Susan Bordo: "Beauty (Re)discovers The Male body"

            In her article "It's a Face-Lifted, Tummy-Tucked Jungle Out There," Amy Splinder talks about the obsession over male appearance that has been surging in society for the past couple of years.  She explains that people see appearance as a way to compete against others and succeed in society.   She concentrates on how this has always been the case for females, but in recent years males have been getting into this trend.  As a result of this new trend, males find any possible way to gain a desired, youthful body; preferably easy and effortless methods, such as plastic surgery.  This has lead to the commercializing of effortless methods to improve appearances, which Splinder calls "faux fixes."  These shortcuts that improve appearances has always been something that concentrated on the female population, but with the new male interest on appearance it has been able to expand and has now become a huge industry.  Splinder traces all this back to the competition between young and older males, in which younger males are usually more in demand when it comes to most things, including jobs.  This has forced older males to try to look as young as possible because it is seemed as preferred in society.
                In the end, all this has resulted in the commercializing of the male body.  Since it has become such a big industry it has lead to even more advertising of male appearance. Creating a positive feedback loop in which the more male appearance is sought after, the more it is advertised, and the more it is advertised, the more that it is sought after.

Splinder, Amy. (1996). "It's a Face-Lifted, Tummy-Tucked Jungle Out There," New York Times, June 9.

Blog 5: David Foster Wallace Commencement Address to Kenyon College

David Foster Wallace's commencement address that he gave to Kenyon College graduates was actually very entertaining, I thought it was going to be like any other commencement address where everything is all dull and boring.  In fact, Foster even addresses this reality that most commencement speeches tend to be cliché and boring. 
                In his address Foster uses several small stories and parables to explain his thoughts.  For example, he tells the story about the Christian and the atheist in Alaska, explaining how things have different meanings depending on from what perspective it is looked at.
                He explains to the graduating class about how what they have just learned is not something that just fills knowledge, that it is something that they will use and incorporate in their daily lives.  He talks about the advantage 0f having this unique knowledge that people seem to take for granted or forget about.
                One of the greatest parts of this address was the "fish" story, where he starts the address by explaining that this is not the typical older fish teaches young fish story, tying it all in at the end.
This address truly makes one think differently about not only liberal education but about life in general.

Blog 4: The "Banking" Concept of Education

              In "The 'Banking' Concept of Education," Paulo Freire criticizes the traditional educational system, in where students are regarded as lifeless containers that are filled with knowledge.  Freire describes the banking system as a one sided conversation in which the teacher narrates without end and the student receives the information without question.  He explains how this way of learning limits the growth of the student and destroys their critical consciousness.  He talks about how in this system the person that knows the most is the one that is regarded as smartest, that knowledge is the only measurement of intelligence.  He argues that the banking system is a way of oppression in which humans are made to become part of the world rather than become their own being.
                After reading this passage, I realized that the educational system that Freire describes is identical to what I went through in high school.  Having to go to class everyday to hear teachers talk for hours and expect to remember everything that you were told.  Many times, I would try to ask why, especially in my math and science classes, but the teachers would usually tell me that I didn't need to know why, that I just needed to remember what.  This got to the point where I stopped questioning anything that I was told and just accepted the fact.  It wasn't until recently when I started college that I have been able to ask the why and be answered.
                Freire demonstrates how flawed the banking system is and how it must be substituted for a more liberal system.

Research Prospectus

                    I have decided to write my paper about advertisement.  It interests me because of how fast advertisement has grown for the past decade and how it has come to influence our daily lives.  Advertisement is something that people in the United States have become used to over the years.  Everywhere one looks there is something being advertised.  Any form of communication, from television to billboards, has become a tool for companies to advertise to the public.  Since the inception of the technological revolution that came with the internet advertisement has grown exponentially.  It has come to the point where companies depend on advertisement to succeed.  Many might think that advertisement is a tool that is used to inform people, but it is actually a weapon that is used against them to not only deceive them.

