This Is It

This is it, my final blog. I feel that it’s only appropriate to use this one as a reflection on my year in An American Studies. This course didn’t immediately click with me. I’m a pretty structured person and so the lose form of this class sent me into a bit of a shock. In fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t speak the entire first quarter of the year. What can I say, the class was huge and I was intimidated. I swear it seemed like people would have their hands in the air before my teachers were done asking the questions and I didn’t think I had much to contribute with how smart everyone around me was.

Thankfully, I have come a long way since them. To start, I am no longer mute in this class. Although I still can be intimidated by the size and by the intelligence of my peers, I’m no longer afraid to toss my hat into the ring. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Who cares? I even screamed at the top of my lungs twelve times in front of my class the other day for my role in The Kentucky Cycle without a second thought.

I have learned so much from this class and I feel like it’s allowed me to look at the world more critically than I ever would have before. So thank you Bolos and O’Connor for teaching me to let my voice be heard and question the world around me.  

Do High Schools Support Rape Culture?

            I think it’s safe to say that most people have had a dress code imposed on them at some point in their schooling. Most commonly there’s the rule that girls have to wear shorts that go longer than their fingertips. I never really questioned this rule, probably because when I got to high school it no longer applied to be, but an 11^th grader has recently brought it to the attention of the general public.

            When Lindsay Stocker was called out for violating dress code in front of her entire class and was denied the right to defend herself, she posted the following sign around the school.  

Lindsay may have been suspended for posting the sign, but she has raised awareness for her cause by getting global attention. She’s spreading her message that “There’s a huge rape culture that educational systems aren’t really paying attention to. They’re actually contributing to it without realizing it.”


I think that schools enforce dress codes with good intentions. The idea behind them is obvious, they want to keep the environment appropriate and safe for everyone. But are good intentions actually sending the wrong message and encouraging rape culture among young men like Lindsay argues?

My advisor shared her opinion with us that my own high school, New Trier, actually encourages rape culture. As juniors, every girl’s advisory has the opportunity to go on a self-defense excursion. My advisory did not partake in this fieldtrip because my advisor believes that we shouldn’t have to teach girls not to fight because we should be teaching boys not to rape. In sending girls on this excursion, is New Trier supporting the male dominated culture that Lindsay feels dress code supports? Are high schools protecting girls or harming them?

The Rags-To-Riches Myth

In my American Studies class we've been reading The Great Gatsby, so naturally we've been talking a lot about social status. Throughout the book, a "secret society" is often mentioned that only a select few are a part of. They represent the highest class a person can be and it consists of old-money. That's why Gatsby, as much as he tries, can never become a part of this secret society. He may be able to work hard and obtain as much money as them, but he will remain nouvelle-riche. The biggest difference between the nouvelle-riche and the old-money is that the nouvelle-riche couldn't dream to have the same sort of connections. 

With connections on my mind, I stumbled across a rather fitting post on Humans of New York. Before I get into that, Humans of New York is a blog where a man goes around New York photographing people and asking about their lives. He then posts a picture with a quote from them or a snippet from their conversation together. I come across these posts through Facebook, and now I am going to share one with you. 

I think this man encompasses Gatsby’s struggle of being stuck in the class you start in. In America, we like to believe in the “American Dream” narrative. That classic rags-to-riches story, where all you need is some hard work, perseverance, and a little bit of luck to succeed in life. As convenient as this story may be, I think that this may be an optimistic and naïve mindset. Instead, I think this man represents the American struggle of not being “taken seriously” when you come from a lower social class. We all want to think we can be anything we want to be, but in reality, does it all come down to whom you know instead of what you know?

Gatsby vs Gatsby vs Kane

           In my American Studies class we watched Citizen Kane instead of The Great Gatsby after we finished reading Gatsby. My teacher told us that he believed that Citizen Kane would be the movie that Fitzgerald would have made to represent his book. If I’m being honest, I had my doubts that Citizen Kane could be a better depiction of The Great Gatsby than the actual movie for the obvious reason that there is not Gatsby in Citizen Kane.

            That’s why I decided to watch The Great Gatsby and make up my mind for myself. I decided to watch the 2013 version of the movie and I have to say that I was a little disappointed since I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I can’t say the same about the movie.

