Darian Wilkom Emagazine

Review of Miley’s New “we can’t stop” page 2

Student’s spill all on 2013 Dorm Life Page 5!

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By Darian Wilkom

2. Letter From the Editor 3. We Can’t Stop but She Should 4. Reader’s Reviews 5. The Roommate Rumor 7. The Thing Down Below 9. That’s Unfair

12/6/13

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Letter From the Editor Dear Reader, I’m a freshman at the University at Buffalo, and I am currently in the general education course, English 101. During this semester we have written three major essays, and ethnography, rhetorical analysis, and an op-ed.

For the portfolio I have chosen to substantially revise my ethnography and do a genre change on my rhetorical analysis.

My original ethnography was about freshman at the university and their experiences with dorming I picked this assignment originally because it was my lowest grade, but after taking a closer look at this it seemed that this is the best choice. While looking at my professor’s comments on the final draft of my Ethnography I realized that there are a lot of things that I can do with it that she had suggested. In my original essay I didn’t have a lot of evidence, and the evidence I did have I did not analyze, so at most I believe my original paper was a summary of dorm life. I think this will be easier to analyze this time because I believe I have gotten better at analyzing and better understand what I need to do. I started with re-interviewing the people I have already talked to, in addition I interviewed new people who also. I will also need to re-think a thesis because within my original essay I had conflicting ideas and I mentioned both sides of the argument, but I didn’t actually pick a side. I will focus 3 different aspects of dorming in my substantial revision, privacy, cleanliness and disruption of one’s personal schedule. Although these 3 things may be drawbacks to living with a roommate despite

the inconveniences living in a double, triple, or quad is more beneficial to your social life than living in a single. As you suggested with your comments on my final draft I will go on to prove that the inconveniences of living with one or more roommates are worth ignoring because they are outweighed by the advantages. I found it difficult to try and substantially revise based upon the essay I had already written because I didn’t know where to start, what to keep and what to change, so what I wound up doing was just completely writing a new essay.

This turned out to be a lot easier than I had expected. I didn’t struggle as much with the analysis as much, but I did still struggle with finding a premise that related to the outside world, but I was eventually able to figure that out too. This essay was originally a summary of dorm life, but I’m confident that it has now become what it was originally intended to be, which was an ethnographic analysis on freshman living in single dorm rooms.

The second assignment I picked was my rhetorical analysis of Miley Cyrus’ single, We Can’t Stop. I picked this assignment because it seemed like it would be a simple thing to write a review on. There are so many music critics out there, so I thought I could look at theirs and it would be easy to get ideas from that. In the beginning writing this wasn’t so hard, but as I reached the end of my critique I ran out of things to write about.

There were only so many times and so many ways that I could say this song was different than

anything Miley had ever done in the past.. The review was originally just my opinion of the song and what I think of I and fluff that I added in to take up space to meet the word limit.

After editing I analyzed her song a little more and made it more similar to my original essay, but also added my opinion in to make it more of a review rather than the same essay I originally had. I also tied it into Miley’s overall transformation recently and critiqued her transformation that she debuted during her song. I think this essay is decent because although it has transitions, and has been grammar checked and evidence that I had analyzed in the first version of the essay is analyzed in a new light, but there is indeed analysis which is another thing that I usually struggle with.

Picking two essays to completely re-write was not a simple task.

Ripping apart and changing everything that I had worked so hard to perfect was not what I had wanted to do, but it was easier than I had expected. At the end of the semester is when we have the most knowledge.

We’ve gained experienced and learned through out the class and now have to showcase the past fifteen weeks in these two essays. I believe my ability to analyze in my papers has gotten much better which in turn makes my overall essays and my writing technique better.

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We Can’t Stop , but She Should Just thirty seven days after it’s release on June 3rd, 2013 Miley Cyrus’ new music video and hit single, We Can’t Stop, hit 100 million views on VEVO breaking the previous record of thirty nine days, and it now has a shocking 288,596,674 views. This song was different than anything else she has ever released. The song climbed the charts to number two on the billboard top one hundred where it peaked, but has managed to remain on the charts for the past twenty-four weeks still in the top fifty. The song may have remained on the charts because people liked it, but it got there because people were so shocked. Never before has Miley Cyrus released something so “mature,” as she calls it.

About a year before her single Cyrus took a break from music, which made this release even more shocking. When she returned to the music industry people were expecting the same old innocent Hannah Montana routine that they had always seen. It’s safe to say everyone was wrong. No one saw this drastic change coming. She went from Disney princess to defiant teenager in one music video. This sudden transition showed Cyrus clearly doesn’t know the understanding of subtlety. The last music video she released was in 2010; it was drastically different from her most recent. The lyrics in We Can’t Stop get her message across that she wants to grow up but the music video is just full of raunchy, unnecessary, over sexualized activity during which she throws all of her class away. During this music video Cyrus attempts to present herself as a grown up. I guess in her opinion presenting herself, as an inappropriate out of hand teenager that has no respect for her self-image, or how other people see her was her way of growing up.

First lets talk about the lyrics. We Can’t Stop has the simplest message; Miley Cyrus is growing up. The chorus begins, “It’s our party we can do what want it’s our party we can say what we want,” (Cyrus) I think that says it all, but she keeps going. “We can kiss who we want we cans see who we want,” (Cyrus) She couldn’t make it more obvious that she is trying to be defiant, and creating and new image for herself. In the past her songs have always been about friendship, love or believing in yourself.

She quickly turns away from this in this song when she starts talking like a normal everyday teen. Which may seem okay to her, but she is a national icon and role model to thousands. When writing this song Miley must have been blind to who her previous audience was because the lyrics in this song were not appropriate for eight to twelve year olds, her previous audience. Making herself blind to this information was inconsiderate. Whether or not she wanted the image of Disney princess she knew she had it and she knew she was a role model to many young minds around the nation. Any parent who pays attention to what their child is listening to would’ve obviously blocked Miley Cyrus from the playlist after hearing her references to the infamous red solo cup, twerking and “doing lines in the bathroom” (Cyrus) Class, is the key she is missing to her entire transformation. She could’ve kept most of the lyrics, put on a tight dress and added a couple of hot models into the mix and danced around to make people fully aware that she is now entering the sexual world without degrading herself, and instead of nearly stripping down and destroying the innocent connotation of so many childhood objects by stick them in her mouth and twirling them around in there.

Even if she was trying to present herself in a more “mature” way this wasn’t the right way to do it.

12/6/13

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Continued… Miley has stated in many press interviews that she does consider this video to be her coming of age, and her announcement of maturity, but the music video doesn’t show this. Her music video shows her as a trashy teenager with no respect for herself or anything around her. Her self-image alone shows that she is not mature. Miley’s outfits in the video are inappropriate. Her outfit of choice was a white crop top and a pair of two size too small white shorts. It was simply unnecessary and unflattering, and seems like an exploitation of her body, and frankly it was one that no one really wanted to see.

Her outfits are certainly shocking, but her actions are even more scandalous. I don’t believe anyone will truly understand why Cyrus chooses to dance around with giant teddy bear back packs, but even more importantly no one will ever understand how Miley Cyrus thought it was okay for her to twerk. When Miley Cyrus begins making out with a Barbie doll she is absolutely destroying the innocence that was once associated with it by sexualizing a child hood toy. I’m sure all of the younger fans mothers really appreciated Cyrus teaching their daughters what a Barbie dolls real purpose is for. In attempt to make her self seem more mature by making people see her in a more sexual way Miley has just made herself seem like an unstable and reckless teenager through the actions she performs in her music video.

In an attempt to disprove the predispositions people had of her Miley Cyrus created the music video and hit single, We Can’t Stop. Who knew that she would really be destroying her sense of class, along with her fans respect for her? Previously she was seen as a childhood actress, a role model, and innocent. She certainly proved those wrong. By exploiting her body and making herself seem ridiculous she got rid of her previous fan base. What she should’ve done was make the adjustment more gracefully instead of running head on into unknown territory and making herself seem like she has gone completely off the handle. Add the lyrics, the music video, and Miley’s new everyday look and it seems as if Miley has lost all self-control. I know the song says she can’t stop, but please stop, Miley.

12/6/13

I plan to analyze Miley Cyrus’ new song “We Can’t Stop,” released about 2 months ago. In the song she talks about partying and at first glance it may seem like that’s all it’s about, especially if you were to watch the music video, but when you take a closer look at the lyrics you see it’s about being able to live her own life despite the expectations that other people have set for her. I chose to analyze this song because it created a lot of controversy in the media when she first came out with it. It created controversy because it was so different from anything she’s ever released in the past. My claim is that through the song she tries to inform her fans that she is changing her life and although it may not be what they want to hear from her she’s going to do what makes her happy because it is her life. This is a claim that uses logos I believe because it is further analysis of the words that have been put in front of us. The support for this claim is hidden in the lyrics and the deeper meaning of them along with interviews. My warrant would be that most people know that Miley Cyrus is a former Disney channel star whose fan base is mostly younger children; these children look up to her and consider her to me a role model. The counter argument would be that the song is simply shallow and talks about nothing more than her desire to do drugs, smoke, twerk and party all day long. The counter argument can be disproved through interviews with Miley after the song was released.

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The University at Buffalo has nearly 20,00 undergraduate students and about half of them live on campus in dorm rooms. I will be focusing on the university’s freshmen dorm called Wilkeson. Within this building there are about 1000 freshmen. Throughout the building there are singles, doubles and triples. During my study of the Wilkeson dorms I will be interviewing residents of the three different kinds of rooms. My goal is to determine whether or not living in a single dorm becomes detrimental to one’s social life. I have interviewed eighteen residents of Wilkeson; six from each of the three different dorms. I have changed the resident’s names for their own security.

The rooms vary in size depending on the amount of people living in them of course, but in any given room there is not a lot of space. This means that when you live with a roommate you don’t have the luxury of putting your stuff down where ever you want just because you’re too lazy to put it where it belongs. While living with a roommate you have tight restrictions on your designated space and you have to stick to it, and for some people this becomes an issue. Hannah lives in a triple and she says “She (one of her roommates) is too messy, and her stuff is always on my side of the room and when I ask her to clean she doesn’t.” This tends to be a common issue when roommates disagree because everyone has different habits they have grown up with.

Adding a roommate to your life is obviously going to disrupt your daily routine and lifestyle because every individual is different. Having a roommate who does not have the same living habits as you can certainly be difficult and can put you on edge and make you less social because you’re constantly unhappy or annoyed. Having this attitude can make hanging out with people and seeking companionship more difficult or just less appealing. In Hannah’s experience she said “ When my room is messy it causes me anxiety, and it’s much harder for me to focus on my homework when there is so much chaos going on around my room. It takes my twice as long to finish, leaving me less time for a social life.” People who live in a single on the other hand have a room completely to themselves. They can continue whatever living habits they had in the past without comments from anyone else. The lack of controversy would usually have these people in a better mood because they aren’t being told to make changes to their every day life, and therefore make them more open to socializing with other people because of their overall mood.

Some people may have different lifestyles and living habits, which can be a nuisance, but when people have different schedules it becomes a larger issue. Tom said, “John (his roommate) goes out almost every night of the week and comes back either drunk or high everyday. It was fine for the first week, but he’s waking be up at 2:30 AM multiple times a week and I have early morning classes.” On the contrary John feels that Tom’s schedule is also interfering with his own. He said, “It’s not fair that just because Tom has class at 8 AM that I have to be woken up at 7. I don’t have class until 11. I want to sleep, but he’s always banging around in the morning, so I can’t.” Although both of them are unhappy their isn’t really anything either of them can do, they aren’t purposely trying to annoy each other, but their schedules just conflict with one another and become …

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…an inconvenience to both parties. Both Tom and John also consider the other to be inconsiderate because they are woken up when they don’t want to and as a result are often very agitated with one another. On top of the agitation, they are also both left with less sleep then they would like and therefore both end up napping throughout the day instead of socializing. All of the residents who live in single dorms on the other hand socialize with whoever they want, whenever they want for however long they want, and when they are ready to go to sleep or just to be alone they return to their empty room and follow their internal clock’s desires.

Personal time is an important part in every individual’s life. There is time when many people just need to sit in a room alone and be with yourself. When you live with a roommate this becomes one of the hardest things. Amanda complained to me “My roommate is just here (her room) all the time, and sometimes I just want to be alone. She’s a nice person. I love her. She’s fun to hang out with, but I just wish I had more alone time.” If Amanda had her privacy occasionally during the day she may be more likely to socialize with her friends at night instead of waiting until her roommate goes out so she can call her mom and talk comfortably about some private matters of her day. The lack of privacy, and personal time here is directly affecting Amanda’s social life, whereas if she lived in a single she could call at any time during the day to talk to whoever she wanted and feel comfortable in her own space. Although single residents are given more alone time which may lead to less stress it does become harder for residents in singles to meet people. All of the residents I interviewed that lived in doubles agreed, although they may not be best friends with their roommates, they did enjoy having them around at least some of the time. It’s a permanent familiar face, someone to go home to and talk about your day with instead of your family; it makes the transition from home life to dorm life easier.

