bitches and hos

The article “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos”, was written by Joan Morgan in the late 90s and explores the idea of being a black feminist and a fan of rap. With a self proclaimed “self destructive obsession” with rap, you might wonder how a feminist can like music that is often so profanely sexist. She explains the importance of rap in black culture and how it is also part of the problem. Her priority as a feminist isn’t to stop rappers from being sexist in their lyrics, but to protect the love between black men and woman. This is a love that’s survived slavery, segregation, poverty and racism for so long and it is in danger. There is a bigger set of problems plaguing communities and rap is a mirror into that life.

                        Joan Morgan has been a fan of rap for a long time; she recognizes the presence of it in pop culture and describes its ability to be “Alternately beautiful, poignant, powerful, strong, irreverent, visceral, and mesmerizing”. Rap is unlike anything else, it gives people so much freedom to express themselves in a way that is incredibly creative and unique. But behind all that, there is an underlying set of things that appear in these lyrics, the music reflects a lot of pain. She states “what passes for “40 and a blunt” good times in most of hip hop is really alcoholism, substance abuse, and chemical dependency”. They often speak of killing each other as if it’s nothing. What is the cause for this anger and hate? She points out that this hate is no longer coming from ‘The Man” or “Racist White power”, but from people living in the same community. She talks about the life of “Notorious B.I.G.” as an example and talks about his album “Ready to die”. He was an ‘urban soldier’ whose life was dysfunctional from the beginning. He sings about robbery, jail, murder, drug dealing, money, sex, parties, and sex as if he was always just living an amazing life. Underneath the lyrics you can see the inner struggle this man was having, it “divulged his inner hell” and the album ended in suicide. The leading cause of death for black males fifteen to twenty five is murder and most of them die at the hands of other black men. Joan Morgan’s position as a single black feminist really gives her an up close view of what’s going on. She sees the effect this lifestyle has on men and woman and she wants to make it better. She believes rap is essential to the struggle these men are having because it takes us “Straight to the battlefield”, she sees past the “Machoism” and uses rap to get to the root of the problem so everybody can start to heal. She says woman have to learn to love these men realistically and find a way to stay at a ‘safe’ emotional distance. They have to realize that a person that doesn’t really love themselves isn’t capable of loving someone else in the way they need. “Its frighteningly clear that many brothers see themselves as powerless, when it comes to when it comes to facing the evils of the larger society, accepting responsibility for their lives, or the lives of their children”

 She urges feminists to change their strategy for ending sexism in rap. You can’t keep going after the words themselves. You can’t deny the fact that there are plenty of actual ‘bitches and hos’ around. Men are angry because when they didn’t have money, none of these women wanted anything to do with them. You have to get angry at the women who allow themselves to be exploited in music videos and in real life, and women need to fid their self esteem. Women have to realize that a lot of hostility comes from other women as well and these women need to come together and stop sexism together.  She wants to create a ‘space’ for women to come and share their feelings. She says having this space is the first step to getting all the pain and hurt out there and beginning the healing process. She wants to use rap as an avenue for this, a way to share the feelings of the women that are suffering and hopes someday her ‘brothers’ will realize the need for change. Feminism has to get away from complaining about this music and start taking action. She takes part in hip hop feminism conferences and is a speaker on these types of issues to this day. Even more than ten years later all these issues are still present, and forever evolving.

RR#2

“Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence, is written by Jean Kilbourne and focuses on the relationship between different advertising strategies and pornography, and also on the effects it has on society. “Men Conquer and Women Ensnare” (575) seems to be the way we see it these days. Kilbourne states “The main goal, as in pornography, is usually power over one another, either by the physical dominance of men or what is seen as the exploitive power of female beauty and female sexuality” basically meaning that advertising around the world has begun to glorify these stereotypical ideals of men and women. They make things like rape, violence, and viewing women as objects seem mainstream. The media does whatever it can to make money, even if that means dehumanizing people to the point where we are numb to the idea. She points out that we all like to believe we are unaffected by advertising, but in reality it is everywhere, and most of us don’t even realize how bad its become.

            Some of these ads really got to me, I hadn’t realized how low our moral standard has become. Glorifying rape and violence is unacceptable, and what shocked me was how blatantly some ads reference date rape. One alcohol ad suggests “If your date won’t listen to reason, Try a velvet hammer” (581), while another includes a wolf among a flock of sheep behind a bottle of Smirnoff (582). Is Czech, a jean ad portrays a women being held by the back of her pants and grabbed by three men, this one baffled me. It was meant to sell jeans to women, and all I see is someone getting attacked. If you saw these thongs happen on the street, wouldn’t you jump in to help? Do people really walk around with these ridiculous ideas of how men and women should act? Why do we have this ‘anything goes’ attitude when it comes to selling a product and making money. I worry about young girls in other countries, because the ads in other places are increasingly alarming.

            Nobody is safe when it comes to the sexuality of ads, and it has even gotten to the point where we use children. Where does the line cross to child pornography? They find very young girls to do nude shoots, and dress them up to look almost preteen. Once I looked at it this way, I was a little disgusted. It’s not fair to girls that we continuously get portrayed as these weak helpless beings, and I think in this day and age we should smarten up and stop. It’s already unsafe enough to be a young girl, and ads often exploit this. The gap between men and women is never going to close if we keep stressing all these stereotypes. An interesting point that Kilbourne makes references a Pepsi ad where young boys are staring up the skirt of Cindy Crawford, She asks us to think about if the situation was reversed, as in young girls looking at an older man. “We would fear for them, and rightly so” (589) Women are often seen as some kind of temptress, and it’s almost always the woman’s fault when something happens to her. It’s as if just being female is some sort of punishment, you get raped and it’s because of the way you dress. We are way more often seen as property and something everyone has the right to look at.

            Maybe we are just reading to deeply into these ads, but it seems more like there just getting worse. It’s not just about beauty anymore, not just about how skinny you are. It’s more about shock value and what these companies can get away with. I hope someday people start to realize that ads like this are only going to take us backwards and that stereotypes are unfair and go against what it really means to be human.

Final edit

Education in the United States is in a steady state of decline. In a time where American jobs have become more advanced, having well rounded, educated students is more important than ever. A steady stream of cuts over the past few years has resulted in a decrease in both the quality and motivation of our students. According to the LA times, when Jerry brown took office we were about $25 million dollars in debt, and since then we have experienced many large cuts to the general fund. It is now the smallest share in our history; I think it’s time to get our priorities straight in California. As a first year college student, I have witnessed the impact of these cuts in all aspects of public school; I recognize the value of education, how important it is to have teachers who care and a school with enough resources to sustain an intelligent student body. This is why I believe you should vote yes on Proposition 30.

Jerry Brown’s proposition 30, is a measure that will result in a slight increase in taxes (About 1/4^th of a cent in sales tax for four years, and 1-3% raise in income tax for people who make $250,000 or more, for seven.). This money will be put towards k-12 schools (89%), community colleges (11%) and public safety. This goes back to proposition 98, which states that at least half of the general fund must be used for education, and this money can fulfill that requirement and frees up $5. billion that can go to things like higher education and healthcare. The left over money can go towards filling the gaps in our various public safety programs. If the measure is denied, we will be facing $4.8 Billion in “trigger cuts” to many important programs in California.  These cuts will most likely devastate the already crumbling system, and will cause many students to not be able to afford higher education at all.

Education is the best way to prepare our people to work and find jobs in this advancing market. Many jobs require much more than on the job training, they also require a general education. People need to have all the necessary critical thinking and writing skills if they want to be able to keep up with the world today. This country was once valued for its strength in education, and is now one of the lower ranking countries in that area. Countries like India and china have a much higher rate of graduate students, even accounting for their much larger populations. I feel like if the school system continues to decline like it has been, more and more jobs will be outsourced, and all of this will continue to weaken our middle class.

Critics argue that this proposition is just another way for politicians to take more of your money without giving back to schools at all. They claim that this is nothing but a “shell game”; supposedly they will be able to remove the money by taking the existing money for schools and replacing it with the money from the new taxes. They claim these “massive hikes” in taxes won’t go to schools at all and it will only put California in even worse debt. In the actual proposition, it is stated that there will be strong fiscal control over this problem, adding to the constitution that the money will go into a special account called the Education Protection Account (EPA), guaranteed only to be used for schools. They claim that the money will be audited every year to assure that its being spent where they say it will, they have authorized criminal prosecution for misuse of the funds. This proposition differs from others such as Proposition 13, because they plan on giving more control of the money to smaller governments, so that the public can help make decisions for the schools in their communities.

Over the past four years, there have been more than $56 billion dollars to education and public safety. These cuts have affected everybody from the elderly, to schoolchildren, and everyone in between. If we really want to change our economy in California we need to do things differently, why not put some of the focus on the next generation? I believe that young people today deserve to have a chance to follow their dreams, whether that is the American dream or something completely out of the box. In Monterey country, where I went to high school, they passed a measure called ‘Measure P’. This measure is similar to Proposition 30 because is imposed a similar rise in taxes and allowed many schools in my district to begin getting repaired. This measure passed because there are a lot of high income people in Monterey County, and they recognized the need for improvement in our schools. At my school alone the amount of work taking place was staggering, it was great to see how excited the students body and staff was. I honestly believe this is a lot of the reason our test scores and attendance got so much better that year. It seemed like once everyone realized the district was taking our school and education seriously, we felt like we should take it seriously as well.

            Now that I’m in college, I can now see the effect this economy is going to have on my future. Over the last few years, tuition has raised 89%, 400 classes were cut and the overall course offerings have gone down 10%. Cabrillo has some of the most amazing libraries and tutoring opportunities I’ve ever seen, and now I’m finding out that hours have been decreased. It’s nearly impossible to enroll in classes, and I absolutely cannot imagine how much worse it will be if proposition 30 doesn’t pass. I do know that we will lose space for 780 students and many more classes will be cut. I know that many more young people may give up, and might decide that school isn’t worth the trouble. I’m very thankful that I’m not the type to give up, and I have a lot of faith in my generation. I hope that the rest of California can see how much we deserve this, and I hope that every student going to school right now has the strive to be your best.

Draft 2

Education in the United States is in a steady state of decline. In a time where American jobs have become more advanced, having well rounded, educated students is more important than ever. A steady stream of cuts over the past few years has resulted in a decrease in both the quality and motivation of our students. According to the LA times, when Jerry brown took office we were about $25 million dollars in debt, and since then we have experienced many large cuts to the general fund. It is now the smallest share in our history; I think it’s time to get our priorities straight in California. As a first year college student, I have witnessed the impact of these cuts in all aspects of public school; I recognize the value of education, how important it is to have teachers who care and a school with enough resources to sustain an intelligent student body. This is why I believe you should vote yes on Proposition 30.

Gerry Brown’s proposition 30, is a measure that will result in a slight increase in taxes (About 1/4^th of a cent in sales tax for four years, and 1-3% raise in income tax for people who make 250,000 or more, for seven.). This money will be put towards k-12 schools (89%), community colleges (11%) and public safety. This goes back to proposition 98, which states that at least half of the general fund must be used for education, and this money can fulfill that requirement and frees up $5. billion that can go to things like higher education and healthcare. The left over money can go towards filling the gaps in our various public safety programs. If the measure is denied, we will be facing $4.8 Billion in “trigger cuts” to many important programs in California.  These cuts will most likely devastate the already crumbling system, and will cause many students to not be able to afford higher education at all.

Education is the best way to prepare our people to work and find jobs in this advancing market. Many jobs require much more than on the job training, they also require a general education. People need to have all the necessary critical thinking and writing skills if they want to be able to keep up with the world today. This country was once valued for its strength in education, and is now one of the lower ranking countries in that area. Countries like India and china have a much higher rate of graduate students, even accounting for their much larger populations. I feel like if the school system continues to decline like it has been, more and more jobs will be outsourced, and all of this will continue to weaken our middle class.

Critics argue that this proposition is just another way for politicians to take more of your money without giving back to schools at all. They claim that this is nothing but a “shell game”; supposedly they will be able to remove the money by taking the existing money for schools and replacing it with the money from the new taxes. They claim these “Massive hikes” in taxes won’t go to schools at all and it will only put California in even worse debt. In the actual proposition, it is stated that there will be strong fiscal control over this problem, adding to the constitution that the money will go into a special account called the Education Protection Account (EPA), guaranteed only to be used for schools. They claim that the money will be audited every year to assure that its being spent where they say it will, they have authorized criminal prosecution for misuse of the funds. This proposition differs from others such as Proposition 13, because they plan on giving more control of the money to smaller governments, so that the public can help make decisions for the schools in their communities.

Over the past four years, there have been more than $56 billion dollars to education and public safety. These cuts have affected everybody from the elderly, to schoolchildren, and everyone in between. If we really want to change our economy in California we need to do things differently, why not put some of the focus on the next generation? I believe that young people today deserve to have a chance to follow their dreams, whether that is the American dream or something completely out of the box. In Monterey country, where I went to high school, they passed a measure called ‘Measure P’. This measure is similar to Proposition 30 because is imposed a similar rise in taxes and allowed many schools in my district to begin getting repaired. This measure passed because there are a lot of high income people in Monterey County, and they recognized the need for improvement in out schools. At my school alone the amount of work taking place was staggering, it was great to see how excited the students body and staff was. I honestly believe this is a lot of the reason our test scores and attendance got so much better that year. It seemed like once everyone realized the district was taking our school and education seriously, we felt like we should take it seriously as well.

            Now that I’m in college, I can now see the effect this economy is going to have on my future. Over the last few years, tuition has raised 89%, 400 classes were cut and the overall course offerings have gone down 10%. Cabrillo has some of the most amazing libraries and tutoring opportunities I’ve ever seen, and now I’m finding out that hours have been decreased. It’s nearly impossible to enroll in classes, and I absolutely cannot imagine how much worse it will be if proposition 30 doesn’t pass. I do know that we will lose space for 780 students and many more classes will be cut. I know that many more young people may give up, and might decide that school isn’t worth the trouble. I’m very thankful that I’m not the type to give up, and I have a lot of faith in my generation. I hope that the rest of California can see how much we deserve this, and I hope that every student going to school right now has the strive to be your best.

NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING DONE..

                Education in the United States is in a steady state of decline. In a time where American jobs have become more advanced, having well rounded educated students is more important than ever. A steady stream of cuts over the past few years has resulted in a decrease in both quality and motivation in our students. As a first year college student, I have witnessed the impact of these cuts in all aspects of public school; I recognize the value of education, how important it is to have teachers that care and a school with enough resources to sustain an intelligent student body

According to the LA times, when Gerry brown took office we were about 25 million dollars in debt, and since then we have experiences many large cuts to the general fund. It is now the smallest share in our history; I think it’s time to get our priorities straight in California. Gerry Browns proposition 30 is a measure that will result in a slight increase in taxes (About 1/4^th of a cent in sale tax, and 1-3% raise in income tax for people who make 250,000 or more) and will put that money towards k-12 schools, community colleges and public safety. If the measure is denied, we will be facing $4.8 Billion in “trigger cuts” to many important programs in California. These programs include everything from higher education to public safety. These cuts will most likely devastate that already crumbling system, and will cause many students to not be able to afford higher education at all. It will result in three weeks less school for k-12 students and about 1 billion dollars in cuts to CSUs and community colleges.

In the past California has rejected many attempts to raise taxes and I definitely understand the mistrust people must feel with our government. It seems like this spending problem we have cannot simply be fixed by spending less, and it’s going to take a lot of time. Education is the best way to prepare our people to work and find jobs in this advancing market. Many jobs require much more than on the job training, they also require a general education. People need to have all the necessary critical thinking and writing skills if they want to be able to keep up with the world today. This country was once valued for its strength in education, and is now one of the lower ranking countries in that area. Countries like India and china have a much higher rate of graduate students, even accounting for their much larger populations. I feel like in the school system continues to decline like it has been, more and more jobs will be outsourced, and all of this will continue to weaken our middle class.

Critics argue that this proposition is just another way for politicians to take more of your money without giving back to schools at all. They claim that this is nothing but a “shell game”; supposedly they will be able to remove the money by taking the existing money for schools and replacing it with the money from the new taxes. They claim these “Massive hikes” in taxes won’t go to schools at all and it will only put California in even worse debt. In the actual proposition, it is stated that there will be strong fiscal control over this problem, adding to the constitution that the money will go into a special account guaranteed only to be used for schools. They claim that the money will be audited every year to assure that its being spent where they say it will, they have authorized criminal prosecution for misuse of the funds.

Over the past four years, there have been more than 56 billion dollars to education and public safety. These led to less police protection, increased fire response time, caused overcrowding in prisons, and hurt so many different groups of people. Proposition 30 will be a way to begin to fix this, as some of the funds will go back to these important programs. Prison overcrowding will be reduced by allowing more oversight of parolees, and will give people opportunities to take classes and improve their life instead of just staying in prison.