Blog 10 December 11, 2009

Of all of the Collaborative Proposals from our class, the one that I like the most is the Free Range argument.  All of the issues presented by the class are quite relevant, but I felt like I could relate to the free range argument the most.  Perhaps it is because their argument is refreshing after all of the vegan pamphlets and flyers they hand out.  I personally think that livestock serve the purpose of being food, but I like the idea of free range because it establishes fair treatment for those animals from beginning to end.  Just because they are going to be slaughtered in the end, does not mean that they do not deserve a life without suffering and even happiness, if cows can be happy.

Because I was part of their targeted audience, I believe that the group that proposed free range successfully drew me in to their beliefs since I am in the right age group and specifically go to TCU.  They also used good sources that involved plenty of pathos and logos.  I felt that the pathos portion of the argument was really successful because at times it had me feeling rather sick at how the animals were being treated.  This was important because the audience is supposed to feel for the animals in order to agree with the solution of free range.

Collaborative Proposal-So far (Blog 9) November 19, 2009

For my group’s proposal project, we have decided on the general topic of how the media affects teens: breaking into three subgroups of peer pressure, domestic violence, and body image. Today was really productive in working with my group because I feel like we cleared a bunch of questions and concerns up since we actually had all of our group members there.

 

My individual section is the domestic violence subsection. So far I have created an outline and found a couple of good sources that I will definitely use in my section as well as a video for the visual presentation in class. I have also been the one that has been setting up our specific schedule and plan for the paper, which I like because I am one of those people that needs some control over what our group is planning. I think this stems from the fact that I have been in groups before that ended up with me doing all of the work, which I felt was unfair but also better because then I could assure that we would get a good grade. Well, being abused in my group is not one of my concerns because I feel like all of the other girls in my group are responsible and we are able to communicate effectively already in the beginning stages of the project. We are all pretty much on the same page as far as when we are going to get things done and that we will definitely be corresponding through email during Thanksgiving break. I am also glad that we will be getting an individual grade on the project. I am not worried that our paper overall won’t be good, but it seems fairer in the case that someone flakes on their part. (But I’m pretty sure this will NOT happen.)

 

Even though I feel pretty confident about how we will work as a group together, I do have a few minor concerns. These include actually writing my section and making it cohesive with what everyone else has going on in their sections. I also feel like I have a lot to talk about for having a subsection; I don’t want to write a million pages when everyone else writes two or three—then it would be obviously imbalanced and look like I am trying to dominate the paper. In general though, I feel pretty good about the paper and feel prepared enough to get started writing.

Blog 8: Collaborative Proposal November 9, 2009

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- Collaborative Proposal November 2, 2009

One issue that I would really like to research about for the collaborative proposal project is animal abuse.  This issue is important to me because I am really interested in animal rights and helping to save them from people who mistreat them.  I would say that the people affected by this issue would be those who own pets because pets are a large responsibility and need a lot of care.  Abuse is classified in many different types: it is not just physically beating an animal but neglecting one.  If you do not take your animal to see a vet if it experiences an injury or a problem, that is considered abuse.  Not feeding an animal or giving it clean water to drink is also a form of abuse.  People who own pets need to be aware of how to take care of their animals properly because so many abuse cases can stem from them just not knowing what to do with them.  Specifically, horses are victims of many abuse cases because they require complicated, extensive care and cannot thrive on food being thrown at them every once in a while.  I think that visuals will play a large role in this project because many are shocking and upsetting.  If a person actually sees the abuse going on, it will be harder not to do something about it.  The type of argument could possibly be an argument of what abuse is really defined as, and advocacy to stop it by sharing knowledge or reporting it to the police.

 

The other issue that I am interested in is domestic violence.  I watched a video done by Kiera Knightly advocating against domestic violence not long after the incident with Rihanna and Chris Brown.  I would like to research about it because the whole dynamic of an abusive relationship is very complex.  Why would a woman go back to a man that beat her?  It doesn’t necessarily make sense but there has to be a reason since many women do stay in an abusive relationship.  I think the target audience would be people that possibly know others in these types of relationships or women at risk of being in an abusive relationship.  I would definitely show the video that I watched, because it is very compelling and gut wrenching to see Kiera Knightly being beaten by her “boyfriend.”  I think that the argument would be more investigative than the first because I want to find out some reasons why the women stay in abusive relationships and why some do not.  The argument would not be centered on “abuse is bad” but more about why it happens and why victims stay victims in that kind of situation.  It would require a lot of research but I think that if I could come to a conclusion with my group and we could draw a particular argument from it, it would be a really good topic to present.

I Am So Religulous October 24, 2009

Since I have gotten into college, I have struggled with what I believe about religion.  My first semester I had a really difficult religion class that made me question some of my beliefs about the Bible and God.  I still pray at times and I want to believe, but I am more in doubt than I had ever been before.  So this is why that I can find some relation to Bill Maher’s documentary, Religulous.  Part of his journey is about questioning faith and belief.  I get that because I can relate to those feelings of doubt and wonder.  However, I do not really agree with some of his methods of questioning people about their beliefs.  I would never try to press my beliefs on someone else because I don’t think anyone needs to believe specifically what I do. 

The people who pressure and push their beliefs/religion on others make me squirm where I sit.  I do not like to associate with the people that are pushy about faith, and so my own faith is questioned sometimes.  Do I want people to put me in the category with those others that I do not share ideas with about trying to help pagans see the light?  If someone doesn’t want to convert, then don’t make them: it’s alienating.  Maher could not find what faith feels like in his documentary.  I do feel faith but I sometimes wonder if it is real.  I don’t go to church, and I haven’t read many of the sections of the Bible.  Some people would probably question my right to be a Christian because of these things, but I still feel faith as a guiding force and I still pray to God.  And I still have some standards about being a Christian that I have heard preached over and over again: do not judge others, because you have no right; only God does.  I don’t approve of the fact that in some religions, gays are denounced and excommunicated.  The God I learned about in Sunday school would be appalled.  Many homosexuals still want or need the faith and community that religion brings.  I feel like it is part of human nature.  So why push them away if they just want to worship and celebrate their faith?  Who has the right to condemn them, since religion is so much bigger than one person’s opinion?  I personally think it is a waste of energy.      

I do see some of Maher’s points as making sense.  I feel very strongly about the fact that religion is powerful enough to influence destruction; I agree with it even.  It scares me that radicals think that religion is an excuse to kill other people, which also makes me angry.  I don’t believe in martyrs because I think that makes it okay to believe that religious radicals are martyrs, that they are dying to make the world a better place, which is not true when other people are dying for their sacrifice. 

Not all people have the same views and I am not specifically bashing Christians or religion, just trying to make a point that I have some aligning views with Maher’s documentary.  I think that in many ways, religion is important to having a good, happy life, and that I need something to believe in to get through the day and get up in the morning.

Art as a Piece of Rhetoric October 19, 2009

At first I was not sure who I knew of that is a good rhetorician because I have no specific idol that I can think of off the top of my head.  I do not read speeches by famous people that often nor do I pay a significant amount of attention to political issues.  However, after some thought, I find that there are other ways for people to make arguments and have an opinion about something than giving a speech or writing an essay. 

As I was thinking, I just happened to glance at a book on my floor about my favorite artist, Alphonse Mucha.  He is no longer alive, but when he was, he was famous a Czech artist who created beautiful lithographs for French advertisements.  Lithography is a complicated form of printmaking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography.  As I flipped through some pages in the book, I realized that he is making a strong argument for consumers to buy the product that his prints are advertising.  I think that I would definitely buy the products that he advertises because his images are so visually appealing and intricate.  Now, I understand that he probably did not always consume the products that he was commissioned to create an advertisement for, but his argument is still to buy them, since he has put a lot of effort into each advertisement like it is its own work of art.  He probably had a choice in which commissions he would take, because when you are famous/rich you can do that: for example actors and actresses taking roles they wish to play or that they are interested in.  Certainly the evidence of more effort to create a beautiful advertisement versus a plainer, cheaper looking advertisement would draw me to that particular product.  I like complex designs anyway, and have always been more willing to pick up an item for its artistic value more than its particular function. 

