MJ.Jodie's Blog

In 2015, women working full time in the United States typically are paid only 80 percent of what men are paid, which creates a gap of 20 percent that invokes immense strifes between social classes. Existing as a controversial issue for centuries, gender wage gap remains as an unsolved mystery that causes unrest of both economic and social stability. Moreover, the general rule states that earnings rise as the background of education strengthen for both genders. However, at all levels of education achievements, men’s median earnings still exceed women’s median earnings. Education, in fact, does not eliminate the issue of gender wage gap. The reality is that gender discrimination still exists in our society, but it has evolved and transformed into a more invisible social stigma, as gender wage gap pertains to such a form. This systematic problem is caused by gender discrimination that keeps perpetuating itself due to social structure that established upon persistent obstacles against women’s equal rights and conditions.

Consequently, the lack of awareness of women themselves has been considered as the cause of the issue in our popular culture. Whereas what has been purposely neglected is that the lack of awareness of women themselves in this case is never only associated with individual choice but also the social frame that shackles their ability to think and act. The choices they make are drastically shaped by the existing structure in popular culture. In particular, women are considerably less in STEM field due to gender discrimination. The leaky pipeline problem illustrates the fact that women tend to leave their jobs as they age due to the shift from the main emphasizes on work to family-centered life. Nevertheless, such a choice of prioritizing family life over career by choosing work with lower-pay and involves less concentration at work exists as a trend of women’s living standard. Men typically choose the opposite. There is no doubt that housewives are more common than househusbands, and this embedded value in our culture serves as a fundamental guide that gives instructions to women about how they should act. We learn to be a sex, and no one can separate ourselves from our culture.

We are taught in embedded values in the curriculum, but the commonplace of gender discrimination still does not make it right. According to policymakers’ arguments, the empirical claim asserts that due to such a nature of women’s “natural choice,” the issue of gender wage gap would not need further rectifications. Suddenly, women themselves become the culprit of their own disadvantage and suffering. The empirical claim eludes the revelation that men are unwilling to give up their privileges despite knowing women are disadvantaged. Ostensibly, women with different backgrounds choose to prioritize family over career, yet this choice cannot exonerate the issue of gender wage gap as what the policymakers are trying to do when the choices between women and men are biased with a preference over men. The choices women and men make do not account for gender wage gap. Rather, it is the product of gender discrimination against womanhood. As both gender wage gap and biased options left for women are the consequences of gender discrimination, it is logically wrong to argue or conclude that the consequence of the issue can be the cause of another consequence. Individual choice and gender wage gap are parallel products of gender discrimination that is left by history, and women should not treat with a value of “natural inferiority” in any aspects of life. The mechanisms behind the regulatory regime in this case favors men over women, contributing to limit the effectiveness of the understanding of what truly causes gender wage gap when women are not given equal choices in the society.

This common situation has caused people with deep bitterness along with a growing cynicism toward the opposite gender; as the two hostile genders grow further apart, the gender wage gap no longer lives as a problem related to the distribution of economic resources but a political problem that threatens the unity of a nation. In order to discriminate the widespread public concern caused by the gender wage gap that affects social psychology, diminishing this gap with a system that facilitates the creation of new wealth would go a long way toward allowing more people to share in such a powerful driver of economic success. According to the data collected from Proctor et al. U.S, Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States (2015), “in 2015, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 20 percent” (Proctor et al., 2016). Even with a progress due to women’s education and workforce participation, “women will not reach pay equity with men until 2152” if the changing rate is still this slow (The Simple Truth, 2017). Existing for all the years that people have suffered, the rate of the progress to narrow down this gap is still extremely low. As a chronic problem left by history, the gender wage gap has caused economic dilemma, contributing to women’s poverty (The Simple Truth, 2017). In 2015, 14 percent of American women in ages 18-64 were living below the federal poverty level, compared with 11 percent of men; for ages 65 and older, 10 percent of women and 7 percent of men were living in poverty” (Proctor et al., 2016). There is no doubt that by paying working women the wages of comparable men would increase individual earnings and family incomes, contributing to diminish poverty by half overall for all working women and for the majority of the family types (Hartmann, 2014). With a higher level of pay transparency, strengthened enforcement of U.S. EEO laws, higher minimum wage and more friendly policies, women living in the U.S. can go a meaningful path toward a life of paying fairly and equally (Hartmann, 2014). A public policy to enhance women’s earnings along with the insurance of a non-discriminatory hiring and pay practices as well as improved training and career counseling sessions can contribute to increase wages for lower-income families (Hegewisch 2016).

More than fifty years have passed since the Equal Pay Act of 1964 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were issued and made discrimination illegal, yet the gender wage gap still remains as an unsolved mystery as what have mentioned above (Hegewisch 2016).According to The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2015 and by Race and Ethnicity, written by Ariane Hegewisch and other contributors, the median earnings for women are much lower than men’s, and this is a fact in almost all the occupations regardless of the conditions whether the occupations are predominantly done by women or men (Hegewisch, 2016). To be more specific, based on the IWPR calculation of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016), comparing to men’s earnings ranges, women’s median earnings ratio per week is only 52.5 percent of men’s earning across 119 occupations (Hegewisch, 2016). Unquestionably, there is such an existence of double standards towards women’s earnings at the same level of work comparing to men’s work done. Based on this statics, it is reasonable to conclude that the gender wage does exist, causing damages to women whose earnings have decreased in the condition of the same skill level that men do. Living in a male-dominated world, women’s position in the world does not guarantee them with fair and equal rights due to the injustice in the society. From the “Household Data, Annual Average. Table 39”, an IWPR calculated data from the U.S Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016, the gender wage gap greatly shows its unfair effect on the different earrings between men and women with the same skill level: even in the most common occupation dominated by women, with a requirement of a degree of least level—bachelor, women earn only 957 dollars comparing to 1077 dollars of men who are working at the same field; in addition, in the male-dominated field, taking “software developers, applications and systems software” as an example, a commonly male-dominated job position, with the same requirement of a degree with least level—bachelor, men’s earning is 1,751 dollars weekly on average comparing to women whose earning is 1,415 dollars at the same level of work (Hegewisch, 2016). These specific examples indicate that the occupational segregation is an significant factor that contributes to the gender wage gap that allows women receiving less comparing to men who work at the same level of skills. Across occupations, the traditional concept of male chauvinism till applies to the power-holders (the fact is that mostly these power holders are males). Under this condition, women cannot receive earnings as the majority of men can reach.

The gender wage gap affects women of colors at even greater rates, with Latina women earning just 56 percent of every dollar a white man makes, and black women earning 64 percent; even worse, the wage gap only grows larger as women age, with women earning 90 percent of what men make until 35, after which they are paid 75–80 percent of what men are paid (Vagianos, 2015). Due to the history of slavery or any other racial issues, these colored women could not receive the same treatment with equality and fairness along with justice in the society that is still influenced by racial segregation. For instance, according to the history that is known to public, the white people misused the black people by trading them as slavery that contributed labors to the plantations in America. The prejudice towards the black people prevent them from living with the same opportunity and living resources as other people who are not colored like them. There is not much to argue with about the question that most women are forced to be housewives who have not received opportunities to live lives for themselves but live upon other people’s expectations under the evaluation of the society from different eras. In addition, these women always complain about their mistreated life and blame this for their children. Even though the Congress has been working on cases and laws that address discrimination in the field of employment ratios, the history of these considerings has gone a long way without seeing success since these legal protections still have not ensured equal pay for both genders yet (The Simple Truth, 2017). Women working full time, year-round — across all industries and including all races and ethnicities —earn only with  an average of 78 percent as much as their male counterparts, creating a wage gap of 22 cents on the dollar (Vagianos, 2015). These colored women are living in a biased world that limit and prevent them from garnishing a meaningful life with “equal pay of equal work”. The population of women in minimum-wage jobs is considerable. According to the National Women’s Law Center, two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women; two-thirds of workers in low-wage, tipped occupations are also women (Vagianos, 2015). The position of colored women in this male-dominated world is mistreated due to gender discrimination as well as the mistreated legacy of history. Even though the low earning is an essential issue for both genders, women are still more likely to live within the range of poverty-level, not as much as men. From the revelation of U.S. Census Bureau in 2016: “Poverty Thresholds”, across all occupations, there is a magnificent contrast between the median earnings of full-time work between women and men with a fact that 6.5 million women work in these occupations that provide lower wages of 100 percent of the federal poverty threshold for a family  containing four members, a weekly earning of 462 dollars comparing to only 1.7 million men in these occupations providing median earnings per week that are below this line of poverty threshold (Hegewisch, 2016). Based on this statement, “almost four times as many women as men work in occupations with Poverty-Level Wages” (Hegewisch, 2016).

