Video games and violence is an idea my group came up with for a controversial topic idea. I think this topic has two clear sides, both with strong arguments. I think going deeper into both sides of the evidence will, 1) make us decide where we stand, and 2) provide us with a strong video. This topic has a plethora of statistics and opinion pieces that can help us.
I am not completely sure about a second topic, our group threw around a couple of ideas surrounding cancel culture and influencers. Cancel culture is a bit broad, maybe one specific focus, but still not dead set on anything. For the influencers, basically, they make so much money for putting up videos and I was thinking more about how they act separately from their accounts. Again, not very sure.
I was mostly thinking about the timeline, and what images to put. I want to go more into depth about the HIV/AIDS outbreak and how that affected sexual education. But these slides are mostly images that go along with the topic I’ll be talking about.
Trying to find a TED talk that interested me took a while until I stumbled upon the video by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. Pang goes into depth about why rest can make you better at your job, life, etc. He explains that even though we’re in a world where overworking and no breaks are rewarded, it is ultimately unsustainable and unhealthy. He goes further to discuss different types of rest, and how our definition of rest (watching TV on our laptops) isn’t going to make us productive. The video linked below will explain the types of hobbies and activities we can be doing to benefit us. I enjoyed this TED talk because it hooked me and kept me interested enough so I’d keep watching. I was all bout resting equalling better work production until it wasn’t the type of rest I thought it was, but as Pang went further into how we should pick up hobbies that exercise our brain, I realized he might be onto something. Watching him explain how in the modern day we work more hours than old military leaders did, and they were fighting in battle. They built their entire schedule on “downtime” and that interested me. How is it possible that we work more than ancient people when they were fighting for their lives? Overall, this TED talk was an interesting one to watch, it did not turn out to be the video I thought it would, but I’m glad I stuck around.
Sex education is an important topic that I feel all teens should be aware of. In today’s world, sex is not as taboo as it was in the past. I think writing the evolution paper on this can highlight the evolution of sex education among schools.
Why libraries are so important
I think a TED talk on the importance of libraries would be a nice topic. Libraries carry so much history that no amount of technology can compensate.
The Always #LikeAGirl Super Bowl advertisement and the well-known Rosie the Riveter “We Can Do It!” poster are prominent examples of civic artifacts. Both civic artifacts relate to the SDG of gender quality and express this using everyday phrases in society, also known as Commonplaces. The Always’ company’s #LikeAGirl campaign uses a rhetorical situation to emphasize how this phrase in today’s day and age harms youth everywhere, not just young girls. The “We Can Do It!” poster was released in 1943 to encourage women to work in factories while the men who were employed there, were at war. This poster used ethos, pathos, and logos that persuaded women to join the workforce. The #LikeAGirl campaign showed their audience how the commonplace “like a girl” is negative in society, and how it should be positive. The “We Can Do It” poster, was a positive message to encourage women during the war to replace men in the workplace, even though this message wasn’t as feminist as we think it is today. Both artifacts use Commonplace and ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audience to listen to their message.
Speech Outline
Attention-grabbing line. Give context on the ad. State thesis, Always’ uses a rhetorical situation to demonstrate how there’s a heavy negative connotation behind the phrase, “Like A Girl” and how this negatively impacts youth.
Describe what happens in the commercial. Producers asked multiple people to run like a girl, throw like a girl, and fight like a girl. Explain the difference between how the adults, teenagers, and boys and the little girls reacted differently. The latter took the actions seriously, the former took it as a joke.
Explain how this is a rhetorical situation and why Always’ used this specific type of rhetoric to explain this Commonplace. Connect to the SDG of gender equality,
Conclude with how this advertisement could impact society and take away the negative connotation behind the phrase.
Allison’s elevator pitch on how books are being banned in schools, but gun violence in America is still very prominent. Gun violence has been an issue in America for decades, and it doesn’t seem to be going away. When the comparison to guns and banned books was made it really made me think. How can a book that’s meant to benefit the minds of young children can be seen as crude, when there are assault rifles being sold with no problem? As Allison said, novels like To Kill A Mockingbird and 1984 are banned in schools because of their “themes.” But guns are actions, actions that are responsible for the lives of innocents. I wouldn’t want to get political on here, but in reality, the Second Amendment shouldn’t be political. In my opinion, there needs to be more thorough background checks when guns are being sold. This is a grave issue that seems to be so political, but lives are being thrown away because of these machines. These novels harm no one, they are there to inform children about life, and novels like To Kill A Mockingbird, are there to inform about how dire racism was back then. The fact that some schools ban it is wrong. Obviously, I am just a college student who just started here, there really isn’t much I can do about this issue yet, except share my opinion. Later in life, I hope there’s some leadership that will actually handle this issue.
I run “like a girl”. This commercial released during the 49th Super Bowl on February 1st, 2015. The menstrual brand, Always, released this advertisement to explain the infamous phrase “like a girl.”
Always released this video on the biggest day for American football, knowing there were going be thousands and thousands of people watching, which was the perfect opportunity to display the message. Using real life examples, having people perform these requests, establishes ethos. Seeing in real-time what this phrase means to people shows that the saying “like a girl” isn’t a joke and that it is actually a problem that has infiltrated the minds of many.
In this commercial, a producer asks women, men, and children to do numerous actions like a girl. “Throw like a girl, Run like a girl, Fight like a girl.” Of course all the teenagers, adults, and boys did those actions very jokingly. When they ran they were flimsy, when they threw it was short, and when they fought it looked ridiculous. But when the producers asked the little girls to run, throw, and fight, the girls did it with all their might. The video was created to shine a light on this insulting connotation behind the phrase, that doing things “like a girl” is not an insult and it needs to be changed. This connects to Sustainable Development Goal number five, gender equality.
In my analysis the lens Commonplace will be used to explain this advertisement by Always, and how it effected the audience. Thank you.
The first time I saw the ‘Rosie the Riveter” sign I think I was about 11 years old in my Social Studies class. I looked curiously at the cartooned woman in a red headscarf, with cherry red lips and her arm pumped. Above her stood the words “We Can Do It!”. My teacher, Ms.Riddle, explains to us what was happening during this time, and that women were needed since all the men have gone to war. But my teacher’s explanation of Miss. Riveter was not doing her justice. That poster inspired thousands of women to join the workforce during WWII.
But why? What was it about this specific cartoon poster that inspired so many women to want to get up and work? It was the rhetoric behind it. The ethos, logos, and pathos of it all. At the bottom right of the poster, if you look closely, it says “War Production Co-Ordinating Committee” with a stamp of approval next to it. This establishes ethos in the poster, gives it character. That little stamp and phrase made it so that women could trust it, making the poster reliable. The logos or “the argument” is women working. Rosie posing with her arm in the air, flexing her bicep implies something masculine. This can argue that women are just as strong as men and they can join the workforce. During this time everyone wanted to find a way to help out their troops, this photo did just that. The poster evoked a feeling of patriotism in women and made them want to fight this war, their way. The reason this poster did so well is because it appealed to the people. The creators behind it knew what would work to persuade women into joining the workforce. They established character, used an argument, and used emotion.