Currently, I am studying for my AA in English, to finish a degree that I have been studying online for years. My goal is to simply graduate, so I am not sure what exactly I want my career to be. But, I do love writing, and asking questions about the world around me, especially in a political and social context.

For Example:

• Why do people do the things that they do?

• How can we improve the lives of the members of our community?

• How do we make systemic change?

• How to do end cycles of generational trauma that are supported by the social systems that were created before we were born?

• How does our social environment impact our actual environment?

How Could Sociology help you in this career?

• Sociology can help me answer those questions I mentioned above. Hopefully, through taking this course, I can find helpful and more impactful ways to improve my community.

  
  

How might Sociology Better Help You in Navigating and Coping with Life?

• Through checking my own bias and ignorance on social issues.

• Learning more about the Systemic Issues that I have no control over but that still exist.

• Practicing more empathy for myself over things I simply cannot control.

I just finished the reading and Sociology seems like a distant cousin to ideas and concepts I vaguely understood already. Not only though my understanding of social class, as a Queer White Person who lived in poverty most of my life, but rather other factors that play a huge impact in the lives of the people around me. Especially through the people I was raised with, how every single step we take has a reason why in its own way.

What I didn't know and what I have come to understand is that there are actual terms and complex theories that people have studied for centuries before I was born. Most of them (to quote Professor Harry day one of class) " Dead White Guys" sure, especially ones with too much time on their hands but questions to why regardless.

"Human Beings Are Fascinated with the world in which they live, and they aspire to develop ways to explain their experiences." ( Henslin. Pg 8). And I honestly cannot agree more. That's one of the reasons why I am in college in the first place, I want to know more.

I noticed in class the lack of empathy for LGBT (+) students from my peers in class. I admit I am behind of the readings but today in class, Professor Harry brought up the Pink Triangle, which I knew alot about as I studied queer theory and history in my free time, and how he used to do this project where students had to wear the Pink Triangle for a week and "Come Out."

Many students laughed at the response. I didn't knowing the gravity of that ask. Being someone who has had to come out, and still has to come out to do many people in my life. I find it to be a very interesting project.

Now how does it relate to my reading?

Well, in the reading, there is a part titled as: "Sociology in the Real World

Individual-Society Connections."

And it goes into a story about a Lesbian Woman and how she reacted and felt when she and her partner moved to a Urban City to a Small Midwestern town and her experiences. The discrimination changed, and in response this woman and her partner changed the community around her.

I hope this class and stories like that can help my classmates that did laugh work through so hopefully next time they won't laugh when Queerness is discussed in class because they have checked in with their biases, and the reasons why they believe what they do.

• Structural Functionalism

• Conflict Theory

• Symbolic Interactionism

The one I found the most interesting is Conflict Theory. Because for me at least, Conflict has always been defined as "disagreements between separate people" it can be two individuals (or parties) or it could be massive groups of different opinions about the same thing.

But Conflict Theory is defined a little differently here. This Marco theory is described as " The way inequities and inequalities contribute to social, political, and power differences and how they perpetuate power." ( Introduction To Sociology. Accessed September 3rd, 2024.). I was aware of the differences between the demographics but simply wasn't aware of that there has been a defined term for this aspect of our society.

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I also found the photo of the Rabbi during the zoom call super interesting, as I had not thought of how many ways Covid-19 and Technology has impacted our modern World. I added it above as I thought it was a great example of an other aspect of our perspectives on society: Structural Futionalism.

As we can see in this photo the religious beliefs and life style of the Rabbi had to adapt and change due to COVID 19. This was an Lantent aspect of the lockdown.

Again I feel like asking "Why?" Is such a impactful and important part of the way Sociology works. A way I have been thinking about this is how when a child asks their part "WHY?" And as an adult with a child, I embrace those kinds of questions.

Even today, while we were eating our spaghetti dinner that My partner lovingly made for me, My kiddo asked me:

"Why do people take drugs?"

1.) I was slightly surprised because my child is a very bright 7 year old, who openly asks me "hard questions".

2.). My uncle had entered the room talking about the topic.

And

3.) They had already had an Anti-Drug Assembly at school the school year prior anyways.

It lead to a long and good age appropriate conversation about Why Drugs exist and how they're treated differently depending on what kind it is.

I mean, that Question itself is a very nuanced one. It is deeply impacted by the society we live in, my answer to that question is also deeply answered by the culture and society experiences I have had.

I find that quote very revelant to how I handle a lot of aspects of my life not just child raising.

"Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both."

I find the concept of Sociological Imagination incredibly interesting, as it can expand our understanding of ourselves through both the individual and the outside perspective. As personal history and societal history are intertwined in unique and varying ways.

As mentioned in this part of the reading, most people do not realize that they are a part of history until it is too late. For example in my lifetime, this is a incredibly important time in politics. I was born in 1999, I was alive when:

• 9/11 happened.

• The War in Iraq, Ukraine, and the current conflict of Palestine.

• Our first Black President

• A very recent one but a assassination attempt on former President.

(Just to name a few.)

But in my own personal life, that just plays a huge part as well. Our own individual experiences and global history both play an equal role to how Society functions.

Troubles: personal

Issues: transcendent of the individual

And our own body standards can be seen in so many different aspects of our modern society, through the ads we watch to change our bodies, or something like people taking life changing medicines to make them skinner as a fad.

The only difference why one is more comfortable from my own perspective in comparison to the rituals of this community, is my own culture and understanding of the world around me.

I read this post the start of this unit, so many of the concepts were already explained in class. These include the language, symbols, values, norms and materials culture.

What I did not know was about High, Low and Popular Culture.

As a Pop Culture nerd, that one wasn't surprising at all, and while I knew that there was a difference between the classes. I didn't know that High or Low Culture had names to define them. I feel like a lot of the things I have been learning are just learning terms for concepts I already had an idea of.

Secondly, This is actually an interesting situation my partner and I find ourselves dealing with all the time. Both of us struggle with our communication skills as both of us are neurodivergent. Instead of fighting and getting mad, we started signing, facial expressions, and communication cards. We both were told growing up to

"JUST USE YOUR WORDS."

because we were raised with people who didn't understand non verbal communication. Personally, one of my favorite parts of who my partner is, is how the express themselves with their body.

"When should you feel sympathy about someone's plight?"

I did think about this question as I read and it made me think about it a lot. First of all, in our modern world, Sympathy is given out unevenly. We are told to care about everything every.single.day. and there's this social pressure to care. For me at least, every single post is about another social issue. There's a war where there's genocide going on. Someone TikTok Famous committed a terrible crime. Another person is talking about their failing marriage. There's another school shooting.

And when you do not care or cannot care, the social pressure can be soul crushing and isolating. The opposite of this is that people are becoming numb to it all.

And at least for me, I feel like I have sympathy for everyone and I am grieving for every person every day. For that reason, I actually had to quit so much social media because it was destroying my mental health, as I care so much.

One of these recreational pass times takes places within a temple of worship.

The toxins representative of the blood of their deity of worship, taken by man, woman and child in this temple of worship.

In contrast this liquid toxin has its own building of worship and celebration, with requirements of who can and cannot enter. A Enforcer of this rule, will judge and allow access to those deemed worthy enough of to enter establishment.

I have tattoos. I have a lovely viney leaves on my right forearm and I have a dragon tattoo on my left calf. ( And I plan to get more tattoos later. Specifically, Mythological Animals and plants.)

For me, tattoos are part of my family culture. I grew how with both of my parents having tattoos, and three of my siblings have tattoos. This is just how my family expresses ourselves.

When we were all kids, my older sibling, little sister and I all agreed that our first tattoos would be dragons. This was because both of our parents first tattoos were dragons as well. And once we came of age, we all got our dragon tattoos. It's a badge of pride for us.

I have a deep personal connection and perspective of tattoos and I do think tattoos can be taboo. From what I know, tattoos originated from indigenous tribes and over times came more popularized to the point that it became it's own subculture upon itself of body modification.

That being said, the art of tattooing should not be taboo, but what kind of art someone does can and will be taboo, especially when it comes to cultural appropriation, and racism as a whole. The Symbolic meanings of the tattoos matter more than the act of getting a tattoo now.

The ideas and perspectives on tattoos have definitely changed within the decades. Now with my generation everyone and their brother has tattoos now: doctors, police, lawyers, professors. Literally anyone can have a tattoo and have a successful job, the norm has changed but before, as mentioned in this video above, Tattoos were really socially taboo, and were associated with a lower class of people. (That is definitely rooted in racism as well.)

A good example of this change has been within the Church of Later Day Saints (The religious beliefs held by my expended family.) Tattoos were strongly discouraged for centuries, and still the teachings in the church are very vague about whether or not tattoos are actually okay. But socially, I know many people in the church who had tattoos before they converted, or got tattoos and were raised in the church.

My grandparents on my mother's side were deeply disapproving of tattoos for years and years. Including paying for one of my aunts to have one of hers removed, but as they have grown and changed they have learned that tattoos are fair more complicated.

Their own ethnocentrism had to be challenged in that time and now my grandmother understands it's better from a new and less religious based context.

I did not know about Interpretative Framework though and I am not sure what exactly to compare it to but I think a good way that I want to think about it is.

Using an Interpretative Framework and Field Research, let me use the example of this real life example: I was invited to visit my son's classroom since he has been struggling to mesh in with his class. Upon watching the class for a while, I learned many things about how and WHY my son is having a hard time.

Sure, my son has ADHD but it was a plethora of issues. My Hypothesis was The lack of classroom management and Organization, the greater the misbehavor of the students. My Hypothesis was correct, as the students not only my son, had a hard time sitting still, paying attention because the teacher did not have control of the room.

Any sane person in our Sociological Sense would instantly recoil upon meeting him or looking at his poor resume, as the social taboo in our modern world in that violence=bad. And I would also recoil to it too. The same with crimes like Cannibalism, Child Abuse ( and all it's gruesome forms) and sexual assault. This because of my own personal experiences with those crimes.

For me personally, if it was a drug related crime, or theft, those are things I personally could forgive and hire that person depending on if they could do the job and check in with their improvements. I have friends and family who do drugs that need help rather than Imprisonment. Criminalizing drug use (while common) only makes the problem worse. But of course, if I asked my grandmother, my little brother, my neighbor, or my boss this question will be different as mine, as they handle social taboos and crimes differently.

Another example of how people are handling Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a young woman who was abused by her mother through Munchausen by Proxy, and then assistance with her boyfriend, and together they brutally murdered her mom. She did her time and now has become a pop culture iconic online, even though she murdered her mom. She has been given a reality TV show instead of the mental help and privacy she deserves. To this day, she still being reported on like Madonna or Lady Gaga.

That is hiring a Ex-Con even though she did something socially appalling.

And to consider the stats and information provided by Pager's study:

I found it to be Ethical in it's approach. They described the testers, explained the variables, which I thought worked well. Especially when considering how being white impacts the criminals. To bring to back to Gypsy Rose Blanchard, I do believe that her race and privilege affected the way she was treated post her trial so so being that up in this discussion is important.

Not considering this factor when discussing Ex-Con rehabilitation would make the Mean of Averages have Outliers that could impact the statistics of the studies provided.

So growing up, I was unintentionally raised to deeply worry about everyone but myself. My sense of self is deeply effected by how other feel, react and how be responsible for everyone else's emotions. If I don't do everything, the world will fall apart and it would all be my fault.

So as I have aged I have had to work on my own personal identity, my own sense of self but also am very hyper aware of the world around me.

Per Point Three: "People take into account the possible reactions of others."

This is tiring for me, but if I am in a room I can tell watch each person is doing, and why they are acting that way. I have heightened anxiety, but it is nice to know that everyone is experiencing the same thing at the same time. Everyone is analyzing the way they are, the people who they are around and what they meant. All of which come from Sociology.

First of all we must answer what "good learning" and " good teaching" are to in turn use Quantitative research to measure it.

