The Throwaways is a documentary created by director Bhawin Suchak. Within the film, activists are fighting to receive equality and justice. The film shows angry parents pushing for more safety precautions. Living in a Urban setting like our capital region of Albany is stressful. The burdens of living a city under poorer conditions does not guarantee the highest quality. According to Adam et al (1985), the throwaways are a term used for the population of people that are rejected by society. While runaways refer to adolescents that runaway from home, throwaways are those who are asked or encouraged to leave. Therefore this term has been coined in order to describe a group of people that are not wanted. Similar to the activist in the documentary, she claims that The Throwaways are the population of citizens that most do not want to deal with, nor do they know how. In addition, the activists complained about the violence within the neighborhoods. One man claimed that the “hood” was a place where African Americans came to die. The violence that is lies within the neighborhood has deeply affected the youth as well as other members. According to DuRant et al (1994), homicide is the number one leading cause of death in black Americans ages 15 to 19. Downtown Albany is definitely an unsafe place to raise children. The different environmental factors lead to issues in adolescents and later in life.
1. Adams, G.R., Gullotta, T & M.A. Clancy. “Homeless Adolescents: A descriptive study of similarities and differences between runaways and throwaways.” Adolescents. 20.79 (1985).
2. DuRant, R., Cadenhead, C., Pendergrast, R., Slavens, G., & Charles Linder. “Factors Associated with the use of violence among urban black adolescents.” American Journal of Public Health. 84.4 (1994) 612-617.
On April 22nd, Brian Frank , a member and advocate for the LGBT community came into class to talk about the difficulties of belonging to this community especially when family is concerned. Brian Frank described his story of becoming a father as a gay man. In a society where homosexual and transgendered people are a minority, becoming parents was unheard of and an incredible task 20 years ago. Brian began by telling us his background. He was a closeted bisexual who was confused about his sexual orientation and did not come out until meeting his now partner, Steven. Being together 23 years molded the men into an intimate and comfortable couple that made the courageous decision to become parents.
I think that Brian Frank’s story is inspiring. To come from a family that does not respect or accept him, but still have the desire to start a family of his own is beautiful. He told us stories and showed us pictures of the numerous occasions that him and his partner believed that their family was starting when they were fostering different children. I could never imagine the heartbreak of giving up every child that comes into your life. I think that there are so many people in this world that have no business being parents. Parents that neglect and abuse children, giving them lives that do not benefit the children in any way. Brian explained a story of two foster parents that refused to adopt two children but also refused to let Brian and Steven adopt the boys solely because they were gay. This story only shows the indecency in people and how cruel people can be.
Overall, I believe that Brian Frank’s presentation was the best class of the semester. It was realistic and transparent just as he had promised. There are so many different ways for LGBT couples to start families now, that do not need to be through adopting foster children. Couples could have children through surrogacy, heteorsexual relationships, and other family structures. All children deserve a place to live and loving families to care for them, regardless of the sexual orientation of the parents in the family.
These are some links to websites about LGBT families:
On this past Saturday, April 12th, I attended Sociology Student Symposium to watch fellow classmates and filmmakers present their studies. Throughout the day there were several different panels and three documentaries that touched on many different topics. I had volunteered to sign people in for breakfast and then I attend the documentary, “The Patron Saints,” that was directed by Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky. The documentary was shot in a nursing home over a period of five years. The directors chose to focus on a few subjects in particular and a few aspects of nursing homes that influence the day to day lives of these individuals.
With the increasing amount of elderly people, there is a growing population that will need further care in the future. Nursing homes or other aided care is necessary with daily activity. According to Gillian Harper Ice (2002), most residents of nursing homes are disabled, weak or have chronic, coexisting conditions. Most patients are in need of assistance in their day to day care. They are highly dependent on the institution’s staff as well as family members not only for physical needs but emotional and psychological needs as well. The patients within the documentary were experiencing a variety of issues, most had cases of dementia. One patient was unaware of where she was or her reason for being there. Other patients, were hand fed their meals, clothed, washed and given medications at all hours. Staff members are aware of their conditions and take care of the patients to the best of their ability.
Nursing home staff members are often highly stressed. Acting as a caretaker for many patients at one time is a lot of work for minimal pay. One study, shows that although stressful, the work is harder depending on the feelings of the patient/resident (Brodaty et. al, 2003). Staff within this study found that most patients had negative attitudes, not positive. These residents were much harder to please, while most of the staff enjoyed their jobs, 25% claimed that it was not because of the patients. The directors of the film captured a gracious relationship between resident and staff. The film showed patients that only see their families once or twice a year. The staff must double as company and a caretaker. According to Cooper, Selwood, and Livingston, one in four of the elderly are at risk of neglect. A disabled young woman, who they called Ro-Ro in the documentary, was physically abused by a family member and is unable to have unsupervised visits and her roommate had taken on a maternal role in her life. Overall, the relationship between the nursing home staff and residents was professional and caring. The nurses were assertive when the patients were not cooperating, however all nursing staff was helpful and caring.
