Ignite Talk

http://youtu.be/x7bADBWGadI

Themes in our Music choices as Young Women: Found Poem

It's like screamin' but no one can hear
And in the dark, in these final hours
I want you to stay

Now it's just you and me
My body
take me , make me
I want you to stay

You almost feel ashamed that someone could be that important
Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
I'm supposed to be in love
But I'm numb again
I want you to stay

I can't deny it, I want you, I want you
Right til the end
Boy you should know that your love is always on my mind
And I will feel the power but you won't
I want you to stay

No one will ever understand how much it hurts
The reason I hold on
It's the way I'm feeling I just can't deny
I want you to stay

But tonight I'm gonna find a way to make it without you
Cause I cant make you love me
And that's just the half of it.

For the final project I decided to focus on the female role models in music again. I took the idea of song titles but this time I decided to take a look at the lyrics. Only this time I used more than just myself. I asked a few of my closest friends what their favorite song is by a female artist. I took all of the songs and made a found poem from the lyrics.  The top artist we all picked was Rihanna, Alicia Keys, and Adele. All of the songs that were chosen were very suggestive of relationship problems, or dealt with the idea of love or being without love. “The world we concoct instead has no place in it for such commonplace observations as that: sexual behavior has to do with courtship, desire, love, jealousy, marriage.” (Silvia Knobloch)  Does this show that who we look up to in music is saying that these are the most important things for us as females to be concerned with?  The songs we listen to day in and day out are telling us to focus on some important things, but maybe not the most important things we need to focus on. “A phenomenon not readily explained by a straightforward application of mood management theory is the extraordinary popularity of sad and seemingly depressive love songs. Love and romance are unquestionably dominant.” ( Dolf Zillmann) Is this what we as a culture have sculpted our female artist to do? Are they just expected to sing about love, or the lack of love in their lives just because that’s what we expect? I think its more than that. I think that it is what most of the females my age can relate to. We are at this pivotal point in our lives. Searching for ourselves and where we belong; Longing for love that exists outside of our families.  They are catering to what we think our needs are. Maybe we are more of role models for them because they have to make music regarding what we want and what we like.  If we started caring more about different things as a culture instead of love there would be a change in the types of music produced.




Works Cited

• aaron , ridley . <http://books.google.com/books?id=SlKKL46XdgQC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=The world we concoct instead has no place in it for such commonplace observations as that: sexual behaviour has to do with courtship, desire, love, jealousy, marriage&source=bl&ots=Nyxk8goebM&sig=0za2WAY8muW7roOB2t04t6v9Fqc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yeV9Ub36JYq08QTS74B4&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA
• 
  

Females in Music

I thought for this mini project I would criticize and evaluate some of the female role models I have in my life through my choice of music. Not even realizing how I don’t really see most of the artist as role models, but have still influenced me in one way or another. I took the Song titles of all the songs on my phone that were made by female artist and created a word cloud. I noticed that many of the words were very contradictory of one another. Some were very strong and sex driven, while others were more nurturing.  Well maybe subconsciously I chose these songs by these women because I want to be able to posses each of these specific characteristics and use any of them all at once or individually at any given time. The three main reasons for admiring a role model were: (1) dedication; (2) popular image; and (3) ability. ( Antonia Ivaldi) I think that some of these characteristics aren't ideal for every female to want or obtain so then there becomes the problem with the quality of that person or trait they tend to show the most. James R. Briscoe has done research that shows some qualitative considerations are also raised, centering around the changing roles and images of the female pop music artist. I don't see a real problem with the songs or what they might represent. Some people just want something different. “Young women are looking for a more culturally diverse, less sex-role stereotyped reflection [of themselves]."5(Sheila Whiteley)I think that this could be true for some people, but I think that many young women are looking for characteristics that they want to have, or that they do have but don’t feel comfortable enough to show it all the time or in front of certain people.

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Mini Project 2: Photo Essay

Link to Photo Essay: http://qsmall1.wix.com/rolemodels

Society has been calling for more positive female role models for a very long time. I think that there are plenty of role models for females of all ages, but they aren't always presented in the best way. I think that many people see things as just being black and white, no in between. Well that’s not the case. Many females in the public media are portrayed in a certain way, but that isn't all there is to them.  I don’t see the perfect role model. There isn't one person who has every quality for everyone so of course people have their ideas of just positive role models. I tried to think otherwise and show some popular women in society that have more to them than what the majority of people know them for. For example Miranda Kerr is a Victoria secret model. What is the most obvious thing about models; they’re known for their looks and their bodies which many women strive to obtain, maybe not in healthiest way. One side of Miranda Kerr that most probably don’t know is that she studied nutrition in college. I think that the media purposefully shows and hides certain aspects of popular to keep certain topics in the spotlight. Well, where does that leave us young females who might only see the one side of these females? Should it really be our job to have to do a background check on who we want to be our role models? Who’s really responsible for the role models we choose?

