The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is most notable as a challenge to racism and the racist institution of slavery, but the novel also takes aim at a whole field of social problems: child abuse, homelessness, crime, war, lack of education, poverty, lawlessness, etc. For this blog post, write about a social problem that you care about and have strong opinions about. Describe the problem as you see it, and explain your stand on the issue and why it matters to you.
P.S. This blog post will not only help your grade for first quarter but it will also set you up for an upcoming assignment (called the "ironic paper"), so it is particularly useful.
There are many social problems in society today that I have strong opinions about but, one that hits me most is bullying / cyberbullying. I am completely against bullying/cyberbullying. No matter how well you know someone their words can still hurt you even if they’re your favorite relative or dearest and closest friend, all it takes is a sentence or even one little word to knock down your reputation, self-confidence, self-esteem, etc. A lot of people have actually harmed themselves and some have committed suicide over bullying or cyberbullying. No matter if you meant what you said or not they can still hurt people’s feelings and depending how things are at home or in their life, your words could be the final straw for them and they may do something that they’ll regret later on. A lot of times we gossip about people and those can eventually be made into rumors and spread everywhere which can cause a bit of damage to the said person. It seems as though we can’t really express our opinions about certain people in our lives without drama getting in the way. This problem matters most to me because I’ve seen the society we live in today and only three words come to mind, judgemental, hypercritical and twisted. Everyone today judges everyone else on appearance, academics, social status, etc., possibly from spite or personal reasons but it seems as if no one can be themselves without being afraid of being ambushed by judgements. If you look on Facebook or some other social website and see a picture that will tell you to ignore society and just be yourself or an anti-bullying picture, you read it and you may follow/believe it but once you actually try to carry out that picture’s message there’s a pretty big chance that people are going to ask you what are you doing or why are you doing this when you should be doing this instead if you want to be “popular” or “cool” or heck even “fit in” or they’ll just make fun of you, and it puts you in a confusing and maybe an embarrassing state of mind because you thought you were doing the right thing, but everyone shoots you down saying that, that isn’t the right thing to do and then you do what they’re doing and they tell you something else. I said that the society today was twisted because of the murders going on in this country for the most oddest reasons, such as someone parent’s cutting off their allowance or they don’t want someone in their clique or they just have a mental disorder and drag people down with them. No matter how it’s done, over the internet, amongst friends or even to someone’s face, bullying is a growing problem and only we can stop it, even if it means we lose our “place” in society.
ReplyDeleteIn todays society, everything seems backwards to me. Teenagers today say things to try to connect with other people, which seems completely normal and it's probably always been like this. Except, what they say is always negative. On few occasions I have walked up to someone who I'm not to close with have started a conversation on saying things like "I'm so tired" "I hate everyone" "I can't wait to go home". Basically the new weather conversation starter is a negative statement. I came to this realization last year when I was with someone who I wasn't particularly close with when I said "I'm so tired" and I wasn't the least bit tired, I was actually having a really good day. This negative vibe has even spread to fashion. When you walk through the halls in school, you actually see people wearing things that say literally "I don't care" or "I only like to sleep and eat". What I don't get about this most is that people complain about not liking anything and they only complain more instead of fixing the situation. Maybe instead of people begin tired all the time they should get off social media and go to sleep at a reasonable time and really enjoy their day more. What the worst about this is that you can get so used to hearing people complaining all the time that even though you know you aren't feeling that way, you say it anyway because it becomes a very bad habit! My advice to anyone and at anytime is to enjoy each day and to always find the positive in even the worse situations.
ReplyDeleteThere are many issues with todays society, but I think one of the most profound ones is equal rights as a whole. This includes rights for women, those of a racial minority, and those that aren’t straight. Many people believe sexism and racism and almost all hate-crimes are a thing of the past. Though straight white women are treated rather well, the wage gap still looms over everyone. A lot of people know women make only 78 cents to a man’s dollar, but what many people don’t know is that everyone else is paid less. At the same time African-American women only make 69 cents and Hispanic women only receive 60 cents. At this time, there are only 32 states that have legalized gay marriage. There still exists states today where people can be fired or paid less because they don’t fit into the ‘normal’ sexuality of heterosexuality. Even though homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted in today society, many sexualities still aren’t. This includes bisexuality, pansexuality, demisexuality, to name only a few. Society is growing and changing and many people have taken it upon themselves to dismiss these people with words such as “You’re making that one up.” or “You’re just doing that for attention.” With more and more people coming out and fighting for equality it’s extremely relevant to everyone.
ReplyDeleteMany social problems exist in today's society as well as back then. One that really makes me mad is stereotypes. I hate how people judge each other by what they look like and by what stereotypes are put on their race or religion. For example, I come from a very diverse family. I am Native American and Irish and pretty much everything in between. I also come from a very southern back round. I was born in Greenville, South Carolina and my mother was born and raised in Georgia. There are many stereotypes on southern people, especially women. Everyone thinks we all have buck teeth and wear flannels with cowboy hats and daisy duke shorts. That stereotype is so dumb. We don't all dress like that. Another stereotype is that we are dumb because we are "hillbilly's". I may not be the smartest person ever but some of the most iconic people of U.S. history are from the south. I am proud to say I am a southern girl. Some people may also think that southern people are poor and live in trailer parks. Yes some people do but honestly we are just like everybody else. We are in the same class rankings as you and our houses are the same size. It also irks me when people talk in a southern accent and they try to sound dumb and like a hillbilly. People everywhere have accents. I don't know why southern people have to be made fun of so much. That's just an example of stereotypes. I know people don't mean any harm when they wanna dress up as a cowgirl or cowboy for Halloween but we should consider what its like to be stereotyped.
ReplyDeleteMany social issues exist in today’s society, but the one I found to be most irritating is the lack of feminism. Some men still think that a women’s job is to stay at home and cook and clean. Not only do they think that, but the issue of blaming a rape victim for getting raped is the thing that angers me the most. The fact that men- and even women sometimes- blame rape victims for their rape is unreal to me. Saying that it’s their fault they were raped because their clothes were “sleezy” or “trashy” is not okay. One thing should be clear to everyone: it is NEVER the victims fault, ever. Instead of teaching girls to cover themselves up, how about we teach boys that raping someone is not okay? This brings me to the issue of dress codes in schools. I completely understand that it’s obviously not okay to be dressing like you’re going to the club to school, but I also do not think it’s okay that male authority figures in high school have the tenacity to say that bra straps are “distracting”. The use of the word “distracting” when describing a girl’s appearance, in my opinion, is not okay. It is especially not okay when that word is coming out of the mouth of a male principal or male dean of students. An example of this is- theoretically- a female student being dress coded because her shirt is backless. I understand that a backless shirt isn’t appropriate to wear in school, but the student should not be surrounded by the male principal and the male deans in the middle of the cafeteria in front of the whole school. I want to be clear- a women’s job is to do whatever the heck she wants to do as a job. It’s NEVER the victim’s fault for a rape. The use of the word “distracting” should be used appropriately, not by male figures of authority. This society of ours needs to reconsider our view of teenage girls and women before things get worse.
ReplyDeleteSo, a problem that piques my interest is civil rights. I did a sort of essay on this last year but it was mainly focused on "Gay Rights" and now I feel as if that might be seen as a tad narrow-minded, so at this point I'm focusing more on just rights for sexual-, romantic-, and gender-identity. In all seriousness, I could basically just go on forever in this paragraph about all the little sub-genres on sexuality and gender-identity, but Mr. Telles will most likely only read so I won't do that to you Mr. Telles. There are basically, like I said, a lot of different "sub-genres," and I'm totally for all of them (unless, you know, it's like, pedophilia, but I do not know enough about anything to know if that counts but'll mention it anyway). I will admit that I am not an active member of rallies and movements and advancement of such things. I really believe that people either are going to accept or not accept, though I will not deny that the amount of acceptance has really risen over the years. A lot of the time people don't like to change and won't change very easily. People don't having believes or ideas forced down their throats; it's not a smart tactic. I will not, however, hesitate to express/defend my opinion on the matter, and why I feel like equality for everyone is just a pretty cool thing. The thing is, I don't who on Earth you are, what you are, whether you're a boy a girl, or both, or either, or you go back and forth, whether you like boys, girls, both, or just anyone. It's cool with whatever the hell you want to do. But, as soon as you start to challenge other people's worth based on how they were born, only THEN will I have a problem with both that and you. Be whoever because that's fine with me and I totally support your equality as a person. Just, if you consider yourself to just be "normal" as some like to call it, don't be a huge bigot about it.
ReplyDeleteSub-genres are the spice of life!
DeleteIn our society, one of the most debated arguments is about the massacre of whales, dolphins, porpoises and sharks. I believe the killing of these animals is immoral and wrong. Japanese fishermen are primarily to blame for the mass execution of whales, porpoises, and dolphins. An example of the massacre of these animals is shown in a documentary called “The Cove”. It exposes the brutal murder of these mammals by Japanese fishermen. Japanese whalers also kill whales in the artic using the excuse of scientific research. The fishermen were actually using the excuse to sell whale meat at the market. The hunting in the artic was later made illegal after the UN’s international court justice stated that the whaling was not being done in the name of research. Sharks are also being targeted by fishermen. Shark finning involves removing the fins and disposing the still living body back into the ocean. This issue matters to me because I grew up with a love for the ocean; I was constantly on a boat with my family. We are always going out on whale watches to see whales and dolphins. A world without whales, dolphins, porpoises and sharks is unimaginable. The massive massacre of these creatures is an immoral act that robs the future generations of not only the wonder of seeing these great animals in their habitats but also the resulting impact depleting the oceans of these amazing creatures could have. To conclude, the mass-murder of sea-life for profit and game is immoral and wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe social issue that I chose is one that has been debated across the country. The way most people see it is that you are either for it or against it, there is no in between. The issue is abortion. Why would a young adolescent male care about abortion you ask? The answer is simple; the issue is more than just about abortion, but rather our right as citizens to make our own choices. I believe that abortion should be legal according to the standards set by Roe v. Wade. My reasoning behind this is; who am I to decide whether or not a woman is able get an abortion? I don’t know the circumstances of her pregnancy. I don’t know what her financial situation is. I don’t know what her home life is like. Why should I intervene? It doesn’t involve me and believe that it should be the woman who is getting the abortion’s choice. This touches upon another reason why I believe abortion should be legal. The United States was founded on the idea of freedom and the right to control your own future. However, many of the laws that have been passed recently have been to restrict the freedom of the citizens of the United States. Laws restricting abortion fall into this category. They restrict a woman’s right to choose their own fate and the fate of her own child. If you are against abortion, fine, you can choose not to get an abortion, but if someone is in a circumstance where they feel the need to get one they should be allowed to do so. At the end of the day people should be allowed to do what is right, but allow the people around them the same courtesy.
ReplyDeleteA major issue within our society is that we constantly judge one another. We set high standards for how people should look, talk, and function. Everybody makes mistakes but we tend to remember the mistakes people make instead of the good they have done. Possibly it is just human nature to focus on the bad and forget the good. We want to feel better about ourselves by targeting other people. Instead of focusing on the things wrong in other peoples lives we should be worrying about fixing our own flaws. Unless you know all the details to a persons exact situation and how they are feeling (even if you think you do you probably don’t!) you are in no position to judge. A lot of times people will judge someone based upon second-hand information, more commonly known as gossip. Too many people take what they hear and believe it as a fact. If you ever played the game telephone as a kid you know that information can be misinterpreted and the whole point of what the first person said is jumbled up into something ridiculous by the end. If you hear a rumor about someone go up to them and ask them what happend directly, I’m sure there’s plenty of details missing out. But wait.. what if you feel like you’re not in the position to ask this person about their situation? Isn’t that an invasion of their privacy? You don’t even know them well enough to talk about that? Well then you shouldn’t have been talking about this person anyway! Everybody is a victim of judging somebody at some point in life but we need to make an effort to stop this. Think before you speak!
ReplyDeleteThere are many social problems in the world today. One problem that I find aggravating is the abuse of animals. Many people when they hear this phrase, their mind goes strait to an image of a poor little cat or dog being beaten by some scary, strong human being. This alone is bad enough. Heartless people take their anger and stress out on an animal because they believe they have no rights or feelings. Animal rescue centers all over recover animals that have been stuck in cages or on chains for years in unsanitary conditions. Sometimes these poor animals develop trust issues and are put down because pathetic human beings thought it was ok to lash out on defenseless animals. Even fun-filled places, like Sea World, abuse their animals. Elephants are hunted and killed just for humans to retrieve their ivory tusks. Tusks only weigh between 100 to 200 pounds, yet Elephants tend to weigh up to 6500 kilograms. These huge majestic animals are being slaughtered for the greedy humans that want money or something nice made out of ivory.
ReplyDeleteBut there is still more ways people abuse animals out there. Animals on farms and in the wild are killed every day for food and population control. Everyone believes what is going on behind the scenes of farms and other meat processing plants is perfectly innocent and hardly ever bother to check where their meat is coming from. Many meat providers are abusing their animals and any consumers that are buying from them are supporting these actions. Newborn calves will be torn away from the mother cows and then slaughtered in front of the cow’s eyes. Many animals, such as pigs and cows, are hocked up to machines that slowly kill them once they are born. Many animals will be feed meat of their own, live their whole lives cramped into little, dirty cages, and killed brutally instead of a fast, painless way. If people would look into where they are getting their food, they could stop this animal cruelty. There are plenty of farms and companies who treat their animals with kindness. Animals do not have a voice to speak out against this outrage. It is our job to create change and lead to all the living beings in the world to live happily, with out any type of creature to have to live in fear of abuse.
A very major issue in the United States and around the world today is the perpetuate violence against women. Most women cannot walk down the street without being harassed or feeling like they are in danger. As humans and more than half the world's population, women have the right to feel safe doing normal everyday things and government leaders should be working to try and make this possible. Instances like the Steubenville High School rape case in which a girl became intoxicated and was raped by a group of boys are unacceptable, yet some of the boys got off scotch free while the two boys that were convicted got hailed by major media as over punished and that their football career was now ruined. Media also blamed the girl for dressing provocatively and being intoxicated. Victim blaming has the power to make women feel like it’s their fault that they’ve been attacked, and that they shouldn’t have been wearing something “inappropriate”. This, of course, isn’t the answer. Society is teaching girls and women that it is their own fault being attacked, when in all reality they should teaching men that they shouldn’t attack people. Violence is an unacceptable solution to problems, and many men use violence to make them feel powerful and like nothing can get to them, thus they attack women who are generally smaller than they are. Everyday street harassment makes women feel unsafe. Greedy eyes from middle aged men that follow me and other women when simply walking down the street is unacceptable, perverted, and it can make me feel unsafe when walking down Main Street in broad daylight. How do I know that I’m not going to be dragged into a car and be raped and murdered when there are so many rape cases that go unprosecuted? The U.S. government isn’t doing a whole lot to advocate against violence against women either. Canada, on the other hand, had a campaign called “Don’t be that guy” aimed at potential rapists that brought rape cases down by 10 percent. The U.S. really needs to step up in protecting women and making them feel safe.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest issues present in today’s society is sexism. It would be impossible for me to summarize all the different aspects of sexism in this blog post, so I’m just going to talk about some of the ways men react to sexism and feminism. Men act as if feminism is a personal attack on them by women- as if this movement is just a big scheme to strip them of all of their power and rights. The definition of ‘feminist’ is literally “a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes”, so I’m not too sure why they try to turn it into anything other than that. The majority of men either support sexism (whether they express this openly or not) or do not believe that it even exists in the first place, which is completely ridiculous. There are also men who believe that sexism against men exists- not unlike people who believe that reverse racism and heterophobia exist. These people fail to understand that things like sexism, racism, and queerphobia require a group of people who are oppressed as a whole, and then their oppressors. So if the female sex is the oppressed group in this situation, then how can men be oppressed too? Sure, men can experience prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination at times for being of the male sex, but they aren’t oppressed as a whole by another group of people. I honestly don’t understand why people have so much trouble grasping this concept. I also don’t understand why men try so hard to make it seem like they face the same amount of injustice as women. If male privilege doesn’t exist, then why is it that 97% of rapists avoid punishment even when convicted? How come 94% of reported rape cases don’t even end in convictions? I just don’t get why men bother acting like their entitlement is nonexistent. Then when men do acknowledge the fact that women deserve equality, they expect women to praise them for it; as if the fact that women deserve basic rights isn’t common sense. Men honestly just have the most incredible responses to anything regarding feminism. A common response to gender equality is men insisting that if men and women are equal, then they should be allowed to hit women. They’re missing the whole point; we want equality so that men will stop hitting us. Plus, why do they want to be able to hit women so badly in the first place? Why is it always at the front of their minds when they’re bashing feminism? Is the idea of equality really that threatening? Their logic must be too complex for me... I am a girl, after all.
ReplyDeleteOne social problem that bothers me is blind conformity. I find it strange and unwise that people will follow one another without knowing the circumstances of the situation. A good example of this is voting in politics. If frustrates me to know that people will vote for any elected official just because they saw the candidate’s name on a number of signs. If you are going to vote you should be an educated voter, otherwise you could end up with an official in office that you do not agree with. In a way, this goes with the saying “If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” Many people would say no, knowing full well that a great deal of harm could come to them. Others might say yes in blind trust of their friend, which, although trust is good, can be dangerous. Without knowing the consequences of your actions how can you say that it won’t end up bad? It is terrible principle to make decisions under the notion that everyone is doing it so it must be fine. Ignorance is only temporary bliss. For this reason it is important to make an effort to educate our population just the same as it is important for people to make an effort to educate themselves. It is incredibly important for voters to know the politician that they are rooting for, rather than just voting for them because thats who the people they know are voting for.If all you do is blindly follow others, you cannot be surprised when you find yourself in a situation that you don’t understand. Not to mention, anyone who knew what was going on and was drawn into your situation unwillingly, and may be negatively affected.
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