Sociology Essays Tattooing Body Mutilation

Sociology Essays Tattooing Body Mutilation Tattooing Body Mutilation Sociology Cultural Studies Question. Undertake a case study of any contemporary cultural practice or set of practices of your choice, explaining what you consider to be their sociological significance. Tattooing Body mutilation has long been part of non-Christian cultures as a positive mark of identity, while in many modem Body modification practices are so prolific that an exhaustive account of the practices of body magic and marking around the globe is nearly impossible. Body mutilation such as tattooing often functions as part of a healing ritual, protection against forces that may cause injury and admission to a social group. Cultural practices of body mutilation are often functionally akin to prayer as a practice that spiritually elevates an individual. Tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable. -Henry David Thoreau. Several major religions exhibit complex attitudes toward self-mutilation and adornment. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 19.28 prohibits followers of Judaism from marking the body: Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you. The â€Å"Holly Koran† forbids marking the body. The Christian Bible associates body markings with sin as shown in the story of Cain, who was marked in punishment for slaying his brother. Still, many people apparently have continued to feel a need for confirmation of their religion by marking their bodies. The Judaic custom of circumcision persists. Coptic, Armenian, Abyssinian, Syrian, and Russian pilgrims returning from the Holy Land frequently acquired souvenir tattoos to commemorate their journey. At the turn of the nineteenth century, it was traditional for Gypsies to tattoo these pilgrims, and the tattoo marks became part of the pilgrims social status. An example of this is the Armenian title for one who has made the pilgrimage which is Mahdesi, which translates as I saw death. Because only religious pilgrims were tattooed, the religious tattoos were also known as Mahdesi. The tattoo is a code indicating a spiritual passage, or at least a religious pilgrimage. Similarly, in Turkey the souvenir tattoos were known by the Turkish word for one who has made the religious pilgrimage, Haji. These religious tattoos became symbols of entry into a higher plane of spiritual existence and exemplify the overlap between Christian beliefs and body magic. First documented by a traveler in 1660, common marks included dots in the shape of a cross at the base of the fingers and crosses on the back of the hand or inside of the wrist. Biblical scenes marked the bearer as a devout Christian, but also served magical purposes. Women chose Annunciation scenes to ensure fertility, and sufferers of illness placed tattoos on ailing parts of the body to promote healing. Although Greek and Latin Christian churches have criticized these practices, they persist, and many Muslim Arabs tattoo in disregard for the Islamic prohibition on marking the body. Even today, many American tattooees have permanent religious icons and emblems as well as personal magical symbols inked upon their bodies. Tattoos are prompted by the primitive desire for an exaggerated exterior and are manifestations of deep psychological motivations. They are the recording of dreams, which simultaneously express an aspect of the self and recreate and mask the body As products of inner yearnings, self-concepts, desires, and magical or spiritual beliefs, designs on the human body formed by inserting pigments under the skin have been crafted by nearly every culture around the world for thousands of years. Definitive evidence of tattooing dates to the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt, approximately 2000 B.C., but many scholars believe that Nubians brought the practice to Egypt much earlier. There was little anthropological attention to tattooing in the early part of the century because of preconceived notions of its insignificance to cultural analysis. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec cultures performed tattooing and scarification, and that the practice is thousands of years old in Asian cultures. Although tattooing was practiced in pre-Christian Europe, the word tattoo does not appear in English until Captain John Cook imported it after a journey to the Pacific Islands in the eighteenth century. Although no connection has been made between the words tattoo and taboo, it seems highly likely that they are related. While enduring the process of acquiring socially meaningful marks, the tattooee is being formed and shaped into an acceptable member of society. Prior to the completion of the tattoos the person is not only physically vulnerable because of the possibility of contamination during the penetrating process of tattooing but symbolically vulnerable as well. No longer without a tattoo, but without a finished tattoo, the persons body and therefore the self are not yet completed. The person is a luminal entity not yet in society and therefore taboo. Although the origin of tattooing is uncertain, anthropological research confirms that tattooing, as well as other body alterations and mutilations, is significant in the spiritual beliefs of many cultures. Various peoples tattoo or scarify during puberty rituals. In traditional South Pacific Tonga society, only priests could tattoo others and tattoos were symbolic of full tribal status. Eskimo women traditionally tattooed their faces and breasts and believed that acquiring sufficient tattoos guaranteed a happy afterlife. In many African cultures scars indicate social status and desirability as a marriage partner. Scarification patterns often identify the bearer as a member of a specific village. Many of these practices are changing and fading as Western influences enter African cultures. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Cree Indians living on the Great Plains tattooed for luck, for beauty, and to protect their health. Cree men with special powers received tattoos to help them communicate with spirits. A dream conferred the privilege of receiving a tattoo, which would be inscribed during a ceremony conducted by a shaman authorized to tattoo. The ability to withstand the painful and tedious process of tattooing, which often lasted two to three days, confirmed the tattooees courage. Blood shed during the process was believed to possess magical power and was absorbed with a special cloth and kept for future use. The ritual recreates the flesh bequeathed to initiates by their parents and experienced during childhood. The physical change marks a symbolic rebirth into a new spiritual, social, and physical reality as well as a real physical change. This magical use of the body reiterates the idea that physical and spiritual existence and their interactions are deeply entwined. European civilizing cultures often attempted to eradicate body marking practices, often in the name of religion. In 787 A.D. Pope Hadrian I decreed a ban on tattooing. Constantine prohibited tattooing as an act of altering the body that God molded in His own image. Puritans in the New England colonies connected body markings with witchcraft, and those suspected of practicing witchcraft were searched for devils marks as proof of their alliance with Satan. Quoting the Old Testament interdict against printing or cutting marks upon the flesh, the Puritans also condemned Native American tattooing. By the 1850s many Native Americans had adopted the settlers customs of dress and began to view tattooing as unnecessary and uncivilized. Africans brought to the colonies as slaves often bore scarification marks of royalty, social standing, or servitude, which were probably perceived by the colonists as heathen tokens of savage cultures. In some cultures, the elite class marks the bodies of individuals considered pariahs or marginal members of society. In the Near East, slave masters sometimes tattooed slaves as a sign of degradation and branded incorrigible slaves. In late medieval and early modern Europe, slaveholders branded their slaves, a practice continued in France until the early 1800s and in Russia until the mid-1800s. Runaway slaves in Brazil, the renegade quilombos who were branded if recaptured, considered their brands marks of honor and infamy. In Yoruba, where body markings placed one within society, slave owners denied their slaves distinguishing marks of social status. Exemplifying a much different assumption about body marking, slaveholders in the Americas branded and tattooed their slaves to place them firmly outside mainstream society. During the eighteenth century, prisoners incarcerated in France were physically marked. The use of body markings as positive signs of identification and inclusion in many African societies contrasts sharply with European use of the marks as signs of degradation and marginalization. The American association of tattooing with exoticism solidified in 1851 when Dan Rice hired a tattooed man named James F. OConnell to appear in his circus. During this time Rice was also fascinating America with another body image in popular culture, the blacked-up minstrel. The minstrel representation of the black body was replete with complex meanings of manhood, race, and class. The tattooed body on display was probably less familiar but equally intriguing. Without evidence of what kind of tattoos Rices employee had, or whether or not he performed, or served only as a display object, it is difficult to assess the meaning of his existence. Perhaps OConnell conjured images of a white savage, halfway between the articulate, civilized white man and the Native American who expressed his culture with paint and body markings. Perhaps audiences saw the tattooed man as Melvilles Queequeg incarnate; exotic, half-blackened with ink-and half† black, but not without feeling or humanness. P.T. Barnum followed Rices success by displaying an elaborately inscribed Albanian named Constantine, who was an extremely popular attraction. Barnum was the first to exhibit a tattooed woman, in 1898, which added the erotic element of viewing the female body. During the latter part of the nineteenth century as the public became more familiar with the art of tattooing through the circus, which was primarily a working and lower-class entertainment, tattoo was also developing commercially. The first known professional tattooist in the United States was Martin Hildebrand who had an itinerant practice during the Civil War and opened a shop in New York City in the 1890s. At the turn of the century, tattoos showed up in titillating and disreputable places. Tattooing became a shop-front industry in the disreputable Chatham Square area of New York City. Electric tattoo machines made tattooing cheaper and less painful and good tattoos easier to render. With this new technology, tattooing became popular among the lower classes and quickly came to be associated with blue-collar workers and ruffians. Although tattooing was an upper-class trend for a brief period, by the 1920s the middle class considered it deviant. Tattoos were considered a decorative cultural product dispensed by largely unskilled and unhygienic practitioners from dingy shops in urban slums, and consumers were seen as being drawn from marginal, rootless, and dangerously unconventional social groups. In the 1930s, the American fascination with body alteration as a deviant practice, continued. During this time a psychiatrist and writer named Albert Parry often wrote about the significance of tattoos and embedded stereotypes of deviance in the public discourse. Although Parry was an avid fan of tattooing, and bemoaned its decline in popularity, he called tattooing a tragic miscarriage of narcissism. He claimed tattooing was a substitute for sexual pleasure, evidence of homosexuality, and a source of masochistic pleasure. Parry associated tattooing with abnormal sexuality. Although the exhibition of a tattooed woman in the circus in prior decades was tinged with a hint of sexual voyeurism, Parry explicitly constructed images of tattooed women as abnormal and accessible commodities. He claimed that five percent of American women were tattooed and insinuated that beneath their conventional clothes, these disguised women had marked their bodies with signs of desire and erotic adventure. Parry stated that prostitutes in America, as elsewhere, get tattooed because of certain strong masochistic-exhibitionist drives. Parry reasoned that prostitutes obtained tattoos because they desired yet another reason to pity themselves and were seeking to be mistreated by clients. He also asserted that they believed tattoos would prevent disease and that they obtained sexual pleasure from the tattoo process. As proof of the prostitutes urge to self-humiliate, Parry described several tattoos of cynical humor and sexual innuendo inscribed upon prostitutes, such as pay as you enter. Conflating racism, homophobia, and the idea of women as a sexual commodity, Parry also claimed that English prostitutes etched names of their pimps on themselves or likenesses of their Negro lovers, much to the chagrin of American sailors, while French women inscribed the names of their lesbian lovers, and gay men tattooed themselves in order to seduce young boys. Parry relished the stereotype of tattooing as a perverse and deviant activity. His assertions reverberated for decades in the assumptions psychologists held about tattooed man and women. Tacitly based on the preconception that marking the body is deviant, psychologists have sought to determine a connection between tattoos and psychopathology. Members and potential members of the military who bear tattoos have served as subjects for several studies that correlate tattoos and social adjustment. A study in 1943 concluded that psychopathology or social or emotional maladjustment is significantly higher among tattooed than among non-tattooed men. A 1968 study concluded that sailors with tattoos were more likely to be maladjusted, and military men with Death before Dishonor tattoos were more likely than non-tattooed sailors to be discharged from the service. Other studies conducted during the late 1960s link tattooed women with homosexuality and masochism and tattooing practices in institutions with high levels of aggression, sexual insecurity, and social maladjustment. These studies both pre-selected the subject pools and ignored the effects of the institutional milieu on the tattooees. Other studies of imprisoned populations reveal motivations to tattoo that are similar to the motivations to self-mutilate as a reaction to the surrounding environment. Similar to inmate self-mutilation, tattooing may provide relief from the numbness of incarceration and establish individual or gang identity. A 1964 survey of the public perception of tattooed persons revealed that a majority of people perceived tattooed individuals as physically strong and psychologically aggressive. This survey concluded that whether or not tattoos are indicators of social maladjustment, they may function to enhance the bearers self-image and integrity. Returning to the theory of confirmation of the self in a pain-enduring interaction, one can understand the connotation of toughness and integrity that a tattoo confers. One psychoanalytic case study observed that a dominatrix in this relationship bore her tattoos as evidence of her ability to manage the ritual infliction of pain adroitly. This self-mastery and toughness earned her the right to control her submissive partners and proved her ability to alter, both own and her partners consciousness and identity. The lack of understanding of the functional purposes of both the tattooing process and the final marks have led to a perception of tattooing as barbaric, deviant, and sexually perverse. Dominant American culture has considered tattoos as marks of degradation, criminality, and marginality. Without an understanding of manipulation of the body to inspire sacred awe in viewers and bearers of tattoos and other body alterations, one can not grasp the significance of these alterations as tangible establishment of personal, spiritual, and social identity. Although body modifications such as tattooing and piercing have been construed as signs of deviance, during the past two decades body alteration has begun to filter into mainstream culture as a popular form of self-expression. Articles about tattooing and piercing proliferate in popular literature. Fashion magazines show models with tattooed ankles and pierced navels, and recruit well-known tattooed musicians for their pages. Children are able to play with tattooed dolls. Exhibits of tattoo art are shown in art galleries. Piercing boutiques and tattoo shops are conducting brisk business. Several factors have encouraged a tattoo renaissance since the 1950s. Post war prosperity along the West Coast combined with a new interest in Asian cultures, many of which revere tattooing. The Japanese, for instance, have a long tradition of tattoo as an intricate body art. New technology and interest in tattooing as a fine art have produced new aesthetic standards, a wider clientele, and an infinite variety of tattoo designs, including neo-tribal stylistic forms that are heavily influenced by tattoo traditions of other cultures. Today, as sociologist Clinton Sanders notes, tattooing has become more professional and more of a fine art. Tattoo artists are much more likely to have formal artistic and academic training than in previous years and to consider their tattooing practice a creative pursuit. A more diverse population is getting tattooed in the past two decades. New tattoo clients are better educated, have more disposable income, and care more about the decorative and aesthetic elements. Customer’s often custom design their own tattoos and the tattooer-customer relationship is changing from one of service provider and buyer to a collaborative effort. The relationship between a piercer and his or her client may be even more intricate and personal. With or without conscious realization of the significance of body making in other cultures, Americans today are adopting similar practices. To understand these practices as cultural phenomena, we must first understand their significance for individuals. Tattooing and piercing are not just adornments added to the body surface like jewelry or cosmetics, but they penetrate the flesh. Piercing is a quick process followed by several weeks of tenderness while healing. Tattooing is a tedious, painful process followed by a period of transformation in which the wound heals and the redesigned body emerges. These adornments, like self-starvation and self-cutting, accrue significance from both the process of physical transformation and the final product. The tattoo procedure is often a highly social act in which an individual manipulates and asserts identity within a specific social milieu. Getting a tattoo is often a social event experienced with close associates, who provide moral support, offer advice, and help pass the anxiety-filled waiting time. Many tattoo artists and piercers comment on the large percentage of their customers who belong to college fraternities or sororities and get pierced as part of the initiation process. It is rare that these individuals tattoo or pierce alone. Often several associates accompany the initiate to provide companionship and fortification. Many cultures attach social status to body alterations and consider pain a crucial element for imparting meaning to body alteration. Yoruban scarification is not only considered aesthetically pleasing but announces the marked individuals fortitude and ability to endure pain. A Yoruban woman acquires her markings when she is old enough to marry and accept the painful ordeal of childbirth. Her kolo cicatrices exhibit her willingness to bear pain. Aesthetic value is bound up with the value of endurance and the willingness to bear discomfort to accomplish a greater good. Tiv women remark on the ability of scarification to indicate masculinity and the desire to withstand pain in order to be attractive: What girl would look at a man if his scars had not cost him pain? Withstanding the pain of tattooing and other body alterations is also significant in American culture. The tattooee or piercee, like any initiate, vulnerably awaits the pain and new status the procedure will impart. Enduring pain is often considered crucial to gender constructions and demonstration of toughness. Although some tattooees have a difficult time bearing the pain, others see it as a good pain. Part of the pleasure of a tattoo is the macho implication of being able to bear the pain, and during the 1950s and 1960s getting a tattoo was a common rite of passage into adulthood for many young men. Still today, withstanding the tedious and painful process with bravado may be required to gain membership in a youth gang, or to demonstrate rebellion against authority. College fraternities may require members to get tattooed or pierced as a sign of their loyalty. One tattoo artist with many tattoos connects the pain of the process with the pleasure of creativity. Its a strange metaphor to say that pain is like an orgasm, but it is in a way. And its like labor too, to go through this pain to create a thing, to get it out of you. The design is inside of you, it just wants to get out. The creative expression of identity is enhanced by the feeling of aliveness that accompanies the pain of the process for many people. This sense of existing, of feeling, of enjoying life, [comes] to many with the touch of the needle. The prolonged pain produces euphoria for many, and pain is also a meaningful and enjoyable element of the piercing process for some piercees as well as people who indulge in body branding or scarification.62 Individuals who tattoo and pierce imbue the body with narcissistic or magico-religious powers to confirm identity and connect them to a deeper self-awareness, a social group, or a vision of integration with the cosmos. Similar to the way in which the self-mutilator or anorectic physically demarcates a change in self-awareness and interaction with the surrounding milieu, an individual who chooses to self-mark physically confirms a change in status. The badge of admission may carry personal meaning as well as a message of affiliation with a religion, one other person, a community, a youth gang, a fraternity, a military organization, or any specific group. The complexity of the action lies in the fact that the confirmation of identity is based on distancing the self from a large non-marked portion of the population. Body markings are marks of disaffiliation with the mainstream and visually proclaim a sense of camaraderie to others so marked.† The change in status, similar to the self-mutilators change in tension level and temporary cure of feelings of fragmentation, Body alteration functions in similar ways in Western culture, but it accrues a different potency as a deliberate choice of identification because of the stigma it incurs as a rebellion against, rather than an embodiment of, dominant cultural values. American women, fully aware of the stigma attached to tattooing and body alteration that doesnt help achieve standard beauty goals for women, are more likely than men to choose adornment that is not publicly visible and attach more personal meanings to their markings. In a culture that has taught them to preserve their bodies for the enjoyment of others, women who tattoo themselves are implicitly making a declaration of independence from at least some aesthetic standards expected of them by families, friends, and society. One 21-year-old woman explained the reaction of her mother to her tattoo. She asks me to keep it covered if we go out in public. It is a sign of disrespect to her. One woman explained, I did this not for my husband, not for my parents, not for a boss, not for anyone else but me, my internal reason was to make a statement. Women mark their bodies as an act of reclamation of their identity after a divorce, as a gesture of healing from sexual or other physical abuse, or simply as self-celebration. Body alteration symbolizes control over and pride in the physical self for many women. Centuries ago, this tangible evidence of self-control and self-celebration may have been enough to convict a woman of witchcraft and sentence her to death. If a devils mark was found on the body of a woman accused of witchcraft -whether self-imposed or organic in reality-it was interpreted as a chosen mark that confirmed the womans autonomous nature and rebellion against prescribed behavior. Her willful desecration of her God-given body proved her collusion with the Devil. Today, a womans self-creation carries less formidable consequences. Similar to the ways of punk styles of leather and metal access forbidden gender symbols and behavior for women, tattoos and piercing provide a form of gender rebellion also. The 1970 study highlighted this idea when one of the woman subjects proclaimed her motivation to tattoo as I want to act like a boy anything they can do I can do better. Tattooing and body piercing blur previous assumptions about gender roles for both women and men. Historically considered a salacious and pagan badge by Western cultures, deliberate body alteration proclaims defiance of cultural standards for both men and women, and many body modifiers enjoy the shock value of their adornment and take pride in their stigmatized identities. Piercers and tattooees reject mainstream norms of adornment while simultaneously embracing subterranean status. This is an especially important component of the body modification trend for adolescents who are trying to establish social identity and autonomy from parental authority. Recreating the body differentiates one from ones previous childhood body, and conventional familial and cultural milieus. One connection between body alteration and youth and popular culture is explained by Daryl Bear Belmares, who had been a professional piercer for nine years in 1996 Belmares attributes the rise in piercing popularity since 1990 to the influence of media and describes two general motivations to pierce. Some people are entranced by the trends of the look. They come in and say I saw it on MTV. Theyve seen the Aerosmith video that has a model with a pierced navel and think it looks sexy. Their main motivation is a desire to be different. These individuals are likely to let their piercing heal over after a few years. Other piercers are functional piercers who spend more time premeditating their decision and pierce for sexual enhancement, to consciously mark a transition in their life, or to heal emotional scars. Although one might think that women are more likely to pierce as a narcissistic use of the body to establish identity, based on the proportion of self-starvers and self-cutters who are women, Belmares denied this gender distinction, noting that his clientele is 50 percent men and 50 percent women. In 1969, Edward Podvall noted that not only does the iconography of self-mutilation appear continually on the landscape of our culture as something seemingly more honest, authentic, pure, or disciplined, but it can be found as an unexpected posture within one particular developmental epoch. He concluded that individual self-mutilation is an attempt to fend off developmental anxiety, and its prevalence may indicate exoneration and approval by the surrounding culture. As a cultural phenomenon, the iconography of self-mutilation may be interpreted in several ways. Podvalls depiction of self-mutilation as part of a developmental process, like Turners delineation of body marking as a resolution of an initiation process and like psychoanalytic theory of body narcissism and self-mutilation as attempts to combat fragmentation of the ego, reveals the cultural significance of body modification. Self-starvation, self-cutting, performance art, and painful, permanent body adornment are potent expressions of rebellion, desire for autonomy, and need to disseminate tension. They are attempts to self-heal, self-initiate, and self-symbolize. Self-mutilation may augment self-awareness, provoke euphoric feelings of spirituality, and resolve a state of liminality by culminating in marks of identity. In the context of culturally sanctioned rituals, these marks incur social inclusion and demarcate social status. In American society, which has considered body alteration practices barbaric and has few formal coming of age rituals that mark the body, the perception of these marks as deviant or perverse has been changing as they have become more common. Conclusion: Although the extent to which contemporary Western society accepts self-mutilation is debatable, many forms of self-mutilation are becoming increasingly popular as real and symbolic forms of self-creation. The public and private, individual and social spheres in which body alteration is significant are entwined. Self-mutilation cannot be separated from the culture in which it exists. As David Napier points out, American culture is obsessed with coming of age as a never-ending process. This struggle to achieve identity is reflected by the implosion of self and identity into the physical symbol, and reality, of the body. The human body is an accessible and viable pathway to holistic integration of self and is a terrain upon which to carve and etch ones deepest desires for identity and meaningful connection to both earthly and spiritual realms. At times altering the body is a form of play and adornment, assuming a mask, playing a role, at other times it is a desperate attempt to feel alive and combat a feeling of alienation and disassociation. Altering the body is an exploration of limits and boundaries of the self, whether in the arena of staged art, subculture, or the local tattoo shop. As individuals test their own limits, they test and change the limits of society. Although still considered distasteful and non-mainstream by many people, body piercing and tattooing are being adopted by individuals seeking to fulfill spiritual and social identity needs. In contrast to societies in which body marks are inscribed according to cultural tradition, the self-chosen marks of todays modem cultures are marks of disaffiliation with convention and historical values. Finally, as individuals modify their bodies as exploration of their individual identities, the culture composed of these individuals begins to explore what it means to be human and what role the body plays in civilization. Tattooing is an act which is very much painful in some cases so why should someone get the tattooes even when they are so terrible. This is society‘s responsibility to set such standards for such unusual things so that every body can have clear mind about these weird things. Bibliography 1. Edward Westermarck, â€Å"The History of Human Marriage† Volume: 1. Macmillan. London. 1921 2. Alfred Metraux, Easter Island: A Stone-Age Civilization of the Pacific Oxford University Press, New York. 1957 3. Tattooing and Civilizing Processes: Body Modification as Self-Control Michael Atkinson Journal Title: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. Volume: 41. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2004 4. Tattooing, Gender and Social Stratifica

Wiliiam Shockley-Autobiography :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shockley was born on February 13, 1910 in London, England. He is most famously noted for winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956. He won this for being the co-inventor of the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain. Shockley’s parents were both Americans. His father, William Hillman Shockley, was a mining engineer born in Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Bradford, was a federal deputy surveyor of mineral lands. They returned to America when William was just a baby. They both were very encouraging for his love and passion for science, as well as his neighbor who was a professor of physics at Stanford. He got his B. Sc. Degree at the California Institute of Technology in 1932. Four years later he got his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He wrote his doctoral thesis on the energy band structure of sodium chloride. The title of this thesis was â€Å"Calculation of Electron Wave Functions in Sodium Chloride Crystals.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After graduating from MIT, he went straight into work at Bell Laboratory. He did most of his research in solid state physics, especially vacuum tubes. Most of his theoretical advances led the company to conquer their goal of using electronic switches for telephone exchanges instead of the mechanical switches there were using at the time. Some of the other research he did was on energy bands in solids, order and disorder in alloys, self-diffusion of copper, experiments on photoelectrons in silver chloride, experiment and theory on ferromagnetic domains, and different topics in transistor physics. He also did operations research on individual productivity and the statistics of salary in research laboratories.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From 1940-1945 Shockley worked on military projects from World War II. He was Research Director of the Anti-submarine Warfare Operations Research Group. After this he served as Expert Consultant in the office of the Secretary for War. He was particularly working on refining radar systems. As soon as the war was over, he went back doing solid-state research, investigating semiconductors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once Shockley returned to Bell Labs in New Jersey, he immediately joined a research group headed by Dr. C. J. Davisson. His group consisted of Bardeen and Brattain. Most of the time, he left them and worked alone. He would drop in on them occasionally to check up on their work. With Shockley’s idea of using field effects and applying the quantum theory to the development of semiconductors, Bardeen and Brattain succeeded in creating a point-contact transistor.

Women Are Better Than Men

Women are Better than Men English Research Paper Regina Erica T. Varilla January 25, 2012 Introduction As to the talk of gender superiority, it is clear that history had given men the advantage. For the past several millennia, men had worn the crown of authority, seated upon the highest seat of honor, and wielded the mighty arm of power. For all those years, women had no chance but to fall under power, to live a life of service and obedience, and to remain invisible, oppressed and inferior. Times change, however, and along with modernization came a tsunami of altercation.Riding on top of those powerful waves, with full control of the situation, are women. Research and statistics have proven that women are rapidly gaining dominion of almost every good aspect in life. In academics, for example, girls are receiving most of the awards and positions, including the top rankings and extra-curricular activities such as the yearbook and the student journal. Even in fields wherein men are know n to be specialized in, women are now thriving. In jobs, statistics show that the jobless rates for men are sky-rocketing while the jobless rates for women are going to an all-time low.Simply put, this means that men are being put out of commission while women are flourishing. More and more women are now standing up from their previous position of kneeling at the feet of men. Recently in India, 285 girls shed â€Å"unwanted† names. In Africa, 49% of the parliament is now composed of women. A revolution is happening, and this is proof of it. Scope This research paper covers the comparison between men and women at the subjects of physical weakness, emotional weakness, Biblical origins, safe driving, and the ability to survive in society, including academic ability, ndurance, and independence. Objective The main objective of this research paper is to prove women’s superiority in most aspects, especially in this generation. Other aspects include: * To empower women more * To show the true potential of women * To prove to society that this is an era for women * To bring about a reformation * To end the debate over gender superiority for all time * To end discrimination on women * To let the world see the multiple values of women in humankind Significance of Study This research paper strives to prove the superiority of women over men as multiple evidences prove.Due to a long history of males being the superior gender, society has failed to see entirely the concept that a new era has come, and along with it, another call for change; a change which demands society to remove the blindfold of habitual ways and to accept the world with its new leaders: Women First and foremost, his research paper will affect women in the sense that they will hopefully see and understand that humanity, even though it may not yet fully realize it, has already accepted them as the new superpowers, and that the world is ready for their taking.They just have to stand and have th e confidence, which hopefully shall be further strengthened by this collection of data, to rule supreme, as they are made to be. This research paper shall help empower other women to face the world without fear, knowing that the circumstances are favorably on their side. The contents of this research paper shall also affect men, though in a different approach. It shall be an eye-opener for them who believe in women being the inferior gender, and hopefully make them see that women are no longer the weaklings they previously thought women are.As for those who are not subject to such beliefs, this shall also affect them due to the huge probability of men being overrun soon, and may be required to find a way to save themselves in the near future. Another group of people predicted to find interest in this paper shall be the feminists. By showing that women are steadily growing into power and seating themselves in chairs of authority, it is then proved that these feminists’ efforts were not in vain. On the contrary, they have worked exceedingly well.If the citizens change, then it is mandatory for the government shall evolve with them. It may not be long before majority of the cabinet members become women, and perhaps even sooner, the head of the country itself. Women in history have always worked behind the scenes. As the quotation â€Å"History repeats itself† tells us, the reign of women in the field of politics will no doubt be much less scandalous than present. The workforce of the country may also be severely infected. Businesses up until now have preferred men over women.Modern machinery, however, have tipped the balance of the scale. With the need of physical strength no longer in play, women now have a fair or perhaps an even better chance at jobs than men. It can be estimated that at the late 21st century, women shall be the expected breadwinner of the family. Body Physical Weakness When it comes to the battle of the sexes, the subject of phy sical vulnerability can never be ignored. People generally have this misconception where in girls are the weaker gender between the two. It is a misconception, because they are not the weaker gender at all.They cannot be blamed for having this wrong idea, as boys have more cerebrospinal fluid (protects skull from damage) and are more fitting to receive painful blows. The medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery even stated that women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin, while men only have 17 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin. Also, according to a 2008 report from the University of Georgia in Athens, boys have a more advanced pain suppressing circuit that is less effectively wired in women.Thus, it cannot be denied that girls still experience more pain in their lifetime. A few more examples are giving birth, having menstruation, and possessing more weak spots. Furthermore, these pains come naturally to them, as opposed to boys, wherein the fights they get into are purely their decision. They know it, but chose to ignore this fact. Men, however, do not have knowledge of one of women’s secret weapons, that is, estrogen. In 2002, researchers at the University of Michigan have proven that high levels of estrogen mean at least equal or higher pain tolerance than men.This can be extremely useful during menstruation, pregnancy, and even child birth. Estrogen, however, is not the only weapon that womankind has. All those ear piercings, body waxing and high heeled shoes must have hurt very much, and since a girl is not on her period all the time, then it must not only be estrogen at work. According to a professor from Columbia University, research has shown that the more a person notices pain, the more it is amplified. Since women are willing to go through such pains for extensive periods of time, they have gotten used these pain signals.Not long after, the brain will start ignoring these signals, leading to better pain tolerance. Over time, women can develop this endurance to surpass that of men’s. Emotional Weakness Both genders experience emotional and psychological letdowns. The difference between how they react, however, is extremely huge. Thanks to Hollywood, women are generally mistaken as the weaker gender. This holds absolutely no truth at all. Research has proven that both men and women experience the same depression and vulnerability during an emotional letdown. What differs, however, is how they let the stress out of their systems.According to SAGE, women tend to turn to social circles, thus their depression is observed and understood, while men tend to confine themselves and avoid any social contact, leading to a build-up of even more stress and depression due to being hidden and misunderstood. This is disastrous for men as the loss of socialization is the cause of the problem in the first place, and may resort to drugs, drinking, and violence just to â€Å"numb† th e feeling off. This then may lead to crime, resulting to a higher crime rate for men, and a chain of events and statistics. Survival in the SocietyA tradition that goes back in time is the thinking that males are the breadwinner of the family. The reason for this is in ancient history, when food is mainly acquired from hunting, needing attributes like developed muscles and huge bone structures. This task is best fitted for men. Modern times, however, has a different sort of battlefield. The difference in the demand for physical strength between then and now is vast. During the past millennia, physical labor is extremely high. In this modernized world, however, equal or even greater strength can be achieved through the press of only a few buttons.The industrial era of today involves intelligence and skill, both attributes being thoroughly honed by women to make up for the lack of strength. One reason for these differences is the different composition of the male and female brains. Sc ientists at the University of Pennsylvania’s Brain Behavior Laboratory found out that although the females’ brains are on average 11% smaller than males’, they still have more grey matter (used for processing information). Males have more white matter (fat-covered long fibers that transmit electrical impulses) and cerebrospinal fluid (acts as buffer from the skull).This may mean that women are designed to have certain advantages in processing information and men are designed to have quicker reflexes and more solid protection for physical blows. Other factors responsible for the female brain boost maybe the higher rate of blood flow to certain parts of the brain and again, estrogen levels. According to Dr. Legato, author of Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget, the part of the brain that controls languages in females receive more nutrition, therefore making it easier for women to recall what they have heard or read.This may explain the ability of women t o socialize and to manage conversation well, and possibly the exceptional ability of data interpretation. As for estrogen, he had said that it activates a larger field of neurons in a woman’s brain, so they experience stress in a more accurate way, even when only reliving the memory. Proofs of females having superior academic abilities are already cropping up. According to a report from CBSNews, boys are falling behind as girls tend to outshine them. Peter Badalment, principal of Hanover High School in Massachusetts, said that girls took home almost all the honors for nearly the past decade.Once again, it was a girl who became valedictorian, the latest of a nine-year-streak. In the school’s advanced placement classes (equivalent of a cream section or a star section), majority (about 70%-80%) of the students comprise of girls, even in the field of Math, which is the section boys used to dominate. He also stated that in AP biology, there were no boys around at all. Also according to Badalment, 3 out of 4 class leadership positions belong to girls. Not only are they achieving in class, they are also the leaders of extracurricular activities and clubs such as the National Honor Society and the batch’s yearbook.Even in college, campuses get more qualified women applicants. Women now comprise nearly 60% of the campus student body, earning 170,000 more degrees It is not only in the field of academics that women are proving to be much more efficient, but also in getting high paying jobs. When comparing charts for jobless rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Haver Analytics, it is clear that the trend for jobless men is rising, while the trend for jobless women is plunging. If