I wouldn’t say that Mucha is trying to pull for a certain change with his work, like in the upcoming collaborative proposal we will be writing in class, but his message to me is important.  For people to be drawn to things or interested in them, I think there needs to be some kind of appeal that is immediately satisfied and makes the audience want to find out more about what is going on.  Like in his work, where one sees the beautiful artwork and then sees the advertisement, I want people to be hooked and then delve further to see what I have to say.   

                       

Paper 3-Definitions/Sources October 13, 2009

Three Definitions that I associate with:

 

1. I am blonde- source: talk to students on campus.  What do they think of when they see blondes?  Are they stupid/promiscuous?  What’s the stereotype?

 

2. I am white/middle class- source: statistics are a good example to show how I fit into the network of people in my area, in the country, in the world.

 

3. I am short (barely above the standard for being a little person)- source: research about little people: some have severe handicaps, but I have some too: I can’t reach things and I have problems with clothes fitting me, same as many of them.

Jamison Green October 7, 2009

Gender is something that I never really thought about as contestable.  It was being masculine or being feminine and fitting into those roles set out for us as either a woman or a man, which is how the World Health Organization defines gender.  I have never had to consider gender as anything else because I feel like I fit into my role as a woman; being a woman is part of being me. 

However, I have a lot to consider after reading an excerpt from Becoming a Visible Man, by Jamison Green.  For him, gender has not been such an easily defining road, since he is a transsexual.  He was born a woman, but never felt like he belonged in that gender role.  Now a man, he is heavily discriminated against and stigmatized for being a transsexual.  His definition of gender is different than that of the WHO because he says that gender “cannot be assigned by others… that gender is the interface between our psyche and our cognitive mind/body/sex.” (193)  So, in his interpretation he is gendered a man.  He says throughout the text that he never felt right being a woman and that he was trapped in “a female body,” but never truly a woman.  So of course he needs to redefine what people interpret as gender.  Other people, those that are not transsexual or homosexual, probably have a pretty good idea what gender role they play.  Green says it is because of a state of mind.  I am a woman because I feel like a woman and associate with being a woman.  He did not have that kind of relationship with himself when he was female.  He always felt more comfortable as a man.  If he redefines gender as part of our natural mindset as human beings then he fits in with the gender that he associates with.  Everyone wants to fit into themselves. 

Why should people who feel like they don’t fit in to the “natural way of things” feel afraid to change themselves?  It’s because of other people.  Some of the things that Green described in the beginning of the text like the doctors refusing any treatment to someone who is transsexual or making someone’s transsexuality public in the doctor’s office by writing on the chart in red pen, really disgusts me.  Is he still a human being even though he can’t seem to fit into the standard that others have made for him?  Apparently, since he is meta-cognitive enough to think about his gender being a state of his mind and a joining of all of the parts of himself.  It makes me sick how people can be treated this way, as if they are animals and don’t have feelings.  I consider my cat’s feelings more than those doctors considered his feelings or the feelings of people he knew in similar situations.  Throughout the passage I was thinking to myself, why? Why are humans so belligerent to those that are different from themselves? 

I think this is the type of response that Green wants from his audience.  He wants others to understand what he and other transsexuals go through in every day life.  Am I part of the audience?  Well, sure.  I mean, his passage affected me in a way that I sort of agree with him.  For people to accept others the way they are then we need to see gender as a state of mind and part of our identity, and that our whole identity is unique and defined by many different aspects of our character.  I think he accounts for a horrendous and shameful mistreatment of human beings that if anyone else were to be in a reversed role would just resign life to those who didn’t have to suffer.  I admire these people, and Green especially, for their courage in standing up to the cruelest aspects of human nature by still trying to live a normal life.

Already Going to Hell, Just Pumping Our Gas September 20, 2009

In MIA’s Paper Planes, the video is a satirical critique of the inner workings of city life and the ideals of its culture. It especially pertains to how this type of environment can affect innocents like children.  The lyrics accompanied by the sounds of gunshots and cash registers create a powerful combination.  She repeatedly sings about getting high, taking people’s money and murdering versus letting “some” [victims] go.  MIA probably used a music video because music has the ability to reach thousands of people: a good strategy for trying to make a point.  And, following the song, people are going to look for the video that accompanies it out of curiosity.  This makes it extremely effective in finding a target audience.  People that care about the song and understand it are more likely to search for the video and make the connections that they are meant to.  The video also does the song a service by reinforcing the connections of poverty to selling drugs and joining a gang.

Presumably, MIA’s audience is everyone since her song is popular and is played on the radio.  However, a deeper look at the video and the lyrics shows that she is presenting reality of people’s lives that live under the poverty line to those who do not know what that kind of living is like, but understand that it exists.  Evidence of this is subtle in MIA’s video: it shows a more broken down area of a major city and people giving her expensive looking items like watches and necklaces in return for a “sandwich.”  The sandwiches look normal but the lyrics and the exchanges between the people in the video suggest otherwise.  To be a member of this audience, you have to get those subtleties and connect the actions in the video to the lyrics being sung.  I think I am part of the audience, though I had to watch the video twice to understand the connections between the song and what I saw.  I am relatively familiar with the song, but I looked up the lyrics to make sure that I was getting every word MIA said, which helped me understand tremendously. 

The video actually makes me think of children, because they sing in the background during the chorus.  (Also because the song is played in Slumdog Millionaire where children are stealing to survive and make money.)  I think about the children that probably suffer from the kind of life style that involves crime and drugs, setting out to be “bona fide hustlers” for the duration of their lives.  It occurs to me that the song seems so innocent with its catchy beat, something as whimsical as a paper airplane and children singing in the chorus, like a child telling her friends that “some she murders and some she lets go.”  It makes me sad for these children, that the ideals of drugs, murder and stealing are all they have in their future and all they have been exposed to in their environment.  MIA has provided for us a satirical exaggeration of American culture with her video: having ideals of selling drugs, crime, and killing, by voicing them through children.  Satire makes the argument stronger because it does not inhibit the seriousness of the issues that MIA is addressing.  Straight up humor might have taken away from the video/song and its meaning because in reality people, especially children, do live poverty stricken, gang threatened environments.

Ponyo is on a boat! September 8, 2009

 

Ponyo is on a Boat – watch more funny videos

 

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is an anime film produced by the Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.  It was converted into English by Disney, like many other of Miyazaki’s films, such as Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.  The movie is about a goldfish (Ponyo) that wants to spend time with a boy who has saved her from being stuck in a glass bottle.  She is the daughter of a sea goddess and she turns herself into a human to be with Sosuke, the little boy, which is an interestingly similar story to The Little Mermaid, also produced by Disney.  The video linked above is a synced clip of the movie, Ponyo and the infamous song “I’m On A Boat” by The Lonely Island. 

 The video will probably only be effective in getting a good laugh out of the people who are familiar with the film and other anime movies.  The targeted audience appreciates the alterations and effort needed in creating a parody of the relatively innocent and sweet movie, since there are a lot of curse words in the song.  (Ideally the video is not for the eight or nine year old kids who actually saw the G rated film.)  But as for me, a mature, twenty year old, the video brought me quite a bit of entertainment.  I have enjoyed Miyazaki’s other anime films like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.  I watch altered videos because they make me laugh and laughing is always easier when I know the context of the video.  I have known the song since it came out as I am sure many other people do.  To put them both together was hilarious because I would never have thought to do it myself.  However, to those who have no clue about what either the movie or the song are about might not think the video is funny as it has no relevant context to them.  That is why the audience is specific to the people that know about both parts that comprise the video.   

  The rhetor of the video is making an argument that the movie and the song go well together.  They are both centered around the ocean and have coexisting themes (like riding dolphins, being on a boat and mermaids.)  The audience is supposed to believe that the movie was actually made to go with the song, and for those who do not know anything about either of the parts, the video looks like it was made for the song.  The song has been synced so that it looks like the people in the movie are singing the words.  The author is basically showing everyone the movie but from a more adult, comical perspective.  The author is making fun of the film as well because it seems like these days movies have a more vividly offensive vocabulary than they used to.  Ponyo is a G rated movie, so perhaps the author wanted to spice up the language a little bit by adding the song to it.  The main rhetorical strategy in the clip is pathos because the video is supposed to be funny.  The targeted people should make the connection between the song and the movie and therefore find it mildly amusing if not amazingly humorous.  The person who made the video is most likely part of the audience and he/she made it to laugh like everyone else is supposed to do.