Gender, Formal Paper #2

 Dear ---------           

Being an adolescent in today’s age is anything but easy. It means your body is changing dramatically at a physical and chemical level, school becomes more demanding as does expectations from parents and peers, you are trying to figure out who you are and who you want to be and on the top of it all you have to try to fit in with the rest of everyone. To fit in, you must follow the socially constructed gender rules, which we can call Girl Code and Guy Code. These “Codes” can be found lurking underneath everything you do. From school to sports, to jobs, the media or just hanging out with a group of friends. However, Girl Code has way harsher expectations and consequences on girls than Guy Code has on guys.

First off, lets begin with what these codes are and what they mean. Guys are expected to be independent, successful, support their families, to not be seen as weak or gay and as Kimmel States, “Exude an aura of daring and aggression. Live life out on the edge. Take risks. Go for it. Pay no attention to what others think”(Bro’s Before Hos 610). So, guys fit in when they achieve power, strength, success and money and are supposed to be aggressive when doing so. They aren’t supposed to care about what others think and are encouraged to be their own person. They are put down when they act feminine (which nowadays seems to be a synonym to weak) or rely and depend on a woman to heavily. A good example of this is if a man is “Pussy whipped”. This term defined by Urban Dictionary which is a site where the general public can define slang terms, as “ A situation whereupon a male is undeniably at the mercy of his high-maintenance girlfriend and answers to her every beck and call, usually followed by the reprioritizing of girlfriend over friends, family [and] school…” (UrbanDictionary). This term has a very negative connotation, however there is no commonly known antonym to that term. The reason why is because when girls make sacrifices for a guys, it isn’t necessarily looked down upon from society, in fact, it is encouraged.

Girl code is centralized around, not being considered a slut, vanity, pleasing men, and having a good relationship with your girlfriends. Maybe even in that order. Growing up as an adolescent girl means following a Girl Code that is emphasized, influenced and maintained by the media, the long world-wide history of patriarchal societies and women’s suppression and even women themselves.

The media plays a huge role into female gender roles in our society. TV, Internet, radio, magazines, music, movies, billboards, and newspapers are thrown at people every single day of their lives. The images and words on these advertisements almost consistently put women down. They sexualize, objectify and weaken women’s demeanor. In many ads men have the upper hand and women are often unclothed and catering to men’s needs. Kilbourne says that  “the popular culture usually trivializes abilities in women, mocks men who have real intimacy with woman and idealizes a template that views sex as more important that anything else, and ridicules men who are not in control of their women. (Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt 578). This emphasizes how women are sexualized and belittled for the whole world to see. It says be beautiful and let the man take control because he knows better anyways. When the average American watches 28 hours of television per day, there is no way that those subliminal, and sometimes not so subliminal messages don’t get into our head and way of thinking.

Women’s history has never been an easy ride. In a society dominated by males from political, religious and business leaders, women are not going to have much of a say or any representation in how things work. I mean women only got the right to vote in 1920. Some of us have grandmas that were alive before that amendment was even passed. Things are slowly moving forward as woman activists make some changes in our policies but there is still a very large discrepancy and an even larger set of stereotypes and stigmas that are slow to fade away. Women are supposed to be the housewives and homemakers they are supposed to take care of the children, listen to their husbands, cook for the family and clean up after them too. These negative stereotypes and Girl Code are actually very similar and the tradition of these gender codes is what maintains the Girl Code today.

Another contributing factor to the negative Girl Code are actually the girls themselves. Girls are constantly judging and criticizing each other and themselves. They judge each other mainly on appearance, but also the type of girls they hang out with, how many guys have they been with, they type of clothes they wear, how much time they put into looking good and much more. There are fine lines that define what is too much or too little or bad and good in all of these mannerisms.  They call each other sluts and whores when they don’t know a single thing about the other girl or girls. They bad mouth a certain girl or a group of girls in front of guys to make themselves look better and for the “sluts” too look bad. It is a sneaky, passive aggressive, or just plain aggressive world out there for the girls.

The main focus in adolescents social life is not to make a really quality friend who will always be there for you, it is to be liked and accepted by people who are cool. People who are deemed cool follow the gender codes. And to be liked by them means you have to conform. Girl Code are rules that are NOT meant to be broken. It’s a world were conformity is encouraged and differences are scolded and pointed out.

When one breaks Guy and Girl Code, there are consequences. If a guy breaks guy Code, the other guys around him will look upon him as weak and feminine and he might be left out of the crowd. If a girl breaks Girl Code there are extreme consequences. Girls are known for their gossip. Girls will pounce at the opportunity to point the figure at another girl. Stories are exaggerated and turn into rumors.  It works perfect for getting the focus off of them and making themselves look better. If that’s what everyone is doing then other girls will have to go along with it in order conform and not get the finger pointed at themselves, even if they know it is wrong. Being chastised from your group of friends and having everyone know about something you did, can cause detrimental social insecurities. Girls develop eating disorders because they don’t think they look good enough. They are more likely to develop anxiety and depression. More guys commit suicide than girls however; girls attempt to commit suicide 4 times as much as guys do. The reason that they don’t end up actually killing themselves is because they don’t tend to use as fatal of methods like a gunshot to the head like guys use. Even when killing themselves, they don’t want to be seen as ugly and bloody, they rather try overdosing on pills which don’t affect them physically on the outside. The need to look good follows you to the death.

Guys are encouraged to be independent and strong in society while girls are supposed to be dependent and submissive. We suffer from lower incomes, bad stereotypes and stigmas, objectification, criticism and judging on looks and lifestyle and mental and physical disorders as an effect of the rules we so harshly follow. The pressures from the media, men, and even women are immense and conformity seems like the only way to sneak by without being hurt. Women have to learn to live life dodging all of the criticisms of being different or of looking and acting certain ways. It is about time to acknowledge all of these secret and unspoken rules. It is about time that we become a more fair and gender neutral society.

Sincerely,

Jessica Zacarias

Annotated Bib #2

"The Girl Code." The Girl Code. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dolliecrave.com/the-girl-code.php>.

This isn’t so much an article as it is a public post about ideas of what girl code is. Some of these examples are very known to both genders but some are things that only females groing up in todays age would understand. Most of them revolve around boys/boyfriends and norms within social groups.

" Guy Code, Man Law, Bro Code & Man Etiquette." The Guy Code. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://itsguycode.com/theguycode.html>.

           The fact that there is an entire website dedicated to “Guy Code” reinforces how prominent it is in our culture. This website informs you of the social norms for men regarding to a huge selection of topics. They call it  “ guy code, man law, bro code and man etiquette. It has rules on what you should and shouldn’t do anywhere from bathroom etiquette to the bros before ho’s rule to the code for mixing drinks and for playing sports.

"Teen Health." Teen Suicide Risk Factors and Prevention. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://teens.webmd.com/preventing-teen-suicide>.

 This article explains some statistics on teen suicides. It explains that suicide is actually the third leadinc cause of death among people between the ages of 10 and 24. 84% of suicides are males however, females attempt suicide far more than males. Females don’t usually use as violent as methods which results in less deaths. It then goes on to talking about suicide risk factors such as Previous suicide attempt(s).Psychological and mental disorders, especially depression and other mood disorders, schizophrenia, and social anxiety. Substance abuse and/or alcohol disorders, History of abuse or mistreatment, Family history of suicide, Feelings of hopelessness, Physical illness, Impulsive or aggressive tendencies, Financial or social loss, Relationship loss, Isolation or lack of social support, Easy access to methods/means of suicide, and Exposure to others who have committed suicide. It then talks about protective factors for suicide.

Proposal #2

Title: Not sure yet

Author: Jessica Zacarias

Topic: Society and Girl code and is harsher on females than guy code is on males.

Exigence: What makes me want to write this paper is that I think it is really important for this to be recognized or at least considered. I think that many females in our society can relate to this and I think that if more people become aware of this, it might decrease the intensity of the problem.

Audience: Everyone. Girl and guy code exist at all times of our lives, it just changes with age. Although I will be writing primarily about adolescent girl/guy code, it applies to everyone because they will either get at this stage in life, are at this stage in life or were at this stage in their life’s.

Purpose: To raise awareness and lay down the gender rules, where they come from, and the consequences of them.

Claim: We all know that there are Gender roles and Gender rules in our society. However, women suffer more in our rules; they are more enforced and there are higher consequences for them as well.

Writer’s strategy #1: Ethos. I will be able to use my ethos and have credibility because I am a female that has gone through middle school, high school and some college (where a lot of the girl code takes form) I’ve also heard many testimonies from my friends. I’m really interested in the topic of what it means to be a certain gender in our society, so I have gone out of my way to question my girl and guy friends about some of these issues.

The effect of my ethos will be that the audience/reader will trust me. There is no better judge of a situation then someone who has directly been involved with it.

Writers strategy # 2: Exemplification and Description. The best way to support my claims in this case would be real life examples and describing what it looks like. I will bring in statistics, personal experiences and experiences of others to prove my point. With all these examples, it will paint a picture of what girls really go through. I intend to also exemplify guys experiences too, I am not trying to say guys don’t have it hard, I’m trying to say that girls have it harder and from more sources.

Writers strategy #3: Cause and Effect. I will not only explain what the boy/girl code is, but explain the reason and consequences of it. I will address why I think the reason is that girls have it harder than guys and what results because of it. If we can identify some of the causes for all this craziness, then maybe we can stop it.

RA #3 Kilbourne

            In the passage “‘Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt’: Advertising and Violence”, Jean Kilbournes talks about the sexualization and violence towards women in the media. Taken from her book “Can’t Buy My Love” written in 1999, her catalyst for writing this piece was her anger towards the media and how it objectifies and therefore causes violence against women as well as self hatred and internal problems and addictions. She claims that advertisements promote the ideas that: it is encouraged to be attracted to “ hostile and indifferent men” (579), violence is erotic, women are objects which makes it easy to justify violence, and that “ all women, regardless of age, are really temptresses in disguise, nymphets, sexually insatiable and seductive” (590). Media becomes one of the main reasons that women are so objectified. Because of this objectification, it makes it okay for men to harm them or take advantage of them. Then, women have such a harsh and judging eye on one another that we blame ourselves for the damage that has happened. In my experience, I have heard girls say to other girls “Well you shouldn’t have worn that, you were asking for it”, “ You can’t really complain, you were hanging around him all night”, and “Don’t lead him on like that if you don’t actually want to have sex.” These are all good examples of how women end up blaming ourselves when in reality, a lot of the reasons bad things happen are because men feel that it is okay to treat us that way, not because we put ourselves in that situation. Kilbourne lays her point across very well and using many writing modes.

            One of the writing strategies Kilbourne uses is comparing and contrasting. She says “ The main goal, as in pornography, is usually power over another, either by the physical dominance or preferred status of men” (575).Kilbourne compares advertising and the media to pornography. The same message is sent through both mediums. They both dehumanize and objectify women. Another way she compares and contrasts are through all the ads she brings up in the passage. She compares the similarities of how they portray the same message that women are objects but in different ways.

            Another way Kilbourne proves her point with exemplification. This is her most convincing and prominent writing strategy. She brings up almost 30 different examples to exemplify and show her point. Some of the examples really stood out, and makes you think, “How is that even allowed to be an ad?” They are shocking, because you usually think that all the objectification of women is passive and subconscious, however, in some of these ads such as the one promoting alcohol stating “ If your date won’t listen to reason, try a Velvet hammer” (583), are so up front.

            Throughout the excerpt, Kilbourne uses process as one of her writing modes. She explains how all of this unfolds beyond just the advertisments. After seeing all of these ads on a day to day basis, women become objectified and violence is promoted. After they are objectified and sexualized with the addition that women tend to blame ourselves for whatever happens, it is easy to harm them and take advantage of them. Because of all of this women develop a self-hatred. How could we not if we are being dehumanized and then blamed for it at the same time?  All this trauma inevitably leads to addiction to substances and even suicides. As Kilbourne stated, “no wonder they [Women] go under for good- ending up in abusive marriages, in prison, on the streets” (599).  This systematic process of the media trying to sell their products, leads to depression, oppression, violence, self-hatred and even suicide.

RA#2

Title: From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos

Author: Joan Morgan

Date:1999

Topic: Finding the Root to sexism in rap

Exigence: All the sexism and misogyny found in raps.

Intended audience: Anyone involved in rap culture, the black sistas and brothers, American society as a whole.

Purpose: To defeat the misogyny in the black community and understand why its happening

Claims: If rap artists have a safe space to talk and process all the “ uncomfortable issues of our failing self-esteem” (606), serious depression and pain, then maybe they wouldn’t demean and objectify women as a mask of all the misery they are going through.

Main Evidence: Morgan’s main evidence comes from her own experience being apart of the black community. She also uses lyrics from very popular Rap artist such as Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. to show examples of their self-loathing and inopportunity. Her main evidence is also seen through a feminist point of view. And she uses her analyzing of the hip-hop community to describe her claims.

