Emily+Margaret

=**February 7, 2014 Week 1 Response- On "Brother Ali: The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop: Where Tyler Meet Frank"**=

Once I read the article and read the question, I still didn't know how to answer it. After having it explained to me, I immediately came to a conclusion. The question was basically asking if it is better for someone to just say something offensive, or think about it, realize the consequences, and still continued to say it. I feel that there is no difference. You still said it, and it still affected someone. For example, Brother Ali used a quote from Tyler that said "I just think 'ft' hits and hurts people." and that's true. Even if the person who directed it, thought about it before saying it.

_ = = =**February 21, 2014 Week 3 Response- On "Clothing Straddles the Line Between Sweet and Skimpy" and "Sexist 'Avengers' T-Shirts Tell Boys to Be A Hero And Girls to Need A Hero"**=

The article "Sexist 'Avengers' T-Shirts Tell Boys to Be A Hero and Girl to Need A Hero" talks about how our society still thinks women can't help themselves. It is truly sexist. In the other article, "Clothing Straddles the Line Between Sweet and Skimpy" a father talks about one night where his daughters modeled some new outfits. He found that they were a bit inappropriate. The father goes on to talk about what parents can do to set guidelines for their children's clothing without completely changing what their child wants to wear. The clothing that used to be for older girls have been passed down to younger and younger ages.

The two articles both say something about our society. Apparently, people refuse to think that women can't help themselves or they just blatantly ignore it. Even in this modern age, some people can't grasp that fact. Now a days women have jobs, live on their own, and care for themselves. The t-shirts say that women "Need A Hero" and the men need to "Be A Hero". In a perfect world, both shirts would say "Be A Hero". Also, due to the easy access to pornography on the internet, it has eased its way into society. Clothes for little girls are a lot more revealing now. I remember when I was younger the shirts were just decorated with flowers, or princesses, and were fully covering. These days they show a lot more. There are crop tops in the youth section at Target for Pete's sake! What I took away from the articles was that our society has a certain image, or mold, for women. They must need a hero, they must wear these clothes to be popular, or pretty but in reality that's just not true. This trend needs to stop. There should be more marketers selling modest clothing, that is still cute. It doesn't have to show a lot, to say a lot.

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= = =**February 28, 2014 Week 4 Response- Epic Role Models**=

Today, we look for certain, favorable, character traits in people. I think that traits we look for in men and women are honesty, individuality, being independent, and courtesy. I don't know about what others think, but I believe the most important one is courtesy. If someone is polite and respects others, I automatically want to be their friend. The others traits are important too, but politeness says a lot about some one's character. I feel like teens now a days aren't that polite anymore. For example, my cousin is really southern and her parents have taught her to always say "Yes ma'm, no ma'm" or "Yes sir, no sir" as long as I can remember she has never EVER said "yeah" to an adult. EVER. I don't see that in a lot of teens these days. I think a trait that we should prize is courtesy.

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=March 14, 2014 Week 5 Free Write=

There are many, many things that annoy me. Recently, this one has come to light, but first I'll give you some back story. I hung out with one of my best friends recently and it had been awhile since we had seen each other, so I had forgotten that she has this "paranoia" where she is constantly afraid of being either kidnapped, raped, or killed. We were at the mall and we were walking behind three men who were probably in their mid to late twenty's. She wanted to walk one way so we were no longer behind them. I asked her why (I should've known why but I continued to ask) and she said "They look like creepers." This annoyed me on so many levels. I don't know if it was because I'd been walking for two hours or something else, but it really got to me. She does things like this all the time. For example, she'll call her mom if she sees a big white van or a suspicious character. Finally, this comes to what annoys me: Living in fear. She lives in constant fear. It is one thing to be aware but being scared all the time is just annoying. I used to be like her when I was ten. I'd be so scared to walk across the street to my friend's house. Now, I'll walk all the way to the grocery store, pick up a few things, and walk back home. When I got home that night, I told my mom all about our mishap at the mall. I hate to admit this, but my mom is a million times wiser than me. She said something that calmed me down and made me realize why my friend is like that. The reason I am no longer paranoid about being kidnapped is because once I got to a certain age (12 or 13) my parents did this amazing thing called trusting me. They trusted me to walk to the store and back. Not only did they trust me, but they forced me. They pushed me out into the world so I could learn on my own. I can't give them full credit because I always told my parents everything so they could guide me, so pretty much I just trusted them back. In the case of my best friend, her mom doesn't trust her and hasn't taught her to be strong and unafraid. A common to thing hear in her house is "Jordan what are you wearing? What if a dirty man gives you dirty looks?!?" I can understand where her mom is coming from, but it would be a lot simpler to say "Jordan, I don't feel comfortable with you wearing that. Can you please change?" That sounds a lot better than injecting fear into your daughter. So now my best friend will probably always be scared. I just worry that she is going to miss out on so many chances in life because she can't just let go. I don't want her to completely forget that there are predators out there, I still want her to be aware. Once again, there is a difference between being aware and being scared. Don't live in fear.

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=**May 12, 2014 Reflect Fools**=

Last week we did a campaign project. Basically, we broke up into six groups and were given a candidate to represent and create ads for. We had to make things like posters, commercials, and speeches for the candidate. For instance, our group had Olivia Hood, and we created a slogan to put on all of our products. The slogan was "It's all good in the Hood" this is a pun because her last name is Hood. This is also glittering generalities. Our group also used the propaganda technique testimonials. Our sponsor was Uncle Phil.

The most challenging thing about this project was not really having straight forward directions. At the beginning I felt really stressed because I didn't know what to do. Near the end I had the hang of it. The easiest thing was probably writing the speech because I have written speeches before. If I could do this project over again, I would probably spend more time on the posters and commercial. For future projects,I think adding a list of things that //must// be turned in would help. Saying that we could do optional things like pins, posters, and goodies would be good too.

The project taught me techniques that can really help me in the future. I learned how to be a better leader in groups and how to divide and conquer. Also, I got really comfortable with doing things without instructions. In the future for this class and other classes, I will be able to work well in groups and on my own. As for outside of the class, I will be able to be more creative with solving problems.