Presentations Day Two

This week, the second half of the class presented the topics of their final papers.

Rachel’s topic is the portrayal of schizophrenia in the media.  One study she read surveyed the main characters or secondary characters with mental illness in films throughout the past five decades. All of the characters acted in accordance with the norms of the time.  As the films were made closer to present day, the depictions of mental illness more accurately reflected the symptoms of the diseases.  Rachel noted that movies are able to influence the stigma of mental illness through accurate education.  Another study, entitled “Visualizing Madness,” argued that television has a social responsibility to accurately portray the mentally ill, and that depictions of people with schizophrenia as dangerous is a failure to accept this responsibility.  Rachel connected this to a movie she watched called, “Clean Shaven,” in which a man with mental illness murdered several young girls with no explanation other than his disease.

Katie Ann is writing her paper about sexual identities on dating sites. She notes that many websites have different questionnaires, and connects the questions asked with the target audience of the site.  EHarmony and Compatible Partners, owned by the same company, ask mostly the same questions except for a few.  On EHarmony, there is no option for atheism or agnosticism in the religion question, and it is aimed toward heterosexual people, however these are options on Compatible Partners.  On EHarmony, potential daters are asked if they want marriage or children, but this is not asked on Compatible Partners, which is targeted to homosexuals.  On both sites, you are only able to pick one gender of partners, assuming strict homosexuality or heterosexuality, and ignoring bisexuality.

David is using the gay dating site, Manhunt.com, to illustrate how porn affects offline realities in homosexual relationships.  The website is a mainstream site for the gay community in that you must pay to join, however it is extremely influenced by porn, in profiles and in advertisement, which is extremely different from mainstream heterosexual dating sites.  He is using the Queering Race in Cyberspace essay to understand how we develop preference both offline, and on our online profiles.  He is also using William’s essay to show that fetishism in the gay community has become a commodity.  The rhetoric on the site is extremely pornographic, and the two most relevant facts about its users are age and cock size.

Kelsey is examining cyberbullying, and how technology has changed bullying for schoolchildren.  She has found that cyberbullying uses friendship status as a tool for social harm, regardless of race or gender.  The population most likely to use technology to bully each other are middle school aged children, and girls are more likely to be bullied.  Where gender does change bullying however, is the method used to cause each other harm.  Girls are more likely to spread rumors, while boys are more likely to post pictures or videos to harm classmates.  She also found that in school enforcement is the most useful tool to prevent bullying, because going home is no longer a separate place from the people, and tormenting that takes place at school.   Her project is critical, because understanding bullying may allow us to understand how to prevent it.  Bullying has an extremely detrimental impact on children, and can contribute to adolescent suicide.

Leah is examining the place and experiences of women in the military.  She feels that the portrayal of women who serve in the armed forces in the media is extremely different from the experiences of women who actually serve.  There have been many advances in gender equality.  However, I felt the most interesting part of her project is examining the way in which military recruiters target women.  She has found that they emphasize that masculinity is not a necessary quality for servicemen and women, and explain to prospective recruits that there are more feminine roles for women to serve in.  The media portrayal of the “real men” in the Army, and traditional male hero characters need not apply to female service members.  This is particularly interesting to me in light of the discussion of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, although I understand why this is not the focus of Leah’s paper.  If there is a place for women in the military, and we are not to be repressed into this hero archetype but exploited for our valuable characteristics, is there not such a place for homosexuals in the military?

 Kenlyne is doing her research on the effects of cybercheating on offline romantic relationships.  She argues that the internet has provided a new playing field for cheaters, which destroys relationships.  Technology is inherently self centered, and can compromise our ability to consider the effect that our actions online can affect those we care about.  She mentions that physical distance from the other individual, the other woman or man, revokes the cheated’s ability to confront that person and gain closure.  This forces that person to deal with the hurt internally, further compounding the damage done by a loved one.  However, I don’t know if I agree that aggression should be focused on “the other woman,” but rather should focused on the person who cheated.  Not only does it allow the person who betrayed trust to abdicate responsibility, I don’t think it provides solace for a hurt person.  However, if you are in a long distance relationship with a cheater, this argument is stronger for me, because it would be impossible to confront your partner for their wrongdoing.

