Bell Hooks Essays (Examples)

bell hooks' "Seeing and Making Culture"

bell hooks successfully challenges stereotypes specific to poverty by writing to two separate audiences using ethos, pathos and vocabulary common enough for most people, yet elegant enough for academics. In her essay, "Seeing and Making Culture," hooks uses an ethos way of writing when she uses quotes throughout the text. In addition, hooks also uses pathos by appealing to our emotions with the interactions between herself and her grandmother. She successfully writes a narrative that many audiences can response to and appreciate such as the lower class "common folks," and the more educated upper middle class and academics. In this regard, hooks gives voice to an enormous group of people she claims remain voiceless in modern American society, the poor. When she was growing up, hooks states that everyone they knew fell into one of four general categories; destitute, working poor, middle class and…

Bell Hooks

In "The Oppositional Gaze," Bell Hooks frames gender in terms of power. Gender is one aspect of social hierarchy, and represents the social construction of power. The act of gazing, looking someone in the eye, or staring, likewise carries important connotations of power. Culturally specific, the norms regarding gazing determine norms related to relational power. Looking intently at someone is construed as brash, confident, and assertive. Therefore, persons with a low social status, such as children, women, and blacks, are told not to stare. Bell Hooks subverts gender and race disparities by owning her gaze.

Hooks also extends the concept of gazing to other forms of visual representations. Gazing has a political dimension, and that dimension can be seen in the rendition of blacks in the white dominant culture. People in power have entitled themselves to represent blacks, and women, as they see fit. Thus, to watch white…

(pp.45-58) Hooks also recognized that when integration occurred these change agents were alienated from black children and alienation and discrimination ensued, associated with being taught white history and democratic ideals, rather than reformation of education, which was the intention. (p. 3)

Both perspective childhood stories imply implicit as well as environmental (explicit) characteristics of wisdom, as Hooks acknowledges that she may have been singled out, as a child of a certain class, gender and race but it may have been because people recognized her implicit character of wisdom and potential. Hooks, by virtue of watching people in her own community live out characteristics of patriarchal ideals demonstrates wisdom far beyond the years she reflects upon. In this phenomena, as reflected by Bell Hooks' experiential learning and reflection, one can clearly see the implicit-explicit dichotomy, discussed in ternberg and Jordan's a Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. In this work the idea…

Another provocative element of hooks' text is the way that she renders whiteness problematic and alien, while the dominant culture has always done this with blackness. The quest to know what is not 'us' and to know the 'other' she implies, is endemic to all societies (hooks 32). Yet the academy has shown scant interest in how blacks perceive whiteness, only how whites perceive blackness. This renders white people and whiteness invisible as an ideological construct and renders black people invisible as human beings.

Instead, black people are merely reduced to serving bodies, as hardly human, as something for whites to use as reflections to see what they are 'not,' rather than as legitimate subjects with a perspective of their own. This recalls how the first native people were classified, almost as animal subjects, in the first encounters of Europeans with the New orld, and discovered as objects or primitive…

Bell Hooks Argues There Must be no Split Between Theory and Practice

Hooks also argues quite compellingly about not splitting theory and practice when it comes to feminism. In other words, practice what you preach. The best theory in the world cannot help anyone if it is not put into common practice. As Hooks notes, "I have come to see that silence is an act of complicity, one that helps perpetuate the idea that we can engage in revolutionary black liberation and feminist struggle without theory" (Hooks 39). There must be a theory to believe in, and there must be action to make the theory come true and be realized. She goes on to expound on her thoughts, "By reinforcing the idea that there is a split between theory and practice or by creating such a split, both groups deny the power of liberatory education for critical consciousness, thereby perpetuating…

bell hooks, the celebrated Black feminist writer and thinker, recently penned a book called Feminism is for Everybody. It is a provocative title to be sure, but hooks is not the first writer to tackle the subject of how so-called "women's issues" can often have profound consequences on men. Literary works of fiction have long struggled with this central theme. In particular, Jean Toomer's Cane includes some powerful vignettes which highlight just how damaging it can be for men when they do not understand and appreciate women as whole, 3-dimensional beings. Although the negative consequences the male characters suffer in "Karintha," "Becky," "Carma" and "Blood Burning Moon" are as varied as the men themselves, one could argue that the common thread amongst these men is isolation. It is ironic to the extreme, but each of central male characters in Toomer's vignettes actually themselves create a distance and isolation from the…

Cultural Criticism
Bell hooks notes that “popular culture is where the pedagogy is, is where the learning is” (2006). This statement sums up her views rather well and gets right to the heart of what hooks is up to in her Cultural Criticism and Transformation talks. I agree a lot with what hooks says about popular culture and it lines up well with what cultural critics in the past have said. The Frankfurt School, for example, was very critical of popular culture and its effect on the mass of people. Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) were very critical about what popular culture was doing and how it was achieving a kind of hypnotic effect on people.
However, I tend to be a bit more traditional in my thinking when it comes to roles and I think having clearly defined gender roles in society is not a bad thing at all. I…

Paulo Freire and Bell Hooks are both well-known for their influential thinking in the area of teaching, specifically relating to the contexts of race, gender, and culture. In his writing and teaching, Freire emphasized that that learning is an act of culture and freedom. Among his main arguments is the assertion that the current education system in many developed countries is a process of "knowledge banking" (Bentley). In other words, students "bank" the information taught to them by their teachers, and store it for use sometime later in their life (Bentley). He contends that this type of educational dynamic does not allow students to think critically, nor does it allow them to approach problems innovatively (Bentley).

Similarly, hooks emphasizes that more "freedom" needs to be applied in the methods of teaching. Unlike Freire, however, hooks focuses on more specific topics, such as: feminism, gender, race, and the media.

Freire's and…

Feminism

Both Bell Hooks and Cherrie Moraga point out weaknesses and omissions in feminist theory in their respective articles, "Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory," and "La Guerra." Each feels that mainstream feminist discourse neglects to address certain groups of women, especially women of color and for Moraga, lesbians as well. Hooks' premise is that "White women who dominate feminist discourse ... have little or no understanding of white supremacy as a racial politic, of the psychological impact of class, of their political status within a racist, sexist, capitalist state." Similarly, Moraga states, "Within the women's movement, the connections among women of different backgrounds and sexual orientations have been fragile at best," (30). In their critiques, Hooks and Moraga both use the language of the oppressed, linking feminism with the empowerment of all disenfranchised groups. The authors' vision of feminism as an inclusive doctrine that applies to women of all backgrounds,…

Part One
A. Describe the gender-specific relationship between men, women and love. How is it different? Why? How does gender socialization contribute to these masculine and feminine roles in relationship to love and relationships in general?
Pre-eminent feminist bell hooks addresses two issues simultaneously with regard to gender specific relationships between men and women. The first issue is gender norms and socialization, which restrict roles for men and women in their love relationships. Women are socialized as caregivers who place the needs of others before themselves: “she was also responsible for everyone else’s happiness,” (Communion 19). On the contrary, men are socialized to receive care, and to suppress deep and meaningful emotional responses as part of their construct of masculine identity—something that hooks describes in The Will to Change. Given the different ways females and males are socialized, their relationships with one another is mediated by gender norms and performativity.…

Orientalism, then, allowed the West to promote its political propaganda of colonizing Eastern societies. This propaganda of colonizing Eastern societies was legitimized by the West's insistence that the East needed to progress in the same way that it did (West) right after the economic success of the Industrial Revolution. Colonization was the West's method of "rehabilitating" societies it considered as a 'laggard' -- a society that, in the West's view and standards of modernity, had trailed behind other cultures throughout history. Colonization for Said is the "annihilation of the Asiatic society, and the laying of material foundations of Western society in Asia." The acceptance of the concepts of the Orient and Orientalism marked the validation of the intended colonization of the West of the Eastern societies. Colonization passed as a form of rehabilitation and democratization of a society is, interestingly, still practiced today, as was exemplified in the U.S.'s propaganda…

Short ReflectionThe theme that stands out for me among the readings is the idea of becoming vulnerable. This idea is in the talk given by Brene Brown. It is also in DTL chapter 1, where it is stated plainly that daring (making oneself vulnerable) is in knowing one will fail and yet going all in anyway. It is also in the concept of the promotion of literacy discussed by bell hooks. This is evident in the way hooks explains democratic education: it is not something that should be denied anyone; rather it is something that exists for all and that should be accessible by all. By offering everything to everyone, one holds nothing back for oneself. The teacher becomes vulnerable so that the learner can become empowered. It is the ultimate act of givingand that sense of giving is really the underlying theme that I see flowing through all the…

Gloria Watkins (using the pseudonym of "bell hooks"), Watkins presented the readers a detailed narrative of what it feels like to have writer's block and the reasons why she keeps on having it whenever she feels the urge to write about somebody or something else, and most especially when she wants to write something about herself, her inner feelings. She gave the readers some possible reasons why this happens, that is, why do writer's block happen during most important times, whenever memory recall of all important events in our lives are needed. Watkins solved her dilemma through contemplative thinking, wherein she traced her childhood experiences and significant events in her life to truly understand the origin of her recurring problem.

The first reason that she gives the readers is that "[t]here was clearly something blocking my ability to tell my story. Perhaps it was remembered scoldings and punishments when mama…

The author writes "since the disruption of the colonized/colonizer mind-set is necessary for border crossings to not simply reinscribe old patterns, we need strategies for decolonization that aim to change the minds and habits of everyone involved in cultural criticism," so that black women are not, like the author says she was in her twenties, "inwardly homeless." (5; 9) This state of inward homelessness, or lacking a coherent identity is something, hooks acknowledges, that can be experienced by all marginalized peoples and ethnic groups in contemporary society -- and only by acknowledging the fact that we are all potentially, inwardly homeless, can the pain of past prejudice be assuaged.

The flexibility and instability of perceptions in "Crash," is not simply stressed in the script's continual, structured contrast between media representations and 'the real.' Even within the context of "Crash's" 'real life,' individuals who are non-white are continually misread in the…

Playing in the Dark & Art on my Mind

Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination and ell Hooks' Art on My Mind: Visual Politics are both works of nonfiction that center on the idea of cultural identity and its politics related to art and literature. Hooks is, of course, a forerunner in the critique of African-American culture and Art on My Mind closely examines the world of creating art in an environment that is overly concerned with politics having to do with identity. Hooks has long been known as a writer that is deeply interested in what is happening with the black community and what struggles that community faces. She examines in her book how art can be something that is empowering for the black community, however, she is discouraged by the lack of interest by critics to non-white art. Morrison, likewise, wants to empower…

Art and Technology

Bell hooks' quotation regarding the proper perspective that one should have when conducting cultural criticism involves the "disruption of the colonized/colonizer mindset," which means that individuals who aim to provide a fair and objective criticism of culture must be free from any biases or predetermined prejudices and opinions about that particular culture. Disruption of the colonized/colonizer mindset is necessary because analysis and findings regarding the study of a particular culture entails objectivity, and failing to do so would result to an invalid and unreliable approach and result to the researcher's findings. Thus, a disruption of an individual's mindset about a culture being superior or inferior is a necessary tool in order to achieve objectivity and accuracy in research. Furthermore, "border crossings" means that a researcher must be able to immerse himself with the dynamics of the culture he is studying in order to get a better and…

The only thing that is missing is the freedom to make that choice, the freedom to do it without pain or sacrifice. But freedom always comes with a price, especially for women. In the process of gaining her choice, Ada loses a finger, loses her piano, and almost loses her life.

We have to also look at history in the film. The Piano seems historically correct because women didn't have the right to choose their mates during this time. Love almost always came at some price. Ada chose to express her love the only way she knew how -- through her piano. But she is not making the right choice, because in the process she is sacrificing herself. She is unable to stand up for what is right because the pain is too great and too lonely to bear.

While I think Hook's view of male supremacy seems somewhat harsh,…

Art?

To me, art is a concept that is impossible to define, because any definition of art necessarily limits art, and art should be limitless. I would say that art is what separates humans from other animals, because I feel like the ability to create and appreciate art is one of the defining elements of humanity, but I have seen examples of animals creating artwork, so I do not know that it is a uniquely human concept. However, whether art is unique to humans or is something shared by other highly intelligent animals, I know that art is essential to the human experience. I agree with Dr. Cornell est that, "You can't talk about the struggle for human freedom unless you talk about the different dimensions of what it means to be human" (est). Therefore, to me, art is about, not only being human, but also about creating the social…

Body, Identity, Gender]

From birth, humans learn, act out and experience their gendered identities. The society's concepts of femininity and masculinity form a person's relationship to his/her body and the bodies of other individuals. The issue of gender is also an aspect of prevailing norms of inequality and oppression. Discrimination based on appearances continues to be a common occurrence.

For example, feminists and philosophers, such as Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex question, "what is a woman?" (in Ashton-Jones101). She dislikes the traditional explanation of "woman is a womb," but recognizes that throughout history woman has been defined as "the Other" of man: "Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him." (in Ashton-Jones 102). In other words, man is the absolute being and woman takes on all of the negative bodily, mortal and irrational aspects that he prefers not to find…

The lack of a critical analysis of race created a divide between feminist and black activists, as chronicled in the words of feminist and scholar Beverley Guy-Sheftall: "Coming out of the Civil Rights era, black feminism was a contentious, debatable, demonized and divisive notion. It was perceived to be a pro-white, anti-male doctrine that would destroy black families and prohibit unity. I can remember going to all-black gatherings and people asking me whether or not I was a lesbian, because being pro-female translated into a hate for men" (Ofori-Atta 2010). In her book, Ain't I a oman? bell hooks noted that under slavery, abolitionists often said that black men were 'wronged' because slavery emasculated the men and denied them the right to defend their wives against the advances of slave-owners. But this did not recognize the impact that the threat of rape had upon black women. Simply the phrase "the…

Stranger Things is a television show on Netflix that recounts the story of a missing boy, a frantic mother, and three friends looking for an answer. The show is a pastiche of popular 80's movies and television shows that featured monsters like E.T. and telekinetic children like Charlie in Firestarter. While the show does not hit on anything original, it does manage to hit a nerve among fans and has swept the nation with its sweet whispers of nostalgia. The show perhaps invites people to reach for their own ideologies in life vicariously through the main characters. Althusser discusses ideologies in his piece, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" and Bell Hooks examines desire and resistance in "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance" that can point towards a better understanding of such a fast-growing cultural phenomenon.

Althusser defines ideologies from a traditional standpoint as 'world outlooks. However, Althusser admits they do…

Racial identity plays a strong role in the definition of self; Lorde recognized the importance of racial identity even in the struggle for gender equality. Her argument implicitly supports Jones' assertion that racial equality is "prior" to the cause of gender equality for African-American women. The implicit argument is that feminism could not be a united force because white women did not have the ability through their institutionalized advantages to cogently appreciate the tribulations of African-American women. As a result, there could never have been unity in the first place. In understanding this key point, the justification for African-American unity and the subjugation of the black feminist movement appears to be a more appealing strategy.

A final poignant comparison and relationship between the greater struggle for racial equality and black feminism rests in the internal conflict within African-American culture. One of the greatest ironies of the Civil Rights movement is…

Yellow Wallpaper,' the nameless narrator is compelled by those that surround her to spend time in a colonial mansion in order to rest and get well. The opposite happens; we see her descend into madness in a way that is vaguely reminiscent of the main character in 'The Shining.' We are given the sense of a controlled environment, in which a narrator is placed by male figures representing authority and familiarity (doctors: her husband and brother) in a situation where she is condemned to stare at a wall. The response of her subconscious is embodied in the changes she perceives in the character of the wall.

