7 December 2010 Final Project

Love: A Science?

Fig. 1

Biologically, we as humans are wired to do certain things such as flirt, court, and pair off. We each have a love map that works as a template for what “arouses you sexually, what drives you to fall in love with one person rather than another” (Fisher 304).  These maps lead us to have tendencies to want to pair with one particular person: “Pair- bonding is a trademark of the human animal” (306). Throughout time, people have always been intrigued by, have desired, or have possessed love. In Brownlee's essay, "Can't Do Without Love: What Science Says About Those Tender Feelings," she says that ". . . love is central to human existence" (Brownlee 295). Love is written into us; it is a part of us biologically and is related to our genotype, with phenotypic characteristics, such as flirting, courting, and pairing off.

Fig. 2

When women flirt, they demonstrate many behavioral characteristics signaling that they are attracted to a potential mate. This is not exclusive to women of a single culture either, “Women from places as different as the jungles of Amazonia, the salons of Paris, and the highlands of New Guinea apparently flirt with the same sequence of expressions” (Fisher 300). Women primarily smile and lift their eyebrows; this is often followed by her tilting her head and looking aside. Many scientists believe that these physical behaviors are innate and show signs of sexual interest (300). Men alike have outward displays of interest, they often thrust their chest; many of their displays seem to display dominance, but often times it is representing his interest in courting a woman.

Fig. 3

Courting plays an essential role in the mating process, and it is said that, “Romantic attraction in humans and its antecedent in other mammalian species play a primary role; this neural mechanism motivates individuals to focus their courtship energy on specific others, thereby conserving valuable time and metabolic energy, and facilitation mate choice” (Aron, Brown, Fisher 2173). Courtship is a biological key to falling in love and “Normally people woo each other slowly” (Fisher 303). Through courting, women know if a man is able to provide, and it is also key to reproductive functioning.

Courting leads to pairing off exclusively which leads people to the decision to be married. Looking at it from a biological perspective, it is said that,

Data on mate choice among mammals suggests that this behavioral ‘attraction system’ is associated with dopaminergic reward pathways in the brain. It has been proposed that this intense romantic love, a human cross-cultural universal, is a developed form of this attraction system. (Aron, Brown, Fisher 2173)

 Fisher says about American mating specifically, “We marry for love and to accentuate, balance out, or make parts of our private selves” (Fisher 308). In other words, we biologically mate to complete ourselves and to propagate more of our genes, not for economic, political, or family reasons. We learn about what we need to complete ourselves through courting and flirting, however, we are unconscious of it, because we are simply biologically steered.

Fig. 4

Universally, humans biologically posses a genotype that their phenotype exemplifies by unconsciously seeking for a mate to pair off with. In regards to mating or sexual selection, Darwin, ". . . regarded this phenomenon . . . as a central aspect to intersexual selection, the type of sexual selection by which individuals of one sex evolve traits that attract members of the opposite sex" (Aron, Brown, Fisher 2173). These evolved traits that Darwin is talking about are evident in our outward dispositions. Our somas are biologically engineered to fall in love. Initially we flirt with others whom we are sexually attracted to, flirting leads to courting, and courting leads to mating which we define as love; all of this is driven by biology: "Mammalian . . . species have evolved many physical and behavioral characteristics by means of mate choice" (2178). Biology has evolved so our genotype causes our phenotype to illustrate certain tendencies in relation to mating. When we take away all the roses and chocolates, fancy dates, and big weddings, we find love is ultimately a science. 

Click here for works cited: Works Cited

Amber Crouch’s Greatest Hits!

Amber, I really enjoyed through your blog. I felt you had many interesting opinions and thoughts on the topics that we covered throughout the semester. In your “Marrying to get Divorced” post, I thought your ideas were worthy to take note of. They differed from my personal reasons, but I saw valid reasons in the post to support your claims, and it really got me thinking as a reader about my opinions.

Your directed freewrite on government control contained, although semi radical ideas, interesting and ones that I feel could be supported. You could take this piece and write it from an academic standpoint, and I think you would have a great and strong piece. Finding evidence for your claim would not be difficult, and outside sources would extremely help validate where you personally stand. Your post on materialism was the post that I felt had your best developed ideas, with supporting claims to back up the point you were trying to get across. I also noticed this was one of your longer posts, so I think by elongating your other posts, you would achieve this same thing. One of your best summaries was found in “Natural Behavior in Animals.” I also enjoyed reading the rebuttals that you had to what the author in that piece said.

Overall, in your posts I felt you showed very strong voice as a writer. It was clear how you felt in your posts and where you stood. I think this is a great strength you have. Several writers might use a lot of fancy words, but they lack voice, which makes their work seem empty. I also noticed that you have improved as a writer throughout the course, and that is something to be commended on. Your writing became clearer and your ideas more developed throughout. I think you could do just about any previous post for your final project and do a great job.

Good luck with the rest of your semester and with this class! I hope everything goes well for you.

Jessica

Morgan Paulson’s Greatest Hits!

I really enjoyed reading through your blog. You had many interesting ideas presented in your posts. I felt your “Is the Study of Consciousness Scientific?” post was very well written technical piece. Your writing exemplified great precision and portrayed much intelligence on your part. A post that was a good example of a well done summary was your post “Can Machines Think?” It was a well organized post and fluid throughout. You had a lot of technical, researched points, but you also had many intriguing ideas of your own. I liked your “High-heel Madness” post, as well. This was not as advance written as your other posts, but I liked it because you had a lot of voice. It gave insight into who you are as a person and what you are like, something that is not seen in your other scholarly posts.

I feel your “Out of Capitalism Emerges Gay Identity” post offers a great framework for your final project possibly. You have a strong, valid case and could easily add to that by finding other outside sources to validate your argument. You already have the foundation for a good essay. In the post entitled “Immigration and cultural music trends,” you say you disagree with the author, Lipsitz, throughout your post. I think it would be interesting to see what you think the influence of music does to women in particularly, what message it sends to them and possibly to the demographic that you feel that you fit in to. I think this post has a lot of room to grow. Especially if you develop it like I said, what music says to women in your demographic. From your post, I gathered that you probably have a lot of opinions about this, and I guarantee that you could find evidence to back up whatever your claim is. Also, with our final project, we have to have media and visual elements, and this post would be a great one to do that with. I noticed in a few of your first posts that you had improper MLA in-text citations, but these were improved and fixed in your middle posts and carried out through your later posts, so great job on that.

You have many strengths as I writer that I personally saw. Once thing I would like to commend you on is your excellent word choice throughout all of your blogs. You used a variety of words and also more complex words to get your point across. I think this showed credibility to your writings and also emphasized that you know what you are talking about. Another thing I wanted to extol you for is how exceptionally well you develop your ideas. None of your posts were just one short, little paragraph. They were all well thought out posts. You presented your ideas in the opening paragraph and did a superb job of developing and proving your point with the rest of your post.

Once again I enjoyed reading your blog. Good luck with the rest of your semester and I hope all goes well for you!

Jessica

9 November 2010: Week 12 Blog Reviews

Lauren Spencer:

“George Orwell Said it Best”

I liked your great use of referencing a past work in relation to your own ideals. This is one of my favorite novels and I found it extremely intriguing, and like you, applicable to today.  I thought it was clever of you to use it to open your post and then go in to how it relates to your own ideas. You have very strong opinions, but they are not pushy onto the reader, so good job with that.  1984 is a book title, so make sure you underline it. Also, you need commas in quite a few places, so watch for that and also watch using the word ‘you’ in a paper.

“Rollin’ in the Benjamins”

I enjoyed your opening and how it led up to your next paragraph about finance being about more than just wanting money and you went into more explicit detail. I think adding quotes from the text would really strengthen what you want to say. Be careful with your tenses, I noticed a few spots where you went back and forth between past and present; be fluid throughout.

Darien Allen

“Centralized Government: The Good, Bad, or the Ugly?”

            I really enjoyed the quotes you used to back up what you were saying; they added validity to your point. I felt you had a good argument and even if I personally do not agree with where you might stand, you argued your case well and as a reader I understood the basis for it. This was a well written piece. I think you could expand on it for our next essay and have a good piece of work. I agree with you as well that there are too many variables to consider to truly be able to judge what is best for a government and country.

On a side note: Your last words totally reminded me of the 7^th Harry Potter book, “for the greater good” (probably because I just re read itJ ).

“The Evolution of Finance”

I agree with you that this was really hard to read (and actually kind of boring to me), but despite that, I felt you did a good job summarizing and hitting all the main points of the piece. You were able to put everything much simpler to where the reader can understand it. So I would say good summarization for such a difficult piece.

4 November 2010: Page 455 Directed Freewrite

Discipline of Finance

Money. All over the world people use some form of exchange in order to trade goods and in a majority of cultures, money is used to make and regulate these trades. Everyone needs money to live and also so they can experience certain enjoyments in life. Not only do people need money; they want it. The desire to have money, and a lot of it, is one characteristic of western cultures. Due to this need and this desire that our culture has, the discipline of finance emerged, a field absolutely necessary in our world and economy today.

            Finance is studying how money is acquired and invested. People have predictive behaviors in relation to some things. Finance tries to predict these behaviors and translate it into mathematical descriptions. The world of finance emerged directly after World War II. Since the end of that war to the place we are now, our society has experienced extreme advancements in technology. World War II helped the United States get out of debt due to the large amount of factories that produced weapons and machinery for the war effort. This boosted the economy in a way that had never been seen before. After the war, the economy was at an all time high; people realized. When people have money, they want more. Hence, investing was created. Also since that time, copious amounts of businesses have opened, with the myriad of businesses, money needed to be better managed, thus came the emergence of finance.

Due to all of these changes, the practitioners of finance were able to find their way into the world of academics. The reason for this was due to the large number of jobs that were able to be created due to the advances made. These jobs require training and knowledge, things that can be obtained through academic training. Prior to entering the work field, people pursing this field need a background of what this field is and need to understand it before entering it. The academic world does this, thus the discipline easily carves a niche for itself in the academic world, a niche that is essential.

In the tumultuous world that we live in, finance is essential to understanding business, which is what our culture is built on, corporate America. It has created jobs and expanded our understanding of the one thing we need to live, money. 

2 November 2010: Directed Freewrite

Balance in the States

When anything is taken to an extremity, there are drawbacks and overall negative results. Taking an extreme position on any view, leads to a close mindedness in a person, that does not allow them to shift from their point; they are set in his or her ways and do not want to vary from that. With complete government control, people cannot form their own beliefs. They are restricted on the basis that when they enter into this world, much of what they can and cannot do is already outlined for them. They have many rules and values pushed on and forced into them by the society they are born in to. They never get to completely gain their own set of beliefs, and values. On the opposite side of the stratus, are people who believe in little or no government control. If this were the case, many things and ideas would spin out of control without an intervention from another party. My view lies in the middle of the two extremities of the continuum of government control.

I have a firm belief that the focus of what the government can control should be contained and determined primarily by each individual state, with little intervention at the national level. Each state should govern their people and make rules based on the needs of the people in that particular state. By doing this, people can choose to live in the state that most closely represents their beliefs and lifestyle. Everyone then can be free to choose where they live and what laws and regulations they want to abide by. There would be no national government restriction on everybody. This is originally how the United States was set up to operate. The founding fathers wanted to leave things up to each state to determine. We see traces of this still being the case in our society, but overall, every issue seems to end up at the national level. We as a country have largely drifted from this model, and I personally see many negative impacts because of it. The laws in Arizona should and need to be different than laws say in Nebraska. The demographic of people in both of those states vary immensely, and so the laws that govern them should be different also.

Think of all the issues that face our country right now. Abortion, immigration, homosexual marriage, the list continues on and on. Currently, each state is able to choose where they stand, but then these issues all end up at the national level, with everyone wanting to amend the overall constitution. If each state was able to contain a large part of government control, then each state could come up with their own things they want to control.

Strong communities lead to strong nations.  That is what we need to go back to and by returning to more of a focus on a state based government, I feel we would be a stronger nation. I believe my stand, which directly reflects the stand that the United States was built on, is a balance of the two extremes. People are still under government control, but they get to choose how much, and what they want to be controlled. It is choice and having a choice is freedom.  

Week 11 Blog Reviews: 2 November 2010

Lauren Spencer

“Material World”

I like how you portrayed your view of materialism. You put it well that we can buy things and have things, as long as it is reasonable and within our means. If you wanted to use this post for a future paper, you could use the idea you brought up about the state our country is in today and expand on that in relation to your ideas. I think you could have a lot to say and have a lot of information to back up your claims.

A few things, in your opening sentence, you need to close the quote with quotations, probably just a typo. Also the sentence “So why not spend money you can't take with you on things that you can't take with you” needs to be restructured to make more sense. There were a few other little grammar details such as commas that need to be put in as well. Great job!

“America: The Melting Pot”

I really enjoyed the way you phrased this sentence “I think the same thing applies for people; "don't judge a person based on their stereotype".” You used a great comparison to the judging a book by its cover. This is a good post, that could be even better if you could expand on the way that these people have influenced and benefited the United States. You spend a lot of time describing the stereotypes, then at the very end you throw in a few things that are good. You have a lot of good ideas in this paper.

You do not need apostrophes here to make them plural “burrito's, taco's.” Also, you need a question mark at the end of this sentence and a comma after the work ‘this’: “Having said this do you feel as though your culture has been misinterpreted.” Those are just a few grammar suggestions (I know, can’t you totally tell I am going to be an English teacher. J ) that I noticed. Overall , I enjoyed both of your posts. Great ideas!

Darien Allen

“Materialism: A Meaning Response”

This is an incredibly well written essay. The opening was different than what I would have expected, but I liked you connected it to anthropology and it tied in perfectly to what your paper was about. I love your word choice throughout. I also, like your examples of the tattoo and handbag for modern examples; they were relatable and identifiable.

Your second to last paragraph ends with a colon and not a period. Also, your last paragraph is in a different font. These are probably just little typos, but if you revise this post for an essay, I wanted you to be aware of them. J Excellent post!

“China’s Varying Influence”

Good post on Chinese Immigrants. I saw at the end how you kind of had an outline for expanding this post into a full blown essay. I was going to suggest to you to expand on how they influence the economy, then I saw it in your outline J. I think this is a good start to what could be a good essay, possibly for the next one that is due. Looking at your outline, you have a clear direction where you want to take this and ideas for it.

One thing I would suggest is maybe to take out the part that there is no policy like the one we have for Hispanic immigrants today. As a reader, I felt that was a little of topic from the point you were trying to make about Chinese immigrants, but that is just my suggestion. Overall, great start. 

28 October 2010: Page 426 #1

Native American Economy

When many people in America hear the words “Native American,” often times, there is a predictable myriad of assumptions and stereotypes that come into their minds. These are things such as lazy, living off the government, drunks, and several other words that generally all carry negative connotations. Many assume that the Native people live off the government by allowing them to put casinos onto reservations. Interestingly, however, Native Americans have a large impact on the American economy-and overall, it is quite a good and valuable impact.

A Harvard Project study came to find that “. . . no matter whether a tribe has undertaken gambling operations, its economy has grown at about three times the rate of the U.S. since the late 1980s” (“Economy growth faster for Native Americans”). This here exemplifies that regardless of whether a tribe builds a casino or not, their economic growth is continually rising, and has superseded that of the United States overall. Native Americans have begun to start rebuilding their governments and communities, and this is having an overall positive effect, “In recent years, tribes have been setting their sights on other lucrative opportunities from retail to banking to pharmaceuticals. And it's having a positive effect on state economies” (“Native American tribes contribute to state economies”).

 With the building up of these aspects, it is having a beneficial effect on the state’s economy where these tribes are located. When states are benefiting, this causes the overall American economy to benefit. In the state of Washington, the tribes there “contribute $1 billion annually to the state’s economy” (1). Furthermore, many tribes “are seeking to develop sustainable economies” (1). Here in Arizona, the Hopi tribe just purchased a shopping center in Flagstaff to contribute to the economy there (1). The Native American people are not living off the government; they are positively contributing to it.

I am half Native American and have seen some of the positive influences Native Americans have had on the economy. There are many stereotypes of this people, and in some cases they may be true, but not in a majority of cases. Native American tribes are taking it one step at a time, by starting to build up their own communities and this is having a national effect. If all communities would begin by building there, there would be an overall positive effect on the American economy.

Works Cited

“Economy growth faster for Native Americans.” The Arizona Republic. 26 June 2007.

“Native American tribes contribute to state economies.” State Legislatures. 26, 5. 31 May 2000. Web. 28 October 2010. 

26 October 2010: Page 418 #1

Living In a Material World

Materialism in temporary American culture is composed and juxtaposed in a binary opposition; it is both good and beneficial, while at the same time bad and destructive. Both of these opposites coexist and create our culture today.

Materialism is essential to our society because it allows for a capitalistic economy. Without our desire for goods, this type of economy could not operate, yet this type of economy has proven successful over time. It allows for people to create their own success by being able to sell their products to others. It allows for jobs because someone must create, market, sale, check out, and bag these goods. Materialism is a cycle that allows for progress and advancement. It puts in an aspect of competiveness, thus the market is constantly improving as people demand better things. Look at where we are today technologically. We can now communicate with any one, at any time, in any place. Due to materialism, this is possible.

As previously stated, materialism has its drawbacks. Due to our culture’s demand for goods, this creates waste. Materialism has caused our society to be focused on the self and we demand things from it for our own benefit. We have no regards for how the good was created, just as long as it helps us. For the younger generation, they expect things to be given to them. Every kid now expects to have cell phone, internet, and a myriad of other things. They no longer have to work for it or achieve anything to earn it; they expect it. Materialism often affects women and girls especially. They now need to wear certain clothes, buy certain make up, get certain surreys, all in order to have an identity in today’s culture. It is about oneself looking good, with no regard or concern for anyone else.

This then leaves the ultimate question; do the good effects outweigh the bad effects? In my opinion, they do not. There should have been a line that was drawn, because materialism is good to an extent. However, I feel we as Americans have overstepped that line and now demand things instead of work for them. We waste things, instead of appreciate them. I feel this is going to lead us further into a selfish, wasteful society, and nothing productive can come out of a culture with those motives as a basis for their society.

26 October 2010: Week 9 Blog Reviews

Lauren Spencer

“Manic Monday”

Ah! What a crazy day! That sounds absolutely awful. I thought you did a great job writing a sequence of events that happened to you. It flowed nicely and went well from one bad thing to the next. The only thing I would suggest would be to add a little more emotion. As a reader, I think it would be awesome if I could feel as frustrated as you were just by simply reading your paper. You did a great job overall describing a series of events in relation to corporate America.

“Music and Dancing”

I thought you had an interesting take on this topic. I really enjoyed how you incorporated and used music examples from today that portray female sexuality. I thought that added to the effectiveness of your paper and your argument. You have a few grammar errors, such as needed commas, in a few places, so be sure to be aware of that in future writing. Also, this was a bit choppy with lots of short sentences, so maybe try to break it up a little by doing long and short sentences. Overall, great job, I really enjoyed reading this post! J

Darien Allen

“Cars . . . or Weapons of No- so-Mass Destruction?”

GREAT introduction! You really drew me in as a reader right from the beginning. I thought you did a good job making the point that you were trying to. I enjoyed how you used a personal experience from your life to enhance the argument you were making. I do not really have any suggestions for this post to better it; I felt you did a wonderful job. J

“Popular Music”

This is a good summary about popular music today. I would have liked to have seen you take more of a stand or create an argument to stand by, such as its effects, whether negative of positive. I think what you wrote could be used as a good gateway into a paper about corporate America’s influence on popular music. Everything looked good to me grammatically, I think it would have been interesting to hear you expand just a bit more.

21 October 2010: Page 386 Directed Freewrite

Female Sexuality in Pop Culture

Throughout time, women have been second to men. This has been manifested continually in literature, politics, and a myriad of other things. Although as a society, we have progressed and evolved over time with this issue, women are still viewed as objects and not as equals to men. We see this profoundly illustrated today in pop culture music.

Some critics would argue that women “find both affirmation and power in the fear that their sexuality creates in men” (Lipsitz 378). However, the people saying this are men. Other critics would argue that women should find freedom in the fact that they are no longer being denied of their sexuality, “. . . sexual topics in dance-hall lyrics provide an alternative to the denial of women’s sexuality in most popular music” (378). They view that this type of music is a better alternative to other music, music that demonizes women. A critic by the name of Cooper goes as far to say that “. . . sex –affirmative songs by women in dancehall music need to be understood as a reaction against the masculinist . . .” (379).

Many members of communities where this type of music is popular, find it to be “irredeemable sexist” (378) and downright embarrassing to their communities. This type of misogyny is counterproductive of the point that critics are trying to make. Women who demonstrate their sexuality through music do it only for the pleasure of men and this type of music is produced for that purpose. It is not for women to express themselves; it is for the men with them to enjoy. It is said that “One manifestation of the misogyny exacerbated by new social relations comes through the symbolic value given to male perspectives in immigrant music” (380). It is about how men view women. It is about how men view women viewing themselves. There is no female perspective which ultimately is complexly misogynistic.

I am not a feminist and I feel often times too many people are. However, with certain things, such a pop culture, I find a clear demonstration of the objectification of women by men. Critics say multitudinous positive things about what this music does for women, but I feel for the most part it is not because they actually believe it. It is although they are trying to be politically correct, and say this regardless of their actual standpoint. Women have made great progress over time, but there is still room for more. 

19 October 2010: Page 363 Directed Freewrite

Marital Bliss or Corporate Chaos? 

It was the night of my wedding reception and I could not have been happier. I had just married the most wonderful person and was about to start my life with him. Not to mention, when people get married, everyone they know wants to give them free stuff from an array of corporate stores. I was exceptionally excited to open all the gifts and see how they would fit into my new home. After getting everything unwrapped, and put in its place, reality set in.

The next morning I went to wash my hands, using my new crystal soap dispenser to aid me in this process. Mammoth amounts of soap began coming out of the dispenser when I had pushed on the nozzle; the dispenser had broken and was now soap leaking everywhere! I immediately grabbed the new, fluffy towel that was hanging on the rack. I cleaned all of the soap up and threw the towel in the washer with some other dirty things. Later, when I went to go and move the dirty laundry from the washer to the dryer, my towel had looked like it had been eaten and was now in shreds (so much for quality). Needing a break from the tumultuous day, I laid down on my bed, hoping to get a well deserved nap. When I went to lay my head down I noticed one of the decorative pillows had a tear in it (a day later, cotton was spewing out of it). There seemed to be no relief from the gifts we had been given.

