Full Frontal Feminism

Ms Chastain

Russel Hanson

English 104, Blog

April 7, 2011

FFF

                In this week’s reading Valenti talks about women’s rights to contraceptives, and how people are trying to make them illegal. Well even in 2007 when this book was published the whole traditional image of what sex is supposed to be was out dated. In regards to the pharmacists who are refusing to sell young women contraceptives because they aren’t married, they need to wake up! I understand the concern about unwanted pregnancy, and disease, and all that, but this is not 1950 anymore! People (especially young people) today are going to have sex. Nobody can stop it, it’s just going to happen. With our media, and general behavior, people are exposed to sex at younger ages. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it. So obviously we should do what we have been doing for a while (because we already realized that we can’t stop it), which is making sure teenagers are educated about sex, making sure they have accessibility to protection, and contraceptives. How in the world does taking contraceptives away decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies? There is no way it would. People are thinking backwards.

Blog Assignment

Ms. Chastain

Russel Hanson

Blog Assignment, Exploring Claim

March 10, 2011

Brown vs. Board of Education

                I arrived at my research topic actually from getting an email forward a long time ago with parts of Bill Cosby’s speech at the 50^th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. It immediately interested me and I have always wanted to look further into his claims, but just hadn’t done it yet. Now with this paper I have the opportunity to get to the bottom of Bill Cosby’s topics. His main points were that African Americans fought so hard to earn their children the right to go to public school and get a proper education, and now in African American neighborhoods the dropout rate is 50%. He states the cause is lack of parenting. That parents now are trying to buy their children’s friendship, and aren’t there for them when the kids actually need them. Another thing Cosby says is that people are using god for an excuse. That people are saying “well, god will find a way”, when talking about things such as their children being in jail for shooting someone. People wearing their clothes backwards, sagging pants, etc. are clearly signs that something is wrong with kids, Cosby states. He also touches on how black people shouldn’t be called African Americans anymore, because they don’t know a damned thing about Africa. He talks about how people used to talk a certain way on the corner, and then talk normal when they are back in the house, but now it’s in the house also, and he says how you can’t have a profession using language like that. Also saying that they need to stop blaming white people and authority for things when they are doing it to themselves, for example living in the projects for 5 or 6 generations of a family, when the projects were only made for families to get their feet on the ground and then move out. Also a big topic he touches on is Social Trends such as girls getting onto or making fun of another girl who wants to stay a virgin until marriage, and how ridiculous this is.

Ethos with an Artist

Russel Hanson

Ms. Chastain

English 104, Blog assignment

February 24, 2011

Johnny Cash

                I have chosen to investigate Johnny Cash. This is one of my favorite artists of all time because of his originality. Johnny established ethos with his listeners by singing about real life situations, having a very deep voice and freight train style music that was never heard before and being rebellious but humble at the same time. Cash was considered “a lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges” which made listeners relate to his songs, because everyone is faced with difficult challenges. People were tired of hearing those same old songs, and wanted something new. I have to say however, that what made “the man in black” so popular was that his music had a part in several different genres. Johnny’s music was country, rock, blues, and gospel all at the same time! So not only did Mr. Cash quickly gain ethos with country listeners, he gained way more than just that. Johnny recorded a song for everybody to relate to, whether it was funny, a couple song, a sorrow song, a redemption song, or just a fast paced fun song. Johnny found a way to relate to everybody, and 2 people relating to each other somehow is definitely the fastest way for them to build credibility for one another.

Blog #3

Ms. Chastain

Russel Hanson

English 104, Blog Assignment #2

February 10, 2011

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

            Ethos seems to easy, and pathos doesn’t seem very deep. Logos it is! I don’t have a topic selected yet because I just started looking into this assignment. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do though. I am going to find a story, argument, or presentation, and destroy it. I have always been very good at looking at the “other side” of things. Whether I agree or disagree with a topic, I will bring up the possible arguments to it, whether it is to prove the topic, or to make the writer/presenter wish they had never created it. I am going to find something, hang it up on a hay bale, and unload an entire magazine into it. These are all metaphors obviously, I am not some psycho just talking about weird stuff, but I have your attention now! I am using the “shoot holes in your story” method. I will demonstrate logos by showing my audience how a writer or presenter was overlooking facts, statistics, and details.I have a few ideas for what specifically I will use, however I have to do more research on them because I don’t want to be the one that seems ignorant in the end! Please let me know if this seems within the acceptable means for this writing assignment!

Advertisement Objectification

Russel Hanson

English 104, Blog Assignment #2

1-26-2011

Advertisement Objectification

            I have chosen an advertisement in a magazine for Maker’s Mark bourbon to demonstrate objectification. The ad has a solid black background with a statement from a consumer with very bold masculine letters that emphasize certain words. “YOUR BOURBON HAS A GREAT BODY AND FINE CHARACTER. I WISH THE SAME COULD BE SAID FOR MY GIRLFRIEND.” the consumer writes. Next to the statement is a bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. As if the bottle were setting on top of a very reflective table or a puddle of water, there is a reflection of the bottle at the bottom of the page. However, the reflection shows the bottle shaped like the curves of a sexy woman’s hips and waist, and the indents of a v-zone and belly button. There are a couple ways this ad objectifies women. First off, the text talks about the drink as if it were a woman. The consumer also implies that this drink has a better body than his girlfriend. This reflection of the bottle is shaped like it is to tell men that this drink is better than women, and could be an alternative to them.

            Because of the usage of the word girlfriend, this advertisement is targeting straight men from the age of 21 to about 45. Most men older than 45 are either married, or have given up on dating, and the legal drinking age is 21. The reason for this age span is because men from age 21 to 45 are the most likely to drink this type of alcohol. Although I have not researched this yet, I would say this advertisement is targeting white people, because of the boldness in the text, and general knowledge that the larger number of people that drink alcoholic beverages like whiskey, are not colored. One aspect that Maker’s Mark openly admits is that this beverage is expensive. This fact leads me to believe that this and most of their ads are intended for the middle to upper class people. Maker’s Mark targets these classes because they are admitting that lower class people more than likely aren’t going to be able to afford the drink, and surely because there are more willing consumers in these classes. Another type that Maker’s Mark seems to target from researching the company is rebels! The company openly admits on their website that “We’ve never been much for following the rules”, and this attitude seems to be throughout their company. I would say the reason being that rebellious people are probably the ones buying the most whiskey these days!

Writerly Biography of Russel Hanson

Russel V. Hanson

English 104, Blog Assignment #1

1-22-2011

Writerly Biography



                My name is Russel Hanson. I am 21 years old, and the second youngest of 5 brothers. I am a simple laid back country boy raised in the small town of Hamilton, MO. I played football and wrestled from 6 years old until 18 and loved every second of it. I have three best friends and we were always considered the wild guys, although when adults spoke about us we were always "good kids". I will say it was probably because we were wild, yet respectful. Anyway, the week after I graduated high school I joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Reserves because I wanted to go to college. The week after I graduated boot camp, I started college here at Missouri Western in the Pre-Law program, and played football here also. I guess I felt like I didnt get to experience any of the fun that comes the summer after a person's senior year in high school, so school took a back burner to my "fun times" during freshman year. To make a long story short, I messed around, didn't care about school, and drank a lot of beer. My grades reflected and so did my morale for attending school. I went through 2 semesters, failed some classes, and decided that I needed a break. So I went active duty in the Marine Corps, and had many different types of experiences. I deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and did many things over the course of 3 years. Now that part of my life is behind me and I am very excited and ready to be back in school learning again. I feel like the break was very efficient for me.

               Now, as far as writing I feel like I am decent. I think when it comes to the over all story I am pretty good, but for some of the details and smaller aspects I have trouble with. When I start writing about something that I honestly care about, I could write pages and pages non-stop. When I get an idea in my head it just flows out of me. As for reading, I would say I am a little slower paced reader than some, because I like to fully understand and visualize what im reading as I read it. If the literature is about something I feel strongly about, or something that is really gaining my attention, then I will speed up, which happens often. I would say though that I am a better than average reader because I look deeper into the meaning of literature than most people do. I can normally understand or comprehend something an author is trying to point out faster than most people.