EDF2085-Reflection #8

My parents always taught me to be happy with what I have. I think I am fine in my social class, my parents always taught me to share what I have with others. They taught me that we were always middle class working people because we work hard for what we have. The media makes it feel as if being high class is the way to go and is so easy to accomplish, and everything has to be labels, designers, brand name, you name it. This is why everyone tries so hard getting all these expensive things because they see how the media flaunts what they have. Everyone tries to follow celebrities because they are the famous ones. When it comes to gender, my parents always taught me that baseball, football, and basketball was for boys, and girls had to do ballet or cheerleading. This is what all the girls in my family did, we danced and cheered. My brother played baseball for a bit. But, this is the way I was brought up, that girls really weren’t allowed to do masculine things. The media teaches us that no matter what your gender you can do anything. You can play volleyball, become an actor/actress, and regardless of all that succeed in life in whatever you do. I was taught that in a relationship the guy is the one that has to ask you out, for your number, and ask to marry you. The media teaches this also through different romance movies, which is how they reinforce it. My parents always taught me the right thing about sexual relations and they shouldn’t be any done before marriage. I have learned this in my schools throughout my whole life in a private Catholic school. I was always taught that is something that should be done if you truly love someone and have certain feelings for them. You shouldn’t just go around doing that because you can get diseases, or get pregnant and regret it later. But, on the other hand the media does not teach this. They have explicit message in their songs and there are constant rumors about different sexual relations with people other than their wife/ husband. The media is the big influence for many people in today’s society. Many people think that just because it is in the media it is the right thing to do, but it isn’t actually.