Shrek and the Nacerima-Let your freak flag fly!

“When you're different, sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn't.”
― Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart
There comes a point in Satire when you realize that it is truly a Satire. This can be the most entertaining part about Satire as a whole; the moment is a burst of realization that makes the reader feel like a detective who just cracked the case. In "Body Ritual of the Nacerima", I personally did not realize that the piece was about Americans until after it was pointed out to me by another student. I was halfway appalled at the grotesque "rituals" of the people and halfway disappointed that I did not pick out the irony myself. But no matter, it is irony, and the fact that that is known is the only important thing. All Satire is ironic for a reason; there is always some theme trying to tear itself through the thin fabrication that surrounds it. "Body Ritual of the Nacerima" was meant to poke fun at the sheer amount of trouble Americans take in order to be accepted by the public. It makes a point that there is a damaging quality of American nature that includes a self-disparaging culture. When a woman walks outside without makeup, she feels naked. When a man's hair isn't looking quite right, he feels as if he isn't worthy of being popular with the public. Americans are also notorious for a seeming "fascination" with teeth. We consider braces a dental norm and many of us believe that they are more medical than they are fashionable. However, we never touch on the fact that there is any actual medical reason that braces should be used other than the fact that they improve appearance. Truly, behind the satirical and cynical facade that the author creates, there lies and underlying message of self-acceptance. In highlighting the horrors of not accepting yourself and constantly worrying about what others think of you, the essay touches on the message of self acceptance.

Much like Troy High School's Musical this year: Shrek the Musical. It wraps up with the number
"Freak Flag" where all your favorite fairy tale creatures encourage you to "let your freak flag fly!" and all in all to just accept yourself for who you really are inside. The entire musical has a central theme or self-acceptance and, while portrayed differently than the satirical essay, had the same conclusion about the topic.

p.s. You should totally come to the show this weekend, its AWESOME!

It's okay to have a larger-than-normal nose

Stylistic Writing and Finding Your Voice

“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.”
― Kahlil Gibran


What exactly is voice when it comes to writing? The dictionary definition is the distinct personality, style, or point of view of a piece of writing or any other creative work. We discuss finding our own voices when essay writing but have we ever discussed what that actually means? Consider these sentences:

1. Feminism is a movement for granting women political, social, and economic equality with men.

2. Feminism is a hate movement which includes the hatred of men, female superiority, and telling women they are victims in order to dissolve them of all accountability.

3.  Feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a movement to ensure that women will have equal rights with men; it is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates the Western culture on various levels-sex, race, class to name a few-and a commitment to reorganizing society…so that self-development of people can take a precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desire.

There are obviously individual voices that color these sentences. The first sentence has a very bland and straightforward voice-one meant to give information and nothing more. The second is packed with strong buzzwords and passion for their standpoint on an issue. The third sentence employs colorful and didactic language as well as a flowing tone to reveal the voice of the author as a probably passionate and level-headed individual. The voice we create for ourselves, while inherently personal, is definitely changeable. 

Me for example. The first essay I wrote for Ms. Valentino's class was straightforward and analyzing, much like the first sentence. I read the essay after I got it back I realized that while my use of language and analyzation of rhetoric may have created a somewhat didactic tone, it did nothing to reveal who I was as an author. I am the type of person who loves and respects writing so much that when someone reads a piece of writing that I have created I want their souls to be able to dance between my words. I was crestfallen no doubt when I realized that high school had turned my essay writing and analyzation skills into gold while simultaneously turning my voice into mush. I straightened myself up for the next essay and told myself I would create stylistic improvements: I would avoid cliches, create original metaphors and similes-I would attempt to create a voice for myself. Indeed I got the essay back with the comment "the style was the best part". It was great, but not enough for me. I wanted to be able to write essays the way I write poetry; filled with fire and passion, sarcasm and hidden meanings. I wanted to explore the non-explorable using only my words to guide the senses of my readers. I sat down on that next Tuesday and decided: I was going to be sarcastic as hell. I was going to be myself and at the same time create a voice to sardonically artistic that there would be no way I would be disappointed with my writing. In truth I didn't change my voice, my voice was always there fluttering behind my larynx, I just needed the motivation to push it out through my pen and onto the paper.

