn leads to living a happier life. You cannot live a hateful and cruel life and still find happiness. In simple terms hate creates hate. True Happiness is achieved through finding meaning in your life which leads to finding your purpose, actively working towards creating and maintaining strong relationships with others, and creating a society in which kindness and compassion are the most valued characteristics.
Finding meaning and purpose in life are essential pieces to finding true, lasting happiness. In the book Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl he talks about two suicidal men in his concentration camp and how he stopped them from killing themselves. He states, “It was a question of getting them to realize life was still expecting something from them.” The knowledge that life still has something in store for you makes to feel as though you have a purpose. It makes you feel important. Purpose is important when you are looking for happiness because it gives a reason to exist in your life. When you know that there is something out there that needs you it makes it easier to find happiness because you want to be happy for that thing. This can also play into the concept that helping others gives you a purpose. In the movie I Am Dacher Keltner explains,”It’s not about what do I get out of this? It’s about how can I bring out the good in you.” When you help others you find your purpose. We were all put on this earth to help and connect with others. It is one of the main reasons human have survived as long as we have because we have the ability to work together and help each other. Helping other feel happy makes you realize that the your purpose in life is to help and give to others. We all need to realize that we have a purpose in this life and we are here for a reason. When we realize this then happiness will follow closely after.
As humans we crave social interaction and connection with others. We are social beings that live for connection. In the Ted Talk The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown, she talks about the subject of being vulnerable and letting people in to make connections. She says in this Ted Talk, ”In order for connection to happen we have to be seen. Really seen.” While watching I was kind of hit by this statement. In my life I am very guarded and rarely let people in to see what’s really beneath my skin. This has harmed quite a few relationships that I have tried to make with people. In our society we have an image of what we are supposed be and how we are supposed to act. With this image we build a shell around who we are to keep our real self locked away. The problem with this shell is that we don’t make real connections with people because we are to worried with up holding an image. For me this means shedding my shell and letting the world see me. Really see me. Once this shell has been shed I think the most important thing that I can do is spread kindness all around. In the Ted Talk Why Kindness is good for you by Dr. David Hamilton he says,”A major side effect of kindness is happiness. Kindness makes you happy.” I feel in high school there is a lot of negativity that surrounding us and it is hard to find people who are kind and compassionate. I know that I have struggle to be nice when everyone around me is spreading rumors and bad talking people behind their backs. That is why I know that if I want to make strong and good connections with people I must make it my mission to be kind all the time. No matter who it is. I must be kind to them. Since we all need human connection to be happy I believe that opening up and being as kind as I can be will lead me to happiness.
As a society we have made it so that being kind and compassionate are not the norms. We think it’s okay step on others for our own gain and turn a blind eye to those in need. In the movie I Am, Lynne McTarggart states, “We fashion our world at the need to be significant at someone else's expense.” We have created a world in each we are all separate and because of this we are a competitive and aggressive society that value personal gains more than helping those under you. We all have this image of what our life should look like and it has come the point where we don’t care how or who we have to step on to get there. We use each others backs like stepping stones on the way to personal achievements. We care so much about ourselves that we will turn a blind eye to the bad we have caused. We have people that live homeless and hungry on the street but when we pass them we turn a blind eye. We pretend that they don’t exist. Imagine though if we had a society that valued kindness. One in which people helped those who had fallen for no personal gains. What if everyone cared more about the happiness of others than themselves? Our society would be happy. If we ever want to achieve a happy society we must look at how we treat each other and use the golden rule of treat others the way you want to be treated.
Reflection
We live in society were being unhappy is normal and stress is just a part of daily life. I think that that is completely and utterly idiotic. It is about time that we start looking for happiness everywhere in our society. I think that this all starts will showing compassion for others and for ourselves. We all need to take a long hard look at ourselves and try to change the parts of us that hurt others. We are all connected whether we like it or not. We are all part of one species called the human race. No one is better or worse than anyone else so let's start treating others that way. If every person in world did one random act of kindness every day imagine the impact it would have. We would be kinder, gentler, and happier. If we were treats others well in the end we will all be treated in a way we want to be treated. Desmond Tutu said in the movie I AM, “We are because we belong.” I think it’s about time we all realize that all belong to one world and start treat each other like such.
Happiness Project
Section 2
The Happiness in Kindness
If you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have told you I wanted to be happy. From a young age I have been fascinated with the idea of happiness and finding it in my life. Most of the time when I thought of happiness I thought of having lots of nice things and making lots of money. Those were things that I associated with a happy life. In most cases people associate happiness with objects and money which can give you instant pleasure but only for a small amount of time before you are back to wanting more. Finding true happiness and meaning in your life comes from helping other and bringing happiness to other people's life. In a message Compassion, by the Dalai Lama, he says, “The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.” When we care genuinely about our friends, family, and the people we interact with everyday we become kinder to ourselves which in turn leads to living a happier life. You cannot live a hateful and cruel life and still find happiness. In simple terms hate creates hate. True Happiness is achieved through finding meaning in your life which leads to finding your purpose, actively working towards creating and maintaining strong relationships with others, and creating a society in which kindness and compassion are the most valued characteristics.
Finding meaning and purpose in life are essential pieces to finding true, lasting happiness. In the book Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl he talks about two suicidal men in his concentration camp and how he stopped them from killing themselves. He states, “It was a question of getting them to realize life was still expecting something from them.” The knowledge that life still has something in store for you makes to feel as though you have a purpose. It makes you feel important. Purpose is important when you are looking for happiness because it gives a reason to exist in your life. When you know that there is something out there that needs you it makes it easier to find happiness because you want to be happy for that thing. This can also play into the concept that helping others gives you a purpose. In the movie I Am Dacher Keltner explains,”It’s not about what do I get out of this? It’s about how can I bring out the good in you.” When you help others you find your purpose. We were all put on this earth to help and connect with others. It is one of the main reasons human have survived as long as we have because we have the ability to work together and help each other. Helping other feel happy makes you realize that the your purpose in life is to help and give to others. We all need to realize that we have a purpose in this life and we are here for a reason. When we realize this then happiness will follow closely after.
As humans we crave social interaction and connection with others. We are social beings that live for connection. In the Ted Talk The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown, she talks about the subject of being vulnerable and letting people in to make connections. She says in this Ted Talk, ”In order for connection to happen we have to be seen. Really seen.” While watching I was kind of hit by this statement. In my life I am very guarded and rarely let people in to see what’s really beneath my skin. This has harmed quite a few relationships that I have tried to make with people. In our society we have an image of what we are supposed be and how we are supposed to act. With this image we build a shell around who we are to keep our real self locked away. The problem with this shell is that we don’t make real connections with people because we are to worried with up holding an image. For me this means shedding my shell and letting the world see me. Really see me. Once this shell has been shed I think the most important thing that I can do is spread kindness all around. In the Ted Talk Why Kindness is good for you by Dr. David Hamilton he says,”A major side effect of kindness is happiness. Kindness makes you happy.” I feel in high school there is a lot of negativity that surrounding us and it is hard to find people who are kind and compassionate. I know that I have struggle to be nice when everyone around me is spreading rumors and bad talking people behind their backs. That is why I know that if I want to make strong and good connections with people I must make it my mission to be kind all the time. No matter who it is. I must be kind to them. Since we all need human connection to be happy I believe that opening up and being as kind as I can be will lead me to happiness.
As a society we have made it so that being kind and compassionate are not the norms. We think it’s okay step on others for our own gain and turn a blind eye to those in need. In the movie I Am, Lynne McTarggart states, “We fashion our world at the need to be significant at someone else's expense.” We have created a world in each we are all separate and because of this we are a competitive and aggressive society that value personal gains more than helping those under you. We all have this image of what our life should look like and it has come the point where we don’t care how or who we have to step on to get there. We use each others backs like stepping stones on the way to personal achievements. We care so much about ourselves that we will turn a blind eye to the bad we have caused. We have people that live homeless and hungry on the street but when we pass them we turn a blind eye. We pretend that they don’t exist. Imagine though if we had a society that valued kindness. One in which people helped those who had fallen for no personal gains. What if everyone cared more about the happiness of others than themselves? Our society would be happy. If we ever want to achieve a happy society we must look at how we treat each other and use the golden rule of treat others the way you want to be treated.
Reflection
We live in society were being unhappy is normal and stress is just a part of daily life. I think that that is completely and utterly idiotic. It is about time that we start looking for happiness everywhere in our society. I think that this all starts will showing compassion for others and for ourselves. We all need to take a long hard look at ourselves and try to change the parts of us that hurt others. We are all connected whether we like it or not. We are all part of one species called the human race. No one is better or worse than anyone else so let's start treating others that way. If every person in world did one random act of kindness every day imagine the impact it would have. We would be kinder, gentler, and happier. If we were treats others well in the end we will all be treated in a way we want to be treated. Desmond Tutu said in the movie I AM, “We are because we belong.” I think it’s about time we all realize that all belong to one world and start treat each other like such.
