Has Disney Grown? - Amaris Ortiz

After decades of profit, the typical cookie-cutter Disney princess movies are no longer money makers. What do audiences want today? Moana is the first Disney princess without a love interest and people believe that this means Disney has finally realized what these princesses mean to girls. It is not about showing young girls beauty is everything, it is about showing them that they can achieve things that they might not have thought they were capable of. Disney’s Moana might have been the perfect mixture of culture and feminism people were looking for. In today's society women are looking to be independent and not ones who want to wait for a man to do everything, and Disney's Moana is the character that most represents that. The most successful Disney princesses are now the ones that show young girls they don’t need a love interest in order to be happy or achieve their goals.

When it debuted in 2016, Moana earned over $600 million worldwide in the box office. The movie tells the story of the adventurous daughter of a Polynesian tribal chief who decides to sail out and find an artifact that will be able to help her island. An article written by Vanity Fair, a magazine on pop culture, stated that “Co-directors John Musker and Ron Clements worked with a team of anthropologists, cultural practitioners, historians, linguists, and choreographers from islands including Samoa, Tahiti, Moorea, and Fiji.” They put effort into making sure that the geographic and ethnic information they were putting into the movie was true, even though some things would still be exaggerated. By contrast the 2009 movie The Princess and the Frog had a lot of disapprovals. Throughout that process, people took offense to the role that the main character Tiana was given and the ways the directors portrayed New Orleans. Not everyone is going to love the way directors portray their culture, but most responses were happy with the different details they incorporated. More research was needed in the creation of Moana in order to assure that they would not get the same angry responses.  

The plot of Moana also differs from the typical Disney princess movie. Although movies like Beauty and the Beast and Mulan are led by an independent female, they always include a love interest, with the girl settling down with the guy in the end. In an article by Kos Media LLC, an online blog, they said “Moana is not defined by a love story-in fact there isn’t one in the film, leading many to claim this is the latest in Disney’s move to embracing diversity and feminist heroines.” This movie shows actual struggles choosing between standing up for a thought or listening to others as well as doing what people expect or doing something bold. It is understandable that a young girl isn’t going to suddenly think about sailing across the ocean to save an island, but it encourages young boys or girls to dream bigger no matter the age and not worry about love. It also dives into a deeper issue as the end of the movie reveals that the main supposed villain, Te Kā, is the product of selfishness and neglect.  The topic of neglect is more likely to appear in the life of a child, whether it is through being treated poorly by others, or seeing it done to someone else. Rather than using this neglect to hurt others, reaching out to someone who is being affected by it and trying to make the situation better for them is the right thing to do. Moana realized that the “villain” was a product of neglect by the people, and helping them out brought benefits to her village.

The physical difference in this new princess also matter. As many have noticed, Moana also doesn’t have the the distinctive qualities of a Disney princess with the tall slim build. An article by The Huffington Post mentioned that it felt like companies were finally starting to realize the effect they have in shaping young minds. The article also compared it to Barbie and diversifying their dolls. Disney has been criticized for increasing body image issues among young girls which is why they were more conscious when creating Moana. In the creation of the movie, animators changed Moana’s body to look more like an athletic young girl rather than have a nearly impossible body shape that young girls can’t relate to.

When asked, Disney fans might say that they think Disney is caught up on having movies that involve many races, not having something be stereotypical to gender, or body shapes that different people can relate to. But on closer inspection, it took them 80 years to have a Disney princess movie that was solely about the main female character and not a relationship, as well as having a princess with a more realistic body shape. Moana is a step in the right direction for not just Disney but also other companies to look up to and see how they can have a better influence on younger kids.


Works Cited

Desta, Yohana. “The Year Disney Started to Take Diversity Seriously.” HWD, Vanity Fair, 23 Nov. 2016, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/disney-films-inclusive.

Misick, Bobbi. “Controversy Over 'The Princess and the Frog.” Essence.com, www.essence.com/2009/11/30/critics-dispute-princess-and-the-frog.

“The importance of "Moana".” The Odyssey Online, 30 Aug. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/importance-moana.

Powell, Dylan. “Deep, rich 'Moana' transcends the Disney mold.” The Valley Vanguard, 5 Oct. 2017, www.valleyvanguardonline.com/deep-rich-moana-transcends-disney-mold/.

“'Moana' continues the evolution of the Disney princess.” Daily Kos, www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/28/1604706/--Moana-continues-the-evolution-of-the-Disney-princess.

Moss, Rachel. “Disney Has Finally Created A Heroine With A Realistic Body.” HuffPost UK, The Huffington Post, 26 Sept. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/disney-moana-has-a-realistic-body-type_uk_57e8c8cfe4b0e81629aa0935.


Greatness or Snakeness

The NBA (National Basketball Association) is a professional basketball league in the U.S. Throughout the years, the NBA has had superstar players who dominated the game for most of their career. From the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and even Larry Bird, fans have always been drawn to the biggest names and enjoyed comparing them. It is said that Kevin Durant is the best player in the NBA today. However, LeBron James is actually the better player to admire and play with because of a combination of aspects on and off the court, such as statistics and trophy awards, and also career choices.

Kevin has more regular season scoring titles than LeBron, but failed to average more than LeBron in that season where both players have superstars on their team. LeBron, in the regular season (2016-2017), averaged more in three major statistics than Kevin. LeBron averaged 26.4 points per game, while Kevin averaged 25.1 points per game. In trophy awards, LeBron also has more MVPs and NBA championships than Kevin. Despite the fact that both players play the same position, Kevin Durant has a height of 7’1”, while LeBron James stands at 6’8”. This is a significant height advantage over LeBron and all other players at their position. An height advantage like that has to mean that Kevin should have less problems than LeBron when playing.

LeBron is also a better role model. He has been involved in much more global/national awareness messages in the last year. He has helped sent a positive example about what is going on in the U.S. with police brutality and other negative actions that has affected the country. For example, he spoke out at the opening of the 2016 ESPYs about the pointless killings of blacks by police. By contrast, Kevin has only made a positive move for his basketball career by joining one of the best teams in the NBA to win his first championship. Joining mostly made an negative impact on basketball fans in the country. Fans started to burn the jerseys and t-shirts of him that they had. They made negative comments towards him. They said he wasn’t a loyal person and that he let his former teammates and staff down. Many started calling him names such as a coward, snake, and the recent nickname of “Cupcake”. Someone who is supposed to be looked up to wouldn’t let create many problems for the people that love him.

After 7 years of his NBA career, LeBron James decided to leave his hometown team, to join another team and help make them worthy of winning a championship. This would be his first championship. As mentioned earlier, Kevin Durant also decided to leave a team to create championship winning team, but only after 9 years of his NBA career. Both decisions shocked the entire world, but Kevin’s decision was actually the worse. His decision created problems all other NBA teams. LeBron joined a team whose previous regular season record was 45-37. Kevin joined a team whose previous record was 73-9. That broke the record for having the best regular season record in NBA history. The record before that was 72-10, which was set by Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls in 1996.

When asked to consider their success on the court alone, NBA analysts and fans might say that LeBron James and Kevin Durant on equally the best basketball players. But on closer inspection, LeBron is actually the better basketball player on and off the court. He is certainly the “face” of the NBA and admired by many more fans.



2fer #2 Revision

Genero Accooe

10/15/17

English 3

Larissa Pahomov


Standing by the Knee or Standing by the Anthem

The national anthem is not only an important song that symbolizes the hardships and battles that freedom cost the United States, it is also an important part of American sports specifically the NFL. At the moment the media is hot and heavy on a trend that breaks tradition from the national anthem, some star players have started to kneel during the anthem. This has caused a lot of controversy as even President Trump has disapproved of this, with so much negative feedback there has to be an overarching cause. While many who disapprove believe that the kneelers are disrespecting the nation, Kneeling actually symbolizes the current oppression that African Americans are facing in this country, to kneel during the anthem is to accept these facts of our country.

Who was the first to kneel during the anthem? Where did it all start? The now famous NFL player, Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49er’s began the movement on August 14 of 2016 -- but he wasn’t kneeling but sitting down. Kaepernick went unnoticed the first two games of the season, he wasn’t in uniform those games so there was little for anyone to say on the matter. On his third day he kneeled and it wasn’t till after the game when a picture of the anthem was tweeted and the 49er’s had confirmation that Kaepernick had kneeled. Kaepernick's protest was peaceful and was even stronger due to his popularity as a player. After a while, another player joined the founder to initialize the movement. Kaepernick’s actions can help others gain insight on his thoughts previous to the movement. Due to the nature of an National Anthem, americans are expected to stand proud for the country that our anthem represents, but to stand proud means that they are content with the country and accept it for what it is. Take kneeling on the other hand, it can show a sign of respect but also a sign of accepted inferiority, Kaepernick thinks that kneeling would show everyone that people of his color are still seen as inferior to the majority of the country.