FEMINISM! Yay or Nay? (i'm pretty sure everyone knows my answer to this)

"I call it feminism instead of equality because it is the feminine traits that men and women are shamed for. It is the feminine traits society needs to accept"

~Goblinfae

Traditionally, society views feminine traits as inferior to masculine traits. In a double standard: certain masculine traits, such as leadership, when seen in women and are discounted as weird or bossy. Likewise, when men are seen to be projecting more feminine traits, they are more likely to be shunned by society for seeming weak or (heaven forbid) gay. The beauty of Ehrlich’s cowboys, however, is that they are examples of a perfect marriage between the feminine and the masculine. By romanticising the real persona of cowboys, Ehrlich manages to prove that the traits associated with masculinity that come from cowboy stereotypes are actually traits that are begotten from more feminine origins. For example, Ehrlich states that “if a calf is born sick, [a cowboy] may take her home, warm her in front of the kitchen fire, and massage her legs till dawn”. The evidence of this act of compassion (which is traditionally associated with femininity) such as, the blisters on his hands from the massaging, the cuts from chopping the firewood, and the bags under his eyes from staying up all night have come to become the defining traits of cowboy masculinity.

On Androgyny: Ehrlich makes a points out that while showing certain masculine traits on the outside, cowboys (meaning all men) are essentially androgynous at the center. It is an EXTREMELY strong claim to suggest even the tiniest of female traits exist within a man in this society let alone androgyny.

On the Fem in FEMINISM: There are those who say they disagree with Feminism because it stressed rights for women over equal rights for all. Those who protest feminism usually opt for the label: Egalitarian, let me tell you why that term is damaging to society and the feminist movement as a whole. Feminism has swept through the nation in waves over the past hundreds of years, the first wave was voting rights, the second was civil rights (such as abortion and Roe v. Wade). Now we are living in the third wave of feminism which is not located in the time frame of equal voting rights or civil rights: there is a new purpose at the center of this movement. This wave of feminism is bent on correcting the inferior place in society that feminine traits have in relation to their masculine counterparts. The fem in Feminism doesn’t refer so much to the oppression against FEMales as it does refer to the oppression of the entire abstract idea of femininity as a whole. So when egalitarianism comes swooping in with its promise of “equality for all”all it really does is mask the true issue of gender oppression that feminism is trying to address in the first place. Feminism fights for boys who are shamed for being too emotional, too girly, to careful about their appearance, all because it centers around the idea that femininity as a whole is degrading and something that should be stomped out, not only in men, but also in women. Its the whole idea of boys who want girls that don’t wear makeup, or girls who go out of their way to be “one of the guys”. The fantasy of dating basically the malest version of a girl comes from the negative connotation that femininity has for both sexes. So in the end, modern feminism isn’t just about screaming about how women are oppressed, it fights against the oppression of femininity as a whole.

Gender Roles exist for Parents too!

From now on I will be starting every blog post with a quote:

“Stock male characters, especially those who happen to be fathers, are often shown to be hyper-reserved when it comes to emotions. They won’t cry, and they won’t hug or kiss their kids in public. They sometimes have trouble just telling their kids they love them. This idea that dads are (or should be) “masculine,” and thus should be stoic creatures, is a stereotype that needs to change for all men. We need to stop teaching males that they need to “man up” and not show emotion, and we need to stop teaching them that showing emotion is a sign of femininity and, worse that femininity is something bad.”
― Sarah Khan

When people talk about gender roles they typically assume that the topic is going to center around children. The usual, don't reprimand your son for liking barbies or don't force your daughter to dress in pink. The conversation, however, usually ends before discussing what gender roles are in place for the people who are raising the children. Gender roles for parents still exist and are constantly perpetuated by the media. In addition to the fact that men grow up believing that they either have to be completely masculine or face public ridicule, men who are fathers are portrayed as blithering idiots by both common stereotypes as well as by the media. 

Take this advertisement for example, the poster suggests that dads are the ultimate test to see whether a product really is easy to use. This is equivalent to saying that simply because of their gender, men are incapable of preforming one of the most basic tasks necessary for being a new dad: putting on a diaper. This is an absurd stereotype that pokes fun of a father's inability to nurture. This is extremely detrimental to not only the father's themselves, but their children as well. If a child sees their father as nothing more than an unemotional brick, they are sure to not grow close with them. A man is completely deprived of a close bond with his child simply because of what traditional media and gender norms dictate he do as the father figure. In the piece "Arm Wrestling with my Father" by Brad Manning, Manning's father is portrayed as a walking stereotype instead of a full, rounded human being. He is unemotional, unattached to his son, and his inability to communicate with his son using language, while tragic, is in fact the basic message projected to the world by media. All of these messages are being subconsciously absorbed into the human psyche and are slowly pressuring men to act and look a certain way, and in Manning's father's case, to parent a certain way.