She sees a yellow female woman trying to break free of the wall, which we interpret to represent the constrained parameters of her activity. She is a complete subordinate, dominated by men who possess professional accolades. Her attitudes mirror those we see in Ibsen…

Another distinction central to the Black feminist's thoughts is the alienation she suffers due to the omission of her presence in history. This omission is not only found in traditional examples of history, but also in Eurocentric feminist views of history. The following quotation from Lorde in her letter to Daly shows the frustration and lack of understanding about the reason such an omission is propagated even among those of her same sex. "…why doesn't Mary deal with Afreket as an example? hy are her goddess-images only white, western-european, judeo-christian…here are the warrior-goddesses of the Vodun, the Dohomeian Amazons and the warrior-women of Dan…Mary has made a conscious decision to narrow her scope and to deal only with the ecology of western-european women (Lorde, 1979, p. 94)." The exclusion of African goddesses from Daly's text, which described the historical roots of women's power, is only a slight example of the…

However, Suzanne is a white woman. Obviously, a woman of color would have had a different experience in that same time period, because there were not darker skinned women in powerful roles in the media. When they did appear, they may have been relegated to subservient positions or be women with very Caucasian features, like Dorothy Dandridge. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that Suzanne's experience is probably not reflective of all women of her time period.

In fact, to me it appears clear that media images are another issue that could be seen as a comparable harmless or less important inequality rather than an evil. For instance, "North American feminism, in particular, has focused on securing equal political and economic rights for women (inequalities) and prioritized these problems rather than focusing on domestic violence and traffic in women and girls (evils)" (Brennan, 2009, p. 146). While women…

Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning still remains as one of my favorite documentaries. As my interest in subcultures and documentaries grew simultaneously and exponentially over the past few years, I frequently had to consider and analyze the ethics of representing others. However, before my research on the perception of Livingston's documentary, which shines a light on one of the most influential subcultures, I had never felt guilty for being a fan. It was after reading feminist activist Bell Hooks' critique of Paris is Burning that I realized the issue of representing the Other, starts with the act of 'Othering'. It is not uncommon for a documentary filmmaker to assume the role of someone penetrating a community; looking from the outside in. But is there no possibility of a non-voyeuristic approach when representing others? How can the filmmaker prevent cultural appropriation?

Bell Hooks argues that, "Within the world of the black…

" Real Americans support the right of religious people to worship, and would never base legislation on a religious conviction rather than a conviction based on constitutional rights, constitutional law, and Enlightenment ethics.

American political identity is continually changing also because of the incredible ethnic and cultural diversity within the nation's borders. hen gender, sexual identity, socio-economic class, and other factors are also included in the mix, America's political philosophy is naturally heterogeneous. hen new immigrants enter the United States, they contribute to the common ideals of a nation founded on principles like universal liberty and justice. "Debates about immigration and national identity cut to the core of our national self-image as a nation of immigrants, and invariably includes allusions to the past -- real and idealized -- as a way of under- standing and coping with social and demographic changes today," (Segura 278). hite supremacist Americans are currently in…

That being said, it is quite difficult to be honest with oneself, even thought as we stand in front of the mirror, naked and bare, Didion says we remain "blind to our fatal weaknesses." One might think that being too self-critical would damage the ego, but for Didion, it is completely the opposite -- by knowing out flaws, accepting some and working towards the goal of solving others, we become more actualized and powerful. Without this realization, "one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

Both Didion and Walker focus on self-respect, self-actualization, and in a very real way, a pseudo-Marxian approach to alienation from society. There are several points in common for the authors: one's own approach to self; seeking and finding self-respect; and taking an active role in our own place in the universe. Conversely,…

ithout a doubt, a great deal of these insecurities are embedded in the modern American culture's obsession with women maintaining unhealthy, unrealistic body types. omen have been set up to fail by these expectations, which has ultimately served to keep them submissive and dependent on men.

Conclusion

The bathroom scale is, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than an inanimate object - a machine. However the frustration, degradation and humiliation that it signifies for the modern American woman goes far beyond the nuts and bolts of its construction. The scale represents the measuring of a woman's worth by how much she weighs. It furthermore perpetuates the notion that women should take up as little space as possible because they are 'lesser' people than men. Ultimately, it signifies the source of manipulation by the diet and food industries to keep their bank accounts big and their women small. ithin this…

Paris is burning achieved the status of controversy when it came out as a documentary that offered a white view of the black and Latino drag world. It is important to understand that Jenny Livingston, the director of the film, is a white lesbian whose sexuality and race had a bearing on the way the film was made and presented.

The film documents the lives and dreams of drag performers in balls that are organized to assess the height of realness in drag experience as presented by the performers. The performers are judged on the realness of their performance. They need to walk and act like fashion models would do on runways and represent their Houses. These houses offer a sense of belonging to gay and transgender community of New York City.

Starring people called Venus Xtravaganza, Willie Ninja and Octavia along with others, Paris is Burning is a commentary…

Personally, a critical thinker will be able to evaluate the world in which they live and make conscious choices about what will be most beneficial to their own life and the lives of those around them. They will be able to be an actively engaged citizen able to understand public policies that will impact their life and do something about it if they disagree. They will be able to enrich their mind through reading and study and have the tools to interpret information on their own. Critical thinkers can have more fulfilling conversations when they know how to incite thoughtfulness in others.

Professionally, a critical thinker will be more of an asset in the business world than someone who is not able to think critically. They will be able to work more independently and be able to come up with more creative ideas. A critical thinker will be able to…

Racism Higgins

The Price of Racial Harmony

Almost thirty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, race relations in the United States continue to be strained and the dream of racial harmony appears to be as far from reality as it ever was. Many commentators, including Shelby Steele, consider that the cause of these continued difficulties lies in society's determined emphasis upon race and color, rather than upon equality and individualism. The convenient packaging and classification of people into the camps of either black or white perpetuates the divisive conflict of oppressors vs. victims, and innocence vs. power. Although integration and multiculturalism are among the catchwords of the time, the present situation is merely a case of blacks and whites adopting the path of least resistance. To truly achieve equality and cooperation within racial relations, society must make radical changes in the way that it acts and thinks. This…

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Following on the heels of Michel Foucault, Butler situates the dichotomous conceptualization of gender as a product of discourse, just as Foucault (1990) realized that homo- and heterosexuality were both discursive products. The maintenance of coherent norms in the realm of gender through cultural discourse is intertwined with the positing of heterosexuality as the norm. This is why, for example, when a young boy "dresses up" as a girl and/or plays with dolls, his parents frequently express concern that this is a sign of burgeoning homosexuality and punish the child.

Butler would interpret the child's act as a "performance" and the parents' intervention as a means of correcting that performance in order to condition the child towards "acting the right way" - that is, enacting the role of maleness as it is rigidly codified by the heterosexual norms upon which our society is based:

The notion that there might…

36). Civil ights era marks the beginning of powerful resistance against oppression. Blacks from all over the country awoke to the reality and ugliness of the situation and their effort bore fruit when Civil ights Act of 1964 was promulgated. esistance has had some impact on social system. Discriminatory practices are not as obvious as they once were. People and organizations understand the repercussions of discriminating on the basis of race and color. However African-Americans still have a long way to go before they can consider themselves free and equal in true sense of the term.

eferences

Biko, S. (1978). Steve Biko: Black Consciousness in South Africa. M. Arnold (Ed.). New York: andom House

Blauner, . (1972). acial oppression in America. San Francisco: Harper & ow.

Folger, . & Skarlicki, D. (1999). Unfairness and resistance to change: hardship as mistreatment, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 35-50.

Franklin, .S. (1991). Shadows…

It cannot be denied that NCLB largely tests students on standardized measures that value verbal fluency above all else (interestingly, competency in a foreign language is not required in NCLB) bilingual students are shown in a poor light, and guidance towards specific prescriptive techniques to suit the individual student's cultural needs, level of fluency, and family situation is not provided by NCLB. NCLB encourages teaching students how to pass a test rather than fosters the type of skills they need to truly 'own' their learning at worst, or at best, by excludes students from school performance results, which may result in a lack of funding for ESL programs, as opposed to programs that really 'count' towards the magic numbers required to meet district standards.

The anthology questions the fundamental assumption that cultural assimilation is a necessary marker of progress in the American school system. The one potential advantage, albeit a…

Ficke also seems to conside Dolly's self-awaeness and sense of humo about heself to be impotant elements of he pesona that immunize he fom citicism fo being "supeficial" o "fake" o fo adheing to an image of femininity ceated by males. In that egad, the standad opening line she uses fo he concets to thank he fans fo paying to see he is "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."

If Dolly Paton maintained he caee by emulating the "busty blond with a golden heat" Madonna achieved success though many "einventions and possibilities" of he Madonna pesona. In doing so, the one constant seems to have been that she always had a "desie to push the boundaies" duing he caee. The autho ecounts memoies of he siste tying to dess in the "Mateial Gil 80's-ea, can-can, dance/steet uchin togs" that Madonna populaized in he heyday. Accoding to…

Gender

Masculinity & Femininity

Femininities and masculinities dictate more behavioral expectations for us in society. After reading through/watching the material for this week, comment on what you view as the state of masculinity/femininity discourses. How are these discourses useful? Can masculinity/femininity be a positive thing? Or should they always be critiqued for their reinforcement of strict gendered expectations? Explain.

It is always helpful to critique any social norms, especially those as pervasive and rigid as gender norms. Critiquing gender norms helps to increase media literacy, pierce through stereotypes, and hopefully also overcome structural inequities. As Allan points out in "Hazing and Gender," "gender norms are typically cast in ways that privilege masculinity over femininity." Masculinity is normalized, made the hidden and assumed default condition of humanity. The same conditions that cause white privilege to be a potent social and psychological reality are those that cause male privilege to be a…

This has often made it very difficult for black individuals to become high educational and social achievers. Racists then twist the reasons behind this lack of achievement and use it as evidence that members of the group are inferior (Gimlin, 2005). Racism and discrimination are both common threads in prejudiced activity toward black women, and this works to perpetuate the problems that they have faced in the past and that they are still facing in society today.

Conclusion

There is little that can be done to eliminate biological differences between the ethnic groups, but society can change differences that have been created by its own political and economic systems. Some psychologists even argue that racism should be treated like a mental health issue. Racism, therefore, becomes a double-edged sword and both the oppressors and the oppressed suffer from and for it. The oppressors have guilt, shame, and remorse, while the…

She believes in a new identity and a new meaning of whiteness and blackness, which transcends the centuries-old restrictive ideas about race. Senna argues that skin-based identity is the shallowest and most hollow form of identity construction since it can be easily fabricated. Identity on the other hand should be more a matter of who you are internally than how you look. It must be based on various affiliations and a person's willingness to abandon or embrace any or all of them. This means that how a person is educated, how he or she thinks, what a person believes in, what they stand for and what they are willing to support, endorse or abandon should construct an identity for them instead of skin whiteness or blackness. Even the force of black or white gaze can be managed with fabrications as we saw in the case of Birdie. The black gaze…

Welcome to your new classroom, everyone place their backpacks and jackets on the hooks with your nametags and take a seat at a desk. Each of you will take all the materials you need from your backpack before you sit down, but today you don't need anything but a smile. You can sit where you like because we are all going to work together to rearrange the classroom and mark the desks with these nametags I made for you. If you will notice the nametags are just plain white but you will have time in a few minutes to decorate your nametag and make it look more like yourself, with the supplies you see on the desks. There are a few things I will talk about while we decorate nametags." (Pass out nametags to students one at a time) "First, hold up your hand if you are new to the…

"Lady Gaga in part because she keeps us guessing about who she, as a woman, really is. She has been praised for using her music and videos to raise this question and to confound the usual exploitative answers provided by 'the media'… Gaga's gonzo wigs, her outrageous costumes, and her fondness for dousing herself in what looks like blood, are supposed to complicate what are otherwise conventionally sexualized performances" but this complication does not necessarily lead to a feminist liberation (Bauer 2010).

Still, Gaga has been embraced by a generation of women, some who shun and some who embrace the feminist label. "Lady Gaga idealizes this way of being in the world. But real young women, who, as has been well documented, are pressured to make themselves into boy toys at younger and younger ages, feel torn. They tell themselves a Gaga-esque story about what they're doing. hen they're on…

This were then replaced with larger big band orchestras as technology allowed such large groups to be clearly recorded, "As the swing era began, shorts were made of many of the top orchestras," (Yanow 2). Big band orchestras began showing up in all the major Hollywood productions. They featured pre-recorded songs where the musicians lip singed. It is interesting to have such a crucial period on film. The Swing Era "was fortunately captured for feature films and short subjects at the time it was all happening," (Behlmer 1). Big bands became incredibly popular in feature films during the 1930s and 40s. Benny Goodman, "The King of Swing," had a movie- Hollywood Hotel in 1937 "the full orchestra plays an abbreviated version of that quintessential Swing Era arrangement of 'Sing, Sing, Sing' in the film," (Behlmer 1). From big Hollywood productions came popularity on the small screen. As televisions became the…

Writing doesnt have to be a chore.

To prove it, heres a cause and effect essay example that gets down and dirty with a semi-controversial issue that polarizes a lot of people (no pun intended): yes, were talking about climate change.

This topic has been in the news for a good long while.
Topic
Climate Change

There have been movies made about it, conferences held about it, and many works of scholarly and not-so-scholarly literature written about it.

So lets take a look at how to turn this subject into the main topic of a cause and effect essay.

Well start off with a title, give you the hook, underline the thesis, and highlight some important parts for you to consider.

Best of all, well show you how to have fun with your essay. Lets go!
Outline
I. Intro
a. Hook
b. Did climate change cause Harvey et al.?
c.…

Apparently Plath wrote the poem during her stay in the hospital, which can be a depressing place notwithstanding all the nurses and orderlies dressed in white. The appendectomy followed a miscarriage that Plath had suffered through, so given those realities in the poet's life -- especially for a woman to lose a child she had been carrying -- one can identify with the bleak nature of the poem. Confronted with the birth that turned out to be death, and then a painful appendectomy, the tulips are used as something of an abstraction and the redness of them gives her pain because it "corresponds" to the wound in her body from the surgery.

The opening stanza's first few lines seem rather peaceful and restful: "The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here / look how white everything is / How quiet, how snowed-in / I am learning peacefulness / lying…

The brain while expanding pushes the skull outward in the same perpendicular to the closed structure. This will be marked by the occurrence of 'papilledema' 'pseudoproptosis' as also 'optic atrophy.' (39) This results in the orbital socket being smaller and the eyes getting 'protoposed'. The intercranial pressure is bound to be high. The symptoms in such cases will be optic atrophy, head ache and papilledema. Or in the case of 'Crouzon's disease' where occurs a marked hooked nose and a frontal lobe which makes the disease also called the parrot head disease. Surgery in both these types of situations become mandatory as the result of the cranial pressure could result in death. (39)

egarding the facial surgery discussions always centre on perfecting features and cosmetic changes. The debate must rather be on the goals of the surgery and the overall benefits that can accrue to the patient in terms of…

Pedagogic Model for Teaching of Technology to Special Education Students

Almost thirty years ago, the American federal government passed an act mandating the availability of a free and appropriate public education for all handicapped children. In 1990, this act was updated and reformed as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which itself was reformed in 1997. At each step, the goal was to make education more equitable and more accessible to those with special educational needs. During the last presidential term, the "No Child Left Behind" Act attempted to assure that individuals with disabilities were increasingly mainstreamed and assured of high educational results. All of these legislative mandates were aimed at insuring that children with disabilities were not defrauded of the public education which has become the birthright of all American children. The latest reforms to IDEA, for example, provided sweeping reforms which not only expanded the classification of special…

