Pocahontas Goes to the Clinic - Inequalities in Health Care

Today in class we discussed the article, "Pocahontas Goes to the Clinic" by Cheryl Mattingly.  One of the ideas the article explores is that  there still exists stereotyping problems in the healthcare system which dictate what depth of care patients receive.  The power struggle between race, language, culture and class is what exists in health care everyday.   This struggle can exist between doctors and patients as well as between nurses and patients.  Mattingly argued that people of minority races or lower incomes do not receive the same health care as those who do not fall into these categories. She claimed that health care professionals treat those who have  a higher income, or are of cultural preference, get better quality medical attention than those who don't.  This could simply mean better information, more options, medication provided, services offered, etc. We also discussed how health care professionals use "code names" to describe people who are perceived to not "deserve" better health care.   These names are generally given to those with lower incomes or minority status.  This enables the staff to communicate about patients in front of others without the public understanding what they are talking about.  This use of "code names" or "group names" supports the idea that health care professionals do not treat all patients equally.  If there was equality for all patients these "names" would not be needed at all.

A couple years ago a video had spread all over the news about a Jamaican woman who lived in New York.  She was found dead on the ER floor of King County Hospital after being left there to die for six hours.  There is video footage of the woman going into extreme pain and falling to the floor.  While she is on the floor multiple security guards checked on her, however, none of them did anything to save her.  Also, no nurses responded to the medical calls to the desk about the event.  Everyone who saw her simply left her on the floor and didn't assist her.  Because she had waited so long for medical attention she ended up dying as a result of the neglect. The following is a link to the video footage and the news commentary that followed the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybOJUujKxPg&feature=related

This event could have been avoided if the woman was given immediate medical attention when she first fell to the floor.  Since she was ignored and left to die this supports Mattingly's theory that racial inequality still does exist in the health care system.  Had the woman possibly been of a different race she may have been saved.

Pocahontas Goes to the Clinic

To many people in society today, including myself, the Doctor's office can arguably be one of the most never racking places to walk into. After filling out an information form that asks for every single detail of your life, a procedure follows that either hurts, is uncomfortable, or makes you feel gross for the rest of the day. When I saw the title of this article I wondered how Pocahontas or any Disney character could possibly resemble anything to do with the Doctor's office. After thinking about how my Pediatrics office was organized, I noticed many Disney characters were on the wall and the Lion King was on the 12 inch TV in the waiting room. The Doctor wanted all the young patients to be as comfortable as possible. My Doctor knew his patients were nervous and did anything in his power to make their time at his office enjoyable.

The speech seen in this article is common language and how that helps close the gap between Doctors and different races seen in the office. If a patient cannot communicate with their Doctor, that relationship will never last and that patient will move to a new doctor with better communication skills. Even the smallest of actions done by a Doctor can send a negative message to a new patient and it all starts with language. Mattingly hints on how Disney characters, such as Pocahontas, are seen in the same light by all different races. This "common ground" is used all the time in the Doctors office to make that important relationship needed to make patients comfortable.

The Youtube video I selected shows a girl facing her fear of getting a shot in her arm. For many young children having to get a shot taken is the worst thing ever. I personally did not like the feeling after it was done because your arm is sore for the rest of the day. In this video the sister of the patient seems more worried than the actual patient. During class the topic of how after a shot my bandaids have some sort of Disney or cartoon character on them to make the child feel better. In this video the Nurse feels the girl is old enough to get a plain white bandaid. She even asks if the bandaid is "Hello Kitty." I think the funniest part is when she is screaming with a smile on her face while the nurse administers the shot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTMcgHScXA

Pochahontas at the Clinic - Heather Hourigan

After reading the title for this article I was very confused as to how
Pocahantus could possibly relate to health care, however, through the use
of popular culture in our everyday lives it is evident to me now.  Popular
culture such as Disney characters, ?provide a common language for adults
and children, a set of public symbols that they can draw on to try and
connect with one another? (499). The type of speech that this article
examines is this common language of popular culture like the quote above
says.  No matter where you go in life there will always be an issue with
race and discrimination, including in heath care, but it takes having
something to relate to someone else that allows for people to overcome that
barrier. The example I found to relate to this article was a youtube video
of a girl getting a surprise trip to Disney Land. Her reaction was
priceless.