Rhetorics to me at the beginning of this semester seems to be too miserable. I did not really know too much information about it, and the topic covered in rhetorics never attracted my attention before. When rhetorics first came to my eyes, I thought it was simply a way to persuade people in a way that sounded so fake and purposeful. At that time, rhetoric was only a method for me to use in my language, and I never considered it as a part of civic life. I did not understand how rhetorics could connect to civic life unless we use it as a method to make people believe what we want them to believe. It sounds more like tricks, tricks to make people believe in you.

 

Politicians use all the ways they can to make people believe what they are saying, and the fact is that our country is ruled and controlled by these politicians who are already problematic. Now I was told that rhetorics implemented by politicians are connected to our civic life. I literally thought rhetoric is a a way to tell lies, but not necessarily lies. They are tricks to make people believe in the speaker or the writer. Magicians use tricks to trick its audience, doesn’t that sound familiar to rhetorics? But rhetorics use language majorly and visual aids slightly to trick the audience.

 

My perception for rhetorics was pretty much narrowed due to my own perspective. However, after this semester’s approach to rhetorics and civic life, I have come to a realization: rhetoric is not only tricks intending to deceive people, in most of the cases, if the user uses rhetorics to serve right purpose, it will be the necessity to persuade people. Speeches, presentations, advertisements, writings, stories, articles, and even reports, all of them require rhetorics as a necessary way to convey the message the presenter aims to target. Rhetoric is the art of communication, the fundamental skill for people to pass on messages from generations to generations. Thinking is passed through dialogues at the beginning of human history.

 

We cannot deny the fact that human beings purposely invented words and sentences to define things that might exist against others. Rhetorics, for me, now exists in a form of interpretation of art, and certainly it conveys my messages to others in a more compelling way. I used to develop bias toward the “tricks” rhetoric embedded, but I was never in touch with the mechanisms behind the scene. Simply because I never delved into the topic, I neglected the deeper meaning of rhetoric- the art of ethos, pathos, and logos. Rhetoric is the art of communication, and it is the application of ideals from the first step, before everything starts build up.

 

Throughout the course of this semester, I realize that I have to use rhetoric in my papers and speeches, otherwise I cannot persuade people to believe or at least understand what I am talking about. It consistently connects to our everyday-thinking, including the understanding about the commonplace existed in our society. Ethos, for example, means “the set of ideals and moral attitudes that are typical of a particular group,” and this is a component to construct rhetoric when the presenter aims to articulate an ideal and at the same time expects the audience can develop the same conception or at least make any connections to the topic discussed by presenter. A certain group of people use particular ethos to represent their stance, showing their moral approval associated with the topic they have covered. To be more specific, a representer who comes from a black community will convey the ideal of JIM CROW in our society, and almost entirely they will rely on moral values to approach to the audience, awaking their compassions (pathos) for their people.

 

Rhetoric is the bridge between concepts and practices, connecting our ideals and reality in a compelling way.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hCcVBvPbFoArnu8djMltY3jynacjf3aeSllyDC3Ilyk/edit

 

Introduction

The well-known NCAA is an organization that unites college athletes together to accomplish further steps for their dreams and careers. It stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association, a “non-profit organization” serving college athletes with the well being and lifelong success by regulating 1281 institutes and assists and sponsors almost half a million college athletes. It covers a wide range of sponsored sports such as basketball, football, beach volleyball for women, baseball for men, soccer, golf, swimming, and tennis. 19,500 teams are united by almost half a million college athletes. NCAA has awarded 90 national championships per year, with 46 for women and 41 for men. According to the record in 2014, NCAA has generated over a billion dollars in its revenue, and  80-90% of that revenue was produced from Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Even though the core goal is to govern athletics competition in a fair and safe manner and integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education, it is certainly controversial since negative impacts are brought to our attention in both academic and athletic aspects. In fact, collegiate athletic students do not even receive fair contract term, with or without their consents, there is no choice really left for them. Moreover, these students in college do not receive education at the same level as other students who are only involved in academics. Negative facts are hidden behind the scene.

For the NCAA

NCAA supports collegiate athletes financially by sponsoring them with educational tuition as a payment for their hard-work dedicated to their teams and professionally by establishing a fair and safe platform for their careers.

1. It is consensual between NCAA and collegiate athletes as they sign a contract before entering into the field to compete for their teams.
2. The organization directly funds many education programs. For example, the Association-wide postgraduate scholarship program, degree-completion grants, and internships.
3. One of the primary financial efforts that NCAA takes to help injured athletes is the NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance Program. This program was implemented to strengthen the athlete-organization bond. The NCAA followed this up with insurance programs and that helps student-athletes with unmet financial needs aka Student Assistance Fund.

Education	Financial	Health and Safety
Walter Byers Scholarship: Two one-year, renewable $24,000 postgraduate scholarships named in honor of the NCAA’s original executive director.	Group Basic Medical Program: A program that covers intercollegiate sports-related injuries below the catastrophic insurance deductible of $90,000 per injury.	Injury Surveillance Program: Data is interpreted and disseminated to assist evidence-based decision-making in building safer competitive environments.
Jim McKay Scholarships: Two one-year $10,000 postgraduate scholarships named in honor of the legendary sports broadcaster.	Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Program: The program provides student-athletes with the opportunity to protect against future loss of earnings as a professional due to a disabling injury or illness that may occur during their college careers.	Educational Affairs Grant: Up to $2,000 is awarded to NCAA member institutions and conference offices to fund student-athlete development, and health and safety related programming.
Ethnic Minority and Women’s Enhancement Scholarships: Twenty-six $6,000 postgraduate scholarships – 13 for women and 13 for ethnic minorities – who are enrolling in a curriculum that will assist the applicant in obtaining a career in sports administration.	Division 1 Student Assistance Aid: The purpose is to assist student-athletes with special financial needs. Most of this money is used for educational purposes, with some also going for needs such as clothing.

All these initiatives are for the students to take advantage and potentially optimize their college/ sports career. It also reiterates the idea that injury isn’t the end all be all for a student-athlete. NCAA has opportunities where it reduces the financial stress on the student and they can also continue their education even if it means that their performance or chance at a professional career is diminished.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/finances/student-athlete-benefits

Should the players get paid for their efforts?

While proponents of the NCAA make the claim that college athletes are currently being paid in the form of college scholarships and a college education, there are some lapses in logic in this thinking.

The idea that the NCAA is providing athletes with an education would make sense if the college athletes were actually getting a traditional college education. The reality is that the education for athletes watered down and manipulated to ultimately maximize athletic performance while making academics an afterthought.

• Playing a Division I sport – regardless of what it is – is a major time commitment. Balancing a rigorous college workload and multiple workout sessions, practices, and games can be extremely difficult. It is because of this difficulty that colleges

 

Is the NCAA really a nonprofit organization?

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/09/ncaa-business/

AGAINST THE NCAA

The NCAA advertises itself as a nonprofit organization, but is it really nonprofit? What is actually occurring behind the scenes that we, the public, are unaware of? The NCAA advertises itself as not being a governmental organization, but in reality, it is: the government is basically responsible for funding and regulating athletics at public universities. Lawrence Kahn, a renowned Professor at Cornell University, states that “most economists who have studied the NCAA view it as a cartel that attempts to produce rents by restricting output and limiting payments for inputs such as player compensation.” Through various statistics and historical events, this statement has proven itself to be entirely valid. First, the NCAA “staff” and athletic coaches get paid ridiculous amounts of money for the work that the college athletes are doing, while the ones actually responsible for making the organization money, the college athletes, receive no compensation for their efforts. To illustrate, in 2013 the chairman of the NCAA got $1.7 million for his “efforts” with the organization, while all head football coaches at the 44 NCAA Bowl Championship Series school receive an average of $2.1 million a year. On the other hand, if a player is paid even a dollar for his/her efforts, it suddenly becomes a crime. Being a college athlete is probably just as much work as having a full-time job, yet the students make no money whatsoever for all of their time and effort. Arguably, the only compensation these players receive is their scholarship to the school, something that could and does get taken away instantly if deemed appropriate (like if an athlete gets a major injury).

 

What makes this even more striking, however, is that if college athletes attempt to utilize their athletic abilities in any personal profitable ways, they receive major punishments. Essentially, once you sign that contract, the NCAA has possession of you. Donald De La Haye, a kicker for the University of Central Florida, encountered this problem after making his own Youtube channel. Once this was discovered by the NCAA, the organization told him that the only way he would be permitted to continue playing in the NCAA was to 1. Stop selling ads for videos that pertain to college athletics and 2. Give up all of the hard earned money that he had made through his channel to the organization. The organization then publically stated that De La Haye “could maintain his eligibility and continue to monetize videos that did not reference his status as a student-athlete or depict his football skill or ability.” These conditions were too much for the star kicker of the team: “I worked so hard for it, you want me to just throw my money away? Want me to take down my videos, which again I worked so hard for and wasn’t comfortable doing? So I told them no.” Therefore, just because the NCAA has such strict policies prohibiting players from making money for themselves, the University of Central Florida lost an essential member of their team. http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-ucf-kicker-ineligible-youtube-20170801-story.html

 

Furthermore, although the staff and coaches get paid ridiculous amounts of money and the organization as a whole receives countless donations nationwide, both refuse to put even a dime towards the improvement of NCAA facilities and athletics. At the University of Maryland, for example, each student is charged $400 a year (as factored into their tuition) to subsidize their football team and at the University of Berkley most, if not all, of the cost of their $474 million dollar stadium came from the required payments from actual students attending the university and taxpayers. Isn’t it ironic that the coaches and staff are getting paid so much money and the students get nothing, but the students are the ones responsible for paying and funding aspects of the NCAA that make it the thriving organization it has become today? There are also other “behind the scene” revenue streams of the NCAA organization. For example, in 2015 the NCAA agreed to a 14 year $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting to televise games, meaning that the organization will bring in, even more, money than they already do. On average, the entire college sports industry already generates an average of $11 billion in revenues and this contract is bound to increase this even more. The question remains: what is actually happening with all of this money? Where is it all going?

 

Against the NCAA

Is it justifiable to violate academic regulations to get a “one up” in the NCAA?

 

AGAINST THE NCAA

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/09/ncaa-business/

There are a lot of coaches, college professors, and other people involved in the NCAA who believe it is justifiable to cheat and violate academic policies for college athletes so they can continue playing for the university. The University of North Carolina, for example, is a huge public university that has contributed to this belief. From 1991 to 2011 it was said that UNC helped about 3,100 college athletes get good grades in classes they did little to no work in. Some students were even caught completely skipping out on classes and assignments, yet still receiving adequate or high grades in these classes overall. Furthermore, in the 1990s Clem Haskins, the head coach of the football team at the University of Minnesota, got a graduate advisor to write over 400 academic papers for student-athletes so that they could pass their classes and continue to play for the University. Even more surprisingly, multiple athletes admitted in the Spring of 2017 that a teacher of their music history class was giving them answers before a test so that they would pass and maintain their scholarship. These are just a few examples of immoral and unjustifiable actions taken by professors at top public universities to assist college athletes in maintaining their scholarships.

It is known as a fact that for collegiate athletes, they do not have to achieve such an academic success in their education since they have dedicated most of their energy into fields. It is controversial to the core goal NCAA sets in the first place: to provide a platform to ensure these collegiate athletes that they will achieve their higher education along with their professional careers. According to NCAA’s official website, “80% of college athletes are earning degrees”(NCAA). However, among those college athletes, many professionals cheat to accomplish recruits to qualify as “student” athletes, while this cheating process is actually supported by the university. In the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the university has sponsored fake classes for students who are mostly athletes with high credits for courses that are never taught in reality. Academically, it is certainly unfair for other students who are not involved in athletic sponsored events since these athletes did not contribute any academic efforts to receive credits that these “normal students” have been fighting for. Moreover, the mistake made by the university has been running for almost two decades, yet NCAA has helped it to escape from any punishment. After this ugly truth has been revealed, the investigation has been taking for three- and-half-year, showing NCAA’s continuing weakness in regulating and punishing its member institutions. Despite the fact that the university had admitted academic fraud, NCAA still protects its member institution without any consideration of the neglected core goal they have once pledged to the public. By protecting the university, which is a member of NCAA, NCAA has claimed that the “paper courses” in the department of African and Afro-American studies were supposed to provide the athletes only as a benefit to the efforts they have dedicated for the university, meaning the wrongdoing of the university did not violate the organization’s rules according to the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. In this case, the athletes in this University have been awarding with “extra benefits” to accomplish their academic goal into higher education, which does seem to parallel to NCAA’s core purpose as they ensure the collegiate athletes receiving both academic and professional achievement under their platform. However, this academic fraud is faking higher education achievement for athletes who have never dedicated any efforts into academic field. Therefore, the academic achievement these athletes have achieved is nothing but a lie.

