Thesis Statements/Questions

1. Should models be required to maintain a minimum weight to be allowed to work in the modeling industry?


Models should be required to maintain a minimum, healthy weight because of the effect it has on society, especially pre-teens and teenagers.


2. Should cell phone use be illegal in the US while driving an automobile?


Cellphone use in today's society is out of control; the use of a cellphone while driving in an automobile should be made illegal because it poses as a safety hazard to everyone on the road, and is a distraction to the driver.


3. What is the effect of the violent video games on aggression in children?


The popularization of violent video games in today's society has been cited as the reason for increased aggression in today's youth.


I could not come up with the other two, as I am still trying to decide what would be other appropriate topics for the research paper.

Foucault Summary of Panopticism

Foucault begins this section of his book, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by introducing the readers to the measures that had to be taken during the end of the seventeenth century when a plague appeared in town. He continues on to inform of us of the standard procedure. After everyone is closed off in their house from the rest of the town they are to show themselves in the window, so that syndic can keep track of all the people in the town during the time of the plague. He later goes on to give us Bentham's Panopticon and the principles that it was based off of: "at the periphery, an annular building; at the center, a tower; this tower is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building" (225). The Panopticon, used in prison, is to instill the feeling that the inmates will always be watched, but will not know when or by who, giving the inmates the incentive to always be on good behavior. Foucault claims that "It (Penopticon concept) can in fact be integrated into any function" (233). Functions that are mentioned as schools, hospitals and prisons. The Panopticon can show the relationship between power and discipline, and it can be infused into our modern day society.

Deep Play Summary

In "Deep play: notes on a Balinese cockfight," Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist, gives a narrative of a trip he went on with his wife to study the culture of a Balinese village. Quickly the couple found out how outsiders coming into the Balinese village were treated, like they were invisible. Geertz had no idea that fleeing from a cockfight, being taken over by the police, with all the villagers would allow the acceptance, of both him and his wife, into the village. This gave him the opportunity to study the culture of the Balinese in greater detail. Geertz learned that cockfights are more than just a gambling game to the Balinese people. He found out by attending numerous cockfights, he could understand the meaning of the fight to the people. He could understand the relationship between a man and his cock. 

To the Balinese, cockfighting is like any other sport that we enjoy watching, such as baseball, NASCAR, golf, or even poker, with a deeper lying meaning. Geertz found that cockfighting was a way of life for the Balinese people. It was a way a man could show his social status by how he treated his cock, and how he showed it off to his society. Cockfighting involves everyone of the village including women and children, to bring them together. Geertz mentions that although one may find pride and comfort in winning a cockfight, but at the end of the day it will not change where you are seen in society. It is a way to express yourself to the village.

Clifford Geertz Deep play: note on the Balinese cockfight

"The next morning the village was a completely different world for us. Not only were we no longer invisible, we were suddenly the center of all attention, the object of a great outpouring of warmth, interest, and most especially, amusement. Everyone in the village knew we had fled like everyone else. They asked us about it again and again (I must have told the story, small detail by small detail, fifty times by the end of the day), gently, affectionately, but quite insistently teasing us."


This part of the reading was particularly interesting to me. When Geertz and his wife first arrived in Bali they were treated as outsiders. They were ignored, and looked through as though they were invisible to everyone else. It takes time to allow the visitors to be taken into account by the rest of the natives. One day the couple went to witness a cockfight until the police arrived and broke up the fight and flee the site of the "crime." Instead of staying and telling the police they are allowed to be there, they follow the rest of the villagers. After the fact that they fled from the police just like everyone else did it gave the villagers a different perspective of them. It was interesting that one small event such as this was the reason that Geertz and his wife were accepted into their society rather than being seen as outsiders. They were automatically trusted and joked around with after they fled form the police.

Occupy Wall Street

In Fitzgerald's article, "Ask Not What Occupy Wall Street Will Do Next; Ask How We Will Change The Status Quo," he is ultimately trying to tell the public that Occupy Wall Street has begun to die down and that it is not as big of a problem with as much hype as it had back in last fall. Occupy Wall Street in this article is said to be dormant, but will come back to life as the new campaigns begin. Fitzgerald compares Occupy Wall Street to a reality show because all of us, Americans are waiting for the next "episode" to air. The 99% of Americans are staking out to take down the 1% of the "villians." He explains to us that the 1% of the evil are those who hold most of the power, while the rest of us are left with near to nothing. Hopefully the status quo will be changed because everyone is coming together to fight for what is right for the people and to make everything in the political sense a little more equal among the other 99% of us. 

Reading "With the Grain" and "Against the Grain"

                                         "With the Grain"
    When reading with the grain we, as the readers, are trying to see something through the same point of view as the author. We are trying to see the world the way that they do which can help us extend a writer's project because we know what they know. Whenever I listen to music, I look at they lyrics of a song and try to feel what the writer feels. This helps me get a better understanding of where they are coming from so that the song has a greater meaning.


                                         "Against the Grain"
   When reading against the grain, we are taught to read critically and question everything and anything the author says. This is a time when we look at the reading from many different perspectives, rather than just the authors point of view. It is said that reading "against the grain" is almost like disagreeing with an author to find bias in their writing. In high school, my government teacher was talking about how textbooks are written in bias to make us believe that what they are saying is the only way we should look at certain topics. Now, when I read textbooks I try to read between the lines and not believe exactly what the author of the text is saying because I want to form my own opinions of these topics. 
    

"Strong Reading"

    According to our texts Allyn and Bacon and the Ways of Reading "strong reading" is selections of reading that require more attention than a "written summary" or a "recitation of main ideas." Strong reading is not easy reading. Although they are more difficult to interpret than easy reading, strong reading is not meant to be inaccessible to students, but it is more thought provoking for a reason. In addition to the definitions given in these books, I believe that strong reading is text that is meant to make you think. It is not to make us get frustrated, but it is to help give us a new view on a position or situation. I think strong reading is used to help us leave our comfort zone and expose us to other ways of reading, rather than what we are used to.