identity absract

I id my paper on identity and tried to find some ways and reasons why we got hrough chanes in our identities. I chose to look at three areas tha kinda interesed where people have changed personalities for whatever reasons.The first I looked at was kidnappig victims and their relationships with their abductors, for these I focued on Elizabeth Smart of Utah, Heather Wendorf of Florida, and Patty Hearst of California. Smart,14 year old in 2003 who was kidnapped and made to believe she was the 'bride' of a homeless handy man and his freind.
Patty Hearst was the heiress to a billion dollar magazine fortune and was kdnapped and made int a guerilla terrorist, held up some banks, was arrested, convicted and eventually pardoned. Heather Wendorf, unlike the others, was not 100% innocent in her plight. she fell under the spell of a charismatic 'vampire' named Roderick Ferel and was taken under his wing as a vampiress. Her parents (whom she was very close to) were evetnually beaten to death by Rod, in an attempt to 'free her' from her human hell. Rod then took heather and his rag-tag clan of goth artists on a road trip to Louisiana to meet up with other vamps.

I used Rod to segway into gaming culture and deal with online and offline personalities and how being immersed in fantasy worlds could start to fudge with you head and such. I also talked breifly about forming online friendships and how to see one off were something happen to them in reality. overal I liked this paper and how i turned it out. Looking into the lives of Hearst, Wendorf and Smart while they were kidnapped were fascinating.
to sum it up: I dealt with Vampires, Guerillas, teenage delinquints with blood to spill, innocent children being kidnapped formt heir bedroom, Internet video games, people losing control of their minds and mass mayhem and murder followed by a cross sate road trip. Only in america will this be the combined into a term paper. only in america.

Cults Abstract

In my paper, I examined the persuasive language of cults. I focussed on three cults and touched briefly on a related "organization". The three cults were The Raelian Movement, The Summit Lighthouse, and The Assembly of YAHOWAH the Eternal. The organization was Clonaid, which is not a mouthwash or any sort of other product. It's promoted by Rael, the leader of the Raelian Movement, and claims to be able to clone humans.
These cults were all very forward in their language, and there were some subtle methods hidden amongst the big, bold text.
I wrote the paper in the voice of someone intending to start a cult, and looking at these other cults for information on what to do or what not to do. I broke this voice for only a paragraph or two to state that I became incredibly freaked out over the idea that there were people out there saying, "Okay, how can we get inside the heads of impressionable people and manipulate them."
At the end of the paper, I wrote my own cult statement. Something similar to what one would find on one of the other cult webpages. Looking back on it, I should have analyzed my own statement in the same way as I did the others, but it's too late for that now.
Unfortunately for me and my cult statement, I lack the fanaticism of an actual cult to add a certain fervor and legitimacy to my statement.

Anarchy in the Paper Abstract

My paper is a look at the part that language played in the brief, controversial career of 70s British punk rockers the Sex Pistols. It also analyzes that language.

Most of the language analysis (and the paper) is spent on deconstructing the Sex Pistols' song lyrics. The Pistols' first singles were revolutionary in a musical sense, but also in a social sense, in that they were carefully worded diatribes against the powers that be in a language straight from the working class. With talk of anarchy, destruction, and the lack of a future, the singles were designed to be outrageous and to play on the fears of the British cultural elites. Delivered in an abrasive yet simple style, and by a group of young nobodies, they were targeted at the youth and the working class.

This paper shows the impact that a few words (and a little music) can have on an entire culture or society. The Sex Pistols' entire catalog is less than 20 songs, and yet, for two years they spearheaded one of the most important counterculture movements in English history and struck fear into the heart of the English establishment. The reason is the language that they used; had they written songs about love or cars, no one would've cared, and they'd be a footnote on history. As it stands, the Sex Pistols are one of the most important and infamous rock bands to exist, and they'll be remembered forever (at least in England). This paper will demonstrate why that is.

