The Pool

One of my favorite spaces that is most important to me is the pool area at my high school.  When you walk in you are instantly hit with the smell of chlorine.  Some people hate that smell but for me it’s comforting and familiar.  This room where are team would gather every day before practice to just hang out.  For about four months you spend three to four hours a day in that room.  The cream colored walls and the bright lights make the room seem more welcoming, at least to me.  The pool is the place where we work together and become a team, we can bond there.  It’s our space to do and say whatever we want and no one judges you.  The pool is like home.

Gender and Television

Most television shows in some way expose us to the gender roles that we are expected to fill.  From the time we are young, to when we are adults the shows that we watch on T.V. are filled with characters that shows us that men should be masculine and women should be feminine.  However this is not always the case and as we mature the shows often display more situations involving people who are transgendered or gay.  This can be seen in all genres as well from reality T.V. to dramas or comedies.

At a young age they start to teach you this.  In most small children’s shows and fairy tales they show you this when all the girls act like damsels in distress, while the men always come to the rescue and save the.  They show us that while all the boys play sports the girls should be playing with dolls.  In T.V. they set the standards for what boys should act like and what girls should act like very early on, and then as you grow up that’s just how you think things work.

As we get older though the roles mostly stay the same where the men and woman take on “traditional” gender roles, however the lines start to blur in some areas.  As the television shows turn for an older audience often there will be characters who might be transgendered or homosexual.  This can be seen in all kinds of shows too.  For example in shows like the Real World there may be a roommate who is homosexual while the other may be straight.  When this happens sometimes some of the roommates act uncomfortable by this person, and it will take them a little longer to become friendly with each other.  In some dramas too like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 90210 there are characters that come out as gay.

In my opinion I don’t think that having characters who are homosexual or transgendered on television shows is a bad thing because it teaches people to be more understanding of others.  I think that since there are people who are gay and transgendered in everyday society it makes no difference that they be portrayed like that on T.V. and that if people should be more open minded to these situations.

How we Feel Music

                 Someone (unknown) once said that “music is what feelings sound like”.  Music can be used to express an emotion and to match any mood we have.  There is a genre for every occasion.

                While I was growing up in my house we listened to a lot of Rod Stewart and Aerosmith.  That was what my parents liked so every road trip we went on consisted of hours upon hours of Aerosmith live or ACDC in the car.  My brother and I could sing along to every song word for word.  That was how we started our love for music.  Ever since then music has kind of been what my brother and I have bonded over.  We have a similar taste in music and listen to most of the same bands.  Every time I’m home we’ll just listen to vinyl for hours.

                One of my favorite bands is of course The Beatles; I could listen to them for hours and never get bored of them.  The first time I heard them I remember getting goose bumps.  That’s my favorite part about music is just hearing a really great song, and being blow away by it.  I can listen to The Beatles for any mood I might be in.  They have songs that you can just relax to and songs to get you really pumped up and ready to go.  The entire era The Beatles are from would probably have to be my favorite.  There was something about the 60’s and 70’s that made music so great.  People could use the music then as a form or expression and protest.  For example Bob Dylan, another one of my favorites, used is music to talk about things he saw wrong in society and the rebel. 

Music no matter what the decade it is during always seems to have a way of expressing what people are thinking and what is important to people.  Through music you can feel any emotion you want and express yourself freely.

               

Panopticon and Education

             In the Panopticon Letters by Jeremy Bentham, he describes an observation house primarily to be used for prisoners.  He explains how in this house the guard will be able to see everyone prisoner however the prisoners will be unable to see where the guard is.  He explains that this concept can be used for other facilities such as mental hospitals and schools also. 

The purpose of the panopticon is to improve behavior of the prisoners or people inside of it.  Bentham believes that the use of this system in schools will allow for not only improves behavior but also in improved education and studying habits.  He believes that with the use of these observation houses you can always have someone watching the students during study hour, also since each student is in his own cell they will not be distracted.  Thus leading to better grades and smarter students.  Often today we see some uses of security in schools that mimic the ideas of the panopticon.

The use of security and the ability to watch over students to monitor behavior has greatly increased in the past few years.  For example in my high school we had security cameras in everyone hall, some rooms, and the parking lots.  This reminds me of the panopticon very much. When the school installed these cameras they had assemblies for all the students so inform them of the new technology.  They let us know that at any time of the day or night the cameras would be on and if we caused any trouble or miss behaved they would automatically know about it.  After that most of the kids acted and presented themselves better when they thought they were in the presence of the cameras.

Also I feel like there is uses of panopticon principals in this school to an extent, for example I the dorms.  With the use of the RAs the school can better monitor your behavior in the dorms.  The RAs have the ability to go in the rooms and check to make sure you don’t have any illegal substances and they can also monitor you based on your noise levels and what they may be hearing from other residences.  Because of this most people are very cautious of how they act in the dorms.  You act with a better manner because if you are caught doing something wrong you could be written up or kicked out.

Through these examples and the letter by Jeremy Bentham we see that the idea of the panopticon is very effective.  The idea that it will make people behave better because they always think they are being watched seems to be true.

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