Fitting In

My style: casual. Is that a good thing? After taking “The Style Quiz,” which is apparently supposed to pinpoint my style, I seem to enjoy dressing casual. Their research apparently tells me that I am an on-the-go straight shooter that becomes approachable based upon my style. Though this quiz and test had very limited options, I thought it was a fun and creative way to end this lesson. The next source I enjoyed was the “Wings” video and lyrics by Macklemore. Not only do I enjoy this artist’s music, I was particularly interested because it is related to basketball, and the shoes the players wear. First, I thought I would add that watching the video completely changes my thoughts on the song. Not only do I realize it’s about the Jordan shoes and how it makes him fly, but now I can relate this to the “not fitting in” emotion. The music video did an amazing job at expressing the excitement within the boys face when he realized that he was the only one with “cool” shoes. One of my favorite lines is when he sings, “We are what we wear, we wear what we are.” This line doesn’t only add to the song, but it hits home for athletes similar to me that always needed the $150 basketball shoes or the $250 soccer cleats that make us seem to fit in more.

The next source, “Guy Gives Abercrombie & Fitch a Brand Readjustment By Giving Their Clothes to the Homeless,” seemed to confuse me just as much as it made me feel angry towards the CEO of the company. Though I understand the purpose behind this guys approach at readjusting the standards for A & F, I was curious what made this man want to accomplish something like this. Yes, I support what he has in mind, but it seems that he really is involved with undermining the company. However, that is not what this lesson is about. I believe this video was included to really show how some people do not fit in to our society. For example, this video shared about how the CEO does not want larger women wearing his clothes. This video’s goal was trying to change the brands idea that “A & F only wants a certain kind of person to be wearing their clothes.” This original statement basically limits what kind of people wear their clothes, but also seems to knock off thousands of people that don’t fit in towards their standards.

The next two sources seem to stump me. First, the “Jacket” article made me wonder if clothing and other items that seem a bit out of the ordinary really tear down people’s self-esteem or successes in life. Though I do agree that thousands of people get judges on what they wear, I do not believe that they have an effect on grades and the bad luck that some people have. I do agree it can lead to embarrassment, but some people love to be the odd balls that wear the ugly jackets from the 70’s or 80’s. The last source, “Merchants of Cool,” seemed to relate to the Abercrombie and Fitch video, but in means of targeting teens and their opinions on clothing. This article seemed helpful because it explains how fashion companies seem to swarm and target the new fads that are occurring within school. Though I was confused with this source, I believe it fits in well with the 6^th grade unit because that is when youths are trying to find their identities, and clothing always seems to be the way that people “fit in.”

On a side note, this was one of my favorite blogs. Not only because it will fit in well with the sixth graders, but also because I personally related to each one of these sources. We have all struggled to fit in at one point or another. In my case, I always felt that clothes and the nicest soccer cleats helped me get a little more attention from the women in school or the fans by the soccer field.

Animals

After taking all of these texts under consideration, I noticed that among them we could relate the human emotions with the actions of the responsive animals. Through all of these texts, my main goal is to touch on the change in human attitudes towards animals, TNR, and homosexuality in animals. With these themes in mind, I first want to identify the similarities between “The Scarecrow” and the trailer for “Blackfish.” What I noticed within these two texts is how we are often times deceived by what is actually happening behind the scenes. Whether the animals are being “used” for nutrition or entertainment, I can infer that they are being mistreated. What stuck out to me the most was the scarecrow within the chipotle film. Before fixing the city walls, the scarecrow was noticing the animals being tortured behind them. To me, this represents our society and how we are being deceived by what is actually happening, in lots of places that range from farms to SeaWorld. In the trailer for “Blackfish,” we hear one of the catchers saying, “this is one of the worst things that I have ever done.” As guests at SeaWorld, we just care about the entertainment from the animals and buying the stuffed Shamu animals. However, has anybody ever thought about the process that brings these animals to these locations?