1. Women are saving us by redefining and re-programing a future that defies and blurs the accepted polarities, a commonplace that we take for granted in our tradition and culture (hook: hidden figures – film) the shift is not completed 

2. A paradigm shift occurs when the spark of feminism has fired its potential since the number of women who receive education has drastically climbed. In the past women who work in the field of science and technology was really low. (topic is too broad)
– The only way to achieve gender equality is to overturn the oppressive tradition that has been running for centuries. （vision narrowed, make claim smaller）
– Timeline of women’s education in the field of science and technology
3. STEM Education Statistics (higher number)
– Definition of STEM: an academic disciplines of science technology, engineering and mathematics
– K-12 Education
Female students’ achievement in mathematics and science is on par with their male peers and female students participate in high level mathematics and science courses at similar rates as their male peers, with the exception of computer science and engineering (NSF, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2016).
–  Higher Education
The rates of science and engineering course taking for girls/women shift at the undergraduate level and gender disparities begin to emerge, especially for minority women (NSF, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2016).
4. STEM Workforce (lower rate)
– Women remain underrepresented in the science and engineering workforce, although to a lesser degree than in the past, with the greatest disparities occurring in engineering, computer science, and the physical sciences (NSF, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2016).
– Women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 29% of the science and engineering workforce.
– However, even the percentage is comparably low, but it is at a constant increasing rate.
5.Causes: (Inbalence)

Leadership pipeline, social and cultural commonplace to stay at home

a. Overall spread of the ideal of feminism

           b.Gender Wage Gap Exists, but the overall percentage holds the line in the United States.
– In the past: 19 century, 20 century (statistics)
– Right now: 21 century (statistics)
– Specific wage percentage in the field of science and technology (increasing rate)
– Higher percentage results in incentives to encourage some countries to allow girls to receive education (Cuba, Pakistan, and some regions in India)

c. more education received by people (Example of Pakistan)- more mentors for women

so they know it is equally important for girls to receive education.

d. lower rate of women being housewives. (women leadership pipeline, )

When men are working outside, women are typically housewives before. But now it has definitely changed.

e. more acceptance from co-workers

doing calculations behind the scene, less pay.

women=computers?

policy paper= no solutions

research on where we got

 

 

 

Our enemy is thoughtlessness.

My favorite Ted-talk is called Philosophy in prison by Damon Horowitz, who is a professor that teaches the convicts in prisons philosophy. He is one of my favorite presenters on Ted-talk because he explores humanity in a way that is so familiar with the process to grasp the beating hearts hidden within people’s bodies. By introducing the audience about his student, Tony, who was sentenced for murder and incarcerated within prison, he eventually demonstrates the ideal of philosophy that reveals the fundamental mechanism of how philosophy works.

 

When we think about philosophy, actually most of us, always make it so hard to interpret the term itself. Why do we fear philosophy? Why do we fear this term? Why does the term philosophy make you feel it is something so sophisticated and difficult to understand? Where does this misconception come from? Simply because you have never learned or explored within the kingdom of philosophy. We build the boundaries around us, so we are not able to see all the possibilities in the world. But this boundary is semi-permeable. We still have sensors. We know facts, we know the mainstream, we know how to live with smart brains. Undoubtedly, Horowitz, is the man who stands at the edge of the boundaries we create for ourselves, and he implements a gun that shoots directly at the target- the heart of the audience. He knows how to break down the boundaries of humanity.

 

We all know that the issue of teenage violence is what threatens and damages our community. And this is a commonplace we all choose to accept and agree to be able to see. We know such an issue. Horowitz uses this topic of little Tony to make us develop a sensor to sense this fact, and later on we start wanting to hear what is Tony’s story. We open our heart to listen to him because we do care about what happens to Toni. How can a four minutes talk introduce the whole ideal of philosophy? How does Tony’s story relate to philosophy? All these wondering are drawn upon his magic. Gun control is also a serious issue now appearing in our society. Horowitz has mastered how to grasp the audience’s attention.

 

Immediately followed by the story of Tony, he starts connecting Tony’s life of thinking with the insight of philosophy. The philosophy is the beginning to wonder. One part of our humanity is that we tend to follow others blindly without ever doubting or questioning everything in life. We never take anything into consideration if it is not directly connected to us. However, we neglect the fact that everything is connected to us somehow. What is philosophy then? Horowitz says, Let’s do this! 

 

Within a few of the most significant ideals from influential philosophers, Horowitz demonstrates what philosophy is. His words are powerful, his style is both serious and numerous, and most importantly, he knows how to persuade the audience within 4 minutes to introduce them with something they might have developed fear before. The story of a boy incarcerated because of murder is linked to our ethical understanding about the standard in the society. The story of a boy realizing his problem to his identity that will be stamped with criminal drastically links our pathos to his future. The story of how this boy named Tony reveals the fundamental truth of what is wrong and what is going on is a direct reflection of the logos of philosophy: this is what philosophy simply does- we examine, we explicate, we think.

