Final Thoughts

I have learned so many things that I would have a hard time fitting within 150 words.  For example, before the course I am positive I would not have been successful in describing the public sphere.  But, I think this course brought up many things that I found interesting.  The book that I enjoyed the most was Nobody.  Hill truly challenged me in his reading, it was important to be able to read all of the instances in one timeline. I believe that before this course, I thought about each of the occurrences as its own separate event problem, but truly they are interwoven as one piece.

Most Interesting Thing Learned from Research

I think the most interesting thing that I learned from my research was that according to the findings of the Freshman Survey, an annual study of first-year college students administered by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, political polarization on campuses is the most extreme it has been in the study's 51-year history.  The 2016 report is based on responses from 137,456 full-time, first-year students at 184 U.S. colleges and universities.

While, I knew that we are extremely polarized today and it is felt by many, I didn't realize before that out of every single year in which this study has been conducted, this year was the most polarized it has ever been.

Transforming from Nobodies to Somebodies

While reading Nobody, I was extremely surprised when Hill shifted gears in his last chapter.  The change of pace from being so negative before was surprising to me.  I believe that it is a big venture that we must take to be able to address the causes of the vulnerability and Stat violence that Hill explains.  Mass incarceration is a big deal in which minorities are yet again enslaved and controlled.  There are many "Nobodies" that have been incarcerated for seemingly minute crimes.  The war on drugs was one way in order to incarcerate, and it was targeted at specific communities.

There has been reversing of legal policies concerning decriminalizing some drugs.  This is a great first step to eradicate the problem of mass incarceration.  While looking around the internet for topics for this post (I'll be honest, I struggled at first trying to tackle this huge topic) I came upon the following graph:



While, it is outdated since it ends in 2013, it depicts a story of America's mass incarceration.  While, 2013 was a year in which we saw the least amount of people incarcerated since 2001, it is obvious that it barely means anything.

As a society, we must recognize that there even is a problem at all.  Without identification, there is no chance there will be change.  Education is something that we need to pursue.  Hill takes this step in publishing his book.  I am certain that there are a large amount of people that are oblivious to all that Hill brings up.  By putting this out there, hopefully those people would begin to engage with the material to learn.  This is a stretch to expect that those whom don't agree with these ideas will pick up this book, read it, and discuss the material with those around them.  We must find a way in order to lessen the polarity in which we find ourselves today in order to promote discussion and more holistic learning.

Further, making incarceration a more rehabilitative experience would be necessary.  If we are only locking people up for a certain amount of time and expecting them to learn a lesson, we are mistaken.  The lesson that can be learned from being incarcerated is to not get caught.  For, if they were to just not have been caught, they would have been fine.  However, by interacting with those that are incarcerated and help them understand that they have a part in the choices they make would be much more beneficial towards the pursuit of rehabilitation.

Enlightened Sexism

Learning about the concept of "enlightened sexism" is something that I found extremely interesting.  I truly never thought about it in this way before.  I have always seen women in television and movies playing roles of great power.  It reinforced in my head that women held positions of power like this in everyday life.  It truly put me in awe for a little, having to sit back and think about how my subconscious was formed off of this media portrayal of female characters.  

As for thinking of films and television in which I find females to be portrayed more accurately, I am struggling.  Some of the recent things I have watched include Thirteen Reasons Why, which absolutely comments on rape culture in a way that oppresses women.  If there were gender equity, many of the things that happened within the show (and in real life) would not happen.  It is interesting, how they gave the perspective of Hannah, the main character, throughout the series.  She must live through the male gaze and even assault, but it focuses on her reaction.  I think this was a powerful way in order to bring life and help people connect much more with this female character.  SPOILER ALERT:  One of the things that hurt me the most that was a subtle thing in the series was that when she built the courage to talk to her school counselor about being raped, his first reaction was victim blaming.  The counselor's first reaction was to ask whether Hannah had led on the person who she said to have raped her.  He continues to question her perspective, which is something that happens to those who are sexually assaulted.  This oppression applies to females, because of the statistic that 1 in 4 females will be sexually assaulted in college.

While having female characters in leadership roles in media does give a false representation of our current society,  I do believe there are benefits to it.  By representing women in this way, it normalizes the idea of having women in power.  By doing this, it will hopefully help women attain the levels of power that are displayed in television and film more than it would have without the media portrayal.  Further, there are role models for the younger audience by having females in power.  I am sure that there have been women in television and film that have inspired women to strive for more.  One example I can think of is Leslie Knope in Parks & Rec.  She is a female that is extremely strong minded and builds her career through the male dominated field of the government.  There are many people that look up to her, even though she is fictional.  This helps to strengthen women in their pursuit of success.  

