This class was pretty enjoyable! My favorite part was probably the blog posting and getting to write in a casual and personal voice since that doesn’t happen often. Most of the blogs only took like ten to twenty minutes so that was nice too I guess… As a writer I felt again that the blogs helped me realize my voice and gave it an outlet so that it didn’t leak into my scholarly writing as much as I think it used to. Getting a hold of my voice is something that I sort of struggled with when branching out into more types of writing like the research and memoir but I think that it was handled. I was definitely familiar with the literary analysis side of things and knew how to write appropriately for it but I actually feel my analysis was perhaps better in my senior AP Lit class then now. That’s probably because we were being drilled literally every day on exactly what to do in a literary analysis essay but I digress. I think my vocabulary has improved since my last writing class, not in a drastic way but in more of a ‘not-being-inclined-to-look-up-synonyms-every-thirty-seconds’ kind of way. Being in a collegiate setting does have its benefits! With respect to Squeeze the Sponge, it helped me realize a couple of small but surprisingly frequent mistakes which I made in my writing. It undeniably improved my writing even if it only makes me reconsider a comma placement for one second longer than I would’ve normally given it thought. When I look at my style and writing process these appear to have been the most stagnant, for better or for worse, through this class.

I would start with calling the research process for the final paper ‘difficult’. It took a little longer than I’d hoped, but not so much that it affected my writing process so that wasn’t the difficult part. What was hard for me was simply getting through it all. Having to wade through all kinds of sources and shifting my perspectives, stance, and structure of the paper depending on what sources I was going to use felt a bit exhausting. I felt like I would work in multiple sources that fit my topic and yet find a new source which completely changed the tone or the perspective of a section and I would end up scrapping what I planned for the earlier sources in favor of the new one. Then, once I had all these newer sources which felt meaningful and important to my topic, seeing if i could actually string all those together into something cohesive was difficult and a little mentally draining as well. I ended up with what seemed like a completely different plan and direction for my paper between every step of the writing process when I would stumble upon these impactful sources. But, it probably made my paper better than sticking to my intended sources and cherry-picking those which followed the initial track for the paper which I had laid out. So, ultimately, I included the sources which changed my paper because it’s not really much of a research paper if you ignore the actual research you do in favor of your preconceived notions.

Being back at home has been interesting. Despite not really wanting to write about it, and knowing it’s likely what others will also write about it, I still find it’s one of the few interesting things on my mind. Here at the O’Meara household there is a constant ebb and flow of noise and life. In the morning pots are banging, workout machines are being used, showers are constantly running, and a baby nephew is likely stomping around or crying. All while I sleep in of course. But, once I finally strip myself from the sheets of my bed and deal with the grog of sleep, the parents have started work quietly (now at home in their own room), some siblings have gone to workout with friends, and others return to their rooms and nap while the baby does. So after only a few brief engagements and good mornings (despite it being the afternoon) I find myself lying in the center of the family room alone. However, I know that the flow of family will return as either the parents or one of my more domestically inclined brothers produce a diner which emanates a smell throughout the entire home. The siblings will return, the baby will awaken, and I will probably be too tired at this point, having laid in the family room for hours, to contribute meaningfully to any conversation. Evidently, my College Clock is not well suited for the rotation my family has adopted during the Coronacation.

In The Princess and the Kiss, A Story of God’s Gift of Purity by Jennie Bishop, our titular character, the “sweet little princess,” is given a gift from God, her first kiss. It is protected by her parents, then gifted to her when she is of appropriate age. She finds no suitors that are worthy of offering her first kiss despite their many alluring qualities. That is until a common farmer comes and offers his own first kiss to her. He is strong and handsome and they are wed together, bearing a baby who in turn is gifted their own first kiss to be kept safe.

The princess is cast as a gentle, kind, and intelligent girl who is pure of heart. The men all flock to her while she sits regally atop her seat judging them. Sticking to traditional Catholic values, she is expected to protect her purity from the men which would pursue her for her status or for personal gain. This enforces that a woman is above the men which come to her and that she is the one who decides relationships because a woman is pure and emotionally intelligent. The suitors display men who’s best qualities make up the downfalls of their personalities, one is strong and handsome yet conceited, one is rich and kind yet shallow, one is lovely and enchanting yet disloyal and ephemeral. The princess thus retains her kiss for someone more worthy, enforcing that men must rightfully prove themselves to gain a woman’s love and should have themselves entirely composed at the time. The commoner comes to reflect a man who is worthy of the princess’ love. He has no drawbacks besides being a poor commoner, something which can be respected in a Catholic view, but most importantly, he has remained pure. 

Eleanor Roosevelt has been a figurehead of human rights, for following your dreams, and for trying even when the going gets tough. So I chose her quote “You must do the things you cannot do.”

In a world where there are countless groups of peoples that are being held back and constrained by those with power above them, it is imperative for the oppressed to work their way out of oppression. The African American civil rights movement would have never come so soon if it lacked people who fought to push the envelope. Without the protests, sit-ins, leaders of community, and pursuers of equality it would not have come near as hard or fast. 

Likewise it is important in our time that those under the pressure of gender inequality pursue the goals and dreams they are being held back from. Every milestone a woman reaches, every barrier she can break through is making it a better world for all the women and girls that will come after her. This spirit of progression is what brings the struggles of the oppressed to the forefront of society, and, when followed through, it is what will break down that oppression until there is nothing left. “You must do the things you cannot” is a call to action of the oppressed to not only make their lives more fulfilling and successful, but also to provide the stepping stones with which future generations may reach even greater heights. When you don’t have the glass escalator on your side, you must climb a faster and harder than those around you to reach the same height. As a supporter of feminism and gender equality I do everything in my power to raise others up, but it always takes the initiative, drive, and determination of those who rise up to the challenge in order for it to make a difference in the world, our society, or even just one person’s life.

As I sit in a comfy chair on the second floor of Roesch Library, attempting to write this blog into existence, I struggle to focus on any possible topic I could write on. Should I blog about something personal? Say, my difficulty handling class work and projects this coming week as they all begin to stack up. No, no, that’s too worrisome and besides, that’s why I started writing this blog now, to put off the other, seemingly more difficult, work. But, now I’m stuck here trying to think, think, think about what in the world I could possibly write about when I can write about anything in the world! So, where was I? Oh yes, I’m not going to write about something personal, I just don’t feel up to it, so, how about something completely random! After a few minutes I realize it’s apparently quite hard to think of something completely randomly. So, I turn to my friend Mason and inquire as to what the most random thing currently on his mind is. 

“Methods of transportation of concrete slabs.”

No, that definitely won’t do. I guess randomness was the wrong path to meander down, so I slyly stroll on over to the alluring pastures of procrastination. Fooling even myself into thinking I’m being productive. From Snapchat to Reddit to Insta and Twitter. Scrolling, refreshing, scrolling, refreshing, refreshing, refreshing. I sigh in exasperation as I snap out. How can I be so over social media yet so attracted to it? I painfully rip myself away from the small dopamine-releasing screen and fix my eyes back onto the large laptop screen. This obviously isn’t going anywhere so I start typing simply to see where my ingenuity might take me. 

I type out the words “As I sit”. Okay, so we’ll be going with a first-person point of view in this blog about… where I’m sitting? Well that would be in the library on this chair so I guess I could write about myself in the present tense, going through my own thoughts as they come to me. Okay, then what am I thinking about? Wait. What have I been thinking about? I lose myself in a back-tracking of memories until I finally remember where this all started, of course! I’ve been wracking my brain with what to write about, which is exactly what I’ll write about! It’s a fun metanarrative that (sometimes) works well, so I took up the call and wrote “What am I Supposed to Write About?”.

So far my writing process has been working out just fine. I usually start off thinking about whatever topic I’ll write on for a few hours total. Just constructing and putting everything together in my head. I start with how and what I want to write in my mind and work my way into the argument which fits it. It’s all very loose but this is when I try to get the real meat of the subject out of my thoughts and into a strong sentence or paragraph. This is so I have something which I can work my way towards while I begin writing my paper. Once I’ve started, I use the critical idea as a beacon I’m trying to steer my paper towards. I write fast and write one or two paragraphs at a time before stopping, doing another bit of writing, then cutting out the unnecessary fat and connecting the bits together. The writing process takes somewhere between two to six hours for around four pages. The time frame heavily depends on how complex an idea I’m trying to get across (for my philosophy final I cut at least two pages of content I didn’t use). Then I read over what I’ve written, making sure that there aren’t any lapses in continuity or big holes in the paper (this happens frequently enough where I think of an idea or paragraph and think that I typed it out when I actually didn’t). After that’s all said and done, I do another final read to make sure the tone, tense, and voice are all smooth and only make changes when I want them to.

This process has worked well for me from the time I started writing seriously in AP Lit in high school. I don’t see making any huge changes to it unless I end up hitting a considerable creative or logistical roadblock sometime using it. The process has only changed from my high school process in having to be more thorough during the revisionary phases. I have to really make sure that my thoughts are connected and can get through to a reader so I put myself in someone else’s shoes a lot more when rereading my work. Besides that intentional action, my writing fits my mindset almost without thinking so it’s a very fluid process.

In the article “Beauty and the Patriarchal Beast” a core examination of the various sitcoms is that, despite goading viewers to laugh at sexist remarks and comments from male main characters, the lack of repercussions for these characters and their eventual success by the end of most episodes reinforces these remarks and stereotypes. For example, in the King of Queens episode “Bun Dummy”, Doug remarks that he doesn’t like Carrie’s new bun hairstyle and makes direct fun of it. Carrie appears strong and keeps it up and remarks back at him. Later though, Doug pays her friend to tell her her bun is bad. After this fails, Doug directly tells her he doesn’t like her hair, but she only takes it down after Deacon tells her he doesn’t like it. The reality is that Doug only wanted Carries hair down because it looked exactly like the hairstyle a passed away librarian wore which is shown at Doug’s class reunion. If Doug had just came out and said that it looked similar to the hairstyle of his passed away librarian, then things may have been different. However he just insults her, goes behind her back and attempts to deceive her, and directly asks her to stop without giving any reason. The problem for viewers is that Doug doesn’t get consequences for his actions and instead Carrie is painted as the fool when she defeatedly takes down her hair after seeing the librarian’s. This subtly reinforces Doug’s actions despite them being immature and negatively reflective of the unintelligent, middle-aged sitcom father. On the other side, Carrie’s strong confidence in herself and her choices is undermined and broken down when she surrenders the bun.

Having watched a few episodes of Parks and Rec, a good example of a show dealing out consequences to their characters pertains to Andy Dwyer while Chris and Ann are beginning their relationship and Andy still had feelings for Ann. He frequently makes inappropriate, demeaning, or bragging comments in front of the pair creating uncomfortable situations. Later in the episode however, Andy and Ann have a serious talk with Andy in which Andy feels genuine guilt, not as any sort of joke either. The consequences dealt to Andy keeps the audience from subconsciously seeing Andy’s actions as normal and reaffirms that his actions should be laughable. When a sitcom uses gender stereotypes and roles for its jokes, consequences for immature or sexist characters are necessary for ensuring the show doesn’t contribute to the problems it jokes about.

Pacific Rim is a divisive movie to say the least. Some love it (me), and some hate it, but most people have just never seen it. It’s an over-the-top, gratuitous action movie about giant robots piloted by the saviors of humanity to fend of gargantuan monsters invading from another world. Inspired by popular Saturday morning style cartoons from the likes of Voltron: Defenders of the Universe and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Our lead characters in this battle of behemoths are brothers Raleigh and Yancy Becket piloting the Jaeger mech “Gipsy Danger”. That is, until an accident leads to the death of Yancy and a replacement must be found before the monsters return. Enter Mako Mori the prodigal adopted daughter of the Defense Corps leader and an exceptional pilot to replace Yancy. She is a strong, respected leader capable of her place in the Corps and is able to manage relationships with the other pilots as well. However, this is just what the movie tells the viewer she is. Initially praised for its representation of a female lead in an action-driven, comic book inspired movie, when taking a deeper look, Pacific Rim falls short in creating a unique character who breaks free from the gendered molds of Hollywood movies.

Mako primarily goes through her development of training and success not because of her own drive or characterization, but as a replacement of the male Yancy in order to advance the plot and story of male Raleigh. She speaks the only three female lines in the first hour of the movie. That’s only three lines for a supposed female lead as well as no lines for other female characters for an entire hour. In the second hour, Mako earns her right to speak, but, she loses her credibility as a capable character when she needs to be saved two different times by male leads. The movie constantly tells you that Mako is a strong person, but keeps showing you otherwise. So basically, while Pacific Rim is one of my favorite movies, it doesn’t deserve to be praised for a good portrayal of Mako as a strong female lead. This is due to succumbing to the classic pitfalls of Hollywood females: a lack of interesting and substantial lines given to her character and a pandering to the fantasy of males heroically saving the endangered female, twice.

Hello! My name is Ben O’Meara and this is my first blog post I’ve ever made! I’m a first year computer science major who’s really enjoying it here at Dayton. My hometown is Bloomington, Illinois where I lived with my three siblings and three step-siblings and went to Central Catholic High School. I’m lighthearted, funny (I hope), smart, and very very caring. I’m always thinking about others, not just because it comes easy or naturally to me, but because I enjoy caring for and caring about people. Sometimes it takes a lot of consideration and work to always be there for people, but I see the sacrifice in my time as completely worth it to make fruitful and strong friendships. That is of course if the friend is willing to reciprocate as well. Some other things that I am proud of include swimming for three years in high school and getting All-Conference in the 50m free, interning in a tech position at State Farm last summer, and being in the Colleges Against Cancer club at Dayton!

In the way of writing, I think I’m an okay writer but really only just okay. I can pump out a decent paper or essay in a day, or I can spend a couple days to a week and make something that I’m really proud of. On the other hand I know that there’s things that could greatly improve my writing which can’t be reached by simply putting in more time. Effectively relating to the reader, using appropriate rhetorical devices, developing a tone, and cultivating a more unique or personal voice are all aspects of writing/speaking that I would love to learn more about. I’m looking forward to this class!