                I believe that the United States has become over saturated with advertisement, bringing many consequences to not only the U.S. public but to the small businesses in the United States.  These small businesses try to compete against giant corporations with unlimited money that can be used for advertisement, making impossible for small business to succeed.  This creates an ever growing gap between the rich, big companies and the poorer small businesses trying to survive in this unjust economy.
                At the same time, advertisement can be a dangerous tool.  The government defines advertisement as commercial speech under the law.  Even though commercial speech is somewhat regulated by the government, it does not deem them completely trustworthy for the public.  In other words, even though lying is not protected under freedom of commercial speech, it does not stop them from hiding or masking the truth.  Advertisers use different methods, such as statistics, to confuse people into believing what they are saying.  Statistics is something that can be easily manipulated and making it look however someone wants to make it look.  Another technique that is used in advertisement is the disclaimer that is out at the end of a commercial but in such a tiny print that it is impossible to read, by doing so they get rid of any possible liability for having expanded the truth. Advertising is something that cannot be trusted, there is no advertisement that tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth, there is always some sort of deception.
                My thesis for now is that advertisement should be decreased because it brings many consequences to society and the economy in the U.S.  I touched on this on my second and third paragraph.  My thesis might change depending on what else I find, but I am pretty confident that it will remain the same in general,
                A great source that I am going to use is the documentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."  The documentary shows how advertisement works from a "behind the scenes" approach.  It talks about the extent that advertisement has come to date and how it has invaded every single possible way of communication.  It shows how people have gotten so used to advertisement that they do not even notice when they are being advertised to.  I am also going to use the book "Advertising: Information or Manipulation?," by Nancy Day.  In this book she talks about how advertisement deceits people without them knowing and she explores the difference between being advertised to and being informed.  I will also use many articles on the internet that I may find useful.
                Counter arguments for my thesis could be that advertisement helps booster big companies into success which, in turn, can help boost the economy.  Maybe in the short run but in the long run this gap that is created between big companies and small businesses will lead to a collapse in the economy in which both the rich and the poor would suffer.  Another counter argument may be that even small businesses advertise, but my response would be that even though they are able to advertise it will never be to the massive scale that big companies can.
                 This is going to be an interesting paper, since there are so many ways I can still take this.  I am curious and excited to find out what will come from all this.

The Achievement of Desire

       In "The Achievement of Desire," Richard Rodriguez talks about how education changed him and ended up alienating him from his family and culture.  Throughout his essay, Rodriguez parallels much of his life to that of what Hoggart calls the "scholarship boy."  He  talks about the relationship with his parents and how as time went by it kept becoming less existent.  Throughout his text, he mentions his response to when people tell him "your parents must be proud of you," because it constantly reminds him of his relationship with them.

      A very interesting point that he makes is how he argues that education and imitation are synonyms, that they are one in the same.  He talks about how he use to imitate his teachers in order to feel more educated.  He believed imitation was the key to knowledge and education, enough to make him want to become a teacher to feel the same as his professors.  He also talks about one of the hardest things he had to do was learn how to write without imitating, by coming up with his own thoughts and ideas.  Since imitation could only take him so far, he had to learn how to think by himself.

Blog 2: The Pain Scale

In "The Pain Scale," Eula Biss discusses the irrationality of judging pain on a scale.  One of her most interested points in the writing is the usefulness of zero on the scale.  She mentions that "Zero is not a number.  Or at least, it does not behave like a number" since it is not a natural number.  Later, she shows how zero differs depending on the scale it is being used in by comparing the different temperature scales at their zeroes.

Biss goes as far as to question whether zero is even a possibility when it came to pain, whether there is such a thing as no pain at all.  As if the only way to fill no pain is to not be.  She compares feeling zero as complete nullification, numbness.  She uses ice and coldness as a visual for zero.  From the ice she uses to nullify her wounds to the fact that the last circle of hell is not hot, but rather frozen.  Which connects to the reason why she uses the temperature scales at zero, to give a feeling of coldness.  But where she goes the farthest on the idea of zero is in the end.  Where after reaching 10 on the pain scale and explaining how it is the worst possible pain imaginable, she compares the 10 on the pain scale to the 10 on the Beaufort scale where it's hurricane-force winds described solely as "devestation occurs.  She finishes by saying "Bringing us, of course, back to zero" which is probably her way of saying death.  Leading to believe that her idea of zero on the pain scale can only be described as death.

Michael Pollan: Why Bother?

     In "Why Bother?" Michael Pollan give his insight on the controversy that is Global warming and on what must be done to correct it.  He begins by questioning the power of an individual against such a daunting task and why they should even try to do anything to better the situation. Pollan sees going green as a waste of energy and time when developing countries around the world are having bigger carbon footprints every day, which in turn undermines all his hard work. He quotes Michael Specter as saying "Personal choices, no matter how virtues, cannot do enough. It will also take laws and money," making the assertion that it is not a problem that can be solved theough an individual, rather it is something that is solved through every possible mean, including capital, politics, and technology.

     Pollan goes on to saying that in order to begin a change one must overcome specialization, and begin the movement themselves, because one cannot wait for someone else to solve the problem otherwise it will never be solved.  He believes that the solution to this dilemma is not through an individual, but rather a collective effort built by many individuals who help to maintain the environment. Pollan tells the reader to be green and bother because he feels that if one person bothers to help he or she "will set an example for other people," which would cause a social change and make everyone more willing to step in. He finishes by suggesting to people to try and live dependantly of their own backyard by growing vegetables and fruits, because it will help the environment by greatly lowering one's carbon footprint and make us more denpendant of the planet rather than cheap fuel.