Dear Class,
Welcome to the class blog! Here, we will discuss, analyze, criticize, and debate featured blogs about some form of activism--blogs that you pick.
In keeping with the course theme of activism, I have chosen the blog site www.feministing.com. This blog has been ranked, time and again, as one of the best blogs on issues of feminism in the new century. Between now and next Thursday, I look forward to reading your posts about this blog.
Remember: you are not focusing on "what" the blog says - though you will probably have to mention it briefly to provide your reader some context - instead, your posts should focus on "how" a blog entry or the blog site as a whole in rhetorically significant. Be sure to check out carmen for further prompts on how to write these entries.
Good Luck,
Nick White
I clicked on Editor Vanessa Valenti's profile and chose her article, MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” to air special on abortion tomorrow, to read. I was analyzing her appeal to the audience. It seems very obvious that this site has a liberal viewpoint. For example, in this article, the opinion was pro-choice. Many of the other articles have liberal views as well. The editor, in this article and others, writes as though she assumes that all of her readers are in agreement with her. She makes friendly remarks and comments in parentheses that show she is appealing to an audience that frequently visits the site and is familiar with her opinions. It also seems like the website caters to a female audience. Although the authors leave some openings for comments, there are not many comments that are in disagreement to the articles.
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ReplyDeleteSearching through the archives, I found an article by Chloe Angyal titled "The Nutcracker: a beloved holiday tradition and a refuge for racism." (http://feministing.com/2010/12/09/the-nutcracker-a-beloved-holiday-tradition-and-a-refuge-for-racism/) Angyal explains how The Nutcracker continues to be a favorite play from her childhood. I'm familiar with the argument she was using - one in favor of modifying the play to not be racist. Honestly, at first I was against it because that idea is considerably close to saying "History books have offensive information in them. Let's erase that and rewrite it!" There is no doubt in my mind that rewriting the history books to fit current needs is atrocious. A commenter by the name of Kathleen Lewis Greenwood posted pretty much what I was thinking. I'm glad that Angyal replied with saying that racist/stereotypical aspects of the performance could be removed without damaging the plot. She mentions the ability to use Asian dances and modified costumes, which in my opinion, improve the play anyway because symbols are replaced with the true objects.
ReplyDeleteAn article titled " Homophobia Is the Leading Cause of Gay and Bisexual Male Suicides by Arielle Loren caught my eye. The author talked about the burden of living as a gay and bisexual man of color and the unwillingness to accept anyone non-heterosexual as normal.There were several suicides cases happened throughout these years and the common victims would be the gays or bisexual man of color. Well, I would agree with Loren's statement about homophobia which causes gay and bisexual male to commit suicides. Naturally, everyone would get annoyed if they see any gay couple walking from their sight. As what Loren said in her own article, suicide is a preventable death. We need to respect and be more considerate towards them. As the author stated, gay people would be the first victim to be bullied. We need to stop all these to prevent more suicidal cases to happen. Surprisingly, I perceived that Loren is a very protective person towards gay and bisexual male issues. She is speaking out for the gay and bisexual males to tell people to stop discriminating them and start to show some deliberation. As they could be our friends or family members, if we stop confronting prejudicing.
ReplyDeleteI read the post "French Vogue Fashion spread features sexy sexy children" by Chloe because the striking picture of a young girl all dressed up caught my eye. The girl is about nine years old, but dressed and made up to resemble an adult model in a provocative couture ad. Chloe comments on how the spread is talking about appropriate make-up at different ages; 13, 20, and 70, but for some reason they use girls who look much younger than preteens, which doesn't help get their point across. Chloe says the magazine struggles to do something edgy yet again, sexualizing girls is done time and time again. I agree that the suggestive poses and overtly sexy outfits and make-up are completely inappropriate for the young girls, but I think that is the point. Girls at nine, ten, and eleven should not be dressing or acting like twenty-something’s because it's just not right.
