Noor

February 7, 2014 Brother Ali response- I feel like it is very critical that entertainers watch and be careful about what they say, because they never know how people will take what they say. People interpret things in many different ways. It is important not to defend your fans, or your audience because they are the center of your career, and without them you would not have the same opportunities. I think you should be free to say what you wish, but at the same time you need to realize your limits. Another thing is the age category of your audience. You don't want small children to pick up bad language and get wrong ideas from songs. I do not think Brother Ali meant to defend anyone, but was just giving his opinion. I also think he learned his lesson about what and what not to say to people. I believe that his career may have been hurt by this event which can lead to losing his career, money, and fans. In the future I think it is very important for him to watch his words, and I think this was a learning experience for all entertainers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brother-ali/hip-hop-homophobia-_b_1864676.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

February 21, 2014 Society has change tremendously over the course of the last few generations. Young women are beginning to dress differently, and it seems as if our society is only getting more sexist. In the "Sexist Avengers" article, the author displays their toward the Marvel Avengers shirts and how they display sexism. It really struck my attention when the author said " the comic book publisher, is now contributing to the boys are strong/girls are weak dichotomy with two T-shirts based on the popular "Avengers" franchise". I realized that some people view women as weaker than men. As a girl in todays society, it angers me that people have this sexist view. In "A Line Between Sweet and Skimpy" the line "I’ve internalized all the messages that I should not criticize my daughters’ bodies" really caught my attention because it made me realize how difficult it is for parents (especially those who have young daughters) to find a compromise about how to approach a situation that involves how their daughters get dressed. The article also stated how young girls begin to flaunt their bodies at such a young age, I realized this has lots to do with the society and media we have today.  I think that you can learn a lot about our society today with just a look at how someone dresses. What do you expect when your favorite old time disney star ditches her innocence to twerk while licking hammers? I think dressing modest can tell a lot about a person, and their values. As I read in the article "A Line Between Sweet and Skimpy", the younger the generation, the more they feel the need to undress to get attention. Another challenge in our society today is the amount of judgement you receive just from what you wear. Every once in a while a girl does not follow the crowd, and chooses to wear something unique and different. Sadly she almost always gets judged for not being like everyone else. No matter how you dress, I believe that beauty comes from within, and I think its unfair to be judged by the kind of shirt or shoes you put on every morning.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/sexist-avengers-t-shirts-_n_3063942.html?utm_hp_ref=tw []

February 28, 2014 I will admit that I was very shocked about Sinead O'Connor's response to Miley Cyrus. I feel as if I am on Sinead's side as opposed to being on Miley's side. At first I was like "OMG Sinead needs to mind her own buisness and take Miley's gesture as a complement". Then I came across the line "and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, 'they' will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone." This is very true, and I realized that Sinhead was looking after Miley, and if you think about it, Miley just needs a reality check every now and then. I respect her for being herself and expressing her thoughts but this is not a good way to do that especially when her audience contains young girls. Some characteristics I think we should take pride in (especially as women) is purity, confidence, kindness, bravery, and most importantly self respect. For men I believe important traits are class, respect to a women, bravery, courage and more! I believe self respect is the most important characteristic to have because at the end of the day all you have is yourself.

March 14th, 2014 Free Write: For my free write, I thought I would talk about my thoughts on confidence for women, and how what you wear influences it. As a young girl I think it is very important to feel confident and comfortable in your skin. I also think that what you wear influences how you feel about yourself as well. Just think about it. Do you feel better in a nice and new shirt, or an old T-Shirt? I don't think any women should ever dress up to please anyone but herself. Confidence is the best makeup on any girl. Being able to walk out the door loving yourself, and not caring about what anyone thinks of you is not as easy as it sounds in our generation (especially teenage girls)! I dress for myself, and live my life for myself and no one else. No matter who you are or where your from, you should do whatever makes you feel best about yourself, even if others do not accept you for it!

May 12th, 2014 In our recent project, we were divided into six groups. Each group represented a candidate that was running for mayor around our area. All groups had to produce a speech, and at least two other campaign devices to persuade the town hall to elect them for mayor. Propaganda was used in a lot against opponents. At times I felt as if we had to bash our opponents to make ourselves sound good and to get people on our side. My group used exaggeration a ton in our project. We exaggerated our candidate (Ivy Hammond) and made her sound a lot better than she actually was.

In my opinion, the most challenging part of this project was answering the questions at the town hall meeting. This was because I was the representative for my group, and some of the questions I got asked were extremely challenging like "What would you do for those who have retired". I had to make up good answers on the spot. My overall reflection of the project is very positive. I liked how we weren't given an extremely specific rubric, and we were able to present how ever we felt. If I had the chance to redo this project I would defiantly create a video about Ivy Hammond. I feel like the people representing Olivia Hood Charmed the crowd with their video because it went above and beyond. This project could have improved if we had a little bit more vivid characters. I think it would have been easier to answer questions it the characters had more traits.

I have learned many techniques from doing this project. Some things I learned about this project that I can apply in your class for the future were things that my classmates enjoy like making videos, and that we don't have specific instructions so we are free to do a lot of things. This project helped me learn things for other classes such as you should always go above and beyond, and not always be average. You have to do things that make you stand out for everyone else. I think this project helped me prepare for life outside of high school because it helped with speech skills, and being a strong leader.