Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Why go Greek?

I spent two grueling weekends going through recruitment. I woke up as early as 7:00am on a Saturday to do my hair and makeup and head to a Furman Hall classroom to meet before heading off to up to seven "parties," where strangers would grab me by the arm and start a random conversation. After hours of parties, I went back to decide where I thought I belonged and where I didn't. The next morning, it started all over again, except this time, I went to the Furman Hall classroom to see what sororities had "dropped" me. And let me tell you, each drop hurt.
Now why the hell would anyone want to go through this?
Throughout high school and my first semester of college, though I did have friends, they were never genuine. They never cared about me. And although many believe sorority sisterhoods to be superficial, I wanted to give it a shot. And the room that I walked into on bid day contained some of the most genuine, compassionate girls I have ever met.
It wasn't all for the friends though. I will never explicitly pay for friends. I wanted to go to functions, help with community service, gain a networking system for after college, and of course, get a whole bunch of T-shirts in the process.
Though Greek life can cost a lot of money, my sorority does offer scholarships, which I plan to take full advantage of. Also, my dues are nearly half of the national sorority average (and this average doesn't even include the house that many Greek women have to pay for!).
Additionally, I was never once hazed, which was a concern of both me and my family. Though hazing seems to be more common in fraternities than sororities, it does sometimed happen to Greek women. My sorority, however, has an incredibly strict anti-hazing policy that goes even beyond the policy implemented by Furman Panhellenic. For instance, pledges (referred to as "new members") are not allowed to drive active sisters anywhere, even if it's just a trip to YOMO or to a movie together. Essentially, anything that can be considered bitch work is hazing.
As cost and hazing are some of the biggest factors that can keep people from going through recruitment, I can honestly say that if I could go back, I would do it all over again.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Growing up in Utah, California, and then South Carolina, I've experienced a lot of culture shock, as well as different aspects of racism.
The first thing people ask when I say I was born in Utah is usually "Oh, so are you Mormon?" While I am not, my family is, and I grew up learning a lot of Mormon doctrine and ideology. Something that I find very interesting (and honestly sickening) about the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church is that, until 1978, blacks were given a very low-class status. In the Broadway show "The Book of Mormon," it is even jokingly sung that "I believe that in 1978, God changed his mind about black people." This is not the only racism faced in Utah, though. Hispanics are a large part of the Utah population, but some of their white counterparts will make jokes about them being "beaners" or that they are only good for landscaping and house maids. Again, I was very young when I lived in Utah, but when I visit, I've noticed these tendencies and immediately feel uncomfortable.
I'm going to skip over my time in California for now, as my experiences in South Carolina are more closely related to those in Utah. Aiken, South Carolina is split between the predominately white south side and the predominately black north side. It is even said that if a white person and a black person wreck on the north side, the white person will be at fault, but if it happens on the south side, the black person will be at fault. This is absolutely sickening.
In California, I lived near San Francisco, which is largely blends many cultures, from Asian cultures to Hispanic cultures, and beyond. In comparison to Utah, and especially to South Carolina, racism was not as big, at least that I have noticed. Maybe the answer to racism, then, is to include an area for different cultures, as San Francisco has Chinatown and areas for other cultures. Unfortunately, though, this may seem to promote segregation, allotting different areas for different cultures.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Abortion

I think Daniel did a fantastic job at discussing the abortion issue while noting the biases he has that naturally come with the topic, and pushing them aside to dig deeper into the issue.
One point that was not raised though, is the quality of life of the child-to-be. For instance, in the very extreme example that the mother and father are crack addicts that are one the road to spending their lives in jail, the child will most likely be put through an orphanage/adoption agency/foster homes or sent to live with other family members, such as grandparents. In the first scenario, the child will grow up with many unanswered questions, most commonly why their parents didn't "want" them, or if their parents are even alive. In the second, the child has too many answers in that they know the fate of their parents and are left to deal with the repercussions left on the rest of the family.
While adoption is absolutely fantastic, there is an alarming number of children in orphanages and foster care. Furthermore, foster care is especially stressful for children because they are moving around and constantly having to get used to different living environments and friends, and often can even be separated from their own sibling(s) eventually.
These experiences are likely to cause children and adolescents to develop mental health problems, and can even lead to suicide. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of saving this life?
My point is that, if we are looking at this issue from an equality standpoint, the equality of life quality must be considered. If a child is going to be miserable because the parents know from the beginning that they will be unable to provide an adequate life for the child, maybe abortion should be an option.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Education

