“What’s Wrong with Cinderella” by Peggy Orenstein - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1006 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/09/25 Category Advertising Essay Type Narrative essay Level High school Did you like this example? Nothing wrong with Cinderella In â€Å"What’s Wrong with Cinderella†, the writer raised various issues and concerns regarding the physical and mental impact brought upon the younger generations by princess-themed toys. The writer, Peggy Orenstein, is a self-proclaimed feminist who writes for New York Times and many other prominent publications. The writer claims that the princess-themed commercial products have distressing effects in shaping young female generations’ outlooks as well as their personalities. However, in my opinion, the reality is not as worrying as she claims. These princess-themed products are merely the young generations’ domestic playmates at the very young age. As the children grow older and become more involved with their social environment, their interests shift quickly and generally such playmates are left behind and no long have a significant role in their lives, that is, if they ever had an important role at all. Thus, I find the issues raised in this article generally irrelevant in today’s world context and instead, the child’s family and social environment should play a much more significant role in their lives. Social, school and peer environments are the main factors contributing to the development of females’ personalities and outlooks. As compared to these factors, the effects of princess-themed products seem to be insignificant. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "â€Å"What’s Wrong with Cinderella† by Peggy Orenstein" essay for you Create order Even the writer herself ponders: â€Å"Or maybe it is even less complex than that: to mangle Freud, maybe a princess is sometimes just a princess†(para. 1) . By experience, almost everyone had their toys in some form at the very young age. However, few, if at all, still keep their toys as they reach young adulthood. (except for professional and recreational toy collectors and traders) The child becomes preoccupied with school, their peers and family matters. Their school and peer environments are the deciding factors to their outlooks and characters at this stage. As mentioned in the text â€Å"in a survey released last October by Girls Inc. school-age girls overwhelmingly reported a paralyzing pressure to be ‘perfect’: not only to get straight A’s and be the student-body president, editor of the newspaper and captain of the swim team but also to be ‘kind and caring,’†(para, 19) Such trend among the school-aged children is definitely not a result of the princess-themed product they played with when they were younger. There is no clear link between being a princess and a newspaper editor or captain of the swim team. Obviously, the school culture and peer pressure are the more important factors which made young females aspire such positions. One might argue that this is the result of playing with princess toys because they taught the children to be â€Å"kind and caring† just like a princess. In my opinion, the toys themselves do not have any personalities. They are just toys. However, they are associated with characters depicted in Disney fairytales who do have various feminine traits. If we were to question why young females aspire to be â€Å"kind and caring†, credit goes to the characters in the Disney movies and books, but not the toys themselves. In addition, according to studies, individuals are characterized by their personalities which develop over life span under influence of both intrinsic factors such as biological drives and extrinsic factors such as the several components of environment, society and family. As compared to the impact other factors brought upon the child’s character development, princess toys, seem to be insignificant. Young females’ pursuit of their careers and dreams are influenced largely by their families, schools and peers. The princess-themed products do not seem to influence young females’ aspirations and careers ambitions in the long run. Like what Mooney commented in the source: â€Å"I see girls expanding their imagination through visualizing themselves as princesses, and then they pass through that phase and end up becoming lawyers, doctors, mothers or princesses, whatever the case may be. † (para. 18) The reality is, in today’s world where women are independent and educated, there are few, if at all, princesses. Clearly the princess-themed toys have not been much of an obstacle in young females’ road of success. As the children grow up, their interests generally shift quickly from playing with simple toys to more complex activities which requires more interactions with their families, peers and the society in general. During such activities they learn and become fascinated with new things and their aspirations for certain careers are triggered. The princess-themed toys are often left behind in a corner. It’s obvious the toys have little influence on young females’ pursuit of careers. The writer raised an issue regarding the princess-themed stored targeted specifically at the young females. Although, in my opinion, most of the writer’s concerns are irrelevant in today’s world, I find this issue alarmingly worthy of discussion. In the midst of the princess products competitions, Club Libby Lu’s marketing schemes immediately captured the young female customers. The influence, however, are negative on the young females. As mentioned in the article, the product being marketed â€Å"makes them look like little prostitutes. † ( para. 46) However, this issue has more relevance to the marketer’s business ethics and strategies rather than princess-themed product itself, which is not within the scope of the discussion in this article. The article has raise interesting concerns and issues, although, in my opinion, many are of no relevance to the reality in today’s world. I believe, the writer is not unaware of this herself, as she ha s raised rhetorical questions many times throughout the whole article. As a feminist and mother, the writer could be merely expressing her nostalgic feelings and concerns for her child’s growth as a mother through this article. In conclusion, princess-themed products do not have significant influence on young female generations and they are mere toys that have little impact on females’ pursuit of career. Nothing is wrong with Cinderella. Let toys just be toys. It is like what the writer’s daughter said at the end of the article â€Å"but when I grow up, I am still going to be a fireman. † ( para. 55)

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1856 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/05/15 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Modest Proposal Essay Did you like this example? A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift How Swift uses satire to express his true feelings of the situation in Ireland Jonathan Swift, a well-known writer did many topics and used satire in his works to express his message. This was a technique he used to reach his audience and make sure the message reached the targeted group. In this research paper, we will focus at discussing one of the topics he did. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift" essay for you Create order Among the research topics done by the narrator include; how capitalism deals with its problems, criticizing Catholicism, how the sale of children meat will benefits lives of adults and how the sale of children meat will benefit the economy (Swift, 2016 p 203). In all these, irony has been used to reach the audience. Jonathans main objective as shall be found in this essay, wanted to gauge the readers thinking capability and ability. He wants the audience to read his work and from it, reason out. He puts his work in a manner that requires intuitive reasoning and thinking. We shall analyze Jonathan Swifts use of satire to express his feelings for the people of Ireland considering the situation that was prevailing in the country. Jonathan Swifts modest proposal aimed at drawing peoples attention world-wide and initiating the process on how the plight of Irish people could be helped out. Ireland was a country where there was widespread of poverty. Therefore, in order to fully capture the attention of his readers, he uses satire to motivate the readers to try and find out the plight of Irish people and come up with possible solutions. The essay portrays the writers feelings and attempts to lure them in having the same feeling for the situation in Ireland. This has been achieved through irony. Irony is the way of expressing an idea through the opposite of what is actually happening (Doody, 2014 p 196). In irony, the writer position on a subject matter is not readily known by the readers. The readers are expected to go beyond this ordinary view and be able to read through the writers mind. Swift successfully employed this technique to pass his message by instilling sarcasm and humor in his audience. Through satire, the readers were able to get more interest on reading the Irelands situation. This then enabled them to follow up on the story until its conclusion. Due to the nature of the issue, the writer had to hide his identity. The need for hiding ones identity while employing the use of irony is so as to make sure the readers do not take the narrations as a sense of humor. Jonathan was a protestant and had witnessed the kind of treatment the English colonists subjected the Irish people unto. Jonathan used satire to alert the public on how the English authorities practices brought suffering to the common people. The rich and the powerful applied practices which greatly undermined the common people. There was a lot of poverty in Ireland and Jonathan used irony to explain this situation. In his article, one of the instances in which he successfully uses irony is that of eating babies by the colonists. Ireland was a poor nation and different schools of thought tried to connect this to the population (Marshal, 2015 p 134). It was believed that the country was overpopulated and therefore, the only solution to address poverty this poverty situation was to eat the babies he laments on how authorities resorted to eating babies in an attempt to solve the problem. Eating babies is a satirical theme the writer introduces, which basically refers to the act of selling babies by parents upon recommendations by the authorities. The babies were supposed to be sold in order to provide for their parents. In order to get money for food and other needs, the authorities recommended that the parents sell out their babies. So widespread was the practice that prompted Jonathan to publish the occurrence of such activities. The practice of selling babies is what the writer means when he says authorities eating babies. The writer used this theme because he had already grown up children and his wife was not going to have more children who could be sold by the authorities (Swift, 2016 p 209). Therefore, he believes that this narration will not affect him and his family at any particular time. In other words, Jonathan portrays a situation of man-eat society in Ireland. The authorities were inhuman to the extent of suggesting the selling of children to solve the poverty situation in Ireland. This act touched Jonathan and motivated him to do works on the situation and expressed his feelings to this effect. The practice disturbed him to the extent of provoking his feelings and eventually putting what was happening in writing. He therefore, provokes his readers through this irony to come up with ways of addressing this poverty situation and relieve the Irish people from unnecessary suffering. The writer is seeking for a different interpretation into the whole issue. He wants the readers to think in the opposite direction and be able to deduce the facts presented. Jonathan opposes the authorities policy on selling of the baby, which has been successfully hidden. Apart from concealing his identity, the writer also wants the people of Ireland to wake up and oppose the injustice they were being subjected to. A rational reader is able to find out what the narrator is trying to pass out. He chooses not to use direct meanings so as to avoid any case of being taken out of context. Also, this choice of not being direct in his reporting is so as to increase the interest of his readers to want more from the narrations. The proposal at the beginning, describes the living conditions of Irish common people. So bad is the situation that the writer acknowledges the mess and wants an immediate solution from his target audience to address this menace. To lead by an example, he goes ahead to provide suggestion on the best way to solve the deplorable condition of the common peasant Irish people. After posing this suggestion which in itself is ironical, he sarcastically gives the benefits of such a solution. In his solution, Jonathan sarcastically supports the idea of eating/ selling children to enhance the economic status of common people whose majority was made up of peasants. He states that for the poverty to be eliminated, parents should consider selling babies to the willing buyers. There was an already established market where these babies could be sold out. Among the ironical advantages Swift gives are; first and foremost, by selling babies, the parents will relieve themselves from the burden of taking care of the children when they grow up. To him, poor parents will be able to make some good money from the sale of their babies. They can later use this money to better their lifestyles and maintain themselves (Swift, 2016 p 210). Therefore, parents should take the step of releasing themselves the burden of rearing children to the old stage. The reader should however, come up with viable solutions contrary to this. Swift also suggests that the sale of babies will greatly reduce the population which according to many, is the main cause of poverty in Ireland. Selling babies will ensure the future population is reduced and eventually reduce the overpopulation currently witnessed. When this happens, poverty will have been eliminated. A research done in 2015 had shown that Ireland had a total of 120,000 children (Swift, 2016 p 200). This is the data Jonathan Swift uses to express his feelings for the peasant people, in an attempt to sell out his idea to the public. He recommends that out of this number, 20,000 can be spared and allowed to breed locally of which 5,000 should be male gender. The remaining 100,000 are then supposed to be cared for well and given enough food to make them more attractive to the buyers (Marshal, 2015 p 134). The narrator states that these babies should suck their mothers breasts for nutrients especially at the time when they are about to be sold. This breast feeding will help them grow and attract the buyers. They ought to be sold later in the year when they have able to fetch some good money. This is the way Jonathan presented his case in his modest proposal on the situation of Ireland people. Ireland is brought out as a very poor country whose people are languishing in poverty. The narrator of this situation, Jonathan Swift shares greatly in their displeasure. Jonathan Swift has successfully presented his thought and feelings concerning the bad state of Irish people. Although he seems to be for the idea of selling babies, a deeper analysis reveals otherwise. He chose this style so as to attract public recognition and fasten the whole process of coming up with an option to solve the poverty. Jonathan wanted his readers to come up with a human solution which could be acceptable world-wide. He therefore sarcastically gives a solution which an ordinary thinker may oppose. His primary aim was to enable readers think out of the box and suggest alternative solutions, contrary to what he is advocating for. Jonathan Swift did this so as to hide his identity and that of his family. He sought to communicate to his readers and had no intentions of revealing who he was. In conclusion, the world should come to the plight of Irish people. Having read the story on the situation, a discussion need to be started world-wide to solve this problem once and for all. Suggestions should be given on how best the mess can be solved so that no other country is befallen by the same challenges. The act of selling babies was simply a learning tool for the audience to think more about the issue. This is a practice which if allowed to continue, will kill the generations to come. Some of the recommendations that can be adopted include; empowering the people within economical activities to enable them provide for themselves. To address the overpopulation problem, the country should sensitize its population on the need to implement family planning. Family planning will ensure that the resources are not over burden by high population. When the world comes together, a better solution will be arrived at. In giving suggestions however, key attention should be given to the kind of recommendations to adopt. The Irish people as explained above are in a condition that requires urgent and meaningful solutions that help even the generations to come. Jonathan did reveal the situation of Ireland and it now remains the responsibility of those who have read his piece of work to do the necessary. The readers should get disturbed and initiate the process of arriving at a solution. Works Cited Alff, David. Swifts Solar Gourds and the Rhetoric of Projection. Eighteenth-Century Studies 47.3 (2014): 245-260. Doody, Margaret Anne. 11 Swift among the WomerHI. Jonathan Swift (2014): 196. Marshall, Ashley. Swift and History: Politics and the English Past. Cambridge University Press, 2015. Muecke, Douglas Colin. Irony and the Ironic. Vol. 12. Taylor Francis, 2017. Wood, Nigel. Jonathan Swift. Routledge, 2014. Swift, Jonathan, et al. Irish Political Writings After 1725: A Modest Proposal and Other Works. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

The Effects of the Media on Body Image Free Essays

