I can't believe that this is the last post of this semester. I feel like it flew by and I have learned so much in the last 18 weeks. In the first post I mentioned that i play sports and I plan to graduate in a couple months. We started off the year with topics about what sociology is. In this unit i learned that we are all very similar but the way we look at the world and the society we live in is completely different. This unit was especially unique for me because it taught me to start looking at our society in a more critical way. By far my favorite movie or clip we watched was the improv everywhere youtube clip. This was totally unique and I really enjoyed it because it taught me to look at what we do and how we live our lives more closely. After this unit we moved on to the culture unit and then to the socialization unit. This was another one that had a big impact on me. In this unit we looked at the art of akido. This is where you whooped my butt in front of everyone! Aside from that I really enjoyed the part where we looked at male and female roles in society. This was where I learned that the way we perceive our selves doesn't come from within but instead from what we see and hear around us everyday. This got me thinking if everyone was the same and if we were to start over would that still be an aspect that humans would focus on? These were some of my favorite lessons this year and I will forever remember the ways I was changed this semester. But overall this semester I feel like I learned so much and I would like to continue to learn about the different ways I can look at the world. This has been one of my favorite classes I have taken at Stevenson because it forces me to apply myself and learning is not limited to the classroom.

Throughout this past week we have been talking about race and how it relates to society. i never knew that race was something that we all created in our own heads. but i don't think that its something we have created individually but society has shaped us to think about race in a certain way. This goes back t a few chapter ago when we talked about how society impacted the choices we make and how we live our lives. After reading that article i realized that race was not biological but instead something we create. I thought the story about how in Brazil they have many different names for a certain race that we might only call "black". This was an eye opener because i never knew why my old soccer coach never referred to the African American kid on our team as black. That coach grew up in Brazil and lived there most of his life and even played for the Brazilian National Team with Pele. He came to America and was a great soccer coach but his Brazilian ways came with him. He never called the African American kid black or even colored. He had a specific name for him and everyone on the team called him that. i dont remember the name but i asked him once what it meant and he said that back in Brazil it was a common name for the people of that color. I was surprised but also confused because i had no idea that your race changes depending on where you live or go.

Today in class we had the privilege to listen to the girl talk about her experience in the Marine Corp. I thought it was really interesting and she gave great insight on what life was like as a woman going through Marine training. The reason I found her presentation so interesting was because my great uncle went to college at West Point and decided to stay in the Army after his 4 years were up. Through the years he moved up through the ranks and now holds some prestigious position in the Army. I am not very close with this uncle so he has not told me very many stories but as I grew up my mom and her side of the family always wanted me to go to West Point and follow in my uncles footsteps. Her whole side of the family sees Jody (my uncle) as a hero. Through his service he has lived all over the world including germany, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, and various places in the United States. Although i didn't know how this girl was going to finish her service it brought back memories of Jody.

this past week we have been talking about social class. we watched the movie about the lady who lives in Ohio and works at burger king. this story was touching but i cant help to see how she can help herself. she doesnt have an education and grew up in a house with 21 other brothers and sisters. obviously she is at a disadvantage but she has to take steps to help herself. an experience i had with poverty was when i went down to the projects of chicago. it was a very humbling experience and i really enjoyed getting to see another side of life in the very bottom of the social rung. i was scared when i first got there but once i warmed up to the people i noticed that they were not much different than i was. i worked with them all day serving food and playing games with little kids. by the end of the day i was tired and ready to go home but i would definitely go back some day.

Today we briefly touched on the topic about the social worker who was being mugged and willfully gave up his wallet and offered the teen his coat as well. As the teen walks away he invites him in for dinner and to talk. I thought this was really interesting and definitely surprising! i would have never done that if i was being mugged but its the way i see society as a whole. When we wrapped up class with the discussion about random acts of kindness that can be considered deviant, i only thought about homeless people. so often we se people sitting on the side of the street and they are always asking for money. Instead i sometimes offer them food. This one time i was in the city and an old homeless man was begging for food outside a Mc Donald's. I went inside and bought him a meal and gave it to him. He was so thankful and only wanted to talk. i was in a big hurry so i couldnt stay around. But this experience was really surprising and i believe life changing.

This past week we have been learning about school shootings and how they relate to masculinity. I never knew that all the shooters had a couple things in common. i was surprised that they were mostly committed but middle class white boys. I always thought it they were committed by minorities like the Virginia tech shooting. On another note, i thought it was really cool when you brought me up in front of the class today and whooped my butt. I was slightly embarrassed because of what society has taught me about being a man. i never really thought about it but i am completely changed by the way society has an impact on my life. I love working out but i wonder if that is just the way society has raised me. I bet if it wasn't a big deal to be big and jacked i wonder if people would be even lazier than they already are? each week is another eye opener to the world around us. i never think about any of this stuff until we discuss it in class. i appreciate the class discussions because it opens me up to see the world in a different way.

This past week we have been talking about how the media shapes both young men and women. We looked at examples from movies, t.v. ads and magazine ads. I learned that the media uses women to sell sex and uses men to promote masculinity. At first i didn't agree that the media has a big influence on our every day lives but then i realized that we are exposed to around 3000 ads per day and most of them are some sexual reference. When we looked at the ads from the website i had seen some of those ads/commercials and never really thought about how they use women to sell their products. I like how dove is going about their advertising. I think that by showing young teen girls that its alright to be imperfect that its leading to higher self esteem. If i was a girl i would definitely invest in dove products. On a different note while i was watching t.v. tonight over an hour span i saw more than 50 commercials suggesting sex. I only counted the obvious ones and i'm sure i missed a couple as well. I also believe that the media promotes masculinity in guys. Every commercial you see its all about being big and tough and putting on his mask that nothing can bother you. In reality thats not how anyone should act. In every ad there promoting masculine products there is always a guy who is ripped with his shirt off and seems to have flawless muscles. In reality this image is almost impossible to achieve. I think its ridiculous how much sex is a part of the media these days.