I’ve watched South Park for years and Trey Parker and Matt Stone love to cross the line. This has attributed to the show’s successful ten year run on cable television. People love to tune in and see who they will target next. There’ not one group of people who isn’t made fun of. It doesn’t matter your religion, sexuality, age, race, nationality, or sex. They make fun of everyone. Are they disrespectful, yea at times, but they bring in the ratings and had made the network and creators very rich. I don’t think that this episode will stop the creators from continuing to push the envelope in future episodes.

I am a South Park fan, but I did not see the new episode. South Park is a show that likes to push the envelope and isn’t scared to cross the political correctness line a lot of times. I think that’s the reason a lot of people watch it, myself included. It’s a show where their not afraid to talk about taboo topics, and that makes it interesting. I realize Muhammad puns probably outraged a lot of people. When you think about it though, they don’t target the same people all the time. When the molestation incidents were being reported in the Catholic church, they were mocked to no end. Scientologists, Jewish People, Christians, Atheists, Muslims, and almost every other religion, nationality, skin color, sex, and age group gets made fun of. A lot of times they put people in check by making fun of the stereotypes that are out there. They also like to make fun of pop culture figures like Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods, and Kanye West. Kanye West is known to have a big ego and is very conceited. So they aired an episode that just made fun of him. His reaction was priceless. Kanye said something along the lines of you know it wasn’t easy to watch but it put me in check because that’s not how I want to be perceived. So in a way, South Parks forcefulness identifies some truth about the wrongness of how we perceive things. Another episode that aired last season was about a shortage of Internet. They wrote it like the internet was water and a basic necessity making fun of how much we are dependent on the internet in our everyday lives. It made me realize that. A couple of weeks ago they aired an episode about the obsession with facebook and how it overtakes people’s lives. It was funny because some truth behind it.
In the end, it’s the television programmer’s decision to air or not to air a specific program. I think because of the show’s history and normal plot lines, they are able to get away with more than broadcast. The programmer is smart enough to know when to air or not air a program. I think that if they though the last episode was too bad then they wouldn’t of aired it. Believe me, no cable station wants to take the financial risk of being sued. The first amendment is huge with South park. I mean they truly are the epitome of freedom of speech because of the controversial topics they talk about. Some of these topics are religion, sexuality, politics, and sicknesses. I know this is really cliché to say, but it’s true. People can always change the channel.

I think most people felt terrible about this awful tragedy. I mean people picture themselves in that situation and see them losing their families. People feel compassion for the victims and want to help. However, I think we (United States citizens) would be more affected if we were more emotionally attached like if the earthquake happened in America. Not that we don’t feel any emotion for the people of Haiti, but we would be more effected if the earthquake happened on our own soil. I think back to September 11 or Hurricane Katrina and how that affected us more and how we reacted compared to the earthquake in Haiti. As bad as a tragedy as both these events were, they did bring us so much closer together as a nation.

Men and women do face completely different ways to conform. Common stereotypes for men include showing no emotion, not partaking in any “feminine activity”, and being the person who brings home the bacon. Even at school, I knew a guy who broke up with his girlfriend because he was stuck in the shadows behind her. She was really involved on campus and he was too, but not nearly as much. The stereotype way of conforming to society definitely played a role in their break up. I think it was stupid, but it just goes to show you how hard people try to conform to the suggested norm.

I couldn’t of said it better myself. You honestly hit the nail on the head. It’s hard to see the ways of conformity of the opposite sex because every sex sees a different perspective. We do all play apart in establishing the norm and how everyone should act. This limits individuality, creativity and independence. The people who choose not to conform get a lot of slack and it’s unfair. Not every men could be a six feet tall and 200 pounds and not show any emotion. The same goes with female norms and stereotypes. Hopefully in the near future, conforming will eventually mean just being yourself.

Men definitely have to confirm to society. As a man, I have witnessed first hand situations where you need to conform. You have to be able drink, not show much emotion, be built, tall and thin just to name a few. I mean I look at myself and see ways that I can physically and emotionally approve. Should I, no but I do so any way because it’s part of conforming to society. There’s certain activities I won’t tell anyone that I do because it’s not the most “macho”. I am a straight man, but I don’t want people to know that I tan in the winter or watch VH1 reality television shows. That wouldn’t be conforming. Honestly, as I sit here and type this I realize it really isn’t that big of a deal, so I should just be honest with everyone. The ideal man stigma is something a lot of guys go for, and to go against that would be detrimental to their social life. I think men are competitive in other ways than women. I mean men want to look better than every other guy, but in a different way. Men want to be the most muscular, in shape guy out there; where as girls want to wear the hottest outfit at the party and the nicest shoes. Guys also competitive when it comes to drinking and playing sports. The media tells us that the varsity jocks are all thin, muscular and popular. I mean I think in every television show and movie about high school these stereotypes are there. Then, because we all watch these from the media, men believe that they have to have the best body and be the star athlete to conform to society. Men blacklist any activities that are kind of feminine. Tanning, shopping, and even dancing are some of these activities. God forbid I read a book, have a glass a tea and watch Grey’s Anatomy. It does not mean you’re gay if you do these activities. So what if you were, are they not going to talk to you? If that’s the case, then they weren’t your friends in the first place. I think that heterosexual men and the idea of conforming to the macho men stereotype makes it very hard for gay men to come out. I guess it just comes to a point where you don’t care anymore, but it has to be difficult trying to conform to society as a gay man. This macho persona is has to change soon. There should not be any example that everybody should try to be like. This stereotype limits creativity and independence. Our world needs a new idea of perfection and it should be individuality.

