Final Blog

All of the texts we have read during this class were interesting to me.Each article had good points and every piece of text had a conflict. Their was always a problem. Their were a lot of naysayers in each text which made reading the text interesting. Also the topics of each text was related to something in real life.My three favorites texts were Goffman ,Sedaris and orbach.Goffman was probably the most interesting to me. This also taught me the most. This article was about how things are feature on tv or in magazines and movies.It explained what everything meant.Things like feminine touch,using a womans touch for certain things to sell the object. Goffman,”Woman more than are pictures using their fingers and hands to teace the outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface,or to effect a “just barely touching” of the kind that might be significant between two electrically charged bodies”.(29)The elegance of the woman’s hand to tell a story. Another thing in goffman was function ranking. I found this interesting when a certain role is more higher then the others.For example a doctor in a commercial you would listen to more talking about health than a regular person. If you have a normal person on the street trying to tell you the risks of something and then you have a doctor most of the time you’d listen more to the doctor because hes a credible source. Or if a a doctor is in a commercial trying to inform people about a certain disease most people are going to believe the doctor instead of a regular person even if the person is living with the disease and may know just as much information. The doctor being a credible source people automatically are drawn to believe that the doctor knows what hes talking about.Family role was also in goffman about how in commercials there is a stereotypical family in the commercial. In most commercials you see a father who works and whos ahead of the family.The mother who gets the kids ready for school and takes care of them.Then the kids outside playing.The dad always had to be the higher rold in the family.The father is always pictured at the top of the family.That interested me how theirs stereotypes in these commercials.2nd article I found good was Sedaris. Sedaris was about a 41 year old man who went back to school. He moved to Paris because he needed to learn the language there. He felt that because he was 41 no one could push him around.Sedaris,’’I remind myself that I am now a full grown man.No one will ever again card me for a drink or demand that I weave a floor mat out of newspapers. At my age a reasonable person should have completed his sentence in the prison of nerves and the insecure that the great promise of adulthood?”(291)He thought just because he was going to school with people maybe not his age he had the advantage.Everyone in his class knew the language pretty good, he thought he did too.He found out that being 41 didn’t mean you got special treatment. He was scared of his teacher and embarrassed to answer questions.The last text Orbach which was really good.Orbach was a feminist who believed that woman should love themselves for who they are.She was against the way society make woman look on tv.They make it seem okay to look a certain way that isn’t the healthiest and the tv doesn’t give good role models.She feels as if fat can ruin a girls self esteem and it shouldn’t be looked at as it is.Shes also against how woman are viewed in the publice with sex stereotypes’ enjoyed this text because Susie orbach wrote about her thoughts even if it went against what society thinks today.

Blog#8

With regards to the philosophies or ways of looking at your meat that Pollan

describes, which one or ones do you think fit(s) your perspective and why?

a)When pollan says, "I killed this pig i felt it descend on me with the weight of moral obligation.And yet now the prospect of sitting down to a meal of this animal was unthinkable"(356-357).I recently felt the same way on thanksgiving watching my mom prepare the turkey my dad bought from a farm was disturbing to me.Even thought the turkey was already dead i still watched her chop of the neck and prepare the turkey.The whole time i was thinking this wow i feel bad for this turkey.I remembered the video (meet your meat) and i couldnt help but think how they got this turkey.I would say to my mom ,"no way im eating this turkey" because that video disturbed me but,even thought i ate it, i was hesitant to eat the turkey.When pollan says"Just then i could have made myself vomit simply by pictureing myself putting a fork to a bite of this pig.How was i ever going to get past this?"(357).This is exactly what i was thinking how am i going to eat this but obviously i had to eat turkey on thanksgiving dinner because haveing it prepared in front of ur face is different then seeing it being prepared.Maybe if i would have watched "meet your meat" right before i probebly wouldnt have eaten any turkey!

blog 7

I believe the Omnivores dilemma is figureing out as much as possible about the foods he eats.Every food has a story behind how it was made,or how it was grown.For example hunting to be able to hunt you need to get a lisence.Pollan said,"It seems they'll sell a high powered rifle to just about anyone in California,but its against the law to aim the thing at an animal without first enduring a fourteen hour class and a one hundred question multiple-choice exam that demands some study"(284).To be able to hunt for meat whether it be for the fun of nature or to eat off of theirs alot of work behind it.Also the growing of the veggitables and fruits also take time and effort.Pollan mentions chanterells,a mushroom.To get this one mushroom theirs alot of work into it and maybe danger looking for it because some mushrooms have fungi are dangerous.When pollan was younger his mom put this idea not to pick anything from the woods berries,mushrooms, etc because you can get fungi.This frightened him into never picking anything.Once pollan finally gets his hands on a chanterelle he gets ready to use it and doesnt teust to use it."My mothers mycophobic warnings rang in my ears"(286).I dont beleive i have gone through this dilemma to his extent to wanna find out where everything is made or comes from,but now from reading pollan i refrain from eating certain things just from some of the things mentioned in the book about fast food and corn.All the infortmation about the fda really has made me more cautious about whats in foods.which is his whole dilemma when he frequently questions whats behind the food on the table?

