Blog 12

I recently finished a lengthy paper for my expository writing class that I chose to write about body image. It was an argumentative paper, so my argument was convincing my readers that celebrities have negative effects on body image. It really seemed to relate to this women's studies course. I found so much valuable information. Doing all of the research really helped me to be more secure in my own skin. I now know everything that goes into making celebrities look the way that they do. I learned all about airbrushing, which I have touched upon before in my previous blogs. I also learned extensive things about celebrities and eating disorders. Advertisements, celebrity endorsements, etc. were all things that I explored as well. I think that my paper turned out to be a very successful one. It was ten pages long and I used around 14 sources to help support my argument. I also addressed cosmetic surgery. For the paper, I was supposed to try and find counter-arguments to my argument. Luckily, I did not find too many people that thought celebrities were having positive effects on body image. I hope that young women will have the chance to learn everything that I did through my research, and that they will not look at a magazine advertisement and think that is how the celebrity really looks all of the time. It can be such a destructive industry and I can only hope that there are more people out there like me who are trying to get an important message across.

Blog 11

This week's political readings led me to take more of an interest in that area. Particularly, the reading about Hillary Clinton led me to do a little more research about her. I just decided to Google her and found HillaryClinton.com. When you go to the website, you are prompted to sign up as a "supporter." I opted to skip the sign up and be directed straight to the website. The one thing I noticed about her campaign website is the overwhelming monetary vibe. I mean, it seems everywhere you look they are wanting you to lend your "support", credit cards gladly accepted. I think it's about so much more than just money, and I wish the website portrayed that more. There is some background given about Hillary titled "Hillary's story." It stated that Hillary was raised in a middle-class family in the middle of America. The piece goes on to say "Hillary went on to become one of America's foremost advocates for children and families; an attorney twice voted one of the most influential in America; a First Lady of Arkansas who helped transform the schools; a bestselling author; a First Lady for America who helped transform that role, becoming a champion for health care and families at home and a champion of women's rights and human rights around the world." It does a great job of stating who she is and what she has done. I'm still on the fence about her ideals and her website, but that sentence really struck a note in me. She's obviously a powerful, accomplished lady who deserves much respect.

Blog 10

This week's class readings about rape really caught my eye. I found the reading the characterized the different categories of rape to be very interesting as well. I was looking at some magazines and came across an article in the September issue of Cosmopolitan. It was titled "His Case vs. Her Case" Court TV anchor Ashleigh Banfiled explained where the law currently stands on rape. She refers to acquaintance rape as "gray rape." She said that most victims of gray rape never report the experience to the police, much less decide to press charges. She also addressed how hard it is even to confront and accurately understand rape, and how hard it is for juries to make judgements about too. The legal system continues to struggle to define exactly where consent ends and rape begins. She went on to give examples of how strong a woman's case (or her assailant's case) might be in several key areas. In the area of consent, consent itself has always been the most basic issue in a rape case. The jury must be convinced that the woman did not give permission, or said and no and meant it, and was clear for the woman to win. On the other hand, the male could win the case by claiming he did not hear the woman say no, or had reason to think she didn't really mean "no." For example, if they were fooling around with rough sex and the male thought "no" was part of the game. When it comes to alcohol, women can win a case if they were too drunk to fully consent. It's illegal to take advantage of someone who is incapactitated. Although, if the woman was wasted, a guy can imply that her story cannot be trusted. But, he can't use being drunk himself as an excuse. The article states many more instances about the deciding factors in rape cases. I highly recommend reading the article to get the full analysis.