And with that, my semester is over. Have a good summer all, now I must go get drunk.

woop woop

My paper is going to look at the ambiguity of truth behind the connotations of terrorism as they are viewed from the frame of a "terrorist", and those being terrorized. Rather than doing it about the all to obvious and easy current events, my paper is going to look at the terrorism, in regard to the the symbilic discourse (exchange) of tactics between the two sides - in 1970's latin america. The interesting twist with this case is that in this case, the governments in latin america operated in much the same way that the US handles things right now- hiding torture camps, publically vilifying the terrorists- And also that the Carter and Reagan administrations provided these governments with money and troops. While I don't address these links with the U.S. in the paper, it is interesting knowledge for reading it. I'm using the 3 books we read for class - Ramage, Lakoff and Rutherford. I'm using the three of these as citable rationale for my own thoughts on the subject, taking a few excerpts from each. Each of the authors for this class affected me differently, and i came away with different things from each one - so that difference will be apparent in the context in which i use them, and to argue for or against the side i more closely associate the message i took away. In addition to the reading for this class, I'm using a book called "Death of Somoza" which is a memoir written by a terrorist cell who tracked down and assasinated (the author uses the phrase "erased him from the surface of the earth") their former dictator for the reason, as one of the assasins said, "to let him die peacefully and naturally would be a historical injustice." Also is the book "The Little School," was written by an argentinian concentration camp survivor. There is alot of symbolism in this book that i can correlate to other events. For example, in the concentration camps, the detainees were forced to wear white scarves as blindfolds, white scarves which, the mothers of the plaza del mayo proudly wear around their heads every thursday as they,still 30 years later, wear around their heads, holding vigil for their absent children. In these countries, the government simply kidnaps and eliminates all posible opposition, more than 30,000 in just agentina alone. The main reason i use these book is that they are written from the stand point of political activists, so they are inherently slighted- which i address in my paper. If for nothing else, they are interesting books that provide interesting perspectives on this topic. These are the only books i plan on using. The reason i rely more heavily on the two books not read for this class is because Ramage and the gang never actually DID anything. Its all well and good to analyze all the different problems in the world, especially from behind a computer. These books were written by people that were physically beaten, tortured and supressed by the government they criticize. Action over advocacy. Hell, Rtherford is Canadian!- he's criticizing a war that neither includes nor is concerned with where he lives. Thats not good enough. I appreciate that it allows him to have a more objective standpoint on the issue- and that can't be ignored--*--but isn't truth just as personal and subjective as the pain of the cattle prods and thumbscrews is to the hands that wrote those books?

Virtual Classroom

Since I couldn’t make it to class today, I’m going to post the section that I thought grasped the essence of my paper. But first, let me preface it with an explanation on what I am writing about. I’m doing a comparative look at entertainment as a form of political criticism throughout history. I focused a lot (but not exclusively) on Aristophanes, Shakespeare, and Al Franken. I’m pretty confident that no one has compared those three people together in one paper before.

“Politics has transformed from a formalized system of governing to a stylized trend discussed openly in American cafés along with music, movies, and weather. The rhetoric of politics is more about theatrics than leadership. Though western governments are much more progressive than their patriarchal forerunners, the potential advancements of civilization have been stunted by a new wave of politics that can be defined as ‘political entertainment.’”
By the way, the picture is irrelevant.

I finally found a topic

Ok,I think i may finally have a topic. I want to write about the language and actions of the Civil Rights movement. I want to study the tactics that were used to draw attention to a cause. I think that this is something very few people study: Exactly why the Civil Rights movement was effect, what kind of lanuage did they use, what kind of people did you always see in the forefront. These all are important issues that are relevant to why the movement worked. I also wanted to study how movements today are modeled after the Civil Rights movement.

OH NOOOOOOOO

I AM SO LOST........................I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I'M DOING I HAVE NO TOPIC AND IT'S 4 DAYS BEFORE THE PAPERS DUE. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN......WHERE DID I GO WRONG. IF SOMEONE WANTS TO THROW ME A LINE...OR A TOPIC PLEASE HELP!!!!

