every f*cking day of my life - a justified homicide?

  http://documentarystorm.com/one-minute-to-nine/

      Following years of brutal domestic abuse, Wendy Maldanado and her son, Randy, murdered her husband, Aaron.  Following the bludgeoning, Wendy received a ten-year prison sentence while her son received a six-year ‘shock probation.’  

            Maldanado simply reacted out of self-defense.  Previously, her marriage could have been defined as ritualism by Merton’s Strain Theory.  In a moment of rebellion, she walked away from the life that she had known. 

            According to Durkheim’s Structural-Functional approach, deviance reassures the values and norms of culture and encourages social change.  Although the homicide of one’s spouse is arguable and is commonly frowned upon, being able to successfully escape a relationship which was physically and emotionally damaging the victim, the children, and everyone around them.

            Given these reasons, I do not believe that their sentence was justified.  Imprisoning someone for merely protecting themselves and their family makes no sense to me.  I think that Maldanado and her family should have received rehabilitation and counseling rather than jail time.  It is my belief that Wendy and Randy Maldanado should be credited with justifiable homicide.

tv for tots ; a cultural deviation

 

            In his article, TV for Tots: Not What You Remember, journalist Jonathan Last makes the claim that children’s television programming is neutering their male characters, creating an effeminate generation.  However, a recent cultural shift may be to blame for this change in characterization.  While I believe that gender roles are important to the structure of our historically successful patriarchal society, I also believe that this can be beneficial to a moderate extent.

            “The men on kids’ shows tend to be either aged, and hence harmless, or young, and vaguely effete.” (202) This accusation was brought on by Last upon his realizing the drastic shift in television culture for children.  Last points to shows such as Yo Gabba Gabba!, LazyTown, and Sesame Street, none of which feature a man with strong elements of masculinity that is without old age or eccentricity.  

            I believe that this change can be explained by the strength in which the feminist movement impacted our modern family media.  When feminism spread across the Western culture, it carried with it one simple idea; that females should be allowed equal rights as males.  However, some individuals have received this message the wrong way, almost claiming that women should possess more power and that a matriarchal society would be preferable.  By idolizing the gentleness of the female sexuality, we almost demonize the healthy male sexuality, portraying them as harmful and predatory.  The truth is, most men are not predators and they accept no as an answer, but, our current culture praises femininity, stating that poise is power.  What if we were to accept that some men are manly men, some are not, and that either way, it is okay.

Works Cited

Last, Jonathan.  “TV For Tots: Not What You Remember.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas.  Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell.  8^th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014.  202-04. Print.

the race riot ; a dedication to andy warhol

 

He was a spectator, an innovator, a radical; he was the one and only, Andy Warhol.  

Born Andrew Warhola on August 6^th, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was the youngest of three sons.  His mother, Julia Warhola, was a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant.  At age eight, Warhol was diagnosed with Sydenham Chorea, otherwise referred to as St. Vitus ’ dance, which left him bed written for months at a time.  It was then that his mother began giving Warhol his first art lessons, which inspired him to pursue free art instruction at the local Carnegie Institute.

Warhol’s father, Andrej Warhola, recognized his youngest son’s artistic ability.  Following his death in 1942, Andrej left a sum of money towards Warhol’s higher education.

Warhol continued his education at Carnegie Institute of Technology, graduating in 1949 with a focus in Pictorial Design.

In 1964, Warhol painted ‘The Race Riot’, which is arguably his most significant piece both politically and psychologically.

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The piece features an image of two policeman inflicting their dogs on a black man.  While the image itself is not very clear, the emotion depicted in it certainly is.

 

The anxiety can be read in the faces of nearby onlookers, the sheer terror in the running man is loud and clear, and the ruthlessness of the men pursuing him is implied.  These emotions are revealed directly to the viewer, the coloring and duplication of the image assists in evoking a clear display of Warhol’s thoughts on the discrimination of the time.

I believe that Warhol fulfilled all four levels of the roles of being an artist in this work.  

