Blog ten
The collaborative proposal that was most effective for me was the topic of animal cruelty. The group argues that animals need to be raised in a free range environment where they are allowed to roam free and grow in a naturally occurring habitat. They also argue that grain feed animals are safer for consumption than the unregulated animals that are injected with growth hormones. The target audience is students who are in college. They encourage students to start awareness of animal cruelty on their campus and try to make the issue known. The main rhetorical strategy the group uses is pathos. Many times they describe horrific stories of animals being brutalized or tortured before they are killed. For example, when cows are being shipped off the carts for slaughter they sometimes cannot walk. The cows are then pulled off the cart by chains, which can cause broken bones. I understand it could be difficult to get large animals off shipping carts but there must be a more humane way to do so. Breaking bones is not acceptable treatment of animals. Many animals in slaughterhouses do not have enough room to turn around. The group turns the issue back to the audience and asks them” how would you like to live your life in a room where you are so crowed that you can’t move without touching someone?” The obvious answer is no, that no one would like to live like that. The group does a good job of putting the reader in the animals’ shoes so to speak. Certain examples that I read made me want to cry. One example in particular describes pigs that are inadequately stunned are completely alive and coherent when put into vats of scalding water for hair removal. This made me every upset and made me want to take action. I understand that poor living conditions are horrible but torturing animals while they are still alive is not okay. The slaughterhouses should have laws and restrictions that force them to kill the animal in the most painless and stress free environment possible. Treatment like the pigs are subjected to is not acceptable.
Overall I would score the proposal a 7. The group does a good job of calling the students into action without forcing them to change their ways. The paper has the ability to cause empathy from the audience for the animals with its many examples. It stands out because the audience can relate to the paper from the very beginning when the paper reminds the readers what they ate for lunch and pulling them into the cause. The group points out that by giving these examples they do not want to turn every college student into vegans or vegetarians. They simply want to make them aware of what is going on. And by supporting the free range treatment and growth of animals and students can hopefully take a stand against animal cruelty.
Blog #9
For my part of the paper I have made a general outline. It outlines the main topics of my part and gives my group an idea where I’m going with my part. Essentially I want to focus on teen body image, the causes and the effects of bad body image on teens. I have found several sources for my paper such as www.dosomething..org and clips from www.youtube.com. Kirsten is discussing teen abuse and dating violence. She has written an outline detailing what direction her paper is going in. One source she will use is the clip of Kiera Knightly, doing a public service announcement on abuse. Courtney is writing about the effects of peer pressure on young girls. She will look into the causes and effects of peer pressure and one of her sources is the movie Mean Girls. Caitlin portion of the paper will focus on opposing these issues and possibly giving background into our issues. Ebony might work on the conclusion and introduction. We have not officially worked out what each group member is actually doing. We do know our issues and what we want to write about but the sections are not broken down permanently. One reason we tried to go ahead and write outlines for our three main topics is go ahead and give Caitlin and Ebony an idea where we are going with our parts of the paper, so they can start outlining/writing their parts. It would be difficult to write an introduction, conclusion, opposition or background of the issues without actually knowing our main points. On Tuesday our goal was for Kirsten, Courtney and I to have sources and a rough outline of the paper. We met our goal and have sources and outlines for our paper. We are off to a good start and I think everyone in the group is genuinely excited about their part because it interests them. But in class we really need to meet and figure out who will write what and set dates for ourselves. We did a good job with our first date that we set for the sources and outline. Now we just need continue that. I am concerned about the organization of the paper and figuring who will write what part. I think everyone will be fine with whatever part they write, we just need to figure it out soon, so the group will have time to complete the project in a timely manner. I think that we will have a strong visual component because many of us have pulled sources from YouTube. We have some very persuasive clips about body image and teen dating abuse and violence. And an interesting and satirical portrayal of peer pressure and bullying through the movie Mean Girls. We have a good start with the sources but we do need more research. But I think all of our topics are interesting and controversial and have plenty of information out there we just have to find it. I also think we need to focus more on a way to tie these issues together. I think we have them under the umbrella of societal pressures and that we need to refine our focus.
Blog #8
For our collaborative proposal project we want to explore the ways that society interprets domestic violence involving women and how the media affects women. Both of these have adverse effects on the way women see themselves and how they function in today’s world. We will break our paper up into separate sections and we may group sections on women and sections on teens separately.
Katherine:
My topic for our group project is body image and the effect on teen girls. I wanted to see if there were any campaigns out there that influence teen girls body image in positive ways. I wanted to look into the dove campaign for real beauty and the influence it has on young girls. There have been several commercials and ads that promote the idea that being beautiful is being yourself without trying to fit into stereotypes of ideal, cookie cutter beauty. I also want to look at the statistics of young girls with eating disorders and see how the numbers have fluctuated over the past years. I chose this topic because body image has always been interesting to me and in today’s society it especially affects teen girls. This is something I can relate too. I can remember being a young teen and reading the articles with the perfect models and wanting to look just like them. And I can also remember seeing the first dove campaign ad and how excited I was to see normal women in magazines. The effect of the dove campaign had a powerful influence on me and helped me see what it means to truly be beautiful.
Caitlin:
My topic for our group project is how the media creates a certain mold for women to fit in. The media tells us we should all be tall, skinny, blonde, and unintelligent if we want to be like everyone in Hollywood. My group could use advertisements showing skinny women with tanned skin and long flowing hair, or pictures of the most popular celebrities in our culture today in order to show examples of how women are portrayed. This idealistic image can then be compared to how normal teenage girls are and show how these celebrities are the role models we strive to be like. When we strive to be like these role models, we feel like we all need blonde hair, have to be super skinny, and have golden skin. We not only feel pressure from other girls to fit this mold, but because men see this on TV and in magazines, they start to look for women who fit this idealistic image as well. This topic would allow us to interview people who have struggled to change themselves from the pressure they felt from the media, or we could even interview guys and ask what they look for in a girl as far as looks go and compare them to the majority of the stars in Hollywood. For paper research, we could look up statistics on the amount of girls that feel pressured by the media, or the average weight of celebrities/models compared to the normal teenage girl. There are several dimensions such as TV/movie stars, models, girls in advertisements, and even popular girls in high school/sorority girls that we can use as examples of the media effecting.
Kirsten:
I am centering my topic around the fact that relationship abuse and dating violence are so prevalent among teens and young adults. The common statistic is that 1 in 3 of teens has experienced violence in a relationship. This can seriously affect both the boy and the girl in the relationship: he thinks it is okay to be controlling and she is emotionally scarred. There are several videos that I could use for the visual aspect of the project such as the Rihanna interviews, which were amazing, and a domestic violence video starring Kiera Knightly. My section will be about telling the signs of domestic abuse and getting help for these young people because injuring someone else is not okay. I chose this topic because of the incident with Rihanna and the video that Kiera Knightly has done. I think that these strong women can be an example to girls struggling in abusive relationships that they are not helpless, and that they can find help for themselves. I am not a victim of domestic violence myself but I am interested in it. Things I want to find out are, how does the violent occurrences affect the rest of that girl’s life? What can we do for young men to educate them about what violence is and how it can be prevented? I mean to answer these questions in my section of the proposal as well as advocate that we need to help both the boys and girls who are part of these relationships.
Ebony:
My topic is child abuse. I am a child development minor, so we study development in children a lot. I have learned about the ways abuse affects families. I want to look at the trend between spousal abuse and how often it trickles down to the children. It is usually a cycle prevalent throughout families, unfortunately. A lot of people don’t like to talk about child abuse because it is so sad. However, it happens, so I want to bring this to the forefront of everyone’s attention. In my child psych class, we saw pictures of children taken to hospitals and it nearly broke my heart. Children are some of the most innocent creatures on Earth. The fact that people consciously choose to hurt them should not be overlooked.
Blog #7
The environment has become a huge debate politically and economically. Many times people are encouraged to go green even if it is at the expense of their pocketbooks. Yet many time Americans are ignorant to the fact that global warming and pollution are a problem. I took a class last semester called Sustainability. It was really eye opening that amount of damage that we do to the planet. From our trash to the chemicals we produce a huge amount of waste and toxins go into water supply and many times these chemicals get into the air we breathe. It is important to educate Americans about these issues and let them know it directly affects them. They are essentially the audience. This argument can be approached by two effective rhetorical angles. The first strategy is logos, because scientists have facts and figures about the global warming and the amount of trash production in America per day. The numbers are startling. These facts cannot be refuted. The second is pathos ,which is shown through certain visual images. Visuals of nature destroyed by global warming could be used. There are pictures of mountains 50 years ago with snow on top. Today there is no snow. This is because of global warming. I think by just showing the research on the environment and showing pictures of what it is doing to our planet would be enough to make someone stop and think before writing off global warming as an unimportant hoax.
The peer pressure to be skinny is something that I have written a blog on before but I still think it is an issue that needs to be addressed. Today models are airbrushed to look perfect. They are trained, starved, bleached and tanned to “perfection”. Women, not just young girls get a negative body image by looking at these seemingly flawless women. No matter how good a woman feels about herself there is always a magazine article telling her how to diet, get toned and become healthy. While watching the movie ,Knocked Up, the main character, Katherine Heigl works for the show E. In one scene she gets promoted to be on camera. The producers pull her into their office and give her a free gym membership to a gym and encourage her to get healthy. She then says “You want me to lose weight?” they then tell her no, that would be illegal and that she should “tone up’. They then tell her to get on a scale and look at the number that comes up then subtract 20 pounds. It’s a satirical way to poke fun at the idea of getting skinny. The producers could not outright call her fat but they could encourage her to tone up. This type of example could be used as a pathos rhetorical strategy by appealing to the audiences’ sense of humor. The audience would mainly be women who feel peer pressured to be skinny. By using this visual example its makes the point of how stupid it really is to emphasize weight without any heavy, serious examples that might scare people away.
Blog #6
Religion is always a touchy subject with people. Everyone has their different beliefs and interpretations. And people will vehemently defend their beliefs and interpretations becoming defensive if questioned. I do not agree with many of Bill Maher’s disrespectful and down right rude comments about religion. His video Religilious really offended me. But does bring to light some of the faults of religion and how it has impacted society. He often shows the extreme side of religion and its implications. I have been around people who take religion extremely serious and without a moments hesitation will tell you that you will go to hell for not believing in the “right” Christian religion.
Now, I am religious and do try to go to a bible based church on Sundays. But to me, my religion is private. And I do not feel the need to push it on others. I go to church most Sundays and if my friends would like to join me they are welcome to go but if they would rather sleep in I understand. Personally I do not think they will go to hell for missing church. God understands we all need sleep. I have been in situations where my nonjudgmental beliefs make others call me non-Christian. In high school I went to a church retreat for a weekend. During one of the prayers someone asked to pray for homosexual people because they were going to hell. I was naive and raised my hand and voiced my opinion that I did not think it was right to judge them on their sexual orientation. To me they had as much of a chance of anyone else in getting into heaven. After my little rant, I was pulled off to the side and the leader of the retreat explained to me my “wayward” thinking. Needless to say I was greatly offended and never went back. I could not stomach being around people who thought they were perfect and everyone else was flawed. To me we are all human and imperfect in God’s eyes. Since I am imperfect, who I am to judge others?
My experience of extreme, judgmental religion is one that I think Maher encountered on a daily basis when trying to do his documentary. I would think this type of extreme people and behavior would be off putting to people like Maher who question their religious beliefs. His entire documentary is trying to make sense of the extreme interpretations of religion and why people are drawn to these religions. He is trying to make sense of why people will so willingly use religion as the basis for some of the most judgmental and hateful actions throughout history. Why would people who claim to follow a peaceful, loving God be the first to judge? And how can people interpret one book or religious story with such differing opinions and still be under the same umbrella of religion? In reality, there is no way to make sense of the extreme religious interpretations and no way to understand certain people’s extreme religious convictions and judgmental views. But for me, I have to put aside the judgmental people and my bad experience because at the end of the day if I don’t, I end up just like them: judgmental, bitter and completely irrational. I have to agree to disagree and believe what I want to believe.
Blog #5
One day while watching TV, Sarah Palin came on to speak. At the time she was accepting her nomination for the vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party. I had no idea who she was but I was blown away by her public speaking ability. I was impressed that this unknown Alaskan governor had the guts to accept the nomination for the republican vice presidential candidate and was not afraid to take risks and speak her mind. She stood in front of television crews and skeptics and many people who believed she should go back to Alaska and spoke frank to the American people.
From the beginning of her speech Palin created an ethos that portrayed her as an average citizen, one who was determined not to stand for corruption, and the good ole boy system in politics, no matter the party. She introduced her husband who was a commercial fisherman and described herself as a hockey mom. According to her speech she decided to get involved in the PTA and her career escalated from there. All the while she continued to have children and raise a family. Her oldest son joined the army and was serving in Iraq. Her youngest son was a newborn and had downs syndrome. Not only did she relate to women who had children serving in Iraq, but to mothers of disabled children. She related to the housewives who stayed at home to raise their children. She was a shinning beacon of hope for these women that homemakers can make a difference. She was also incredibly humble. In her speech she gives credit to John McCain and his other lists of contenders for vice president nomination. She does not act as if it her right to be nominated but as if it was a great honor.
Her demeanor in general also appeals to pathos. Because she is your average citizen with children with a child in the army and a young disabled son people feel sympathy for her. And because she does not ask for sympathy it makes people respect her more. She acts as if this is the hand she was dealt and a disabled son does not change that. Her child is a precious gift and she upon the responsibility of raising him. Her courage to stand up to corruption and point out the flaws in the political system makes the audience proud of her. Here is a candidate who is not afraid to speak her mind. Her is someone who is not afraid of stepping on people’s toes. Here is someone that can represent the American people.
I think not matter where people agree or disagree with her politics there is something to be said for a person who is in the public eye and scrutinized and still says what is on their mind. It is inspiring to see someone who is willing to stand up for what they believe in and not be afraid of their image or public appearance. She very much gives off the idea that ‘this is who she is so take it or leave it’. People can either like her or not but that will not waiver her beliefs. That is very inspiring to me. I think if more people were less afraid to be who they are and voice what they stand for the world would be a different place. I think the world would be less fake, politics less corrupt and young girls with higher self-esteem. But so many times people put on facades or masks that make themselves into what other people want them, and never actually are who they really want to be. Think how different the world would be today if we did not have people who were not afraid to speak there minds and make a difference. Women would not have the right to vote and blacks and whites would not be integrated. We might not even have our country today if people were not afraid to take a stand and be who they wanted to be.
Blog #4
I have always been comfortable in my own skin. I have never questioned my gender or sexuality. And honestly, I have never really thought of the difference between the two. Physically I am a woman, and I have never questioned the societal expectations or characteristics that are put upon me. Isn’t it normal for a girl to want to do girlie things? Isn’t it normal to want to put on make up, fix my hair and look cute? But for some people the societal expectations of their sex are not that clear for them. For Jamison Green, this is what he felt everyday as a woman. Although physically he was a woman, psychologically he felt male. In class we discussed how a person cannot describe what it feels like to have a male or female mindset. It is just the way we think. But imagine what it was like for Jamison Green and imagine the inner turmoil that he went through trying to figure out who he was. Was he male, female or a little bit of both?
In his attempt to define gender Green states that gender is a physical trait that some people use to gain or distribute power. He also defines gender as a type of language. The language and expectations that cross dressers, drag queens and other people use as a guide to define themselves as who they are. According the World Health Organization, gender are the societal or cultural expectations of males or females. In a way, both parties would agree that gender does produce some type of stereotype or mindset. Green would assert because there is power behind gender that people who are transgender, lack that power. Everyday through out the world they are discriminated against because of who they are or for a lack of better phrase, for who they are not. Insurance companies refuse to give transsexual people insurance and medical facilities mark their folders much like The Scarlet Letter. How is it is fair that in today’s society where people have more rights and freedom people cannot still looked past their judgment and see transgendered people for who they are? People.
Now that gender studies have become more popular as Green states in his novel, the audience widens. Not only to academics interested in gender studies but to the culture in general. This subject is becoming more and more integrated into the society but we have a long way to go. The audience I would characterize as academics in gender studies, or people who are becoming more open to the idea of transgendered and transsexual people in our culture and would like to learn more about them. I think Green truly wants to educate his audience. To let them know what it is like to be him, the experiences, obstacles and adventures he faces on a day-to-day life. The more he can educate people about himself the more he can demolish the ignorant stereotypes of transsexuals and hopefully encourage people to see him for what he really is, a person.
After reading this article, I wondered if society was part of the reason Green always felt like he did not fit in. Not that his transsexuality is a bad thing, I just wonder that if society did not have such rigid gender roles, would he still have been as uncomfortable in his own skin. What if it was more acceptable for women to be strong physically, to dress less feminine and be more gender neutral? Would Green still have felt that uncomfortable in his own skin? This is just something I pondered.
ideas for paper #3
Paper 3: Arguments of Definition.
Definitions:
Sorority girl- argue against the idea that all sorority girls are stupid and love to party.
TCU student-argue against the idea that TCU students are stuck up, spoiled, preppy and live in a TCU bubble.
Child Development Major- argue against the idea that all people who major in something pertaining to teaching or child development are dumb and that teaching is not a reputable job. Argue against the idea that just anyone can be an education major.
Sources:
Interview sorority members about their philanthropies, grades and contribution to campus.
Interview TCU students about their backgrounds. See what they think about the TCU stereotype. Do they feel they fit into the stereotype?
Interview Child Development/Education Majors and discuss their coursework and the qualifications they have to meet to be certified teachers. Also interview a professor in the School of Education and see how they feel about this stereotype.
