Today was the last day our class would be lectured by Dr. Paxton. We were all sad to see her go as we all thought she brought something very important to our class. For her last lecture we went over the popular culture and who has the power. They steal their information from teenagers, disguised as market researching, and then produce it out to them. Soon enough these trends are over used and killed and no longer seen as "cool." This is easily seen in the three universal rules of cool. The three rules are:
1. Cool recognizes cool.
2. Once you call something cool, it stops being cool.
3. Cool can only be observed, not manufactured.
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| A Septa ad for Hollaback, with Rochelle and Anna |
After her lecture on this, we had two guest speakers, Rochelle Keyhan and Anna Kegler, speak to us about the organization they are a part of called Hollaback Philly. Hollaback Philly is an organization that is trying to stop street harassment. Street harassment is when someone calls out to you and verbally objectifies you, typically seen as a construction worker being obscene towards a woman on the street in the media. What many do not know is that all genders are susceptible to street harassment, and it can happen with someone who is a stranger, someone you know, and people of different ages. Street harassment is disrespectful and bothersome, which I know from personal experience and observation. Some people feel validated from street harassment, but that is not something to support. Street harassment is a type of power play that oppresses the receiver instead of complimenting them. Some people are not taught how to approach someone without doing this, but a simple " Good Morning!" or any friendly gesture is much more appreciated than the " Hey sexy!" if you would like to learn more about Hollaback Philly and see if there are any organizations in your neighborhood, check out www.ihollaback.org .
For the second part of class Filip Kovacevic had his lecture with us. We had read Crack Capitalism by John Holloway and An Essay on Liberation by Herbert Marcuse in order to prepare for the class. We talked about the views expressed in the books and how they differed. In Crack Capitalism, the author was more negative on his outlook of life than Marcuse in An Essay on Liberation. John Holoway believes that by creating little cracks in this metaphorical box we have been placed into, we can get rid of Capitalism. Basically, revolting every chance we get, even just little revolts like relaxing when society puts pressure on you to work, can help break down and end Capitalistic society we live in. Marcuse believes that the world can be changed how we want it through changing human thinking and behaviors. Filip asked us a lot of interesting questions that had me thinking a lot about my views on this subject. This was the first day in class where we really explored what we could do to make a larger change in the world.
After class Summer Discovery had a meeting with the Board of Directors of the College of Arts & Sciences. This meeting was more discussion based, and they mainly answered questions we had, which provided us with a lot of information. Then we had a floor meeting where we chose the movie we want to see on Friday. I chose the , which is a horror movie. Today has been taxing on the mind, but I really enjoyed it. I like how intense class has been this week, and I am excited for what tomorrow brings.
We’re all familiar with the construction worker harassment you described but I think that’s more of a perpetuation of a myth by the media. I’m sure it was prevalent many years ago but in most communities I really don’t think it happens that much. I spent my whole life in heavy construction and I can’t recall ever hearing harassment like we’re describing here.
ReplyDeleteOf course, much of what we see in the media come from places like New York City, Philadelphia and anywhere in New Jersey. I think they’re being picked on with this because of their accents and how crude they can sound in a movie or on TV when they practice this old habit.
Nonetheless, it’s never an acceptable practice and needs to be stamped out.