I believe that he helped show the world in more innovative ways.  At the time, many individuals of Caucasian descent overlooked the rioting in Birmingham as foolishness, or with total disregard.  Racism was still prevalent and segregation was still enforced.  Warhol directly showed the pain caused by white-on-black racism.

Warhol also made a visual record of culture and current time.  As stated above, both racism and segregation were prevalent in 1964.  Although some history books may leave the time period as a sugarcoated fairy tale ending in peace and unity, that is not the case.  History must be learned, or else it will be repeated.  The brutality these individuals faced to make a better life for their children is a lesson to be learned for all generations.  

The simplicity of a photograph, the ease of a snapshot to be shared with friends, or the mild content which we view in our everyday lives is something of strength which we often forget.  The market for photography is so large, but often overlooked.  Everything from social networking sites to having a blanket with your favorite picture on it to the background on your phone, pictures are everywhere, we so often forget how much power a picture can possess.  When Warhol duplicated an image four times and showed it being overcast by different colors, he made us view the image in a new way.

Warhol also shed light into hidden parts of many individual’s lives.  Even though segregation was at the beginning of the end, it was still prevalent in everyday lives.  Children were being bullied, restaurant service denied, water fountains separated, because of skin pigmentation; such a small, uncontrollable factor, but such a high, insurmountable price if your genetics happen to place you on the less preferred side of the spectrum.

The color scheme, white, blue, and a double-dose of red, is an ironic comparison to the American flag, and may just have been a statement on the artist’s political beliefs, but we might never know.

In psychology, white is symbolic of purity.  While we can agree that the action being portrayed in the image is anything but pure, on first impression, to some, it may have been just that.  Many at that time saw the blacks as dirty, their race as unclean, and of good riddance.  

Blue is typically symbolic of depression, loneliness, or heartache.  In the cast of individuals in the back of the photograph, one of them may have been the man who was being pursued’s mother.  Perhaps his best friend, his colleague, or a little girl knowing that she will be next.  

The meaning of red is easy, violence, bloodshed, and mindlessness.  Red brings death in its wake.

Warhol wanted change.  He wanted the cycle to end.  He wanted people to open their eyes up and see the world around them, he wanted them to think, to feel.  He wanted their animistic ways to become humanized once again.  Most of all, he wanted peace.   

He attempted this in the most ironic way possible. 

artists ; making the invisible become visible

 

            Art is anything that provokes thought or emotion in the viewer, or, that is my personal conviction at least.

            As long as humanity has been around, we have been uncomfortable by deep thoughts and emotions.  We try to condense them without even realizing it.  We are creatures of habit, and both emotions and thoughts evoke change.

            Artists help make the unseen become seen by leading the people to open their eyes, turning everyday objects into mechanisms for aesthetic pleasure, and by helping individuals of all origins feel once again.

            Many people are afraid of art, without even knowing it.  Their minds have been boxed into the belief that one must understand something for it to be right, and art is not meant to be understood, rather it is meant to be seen, experienced, known, and ultimately, it is meant to be felt.

why the travels of gulliver described my middle school years

edit:  old school post, man, i'm sorry

 

    Discrimination; it is something that we all have faced. Whether it is for our gender, race, clothing choices, behavior, or musical tastes, we will all face it at some point or another.

            No literary character knows this better than Gulliver.  He is literally judged for his size by Lilliputians.  They pick apart his every feature.  

            This brings back memories from the dreaded middle school years.  I was such a shy soul, lost inside my own little shell.  This made me an easy target to those trying to prove themselves.  I was Gulliver, having tiny arrows shot at me, thinking that I was tied up (although, I could have just turned away, but, at the time, I did not know that).

            Now, however, I am easily one of the most overly-extroverted individuals that I know of.  I broke outside of that little shell to find that the world is such an exciting place.  Life is an adventure that I view by playing on the court; no longer do I view it from the sidelines.  

            The Lilliputians may have been powerful when together, but individually, Gulliver could have easily smashed one with his thumb.  While he really was tied down, the ropes which I faced were mere fragments of my imagination, and all I had to do to escape was sit up.