Wake up in the mornin' feelin' like P-Diddy...
Well, almost; that is, IF I knew what P-Diddy felt like in the morning.
I'm a morning person in a moderate form. You see there's levels of morning people:
Extreme: Arrives already have consumed three cups of coffee, energy drink in hand, big smile, louder than normal voice, too talkative and extremely nosey!
Moderate: Jazzed, have theirselves together, cheery, almost singing.
Mild: Awake and there... where ever that may be.
I am not a night owl, i knock out around 11 p.m. I like my morning routines.
My favorite way to wake up in the morning revolves around music. It almost doesn't matter what's playing. I mean I'm not getting pumped for a game in the morning but I'm not cuddling up to a lullaby either. So most often times it's something like R&B or soul that kind of thing in the morning.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Play like a boy
This term was the first time I have ever taken a gender class. In fact, I had taken two gender classes in the same term.
For some of you, you might think that gender classes are a waste of time; however, I assure you, they are not.
The topic I was most annoyed with this term is that female athletes are doing nothing but copying the men, because in a patriarchy all that is male is valued more.
I play college soccer and have played soccer since I was a little girl. I would come in muddy from recess just like the boys. Yes, I wanted to be a boy growing up only to avoid the tea party dresses that I was forced to wear to family functions or church.
When asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and I answered most often Mia Hamm, I didn't first say become a boy and be just like Rooney or Beckham. I wanted to be just like the female soccer player I had seen succeed.
I am not trying to copy a boy or man.
As I train myself for spring ball or during the summer I train for the upcoming season, I don't hope that I will be as good as the boys. Hell, I don't even train with a boy. I train by myself.
Why would I want to be just as good as a boy, when I can excel fenominally as a female athlete? You think female athletes aren't as good as male athletes?
In some aspects, yes! Women, on average, are 20 percent less strong as a man.
But not all sports take strength. There's tactics and grace. I'm not just talking about cheerleading, dancing, skating, gymnastics or any other sports you may think as graceful.
Please don't confuse the word "graceful" with "feminine" because as you will see there are many aspects of even the toughest male sports (rugby, football, hockey, etc.) that require or involve a certain level of grace.
One day a woman won't have to feel the pressure of putting on make up to get sweaty for a game, or put ribbon in her hair for it to bounce around before she spikes the ball.
One day, the phrase, "You play like a girl" will be a compliment rather than a bashing remark.
For some of you, you might think that gender classes are a waste of time; however, I assure you, they are not.
The topic I was most annoyed with this term is that female athletes are doing nothing but copying the men, because in a patriarchy all that is male is valued more.
I play college soccer and have played soccer since I was a little girl. I would come in muddy from recess just like the boys. Yes, I wanted to be a boy growing up only to avoid the tea party dresses that I was forced to wear to family functions or church.
When asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and I answered most often Mia Hamm, I didn't first say become a boy and be just like Rooney or Beckham. I wanted to be just like the female soccer player I had seen succeed.
I am not trying to copy a boy or man.
As I train myself for spring ball or during the summer I train for the upcoming season, I don't hope that I will be as good as the boys. Hell, I don't even train with a boy. I train by myself.
Why would I want to be just as good as a boy, when I can excel fenominally as a female athlete? You think female athletes aren't as good as male athletes?
In some aspects, yes! Women, on average, are 20 percent less strong as a man.
But not all sports take strength. There's tactics and grace. I'm not just talking about cheerleading, dancing, skating, gymnastics or any other sports you may think as graceful.
Please don't confuse the word "graceful" with "feminine" because as you will see there are many aspects of even the toughest male sports (rugby, football, hockey, etc.) that require or involve a certain level of grace.
One day a woman won't have to feel the pressure of putting on make up to get sweaty for a game, or put ribbon in her hair for it to bounce around before she spikes the ball.
One day, the phrase, "You play like a girl" will be a compliment rather than a bashing remark.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Long time no see
I realize that it has been a while since i've posted anything. So much has gone on and I can't wait to tell you! Hence the reason why I haven't posted; i've been busy.
Academically I am no longer a trapped, pesimistic, evil-in-training, journalism student. I have changed my concentration to communications. Now it's about rainbows and butterflies and genuinely being nice to people. Much more my pace though my masculine appearance would disagree.
Soccer is still going strong and we're making our transition from repetative winter training to repetative spring training. More info. to come as no events will change or occur.
Love life is good. Enough said.
My main issue I want to express is my recent learning of gender studies and the inequalities not only supressing women but holding standards even too high or dangerous for men. OK well this is not a life-and-death example but here in po-dunk La Grande, OR, the situation is worth talking about.
I have never taken a gender course until now. I know, 21 and I'm just learning something. One of my goals we reflected on now that we're toward the end of our term, is to have more gender respectful or gender neutral language.
Now my job as a News and Features editor for our campus paper comes in handy with this goal... or so i thought.
Editing nights are never fun because we're there from 6 p.m. to midnight or later. However this is a forced opportunity for me to get homework and things done. While editing our stories, I remembered my gender goal and without further thinking I changed "freshman" to "freshwoman." This made since because I was quoting a first-year female student.
Key Fact: I am the only female editor of seven editors. Grant it only six of us were there that night.
My editor (male, also not a student but EOU alumni) said that I was wrong by changing the title, but didn't have a better reason as to why it should not be changed other than it's not the way things are according to APA editing style.
