Sexism, Confirmation Bias, and You... also Vampires

First off, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say... sexism is bad.

A bold stance, but I stand by it

Now that we've got that out of the way, I've been thinking a lot about how the so-called battles of the sexes is played out in pop-culture. What prompted this particular blog was an episode of Scrubs called "My Tormented Mentor." A new surgeon shows up at the hospital and hilarity ensues-- but there's a twist! This surgeon is... a woman.  Scrubs

If you'd rather not watch the clip (you should though, Scrubs is awesome) then let me summarize it for you. Dr. Miller walks in and the menfolk objectify her but are then shocked that she is actually the mythical creature known as a strong female character. 

A strong female character photographed
in the wild

Initially I thought, "hmm, while she is abrasive... at least she is confident." This character was basically the female equivalent of Dr. Cox-- smart, strong, annoying and lacking a certain social etiquette. However, if you watch until the end of the clip I posted, and the beginning of part 2 you'll see that Dr. Miller has an issue with Turk. Because he says "he's got her back" she jumps down his throat for being the "worst kind of sexist," one who tries to protect women because he views them as weak.

A black and sexist Superman if you will

Dr. Miller then goes on to mock Turk asking if the widdle boy is going to cry. Now, it is entirely debatable whether or not Turk is actually sexist but there are a couple of issues I have with Dr. Miller. First off is that she has a massive chip on her shoulder-- she sees sexism everywhere and holds a grudge against seemingly everyone (she later gets mad at Elliot for something about being a woman). Now, I won't deny that sexism exists-- I'm sure it does. But I do think that by being so hyper-sensitive to it, Dr. Miller has in turn become sexist; she just happens to be sexist against men. I have nothing against feminism-- provided it is simply the notion that women should be treated the same as men; note that I said "same" not "privileged." Just because Dr. Miller may have been discriminated against does mean that she has license to belittle men. Therein lies the rub; I think feminism is an inherently flawed term. Once more, I have nothing against women, but I think the term feminist can be alienating. Furthermore, given the history of women's rights I think the term has done a lot of good but if we ever hope to get past this obsession with gender then we should adopt a new term-- although I will admit that "personism" doesn't have the same ring.

I'm sure if anyone read my blog
this would be an argument thrown my way

This all brings me to my last point-- Dr. Miller seems to be more about talking the talk than walking the walk. She spouts off whenever men piss her off, and she's very aggressive about it. However, another show that I just started watching got me thinking about an alternative. The protagonist from True Blood embodies what I think is the best form of "personism." 

Although I'm sure many people are
angry that she's "just a waitress"

From the first episode of the series, Sookie proves that she can fend for herself-- she meets Vampire Bill (he's a vampire named Bill)  and discovers that some people plan to attack him. Sookie then rushes outside and saves Vampire Bill. Within the first ten minutes of the series, Sookie has done more for feminism (or personism) than Dr. Miller did in Scrubs. Rather than run around yelling at people that they should respect her because she's a woman, she shows that she is a capable human being. Throughout the series Sookie takes charge without having to speechify about how womanhood-- she initiates the first kiss with Bill, she saves him multiple times, and she doesn't let people piss in her wheaties. I suppose my point is, that being a woman does not mean you automatically deserve respect-- being a person does.

Teaching, Movies, and Memes

This week something strange happened. I've seen the other side of the coin, and I can't say that I like it all too much. I was going about my day and running some errands something awful happened. I saw students out in the real world.

I apologize for the resolution-- clearly
this picture was taken with a potato

Now we've all been students and so it's fair to assume that we were all shocked when we realized that teachers existed outside of school. I, however, never expected to feel the same about students. Now don't get me wrong, I love my students and I'm excited that they exist-- but seeing them in the real world made me panic. After a brief bout of hyperventilation, I came to my senses and realized that I wouldn't have to answer questions, give out pens, or grade homework. In fact, I'm almost certain that my students are actually people.

On the left: my girlfriend's reason for watching the movie
on the right: a much better reason to watch the movie

Last night I was forced to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love-- while I will very reluctantly admit that I enjoyed the movie I am still fundamentally opposed to it on the grounds that Ryan Gosling is too damned pretty. There is of course, an argument to be made that Emma Stone is too hot-- that would be silly though because she is perfect. All in all, the movie was pretty good though pretty much every character is reprehensible in some way. Michael Scott (or whatever Steve Carell's character is) is a sad sack who blames his shortcomings on the world. His best friend is useless and ends his friendship with Michael Scott at the behest of his wife.The son is persistent to the point of sexual harassment. Julianne Moor cheats on her husband, asks for a divorce and then gets mad at her husband because he slept with someone. Emma Stone-- well, we all know she's perfect even if she does have a horrible best friend in the movie. Ryan Gosling oddly enough, is one of the few characters with whom I sympathize-- he may sleep around, but he never forces any of the girls to do anything, they choose to sleep with him. 

Oh Condescending Wonka, you so condescending

I was browsing the interwebs (Reddit) and I came across the above meme (or macro if you insist). The title of the thread was: "I apologize on behalf of the majority of my generation." This seemed fairly silly as I don't remember hearing about "IDunnoAnyGoodNames" being elected as spokesperson of his or her generation. There are a couple of ways in which I think this type of mentality is stupid.

