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Thursday, June 7, 2007
Facing Challenges
Reflection Letter
I’m not only a student at Everett Community College but also at Lake Stevens High school. Being only sixteen years old and going to high school, college, and work is a bit of a struggle for me. Sometimes I’m so tired at the end of the day I feel as though I don’t complete this online class to the best of my ability. In the beginning of this quarter I was working shifts at night not leaving anytime to do my work for college until around eleven or twelve p.m. Being over exhausted everyday, I knew I had to change something. Now I work morning shifts from six to seven a.m. until ten then go to school from ten thirty to two and have plenty of time to do my college work. You can easily see the change it has made to my grades and effort put into my work. Working hard and being on the go all the time is pretty much my life for the moment. I’m trying to get a business degree to transfer to a four year university. Which takes a lot of hard work to get ahead of my high school education to a higher level, doing all of this will give me a better chance to get into my dream school Western Washington.
Going from my last English class which was actually at the college to an online course was difficult. I didn’t know what to expect and it was harder than I thought. I enjoyed creating conversation in comparison and contrast with other’s who I have never met but felt as though we were sitting in a classroom right next to each other. The three main units, identity, community, and tradition all linked together in some way. My favorite unit was community. I felt as though I understood this unit better than the other units and had fun with all the assignments. The tradition unit was the hardest for me to grasp. I think if I would’ve understood it better I could’ve done better on my paper to my own standards. The timed writings were the most difficult for me. It was hard for me to write on the spot all I could do was count down the time I had left. The group discussions really helped me out with writing my papers; I enjoyed other people’s feedback. Blogging was them most fun for me I could just express my own thoughts on a page that was just about me. This whole class has really challenged me with everything we had to do. Sometimes I would think I couldn’t do it and be so overwhelmed but push myself anyways. Overall I believe I learned a lot and succeeded in trying my hardest to meet not only my teacher’s expectations but my own.
For my chosen pieces I included visiting pop culture Discussion Board 2 in the tradition unit for my critical thinking piece. My revision piece is my unit one paper, “Are we what we wear”? The second blog assignment “What’s your Community”? I felt had the most voice and attraction to the audience. My writers choice is the unit two cultural writing assignment. Our second major paper in which I felt I did a really good job analyzing.
I hope this reflection gave a better introduction of who I really am and how my writing is based off of what I study and learn. I write just what comes to me and hope that’s good enough. I love to write and really liked this class especially for the people in it. Thank you to my instructors and students who helped me write the best I could.
Kirsten Michaels
Anaylze That
Taking two readings and applying them to my assumption that pop culture is manipulative was a good analyzing assignment. I chose two readings that I thought would give good examples towards manipulation with the current trends. For example I explain that in “Britney Spears: the pop tart of winter” Adam Sternbergh explains how Britney Spears is appeared as someone she says she’s really not. Demonstrating how reality TV shows aren’t always truthful and can be edited for entertainment proved my assumption. Analyzing was a big part of this assignment and I feel as though I did a good job supporting a statement from two readings that weren’t similar.
Manipulation within Current Pop Culture Trends
Pop culture is manipulative. For example, we currently have a taste for reality TV, yet the majority of shows are manipulated by the producers, so what we see may not be reality at all. A particular segment may make a participant lazy or pushy because of editing.
In "Queer guy: searching for a straight guy" Hemal Jhaveri explains the many shows on TV that support or show gay relationships. Some of these shows include Will and Grace, The amazing race, and queer as folk. These are just some of the examples there are many more that have gay people or relationships in the show but aren't focused around them. In amazing race there was a gay couple which won the race, and showed everyone that gay relationships aren't just about fashion tips and girls nights out but more than that. They were considered married and had a flawless relationship. It was perfect; they never fought or had any conflicts. Almost too perfect, what if the producers of the shows changed or edited the film, to show people what would interest them the most and keep them entertained. So do we ever really know what were watching?
I would say no, TV is edited so much that you never really know what’s real or fake. Even what we read in magazines how do you know if it's true or not? In "Britney Spears: the pop tart of winter" Adam Sternbergh explains how Britney Spears is not like at all what her image portrays her to be. Her producers and managers want her to portray herself as a sex icon and make her act a certain way in the videos and shows that she does to make people be entertained. She however feels like she can't be sold and says she won't come out to an audience naked or uncovered in her private areas. Yet we have all seen it many times and far worse than just uncovered. People produce what they think we as the audience want to see and what will keep us entertained, not what’s truthful.
Room for Improvement
The overview of the first paper assignment was analyzing the assertion that I chose which would be “certain name brands or items of clothing are important as ‘identity marker’”. For some folks, it’s all about the jeans, or the shoes, or the lettermen’s jacket, or the sweatshirt with a college logo across the front or anything from Abercrombie and Fitch. How is it that these brands or clothing articles have gained prominence? What do they have to say about identity and about our choices? Could choices be dictated by age, gender, or social status? In my original essay I directed the paper towards a “you” paper instead of following the guide lines to an academic essay. There was also a lot of room to express my thesis more throughout the paper. Choosing this paper gave me the most room to improve and go further into depth with analyzing my assertion. I revised about a page length of the entire essay. Mostly cutting out addressing the paper incorrectly to my audience; it sounds better now but as you read on there needs to be further explanation into my thesis. I feel as though if I would’ve addressed the paper properly and watched my grammar I could’ve gotten a better over all grade.
