Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A Cycle of Outrage; Gilbert

A Cycle of Outrage
By: James Gilbert

Quotes

This reading was an interesting one like the last. I understand why we were assigned this reading because there was lots of history involved about teenagers. There were three quotes that stood out to me...


In a special issue devoted to explaining teenage behavior Cosmopolitan said, "We've stopped trying to teach them how to live. Instead, we're asking them how they think we should live."

This quote is very true. Teenagers are the ones that are usually always up to date. Parents do not know how it is growing up as teenagers now a day because everything has changed. So teaching teenagers how to live in THEIR world is useless Teenagers will always understand the roles of their parents but there are certain things they know parents will not understand about them. A simple question will hold the relationship between a parent and teenager together. Communication does wonders.


"But music could not be isolated, as both parents and teenagers recognized, from the seamless web of culture, centered on high schools, souped-up cars, teen magazines, and a social order of gangs, new dating customs, drive-in theaters, hair cuts, and clothes marked "inaccessible" to unsympathetic adults."


I like how they ended this sentence by saying “unsympathetic adults” because it shows how parents can be heartless when they think they are right about a certain situation or when they want to stop a teen from doing something. The media has always been apart of teenager’s lives and as we can tell parents weren’t always a fan of this. This goes to show us the media will ALWAYS effect teens or our lives one way or another. I doubt the music and social outings compare to the ones teens are exposed to today. Have you seen how “twerking” became popular once Miley Cyrus started doing it?? 








"On top of curiosity and worry came the increasing recognition that teenagers had a major impact on the shaping of American popular culture."


Teenagers will always impact the shaping of the American Culture, plain and simple. I just turned twenty- two and I am wayyy behind with what’s going on today. Do I like it? Not one bit! And I honestly find myself asking teenagers what’s the latest 411?? lol. I am quite ashamed that I have to do that but how else will I stay in the loop. So I can see why this may bother older folks. Teens will always have the power parent’s lack and this is a scary thing to them.


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The question I have for class is….
….are afraid of the power that teenagers can have?

-After reading this assignment I know that teenagers will always have the power to do many things especially right now with the amount of social networking there is. Things can go viral in minutes. We can ether fear teenagers and social networks or love them. Where do you stand?

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence RABY

A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence
REBECCA C. RABY

**Quotations**  



“On the one hand, Jess accepts the definition of herself as moody and sees this as inevitable to teenagehood. Then she experiences herself being punished for it (moodiness as a social problem?). She denies the mood as ‘different’ but not necessarily bad, and links this difference to the context of starting high school and dealing with its demands. Reverting to an essentialist position, she later suggests that hormones are in fact affecting her, she is moody and angrier than usual, but then ends up drawing on a discourse of becoming, deploying it in a way that contradicts the essentialist position.”

Being moody is not a positive thing so I do not understand why Jess has to “accept the definition of herself as moody”. When the other says Jess contradicts herself I think that is not needed. Jess is young and is not sure what she is going though. I', pretty sure the way she feels today is not the way she is going to feel tomorrow. Personally I would be offended if I was described as being moody at any age. Earlier in Jess’ interview she says:



“Sometimes I’ll have had a bad day and I’ll come home in the worst mood. She’ll be all happy and I’ll be all ‘just not now, mom’ and then she’ll be ‘oh, you’re grounded’. Then I’ll get grounded for being in a bad mood or at least how it started or something. // Yeah, my mom says that ever since I’ve been in high school I’ve been in a bad mood.”


This all could have been avoided if Jess would have simply told her mom that she had not had a good day and that they would talk later but instead she choose to tell her mom in a way that did not come off as good. We as adults all have those days where we do not feel like talking to anyone. This is not something that only teenagers do. “We” need to stop blaming everything teenagers do on “hormones”. Unless we feel as though these same “hormones” are still affect us as adults.  



“Here teens are a risk to others, difficult, troublemakers and potential disrupters of households and social peace. Griffin suggests that girls are more likely to be considered at risk while boys are more likely to be treated as a social problem”

Saying that teens are a “risk to other, troublemakers, and potential disrupters of house holds and social peace” is a little inaccurate. There was lots of categorizing in this reading. All teens are not troublemakers and not all teens are disrupters of peace. There were lots of preconceived notations about teens in this reading. Is this quote we see separation of gender. Girls vs. boys. Of course girls are considered at risk and boys are more likely to be treated as a social problem. People like to overlook girls/ women but we are cable of doing what boys/ men do. I wonder when we will let these gender roles go.


I heard this song as a teen and I thought it related to my life. 





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I honestly did not enjoy this reading. I felt as though it was way too lengthy and everything that was said could have been condensed. 

My only questions for next class are....

What did everyone think about this reading all together?

Did you feel there was a bias and/ or some uneducated thoughts from the author? 

Lastly, point out one thing you could relate to from this text.




Wednesday, February 12, 2014

QUESTION



Does anyone remember the quote Sierra used about power? I can't remember it and didn't write it down. I thought it was a great quote!  












-Funny right???


Have a nice week and weekend :D 

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us

Being a minority and growing up in a predominantly “white world” can be a bit confusing. I can remember being young and asking my mom why my noise wasn’t so pointy or why my hair wasn’t bone straight. These questions didn’t appear because I watched too many cartoons or because I was exposed to Disney princesses. My questions aroused because I was constantly exposed to these types of looks in my environment. I knew I wasn’t ugly, I just knew I looked “different”.

In Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen, we are introduced to a black freshman named Kenya who “scolds” her parents in an essay she has written. Kenya draws the question “A Black Cinderella?” and answers by saying, ”Give me a break." She sums up her thoughts by saying, “Women who aren’t white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the role of this princess.” By "this princess," Kenya means the role you never saw a women of color playing.


  •  I will give a reflection against Kenya’s quote because I have seen a black Cinderella.  Perhaps, seeing a black Cinderella at the age of five gave me hope that women of color would not be left out.
Did you know in 1997 The Wonderful World of Disney and Whitney Houston Presented an updated version of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella? Brandy Norwood a very popular R&B and well-known actress starred as Cinderella and Whitney Houston played the Fairy Godmother character. I was in love with this version Cinderella because for once I was physically able to relate to this idol all young girls wanted to be. Although, growing up I preferred playing outside rather then being a princess and playing dress up. However, after seeing Brandy be Cinderella I believed I could too. This was a great feeling and I still remember the first time I saw the movie. 



 

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella staring Brady and Whitney Houston if you would like to watch sometime :D 


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I want everyone to think about how they would like to raise their children and what they would like them to view (or be influenced by). Now a days there are many different reality TV shows that children have unlimited access to if they are not being monitored consistently. Now, reality TV are not the only influential shows as we learned by reading the article but they air on many different TV stations. We need to start thinking about these things early because before we know it, we will be parents or may already be. We also may be older siblings, aunts, older cousins, or maybe just a mentor.