The YMCA Semester Project

This semester I would like to do my project on the YMCA. Apparently the gym is a fascinating place and has become one that millions of people visit on a daily basis, particularly the Young Men’s Christian Association or YMCA for short. I want know what makes the YMCA so appealing that Americans feel that they have to become a “Y” member, pay a large fee every month and fight the enormous crowds just to get that hour-long workout in each day.

As a member of the YMCA myself, I know what I like about the organization but I am interested if my opinions are similar to others. I want to explore the idea of locker rooms, group fitness classes, and the different people that you observe at a YMCA. I plan to enter the YMCA every few days like I normally do, but instead of working out and listening to music, I am going to try and take notes while I do my 30 minutes on the treadmill. I am constantly analyzing people’s dress and mannerisms, but now I just have to take notes on it. I also plan to interview employees at the “Y” including group fitness instructors. If I am lucky, I hope to get to interview those various types of people and see how each person’s opinion of the YMCA and the reason for using it differs.
There seems to be many humorous standards that come with being a member at this place and I am interested to go in depth to further explore those standards. I would also like to see the statistics of the past few years to see if the “Y” is still the fan favorite gym to attend. My hopes are that I get answers to all of my questions, prepare and good fieldwork investigation and learn more about the YMCA in the process.

Ethnographic Study Options

I want to investigate a few different things. Here are my options:

1. A Golf Country Club
2. The YMCA
3. Pregnancy

Discourse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVgMvuCM_k

From our reading on Wednesday in class, the book talks about discourse as a sort of "identity kit" that we go by. We can be associated with many discourses including gender, race, religious affliation, etc.
This is a show on ABC that I watch frequently. This video is about what people would do when they see kids vandalizing a car. At the end of the show, they announce that 9 more calls were made to 911 against the black boys than when the white boys were vandalizing the car. One woman said about the black boys, "how dare they come into our back yard". By this she was saying that "our back yard" was our white section of town like whites own it. Although I think that is a racist statement, it goes to show the difference in the way we associate ourselves with different discourses and how we react to people who aren't a part of that certain discourse-in this case, race.

What I'd like to work on in writing class

1. I would like to work on extending my writing vocabulary to be able to use more challenging words and keep from using the Thesaurus so much.

2. I would like to be able to better put together ideas and improve that application part of my papers.

3. Finally, I would like more practice writing thank you notes and email to professionals I will be dealing with in the music business industry.