My opinions have changed on some things, but not everything. I feel like Sam does better job of making us aware more so than changing our opinions. If that means by making us aware, people change their opinions, then that’s great. Some people are made aware of issues, but don’t take action. He seems to talk a lot in circles too so I don’t know exactly how he wants us to change the way we think. Yesterday, we talked about sweatshops and a lot of our clothes coming from them. Sam said that it was wrong to purchase clothes from Walmart because slaves made them, which I understand. I then thought of the one woman in one of the videos we watched where she was so poor, she didn’t have a car, walked 10 miles to work, and basically lived on a minimum wage salary at Burger King that was supposed to support her whole entire family. How can that woman afford anything else except a $5 t-shirt from Walmart? How can you guilt a woman who is in absolute poverty into buying clothes that aren’t cheap? She barely survives on her income, so she can’t afford nice clothes that aren’t made from slaves. Honestly, I don’t know what she is supposed to do. We talked about poverty in the United States and we talked about slave operations. Does she really have a choice?
Within the class, I recently have been turned out for some reason. Whether it be the weather or because the same issues are being brought up and up, I just haven’t been really into the lecture. In the beginning I thought the class was great. I looked forward to going to it, but since spring break I haven’t been looking forward to going to it. When do pay attention, I find myself just being lost because he begins talking about something and then goes on some type of rant which makes me forget about what we were talking about in the first place. If you notice, it’s not just me in the lecture class who I think feels this way. You can tell by the dwindling attendence, the amount of talking during his lecture, and the amount of people who walk out on class. I do feel that these actions are rude, but at the same time it’s because people go to class and don’t want to be there. By making attendance such a big portion of our grade, a lot of people go to lecture just to get the points. I think that at this point in our life, were old enough to make our own decisions about coming to class and if that means not doing well on the examine because of not going to lectures, than we did it to ourselves.

Although welfare helps tons of people out, there are still people out there who abuse it, giving welfare a bad name. I’ll admit it sometimes I wonder what would happen if there was no welfare. I think, would it motivate more people to work? Then, I stop and realize that there are people out there who truly need it. For example, I’m thinking back to the class video where the woman was very poor and worked at Burger King. That woman needed welfare to survive. She lived in a trailer, with no car, no boyfriend or husband for second income, and needed to support two kids. I give her a lot of credit that she works at Burger King for minimum wage and has to walk 10 miles to work. If that isn’t someone who deserves welfare, then I don’t know who should. She is trying to make ends meet, but she is unable to. Welfare has some negative stereotypes around it. A lot of people just assume that people on welfare don’t work and that the person sits on the couch all day and just collects money in the mail. Although this may be true for some people, the majority of people on welfare are in desperate need of it. I’ve worked retail and seen both ends of this. There was a woman who had three kids and her husband left her. She did not have a college education but still worked hard. The money she earned was not enough to support her family. The opposite situation is when I worked a town pharmacy and some welfare plans require a customer to only pay $1 for their prescription. This woman came in on her cell phone obnoxiously and had a co-pay of $1. I knew she was on welfare because of her medical plan. She did not have the $1. I wouldn’t give her the drugs. She was so irate and stormed out of the store. When I see what kind of car she gets into, my mouth dropped. She was on welfare and was diving a HUMMER. If that isn’t a huge slap in the face to everyone who supports federal welfare programs, then I don’t what is. Honestly, how can someone on welfare who can’t afford $1 prescription drive a hummer? It shows the many flaws in the system. Some stricter regulations of keeping eyes on people on welfare are needed. This way, the people who abuse it can be stopped, and the people who need it can potentially more funding. I think if welfare was to just completely go away, the social classes will drift even farther a part. There are people who can’t find jobs, so probably end up homeless.

Wow, your first hand experiences really expose the negative sides of welfare and the need to regulate it. I worked at a local pharmacy in my time and I could tell on their receipts their medical plans and which ones was welfare. I had a similar situation where this woman who drives a hummer, is on welfare didn’t have the $1 she needed to pay for her drugs. She yelled at me and walked out because I wouldn’t give them to her. It infuriates me that she drives this 50,000 dollar car and doesn’t have $1. Is all her money paying going towards a payment of a hummer or paying for it’s gas. Either way this situation is wrong and she needed to be exposed.

I completely agree about welfare being an interesting topic in society. I feel like it’s such a case by case basis to be able to judge who needs how much money. There are so many people who need it. These people can have a big family, be handicapped, and honestly work for little pay. A lot of people find loop holds in the system and take advantage of it. I think that because of this reason, welfare should be more strictly regulated. I feel like the costs of hiring people to work for State welfare programs is practical and necessary to save money that the government gives out to people who don’t deserve it.