Hungry and homeless, anything helps.

There are many places involved in my topic, in fact, you can walk out at anytime of day in nearly any neighborhood and see exactly what it is that I am talking about. One location that never fails to remind me of the growing homeless epidemic is the intersection between University St. and Chicago in Riverside. Everytime I drived down there, I can't help but see that there is a multitude of people that have clearly made make shift homes out of the sidewalk and some boxes. It doesn't stop there. Everytime you exit the freeway, there are two or three homeless people standing on the off ramp with a sign made of cardboard that reads something to the effect of, "hungry and homeless, anything helps." These are the ones that always seem to get me. If I had food or water in the car, I will stop and give it to them; red light or not. All over downtown Riverside you can see the unfortunate people walking around in shabby clothing, draggin a shopping cart behind them; they stop, periodically, to search through garbage receptacles for food and recyclables. All I can think is, "where is your family, why aren't they helping you?" It is heartbreaking. So, this brings me to my audience. I intend my initial audience to be the residents of downtown Riverside, since they are affected most by this situation.

You can go with this or you can go with that....

The place where my issue lies is everywhere where there is power to be taken. However, due to some pondering and random wikipedia article viewing, I've narrowed my focus. Now the place, and perchance even the audience, is narrowed to californians and/or the texts we allow ourselves to be confounded with. I found a wiki article about an article George Orwell wrote for a magazine that I might like to explore with my issue... perhaps even change gears entirely. The article involved how people convolute language for selfish means. This would probably be a criticism of the people who are making people into cows rather than criticizing the poor cows (as much as they deserve it).

A National Media Epidemic

On the broader scale the idealization of female forms occurs quite often in the mass media however, specifically, it is mostly seen in movies, television shows, and magazines. For instance, sitting in the cold, but crowded movie theatre watching the SUPER gorgeous, SUPER skinny Megan Fox escape homicidal robots from outer space, all while donning her short shorts, not one hair out of place, I often can’t help but think about myself as a women. I will NEVER be that skinny or have those abs, I will NEVER have that long lustrous hair, and I will NEVER win over the handsome hero. And why? Why won’t I win over that handsome hero and have long-lasting happiness? Because I’m not as pretty as her, not as sexy as her and because I’m not those things…I’m simply not as valuable as her. So, as my male companion is hooked on the action scenes and visual effects, I’m left ogling Megan’s cellulite-free thighs and the bust bosom bursting out of her crop-top, thinking, “geez, I will never add up to that”. This may seem like an over-dramatization to some, but as a woman myself, I think it’s fair to say that most ladies I know can often think the same way and it’s unavoidable because the image of the idealized woman is all around us. We try to escape the movie theatre to forget about the taut and tight Megan Fox, but on the tube there’s Tyra’s ninety-pound top models prancing around in our heads. We try to get away from the T.V. but every magazine we read and billboard we see parades beautiful, half-naked, toned women in front of us and reminds us if we buy what they’re selling we’ll look JUST LIKE THEM. In fact, the reason this issue is so big and does affect so many already beautiful and wonderful women is because it happens in so many places. IT SURROUNDS US

Opinions

Totally forgot to post this for my third post! I think this is a great clip that adds to my paper topic. Was wondering if anyone had any input about it...maybe how it makes you feel? Reactions? Comments?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U