https://womensmarch.com

In this chapter we have learned about activists, social issues, progressive movements, regressive movements, and groups of individuals gathering to speak their minds. There is good and bad in these group gatherings, such as bringing attention to social issues that need to be addressed, but also mob mentality and groupthink. One example that takes a look at all of these things is the Women’s March.

The Women’s march movement is fairly new and growing rapidly. In class this week we went over social change and activists movements and the first one that came to mind was the women’s march. “There were a total of 653 marches in the United States alone, with approximately 800,000-1.2 million participants in D.C., and approximately 3 million total marchers in the nation. Marches took place in every U.S. state and on all seven continents”(womensmarch.com). This moment is only 2 years old and on all 7 continents. Although it can be argued whether or not this is positive social change, it is unarguably a progressive social movement. Fighting for a future full of equal opportunity for women, amongst so many other things. Activist have been fighting for social change since the beginning of our country. Which is what makes the United States the country it is. We have the freedom to speak about what we are passionate about, what we want to change, inequalities we see and want to change. This freedom is what our country was built on and what keeps us going. I’m not saying its flawless or gives everyone an equal voice but it has given us space to speak about what we want.

The women’s march took this freedom and used it to bring light to many social issues. Such as, ending violence, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, workers rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, and environmental justice. This movement is actually catching fire and making a difference. You can’t easily silence 3 million people marching to make a difference. The women’s march has inspired me to research these topics and learn about how these are real social issues that need to be addressed by our government.

This is probably one of the best examples of citizens peacefully using their right to free speech and freedom to peacefully protest for good. I love watching citizens do what this country was built on. Rebel. And women are not to be silenced. So we are speaking up and this movement will only grow stronger.

Maggie Fredricks

Word count: 415

http://www.wvik.org/post/group-fights-gentrification-chicago-s-northwest-side#stream/0

This week in class we learned about gentrification and how that affects lower-class individuals living in the inner-city. Gentrification is the transformation of poor inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent, middle-class communities. This initially sounds like a good thing but after learning about it I realized how it is really detrimental to the poor communities who are living in those communities. Low-income families are forced out of their communities and have nowhere to go, there are so many displaced families who can’t afford any homes in their cities and are forced to move far away. High-income families move-in and increase the property value. This then increases the price of living and the types of stores that are in that neighborhood. Wealthy people love this because it gives them more places to shop, and makes their neighborhoods “better” but they are ignoring the families that lived there before they did. I read an article (linked above) about the gentrification in Chicago and learned some sad facts about the communities and families there. One quote stated “I had a neighbor living there seven years with her kids. And her landlord decided he was going to rent to someone else, and he made the rent unreasonable for her and she had to move out”. This seems like it should be against some sort of law, that you can’t just force people to move because you want to, but its not. This is completely legal and actually encouraged. How are we as a society still letting the lower-income classes be treated this poorly? It’s completely overlooked and people are on the streets begging for help, and we are pushing them out of the city so we don’t have to face the realities of our decisions.

Reading the article about Chicago was very eye-opening, not because it was new information but because I realized its one story out of thousands of similar stories. Gentrification of communities is a sociological issue because its very much based on racism and class inequalities. Many minority groups are being displaced and white families are coming in and kicking them out. This problem is being masked as renovations, fixer-uppers, urbanization, and healthy growth of communities, but I have now realized the underlying problem is racism and wealth inequality ruling the housing market, and discriminating against people who can’t fight back. We have to speak up for the minority groups being discriminated against.

Maggie Kathryn Fredricks

Word count: 406

There is no such thing as soul mates. Let me tell you why.

This video provided the information that 70% of U.S. citizens believe in soulmates. Which is pretty interesting considering how small the number of actual eligible partners really is. Out of the billions of people in the world an individual only meets about 10,000 people in their lifetime, and the amount of people in that group that they would actually consider dating is very small. So to think there is only one person out there for you can be very overwhelming. What if you move to the wrong state? or transfer to the wrong school, or pick the wrong job, or take the wrong way home from work? All these minor details could make all the difference in “finding your person” if having a soulmate was the only way to truly be happy and fall in love./’

Fortunately this is a false belief. I already believed this but this week in class I learned how incredibly farfetched this idea really is. Sociologists refer to this false belief as “romantic idealism”, or the myth of the perfect mate. When 70% of U.S citizens believe in soulmates, 80% of individuals under 30 believe in soulmates. I believe this misconception starts with the media and false representations of relationships. I found it interesting when the TED talk showed a graph that revealed that 94% of young adults look to television for advice on love. Showing that we as young people get most of our ideas and advice on love from unrealistic role models. Scripted scenes of two star-crossed lovers finally finding their way to each other, and Hollywood actors pretending to fall in love with “the one” that was hired to play the part. These movies and shows are ruining real romance. Real romance looks like getting to know someone and seeing if you like them and could fall in love with them, and then fighting for a healthy relationship with that person, and maybe ending it if you realize it isn’t working. Real romance is hard work, and requires a lot of give and take. Thinking someone out there is waiting for you and everything will just fall into place is very unhealthy and unrealistic.

