This is an interesting topic and so relevant to our students also. I was wondering if you are planning to include a counter claim or opposing viewpoint?
We women spend a lot of time managing ourselves (our “selves”) online. Chapkis calls it “doing looks,” the idea of the self as a product of careful (though well-intentioned) manipulation. We agonize over profile photos, family photos, tagged photos, and statuses, scanning for anything that might make us look un-thin, un-young, un-together.
Goffman argues that this process of “social acting” is one with which all women must engage, as “the self is a social product and can only be understood in relation to its social context” (66). Today’s social media contexts, however, are themselves contrived, are themselves the result of manipulation and farce. Joining the collective unrealistic expectations of a society in the arena of social media does not magically make them realistic. Elf on the Shelf, mini-marshmallows and all, is an example of how a simple children’s story can, through the filter of social media and unrealistic expectations, balloon into a litmus test for good motherhood.
(Thoughts on the rest of the paper ...) Having reviewed several sources during OLE about a woman’s identity, the self, appearance, and the ideas of visibility/invisibility, I think I would argue that the social constructs by which we measure ourselves are more unrealistic today than they have ever been, in large part due to social media. I would argue that the management and manipulation of our online selves (though I am as guilty as anyone else!) actually make our real “selves” less visible. I would also further argue that though our gender identity as women is shaped by social constructs, we can choose to “get off the train,” much like Lauren Shields did in “My Year of Modesty” (Salon, http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/my_year_of_modesty/). We can choose to evaluate social media content objectively, and we can decide not to become the “Shrinking Women” in Lily Myers’ poem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k). Shields and Myers each made a different type of choice, but they represent the kinds of responses we can make to defining ourselves and making ourselves “visible.”
This is such an interesting topic--partially because it is so relevant. I am certainly guilty as charged. We do carefully craft an on-line existence, don't we? Great idea!
A man in his early 20s walks into the emergency room and signals the nurse on duty and says, “I need you to come out to my car. My friend needs help.” The nurse waves to a security guard for assistance, and the nurse and security guard follow the man outside to his car. His friend is in the back seat and appears unconscious. The friend who brought the unconscious male to the hospital explains they both were at an all-night dance party and his friend took some pills that he thought were Ecstasy (MDMA), which his friend believed to be perfectly safe because it only made him “feel good.” According to the March 24, 2011 DAWN report issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “The number of Ecstasy-related ED visits increased by 74.8 percent from 2004 to 2008. Specifically, the number of drug-related ED visits involving Ecstasy increased significantly from 10,220 visits in 2004 to 17,865 visits in 2008” (2011). Of all the illicit drugs involved in emergency department visits, MDMA ranks as the 7th most common illicit drug involved in emergency department visits (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2011). This recent gain in popularity is a cause for concern, especially because MDMA works by releasing a large amount of serotonin in the brain where serotonin is more available to bind with serotonin receptors (Miller, 2004). In other words, users of MDMA experience great pleasure because the pleasure receptors of the brain are on overdrive, which means that they know it makes them feel good; they rarely know what negative effects it has on their bodies, though. Because of the dangers of MDMA, this topic should be added to health curricula in high school.
I forgot to add my plan ... I would like to incorporate some history of MDMA and how it rose to recreational use, the negative effects on the body, and how including a focus on MDMA in health curricula would be beneficial. I plan to address counterarguments that increasing knowledge of MDMA would lead to greater increase in trying the drug.
Great topic. I remember a drug counselor (1) telling me as a college student that the only harmful side effect from Ecstacy was that your cheeks will hurt from smiling so much. Scary.
My chatroll is not working again, so here is an attempted revision:
Original sentence - "His friend is in the back seat and appears unconscious." Revised sentence - "His friend's seemingly lifeless body slumps against the passenger door, having taken a ride he physically could not handle."
My literature review was on the idea of beauty and how our culture seems obsessed with it. I planned to show how we tan, pluck, diet, and shop to make ourselves beautiful. But, in the interest of doing what we ask our students, to start with the research, and then develop the claim, I am going in a new direction. I have been enthralled with the work of Denis Dutton who, according to his Ted Talk promo, “has a provocative theory on beauty — that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.” So, my intro:
Beauty is a part of our universal human experience. It sucks us in. Beauty enables us to feel pleasure; it captivates our attention, and it actually lights up neurons in our brains. What we call beautiful might be our grandfather’s smile, a sexy Victoria Secret model, the poetry of Langston Hughes, a wheat field before harvest, or MU winning the SEC championship. We actually crave beauty and need it to survive. This need for beauty, unlike what many believe, is not culturally conditioned, but rather primal. It is a concept “hardwired” in our brains handed down from our ancestors (Dutton). Beauty is a necessary ingredient for happiness. It is a universal instinct as indispensable as the air we breathe.
My plan was to dive into the topic of holidays and traditions, what is sacred, what is not. I thought all the posts on facebook over the holiday weekend about black Friday and starting your shopping on Thanksgiving and things like that were really interesting. In the midst of travel and everything I haven't gotten much out of my head and onto paper but I think it would be an interesting spin on culture, tradition and foundations. Maybe even posing the idea of commercialism vs. tradition. I don't know if that makes sense, I've been in the car driving since 6 A.M. :)
Introduction: Most parents of daughters boast about how beautiful their little girls are, posting photos on Facebook and showing off photos at the office. It is only when this natural pride becomes obsessive and the family’s entire foundational lifestyle becomes centered on proving the point through formal competition that problems typically arise. Parents who involve their tiny daughters in these so-called beauty pageants “adultify” their little girls as they spend exorbitant amounts of time, money, and energy on preparing their tots to compete against their peers. Within this troubling scenario little girls from infancy through their teen years are subjected to regular competitions in which they are manipulated into dancing, singing, parading, and vamping through their “turn” on stage. Especially worrisome is the fact that these children are dressed like adult women with make-up and sexually explicit clothing, designed to score points with the judges. This practice is decidedly wrong-minded and a form of child endangerment. Even more specious is the current relationship between these competitions and corporate enterprise as staggering amounts of money are involved for stakeholders. Continuing outline: Argument will include research from the Lit Review and facts about how children are dressed, forced to wear fake teeth, and given a variety of stimulants to help them “feel good” for their performances. Counterclaims that the girls “want” to do this will be debunked based on adult manipulation.
Introduction: Most parents of daughters boast about how beautiful their little girls are, posting photos on Facebook and showing off photos at the office. It is only when this natural pride becomes obsessive and the family’s entire foundational lifestyle becomes centered on proving the point through formal competition that problems typically arise. Parents who involve their tiny daughters in these so-called beauty pageants “adultify” their little girls as they spend exorbitant amounts of time, money, and energy on preparing their tots to compete against their peers. Within this troubling scenario little girls from infancy through their teen years are subjected to regular competitions in which they are manipulated into dancing, singing, parading, and vamping through their “turn” on stage. Especially worrisome is the fact that these children are dressed like adult women with make-up and sexually explicit clothing, designed to score points with the judges. This practice is decidedly wrong-minded and a form of child endangerment. Even more specious is the current relationship between these competitions and corporate enterprise as staggering amounts of money are involved for stakeholders. Continuing outline: Argument will include research from the Lit Review and facts about how children are dressed, forced to wear fake teeth, and given a variety of stimulants to help them “feel good” for their performances. Counterclaims that the girls “want” to do this will be debunked based on adult manipulation.
In watching the televised beauty pageants --behind the scenes and the child's actual performance-- I am shocked to see how some of the mothers behave as they bully their young children into performing or they become blackmail them: "Give me a good performance, and I will let you . . . " Either situation seems an unhealthy role for the parent of a young child and an unhealthy message for the child to receive from the person who should be her closest ally and advocate in life.
Here is the link to my argument - still very much a working draft.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1SMm_Y8qSPPGR5IKwKlDUqdTO3MpBs2yYXhiV7UJ6Wbk/edit?usp=sharing
Here is the link to my argument - still very much a working draft.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1SMm_Y8qSPPGR5IKwKlDUqdTO3MpBs2yYXhiV7UJ6Wbk/edit?usp=sharing
This is an interesting topic and so relevant to our students also. I was wondering if you are planning to include a counter claim or opposing viewpoint?