Putting too much of an emphasis on academic courses, no matter the interests of the specific student, is detrimental to education. When children do not enjoy what they are learning, they are less likely to do as well in school. Unfortunately, students generally do not have an opportunity to choose their curriculum until college, and by this point, the idea of education has been tainted, causing students to be less likely to want to continue their education after high school.
Even in college, some majors, though the students may enjoy them, are ridiculed, particularly arts and many social sciences. Since these majors are less likely to lead to a high paying job, students are generally pushed away from these paths. For instance, philosophy has a reputation of being a joke of a major, even in media. In an episode of Archer, the main character comes across a philosophy major. He asks what he can even do with that major, and the philosophy major replies that he can teach philosophy. Archer then ridicules him, saying he's just feeding into the cycle.
This ridicule can be much more personal. When a family member asks someone what they are majoring in, and the answer is not a STEM major, which generally leads to a better job, the ridicule ensues.
From a young age, children are forced to believe that arts aren't important, and that all that matters is Common Core. You focus on English, History, Science, and Math, and nothing else really matters.
The most disturbing fact is that this false belief that non-Common Core studies are "bad" doesn't stop after grade school. Students need to be pushed to enjoy their education, from kindergarten through graduate school.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Animal Rights and Human Health

As a former vegetarian, I am completely on board with animal rights. The only reason I began eating meat again was because of health problems. Therefore, I understand the consumption of chicken and other meats for nutrients, but I don't see the point in slaying animals that will only lead to health risks. Why kill dolphins to eat when you are only subjecting yourself to unhealthy mercury levels, and thus producing the exact opposite of health benefits?
I understand that tradition is a big deal, particularly in Eastern countries. But this specific tradition should be minimized, so as not to risk the health of Japanese citizens. If there was a festival each year where people ate the dolphin meat, it would then not only be an isolated occurrence, but dolphin meat consumption, and therefore mercury consumption would decrease because citizens would not be eating it as much or as frequently.
We must also understand that these animals have feelings just as we humans do (yeah, I'm a hippie, I know). It might be a hard idea to grasp, but these animals live and feel and yes--they have emotions. Not only are these fishermen/hunters cruelly killing some of these animals, but they are also subjecting the survivors to emotional trauma. As Hana pointed out, when these animals are separated from their mother, for example, they can suffer from depression. This can often cause animals to lose weight, and eventually decrease the population size as a whole. So, not only are the hunters directly killing a species by spearing dolphins, but they are also indirectly killing a species by inducing emotional trauma.

Study Abroad

College is the perfect time to be able to travel, particularly at Furman. Furman-sponsored study away programs are covered by tuition, so why not travel for the cost you would be paying anyway?
Personally, I've never left the country, and that is exactly my motivation to do so. While I have my preferences (somewhere I can speak English and be okay, please...), I am willing to travel anywhere, because I want experiences outside of the United States.
I am aiming to study in Edinburgh, Scotland. This program is not only a chance to study away, but also an opportunity to have an internship in a foreign country. I would hope to intern either with a psychiatrist, or with the Scottish parliament, in order to compare US and Scottish mental health policies.
After college, when most former undergraduate students either venture into the work force or into graduate school, there is not as much of an opportunity to travel, particularly for people who plan on having a family.
College is full of so many opportunities that I believe all students should try to take advantage of. Possibly one of the biggest of these opportunities is the chance to leave the United States, learning not only your curriculum, but also the culture and lifestyle of other countries.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Sports and Money

