Sunday, May 29, 2011

"A Tangle of Discourses" (2002):Hyperlinks

In the journal article, “A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence.”  by Rebecca Raby. She outlined five discourses, the storm, becoming, at risk, social problem, and pleasure consumption. One that has been the media recently that she writes about is “social problem.” She writes, “Discourses of teens as a social problem thus collect into popular concerns about delinquency, and advocacy for techniques of social control such as ‘boot camps’ and zero tolerance policies for high schools (see, for example, Ontario Provincial Government, 2001). Through such policies, a number of schools in North America have even banned activities such as hugging and touch football to prevent students from touching each other (presumably this is to avoid contact that may escalate into fighting)” ( Raby 436).

A few years ago I saw a news story on the Today Show about a school banning hugs. I found an article on the Today Show website that talks about banning hugs. The subtitle says, "Most forms of physical contact now barred from nation's halls of learning." http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21097673/ns/today-good_news/t/schools-jumping-hug-ban-wagon/
I also found the story on Youtube for The Daily Buzz it starts at 0:36 seconds. In it the news anchors speaks about a school in Oregon. It speaks about the different hugs like, a backpack hug and congratulatory hugs and on how some of the hugs were inappropriate. The article by Raby explains this school in Oregon does not want things to escalate to something serious.
Another video I found based on the “social problem” in terms of violence was on a show titled “Beyond Scared Straight” in the show they bring troubled teens to a local prison. The parents and prison inmates try to show the young teens how a life of crime will land them in jail.  The article writes on schools having a no tolerance policies for violence. Most of these teens usually get in trouble outside of school.

sources
Raby, Rebecca. 5/26/2011. Journal of Youth Studies"A Tangle  of Discourses :Girls Negotiated Adolescence."5.4. 435-448. 2002. Helin Library Catalog.  

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Intro

I am a junior, who loves to read and learn new things. My summer so far is ok. It is definitely going differently than I expected. I had to look for other classes and thought I could not take this one. When I am not in class I read, I help at the library, I hang out with friends and family and listen to music. I also like to draw, keep busy and help people in any way I can.

Reflection: Talking points #1 on Christensen

 In the first paragraph of “Unpacking the Myths that Bind Us” Linda Chrsitensen writes, “I cleaned the dwarves’ house and waited for Prince Charming to bring me life…” As little girls we internalize the images we see. In my history class we were looking at an image of a family. I noticed that one of the little girls was holding a doll and cradling it as if it were a baby. In the class we discussed how society impacts the behavior of women. What I drew from that is from a young age we are told how to act and that little girl was trained to become a future mother.
In the media young girls are shown images of other little girls playing with baby dolls. The little girls watching subconsciously take it in. They may just want to buy it because it is a toy. The media and television ads have an effect on young people today. As little girls we sometimes emulate our mothers and want to help and clean.  Growing up we watched movies like, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin and we subconsciously thought that was how a man and woman should act. Christensen writes of how the stories really affect us, “As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and world view embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge” (127 Christensen). In one of my classes we watched The Little Mermaid. Until I took that class and we really analyzed the movie I never second guessed the images projected. As a child we watch for fun not to take what we watch apart. We tend to carry these images with us even as teens and never question them because we believe them to be true. As we grow older we do not believe “prince charming” brings us life. As women we must live our lives.
Source(s
Christensen, Linda. Raby. 5/12/ 2011. Journal of Youth Studies"A Tangle of Discourses :Girls Negotiated Adolescence."126-137. 2003.  Helin Library Catalog.