To start my process I simply googled, "What is Teaching?" First of all, I just got the Oxford Languages definitions. That is an issue itself because there's two of them.

Teaching:

• the occupation, profession, or work of a teacher.

• Ideas or principles taught by an authority.

I did the same with learning, and there were three different definitions:

Learning

• the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

• knowledge acquired through experience, study, or being taught.

• a thing learned by experience; a lesson.

The issue with this is: I would have to decide each one of these from my own perspective and viewpoint, whereas a person that is a teacher would. So I would have to attempt to use Cultural Relativism when measuring those questions. From here, I would have to choose the most measurable definitions and go from there. Then make a hypothesis, and then find averages of that hypothesis after the forms of research concluded.

I sat myself down at the back of the coffee shop, set a timer for 30 minutes to keep track and this is what I noticed. To the right of me was a giant picture of a Dragon Blood Tree, my left, another chair, a massive fan that used water, the door to the back parking lot and a bathroom. I sat the furthest from point the store to see the rest of it.

I can see from my spot the coffee counter, the green sign with the logo swaying in the wind, the screen with the menu perfectly lit. The counter has a little display for all the treats that are offered. The black and wooden chairs and brown coffee tables are modern and comfortable, which is a deep contrast to how further down I can see the sliver of the Market ahead with it's meat display and stacked bags in front of it.

High on the wall, there's a massive sign in English ( seen in the photo above) and it says the following:

"At the House of Mokha, We proudly embrace and celebrate the rich cultural heritage and traditions of Yemen. Our Mission is to not only serve exceptional coffee but also to provide an authentic Yemeni Experience that immerses our customers in the beauty and traditions of our beloved country.

Through our carefully curated menu, we offer a Journey through Yemeni Flavors, capturing the essence of our traditional cuisine and presenting it with a modern twist. From our signature Yemeni coffee blends to our delectable pastries and savory dishes, every bite and sip is a tribute to the culinary treasures of Yemen.

Beyond the Gastronomic Delights, we strive to create an ambiance that reflects the warmth and hospitality ingrained in Yemeni Culture. Our Cafe is a welcoming space where guests can gather, connect, and engage in meaningful conversations. We invite you to experience the traditional Yemeni Art, Music, and decor that adorn our walls. Providing a glimpse into the vibrant tapestry of our Heritage. Furthermore, House of Mokha is committed to supporting Yemeni coffee Farmers and promoting sustainable practices. By sourcing our coffee directly from Yemen, We empower local farmers, and contributing to the economic growth and stability of their community.

Join Us at the House of Mokha. Where Yamani culture comes alive, where coffee is an art, and where every moment is an opportunity to honor our traditions and create everlasting memories."

There's decently loud music playing, possibly Palestinian and/or Yamani. It's accompanied by the loud wurring of the movable box fan besides me and a constant loud metal of steering that I am not sure whether it's coffee grinding or meat being sliced for the partons. It smells of nothing but heat as all the smells from both sides cancel out.

Directly in front of me there's more chairs and tables and two full sized flags, Hung over the walk in freezer that holds drinks, and other cold goods. A Palestinian one and a Yemeni Flag. There are Free Palestine stickers placed sporadically.

A Yemeni Woman, her late 20's ,early 30's wears a rose gold/peachy hijab and a modest dress in to match. She stands behind the counter besides a tan skin nedman, with glasses, a short semi curly hair, and a mid length beard both black, he wore a green sweater with the brand logo of the coffee shop.

An older couple enters the shop. The women, short, round in her 60's, is also wearing a Hijab and the man, tall with white hair and beard, a baseball hat, and red shirt. They walk around to the meat counter, order and then wander around the market while waiting for their order.

The Female Employee and The Male employee in Green talk to each other in English about cleaning supplies and then start cleaning the coffee space. She wipes down the chairs and tables and he sweeps the floor.

Another Employee is spotted walking into the walk in freezer, he wears a green apron, has black hair and beard, and wear shorts.

A white person possibly early 20's with dirty blonde hair, walks in the store. They wear a fitted white shirt, a peace sign necklace, tan pants with patches in multiple colors, and black headphones with a peeling rainbow flag sticker on it. They bop around the store clearly listening to their music.

The Female Employee approaches me, wiping down the tables and chairs. Wipes down the chair next to me, after apologizing for being to close. I let her know politely that I am alright but I appreciate the gesture. By saying, "It's all good." And giving her a smile.

The employees busy themselves by talking about pastries. The Green Sweater Employee turns off the loud fan for a moment, as two tan men walk into the Market part of the store. They wear basketball shorts, sandals, t-shirts and both have short beards. They order at the meat counter, and then stand awkwardly while they wait for their order.

A woman enters from the door to the left of me, she has blonde hair, black sunglasses, a green shirt with Hawaii in white written across it, and black leggings. A white almost never worn tennis shoes. She has a expensive purse in brown and black. She orders a pastry.

The person in the white shirt, looks excitedly at the baked goods counter. The woman and the person accidentally bump into each other. They apologize to each other with a friendly laugh shared. The employee in the green sweater hands her a small brown bag, and they exchange thank you's between each other.

The Person in the white shirt awkwardly walks out of the store.

While waiting for more employees, they randomly make small talk while waiting for more customers. The employee with an apron and the Female employee with the hijab go in and out of the walk in freezer, the woman grabs more pastries, the male employee leaves empty handed and sits to watching a video on his phone.

The Green Sweater Employee works on the fan, makes himself busy by working on it and putting more water in.

The Cafe remains quiet after my experiment is over. I get a matcha, and a cheesecake, then I leave to go on with my day. It was a lovely experience.

1.) I was not officially the oldest child, but I was the eldest in the house. My family's influence is deeply impactful to who I am. For me at least, I spend 80% of my time caretaking for my younger siblings, different groups of kids depending on what man my mother was married to. I was given the responsibilities of that eldest child, but was ignored as the middle child I truly I am. ( In total, I have 10 siblings.)

• Within that I was taught very negative ideas about romance, relationships, gender roles, my own self worth and my own ideals on parenthood that deeply fractured my identity for the majority of my life. This is something I still struggle with to this day, especially as a gender non-conforming single parent from a family whose ideology is marry young, have many kids and then get re-married as soon as your previous marriage fell through.

  
  

• Likewise, my parents had unconventional childhoods that effected the way I was socialized. My mother grew up in a Mormon (LDS) household, where children grew up being raised by their siblings. My biological father grew up a troubled kid, with a disability that wasn't fully understood at the time and it ended up with him being basically taught to fend only for himself. Their Socializations bled into my ( honestly, very neglectful and abusive) childhood.

• As an adult, I can be very self conscious and overly aware of how my actions effect the world around me. I was socialized to believe that everything I do will make someone else's life harder. ( Thankfully, I have a therapist.)

2.) I was an incredibly othered child at school. My peers knew I was different and treated me as such. Fortunately, my bullying was never physical ( that was all at home) but I think those lessons helped me have a larger sense of empathy for people that are different than myself. Being queer in the Midwest, it does shape a person in a way that other places in the United States simply cannot.

3.) As a parent now, with my son, who has ADHD, I think about this alot. How well is my kiddo socializing with his peers. Since his life is so different than mine was, I have to dig deep to make sure he has those chances of socializing that I didn't since he doesn't have the plethora of kids around to socialize with.

In general, I think I am who I am because of the way I was socialized. I try not to be bitter or harsh about the way the world is, rather wanting to help improve the social issues that can be improved due to that said upbringing. I want to learn what those root causes are and do better for whomever comes into my life next. Which is a huge positive of the way I was socialized.

Both of my parents are not high school graduates. My father never got a diploma, my mother later in life got her G.E.D and started back to college when I was a teenager. The expectations of college were rather put on my elder sibling rather than myself for the majority of my life. My father did put a lot of pressure of us going to college, but once I was college applying age, no one really cared what my degree was in rather that I went that way I could give them a chunk of the Financial Aid money. My step father actually behind my back did my first FAFSA without my knowledge or consent and in turn I was going to school online for years while massive amounts debt I did not consent to. I quit after four years due to my family too. Three people in my family came terminally ill, both of my grandparents and my uncle ( all that I lived with). So instead of a college student, I had to be a nurse, and the stress was too much. So I dropped out. So, after my grandfather passed, I had a good conversation with my living family and I decided to finish my degree since I had been working for years with no degree. In the end, the choice to go back was only my own as I have no support or contact from my parents who wanted me to go in the first place.

2.) School

Teachers always wanted me to go to college. I was a very smart kid.For as long as I could remember I was told by my school to go. My teachers would have college flags and their sports teams on their walls as decoration. When I got pregnant at 17, an English teacher I had once pulled me aside during class and begged for me to go to College. Later, after my son was born, she found me at at the local high school football game, and worriedly asked me if I was in College. And I was. ( This is extra impactful as the year I got pregnant, I knew at least 4 other students who were also pregnant, and multiple students who had already had kids and had dropped out.)

3.) Peers

My peers and I talked about college but most people doubted that I would even go to college since I had a child young. But I was going and raising a baby as a single parent. I had multiple times where people were shocked that I was even attempting to do so. To this day, people still are shocked when I explain that part of my life. Due to my social status as a teen parent, People have discredited my ability to be a student.

I still see this to this day. I was talking to a peer about life and my partner, and the moment I mentioned I was teen parent, their entire personality changed, and our conversation became incredibly uncomfortable for me, as the warmth they once had turned into discomfort, as I don't fit a stereotype of a classic college student but I look young enough.

4.) Mass Media

Every single TV show about High School also talks about college. It's like a huge conflict for so many characters, and also, at times for those fictional students. It's College or BUST. It's Yale, or Stanford, or Harvard. Or your life is ruined, especially if your boyfriend isn't getting into Harvard, or you're not getting a full ride scholarship. I think our media does this incredible job of showing a very specific kind of College experience outside of that as well. Like through College Parties, under aged drinking, and Frat Life. When in reality, I have never even met someone in a Frat at all. This could also be to the college I go to not really having that, but the way it's shown is not the entirety of public education.

5.) Public Interest

College in general is proped in every as aspect of life. Through who gets the "good" jobs vrs those who don't. Though our minimum wage requirements, and who can and cannot become members of Congress. Who can or cannot be teachers, or lawyers. While college is not the only after highschool education, it holds high power in our society.

So even though my parents were terrible in many ways, self expression was something always praised. I wore strange clothes, jewelry I made from Melt-A-Beans, bright colors. Needless to say, I stuck out like a sore thumb since the moment I started dressing myself.

And now as an adult, I still dress myself in a way that makes me stick out like a sore thumb. sure it's a lot more focused and detailed to my interests. I am fully aware of this fact that my self expression makes waves and ripples to the people around me.

At times, It's slightly isolating as people's impressions of me makes me untouchable socially. I have had times due to the impression and perception of others that makes people think I am far more busy and interesting than I actually am. Others say that I am intimidating, not in a bad way, but in a way that positively overwhelms them due to the confidence I seem to outwardly express.

The Social Stigma can be interesting as being a Mortician is a necessary part of our society to function but in contrast makes so many people uncomfortable with their existence. Likewise, it is a role of empathy that gets over looked over our fear of death.

Personally, for myself. I do not fear death like many do. Perhaps it's due to my own personal experiences with handling it. I.E: caretaking for my grandparents while my grandfather was dying, and managing the Family Pets when the die suddenly. But Mortician work is far more complicated than simply putting a body in the ground and calling it a day.

1.) Would I actually get to the point where I would kill someone for the sake of authority?

And

2.) A more current Trolley Problem Experiment that a YouTuber did a few years ago. Titled "The Trolley Problem in real life." Created By the YouTube Creator, VSauce.

1.) To answer that first question, With what information that was presented to me. I would not even start the experiment, it would have been told to me and I would have backed away quickly and left.

No amount of money would be worth that kind of punishment on a stranger. Not to mention, I have a lot of foresight when it comes to danger. This comes from my crippling anxiety disorder that comes from my childhood of unsafe environments. I can see how people could get pressured into that situation though. Authority Figures are hard to handle and there have been situations where I knew something was wrong but my position has made me be long suffering rather than stand up for myself, (but not to an extreme. I have my limits.)

Long story short, right as COVID restrictions were being lifted I worked for an retail store as a Merchandise Stocker. And this particular business had an incredibly toxic work environment. This including me not knowing when I was working until the night before and for how long. I would go into work and work a 10 hour shift with no knowledge of this fact until 6 or 7 hours in. Making me miss my lunch break constantly. This also lead to the entire team being yelled about about clocking in for overtime..(All of which were issues far above my pay grade to solve.).

I cried every single car ride home and I knew it was terrible but I needed the money and I needed to keep my kid in child care, so I stayed for far longer than I should. So, I can understand why people would get that desperate for extra cash, for me personally tho, I would rather be self destructive than hurt someone else.

2.) Why this video reminds me of the study that was read about was the fact that in both studies the people being testing did not know it was a test until it was over. But VSauce's test was definitely done far more ethical than the electric shock test. In VSauce's test, the test subjects are faced with a real life trolley problem in a locked room themselves, stuck with the choice of either harming one person or 5 people on a rail road track. The second they made a choice (or not) the screens went black before the test subjects could see the violence of that choice. There was also mental support in the room with them after the test was concluded. This study would have not been done so ethically without the harmful testing of the past.

There's also shows like "What Would You Do?" Which is also basically testing people's instant reactions to high stress situations, but not informing the test subjects until after the experiment has happened. We just see those recorded experiments as entertainment rather than experiments. I used to enjoy watching that one was a kid but as I have gotten older the ethics and lack of privacy made me really concerned, as people can't really consent to be recorded until after the fact. Not to mention how artificial that those "tests can be."

For example: Playing house, and I was the Aunt who was a single mom and lived in a different house, or Power Rangers, but I couldn't be a Power Ranger, I had to be a person who helped the rangers with the science stuff. Or I would start a singing group, invite people to play and sing with me, then I would be kicked out and told to make a B-Group (Secondary Group, not as good as the A's.)

Specifically, roles in games where no one had to actually play with me, ( and it also was a huge reflection of how those kids viewed specific roles in the family and in positions of power.) As well as ways to get away with Bullying without actually getting in trouble by the authority figures that were in charge of us.

Still to this day I'm untangling and unraveling that part of my life as I internalize social isolation as a punishment of my self worth rather than an issue with being in with the wrong group of people. I still have issues staying in group settings if I cannot blend in a mesh well with others. It took me years with my closest friends to feel like I was actually part of the group, as they all had the ability to see each other in times I could not.

Another unintentional example of this is my partner and I. My partner and I are in-group through our shared love of Plants, Music, going to the same community college and our experiences being part of the LGBT(+) community. Whereas, my partner and I are out-grouped with each other as they were raised in a far more wealthy family than I.

This actually causes conflict sometimes as I have a different understanding of the value of the dollar in comparison to them. In general, this is something we overcome as we translate that difference in the moment, then I stop being stubborn they and let them pay for my dinner or groceries. (Since I am too broke to pay for it myself.)

It seems like having the minimum wage that low can put more harm of the tax payer's wallet too. I don't know the financial logistics of this, but those who cannot afford get help from the government. Not giving people their own money, makes them have to ask for money from our social services in the United States, and at times that isn't enough either. ( I would know, I am one of those people who get help via Cal Fresh and Medi-Cal.)

I added a great article about the long fight and legacy of Minimum Wage workers protesting for that wage to be better for them.

I am also reminded that during COVID, most people who worked Minimum Wage (specifically in Fast Food) weren't praised as Essential Workers but in my eyes they were. Not to mention Delivery workers ( who were also Extremely under paid for their work during that time.)

Overall, people deserve to be ethically paid for the labor they do.

This issue comes from each of our own individual experiences with the different societies we grew up in. My grandma was born during the Industrial Revolution. Her grandparents had immigrated from Switzerland and Sweden because there was so many financial opportunities. My grandparents was able to afford to raise 7 children while my grandfather had jobs that would be Minimum Wage now. They had very little support from their parents because they could afford it. My grandpa had a huge life insurance policy set up that my grandma still is living in.

My Aunt, was born right as the Industrial Revolution was ending, she raised her two kids with not that much money but she still could afford an apartment with a spouse struggling with Medical Issues. She did rely on support from my grandparents every once and a while but eventually that ended when the industry started going computerized. She retired a few years ago from a job with BART,but has to find work again despite her injuries to maintain our house.

And then there's me, I have been struggling my entire adult life to find steady work that doesn't destroy my body or will even call me back for an interview. All my friends are living with family or live with an upwards of 4 roommates regardless of having full time jobs or not. Money is hard to come by so we all share what we can, when we can. Focusing on buy nothing groups, second hand shops and eco living to survive. Little to none of them want to have kids because they can't afford to have them.

That difference of generations in society makes it hard for all of us to be successful though. How I see it is, even though older generations still think all you have to do is: " Work harder, put more in." They are also hitting a brick wall. I mentioned earlier that my grandmother had been living off my grandfather's life insurance.

That was supposed to cover all her costs until she passed, but unfortunately, that huge sum isn't enough to maintain. Which leads to each one of us in my household to contribute despite that policy was supposed to support the living costs... When it was signed in 2008.

Overall, our changing world has really hit all of us hard, just some people know it more than others.

I also keep track of what I wear through an clothing apps to make sure I don't waste the clothing I do own. (I care deeply about the clothes I wear, and hence why I am thoughful about it.)

The amount of money I make going into the kinds of clothes I can even afford. I would prefer to get items made 100% in the United States, and I do own clothes from the US but our society makes that incredibly impossible to maintain.

For this assignment, I had a hard time as the tags of many of my favorite articles of clothing have worn off due to age and use, but I believe I managed to find a proper representation of my clothes.

I chose these items specifically to highlight the problem of this industry, but I do own a lot of items made in the United States, like my favorite bag that I use for class all the time. But that doesn't consider where the fabric of my bag is from, or where the zipper was made. Or if that said Zipper was made in the United States. It's a deep rooted aspect of being American that many people don't really think about.

From what I came to understand, Globalization has deeply effected my closet. As a lot of my clothes come from China, India and Bangladesh. Three of the top producers of clothing in the world. This implies that there's a huge chance that my clothes have been made my underpaid factory workers.

This is a consequence of our Post-Industrial Society, and globalization. Other Countries are unethically cheaper to get textiles from. And Companies in the United States choose Factories over seas. Which I find interesting, that people in certain political fields claim: "Immigrants are taking our jobs" but companies are the true villains.

Of course, with proper lobbying and advocacy that could change, but unfortunately, there are so many issues something like Fashion Waste is way on the buttom of the Hot Button Topics, Yet, there are still people who care and talk about it. Hence why there has been a boom in Second Hand Shopping and advocacy groups spreading awareness about how our clothes are made, the damage and how the whole Fast Fashion Industry works.

One Instragram account I follow, works on managing both textile waste, over consumption of clothing and Fast Fashion, by selling Dead Stock Fabrics in the United States and making Garments out of it.

Overall, this has made me want to be even more mindful of where my clothes come from in the future, and get back into making my own too.

I look at the way my son is being raised now and I think about the world and how it will be when he grows up. There's not even this guarantee that there will be any world left for him. Globalization is an interesting concept in this worry for me. Sure, I want to world to be connected, that way we can all understand each other better. That way we can be connected to each other in ways never thought before, that's how I met my closest friends during the pandemic.

But what is actually concerning in my perspective, is the lost of culture that can come from that Americanization element of Globalization. Each country is beautiful and interesting in its own way, with it's own ways of doing things, some of which that have been doing it for centuries. Not everywhere needs to be America-Like.

There's things my generation has been doing to persevere that culture that can be lost. Having Cultural appropriation based festivals, protesting for better pay for employees here in the United States, and supporting each other that way we can keep our differences celebrated and alive. But it's not without conflict.

Reading about someone discovering the struggles of not being middle class for the first time, it's a very hollowing feeling. I understand the author's intentions but I already know the systems that are place and why they are failing.

I grew up in a very poor family. My mother, who only had a GED, never had a job that was enough for all the basic necessities of living. This is included medical attention, and at times barely any food to feed 5 or more children. There were times we were without power, and has to air dry our laundry in our dusty garage because our dryer broke and we couldn't afford to fix it. We would camp in the summer for weeks on end, that way my parents wouldn't have to pay for power and water. I was the babysitter so that's one of the only ways they managed to save on the bills.

The men my mother married most of them had criminal records. SO they weren't contributing much to the family expenses, rather becoming neglectful (and abusive) baby sitters, where my siblings and I were forced to care for ourselves with brief interludes of my mother's involvement. ( My father has a newspaper route, that all of us children took turns doing for him while he drove from house to house.)

All things considered, my mother constantly worked for so little. Scrapped any penny she could, as at times the food stamps she got was not enough.

To this day, I am deeply effected by that poverty. The economy and my adult life starting with me already being a parent with little family support, I haven't been given many opportunities to be successful. Good Jobs are scarce, jobs that are flexible enough for single patients even more scarce.

My partner and I have been having issues about this as they were born far more wealthy than I. The trauma of not having money can be really intense when trying to mesh our lives and living standards.

Over all Nickel and Diming is my life still and I hope as much generation ages into political power we can work towards improving the poor welfare systems we have in place.

I grew up with McDonald's, which kid didn't. My mother would use to free play place and the small free ice cream as a summer day trip to keep us from killing each other from the cabin fever.

I have a friend who worked at McDonald's and it was miserable for them. They ended up getting mold exposure from the building and after coughing off a pretty unhealthy amount of blood, they had to quit for their own physical safety.

My brother also worked for McDonald's before he joined the Navy, and while he did not get Mold Exposure. The trauma of that experience is still harrowing for him. He still tells stories of his time in fast food with more stress than any story from the Navy.

That convenience of McDonald's isn't under stated though..I still have family that have a dialy routine to get McDonald's Sodas even before they go to any other fast food places because they're cheap and quick.

Overall, for me at least. It isn't worth it, fast food that's just fast doesn't ever actually make me feel good both physically or ethically. But it's fair if others think so or need it to live. Regardless of my opinions on the company, employees deserve a livable wage and to not be exposed to danger... Especially while flipping burgers.

In this passage of the book, a question is proposed and I intend to answer it to the best of my ability: "Do you think the Author has overlooked any functions of the poor?" As someone who has been in poverty my entire life, I believe that it has done a good job explaining why poverty benefits parts of society. Sure, no one wants to admit that Poverty can be "good" but we live in a very capitalist society. This is how it functions, the author comes from that perspective as well.

Not to mention, the United States is built on slave or forced labor. No one who would those gruesome jobs unless they absolutely had to go survive. No one would work retail, factory work or at a fast food place if they had a choice. ( At least no one I have met in my life.)

That being said, Poverty is oppression, in the simplest terms and concepts. So while it helps our society function, it still is bad and society should improve to fix it.

The presenter in the video showed those huge issues in an way that I could understand. I think that the Wealthy Gap is deeply concerning. Sure there is understanding of why in our modern world it's like this. According to the course work a world with more economical advancements will have more inequality. Wealthy inequality especially since we live in a Post-Industrial society.

The reason I feel like people have this very wrong understanding of how wealth works is due to our advancements in technology. When Marx first stated that "Religion is the Opium of the People," technology wasn't an issue as it is now. I bring up this quote to explain that Technology is that new opium. We don't know as much as we claim especially with these all knowing devices in our hands.

(Not only that, those who have money have their foot in technology.)

It's also based on Power. In the Past the monarchy had the power claiming birth right, but in a capitalist society like the United States, The Wealthy are justified because "they worked harder for it." The video gives a good reason why that claim is utter lies and not justified.

First of all, my partner parents could afford basic at home healthcare. Like Bandaids, causal over the counter sick medicines, menstrual products. While I have these items now, the fact that we didn't keep them stocked in my home constantly was a surprise to my partner. As it was a basic necessity.

Likewise, due to my low social class, I still struggle with two of the Capitals, Social, Cultural and Economical. My partner grew up socializing with so many different people that social anxiety isn't a thing for them. They know how to get things for free, how to haggle, how to make friends and community wherever they go. They understand culture and have empathy in a way that I haven't seen in another person. Which were all given to them through those Capitals.

For me on the other hand, I don't think I have that. It's silly to admit but there's so much I have no idea about in this world.

A few days ago, my partner and I went to the new Korean Hot Pot and Barbecue Place near Campus, and I was so confused about the entirety of how it worked. They were a natural, asking questions about specific things they knew about the place to understand how to do it exactly.

From what I have come to understand about my partner is that their love for food is part of that capital. As eating out was such a luxury for me growing up.

When we went out to eat, it wasn't half as nice as a Korean Restaurant. Those differences have been a slight culture shock for me, as I navigate that there's so many things I have missed out on due to not having any wealth.

The Show focuses on how those rules are as flimsy as can be as long as you do not get caught, as long as you keep up the appearance of the rules. I like this fictional example because we can still see this in our day to day, there's the rich and powerful who have marriages out of conveniences and go to balls and keep up those rules. I am simply too poor to care know what those parties are truly like.

The material feels impossible to give insightful commentary every single time, especially as someone currently struggling in this system who is currently on the brink of losing my home and the financial pressures thrust upon me, by my family.

I am expected to have Wealth and income, when I have spent Months looking for jobs with not even a call back.

This system is not meant for people like me to succeed. And honestly, while I desperately want to learn why. It's just making me so disappointed and hopeless for the state of our world. So both perhaps the class systems we have in the United States are meant to destroy us like this, that way we keep dragging our exchausted bodies to work everyday so some wealthy person can have more money. I don't want the American Dream, I feel like it's corrupted and tainted with the blood, sweat and tears of oppression.

The first thing I read from this chapter was about the American Dream. My Socio-Economics status exhausts me, and instead of people in my family giving me grace, I get told by society I just need to work harder and do more. Being punished for a Socio-Economicn status I was being more into is such a honestly bogus part of my life.

While Sociologists do say that there's no one type of person to truly blame for social inequality, I feel like the poor always get the short end of the stick. Income and Wealth are still used as signs of hard work and success, through that understanding of Stratification.

While the United States is this "Open system," it does not feel like it due to things like Class and the privileges we may or not have been provided at birth. I will say I have no opinion on which one is better Class System vs A Caste System, because both have their advantages and disadvantages

- - ----

Other concepts for myself for this reading that I don't have an opinion. I personally do not believe I need to have an opinion on every single thing but but I still feel are important to remember, and take note of these topics.

Exogamous marriages: focus on values, rather than money between couples from different social classes. This is the kind of marriages I have come to know as a person in our modern era.

Endogamus Marriages: based in class alone. This feels old fashioned but probably still happens.

Meritocracy: system based on person effort/merit. Honestly, I feel like this is expressed a lot by the people I was raised but without no real world applications.

Status Consistency: the consistency of rank across social Stratification factors within lifetimes.

I bring this up because Race plays a huge factor in my life every single day. Conversations about race with my family are equally common. As so many of the members in my family have Multiple Identities due to that mixing races but our ethnicity is based in the whiteness in our blood and in my family, at least, being mostly White American is that default. I once had a conversation with my brother, (who isn't as socially aware, and wasn't at the time due to him being a 17 year old kid, who was being raised in small town conservative America) about race since it was time of the Black Lives Matter movement, and he asked me: "Why Doesn't Our Family Have Culture?"

And I answered, "Well, We do but our Swiss and Welsh ( other vaguely European Immigrant family members.) had their own cultures, and eventually being American and assimilating was more important and necessary to be an American Citizen." He didn't have much else to say after that, or I simply don't remember the rest of the conversation.

I bring this up because Race plays a huge factor in my life every single day. Conversations about race with my family are equally common. As so many of the members in my family have Multiple Identities due to that mixing races.

That being said, it is not without its conflicts as many of my white family members still harbor prejudices that affect how the People of Color in my family are treated.

For example: An infamous fight in my family was between my cousin and my aunt. My cousin, a very openly proud black woman was complaining and openly expressing her experiences with being racially profiled at airports due to her skin and her hair. My aunt, a very white woman, who (in my opinion thinks she is very progressive, but absolutely is not) told my cousin that she was far too pretty to experience racism. Needless to say, it was not a good conversation about race, led to a massive public fight and my cousin refuses to talk to her again.

Another example is how another Aunt and Uncle of mine still go to a segregated church. While it was by language rather than race, when I expressed my concern about this issue to them. It was hand-waved with the classic, "They wanted it segregated." I have been to their church before for a wedding and a funeral, and I was right, there are clear examples of the De Facto segregation and white supremacy taking place within that building. ( If it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it is a duck. Calling the issue a Chicken of a Goose would be a falsehood.)

As another example, Prior to my child's birth. I got frequent comments from members of my family about how I should "Name my son, after HiroHito." After the Emperor who was in power when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

As a mostly white person, I understand how I benefit from the systems that hurt minorities in our country and the United States. and while even I have had racism spewed at me as well, (Including being called pretty intense racial slurs directed towards black people almost weekly, and being told I would "look like a Terrorist if I shaved my head prior to getting on a airplane.") Those stupid off hand comments that were said to me to degrade me are nothing compared to the systemic issues People of Color face, especially in the United States and do what I can to use my privilege to lift up those communities of color.

Including Protesting when I physically can, reading books to educate myself, and accepting that I will not be perfect in this as I am a human that grew up with these systems.

My Grandmother grew up in Segregation, and it's not something she talks a lot about. It seems like a very sore and sour subject. My Aunt, who married a Black Man in the 1990's and had two children, didn't experience the same discrimination that she would have if she had been born when my grandmother had been. ( My aunt mentioned how she thought the world was progressive in the 1990's and how wrong she was.) This became a sore subject when my cousin was openly discussing racism she had to deal with, with my grandmother in the room.

The word Racism, is far more complex if we use the context of Page's writing in comparison to how we use the word now. Page dealt with open and socially acceptable racism his entire life and childhood. Not allowed to go to parks, pools and schools that White Students had access to. That is how my grandmother defines racism, by its nasty openness and welcomed toxicity. Slurs welcomed.

My cousin knows a different translation of the same word, and racism is understood in a far more nuanced way now that doesn't get televised or is sneaky enough to be still allowed in Family Living rooms, busses, airports and schools. That color-blindness Page mentions in the text happens in my home whenever my cousins come to visit. They aren't black because they are also white.

I have a theory that my grandmother cried for more than one reason that day, it wasn't just the fact that "Racist" meant something different and is drenched in 1950's violence, nor the fact that my cousin was upset about who was treating her that way. It was a fact that for a moment that of color- blindness was lifted, her grand daughter was black, not just her granddaughter. And those parallel realities were rearing their ugly heads. Seeming far further than ever before.

As for me, this third party. I, of course sided with my cousin. Her experiences where valid and real to her, and at the time, I didn't fully understand the gravity to why it made my grandmother as sad as it did. There's trauma woven into Segregation not only for those discriminated against but those who had to take part in it. Who were born into that world and had no power to change it due to the belief systems that surrounded them at the time. There's guilt and shame there as well.

That's why it is so hard for people talk about it. No one wants to admit when they were part of a massive issue even if they did not have any choice in that. There's this mental distance between being in a hate group and every day racism that has been taught to us for as long as we can remember.

I attached an article above about Pew Research Center's findings during a 2014 study on Multiracial Families and People. I found it interesting, as how this experience has been studied and how it has been recorded over time.

What I liked about this Article is that Ezekiel bravely decided to go into White Supremacist spaces even though he knew of the danger he was in by doing so. These readings do a great job of discussing the impact of that time with those people. Personally, I would be absolutely terrified to go into those spaces myself, even though I am a (mostly) white person who grew up in heavily conservative and white centered conservative spaces my entire life.

There a part where Ezekiel mentioned how he was confronted by someone spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric at him, despite (from what I could tell) his hurt, fear and probably anger, he explained why that person must have been confronting him years later after that experience. I found that noble and strangely compassionate for what was truly a face of evil and bigotry.

I bring this up because I simply could not have been as brave as the author was while dealing with whilst studying the Klan and still having the want to study and learn more about Racism as a result.

Recently, I was on the bus with my partner when a man stepped on the bus. He actively had multiple iron crosses on his hat, and body. ( A lesser known Nazi Symbol. While I am not Jewish, many of my chosen family are, so I educated myself of what to look out for, for my sake and theirs. (The symbol was later adopted by Bikers in the 1960's, but hate is till hate.) He also seemed to have an open carries gun on his side.

After signaling to my partner that he was on the bus, I instantly took of my pride pins and shoved them in my bag. I shuffled away from my partner. It was a genuine fear for the both of us that something could have happened to us if we did something wrong. I added the iron cross I saw on the bus home. It was strange and odd to be causally worn, like a cool logo or fun icon.

{ My queerness is something I have learned to turn off and on in certain situations. My partner is not so lucky, looking more queer than I. The bigotry towards Gender and Sexuality are far different than Racism, but bigotry in general is interwoven. ) }

I have been racist in my past. Similarly to what's mentioned in the reading. This comes from my upbringing. This wasn't ever intentional as I was always an open minded kid, and had friends of all different backgrounds growing up.

Anyways, those thoughts and ignorances are home grown in my life, and the community I grew up in. My father used to make this joke of " I'm not racist, I hate everyone." Which I always disliked even as an innocent 10 year old. Strangely enough, he was the one who taught me about justice, as I would always get in trouble for taking the blame for my younger siblings' behaviors (in a way to protect them from brutal punishment.) He gave me a strong sense of justice, and hated me for it. Told me as a child that he and I would never get a long because do it.

Even though, I always had that sense of justice, it didn't really hit me with how bad people of color had it until I was a teenager and began having friends and peers that were either dealing with it as a victim or being the ones being racist.

On my own, I had to learn what I meant to be Anti-Racist, and how to work towards creating a less racist society. Likewise, teaching my son. As you are either raised Racist or Anti-Racist, I would rather him not be.

Am I as bad as a Militant White Nationalist or a White Supremacist, as mentioned in this reading? No, absolutely not. I never was but those ideas I grew up with came from those movements because of how ideas have this way of creeping into the common culture and become socially acceptable wheter we like them or not.

+The Interviews+

- German-

The First interview I did was for German and he/they pronouns. German from my perspective is on the outside very serious and chill, and really he cares deeply about the people around them ( and has dropped everything to help my partner when they got to sick they couldn't get to our car by myself ) and has this huge passion of dance.

When I asked them if they wouldn't mind, he was incredibly willing and wrote the following notes for me because I was dealing with a heavy cough at the time and couldn't many words out.

1.) I am Filipino American.

2.) I guess growing up, my family would drill it into my head that I am Filipino, my family is Filipino. For me, it's not really a decision, it's just a given.

3.) " You are Filipino" always being said to me. For race, I learned to just be chill with people and respect them because, they're all humans.

4.) Just Visually. I'll make a quick, guess them I'll ask them. I.E: Are you Asian? What flavor of Asian are you?

5.) I just say I'm Filipino. People Listen.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

-R.J-

I don't really know much about RJ and RJ's interests. But what I do know about RJ is that they are incredibly friendly and kind which I always appreciate. We had more of a conversation rather than a note for note questions answering session, and with interview other people in the shape we were at, so it lead to other indirect conversations about race in a more group session, which was refreshing to be around as I grew in a place where talking about how bad Racism is was a huge social taboo.