Jack raised a very interesting point in his blog post, asking why athletes should be paid millions of dollars for their hobby, while others enjoy their hobby for no salary at all. Personally, I can (grudgingly) admit that I don't have an athletic bone in my body. I tried to play soccer in middle school, only to face a surgery as well as the more athletic boys on my team making fun of me. These two events led to me putting my cleats up for good. Not only will I never make millions kicking a ball around, but my parents paid for me to play as a child. Sure, this failed attempt at athleticism only left my parents with maybe seventy dollars wasted, but honestly, I think that's a much better option than being paid for a hobby.
If you love doing something, such as playing a sport, I don't think it's such a bad idea to have to pay to perform this hobby, even as a professional. This requires professionals to have another job in order to pay for their hobby. It also eliminates athletes who are only in it for the money, while keeping those who play out of passion, making for a much more meaningful game.
Though this has a huge potential to decrease the level of competition, this might be a good thing for our over-competitive country.
I will admit that this proposal has many gaps and potential disadvantages, such as the lack of sports scholarships that may allow students to get a better education than they would originally be able to afford. In this case, while it is important for students to be acknowledged for their talent as well as academic merit, those who rely wholly on sports scholarships, which may have lower academic standards, may not benefit from a more academically-heavy schools. These students may choose one school over another for monetary reasons, but be better off at another school that has lower academic standards.
This is only an idea, and as it stands, it would not work. But I do believe it is something to consider.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

I'm allowed to be a feminist.

I just want to use a blog post to say that, no matter what other students (ahem) may say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feminism.
Feminism is simply the idea that men and women should be equal.
Currently, there is a wage gap of 23.5%. This means that, for every dollar a man makes, a woman with the same job will make 77 cents.
Currently, women make up 18.3% of Congress, even though they make up approximately 50% of the U.S. population.
This should not be a problem. Men and women should be equal, and that is the entire premise of feminism. I am not talking about radical feminism or "feminazis." I'm not advocating a female takeover. I am not advocating "man-hating." I'll leave that to the radical feminists. I'm not one of them. I am simply advocating equality between these two halves of our country, and of our world--men and women.
Equality is something that has been a prominent issue since the Civil War era. If we give black and white males equal opportunities, but not the same opportunities for their female counterparts, have we really made any progress?
So please, when I post something or write something that you consider a "feminist" topic, just know that you don't need to assume it to be "some outrageous feminist paper." I promise you, if I ever get on the topic of feminism, it's strictly from an "equality" stance. I, too, recognize double standards, and believe we when I say I think they're just as ridiculous as the next person, no matter whether women "benefit" from it.
I just want to see a world where I can make as much as my male counterparts, and my opportunities are just as within my reach as they are for a man with my same level of education and my same work ethic.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Speaking of false accusations...

Take a look at this.

Just reading the first paragraph of that article honestly pisses me off. Believe me, I am quite the feminist, but I will never stand by a woman who falsely accuses somebody of rape. Conor Oberst, upon trying to file a lawsuit for a rape claim against him that was admitted by the "victim" to be false, was criticized--"arguing that it could intimidate real victims of rape and that it promoted the idea of men as victims of false accusations."

Excuse me, but I'm going to have to call bullshit on that. In South Carolina, the penalty for "aggravated coercion" is up to 20 years in prison. While someone who has been falsely accused of rape is spending up to 20 years among fellow inmates, the so-called "victim" roams free and is seen as a hero for speaking up.

Oberst was completely justified in filing a lawsuit, rather than submit to not only the media backlash, but also jail time. Why would anyone simply want to give in to going to prison for something that they have not done?

As far as this notion that "women never lie," I will gladly be the first to say that, as a woman, I lie on a daily basis. Everybody lies, men and women alike. So, to the fellow feminists out there, let's keep that painfully false idea out of our minds.

This article points out that, though the percentage of false reports of all rape reports is only, it's still 2 of every 100 rape reports. This video, which is noted in the article, reminds us that this statistic only applies to rape reports, and does not include rape accusations, such as Joanie Faircloth's written accusation of Oberst.