I believe in love, and I think we all should believe in love because investing in relationships with other people is what gives us purpose. I think from a sociological stand point we need to fight to represent realistic relationships in the media. We also need to accept all the different types of relationships and represent them equally in the media. Because love is why are lives matter, all sorts of love, romantic or not it’s why life matters.

Maggie Fredricks

Word Count: 457

https://www.recode.net/2019/2/19/18232183/oakland-california-teachers-strike-economic-inequality-public-school-charter-prop13

The education system is one of the most important social institutions in America, and it has some serious flaws. The modern school system is pretty accessible and today most children in America go through at least a few years of public school. But are all students getting the same education?

No. Schools are funded primarily by local businesses and the taxes that come from those businesses. But this creates a cycle of poverty because schools in poor neighborhoods are going to have much less money and resources to fund their schools. This hinders the students from reaching their full potential. Poor neighborhoods, produce poor schools, raise up poor low class citizens. Teachers are becoming frustrated with the lack of resources and over enrolled classes, teachers can’t teach to the best of their abilities and student can’t learn to the best of their abilities. So teacher unions are rising up and striking to earn the wages and resources they deserve. I came across this article this week about teachers in Oakland and I was shocked because this is not rare anymore. My old school district in Tacoma, WA just got done with a strike that lasted nearly two weeks. Obviously something is seriously wrong.

In class this week we learned about schools teaching students the skills they will need to stay in the same type of jobs their parents have. Teaching low income families to be obedient and quick learners to get working class jobs, teaching middle class families to be obedient and think critically to encourage management positions, and teaching upper class families to be creative to become innovators and entrepreneurs. I find this to be very problematic because it doesn’t allow for much opportunity to become more successful.

Personally I have seen this affect the lives of many people who are close to me. My mom is a middle school teacher in a very low income school, the students spend most of their time worrying about where their next meal is coming from and how to explain why they won’t have a parent at parent-teacher conferences. There is hardly time to teach creativity or innovative skills. It breaks my heart our educational system doesn’t allow for kids to actually work hard and be whatever they want to be. This idea is becoming less and less practical. And we will be impossible unless we fight for equality in education. I am very thankful this movement is starting with teachers standing up for whats fair.

Maggie Fredricks

Word count: 414

This week I have learned a lot about sex and gender in society. When I came across this video I initially had a lot of questions and concerns about how someone could raise a baby without a gender, but I have had a lot of clarification about what this really means.

Gender and sex are two different things and should not be used interchangeably. This fact alone has clarified a lot about my understanding of the topic. Sex is the biological make up of your X and Y chromosomes. We as a society mostly view sex as either male or female. In a very rare case we see some individuals born as intersex, born as neither XX or XY. Gender is how the individual expresses themselves and how they identify. I can see now how some parents could parent a child as gender neutral. I think if I become a parent one day I would love to raise my child in an environment where they could choose what type of toys and colors and clothes they like. Without limiting them to the social standard for girls and boys.

One thing I think is very important to note when it comes to parenting children is that we shouldn’t raise them the same. I have seen a push for this idea that “boys and girls should be raised the same”. I think this statement should really be “raise every child different”. According to what that child’s need is. Some children are more sensitive and some are more rebellious. Some children are slow to learn and some are advanced learners. We need to be parenting children according to what they need and not according to societies standards. I think we have generalized boys as tough and rebellious and girls as sweet and sensitive and have raised them accordingly. When in reality every child is different and needs to be raised different.

But overall, I think we all should have an open-mind when it comes to raising children and gender norms in general. It is 2019 and colors don’t have gender, I think we can all agree its time to drop the pink and blue baby showers and the judgmental looks at boys playing with dolls and girls playing with trucks. At the end of the day its all plastic and children should be raised and loved for who they are not what society wants them to be.

