Advertisements and Culture Reflection 

Olay emerged an ad that focused on selling a stereotypical fancy lifestyle as they portray a close up image of a beautiful woman with words such as 'mother', 'wife', 'shoe aficionado' that were situated right next to her glowing and joyous face expression.  This induces emphasis on how Olay impacted her life and lifestyle. Yet this ad, although efficacious, manages to characterize the stereotypes seen in our present society. It devalues women's ambitions and associates women with mothers and wives as the ad implies yet does not suggest that they could have bigger roles than just that and actually have a contribution to society. Due to the strong gesture of stereotype, I as well as my group thought this ad was from a longer time period where such stereotype was expected and a woman would be known for her housewife contribution and care for the house and no play a major role in anything else which is not at all surprising but what was surprising was how recent this ad was, being published only in 2002 which clearly shows that stereotyping but not be as seemingly obvious nowadays doesn't mean that it has disappeared but yet still roams around and used to persuade women.
This ad sets a powerful feminine vibe yet when clearly analysed, it can be seen that it only targets and aims to empower certain women, women who have those roles such as wife and mothers to encourage them that Olay will succeed in supporting them to have a fancy and healthy lifestyle. The theme it focuses on is also self care and healthcare which shows that a woman should take care of herself as a mother and wife yet simultaneously the ad dis-empowers and ignores women who have other more important roles to society and focus on their careers for instance.
In the ad, the woman is wearing a wedding ring, which again focuses on her priorities of a being a wife and mother encouraging women like her to purchase the lifestyle Olay has to offer to lead them to a more open and happier life. 

GUESS WHO'S NOT BROKE THESE DAYS: CELEBRITIES ...!

There is no doubt that celebrities do in many ways entertain us through their majestic music and artistic ways yet since when should this be appreciated through millions of dollars. Up until 2014, Beyonce has made a solid $115 million just for the music she produces which consists of 3-minutes of dancing and wandering around and for tickets that get sold for their concerts in the first hour. Since when did it become so easy to simply auto-tune your voice and considered music and then make millions worth of it. Yet you would think these celebrities would contribute to the world and help out with the mounts of money they're making. Though many argue that celebrities are role models, it is easily proven against. Many young kids become obsessed and look up to these young, fashionable, forged looking celebrities and want to become like them but do you really want your child to end up looking or being like Lil Wayne or Nicki Minaj? Do you really? Many of them set bad examples for the youth and try to make them strive for the impossible. Since when is beauty classified by the amounts of make up worn? Or the tight clothes and the body we have?When did we give celebrities the right to portray beauty in their own fashion? Its simple, since the time we decided to cash out our own money to keep supporting them because, without us, there's no them. Celebrities gain all the credibility and money due to how much they influence us and yes it is fine to spend money to buy music but since when should they be making more than doctors and lawyers, actual professionals that are needed on a daily basis. 

With the money celebrities make some of them, mercifully do spend it on good causes such as helping the poor, donating and taking part in helping or donating with organization and some even have their own organizations that they're in charge of. The Ressler Gertz Foundation,actress Jami Gertz and her husband, Anthony Ressler . Grants from the foundation include $1.7 million to the LA County Museum of Art, $400k to Cedar Sinai Medical Center. Actor Matthew McConaughey —  invested $1,537,292 To the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation that he established. Grants distributed include $88,000 to Communities in School Los Angeles West and $38,000 Communities in School Central Texas. one of the most known celebrities is Oprah Winfrey, she is an example of a celebrity to look up to even though she does make too much money. Through the Angel Network, Oprah Winfrey has awarded hundreds of grants to organizations that support the education and empowerment of women, children, and families in the United States and around the world. She has also provided significant funding for The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, which is an academy for young women who have done service in their communities and have an ability to create positive and enduring change. 

Yet unfortunately, the vast majority of celebrities have the tendency to spend most of their money on overly expensive and useless items which are never really needed. Like when Beyonce cashes out $100,000 on a pair of leggings or when Nicolas Cage decides to spend $275,000 on an octopus and two King Cobras and a ridiculous  $1.6m on a collection of comic books. Only to get started on Paris Hilton who decides its normal to cash out $325,000 on a dog house. 