The most obvious being that one person speaks for his/her generation. The second part is the notion that you have something to apologize for. Even if there are people that think their parents are trying to ruin their lives by grounding them, we needn't apologize for their idiocy. This reminds me of a news segment during the OJ Simpson trial-- granted I have no memory of the event, but we discussed the clip in a CRIM 101 class. 

A reporter goes up to a young African American student and asks him what OJ's acquittal meant for African Americans everywhere. The kid refused to comment-- but we later discovered that he wished he'd said "Well, I heard a white man was acquitted of murder-- what does that mean to you?"

The point being that just because you have something in common with a person doesn't mean that that person represents you. 

Your daily dose of awww

Apartments, Writing, and The Future

This week has been all sorts of exciting and I can't help but look forward to everything that is yet to come. I can't help but feel that my life is coming to its latest chapter-- things are changing in so many ways, and they are staying the same in all the ways that matter.

I'm pretty sure this is the place I'll be staying in

I've found what will become my home for the next year-- and I have to say I'm pretty excited.Although I'm moving a whole four blocks away from my girlfriend it is conceptually quite the large shift. Last year we lived in the same building and this summer we've been in the same house so four blocks is a relatively big shift. Granted, she also spent about 18 months in Florence, which by my estimations is at least 12 blocks away. Given that we did manage to survive the trans-continental relationship, I feel that we will make do with our four block distance. We might just have to rack up the frequent flyer miles.
If nothing else, it will be nice to have my first adult domicile. My mission to impersonate a responsible adult has begun.

Fifty more of these and I could be a rapper

I checked the stats for my blog today and I am officially making money! Granted, I have literally only earned one cent-- but still, that's about what I'll make as a teacher. I can now say that as a writer I have made $200.01! Most of that for editing-- some of it for a writing contest, and of course the one cent for being an amazing blogger. Much like teaching, writing has never been about the money for me. I love to do it, and I'd like to say I'm good at it. Of course you may beg to differ, but you can't argue with all of my earning.

In the future people can drive poorly
 at the altitude of their choosing

As a recent college graduate  I can't help but consider the future. My perspective now is that while I may not know exactly what the future holds for me, there are a few things I'm banking on. I view it as a gamble on what is to come-- a bet that I will do my best to make sure actually happens.

I'm staying in Spokane for the next year to sub (or maybe full-time teach, we'll see), to be with my ball and chain, and to hold on to some semblance of familiarity. The teaching speaks for itself; I love to do it, I'm good at it, and it will make me rich (rich because I plan to win the lottery while teaching).

The old ball and chain (Nikki) is a hugely important part of my life and I've decided that I want to wait for her to graduate-- not because she's slow, but because she's a year younger. Without delving too deeply into the realm of cheesiness, she is a wonderful person and I want to do everything I can to make our relationship work. We have been dating nine whole months, and I'm happy to say that we can celebrate the fact that there are no babies on the way.

Lastly, I've never really lived anywhere in the US other than Spokane and as such I might as well start my life out here. Plus, change is stupid. Nobody likes change.

A coaster wise beyond its years

Exciting Things From My Life

As promised, I shall try to stave off the drought of bloggery on my part.  These last couple of months have certainly been eventful—I actually finished a large writing project, my girlfriend returned from foreign lands, I got to see my eighth grade students move on to high school… oh, and I graduated from college.

I am now lazy college graduate

To the first point, I completed my senior project  which ended up being 80 pages or so with the intent to expand it to novel length.  It’s a story about people who do things and go places. If that synopsis isn’t enticing enough then: it’s a story about people who do things and go places, and then they learn stuff about life. Seriously though, if anyone reads my blog and actually wants to read the story—send me a note, I can give you a copy.

Pictured above: a book that is not my senior project 

To the second exciting event in my life, my girlfriend has returned from her travels abroad. Apparently Spokane was not exciting enough, so she flew away to Florence. Despite the distance, we made our relationship work through a judicious use of Skype and instant messaging.  It wasn’t fun, but it is wonderful to have her back—even if it means I have to start showering again. So far there has been much couple-y activity, including such exciting things as driving to Pseudo-Portland (Vancouver), and watching the Dragonboats. The most disappointing aspect of the affair was that not a single team named themselves DragonBoat Z. All in all, I’m thankful to have the old ball and chain back in my life. Also, Portland is still silly.

Somehow the joke never gets old 

Today I came back in to the classroom where I did my student teaching this semester, and it was a pretty great experience. Today was yearbook distribution and signing; while I may despise writing anything by hand, it was worth it to see the students light up as they read (or attempted to decipher) what I wrote. My mentoring teacher surprised me with a yearbook of my own which was fantastic.

Artist’s rendering of my penmanship 

I’m trying to ease back in to the  process of regular blogging, so I’ll end the post here with a few thoughts

1.)    Portland is silly, but Powell’s is fantastic.

2.)    Long distance relationships are not ideal—but I apparently am awesome enough that my girlfriend resisted the tempty ways of the Italians.

3.)    I might try to develop a format for my blog so that I have more structure. Maybe I will keep the idea of updating with Exciting Things from My Life.

One of the top Google results for “exciting things”

What year is this?

The Blainian curse of Bloggery has struck once more, and I have been MIA for many a moon. However, it has recently come to my attention that my blog has a reader. Yes, one WHOLE reader. Granted, that reader was my mother, but it is a reader nonetheless! So I have decided to return to the world of bloggery, on a more regular... semi-regular-- more than once every four months basis. So dear reader, you have much to look forward to as I promise to try and plan to write maybe once a week.