There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

There truly is no place like home for the holidays, just take it from T-Mobile who filmed a surprise video at Woodfield mall this holiday season.  Woodfield mall, the same Woodfield mall that's only 15 minutes from my home!  I can't wait to be home!  My mom's on her way driving down to Champaign now to come get me and my life's belongings to first move into my sorority house (where I'm living next semester!) and then to go home to my real home.


So in essence I'm very blessed to be able to say I'm truly going home for the holidays.  I'm leaving dorm-living for my sorority house, which will be my new home for Spring semester; however what I'm looking forward to the most is being with my family and friends back home for Christmas.  


Today is the first day I've actually had that holiday cheer. :) Finals are over and it's time to make my way home to the ones I love!  


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Hello...Is anyone out there?

I think this is the first time that Van Doren has been quiet on a Friday night.  Everyone has packed up their bags and gotten on a bus that will take them back to the place they call home.  I'm sitting in my room staring at the pile of laundry that needs to be folded and thinking about what I need to pack to go home.  It's Thanksgiving break!  I couldn't be happier to go home.  I love this campus so much, but after a week as crazy as the one I had this week, it's time for a break.  I'm excited to see my family and friends from home, but I can't help but think about how much I'm going to miss everyone I've met here so far.  I'm even going to miss the cold walk to the Quad in the morning...just because I love the Quad though.  I'm going to especially miss my boyfriend, Ross. It'll be weird not seeing him every day like I've been lucky to do here on campus.  


Going into this year, I had no expectation of making instant connections with people, but it just so happens that I did.  I'll miss waking up to texts from friends asking to go to basketball games or to get lunch at the Ike.  How can a whole semester have gone by already?  This definitely isn't like high school.  I'd have to guess that it's because I actually had a choice in where I went to school this time.  When you are given the power to choose something for yourself, you like your choice a lot more than if someone made the decision for you.  And this place is no exception.  University of Illinois, I love you.  Every bit of you.  Except CMN 101.  But that's besides the point.  I'll be back and ready for more in a week, but for now it's time to go home and get a good night's sleep, take a shower without flip-flops on, and to get a good, home-cooked meal.  Peace out Chambana.

Rejuvenated.

It's official.  I'm back to writing my blog.  This time it isn't for school though; it's for myself.  Writing has always been a hobby of mine and recently I've been feeling like something has been missing in my life.  It became clear one evening in a Panera Bread that the only way to fill this missing gap was to start writing again...so here I am at 1 a.m. writing my blog instead of writing my Spanish essay like I should be doing...what can I say?  I've been inspired.
(Work needs to be done on the formatting but I'm more concerned with writing at this time of day.)
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I've been having one of those stressful days, you know, the ones where you're so stressed out that you can't get yourself to do your homework and just stress yourself out more because you're falling even farther behind.  It all started when the monsoon hit Champaign earlier this afternoon, wiping away the 75 degree temperatures that were short-lived.  I was so stressed out today that I felt sick after eating a light dinner of broccoli and mac and cheese.  I sat down at my desk after coming back from dinner just to struggle through writing a paragraph of a Spanish essay and was about ready to call it a night when I realized there was still a chance the day could be saved.


Running.  It's my passion, it's my life, and it's my go-to activity to relieve stress.  So at 10:30 I decided to trek over to the ARC (our school's workout facility) to run.  When I entered the ARC, I was so surprised at how many people were working out so late and how happy the atmosphere was.  What did they know that I didn't?  I would soon find out that I was in for more than a work-out, but also a valuable lesson.  I found a treadmill on the first floor of the ARC and just started to run.  5 miles later I was done, and feeling much better about myself.  I had burned almost 500 calories on my run, what wasn't there to be happy about?


However, looking around at the people around me, I realized that many of the people who go to the ARC at 10:30 at night aren't going to burn calories, they're going to burn stress.  They go to melt the stress away.  As gross as it is I thought about sweat and how it was like the stress being melted out of my system.  People go to work-out late at night because it's therapeutic, and as college students, they need a chance to get away from all of the homework and other time consuming activities.  


Maybe this is why the ARC is such a happy place.  It's a place to leave all of your stress and forget about everything that's going on in your life temporarily.  Oh and the endorphins aren't that bad either :P

Final Blog Entry!

Race

This week in Sociology class we have been focusing on race and its origins.  I was amazed to hear that race does not actually exist and is rather just a concept that we have developed over time to explain the differences in our pigmentation.  In reality, we have different skin colors because of the amount of melanin in our skin.  The amount of melanin a person has in their skin has evolved over time due to how much sunlight his or her ancestors have experienced.  For example, someone growing up in Africa would need more melanin to protect their body from absorbing solar radiation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color).  However someone who grew up in a northern European country would have less melanin in their skin since they are not being hit by as strong of sun-rays. 

This isn't to say, however, that our skin color is determined at birth based on the climate that we live in and that we can adapt different skin colors over time depending on we live.  It takes THOUSANDS, if not MILLIONS of years for evolution to occur.

Sociological Definition of Race

A sociological definition of race is based on outward appearance.  For example, when we see someone of a dark skin tone, we immediately assume that the person is not white.  I thought that the picture above was a good metaphor for this sociological definition.  While the girl might appear to be of a darker skin tone, under the surface she is "white".  I don't think that race can be explained, I think that it is just our explanation for why our skin tones are different.  It is our way of distinguishing people from each other.
Biological Definition of Race

A biological definition of race would be that race is determined through our genes and that it is encoded in our DNA.  However, studies have shown that there is no possible way to distinguish race by looking at DNA, leading us to believe that "race" is just a concept of our imagination.

IAT Tests
IAT tests, as defined by Wikipedia are:
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is an experimental measure within social psychology designed to detect the strength of a person's automatic association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. A computer-based measure, the IAT requires that users rapidly categorize two target concepts with an attribute (e.g. the concepts "male" and "female" with the attribute "logical"), such that easier pairings (faster responses) are interpreted as more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings (slower responses).

During class we took an IAT test.  Here is the link for the tests: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.  I believe that the purpose of taking these tests is to see how society has influenced our ideas about race.  From my results, it stated that I had a strong preference for European Americans.  I was not surpirsed by my results because we tend to have a preference for people who are most similar to us, but I found it sad that it was a lot easier for me to respond to questions when "good" and "white" was grouped together.  I think that this test is measuring what it is trying to measure because you do it without having to think about it very hard and rather just click on what first comes to your mind when you think of "good", "bad", "white", and "black".

African Americans Biologically Superior Athletes?

Does this picture to the right look familiar?  It seems to be that African Americans dominate the sprinting events in track.  REAL LIFE EXAMPLE: I know from personal experience that if there are African American girls and White girls in the same sprinting race that the African American girls are more likely to win the race.  It is true that African Americans are born with more "fast-twitched" fibers in their body, which allow them to sprint quickly, but it isn't all genetics.  Running is very much mental, as I would know as a serious track athlete.  Although many people believe that the African Americans will always win the sprinting events, it isn't always the case.  I know a girl from Hoffman Estates High School who is seeded second in state right now for the 100 meter dash, and low and behold she's white!  This just goes to prove that African Americans are not necessarily biologically superior in athletics.

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Sociology Review

It's crazy to think that it has already been a semester since I started Sociology class.  I feel so much more aware of what is going on around me because of Sociology and I see things in a new light because of it.  For example, I have begun to understand how people's environments affect their outlooks on life and how it can affect the rest of their lives.  One thing in particular that I'm so glad that I learned was that the "American Dream" is not always achievable.  We think that if we work hard enough that we can achieve everything that we set our minds to.  However, there are so many other variables that go into it like your parents' experiences and the environment in which you now reside. 

I found all of the topics that we talked about in Sociology to be fascinating, but I wish that we would have been able to do a research project to see hands-on how Sociology is part of our everyday lives.  I think that it would have been neat to survey people at my own high school and to conduct a study whose results would further educate me in the study of Sociology!  I might just have to conduct my own experiment this summer!  How's that for Sociologically Imaginative? :)



You Are What You Eat Part 2

It's crazy to think that something as small as food can reveal our social class to other people.  We may not notice it coming from an affluent town like Barrington, but even our grocery stores mimic the general social class of our area.  Take the Barrington Jewel for example.  We always have the freshest produce and the biggest selection when it comes to making healthy choices.  This is because this area can afford to spend the extra money to get the proper nourishment our bodies need.  In the Honors Article, "Divided We Eat", the point was brought up that "...the richest Americans can afford to buy berries out of season at Whole Foods..."  This link details what is defined as "Watermelon Season"...Watermelon Season.  I found this fact so interesting because watermelon is offered at the Jewel year round because people are willing to pay the price to eat what they want.  I remember going to a Jewel in Elgin a few years ago because we were in the area and I saw the fruit selection that they had to offer.  The produce department was drastically smaller than the one at the Barrington Jewel that I had been used to and it was clear that the fruit and vegetables were not as fresh.  It was amazing to me that just driving 30 minutes away could make all the difference in the type of produce you were able to eat.

The Jewel-Osco pictured above is a good representation of being a marker of social class.  Its grand appearance and big glass windows show that it must be located in an affluent area.  "...America is a place of extremes, and what you eat for dinner has become the definitive marker of social status..." (Divided We Eat). 