I recognize that rape is a serious issue, and that any accusations should be treated as such, but this does not mean that we should blindly believe any accusations that we may hear about, particularly those in the media. Many "victims" of celebrity rape may be likely to be simply looking for attention from the media, but as these claims must be taken seriously, a celebrity's reputation could be seriously damaged even though the claim may not be true.

This applies to your average Joes as well. Though false "victims" may not be looking for fame, there's always money involved in a lawsuit. And isn't money what we all want?

So, rapists are being put in prison for their crime (and as long as they truly are rapists, they certainly deserve it), but what about the false accusers? They are taking the money and time away from others to do a rape test, an investigation, a trial, all for what? To find out (maybe) that it's been a ruse the whole time? That simply cannot go unpunished.

It's like the boy who cried wolf. Everyone comes running when a woman yells "rape," but once she created an ordeal by lying, no one will be likely to believe her. And unfortunately, she may keep yelling it until this happens. Why waste the time and money for multiple false reports when she can simply "learn her lesson" the first time around through time in a cell? The cost of keeping her locked up for a period of time could potentially save the money and time that would go into the future trials with not only her, but also other people. Once people see that there is indeed a punishment for this wrongdoing, they will too be less likely to do the same crime. If there is no punishment, there is no legal incentive to do the right thing--tell the truth.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Why hasn't this been brought up yet...?

"More than 4% of inmates sentenced to death in the United States are probably innocent." -Huffington Post, April 2014
In 2014 alone, 35 Americans were executed under the death penalty. According to this statistic in Huffington Post, approximately one or two (1.4 to be exact) of those people are statistically likely to be innocent.

Let's extend that to the beginning of the century. Between 2000 and 2014, 796 people have been executed in the United States as a result of capital punishment. Statistically, then, 31 or 32 (31.84, exactly) people have been falsely executed. This affects 32 people, 32 families, and most likely more than 32 friends.

Looking at the blog posts this week, there has been much talk about religion, economics, and international conflict. While these are all very important when taking a stance on capital punishment, we can't neglect to look at the fallacies that are bound to occur in the court process. It is not unheard of for the courts to falsely accuse someone of a crime. And it would honestly suck having to spend years in prison because of a crime that you didn't commit, but capital punishment is such a permanent court decision.

Though it can take decades to have a felon injected, it could potentially take longer for someone to figure out that this "felon" is innocent. Once they're injected, that's it. It's over.

I would like to say that we can solve this problem by attempting to improve the accuracy in court, but this is just too naive. Human error and subjectivity are too big in decision-making for them to be eliminated. Instead, we must take a look at the punishments and "solutions" we are utilizing.

I will stand on the side of those (potentially) 32 innocents. We cannot keep killing this percentage of innocent inmates.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Fox News: Fairly Unbalanced (4 Feb 2015)

Disclaimer: I am a liberal. This post will most likely contain bias.
The difference between me and Fox News? I don’t blatantly deny my bias.
Do you remember the “telephone game” from elementary school? The concept is simple: someone whispers some silly sentence to someone else, and by the time it gets back to where it started, it’s turned into even sillier nonsense that is no where near what the original thought was.
Now take this concept and expand it to a national (or even international) level. For example, the original story: Michelle Obama didn’t wear a headscarf in Saudi Arabia, since it is not required for foreigners to wear them; what gets thrown back at us: Michelle Obama is disrespectful of other cultures and hates Saudi Arabia.
This is how the media works–any form of media. They all have bias. The individual people who work for news corporations have their own views, and these views are often reflected in their work. Hence, news stories, especially those having to do with politics, will generally lean to a given side or way of thinking, and this varies with each media outlet. This is what happens when humans, who are prone to bias and error, run the media.
How does Fox News play into this? Simple–Fox News is a media outlet, so the corporation is not magically immune to this inevitable bias. In fact, many (including Seth Ackerman) have pegged Fox as one of the most biased media outlets, claiming that it leans strongly to the right. Quite frankly, this claim isn’t too far-fetched.
All I ask is that we stop giving Fox News some sense of purity. Nothing makes me more angry than seeing “Fair and Balanced” used to describe a news outlet, even if the slogan were used for a left-wing corporation, such as CNN or MSNBC.
So repeat after me: “Every news outlet has bias. Every news outlet, to some extent, leans to one side.” Ahh, thank you for helping to prevent my impending aneurysm.
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Comments from old blog:

Matthew: It’s definitely important to recognize the inevitable presence of bias in news outlets, or in any other communication of info by humans. Equally important, I would think, is avoiding the temptation to imply a false equivalence between various outlets in this regard, as many reasonable people do in an attempt to portray themselves as unbiased. All news is created imperfect, but no equally so.
You raise an interesting point, in that Fox News seems more committed than anyone else to telling their audience, quite explicitly, how fair and balanced and without spin their coverage is. Maybe this is part of their polarizing nature, and why Americans consistently consider them either the most or least trustworthy source of information. All I know is, I’ve never seen such declarations of “WE ARE NOT BEING BIASED” from so-called ‘serious’ broadcasters, like BBC, PBS, NPR, etc.

Why I drop $60k on a liberal arts education (or at least let the government do it….) (27 Jan 2015)

I feel like school is all I know.
During my senior year of high school, like many other students my age, I started submitting college applications. In retrospect, though, I didn’t stay up writing essays and bugging my parents for financial information because I wanted to go to college. I did it because I thought I had to. I had spent the last twelve years spending eight hours a day behind a desk. It was all I knew.
It had been no secret that I was “smart” (in academic terms). My father noticed this when I was young, and joked that I he wouldn’t be surprised if I went to Stanford when I was older. This was all I had heard about “college”–this “Stanford” place. So I took it seriously. My goal from that point was to get into Stanford. For what? I didn’t know. At that point, I still wanted to be a princess when I grew up, and I’m not sure that’s included in any university’s course catalog.
Ten years later, I received an e-mail from Stanford University informing me that I had not been accepted. I was at work at the time, and I asked my boss to let me sit in my car for a few minutes. I cried (I promise this won’t be a recurring theme in my blog). But honestly, I don’t know why. Sure, it would have been nice to be able to tell people I went to Stanford, but that was it. That was the appeal. I wanted the prestigious name. Sure, the academics are great, but I didn’t actually care. I had submitted many applications for reasons that had nothing to do with academics–maybe the campus was pretty, maybe they had an esteemed football team that I wanted to root for (go Ducks!). In fact, when applying to colleges, academics didn’t really matter to me at all. As long as I was at a university, it counted, right?
My biggest revelation came when I committed to attend Furman University. When I told my dad the news, he told me that he was proud of me and said that I would be the first one in the family to go to a four-year university. My jaw dropped. It was an option not to go to one?! This had never occurred to me. I had been so caught up in the social norm: when you get out of high school, you go to college. If you go to community college, it’s a cute effort. If you don’t go to college at all, you’re going to spend your time working at McDonald’s. And I sure as hell didn’t want to do that.
Essentially, I’m in school because society makes me feel like I should. I felt forced to decide what I want to do with my life early on. Fresh out of high school, I thought I had to have it all figured out. I declared my major during my first semester of college because I felt like I had to. I wanted to have a plan. I wanted to be able to answer questions at Thanksgiving–”How’s school?”, “What are you studying?”, “What do you plan on doing with that?” I just can’t bear to turn to my grandmother and utter the words “I don’t know,” when in reality, maybe I don’t know. Maybe my plan is wrong. Maybe it isn’t for me. And even though I can’t fully admit it yet, maybe it’s okay if I don’t know.


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Comments from old blog:

Dr. Herron: I still remember the pile of small envelopes form big name schools on the table waiting for me when we got home from a family vacation. Not a pleasant experience!
Of course, they are judging on much more than academics. And as you mention, focusing on academics with a purpose in mind is an essential part of making the experience worthwhile. I would just say, challenge yourself! Make yourself work hard and learn a lot. Any college education that does that will be extremely valuable.

