Adultery at its best!

Kobe Bryant, Tiger woods, and Arnold schwarzenegger what do they all have in common. They are all adulterer caught in the act by their spouses and came out in the media apologizing about their actions. Kobe Bryant was able to reconcile with his wife but Arnold and Tiger got a divorce. In The last lecture we spoke about adulterers and how they are sympathized. How does the world really sympathize with the adulterer male? The example of the famous governor of California getting caught fathering a child outside of marriage was outrageous to the    common American people. Arnold really took adultery to a new plateau that had never been publicist before in the media. I think about how the media really looks out adultery is it acceptable if a child is not involved. For example the other famous figures did not get punished as greatly as Arnold did. I believe that the only reason why Arnold was shunned by as a public figure is because he was not a sports figure and set a governmental role. Why do these famous figures conduct adultery when they have a family and kids present in their life. Possibly its because they have fame and money. What is very odd is how women are not greatly exposed to a great degree in the media when they do conduct adultery. The man is not the only figure that can break a marriage or a woman also cheats. Then this goes into the topic of cheating women should it be allowed. This shows an example of how in disenchantment love only women can tell true stories and these true stories show men as enemies. The problem is that male figures are not enemies’ and famous women also conduct adultery. Hey if the male figures expose why not expose the women? I believe that the spot light should not only be imposed on male figures but females should also take responsibility.

Disney Princesses

Summary: Paving the way for the Disney “princess” culture, Andy Mooney, Disney Consumer Product’s chairman, saw little girls generically dressed as princesses at a “Disney on Ice” show and was inspired to produce a new identity (Johnson 1). In 2000, he oversaw the Disney Consumer Products’ project, which focused on Disney Princesses, a recently growing franchise with $4 billion in worldwide retail sales (Disney Consumer Product 1). All of the Disney’s princesses—Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Mulan, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Tiana—are banded “together in a comprehensive collection of fantasy-based girls’ entertainment and products called the Disney Princess brand” (Disney Consumer Product 1) Now, that same group has everything from costumes and toys to bedspreads and home ornaments. Disney’s ultimate marketing strategy is to target their prime customers: girls.

Analysis: All the princesses, save for the aberrant few, have to some extent sold themselves in order to obtain the happy ending. In the end of every Disney princess movie, the girl must end with her counterpart. This gender distinction and joining are substantiated on a moral desire to preserve heterosexuality, a social construction founded on marriage—union with the opposite gender. Thus, the female and her fiancé’s performativity to the roles of the princess and prince respectively additionally stresses heterosexuality as a predefined social “normalcy.” So these girls are encouraged to buy princess bridal gowns through marketing strategies that exploit their childhood fantasies (Disney Bridal). The girls are becoming the wrong kind of princesses, ones who persist in the traditional feminine roles that give way to men and their values due to an ever-growing base of consumers. At least the girls have created their own mark: the Disney princess syndrome (Johnson 1). Disney has successfully influenced the girls to drive their parents to buy their products all in the ambition of raising their total revenue. While the girls may dress, look, and on the surface act like princesses, they fail to recognize that there is no special difference among their homogenized identity—a typical, consumer-orientated princess fanatic.

“Disney Consumer Products.” Disney Consumer Products. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
Disney. Advertisement. Disney Bridal. Disney. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. .
Johnson, Matthew. "The Little Princess Syndrome - Natural Life Magazine." Natural Life Magazine - Green Family Living. Natural Life Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Nov. 2011.

Gender Stereotypes in "Psycho"

In order to keep cross-dressing in a socially unacceptable category the film industry has made it either comical or horrifying. Talking with one of my roommates the other day, I revisited the movie Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock to refresh my memory of it. In this movie I realized that there is a reveal scene with Norman Bates in which he takes off his disguise and trys to kill Lila Crane. By connecting the reveal scene with a horrific moment in the film, the film seems to demonize cross-dressing. In addition, it also is stereotyping women as vengeful creatures since Norman only kills people when dressed as his mother.

His disguise gives him the confidence to don an entirely different persona, however it also states some malicious characteristics of women. Norman's mother is portrayed as controlling and judgmental and is never really portrayed as a loving maternal type. In addition, the movie also seems to suggest that as a man Norman has no ability to murder, however when dressed as a female he is able to commit heinous crimes with little to no thought on the matter. This lack of emotional response does go against the emotional stereotype of women, but it adds to a woman who strives for power. As a powerful and controlling woman in the story line, Mrs.Bates must be portrayed as a harm to society, rather than a type of woman that society would benefit from. This way both cross-dressing and women are subtley viewed as dangers to society's morals and overall well-being. Also, in this scene even Norman submits to the power of a male when he trys to kill Lila. When dressed as him mother he must still give in to the authority of men in order to make things right in the story. There is also very little struggle between the male savior and Norman which demonstrates a willingness to conform in order to receive justice in society.