This project has helped me grow as student in a couple different ways. The first way is my thoughts on perspective. For most people we think that everyone should think the same way as us and that they should be happy the same way that we are happy. Throughout this project I started to realize that everyone is their own person and I should treat them that way. I should treat all my classmates like their own person and respect them like their own person. I also grew in my perseverance through this project. There was a point towards the middle of the project that I just felt done with everything. I wasn’t interested in school or my classes but this project wouldn’t wait so I had to find a way to be interested again. I had to push through this rough patch and keep creating quality work. This project has been really eye opening in a lot of aspects of life and school.
This summer I am going to do a couple things to be more happy. First of all I am going to continue to be kind to everyone. My goal is to do three random acts of kindness even if they are small. Second of all I am going to try to maintain my friendships over the summer. I usually go into a cave which is my bedroom over the summer and don’t talk to anyone but this is unhealthy for my happiness. I need to get out and hang out with my friends. Lastly I am going to turn my phone of every Sunday all day. This way I have some time to get things done without my phone that will leave me less stressed and more happy. Hopefully with these tools I will be able to maintain a happy life even when I’m not in school.
The biggest takeaway from this project is that kindness is the most important thing to being happy. A couple weeks ago I had this realization that kindness plays the biggest role in my happiness. So in the past couple weeks of this project I have been trying to be kind to everyone. All the time. Even though it’s only been a couple weeks I have noticed a huge difference in my happiness. There is something about making others feel happy that makes me feel happy. We live in such a fast paced world that sometimes we forget to look around and pick up the people around us. If we were all to treat each other kindly imagine the happy place we would live in.
This summer I am going to do a couple things to be more happy. First of all I am going to continue to be kind to everyone. My goal is to do three random acts of kindness even if they are small. Second of all I am going to try to maintain my friendships over the summer. I usually go into a cave which is my bedroom over the summer and don’t talk to anyone but this is unhealthy for my happiness. I need to get out and hang out with my friends. Lastly I am going to turn my phone of every Sunday all day. This way I have some time to get things done without my phone that will leave me less stressed and more happy. Hopefully with these tools I will be able to maintain a happy life even when I’m not in school.
The biggest takeaway from this project is that kindness is the most important thing to being happy. A couple weeks ago I had this realization that kindness plays the biggest role in my happiness. So in the past couple weeks of this project I have been trying to be kind to everyone. All the time. Even though it’s only been a couple weeks I have noticed a huge difference in my happiness. There is something about making others feel happy that makes me feel happy. We live in such a fast paced world that sometimes we forget to look around and pick up the people around us. If we were all to treat each other kindly imagine the happy place we would live in.
MOdel United Nations
In the model UN conference I was proud of the way I interacted and engaged throughout the entire conference. I felt that I did a good job of milling about during unmoderated caucuses and trying to understand how everyone was feeling. For example during the last unmoderated caucus Israel was trying to get the US to veto but I stepped in and helped to write an amendment that would ensure the safety of the resolution. This was something that I felt I did well throughout the entirety of the conference. Every time we had an unmoderated caucus I was on my feet trying to figure out what I could do to make sure that people voted for the resolution I was standing behind. I also exhibited this by taking detailed notes on everyone's speech and trying to find ways to amend the resolution to their liking. Over all I think my engagement with this conference was what I was most proud of.
I connected with my country on a deep level and this helped me a lot when I was trying to convince other countries to agree with me. After researching my country I connected with their morals and values as a country. This made it easier for me because I wasn’t having to defend an opinion that I didn’t believe myself. This showed through in my speech when I emphasised how important it was to find peace. This is something that is very important to France. Peace is their main goal as a country. As a person this is my main goal as well so it was simple for me to state this and truly have the emotion behind it that would persuade people. This connection with my country was something that helped me to push for what I wanted and helped me in the conference. I learned more in this project than I did in any other project that I have even done in my school career. This project not only taught me educational things but it also taught me personal things as well. Educational wise it taught me about so many current events that I didn’t even know existed. I will be honest I had no idea what was happening in North Korea nor Israel and Palestine. I knew that America hates North Korea and that some bad things were happening in the Middle East but nothing to the extent that was actually happening. This project has really showed me how many things are going on around the world that I have yet to find out about and it is important for me to be educated so that I can take action on these pressing issues. Personally I learned how important it is to concede some things in order find peace. For instance my country was not for the right of return but in the end we conceded that in order to make sure that the resolution passed. If everyone didn’t budge on their views then where would we end up. The answer is no where. In order for peace we must come together and solve something in ways that please all but in order to do that you have to give up somethings. This I feel is an important life lesson to know as well. This project taught me so much and it gave me a lot of perspective on the world. |
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Policy Paper- Israel/Palestine
file:///Users/laptop/Downloads/IsraelPalestine%20(1).pdf Policy Paper- North Korea file:///Users/laptop/Downloads/PolicyPaper.pdf Resolution- North Korea file:///Users/laptop/Downloads/Resolution%20(1).pdf Resolution- Israel/Palestine file:///Users/laptop/Downloads/ResloutionIsraelPalestine.pdf |
Mid project reflection
1. What has been most challenging about this project?
I think that the most challenging thing for me was not crossing my opinion with what my counties opinion. I had a similar opinion to the one of my country at the beginning but as we went further into our research my thoughts began to change a bit. It was hard for me to keep my countries opinion. I think that I did a good job of doing this and I feel that I kept my countries opinion well.