Needless to say, I ended up turning back to corporate America to replace all of the things that it had cost me in the first place. There seemed to be no escape from this vicious cycle. 

12 October 2010: Week 8 Blog Reviews

Amity Conolly:

5 October 2010-Love: It’s Only a Matter of Time

I don’t really have much to say about this post. I thought you did a good job organizing your thoughts with proof from the text. There were no major grammatical errors that I saw. You had a clear topic for each paragraph and transitioned into the others nicely. I loved this line in your essay, “Maybe the marriage vows will be altered slightly. Instead of ‘til death do us part’, the new vows can realistically read ‘til divorce do us part’.” I thought it was really clever and actually quite realistic. Overall you did a great job.

7 October 2010-Pandora’s Box

            This was a well written piece. Grammatically in your second to last paragraph you need a question mark instead of a period in one place. I felt at the beginning you were taking sides with animal homosexuality relating to human homosexuality, but at the very end you change sides. You did a good summary of the reading. I would have also liked to have seen your personal opinion in the post as well as what you did. Good work.

Mary Bak:

5 October 2010-Love??

            Good job on using paragraph form again. When you cite in-text, make sure your period goes after the parenthesis and not in the quote. I liked the scenario you used in your second paragraph. I would have liked to have seen you use quotes and passages from the text to support these claims to make your argument stronger. Then you could have had a lot more proof and validity to what you are saying. It is a good start of an idea, and I think with evidence it could become a lot better.

7 October 2010: Page 339 Critical Reading #1

Homosexual Nature

In “The Gay Side of Nature,” Jeffrey Kluger comes across a book by Bruce Bahemil entitled Biological Exuberance that explores and reports homosexual behavior in animals.  Upon reading about observations of animal behaviors, Kluger is clearly surprised by what he finds. Humankind believes that homosexual relationships are isolated to the race of man alone; not seen anywhere else in nature. Kluger, however, is astonished that he finds such opposition to this belief, “According to Bagemihl, the animal kingdom is a more sexually complex place than most people know-one where couplings routinely take place not just between male-female pairs, but also between male-male and female-female ones” (Kluger 338).

One of the most astounding things that he comes across is that “homosexuality comes naturally to other creatures” (338) and “same-sex partners don’t meet merely for brief encounters, but may form long-term bonds, sometimes mating for years of even life” (338). What he reads about animal homosexuality seems analogously parallel to what we see with homosexual humans. It shows him an argument that he had never previously considered when taking into consideration nature’s side of homosexuality. Furthermore, he is struck by the fact that these “forms go beyond mere sexual gratification” (338). Most people in relationships are in it for more than sexual pleasures; the same goes for same gender relationships in animals.

Many people oppose these claims saying that animals do not have a way of communication; these practices allow for alliances. They say this is just animal behavior and “Putting all that into a homosexual category seems simplistic” (339). Kluger’s tone of utter astonishment throughout the piece, fully demonstrates his surprise to this finding. It shows that this may be something he had never heard of, nor have taken into consideration in the past. Kluger also emphasizes his skepticism of surprise in the way he presents to the readers the arguments found against these findings. Overall, he takes no side on the argument, but is instead presenting his findings to an audience.

I myself found these behaviors surprising.  For animals just to “fool around” one with another of the same gender is one thing; reading that some animals, such as the goose, may homosexually be paired for life, is something that shocked me. I had never before heard this and it made me think about human’s ideas and stands on homosexuality. I had never before considered that it may be a part of nature. It is definitely an interesting insight.

Work Cited

Kluger, Jeffrey. "The Gay Side of Nature" Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 337-339.

5 October 2010: Page 310 #1

Love: A Science?

     Throughout time, people always been intrigued, desired, or have possessed love. Brownlee says that “love is central to human existence” (Brownlee 295). Love is written into us; it is a part of our biochemistry. Love is said to begin in motherhood (295), largely due to two things; the amount of time and energy that a mother devotes to her child and a hormone called oxytocin that catalysts women into motherhood. So arguably, since birth, mankind has been the recipient of love. Furthering this idea of love being related to chemistry, love uses messengers such as brain endorphins or opiates (296) that are associated with certain feelings. Strong feelings of desire and longing are chemically engineered and we know it as love.

     Not only is love chemical, but it is biological as well. Biologically, we as humans are wired to do certain things such as flirt, court, and pair off. We each have a love map that works as a template for what “arouses you sexually, what drives you to fall in love with one person rather than another” (Fisher 304). These maps lead us to have tendencies to want to pair with one particular person, “Pair- bonding is a trademark of the human animal” (306). Pairing off tends to lead people to the decision to be married. Fisher says about Americans, “We marry for love and to accentuate, balance out, or make parts of our private selves” (308). In other words, we biologically mate to complete ourselves and not for economic, political, or family reasons.

