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In the documentary America the Beautiful directed and narrated by Darryl Roberts, the narrator states several central points and arguments. He makes a case for objectification of the female body, socialization of genders, and how culture plays a role in todays in society. When Darryl asked a teenage boy about how his perfect women should look, his answer was that she has to be “hot”, “attractive”, and have nice legs. This shows how males are objectifying the female body, because they do not care about the person’s emptions or feelings. Darryl was trying to state that men only see women as an object to gaze at, which makes them seen as sex objects. The most important point that Darryl made was about the commercialization of the female body.
“America” by Claude McKay is a poem dealing with McKay’s thoughts as he processes through his inner turmoil as he faces the reality of being rejected from a country that he loves. As Claude unveils his feelings to the reader, a creative description of America is presented. The poem deals with love and loyalty and the vicious rejection when you aren’t accepted in a society’s culture. In the short poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus showcases and contrasts the ancient Greek statue Helios and the Statue of liberty. Lazarus lets the reader compare the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, representing traditional masculinity in contrast with the New Colossus a feminine symbol of unity and refuge for those in need. Both poems are social commentaries
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
During the process of reading this compilation of works, Portrait of America, many different point of views were aired. The opinion or attitude on the subject was too tainted. The authors were very biased to their perception of the "story". This book could have been much more beneficial if the facts would have stayed to the straight and narrow. Only the detrimental facts needed to be applied to these chapters. For a history class, as broad as this, this book opened too many doors that could not be explained in as much detail as would be liked. Many of the authors enjoyed mentioning the most scandalous moments of the people's lives then dropped the fact without much support or follow through as to what happened to cause or end these events. Brief summaries only tease the mind, and with the course load of most students, there is hardly extra time to investigate the matter further in detail. For a class such as History 152, biographies and/or documentary style books are more worth the while of the student. For instance make a list of a selection of novels that could be read for the class, so that every student can then explore in depth what that student thinks is interesting. Although the book was teasing in nature the chapters did flow well and were easy to read. The procession of the chapters had wonderful transition as to not loose the student. While proceeding through this book there were several different reoccurring topics that appeared. This paper will discuss these two reoccurring topics: the civil rights movement and former presidents.
The novel, The Ugly America, by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, was published in 1958. The story takes place during the height of the cold war in the early 1950’s in Southeast Asia, centering on the fictional country of Sarkhan. The United States is attempting to defeat communism in Southeast Asia and gain supremacy over the Soviet Union. Unlike their Russian counterparts, the diplomats representing the United States in this mission to defeat communism in Sarkhan fail to understand the local culture and address the needs of the people. Assigned to Sarkhan, Ambassador Gilbert MacWhite is dedicated and intelligent, employing a prodigious effort to fulfill the mission. During MacWhite’s tenure, other U.S. officials and citizens are able to invoke positive change. However, the failure of high level diplomats, without a clear strategy, undermines their efforts. In the end, Ambassador MacWhite makes several key mistakes. He is unable to execute the change necessary to address the threat of communism, poverty, and underdevelopment in Sarkhan, leaving him responsible for the failure of his mission.
Sinclair's novel is meant to entirely reject the capitalist system and to bring in its place a socialist system. In this novel, capitalism and its exploitation of the immigrants and other workers, are in fact shown to be tools of the capitalist bosses, used as another means to control and mislead them. In Sinclair's novel the broken dreams of Jurgis Rudkis and his fellow Lithuanian immigrants, unions are meant to be institutions which give false hope to the workers. They live in utterly dreadful circumstances and are exploited like animals by their capitalist bosses. The women are forced to work at an inhuman pace, lose money if they cannot, and then fired if the complain. (106). And the men in the packinghouses like slaves in hell. When Jurgis is lucky enough to be picked for work, he finds working conditions to hardly fitting of the American Dream for which he left his native Lithuania. Sinclair is relentless in providing page after page of detailed horrors the immigrants faced everyday at work, "there were the beef luggers who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the refrigerators cars, a fearful kind of work, that began at four o'clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years.......of..... al those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb (101).
In the chapter entitled, “American Dreams,” In Creating America, Joyce Moser and Ann Watters write:
It seems that today, women are seen only as objects of pleasure for men. Such as when the butcher looks at the girls in the store, and was “patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints” (Updike 143) This description of him is aptly put as he is a butcher. Other men, however, look at women, as Greg W. Bentley says, “as if they are...
Not long ago, a woman’s success was measured by the success of her husband and her domestic prowess. Today, a woman is presumed successful if she can emulate the standards of beauty portrayed in the media. Unfortunately, this subliminally enforced standard is unattainable to some women, regardless of the quality of their character. Let’s examine how western women went from being pioneering superheroes, to people who measure their worth against airbrushed photographs of impossibly beautiful women.
Dickerson, Rachel. “America Objectified: An Analysis of the Self-Objectification of Women in America and Some Detrimental Effects of Media Images.” Stanislaus State University. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Let America Be America Again, written by Langston Hughes, was written to make a satirical statement about the American Dream. He uses personification, alliteration, and imagery to bring home his point that the “dream the dreamers dreamed” (Hughes ???) not only has never existed but will never truly exist for the common man. According to the speaker, assumed to be Hughes but in reality could be anyone who is hopeless and unhappy in this land where “equality is in the air we breathe” (???), that as long as there are “kings” and “tyrants” (???), the American Dream is only an unobtainable goal but is something that must be kept alive.
Anne-Marie Slaughter is the first woman director of planning policy at the State Department and the president and CEO of the New America Foundation. She has taught at two of the most prestige schools in the country Princeton and Harvard Law. She is also the author and editor of several books, but the most recent one is called “The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World which was published in the year 2007. Slaughters essay is about trying to balance home life and work life, and it first appeared in the Atlantic in July/August 2012 issue and was also on the Huffington Post. This essay argues that women in high power jobs and government positions can have both a work life and also keep their home life. She started her essay with a little information on background about her job.
Women have been facing crisis of body image since the dawn of man, for competition in breeding purposes, however women came under great scrutiny because of this. Often through history, they have been at the same level of livestock, treated poorly. Creating a rise in the early 1900’s to create the movement about pushing for the equality of women in the United States; it was after then when media first started adopting an ideal image of women in American culture, when marketing research found the use of images of ideal women in their campaigns made for higher sales.
The author’s use of diction create an uplifting patriotic tone in in the poem “America the beautiful.” Bates begins each stanza with the same three words, “o beautiful for…” focusing not on America’s flaws but all the beauty in our country. For instance at the start of stanza four, she writes, “o beautiful for heroes / proved in liberating strife who more than self her country loved / and mercy more than life.
Men rarely compliment women on features other than their physical appearance. They tend to give compliments that are directed towards a woman's body and face. Many of the praises that women receive from men are “you look pretty.” Comments like these, that are directed towards appearance, forces women to invest more energy and time in order to abide by societal standards and to be accepted as a woman in the terms of society. Women become hard-wired to look prettier, dress nicer, and maintain a specific personality in order to “have a value” and “be worthy” in the eyes of men. Comments like “you don’t wanna ruin that cute figure” are comments coming from other women. Not only are men objectifying women, but objectification has become the norm that women begin to objectify one another. Men rarely look at women as their equal. Men feel that they are entitled to women as though she were his property. Throughout many instances, we see that men kiss and touch women inappropriately without
16.)Utt, Jamie. "Navigating The Difference Between The Appreciation of Beauty and Sexual Objectification." Everyday Feminism 18 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .