[Erika]

The media purposefully make poor people look like lazy slobs. The media have helped justify the destruction of social policies like welfare by portraying welfare moms as big women who sit around in dirty apartments watching soap operas, eating bon-bons, and having more babies. (Many of them are big, but because you can get more fat and starch for your food stamps than fresh vegetables. Women on welfare actually have fewer children than the US national average, too.) I’ve worked as an advocate for homeless families, and the households that are led by formerly homeless women are almost invariably spotless. Many of the women I have worked with had to live in unsanitary shelters and so they are relieved when they get their own apartment and they can control their environment and make it clean. I agree with other comments that point out that single mothers who work all of the time do not have a lot of time to clean up after kids. As for the crumpled clothes, there is the matter of washing clothes in a laundromat, which might not allow time for folding. Using laundromats is a huge time burden compared to the luxury of owning a washer and dryer in one’s home. Maybe people with bare mattresses only have one set of sheets and it is being washed at the laundromat? Also, on the other end of the spectrum, urban poor people are often descendents of share croppers who moved to cities during the industrial revolution. There are different standards for ‘clean’ on farms and many people only know the standards of their culture of origin. People don’t automatically learn new social/cultural habits because they move to cities. Finally, I would point out that, by far, the sloppiest, most food-encrusted rooms I have ever seen are occupied by middle class white males, especially college students.

User Detail :  

Name : Erika, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 25, City : Portland, State : ME, Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Erika]

I think it is interesting that your question only refered to male homosexuals and bisexuals, as if there weren’t females who are homosexual or bisexual. Anyway, I think you already answered your question about what the difference is between homosexuals and bisexuals, homosexuals are not attracted at all to the opposite sex, bisexuals are attracted to both sexes. Many people believe that there is a spectrum that goes from 100% homosexual to 100% heterosexual and that most people fall somewhere in between. Many people who have never had a relationship with the same sex have felt some emotional and/or physical attraction to the same sex at sometime in their life and those people COULD be labeled bisexual. If our society were not so negative and violent toward gay people perhaps more people would be able to identify their mild to strong attraction for the same sex. I think your confusion around cross-dressing males could be cleared up by understanding the difference between sexual preference and gender identity. Sexual preference (whether you choose to date the same sex or the opposite sex) is not necessarily related to or the same as gender behavior such as cross dressing. Actually, ‘transgendered’ people are people who prefer to behave more like the stereotypes of the opposite gender, like, for males, wearing dresses and makeup. Many children who are accused of being sissies or tomboys are forced back into their anatomical gender behaviors. These ideas are confusing because it is hard to put oneself into a category like bisexual, transgendered, or whatever. Many women dress in male clothes but there is a lot less pressure for us to conform to gender norms so we don’t get pressured to identify ourselves as transgendered.

User Detail :  

Name : Erika, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 25, City : Portland, State : ME, Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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