Final Post!

After completing this project, I have noticed several gender, racial and class inequalities in the small area of Downtown and Olde Town Augusta.


For one, there is a great divide between neighborhoods in Olde Town Augusta. One is walking on Broad and Greene streets which appear to be great neighborhoods and then walks one block over and is now in a shady neighborhood all of sudden. The racial inequalities are in that divide also. It is mostly white people that live on Broad and Greene streets and mostly black people that live on East Boundary and Ellis streets. Inequality is at the child support office. Not all women or men with custody of their children are lucky enough to receive a child support payment. It is mostly the lower class people that struggle with the child support office. There is sex and racial discrimination in the bars and restaurants in Downtown and Olde Town Augusta. Most of the cooks are men. Most of the servers are women. Most of the cooks are black. Most of the servers are white. Most of the bartenders are white. The girls at Heritage Academy have to wear skirts whereas the boys have to wear pants. The bus system is very inefficient and ironic because it is supposed to cater to the lower class, especially those of East Augusta, and yet the buses have a ridiculous schedule. The lower class may have to get to work in fifteen minutes or work until three in the morning, yet it takes the bus two hours to get anywhere in Augusta and it only runs until five in the afternoon. It is there for the poor people but still does not cater to them.


Gendered differences in Olde Town society are certainly evident after completing this project. I believe two changes that can be made in Olde Town Augusta that would do a lot of good in the long run include letting the girls and boys of Heritage Academy wear whatever they want and to teach them about gender and also to improve the discrimination practices of Downtown Augusta in restaurants and bars. Someone must enforce the discrimination to stop Downtown as far as women being able to work in the kitchen and races other than white working in the “front of the house” in restaurants and bars. These are changes that should have happened decades ago, but still have not. Everyone is accustomed to these practices and that is the worst thing of all, just like patriarchy. We are all apart of it, and we have the power to change it, so what are we waiting for? 

Thanks for reading.

Gender Blog

Social Construction in Olde Town Augusta Blog

by Sarah Dawn Veteto

I chose Olde Town Augusta to study for my Gender Blog because it is where I live. Olde Town Augusta is my neighborhood. I am a neighbor, a bus rider, a server, a roommate and a patron in Olde Town Augusta. I created my own map of Olde Town Augusta. Surrounding and overlapping parts of Olde Town Augusta include East Augusta and Downtown Augusta. Plus, it is on the Savannah River so it is near the Carolina-Georgia border.

Bibliography

Bibliography

Johnson, Allan G. "Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us." The Gender Knot (1997): 75-92. Academic Search Complete. Web. May 2014.


Lorber, Judith. "The Social Construction of Gender." Paradoxes of Gender (1994): 276-83.


Martin, Karin A., and Emiy Kazyak. "Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films." Gender & Society 23.3 (2009): 315-36. No Records. Web. May 2014.


McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.” Gender Basics.

Sexism

Olde Town Augusta

Sky City

A bar on Broad Street in Downtown Augusta.

Mellow Mushroom

A restaurant on Broad Street in Downtown Augusta.

Municipal Building

On Greene Street in Olde Town Augusta

Construction taking place

Construction worker (man) in picture.

Municipal Building

Power Line in Olde Town Augusta

Being worked on by men.

These are pictures of a couple of the many bars and restaurants of Downtown Augusta, which is right beside Olde Town Augusta. Of course downtown is like any other downtown: there is lots of culture represented in the shops, bars and restaurants of the town. Two that I have taken pictures of here are the bar Sky City and the restaurant Mellow Mushroom, both on Broad Street. This is where many people celebrate and eat and where many people work. There are also pictures of the Municipal Building on Greene Street in Olde Town Augusta and a picture of a power line, which are both currently being constructed on. Part of this celebrating and working includes the practice of sexism.

Sexism is the belief that the opposite sex is inferior. Sexism can go on further to be the cause of discrimination and inequality in society. For instance, most of the construction workers that are working on the Municipal Building and power line in Olde Town Augusta are men. Of course, I am not saying that these men are sexist, but the fact that it is only men working as construction workers represents sexism practice in society. There are female construction workers in our society, but most likely, when a woman applies for said job, they are looked down upon as “just women” that perhaps cannot do the job as effectively as a man could. In the restaurants and bars, such as those in my pictures, sexism is practiced also. Women are rarely hired as cooks in restaurants because it is considered a “masculine” position within a restaurant which is ironic considering that women are expected to cook in the home. It is a sexist practice to have “Ladies Night” at a bar because the women get free drinks. Of course, men think this is unfair, but I think it is sexist. Women get free drinks so that they become more drunk, impressionable and vulnerable for the men to take advantage of later on in the night. I do not agree with either sex getting free drinks or not having to pay a cover charge in a bar, because either way it is sexist. Part of these practices of sexism in the workplace and social circle are similar to the idea of patriarchy. In fact, it is a challenge to differentiate sexism from patriarchy. Skip to the last post “Patriarchy.”

Refusing to Take the Path of Least Resistance

Olde Town Augusta

Augusta Public Transit Bus Station

15th Street and Broad

This is a picture of the Augusta Public Transit bus station on 15^th Street, near Olde Town Augusta. The bus system in Augusta is privately owned and it is not a very efficient system. It can take hours of riding the bus to get minutes down the road. Plus, the hours that the bus runs in Augusta are only from six in the morning to five in the afternoon so it is not very accessible either, especially for those of the lower class that work night jobs.

Part of living in a rough neighborhood, being born into a lower class and/or having very little privilege in our society includes not having easy access to transportation. Transportation in itself is a privilege. People that live in East Augusta that ride the bus are refusing to take the path of least resistance. There are lots of college students of the lower class that live in East Augusta that ride the bus to school everyday which takes up hours of their day. These are hours that they could be studying or working a job in order to pay their bills. These students are refusing to take the path of least resistance by riding the bus. If they took the path of least resistance, they wouldn’t even go to school or ride the bus anywhere. They would stay stuck in their class, with low privilege in East Augusta. Even people with jobs that ride the bus refuse to take the path of least resistance. The people on the bus are going places…no pun intended. The jobs that the people on the bus work, probably are very difficult to work, with factors such as sexist co-workers and/or bosses. Skip to “Sexism.”

Patriarchy

Olde Town Augusta

City of Augusta

Sunset

View from 5th Street Bridge

"Railroads" Historic Marker on the River Walk

Written by a Man

Railroad going across the Savannah River

The City Council of Augusta in 1994

Only one or two women on the list of members

Vegas Showgirls

Strip Club on 6th Street

Vegas Showgirls Door

And right around the corner...

Fantasys

Strip Club on Broad Street

(Black Strip Club)

And right across the street...

Discotheque

Strip Club on Broad Street

These are pictures of the city of Augusta at the sunset, the railroad and engineering information and the three strip clubs in Downtown/Olde Town Augusta. In the picture of the city of Augusta, there are tall buildings where both men and women work, however, the buildings themselves, along with the city, were most likely designed and built by men and men only. The architects, the engineers, the construction workers, the contractors and the city planners were probably all men, especially since Augusta was not “built” in this current era. The city of Augusta itself represents patriarchy. The same goes for the railroad tracks on sixth street and the bridge that crosses the Savannah River: designed and built by men. The cliché “It’s a man’s world” is no myth. All the engineering surrounding us in society was created by men. In the strip clubs, it is only female dancers…another representation of patriarchy in practice.

Patriarchy is more than domination. It is acceptance. Johnson writes that, “…we all participate in something larger than ourselves,” (Johnson 77) which is patriarchy. Everyone in society is to blame, so to speak, for patriarchy…not just men. Yes, men created the strip club, own the strip club, go to the strip club, advocate for the strip club, but women are the ones dancing. By no means am I blaming either the male patron or the woman dancer, but they both live in a society that accepts the strip club as normal and they both play their roles in order to keep the practice going. This is patriarchy. Patriarchy completely covers our society: “Patriarchal culture includes ideas about the nature of things, including men, women, and humanity, with manhood and masculinity most closely associated with being human and womanhood and femininity relegated to the marginal position of ‘other,’” (Johnson 84). It is something that everyone is a part of, whether they are aware or not and it is represented much in Olde Town Augusta.

Intersectionality

Olde Town Augusta

Unique Pink House on 4th Street

Child Support Office on Bay Street

This is a picture of a unique pink house in Olde Town Augusta and a picture of the child support office on Bay Street also in Olde Town Augusta. Both of these edifices represent intersectionality, because they are highly unique, provocative and judged.

Intersectionality is based on judgement and how people are seen in one another’s eyes. There are many facets of identity for each individual in society such as ability, family, age, class, sex, race, religion, major, career but a lot of the time, people are only seen through one of these facets. For instance, if a woman does not get a job because the person hiring is racist and sees that she is black, the interviewer may not see anything about the woman other than the fact that she is black. The interviewer looks past that the woman has graduated with a Biology major, volunteers at the local animal shelter, is a wonderful daughter, and many other qualifying facets of her identity. Christine Ngo from the TedX video felt judged about a comment her friend made after they played soccer together. He said something like, “When we are on the soccer field, I think of you as another soccer player, but when we are hanging out, I think of you as a woman.” Ngo knew that what he said was with good intent, but he still struck her as a complexity of intersectionality.

When people look at the pink house in Olde Town, do they think that a girly woman lives there or a fruity man? Is the person that owns that house judged for having a pink house? Is that the only way they are judged? When people drive past the child support office and see a bunch of men standing outside, do they think that they are a bunch of deadbeat dads? Can these men be judged differently because they are standing in front of the child support office? Can we, in society, look past the initial judgement and see many facets of someone’s identity instead of one? Skip to “Social Construction of Gender.”

