Asserting Masculinity in the Cultural Context of Camp :: Sociology Essays Research Papers

Asserting Masculinity in the Cultural Context of Camp Summer camp is an important annual experience in many children’s lives. Some kids choose to continue with camp long past their camper years and become counselors. A program, the Camper in Leadership Training (CILT) program, exists within the camp structure as a leadership program designed to educate kids, aged fifteen through seventeen, on how to become effective counselors. Each session typically concludes with a closing campfire, which the male CILTs extinguish after the females have left by urinating on the embers. This folk ritual, affectionately known to the CILTs as â€Å"pissing out the fire,† is employed by the male CILT folk group as a strategy that allows them to reassert power, to reaffirm the solidarity of the all-male group, and to regain their masculinity, which has been altered within the camp environment, before leaving the shelter of that environment. During this transitional period, the CILTs anticipate returning to the larger social world and are soci alizing themselves accordingly. These kids’ experiences with gender identity at camp mirror Barrie Thorne’s point that gender is socially constructed and highly contextual (Thorne 10). This folk ritual allows these boys to regain their gender identity, the identity largely accepted by the outside culture, as they prepare to re-enter mainstream society. The program is an emotionally challenging one: apart from teaching the foundations of counseling skills, the CILT directors encourage an opening of one’s true self that often involves breaking down the gender fronts kids bring with them. Thorne argues that â€Å"boys’ social relations tend to be overtly hierarchical and competitive† (92). The program does not encourage this type of social interaction. Rather, the program chooses to emphasize the emotions in personal relationships and self-disclosure typical of girls’ social relationships (94). After two weeks of learning, sharing, and growing within the camp context, the males’ social relations operate similarly to the females’ because there is no threat of being socially outcast for adopting the behavior values of the other gender. That is to say, the males have become bicultural along gender lines. Just as teasing (as Thorne points out) dissuades cross-gender interaction, social pressu re outside camp plays a similar role in limiting males’ expression of things seen as feminine, such as sharing feelings (54). For an age group faced with many social anxieties, extinguishing the fire at the end of the session is an essential tool of anticipatory socialization used to recreate the male gender identity necessary for acceptance in the outside male social world.

“What About Bob” Vs. “A Beautiful Mind”

Comparison Paper Watching these two movies, â€Å"What about Bob? † And â€Å"A Beautiful Mind† really opens your eyes to problems that many people In our world face throughout their daily lives. These movies provide us with an opportunity to become better acquainted with the reality of disorders and help us realize that real people do struggle with these issues and that these issues can affect the person themselves or their family or even their psychiatrist.But what we also can learn from these movies is that everyone, even people with disorders, can contribute good things to the world around them. In â€Å"A Beautiful Mind,† John Nash Is a smart man who soon develops schizophrenia. His schizophrenia consists of seeing people and believing people are out to get him. His schizophrenia becomes so bad that it burdens his wife and friends. It becomes difficult for his wife to love him and she is uncomfortable around him. At one point in the movie, his delusions caus e him to almost drown his baby and cause him to knock his wife on the ground.John Nash, after going to a mental hospital, and seeing a therapist, still had bad delusions, but, he was so smart that he himself figured out owe to Ignore his delusions and continue on with life semi-normally. Although Nash still has schizophrenia he is still super intelligent and uses his intelligence too help the world around him. Nash goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work on game theory, which helps with economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic and biology.The Nobel Prize is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, generally regarded as the most prestigious award for that field. Receiving this award proves that even though Nash has a reverie disorder he Is still able to contribute a lot to the world around him. John Nash also contributes his knowledge to young college students. Nash, after figuring out how to control his delusio ns began again working at Princeton university as a professor. Being a professor at an Ivy League school like Princeton is a pretty admirable accomplishment.Teaching college at the Ivy League level is definitely contributing to the world around him, because, not only is he teaching the younger generation, he Is teaching some of the smartest people in the world. Now, because of Nash these students can go into the real world having learned very valuable information. Lastly, John Nash contributed something good to a very close part of his world. John Nash was married and his wife loved him very much. Although his schizophrenia was a burden to his wife and the love between them, she still loved him very much and wanted to be with him.He gave his wife love, which, I think Is the best thing you can give to someone. In â€Å"What About Bob? † Bob Wiley Is a man with separation anxiety disorder and many phobias. Because of these problems, Bob, is always apprehensive and in a state of panic. Bob is a very difficult client for therapists because he becomes so attached to people. He drove away his first therapist and caused his second one, Dry. Marvin, to go insane. Although Bob is annoying to be around and causes problems for some people, he also helps people Marvin tried numerous times to teach Saggy how to dive into the lake but he was unsuccessful.Bob tried to teach Saggy how to dive and he was successful. While trying to teach him how to dive, Bob realized that he is afraid of docks and water and diving into the water. Bobs fears make Saggy want to teach him that it's not that scary. So while showing Bob how to dive, Saggy Inadvertently teaches himself to not be scared and he couldn't have done it without Bob. Bob also brought Joy to Dry. Margin's family. Although, Dry. Marvin was not very fond of Bob, Bob made the Marvin family happy and helped them to really enjoy their vacation because of his personality.He brought Joy to them because they all came togethe r and kind of took Bob in and took care of him; he was like another child in the family. Dry. Margin's wife enjoyed Bob's resend so much that she invited him to stay for dinner and then sleepover their house one night. Dry. Margin's daughter also enjoyed Bob's presence so much that she invited him to hangout with her and her friends on their sailboat. Despite Mr.. Marvin hating him, Bob helps him in a few ways. The first way Bob helps Dry. Marvin is during dinner one night. Dry. Marvin is choking on food and Bob saves him by giving him the Heimlich.Although this really has nothing to do with Bob's disorder it still shows that he can do good things for the people around him. Bob also helped Dry. Marvin with his interview on Good Morning America. Bob was originally not supposed to be in the interview but because of his attachment to Dry. Marvin he got himself on the show. At first Dry. Marvin thought that this was an awful idea but soon that proved to be wrong. Dry. Marvin froze up an d didn't know what to say while Bob, posing as Dry. Margin's patient, talks very highly of the Dry. Margin's book and talks about how good of a therapist he is. Bob's presence on this show really helped Dry.Marvin look really good to everyone. Both of these movies present us with characters that have pretty severe disorders in their respective spectrums of severity. These movies show us how their disorders really make daily life difficult for them and others surrounding them. While showing the bad sides of their disorders these movies also show their good sides and what they can offer to the world and everyone around them. I have grown up with and around people with disorders and disabilities and I know for a fact that each person, even with a disorder, can contribute something special and unique to the world.

The Internet1 essays

The Internet1 essays In the early 1960's, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) became very concerned about the possible effects of nuclear attack on its computing facilities. As a result, it began to examine ways to connect their computers to each other and to weapons installations that were distributed all over the world. The DOD charged the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (now known as DARPA) to fund research that would lead to the creation of a worldwide network. The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was an experimental wide area network (WAN) that consisted of the four computers networked by DARPA researchers in 1969. These first four computers were located at the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI International, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. By 1990, a network of networks, now known as the Internet, had grown from the four computers on the ARPANET to over 300,000 computers on many interconnected networks. As ARPANET grew to include more computers, researchers realized the need for each connected computer to conform the same set of rules. The Network Control Protocol (NCP) was developed as the first collection of rules for formatting, ordering, and error-checking data sent across a network. Vincent Cerf, who is often referred to as the Father of the Internet, along with his colleague Robert Kahn, developed the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol (referred to by their combined acronym TCP/IP), which are still used today. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) includes rules that computers on a network use to establish and break connections. The Internet Protocol (IP) includes rules for routing individual data packets. The term Internet was first used in 1974 in an article written by Cerf and Kahn about the TCP protocol. The open architecture philosophy ensured that each network connected to the ARPANET could continue using its own protocols ...