‘Cause My Moves are White

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Ok, before I begin, I just need to get something off my chest. Do you guys get this joke?

You’re image

Cause i seriously stared at it for like twenty minutes, saying to myself I’m a dora dish? Dora ish Dora dish…

FREAKING DUH! It’s a dora-bowl xD

So anyway, today i was half delerious during Chem lab and was in serious need of a styrofoam cup. Now why did I need a styrofoam cup? #chemlabproblems

In need of some sort of pick me up i skipped down the hall to the storage room singing Legally Blonde. Sometimes acting crazy is the only way to stay sane in the undeniably hell that is the four hour chem lab. And while i’m singing i see my friend Neil, so i stop singing and wildly start waving at him with a huge dumb smile on my face, you know, the usual. if I’ve ever waved at you in such a manner you know I’m like:

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which is all fine and well when i know the person and they’re like : Oh Adelina.. lol

expect it wasn’t Neil. Oh no, not even close.

You see Neil is um, well without a better way to phrase it… Brown. I’m assuming Indian. But this guy…. well he was white. White as snow, white as sheet music, white as… well you get it.

and that was fine. it was totally ok. Until I did it again ten minutes later with someone totally different… but this timeIi was so embarrassed I tried to play it off like I knew him. I’m a terrible liar so it ended up being one of those awkard, seriously you should just stop trying situations.

But hey guys, don’t worry because I did it A THIRD TIME THAT DAY  and super awkward turns out the kid knew me and I didn’t know or remember him in any way shape or form…

but in a way i’m kind of happy that it happened. Because although, yes, most of the sitautions ended awkward, if i ever see those people again, I have something to laugh and talk to them about. And I mean… maybe if I accidently say hi to everyone in University Park,I’ll have met everyone. AND I WILL ALWAYS BE SAYING HI TO SOMEONE I KNOW. FABULOUS.

 

And on that note: I’m struggling with Bio so i wrote a song to the tune of “Chip on My Shoulder” from the Legally Blonde Musical.

“Bio, I put my faith in Bio, I followed where it led.

To my person circle of hell.

It has not worked out well, I wish that I were dead. because instead of anatomy and cell biology!

I’m flunking out of school , a total laughing stock, someone liberal arts majors can just mock!

So come on here’s my head, just hit it with a rock. ”

So thoughts on Bio, Calc, and Chemistry…

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WHY. WHYYYYYY WHYYYYY OHHH BABBEEEHHHH

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Hey guys! It’s October 31st, and you know what that means…

Halloween is one of my absolute favorite holidays, and I always go all out. I’ve gone trick or treating every year since I could walk. I the horde of candy and seeing all the kids dressed up. I even dress up my dog. It’s bad. But I mean, can you blame me?! There’s something magical about dressing up and the rush of adrenaline you feel every time you get a trick instead of a treat.

But one year I got one trick that was not so enjoyable. After a long night of getting candy we were way too old for, my friends and I decided to watch some scary movies. I had actually never seen a scary movie before (I was a freshman, whatever leave me alone!)but I told my friend’s I was willing to try anything as long as it didn’t have rape in it.

I mean, that’s totally understandable right? Who wants to see rape? No one wants to see rape. Except maybe rapists, but that’s gross and extremely controversial so ima shy away from that one.

So anyway, my friends all agree that that’s not a problem, and proceed to show me The Hills Have Eyes. Keep in mind that each and every one of them has seen this horriffic movie before, and if you have as well you know why it freaks me out so much.

Ok. So basically in the beginning it’s not that scary, there’s some mutants in the middle of the desert, they’re super gross and follow the family everywhere, whatever. But then, there’s a scene where the two of the mutants trap a woman and her baby in a burning mobile home. This disgusting mutant with deformed skin and snaggled teeth proceeds to rape the teenage girl, and yelp in pleasure. When I say yelp, I mean YELP. It is the creepiest, most awkward thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

In fact, my roommate is about to go out and i’m already freaking out. I can clearly picture his horrifying face as he climaxes and the other creature watches. But oh no, it doesn’t stop there. Once he has his way with the teenager, he then proceeds to threaten to kill her sister’s baby unless the mother allows him to lick her boob. Do I understand this at all? No. THERE WAS NO REASON FOR IT. IT WAS CREEPY AND STUPID AND AGH.

So my friends all get a good laugh out of me absolutely freaking out during the whole scene, at first in total confusion and then in random spasm of screaming and crying, begging them to turn it off. Big surprise, they wouldn’t.  Hence, here’s an accurate depiction of my reaction:image

But as soon as they can all breathe again, they turned off the movie and reassured me the next one wouldn’t have raped in it, in fact it wasn’t even a horror film.

Guess what movie it was?

Law Abiding Citizen.

Literally Why. 

 

If you haven’t seen this movie, basically in the opening scene these guys break into this guys house tie him up, and make him watch as they rape and murder his wife and daughter.

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So yeah, usually this is the part where I get all deep. But really all I have to say this week is that you should choose your friends wisely. And by wisely make sure their actually nice people and don’t want to cause you pain and misery and nightmares that last for years.

But thanks guys.

Thanks.

REALLY

P.S: If you havent seen the Hill’s have eyes, look up some pictures so you can see just how disgusting the whole thing is.

Passion FAQ

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Would it be better for me to more serious and less comical in my blog posts?

I worry that my humor sometimes takes away from the content, however the content is umorous and I think it draws in the attention of the reader better than long expanses of text.

Perhaps I could do what I did originally and always tie my stories back to a moral or a serious social issue on campus?

Should I include my audience more?

I see other blgs asking questions at the end of their blogs, which seems much more engaging. I believe I would recieve more thought out responses rather than I liked that!

Homophobia is so Gay

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Am I not analyzing why enough?

Adelina Richards
English 127H
October 22, 2012
Homophobia is so Gay
One day while walking home from school, I overheard two middle school girls talking. As they conversed, one slipped on a patch of ice and fell. “Ouch!” she cried, “This ice is so gay!”. I immediately stopped in my tracks, filled with utter shock. How could ice be gay? It wasn’t alive, it couldn’t form thoughts. In fact, it wasn’t even human. It beguiled me that a girl who couldn’t have been older than twelve had associated an inanimate object that caused her pain with the word gay. Although clearly the use of the word gay has changed drastically over time, what social and cultural shifts could have led to its derogatory use instead of its original meaning, happy?
In today’s society the word gay can take on many different faces. We more generally see a connection between the word gay and homosexual culture, and depending on the context, it has been used as an adjective or a noun. As a noun, it is has stemmed as a source of  pride in one’s sexual orientation,  as well as a means of identification. Many homosexuals refer to themselves as gay, because queer is too insulting, and homosexual reminds many of the connotation that homosexuality is a mental disease.It wasn’t removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until the 1970s, and was highly protested since the term homosexual was based too much on the sexual orientation rather than the emotion and love that binds a homosexual relationship. Seeing as queer was derogatory, and heterosexual too clinical, it was found to be better to identify oneself using a word that was earlier associated with words such as carefree and happy. In many newspaper articles, reporters will refer to the homosexual community as the gays, and are prompted to do so according to the GLAAD media reference guide.In this guide, it was highly stressed to replace the word homosexual with lesbian or gay.This is surprising considering many homosexuals shy away from using gay as a form of identification because of the social issues related to it. For example, the suicide rates of teens who are bullied for being gay has sky rocketed. Also, many lesbians do not like being associated with the term gay because they see their lifestyle and choices to be different from that of homosexual males. Although they face the same kinds of segregation and hostility, they are still seperate and wish to be named as such. strict separation of gay versus straight, it seems that we label people as gay rather than actions as gay. (So and so from article) argues that the term gay should not be a form of identity, but a way to describe a life style and actions associated with that life style. For instance, in the case of civil rights, it is not socially acceptable to call a group of African Americans “Blacks”, it is preferred for you  to call them black people.
The word gay first appeared in 1325  by G.L. Brooke in order to compliment a woman, its original meaning. It shifted from noble and beautiful to showy and finely dressed  or happy and carefree in the 1400s. This shift could be akin to the relationship between beauty and happiness and being well dressed. The late 1700s brought this definition to describe poetry as the gay science, since it was a beautiful, almost carefree science.Henceforth, the word did not have a connection to any form of sexual immorality  until around the 1800s.

In the 1800s, the term gay was used to describe a person who were involved in carefree sexual actions. Since the term meant carefree and frivolous, it was then used as a description of this style of sexuality, and mainly included prostitutes and womanizers. Many a time would a flirty guy be called gay for the lawls. In fact, the only relation of the term and sexuality was in a heterosexual context until around the 1920s. Here, Gertrude Stein writes”They were …gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, … they were quite regularly gay.” about two women in a homosexual relationship. Many speculate on whether she is referring to them as lesbian or just being happy in general (as was the trend in the lost generation in Paris). Due to many cases of this ambiguity, for a few more decades it continued to simply mean carefree. This is evident in movie titles of the era such as “The Gay Divorcee”, a 1934 movie about a heterosexual couple.

On the other hand, slowly over time gays began to use the term as a form of identity in an underground way such that the heterosexual community was unaware of its connotation. For example, in West Village, NYC there’s a street that was known as “Gay Street” by many homosexuals. It was a center of homosexual culture in the 1940’s, and the phrase “Are you gay?” was code for asking if someone was homosexual. Eventually, the term in relation to homosexuality was embraced by the heterosexual community as well, since the connotation wasn’t offensive, and was almost praising homosexuality.

The use of gay as a derogatory word meaning lame or stupid originated in the United States, and is to this day most popular in a majority of US high schools. Its first recorded use was in 1978, where an outfit that made a character look stupid was referred to as gay. It is assumed that the term used in this sense is now not related to homosexuality, however it probably evolved from offensive use of the term gay in forms of bullying. So even though it’s usually said casually, it can have malicious effects on the young gay population. David Phillips comments, “Consider a teenage boy or girl, just coming to terms with themselves and hearing the common term describing their sexuality – gay – being used as a synonym for something uncool, “sad” and disappointing”.

Henceforth, there has been a recent effort to eradicate the dubious use of gay. On May 31st of this year, A New York Times article was published about a court ruling concerning the term gay as a defamatory term. The court ruled that falsely calling someone gay could no longer be taken to court as slander because there is no negative association with the word gay, and being called such should not make one feel disgraced. However, throughout time different words have emerged to describe homosexuals in a shameful manner. Some speculate that once gay rights activists have eliminated the derogatory use of the term, another will simply take its place. It is human nature to bully and to hurt, which is why terms like ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’ exist. Before kids were being made fun of for being gay, they were made fun of for their sex, or skin color. Humans hate what is different, and it scares them, causing them to lash out at innocents. For example, the German word equivalent to gay, schwul, is also used by teens to describe something boring and lame. This nonchalant usage of a term that can be hurtful is hurting out youth in ways unimaginable.

This usage is changing the way young people think and react to the world. Although the little girl was probably not thinking of homosexuals  when she was angry at the ice, imagine what it would be like to be a gay kid passing by and hearing those words. Being compared to an inanimate object that just caused pain could add an extra stress to developing his sexuality, and could cause him to become like Jeffery Dahmer. It’s hard to make everything we say politically correct, and because of this, many casually use a word associated with identity and pride to describe something bad. Overtime, the word gay has evolved from a compliment to women to a word describing all things homosexual through different stages of society’s views on homosexuality. It is shocking to recognize that there was a time where politicians invisioned gays as people with horns, and that homosexual love was once known as the love that could not speak its name. Now it is spoken, loud and proud.

I think too much.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7289390.stm

i like:

Gay in relation to lame= not actually related to homosexuality/ sexual connotations. It is usual said casually without malice: so it’s hard to make students stop saying it.

“The word has what we call multiple coinage and that’s the problem,” says Mr Thorne. “While teenagers are generally using it to mean ‘lame’ it can separately be used as a homophobic term of abuse.”

It’s this ambiguity that prevents some teachers from tackling pupils who use it in a negative sense, says ATL. They are afraid of “blowing trivial matters out of proportion”.

however, it is the most highly used term in bullying in schools today.

*There is speculation that once gay is labeled an offensive term, another term in relation to  homosexuality will emerge.

This usage is similar to the term “special” and special needs children. Are the use of these terms as harsh as racial slurs? Both come from what was supposed to be a positive, pollitically correct term, and have turned into derrogatory statements.

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Gay_-_Etymology/id/1419120#.UIWR7sVWyuI

I like:

“The word started to acquire sexual connotations in the late 17th century, being used with meaning “addicted to pleasures and dissipations”. This was by extension from the primary meaning of “carefree”: implying “uninhibited by moral constraints”. By the late nineteenth century the term “gay life” was a well-established euphemism for prostitution and other forms of sexual behaviour that were perceived as immoral.”

The 1890s was referred to as the gay 90s because it was such a happy time.

This would include prostitutes and womanizers. Many a time would a flirty guy be called gay for the lawls. In fact, the only relation of the term and sexuality was in a heterosexual context until around the 1920s. Here, Gertrude Stein writes”They were …gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, … they were quite regularly gay.” about two women in a homosexual relationship. Many speculate on whether she is referring to them as lesbian or just being happy in general (as was the trend in the lost generation in Paris). Due to many cases of this ambiguity, for a few more decades it continued to simply mean carefree. This is evident in movie titles of the era such as “The Gay Divorcee”, a 1934 movie about a heterosexual couple. On the other hand, slowly over time gays began to use the term as a form of identity in an underground way such that the heterosexual community was unaware of its connotation. For example, in West Village, NYC there’s a street that was known as “Gay Street” by many homosexuals. It was a center of homosexual culture in the 1940’s, and the phrase “Are you gay?” was code for asking if someone was homosexual. Eventually, the term in relation to homosexuality was embraced by the heterosexual community as well, since you can’t really keep things of this nature quiet.

“Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as “queer” were felt to be derogatory. “Homosexual” was perceived as excessively clinical: especially since homosexuality was at that time designated as a mental illness, and “homosexual” was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to denote men affected by this “mental illness”. The illness of homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, but the clinical connotation of the word was already embedded in society.”

It’s only awkward if you let it be…

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So last week my fellow classmates asked me just what made me so awkward. Is it that I create these awkward situations myself or do I just have terrible luck? I would say it’s a fair combination of both.

So, since I know you’re all dying to be just as awkward as me, here’s a few tips!

1. Do the randomest things possible. Please take special care to ensure that normal people will look at you funny for doing this act. Here is an example:

2.Say things that others could not possibly comprehend.

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3. Make sure that those around you feel as uncomfortable as possible, if you can do this without trying, EXTRA AWKWARD POINTS!!

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4.Tell everyone everything about yourself, be sure to have absolutely NO BOUNDARIES with anyone. Sure, this can make a lot of people hate you, but it also ensures that the ones who stick around really really like you. like ALOT. 

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5. Have the worst luck ever. If you’re not saying “Literally, this would only happen to me” at least once a day, you’re doing something wrong.

So I think it’s time for an example of how to incorporate all five of these rules in a single super awkward horrifying, i’m-so-sorry-if-you’re-a-guy story.

Every once and a while girls like to talk about they got their first period. Woah Woah, I know personal right? But I urge you to keep reading if you want to know the appropriate way to feel, and make others feel just about as awkward as you’re probably feeling reading this unnecessarily long explanation.

I always get really excited when the topic comes up because mine is  always the worst, and therefore the best. I used to live with my dad every other weekend in Philly  back when I was about 11. Now my mom had told me the basics about what happens when a girl starts to well.. you know, but I had expected like one, maybe two spots no big deal. So when I woke up one morning covered in blood, I thought I was dying. It was like a crime scene in my pants!

So I run to my dad crying and screaming, and of course he starts freaking out not knowing what’s wrong (which is like totally confusing because he was around fourty at the time you’d think he’d know lol). So he’s like “I’ll google it! I’ll google it!” and after some pretty speedy internet surfing concluded the obvious, I was having my first period.

And you’d think that’s the end of the story. Figured it out, yay! No big deal. Sadly no. Here’s where my absolute horrible luck and timing comes in. It was a Sunday morning. Now that may not mean much to some of you, but my family is very religious. In fact, at the time my mom was running her own church. So regularly, my family would be at church until around four on Sundays. Keep in mind it’s around ten in the morning. Also, When that thing happens for the first time, all you want is your mom, BAD. So I start crying and screaming that I need her or my aunt or SOMEONE who knew what to do next.

We proceeded to call every female we knew. Everyone was at church. Every family member, family friend, or really just anyone in my father’s contacts. EVERYONE. And my dad knew that there was something you had to buy, but he just wasn’t quite sure what it was or how to use it. So LUCKY ME I got to go to CVS with absolutely NO IDEA what to do.

I had to go up to some random lady in the middle of a CVS in Philly and proceed to ask her,” Look my mom’s gone and I’m having my period for the first time and I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!”

Flustered, the random woman replied” Oh my GOSH! Oh my GOSH! Alright come here, come here, how heavy is your flow?”

There is was, the mother of all awkward questions, and no way to answer it having no experience WHAT SO EVER in the area.

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All-in-all it ended up being ok. I survived and later on in the day my mom got me some cake. Granted I was extremly mad at her for mot telling me exactly what to do xD

So in analysis, let’s see how each of the five steps were used:

1. I went up to some random lady, YAY!

2. I actually used the phrase”crime scene in my pants” when relaying the story later to me friends. geez.

3.I’m sure both my father, the random lady, and everyone who has heard this story (now including you!) feel super awkward. ACCOMPLISHED!

4. I gave that lady way too much information. I really should havve just asked the pharmacist or been more polite about it like, “Excuse me what do I do in the case of my first period?”

5. If you don’t think that was sure bad luck and timing, there is something seriously wrong with you.

I think it’s important to remember that you can’t force awkwardness, it’s a way of living. You are born with it or you’re just really freaking annoying. If you are awkward, it’s best to have as much fun with it as physically possible, trust me it’s actually hilarious to look back on how stupid you are. Just own up to your awkwardness and wear it like the coolest outfit you’ll ever wear, although you’ll probably look more tacky than someone in 80’s clothes.

No matter what, always stay true to yourself, and remember you’ll never be as bad as this girl:image

Just some thoughts.

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eing suiInteresting article about court ruling gay as a non offensive term in new york: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/nyregion/court-rules-calling-someone-gay-is-not-defamatory.html

great quote:”It’s still a thorny issue,” Blotcher said. “Bottom line, just because you have gay characters on television that make everybody laugh doesn’t mean that the entire country embraces gay people as equal citizens yet.”

I could possibly talk about how the number of “gay” characters on television has increased drastically lately.

Another New York times article from 1980 describes how different politicians viewed gays (they have horns and are the root of all evil, or great sources of votes) . The author talks about how surprising it is that gays used to be “the love that dared not speak its name” However, now the term gay is used hundreds if not thousands of times a day.

 

http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/121347791?accountid=13158

Kurt Cobain’s documentary “About a Son” describes a suicidal boy who finds solace in being labeled gay… even though he’s straight.

Sleep? lol What sleep I’m Pre-Med.

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So mostly when it comes to my feelings about College vs High  School it seems to boil down like this:

High School:

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collge:

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Which is just crazy. It’s been a mad house trying to adjust to all the changes! In high school , classes were more tedious, but the work load was much smaller. I felt an infinite amount smarter, because I was surrounded by idiots. Also here was no CHEM lab that made me contemplate why WHY WHYYYYYYYYY I want to be a doctor.

Seriously though why.

 

But what’s been really getting me is the difference in the teachers. In high school, I was very close with all of my teachers, but in college you have to go out of your way to form any standard kind of communication. Of course, all the office hours are during all your other classes, and when you’re in a 300 person Intro to Chemistry course, it’s impossible to get noticed when the office hours are during your calculus class (coincidently with a teacher that’s way more awkward than I am, but in the most adorable genius, math loving way possible).

So I’m still trying to get situated to the appropriate way to act in front of each teacher. Can I joke with them? Is it serious Adelina i’m a Schreyer Student in Biology time? I have two classes with my Bio professor and I may have crossed the “appropriate” line a little during freshman seminar.

I guess I was starting to feel comfortable around this professor, i have a couple classes taught by the guy and he’s pretty chill. So he was showing us how to find research that a certain professor does by going on their website. So I’d like to explain my thoguht process of what was going on a the time.

The professor opens up a document and goes to the sources a t the end of what seems to  be a scientific paper written by him. In the works cited were several articles that he had written. Thinking myself clever I quite loudly shouted out “Wait… you cited yourself?” REEEEAAALLLLLLYYYYY loudly. I don’t know why I said it. Looking back, even if what I was thinking had been true, it wouldn’t have been a funny joke. MY SENSE OF HUMOR IS SO BAD WHY DO I TRY TO MAKE JOKES WHY.

So the room goes silent, and I’m trying to control myself from bursting out in laugheter. The professor then replies that it’s not a works cited page, it’s a list of papers he’s written… AWK.

Now I’m Hispanic, making me very tan, aka it’s extremly hard to make me blush. However, my face  was so red I’m sure it was analagous to a tomato. I tried to redeem myself but as the words left my mouth I realized how stupid they actually sounded.

I seriously need to learn the level of: it is not ok to loudly try to poke fun of your teache rin the middle of class. Your jokes may seem funny at the time, but if it was reeeeallllyyyy as great as you thought it was it would have still been funny after class.

I’m still like, the queen of freshman since i have no idea what I’m doing, where I’m going, or even where everyone is.

But that’s alright, part of the joy that comes with going to college is getting used to a new place and a different life style. Change isn’t easy, but it will get better overtime, and all in all i absolutly love the experience that atending Penn State has given me. Time no longer exists considering it’s 5 AM and I still haven’t gone to bed lol.

Main goal in college:

Learn to sleep.

or How to sleep.

or at least what sleep is.

 

“Not Ever” Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft

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I remember it was very late on what could only be described as a midsummer’s night. Now, being the super awesome popular person I am, I was sitting at home scrolling through my tumblr dashboard. Nonchalantly searching for humorous memes that would produce a chuckle or two. Every once and a while, people post something inspiring, or slightly artistic, but I usually shy away from these kinds of posts, because honestly I’m on tumblr for the comedy. Sometimes in life, you scroll down and see something you cannot ignore. I stumbled upon an ad about rape, and was completely shocked. Why would anyone make a television ad about rape? Turns out that Scotland was having a rape crisis, and unlike many other countries decided to actually do something about it. Henceforth, the intended audience includes the main populace of Scotland, where 1 in 5 people would blame a woman for getting raped.
The purpose of this ad is to shift away from blaming the victim in a rape situation, which could scare a victim from turning in the rapist to the proper authorities. It calls to women to speak out, because no it’s not your fault. You were not too drunk, you did not flirt too much, and your skirt was not too short. No one asks to be raped, not ever. The ad is persuading the audience to change its views on a certain subject, as well as inviting the viewer to visit a website in order to learn more about the campaign. Clearly, it is Intended for rape victims, as well as normal members of society.
To appropriately connect emotionally with such a varied audience, a story had to be told. Story telling allows the viewer to put themselves in the victim’s shoes. First, it shows an everyday girl going out, as well as a possible rapist, on the night out. The potential rapist watches the girl as she flirts endlessly with a guy. He then turns to his friend and slyly comments, “Check out that skirt, she’s asking for it”. His friend smiles devilishly, supposedly in agreement. The scene shifts to the same girl shopping for the skirt in question earlier in the day. A sales clerk asks if she needs help with anything, and the girl replies that she’s looking for a skirt that will get a man to have sex with her against her will because she wants to get raped later on in the evening. The sales clerk doesn’t blink an eye and immediately retorts that the blue is definitely the best choice, as if this were a totally normal question. The girl then swiftly looks directly at the camera, and directly challenges the audience to consider this an actual possibility. The scene then cuts to a background with the skirt, and words spelled out (repetition). Starts out just saying no one asks to be raped, but then it adds, Ever. This redirects the thinker to the name of the program: “Not Ever”. It then invites the audience to visit not ever.co.eu, where the purpose of the 30 second ad is explained in more detail.
The syntax utilizes simple sentences, choppy, and declarative statements such as “no one asks to be raped, ever.” Simple, everyday language is used for style. This could be used for the benefit of the audience, the ad’s strategy is not to sound smart, but to sound real and elicit true emotions and thoughts. Facts and figures were not used in the ad, probably for the purpose of time constraint (This Ad was first aired during a world cup championship during a Brazil game). However, upon visiting the website many facts and figures are shown. So it was not a lack of information, but a lack of need. Too much logos could have also conflicted with the pathos and ethos that was clearly driving the ad. However, it is perfectly logical that a victim is just that, a victim of a situation they themselves did not cause and could not have prevented.
The utilization of logos brings up the question, could this be a real situation? Is it logical to think a girl would intentionally go out to buy an outfit that would get her raped? No. Think about the exact definition of rape: if she wants it, then isn’t it consensual? Therefore, the definition of rape is demolished. With this idea crashing down, how can the audience help but feel a little stupid for considering this notion in the first place?
The use of pathos is not as emphasized as it usually is for the particular topic of rape. In most advertisements concerning the manner, there is usually a tragic story involving some poor, helpless girl who is attacked in the middle of the night. Many of these ads will go through the grieving processes and will provide emotional support and perhaps a hotline to call. However, this particular ad takes a different approach. An actual rape is never shown, it is only implied that it will happen in the future, or that even if the girl wasn’t raped that she would have been judged as someone who deserved to be raped by random bystanders. The ad elicts feelings of shock and concern because at first we think that we would never blame a girl for being raped, but somewhere deep down we do. We say if she had acted in a more appropriate manner, then she wouldn’t have gotten into that situation. This is shown by the potential rapists/ judgmental bystander. Our society teaches don’t get raped, rather than don’t rape. I have seen many ads and posts that have told me strategies to avoid being raped, but very rarely do I run across an ad that says hey this isn’t your fault, it’s the rapists fault. The ad forces one to face this reality and that can appal us, and challenges us to make a stand by changing our views. It made me personally stop what I was doing and go on the internet to research what the exact amount of people actual shared these views, and how these views could be changed.
The add demonstrates ethos in the fact that the victim should know better than anyone what she wants. Obviously, she was not looking to get raped by buying a flashy skirt, she probably just thought it was really cute. Only she can know what she was truly thinking, so who are random passersby to say they know her true thought process better? The girl uses this authority to show that the argument that she is to blame is invalid. This approach to ethos may seem vague, however it seems to hold even more authority than the usual government seal accompanied by facts and figures. Science can’t tell you how to feel, data cannot completely comprehend one’s though process, and when that girl looks into the camera and says “AS IF”, there is no doubt who has the credibility in the situation.
Of course, there are many other topics that could be explored in this ad, however, I chose to focus on a few key points due to the length allotted for this essay. It is important to note the visual aspects of the ad, such as the vibrant colors and the sparkly blue background behind the text in the final cut scene. The significance of actually typing out the final phrase, and waiting to add the ever should also be explored. Is there ethos in the adding of the website, or does it make it more of an advertisment than a campaign? The choice in actors could also have an effect on style, considering if they used an attractive male as the rapist, and an unattractive female as the victim things may have been different. The ad adopts a mocking tone in order to show the intensity of the situation, as well as show how utterly ridiculous it is that a woman could be blamed for wanting rape by choosing to wear a short sparkly blue skirt. These changing tones range from humorous and mocking to sarcastic and vexed, and mock the general consensus on women blaming mentalities in rape.
Although all these notions were not explored, it is evident that ethos, pathos, and logos are all used in this thirty second advertisement. These techniques were used in order to persuade the general public of Scotland that it is not ok to blame women for getting raped, because they are simply victims of the situation. It fights against the don’t get raped, instead of don’t rape mentality and challenges the audience to take a stand against something that is obviously wrong. So I hope I have inspired you, as this ad was meant to inspire you, to take a different approach on a very worn out subject and to speak out. After all sometimes that’s all it takes to change the world.