Blog 6

Writers such as William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson have always caught my attention. I enjoy reading their riddles and how they write has one or more meanings. Gilian's reading on "The Yellow Wallpaper," is quite similar to Shakespeare and Dickinson's. her excerpt is like a riddle that could be interpreted in many ways. This reading or riddle was easier than your average literature. Gilman made it clear that she was trapped in her own house and because of this she was depressed. The wallpaper acted like a barrier or a disease in a sense because she could not relieve herself from the conditions she had to face. In her readings she had wrote, "It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following. pronounced enough constantly to irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions." Here she is obviously in distress. To have these opinions of a wallpaper one must have a mental disability. She even compares the wallpaper to suicide. Comparing a wall to suicide is unheard of. It is clear that she is lost in her own house and depressed because she has no freedom. Her husband John amd brother does not believe she has a mental condition to which drives her even more insane. This reading has another meaning which we described more in class. This is the idea of women inequality. It is clear in this reading a display of androcentric culture. Men are the workers and women are under appreciated in the workforce or in society in general. they stay at home and take care of children and home duties. As we described in class women have their public and private spheres. Men I believe at this time had a majority of these spheres that they would call their own or dominate. Women could not even call their home a place of theirs because the male would determine what the home would consist of. This reading was a great interpretation of how women can get lost in their own home and lose their sense of self. Below is another riddle that I believe deals with unappreciated women. See what you can interpret.

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson


She rose to his requirement, dropped
The playthings of her life
To take the honorable work
Of woman and of wife.

If aught she missed in her new day
Of amplitude, or awe,
Or first prospective, or the gold
In using wore away,

It lay unmentioned, as the sea
Develops pearl and weed,
But only to himself is known
The fathoms they abide.

Blog 5

Harriet Martineau is an inspiring female. Since this is the first female sociologist we discussed I enjoyed reading about what she had accomplished and her insight on sociology. This sounds feminist but to know that women were under appreciated in the past gives me more of a reason to be. One of the concepts I enjoyed Martineau discussing was her view on human happiness. She states in the article that the most important law of social life is, "the great ends to human association, the grand one, the only general one is human happiness." Even though her thoughts on how to achieve happiness is quite vague I had my own personal explanation of how we could achieve happiness. this too sounds opinionated  but I think this could be a simple step to achieving greater happiness. Martineau also described this in her article and this is the idea that our society is losing our morals and manners. Morals she explains is "society's collective proscribed and prescribed behaviors." and manners is described as, "its patters of action and association." Our society has lost or weakened how to be proper in a sense. I am not singling out every individual but men are less manly and women are less womanly than what they were back then. There are many examples that I could describe here and the word I can think of to describe both sexes is sloppy. Men are not opening doors for women, pulling out chairs for women, or dressing appropriately for women. As for women, we too are not dressing appropriately, acting lady like, or taking care of the home as much as we used to. These are just some that came to mind. Notice even in the picture given in the article. Harriet's hair is nicely pulled back, her dress is not showing any cleavage, her make-up is not drastic, and her legs are covered. Women now and even men are not respecting their bodies like they used to. I believe this could be a start to societal happiness is to better our morals and values by simply acting like we have them. Below is a picture of dressing apparel in the 1800's compared to clothing in modern day society. Notice the difference in the amount of skin shown!

Blog3

I intend to reference off of Durkheim's view on religion, however what I wish to discuss is not a great idea or issue that comes from his theories. I just found a certain aspect discussed in class that would be interesting to go into more detail. This is the idea of religion and if will continually exist in the future, or will it still have a significant importance in years to come. I would see many question this idea, like Durkheim says on page 72 of our textbook, "Religious forces are therefore human forces, moral forces." I see this as a way of him explaining that there is no truth behind where religion comes from or where it is originated. Durkheim views life in more of a scientific and objective way, so he believes there needs to be an explanation for everything and religion cannot provide that. So this is where I wonder, could others start questioning religion and could they have an impact on how our society believes in the certain things we do. Also, Durkheim adds how we see many items or objects to be sacred. For example, the bible is a sacred artifact, however it could be seen as just a book with scriptures that humans have wrote at a time and place we cannot recall or make proof of. Then I wonder what would our world be like with no religion or beliefs. Would we have a whole new way of living, or a whole new perspective on society. Personally, I believe our world is coming to an undesirable place due to that fact that we are losing our sense of self and what we believe is true. There are numerous examples taken place here, bombing, shootings, terrorists attacks and many more. I am not saying the sole case is because of religious purposes but I know that it could somehow be tied into place. Oddly, I do worry what our world will look like in my future and what other horrifying acts people will do, call me a  global hypochondriac ha ha but the future scares me. I found a song that I think ties quite well into what I talked about and a great artist actually has the same views as me so I must not be losing my mind. "Imagine" is is John Lennon's best selling single of his solo career and its purpose or lyrics are intended to have listeners imagine a world of peace and barrier free of nationalities and religion. Also, Lennon wants listeners to imagine the possibility of a world materialistic free and focus on the greater good. This song is a bit slow but the words are powerful, I am sure you have heard it before but just to refresh your memory here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhq-yO1KN8