Morgan uses Narration to explain what happens when she looks at the core of what is actually is happening behind all the sexism in rap music. She says “ I hear brothers talking about spending each day high as hell on malt liquor and chronic…What passes for ’40 and a blunt’ good times in most of hip hop is really alcoholism, substance abuse, and chemical dependency. Brothers… talk so cavalierly about killing each other then reveal that they have no expectation to see their twenty-first birthday” (603). Not only does this give a good description of what type of attitude rap music is composed of. Rap artists are deeply depressed in their social world and they demean themselves and especially women to mask their sadness and depression that they are feeling deep down. This narration also overlaps into Aristotle’s emotional appeal, pathos. Knowing that these young potential-filled men don’t have any expectation to live very long can definitely make you feel bad for them and maybe understand why they seem so angry in their music.

Morgan shows an example of cause and effect when she talks about the sistas that uses sex, and free participation in music videos to promote womens’ oppression. As she states, “ Many of the ways men exploit our images and sexuality in hip-hop is done with our permission and cooperation.” (605).  It seems as if women are being hypocritical by continually pointing out sexism and the objectification of women, yet thousands of women line up and willingly throw themselves at these rap artists so that they can sleep with them or even appear in one of the music videos. Morgan is saying that the cause of all the misogyny isn’t just the rap artists fault, it is women’s fault too because we aide to the promotion of our own objectification.

Pathos is also used to prove Morgans point. Emotion is prodded at when Morgan makes connections to the readers and to herself. She says “ So sista friends, we gotta do what any rational, survivalist-minded person would do after finding herself in a relationship with someone whose pain makes him abusive” (604). By talking to the reader in a casual way she connects with them. Once that connection is established, making herself and the readers a team by saying “ we gotta do” gives the reader a sense of unity. Then, when she talks about the type of abusive relationship that many women are in and need to escape, that gives you some empowerment and makes you want to act with her and your fellow sistas.

RR#2

In the “The Guy Code” the author Michael Kimmel describes the pressures of masculinity within the young males in our society. He explains that the guy code is “the collection of attitudes, values and traits that together composes what it means to be a man”(609). Pretty much, guys have to show they are masculine by showing no emotion, and not admitting to any form of weakness. This “masculinity” is shown in everything they do whether it is how they walk, talk, dress and even how or what they eat. They do everything they can so that they aren’t misconceived as homosexual. What I found interesting is that men are not doing this to impress women. It is to impress other men. It is the men that have the power to push you up or down in social ranking, not the woman. Woman, as Kimmel states, are just a currency by which men can negotiate their status

I first noticed “ The Guy Code” when I was in middle school. There was a main group of guys which all the girls had crushes on. Some of the guys in this group would really put other guys down, even the ones in their same friend group. “That’s so gay” and “Fag” were two of the most popular insults. It is true what Kimmel said, it doesn’t necessarily mean, “that is so homosexual of you” it is a synonym for bad, inadequate, stupid, wrong etc… However, if a boy were to do something to slightly even hint at being feminine, he would not hear the end of it. The guys would play off of each other and socially alienate who ever was being put down. That humiliation only motivated all the boys to conform to all the masculine norms such as not showing pain, or sadness but anger and boldness instead. Unfortunately, this type of behavior continued through high school and got so radical and ridiculous, that most of the girls in my grade wanted absolutely nothing to do with the guys. On several occasions I can remember my friends looking up at where the guys hung out and saying “They really think that making people feel like shit makes them cool don’t they?” Thankfully it was just this group of guys at my school. I’m sure they aren’t the only group of guys that have done something like this before. These guys put themselves, and mostly others down so much that they ostracized themselves from everyone else. Their constant need to be better, tougher and emotionless did not serve them any good besides trying to one up each other within their own group.

I agree with much of what Kimmel says in his passage. I completely believe that there is a guy code, and that males are the ones who give rank to those around them. However, I do not believe that it starts at such an early age. Kimmel gives the example of the 3 1/2 year old crying in the barbershop and the barbers saying that he needed to man up and not spend so much time around his mother. I believe that instance was an outlier in the general scheme of things. I would say that guy code really starts in late elementary school or early middle school. That is when boys start to know themselves as more of an individual and have more self-awareness. It is when they begin to form a solid social group of friends because they can start identifying whom they want to hang out around. When these social groups form, that, is when the guy code begins.

