Unit 4 - Final Synapsis

This was a fascinating unit that finished off a great course.

Chapter 11 introduced us to the ideas of how the media represents people and influences the stereotypes that we subscribe to. We discussed in the class forum a little bit about the stereotypes represented in TV and movies. We had an in-depth discussion about certain rap artists and the way they represent themselves, how they degrade women and glorify violence. Sadly this discussion degraded itself when a class member felt attacked and refused to participate in the conversation any further (and it was a great topic too) - it was an interesting end to our communication in this class, resulting in an absolute breakdown and display of poor communication...on many levels. I doubt this type of behavior would have happened with an instructor in the classroom, moderating the discussion. I regret that we were online because it was a great topic about poverty and getting out of the ghetto.

Chapter 12 covered gendered violence and sexual harassment and we read some additional articles about women and men who are incarcerated. Both topics were a sad reality of the cycle of violence that perpetrators live in - unfortunately going back to their childhoods. We also read a fascinating article about a man who is a feminist and has written a book (and coincidentally made a documentary) about the porn industry. This is a topic that has always bothered me because I felt bad about how I don't think porn is okay and apparently it's not 'cool' to think that these days (same goes for violence - it's not cool to say it's out of control). I feel like I have some leverage now after reading some work by this male feminist named Jensen. I can state without hesitation that pornography is simply another incarnation of a male dominated society - even if the women chose to do it they are still victims of this sad system of domination.

Whew. It's been a whirlwind of information and I feel enlightened beyond my expectations from this class. I won't miss communicating via the internet (this is my last, thank goodness, online class....I despise this format because I don't even know what my instructor looks like - and communication is ironically quite sparse and strained compared to a traditional classroom). Overall though, I would recommend this class to everyone if it was somehow available to the public. I see through more compassionate eyes because of what I've learned about gender. I hope it's not something like algebra that I'll purge after final (I seriously doubt it!).

Good luck everyone!