Trust needs to be formed between a doctor and their patient and in most
cases this is formed through our speech with one another. The doctors I
trust the most now are the ones that I have the best conversations with and
can tell they genuinely care about my health. This speech is hard to come
by in a child to adult situation. That is why popular culture such as
Disney characters is an immediate way of sparking conversation, which eases
the children?s minds. In a way this article touches on this adult to child
speech while using the idea of code switching. Not that the adult is using
a different type of language but is shifting the way he or she is speaking
to the child versus when they are speaking to that child?s parents.

The video that I attached to this post does not necessarily go with the
health care and Disney connection but I feel that it portrays the author?s
understanding on how important these Disney characters become to these
children. This video shows a young girl opening presents for her birthday.
Almost all of the presents she gets have to do with Disney whether it be a
Disney coloring book or pajamas. The most amusing part of this video is
when the girl?s mom says she gets to take all those things on a trip to
Disney Land. Immediately the girl is in shock and starts crying of
excitement. This shows not only how important these popular culture items
are to his young girl but the speech between the mom and daughter is
focused on this relationship of her love for Disney. The feelings are so
overwhelming for the young girl that she literally stops speaking and cries
out of excitement. Who knew popular culture could have such incredibly deep
feelings in the hearts of young Americans, and affect their speech between
adults.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM

The Sperm and the Egg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_23vazNbgk

0:0- 1:25 clip (I just looked up a cartoon clip and up until this point was what I was looking for but its bad humor after this time)

In Emily Martin’s article about the egg and the sperm, she looks at the ways in which sociology shapes the way scientific research is being reported.  Her main focus here is that the women’s processes and egg are described with passive words, whereas, men’s sperm and processes are described as active and exciting.  In her research, she looks at different texts and reports that images of the egg are described as feminine and passive by using words like “drift” or “is swept,” while males’ sperm are said to “activate the developmental program of the egg” (Martin 199).  I thought her research yielded interesting results so I wanted to find an example myself that demonstrated what she was talking about. 

I was able to find a video on youtube titled “Sperm’s World,” which, right from the start was funny because it implied the importance of sperm from the title alone by suggesting that they had their own world.  Skip is a young hopeful sperm who is talking to Gary, a larger sperm.  He describes to Gary that he needs to stop watching TV that he needs to stop being lazy, and start training for the big swim.  In this sentence alone, he has implied that sperm are not passive in telling his friend to turn off the TV, and that they need to be active and energetic to prepare for “the big swim.”  Skip then goes into a story about how even though he is considered small, he has high hopes and dreams for reaching an egg and creating a child, all while a positive instrumental tone is played in the background.  This scene sets this small sperm up to be the knight in shining armor who has to train to take a long journey to reach the egg and create a baby.  He has portrayed himself in a very active way in which he will fulfill this heroic journey. 

I thought that it was interesting that in a small youtube video that was merely made for light funny entertainment the ways of speech Martin looks at are implied.  In this clip we can see the way in which the sperm set themselves up to be the high energy active agents in creating a baby.

The Break-up 2.0 Remediation and Facebook Stalking

In Chapter 3 of The Break-Up 2.0 by liana Gershon she writes about Remediation and Heartache. She discusses the gap there is between a couple when they use a different range of technologies. The speech community that each person is could be different, so his or her social practices clash. For example, the girl uses e-mail but the boy uses texting for their main forms of communication.  Also, she discussed Facebook ‘stalking’. Going further than this ‘stalking’ she discussed people who would gain access to a loved ones or ex-lovers e-mail or Facebook accounts. In the article “Confessions of a Facebook Stalker” it is discussed what happens when women Facebook stalk their exes.  It kind of makes them seem crazy and not realize how well they are doing in their life at the moment.

