As our class focuses in on representation between women and men, we viewed Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In. While Miss Representation shows the struggles of women being seen as lesser, not viewed as being able to hold positions of power as opposed to men, The Mask You Live In focuses on typical views of masculinity and differing ways of how men fit into these roles.
While watching Miss Representation, I had felt a sense of respect and empowerment to women who can relate to being seen as lower in power to men, not equal, as they fight to disprove these thoughts. As the movie explains, many women are awaiting their time to take strong positions and be seen as role models, such as becoming president as a woman has not yet held the position. The thought of women being unequal to men can lead to them doubting themselves and distrusting their abilities to lead or be viewed highly. In The Mask You Live In, I had felt sadness for men who were taught to disregard emotions and struggle with self-identity, which can ultimately lead to issues within themselves. I had also felt hope that this would change in the future as more people distance themselves from these views. Men should be able to express their emotions and vulnerability without being shot down as too "feminine" as concealing them will only impact their ability to be open with others. For decades they had to be put in this position and hide from their feelings in order to be perceived as manly or strong. The argument in both films shows that the media, such as movies and shows, influence both views on masculinity and women's roles in life. This helped me realize how much impact these beliefs can have in people. While women are seen as the caretakers, cooking, cleaning, and being a mother, men must be tough and limit their vulnerability as well as hide emotions. Men are also often perceived as the workers for their family while the wife and children are at home. As children, many girls are ridiculed if they do something less feminine while boys are accused of being vulnerable or weak if they do something viewed as feminine. These films impact me by wanting to make a change in the societal norms of men and women. We should not be upholding views from decades ago but looking at it for what it is, negative and threatening. The thoughts on both genders acting out of the norm is becoming more accepted in current years, but there are still so many people who uphold these expectations and a stop should be put to it. If more people are taught the problems of these views and shown the negative impacts of expecting boys to hide their feelings, or being more open to women in power and authority, later generations could become better adapted to change in views of women and men.
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Our discourse community in English Composition 1 allows us to uphold certain values, such as clarifying the meaning of ourselves and cultivating joy in writing and learning. I will be focusing on the identity of our discourse community and how certain works can help us understand why we are involved in this group, as well as how our values impact ourselves in and outside of class with resources from Our Discourse Community Values, What Is Literacy?, as well as We Are Many.
The identity of our discourse community can be explained from What is Literacy? Which explains the social institution of discourse linguistics, describing it as "made up of concrete things like people, books and buildings, abstract things like bodies of knowledge, values, norms, and beliefs; mixtures of concrete and abstract things like universities, journals, and publishers, as well as shared history and shared stories." This can be related to our discourse community as we share our own stories, read works of writing, and write our own essays relating to our own experiences. Our writer's identity is found in our work, shaping and revolving around our discourse community. In our discourse community values, it is stated that we connect past, present, and future writing histories and knowledges. This can be shown in the works of literature we analyze and interpret in class. Whether it is from poems, short stories like Hills like White Elephants or My Name is Margaret, we read through stories from different time periods to connect them to others or understand them through present-day analysis. Another stated value is of clarifying meaning in oneself. This value can be shown through our blog posts, memoirs, and essays in which we understand the meaning behind different works of writing, as well as our own personal interpretations of them. We can also analyze We Are Many in terms of self-reflection: But when I call upon my DASHING BEING, out comes the same OLD LAZY SELF, and so I never know just WHO I AM, nor how many I am, nor WHO WE WILL BE BEING. I would like to be able to touch a bell and call up my real self, the truly me, because if I really need my proper self, I must not allow myself to disappear. In this work, the author speaks about not allowing himself to disappear, and wishes to call out to his true self in order to not stray away. Through our works, we manage to dig into our true thoughts and how we often feel without turning into something we are not. Through writing in our discourse community, we show who we are as our own people, whether it is from our thoughts, feelings, or ideals, we come to terms with ourselves in our values and works. Through our memoirs, we show a personal time in our lives that affected us in some sort of way which can be related to showing our true selves as the poem states. In our works, we each have our own opinions or thoughts in how a piece of writing could be interpreted, going back to our discourse values in self-identity and making meaning of these pieces of writing. For my scene, I connect it with the story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway in a way that relates a common theme together from both pieces. The theme I decided on to connect these two is one of loss. The two characters in Hills Like White Elephants discuss the option of having an abortion, which the woman takes more to heart than the man. The woman is unsure whether or not she wants to go through with it, which will result in the loss of the baby. My scene is centered around a loss that has already passed, but affected me after it happened.
"I've never seen something like this before." "I know, because I haven't, either." I was only 3 years older than my brother, but I felt a sense of worrying for him. This was something new to both of us, but as the older sibling, I had assumed it would be easier for me to handle than he would. Despite these thoughts, the environment didn't seem to have any affect on him. "Is mom okay?" he asked. "She's better than she was before." I replied, my eyes looking ahead. "That was the first time I've ever seen her cry." "I know." The room was showered with abundances of flowers, multiple sets of colors, which didn't match with the black attire the guests were all wearing. I stopped to recognize just how many people were in nicer outfits, all correlating with the black color. My aunt was ahead, and I had forgotten that some services have viewings for the family and friends. I wondered what my brother had thought and felt about everything going on. She was so loved, would this affect him now or even later on? It wasn't until the church service did I notice how he sat, often simply looking down at the floor instead of the speaker, which turned to staring as our cousin, Erica, had approached the microphone in tears. She was describing our aunt's love for us, and often how kind she was. She was helped down the steps and I turned to my brother. "Would you go up there if they asked?" He turned his head to me. "Maybe. I don't know what I would say." "Just talk about how much you appreciated her while she was around and stuff like that." "I feel like Erica was saying that already, she was just really emotional about it." "Yeah, I know. How are you feeling?" He shrugged. "Fine, just sad, I guess." "Me too." "This is the first time we've had to deal with something like this." "Yeah, I think it is. We would have been too young to remember another time." "Well, we've never had to go to a funeral before until now." "I know." "Hopefully we won't have to again for a long time." "Let's hope." As we sat together, surrounded by the many others dressed in black, we silently appreciated our company. It was Spring Break when I decided to make a trip to Canada for a few days. After preparing myself for the long drive ahead of me, I got into my car and drove off through what seemed like endless highways until I finally decided to grab a bite to eat at a nearby rest stop. I had felt a need to relax after hours of driving, so I grabbed a burger, fries, and sat down near a group of three who seemed to be engaged in a conversation about the writing process. They must have noticed my eavesdropping as they turned their heads to me, as if to invite me to join them. They introduced themselves as Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott, all experienced writers. I thought for a moment about my own writing technique, how I attempt to engage myself in the process, and came to ask advice from the three about starting my work. "I sometimes need to boost myself to begin writing, but when I do, I have an easier time after I type a few sentences. How do you guys help yourselves begin a piece?" Mary responded first, with a look of satisfaction. "The idea is to get some scenes down. Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends - that's the nature of the process." Don seemed to agree, by saying "Pre-writing may include research and daydreaming, note-making and outlining, title-writing and lead-writing." Anne spoke last, mentioning her one-inch picture frame she notices when stalled in writing. "It reminds me that all I have to do is write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being." As I listened to each writers' advice, I then thought of the process of revising your work. "I feel like I always go over my writing and have tons of things to revise. How do you guys know when something should be edited or changed?" The three all seemed to think about my question carefully before Don spoke. "Researching, rethinking, redesigning, rewriting—and finally, line by-line editing, the demanding, satisfying process of making each word right. It may take many times the hours required for a first draft." Mary agreed. "Revision is the secret to your troubles. That, and a sense of quality that exceeds what you can do—that gives you something to strive for," she paused to take a sip of her drink, and then continued, "Actually, every writer needs two selves—the generative self and the editor self." Anne chimed in on a reassuring note. "Practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them," she nodded, "This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts." As I took in this information, I thought more on the process of drafts. "So, if I didn't end up liking the first draft written, it's not the end of the world to continue and revise even after I've made a second draft?" Mary made a small smile. She seemed eager to help me learn to better my writing. "I can honestly say not one page I’ve ever published appears anywhere close to how it came out in first draft. A poem might take sixty versions. I am not much of a writer, but I am a stubborn little bulldog of a reviser." Don chuckled and added, "When you complete a draft you know how much, and how little, you know. And the writing of this first draft—rough, searching, unfinished—may take as little as one percent of the writer’s time." Anne looked at the two, then turned her head to speak to me directly. "I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts." I nodded my head and checked on the time. Realizing how late it had gotten, I decided to head out on the road, but not before thanking the three for their helpful advice in writing. My ideaIn my first blog post, I'll be going a little more in depth with my personality by answering questions from the Proust Questionnaire. These questions were designed to show an individual's true nature, according to Marcel Proust, the creator. I'll be answering throughout 35 questions I feel most comfortable to respond to.
. __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness would be living stress-free, doing what you want to do and being surrounded by friends and family who support you. __2.__What is your greatest fear? Being completely alone with no ability to turn to anyone for help __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? When I can overthink situations at times __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? Being rude/mean to someone you just met or hardly know for no reason __5.__Which living person do you most admire? Michelle Obama __7.__What is your current state of mind? Hungry, but calm and relaxed __11.__Which living person do you most despise? Donald Trump __16.__When and where were you happiest? June 2018, because I had finally graduated high school __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? The ability to cook well __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? How often I put off getting something done __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? As of right now it would be graduating __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Someone who is wealthy so I wouldn't have to worry about money __21.__Where would you most like to live? Hawaii, I would love to live somewhere like that and away from where I grew up __22.__What is your most treasured possession? A ring from my great grandmother, who I was named after __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? __24.__What is your favorite occupation? __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? __26.__What do you most value in your friends? __27.__Who are your favorite writers? __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? __31.__What are your favorite names? __32.__What is it that you most dislike? __33.__What is your greatest regret? __34.__How would you like to die? __35.__What is your motto? |
AnnaI will use this blog to understand various works of writing. Archives
March 2019
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