            My first issue was how the white motif that often surrounded the upper class was portrayed in the film. In one of the first scenes we see Jordan in Daisy engulfed in these flowing white curtains that seemed to throw the white theme in your face. Even though subtlety was completely ignored in this scene, I found the lack of emphasis on certain parts of the book to be alarming.

            One scene that was completely eliminated was the whole elevator scene that implied Nick’s affair with Mr. McKee. In my opinion, that scene was crucial to understanding Nick as a character and why he acts the way he is, thus making it that much harder to connect with him. In addition to that, most of the characters were very exaggerated and I found them hard to relate to as well.

            All that being said, I’m not sure I necessarily believe that Citizen Kane is a better depiction of Gatsby than Gatsby. I think that the extravagant parties and Daisy’s murmur make Gatsby what it is, and without the character and the plot no movie can rival in representing a book than it’s actual adaptation. However, if you’re looking for a movie to show the struggle, emotions, and themes of a man trying to gain a place in high-society coming from nothing, Citizen Kane is the way to go.

Take It From Me

I officially turned in my junior theme today, which was a relief to say the least. Having gone through this process, I am going to write my tips for surviving the junior theme, or any other research paper for that matter.

1. Get as much research as you can.

There's no such thing as too much research when it comes to writing an inquiry paper. I found that the more I read, the more comfortable I felt when writing my paper. This was because it helped me to actually feel like I knew what I was talking about, and not just trying to fill space.

2. If you are given time in the library, use it.

If I'm being honest, I was not 100% focused every single day in the library. We would have days when we spent the full 80 minute block period in the library and after about an hour, I would start to get distracted. I didn't realize until after these days were over just how much of a gift they were. You have your teacher, librarians, and classmates to bounce ideas off of so by all means, take advantage of it.

3.  Choose your topic very carefully.

If you're spending a month on a singe question, or prompt if that's what your assignment is, you are most definitely going to want to be really interested whatever your topic is. I understand that sometimes this is going to be assigned, but if it's not, then you should find something you are passionate about because it will only make your paper stronger in the long-run.

4. Do not put off your annotated bibliography.

The annotated bibliography may not be the most exciting or glamorous part of writing your paper, but it can become time consuming. If you struggle citing sources like me, then you are going to want to have time to ask your librarians or other experts all of your questions. Not to mention for a large paper you are going to have a lot of sources and if you have to write a short paragraph for each then you are going to have to be realistic in how much time this will actually take.

5. Breathe.

Try not to stress out too much. Yes, this is a big paper. Yes, you should work your hardest. But no, it is not worth making yourself crazy. It's just a research paper so don't give it the power t o ruin your life.

Reacting To Abuse

In my religion inquiry, I stumbled across a frightening case that just recently occurred right here in Chicago. I'm referring to the court case regarding the sexual abuse allegations on priest Daniel McCormick. The anonymous victim, or John Doe, was abused from eighth grade until he was junior in high school, or from 2001-2005. For the ten claims made by Doe, there was a 3.15 million dollar settlement made after five years of deliberation. In my opinion, money can't make up for the emotional trauma that would ensue from a trusted mentor, priest, and teacher preying on you and violating your rights and trust. 

Unfortunately, this was not some rare, isolated event. In fact, in January of this year a group of lawyers released about 6,000 pages of reports of sexual abuse involving 30 other priests. In fact, in a personal interview with Bradley Malkovsky, religion professor at Notre Dame, he pointed to these sexual scandals as a cause for the loss of following. This seems like a very realistic allegation considering no parent would want to put his or her child in the dangerous and harmful position that John Doe was stuck in for many of his teenage years. 

Rise in Suppport, Decline in Practice

            For my Junior Theme, I am exploring the decline in religion among the millennial generation. One answer to this question I have learned about is that the millennial generation supports gay and lesbian rights more than any other generation that has come before it. According to a study from the Public Religion Research Institute, thanks to the millennials, 2011 is the first time in history that supporting gay marriage was not a minority position. This group is also the most unaffiliated group religiously for their age, at 25 percent unaffiliated (Pew Research Center).

