Vaennessa Eng 216 blog

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 ...