The Secret Box

The Look

  Killing us softly 4: advertising's image of women by Jean Killbourne, shows us how women are viewed and objectified in our society. The media plays an important role, because it is the source from where all the information is transmitted to people. Both men and women are subject to advertisement and media, which is constantly implanted in our brains. From a young age, women are taught that impeccable presence it is always a priority. Women have always been this object to serve men's amusement, which dehumanizes women. She describes this obsession of looking like celebrities and anyone that we see on T.V. as a public health problem that is destroying one's own beauty. 

  Kilbourne, explains that through the influence of the media, women are exposed to justified violence. Women's bodies are incorporated in objects such as this beer bottle, which tears apart this woman. This leads to men using women and comparing them to non-existent women on a billboard as they watch a football game. In order to be "loved," women are willing to modify their bodies just to fit this deceiving norm that the media has created. Jean Kilbourne points out the fact that most women in these commercials are just a photoshopped image and it is devastating how a woman would go so far to dying from an eating disorder just to look like a woman on a magazine. 

  

 

"Boys Don't Cry"

                                                                                 Tony Porter talks about his experience as a male and a father during his presentation "A call to men". In the video he explains the collective socialization of men, which he describes as the famous "man box". The man box, as he describes, it is the set of norms by which every man is supposed to live by. They are the guidelines that men are taught from a young age and are expected to follow into manhood. 

  

  Porter uses himself as an example of how he had been raised to fit those male expectations that he was now expecting from his son. He realized that such guidelines to manhood are nothing but the fear of being exposed. As men, they are expected to be brave and dominant, women are objects for  men to "own". The collective socialization of men tells us that, even men are suppressed by the norms of how a man should behave in society. Due to this expected behavior, men are also chained and although they are the oppressors of women (majority of time), as Tony Porter said it :"my liberation as a man is tied to your liberation as a woman".

If you want better functions, buy the boy laptop. 

  The two videos are an example of how the media and society shapes our view of ourselves as well as the view of others. We often behave according to the expectations of these norms that the agents of socialization expose us to. In chapter six on socialization we learn that the agents of socialization shape our daily lives, therefore we are constantly trying to adjust such expectations. On page 139, the book states that children between the ages of 8 and 18 spend about seven and a half hours influenced by the media outside of the classroom. In the video by Jean Killbourne, she explains how most of our day we are influenced by the media. We see it from T.V commercials to even ads on buses and trains. It is terrifying how we do not even realize how much the media has influenced us. Kids and parents don't spend quality time as often and in some cases they just watch television shows for about three hours, thinking that this amount that they spend on the couch is "quality time".

  I can easily apply this to my own life experience because coming from a hispanic working-class family, my parents did not spend as much time with me. I always remember spending long days with my grandmother either watching cartoons or playing with Barbie. Luckily, I had my boy cousin there to  keep me company. Because we were only children, we didn't care what we played with, but referring back to Tony Porter's video, my grandmother was always telling my cousin that boys are not supposed to play with Barbies. We continued to play tea party with Barbie and GI Joe, but my grandma did not see that was correct. I think that as little kids we were seen as "weird" by the other kids on the block, because we were not allowed to play outside with others. My grandma believed that those kids were "callejeros," meaning street-rat or something like that. She always told me that girls were not supposed to be on the street, because people don't respect girls like that. This is how family influences our views and how we integrate ourselves in society.
 

Childrearing Methods

  Two other examples tied to chapter six are the readings: The Retro Wife and the Parent's  Socialization of Children. Both readings focus on how children are brought up in different households, but there are some differences. The Retro Wife by Lisa Miller talks about women who leave their careers to stay at home with their children because they believe that no one else is going to raise them better. She gives the story of Kelly Makino as an example that shows the benefits of how a mother (who can afford it) can raise her children better because all her time is devoted to them in comparison to mothers who have to work. The Parents' Socialization of Children by D. Terri Heath, talks about different parenting styles in our society. He talks about authoritative, permissive and authoritarian parents and the outcome of their children. In the reading, Heath also talks about what kinds of jobs these parents might have as well as the differences in other cultures. Out of the three kinds of parenting styles, the worst kind is the permissive parent. This kind of parent allows the child to do as they please and there is no order, therefore these kids lack self control, are aimless, aggressive and are non-compliant with adults. They may also do poorly in school due to low standards set by their parents. The best kind would be the authoritative parent because they set high standards for their kids and set rules for them to follow. They are strict, but reasonable and spend quality time with their children. These kids are often successful and happy in life.