Maggie Fredricks

Word Count: 404

The term “wealth gap” can not even come close to describing the wealth distribution inequality in America today. This week I was horrified when I learned about how much wealth 1% of Americans are holding compared to the other 99% of Americans. According to the video “How wealth inequality is dangerous for America” (linked at top of page) the top one percent of Americans are holding 40% of the total national wealth. I have heard similar statistics before but I was not informed about how this could really hurt our economy and our citizens. This outrageous wealth gap means a very small portion of citizens hold a lot of power. So the “land of the free” is really being run by the upper class citizens and is now neglecting the majority of citizens who are living paycheck to paycheck. Living paycheck to paycheck takes away opportunity for those citizens to really contribute to society because they can’t be innovative, invest, create, or consume very much. This stunts the overall growth and health of the economy, although the upper-class would like us to believe it is good for the economy when they hold all the wealth. This idea stems from “trickle-down” economics, which states that capitalism will motivate people to work hard and earn a lot of money and that money will then “trickle-down” from the rich and end up in the pockets of the poor. This simply isn’t true and hasn’t worked. The rich are getting richer and the poor are suffering. Today we see this in the news all the time, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, worker rights, minimum wage, health care, and so on. These issues need to be addresses but for the most part there hasn’t been significant solutions. This wealth inequality is still growing and politicians don’t want to address it because the wealthy 1% are the people funding campaigns and lobbyists. So we as citizens must stand up and start talking about what our elected politicians won’t talk about. If we don’t speak up I am afraid of what will happen when the one percent has total control over the wealth in America. With wealth comes power and this goes to show who really has power in America. The wealth stays with the wealthy and travels down their family tree never making its way to the rest of the country. In the video I found this week, I learned about how these families keep wealth to themselves and work hard to make sure it stays within their families. Also seen in the documentary “The One Percent” where the Johnson family gathers to figure out how to handle the massive amount of money they are holding within one family. It’s time something changes, it’s time for equal opportunity to success.

Maggie Fredricks

Word Count: 462

This week I was online and came across an article that captured my attention for all the wrong reasons. The article was titled “Someone Changed a Photo of Amy Schumer to Look “Insta Ready” and She Was Not Impressed” written by Renee Cherry. This article was just a small glimpse into the culture of social media. Social media is a huge platform that has become a very important part of society and plays a huge role in what shapes us as individuals and as a whole. Most people on social media present their “best selves” because they want to be accepted by others. Erving Goffman would refer to this presentation of self as impression management. This is the idea that we are trying to control what others see us as. Amy Schumer defies this theory by being very real on social media, posting pictures and videos of herself while being sick, as soon as she gets up, without makeup on, etc. So when she saw that someone else edited a picture of her so that she would conform to societal standards she was not very happy. This act is the epitome of informal social norms and how we are taught through interactions with other individuals what is and isn’t “okay” to do.

This anonymous person who edited a photo of Amy Schumer so that she would look slimmer, airbrushed, and “perfect” teaches women that this is the standard we all need to meet. That women have to be tall, skinny, and flawless in order to be loved and accepted by our peers. Editing has become a perfect tool to help women “fit in” but has ruined the authenticity of what beauty really is. Social media allows us to fake our way to perfection instead of learning to love and accept individuality. According to Goffman, we always have a front stage and in some ways we are always performing for an audience. And this very much includes when we are online posting about our lives. This will never change because we have a need and desire to be loved and accepted that won’t go away. But what can change is how we empower men and women to be authentic and original and celebrate our differences.

Social norms are always present but always changing. In the past decade we have made huge strides towards celebrating diversity and individuality but we are still far from where we need to be. It starts with small interactions, online and in person. Encouraging unedited photos and people countering social norms and standards. Building others up instead of tearing them down. And definitely not editing Amy Schumer’s pictures online.

Maggie Fredricks

Word Count: 441

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/family-surviving-canned-spaghetti-because-184400230.html

The Government shutdown has affected millions of American citizens and by any definition is a macro sociological issue. But in this weeks news I saw an article that essentially “zoomed in” on this issue. The article titled ‘My Family Is Surviving on Canned Spaghetti Because of the Government Shutdown” written by Taylor Andrews, focuses on private troubles to remind us how personal the government shut down really is. The shutdown is harming families, and in this case Rachel Jones and her children. This social issue relates to so many different theories, ideas, and phenomena. The idea of private troubles and public issues being intertwined is very common and is definitely not a new idea. For example, this is seen in symbolic interactionalism. An ideology that states “the self is shaped by society, but society is also shaped by the self”. Individuals in the United States all are under the rule and regulation of the Government and therefore “shaped by” the Government. At the same time the Government is made up of individuals and therefore we as American citizens “shape” the Government, a cycle that is essentially never-ending. This story is also an example of structural functionalism because our government is one of the biggest social institutions that make up our society. According to the theory of functionalism each structure has a specific function or role that they play in society, but because of the government shutdown, the government is now not performing their function in society. Thus, severely affecting the well-being of all the individuals that are apart of society. The article I read about Rachel Jones not being paid appeals to the readers emotion and makes this issue more about the individuals who are affected by the issue and less about the large scale institutions involved.

An interview was used to conduct this research because it gives personal insight and emotion that could not be understood through surveys and observation. The personal story of one family alongside big statistics of the general public is sufficient for understanding the severity of the social issue. I have read plenty of statistics and seen big numbers about the government shutdown but this story unlike anything else has stuck with me because it is so personal. The Government plays a huge role in society and society plays a huge role in the Government. We have to remember the social and economical issues around us while addressing people and their private troubles, because private troubles and public issues always go hand and hand.

Maggie Fredricks

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton