MAUUGGAGE. its what BWINGS us TOGEDDA today.

      So if anybody can tell me what that movie reference is in my tittle for the post gets 12 Premont Points.
alright, now that is out of the way. This week we talked about relationships and love and marriage. aww so sweet right. yes, that is the answer. I have never experienced marriage, so I have no authority over this topic, but I will talk about it anyway.

      I would consider myself very traditional when it comes to marriage and dating and things of that sort. In class we completed something called the marriage contract. We answered questions about marriage such as technical things like, will the wife take husbands last name? Will we have kids? Who will take out the trash?Will both parents work? etc. These are all important topics to discuss while couples are in the stages of courtship and even engagement. These differences are big factors in a relationship, some may even be deal breakers. While dating we should be getting to know each other more deeply. Relationships should flow naturally, have no forced feelings, and each person should be able to be themselves completely.Couples should address frustrations easily and be able to solve problems with each other.Here is a cool blog that I found that touches on marriage and other such subjects.click here .

Now where was I? oh yea marriage. Its what brings us together. The end.

WOW, they're Cute!

Attraction, the number one thing that leads to a relationship. Any type of relationship that is, friends, romantic, parental, etc. What causes people to be attracted to one another? Is it similarities? differences? interest? social status? All these factors play into what makes a person attracted to another. The first thing that draws a person to someone is their appearance.  It is a fact, eventually a person needs to be physically attracted to their partner in order to keep on a relationship. I believe that the appearance aspect does not necessarily need to be the first aspect that attracts a person, but eventually it needs to be there. Lots of people meet their spouse and start to like them for other reasons, such as personality and then as they get to know that person they become more and more attractive.

 I see people forming romantic relationships all the time. Why is it happening? I guess love is in the air or cupid is shooting arrows left and right because couples are everywhere. This is a good thing! I love seeing other people happy. These types of relationships are formed by first propinquity. This word means to be in close distance or nearness. We have to be around a person in order to form a relationship. It is just essential. The second is similarities, we have to have things in common to talk, connect and bond with or else we are just mush sitting there staring at each other in awkward silence. Third is physical attractiveness and well this is self explanatory.

  Emotion linked to Gender
        

          Gender plays a big role in all of our lives. Am I right? I think so. Without Gender how would we know who we really are? What is acceptable by society to like and dislike? How we should act around other people? All these things are influenced by Gender. Now there are some aspects of genders that are natural. Women are more tender, delicate, and dainty while men are said to be "macho" and "manly" . These are the stereotypes we place on gender roles. Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks. Girls are relationship oriented and communicate emotionally and verbally as men are spatially oriented and communicate through their actions. The way Men and Women express emotion are very different. It is not that They feel different emotions it is that it is not socially acceptable for men to express how they feel the same way women do. How often do men express emotion through anger? I say pretty often. Why? Because it is not acceptable for men to say they are feeling vulnerable and lost. For example. Take a man who has a wife and kids who just lost his job. He must go home and tell his wife the news. In this time he may be feeling deeper emotions such as disappointment in himself, regret, loss of the sense of "provide, preside, and protect". When he gets home he kicks the dog out of the way, gets upset with his children for not cleaning up their mess and makes rude remarks about the dinner that was prepared. He is funneling his emotions as anger when really he is over whelmed with what happened in the work day.We as people let these "societal gender roles" dictate who we are. A man who just lost his job should just be able to express to his wife how he is feeling straight up, not having to leave hints of how he is actually feeling in aggressive actions.
       I am not saying that  all men should start crying over everything because that is how we feel or that all women should be more manly and show less emotion, there needs to be a Gender barrier, but what I am saying is that we cannot let Stereotypes of who we are supposed to be decide who we actually are, weather it be based on our our appearance, financial situation, race, or gender. We need to stray away from the world in this sense and live our lives how we believe we should be.

Are all Cultures Valid?

This was a question posed by my teacher this week and that got me thinking. Are all cultures really valid? The word valid to me means effective or correct. So during class when we were discussing this it was brought to my attention that no, not all cultures are valid. Every culture believes they are correct and others are repulsive. To Americans the middle eastern culture is controlling. The way women are perceived and treated by men is not acceptable in American culture. In other cultures women get married off young. These are extreme cases. In the context of the family not all cultures are effective in creating the ideal family life. Some cultures accomplish the family way better than others can and do. The american culture has made divorce socially acceptable while in Latin countries they are solely focused on their families and divorce is not an option. The Latin culture wins at this part of "the family" Some cultures are effective in the way they govern and run their families. For example, in Holland everyone gets the same salary. If your a trash man you get the same amount of money as a doctor. The people in Holland seem happy because there is no competition over money or status. This is their culture. Everyone is deemed equal. Holland may be more effective in the wellness of their people then maybe those Asian cultures who are told when and what to do everyday. The Asian race in general does not seem as happy as other cultures. this may be because their key ideals is to be honored and hard working. They are always serious. CBS news released a study done that declared Latin Americans as the happiest people. Why? what in their lives makes them so happy. The article can be read here.  My answer to the posed question is No. No not all cultures are equally valid. May cultures have different traditions and practices that seem strange to others, but it doesn't matter how "weird" it is. what matters is the reason, and meaning behind it.

Hello fellow classmates and any other viewers who were lucky enough to click on this blog,
This week in Family Relations I personally found our class discussions fascinating. We spoke about Family Systems Theory. There are four different theories. The first one is systems theory. This theory is my personal favorite because it is viewed as a whole. Each family member has a specific role and there are rules. The second theory is the exchange theory- doing something for someone else expecting a favor in return. This is a give and take situation. This theory has several flaws in the way people can react and communicate to impact the family negatively. Symbolic Interaction is when every action means something to someone else. This become analytic and every behavior suggest a meaning. As people we create and assume meaning from all interactions. these interactions are easy to misunderstand. the last theory is the Conflict theory. This is when power maybe overt or subtle, but all families find ways to resolve their conflicts. I would put my family in the systems theory because I feel we each have definite roles in our family. Maybe that is why I favor that theory, but in our family it works.I have definitely seen these other theories take place in other families and they work for some, but not for all families.