Finally, Dani is examining the role of video blogging, or vlogging, as a tool for self reflection.  She uses the idea of the looking glass self to understand the way in which technology facilitates self revelation.  She wonders whether using online reflection ruins offline relationships, because it prioritizes global interaction over intimate relationships.  She believes Youtube and the like does not ruin community, but rather broadens the definition of community.  However, it is not clear whether vlogging allows true self reflection, as most users will change their output based on responses for viewers.  Is it possible to create truly self-reflective material if you get feedback on it?

Blog Holiday

See you next week!!

Annotated Bibliography

Harkless, Gene Elizabeth. "Do I really need to have that test? Understanding risk and making medical decisions in the age of TMI." 2010.  University Dialogues, The University of New Hampshire.  Durham, NH. Pg. 17-19.

This essay deals with the motivation of clinicians responsible for patient care, and the counterintuitive way in which women are dealt with in the United States healthcare industry.  First Harkless asks, why do clinicians make the decisions that they do? Are they motivated by evidence, market pressure, ritual or ignorance? In her essay, she makes it clear that she believes they are not motivated by the first option. 

Harkless uses the care of young females to further illustrate her point.  Doctors have pressured women to perform breast self-examination for decades for early detection of breast cancer, a practice that has very little supporting evidence.  Women see doctors four times as often as men for preventative reasons, half for Pap smears.  Beginning at age 21, it is recommended that young women get tested for signs of early cervical cancer every three years.  Between two and three million abnormal Paps are found each year, however only half of one percent of those result in a precancer diagnosis.  Most healthcare providers perform the tests much more frequently.  In addition, many doctors require that young women have a Pap smear before they will prescribe contraceptives, although pregnancy prevention and cervical cancer have almost nothing to do with each other.  I found Harkless' essay refreshing, because healthcare providers are protected by the assumption that they know better than their patients, while relevant information is routinely kept from patients.  Doctors do have the information from studies that have been conducted to improve patient care by administering effective tests abd doing away with unnecessary and wasteful screening, however many are ignoring this knowledge and enforcing the status quo of young women being treated as if they are not responsible enough to use accepted evidence to make their own medical choices.

To be continued...

Virtual Togetherness and Planned Parenthood

I recently visited the website of Planned Parenthood (www.plannedparenthood.org) to evaluate the community that may be found there.  Frankly, this is a website for the infosumer, rather than someone interested in developing a sense of camaraderie or togetherness.  The website is extremely informative about reproductive options, talking to kids about sex, finding a healthcare provider and politicians' stances on women's health issues.  I do not find this surprising, as it is an organization focused on providing accurate, complete information about women's health.  If there is a lot of input from users, such as would be the case in a more "instrumental relations" focused site, there could be a lot of conflicting information or misinformation.

However, for those seeking to learn about the personal experiences of others who have used Planned Parenthood, the website directs them to their Facebook page, where the atmosphere is more instrumental relations focused.  This week, the wall is inundated with information about pro-choice candidates and laments about the reality that many states had no pro-choice candidate to vote for this year.  However, further back in the comments there is information about Planned Parenthood, as well as opportunities to get involved with feminist rallies and organizations.  The Facebook page seems to be more focused on getting women to come out of the woodwork and get involved, whereas the website is more focused on providing accurate reproductive health information.

Although Planned Parenthood does portray itself as a safe space, this is much more focused on the type of information you will find there, as well as the atmosphere in one of their locations.  This is not a communitarian website, with no forums, comments or profiles.  However, for their purpose, I feel this is best.  It shows that they are an informative authority, not an opinionated organization with an agenda, which can be perceived negatively.  The Facebook page is more opinionated however, but it is not a social networking area (although one could develop a friendship with a fellow commenter, it does not seem to foster that type of interaction.)

This website does fall into the "mobile privatization" category in some ways.  One is able to gain access to information on their own, without leaving the house, speaking to a health professional or going to a clinic.  Planned Parenthood allows people of different social status to gain equal information and services, by providing a sliding payment scale according to income, and accepting Medicaid and many insurance providers, as well as private payment. There is no social exclusion on the website, and it is made clear that all are welcome at the open locations.