Final Final Prop 30 Op Ed

Jessica Zacarias

English 2, Knapp

October 14, 2012

Invest in Our Schools, Invest in Our Future

The foundation of California and our future is the education of its youth. Nearly everything human beings have accomplished as a society has been founded and supported by a solid and growing education. Therefore, if we want to continue moving forward as a society, we need to invest in our future, invest in our schools and not cut back on the potential of thousands of growing minds. Billions of dollars have been cut from the schooling system resulting in less teachers, bigger class sizes, less days of school, higher tuition rates and lower acceptance rates among many other losses. That’s why proposition 30 on the ballot this November is just what we need to start solving this crisis. It is essential that we stop this downward spiral and that we vote yes on Proposition 30.

Proposition 30 would place a temporary increase on income and sales tax. The top 1% of our population, people making $250,000 dollars or more will be charged an additional 1-3% on income tax depending on how much they earn per year for the next 7 years. The rest of us, the 99% of us will be charged one fourth of a cent more on sales tax for the next 4 years. That is 1 cent for every 4 dollars you spend, or 5 dollars for every 2,000 dollars you spend. 89% of the revenue would to K-12 schools and 11% would go to community colleges. Something not many people know is that it not only supports education but it also helps and supports rehab facilities and depopulation in prison as well as public safety and social services.

Now you tell me, who has more authority to decide and demand more money for California’s education system? Is it rich old men campaigning against this cause, who went to school in a time that going to UC Berkeley cost $700 a year, or is it students currently going to school and currently feeling the devastating budget crisis as more and more money is cut from education. Today, UC Berkeley has a 2,000 percent increase on their tuition. The same has happened with all schools across California as tuition continues to rise 4-10% a year.

Being a Cabrillo College student myself, I can directly feel the already excessive budget cuts to the school. It is almost incomprehensible to really understand the impact it would have on us students if even more money and teachers get cut from the school’s resources. Cabrillo has cut so many classes in recent years that in order to go to the school that I want to go to, I’m going to have to drive to a different Community College, about one hour away, two times a week to fulfill a required course for my major. By cutting essential and important classes, students have to stay at Community College for longer because all the classes are impacted and hard to get into. Not only are there less classes and teachers, there is an increasing amount of kids that need to get into community college classes because they are unable to afford a 4 year college right out of high school. It is detrimental to students and their family’s financial situation if getting your general education requirements completed means spending more and more time, money and semesters trying to get into classes.

If proposition 30 does not pass, Trigger Cuts will take place on January 1^st 2013. Trigger cuts are the states way of reducing California’s spending. These cuts will eliminate 5.5 billion dollars going to schools, which will result in 3 less weeks of school for K-12 children. It would cut $250 million from all CSU’s. That would mean more layoffs, fewer classes and an even higher tuition cost for students. Just at Cabrillo alone I have felt the effects of the 95 staff jobs cut, 400 classes cut and the 88.5% increase on price per unit.

 Some people have different views on this proposition. On stopprop30.com they state “California cannot afford to lose more jobs or to further damage our economic recovery. Now is not the time for tax increases which will only harm California families and small businesses.” However this statement ignores the fact that funding schools will actually lead to more jobs for teachers and all other administrative departments in the system. Since more students will get to go to school it will provide more capable citizens with new and improved ideas. With education they will be able to fill needed and crucial jobs to keep our society moving forward as well as create their own small and large businesses.

 People also complain that if Proposition 30 passes, the tax increase on the poor would not be fair. However, what really isn’t fair is if Proposition 30 does not pass and parents who are already struggling with money have to seek out and pay for 3 extra weeks of childcare. A tax increase of .25% will be nothing to complain about compared to the downfalls if proposition 30 is not passed. Compare one cent for every four dollars for a temporary amount of time to having to pay higher tuition for more semesters, and poorer quality education. It is not a hard decision to make.

We can all agree that the education system in California has been going downhill. Finally a solution is within reach. Lets think and act progressively for a prosperous future for all of us. Proposition 30 is that solution. Just adding ¼ of a cent to our sales tax for a limited amount of time could mean the difference between thousands of students not being able to go to school or get into classes or getting a solid education and continuing to getting vital and constructive jobs that could help and effect everybody’s future. You make the choice.  Our system needs to evolve with time, not disintegrate.  Help save our future by voting yes on Proposition 30.