Rihanna, known for her beautiful voice, is of course a very over the top paid artist who decided to spend $1m on hairdos. Over 70% of celebrities waste their money on needs rather than necessities.
Regrettably, most of the celebrities are over paid for what they do and provide to society, unlike doctors, they don't have the ability to help or cure humanity in any sort of way or offer much of help and sadly those few that do try and attempt to help clearly haven't made too much of a difference whereas maybe if that much amount of money had been invested into countries, insurances, medical help, doctors, society and more, then there would be more of a difference and help issued to our society. 

TEXT 1 ANALYSIS

Audience and Purpose:Text 1

Text #1 is memoir extracted from the autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole. It follows all conventions of memoirs, namely direct narration, hindsight wisdom, dialogue and anecdotes. Direct narration is evident through the repeated use of ‘I´ throughout the extract, as well as from the content being a direct recounting of her history. The author also provides multiple instances of hindsight wisdom in her observations on death and life, saying that, ”Death is always terrible – no one need be ashamed to fear it.” Similarly, she reflects on her relationship with the surgeon in, “I think he had some fondness for me… I used to…weep over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”  Notable characters are also given their own voice, in “Let my lay my head upon your breast.” Finally, it was anecdotal as she recounted a specific event from her past – her falling in love with the surgeon. The aim of the piece was to recount her experiences, and to retell her emotions on them. At the publishing time of the piece, it was likely the audience were the English. This is shown in the sympathy she expresses with them, in “the mother country pays a dear price for the possession of her colonies,” and in the older styled diction. The audience may also be people who have experienced the deaths of loved ones, as it offers support for them and suggestions on dealing with it.

In this memoir, the author is able to retell her experience in Jamaica in the year 1853 and express through writing, all the emotions she had during that time period. She then goes on to reflect on her time there and her experiences. She talks a lot about deaths and its sufferings and because she was a nurse, it was much harder on her. This could relate to people going through similar times with a loved one, so it provides the readers with an insight. The author retells a very personal and intimate anecdote of her relation with a surgeon. This makes it more of a memoir because the author is able to engage with her audience and to portray her insights on their personal thoughts and views. The author has also gained wisdom through her experience with death and realized: “Death is always terrible- no one needs to be ashamed of it” and “for before that time, if I had not learnt to meet him with a brave, smiling face, and this he taught me.”

The mood of the memoir is friendly and quite personal/ private. The author uses this memoir to reflect on her time in Jamaica. One of the main themes is death, which adds a bit of a depressive atmosphere yet gradually brightens the mood by retelling the story of her and the surgeon, relating the theme to love instead of death and says: “I do not willingly care to dwell upon scenes of suffering and death.” She continuously towards the end focuses on the positive things of the surgeon and how he made her feel instead of talking about his death: “his kind heart feigned a feeling that he saw would give me joy; for I used to call him “My son- my dear child”, and to week over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”

It is written in a form of a memoir so throughout the whole extract there is a repetition of ‘I’ which is an example of direct narration which reflects her feelings and personal experiences. Through using a memoir, many anecdotes can be told that which shows a person’s wisdom evolving creating inspiration for other people, here we see how she gains wisdom of death: “Death is always terrible- no one should be ashamed to fear it.” The uniqueness of the piece gets the readers sort of engaged yet due to her more old structure and older dialect; many readers might find themselves not able to identify with such a piece. She also structures her sentences to be very long, sometimes five continuous lines. She relates herself with England and refers to it as “the mother country” which hints where this style of writing emerged from. Due to her relation with England, the author’s views and opinion are limited and it would be bias because it would affect how she viewed incidents and occurrences around her relation with the surgeon.
Throughout the extract, pronouns are used.

Rationale and Memoir

Rationale
Written Task One

I’ve chosen to produce a memoir because it is a text type that is able to portray the individual’s insights on their personal thoughts and views. Through using a memoir, many anecdotes can be told that which shows a person’s wisdom evolving creating inspiration for other people. The response will be written in the perspective of Paul Dunbar, the poet who wrote Little Brown Baby because he will best be able to convey the meaning and express the feelings that were go along with the piece of writing. The target audience is everyone especially because it is a memoir, therefore everyone you should be able to read it and have an opinion. The purpose of this response is to show and prove to people that just because AAVE isn’t classified as Standard English, doesn’t make it any less degrading or for it to be considered as broken English or wrong and that in fact a lot of times it is understood and used for people to express themselves in their own ways and it is a part of peoples cultures and identity. There is a lot of historical context to AAVE and how it has developed through the years and how it is used with certain people at certain times. There is definitely a social setting, it is used to socialize between African Americans most of the times but recently other cultures have started using it but there is an extent to were no other culture can interfere because it is their language of intimacy between their culture. 

