As previously stated this particular project hasn't been my current focus but I did look over my questions and will answer the questions that I can with as much detail as I currently can. These of course will be refined, fixed up, and reviewed.
1. The population that I chose to do research on was women in prostitution. The reason I chose this population group was that I found I had a lot of conceptions of women who are currently in prostitution.
2. My initial assumptions about women who were in prostitution were harder/more unfair that I realized. I found that I was disdainful of them, that they were dirty. I had to
take a step back and figure out why I had these particular negative
viewpoints of them. I am not really sure where these assumptions came from, I can only assume that it was media, TV/Movie representation of prostitutes, as a child I learned that men who used prostitutes were bad/wrong so that naturally meant those women were too. Social acceptance of these women, or more likely, lack of social acceptance, disdain.
3. I did find that women who are in poorer city blocks and other area do happen to have a higher chance of contracting/spreading sexually transmitted diseases. But there are also women who are very "clean" to say that they use every preventative measure, get regular check ups, so the conception that all prostitutes are unclean and dirty doesn't have a lot of legitimacy.
4. Acceptance, criticism, condescending interactions with other people, cultural acceptance, legality of profession, initial dangers of meeting with strangers, spousal abuse, client abuse, poverty, poor living conditions. These are just some preliminary problems that women who are in prostitution face on a day to day basis.
5-8 and even my current questions definitely need to be increased and gone into deeper depth, larger information, to be cited and sourced, that sort of thing. But as a preliminary review, this is what I am mainly able to cover for the questions as of now. I think the question I might have the hardest time/need help with is number 8. As I haven't done any research yet to find out if there are activist groups or groups that go about informing people about prostitution. So I am able to answer 4 out of 8 in the most basic way possible, but I think that as I continue to find more research sources these questions will be easier to answer and I will be able to form a stronger argument and answer the questions more fully.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Legitimacy of Blog Posts
Before I ever used blogs as a source of legitimate data I would have scoffed at the idea that any type of blog could be used in the academics. It would have been absurd, even now, after finding one I find might legitimize blogs, I am still disbelieving. As for why it is so hard for me to accept blogs is that as an English Major I was trained to use specific search engines and databases. A blog would have been a serious "no-no" if it was used as an academic source. Its hard to let go of old trainings, plus, previously, my experiences of blogs were just those silly blogs where people try to make their lives seem more interesting or hysterical by over exaggerating events and adding poorly drawn comics to illustrate the hilarity/misadventures of their lives. Useless/purposeless might have been my original though of blogs. This particular blog has changed my initial assumptions about blogs. Link to blog used Misconceptions Regarding Prostitution
While it is a blog that is no longer active, this particular user made use of the blog as a way to present clear, coherent information regarding the common misconceptions about prostitution. Something that I would never have expected to find on a blog. It uses reliable information, which is sourced, to present their opinions. Yes, it is biased, but the data in the charts they have is good. This particular type of blog I think illustrates that people shouldn't' just scoff at the idea that blogs are legitimate, like I did. They may just hold valuable information that would help them with their research. It might even be ok to say that you can get a good idea of cultural trends by reading popular blog posts, so maybe sociologists do use them. Who knows?
APA Work Cited
Misconceptions regarding prostitution [Web log message]. (2010, April 20). Retrieved from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ander422/myblog/2010/04/misconceptions-regarding-prostitution.html
While it is a blog that is no longer active, this particular user made use of the blog as a way to present clear, coherent information regarding the common misconceptions about prostitution. Something that I would never have expected to find on a blog. It uses reliable information, which is sourced, to present their opinions. Yes, it is biased, but the data in the charts they have is good. This particular type of blog I think illustrates that people shouldn't' just scoff at the idea that blogs are legitimate, like I did. They may just hold valuable information that would help them with their research. It might even be ok to say that you can get a good idea of cultural trends by reading popular blog posts, so maybe sociologists do use them. Who knows?
APA Work Cited
Misconceptions regarding prostitution [Web log message]. (2010, April 20). Retrieved from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ander422/myblog/2010/04/misconceptions-regarding-prostitution.html
My Annotated Bibliography
I'll be honest here and say that this particular assignment has taken a bit of the back burner in the fact that I have only a few preliminary sources that I have only skimmed through, planning on going back and in depth with them at a later date. Plus combined with leaving for Texas for Spring Break, I'll admit that finishing up on blog posts and assignments has not been in the forefront of my mind. Still, I'll post here what sources I have found so far and do my best to give comments on them.
Starting with the books I have found.
Reynolds, H. (1986). The economics of prostitution. Sprigfield: CHARLES C THOMAS.
The purpose of this book was to discover and analyze the economic and political structures in different communities that tolerate, allow or control prostitution. What I really like about this book is that it doesn't really give a side for or against prostitution. It is more neutral in regards to that. It gives suggestions that would help control and regulate prostitution, gives pros and cons, and ways to help lower the costs of prostitution victimization. Although it is a bit dated, I find it very informative. As for the author, as of yet I haven't researched her to be able to say if she is an expert on the topic or not. Only that she is an economist diving into a field where mainly sociologists and psychologists dwell.
Connelly, M. T. (1980). The response to prostitution in the progressive era. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
To be very honest I haven't looked over this book yet and am not sure if this will make it into the final product of my annotated bibliography, but it did seem promising as I skimmed a few details.
This blog source I found seemed to be really well placed and well filled with statistics about prositution so I will include it in my annotated bibliography.
Misconceptions
regarding prostitution [Web log message]. (2010, April 20). Retrieved from
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ander422/myblog/2010/04/misconceptions-regarding-prostitution.html
As I was doing a more thorough look through the blog I noticed that it was in fact, not an active blog, which is unfortunate, but it did hold good information. I can't really say much about the author if he/she is an expert in this field as all I have to go with is their username, which doesn't allow me to look at a blogger profile or anything. What really impressed me was the use of graphs and data that were posted in the different blog posts. The author also seemed well informed and able to make interesting points. The information did have sources as well.
I am still working through the online articles that I have found for a good research article, though I think I have found a few that will suit my needs well. As for the other sources, I am still working on finding some sort of reliable source for those particular options.
Reflection on the LGBT community
As I was thinking about what to do for this particular project I had the trouble of reconciling the fact that I really don't want to learn anything about it at all. The fact that I am required to take a diversity course, required that it focuses on a people group I'd rather not learn about, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The whole being forced to do something makes me naturally want to rebel and do the opposite, to not cooperate at all. I had to get over that. Took a while but I managed to do it. I am more willing now to consider what part of this group I want to do research on. Though the list just lists the different population groups that form the whole group, it didn't really give a good idea of what issues they are facing right now. The most common one, well publicized is the Right to Marriage. I don't really want to focus on that topic, I'd rather do something else. So I have decided to preliminarily focus on gay men who suffer from AIDS or the potential hazards gay men/women face when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases.
Honestly I don't really know a lot of what to assume is true, the most common I guess is that gay men have the highest risk at contracting the disease. It is life crippling/destroying. It affects the LGBT community more than it affects heterosexual communities, though that's probably not the case in Africa. The despair someone must feel at knowing there is no cure and it will eventually lead to their death? That has gotta be really rough.
I think maybe social media may have influenced this belief? The couple of friends who I have who claim to be gay and sexually active claimed to have sexual relations with other men who had AIDS, which to me seems insane, and they were lucky enough not to contract it. Media portrayal of gay men, this being mainstream TV shows showing them sexually promiscuous?
I am not sure what the most challenging thing I will face as I do research concerning this topic. I want to be able to do a good job in finding reliable sources that will help me form good sound opinions. Not just hearsay and gossip, social medias. Another challenge may be that I will have to continue to reconcile that while I may have not done something like this on my own, being required to do this might not be a terrible thing after all. There we have it.