 Heteronormativity

Olde Town Augusta

Historic Magnolia Cemetery

"Godfrey Lauterbach

Sept. 22, 1827- April 5, 1891"

Historic Magnolia Cemetery

"Catherine Lauterbach

Sept. 29, 1837- Nov. 25, 1925"

"Mitchell

Hogrefe Eluid Mitchell

Aug. 21, 1909- Aug. 8, 1960

His Wife

Ruth Eleanor Jordan

Mar. 15, 1910- Jan. 7, 2002"

These are pictures of a few gravesites in the Magnolia Cemetery on 3^rd Street in Olde Town. As one can see, they are graves of spouses. I was interested in cemeteries because graves usually show families and represent heteronormativity up until the current era.

“Heteronormativity structures social life so that heterosexuality is always assumed, expected, ordinary, and privileged,” (Martin 316) so most of the society that surrounds us promotes heterosexual relationships and romance as what is normal and expected. This leaves many groups of people out of representation in society, such as different genders, different sexual orientations, different races and different classes. Heteronormativity is common in magazine advertisements: thin, rich, white, young women or men appealing to the opposite sex. It is a very skewed outlook on society. In the Magnolia Cemetery, Catherine and Godfrey are buried side by side indicating that they were very important to one another. Also, it represents that is was socially accepted and expected to be married and buried next to one’s spouse. Hogrefe and Ruth Mitchell were buried side by side and the tombstone reads, “his wife,” implying how important her role as wife was. These graves are examples of heteronormativity in our society: men and women are husband and wife and they are buried next to one another in death.  Isn't Ruth more than a wife?  Skip to "Intersectionality."     

Privilege

Olde Town Augusta

 IGA Grocery on East Boundary

Little Package store on East Boundary

Laundry Mat on East Boundary 

Big Nice House on Greene Street

Small Nice House on Ellis Street

These are pictures of the IGA grocery store, package store and laundry mat on East Boundary in Olde Town Augusta. There are also two pictures of the two diverse neighborhoods that are side by side in Olde Town Augusta. There is a “nice part of town” and a “ghetto part of town.” These parts of town represent privilege in our society.

“Because privilege is conferred by social systems, people don’t have to feel privileged in order to be privileged,” (Johnson 91) such as some of the people that live on Broad Street in Olde Town. People with privilege or without privilege do not necessarily know about their privilege or lack of privilege. However, they most likely become aware as they grow older, especially those born into a lower class. Peggy McIntosh writes, “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege,” (McIntosh 1).

The people that live in the “ghetto part of town” have to resort to grocery shopping at IGA because perhaps they were born into a lower class and have a lack of privilege. Perhaps they have no job, no car, no money, etc., so they have to shop at the local cheap store. Perhaps they own no washer or dryer either, so they have to wash their clothes at the laundry mat on East Boundary. The people that live on Broad Street in the big nice houses probably do not have to shop at IGA or wash their clothes at the laundry mat because they have more privilege. The two houses I took pictures of are in the two different neighborhoods.  Can you tell which house is in which neighborhood? The neighborhoods are side by side yet with great differences in class and privilege. Does someone that is poor have to stay poor? Skip to “Refusing to Take the Path of Least Resistance.”

Social Construction of Gender

Olde Town Augusta

Heritage Academy

A private school on Greene Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.

This is a picture of Heritage Academy on Greene Street in Olde Town Augusta. It is a private school for young children.

Social construction of gender happens to individuals for their whole life, but mostly in their youngest years. “In early childhood, humans develop gendered personality structures and sexual orientations through their interactions with parents of the same and opposite gender. Schools, parents, peers, and the mass media guide young people into gendered work and family roles,” (Lorber 278) meaning that gender is learned. Gender is a process. People “do” gender: they are not born into gender, they are taught gender. Many people confuse sex and gender. Sex is what one is born as biologically. Gender is a way of expressing what society deems as “masculine“ or “feminine.” Gender is “so pervasive that in our society, we assume it is bred into our genes,” (Lorber 276). These young children at Heritage Academy are learning how to “do” the “appropriate” gender when the girls and boys are separated to play different games and are separated to wear different clothes. The girls wear skirts for their private school uniform and the boys wear pants. Boys play competitive sports in order to learn how to be aggressive, logical and successful. Girls play leisurely games such as “house” in order to learn how to be cooperative, nice and passive. All of these things such as pink for girls and blue for boys lead to the social construction of gender, so the girls will appropriately behave feminine and the boys will appropriately behave masculine. Not everyone can afford private school, however, so skip to “Privilege.”

East Augusta

This is the Chevron on the corner of Broad and East Boundary.  This is the start of the famous Broad Street of Augusta.  This Chevron is always very busy because it has a food mart and it is the only convenience store for a couple of miles in all directions.

Olde Town Augusta

This social location is Olde Town, Augusta which leads to Downtown, Augusta.  Here is a map of Olde Town, Augusta, created by me, Sarah Dawn Veteto.  It contains approximately nine blocks from west to east and approximately six blocks from north to south.  This location is right on the Savannah River.  The river walk is near Olde Town and the 5th Street Bridge leads right across the Savannah River into North Augusta, South Carolina.  It is a very diverse location. 

Downtown Augusta

Downtown Augusta, Georgia