2. What challenges have you overcome?
One challenge I had was writing my speech for the UN conference. I didn't feel super confident in this speech because I didn't spend a lot of time on it and didn't go back to refine it. I was very stressed while writing it so it wasn't my best work. In the end I did go back the next day and rewrote pieces of it. I did feel okay with it in the end.
3. What are you most proud of at this point?
I am really proud that my resolution was passed and had almost a unanimous vote. It made me so happy to have it passed and I enjoyed being able to talk to other countries and come to censuses. It was really amazing the ideas that my classmates had and I enjoyed listening to them and talking about their ideas. It made me really happy to hear new ideas and see what I could do to make people see that I was right. I was really proud of my resolution.
Analyze and explain what the following quote means to you:
"Complacency is where genius goes to die" - Matt Hughes
When you are okay with where your life is then you never improve it. You never come up with new ideas. You never go deeper. For me this means that since you are okay with where you life is you never try to be better. You must always continue to become better and improve yourself. If you become complacent then you start to settle and will never reach your full potential.
I think that the most challenging thing for me was not crossing my opinion with what my counties opinion. I had a similar opinion to the one of my country at the beginning but as we went further into our research my thoughts began to change a bit. It was hard for me to keep my countries opinion. I think that I did a good job of doing this and I feel that I kept my countries opinion well.
2. What challenges have you overcome?
One challenge I had was writing my speech for the UN conference. I didn't feel super confident in this speech because I didn't spend a lot of time on it and didn't go back to refine it. I was very stressed while writing it so it wasn't my best work. In the end I did go back the next day and rewrote pieces of it. I did feel okay with it in the end.
3. What are you most proud of at this point?
I am really proud that my resolution was passed and had almost a unanimous vote. It made me so happy to have it passed and I enjoyed being able to talk to other countries and come to censuses. It was really amazing the ideas that my classmates had and I enjoyed listening to them and talking about their ideas. It made me really happy to hear new ideas and see what I could do to make people see that I was right. I was really proud of my resolution.
Analyze and explain what the following quote means to you:
"Complacency is where genius goes to die" - Matt Hughes
When you are okay with where your life is then you never improve it. You never come up with new ideas. You never go deeper. For me this means that since you are okay with where you life is you never try to be better. You must always continue to become better and improve yourself. If you become complacent then you start to settle and will never reach your full potential.
SOCIALIZATION AND IDENTITY PROJECT
Project Description
In this project we learned about socialization and how it shape the world and ourselves. We learned about the cycle of socialization, the cycle that keeps socialized ideas alive, and how it shape the views we have on ourselves, other people, and the world around us. After we learned about these things we made masks that represented our socialization. We also wrote essays writing about one to three categories we had been socialized through.
In this project we learned about socialization and how it shape the world and ourselves. We learned about the cycle of socialization, the cycle that keeps socialized ideas alive, and how it shape the views we have on ourselves, other people, and the world around us. After we learned about these things we made masks that represented our socialization. We also wrote essays writing about one to three categories we had been socialized through.
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I Am A Girl. Deal With It.
Humans are animals. We are a part of the animal kingdom, we are heterotrophic (we eat food to obtain energy), and we are multicellular. So scientifically we are indeed animals, but what makes us so different from every other species on earth. Why do we wear clothes or use languages to communicate with each other? Socialization. Socialization takes humans and turns them into people. It takes us from normal animals to a highly evolved species. It is what gives us people like qualities such as wearing clothes or using language. It is also what gives us our identities and the way we identify in society. Socialization is how our values and beliefs are shaped through gender, race, sexual orientation, age, religion, ability/disability, and class. In the article Cycle of Socialization the author Bobbie Harro states, “We are then socialized by powerful sources in our worlds to play the roles prescribed by an inequitable system.” What he is saying is that socialization is there to give us our roles in the world but what we are given isn't always fair or just. Socialization can be a great thing. It teaches people manners and how to act in social situations, but it can also have a very negative impact on society. It causes oppression against target groups, people of the minority group, and harms people without them even knowing it’s happening. I know that I have been greatly impacted by the socialization of gender. It has made me feel bad about being a girl and taught me to think negatively about myself. The media and my peers have socialized me to believe that as a girl I need to have a perfect body, be stupid to be liked, and to see myself as an object to boys agendas.
