Weekly Journal #3

9/10 — Study Activity

Consider these questions?

(1) To what extent have you *already* had an education like the one you all came up with? K-12 I didn’t have a leadership education like the one we came up with.

(2) To what extent is the education you are *now* receiving like the one you came up with? The education I’m receiving now is more like the one we came up with. The curriculum for most of my classes revolves around being a leader and developing my skills that can make me a better leader.

(3) What decisions could you make now to ensure that your future education resembles this one? I can always find a way to relate what I’m learning to how to be a better leader/mentor.

Chapter 4 — Leading in Spite of Dehumanizing Stereotypes

Objective

• Read Lysistrata
• Make connection to Book 1 & 2 in the Odyssey and Binti
• Explore how women of Greece banded together to bring an end to the Peloponnesian War (Athens and Sparta)
• The prohibition against female speech
• The social and psychological phenomenon of dehumanization

Dehumanization — the practice of of prejudicially denying someone else’s full humanity

Prejudicially — a person’s humanity is denied before they are understood or met, a though belonging to a certain group automatically entails less than human qualities

Dehumanization Forms

• denial of agency: the practice of treating someone as though they cannot plan or carry out a plan

Example: denying the agency of a homeless person by saying that there’s no reason to help them find a job because they wouldn’t prepare or show up

• denial of experience: the practice of treating someone as though their emotional or psychological experience of the world is closer to that another person is incapable

Example: assuming that another person is incapable of feeling the higher order emotions that we assume are special to humans, and that they are accustomed to feel instead only emotions like anger, lust, and fear

What does dehumanization have to do with leadership?

• dehumanization is the opposite of mentoring — either overlooks potential or prevents realization of potential
• includes ignoring, insulting, discouraging, or physically harming
• avoid dehumanizing and dehumanization of ourselves

Key Terms

Lysistrata: she who loosens or disbands the army

Dehumanization

Agency

Experience

Athens

Sparta

Pelopennesian War

Assignment

If you cannot think of three times where you were hindered by a stereotype, you can think of a time when you observed someone else’s leadership being hindered by a negative stereotype. Did the stereotype have to do with agency, experience, or both?

(1) Cardi B vs Candace Owens

Candace Owens criticized Cardi B for her interview with Joe Biden. Claiming she was pandering to Black voters through her music taste. But Cardi disputed that she had the right to use her platform. This stereotype had to do with agency and experience. It dealt with agency because Candace Owens, and people/social media in general, discredit Cardi try to be involved and get other involved because she is a rapper. She also used to be a stripper, comes from New York, experienced childhood poverty, and has an accent/unusual grammar. It doesn’t make sense to me that there is this push for rappers to use their platform for good and everyday people to participate in government. Cardi is trying to accomplish both but is criticized. I would also categorize this as denial of experience because social media allows feelings to not be thought of as reality. When I saw this happen I immediately thought of how does Cardi feel being ridiculed for trying to inform others.

(2) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vs Rep Ted Yoho

Rep Yoho acosted AOC and called her a “f*cking b*tch” back in July. This is an example of denial of experience. Yoho didn’t take into account the feelings of AOC, other women of congress, and/or women in general. He apologized by not actually apologizing. Saying, “I cannot apologize for my passion, or for loving my God, my family, and my country.” Basically saying I don’t want to acknowledge that I am wrong and I don’t feel the need to apologize.

(3) UofL & UK basketball teams vs Fans

This is more close to home for me. I live across the bridge from Louisville, Kentucky. The Louisville Cards and Kentucky Wild Cats have had a huge rivalry since the beginning of time. I grew up with these teams and they’ve been majority young black men all my life. They are experiencing a denial of experience. Sadly most athletes will experience this when they speak up on issues. Both teams did promo saying that Black Lives Matter. The fans did not appreciate this. Showing that if they aren’t dunking, hitting threes, winning championships no one would care about them. Validating the belief that black bodies an lives matter only when you provide entertainment. Its bittersweet because it should be something to be proud of, and it is, but stuff like this is always ruined by people who don’t want to understand.

Reading

Read Lysistrata and identify what are the stereotypes that women in Ancient Greece face and what the women in the play do to overcome them. How successful are they at overcoming these stereotypes? Are the women politically and socially equal by the end of the play?

Stereotypes

• Unimportant — when Lysistrata calls a meeting of all the women they show up late. This stereotype works both ways. Its a product of society pressuring women to put themselves second/last on their list of priorities. The other aspect is that the women allow this to be true by continuously doing this, even when its something that’s necessary for them to do.
• Devious — when Lysistrata is talking with Calonice, Calonice validates that women are naturally devious. This mirrors the stereotype of women being rude, mean, deceitful, provocative, and devious etc. Of course all people can be this way but when it comes to women its just looked at as nature. That we are unprovoked with our malice.
• One dimensional — throughout the whole play the women are fighting the stereotype of being one -dimensional. Basically fighting to be known as more than wives and mothers, and capable of more than having sex. The women were also constantly reminded that they can’t be anything more than want a man needs/wants.
• Accept abuse — in the story when they’re figuring out their plan the topic of domestic abuse/rape comes up. And they all agree to just accept that its going to happen, couldn’t be me. In current times this definitely more frowned upon and looked at differently. But the stereotype still prevails, most of domestic abuse/rape cases go unheard of because there is this underlying rule that women are at the mercy of men. And the stereotype of women accepting abuse from men because its the “norm”.
• No ambition — another stereotype I saw in the story was that women have no ambition outside of domesticated roles. Women only strive to be the best wife and mother and nothing else. Which is not true, there are other things women want to be exceptional at and are exceptional at.

Overcame

• Brainwashing/Insecurities — The women had to overcome brainwashing and insecurity. They second guessed themselves due to them being brainwashed. Since they were constantly reprimanded, disrespected, and mistreated they accepted it as normal. And were scared to go outside of what became their comfort zone.
• Accountability - Specifically with Lysistrata, she had to make sure the women kept their promise. Accountability is an important skill a leader must have and teach. For example, when the women showed up late for the meeting it shows that they weren’t accountable. They needed everyone to be on one accord for their plan to work. This problem occurs within many different groups. The hardest people to count on is your own people, because without everyone’s participation its hard to accomplish goals.
• Name Calling — Name-calling is often looked at as childish and something only children do/affected by. But no matter what age name calling is very detrimental. Not only to the person but to their image. When you’re called a b*tch or a sl*t it chips away at you. When you’re constantly called something you start to take on that role. Its a small part of overall dehumanization.

Plotting My Leadership Development

• the thoughtful selection of those who will join the alliance
• a shared sense of mission
• an open exchange of opinions and ideas as to the best strategy
• support for one another to stay focused on the mission
• a division of labor according to age
• constructively criticizing one another for falling short of their best behavior
• the taking of an oath to mark the seriousness of their undertaking and to enforce commitment

Consider a group you belong to, whether it’s a family, an organization, a company, or even a political unit (town, city, country).

Do you see these features at work there? I do see some of these features in my family, specifically me and my siblings.

If you consider your group successful in meeting the needs of others, are their other features in addition to these that make it so? I do consider us successful. We have most of these features and the only thing I would add that we do is we don’t hold each other back for our own needs.

If you could replace or improve two people in your group so that they would be easier to collaborate with, what would you improve? I wouldn’t replace my brother or sister, we’re all different in our paths but we all have the same mission.

What could you improve about yourself to make you a better team player? I would improve asking for help. I like to do things myself even if I don’t know how I prefer to try to figure it out myself. But I’m lucky enough to have an older brother and sister who have already made mistakes and could steer me away from them, so I should utilize my siblings more.

Study Activity — 9/14

What makes me an outsider?

• I’ve always been taller than kids my age so up until high school when everyone finally caught up I always stuck out and was just the tall girl who played basketball.
• I grew up in between poor and middle class. My family isn’t as poor as other people but we definitely are not even middle class. Last year in a class discussion in my English class my teacher asked how many of us thought we were middle class. So most of us raised our hands and then he told us what the poverty line was. I had just used my dad’s financial information to fill out financial aid, so I knew how much he made. We’re only a couple thousand above the poverty line. Being in high school and seeing how other people live opened my eyes and made me realize that I’m not middle class just because I’m not poor.
• I’m an early graduate, last school year was originally going to be my junior year but it was my senior year instead. This was more of myself making me feel like an outsider. All my friends who were juniors thought it was cool that I chose to graduate early. And I was excited to graduate early, I don’t regret it. It was just weird seeing the difference in planning for the next year. We had a day in one of my classes dedicated to juniors creating their senior year schedules, and while they were doing that I was filling out my FAFSA.
• I also feel like an outsider when I compare the personalities of my immediate family. I’m quiet, shy, easy going, unbothered, like time to myself, and would rather be in the presence of my dogs rather than people most of the time. My mom, dad, sister, and brother are all different. Its weird because we all have the same tendencies but the way we go about them and handle them are really different. Other than my brother, everyone else is outspoken, intimidating, and easily bothered by stuff that doesn’t matter to me.