A Student Response From:
Samuel
After reading this post, I immediately thought about a quote from a Batman movie. Ironically, the quote comes from The Joker who is the antagonist. There’s a scene within the movie where The Joker says, “They laugh at me because I’m different. I laugh at them because they’re all the same”. I think that we spend a majority of our youth engaging in conformity which is essentially trying to fit in. Unfortunately, our society tends to make fun of and outcast those that are different. Due to this, we try our best to fit in and sometimes this comes at the expense of losing our true self in the process. It’s safe to say that culture can heavily influence our lives as well as impact those around us. As Rose mentioned in her discussion, she always chooses her daughter’s clothes and hairstyle for her. Her daughter hates this because it takes away her sense of self-expression. Rose understands this but she has a hard time of allowing it due to the fact that she wants her daughter’s childhood to be better than her own. With that said, you can easily see how Rose’s own culture and childhood still has an effect on her to this day. I think it’s safe to say that Rose was somewhat of an outcast as a child. Now, I don’t mean this in a bad way at all. However, she even mentions herself that her family had a unique way of life. Due to this, she ended up conforming to a more traditional lifestyle as she got older, and I don’t blame her one bit. However, I think her childhood sticks with her to this day and that is why she struggles to let her daughter wear her clothes with holes or walk around dirty. Rose lived that way as a kid and didn’t have a whole lot of opportunities. So, Rose wants to provide nothing but the best for her daughter. This is totally understandable, but it creates a bit of a problem. It limits creativity and self-expression while promoting conformity. In my opinion, conformity isn’t a bad thing, but I find it to be detrimental when it is suppressing diversification. As I’ve learned in my Organizational Behavior & Diversity class, diversity is an essential part to creating and maintaining a good business. Therefore, in this scenario, I think the best thing to do is let Rose’s daughter wear her own clothes and hairstyle as she chooses. By doing this, it allows for self-expression and diversification. Of course, the risk of this is what society will say about this. But I think it is important for Rose’s daughter to experience the world on her own. I think this holds true to every single human being. When we are young, we are so concerned with what everybody thinks about us, but as we get older, we realize that nobody even cared in the first place. Therefore, I am an advocate of diversification and being yourself regardless of cultural and societal influences. To wrap up, I want to leave you all with a quote about being different and expressing yourself. “Being different simply means you have something unique to offer the world”.
Comments 1
Hi Samuel,
I’m thinking about what you said about diversity. I agree with you that self expression is very important and diversity in the workplace is beneficial. However, I wonder how much is influenced by privilege. In my opinion it is easy for someone who is privileged to express themselves how they want to in the workplace. I am a white, straight male from a middle upper class family. If I choose to dress differently, have visible tattoos, or something similar I most likely wont have any problems. But what about people of color? Or someone who is gay? Do they have these same luxuries? I don’t think they do. Of course it depends on the situation and I can not speak on others experiences. I really liked what Rose discussed on those who come from more privileged backgrounds and do the “responsible” thing by biking to work or something of similar nature. I agree with her when she said these things are a choice and I think we are allowed these choices because of our privilege. It’s so interesting thinking about the connection of everything.