Media has thrown the idea and ideal of a perfect body at me since I can remember. I have always seen images of beautiful girls with perfect bodies in every aspect of media. From the TV shows I watched as a kid to the images of models that I see in magazines now, it has always been the same. Girls with skinny bodies, long legs and blond hair. Jean Killbourne says in the documentary Miss Representation,” Girls get a message from very early on that what's most important is how they look. Their value, their worth all depends on that.” I know that this message was deeply imprinted on me as a child. The pretty girls on TV were always the ones that were well liked and chased after while the chubby girls were seen as weird and unlovable. I would always envy these girls bodies and wish that mine could look like theirs. 6th grade was when I really started to be affected by the messages that media had shown me. I remember weighing myself and being disgusted with the number on the scale. I would hear how much my friends weighed and feel terrible about myself for not being that small. I was so embarrassed that I would lie about my weight so that no one would know and would wear baggy clothes to hide myself from the world. This is an absolutely terrible thing for an 11 year old girl to be thinking about when there were so many other things I could have been doing. A recent study has shown that in America 53% of 13 year olds are unhappy with their bodies, this number grows to 78% by the age of 17. Girls are being socialized to believe that there is only one good body and that if yours doesn’t look like that then you are worthless. This is so harmful to girls self esteem and self confidence because it not only makes girls believe that they aren’t good enough but it also makes them try even harder to achieve an unattainable idea of beauty. This this desperate attempt at beauty can lead to eating disorders and self harm. We need to break this socialized idea of the “perfect body” and replace it with the idea that every body is a good body.
I was always taught through media that to get a boy to like you, you must be stupid. I never had a positive influence to show me other wise. All the famous people I idolized and characters I loved acted stupid and were liked by all the boys because of it. One time in 5th grade I really wanted to get a boy to notice me so I failed a spanish test and made sure that he knew about because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. Another time in 7th grade I wanted to talk to a boy so badly that I pretend to have no idea how to multiply integers even though I completely understood the content. I was just doing what the media had told me to do but to my surprise the boys didn't seem to be interested in my stupidness. Media taught me that this was the correct way to get a boy’s attention. The problem with this mindset is that it goes from just trying to get a boy's attention to genuinely believing you are stupid. We are teaching girls from a young age that being stupid is more desirable that being smart. This shows though when we look at the amount of woman in progressive careers today. According to the article Women in Science from The Field Museum, “Women pursuing careers in lifesciences have only made up 14.8% of full professors at top-tier research institutions.” We also see this in government. Women make up 52% of the U.S. population and yet we only make up less than 20% of our government. I believe this is because we are teaching girls that they need to dumb and that being smart is a boy thing. This harmful cycle will eventually come back to haunt us. Society needs to empower girls to be smart so that our society can move forward with the brainpower of all genders.
Every part of my life has taught me that I am an object to boys and I must conform to what they want and like. Girls are always told by the media, their peers, and even their families things like,“If you lose a couple pounds boys will like you more,” or “Boys don’t like it when you wear a lot of makeup.” Everything that girls do is based on whether or not a boy will enjoy it. Jean Killbourn also says in Miss Representation that, “Not only are girls seen as objects by other people. They learn to see themselves as objects.” I won’t lie, there have been so many times that I have looked at an outfit and thought Will a boy like this? or I will look at my body and think Maybe if I was thinner he would like me.We as girl see ourselves as objects to boys. We feel that if a boy doesn’t like us that it is our fault because that is what society tells us. We have been socialized to think that we must please boys and not ourselves. Just the other day I was at the airport and I was looking through the magazines they had. I noticed that they had a whole shelf of Playboy and other magazines that are degrading to women. All of these magazines were sexualizing the female body for a man's pleasure. Their must have been ten different types and then I looked to see that the only girl magazines were about fashion and beauty. The message that this is sending is that it's okay for women to be degraded by men but not for men to be degraded by women. We never see magazines of nearly naked men posing for a woman pleasure. I have been affected by this message by feeling like I need to be sexy for a guy or I need to have a sexy body so that a boy will be pleased by it. The message about women that is portrayed in the media is harmful to every women by making us believe that we are not people but objects for men to play with which leads to us not respecting ourselves. This message needs to be stopped so that women and girls can be seen as people by not only men but also themselves.
