Author: Daniella Perera

Elevator Pitch- The Future is Female

by Daniella Perera

132 years. Longer than anyone here will be alive. That is the projected length of time it will take the gender gap to reach full parity. This means that not a single woman in this room will ever experience true equality.

In light of the fairly recent events regarding our nations backpedaling of women’s rights, “The Future is Female” is a fitting call to arms for the gender equality movement of this generation. First coined in the 1970’s and now most recently regaining traction in the form of not only t-shirts and signs for women’s rights marches, but advertisements and even awards, this seemingly simple statement is one that holds immense power.

Presented as a slogan for one of Wittner Shoes collection, and used to reinforce their company mantra of putting confidence in your step, “The Future is Female” is a slogan that pushes equality for women. Their advertisement showcases not only beautiful shoes and powerful female models, but the four words that without context mean nothing, and with it mean everything. Through the use of visual rhetoric, this ad campaign completely avoids any backlash inducing claims, and spreads the purely positive message of women’s rights through equality.

The future IS female, but that doesn’t mean it’s anti-male, it simply means that women WILL get the rights we deserve, and this campaign is a fitting representation of the power that we as a generation have to make a difference. We can speed up that lengthy projection easily through the continuation of campaigns such as Wittners.

Thank You.

My Book Blog! (with a teeny tiny twist)- The Hunger Games

by Daniella Perera

Welcome to the first post of my fall ’22 book passion blog! I read a book forever ago whose main character would read the first line of the first page, and last line of the last page of a book before she decided to read it, so i’m doing the same for you guys! The first line of books almost always grab attention , and the last usually leave you speechless, so by including these in my posts, i’ll hopefully leave you wanting to read the book, looking forward to find out what happens between the two scenes.

With that said, I present my first official review, on none other than the classic of all classics (in my humble opinion), “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. (fun fact, I had a brain fart during my AP Lit exam and couldn’t think of a single book to write about other than this one, so I feel it’s only fitting it starts us off)

Synopsis– Set in the future post-apocalyptic dystopian nation of Panem, ‘The Hunger Games’ opens with the narration of 16 year old Katniss Everdeen, living in one of the 12 “districts”, all  kept desperately poor in order for The Capital, home to wealthy citizens and the president, to maintain control.

Part of this control comes in the form of The Capitol’s production of a yearly “Hunger Games”, a lottery that chooses one male and one female ages 12-18 from each of the 12 districts to compete to the death as a form of entertainment, with the winner earning a lifetime of fame and riches.

When her 12 year old sister Prim gets chosen for the Hunger Games on reaping day, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, and thus ends up competing to the death with fellow district 12 resident Peeta. Unaware of it at the start, he ends up transforming into one of the best assets she could have asked for in the arena, and ultimately becomes the person who saves her in more ways than one.

We follow the growth of Katniss as she navigates the games as an underdog, who has not adopted the ruthless nature like many other tributes, but instead kills regretfully in order to survive.

This story displays the way violence destroys, and how Katniss’ humanity gets put to the test, and in the end, she does so much more than simply survive.

First Line– “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”

Last Line–  “I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.”

My Favorite Quote- “You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”

Rating– 10/10 This book touches on so much more than just one genre. It has a depth that i’m not quite sure I appreciated at first, written in such a way that grabs onto both the younger readers that maybe don’t quite understand the layers to it but can appreciate the story, and more experienced readers that can analyze it on a deeper level. Suzanne Collins creates a narration that transports readers to Panem, and leaves us wondering how far off this society she has created truly differs from America’s future.

Passion Blog Pitches

by Daniella Perera

When brainstorming ideas for my passion blog, the first that came to my head is the social justice system. While my major is psychology, my ultimate interest is law, and criminal defense. I know I know when you think of criminal defense you think about basically handing out get out of jail free cards to people that might not quite deserve them. However, my interest in this field goes deeper than that. Every year there are countless people falsely imprisoned, and even more forgotten by the system and left in prison way over their sentencing. With this blog, I would choose a new past or present case to research and post about, bringing awareness to the flaws in the system and digging deeper into reasons this may be occurring, whether it is the crime that was committed, state, etc…

Taking a complete 180 from this rather serious topic, is good ole book reviews. I like to consider myself a pretty avid reader, and would love to incorporate this into my blog. While I know it has to be deeper than i simple 1-5 star review, i’m thinking that a good spin could be each post building upon the previous, starting with a base book and finding connections within books i’ve read/reviewed or will read. I would go into extreme detail and analyze not only the books themselves, but the way a series may connect and the authors thought process behind their writing.

Commonplaces in Advertisement- Gender Equality

by Daniella Perera

Of the 17 UN goals one that resonates with me is goal 5, gender equality, specifically the movement of woman empowerment. While it has been an issue addressed for years, taking what was seeming to be decent strides towards success, recent events have caused backpedaling in the fight for gender equity, and one commonplace has jumped out as a prominent representation of the movement, making wave across countless nations. The future is female.

While there is no single clear event that bred this commonplace, it’s safe to say that now more than ever it’s a strong and meaningful slogan, used everywhere from t-shirts, to posters at women’s rights rallies, to campaigns for popular brands, such as Wittner Shoes, who based an entire new collection of shoes and the promotional video for them around “The Future is Female”, as seen below.

Although widely used and supported, this commonplace has also caused a bit of backlash. With it’s seemingly straight forward way of “cutting men out of the equation” as some put it, people in disagreement claim that it’s aa push for roles to be completely reversed in the future, with men being in the position of lesser treatment while women gain success and opportunities.

This advertisement however does not seem to make any of these types of claims or insinuations, and instead focuses on showing off the beauty of both women and their product, using what would have already been an existing advertisement to spread a message of support during these less than ideal times in so many places for women’s rights. This advertisement is a great example of the way that a simple few words without context can mean so little, but adding context can make all the difference in the world. The future IS female, but that doesn’t mean it’s anti-male, it simply means that women WILL get the rights we deserve, and this commonplace is a great asset on the track to change.