            This connection between religion and gay rights is a pressing one in today’s news. Mississippi just passed a “religious freedom” law, which allows business owners to use their religion as a legal defense in a court of law if sued by a costumer. This means that if a customer was refused service or harshly treated for their sexual orientation, that said business owner could defend himself in saying it was because their religion doesn’t support gay rights.

            I believe that this type of disdain towards gay rights that is often connected to religion has caused there to be a decline in practice of religion with this younger generation. This is because if people now accept those around them the way they are, they don’t want their religious institutions to say that it’s not okay to be the that way. Obviously this is not a direct connection because not all religious institutions are against gay rights, but the fact that the support for gay rights rises as the practice in religion declines, I think it’s safe to say that there is a correlation.

What's to Come

For those of you who have read my blog before, you know that there's not exactly a theme for what I blog about. It's pretty much just whatever's on my mind or some random current event I stumble upon. Well, I'm just posting to tell you all that things are about to change.

My American Studies class just started a paper called junior theme (basically just a big research paper with a fancy name at New Trier). Our assignment was to ask a why question about a current issue in the world and then write an inquiry about it. So, with that being said, my why question is why is there a decline in the practice of religion among the millennial generation?

In my next several blog posts I will be exploring possible answers to this question. These topics include the increase in support for the gay community, scientific advancements, being scared off by religious extreme groups, and for varying opinions on social issues such as abortion. This is not every answer to this question that I will be looking in to, just a few I've stumbled upon thus far. So if any of you have any possible answers you would like me to explore, leave me a comment!

Feminist ≠ Bra Burning

Are you a feminist?

If you answered no to that question then you are not alone. Only 20 percent of people identify themselves as feminists (23 percent of women and 16 percent of men). However, when asked if men and women should have equal rights, 82 percent believe that they should. The definition of feminism, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes." So my question is, why aren’t those two statistics I just mentioned identical?

This is because there is such a stigma to the word “feminist”. Considering only 26 percent of the population thinks of this word with a positive connotation, there must me some pretty powerful misconceptions about what it means to be a feminist. It’s no secret that celebrities hold a lot of weight in the minds of today’s society, so let’s take a look at why some famous females say they’re not feminists.

  

Lady Gaga: I'm not a feminist - I, I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars....

Marissa Meyer: I don't think that I would consider myself a feminist. I don't, I think have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of, the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that

 

           Kelly Clarkson: No, I wouldn't say feminist — that's too strong. I think when people hear feminist, it's like, 'Get out of my way, I don't need anyone.' I love that I'm being taken care of.

          

         Geri Halliwell: For me feminism is bra-burning lesbianism. It's very unglamorous.

 

Just by looking at these four statements, being a feminist means not loving men, being “militant” and self-righteous, being all by yourself and never letting anyone take care of you, and being a bra-burning lesbian. I think it’s clear why so many people are hesitating to call themselves feminists: because they have absolutely no idea what this word means. To combat this ignorance, McGill University started a Feminist Campaign showing images of Americans saying they are feminists.

I think that this is a common problem in America, not wanted to be associated with something just because you don’t understand it or are afraid of the connotation. Just look at a few of the examples from the McGill Campaign, there's no one type of person who's a feminist. So next time you hear the word feminist, it doesn’t mean you have to go set your bra on fire just to be a part of this movement. And it’s also not saying that men should never hold the door for a woman because they want to be independent and can’t have help from anyone. Instead, whether you’re a man or a woman, whoever gets to the door first should hold it for the person behind them.

Shout-out to Izzy D and Trish for the chat about feminism today that inspired this blog post.

Don't Think You'll Get a Good Job? Better Drop Out

            When I was walking down the hallway the other day, a friend of mine was complaining that she was “so done with school”. I hear this type of complaint all the time, and if I’m being honest, I’m guilty of throwing this sort of sentiment around every now and then. This comment means anything from being stressed over an assignment to getting a bad grade on a test, but I’m of course never actually “done with school”.

            When I was thinking about it, I realized that I don’t personally know anyone who’s been actually done with school, meaning that they decided to drop out. Beyond that, other than Grease’s Beauty School Dropout scene I’ve never even really heard anyone discuss dropping out of school. That led me to wonder if this is because this isn’t as big of a pressing issue as it used to be or just because it’s not as common where I live.