So our argument went something like this:
Chief editor: "Freshman" is a title of class. You wouldn't change sophomore, junior or senior.
me: no because they don't have gender discriminitory language in them. Let's run it this issue and see if either people notice or if our advisor says anything.
Chief: No i'm not going to do that. It doesn't need to be changed and that's final.
me: we change "police man" to "police officer" and "mail man" to "post carrier" why not change "freshman" to "freshwoman"?
chief: because it sounds funny and no one else uses it. You don't see people in sports broadcasting change to gender neutral terms?
me: that's because there's mostly men who work there
chief: the women who work their have that opportunity too
me: like i'm trying to change things now
Layout editor: but sports places are dominated by men (proving my point)
Arts and entertainment editor: oh like changing "mankind" to "humankind" (again, proving my point)
chief: no i'm not going to change it. You can have your gender professor write a letter to the editor and you can write something but It's not going to get changed.
Not only was he so adiment about not changing something so small but he did not have a good reason for not changing it. I would have settled for a compramise of "let's run 'freshman' this issue, you can do more research and we'll discuss changes for next issue." that sounds pretty fair to me. But the "no we're not going to change it because i said so and that's the way things are" is not good enough for me.
Now the next day I brought this issue up in my gender class and most had agreed that there was discrimmination and that something should be changed whether it be changing to "freshwoman" or "first-year students" for the non-traditional students sake.
More examples of changing language to become more politically correct:
Mentally retarded is out, replaced with mentally handicapped, which is even getting flak for not being PC enough.
Low-income, not poor.
Servers, not waiters and waitresses.
Undocumented workers instead of illegal immigrants.
Points to be made:
Freshman is a term used when at the time education was reserved for men. EOU has a 60:40 ratio of women to men.
When interviewing someone you learn to spell their name correctly, their perspective of the story, and how they influenced the story so when gathering that information you're most likely to catch their class and beable to decide on referring to them as "freshman", "freshwoman", or "first-year" student. Or get rid of "freshwo/man" altogether and simply use "first-year student."
Food for thought, pressure for diamonds and all that. Thanks for reading.
Academically I am no longer a trapped, pesimistic, evil-in-training, journalism student. I have changed my concentration to communications. Now it's about rainbows and butterflies and genuinely being nice to people. Much more my pace though my masculine appearance would disagree.
Soccer is still going strong and we're making our transition from repetative winter training to repetative spring training. More info. to come as no events will change or occur.
Love life is good. Enough said.
My main issue I want to express is my recent learning of gender studies and the inequalities not only supressing women but holding standards even too high or dangerous for men. OK well this is not a life-and-death example but here in po-dunk La Grande, OR, the situation is worth talking about.
I have never taken a gender course until now. I know, 21 and I'm just learning something. One of my goals we reflected on now that we're toward the end of our term, is to have more gender respectful or gender neutral language.
Now my job as a News and Features editor for our campus paper comes in handy with this goal... or so i thought.
Editing nights are never fun because we're there from 6 p.m. to midnight or later. However this is a forced opportunity for me to get homework and things done. While editing our stories, I remembered my gender goal and without further thinking I changed "freshman" to "freshwoman." This made since because I was quoting a first-year female student.
Key Fact: I am the only female editor of seven editors. Grant it only six of us were there that night.
My editor (male, also not a student but EOU alumni) said that I was wrong by changing the title, but didn't have a better reason as to why it should not be changed other than it's not the way things are according to APA editing style.
So our argument went something like this:
Chief editor: "Freshman" is a title of class. You wouldn't change sophomore, junior or senior.
me: no because they don't have gender discriminitory language in them. Let's run it this issue and see if either people notice or if our advisor says anything.
Chief: No i'm not going to do that. It doesn't need to be changed and that's final.
me: we change "police man" to "police officer" and "mail man" to "post carrier" why not change "freshman" to "freshwoman"?
chief: because it sounds funny and no one else uses it. You don't see people in sports broadcasting change to gender neutral terms?
me: that's because there's mostly men who work there
chief: the women who work their have that opportunity too
me: like i'm trying to change things now
Layout editor: but sports places are dominated by men (proving my point)
Arts and entertainment editor: oh like changing "mankind" to "humankind" (again, proving my point)
chief: no i'm not going to change it. You can have your gender professor write a letter to the editor and you can write something but It's not going to get changed.
Not only was he so adiment about not changing something so small but he did not have a good reason for not changing it. I would have settled for a compramise of "let's run 'freshman' this issue, you can do more research and we'll discuss changes for next issue." that sounds pretty fair to me. But the "no we're not going to change it because i said so and that's the way things are" is not good enough for me.
Now the next day I brought this issue up in my gender class and most had agreed that there was discrimmination and that something should be changed whether it be changing to "freshwoman" or "first-year students" for the non-traditional students sake.
More examples of changing language to become more politically correct:
Mentally retarded is out, replaced with mentally handicapped, which is even getting flak for not being PC enough.
Low-income, not poor.
Servers, not waiters and waitresses.
Undocumented workers instead of illegal immigrants.
Points to be made:
Freshman is a term used when at the time education was reserved for men. EOU has a 60:40 ratio of women to men.
When interviewing someone you learn to spell their name correctly, their perspective of the story, and how they influenced the story so when gathering that information you're most likely to catch their class and beable to decide on referring to them as "freshman", "freshwoman", or "first-year" student. Or get rid of "freshwo/man" altogether and simply use "first-year student."
Food for thought, pressure for diamonds and all that. Thanks for reading.
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