this trend persists, it will mean that in the future, there will be more working women than working men.The possibility of having a â€Å"househusband† may be hovering before humanity in the near future. Driving It is common knowledge that cars and driving ski lls are â€Å"a boy thing†. This, however, does not mean that they do it well; this battle is, as the common saying goes, â€Å"quality versus quantity†. Although men are generally known to drive more, women are found to drive safer. Statistics show that on percentage basis, men have about 5% more violations than women. Reckless driving tops the list, with men’s violations more than 340% than that of women’s.DUI (Driving Under Influence or Drunk Driving) and Seatbelt violations are next in line, also more than 300% in ratio than the violations of women. Reports does not make it easier for men, as it say that women, for one, tend to survive in accidents more often, and two, they make less damage to the vehicles, as confirmed by many auto insurance industry experts. Biblical Origins It is commonly repeated by anti-feminists that God created men first, then the woman, out of the man, as it states in Genesis 2:22(KJV Bible) clearly: â€Å"And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman†.This, however, is not a mark of superiority; there simply has to be a filtering process first. It is just like the process involved in producing white sugar. The raw material comes in the form of sugar canes. These are just like the mud used to form man. They are useful, but in a different, less significant way when compared to their output products. These canes are then crushed and processed until they become brown sugar, coarse and as the name indicates, brown. This is man, as first made by God. They are crude sketches. This brown sugar is further processed and refined. The end result shall be white sugar.This white sugar is, at last, women. Being â€Å"refined†, they are finer, improved, and much more preferred. Another common mistake made by the general public is the misconception of the word ‘sons’. In old times, ‘son’ can refer to 2 definitions. The first defines the word as ‘male ch ild’; the second defines the word as ‘human offspring’, with no particular gender involved. It is, therefore, of no substantial argument. Summary and Conclusion To put it simply, women are scientifically and statistically proven to be the greater gender. Physical and emotional weaknesses have fewer tolls upon women.The lack of physical strength has been overcome by technological advances. There are no shortages to brain power, and independence has been steadily growing for the past few decades. With all these facts and data supporting the side of women, it is clear that the battle has been won. Modernization has proved an invaluable friend, having provided women access to fields they have never been allowed to step upon before. Now that they are at those fields, they are proving good at it. It is simple to predict that in a few decades’ time, women will have taken over completely. BibliographyAbrams, Dan. Man Down. USA: Abrams Imagery Animated. 2011 Belkin , Lisa. â€Å"Preferring Girls Over Boys†. The New York Times. February 25, 2010 [email  protected] com â€Å"Preference for Sons on the Wane†. April 29, 2011. http://English. chosun. com/site/data/html_dir/2011/04/29/2011042901189. html â€Å"How Sugar is Made† http://www. sucrose. com KJV Bible Kohn, David. â€Å"The Gender Gap†. CBNNews. February 11, 2009. http://www. cbsnews. com/stories/2002/10/31/60minutes/main527678. shtml Lazarus, Clifford N. PhD. â€Å"Why Women Are the Superior Gender†. Think Well. February 2, 2011 Lee, Yonson and Beth Mowry. Gender Differences in Emplyment Statistics†. http://www. clecelandfed. org/research/trends/2008/0508/04ecoact. cfm Lewin, Tamar. â€Å"At Colleges, Women are Leaving Men in the Dust†. The New York Times. July 9, 2006 Mackey, Maureen. â€Å"Who Remembers What? †. Reader’s Digest. March 2008. http://www. rd. com/family/who-remembers-what. html Mulrine, Anna. â€Å"Are Boys the Weaker Sex? †. Reader’s Digest. Hong Kong: Reader’s Digest Association Far East. October 2002. â€Å"Sugar Production From Sugar Cane â€Å". http://www. itdg. org/docs/technical_information_service/sugar_production_from_cane. pdf

Option 2c Caitlyn Jenner Interview - 779 Words

Option 2C: Caitlyn Jenner Interview 1. In a separate interview, Caitlyn Jenner said â€Å"I had proved myself as a man.† Based on her responses in the interview you watched, what do you think she meant when she said that? I think that she meant that before she came to terms with her sexuality, she did everything she could to demonstrate her masculinity, mainly in terms of her involvement in the Olympics and being considered the greatest male athlete of all time. In fact, she is still proud of her achievements during that time. Jenner admitted that she used her athletic drive as way to distract her from her struggles with her gender identity. In this way, she focused all of her energy in becoming as masculine as possible so that she wouldn’t have to deal with her internal struggles. 2. Explain how Bruce Jenner handled being transgendered at different stages of his life. Jenner said that as a boy, he was very lonely and never fit in with other people. In fact, he still feels like he doesn’t fit into our society because he is transgender. He admitted that as a young child, he secretly wore dresses and went out of the house covering his head with a scarf so that no one would recognize him. As an Olympic champion, Jenner stated that he was very confused and was focused only on running away from his gender identity issues, using the Olympics and his athleticism as a way to do so. As a husband, he felt very flustered and restless in his marriages and said that he had to deal with