            As it turns out, a student drops out of school ever 29 seconds in America. That’s more than 7,000 a day and over a million students a year. So why didn’t I know that this was such a huge problem in America?

            When looking into this, I learned that one of the main causes for students to drop out of high school is when they have lower occupation aspirations. In other words, students who have the perception that they will not have high-income jobs are more likely to drop out of school. However, by dropping out of school these students are significantly lowering their chances to eventually have a high paying job, since most of them require a diploma.

            I believe that this mentality is setting up students from low- income families for failure. These students are 10.5 times more likely to drop out of high school than high-income families and I think that it is due to their environments. If a child comes from a high-income family, they see adults who are successful in their fields and therefore have no reason to believe that they themselves cannot be successful. However, if a child comes from a low-income family, then they may not have the same role model as a child from a high-income family and may not be as likely to believe that they will be able to be financially successful in the future.            

            I think that in order to combat this divide then these students need role models of people who have created successful careers from less than ideal situations to show that it’s possible. People like Chris Gardner who rose all the way from being homeless to being one of the most successful businessmen in the world.  

Driving By Numbers

Being a teenager and only having my driver’s license for a short time, I’m only allowed to take a car when my parents let me. They have this right since they’re the ones who own the car and I’m still a kid, but the government shouldn’t have this right too.

In France the government is putting restrictions on when people can drive their own cars. Due to the rise in the pollution level in France, citizens are only allowed to drive their cars every other day. They’ve been monitoring this based on if your registration number ends with an even or odd number.

In my opinion, if people have the means to own a car, they should be able to use it. People don’t buy cars just to have them; they are necessary in today’s society for many people. Adults can’t just go to work or drive their children to school every other day. And yes, arrangements can be made in terms of carpooling or public transportation, but what about in cases of emergency? In France they had hundreds of police on the streets to make sure only the even and odd numbered cars were out on their designated days. So what happens if an odd car is on the way to the emergency room on an even day? Being pulled over is definitely not the ideal situation in such a scenario.

Beyond that, by controlling when citizens can drive their cars I think the government is intruding too far into the personal lives of the people. What’s next, telling people when they can turn on their lights or their televisions? There are other ways to combat global warming without compromising the rights of the people. If this were to happen in America, how would Americans react?

Swearing is F***ing Magical

            Why do we swear? Maybe out of frustration or to show your emotion or maybe even just because it slips out. The point is, people swear in all different type of scenarios and in my American Studies class the other day we decided that these words hold a sort of magical power. This is because in some cases there are no other words that can replace them and they hold a weight that most other words do not because they are “forbidden”. As it turns out, according to psychologist Neel BurtonM.D., swear words really are magical.

            In a study performed by Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, it was discovered that if two people put their hands in ice water and one swears and the other cannot, the one who is swearing can keep their hand in the frigid water for twice as long. This is because it gives you a serge of adrenaline which allows you better tolerate pain.

            Along with general pain management, swearing can lower your circulation, boost your self-confidence, elevate your endorphins, signal to others that you are open and honest, and give yourself and overall sense of being calm and in control.

            Now I’m not saying you should go scream the F-word down the hallways because it has certain health benefits, but I think it’s important to note the power words really have. I think that the fact that words with such negative connotations can have such a positive impact shows that words can really make a difference. If we string together the right words at the right time, we can take advantage of our Freedom of Speech to create a positive influence in the world around us.

Disaster or Tea Party?

            Civil Liberties are a huge focus for my American Studies class. Recently we’ve spent a lot of time talking about our freedoms and when, if ever, they should be limited. We’ve been thinking the amount of control the government has over the media and how that can effect what the public knows. I had never really realized before how huge this impact was until I stumbled across this story about what Russians are being told about Putin's military invasion of Ukraine.

            Instead of “Ukraine readies for an invasion by Russia” and “PM says Ukraine on the brink of disaster” (headlines from US and Western Europe), the Russian headlines read, “Tea, sandwiches, music, photos with self-defense forces mark peaceful Sunday in Simferopol”.

            The above image was accompanied by the live pro-Russia Rally being held in Simferopol, Ukraine. The media chose to focus solely on this one pro-Russia event instead of Putin's military intervention that took place in Crimea, Ukraine, not Simferopol. In showing this instead of the pictures of the burnings or of the wounded, Russia is morphing the situation into something that can only reassure the Russian people that the invasion is going well and is remaining peaceful.

