A snapshot of happiness

I grew up with an aunt as a photographer, so I was used to getting my photo taken all the time. When I look back at the photos from when I was a baby and a little girl I was always smiling, I was happy to have photos taken of me. Now teenagers are espically relentless to have their photo taken. While part of this may be teen angst it could also stem from the availability of photos. My mom would tell she loved getting her senior pictures taken (minus her mom making her get a perm) because she didn't have many pictures of herself. This was a time where all your senior pictures were taken in one place with film (the limited material used to produce film). Now teenagers have accessability to take photos all the time. IBT Times found that "Young Adults will take more than $25,000 pictures of themselves during their lifetime". Teenagers can take photo after photo and pick their favorite. We take for granted the technology that was so valued before our time. Why smile in a photo when you know you could take a better one any other time.

"When I was a kid"

Anytime I complain to my mom about the computer freezing or ask for a new piece of technology she starts on about the whole “back when I was a kid...” talk, and I swear on time she said “all we had to play with was a stick”. This maybe be a little exaggeration but she is trying to make a point, there was a time before iPhones and laptops. I even remember a time, before iPod touches, where I was playing solitaire on our families 4 inch by 2 ½ inch iPod.  Now I walk in the grocery store and moms are giving their 4-year old’s iPads just so they won’t complain. There is this increasingly large disconnect between children and nature that is creating a generation gap. Kids are spending more time playing with virtual reality then outside in true reality. According to a study by The Nationwide Conservancy “the vast majority of today’s kids use a computer, watch TV, or play video games on a daily basis, but only about 10 percent say they are spending time outdoors every day”. Over the years as the technological age came about kids started spending less time outdoors and more time indoors. The harm this has to children’s bodies range from Vitamin D deficiency to a detrimental increase of child obesity. Is this technology boom worth the effect on children’s health?

A Mormons Sin

In Tannen’s piece “The Clan of One-Breasted woman” she discussed how she was Mormon AND an activist against the government bombing. She claimed the government caused her and many other women’s breast cancer, along with her many aunts (aka her father’s other wives). There is the stereotype that people’s religion stop them from being activists but Tannen did not let that control her. People are affected so much by these decisions Government officials are making and women are tired of being quiet. A recent marched occurred called “a day without immigrants”. Some cultures consider defying your government a sin but these women felt these matters were so pressing they needed to fight back. American culture is different in the sense that they celebrate difference. So much of this country is built on people defying American government. You could also blame the harm done on Tannen to her Mormonism’s. Utah is the only country that allows polygamy. If she was not Mormon she would not be living in that state. Utah also had some of the most nuclear bomb testing in the country. Tannen standing up for her health against her religion and government is still a common theme today and practiced today.

You're exsitence is wrong

If your skirt is above your fingertips you’re a slut. If you’re tough you’re a dyke. If you wear glasses you’re a geek. And if you’re blonde you’re stupid. Every time a women walks in any room she is judged by her peers, by her employers, by her parents even by those who have never met her and know nothing about her. In Tannen’s piece she talks about how women are forced to be judged but men “unlike the women, they had the option of being unmarked”. My brother could wake up, roll out of bed and show up to school in the same t-shirt and sweatpants he slept in and no one would say a thing. If I show up like that people would ask why I am wearing that or think I’m sick because I don’t have makeup on. Women have to live up to the expectation of beauty. We are expected to wear makeup and do our hair and look like we care about how we look. Every part of women is judged even her mental state. Women who cut themselves are called “attention whores” but this doesn’t mean men aren’t judged. Men who cut themselves are considered “pansies”. Men are still judged in their in circle but for different things. Men tend to be judged for showing emotion and not for their outfit. It is also easier for men to fly under the radar. Women are forced into boxes based on how they look while men can wander free from box to box. How is this fair?

Welcome to A Mans World Feat. Women

There are a lot of rooms and spaces in this world that are sexist and gender biased such as the weight room at Troy high or the hot tub at Lifetime. If you expand your circle to include all public areas, then you could also say the streets of Detroit. But if you expand your line of vision to territories you could say the state of Texas and third-world countries are sexist. The entire world is a gender biased space; biased towards the male gender. I am not able to walk down the streets of Detroit in a pair shorts without being called “mami” or being told I have “sexy long legs”. Recently a 13-year-old transgender boy in Texas, who had been taking testosterone for two years, was told by Texas judge that he was not allowed to wrestle with the boys because he was born with female genital. He became the Texas women’s wrestling champion 52-0. Women are in a man’s world but if they try to act as equals or do anything, they get rejected. We cannot ride the bus without keeping an eye on every fellow male passenger. We cannot be expected to be treated the same. If we get a civil right that should already be assumed it is an accomplishment. Women are trying to step into this man’s world every day, we are trying to break this glass ceiling. Every space in this world is a gender biased space. I will choose one to talk about when there is only one to talk about.                                                                                                         

Not so Foreign Foreigners

According to The Department of Homeland Security, 13.3% of the population in 2014 emigrated from foreign countries (increasing the number by 2.5% from 2013). Every year the number of foreign born immigrants increases, included in this are my cousins. Two and a half years ago my three cousins came to America from France. This was a big transition because while we might find the things we do normal it is not for them. For example, the fact that we eat with our hands. I have a vivid memory of my uncle (their father) cleaning a half rack of ribs with a fork and knife and no mess. Then there’s me who had basically made a beard of sauce. My cousin, Illona Mathieu, said “The states are very different than France. In France people are more trusting but not as diverse. The culture in itself  is very different”. They moved to Ferndale, Michigan, a place that has a fair amount of African-Americans. In other countries, the US has a reputation of being fat,  racist, angry people who rely on other countries because our world revolves around commercialism. And yet people want to come here because we are the land of the free and home of the brave.

The contradictory stereotype

 “Dinner” seemed to be all that needed to be said in my house. My dad would yell down the stairs just as it was starting. My mom was not there a lot for dinner but when I heard her anxiety voice yelling down I prepared myself. My 15 year old blanket wrapped around me, slide on a pair of fuzzy socks and put my hair back as I marched up.  It started right after we would say grace. When I was young I would fight back, but as I got older I started to cave.  As I got older this was our only way of communication. But this is how we showed love. Her yelling at me about my grades was her showing me she loved me. She wanted to make sure I did well in school and succeed in life. She wanted to make sure I was ok. She was never taught any other way. In society women are thought as being the more affectionate ones and men as the more unsaid affectionate ones. This was proven in Mannings work with the line “To say goodbye, I kissed and hugged my mother and I prepared to shake my fathers hand”. My family is contradictory to this stereotype. My father wills how affection more than my mother.

A Disabled World

In 1990 congress passed something called The American Disability Act. This basically makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because they are disabled. Included in this are bylaws that require different places to have different resources (i.e. amount of handicapped parking spots a facility is required to have, ramps, elevator access, etc). This past summer Troy High had to add handicap parking spots because of the increasing number of students and visitors at the school. While all public facilities and building have to meet with nationwide standards created by the ACA, they are still not creating a fair and equal environment for those with disability.

 If we just talk physical disabilities (those that require wheelchairs) many facilities “Easy access” handicapped entrances are very inconvient and require a whole spectacle of commotion.  The last thing people with these disabilities want is more attention drawn to them. If you look at mental disabilities, many places, while technically can’t not hire someone because of a mental disability, find a loophole. There are some stores opening up hiring people with and without mental disabilities. The point of these stores is to ensure people with mental disabilities are included and the real world. Also the world needs to see these people exist and are just normal people.