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  Short Story from TJay

Posted by Larissa Pahomov in English 2 - Pahomov - A on
It had always been that way for as long as I could remember. Until that day the U Haul truck was outside of our house which it had then set in my head that this was actually happening. I let my backpack hang from one shoulder in disbelief. My dad came to the door carrying moms’ dresser along with four other movers. “Ray! Ray! … Ray!” I had started day dreaming until I heard my friend calling me from his next door window. “Hey David”  I said looking down as I sighed. “What’s going on ; I didn’t know you were moving” he said. I thought to myself while he was talking about how different this move to Filthadelphia might be. I had been there once for a Flyers game when we went to the East Coast two years ago. It was over run with drunk people with strange accents and there were tons of Italians more than I had ever seen. “Ray! Ray! … Ray!” David said. “Hey man are you alright” he said , no my life is over I thought I just nodded and said I was okay.

Ten days later we took the long flight to our new home. Our stuff was sent to Philly ahead of us so it’d be there when we arrived. The whole flight I just sat there as my parents sat there watching movies under a blanket on their laptops. I took like four naps on that flight, the stewardess came by three times and offered some  us some pretzels and peanuts I just said no until she came back with cranberry juice I drank that. I dozed off again; when I woke up we were making our final descent into Killadelphia. I pulled the blanket over my eyes when we landed I wasn’t ready to be there yet. I left behind all my friends and even this girl I liked she said we could never be together because I wore sweater vests. *fasten seat belt sign goes off* we were officially in our new home.

We caught a cab to West Philly, the most I ever heard about this part of Philly was from Will Smith on re-runs of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The cab driver was telling my dad about everything there was to see on our way to our new home. We pulled up and I went into the vacant house our things were in thepod out front they had just been delivered. They were row homes, they looked like George Washington’s house very old. I walked in I heard voices out back so I went on the deck. There were two thuggish looking kids out there one was on the balcony and one was in the driveway below. Their accents were weird.

“Yo Tyrel!, wassup cous?” Yo bro I screamed back from my balcony as I spit on to the concrete down below. “We on the block today?” Rick screamed back while still walking. “ Yeah dawg we out here.”  

The two guys names were Tyrell and Rick they didn’t see me peeking out the sliding door. The one kid spit on to the driveway below and he was blasting some rap music out of his back pocket, his pants were sagging they looked like real scum to me nothing like my friends back home.

 “Yo Tyrell who’s that moving in next door?”  “Probably some old head who’s probably gonna try to take over the block again.” I’m bout to slide over there to my steps to see what’s popping said Tyrell”  Tyrell and Rick sat on Tyrell's front steps watching as Ray and Ray’s parents carried in leftover boxes.

Tyrell and Rick looked over at Ray and laughed at him as they said “sweater vest”

Ray just glanced up and carried the box in the house.

Later that evening he went back out front to watch everything that was going on in his new neighborhood.

I swear I hate it here and all the people imagine when school starts.

The two “new neighbors “ emerge from the next door house and pull their marijuana and lit it. They offered Ray some but he kindly said no.

 

They laughed and whispered to each other.

“Oh you looked like you don’t want no smoke” said Tyrell - in urban Philadelphia this would mean Ray doesn’t want any conflict.

“I have no idea what that means bro but I’m new here so could you just umm how do I say this so you could understand.. just you know , chill?” said Ray.

*laughter from the tandem breaks the silence of the quite street*

“Where are you from dawg?” said Rick to Ray.

“West Side” said Ray

“West Side of what cous?!” said Tyrell in an annoyed tone

“Of Long Beach” said Ray

“Yeah well be more specific next time youngboul” said Rick

“What on earth is a youngboul?” said Ray

“How do I say this so you can understand, umm a scrub” said Tyrell

Tyrell and Rick both laughed simultaneously again and said Squad.

In Philadelphia squad is something said in urban communities normally at the end of sentences by two or more people who are friends most commonly used after a punch line in a joke between them.

Ray removes himself and goes into the house where his mom is sitting on the couch he storms up the steps she asks how he likes his new friends. He replies back saying that they are not his friends.

The next morning through the wall Ray hears more of that loud rap music he bangs on the wall and the music doesn’t stop.

The music even sounds like a foreign language to me. All I hear is obscenities I miss Long Beach where it was nice outside I didn’t hear sirens all night. I went to turn on the news and all I saw was murder it was so different even the news people had accents. In the next few weeks I had my first cheesesteak and water-ice. Pronounced wooder-ice here. I even became cooler as they say with Rick and Tyrell. I even gave their music a shot. They didn’t like my pop music too much but theyheld me down. Which in Philly meant they watched after me to make sure I was okay.

I will say that I prejudged this whole city as a whole and especially their accents which I still despise. Philadelphia has been good to me thus far. I’m chilling.

Take Your Power Back

Posted by Kristina Scalia-Jackson in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

Many individuals in a position of power of influence, use manipulation on the things around them for their own gain. The best example of people in a influencing position are the media. They can, and do, twist the “truth” around to shape the way we see the world. If we continue to allow the media to manipulate our views, we will always be bias towards each other.

In the “Ways of Seeing” Video, John Berger shows many examples of how society uses bias against itself. Both speaking on the topic and showing us real examples, he expresses his point on the issue. “... the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product.” Lots of the bias in todays society are influence from the media. Weather its about a women’s self worth, race issues, or political arguments, the media has an opinion. Everyone has bias’ and theres no way around it. We need to accept our bias’ for what they are if we plan on truly trying to be objective. Certain times throughout the video, Berger goes full circle back to how the media shows women in the world. How they change peoples views on the others around them, and themselves, and pick up the ones they see around them.

There are people that are using their bias to make others aware. There are people that take the bias they get from their magazine, TV and computer screen and taking it as the right thing. “The media are desperately afraid of being accused of bias. And that's partly because there's a whole machine out there, an organized attempt to accuse them of bias whenever they say anything that the Right doesn't like. So rather than really try to report things objectively, they settle for being even-handed, which is not the same thing.” [Paul Krugman] What does it mean to be right? Is being right supposed to be whatever your thoughts and opinions are? The media has a hard time telling the difference between what is right and what we want to think is right. They have the ability to slowly change what we see around us, controlling how we think. Aware or not the media has an impact on the public no matter what it does. If it doesn’t report a certain story, their own for attack and ignorance and if they do their open to attack on how bias they are. “To remain innocent may also be to remain ignorant.” To sit back and allow people to manipulate our choices is not the innocent way. Ignorance is no longer bliss when you wake up and realize you’ve been a puppet for some time now.

The easiest and most effective way to manipulate a society is through their insecurities. If you exploit what they hate most, you can begin to mold them into what you want think. Thats what the media has been doing to women especially. “To be naked is to be one self. To be nude is to be seen naked by other and yet not recognised for oneself.” They strip women down until they are where they want them to be, them build them back up with their same bais views. “Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.” We believe we are naked, when we are really just nude. We are not being ourselves. We are putting on an act to trick others into believing we are stripped down because thats what the media is telling us to do. Were being told to be who we truly are. Act the way we want to. Embrace our uniqueness. Show ourselves in the simplest way. Meaning, be who you truly are if you are what we want you to be. Be unique if its what were advertising. Act the way we want you to. Show yourself in the simplest form if you naturally look the way we want you to. Be who we want you to be.

If we continue to allow the media to manipulate our views, we will always be bias towards each other. Some people are okay with letting others control their actions, thoughts and opinions. But they know someone is controlling them. The media hides their true games in hopes to manipulate society into submission. Weather we care to admit it, we are not naked until we let go of the medias control on us. Until then we are just nude, a fake form of our naked self.

