Christmas Customs

The hanging of lights is a common holiday tradition.

In 16 days, many people will be home with their families opening presents and celebrating Christmas day. The town basically shuts down except for essential stores. Some people attend a church service and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The majority of Americans celebrate the secular holiday centered around the idea of Santa Clause and gift giving.

Christmas has become one of the biggest money making holidays for businesses. Businesses are capitalizing on the fact that everyone is going to be buying gifts. You will see stores having major sales and extended hours. This custom of giving gifts has completely changed the focus of the holiday.

Home Sweet Home

My home town!

With Thanksgiving coming up right around the corner, home has been on my mind a lot. I am an out-of-state student here at the University of Michigan. I am from Encinitas, California (which is considered to be in San Diego).

Before I go any farther: Yes, I realize I am far from “home”. And yes, I do know that it gets really cold here. I know that I am not ready for winter, and yes, I have been told multiple times that I will die during winter.

These are the first things that people from Michigan or the Midwest say to me when I mention I am from California. It was cute at first and made for a good conversation, but now, since I’ve been living here for a few months, it just annoys me.

Did you vote?

Your incentive to vote.

As many of you know, elections were yesterday. People were swarming campus pushing flyers into your hands and yelling at you to vote. Signs were hung everywhere, and tables were set up with information and representatives ready to talk. You probably saw the campaign posters all around town leading up to the vote. People were walking around talking about the candidates and discussing their positions. People even try to incentivize you to vote by giving you stickers after that say “I voted”. Unfortunately, this incentive wasn’t as successful as many hoped. 

The True Importance of Sports

The South African rugby team that helped unite the country.

While reading Ariel Levy’s article, Either/Or, I thought about the importance of sports. As she mentioned in her article, sports play a significant role in society. Levy goes on to explain the history of South Africa and how sports helped them end the apartheid. This article made me look at sports in a new light. I never really considered sports to be something that was so powerful as to help prevent a civil war.

Categories and the Complications They Produce

This is a picture from the Toronto SlutWalk which speaks out against slut-shaming, victim-blaming, and rape culture.

Our society today is extremely fixated on the idea of Feminism. It is everywhere. You see it on the news, social media, and other sites within the internet. Feminism has become a prevalent aspect in our culture. Since the early 1990’s, the Third Wave of Feminism has become increasingly popular. The Third wave of Feminism focused on issues like gender violence, reproductive rights, reclaiming derogatory terms, and rape. Some people critique the Third Wave for lacking a cohesive goal and argue that we are in the midst of a Fourth Wave.