second rough raft

11.29.12

Alysha Guzman

English 1A

Women and the internet

Dear Women of the internet

For most of known history society assigned gender roles to keep an order that it believed to be a necessity for people to have in order to happily co-exist. These roles made people identify themselves by what anatomy they had and allowed very little flexibility. Their identity determined their social worth and where only seen as normal if they followed these roles which didn’t always led them to be happy with themselves. But with time and slow social changes many of the old notions of what it meant to be masculine or famine have begun to fade into obscurity. We as women still have hurtles to go over just to become fully equal such as being paid the same wages as men or having as many seats in congress as men do but since the 60’s a lot of progress has been made towards equality among the sexes. But in order to continue on with gaining equality we have to look at a new frontier, the internet. The internet is shaping our world as well as ourselves and as our world continues to embrace the internet as a tool, a hangout, and a market place then we need to not only continue to learn how to use it but how to thrive with it. The internet can be a wonderful tool but it’s important to know how to balance it into our lives.

In the early days of the internet men dominated the web. They began to mold the internet to what we know as the web today. But according to Elisa Camahort Page co-founder of BlogHer, a popular network of bloggers says "Women are the drivers of social media. Women are the major users of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Pinterest, and every social media site except YouTube. They are engagers. They are sharers. It is natural to a women's personality to say why she buys something and why she like it. Women love to share news about the bargains that they got. They love deals and they love to talk about it." (McKenna). Because women tend to go into depth about things that interests them corporations and small companies are realizing how important female blogs are. I’ve noticed that when I read some of my favorite blogger from time to time they mentioned places they’ve been to and things they have bought or would like to buy. In my experience I’ve noticed that bloggers (those who write down an online journal) and vloggers (those who make videos) generally have two types of viewers; those who reply to the blogger in their comments and those who silently read the comments. In this format women blogger have become a major asset to companies since their options are generally and the publicity are free.

 People who are able to contribute to our economy hold great power. In our society it’s been made clear that the one thing stronger than thought or opinions is a person’s wallet. From the boycotts of buss from the civil rights movement to the last Presidential election our society is affected by what people do and don’t buy.  

The internet will continue to find its way into our lives as time goes on. It will evolve in the coming years and we as well do so alongside it.

1st drapht

The world as we know it is changing faster than it has ever changed before and as the world changes so do the people who live in it. Much of what where once deemed the correct behavior for genders has changed in the last decade. Small changes slowly add together and eventually change the world.  But in this last decade it seems the change in what is appropriate for women has become increasingly more flexible. In small but notable ways women have gained more gender equality in areas such as the economy but more noticeably women have moved forward socially. For the first time ever more women are going to school and graduating to move forward with careers while the rate of women marring continues to move downward. While it is true that the women’s movement has been moving forwards since the 60’s these last ten years have been the first years where women have their basic rights and are expecting to have equal rights in all aspects of life. But what has to be asked is why have these old ideas been strengthened in these last ten years? To answer that we have to look at the tools women have used to gain stronger voices in the world and few tools have been stronger than the internet. With the help of the internet women have been able to express themselves as they have never done before and in doing so they empower themselves even more.

It wasn’t too long ago when most women in the United States did not have access to the internet. It was a luxury that was available to less than 2% of the world’s population and unnecessary to the general public. But times have changed to the point where it is nearly required for children to have some access to the internet to do simple school assignments. Because the internet is such a necessary tool for the average person it has integrated it’s self into part of our culture. That being said it is easy to see how the internet can change our culture as well as our personal selves. As said but Jen Doll “The biggest single personality-impacting thing it's done is allow me an opportunity to respond to commentary and add my own thoughts to the mix without the kind of fear one might have about being so opinionated and forceful in real life. I've learned from working on the Internet that of course it matters, deeply, what people think about my work, but it doesn't really matter what they think of me personally. “ (Doll) This is the generation in which most women can imagine a world without the internet for they lived life without it for much of their adult lives. Much like how my generation knows what a life without social networking was like people in their 30’s and 40’s know what life people the internet was like. Doll and those she interviews also mention how the internet has changed the way they feel about stranger’s comments. What once bothered them or even made them unhappy is now just an annoyance to them, something they can handle and not become emotionally affected by. Somehow this has the general attitude of the internet; an attitude that both men and women are expected to understand. For the first time ever women are expected to toughen up and dare I say it be a man. This attitude has seemed to filter into our current social expectations of how to react to the comments of strangers. Women are being taught by the internet that what other people think of them isn’t very important; which is very different than what women where told before then. I see this in how my mother and many of my aunts worry about what strangers will think of them. When I go out with one of them and talk too loudly they worry about how strangers will view them as well as myself. To my mother and her sisters their fears seem to be that if they do something odd they will be seen as weird and to them nothing is worse than that. Unlike my Aunts and mother my sister and cousins are very different. They may go to the same places as their mothers but they are unafraid to be looked at strangely. This seems to be what many women who use the internet seem to notice; anything negative that a stranger has to say is pushed aside and not thought of. As noted by Doll and the women she questioned about the internet many agreed with the fact that the internet had made them tougher. ” I hadn't blogged before and at first I was terrified of the commenters. But eventually I came to think of them as there for entertainment value, nothing more, and I stopped taking anything they said personally” (Doll) The internet has taught women that cruel comments from strangers are to be ignored. That’s not to say that women don’t take in what is said about them on the internet. When I present work online I do take criticism if I see it as positive criticism. The moment I think someone is being cruel simply to try and hurt my feelings I ignore them.  The habits women learn on the internet soon translate to the real world. While a random comment can still affect a women such comments are less likely to.

 Speech affects the world by changing how we see it and much like the first printing press the internet is spreading new and old ideas faster than ever before. In the early days of the internet men wrote the majority of blogs but now that is changing. Women are now using the internet more than men. According to Aileen Lee women now use the internet more to shop, and keep up with their social lives. “Women are the majority of users of social networking sites and spend 30% more time on these sites than men; mobile social network usage is 55% female.” (Lee)

As women move forward with technology and follow with current trends then the day when men and women are truly equals will come

annotated Bibliography and first drapft of letter to the audience.

Doll, Jen. "Women of the Internet on How the Internet Has Changed Them." The Atlantic Wire. The Atlantic Wire, 9 July 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/07/women-internet-how-internet-has-changed-them/54741/>.

Jen Doll proposes in this article that women are being changed by the internet. She questions what the internet does to women’s brains and emotional health. She notes how she know the internet has allowed her to do many things faster and she also relies on it as her job. She enjoys how quickly she can create something creating and response to others. She likes being able to communicate with many people. But she notes that sometimes people can be much more cruel than they’d dare be in real life and that she will defend something in a more defensive way than she usually would. Her attitude changes when she is on the internet.

Doll also interviewed several women who like her frequently use the internet.

One woman says that the internet has made her a stronger person, as well as a bit ADD. According to this woman because comments can become nasty in order for her to function on the internet she had to learn to ignore the meaner comments.

Another woman adds that she didn’t just develop a tougher skin but soon the cruel comments became “a form of entertainment”. She also points out that when ignored trolls go away or they can be blocked.

A third women says that the internet has made her ADD in the fact that she hates writing an e-mail and prefers to tweet or do anything short. She notes that she does ignore trolls but when someone complements her on the internet she does feel flattered.

Then there are the women who go on about what they feel the internet has done to them and their mental states. Over all very interesting and will defiantly use in paper.

 

"There Are No Girls On The Internet." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2006. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet>.

A short video with a with a description of how there is sexism on the internet and how to “hide” the fact that you are a girl. It doesn’t really give you a reason why it’s bad to be a girl on the internet other than being harassed by trolls.

 

Lee, Aileen. "Why Women Rule The Internet." TechCrunch RSS. TechCrunch RSS, 20 Mar. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/why-women-rule-the-internet/>.

Here Lee is giving a lot of numbers to help explain why women “rule” the internet. She states that women are a driving force of buying things, even renting that is making internet retail so powerful. She also points out how women use a lot of social media. She notes how women make up 80% of things online. When it comes to face book 62% of messages are from women. She also notes that women follow more blogs and vlogs.

 

H, Christina. "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Women (Like Me!) Make On The Internet." Cracked.com. N.p., 4 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cracked.com/article_18536_the-5-biggest-mistakes-women-like-me21-make-internet.html>.

Here Ms.H is giving women guide lines of what not to expect on the internet. She basically is stating the obvious to adults but her audience might be teens. Still she’s funny and right about many things. We can ever expect to be thought of as original unless we do something original. Good to go on off of why women might first go to the internet for. What we might have expected as a young child.

http://feministing.com/

Not sure how to go about this website but I feel it might be important later.

 

Marbles, Jenna. "What Girls Do On The Internet." YouTube. YouTube, 15 June 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRGIruJ3DPo>.

This is a fairly funny skit of what women, according to Jenna, do. By exsamining the comical side of this issue I think I can begin to see where women see themselves on the internet.

*Keep in mind I will edit this letter*

Dear Women of the internet

Over the Couse of my English class I have been forced to reexamine gender as I have never done before. We knit picked over so many insignificant details that at one point mattered in our culture and social structure but are no longer so relevant. We are living in the 21^st century and the more I reexamined the ancient ways of gender discrimination I have begun to think of what are the new forms of discrimination that we as women face. For a moment let’s not look too deeply into money or politics though I do plan to mention them in my paper; but I ask that we women look at social discrimination. We already have a good idea of how discrimination works in the real world whether though harassment or just being included due to our gender. But how much have we thought about the internet the new social hangout of our generation. What do people think of women on the internet? How do we see each other how do men see us? Of course we know that there is sexism on the internet but to what degree. Are there havens for women online; is there a place we dominate? Are ads aimed at women different on the internet then they are online. Are there social expectations on the internet? Does the internet have exceptions to its rules if it has any rules? I plan to go into this in my paper and try to find some answers to who women are when they’re on the internet. Of course I’ll be forced to narrow my topic but I am very interested to find out how we the ladies of the united internet see ourselves online.

Proposal #2

As a society gender no longer defies who we are as a person.

Logos: As stated by Reihan Salam in The Death of the Macho “The era of male dominance is coming to an end.” Our society is finally at a point we’re being born a certain sex will not determine how far they can climb up the ladder of power and for the first time the gender roles are becoming more socially flexible. There are still certain hurtles that both men and women. For men it’s still considered unordinary for them to do the majority of child care or even house work. There is still a stigma that men must be the main provider for the family but that is changing faster than ever. Women also have to continue to cross hurdles as well. A women still earns 77 cents to ever dollar a man makes for the same work. (Fitzpatrick) There are still battles being fought against women’s rights but we cannot ignore the progress made. It is now unacceptable for ignorant statements made against women as in the case of Mitt Romney with his “binder filled with women” quote and with the example of Todd Akin and his idea of legitimate rape. Saying such things can hurt men in power and even be what gets them unelected. The women vote is now a grand power that many fight for because they know that women can make or break an election.

                I hope the Logos of my audience is that they will understand why gender does not affect us as it once did though still holds power in today’s world.

Pathos: As a woman myself I can help but sometimes feel angry at how deprived and hurt women are through history. Enough is enough. We may not have achieved total equal rights, pay, and political power as we wished but to act as if progress has not been made is despicable. It’s not to say that we should be happy with the way things are, we’d be fools to sit around and not defend and increase our rights or take further steps towards gender equality; but to have the topic of gender shift to the “poor me” attitude is not alright. We can look to the past of women but that doesn’t mean we should live in the mentality that the reason we have to fight so hard to succeed is because we are women. We have to fight because success is never easy.

                I hope the Pathos of my argument will most support my paper. Most of gender is what is in our mines and I hope to exsplain to the audience why female members are not completely unequal and remind them that women do have power. I will also add how men have been affected.

