A Joke, If Anything

 

            Imagine that on a college campus in the United States, a student run group starts issuing posters to put up all around campus that were extremely anti-Arabian. Each slogan would be racist, connecting them to hi-jacking and in general, demonizing them. Clearly, this is wrong and something that should be avoided. Surprisingly, something similar happened on the college campus of UCLA a few weeks ago. An anti-rape campaign was initiated by the students in the student run feminist group, Bruin Feminists for Equality, that made various flyers that read “dudetip #(1-6)” with saying such as “If you are in an elevator and a person gets in, don’t rape them,” or “If you offer someone a ride, remember not to rape them,” or, my personal favorite, “Use the buddy system! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.” (Bruin Feminists for Equality, 2012) These slogans have already generated a lot of negative feedback in the form of bloggers and students on the campus saying that the campaign is a blatant display of sexism and is the equivalent of writing sexist slurs against women. In a world so obsessed with the discrimination against women, it is easy to forget and overlook the discrimination that occurs against men.

             This discrimination happens all the time. Women work 44% of the total hours worked in this country compared to men working 56% and yet, men constitute 93% of all workplace deaths according to the US Department of Labor’s Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. ("Census of fatal," 2010) This means that even though women work a large part of all hours, they don’t get killed in the process nearly as much. This doesn’t include military service, which are almost solely men.

 In a study done in 2005 and published in USA Today, men are not going to college as much as women are. (Marklein, 2008) In fact, women make up 57% of the students in college at that time and this number has been growing since the making of this study. This may be because women get more scholarships than men do or more programs are made for them; but think about it, have you ever heard of a male-exclusive scholarship?

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the single homeless population which makes up roughly 76% of the homeless population has a male percentage of 67.5%. (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2011) Even though the percentage of men in households with children is lower, the percentage of the homeless with children is much lower than that of single people who are homeless. There are various reasons for homelessness, but not very many try to describe the relationship that gender plays on who is homeless.

The University of Texas finds that in their state, there is an incarceration discrimination in which women are jailed less and jailed for shorter times. (Rodriguez, Curry & Lee, 2006) Even though in severe cases, they will likely be sent to prison as often as men, it is for shorter times. In less severe cases, the women are jailed much shorter times than men of similar crimes. (Rodriguez, Curry & Lee, 2006) This is definitely a clear cut showing of legal discrimination. Women are treated nicer in society than men and no one is really trying to stop it.

There are other points to be made, but clearly, these studies show that huge discrimination toward men is very prevalent in America. Again, even though I am not arguing the thought that women are discriminated against, I agree that there are studies that would show women in peril too.

            Everyone knows that women get raped, I won’t deny it; in fact, I concede that they get raped more often than men, but there are times when a man (or boy in statutory rape) can get raped too. Whether it is from a man or from a woman it can happen. Most people laugh at this thought, but one of the most notable accounts that has drawn a lot of criticism from how it was written is from a British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, which recounts the story of an alleged sexual assault in Germany by a 43-year-old woman. (Mirror.co.uk, 2012) This woman invited two different men at two different times into her apartment for a one night stand. Afterwards, she wouldn’t let them leave until they were forced to have sex with her again and again. One of the men was desperate enough to escape through the balcony and was found crying in the streets after a 36-hour ordeal with the woman. What is most surprising is that the article didn’t ever call it rape and never called the woman a rapist, but rather a nymphomaniac. Social norms in the world have been reversing, instead of attacking women, they now shield and protect them.

Another example of how these codes of conduct hurt men was written the Toronto Star, when an elderly 74-year-old man in Canada was beaten and taking into custody after being misinterpreted on the 911 hotline. (Wallace, 2012) He called after two men came into his apartment and beat him after he refused sex for money from his female neighbor. The operator wouldn’t use a polish translating service and the 74-year-old was taken to jail for more than two months. What is important to note here is that the woman that he escorted out of his apartment intercepted the police and claimed that the old man tried to pay her money for sex, pulled her hair out and bent back her finger nails.

            Unfortunately in America, men can be hurt legally. In the education system, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects against bullying, the law itself cannot protect white male students from bullying. (Russo, 2010) This was seen in how a white openly gay male in New York was bashed repeatedly, violently, verbally and mentally to a point that his grades dropped, he skipped school and eventually, sued the school. The plaintiff reached an agreement to take steps to prevent the situation from happening again, but this didn’t change the original act. (Russo, 2010) When something happens to a man (or boy), usually, the law does little to help him.