The documentary was very moving. Jim, one of the patients, added humor to the film as well. It was upsetting to learn families rarely visit their residents. They were lonely and neglected. I think that many elderly people are uncomfortable being in nursing homes to begin with. A comforting staff seems to ease the resident into cooperating and overall benefiting their health.
The following is a link to the trailer of the documentary.
Brodaty, Henry, Brian Draper & Lee-Fay Low. “Nursing home staff attitudes towards residents with dementia: strain and satisfaction with work.” Journal of Advanced Nursing. 44(2003): 583-590.
Cooper, Claudia, Amber Selwood, & Gill Livingston. “The prevalence of elder abuse and neglect:a systematic review.” Age and Aging. 37(2008): 151-160.
Ice, Gillian Harper. “Daily life in a nursing home Has it changed in 25 years?” Journal of Aging Studies. 16(2002): 345-359.
The United States is a country where the economic divide is a pressing issue. The economy in our country is a defining factor and major issue in our society today. In class, we watched the documentary, Inequality for All, which explains the inconsistencies in our economy and the differences between the top 1% and the rest of the country. Statistics show that the top 1% of citizens, 400 people, have more wealth than half of the United State combined. What we learn is that the middle class is at the heart the economy. Many people believe that the wealth is at the center because they are the job creators. People would ask, how do we tax the companies that hire workers and create work? The middle class however is at the center. The middle class is what keeps the economy going standing between the wealthiest citizens and those living in poverty. With the middle class, the economy can make an attempt to stablize the effects of inequality in the United States.
The following link is the website of the documentary:
In recent years, many people have become reliant on technology and social media to connect with others. Websites for online dating have become increasingly popular in recent decades. Several dating websites have made it possible for singles to find and contact other singles in order to find a relationship, simply by making a profile with their own personal information. Singles can choose qualities that they find most important to them and “shop” for a man or woman with whom they have similar interests or an attractive body type. Personally, I want to research the role that one’s salary or occupation plays in a single’s interest. Does one’s interest in another depend highly on the amount of income or socioeconomic status? Do people place high importance on wealth and success?
Although online dating makes life easier for singles to find other partners, it is also important for online daters to understand that people are not always what they seem. Both males and females put false information on their personal pages in order to appear more appealing to others on the website, though males and females tend to lie about different things. Women are more likely to lie about appearance or age. Men on the other hand, tend to lie about their height and income. In the documentary we watched, they state that if a man is under the height of 5’10”, you should add another $40,000 to your salary. In other words, men must make up for other flaws with money because women are more likely to be interested.
Furthermore, one website states that regardless of salary, people should be more concerned with how they spend it. A person could make over $100,000 per year yet spend their money in foolish ways. The article also says that people tend to have different perceptions of money. What one person might think is a low income might be higher and successful to someone else.
This is my storify on how domestic violence. I focused on the definition of domestic violence and how it affects the children later in life. Often times even if the children are just witnessing domestic violence, it could ultimately cause psychological harm.
The term I choose to research was norms. Norms are behaviors performed by a given group of people or society. These behaviors can vary depending on one’s demographics and other societal factors. Norms are what society deems to be appropriate behavior or inappropriate behavior for the individuals within the society. Norms dictate how people live, dress, speak and act. Members that fail to conform are often seen as outsiders. Again, norms that are acceptable in one society may be considered unacceptable in another. However, norms do change over time. In the past, the more traditional family was the father, mother, and children. Recently, divorce and remarriage is better accepted, as well as single parent homes in some societies. In the past, divorce was not a social norm, while now divorce rates show 40 to 50% of marriages end in divorce. In conclusion, over time as a member of society we learn and accept the rules the society has given us.
Cognitive Dissonance is a theory researched by Sociologist Leon Festinger. The term represents when one’s belief is conflicted by one’s own previous belief. These beliefs often influence our actions and our daily life functions. As human beings we wish to have order and have a need to understand what we do and why we do things. Cognitive dissonance is often problematic when it comes to decision making. Festinger suggests that people have the inner need to consistency, people want their beliefs to match all other beliefs and behaviors. For example, people smoke because they are addicted to the nicotine that is in cigarettes although they know that the nicotine has been linked to cancer and other negative health outcomes.
Within the Sociological Perspective, I have chosen to further explore the concept of value neutrality. Value neutrality is the idea that research can be carried out without bias of the experimenters.The idea that personal values will not influence the results of a sociological study or experiment. If social scientists fail to keep their experiments value neutral than the experimenters risk grasping a more subjective perspective rather than an objective perspective of the given topic or issue. This concept is important to sociology and a sociological understanding of society because maybe social scientists find value neutrality impossible. It is impossible to keep one’s own opinion or values separate from the results. Scientists usually ask questions and find information based on what they has originally hypothesized themselves.
This is a meme depicting value neutrality. We can only imagine a world where one’s own opinion does not influence the results of an experiment.
jenn.terrio 