Do You Really Want to Be a Girl Right now?

Have you ever been incredibly aware of you gender? I have.

A girl in tech-ed is odd to say the least. A girl in woods class...more odd. The only girl in woods two? About as sufficintely akward to put it nicely. I would know. I'm that girl that didn't take sewing class or foods class but instead embarked into woods. I rocked. Not to be head-strong or whatever you call it, but it's true I just fit into woods. I have built everything from a clock to a large coffee table with a built in lower rack and Mr. Krinke loves the irony of a girl that is good at woods. Who wouldn't honestly?

Unfortunately, boys that don't ROCK at woods don't love it so much. They love having a girl in their woods class for the sake of being the guy that asks if I need help carrying my wood or other such tasks that are too "manly" for me, but when it comes to getting help from me, no thanks. Mr. Krinke would often re-direct the boys to come find me to ask for help if they needed something and more than once they just prefered not to know. Getting help from a girl in an area of expertice that isn't supposed to be a girls domain is not an easy pill to swallow.

Most boys choose not to swallow that pill and just move right along, and there just isn't much I can do about that except not let it get to me. Don't let other judge you for being a girl in a guys domain. And boys? Rock at sewing or foods, your wives will love you someday for loving it.

Do YOU have a race?

We as a class were asked to consider the question: "Do you have a race?" and to form an answer with a reasonable reason why. This is what I came up with:

I think No. I am very apparently white skinned and i'm not that person that has a perpetual tan all year round, unfortunately. However, I don't think that I have a race. I am not defined by my white skin or my blonde hair and green eyes; I am defined only how I wish to be defined. When i stand next to my best friends who are asian, mexican, and caucasian I don't see anyone as different. I don't walk through the mall thinking i'm above or below anyone because of my skin color and I certaintly hope not to be judged because of what I look like.

I think growing up in a town where 95% of it's occupants are white with a random spattering color amongst us helps to be quite honest. Most people would assume the opposite, that being from a town where you look around the the majority of color you see is white would shelter you into a belief system that everyone that isn't white is much different than you, but really with the color I do see I see equality. I see the black kids, the asian kids, and the mexican kids just like a see myself.

Mind you i'm not a saint, there are black people that steal stuff and there are asian people that rock the world with their super human math skills and I judge them just like the rest of you. But really there are a lot of white people that steal crap too and there are wiz kids that are white. I guess it's all about the eyes you chose to see through.

Girls Will Be Girls

"With puberty, girls face enormous cultureal pressure to split into false selves. The pressure comes from schools, magazines, music, television, advertisements, and movies. It comes from peers. girls can be true to themselves and risk abandonment by their peers, or they can reject their true selves and be socially acceptable. Most girls choose to be socially accepted and split into two selves, one that is authentic and one that is culturally scripted. In public they become who they are supposed to be.

Authenticity is an "owning" of all experience, including emotions and thoughts that are not socially acceptable. Because self-esteem is based on the acceptance of all thoughts and feeling as one's own, girls lost confidence as they "disown" themselvs. They suffer enormous losses when they stop expressing certain thoughts and feelings."

We were given this prompt and asked to give our opinion on how we feel about gender and how that affects us and this is what i thought:

Being yourself isn't something that has a room in a girl's world. Yes, I do understand that we genuinely like our clothes and that our hair styles are our own; however, I do believe that WHY we like things the way we do is something entirely not our own. Sitting right, talking appropriately, and knowing simply how to BE is what is needed. Girls will pick at eachother, at what someone is wearing, at what purse they carry, and what store their jeans came from. Don't be yourself, be who THEY want you to be. Being perfect isn't an idea it's an action for girls in high school.

Yes, I did say girls. I do understand that boys care what other boys think. But girls are raised in a war of survival, a king of the mound sort of experience. Boys don't sit at lunch and say wow..I can't believe she thought it was OK to wear those pants in public. They clearly have a social ladder much like girls do but the difference among the rungs is much smaller and much less of a big deal.

Be strong girls, wear those pants out in public if you like them! Just be aware that someone that cares is always watching...