TED TALK
Trigger Warning (TW): mention of suicide in first paragraph
I watched the TED Talk, “How Uncomfortable Conversations Can Save Lives,” by Lyra McKee. She tells the story of her group trip through America as an Irish woman. While visiting the United States, the group of Europeans visited what’s considered “American values” like Disney World, anti-Trump protests, a rally for the National Rifle Association, and a mosque. While visiting the mosque, a stranger came up to her and told her about his friend that was gay and Muslim. He went to explain the challenges his friend faced, being both gay and religious. Sadly, these challenges gained too much power, and he died by suicide. Lyra then begins to relate this struggle with what she’s faced in her own life, and what many other members of the LGBTQIA+ community face: How do you balance religion and gender/sexual expression when most religions do not accept non-cis-straight people? She goes on to explain that no matter how much the LGBTQIA+ community tries to escape religion, it will always catch up, whether it be in laws, in family, in social life. Lyra ends the Talk by giving a solution: having uncomfortable conversations. By having uncomfortable conversations with people that are religious, we can get people to change what they think.
I really appreciated the fact that this TED Talk was hosted by a non-American, commenting on issues of America, especially LGBTQIA+ ones. Her perspective brought a very interesting take of how outsiders view this country. She accompanied her speech with multiple pictures, but no words as to not confuse the audience, of her travels around the United States. These visuals really aided her speech because we got to see the places she traveled to as she talked about them. Lyra was also very care-free, I do not like when speakers are overly serious. She did a great job of engaging with the audience by cracking a few jokes, mainly making fun of the United States in a playful way. Overall, it was a very good talk and I recommend watching it!
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/lyra_mckee_how_uncomfortable_conversations_can_save_lives
TOPIC BRAINSTORM
So far for my Unit 2 Brainstorm, I’ve mainly thought of evolving ideas around the LGBTQIA+ community. My top idea right now is to write about the evolution of pronoun use in America. I think this would be good to talk about because society is really starting to become more inclusive, even here at Penn State, with pronoun use. With that too, there is backlash to the idea so I think it’d be cool to talk about that too. I’ll pursue my research by using scholarly sites, maybe some interviews with LGBTQIA+ people. For the argument, I’ll discuss the rise of pronoun usage and its ramifications, as well as what I think it might lead to.
Wow, that TED Talk sounds emotional and interesting. I would like to give it a watch when I have the chance. I learned a lot about it through your summary though. I really like your idea about pronoun use- that is something that has very clearly changed just within the last few years, so I think you could pull a lot from that.
That TedTalk sounds very heavy, but interesting. I also think it’s nice when people can balance the gravity of a situation with a little bit of humor when appropriate. I think the topic of pronoun use could be very interesting because it is something we have seen evolve in our own lifetimes.
Discussing the usage of pronouns would make for an interesting TED talk I think. I’ve heard several different things about how pronoun usage has dated back hundreds of years but is only now becoming a popular idea or that the idea is just a modern thing. Learning more about the topic would be interesting and you would have a lot of material to work with.
I think talking about pronouns would be a really good topic. Something so simple that we use every day has kind of caused an uproar with people who are a little bit uneducated about it, I think you’ll do a great job talking on it.