ReplyDeleteI found an article called 'Nicki Minaj: 1st Femal Platinum Rapper in 8 years' by GoddessJaz. Nicki Minaj is a new hip-hop/rap sensation that is now just as successful and desired by the community as any other hip-hop/rap male artist. This article talks about girl power and success and explains how Nicki Minaj has close to the same amount of records sold as does Kanye West. Through this article it is showing how everyone is equal and if you work just as hard as a male, you can earn the same respect. This article compares a lot of competition for example, lil kim vs Nicki minaj, kanye west vs nicki minaj, and beyonce vs Ciara. They are all focused on their own success rather than dwelling on the accomplishments of others. The author proves the point that everyone can succeed and can earn just a fair of a title as anyone else if you work for it.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, after I looked through some of the latest posts on the blog I was a little confused and unconvinced rather than inspired. They look more like news reports rather than deep analysis with logical reasoning and conclusions. For example in the Abortion Rate article when it comes to key connection between violence and behavior the writer could not provide a strong backup for her/his deduction. Also, should lack of abortion providers result in lower abortion rates? Then why did the steady decline stall? When the writer just finishes presenting numbers and facts without analyzing them she/he jumps right into the shooting thing and it seems a little awkward to me. Another example is listing the innocent 9-year-old girl among "3 Brave People to note from Gabrielle Giffords' Shooting". Don't get me wrong. I do feel very sorry for the loss but it just doesn't make sense to put her into the same place with the other two above. In the Mass Rape in Congo article, surprising facts are indeed listed, but without understanding and informing the readers the specific reason why they actually happened, so-called "international pressure" would barely accomplish any goal.
ReplyDeleteI read an article called "Shut Up Barbie: The New Feminism of the Far Left" and it basically explained the difference between a Republican woman and a Liberal woman when their rights are being poked at. As said, a Republican woman would get bothered if they were being discriminated by a man. On the other hand, a Liberal woman or the Shut Up Barbie doesn't mind when a man takes control of her rights, making her the "perfect accessory for a Liberal man", because she has the whole package: looks, smarts, money, and the ability to take orders under command. But, if you look at what a Barbie really is, it's a plastic toy made to look perfect to a man, or literally a Ken doll. She really isn't intellectual in my opinion because a woman is given rights and why would she sit back and follow his orders? I know I would never do so and if my rights were violated I would take action and do something about it. I'm still a citizen no matter what my sex is. We are equal but I feel like women continue to fight today because a man believes in their superiority. In the article, the author used Sarah Palin as an ignorant political figure because she argues and fights for her rights when they are being toyed with. I don't see how that is ignorant, but the author's point is that Sarah Palin has recieved a lot of negative feedback because she fights for women and a typical Liberal on Capitol Hill, for instance Nancy Pelosi, stands by whatever her Liberal, male colleagues want her to talk about, but even though most people see her ignorance, she is brilliant; she does have knowledge, and in a way, she does speak her rights and fight for women, just not in a way I agree with. It's a very juvenille way. Overall, the ignorance on Capitol Hill is negatively outstanding and I can tell how the women on the Far Right vary from the ones on the Far Left through this article. I never realized it until now. It's mind-boggling.
ReplyDeleteI read and watched a link from the feministing blog another blog called the caucus. (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/palin-calls-criticism-blood-libel/?hp) This blog post feature former Governor Palin responding to the tragic events in Arizona and also defending herself of the claims that she somehow had a hand in this event. I believe this link was rather relevant to the feministing blog because Palin is a successful woman and is looked up to by a lot of women. However when it comes to the reaction from the people who have read this, it seems that her being a successful women does little to help her case. Throughout the comments it seems like people disagree with the way she went about this video and I tend to agree. I knew before I saw the video how people felt about Palin and this video seems to have made it worse. The general consensus is she spent too much time defending herself and less time on what actually happened. If anything this blog strengthened and confirmed peoples ideas about Palin.
