NatBrow

2/07/14

I think this article is very thought out and debatable. In this article, Brother Ali is explaining his views on using words that homosexual people could take offense to; I completely see his point of view. Yes, we are kids and most of the time we truly take for granted the impact our words can have on each other. With this being said I definitely see where Brother Ali is coming from when he says we need to be more cautious about the things we say. On the other hand, I understand that words like these in raps aren't uncommon. For who knows how long people have used "hurtful words" in songs, but it doesn't necessarily mean that is the rappers real point of view. All in all, I understand both points of views in this situation, and feel as though everyone should be more mindful of the things they say.

2/21/14

The first article I read about had to do with the debating topic of shirts being sexist towards women. The article stated that super hero shirts tell boys to "be a hero" and for girls to "need a hero." It isn't just the super hero shirts but these shirts were a prime example of a clear sexist quote. Yes, I do think some shirts display sexist sayings more than others, and sometimes I do not agree with the sayings on these shirts; but there is a simple solution. When people see shirts like this that they think affect them or are sexist, then you just shouldn't but them which will eventually effect the company.

The second article I read discussed the type of clothing girls in this generation wear. Even at younger ages than I, girls are wanting to wear clothing that expresses more of their "goodies" than ever before. Truthfully, I think girls should express themselves through what they wear, but after a certain point it is too much. Girls should be comfortable in their own skin but should not show off everything they have. Nothing is actually attractive when it comes to a girl walking around with her boobs or butt out, its just trashy. Less is more and that's what I think is missing today. Girls don't have to show off what shouldn't be shown to get attention. Personality will always shine through and what you wear should show who you are but only to a point. As my mom says " Modest is hottest!"

2/28/14 In this day of age, the characteristics of our role models are different from what people thought they were 50 years ago. Today, I see heroes as the people who sacrifice their lives everyday to enhance the quality of our country. People like soldiers, police officers, fire fighters, etc. I consider heroes due to their courage and respect for themselves and others. A hero doesn't have to exactly be a soldier though, they could be in front of you in the form of a parent or guardian. Some of the people that are considered to be hero's or role models varies on who you're talking to. For example, one of my very good friends worships Kim Kardashian, when her sex tape was released that was when she became really famous. Is this really something we should look up to someone for? Yes, she may have gotten a lil smarter and kept some more recent tapes under wraps, but she still let the first tape get out. Basically what I'm saying is yes, Kim made a mistake but she is pretty much famous for the mistake she made which isn't a characteristic we should model. Today, I feel like we should begin to prize modesty in our society again. Girls who are not famous I think are influenced by what celebrities wear. "us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women." This quote from the O'Connor article is completely true. I know when I was a kid I truly idolized Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and I wanted to be exactly like her, so kids like that must feel the same way. The thing is though, if Miley feels comfortable in what she wears and how her true personality is, then I don't see a problem with the way she is acting. Maybe I see this topic the way I do because I feel like I've kind of grown up with her and the older I have gotten the more she has appealed to me, but kids that are a younger age probably see this topic differently. I think Mileys actions may not be the best but she always tries to express how she feels people shouldn't be judged and how being yourself is important, which are some of the characteristics we should prize today. Being truthful and expressing who you are is hard to do today because of society and the fear of being different, but miley is saying not to be scared of that and that's what I think we can learn from her.

5/13/14 Last week, we were assigned to create a campaign for a male or female running to be mayor. We didn't have many instructions which let us express our creativity, and this let us go in many different directions with this project. On the first day, we were given background information on our assigned candidate. We were also assigned to make any type of advertisements and mail cards to get the word out about who we were pushing for. Then before you could get too comfortable, Ms. Whitley threw in scandals. Yes, some were worse than others but none the less it can be hard to get around anything negative about a person. Finally on election day we were given the opportunity to address anything we wanted to about our candidate. In the end, this project showed us numerous different types of propaganda and It kind of gave us a sense of how the real world voting system works. Techniques that we used to advertise Rex were bandwagon, "Everyone does it, vote for Rex!" plain folk, "Rex is just like you, vote for Rex!" and testimonials, which for us was using a famous person to connect to the audience and attempt to get more votes. In doing this project, the most difficult thing for our group had to have been our scandal. The first day we got our project, we could have really done anything with Rex. Thanks to the background information given to us, it was very easy to play up on the pros of Rex Ruthless since no one knew about any cons we had. When we found out our scandal, it became very hard to overlook it after everyone knew. I would say our scandal wasn't as severe as a few others, but doing illegal things is never right. In the end I think working around it was very realistic and definitely had an impact on how we all voted. Something I found difficult in doing this project was the first day we got them, I wasn't really clear on what Ms. Whitley wanted from us. I know I'm not used to getting a project and being able to go in any direction I wanted to go, but it was more realistic to have it presented to us this way. Something that made it easy was after realizing we could do anything with our campaign, was just finding ways to present it. Something I think my group should have done differently was played up on our opponents scandals more so our candidate could've been more competitive. Something that could improve the project in the future is a tad more of a guideline for people to really understand the project. In the future of this class, we could definitely use the propaganda techniques we learned in any type of debates we have for people to see our viewpoint better. In other classes, specifically World History, propaganda is mentioned a lot. Currently I'm learning about WW1 and propaganda is used frequently. Learning in English about the different types has given me a much better understanding of propaganda, and various aspects of that class specifically. Outside of school, I can use propaganda in my career. When I'm old enough to have a job, propaganda can be used to persuade my boss to maybe try something new for our company, or for customers to buy the product I want them to. The possibilities are virtually endless with what you can use propaganda for in the real world, since we see it every day on TV and our phones.