Growing Up As A Haitian American

Culture is defined by specific values and belief systems. Culture is who you are, your surroundings, and your traditions. Culture helps shape our behavior, since we're born,a nd raised into a specific culture. The vidoe what is culture, states that culture is learned behavior inspired by people that come from a specific group. I was raised in a Haitian family, and growing up Haitian was definately interesting. Growing up in a strict family, and being the only girl, out of 4 brothers, I grew uo literally walking on a straight line. It was like, if you are a girl, you are looked down on, if you do anything wrong. You are also looked at, as if you've shamed your own family. Growing up in the haitian culture has raised me to be just like my mother.

Everyone has a past either good or bad and they’re the ones that decide how they are going to use it. I’ve always been so fascinated with people’s personal stories because I think our past, where we came from and what we have been through has a big impact on how we live our lives. My story is a unique one, I grew up in Haiti and I mostly remember about all the insecurity problems there, being scared that my parents got killed on their way back home from work, or me and my brother getting kidnapped one day. My story is different from everyone else’s, no one can tell it better than I can; but all of us at one point have experienced something in common and finding this person or this group of people

A famous actor, Michael J. Fox once said, “Family is not an important thing it is everything”. In the same way, family will be with one through hard times and love one no matter what. The two stories that best prove family is the cultural element that informs the way individuals view others and the world are Two Ways to Belong in America and By Any Other Name. The impact family has on cultural perspective can be clearly seen when one views the teachings, names, books, and tradition. However, family might not always be the best cultural element, because family may disappoint one or not help them. Despite this, family will still be there for their children at difficult times to help them get through their struggles. Family is the cultural

Gender relations and gender identities are critical aspects of culture because they shape the way daily life is lived in the family, but also in the larger community and within the workplace. Gender (like race or ethnicity) functions as an organizing principle for society because of the cultural meanings given to being male or female. This is apparent in the overall understanding of gender. In most societies, there are obvious patterns of “women’s work” and “men’s work,” both in the household and in the wider community, and cultural explanations support this. The patterns and explanations vary among societies and change over time.

Growing up in Haiti has strengthen my survival instinct at an early age. With barely enough to eat, we was dying one by one. Medicine and treatment was very rare for us. Imagine dying from a simple cold due to the fact that aspirin and cough medicine was foreign to us. I recall walking around wishing for better days or looking for ways to help. And I remember being told I was coming to America. America, the place where even the most impossible dreams come true. America, where education is free and very beneficial. Regardless of how young I was, I knew with every fiber in my little body that I would try my hardest to be successful in America. Unable to speak english, school become a challenge. But to all my teachers surprise it took me less

When reading this blog I honestly did not understand the point the writing was trying to get across in its entirety until I saw the photo. The visual made the message loud and clear for me and the cartoon image solidified the memo. Both of these women in my opinion have received some sort of oppression because their look is what society has deemed acceptable and worthy of attention and in some cases a mate. Being Haitian-American, I’ve experienced both sides of this dilemma. Haiti in some ways is very conservative; some women in many areas are not even allowed to wear pants, pierce their ears or wear extensions but I was born and raised in Florida. In American culture, the more skin you show the more beautiful and appealing you are. I’ve always struggled between the two extremes so I believe I have a level of empathy for both sides. I can’t really say that one is more oppressed than the other because they experience 2 different extremes of oppression.

The concept of the masculinity of real men and femininity of real women has been questioned from one age to the next/ from one culture to another. Upon interviewing three people I have been able to identify cultural patterns. When one looks at society from a broad viewpoint we see a divergence among cultures because of the cultural bias’s implanted from an early age. Additionally, movements by men and women have been fortified because of the reactions to the rationales projected by different cultures. Throughout society the concept of real men and women has been inundated by differentiating cultures allowing for a mixing of belief systems however, someone’s principal belief comes from their family heritage.

