"Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood" by David Osborne

This reading just made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Its so refreshing to see a father taking care of his son. Just from reading about his life experience and how he talked about Nicholas I could tell their relationship was strong and different from any other father son relationship. David had to overcome so many obstacles psychologically to do what he did. His story proves that fathers can also have a nurturing side to them, they just need to have the opportunity to let it grow.

I have so many favorite parts from this reading but I love how he ends its. I agree with him when he says nothing can be better than laying in bed with your son and him leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. How adorable is that? I would love waking up to that every morning. That's because I'm a women of course. I also liked the part where he is second guessing himself about taking Nicholas to the doctors. It is so funny how he wonders if woman are ever in the same position. As if just because we're mothers we know what to do at all times. Even though I'm not a mom I know they don't always have the answers.

The psychological struggles that David goes through are so moving. Its very interesting to see him fight his battle between being a dad and is job. It is so crazy how men classify themselves by the job they have and how hard of a worker they are. Where as women classify themselves by how good of a mother they are and how well they children end up. It was also very interesting to see David get upset when Rose pretty much pushes him away. He feels so involved in Nicholas's life and so when mom comes and pushes him away he doesn't know what to do and really doesn't like the feeling.

Sojourner Truth and Conquering Themsleves Beautifully

These two reading show two very different perspectives of what it means to be a women. Sojourner Truth talks about how we are equal to me and deserve to be treated equally. Where as in the other reading all they talk about is the girls working to please their father. Not that there is anything wrong with one or the other, I think its more about what you believe is more important and how to balance your life.

Sojourner's point of view is something that I have always thought about. Being a black women is like the ultimate minority. Not only did they have to fight to be treated equally because of the color of their skin but once they finally thought everything was going to be okay they had to fight because they were a women. It shows us and tell us that as women we need to be strong and have respect for ourselves and to make sure that others respect us as well. African-American women have gone through so much work and pain, more than anyone else on this earth and without a doubt they deserve to be treated equally.

Conquering Themselves Beautifully talks more about the nurturing side of a women. The girls have jobs like, teaching, office work, and dish washing. Jobs that men barely ever do. When the author takes time to describe them all they talk about is how they look and compare them to what a women should act like. They never once talk about how they are smart or anything worthwhile other than their beauty. They are working to make their father happy. They are giving up their happiness just so that they can help their father and the other men that our serving the country. This is the women that men are used to and the women that we have broken away from.

"I'm Thin Therefore I Am" by Nicci Gerrard

I went into this reading with a sort of negative vibe. I thought it was going to be all about how girls have to be thin and that thin is beauty, blah blah blah. I was surprisingly wrong. This reading talks about the love hate relationship that we women have with food. We don't want to eat it because we want to be thin so that we can fit the social norms. We try not to let our emotions get the best of us so that when our boyfriends break up with us we don't sit there with a carton of Ben and Jerry's while watching a chick flick. Then there's the other side of food, the love side. We see it as part of being a women. We cook so that we can nurture our children, so we can be good hostess of a party and just simply because we love how food tastes in our mouth.

This problem with women having to be skinny according to society is so played out and seriously needs to stop. We need to embrace the gorgeous women we are and realize that we are all different shapes and sizes and that there's nothing wrong with that. God made us a certain way and we need to appreciate that. We can't let the media which is usually controlled by men tell us what is beautiful and what isn't. What's most important is what is in the inside, so that's all that should matter.

I love the love side of food. Food is definitely a big part of so many of my memories. Coming from a big Puerto Rican family, all we do is eat and as women cook. My grandmother was a great cook and so is my great aunt. Its mind blowing watching them cook, they don't even think about what they're doing, its an art form. My mom unfortunately didn't get the cooking gene but boy can she bake. As a child we would bake almost every weekend and its probably why I love to bake now. Cooking is completely generational and a tradition that will never leave the women's side.

Food is all about bringing people together. Its sad to say but usually the only times my entire family is together is usually because of food; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, Easter all about food. Your history and love is passed down around the dinner table and the great conversation that goes along with it. My friends and I share a connection through food. I can't count the number of times my friends and I would get to my house after school and the first thing we would do is check the snack cabinet. We would then sit at my kitchen counter and talk nonstop while munching on chips, cookies, pretty much anything we could put our hands on. Now that my friends and I are separated because we go to different schools, there will be times when I get text or would be skyping and somehow food is mentioned. Whether its saying that we're eating honey wheat pretzels and thinking about each other or how much we love ice cream. Food is what bring us humans together and should not have a negative or hateful side to it at all.

"Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code" by Michael Kimmel

I was excited to read this selection because I thought it was going to be about the "Guy's Code" when it comes to dating but now I just feel bad for them. Guys are under so much pressure to act a certain way. They have to be carbon copies of each other if not their life is over. Yes as girl we have our own problems but we have a lot more gray area than guys do. From the age of four they are told how to act and if they decide to not conform they are made fun of the rest of their lives.

I thought it has hilarious when it said that men are more about what other men think about them then women. Us women think that they get all muscular and act cool for us but in reality they do it so that they don't get made fun of. They are all so worried about being gay when in reality they are gayer than ever. If what a man thinks about you is the most important thing to you then you are gay. Its also sad how if a man shows emotions or actually cares about things other than sports they're considered gay. There are plenty of gay men you are emotionless and love sports and I'm sure that there are plenty of straight men you actually have emotions and hate sports but are too scared to say something.

I strongly believe with the idea that because men are told not to express their emotions they have problems in the future. All their life they are told to suck it up and that men don't cry but once they get into a relationship with a girl that's all we care about. We want to know what's wrong with you, we don't want you to just shut us out and say everything is fine. By making men act this way they are really screw up their lives. This is why many men end up being alcoholic or having depression. They are so used to the competition of making themselves better than the next man so when they fail they don't know how to react. They can sit there and start crying or complain about their life because that doesn't follow the "Guy Code." I say screw the "Guy Code" and live life the way you want to.

"A Boy's Life" by Hanna Rosin

This is by far my favorite thing we have read in class to date. Knowing that our unit is gender I read the title and thought ok this is going to be a story about how a boy realizes he's a "man." Then I saw that it was a female author and thought, "oh snap" this is going to be a story about a boy wishing he was a boy. I was right but there is just so much more to this story. This story was truly moving and the entire time I could only think about how much I loved it.

This story just makes me wish even more that this world just didn't have any labels. There would be no need for a little boy at age of four to wish that his was a little girl. We would all just be humans beings and if a boy wanted to wear a dress and makeup it would be ok because there's no right way of acting like a boy or girl. This story literally broke my heart reading all the stories of these kids. Its such an emotional process and life that they have to go through, its just not fair. People and myself included walk around not having a care in the world just because we fit in to the mold that the world has made for and just because they want to be a little different their world is turned upside down.

Many things in this story blew my mind.  It really surprised was how young these kids were and yet they knew that they wanted to be the other sex. When I was young I remember playing with Barbies but I don't remember it having such an importance behind it. It is repeatedly shown that kids at a very young age know who they are what they want to be. The drug that stops puberty from happening is a great finding;  it saves kids so much trouble and saves them being ridiculed at school. Zuckers practice of literally forcing children to just act the gender that they were born just made me so upset. There are plenty of kids that are black and act white or vice versa, no one tells them that they can't. Another thing that really bothered me is that they kept calling transgender a disorder. That to me just isn't right. Its how you feel and you shouldn't be punished for wanting to act a certain way.

I always want to give each and every parent that has to deal with a situation like this. I can only imagine how draining it can be, emotionally, physically, and money wise. They have a lot of problems and no ever really wonders how they feel. Obviously its ultimately about the child but when they talked about how parents would mourn the child they were suppose to have that just made my heartache. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender are all labels that this world could really to better without. Just like we try to teach our children no to see color we should also teach our children to not see sex.

"Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender" by Aaron H. Devor

I wasn't looking forward to reading this selection at all. Gender Roles and Society has always and will always be a problem that we have to deal with. We also recently talked about this in my sociology class so I'm kind of tired of discussing something that isn't going to change. Then when I read that Aaron used to be Holly I had hope that this selection would be different. Unfortunately I was sadly disappointed.

I feel as though the topic of gender roles is so played out! We all know that women act a certain way and men act another way. No one at the moment is willing to change and if we do decided to change its going to take a while. Gender roles is something we're literally born into; we're either wrapped in a pink or blue blanket. In the article it says that by two years old we begin to settle into a gender identity and by the age of seven we're convinced that we are a permanent member of that gender grouping. This is so young. We still have so much to learn and experience in our life but we will only experience girl or boy things because we have already decided what road we want to go down.

My favorite paragraph in this selection is by far the one where they talk about the different cultural view on gender roles. Its always so interesting to see how other cultures view things that are just not right here in the United States. Many of the other cultures have a group where people can be whatever they want to be; like the aborigines having more than two gender categories or the native people of South America and how they have a social category for people who want to live like the opposite sex. My question is, why do we even have to have labels?

The selection goes on and on about the characteristic that make you feminine and masculine but why cant we just be human. Why does there have to be a separation? There are some women out there that are aggressive, we actually all have to be in order to get to the top and even have a chance to compete with the men. On the other hand there are males out there that are single dads and way more nurturing tan some others. At the end of the day we are all humans but we will never be able to see that as a society.