Mediabastards

Recently in the media there was a story about, well, prom. There is a school in Mississippi in which a female student their wanted to bring her girlfriend. The school found out before hand and tried to fight her being able to bring another girl, but lost. The kicker to the story is, when the school realized they had to allow the two girls to go together, they organized an 'alternate prom' in which they invited nearly the entire school, this 'alternate prom' happened to be on the same night at the actual prom, in which only the two girls and some of the mentally handicapped students attended. There hasn't been any further development in the story due to the fact that the school technically didn't do anything illegal, the 'alternate prom' was organized by 'parents' and not the school,so only certain people being invited was technically not an offense that could be taken anywhere. This article wasn't so much on the idea of gender as it was on the idea of acceptance, there are without a doubt more schools that are prejudice against gay couples, the question comes in when we decide to be tolerant.

Mawige is what bwings us togethwer towday.

Wolfson begging by stating exactly what marriage means is almost essential to the piece, because of the fact tat marriage could have so many definitions, it was important for the author to state which definition of marriage he basing his argument off of. Without knowing which definition of marriage the author was referring to, the writing would end up meaning something different to every reader which would make understanding the piece or having any form of discussion about the reading. Wolfson says that marriage is 'what we use to describe a specific relationship of love and dedication to another person.' I believe that description of marriage is completely true, it doesn't limit marriage to being something religious, or something that is between only an XX and XY chromosomed couple. Wolfson's definition of marriage is an open definition that doesn't limit marriage to something particular.

Surprise, I'm straight !!

Vazquez makes a very stylistic choice to wait to disclose the fact that the two men in the story are straight. Vazques makes the reader believe that the two men are gay, by saying they are in the Castro, and then going on to describe very stereotypically 'gay, 'thin and wiry, a great dancer clad in back denim, earrings dangling from his ear.' Vazquez almost seems to sneakily attack the reader, calling them out for inevitably assuming that the two men were gay. The choice to wait to disclose that information to the reader almost sends them on a guilt trip the assumption of the men being gay, the choice does in fact make the reader think about that fact that they have made an assumption, which does help Vazquez get her point across, that everyone can be affected by assumptions.

Surprise, I'm straight !!

Gender

In the 4th grade, all public schools teach at least one of the same subject, YOU'RE BODY AND THE CHANGES AHEAD. They did this in such a way that built it up, made it a big deal and made it something scary sounding. We were going to watch a video, divided up into 2 classrooms by gender. Or parents would view the video first and then tell us what to expect, and the next day we would see it. I remember being shepherded into my math teachers class room with all the other 4th grade girls, while the boys were in the room diagonal across the hall. Me and my best friend ended up in the second row, fighting not to have to be in the front. I remember squeezing my best friends hand as if we were about to watch a scary movie, and then listening to the awful 'Just around the corner' soundtrack that went a long with a movie that is just a blur to me at this point. When the movie ended we had extra time before school got out, so we ended up discussing what we had just witnessed, and someone said...."I wonder what the boys saw...." At that moment I actually took notice of the fact that there were no boys in the class, that we had been made different, even if we were all learning something new and foreign to us.

Transending.

I don't believe that Eustace is a transcendentalist, Eustace goes out into the woods to get away from others keeping him down, not to get closer to God in some way. The transcendentalist idea is that by being out in nature with the natural things God created, one will grow closer to God. Eustace on the other hand, ventures into the woods for two main reasons, the first being the fact that well, he likes it. Eustace likes being outdoors and doing woodsy type things, and so he chooses to do it. he also does it to escape the oppression he feels from his father, neither of these represent the ideas of transcendentalism.

"To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Note Most persons do not see the sun."
These two lines really spoke to me due to the fact that as I've gotten older I feel as though the time I spend outside and the time I take to appreciate aspects of nature have been dwindling. Emerson really shows how people lose sight of what is important, one of those being nature and the outdoors in general. The second piece made me realize how few people actually stop and appreciate the things nature has done for us. The everyday fact that the sun is still shining is completely disregarded by far too many people, and Emerson is quick to point it out.

Why did Elizabeth Gilbert write this book? What does she want us to take away from Eustace. Refer to (and analyze) a specific passage in your response.

Elizabeth Gilbert seems to have written the book for a few reasons, the first being that she seems to have a bit of an attraction to Eustace, and she wants to share him and his incredible-ness with the rest of the world. Another reason being that she wants a message to be taken from the book, and that message is to change the way a person thinks. Some may think that she wants them to change their way of acting, however I think it's more realistic to believe that she knew one book wouldn't change the world, but maybe it would get some people thinking. One passage that made me myself stop and think was the passage on page 19, toward the top of the page, where Eustace is describing how modern people live their lives in boxes, living in them, sleeping in them, going to and fro in them, and finding entertainment in them. It made me wonder if living in modern society and not living in a box was entirely possible.

I'll let you know if I find out.