The website of Planned Parenthood does not foster virtual togetherness, however it does offer a wealth of valuable information for the infosumer interested in controller her reproductive destiny.

Research Proposal

I would like to write a research paper about the impact of reproductive technologies on women.  We have come a long way in terms of availability and information, but many women are still uninformed about their reproductive options.  I recently had an IUD inserted, and was met with almost uniformly negative responses from my friends, who either had never heard of it, thought it was only for women with children or thought that it was dangerous.  However, a quick Internet search gave me the complete patient information pack, as well as testimonials from hundreds of women who said otherwise.  My doctor was pleased that I asked for it, calling it her favorite form of birth control, so I was surprised she had never mentioned it to me before.  If our doctors are not informing us about all of our options, are we expected to find out on our own?  The availability of the Internet  certainly makes this possible for many women who may not be informed by their doctors.  Many women may be able to make informed decisions about their reproductive health, where our doctors were making the decisions before through withholding relevant information.  I am also interested in assessing the misinformation available about reproductive technologies on the Internet, as I certainly encountered some absurd claims while researching.  I was thinking of including abortion in my research about reproductive technology, but that might be a research paper in its own.  Nonetheless, birth control and abortion have changed the lives of many women, including mine, so I would love to explore availability and impact on American women.

Blog Review

Reviewing the blog this far in the semester, I'm kind of surprised by the theme of my writing.  Most of my responses to the readings for class and topics given are pretty skeptical.  I would not say that I necessarily don't agree with most of the readings, but I also have a hard time just agreeing flat out with the authors.  I suppose that is the basis of scholarship, but it was still surprising to me! I don't think of myself as a contrarian! However, I guess I am a skeptic.

It Gets Better

Joelle Ryan's blog, Transmeditations, features a post responding to Dan Savage's project called "It Gets Better." The basis of the project is to make short videos targeting LGBT teens who are considering suicide, essentially telling them to tough out high school because the rest of their life will be worth it.  Dr Ryan's response is that this is a false message of hope to be sending to teens, and that instead we should be honest with them about the hardships their lives may entail.  From her perspective, her life has not improved since high school, as she faces transphobia, fatphobia and classism daily.

To be honest, I think much of her contempt with the project comes from contempt of Dan Savage.  His advice column certainly has offensive portions to it, including one gem in which he wrote that it would be acceptable for one partner to leave the other if he or she gained weight.  His husband must be counting the calories, lest he be kicked to the curb over his slowing metabolism.  However, I disagree with her assessment of this particular project, the "It Gets Better" campaign.  How could it possibly be wrong to discourage teen suicide?  That is the heart of the project.  It was started as a response to the recent rash of suicides by gay teens, who as a group are much more likely to commit suicide than straight teens are.  The instructions for making a video, are for LGBT adults to share with teenagers their story of how their lives improved after high school.  No, not everyone's life will actually improve.  But I would argue that a majority of people's will.  Even if only one person who watched the videos and decided against ending his or her life were happy to be alive in 5, 10 or 20 years, I think it would be worth it.  High school is an awful experience for most teenagers, regardless of sexual orientation, and a personal hell for many teens who do not fit the straight, white, cisgender affluent mold.  However, who of us doesn't have a friend in the LGBT community who was not tormented in high school? I do.  What if she had decided to kill herself, and never had the chance to meet the woman she loves, mend her relationship with her mother, and generally find happiness?  How would it have been a good idea to have told her at 15, in her lowest low, that it might be like this forever.  She may never fit in, people might always reject her, her life may be a miserable experience.  What exactly does that accomplish: being well informed? I personally do not know anyone whose life turned out the way they thought it would in high school, so I'm not sure why anyone would think that a teenager is well informed about the future to know whether or not their life is worth living.  Furthermore, the people who have made videos, including people who are trans, have acknowledged that their lives are still not easy.  Its not perfect, but life is not perfect.  Especially if you are different.  I do not think the project is trying to tell kids that life will be sunshine and acceptance and love from everyone you see walking down the street as soon as you get that high school diploma.  None of us have a crystal ball, or are able to tell any LGBT teen what their life will look like.  But I do believe that its worth finding out for yourself.