TOW #25 (written)- The Technology Gap by Ben Wineston

One of the most powerful parts of this article was not the words, but instead the pictures. One picture could mean as much as a thousand words they say. These pictures, or rather, collages that embellished the article were full of "It Girls" and just at a glance you could recognize that at one point every woman up there had been idealized into an it girl. Then there's the pictures of magazine covers-most notably Vouge and Vanity Fair-which have the it girls posing. Not only does this sometimes create the "maniac pixie dream girl", as 500 days of Summer aptly put it, but it expects woman to conform to the standard of that one woman. It also pits women against each other in competition to be the "it girl" when really, we are all the It girl. Now the It girl category is diversifying, take Lupita Nyongo and Benazir Bhutto, but this image limits the woman that it holds. Now, the media expects them to be the exact mix of sexy, demure, smart, but not too smart, different, but not too different, and they take away the power of the woman to define herself. One example of this is Clara Bow, from the 1920-30's. She was the starlet of Hollywood, until she went too much out of the box and proclaimed herself a feminist, gambling, drinking, and partying too much. But of course, the it girl mantle was passed on, as it always is. Take the quick switch from Jennifer Lawrence, to Lupita Nyongo, to Rosmund Pike. The article says, “It's another to see the term-and all its insidious, objectifying power- resurface, proliferate, and thrive nearly a centuary later. Only this time, it's saddled not on one woman, but any woman who seems primed to be more than an object-an It, passive and pliable-in the narrative of their own lives.”

TOW #24 (IRB)- A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

This book makes me want to take "A Walk in the Woods" as Bill Bryson puts it. The book makes me want to live outdoors for a while, reconnect with nature, get healthier and more outdoorsy all at once. It brings the spirit of adventure that I so crave, and I want to see it fufilled. But then I remember that I'm irrevocably attached to my computer, that the internet is my lifeblood. Which may be a bit of a hyperbole, but in most senses its true. When I was born, dial-up internet was the thing and in my short lifespan, it has grown to so much more than that. To say I am anything but a baby of the Information Age would be a farce, because I was weaned on technology in and out.
Which brings me back to Bill Bryson, and the way that books transport us to another reality. I'll probably never walk the Appalacian trail, probably never spend more than a few nights under a tent, but I will always have the yearning to do so. Or at least, I'll always have the feeling that it could be possible for me. This suspension of reality is the great thing books give us, and before this class I didn't realize that nonfiction books could do that too. I thought nonfiction books were dry textbooks on whatever subject they chose, maybe greek mythology, or the anatomy of a bird, and etc. This class has opened my eyes up to how nonfiction can also be mystical and interesting, because our world is mystical and interesting. And who knows, maybe one day I'll walk a day or two on the Appalacian trail. All I know now is that its always an option, and always will be, for the rest of my life.

TOW 23- (written) Scientists Call For Moratorium on Human Genetic Experiments (Dan Vergano)

Though this is an undoubtly very scary article, the author uses an allusion to make it easier to understand. Or at least easier to understand for people alive in 1997, because it references the 1997 movie Gattaca. I was not alive in 1997, so I guess I was a year too late to get the joke. Anyway, this article is about how close scientists are to being able to genetically engineer babies and how they are struggling with how unethical it could turn out to be. At first, to me, genetically engineered babies didn't seem so bad, but then I remembered something my AP Bio teacher had told us in our DNA unit. She had been talking about how if people could genetically engineer babies, they could choose what traits they wanted their babies to have. Meaning, they could choose if they wanted babies with any hair color, any eye color, any body type. This isn't build-a-bear people, this is a potentially extrememly unethical thing.
Just think of the modern standard for beauty, thin, possibly blonde and blue eyed. I mean, if Hitler had this technology, we would all look exactly the same right now. Our differences are what make us beautiful, not all looking the same and this technology endangers that. Now, this can still be used for tweaking the genes of people with debilitating diseases, like HIV, but it should be kept away from most everyone else. Just think of the book the Uglies, a society where, at the age of 16, everyone goes through a surgery to become "beautiful", but really, they are just being brainwashed into following the government's every decree. We deserve better, and the world must stay diverse, because diverse, is beautiful.

Political Cartoon (Visual)- TOW #22

This political cartoon depicts Dumbo, the beloved childhood elephant, stretching out his trunk towards his mom and saying, "Good news Mom...". Next to him is a discarded newspaper with the headline "Ringling Brothers Eliminating Elephant Acts". I am very happy with this development personally because elephants have to endure terrible things under circus management, so if the biggest circus people are setting them free, maybe other people with follow suit and do the same. Elephants are amazing and I love them and there are barely any left, so they must be saved.

There is a lot of rhetoric used in this picture. The first is the usage of mute colors, brown, gray, blue, to show the bleak environment in which the elephants are in currently. The brightest thing in the picture is the newspaper, because the artist, Steven Breen, is trying to draw your eye towards it. Dumbo's ear kind of looks like a strip of bacon, but that's okay because it's just an art style. Another thing your eye is drawn to is the lock of the mother of Dumbo's cart. It represents the cruelty that goes on behind the scenes, because not all of Dumbo's mother can be seen. Something that was interesting though was the comments, where one person was doubtful of the fate of the elephants, saying they would just be killed once the Ringling Brothers were done with them. Commenters showed him up though, saying how the elephants will be sent to a sanctuary in Florida instead. They even provided a link, showing how helpful people on the internet can really be. 

TOW #21 (Written)- David Fincher's Portrait of a Marriage by Richard Brody

Don't let the title fool you, this article is not about a typical marriage. This is a review of the movie Gone Girl, meaning that the marriage being talked about here is toxic and downright scary, a marriage of which I hope nobody ever has to suffer through. Now I have to admit, parts of the article, especially with its word choice did confused me a lot (I had to look up several words), but this is part of the rhetoric Brody uses. By using highly technical vocabulary, he is showing who his audience is, film critics and people educated in the nuances of movies, not juniors in high school (though Max might be an exception). He also uses his organization of the article to further his analysis. He starts off in the movie verse, using the characters to explain what he thinks the movie's point is, then goes into the real world, talking about the director and writer.

Brody also uses many, many allusions. They are so heavily used, in fact, that they are part of the problem of why I had so much trouble reading and understanding this. Again, this points towards his audience of people a little better versed in the world of movies than me, though I did get the Social Network reference. Brody also alludes to many movements going on in the real world right now. For example, he uses the “Yes to All Men” movement to show how Nick thinks of himself, while also showing the problems with the movement. I thought Brody was spot on when describing the book and movie as “Unleashing that primordial archetypal fury along with its cosmic irony, making a movie that is a tragedy of our time.” Fancy words, but the meaning behind them is true, and you kind of do have to go all out to even start to explain the raw emotion in the movie, as well as the masked brilliance.

TOW #20 (Written)- Reading This on A Computer? Then you (probably) don't live in Africa

Reading This on A Computer? Then You (probably) Don't Live in Africa by Milena Veselinovic and Brandom Clements first pulled me in because of the title. It is true that I'm on a computer and not currently living in Africa, but that title seemed a like stereotypical to me. I mean, Africa is a whole continent, with many, many countries in it, which I know because I had to memorize them all last year in history class for extra credit I really did not need, and it seemed awfully like a blanket statement, even if the (probably) was added in there. So though the title put me off a little, I continued to read, and it turns out the article was talking about how more and more people in Africa are using mobile phones to access the internet as opposed to computers. The reasoning is that many poorer countries in Africa didn't have the resources for many computers in the 90's and 2000's when computering was taking off, so they skipped that part and fast forwarded to phones, which are basically mini computers now. My question is, what about tablets, which are crosses between computers and phones.

The next thing that interested me in this article was the app company start ups that are capitalizing on this mobile phone trend. The article cited examples such as M-Pesa, a money transferring apps, and mPedigree, to check if the medicine you are receiving are real or not. These new apps are showing how people in African are taking a trend from America and western countries and utilizing it for their own advantages, because really, how many Americans would need the app Farmerline, which gives you farming tips? So really, when I thought the article was perpetuating a harmful stereotype of all of Africa being technology barren, it was showing how more advanced the continent as a whole is becoming. I still think that they could stop classifying it as all of Africa though. I mean, how would the German feel if we looped them in with the Greek? (A stereotypically hardworking country vs a stereotypically not hard working country, if you couldn’t tell.)

TOW #19- Downward Dogged The Onion (visual)

http://www.theonion.com/articles/downward-dogged,37964/

My favorite part of this political cartoon is how downright offensive it is. I mean, the Bible and the American Flag are burning in the middle, down at the bottom there is a book that says, "weird books (probably korans)". There's also a grim reaper and satanic symbols, but those are just extra details. The funny thing about this is that I know people that would totally be the people on the left, who are willingly going into these weird new fitness things without knowing a thing about them. I mean, just look at Kim Kardashian, who sparked the whole "eating your own placenta to make your skin better" thing. That was insane, but people still did it. Also, crossfit. Now crossfit is actually good for you, but it seems like the spawn of satan to me. I mean, all that moving around and getting healthy, it's truly scary.

I started off the first paragraph with what my favorite part was, but I think I've found a true favorite. I'm a sucker for puns, especially the horrendously bad ones, like the little man in the bottom right corner saying, "Bad OM-en." That just gets me. I love it a lot. The cartoon is really going after band wagon mentality, and how people jump on new trends so quickly. Take all of L.A., for example. I mean, I'm guilty of this myself too, especially in my younger days, as evidenced by the 30 or so Silly Bands and one Tamagotchi I can see just sitting at my desk right now. My dad calls us 'iSheep', but the truth is that we have no money, he is the one buying the iPhones for us. Who's the iSheep now, dad? Back on track, people will do anything to fit in, including going to yoga sessions led by the grim reaper. The comic really gets at the things that people do to help, when they are actually hurting their body.