Honestly I don't really know a lot of what to assume is true, the most common I guess is that gay men have the highest risk at contracting the disease. It is life crippling/destroying. It affects the LGBT community more than it affects heterosexual communities, though that's probably not the case in Africa. The despair someone must feel at knowing there is no cure and it will eventually lead to their death? That has gotta be really rough.
I think maybe social media may have influenced this belief? The couple of friends who I have who claim to be gay and sexually active claimed to have sexual relations with other men who had AIDS, which to me seems insane, and they were lucky enough not to contract it. Media portrayal of gay men, this being mainstream TV shows showing them sexually promiscuous?
I am not sure what the most challenging thing I will face as I do research concerning this topic. I want to be able to do a good job in finding reliable sources that will help me form good sound opinions. Not just hearsay and gossip, social medias. Another challenge may be that I will have to continue to reconcile that while I may have not done something like this on my own, being required to do this might not be a terrible thing after all. There we have it.
Academic Search Premier vs JSTOR
The database that I chose to work with was JSTOR, a database that I have used in the past so I am also familiar with it. I was actually surprised, because I remember JSTOR being a good source of informative articles on other projects I worked on. The Academic Search Premier was the one that provided the most relevant sources on my topic. Some rather interesting alternative viewpoints on prostitution as well. For EBSCO I like that they make it easy to narrow down the results. It is clearly noticeable and pretty self explanatory. I am able to narrow it down by publication date, full text, if they are scholarly reviewed articles, by document type. It is very convenient. '
JSTOR is also nice for allowing you to narrow your search by the modify search option, which allows you different options to help you find more pointed sources. I really like that it allows you to narrow your search down by profession and what type of scholarly journals you want to choose from. I used this option many a times to help refine my searches. It also lets you choose by publication date, article type, and language.
I found that even though EBSCO was the more relevant articles, my search string worked for both. It was a smaller one but it worked to my needs. Prostitution and United States and Workforce. The more options I put in my search string the less relevant topics I got.
I was able to find 8 relevant articles on EBSCO and 5 on JSTOR. On EBSCO all of them were in full text as that was how I usually narrow down my search on the first go, if I can't skim through it right away I'm less likely to pursue it as a source. The same with JSTOR. I don't really think that working with the databases has changed my research question. I think that the more sources I find the more my research topic will become clearer, maybe more refined. My biggest challenge in composing my research question was if it was too versatile, or maybe, there could be any number of reasons. The question, "whats the main motivation that drives women into prostitution?" can be rather ambiguous, though I still like it. It also seems like it might be obvious, poverty, desperation, but I think there may be more to it than that. To overcome these challenges would be to continue on the path of researching and refining as I go along.
JSTOR is also nice for allowing you to narrow your search by the modify search option, which allows you different options to help you find more pointed sources. I really like that it allows you to narrow your search down by profession and what type of scholarly journals you want to choose from. I used this option many a times to help refine my searches. It also lets you choose by publication date, article type, and language.
I found that even though EBSCO was the more relevant articles, my search string worked for both. It was a smaller one but it worked to my needs. Prostitution and United States and Workforce. The more options I put in my search string the less relevant topics I got.
I was able to find 8 relevant articles on EBSCO and 5 on JSTOR. On EBSCO all of them were in full text as that was how I usually narrow down my search on the first go, if I can't skim through it right away I'm less likely to pursue it as a source. The same with JSTOR. I don't really think that working with the databases has changed my research question. I think that the more sources I find the more my research topic will become clearer, maybe more refined. My biggest challenge in composing my research question was if it was too versatile, or maybe, there could be any number of reasons. The question, "whats the main motivation that drives women into prostitution?" can be rather ambiguous, though I still like it. It also seems like it might be obvious, poverty, desperation, but I think there may be more to it than that. To overcome these challenges would be to continue on the path of researching and refining as I go along.
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