Saturday, April 11, 2009
social networking websites; not so black & white
There are so many angles to cover, I'm not sure where to begin. I suppose I will start with the Testing Horace Mann article, because this resonated on many levels with me/my experiences.
Just as students should have freedom from the fear that they will be bullied/harassed by their peers or professors, the teachers/administration should also not have to worry about incessant harassment from their students. How can a teacher do a decent job in the classroom if s/he is always afraid of threats/repercussions/etc.?
My father taught middle school children in the towns of Dover and Sherborn, Massachuetts for over 30 years. This is a very privileged, white, affluent area, and although it was a public school, the parents were much like the ones of the Horace Mann community, in terms of how much power/influence they had over the way the school was run.
My dad had to endure parents getting overly-involved in even the most seemingly trivial matters, and often felt like he had little control over how he ran a classroom. If he handed out a detention or punishment of any kind, no matter how deserved or justified it was, he was at risk of being reprimanded or worse by his boss, as well as harassed by many parents. The majority of students knew that this was their reality to use to their advantage. So many of them knew how to play their cards right, and get away with misconduct/misbehavior of any kind. And this was before the days of Facebook/MySpace.
If students want to use Facebook, fine. There are so many benefits to belonging to social networking websites,...But to use it to verbally assault someone, (teacher or not), while using racial/sexist slurs, is just not acceptable.
This is just ONE recent example of how bullying/harassment can have devastating effects: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2400.html
This issue reminds me of when my sister was in high school, and there was a similar experience involving a teacher and local politician. When a history teacher discussed gay marriage in a social studies course, he was accused of being "one-sided" about the "debate." Kids were conversing with their parents about the subject, and when the parents discovered that this teacher was "promoting" gay marraige and appearing to be pro-gay rights, they argued that there should be a more balanced viewpoint brought to King Philip Regional High. They did this by asking a local politician, Scott Brown, to speak about the topic in KP's auditorium. This infuriated many students. Scott Brown is a well-known State Senator whom conservatives love, and liberals love to hate. Many students felt angry that their history teacher was being accused of "promoting" an issue that 1) he was not promoting and 2) in their view, should not even be up for debate. Discussing "balanced viewpoints" on gay marriage to these kids seemed like discussing "balanced viewpoints" on the legitimacy of slavery. There's simply no such thing.
So where did students go to feel that they could be heard? Facebook. They created a group that discussed how much they disliked him, and how they were angry they would have to listen to him speak. They attacked his character, his attempts to always push his daughter's "fame" (she, Ayla Brown, had appeared on American Idol recently), and his hypocrisy. Here was a man who was clearly homophobic, yet he had no problem admitting he had posed nude for magazines to make money in his youth. In the minds of these students, his moral compass was completely screwed up.
This apparently infuriated Scott Brown, whose daughter used the website and showed him the online group. He then proceeded to print out copies of comments students had left on the group forum, and went to give his speech at KP. Instead of discussing gay marriage, however, he decided to discuss the facebook group. The details of this story can be found here: http://massequality.org/news/news_story.php?id=463 In the end, the students were viciously attacked for their opinions and comments online, and were accused of committing the crime of "hate speech".... The way in which the students were attacked was incredibly inappropriate, and in the end, Scott Brown made himself look like a fool. But this raises some good questions about the gray areas of this debate. Where are the lines drawn between what students can say online, and what they cant? I feel that students should practice their freedom of speech on and offline, but when they are name-calling or bullying or hurting people for the sake of being verbally violent or "funny", and not criticizing specifically relevant subject matter, then it is a problem. Politicians, like other public officials, can be analyzed in a negative way by youth on or off the web. But should teachers be as publicly humiliated for the pure entertainment of teenagers on facebook? I'm not sure I agree there, but then again, I don't have all the answers.
Just as students should have freedom from the fear that they will be bullied/harassed by their peers or professors, the teachers/administration should also not have to worry about incessant harassment from their students. How can a teacher do a decent job in the classroom if s/he is always afraid of threats/repercussions/etc.?
