Take a stab at this

2. Write an essay explaining whether you believe that efforts to eliminate sexism, racism, and violence in language are effective, or whether such efforts simply mask these issues.

I believe that the efforts that have been taken to reduce the sexism, racism, and violence in language are ineffective and they are masking the issues. At first glance, it might look like a good cause. Eliminating racism and sexism from our language? Now that sounds like a step towards peace. However, In Michiko Kakutani’s claim in The Word Police, she argues that this elimination of violent words comes with a price – our freedom of speech. Our language as we know it would be censored and there is quite a lot of vocabulary associated with racism, sexism, and violence. It would diminish our precious diversity in our unique language and destroy the ideals of inclusion.

In reality, the words are actually not being eliminated. Those words are being hidden behind another word that sounds nicer. This is called euphemism. In Words Don’t Mean What They Mean, he brings the light upon this issue of direct speech and indirect speech. He claims that “indirect speech [is] a means of saving face” and this relates back to individuals who want to tone down their offensiveness. These euphemisms can also lead to misunderstandings. Violent language doesn’t always have to be threatening; it can just be used in a saying. In the brochure written for elementary teachers in Ontario, they replace the “violent” phrase, “kill two birds with one stone” with “get two for the price of one”.  When I was younger, I never associated this saying with any violence. My elementary teachers would say it and the words would impact me as the “violent” phrase had a more emphasize. Although, I could see it in a perspective that young children are too young to understand that these phrases are just sayings and not to be taken literally.

I also believe that the efforts are taken because of the purpose of wanting a certain outcome. As Luntz said in from Words That Work, “Sometimes it is not what you say that matters but what you don’t say”. If a male is trying to hook up with a female but says something sexist, the girl is most likely going to leave. By not saying anything sexist, his chances of getting together with the girl goes up and he gets his certain outcome of the night. These efforts are honestly for the individual’s benefit and I doubt that the individual is thinking about the greater issue on hand.

I am greatly honored that you are reading this post dear guest.

When meeting another person, it is likely that polite phrases such as “How are you” are used. These are not to be taken literary, but they are to show that the person is interested in the other party. It is a social normality and also an individual goal to create good first impressions, so by using this polite communication method, it formats a proper basis to build a relationship upon it.

Polite speech can be traced back to culture. For example, in Asian culture such as Korean or Chinese, speech is devised into two categories: formal and informal. The value of the formal speech is to show respect towards the older adults. The difference between “hey what’s up” and “hello ma’am” has vastly different interpretations and can be potentially insulting if the forms are used incorrectly.

People often worry about their image and first impressions are important. It’s observed that people tend to hide their uniqueness to strangers or acquaintances so they can be viewed as “normal”. They fall back to the go-to phrases, the politeness, so they have a change to learn more about the other person. It is also a part of social normality to not go cursing at a coworker at a workplace or a stranger at school.

But of course, the person initiating the polite conversation might have other intentions in mind other than forming relationships. In fact, they might just be using the polite words to falsely give hope to the other party because the person simply is not interested in the person they are talking to. They say “let’s get in touch” or “let’s grab lunch together sometime” but do they really mean that? This supports how these phrases are not taken to be literal intents, but rather of an act of pity almost. 

To Cheat or Not to Cheat

I remember my teacher saying that students that are in more advanced classes are more prone to cheating. As I think about it, it kind of makes sense. They are usually under a lot of academic stress and the idea of cheating looks really enticing to boost those grades up and maintain competition with the other students. Focused on these personal reasons, the students are unlikely to follow the school honor code. The honor code is read to us in almost every class at the beginning of the year. The teacher sounds so intimidating reading off the punishments designed for cheaters. But even with the warnings, students do not hold onto their integrity. Sometimes they get caught, and other times, they don't. What's worse is that some teachers rely too heavily on the students to behave themselves. They would just place you in a room with the test and leave. 

This honor code situation can be compared to your mom. Imagine your mom telling you not to go on the computer while she is away for work or else, you would get punished. She leaves. Your fingers itch to go on the keyboard and spend endless hours watching stupid videos but a part of you holds back, afraid and cautious of the punishment of your mom finding out that you went against her order. Do you go on the computer? Or be a good child and go do something else? Choices can be difficult but most people would choose to cheat  on a test if the teacher left the room. But of course, there's the chance that the teacher might spontaneously come back into the room and catch you red-handed. 

My teacher once told my class a story about how he would catch the cheaters. In an school he once taught at, the door to his classroom had a little window above it. There were these set of stairs across from his room. If you sit at just the right place on the staircase, you could see through the small window into he classroom and have a clear view of the test takers. So every time he had people make up the test, he would hand out the test, leave the room, and sit on the stairs. Right away, the students whipped out their phones to cheat, unaware of the teacher watching them. My teacher would then casually walk into the classroom and confiscate their tests for cheating. I thought this was a brilliant and funny way to catch cheaters. 

In the end, the honor code doesn't really quite work out the way it is supposed. Students will cheat even after taking an oath of integrity and adding on the pressure of social influence, students will be inclined not to report cheaters because they wouldn't want to be labeled as the "snitch".

Of course, here's the famous, or rather infamous, Trump everybody.

So following the trend of using trump cartoons, I present this one. Maybe this has been used in another blog but I haven’t read any yet. From beginning to the end, Trump has been the center of attention from talk host shows, the news network, and in media overall for his outlandish and crazy solutions and was made a joke. But as the election progressed, so did his airtime. Consider this, Hillary and Trump have their victory speeches at exactly the same time, but every single news channel covered Trump instead of Hillary. 

This example just supports this cartoon.

This cartoon talks about the player and the played. They don’t necessarily point out who is who, but by looking at the clues, you can definitely tell that Trump is playing with the media. The reporter is shaped like a violin, something that can be played, and oh look, there’s Trump himself playing on the violin. His smug facial expression shows us how happy he is being the center of attention. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s running for president just to get publicity because he has mentioned his brand quite a number of times. By manipulating the media to play the right melody for his campaigning, he has been able to grab viewers’ attention and this is what honestly fuels his support.  The reporters also get played, or should I say paid. I wouldn’t be surprised – given his personality- that he would pay the media to promote him since because after all, he did pay actors to cheer at his presidential announcement.  All in all, Trump has upped the level of entertainment in the race and will literally dominate the media as the real elections start. 

The Downsides to the Upsides

“A Measure of Restraint” measures mankind’s ignorance of the dangers hidden behind a veil of alluring objects and satisfying results. They used cesium-137 as an example. On the outside, it looks like fairy dust, with its “mysterious blue light”. But little did the men know, its intensely radioactive material will soon be the downfall of their community. Maybe the men were tricked into believing that this substance was harmless. After all, it was retrieved from a cancer therapy machine. This irony highlights that nothing is without consequence.

I remember browsing through YouTube, watching old advertisements from the 20^th century and coming across beauty commercials that claimed that their secret ingredient – radioactive materials such as radium and thorium-chloride – would wash away makeup and leave the skin glowing with radiance. They even put a Geiger counter next to it and it read radioactive activity. This horrified me and I was thinking, does nobody realize that this is harmful? I guess when I was growing up, all I would be exposed to is how radioactive stuff is a stuff of nightmares. I remember cartoons or stories that had characters accidentally slipped into a conveniently placed can of radioactive liquid and then out emerged a disfigured mutation.

This second part of the article reminded me of what I am currently learning in Environmental. Genetically modified plants are a breakthrough in solving crop production with new solutions to pest invasions and other problems originally faced by regular crops. But with this new era of crop production beginning, there is a negative side. The controversy surrounding this method questions is this safe long-term? Will it affect us years down the road? Long-term studies haven’t been tested so we really are unsure of the dangers that may appear in the future.

Also, this can honestly be applied to me. I take naps in the afternoon quite frequently, but the problem is that I can’t wake up unless three or more hours have passed. Alarms do not phase my napping and I wake up later to find that they are already turned off. So the nap is very alluring, and every time I hit the pillows, I tell myself, I’m going to wake up within two hours. That is my ignorance- to not heed my previous experiences and thus ignore the possible consequences of my nap. 

Jigsaw

Everybody has the same fate; the fate of the impending death. I won’t be that guy from the movie 2012 that holds a giant sign saying “the end is near”, but I believe death is a very strong force in one’s life. Before this blog turns into a very cynical one, I also think our lives are very precious and mortality itself is beautiful. In “The Death of the Moth”, Woolf uses enticing rhetorical modes- description and narration- to bring attention the period between life and death. The time that the moth is “dancing and zigzagging” represents the period of time where humans are the most lively and “hot for humility”. I say that because in our young adult phases, we avidly try to find new opportunities and try new things. Sometimes we may find humiliates that come along with these actions, such as failure, but from these humiliates we can learn new things

With the precious life we have been given, we must make the best out of it. A pleasant life is peaceful one; a peaceful life is usually void of any violence. According to Gandhi, the key for peace is nonviolence. He advocates how nonviolence is the way for world peace and how problems can be solved without anybody getting harmed.

And now, here is a haiku written by me:

Today I lie in bed

And think why bother to live

For precious moments

From hereafter, I will think of the livelihood of the people around me and so be it if death falls upon me because you know what, I had my precious moments. 

