Lauren, REdefined

Knowing what I know about sociology, I truly don't think my answer would change that much, the only thing that would change would be the way to explain it. (the changes are in green)
the following is my first blog from janurary...

Who Am I?

Why is that simple question so difficult to answer?

• Our culture has placed teenagers in that awkward self-discovery phase because we are too old to be kids, and too young to be adults.
• There are a lot of factors that make up a person and they increase exponentially as they grow- when we are born we have an open mind, and then our environment and the somewhat invisible standards and pressures that society puts on us impact the person we grow up to be.
  

I'm Lauren, I have brown hair and brown eyes, I'm 5'8.
but what else? I can't seriously be defined by what I look like

• Although I said I cannot be defined by what I look like, many people in America and the rest of the world are, racial profiling exsists no matter what we think, we place stereotypes behind a certain race, such as all black and hispanic people are criminals, when in reality they are not. However, white people aren't usually defined by their race because society has made it the superior one (no matter how untrue that is)
  

So what defines me?
If I was a dictionary entry, what would it say?
Lauren is funny, outgoing, hardworking...
Wow, way to sound like a college essay there, Lauren.

• With all of the pressure put on people (especially women and teenage girls) by the media, it is hard to find other traits that can help define people, however I don't want to be known as the way I look, I want to be remembered for who I am inside (no matter how corny that sounds...)
  

Who helps define me?
My family, a given. My mom taught me how to be strong and hardworking. She once told me to CHOOSE MY BATTLES. I thought she was crazy until it actually came into play. Don't get worked up over the small things because they're not worth your time. My Dad taught me hard love, he pushed me until I got it right, which eventually I did.
My friends, They have gotten me through my best (getting into every single college I applied to) and my worst (breaking my ankle, losing my cousin in January) . They have shaped me throughout all of my 'awkward' teenage years, and have made such an impact on my life I couldn't help but include them in my definition.

• In class, we talked about master groups that define us, and my family and friends are definitely 2 HUGE ones in my life. My family is where I got my values and manners from, they also taught me almost everything I know, and continue to encourage me along the way, while my friends have influenced the way I dress, talk, what music i listen to, the phrases i use, and some of the choices I make in life.
  

What helps define me?
My experiences. From moving to a new school in fourth grade, to spending almost a month in a wheelchair during junior year, my experiences have taught me to be more understanding and accepting as well as outgoing and laid-back.

• The experience up there (being in a wheelchair) has alot to do with deviation. People have an automatic prefrence to able people, so I often felt abandoned and alone during that period. I understand I can walk fine now, and some people will be confined to a wheelchair for life and those experiences make me want to help and befriend them.
  

So, Who Am I?
I'm Lauren, because that's my birth name. I Have brown hair and brown eyes because my parents do. I'm outgoing because I get pushed into new experiences all of the time, I'm accepting and understanding because I've been bad off before. I am laid-back because I choose my battles.
I am me.

• I am defined by my world around me, whether it be my family's annual income, the family and race I was born into, the country I live in, my political ideology, my appearance, or the countless hours of television shows I watch a week.. I am defined by my history and by my present. I live a sociological life.
  

Race and Crash

Although I missed the first 1/3 of the movie, it wasn't hard for me to catch on to the racism present in the movie. Sandra Bullock's character especially held stereotypes about hispanic people that weren't true. She felt uncomfortable when the locksmith was hispanic and she said that he was going to give the key to his "homies" so they would rob the house. This stereotype wasnt true because this man whether he was hispanic, asian or white is just trying to make a living in America and also not all hispanic people are thugs and have intentions of stealing and drug dealing.

I have been a victim of stereotyping especially because i'm jewish.

I was in Wisconsin at a waterpark with my friends and we were talking to these guys in the pool. All of the sudden one of them turns to me and was like "my mom just told me the funniest joke EVER, do you want to hear it?" I reluctantly agreed expecting it to be some dumb joke i probably wouldnt laugh at instead it was "how do you fit 10 jews in a limo? - 4 in the backseat and the rest in the ash tray" I automatically caught on to the holocaust refrence. and told him I was a jew. He looked like he just met a celebrity. He was like "Oh my gosh Ive never met a jew before" The conversation kind of died down after that and then we got out of the pool and we saw them later and they started throwing pennies on the ground and they were like "don't you want to pick them up? you jew." I was so suprised at how vicious they were. It was my own personal (to a lesser extent) crash moment.

race and checkmarks

Often for research purposes, standardized tests and surveys will often put a box where one has to fill in their race. The only options they give are usually african american, caucasian, pacific islander, and hispanic. Although for me personally, it isn't hard to fill in, there are people out there who don't really fall into any of those catergories. In class we looked at people who were from Australia but would be called "black" in America, but on that question they can't really fit into the african american category because they aren't from Africa. I think that like the author of "Mixed Blood" said Race is a myth. Race is a bunch of simple words like black and white that society created definitions for. Back from the orgins of slavery, it is apparent that a majority of "white" people feel superior to blacks or have a prefrence to white people over blacks although they probably don't consider themselves racist. So what race does exsist? the human race, and everyone is apart of it no matter what their physical features are.