My father taught middle school children in the towns of Dover and Sherborn, Massachuetts for over 30 years. This is a very privileged, white, affluent area, and although it was a public school, the parents were much like the ones of the Horace Mann community, in terms of how much power/influence they had over the way the school was run.
My dad had to endure parents getting overly-involved in even the most seemingly trivial matters, and often felt like he had little control over how he ran a classroom. If he handed out a detention or punishment of any kind, no matter how deserved or justified it was, he was at risk of being reprimanded or worse by his boss, as well as harassed by many parents. The majority of students knew that this was their reality to use to their advantage. So many of them knew how to play their cards right, and get away with misconduct/misbehavior of any kind. And this was before the days of Facebook/MySpace.
If students want to use Facebook, fine. There are so many benefits to belonging to social networking websites,...But to use it to verbally assault someone, (teacher or not), while using racial/sexist slurs, is just not acceptable.
This is just ONE recent example of how bullying/harassment can have devastating effects: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2400.html
This issue reminds me of when my sister was in high school, and there was a similar experience involving a teacher and local politician. When a history teacher discussed gay marriage in a social studies course, he was accused of being "one-sided" about the "debate." Kids were conversing with their parents about the subject, and when the parents discovered that this teacher was "promoting" gay marraige and appearing to be pro-gay rights, they argued that there should be a more balanced viewpoint brought to King Philip Regional High. They did this by asking a local politician, Scott Brown, to speak about the topic in KP's auditorium. This infuriated many students. Scott Brown is a well-known State Senator whom conservatives love, and liberals love to hate. Many students felt angry that their history teacher was being accused of "promoting" an issue that 1) he was not promoting and 2) in their view, should not even be up for debate. Discussing "balanced viewpoints" on gay marriage to these kids seemed like discussing "balanced viewpoints" on the legitimacy of slavery. There's simply no such thing.
So where did students go to feel that they could be heard? Facebook. They created a group that discussed how much they disliked him, and how they were angry they would have to listen to him speak. They attacked his character, his attempts to always push his daughter's "fame" (she, Ayla Brown, had appeared on American Idol recently), and his hypocrisy. Here was a man who was clearly homophobic, yet he had no problem admitting he had posed nude for magazines to make money in his youth. In the minds of these students, his moral compass was completely screwed up.
This apparently infuriated Scott Brown, whose daughter used the website and showed him the online group. He then proceeded to print out copies of comments students had left on the group forum, and went to give his speech at KP. Instead of discussing gay marriage, however, he decided to discuss the facebook group. The details of this story can be found here: http://massequality.org/news/news_story.php?id=463 In the end, the students were viciously attacked for their opinions and comments online, and were accused of committing the crime of "hate speech".... The way in which the students were attacked was incredibly inappropriate, and in the end, Scott Brown made himself look like a fool. But this raises some good questions about the gray areas of this debate. Where are the lines drawn between what students can say online, and what they cant? I feel that students should practice their freedom of speech on and offline, but when they are name-calling or bullying or hurting people for the sake of being verbally violent or "funny", and not criticizing specifically relevant subject matter, then it is a problem. Politicians, like other public officials, can be analyzed in a negative way by youth on or off the web. But should teachers be as publicly humiliated for the pure entertainment of teenagers on facebook? I'm not sure I agree there, but then again, I don't have all the answers.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
etc.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30048430/?GT1=43001
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1041_3-6141920.html
http://www.todaysworkplace.org/2009/02/18/teen-sexual-harassment-on-the-job-%E2%80%93-now-on-pbs-investigation-airs-february-20/
http://www.ncpamd.com/Sexual_Harassment.htm
^^ this last one bothered me "How To Say "No" So He Knows You Mean It" --What kind of title is that???
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1041_3-6141920.html
http://www.todaysworkplace.org/2009/02/18/teen-sexual-harassment-on-the-job-%E2%80%93-now-on-pbs-investigation-airs-february-20/
http://www.ncpamd.com/Sexual_Harassment.htm
^^ this last one bothered me "How To Say "No" So He Knows You Mean It" --What kind of title is that???
affection... assault.
There is nothing like returning
to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways in which
you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela (1918 - )
I thought of this quote when remembering my high school years recently. The articles I searched for (representing teens in the media) brought back some startling memories..
I came across one that discussed a recent incident involving a King Philip High student from Wrentham, Mass.
A seventeen year old from the high school I once attended had been charged with raping another 17-yr-old behind Town Hall in his car.
When I read the newspaper article, I cried.
According to the police report, Brian Poirier said "It's not the girl's choice, it's mine," when the girl refused his advances. He made the victim feel terrified, and forced himself on her, and when she went to the cops, he changed his story multiple times before admitting to letting things "get out of hand."
When I was in high school, there were many guys who sexually assaulted their female peers. But none of them were ever caught.
I, and others, lived in fear of being told it was our own fault if we spoke up about what happened. I kept quiet for a long time, because I didn't want to "make a scene" as many people I was close to would have accused me of doing. My friends/acquaintances also did not want to be rejected/insulted/abandoned by their peers for coming forward with the truth. We all had our reasons. We all stayed silent. The fact that this teenage girl had the courage to inform law enforcement fills me with hope, but the fact that sexual assault is still such a problem, even in my hometown (which people love to label as being a perfect white suburbia - it is anything but perfect), definitely breaks my heart.
What truly bothers me is that this will not change any part of the status quo. Rape/sexual assault will continue to be a part of a teenage girl's reality until sex ed becomes a bigger priority in our culture. At our school, the health ed never emphasized respect, or emotional/mental health, or gender equality, or communication, etc.etc.etc. The entire health education curriculum consisted of:
Part 1: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. and
Part 2: This is a banana. This is a banana wearing a condom.
I am tired of America settling for such low standards when it comes to (what I consider to be) the most important aspect of ANY human being's education: Health/Wellness. If one is not mentally/physically healthy and safe, then any further education is oftentimes useless, irrelevant, or impossible. And it is beyond impossible for teenage girls to feel/be safe, if their male counterparts are sexually assaulting or harassing them.
However, schools are not dealing with the issue of sexual assault/harassment by increasing the amount of (or improving the quality of) their health education. Instead, they are enforcing strict "no-contact rules"... One article I read described these rules well in a headline saying, "...meant to stem violence, has some pushing for change."
I hope it's more than SOME. Putting into effect rules or codes of conduct that require absolutely no touching between classmates, or classmates and faculty, is ridiculous. It only isolates teenagers more, and represses their most basic need as human beings: the need for touch. If someone falls down and is hurt in gym class, is a fellow classmate supposed to just ignore it? If someone has just learned of a family member's death, is a teacher or peer supposed to NOT offer a hug/shoulder to cry on? Where is the humanity or respect in that? Non-violence should mean MORE to people than just the absence of aggression. Non-violence is not just a passive act; it is MORE than simply resisting an urge to injure someone. Non-violence means compassion, and compassion means: consoling, embracing, high-fiving, kissing, affectionate hugging or back-rubbing, hand-holding, and more.
So if schools want to promote non-violence, they need to promote and practice these things, like it or not, politically correct or not.
What they also have to do is teach students (starting at a very young age) that they need to treat their own bodies, and the bodies of others, with complete & utter respect. This translates into forming comprehensive health ed courses for students of all ages, in all grades, at all levels to take. I do not understand why years of geometry and algebra were requirements for me to graduate, but not several years of health ed. If I got an A in Chemistry (which, for me, will continue to be useless information in terms of my daily life and career choice), then I was considered a good student. But getting an A in Health class... well, that was looked at as a joke by my parents, and it was not considered an essential class for me to have taken in order to attend college.
To say the least, it enrages me to know there are schools condemning affection or contact between students or students & faculty. Inappropriate touching should never be allowed, but hugging? High-fiving? Please. Schools are institutions, yes. I think they shouldn't be such formal/controlling/conforming institutions, but they are, and I try to deal with that sometimes. However..Prisons?
No, they really should not be accepted as prisons.. yet, that is exactly what they are evolving into.
So if the powers that be truly consider imprisonment to be a solution for sexual harassment, they should seriously first check out America's prisons. As if sexual assault doesn't happen there.
to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways in which
you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela (1918 - )
I thought of this quote when remembering my high school years recently. The articles I searched for (representing teens in the media) brought back some startling memories..
I came across one that discussed a recent incident involving a King Philip High student from Wrentham, Mass.
A seventeen year old from the high school I once attended had been charged with raping another 17-yr-old behind Town Hall in his car.
When I read the newspaper article, I cried.
According to the police report, Brian Poirier said "It's not the girl's choice, it's mine," when the girl refused his advances. He made the victim feel terrified, and forced himself on her, and when she went to the cops, he changed his story multiple times before admitting to letting things "get out of hand."
When I was in high school, there were many guys who sexually assaulted their female peers. But none of them were ever caught.
I, and others, lived in fear of being told it was our own fault if we spoke up about what happened. I kept quiet for a long time, because I didn't want to "make a scene" as many people I was close to would have accused me of doing. My friends/acquaintances also did not want to be rejected/insulted/abandoned by their peers for coming forward with the truth. We all had our reasons. We all stayed silent. The fact that this teenage girl had the courage to inform law enforcement fills me with hope, but the fact that sexual assault is still such a problem, even in my hometown (which people love to label as being a perfect white suburbia - it is anything but perfect), definitely breaks my heart.
What truly bothers me is that this will not change any part of the status quo. Rape/sexual assault will continue to be a part of a teenage girl's reality until sex ed becomes a bigger priority in our culture. At our school, the health ed never emphasized respect, or emotional/mental health, or gender equality, or communication, etc.etc.etc. The entire health education curriculum consisted of:
Part 1: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. and
Part 2: This is a banana. This is a banana wearing a condom.
I am tired of America settling for such low standards when it comes to (what I consider to be) the most important aspect of ANY human being's education: Health/Wellness. If one is not mentally/physically healthy and safe, then any further education is oftentimes useless, irrelevant, or impossible. And it is beyond impossible for teenage girls to feel/be safe, if their male counterparts are sexually assaulting or harassing them.
However, schools are not dealing with the issue of sexual assault/harassment by increasing the amount of (or improving the quality of) their health education. Instead, they are enforcing strict "no-contact rules"... One article I read described these rules well in a headline saying, "...meant to stem violence, has some pushing for change."
I hope it's more than SOME. Putting into effect rules or codes of conduct that require absolutely no touching between classmates, or classmates and faculty, is ridiculous. It only isolates teenagers more, and represses their most basic need as human beings: the need for touch. If someone falls down and is hurt in gym class, is a fellow classmate supposed to just ignore it? If someone has just learned of a family member's death, is a teacher or peer supposed to NOT offer a hug/shoulder to cry on? Where is the humanity or respect in that? Non-violence should mean MORE to people than just the absence of aggression. Non-violence is not just a passive act; it is MORE than simply resisting an urge to injure someone. Non-violence means compassion, and compassion means: consoling, embracing, high-fiving, kissing, affectionate hugging or back-rubbing, hand-holding, and more.
So if schools want to promote non-violence, they need to promote and practice these things, like it or not, politically correct or not.
What they also have to do is teach students (starting at a very young age) that they need to treat their own bodies, and the bodies of others, with complete & utter respect. This translates into forming comprehensive health ed courses for students of all ages, in all grades, at all levels to take. I do not understand why years of geometry and algebra were requirements for me to graduate, but not several years of health ed. If I got an A in Chemistry (which, for me, will continue to be useless information in terms of my daily life and career choice), then I was considered a good student. But getting an A in Health class... well, that was looked at as a joke by my parents, and it was not considered an essential class for me to have taken in order to attend college.
To say the least, it enrages me to know there are schools condemning affection or contact between students or students & faculty. Inappropriate touching should never be allowed, but hugging? High-fiving? Please. Schools are institutions, yes. I think they shouldn't be such formal/controlling/conforming institutions, but they are, and I try to deal with that sometimes. However..Prisons?
No, they really should not be accepted as prisons.. yet, that is exactly what they are evolving into.
So if the powers that be truly consider imprisonment to be a solution for sexual harassment, they should seriously first check out America's prisons. As if sexual assault doesn't happen there.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Lauren Greenfield Photography
Lauren Greenfield's photography, as well as her "artist statement," struck a cord in me that forced self-examination/analysis of my deeply embedded assumptions about teens. I realized that, while it is true: every youthful generation deals with issues/obstacles surrounding drugs, sexuality, violence, cultural norms, so-called subversive behavior, etc., that does not take away from the fact that... well, times really are different. At the risk of sounding like an old woman in her rocking chair, lecturing "When I was your age...", I would argue that today's youth indeed face moral dilemmas and a variety of problems that yesterday's youth did not confront. These photographs portrayed the degree to which desensitization, disillusionment, and destruction have become the rule, not the exception.
Even when examining my own junior high and high schools, I see the kids dealing with topics I never had to figure out. The only drama I had as a 12 yr old in seventh grade was finding the courage to ask a boy to dance with me at a Halloween school dance, (which my father was kind enough to chaperone, of course). The pre-teens and teens that attend KP North Regional nowadays are having oral sex on the back of schoolbuses because their peers/the media place pressure/emphasis on having sex to be popular. My little brother has told me horror stories that shock me... when often, there is no shock factor for him anymore. They seem quite jaded for their age, while I, on the other hand, read old journals I kept as a kid, and see how innocent/curious/sensitive I was at the time.
I think through education, we can teach youth to reject the dominant ideologies of our culture/country, but in the meantime, so many of them suffer unnecessarily, being raised on too much tv and junk food, numbed by games like Grand Theft Auto, losing their childhood in the process.
...or maybe I'm just seeing the glass half-empty?
Even when examining my own junior high and high schools, I see the kids dealing with topics I never had to figure out. The only drama I had as a 12 yr old in seventh grade was finding the courage to ask a boy to dance with me at a Halloween school dance, (which my father was kind enough to chaperone, of course). The pre-teens and teens that attend KP North Regional nowadays are having oral sex on the back of schoolbuses because their peers/the media place pressure/emphasis on having sex to be popular. My little brother has told me horror stories that shock me... when often, there is no shock factor for him anymore. They seem quite jaded for their age, while I, on the other hand, read old journals I kept as a kid, and see how innocent/curious/sensitive I was at the time.
I think through education, we can teach youth to reject the dominant ideologies of our culture/country, but in the meantime, so many of them suffer unnecessarily, being raised on too much tv and junk food, numbed by games like Grand Theft Auto, losing their childhood in the process.
...or maybe I'm just seeing the glass half-empty?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Hip Hop, Tricia Rose interviews, etc.
Women have to address their relationship to sexuality, in order to "make it" as a female artist in hip-hop. In this NPR interview with Tricia Rose, she discusses a particularly damaging and narrow binary that women deal with in commercial hip-hop. They must either be "hyper-sexual or hyper-tough". Female MC's must confront this difficulty in a way that men do not, (though commercialized hip hop does unfairly portray both genders).
Rose seems to be critical of both sides of the debate when it comes to our nation’s dialogue on hip hop. While she acknowledges the sexism and stereotypes that commercial hip hop perpetuates, she simultaneously argues that critics of hip-hop tend to oversimplify the issues of violence and racism/sexism.
One particular quote really resonated with me, for a variety of reasons. Rose was entirely accurate when she said, “Look, I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing everything about Lil Wayne and Jay-Z, because I'm not. I think they're both very talented. If you look at the metaphors Lil Wayne produces, they're amazing; they're very creative. It's the substance. What are you making metaphors about 24 hours a day? Same thing with Jay-Z. Even he has acknowledged that he's "dumbed his music down" so that he can sell records. This economic imperative has had more of an impact on hip-hop than [on] rock or soul or R&B.”
First of all, as far as Lil Wayne (and artists like him) are concerned, I cannot stand the content of their music, and vehemently object to the messages they send to women/youth. That said, I absolutely love dancing to their beats, finding myself more than happy to dance with friends to those songs.
Growing up around Brazilian family members definitely taught me at an early age to appreciate any/all Latina music and culture. So with the new Latino influences in hip-hop, I have become especially entertained by hip-hop music, regardless of any offensive lyrics. Moreover, as dumb as it may sound, I grew up being forced into an ideological box because of my “skinny weak white girl” appearance. As I’ve grown older, I’ve had to un-brainwash myself on some levels and learn that, despite my physical appearance or how others perceive me, I can TOO be strong, tough, powerful, and a force to reckon with, if I so choose to be.. And hip-hop music (along with its styles of dance/ dress /attitude) empowers me to feel like I can be those things, even if it’s only for a Saturday night spent clubbing :) … Although, on the other hand, it frustrates me to enjoy the sound of something that I am aware is promoting tremendous negativity. Therefore, I jump at any chance I get to listen to artists like Ciara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRuUJR4LPI) and Missy Elliot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khgIVMUvihg) and Beyonce (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpR4LC1__OA) who are not afraid to be tough, large & in charge, loud, funny, and playing with gender roles. Women need to be continuously infiltrating the hip-hop scene to re-define their place in that culture, or both women and hip-hop as a genre will suffer from the loss of female voices being heard.
Rose seems to be critical of both sides of the debate when it comes to our nation’s dialogue on hip hop. While she acknowledges the sexism and stereotypes that commercial hip hop perpetuates, she simultaneously argues that critics of hip-hop tend to oversimplify the issues of violence and racism/sexism.
One particular quote really resonated with me, for a variety of reasons. Rose was entirely accurate when she said, “Look, I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing everything about Lil Wayne and Jay-Z, because I'm not. I think they're both very talented. If you look at the metaphors Lil Wayne produces, they're amazing; they're very creative. It's the substance. What are you making metaphors about 24 hours a day? Same thing with Jay-Z. Even he has acknowledged that he's "dumbed his music down" so that he can sell records. This economic imperative has had more of an impact on hip-hop than [on] rock or soul or R&B.”
First of all, as far as Lil Wayne (and artists like him) are concerned, I cannot stand the content of their music, and vehemently object to the messages they send to women/youth. That said, I absolutely love dancing to their beats, finding myself more than happy to dance with friends to those songs.
Growing up around Brazilian family members definitely taught me at an early age to appreciate any/all Latina music and culture. So with the new Latino influences in hip-hop, I have become especially entertained by hip-hop music, regardless of any offensive lyrics. Moreover, as dumb as it may sound, I grew up being forced into an ideological box because of my “skinny weak white girl” appearance. As I’ve grown older, I’ve had to un-brainwash myself on some levels and learn that, despite my physical appearance or how others perceive me, I can TOO be strong, tough, powerful, and a force to reckon with, if I so choose to be.. And hip-hop music (along with its styles of dance/ dress /attitude) empowers me to feel like I can be those things, even if it’s only for a Saturday night spent clubbing :) … Although, on the other hand, it frustrates me to enjoy the sound of something that I am aware is promoting tremendous negativity. Therefore, I jump at any chance I get to listen to artists like Ciara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRuUJR4LPI) and Missy Elliot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khgIVMUvihg) and Beyonce (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpR4LC1__OA) who are not afraid to be tough, large & in charge, loud, funny, and playing with gender roles. Women need to be continuously infiltrating the hip-hop scene to re-define their place in that culture, or both women and hip-hop as a genre will suffer from the loss of female voices being heard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
