Gay Pride was not born of a need to celebrate being gay, but their right to exist without persecution. There have been many symbols that represent the oppression the gay communities have felt, the celebration of who thy are, and the fight they had to fight. One of the originals, the pink triangle was first used by Hitler to identify gay males in Nazi concentration camps, and another, the black triangle, was similarly used to identify lesbians and others deemed “asocial”. The pink and black triangle symbols were reclaimed by the LGBTQ communities in the early 1980s to signify their strength of spirit and willingness to survive oppression. As they gained acceptance of their rights, the symbols of oppression were gradually being replaced by the symbols of celebration. By far the most colourful of the symbols is the Rainbow flag. The many couples represent the diversity of the community. The first rainbow flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, in response to calls by activists for a symbol for the community. Baker used the five-striped “Flag of the Race” as his inspiration, and designed a flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. In November 1978, the people of San Francisco were stunned when the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was assassinated. Wanting to show their strength, the community decided to use Bakers flag as a symbol of strength. They had to eliminate the indigo colour in order to divide the colours evenly among the parade, creating the six stripe flag that we know today. Soon after, in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, AIDS activists designed a “Victory over AIDS” flag consisting of the standard six-stripe rainbow flag with a black stripe across the bottom. Leonard Matlovich, himself dying of AIDS-related illness, suggested that upon a cure for AIDS being discovered, the black stripes be removed from the flags and burned.
Many variations of the flag have been created over the years, adding stripes for certain movements, removing some for other. I believe this symbol has ensured strength within the LGBTQ community, without it, many movements might not have been as effective. A symbol helps create a unity within a movement, and the colourful flag that the LGBTQ community used has helped them immensely to overcome the oppression, fight deadly battles, and celebrate who they are, as well as be proud of it.
Month: June 2018
Ideologies
An ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. Generally, an ideology is a word ending in “ism”, like communism. It’s hard to pin down an exact definition of one as there are many different kid s of ideologies. Generally, they are a belief system, ideas of a ruling class, a world view of a particular social class, and an action-oriented set of political ideas. Another explanation of what am ideology is are ideas that situate the individual within a social context and generate a sense of collective belonging, an abstract ams highly systematic set of political ideas.
In class we were given a lecture about the basic knowledge of ideologies, the different types in the world, which ones are most effective and popular, and how they can effect society. There are many different types of ideologies, most I had never heard of before. For example, globalization. Globalization is the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.
Many of these different ideologies are seen all over the world in today’s society. Some less than others. For example totalitarianism is seen in Saudi Arabia today. It is one of the only countries in the world that still follows this ideologies.
Below I have put an image of all the notes I took in class when we first learned all about ideologies. This information really helped me with further work as we looked more into history and leaders of countries in world war 1 and 2.
Facilitation Friday
Over the course of the last few weeks, we have been learning about the major events that occurred over the decades in the 20th century. Starting with the 60’s, we learned about the hippie movement, impact of drugs, and the new form of rock and roll. All of those were extremely interesting and were enjoyable to learn more about. The following Friday, a few students were tasked with the job of diving deeper into one of the topics and giving a brief presentation on it. This was followed with some discussion questions where the rest of the class contributed their thoughts, opinions, other questions, and connections.
When it was my turn to present, the general topic was the 70’s. One of the important events we learned about was cults and crime. This topic was thrilling for me, which may be why I chose to study criminology next year at SFU. Unfortunately, someone else had already taken the topic, but I managed to get them to split the topic with me, since it was a pretty large one. This left me with researching more about the significance and rise of cults in the 1970’s. Also, the impact they had, by being vocalized through media, on the world we know today. 
Cults have been around many years, although, they were not brought to the attention of the overall public and media until the 1970’s. A rise of crime had begun after the deterioration of the hippie movement in the 60’s. Many young people were lost and unable to find a place in society after rebelling for so long. This allowed for many criminal minded people to arise and lure people in to a new, “better”, society.
Below I have linked my keynote presentation and script I used where I better explained what it means to be a cult, and a dangerous cult, the effect these had on the people at the time, and na example of one of the most well known cults, Peoples Temple.
What is a cult?
The definition of a cult is a group that devoutly follows a person, place, or thing. Usually they are seen as unorthodox by society. It’s leaders generally use unethical and manipulative methods of persuasion and control to further the goals of the group. 
Not all cults can be dangerous, however we portray the name cult as deadly to society. The three primary characteristics of a destructive cult are a charismatic, living leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship, a process of brainwashing and persuasion, and economic, sexual, and other exploration of group members by the leader.
Why did the 70’s have so many cults?
A cult must appeal to some certain sense of euphoria. Someone must have the desire to “transcend” their day-to-day lives to something more meaningful. These kinds of people will invariably be people who are having trouble “making it” under normal circumstances. People who are lonely, people who feel alienated spiritually or socially, people who are less financially well-off. These were the people who were apart of the hippie movement in the 60’s.
The social upheavals in the 60s had a lot to do with people subsequently searching for some kind of Utopian belief system. It was the demise of the hippy subcultures of the 60s. People getting older and having different priorities, needs, etc… made some more susceptible to these kinds of “alternative” faiths or what have you.