The next two texts that interest me were “Don’t Fear the Feral” and “Primal Compassion.” From an outsider’s perspective, I see stray cats as “homeless” animals and primates at zoos as hopeless animals. Through these articles, I noticed the connection between human emotions and the actions from the animals themselves. For example, within “Primal Compassion,” the photographer believes that when the gorilla saved the boy she had similar characteristics of a caring and protective mother. Through his images, the photographer studies the gorillas face and posture, and says that he cannot even imagine the thoughts and feelings rushing through the gorillas mind. Through this article, we see the connections between the emotions of the humans and the responses of animals. What I found interesting in the article about cats was the method of TNR, or trap-neuter-return. Though there is an outbreak of the cat species, this method created by the ACA, ASPCA, and other organizations can help control and monitor this overpopulation of animals.

            

The last theme that I wanted to touch on was the homosexuality of animals. Although the “And Tango Makes Three” children’s book just discusses this issue within penguins, is this becoming more popular within other species? It is fascinating that this author created Roy and Silo to find interest in each other. Whether this is fascinating, I find it even more interesting that this has been the most challenged book in three different years.

            

The last few articles that I struggled to understand was “20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish,” and “Rikki-tikki-tavi.” Considering I struggled with these texts, I checked out other people’s blogs to create an understanding. What I found particularly interesting in them both is how problems arise within our world that sometimes people cannot seem to fix. Not only these articles, this can also pertain to the article with the stray cats. Though these articles troubled me, I found myself very invested in these texts and wished that I could have had this lesson during my middle school career.

            

The Prince and the Pauper

This week’s lesson had no hidden message or ideas, so I was intrigued by how similar and relatable all the texts were. Soon after watching and reading the video clips and the articles that were provided, I assumed that the overlying theme or topic was income inequality, with a special look at how we treat poor people (people in poverty), as the lesser. What I found fascinating was the different standpoints that people have on the different sides of the income spectrum.

Within the article, “Guest: Show respect for fast-food workers with sufficient pay,” I noticed that this man was sharing conflicts with paying bills and buying food for a family that has struggled to support themselves. Not only was he intending to blame his low wage that he has been making, but he was also standing up for himself and going on strike against the wage theft and other serious issues that have been going on. What made this article stand out was its intro. The fact that his kids began to notice him not being around makes this issue very personal, which also made me feel very sorry for this man. Related to this article was the other two about fast-food workers, “Pay fast-food workers sufficient wages,” and “Why U.S. Taxpayers Pay $7 Billion A Year To Help Fast-Food Workers.” Whether or not they are against raising fast food wages and supporting their protests, I was interested in some of the comments that was within the Seattle Times article. I do not want to stir up a controversy, but I seem to agree that people that are not satisfied with their fast-food wages should seek another or a different job. Where I have grown up, these jobs seem to be reserved for 16-25 year olds that are intended to make money as a part time job. I relate to this article because I believe that if a person is the main wage earner in the family, he or she should not be working a job that is paid hourly. Without a college education, you can still seek better jobs that could possibly be paying more. I was also convinced that we should not raise wages to $15.00 an hour because I do agree that we will be cutting jobs. Fast-food joints would hire less people, which would then leave more people jobless.

What I found fascinating was the different impacts the videos have left on me. For example, the “Inequality for the All” trailer shared about the U.S. economy and the fact that we have a suffering lower and middle class. I do understand what this means, but considering I am a non-political genius, I seem to steer away from my opinions on this. However, I did find it interesting how much it related to the “Money and Happiness” article or image. The stats even express that people that make over $100,000 are generally happy (49% of people). Being a math geek myself, the graph shows exponential growth rather than decay. This graph does not lie, and seems to support the claim that the lower and middle class are suffering.

The last two texts seem to leave me stumped. Yes, I do notice in the “Trading Places” movie trailer that they seem to be targeting the way we treat poor people, but how significant does it tie into other texts. I enjoyed the trailer because it was quite funny (thanks to Eddie Murphy), but I was curious if there was any reason that the poor man was played by a black male? I know the goal of the unit is not to discuss race and its relations to poverty, I just thought I would ask the question. Lastly, related to “Trading Places,” “The Million-Pound Bank Note” seems to highlight the rich and how they are more likeable because they are worth and contain the power. Though these two videos do relate to one another, they seemed to target people’s views on the poor and the rich, compared to the opinions that people have on the fast-food wages.