Ethos: from personal experiences I can say that the only times I was hindered for being a woman was as a child on the playground.  Boys wanted to play with other boys and the same went for girls. But as I became older there was a shift in our behavior. We had to treat each other as equals because that was what was expected. I’ve also have seen how young children are taught the same morals. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Others includes girls and boys.

                I hope my ethos of life examples will further help my case.

Fitzpatrick, Laura. "Why Do Women Still Earn Less than Men?" Times.com. Times US, 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983185,00.html>.

RA#2

Title: The death of Macho

Author: Reihan Salam

Date: 2008

Topic: The end of male dominance in the financial world and the physical world.

Analysis of Argument

Exigence: To let the reader know how and why the idea of Macho will no longer relevant and how it is slowly disappearing from our world.

Intended   Audience: This seems aimed towards a more scholarly audience because it goes in depth of why everything the writer claims is happening. But the article has an informal fell to it so it can very well be aimed at the public.  

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how our old idea of what it was to be a man no longer hold true. Men are no longer the primary breadwinners in American and Salam is pointing out that slowly that is how it will be around the world.

Claims: “The era of male dominance is coming to an end. “(page 629) Women will soon be the primary bread winners. Men and women will both had to adjust to a new social order where the two are equals.

 

Main Evidence: In this article Salam starts off with the claim “The era of male dominance is coming to an end. “(page 629) From the very begging the reader can clearly see what the article will be about. A few sentences later Salam explains how the Great Recession has begun the death of the Macho. Salam also states how the Great Depression did many of the same things that the Recession has done only that The New Deal was what saved Machismo then. He states that there is nothing like the new deal today, a political action that focused on creating jobs for men; and with our a New Deal like event happening the Macho will have to go.  Salam then goes on to how men are coping with this new social change stating that in the United States and in Europe the transition has gone fairly smooth. According to Salam this is the reason that the United States have been more peaceful then the middle east, Russia, and China where Women’s rights are very often violated and the idea of Women and men as equals is very controversial. Salam also adds how there is no way to bring back the Macho because the jobs that sustained those ideas are no longer there and both men and women will have to adapt. Salam ends by stating that these changed will happen. “We can expect the transition to be wrenching, uneven, and possibly very violent.” (page 636)

Rhetorical Analysis:

Writer’s Strategy #1 Definition of the Male macho

Writer’s Strategy#2 Classification and division

Writer’s Strategy#3 cause and effect with a bit of compare and contrast.

Reader Effect# 1 The bulk of the article was written in a Logos manor. It had a lot of explanations and examples as well as having a bit of research from the UN.

Reader Effect#2 there some ethos where research met with examples of people.

Reader Effect #3 very little Pathos with was okay because this article didn’t really need much of that

My Response: This article was unbelievably informative and I felt it was very credible. While the article didn’t carry a lot of emotion or personal examples I feel that it didn’t need any to sway a person to agree that Machismo is dying. My only complaint is that there was no counterargument. It was very factual but there was nothing to disagree and prove wrong.

RR#2

In the article “Two ways a woman can get hurt”               : Advertising and violence, Jean Kilbourne explains how advertisement affects our society and our own personal views on how we view others. She notes that advertisements have become much like porn in where the emotion of being with a person is no longer genuine and are more about a man dominating a woman for his own pleasure. Kilbourne states that by having these sexual and often violent ads make our society more violent and makes it harder for women and girls to be respected in the world.

                The purpose of this reading is to examine how ads do affect our social gender roles. As Kilbourne notes that children are especially affected by adds stating that children tend to suffer sexual ridicule. “It is probably difficult for those of us who are older to understand how devastating and cruel and pervasive this harassment is, how different from the “teasing” some of us might remember from our own childhoods. A 1993 report by the American Association of University Women found that 56% of male students said they had been sexually harassed in school.” According to this study a girl was quoted saying “the boys called me slut, bitch. They called me ten timers, because they say I go with ten guys at the same time. I put up with it because I have no choice. The teachers say it’s because the boys think I’m pretty. “ Here it’s clearly shown that not only are young children being sexually harassed but when they are often nothing is done about it.