The Glamorous Sracso

 

What are Girl Scouts cookies? I wonder as I watch the man on stage throw back the black cloth to show the numbers 65243. What do these numbers even mean? Is that worth a lot? This show is between channel 6 and channel 8. These people adorned in exquisite cloths and dangling jewelry are announcing something. Oh something about nominations. I hear the films "Mad Max: fury road" and "The Revenant" said pretty often. Are they permanently on these nomination lists because there's a lot of times where the lady or gentleman on the stage opens up a fancy looking red and gold envelope  and dramatically says "Mad Max". The thunderous roar suddenly starts as the screen pans to a specific person standing up. They look very happy and start shaking hands with the multitude of people sitting around them. They are congratulating them I think but I still have to figure it for what? Oh my they are given this shiny little gold man. It looks very interesting and now that I notice more of the background, there's more of these shiny gold men but a lot bigger scattered and stacked in the background. The person given this little object starts talking in the mic, but it's always filled with thanks - thanks for either family, crew, or whatnot. I don't really understand why they are thanking but the speeches don't last for long as they seem to end when the music starts playing. I'm starting to get that the music means "hurry up and finish your speech". Now, there's singing. Huh? I thought this whole thing was about just people getting the statues.  I guess this show has a lot of entertainment packed into it.

The reason why people write in another perspective foreign to our own is to raise awareness of the objects we take granted. The stuff and normalities that we think is so normal might not be so in other countries or ethnicity.  The "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is a perfect example of this. When I first read it, I was like huh? Is there actually a culture out here like this? When it hit me, I was shocked about how a foreign take to the everyday things that I do changes my mindset. It really shows how everybody's perspective is locked onto one specific mindset because most of the people in our class didn't realize that this piece was a satire of Americans until after we talked about it. After reading this essay, the question "do people really see us like this?" lingered in my mind.

Also Leonardo DiCaprio for The Best Actor please.
EDIT: WOOHOO He finally got it :')

Originality is Cool

So on Friday, we got our essays back and we talked a lot about originality – the art to think independently and creatively and to think outside the box. It doesn’t always have to mean thinking something that was never thought before, but rather putting old ideas together in new ways. In today’s world, the increase in business and technology is growing faster than ever and originality is needed to stand out among the sea of inventors. It needs to appeal greatly to the public and be functional at the same time.

On the site, kickstarter.com, it tests the countless potentiality of these inventors.  (Kickstarter is a website where you fund ideas to make them into reality) I remember I went on there to look for a phone case. I saw one that interested me greatly and I could see the originality of it. Of course, phone bumper cases have been here for a while so that’s not new, but how this specific bumper looks and how it’s made is different from all other bumpers in market. This is using an existing idea but redeveloping it so it’s essentially better. I funded the project and I was not alone. The final funding was 348%! The donations is a strong indicator on kickstarter on whether the consumer – us – find the project original and worthy of our money.

In another aspect, originality creates a style. I take art and originality is really stressed because if we all had the same art style, it would be really boring. That traces back to these blogs. If they aren’t unique, Ms. Valentino won’t call out your name during her weekly blog summary. Not going to lie, I really look forward to these and to see if she mentions my name. The arts also include writing. Your writings are perfect windows to take a glimpse into you style. I’m still trying to develop mine but I guess I still haven’t discovered it yet. Better get out my shovel and dig deeper because in my opinion, originality is an ability that is hidden inside of us. We just have to dig deep and discover it.

All four artists are drawing the same woman, but they all have really different styles.

TLDR: We cannot simply create originality…originality creates us. 

There is No Unmarked Girls

Some months ago I was at a big homecoming dance filled with girls and boys of all grades. Instead of focusing on my date, I found my eyes settling down on the other three girls in my group, just pondering how different our appearances were and how each style had a different statement.

One girl had her long brown locks in a tight bun, a style that is a cross between modern and traditional. Her formal black dress was underscored by the dainty diamond jewelry and the strict posture she was holding. Because her dress was her grandmother’s old dress, her style leaned towards more traditional than modern.

The second girl was full with playfulness and a hint of naughtiness. Her long hair flowed behind her in curled lockets, reaching to the small part on her back. As she smiled at the camera, her gold-sequined dress glittered in the sunlight with a black mesh creating a barrier between her skin and wandering eyes.

The third girl’s hair was similar to the second, but had a more side bang look. The hair, looking like a piece of the night sky, was thrown over her shoulders like it was no big deal. When she strutted down the entrance way, her bright fluorescent yellow dress could catch anybody’s attention. Coupled with her purple corset, she was quite contrasting.

Then I noticed the makeup. The first woman had a natural look with a black charcoal line drawn over each eye and a smoky and subtle eye shadow drawn above that. The second only wore a natural, pink lip gloss with a tint of black shadow to really bring out her dress. The third had a hint of purple eyeliner, mascara, and air-brushed facial mask; her fingernails sporting a purple coat.

Now the shoes. No. 1 wore tiny, glittery, black high heels; No. 2 had fashionable, gold, shoes made for impressing; No. 3, another pair of heels but this time, closed-toed.

As I analyze my friends’ style, I came to realize, why am I only looking at the girls? I glanced at the four men besides us and have come to understand…their style was unmarked

.

This is me trying to write in Tannen’s style of writing in “There is No Unmarked Woman”. I agree with this piece because at the dance, every girl’s dress was unique, whether in color, length, material, etc. that makes every girl beautiful, but when I look at the guys, I just see the same ol’ things. A black suit jacket, some black dress pants, and a dress shirt and tie combination that matched his date.  And that is why the guy looks more at the girl than the girl looks at him ;)

A Gap

In class, we talked about what kinds of differences create conflict in a family relationship. One of the first differences my mind thought to is the generational gap between my parents and me. My parents are first generation, meaning that they are the first generation in their families to move to America and start living here. Usually, when you think of Asian first gen. parents, they are heavily accented with their native language and not fluent with the English language. That is generally true. My parents have been living here for at least 24 years of so and I know more of the English language, culture, and general information about America in my 17 years of living here than them. This shows how different I am compared to my parents and this difference comes with a whole lot of conflict.

Courtesy of Stock photos

My mom has a lot of “facts” she learned from the newspaper. I absolutely think the information she reads is utterly false. One of my favorite “facts” is that dyeing your hair causes cancer. Excuse me? I argue that this isn’t true and my mom starts arguing back and thus a conflict has arisen. My parents are also old-fashioned. Most parents start off with “back in my days…” but my parents start off with “back when I was in China…” so that’s a difference between American parents and my parents. One of the most prominent conflicts that happened in my childhood is that I wasn’t allowed to go to sleepovers. Now, I don’t think it’s a big deal, but back then, it was like “omg you’re not going to Jenny’s sleepover? What a shame”. I remembered I spilled a lot of tears and yelled a lot about this topic. Another big topic is that my mom can’t understand the social norms among teenagers, especially about fashion. She would look at my ripped jeans and thought I accidentally ripped them. I would explain to her that it’s fashion and she would just scoff at the ridiculousness of the idea that ripped jeans are intentional.

Other problems children with first generation parents have to go through

A regret that I have in my childhood is not being able to learn mandarin fluently. I remember skipping Chinese school and not doing my homework. My mom does not understand English well, and I can’t communicate in mandarin well. Thus, I can’t explain myself accurately during arguments and that makes the situation worse. This lack of communication skills is probably why there is rift in my relationship with my parents. So in a sense, I can relate to Manning when he writes about his relationship with his father; “our communication was physical”. My absence of communication skills creates this barrier in my emotional relationship with my parents. As sad as it may sounds, it is getting better. Now that I am older, I have realized that the necessity to learn my native language is at the utmost importance to mend the rift between me and my parents. :’) 

Prophecies and Whatnot

Society is just full of expectations. Some good and some bad, but it's up to you to listen to them. This can be the starting basis of a self filled prophecy. A self filled prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true. They happen when we begin to act like the expectation is true , thus changing our behavior according to the expectation. For example, if I grow up with my family members always telling me to become a certain occupation, then chances are I might pursue that occupation later in life. In this scenario, I am fulfilling the expectations brought upon me by becoming that certain occupation. This is my self fulfilled prophecy. This also applies with predictions. For example, I'm going to a party where I know nobody. If I feel optimistic about making friends, most likely I will be more outgoing and be able to make some new friends. If I am going into the party believing that I won't make any friends, I will most likely be more secluded and awkward. 

Self fulfilled prophecies are closely related to stereotypes. Expectations are basically the same thing as different stereotypes. I expect an Asian person to become a doctor. I expect blond girls to be dumber. I expect guys to be messy. I expect... With these negative expectations, it is sometimes harmful to use these for your self fulfilled prophecy. This leads to a stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. For instance, stereotype threat can lower the performance of African Americans taking a test, due to the negative stereotype that African Americans are less intelligent than other groups. In this case, achieving your self fulfilled prophecy is not advisable because I believe people should be at their full potential, and not follow some ignorant stereotype. 

In Nancy Mairs essay, "Disability", she is a perfect example of not succumbing to stereotype threat and the self fulfilling prophecy. People with disability are often plagued with the expectation that they are "not there" and that they different. Mairs strives to argue that they are the same. Despite being disabled, she is "like every every other women".