Fellow friend and teammate Eric Reid, is one of the many players who’ve decided to act alongside Kaepernick.  In an article for the New York TImes, Reid stated that they are speaking for the voiceless, “I remember thinking our posture was like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy”. Reid’s statement can be hard to understand but once it is break down , there is a lot of merit to the statement. A flag at half mast can symbolize many things such as respect, salutation and mourning. This  is meant to honor the lives of African americans who were shot and killed by police who went to drastic measures to subdue them.  Reid and Kaepernick’s movements had become a real organized protest that would lead to an  even greater gathering of players to support the cause. The fact that so many people have joined the cause proves that they acknowledge the oppression that many black americans are facing right now.

Many people were outraged at the players for their act and the NFL for allowing it to happen, even Donald Trump had something to say about it and took to Twitter, shaming Kaepernick for his so called lack of patriotism. Reid and Kaepernick were fairly frustrated by the portrayal many people had on the protest, saying that their act was disrespectful to their military and country. Reid explains that he feels that the knee is not meant to disrespect America's troops but still honors the freedom that the country's soldiers have fought for. The statement shows the drive Reid has to make people see the reality of the subject that the nation is in a state of inequality, using passive techniques that help convey a message in a positive format.

African Americans have been a victim of systematic oppression since their freedom back in the 1800’s and yet people must still fight to rid of that same oppression today. The act of kneeling has been used by many NFL players, to publicise their opinion on the subject.  This matters not only to sports fans, but to the whole nation because everyone is affected by the passing of people,  especially when these deaths heavily imply that the lives of African Americans are not as valuable as others in the eyes of police. The blue on black crimes that happen so frequently, should be important to everyone due to the fact that people’s lives are at stake. Players have received backlash but the important thing to note is that there has been a powerful impact. Many star players have begun to replicate the work of Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid hoping to spread their influences and ideology even further.

Power of Celebrities

Teens like role models,  either famous athletes or some type of celebrity, or even their parents. This is the person they aspire to be or want to be like due to the celebrity’s lifestyle. They keep up with their idol’s trends and their life. Everyone has that person no matter the age, but it is most commonly found in teenagers. So, it can be said that teenagers learn first and foremost of what they want to do in life from observing celebrities on social media.

Kylie Jenner, one of the media’s most powerful people, started a trend towards the end of 2014, going into 2015, when she got lip injections as a teenager. She revealed that she got lip injections, after many interviews of denying that she didn’t get them, on her very own show, Life With Kylie.  According to Emma Akbareian, from The Independent News, on May 7th of 2015, some clinics the revelation had led to a surge in enquiries from the public, wanting to copy her pouting lip look after getting her lips done. After Kylie Jenner confirmed to getting lip injections on her show, Life with Kylie, it sent out a word to many teenagers, telling them that it was okay to get lip injections, and this inspired young teens that look up to her, to follow her ways of getting their lips done. Dr. Leah Totton from Dr. Leah Clinics told The Independent her clinic has reported a staggering 70% rise in lip filler inquiries in the last 24 hours from when Kylie Jenner posted her first picture with her lips done on instagram, with the caption “1 2 many selfies”. Because of the power that the celebrity had on social media and in general, she got a hold of the mind’s of the teenagers following her, inspiring those who did, to get their lips done. They did something they might have not even know they wanted to do, but because after seeing it happen to someone famous, it pushed them to do so.

Kim Kardashian, a major part of the media today that many people follow, started a trend  with when it came to body shape. One of the main things Kim Kardashian is known for is her body. People consider her to be today’s idea of a perfect body, with the curves and the thickness. She revealed her way of getting a bigger butt, given from her trainer Gunnar Peterson, which is by doing squats and other things in reps, using weights that is perfect for each body, but eventually having to use heavier weights. Hearing about this news and getting influenced by the body she has to get a body like that of their own, her fans and regular citizens began following after her ways. According to Daily Mail, a teenager named Charlotte Webb of 18 years old revealed how weights with squats gave her the perfect Kim Kardashian bottom. Webb also revealed that she began following after fitness icons on instagram because she was very unhappy with her body. If Kim Kardashian had not shown the world the body she had, people would not get the idea of working themselves out for the body they think is ideal. Webb and many other people realized what they wanted their body to look like and did what they had to do after seeing what Kim Kardashian looked like and what she did to keep her figure.

In Korea, plastic surgery is very big and popular. People that live in Korea get plastic surgery daily and it is seen as a normal thing. Some might get it for their birthday and some might get it just for their own happiness, but most get it due to celebrities getting their face done. They see that as inspiration for them to get it for themselves. The article The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession states that “Feminist criticisms of body objectification are barely heard, and the racial argument that this surgery is a form of "trying to look white" has faded -- due to the rise of Korean pop music culture. K-pop has created a completely new beauty aesthetic that nods to Caucasian features but doesn't replicate them.” K-pop, which is Korean pop music, or even K-dramas, have korean celebrities who have admitted to getting plastic surgery. There was a plastic surgery called the v-line surgery, and after seeing the famous korean icons like Hani, Luna, and Hyomin get this surgery, many fans and regular people in the United States and in Korea began following after them, changing their face into what they thought was better. These people appear all over media and any social website. They provide pictures of their face on instagram, showing what they look like after these surgeries. Also according to the article, a teen named Hailey Kim told the press that she did not like what she saw when she looked in the mirror. She wanted to change a lot of her face and after seeing celebrities do so, she decided it was what she wanted as well. People get influenced by the cultural perspectives all around them to get their face done, and because the celebrities are all over social media. Those who follow and keep up with these icons see that this is happening and think that is it okay. They get the idea of wanting to get plastic surgery as well. They see it as something they want to do in life after seeing it from their most idled person and follow after them.

If teenagers stopped to think about it, they would realize that observing others is not just about learning how to be more like the person they want to be, but realizing what person they could be for the better, and learning more about themselves while approaching life. Being someone unique and different instead of someone trying to be like media celebrities is what teenagers should learn from media.

“How Celebrities Inspire Fashion Of The Youth.” Uloop, uiowa.uloop.com/news/view.php/112012/How-Celebrities-Inspire-Fashion-Of-The-Youth-. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

Akbareian, Emma. “Kylie Jenner lip filler confession leads to 70% increase in enquiries for the procedure.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 7 May 2015, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/kylie-jenner-lip-filler-confession-leads-to-70-rise-in-enquiries-for-the-procedure-10232716.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop-plastic-surgery-obsession/276215/

Spollen, Micki. “Fashion trends started by the Kardashians.” TheList.com, The List, 4 Apr. 2017, www.thelist.com/54591/fashion-trends-started-kardashians/.

Davis, Arianna, et al. “10 Ways Kim Kardashian Majorly Changed Pop Culture Forever.” Kim Kardashian West Social Influence Pop Culture Icon, www.refinery29.com/2016/10/126751/kim-kardashian-influencer-pop-culture.




Behind the Wall St.


Corrupt social systems have plagued the U.S. for decades, one of the most frequent and possibly overlooked types being the financial system. A major hub of all the action is Wall St., and their irresponsibility caused the wealth inequality to skyrocket, resulting in the hardship and suffering of the 99% and catering to the 1%. Even after all this, the government has yet to emplace the regulations necessary to fix the problem and stop it in its tracks. In order to begin mending the damage done by Wall St. merchant princes and financiers, the U.S. government must take the people who enabled it in the first place out of power.

  In 2007, Wall St. finance companies began to take part in subprime lending(companies were giving loans to people who were expected to have a great amount of trouble paying it off). These loans were plagued with high interest rates and poor quality collateral, meaning that it was close to impossible to keep up with and poorly insured, and the customers were struggling to pay off their loans. In the 2010 documentary Inside Job, Robert Gnaizda, former director of Greenlining Institute, one of the few companies the fought for public interest, stated:  “Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch were all in on this. Subprime lending alone had increased from 30 billion a year funding to over 600 billion a year in 10 years-they knew what was happening.” The companies were betting against loans they were selling people and then paid every time it failed. These companies-the same ones americans trusted to hold their money and receive sound financial advice from- were literally gambling their customers’ money for odds they created to be in their favor. What’s worse is that those in charge of overseeing these operations, to make sure underground scams like this don’t take place, opted for deregulations.

In December of 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA), written by financial lobbyists, was passed. This act banned the regulation of derivatives that allowed the companies to play into the hands of their own success. Any spark of hope that shone through to Congress was extinguished by the moguls who were benefiting from the corruption on Wall St., and anytime a company got close to being held responsible for this injustice they managed to be let off by some technicality left unchecked by the laws they created. Here lies the vicious cycles of corrupt institutions working together to get ahead as quickly and easily as possible, without the slightest regard to the country they are exploiting.


As Wall St. has corrupted the economy over the years, the government has remained stagnant and kept the same people in control of the departments that regulate Wall St. operations. They aren’t held accountable for their lack of morale and integrity and are even reappointed to hold these positions. John Thain, a successor of the previous CEO of Merrill Lynch, made $87,000,000 in 2007, and after the company was bailed out by U.S. tax dollars, the company then handed out millions in employee bonuses. Careless decisions like this resulted in the crash of the economy. These Companies had no cushion money to cover the costs of debt when everything fell apart. Though President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was built on the promise of change, he, too, failed to bring it about as he reappointed former culprits of Wall St. corruption who were perpetrators in America’s financial deficit. . A few of these people include Tim Geithner, who aided Goldman Sachs’s gambling habits, Mark Patterson, former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, and Gary Gensler, who helped ban regulations.

If the U.S. government stopped to think about it, they would realize that Wall St. corruption does not just involve deregulation, but the people in charge of overseeing and enforcing them as well. They are the common denominator. The country can not begin to move past this until we are free of those whose selfish ways keep us from moving toward a better future. It has become very clear that whatever these people are or aren’t doing isn’t working for the country and expecting progress to come about without some sort of change is the very definition of insanity, yet we’ve been doing exactly that all this time. We are due for new leadership- leadership that doesn’t have corrupt history and shows promise of allegiance and integrity by putting public interest above their own.


Works Cited


Cole, Juan . “Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World.” Informed Comment, 3 Dec. 2013, www.juancole.com/2013/12/corrupt-country-world.html. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“The White House.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

“Sony Pictures Classics presents Inside Job.” Sony Pictures Classic, www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.


2 fer #2 Revision- Justin Stewart

 Children have either a Positive or negative affect from playing video games. The Children think that it has a positive effect on their development. But their parents might think that Video games have a negative effect on the Child’s development. Parents Believe that video games are bad for children and think that it damages their brain. People believe that Video games help develop a kid’s personality in a positive way.


          The rating that parents hate the most are the mature rated games, because of the content. The content that these video games have are things that kids shouldn’t be experiencing such as gun violence, or blood. But teenagers think that the mature rated games are the best games. They think this because it is interesting to them. Violent video games that include profanity, blood, and gun violence are what kids are into these days.


The Positive effects of playing video games is that it gives their brain a workout.  In many video games, the skills required to win involve high level thinking. These skills are not even taught at school. The video games help improve a child’s hand-eye coordination.  “In shooting games, the character may be running rand shooting at the same time.” This quote is said by Daphne Bavalier, a Cognitive researcher. This requires the player to keep track of the position of the character, where they are going to, the character’s speed, where the gun is aiming, and  if the bullets are hitting the enemy. The player has to keep track of all of these things. This process requires a great deal of hand-eye coordination. As a result children can gain these skills while playing a violent video game.


The negative effect to playing video games are not in all games. Violence in the video games are the main reasons why parents think that video games are bad. According to Daphne Bavalier], Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This is not true for all children who play violent video games. But they can cause children to have bad behavior.


            When asked, Parents might say that Video games are bad for their child’s health. But on closer inspection, video games actually influence their perspective on the world. Although Video games may only seem important to Children that play video games, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about their development.











Works CIted

More Than Just A Hero

Amado Alfaro-Allah

English 3

Larissa Pahomov

9-25-17



More than just a hero

At one point, every child wants to be a superhero who does all the essential super hero deeds: saving people from tragedy, defeating bad guys, and being world renowned. The idea usually finds its way to young children through comic books, television and movies. But what happens when the situations get more complicated? What happens when a evil person is doing bad things for a good cause? Would it still be right to put them in jail? In real life these “good guys” & “bad guys” situations are complex because evil or bad is a relative term, two sides of the same coin.  Since people don’t have super powers, how when heroes who are just average or don’t have any power become relatable. The qualities that make a true superhero is when they are virtuous and powerful. The reason why stories that surround heroes who aren't the strongest and so many people are better than them. That's what makes stories so interesting and fulfilling to watch.

Heroes can either be anywhere on a relatable to powerful scale and amoral to virtuous scale. With relatable being typical human things and powerful being almighty and god like. The other has virtuos with heroes being centered on justice and very uptight about how saving every person is a necessity. Then the amoral heroes who’ll do anything to accomplish their goal no matter what the cost. For example, heroes in the majority of movies like Superman or the flash are Powerful beings with virtuous outlooks. A good example is in the “Man of Steel” movie from (name the year) when Lois Lane is in danger, even though Superman is being undercover he still decides to blow his cover to save Lois Lane. Then on the other side there are heroes like the Punisher who are amoral and kind of powerful. In the series movie and comic books Frank Castle a.k.a The Punisher, decides to seek out every single villain in Hell’s Kitchen and kill them. An example of this is that when the Punisher is confronted by the Russian Mafia he kills everyone until one man is begging for his life saying “Please I have a family” which the Punisher responds to “I had a family once” right before killing him. This is a key attribute for whom the punisher is, and shows that he’s so burdened by his loneliness and believes that the only way of doing good is getting rid of bad people all together.


The division of the heroes struggle can be seen in the book by Joseph Campbell The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The idea is that there are three main parts (departure, initiation, and return) with many other specific ideas under them. In stories the hero gets called to adventure, gets a great power of some sort, then defeats the evil, and promises to only use his powers for good. That's what makes so many heroes so predictable and alike today, because they follow this same narrative over and over again. These usually look cool and feel good to watch but people can never see themselves as these heroes because of their powers and set and stone ideals.


That's what makes all the heroes not on the virtuous powerful spot so interesting. Take for example a powerful hero, but a relatable one like Gon from Hunter x Hunter he’s from a fictional  show that's about exploration and discovery during the series the viewer follows him and his team to become hunters, an elite group who hunt for items, artifacts and even sometimes people. Gon is about 11 when he sets out to see to begin his adventure. He’s powerful and has superhuman abilities, but at the end of the day he is just a child and gets sad when he doesn’t win or angry because he knows he’s not the strongest and theres not alot he can do about it . What this means is that even though they have powers that give them an advantage over the common man, they are still weak to the surroundings around them, unlike the virtuous, powerful heroes who can change the surrounding around them. Characters like Shinji from NGE or Gon from Hunter x Hunter are relatable because even though they have powers, they can’t solve every little problem by hitting someone or power of the mind. In their world there are a lot of other people who are better than them and events or parts of their lives that just happen that they are in no control over whatsoever. Just like school children who can’t just fight the president or politician in power, they have a very little amount of impact on the world around them. With one show called Kaji about a compulsive gambler, he’s not very strong and hasn’t been really lucky with bad luck seemingly surrounding this character because in the first episode he is struggling from debt, because of a paper he signed for a co-worker years ago. He does anything it takes to win in the end, he knows he has no power and is weak physical and it frustrates him. Knowing that the world looks at him as a bum and he can’t really do anything about it. He knows that every time he goes into a Casino, no matter how much he might win they still make money. That's why watching him succeed matters so much to the viewer.


In the other spot there are powerful heroes but that are amoral, what this essentially means is that they are a super god like deity but they have some sort of flaw. People may argue that heroes like Superman flaw and that's kryptonite but it's not really a flaw more as illusion that the writers use to make a seem like superman is in danger because the writers know that superman is all powerful. So when there no weakness to the hero in the scene or panel you know they’ll be ok. Now when a hero who has amoral ideals it's hard to tell weather that hero is a bad person or just following the wrong ideals. So for example if there is a hero who is killing innocent people but the reason he kills innocent people is because it's the only way to save his hometown saving a million more other people in the process does that make him evil? Many people who have taken the trolley dilemma which is the idea if a trolley is speeding down train tracks and essentially what the person has to do is choose if you want the trolley to hit five people or one person. Many people have chosen to have the trolley kill one person rather than five, If someone must sacrifice one person to save five other people that doesn’t make the person evil necessarily.  


In the end the idea that makes heroes feel so relatable is not the powers and undaunting spirit but rather their room to grow. The idea of having a hero lose and get beaten up, to have him not at the top of everything in the world. (Christopher Vogler guide to a hero with a thousand faces) “The hero’s journey is meaningless without some trophy or prize” Essentially the prize for the heroes such as superman is the day is saved and he gets the girl but for the average hero the prize is the journey of growth and self acceptance.

When asked, fiction hero fans might say that it doesn’t matter what the hero stands for as long as the defeat the bad guys, but on closer inspection,the relatability of the hero to the reader or viewer directly affects how the audience feels.  When the  viewer starts zoning out or doing something else, that means that the character or hero in this case was flat and overdone. That's why when a hero is interesting on screen and the decisions made are unusually, it can be the thing that the viewer sees on tv while doing something and then stops to sit down and watch or read whatever the hero is in because the hero was written well and felt fresh.


Works CIted

http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm, Cambell Joseph, pg 2, “The writers journey.com” published,2008, Opened 9-18-17

Vogler Christopher"A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Christopher Vogler” published 1949

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424369/quotes, Mark Braulent (Scriptwriter) “Punisher 2004 game” Imbd.com published 2005, Opened 9-20-17

http://screwattack.roosterteeth.com/post/51229635 Joe. K, “Screwattack.com” Oct-4-2015, Opened 9-21-17

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=8384 Nobuyuki Fukumoto “Animenewsnetwork.com” published 1996, Opened 9-21-17

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/plotsummary Warner bros pictures, “imbd.com” first published June 18 2013, Opened 9-22-17

http://theconversation.com/the-trolley-dilemma-would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-57111 Lauren, D, Olempio, “The trolley dillema” “Theconversation.com”June 2, 2016, Opened 9-23-17



Kylie Jenner


She’s known as one of the most influential moguls of 2017: Kardashian family member Kylie Jenner. Famous for her backside and pouty lips, a simple search can reveal her instagram, which is practically parading an ideal body type and sexual objectification. However, her physical appearance is an unrealistic look for girls all over America. By promoting this, she is adding to the low self-esteem and low confidence that is directly linked to the ideal of perfection. Her look, and body is what is deemed as beautiful in today’s society. She has a daily following of 19,182 and an overall following of 97.5 million people. With more than half being impressionable teenage girls. Kylie Jenner’s powerful social media influence is leaving a negative impact on the beauty standards for young women because it encourages unrealistic ideas of perfection.

There is a constant reminder of what is beautiful in magazines, advertisements, and social media platforms. With Kylie Jenner being a major influence among millennials, companies use her to promote their products. They specifically look at Kylie, because of in fact how engaging her 98.9 million followers are. The  products she promotes include “Flat Tummy Tea,” and waist trainers. Flat tummy tea is a company that sells detox products that “promote weight loss.” They claim their products are all natural, has vitamins and the right herbs to help you lose weight. They also sell things like waist trainers and weight loss shakes. Instead of kylie  being outright and saying her body was achieved with surgery, she says, “ My flat tummy secret is my detox tea… keeping my tea with me keeps my waistline slim.” This leads to people buying these things thinking that they actually work just alone without proper exercise and diet, they are being deceived. There have been many cases where girls have ended up in the hospital because of waist training. This is due to impermeable damage to the organs. On Flat tummy tea’s website, in big white letters says flat tummies with a big heart. The sites promotes being skinny as wonderful and perfect, compared to an overall healthy lifestyle.

Another way Kylie Jenner makes beauty seem unrealistic is in terms of identity. There is not any diversity in the models on their page, one of these models include Kylie. “According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, about 70 percent of girls grades five through tenth said images influence their ideals of a perfect body.” A lot of impressionable girls are seeing that, with kylie getting 165,000 searches in a month for her page. In marketing, there are certain things advertisers do to grasp the attention of consumers. One of these things is  called dismemberment, which she does on her social media feeds. It is when there is focus on one part of the body. Like her breast or butt for example. This is done only for the purpose of selling a product. This is dehumanizing to women, showing that the only way to get a point across is to objectify yourself. Also detaching the face, and other basic human features to only show the specific “feminine” ones are basically shouting the idea that women are nothing more than their bodies. A instagram post, which dates to August 21st  has  kylie selling her new t-shirts. These t-shirts have her in a bikini, which leaves nothing to the imagination. This shirt does not have her face or other features. Everything is cut off except her body.

She has become an expert in selling herself as a sex symbol. Her body is a brand. The business tactics used aren’t promoting anything positive for young girls.These pictures show beauty that isn't attainable. Jenner wasn’t born this way, her lips and breast have been achieved through surgeries. The Kardashian/Jenner surgeon, Simon Ourian states that just 10 years ago his clientele that was between the ages 15-19 only made up 1%. They now make up 10% of overall clients. There is no wrinkle, roll or flaw in site on Kylie. The young girls that fit in with her 97 million followers are going to like these pictures, and compare themselves in every way possible. These pictures show them that beauty is based on looks. An example of this would be the Kylie Jenner lip challenge. In order to look like kylie jenner, girls would suck on anything that would make their lips swell up. This did nothing but left girls with bruised or busted lips. According to an article by Mac Cosmetics. Shortly after this challenge, there was high demand for lip plumpers,

Although Kylie Jenner may not think that sexually objectifying her body to young girls matters much, her influence goes beyond just posting photos to them. In today’s time, she holds a lot of power in the minds of today's youth. They are looking for a role model, someone to look to or to aspire to be.In an interview Kylie mentions that she basically isn’t going to stop doing what she wants, no matter the consequences. "I feel limited in some ways because I have such young fans. But I'm okay with that; I do everything I want to do." She’s acknowledging her actions, but is completely disregarding what these actions do.  In the same interview she says she knows she has “young fans…”  Having this power, means being responsible. There are countless others like Selena Gomez, who holds the most followers on instagram who do not objectify themselves. In comparison to Kylie, she constantly promotes lupus research, and post photos that show her doing community work. For example, a post that is showing you how to reach out to the representatives of your state for DACA’s or  dreamers.  Which are immigrants who have come to the country as children, that are protected by a bill passed by Barack Obama. Her post are nothing but positive, and if she is promoting something, her body is in full view and it is appropriate for her young followers. There is nothing wrong with expressing one's sexuality, but it should be in moderation or in private. With adolescents being one of the most impressionable age groups, many girls are still trying to figure themselves out, and Jenner’s behavior messes with that process.


Citations

Urgo. “Detailed Instagram Statistics for kyliejenner.” Kyliejenner Instagram Stats Summary Profile (Social Blade Instagram Statistics), socialblade.com/instagram/user/kyliejenner/monthly. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.


Lister, Mary. “33 Mind-Boggling Instagram Stats & Facts for 2017.” WordStream, 21 Aug. 2017, www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/20/instagram-statistics. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.


Boone, Carly. “Beauty vs. Self-Image.” Prezi.com, 15 Feb. 2017, prezi.com/l9syqppjzwmr/beauty-vs-self-image/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017

“Kylie Jenner Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/k/kyliejenne825427.html.



Esports and Economy

Sean DeSilva
Ms. Pahomov
English 3
2 November  2017
       People have been playing sports competitively as a tradition for a very long time. E-sports however, is a new side to competitive sports. It’s the new generation of sports. E-sports is competitive gaming that involves professional gamers to compete and be the best of the best, while thousands to millions of spectators watch. The idea of broadcasting populated online games to the public, taking high ranked players of said game and putting them in major tournaments which could decide their future in the esports scene is something out of the ordinary. People of many ages are hooked on this concept, wanting to support their new found love and get involved with it. However,  well known markets want to take that for advantage because they want a new involvement from other people as well. 
       When something new is introduced to a large amount of people, there will be many to take interest to said “new” persona. For example, when the esports scene was introduced not too long ago, gamers and fans alike all got together to support this idea. Big market companies always want to find a way of getting involved with things that that would receive them notice. The database from Newzoo touches on the subject of the fan base. The study states that “52% of sports fans are aged between 21 and 35 years old and 20% of them are between 10 and 20 years old according to a study by Newzoo.” This finding shows how the growth of esports can come to be. From a wide variety of ages, esports can gain recognition due to the interest all  ages can convey. This recognition can also bring in notice outside factors, that may benefit the growth of esports and the teams in the esports scene as well. 
       Global publicity is also an influential factor for the growth of esports. For example, Europe would have a lot of global publicity when it comes to esports in the EU scene. Well known franchises such as FC Schalke 04 and Paris Saint Germain are reputable franchises in Europe. This may foreshadow the constant participation within esports from major franchises to strengthening one another's reputations. According to this article, “Leodelimajr. ‘Investing in the Growth of eSports (with images) · leojunior.’ Storify,” it displays a linear relationship between the global publicity for esports and the recognition received to the profiteers as well as the esports scene in general. Taking an indepth look into this, there is a noticeable far-reaching majority of people who watch these esport events. Due to the article's framework of data, a variety of companies may take notice in the exponential growth of esports.  Due to the article's framework of data, a variety of companies may take notice in the exponential growth of esports. This form of recognition may be beneficial for both parties. For example, if said company notices a well known team in the esports scene, the team's fan base may take notice in the company’s investment and support that side of the party as well. 
       When these said major markets are involved with esports, they contribute a large amount for the teams or organizations they’re willing to work with. Contributions such as investing millions into the team's, buying equipment and managing players are a few of the vast things markets do when involved with esports.  Due to the article's framework of data, a variety of companies may take notice in the exponential growth of esports. This form of recognition may be beneficial for both parties. Recognition is a major part in the financial incline of esports due to outsiders being involved with it. The word ‘outsiders’ signifies the rest of the majority that isn’t fully hooked or invested into esports morally. There are people who conclude that esports isn’t a traditional way of sports. Which is true. As stated before, esports is unfamiliar and original. When something new is introduced there is the occasional controversy. The same rule is applied to esports. 
       There will be the occasional “esports shouldn’t exist” type of people. With time, as esports grows it would much more common concept. A way in which the ‘outsiders’ of esports would get involved would be from the publicity that regular sports team produce. According to this article, “Why Pro Teams Invest In esports.” The Next Level, 16 Mar. 2017,  it’s made evident that sports teams have many other justifications for their involvement with esports. One reason for this phenomena is marketing. The article states “McCullough has seen Misfit fans who are Heat fans and are excited they have an NBA team they can root for and Heat fans who are eSports fans come to the forefront.” Misfits is an esports team in in Europe with the NBA team is the Miami Heat in the U.S. The quote stated shows how both fans of each respective team supports one another. This allows both teams to have an influx in publicity and fan base growth. 
       There are two variables in the growth of esports. One being the major franchise or brand the other being the competitive game or team. They feed into one another, allowing both parties to receive benefits due to the franchise or brands investment or recognition in it. While the competitive game or team's fan base gives understanding to the investment. Supporting one another allows both facilities to grow. Although non-gamers might not think that esports matters much, its influence goes beyond the silly games to publicizing esports to major franchises and brands, ultimately increasing the number of beneficial outcomes for both parties. This shows how the publicity received from the esports genre can feed into the major franchises or brands because of one another's well known stance. Proving how major franchises or brands find it as a necessity to associate themselves with something 'new,' because it can and will lead to successes for both sides. 



















Works Cited MLA Format: 
http://tnl.media/esportsproteams/2017/3/15/why-do-pro-teams-invest-in-esports 
"Why Pro Teams Invest In eSports." The Next Level. N.p., 16 Mar. 2017. Web. 19 Sept. 2017.

https://esportsobserver.com/gillette-tsm-sponsorship/
“Gillette Sponsors TSM in First NA LCS Deal.” The Esports Observer, 4 Sept. 2017, esportsobserver.com/gillette-tsm-sponsorship/.

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/former-nba-player-rick-fox-big-in-esports-gaming-world-020917
Ap. “Former NBA player Rick Fox big in eSports gaming world.” FOX Sports, 9 Feb. 2017, www.foxsports.com/nba/story/former-nba-player-rick-fox-big-in-esports-gaming-world-020917.

Not Just A Game

​Games are a key part of the development of children. Children learn what is right, wrong, fun or boring through play. For many families, playing a traditional game is just a way to pass the time.  However, many of these games have hidden messages or themes and are meant to reflect the values and traditions in a society. One of the most frequent themes is that of capitalism, which is utilized to justify the U.S.’s capitalist society. Through what is made to seem like innocent child’s play, children ingrain the workings of the class system into themselves before they even truly understand it.In the root of all children games, the purpose of the game is to manipulate other players to lose so that the child can win. This includes manipulating other players to do the wrong action. For example,  in Simon Says the leader manipulates the other players to do the incorrect action.. Winning is only beneficial for one person and has to negatively affect others. These games normalize the actions of people in the real world and how manipulation is often used to ‘win’ against others by financial means, such as tax evasion or not paying undocumented workers. The people being manipulated are people who don’t know how to play the ‘game’, such as those who don’t know the ‘rules’ to the game. This mindset allows people to be more inclined to justify and understand the actions of the manipulators because someone has to lose for someone else to win.
The representation of many games show people of color as villains or less than white people, such as the game ― Cowboys and Indians. The name of game itself is already problematic because it politically incorrect-‘Indians’ is referring to Native Americans, a common and age-old misconception. The game makes the players who are playing “Indians” to hide from the cowboys. This follows the narrative of Native Americans being victims against ‘cowboys’, and sugarcoating the event of the mass genocide of Native Americans through a game is a clear example of perpetuating stereotypes and American values. In other words, The game is used to justify the rise of the United States and desensitizes the history of capitalism in the United States. A game similar to Cowboys and Indians is Cops and Robbers. Cops and robbers is also used to desensitize the idea of police brutality by having the “robber” always be shot at and killed due to being assumed as guilty. Today, we see this behavior continue with police and prisons; the outcome of police shooting is normally in favor of the police and doesn’t have a neutral point of view. 
  Money and status also play an important part in most children games. In Monopoly, players win by having the most money and property out of all the players. The game shows a connection to the value of capitalism, which says ownership and money is the key to a successful life. Also, the game gives everyone a chance to ‘spin the wheel’, symbolizing how in capitalist society everyone is given everyone a chance to financial growth which is an equal and fair system. Therefore, people who don’t succeed in this society are at fault by their own choices. This idea can be seen in other games such as The Game of Life, and Payday. In the Game of life, players are showed life is mostly about making money: everyone and everything has a cost. The cycle of life in the United States to provide for a family, then retire. The cycle doesn’t allow people to enjoy things in life such as traveling or take trips due to having to make money for a family or yourself. The cycle is one of the values of capitalist society. It says that money is the key to a happy life because it allows people to buy what they want and provide for a family. 
Childhood is a sacred and important time. It is a time to learn and explore the world, but some of the games cause us to shorten our view on the world and ourselves. Messages like these should not be taken lightly. It is important for parents to understand that the games their children are playing are not just games but examples of real life. They are the building blocks to the actions and decisions they will make in the future. For America to move beyond its capitalist mistake, it has to try to highlight teamwork and fairness in children's games.


Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1paUA40x7XZCaN7SF6jV1om8uvOAQ-qxnNnCiMHpytlg/edit?usp=sharing 














                                                        Works Cited:

Baloglu, Seyhmus. “The Relationship of Demographics to Gaming Preferences and Behavior.” The University of San Francisco. 2008.  http://repository.usfca.edu/hosp/4/. 
“How to Play Cowboys & Indians.” Our Pastime, ourpastimes.com/how-to-play-cowboys-indians-13583059.   
Hasbro. Monopoly Game Official Website | Monopoly Board Game | Hasbro, www.hasbro.com/en-us/brands/monopoly. 
“Police shootings 2017 database.” The Washington Post, WP Company, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/.  

The Unfortunate Truth about the Fishing Industry

Eli Zimmerman


Ms. Pahomov


English 3


September 25, 2017


The Unfortunate Truth of the Fishing industry



The fishing industry has been strangeling the environment for the past century.  Many hopefuls believe that if fishing industry is regulated and reduced the oceans fish population may thrive once again. However, this hope is unrealistic because,  the fishing industry has such an important role for developed nations and economy’s it would be  impossible to reverse what is happening without collapsing the world economy at the same time.  

Since the beginning of civilization, fishing has been a staple source of food for people. Nowadays it’s estimated that the total value of fish exports in underdeveloped countries is worth more to impoverished nations than the rice, coffee, sugar, and tea industry’s combined (Marine Stewardship Council). In some cases it was found that certain poor coastal African countries like gambia are actually not being looked at close enough and experts are underestimating the importance of fish in their marketplace. Meaning, not only are fish incredibly important to thriving economies, but are also a necessity to poor coastal countries economies. The fish trade is a 258 billion dollar industry, because majority of struggling countries happen to be located on a coast meaning this means fishing is most likely the main source of income and food. With that being said, fishing is so deeply rooted in the culture of hundreds of countries because both democracy and trade are built around it. The end of commercial fishing would cause a collapse and a lead to bankruptcy around the world for poor countries.


People debate that a simple solution to the problem of overfishing is to tighten regulations on commercial fishing and create artificial fish farms, which would deter people from foraging for wild fish. If a country like the U.S would implement a ban on commercial fishing and invest in farms, it would affect the global economy in monumental proportions (Food and Water Watch). Although it may be easier on the environment, use less resources and lower the price of fish, millions of local fishermen will lose their jobs causing an instant collapse of markets. It takes far fewer people to run a fish farm than it does to man a fishing vessel. Millions of people would be out of jobs, consumer rates will plummet sparking a much higher supply than demand which would cause companies to be forced to let workers go. This is due to the thriving fishing industry and its influence on the world.

Asia has been an leading cause of overfishing for centuries because the Asian fish market is the largest in the world. The selling prices of fish have skyrocketed causing the fishing industry to be incredibly lucrative. China being the largest exporter of fish, caught 32.5 million tons of fish in 2014 (The World Bank). That means that the average Chinese citizen consumes a staggering 350 pounds of fish a year (Green Facts), which makes up for nearly a third of the weight of food the average human eats a year. If China were to stop fishing completely every single citizen would be losing essentially a meals worth of food a day causing the country to starve. This would send the world's most populated country into an era of perpetual hunger which other countries could simply not meet the demand for. China and Japan have no other protein alternatives, fish is a necessity for their diet.  


Although people who do not consider seafood a regular part of their diet may not think that overfishing matters much, its influence goes beyond fisherman to the global economy. “Within the next decade, fish in the ocean will become so scarce that fishing will no longer be profitable”-Andrew Jacobs. If countries decide to call for harsher regulations then the world risks spikes in unemployment, hunger, and poverty. If the nations continue as it is then these problems will inevitably happen as well. Knowing this,  the world may face a new problem that cannot be solved, which is another example of what greed and ignorance can lead to. For example Japanese approved vessels have been found fishing in illegal water hundreds of times.  For these reasons it is truly impossible to halter commercial fishing on planet earth.  






































Works Cited:


“China's Overfishing Crashes Fishing Industry.” Global Animal, 1 May 2017, www.globalanimal.org/2017/05/01/the-king-of-the-sea-how-chinas-king-sized-appetite-is-sinking-the-global-fishing-industry/ . Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“10 Alarming Facts About Overfishing.” One Green Planet, 17 Dec. 2014, www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/10-alarming-facts-about-overfishing/.  Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“Oceans, Fisheries and Coastal Economies.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/brief/oceans . Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“Fisheries Latest data.” Fisheries: 6. How much fish is consumed worldwide?, www.greenfacts.org/en/fisheries/l-2/06-fish-consumption.htm .Accessed 24 Sept. 2017








































Works Cited:


“China's Overfishing Crashes Fishing Industry.” Global Animal, 1 May 2017, www.globalanimal.org/2017/05/01/the-king-of-the-sea-how-chinas-king-sized-appetite-is-sinking-the-global-fishing-industry/ . Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“10 Alarming Facts About Overfishing.” One Green Planet, 17 Dec. 2014, www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/10-alarming-facts-about-overfishing/.  Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“Oceans, Fisheries and Coastal Economies.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/brief/oceans . Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.


“Fisheries Latest data.” Fisheries: 6. How much fish is consumed worldwide?, www.greenfacts.org/en/fisheries/l-2/06-fish-consumption.htm .Accessed 24 Sept. 2017


How can gym stereotypes be funny

        How can gym stereotypes be funny



When working out in the glorious house of gainz, in the zone with one's eyes on the prize, other people's workout distractions can be annoying, whether it’s [describe a few annoying behaviors here]. But videos made for entertainment shed some light on the comical side of these potentially annoying distractions.  Videos about gym stereotypes are funny because they take habits that can be found annoying in a space for working out and then put a funny and creative spin their behavior, shedding light on these kinds of people


According to the “Dude Perfect Stereotypes ” video series on YouTube, gym stereotypes are funny because of  how true they are.. From the screamers to Mr. Excuses (the slackers) they all happen and even though they are something that annoys a lot of people they can distract others and interrupt their workouts when trying to lift and hit the weights, Dude Perfect found a way to make them funny. In one video, they expand on the slacker behavior by showing a character who had many excuses to not go to the gym. Always having something to do or things that come up and ruin his gym plans. Or the screamers who would scream and grunt and make loud noises when trying to lift.




For gym bros and broettes trying to get swole and a sick pump for any reason whether it's getting that summer body, changing one's current lifestyle, or just wanting to better one’s self in one aspect of life. A gym is a place where everyone gathers to help reach a similar goal of one another. Now with a diverse group of people, it is certain there will be a diverse plethora of ways,habits, forms, and “techniques’ that people will do when they're working out. According to ‘’elitedaily’’ ( a website that is based on fitness and the problems that you might encounter) Going to the gym has many benefits such as improving one's sleep, feeling better, some may be less stressed, and is even known to give a self esteem boost.


Some habits can be considered to be worse or more annoying than others and certain people who are found doing them a lot do not go without notice. With those habits that people see and may or may not find annoying is where the stereotype is formed. A special group of people not chosen in any way just gain these habits that are noticed by others and therefore the stereotype is made. And proven by Dude Perfect, these habit based stereotypes can be funny if looked at in a lighthearted,  way. By giving them funny names, such as [name them here] and maybe even a slight exaggeration these sometimes annoying behaviors can be pretty funny.











Of the 2,000 people polled, 74 percent said fellow gym goers were guilty of bad gym etiquette, and many implicated themselves as well: 49 percent admitted to having used water bottles and towels that aren't actually theirs; 33 percent revealed they exercise without deodorant; 18 percent fessed up to working out despite coughing, sneezing and being sick; and 16 percent flat-out said they don’t wash their clothes between workouts. Skeeved out? Us too.” In this quote, it talks about the different behaviors in a way that one’s possibly see at the gym and the quote above sheds a lot of light on how bad these habits formed stereotypes can be. It shows the nastier versions of things that people don't particularly think about where the more obvious stereotypes are not as mentioned but still do hit on the  topic of the statement of “bad gym etiquette”.With the percentages added in this shows the reader how many people do these thing which is a lot compared to what one might notice. It also shows that to gym bros and broettes this is a fairly huge topic, so it only makes sense that a video from Dude Perfect would be so successful..



If gym bros and broettes stopped to think about it, they would realize that gym stereotypes can is not just about the fact that it can be annoying and distracting in the gym, but can also be funny if looked at in the right light!


They are Selfish

 They  are Selfish   

Now more than ever, America tries to keep to itself as a country. However, the impact of third world affairs is more direct than Americans think. 80% of the world’s population resides in third world countries, so conflict in these countries  affects the U.S more than most people know. Third world countries fuel the U.S. with resources,but the U.S. lacks involvement or aid when it comes to third world affairs, especially when it comes to genocides. The U.S> is hurting itself by not helping other third world countries, due to the increase in supporting countries later and increase in refugees coming to the U.S.A.

              The U.S.A. is already known for its advancements and being a growing country that is prospering in technology,especially that of its military standings. The U.S. holds the number 1 spot of being the strongest military in the world. The U.S.’s budget for the military is $601 billion, with an active frontline personnel of 1,400,000 people, 8,848 tanks, a total number of 13, 892 air crafts and, 72 submarines (Business Insider). This portrays to the people how their resources are at the top of the line and as well as their power. Despite all this, the U.S. government chooses not to provide any aid when it comes to third world countries. These countries is currently suffering through fall of a whole generation, but the U.S. feels as if it does not affect them due to the simple difference in distance.    

    It is now September 19, 2017, and another country is currently in the midst of a genocide that half of the world is still oblivious to: the Myanmar genocide. Already, 400,000 people have fled Myanmar for their lives and hundreds are being slaughtered due to having a different set of beliefs than the natives and being a different group of people (ABC news). The helpless are running away to the border of Bangladesh for the smallest bit of aid and shelter, and are being forced to reside in trees as their shelter and cover from the weather and harsh conditions. TheU.S., a country that prospers in wealth and resources, fail to aid them in any way. Worst of all they are not even acknowledging the matter. This shows how the U.S. can overlook a genocide orrefugee crisis with a blink of an eye. The U.S. is not considering the long term consequences that comes along with not helping  Third world countries. The U.S. is one of the largest consumers of third world countries resources. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper ( World Watch) . The U.S.’s  per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world is one of the highest. In other words, the U.S. is in need of a very large share of the third world countries’ resources. The U.S. has no other way of getting a hold of the resources and this shows that the U.S. is nothing without the help and aid of third world countries. Yet, the U.S. can’t reach out and offer the same help they receive. In the future when the U.S. needs help and aid the long term situation presents that the third world countries will not reach out or might even stop supplying the U.S. due to not receiving any help themselves during their time of need.  So the U.S. would not be a functioning country without the resources and help of rhird world countries. The U.S. is powerless without third world countries.
                 When asked, U.S. residents might say that third world countries have no impact on them because they seem so far away. However, with closer inspection they are the ones that provide the majority of their resources. The U.S.A. is in need of Burma’s petroleum gas, raw sugar and other resources.  Without third world countries they are nothing, third world countries are the ones that provide the U.S. with resources since they are  incapable of producing their own. So they need the help and aid of the third World Countries yet when it comes time to help or give aid to them the U.S. fails.























What is Perfection?: The Halo Effect


Sean Johnson

9/20/2017

English 3

Ms. Pahomov


What is Perfection: the Halo Effect

The beauty advertisment industry is conscienceless. It is a complex system which dependant and cares about profit more than anything.  In order to make this profit, the people who create successful advertisements must be very intelligent, especially when it comes to manipulation of the average person’s desires. Through advertisements and subtle input, beauty adverts has successfully created a “Halo effect” around their products. A Halo effect that shines only on the pretty or attractive, while casting a shadow upon the average or ugly. The Halo effect has a negative impact on one considered conventionally average or  ugly, because through the relentless advertisements, we taught that pretty is perfect.

When most people describe beauty, it usually revolves around five human features, things such as symmetry of the face and body, a thin or athletic build, a big posterior or genitalia, large chests, and long customizable hair. These traits are deemed to be perfect which is what causes the Halo effect. This effect is most easily described as when something or someone is perceived as superior to another person or thing based on a certain trait or a certain few traits. This is a problem due to how tiny the percentage of people is who actually fit the ideal standard for their gender, in fact, only 1 in 5,000 people are generally considered “hot” (Business Insider). This problem leads to depression at a premature age and feelings of self doubt and inadequateness. The likelihood of feeling this way has and will only increase due to the accessibility of the internet and exposure to more and more potentially harmful types of advertisements. Children will have to learn to ignore the abundance of ads or suffer from the feelings of inadequacy.

The Fashion Advertising industry is very conscious when it comes to the subtlety of their adverts. Contrary to what many may think, building the image of the perfect person takes time and repetition, most commercials tend to add hints of the models body, before doing a full body shot to push the idea of an ideal body type. A side effect from this comes at the cost of the models mental health . According to a study lead by the huffington post, 64% of models have been asked by their modelling agencies to lose weight , 31% also admitting to having eating disorders because of it.. Creating the high standard for health manifests as a double edged blade that hurts the model, and the consumer.

Social media is a place where people of any skin tone or age can interact and share memories, experiences and ideas. But social media like Instagram and Facebook also serve as a medium for subtle advertisements especially when it comes to beauty. It is estimated that the average person visually consumes around 2,000 beauty advertisements per day. This usually has a massive affect on the mind of young teens, the majority being female. Studies have found that at least 27% of young females when asked if they felt pressured to be pretty by advertisements replied yes, due to the constant bombardment coming from beauty pages on Instagram and even the spam magazines that are delivered to homes, contribute to this lowered self esteem in young adults.

This effect reaches more than just self-esteem. According to a study conducted by Daniel Hamermesh, author of the Title “Beauty Pays,” above average looking people tend to receive 3-4% more on their annual salary than what an “uglier” person would usually make. This inequitable percentage can start to add up over time, and in their lifetime a normally perceived “good” looking person will receive up to 230,000 dollars more than their “ugly” counterpart. Even an average looking person will receive at least 140,000 dollars more in their lifetime (WSJ). Daniel Hamermesh often expresses that uglier people shouldn’t go into occupations where a professional look matters, like sales and modelling because of this injustice when it comes to getting paid. This harsh reality is all the fabrication of the Halo effect that humans created.

The Halo effect is responsible for the wide gap in pay as well as depression in some young adults, but the Halo effect is man made and was perfected over the many years that it has existed.  If the masses stopped to think about it, they would realize that beauty is not just about looks and features, but marketing as well. People should not see beauty or perfection as something that people are born with, but instead they should see it as something that is exclusively within the eye of the beholder. So if the population wants this system to change, then they have to change it themselves.




Works Cited

1.

Ries., Al, and Al Ries Al Ries is chairman of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing strategy firm he runs with his daughter and partner Laura.. “Understanding Marketing Psychology and the Halo Effect.” Ad Age, 17 Apr. 2006, adage.com/article/al-ries/understanding-marketing-psychology-halo-effect/108676/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

2.

Shellenbarger, Sue. “On the Job, Beauty Is More Than Skin-Deep.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 27 Oct. 2011, www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203687504576655331418204842. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

3.

“Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising.” Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising | Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

4.

Rudder, Christian. “Surprising Statistics About Hot People Versus Ugly People.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 13 Jan. 2011, www.businessinsider.com/surprising-statistics-about-hot-people-versus-ugly-people-2011-1. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.


The Painful Escape

​          “Addiction begins with pain and ends with pain”, states motivational writer, Eckhart Tolle.  Despite this knowledge, substances both legal and illegal continue to be misused by humans. While addiction is a chemical reaction to drugs, there is also a psychological addiction. A lot of the users who are introduced to the drugs are looking for a distraction from the pain that reality has brought upon them. This means that addiction is more of a psychological reaction than a chemical one. People use anything that they can get their hands on to distract their minds from reality.

          It was tested by psychologist, Alan Fogel, that drugs are used to distract pain. Studies show that physical pain and emotional pain activate similar regions of the brain which is the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex.
 
          When people are injured they are often prescribed drugs by their doctor  to heal the pain and to allow the patient to feel better through the healing process. Since the regions of the brain that react to psychological trauma are the same, people that are emotionally hurt look towards substance. A good handful of the substance that people use are actually painkillers. A case study from WebMD shows that painkillers are more common and known because they’re prescribed to patients by doctors. The patients found that the medication helped and made everything numb allowing them to feel pleasure. After a period of time of taking the substance, it was found that the user believed that it was needed. 

Over time, the drug rate has increased and now the nation has over 20 million users that suffer with abuse. The United States holds the highest ranking in drug abuse.  The people are struggling with finding themselves and the best choice they believe they have is to turn towards more pain which are painkillers. Painkillers will distract the human mind from realities pain for a couple hours, but in the long run they are putting themselves in even more pain then the user originally started with. 

          However, users are able to ignore that fact,"It took care of the pain, but I found myself taking [the painkillers] even when I didn't have the migraine, because I just enjoyed that euphoric numbness," Jason says, a recovering addict for eleven years. 

          Society today struggles with a lot of abuse and pain and throughout generations people have found different ways to cope with the struggles. But the main coping distraction that people use, ranging from 12 and older is addiction. When asked, users  might say that they aren’t addicted just needed a distraction. But on closer inspection, they are addicted to the substance they are using because they believe it’ll solve all their problems.









Cites:


Why We Use Distractions to Escape Our Pain
Mohadesa Najumi - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mohadesa-najumi/why-we-use-distractions-to-escape-our-pain_b_5179195.html


Nationwide Trends
National Abuse - https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends


Introduction
National Abuse- https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/relationship-between-prescription-drug-abuse-heroin-use/introduction

WebMD
“Prescription Drug Abuse: Who Gets Addicted?” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/prescription-drug-abuse-who-gets-addicted-and-why#1.

Caffeine: Addictive or Dependent


In a world where people depend on each other, many of these people depend on coffee as  well. It doesn’t matter where anyone is, but every morning, anyone can and will smell the smell of coffee, see coffee being consumed, or made by someone. Although coffee is not the only caffeinated consument, like coffee there are alternate fluid substances people may prefer. In a generation where people are always trying to succeed and “stay on the ball,” caffeine is something that a large amount of the people in this world depend on for their everyday lives.  Caffeine is not an addictive stimulant, but has the ability to alter and change how a person feels  mindfully.

According to The Drug & Health Blog article of The National Institutes of Health, “The world’s caffeine obsession can be described as a “dependency,” but is not an addiction.” Although caffeine seems like an addictive stimulant in a person’s everyday life, it is actually a dependent for a person to go about their day. Many of these caffeine consumers feel as if they are unable to function or perform their best when they do not get their daily dose. This is starting to sound a lot like a person who is addicted to drugs, but no, it is not the same. Caffeine, it is a widespread obsession that many people use to be more alert, which is also why it is the most consumed mood altering stimulant in the world. Again, the The Drug & Health Blog, from the same Institute previously given, states that “-- like many drugs -- caffeine enhances dopamine signaling in the brain.” Dopamine is a chemical that controls movement, motivation, and emotions. Since the dopamine in caffeine enhances the brain signaling, this makes a person more hyper and awake. No one likes to feel super tired or be sleepy when they have a full day’s worth of plans lined up. The success of one’s life comes in when the fact that people’s attitudes and actions differ by the level of alert and awakeness they feel. Therefore, consuming some sort of caffeine becomes a habit.

Caffeine is an effective way to get that energy that almost no one wakes up with. As stated before, caffeine contains a chemical called dopamine (which controls and changes the movement, motivation, and emotions by signaling the brain of a person). From an article about caffeine addiction by Deane Alban, this person has stated that although there are many upsides to “being addicted” to caffeine, particular things from the downside may not be good for a person. All of this would be a personal matter depending on the person’s body’s conditions. Alban also mentions that one of the main side effects of caffeine (not true energy) makes a person super tired, therefore if a person were to stop consuming caffeine completely, the withdrawal would be a burden. Alban gives a metaphor, “your brain on caffeine is like a car with no brakes and the accelerator pedal jammed to the floor.” Because the caffeine makes a person productive and more awake, during that time while the caffeine is rushing through the person, they are being drained of their true energy. Being so, once the caffeine runs out of the body, the body will remain super tired.

At the same time, studies that have been done on people who consume coffee on a daily basis shows otherwise. “The pre-clinical studies from The Institute of Scientific Information on Coffee shows that when a person drinks approximately two large cups of coffee in a day, it does not activate the brain circuit of dependence in humans, but activated regions involved in attention, vigilance, and anxiety…” This is saying that when a person says they depend on coffee to be “alive” and work efficiently, they actually mean that they enjoy what caffeine gives them which is activation of attention. When a person’s attention is activated, they would feel more productive and actually working their way up to succeed in life. Also this study is based just upon coffee. Throughout the day, people may consume more caffeine through other drinks or foods that they are consuming to trigger the dependency. Based on this study, people do not necessarily depend on caffeine or are  addicted, they just enjoy the certain activations it gives to their body. Being so, an article written by Karen Fernau from USA TODAY states that 83% of the adults in the U.S drinks coffee, meaning that on average they each drink three cups of coffee per day. Over half of the adults in this country drinks coffee daily, consuming at least three cups per day. The sole purpose of this would be what it does for the person. From personal experience, no one is born to like coffee. It is believed that the habitual tradition of waking up to consume coffee is what makes the people desire and depend on coffee.

When asked, people who depend on caffeine might say that they feel like they are addicted to consuming caffeine to better their daily lives. On a closer inspection, however, caffeine is not an addictive stimulant, but it does alternate a person’s mood and way of focus because of the dopamine in the caffeine. Although people of all natures may believe that caffeine is “addictive.” It is actually something that people enjoy and/or depend on to go on about their daily lives without fear of getting hooked.


Works CIted


“Caffeine and dependence.” Coffee and Health, 13 Sept. 2017, www.coffeeandhealth.org/topic-overview/caffeine-and-dependence-2/.


“Is Caffeine Really Addictive?” NIDA for Teens, teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/caffeine-really-addictive.


Alban, Deane. “All About Caffeine Addiction and Withdrawal & How to Quit.” Be Brain Fit, 24 Sept. 2017, bebrainfit.com/caffeine-addiction-withdrawal.


Stöppler, MD Melissa Conrad. “Caffeine Addiction: Can You Quit? by MedicineNet.Com.” MedicineNet, www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=43492.


Republic, Karen Fernau The Arizona. “Coffee grinds fuel for the nation.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Apr. 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/09/coffee-mania/2069335/.




Snapchat Vs Instagram By Kyianna Thomas

Draft Here: 
        There has always been a battle between how teens feel about social media. They want to know what is in and what is out. Teens around the world use social media to talk about what is ‘hot’, what is the new trend, or even what the new gossip is.This is turn helps the market of the respective social media networks in their quest to become  the most popular.There are two main sources that teens use: Instagram and Snapchat. Both claim much devotion and attention from teenage markets. However, when comparing the two, Snapchat’s popularity has overcome Instagram in previous years. Snapchat is the most popular social media app among teenagers because its efficiency and lack of required attention is compatible with the short attention spans and quick pace of teenagers and their interests.  
         According to Www.Statista.com teens around the world voted that Snapchat is the best social media by a slim margin. The statics show that according to test participants ages 13-24 who use these apps are, Snapchat  79%, Facebook  76%, and that Instagram 73%. This data is from February 2017. The site also states that “ Teenager spend nearly 200 minutes per day on their mobile devices.” Although not focusing on Snapchat specifically, this shows how significant technology is in this particular age groups’ lives. Whatever the individual teenager may be consuming, whether it is Snapchat, the news, Youtube, or other features, they are committing a significant amount of time to these interests through technology.               
         Teenagers have open minded opinions on how what they believe is the best app. So here is a student at Science Leadership Academy who feels heavily impacted about this topic. Eli is a reasonable source because he is a teenage who express his actually feeling on these to apps. He currently uses both apps but, he feels like one is better than the other. According to a teenager named Eli Z  he states, “ I believe Snapchat beats out Instagram due to their priority to be a direct messaging app first and a communal app second. Kids tend to use snapchat as a method of communication, like texting. Which relates back to my thesis because snapchat doesn’t show a lack in teens attention span but it shows a lack attention span when teens are on instagram.  Unlike Instagram which prioritizes the community over privacy.” In other words, Snapchat puts less pressure on teenagers to present their lives in a creative or appeasing way through a feed, as Instagram does. Instead, Snapchat presents a more laidback atmosphere so teenagers feel like they can be more of themselves. Not only this, but as mentioned earlier Snapchat is quicker and more efficient and is also an effective means of communication, whereas Instagram requires more effort and energy with its management. So Snapchat is just a camera where you hit a button so you can take a picture. You may also hold your screen and look a the different filter that they have on there too. You can snap a picture of yourself to a friend and it will go  directly to their phone.  As for Instagram you can  dm a person but you have to wait for them to dm you back. Not everybody gets direct notifications to there phone. The word dm means direct message. Now you can see that Snapchat is more realistic when it comes to communication unlike instagram.         
         When asked teenagers might say that social media is just a way to keep up with each other lives, but on closer inspection, teenagers really use it to communicate with each other and also to keep up with the new trend. This is because teens want to be up to speed with everything that is going on in this world. They want to know what is the best social media right now, so they can flock to whatever is hot. This could also explain why teenagers are always having polls on what social media is the best. Teens today around the world are heavily targeted towards Snapchat than Instagram. 

Works CIted“
Snapchat now beats Instagram among teen users.
”Fortune, fortune.com/2016/04/13/snapchat-instagram-piper-jaffray/.

Dunn, Jeff. “Snapchat has teens right under its thumb.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Apr. 2017,www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-instagram-facebook-twitter-popularity-teens-chart-2017-4.
 “U.S. teens: most popular social media apps 2017.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/199242/social-media-and-networking-sites-used-by-us-teenagers/.

The Benefits of Writing and Fine Arts


Most education programs in the developed world promote writing over art. This is a given. Above the kindergarten level, educators and parents take for granted that mastering language arts is indispensable in a competitive world, whereas fine arts are deprioritized as extracurricular. In a typical American school, students are required four years of English or literature as core subjects to graduate compared to no requirements at all in fine arts. However, upon in-depth research, the ostensible differences between the two subjects dissipates. In reality, fine arts and writing actually boast the same psychological benefits because both activities promote creativity and decrease stress.

While school can be strict and regimented, Creativity is the elusive gem that most educators try to refine in their students. Instead of relying on one prescribed way to develop creativity, research has discovered that a short session of making art can be as effective as creative writing. In the articles, The Modification of Sentence Structure and Its Relationship To Subjective Judgements of Creativity in Writing[3] and Educational Research: The Art of Problem Solving[4], investigators utilized a pretest/posttest design to quantify the increase of creative ability in children after writing and making art, respectively. In the writing study, fifth graders were asked to respond to writing prompts, whereas in the art study fifty graders engaged in sketching tasks. The children were assessed on their creativity and problem-solving abilities before and after the exercise. The results showed that the children were more likely to answer questions that stumped them in the pretest after both the writing and the art exercise. Both fine arts and writing contribute to psychological well-being from a creative standpoint.

One of the greatest benefits that both creative mediums possess is their stress relieving abilities. An article by the Huffington post explains how artistic expression can relieve stress and anxiety by temporarily distancing the artist from their problems.[5] A similar phenomena can be found in journal writing. An article from Harvard Health demonstrates the positive impacts that writing with emotions can have on one’s stress and experience of trauma.[6] Subjects mainly experienced a reduction in stress and anxiety. Frequently, both emotional writing and art are proposed as valid antidotes to excessive stress. This proposition is rarely disputed among the general public, yet it is not reflected in the American education. The psychological similarity between the two creative medium is only the tip of the iceberg when one examines the uncanny neurological equivalence of the two creative outlets.

The fact that the visual parts of the brain are activated while drawing may seem obvious. It may be less apparent that the same “visual and image processing” in the “parieto-frontal-temporal network”[7] are engaged during writing tasks. In a study entitled fMRI study testing the Neural Correlates of Creative Writing, Shah et al. reported that writing activates “a right lateralized activation pattern in bilateral hippocampi, bilateral temporal poles...and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex.” This pattern of activation improves “episodic memory retrieval, free-associative and spontaneous cognition, and semantic integration.” Another study focusing on the cortical integration differences of artists versus non artists discovered that fine artists also tend to have a “stronger right-brain presence.”[8] Furthermore, “artists showed significantly stronger delta band synchronization and alpha band desynchronization than did the non-artists,” [8] suggesting that artists can handle a larger “cognitive load,” have better “storage and controlled attention in the memory tasks,” and can better cope with “dual tasks.”[9] This means the regular production of art exercises the brain in such a way that one’s memory, cognitive speed, and integration ability are improved just like writing was shown to do in Shah et al. Art and writing affect a subject’s neurological functions in similar ways.

So what caused a shift away from the arts in education? The reason can be traced to the federal No Child Left Behind and Common Core programs, which prioritized science and math over other subjects. In LA County, for example, 1/3 of the arts teachers were let go between 2008 and 2012[1], and for half of K-5 students, art was cut all together.[2] How can a program that’s supposedly trying to make education better, do such a terrible job keeping something as strong as art? It is obvious that art is seen as something beneath other activities such as writing even though they are so similar. An programs like the No Child Left Behind and Common Core are what continue to push our culture in the ignorant direction of ignoring art.

Despite these paired benefits of  writing and fine arts, writing continues to be a core subject in schools and art is often pushed to the sidelines. Casual endeavors into writing and fine arts can result in a significant boost in creativity and problem solving abilities for all ages. Both subjects are effective stress relievers, and repeated practice of either creative medium results in similar brain activations and modifications. Given these facts, fine arts should be given a greater focus in schools and deserves the same respect as language arts.


Works Cited

  1. Staff, EdSource. “Effort to revive arts programs in schools gains momentum.” EdSource, edsource.org/2014/effort-to-revive-arts-programs-in-schools-gains-momentum/63507. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  2. “Let’s get rid of Art Education in schools.” Danny Gregory, 5 Oct. 2016, dannygregorysblog.com/2016/04/15/lets-get-rid-of-art-education-in-schools/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  3. Maloney, Karen Blase, and B. L. Hopkins. “THE MODIFICATION OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENTS OF CREATIVITY IN WRITING.” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 27 Feb. 2013, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1901/jaba.1973.6-425/full. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  4. “Educational research: The art of problem solving.” ArtsEdSearch, www.artsedsearch.org/summaries/educational-research-the-art-of-problem-solving. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  5. Frank, Priscilla. “Study Says Making Art Reduces Stress, Even If You Kind Of Suck At It.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 June 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/study-says-making-art-reduces-stress_us_576183ece4b09c926cfdccac. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  6. Publishing, Harvard Health. “Writing about emotions may ease stress and trauma.” Harvard Health, www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/writing-about-emotions-may-ease-stress-and-trauma. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  7. Shah, Carolin, et al. “Neural correlates of creative writing: An fMRI Study.” Human Brain Mapping, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, 8 Dec. 2011, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.21493/full. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  8. Bhattacharya, Joydeep, and Hellmuth Petsche. “Drawing on mind's canvas: Differences in cortical integration patterns between artists and non‐artists.” Human Brain Mapping, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, 25 Apr. 2005, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.20104/full. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

  9. “Sensitivity of human EEG alpha band desynchronization to different working memory components and increasing levels of memory load.” Neuroscience Letters, Elsevier, 5 Nov. 2003, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304394003011352. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

Additional Sources

  1. https://lifehacker.com/the-psychological-benefits-of-writing-regularly-1783693547

  2. https://bebrainfit.com/the-health-benefits-of-art-are-for-everyone/

  3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0191886995002022