Rah Rah for Reality (21 Jan 2015)

I've taken the bid day Snapchats. I've done the chants. I've painted the monogram letters. I've “thrown what I know.”  I've doodled the fleur-de-lis.
But I've also cried. I've ripped the blue letters away from my door. I've thought about ripping the streamers away from neighbors’ doors. How could they get exactly what I wanted? How could they be happy while I’m stuck here in the group of the “weirdos”, the “rejects”?
I’m now a sorority girl. More specifically, I’m a Kappa Kappa Gamma.
I went through the recruitment process telling myself I wouldn't let myself be a Kappa. I had heard the stereotype–these were “the girls no one else wanted.”
Note that I've put all of these stereotypes in quotation marks. Because let me tell you, they are complete and utter bullshit.
I started crying in my bid day room. I tried to hide it, but to no avail. An older sister pulled me out of the room, telling me that she felt the same way on her bid day. In fact, she handed her bid back and left. She told me I was braver than her, and that what this group of people saw in me was someone who could help build the organization. I will tell you, with complete honesty, that this may be the sweetest, most genuine person I have ever met.
I’ve since started giving the girls a chance. It took a day of crying, but I’m getting to know these girls. I went to high school with one of them. I was in the band with a few more. Two of these girls were my best friends since I arrived on campus. And I will tell you this much. These women are no more “weirdos” than anyone else. We’re all weird. And there is nothing wrong with that. If you’re not weird, you’re not for me.
So to the people that keep the stereotyping going around through rumors, to the girls who will go through recruitment next year just hoping that they won’t end up in this group so that they won’t have to have this reputation, just know this: a stupid outdated stereotype doesn't define you. It’s what you make of the situation you’re in. If you need to run away from your bid day, so be it. If you need time to cry, that’s fine. But I know that the sisterhood I have been offered is second only to the relationship I have with my biological sister. It has been 24 hours, and I already know that these are some of the best women I will ever surround myself with. That’s what truly matters–not the name that outside people give us.
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Comments from old blog:

Dr. Herron: Thanks for this very poignant post, Sydney. I have to admit that I am totally ignorant of the culture surrounding sororities and fraternities, and certainly of the reputations that they have. I’ve always personally felt affinity for the Groucho Marx joke–retold famously by Woody Allen in Annie Hall–that “I don’t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” I’ve found that I tend to project this sense on to situations even when it is unwarranted. And it sounds like you have found the same–this group you initially felt unsure about turned out to be a wonderful group that you feel lucky, even privileged to be a part of

Tucker: Great thoughts. Just so you know, I’ve heard a lot of stereotypes about sororities at Furman, and the one that Kappa Kappa Gamma is where “the girls no one wants go to” is one I haven’t heard before. I’m saying this to let you know that not everyone has that opinion of your sorority. I agree with you in that what happens inside the sorority (aka the obvious strong sisterhood) is much more important than what anyone outside says about the group. I’m sure you’ll make the best out of it and end up having an amazing time there.

Kat: I have friends who were in the same position as you were. They were unhappy with the bids they received, but many of them did not handle it as well as you did. One of my friends cried for three days before taking a personal day off of classes and going home for two days. I am not at all what anyone would typically peg as a sorority girl; I love to watch sports, eat wings, and I get along incredibly well with guys and incredibly awkwardly with girls. Well, groups of girls larger than maybe 2-3. I like the way you phrase that an outdated stereotype shouldn’t define you. By damn if I’m a tomboy and I want more than 2 girls as friends then I’m going to do it. “I contain Multitudes” is a quote by whitman that I think helps drive home the point that everyone is comprised of many different qualities that make it very hard for us to fit into a rigid stereotype. Sororities are about finding a group of girls that makes Furman feel a little bit more like home, and if you get that in Kappa then you are a winner at the end of the day.