Gender Stereotypes

I believe that gender stereotypes really whithold people from being more open minded to getting to know who ot her people are. As an example in the movie Mean Girls the stereotype of highschool girls were that they were stuck up and only cared about their looks and social status. In turn whoever watched that movie reflected what they saw into their own thought process of how they judge young women. In all reality the mass majority of young woman in highschool do not fit the "Mean Girls" stereotype at all. Even though the movie was very funny it beat young women's image to a pulp.

At Groves, we do have a culture that many people try to fit into. We have the typical groups like the athletes and the theater kids. Groves has many different races and ethnictitys within it and many people try to find their perfect match of people to hang out with. Unfortunately, even at this school people of different races and ethnic backgrounds seem to stick together. The Jewish kids hangs out with the Jewish kids and african american kids hang out with the african american kids. At Groves we can all be in the same school together and get along fine but when it comes time for the weekend we usually stick to our roots. There are some pressures you feel to fit in but usually you know you will be accepted with your own friends and group. I don't think that at Groves we have problems with people going to great lengths in order to fit in.

As far as teaching 5 year olds about cultural diversity, I think that could be one of the stupidest ideas ever. With everyone pushing to be more understanding and culturally diverse then ever before, I think we should do the opposite. We still have racism today and I believe that that is somewhat a product of the way schools introduce us to cultural diversity.
When teachers try to force the idea of cultural diversity onto 5 year olds, the kids understand the concept about as much as they understand calculus. Since each ethnic group is taught to these kids at a different time, it puts all the different races onto seperate levels. Therefore, the kids begin to join their respective cliques based on their races.

Im responding to Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" in which Moore picks apart the Bush administration and blames them for September 11th and the events that followed. I think that Moore is nothing but an over liberal film maker that takes advantage of an independent media and persuades people to see things from a leftist point of view with halve truths or lies. If there is one thing that Moore is good at; its editing his documentaries to give the audience a less than factual depiction of whatever he is trying to get across.
Michale Moore has written two books, "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country?" that were both peppered with factual errors and distortions. For example, shortly following the 2000 presidential election, Moore had twisted around a CNN anchor's words to insinuate that he was saying "if there was a state wide recount, under every scenario, Gore would win". When, in fact, Bush would have won under two different scenarios include counting only "undervotes", or taking into consideration the amount of county "overvotes". I hope that you will agree in the matter that Micahel Moore is far from a factual source. Michael Moore is a misleading entertainer, and nothing more.

9/11 reaction

In response to the videos and short essays that we've read about the events that happened on Sep. 11, 2001, i believe that it has impacted the everyday life of all Americans. i believe that after that tragic day, the people of our country were forever changed in ways such as living in fear, prejudice against middle-eastern americans, and a lasting mistrust in the United States government. Personally, i have not been in an airport or on an airplane without feeling the slightest bit anxious.
As far as the article "9/11, 24/7" written by James Poniewozik, i completely agree with him. I too believe that after the events of Sep. 11, the media overplayed the video of the plane crashing to the point where it lost its impact on the way we remember that event. It was almost as if the news stations didnt understand the significance of playing a mass murder video to a country that needed no reminder of what happened.