iss318-youthculture-blog

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

4/25/18

I have wanted to watch Lady Bird since I first seen the trailer on television.  I completely forgot about it because life just catches up with you. I was trying to think what to do my last journal entry on and referred back to the syllabus and said, “Finally, I get to watch this movie!”.  Lady Bird is about a daughter (Christine) who wants to go to college on the east coast where there is culture.  She wants to be called lady bird, but her mom refuses to call her it because that is not her name.  Her mom says she’s not smart enough to go to colleges she wants to and that by her free spirited actions she will go to jail.  She goes to catholic school, an all girls school, but just wants to be her own person. She wants to get away from her parents, she hasn’t been to New York but wants to apply to schools only on the east coast. Because of her free spirt, the head nun encourages Christine, “lady bird” to try out for the theater club.  Her teachers don’t think she will get in to the schools she wants to either because she is not a star student.  She is trying to get her grades up (stressed about this) because she wants to get away from her family.  Throughout the movie, she tries to find balance of being her self and not pushing her mom away.  Her mom is super strict and is not very supportive.  Her mom wants her to conform to typical white family norms, but lady bird has her own beliefs.  She is very free spirited, experiments with drugs, alcohol and sex and is rebellious. She is very different than the students of Webster Grove.  The students in that documentary are very obedient to their parents and would never talk to their parents the way Lady Bird talks to her mom.  Lady Bird is completely different than them! She is free spirited and they would never dare to try to be different.  They hold the same beliefs as their parents do.  The students dream to go to college and live down the street from their parents, where as Lady Bird is trying to get away!  Lady Bird finds out she gets wait listed and is happy that she has the support of her father.  Her father lost his job but he is determined to help his daughter go to an out of state school of her dreams.  Her mom didn't know that she applied to east cost schools and when she finds out refuses to talk to her daughter because her mom thinks that she is ungrateful for all the things they have done for her.... okay I already said way too much! This is a must watch.

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

4/18/18

Raised In the System was a documentary I previously seen.  Before going on a ASB trip with Michigan State, watching films on juveniles/inmates/families of those incarcerated was required.  The trip consisted of working for a non-profit organization in Kansas City, Missouri called Operation Breakthrough.  Operation is day program/before and after school program that serves children from 4 months to 17 years old that come from low income families.  Some of these children were in the system and some have family members incarcerated.  A lot of the students here live in gang/drug populated areas that are so dangerous that they cannot play in their front yard.  Our duty was to assist in their classrooms and get to know the students.  The classrooms focused on teaching kids how to deal with their emotions and how to show emotions.  They also talked about how to stay away from negative influencers like drugs and violence.  They talked about their parents being incarcerated and that they do not have to follow that path.  Openly talking about this with students from low income families is different than watching a documentary on it.  You get a different perspective of it.  This lifestyle of being involved in things that can get you in trouble is all these kids know.  They don’t know that this is a lifestyle they can chose to shy away from.  Implanting awareness programs for kids growing up is an important thing to do.  Hopefully bringing awareness to such topics at a young age will reduce the number of kids/teens/adults incarcerated.  My personal experience and watching the documentary of kids tell their stories was so touching. Something I noticed in the film that was similar to my experience was that in the film it was mostly males and the organization consisted of mostly male students as well.   Operation Breakthrough gave these students hope and showed them that they don’t have to take the same path.

See you later...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

4/11/18

The topic of sexual assault is a topic that I am very passionate about.  I have worked countless dedicated hours with victims of sexual assault and suicide.  On campus, I am a sexual assault advocate and work the crisis and suicide hotline.  At Sparrow hospital, I work in the sexual assault department and work with professionals who perform the examinations. The information presented in the documentary we recently watched on sexual assaults and universities, was information that I have not heard before.  The number of sexual assaults on campuses is heartbreaking and the number of sexual assaults that go un told is even more upsetting.  Michigan State University takes a pro-active action on this subject by having students attend a workshop and online course to bring awareness to this subject.  Some individuals may not know what is considered sexual assault.  The course also presents resources to students in the event that they are a “victim” of sexual assault.   As a advocate for sexual assault I appreciate that our university is trying to break the stigma surrounding sexual assault and taking the time to educate their students.  I think more than ever, after the incident with Nassar, universities all over need to put more focus on educating their staff and students.  Before entering college, I did not know sexual assault occurred so often on campus.  I was aware of it being a concern in society, but campus sexual assault was a different type of concern.    For generations to come, I hope the sexual assault problem on campuses decreases and our awareness of the issue expands so people can know the signs and that there are people who will believe them and programs to help cope.  

