Blog #5 Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy

Globalization has transformed work/family life for women in rich and poor countries. Women from poor countries are moving to rich ones, to work as nannies maids and sex workers. Many women in rich countries are succeeding in “male world” careers only by turning over care children, elderly parents and homes to women from the third world. These women typically lack help from male partners. Millions of women from poor countries in the south migrate to do the womens work of the north. This is work that affluent women are not able or willing to do. Migrant women often leave their own children back home, in care of grandmothers, sisters and sisters in law. The pattern of female migration reflects a worldwide gender revolution. In both rich and poor countries fewer families can rely solely on a male breadwinner. With this being said I was very moved by this information because I am currently taking a sociology of womens class and I have learned so much about women that I had a slight idea about but I have a deeper respect for women because of feminism and the things they did to be successful and gain respect from men and the society still. Its still more work to be done by females and female activist who take pride in these situations. To see the stigmas on females and how they were viewed in many eyes as jus the typical housewife and have to take orders from a man instead of having the same rights as a man does was quite interesting. Females for as long as I know thru friends as well as history go the extra mile just to be successful or make ends meet. They make tremendous sacrifices more than I ever think Ill ever make. They always find ways to be positive humbly and this section we study I found a strong attraction to the topic being that I was learning many concepts of feminism and some of the things women went through to get where they are today. I find it very attractive too that women did all and more even when it was going against the grain to make their voice be heard and gain attention just to have a equal opportunity to live life the same way men have. Life has always been about progress and over the course of this semester I have learned how much women have progressed only for the betterment of themselves individually and for their family.

Blog #4 Fashion Fashion Fashion

Fashion is a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior. Fashion is the one of the most powerful art there is. Its movement, design, and architecture all in one. It shows the world who we are and who we’d like to be. High fashion is a form of art, designers spend a lot of time and creativity on the garments that they show season after season. Besides it is a way to express yourself, you can show people the kind of person you really are besides the stigma being put on you already from judging all by how you present yourself or carry yourself through accessories or clothes makeup the way you walk all shows the kind of character you have. Certain societies show what kind of culture they have and how they are different from other cultures in their own unique way. When fashion is brought up it also represents being glamorous, looking fabulous grabbing ones attention through the eye of elegance and beauty. As fashion has its many positive outlooks on societies around the world they also have negative impacts as well. As far as individuality goes the fashion in North Korea has shocked me by far. Fashion is a primary concern in Seoul. They have surprised me because I would never have imagined that they want to look like a westerner and not look like themselves. I love fashion to a certain extent because I love to dress and look good no matter if its working out or playing sports I have to look good doing it. But never will I consider changing my appearance as far as a new face I accepted the body that was given to me I would never change my face for no one in the world. The plastic surgery issue which surpasses brazil is very mind blowing because I would of never thought North Korea was apart of the trend of plastic surgery. It shows you how much importance appearance is in this society and how far people will go just to look good or attract other people. The fact that younger Korean girls have taken action into getting plastic surgery is very disappointing. When you’re a kid you should be worried about enjoying life learning as you grown enjoying being a kid and its like they are young adults because they are focused on appearance instead of being actual little girls playing in the park learning a sport or playing an instrument they are stuck on being women.

Blog #3 Social Stigma

Social stigma is the extreme disapproval of a person or group on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them from other members of a society. Stigma may then be affixed to such a person, by the greater society, who differs from their cultural norms. Social stigma can result from the perception of mental illness, physical disabilities, illegitimacy, sexual orientation, gender identity, skin tone, education, nationality, ethnicity, ideology, religion, lack of religion or criminality. Attributes associated with a social stigma often vary depending on the geopolitical and corresponding sociopolitical contexts employed by society in different parts of the world. According to Erving Goffman there are three forms of social stigma. The first is overt or external deformations, such as scars, physical manifestations of anorexia nervosa, leprosy stigma, or of a physical disability or social disability, such as obesity. The second form of social stigma is deviations in personal traits, including mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, and criminal background are stigmatized in this way. Lastly tribal stigmas are traits imagined or real of ethnic group, nationality or of religion that is deemed to be the deviation from the prevailing normative ethnicity, nationality or religion.

Blog #2 Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend On It (Durkeim)

In this video clip it talked about how the elderly who depend on social security checks are still struggling to maintain and how the government that gives money to those who really don’t earn it and use it as a means to survival. The elderly felt that they deserve the extra they receive since they have worked hard for their pensions where as others who don’t even attempt to work survive off food stamps and medicare and government care that helps them pay their rent. They found this unfair and unjust and I agree because there are many citizens in this world who could really benefit from government assistance that don’t. There are people that just cheat the system and have no reasonable excuse to why they can’t work and make ends meet. According to Durkeim this refers to social facts. With the recession happening more people depend on the help of the government which hurts the society because people such as the elderly who paid their dues some have less money that their suppose to get because the government is dispersing the money out to other families who are “supposedly” in need. this also ties into social solidarity which is the cohesion of social groups. The middle class and lower class as well as the elderly all depend on the government in this situation. people are raising the issue of raising taxes and also cutting down social security as well as medicare and this is dividing the people because some families don’t know where to turn for support or help.

Blog #1 “Crisis of Capitalism” Marx

Blog #1 Marx “Capitalism”

Watching the video clip of capitalism taught me the basic concepts of how this world really works. The five different genres such as human frailty, institutional failures, being obsessed with false theories, cultural origins and failure of policy that led to the economic crisis we are in today. It explained why we should look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane. Capitalism never solves its crisis problem, it just moves around geographically. The excess power of power was the root of the problem. This relates to Marx explaining the class consciousness, forces of production and relations of production. Reading Marx’s views help me realize why the division of labor in capitalism is inevitable resulted in alienation because this can be very stressful to an individual or groups opposing another. I say this because of the power of money in a Bourgeois society where the money is the universal medium. Money is honored so everyone wants to possess it. The government is action out for bourgeoisie not acting out for everybody. The government is not concerned for the people they just want to be the cash crop. It helped me realize that the government is not really for you they just tolerate you and use you for your service. Society is shaped based on upper class (bourgeoisie) and the people (proletariat) are the ones who work for wages to produce objects that are valued more than how much their actual income is shown. Knowing that what you make or produce can resort to issues where people feel worthless because of the actual work they put in they are not compensated for it. That leads to alienation where people may feel nonexistent.