During the first part of the football podcast, there was the
example of the Carlisle Indian School, were the goal was to assimilate these
Native American children into whit culture, by essentially turning these Indian
kids white, with the way they talked, the way they dressed, the way they
conducted themselves and by essentially stripping them of their heritage. He
was trying to take this completely different group of people and make them fall
into the social constructs that he deemed correct. This forceful assimilation
while being cruel did introduce this group of young Indian men to the game of
football where they had tons of success and showed the American public even for
a brief moment that the Indians were not less than the white men, they were the
same. Although this was not an Idea that permanently changed for Americans, it
did show that there was a possibility that one day the Native Americans might
be seen as equal.
I think that there a lot of situations that social
construction is a very real idea, one of the biggest examples is gender separation.
Coming from a sixth generation farm family I have been raised with a more
traditional sense of gender roles, I have always been raised that there are specific
“man jobs” and specific “woman jobs” such as men do more physical labor for example
feeding cows, doing field work, fixing things when they break, and being the
primary bread winner. Whereas women are traditionally confined to laundry,
cleaning, cooking, and caring and nurturing children. Although my mother would be
the first person to tell you she can do anything a man can do and would have no
problem putting him in his place which I feel is something that is much better
received than it would have been 50 years ago, but thought time and as some of
those social constraints kind of disappear, it is more welcome for strong
independent women who speak their mind and can do anything they put their mind
to.
It was interesting to me that you chose to address the issue of the podcast in which white settlers were attempting to turn Native Americans into "civilized" people and integrate them into the white culture. Last semester I took a class on cultural encounters across the great plains which really addressed this issue in its entirety. This issue relates to the idea of social construction because the white settlers idea of what "should be" and what was normal was completely different than the idea of what the Native Americans thought was normal. Due to social construction the whites felt it necessary to change them even though in all actuality it wasn't necessary at all. I think this was a good subject for you to address and that it really corresponds to this upcoming project. I also agree with you that in a lot of situations social construction is a very real issue. I think that social construction can be seen every day and in a lot of aspects of daily life and activity. In what aspects of your life do you see social construction represented?
ReplyDeleteJD,
ReplyDeleteGiven your rural background and understanding of seemingly distinct gender roles between men and women, it'll be interesting to see how your project develops. Growing up in a traditional household and attending a state university are two fairly different experiences. Independent of your upbringing, have you noticed any new, unique manifestations of social construction during your time as a student at the University of Nebraska?