LANGUAGE AND GENDER

I think that sexism is neither taught, nor acquired from birth, nor natural. It is something deeper. For example, if a women has a baby boy, people will buy cothes and accessories with a particular color, mostly blue,than if the baby was a girl. A boy who grows up with already this idea of gender discrimination, will be tend to believe that there is a great diffenrence between these genders, and with the influence of his environment, he will begin to be sexist. So with my opinion, sexism is rather a thing that is supported by the influence of people around us.




We can empower ourselves, by giving a proper education to our littles girls,and pushing them to read a lot of books. Also, show to adults that there is no gender supperior ,inferior or is the object of another gender. We must stop the expansion of stereotypes that devalue gender.



According to "Miss Representation" and "How To Talk To Little Girls" women are responsible fo holding other women to impossible standards, because they tend to show that the physical is the most important thing. For example what shocked me in "How to talk to little girls" is "Even bright, successful college women say they'd rather be HOT than smart" and also that some little girls begin dieting a the age of five. The problem is that these standards are not possible to reach, may of these media women use photoshop to keep themselves into these standards.




I think that women are as much to blame as men for the sexism in our media. It is sure true that is men who promoted this objectification and always use women as an object. But do you think that, if every women respected themselves and refused to be used as objects, this objectification would have existed? It is women who agreed to be treat like that.

Political Cartoon

This cartoon is trying to show an unfair system in women's job. It explain that apprently, the Executive Lounge is not for women and, only men, have the qualification of this job. That is the cause of the use of the term "Glass Ceilling" which is refers to a barrier that keeps women from rising the upper echelons of their proffessions. Women are discriminate and don't have the same privileges as men.

Lupe Fiasco "Strange Fruition"

"Strange Fruit" was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol that addressed the issues of racism, emphasizing the horrors of the lynching of African Americans. Similarly, Lupe's "Strange Fruition", is also a song that address inequality and racism that still exit today. This song of Lupe Fiasco, has been influenced by his past and childhood.

Lupe Fiasco, was borned and raise in Chicago. He grew up with a Muslim education. He was well-educated. His parents exposed him to diverse array of subjects and reading was highly encouraged in his household. He also grew up, surrounding by prostitutes and drug addicts, and some muder took place in his neighborhood. His parents divorced when he was five years old. His father was a member of the Black Panther Party, which was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization and theirs objectives was to monitor the behavior of police officers and challenge police brutality. His mother was was super intellectual, left-wing, the whole kind of situation.

Lupe says: "Now I can't pledge allegiance to your flag", from a religious kind of thing, you pledge your allegiance to God and that is it. Being Muslim, and things like that, you don't pledge allegiance to no flag. And, he does not want to be a part of a country where the government acts badly towards the people.

" As long as they look good when they doin' bad" I think that he means that the youth only care for their looks, material possessions and their appearances.They are heading down a bad road.

"You forced us in the ghetto and took our dads" I think that he wants to say that because of the racism, their dads were obliged to create the BPP and then, they were always out and it is the reason why his mother divorced from his dad.

With these examples, we can see that the lyric of "Strange Fruition" is based on real facts.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupe_Fiasco#1982.E2.80.9398:_Early_life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit#

 "A Good Deal For The Caravan"

1. Boy "That's a flash car mister", he is giving some compliments to Tommy by hoping to get what he wants. Generally when we wants something, we try to compliment the person to whom we are asking, so the person will be influence and be tempted to give us what we ask for. The boy used this method, by showing that the man have a "flash" car, so the man will feel more powerful and will be tempted to give money to the boy.

2. Tommy"As flash as your boots", he is also giving compliment to the boy by adapting his words at the level of the boy. The boy will feel more important because his boots are as "flash" as the car of Tommy. Usually, adults, tries to influence children by showing that they are also important as adults.

3. Pickey, "How big are you? Kids, how big is he?", in this case, he tries to make the man more confortable, by being funny and by compliment him. He also tries to "break the ice" between man and him so that the man can feel important and honnored.

4. Mother"Don't be silly Mickey, offer the man a proper to drink" she tries to honnor the man by telling Pickey to give him proper drink. When we invite someone at home to give him some drink, it is a kind of valorization to the person. Then if Pickey and his wife ask for something, the person will not be able to refuse it.

How do we exert power by speaking differently?

By adapting our speak, including our words and language,is a way of power and strenght that we use on the people whith whom we are talking. When we speak,we do not always speak to the same people,we speak to people who are differents from us. We do or do not have the same knowlegde, general culture, the same humor and the same way of thinking. Then by speaking we must be able to make them understand what we mean.We speak to make others understand what we want to say because we already knew it so we have to choice some words which are at the level of the people whith whom we are talking to make them understand. This is a power and a strenght because the audience will be influenced by theperson who talk.

How to persuade an Apple computer executive to hire you

"We have an environment where excellence is really expected. What is really great is to be open when the work is not great.My best contribution is not settling for anything but really good stuff, in all the details. That is my job-to make sure everything is great"
                                -Steve Jobs-
    Hello, Mr. Jobs, it's nice to meet you,
   Thanks for taking the time to meet with me.  My name is Dana Ouedraogo. I graduated from Harvard University and have a PhD in computer science engineering. All my life, I've wanted to work for Apple, because it is tops in the field and an incredible brand. I grew up with this quote of yours in mind and I've always known that a job at Apple is unlike any other. It would be a challenge and an inspiration for me because whatever the job , I would be a part of something big. Every detail matters. Your computers are so simple, but simplicity is not simple. During my master's degree, I had to analyze every detail of Apple computers and I found some flaws, because of course nothing is perfect. There, I found a way to adjust your program that made more productive for my company.

I hope that I can  convince you that I  be a great feet for this company.

MAP