Vaennessa Eng 216 blog

  I'm actually super surprised that I didn't have an automatic association between male and female with science and liberal arts. That actually makes me super happy because I was brought up in a household that emphasized science for the men and arts for the women. I am a naturally gifted artist and musician which I've always felt extremely blessed for. I often dabbled in them in my down time. It never took much training, so I'd be able to pick up a pencil and draw portraits or listen to a song on the piano, YouTube it and then play it. The thing was, I didn't want to make a career out of those subjects because doing so would make my hobbies and passions feel like a chore. I liked the freedom to choose when I drew and when I played. With the sciences, I felt differently. I was never encouraged to participate in that, and I was didn't know if I'd ever be good at it. Truthfully, it was quite intimidating at first, and the fact that I felt so behind and lacking ...

I was not able to view the first YouTube link, so I won't be able to answer questions or reference my blog to that. However, I was able to view the video Evolution Explains Kindness. I think this video offers a lot of interesting points about the complexity of human behavior and human evolution. I personally think that kindness is the loophole we have found that helps in the preservation of our species as a whole. Many people think that kindness is a weakness, but it has been proven that kindness is a valuable asset to survival and can be genetically passed down through natural selection. So although it may not make sense to help others outside of our gene pool from a Darwinian frame of reference, it does make sense from a humanistic one. Dr. Bloom made a statement that I really understood and felt connected to. "There's one puzzle that often comes up concerning cases where people risk or sacrifice their life for a stranger. People often refute this concept. They believe i...

What do we get out of the pain and suffering we choose to experience? What does it add to our lives? Does suffering make us better, stronger, or more moral? Is there a pleasure in suffering so we can search for meaning? What categorizes the term suffering? What is the spectrum of suffering? Why do we seek out suffering? One of the points Dr. Bloom made was that we seek out voluntary suffering as a means to serve other goals in life. The reward of achieving that goal is greater when we put ourselves through the "suffering". Suffering is a very broad term. As stated in the video, it does not have to mean a deeply traumatic experience. Suffering can be something as simple as a minor inconvenience such as choosing to stay home and study for an exam instead of going out to a party with friends.  Ultimately, I think we put ourselves through involuntary suffering because it creates such a contrast with joy. It makes us acknowledge our happiness because we are grateful that the suffe...

We covered a lot today about the music industry! There's a lot of avenues we can venture down, but I want to focus on the mental health concerns for both the fans and the musicians.  So first off, lets talk about STAN culture... aka stalker fans.  Eminem released a song called Stan back in 2000. It brought up some pretty dark stuff about the consequences of fame. From the eyes of Eminem, he writes about a fan who has become obsessed. This obsession leads to this fan officially losing his mind and deciding to commit a double homicide and suicide. The reason: the fan felt like Eminem was ignoring him. Obviously this is just a song, but it does an excellent job at essentially identifying a stan.  I want to add that there is a spectrum for Stans. This song exemplified the extreme. I'm sure in one way or another, we definitely have our stan moments. We might stalk our favorite artist's social media, stalk their album releases, tours, etc. The issue develops when the love of sa...

 "When you study prison populations, you see a common preponderance of childhood trauma and mental illness. The two go together. So what we have in prisons are the most traumatized people in our society" -Dr. Gabor Mate The realization of that phrase holds an insurmountable weight.  Every person who stepped inside the circle carried that burden with them.  "I was a traumatized child, raised by a traumatized child"  Hearing the thoughts and experiences of these individuals is heartbreaking. These people need help. They need help processing what they have gone through, they need help healing from it.  The counselor even stated that she committed many of the crimes that the men in this video have committed. She acknowledged her get-out-of-jail-free card. She acknowledged that she could have been where they are. This goes to show how sad and flawed the prison system is. Some individuals held to lesser degrees than others simply based on demographics and race. That's...

 I want to start by saying that the video we saw in class scared the shit out of me. I don't want to feel helpless in the grand scheme of things, but seeing the way we've destroyed our world is heartbreaking. As humans, we are supposed to be these intelligent beings that use our intelligence to be stewards of the planet. Instead, we've destroyed our planet. We demolished natural habitats and have induced a mass extinction of species. The video "Ice on Fire" showed us the aftermath of our actions. I know at the time of the industrial revolution, no one could have known long-term impacts of burning fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources. We were just focused on advancing civilization. The technology that emerged from the industrial revolution was life-changing..... beneficially for us, while not so much for other creatures on earth. I can not call these innovators of the industrial revolution evil, because they did not know that they started the chain reactio...

  These videos offered a lot of depth into the view of race.  After watching them, I can concur with the fact that race is a social construct , and in that aspect, is real to people.  I can understand how race is a  large  part of identity because race  and culture are very much intertwined. Overall, race  is used to categorize. Categorization is a great way for humans to understand things! However, w hen we  too broadly  categorize  humans , we sometimes lose sight of the humanity w ithin us  and within one another.   But on the other hand,   categor izing to a lesser scale can offer a sense of comfort because the  similarities  can bring us together.  The issue arises when we become unaccepting of categorizations that we do not belong to, when we condemn them  on the basis of  being different from us. This is when we strip away humanity. I think the biggest issue   in regard to  race ...

  Social media is a blessing and a curse. To me, it’s a normal part of life. I grew up when social media just came out and slowly integrated it into my life, one platform at a time. It was a way for me to explore my curiosity and connect with others. It was also a collection of my memories over the past 10 years. That aspect was great! The downfall for me is that social media became an addiction. The first thing I do when I wake up is check  F acebook and Instagram. I spend hours of my day consuming nonsense videos and looking for the tea in comments on peoples’ posts.  I can’t really say if social media has caused me to become a more socially withdrawn person or not. I don’t really remember having too many friends when I was younger. I was always shy and to myself. I’m sure it has  impacted my  face to face  contact on some level though .  The thing I like about social media is that I can choose to disconnect at  anytime  and cease interacti...

Although I was glad to hear that this father was accepting of his son coming out, I felt like he tried to rationalize why his son was the way he was because he didn't know how to cope with the fact that his son was gay. James O'Keefe is a doctor, so I think he approached his son's sexuality from an analytical standpoint instead of an emotional/humanistic one. I understand taking an interest and being curious about the nature of homosexuality because it is something that we can look at from an evolutionary stance and question. Evolution is about passing on genes to future offspring and continuing the sire line. Homosexuality does in fact prevent the production of offspring from an evolutionary view. Now obviously in our day and age, we have adoption and in-vitro-fertilization, so it's not uncommon for homosexual couples to have children. Since homosexuality has been around since people existed, I think it's accurate to say that homosexuality is not a flaw in nature. ...

Male Identity Crisis:  After watching Fraser's Ted Talk, it brought awareness to my mentality toward the men in my life. I thought about my father, grandfather, brother, and husband. Then I thought about all of the times I've actually witnessed them let their guard down. There aren't that many, except for my husband (but that took time to build). They've all abided by this unwritten law that they must be the rock of the family, the stability. In doing so, they had to set aside their feelings to support and accommodate the rest of us. I never saw my dad or grandpa breakdown. Up until last year, I've never seen my husband break down. It's terrible the pressure men in our society are put under. It's not healthy. It's not sustainable. Society puts men in this box: be the provider, be strong, be brave, don't show emotions. That's not realistic. We as humans all have emotions. We as humans all have different personalities. We should not be forced to su...

  After watching the clips about gender identity, one statement, in particular, really stayed with me.  "my body and my soul finally were united" - I've always felt that my body and soul were united. So I had to sit back and really reflect on how that would feel if this wasn't the case. That was a lot to unpack. I cannot speak from personal experience about the struggles of gender identity, but I know many others who do. I myself identify as female. I was assigned female at birth and I never felt as if I was supposed to be a male. So for me, I didn't question much about myself. I dressed how I wanted, and I did things that pleased me without thinking about the gender label attached. I have days where I strongly embrace my masculinity, and others when I embrace my femininity.  After thinking about that statement, I realized how very very different it is for those who feel as if they do not belong in their own body. If you feel like you do not belong in the body you...

To me, homelessness and poverty is a really tough concept to talk about. I genuinely believe that homelessness and poverty should not exist in the world we live in today. We have too much technology, resources, funds, and knowledge for this to still be an issue in the world. I believe that the reason homelessness and poverty still exist is based on the way society shoddily distributes these funds and resources.  A lot of the homeless population in America suffer from mental health conditions, drug abuse, grew up in poverty, or have been disowned and excommunicated by their own families.  Now I understand how some people have disdain towards homeless people. As highlighted in one of the readings, where there are high numbers of homeless people, there also tends to be high numbers of crime and drug use, along with health hazards (needles, feces, urine). This tends to make people feel unsafe. However, if we try to put ourselves in their shoes, how safe do you think they may feel?...