Until next week...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

4/4/18

This is the second week that we talk about gender and sexuality in lecture. Since I already wrote an entry in regard to that, this week I decided to write on the book I chose to read for our short story assignment.  My book of choice was Sue Monk-Kidds, The Secret Life of Bees.  The book is set in 1964 and is a coming of age story of 14-year-old Lily Owens. Throughout the novel, Lily is dealing with the tragic loss of her mother and abusive father.  After a fight between her and her father, Lily runs away in search of learning more about her late mother and her roots.  On her journey, Lily comes across the Boatright sisters; local beekeepers in Tilburon, South Carolina.  After an extended stay with the Boatright sisters, Lily later finds out that she has been staying with the women who raised her mother. Throughout the novel, we see Lilys’ growth into becoming a young woman and her journey of how she gains confidence and believe she is loveable.  While doing my research on the author, I came across the movie of this book.  Not only was the book such a good and easy read, the movie was even better! I would say that both were just about identical.  I never read books for leisure because it was always hard for me to imagine what I was reading.  The author had such a way of writing that one was able to put their selves in Lilys shoes and feel all that she was going through, which made it easy to empathize with the character.  I don’t want to give away too much, read the book and watch the movie!!

See you soon...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

3/28/18

This is the second week we have been talking about gender and sexuality.  This past weeks journal entry was based around this and because of that I am going to talk about something we talked about a few classes ago; something talked about in recitation and lecture, but something I didn’t get a chance to write a journal on…privilege and identity.  These past exercises on power, privilege and identity have been quite difficult.  I do not normally think about how privileged I am, what power I hold or what makes up my identity on a daily basis.  As a woman, we are always meant to felt that we are second class citizens and that we have to constantly fight for our power and privilege and value of identity.  As a minority, we are always meant to felt that being a minority is a big part of our identity, that this defines who you are . As both, it is difficult to look at the power, privilege and aspects of you who you are, instead of just saying I am a female and I am a minority.  When asked this past week to write down the privileges I have and parts of my identity, I really had to think, some of them I left blank because I couldn’t think of an answer fast enough.  When asked to stand beside a “category” in the classroom, some options we were given I did not think of that being a privilege or part of my identity.  For example, age.  I did not think of being 21 as a privilege or big part of my identity until given the option of it being and remembering that not everyone in this classroom is 21. Others I did not even think about was mental ability/health, class and immigration status.  My class allows me to go through school and life and not worrying about how I’m going to afford it, how I am going to afford health/dental care, or how I will pay for study abroad.  My immigration status allows me to much power and privilege that I would not think of otherwise until I was in a different country.  Being a female and a minority are parts of my identity that I am most aware of because it affects many aspects of my everyday life.  Both of these can make you feel less powerful and privileged but can do the opposite at the same time.  I enjoyed these activities because it allowed me to take a step back and introspect on myself and the privileges I am less aware of.  I also noticed that the privileges that you wish you had that others have could be the one that bring them the most discomfort/insecure.  That was really interesting to me when people were talking about class and how they hate that they are labeled upper class because people think badly of them.      

Until next week...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

3/21/18

“You are all freaks…isn’t that what being a teenager is all about?”

Talking about gender and sexuality is always so interesting.  There is so much to learn and to question.  I think it is always so interesting to hear other peoples opinions on this subject and interesting to see others level of comfortableness when talking about the subject.  This weeks lecture about gender and sexuality and how individuals do and do not conform to norms reminded me of  a movie I recently seen, Freak Show.  Freak show is a movie about a young high school boy, a boy who is larger than life.  He follows no gender norm and lives a gender fluid life.  The story follows him as he goes through high school and decides to run for prom queen, and shows how his gender fluid life draws attention to others and the affect it has on others.  Born a biological male, he loves to dress in an artsy way and wears makeup. Some of the students in his school are okay with his openness and others find it so wrong going against norms that they beat him.  I find it so interesting that some individuals find gender/sexuality fluidness is so wrong.  They stand so strongly against it that they will harm others.  As a psychology major, what individuals do not understand is that the brain plays a major role in gender/sexuality… aside from gender in biological terms.  I think if people become more knowledgeable on how psychology and the brain influence this, people would be more accepting and understand that this is not a “choice”. In terms of gender norms, I wish people would be more accepting of indivudlas not wanting to follow them… I mean, we live in a time where this should be more acceptable, a time where women work mens jobs and where women are running for president.  I myself get some comments when others, family and strangers, hear that I do not wish to get married; and if I do get married, that I do not want to be a stay at home wife nor be a wife that does all the traditional house chores.  Why is there such a strong belief around following gender norms today?