DeleteArgument: The Self and "Social Acting"
ReplyDeleteA good mother in 2013 is measured by her holiday creativity with the Elf on the Shelf. Simply plopping the little cultural phenomenon down in a planter or behind a couch pillow is passé; “engaged” mothers stay up several hours past midnight staging elfish antics like switching the labels on the spice jars or recreating the Mona Lisa in mini-marshmallows on the driveway. More important than the Elf, though, is the digital photo shared on social media – Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – each day’s post more elaborate (and often more exhausting) than the last. Each post becoming part of the online community of elf-gladiators battling for supremacy, joining the ongoing conversation on what it means to be good.
We women spend a lot of time managing ourselves (our “selves”) online. Chapkis calls it “doing looks,” the idea of the self as a product of careful (though well-intentioned) manipulation. We agonize over profile photos, family photos, tagged photos, and statuses, scanning for anything that might make us look un-thin, un-young, un-together.
Goffman argues that this process of “social acting” is one with which all women must engage, as “the self is a social product and can only be understood in relation to its social context” (66). Today’s social media contexts, however, are themselves contrived, are themselves the result of manipulation and farce. Joining the collective unrealistic expectations of a society in the arena of social media does not magically make them realistic. Elf on the Shelf, mini-marshmallows and all, is an example of how a simple children’s story can, through the filter of social media and unrealistic expectations, balloon into a litmus test for good motherhood.
(Thoughts on the rest of the paper ...)
Having reviewed several sources during OLE about a woman’s identity, the self, appearance, and the ideas of visibility/invisibility, I think I would argue that the social constructs by which we measure ourselves are more unrealistic today than they have ever been, in large part due to social media. I would argue that the management and manipulation of our online selves (though I am as guilty as anyone else!) actually make our real “selves” less visible. I would also further argue that though our gender identity as women is shaped by social constructs, we can choose to “get off the train,” much like Lauren Shields did in “My Year of Modesty” (Salon, http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/my_year_of_modesty/). We can choose to evaluate social media content objectively, and we can decide not to become the “Shrinking Women” in Lily Myers’ poem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k). Shields and Myers each made a different type of choice, but they represent the kinds of responses we can make to defining ourselves and making ourselves “visible.”
This is so interesting how the Year of Modesty morphed into this rich topic. I love the opening paragraph.
DeleteThis is such an interesting topic--partially because it is so relevant. I am certainly guilty as charged. We do carefully craft an on-line existence, don't we? Great idea!
DeleteLove this.
DeleteA man in his early 20s walks into the emergency room and signals the nurse on duty and says, “I need you to come out to my car. My friend needs help.” The nurse waves to a security guard for assistance, and the nurse and security guard follow the man outside to his car. His friend is in the back seat and appears unconscious. The friend who brought the unconscious male to the hospital explains they both were at an all-night dance party and his friend took some pills that he thought were Ecstasy (MDMA), which his friend believed to be perfectly safe because it only made him “feel good.”
ReplyDeleteAccording to the March 24, 2011 DAWN report issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “The number of Ecstasy-related ED visits increased by 74.8 percent from 2004 to 2008. Specifically, the number of drug-related ED visits involving Ecstasy increased significantly from 10,220 visits in 2004 to 17,865 visits in 2008” (2011). Of all the illicit drugs involved in emergency department visits, MDMA ranks as the 7th most common illicit drug involved in emergency department visits (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2011). This recent gain in popularity is a cause for concern, especially because MDMA works by releasing a large amount of serotonin in the brain where serotonin is more available to bind with serotonin receptors (Miller, 2004). In other words, users of MDMA experience great pleasure because the pleasure receptors of the brain are on overdrive, which means that they know it makes them feel good; they rarely know what negative effects it has on their bodies, though. Because of the dangers of MDMA, this topic should be added to health curricula in high school.
I forgot to add my plan ... I would like to incorporate some history of MDMA and how it rose to recreational use, the negative effects on the body, and how including a focus on MDMA in health curricula would be beneficial. I plan to address counterarguments that increasing knowledge of MDMA would lead to greater increase in trying the drug.
DeleteGreat topic. I remember a drug counselor (1) telling me as a college student that the only harmful side effect from Ecstacy was that your cheeks will hurt from smiling so much. Scary.
DeleteMy chatroll is not working again, so here is an attempted revision:
DeleteOriginal sentence - "His friend is in the back seat and appears unconscious."
Revised sentence - "His friend's seemingly lifeless body slumps against the passenger door, having taken a ride he physically could not handle."