            When two people are dating and having consensual intercourse, the woman decides if they will have a child or not if they are using birth control like the pill. Legally, she doesn’t have to inform the man if she stops taking the pill and could try to get herself pregnant without his consent. I have a relative that had one of his girlfriends try the same thing and stop taking birth control pills in hopes of getting him to marry her because of the child. She didn’t tell him as well and she did get pregnant. It didn’t work out like she planed and my relative just dumped her; which in my opinion is ok, because she betrayed his trust and tried to force him to do something he didn’t want to do. Also, if she didn’t want an abortion and he did, he wouldn’t have a choice. Also, he had to pay child support for the child he didn’t intend for. Also, this isn’t just an isolated case.

            A long time Men’s Rights Activist and Feminist, Warren Farrell, at one point, leader of NOW in New York City, writes in his book, The Myth of Male Power, that,

Today, violence against women is rightly abhorred. But we call violence against men entertainment. Think of football, boxing, wrestling... All are games used to sugarcoat violence against men, originally in need of sugarcoating so "our team"--or "our society"--could bribe its best protectors to sacrifice themselves. (1993)

            Social situations seem to always place women on top with children. When an innocent man is killed, it is sad, but it would have been sadder if it was an innocent woman. Men are seen as protectors and this would be considered their duty. In Norah Vincent’s book, Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man, she recounts her experiences of being a man. (The Gaurdian, 2006) She describes it as being in an unbreakable social contract where you are expect to be two things at once, in that in her dating experiences,

The women I met wanted a man to be confident. They wanted in many ways to defer to him. I could feel that on many dates, the unspoken desire to be held up and led, whether in conversation or even in physical space, and at times it made me feel quite small in my costume, like a young man must feel when he's just coming of age and he's suddenly expected to carry the world under his arm like a football. And some women did find Ned too small physically to be attractive.

(Ned being her drag self) and

Yet as much as these women wanted a take-control man, at the same time they wanted a man who was vulnerable to them, a man who would show his colours and open his doors, someone expressive, intuitive, attuned.

            Her time as a man prompt her to feel a lot more sympathetic to men and even at times to feel like a misogynistic (woman hater) and sexist, herself, towards women who in her eyes, held all of the power in a relationship with a man. (The Gaurdian, 2006) She even felt as if this was part of the pressure that men must feel in abusing women, because to her, it was the one aspect where they have complete control.

            Equality is the goal of civil rights and as of today it needs work. Women have gotten ahead and even though they still face a huge onslaught on injustice, men are being pushed into a corner and used as a scapegoat to blame all evils on.           All of the feminist organizations need to become pro-male as much as they are pro-female to become perfect, because as of today, men are almost completely ignored. The unfortunate truth is that in today’s chauvinistic society, you see that men are primarily there for protecting everyone else. They sign the draft, they take the most dangerous jobs (miners, construction workers, firefighters, any sort of driving job, fishers) and they are scolded in the media for not being able to provide for their families or not spending time with them. In the future, equality can and will be realistic when people understand that feminism isn’t a complete solution.

(1773 Words)

Works Cited:

Bruin Feminists for Equality. (2012, May). Dude tips / anti-rape campaign. Retrieved

from http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150903038570239&type=1

Farrell, W. (1993). The myth of male power. New York: Berkley. Retrieved from http://www.warrenfarrell.org/styled-2/summary.html

Marklein, M. B. (2008, October 19). College gender gap widens: 57% are women . USA Today.

 Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-

cover_x.htm

Mirror.co.uk. (2012, May 1). "It was hell, i can't walk!" man found sobbing in street after 36-

hour sex ordeal with german nymphomaniac. Mirror. Retrieved from http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/man-found-sobbing-in-street-after-813563

National Coalition for the Homeless. (2011, December 15). Who is homeless?. Retrieved from

            http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html

Rodriguez, S. F., Curry, T. R., & Lee, G. (2006). Gender differences in criminal sentencing: Do

effects vary across violent, property, and drug offenses?. SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, 87(2), 318-339. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=gang_lee&sei-redir=1&referer=http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=sentencing%20gender%20disparities&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcommons.utep.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1001%26context%3Dgang_lee&ei=oeRgT8DaHcuosAKC7d2WCA&usg=AFQjCNH8Q8gfgFry6_Hb2FbTQ_a3l-TfBQ

Russo, T. U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. (2010). The civil rights division

releases anti-bullying video as part of national “it gets better” project. Retrieved from website: http://blogs.justice.gov/main/archives/1088

The Gaurdian. (2006, March 17). Double agent. The Gaurdian. Retrieved from

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/18/gender.bookextracts

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2010). Census of fatal occupational

            injuries. Retrieved from website: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

Wallace, T. (2012, May 12). Beaten ottawa senior jailed after calling 911. Toronto Star.

Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1179010--beaten-ottawa-senior-jailed-after-calling-911

(1976 Words)

-The Observer

das Ende ist nahe

And this is how it ends. My last true post force from me. I am unsure of if I will continue to write, but know for certain that my time her was agony at its worse and simple pain at its best. my life is not writings and documentation, but rather actions and i prefer them that way instead of just endless stress through compelled writing. I'm only glad that I am finally done and weathered the giant. This was not productive is my professional student review. Mostly because I saw no progression, for if there was one, it was a natural increase and not a aplang writing method. I have no faith in blogging and i hope there are only negative reviews. Change the broken system that could easily be cheated.

Before I pass out, in a fetal-like position in my bed, I recant that this year, I started off with purpose and drifted, drifted so amazing far as to get nearly 160 page views on a post about Russian prisons. What is sadder is the next grossing post is entitle ... and is a video of the trolololo song. People don't read this and no classmate will read this (90%) of the time.

Rest assured I enjoyed the course, just not the blogs at all. With this ending information, I trust you all to be true Gentlemen and live life like a walrus, not caring about what anyone thinks about them.

Also, Go Men's Rights!

(likely bye)
-The Observer

Reue (Part 3)

There isn't very many qualities that I like about myself and hopefully from this you will learn two things. Be better than some one and don't live life in the mentality that you must put pressure on yourself. Don't live to a point where you feel like you eyes are going to bleed from how late you have to stay up because you cannot focus, your computer is poop and how uncomforting your family is.  I feel like two hells and one is just stemming from the frustration that I can't think and type faster. 


grades are very important, but what is supremely more important is happiness. YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY IF YOU DON'T THINK. YOU MUST REALIZE THAT LIFE ISN'T JUST WORK OR SCHOOL. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and then you can sleep, but until then, make sure you don't hate basically every inescapable aspect of your life. 


Relax and be happy a lot of the time, work less and try to not worry. I feel like i'm just stating what I wish I could do, but oh well. This year was a metal rod to my head. I have learned a few social life concepts.


First - I really hate how my dad is a lot of the time.
Second - I really hate the way education and politics are in America.
Third - I really hate people sometimes
Fourth - I really love some people sometimes
Fifth - I really hate the internet.

Some days I wonder, what is life really worth?

Religiously I believe that so long as I worship god, I got a purpose, but on many days I put that aside (not permanently) and I just ponder it. I feel like a man on his death bed wondering about the mysteries of the world, remorsing and baiting myself for loathing, hating my actions and loving certain people way to much. Wondering why my social abilities seem so frazzled and lost. On days like today, I wonder what would happen if I died tonight or tomorrow. I know (or hope) that at least someone will be sad for me. From there, some times I feel like the world would be better off. Some times I feel the opposite and some times I feel like nothing will happen. It is no solution though. It is as much of a solution that medication is. It is the same reason that I hate medication in any form. I doesn't treat the problem, just the symptoms. Death is solving pain, a symptom, not the cause.

Guitars and Short Vindication



Antique Cigar Box Guitar

The guitar that we are modeling ours on.

Some of the first 'merican guitars, Cigar Box Guitars have a simplistic beauty to them. Over the summer, I plan on making either one of these beauties, or if I get more inspiration and ideas on how to go about it, an acoustic guitar. I've been doing some research and have found the costs and types of materials along with the construction techniques of the trade.

A Cigar Box Guitar is really just a cigar box with a stick on it with some strings.

A Cigar Box

 The box itself isn't difficult to make and the box can in fact be replicated. The fret board and neck itself constitute the most difficult parts of the guitar to build. The scale length of most guitars is 25.5 inches.

Just a Fender electric. The scale distance is measured bridge to nut.

The formula of how to place the frets is simple. You take the scale length and divide it by the inverse of the twelfth root of two. that is only for the first fret. The next fret is the amount of length left two the inverse of the twelfth root of two. This continues until you get to about 22 or 24 frets. The twelfth fret will be half of the total scale distance. Each fret is a piece of metal wedged into the wood with a saw, a hammer and some glue. Each fret brings up the pitch a half step and essentially is the difficulty of playing guitar.

The reason that I am wanting to build this is a sense that I need vindication. I need vindication that what I can do is worthwhile like the machinist in my class, the spiritual giant at church or the bassist that has had gigs since he was 14. I feel like there is this hyped up sensitivity that that I am experiencing from my own mind. I want to make something, no matter how small or large.

I want to do something that is admired and impressive. I want something to my name, so I thought why not now. Mid-Life crisis is hitting early for me I guess, but at least I'm not bald.


Which church is the right one?

There is something about church hopping/shopping that leaves me uneasy. i go to a new church every weekend in hopes of finding the church that God wants me to go to and I have yet to find it yet. I've been to a Lutheran for my childhood (only on special days), an Evangelical (for about two months), a couple non-denominational, a Presbyterian, a Church of the Nazarene (for about 2 months), a Lutheran-Evangelical, and today I went to a Wesleyan.

I find that in the essence of each church, they are fundamentally the same thing. Each church has nice people. I guarantee it. about 90% of the time in these churches, the congregants will greet you without cue and many of the times that you will go to a church in Iowa, the population of the church isn't very much. The largest service that I have attended has consisted of about roughly 100 people. Most will laugh and wonder how the church still exists, but I've seen a church with just around 40 congregates and still optimistic.

I've always felt terrible when I leave a church and don't feel like the church was the one God wants me to attend. The people are so nice, the message was nice, the atmosphere was nice, I know people there, or maybe I don't, I feel like the people are all happy and confident, I feel obliged to stay, but the relentless battering of the patrons, nice for those who come without a mission is very sickening for me.

I love how nice these people are, but I feel guilty if I don't return there again even if I am certain that my quest is to continue elsewhere. I developed rules to prevent me from feeling over-obligated to going to a certain church.

• The first rule is to not go for the people, but rather the word.
• Try hard not to stay past the sermon.
• Don't ever be rude.
• Explain that you are church shopping to the people who greet you.
• Be cautious of the recommendations that you receive to visit other churches.
• Explain that you don't think that the sermon was bad (ever).

From this, I am fairly certain that I will find the church I need.

The War on Men

Today I read a short essay about the lives of men. Men who worked in the era of the feminist movement. This essay was entitled, The Men We Carry in Our Minds by Scott Russell Sanders. Written in 1987, Sanders tells us his experience of men in the world. He starts off with how there are two types. Those who work all their lives under great pressure and strain and die young and those who sit on the top, in comfort. His essay attacks feministic views of masculinity by supporting that men are under pressure their whole lives by society to be a good, rich and powerful man. He is jealous of the women who can stay at home, away from backbreaking labor and suggest that possibly, it is man who is enslaved.



I will say that in my life, is a sense, I have to agree with Sanders. When a man fails, the people he was to be the breadwinner for, just lost income. Even though the thought of being a breadwinner is a little dated, the thoughts that he presents are still relevant. "Only women lived into old age," with how better funded women's health services are, it isn't surprising that men die on average at a younger age. A study was done showing that in California, young boys commit suicide three times as much as young women.

Trying to understand this, I stumbled upon a poet responding to the Miller Lite commercial series "Man Up." This poet talks about how our culture and how it effects young men in their pursuit of happiness. The portrayals of what is and is not masculine are directly trying to show that men are supposed to fit into society and not do anything to be themselves. Masculinity is something that is getting harder and harder to define. When we as a people rose up to give women the vote and rights, it is as if we forgot about equality.

Feminist like to alliterate the thought of feminism to fighting the "War on Women." A commentator speaks on this issue saying that calling their movement a war is similar to calling women innocent of any kind of crime. A survey was taken about what men think are the biggest issues of the Men's Rights Movement and found that from the least to the most the issues of inequality are the thought of male gender roles, negative media portrayal, educational inequalities, gender discriminatory government policies, false accusation treatment, reproductive rights, social stereotypes, anti-male double standards, feminism and father's rights. I doesn't stop at just those things, but as seen in a article done by Dana Commandatore, which recently got some heat on reddit, women can objectify men too. 




There is immense pressure on men to be some sort of superhero that doesn't complain or show emotion. They are taught that women should be treated better than themselves such as when you're told by your parents to "never hit a girl." When men do things that are seen as feminine, they are bashed and insulted for doing it. Everyday I get this for working at a sub shop, because I mean, I make sandwiches for money.


Recently a female rapist in Germany is facing charges of sexual assault and illegal restraint for raping two different men at different times. She is described in the article as being a nymphomaniac rather than a rapist and the British website faced huge accusations from Mediate and Reddit for this story.


Unfortunately, the world is not equal and there are double standards and discrimination that hunts down young men. Sexism isn't just done against women, so wake up and be egalitarian.





-The Observer

Calendars...

I have a scheduling problem, I for some reason can not keep a form
of time management under control. So I went to the app store on my iPod and the top results were mostly period tracking calendars. Disgusting, to me at least... So now I'll just like to say that I'm glad that I'm a man and don't need this. I'll just get back to using the basic calendar that is default.

Small Tribute to a Great Game (SKYRIM)

Play this game.

Just-World Fallacy/Theory/Hypothesis

The topic that we as Americans believe that the world is fair is not uncommon, and many theories have been made as to why. Many people have conducted limited studies of the existence of if it exists, but few have been made to as of why. David McRaney in his blog and his book, both titled, You Are Not So Smart, has gathered the research to the theories and is quoted in many places when people need to explain the meaning of the fallacy. Basically, Just-World Fallacy is the belief that the victim of misfortune had some part to play in the punishment that they received. More easily said as, Victim's Fault.

One of the many logo of You Are Not So Smart

Usually when people look for an example, they point to rape victims or bullies and their victims. The original thought for the rape victim deserving punishment is that maybe she wears a mini skirt without panties and a bikini top or some other stupid, whorish combination of clothing and decided to go into a bad neighbor hood and get lost and eventually raped. The thought is that the woman who decided to make herself a target deserves the punishment for her stupidity. Funnily enough, according to Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez in their essay, The Just World Theory, The two a fore mentioned people quoted a researcher about this theory named Melvin J. Lehrer, who said, that basically if an innocent person is in an unfavorable predicament, the observers degrade the person in order to bring a feeling of justice and normality in the events that led to the person in distress' misfortune. So with this logic, those who have bad things happen to them are seen as those who are deserving. Though this logic, Poor people are lazy and the rich are industrious. The famous are famous and the unknown didn't try hard enough, not pointing any fingers *cough* Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian *cough* but as I was saying before the abnormally long cough, people have this perception that people deserve what they have because we as people want the world to be fair to coincide with pop fiction and justice.

Men dressed like suggestive women in The Longest Yard.

But people who stumble on misfortune shouldn't be dismayed from the things that happened to put them where they are, because people look to many other things to judge a person by than their socioeconomic situation or victim status. Unfortunately, sometimes people can't rise out of their dismay but are installed with the hope that if they are morally good or virtuous that they can rise out of the hole that they are in. This too is part of the Just-World Fallacy idea. This isn't necessarily the case, sometimes good people rot away in the sewers of the world and the scammers and con-artists thrive in the highest positions in the world. The only way we can fix this major upheaval of right versus wrong is eliminate Evil but the problem is, that we have this tendency to blame the wrong suspect. We all know that it's not fair and just to send the wrong person to jail, so why do we blame the victim so oftenly? The only way to get rid of the evil in the world is to get rid of the committers of the crimes. The person who preformed the act of defiling or sin is to blame when things go awry, but the victim should also have a grip with reality to understand that the world isn't just and treat it as such so as not to get raped, beaten or bullied. With a combination of common sense and intelligence, justice can be brought and evil can be prevented in the world.

Even with the thought of Justice though, what can you hope to regain from a crime? The best explanation of the justice system in America that I've heard was from my Driver's Ed teacher. The symbol of Lady Justice, a blind woman, showing that all are seen as equals, holding a sword, representing judgement through force, holding unequal scales, meaning that no matter what, the crime can not be taken back and that the courts are only trying to give compensation and balance the scales. No matter how much money the family gets, does it make up for the murder of the late family member? The hardest thing to do after suffering a grievance is to settle back to a form of normality and return to normal life.

Lady Justice