 

Yes, our enemy is thoughtlessness. Yes, we are here to think. Yes, Tony is in prison but his mind is free.

 

I believe that nothing could stop me to pursue the cognition of feminism.

The topic of feminism has generally become a commonplace we all in the society, or perhaps mostly have accepted and agreed with. This commonplace, however, has transformed and shaped its ideal commonly being accepted by people through three different perspectives. The first time of the enlightenment of feminism was introduced during the time of chivalry. The code of chivalry has indicated that the men should take care of the weak and injured, with the disability to do something that they can easily do. And thus, women have commonly become the objects of the development of chivalry. This ideology, however, is not based on feminism but based on the ideal that the women are weak so they should be taken care of by the men. No one back to the history had believed that women should have the same social and economic status as men. They simply do not deserve it. No one respects women, genuinely. They only respect women based on the ideology of chivalry that they should take care of women and show respect to them because they are women, or the women of men. The second time of the spark of feminism was when the majority of women had come to the realization that they should be independent, and even the men in this male-dominated society had agreed that women should have the same status because everyone is born equal. Yet this ideology has never been common accepted by the society even nowadays. These women wanted to be independent because the society has demanded them to do so. They still live upon other people’s expectations. They haven’t figured out the real mechanism behind it. They still blindly follow the mainstream of the society that require revaluation of these major issues that concern the public. The third time, the last time of the fire of feminism occurred when the literatures have revealed the fundamental truth of the reason that locks women inside the house and behind the window: themselves.

Here is this common tragedy of humanity: we tend to follow others blindly and thus we have generated this blind ignorance to believe what we are inside of. We believe the society we are part of, but we ignore the fact that we are never the people who build the society. We are living in a society that has been designed and created by the people who have always been the supremacy of the society. This is a generational cycle we are all part of.

I want examine this topic by researching on the literatures from the beginning of feminism and the latter ones. There will be clear distinctions between the oder ones and the newer ones since ideologies have shifted and shaped over time. But there will be one thing that will be true as always: the more we change, the more we will see what will remain unchanged. I will research on what has been changed but at the meantime reveal what has never be changed in this topic of the transition of feminism. My argument in regard to this topic is that even though the ideal of feminism has been evaluated by the society, what has been changed about the ideal is actually the actions conducted by women themselves. What is changing is not simply the ideal but the applications of women’s own behaviors as well as reasonings toward their own dreams and lives.

1. The harsh truth is that government policy has been suppressing the minority group by shackling them, and it is a chronic problem left by the history of slavery and post-civil war racist legislation.

• According former President Barack Obama who stated that the US has five percent of the world’s population whereas twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners during a speech.

2. The Obama administration has persuaded people that there is something wrong with the system associated with justice.

• Utilizes Ethos+Pathos
• Humanity- tends to follow others, following the mainstream in the society, without really questioning it (commonplace)
• Certain Government politicians- grasp this human nature and manipulate it
• Fear- is thus generated through multiple means
  • the unknown- uncertainty
  • the uncontrollable
  • the mistrust
  • spreading

3. The economic history that causes such a fact

• Kairos
  • slavery
  • racist legislation and practices
  • forced labor after Civil War

4. The rate of incarceration in the US is increasing drastically

• Logos
  • Crime rate is lower
  • Corresponding to the market as the demand of arrests and sentences raise
  • business- private prisons

5. The cycle is hard to be broken down (commonplace)

• Government needs the fear to control
• People want security to be assured
• The victim will be those minority poor
• Generational

6. Our civic duty to ensure.

• We are not repeating the history
• Monitoring politic’s decision
• Enforce equal rights and opportunity by means
  • third government institution
  • education
  • the awareness from the root of government

A Woman behind the Window in The House on Mango Street

 

                 Nothing has ever been this clear that the recognition of self-value is the fundamental consciousness to the determination of a woman’s identity through the publication of the front cover of the novel, The House on Mango Street, by the artist Edel Rodriguez. The word feminism stands for such a revelation of a woman who recognizes her value and ability. Gradually existing as a commonplace, this ideology has become an overall acceptance that is related to civic life at the time of 1980s when the boom of yuppiedom occurred. The novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, plays an essential role in regard to the spark of feminism, contributing to persuade the audience that only if a woman has achieved this self-recognition parallels to independence can she develop genuine self without shackles from any aspects in life. By utilizing a simple image of the house with a woman behind the window, Cisneros has linked the audience’s pathos and ethos with each moment by showing basic but powerful truth of womanhood. The front cover of this novel utilizes the commonplace to ponder a woman’s value and cognition through that particular “window” with substantial pathos and ethos that navigate the audience’s contemplation on the kairos at the horizon of feminism via her unprecedented vignettes of Cisneros’ everyday life.