1.) RJ is Filipino/ Pacific Islander.

2.) Your Parents, You don't. You just are.

3.) Skin Tone and/or overtime. They're different. They aren't like me. Didn't realize until they were older how life could be to people that were darker.

4.) Socially, people defines it for you. School, your peers.

5.) RJ didn't know any true examples, and assumed people learned the same way he did. Maybe the Internet, Media. History.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

-F-

F wanted to say anonymous when I asked them these questions as from them, it was a very personal subject due to their upbringing, so when I asked them about it they agreed as long as I kept it as private as possible.

1.) I am white. I think of European Roots, but definitely British way back.

2.) My parents. I remember they were really proud of being white to a point looking back it was really surpreme. Especially when they got into Trump, it got worse.

3.) I was just always told in multiple ways that I was white and was kinda told at times that it was "better " that I was paler by my parents because they didn't want me tanner. But also like, the TV I watched didn't really have that many black people or Asian people unless they were being pick on.

4.) I look at them and assume.

5.) I am white, people assume I am white. But I can see how being defined by other people can be hard and I beg people to chill out..

-_-_-_-_-_-__-_-__-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-__-

-Jasper-

Jasper and I became friends during 2020, when we both were dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic. Personally, I consider them a best friend and actually am one of their "Best Men" for their Wedding on Halloween. Them and I have had a lot conversations about our upbringings as they were very similar despite the fact we are different races. So asking about race has always been on the table.

Jasper uses his experiences in his storytelling with their love Tabletop games and creating characters that represent them.

One time, (after prefacing that he could bully me on it because I knew it was wrong) I asked him if he was Filipino, he laughed directly at my face and corrected me, as he is Korean and part hispanic but since Jasper and I are incredibly comfortable with each other, he knew where I came from.

I feel the answers he gave came from a safer place since he knows how I viee the topic and was more open than my previous interviewees gave me.

1) I'm Asian, specifically Korean.

2) My father is Korean. Race isnt an opinion or a decision, it is physical and societal aspects passed down from parent to child.

3) I have always known I was korean, because growing up I was very connected to the korean half of my family, so I was raised with the knowledge and saw the traditions.

4) I do not understand this question. you cannot decide someone elses race, just as you cannot decide what anything is about another person.

5) See Above.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

-Hedge-

Hedge, (All Pronouns) is another person that I met during Covid, is another of my closest friends and actually lives with Jasper, (along with Jasper's now Husband {as of this post's due date} and Hedge's Fiance.) Like the same with Jasper, Hedge and I have had incredibly personal and deep questions about literally everything including race. So there questions felt like they could be answered more comfortably.

Hedge specifically does a lot of personal work to reconnect with her culture now as an adult, and they mention that in their answers. I have seen this especially with the food they made, as Hedge has a degree in the Culinary Arts.

I feel for a lot of people, race and racism is scary to talk about as it's a very vulnerable topic and can come with trauma so having people so open to answering these questions honestly is very nice.

1) I'm Mixed, I'm Mexican and White primarily

2)

A. My mother made this fact very casual in our household.

B. Well it's not a decision since race is a trait that's genetically passed down. I do think you can decide whether or not you identify with your race's cultural footprint. Because I identify with my Mexican roots on a cultural level, I decided to practice some of those cultural traditions tied to the race my mother passed down to me!

C. Race wasnt a huge conversation in my house, it was very casually spoken about. I can remember foods and traditions we practiced from an old age. I also went to a school that was multi cultural where we openly celebrated different races and the cultures tied to them. I've always had a love for my races cultural ties because of this.

3) I cant decide someone's race. It's something that's theirs and regardless of any biased notions my brain tries to come up with, I can't decide someone is a particular race. That's super unfair to try to do.

4) They also can't decide my race. They can make assumptions based on my physical traits combined with their own biases and perhaps they feel as though they have decided my race but the reality is that race is genetic and not a decision so nobody really decides they're a particular race.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

My Interview:

1.) I am white but, I am of a mixed European decent (including Welsh and Swiss) and a tiny bit Choctaw on my Partneral Grandfather's side.

2.) Well, first of all I took a DNA test. Which isn't always 100% accurate every single time. Alot of DNA testing sites have an racial bias that ignores First Nations people. But not only that, I grew up with being told about how my great great grandparents immigrated over and from where. With recorded documents and a published Journal of one of my family members' old timey diaries during The Pony Express. In the religion I grew up in knowing your family and your history was the closest we got to race as it was mostly assumed you were white of you joined.

3.) My question 2 bleeds alot into my question 3. There wasn't really a moment where I realized I was white, I just always have been, and I was bullied and discriminated against for other reasons. White is the defacto way of life where I was, I had a privilege to not habe at worry alongside my trials and tribulations of my life.

4.) I don't try to. If they don't tell me, I don't ask. Sure, if someone is wearing certain cultural clothes, or talking about how their Appa took them to dinner. things that I can tell more about them but overall, I try my best to just be respectful and ask more considerate questions. Educate myself seperately, to ask those questions better.

Because most of the time, I honestly I don't need to know people's races to give them basic kindness and respect but knowing more about them is still important.

5.) People assume I am white, and that is correct because for the most part I am and live as a White American. I wasn't raised Native American. It's just a tiny part of my dna. For me at least race is more social appearance based rather than that one 1/4th or 1/8th I am.

Someone at some point in time said so, perhaps it was someone who lived on the land or someone else who wanted that for themselves. But both play an impact in how race is understood.

In general, as a society we use race to decide how we see and treat other people, and race can and will change as we become a more tolerant and open minded society.

Sex, as in fornication, is simply between a man and a woman to have many many children. These expectations start extremely young. Those Gender roles were seen as biological and God given rather than something that has been molded and changed through the centuries. Any deviation from this could be corrected with more faith, more religiosity, and even conversion therapy in extreme cases.

While, my mother flip-flopped in her attending, these ideas still festered through my youth. This all came to consideration when I was learning more about myself, my gender, and when it comes to raising my own kid.

For myself, I realized I was Queer in high school. I use this word because I don't personally like the idea of my professor knowing how I like to have another person have sex with me, and because I actually find myself fairly Asexual. But, that came from a long complex story of trauma, self discovery, self hatred and acceptance.

I have a lot to say on this matter, and as I read more, I will add those thoughts. But, nothing I have read so far, is new. I know about discrimination and crushing gender roles because I experience it. I know about transitioning because so many members of my chosen family and my biological family are trans. I started studying what it meant to be part of the community, as soon as I realized what that was when I was in middle school. My hope is that I actually learn something new in this unit, to gain more knowledge about this topic.

My mother made that choice for me, when she insisted to be at my Ultrasound and insisted that the sonogram worked point out if my child's privates. And then the gendered jokes started, and the masculine baby items came rolling in.

I moved away not too soon after my son was born, and made some choices in how I wanted my child to be raised. Not only were jokes about his gender no longer allowed but most importantly, he was going to have the least gendered life as I possibly could provide him.

This included his toys and clothes. Not correcting people for him gendering him and letting him grow his hair out until he asked me to change what I was doing.

And this wasn't an true issue at the time. My family judged silently me of course, because to them gender is inherently a biological and unchanging part of your spiritual gifts from God, but my child was happy and it was flexable, freeing to let him just be a child.

This changed when he started school, it wasn't just my family not getting it. For a while, it took both teachers and students to adjust to him.

For example, He was having a struggle being allowed to go into the bathroom because no one wanted to listen to him when he said he is a boy. (Thankfully, they added gender neutral bathrooms this year.)

But Boys still bully him for being too feminine, already isolating him for not fiting the box that "boy" fits him.

Simply because sometimes he wears a lighter shade of blue and had his hair long at one point.

Which is something Henslin mentioned in his article: {Boys}... "know there are two worlds, and we are grateful for the one we are in. Ours is superior. The evidence continually bombards us, and we exult in masculine privilege." My son even having a slight amount of feminine interests was enough to prevoke that basic and sad treatment.

And so he asked to cut his hair, we did. After a discussion about why it bothered him. What he thought and how he felt about the way his peers treat him.

My child has proclaimed he is a boy and understands that for him that means doing what he does. He loves incredibly gendered things, not by my doing but because that is simply what he loves. But his stuffed animals still live in the doll house, I bought him for the Barbie dolls he used to love but grew out of.

My whole intention was to give him a space not have the pressure of gender and to allow him to understand it for himself rather than forcing that expectation in him.

I obviously was not raised Male or masculine and the deep complexities of being socialized that way, are things I will never understand as that is not my life experience, so rather I promote gender neutrality at home as I can.

As mentioned in the article, there are expectations for Men and Masculine people, and they are crushing. Expected to be tough, to shut off emotions, to be stronger and rougher, and braver than their feminine counter parts. But that is all socially constructed rather than biological.

Obviously, I have a long journey to learn and grow with my son, as he is still young and still has puberty to go through. There's many stages of confusion and expectations to come.

But at least for me, I do not want to make a good man out of my son because that will be defined by his society, his peers, and himself. I want to make a good human who can handle those expectations without breaking himself in two.

I provided a picture of my kiddo with his face blurred for privacy reasons, in the Halloween costume he chose for himself ( for the second year, in a row. A classic Pumpkin/Jack O Lantern.)

In this article, Eder states something extremely interesting that I agree with:

"Given the importance of good looks for gaining status among peers and avoiding negative evaluations, it is not surprising that girls devote so much attention to their appearance."

Middle school is an incredibly hard time for everyone but especially young girls.

I remember being that kid in middle school who wanted to be popular because the pretty girls where popular. The girls who fit into that gender role perfectly, and honestly, I had that bitterness and misogyny I was still dealing with, that made me hate them.

I have never fit as a female. I wasn't conventionally feminine enough. Always short hair, short nails, almost always dirty and smelly. I was rough, ran and was loud, annoying. Too smart for my own good, asked too many questions, had to strong of a sense of justice and want to equality. I was never feminine enough to attract boys to date, and strangely enough only attractive enough to attract people who knew I was young and vulnerable.

I tired so hard to be that. To fit into that Male Gaze, that I pushed myself to be more sexually attractive, try to wear things that made me uncomfortable that would give me that attention. Go into strange chat rooms to feel "more pretty" and it didn't work. I wasn't that and I never was.

From a young age I knew I was different by the way I was treated by my peers. This came from the fact that I clearly came from a poor family, I smell bad constantly, I had short terrible cut hair, I wasn't quiet, or posied or had long pretty features and needless, to say I didn't get much socializing with Girls my age.

( I don't even associate with being a woman because I have always felt like an outsider from both sides of the gender spectrum. )

They didn't braid my hair because my hair was too short and "masculine" to do so, nor was I given any physical affection by my female peers. Isolated from them for not being feminine enough, including being kicked out to be "the Single Mother" in a slide house with the other "Rejected Weird Girl", while the rest of the girls played house. The game wasn't fun obviously and so our own game of house fell apart extremely quickly.

I "dated" as a young child, and it lasted 10 minutes before the poor other child was bullied out of the whole thing. The boys were equally brutal, every single childhood crush of mine was a young boy destroying my heart because I wasn't ever "feminine enough."

Another example of this is when the boys would play War, and I would want to join. First of all, I would never be allowed to Be At War. Rather a War Nurse who sat and did basically nothing while the boys played. It ended up with me playing alone, as a lonely housewife waiting for her husband to return from War. Staring longingly out of real windows at times, waiting for some man to sweep me off my feet. The boys got to fight, I just had to be a damsel or patch them up.

(Or on the opposite side, I made my own fun becoming a Spy for Both sides. That way to have other children still want to play with me.)

And I could never be married in the games where people played wedding. Always the Minster, the one who ordained the wedding. A background character in the way of life because I was unattractive and too weird for my peers to be anything else.

