Superstition

My mom believes quite strongly that if her purse is put on the floor that all her money will be spent fast, but by constantly keeping it off of the floor she can save her money with ease and not have to worry.  She is very serious about this and gets upset when I mess around with her by putting it close to the floor in a joking manner.  Her purse never touches the floor of anything or anything considered a floor, not anywhere in the house, car, restaurants et cetera, et cetera. When other girls come over or are around she makes sure to extend the her warnings for their bags as well.  Its funny when my girlfriend comes over because she always puts her purse on the floor and they'll look at each other and laugh, Mom will roll her eyes and girlfriend will ask still laughing "what?".

La Vieja

This is't truely a myth, it's just something my grandmother and sme of my aunts use to scare young children. They tell them that la vieja, old lady, is going to come and take them awayif they don't behave. Of course this only works and the smaller children, up to age like 4 or 5. Eat all your food or the vieja is coming to get you, Behave or la vieja is going to get you, etc. There is also the threat the rando animal that's going to come and get you for the same reasons. This little kid my aunt takes care of is afraid of all kinds of animals because his afraid has told him whatever he does wrong it going to take him away. Today my cat was sitting on the couch, when he saw it he became paralyzed and I was forced to take my cat outside. All can say is scaring the kids get them to behave, but it makes them afraid of any and everything.

Small Towns

I am from a very small town and there are many myths about people from small towns. Some of these myths are true but most of them are false. One myth that my town contributes to is that people from small, secluded towns are generally dumb and some are considered rednecks. This could be considered as partially true. Driving through my town you will run into many odd characters. The majority of these people lived there their whole lives. Not all of them can be considered dumb, some are very intelligent. Because the town is so small there aren't many jobs available other than low end minimum wage jobs. The majority of the people there that have college degrees work in neighboring towns and aren't seen by people passing through. Many people that I bring to my hometown say that everyone they see are rednecks. And without giving it a closer look I can see why they believe this. The fact is that there are several 'rednecks' in my town but it has a lot more to offer than that. Just because a lot of the people you initially see in a small town do not come off as intelligent doesn't mean that people from small towns aren't as smart as people from larger communites.

Playoff Hockey

It is believed that growing a beard for the NHL playoffs will help you win. I don't know if this is classified as a myth, but to a hockey fan such as myself, I see it as one. It started back in the 1980's with a simple thought of one team to not shave until they were eliminated from the playoffs. However, they never were. They won the Stanley Cup and all looked like werewolfs by the end of the series. Silly, maybe, but at least for them it worked. Since them many players believe in doing the same thing. Right now you can turn on a game and see a bunch of hairy faces. There are also many myths that sports fans follow. Some of them include: not washing a jersey, wearing same thing when a team wins, keeping things the same, or even lucky underwear. Does it work, probably not, but it is fun to get caught in the action. Call me superstitous, but I am not washing my jersey until the Flyers are eliminated.

It started as this Vampire game

I recall this special that I believe was featured on the Discovery channel some time ago. It told the story of this manic adolescent boy that began this vampire game with some friends of his - the game was to hunt for human souls and devour their blood. However, this game turned deadly when the ringleader began feeding into his own game and influencing the other members to believe that blood had become a neccessity of life for them; they were now somehow different than the typical human - they were indeed vampires; full-blooded vampires - afraid of the light and drawn to the scent of human blood. Any means that would come between their sectarian group or cult, needed to be destroyed - nothing was to breech their 'spiritual bond'. Unfortunately, when the parents of the ringleaders girlfriend objected to her leaving with him, the vampiric-mythology the ringleader had formed amongst his cult permitted the girl to accept her boyfriend's bludgeoning of her mother and father, succeeded by him sucking their blood. As a result of her conditioning to respect the 'sanctity' of their vampiric relationship, a kind of nationalistic pride, she neglected to act and could only look on as her parents were brutally murdered for objecting when it seemed she faced an imminent danger.

What an utter shame it is to see the mythologizing of one young man brainwash an entire crew of people - even convincing a member that his brute force towards the one's that cared for her the most was somehow deserved. O the power words can inspire...

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Basketball players seem to be more of ganster type image. They all are so physical and egoistic. Whenever I watch any ball game, mostly a player disagrees with the foul that refree has called upon. Mostly, all the players have tatoos all over their body. They seem to think of themselves as really physically strong and no one can mess with them. Like when ever a team is out of playoff contention at the end of the regular season, that particular team's best player(s) don't play the remaining games. I seriously hate when this happens. Either they just don't play, or pretend to get injured. I means players suppose to play for fun and love of the game....right?

Long Island Girls

Being from Long Island, New York, I have to live with the myth that all Long Island girls are rich and spoiled.  I can honestly say that being from the south shore where I live, you will meet some the most down to earth people.  I come from a community that lives off the beach, and no one really cares much about designer clothes or expensive things.  We just want to go to the beach and enjoy life.  It is true that there are some girls that fit this stereo type, however, flaunting their money and driving around in expensive cars, but it really all depends on the location that they are from.  But it is certainly not true that ALL girls should be classified as "Japs" just because they live on Long Island.  

The self-mythologizing of GUIDOS

So I grew up in the Jersey sub-urbs of NYC, I can see the city from where I live. And of course, you're gonna have the stereotypical "Guidos" Now, let me define a guido. They're not always Italian... Now a days, the majority (at least in jersey) they're half Irish... They won't typically admit it, but they are. And they'll have their gold chains with the bull horn or the crucifix, or both on the same chain. They'll probably have a fitted hat they wear (even over their spiked gelled/waxed hair), or a tee with something italian on it, but my favorite, are the mini italian flags they have on their cars. Someone says Italian, and all of a sudden they have roots back to Sicily, and red sauce vs white sause and bla bla bla. But they forget and pretend they're not half irish, and the full blooded italians will call the half italians out on this. The stereotypical guido from the sopranos.. they exist, they are half balding or receeding hair-lined overweight late 40's cigar smokers. No, they're not all in the mafia, but they like to think they are.

So anyway, the young guidos today like to show their Italian pride by broadcasting it everywhere, like they are a superior race... Irish and Puerto Ricans do the same thing, but not in an arrogant condescending way. So we got the gold chain necklaces, Of course you have the Black Spiked hair. The clubber ones wear the light wash, sand blasted jeans with mirror tinted shades that have no protection from gthe sun, so they can wear them inside. Some go as far as the sweatbands on the head and arms, and if you are a hardcore clubber, you keep on the wristband you got from a 17 and under club you went to 2 weeks prior. and sometimes they roll the bottom of their jeans up and blast the same Cascada that's been playing on Z100 every night for the past 8 years liek it's brand new from their Acura RSX. Most guidos just like to be loud, yea they go tanning, they go to the gym, probably use steroids, (majority of my friends do or did) and talk with an imitation of a brooklyn or long-island accent... You don't pick either of those up in jersey. And they have every techno and rap Remix of every song ever made.

If you haven't seen this video called "My New Haircut" .... Check it out, it's really not that far from the reality..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4JMOh-cul6M

Side Note: Please do not think I am trying to dishonor or disgrace any other race, every race has a reason to be proud of their heritage. I'm just picking of Guidos, Not Italians.

White Skin

In my culture, Filipinos consider those who are with lighter and fair skin to be more wealthy and beautiful than those with darker skin. My parents who were born and raised in the Philippines try to influence my sister and I not to get dark or go tanning before we go to the Philippines or meet their traditional friends because the color of our skin represents a kind of status. Most Filipinos have dark skin but those with lighter skin are looked upon with a high regard. This is because if you have lighter skin is thought that you don't have to do much work, or in other words don't have to do hard labor. However, if you do have dark skin that means that you or your family are the workers our in the field, and they have dark skin because of it being burnt by the sun. Therefore, the lighter the skin the higher your status. There are even soaps and lotions that are popular in the Philippines that are used to "lighten" your skin. I think it kind of ironic that while people in the Philippines are trying to not get tan and try to get light skin,  white American's are hitting the tanning booths to get a nice golden bronze complexion. 

Driving in NJ

One commonly held belief in NJ is that visitors from Pennsylvania are terrible drivers. Most frequently, people get frustrated when Pennsylvanians drive on or under the speed limit or sit in the left lane on highways (left lane D...s). Likewise, people from NJ are notorious for tailgating, passing illegally over the double line, cutting you off, and flipping you off. Being from NJ, it can be pretty frustrating to drive with either of these kinds of people, and there are a LOT of them. I can't say these stereotypes aren't entirely untrue, because they happen so frequently, especially in the summer when lots of people come to visit. I live near Ocean City, a popular visitor destination, and traffic gets heavy on our not-big-enough roads. All the time, it seems that someone, slow from PA or a jerk from NJ, is there to make driving a royal pain.

The Evil Eyes

There are many myths that surround the Italian culture that i have grown up knowing., the most prominent myth that I know and believe in is the evil eyes. The evil eyes are a kind of curse given to a person in which they don't like. In turn the person who has had them wished upon them have a stream of bad luck which doesn't go away until it is taken off by another person. A person who does this is supposed to go through a sort of ritual supposedly on Christmans Eve. Now the way that the evil eyes are taken off of a person is if that person gives a piece of jewlely or something that is worn by then and give it to the person who is now able to take them off. From there they perform a ritual and then take of the evil eyes. This is only one of the myths of how the evil eyes work. This goes to show how superstitous the Italian culture can be, and this is 1 of many myths that we have as a culture.

Giving up on a fairytale

I believe that love is enough, or (like the song) love is all you need, is a myth. I've seen so many people be in love and break up for different reasons. I was led to believe that love was enough and that if you really love someone you fight to make it work no matter what. I feel like people give up way too easily anymore. They think that it's suppose to make everything better and it doesn't. When you're in love you still need other things and can feel bad. Love doesn't fix everything. I think another problem is that people expect too much from love and that it's going to be easy to keep love. Love is never easy, life is never easy. People have gotten lazy and forgotten why they even try in the first place, which is really sad. If you forget why you tried you stop trying and things fall apart. You see it in movies all the time. When people really love each other but some stupid things gets in the way and they "can't be together" when in actuality if they tried they could make it work. They just have to believe in it and be willing to work for it and realize that it's worth it. I do think that being in love is one of the greatest things ever and that's why people think that it's all you need but I think that people take that way too literally. Obviously you will still need to eat and stuff like that, so you can't just expect things to come to you. I think that people create the 'reasons' that they can't be together in their heads because they don't want to try anymore. I think that it's possible for people to fall out of love but I think that those people just let it happen. I don't know if I'm really explaining this right but I think that it's mostly people giving up and thinking that they can't do anything about it.

A Floating Tire

One myth, that is really more of a stereotype that I have to put up with is the assumption that since I am Cuban my family came over on a floating tire. This is false, we came over on a raft. I'm joking of course but ever since the whole Elio Gonzales incident Cubans have had to deal with this myth for a while. My family came over on one of the last planes before Castro closed off Cuba. My family worked hard to get up the money to purchase a plane ticket during those rough times and deserves the proper respect. On a side not my uncle actually did have to flee Cuba on a BOAT because Castro learned about a regime he was starting.

Big Boys Don't Cry

Now, I don't know the man code or anything, but I feel that this is an unwritten rule, that boys//men should not cry. It seems to me that there has always been a belief that boys//men do not and should not cry. During the last nineteen years of my life, very rarely have I ever seen a guy cry; one of the more recent times that I saw an adult man cry was at my grandparent's fiftieth wedding anniversary due to the overwhelming emotion of the situation.

I suppose the purpose of this unwritten rule dates back to way before our time-- I'd guess probably the beginning of time. I believe that this rule came about because a man is considered to be the head of the household, and if he was seen crying, he would be considered to be weak. In my opinion, I think that it is unfortunate that some guys choose to follow this unwritten rule because the end result of keeping your emotion bottled up inside isn't very pretty. On the other hand, I'm not saying to go around bawling your eyes out like a girl all the time, but sometimes a cry does the soul good.

American students are stupid

One myth that I always hear is that American students are less prepared academically then students in other countries. I am not saying we are prepared the best but we are defiantly not the worst out of all the countries. I feel we are very well prepared and feel it is even very competitive being an American student. Yes, there are certain countries that have higher standards then what we have set here in America. Even in China they go to school all year around. Though that doesn't mean we our less prepared because we are in school for less time. America prepares us very well in our academics and learning to express our own opinions in class without being shunned upon. However, depending on the school you attend you may or may not feel you are getting as high of an education as someone else. 

A Vicious Circle

All throughout human history, jingoism has existed and lead to the creation of heroes and mythologized figures. Every culture has famous individuals that the rest of the country looks up to and in nearly every instance, that famous individual is only relevant to that area, culture, or race. As the famous Winston Churchill quote states, "History is written by the victors." This is an interesting quote because it explains how many individuals are able to be raised upon a platform. In the case of American History, George Washington is almost a divine figure. His name is associated with freedom and rebellion (the good sense of the word). However, in English culture, I doubt he is seen as a hero and a person who needs to be idolized. Mythologization is mostly subjective. There are some people who transcend cultures, like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Albert Einstein, but even men and women like these are not seen favorably by everyone. Just as languages and culture differ from place to place, so do the individuals those people idolize and mythologize. History is a vicious circle of glorified and hated heroes and villains which are all relevant to a particular group of people. As long as divergent thinking exists, humans will always glorify and demonize certain people. It's all in human nature and it's all about nationalism and jingoism. It's how countries rally their people behind a cause and it's also how people remember the rebels. It's history.

Jersey Devil

One myth that has always been apart of growing up and if you from New Jersey you know it the story of the New Jersey Devil. There are many versions of the myth but heres the one I heard the most. the myth states that Mother Leeds was giving birth on a very dark and stormy night. It was said to be her 13th child, and while she was was in labor she was said to have cursed cursed the child saying "let this one be the devil." Giving birth to this child killed Mother Leeds and as the nurse helping with the birth was holding the baby it was said that it sprout bat like wings had body like a horse, hooves, claws, a tail, and a kangaroo like head. It then went and killed all the other children and the father then escaped out the chimney. This myth made me think of a few things. The first thing was that people always need an explanation for what seems different to them. The refusal to accept others based on looks is significant in US history as it is in recent school shootings. Even more recently, a bunch of girls brutally beat another girl and then posted the video on YouTube. I’m sure the reason was that she was different from them. They made her into the devil myth and they were ridding the world of that devil. This beating and videotaping was done for popularity and power. This cleansing of evil is a reason behind every war (the Holocaust, Darfur, and Israel and Palestine) and many human actions (gay bashing, lynching, burning witches). Even in Othello, his epileptic fits, which were probably difficult for people to explain in the early 1600s, would make Othello different. He would have the devil in him, which then makes his brutal act of killing Desdemona as a link to the devil. He has to die in the end for his country to be free from that evil.

The Foxhole Blogger

David Benson’s live blog from Iraq, The Foxhole Blogger, investigates the theories of war in Iraq than many people think about, here at home. He uses small witticisms to get his point across and to summarize all he has just written. I was really surprised at first reading his posts as Benson seems not really take sides for long. Most recently, he mentioned how soldiers are affected by coming to war, similar to the article we read in Rolling Stone, The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine. Benson wrote, “When soldiers o they leave behind a world that keeps going on without them”. I was moved by the way he portrayed the situation. I don’t think we realize how much the soldiers are really offering up by fighting. I know I would never have the strength to leave my home and fight with the prospect of losing my life at any moment. These men and women are courageous and brave.
Benson also talks a great deal about the Iraqi civilians, which I think is a great insight to something many of us are unfamiliar with. The author mentions that Iraqis have not conformed to the Western ways that we are accustomed to, but know how to fake it for reporters. He also talks about how Iraq is not suffering because of President Bush, but because of their own selfishness. The expression, “all for one and one for all” is nonexistent there. More commonly, each man is out for himself. It is too dangerous to care for the greater good as too few people follow this. The selfishness of the Iraqi people contributes more to their downfall than the constant fighting between soldiers.
Benson has a wonderful way of enlightening readers about the foreign issues in the Middle East that we have never really been introduced to. Somewhat quirky, this blog examines a different side of affairs that many people want to learn about – culture and lifestyles.

"ehh...vodka"

Being born in the former Soviet Union, I have seen many myths that propagate about Russians (I'm not even Russian, I'm Ukrainian, but people seem to think that those are the same thing). Among others, I have seen people joke that all Russians drink a lot and don't get drunk, are Commie spies, and enjoy/are unaffected by the cold (because it is cold in Russia). One of my friends has this bit that he does where he talks in a fake and very thick Russian accent and says whatever Russian/Russian-sounding words he knows mixed with broken English. This is a typical portion, "ehh...vodka...ehh...Hunt for Red October." Basically people only know about Russians what they see in the movies (where Russians are often the bad guys) and the few actual Russians that they may know don't do much to dispel the myths, so they carry on.

Possession of The Body

There was always a myth that people feared in the village I came from in China. In fact, it was not a myth at all. The villagers which included me feared the season of Spring not because of allergies but simply because of a person. This person has a weird disease, not sure what and not sure why it came to her. She was in her old age, around sixties and lived alone. Actually, ignore my ignorance of the origin of her disease. After her son died she became very miserable, her sanity was lost but weirdly only during Spring, other seasons of the year she was mentally capable. Spring is the season we feared, school kids were all terrorized by her. She would walk to my sister's school's back field and pick a flower and stab it into her tightly tied yet messy hair. She would walk around the village and harrass the villagers. I can once recall her being outside my house three in the morning dragging pots and pans and banging it while moaning with that resonated from building to building lit by full moon in the clear dark sky. It was rumored that her periodic insanity is caused by the spirit from the other world. Coincidentally, it is around Spring when the spirit door opens to our mortal world.

Divorce in Albania

Twenty years ago, in my country divorce was a myth! Well, not actually a myth but a taboo. It happens in the entire world that people get married and then realize that they made a mistake, this leading to divorces. In Albania this was “forbidden”. People weren’t allowed to make mistakes. Even though, for example, a woman was beaten by her husband every day, she didn’t have the right to ask for divorce, she had to stay loyal to the “agreement” they made.

Getting divorced had always worse consequences for women. She would have been seen in a different way from everybody that knew her. The fact that she got divorced would lead to people thinking that she is a b…., and that is WRONG! And what is worst, she would find it really, really difficult to find another husband (at least a normal one), only because of the wrong opinion of the people.

Now, times have changed and people have changed. Divorce now is a normal thing, and it have helped many people repair their mistakes, because, yes, now people can make mistakes. Making mistakes is part of being human, and everybody needs a second chance in life.

If We are United, We are Strong

One of the most famous myths back home involves a mother and her five sons. As legend goes that a single mother raised her five sons all by herself and made them lords. Despite her hard work all of her sons didn’t get together well and they fought against each other every single day. In order to show her sons the importance of unity she brought all them together and handed each one of them a single arrow and asked them to break it in half. The boys were able to do this without any problems and ease. Then she gave them a bundle of five arrows tied together and once again asked them to break it. After many tries none of the boys were able to break the bundle of arrows. After this, the mother told them if they continue fighting each other and stay divided they can be easily broken just like a single arrow. Yet if they stay united like the bundle of arrows then no one would be able to break them. As a result all her of sons united and formed a nation. Legend has it that nation became an empire that conquered many. This myth can easily be connected to the war in Iraq and the state the United States in right now. Rather than being divided into two groups that support and fight against the war in Iraq the public should be united under one purpose. If they are united for a single purpose then they can easily influence the government and make changes like pulling all the American troops out of Iraq. Therefore I feel that we all should learn from this myth in order to accomplish what is best.

Our Generation

One myth that I always hear that drives me crazy is that our generation is lazy and not hard working. The other day I attended this event where the speaker pretty much put down us and our entire generation. He was much much older then anyone in the room, so he clearly intended to make us feel bad. He explained that our generation does not care about what is going on in the world and that he is afraid to know that this generation will soon be running the country. Well, I believe that this is a myth. I think that our generation is always seen as lazy and not hard working, but these people do not see all of the incredibly hard working people of our generation. They choose to see what they want to see, and ignore all of those who truly are working hard to make the world better. I mean, it is our generation who is really helping to push the "green" issue and trying to save the environment from the buildup of harmful things OTHER generations put in our environment. Other generations are so quick to put us down but we are really helping to make a difference.

Who’s Cheering for the Cheerleaders?

One of biggest myths during high school was that girls who were cheerleaders were snobby and conceited. Many often associate the status of being a cheerleader with being one of the popular or pretty girls. They are considered to be that group of girls that have everything they could possibly want, whether that is perfect hair or captain of the football team. Sure, high school has its share of clicks, but none are more infamous and despised than the cheerleaders. Even movies in recent years have added to the myth of cheerleaders as being stupid, conceited girls. Movies, like Bring it On and Sugar and Spice, continue to reinforce the myth into the minds of youths. Unfortunately, I think this myth hurts many girls who take up cheerleading. My cousin, for instance, was a cheerleader, and I know that she wasn’t anything like the cheerleaders portrayed in movies or like many believed. She genuinely enjoyed cheerleading for the fun and excitement of doing it, not for the notoriety or popularity. In fact, some people even shunned her because they already have preconceived notions that she thought highly of herself. It is a shame that cheerleading has gained this type of stereotype for reasons such as this.

Clearly the cause of obesity is...high school?

Obesity is no myth, however, the origins of its sources are.

My junior and senior years of high school, I was fortunate enough to be a witness to one of the most ridiculous attempts to form a revolution…in the history of my high school, possibly even the world – I’ll even go out on a limb and go as far as to say the universe. The obesity epidemic was starting to arise at that point in time, and many critics were speculating that it was all because of the children – the lazy children who sat around, eating, playing video games, going to school…doing what any sensible person may consider normal routine.

Our high school did not want to be accountable for this myth – obesity’s derivate was the education system.

So, our school board had two [genius] ideas in order to combat the problem. The board figured attacking the enemy in a dual-sided formation would be most effective. And…I’d be lying if I said it was.

First the school board attacked gym class. “Clearly the children aren’t receiving substantial physical activity, during a forty minute period of…physical activity.” That argument makes all too much sense in my opinion. But being a member in the lowest prong of the pyramid – the educational system pyramid – what good would my input have done? The school board developed this myth that the gym teachers weren’t challenging the students enough during the periods of laborious [ideally fun] activities. How ironic, considering they eliminated the Presidential Fitness testing, as it created hostility among students, and hurt the feelings of those who couldn’t do well in the challenge. I guess they compromised, for they created a single day, of the four days we were required to participate in gym and called it “Workout Wednesday”.

The plan fell apart within the first few weeks of the trial period. Maybe if they had selected another day, or another problem to combat…it would have worked. Obesity did not decrease the slightest and attitudes of students shifted to a negative and anti-physical activity/pro-health regime. Thanks a lot school board – that was strike one.

The school board also attacked our school store – one of the most profitable components of the high school’s system. So the board decided to remove all the fatty culprits: candy, pretzels, water, vitamin water, rice crispy treats, donuts, water, apples, tasty cakes, water, and pencils…all of this being said, I am implying that everything in the entire school store was removed. Once all was removed from the school store – the most obvious cause of obesity throughout America, the school board revised the entire cafeteria food calendar. Vegetables [dipped in a mildly light coat of grease] were offered to the students as an alternative option for French fries. The students rebelled and didn’t accept the new offerings…strike two for the school board.

No further strikes have been reported, so I'm assuming the school board is still at bat. Perhaps the board should reevaluate what is myth and what is fact more thoroughly next time....