Saturday, August 31, 2019

Bonds and Their Valuation Mini-Case Essay

Sam Strother and Shawna Tibbs are vice-presidents of Mutual of Seattle Insurance Company and co-directors of the company’s pension fund management division. A major new client, the Northwestern Municipal Alliance, has requested that Mutual of Seattle present an investment seminar to the mayors of the represented cities, and Strother and Tibbs, who will make the actual presentation, have asked you to help them by answering the following questions. Because the Boeing Company operates in one of the league’s cities, you are to work Boeing into the presentation. a.What are the key features of a bond? Answer: 1.Par or face value. We generally assume a $1,000 par value, but par can be anything, and often $5,000 or more is used. With registered bonds, which is what are issued today, if you bought $50,000 worth, that amount would appear on the certificate. 2.Coupon rate. The dollar coupon is the â€Å"rent† on the money borrowed, which is generally the par value of the bond. The coupon rate is the annual interest payment divided by the par value, and it is generally set at the value of r on the day the bond is issued. 3.Maturity. This is the number of years until the bond matures and the issuer must repay the loan (return the par value). 4.Issue date. This is the date the bonds were issued. 5.Default risk is inherent in all bonds except treasury bonds–will the issuer have the cash to make the promised payments? Bonds are rated from AAA to D, and the lower the rating the riskier the bond, the higher its default risk premium, and, consequently, the higher its required rate of return.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Miles and Flora in ‘The Turn of the Screw’ Essay

The children in the novella are very distinctive in a manner of how the reader can perceive them. They can be seen by many as good children or bad children. In Victorian times the majority of children were actually brought up in the lower class and the middle class, Miles and Flora were not, they were lucky enough to be in the upper class but they had to follow the ideals of their mother or father. They didn’t have a mother or father therefore the governess was the only option of a friend to have and confide in, this was seen as morally wrong in the society since many Victorians believed that their shouldn’t be friendships between different classes, they believed in a strict social hierarchy. The children can be seen as innocent in the novella by the governess’ first views of them. On her first sighting of Miles, the governess describes him as being ‘angelic’, this can be seen as quite confusing to the reader since she has only just met him, it is a very powerful word to use on first impressions. But mainly it has religious connotations, it conveys a very strong image of Miles being this perfect little child, and sets him up as an innocent character throughout the entire novella. Also the governess is ‘carried away’ by Miles as well as the Master; this suggests that the governess is always in awe of strangers making her seem very vulnerable. Miles is constantly referred to as ‘little’ by the governess throughout the novella. She calls him a ‘little fairy prince’ which shows how highly she speaks of Miles, this suggests how little he is in physical appearance but mainly the innocence of him, small things are usually very vulnerable and innocent and need comfort and support from somebody bigger than them. The use of ‘prince’ not only shows how pristine he is but also correlates with his Victorian upper class position in society. This perception of Miles stays the same even until the end when his ‘little heart, dispossessed had stopped’. Since there has been many sides to Miles in the novella, the end sentence conveys how innocent he really he is. He is only a little boy and that’s what the reader needs to remember. Flora is also spoken very highly of by the governess. Generally there is more of a loveable connection between the two because they are female, and the daughter looks up to both of her parents as role models but to the mother most of all. The governess thinks that Flora is ‘the most beautiful child she has ever seen’; this is kind of inferred in the quotation but also has a very loveable element to it and an innocence one too. The governess doesn’t really experience any problems with Flora in the novella; she wants to protect her all the time from the ghosts that she believes are terrorizing her. Flora’s position in society as being upper class is also linked to by the use of her ‘hair of gold’, ‘gold’ symbolizing money but also makes her stand out in the crowd, the author has made her out to be like a little prodigy. Another perception of the children’s innocence comes with the idea if there are actually ghosts corrupting them, which the governess thinks is happening. The fact that they are only children conveys the general idea that children tend to be scared of ghosts and don’t want to hear anything about them. The children may be getting scared by the governess’ dramatic reactions to her so called sightings of Quint and Jessel. When Flora is awake in the middle of the night looking out the window, the governess, straight away, believes that she is contacting ghosts and so her suspicions about ghosts are increased but they are only children and it turns out they were only having a joke. Children can still have fun even though they are of noble birth but the governess doesn’t seem to realize this. Maria Edgeworth commented on the grave dangers of leaving young children in the supervision of servants, in this case the governess is actually a servant in social hierarchy terms but the master in terms of profession terms. The children however can be seen as being ‘bad’. The quote in the title itself tells how Miles could be being sinister. When the governess wakes up to see why Flora is standing up at the window, she immediately believes that she is contacting either Quint or Jessel because she is extremely paranoid. But when she sees Miles on the grounds of Bly she panics because not only is he all alone without anyone supervising him, he is also looking above the window Flora is looking out so the governess believes he is contacting Quint. When talking to Mrs.Grose about what happened the previous night, she watches Miles and Flora walking the grounds and believes that ‘they’re talking horrors!’, this could have several implications, one could be that they are plotting and scheming against the governess to maybe overthrow her position and get their uncle back to them and another could be that they are talking to the horrors and in this case the horrors could be Quint and Jessel since the word horror is often associated with ghosts and the supernatural. One thing that could suggest that the children are deceiving the governess and manipulating her is the fact that the employer who is the children’s uncle is nowhere to be seen at Bly. Since being employed the governess is told strictly not to contact him about anything whatsoever, not even about his own nephew and niece. This surely arouses suspicion and could possibly make the reader think that maybe the children are actually bad. Perhaps the past between Miles and Quint had made the Master resort to madness like the governess possibly has as well. It could in fact possibly be that Quint corrupted Miles before the governess was at Bly which leads to the reason why he was expelled from his school which the governess believes is a massive concern. Are the children the cause of their uncle’s behavior? And maybe, what have they done to make him not want to stay at Bly? The governess has all these sorts of questions but knows that they she cannot contact him for the sake of her job, which drives her mad because she thinks she is being corrupted. The descriptions of the children actually change as the reader progresses through the novella. On first impressions the children are compared to being like angels and royalty which is all well and good but she has yet to meet their true personalities. She describes Flora as an ‘old, old woman’ which is honestly the most ridiculous thing that a child can be called. This obviously cannot be a description of her physical appearance since she is only 8 years old but possibly how the governess believes that she is corrupted by Miss Jessel. Perhaps every time Jessel is around, Flora’s soul seems to be aging or it could actually be that she is becoming smarter with every appearance of Jessel so she is scheming more. This could suggest a loss of innocence in Flora, she used to be ‘the most beautiful child’ and now she is an ‘old, old woman’. To conclude I believe that the children are actually innocent. They are only children so how in any way can they actually be sinister and possibly evil? Yes there is strong evidence that the children could be being bad and corrupting the governess but being evil is too much of an extent. Therefore I believe in the innocence of the children.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning Summary Although the collective knowledge in the field of Pedagogy on how readers, â€Å"actually carry out this interpretive process with college-level expository text is rather limited† (Haas and Flower 167). The study in discussion would like to help the understanding of this constructive, rhetorical view of reading.Throughout the article, Haas and Flower emphasize how students â€Å"are good readers in the traditional sense†¦ yet, they paraphrase rather than analyze, summarize rather than criticize texts† (170). This brings up two key points that Haas and Flower discuss in a relation to rhetorical reading strategies, in student reader-writers. According to the research Haas and Flower conducted, only about one percent of students use the rhetorical reading strategy, which means that most students don’t criticize and analyze text that they read.Most students mainly use the Content and Feature/F unctional reading strategy, rather than deconstructing the text, they just say the basic things, and summarize which brings up the question, how does the constructive process play itself out in the actual thinking process of reading? Haas and Flower purpose that readers â€Å"construct meaning by building multifaceted, interwoven, representation of knowledge† (168).The main focus Haas and Flower have throughout the article is the fact that students are staying at the â€Å"mediocre† level while reading, instead of breaking down the text and actually analyzing what the author(s) were trying to say. Haas and Flower want students to get use to using the rhetorical strategy, since it will help students better understand the text they read especially as they continue on with higher education Works Cited Haas, Christina and Flower, Linda. â€Å"College Composition and Communication† Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning. 1988

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Gay Marriage and Adoption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gay Marriage and Adoption - Essay Example The major problem in the country is that the gay community feels that civil partnerships are less valued than marriages and therefore, there is need for the government to recognize their unions as marriage (Culley, 2007). However, critics argue that if this is implemented, it will redefine marriage, which according to them, is a union between a man and a woman. This paper is a critical evaluation of gay marriage and adoption in the United Kingdom. Discussion Gay marriage is a marriage which incorporates the unification of persons of the same sex. This is for example a marriage between a man and man or a woman and a woman. In the UK, this type of marriage is not recognized under the common law. Article 12 of the European convention on human rights, which the UK is party to, does not compel European countries to recognize gay marriage as a human right (Culley, 2007). This assertion has been applied in the European court of human rights while resolving disputes involving gay rights. For example, the court ruled out a case, which was presented before it by a French gay couple, Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, who claimed that the denial of adoption rights by the French was discriminatory and against article 12 of the European convention on human rights (Bowater, 2012). However, the British government, with the support of the prime minister, has been consulting rigorously on the possibility of legalizing gay marriages. The ministry concerned with issues of equality in the country has made it clear than no threats or opposition will hamper efforts to ensure that these marriages are allowed by the end of 2015 (BBC, 2012). Currently, the country only recognizes civil partnerships involving same sex couples. It has been argued that this has already given these people more than enough civil liberties and therefore, the debate to legalize gay marriages is a waste of precious time, which could be spent in discussing other important issues affecting this community. However, gay couples feel that the categorization of their relationships as civil partnerships is not enough as this makes them inferior to heterosexual couples (Culley, 2007). They have the right to feel this way owing to the fact that there is a possibility of being treated unfairly whenever they indicate their marital status, for example in documents while seeking employment. Some of these documents have blank spaces in which one is supposed to fill whether he is married or in a civil partnership. This may have a direct impact on the decisions of the recruiting officers, who may be homophobic. Despite the fact that UK laws prohibit such discrimination, it may be difficult to prove that the reason a person was not hired was due to his or her sexual orientation. This may be worse in the private sector, where hiring processes are not closely monitored by government instruments. Recognizing gay marriage will definitely remove this obstacle thereby resulting to a situation where an interviewe e will only be required to state whether he is single or married. The law prohibits calling out people to identify their sexual orientation and therefore, it will be easy for victims to know what law to cite when defending their accusations (Hicks, 2008). Marriage is a union, which is founded on love and synchronization of bodily needs and desires. The move by some of

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Identify and explain the principal techniques of transfer pricing, and Essay

Identify and explain the principal techniques of transfer pricing, and comment on likely developments in transfer pricing in an era of globalization - Essay Example In contrast, a market price is not determined by an individual but prevails to any participant within a market set-up involving exchange of goods and services between unrelated persons. We note that the market price cannot be tampered with and every person strives to maximize on own gains. Prices within the conventional market scene are determined by forces of market while the transfer prices are determined and set by an individual and thus are not negotiated freely or openly. This implies that transfer prices would often deviate from the conventional market prices within the same or alike market circumstances. It is worth to note that subsidiaries to one enterprise operating within one country face similar operational environment and hence the transfer prices poses similar problems of tax avoidance while compared to subsidiaries operating within different countries. With multinationals running various subsidiaries in different countries, which have different regulatory frameworks, t axation problems through transfer prices are very pronounced. The most prevalent problem with price transfers with multinationals is the tendency of subsidiaries stating inaccurate prices in order to lower profit margins to avoid high taxation. Beside, multinationals manipulate transfer prices through the internal payment networks with the goods they share between one to another. Therefore, the channels adopted within trading transactions by multinational subsidiaries, some price distortions are possible which may not be possible within the uncontrolled trading transactions by unrelated/unaffiliated trading companies. There are a number of principles techniques, which are applied in transfer pricing and which determine the overall outcome in price transfers. The methods of transfer pricing involve ways of calculation of margins of profits of business transactions within an entire business enterprise. However, it is worth

Intercultural communication in the film Hotel Rwanda Essay

Intercultural communication in the film Hotel Rwanda - Essay Example The film stages the relationship between the protagonist of the movie, Paul, the manager of the local hotel and Colonel Oliver, the peace keeper of the United Nations. The character of the colonel is portrayed as the character that had to bear the shame of the failure of the international agency to intervene peace in the locality of Rwanda. Paul is portrayed as a personal with exceptional leadership quality thathas the ability to make significant decisions at crucial times. Paul is found to deliver a speech in the movie at a time where the conflict has reached its height. In the speech he urges the victims to seek for help from any source they have to save their extinction. He also continues with the speech and let the refugees know that his hotel can no longer provide shelter to them. Throughout the scene in which Paul delivers his speech he depicts a strong body language and the voice of tone suggests the concern he has for the victims. His posture reflected the confidence which he wanted to spread among the people over there. Paul exhibits partial open and closed form of communication throughout his speech delivery. Paul’s performance was quite symbolic in the scenes where he shivers during driving over dead bodies in the city. The movie successfully depicts the relationship which was there in the period of crisis between the Rwandans and the white Americans. In the movie Paul was portrayed as a character that had strong qualities of interpersonal communication.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Female circumssion in Africa Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Female circumssion in Africa - Assignment Example Female circumcision, female genital mutilation (FGM), and female genital cutting (FGC) all define the cultural practice of totally or partially removing the external female genitals or genitalia (Bacquet-Walsh, Jordan and Moneti par. 1). The World Health Organization (WHO) (par. 1) describes female genital mutilation (FGM) as all methods that entail the total or partial removal of the female external genitalia, or other form of injury to the female organs for reasons that are non-medical. The least form of FGC is the removal of the clitoris. The removal of the whole external genitalia is the most severe type of FGC; the vaginal opening of the victim is nearly closed. A small opening is left for menstrual blood and urine (Bacquet-Walsh, Jordan and Moneti par. 1). Althaus (130) states that female circumcision has been practiced for a long time in parts of Africa and it is considered as an element of rite passage in preparation for the young girls’ marriage and womanhood. The procedure is usually performed in the absence of an anesthetic and/or under septic environments by individuals (practitioners) with little or no knowledge of medicine or human anatomy. In other words, the practice is usually performed by traditional circumcisers who play a significant role in the community like attending childbirths. However, the trend is changing and it is being performed by health care providers (WHO par. 2). Medical professionals also perform the practice for a fee. Among the population, FGM/FGC can be carried out by male barbers, herbalists, a female relative, members of the secret society, and traditional health practitioners (United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] par. 8). FGM or female circumcision is recognized globally as the violation of girls’ and women’s human rights. It expresses the deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and entails an extreme type of discrimination against the women. It is normally carried out on small girls and it is a

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Blending homemade juice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Blending homemade juice - Essay Example During peeling, hold the knife carefully and peel the fruit slowly ensuring that one does not peel off large chunks of the flesh besides avoiding injury to self. After peeling, cut the fruits into sizable pieces that will blend easily. The process is equally important since cutting expedites the blending process thus reducing the amount of power required to blend the fruits in the machine blender. Depending on the flavor that one strives to achieve, mixing different fruits is essential since it increases the nutrient contents of the juice. Mixing of the fruits in the blender is indiscriminate and depends on the creativity of an individual. Fill the blender to the brim before switching the machine on. Blending such large capacities of juice is economical since the blender runs once as opposed to blending small quantities at different times that would consume more power. Run the blending machine and wait for the blending process to complete. Most machines hum differently and even slow to a stop to signify the completion of the blending process. However, observe the blending jar to observe the chances as the fruits turn into fluid juices. Turn off the machine and sieve the juice into a clean jug. Sieving helps eliminate fibers. However, health practitioners encourage the consumption of the fibers since they enhance digestion. After sieving, the fruit juice is ready consumption. The above process is exciting and engaging. However, just as any other process people must exercise caution in handling such sharp objects as knives and the electric equipment in order to minimize the risk of electrocution. Additionally, blending is a process that results in the creation of food products. This implies that people must maintain high standards of cleanliness in order to prevent the contamination of juices. Wash both the blender and he fruits before the blending process.  

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Roger Shimomura's artwork writing assignment Essay

Roger Shimomura's artwork writing assignment - Essay Example e strategies include, but are not limited to: appropriation, masquerade, subversion, juxtaposition, irony, tabulation, and disturbing stereotypical thinking. The paper will aim at undertaking the analysis in order to understand how the strategies were used to represent racism and stereotypes that were directed towards Asians and how this racist and stereotypical representation is not behind the society. In Roger Shimomura’s yellow terror, there are many themes that this works display and they can be understood by having a close look and interpretation of the collection. At the Wing Luke Asian Museum, the fact that the paintings are professional works of art that says it all. One of the paintings known as the different citizens is made up such that on the right of the painting someone sees a modest gray self portrait of Roger Shimomura. On the left side there is a ridiculous caricature of a Japanese military officer who is smiling and the officer is represented as a person who has yellow skin, buck teeth, slanted eyes and oversized ears1. Through this work of art, Roger Shimomura is trying to presents some aspects of racism that existed and until today. The artwork can specifically be interpreted as the use of artwork by Roger Shimomura to show his audience the racist lens that filtered the perception of Japanese Americans. Another obvious piece of art that depicts racism by Roger Shimomura is the Roger and Janet art work in which Roger Shimomura is shown to be a big-mouthed individual, who has buck- tooth, the stereotypical big ears, and a screaming mouth next to the blue eyed wife as depicted in the art. Examining the largest painting in the exhibition yellow terror, it is evident that Roger Shimomura uses the caricatures of Japanese soldiers, which are represented as individuals who crash, tumble and collide. Roger Shimomura himself is at the center of this chaos which pushes his eyes into a slant as if creating the nightmare mental picture of the Japanese

Friday, August 23, 2019

Resources in Housing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Resources in Housing - Essay Example The role of savings in the acquisition of housing by low-income households has been recognized in a variety of studies. Macoloo (1994:290) reports that two-thirds of households in Kenya used savings to purchase construction materials, making this the most important source of finance during the initial stages of house-building. Yet, the significance of savings to the housing process is not without its problems. As other studies show, many households are able to become 'owners' early on, before they would be able to develop a savings profile. While it is increasingly accepted that low-income households are not too poor to save, in an environment of low and insecure incomes, and rising prices for building materials, land and services and rising taxes, it seems unlikely that households would amass sufficient savings on a consistent basis to acquire or build housing. This would seem to be supported by macro studies that show low propensities to save in the poorest countries and in the poorest households in all countries. Most low-income households lack safe and convenient methods to save and many institutions insist upon minimum balances or do not offer positive returns on savings. Indeed, in some circumstances low-income households are charged to deposit savings, either directly or through negative interest rates. In order to save in the formal system, therefore, low-income households have to possess a minimum level of funds and an income sufficient to pay charges: in the short term saving may be a net drain on household resources. The lack of institutional capacity is not the only reason for the low rate of saving. Countries such as Chile, Singapore and Malaysia have implemented sophisticated financial products to increase the ratio of money to GDP and raise the rate of saving. Such reforms, however, have not improved conditions for those on the lowest incomes as measures have not been taken to improve the unequal distribution of income: with no surplus income, savings will be inelastic in relation to interest rate changes. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that, in some countries, many low-income households are heavily in debt, and are therefore unable to be net savers, and have learned through experience to be highly distrustful of financial institutions. The difficulty experienced by households trying to save in the context of limited institutional capacity suggests that many must be holding savings outside of the formal financial system. There is very little research, however, on the form in which these savings are held although consumer items and jewellery as well as cash are mentioned frequently. One further possibility is that households invest in housing as a surrogate form of saving believing this to be a reliable store of value. As consolidation takes place the belief is that most properties will appreciate in value over time, although the small size of the second-hand property market makes reliable assessments of value difficult and some suspect that the real trend may be quite flat over the short term. Thus, while there is evidence for a link between financial depth and housing investment, at the micro level, it is the lack of financial capacity that may

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Buddhism and Christianity Essay Example for Free