 

Unquestionably, the novel has drawn an image of a typical womanhood parallel to the commonplace that leads woman to the path of being evaders. It is undeniable that this self-inflicted standstill is what causes the woman on this image to be behind the window. From a rooted cognition with commonplace, the majority of Latino woman have made the decision to take care of the household by sacrificing their own dream and life. This “sacrifice” is a chronic commonplace left by history, shared by the human nature to follow the flow. This is a relatively big house with red paint at the front, illustrating the intense and strong psychological impression for the audience. Specifically, the color of cadmium red as the paint has provoked the shackle that is so distinct, yet everyone that passes this obviously different “house” chooses to ignore what has been going on behind it. Eventually, the shackle that locks woman inside of a house purposefully augments this commonplace that shapes woman’s self-reliance, attracting the audience to wonder the context within the book. This exhibits the serious illness that shadows those woman, and thus they are the common evaders of whom escape from who they really are. Moreover, Cisneros intentionally selects this image of a civic life that is applicable to the majority of the world. Cisneros comes from a Latino family that contains six boys except her as a girl, and she has come to a realization that the majority of girls are living lives not for themselves but for the expectations of the society. On the image, the woman emerging from the widow is a typical Latino woman who accepts her “fate” of being a housewife without regrets. The girls are expected to live upon others’ expectations, and eventually they would meet such a “demand” in a society that is more like a “market.” This scene exactly matches and appeals the relatable experience of woman who are oppressed and suffering without knowing such a pain in this world.

 

Furthermore, the ethos of the violation of woman’s natural ability and rights that Rodriguez conveys through the image has enhanced the credibility with her understanding of the novel. The majority of woman can only see the world through that particular window, and as the author, Cisneros depicts a “special” Latino girl’s life through chronological order within the text, embodying how this little girl has changed her own life and expected to save and bring the other woman with her. At the end of the novel, Cisneros indicates that she has achieved her march away from this neighborhood that contains similar red houses, but she will come back for those who can leave as easily as she does. Rodriguez undoubtedly has adopted this message as she conveys this ideology by portraying a woman who is eager to see this world not only behind the window but to see it with both her body and soul. If there is no such an existence of the will to march outside, the woman will not emerge from the window. By articulating this ideology successfully, credibility has been added to Rodriguez’s effort. It is ethically and morally wrong to lock a person against his or her free will. The audience is persuaded that with that free will of pursuing the outside life, the woman behind the window is at the constant state of being shackled, anchored by the unknown elements inside the house. Thus, the audience will develop such a curiosity to explore the content in the novel. This is the only window on the red house depicted by Rodriguez, elucidating how tightly sealed the environment is for a housewife. Such an ethical revelation drastically ties this image to attract audience’s sympathetic resonance.

 

The audience has been further convinced through the pathetical appeals that invoke sympathy toward womanhood directly reflected by the contradiction of colors and subtle description of facial expression. The particular window is the passage, a tunnel, that allows audiences to connect with those typical women with their own eyes and perceptions, underlining the pathos of Rodriguez to show her ethical cognition of womanhood. Immediately following the red color of the house that is so distinct from other houses on the street, the pure blue sky is a contradiction comparing to this intense red. This strategic coloring differentiation has invoked the dilemma of the woman who is inside the red house, raising the audience’s sympathy toward that woman whose dream toward that blue sky has been locked inside of that house. The doctrine that the majority of women receives has seduced them to follow the expectation of the society blindly, indicated by the woman behind the window portrayed as peaceful and tacit face that contains closed eyes. The closed eyes have drawn attention to the audience who has the same experience with the ignorance to see the truth. Therefore, this flip side of pathos can be a freshness of vision or a change of perspective for those “targeted” women as well as others who did see this erroneous “demeanor” before. The real tragedy is established through the window on this image, and the audience has emotionally responded and touched by this message from the sympathy they have developed toward the sadness of womanhood.

 

In addition…