Social Media as a Tool for Change

It was interesting to hear the different view-points during class about whether social media is something that truly helps promote activism that is needed to produce meaningful social and political change or not.  Being created by the internet it is loosely tied together and can easily have people not feel connected to a cause.  Many things that do not have a central leader to point to can fall apart easily.  This is how online activism is structured: a sea of people that can not distinguish who is leading the movement and who is following.

While all these things are true, social media is something that can bring together and mobilize a large number of people behind one cause.  The examples that Black Lives Matter and Women's March on Washington have set show that there are many people willing to take the streets for a cause they believe in.  We have seen many people becoming a part of a movement that normally wouldn't have before having social media bringing them into the picture.  By bringing these people out into the groups of people it is a step in the right direction of social and political change.

Demonstrations are something that catch the attention of political heads, but it rarely every changes their opinion or stance.  The most important piece is that citizens are becoming more and more involved and knowledgeable.  There are citizens that are learning about the causes behind these demonstrations and making the right moves to get involved with the government to make change for the greater good.  By interweaving people that have the same views of what needs to happen for the right social change with the government, true change can begin to happen.

Social media truly gives a voice to those that previously had no voice simply because they were outside of the mainstream media.  By interconnecting our society we can make it much stronger and have goals that are more applicable to each citizen.  Most large demonstrations may not create change immediately, but rather gradually.  Trying to change the shape of our society is something that can not happen overnight.  By educating citizens on both sides of issues, we can find progress.  The next step after having demonstrations is having civil discourse with those that disagree.  By doing so, in a personal manner, we can find a middle ground as a society.  We can not solely rely on social media when trying to make change, but rather use it as a tool to get towards the change we believe is necessary.

Op-Ed- Ghost Fishing: Not as Cool as it Sounds

            Our sea-life is in danger not only from the fishermen catching them, but from the nets that get left behind.

This issue is mostly unknown to the public, but it is estimated from studies that at least tens of thousands of marine creatures are killed every year.

            Abandoned nets are capturing these creatures to suffer a slow, painful death.  While I enjoy seafood, it isn’t the same for these animals to die for no reason.

            This serious threat come from fishermen purposefully discarding or accidentally losing their gear and sailing away.  The nets continue to catch sea creatures long after they are left behind.

            Trammel nets and gillnets are the worst when it comes to ghost fishing, and they account for one-fifth of all fish caught across the globe each year.

            These nets are made by mesh that captures fish by their gills.  The nets may be one to two miles long and 10 to 50 feet high, with weights holding them down and floats on top to create a solid net.

            When an animal is caught, it isn’t pretty.  Animals’ heads, mouths, fins, or limbs become entangled in the strong netting preventing them to escape.  

            This can cause a problem for animals that need to breathe such as dolphins, because if they are caught they are certain to die.  The lines on the top and bottom are dangerous enough to cut marine animals causing infections and loss of body parts.

            Ghost fishing is something that can be easily prevented by conscious care from fishermen.  If the fishermen simply take the time to properly dispose of nets or retrieve lost nets, the problem would be eliminated.

            The damage that is caused by ghost fishing is caused by an estimate of 640,000 metric tons of fishing gear that is discarded in the sea.  This is only about one percent of what fishers use, which is concerning to think if there was a higher percentage left behind.

            The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is taking the lead in trying to rid this problem.  They are the ones calling for fishermen to take a larger accountability for their nets.  What is asked is that fishers mark their gear as their own and increase the surface visibility of their gear to avoid forgetting it in the sea.

            Further, the FAO is calling for more regulations for ghost fishing policies.  With such relaxed standards, it is not a surprise that ghost fishing is a problem we are facing.

            There are numerous volunteers that spend their time in the seas working to cut and remove these nets from the marine animals’ habitat.  They attach flotation devices to the nets in order to take the nets out of the water and into their boats.  In five days, volunteers from Healthy Seas managed to remove 75 percent of all nets from a reef off Makronisos Island in Greece. 

            If we do nothing to rid our seas of these nets left behind, they will continue to ghost fish for multiple decades and even potentially several centuries.  The death toll from ghost fishing will only continue to rise without action.

            There are many ways to help prevent the problem of ghost fishing in our waters.  The options range from the simplistic action of taking care of your own fishing gear, making sure not to discard it or leave it behind in the waters. 

            Another way to help out is donating to organizations that dive into the sea to rid it of these nets.  If you have the skill, you could even volunteer for an organization to get the nets out of our sea.

            This is a problem that can be solved by intentional care of the gear we use to fish in order to keep our seas healthy and full of marine life for generations to come.

Op Ed Topic

The topic for one of my blog posts is talking about a widely unknown severe issue called ghost fishing.  This is a problem that kills tens of thousands of marine animals each year from nets discarded in the sea.