See you later...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

3/14/18

These past few incidents have stirred such strong emotions, brought differences in political beliefs forward, and have left some heartbroken.  School shootings and gun control have caught our attention once again with National Walkout Day all over social media.  National Walkout Day was a day for students to protest against gun violence across the U.S. and walk out of school.  This protest is powerful in numbers, but we only hope that the majority is passionate about the issue.  This made me think of Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give when Starr was concerned that the people in her school and friends were walking out for the wrong reasons.  Did they really care about Kahlil and the issue of power and privilege or did they want to skips class and be with their friends? During this time of the walk outs, walk ups were also happening.  My parents, both school board members in my hometown, sent  me a picture that l found interesting.  It was a sign a student had made that said #WalkUpNot Out.  This gave students the chance/option to walk up to other students and staff and show them pure kindness instead of walking out and protesting.  My initial thoughts to this post were that this was such a great idea, but I felt that this was a way to stop students from doing something that they strongly believe in.  If you strongly believe in something, do something about it to get attention to the issue regardless of the consequence. Showing kindness to people you normally wouldn’t show kindness to for one day is not going to cut it for someone who is violent…is just is not.  A quote from my mom really put both of these options in perspective, “we have been discussing the walk out in our home this week, and I am not sure what my kids will choose today.  As of last night one planned to participate, and one did not.  I did not tell them what to do, or what I would do.  I asked them to be sure that they know why they are making their choice and to feel strongly enough about their reasons to be willing to accept any consequences.  I don’t want them to walk out because their friends are or because they feel pressure to.  I told them that I would support them either way as long as they are respectful.  Are they not allowed to have opinions until they are 18? Are they only allowed to believe what they are told, or what their parents believe? If so, how do we expect them to vote in just a few years and make an educated decision?  I am a rule follower by nature, so it is difficult for me to be okay with the idea that the school day is being disrupted.  I love the idea of the “walk up”, but I expect my kids to live this every day. My hope for today is that all of the students make a decision based on their own beliefs, that those beliefs are respected, and that everyone remain safe.”  I could not agree with her more.  Believing in something so strongly means accepting whatever consequences come with it, like those students in “walk out” did and that one should have their own values and beliefs and not conform to those of others, like those students in 16 in Webster Groves.  

Until next week...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

2/28/18

With Spring Break and St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, I have been debating on what college hotspots to visit.  Beaches, clubs, bars, cruises… What do college kids look forward to on break?  My guess is… the drinking and no supervision. Why is it that our generation looks forward to gatherings like this?  Are there differences in youth culture gatherings today and those of the past? While thinking of these questions, Instantly 16 in Webster Groves was brought to my attention.  I re-visited the film to get a better understanding of students in the 1950s-1960s.  Gatherings today consist of students going to a house or apartment party with music, no chaperones, underage drinking and more.  Those in the 50s-60s consisted of going to local “clubs” where students would socialize with one another, dance and be home by 10 pm.  Chaperones were also present to make sure students were not misbehaving.  Why are they so different now?  Could it be that youth no longer conform to their parents values and beliefs and dare to be dreamers?   Could it be that parents trust their children?  I am curious to know if those students in 16 in Webster Groves continued to be obedient when they attended college and were no longer under their parents supervision.  I do not have an answer to this post, but rather chose it because it was a question that made me think.  How would college students react to having their trips supervised?  I enjoy my parents company and do not mind hanging out with them.  I respect their values and beliefs, but they also respect that I have my own.  

See you soon...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

2/21/18

This weeks journal I watched a documentary called, Teenage: The Birth of Youth Culture.  

“Teenagers did not exist before the 20thcentury.  Not until the early 1950’s did the term gain widespread recognition, but with Teenage, Matt Wolf offers compelling evidence that “teenagers” had a tumultuous effect on the previous decade” (Teenage: The Birth of Youth Culture).

The documentary goes back and forth between different teenagers as they go through life and learn about who they are.  They learn about their sexuality, friends, norms, drugs, alcohol, rebelling…basically everything a teenage questions and experiments with.  It is very interesting to me the freedom teenagers have today than they did in the past.  The film shows teenagers going out at night on school nights, going to parties that have drugs and alcohol and being open about their sexuality and experimenting. Another major difference between the past and present that affected the teenager culture is the internet.  The documentary shows how teenagers use the internet to go onto chatrooms and video chatrooms.  In the past, even if there was the internet I do not see teenagers being rebellious on here because they were so conformed to the beliefs of their parents.  The teenagers in the documentary had no problem forming their own beliefs, values, and becoming their own person.  Another difference I noticed was the way teenagers today talk to their parents. Todays relationships seem more of friendships than the relationships back then, which consisted of obeying every command of your parents.  As the documentary progresses, we are shown the consequences that come with being a rebellious teenager.  Every action has a consequence.  

Until next week...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

2/14/18

“Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.  Don’t stop it’ll soon be here.  It’ll be better than before.  Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone…”. Fleetwood Mac, I am pretty sure everyone can relate to at least one of their songs.  Yes, I am guilty of being a fan who obsessively listens to Fleetwood Mac and/or Stevie Nicks everyday.  This song was just another favorite, one that had a good beat and a tune that was hard to forget.  Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Giveturned this tune into something more than a catchy lyric, but a song with a deeper message for our youth; Youth move us forward or hold us back.  In The Hate U Give, Starr over came many obstacles with one goal in mind; to bring justice to Kahlil.  She continued to fight everyday believing that one day a change will come.  Starr was a clear demonstration that our youth move us forward or hold us back. Starr’s moment when she found her voice demonstrated that in order to see change, we must be the ones to initiate it. No matter what age you are, if you believe in something don’t stop fighting for it, don’t stop thinking about it because it will soon be here.   Although she did not get the justice for Kahlil she wanted, the world gained an activist to fight for those who are less privileged and less powerful.  She is moving us forward in the process of bringing change to this world.  The song encourages people to change their outlook on life, that of which Starr did.  Things were very bad after the incident with Kahlil, she was angry and wanted to riot. Throughout her journey of finding her voice and learning to cope, Starr found a new perspective; that words are stronger than violence.  

See you soon...

[iss318-youthculture-blog]

2/7/18

Okay…so I had to be the only person that has not seen 13 Reasons Why going into this journal entry assignment.  It has been on my Netflix watch list, but I just haven’t gotten to it.  After seeing it listed on the potential journal entry list, I had no excuse now not to watch it.  Tape 1, Side A.  The beginning was kind of scary, I wasn’t sure what they were going to show me in this episode.  Starting it off with the actors explaining what you were going to see and to get help if you are feeling like this really pulled me in instantly.  13 Reasons Why shows the struggles and cycles of grief that individuals go through after someone has committed suicide.  Before Hannah commits suicide, she leaves a set of tapes behind talking about her life and the people who made her feel less than an individual. The set of tapes get passed around to all the induvial who she mentions in the tape.  If the tapes do not get passed around, she has a set of extra tapes that she left with a trusted individual who will expose the tapes in a public manner.  Clay, the individual to get the tapes in the first episode is very curious as to why he is receiving the tapes because as he listens to them in order, his name is not mentioned yet.  His curiosity strikes because he though he and Hannah had a “friendship”.  This is demonstrated through flashbacks as he listens to the tape.  The episode goes back and forth between past and present.  During the present episodes, Clay clearly demonstrates the stags of grief one goes through; the tapes depict the working through those emotions. Thus far in lecture, we have talked about conceptualizing youth at the turn of the century, youth in the progressive era, and youth and the great depression.  I don’t believe I can relate it to anything we have talked about in lecture just yet.  One thing I will say, is that I don’t think the idea of suicide was as prevalent as it is today.  During those times there were the wealthy and lower class.  I find it hard to believe that those in the wealthy class had that big of a problem where suicide was the last resort.  Maybe it was a thing back then, but it wasn’t really talked about like it is today.  

Until next time…