student2022-blog

[student2022-blog]

The Issue No One Wants to Talk About, Revision

Imagine being in a situation that made you feel so uncomfortable that you didn’t know what to do because of how shocked and scared you were. You felt so embarrassed and helpless throughout the whole situation, that you didn’t tell anyone of it. One out of five women have the chance of experiencing this throughout their lifetime. Sexual harassment or abuse in recent times has seem to become more of an issue or it could be argued that it was something that was ignored in the past. 

In the past sexual abuse or harassment has been looked at by society as an uncomfortable situation to talk about. This kind of outlook from society effects people on a micro level, giving them the belief that if they speak up about it they will be looked at differently do to the taboo nature of the situation. Making women not want to talk about it. 

This kind of outlook on sexual abuse or harassment took a turn when Tarana Banks decided she wanted to get involved and help. Banks wanted to make a difference after she had an encounter with a 13-year-old girl who gave Tarana insight on her experience of sexual abuse back in 1997. After that encounter with the young lady, ten years later Tarana founded Just Be Inc.  Just Be Inc. is a nonprofit organization that helps woman of sexual harassment and abuse. Tarana decided to call this whole movement METOO. (Garcia)

The goal of METOO is to give women the courage and will to stand up for themselves, in order for them to not fear the world they live in. If you take a look at their website, you’ll get a great sense of understanding of what they are aiming to do. “The me too. movement has built a community of survivors from all walks of life. By bringing vital conversations about sexual violence into the mainstream, we’re helping to de-stigmatize survivors by highlighting the breadth and impact sexual violence has on thousands of women, and we’re helping those who need it to find entry points to healing. Ultimately, with survivors at the forefront of this movement, we’re aiding the fight to end sexual violence. We want to uplift radical community healing as a social justice issue and are committed to disrupting all systems that allow sexual violence to flourish.” This was taken straight out of their website and is used to convince people to join the movement of changing the view society has on sexual harassment or abuse. Changing the nature of how sexual harassment or abuse it talked about changes the way the situation is handled. By making the situation more comfortable to talk about and report, this would lead women to be strong enough to confront their hardships. It would lead to more people to paying for what they have done, and it would most likely lead to less people committing theses acts. This all of course only happens if society is willing to bend and take a stand on this topic, which is the aim of METOO. 

The METOO movement really took off after the Harvey Weinstein case that erupted throughout Hollywood. Harvey Weinstein is a big executive Hollywood producer, who used his socioeconomical status to take advantage of young up and coming actresses. Harvey has been accused by thirty-three different women of sexual harassment or abuse. Including big names in the industries such as Cara Delevingne, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. This shocked everyone on the outside world of Hollywood because of the magnitude of women affected by this one man. This lead to the question of why didn’t the abused speak up before? The truth being most of them mentioned that they were scared, didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to jeopardize their future in the industry. (Rubenstein) These allegations turned Hollywood upside down. Shortly after the Weinstein case there was many more that followed having other big names in Hollywood being accused of sexual harassment or abuse. This brought up the question, how many women out there have been through this situation of being too scared to speak up?

In the midst of all the allegations being thrown around in Hollywood, famous female actress Alyssa Milano decided to use her platform to raise awareness of the situation. Milano used her massive twitter following to be the median in which she wanted to address things. She tweeted, “if you’ve ever been sexually harassed or assaulted write me too as a reply to this tweet.”  After the next 24 hours the #METOO was tweeted nearly half a million times. (Gilbert) This is when the #METOO movement gained some traction and took off. Making this not only a Hollywood problem, it made the situation our problem, the common men and women of this country

As you read this you might be wondering if the problem is really as bad as it’s meant out to be or you might ask if the allegations are even true. Why would these women wait so long to speak up or even better question why would a woman not speak up after being sexually harassed or raped, I mean it’s common sense right? Well although these are all points that could be argued, unless it’s happened to you how could you really know though? Studies show that after women are sexually abused they can experience multiple mental disorders and this can easily influence their decision on whether they should report the situation or not. (Nguyen-Feng) For example, one of the women who was sexually assaulted by Weinstein, said that after she was raped by him the first time she felt “defeated”, so what was the point of not just letting Weinstein get what he wanted? (Rubenstein) Another reason being that if you look at the statistics of the situation, eight out of ten women know the offender on a personal level. This raises an extraordinary amount of confliction because you’ve just been assaulted but it was someone you personally know and love. Do you want to be the one to ruin one of your loved one’s lives? Once again, it’s a situation you can’t really imagine because you might say one thing now but if you were in the actual hot seat, you’d probably be confused.

Sexual harassment or abuse is something that needs to be dealt with. It’s something that hits close to home but do to it’s taboo nature of being talked about, nothing is being done about it. When you look at the statistics of reported cases there’s a one out of five chance that a woman could be raped. (Facts about sexual harassment) Imagine how the data would change if all women reported their encounters with sexual harassment or abuse. This is topic that should be discussed more throughout the community and in hopes that it changes the social structure of the situation. 

Gilbert, Sophie. “The Movement of #MeToo.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Oct. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/the-movement-of-metoo/542979/. 

“Facts about Sexual Violence.” National Sexual Violence Resource Center. http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf

Garcia, Sandra E. “The Woman Who Created #MeToo Long Before Hashtags.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html.

Nguyen-Feng, Vianna N., “Supplemental Material for Sexual Victimization, Childhood Emotional Abuse, and Distress: Daily Coping and Perceived Control as Mediators.” Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2017

Rubenstien, Janine. “The Harvey Weinstein Scandal: TAKING DOWN A PREDATOR.” Time, 30 Oct. 2017, pp. 46–52.

[student2022-blog]

Reflection

The question posed is how I’ve grown or changed as a writer through English 120 and if I will continue to grow as a writer after I leave this class? I don’t think it’s as simple as, I’m a better writer now because I now better understand the SLO’s. That is what English 110 and English 120 were centered around, the student learning objectives. With the idea that these SLO’s are transferable to other fields and that if we understand them, we can apply them to our certain situation in hopes that they help us thrive in our fields. Well yes understanding the SLO’s is a part of the process but the question is if I made my understanding of the SLO’s applicable throughout the semester? To get a better understanding if I have grown or changed I must take a look back at what we have done this semester.

Work from my first semester in 110

The first project we encountered was to analyze a social injustice issue that was currently going on at the time. Then to compose a piece that brings awareness to the topic you picked using a different mode of media rather than just a paper, using the genre of your choice. I feel as if this is where the rhetorical situation and genre came into play quite a bit (SLO A). I chose to write my paper on sexual harassment and abuse here in America and to be more specific, the #METOO movement. The first thing I had to do was analyze the situation at hand by looking into the origins of where #METOO started and get a general sense of what was happening, SWA1. The next SWA given asked us to find evidence supporting the credibility of this movement and if was in fact a problem at all. Following those two assignments we were assigned two more assignments just to find more information on your topic in order to get a clear understanding of the whole situation and the facts regarding it. This whole process contributed to writing as a process (SLO C).  Not only because of the variety of different types of research that was done but also because all the while we had to figure out how we would use this considering we were asked to approach this assignment with a different medium, rather then just a research paper. This obviously involved research (SLO G. H. I. J.) because of the process of having to understand the variety of research done and interpreting it to contribute to your idea. The first project took in account almost all of the SLO’s, helping me not only understand them but being able to apply them to my work.

The first two SWA

I found our next assignment very interesting, we were asked to form a ethnoautobiography. For this assignment I tried to uncover who I really was which isn’t possible in the amount of time we had for this assignment, but would I could due was look at a couple of my core values. I broke down my day and picked apart what took most of my time and then I asked myself why I found those so important, which were school work and lifting weights. I broke down why I spent most of my time doing those things and if they aligned with what I thought my core values were.

The finished paper for MWA 1

Although this assignment was something new and different I was still able to apply all the same SLO’s to this project allowing. It was the project that followed this that pushed me to apply the other SLO which was reflection (SLO F). The next projected asked of us to make a revision of one of the two projects we had already completed. It also asked us to reflect on our past writing in the reflection prompt. The prompt was quite easy due to us having already having to reflect on our past work in order to revise one of the previous projects. I chose to revise my ethnoautobiography, so I took a look back on my writing to see the process in which I took, what the overall message of my paper was, and if I was able to portray my message to my audience as intended ( SLO B). In the end I figured maybe my ability to portray my message wasn’t so clear. This lead me to illustrate my point in my creative revision. For my creative revision I drew a picture of a book titled The American Dream with a dollar bill as a book mark and the American flag behind it with the stars replaced by a bag of money. This aligned with my paper in that in my paper I found out that I wasn’t living by my core values of chasing your dreams. I had come to a compromise with what I truly wanted to do with what I felt like I was supposed to do if I wanted to have financial worry free life. 

The creative revision 

So, to answer the question on how I’ve grown or changed as a writer, I have not only been able to get a better understanding of the SLO’s through the projects given to us but I was able to be able to apply those SLO’s in what I think was an effective way.  I was able to put every single one of them to use at one point or another. I will be able to continue to grow as a writer by being able to consistently apply to them to other areas of school and not only school but in the work force. I know I will be using these SLO’s a tremendous amount in the field I’m in considering I’m a criminology major. As a criminology major I’m pushed to be able to understand different pieces of work and research in order to be able to apply what I have learned to real life situations. 

[student2022-blog]

I

Left: Davian (me)

Who am I? A question posed from the beginning of time and yet the only person who can truly find the answer being you. This is a question that is unavoidable, everyone at one point of their life, whether young or old, you will come across this question. When one is posed with this question they generally start naming characteristics of themselves that they feel they carry or they think of past situations that entail those characteristics that they have been through to support those claims. This is not that.  I have interviewed family and friends to get their feedback on who I am; I asked them to give me a story on why they think I carry those characteristics. 

The first thing I did was reflect on my present self. What that means is I basically was just more self-aware of how I live my life in the present moment being aware of who I am as of this moment through my actions. First thing I did was breakdown my routine and why I prioritize things the way I did. So, after a week I realized I followed the same routine just about every day which was I wake up, get ready, go to school, go to the gym, do homework, and then fall asleep. If I had any meetings or anything of that nature I would do it, but I’d still center it around that routine. So, I looked back into the nature of why I prioritized those two subjects of school and working out. I looked back to when I first started doing those things. Well it was easy to find the reason of why I started school, it was mandatory from the age of five through eighteen. The real question is why I pursued it after I graduated high school where it’s no longer mandatory.

Second to right: Davian (me)

Well I’m a criminology major and the reason being that I have said in the past is because I want to become a probation officer in hopes of helping people break the cycle of coming in and out of jail. I had personal experience in the past of witnessing people get caught up in the constant cycle of mass incarceration but during this process I wanted to throw out that perspective because there’s different ways of helping that didn’t involve going to college. So, I dug deeper and looked to the situation at hand. Was I doing it for self-gain? I decided to look back on a project I did my junior year. The project called for you to create a club, the club I created was called the Dream Chasers. The main concept of my club was to pursue your dream at all cost, and the club was basically a support group to keep you on track to follow your dream no matter the consequences. When I asked my brother of who he thought I was he told me I was a hard worker and ironically, he brought up my junior year. My brother brought up my routine my junior which was I’d wake up at six in the morning to go to the gym until school started at eight. After school was over for me which was around one I’d go straight to basketball practice which ended at five. After that I’d go to the gym one more time and lift until eight and come home to finish my homework.   My dream was to pursue weight lifting and yet that has become sidelined to my school work. So, what happened along the line? 

So, as we already talked about, my dream was to pursue weight lifting. Which I didn't but weight lifting is still something I do everyday no matter what the situation. I started my journey of weight lifting at the end of my sophomore year in high school. An older friend of mine that I knew from basketball, asked me to go spot him in the gym and so I did. The next day he went up to me again and asked the same question. Although this time he added, “do you think you want to try and lift this time.” For some reason in my head I made the decision that I wasn’t going to lift just this once because it would be a waste of time. I decided to incorporate it into my life. I never understood why I did that but when asking my father who he thought I was he brought up my constant mentality of striving to learn new things and get involved it them. This reminded me of all the things I started, got really good at and then dropped it. Lifting wasn't one of those phases. For the first two years of lifting I only missed three days in the gym. Two of them being that the gym was closed and the other being that I had become tremendously sick. The question I’m trying to answer though is why didn't I quit this like I did with most things once I began to get somewhat good at it? Well the truth is I purely love the sport due to the self-reflection it forces you to face. If I don't like something about physical appearance, it’s my fault. You get what you put in. This poured over into my life. For example, if I don't like a grade I have in a class, It’s my fault. I mean sure could the professor make things difficult for me, could the professor just not be good at his or her job? Yes, but at the end of the day it falls on me. This whole you get what you put in mentality is the reason I stuck with lifting weights because it’s fair. 

Well when the question is asked who am I? I usually answer I’m Davian Chavarria, I'm a student at UNM. Truth is I only love one of things I wrote about in this post and it’s not the one I mentioned when asked, Who am I? I don't think anyone can truly answer the question of who they are because we are constantly evolving through experience. Who you are today can change from who you are next week or next year. What matters is who we are today, and continue from there. 

[student2022-blog]

The Issue No One Wants to Talk About

Imagine being in a situation that made you feel so uncomfortable that you didn’t know what to do because of how shocked and scared you were. You felt so embarrassed and helpless throughout the whole situation, that you didn’t tell anyone of it. One out of five women have the chance of experiencing this throughout their lifetime. Sexual harassment or abuse in recent times has seem to become more of an issue or it could be argued that it was something that was ignored in the past.

In the past sexual abuse or harassment has been looked at by society as an uncomfortable situation to talk about. This kind of outlook from society effects people on a micro level, giving them the belief that if they speak up about it they will be looked at differently do to the taboo nature of the situation. Making women not want to talk about it.

This kind of outlook on sexual abuse or harassment took a turn when Tarana Banks decided she wanted to get involved and help. Banks wanted to make a difference after she had an encounter with a 13-year-old girl who gave Tarana insight on her experience of sexual abuse back in 1997. After that encounter with the young lady, ten years later Tarana founded Just Be Inc.  Just Be Inc. is a nonprofit organization that helps woman of sexual harassment and abuse. Tarana decided to call this whole movement METOO. (Garcia)

The goal of METOO is to give women the courage and will to stand up for themselves, in order for them to not fear the world they live in. If you take a look at their website, you’ll get a great sense of understanding of what they are aiming to do. “The me too. movement has built a community of survivors from all walks of life. By bringing vital conversations about sexual violence into the mainstream, we're helping to de-stigmatize survivors by highlighting the breadth and impact sexual violence has on thousands of women, and we’re helping those who need it to find entry points to healing. Ultimately, with survivors at the forefront of this movement, we're aiding the fight to end sexual violence. We want to uplift radical community healing as a social justice issue and are committed to disrupting all systems that allow sexual violence to flourish.” This was taken straight out of their website and is used to convince people to join the movement of changing the view society has on sexual harassment or abuse. Changing the nature of how sexual harassment or abuse it talked about changes the way the situation is handled. By making the situation more comfortable to talk about and report, this would lead women to be strong enough to confront their hardships. It would lead to more people to paying for what they have done, and it would most likely lead to less people committing theses acts. This all of course only happens if society is willing to bend and take a stand on this topic, which is the aim of METOO. 

The METOO movement really took off after the Harvey Weinstein case that erupted throughout Hollywood. Harvey Weinstein is a big executive Hollywood producer, who used his socioeconomical status to take advantage of young up and coming actresses. Harvey has been accused by thirty-three different women of sexual harassment or abuse. Including big names in the industries such as Cara Delevingne, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. This shocked everyone on the outside world of Hollywood because of the magnitude of women affected by this one man. This lead to the question of why didn’t the abused speak up before? The truth being most of them mentioned that they were scared, didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to jeopardize their future in the industry. (Rubenstein) These allegations turned Hollywood upside down. Shortly after the Weinstein case there was many more that followed having other big names in Hollywood being accused of sexual harassment or abuse. This brought up the question, how many women out there have been through this situation of being too scared to speak up?

In the midst of all the allegations being thrown around in Hollywood, famous female actress Alyssa Milano decided to use her platform to raise awareness of the situation. Milano used her massive twitter following to be the median in which she wanted to address things. She tweeted, “if you’ve ever been sexually harassed or assaulted write me too as a reply to this tweet.”  After the next 24 hours the #METOO was tweeted nearly half a million times. (Gilbert) This is when the #METOO movement gained some traction and took off. Making this not only a Hollywood problem, it made the situation our problem, the common men and women of this country

As you read this you might be wondering if the problem is really as bad as it’s meant out to be or you might ask if the allegations are even true. Why would these women wait so long to speak up or even better question why would a woman not speak up after being sexually harassed or raped, I mean it’s common sense right? Well although these are all points that could be argued, unless it’s happened to you how could you really know though? Studies show that after women are sexually abused they can experience multiple mental disorders and this can easily influence their decision on whether they should report the situation or not. (Nguyen-Feng) For example, one of the women who was sexually assaulted by Weinstein, said that after she was raped by him the first time she felt “defeated”. She feared losing what she worked so hard for in the industry and she had already had a sexual experience with him, so what was the point of not just letting Weinstein get what he wanted? (Rubenstein) Another reason being that if you look at the statistics of the situation, eight out of ten women know the offender on a personal level. This raises an extraordinary amount of confliction because you’ve just been assaulted but it was someone you personally know and love. Do you want to be the one to ruin one of your loved one’s lives? Once again, it’s a situation you can’t really imagine because you might say one thing now but if you were in the actual hot seat, you’d probably be confused. 

Sexual harassment or abuse is something that needs to be dealt with. It’s something that hits close to home but do to it’s taboo nature of being talked about, nothing is being done about it. When you look at the statistics of reported cases there’s a one out of five chance that a woman could be raped. (Facts about sexual harassment) Imagine how the data would change if all women reported their encounters with sexual harassment or abuse. This is topic that should be discussed more throughout the community and in hopes that it changes the social structure of the situation. 

Gilbert, Sophie. “The Movement of #MeToo.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Oct. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/the-movement-of-metoo/542979/. 

“Facts about Sexual Violence.” National Sexual Violence Resource Center. http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf

Garcia, Sandra E. “The Woman Who Created #MeToo Long Before Hashtags.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html.

Nguyen-Feng, Vianna N., “Supplemental Material for Sexual Victimization, Childhood Emotional Abuse, and Distress: Daily Coping and Perceived Control as Mediators.” Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2017

Rubenstien, Janine. “The Harvey Weinstein Scandal: TAKING DOWN A PREDATOR.” Time, 30 Oct. 2017, pp. 46–52.