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| JennyxYoung. "Frustrated with studying" 4/14/11 via deviantart. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License |
1. What kinds of things do people in the Reddit forums seem to be arguing about, debating, disagreeing about or otherwise engaging in meaningful exchanges of ideas about? Give us a descriptive and clear sense of the kinds of stories you're seeing in the Reddit forums.
On Reddit, there are discussions on voting on reproductive rights, military standards for women, the legitimacy of a gender and women's studies major, sexual assault, and more. Many forums seem to be debating laws, policies, and events in pop culture. I saw a forum titled, "The Persistence of "The Bachelor" in the Age of the Independent Woman," by newrepublic.com. Some other forums are questions about double standards: Why is it considered OK for women to perpetuate the "the wife is always right, the husband is always wrong" mentality so openly and publicly, while male chauvinism is considered despicable/disgusting?"
2. In your opinion, what are the two most interesting debates/disagreements you found in the Reddit forums? Hyperlink us to the two different Reddit threads and explain why you found those debates interesting. Be specific and honest and be yourself. I don't want you to blah-blah-blah this. I want you to really engage.
I found a forum labeled, "Abortion is not a women's rights issue" that caught my attention in the "change my view" section on reddit. This definitely was controversial, and I found it interesting because I can't help but bring in my own bias when I'm researching on gender and women. I took the time to read multiple people's comments, though, because you can never be too informed. The user who started the post says that he is pro choice, yet does not believe that a women has a right to "use their body to kill an innocent human being." However, he edits his post later on, after over 200 comments come in. The user claims now, that the argument is not black and white or that he doesn't see it one-sided. While his opinion confused me a little, other users had much more straight-forward answers. A lot of people were in favor of pro-choice and said it is very much a women's rights issue because a woman should be able to do whatever they want/is necessary for their body. I read comments mentioning "active vs. passive" in terms of aborting a fetus and I never thought of the issue in these ways, so that was gave me a different perspective. It's really a very complicated issue of ethics and I may think twice before adamantly voicing how I felt about it.
A second forum I found was "If Women have the right to be Pro-Choice then Men deserve the right to decline fatherhood." I never even thought about this before now. I suppose I could not make an informative argument on the matter because of that. The top comment, that contributed the best, most concise argument gave me a lot of insight on the issue.
This user claimed that the legal system has to pick one right over the other, when the court is faced with a father and the possibility of paying financial aid for his child. Unfortunately, the legal system can only support the rights of the father, or the rights of the child, not both. This results in burdening the father, or depriving the son, depending on whoever's rights are not supported. Typically, I just assume a father should be prohibited to give financial aid to his child. However, it is interesting that if the court is in favor of the child's rights, making the father pay financial aid, then the father must give away part of his income for a child whom he did not "consent to being a father" to. Based on the "balancing test," the father can earn back the money that's owed, while a child is only a child, and cannot support himself, so this outcome is seen as the most just.
3. Overall, what impression do you get of your discipline based on what you saw happening in the Reddit forums? Were the people in those forums talking in ways you expected or did not expect, about things you anticipated they'd be talking aboput or things you had no idea they'd be discussing? Explain in concise specific detail.
I kept finding biased forums, or forums that only linked readers to other news sites with articles. Although people from "FeMRADebates" were discerning and not ignorant, which I really liked. Also, once I searched a specific, known problem within my field of study, I found that lots of debates with more than one opinion surfaced. I noticed that people sounded very intelligent and informed; their opinions/comments were serious and well-supported.
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