My literature review was on the idea of beauty and how our culture seems obsessed with it. I planned to show how we tan, pluck, diet, and shop to make ourselves beautiful. But, in the interest of doing what we ask our students, to start with the research, and then develop the claim, I am going in a new direction. I have been enthralled with the work of Denis Dutton who, according to his Ted Talk promo, “has a provocative theory on beauty — that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.” So, my intro:
ReplyDeleteBeauty is a part of our universal human experience. It sucks us in. Beauty enables us to feel pleasure; it captivates our attention, and it actually lights up neurons in our brains. What we call beautiful might be our grandfather’s smile, a sexy Victoria Secret model, the poetry of Langston Hughes, a wheat field before harvest, or MU winning the SEC championship. We actually crave beauty and need it to survive. This need for beauty, unlike what many believe, is not culturally conditioned, but rather primal. It is a concept “hardwired” in our brains handed down from our ancestors (Dutton). Beauty is a necessary ingredient for happiness. It is a universal instinct as indispensable as the air we breathe.
Kathy--What an interesting twist to the subject matter. Awesome! I love it.
ReplyDeleteMy plan was to dive into the topic of holidays and traditions, what is sacred, what is not. I thought all the posts on facebook over the holiday weekend about black Friday and starting your shopping on Thanksgiving and things like that were really interesting. In the midst of travel and everything I haven't gotten much out of my head and onto paper but I think it would be an interesting spin on culture, tradition and foundations. Maybe even posing the idea of commercialism vs. tradition. I don't know if that makes sense, I've been in the car driving since 6 A.M. :)
ReplyDeleteChild Beauty Pageants
ReplyDeleteIntroduction:
Most parents of daughters boast about how beautiful their little girls are, posting photos on Facebook and showing off photos at the office. It is only when this natural pride becomes obsessive and the family’s entire foundational lifestyle becomes centered on proving the point through formal competition that problems typically arise. Parents who involve their tiny daughters in these so-called beauty pageants “adultify” their little girls as they spend exorbitant amounts of time, money, and energy on preparing their tots to compete against their peers. Within this troubling scenario little girls from infancy through their teen years are subjected to regular competitions in which they are manipulated into dancing, singing, parading, and vamping through their “turn” on stage. Especially worrisome is the fact that these children are dressed like adult women with make-up and sexually explicit clothing, designed to score points with the judges. This practice is decidedly wrong-minded and a form of child endangerment. Even more specious is the current relationship between these competitions and corporate enterprise as staggering amounts of money are involved for stakeholders.
Continuing outline:
Argument will include research from the Lit Review and facts about how children are dressed, forced to wear fake teeth, and given a variety of stimulants to help them “feel good” for their performances.
Counterclaims that the girls “want” to do this will be debunked based on adult manipulation.
Child Beauty Pageants
ReplyDeleteIntroduction:
Most parents of daughters boast about how beautiful their little girls are, posting photos on Facebook and showing off photos at the office. It is only when this natural pride becomes obsessive and the family’s entire foundational lifestyle becomes centered on proving the point through formal competition that problems typically arise. Parents who involve their tiny daughters in these so-called beauty pageants “adultify” their little girls as they spend exorbitant amounts of time, money, and energy on preparing their tots to compete against their peers. Within this troubling scenario little girls from infancy through their teen years are subjected to regular competitions in which they are manipulated into dancing, singing, parading, and vamping through their “turn” on stage. Especially worrisome is the fact that these children are dressed like adult women with make-up and sexually explicit clothing, designed to score points with the judges. This practice is decidedly wrong-minded and a form of child endangerment. Even more specious is the current relationship between these competitions and corporate enterprise as staggering amounts of money are involved for stakeholders.
Continuing outline:
Argument will include research from the Lit Review and facts about how children are dressed, forced to wear fake teeth, and given a variety of stimulants to help them “feel good” for their performances.
Counterclaims that the girls “want” to do this will be debunked based on adult manipulation.
In watching the televised beauty pageants --behind the scenes and the child's actual performance-- I am shocked to see how some of the mothers behave as they bully their young children into performing or they become blackmail them: "Give me a good performance, and I will let you . . . " Either situation seems an unhealthy role for the parent of a young child and an unhealthy message for the child to receive from the person who should be her closest ally and advocate in life.
ReplyDeleteI posted metaphor here because I can't access the blog.
ReplyDelete