The bottom line is that our society needs to realize that our role models can lead to self-enhancement

And inspiration under some circumstances and to self deflation and demoralization under others. In still other circumstances, they are expected to have no effect at all on young women. Just know that any of these females can have all of these affects, it just depends on the person. 

Mini Project 1: Negative and Positive Female Role Models in Society

For my project I decided to focus on the role models that teenage and young adult females have. I figured that from a certain age you really start to look at certain people especially in the media that everyone else has seemed to put on a pedestal and do the same. I think that as young women our role models now have changed drastically as we have from middle school to high school, and from high school to college.  What are the deciding factors of who we pick to look up to? Is it just because others have chosen them or do we have any real good reason? I think that until we get older are reasoning is based on our friends reasoning. We can't really pick the best role models for ourselves until we actually figure ourselves out. To some people all of these women above are considered great role models. It all depends on what you like and hour you are. For me I think that a positive role model for young women should not just be someone who looks good, or acts wild; unless of course that's what you're going for. I think that it should be someone who had good goals and contributes positive things to society beside looking good.

Forestview

This week we finally got to meet the students from Forestview high school  I was a little nervous to talk to them about how I got ready and prepared for college. I didn't think that I would be very relatable to the kids that sat at my table. That all changed after our writing into the day. We were supposed to write about what we thought was most valuable about college. When I heard some of the things they said, they sounded just like me. I saw small sections of my journey to college in each of them. They shared their fears and at the same time I shared mine. Being able to really answer questions from someone whose place I was just in was nice. Maybe they will be a little more prepared than I was.

Mini Project Possibility......

Found poems. This is an example of what I came up with in class by walking around the building looking at random flyer's and posters and taking one line or a few words from each and creating a new poem out of them.

how could I connect this to my mini project? Well I want to dig into the Disney role models even farther than the ted talks video we watched in class. I want to possibly take lines from movies and incorporate them into the poem to either show the characters in a positive or negative light. I could also try and do both using the same lines, just in a different order. 

I think that everyone's path to whatever success they are in search of. Everyone's idea of success is different because not everyone wants the same things out of life. It's clear that societies success story is going to college and getting your degree, then to go and find a nice job with that degree so then one day you can help provide for your family. We all know that, that's not the only way to be successful. There are plenty of people that start working right out of high school and do just fine. There's even more than one path to get to college as well. How I ended up at UNCC is probably much different from every other person that goes here. I do think that the journey is very important, but as long as you get where you want or need to be, that's all that really counts!

Unrealistic Labels

Where does this whole idea of having to label people even come from? When you're at home watching your favorite TV show who do you most relate to in each episode? I think that the majority would like to relate to the "popular" kids. The ones who are most acceptable to society. Why would anyone willing want to be talked about as the nerd or the outcast. Society takes these labels we give people in the real world and seem to stretch them in the media. Since when do all the smart people dress and act the same. I don't know anyone who has tape between their glasses, and wears pants that are way too far above their ankles. On that note, since when are none of the so called popular kids smart. Just because you dress or act a certain way doesn't make you anything besides a person. Social media tries to make everything in society seem black and white when we all know there are many shades of grey. Everyone is different. The world isn't just one thing or the other, social media needs to conform instead of all of us trying to conform to it.

Who do they look up to?

Who do the young kids of our generation have to look up to. How are our young boys taught to behave and how they should treat other people around them. Watching the Ted talk about how all to many of the main characters in so many kids movies and movies in general are some type of male figure who sometimes acts way too goofy and goes on an adventure to impress a female character at the end and everyone lives happily ever after. Then on to who the girls have to look up to. What I've seen is a female character or better described as a damsels in distress who more than likely has to rely on a male character. I would want my kids to know that there is more to life then what movies and media seem to think. Just because you're a boy doesn't mean you have to always impress the ladies and just because you're a girl doesn't mean you have to rely on a male to come to your rescue, you can stand up for yourself.   

When someone doesn't think you can take heads up seven up to the next level..... Challenge accepted. maybe its all a part of the process of believing in the believing game. Trying to figure out if all this abstract thought, and trying to connect games to writing and understanding. I think that I am far better at the doubting game, but I'm starting to come around to the idea of believing. Of course it isn't possibly going to work for everyone, but it does make class a little more interesting and not traditional.

Different games are for different people, different age groups. Things like that. For example taboo. That’s a game for maybe middle school kids and up. maybe even high school students and up instead. Some board games like candy land would obviously work better for a younger crowd. Different games, different ages. its just as simple as that!

Well this is my first blog for class. We have been thinking about the connection between Gees rules for gaming and how that correlates with writing and our string games. There is a possibility that I might see some type of connection. In the beginning I didn’t think that there would be any connection. After thinking more I just figured that some of the rules  can be applied to writing styles and processes.  Then we decorated out Day books. I just picked the most random pictures I could find out of the most random books I had.