Thus far, I have found this class to be very informative through all of our enlightening readings. Beyond that though, I feel that this class is really helping me develop as a writer and a speaker. I feel that I have improved my ability to prove and explain the key claim of my essay and I feel more confident speaking up in class than I ever have in previous classroom settings. I think this is due, in large part, to the fact that our classroom discussions feel very open and accepting – despite the occasional difference of opinions, every opinion feels welcome in our classroom. I feel that our varying backgrounds allow us to have a wide array of opinions in class and it is interesting and valuable to hear those different opinions. Furthermore, I think that understanding the perspective of others, allows me personally, to extend my understanding of my own opinion and it asks me to analyze my own view on the various subjects and controversies brought up in class.

I found this on one of my friends facebook page. I thought it was pretty interesting, but it's also interesting to me that it seems so gender-biased. The group of people standing there are wearing all the same clothes and they are all wearing suits. So is this directed only for men? Or only for people who enjoy wearing suits? 

Everything got better and better, or, it was I that tried to make it better and better. I started to say my opinions out without worrying about whether they are the right answer for teacher and other students; I check the talking notes two days earlier before the class to ensure I won’t miss anything that needed to prepare for the class; I make appointments in the writing center in order to improve my writing… I began to enjoy the seminar. Though I still can’t talk as fluently as I hope, everyone listened patiently whenever I was talking; though sometimes I still don’t understand the idioms used by my American classmates, I dare to ask questions without feeling bad about myself; though sometimes I still feel pretty struggling about writing a great paper without small grammatical errors, I know I am on the way of being a better writer.What is more important, I began to understand the essence of critical thinking. I found that education, a word that occurs in my life so often, is actually not as familiar to me as I thought. Every time I read a new reading assignment, every time I wrote a new paper, I gained a new perspective about education. I started to look back my life, to examine my choices, my school performance and people around me along my road of my education. By this kind of reflection, I not only learned more about education itself, but also learned more about how to critically consider a social issue. 

In Class/Outclassed is a class that everyone can gain an education experience from. In my case I’m learning how to become a better writer.My ideas overflow every paper that I get confused and start contradicting myself or the claim gets lost in a jumble of words. My main goal for this semester is to get my point across as simply and understanding as possible. Before taking this class I was a quite girl who had many opinions but didn’t feel right sharing them. I believe that everyone uses this class to learn to participate more. The environment of our class is very welcoming to everyone, and I feel like most people think that way. Since the beginning of the semester most students began to come out of their bubble and share their ideas.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/05/18/what-makes-a-body-obscene/

Andrej Pejic is a young male model whose career is centered around his androgynous look, successfully modeling both male and female clothing lines. Sometimes in the same show. Last winter he was featured on the cover of New York based Dossier Journal (picture above) hair curled and shirt in the process of being removed. Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstores "bagged" the magazine - a practice usually reserved for explicitly pornographic magazines.

In our culture male chests are not viewed as pornographic. We see them all the time as a ubiquitous feature on many men's health magazine covers. Even if we hold off on the greater question of why male torsos are appropriate and female torsos obscene, why would America's two largest booksellers (at the time) force a pornographic blinder on what they knew and accepted to be a male figure? 

I also found “The He Hormone” a frustrating yet intriguing article.  I was surprised by how much the author attributed gender differences to biology instead of culture.  I thought one of the most shocking parts of the article was when Sullivan suggested what would happen to society if parents injected their sons with female hormones while in the womb, eradicating all differences in testosterone.  Sullivan takes a quote from Matt Ridley that states, ''War, rape, boxing, car racing, pornography and hamburgers and beer would soon be distant memories.

As a class, I feel we've made much progress towards getting comfortable with each other and really discussing matters of class and education. It is no longer uncomfortable to talk around each other. I also learned how to analyze non fiction writings for interpretations that could not be taken shallowly. My writing style got much more formal coming from a very casual writing style stemming from my freelancing. This visit to Parkway should be fun because  it'd be different if it were the beginning of the semester but now, we know each other well enough to really get something out of this visit.

Miranda Lambert - "Only Prettier"

There are a few things that I always do when I go home for academic breaks: I spend time with my family, I catch up on sleep, and I swim laps at the local YMCA. Before coming to Bryn Mawr, I was a competitive swimmer for twelve years and swam in both club and Y leagues. When I was in high school, I brought a lot of my academic and pesonal stress to the pool, and my coach and I had to make an agreement: my nightly two-hour practices would be a time when I couldn't think about anything other than the set. The pool was my sanctuary, and I still view it as such.

Last week, I met my dad at the pool one afternoon to swim for a little while. After saying hello to my old coach, I hopped in and did a warmup. While stretching before completing my main set, another swimmer a few lanes over randomly called out to me. Now, when I swim, I'm in my own world and don't appreciate being interrupted; though a little bothered, I answered the gentleman's question about whether I was the new coach (I am not), whether I swam there on the swim team (I did), and where I went to school (Bryn Mawr). When I said the name of my school, I was greeted by a strange yet familiar expression: he had never heard of it. "It's a women's college outside of Philadelphia, one of the original Seven Sisters," I went on to explain, thinking that would be it.

"Oh, so you must be a man-hater," he responded. "You're anti-man, right?"

I'm starting this post from a very strange place.  I have been thinking a lot this break about why Roughgarden's writing bothers me so much, and I would like to share these thoughts with you.  But at the same time, I feel like I am the class whiner, that one kid who always hates everything.  I don't hate everything.  I love readings about gender and sexuality.    And I don't like complaining.  But I am struggling so much with Roughgarden that I'm going to do it anyway.

My misgivings with Roughgarden began early, when she stated in the first chapter that living things are impossible to categorize.  As far as I know, biologists are almost always able to classify living things into one of several groups: Animal, Plant, Fungi, etc.  Second, she states that the science world is torn between a diversity-affirming and a diversity-repressing explanation for sexual reproduction.  The Biology Department at Haverford has never said any such thing.  Instead, the truth (as I have been taught it) lies in the middle.  Sexual selection and the recombinations and mutations it produces both lead to diversity and keep things the same.  So I was very distrustful toward Roughgarden from the start.

In thinking over the past 6 weeks of class, and thinking about where I need to improve, the most important thing I have noticed is that I have a lot to learn from my classmates.  First, I need to be more careful when reading and responding to classmates posts.  Second, I am still amazed by the varied backgrounds and perspectives presented by everyone in the class.  It's kind of wonderful to be able to gain persepective on what other peoples experiences with education and class have been.  Additionally, I need to work on being more concise in my writing, as I tend to be super wordy and leave less room for ideas than I would like.