Buddhism and Christianity Essay Thesis: While both Christianity and Buddhism were religions that encourages kindness and renunciation of wealth, Christianity caused a stir with Jesus’ hatred against the greedy rich and powerful and his alliance with the lower class, which eventually lead to his execution, whereas Buddhism’s leader, Buddha, spread a message that was not threatening to the high class, letting him live his life until his natural death at 80. This Venn diagram compares and contrasts Buddhism and Christianity. It represents my key knowledge and thinking skills by showing my ability to diagnose important similarities and differences between the two major religions, My Venn diagram is okay, but there is room for improvement. It lists some key similarities and differences, but they are worded in an awkward manner. Christianity Christianity * First Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire (because of the Christians’ refusal to worship the roman polytheistic religion) * By the time Theodosius was Emperor, Christianity became the preferred official religion of the Roman Empire. * Women’s role in church slowly deteriorated * The Great Schism split Christianity into two religions, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox. * Saint Paul spread the small religion  * First Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire (because of the Christians’ refusal to worship the roman polytheistic religion) * By the time Theodosius was Emperor, Christianity became the preferred official religion of the Roman Empire. * Women’s role in church slowly deteriorated * The Great Schism split Christianity into two religions, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox. * Saint Paul spread the small religion Changes Changes Continuities Continuities * Strong denial of gods of other Religions * The Bible stayed a constant Main religious text for Christianity * Extremely Monotheistic * * Went from worshipping Brahma to three deities (Vishnu, Siva and Brahma) * Women were not allowed to perform sacrifices anymore  * Went from having sacrifices of animals to personal sacrifices (fasting) * Changed from Brahmanism and lunar and solar lineages to Hinduism. * Went from worshipping Brahma to three deities (Vishnu, Siva and Brahma) * Women were not allowed to perform sacrifices anymore * Went from having sacrifices of animals to personal sacrifices (fasting) * Changed from Brahmanism and lunar and solar lineages to Hinduism. Changes Changes Continuities Continuities Hinduism Hinduism Open to everyone * Caste system * Intentional misinterpretation of Hindu texts To keep patriarchy Thesis: While Christianity and Hinduism both had continuities of (respectively) a strong sense of denial of other religions’ gods and a strong caste system, both had major changes such as going from a heavily persecuted religion to the Roman Empire’s official religion and switching from animal sacrifices to personal sacrifices. The two tables show changes and continuities for two  major religions, Christianity and Hinduism. The table shows my key thinking skills by being able to point out key continuities and changes. My Table is a little bit sparse on the continuities side, but the changes for Christianity are plentiful. I need to work on researching with more effort. Thesis: Although the four main religions, Buddhism, Brahmanism, Hinduism and Christianity affected the role of women, the poor social role of women outside of church was uniform in all the regions of these religions. Patriarchy is very much alive in all of them. My spoke diagram shows a variety of religions. The statements are also positive and negative towards patriarchy. It shows my key thinking skills by displaying quotes for all the statements. My spoke diagram could use more statements, five seems like enough, but more would be better. I think I did a great job on putting quotes for all the statements. Analyze similarities and differences in attitudes and treatment towards women in TWO of the following societies in the Classical period. Han China (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B.C.E.–550 C.E.) Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.–476 C.E.) or Analyze similarities and differences in methods of political control in TWO of the following empires in the Classical period. Han China (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B.C.E.–550 C.E.) Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.–476 C.E.) cause of the cast system and its traditions, India had more of a social code of conduct instead of rigid laws. Tradition of having local princes also was a cause of the fall of the Maurya Empire, because they made it easier to rebel against the main government China During the HAN dynasty, Confucianism came back into government with high sights on education, the tradition of using the mandate of heaven ensured that the Han Empire fell by 3rd century CE. And the Qin Empire fell in a mere 20 years since he lost his mandate of heaven Confucianism taught orderly society with relationships. The tradition of bureaucracy in the Chinese government kept power in the wealthy class. * So they traveled on the Silk road and also traveled to Spain and France * All the provinces conquered by the Roman empire now were influenced to become Christians * So he wrote the gospels * So he used the Roman Roads and traveled all across the Empire, spreading the word of Christ * So they traveled on the Silk road and also traveled to Spain and France * All the provinces conquered by the Roman empire now were influenced to become Christians * So he wrote the gospels * So he used the Roman Roads and traveled all across the Empire, spreading the word of Christ Cause and Effect of the spread of Christianity Cause and Effect of the spread of Christianity Cause Effect * Christians were expelled from the Roman Empire * Theodosius made Christianity the  Roman Empire’s Official religion * St. Paul wished to make Christianity A major religion * St. Paul wanted to spread the Religion throughoutCause and Effect of the spread of Buddhism Cause and Effect of the spread of Buddhism Roman Empire Effect * His word was spread in India, but not much more than the Ganges River. * Buddhism spread even more in India, to northern India even. * The monks made the Chinese believe in Buddha * He promised himself to make up for it by spreading Buddhism by erecting stupas Effect * His word was spread in India, but not much more than the Ganges River. * Buddhism spread even more in India, to northern India even. * The monks made the Chinese believe in Buddha * He promised himself to make up for it by spreading Buddhism by erecting stupas Cause * Buddha traveled in India * After Buddha’s death monks also traveled in India * Monks traveled along the Silk Road * Asoka was appalled by the bloody Battle of Kalinga Thesis: Although both Christianity and Buddhism spread along the Silk Road, Christianity moved along this trade network because of exiled Christians who were seeking a home away from the Roman Empire, whereas Buddhism spread voluntarily, with monks successfully trying to convert the Chinese. The cause and effect table lists the causes and the effects of the spread of two major religions, Buddhism and Christianity. It displays my abilities to  make connections to major effects and their causes. The table is okay. It has four causes and effects for both religions, which is not great. For Buddhism, it seems a little too focused on monks traveling to spread Buddhism. Thesis: Although both China and India’s political systems were influenced by tradition, India’s caste system created no need for laws, while the qin dynasty’s legalistic system created very rigid ones. The two flowcharts show a continual effect of tradition or religion on India and China’s political systems. It displays my abilities to connect separate events into one continuous lineage of facts. The flowcharts do point out main ideas I was trying to display, but they seem a little bit incoherent at times.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Race and Ethnicity Essay Example for Free

Race and Ethnicity Essay Race and racial issues are all around us. Nobody can sneak behind a curtain, or tuck themselves away in a dark room to avoid this; there isn’t a way to escape racism. Our day to day lives are filled with stereotypes and overgeneralizations that make us think and judge the wrong way. We weren’t born into a race or into a category, but rather into a large melting pot. As Tim Wise said, majority of cops when asked â€Å"What would you assume about a Black or Latino male who lives in a shady neighborhood and has a nice, new car? † would respond â€Å"those men are more than likely drug dealers† just because of their race, when in fact, when compared to Black and Latino males, White males are four times more likely to be in possession of drugs at the time of an arrest. Our founders did not want this to be the case. Abraham Lincoln fought to end slavery and abolish the inequality between Human Beings, not guide us in to thinking the color of our skin shapes us and the opinions we create for others based on their â€Å"race†. Can you believe that ninety-four percent of White Americans believe that racial problems are a small issue like not being able to find the match to your shoe, whereas the other six percent are fully aware that this is a huge controversial issue? Those people who believe racism has dwindled down that much need to have an eye opener. Majority of â€Å"White Americans† are the ones who stereotype and categorize those of a different skin color. It is us â€Å"White Americans† who benefit from being the main race, and having the â€Å"White privilege†. More people need to go to a Black neighborhood and talk to those who see racism every day because in the area that about half of us live, racism is small compared to a large city. White privilege might have begun around the same time slavery had. White people, being the majority, saw the â€Å"new race† as an opportunity to become supreme ruler over something, to have large groups of people work for them. The African American community thought differently, and tried running away. Infuriated, the Whites began on a whole new level believing anyone who ran away from the plantation was sick. Slavery in general, helped create white privilege and stereotype all African Americans into the working type, and now the druggies. All these past experiences have made it harder for African Americans to strive in our society. In previous decades, they deliberately separated White and Black neighborhoods, and when a Black moved into a White neighborhood, the houses value and the neighborhoods value decreased just because the people who moved there were of a different color. It is absolutely ridiculous that racism is still around about just as much as it was seven years ago. Anybody with logical thinking would believe that it would have dwindled down to something less severe. Unfortunately, several towns are still divided and segregated because of race and skin color. I hope I get to see every race and skin color come together and work together fully, across the nation before I’m fifty, that’s thirty three years from now.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Impact of Social Media on Young Peoples Body Image

