Peltz-AmericanCharacter

America is a nation that places great importance on the strength of the nuclear family like this one in the image. Part of what many consider to be the 'American dream' includes settling down with a permanent partner and raising children. This is Andy Warhol's Orange Diaster. Andy Warhol is an iconic American artist, whose paintings highlight the importance of mass production in our consumeristic culture by repeating the same image multiple times. This painting is of an electric chair, part of the American capital punishment system which for a select few, is a very real part of their American experience. McDonalds french fries are an American culinary icon. They represent our nation's addiction for high-fat, high-carb fast food. These french fries make a daily apperance in the daily lives of many Americans because of their ready availability, conveinence, and nostalgic taste. McDonalds restaurants are virtually everywhere across the nation and has become an iconic corporate American force in the global business market. This photo shows an industrial laborer hard at work. Industrial and manual labor is the foundation of what America was built upon.

September, 15th 2010-News stories reflective of America

 September 15, 2010  =**Study Finds Wider View of ‘Family’** =

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**By [|SAM ROBERTS] ** ====== A majority of Americans now say their definition of family includes same-sex couples with children, as well as married gay and lesbian couples. At the same time, most Americans do not consider unmarried cohabiting couples, either heterosexual or same-sex, to be a family — unless they have children. The findings — part of a survey conducted this year as well as in 2003 and 2006 by Brian Powell, a sociology professor at [|Indiana University], Bloomington — are reported in a new book, “Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and Americans’ Definitions of Family,” to be published on Wednesday by the [|Russell Sage Foundation]. Since the surveys began, the proportion of people who reported having a gay friend or relative rose 10 percentage points, said Professor Powell, the book’s lead author. “This is not because more people are gay now than in 2003,” he said. “This indicates a more open social environment in which individuals now feel more comfortable discussing and acknowledging sexuality. Ironically with all the antigay initiatives, all of a sudden people were saying the word ‘gay’ out loud. Just the discussion about it made people more comfortable.” The book concludes that framing the equality of same-sex couples in terms of “the best interests of the child” might prove to be a more successful political argument than others. “Neither the numbers from our data nor actual votes on initiatives are anywhere near the sufficient magnitude to support the idea that the public is ready to embrace same sex-couples with open arms,” the authors say. But, likening the resistance to laws and mores against interracial marriage, “we envisage a day in the near future when same-sex families also will gain acceptance by a large plurality of the public.” The latest telephone survey of 830 people conducted this year found that Americans were almost equally divided on [|same-sex marriage]. “I don’t think people are ready to embrace it, but people are ready to accept it,” Professor Powell said of same-sex marriage. The survey also found a growing acceptance that genetics, rather than parenting, peers or God’s will, was responsible for sexual orientation. Since 2003, the survey found a decline of 11 percentage points in the number of people who generally define family as a husband and wife with or without children. Prof. Stephanie Coontz of Evergreen State College in Washington, director of research and public education at the [|Council on Contemporary Families], a research and advocacy group, said that “Americans seem to be open to seeing same-sex couples with children as families, even while they hesitate to recognize their unions as marriage.” David Blankenhorn, president of the [|Institute for American Values], a marriage research and advocacy group, said he was not surprised by the findings. “I like the standard definition of family: two or more persons related by blood, marriage or adoption,” Mr. Blankenhorn said. “Keeps it simple and coherent.” <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But, he added: “We live in groups, and we need each other. So it’s always a good thing, isn’t it, when any of us truly loves and is loved by another.”

<span style="color: #a81817; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal !important; margin-top: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">June 4, 2010 <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 15px; text-transform: uppercase;"> =<span style="color: #000000; font-size: 2.4em; line-height: 1.083em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">**Gay? Whatever, Dude** =

