Susan Bordo Blog

Spindler, Amy. “It’s a Face-Lifted, Tummy Tucked Jungle Out There.” nytimes.com. The New York Times Company, 9 June 1996. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

            

        In The New York Times article “It’s a Face-Lifted, Tummy Tucked Jungle Out There,” Amy Spindler, style editor of New York Times Magazine, claims that more middle-aged men are resorting to anti-aging products and plastic surgery to look younger and thus, to score or secure jobs in the business sector. Spindler asserts that “downsized corporations,” businesses that are decreasing in numbers but growing in size, are hiring more young men because they believe that a worker with a youthful look appears to have the stamina that companies value and count on for their success. This harsh reality is raising fear among 45-to-54-year-old male job seekers who must now compete with younger men for jobs as business executives. Fear of job loss, according to Spindler, is driving executives “to take measures to look younger, with smooth skin, a full head of hair, and a taut stomach,” and companies selling products and services that help men achieve these looks are capitalizing on that fear. Spindler exposes this phenomenon in order to reveal that, like women, older men are feeling that same pressure of maintaining youth that women have and continue to experience till this day.

Blog #5- "David Foster Wallace, In His Own Words"

     For this commencement speech, David Foster Wallace takes a nontraditional approach when addressing education and how it applies to young adults graduating college and entering the real world. Wallace actually tells college graduates the Truth about the reality of adult life by reiterating the frustration, boredom, and selfishness that encompass such a life. The one piece that intrigued me the most was what Wallace calls our "natural default setting," a self-fish, narrow-minded way of thinking and the greatest obstacle of adult life. Education plays a vital role in that it is about gaining awareness of our default setting, not acquiring knowledge as we were taught to think. It is about harnessing the will and effort to think differently about people and problems we will encounter "day in day out."

Blog #4- "The 'Banking' Concept of Education"

     While this analysis of our current education system versus a more promising one is intuitive, it is yet another reminder of how disastrous our education system is and what it can become if we break this cycle of oppression, dehumanization, dichotomy, and so forth in our schools. Students from K-12 as well as college students are fully aware of the reasons or factors that contribute to the failure of our education system: standardized testing, memorization, little-to-no creativity and critical thinking in the classroom, etc. The main problem is that we, teachers and students, have little power as far as bringing reform, and there is no incentive for our state representatives to pass education reform. That being said, it is frustrating sometimes to discuss about such topics that were, are, and will continue to be a pressing national issue. As pessimistic as it sounds, talking about a better education system won't bring about a better education system.

Research Prospectus

     In this year's state of the union address, President Obama unveiled the American Jobs Act, a bill aimed at creating jobs through cutting payroll taxes to encourage small businesses to hire, modernizing schools and rebuilding roads and bridges across the country, keeping teachers, firefighters, and policemen in the workforce, and "expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults." The bill also happens to ban employment discrimination against the unemployed and give unemployed Americans the right to sue a company with a workforce of 15 or more employees if that company refuses to hire an unemployed worker because of his or her status. This proposal is already generating skepticism and opposition among Republicans in Congress, who argue that granting this right to the unemployed will lead to a jumble of lawsuits and will do nothing to lower the unemployment rate. I, myself, need to think about this proposal a little because I have slight doubts about it, but I am leaning in favor of it. Under the American Jobs Act, should unemployed Americans be given the right to sue companies for not hiring them?
     Some points to cover would be whether the refusal of businesses to hire the unemployed is discrimination, assumptions about the abuse of such a right, the pros and cons for both the unemployed worker and business, and the short-term and long-term effects of this right.
     The counterarguments of this topic would center on the added problems this proposal will, according to most critics, create: a mountain of lawsuits, an increase in the unemployment rate, more layoffs, the threat of revenge against big business, etc. I would refute these counterarguments by affirming that most of these critics are either affiliated with the opposition party or they are financially better off than the majority of Americans, so they do not understand what it feels like to be unemployed for almost a year.
     Research would include surveys that show whether Americans are in favor of this right and whether companies are more inclined to hire an unemployed worker if this law were passed. Additionally, I would research articles written by prominent economists who can elaborate on businesses' reasons for not hiring the unemployed. After researching this topic, I hope to discover whether this law will indeed push businesses to hire again.
     The three credible sources that will support my argument for giving unemployed workers the right to sue businesses who do not hire them are a book titled Philosophy and the Problems of Work: a reader, a money.cnn.com article called "Looking for Work? Unemployed Need not Apply", and nelp.org (National Employment Law Project) briefing paper about employment discrimination against the jobless. Altogether, these sources contain insight on whether people should have the right to work, possible reasons for companies to openly deny unemployed workers a job upfront, and surveys detailing people's attitude toward this trend among companies.
     This issue is very current, and needs to be evaluated. On the one hand, I sympathize with unemployed Americans who are not even being considered as potential employees. They are trapped in this vicious cycle, and for now, the only solution that can benefit them is to ban employment discrimination against the unemployed, which I completely support; however, I am not sure suing a company for not hiring the unemployed will really solve anything except grant temporary money to those denied employment. 

