Choice #1 assignment; It all started with a chair.

It is no surprise that Juno is one of the best comedies across the country for the year 2008. It’s up for best movies of the year and audiences are raving about it. However, for some audiences, Juno touches upon a very important topic that mothers and their teenagers are facing today. Teenage pregnancy is a taboo topic to bring up when creating a film. Some audiences felt shocked, offended, and disappointed with the unrealistic belief of the film.
One of the first instances that may shock audiences is the abortion clinic scene. In most states there are abortion clinics with protesters outside screaming for the birth of babies. For Juno, there was but one young, innocent girl screaming, “All babies want to get borned”. This may seem unrealistic to the public and abortion clinics may come off as easy-going facilities.
Another shocking incident in the film is when Juno tells her father and step-mother about the pregnancy. Before they take her seriously they seem to joke about drugs and expulsion from school. It is unlikely for a parent to joke about certain accusations such as the ones Juno’s family had made. Once her family found out the truth there was a sense of understanding from them. In some instances this seems very unrealistic because not many parents are in an understanding mood to finding out that their teenage daughter is pregnant. After seeing other films or witnessing them on documentaries, there are sometimes many tears and questioning. In this film it was portrayed that parents think lightly of teen pregnancy which can cause and uproar around the country with parents raising teenagers.
Now when audiences first may have felt offended by Juno may be when it is stated that Paulie Bleeker has no worries about the child. Not only does he have no worries but also his parents were never notified. For some this may seem like the typical guy getting off the hook of a pregnancy. Many teenage girls see it everyday, they fall in love, the deed is done, and the love of their life seems to leave because it’s too much for them to handle. Now granted Bleeker never left Juno it was portrayed that he had no responsibility in the pregnancy. Bleeker was very much in love with Juno and wanted to be apart of her life but, she just seemed to push him away. Bleeker allowed this to happen and it came across as offending to some audiences because he was apart of the act.
Finally, one of the most disappointing moments in the film happens to be after the birth. Juno states that she did not want to see the baby, nor did Bleeker want to see the baby. She had stated it would be too hard for them. The scene changes from winter to spring and we find Juno Riding her bike as if nothing had happened. This is very disappointing to audiences because it shows no emotional affect that happened to Juno after she had the paper. Nine months of holding something with you as precious as a baby and she seemed to be riding her bike as if nothing had happened to her. This could possibly show teenagers that pregnancy is not as hard as many mothers make it out to be. It also shows that pregnancy with an adoption is one of the easiest things a teenager can go through.
After seeing Juno numerous amounts of times there is an unrealistic feel to the movie. For me, this was very tough to admit because I enjoyed Juno so much as a film. It is safe to say that there many controversial instances in the film on such an important topic like teenage pregnancy. I also believe it is safe to say that the writers of this film were just looking for a good comedy but after the film was in motion many of the controversial instances came into play a little more than expected.

A Style Nobody can Deal With

This article seemed to be kind of a hard read for me. I'm not exactly sure why but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would have.

I understand that Rose wants the reader to understand what the people have gone through in new york and the division on the working class versus the poor community. It is also very clear that with hip hop their has and always will be a struggle.

The hip hop community is very much interrelated with one another such as the rappers, break dancers, and graffiti artists. While reading on page 408 about half way down the page, Rose explains that these three identities help one another. An example given was rappers displaying graffiti artists work on t-shirts and jackets and also having break dancers perform while rapping. This type of support is not uncommon in life in general but it is hard to find at times.

One of the sections in the article i did have trouble with was probably the urban context because it seemed quite wordy to me and my interest was lost.

Overall i enjoyed the article and understanding that hip hop has changed from a African and Hispanic way of life to a white man's money making life. While reading this article I had many thoughts in the back of my mind of certain things that one culture had established while the white-working man had taken over. Maybe I'm getting the wrong idea of the reading but this is what I had perceived.

transforming teens by hotline?

So last night I was just flipping through the channels on the television and I noticed a commercial on "Transforming Teens". This caught my eye and I wanted to post about it becasue it was a commercial with a 1-800 number on how to change your teens in a minute or less. It was talking about how their attitude and moods would take a turn for the better after calling this number. As I was watching this I was honestly laughing out loud becasue there is no way you could possibly change a teenagers attitude in a minute or less. Not to mention the fact that it was a 1-800 number to call. Just thought it was a funny thing to see on tv. Wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this "great process" as the man on the tv had stated.

talk about a catch 22

So this article is basically stating that the old has to somewhat go but the new isn’t working out so great. Trying to teach new material about computer and machines like that is quite hard for the people of an era who didn’t have this technology. With teachers and company owners today there are many problems being faced because our technology is advancing. Many people who are graduating now a receiving jobs and other from about a decade ago are losing them.
This article proves so much that something needs to be done and a meeting point needs to be put in effect. Yes it is hard to teach new technology but our students need that technology to expand. The one thing I can think of after reading this article is my grandmother saying my generation is so different, etc. etc. etc. It goes right back into teenagers being different because of the advantages they have in technology. And we all know that twenty from now I’ll be saying that the generation is so different and it will still be changing.

MYTHS ARTICLE

Wow, this article was probably one of the things i hate the most. I can't stand how the media plays a huge roll in things like body, money, status, etc. It is so true that cartoons and movies shape our lives today. As a girl I never had the my size barbie becasue she wasn't my size. I was a bigger girl and barbie was never made in my size. How is it fair to little girls who are somewhat bigger to not have a my size barbie, or a barbie their size in general. Because big is bad, or because non blue eyed blonde hair is bad. The generation children are growing up in today is crumbling before us. Teachign children that you need a man to be happy in life is complete garbage. If you can't be happy alone, what makes you think a man is happy. The repsonses that students made to all of these myths were probably the best and most i could agree with. It really gets to me that the media has such and amazingly strong roll in what a person should look like and say yet we never see the people behind the magazine or the writers of the scripts.

HINE ARTICLE

After reading the Hine article I feel like there were a lot of great points in the article such as the story Hine tells us of the senior prom and the young senior killing her baby as if nothing had happened. With this story is was informative to realize that yes senior prom is a geat night to remember and to find a young student killing her child, why would you want that to ruin your night. one of the things that got me a little angry about the article is all the assumptions, and studies that Hine disusses. Sure there are surveys being taken about the teenage population but how are we to know that the population does not see this as a joke and answers with a sarcastic attitude. Researchers aren't exactly sure how serious these teenagers are taking things so it is almost impossible to either generalize or to assume anything.

yay for this class

So i'm pretty excited i finally figured out how to make my blog, def never had one before. i'm really excited for this class too. i took a sociology class last semester called unequal sisters and it really got me to think about women, gender, age, etc. I'm pretty bummed i had to miss class tonight i was pretty sick all weekend and i just couldn't make it through the day so if anyone wants to post anything about how class went that'd be great. see you guys next monday
-ashlee