Throughout history, discontent has been felt by various groups of people. This discontent could be generated by modernization or undesirable conditions. As a result, social movements are put into effect to bring similar peoples together to fight for a common cause. Traditional Chinese foot binding and the controversial Lost Boys of Sudan demonstrate this exact situation, reinforcing the idea that the concept of the social movement can be considered a cross-cultural phenomenon.
Written by Feng Jicai, The Three-Inch Golden Lotus centers around a woman named Fragrant Lotus, and the influence foot binding has on her life. At the beginning of the story, Fragrant Lotus is introduced as a young child who is raised by her grandmother, whom she affectionately calls Granny. As her sole caregiver, Fragrant Lotus places a great amount of trust in her Granny, but when the time came for her to have her feet bound, she is utterly terrified. Dating back to 961, foot binding was a practice deeply ingrained in Chinese culture, until its abolishment in the early 20th century. A very painful and tedious procedure, foot binding involved repeated breaking of the fine, unmatured bones of a young girl’s feet. The feet were then bound extremely tight with cloth strips until it was able to fit a three inch shoe. A custom passed from generation to generation, foot binding was viewed as the rite of passage from girl to woman. In addition, bound feet, also referred to as “lotus”, were viewed as a measure of a woman’s beauty and was a heavy determinant of her marriage capability. Granny, a wise woman, knew of the good fortune a perfect pair of lotus would bring, and painstakingly invested in her granddaughter’s future. What followed for Fragrant Lotus ...
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... new and brighter future for the Sudanese boys arriving to America. Due to the difficulty of getting accustomed to American traditions, job seeking, though prevalent, is not an easy journey. Operation Prosperity, or OP, proposes a new funding system to develop jobs specifically for the Sudanese. Through this program, the Lost Boys can establish lasting friendships and relationships with others enduring similar struggles, along with placing their footprints on the soil of America. The OP industries would contribute various jobs in designated areas, like Atlanta, that would be specifically for the Lost Boys, instead of them competing with others who are masters of the American culture. Through Operation Prosperity, the Lost Boys would experience less stress associated with coming to America, all the while learning the ways of the average American in the workforce.
Since 1983, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government have been at war within the southern region of Sudan. This brutal conflict has ravaged the country claiming hundreds of lives and exiling a vast number of the southern Sudanese people. Most of these outcasts were young men aging between five and twelve years of age who returned home from tending cattle to see their village being attacked and their fellow villagers being killed by government militias . These boys fled, not knowing what they would encounter on the journey to escape the violence in their own country. Hungry, frightened, and weak from their long and hellish journey, the boys reached refugee camps outside of Sudan. Even though many young men were killed on their journeys to and from refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, many remained at these camps for numerous years. While in the camps, they heard news of an opportunity to travel to the United States for hope and a promise of a better life. In Mark Bixler’s The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of The Refugee Experience, Bixler depicts the story of these young men or Lost Boys’ and their determination to receive an education that would not only transform their lives but also the lives of their kinsmen.
Foot binding – a widespread custom in China that lasted for more than a 1,000 years – involved incredibly tight cloth bindings being applied to the feet of young girls to stifle growth. Women with small feet were deemed beautiful and could marry better if they had “lotus feet”, as they were often referred to. (Steinfeld)
The lost boys of Sudan went through far more than the average westerner will go through throughout their entire life. They were forced to run away from their home, and wander more than 1,000 miles to the promise of safety. During this voyage they were struck by animals, disease, hunger, and dehydration. After living in such poor conditions they were thrust into western society without knowledge of how to shower, get a job, or maintain finances. With only four months of government aid, they were forced to find a job in this alien world. This paper will show the obstacles that these Sudanese boys had to overcome both in Sudan and The United States Of America.
The book “When We Rise: My Life in The Movement” by Cleve Jones, a key member of the San Francisco gay movement, traces his coming of age life story. Born in the 1950’s, Jones identifies as a homosexual and recounts the broader story of the struggle for LGBTQ rights and safety in America. Much of the story is rooted in San Francisco (what he considers his “home”) in the 1970s and 1980s, a city energized by progressive politics and sexual freedom; where he discovered like-minded individuals who transformed neighborhoods into safe havens for the gay community. Jones honest and vivid narrative discloses his own gayness journey from the partying to the traveling, drugs, and sex with multiple partners that him and so many others engaged in during
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China begins with author Jung Chang’s grandmother, who was born in 1909 with the name Yu-fang. In traditional Chinese culture, for any hopes of marriage, the mother must first bind her daughter’s feet. Though a long and painful process, foot binding was considered a beautiful trait in Chinese men’s eyes. By the age of two, Yu-Fang’s feet were bounded and were referred to as “Lotus Feet”. Having one’s feet bounded during this time period, made it difficult for a woman to walk, and spent their life in pain due to the broken arch and constant bending of the toes. Her father, Yang, was determined to have his daughter’s social status...
The literature on social studies enjoys a wide range of social movement’s definitions (Christiansen 2009). This diversity of such a definition is due to the fact that theorists tend to define the term of a social movement depending on their particular theoretical formulation (Diani 1992). Therefore, this section will first consider definitions proposed by group of scholars that represent four major trends in social movements analysis. These trends are as follow, the ‘Collective Behavior Perspective’ (Turner and Killian), the ‘Resource Mobilization Theory’ (RMT) (ZaId and McCarthy); the ‘Political Process Perspective (Tilly); and the ‘New Social Movements Approach’ (NSMs) (Touraine, Melucci). Then, a definition by Della Porta and Diani is selected as this definition has been centered on the most important characteristics of the social movements and oft-cited by researchers.
