I consider myself to be a pretty open-minded person; I like hanging out and partying with people from different races, but my thought process when attending a party that is primarily hosted by a certain racial group is definitely different depending on the group. I think when people are choosing a party or social event to attend; it just comes down to where they feel most comfortable. I do find it interesting that even though college is supposed to be a place for new experiences and for people to try new things there is definitely a divide in the party scene. When NPHC has a party it’s mostly black people in attendance and vice versa when a white fraternity throws a party it’s mostly white people in attendance.
I remember one time in particular; it was the first weekend of my freshman year, and all of the girls on my floor (including myself) were getting ready to go out. The plan was to go to a party on frat row, but being the only black girl on my floor, I was a little skeptical. I had heard rumors about how frats were very selective on whom they let in (hinting they didn’t really let black people in). To my surprise, I got in just fine, but since then I have found that I definitely don’t get as much attention as I get at white parties as compared to black parties. I guess they’re just not “Down with the brown.” When I go to black parties I feel like I can make friends and strike up a conversation with anyone, but I didn’t find this to be the case when I went to predominately white parties, which is why I normally just don’t attend them.
Having been at Penn State for a couple of years now, I find that I pretty much attend the same type of parties and social events, which are generally “minority,” for a lack of better word, parties. I have nothing against going to the frats or “white parties,” it’s just I rather go somewhere where the DJ plays music that I like to listen to and where people like to dance, rather than standing around playing beer pong.
When deciding on what kind of party I’m going to, I also take into account the dress code. I noticed that when I go to parties that my white friends host, I can show up in just jeans and a shirt if I wanted to, and I’d fit right in. But if I’m going to a “black party” the dress code is - slightly different. The question of heels or flats is a no-brainer - The heels are a must!

If we viewed the world in a female perspective, it would be completely different from the way our world is perceived now. In particular sex, ideal sex, the experience, everything would all be completely different. As Sam and his wife said in class, sex right now is seen through the male perspective. Its portrayal has just been accepted by society, and pretty much just become the expectation of sex; it’s all centered round the “Needy Penis.” It sounds funny, but when you think about it - it’s so true.
Through the male perspective sex and the word penetration go hand in hand, which seems odd when you think about it, because sex is supposed to be a mutual sensual experience, and the connation of penetration sounds like the exact opposite. If we lived in a female centered world you could say goodbye to the “Needy Penis” and hello Clitoris. Honestly, if sex was looked at this way, women faking orgasms wouldn’t even be an issue. Sex would be more about the experience itself, passion, foreplay, and a connection with their partner, rather than just a quickie to satisfy the “needy penis”. As Sam’s wife mentioned in class, women can withstand the pleasure as it builds up and just hold on to it, unlike men whom have to release as it builds up, which is why I think in a female centered world sex would be a much longer experience; lasting for hours. Everything would just slow down.
As far as the media goes, that would change too. The poses of women on magazines would be less seductive and geared towards men, but rather more like what women “actually” look like in person, there would definitely be a decrease in the importance of portraying sex appeal. Also, I think porn would not only be seen as the norm for men to watch, but also for women to watch as well. Women’s magazines would be less about how to “Give your guy the best blow job ever”, and more about how to have the best orgasm of your life.
I’d heard the saying “It’s a man’s world,” but I never really stopped to think about all the ways that saying actually applies in our day to day life. As a female, I’m an avid reader of magazines like Cosmopolitan,Glamour, etc… and in every issue there are articles with tips and guides and how to be the ideal women, and how to behave and dress to get your “dream guy, “You’d think the fact that it’s 2013, things would be a little more equal, but the whole idea of gender roles still exists today. As a society it’s like we’re exposed to so many things and don’t even realize that most of them are focused on pleasing a man.