Blog 6

I belive organic is when the food is grown more natural then others.Organic foods arent grown with harsh chemicals,The farmer lets them grow more natural.Organic veggitable of course take longer and more money but are more worth it in the end.Organic doesnt contain pesticides.Pollan says,The word "organic" has proved to be one of the most powerful words in the supermarket(137).I believe this means that people now a days believe to be healthy you must buy organic foods,which i belive is true not only organic foods ,but organic is healthy for you.None of the foods are processed so they must be made the natural way right?Processed foods are made more for convenience .pollan says,"A direct observation of how food is produced ..Whole food shoppers feels that by buying "organic he is engageing in authentic experiences"(139).The media trys to get people to buyt organic.For many reasons one of course to sell to make money.Another reason of course to get people to be healthier.Organic isnt always the most convenient or expensive but is more healthy.I think Organic can be rhetorical because when you think of organic you think of healthy.Organic symbolizes healthy and healthy lifestyle.Organic symbolizes foods that take time to grow that are not processed canned or made with any pesticides or chemicals.Just food that comes straight from the farm.When you think of foods that come straight from the far you think of healthy because veggitables are very much healthy and good for your body.This which gives people the idea that organic is healthy and good for you.

blog 5

When pollan says "Men have become tools of their tools”I think pollan means that every man has a tool something that controls their life.They all have something that is a basic to what they use everyday .In the book it was corn ,corn was the tool.In the chapter corn was what kept food on the table and money in the wallets.Corn was a very big essential something needed to survive.pollan says"farmers faceing lower prices have only one option if they want to be able to maintain their standard living ,paying their bills,and service their debt,and that is to produce more"(53).In this qoute which is saying how important corn is in their life,that this is the major tool needed and without this they cannot live.Men do become toold of their tools becuase in this example everything they do is for the better of the corn to make more corn sell more for a better life.I feel this is also very interesting because men are usually the ones useing tools and tools are something that help you with everyday things.Tools get you to fix something they are an object that helps you.If you have to fix a table for example you will need tools without a tool it cant be fixed.Everyone has a certain tool they need and use to get them throught the day to accomplish things get them where they need to be.

Yes i believe men face problems in their diet and body image just as woman do.Of course not just woman worry about their bodies and how they look.I feel as if thought to men its a different issue they have this pressure to be the "macho man".Society always describes men as being manly, taller and built.The man should be powerful over the woman the woman should be feminine and feminine men isnt what is attractive.orbach explains in her book how men have "labor power roles and expectations"(orbach 202).When you think of these words you think a more powerful person both mentally and physically.Your not gonan think of those words and imagine a 5 foot 100 lb guy that isnt what society thinks of so i believe this is the pressures men face with body issue to be the more masquline ,"tough guy"

Blog #4

Asimov and sedaris both relize that being educated doesnt have anything to do with the way something apears.The way thats being communicated doesnt make the person more intelligent then the next,but the infortmation thats trying to be told is important.By what a persons saying you can also tell if that person is academically intelligent or street smart.Assimov states,"I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160''.This made him feel asthough he was more educated then others from one test,as stated by assimov,"All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too".As he finds out later that this is clearly untrue.Theirs different types of intelligence in the world ,common sense,handy work ,not just book smarts.From passing one test doesnt make you intelligent maybe academically but theirs more in life to be educated by then what u answer correctly on a test.Sedaris states that launguage doesnt have to do with how intelligent a person is ,its not how you say it but more important if the infortmation trying to be told thats what makes a person seem educated.

Blog#3

a)My favorite qoute in goffman was when goffman says,"In our society when a man and a woman collaborate face-to-face in an undertaking the man-it would seem is likely to perform the executive role,provideing only that the one can be fashioned(32).I dont understand this qoute,this qoute is saying how in most commercials or advertisements the man is over powering the woman.The man plays the lead role and that the woman follow.Showing maybe that the man is more inferrior then the woman.I dont believe that a man always has to seem like hes more powerful and superior to the woman ,that he has more power because thats not the case now.Woman and men both have roles now where they can both seem to perform the executive role.

b)Another qoute i found interesting when bordo said"When did perfection become applicable to a human body?( 151).I like this qoute because she is trying to say that no body is perfect.Theirs no such thing as perfection.In the passage she is explaining how looks have taken over woman liposuctions,face-lifts all the plastic surgery thats how obsessed people have become with trying to look perfect.Thats leaveing a bad role model for young girls who have the presure to be perfect perfect body perfect looks.

c)Honoslty i think that goffmans and some of bordos analysis still hold up somewhat today.Goffmans passage was saying how how woman usually show most of the emotion and are more of the acting role.They are less of the main effective roll.This usually isnt true in some cases.Yes the woman still play feminine rolls obviously and some cases the man has to be the overpowering one in the advertisement.In susans case alot of her points still hold up today most girls in commercials have to look perfect.They have to attract the customers and the way they attract is by useing sex cells.To attract the men buyers in most commercials they use a woman selling her sexuality more then so the product but that will attract the man to buy it .Also with woman they use a gorgeous girl which will get the woman to buy the product because they want to resemble the beautiful woman.