  In both readings, one can make the connection that parents who spend quality time with their children are the authoritative type and most likely to be a middle class parent. I think that this is accurate in many cases, because middle class parents usually have creative jobs and more time to spend with their children in comparison to the working class or the poor. The working class parent would usually have a job where they have to follow orders from a person above them of higher power, therefore they teach their kids how to behave in the same way that they would in the work place. If most people could afford to be home with their kids to give them a better future not only by just providing material needs, but as well the way they are brought up, then they would grow up to be better and successful. 

                                                         

What is power?

    

The Reason why I find this quote so powerful, is because in many instances, many people live in this state of powerlessness and silence. I find Harriet Tubman's words so truthful,because I think that individuals that are born and raised in a situation where their way of thinking and living is controlled by other individuals of higher status; may not even know or even put themselves in this oppressed way of living. Because a status or certain role is assigned to an individual, he or she may oppress themselves ("Five Faces of Oppression"). 
  
 Chapter 5 of Experience Sociology, Describes different types of power in our society, as well as power tactics and everyday use. The reading Five Faces of Oppression, talks about oppression as a form of stripping someone of their powers and rights. The article explains Five kinds of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. What I liked about this article, is that as I was reading it, I was able to make my own examples from historical knowledge. In chapter five, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins highlights the use of power to stand against oppression(p.111).The article also made me understand the video, in terms of how people have "power over" others as mentioned in chapter five. 

 The Milgram Experiment video, is an example where oppression is used through a means of violence and domination. In the experiment, the doctors gather people to conduct a series of shock therapy sessions on another person. This was a process in which the participants were given different roles of being "teachers" o "students". The people who were assigned as teachers were purposely given this role even though they were told that roles were given through a lottery. The student was always the same person, but the "teachers" were not aware of that. In the study, the "teachers" were to ask questions in a separate room where they were not able to see the student who was asked the questions. When a question was answered wrong, the patient would receive a shock. As the experiment progressed, the volts increased according to the number of wrong answers. The true story behind this experiment was to see how oppressive human beings are. Most people carried through the entire session, knowing that on the other side of the wall there was a person receiving electric shocks, which continued to escalate until it reached a max. Some people questioned the doctors who had the power over the participants. This was a test of whether individuals would obey the authorities even though the test went against their morals all in the name of science. Throughout the study, some questions began to raise an eyebrow, but what made these people continue and even participate in the first place? My observations were that: a)trusted authorities(scientists), b) the experiment was believed to be for a "good cause", c) increased obedience due to the constant presence of an authority figure, d)the participants believed their roles were randomly selected by playing a lottery, e) it made it okay, because the learner had signed a consent form. 

 I can also relate this experiment to what John French and Bertram Raven called expert power. expert power is one of the six bases of power described in chapter five(p.115), as the perception that an individual has superior knowledge in a particular area therefore, they have more power because of their trust worthiness. The fact that a person has a title for example a doctor or a teacher, does not mean that this person is an expert. In many cases people seem to have power of authority and knowledge when in reality they might be as ignorant as one that does not have the knowledge. This is one of the reasons why the participants in the experiment blindly obeyed the expected knowledgeable authority. They followed because the doctors know what they are doing.  

 The book also talks about domination, which is the ability that one(or several) individuals have over others. This approach can be seen from two different perspectives in my opinion. One that focuses on the dominance to accomplish a negative result against a certain group, or the power that a particular group forms through a means of domination to resist oppression and accomplish a positive result for the collective good of a group. Usually this approach involves the idea of conflict. on page 113, it is mentioned that Robert Dahl describes that power is exclusively seen in means of domination. He gives that example that "A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not do otherwise". This brings me back to the Milgram Experiment, because the doctors had the dominant authority over the participants,which triggered them to do something that these people would not do on a regular basis. They just did as they were told without questions. In a sense, I believe that the experiment made me realize that oppression happened to not only the learners, but as well as the teachers. As soon as they felt that the experiment was getting a little too extreme, they were told to continue even if they felt that this went against their morals. The authority figure had the power to push them as far as they desired and they were successful, because out of all the people they gathered as teachers only one stood up against the experiment. i recall that one guy saying that the test reminded him of the Nazi tortures during the Holocaust. That is the same way I felt as I was watching it.