Male and Female Stereotypes

Culturally it is interesting the way masculinity is perpetuated. It seems that males are pushed to dominate society from a very young age. “Little girls, therefore, are encourage to think ‘nurse’ and boys to think ‘doctor’” (Kokopeli, Lakey 233). Patriarchy pushes men to be competitive and domianant and it seems that they are much more effective at using these tools compared to women especially in the presenence of women. It makes sense that the males would be more successful around women because women are not pushed to be dominant and competitive the same way that men are. These ideas of women have “weak” qualities is an idea that has been cultured into people from a young age since we live in a patriarchal society. Unfortunately it is hard to be culturally accepted if a female seems to have male qualities and a male has female qualities. Females are not praised for their competitiveness, physical size and musculature, or being dominant. On the contrary, they are ostracized. This is extremely hard for people to cope with especially in the gay community. It is as if our culture has created a male and female stereotype. To go against this stereotype is to become an outcast in society. The trouble with this also is that in our modern society does not suite these stereotypes. Men and women both are finding that they are required to fill different positions in careers that require the use of qualities that would be stereotypical of the alternate sex, which in turn creates cultural strain for these people.

Burmese Monks

The reason the Burmese monk demonstrations were so successful is because they leverage their power onto the opposition and forced the opposition to infuriate the public eye. This they did by protesting which would have worked well even if they had not been beaten. “To physically assault a monk is one of the greatest sins in Buddhism: this spared mass indignation and helped the movement grow far more quickly than it would have otherwise” (Fink 355). Here we see how these monks created tension to push the movement forward faster than it normally would have. These were the only group of people who could have had this impact, and they used this to their advantage. Even had they protested and not been beaten, it would have made a strong impact because Buddhist monks rarely protest. It is also interesting what the monks are asking for. Instead of asking for the government to lower food prices and transportation costs, they are, “Chanting the metta sutta of loving and kindness towards all beings” (Fink 355). This way they appeal to third parties as wanting equality and fairness and not asking for price changes. This seems that it would be better to interest third party action because it is more broad and encapsulates the bigger picture of what the protest is about. It is about human rights in general, not so much about good costs. The specifics of the movement are important, but with the media involved it would make sense and would appeal more to other people if the word getting out angered people enough to get involved with the movement.

Female Power

From the feminist perspective, “Self-defense is self-love” (James, 1982. p. 383). From a feminist view this may very well be true especially in a male dominated society. Today males hold positions of power in not only political arenas, but also socially. To a certain level, females are expected to cook, clean, and take care of children. “For women it often means replacing lifelong patterns of powerlessness and dependence with strength and confidence” (James, 1982. p. 383). Dependence on males to support them and be there. This dependence stems from society and a history of dependence of females on the male. In a sense it is biological as well. Women biologically have to depend on males to raise their children. It isn’t like in other species where the female can rear her children alone with no problem. A human child can arguably take 25 years to raise in modern day society and without help from the male this could be extremely difficult for a mother. The term single mother and the connotations tied to it are very true. The type of power woman have traditionally had also ties into a woman’s feelings of powerlessness. “Traditionally found in manipulation, cajoling, pleading, even in using her body to bargain for what she wants” (James, 1982. p. 384). This shows that a woman’s power is much more passive and is not active. This can be changed through many avenues, but first it needs to be recognized.

internet

After Sarah Worley came in to talk to us about the powers of technology it donned on me that it was a huge untapped resource for media. We are in an information age and all mediums should be used in getting nonviolent movements to be most effective. There are many advantages to using the internet and the technology available to us to work nonviolently. The internet and blogging are hugely important to use in getting others to see your view point and get on board a certain movement. Writing can appeal to a persons ethics on a certain topic which will bring them to want to help your movement. Blogging is very important because it puts information out there for anyone with an internet connection to access. This is similar to the way a newspaper article, book, or television commercial works in that information is getting moved from one person to another. The downside to using the internet to get information out is that it is much more impersonal. There is a certain significance that seeing someone face to face brings into a struggle or an argument. At the same time however, it is much harder to thoroughly cover a topic if a person is forced to think quickly without reading over what they have first written. There is also the option of creating a virtual protest. Basically clogging a network so much so that the other party cannot operate. This is also not personal, but it is effective because many more people can be involved especially from different geographical areas.

Organizing a Movement

It’s all about power. Taking the power of one group of people or person and shifting it to another. To do this, great organization is needed to utilize the people to put pressure on on group to shift the power to another. From a nonviolent perspective it is key to use love with power once a person has attained power. “King spoke eloquently about the importance of power and the need to combine it with love. ‘One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites… Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice’” (Cortright 192). Political power relies on two main factors of money and people (Cortright 192). This means that the organization of a group of people is imperative in gaining political power. Unfortunately most social organizations looking to advocate change, don’t have the same amount of money politicians do, so they must rely on their ability on the number of people they can successfully organize. Organization is changing drastically due to technology. The communication capabilities of the modern world far surpass those even a decade ago. However, the idea is still the same; “to mobilize people and resources for collective action” (Cortright 195) The internet has been irreplaceable in terms of getting word out about organizing a movement. A campaign against the war in Iraq was started via the internet in 2002. MoveOn organized meetings with Congress members who opposed war, and generated nearly a million signatures in under a week, and vigils in 140 countries. The internet was key because this medium of communication was able to get word out to millions of people within an extremely short amount of time and be easily available for translations to get word to foreign countries (Cortright 195-196). Common ground is also very important when organizing. A unity of the social group must be found for a cohesiveness to reach an ultimate goal.

Strategic Nonviolent Defense

This article was particularly intriguing in the way it defined the “two major conceptions of ‘nonviolent defense.’” Civilian base nonviolent defense seems a bit dodgy. Firstly, it isn’t pure because the article explains that this type of defense is used because it can get results, not necessarily because the advocates are interested or buy into nonviolent action. For this reason it seems that it is much less effective than social nonviolence. Civilain based defense seems to be used more as a weapon that can be called upon to make change or wage war nonviolently. This I feel is not true though. It cannot be used to make any changes. To take something that isn’t deserved or rightfully yours cannot be taken nonviolently.

Social nonviolence however takes a much different view. The concern isn’t having an available weapon or for personal gain, but more so to make changes on a social level such as freedom and equality. It is more concerned about the livelihood of a group of individuals. It is much more community oriented and makes the connection that violence is not simply, “‘Overt physical damage, or the threat of such damage, to actually persons.’” This type of nonviolence embraces the enemy as an entity that isn’t against us or evil. It takes a stance much more toward loving your enemy so they see the mutuality between us and them, me and you, enemy and ally. Civilian based defense has a huge problem to overcome and this is that by isolating and hating the enemy, there can never be a mutual ground on which to agree and find peace.

Civil Rights

Non-violent action is actually a war. The civil rights movement was a 10 year battle against injustice. The only difference is that a war can be fought and be successful for land expansion, power, or money, where non-violent action cannot. It was interesting the way non-violence can only be used when the enemy is doing something unjust. It was interesting the way King made the US look upon itself and uphold the country’s own values to eradicate segregation. It seems often times injustice gets out of hand not because of where a belief started, but where it ended. King quoted the constitution and talked about how all men were created equal, but this phrase had been grossly spun about and now segregation started. The movement was very successful in pushing people to relearn and reevaluate their own beliefs on the subject by being forced to look at what they were doing to the black population. King’s concept of creating tension is also intriguing. He talks about the way to initiate change is through creating enough tension for the other person to change. He used the media to put tension and pressure on the government as well as the racist whites by showing the world what was happening through the media.