What Makes An Activist

     In an essay titled, "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted," Malcolm Gladwell discussed why he believes that movements such as those on twitter show advocacy rather than activism.  I enjoyed Gladwell's essay because he used strong examples and was rational and did not become too overemotional where the true message was lost.  There are many hashtags that show support for movements such as #blacklivesmatter, #iamcharlie, and #istandwithahmed that surround different social issues.  Social media can help to spread the message of the movement, creating a organized and specific group of supporters.  Gladwell discusses the differences between modern and past activism.  Throughout his essay he supports the argument that advocacy is not the same as activism and provides examples to reveal the difference.
     The use of hashtags in social media were created for the purpose of organizing and filing different words, events, and subjects.  In a sense, they are still used for their intended purpose, but they are used to bring light to different social injustices.  People can look on a particular hashtag and see current information retaliating to the topic.  Hashtags are especially useful for the purpose of spreading the message, but at the same time they are empty and can be used simply to follow a trend. Recently, the hashtag #blacklivesmatter to shine light upon the unjust treatment of black people and focuses heavily on police brutality.  People are able to organize and quickly share information which results in more support throughout the nation.  Yet people are beginning to confuse advocacy with activism and claiming to be something that they are not.  I have been able to learn about this movement through social media and I consider myself an advocate for black respect and protection, but I would not consider myself an activist on the matter.

     An advocate is someone who supports are particular cause and is there to back the movement.  An activist is someone who fully engages themselves with the matter and openly moves to fight for their cause.  Activists actually has active in the word, and to be that shows what it means to be one.  They are the people who go to protests, participate in sit-ins, and sometimes put themselves at risk for their cause.  Advocacy just means supporting the people who do this.  Twitter hashtags are meant for advocates to learn and spread as well as for activists to share their experiences.  Advocates on twitter are safe, hidden behind their screens, where as activists put themselves right into the front lines.  In my opinion, activists are the ones who truly make a difference in the end.  There is very rarely an advocate that receives the credit for the success of the cause.  Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist.  He organized peaceful protests and stood at the front lines and stood in the face of danger.  An advocate would have been someone who supported his cause, but were too scared to go out for fear of judgement or danger.  However, I do not mean that advocacy is a bad thing.  In order to have activists that make a change, there must be advocates that back them up.

     Gladwell uses the Greensboro diner sit-ins during the 1960s as an example to support his argument that there is a different between the two, which is directly linked to social media.  During these sit-ins, black college students sat at the whites only portion of the diner and refused to move.  Over several weeks the movement spread to most of the nation and students everywhere were participating in the demonstration.  This is activism.  People left their homes and did not social media to hide behind.  In order to make a difference, they had to go out and show what they believed should be right.  Today, if this were to happen again, the message could be spread to a larger mass of people, but if one were to scale those who actually showed up for the sit-in in the past to that of today, there would be far less people going out to take a stand.  The movement would be supported through a hashtag, but people now are scared and hide behind social media.
     One of my favorite musical artists, Passenger, has a line from one of his songs that was stuck in my head as I read Gladwell's opinion on the inactive participation that is shown through hashtags.  The line comes from his song, Scare Away the Dark, in which he says, "We want something real not just hashtags and twitter."  This is what I believe to be a call to activism since it is calling people to make the hashtags have a meaning and actively fix the problem, rather than typing words safe behind a screen.  I do not mean to sound as though advocacy is negative, but many people claim to be activists when in reality they are not.  Many people want the title but not the potential consequences that come with the name.  Advocacy is a powerful thing that can encourage many people to fight for what they believe, but we must recognize the difference between advocacy and activism.

The Power of Reading

     The other day when I was looking through the October 26th edition of The New Yorker magazine, I stumbled upon this picture.  It is an image of a man reading a book with a galaxy expanding behind him.  One quality that I really love about this image is that it can be interpreted many different ways, and the more that one looks at it, the more meanings there are to discover.  It can be seen as God thinking up the universe, or even a man who lives among the stars with the sun as his light.  It is truly up to the reader's interpretation to identify what the hidden meaning is.