     When taking into consideration these two elements of science, it can change the way one looks at the idea and emotion of love. The divorce rate is high in the United States, at about a fifty percent failure rate. However, looking at the reason why Americans marry, it makes sense that as we change, we may no longer need that person. Studies show that people who have more kids, are less likely to divorce, out of due obligation to a family. If Americans truly embraced chemical and biological love, we would come to more fully understand and accept divorce. People should not have more kids just because it statistics show that it makes a marriage last longer; that then can become an issue of overpopulation. We are made to desire one another and to fall in love. Divorce is not always a bad thing, understanding the chemical and biological aspects of love make this clear.

Works Cited

Brownlee, Shannon. "Biochemistry- What’s Chemistry Got to Do With It?" Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 294-298.

Fisher, Helen. "After All, Maybe It’s . . . Biology." Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 299-309.

5 October 2010- Week 7 Blog Reviews

Amity Conolly:

“Meet Me Halfway”

I really liked the example for your life that you used. It demonstrated well a common occurrence among dialogue between men and women. I felt you incorporated quotes from the text well and I loved your last sentence. I have a few suggestions for your second paragraph. The last sentence is a fragment, so combine it with the previous sentence by using a comma. Also be sure to put question marks after your questions that you probe him with. You did a great job using a real life example to incorporate Tannen’s ideology.

“Reap What You Sow”

I was not sure if you were for or against abolishing monogamous, heterosexual marriage or not. However, I felt this was an extremely well written essay. You put in the quotes from the text flawlessly and I thought you did a great job describing evolutionary psychology and its relation to society today. I think this paper would be great for you to use to turn into our next large essay that is due. If you took a stand either for or against abolishing this type of marriage and use what you already have to prove it, your paper will be extraordinary and it would be long enough for the larger essay. Good work.

Mary Bak:

28 September 2010

Good job using paragraph form in this post. It greatly improved your writing and you were able to more fully develop your ideas. I would personally omit your first sentence from this and introduce the conversation you were having with your brother a little differently. You did well incorporating what Tannen was saying into your real life example. I definitely see an improvement from what I read this week from what I read last week. J Great job! 

30 September 2010- Page 292 #2

Marriage: Essential to Children

Marriage is an institution that has been in place, according to creationists, since the beginning of time. Wright says, “. . . love between man and woman is a human universal” (Wright 284). Across all nations, cultures, and tongues, the desire to be with someone has always been there. During different times in history, there have been different takes on this institution. People have practiced polygamy, going both ways; one man with multiple women, and one woman with multiple men. In today’s society the ideals of marriage are now constantly being debated about for a different kind of marriage ever seen before; a homosexual marriage. Upon looking into this fundamental institution and patterns over time, heterosexual, monogamous marriage should be preserved if we want more, overall functional families, specifically that relating to the well-being of children.

No matter what the social norm may be marriage ought to be with one person, of the opposite gender, for the due sake of their protégé. In evolutionary psychology, results show that men and women have difficulties staying together; that people tend to cheat on one another when needs are not being fulfilled. According to Buss, mating is about sexual selection and competition (Buss 263). Men are content with flings and short-term relationships while a woman is interested in “. . . selection a man who would be willing to commit to a long-term relationship” (267). How can these opposites co-exist? And what does this mean in the terms of offspring? The divorce rate is high in our time; people divorce, court others, and remarry; sadly, this has become the social norm. When dependents are involved, the question of parenthood becomes central to this and essential to evolutionary psychology. The points previously stated about marriage become insignificant and negligible in comparison.

Whenever there are two imperfect people, there will be an imperfect marriage, Buss says, “Conflict in mating is the norm and not the exception” (262). There will be conflict in marriage no matter what, whether it is a polygamous marriage, a homosexual marriage, or a heterosexual marriage. The key point to be made is that although these conflicts may exist, immensely more vast conflicts will arise if there is any other form of marriage than between one man and one woman. The implications for children who are not offspring into this type of marriage are potentially damaging and advert completely from evolutionary psychology.  Wright says “. . . one of the ‘most obvious’ Darwinian predictions is that stepparents will ‘tend to care less profoundly for children than natural parents’” (Wright 288). When this happens “It massively wastes the most precious evolutionary resource: love” (289).

“Daly and Wilson found that an American child living with one or more substitute parents was about 100 times as likely to be fatally abused as a child living with biological parents” (289). Another study shows that in the 1980s, “. . . a child age two or younger was 70 times a likely to be killed by a parent if living with a stepparent and a natural parent than if living with two natural parents” (289). This does not mean that children do not get abused by biological parents as well, but these statistics show the greater normalcy of it in homes where children do not live with the mother and father that produced them.

