Chris Ivey

This past week Chris Ivey came to Juniata and showed part of his documentary on East Liberty, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Both the documentary and the talk that he gave were very eye-opening and inspiring. I actually went to the talk for a class I'm taking on social deviance and criminology, but there were many things that he presented that apply to our discussion on gender. One facet of gender and conflict that he talked about was the idea of security. This was especially interesting because we had just been discussing it in class that day. In the documentary, one of the men interviewed talked about girls that dated "bad" guys when they really would have preferred dating other guys. Why did they do this? Because they said they felt safer with those guys and they felt like they would be better protected by them. The man who was talking about it went on to say that he didn't think they were actually safer. In this case, it was the perception of security that was most important. In class we touched on the idea that women sometimes sacrifice a lot for the idea of security and I think this is another case in which that happens.
Another thing that Chris Ivey talked about was the idea of male gender identity in the black community but more specifically in East Liberty. Violence and agression are promoted in many ways as important values and aspects of masculinity. This is one way in which men are both harming and limiting themselves and other men. In this case, not following these norms brings about a threat regarding a loss of both masculinity and race. Gender identity becomes more complex than simply a question of male or female. Music was shown as one way that this particular concept of masculinity is perpetuated which made me wonder if music could also be a powerful force for changing these gender perceptions.