Self: Sections C & D

• "How does your own culture define women as inferior to men? How do you explain this? Do you find Ortner's argument convincing? Are there ways you would argue that women are superior to men? Or do you think that very idea of a "superior" sex/gender is somehow absurd?"

Our culture here in the United States seems to be more so on the side of anti-feminist. Whether it be lower salaries for women, gender roles that our society continually perpetuates, or even more serious issues like rape, or domestic violence. In our country, I do feel as though women are seen as this completely separate entity of society. Ortner argues that, "Even if women are not equated with nature, they are nonetheless seen as representing a lower order of being, as being less transcendental of nature than men are." I could not agree more with her, in our society their appears to be this social order: a social order in which women are below men. Now, I'm not going to tell you that a women can do everything a man can do, because that is not true, both physically and biologically. But that doesn't mean that they should be paid less, have less job opportunities, be expected to play a certain role, or far worse, be outcast-ed and expected to keep silent about rape/domestic violence. That is exactly what happend at the University of Virginia this year. A girl was brutally attacked a fraternity, and the school told her to keep quit about it. Now, what kind of @#$&! society do we live in when we tell a girl who has suffered that she is to keep quite about what happened to her? I'll tell you, its a society that's pretty damn pathetic and disgusting. It seems like all we are concerned about here is maintaining our reputation, and traditional values (and it doesn't sound like we have many values to speak of today). Overall this idea of which gender is better than the other is stupid, and really serves no place, but I will say this, I know I could never endure half the things that a women has to go through. But regardless off that, the argument or idea of which gender is better is one that just needs to stop!

• "What would it mean to have a pluralistic self or selves? Do you find this view plausible? Have you ever felt as though you were somehow a multiplicity or selves or identities? (We're not talking craziness here.) Describe such an experience."

It is very possible to have multiple personalities, or even polar opposite sides of one personality. Aside from psychological disorders such as MPD, even a normal person could feel as if they have more than one personality. I myself feel this way about the way I act sometimes. On one hand I am very patient, kind, thoughtful, empathetic, funny,lazy, care free person. On another hand I can be incredibly serious, slightly withdrawn, hardworking, focused, philosophical, and not so sociable person, which comes in handy for things like this. And in some circumstances I can just become the complete opposite of the person you normally see.With that said, my personality can be separated into three categories 1) Normal, they way I act everyday when I'm in a good mood. 2) My Philosophical mood, this comes over me when I do assignments and get really hyper focused and shut everyone off, I'm not very sociable at this point. Finally 3) A side that I'd rather not go into a lot of detail about, I have a temper lets just say that. But to conclude this, yes, it is possible to have multiple personalities, and I certainly feel like I have a few of my own. 

Self: Sections A & B

• " How would you describe your- "self"- that which makes you "you" and different from everyone else?"
  
  This is kind of a hard question to answer, not that I don't have my select qualities that make me who I am, but I am not entirely if anyone is truly unique. The qualities each of us have is bound to be shared by multiple people, and as such leads to me believe that no one person is completely an individual. Over the course of my life I have met people that all share similar qualities with each other. Now of course one might argue that appearance plays a fact in how we define ourselves. But I feel like thats not true, the characteristics beneath that of our physical appearance define who we are.  So in conclusion, I may have my qualities, but I don't think they make me that much different than other people. I feel like uniqueness is this narcissistic illusion that people create to make themselves feel special or better than someone. But the truth is many people share similar qualities with each other, so while you may think you're different or perhaps better than someone, understand that we are all not so different. Which is something to think about the next time you decide to judge somebody.

• "To what extent is self identity a matter of choice"
  
  It's almost unavoidable to escape the opinions of others, so in many respects how we define ourselves is defined by others. Whether it be our physical characteristics or our personality. Sometimes there are situations when someone else knows you better than you know yourself. I remember on one occasion when I was on church retreat, when someone brought to be my attention that I was very egotistical. I had never associated myself with this term before, and it was only after being exposed to the opinion of someone else that I realized that this quality was very present, and that it was definitely something I had to work on. Self identity is limited especially when I consider an old saying that goes something a long the lines, "Its not a matter of how you define yourself, but how others define you". I feel like its more important, and more honest of an opinion that someone else has of you, than you have of yourself. Self identity is tricky because, while you might be able to identify yourself as something, someone else might disagree, and how you define yourself might not be true. This is simply due to the egotistical, and self centered nature that people can have. So I guess self identity is a choice to the extent of how many lies you are willing to tell yourself before you open yourself up to how other people view you.