i've been neglecting the blog for a good two weeks, so i figured i'd share an update of my paper:

my topic is dealing with stereotypes that are found on television and how they are reaffirmed with various shows. this was inspired by the FX show black.white in which a white family and a black family switch places so as to experience a different lifestyle.
i realize the paper is supposed to be a research paper with credible sources, however, not including the texts we read in class and maybe one scholarly journal, my sources are going to be the tv shows that display stereotyping.
i'd like to begin by discussing the show black.white and its purpose for being on air. from there, i am going to dive deeper into stereotyping on tv.
the best way to share ideas of my paper is to list them in a bullet format; i will expand on each idea citing examples from television shows or news articles in which there was public discourse surrounding a show/ad on tv.

anyway, here:

- the show black.white is supposed to allow families to experience a different culture; i want to explore the show from beginning to end -- the first few shows aired were aimed at teaching both families the proper way to speak while in 'costume'
:: the white family was taught phrases such as "yo bitch. what up dog." and ways to "mispronounce" words. [example: ask - ax]
((note: the word "mispronounce" was used during the training - what message does this send to black viewers/viewers who speak a 'black dialect' - that they are not smart enough to properly pronounce words?
:: the black family was taught phrases such as "how was your day darling? good evening children." i grew up in a primarily white household. NEVER did i hear such phrases as "good evening children" not that it is not said, but again -- who is to decide what is "white" language.
- i'd also like to explore how stereotypes are being confirmed with the show. typical misconceptions concerning blacks is that they dress in baggy clothes, call eachother "niggas" etc. misconceptions about whites is that every white person is basically a walking/talking beaver cleaver. ties, loafers, phrases such as 'darling.' the show is basically creating stereotypes for entertainment purposes.
- also, i want to question whether or not someone can just be "black" or "white" my personal opinion is that CULTURE is more what shapes a person's attitude, not just skin color. it takes more than just face paint for someone to truly experience another person's daily interactions with people. culture plays a key role in people's life. i don't know if this even comes into play, but i am thinking of bringing up the fact that there are white rappers. black cowboys. white people on welfare. black millionaires. etc.
- lastly, with the show - i want to point out that while the families are in make-up they are interacting with people around them and forming friendships. what will happen at the end of the show when the friends made have to learn that they were just part of an experiment? how will that affect their attitude concerning different races? if a black kid befriends the "black" boy and he shares personal insights on what he experiences day to day - will he feel betrayed and hurt to know that the entire time, his life experiences were being used to make the show more entertaining? how will that make him feel towards the white boy? or all whites? how is this show helping to break down barriers by using deceit?

with the betrayal aspect of the show, i can incorporate the apologies that lakeoff discussed. also, i can explore the race card issues brought up by lakeoff. with the show, i can explore bernay's ideas of manipulating the public. also, there was a debate surrounding the show whether or not the white family could use the word 'nigger' while dressed as the black. rutherford's censorship issues come into play here.


some other shows i'd like to research and discuss include:
- beverly hills - a show about rich white kids facing "problems" [no blacks on the show, at least not for the 1st 7 years]
- FRIENDS - is it reality to believe that in NEW YORK CITY there will be no blacks in the area?
- good times - this is a show about a poor black family and their struggles - how realistic is this show? also, there was a lack of white characters. ALSO this show dealt with racism for at least 3 episodes.
- starsky & hutch - two white detectives and a black former druggie informant. i believe he was also a pimp. [although the sergeant was black - so idk about this one]
- the real world - although this show is not primarily race stereotypes, it still does help to affirm stereotypes of the :gay man :loud black woman :proud black man :drunken blonde slut :football stud womanizer --- how does this show [which is pop. among teens] create a mold for viewers?
- benny hill show [ that is not the right name, i forget what the show was called -- help!] where the white father hated blacks. this show openly dealt with racism and poked fun at it. [note: this show could be seen as beneficial bc it poked fun at racism and somewhat pointed out the contradictions/stupidity in stereotyping]
- the jeffersons - this was a reverse benny hill show. a black family 'moving on up' in which the proud black husband does not approve of whites.


blah blah blah blah - you get the idea. any suggestions of shows that have blatant stereotyping present - please share.
hope everyone had a great weekend;; ps. - one week of classes left!! yesssssssssssssssssss!! =-)

ps. while spell checking, the word 'womanizer' came up as misspelled and the suggestion was 'homemaker.' idk if that is important or interesting to anyone else in the slightest, but i found it amusing.