Jessica

5/12 Last week I got into a group, and we were in charge of creating a campaign for a mayor, Dane Himesh. We had about one week to create three different products to use to help the campaign and Dane Himesh's election. We created a speech, press release, and a flyer, along with a facebook post. On Wednesday though there was a scandal that another running mayor discovers about Dane. We had to quickly come up with a a strong comeback. We mostly used the Plain Folk technique but we also used the name calling a little bit with the comeback. Writing the speech after the other mayor found out about the scandal was the most difficult because our group wanted to get back at the other group but not harshly enough to lose votes, and then we had to fit in an apology to hopefully gain back votes that we might have lost. The project for our group was mainly fun. When we found out about the scandal that was being added, it made it more stressful but I thought that we came up with a good speech and press release to back it up. Our flyer really represented a simple person who was more about helping people, which is who Dane Himesh was. Our groups scandal seemed a little harder to convince people to vote for Dane than the other mayors running which made it hard to get votes though. Name Calling will benefit me if I am ever in a debate against another person, or plain folk could work as well in a debate. In social studies I can use these in things like projects and presentations. If I ever become a person running for a government position or if I ever am on a campaign team for a person running for a government position, these techniques will come in handy.

3/15 Music has a place in my life that nothing else will ever be able to replace. I am raised with music and I have been taught what music is. Music is an organization of sound and silence through time. All of my grandparents, aunts, uncles (by blood), both brothers, and both my parents have played an instrument before. I didn't choose to play or love music by pressure but by a natural love for it. In my family people have played instruments like the accordion, piano, alto saxophone, acoustic guitar, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, euphonium, electric guitar, bass guitar, and I am the first flute/piccolo player in the family. I started on piano when I was in first grade because I wanted to play like my mom and my grandmother. I played for piano for seven and a half years. I started flute about one month before the first day of sixth grade. I was't initially going to do band. Instead I put down on my class signups that I wanted to take art. I don't know why I chose art because I can't draw, paint or sculpt etc. My grandmother told me about all the fun she had in band when she was in school so one month before the first day of sixth grade I changed my elective to band and I got a flute. I chose to play the flute because at the time I didn't which instrument were in a band and I thought it was what my grandmother played when she was in band. About two or three weeks later though I found out that she had actually played alto saxophone in high school. That was okay because I loved playing the flute by then. I played all through middle school and participated in RAFA (Raleigh Area Flute Association) and I got a piccolo for my birthday in eighth grade. In January when I was in eighth grade I tried out for the Leesville High School Symphonic Band and I made it. Now I get to experience marching and band competitions. Everyone in band is like family.

2/28 I think that Odysseus could be considered a role model/hero for people. He represents courage, strength, and bravery. Today our generation's hero's have revealing clothes, sexual characteristics, and poor values. These people like Miley Cyrus may not realize the effect that they have. I think that she understands that she is a role model for many young women, but I think that she is representing herself in the wrong way. Yes it is great to be who you are and not try to fit in just to be accepted. But she should have a better attitude about it. She is young and is probably going to hit rock bottom soon. The image of herself that she is making is pitiful. In the interview that Miley had she said, "If everyone would still buy my records and if everything would go to No.1 in 30 seconds or whatever… that'd be great." This attitude seems like she could care less about her younger fans and the effect that she has, as long as she gets paid.  In her interview she also said,  "hopefully inspiring people to be good and to treat people well,"  Is her vision of inspiring people to do good smoking marijuana on stage on TV in front of all of her fans? I loved her show when I was younger, I get that she wants to grow up and get away from the Disney image she had, but she needs help. I agree woth O'Connor

"Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent." She should should represent herself as strong, independent, and able to do things that inspire people to do great things.

If epic hero archetypes like Odysseus are supposed to be the best of the best, a role model for us all, then who are the heroes of today and what are the values that our society upholds as models for "ideal" character traits?

Read the two articles with opposing view points and then decide for yourself what characteristics we should prize in our society for women and for men.

2/21 In the first article the writer is talking about sexism in clothing. The Marvel company is making shirts for men to wear that say "Be A Hero" and the shirt for women says " I Need A Hero". This is implying that girls need someone to take care of them, they always need help. Marvel has gotten complaints about these shirts before. In the other article, "Wear What Where?" there is a father that is facing the challenges on the boundaries of his daughters clothing choices as they grow into teenagers. A professor did a study and came up with positive reasons for a parents to tell their daughters on why they don't need revealing clothes. There were two articles written about clothing and the effects of revealing dress written specifically for marketeers. Instead of giving them a different point of view on what they are selling, parents read it and felt more inclined to be strict on what they let their daughters wear. Thats good, but it didn't have an effect on the different markets that are still selling the revealing clothing. This choice of revealing dress can effect the ability to be taken seriously resulting in, trouble finding a job, teachers thinking their not smart, and everyone thinking what they say is a joke. I think that this is ruining society. People are so focused on, how short can I wear a skirt and get away with it. This idea is consuming us. In the article "Clothing for Boys... girls" people are standing up to the idea that women should be dependent on men. Women can take care of themselves without a guys help, ever since women got their rights. But some marketeers are still for some reason using this false idea. A study was done and it revealed that out of 15 popular websites, 29.4% of the clothing has sexualixing characteristics. Over half of the dresses show this style. If girls came to the conclusion that they don't need to wear this type of clothing to be happy, they could be exposed to many more opportunities.

2/7 Artists do not need any negative slurs in their songs. Whether they are intentional or not. If the writer is trying to make a point on something strong that they believe, that artist can choose other strong words that don't offend people to make that point. The mistake of word choice is often made upon the younger generation. Artists often write about there way to the top (becoming famous) and the struggles that they went through to get there, their environment, how they were treated, and all the hate that they received. They use insult after insult without thinking twice about it. Brother Ali did this. "hear a poor, angry dude fighting his way through life and spitting venom along the way, including that terrible F word. My world was pretty small and bleak when I wrote that album." To the Artist they think that it is okay because all their fans who listen to the song will know what they have been through, and some will, but a lot of people hear a angry person yelling all these negative slurs everywhere and the fans could start to replicate that behavior without understanding what the meaning of the song was. Later though Brother Ali said that he regrets all those insults he used in his songs, not knowing the full impact that it had on other people. "What I was too ignorant, and probably too careless, to understand was that using that word was co-signing the narrative that being gay means a person is weak and doesn't deserve respect."