Breather Assignment Rough Draft

I am not entirely comfortable with the description of this assignment so I hope I'm doing this right but here's what I have so far.

According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2009 approximately 2.1 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 were infertile. “Baby Mama” is a film about a single woman, Kate Holbrook, who made several attempts to conceive, finally resorting to surrogacy after being informed she had a one-in-one million chance to get pregnant. Infertility is an increasing problem in the United States as more women are waiting until their thirties and forties to conceive their first child; “Baby Mama” addresses the issue of infertility fairly adequately; however, giving a false illusion of the process to diagnose.

Doctors consider infertility to be described as unsuccessfully conceiving after one full year of trying (primary) or having a first child followed by multiple miscarriages (secondary). Kate is told that she is infertile due to a T-shaped uterus after nine attempts to conceive, a timeline is not given. Physical abnormalities of the uterus, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and most commonly problems with ovulation cause infertility in women. Many things such as smoking, toxin exposure, age, stress, obesity, and sexually transmitted infections increase the risk.

Kate is a 37 year old business woman, who set her career before having a family; as age increases, the fertility rate decreases due to various physiological changes. The National Women’s Health Information Center provides information about infertility in women of advanced maternal age stating, “about one third of couples in which the woman is over 35 have fertility problems,” due to ovarian and egg changes (Infertility, 2006). It is becoming increasingly more common for women to wait until their thirties or forties to have their first child, making conception more difficult and increasingly less likely.

“Baby Mama” creates a false illusion that doctors are quick to declare that a woman is infertile; Kate is only shown going to the fertility specialist once, at which point he tells her she has a one-in-one million chance of pregnancy…….

Who vs Whom

I can't say that I ever use the word whom, and I am pretty sure that I should be. So when should I be using it?
I went to Grammar Girl to teach me the trick!

• Who is used for the subject

Ex: Who went outside?

• Whom is used for the object

Ex: Whom did you ride home with?

If that is still confusing, ask yourself if he or him is the answer to the question. If it is him, you will use whom; likewise, if the answer is he, you will use who.

• Who went outside? He went outside.

• Whom did you ride home with? I rode home with him.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx

Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt...

Jean Kilbourne wrote a very alarming piece about the use of sex and violence in ads. She didn't stop there, but addressed child exposure and sexual violence in our society. Quite honestly I was appalled as I read this piece.
The images were pornographic in nature, and left me feeling shocked. I had never seen these ads before but in thinking about it, there are many ads around us that exploit women and sex. "Sex sells" being a common philosophy among journalists, marketers, and businesses. It is terrifying to think that so much is accepted by our society.
I was deeply disgusted by the story of the Canadian judge ruling that a 3-year old girl was "sexually agressive," how could that be?! Beyond that, what are we teaching our children when a 5th grader goes to school and gropes a classmate while telling her crude things. It is disgraceful quite honestly.
I have also had the opportunity to spend a little time with battered women at the Dove Center and have seen the effect those acts have had on their lives. The children are different than normal children, they are either scared or more mature than they should be. The statistics given about women with addictions and psychological problems are startling and undoubted true, as I have also spent some time on the behavioral medicine unit. It is unfortunate to think that the media may have played such a large part in all this. When did sex and violence become so acceptable?

Killer Culture

David Kupelian uses experience and research in "Killer Culture," suggesting that teens are falling captive to the propaganda of the media. He sites specific examples of "body art," dress, sexuality, and more which have become more lax with time. The piece is concluded with the solution that we must create a subculture to escape our current culture and ultimately form a new.
Much of the information given was easily related to. I found myself thinking of specific individuals that I am friends with, have seen, or met that fit many of the trends he referred to. He mentioned the lack of courting in society today, which is getting progressively less frequent. I have experienced that on occasion; boys, because I certainly would not consider them men, that feel it is not necessary to go on dates, simply spend time at home doing inappropriate things. I often think of my grandparents and how men seemed so much more sophisticated then.
I was slightly thrown off by limiting it to an "MTV generation," as many other channels promote equal, if not worse material than MTV; however, it was effective in making me question the material I choose to view. I had not considered how much of the media was in fact advertising for something until this class. It has been quite an eye opener.
An additional flaw that I found was the solution given. It was made to seem simple and a hasty generalization was made in assuming that all families are capable of homeschooling their children or that being best for all families. In a perfect world, that may be true; however, the point of this essay was to point out the flaws in our world so she fell a little short on that for me.

Framing Class

"Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" by Diana Kendall was an interesting piece on her views of the power of the media in determining the classes, which she backed up with various statistics and examples. She began with very specific examples of television shows that portray the upper class's lifestyle as desirable and, ultimately, the best way.
I thought it was interesting that she brought up Extreme Home Makeover as trying to make "ordinary" people "improve" their lifestyles. Why is that lifestyle not acceptable, they really do make the families happy though. It was interesting to see the many ways that the media has ultimately defined us across the classes.
Overall the piece was kind of angry, but I did like that she gave an attempt at a solution. It is a good idea to discuss issues with people in an informal setting in order to form opinions that are not as tainted by the media. Overall, this was a difficult read for me; I had a hard time connecting to it.

Who's Who?!

Who is a word that breaks all the rules! Typically, the possessive form of a word is written with an apostrophe before the s; however, the possessive form of who is written as whose.

Ex: I don't know whose pen this is.

The word who's is used as a contraction for who is an occasionally who has

Ex: Who's going to Arizona with you?

It seems easy, yet I always find myself questioning it. So there it is, clear up some confusion!

Serving in Florida

Barbara Ehrenreich created an intriguing narrative piece, "Serving in Florida." I enjoyed reading this piece as she described her experience in the working world, more specifically the world of serving. She struggles as she tries to make her way through these tedious, minimum wage jobs.
I feel like a broken record at this point saying how I can relate to the pieces we are reading but that is the only way I can get into them. I think that we can all relate to some of her managers that she described: ie B.J. the B*****. I know there have been times that I wanted to give some supervisors similar nicknames. I was blessed to never work at a restaurant or fast food (not that it is bad, just not for me), but I am a people watcher and have often observed the waitresses frantically trying to please all their tables, often recieving less than a thank you. She does a very good job allowing you into the mind of a server.
She is just my kind of lady, I would also be the person to befriend the Czech dishboy. It made me think about if I would have the courage to go to bats for that person when their integrity was called into question though. Very good piece, I enjoyed the story.