Blog Post #6

After further researching for my expansion paper, I found a very interesting article pertaining to gender roles in advertising. In "Sex Roles in Advertising: A Comparison of Television Advertisements in Australia, Mexico, and the United States", Gilly’s article analyzes sex roles in advertising and compares her findings with U.S., Australian, and Mexican television advertisements. Gilly focuses mainly on women’s roles in advertising, emphasizing the ways in which gender portrayals influence society’s perception of appropriate sex roles. She reflects on the defined roles of women in showing how advertising is believed to highlight the idea that roles are “proper” or “natural”, in order to provide her audience with their own insight into this advertising tactic. I found her observations to be very intriguing, sparking some ideas to include in my expansion.

Research for Essay Expansion

As I explained in my previous post, I am going to be expanding on my "Men's Men and Women's Women" essay. Over the weekend I did some additional research on this expansion and found that Professor Antinora's suggestions would serve as the perfect counter topic. In the recent Dr. Pepper commercials featuring the new 10 calorie soda specifically made for men, the advertisement shows the epitome of  Men's Men. This particular commercial will allow me to show the similarities of how men portray themselves as well as women. The use of this advertisement will be beneficial to my paper's expansion and spark some interesting thoughts on the topic.

Essay Four Proposal

I plan of revising my essay one, which analyzed gender portrayals of advertising in a Carl’s Junior commercial. I selected this essay for expansion because I feel that I only analyzed a small portion of this highly controversial subject. I only addressed the female gender portrayals and didn’t include this topic in the “bigger picture”. To further develop, I will compare the female’s role in comparison to that of male’s in these Carl’s Junior commercials. I think that it will be interesting to compare how each is presented in reference to physical appearance and presence. Advertising companies, such as Carl’s Junior use the tactics as stated in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” to reel in their intended audience. As I state in my original essay, women are made out to be almost unreal. I will research and diversify the difference to that of men.

Key Terms:

·         Gender roles in advertising

·         Carl’s Junior jalepeno burger commercials

·         Female versus male portrayals in advertising

·         Sexism in advertising

·         Gender roles in the 21^st century

Blog Post #5

The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien is a collection of short stories that somehow connect to his experiences with the war, being factual or made up we do not know. In these short stories, O’brien makes the reader truly think about what is happening in the story, while questioning the actual meaning of his words. “Friends” and “Enemies” are two perfect examples of this struggle. In “Friends” two of the men that are part of O’brien’s platoon duke it out over a stolen pocket knife. Initially I found the occurrence to be normal. Many men in the war became violent due to the exposure of killing. As the story goes on, we find that one of the men begins to go crazy over the thought of revenge. To even the playing field, he breaks his own nose. The men eventually become friends, and even more so brothers. They make a pact to end ones misery if they are injured so severely as to be wheelchair bound. Naturally, one’s leg gets blown off.  Jensen, a man of his word, knows that he should kill Strunk, but instead cannot find the will to do it. I believe that the fact that he knows that Strunk’s injury is fatal, as well as the heavy weight being put on his shoulder to kill his best friend, stops him from actually doing the deed. Considering that I have never served in the military, I definitely could not relate to the situation. In this instance, if I were involved, I could never kill my best friend. The guilt of doing such a thing would forever be in the back of my mind and haunt me for the rest of my existence.

Blog Post #4

In Chapter 11 of “They Say I Say’, Graff and Birkenstien consider the process of reviewing and revising an essay.  Throughout the process they provide questions that can serve as a check list such as: How do you represent what others say? What do you say? Is there a counter argument? Have you introduced any naysayers?  Have you used metacommentary? Is it tied together? And have you shown why your argument matters? I believe that these questions are sufficient to the writing process because it gives the writer a chance to go over his/ her paper and ensure that all elements are present. As an example, Graff and Birkenstien provide a sample essay to show how the elements of “They Say I Say” are used in the writing process. This sample essay and checklist have both been very beneficial to my writing process.

Blog Post #3

In Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", I found that Chapter 23 really dipped into the true emotions that Maya encountered throughout her lifetime. At the beginning of the chapter, Maya a graduating eighth grader, is anxious for the ceremony. Although she has some nervousness, she knows that many individuals in Stamps never finished grammar school. Lots of wonderful things come to Maya, such as gifts and the feeling of confidence in her perfectly fitting dress. All of these feelings soon come to an abrupt end when the ceremony itself begins. The superintendent (a white man) acts as though he is superior to each and every one of the colored individuals present. He acts as though he needs not to show any sense of respect due to the fact that these graduating students are African America. Following the speech of the superintendent, a student rises to give a speech of his own. This speech completely blew away that of the superintendent. Not due to the content, but the meaning of the content. It showed that although each individual there had faced hardships, troubled times and even more so racism, they still were brought back to their roots and were proud of their ethnicity. I believe that this chapter should be a lesson for all of us. Racism is a real life occurrence, even in the advanced society that we live in today. So next time, instead of judging someone based on their race or skin color, take a step in their shoes.

Blog Post #2

In “Virtual Popularity Isn’t Cool – It’s Pathetic,” Ian Daly conducts an analysis of our society’s infatuation with social media.  Daly begins his article by introducing the ever growing popularity of Facebook. From a college dormitory to a worldwide phenomenon these social media sites have people around the globe locked to their computers. The article targets adult males, showing how widespread the effect these sites have on daily life. Daly claims that this so called addiction or infatuation is pathetic; but in today’s technology based society can one truly avoid being sucked in to the cyber-world of social media?

After reading Ian Daly’s article “Virtual Popularity Isn’t Cool – It’s Pathetic”, I couldn’t help but laugh. I have never been one to be consumed by social media sites. When these sites began growing more and more popular, my mom always criticized those who shared their every move on the internet. First of all, it isn’t safe. With the ability to tag where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing a complete stranger could pinpoint exactly where you are and confront you. Secondly, why do people feel the need to share their lives online?  I personally deleted my Facebook specifically because my “friends” felt the need to complain about their perfectly normal lives. Lastly, I agree with Daly’s claim that this so called popularity is pathetic, but not in the sense of overuse. I believe that individuals feel as though they are superior to their peers, giving them the courage to bash fellow social media users. This courage to terrorize others online is humiliating to our society as a whole. So next time you log onto a social media account, take a second to think about who is really viewing what you post.