India: Reinforcement and Thwarting of Gender Roles

"The World" article, documenting a young Indian girl Sarita, was very striking to me mainly because it exposed the two sides of Indian culture: a conservative one where she fuffills her duties in the household and a modern one where she is not only allowed but encouraged to study in school. The fact that she does chores like cooking, getting water, and cleaning the house reinforces her role as the female of the hosuehold. She even firmly agrees with the Indian tradition that a girl's home is not that of her parents. However, the fact that she is considered "the son" of the family and has the opportunity to focus on her studies thwarts these gender roles. The article continues to comment on gender roles by opening it up wider than just Sarita's situation. It concludes that Sarita's struggle between maintaining tradition and straying away from it is becoming more common in India recently. Even though lately gender roles are becoming more equal, the movement can cause much "stress and uncertainty" according to the article.

Gender Roles

Specific gender roles can be observed in any culture. The stereotypical culture is that the man has more dominance over the women. Naturally, they are considered as stronger and more capable of doing work. The women, then, is generally considered weaker, more delicate, and incapable of doing the things that men are set out to do. Recently in American culture though, a smaller divide between gender roles has been developing. Now, women are being accepted as equal to the male population and possibly even stronger than males depending on who you ask. However, the presence gender roles still exists primarily in the language that we use on a day to day basis. For example, men naturally tend to use a louder, more demanding intonation and word choice compared to a women's softer intonation and more thoughtful word choice. These language differences definitely reinforces the gender stereotypes because when using language very powerfully, a male naturally overshadows the women because even if she wants to flip this gender role she generally isn't comfortable with using equally powerful language to do so. 

Linguistic Password

I think the idea of a linguistic password is most definitely an exclusionary idea. Although it creates a bond between the members of the group who know the password, it ultimately does more to differentiate others than bring them togther. For example, lets say there is a group of 5 friends who have a certain password. They all know it and it gives them a sense of connection to eachother, but they never seek to find others outside of their group. Because no one else would know the password, they would never get into the group and never get the chance to assimilate. In addition to the fact that it excludes people outside the group, it also has negative effects towards the group itself. Yes they have developed a great connection amongst eachother, but by neglecting to acknowledge anyone els ehas its negative effects. Just because someone doesn't know one word doesn't mean they should exclude them. Who knows, maybe they are in fact very similar to the group, share the same interests, etc, but because they don't understand their linguistic password they are automatically being shut out. Because of this I would definitely conclude that the idea of a linguistic password emphasizes our differences far more than our similarities.

Preserve Columbus Day

I believe that Columbus was an important figure to the hisory of America. Despite that natives were already living in America, Columbus forged the path of continuos migration from Europe to the Americas in attempt to create a better future. This joining of cultures sparked by Columbus had set the foundation for what America stands for: a melting pot of people. Advocators of "Transform Columbus Day" argue that Columbus should not be a celebrated man because of his actions as a slaveowner and murderor, but it is important to understand that it was simply the culture ofthe time period to own slaves and act more violently to address certain situation. Of course I am no proponent of slavery and violence, but in this time period these actions were normal. It is the extraordinary courage and perserverance of Columbus's journey that should be the focus of celebration. Sailing out into an unexplored ocean is a heroic feat that must be acknowledged in some way shape or form. Being a holiday, Columbus Day recognizes his risktaking spirit for discovery and serves as a model for all Americans demonstrating what determination can accomplish.

Magazine Ad

This particular ad is assuming that the audience understands the role of technology in our society and how it has revolutionized the way we recieve information as well as the way it has affected print sources. Because it is trying to convince readers to continue to follow print, it makes the assumption that the majority of its audience prefers online reading. Therefore, the audience of the ad can be for online and print readers alike, but particularly for those online readers. This is the intended audience because the print magazine business is trying to persuade online readers to reconsider print. Using unique tools such as putting magazine titles into the text itself assists the argument because it uses evidence of the myriad of print magazine choices that are continually being read by the public.

Free Marketplace of Ideas

"When Truth Survives Free Speech" is an interesting article that demostrates the concept of free marketplace of ideas. Ms. Cox has the freedom to say whatever she wants on the internet, even if it is the opposite of what a journalist should be saying. Her views on Mr. Padrick may or may not be true, but these ideas open up the freedom to debate and bring in other oppoosing ideas as well. This one idea catalysing an entire discussion about the subject demostrates that the free marketpace of ideas is in place. Whether or not the ideas are true does not matter because according to the concept, the true ideas will eventually outweigh the false ones. But, because she did gets sued, there is a doubt as to if this is completly a free market place of ideas. If she is getting sued, does that stop her from expressing her opinions online? The law is stepping in the way of her freedom of speech, therefore free marketplace of ideas is not entirely present. In addition, according to this article, it seems as if this abundance of ideas is not effective in finding the truth in this situation. Even though ideas are being spread, it is taking quite a long time for the truth to be uncovered.

News Journal: Free Press

It is evident that the concept of "free press" is used in the op-ed article for my news journal. This can be concluded due to the significant amount of revealing information about the cheating that is occuring in Harvard. The fact that the author is very critical of the "higher power" demonstrates the abilitly to have free press. Without free press, the author would be sructinized for tarnishing Harvards prestige by saying that it is a cheating environment. Because free press is part of our rights, the author was able to openly express her opinion without worry of getting punished. If free speech didn't exist, the university would benefit in this case. Without free speech, the students wouldn't be able to reveal what exactly is going at Harvard, therefore the University would not have to worry about its reputation being ruined.