-1 Second = Doping???

While watching the 2012 Olympics has done wonders for my motivation to work out harder and more frequently, I was stunned the other night at the commentary after some of the women's aquatic finals.  After winning gold in the 400 individual medley, Ye of China was suspected of using performance enhancing drugs for no other reason than becuase she swam faster than a man!

Seriously?!  She shaves no more than one second off of the Olympic record for women, but because "It is the first time in Olympic history a woman has swam faster in any lap than a male gold medallist" she's questioned about doping!  I think this is clearly TUI!  It shows the prejudice we hold against female athletes not being capable of performing as well as their male counterparts, and if they out-perform men, well, then there must be an illegal reason behind it.  I think this also shows, once again, the danger of immediate journalism, journalists who put out their stories or thoughts before they really examine them.

Pronouns

My mom has always been crafty.  When I was younger she made most of my clothes and she used to cross stitch and crochet more frequently than she has in the last decade.  Last year when she had to have her gallbladder removed she had a sizable amount of medical leave during which she was to recover.  Which she took to mean relaxing at home watching more Martha Stewart than any one person should consume on a regular basis.  The result of which was the reigniting of her crafty bug! 

The bug taking the shape of a whole new craft!  For the better part of the last two years my mom has been making paper flowers.  They've progressed from tissue paper strips on fuzzy craft sticks to beautiful cut, punched, folded flowers on floral picks and wooden skewers...that everyone she works with wants to receive and give.  In the last few months there have even been people ask her to make paper flower arrangements with specific themes for mother's day.

This is how I came to be googling "sock monkey paper."  The search for which lead me to a design company on Etsy.com that sells digital paper packs.  For a few bucks you "buy" the digital paper which the company sends you and then you can print as much or as little as needed.  I thought it was a really neat concept after spending so much time hunting in all the local (aka everything within 50+ MILES) craft/scrapbooking stores for specific colors, patterns, and images.

As my mom and I were discussing the product I found myself referring to the company with feminine pronouns.  My t.u.i. let me assume that since we were discussing something "crafty" it MUST be a woman designing and selling the products.  The name of the company is gender neutral.  And I had no idea if it's one person or many, female(s) or male(s).  (After going back and looking at the profile on Etsy.com it is a woman...but is it so crazy to be mindful and think this could be a man?)

Have you ever caught yourself making seeming inconsequential assumptions like this?  Whether they seem insignificant or significant, I hope you read this and start seeing some of your own t.u.i. moments!  And if you feel comfortable doing so, please share your t.u.i. moments in the comments below!

Tweeting Under the Influence

TUI can be exacerbated on social media sites, such as Twitter, when your own reactive thoughts are posted to the world before you've had a chance to rethink them and, once posted, you can't take them back.  I think this story on Jezebel exemplifies this.  The story talks about reactions on Twitter to some of the casting choices for the book-made-movie The Hunger Games.  There were very intense negative reactions to Cinna and Rue being played by black actors.  They were all TatUI (Thinking and tweeting Under the Influence).  I would like to think that if any of those people had taken the time to step back and look at their words before they posted them, they would have tweeted differently.  But maybe not...where would they have been socialized to question their own thoughts and opinions?

What aspect of socialization would have taught them that initial instincts can be wrong?  I fear that we socialize just the opposite.  We socialize members of our society to "trust their instincts"...and when those instincts are wrong?  George Zimmerman's instincts told him that Trayvon Martin was 'up to no good' so he followed him and shot him to death.  Trayvon was walking home from the convenience store.  Whether Trayvon attacked George (without a weapon), validating his claim of self-defense is for the authorities to figure out....but what seems pretty clear to me is that George was TUI.  His instincts were formed by the dominance of media depictions of criminals as black.  And George was never socialized to think outside of that dominant depiction.  How do we change this?!  How do we break the TUI cycle?

What is TUI?

I've just finished reading Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity by Brenda J. Allen and at the end of the book Allen challenges the reader to create and implement an action plan for communicating the reader's favorite concept from the book.  I've decided to write a blog about what Allen calls TUI or thinking under the influence.  The concept of TUI refers to the unquestioned assumptions and subconscious prejudices that affect our reactive thoughts.  These assumptions and prejudices are formed by the dominant ideologies around us.  To combat TUI, Allen suggests mindfulness.  We have to remember that our first impressions aren't based on societal truths, but rather on socially constructed norms that can be very inaccurate and/or misleading.  

Here's my first TUI story:

I'll admit I was a bit surprised that the custodian for my office on campus was white.  But was really surprised that the same custodian drives an Escalade.  I was TUI.  Dominant ideology socialized me to think that all custodians were working class or poor and that someone of that class could not afford an Escalade.  I assumed I knew this person's social class just because I knew what their job was.  And I assumed that the make and model of the car meant this person was in a different social class as well.  When the truth of the matter is that knowing the job and the car, I don't know the social class and shouldn't assume that I do.