The role of males

I am writing about an interesting article that was in our readings for the class.  The article is Men as “general beings”.  I thought this article brought up some valid arguments that make a lot of sense.  One particular things that stood out to was “for men that prism is generally invisible, and they often view themselves as society does: human, generic person”.  Men never really had the option of individualizing their personality.  If you acted in different ways then the public eye perceives men then you are wrong for it.  Men were never given an opportunity to challenge customs, because if they were to do so it would challenge their masculinity. 

9/23 Dr. Widman

Today’s class was much different from most other classes that we have previously had.  Today we had a guest speaker come in; the guest speaker was Dr. Widman.  This class instantly got heavy when much confliction arose between Dr. Widman and some class members.  Dr. Widman is a reliable source of information and some students seemed to question some of his findings, which I don’t see why.  The recurrent theme that was brought up was that culture had more of an effect than biology.  Although I think culture is a contributing factor in some cases I do not fully agree with the argument that was raised.  I do on the other hand feel it was a valuable addition to the class discussion and I am sure will bring much more heat in the classes to follow.

9/21 class

Tuesday’s class was very interesting.  When we split off into small groups we got a striking conversation going.  The idea of gender identity and roles brings up many questions/controversies.  Why is it that a women’s identity can be questioned if she takes on to many masculine roles?  Why is it not okay for a male to have any feminine traits?  With today’s society it makes managing your “role” very complicated.  Peer pressure has strong impacts on how people act, whether its male-male or male-female or vise versa.  It is easy to say that couples act much different while alone, than they do in public.   Males might act more “macho” in front of his guy friends, were if he were just with his girlfriend, he might take a much more sensitive approach.  But due to society norms, it is not acceptable for a man to not be macho.  This debate is intriguing in many ways and poses many questions.  

Class discussion 9/16

Thursdays class discussion brought many pieces of the puzzle of conflict together.  While looking at the causes of conflict, much debate is brought up.  I feel the most interesting part of the class discussion to be the differences between male and female conflict.  It amazes me to think how things can be so different between sexes.  Because of these differences it makes it more difficult for those of opposite to understand each other.  I look forward to discussing this topic further in class.

A "simple" deffinition

After Tuesdays class I was astonished by how difficult it really is to define conflict.  You would think it would be a simple answer of to come into collision or disagreement, but in reality, there are many ways to describe the word.  Then when you put together gender and conflict, it opens up a whole new world of discussion.  This topic can drive conversation all over the world, as well as in our class.  I look forward to our future discussions of this topic throughout the semester.

gender and conflict class

After thursdays class I couldn't help but to continue thinking about what we had discussed in class that day.  I found our conversation intriguing about women in the work place and their roles.  What made me think the most was something my mom told me about where she works.  She is upper management for capital one bank, and she dis-likes hiring younger women, in their "child bearing years" (as she put it).  I know most people in the class thursday would probably disagree with my moms statement, but she to this day would much rather hire a male than a female.  She has found in the past that younger women effect the departments efficiency especially if they get pregnant.
I do not necessarily believe it is fair for an employer to do something like this, but that is how the business world is now-a-days.  Management wants to be as efficient as possible.