ReplyDeleteOn the blog Feministing, I read a post titled, "Mass Rape in Eastern Congo Keeps Happening". The title caught me immediately while I was browsing through various posts. The post discusses the lasting effect on women in the war in Congo, which has lasted more than a dozen years. Around 15,000 women were raped in eastern Congo in 2009 since rape is a frequent weapon in this war. The blog is rhetorically significant as it includes all the three rhetoric appeals. The ethos is shown in two ways. Firstly, the blog entry is on the blog Feministing, which has the reputation of one of the leading activist blogs on feminism. Also, the post includes a reference to The Guardian, which is a credible news source. The logos is used because the author asks for international help for horrible acts of violence against women, which is a logical appeal. The pathos is evident. Atrocities like rape and so many women being raped definitely appeal to the values of the audience reading. Using these three appeals, Feministing should be able to gain support for this fairly successfully.
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ReplyDeleteRecently I’ve read a blog “Quick hit: Santa’s elves urge repeal of discriminatory policy” edited by Chloe Angyal . The title is really eye-catching as nobody would believe discrimination even exists in Santa’s world. The article mainly talks about Smizzle, an elf who works in Santa’s factory protests Santa’s long-standing policy “Shut up, Make toys”. The SUMT, very similar to the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy in the U.S. military, restricts elves from revealing and discovering their sexual orientations as well as others’. Therefore, for those trans-elves like Smizzle, it’s just hard to be themselves since they have to hide the fact that they are homosexuals. The author wrote the article in a very creative way in which she set a current issue under the background of Santa’s magic land. By telling gay elf Smizzle’s tragedy , the author used allusion to object the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy as well as the unfairness encountered by gays and lesbians in society . The blog is persuasive and cogent because Angyal developed Pathos by personification in her article to appeal audiences’ emotion. When the first time I read this paper, a tiny elf with pointy ears and freckled face pop up in my mind which gave me no chance to say no to this cute elf as well as to the author.
ReplyDeleteThe article that I found was titled “UConn women’s basketball breaks record for longest winning streak and other thoughts on women and sports” In the article it explains how the Uconn women’s basketball team broke the UCLA men basketball record of most consecutive and the bold but true comments the head coach of Uconn made. Geno Auriemma, who is the coach Uconn stated that the media was only there to cover them because they were breaking a mens record and if it was a women’s record nobody would care. When referring to breaking a womens record Geno said the media would say “arent those girls nice, lets give them 2 paragraphs in USA today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and let then lets send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.” When Uconn was going on a streak the media only talked about if they could possibly break the UCLA record which was 89 games when the womens most consecutive record was somewhere 70ish. So in the path of breaking the record they broke the womens record but they received no credit for it because it was a womens record which was true because it was never talked about.
ReplyDeleteThe article that caught my attention the most was an article titled "Rape Politics: Women's Bodies as Media Battlegrounds". The author was explaining the how the media is responsible for the condeming women who have been or claimed to have been raped by a man in power. Unfortunatly this is true because many people do not want to believe that someone they look up to would be responsible for such a terrible crime. However, as the author claims, it does not matter what position of power someone is committing a crime is wrong. As often as rape occurs against women it should not be assumed untrue if she claims she was raped by a man in power.
ReplyDeleteTo begin, I was fairly confused with this specific blog site as a whole. While I do not know much about the feminist movement, I had a somewhat preconceived notion that feminists were a bunch of man-hating, girl power, liberals. While to an extent this idea is true, very few of the posts on Feministing showed any type of radical woman empowerment. In fact, most of the posts read like news reports just stating the facts on seemingly uninteresting topics. I finally came across a post I found interesting entitled "Reflections upon seeing my best friend mother for the first time." It suggested motherhood as one of the most radical feminist acts. I was drawn to this one in particular because of the fact that it told an empowering story as opposed to reporting on topics that have already been brought to the public's attention. For me, I enjoy to read blog posts with a little more fire, feeling, and opinion, not just the facts. The blogger, Courtney, shows this through directly relating the topic of the blog site to a specific situation in which she felt empowered as a female in her life.
ReplyDeleteThe blog I chose to focus on was "Haiti, one year later." As you can tell from the title, today marked the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti. In this post the writer talks about the effects the earthquake has on this area even though it has been awhile. For example, the author comments "that only 5% of rubble created when entire towns collapsed a year ago has been cleared." They say that Haiti cannot rebuild its country because of the rubble but the cholera and rape have not helped it's progress either. The thing that I found interesting was that the author did not talk much about feminism or women. It was ironic because I thought it was going to be more about the women effected after the earthquake. They did mention that "abductions of women and girls are common." However as I said they focused more on cholera and the fact that Haiti is not progressing. The one optimistic story that the author talks about is about a man from the US who adopted an orphaned baby girl after the earthquake. I also found this article very fascinating because I knew that Haiti still needed help but I did not know how many people were still effected.