Identity Inside and out
Identity inside and out
An Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirt-$128.00, a pair of Target sunglasses-$15.00, having your own identity-priceless! To most people the clothing they wear can only be name brand or highly overpriced, they have to wear the in styles and get it before anyone else has the chance. Does having an article of cloth that covers your body help portray who you really are? Isn’t it crazy that we wear and what style we like can tell someone so much about us? The clothing that you wear does affect your identity and the choices that you make, being persuaded or dictated, however, affects the kind of clothes that you wear. Ever wonder how these name brands became so popular, just look at the vicious circle people go through when it comes to fashion.
When seeing a person dressed in all black with chains hanging down and thick black eyeliner on you automatically assume the label or their identity as gothic. There are many different labels for people based on the way they dress and look. The way you choose to dress reflects upon who you are as a person which related to your identity. Choosing to wear all expensive clothes that are name brand is a choice that you make about what you want to look like and how much money you are willing to spend. We make big choices everyday and in many ways it relates to our identity. Clothes are a big part of how and where everyone fits in, in the world. They reflect your personality, your judgments of not only yourself but others as well, and how you see yourself. All these things make in some way a connection to your identity. If you have a lot of money and want people to notice in the world then you’ll wear the rich fancy name brand clothes. If you’re not a big spender then you’d prefer bargain shopping for what’s cute and still looks good at an affordable price. What you choose to wear should express yourself as an individual. You are choosing what you wear whether it be Abercrombie and Fitch or Value Village that’s your choice. Then again a lot of us wear what we see other’s wearing or what the media tells us to wear. Then you have to ask yourself am I dressing in what I really want to wear or what I’m being told to wear.
Everyone has a fashion style that they go by, whether it is their own or a trend they’re following. So why would they want to change what makes a big part of them and what they like and feel comfortable with. People who really want to fit in to another group or category will change everything about their style just to fit in. I think that changing your style completely would change your identity and the way you think of your values, obviously you go through a change to just completely want to change your whole appearance. What people wear is dictated a lot be social status. Yeah, gender and age have a small part to do with it but it’s mostly who the people look up to and want to be like. At high school if you’re popular then almost everyone wants to be like you, so they dress the same and do everything that’s possible to try and fit in with you. There’s a lot of fashion trends started in magazines that everyone reads. People want to dress like the stars or try at least so they try to copy what they’re wearing and how they do their hair. Having choices be dictated by what you wear happens everywhere. It’s obvious that its essential to fit into the right group or with the right people or just to fit in, in general, and having this longing only persuades people to change their choices to be like someone else’s.
After trying to express your own individuality and identity while being dictated with the choices you make on what clothes or styles you should go with, you then have to deal with the media. Which is also another form of dictation, but how do you think that clothing brands and articles get so popular. From people advertising their logos or brands on themselves, others see that style of clothing and it passes down from one set of eyes to another. If there’s the right influence in the specific target marketing group then business will be booming for that company. That’s how a lot of clothing brands plan it out; they pick a specific target market that they know will get their attention and attract them to their clothes and all of the sudden it’s a hit. From selling so much product they can afford to raise their prices, which is why the clothes today are so pricy and expensive for a lot of people. From businesses becoming so popular it starts the huge chain of affecting different groups by the styles traveling fast, spending all your money on the one outfit that is have to have, and the next day having a new style that is out and even pricier. The vicious circle of fashion can affect everyone especially their wallets!
Identity Inside and out the Remix
Identity Inside and Out
An Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirt-$128.00, a pair of Target sunglasses-$15.00, having your own identity-priceless! To most people the clothing they wear can only be name brand or highly overpriced; they have to wear the in styles and get it before anyone else has the chance. Does having an article of cloth that covers your body help portray who you really are? Isn’t it crazy that what we wear and what style we like can tell someone so much about us? The clothing that we wear does affect our identity and the choices that we make, being persuaded or dictated, however, affects the kind of clothes that we wear. Ever wonder how these name brands became so popular? Just look at the vicious circle people go through when it comes to fashion.
When seeing a person dressed in all black, with chains hanging down and thick black eyeliner on people automatically assume the label or their identity as gothic. There are many different labels for people based on the way they dress and look. The way people choose to dress reflects upon who they are as a person which relates to their identity. Choosing to wear all expensive clothes that are name brand is a choice that we make about what we want to look like and how much money we are willing to spend. We make big choices everyday and in many ways it relates to our identity. Clothes are a big part of how and where everyone fits in, in the world. They reflect our personality, our judgments of not only us but others as well, and how we see ourselves. All these things make in some way a connection to our identity. If we have a lot of money and want people to notice in the world then we’ll wear the rich fancy name brand clothes. If people aren’t big spenders then they’d prefer bargain shopping for what’s cute and still looks good at an affordable price. What we choose to wear should express ourselves as an individual. We are choosing what we wear whether it be Abercrombie and Fitch or Value Village that’s our choice. Then again a lot of us wear what we see other’s wearing or what the media tells us to wear. Then you have to ask yourself am I dressing in what I really want to wear or what I’m being told to wear.
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