                                                           Works Cited

"Fact Sheet: the American Jobs Act." www.whitehouse.gov. The White House, 08 Sept 2011. Web. 29 Sept 2011. 

Blog #3- "The Achievement of Desire"

     Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire" is a story that I can very much relate to. Being a native-born American citizen and child to foreign-born parents posed a challenge for both Rodriguez and me, especially when it came to education. One thing that caught my eye in Rodriguez's story was when Rodriguez mentions, "it was my father who laughed when I claimed to be tired by reading and writing." My mother reacts in a similar way. Any time I tell her I'm tired from homework, she gasps in surprise and replies that one can't be tired from studying; one can only be tired from physical labor. This response always and still does irritate me, but it raises a fascinating point. The disparity between less educated, working class parents and their more educated children is so great that diligence and fatigue from diligence mean two different things to each party. My parents, who were raised in an agrarian household, do not understand how difficult and exhausting school can be; likewise, I may never know how hard it was for my parents to engage in labor-intensive farming early in their childhood.

Blog 2- "The Pain Scale"

     I found many insightful questions, quotes, and points in "The Pain Scale," but one part that really struck me was the analogy about the finite whole numbers and infinite fractions that Biss uses to highlight a similar case: the distance between the body and the mind. Biss raises an interesting point when she mentions that it is very difficult to categorize the level of pain one feels. One's body may be in pain, but ultimately, it is the mind that interprets or determines how severe the pain is. Another fascinating point that Biss makes is that her mind may remember the events that led to the pain, but her body cannot feel pain from the past unless she inflicts that pain on her body again. I'm thinking that trying to remember how you ended up in pain is pain in it of itself.

Summary of "Why Bother?"

        In the New York Times Magazine 2008 article “Why Bother?,” writer and University of California Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan raises the issue about whether people should take action to minimize climate change. Pollan addresses the major problem with climate change: the majority of people continue to live a lifestyle of consuming and producing cheap fossil fuel for modern convenience. The “’cheap-energy mind’”, Pollan notes, inhibits people from changing their lifestyle because they cannot imagine living a life that is different from what they are accustomed to (92). Emphasizing the importance of bridging the rift between “what we think and what we do”, Pollen suggests that we use the power of influence to set off a “chain reaction of behavioral change” among people in our communities (92). Pollen also stresses that planting a garden is a major step toward dramatically reducing one’s carbon footprint because it lowers carbon emissions, provides fresh and healthy produce, and allows people to reconnect with their neighbors.

                                                                       Work Cited
Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother?" New York Times Magazine 20 Apr. 2008: 19+. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2012. 88-94. Print.

Research Exploration Blog I- Freewriting

     As someone who plans to enter the field of entertainment journalism, initially, I thought of writing about why reality TV shows and reality stars are so popular among young American viewers, but given the limited number of credible resources out there covering this topic, I decided to explore other issues that are better fit for college-level research papers. One topic that came to mind was whether lgbt history should be taught in high schools. Other questions that I am considering exploring include whether childhood obesity is a form of child abuse; is the death penalty ethical and effective in terms of lowering crime rate; does MTV's Teen Mom encourage teen pregnancy; and finally, how has MTV changed over the years, and how has this change affected the youth today (Not sure if MTV is worthy of college-level writing, to be honest)? I am leaning toward the topic about MTV's transformation over the years, but I am willing to explore any of the topics I just mentioned.