Blog 5

"Men have become the tools of their tools", I believe what Pollan was trying to imply is that since the farmers specializes in farming which would be the "tool", they become the tool used by the rest of the community. The farmers used tools to grow crops in order to make a living but now they themselves are being referred to as tools. In the story The Omnivore's Dilemma Pollan was referring to Billy as the "tool" because Billy had all the "latest toys" (Pollan, 55) to help better his crops. It also means tools are suppose to be something humans use to survive but now humans are being used as "tools" by companies. Since the farmers needs to make a living inorder to survive they have no choice but to be used as tools.

When we talk about issues regarding body image and physical appearance we instantly think about women being the victim to those issues. But men, too, face pressures concerning their diet and body image. We dont usually notice it because "media present women either in a sexual context or within the family.." (Orbach, 202). In the story Fat as a Feminist Issue Orbach says in order to catch a mens attention "she must look appealing, earthy, sensual, sexual, vaginal, innocent, reliable, daring, mysterious, coquettish and thin." I believe its also vice versa that men needs to possess all these qualities well if not all most in order to catch a woman's attention. I mean if men didnt have any pressure to look a certain way we wouldnt have all those handsome looking men as actors or on a t.v screen. So is it fair to say that women are the only one that are pressured to look a certain way well no because if that was the case then they wouldnt have ads for steriods or male enhancement products.

Blog 4

The similarity between Asimov and Sedaris realization about language is that they both feel as if they are a foreigner to something, and both are intimated by others because they lack a certain skill or talent that others posses. In the article What Is Intelligence, Anyway? by Isaac Asimov, Asimov feels he is academically smart but he is not good at working with his hands. Asimov occassionally does very well in tests and would score very highly comparing to an average person. But he claims he would not be able to fix his car even if something went wrong. He says " In a world where i could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly." His auto-repair man referred to him as being "goddamned educated" but not " very smart." He felt uneasy about that and was a little let down. Where in the case of Sedaris from the article Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris talks about how learning french was pretty difficult when he first attended his french class he was more nervous then ever. He felt intimated by all the other young, attractive and well dressed students. Sedaris felt humiliated when his teacher singled him out front of the whole class because he didnt know how to pronounce a certain word correctly. In both articles the main character which is the author feels belittled by others. In Sedaris's case it was his teacher who made him feel inferior and in Asimov's case it was his auto-repair man.

Blog 3

A. "For on the very few occasions when women are pictured taller than men, the men seem almost always to be not only subordinated in social class status, but also thoroughly costumed as craft-bound servitors" (Goffman 28). This quote really stood out to me because if you notice in television or in any type of advertisement it is rare to see a short male next to a tall female. I mean it is almost unheard of in any sort of advertisement to see men being the shorter breed. I think the reason for that is because men are usually looked upon as being superior and a protector. We are so use to seeing men being tall and handsome in an advertisement that it became the norm. when we dont see that then its most likely that we wouldnt buy the product that they are trying to advertise because it wouldnt interest us or catch our attention.

Blog 2

A. "Why would anyone young or old, respond to a cartoon as much or more than a realistic image." This quote was from an article by Scott Mccloud. This quote really stood out to me because if you think about its really true . Its sounds a little odd at first but us humans actually respond to a cartoon either the same or more than a realistic image, but why? well maybe because it is more simplified and we like the childlike features. Or maybe it "Enables us to travel in another realm. We dont just observe the cartoon we become it!" (McCloud p. 206) I believe humans tend to respond to cartoons as much or more than realistic image because when we see cartoon we tend to be less judgemental about it. Cartoons are simplifyed version of real things which means the images in a cartoon is less detailed. So we dont tend to focus on how the person looks or what color the person is, we focus more on the message that is being displayed in the cartoon as oppose to if it was a realistic image.

B. An example of a logical fallacy would be, my grandfather is cranky, just as most grandparents are. This is hasty generalization because I am accusing all grandparents of being cranky just because my grandfather is cranky. I am making a general conclusion based on a specific fact.

C. If ever there was an idea custom-made for Jay Leno monologue, this was it: True friendship. Now it just seems like people just want to be your friend if they need or want something from you. Isnt that wrong and hurtful? Whatever happened to the good old days where your bestfriend is the only person you would trust with your secrets and to always be there for you when you need it. Now a days people just worry about themselves. Even your own best friend or who you thought was your best friend would lie right front of your face and act like nothing happened. I happen to sympathize with those people whose best friend lie to them about sleeping with their boyfriend/girlfriend.

what is rhetoric?

As said actions speak louder than words. In our daily lives we perform many actions that are symbolic. Many times we use actions instead of words to convey a message. In an article The Nature of Rhetorical Criticism by Foss J. Sanja he defines Rhetoric as the human use of symbols to communicate. In the article Foss gives an example of a rhetoric situation, "When the United States deploys an aircraft carrier off the coast of North Korea to warn its government not to continue with the development of nuclear weapons, the United States has performed a rhetorical action that is designed to be read symbolically by both sides" and there is no doubt about the meaning of the message". In this quote I believe by sending an aircraft off to the coast of North Korea was an act that symbolizes America's in power over North Korea. In another case "If the United States reconnaissance plane accidentally strays over North Korea without the purpose of communicating anything to North Korea, however, the pilot is not engaged in rhetorical action. in this case, however, the North Koreans can choose to interpret the event symbolically and take retaliatory action against the United States". As we can see from this that human symbolizes things even if its not intended to be symbols. Foss also mentions "speaking and writing make up only a small part of our rhetorical environment. Rhetoric, then, includes nondiscursive or nonverbal symbols as well as discursive or verbal ones". Foss goes on to talk about rhetorical critism which is " a qualitative research method that is designed for the systematic investigation and explanation of symbolic acts and artifacts for the purpose of understanding rhetorical processes. I believe using rhetoric to communicate with one another is the best way for us humans to understand each other. For example if one day I come home from school and I slam the door and throw my bag on the floor. My mom knows right away that I had a bad day. She will just let me be alone for a while until I calm down. This is just one example of how we use rhetoric in our everday lives.

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively, using the principles and rules of composition drawn from classical traditions, typically tied to the art of persuasion. Classical rhetoricians were interested in dividing rhetoric into its component parts. ...cac.ophony.org/2007/08/08/wacwid-terminology-parts-ii-iii/