I believe that in showing this only positive viewpoint the media is unfairly hiding this serious situation in Crimea. Although this is a perilous time, by highlighting the pro-Russia rally instead of the negative sides of the invasion, they are in no way protecting the Russian citizens and therefore they should be showing the negative aspects as well. There are two sides to every story, and shouldn’t the people of Russia be entitled to both?

America the Beautiful

            Many people in America think that our country is becoming more accepting of diversity. It’s obvious that in some ways we are, I mean we now have an African American president and there are gay couples on network TV. However, the backlash from Coca Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” super bowl commercial proved that we may not be as progressive as we think we are.

            This commercial features Americans of all different ethnicities and backgrounds singing “America The Beautiful” in 7 different languages.

            After this commercial aired during the super bowl people took to twitter immediately. One viewer wrote, “ Well.. I won't be drinking #coke anymore. We speak English in the #USA. Get over it”. Another even said, “Some terrorist were singing our song in that coke commercial #superbowl”.

            The backlash that Coca Cola got from this commercial shows the ignorance of some Americans. To call one of the people singing in the commercial a terrorist is not only extremely racist and offensive, but also blatantly incorrect. As for the “We speak English” comment, according to the United States Census, 60.6 million people in the US speak a language other than English in the home. I think that this response shows that America still has a lot of room to grow when it comes to accepting diversity.

Illness or Fashion Statement?

            Mental illness and eating disorders are both very serious topics, which is why there was such a big uproar when Urban Outfitter released this shirt that has the word “depression” written all over it. This shirt was compared to another shirt they released a few years earlier with the words “eat less” on it.

According to an article in the New York Daily News, many online shoppers, who saw the “depression” shirt on their website, immediately went to twitter to start the criticism of the shirt. Shoppers like Courtney Crider and Emmy Blackery even vowed to never step foot in the store again.

            Personally, I think that these shirts show how stores in America contribute to problems such as depression and eating disorders, especially in young girls. Urban Outfitters is a popular store among this demographic and by glorifying depression and eating disorders, they are in no way helping young girls who are struggling with these issues. In fact, they are doing quite the opposite. By writing “eat less” on a girl’s shirt, they are telling girls that they aren’t beautiful unless they are skinny, like the models in the picture. Instead they should be encouraging a positive self- image and not glorifying an illness like depression. 

Money Makes You Mean

            My American Studies class has recently been reading The Crucible. In the Crucible, some reoccurring themes are greed, power, and lying. Since this book is set during the 1600s, this caused me to wonder about just how much these themes are still prominent and how they connect to one another in today’s society.            

            In my search, I stumbled across a Ted Talk by Paul Piff called Does Money Make YouMean? Turns out, the answer is yes. This is not to be interpreted as all wealthy people are mean, but some recent studies have shown that when a person is given wealth, their attitudes can change.  Piff starts by sharing the results of a study they conducted in which they had two strangers play Monopoly. In this game, they gave one player twice as much money, more dice to role, and a higher salary. Clearly, this player was set up to win the game, but that wasn’t the question.

            Instead of the outcome, they were watching the privileged player’s behavior. As the game went on, this player began to gloat and felt the right to eat the pretzels left on the table for the two players. So once this player established that they were the one with the power, they started to get greedy and rude.

            Later they brought in adults and gave them ten dollars. They then told them that they could give a portion of their ten dollars to a complete stranger. People who earned less than 25-50 thousand dollars gave 44 percent more to the stranger than people who made over 100-200 thousand dollars a year. Ten dollars isn’t very significant to someone who makes over 200 thousand dollars a year, so why were they more greedy when offered to give it away? Is it because they don’t want to give up their power?

            Finally, they had adults come and play a game that involved rolling dice. They rigged the computer so it was impossible to roll any number over twelve. But sure enough, the wealthier the person was, the more likely they would record a score over twelve. So why did the wealthy people feel more inclined to lie? Again, I think that like in The Crucible, everything comes back to power. In today’s society, wealth is often associated with power, so is that why wealthier people feel more entitled and less hesitant to lie?