Entry #11 We have reached the end

Now at the end of a semester, which seemed to last an eternity, I am proud to say I am an English 102 hybrid course survivor!

The blog project was one of the most intimidating assignments that was addressed in the first week of school. I was worried because not only is this a large portion of the course grade but it is completely PUBLIC! I am shy for the most part and I do not go and put myself out into the world for myself to be judged and even more than that, I have never shared my writing with so many people. This entire project has pushed my writing and personal boundaries to a new level. Starting out as the assignment I feared the most, it was the project I enjoyed the most and was able to project my own voice through. The blog actually felt like a journal or diary where I could express my own opinions, ideas, and emotions.

I felt this is a beneficial outlet for myself to get my ideas out in black and white instead of keeping them in my mind. I definitely would recommend blogging to other people and I actually think this may be something I will continue to practice. The only challenge I had during the blogs were finding interesting topics to write about. I do not like to write about topics which do not personally interest me because if I am not interested then neither are my readers. I did find topics which I loved writing about but it took some serious thinking and brainstorming. As a student, English 102 was the first course which challenged me intellectually, challenged my ability to manage time, and my ability to dedicate myself to school. Being 20 years old, a soon to be mother and wife, working part time, and going to school fulltime, I felt my dedication has been to school but I learned this semester that my priorities have wavered away from my education.

I am dedicated to being the best person I possibly can be in order to provide for my family and be a productive member of society and although the intentions of the course was not a life lesson, it definitely gave me a reality check in the long run. I am proud to say I made it!

Entry #10 Amsterdam's Red Light District

Amsterdam's Red Light District

I recently talked to a friend who is visiting Europe and is currently in Amsterdam and shared an experience which I have heard of before as "the red light district". Now, this is a bit more riske than previous blogs. The red light district is a series of street which have buildings with windows which have red lights in them. These red lights shine down on women who sell themselves for sex in order to earn money. In contrast to the United States, prostitution is completely legal in Amsterdam and is actually considered a viable form of income. 

As men walk down these streets, the women knock on the windows to grab mens' attention, which is when these women begin their sales pitch of which sexual activities they are willing to perform. If the men like the pitch, the women bring the men in the building where the acts are performed. Also, in the district, there are different sections lit up with different colored light which are coded for different types of women. Some of these types of women include latin women, african women, heavy-set women, etc. The red light district aims to please men in all types of ways and has become quite the tourist attraction. The red light district is actually such an attraction that it is even featured on the Amsterdam information page along with sex clubs, escorts, and prostitution. The comparison of the United States and Amsterdam are completely black vs. white. Although the red light district is one of the most famous attractions in Amsterdam, there are more sights to see on people's sex travels such as rooms where you can pay a small price to watch people have sex and other clubs where you can participate. 

And this whole time I was under the assumption Amsterdam only had marijuana to offer..

Entry #9 Media

My relationship with Media

As an avid user of social media, I am already well aware of the presence of things such as fake news, gender biases, violence, etc. During the videos shown in class (Tough Guise 2 and Killing Us Softly 4), it became more and more prevelent to me that gender biases against women is worse than what I originally though. Of course, women were the last people to get the right to vote so it really should not be a shock to us how degrading media is towards women. Women are just items for men to paw at and for media to oversexualize.

This oversexualization has even effected how people view breastfeeding. Seeming the female breast is not being used in a sexual mannor, majority of the male population has an issue with public breastfeeding. This has been a major issue I have seen on social media lately. The media has programmed us to prefer this:

over what science has actually intended the female breast to be used for other than sex..

As a soon-to-be mother, this new realisation of how durogatory the media views females has made me worried about the struggles I will face as well as my daughter. Even Donald Trump, the newest president of the United States, has made his own feeling toward the female race ever so obvious on his Twitter account and in a number of his interviews. After this new revelation, logging into my own social media accounts has become almost a nauseating experience, which was very different from before the media discussions in class.

Entry #8 Why is recycling important?

Why is recycling so important?

Sure, the necessity for recycling seems to be obvious to many but practiced by few. According to this diagram from Planet Aid, 

The United States is alone responsible for 25 percent of the worlds waste production and yet we are only responsible for recycling 34 percent of this large amount of waste. The Unite States may be number one in a long list of things, recycling and environmental awareness is not one of them. Our environmental foot print is substantial. Unfortunately, due to the human races neglegence and lack of prioritizing the care for mother earth, this is what she feels like at the moment...

There are plenty of things we as a nation and a race as a whole can do to slow the progression of climate change and recycling is one of the easiest ways. By recycling, we reduce the pollution of our land fills, oceans, and even preserve national monuments such as the Grand Canyon. Recycled plastics are our number one pollutants because they never break down and return to their original forms. These plastics, in turn, can be used to make clothing, furniture, and recycled back into the handy dandy water bottles and tubber ware all of us have grown to love. By turning our waste into useful items, we can reduce the landfills that have turned into mountains and the trash that has now become islands in the middle of the ocean (which at this rate, will soon become our eighth continent). In case my description has yet to place vivid images in your mind of our distructive bahavior, here is a short video to help.

In a previous blog, I mentioned the concept of no waste grocery shopping, which is another great way to contribute to taking care of mother earth, but recycling is an easy way to begin this change from the convenience of your own home.

Are you willing to contribute to this change?

Entry #7 Let's get hashtagging!

#HASHTAG

Let's take a moment to talk about the phenomenon that is hashtagging.  Now, having been a high school adolesent when this new social media trend came into play. At first, I was curious about the trend, but soon after it became overused. Instead of people creating coherent and complete sentences, the caption would be only hashtags discribing whatever was in the post. The video from the article How #Hashtags Changed The Way We Talk includes the following video:

Which is a prime example of how obnoxious and tedious it has been to read the captions I previously described. Although, I do believe, when used in the correct way, hashtags can have a level of efficiency and it can be an effective way of catching peoples attention. For example, the #blacklivesmatter caused a massive social media uprise and brought the movement a large amount of attention which is the first way to move towards change. The hashtags allow people to see all the information from posts other people have made with the same hashtag which is how much of my generation follows along with large news stories. This way of following stories is efficient because hashtags spread faster than wildfire, but this does leave a lot of room for fake news to spread just as fast.

Pro-tip: take what you see on social media with a grain of salt, even if it is attached to a trending hashtag. #becareful #hashtagresponsibly