Extra Credit - You the Man

Personally I found the discussion afterwards to be a bit more interesting than the play itself. Although I enjoyed the play I thought it was a bit confusing to keep track of which character was which but also how would it be different if the play was told from a woman's perspective. However good points were made about the different kind of people who float around in this world. I think at one point or another everyone can either relate to one or more of the characters.

Generally speaking it seems as if even though the phrase, “if you see something, say something” is constantly circulating our minds, we don’t necessarily listen. I think especially as a teenager when something is bad or looks bad we convince ourselves that it is cool. Then whatever we are doing or we are watching someone else do shows strength of going against our parents, and not listening to the rules. Is this right though? If we use this strategy of assessing situations, then when someone is in danger it’ll appear to us as cool verses a problem.

Where is the line drawn between what is right and what is wrong? When it comes to domestic violence I think sometimes it is hard to differentiate. I think especially at this age when there is already a ton of experimenting going on people sometimes don’t realize the actual situation in till it is already happened. Then at this point question whether they need to get help from someone older. It seems as if from the play getting help and admitting to being in danger is a lot harder than it seems.

It was very interesting being able to talk with the freshman girls after the performance. I know that when I was a freshman my intake on a performance like this would have been very different. To be able to get their census of how they personally responded to a subject like this shows how age can give one a different reaction.

Two of the characters we focused on were Virgin Larry and the father. We talked about how the hierarchy of high school reflects the dominance and leadership of individuals. People would be more likely to listen to the captain of the basketball team then a character who had little experience in the subject and wasn’t as respected. However, the father seemed very protective of his daughter, and didn’t want her to start leading a life down the wrong road. We questioned though if it was his son in his daughters position would he react differently?

We discussed if it was harder being a male or a female growing up in our society. I picked that it would be harder for a female. I think there is a lot more pressure to have a sex appeal, and to life up to the celebrities images. Also being though, girls are much more targeted by both males our age and older males. I think this has a lot to do with men being considered more dominant and powerful. I do not agree that, that is right but in history and even now it seems as if men do take that role on.

This is going to be very generalized but I think most girls have a good sense of what’s going on around them. I think we are more observant and notice details. So even though we are more vulnerable at the same time we are well aware of this. Information gained from the play was interesting though, I guess you just have to be conscious of our surroundings since he did say most people who experience domestic violence know the person doing it.