ReplyDeleteAfter scrolling through many posts on the feministing blog, I eventually found a post that caught my attention. The post was ""Far Away" takes on Bullying and Suicide". This post sparked my interest because I have a passion for music and this specific piece was highlighting a music video done by an artist named Marsha Ambrosius that displayed and confronted the current problems of bullying and suicide in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite Community (LGBT). The video showed two men in a obvious relationship which led to the bullying of one of the men and an overdose by the second man due to his partner being bullied. The reason that I found this post to be so refreshing and invigorating is because most posts just give you information that maybe a few people might read; however, music videos spread to a much larger audience and can create more of an argument than just words. I truly believe that this video was seen by many, and changed how many feel. This is an example of someone using their talents to actually cause change. In her words at the end of the video the artist states,"If my music can save one life, then I've done my job.", and I believe she has definitely done that.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Less than 10% of the World’s Billionaires Are Women" wrote by Goddess Jaz caught my attention most when i was searching in the blog. Goddess mentioned that a survey showed that most women earn less than men and get less chances of promotion. As far as i am concerned, it is not only because of the mentors that were mentioned in the survey, but also because of the way employers looking at women. Most of the time, women got less chance of promotion is not because they were not as competitive as men, but because the employers know that sometimes later women will leave their positions because they will give births to babies, they usually concern more about families than men or something like that. So that the employers may think offer trainings to men are more valuable and promotion for men is better than for women because of their immobility. What I am trying to say is that women are as good as men, they just need more fair treatment.
ReplyDeleteI read over the blog "Cracking down on the dangers of online dating" by Courtney. The blog post explains that these online dating sites need to put in more effort by ways of background checks etc to ensure that the women using them are not in any sort of danger. Courtney raises an excellent point. Online dating is very dangerous. However, she refuses to recognize that it is dangerous for men as well, and that women are not the only ones in danger. it is so simple for a guy to make an account pretending to be a woman and make a connection with another man and abuse him just as easy as it is for a man to abuse a woman. Her views were way too one sided, and it appeared to me that she was only worried about the wellness of women, and not the wellness of people in general
ReplyDeleteI read the article, "Where is Your Line on Comedy? Tucker Max & Rape Humor." The article is heavily based on the recent Hollywood film, "I hope they serve beer in hell." The movie features various sexual experiences by Tucker Max, and it is being protested by many people, claiming that it has crossed the line. I have seen the movie and understand that it does indeed push the boundaries of consent and toys with the seriousness of it. However, I for one, was able to see past the true seriousness of the subject matter and took the movie for all it was intended - entertainment. Near the end of the article, it is suggested that Max's actions and ideals could influence the decisions of views. This I find to be completely ridiculous. I believe that even thought the subject matter is inappropriate, it is not harmful to the human psyche.
ReplyDeleteGood posts, guys!
ReplyDelete@Tingting: this is really interesting. Look at blah blah blah.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the article entitled, "The “best argument” against marriage equality is demeaning, doesn’t hold water" by Chloe. She sheds light on the recent web commercial released by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) against Steve Jobs for censoring their iPhone app. She goes on to talk about an article written by the chairman of NOM, Robert George, that opposes same-sex marriage. His article is rather offensive especially when he suggests that non-procreative marriages are on the " "losing" team" and that they are not "real" marriages. Chloe notes that he is a very intelligent man but his argument is flawed because marriage isn't just about procreating. I agree with her when she says that his intelligence should be used for more positive and less discriminatory arguments. I was shocked after reading this article because I honestly think that it is ridiculous and that it shows prejudice to same-sex couples. Since when is marriage only about pro-creating? Does this mean that all women should forget about love when seeking a marriage partner. That's pure nonsense and every reader that commented on Chloe's article agreed!
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