Societies 3D Glasses

Societies 3D Glasses

Throughout this semester of english I have learned a lot about life and myself. I now see the world a lot different and I try my best to steer away from the "norms" of society. Learning about invisible narratives and metaphors was a big eye opener for me. I realized that I am effected and influenced a lot by society and it's norms. I internalized what society thinks is right and some of those are my views. It is as little as thinking "Sperm and egg" sounds better than "Egg and Sperm".

Another example is when we were asked "what makes a woman a woman?" and I thought of nothing but sexist metaphors I've been fed over my life. I immediately thought of housewife, likes men, and care for children. I thought to myself and did not say these out loud but it was horrible that these were the things that came to mind. It sucks that thats how most people really think. I had to look at it and think like "wow, thats crazy. Those things aren't true, you need to think of something else." The worst thing is that I couldn't.

For my diagnostic essay I wrote about how alcohol abuse is a major issue in communities of color. The main part of my essay talked about how in low income communities there is a lot of liquor stores which contribute to the problem, and wealthy communities do not have them. This plays into the fact that the more wealth have better living conditions and the wealthy are treated better. The people of color  live in places where access to alcohol is greater which play into the fact that they suffer from alcoholism at
higher rates. The wealthy and privileged do not have to worry about this because they do not have a liquor store on every color.

Its crazy how words could have such power over you. Like in the reading of the egg and sperm and how it basically is belittling women even in text. While I read it  I didn't question it at all or realize what it was doing. I just continued to read it because that is the type of things I am use to seeing and reading. It's scary because that is what the youth is being brought up on and will be raised to believe. Media, text, and everything else are just feeding us different metaphors and we internalize them and see them as truths. We do not

question them because we are so use to them and see nothing is wrong.

I know that I carry a lot of different invisible narratives with me that are not true, and every time i catch myself thinking of them I correct myself now. I need to continue to correct myself when I catch myself thinking this way. I need to remind myself about how those are just norms and they are not true, it's hard because I was raised thinking this way, but I will try my best to see that I correct them.

 I need to do this once I enter my discourse and see what IN's they hold. I need to remember who I am and where I came from. I need to make sure I  am not supporting their beliefs and ideals. I need to steer away from them because in politics it is dominated by white men that think men are superior. I need to put in my head that women are just as strong and smart as men and that people of color are just as good as whites. When I hear people talking about something that is just a norm that has been put in their mind, I will call them out on it and see how they really feel. A lot of people are not educated on IN's and the way they effect us every day, so I feel that it is up to us to show them the light.