Practice & Critical Thinking

Harassment & Bullying in the Workplace

Many people are familiar with bullying in schools and other places where children and young adults spend time, but workplaces are becoming increasingly toxic places where bullies feel they can harass and intimidate other workers (Barnes, 2012). Now that bullying problems have begun to take place in the workplace so frequently, the issue is coming to light and more must be done about it. A recent bullying situation took place at my workplace, but I was not the one being bullied. Unfortunately, the person on the receiving end of the bullying is not good at standing up for herself, so she gets bullied quite a bit. She is overweight, which contributes to the jokes and giggles that happen around her. She is a very kind and generous person, though, and it is a shame the other workers fail to see…

evolt Among the Sharecroppers - Howard Kester

evolt Among the Sharecroppers is a brief and convincing first-person account on the effects of the 1930s Depression and a dramatic story of the impact of New Deal on rural life of the Southern labor. The book was originally published in 1936 as a rural studies research pamphlet by Howard Kester. In 1969, it was reprinted by Arno Press in their American Negro Series. Within a year, the book was sold out and not printed again.

Alexander Lichtenstein, a lecturer in University of Tennessee took the initiative of reissuing the book in 1997, in realization of its value as a historical piece of research. This re-established a significant political and social document of the early twentieth century. The book does not only enhance the understanding of modern generations on the importance of social movements but also asserts that the contemporary social gap between…

(The Hackensack Fire adio Communications Issue)

Although there was plenty of controversy surrounding the issue, wherein some stated that it was plain human error, and bad judgment, while some others stated that it was because of interference, or due to mechanical malfunction, the actual truth, as it was later discovered, was that the firefighters had been inadvertently transmitting their communications on a general channel, and since nobody listened to it, no one knew that they were all trapped upstairs, and therefore, no one could rescue them. Since the fact cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt, and since not one of those firefighters in the incident came out alive, one must believe that a combination of different factors led to such grave fatalities in the firefighting department of Hackensack, in July 1, 1988, in New Jersey. (The Hackensack Fire adio Communications Issue)

eferences

Analysis report on Firefighter Fatalities. Fire Analysis and…

Warner Brothers and Sound

Warner Brothers, name normally pertains to Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., which is an American motion-picture production company, and was the first to use series of synchronized sound in a silent feature film. Four American brothers namely Harry Morris Warner, Albert Warner, Samuel Lewis Warner, and Jack Leonard Warner were the founders. (Warner Brothers: Encyclopedia Article from Encarta) Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack turned jointly to any commercial activities that came their way till they got into the nickelodeon business. Currently Jack is the only brother who is still regularly recognized with Warner's in its halcyon days. However the studio would have never attained the big position without Harry and Sam's unusual and paired talents. They did it by risking on a new technology: synchronized sound for motion pictures. Harry's cautious but enthused business management made the company in a position to benefit from Sam's big idea.…

Negotiation Skills

A High Impact Negotiations Model: An Answer to the Limitations of the Fisher, Ury Model of Principled Negotiations

This study aims to discover the ways in which blocked negotiations can be overcome by testing the Fisher, Ury model of principled negotiation against one of the researcher's own devising, crafted after studying thousands of negotiation trainees from over 100 multinational corporations on 5 continents. It attempts to discern universal applications of tools, skills, and verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that may assist the negotiator in closing deals with what have been "traditionally" perceived as "difficult people." This study concludes that there are no such "difficult people," but rather only unprepared negotiators. The study takes a phenomenological approach to negotiations, with the researcher immersing himself in the world of negotiation training from 2012-14, for several major multinational corporations, intuiting the failings of the negotiators with whom he comes in contact,…

Strategy Document for TV Company

Terrestrial

Digital terrestrial television (DTT), which utilizes the analog infrastructure of traditional broadcast television to provide viewers with digital programming, is a land-based open platform with a strong enough signal to reach hundreds of millions without the need for a satellite dish or cable lines.

We have just commenced operations with our new channel, ONYX TV, on the DTT platform with a national license from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. We are broadcasting first in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, and will roll out services nationwide over the next 12 months.

While EbonyLife TV is a premium channel, Onyx TV will cater to the mass market and offer a unique proposition as 'the channel that gives you more for less'. With ONYX TV, viewers can enjoy an exciting new channel that brings them entertaining and exciting Nigerian programming, including Talk, Drama, Comedy, Fashion, Lifestyle, Reality and…

Staircase ramps which are comprised of steep and narrow steps that lead up one face of the pyramid were more in use at that time with evidence found at the Sinki, Meidum, Giza, Abu Ghurob, and Lisht pyramids respectively (Heizer).

A third ramp variation was the spiral ramp, found in use during the nineteenth dynasty and was, as its name suggests, comprised of a ramp covering all faces of the pyramids leading towards the top. Reversing ramps zigzag up one face of a pyramid at a time and would not be used in the construction of step pyramids, while lastly interior ramps that have been found within the pyramids of Sahura, Nyuserra, Neferifijata, Abusir, and Pepi II (Heizer, Shaw).

