Blog Post #4

Throughout history there has always been stereo types of the black male. In Marable Manning reading he points out what white men thought of blacks as slaves. An insteresting piece I came across in the reading was how even tho the white man said that the black men were uneducated the black male actually contributed by doing what the white men couldn't like "Africans were the first to cultivate wheat on the continent; they showed their illerate masters how to grow indigo, rice,and cotton their extensive knowledge of herbs and roots provided colonist with medicines and perservatives for supplies" (17). The reason why this so interesting because Marable points out the fact that white men wasn't as educated back then as they want people to believe being that they didn't have the knowlege of basic farming.
Work Sited: Marable,Manning." The Black Male: Searching Beyond Stereotypes" Men Lives. 5th edition. Ed Michael S. kümmel and Michael A Messner. published in NYC Allyn & Bacon 2001 page 17

Photo Analysis Draft 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wXD80jeFPwRTe0WheECTqmPOcMTJzPTU_jJ8SAaHJ44/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPPUyKwH

The Male Myth Blog Post#3

I don't agree with most of the examples Paul Theroux believes are expected of  a man. To me Paul Theroux sounds like a bitter guy who fell short at being manly. I think that maybe his parents or peers made him feel like he was inadequate. For Theroux to feel as if the expression "Be a man!"(101) to be insulting and abusive and mean "be stupid, be unfeeling,obedient,and solderily and stop thinking"strikes me as a man that's scorn. Most of his examples are directed at what America views as manly which makes me also believe that his rant is not directed at masculinity and being a man but more of what he feels America  portray as a masculine man throughout his whole piece he speaks of America in a negative way ie. "The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful. (101),"It doesn't suprise me when the President of the US dresses like a cowboy-it shows a measure of his insecurity and his willingness to please"(103). "American culture does little for a man than prepare him for modeling clothes in the L.L Bean catalouge"(103)."American writer typically has been so at pains to prove his manliness"(103) etc. Maybe I'm wrong about his parents and friends making him feel inadequate maybe it's just America protrayal of what's manly that's makes him feel such ill feelings towards being a man. That leaves me to wonder all the different examples that America protrayed as manly is Theroux upset he doesn't fit in to at least one ?!  Yes I think that Theroux is suggesting that men in other countries and cultures have more freedom when it comes to masculinity because it seems as if he feels America ask to much of men in other cultures and countries masculinity is not as important.

Do We Construct Gender? Blog Post #2

Gender as we know it is being a male or a female. In Judith Lorber Night To His Day the part  that I found that shows we construct gender is when she was talking about the parents who raised an accidental transsexual and was successful in making the child a female and making her as feminine as possible. Even though that's only one story out of many I have come to think that it is possible that you can teach a child throughout their life what gender to become you can turn your son into your daughter because "the social construction of gender overrides any possibly inborn trait"(23). Lorber also points out transvestites who dress up as woman they learn how  to be feminine and dress as woman from woman's magazines. I think it doesn't matter how you were born the things that are instilled in you makes you who you are whether it be from media, magazines , parents, friends,  to religion it all plays a part in how you are as a person. I'm not sure why the child is considered to be a female rather than a transsexual but  I think an adult is considered a transexual because before they underwent surgery they were either a male or female  and had a decision to become the sex that they identified more with.Children are not born knowing that their female or male which makes it easier for parents to decide a childs gender and doctors to correct it before the child is old enough to realize. For this child in Lorber's reading she has never identified with being a male, been raised as a male or treated as one. She's been treated and  raised all her life as a female she doesn't know anything else but to act as a female would. I guess what I'm trying to say is because a transexual as an adult was a male or a female before they change genders this child only identifies with one gender and thats female.