#5

I found the readings interesting for multiple reasons. First of all, it is always interesting to me to read about the experiences of people in a minority group who are discriminated against. As a white male, I'm stereotyped as a majority, though this nation is in a place where "reverse-racism" is almost supported. Additionally, I've only spent about half of my life living in the US. I lived in Japan for nearly 8 years. While I did live on a US military base, there was even a high population of Asian Americans on the base, so for my high school experience, I was in the minority. I identified strongly with Cofer's The Story of My Body, because of the changes in the way people have perceived me throughout my life.

In addition to skin tone, I haven't always met the standards of gender, mentioned in the introduction. At this point in my life, most people I know like that I can cook and make "artsy" things. However, I do remember being teased for enjoying "girl stuff" when I was younger. I still don't get into watching sports very much, which is supposedly the "masculine" thing to do. As a result, I often feel ostracized in social interactions with groups outside of my close friends. This week especially, I don't particularly care who won the superbowl, which puts me in an odd place with all of the sports hype going on. Even as a kid, I watched it mainly for the commercials, not so much for the game.

I feel sometimes, that being "different" has given me a heightened awareness of others' differences and the ways they are treated because of those differences. As a result, I'm slow to make character judgments until I'm close friends with someone, and even then I'm more apt to give the benefit of the doubt.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I identify with "different", so when I create media I tend to over-analyze how others might perceive it. If I'm trying to make a point (especially a criticism) I labor over ways to do so tastefully. If I am aware that people will be offended by something I say or create, I try to find ways to express the sentiment in a way that is either humorous, so they can't help but laugh, or metaphorical, so that I'm not openly attacking or degrading them. I've found that (for me) this is the best way to make media that is both meaningful and entertaining.