The pressure to be thin has amplified significantly due to the growing influence of the media. Despite numerous of other factors that contribute to society’s view of the ideal body image, the media by far has the largest influence on society through icons that constantly reinforce unrealistic beauty standards and idealize the thin. The media persistently glamorizes the extremely skinny, which greatly impacts how society views different body types. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effects of the Media on Body Image or any similar topic only for you Order Now Pictures of impossibly thin models are continuously pasted all over billboards and magazines. The skinny are looked up to, and the obese are shunned. Popular television shows that include overweight characters depict them either as comical outcasts or failures. There is also an abundance of television programs that focus solely on overweight individuals attempting to lose weight. For instance, The Biggest Loser is a very successful television series and publishing enterprise which selects participants based on body size. According to John Whyte, MD, in â€Å"Media Portrayal of People Who are Obese,† â€Å"The Biggest Loser promotes the perception that obesity is caused by individual failure rather than a mixture of individual, environment, and genetic sources. The popular television show also suggests that obese people are fat because they are lazy and that the only way for them to be respected and accepted is to lose the extra weight. These type of shows portray obesity in a certain way that promotes negative perceptions and fosters prejudice against the obese. Viewers don’t consciously think about it, but the more they are around the media that subtly promotes these perceptions, the more likely the perceptions are to be engrained in their minds. Moreover, the high standards of beauty that the media implements daily are nearly impossible for the majority of people to meet. Even though the average American is at least slightly overweight or obese, popular media pushes out derogatory themes that discriminate unfairly against the obese. The media’s strong influence on society against bigger body types has caused numerous of dire effects on the way people think today. As stated by Shelly Grabe of Medical News Today in her article â€Å"Concern over Strong Media Influence on Women’s Body Image,† researchers have recently conducted a meticulous study on the extent to which the media affects women. They found a tremendous difference between those who were exposed to media and those who were not; the women who had been exposed reported less satisfaction with their bodies (Grabe). Exposure to media that depicts dangerously thin actresses and models significantly increases people’s distress about their bodies, thereby influencing dissatisfaction and chances of engaging in unhealthy eating behaviors. Furthermore, research has â€Å"repeatedly shown that constant exposure to thin models fosters body image concerns and disordered eating† in many people. Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have been steadily more common in younger generations today. Subliminal messages from the media about what the â€Å"ideal† body should look like molds the naive teenagers’ mindset and influences their definitions of what is ugly and what is beautiful. There are few that escape the inundating influences of the media. In fact, â€Å"the average American sees three thousand ads per day† (Jean Kilbourne). Therefore, the media does not just play a small role in influencing society’s view on different body types. The media relentlessly bombards society with negative connotations of the overweight and the fat, unwelcomingly shaping America’s perception of the ideal body. Discrimination against body types that do not fit into the media’s definition of beauty has immensely impacted society. However, the media does not have to be such a big influence. There have been a plethora of organizations that exist to help boost the self esteem of those who suffer from harmful messages sent by the media about what their bodies should look like. According to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), a civil rights organization, was started in 1969 to â€Å"eliminate discrimination based on body size and to provide obese people with the tools for self-empowerment though public education, advocacy, and support. † NAAFA delivers a message to society that belies the media’s input of the ideal body type. The non-profit organization seeks to better society and to limit discrimination against the obese. There are many similar organizations and groups that help support people who are facing discrimination from their peers. Additionally, there has been an ongoing growth of celebrities who embrace their bodies for what they are. Celebrities such as Adele serve as an excellent inspiration and role model to people who look up to them. Seventeen Magazine has also initiated a Beauty Peace Treaty which encourages females all around the world to pledge to accept their bodies. The treaty has gained the signatures and vows of over four thousand people and continues to grow in popularity. Even though popular media is the root of the negative impressions of the obese, society does not have to be anchored in place to those stereotypes. The media has the greatest incessant impact on society’s view of the ideal body type. From advertisements to song lyrics, popular media is ubiquitous, constantly reinforcing erroneous standards of beauty and flawed perceptions of the obese. However, there are a variety of different resources that help combat the negative influences from the media and encourage those that suffer from low body image. How to cite The Effects of the Media on Body Image, Papers

Introduction to Accounting- Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Let us assume a Company has Fixed Costs associated with its factory of $1 million the Factory can produce (and sell) half a million widgets a year, and the Costs associated with producing each widget is $1 and the price is $4.How many widgets are required to be produced for a $1 million Profit? Answer: Computation of Target Profit Particulars Amount ($) Fixed cost 1000000 Target Profit 1000000 Selling price per unit 4 Cost per unit 1 Units = (Fixed Costs + Target Profit) / (Selling price - Cost) 2000000 Units = ( $1000000 + $1000000) / ($4+$1) 3 Units = 6,66,667 The company is required to produce 6,66,667 units of Widgets to reach a target profit of $1 million. Reference List: Deegan, C. (2013).Financial accounting theory. McGraw-Hill Education Australia. DRURY, C. M. (2013).Management and cost accounting. Springer.