As an adult, that sounds silly and immature but that was truly how I was raised and the way other kids treated me. And those affected the way I still see myself as an adult, I actually have issues with even giving platonic hugs to people because that's simply not what peers do. Strangely enough, reading this article showed how isolating that gender binary was for me.

Especially when it comes to Praise and Criticism. I am a tender person, I don't deny that for myself. So I take and give criticism to everyone equally, which is Praise part of the work, and then give an improvement. I had no idea that was also impacted by being assigned female at birth. Likewise, my tendency to be kind and polite even when something really bad happens to me, is effective as that as well.

A funny story I tell is one time my partner sent me to a totally wrong city for an event. He simply gave me the wrong address, and within 10 minutes after my Uber dropped me off, and we realized the mistake was made, my cheap phone died despite being well charged before hand.

After rushing around to find a charger, a second Uber was ordered, and my phone died before me realizing that the Uber was on the other side of campus. I ran after the Uber and eventually got in. And the Uber driver kicked me out saying the Drive was too long to accept now since I was late, and embarrassingly enough, I started crying since the day had been so long already and it was just such a low blow.

(I will never know why he just didn't drive away but I assume it has to do with him accepting the ride that way he could still get the money without actually driving because we were still charged for the interaction.)

When he kicked me out. I still said " Thank you and that I hope you have a nice day." Through a full face of red hot tears my make up running because I was taught it was my job to always be polite and kind, even when something terrible has happened to me. Especially, if I was at fault in some way.

It is to be noted, that he didn't have even a single shread of empathy to make I was okay. He left a crying assumed female person, (who had just chased him down in a dress and heels ) in a dangerous city alone during sunset because money and time was more important. ( And fair enough, I was so late.)

That man definitely has his own troubles, and I will never deny that but there was a clear difference in his experiences if he thought that was a good choice. To not even double check that I would be okay on my own. Not even a stay safe or an apology on his end. Something that should be basic common decency for anyone else.

Maybe if I was earlier, or is was a man I would have had a greater chance of getting a better ride experience but I just assumed he was some busy jerk, rather than understanding that it could be something deeper on the social impact that gender has on how we navigate the world.

Being an unkept child, with poor social status, wealth and access to what was socially acceptable at the time, my attractiveness has always been up for debate. This lead to few peers admiring me. Once was actually marked down once during a Speech and Debate tournament because my clothes were not "flattering enough" and I have been told, "I would be prettier if I put more effort in."

Obviously, in my older age, I understand the unique ways that each one of us walk this earth, but it hit me really hard as a kid. My confidence was always in the balance, I hated those with privilege and openly talked about how ugly I was to my peers and on social media as a pre-teen. (And no one corrected me or said I was beautiful unless they wanted to take advantage of me.)

(These pictures are immortalized in an old Instagram that I cannot seem to get removed.) Beauty and my lack there of it weighted on me constantly.

I wasn't ever given grace in the way I expressed myself either.

Needless to say opportunities like Prom Queen, or a lead in the school musical were never given to me. Not for a lack of talent or my ability to be friendly with my peers because I simply did not fit the box that beauty should be as a "woman."

I cannot deny that aesthetics play a part in how I see the world either, but I try to put my own biases aside when I see something that isn't in my taste and keep those things to myself, because I know how it feels to have people telling you how to look "more attractive" to suit others. I'd like to think if I was put in the studies that where done in this article that I would have different opinions but I can't say for sure because I don't live in a vacuum.

I simply chose Allure because it was the first one to show up when I googled Beauty Magazine. Typically, I do not follow fashion trends through print Media but rather through places like Pinterest and Instagram.

The first image I saw on Allure's Homepage was an ad for a new Paramount Plus or movie called "Landman," with a burning Oil Rig. Besides the fact that Landman is our default rather than Land Person or Woman is notable as being a man is the default, as well as Working Blue Collar and Labor intensive jobs are considered masculine as well.

The second image was a picture of a Frozen Egg that is also a timer, under reads a caption. "26 Women Get Real About Freezing their Eggs." The act of Freezing One's Eggs is really gendered, not simply due to body parts but because There's this myth of a woman's "biological clock" when it comes to birthing a child. Men do not get that kind of pressure when it comes to creating a child.

The Third picture was another advertisement, but this time for makeup.

The fourth picture is finally our first person, a Skinny Long Light Blonde Haired woman, with brown hair and feminine accessories. She wears light makeup.

The Following 13 photos are of different woman of different backgrounds and races. While woman of color are represented, The majority of the Woman where White, with Long Blonde Hair and Skinny. Some of the other women had tattoos. A few were plus sized, some had shorter hair lengths than the others, one was clearly older. None with open disabilities, or unconventional features that would make them seem unattractive. It is clear that Allure is making an attempt here to hire women that are diverse and give good impressions of the company's ideals but Whiteness still is a large focus and who is getting a decent chunk of jobs are this company.

Even though it is to be noted, Allure does have articles that shed light of Asian beauty trends, and has a whole subsection of what they call "the Melanin Effect," which focused on Black and other P.O.C Beauty, and includes a story about a black trans women. (As those marked groups are only recently being treated with respect in the industry, therefore need their own space to be displayed.)

Very Few men are focused, and the two I found were polar opposites from each other. One was an openly Queer man and the other was a advertisement with a Cowboy.

Sex was also mentioned a lot, but especially sex toys for Women. I think this has to do a lot with the sex positive nature we have in the United States now, as well as part of the Wellness curve we are seeing in Women's Health in general. I honestly, could never see the opposite though. A Men's health magazine selling sex toys with the same energy and "to promote one's health" rather it would be to tame those masculine "urges."

In general, Allure is a magazine that follows the trends of the time and while there are men who do wear make up, wear dresses and do other feminine things, this is simply not the website for them, nor for myself. I am not aware if there are websites for "Men's Beauty," that actually mean men's beauty, and not just grooming. (This is a gap as there are Manly men who do put on make up every day to do their jobs.)

For me at least, as a AFAB person, I don't really feel like it impacted my self-worth, nor would Allure impact most Female people, besides enforcing that you should care about your appearance, and here are things you can use to do that. BUT, I will say that the beauty industry itself can be brutal when it comes to self improvement and that can impact someone's self worth. Anti-Aging cremes, New ways to apply foundation, and Face masks to remove the natural way a face works can give a terrible impression on what it means to be beautiful in our modern era, as the days of ONLY Super Models being the ideal are over.

This system started way before I was born, far before my grandfather married my grandmother.

But, My Grandfather became a provider for over 100 people ( Nearly 3 generations of people), indirectly and directly as that is was he was always expected to do and since we were raised with his faith system. The majority of my life was indirectly impacted by him being the Patriarch.

This includes people thinking my Aunt's house is actually his because he lived with us. Him, coming to open my first bank account with me when I turned 18 Even though, I didn't legally need him there. Him, having to provide for multiple of his daughters when their husbands would not. At least 10 people being in his cell phone plan, and another 10 people going to him when it was tax season. All of which taught all of us that a man is supposed to provide no matter what and because of that, no matter how cranky or rude he got, you forgive him.

Post his death two years ago, my family is still in scrambles to manage all the finances his time working provided for us. Unfortunately, he was more of a bank than anyone wants to admit.

This lead to my mother using that same logic to keep dangerous men in the house with us as you forgive the angry men and hold women accountable for it.

( Which is something I absolutely am still unlearning as a domestic and child abuse survivor.)

All of that effected my entire childhood and how I was socialized to be a good " girl or woman."

In the LDS Church, Gender is Spiritial, finite and it determines your entire life and afterlife. I mentioned this in other Padlet posts here, but the moment the doctor tells your parents what your gentelia is, it dictates your life and the powers you can have. Men, who Choose to Do the Right Mormon things, get to be Kings of Their own Universes. Their Wives... the baby making machines of that said universes.

Also assisting in child raising is expected of young girls in the church. As soon as your mom gives you a younger sibling, you are that second parent, not the father. Technically, he is the Father but The Father comes in, is the rule and the law, but the mother does all the household duties, and is supportive of the men in her life.

This goes deeper as the moment you're baptized, at the age of 8. Your gender dictates what you can and cannot do. It isn't just excessive modesty for "young women", it's the expectation of a temple marriage and raising as many babies you can pop out. We sang songs in church about getting married in the temple, obeying our fathers and how great life would be if we were a perfect Mormon family. ( It's even the concept of calling Pre-Teens and Teenagers, "young men" and "Young Women" rather that what they are: kids. In the most kindest way, Grooming us to be perfect wives.)

At Girls Church Camps, the girls made wedding dresses our paper, did arts and crafts about temples and did chores for the Bishops and other older men who were there to "watch over us." The boys were doing cool sports stuff. While both sexes where expected to cover up most of their skin, young girls were criticized more than the young men were for the way the wore those clothes. ( My older sibling has accounted multiple times being scolded for not wearing skirts in during Young Women's meetings. )

Outside of church, My mother kept a lot of those ideas and wanted all of us to be super girly girls, and unfortunately she got quite the opposite.

Funny enough, All three of her AFAB children are not hyper femme at all, My Elder sibling is fully trans masculine ( and Non Binary), Alternative and has been taking Testosterone for years at this point. I am Non-Binary, and my little sister, while still a Alt-Gothy, Punky Cisgender Woman in a Heterosexual Relationship, is not traditionally feminine either.

(As a side note, My older sibling from the moment, they could. They weren't ever a girl, every single feminine thing seems to be acid on their skin, so while my mother and society tried her hardest to make them a girl, both them and I always knew they weren't one.

When they came out to me years later, I responded with, "Oh, I know." And they haven't changed at all in my eyes.)

For us though, my mother pressed down so much harder since My Older Sibling was failing at being the girl she wanted.

I was always dubbed the "Pink Daughter", while my little sister was "the Purple Girl" and we were given gifts accordingly. Neither of us liked these colors, we just never complained as it would have led to us having our gifts taken away back.

I did and still love alot of "girly things" though, Dolls, Fairy Tales, Musicals and Dressing Up in Costumes, but I had to re learn to love those things as an adult due to internalized sexism, and sexism I was experiencing from some men in my family.

The men my mother married, (none of which were Mormon.) My biological Father especially. He hated that fact that we were "girls", he never said it outloud, but frequently there were sexist comments to us as young children. We weren't allowed to wear makeup lest us, be too sexualised. He would frequently make jokes about the boys I would date as young woman, or if I wore a pretty outfit to bed, it was a form of bullying and taunting.

I was called "too dramatic" for having feelings, even though looking back I was totally justified to be upset.

That continued after he went missing in 2015 and my mother remarried another man with similar views. Including my step father always telling me to " Not get Pregnant" every single time I left the house. ( He never did that to my brothers.)

For me at least, I was given only the hard parts of "being a girl," and none of the joy that comes with girlhood, which socialized me to feel isolated from that demographic of people, while still being the only roles I am expected to follow are those Patriarchal Rules.

In the most simplest terms, I have rejected the socialization my family and society expects of me do those experiences.

As well as some improvements to toys in general. To begin with, Our local Target has rows for baby toys, which are pretty much all gender neutral with their light soft colors, focused more on sensory items and learning things like colors, and numbers. While Cheery gender ambiguous animal characters sing happy nursery rhymes.

There's the Disney Second, all it's Disney Bluish Glory, divided more by the brands, with clear gendered items, like Princess Dresses for the little girls and dolls that match those said dresses.

And Wooden Toys that are more rich in color and tone, but as I passed through the more Gender Neutral Play Doughs and Bluey figurines and board games. Eventually, I came to the dreaded and unfortunate Blue and Pink Eisles.

We know these items are Boys or Girls based on the Gender Stereotypes we put up on kids. The Boy's Eisles I saw were the video game action figures, specifically Mario and Sonic, Hot Wheels, and Marvel characters. We teach boys to play rough, to engage in technology, to love Machines that destroy the environments around them and be the strong heroes of their own stories. Those toys promote that idea for them. Also there were a lot of things that promoted getting dirty and being gross. One of them I saw, was this Dinosaur Egg that you had to break open to play with at all.