Prison is a really complicated system. We want to keep society safe, which is why I think prisons are necessary. But, I don't necessarily agree with a strictly punitive type of prison system. I think our prison system needs to add focus to the rehabilitation aspect. Not every person who goes to prison is necessarily evil. Sometimes people just fuck up. I've definitely made plenty of mistakes in my life. Think about it from the perspective of someone who was born into poverty and surrounded by crime. Crime might have been the only way to put food on the table. Imagine being a kid and trying to help provide for your family, when kids aren't legally allowed to work. Where are you supposed to source money from? Then imagine being caught for committing a crime as a child, when all you were trying to do was make ends meet at home. You'd be a child with a criminal record. Good luck finding a decent job when you're released back into society. So then what? You still need to...

I think criminal psychology is extremely fascinating! I was really excited to read and watch a documentary about it.  One major misconception I think people have about criminals is that they HAVE to be mentally ill.   This is NOT true!!!! One thing I wanted to reference was a quote from Understanding the Criminal Mind: A Phenomenological Approach. "A person can be mentally ill AND have anti-social features to their personality, just as one can have both cancer AND diabetes. One does not cause the other" (280).   It is completely possible for a criminal to be sane.  I think its important that we reference a spectrum when talking about this topic because there are different degrees of crime and each "criminal" lies somewhere along that spectrum. With small crimes, like stealing a water bottle, no one really questions your sanity. With heinous crimes like rape and murder, it becomes more  difficult to understand how someone could be sane. I think some people a...

  Identity is super complicated, and I'm not sure I even know how to describe it fully. What I do know is that due to the complexity of identity, it usually takes a great deal of time for people to understand who they are and their place in the universe. As in the videos we saw, it's clear that we as humans want to belong. We are consumed by the idea of acceptance. It makes our lives seem easier, doesn't it?  Identity comes in many forms and has many attributes, but even with the best wordsmiths in the world, identity cannot be summarized into words. That is how complex identity is. It's entirely unique to the individual, as each individual has lived an entirely different life. Family upbringing, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, political ideologies, and gender are all potential factors that add to our concept of self-identity. However, none of these in themselves are able to fully define us. I think it's easier for humans to try and put themselves in t...

Wow! Um yeah. I'm currently experiencing exactly what was talked about in this video.  I've always been a great student with straight A's and crippling anxiety surrounding my grades, my whole life. I realize now that school was never about learning, but about grades, ACT/SAT scores, and basically the statistics surrounding it. Students were numbers and the subjects we were taught, simply checked the boxes deemed necessary for our education. In all honesty, I don't remember much from high school. I crammed for tests and brain dumped after on repeat freshman year through graduation. A lot of subjects were very interesting at first. Then I realized I didn't get to explore all of the aspects of it. It wasn't about exploring, experimenting, or cultivating the subject at hand. It was about taking the test and moving on to the next thing. So yes, I very much disliked school despite the fact that I love learning. These are two very different concepts. As I got older, I ...

These are my thoughts/feelings, opinions, and experiences in regard to the content group 1 posted about mental health.  Documentary: Anxiety and Me Nadiya explained that she has felt anxiety from a young age after something traumatic happened to her at school. I too understand what that's like because the first time I ever experienced anxiety and panic attack was when I was a child and when something traumatic happened to me. I was at the store with my mom when I was about 4 years old and we got separated. She said something to me, but I was looking at a toy so I didn't listen to what she was saying. I said okay, and when I looked up, she wasn't in the isle. I felt this sudden rush of panic. My heart sunk into my stomach, I felt hot in my face, my heart was racing, I started sweating. An older man walked up to me. He definitely saw me all caught up in the panic and asked if I needed help. I told him I couldn't find my mom and that I need help locating her. He took my ha...

 After watching the three videos posted about curiosity, I resonated with one specific video. I am studying Astrophysics, so hearing Steven Hawkings talk about his desire to learn and discover the secrets of the universe is quite inspiring. I also feel that same pull and desire to learn about our universe. The possibilities are truly endless.  I've learned so much about stars-their life and death, planets- their formation, the big bang, how we can measure the distance to these planets, galaxies, and stars, and so much more! It's truly incredible. learning about the vastness of our universe puts everything into perspective. The chance of us existing is so small, so rare. Our galaxy as a whole, not our solar system or planet, but our galaxy is equivalent to 1 individual particle of sand present on planet Earth. How incredible! We are truly a miracle to exist. Life doesn't come easy at all in the universe. That's not to say life doesn't exist elsewhere in the universe,...