My subject for this field study was an older person born in 1940. Growing up, this person had many siblings that she had to share a small space with on the countryside of Washington. This person is very important in my life and I look up to her very much, the only thing is we disagree on our political views, making her the perfect subject for this study. For a few years now, I have thought that people who disagree with my political standpoint (democrat) are on the meaner, cold hearted side, but this study proved me very wrong.
Growing up in the 1940s-1950s, America was a completely different place. Gay marriage and homosexuality in general were not as popular as it is today, African Americans were still treated poorly, and so on. Mu subject did a great job explaining this part to me. My subject grew up being taught- that homosexuality is wrong, women should be housewives, there are only two genders, immigration is bad, etc… and this is the main reason for her political views today. My subject is the most sweet, thoughtful person I have ever met in my life but does not agree with my political views because we grew up being taught different things.
Today, I think people should be who/what they want without judgment, i believe people have a right to their own body and their own preference of how they want to look/act. I also believe that immigrants who come from Mexico are a big part of our economy and we depend on them a lot more than we think. My subject disagrees on almost all of these opinions of mine, not because she is a mean person, but because she grew up being taught different opinions than I was taught growing up. And this, in my opinion, was a big lightbulb moment for me. People have different political views not because they are close/open minded or because they are sheltered and rude, they have different political views because everyone was taught different things growing up. What one thing taught as ‘wrong’ to one person could have been taught as ‘right’ for another. I will no longer judge someone off of their political views ever again, because that person could be so sweet, so kind and caring, but was taught different standpoints than I was growing up which makes our political views different. Why miss out on new friends because of their political views?
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