Blog 9: Feminism and Masculinity 12/19/16

        The "There Is No Unmarked Woman," by Deborah Tannen, and "I Want A Wife," by Judy Brady, pieces we went over this week summed up the gender inequalities, roles, and stereotypes prevalent in the later 20th century, that continue even to this day. "I Want A Wife" uses many hasty generalizations to help the reader picture a model of a superior male. This male has all the prerequisites to be a stereotypical dominant man who treats his wife like an inferior. He doesn't associate her with his sense of self, and he expects her to do everything when he wants. Brady uses repetition of "I want a wife..." to emphasize on the tasks that wives have to do for their husbands. She also uses the Strawman logical fallacy to phrase the wants of men in her own words. She takes an extreme take on gender roles, and even goes into saying, "...my wife will arrange and pay..." even though if she was keeping constant with gender stereotypes, the man would be paying.
        "There Is No Unmarked Woman" lists the various markers that the identity of a woman is defined by. Whether it be her clothes, her hair, her posture, or her make-up, every choice she makes seems to be a marker to society. I like this text, because it uses the comparison of the unmarked man. A man can go outside in black shoes, a suit, parted hair and not be judged for how he chose to look that day. However, an automatic profile of a woman is made regardless of what she wears.  Tannen uses extended metaphors to show the difference in gender stereotypes.
        I liked both these pieces because they summarized the struggle of being a woman in society. Although slightly over-emphasized, these situations may still happen today. Having both an older sister and a younger one, I've seen my older sister succumb to the standards of today and so I want anything but that for my younger sister. In psychology, a study showed that people of one opinion or value understood the other side best when they were asked to "Consider the opposite." I think that men have to consider the opposite. They should place themselves in the role of women, who are scrutinized for any action done and expected to be less of a role in society. This awareness might reveal the hardships of being a woman, but it can also reveal the hardships of being a man. Awareness is the best way to change the way society makes gender roles out to be.

Blog 8: Pillow Angel Ethics 12/4/16

The case of the pillow angel has been widely controversial. Taking the criteria of selflessness, application for the future, and consent, this case is entirely unethical. The "portability" of the patient is reminiscent of an advertisement for some kind of technological appliance. Her breast tissue was removed on the basis of a family history of cancer rather than convenience for the child. There was no previous evidence of what would happen to a young girl with such a high dose of estrogen. Essentially, with no evidence, this is a case of human experimentation. Adjust for small factors, and this is a court case that ends the careers of the doctors at hand and throws the parents in jail. This 50-50 gamble might have landed on the right side, but if it hadn't, this argument would never be made again. With severe brain damage, this patient would not even register what is happening to her. Taking away this side of the equation, who is left? The parents. Only the parents are benefitting from this case. Medicine is for treatment, not for personal convenience. The surgery also brings up the concept of self identity. If her body is drastically changed, is the patient the same person as before? Ultimately, this is a medical fix to a social problem, where parents do not know what to do with a child born with disabilities, and a health care system that does not properly take care of such instances. For the future, where will the line be drawn? Now that sex-change operations are prevalent, what will stop parents from disfiguring their children? Adjusting length, width, and tissues, this makes the upbringing of children into a Mr. Potato Head concept. This is a pack of C4 just waiting to explode. With these parents undergoing no punishment for performing surgery without consent, no one can know to what extent these surgeries could go. Using the principles in this case, cited as "convenience" and "portability," why can't other parents keep their babies the same size forever? Surely, taking care of a 3 foot child is likely to be more convenient than a 5 or 6 foot adult.