The girls section teaches a few other things, through it's toys. To be pretty, have a lot of tiny accessories, be a good Mommy, do domestic chores. This can be seen in Girl's play vanity sets, and their unfathomable amount of small pieces and parts for their Barbies and Knock Off American Girl Doll series, Our Generation.

All wrapped in a Pink Bow.

This is also changing with more Unique Lines of Dolls that I saw Like Monster High Dolls, that includes Queer Characters and Strange looking Beauty, but they still focus on Appearance and Fashion. While their are new body types for all the dolls, they still conform to teaching girls this idea of you must be beautiful and care about how you look more than anything else.

The girl toys did have things you could break apart, called Mini Brands. But it was far more organized and promoted shopping and brand recognition.

We don't see this with boy toys as much, but unfortunately the only body type I saw of Masculine Action Figure had either Super Body Building Features or was Mario and Luigi. Strength and Power are more promoted for Boys more than anything.

This is very strange but I also noticed that boy toys that have girls are made differently than the way girl toys portray boys. For Example: Princess Peach is fair less colorful in the boy section. And Male dolls still have soft features in comparison to their Action Figure peers. As if Girls cannot handle the tough plastic of A Wrestle Mania action figure.

The next rows were of the Legos and the majority of them had the classic blue box, unless it was "for girls" through the Lego Friends line or Disney Princess Line, where the Mini Figurines were turned to be less LEGO like and more Doll Like. The boxes also in the bright pink packaging before.

Stating as if, "Oh, Here Honey, Here's a LEGO set for you. We can't get you the boy one. " Which is another common thread I saw, A Feminization of "a Boy" Toy since girls like the item too, the ku difference being the name and color.

Overall, I love toys, and I love buying toys for my kiddo that he loves rather than going off of what I think a boy "should" like and I feel like it's made him a more rounded kid than I was.

Socializing a child to fit such a narrow box for gender at such a young age is part of social expectation of gender but they do not have to be final, and the do not need to be so forced that it snuffs out an interest a child may have.

I have talked to my brother about his time in boot camp before and he only complained about the Women above him and not the men. I assumed this was just because of Boot Camp being not because of possible sexism that my brother may have.

Likewise, I am not surprised that Gender Harassment happens in these spaces. The military is traditionally a hyper masculine place, typically a women are assumed to be less violent than their male counterparts, so gender discrimination could be a way to weed out anyone they think will be too weak for the military. Likewise, I am not surprised that this effects men who are seen as weaker too.

What I have also learned especially from living in this world is that those who have privilege cannot stand it when someone breaks the glass ceiling they are standing on. Blaming it on the person who worked double as hard to get there makes it easier to cope, rather than being a better person, or doing better at a job. I am not surprised that an part of our life that it focused so much on war, violence and assumed ma

First of all, a little deep dive on the nature of my friend's relationship and connection to each other. Sable and Jasper are not exactly monogamous, Sable is, but Jasper is Polyamorous with two other partners (one romantic, Percy and the other platonic, Ace), both of which Jasper did not get married to on Halloween.

This adds a very interesting layer to this experience as I was renting an Airbnb with Jasper's other two partners, (who are also my friends) that were the other members of the wedding party. The Romantic Partner, Percy was Sable's Best Man. Ace, The Legal Officiant, and Myself as Jasper's Best Man.

In Sociology, it can be argued Marriage is a Tri-Parite institution, and using my friends as an example, I plan to discuss how those institutions connect and also deviate as we are Queer People.

1.) Marriage is a Social Institution.

For us at least, it was a great excuse to come together as a Family of Affinity, as I do consider the majority of the people in attendance members of that Family for me, as they have been more supportive at times, than my actual family. It wasn't a big wedding. In total, there were 13 people in total that attended. 3 of Members of Jasper's Biological Family, 2 of Jasper's High School Friends, A Friend of Sable's and the 5 of us, the collective of the rest of their friends. Prior to the ceremony, The Couple had a private Court House wedding for the Marriage License and Sable's parents were in attendance.

The Bachelor Party and "Reception", were just all of us as a group hanging out, eating potluck food, playing party games, and just enjoying each other's company. It was honestly, just two house parties, where for one of them, it was decorated like a circus, and we were all dressed like clowns.

Wedding speeches were planned but while we were waiting for the food to be cooked, Sable put on an absolutely strange, hour long Minecraft video, that we all ended up watching like a football game. Shouting at the Screen, and all.

Overall, it was a small and cozy wedding with the people they loved, and by no means a "traditional" one

Outside of the actual wedding itself, for them at least. It seems that life hasn't changed much as they lived together, shared money, responsibilities prior to the marriage. ( And Neither of them want, nor have the ability to, raise any children as well.)

I asked Jasper if anything had changed post engagement and Jasper said "Not really, I kinda knew I was going to marry Sable when we started dating." And I feel like it sums up the two of them well.

2.) Marriage is a Religious Institution.

Sable and Jasper are of different faiths. Sable practicing Paganism and Witchcraft. Jasper was raised culturally Jewish with A Rabbi parent, and lightly practicing in Paganism. This was represented in a few ways in the wedding. There was Hand Fasting, which is used to symbolize the union of an equal partnership. As well as the Jewish tradition of stepping on glass. To honor both of their beliefs and cultures during the wedding.

3.) Marriage is a Legal Institution.

Jasper is Chronically ill and is an ambulatory wheelchair user. This means many trips to the Hospital and the ER, and without that legal protection of marriage, Sable could possibly be not allowed in hospital rooms, or that right to speak on Jasper's behalf if something really life threatening happened. This was even mentioned in Sable's vows to Jasper, as Sable wrote them during a particularly scary ER visit. It matters a lot to be able to have that safety net if they need it.

Outside of health, Both of them are still working on changing their names due to both of them being on the Trans Spectrum, so together they chose to change their last name, to something different for the both of them. Rather than choosing between their different "paternal" last names. Which is not common place in Heterosexual Marriages.

Despite the Institutions that are being upheld within this union, the hows and whys will be different for each person who chooses to get married.

For myself it made me reflect on all the different weddings, I have been to over the years and what I would want for my own if I were ever to get married in the distant future was well.

First of, my mother was unhealthy when it comes to marriage. Married three times, all to unstable men. But all things considered it was still very Matrilineal, as I grew up only interacting with my mother's side and I still live with a few of them.

I bring this up as I had my own ideas on Marriage as I grew up. I thought it was necessary as a kid, and as a teen I was engaged, and only recently have I even reconsidered getting married legally at all, as I had been enjoying just being single and being a single parent until my most recent partner came into my life.

In a very clinical way, getting married now would have far more advantages not that I am a parent as well, but I am still a Softie as well who still believes in the romantic and gooey part of having a wedding and a life partner that treats me well.

Part of that was because I didn't want my son to have a hard to follow blended family like I had growing up. As previously mentioned my mother was married three times, so legally I have 10 siblings.

2 older half siblings. (Same dad, Different mom.)

2 Biological Siblings. ( Same Parents.)

2 Half Brothers. ( Both with their own different fathers, Same mother.)

and 4 step siblings ( Their Father married my mother.)

This was hard on me, as I was Parentified by my parents to raise most of them. Needless to say, I didn't want that same life for my son, and I didn't want to repeat cycles. Luckily enough, I made good choices to not repeat what I could, and I am queer so part of those choices weren't ever going to be. Choosing to be single for the majority of my son's life was to heal from those experiences, and my partner came in when I wasn't expecting them to.

But even so, I did fall into the same patterns my mother was a part of simply because I didn't know better. I am a Witness and survivor of IPV, Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, and Sexual Assault. (In ways that I don't feel comfortable discussing for a school assignment.)

To be honest, it has been hard, as the extended family I interact with have a hard time accepting the life I have lived, and the "Life Style " I choose to live, But especially choosing to no longer talk to my mother. It's caused great strain on my relationships with everyone on my mother's side, including my siblings.

As this idea of "Family Togetherness" has been part of our religious belief system our entire lives. A system that honestly is really dangerous for families who have dealt with what mine has, (and at times is abusive itself.)

If anything, this article made a lot of the things I have experienced more validating as I am not alone in the world I have lived in. In a terrible way, The numbers made me feel less alone.

From how I see it, it tells me who exactly is talking, people who have always had privilege and are uncomfortable with the realities of the world.

Now how does this relate to the concept of Family as well? What a Family itself can have those incorrect nostalgic glasses on. There's hole communities that still want that "traditional nuclear family" structure, where Men work, Women homemake and there are children. without realizing that now a days, that can be really hard to obtain.

Not only are jobs more limited but most people cannot afford to have one adult home with the kids and one working. Both have to work for these two be success.

And on the flipside, I grew up in that Patriarchal system, and grew up in a family that was seen to "be traditional" there still was conflict and issues. There's no such thing as a perfect family system or structure, just socially we learned not to keep it in the family when something is going wrong.

Which was a Disney Channel show about this teenage girl, Teddy Duncan recording video diaries for her baby sister, Charlie, as Teddy manages her hectic home life, school and living with her a big family.

The episode I chose to watch was the first episode from the entire show. I figured this was a good choice because it was accessible to me and introduces each character/member of the family (besides the youngest brother who was not born until a few seasons later.)

In the first minutes we learn some really important aspects of the Duncan Family.

1.) Teddy's Mother, Amy is clearly overworked. This is shown in her clearly messy look as she attempts to feed Charlie. This also implies that she isn't that good at her job as a mom, which we see alot in the rest of the series.

2.) This can also be seen that the next person who meet is Bob Duncan, clean in his work uniform, holding a folder. Bob, as a man could be helping his overworked wife, but socially he is not as his work is expected to be separate. Bob also has his times being wacky and unconventional but it's more classic bumbling rather than anything else.

3.) PJ, Teddy's older brother. It is implied that PJ is really stupid, and irresponsible as he does his homework from Yesterday instead of helping his mother with the baby or doing his homework on time. The rest of the show will imply that he very much this kind of character.

3.) Gabe, Teddy's younger Brother. Gabe is very much that little pre-teen boy sterotype, but alot what I would consider very overlooked in the family as he can get away with a lot rather than his siblings due to his position.

4.). Teddy, she is the glue of the family and the audience's eyes through the show. She is a stereotypical teen girl who wants to date boys and look pretty and that's about it.

In this episode, it is Amy's first day back at work as a Nurse and it's assumed that the other siblings will help with father with the baby. I find this interesting because there's three children that are old enough to take care of themselves, this implies that Dad even though he can do his extermination work well, cannot raise a child on his own. Amy clearly has a second shift when she comes home.

Teddy, a teenager would rather be on a date, and has to sacrifice her time to watch her baby sister. PJ bullies Teddy for having a date. Teddy begs her father and Bob defaults to Amy's response. In this, Mom has finally say about child care.

Once Amy leaves, Bob instantly chastises Teddy for not introducing the boy to him. Showing that Teddy still needs that Male approved in order to date any one, that he needs to know what's going. Gabe comments that his parents don't pay attention to him since Bob doesn't even know what school Gabe goes to.

All within this first scene we learn so much about how this family operates. Dad is bumbling when it comes to childcare, Teddy and Amy have to sacrifice for the family, Gabe gets overlooked and PJ gets to be immature.

Eventually, the episode continues with the chaos of watching the Baby without mom. PJ gets to joke around with his friend, about them with a band they have, Teddy has her study date come over and Gabe just goofs around tormenting the neighbor.

Where Charlie almost gets dropped in comedic fashion, and Bob hurts his back,making him have to go back to the hospital to see his wife. Teddy protests for 5 seconds and instantly is taking care of Charlie despite the fact that there are two other people in the house who could help with the kiddo.