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<span style="color: #808080; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 2px;">**By CHARLES M. BLOW** ====== <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Last week, while many of us were distracted by the oil belching forth from the gulf floor and the president’s ham-handed attempts to demonstrate that he was sufficiently engaged and enraged, Gallup released a stunning, and little noticed, [|report on Americans’ evolving views of homosexuality]. Allow me to enlighten: <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1. For the first time, the percentage of Americans who perceive “gay and lesbian relations” as morally acceptable has crossed the 50 percent mark. (You have to love the fact that they still use the word “relations.” So quaint.) <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2. Also for the first time, the percentage of men who hold that view is greater than the percentage of women who do. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3. This new alignment is being led by a dramatic change in attitudes among younger men, but older men’s perceptions also have eclipsed older women’s. While women’s views have stayed about the same over the past four years, the percentage of men ages 18 to 49 who perceived these “relations” as morally acceptable rose by 48 percent, and among men over 50, it rose by 26 percent. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I warned you: stunning. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There is no way to know for sure what’s driving such a radical change in men’s views on this issue because Gallup didn’t ask, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t speculate. To help me do so, I called [|Dr. Michael Kimmel], a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the author or editor of more than 20 books on men and masculinity, and [|Professor Ritch Savin-Williams] , the chairman of human development at Cornell University and the author of seven books, most of which deal with adolescent development and same-sex attraction. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Here are three theories: <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1. The contact hypothesis. As more men openly acknowledge that they are gay, it becomes harder for men who are not gay to discriminate against them. And as that group of openly gay men becomes more varied — including athletes, celebrities and soldiers — many of the old, derisive stereotypes lose their purchase. To that point, a Gallup [|poll released last May] found that people who said they personally knew someone who was gay or lesbian were more likely to be accepting of gay men and lesbians in general and more supportive of their issues. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2. Men may be becoming more egalitarian in general. As Dr. Kimmel put it: “Men have gotten increasingly comfortable with the presence of, and relative equality of, ‘the other,’ and we’re becoming more accustomed to it. And most men are finding that it has not been a disaster.” The expanding sense of acceptance likely began with the feminist and civil rights movements and is now being extended to the gay rights movement. Dr. Kimmel continued, “The dire predictions for diversity have not only not come true, but, in fact, they’ve been proved the other way.” <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3. Virulent homophobes are increasingly being exposed for engaging in homosexuality. Think Ted Haggard, [|the once fervent antigay preacher] and former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, and his male prostitute. (This week, [|Haggard announced that he was starting a new “inclusive” church] open to “gay, straight, bi, tall, short,” but no same-sex marriages. Not “God’s ideal.” Sorry.) Or George Rekers, the founding member of the Family Research Council, and his rent boy/luggage handler. Last week, the council claimed that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would lead to an explosion of “homosexual assaults” in which sleeping soldiers would be the victims of fondling and fellatio by gay predators. In fact, there is a growing body of research that supports the notion that homophobia in some men could be a reaction to their own homosexual impulses. Many heterosexual men see this, and they don’t want to be associated with it. It’s like being antigay is becoming the old gay. Not cool. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">These sound plausible, but why aren’t women seeing the same enlightening effects as men? Professor Savin-Williams suggests that there may be a “ceiling effect,” that men are simply catching up to women, and there may be a level at which views top out. Interesting. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All of this is great news, but it doesn’t mean that all measures relating to acceptance of gay men and lesbians have changed to the same degree. People’s comfort with the “gay and lesbian” part of the equation is still greater than their comfort with the “relations” part — the idea versus the act — particularly when it comes to pairings of men. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As Professor Savin-Williams told me, there is still a higher aversive reaction to same-sex sexuality among men than among women. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For instance, in a February New York Times/CBS News poll, half of the respondents were asked if they favored letting “gay men and lesbians” serve in the military (which is still more than 85 percent male), and the other half were asked if they favored letting “homosexuals” serve. Those who got the “homosexual” question favored it at a rate that was 11 percentage points lower than those who got the “gay men and lesbians” question. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Part of the difference may be that “homosexual” is a bigger, more clinical word freighted with a lot of historical baggage. But just as likely is that the inclusion of the root word “sex” still raises an aversive response to the idea of, how shall I say, the architectural issues between two men. It is the point at which support for basic human rights cleaves from endorsement of behavior. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As for the aversion among men, it may be softening a bit. Professor Savin-Williams says that his current research reveals that the fastest-growing group along the sexuality continuum are men who self-identify as “mostly straight” as opposed to labels like “straight,” “gay” or “bisexual.” They acknowledge some level of attraction to other men even as they say that they probably wouldn’t act on it, but ... the right guy, the right day, a few beers and who knows. As the professor points out, you would never have heard that in years past. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All together now: stunning. <span style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">(I now return you to Day 46 of the oil spill where they finally may be making some progress.)