Pass go and stay the same.

Next year I will be starting college, and after that my future is all up in the air. My plan is to hopefully get a job right after graduating, slowly move up within the company and become CEO and live the high life. Chances of that happening? slim to none.

I'm guessing my future might go a little something like this: Graduate college, move back in with the parents, get a job, and stay at that for the rest of my life, or at least until retirement. It's not my dream route, but it's not entirely made up either, it is the route that both my parents followed once they graduated college. It's not because I have grown up watching their lives and thinking "I wanna be just like that some day" It is because they are providing to me the same opportunies they were provided when they were my age.

Both my parents come from upper middle class families, and were able to attend big10 schools and graduate and get jobs that they have basically stuck with since then. It is rare that someone will move up a class from their parents, I wish it would be me, but I'm going to have to win the lottery if i want that to happen..

whole wheat bread and labels

I have been in the upper middle class my entire life, but I never realized my social class could affect the food I like, until now. Because my parents had choices on what kind of food to feed me while I was growing up, they went for the more expensive whole wheat bread and also lactose free milk (although it wasn't a choice for them- they are lactose intolerant).

When I first went to kindergarten and had a carton of milk and a slice of wonder bread with my lunch. My parents told me that I had refused to eat and drink it because I didn't like the way it tasted. I now realize it was because my parents raised me drinking lactose intolerant milk and whole what bread that I had only developed a taste for that.

Not only has the upper middle class lifestyle conditioned me to only like certain foods, but it has also condtioned me to only like certain clothes and things. For example, a simple wallet. I got a wallet from limited too when I was in grade school. My mom got it for me to put my allowance in (my whole $5 a week). My friend saw my wallet and asked if she could get one, so her mom told her to save up her allowance and then took her to target, to buy one that looked so similar to mine that the only difference was that her's didn't say limited too on the front. Even though they were no different, I wanted to get the one from limited too just because it was from there. I have also noticed this in my older years as well. I went shopping in florida with my mom at this insane mall in hollywood. We went into the juicy store and I got a green zip up. I probably could have gottten that zip up anywhere else for less, but I got the juicy one instead.

Through the video and discussions we have had, I truly feel like my class has affected me as a person.

Prisons and Justice

(sal, sorry I accidently pressed save instead of publish...)

After viewing the "30 Days in Prison" video as well as reading "Courtroom 302" I never felt so disgusted at our country. We pride ourselves as being the land of the free, yeah of slaves maybe- but most definetly not of prisoners. The way our prision systems work is like a revolving door. People go to jail all the time for theft and drug crimes, and when they've rightfully served their time their just thrown back into the exact same world they started in. They usually have trouble finding a job or getting education so they resort back to crime, and guess where they end up? back in jail. I believe that their should be reform for prisons in America, but they go overlooked. Why? mainly because we (mostly meaning I) grew up in an area where people are arrested then pay bail and get out of it. I only knew of criminals as the thugs who have tattoos covering their whole bodies and shoot people for fun on the weekends. After learning about prisons and the penal system, I almost feel bad for the criminals- even if they did go against the law. They have everything working against them and thats why they keep ending up back in prison. It's sad but true, and if the prisons cared, they would set up ex convicts with a job in a semi good area wherre they could actually turn their life around.

Social Class and BMWs

After reading the article "Saints and Roughnecks", I related to the way society creates an 'image' for you by the social class you belong to. For example in the article the roughnecks were from lower class families and were often taunted by the police, involved in theft and violence, and were constantly told by their teachers they would get nowhere in life. On the other hand, the upper middle class saints were involved in crimes like underage drinking, some theft and drunk driving, but because they were from good families, generally excelled in school, and had the resources to stay out their town's visibility, they were told they would go places in life, and most of them did.

So How does this relate to me? I'm glad you asked....

This past summer I got a new car. I was sad to leave the car (a jeep)I learned to drive in and got my license in behind, but I was happy to be driving a car that got more than 12 mpg. My parents leased a brand new BMW for me. I pulled up to a friends house for a pool party and was greeted by this guy I had only met a few weeks earlier and he said "wow, i had no idea you were rich" I immediately shot down his comment explaining the whole situation.. my dad is an employee for BMW, and in june they sent out this special deal that employees could lease brand new BMWs for a reduced price every month. Everytime it got brought up that I had a BMW I felt the need to explain the whole situation. I didn't want to be defined by my car. Don't get me wrong, I love my car, but I don't like the image that it gives off. It screams "HEY IM RICH LOOK WHAT MY DADDY JUST BOUGHT ME" and I try to shy away from that as much as possible. I'm not "rich", both my parents have full time jobs, and I even work 3 days a week.

The image that your social class gives off may get you out of things (like the saints) or get you into things (like the roughnecks) but I find myself somewhere in between letting my social class image define me and making my own images define me, and I'm happy where I am :)