Unearned Privileges

Why should I be allowed as a straight person to get married when a gay person can’t?  As a heterosexual what gives me the right to judge a homosexual and forbid them from marrying one another. I’m not gay, so I can’t even begin to think of all of the obstacles a gay person faces everyday. I think the world would be so much of a better place if there were no such thing as the privilege of being straight. Gay people get the short end of the stick more often than not. I think that everyone should be treated equally and you shouldn’t be treated differently by whom you love.   One of my best friends in high school was gay but he never told anyone but few of his close friends because he was so scared of what others would do to him. I remember one time he got grounded by his dad for acting “too gay”. Do you think a straight person woke up one day and said you know what I think I want to be gay and get made fun of in high school and risk not getting hired at a job because my potential boss is a homophobe? No. Being gay isn’t by choice it's the way you are born. Why does it matter if a boy loves a boy or a girl loves a girl? Gay or straight we should all be treated the same. You shouldn't be a privileged jsut because you are attracted to the opposite sex. 

An unearned privilege that I have is growing up in a family where it wasn’t even questionable weather or not I was going to college. Going to college in my family was the “normal” thing to do. LSU was not my first choice, I wanted to go out of state and experience new things and meet new people. I didn’t have the best grades in high school so my dreams of going to an out of state school died fast when I applied to schools and go no scholarship. I came to LSU with a negative attitude and did not want to be here. After a year of being here and growing up I realized I should be so grateful for the opportunity. Especially with my grades in high school I am so lucky to be attending such an amazing university. I think that the privilege of attending college should be available to anyone who wants to learn. There are kids out there that would kill to go college but they cant because they don’t have support from there parents of were never encouraged to go. Why should people not be allowed to learn more after high school just because they can’t afford it? Education after high school should be available to anyone who wants it. Everyone should be able to have the privilege of going to college. 

Show and tell post

Growing up when I was younger it was always a treat to get to go to Mcdonalds. The main reason I wanted to go there when I was younger was for the toy you got in your happy meal.

Today, I took my fiver year old nephew to McDonalds. I ordered him a happy meal and they asked me if he was a boy or a girl. My nephew was in the back shouting boy because he was so worried about getting a girl toy.

Before I started taking this class I wouldn’t have thought twice about this. Today when they asked me this I thought wow they really are following the gender role.

What if a girl wants the boy toy. Is she supposed to feel bad about it? At such a young age children are already seeing that they play with certain toys that are for their gender type.

In the YouTube video I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uMaQP7o9cM,  the woman asks the question of weather or not McDonalds is sexist because they ask if you want a boy or a girl toy. She said that her daughter wants a boy toy but got the girl toy. She asks her daughter if she thought the boy toy that was being given out which was a transformer was a boy toy and the daughter said yes but that she still thought girls should be aloud to play with them too.  Maybe McDonalds should think twice about this before they ask this. Maybe they should name the toys and ask which one you want instead of categorizing them into boy and girl toys, because this can cause many issues. 

blog prompt 4

Depending on where you live can have a lot to do with they way you see things. In America, we have more of a traditional view on life. We value the family lifestyle. We are taught that the traditional thing to do is the mom stays at home with the children, and the father is to go to work and provide for the family.  Many people could argue and say that this is a brute fact. The only thing is society is changing in America and in other parts of the world. If you were to ask someone sixty years ago if it was typical for a woman to have a job they would say no.  Today, many women have jobs, and put the children in daycare. Back then daycare was unheard of. People are changing. Women are becoming more independent. Divorce is also much more common now forcing many women to get a job. Woman are having babies before they are married or through invetrofertilization. Women aren’t relying on men to provide for them as much as they used too. We can see this change in television and movies over time. For example, “The Brady Bunch”, a popular television show in the 70s, showed a traditional family in the sense where the mom was a stay at home mom. Now when you watch a TV show or a movie it is common for the wife or mother to have a job like in, “Greys Anatomy”, Dr. Bailey is a surgeon with a new born at home, or the movie staring Sarah Jessica parker, “I don’t Know how She Does it” Sarah Jessica parker’s character is a mother of two who works for a financial management firm.  So, the traditional storybook plot where the mom stays home and cares for the children, and the dad is supposed to go to work and provide for the family has proved itself to be a social fact.

Privileged

I don’t think I realize day to day how privileged I actually am. Yeah I have my problems like everyone else, but are they really that big of a deal? If you think about it someone always has it worse than you.

I’m definitely guilty of taking my privileges for granted. I have the privilege of going to college, living in a nice house, having a car, good friends, and family. I mean yeah I complain about homework, wish my car was nicer, and think my friends and family are annoying sometimes but if that’s the worst of my worries I guess you could say I have it pretty good. There are people out there who can’t afford cars, school, and may not have a family.

Growing up my mom has always told me not to compare myself to others. Why didn’t I have as much money as her? Why was she prettier than me? The list goes on and on. Now I know why she told me this, there will always be someone who is better than you. You can’t be the best at everything, and you will make yourself miserable comparing your life to someone else’s life.  

I am so blessed to be as privileged as I am. Right now I’m sitting outside on my balcony typing on my mac book. Before I started writing this blog I was complaining about bugs and the fact that my laptop was dead and I had to walk all the way downstairs to go get my charger. I know what your thinking my life is rough (that was a joke). After writing this blog I am starting to think about all of the other privileges I receive every day.   

blog post 2

I know I am not the only person who has thought it would be so much easier to just be a boy. They don’t have to worry about putting on makeup, styling their hair, or shaving their legs, the pressure of being thin, and getting a period every month.

I feel like in today’s society there is so much pressure put on woman to look a certain way. This past summer, I lived in Los Angeles for an internship. I interned for a styling company, where I got to assist on celebrity fittings for red carpet events, and photo shoots. It was crazy to see how much pressure was put on woman in the entertainment industry to look a certain way.

One of our clients I grew up admiring. Before I saw her in person if you would have asked me what size she was I probably would have said she was about a size 10. I was shocked when I met her for the first time, because she was much tinier in person and wore a size 4-6. I guess the only reason she seemed bigger to me is  because I was comparing her to all of the other stars in Hollywood who are  a size 0.

This summer my self- esteem took a beating. I thought I was fat because everyone I was surrounded by in the fashion industry was extremely tiny. No one looked real. The amount of celebrities and everyday women who had plastic surgeries was more than I could ever imagine.  So many of the celebrities that have had surgeries, have kept them a secret causing everyday woman to wonder why they don’t look like that. By the time I left I thought I needed lipo, a brow lift, and a boob job.

When I graduate college I hope to move back to Los Angeles and work in the fashion industry. I know it is going to be very hard to work with woman who look almost perfect. So that is why sometimes, I think it would be so much easier to be a boy, especially in the fashion industry. The pressure to look a certain way is not nearly as intense.

I guess you could say being a girl is a lot of work.