Quote:
Does this say that men are more threatened by homosexual issues than females? Or are they just afraid of anything that might change their status in society? Or is it possible that a great majority of men feel an attraction to other men and are frightened to death of admitting it? Would it be true to ask these questions more so about "the insecure white male"?
I ask these questions as a part white, part native American female who grew up in the racist south.
I truly believe that the white men feel threatened by any and every little thing that threatens what the presume to be their "God given right" to control everything. Whether they admit it or not most white men seem to think they are smarter & "better" than other races and they want to keep it that way.
As a 'straight' female, I find the thought of having sex with another woman absolutely
ing but I also find the thought of having sex with a lot of men that I know to be
ing..... think george bu$h, Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert , Tom DeLay..... LOL
What those same people do with their private life is not the business of government or any other person as long as they do no harm to anyone else.
The fact that college freshmen are this naive is not really surprising in this day and age. They have been raised as the "me, me, me" generation(s) and self pleasure has been the main goal all of their life. I think we can directly credit that to people like george bu$h.
What are these kids supposed to think when everything they see in public life is the opposite of what their parents think they are teaching them.
As for total ignorance (and proud of it), we are still hearing the screams of righteous indignation when anyone criticizes their hero and god, george bu$h who they believe to be the epitome of their mantra, "you can be as dumb as schitt and still become rich and famous"!
One thing we know for sure........ they are in for the "shock and awe" of their lives in a few years.
My daughter is a college freshman and a few days ago I was looking at a paper that she brought home to critique for another student in an English composition class. She had marked what she thought needed changing or correcting and asked me what I thought.
What I thought was, "what the hell is this kid doing in college instead of the fifth grade?" ! !
No, their attitudes are not surprising. What is surprising to me is that most of these parents are still working their buns off and doing without to send these kids to school and in the process have taught these kids everything that they have to know from personal experience is a crock.
Have you taken a look at textbooks for History, Social Studies, etc lately? They are junk and we are paying outrageous prices for these sorry books. It almost makes me wish that I had saved my textbooks from the 50's & 60's and home schooled them!!
Pardon my rant..... I need to quit here before I get really angry. Something is really screwed up when sticking our noses in the business of other people is more important than a good basic education.
Magginkat...
You have asked some good questions. Wouldn't it be fun and interesting if your questions and others of that type were also included on a survey of this nature? Then we'd get some real soul-searching going on, or some outright lies...more of the latter, most likely.
It is my belief, based on having lived in the American South all my life, (and I'm older than dirt, seems like sometimes), that the prevalence for a male control-dominance syndrome seems to be firmly entrenched. And I don't think it's uniquely the
white male...although they do seem to have the edge. The homes and the churches are the culprits, I think.
One of the reasons I believe this is because I am married to a man who was raised in southern Georgia. He has 3 siblings..two brothers and one sister. While he was a big part of the typical southern society of the 50s, 60s, and 70s...he's not a man who wants to control. Nor are his brothers. Their sister is married to a doctor who treats her with the utmost respect, because she has always expected it, as I do from men I associate with.
Their mother and father raised them in an atmosphere of total equality, teaching them respect, integrity, and fairness. He has never tried to control anything within our marriage, and neither have I. We treat each other with respect and we give each other freedom and space. We are completely faithful to each other and always have been in 15 years of marriage. We're a team. I wrote our marriage vows, and we both agreed the words "obey' and "death" would not be included. My husband cooks, cleans, washes, and otherwise helps around the house.
Equality and respect for the other person I think must be taught at home and the earlier it can begin the better. For example, on the first day of school, a kindergartner picks up a stick and pokes another child in the eye. Did that happen because he hadn't been taught at school? No, that happened because he'd been allowed to come to school with the belief that violence and dominance was the way to solve problems. A child is taught by parents, caregivers, and many others during the most formative years of his life before he ever darkens a classroom door.
My husband's parents did not adhere to any religion, so their children did not get the Bible teachings that are so prevalent in American society.
It's not the schools' fault for the American male dominance phenomenon to have come to the forefront...I think it comes from the home, from those formative years I mentioned above, and how that male child sees his role models relate to females within the home.
It also comes from their religious beliefs and teachings. In the Bible, so many women are either virgins or prostitutes, both usually dominated in some way by the males in their lives.
AND we women have to take a certain amount of responsibility for the dominance factor to have reached the point it has today. Women have
allowed themselves to
be dominated, especially in the south, due in part to their religious beliefs, which so often causes them to view themselves in roles that are subordinate to men.
As to your comments to the textbooks used in schools nowadays...I agree. I taught elementary school, and because I was the chairperson of the textbook selection committee, I was able to make sure we had excellent textbooks in all of the subjects for grades k-5. My committee and I would spend hours of after-school time perusing all of the samples sent to us from dozens of publishers. We invested time because we had to use these textbooks for at least 5 years. I don't know if middle schools and high schools have committees like this and, if they do, if they spend a lot of time making their selections.
But history isn't so much the textbook, MK...in my opinion...it's how the material is presented. A good, creative teacher can overcome a textbook. The creative teaching is what is lacking. To make history interesing enough for a high school student to want to learn it almost requires genius! But it can be done with a lot of imagination on the part of the teacher.
And the college paper you saw? I have no idea how some high school seniors ever got to the 12th grade. The scary part is that these young people are going to be voting and leading us in the future.
Nowadays, I'm glad I am almost older than dirt! The future of these young people won't be my future. I really feel sorry for them, in a way, and a certain amount of pity. They will never know what it was like to live in a more gentle and free America, as I have.
Catherine
