"You could be on a boat with a man your man could smell like....I'm on a horse."
This is one of my favorite all-time commercials. It embodies the complete sarcastic rhetoric behind socially accepted feminine ideals about men and makes fun of all those other bodywash commercials that use men's idealistic body appeal to sell their product. Note: it was much easier to make fun of idealized masculinity than idealized femininity in advertising, since women's sex appeal is used so much socially and is very entrenched. Think about that! (with the exception of Saturday Night Live, which also rocks..!)This is great social commentary!
However, yes Old Spice, you rock because of this. I know that's exactly what you wanted, but thank you for the commercial ; )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOm2YhOI4c&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Real Life in the World: The Teaching of Male Violence
I volunteer every Friday afternoon to teach 5th grade children about permaculture gardening and the natural world at the Montessori School in Greensboro. It is a wonderful, liberating thing to know that I am using a teaching style that stimulates creative knowledge of a child, in a natural harmonious way of learning.
One of the boys was having a problem with another student, and seemed to be reacting by pushing him. I did not know the real background situation of the social circumstance, and had not known the students for more than a couple of months. Cameron (real name omitted for privacy purposes), the boy that was trying to use pushing to solve the problem, was very upset. It began to get worse, so I had to tell them both to respect one another and that violent behavior is not the best way to solve any problem. This was my general advice to both of them, since it was not my place to interfere much further.
Cameron later approached me, and told me "Chandra, I just want you to know that my mother told me that I could use violence."
I was really in shock, and was not sure what to say for a couple of seconds. This applied directly to what I had been learning in Women's and Gender Studies class, about male violence, where it starts, how it is continued, and what the cycle does.
It was hard to understand what I should say, given the position I was in. I repeated my general advice, saying that violence does not actually solve the real problem that is happening, it just ignores it. I told him that respecting others, even though they may not respect you, is important to understanding what is really going on. What would happen if everyone used violence to solve every problem?
In hindsight, what I really should have done was ask Cameron, is the person that is giving you trouble human? Is he a person just like you? Do people make mistakes? Yes, they do. People make many mistakes. In the end, their mistakes are not really anything that has to do with you. It has more to do with whatever problems they face. I understand why you are angry, even though I dont know what is really going on, but the best thing you could possibly do, is to think about where the other person is coming from, and to solve the problem through understanding why he is doing this and not to take it so personally by respecting yourself enough to see through it. How would you feel if everyone used violence to solve every problem?
These are not exactly easy concepts for 5th graders, and it is clear to me that problems in life are confusing at that age. Between 5th grade and 8th grade, children do the most growing, they mature, their intellect develops even more, and their personality becomes solid.
The seeds for male violence are everywhere, and the influence is problematic. Violence is a distraction from real problem solutions, and at the same time a side-effect. The way it reinforces itself, and is actually taught as equivalent to strength to children, is something that I hope will eventually end as society moves closer to understanding the true strength that lies in each individual. I feel that violence is really just the easy way out, a showy, survival of the fittest superficial way of dealing with things. In class, we have seen violence used in several avenues to control social power, through music toward control of women, war-crime displays for control over both women and prisoners of war who could be marginalized racially profiled groups, to keeping other men in check as a macho symbol to continue violence as a macho method in and of itself. Violence is truly a control mechanism.
At the Montessori School, teaching is intended to be through the child's creative self-reflective insight. Non-violence is also an important aspect, because teachers do not force lessons on the children, but instead allow them to explore through curiosity in a well outlined path of curriculum. This is how I had hoped to teach non-violence itself to this student in need.
How would someone else handle this issue? Is there a better way to enlighten children and people about the real nature of social problems and why they occur? These are questions for which I will continue using my Women's and Gender insights into the birdcage matrix that is part of humanity's journey through life to find real truth, to break through the illusionary control mechanisms preventing insight into the truth of things, and to set up real cycles of understanding and respect for humanity.
One of the boys was having a problem with another student, and seemed to be reacting by pushing him. I did not know the real background situation of the social circumstance, and had not known the students for more than a couple of months. Cameron (real name omitted for privacy purposes), the boy that was trying to use pushing to solve the problem, was very upset. It began to get worse, so I had to tell them both to respect one another and that violent behavior is not the best way to solve any problem. This was my general advice to both of them, since it was not my place to interfere much further.
Cameron later approached me, and told me "Chandra, I just want you to know that my mother told me that I could use violence."
I was really in shock, and was not sure what to say for a couple of seconds. This applied directly to what I had been learning in Women's and Gender Studies class, about male violence, where it starts, how it is continued, and what the cycle does.
It was hard to understand what I should say, given the position I was in. I repeated my general advice, saying that violence does not actually solve the real problem that is happening, it just ignores it. I told him that respecting others, even though they may not respect you, is important to understanding what is really going on. What would happen if everyone used violence to solve every problem?
In hindsight, what I really should have done was ask Cameron, is the person that is giving you trouble human? Is he a person just like you? Do people make mistakes? Yes, they do. People make many mistakes. In the end, their mistakes are not really anything that has to do with you. It has more to do with whatever problems they face. I understand why you are angry, even though I dont know what is really going on, but the best thing you could possibly do, is to think about where the other person is coming from, and to solve the problem through understanding why he is doing this and not to take it so personally by respecting yourself enough to see through it. How would you feel if everyone used violence to solve every problem?
These are not exactly easy concepts for 5th graders, and it is clear to me that problems in life are confusing at that age. Between 5th grade and 8th grade, children do the most growing, they mature, their intellect develops even more, and their personality becomes solid.
The seeds for male violence are everywhere, and the influence is problematic. Violence is a distraction from real problem solutions, and at the same time a side-effect. The way it reinforces itself, and is actually taught as equivalent to strength to children, is something that I hope will eventually end as society moves closer to understanding the true strength that lies in each individual. I feel that violence is really just the easy way out, a showy, survival of the fittest superficial way of dealing with things. In class, we have seen violence used in several avenues to control social power, through music toward control of women, war-crime displays for control over both women and prisoners of war who could be marginalized racially profiled groups, to keeping other men in check as a macho symbol to continue violence as a macho method in and of itself. Violence is truly a control mechanism.
At the Montessori School, teaching is intended to be through the child's creative self-reflective insight. Non-violence is also an important aspect, because teachers do not force lessons on the children, but instead allow them to explore through curiosity in a well outlined path of curriculum. This is how I had hoped to teach non-violence itself to this student in need.
How would someone else handle this issue? Is there a better way to enlighten children and people about the real nature of social problems and why they occur? These are questions for which I will continue using my Women's and Gender insights into the birdcage matrix that is part of humanity's journey through life to find real truth, to break through the illusionary control mechanisms preventing insight into the truth of things, and to set up real cycles of understanding and respect for humanity.
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