beauty being constructed

Alan Marx

October 26^th, 2014

            In class we are discussing beauty. In life we as people feel that it is necessary to do things to ourselves to make our personal images better from other peoples perspectives. We use do things like putting on makeup, dressing in nicer clothes, or buying expensive things to make ourselves feel like we have more confidence. In the videos that we watched in class, Cameron Russell and the music video, they gave us different perspectives on people and how they feel about themselves. In Cameron Russels videos she explains her life as a model. As she explains in the video being a model is not what everyone thinks it is. Sure, she gets a lot of free stuff and is looked at as more of a beautiful person. But the reality of it is, is that she is just a normal person just like any of us and any other model in the world. It shows a side-by-side picture of her posing as a model and her with her grandmother at the beach and as you can see, she is constructed in the picture to be this drop dead gorgeous women who is the face of this magazine. In the music video Try by Colbie Caillat, it shows two different sides of women. When women are constructed with makeup and then when they are without makeup and showing their true features. This song is showing that it is ok to show yourself, you as a person no matter who you are, are beautiful. We as people need to understand that you don’t need things like makeup, expensive clothes, or expensive things to show our true selves. We are who we are and ill say it again we are beautiful. So the main question is, can beauty be constructed? The answer quite simply is yes.

Haiku

I chose to write this Haiku because I am a summer person. Every year when summer ends all I can think about is how many months it will be until it comes again. Every summer new adventures come with it. Me and my friends usually head to the shore after long weeks of working, blasting music along the way. We go to my friends house in LBI and have a blast every time. In fact two of my friends have houses there where we split the amount that goes into each house. What a life. The amount of gas money I've spent driving back and forth is unheard of. But that does not phase me as I keep doing it because I love it so much. Next year will hopefully be a big year as my own shore house is being rebuilt from hurricane sandy. And I can only know that the memories in those two houses will only be stronger now that there are three.

Alan Marx

September 29, 2014

Professor Young

English 1100

Essay 2

            In the town of Basking Ridge New Jersey there is an issue that I feel needs more attention to be brought upon it. Basking Ridge is ranked number 5 on the on the safest places to live website and we as a town very proud of that. But the area that I am concerned with revolves around the schooling district. As we grow older in our teen years we become an age where bullying becomes a factor in our every day lives. In school when children are not around parental supervision kids can become physically, or mentally abusive to each other, bullying in the community of Basking Ridge has become an outgoing problem for many years, whether its in the hallways or through technology I feel it is the time where the board of education needs to step in and help.

            Bullying is defined as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.” As shown in this definition it doesn’t mention that bullying can only go on in a school, bullying can happen anywhere. But I feel when kids or teens are in the early stage of their lives bullying can be more effective. Things like depression, health complaints, and even suicide are 3 possible words that could be tied to a child being bullied, and these 3 things can may a parent sick forever.

            The town I live in, Basking Ridge, is a very beautiful place to live. It is full of some of the wealthiest people from our state. If you drive around the area you will notice these nice paved roads, big houses with the grass cut, people running, all of these little things make me feel good to be able to come home to each and every week. But growing up in this town from grades K-12 I witnessed many forms of bullying in the schools that I attended.

            Ever since the rise of social media it has become easier for students to bully one another outside of school. When you’re sitting in your room at home typing away on either your computer or cell phone you can just watch a conversation turn into a media frenzy in just seconds. There’s always a problem that can start just by a few unkind words. Students will go back and forth calling each other bad names until it has to become physical. The words “Fight me” always tend to pop up under someone’s name and then the next thing you know, their standing 10 feet away from one another ready to brawl. Sides are always taken and usually whoever wins is looked at as the bigger person and the one who looses is looked at as the smaller person. Social media is on the rise in our current generation and bullying tends to be rising with it.