Blog #3
At first, when I watched the music video of MIA ,”Paper Planes” I was entirely confused. Wasn’t this just a music video about getting high on drugs? How did it make an argument? But after watching it repeated times and reading her biography the song makes more sense. The main argument is how judgmental society is towards outsiders and how quick we are to blame them for our problems whether its violence, economic or terrorism. These outsiders are regular people who are looked down upon for their race, job or social class. For example some of the song lyrics talk about “making visas all day” and having them at the border. Basically satirizing the idea that all immigrants in this country are illegal and participate in “under the table” jobs. The kind of jobs that are not reported to the government therefore taxes are not paid on any money earned. I interpret the gunshots and the cash registers as a metaphor. The horrifying idea that people will use any means to make money even if it involves harming or killing others. Because our society has become so money driven people will get rich at any price.
When thinking about it there are several target audiences. First there is the clip in the video that depicts what I call everyday people walking about the streets of the city. I think this audience is the everyday people that MIA refers to in her song and is generalized as judgmental. But by making the music video she is hoping to receive a response from the everyday teenagers and young adults. The lyrics and melody are catchy and if she can persuade this younger audience to agree with her argument she has suddenly changed an entire generation. I think I am part of the target audience because I am a young adult who would listen to this type of music. I am young enough that I am not set in my views, yet old enough that my decisions and viewpoints do have an effect on other people. After watching the video I she exaggerates her point. But that she must do so to make it affective. I felt moved by the video, especially by the cash register and the gunshot sounds. It made me sad to think that our society has been so stereotyped into the idea that we are driven by money, even at any price.
A music video is any easy way to make an argument. MIA clearly has the best of both worlds. She has auditory and visual representations to get her point across. Through the music video she can insert images and act out scenes that are not present in everyday life. She can put on extravagant costumes and sing to get people’s attention and make a point. By putting on these extreme outfits and singing catchy songs she is able to make a point without being to bold or brash. Her humor acts as a buffer to her serious message. Her point still comes across, yet it is not so serious.
Blog Two
This is a clip from the dove campaign for real beauty. It discusses young girls’ self esteem and how young girls are dealing with the pressure to be “pretty and skinny”. First and foremost I think this ad appeals to young girls age 9-17 who feel the need to fit into a certain stereotype at school. Secondly I think this ad appeals to parents, especially mothers of girls age 9-17 who are coping with the peer pressure to be skinny and fit into the media’s idea beauty.
The video argues that many young girls, still in elementary school are feeling the pressure to be skinny and considered pretty. It argues that many young girls will go to extreme cases to be considered pretty. They will literally starve themselves into the hospital and still will never be pretty enough in their eyes. As one young girl stated” you are either too tall, too skinny or too fat and too short”. It stresses the importance of parents talking to their girls about the pressure to be skinny and about their self esteem in general. Encouraging parents to tell them that being skinny and fitting in isn’t everything. And that it is so important that we do not let young girls’ self esteem drop just because they do not fit into the idealized version of pretty.
I think the primary rhetorical strategy used is pathos. The emotional appeal of hearing a young girl saying she was called fat in the third grade is heartbreaking. Or seeing a young girl who looks no older than 13 tell the camera she has been hospitalized for anorexia is heartbreaking. I truly felt for these young girls in the video and their struggles that have driven them to such extremes. It is so troubling to think that children as young as third grade are already classifying each other as fat. I mean they still have baby fat at that age! It is disturbing to think that girls as young as 13 have had such severe cases of anorexia that they have been hospitalized for it is unspeakable. To know that society puts so much pressure on young girls to look a certain way and this is the outcome.
Because some people are so far removed from the peer pressure of growing up and dealing with low self-esteem it’s hard for them to relate to the struggles these young girls are going through. Even in the video the mom interviewed says she could give them the “mom answer” to dealing with low self-esteem but she knows it will not help their predicament. Basically it is easier to tell young girls they are beautiful the way they are but it’s more difficult to get them to believe it. And because some people in the world are dealing with far greater struggles, such as supporting a family and keeping a job, these issues of self-esteem might seem trivial. But by reaching the audience through pathos and grabbing at their heartstrings it makes a difference. Its one thing to hear about young people suffering through peer pressure and self esteem issues. It’s another thing to hear it and actually see the consequences. It one thing to see a young girl who is so tiny call herself fat and discuss how large her thighs are. It makes the audience have empathy for these girls that are going through this type of struggle. It makes the audience sympathize for the parents who have girls dealing with these issues. It makes the audience care and motivates them to promote the idea of real beauty and high self esteem to the young people around them.
Here is the link to the ad:
