Prospectus

Morgan Pendleton
English 111
Jackie Kari
October 28, 2008
Prospectus
I will argue that, media’s portrayal of women and teen girls can lead to eating disorders and (mental frustrations→ the contradictory personally portrayal). Before, in the early 1970s, eating disorders were only affecting people as young as 15, now it is affecting people as young as 10. With media portraying women with “perfect” (perfect is in quotes because in reality their bodies are unhealthy) bodies, making young girls (and boys) believe that they must have these perfect bodies causes these eating disorders. An estimated seven million females currently have an eating disorder.
I believe that in order to prevent such traumatic events (any sort of eating disorder), the subject of the portrayal of women in media needs to be brought to people’s attention. This is so that woman can be aware of this information and thus be aware of the lies that the media feeds us.
This paper will address women, specifically between the ages of 13/15-20 (the prime ages of eating disorders) and hopefully will display information to all women and media watchers about the deceitfulness that is given to us. This essay will just be in the form of an academic paper, like any other basic paper but will be placed on my blog. Because most of the people who will be reading this will be reading it off of my blog, I intend to use several other blog sources. Also I will use more credible sources like The New York Times, and other periodicals. I believe that using sources on the internet and providing hyperlinks to the blogs and other sites that I use will help to deliver my message and also include more information that I did not include in my essay.
I have a few things that I would like to include in my paper. One thing I want to include are statistics. I would like to use many different stats like percentage of males and females, mortality rates, etc. I think it will really add solid information to my piece in order to make my argument stronger. Also I want to give examples of medias like TV shows, supermodels, ads, commercials, etc. I want to briefly analyze one or two of them in relation to eating disorders and the frustrations the media puts on women (due to the contradictory personalities a woman “must” have).

Mini Bib. →more to be added
Dana. “Media Portrayal of Women- Body Shape vs. Personality.” [Weblog entry.] Portrayal of Women in the Media Discussed at Health Foods Blog. Health Foods Blog. 18 March 2008. (http://www.healthfoodsblog.com/2008/03/18/portrayal-of-women-in-the-media-discussed-at-health-foods-blog/). 28 Oct 2008.
Meagan. “Media Watchdog Program.” [Weblog entry.] Media Watchdog Program. 22 Oct 2008. (http://distortedperception.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/media-watchdog-program/). 28 Oct 2008.
Kleinberg, Kate. “Who Decided that I wasn't Beautiful?” [Weblog entry.] Kate the Great. 12 Oct 2008. (http://kate-the-great.blogspot.com/2008/10/who-decided-that-i-wasnt-beautiful.html). 28 Oct 2008.
B., Kim. “Media Influence on Eating Disorders.” [Weblog entry.] Gender and Pop Culture. 19 Oct 2008. (http://genderandpopularculture.blogspot.com/2008/10/media-influence-on-eating-disorders.html). 28 Oct 2008
Goleman, Daniel. " Eating Disorder Rates Surprise the Experts." New York Times. 4 Oct. 1995. 28 Oct. 2008 .

Public Discourse

Oh the next writing assignment. Public discourse. Normally I have no problem with writing a paper for any class (I'm not saying that they are well written only that I understand them [I think] and that I can actually brain storm and begin them). With this paper, I was having problems understanding it and brainstorming for it. Finally after some logical thought I believe I have it figured out. Public discourse; break down the phrase. Public, my two favorite definitions pertaining to the phrase, means open to all persons or generally known. Discourse, again my favorite and relevant definitions, means communication of thought by words and a formal discussion of a subject in speech or writing. Adding these definitions together leads me to believe that public discourse are thoughts/opinions/speaking of a subject that the public knows and/or the public is available to know (I'm assuming that the public is allowed to have an opinion, of course, because it is one of our rights).
Now that I understand what is meant by public discourse, I need to think out some ideas, some controversial subjects that pertain to todays issues. Also, in order for my paper to be a good one and thus cared about, my subject must be something that I care about and something that is easy to form (or one that I already have) an opinion on and that I can find information for.

Some of the first things that I can think of are prayer in public schools, political corruption, homosexuality, health care, hate crimes, child abuse, censorship, animal rights (including experimentation) and adoption. This actually may seem like a long list but on all of these issues, I already have my opinion and many sources in which I can utilize.

Animal rights is a huge possibility because it will be easy for me to write about and argue because in my Ethics class, we have been working on animal rights for the past two weeks. I have had to argue for them already.

Censorship, I'm not leaning towards that too much even though it is relatively easy to get sources against it.

Child abuse is a very touchy subject, in my opinion, and it will be hard to find anything for child abuse to be able to state anything that would argue against me (basically I am against it but would need to know the other sides arguments).

Hate crimes are a big issue because just back in my hometown, a hate crime was committed only about a week ago. This makes it an important subject to me because I am completely against hate crimes and for me to be considering to go to the school where students committed this hate crime bothers me. Good news is that there was a march for unity because of it.

I don't know for sure what I am doing yet. This is just me thinking through a few of them.