Here is the link with the Psycho scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWHYmNrAFlI

It's almost Finals week. Let's have sex...?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/11/29/worlds-first-sex-school-opens-vienna_n_1118304.html?ref=weird-news&ir=Weird%20News

In this article I found on the Huffington Post, "The world's first international sex school has opened which claims to teach its students how to be better lovers."


Swedish-born "headmistress" Ylva-Maria Thompson says anyone over the age of 16 can enrol at what she describes as "the world's first college of applied sexuality".


When I read this, I was sure this was a joke. In this university, students are expected to practice different sex positions and such within mixed gender dorm halls. This idea of free love within the University is not exactly new, as students have sex in universities everywhere, but in an environment where sex is expected to be practiced within the dorm halls... That's a different story. Paying tuition to learn how to have sex well just seems wrong on many levels.

It's understood that an international school may have different values, but this kind of university challenges many morals and ideals of western cultures. First off, they accept anyone age 16 and older, but in the United States, sex with people under the 18 is considered illegal and can be deemed as sexual assault and rape, and yet this school promotes behavior at a younger age.

This university definitely holds different purposes for  their education, and it's not detrimental to society, but I just thought it was interesting.

-Fred Kim

The Big Bad Wolf

This is a music video for a techno song "The Big Bad Wolf" by Duck Sauce.
The song has no lyrical relation to the video, but the video itself is strangely provocative and somewhat disturbing, in that the reproductive organs of the male and females in this video are in fact second heads.
This relates with the lecture about talking penises and vaginas. The sexual organs are shown to have their own heads, and they display a different personality than that of the actual person. When the males get sexually aroused by the women surrounding them, the song howls (which is just a cool sound sample for the song), and it represents a kind of sexual urge for indulgence. The idea that penises and vaginas have their own mind and mentality are personified in this video. It can easily be disturbing, as I personally was dumbfounded when I saw this video, but the relation to the fables of talking penises and vaginas are clearly interpreted and represented in this video.

they say men think with their penises, and in this video, it's clear that the penis head is dominant in it's decision making, as in the end of the video, they end up in bed having "sex" with females they find attraction towards.

When I saw this video, I couldn't help but think of this gender class and the talking vagina/penis lecture specifically.

-Fred Kim

Healthcare of Transsexual Persons Causes Unnecessary Suffering, Swedish Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2011) — In 1972, Sweden became the first country in the world to legislate healthcare for transsexualism within the state-financed healthcare system. In an international perspective, this was considered to be radical. It was expected that the life situation of people in the transsexual group would improve, now that state-financed healthcare was available for this group. A thesis published at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, however, describes this care as an oppressive gender-conservative system that causes suffering for transsexual persons.

The requirement for sterilisation is not the only aspect that causes suffering. The compulsory psychiatric gender investigation of minimum duration 2 years for those who wish to change their legal sexual identity can also give rise to anxiety.

"Those who qualify for gender-corrective measures also known as sex reassignment treatment, become legally acknowledged as the gender in which they recognise themselves. But a prerequisite for this is that they lose something: namely the possibility of having biological children, since the law states that a transsexual person must be sterilised (sterile) ," says ethnologist Signe Bremer. Her thesis describes studies of autobiographical blogs and in-depth interviews with people at various stages of gender-corrective care.

"Waiting is sometimes experienced as being nearly impossible to bear," says Signe Bremer.

Her thesis shows that the physical bodies that transsexual persons wish to correct, play an important role in the assessments made by the psychiatric system about who is considered to be suitable for gender correction. A transsexual woman who demonstrates visible beard stubble, for example, may receive negative comments, while a transsexual man with a muscular body and flat chest may receive compliments. In summary, a "suitable" body can be described as a body that health care staff consider compatible with that gender that the transsexual person recognise him/her-self.

"The investigations seem to be based on the belief that a good life as a legally recognised woman or man goes hand in hand with a person's ability to blend in. The investigators fail to realise that every person has, in fact, a unique appearance. Furthermore, I have shown that it is often the investigating personnel, and not the transsexual person, who emphasises the importance of being able to blend in, just as any 'normal' woman or man," says Signe Bremer.