            In the memoir Valerie Kinlochs memoir “Harlem art she shows how the place she lives which is Harlem to be beautiful in its descriptive ways. I see a connection between Basking Ridge and Harlem very much as they both are beautiful towns. The only way to appreciate it is to stop and look around once in a while and you can just see that after all of those years of war or Civil rights, we now can live in a peaceful and well-respected Community where everyone feels safe. “This art that makes up Harlem is not simply abut the artifacts of art, but the people of Harlem themselves.” (Kinloch 150) Knowing who surrounds you in your community can also help you appreciate where you live. The people of your town help out everyday trying to make where you live a better place, and I feel that that’s what Valerie Kinloch is trying to say in her memoir.

            Solving this problem is hard to do, every year someone maybe a student or the principle takes it upon themselves to have an assembly to aware us of why and how bullying goes on in our school. Us being kids, we don’t really listen and take in what is being said to us in these assemblies. Bullying like I said is more than just in the school, which gives us responsibilities to say something to someone when someone is being bullied outside of schools. Kids are sneaky and it’s hard to keep up with a population of an entire school. Students usually will not want to be the “tattle tail” because they may get bullied as well. I believe that the board of education needs to create a separate coarse for bullying in school. Students should learn of the causes and effects of this social dilemma. I also believe that the consequences of bullying should be more severe showing kids that if they do get caught bullying that they will never do it again.

            Bullying is a big problem in Basking Ridge NJ. It is time that the students stand up and say something. Watching a person get socially torn over the computer is not something you should do nothing about. Tell a teacher, a parent, tell someone about this. That person has feelings as well, and it is time that we as bystanders are looked at as bigger people.

Works Cited

"What Is Bullying." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Kinloch, Valarie

essay 2

Alan Marx

September 29, 2014

Professor Young

English 1100

Essay 2 draft

            In the town of Basking Ridge New Jersey there is an issue that I feel needs more attention to be brought upon it. Basking Ridge is ranked number 5 on the on the safest places to live website and we as a town very proud of that. But the area that I am concerned with revolves around the schooling district. As we grow older in our teen years we become an age where bullying becomes a factor in our every day lives. In school when children are not around parental supervision kids can become physically, or mentally abusive to each other and in the community of Basking Ridge it has become an outgoing problem for many years, and now I feel is the time where the board of education needs to step in and help.

            Basking Ridge is a very beautiful town. It is full of some of the wealthiest people from our state. If you drive around the town you will notice these nice paved roads, big houses with the grass cut, people running, it makes me feel good to be able to come home and enjoy the place where I live. But growing up in this town from grades K-12 I witnessed many forms of bullying.

            Ever since the rise of social media it has become easier for kids to bully one another. When you’re sitting in your room at home typing away on either your computer or cell phone you can just watch a conversation whether its on Facebook or Yik yak, there’s always a problem that can start just by a few unkind words. When There are countless amounts of places where a child can easily be a target because everything is public now a days, and schools need to start looking into the social media. Like I said I grew up in this town and everyday someone would get mocked just over maybe a picture they posted.

            Bullying can go beyond just the school, as you can see from what ive told you it can go one anywhere. But there are other places where bullying can happen. For example in our town there is this big event called Charter Day. Charter day is meant for all of the towns businesses to come out and have a day of promoting their companies, its also where they set up these big rides for kids. During my middle school years every year there would be this big talk about who was going to fight one another on charter day. That’s all we would talk about, not what we were going to do, just who was going to fight. It would usually be announced somewhere on social media or it would be the talk of the school.

            Solving is problem is hard to do, because kids are sneaky and its hard to keep up with so many kids. Bullying is a big problem in our town and there needs to be more kids that step forward and say something to someone. But as we as people all know that kids will be kids and usually will not say anything. Kids usually will not want to be the “tattle tail” because; then again they would get bullied as well. It is time that the board of education looks into this problem. I feel like there needs to be a separate coarse for bullying in school. Schools should all have a bullying prevention class. I also feel like the bullying consequences should be harsher showing kids that if they do get caught bullying that they will never do it again.

            Bullying is a big problem in basking ridge NJ. Although it may be a beautiful, rich place to live there’s a big problem that revolves around the schooling districts and that problem is bullying.