                My response to Kilbourne is I feel like her article is out dated. Yes women are still placed in ads in sexual manors and yes many of the ads are aimed at male dominance. There are many things that our society still need to work on and gender inequality is one of them. But in ten years, which is when I guess her article was written I fell that things have changed somehow. It is no longer acceptable for politicians to make a sexist remark even my accident. Just the other day Governor Romney made the mistake of saying that even though his intention to employ women in fields of power he had have people give him “a binder full of women.” This insulted many women, myself included and if one looks as the news outlets there seems to be a lot of talk of how Romney may have lost the women’s vote just for saying something. I see this as an act of power for women. Politian’s now fear us and while there still are those who want to limit women’s rights they can no longer go our and do so in a carless manner.

                On the issue of bullying, the act of bullying is terrible and horrible acts of children tormenting children, even adults tormenting each other still goes on. But there seems to be a greater awareness of bullying and how destructive it can be for all parties. And I would never suggest that bullying is not as destructive as it once was, bullying is awful now and was awful then but I sense that is less tolerance for bullying then there once was. Now if a child is caught bullying another and a school does nothing there a chance that the school can be punished by either being sued or having administration fired. I also feel there are more resources available to help bullied kids.

                The world is far from perfect but there have been small bits of progress here and there. So what once was true of ads isn’t necessarily completely true now.  That’s not to say that all offence ads are gone and ads have become less sexual, but what I see is less tolerance for something offensive and what once helped sell a product would today destroy a company.

final draft polished

 

Prop 30

The save our schools bill

                As most of us know California has a very large amount of dept. The current revenue of California can no longer afford to keep funding public schools. Already the state government has been forced to cut music and art programs for k-12 as well as cutting many classes in community colleges. The option of taxing the state in order to continue to fund public schools and community colleges is now up on a ballet.  But with California’s revenue already stretched out Governor Brown has given California an ultimatum, accept a set of tax increases for the riches and add a higher sales tax or have an instant set of trigger cuts to schools. As the voting day comes closer it’s time that we, the voters take note that our school system has suffered for too long it is time that we attempt to help it survive and thrive.

                Proposition 30 works in two ways. First the state sales tax will increase by ¼ a cent every year for four years. Second there would be an increase of person income tax to the wealthiest taxpayers for seven years. If this measure passes six billion dollars would be added to the state’s budget. Eighty nine percent would go to k-12 and 11% would go to community colleges (Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures). There are several other ballots that are available to choose from but prop30 is making the wave in changing our schools for the better. California schools can no longer survive off of pocket change and prop 30 will finally give schools the money they need to help the students of this state.

                As a student it is difficult to see the cons of this measure, but the opposing side’s argument has to be seen and understood. The argument presented by the people opposed to prop 30 is that this measure would not reform schools and wouldn’t cut waste and bureaucracy. According to critics billions in higher taxes will not be the help that the schools so desperately need (Proposition 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education). Opposes to the bill also claim that California has spent five billion tax payer dollars on a bullet train that has had little success, and opponents argue that California does have the money to fund our schools but only have to learn how to spent it more thoughtfully. According to them this measure will kill jobs, which really sounds silly. From what I could find there is no evidence suggesting that any part of prop 30 will hurt jobs or business. I may not be a math major but I cannot understand how saving jobs in school administration and having fewer teachers being laid off will destroy jobs or hurt the state’s economy. However there is plenty evidence that when schools have fewer teachers, students will be placed in more crowded class rooms. What truly is heart breaking and even enraging is that those opposed do not offer a plan to give our state’s schools the funding they need and other than budget cuts opponents of Prop 30 don’t seem to want a plan to save our schools.

                Those who are for Prop 30 note that for years the state of California has been cutting funding from schools, forcing schools crawl to their braking point. They also note that prop 30 is not only an education measure as well as a public safety measure. “ Prop. 30 is the only measure that establishes a guarantee for public safety funding in our state’s constitution, where it can’t be touched without voter approval. Prop. 30 keeps cops on the street” (Proposition 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education). This is an encouraging thought especially because since the recession police force funding, much like schools, have been dramatically cut. Besides helping the public by educating and protecting the public prop 30 also has safety guards. The funds cannot be changed without voter approval and while nothing is certain it is frankly much nicer to have cops and educated people on the streets then the other choice, which are poorly educated children. Supporters also note that all the taxes proposed are temporary. Prop 30’s taxes will not be set in stone and seven years pass the taxes on our wealthiest Californians will be gone, and once four years pass the sales taxes will be what they are now. The only way these taxes would be enforced longer would be if the voters decide in the future to keep these taxes.

                Unknown to most Californians our state has a shortage of college graduates. According to a two researchers Hans Johnson and Ria Sengupta “California will have one million fewer college graduates than needed in 2025, only 35 percent of working- age adults will have a degree in an economy that would otherwise require 41 percent of workers to have one”( Sengupta). What this means is California will be deprived of a valuable resource in the coming years, educated individuals. With a lack of people to innovate the nation, California will be left behind economically. But this is a fate can be avoided if we invest in education. Mr. Johnson and Ms. Sengupta suggest “increasing college attendance rates as well as increasing graduation rates among four year institutions” ( Sengupta). Again it has to be stated that education is not only a way for individuals to move forward but it is also a great asset to a state and nation. Education can no longer be seen as an expense but a necessary investment for not only young people and children but the elderly as well. Much like a community would invest in a road or bridge California needs to invest in its students. While it might take time to reap the benefits of an educated work force it will be an investment that helps California come out on top.  As the baby boomers of our nation retire we need someone to fill in their well-educated shoes. It’s no secret that baby boomers had the opportunity to receive a wonderful education however the current trend has been that the generations after the baby boomers are no longer receiving the same education as the people who helped make this nation what it is today.

                As a community college student I have seen what budget cuts have been doing to our schools. Classes have been cut and class times are no longer flexible as they once were. Tuition prices have also gone up. I’ve been told by my mother that when she went to Cabrillo a unit was only seven dollars. While an increase in tuition is normal due to inflations the price per unit is now $74 dollars (Fee Charts). The price per unit is even more for out of state students which is $247. The tuition price isn’t the worst part about the cuts. Teachers have been fired by no fault of their own other the state not having enough money to pay them. Students also suffer more than being deprived of classes and great teachers, many of my fellow students can no longer go to school because of how Cabrillo is shrinking. Fewer students are let in and some of us who do get in cannot make it to the classes we need because there are none available. But my experience with public schooling is not limited to community college. I have two younger siblings who are in the public school system. They go to two different schools and everyone in my family can see the changes. In one of my brothers schools they no longer offer after school. In my other brother’s school after school office hours have been cut. Their class sizes get bigger every year and for students who need extra help learning what they will need to know for the next year a bigger class is not an insignificant problem. There are also fewer classes designed to help struggling students. If that isn’t bad enough the materials the school provides now come out of their teacher’s pocket.

                It is no longer feasible to continue to cut school funding and have a functional school system. It is also inexcusable to do nothing about our school system and allow it to continue to fall apart. We have an opportunity to help our state’s children and college students. We also have the choice to do nothing but with such a choice we must be ready to face the consequences and face the states students and tell them they no longer matter.

"Fee Charts." Admissions and Records. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/ar/FeeCharts.html>.

"Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures." - Elections & Voter Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.htm

"Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures." - Elections & Voter Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. <http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.htm>.

"Proposition 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding - California State Government." Proposition 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding - California State Government. Leage of Women Voter, 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.smartvoter.org/2012/11/06/ca/state/prop/30/>.

Sengupta, Ria, and Hans Johnson. "Closing the Gap: Meeting California's Need for College Graduates (PPIC Publication)." Closing the Gap: Meeting California's Need for College Graduates (PPIC Publication). Public Policy Institute of California, Apr. 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=835>.