I chose this article because it is a great example of how women use Facebook to look up on their ex significant others and what they are doing.  As we discussed in class, women and men use media differently so this gives a great example of how women use Facebook.

http://www.elle.com/Life-Love/Sex-Relationships/Confessions-of-a-Facebook-Stalker

Remediation and Heartache...and Sex and the City

The Breakup Post-it Note says
"I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me."

In the third chapter of Ilana Gershon's book, The Breakup 2.0, Gershon disusses different people's different media ideologies when it comes to breaking up and how Facebook (and other media) plays a part. She points out how people find breakups over texts to be scandalous. The jury is still out on phone breakups, and face-to-face breakups seem to be the preferred mode of breaking up. But what about a post-it note breakup?

The main character in Sex and the City, Carrie, gets broken up with via a post-it note left on her computer. The YouTube clip I posted is of her and her friends talking about it. (They are talking about talk...metalanguage.) Carrie even brings along the post-it to show her friends. These four women are shocked that the medium of a post-it note seemed to be an acceptable form of communicating a breakup. Other "bad forms" of breaking up to them also included the phone and a doorman. The four women obviously value face-to-face breakups more. The media ideologies of these four women don't match up with the media ideologies of the man who broke up with Carrie. This also might hearken at some gender social norms of what ways of breaking up women find to be acceptable versus what men deem to be acceptable.

Gershon brings up the topic of remediation in this chapter. Carrie negotiates the breakup from post-it to a conversation with the girls to contemplating an angry phone message- all different media forms and ways of speaking. These different forms of media are cathartic to Carrie in dealing with the breakup, and the phone message seems like a form of closure.  

The Egg and The Sperm

In Martin's article "The Egg and the Sperm," she illustrates how women are seen as inferior in a more sexualized and biological way. Usually the inequalities of men and women don't have to do with their sexual organs, however she notes that people really do see women to be inferior of men because they hold the eggs and men hold the sperm. The egg is seen to be passive, as a women's eggs are there from birth and does not move, but is only activated by the man's sperm, which she notes is on a "mission".

This clip is from the movie "Look Who's Talking" in the beginning credits, which shows how the woman in the movie, Kirstie Alley, gets impregnated and is the basis of the movie. The sperm are eager, active, and strong in this clip and vigorously trying to find their way to the woman's egg, which is stable and seems to be waiting for these sperm that are full of personality.

This clip reiterates the article and how people see the sperm and the egg. The egg is seen as "feminine" because it is so passive and waits for the sperm, which demonstrates dominance, strength, and with a mission; unlike that of a woman and her eggs.

http://youtu.be/65BV5dXXxzM

The Breakup and Media Ideologies

Chapter one of The Breakup 2.0 discusses media ideologies and idioms of practice to further analyze how people use different mediums to breakup.  The author, Ilana Gershon, goes into many different case studies to show people’s beliefs, or media ideologies, on breakups through text messaging, Facebook, and e-mail.  The article from Gawker, “Breaking Up on Facebook: A User’s Guide to the Most Efficient Way to Break a Heart”, correlates well with what Gershon is saying in her book.  The article talks about how the social media world allows breaking up to be done by simply clicking a button.  The article graphs the kindness of a break-up vs. the effort put into a break up through using different mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Productive conversation, and Sprawling conversation.  This graph correlates with Gershon using personal accounts to identify beliefs on what medium, if any, should be used during a break up.  The article also indirectly goes into informality and formality of mediums by giving the step-by-step rules to a Facebook break up, which again is based on media ideologies.  

I chose this article because I think it represents the idea of media ideologies we have been discussing throughout the semester and that Gershon further explains.  The author of this article is representing her media ideology that Facebook is the easiest and most efficient way to break up with someone.  Though the author of the Gawker article believes this, it does not necessarily mean everyone does.  As Gershon stated in chapter one, people create their own media ideologies and with some newer medias such as Facebook there is not one consensus about how it should be used yet.   

