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"Every policy issue is contested in a symbolic arena. Advocates of one or another persuasion attempt to give their own meaning to the issue and to events that may affect its outcome. Their weapons are metaphors, catch phrases, and other condensing symbols that frame the issue in a particular fashion ... The ideas in this cultural catalogue are organized and clustered: we encounter them not as individual items but as packages. (p. 143)"

I believe this quote best summarizes the article and my thoughts on the article. Every thing can be manipulated to support an opinion. All thought the article was very informative. I also thought also mad a lot of sense. I like the comment made that the phrase Reverse Discrimination itself is at fault because discrimination is discrimination and it does not change depending on who it is. The misconceptions that the article talks about with affirmative action such as the color-blind decision making is better because any colored based decision are racist. This is not true because other things affect the difference in opportunities for blacks and whites. The other articles we have read for our blogs support the theory that blacks do not have the same opportunities as whites.

I thought the article was very interesting. However I was disappointed that we had a discussion in class about because now I have no really interesting comment to say. I thought 41 was a little shocking too. I do agree that it is the person like Rachel said who does it to themselves but that could be because of many different things. I also thought 42 was funny because no one expects a guy to get beat up by his wife or girlfriend which is a bad stereotype. Everything else everyone basically said in class.

I was suprised by some of the thing in the article. However, it was very enlightened. I never realized that flesh bandages which to me are normal bandage actually come close to white skin. I thought that they were just regular bandage.
The most important thing that was listed to me was:

15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
Sadly this happens all to often. I have a lot to say but I just can't even put into word that will make this blog make sense. I dont know how to reply to th article I felt that I said most of what I am thinking in my previos blog. I appreciate having to read the article it makes a lot of sense.

Dear Diary I am sorry people look at me and see everything that is wrong with society. I am even more sorry that I am 18 yrs old and I still can not escape the inevitable; Me. Diary my mind races, my heart aches and by now I would think I would be over tears but still my paper soaks and my vision blurs. Allegheny, nicely situated in Meadville PA, your beautiful campus calms me. Yet, your still not far enough to help me forget. It seems faces only change but the problem always remains the same. Diary, I am a black person. I say it with confidence and caution. It never occured to me that 12% of anything is threating. Diary I am also apart of a majority for I am a women. And that's 51% percent but that does not help me any. For the very begining of my childhood when I was told to go back on the banana boat, I was an immigrant(which I am not). That's another 10.4%. I am some much things and none of them really counts. Diary in Harlem, New York a place that use to very rich in culture the life expecancy for an African American male is 30 yrs of age. Can you believe that Diary, I was shocked when I learned this three years ago from Johnatan Stillo an anthropologist at the Museum of Natural History. Diary you might not believe this but I truly I am sorry that people suffer so that "we" can advance. Diary people look at me and believe that I do not deserve to be at Allegheny because they believe I have an unfair advantage. I seen it before today. There are 22 of "us" on campus out of 2,001. I had no special offers but people assume anyway. Before I came here I was sure I would be fine. The only thing I worried about if me and my room mate would get along. My room mate before she came to Allegheny was worried about her safety. Can you blame her Diary after all am from brooklyn of all places and I am black. And from her experience black equals bad. I have learned to deal with these things and assumptions. Diary did you know all black people can dance? Someone asked my to show them the soldier boy, I am black I should know how to do it but I didnt at the time. Diary did you know that black people speak slang? I love it when I am ask to translate slang because I am black I should no what there are saying. Diary did you know that not all black people are the same? This is the most important thing to know diary. Try adjusting in a society who clumps all black people together.
What do you mean you can not dance but your black?
what do you mena you don't eat fried chicken?
I use to think people made these comments not knowing they were racist comments. I forced myself to grow out of my accent so that I could have friend. But I can not force myself to grow out of my skin nor do I want too. I found it funny when many of my teacher said "be careful do not expect people to know how to react to you at your college you will meet people who have never seen a black person before." I personally I paid no attention to it but maybe I could have paid a little attention to it. I never felt threaten by comment like those. I usually let them go because they happen so often. I learned to accept a lot of things I am now realizing I should not. I like to dance but it is not because I am black. It because my family is filled with dancers. But Diary if you can only imagine being the only black person on a stage how much pressure you feel to nail the choreography because people will notice that you messed up. Not to mention Diary, somehow one person can represent all black people personally, I dont like the pressure. Diary try being in class and I ask to give the "black" perspective on a subject. I will tell Diary it is quite entertaining. It did not even bother me when one of my college teacher kept calling my the name of another black girl in the class and it took him a good five minutes to realize. I would have felt better if he did that to other people but what can you do.
Diary I know you are probably tired of my by now.
I am really fortunate because in all my classes there is at least one other black person. Diary sometime what hurt the most is that some people dont and will never understand. I have been scared Diary society scares the hell out of me. Because I am a black women so I am lower on the ladder. Overall women make 75 cent to every dollar that a man makes and overall black women make almost 60 cent to everydollar that men make. God help me I will need it.
I dont want anyone to feel sorry for me
People should feel sorry that we live in a society where the same thing happens over and over again. Blacks and White were not even allowed to get married at one point and we fixed that and now we are doing it homosexuals.
Its hard when you watch movie like roots and mississippi burning and you are look in your own eyes and the eyes of your mother and father. If I had a 12% chance of lively after a surgery I doubt I would take it.

I guess 12% or 15% or 4.5% or 10.4% is already too much.
Diary I am everything you see and more much more, what you can't see. I am the broken figure in the briefcase. But only because it has fused itself to me and there is no escaping it.

The article Feminism vs Chivalry seemed to be a very insightful article. It made a lot of good point on the ideas of feminisim. The most important point that the article made was " What people (namely men) seem to think is that by asking for equality, women have asked to be treated as just another man." This is an important point because women want to be treated equally however there are certain difference that must be taken into consideration that does not allow for complete equality. In the sense that not everything that is excepted of a man can be expected of a women. This is mainly because women bear children and you can not expect a pregnant women to do certain things. I agree with all of this until he said that woman want to be romanced. I am not the romantic type and I believe that he should not assume that all women want to be romanced. Nothing I repeat nothing is universal. I am not sure by what he mean by women want to feel feminine. If anyone would like to explain that to me you are welcome to go ahead. I am not sure a want to feel feminine but I am sure I want to feel like a person and not a prize or some sex symbol. It is not a man's job nor is it his birth right or something to hold a door open for a woman. I feel like the author was trying to say that it is man's job to make women feel better about themselves and that should not be the case. I don't need a man to make me feel feminine come visit me at the begininng of every month and I will tell you how feminine I feel. I rather not be cherish it seems creepy appreciate yes cherished no. Why is this not expected of women to men? I think it should be.

"To offer your seat to a woman in the T is not flirtatious, nor is it condescending. It is simply POLITE. To open a door for a woman is not to deny her her inalienable right to open it for herself, it is merely POLITE. To offer a woman a hand out of a car is not to assume that she can't get out by herself...IT IS POLITE! " THIS SHOULD GO BOTH WAYS

Chivalry vs Feminism will never be answered. This is simply because the answer to you is not the answer to me. Society is changing and so many perspectives of chivalry are floating around that everyone will not be please with one theory.

For me this is chivalry, a guy feeling comfortable enough in his masculinity to let me pay if I am taking him out, Treating the relationship like a partnership and not I need him to talk care of me, On special occasions when it is agree we do something nice for each other ( nothing mushy), and open straight forwardness because that is the kind of person that I am.

I only like help when it is offered and I accept or when I ask for it

WHY FIX IT IF IT AIN'T BROKEN

With feminism has come a loss of chivalry -- and is that too bad

With feminism has come a loss of chivalry -- and that's too bad bring up some important ideas. Something that use to be thought of as a compliment is not becoming an insult. This is because it is not necessary for a guy to hold a door open for a women. It is a kind jesture but it seems condescending. I do not like it but I will go through the door and say thank you. I hold doors open for males and females. For me holding a door for someone has lost significant meaning and it is just being neighborly whether youmale or female. It is like the comercials form the organization for a better life it is kindness pass it around. In some things it is time to forget gender if you are hold a door open and there is someone coming and time permits why not hold the door open.