Impact of Social Media on Young Peoples Body Image A critical analysis of the ways that media and social media affect young people’s body image The effect media and social media has on young people has become more prominent in recent years. Many young people have low self-esteem caused by comparing themselves to each other online. Furthermore, young people are constantly surrounded by adverts using models with unrealistic body types and it is because of this among other reasons that there are such high reports of young people with eating disorders. The majority of sources looked at in this discourse analysis come from a variety of newspaper articles as well as many academic sources. Most of the newspaper articles are fairly recent from between 2009 and 2017 whereas the academic literature is older with some dating back to 2000. This is so that we are able to see whether there has been a change over time. This essay has been split into three sections. The first looks at articles backed up by studies and how they compare, the second looks at who is to blame for a negative body image as well as who most articles are written for , the third section examines how academic literature compares to media sources and whether they agree or disagree with the findings. Figure 1: Instagram An article by The Independent (2017) looked at how social media can be very damaging to young girls through the use of hashtags such as ‘thinsperation’, ‘bonesperation’ and ‘fitsperation’. The article starts off by saying that there is an ‘alarmingly large number’ of accounts online that are ‘proano’ and encourage people to post photos of their emaciated bodies. The word ‘alarmingly’ suggests that there is a higher amount of accounts active than would have been expected and therefore the word is being used to scare the reader to show them how big the issue actually is. The article then goes on to talk about a study published in the Journal of Eating Disorders where they carry out a content analysis of hashtags on social media. The article goes on to say that the study found that there is a ‘staggering’ number of photos online using these hashtags. However, this is not what the study was looking at, instead it was analysing three hashtags and what kind of images appear under each one (Talbot, C et al, 2017). The article has chosen only to use the number of photos the study used rather than what the findings actually were. As well as this, the use of the word ‘staggering’ could be seen as an exaggeration in order to instil fear into the readers. Most of the readers of newspapers tend to be parents and therefore it could be assumed that the use of language is used in order to make parents follow their children’s social media more closely. Figure 1 shows an example of what would come up if the hashtag thinsperation was searched. Most of the images are seen in black and white and many don’t show their faces which could suggest that whilst they may like thin bodies they may be embarrassed or want to keep their identities hidden. A Guardian (2017) article explored the idea that photos of peers on social media can have the biggest impact on body image. It starts off by using words such as ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ which are both negative words that may make the reader connect with the story, especially if they’ve felt the same way as the people being talked about. The article uses a study that appeared in the Body Image journal about the impact of appearance comparisons to back up its points. The newspaper article states that women are more likely to compare themselves to each other through photos on social media rather than through other forms of media. However, the study’s main finding was that negative comparisons occur most frequently when face to face compared to online (Fardouly, J et al, 2017). The article failed to mention this and decided to pick out information that would back up their story rather than what the study actually found. This article mentions the impact on body image in general rather than a specific gender. However, they only focused on a study with a small sample size of only 160 people and they were all girls. A study using a small sample size may not be as accurate as using multiple studies or a study with a large sample size and therefore the results would not be able to be generalised to a wider population. Figure 2: https://themirrorreflects.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/real-life-barbies/ Barbies have often come under criticism for giving girls unrealistic expectations for body image, as seen in figure 2. An article written for an eating disorder help website claims that 90% of people that suffer with an eating disorder are girls between the ages of 12 and 25. It goes on to say that because they are girls they most likely played with Barbies shortly before contracting the disease. This article is saying that there is a direct correlation between playing with Barbies and getting an eating disorder. It also states that parents should be careful when choosing what toys their children can play with because they develop a critical eye from an early age. Not only is this article criticising Barbie dolls for leading to eating disorders but it is also blaming parents for choosing the wrong toys for their children (Mirror Mirror, 2016). An article written for the American Psychiatric Association (2016) claims that American children aged three to ten years old own an average of eight Barbies. Whereas, the Mirror Mirror article claims that the same aged kids have an average of ten. Therefore, this suggests that this article may be exaggerating the numbers to potentially try and scare parents into changing their habits if the numbers seemed more extreme. A journal published in 2006 backs up these points by saying that it is specifically the Barbie doll that causes body image issues compared to other dolls. However, it claims that the higher age group of 7 Â ½ to 8 Â ½ were not affected by Barbies but were instead affected by the more accurately shaped Emme doll as they perceived this one to be overweight. This also backs up the above articles as it says that environmental stimuli can have an effect very early on in life because they begin to internalise the Barbie image. The majority of articles discuss how women are affected by media however, men are affected too. An article from The Sun (2017) focuses on how men are affected. It claims that ‘male athletes are 16 times more likely to get an eating disorder compared to normal blokes’ but it fails to state where it has received its facts from. Throughout the article the word ‘expert’ is constantly used to give statistics, however there is no mention of any studies to back up these points and therefore the research may not be accurate. Furthermore, the title suggests that the article would be about social media, however it is only mentioned briefly once at the beginning and so therefore the article is misleading. An article written for the website Adiosbarbie (2015), a website that aims to stretch concepts surrounding body image, talks about how men don’t report eating disorders because they are told to ‘be a man’. This article shows that there are more men than you think struggling with eating disorders but they just don’t speak out. It is also written in a much more informal style and addresses the reader using phrases like ‘we must’ which may suggest that they are trying to connect with the reader about the issue. A further article (casapalmera.com, 2009) compares eating disorders in men and women and it is clear to see that there is a difference in language being used when describing each one. When talking about boys the article uses phrases such as ‘chiselled abs’ or ‘muscular’ which both describe a strong person, compared to words such as ‘waif-thin’ which are used to describe girls. This suggests that whilst both are affected by eating disorders the effects and their views are completely different. In 2017 a film was realised called ‘To The Bone’ which follows the story of a girl battling anorexia. This film received a lot of backlash as it was said to be glamorising eating disorders. One article by The Sun (2017) used words like ‘shockingly’, ‘worryingly’ and ‘chilling’ to describe the effect it has had on girls struggling with eating disorders. These words are all very strong words and therefore a person reading this article may be persuaded that they shouldn’t let their child watch it as it may lead to them having negative thoughts. They also use the phrase ‘experts slam the show’ without giving the name of the experts they are talking about. By using the word ‘expert’ it makes an article more believable. The Independent (2017) also discussed the film claiming that they have got the portrayal of anorexia wrong. However, they use other articles to back up their points and use less harsh words when negatively discussing the film. As well as this, rather than saying that they are ‘glamorising’ anorexia as The Sun does, they say that they are ‘trivialising’ it suggesting that it’s been over simplified. Furthermore, it doesn’t discuss the film in a negative way because it’s a trigger but it discusses the perception of gender in the film and depicting the main character as a young, white female. They claim that these stereotypes are inaccurate. Therefore, comparing these two articles it is clear to see that The Sun uses much harsher language to instil fear into the reader whilst The Independent uses much softer language and discusses issues surrounding the topic. Articles always try to place the blame on someone and in this case its celebrities. A Daily Mail article (unknown) says that unrealistic expectations for women lie with celebrities. They use words such as ‘snakehipped’ and ‘reed thin’ to describe models which both suggest that these women were severely underweight. This article also mentions sources such as Queen Mary and Great Ormond Street to show that girls are starving themselves and potentially making themselves infertile. These sources would immediately be trusted by readers whether they may be accurate or not. Therefore, readers may take the article more seriously. This article also compares anorexic teenagers to those liberated from Nazi concentration camps. The fact that they make this comparison is interesting as one is deliberate and the other is by force yet they both result in the same outcome – being severely underweight. By making this comparison it shows how bad the situation really is if girls are deliberately trying to starve themselves to the same extent. However, another article places the blame with social media. The Independent (2014) reported that the problem lies with increased pressure on social media. The article states that it has been given figures ‘exclusively’ on the topic and this may grab people’s attention because it suggests that only the readers will have access to the information. Figure 3: Screenshot Some articles suggest that celebrity endorsements encourage people to lose weight as they have a huge social media following and make weight loss seem easy (livestrong.com, 2017). However, half way down this article were adverts for the very thing the article was saying weren’t effective. Figure 3 shows the adverts that were present on the page. s. This isn’t the only time this has been an issue as it was reported in The Sun (2017) about a segment on the show Loose Women. Men were discussing their experiences of negative body image leading to eating disorders and when they went to an advert break the first advert was for diet pills. This goes to show that even when doing research about the negative impacts weight loss it is still possible to be faced with adverts advertising fad diets. One journal found that roughly 0.5% of 15 to 19-year-old girls have anorexia and it is on the rise. It discusses the ways in which media plays a key role in causing eating disorders. This journal also addresses gender differences when it comes to body image. Girls want to look thin whilst boys want to look lean with lots of muscle. This could be one of the reasons that boys aren’t mentioned as much in the media, because they don’t necessarily look as though they are underweight or have a disease because they may be going about it in a different way (Morris, A and Katzman, D. 2003). One study examined in this article stated that 44% of the girls participating believed they were overweight and 60% of them were in the process of dieting despite the majority of them being a healthy weight. This supports what has been reported in the media because the reason many girls are becoming anorexic is because they believe they are overweight. However, an article from 2004 reveals that whilst celebrities and playboy models have got thinner over the years the average size of American woman have increase. This shows that there is even more of a contrast between models and reality and therefore the perfect body is becoming harder and harder to achieve. To conclude, it is clear to see that from comparing academic journals to media sources both seem to be saying the same thing. Media and social media are one of the reasons that the number of people with eating disorders are increasing. They both also suggest that media and social media lead to young people having a more negative perception of themselves which can then manifest into a disease. On the whole, the media sources have been accurate however they sometimes exaggerate the facts as well as only choosing to use certain aspects of studies to fit the story. References: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/anorexia-social-media-bonespiration-thinspo-bullimia-eating-disorder-instagram-twitter-a8000461.html (2017 article)https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-017-0170-2 (2017 journal)https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/05/friends-pictures-on-social-media-biggest-impact-body-image (2017)Instagram (2017)The impact of appearance comparisons made through social media,, traditional media,, and in person in women’s everyday lives – Fardouly, J (Journal)https://www.mirror-mirror.org/barbie-and-body-image.htm (2016)https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2016/02/barbies-self-image-and-eating-disorders (2016)http://willettsurvey.org/TMSTN/Gender/DoesBarbieMakeGirlsWantToBeThin.pdf (journal -2006)Barbie photo https://themirrorreflects.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/real-life-barbies/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/4088418/huge-rise-men-eating-disorders-social-media/ (2017)https://casapalmera.com/blog/manorexia-men-with-eating-disorders-on-the-rise/ (2009)https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3943117/anorexia-nervosa-the-bone-netflix-lily-collins/ (2017)http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/to-the-bone-why-netflix-s-portrayal-of-eating-disorders-has-got-it-all-wrong-a7863106.html (2017)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-198217/Celebs-blame-anorexia.html (unknown)http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/exclusive-eating-disorders-soar-among-teens-and-social-media-is-to-blame-9085500.html (2014)https://www.livestrong.com/article/385736-media-influence-on-weight-loss/ (2017)Screenshot from articlehttps://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3546350/loose-women-weight-loss-tablet-advert-eating-disorders-gok-wan/ (2017?)

Stefan Edberg :: essays research papers

Stefan Edberg The tennisplayer Stefan Edberg is nowadays a legend in his sport. I met him myself in France in 1987. I was 8 years old. He and the other members of the Swedish Daviscup team were playing the Daviscup against France. However, before the training I met them in the lobby of their hotel in Frà ©jus. My father knew the Swedish captain of the team so we could watch them training.After that Stefan has been one of my idols. I play tennis a lot myself. But now to the story about Stefan Edberg. Saw the ad His career started when the local paper in Và ¤stervik ( the town where he was born ) had an advertisement about mini-tennis in the early 70s. It said †Day of tennis†.Luckily his mother Barbro read the article and liked it. The day after she sent her son to the tennis-school for beginners. At that time she didn't know how important this initiative would be to Stefan, to Swedish tennis and even to the world tennis. An incredible athletic career had seen the morning light. Was convinced to continue The seven year old Stefan struck his first hits at the tennis school in the sommer of 1973. To start with he played once a week. He liked his new sport but was close to quitting after the first term. -My friend wanted to quit,and so did I. But my trainer convinced me to continue, Stefan says with a smile on his face. The young Edberg soon became taken by the sport. Soon he played matches with the boys' team, and outside his home he played fantasy Davis Cup-matches. In the sommer holidays he almost lived at the tennis court. At the age of ten he stopped playing his two other sports, football and icehockey, and concentrated everything on tennis. Soon he won his first tournament, †Ostkustenspà ¤rla,† a very memorable victory for him. Star even in school But a couple of years went by before he †dared† to go in for tennis full time. He was in the ninth grade as took the big step and gave tennis the big chance. -I felt I had a serious chance of becoming a worldplayer. Because I had just won JEM and taken a set on Mats Wilander who was a professional player, Stefan says. But it couldn't have been an easy choice, because Stefan was also a very good student with an average about 4,3 after the ninth grade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He was better than all the others!!! The trainers at the club where he was training, Westerviks TK, quickly realized

Monday, August 19, 2019

Margin Call Directed by J.C. Chandor Essays -- film analysis

Margin Call (2011) Margin Call is a 2011 film that seeks to give viewers a deeper perspective of the financial crisis that hit the United States in 2008. The film was written and directed by J.C. Chandor. It s depiction of the happenings on Wall Street has been described as the closest to the actual happenings during the financial crisis. In this film, the main characters are faced with a moral challenge and they act according to their personal world views. Personal financial needs are put before the clients needs. The questionable manner in which the characters act put the employees on Wall Street on a cross road. It is a difficult balancing act between protecting oneself and protecting others. The decisions made by characters in this film create an opportunity for people to discuss the balancing act between self preservation and killing the dreams of the masses. From the beginning, the film is filled with controversial decisions. First, the firm that is depicted in this film decides to lay off most of the employees in the firm leaving only 20% of the workers. However, the firm’s managers do not lay off the workers personally but hire another firm to do this. Without prior warning, the mass layoff takes place in a rather insensitive manner with employees expected to leave immediately. First, the decision by the company to lay off the people without warning is a questionable decision. Though they are offered a severance package, the employees are traumatized by the lay off. Having reported to work just like a normal day, none of the employees expect that they are going to lose their jobs on this particular day. Therefore, it is a surprise when the hired human resource team comes in and explains to the employees that they no long... ...ce of money at whatever costs. At the end of the day, the managers watch as more people are laid off as the crisis continues. In conclusion, I disagree with the decisions made by the main characters in this film. Their predicament is tough to say the least, but it does not warrant the decisions they make. They choose to follow a route with the full knowledge of the problems it will cause to other people. The decisions made are motivated purely by money and the need to self preserve and protect. The drive behind the sale of worthless assets is for the company to remain afloat even when clients suffer losses. It is dangerous to make decisions driven by money and selfishness. It leads to guilt as it causes endless pain to other people. Therefore, these characters could have chosen the alternative option of protecting their clients as opposed to protecting themselves.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Assassination Of JFK :: John F Kennedy

(A) Make a list of the evidence that suggests that Oswald was preparing to kill President Kennedy. October 14, 1963-Oswald moves to Dallas October 16, 1963-Oswald starts work at the Texas School Book Depository November 6, 1963-Oswald delivers a letter to James Hosty at the Dallas FBI office. Gordon Shanklin later orders this letter to be destroyed. August 12, 1963-Oswald appears in court and is fined $10. (B) Make a list of the evidence that suggests that Oswald was being setup as a patsy. November 1, 1963-FBI agent James Hosty visits the home of Ruth Paine where Marina Oswald is living and asks questions about Oswald. August 27, 1963-A man claiming to be Oswald visits the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City. (C) Study these two lists and explain whether you think Oswald was planning to kill Kennedy. Personally, I think that Oswald assisted in killing JFK. I do think that the government agencies were in on this and that the two evidence text was plotted to cause a feeling of not being positive about who killed JFK. But I also do think that the two pieces of evidence serves as a distraction. To confuse the evidence. It’s very humorous. lol Study the sources B2-B4 of the Assassination of JFK. Who was involved in the planning of the trip to Texas and the presidential motorcade in Dallas? Do all three sources agree on this subject? Advance preparations for President Kennedy's visit to Dallas were primarily the responsibility of two Secret Service agents: Special Agent Winston G. Lawson, a member of the White House detail who acted as the advance agent, and Forrest V. Sorrels, special agent in charge of the Dallas office. Both agents were advised of the trip on November 4. Study sources B4-B12. What evidence is there that there were gunmen firing at President Kennedy from behind and in front of the presidential limousine. (Behind the limo shots) Since I was facing the building where the shots were coming from (Texas Book Depository), I just glanced up and saw two colored men in a window straining to look at a window up above them. As I looked up to the window above, I saw a rifle being pulled back in the window. It might have been resting on the windowsill. I didn't see a man. I didn't even see if it had a scope (telescopic sight) on it. (Behind the limo shots) I think I got out on the street about 12:15 or 12:20 - something along there.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

FBI Case Study

The â€Å"Who Killed the Virtual Case File? † case study is a clear example of project failure which resulted on not only balloon the cost of the project, but also loss that could be counted on millions of dollars. Because of the size of the project and the failure of the project, it is broadly used to prevent future IT Project Management disasters. Project Overview: When special agent Larry Depew collected evidence of illegal activity of the Russian and Italian mafia tax skim activity, FBI didn’t have database system, which could organize and support all the information gathering processes that were needed for the organization. A decade later, Depew was landed in his first project management job called FBI Virtual Case File project (VCF), even though he had no previous experience. In the PMBOK Guide book describes what abilities a project manager should possess to successfully manage projects is: knowledge, performance and personal . In the results of lack of experience and ineffective planning the project was unfortunate failure. Because of availability of funds, the FBI’s 23 divisions developed own database system for each of the different divisions. In the result FBI ended up with 45-50 different investigative databases and applications, which are not communicating with each other. Also, the Automated Case Support (ACS) system was cumbersome to use, inefficient and had limited functional capabilities. Additionally all 13000 were really old which resulted in not supporting new software’s. Intranet that connected FBI offices had 56-kilobit-per second modems. SAIC (Applications International Corp. ) for software developed delivered 700,000 lines of code bug-ridden, off target system which resulted in $105 million worth loss. However, researches and findings showed that the FBI—lacking IT management and technical expertise—shares the blame for the project's failure. The research and study later on painted a picture of an enterprise IT project that fell into the most basic traps of software development, from poor requirement gathering, planning and bad communication between software developer and FBI. The key issues related to the failure of the project: * Violation of the Project Scope Management. One of the main factors of VSF project was poorly defined business requirements and overly specific nature of the requirements defined in systems design and analysis phase which resulted in creating 400 functional deficiencies found after testing the system. * Violation of the Project Cost Management The lack of IT investment processes resulted in ballooning the cost of the project in spite of the millions of dollars spending which was the also one of the main reason of VSF project failure. Violation of the Project Time Management Overly ambitious schedules and poorly defined schedule is one of the among VSF project failures. * Violation of Project Risk Management Procedure The lack of a plan to guide hardware purchases and deployment was one also of the failures of VSF project. Resolution: * The FBI’s higher management will be participating in the new software development to overcome the discrepancies associated with the previous those were VCF project. FBI is planning to purchase software from the vendor to digitize all documents, crime related evidence paperwork processes in the single database and still continue use VCF project systems up until it will be replaced with the desired software. * The new project will deploy and create new monitoring, risk management system which involves planning, scheduling and target oriented testing. Relevance to IT Project Management: * Project Scope Management Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that project includes all the work required, to complete the project successfully. Scope Management includes following steps: clearly defining and documenting project business requirements by the company shareholders (collect requirements), develop a detailed description of the project (define scope), subdivide project deliverables and project work into smaller, manageable components (create WBS), formalize acceptance of the completed project deliverables, and monitoring the status and scope (verify scope), and managing changes to the scope baseline (control scope). FBI’s VSF project failed to define detailed project requirements, formalize acceptance of completed project deliverables by SAIC and monitoring and managing the scope by project manager. * Violation of the Project Cost Management Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget. The cost management process includes: developing an approximation of the monetary resources (estimate costs), estimating costs of the individual activities (determine budget) and monitoring the status of the project budget and managing changes to the cost baseline (control costs). VSF project failed to address cost control in project cost management, because it had possibility to receive funding from the government. * Violation of the Project Time Management. Project Time Management includes the processes required to manage timely completion of the project. It includes following processes: identifying the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables (define activities), identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities (sequence activities), estimating quantities of material, people, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity (estimate activity resources), coming up with the approximate number of works periods needed to omplete individual activities with estimated resource (estimate activity durations), analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constrains to create project schedule (develop schedule), and monitoring the status of the project to update project progress and managing changes to the schedule baseline (control schedule). In VSF project most of the required activities in time management FBI m anagement and SAIC failed to follow. * Violation of Project Risk Management Procedure. Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring and control on the project. It includes following processes: defining how to conduct risk management activities (planning), determining which risks may affect the project and documenting their characteristics (identify risks), prioritizing risks for further analysis and combining their probability of occurrence and impact (perform qualitative risk analysis). Numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives (perform quantitative risk analysis), developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to project objectives (plan risk responses), and implementing risk response plan, tracking identified risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project (monitor and control risk). In the FBI case none of the project risk management was applied to minimize risk associated with the possibility of the failure of the VSF project. Key Takeaways: It is important follow IT project management rules in order to develop the system. Main lessons learnt from the case study: * Business requirement analysis and technical requirements are crucial in the success of the project in planning phase. * Managing communication between companies’ key shareholders and server providers is required for productive outcome of the development. * Project monitoring and testing is vital task and should be accepted throughout the development * Prototypes be shown to client on regular basis to avoid all changes required at the end of the project * Having a individuals without proper knowledge in the rojects leads to the project success * Planning and monitoring leads to delivering the right product and timely completion of the project * Unsystematic approach in project time management could lead to delay in completion of projects * Deficient and unsatisfactory requirements lead to incomplete projects failure Research Approach For my research approach, I used Project Management and body of knowledge to identify main processes of the project management, and applied some basics acquired from the Systems Analysis and Design class to identify where FBI’s VSF project failed to address and manage this huge multimillion dollar project.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Deviance. Topic Questions

University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Arts – Papers Faculty of Arts 1993 What Is Hegemonic Masculinity? Mike Donaldson University of Wollongong, [email  protected] edu. au Publication Details Donaldson, M, What Is Hegemonic Masculinity? , Theory and Society, Special Issue: Masculinities, October 1993, 22(5), 643-657. Copyright 1993 Springer. The original publication is available here at www. springerlink. com. Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email  protected] edu. au Theory and Society, Vol. 22, No. 5,Special Issue: Masculinities, Oct. , 1993, pp. 643-657. What Is Hegemonic Masculinity? Mike Donaldson Sociology, University of Wollongong, Australia Structures of oppression, forces for change A developing debate within the growing theoretical literature on men and masculinity concerns the relationship of gender systems to the social formation. Crucial ly at issue is the question of the autonomy of the gender order. Some, in particular Waters, are of the opinion that change in masculine gender systems historically has been caused exogenously and that, without those external factors, the systems would stably reproduce. 1) For Hochschild, the â€Å"motor† of this social change is the economy, particularly and currently, the decline in the purchasing power of the male wage, the decline in the number and proportion of â€Å"male† skilled and unskilled jobs, and the rise in â€Å"female† jobs in the growing services sector. (2) I have argued that gender relations themselves are bisected by class relations and vice-versa, and that the salient moment for analysis is the relation between the two. (3) On the other side of the argument, others have been trying to establish â€Å"the laws of motion† of gender systems.Connell, for instance, has insisted on the independence of their structures, patterns of movement. and determinations, most notably in his devastating critiques of sexrole theory. â€Å"Change is always something that happens to sex roles, that impinges on them. It comes from outside, as in discussions of how technological and economic changes demand a shift to a ‘modern' male role for men. Or it comes from inside the person, from the ‘real self' that protests against the artificial restrictions of constraining roles.Sex role theory has no way of grasping change as a dialectic arising within gender relations themselves. † It has no way of grasping social dynamics that can only be seriously considered when the historicity of the structure of gender relations, the gender order of the society, is the point of departure. (4) This concern with broad, historical movement is linked to the question of male sexual politics. Clearly, if men wish to challenge patriarchy and win, the central question must be, who and where are the â€Å"army of redressers? (5) But  "the political project of rooting out the sexism in masculinity has proved intensely difficult† because â€Å"the difficulty of constructing a movement of men to dismantle hegemonic masculinity is that its logic is not the articulation of collective interest but the attempt to dismantle that interest. (6) It is this concept of â€Å"hegemonic masculinity† on which the argument for autonomy of the gender structures turns, for it is this that links their broader historical sweep to lived experience.Put simply, if the gender system has an independence of structure, movement, and determinations, then we should be able to identify counter-hegemonic forces within it; if these are not identifiable, then we must question the autonomy of the gender system and the existence of hegemonic masculinity as central and specific to it. On the other hand, if gender systems are not autonomous, then the question â€Å"why, in specific social formations, do certain ways of being male pred ominate, and particular sorts of men rule? † remains to be answered and the resistances to that order still remain to be identified.The political implications of the issue are clear. If there is an independent structure of masculinity, then it should produce counter-hegemonic movements of men, and all good blokes should get involved in them. If the structure is not independent, or the movements not counterhegemonic, or the counter-hegemony not moving, then political practice will not be centred on masculinity †¦ and what do we men do then, about the masculine images in and through which we have shaped a world so cruel to most of its inhabitants?Hegemony and masculinity Twenty years ago, Patricia Sexton suggested that â€Å"male norms stress values such as courage, inner direction, certain forms of aggression, autonomy. mastery, technological skill, group solidarity, adventure and considerable amounts of toughness in mind and body. † (7) It is only relatively recent ly that social scientists have sought to link that insight with the concept of hegemony, a notion as slippery and difficult as the idea of masculinity itself.Hegemony, a pivotal concept in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks and his most significant contribution to Marxist thinking, is about the winning and holding of power and the formation (and destruction) of social groups in that process. In this sense, it is importantly about the ways in which the ruling class establishes and maintains its domination. The ability to impose a definition of the situation, to set the terms in which events are understood and issues discussed, to formulate ideals and define morality is an essential part of this process.Hegemony involves persuasion of the greater part of the population, particularly through the media, and the organization of social institutions in ways that appear â€Å"natural,† â€Å"ordinary:' â€Å"normal. † The state, through punishment for non-conformity, is crucially inv olved in this negotiation and enforcement. (8) Heterosexuality and homophobia are the bedrock of hegemonic masculinity and any understanding of its nature and meaning is predicated on the feminist insight that in general the relationship of men to women is oppressive.Indeed, the term â€Å"hegemonic masculinity† was invented and is used primarily to maintain this central focus in the critique of masculinity. A fundamental element of hegemonic masculinity. then. is that women exist as potential sexual objects for men while men are negated as sexual objects for men. Women provide heterosexual men with sexual validation, and men compete with each other for this. This does not necessarily involve men being particularly nasty to individual women. Women may feel as oppressed by non-hegemonic masculinities, may even find some expressions of the hegemonic pattern more familiar and manageable. (9)More than fifty books have appeared in the English language in the last decade or so on m en and masculinity. What is hegemonic masculinity as it is presented in this growing literature? Hegemonic masculinity, particularly as it appears in the works of Carrigan, Connell, and Lee. Chapman, Cockburn, Connell, Lichterman, Messner, and Rutherford, involves a specific strategy for the subordination of women. In their view, hegemonic masculinity concerns the dread of and the flight from women. A culturally idealized form, it is both a personal and a collective project, and is the common sense about breadwinning and manhood.It is exclusive, anxiety-provoking, internally and hierarchically differentiated, brutal, and violent. It is pseudo-natural, tough, contradictory, crisis-prone, rich, and socially sustained. While centrally connected with the institutions of male dominance, not all men practice it. though most benefit from it. Although cross-class. it often excludes workingclass and black men. It is a lived experience, and an economic and cultural force, and dependent on soc ial arrangements. It is constructed through difficult negotiation over a life-time. Fragile it may be, but it constructs the most dangerous things we live with.Resilient, it incorporates its own critiques, but it is, nonetheless, â€Å"unravelling. † (10) What can men do with it? According to the authors cited above, and others, hegemonic masculinity can be analyzed, distanced from, appropriated, negated, challenged, reproduced, separated from, renounced, given up, chosen, constructed with difficulty, confirmed, imposed, departed from, and modernized. (But not, apparently, enjoyed. ) What can it do to men? It can fascinate, undermine, appropriate some men's bodies, organize, impose, pass itself off as natural, deform, harm, and deny. But not, seemingly, enrich and satisfy. ) Which groups are most active in the making of masculinist sexual ideology? It is true that the New Right and fascism are vigorously constructing aggressive, dominant, and violent models of masculinity. Bu t generally, the most influential agents are considered to be: priests, journalists, advertisers, politicians, psychiatrists, designers, playwrights, film makers, actors, novelists, musicians, activists, academics, coaches, and sportsmen. They are the â€Å"weavers of the fabric of hegemony† as Gramsci put it, its â€Å"organizing intellectuals. These people regulate and manage gender regimes: articulate experiences, fantasies, and perspectives; reflect on and interpret gender relations. (11) The cultural ideals these regulators and managers create and perpetuate. we are told, need not correspond at all closely to the actual personalities of the majority of men (not even to their own! ). The ideals may reside in fantasy figures or models remote from the lives of the unheroic majority, but while they are very public, they do not exist only as publicity.The public face of hegemonic masculinity, the argument goes. is not necessarily even what powerful men are, but is what susta ins their power, and is what large numbers of men are motivated to support because it benefits them. What most men support is not necessarily what they are. â€Å"Hegemonic masculinity is naturalised in the form of the hero and presented through forms that revolve around heroes: sagas, ballads, westerns, thrillers,† in books, films, television, and in -sporting events. (12) What in the early literature had been written of as â€Å"the male sex ole† is best seen as hegemonic masculinity, the â€Å"culturally idealised form of masculine character† which, however, may not be â€Å"the usual form of masculinity at all. † To say that a particular form of masculinity is hegemonic means â€Å"that its exaltation stabilizes a structure of dominance and oppression in the gender order as a whole. To be culturally exalted, the pattern of masculinity must have exemplars who are celebrated as heroes. † (13) But when we examine these bearers of hegemonic masculi nity, they seem scarcely up to the task, with more than just feet of clay.A football star is a model of hegemonic masculinity. (14) But is a model? When the handsome Australian Rules football player, Warwick â€Å"the tightest shorts in sports† Capper, combined football with modelling, does this confirm or decrease his exemplary status? When Wally (â€Å"the King†) Lewis explained that the price he will pay for another five years playing in the professional Rugby League is the surgical replacement of both his knees, this is undoubtedly the stuff of good, old, tried and true, tough and stoic, masculinity.But how powerful is a man who mutilates his body, almost as a matter of course, merely because of a job? When Lewis announced that he was quitting the very prestigious â€Å"State of Origin† football series because his year-old daughter had been diagnosed as hearing-impaired, is this hegemonic? In Australian surfing champion, iron man Steve Donoghue, Connell has found â€Å"an exemplar of masculinity† who lives â€Å"an exemplary version of hegemonic masculinity. † But, says Donoghue, â€Å"I have loved the idea of not having to work †¦.Five hours a day is still a lot but it is something that I enjoy that people are not telling me what to do. † This is not the right stuff. Nor are hegemonic men supposed to admit to strangers that their life is â€Å"like being in jail. † Connell reveals further contradictions when he explains that â€Å"Steve, the exemplar of masculine toughness, finds his own exemplary status prevents him from doing exactly what his peer group defines as thoroughly masculine behaviour: going wild, showing off, drunk driving, getting into fights, defending his own prestige. This is not power. And when we look to see why many young men take up sport we find they are driven by â€Å"the hunger for affiliation† in the words of Hammond and Jablow; we see the felt need for â€Å"connecte dness† and closeness. How hegemonic is this? (15) Homosexuality and counter-hegemony Let us, however, pursue the argument by turning now to examine those purported counter-hegemonic forces that are supposedly generated by the gender system itself. There are three main reasons why male homosexuality is regarded as counter-hegemonic. Firstly, hostility to homo- exuality is seen as fundamental to male heterosexuality; secondly, homosexuality is associated with effeminacy; and thirdly, the form of homosexual pleasure is itself considered subversive. (16) Antagonism to gay men is a standard feature of hegemonic masculinity in Australia. Such hostility is inherent in the construction of heterosexual masculinity itself. Conformity to the demands of hegemonic masculinity, pushes heterosexual men to homophobia and rewards them for it, in the form of social support and reduced anxiety about their own manliness.In other words, male heterosexual identity is sustained and affirmed by hatre d for, and fear of, gay men. (17) Although homosexuality was compatible with hegemonic masculinity in other times and places, this was not true in post-invasion Australia. The most obvious characteristic of Australian male homosexuals, according to Johnston and Johnston, has been a â€Å"double deviance. † It has been and is a constant struggle to attain the goals set by hegemonic masculinity, and some men challenge this rigidity by acknowledging their own â€Å"effeminacy. This rejection and affirmation assisted in changing homosexuality from being an aberrant (and widespread) sexual practice, into an identity when the homosexual and lesbian subcultures reversed the hegemonic gender roles, mirror-like, for each sex. Concomitantly or consequently, homosexual men were socially defined as effeminate and any kind of powerlessness, or a refusal to compete, â€Å"readily becomes involved in the imagery of homosexuality† (18) While being subverted in this fashion, hegemonic masculinity is also threatened by the assertion of a homosexual identity confident that homosexuals are able to give each other sexual pleasure.According to Connell, the inherent egalitarianism in gay relationships that exists because of this transitive structure (my lover's lover can also be my lover), challenges the hierarchical and oppressive nature of male heterosexuality. (19) However, over time, the connection between homosexuality and effeminacy has broken. The â€Å"flight from masculinity† evident in male homosexuality, noted thirty years ago by Helen Hacker, may be true no longer, as forms of homosexual behaviour seem to require an exaggeration of some aspects of hegemonic masculinity, notably the cult of oughness and physical aggression. If hegemonic masculinity necessarily involves aggression and physical dominance, as has been suggested, then the affirmation of gay sexuality need not imply support for women's liberation at all, as the chequered experience of wom en in the gay movement attests. (20) More than a decade ago, Australian lesbians had noted, â€Å"We make the mistake of assuming that lesbianism, in itself, is a radical position. This had led us, in the past, to support a whole range of events, ventures, political perspectives, etc. ust because it is lesbians who hold those beliefs or are doing things. It is as ludicrous as believing that every working class person is a communist. † (21) Even though there are many reasons to think that there are important differences in the expression and construction of women's homosexuality and men's homosexuality, perhaps there is something to be learned from this. Finally, it is not â€Å"gayness† that is attractive to homosexual men, but â€Å"maleness. † A man is lusted after not because he is homosexual but because he's a man. How counter-hegemonic can this be?Changing men, gender segmentation and paid and unpaid work Connell notes, â€Å"Two possible ways of working f or the ending of patriarchy which move beyond guilt, fixing your head and heart, and blaming men, are to challenge gender segmentation in paid work and to work in men's counter-sexist groups. Particularly, though, countersexist politics need to move beyond the small consciousness raising group to operate in the workplace, unions and the state. † (22) It is hard to imagine men challenging gender segmentation in paid work by voluntarily dropping a third of their wage packet.But it does happen, although perhaps the increasing trickle of men into women's jobs may have more to do with the prodding of a certain invisible finger. Lichterman has suggested that more political elements of the â€Å"men's movement† contain human service workers, students, parttimers. and â€Å"odd-jobbers. † Those in paid work, work in over-whelmingly female occupations -counselling, nursing, and elementary teaching are mentioned. In this sense, their position in the labour market has made them â€Å"predisposed to criticise hegemonic masculinity, the common sense about breadwinning and manhood. It can also be seen as a defence against the loss of these things, as men attempt to colonize women's occupations in a job market that is increasingly competitive, particularly for men's jobs.? (23) If we broaden the focus on the desegmentation of paid work to include unpaid work, more interesting things occur. While Connell has suggested that hegemonic masculinity is confirmed in fatherhood, the practice of parenting by men actually seems to undermine it. Most men have an exceptionally impoverished idea about what fatherhood involves, and indeed, active parenting doesn't even enter into the idea of manhood at all.Notions of fathering that are acceptable to men concern the exercise of impartial discipline, from an emotional distance and removed from favouritism and partiality. In hegemonic masculinity, fathers do not have the capacity or the skill or the need to care for chil dren, especially for babies and infants, while the relationship between female parents and young children is seen as crucial. Nurturant and care-giving behaviour is simply not manly. Children, in turn, tend to have more abstract and impersonal relations with their fathers.The problem is severely compounded for divorced fathers, most of whom have extremely little emotional contact with their children. (24) As Messner has explained, â€Å"while the man is ‘out there' establishing his .name' in public, the woman is usually home caring for the day-to-day and moment-to-moment needs of her family †¦. Tragically, only in mid- life, when the children have already ‘left the nest' †¦ do some men discover the importance of connection and intimacy. † (25) Nonetheless, of the little time that men spend in unpaid work, proportionally more of it goes now into child care.Russell has begun to explore the possibility that greater participation by men in parenting has led to substantial shifts in their ideas of masculinity. The reverse is probably true too. Hochschild found in her study that men who shared care with their partners rejected their own â€Å"detached, absent and overbearing† fathers. The number of men primarily responsible for parenting has grown dramatically in Australia, increasing five-fold between 1981 and 1990. The number of families with dependent children in which the man was not in paid work but the woman was, rose from 16,200 in 1981 to 88,100 in 1990.Women, however, still outnumber men in this position ten to one. (26) Not only a man's instrumental relations with others are challenged by close parenting, but so are his instrumental relations with himself. Men's sense of themselves is threatened by intimacy. Discovering the affection, autonomy, and agency of babies and children, disconcerted by an unusual inability to cope, men are compelled to re-evaluate their attitude to themselves. In Russell's study, the fathers who provided primary child care â€Å"constantly marvelled at and welcomed the changes that had taken place in their relationships with their children. (27) Even Neville Wran, the former premier of the Australian state of New South Wales whose most renowned political activity was â€Å"putting the blowtorch to the belly† of political opponents. said of fatherhood, which occurred in his sixties, â€Å"It's making me a more patient, tolerant, understanding human being. I'm a real marshmallow. † (28) The men who come to full-time fathering do not, however, regard themselves as unmanly, even though their experiences have resulted in major shifts in their ideas about children, child care, and women.In fact, one quarter of them considered these changes a major gain from their parenting work. This was despite the fact that these men's male friends and workmates were highly critical of their abandonment of the breadwinner role, describing them, for instance, as being â€Å"blud gers,† â€Å"a bit funny,† â€Å"a bit of a woman,† and â€Å"under the thumb. † (29) This stigmatism may be receding as the possibility of securing the children's future, once part of the father's responsibility in his relations with the â€Å"public sphere,† is becoming less and less possible as unemployment bites deeper. 30) Child-minders and day-care workers have confirmed that the children of active fathers were â€Å"more secure† and â€Å"less anxious† than the children of non-active fathers. Psychological studies have revealed them to be better developed socially and intellectually. Furthermore, the results of active fatherhood seem to last. There is considerable evidence to suggest that greater interaction with fathers is better for children, with the sons and daughters of active fathers displaying lower levels of sex-role stereotyping. (31) Men who share the second shift had a happier family life and more harmonious marriages .In a longitudinal study, Defrain found that parents reported that they were happier and their relationships improved as a result of shared parenting. In an American study, househusbands felt positive about their increased contribution to the family-household, paid work became less central to their definition of themselves, and they noted an improvement in their relationships with their female partners. (32) One of the substantial bases for metamorphosis for Connell's six changing heterosexual men in the environmental movement as the learning of domestic labour, which involves â€Å"giving to people, looking after people. † In the same sense that feminism â€Å"claimed emotional life as a source of dignity and self respect,† active fathers are challenging hegemonic masculinity. For hegemonic masculinity, real work is elsewhere, and relationships don't require energy, but provide it. (33) There is also the question of time. The time spent establishing the intimacy that a man may crave is also time away from establishing and maintaining the â€Å"competitive edge,† or the â€Å"public face. There are no prizes for being a good father, not even when being one is defined narrowly in terms of breadwinning. (34) Social struggles over time are intimate with class and gender. It is not only that the rich and powerful are paid handsomely for the time they sell, have more disposable time, more free time, more control over how they use their time, but the gender dimensions of time use within classes are equally compelling. No one performs less unpaid work, and receives greater remuneration for time spent in paid work, than a male of the ruling class.The changes that are occurring remain uncertain, and there is, of course, a sting in the tail. Madison Avenue has found that â€Å"emotional lability and soft receptivity to what's new and exciting† are more appropriate to a consumer-orientated society than â€Å"hardness and emotional distance. † Past television commercials tended to portray men as Marlboro macho or as idiots, but contemporary viewers see men cooking, feeding babies, and shopping. Insiders in the advertising industry say that the quick and easy cooking sections of magazines and newspapers are as much to attract male readers as overworked women.U. S. Sports Illustrated now carries advertisements for coffee, cereal, deodorants, and soup. According to Judith Langer, whose market-research firm services A. T. & T. , Gillette. and Pepsico among others, it is now â€Å"acceptably masculine to care about one's house. (35) The â€Å"new man† that comes at us through the media seems to reinforce the social order without challenging it. And he brings with him, too, a new con for women. In their increasing assumption of breadwinning, femocratic and skilled worker occupations, the line goes, women render themselves incomplete.They must -‘give up† their femininity in their appropriation of male jobs and power, but men who embrace the feminine become â€Å"more complete. † (36) And if that isn't tricky enough, the â€Å"new men† that seem to be emerging are simply unattractive. Indeed, they're boring. Connell's six changing heterosexual men in the environmental movement were attracted to women who were â€Å"strong, independent, active. (37) Isn't everybody attracted by these qualities? Gay men find â€Å"new men† irritating and new men are not too sure how keen they should be on each other, and no feminist worth her salt would be seen dead with one.The ruling class: Really real men? If the significance of the concept of hegemonic masculinity is that it directs us to look for the contradictions within an autonomous gender system that will cause its transformation, then we must conclude it has failed. The challenges to hegemonic masculinity identified by its theorists and outlined above seem either to be complicit with, or broader than, the gender syst em that has apparently generated them. I can appreciate why Connell is practically interested in and theoretically intrigued by arguing against the notion of the externality of gender change. Both experience