Surprisingly I wasn’t shocked when I saw the countries with the highest searches for gay porn. What do you expect? It’s only fitting that the top internet searches for gay porn are highest in more conservative countries, but I think there are many different factors that can contribute to this. I do think it has a lot to do with the social norms and values of different cultures. If you’re in a culture that is very religious, being gay could be looked at as being a sin, or even if you come from a culture that cares a lot about old fashioned values of family and marriage being gay or being interested in homosexuality could be looked down upon. I think the fact that homosexuality is taboo in these countries, makes it more tempting going of the idea that because you’re not allowed to have something, you want it more. ‘You always want what you can’t have.”
When Sam revealed in class that 5 out of the 10 most common porn searches in Iran were related to gay male sex, it reminded me of the Skype conversation we had with the guy from Iran, because he said that there were no gay people in Iran, but according to the clicker question, that didn’t exactly line up. Seems a bit odd to me, maybe he meant to say something more along the lines of there aren’t very many “openly” gay people in Iran.
The truth of the matter is, many people are stepping outside the binding laws and bans against homosexuality in their home countries to enjoy gay pornography, because that may be the closest thing they have to experiencing the real thing or it may just be curiosity. A person’s government can only oppress them but so much, just because a government tells their citizens that is socially unacceptable to be gay, it can’t change the way a person is. If someone can’t truly be who they want to be and behave in a way in which they choose…what other option do they have, but to conform to society, while maintaining who they are in secrecy.
After seeing all of this information in class, it makes me think of other groups who have faced both discrimination and oppression , and how throughout history various movements have occurred in order to give those people more rights, which leads me to believe that the current gay rights movements will follow the same path. Hopefully the United States will lead by example and other countries will follow suit. It’s a shame that people are still being discriminated against for just being true to themselves. Even though homosexuality is not completely accepted in American culture it is gaining more and more acceptance nation-wide, and for that at least we are taking a step in the right direction.

The debate between whether America should stop focusing on foreign aid and help those in our country is an interesting one. America is often viewed as a “Big brother” country in the world, a country with a relatively high GDP rate, and a place where everyone has the ability to live the “American Dream”. America has spent billions in foreign aid, of which I have no problem with, but at the same time, we’ve been facing problems of our own in the US, many of which the average American is unaware of.
Take the Native Americans for example. Before watching the video and discussing the poverty levels of different racial groups in the US, I completely forgot about the Native Americans. I knew we had Native American tribes, but I had no idea of how many, and I guess because most of them lived on reservations, I just viewed them as separate from everyone else. This may sound ignorant, but I honestly thought that the money made from their casinos was enough for them to live an average life; I just assumed that all Native American’s lived the way they were depicted in books and movies (proof of my lack of awareness of the current situation).
One of the main problems I have about the situation is just the lack of awareness. We are constantly bombarded with news headlines about foreign problems, violence, and politics. I’m sure all of us have seen at least one “For only X amount of cents a day” commercials, asking for donations for people in developing countries, but not once have I ever seen anything about the Native Americans. It’s almost as if America has just isolated them from our society.
I am all for helping other countries, because I believe everyone should share the wealth. I just think that we need to at least recognize and address some of the problems in our country and try to solve them. I understand that problems as big as these cannot simply be solved with a simple paycheck, but I do think it would be a good start in tackling some of these issues.
As far as foreign aid goes, I wish it was all for humanitarian reasons, such as charity and compassion, but I think often times the real reason is for economic and political reasons. I often wonder if we are actually doing things because we truly “care” about the problem, or just to maintain our relationships with other countries. The problem of poverty is right in front of our eyes, and America seems to have just turned the other cheek. I think the only moral thing to do is to increase awareness of the poverty levels of many Native Americans, and try our best to help in any way we can.

After discussing what exactly affirmative action meant and its history I think that it can and has benefitted all different groups of people in one way or another. Before having our discussion about affirmative action in class, the first thing that came into my mind was race; that affirmative action was something only given to people of color. The affirmative action and college admissions debate, was all I was familiar with, but it was interesting to hear Sam’s point of view on the subject, because it made me realize that affirmative action has many different shapes and forms, and that a lot of the same thing’s people against affirmative action complain about, they themselves have benefited from by taking part in acts such as “nepotism” which more or less seeks out to accomplish the same objectives as affirmative action.
I think affirmative action benefits everyone, but everyone doesn’t necessarily benefit equally. Affirmative action tries to provide and equal opportunity for the social and economic advancements of those who have experienced obstacles in their lives. Even though the race and gender seem to be the main associations with affirmative action, I think that people need to understand that affirmative action is not intended to give “hand-outs” and preference to people based on their race and gender, but it’s geared more towards removing the obstacles that women and people of color have faced so that everyone has an equal opportunity.
I think many people who are against affirmative action, are the people who believe we are all equal and start from a level playing field, but this is not the case. This is evident in the example Sam gave in class, when he had people from different racial groups lined up on the stairs – the white female was at the top and the Black and Native American males were at the bottom. As the Native American and Black male moved up the stairs everyone else moved up accordingly, signifying that even with affirmative action, everyone is moving up.
It’s easy for people not to realize that everyone is benefiting from affirmative action, it just may not be in the most obvious of ways. As said in class affirmative action is “Just another government program to advance white males,” meaning it clearly doesn’t solely benefit minorities and women. When affirmative action helps someone, its effects affect more than just that one person.
Although I believe affirmative action benefits everyone, I don’t think it is the only way to “fix” the problem of inequality. I see equality and fairness as being synonymous with on another, and that you need one in order to have the other. Sam mentioned something in class about including other factors into affirmative action (i.e. class), which I think make affirmative action more “fair”.