     I believe that this image is meant to show the power of reading.  Reading can take a person to an entirely different world.  Each word provides another detail to add to the ever growing image of the situation a person is reading.  Reading also allows creative interpretation.  Each person who reads a book, a magazine, or even a newspaper can have a different vision of the events described.  This has always been one of my favorite pastimes.  Reading encourages people to have independent thoughts.  No one can force another person to see something a certain way when reading is up to interpretation. To me, this image provides readers the same type of experience as reading words does.  One can create an entire world for this man to live in.  Maybe he too is creating a world for another person.

Reading is a magical pastime which has the ability to transport one to another world, or even create an entire galaxy from a blank space.

Am I a Bad Feminist?

     Feminism can mean many different things to many different people.  In Roxanne Gay's essay titled Bad Feminist, she discuses how difficult it is to accept the table of a feminist when there are so many negative connotations that come with it.  I myself am a feminist, but often times I agree with Gay's stance on feminism.  She says that there is a "notion that there are right and wrong ways to be a feminist."  To me, some feminists often contradict themselves.  They say be who you want to be, do not be forced into something you do not want to do, and stay true to yourself and do not act a certain way for other people.  But at the same time, they shame woman for wearing dresses, or wanting to have children, wearing make-up for themselves or even for complements, and many of the feminists who look down on woman for doing things such as these also do not include trans-women, women of color, and even men in their form of feminism.  These are the feminists who cause feminism to have a bad reputation and scare others away from identifying as feminists.
     Feminism is supposed to be the belief of the equality of the sexes, however, these women who reject and look down upon others taint the true meaning of feminism.  People have begun to believe that feminism puts men above women, rather than the two being equal.  Gay acknowledges this misconception and explains how it prevents her from taking on the true title of a feminist.  Instead, she simply calls herself a "bad feminist."  I believe that people like Gay who identify as "bad feminists" are often the one's with the true meaning of feminism at heart.  Feminism should not be a shameful title or a derogatory term.  It has been mocked and ridiculed and even turned into a joke.  The fake movement of "meninism," which takes the things that feminists fight for and warp them into something that further puts men below women.  Men should not be fighting against women, especially when feminism is meant to benefit them as well.  Men are held to unrealistic standards just as women are, but the opposite of what women are supposed to be.  Women are portrayed as over emotional, so men are "supposed" to never cry or show any emotions.  Feminism is not a one sided battle.  It is meant to improve the perception of both men and women, and some feminists scare people so much that they never even bother to look up the true meaning of feminism.

     The type of feminism that has scared Gay and many others away is also often not inclusive.  The rights of transgender women or disabled women are not fought for for nor supported.  The problems facing women of color are overlooked and swept aside.  Feminists who are LGBTQ are rejected by these elite women.  They hold themselves above other people and exclude those who do not fit their standards of a "perfect feminist."  Gay states that this form of essential feminism "suggests anger, humorlessness, militancy, unwavering principles, and a prescribed set of rules on how to be a proper feminist women."  Not only does this show how there is still negativity within the feminist movement, but it also provides a stereotype to be placed on other people.  Both men and women are immediately seen as angry or crazy when they introduce themselves as feminists.  These elite feminists are the ones who are dragging out the process of expanding the feminist movement.  In order to gain true equality of the sexes, feminists need to stop fighting each other first and focus on the bigger picture.
     Feminism to me is being yourself and being respected and respectful of everyone.  As long as the person is true to themselves, it should not matter what they do or how they do it.  Women can not wear make-up, or wear it for themselves, or even wear it for men.  This is the type of feminism that both I and Gay support.  Gay addresses the feminists that go against this belief throughout her essay, but in my opinion the best quote (which in a sense is also the saddest) is, "... I also want to be myself. Bad feminism seems like the only way I can both embrace myself and be myself."  I too would rather identify as a bad feminist, despite completely supporting the feminist movement.    It saddens me that feminism has been warped in a way that defeats the purpose of the entire movement.  I once had an entire argument with a friend about feminism where he said he was an "equalist" because he believed we should all be equal.  I had to explain to him that feminism and what he was describing was the same then.  He said that the thought that feminism put women above women and crazy women mistreating men.
     Despite the harmful misconceptions, I will still identify as a feminist.  Each and every person who joins the feminist movement with the true goals of feminism at heart, the true message will eventually shine through.  One person may not make a large difference instantly, but over time they will make a difference to the people surrounding them.  The more people they spread the true message to, the more the authentic feminism will spread.  I completely agree with what Roxanne Gay stated throughout her essay, and I appreciate how it reveals the internal conflict with stepping up and identifying as a feminist.

It's Time To Switch Things Up

I love Disney movies just as much as any child does, if not more.  However, I am not blind to the fact that these movies do have negative aspects and are not nearly as perfect as they seem to be.  The article we read titled, Esacpe From Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination, was written by Deborah Ross where she critically analyzed classic Disney movies to find each questionable little detail within them.
     Some of Ross's "evidence" seemed forced and almost as unrealistic as the things she was accusing Disney of.  However, I will commend Ross on defending her argument as well as the amount of research she put into this article.  She provided the evidence then explained why she believed it was wrong of Disney and scrutinized every little detail.  I do agree with her in some areas of her argument, most especially in the area that Disney's messages contradict themselves.  Ross did not use one specific example when discussing these "contradictory messages," but I can see these mixed signals in most Disney movies.  The biggest contradiction is for girls to be unique and brave, but in the end they submit to the male influences in their lives (most often in the form of marriage).  This includes my favorite movie of all time, Mulan.  Mulan disguises herself as a man in order to join the Chinese military to save her father and bring honor to her family, which not only breaks the stereotype but also is highly against the law and is punishable by death.  She defies everything expected of a woman during this time period, but once you analyze this movie with a critical lens, things begin to change.  In Mulan, the message can be seen that being male is ideal and that women have very little worth compared to men.  The only time Mulan is listened to is after she dresses as a man, and once she reveals herself as a woman people once again ignore her.  In order to prove that she is equal to a man, she literally has to single handily save all of China.  Mulan is problematic because it encourages the idea that being male is ideal.  That does not stop be from loving this movie, but it just disappoints me that things are not as perfect as Disney makes them out to be.

     This article makes both valid and useless points.  I did not particularly enjoy reading this, but it did make me think about movies more critically.  However, there was one line of writing that really stood out to me and seems to me as Ross's only truly profound point.  When analyzing Alice in Wonderland, she says that, "Writing a story, [Alice] has decided, is much safer than living one."  This not only applies to Alice in Wonderland, but almost all other Disney movies where girls are encouraged to be unique, but are restrained to stay at home.  In each movie the princess starts off with large goals and dreams, which she soon forgets once the male hero comes into the picture.  Ross proves this when picking apart The Little Mermaid, especially in the song "Part of Your World."  In "Part of Your World," Ariel reveals her goals and desires, none of which include a man.  However, once she sees Eric, she forgets all about the original reasons she wished to be human.  I believe that this one line of writing was more effective than the rest of Ross's article combined.

     Ross forced me to acknowledge the problems with Disney, but that does not mean that I completely hate Disney and will boycott their movies for the rest of my life.  The targeted audience for these movies (young children) would not be anazylzing each little line of diaouglouge as Ross has.  The problems pointed out would not brainwash children since these problems are subtle and they would not see them unless they were looking for them.  That does not mean that Disney does not need improvement and more representation.  So far, Disney movies have been overwhelmed with the culture of power and the stereotypical "hero" often fits the esription of SCWAMP perfectly.  Disney needs to switch things up in order to make them more realistic.  They are somewhat stuck in the past beliefs of the world and need to get with the times.  Soon, I hope to see more LGBTQ representation, more people of color (heros, princesses, princes, and villains alike played by POC), more people with different forms of mental illness, more feminism, people with handicaps, those with different religious and cultural beliefs (accuratly depicted), and basically more representation every person that does not fit the societal "norm."  Disney has many things that they can improve upon, but that does not take away from the happiness that their movies provide people.  I have grown up with these movies and while I do awkaowledeg there faults, they are not completely bad.
     In response to Deborah Ross's article, I do agree with her in the fact that Disney does need to change and get with the times.  However, I do not agree with her irrational argument.  She over analyzed and looked way too deeply into things so much so that some aspects of her arguemnt seems so forced that they lost meaning.  I did not enjoy this article but it does bring to light some real problems with such a beloved company.

What If...

     What Ifs make up most of my life.  What if I get a bad grade? What if my grades drop? What if I do not get into a good college? What if I do not get a good job? What if I fail at everything?  Junior year so far has consisted of predominantly "What if.." questions.  Especially now that I am really looking into what I wish to do in the future and where I am going to go to college.  

     This past long weekend I went to visit a college.  This was the second time I went to visit a school, and I am going to another school this weekend.  Many people have questioned why I am looking so seriously this early on, but What Ifs are driving me to begin my search now.  I believe that the largest What If I am facing with college is, "What if I think this is the place for me but it is not?"  When coming to Saints I knew that I found the place where I belong.  Now with college, there are even more places to condor, and I am scared that I will make the wrong decision.  I have a friend that was completely set on one school and claimed that they would love it, and just transferred to another school.  What if this happens to me in college?  What if I choose the wrong career path and regret it later?  

     So many What Ifs surround college for me, and while looking early does little to help me relax, for me it is better than cramming it all to the end of Junior and the entirety of Senior year.  As much as I dislike the constant questioning of What Ifs, I know that these worst case scenarios are what make me into the person that I am.  What Ifs do not only apply to college for me, but surround me every day.  What if I don't put every possible answer in my homework? What if I am not writing enough? What if I let everyone down?  Majority of my questions surround school.  In particular, today we took the PSATs.  In my previous blog I already discussed how much I dislike standardized testing, but I still want to preform well.  Before, during, and after the test my mind was filled with these annoying questions.  However, these types of thoughts keep me from slacking off too much and not focusing on what I need to do.  I also have great friends that know exactly how to handle my What If rants.

     Lots of What Ifs await me in the near future with my continuation of the college search, but I know that if I use these to my advantage, the negativity of the What Ifs will morph into positive things and continue to push me to work to the best of my ability.

"Putting the Test to the Test" with John Oliver

     Recently in class we were assigned to watch John Oliver, from Last Week Tonight, discuss standardized testing in the modern age.  Oliver discusses the negative affects that have begun to take place in the modern age in standardized testing.  I myself do not support standardized testing.  This form of testing is for the sole purpose of comparing students to one another, and not to learn.  However, a test to compare is not wrong, but doing poorly on a standardized test often has negative results for both teachers and students.  John Oliver is correct in the fact that standardized tests today can almost be comedic.
     This test has articles and stories that do not make sense and answers that are wrong.  Oliver uses the example of a story on the test involving a talking pineapple.  This story confused both students and teachers.  However, the students are forced to sign a contract stating that they will not discuss any of the questions or answers with anyone.  This seems like a simple anti-cheating statement, but a loophole then prevents students and teachers from approaching others with the incorrect or confusing testing questions.
     Even intelligent people preform poorly on the tests, including adults.  Oliver uses a clip of a highly intelligent man who states that he did not do well on the test and was confused by many of the questions.  These tests do not judge a persons intelligence, they are simple used for large companies to profit off of the test and different forms of test prep.  In response to this, testing officials overcomplicate their excuses to make it seem that they are the innocent ones.  However, when John Oliver plays these clips of the officials, he then simplifies it to reveal what they are truly saying.  I believe that this was his strongest form of persuasion.  He is able to take actual videos of officials saying warped and wrong things, then simplifying it and showing listeners that what they are saying proves that standardized tests are wrong.
     John Oliver uses the power of persuasion since he attempts to move his listeners to be against standardized testing and to show them how harmful these types of tests can be.  He also persuades readers when discussing the statistics of the test.  These test originated from America getting low scores worldwide.  However, instead of bringing the scores up, due to the extreme amount of standardized tests implemented, the scores have been dropping lower and lower.  Many people are already against standardized tests, but John Oliver states the main facts and brings up they key points with supporting examples.  In my opinion, the strongest example of how harmful these tests are on everyone comes in the story of a teacher who was penalized for his student getting a perfect score.  His student was predicted to earn a score above the possible highest score.  Since she preformed below there projected score, the teacher received less pay, despite her getting the highest possible score.