At our inception we are simply biotic matter without any sense of gender. However as we age, our sense of gender beyond the objective view of our biology reminds us that men are different from women. Are we truly different entirely from one another, or are the differences in gender brought about by our social interactions? Drawing on the works of authors of Anna Quindlen, Virginia Woolf, and Cathy Song, it is apparent that these divides are not rooted in our genetics. Although, on the surface, they agree that socialization is a cause of gender difference, they convey different meanings for our expectations concerning gender. Woolf’s claim is without an outlet by which women can escape the gender expectations society expects of them, which reinforces

The role of a male and female has slowly evolved; however, there is not much difference that has occurred because of the beliefs that are deeply ingrained in different societies. The relationship that exists between gender and sex has been the reasoning to a current cultural awakening, and the result of campaigning for better understanding on the underlying issues that exist between gender, sex, sexuality, and cultures. This is why these concepts are important to highlight and better familiarize people with the key differential aspects.

To understand gender as a social construction, one must know the meaning of some terms; 1) gender is a social concept, 2) sex is a biological concept, and 3) gender roles ascribes to a society’s expectations of peoples actions and perspectives depending on whether they are male or female. Furthermore, “social concept” refers to the cultural and social differences a society assigns to people based on their

Over an extensive period of time, the issue concerning gender has “consistently occupy the media and the public mind.” (Correll 20). It has established beliefs about the roles of men and women as a whole. “A man is expected always to be strong, impervious to pain, and especially to emotional stress, dominant in the role of lord and master; a woman is expected to be docile, submissive, passive, fulfilled in the role of subordinate.” (Fremon 129). It has been concluded for the longest time that women are the inferior gender, biologically, psychologically and socially. For many people, it is normal for women to be gender typed and never realize the prejudices underlying into it. They are judged with

In the article “Families” by Andersen and Taylor, the authors take an in-depth look at the subject of families, the foundations of families, the evolution of families over time, and the growing changes society has done to the institution of family. They clarified extensively how families today are not just blood related. They can be composed of adoptive relatives, step siblings and roommates who might share the same household with you. The authors point out how there are many ways of finding families in today’s society. Some families live with the typical mother and father, but others live with their grandparents, only one parent, parents of the same-sex and parents whom are not legally married. This growing changes to families is evicted

Growing up in a Christian and multicultural family, the role of gender has always played a vital role in my life. Growing up, my father was the breadwinner in the family, although my mother had a higher income than him. My mother has always told me to stay true to the Bible, although there might be confusion due to society. As a sociology major, I have come to develop a better understanding of how gender as affected society and myself. As a Christian, gender differences are classified as the province of God and one is taught that, “God had created man and women for different purposes” (Kimmel 2013, 22). Instead, I have learned that both men and women are capable of the same duties and one should not be judged based on their sex. Sex is biological and should be used to determine what one is capable of doing. For instance, Kimmel argues that many writers argued that women’s efforts to enter the public sphere–to seek employment, to vote, to enter colleges–were misguided because the placed women’s social and political aspirations over the purposes for which their bodies had been designed” (Kimmel 2013, 23). As a result, the sexist beliefs held in regards to women are both socially and culturally constructed. These beliefs are also lead to be seen as natural differences, which are the main “sources of the social and political arrangements we observe today” (Kimmel 2013, 25). For example, I have been led to believe that it is impossible for a woman to become the President of the

It is often difficult to abandon such universal ideals especially because of how deeply and successfully they have integrated into modern day society. This idea of perceiving men and women as two distinctive and opposite types of

Society functions on gender differences and segregation in terms of labour, roles, and ideas coded within its regulations, specifically within a Western context. Gender is not a “real” construct, but is socially constructed and embedded within societal institutions. For instance, there is the paradox of gender--it is not an innate nor does it come from biological features or hormones--it instead stems from the norms and expectations deemed “natural”, such as men being the strong breadwinners within the family institution (Lorber, 1993). An institution refers to mechanisms and structures that enforce the rules that an individual must follow. Since birth, these institutions are socializing people to follow certain roles depending on the gender enforced upon them. West and Zimmerman even emphasize that these institutional frameworks are based on the concept that differences in our expressions of male or female are deemed “essential” differences determined by our ascribed roles as male or female at birth (1987). The institution of family is an agent of socialization that shapes our attitudes and behaviours due to constant gender assessment (R. La Touche, personal communication, Oct. 2nd, 2017). The family is an institution that enforces gender roles and a dichotomous binary amongst individuals in society by emphasizing gender differences in the division of household labour.