As a girl is expected to over take all the responsibilities for a baby when her brothers are not. Even though Both Teddy and PJ have guests, she is the only one who is "trust worthy" enough is a baby. Teddy is also the one that has to parent Gabe once he gets caught bullying the elderly neighbor nextdoor.(all while holding Charlie). In the end, Teddy doesn't get to spend much time with her date, and while the date went badly, she gets a text back, so she'll be okay. It's just her whacky family and she caps off her night telling Charlie the story and closing off her video, I assuming that Charlie is going to be exactly like her and that she is going to need the emotional strength and "Good Luck" to get through it too.

Overall, this episode enforces gender roles in a few ways.

1.) All Guys are bumbling idiots and it's the Women in their life that have to set them straight.

2.) Mom, despite her problems, knows best, if it's not mom, it's the daughter.

And

3.) A young woman's time is not her own if she is with her family.

Each episode follows pretty similar structure, so I think this is pretty much the basis for the dynamic.

I don't think Good Luck Charlie really impacted my own idea of family, as my idea of family was more supported by the religion I grew up in. But it did show an imperfect family on screen that I have no doubt impacted a lot of kids growing up, as the show is still remembered fondly by its viewers.

This comes from the idea of the social status quo not being in the individual's favor, and that they have the ability to change it. When in reality, they are in that Unmarked category and would rather things go back to the status Quo.

While there are those who are part of Rebellion, they use more open words like Protestor, and/or go into specifics on what they are advocating for, not simply to rebel, but improve.

In the United States there is this illusion of what it's called "The Silent Majority", in right- Wing Politics. Which I find personally ironic due to the fact that that majority already promotes the status quo. Within that they promote oppression, sexism, racism and other forms of social oppression. This flips and confuses those on the political fence post what exactly in what to do.

Now how does this relate to Deviancy, And Crime as I read about in this article, "That Silent Majority," is actually a really loud majority and has huge political power within our democracy. They are the ones who make the majority of our laws, and create the crimes in the first place.

By creating this propaganda that deviency controls our government, it can and has fueled people into making the political choices that they do.

My only personal gripes aside, A concern I have with this experiment, is the lack of consideration for the subject's races. It can and should be argued that those can and will impact a patient's care regardless of their actual mental health status. So while I agree that we do need to be more considerate in the labels we use especially as those with mental illnesses can have their rights stripped away.

This can also lead to these said groups having a harder time accepting the care when they actually do need it. According to "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health Care: Evidence and Policy Implications", written by Thomas McGuire and Jeanna Miranda, "African Americans are more likely than Whites to terminate treatment prematurely. Among adults with diagnosis-based need for mental health or substance abuse care, 37.6% of Whites, but only 22.4% of Latinos and 25.0% of African Americans, receive treatment." (McGuire and Miranda.2008.)

Excluding those demographics,simplify choosing to exclude that aspect of the test subjects can and will exclude the data of this experiment and study. Especially as racial bias does affect care of patients regardless of what part of medicine it is.

We saw this with the Donner Party, as they too hard to restore to cannibalism to survive. (A lot of fictional horror shows/movies use this trope in order to show how disgusting and gross humanity truly can be.)

What I do appreciate is that the group has discussed this choice, and some gave consent to be eaten to help the others survive. Still raw humanity in the organization of consuming each other. They decided the socital rules to make it work until they could go back to their actual lives.

In general rather than disgusted, I was truly just sad, especially for the couple who just wanted to get home to their kids at the end of it all.

As someone who struggles a lot with intrusive thoughts..I don't really like the question: What have you done? Because I have not been in that situation, and I am not particularly interested in fantasies of being stranded and eating my fellow passengers.

The study performed in this reading is brutal as well. I could tell the moment that "the Prisoners" in the study were randomly picked up and placed into it. This is pretty similar with how it is in real life, there's no promise of when or where you will be arrested.

For example, I remember one wintery evening after my siblings participated in a Christmas Pagent, my parents where driving us home when an officer pulled us over, reason unknown. They took my dad's ID and before we knew it, we was on the Hood of the Car, handcuffed and pulled away, regardless of the car of crying children and my scared mother. We found out later that he had violated a probation for being with us and not in the state he had been arrested in prior. And we didn't know when he would be coming home. It was a pretty scary time in our life and it came back in my dad's trauma, as he had been in and out of jail since his teen years.

So I understand using a very frightening tactic to get these volunteers to be mentally in the head space of a prisoner. Probably really made them reflect of the petty crimes and other socially unacceptable things they actually have done but weren't caught doing.

I was relieved that they ended this experiment when it got too dangerous and scary for the prisoners. No one deserves to be put in their, even criminals.

I, for one, believe that the majority of felons deserve rehabilitation rather than corporal punishment and there is a limit to that, of course. Which comes from what is socially acceptable when it comes to crime in the first place. In general though, a lot of people are there for things that richer people can and will get away with. So I agree with the statement that: "The cloak of secrecy should be removed from the prisons." Because people deserve to be able to do better and taught to do so.

There's a really good video I am going to attach where they debunk alot of sad truths about the prison system, that really opened my eyes to the underlying issues.

• What norms were being violated by this person? Did you know those norms were “there”? Where is this “there?’

• How were the norms specific to the person’s social status (age, gender, race, class, etc.)?

• Are there situations in which these behaviors might appear rational? Describe them. What is the significance of this?

• Can you imagine a situation where you might behave similarly and not think of yourself as “weird or “crazy?”

• How did the label (“weird,” “crazy,” etc.) affect how you perceived the situation and the person? How did the label affect your interaction with or feelings about the person?

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I normally don't like to stigmatize mental illness as it just as important as our physical health but unfortunately in the United States, our health care sucks and it can effect how poor people survive.

As a frequent bus rider, I have had very odd interactions with the public. Typically when people bother me, Men will bother me with the intention to waste my time, Women will only bother me when it's absolutely necessary. This makes me pretty anxious to be on a bus with only men around but I manage.

Sometimes It's a literal Nazi (as I mentioned before) and other times it's normal people just trying to get through their day but I have had my fair share of people who I would consider "Weird" due to the social impact of what they did.

The first is someone who decided to dye their hair on the bus. It was dying bright red and the second the bus was at the depot he bolted out before the bus rider could stop him. The bus seats behind me were covered in red dye and then I had to get off the bus and transfer since they have to clean the bus.

As someone who frequently dyes their hair, that was My first thought was "Well, that's a pretty obvious color." As just bright red Locks were really distinguishable. They reason I thought i as weird was because of the social expectations and rules when it comes to riding the bus. Common courtesy on buses are the following:

1.) Pay for your ride.

2.) Pull the Rope to let the Driver know when to stop.

3.) Don't be Disruptive.

4.) Don't Make a Mess.

This person with the newly fire engine red hair broke a few social rules. He was disruptive as the Bleach chemicals he used could have made other passengers ill, and because he made a mess and didn't clean up. It effected my way home, as well as any other passengers who hadn't even gotten on the bus yet.

From his perspective, I could see how the bus would be a perfect time to dye your hair if it was an emergency. As one time, I watched my partner hand build a clay cup for one of his classes while we were on the bus since it broke during travel. But in general, as a someone who also dyes my hair I would just wait until I got home.

My only judgement of this person has how he mistreated the bus rather than any personal feelings I had about him as a person.

The second person was a little bit more uncomfortable and thankfully, nothing bad happened to me.

But I was waiting for the bus with my partner is a unsafe part of downtown. My partner was sick and was learning their head on my shoulder taking a mini nap. A large black man who clearly was ill and homeless came up to me.

This was the interaction I had with him.

Him: "Is that your girlfriend?"

Me: "Oh no, this is my friend. They aren't feeling well."

He mumbes something I cannot hear.

Me: " am sorry I cannot hear you."

He starts making faces trying to get me to smile.

Me: I just look at him really confused and just grab my phone and start randomly scrolling

And eventually he leaves once he gets bored.

First of all, he reminded me alot of my uncle I live with. My uncle was diagnosed with a form of brain cancer called Oligodendroglioma, a few years ago, and was of similar stature and energy. I made the mistake of making eye contact with him in the first place but socially as someone perceived as a pretty young woman, I get unnecessary attention all the time from men so it was bound to happen.

To him though, I was "the weird one" for being openly queer with my partner. The reason I lied was to prevent us from being hate crimed in the streets on our way home from College. That man probably was just trying to get money from us for the bus, but you can't ever be too sure as a queer person. Likewise if I asked that question, it would be considered not weird as I know when it is safe to ask that question and when it is not.

What I found really interesting about this part of my assignment is that there is not such thing as "an ethical amount of Force.". The only thing that changes it is that what allowed by the law. And the amount of brutality is allowed within that line of work. This was really pointant when a female police officer mention was originally shocked by what she had done but her coworkers were proud of her.

It becomes this cycle where these officers can and will get desensitized to the violence they are inflicting due to the social aspects of their job. If, for example, I were to shot a stranger point blank on the street I would be breaking the law, these officers can make excuses and at times are legally allowed to do so. The Violence becomes more okay as the police need to add more control and retain order in our society. Using those said excuses just give them more permission, as mentioned within this article.

I will not deny that there are times were the police can and will help someone out. There's a lot of wrong and the world and there need to be people who want to work to make it better. But in general, there needs to be fair better reform where Shoot First and Ask Questions Seconds is not our first and only option.

"Please Do not sign my son up for Chief's Football mail. We come from a multi-cultural family and I do not feel comfortable with having a sports team that isn't respectful in my home."

This lead to a pretty big back and forth text message argument. Rather it was him angerly texting me while I stood firm and calm with my boundaryas he was trying to find any reason why I

was wrong for this statement.

But eventually he said something that I still think about:

"You Democrats always blow things out of proportion." I sat there calmly with that message for awhile, thought on it and responded, "I'm not a Democrat. I just make choices that I think are right for me and my family." And I blocked him after that, because I realized a lot about my relationship with not only him but with politics as a whole.

First of all, still to this day I don't consider myself a Democrat, rather a Liberal leaning person, as personally I believe that the Democratic party is actually more centrist than, society as a whole wants to admit. And I am pretty disillusioned with politics as whole. I only vote to make sure our State and Local laws are actually helpful and not going to make things worse.

Since Trump has been elected ( the first time) people like to throw the words of "Tyrant" and "Dictatorship." But the political powers in the United States feels like a Oligarchy rather than a Democracy. It is debated strongly in the text, but I cannot help to believe it is true when we have clear nepotism in some of our highest positions of power.

Examples:

The Two Bush Administrations, with a third Bush attempting to run.

Vice President Joe Biden became President. Then Biden's VP Kamala Harris, ran to be President as Well.

Alot of Presidents when to the same schools, got the same clubs and came from alot money.

Interesting enough, I do believe that this does tie well into the other chapter I was assigned on Education. Considered what was read, There's no doubt that the schooling we get deeply effects the kind of people we become. I have seen this in my own life let alone through who becomes our leaders.

Political Leaders tend to get really good educations as their families can afford it, they choose the Private Schools, the tutors, the best colleges. Whereas countless people who truly make the social change in the United States at times simply didn't make even past high school let alone college.

Things like "school choice" make that wealth based segregation even more notable and damaging to kids who could be president one day of they just had the right resources to do so.

I chose public school for a two reasons:

1.) It is the most accessible to me, as I can walk my son to school anytime I wish

And

2.) Public School give my child an opportunity to interact with sonah different kinds of people.

I feel like that truly impacts one's expectations and experiences in the real world in comparison to Home Schooling for Private Schooling.

Strangely enough, my kiddo didn't even go to Kindergarten but I can still see the ways his other years of school has impacted him already in ways that are similar to the reading. Routines especially, I find it super interesting how when my son isn't in school (when he is sick or it's a break) he will still tell me what is exactly supposed to be going on at a certain time. And as an adult, during that time where I wasn't in college again. I floundered to keep a healthy and successful routine due to the lack of rigidity that school provided (and still provides) me.

In general that's only one aspect that was mentioned in the reading that really spoke out to me rather than anything else.