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Taking Sociology 101 has helped me tremendously in understanding the society that I live in more deeply. Though I do not think I am a close minded person, I feel that I now have a better perspective thanks to the class regarding many issues like the social constructs that govern our daily lives, systemic racism, and education. An every day average person who is not familiar with sociology are not really required to question how our society works or why we do certain things, but this class forces me to ask "why?" to many things that I have always overlooked before. I think I have come to think more critically and to be more analytical about the relationships and interactions around me.
Last week, I went to buy a new phone at Costco. At the phone kiosk, there was only one sale associate, who seemed like a man of Hispanic descent. He was a very friendly person and easy to make conversations with. Unfortunately, I experienced some annoying issues with my phone carrier that caused the buying process to take over two hours. I felt so bad for taking so long that I apologized to the sales associate several times over, and each time he was very reassuring. In fact, he said that he was very happy to help me. All in all, the customer service that I received was very wonderful. When I was done, I saw other customers came up to the kiosk: a black woman with another older black woman. They were looking at the Samsung phones, and then asked the sales associate if they carry any unlocked phone in that model. The sales associate didn't even look at the two women when he succinctly replied "No." It was a short exchange, but I was internally shocked. Where had the warm and friendly persona go? He didn't even make eye contact with them and his tone was so curt. He was scrolling through his phone even! I'm not a sales associate, but I think there should be more than just a short "No" and a quick dismissal? Why did he not help them? Why did he come off as so hostile?? He was all buddy buddy with me, but the way he treated the two black women was so opposite of how he treated me that I felt wary of him.
Before, I think I would not even notice something like this and just brush it off, but when I saw that exchange, I began to think about the implications of his actions. I'm not trying to antagonize a stranger, but more like analyzing an action that seemed like microaggression to me. The sales associate decided to make that choice about how to act towards the two women, and I think even these kind of small scaled interactions are influenced by social structures. He was enabled to act like that because of his position over the women, and so these kind of interactions manifest without people even thinking too much about why exactly it even happened that way.
In many ways I feel that I have become more aware of the social phenomenons around me thanks to this class.

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In the latest moment of social media craze and performativity, Vogue has decided to put Harry Styles in a Gucci dress and plaster him on the front cover of their magazine, calling it a historic moment because a man is challenging gender roles. It garnered a lot of attention. I saw a tweet of someone praising him that had over ten thousand retweets, and more absurdly, an article calling him a gender fluid icon. But, how did a man wearing a dress even become a "gender icon?" I want to consider the many different implications that came out of this, but I can't help being a bit impartial over how ridiculous I think that a white, straight, cisgender man can put on a dress and be considered brave for doing so. Especially when you think about how Harry only does this for the sake of artistic, polished photoshoots and editorials, but never outside of it, like say, on an ordinary day.
One of the things that stuck with me when we learned about gender in class is that gender is performative and that people learn to behave certain ways according to their assigned gender at birth (Butler 1990). Thanks to the social structure of binary gender roles being ingrained in our society, there are certain things that a person do that is considered masculine or feminine. On the surface level, Harry Styles wearing a dress is to many people an act of challenging gender stereotypes because the norm is that boys don't wear dresses, right? I don't have a problem with this, and if him displaying these acts of "feminity" inspires LGBQT+ people to be more confident and safe in expressing themselves, then it is a very wonderful thing. However, there are some things that I find problematic. To what extent should Harry be praised? Outside of his choice of fashion, he has hardly talked about this topic that it's almost like he's queerbaiting. He's under no obligation to be some kind of gender advocate, but is he deserving of all this uplifting? To reference Paris is Burning, I learned that trans women, especially black trans women and drag queens, have been dressing in women's clothes for decades and were the forefront of the gender movement , yet they have never received even half of the same celebration that Harry got. In fact, they are subjected to some of the most violent form of abuse and even death. Of course, this is not Harry's fault, but because of transmisogyny and racism. However, I think it's safe to say that Harry benefits from this kind of image and that he is cushioned from the criticisms that a person of color would receive because of his many layers of privileges. The point is, I think that challenging toxic masculinity and gender norms is more than just wearing feminine clothes because they're social structures that has survived and prevailed through centuries, and that people have given Harry Styles too much credit.

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In Geography of Opportunity, there is a section where the writer discusses the negative effects of having a large number of liquor stores being near the South Dallas school on the students' education. This made me consider my school and its geography. I went to Malden High, and the school is located in the middle of the city where downtown of Malden is just a crosswalk away. This means that tons of shops, restaurants, and hang out places surround the school. Behind my school is a huge CVS store, there is a pizza place that is extremely popular among the students, east west of the school there is a vape shop, and at least two liquor stores. Basically, there are just a lot of things to do around my school that is potentially distracting to students. I know this because I've skipped class to go to some of these places before. Teachers would sometimes catch kids leaving the school to hang out. In my last year, there was a huge vaping problem at my school, and though I'm not sure, after I read the paper, I thought that it could be possibly due to us having a vape shop within walking distance. I have never thought about my school this way in the four years that I went there until now. I've always liked that there was so much to do around my school. Although I don't think my own education was not affected by the location of my school, I realized now that there are probably students that were more vulnerable to the distracting things around my school and have their education hindered.