Richard S. Moscorelli
Santa Fe College & University of Florida
While studying at Santa Fe College I had to make some tough decisions on where I wanted to go with my education. I love learning about everything. Biology and chemistry were just as interesting to me as the humanities. I needed to narrow my path and try to conform into the shape being placed in front of me by academia. I was torn. What to do? Then geography came into my field of view. The prospect of being able to see things for the big picture and combine elements from a diverse education was a key factor in picking geography as a major. The discussions this past week on what geography is and what geographers do has only solidified my decision that I am on the right path.
What geography is and the approaches used to study geography were found on the path this week. Explaining to others what I would be doing as a geographer has been a chore for me. I have been exposed to what geographers do but explaining what I saw was harder than I thought it would be. The discussion on geography’s past, future, and growing pains enabled me to have a clearer understanding on what I am undertaking as a major.
I think of the guru at the top of the mountain telling the seeker of enlightenment to come back when the cup is empty for enlightenment. I believe I am starting to comprehend this better. The last few days has showed me how much I did not know of Race and Class. I thought I knew something. I knew very little.
The path presented Marxist and Weber approaches on studying class and how they differ this week. The group and the individual and how each is found in capitalism. This was entirely new to me. Orientalism, another term discussed. This term was kicked down the path and chewed on for a little while. It was a good example of how from Napoleon to the modern era the Middle East has been in the spotlight.
Lots of information was discussed from the book, to class PowerPoints, to collages. I am trying to understand and digest as fast as the firehose is pushing information my way. Collages were another creative way of exploring the concepts and I enjoyed sharing the experience with my 7th grade daughter. Teaching her what I learned in class is already cementing the information in my head and hopefully teaching her that self-determination is important to us all.
Women feel undervalued for their efforts and want to change the status quo. How do they do this? Defining who women are would be the first thing and defining there work as equal to men as second. This is something that has been going on throughout the last one hundred and fifty years of woman marching for equality.
This falls into the category of the social construction of gender and the roles gender play in our culture and society. Geographies arguing how woman are excluded in higher positions throughout geography are discussed in the book and how mindsets need to be changed for acceptance of woman in their field. This leads back to a change in mindset for woman in the movies. The social construct of gender needs to be changed and studying what makes up the construct will allow it to be changed. Know the rules first before you can change them!
What is patriarchy? How are woman exploited in patriarchy? A male dominated system which exploits women by placing women in multiple roles for the benefit of men. Another way that I think about this is the woman behind the curtain. The man may be the face of things but the woman behind the scenes controls much more than what this book gives credit.
This may be my patriarchal ideals coming out. However the movie critique taught me that as the white male I am catered to at the expense of women. How do I feel about this? I believe that woman need credit where credit is due and deserver equal pay for equal work.
What is sexuality? Heterosexualism, homosexuals? Does masculinity steer my behavior as a man? Yes it does. Living in a highly masculine setting in the military crying was frowned upon when in distress. Angry outbursts were a much more accepted practice. A female crying was acceptable in the military. Men mangled by war is easier for some reason than seeing a woman missing limbs. These are gender roles that America is changing and it will be very interesting to see the change.
I have always been told that knowledge is power. I saw people who I perceived to be in positions of power in a hierarchy and observed them as knowledgeable. How did knowledge make them powerful? I always thought that by hording the information they received and releasing it to me and the other minions on an as needed basis was how they kept power. Until this chapter on power this is what I thought. While hording information may have kept me in a holding pattern it was the ability to convince my fellow minions and me with the knowledge held that made these persons hold a position of power. They were able to sway ideas and beliefs based on the knowledge held.
This totally goes along with the ideas expressed in the book about feeling watched on a continuous basis. I was raised in an environment which was pushing the idea into my head of doing the “right thing” when no one is watching. Talk about a culture of self-management. I knew no one was watching and I felt guilty about not doing work when not being supervised. Interesting to think if this was all preplanned training or simply cultural practices which have been recently distilled into theory.
Thinking about training. The University is a massive training complex and walking across campus looking for pictures to capture was a great project. I really learned a lot about the campus while listening to the historian speak about the campus and looking at the map collection. I feel a better connection as to how power, sexuality, and class have played roles in the design and culture of campus now.
As I sit here listening to Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and his sounds of freedom I think about the different ways possible for people to make social change. As an individual singing reaching many across the airwaves or as a group marching down the streets. The act of wanting change and doing something about it.
Dorothy wanted change for the people she saw as needing a voice. She stood up and was the voice of a people who were afraid to speak in the face of adversity and power. Is that what social change is? Standing up to the normal way, the cultural norms and saying “we want something different” or is it standing up to power alone? A cultural way of thinking is a powerful idea. It has the power of the people who believe that cultural norm and who have codified it. It must take a powerful social movement to change the norm into a new norm. Dorothy did that. She stood up against a power by uniting the power of the people through her life and death. When soldiers die they unite the people behind them to fight harder. Dorothy was a soldier for her cause.
Geographies of causes or social action are powerful tools. The act of studying the action and bringing it to light is in itself action. Discourses generated support for or against. Is it possible to be unbiased when studying a cause? This is the question.