We also see other areas over the decade that point to a rejection of traditional institutions, like open marriages/swinging. The flower children were growing up and bringing their desire to try new things with them.
Example:
The Peoples Temple origins were tied to Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love — the Peoples Temple attracted many idealists who were looking for alternatives to the constraints and shortcomings of contemporary American society.
In 1955, a 24-year-old reverend rented a small building in a racially-mixed section of Indianapolis. With a group of 20 followers, he founded a religious group called Wings of Deliverance, after leaving his position as reverend of the Laurel Street Tabernacle because of the congregation’s resistance to a racially-mixed church. A year after its founding, Wings of Deliverance was renamed Peoples Temple. The Temple was known in Indianapolis for its social activism and for the services it provided for society’s disadvantaged. Rev. Jim Jones himself served as a model for the Temple’s commitment to societal equality. They eventually relocated to Guyana to separate themselves from the rest of society. 
The events at the agricultural project Jonestown on November 18, 1978 have been described in two different terms: as the “Jonestown suicides” and as the “Jonestown massacre.” Nonetheless, the mass suicides were decidedly a mass murder, enacted through the use of psychological exploitation instead of physical force. As the leader of the religious group Peoples Temple, Reverend Jim Jones was responsible for the psychological massacre of his followers because of the manipulative means he used to demoralize and control them.
During my presentation I asked three discussion questions. The first being, “Do you think the rise of cults would have been as vocalized without the hippie movement from the 60s?”
Most people when asked this agreed and said that cults wouldn’t have been as vocalized. It was a fairly simple question as I had previously given a point earlier in the presentation stating that a lot of the cult members were those who were lost, outcasted from society after being apart of the hippie movement.
Once my next question was asked, “Do you think cults should be banned/made illegal?”, many hands shot up in the air. They debated that yes they think they should be illegal, as long as they are a threat to society. In the past, some religions have started off as cults, and in fact, some religions today can be categorized as cult like. Especially if you devoutly follow them. For the most part, people agreed they should be illegal, although it would almost impossible to do so as many can and would continue underground.
My final question was “Are cults any worse than the brainwashing that happens from our parents and society?” Unfortunately, we were cut short on time with this one so not everyone got to share their opinion. However, many people had very different opinions on this. Most agreed that of course cults are much worse, although I don’t necessarily think that. Yes I agree that cults can be very dangerous, but the brainwashing is not much different then what we are told. We only know what we do is right because we are told so. This is the same for those in the cults. They are told something is one way, so they believe that to be true. The only difference is the majority of our parents are not teaching us potentially harmful or dangerous things.
Overall, I believe my presentation went very well. People seemed interested in the topic and were willing and ready to share their thoughts. I am also proud of myself for responding back to some people’s points with my own thoughts.
Paris 1919
The year 1919 was a momentous time for all the major countries in the world. World War One had just come to an end, and peace was finally on the horizon. Every big country came to meet in Paris for the Peace Conference. There, they would discuss how several countries would be split, any reparations that needed to be paid, and finalize a peace contract between everyone.
Unfortunately, these plans did not turn out just how the allies predicted. Countries like Germany refused to pay the extreme price of a reparation England and France were asking for. In turn, this caused even more conflict than the had before and during World War One. The Paris 1919 Peace Conference was ultimately a failure, especially for American, Wilson, who created the League Of Nations, in hope of bringing peace everlasting.
In class we discussed the events that played out over the several months in Paris. The failures, success, and how this all led to World War Two. We watched a film, which I have linked below, and took notes on what we saw, thought, and any questions we had. This I have also added down below as evidence of my knowledge on the event.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/paris_1919/
While watching the movie I thought, could the war have been prevented? I already know that World War Two happens, although it seems there were many signs that begin to appear that Germany is not happy and is willing to fight once again in order to get what they want. They are angry with the peace treaty and refuse to sign at first, everyone is scared of them, even if they are weak. If the French and their ally’s had paid more attention to the signs, they could have been more prepared for the Second World War. I believe that instead of being confident in themselves, the allies, England and France, should have acknowledged the warning signs of aggravation and taken some action towards preventing possible backlash.
A German representative who attended the Paris peace conference stated, “the treaty which our enemies have laid before us is, in so far as the French dictated it, is a monument of pathological fear and pathological hatred; and in so far as the Anglo-Saxons (British) dictated it, it is the work of a capitalistic policy of the most brutal and cleverest kind.” – Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau. He has acknowledged the fact that the reparations they were asking for was a clever plan, as well as the everlasting peace, although it was a brutal one. This meant that he although thought the idea was a smart one, was not in favour of it as it did not help, in any way, his own country.
Many signs had arisen during the peace conference to indicate that a future war could be coming. If only the allies had noticed them, then maybe a war may not have happened, or there could have been a lot less damage.
A Revolutionary Book
Our class decided to venture to Cuba, a new country with rich history. Unfortunately, I was one of the 10 students who decided to stay home. It was a missed opportunity, but at least I didn’t miss two weeks of school. While half of our class was gone, learning all about Cuban history, we were takes with furthering our knowledge on the Iranian revolution. 
We had to do a lot of our learning ourselves, diving deeper into the topic and using the information we found to create a book. Our remaining class was divided into five groups of two in which we had to create a chapter of a book explaining everything we knew about a specific topic, using one of the six historical lenses we had previously learned about. My group was given the lens of ethical judgement to explain the shift in supreme leaders during the revolution.
Research was fairly easy, as was piecing together our knowledge into writing for the book. The challenge was finding someone willing to be interviewed about the topic. It seems to my finding, as well as the other groups, that the Iranians who experienced the revolution were too scared to talk about it. The people we found that were open to talking were not allowing us to disclose any personal information about them, including their identity. I found a man, who knows my mom, that was willing to give us his story about the revolution as he lived their as a child. We only have written information form him as he did not want even his voice to be used since we knew this book would be publicly published. 
The stories this man told me were unbelievable. His family went through many terrors because they did not agree with the new rules of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. I explained a few of them in our chapter of the book linked at the bottom.
When we first created the book, every group had very different looking chapters. We had to all work together as a larger group to create a common theme. Overall, I think the look, design, ad layout of the book as a whole look amazing and flow nicely. However, having to complete revamp my chapter was a little time consuming, but I got it done. Below I have linked my chapter of the book.
Working in partners is not always the best idea. Especially when your partner does no work. If you’ve noticed I keep saying “I did” and “Me”. This is because I have had to compete this entire chapter myself as my partner did not contribute enough. This was a major struggle for me and caused a lot of unnecessary anger from both parties as he believed he was contributing a good amount of work, and at a great quality. Below are photos of the two pages I made him contribute before I was forced to fix them as time for the project had run out.
As you can see they are unfinished and look nothing like the rest of the chapter. And surprisingly, this was his second draft of the pages after I had to explain to him what needed to be fixed. The photo on the second image is one that came with the original template, and the titles of both pages as well. It was extremely frustrating to deal, manage, and eventually have to complete the entire chapter myself due to a slacking partner. If I hadn’t have had the flu the day we picked partners, I’m sure the outcome of the project would have been a lot better, and most importantly, less frustrating.
Besides having to complete this project by myself, I actually really enjoyed creating this project. Diving deeper into a revolution and culture I had no idea about beforehand was a great experience. Also the format of this project, a book containing audio, video, and visuals was something new for our class, and for me, very fun to make. Overall, I am pretty proud of the outcome I created and hope that maybe one day I am able to use this format for a future project, (although probably not since I’ll be going to university).
British Beatlemania
At the start of 1964, the Beatles were at the top of the charts in the UK, but had just started to attract audiences overseas with songs from their first two albums Please Please Me and With the Beatles. Buzz about the new and exciting boy band began to make its way to America. People couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the fun sound the boys were producing.
John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were breaking the hearts of people all over the world. Their music was spreading like wildfire and people just couldn’t get enough of it. The fan base those boys had were crazy. In fact, Beatles fans were so excited and determined to see the band that police sometimes resorted to using fire hoses to hold them back. Beatlemania had shocked the world.
Even back in 1963, before their big break in America, the fans were absolutely starstruck by even the thought of the boys. Below is a story from Lothian, a guard at the time of the show, about the Beatles’ concert in Glasgow Odeon on 5 October.
‘The night almost unravelled when nervous local police insisted Lothian bring the Beatles on early to satisfy rowdily impatient fans, even though his bouncers were still in the pub. “The girls were beginning to overwhelm us,” remembers Lothian, now 73 and a business consultant. “I saw one of them almost getting to Ringo’s drumkit and then I saw 40 drunk bouncers tearing down the aisles. It was like the Relief of Mafeking! It was absolute pandemonium. Girls fainting, screaming, wet seats. The whole hall went into some kind of state, almost like collective hypnotism. I’d never seen anything like it.”’
“Don’t worry… it’s only Beatlemania,” (Lothian).
A trend of boy bands had begun. The Beatles were the beginning of a new kind of music. To the fans, it wasn’t just about the music or the sound, it was the presence the boys brought to the stage, audiences and the cameras. Not only that, but they had personality, they were open to people and showed them who they were. It gave people something more to love about them. They gave all the screaming girls around the world someone to dream about, to idolize. Niall Horan, previous One Direction member stated “They are nuts. Mostly all I see is a sea of screaming faces.” This could have been said by any boy band member over the past 50 years.
People felt that the Beatles were the birth of Pop music. They were innovative with their music style, ranging from pop ballads, to rock and roll, and even some psychedelics. The sound was melodious and harmonious to the ear and everyone just couldn’t get enough of it. This might be why this group of Liverpool boys conquered the world of popular music for decades. These idols laid down the foundations for most of nowadays rock music, and the culture brought with it.
(A collage of the Beatles, and their fans I made)
Each song the Beatles released could function as a cultural driving force for social change. The youth they captured were so dedicated, whatever the Beatles said they would do, and with pride. These boys created a movement that continued on to shape the music industry and culture we know today.
Bibliography:
https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/showbiz/beatles-ed-sullivan-beatlemania-5-things/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/29/beatlemania-screamers-fandom-teenagers-hysteria