Through her foot binding, Third Sister is used by See to demonstrate how risky the chase for lotus feet wasl. On page 31, Third Sister is revealed to have had developed blood poisoning from the foot binding, which resulted in her death, bringing the truth about the dangerous practice home. This evidences the lengths that the women of child would go to so they could be accepted and advanced by the men in the society to show the results of egoism and lack of submission in the females of Chinese culture at the time. Despite the risk of the death of their children, mothers in China still bound their daughters’ feet due to the importance placed on small feet; this also helped show how much the men had control over the women. However, despite the importance of this foot binding, Third Sister resisted. The result of her stubbornness was shown on page 30 of the novel, when she struggled
...ers of these cultures know exactly what to say in order to convince people to take part in a social uprising. The majority of the people in the culture have similarities whether its language, style, or customs, the leaders know exactly which points to talk about in order to gain support for the uprising. People believe that if the radical social movement is for a greater cause, such as their culture, they are willing to do anything for the cause. The prism of power is faulty because it is a fair assumption to make that the people of the social movement will quit, or not join the uprising, if the potential power obtained from participating does not match the dangers involved. However, Ross suggests in regards with culture, that with further opposition to the social movement, the collective identity will be reinforced and participation will be encouraged even more.
Having considered the importance of building awareness and pressuring government and industries, Idle No More also creates social change through building allies with non-indigenous individuals. As Beamish and Luebbers (2009), explain “ Alliance building across social movement groups is an important aspect of social movement dynamics, contributing to their viability and capacity to promote social change” (p. 647) When social movement groups are able to create alliances with other individuals this helps to affectively achieve social change because the more individuals they have fighting for a cause, the greater their voices will be heard. However, one of the main reasons as to why building allies can be difficult within Canada is because of the
Social movements can be viewed as collective enterprises seeking to establish a new order of life. They have their inception in a condition of unrest, and derive their motive power on one hand from dissatisfaction with the current form of life, and on the other hand, from wishes and hopes for a new system of living. The career of a social movement depicts the emergence of a new order of life.
It takes patience, perseverance, and people by your side with the will to make a change in order to succeed. These characteristics are what an activist needs to have an effective social movement. Bill Moyer’s theory, “8 Stages of a Successful Social Movement” claims that activists need good strategies to get rid of the social issues and see accomplishments in their actions. Bill Moyer claims that all activists go through stages 1, 4, and 6. Stage 1 describes how power holders are keeping social problems hidden in order for them to keep the public unaware. Stage 4 claims that a shocking incident needs to happen in order for the population to be aware and for the activist to gain support which is known as a trigger event. Stage 6 asserts how the movement has obtained the majority of the population on their side and how the power holders are reacting to it. Bill Moyer’s pattern of successful movements can be traced in the Prison Reform Movement, Immigration Movement, and Prevention and Stop Sexual Assault on College Campus Movement.
Cigarette smoking is the number one most preventable cause of death in the U.S. If everybody joins The Truth social movement, we can all help save millions of lives caused by smoking and secondhand smoke. Quitting smoking and helping others quit smoking will save millions of dollars and lives wasted and ruined by cigarettes. Multiple studies have shown an association between cigarette smoking and increased anxiety symptoms or disorders (“How cigarette smoking…”). Smoking cigarettes is a harmful and financially wasteful habit that needs to be stopped in the U.S; Stand up against smoking and join The Truth social movement and help save millions of lives.
Social movement is an event or specific behavior which is a collective action. This collective action is usually organized and has a purpose behind it.
The number of revolutions in the last 3 decades has increased, and seems to keep increasing. Civil unrest and protests brought many victims including civil and political figures throughout the world. In the era where technology is at the peak of its success, especially in communication technologies, mankind suffers from lack of communication. Problem is not caused by the technology itself, the problem is in human nature. I will continue with an analogy. Man invented the knife, which is very useful tool in our daily lives. The problem occurs when one thinks about the purposes that knife could be used. Story repeats itself with Newspapers and News Media. Technology improved the speed and the size that news can reach anywhere in couple of seconds. In a few seconds we can reach our friend at the other pole of the globe and receive pictures and live videos in response. We can send information, receive it and even create it in the artificial world. Life has become easier with technology. We can control our cell phones with voice command and reserve a table in the closest restaurant for dinner. Technology is everywhere in our lives, but if we think for a second the purposes we could use them for then the danger begins. In this short essay I will be talking about the struggle of mankind for freedom and the stages it went through. There are 3 parts to my paper. In the first part I will discuss the birth of World Wide Web and how the purpose of it went through changes. In the second part, I will be talking about birth of newspapers in the Web, precisely how it developed into an intermediate body that transfers information to people. Ultimately, I will discuss the Ukrainian revolution and the role of the news media in it and ho...
In a world where every individual has different needs and interests, and with scarce resources and opportunities, it is difficult for everyone to obtain their goals. This results in power inequalities in societies all over the world as one has to lose for the other to gain. Individuals then take on various methods of presenting and fighting for our interests. One of the most predominant ways, which has been extensively studied, is social movements. Social movements have been use for centuries by different groups of people, all over the world. To achieve their goals, they use different tactics ranging for peaceful means, such as marches and lobbying, to forms that are more aggressive. Social movements use these tactics not only to challenge their opponents but also to gain the attention of other individuals outside of the movement.