Article:

http://gawker.com/5521299/breaking-up-on-facebook-a-users-guide-to-the-most-efficient-way-to-break-a-heart

When I was searching youtube for videos on breaking up through different mediums or how Facebook plays into a relationship I came across a video where Facebook is used during a wedding ceremony.  During the video the groom updates his Facebook relationship status from “Engaged” to “Married”.  The man officiating the wedding then says “If it’s official on Facebook it’s official in my book”.  Though this is opposite from breaking up I still chose to share it because I think it represents an idea Gershon has about Facebook.  When Gershon is talking about people breaking up through Facebook she talks about “Facebook official” and how some people don’t believe a relationship has ended until it is “Facebook official”.  This video again shows different media ideologies.  Though the couple most likely did this out of humor, they are still changing their Facebook status at their wedding ceremony, which is probably uncommon to most, but it was their belief of how it should be done.  In summary, I chose this video to touch on Gershon’s “Facebook official” point as well as to show another different media ideology. 

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYhZsPBnTKk

Breaking up on Facebook

In chapter 2 of The Breakup 2.0, Ilana Gershon discusses how media ideologies affect the ways in which individuals find it appropriate to initiate a breakup, as well as how learning to use a medium is heavily weighted in social expectations. The beginning of the chapters resonates with Jones and Schieffelin’s article in reference to generational gaps. The man Gershon interviewed, Herb, began texting because of a love interest; the way in which he texts forms with the development of his relationship. Closing the generational gap, he also uses text messages to stay in contact in a more fluid way.

When using social media (such as Facebook) creators have an implied user in mind, which may or may not match those individuals actually creating profiles and using them to virtually network with others. Gershon concentrates on how Facebook affects relationships and the mitigation of relationship statuses. Facebook creators implied that users would create a profile with information for public access and many different types of relationships (friends, romantic, professional, etc).

“When analyzing how the structures of Facebook affect romantic relationships, I have to discuss the social interactions and expectations that people bring to Facebook. Facebook might refract these expectations, encouraging people to focus on one aspect of the information that their lovers are presenting to different audiences (which includes them, but typically is not exclusively aimed toward them)”(90).

However, in her interviews it appears as though Facebook complicates romantic relationships. One of Gershon’s interviewees even began feeling as if she was not the implied user, which in turn created usability issues with the social media platform. The other significant impact relationship status had on people is how to navigate a breakup. Often, there was tension between having one’s status displayed and transitioning from “in a relationship” to “single”. The controversy between those in a relationship developed out of different media ideologies; whether it was really necessary to solidify a relationship on Facebook. Whether one was trying to avoid confrontation with others or proactively inform people with a “barrage of questions” (as Gershon states) was unavoidable. The circulation of information is much more publicly accessible, and does not require the active exchange of information.

The YouTube clip I provided represents the way our generation’s media ideologies about Facebook affect relationships. As Gershon states, based on tagged pictures and posts there is a tremendous amount of assumptions made with minimal insight and contextual knowledge of the situation. These assumptions often lead to confrontation that may, or may not occur without the existence of Facebook. In summary, innovative media platforms are changing and shaping how information is accessed, interpreted, and displayed.

Facebook Breakup: 

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=qTwwuIn9inE&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL6C475F52DF5DA422

"I DK my BFF Jill"

The article by Jones and Schieffelin touches upon two important dicussions of language. We first see the context of cell phone use as a generational gap, one where younger generations are using this technology to communicate to one another in a constant way. Cell phone use is portrayed as the preferred method of communication among young individuals. The article analyzes the popular AT&T commercial from 2008 showing a young girl and her mom arguing over the daughter's cell phone usage, using the popularized initialisms in a verbal conversation. The young girl is fluent in this initialism language, while the mom struggles to keep up. This exasperation the mom experiences in this encounter is reminiscent of the analysis in the article "adults' anxieties about what young people are doing with and to language" (1052). The article indicates that this manipulation of language by a group in this way of utilizing initialisms is known as speech play and is in fact a highly stylized and sophisticated way to reconstruct language, creating new meanings and emphasis.

Not only is a generational gap recognized in this analyzation of cell phone language use, but gender gaps are also discussed in an important way. Not only is it a younger generation in general that utilizes this initialism language while texting and in live conversation, but more specifically girls. Gendered social norms tell us that there are expected ways of speaking for both males and females and both sexes further propagate these norms through their speaking and behavior within these constructs. The YouTube video "Sh*t Girls Say" is a further example of this gendered social norm as a male comedian dresses up as a woman and uses both verbal and non-verbal stereotypical ways that women speak to parody their behavior. They satarize topics relevant in female to female communication varying from sleep, technology use, food, etc. I found this parody particularly relevant and have become more aware in my everyday life of how much I fit within this mold of female gendered social norms. I also feel that the further we propagate these norms knowingly, the more they will persist within our society as we recognize this behavior and conciously continue it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-yLGIH7W9Y

Autistic Culture Online

 Davidson’s article focuses on how the autistic community communicates effectively via the Internet. Though the autistic community is the center of the article, Davidson focuses on how a community can connect with each other based on their differences. For example, Davidson suggests, “that ‘autistic language games’ might be seen as emerging from partially shared experiential background and ‘identity’—that is, self-identification with a place on the spectrum” (794). The autistic community communicates well on the Internet because instant message communication is very straightforward and leaves little room for emotions. Instant messaging is an ideal way for the autistic community to participate in a common way of communication without feeling secluded.

Identifying with others who are from similar backgrounds is not an isolated concept. For centuries, people often identify with other members of their religion, ethnicity, handy cap and/or social class. Often times, people will join support groups because it brings comfort to be around others from a similar background.

For my example, I wanted to take a look at the “Shit Cyclists Say” YouTube video. This video portrays how the cycling community identifies with each other through a common interest. From the coffee bar to the road, the cyclist is clearly always asking the opinion of another cyclists. The video always pinpoints the three places cyclists communicate: over coffee, on a ride or at the bike shop. I like this video because it is a great representation of how people can bond over a common interest. 

Mobile phones and Mipoho's prophecy

I chose a PBS article that that discusses how Australian educators are teaching short message service (SMS). Students are learning how to practice with abbreviations common to text messaging. One point that is important from the article is made by Professor John Frow, “English has literary languages of different kinds, it’s got professional jargon, it’s got sub-cultural languages, it’s got dialects…thinking about SMS is actually a way of thinking about English, standard English and about the way it works, the way it’s different from other languages…” The article argues that SMS should be taught in order to teach students the range of language that exists in English. They are teaching this particular form to get students to think about other languages and how SMS can be used to link and move between languages.

I chose this PBS article because it relates to the article by Janet McIntosh. In the town of Malindi, young people use code-switching. When they code-switch, English is the language that is typically abbreviated. English is the language that is always subject to manipulation. Youth in Malindi use abbreviations with English rather than Kiswahili or Kiigiriama. These English abbreviations or SMS are similar to those being taught to the Australian students.  English is the language that can be used to violate rules. Just as the PBS article discusses, English can be used this way because it is different from other languages and can be manipulated in many different ways. The PBS article discusses the global spread of English. Because of this global spread, English is now mixed in with other languages, like Kiswahili and Kigiriama.  A response to the article discusses this new advancement in technology and how we must adapt new skills (learning and using SMS) in order to communicate with one another. 

I believe this article on the teaching of SMS shows how language is a speech play. Similar to the article, “Talking Text and Talking Back: “MY BFF JILL” from Boob Tube to YouTube,” texting and using SMS allows for creative expression and knowledge rather than language decay. The teachers teaching the SMS curriculum have the ideology that SMS should be taught and used by students to enhance their literary skills. However, other people have different ideologies, and think that SMS is keeping students from learning proper English and is not acceptable to teach. In my opinion the PBS article is saying that the use of English SMS is important for everyone. It is important for everyone to learn in order to understand one another. In code-switching, the youth in Malindi show the importance of SMS in English because that is what they use collectively in texts. Only abbreviations are made in English, therefore they must have a collective knowledge on how to use it.http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/10/do_students_need_to_learn_text.html