Memoir

AAVE… The first thing that comes to mind is our ownership. It’s a dialect that we own, we use and we understand. It is our dialect of intimacy. AAVE, also known as Black English Vernacular is mainly spoken in the United Sates and the Caribbean. AAVE has developed through the years with speakers of West Africa who learnt English on plantations in the southern coastal states such as Georgia or South Carolina. All our ancestors have been speaking this way and it has been passed down for generations now, it is understood between us.

Many people and scholars would argue that it is not an acceptable form of speaking and communicating because it is “broken” or “wrong” and less valuable and degrading to society because it degrades the English language and those who speak it are of less standards and do not really wish to educate themselves on a higher level. Some people also argue that in certain situations, speaking in AAVE is inappropriate and can sometimes let a person achieve less than they should. For instance, if a person was to apply for a job and went to an interview and spoke in AAVE to the manager, they would less likely be able to receive this job because the way they speak portrays a less understanding and devalued manner yet why should we be judged based on who we are? We don’t intentionally put on that dialect; it is a part of who we are a part of our master identity. Why should we have to change ourselves to be accepted or classified as “smart”? Many people don’t realise what an important role AAVE plays in our lives.

In my poem Little Brown Baby, I wrote the whole poem in AAVE, all of it. My use of AAVE in the poem creates the effect of speech patterns. In the poem, the father of the baby is the speaker, he came back from work and looks at his baby and is concerned of his sons future when he says: “Wisht you could allus know ease an’ cleah skies;/Wisht you could stay jes’ a chile on my breas’--/Little brown baby wif spa’klin’ eyes!”
When writing this poem I tried to establish the joys of life, the baby’s father holds him and enjoys his son’s innocence. The son has sparkling eyes and a smile that’ll never leave his face.
So, Little Brown Baby conveys the importance of family, love, joy and humour and the heart wounds that occur in the life of the speaker but not only him but also the whole race of the African Americans. This poem was best written in AAVE because it best described the situation and best expresses the feelings and emotions that we have in our lives, it is not only a speech but a dialect of intimacy, a dialect understood within our culture and who we are.

I dislike how others thought of black people’s dialect, as if black people were limited to a compelled form of expression that was unassociated with the more educated class. When once asked at an interview how I felt about all this, I replied: "I am tired, so tired of dialect, my natural speech is dialect and my love is for the Negro pieces"
Back in school I was the only coloured kid there was but that wasn’t what stood out the most, it was my scholarly performance. I did very well and became the resident of the school Newspaper but later as I wanted to pursue these dreams of mine I couldn’t due to the black discrimination that was going on. Instead I became an elevator operator but much later was discovered for my true talents yet I started writing to suit society and in a way that didn’t please me much and much later did I realise that I will write in AAVE because that is my dialect of my people and it is a part of who I am which took a long while because living in that society made you feel like you were less of value and not capable of accomplishing much if you spoke or wrote in AAVE.  

The article “Ain’t No Reason” and the video “African-American English” both agree with important use of AAVE in our community. Just because AAVE doesn’t follow the traditional American English rules of grammar doesn’t mean it’s wrong, instead it has its own rules.  In the articles on “Ain’t No Reason” the author explains how we enforce our own grammatical rules such as using double negatives such as: “I ain’t got none” or “I ain’t singin’ nothing” or “I ain’t never eat no sushi” yet the interesting part is if you translated these sentences into French you’d have: “Je n’en ai pas” or “Je ne chnaterai pas” or “Je n’ai jamais mange de sushis” you can clearly see that French has the same structure as AAVE in using the double negatives, does that make French wrong? AAVE follows its own strict grammatical rules.
AAVE is spoken by younger people because they’ve brought up like that because that’s what they know, it isn’t wrong- it’s their language.