and theory show the impossibility of liberating a dominant group and the difficulty of constructing a movement based not on the shared interest of a group but on the attempt to dismantle that interest. † (38) (My emphasis). The key is the phrase â€Å"constructing a movement. † It is only a system which has its own dynamics that can produce the social forces necessary to change radically that system. But Connell himself has written that gender is part of the relations of production and has always been so.And similarly, that â€Å"social science cannot understand the state, the political economy of advanced capitalism. the nature of class, the process of modernisation or the nature of imperialism, the process of socialisation, the structure of consciousness or the p olitics of knowledge, without a full-blooded analysis of gender. † (39) There is nothing outside gender. To be involved in social relations is to be inextricably â€Å"inside† gender. If everything, in this sense, is within gender, why should we be worried about the exteriority of the forces for social change?Politics, economics, technology are gendered. â€Å"We have seen the invisible hand;' someone wittier than I remarked, â€Å"It is white, hairy and manicured. † Is there, then, some place we can locate exemplars of hegemonic masculinity that are less fractured, more coherent, and thus easier to read? Where its central and defining features can be seen in sharper relief? If the public face of hegemonic masculinity is not necessarily even what powerful men are, then what are they necessarily? Why is it â€Å"no mean feat to produce the kind of people who can actually operate a capitalist system? (40) Even though the concept â€Å"hegemony† is rooted i n concern with class domination, systematic knowledge of ruling class masculinity is slight as yet, but it is certainly intriguing. One aspect of ruling class hegemonic masculinity is the belief that women don't count in big matters, and that they can be dealt with by jocular patronage in little matters. Another is in defining what â€Å"big† and â€Å"little† are. Sexual politics are simply not a problem to men of the ruling class. Senior executives couldn't function as bosses without the patriarchal household.The exercise of this form of power requires quite special conditions – conventional femininity and domestic subordination. Two-thirds of male top executives were married to housewives. The qualities of intelligence and the capacity for hard work which these women bring to marriage are matched, as friends of Anita Keating, the wife of the Prime Minister of Australia, remarked, by â€Å"intense devotion †¦ her husband and her children are her life. â €  Colleen Fahey, the wife of the premier of New South Wales, had completed an 18-month part-time horticulture course at her local technical college, and she wanted to continue her studies full-time. But my husband wouldn't let met,† she said. â€Å"He said that he didn't think it was right for a mother to have a job when she had a 13-year-old child †¦ I think if I'd put my foot down and said I'd really wanted a career, he'd have said, ‘You're a rotten mother leaving those kids. † (41) The case for this sort of behaviour is simply not as compelling for working-class men, the mothers and the wives of most of whom undertake paid work as a matter of course. Success itself can amplify this need for total devotion, while lessening the chances of its fulfilment outside of the domestic realm.For the successful are likely to have difficulty establishing intimate and lasting friendships with other males because of low self-disclosure, homophobia, and cut-throat com petition. The corporate world expects men to divulge little of their personal lives and to restrain personal feelings, especially affectionate ones, towards their colleagues while cultivating a certain bland affability. Within the corporate structure, â€Å"success is achieved through individual competition rather than dyadic or group bonding. The distinction between home and work is crucial and carefully maintained. For men in the corporation, friends have their place outside work. (42) While William Shawcross, the biographer of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, found him â€Å"courageous† and â€Å"charming,† others close to Murdoch described him as â€Å"arrogant,† â€Å"cocky,† â€Å"insensitive, verging on dangerous,† â€Å"utterly ruthless,† and an â€Å"efficient Visigoth. † Murdoch himself described his life as â€Å"consisting of a series of interlocking wars. Shawcross also found that Murdoch possessed â€Å"an instinctive feel for money and power and how to use them both;' had a â€Å"relentless, unceasing drive and energy,† worked â€Å"harder and more determinedly† than anybody else, was â€Å"sure that what he was doing was correct†, â€Å"believed that he had become invincible†, and was driven by the desire â€Å"to win at all costs. † (43) And how must it feel to know that you can have whatever you want, and that throughout your life you will be looked after in every way, even to the point of never having to dress and undress yourself?Thus the view that hegemonic masculinity is hegemonic insofar as it succeeds in relation to women is true, but partial. Competitiveness, a combination of the calculative and the combative, is institutionalised in business and is central to hegemonic masculinity. The enterprise of winning is life-consuming, and this form of competitiveness is â€Å"an inward turned competitiveness, focussed on the self,† creating, in fact, an in strumentality of the personal. (44)Hegemonic masculinity is â€Å"a question of how particular groups of men inhabit positions of power and wealth, and how they legitimate and reproduce the social relationships that generate their dominance. † (45) Through hegemonic masculinity most men benefit from the control of women. For a very few men, it delivers control of other men. To put it another way, the crucial difference between hegemonic masculinity and other masculinities is not the control of women, but the control of men and the representation of this as â€Å"universal social advancement,† to paraphrase Gramsci.Patriarchal capitalism delivers the sense, before a man of whatever masculinity even climbs out of bed in the morning, that he is â€Å"better† than half of humankind. But what is the nature of the masculinity confirming not only that, but also delivering power over most men as well? And what are its attractions? A sociology of rulingclass men is long overdue. Footnotes 1. M. Waters. â€Å"Patriarchy and Viriarchy: An Exploration and Reconstruction of Concepts of Masculine Domination. † Sociology 7 (1989): 143-162. 2. A. Hochschild with A. Machung. The Second Shit: Woking parents and the Revolution at Home (New York: Viking. 989): 257. 3. M. Donaldson, Time of Our Lives: Labour and Love in the Working Class (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1991). 3. R. Connell. â€Å"Theorising Gender,† Sociology, 19 (1985): 263; R. Connell, â€Å"The Wrong Stuff: Reflections on the Place of Gender in American Sociology. † in H. J. Gans, editor, Sociology in America (Newbury-Park: Sage Publications 1990), 158; R. Connell, â€Å"The State, Gender and Sexual Politics: Theory and Appraisal† , Theory and Society 19/5 (1990): 509-523. 5. Connell. â€Å"Theorising Gender,† 260. 6. R. Connell, Which Way is Up? Essays on Class, Sex and Culture (Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1983), 234-276. 7.T. Carrigan, B. Connell. and J. L ee, â€Å"Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity. † in H. Brod. editor. The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies (Boston:. Allen and Unwin), 75. 8. R. Connell. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics (Sydney: Allen and Unwin. 1987), 107; Carrigan. Connell and Lee, 95. 9. Carrigan, Connell. and Lee. â€Å"Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity. † 86: Connell, Which Way is Up? 185. 10. Connell, Which Way is Up; Connell. Gender and Power; R. Connell, â€Å"A Whole New World: Remaking Masculinity in the Context of the Environmental Movement,† Gender and Society 4 (1990): 352-378: R.Connell. â€Å"An Iron Man: The Body and Some Contradictions of Hegemonic Masculinity,† in M. Messner and D. Sabo, editors, Sport, Men and the Gender Order (Champaign. Ill. : Human Kinetics Books, 1990): Connell, â€Å"The State, Gender and Sexual Politics†; Carrigan, Connell and Lee, 86; R. Chapman. â€Å"The Great Pretender: Variations in the New Man Theme. † in R. Chapman and J. Rutherford. editors. .Male Order: Unwrapping Masculinity (London: Lawrence and Wishart. 1988) 9-18; C. Cockburn. â€Å"Masculinity, the Left and Feminism. † in Male Order:103–329; P. Lichterman. Making a Politics of Masculinity,† Comparative Social Research 11 (1989): 185-208; M. Messner â€Å"The Meaning of Success: The Athletic Experience and the Development of Male Identity,† in The Making of Masculinities:193-2 10; J. Rutherford. â€Å"Who's That Man'? † in Male Order, 21-67. I I. Connell, Which Way is Up: 236, 255, 256. 12. Connell, Which Way is Up: 185,186,239. 13. Connell, â€Å"Iron Man,† 83, 94. 14. Connell, â€Å"Whole New World,† 459. 15. D. Hammond and A. Jablow, â€Å"Gilgamesh and the Sundance Kid: The Myth of Male Friendship,† in The Making of Masculinities: 256: Messner. â€Å"The Meaning of Success†, 198; Connell. Iron Man. † 87, 93: Donoghue in Connell. â₠¬Å"Iron Man,† 84-85. 16. Carrigan, Connell, and Lee, â€Å"Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity†: Connell, Gender and Power. 17. G. Herek, â€Å"On Heterosexual Masculinity: Some Physical Consequences of the Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality,† in M. Kimmel, editor, Changing Men, New Directions on Men and Masculinity (Newbury Park: Sage. 1987): 71-72; Connell. â€Å"Whole New World,† 369. 18. Carrigan, Connell and Lee, â€Å"Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity†: 93; C. Johnson and R. Johnston, â€Å"The Making of Homosexual Men. † in V. Burgmann and J.Lee, editors, Staining the Wattle. A People's History of Australia Since 1788. (Fitzroy: McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1988): 91; Connell, Gender and Power: 80; Carrigan, Connell and Lee: 86. 19. Carrigan, Connell, and Lee. 85; Connell. Gender and Power : 116. 20. Johnston and Johnston. â€Å"Homosexual Men. † 94: Carrigan. Connell, and Lee. 74: J. Hearn, The Gender of Oppression: M en, Masculinity and the Critique of Marxism (Brighton: Wheatsheaf, 1987); Connell, , Gender and Power: 60; Connell, Which Way is Up: 234. 177-178. 21. Otto in L. Ross. â€Å"Escaping the Well of Loneliness. † Staining the Wattle: 107. 22.Connell. â€Å"Whole New World,† 474-475, 477. 23, Lichterman, â€Å"Making a Politics. † 187-188, 201, 204. 24. Hochschild, Second Shift, 239: V. Seidler, â€Å"Fathering, Authority and Masculinity,† Male Order, 276; G. Russell, The Changing Role of Fathers? (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press. 1983), 98. 117; Seidler, â€Å"Fathering,† 287: Hochschild, Second Shift, 249; Connell, Which Way is Up, 32. 25. Messner. â€Å"Meaning of Success,†: 201. 26. Russell, Changing Role; Hochschild, Second Shift, 2, 217, 227; C. Armitage, â€Å"House Husbands. The Problems They Face,† Sydney Morning Herald (4 July 1991): 16. 27. Seidler. Fathering,† 298, 290, 295; Russell, Changing Role, 177. 28. Bick nell, â€Å"Neville Wran: A Secret Sadness,† New Idea (May 11, 1991): 18. 29. Russell, Changing Role, 128-129, 135-136. 30, Seidler. â€Å"Fathering,† 283. 31. Hochschild, Second Shift, 218, 237; P. Stein. â€Å"Men in Families,† Marriage and Family Review 7 (1984): 155. 32. Hochschild, Second Shift, 216; Defrain in Stein, â€Å"Men in Families. † 156; E. Prescott, â€Å"New Men,† American Demographics 5 (1983): 19. 33. Connell. â€Å"Whole New World. † 465; Seidler, â€Å"Fathering,† 275. 31. Donaldson, Time of Our Lives, 20-29. 35. Chapman, â€Å"Great Pretender,† 212; Prescott, â€Å"New Men. 16, 20, 18. 36. Chapman, â€Å"Great Pretender,† 213. 37. Connell, â€Å"Whole New World,† 465. 38. Connell, â€Å"Whole New World,† 176. 39. Connell, Gender and Power, 15; Connell, â€Å"The Wrong Stuff,† 161. 40. Connell, Which Way is Up: 71. 41. R. Connell, Teachers' Work (Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1985). 187; Connell. Which Way is Up: 71: Hochschild, Second Shift, 255: N. Barrowblough and P. McGeough. â€Å"Woman of Mystery. The Trump Card Keating Hasn't Played,† Sydney Morning Herald, (8 June 1991): 35. D. Cameron. â€Å"Just an Average Mrs. Premier,† Sydney Morning Herald, (28 Nov. 1992): 41. 42. M.Barrett, Women's Oppression Today: Problems in . Marxist Feminist Analysis (London: Verso, 1980): 187-216; Messner, â€Å"Meaning of Success. † 201: R. Ochberg, â€Å"The Male Career Code and The Ideology of Role,† in The Making of Masculinities: 173. 184; Hammond and Jablow, 255-256; Illawarra Mercury, â€Å"Family Comments Greeted with Fury. † (1 December 1992): 7. 43. W. Shawcross, Rupert Murdoch, Ringmaster of the Information Circus (Sydney: Random House. 1992). 44. Carrigan. Connell. and Lee, 92; Connell, Gender and Power, 156; Connell. â€Å"Iron Man. † 91; Seidler. â€Å"Fathering,† 279. 45. Carrigan, Connell, and Lee, 92.