Stories and their power on self-concept and perception

 As children, we were all highly impressionable. Our world and our perspective mirrored what was around us, whether that be the influence of our families, the influence of our friends, the influence of school, or the influence of media through books and screens. In this TedTalk, the speaker shares our children's books influenced her as a young writer and beyond. Her self-concept was altered by the books she read as were the stories that she wrote 

Culture and Perspective

 

I recently read an incredibly haunting book, This Is Where It Ends. The book takes place over 54 minutes during a high school shooting. This book has been recommended to me by students for a few years, and I was grateful to make time to read it for my Young Adult Materials class I'm taking through Mankato to get my Master's. As I was reading the book, this video came to mind. In it, we can see a couple of things from class illustrated. One, I think it gives a pretty realistic portrayal of high school culture in America. Also, it offers a great lesson in perspective. Watching the last part of the video shows us all the things we most likely didn't notice the first time. Have you seen this video before? What did you think of it? 

Lesson on Culture during Super Bowl Halftime Show

I always look forward to Super Bowl Sunday. It's a fun reason to get family and friends together, to place silly bets, and critique the year's commercials. Since I love concerts and live musical performances, I always look forward to the halftime show, too. This year had me very curious and interested since I've always enjoyed Shakira's music. As I watched the halftime show with a big spectrum of ages, from my own parents to my own kiddos, I found myself curious about the clothing and prop choices. My dad kept asking questions and commenting on how offensive or strange the show was, especially with its lack of English (ethnocentrism in action!) and American pride. I tried to remind him this was Miami, home to a strong Latino culture. The next morning, I stumbled upon this Social Media post by

Brianne Schneckenberger is with Brook Elise Steppe:

The comments and memes about last night's half-time show just reminds me how white-centric the American mind is. There were so many cultural references in last night's show and I'd say probably very few white Americans recognized them.

The Superbowl was hosted in Miami this year - a city nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America".

Some of the costumes in J-Lo's performance showed a tribute to Selena, one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of all time (who J-Lo played in the 1997 biographical film.)

J-Lo, who is of Puerto Rican descent, donned a reversible cape showing the Puerto Rican and American Flags on either side. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory which is still recovering from devastating damage from a hurricane and subsequent earthquakes. J-Lo has notably donated at least $1 million towards aid for Puerto Rico. Her daughter singing "Born in the USA" was a reminder that Puerto Ricans are Americans too.

I know some people said "Let's have more of the kids singing! It should be family friendly!" While that was happening, other children were shown in cage-like structures to represent a subtle nod to the children (mostly of Latino descent) we have kept in detention over the past several administrations.

And Shakira. Thanks to my sister's obsession I grew up knowing a LOT about Shakira! Her father's parents were Lebanese immigrants who emigrated to New York City where her father was born and then subsequently immigrated to Barranquilla, Colombia - where waves of Middle Eastern immigrants came after WW1 and WW2.

The "weird tongue thing" she did? That's called a zaghrouta which is used to express joy in Arabic culture. Shakira is very proud of her Lebanese roots and has been belly dancing since the age of 4.

The "stomping dance" she did? Champeta! A tribute to Afro-Colombian culture.

In fact almost all the dancing in the half-time show was a nod to Latin or Afro-Latin culture including mapalé and salsa.

So maybe you thought it was "nasty" or "not family-friendly" but I saw it as pride, a celebration of culture, and one of the most honoring things these two women could have done for Latin Americans. 🤷‍♀️

New perspective of "Worry"

This TEDtalk was a real eye-opener for me! As one who has struggled with anxiety for years, worry is a feeling I'm pretty familiar with, but after listening to this TEDtalk, I have a new perspective. My perception of "worry is different" as well as my connotation, which we will discuss in Chapter 5.

How Movies Teach the Masculine Culture

While looking up the Blue Eyes Brow Eyes experiment video for class, I stumbled upon this interested TEDTalk that looks at how movies can influence masculine and feminine culture! Check it out here:

Dancing to Our Own Beat

Rather than write my own blog post this week, I would like to share the one I contributed to Rochester City Moms Blog! I'm pretty proud of this one. Once a month, I write a blog for them to publish. It's a fun hobby!

https://rochestermn.citymomsblog.com/family/dancing-to-our-own-beat/?fbclid=IwAR1wLs8vBjioShyUt4xeOxAP-EODHCfIaqdp82VdPurjfU4udUqO-RHppuI

Earplugs

Last night my hubby and I went to a concert at the Armory in Minneapolis. We were there for The Devil Makes Three and one of our favorites, Flogging Molly. We've been to this venue before, but for some reason, it was exceptionally loud last night. So much so that the venue was giving out earplugs, which we gratefully accepted. We'be both been to dozens of concerts together, but this one was one of the loudest. Once the earplugs were in, we had an obstacle. Those earplugs caused us even more physical noise than the music did; there was no way to hear each other with earplugs in. We came up with a quick solution, though. Although we probably looked a little silly, we texted out messages and showed them to each other rather than send them. It worked really well!