In the video “African- American English” it discusses the importance of language and how the music and poetry of the language creates a bond of love. People talk like they talk; they talk like who they are because they are who they are. The use of language is a way to continue to communicate ideas and especially emotions. We use AAVE to keep connection with group and to make sure we don’t lose them or our connection with them. AAVE is a part of life and a sense of family and familiarity and it determines lines. Every generation has to identify itself and create own language. We develop AAVE, like language to keep communicating and keep ideas going and most importantly because it is a language/ dialect of intimacy it is most certainly used to express our emotions in our own manners.

LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY 

John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!


TEXTING IS A MIRACULOUS THING. John Whorter looks at the meaning behind language in various ways. He says language has been used mostly in speech. We write like we speak. The thing about texting is that it's loose on its structure, so there's no focus on punctuation and grammar. It's basically the idea of fingered speech in which we write the way we talk and it is easy to think of it as a decline to language due to its bagginess and concern to the lack of traditional blackboard ways of teaching and writing. People think something has gone wrong but actually texting is a kind of emergent complexity. It is not writing at all in fact it has a new structure, the  words become subtler and words start to become markers of empathy, marker of accommodation which linguistics call pragmatic particles. Texting has introduced a new information marker. There's new constructions developing due to texting, a whole new way of life, young people are developing, alongside using their own writing skills meaning they can use two things which increases the dialectical which is cognitively beneficial in terms of writing so actually texting is a balancing act and therefore is an expansion of their linguistic repertoire.


David Crystal: Texting

David Crystal does not believe that texting decreases literacy rates of young adults. Crystal discusses the use of abbreviation and acronyms and how they motivate a much wider ranging and innovative set of conventions. Therefore texting has its own different ways of direct address items.  Texting is beneficial to literacy.


Both of the men agree that technology actually develops a new certain type of dialect used between the young adults to communicate. Although both point out how badly this is seen around the world and that actually technology doesn't improve or support language, they argue reasonable points on how its a new profound structure of writing.

Although they both support it, they focus at it in different ways and forms. For instance, Crystal says that in order to leave out a letter you need to know its there. Which helps you get better and practice on it. Where as John approaches it in another matter. He looks through history showing evidence of how bad language was back then and texting wasn't even introduced back then. Which shows that texting isn't exactly a main reason for bad language, grammar and punctuation. He believes the it is beneficial to them and develops their language making them bidialectical.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION 

Dear Ms. Pettet, 

Since when do fashionistas serve the right to decide whether a religious symbol can be passed as a fashion statement?

The turban has a lot of historical context and has been around for over thousands of years. different religions wear different colours according to their beliefs and culture. For instance in Islam, Prophet Mohammed used to wear a white turban which is a holy color. In Sikhism the main reasons to wear turban are to take care of the hair, promote equality, and preserve the Sikh identity. The people of the Sikh religion do not cut their hair as a religious observance so therefore the turban protects the hair and keeps it clean. Sikhs only form 2% of India’s population, their turbans help identify them. So the Sikhs rely on their turban for their master identity. When he institutionalized the turban as a part of the Sikh identity, Guru Gobind Singh said, "My Sikh will be recognized among millions."

I don't think its right for you and other fashionistas to portray your "fashion ideas" through other peoples cultures and beliefs. By using the turban as a fashion icon, you gradually start degrading it and the significance of the turban starts to vanish. As I have already stated, Sikhs make up only 2% of India's population which represent their identity by wearing the turban so you're slowly decreasing their identity to the community and other cultures. 

Yet although you might not think that you're insulting them or treating them unjustly, many religious or cultural people would take to offense how you're making an important symbol in their culture disappear for your own gain and fashion fame.  

"...after a two-season slump, the intricately bold turban designs at the Marc by Marc Jacobs show for Spring/Summer 2013 proved the fashion trend is, yet again, the hottest, statement-worthy accessory to try."

"Whether it's a traditional headwrap style or a detailed headband, the turban is this season's perfect show-stopping way to top of your look."

You say those statements, ignorant to the fact that these turbans generate from a long timed culture and religions and actually have a meaning and significance to people. This is disrespectful in many different cases. Many people don't know about the origin of the turban so they'll believe that it actually originates as a fashion icon and doesn't have any significance or history, making it even less valuable as a cultural item. In my opinion this should not be a frequent thing and many Sikhs are not happy with how their icon is being played with as ignored as what it really stands for. This should be respected and treated carefully because it is offensive to many. 

