N-Identities

     

In the process of writing a paper on N-Identities, I realized that I had a lot of questions lingering around. Gee doesn't really touch on how N-Identities change from when they are given to us to when society gets a hold of them. They are still the same identity, nature made me a girl, but society gave meaning to what a girl should be. I concluded my paper with this paragraph:

The N-Identity is what it is. You can’t change it or give it back once it’s given to you. It’s the stereotypes that accompany your N-Identity that I would like to see change. I often times wonder what it would be like if we didn’t push gender roles onto children the moment that they are born. I strongly feel that we handicap our youth’s growth of what they could be by immediately pushing onto them society’s ideas of what they should be. If a little girl doesn’t read fairy tales of being rescued by a man all the time, she would have a better chance to grow up and be a stronger woman who only depends on herself. Maybe then she will have a chance to learn that she is strong enough to rescue herself, that she’s even strong enough to rescue other people including men. Our N-Identities are nature given but the minute we get them, society takes a hold of them, gives them meanings, which automatically give men power, and strip women of power they never knew they had.

I was thinking of my niece while I was writing this. Ana is now 5 years old, and she's the coolest kid ever. When I went to visit her a few weeks ago, her mother told me that the reason her relationships have been so unstable is because she watched too many princess movies as a child and believed in happily ever after. She went on to say she will not do the same to Ana. She wasn't going to expose her to the world of Snow White, Bell, Ariel and so on. I asked her how she planned on keeping her daughter away from those tales, because those stories are everywhere. She said that she can control what goes on in her house and what her children are exposed to. When bed time rolled around, Ana was told to go to the book shelf and pick out a bedtime story. I couldn't help but chuckle when Ana came back with a book that had all of the major princess fairy tales in it. I asked Ana where she got the book, and she said that her mom bought it for her. The moral of this story is that even when we make a conscious decision to avoid falling into the trap of common stereotypes that stem from our N-Identity, we still do it because it has become like second nature. Ana's mom didn't even think about the fact that she was bringing into her home something that she had tried so hard to avoid because it was so "normal". It's the most normal thing for little girls to read princess books. She was so busy trying to avoid the movies and the toys that she didn't even think about the book having the same message.

I can't help but wonder what the world would be like if we didn't impose stereotypes on what children are supposed to be like? What if we let boys and girls play with both dolls and trucks without pushing them into one direction that is considered normal or gender appropriate?

Community of Practice

My view on communities of practice are a little different then most people's. I was born and raised in a different country so I sometimes feel that I have a more skewed view on "normal" things. Communities of practice in my opinion, should be a place where people can go and share something that they have in common with each other. A religion is a community of practice, a support group, people of the same profession who get together and so on. The idea of this practice is that people have somewhere to go and speak about something they can all relate too. They can all feel like they are a part of something, they can feel accepted and that someone understands them.

In theory, communities of practice sound wonderful. And most of the time they are, until someone does something that the other member's of the group disagree with. I have been in a community of practice since I was ten years old. I belonged in a culture and religion that everyone took seriously. We did everything together, everyone was invited to everyone's celebrations and birthday's, everyone hung around each other, and everyone followed the rules and traditions that were set for us by our elder's. The problem with this was that we were no longer living in the time of our great grandparents and we are no longer living in the old country that they came from. The ways in which our culture was trying to raise us was not practical to our current situation and life. When anyone would do something that was deemed "inappropriate" by our community they were pretty much shunned, talked about, and considered a disgrace.

Communities of practice sometimes hinder people from pursuing other dreams, keep people from true happiness, force people into doing something they don't want to, and sometimes can even brainwash people. And when someone gets exiled from a community that they grew up in because they made choices to better their lives and be happy, then they go from somewhere to belong to complete rejection. A community of practice has a lot of power to impact someone's self esteem and self worth both in positive and negative ways. I'm not sure if I am saying if they are wrong or right, but that maybe they have way too much power over a person's life. Religion especially, has a very powerful way of alienating the human race from each other just so they can conform to the community of practice they were born into.

All of the above symbols mean something. Who is to say what is wrong and what is right? If you chose to believe in one over the other, do you get the right to feel superior to everyone else? If you chose to respect all of these symbols and what they represent, do you lose your membership to your current community of practice?

Dodge Challenger Commercial

In my first blog, I want to write about the Dodge Challenger commercial that we saw in class. I guess what really struck me most was the fact that I did not take the time to analyze the commercial and read the hidden meanings right away. I am a very analytical person. I read and over-read into everything to try and make sense of it as it pertains to me. However, when I first watched the Challenger commercial, I was like "America **** Yeah!" right along with the commercial. It wasn't until we really dissected the commercial, that I realized that this commercial wanted nothing to do with me. This commercial was sending out a message to male consumers all over America, and leaving females such as myself out. By doing this, the commercial was sending out hidden messages to people all over the U.S.

I realized that this piece of advertising was letting males everywhere know that this was for them! Men are more powerful, rugged, fighters, they got us our freedom, and they have the purchasing power to go out there and purchase this Dodge Challenger. This vehicle is too masculine and too powerful for women. We wouldn't know what to do with it. Only a man is strong enough to drive this car.

When I first saw this commercial, I definitely pictured men and women driving the car. I thought about why the soldiers were only men, but then I thought that the commercial was set in a time where only men were soldiers. Now I realize that that time period was specifically chosen for that reason! How sad that they thought by making a commercial that took place in that era would empower men and get them to go buy this car. At the same time, it would get strong and independent women like me to forgive the commercial because it wasn't their fault that women did not ride besides Washington and fight wars back then. It takes a little more in depth thinking and peeling off the layers to realize that that choice was made on purpose and to serve a purpose! Gender stereotypes are everywhere, and here we are unknowingly letting it into our homes ad into our living rooms. I remember reading once that car designers did a study on the way men and women purchase cars, and they were stunned that the number one thing that seals the deal for women purchasing a vehicle were the number and locations of cup holders. I wanted to read more about this, so I went to Google to try and find it. When I began typing "top reasons women.." the predictive words that came up after this were "cheat, leave men, divorce, go to prison, and are bad drivers." ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! So if anyone types in something about women, all of these negative things are going to pop up! How sad and ridiculous! I am going to have to end my rant here because I am angry and disappointed.