A heterosexual, monogamous marriage can first and foremost produce offspring. These offspring can then be raised, nurtured, and loved by the parents that produced them. They have a more sure sense of identity and grow up more likely in a home of love, not of abuse. No, marriage and people are not perfect and there are exceptions to all the rules. However, a heterosexual, monogamous marriage is in congruency with evolution and evolutionary psychology and preserves “the most precious evolutionary resource: love” (289).

Works Cited

Buss, David. "The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating." Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 261-277.

Wright, Robert. "Our Cheating Hearts." Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 278-291.

28 September 2010-Page 246: Directed Freewrite

Female Misunderstanding  

 One morning I dragged myself out of bed, to what I knew would be a tumultuous morning. I had a million things to do before I needed to leave to get to class and work for the day. I was in complete disarray. I was trying to get myself ready, get breakfast on the table, do unfinished homework, answer necessary emails, do some housework, and the list goes on and on. When I got married to my husband we had previously talked about helping one another out when the other one seemed overwhelmed. I needed to hastily get out the door, but the dishes still needed done and the trash taken out.

    Before leaving, however, I decided to ask my husband if he could do those things since he did not need to leave until later in the day. “Craig,” I said, “could you please do the dishes and take out the trash before you leave today?” He was staring at the computer screen and did not utter a single response. I left out the door, thinking to myself, “Great, now I am just going to have to do those things when I get back because he did not even listen to me.”

     When I got home later that evening, the dishes were done, the trash had been taken out, and above and beyond; he had started dinner.

     In her essay “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” Tannen gives an example of a couple where a boyfriend laid down and closed his eyes to fully listen to what his girlfriend was saying, but she misinterpreted it as him not listening (Tannen 242). I had not even realized that my husband had minimized all of his web pages of homework in order to fully and explicitly listen to what I was saying until later that evening when I asked him about it. Tannen goes on to say that, “. . . at every age, the girls and women faced each other directly, their eyes anchored on each other’s faces” (242). It would have been beneficial for me to have taken in to account that males do not make direct eye contact when they are communicating, but that does not mean they are not listening.

   Another point that Tannen makes is that “. . . women make more listener-noises” (243). With my husband, I was waiting for anything, an “okay” or “uhuh,” but when I got nothing, I immediately took that as him not listening. There is such a vast difference in the ways that males and females communicate. Had I applied the principles and ideas that are presented in this essay, I could have completely avoided the frustration I felt with him all that day.

Work Cited

Tannen, Deborah. "Sex, Lies, and Conversation" Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions.Ed.Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 240-245.

Week 6 Blog Reviews

Amity Conolly

21 September 2010

The Hangover:

     In this piece I felt you did an overall great summary of the movie and hitting the high points. I felt maybe you should have gone into a little more depth with the characters just to give the reader a better idea of a “wild real man.” I did like how you brought up social ideals in relation to Alan, and also our concept of Vegas and its significance.

     There were a few grammatical errors that I noticed, just to point out to you for future reference. This sentence in your first paragraph, “Alan, the future brother-in-law, who is slightly mentally off and has feminine qualities” is a fragment not a complete sentence.  Also, later in your post there are two sentences that really need to be combined into one to form a complete thought, “This is the ever dreaded trip for a bride. But the most anticipated trip for the groom and his groomsmen.” Just keep an eye out for this in future writing and I think it will really help!

23 September 2010

Screen Time and Family Time:

   I really enjoyed reading the ideals you presented in this post. I liked how you talked about both the negatives and the positives of technology, and how you specifically used the computer as that example. I liked your personal examples that you used from your personal life to exemplify the point you were trying to make. A piece of advice I would give to you would be to make sure you have a conclusion. Bring it all back together in the end. Also, it is probably your computer’s fault, but indent your second paragraph. Overall, great job! J

Mark Bak

21 September 2010

Good job on incorporating a quote from the text into your analysis. A suggestion I have is that you should focus on one main idea. Initially, I thought you were going to be writing about one movie, but by the end you were writing about another movie; try to make it more fluid. To do this, maybe you should write in paragraphs with a beginning, middle, and an end to what you want to say.

23 September 2010

I found what you had to say very interesting and a different perspective I had not taken. I like how you used a real life example to talk about the difficulties for lesbians to have an acceptable identity in today’s society. Again, I would suggest that you write in paragraphs, it may make your posts longer and take more time, but I feel you could more fully develop and discuss your ideas. Good work! J