Entry #2

During my research on abuse I found several very interesting articles about physical abuse. However, one of the articles mentioned something I'd never quite heard of before. The subject it mentioned was 'emotional abuse'. I'd never heard of it before, so I did some research. When I looked it up I found a number of shocking articles on the neglected, but very important, issue of emotional abuse.

Through research, I learned all about the dangers and affects of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is when someone is abusing someone emotionally by making them feel unsafe and trapped in a relationship. People who emotionally abuse others do not use physical violence. Instead, they psychologically abuse others by making them feel like they are nothing. This type of abuse slowly hurts people by breaking their self-confidence and love for themselves. In many ways, this can be as or even more harmful then physical abuse. This type of abuse affects many people across the world, especially women and young children. 

An example of how damaging emotional abuse can be is a story I read about earlier in an article. A young woman was emotionally abused, but not physically abused, to the extent that she was suicidal. Luckily, she didn't kill herself, but the story is still shocking. The fact that someone can damage another person to the extent that they want to kill themselves is beyond belief. 

After reading several articles similar to this one, I realized how damaging what you say to people is, and how much people affect others without realizing it.

Research Entry #1

When I first began brainstorming for topics to write my picture book on, my first idea was to write a book about sexism. I got pretty excited about the idea, and so I went to look up sexism to see if it could help me with my story. I skimmed through several articles until one caught my eye. 'Outraged Moms and Trashy Daughters' was the title. It looked interesting and opinionated, so I began to read it. 

The article illustrated the life of a woman named Leanne who was brought up in the ultra feminist 70's. Also in the article was her daughter, Olivia, who was less the excited about feminism. She thought  it was disgusting how women never wore makeup or perfume, and stated that they would 'never marry'. When I read this I was extremely surprised that anyone could be so closed minded, but the article helped me to understand Olivia's views. It explained that in America today, our culture is so hyper sexualized that many girls have given up and feel that feminism is dead.

For example, one of the most famous and popular celebrities in Hollywood today is Kim Kardashian, who became famous by putting out a sex tape. Now, she's a fashion icon in Hollywood, and many girls around the world are trying to look like her. In fact, since her sex tape scandal, many girls have tried to put out their own tapes in hopes of getting famous. There was even an interview where a girl said that it is now 'the only way to get into the business'. 

Also, another issue mentioned in the article was the way women are beginning to use plastic surgery and botox more then ever. The way women are altering their faces and bodies is making young girls these days think that its okay to do that. 

The article on the lack of feminism in our world today surprised me and made me sad, but it also inspired me to change the topic of my short story. Instead of doing a broad subject like sexism, I decided to narrow it down to todays hyper sexualized culture. 

Social Injustices

   At first,  I wasn't sure that the books that I'm reading right now are quite based on social injustices. But, when I looked deeper, I found that I was wrong. There are, to some level, social injustices shown subtly throughout both books that I was reading.
   In a book I'm reading called 'An Abundance of Katherine's" I realized an injustice in society. The book is about a child prodigy who has been dumped by nineteen times by nineteen girls named Katherine. The main character, Colin, is trying to figure out why each of the girls dumped him by going on a road trip with his best friend. On the way, he finds out more about himself and understands his feelings more then he ever had before after meeting a girl named Lindsey Lee Wells. In the book, Colin meets to characters named Katrina and Colin (whom they called TOC for The Other Colin). Both of these characters take advantage of Colin, Hassan (his best friend), and Lindsey. This is because Katrina decided to date Hassan to make TOC, who was dating Lindsey, jealous. TOC ends up cheating on Lindsey with Katrina. Colin finds out and TOC attempts to manipulate him into not telling Lindsey. The way TOC and Katrina manipulate and use the main characters in the book is a perfect example of social injustices that occur everyday. When I was in elementary school, everything was a lot easier. There were no complications with friends or relationships. Things were just... better. But, as soon as I got into middle school I realized that things were different. Suddenly, everyone had changed. You had to be careful what you did and said, who you trusted. People gossiped and manipulated others, it was everywhere. I had no idea who my friends were anymore, or who I could trust. In many cases, people who were best friends in middle school, weren't talking anymore because one of them gossiped about the other. A social injustice in todays society, in my opinion, is the way others are manipulated and used for someones gain. Like in "An Abundance of Katherine's", TOC and Katrina didn't even care about Lindsey or Hassan's feelings, they only cared about themselves. I think that the way people treat others as if they are worthless is a social injustice on the behalf of everyone. No one should feel mistreated or used, yet it happens all the time.