The cycle of socialization is the harmful cycle that keeps these ideas and values alive. It is a tricky thing to break because we are used to its path. Breaking the cycle of socialization is uncomfortable and hard to do, but it is necessary to do if we want to end the harmful oppression that it causes. If we were to all realize that most of our thoughts have been given to us through socialization then we would be able to make our own decisions on what we think is right. For example, I realized that I have been socialized to think that I am an object for other people. Now that I know I have been taught this I can change how I think of myself. I can think of myself as a person. If we were to all see what society is teaching us then we could change ourselves to believe what we want believe. Socialization is necessary to make humans, people but along the way this cycle takes vital pieces of us that we didn’t know were missing.
Mask Paragraph
My gender has had a great impact on my socialization and this is shown in my mask. From the front my mask it looks like a perfectly made up face and nothing else. That’s what people see a lot of the time when they they look women. They see a pretty face but that’s it. They don’t seem to look any further than that, when in reality there is so much more underneath the makeup and the hair. When you turn it around you will find things I like, things I am, and things I want to be all inside my head. All these thoughts are held behind bars to resemble socialization and a society that holds me in. The lock is there with the enforcement that keeps me locked up. It says you are worthless and that is what keeps my mind locked away. I used makeup to paint entire mask just to show the way I have to paint my face everyday just to be seem as desirable. Since my gender has had such a huge impact on me and who I have become this mask really represents how feel when I take a step into the world. I feel that I am nothing but what my face and body looks like and what my mind looks like has no value to anyone. This idea has been socialized into women and it has been something that has taken quite the toll on me. My mask is how I feel society has made me who I am.
Humans are animals. We are a part of the animal kingdom, we are heterotrophic (we eat food to obtain energy), and we are multicellular. So scientifically we are indeed animals, but what makes us so different from every other species on earth. Why do we wear clothes or use languages to communicate with each other? Socialization. Socialization takes humans and turns them into people. It takes us from normal animals to a highly evolved species. It is what gives us people like qualities such as wearing clothes or using language. It is also what gives us our identities and the way we identify in society. Socialization is how our values and beliefs are shaped through gender, race, sexual orientation, age, religion, ability/disability, and class. In the article Cycle of Socialization the author Bobbie Harro states, “We are then socialized by powerful sources in our worlds to play the roles prescribed by an inequitable system.” What he is saying is that socialization is there to give us our roles in the world but what we are given isn't always fair or just. Socialization can be a great thing. It teaches people manners and how to act in social situations, but it can also have a very negative impact on society. It causes oppression against target groups, people of the minority group, and harms people without them even knowing it’s happening. I know that I have been greatly impacted by the socialization of gender. It has made me feel bad about being a girl and taught me to think negatively about myself. The media and my peers have socialized me to believe that as a girl I need to have a perfect body, be stupid to be liked, and to see myself as an object to boys agendas.
Media has thrown the idea and ideal of a perfect body at me since I can remember. I have always seen images of beautiful girls with perfect bodies in every aspect of media. From the TV shows I watched as a kid to the images of models that I see in magazines now, it has always been the same. Girls with skinny bodies, long legs and blond hair. Jean Killbourne says in the documentary Miss Representation,” Girls get a message from very early on that what's most important is how they look. Their value, their worth all depends on that.” I know that this message was deeply imprinted on me as a child. The pretty girls on TV were always the ones that were well liked and chased after while the chubby girls were seen as weird and unlovable. I would always envy these girls bodies and wish that mine could look like theirs. 6th grade was when I really started to be affected by the messages that media had shown me. I remember weighing myself and being disgusted with the number on the scale. I would hear how much my friends weighed and feel terrible about myself for not being that small. I was so embarrassed that I would lie about my weight so that no one would know and would wear baggy clothes to hide myself from the world. This is an absolutely terrible thing for an 11 year old girl to be thinking about when there were so many other things I could have been doing. A recent study has shown that in America 53% of 13 year olds are unhappy with their bodies, this number grows to 78% by the age of 17. Girls are being socialized to believe that there is only one good body and that if yours doesn’t look like that then you are worthless. This is so harmful to girls self esteem and self confidence because it not only makes girls believe that they aren’t good enough but it also makes them try even harder to achieve an unattainable idea of beauty. This this desperate attempt at beauty can lead to eating disorders and self harm. We need to break this socialized idea of the “perfect body” and replace it with the idea that every body is a good body.