However, not only food is a marker of our social status.  From the "Social Class in America" video that we have been watching in class, we saw that objects can be symbols of status.  In other words, a "status symbol".  Think about the clothes that you own, the car that you drive, or the electronics that you have.  You bought all of these things either consciously or unconsciously to enhance your status.  I remember in 7th grade, all of the girls were starting to buy Juicy Couture sweatpants and hoodies.  I remember going to Macy's and looking at the price label for a sweatshirt and being appalled at how expensive they were.  $92 for a sweatshirt??  Yet it was a purchase I would make in 7th grade because I wanted to elevate my status.  Luckily I still own the sweatshirt today so I have at least gotten my money's worth out of it!

On another note, the way that we act also can determine our social class.  In the video below we see the reason why Rednecks get the stereotype that they have today...

In the "Social Class in America" video, we saw that some people just want to elevate their social class.  For example, Ginnie Sayles (who married a millionaire), offers lessons to make-over one's social class.  She charges a whopping price of $1500 for these lessons!  You would think that she would not make an income because she wouldn't get any customers, but you'd be surprised at how much people are willing to pay in order to change social classes.  But it isn't as easy as taking a few lessons...people know what your status is.  The movie "Mean Girls" comes to mind when I think about social status and classes.  This movie trailer shows how much attention people give to the stereotypes and where people came from...

For all of you who haven't seen the movie (which is a must-see), it is about Cady, a new-girl from Africa who has just moved to the suburbs, and her struggles to fit in and take-down the reigning social queen, Regina George.  It takes Cady awhile to be accepted by Regina because she comes from a different social class than Regina and her friends (Regina drives a silver lexus, has a mansion, and her friend Gretchen's dad invented Toaster Struddle), and even when she begins to dress and act like the girls, they always know how to put her back in her place if she annoys them or does something wrong because THEY KNOW HER ROOTS, where she came from.  It is something that people will never forget.

Finally, back to food.  The Honors Article said that "...the contents of a child's lunchbox can be fodder for a 20-minute conversation."  Shows you how much people care about what other people are eating!  From the video, we saw the problems with choosing a community grocery store in Burlington, Vermont.  At the heart of this conflict? BREAD.  The co-op, which offers healthier choices at a heftier price, did not offer white bread, but rather had fresh bread that was more expensive than what people were willing to pay.  This shows that something as simple as bread could symbolize the difference in our classes.  The co-op eventually agreed to stock white bread at a cheaper price so that all of the community could be happy with their selection.

As a last note, in the article, it was mentioned that "...Fischler has found no single time of day (or night) when American predictably sit together and eat.  By contrast, 54 percent of the French dine at 12:30 each day.  Only 9.5 percent of the French are obese."  Typically my family has a sit-down meal with the whole family a few times a week, and when we are all not able to eat at the same time, my mom has prepared the meal in advance so that we can eat a healthy meal at whatever time we are able to.  Now I know not everyone is lucky enough to do that, but it's interesting how just having a sit-down meal can drastically reduce the obesity rate in a population.  Getting McDonald's out of the hands of small children now can seriously help them in the future.

Social Stratification

Social Stratification: a system in which people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige.

Whether or not we choose to believe it, we are born into a social status.  Children of the wealthy are automatically considered a level above the rest, while children of the poor are looked down upon and often deemed uneducated.  Luckily in the United States, we are not confined to our social classes forever; however, it is very hard to move up in social class if you have been born into a lower class because you have been influenced by those around you.  Just today I was reading a magazine where I saw Willow Smith (daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) in a photograph with a caption that read "watch for Willow's new debut album coming out this summer." However talented she may be, she had many more opportunities to become a singer because of her parents' connections.  It would be much harder from an everyday person to become a famous singer because they do not have the same opportunities as those who have close connections to a recording company.

Willow, only 11 years old at the time of the recording of this song, has over 50 million views on YouTube.  I do not think that if she had tried to get a recording contract on her own that she would have been successful at such a young age.  Because of her name she was able to gain popularity...she already had social status.