In Noble Prize women in Science, McGrayne begins with three individuals that she identifies as first generation pioneers: Marie Sklodowska Curie, Lise Meitner, and Emmy Noether. These women faced hurdles that seem almost unbelievable to me today. I can not imagine being barred from high school and being sent instead to a finishing school to learn how to be a proper young lady. It is almost impossible to imagine what it would be like today if colleges and universities were not open to women. I’m not sure that I would have the perseverance required to audit classes (provided I had obtained the instructor’s permission) knowing that I could not register or receive credit for the course. Would I put forth the same effort required to master the material as my male counterparts knowing that there would be no records to show what I had accomplished? Would I love research as I do if I was forced to work in a converted carpenter’s shed as Lise Meitner did because she was prohibited from entering a certain building even to use the bathroom where her male collaborator work. I am quite certain I would not enjoy submitting articles for publication under a male colleague’s name as Emmy Noether did if today’s scientific journals were to refuse to publish articles submitted by female scientists. Can you imagine what the prospects for young women in science today would be if the door to their dreams in science had not been open by the determined pioneer women of science? If not for these women, where would you be and what would you be doing right now? Do you think that you would even consider a career in science?

If women like Marie Sklodowska Curie, Lise Meitner, and Emmy Noether had not open the door for young women like me to pursue a career in science someone would have to. To put myself in such a position, to think of how I would cope, if many doors were close to me would be very complicated. First, I would have to think of society's view of women, which would be significantly different. I might be more motivated or less motivated to pursue a career in science. I might be more motivate to pursue a career in science because I detest any belief that women are inferior to man but this is me talking today. Who I am is strongly shape by the women figure in my life. If society view women differently I might not have grown up to a single mother, who moved couches, screwed on door and was as much a women as she was a "man." If I did not see my mother take on such role and accepted the ideology that man are dispicable, maybe I would look forward to a marriage and to be a housewife. Second of all, would have to consider the state of the United States, my mother would have never immigrate here if she knew there was nothing for and they would not have let he immigrate here because she had nothing to offer. Therefore, I would not be in a country where resources are so great yet they are cut off to women. I would be less interested in science because in Jamaica, people are more layed back and relaxed. They pursue simpler careers. I could be going to school to be a bank teller. Occupation would be the least of my worries. Lastly, I would have to consider the challenge itself. Am I a strong enough person to deal with the stress of sexism. I would envitably be the exact prove to way men have an upperhand on women. This is because I am or was(not sure at the moment) a sickly person. I missed countless day of school and other thing because I was always sick. My mom would recieve letter that state, your child is in a rigorous program and she might be falling due to her absences. It would be enough for a man to use as prove that women are fragile creatures and are not fit to do a man's. As the person that I am i would take on this knowing that I might fail but there are many people who provoke change by trying and failing. My plaight alone might influence young individuals to try. My greatest fear is life is to be a house wife. I can not imagine a society in which I coould not publish one of my stories if I wanted to or practice science.

To be confined by one's own nature is life cruelest joke.
To be less than you are to satify the needs of the masses is suicide of the soul.
Never accomplish less because it is expected; live and dream.
To accept 2nd place is only good when second is your personal best.
the challenge is to live through yourself and show everyone how to do the same
My legacy is in the making

"People are always blinded by the light, they too readily forget that there will always be darkness "

That is how I look at life

My name is Karen Meredith and I turned 18 yesterday. I decided to attend Allegheny College after my 3yrs old sister pull it out of a hat. Everything for me is exciting and new and also unexpected. I chose Women in Science as my FS class because I am a feminist and have taken women studies classes. I also have attended workshop for women studies in the past. I enjoyed for the most part all of these activities. However, they were not focused on a specific career path or specific types of women. Ever since I was eight I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician. So I decided it would be fascinating to learn about the struggles of women in sciences.