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek architecture exists mainly in surviving temples that survive in large numbers even today and is tied into Roman and Hellenistic periods which borrowed heavily from the Greeks.…

There are eight wire lines that connect it with the Travelling block and the drilling hook below it. The drum is located in the draw-works and is operated with a drum brake. The dead line anchor is connected to the storage reel.

The swivel is connected to the rotary drilling hose, which is used to pump drilling fluid into the drill string. Below the ocean surface, various components are of importance, including the gamma ray, directional survey, pressure, temperature, and the weight on the bit. Communication regarding these components occurs via mud pulsing and other methods. Drill collars are used to exercise weight on the bit for penetration into the ocean bed. The weight of the drill string contributes to this. The downhole motor is especially helpful when directional drilling is involved.

In deep ocean situations Grant Prideco's extreme Torque Drillpipe allows high tongue for Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) wells.…

Jekyll does not eappea until Hyde is hunted down and fatally wounded. Besides helping to set the tone in geneal fo the book, binging the stoy of Jekyll and Hyde into his own tale of the hoos that dugs can cause, is pefect. Afte all, the wost we see about dugs is not necessaily Ronnie's use of them, but using them as a way to get people to debase themselves fo the amusement of othes. This single fact cannot be stessed had enough o often enough. Finlay Andews, and Malcolm Lanyon wee so much wose than poo, hooked Ronnie. They did it fo money: money and powe. They put togethe the club behind the club fo money and powe. They aleady had so much of both they didn't know what to with them and they still wanted moe. Add geed to the list of sins and hoos.

As the eades…

The market was not ready for wireless even five years ago, but that has definitely changed. When Levi's launched its latest 501s marketing campaign earlier this year, a wireless site was a central part of its digital strategy. Now there are nearly 30,000 public wireless "hot spots" in the United States. Advertisers believe that now that wireless has finally become a medium with which consumers are comfortable, the next stage is its exploitation by brands. Many feel that the wireless sites will increasingly become a part of marketing campaigns.

The semi-technical arena is seeing the rise of numerous new search engines, especially since ones such as Google have become so successful. Increasing numbers of Web surfers are going to alternative search engines that specialize in finding certain kinds of information or offering additional capabilities to well-known search sites (Kharif). AOL launched a test version of its new travel search site,…

Sam

This is too much. I need to stop before I...Jacob. come in here.

Sam closes the door behind him. Shot of the door closing behind Jacob and Jacob looking as though someone punched him in the crotch.

Jacob

Yeah? What's up? Oh and if you're going to tell me that the cops will find out I did it, this isn't Law and Order okay? it's difficult to catch someone committing a crime unless you're stupid or unlucky.

Sam

We need to talk. Look man, it's not fun anymore. I...want out.

Scene 5: "Warning": Jacob goes to the Boss's office in the upper west side, 86th street. The receptionist tells him to go inside and he closes the door behind him. The mustachioed boss clasps his hands while turning off the flatscreen.

Jacob

Hey boss, I had a bit of a problem doing a deal in the Bronx.

The Boss…

Biology

Invertebrates:

Echinodermata Phyla:

What other phyla relies on "hydraulics" as part of their locomotion system?

Arthropoda

Phylum Cnidaria:

How do medusa of Aurelia and Gonionemus differ in size, arrangement of tentacles, and shape of manubrium?

Aurelia has tentacles that are evenly spaced around their center; they also have a single attached to a single tentacle bud. They are more circular in shape.

The Gonionemus is narrow and has many tentacles. They are also small and are bell shaped.

What structures within the coral polyp do the radial ridges within each depression support?

Calyx and stomach

How does fragmentation contribute to the evolutionary success of anthrozoans in their environment?

For many corals, the damage that is caused to the initial coral structure by storms or strong wave actions may create fragments. These fragments move through the water and create new colonies of coral.

Durgesia

Planarians have a head. In biological…

American Popular Music (Lady Gaga)

The question of originality in popular music is a vexed one. To choose a convenient and current example, when Justin Bieber sings about his "baby," listeners are not meant to hear any kind of deliberate allusion to the Supremes' "Baby Love" or any other previous songs which include "Baby" as part of their lyrical hook: Bieber's charming faux-naivete cannot be mistaken for anything other than a rhetorical willingness to utilize the regular tropes and language of a standard love song. But with some performers, the matter of originality -- together with the question of influence -- is one that must be addressed. I would like to look, in this context, at the work of Stefani Germanotta, the twenty-four-year-old singer and composer better known by her stage name "Lady Gaga." I would like to examine Lady Gaga's oeuvre with three separate areas of inquiry kept in…

Black Women in Law Profession Early Twentieth Century

Black women attempting to enter careers in law during the period from 1900 through 1970 faced a variety of unique challenges. During this era, many women of all races began to question their role and place into society; it was during this time that civil rights campaigns were beginning to flourish, and African-American women as faced the prospect of not only being a minority as a woman, but also being a minority because of their skin color and ethnic heritage.

African-American women attempting to pursue careers during this time rarely had the opportunity to hold leadership positions, which was common for women of any race. Another challenge facing black women was the lack of adequate representation, influence and emphasis in the workforce. The lack of attention to black women's careers is even evident in the context of textual references and history; the…