Not everyone is so lucky though.  While watching the 20/20 video in class about the people of Appalachia, it was evident that because of the environment that the people were born into, the opportunities they had to succeed were far lower than in other parts of the world.  The documentary focused on the children of unsuccessful people in Appalachia and the effects of their environment on their lives.  Take Sean Grim, for example.  He was a high school football star born into poverty and a deranged family situation.  His step-dad is an alcoholic, and his brother-in-law molested his sister.  Sean took matters into his own hands and left the family home and lived in a truck to start a new life for himself.  He got a football scholarship to a small, private school, and seemed to be heading in the right direction.  However, he realized that he still could not afford to be at the university and dropped out after feeling uncomfortable with never being able to go out with friends.  He went back home to Appalachia where he resumed life as he knew it before he was motivated to go out on his own and make a new life for himself.  This proves the point that it is very difficult to get into a higher social class than what you are born into.  Bill O'Reilly on his show, "O'Reily Factor", argued that people should just move out of the area if they knew the implications it had on their children.  While he has a good point, it is very hard to get the funds needed to move out when you have grown up in an impoverished area.  He argued with Dianne Sawyer about her 20/20 documentary, but Sawyer never seemed to give up.  She defended the children saying that this new generation wants change, but they just need the help from the rest of the world to get the same opportunities for education and success to dig themselves and their families out of the rut they are currently in.

Karl Marx, who was the subject of the Honors Article we read for this week, concluded that "an individual's social class was determined by whether or not he owned the means of production."  Marx referred to this group of people as the "Proletariats".  Marxism, according to the article, is "a theory of how well-heeld capitalist nations might use their immense resources to achieve justice and prosperity for their people."  This is very similar to communism, which aims to diminish social class and have common ownership of the means of production.  If Marx's beliefs were applied to the United States, more resources and money would be flowing into Appalachia to give them the same opportunities and resources that other parts of the world already have.  The article that we read defended Marx's position on the distribution of resources, but also acknoledged that there were flaws with his work.  However, it identified that the Capitalist society in which we live today, as predicted by Marx, has intensified the inequalities in society.

"Make Me A Sandwich"



"A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control..."  Immediately every woman who ever reads this ad is intrigued because they can relate to the statement.  The honors article that we read spoke of the Nike ad featuring a "natural" Marilyn Monroe.  Pictured above is the advertisement that was produced in 1992.  The ad encourages people to measure people from the inside and not from the outside.  Too often do we judge people based on their looks instead of on their character; we can't always get past the outward appearance and never truly get to know the person.  If people started to accept the fact that women's bodies are all different from one another, then the concept of beauty would change.  The article says that "one way of being beautiful will be, for all times and all places, more healthy, more natural and less harmful than all others."

So what exactly is beauty?  Is it your physical appearance or your inside appearance, or a combination of both?  I think that beauty can be defined in many different ways.  The Dove Onslaught video below gives us a good idea of what society has defined beauty to be...

It's incredible how much society can influece children from a young age in their view of beauty.  Young girls like the girl in the Dove commercial should not have to worry about measuring up to society's standards.  That adds so much unneeded pressure to a young girl's life and can lead to her destruction.  So this topic of beauty...what do you think it means?  I think beauty is being confident in yourself and with who you are and how you appear.  I think beauty is natural, and not cosmetic.  The article says that "women should feel their natural selves are beautiful enough."  The only reason that plastic surgery became so popular was because people thought that they had to look a certain way to be accepted in society.  It's interesting to me to think about beauty from different perspectives.  What makes certain people think that some things like being super skinny is attractive, while other people think that having a full-figured body is more attractive.

Recently there has been a growing amount of Feminists in this country.  This is because of the image of male dominance in society and the perception that men are better than women.  These ideals are again taught to young children through the media, and surprisingly enough through the Disney movies that we watched as kids.  I found the following clip to be a good representation of the male dominance shown through the movies...

One scene from the video that I clearly remember is the song from Mulan where one of the men says that choosing a women depends on her cooking skills.  This perception that women are house keepers goes back to the gender role created centuries ago.  The joke today that many men find hilarious is "make me a sandwich", as if that's what they view women good for.  Even my 13 year old brother thinks that because I'm a girl that I enjoy making food for other people!  He asks me all the time to make him a snack, and I return his request by giving him a recipe to follow.  I don't want to prolong the stereotype! 

I refuse to accept the fact that gender roles cannot be reversed.  For example, many dads are becoming stay at home dads while their wives are working to support the family.  I find it extraordinary how some men feel so superior to women when they might not be as intelligent or as hard-working as some women are.  This bothers me a lot in high school because some of the boys in my senior class think that they are so much better than me just because they are male when in reality I have a higher GPA, ACT, and social status than they might.  I know it sounds a little stuck up, but I think that girls eventually start to justify things like this to make themselves feel better about being discriminated against.  I know I find comfort in rationalizing the situation!  I believe that women are just as capable as men in being successful in the world.  It's no wonder why more women go to college nowadays than do men!  Hopefully some day the roles will even out and men and women will be able to embrace each others' differences and use them to their advantage to accomplish things succinctly!  But until that day comes I still won't be making any sandwiches for men...unless of course it would get me a date to prom (totally kidding!, I think if someone asked me to do this I would tell them to have a nice life!)