Are we really free? At first I wondered how that could even be a question when America is supposed to be “the land of the free”? Our freedom is what sets our county apart, a privilege our nation fought for; we’ve read about it in our history books since grade school, and we are constantly reminded of this so called “freedom” every time we sing our national anthem. As an American citizen, I’ve never once questioned my freedom, because I’ve always had the right to make my own choices, practice my own religion, and say (pretty much) anything I want. But am I really free?
The other day in class, Sam asked all of the women in class to raise their in hand if they were ‘bleeding’. I immediately looked up from what I was doing, to make sure I had heard him correctly, and sure enough he was asking the women in the class if they were on their period. Even though I was not, If I would’ve been on my period, I think I would’ve been too embarrassed to raise my hand. As Sam said in class it’s natural, so there was nothing stopping women from raising their hand. Personally, I just felt very uncomfortable discussing things of that nature in such a large class of both men and women, but I’m still trying to figure out why that is. Was I making the decision not to raise my hand because of my own personal free will, or was it all being controlled by the “invisible strings of society”?
Free will, is supposed to mean that I have to ability to freely make a decision. But when you actually think about it, every time you make a decision, so many things come into play during the process. For example, I would feel uncomfortable disusing my period in 100 Thomas because of the diversity (males and females) in the class, but if we were in a class of all females, I would not have even hesitated to raise my hand. After discussing the topic of free will in class, I believe that in a lot of cases when we “think” we are exercising our free will, we 9 times out of 10 are not, because society has already undermined our decision making process, without us even realizing It.
Even though we live in the “Land of the free”, I think it’s virtually impossible for us to truly have “free will,” because society holds such a tight constraint on us all. In order for us to have free will we would have to change the way our brains naturally work. At the end of the day, I think that we all just pretend to make our own “free choices”, when in actuality our choices aren’t completely made by us.

I was shocked to hear that skin whitening cream was the highest grossing domestic product in the world. It’s interesting that a lot of white people like to tan while most people of other nationalities try to avoid the sun to keep a fair complexion. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a white person boost about having skin as white a snow, but other race groups wish to have skin as a white as possible to be seen as beautiful and of high social class. White people are often complemented on their olive skin and nice summer tan, while people of other races (let’s say African American for example) rather spend all day inside the house so that they don’t get “too dark”. As an African American, I’ve always seen the divide within my own racial group of “light-skinned” people vs. “dark-skinned” people, but I was quite surprised to hear this divide existed in other racial groups as well.
My initial thoughts about skin whitening cream, are that people that use them have a problem with the skin they were born with, and perceive it to be subpar, unattractive, or defines them as a lower status than someone of a different complexion. I think that is because everyone’s definition of beauty is different, as Sam said in class there are some cultures were darker skin is seen as more attractive than lighter skin. Take a look back at history, somewhere down the like someone came up with the idea that white skin and features were a symbol of beauty and status, which created a sort of social ladder where white was at the top and black was at the bottom. Although this happened so long ago, I believe it still lingers within society today.
Personally I would never use a skin lightening cream, because I like myself just the way I am, but I’m not going to tell someone else that they should or shouldn’t use skin lightening cream. I see skin whitening cream as any other procedure that alters your body, like breast implants, Botox, nose jobs etc. The only thing that worries me about skin whitening cream is the underlying self-esteem issue that could be driving someone to use a skin lightening cream. If someone constantly feels that they need to change themselves in order for people to like them then I think that presents a problem. Different people need to do different things to feel comfortable, confident, and beautiful in their own skin. I think that by using products like skin whitening cream you’re ingraining the notion in your mind that your natural physical appearance is not good enough, and will never be good enough for society. I think it is virtually impossible for you to have positive self-development.