Living in a single you don’t have that benefit. The residents of the single came to a consensus that although it was nice to have their own space sometimes it got lonely and making friends was not the simplest thing. Two of the ten residents in singles said it was very easy to meet people, and they thought it would’ve been just as easy to make friends had they lived in a double, but the other eight residents realized the same difficulties that I had inferred. However after classes began everyone agreed that it became easier to socialize because they were talking to more people outside of the dorm but also discovering classes they had in common with the students within the dorm. So, these students may not just have to walk into their rooms to find a new best friend, but they certainly are not alone contrary to what I first believed.

After interviewing these eighteen members of Wilkeson hall. I believe that living in a single can in fact be beneficial to one’s social life. When you’re not being forced to change your personal habits you’re in a better mood, there is less change, and you are more likely to socialize.

When your schedule isn’t being disrupted you just have more time to make friends and get involved in other things. Last of all when you are given the alone time you need when you need it, there is more likely a chance that you will be social when asked. Despite what I first believed, it has become clear that people in singles have no reason they shouldn’t be able to assimilate just fine into the college lifestyle and form a normal social life, with just a tad more effort than any other student would need to put forth to fully enjoy the experience that many people refer to as the best four years of your life.

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The short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” was actually very interesting. The author, Urusla Le Guin, was really able to pull you in and make you understand why people left during her introduction of the boy in the closet. This is the section I decided to close read from “in the basement” to “own excrement continually.” During this section she really tries to make the reader feel guilty by not only describing the poor health condition of the boy in the closet but also the disgusting environment that he is left in. She also refers to the boy as an “it,” insinuating that he does not even deserve the respect of being considered a person. When she does refer to him as a person it is “the child” this is more effective than as just “a boy” or “a guy” because people have a tendency to have a soft spot for children, especially when they are being mistreated. She also persuades the reader to feel guilty for the child by making him seem innocent. He tells people “I will be good,” as if it is his fault he is in there and that some one made him think that he ended up there because he was not being good. If that doesn’t make the reader feel absolutely terrible for the child the physical description of the torture he is enduring surely would. During this particular section she only refers to him as “it” because his appearance is not human. He has no definite calves; his stomach is protruded, yet he doesn’t eat. His holders have not even given him cloth to cover his body with, which makes him seem like an animal. I believe that this description alone is all that was needed to make it completely clear why any Omela would want to leave after seeing such an inhumane thing that everyone in the town is okay with simply ignoring.

That’s Unfair That 70’s Show is a sitcom that played from 1998 until 2006. It is a satirical take on the flower power era of the 70’s that was actually filmed decades after the time period when the events are set. Throughout all eight seasons the show only uses one foreign character, Fez, to mock many stereotypes usually associated with foreigners. While mocking the stereotypes they also point out how unwilling most americans are to accept people who are different than them. They mock many aspects of foreigners throughout the eight seasons of the show, but I will pick three to focus on and that I believe are the most effective.

My first argument will be about Fez’s name. Many people are unaware, but Fez is not the foreigner’s real name. It is a long complicated mash up of the actor’s real names; their reaction to his name shows how close minded they are to foreigners, and the fact that they change his name to something simpler shows that they are unwilling to accept anything that comes along with his culture.

My second argument will be that they treat Fez unfairly and judge him for the way he interacts with people, mainly woman, even though

Kelso often treats woman then same way. They treat woman the same way, but when Kelso does it it’s acceptable and the girls respond positively to him.

My third argument will be that Americans are insensitive to foreigners being in our country.

Americans expect people to understand every custom, and saying that we have here in the United States despite how long they have been here. Fez is only a foreign exchange student, but he still knows many of our sayings, speaks English and fits in perfectly to society. This becomes irrelevant the first time he mixes up a word and is immediately mocked for it and treated as an idiot.

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