Middle school is a time I am sure most of us never want to revisit. The awkward things we did, said, and wore should never be relieved. I, however, have very different reasons for wanting to forget those unpleasant years. It was eighth grade when I told my mom I was gay. Now I was not disowned and forced to find my own way in the world, where I would face hardship after hardship; instead, I was told there was no way I could know that, I had never had sex with a girl, I was too young to make that choice. My mom swiftly tossed that three-letter word under the rug by saying, “we will revisit this when you’re eighteen.” I had already gone through trying to accept myself as gay before I ever thought about telling my mom, which is why nothing she said that night ever kept me awake. For the next three years, I would be fully accepting of my identity, in school, with friends, and even girlfriends, but at home, I was forced to remain the perfect daughter my mother wanted. I felt as though I was suffocating the second I walked through my front door, obligated to wear a mask of the girl my family wanted me to be. I quickly learned to ignore the suffocation, I accepted this was how my life was going to be until it was time to, “revisit this when I’m eighteen.” In fact, my first girlfriend was known to my Family as Mark, and let us just say Mark was not worthy enough to meet the parents. I lived my double life, which is not as fun or cool as Hollywood likes to make it seem, until my senior year. My best friend, Chloe, was practically a member of my family, although we had not been friends for more than a couple of months at this point, she had even gone on two of our family Disney trips. Our relationship quickly turned from close friends to something quite stronger. At first, we were okay with keeping that aspect of our relationship a secret, we were on the same team, her dad was our coach, and of course, we knew my mom’s opinions. Neither of us wanted to deal with drama before we had been given a chance to see if we could work. Eventually, Chloe graduated and it was getting more and more difficult to hide who we were. I told my mom I was gay. Again. She stated the same things she said the first time, except this time with the added pizzaz of, “you’re just confused! She’s your best friend!” I simply told her If she wanted to keep under the rug she could, but I would not. Then something happened that I never thought would. I live in a pretty religious area and I have dealt with my fair share of ignorant comments about “my choices”, nothing quite as bad as what I faced fall of my senior years, weeks after finally being fully out. Two girls on my team, who I thought were good friends, decided my identity was too vulgar for them and that my actions were offensive. They made up rumor after rumor and these rumors almost removed me from a team that had been my home when I didn’t feel comfortable in my own. I was shattered I thought I was going to be left with nowhere to call home, but then, the last person I expected to come to my rescue did. My mom came into the situation blazed with anger because someone was trying to hurt her daughter, a daughter who never in a million years thought her mom would accept her. When my momma bear of a mom was through I had not one home restored, but two. This I believe, with time and patience anyone can overcome prejudice.
The most challenging aspect of this assignment for me was getting over my public speaking nerves.I have always had anxiety when in comes to presenting and public speaking, so I approached the project timidly. This caused me to miss pieces of information I should have added or expanded upon to create a better argument and presentation, especially with my controversial topic. However, I think I did a better job at handling my nerves during the actual presentation than I have in the past. Now that I seem to have a handle on my nerves, I can work on creating a proper style of delivery to draw my audience into the content. Additionally, I think my visual aids helped guide my presentation perfectly. I wish I had given myself more time to do a more thorough dive into my topic to really sell the points I was trying to make. Zoom can added some additional anxiety to presenting, because most times zoom just seems awkward and unnatural. It can be difficult to provide a natural presentation, when the setting is the most unnatural. However, I do believe presenting on zoom made be understand the importance of visual aids so I could better develop mine. Everyone did an amazing job, however, I was present during Alexa’s presentation and I thought she did an excellent job opening up her topic and drawing the audience in. Not only did she draw us in, but she also kept a hold of the audience’s’ attention the whole time through her style of delivery. It inspires me to really take time and develop a personal style of my own that will hopefully help ease some of my nerves and anxieties.
While mental illness and discussion of mental illness has come a long way since the asylums of the 1800s, it can still be considered a very controversial subject today. Individuals diagnosed with mental illnesses used to face harsh discrimination and very limited treatment options, but in today’s world mental illness is no longer seen as a crutch. Celebrities and pop culture influences have shaped the mental health world for the better by talking candidly about their own struggles. However, has the destigmatized discussion of mental health actually created a new problem? Teens are often highly influenced by celebrities and try to emulate their idols. Celebrities opening up about mental health has had a negative influence by popularizing mental illness in teens.
