Week 7-Posting 7

I can show my subculture that there are people who are unfamiliar of the fitness room environment and take the stereotypes into perspective.  People of the community do not truly know what the fitness room is all about and you can't just judge it upon the stereotypes that they have heard.  To the community, I would like to give everybody a chance to visit the fitness room.  I would talk with the management of the fitness room and athletic department at Ball State and I would get the permission from them to have a whole day for anyone and everyone to come in and experience the fitness room with no charge.  Coming in for free, hopefully, will attract more people and also give the ones who are outsiders, a taste of what being an insider is like.  The contribution that I would make to my class and my own education is just the information that I gathered from the research.  Hopefully, I can make a difference in how outsiders feel about the fitness room and help them to ignore all the stereotypes so that they may see for themselves.

Week 6-Posting 6

1. Shaver, Jennipher.  "Defy Stereotypes and Expectations." Weblog Posting.  "Fitness Business."                   1 April 2008.  Club Industry.  18 Feb. 2009

In this blog, Jennipher talks about how many stereotypes come with being an insider to a fitness room.  She mentions how many people think of a fitness being a place where non-stop activity is going on with very loud pump-music in the background.  Then she mentions how she owns her own fitness room and she does yoga which is a relaxing activity with very calming music.

This website will help me in my mini ethnography.  It gives me great examples of certain stereotypes that come with my fieldsite.  It also shows how many of these stereotypes are wrong because the person who wrote the blog was an insider.

2.  Andrews, Gavin J.  "Towards a geography of fitness:  an ethnographic case study of the gym in British bodybuilding culture."  Social Science and Medicine.  8 Aug. 2004.  18 Feb. 2009   

This article talks about how the fitness room is the leading factor for a healthy lifestyle and cure against harmful diseases.  It also gives the fact that bodybuilding and fitness health in Britain has grown and the British are using fitness centers much more.  

I can use this in my mini ethnography because it gives me the proper research that not all fitness rooms are the same.  Even though the same activities may go on inside the fitness room, the culture, being in a different country, can bring different traits like what type of music they listen to and what activities they do instead of just the original weight lifting and cardiovascular activites. 

Box 18 writing assignment

In the fitness room there are many focal points.  One focal point is the spot where the weights are where people lift weights and separate themselves from the cardio equipment which is another focal point.  In the free weight focal point I see just people working on biceps and triceps.  The people around this focal point look at the other people lifting and try to figure out some new lifts that they could do to improve themselves.  The guys lifting the weights have veins bulging and breathe excessively trying to get that last rep in.  My perspective is a bit biased and does help in what I see because I am an insider and I do many of the same things.  My perspective is also based on my own personal experience.

Trip to Canada

Nine years ago I had gone on a trip with my dad for the very first time in my life to Canada.  I had always been told that Canada was much different from the United States in terms of space and culture, but I wanted to experience this for myself.  Crossing the gargantuan bridge from my home nation into the foreign country, I was a bit nervous for what I would experience since it was all very new and alien to me.  As we crossed the border and drove for about another two miles, all the buildings, businesses, and homes had disappeared.  A vast landscape of 80 foot pine trees and sides of mountains draped my eyes.  The very core of some mountains had been blown out with dynamite to make it passable for roads to go through.  We decided to take a break and stop at a rest area.  I got out of the car and already I knew we were somewhere much different from home.  The smell of pine and virgin air went up through my nostrils and teased my brain into thinking the atmosphere was heaven.  The sounds of birds chirping and leaves on the trees brushing in the wind.  A very cool breeze, much cooler than the breeze back home, made the hair on the back of my neck and arms stand up.  Gray and dark blue skies folded out like fresh bread dough over the mountains, bringing with it the fresh, cool northern breeze.

Week 5-Posting 5

I could definitely obtain more information on my subculture of fitness rooms.  I could use fitness magazines or books to focus on the certain things that go on in different fitness rooms besides just the one here at Ball State.  I could examine the different products that are sold to body builders and what most weight lifters eat and drink as a certain diet plan.  I can spend more time in my subculture interviewing and observing every single exercise unit in the facility and watch how the person is using it and reacting to it.  I plan on finishing up this assignment by visiting the Muncie YMCA and two fitness places in my hometown Huntington, Indiana. 

Rewrite of Box 15

Warmth puzzled my skin as it was just bitten by Jack Frost.  Sounds of laughter, secrets, sighs, and satisfaction decorate the air and my ears as would the gentle wind blowing outside the domain.  Only to smell the refreshment of Thanksgiving do I feel the warm touch of my grandmother's arms and the greetings of other relatives.

Box 15 writing assignment

Walking in the house from the cold winter air, I feel a sudden warmth roll onto my skin, washing away the bitter coldness.  The faint sound of people talking and sharing laughs in the background fill my ears and let my brain know that it's a calm and happy environment.  I slip off my shoes and hang up my coat in a nearby closet.  I begin to walk closer to the room that holds the laughter and the light.  A pungent smell of comforting food wrap around my nostrils and hug my sinuses setting off the juices in my mouth and the hunger in my stomach.  I approach the room and see all my relatives sitting around the dinner table indulging in ham, turkey, potatoes and corn.  Before I begin to get my plate full of food, I feel a couple warm arms wrap around my chest and lips pressing on my cheek.  A raspy voice asks how I am doing.  The place where all these sensory details happen is my grandma's house on Thanksgiving day.

Dogtown Skaters

I believe it's both an ethnographic study and a work of entertainment because they are discussing a type of subculture that has both outsiders and insiders of skateboarding and what it meant to be in this subculture while at the same time showing clips of how the kids ripped the waves and skateboarded empty pools.  The interviews came from the major insiders of the culture and they talk about the old times and help the story move.  The attitudes toward this subculture was that either you were good at what you do or you shouldn't be there at all.  Surfing and skateboarding are the subcultures and the organization did help me understand it.  The stereotypes of a skateboarder before I watched the film was that they wear extremely tight jeans and shirts with long, scraggly hair and they act like nothing can bother them and that the law doesn't apply to them.  They still do hold true because the kids in this movie looked just like those descriptions.

Week 4-Posting 4

I have came up with some conclusions for my subculture.  I know that not all body builders are the same and they don't all fit the stereotype of being stupid and jocky.  They are people like us and many of them just do it because they want to be healthy.  Of course the guys do it because they want to be attractive to the girls.  I do believe that most fitness rooms are the same.  They probably aren't the same in size and population and the certain types of workout machines they aquire.  But they mainly consist of the same people.  People wanting to do something to better their health and get fit.

Effort:

Driver's License

Going to college

Eagle Scout

Non Effort: 

White Male

Ability to work

American citizen

Have a job

Have a home

Good math skills

Library for research

Some of these privileges will help me in the researching of my subculture.  Having a driver's license is a huge privilege because I am going to research more than just one site of my subculture so I will need a reliable source of transportation.  Being a white male is another advantage for my site since I am researching a fitness room.  The stereotype of a fitness room paints a picture of big, burly guys lifting great amounts of weight.  Since I am a male and also enjoy lifting in the fitness room, it will give me an advantage of attitude.  They will see that I have a similar interest that they do and will be glad to talk about the subculture and converse on different subjects.  Having a library is a very vital privilege because most of the research that I will conduct academically for my subculture will come from the library.