I would much appreciate it if you could consider changing the way you view this and at least give a bit of context regarding the turban.

Many thanks, 

Ghadeer Salih 

MEMOIR...

Hi, my name is Shawn Corey Carter, also know to my fans as Jay Z, my stage name. Now at the age of 44, I am married to the world most powerful celebrity queen B also knows as  Beyonce Knowles from which I have a beautiful baby girl named Blue Ivy Carter.I am successful but not only job and money wise but family, I have succeeded in making my family happy and being there for them, financially and by my presence. Unfortunately this didn't come easy to me. As a young boy I was raised in a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. My mom brought me and siblings up alone because my father had abandoned us I wont forget the time my father shot my own brother, his own son in the shoulder at the age of 12 for stealing his jewelry. I tried to stay in school for as long as possible but in the end didn't have the honors of graduating like everyone else, instead I feel into the habit of selling crack cocaine.

Music was a passion for me. Every since I was younger I would wake up the house at night just practicing drums beats on the kitchen tables, my mum would shout at me saying: "Carter boyy, you best be stopping that noise, some people 'round here wanna sleep". Soon after I began to freestyle and writing my own lyrics and kept listening to the big artists from back in the days and soon that's how i developed the name Jazzy, everyone started calling me that which soon led them to calling me Jay-Z with a hyphen but I later declared it would be Jay Z without the hyphen, not that it would make a difference but it is now the name I am known for. As a artist i tried to aspire young teenagers to follow what they felt passionate about and do what they loved. I tried as much to represent the black community and show that we are as much capable of being successful and having great accomplishments in life. A lot of times I like to focus my songs on my community and what I have been through and what the community has been through.

One night I went to Q-Tip's solo album release party and at some point in the night, I ran into the guy everyone's been telling me is behind the bootleg. So I approached him. When I told him what I suspected, to my surprise, he got real loud with me right there in the middle of the club. It was strange. We separated and I went over to the bar. I was sitting there like, "No the fuck this nigga did not....." I was talking to people, but I was really talking to myself out loud, just in a state of shock. Before I even realized what I was doing, I headed back over to him, but this time I was blacking out with anger. The next thing I knew, all hell had broken loose in the club. That night the guy went straight to the police and I was indicted.

There was no reason to put my life on the line, and the lives of everyone who depends on me, because of a momentary loss of control..... I vowed to never allow myself to be in a situation like that again.

In one of my favorite songs, 99 Problems I say: "If you grew up with holes in your zapatosYou'd celebrate the minute you was having dough." After a while I started getting a lot of criticism relating my songs and talk about money. In this line i mean, if you grew up poor like me with holes in your shoes (zapatos) you'd celebrate the minute you start making money. In this song I also talk about how people take me for dumb because I came from the dirt and poverty but I'm not dumb but more like a millionaire,

This is a main part of my song:The year is '94 and in my trunk is raw
In my rear view mirror is the mother f****** law
I got two choices yall pull over the car or
bounce on the double put the pedal to the floor
Now I ain't trying to see no highway chase with jake
Plus I got a few dollars I can fight the case
So I...pull over to the side of the road
And I heard "Son do you know why I'm stopping you for?"
Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low
Do I look like a mind reader sir, I don't know
Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo?
"Well you was doing fifty five in a fifty four"
"License and registration and step out of the car"
"Are you carrying a weapon on you I know a lot of you are"
I ain't stepping out of sh** all my papers legit
"Do you mind if I look round the car a little bit?"
Well my glove compartment is locked so is the trunk and the back
And I know my rights so you gon' need a warrant for that
"Aren't you sharp as a tack are some type of lawyer or something?"
"Or somebody important or something?"
Nah I ain't passed the bar but I know a little bit
Enough that you won't illegally search my sh**
"Well see how smart you are when the K-9's come"

This shows the stereotype many people including the police had set about the black people in America, that we were thieves and liars. The policeman was quick to assume I owned a weapon with me. I splashed debut in 1996 and cranked out album after album and hit after hit throughout the decade and into the next and became so successful. I am now one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in America and one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records, while receiving 19 Grammy Awards for my musical work, and other nominations. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers ever, I was ranked number one by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006. Three of my albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album(2003), are considered landmarks in the genre with all of them featured in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.