*teens trying to emulate influential individuals are faking mental illness
*reinstating false notations of mental illness
*harming teens with real illnesses
*personal experiences
*importance of influencers
*impact of social media
some sources I plan on using:
Mashable
New York Times
Mayo Clinic
Healthline
In 1860, eleven southern states attempted to succeed from the union under the Confederate flag, which has now become a symbol of hate. Most southern states during the 1860s believed in racial discrimination and segregation causing a great divide in the country. Although they claim the flag as a symbol of southern heritage, white supremacists still proudly display the Confederate flag today. However, another flag being displayed proudly in today’s world is Daniel Quasar’s re-imagined pride flag. Quasar’s flag added to the old pride flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, colors to represent trans and people of color. His addition serves to represent inclusivity and equality and is even being used in the call to fight against systemic racism. The Confederate flag greatly conflicts with Daniel Quasar’s pride flag through connections to dominant ideologies, stylistic choices, and place in history.
Dominant ideologies:
The confederate flag’s connection to white supremacist and racist ideologies conflicts with the re-imagined pride flag’s call for equality.
* slavery’s connection and place in the civil war
* Gilbert Baker’s flag
Stylistic choices:
While Daniel Quasar used certain colors to represent and promote inclusivity, the Confederate flag uses of color to represent “true American” values in a time of seperation.
* trans flag designed by Monica Helms and its significance
* irony of confederate flag color meanings
Place in history:
The Confederate flag’s place in the Civil War now represents hate and racism, in comparison to Daniel Quasar’s flag, which represents equality and holds significance in the Black Lives Matter movement.
* white supremacy in history and today
* Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ community
Intro:
The six striped pride flag has been a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community since the late seventies and has paved the way for many other pride flags to be created, like the trans pride flag:
However, in 2018 graphic designer, Daniel Quasar, re-imagined the pride flag to be more inclusive. Quasar added black and brown stripes to represent people of color within the LGBTQ+ community, along with the trans flag colors. Although the flag was redesigned on 2018, Quasar’s design did not begin to pick up traction until the Black Lives Matter Movement moved into high gear.
Thesis:
Daniel Quasar’s re-imagined pride flag calls to the LGBTQ+ community to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement against systemic racism and other minorities through its connection to emerging and dominant ideologies, stylistic choices that reflect inclusion, and use after the kairotic moment of George Flloyd’s murder.
Emerging and Dominant Ideologies.
Quasar’s flag holds roots in dominant LGBTQ+ ideologies, while also representing an emerging ideology of true pride and equality for all.
*Gilbert Baker and Monica Helms’ pride flags and reason for their creation
*the history of people of color within the community
*mainly black trans lives
*represents true equality through inclusion to show and emerging ideology
Stylistic Choices
The colors used with Quasar’s design allows for more inclusion to bring a new wave of pride that can support all lives, especially black ones.
* after discussing the history of people of color, trans murders, the importance of inclusion and representation to show equality and pave the way to a new society.
* repetition and exposure will help create more support for the movement.
George Flloyd
The tragic death of George Flloyd sparked an upheaval of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and Quasar’s design is being used to support the fight against systemic rasicm.
* the details of Flloyd’s murder
* why the LGBTQ+ community has a duty to stand with the BLM movement
* systemic racism and oppression must be fought by all
Introduction of of old pride flag leading into reasons for new design (multiple trans and African American murders; George Floyd)
Thesis: The newly re-imagined pride flag calls out to minorities, like the LGBT community, to stand against systemic racism through its creation after the kairotic murder of George Floyd, and use of color to reflect the ideologies of pride and equality central to the LGBT community.
Kairotic murder of George Floyd:
*Summary of death
*Sparked support for BLM
*Adding of dark skin colors to show support calls to the LGBT community to stand behind people of color affected by
systematic racism
LGBT ideologies:
*Constant fight for equality and equal rights
*Trans murders mainly African American
*Adding of trans colors to show further support
*Uniting of minorities against an oppressive system
Call to the civic to stand up and fight back against an oppressive system.
In my paper, I will compare the hate messages associated with the confederate flag to the call for equality from the 2020 pride flag.
This is the new pride flag created in the early months of 2020 in response to racial and trans injustice in america. This artifact is a call for equality for many minorities in america.