Well, it is finals week at Wayzata High School as the first semester comes to a close. I have a two day final in AP Micro, a two day final in AP Physics, I already had a two day final in AP Comp, I gave my blog study presentation today in Comp on mindhacks, mindhacks.com , an awesome blog that you should definitely look at if you like science and psychology, and now comes my BLA final, sadly the last "English" assignment that I will ever have in high school.
The book that my group did for our BLA project is The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, written by Joan Jacobs Brumberg. The book goes into good depth to describe how girls have viewed their bodies both sexually and socially and different time periods throughout history, and focuses most importantly on how those images have evolved over time. Specifically it argues that the emergence of omnipresent commercialism and liberalization of sex and sexuality have led to girls putting a much larger emphasis on their bodies and much more thought into sex and appearance at increasingly younger ages. Throughout the book it highlights changes in parental influence in girls lives, the presense of doctors in girls lives, the rise of fashion and marketing, and increasingly important and clear, however misguided, definitions of beauty.
We then compared Brumberg's book and its argument to a documentary call The September Issue that has to do with the fashion industry by highligting vogue and the power that it has over women in our society today. Anna Winter is the editor in chief of of Vogue, and the piece argues that Anna Winter, by having control of what goes into Vogue has control over the fashion trends and therefore the minds of women in our society. This piece looks much more specifically at the fashion industry than The Body Project but both share similar viewpoints within their arguments.
Both pieces argue that commercialism in our society plays an immense role in what is considered beautiful and what is not, and that being beautiful by society's standards is very important to young women in our society and that it is spreading to younger and younger girls. Brumberg makes her argument almost exclusively with logic and historical examples to back up her points. The structure of her argument is clearly broken down in sections within the book where she backs up her claims with reasoning and examples and explains the overall impact of the point that she is trying to make about female bodies. The documentary is also somewhat logical as it points out the connections between what goes on in the fashion industry and the effects that it has on young women in particular, but it does seem much more biased and contains emotional appeals while Brumberg's piece does not. The documentary uses emotional appeals to portray Anna White almost as an evil dictator who was complete control over young women and their ways of thinking, which may be partially true but is certainly exaggerated in this piece to some extent.
The audiences of the two pieces do overlap but also are a bit different. Brumberg's audience targeted more toward older and mature girls and also for parents who are or are planning to raise girls in our society. The documentary also appeals to similar women but is more targeted toward all women in general because the main focus is on fashion which makes its way into the lives of almost all women today. I think that The Body Project is very effective in its argument because it uses an overwhelming amount of logic and is very straightforward but not malicious in its claim that the body images of girls have changed over time as a result of commercialization and open sexuality. In my opinion Brumberg has a more effective argument because it much more logical and rational. However, The September Issue does have an effective argument as well, just not as effective, because it does appeal to its audience successfully in its tactics because it focuses on fashion which appeals to women and it uses enough logic paired with emotional appeals to back up its claims that Anna Winter, and the fashion industry, have a certain control over the minds of women.
Okay so that is one final done.
I will be so relieved after school tomorrow when I can finally take a break.
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