Advertising and Insecurity

Posted by Raz Reed in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

There are many ways to make a person feel insecure. Probably the most prevalent method is through advertising. Ads are everywhere. Companies constantly seek opportunities to inject need in the brains of potential consumers, reminding them that they would be better off with that company’s products. “Your body is not as attractive as it could be.” “You’re not making as much money as you could be.” “You aren’t as happy as you could be.” These neuroses natural to humans are reinforced by the slogans and manipulative words commercials use to get under your skin and remind you that you are not perfect.

Why use insecurity in advertising?

The fundamental goal of advertising is to get you to buy or do something. That goal doesn’t need to achieved by creating a sense of insecurity. For example, in an advertisement from “Old Spice,” a mother follows around her son with his lady friend trying not to be seen. She sings a song about how he’s growing up so fast, how he’s being treated like a man and now thanks to Old Spice, he smells like a man. What this advertisement implies is that with Old Spice, women are not only attracted to you but also respect you.

Another example of an advertisement which does not attempt to make the viewer feel insecurity about his or her self is one by the U.S. Navy. In this commercial, they inform the viewer of how powerful the “call to serve” is and how it is a force of good in this world. It inspires one to join the Navy to become a better person. It does not use techniques such as the archetypal before-and-after comparison advertisements to badger the audience for not being good.

This method of before-and-after comparison is most common to insecurity-based advertisements. Why use insecurity in advertising? Well, the answer is that it’s very easy to instill self-doubt in the viewer.


It’s easier to destroy than to create.

Advertisements which deliberately attempt to make the viewer insecure are much more common than those which use different techniques (such as the aforementioned Old Spice and Navy commercials). This is because it is easier to make someone feel bad rather than good.

For example, in a short article by Mark VandeWettering, he explains how a beautiful  monument made of paper cranes dedicated to a girl who died of leukemia was easily burned down by some “yutz.” Making something is hard work, and destroying it is easy.

A survey conducted by the University of Central Florida revealed that 95% of male college students had some sort of dissatisfaction with their body, some claiming advertisements they saw a more ideal body image which made them consider their own stature.

Advertisements such as those by Axe are directed at males’ view of their sex appeal. In one of their commercials, two men and a woman are in an alley. One man looks very handsome on a motorcycle and is obviously the woman’s boyfriend, and the other man is homeless searching through a shopping cart. He sees the woman walking towards the first man and applies Axe deodorant. The woman smells, and approaches him, and sniffs him all over. She eventually returns to her boyfriend and winks at the homeless man. This advertisement is an example of those which cause people to be insecure about their body image.

A 2008 study conducted by Dove Self-Esteem Fund showed that 62% of girls aged eight to eighteen felt dissatisfied with themselves, and 71% of those girls felt that way because they believed that they were not as pretty as they should be.

However, probably the most notorious in the field of insecurity-inducing-advertisements is before-and-after cosmetics commercials. These types of ads show a female looking wrinkled, dirty, and unappealing in one frame labeled “before.” In the next, labeled “after,” is her looking attractive without any sort of blemish. This type of advertisement has caused females to feel insecurity about their own body image and purchase more in the hope of being pretty.

Defense against the “dark arts.”

Since people will not stop making advertisements that make others feel insecure, it’s important to have a self-defense against those. An article by lifehacker.com demonstrates several methods you can use as a consumer to remain unaffected by marketers’ schemes. “Don’t forget to think” is the first method: there are people everywhere who want to make money off you. Consider your purchases and if what was portrayed in the commercial will actually play out for you. The second method is “be wary of your emotional responses.”  Remember that advertisers are out to get you and have developed devious, subtle tricks to get under your skin. Just notice if you feel affected by an advertisement. The third method is “watch out for products indirectly targeted at you.” Even if you think the ad isn’t aimed at you, it can still affect you. Like in the example given on the website cited, an ad targeting dogs based of off human tendencies can still affect you. The fourth and final method is simplest: avoid advertisements altogether. If you often watch television this proves a bit difficult, but just take a short break whenever the ads come on. Pay no mind to billboards in public, and use Adblock when online. You are free of the insecurities induced by corporate giants.

Works cited:

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