When I look at a person the first thing I notice is race; I've always seen race as something that determines what makes us alike and what makes us different. Do they look like me? Am I the only minority? You don’t realize how easy it is to fall into the traps of society’s racial groupings, which in actuality are only figments of our imaginations.
When you look back at historical events like slavery, the civil rights movement, and the Holocaust, you can see that they are all alike, in the fact that they all stem from discrimination based on race. Race has been at the center of many hardships, served as an underlying divide within our society, and a cause of discrimination and racism. Race is a term designed to take people’s physical features, culture, intelligence, and achievement and group them all into ideals we use to perceive others, and although perception may not always be true, it is reality.
The popular notion that race is the greatest division among people, is common in our culture. I think this comes from the fact that skin color is the first thing you notice when you see a person. Not to say that everyone instantly judges someone differently based on their skin color, I just believe it is the first thing people tend to notice. Until the other day, I didn't think of race as a man-made social construct.
When I first read the article “Do Racial Groups Exist,” I was surprised to learn that we are all 99.9% alike (genetically speaking). The world is so big, and we are all so different from each other, it was hard to believe that at the same time we were all so similar. I thought that because we all looked so different, race and physical features had to make up a greater percentage than the .1% difference. I also found it interesting that most differences between people were found within their own racial groups as opposed to outside their racial group.
I’d be interested to see what racist people would say to that information. I wonder if people would've been aware of this information back then would they have changed the way they treated others, would there have been less hostility between races, and if some racial groups would still feel a sense of inferiority over others.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that we are 99.9% alike, people will not just stop behaving the way they do around other people because in reality we live in a social world; a social world in which we assign races to people, and base our perceptions on those races, shaping the way we view the world. Race is a part of culture, and a man-made part of our environment.

I agree with Sam’s comment that being rich is all a matter of perspective. I believe that we tend to base our status of wealth on others. To be fair, I think that when you ask people if they consider themselves to be “rich” it has a different connotation when you are using the term to compare them to other Americans versus using the term to compare them to people in other countries (i.e. poor countries). I think that is what makes this term so difficult to define – what exactly makes you “rich” other than the obvious (money).
When I think of wealth in America I look at Penn State for example, students who drive Lamborghinis around campus, carry around iPhone 5’s, and wear matching North Face jackets and Uggs. Personally I use that as an indicator of wealth, because in my mind that’s what society has taught me. We constantly compare ourselves upwards and downwards to our peers, comparing our material wealth to theirs, and ultimately we are constructing a constant divided between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Who wouldn’t want to be in the “haves” group living the “American Dream”?
Often times we tend to look at others who have more than us to assess our wealth, if they have more than us, than we don’t consider ourselves to be “rich,” because there is someone “richer”. It’s easy to complain about not having the latest technology and the same expensive labels as your friends, but in comparison to people in other countries, our wealth would not even be a question, because through their eyes, having a roof over your head and food on the table is considered wealthy.
As a human being, I think it’s only natural to want to compare ourselves to others, it’s just something that happens, and often times we don’t even realize it. But in reality, chances are we are all better off than someone else in the world. The fact that I’m typing this blog on a computer is a privilege.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that I tend to play into the “Keeping up with the Joneses” mentality, and I always strive to be the “Joneses”. I always feel the need to keep up with everyone else, and I buy more and more things that I don’t really need, yet I still don’t consider myself “rich”; I just want be the same as my peers.
Sam said in lecture that everyone sitting in class was considered rich, elite, and in the top 10% of the world. While it did make me think, it won’t change the way I see myself compared to my peers. I still can’t identify myself as being “rich”, but I am fortunate and thankful for the things I have and the opportunities I’ve been given.

When the question was asked in class “Would you join the military?” I was a little surprised, when so many people raised their hands in agreement that they would not join the military; I’m not sure why, because when I actually sat back and thought about it, my hand shot up just as fast as theirs…but why? If our class is anything like me, then they have close family and friends in the military, and it has impacted their opinion about joining the military. I have the utmost respect for those that have the courage and strength to defend our country and protect our freedom. And although I don’t like war, I support our troops.
When I was a senior in high school, I remember my aunt asking me if I would ever consider joining the military. My exact response sounded something like “Me…join the military…funny joke!” as I laughed. It’s so easy for me to forget that as I go about my day to day life, without a care in the world, it wouldn’t be possible without the military keeping me out of harm’s way. I don’t have a problem with other people joining the military I just don’t think it’s for me. I have no desire to join the military, and quite frankly if I don’t have the drive or the will to do it, I don’t think others would want me to be responsible for protecting them. I truly believe that some people are built for the military, while others are not. To be completely honest, I don’t have the discipline to join the military, and I surely don’t have the guts to do it either!
But maybe that’s my problem or the problem with American’s in general. Is it that we want to send someone else to do our dirty work, while we go on about our business? It’s hard to know what to do; is it our duty as Americans to serve our country no matter the cost, or stand back and watch as others volunteer instead? What if America had a policy like Israel, where all able-bodied citizens are required to serve in the military? I don’t think that would sit well with Americans.
Personally I don’t think I could ever get myself into the mindset, where killing someone is acceptable. I guess it relates to the discussion we had in class on Thursday about empathy. I definitely have too much empathy to join the military, but maybe it’s something I would learn to put aside if I joined the military. And then when it comes to the subject about the reasons for why we go to war, I would never be able to risk my life if the underlying reason for war, was something as frivolous as oil.