American Dream

Kevin Jenning's dream basically was to be accepted. All of his life, he was told he had to act one way and be one way, and it was never what he truly wanted. His mother wanted a good life for him so he spent all his time trying to do what she wanted him too and be a good person, but he never got to do what he wanted to do or be his true self. It took him a long period of time to realize that he needs to come to understanding with himself and be true to himself in order to live the  american dream. My favorite part in the story was when he asked multiple questions abuots racism and life. He asked "why if someone cheated someone out of money they were referred to as jews?", and "why was my brother ostracized when he fell in love with and later married a black woman?" I thought that was a very strong part of this article, because it wasn't just about him it was about life and the racism that comes with it. He made it to show people that everyone should be able to have their "American Dream".

I like the quote about real freedom that Kevin Jennings wrote on second to last page. I felt it was strong and it really spoke to me as a reader. He is telling people something they need to hear and they need to realize that if they don't take that advice, they may never get to feel this real freedom and be happy and open with who they are.

Discussion #1

The articles we had to read for this discussion I think all put their own thought into it differently. They all focused on different things with the same underlining topic. My favorite of all of them was the American Dream one. I thought that this one showed the most heart and did not just talk about racism over African Americans but used examples of all kinds. The one that we are discussing in our blogs however, i was not that big of a fan of. I understand what they were trying to do, I just feel them telling us we need to look back and change things doesn't mean people are going to.

Get Info: Theres so many ways to get information about racism. You can just talk to people, read books, read articles, and just by living life you are getting information and learning about racism. It happens everyday, so people are learning just by living their lives.
Do Something: I would start by realizing what my prejudices are and conquering them before I can do anything else.
Listen: I think I need to start by listening to my friends and family about what they feel about racism and prejudice and then listen to people who feel passionate about racism and the people who have the feel that they have the most prejudice about them.
Talk: I want to talk to everyone about this situation. I want to start with people of all kinds of racism and who feels the effects of racism.
Back to past: I feel that if people can look to the past at all of the racism there was which was even worse  than today they could see how horrible it was and maybe that could hopefully inspire a change they would want to take on.
Find heroes and sheroes: Heroes could be anyone someone knows that overcame racism and prejudice and also someone that wants to teach and help others all about how they overcame it and how others can too.

Paraphrasing

Many times while writing a paper, students excessively use quotations direct from their sources. When it comes time to finish the final paper, students should try to stay away from using it too much and use other ways of using their sources in their paper. (Lester, 46-47).

Child Trafficking in Cambodia

I thought this paper was really interesting. I have always known about child trafficking but I haven't ever read much about it until this and it really opened my eyes. I thought that her introduction was definitely one of her strengths, she used a story of a young girl and a lot of statistics that I think would keep readers interested and want to read more. I feel that this whole paper was very well written and very interesting to read, she used a lot of sources to help back her up on her statement on how it needs to be stopped. I find it just disgusting that there are people out there like that and I feel that this is definitely something that people should be informed of. I feel like this could be made into an action paper, if she decided to go around campus and talk to students about this and their ideas on how to help. i feel like she may even run into a lot of people who don't know that this is going on or at least realize how high the numbers are. I feel that if she could talk to people on campus and then maybe get an organization started, she could really start something.

Reflections on Breaking the Code activity

The breaking the code activity was really interesting and helped me to look at research articles in a different way. It helped me to break down articles and really find the most important parts of the research paper to help me with my own research paper. I feel that next time I am skimming through an article I am going to think about the questions we talked about today in class and use my knowledge from this activity to help me if I am ever stuck while skimming or reading my research articles.

Exercise 3.4

This excerpt is about different types of music and whether they have value or not. Musicologists and sociologists differ on whether serious vs popular music do certain things. It argues about whether popular music is only good for certain theories against serious music which could be non-sociological. Different music has different purpose and this research just questions what they do and whether it is good, bad, or for any reason at all.

research question & search terms

Q: How does the media negatively affect women?

Search Terms: media, women, effects, body image
media affecting women, negative effects from media, media and body image, influences from media

Articles

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=MGnXX32K7DPWT0kqjpDr9l7snBFlzLQQ0Q2JWQ1sC38nSBhvPpJy!-1971862025!2001564008?docId=96471160


http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.10005/abstract

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B75DB-4F1GRD9-1&_user=564876&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1453592943&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000028718&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=564876&md5=cb21173050a75372faff5341785a0e64&searchtype=a

Search Milner "media affecting body image" - didn't work anymore but before good article/experiment about thin pictures and regular pictures and snacks afterwards!

Exercise 1.5

1. How does media affect women?

2.What type of media affect women the most?
What ways are they affecting them? Is it helping or hurting women? -anorexia, excessive dieting/exercise, surgeries
Is it affecting women more today than past generations?
Is there certain types (race, body, etc.) media affects the most? Is there certain types media uses most?

**How is the media affecting women and body image?
-Media affects by lowering their self esteem, their choice is snacks (diet vs. regular), can start eating disorders, excessive/ crash dieting, surgeries, depression