Meg DeJong - Final Post

I really enjoyed listening to people’s paper topics yesterday. It was interesting to hear what people had chosen to write about and to learn a little more about the topic. I thought that Gracie’s presentation on birthing was very informative and it really resonated with me. I think it’s really interesting to think about how perceptions of birthing have changed over the years, and I was horrified to hear about how many unnecessary C-sections are happening in hospitals around the country. I was also really fascinated by Josie’s presentation, especially after watching Professor Jafar’s TED talk. It’s interesting to think about how our society perceives people in other cultures and how many of the perceptions we have are actually misinformed, biased, and and based off our own society’s norms and values. Lastly, I was very intrigued by Keith’s presentation about homophobia and sports. I had no idea that only one professional male athlete had every come out as gay during their professional sports career. This made me think about how hard it would be to be a gay male athlete and how much pressure they must feel to keep their sexuality a secret.

Going off on the topic of masculinity, this class taught me a lot about how many are portrayed in the media. Before this class, I definitely paid a lot of attention to how women’s bodies were sexualized and objectified in the media because I knew firsthand how those images affect women’s self-esteem and their perceptions about themselves. However, I had never really looked critically at how men are portrayed in the media. This class made me realize how much pressure many men feel to achieve unattainable masculine ideals that are becoming increasingly present in our country’s mainstream media. Watching the documentary “Wrestling with Manhood” made me think about all the distorted images that men get about what it means to be a real man and about how a real men should act and treat women. Overall, I feel that this class made me a much more critical consumer of media, and also made me more aware about the social construction of gender. Because we are forced into gender roles from the time we are born, it becomes so easy to forget that gender roles are socially constructed and to see them as something natural.

During this class, I also really enjoyed listening to other people’s opinions on the topics we were talking about. It was fascinating to hear about other people’s perspectives and to hear about people’s personal experiences related to the topic. I really appreciated how honest people were during in-class discussions, as well as in their posts and comments, because I think it enhanced the overall class experience. I believe that everyone brought something unique and important to the class discussion, and that it was a rare opportunity to get so many different perspectives on topics such as the social construction of gender, masculinity, family roles, homophobia, sex tourism, etc.