What I learned

For the most part, English 1A seems to be nearly the same as English A except without the 5 paragraph essay. Although the 5 paragraph system seems limiting, it also lets me know exactly what is expected of me instead of trying to guess about what is wanted. Honestly I've barely cracked open the MLA book except to find out how to cite something, makes me glad my wife and I are sharing a book. I recall that in the previous semester that the excerpt from "The Banking Concept" was shorter. I wonder if there is more to it but at the same time I rarely read "just because". Banking concept seems to be the root of each subsequent book or essay as in people are not really thinking for themselves and are reduced to mindless sheep or lemmings. As far as revising essays go, I'm planning on focusing on the last one (Essay #3) because it is more fresh in my mind and I am more concerned about the subject matter than in the others.

Beauty Myth - Reading Blog

In thr 1970s, women gained legal and reproductive rights after years of being silent. They are no longer restricted but newer generations of women are uninterested in carrying the torch. They're more interested in trivial things such as eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. Consumer spending has rose as well as pornography has started to become mainstream. Most women are more concerned with losing 10 or 15 pounds than anything else. The Beauty Myth is a violent backlash against feminism that is being used as a weapon. Feminism game women laws that prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Betty Friedman liberated popular avenues of advertisements towards women. Each generation since 1830 has their own rendition of how they view beauty. Women were not allowed to vote or own property in 1855. Women were afraid of looking like their mother. Beauty is seen as a currency system to be used up as they age. Beauty is essentially in the eye of the beholder

Prereading blog - Beauty Myth

The Beauty Myth was written by Naomi Wolf. She looks at how society views beauty and the repercussions. She says that in the west, women are made almost to suffer for the sake of appearances to improve her standing in being accepted for relationships, employment and other venues. She argues that older men's views towards women are at cause. The old focus was on women remaining pure (or virgin) while today's focus being on figure.

Unit 3 WikiHunt-Thinggy! ש

Naomi Wolf is an author and political consultant with a huge list of accomplishments. Her political views lean towards the left. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature which she received in 1984. She wrote several books including Beauty Myth, Promiscuities, The End of America, & Give Me Liberty, which have received mixed reviews.

Jean Kilbourne is public speaker, author and documentary filmmaker. She makes others aware of the negative effects of advertising on women. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and earned a doctorate in education from Boston University. One of her more celebrated works is the series Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women which shows a few less than flattering images and icons of women.




Malcolm Gladwell commented about Sesame Street, "Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them". The show began airing on November 10, 1969 but could trace the beginnings to 1966 with the Carnegie Institute hired Joan G. Cooney to conduct a study on how the media can help children. One of their educational goals is to help children to understand realworld problems and situations like death, illness & divorce.

Cognition means the product of though while cognitive is similar to but is a process of through. The difference is one is a product that is intangible while the other is an adjective.

On the web site http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0521 there is a review of the book Advertising to the American Woman by Daniel Delis Hill. Hill suggests that prior to the 1950s that the advertising industry had a very narrow minded view of the role of women. After that women were empowered by consumerism.

It seems as through around the media portrays women as barbie doll thin which very few women can attain or maintain. Wolf's views on pornography suggest that men are beginning to no longer desire women who do not look or act like those in pornography. They are faced with the decision to either be ignored or become a toy to be played with.

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Reading blog - Kid Kustomers

Children used to only be targeted by a handful of companies such as Disney or McDonalds around 25 years ago. Now just about every imaginable venture has their sights on your children. This trend started in the 1980s with saturday morning cartoons. Until recently, Joe Camel was more recognized by children than harmless characters such as Mickey Mouse. Even though the ad campaign was discontinued, the damage was done.

Prereading blog - Kid Kustomers

Children are being used against their parent's wallets. Recall a time when we all were begging our parents to go to Chuck-e-Cheese for the obnoxiously loud and incoherent music, the sub-par pizza and the games. To the average adult this would be a ripoff but not to their children. I think that is what Eric Schlosser would try and communicate in "Kid Kustomers". Children are bombarded with ads during the commercial breaks of cartoons and they can't tell the difference. You as the parent then are subject to "Mommy Mommy" (or Daddy, if they don't know better ;) ) "I gotta have X" or "I wanna go, pweeze?".

Tipping Point Pre-reading blog

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell sounds like it's going to be about spreading an idea that catches on like a wildfire. The analogy on the back of the book is a single sick person can start an epidemic of flu but it also appears to go the other way. This reminds me of Mozilla Firefox in the sense that in mid 2002, no one heard of a little offshoot of Netscape known as Phoenix. I have recommended it to family and friends who are quite happy with it. Others have done the same and today it is estimated that 25-30% of the global market uses Firefox. Gladwell introduces several ideas such as "The Law of Few", "Stickiness Factor" and "The Power of Context". The Law of Few states that ~80% of the work is done by 20% of the participants. Under that are 3 types of participants. The "Connectors" are people with excellent networking skill, "Mavens" gather information and "Salesmen" sell their ideas (or goods). The "Stickiness Factor" is how memorable the subject was, such as famous persons like Elvis. Finally the "Power of Context" is how human behavior is affected by their environment or surroundings. One example would be peer pressure in school. Some student may be goaded into doing something that he or she wouldn't do otherwise. Oh and in the second to last chapter, Snape kills Dumbledore, FYI.

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