I was always taught through media that to get a boy to like you, you must be stupid. I never had a positive influence to show me other wise. All the famous people I idolized and characters I loved acted stupid and were liked by all the boys because of it. One time in 5th grade I really wanted to get a boy to notice me so I failed a spanish test and made sure that he knew about because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. Another time in 7th grade I wanted to talk to a boy so badly that I pretend to have no idea how to multiply integers even though I completely understood the content. I was just doing what the media had told me to do but to my surprise the boys didn't seem to be interested in my stupidness. Media taught me that this was the correct way to get a boy’s attention. The problem with this mindset is that it goes from just trying to get a boy's attention to genuinely believing you are stupid. We are teaching girls from a young age that being stupid is more desirable that being smart. This shows though when we look at the amount of woman in progressive careers today. According to the article Women in Science from The Field Museum, “Women pursuing careers in lifesciences have only made up 14.8% of full professors at top-tier research institutions.” We also see this in government. Women make up 52% of the U.S. population and yet we only make up less than 20% of our government. I believe this is because we are teaching girls that they need to dumb and that being smart is a boy thing. This harmful cycle will eventually come back to haunt us. Society needs to empower girls to be smart so that our society can move forward with the brainpower of all genders.
Every part of my life has taught me that I am an object to boys and I must conform to what they want and like. Girls are always told by the media, their peers, and even their families things like,“If you lose a couple pounds boys will like you more,” or “Boys don’t like it when you wear a lot of makeup.” Everything that girls do is based on whether or not a boy will enjoy it. Jean Killbourn also says in Miss Representation that, “Not only are girls seen as objects by other people. They learn to see themselves as objects.” I won’t lie, there have been so many times that I have looked at an outfit and thought Will a boy like this? or I will look at my body and think Maybe if I was thinner he would like me.We as girl see ourselves as objects to boys. We feel that if a boy doesn’t like us that it is our fault because that is what society tells us. We have been socialized to think that we must please boys and not ourselves. Just the other day I was at the airport and I was looking through the magazines they had. I noticed that they had a whole shelf of Playboy and other magazines that are degrading to women. All of these magazines were sexualizing the female body for a man's pleasure. Their must have been ten different types and then I looked to see that the only girl magazines were about fashion and beauty. The message that this is sending is that it's okay for women to be degraded by men but not for men to be degraded by women. We never see magazines of nearly naked men posing for a woman pleasure. I have been affected by this message by feeling like I need to be sexy for a guy or I need to have a sexy body so that a boy will be pleased by it. The message about women that is portrayed in the media is harmful to every women by making us believe that we are not people but objects for men to play with which leads to us not respecting ourselves. This message needs to be stopped so that women and girls can be seen as people by not only men but also themselves.
The cycle of socialization is the harmful cycle that keeps these ideas and values alive. It is a tricky thing to break because we are used to its path. Breaking the cycle of socialization is uncomfortable and hard to do, but it is necessary to do if we want to end the harmful oppression that it causes. If we were to all realize that most of our thoughts have been given to us through socialization then we would be able to make our own decisions on what we think is right. For example, I realized that I have been socialized to think that I am an object for other people. Now that I know I have been taught this I can change how I think of myself. I can think of myself as a person. If we were to all see what society is teaching us then we could change ourselves to believe what we want believe. Socialization is necessary to make humans, people but along the way this cycle takes vital pieces of us that we didn’t know were missing.
Mask Paragraph
My gender has had a great impact on my socialization and this is shown in my mask. From the front my mask it looks like a perfectly made up face and nothing else. That’s what people see a lot of the time when they they look women. They see a pretty face but that’s it. They don’t seem to look any further than that, when in reality there is so much more underneath the makeup and the hair. When you turn it around you will find things I like, things I am, and things I want to be all inside my head. All these thoughts are held behind bars to resemble socialization and a society that holds me in. The lock is there with the enforcement that keeps me locked up. It says you are worthless and that is what keeps my mind locked away. I used makeup to paint entire mask just to show the way I have to paint my face everyday just to be seem as desirable. Since my gender has had such a huge impact on me and who I have become this mask really represents how feel when I take a step into the world. I feel that I am nothing but what my face and body looks like and what my mind looks like has no value to anyone. This idea has been socialized into women and it has been something that has taken quite the toll on me. My mask is how I feel society has made me who I am.
Reflection
My mask had a lot of meaning to me and was a good representation of how I have been socialized. The part that I am most proud of is the concept behind my mask. With the made up face and the bar in prisoning my mind, I really connected with what it was saying. I felt that the message had a lot of power and it really made people think about the message we are sending to girls. It was really interesting for me to see peoples reactions when I would turn my mask around. They all seemed to realize these messages that our society has been putting on girls. I have felt like this for so long and having a visual representation of it was a very powerful thing for me. I feel that the what my mask means is an important thing for people to know and that I is why I am so proud if it's concept.
