Affective reading part 1: Religious Ethnocentrism Video Response

On you tube, There is a video Covering one of the topics of ethnocentrism, that involves wearing revealing bikinis is accepted, but hijabs and veils aren’t.

Video Summary

In our society, particularly our part of the world, North America, it has been noticeably acceptable to wear revealing clothing in our public.  Also by doing so, there are no religious purposes behind wearing such revealing clothing. When it comes to Muslim ladies covering their whole body however, it is questioned by many of us and is not completely accepted in our society. Very seldom you see or hear about issues of a lady exposing too much of her body in public, and that’s simply because it is socially accepted as stated before. This is a very good point brought up by Seikh Khalid Yaseen and definitely should be addressed so us as a society can comprehend Ladies morals and religious beliefs.

How do I feel about this video?

This video really opened up my perspective and views on certain situations. Every day in daily commutes, I see at least a handful of women wearing revealing or tight clothing. From a man’s point of view, I appreciate this choice of attire and am automatically somewhat more attractive to the woman. Now putting my view on how I feel about ladies that dress this way, made me think more; well how do I react when I see a lady covered fully in clothing head to toe, only showing their eyes? I realized that I automatically am drawn to their attention more, because I feel it’s so different. But why? Now I am seeing how wrong I am, when seeing a lady wearing a Hijab or Veil. I am a catholic raised man, and wear my crucifix chain on occasion. Me wearing that crucifix is no different from a woman wearing her Hijab or Veil; or it shouldn’t be at least. I know I realize how right it is to socially accept other ladies religious attires now, but I don’t know if everyone will follow along, due to ignorance

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What do I think about the video?

I think that the norms of our society is corrupted and way to judgmental  All of us as individuals have or will be judged upon our looks.  Even if we dress in a so called “normal” manner, there is always someone somewhere that will react negatively to our appearance. I remember my mother telling me she brought some of the children from her daycare on the sky train one day. They saw a Muslim lady wearing a hijab that was only revealing her eyes. Most of the children noticed her and asked my mother why she was wearing that, and were actually a little scared at first. Although they are younger children and are unaware of other religions beliefs, I personally hope in the future someone will reach out to teach our next generation to accept other lady’s religious clothing. It should be accepted in our society’s “norms”.

What do I believe about this?

I believe that the world is changing constantly before our eyes; one of the things that should change is our society’s acceptance. I believe and hope that one day for generations to come we will inform our children at an early age to be aware and accept our surroundings, such as hijab’s and other religious head wear. If we all make an effort to change, our acceptance in society will be less corrupted, and we will accept ladies religious dress codes rather than revealing bikinis.

What do I know?

I know that it will be a hard obtainable goal for all of us to to teach next generations to accept others religious view and practices, simply because of the factor racism still exists. As long as we have racism lingering around in our North American society, expressed explicitly or subliminally, it will be a hard goal to reach. As I now know after watching this video that there are people out there pushing to do so, makes me feel better about myself and makes me want to go out and make a change myself.

oral part 5:

I remember during class we discussed the topic of ethnocentrism. I never really thought deeply about this topic, but i now realize that it is a big issue on how our society is shaped. People are naturally biased upon what country they originate from. For instance, on the world map, the continent of Africa should be significantly larger than it actually appears to be. The creators of the map are clearly biased on the countries they are from. Thinking about this also gave me the idea how natural it is to be ethnocentric as individuals or as groups. I can think back to multiple situations where i blindly vouch for my country whenever there is a discussion or argument.

Oral Part 4:

One of my favourite in class discussions was when we discussed our ethnicity and the country we originally came from. Discussing this topic with my group members, they really couldn’t believe my ethnicity. My mother was born and raised in Mexico, but my Father was born in Canada. People always assume that i am 100% “white” but really i am half Latino. It never gets old seeing peoples responses to my actual ethnicity. Although i was born in raised in Canada myself, I also speak spanish quite fluently and have over half my family living in Mexico Currently. 

Oral Part 3:

During one of the lectures this year we spent time watching old film. the film series we were watching featured many interesting experiments. One for example was walking into a building and reading the sign “do not step on the white squares”. Many people that read this sign followed these instructions as best as they could. I find it funny how people in society don’t realize how out of the norm that rule is, but still follow it. I really would of thought that everyone would ask what type of rule that is. It is evident that people don’t want to stand out and go against the norm; but rather fit in like everyone else.

Oral Part 2:

An interesting part of our class discussions was colour blindness. The class was asked if colorblindness in humans would end racism. As much as that would help our society, i don’t think colorblindness would put an end to racism. People will still know where you came from through communication  as well as the way you dress everyday, and even examine the way you speak the language. Racism was created as a society such a long time ago, that taking away colour would simply just not be enough.

Oral Part 1:

During one of the lectures this semester, we discussed the topic of racial/ gender stereotypes  I shared my most recent memory of a personal experience which took place at work. Me and my teammates decided to all buy matching pink Nike sneakers for our season in order to spread awareness for breast cancer.  I work at the Nike store, and one day a customer came in and was actually getting mad. He was mad at the fact that the pink shoes were on the men’s shoe wall, calling them “gay shoes”. I couldn’t help but to think how ignorant this man was to actually be prejudice over a pair of shoes that were there for and fundraising and awareness purposes. 

Biographical sketch

Hello, my name is Spencer Maichin and i am beginning my first semester of post-secondary. I am currently 18 years old and i am a graduate from Delview Secondary School Located in North Delta. I have a great interest in basketball, i have been playing the sport very competitively and religiously since the 6th grade and it is my greatest passion. My goal in basketball is to always compete at the highest level i am capable of, and having an impact on the game. I also take great pride and interest in my current job, which is a sales associate at the Nike store in metro town. I starting working there in spring of this year, and i love the environment of the work place. I have always had a great interest of sneakers and clothing design, especially if it was branded by Nike. I currently am unsure of what i want to major in in University, as i am exploring courses that are appealing to me. The reason why i took sociology is because my psychology teacher from high school recommended it. He noted that i had a great interest in psychology; therefore he assumed that Sociology would claim my interests as well. So far my knowledge of Sociology is quite minimal. As of right now i know that sociology is the study of how we interact with each other as a society, as well as the acceptance and disapproval of certain actions performed by people. I do plan on expanding my understanding greatly as the course proceeds.