According to accurate gender corrective health care logic, people's bodies should be unequivocally materialised as one or the other sex. A woman should, for example, not have a penis and a man should not be able to get pregnant. Signe Bremer's results show not only that a similar way of thinking is prevalent within the group of transsexual persons, but also that transsexual people exercise resistance against the heteronormative principles of the healthcare system. Far from all transsexual women, for example, feel the aversion to a penis that medical practitioners maintain as prerequisites for 'authentic' transsexualism. Many transsexual men are also critical to the requirement that the uterus must be surgically removed.

"The gender investigation tends to focus heavily on the genitals. One of the transsexual women I interviewed did not express sufficient rejection of her sexual organ, and the investigation was delayed because of this," says Signe Bremer.

Signe Bremer is critical to the common perception of transsexualism as synonymous with the experience of being born in the wrong body.

"We live in a society that is dominated by the idea that there are only two types of people -- feminine women who are born with a vagina and masculine men who are born with a penis. Healthcare for transsexual persons is a part of society, and this idea therefore also characterises the conditions required for gender-corrective measures. The work presented in my thesis shows that this often has serious consequences for the life of an individual," says Signe Bremer.

Trans specific health care is part of society, consequently the same gender norms and beliefs characterizes prevailing conditions for gender correction. My thesis shows that this often has severe consequences for individual persons' lives, says Signe Bremer.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Seniors Face Harder Old Age, U. S. Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2011) — Aging and health issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baby boomers have been largely ignored by services, policies and research. These seniors face higher rates of disability, physical and mental distress and a lack of access to services, according to the first study on aging and health in these communities.

"The higher rates of aging and health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults is a major concern for public health," said Fredriksen-Goldsen, a UW professor of social work and director of UW's Institute for Multigenerational Health. "The health disparities reflect the historical and social context of their lives, and the serious adversity they have encountered can jeopardize their health and willingness to seek services in old age."

The study, released Nov. 16 and led by Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen and colleagues at the University of Washington's School of Social Work, indicates that prevention and intervention strategies must be developed to address the unique needs of these seniors, whose numbers are expected to double to more than 4 million by 2030.

She presented some of the study's key findings last week during a congressional briefing.

The study highlights how these adults have unique circumstances, such as fear of discrimination and often the lack of children to help them. Senior housing, transportation, legal services, support groups and social events were the most commonly cited services needed in the LGBT community, according to the study.

Fredriksen-Goldsen and her co-authors surveyed 2,560 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults aged 50-95 across the United States. The researchers found that the study participants had greater rates of disability, depression and loneliness and increased likeliness to smoke and binge-drink compared with heterosexuals of similar ages.

Those seniors are also at greater risk for social isolation, which is "linked to poor mental and physical health, cognitive impairment, chronic illness and premature death," Fredriksen-Goldsen said. Study participants were more likely to live alone and less likely to be partnered or married than heterosexuals, which may result in less social support and financial security as they age.

Histories of victimization and discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity also contribute to poor health. The study showed that 80 percent had been victimized at least once during their lifetimes, including verbal and physical assaults, threats of physical violence and being "outed," and damaged property. Twenty-one percent of respondents said they were fired from a job because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Nearly four out of 10 had considered suicide at some point.

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed did not tell their doctors about their sexual orientation or gender identity out of fear of receiving inferior health care or being turned away for services, which 13 percent of respondents had endured. As one respondent, a 67-year-old gay man, put it, "I was advised by my primary care doctor to not get my HIV tested there, but rather do it anonymously, because he knew they were discriminating."

Lack of openness about sexuality "prevents discussions about sexual health, risk of breast or prostate cancer, hepatitis, HIV risk, hormone therapy or other risk factors," Fredriksen-Goldsen said.

The good news? "LGBT older adults are resilient and living their lives and building their communities," Fredriksen-Goldsen said. Of the study's respondents, 91 percent reported using wellness activities such as meditation and 82 percent said they regularly exercised. Nearly all -- 90 percent -- felt good about belonging to their communities. And 38 percent stated that they attended spiritual or religious services, indicating a promising social outlet.

Social connections are key, the study noted because, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, most lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors rely heavily on partners and friends of similar age to provide assistance as they age. While social ties are critical, there may be limits to the ability of those older adults to "provide care over the long-term, especially if decision-making is required for the older adult receiving care," Fredriksen-Goldsen said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging.