Reactionary Paragraphs 10/20

The essay "My Hips, My Caderas" by Alisa Valdes brings up issues in my life that i never really thought about. I am lucky enough to have two cultures like Valdes. My mother is from the island of Haiti and my father from Puerto Rico. I can relate to the subject of "caderas" being that all of the members of my fathers side of the family have hips and take pride in them. Dancing to spanish music requires you to move your hips or else you look very stiff. If you are not moving your hips the person you are dancing with will often take it upon themselves to move them for you.Luckily for me my mothers culture embraces women with hips as well. Having a butt is not a problem in either cultures that i belong to.

What is a problem in both cultures is weight. If you are too fat they make comments at family events about the "unattractive weight". When you loose the weight they complain about you suddenly being too skinny. It is as if your body can never seem to be the right size or proportion. Over the years i have learned to accept the fact that i do not contain big hips like my aunts, i do not contain a big butt like my mother, and i am very tall and skinny and top heavy. That is the point that Alisa Valdes tries to make, to be comfortable with yourself and finds someone that accepts you for your mind.

Women often think that finding someone who accepts them for solely their mind has to be one of the opposite sex. Feminist to me have it all wrong and this is well explained by "Lyz Baranowski". As women no matter how much we admit we all want to be loved by a man however we choose not to settle. To say you do not need a man makes you sound bitter to men and makes you unapproachable. Women have come along way in society and there are many powerful men in this world that can meet the standards of the powerful business women. Pretty soon with all the mixed races of people and different levels of success the world is going to become very integrated with all types of races and powerful people.

Narrative Essay

When i was a little girl i never had any rhythm and my parents were almost embarrassed when i danced at parties. I always liked to be the center of attention, so my jumping up and down was me thinking that i was doing one of the greatest dance numbers ever. It was expected that I be able to dance being that I am of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent and dancing was a big part of both cultures. All of my cousins before me were enrolled into dance school as an extra curricular activity but my mother was determined to get me into dance school to learn to dance on beat and to no longer shame her.

I do not remember my first day of dance school at Perfection Dance studio but i do remember me falling in love with the concept of making a beautiful routine to songs that i regularly listened to. I was three years old at the time and took both tap and ballet. I remember taking a trip to Payless shoe store to purchase ballet and tap shoes. The concept of buying a whole different other shoe just to dance in amazed and confused me. Why cant i just dance with my socks on?

Saturday mornings were something I looked forward to because I knew that my mother would be dropping me off to dance school so i could work on my routine. Every time I went to dance school we added on steps to a routine, a routine that i took very seriously. I can remember being in class and wanting to absorb any and everything to make sure that my dance routine was perfect come performance time.

On the day of the performance i was so nervous that i would mess up and my parents would not be proud of me. It was up to me to do my best being that I had worked so hard to gain the front spot where only the best of the best dancers stood. When i got on stage i never felt more alive in my life. It was like all of my fears were gone and i no longer had to use the bathroom anymore. I did my routine with the biggest grin on my face looking straight out into the audience of family and friends thinking we were so adorable when in fact no one was together and we were all over the place on stage, except for me of course.

That day is a day i will never forget for the rest of my life. I got over my fear of messing up, enjoyed myself and most importantly fell in love with dancing. I danced for five more years after my first performance and took up hip-hop in place of tap. I excelled so much in hip-hop that i was given the nick name  "Hip-Hop Princess". After my fifth year my parents could no longer afford to send me to dance school so i had no choice but to quit. I admit i was a little bit crushed and was too young to understand the costs of finances and just wanted to do what i was best at. I eventually got over the fact that i could no longer attend dance school but still continued to dance and make up my own routines.

My dance school days are some of the best memories I have of my childhood and the perfect way to remember them is not through pictures or videos of various performances, instead i still keep my first ballet shoes that i ever purchased in a frame on my wall. They old, tattered, and way too small for me. But when i look at them i smile to myself and remember me facing my fears of getting on stage to perform in from of people but most importantly those ballet shoes are responsible for the person that i have become today.

9/29 Reactionary Paragraphs

The essay titled "What's Wrong With Cinderella", by Peggy Orenstein came to my attention simply on the title alone. As a little girl my mother made sure to by me all of the Disney Movie classics such as Cinderella and all of the accessories to go along with it. Never did i once think that i was being brainwashed into thinking that the unrealistic life would have an effect on the woman that i am today. When you are a child you are innocent and the finer things in life are something that are unrealistic, but there is nothing wrong with dreaming. Orenstein has everyday battles with raising her young daughter when she does not agree with the images her daughter has in the media to look up to. Growing up a princess is how i was treated and still am treated to this day by my father. Peggy Orenstein forgot to mention how a fathers love can make her feel like a princess and not only a fairy tale. Yes as a child i was surrounded by pink, but once i started school and broadened my views on the world i found other things to obsess with such as softball and music. Not every little girl thinks they are going to be princesses for the rest of there life. Once you enter the adult world you tend to want a more professional goals for yourself than getting pampered all day long or fighting evil step sisters.

Jason Kelly's "The Great TV Debate" questions whether while raising a child should there be a limit on the intake of television a child watches. Kelly has a two year old son who watches television some of the times but has the will power to turn it off to engage in a book or play with toys. Now a days in this day and age there are very few kids who are not addicted to electronics such as television and video games. Similar to Peggy Orenstein, both authors question if what their child views influences the person that they will eventually become Will his two year old son be illiterate? I believe it has everything to do with the morals you instill in your kids, teaching them right from wrong and the ability to make their own decisions for themselves.

Marriage Definition Essay (Revised)

Marriage is the union of man and women who become husband and wife for the rest of their lives. It is often performed in a ceremony in front of loved ones, a priest or judge. The man and women promise each other to stick by their side through thick and thin, sickness and health, and for richer or poorer. The women often takes the last name of her husband to signify the union of the two. For the rest of there lives these promises that were made at the beginning of the marriage are upheld throughout the whole marriage and for the rest of there lives, if spent together.(Function)

In a marriage, your husband or wife becomes your support system financially and emotionally. Married couples often share the same bank account so earnings are shared to support one household. Depending on every ones situation, both or one party of the marriage gets up for work everyday in order to make a living to eventually share with their significant other. You can come home from a longs day of work to find your wife or husband waiting for you with a romantic dinner waiting for you as a reminder of the appreciation they have for you. When you have troubles your spouse is there to help you through it as if he or she is a therapist willing to listen to what you have to say. There will be arguments some days due to stress, money, and what they next step will be but a couple is expected to work through it. In a marriage if you do not have the emotional and financial support the base of your marriage can crumble leaving you in a position to either fix it or walk away completely. (Subjective)

Marriage is something that is a step in life that everyone is expected to take. When you become of age you start to date seriously and look for qualities in a person that you lack in order for them to complete you. Once you have found that person you make a commitment to stay with each other often in front of your family and friends. You are telling that person that you are confident in the bond you share and you want to spend the rest of your lives together. Marriage is expected to have its ups and down but you and your partner are expected to work through it in order to make it last. This work and effort helps have a happy home where you can soon raise children in, and they will one day get married. There example of marriage will come from their own parents and often when they reach a rocky point they will look to advise from there mother or father.   (Restrictive Definition)

Marriage is not something that is to be taken lightly. It is a commitment between to people to remain faithful to one person and on person only. Marriage is not for everybody being that it is a big step in someones life to finally settle down with one person to eventually grow old together. You should not get married if marriage is a way to make everything seem better on the outside. Marriage does not come with what to do and not to do, but with time you will learn the little things that gets your mate upset that you did not know before marrying them. It is up to you to the married couple and strength in there bond to make it work and last.  (Negative Definition)

Marriage Definition Essay

Marriage is the union of man and women who become husband and wife for the rest of their lives. It is often performed in a ceremony in front of loved ones, a priest or judge. The man and women promise each other to stick by their side through thick and thin, sickness and health, and for richer or poorer. The women often takes the last name of her husband to signify the union of the two.  (Formal)

In a marriage, your husband or wife becomes your support system financially and emotionally. Married couples often share the same bank account so earning are shared to support one household. Emotionally a married couple share there feelings and problems at work or with family and friends. There are no secrets shared in a marriage. If a married couple is fortunate to have kids they become a team in raising them to ensure that their kids will one day be successful and do better than they did.  (Function)

Marriage is something that is a step in life that everyone is expected to take. When you become of age you start to date and put your self out there to find someone who completes you. Once you have found that person you make a commitment to stay with each other often in front of your family and friends at a ceremony. A marriage ceremony emphasizes the coming together of two families as one. Both families are to support the two in future decisions and help them in times of need.  (Structural)

Marriage is not something that is often taken seriously. Currently there are more single parents and divorced women than their are married couples. You should not get married if it is a way to fix a problem such as becoming pregnant before you and your mate are ready for it. Marriage shouldn't be taken lightly being that it is such a strong bong and takes a lot of commitment. Often people who marry for financial stability often find themselves lonely and hating the fact that they find themselves in situations where they are unhappy.  (Compare/Contrast)

Reactionary Paragraphs

After reading Farrell's "Family: Idea Institution, and Controversy" I began to question my definition of family. Farrell brought up some key points of the ever changing society and what is thought to be a normal family in the twenty-first century. We have a lot of new cultures in America and that also plays a huge role on what is portrayed as the typical family. The author did a good job in backing up his definition of family with statistical facts as well as using real life examples that related to the theme. He made sure to show how the term and meaning of family has changed throughout the decades. Doing so gave the reader a clear understanding on the argument that the author was trying to make. It was in third person point of view, making all of his opinions strong statements.

The piece by Andrew Sullivan "Why the 'M' Word Matters to Me" was interesting and something unexpected. From reading the title I did not expect it to be from a personal experience of a homosexual man. It made the reader relate to the topic by using typical questions that anybody straight or gay would ask  themselves. It is almost expected by parents for you to go on to college, get a degree, get a job then ultimately get married. For Sullivan's parents the most important thing his family valued was marriage. His definition of marriage is not what is typical but he still wishes to have the feeling of loving someone after going through some tough times in his adolescent years. He spoke about his definition through a personal experience while still being able to relate whether you were heterosexual or homosexual.

Somerville's "The Case Against Same Sex Marriage" was the total opposite of the Sullivan piece. It was a opinion piece but it was based on all facts. Both pros and con's on same sex marriages were brought up, however the author made sure to argue the pro-same sex marriage facts were proven wrong based on his opinion. She made sure to bring up all aspects of the argument such as moral views as well as the views based on the law. Every aspect of thought was taken into consideration when writing this in order to make sure every basis was covered. It was clear and concise to understand the points in which the author was trying to make.

Overall all three pieces did a good job in proving there arguments with facts and personal experiences. It gave the reader no choice but to put all statements into consideration when defining the meaning of a topic such as family and marriage in there own opinion.

Revision Of Descriptive Essay

With her last music video being so controversial, her fans did not seem to be shocked at her actions. As an artist her video was just one of the many ways she shows her individuality. She is usually seen sporting her very large Afro that can be mistaken for the leaves of a tree if seen in the dark. Its a change from when she first came out as a artist wearing a towel wrapped around her head with long,blond dreads hanging out from the wrap. Not only are her head pieces extravagant, her style of clothing comes from the inspiration of Zulu nation. Her clothes are made from African cloth with bright colors of greens, deep purples, and other rich colors. Sometimes her style switches according to mood with 1970 style belt bottoms and clogs that boost her height. In her latest video she walks down the street in broad day light in a crowded city with many spectators minding their business. As she walks the crowded urban street she begins to strip off all of her clothing, one by one. It starts with the slow unzipping of her deep purple sweater all while walking as if nothing could stop her. It was as if she had the tunnel vision of a cheetah going after his prey. As an artist she serves as an inspiration to many and will leave her legacy on Hip-Hop in more ways than one.