I was very proud of all my essay but I think the part that felt most powerful to me was in my body image paragraph. I was proud of all of it but the part that I think conveys what I was trying to say was when I wrote, "6th grade was when I really started to be affected by the messages that media had shown me. I remember weighing myself and being disgusted with the number on the scale. I would hear how much my friends weighed and feel terrible about myself for not being that small. I was so embarrassed that I would lie about my weight so that no one would know and would wear baggy clothes to hide myself from the world. This is an absolutely terrible thing for an 11 year old girl to be thinking about when there were so many other things I could have been doing. " Body image has been something I have struggled with for a really long time. I feel so proud of this part because it is the most personal part of my essay. This message from the media telling me I need to be thin has hurt me a lot and it's something that we need to stop doing to women. I think when people read this it makes them take a step back. The fact that I was worried about my weight and the fat on my stomach at such an early age makes people really start to think about the message we give young women. I felt proud to put this out in the world in hopes that people would read it and maybe start to change.
There is so much that I will take away from this project. Everything I learned has impacted me in some way but the biggest thing that I learned was that almost all the values and identities I have, were given to me through socialization. This project taught me to question things and ask myself an important question. Why? Why do I believe that? Why do I think that? It's an important thing to ask yourself. So now when I look at models in magazines and I think why can't my body look like that? Than I can ask myself, Why do think my body needs to look like that? Or if I think I need to be stupid I can ask myself why do I think that? Learning about socialization has given me the knowledge to make decisions for myself and find what I think is right in the world.
I want to share the messages I have learned about the media and they way they portray woman with the community. I didn't have any idea how skewed the female body in the media was when I was younger and I don't want other girls to go through the same thing. The things that young girls are being taught are so harmful to their budding self esteem and I would like to help girls learn positive messages about them selfs and their bodies. One way that I could start getting this message out is by sharing it online. There are a lot of blogs out there and resources for girls and I want to be apart of that world. I haven't seen a lot of talk about socialization online and I think that would be a good topic to bring light to when talking about media's role in self esteem for young girls. I could start a blog and talk about what I have learned through this project in hopes that it might help other girls and women around the world.
My mask had a lot of meaning to me and was a good representation of how I have been socialized. The part that I am most proud of is the concept behind my mask. With the made up face and the bar in prisoning my mind, I really connected with what it was saying. I felt that the message had a lot of power and it really made people think about the message we are sending to girls. It was really interesting for me to see peoples reactions when I would turn my mask around. They all seemed to realize these messages that our society has been putting on girls. I have felt like this for so long and having a visual representation of it was a very powerful thing for me. I feel that the what my mask means is an important thing for people to know and that I is why I am so proud if it's concept.
I was very proud of all my essay but I think the part that felt most powerful to me was in my body image paragraph. I was proud of all of it but the part that I think conveys what I was trying to say was when I wrote, "6th grade was when I really started to be affected by the messages that media had shown me. I remember weighing myself and being disgusted with the number on the scale. I would hear how much my friends weighed and feel terrible about myself for not being that small. I was so embarrassed that I would lie about my weight so that no one would know and would wear baggy clothes to hide myself from the world. This is an absolutely terrible thing for an 11 year old girl to be thinking about when there were so many other things I could have been doing. " Body image has been something I have struggled with for a really long time. I feel so proud of this part because it is the most personal part of my essay. This message from the media telling me I need to be thin has hurt me a lot and it's something that we need to stop doing to women. I think when people read this it makes them take a step back. The fact that I was worried about my weight and the fat on my stomach at such an early age makes people really start to think about the message we give young women. I felt proud to put this out in the world in hopes that people would read it and maybe start to change.
There is so much that I will take away from this project. Everything I learned has impacted me in some way but the biggest thing that I learned was that almost all the values and identities I have, were given to me through socialization. This project taught me to question things and ask myself an important question. Why? Why do I believe that? Why do I think that? It's an important thing to ask yourself. So now when I look at models in magazines and I think why can't my body look like that? Than I can ask myself, Why do think my body needs to look like that? Or if I think I need to be stupid I can ask myself why do I think that? Learning about socialization has given me the knowledge to make decisions for myself and find what I think is right in the world.
I want to share the messages I have learned about the media and they way they portray woman with the community. I didn't have any idea how skewed the female body in the media was when I was younger and I don't want other girls to go through the same thing. The things that young girls are being taught are so harmful to their budding self esteem and I would like to help girls learn positive messages about them selfs and their bodies. One way that I could start getting this message out is by sharing it online. There are a lot of blogs out there and resources for girls and I want to be apart of that world. I haven't seen a lot of talk about socialization online and I think that would be a good topic to bring light to when talking about media's role in self esteem for young girls. I could start a blog and talk about what I have learned through this project in hopes that it might help other girls and women around the world.
