Month: September 2017

Brianna Fitzgerald

Professor Amy Amoroso

ENG 110

9/20/17

Our society today has a vision of the perfect girl, why is that? She is envisioned as a thin beautiful girl with long legs and a big butt. She has perfectly clear skin and long flowy hair. This isn’t a stereotype for just females though. Boys are expected to have buff big arms with perfectly chiseled abs, and luscious hair. Why is it that we hold our society to such high standards? If members of our society differ from this example of “normal” we feel bad about ourselves and begin to feel shameful of our appearance. People will go to extreme measures to try and get themselves to look like these stereotypical norms, whether it be eating disorders, unhealthy amount of working out or even surgical procedures. Boys and girls all over the world struggle with eating disorders because they feel shame in the way they look. Our society today is a big culprit of body shaming which leads to people thinking and acting this way. This stereotype is spread by ads and commercials and shopping catalogs and the perfect thing or toned models featured in their ads. Yes, I understand that’s advertising however, not everyone looks like the models included in those magazines. By sharing true depictions of what people of our society truly look like and share our stories with body shaming we can improve the amount of people who struggle with these issues

Brianna Fitzgerald

Professor Amy Amoroso

ENG 110

9/14/17

In my opinion, yes. Social cohesion is the tendency of people to talk openly with one another and form trusted relationships. Anne Hallward creates her radio talk to make it safer and more comfortable for the people sharing their stories. With the radio, there is no visual exposer, therefore, people are less able to recognize people while telling their stories and it is overall more comfortable for the person sharing because it is a more private place to share. Also, with her radio show, she is sharing with more schools that it would be more helpful to have a GSTA and an antidiscrimination policy. These both protect the students in their school environment and is creating a safe place for them to talk about how they feel and give them a place to feel like they fit in.  It is important for everyone to have a place where they fit and can talk freely without feeling judged. A GSTA is the perfect place to do that and has already helped so many kids who were struggling to feel better and find a place to feel ok. She has not only created a safe place to talk as her radio show, but also influences schools to create a safe place to talk so I believe she is very much promoting social cohesion in multiple ways.

Brianna Fitzgerald

Professor Amy Amoroso

ENG 110

9/13/2017

                I fully agree with the points that Hallward makes in her Ted Talk. We should be talking more, and just because some topics are more touching or hard to talk about doesn’t mean we should ignore them. I really admire how Hallward dedicated her life to talking about and bringing up topics that people don’t want to talk about and to be that person that makes it ok to talk about anything that you have been keeping inside and feel ashamed about. In Anne Hallward’s Ted Talk, “How telling our Silenced Stories can Change the World”, Hallward states, “…[w]hen we tell these kinds of stories, it begins to change the culture.” (Hallward 6:50) Once people start to tell their stories, it makes other people feel better about their stories and want to share their struggle. When people share their stories, it helps others relate and come to terms with the shame they’ve been feeling and help them realize that there was no reason to feel ashamed after all. Everyone all over go through so many struggles and just because we aren’t talking about them doesn’t mean you should feel ashamed. There isn’t a major thing in my life that I can remember that I have been keeping secret and have felt shame about, however, I can relate to this quote on a lesser note. In all my classes I struggle with sharing my ideas and asking questions, but once other people in the class begin to share their stories and ideas I begin to feel better about sharing and working up the courage to raise my hand. Though my situation is far less extreme than anything Hallward brought up in her Ted Talk, almost every person who listens to this will be able to relate to it in some way, whether it is a personal experience of their own or even something that reminds them of a friend. Which is why I find Hallward’s talk and what she is doing with her life very admiring and motivating to want to help other people.

Brianna Fitzgerald
Professor Amy Amoroso
ENG 110
9/12/2017

In Anne Hallward’s TED talk she explains that she became a psychiatrist to become an expert in all things awkward and that she wanted to talk about the things that no one is talking about. A statement from Hallward’s TED talk that really stuck out to me is, “And what I found in my work is that actually shame is not just a very very painful feeling. It is actually a lethal public health threat, because shame is at the heart of essentially everything I do.” Hallward goes onto explain how shame leads to depression, addiction, and even suicide. This quote just really stuck with me because every person has experienced shame at one point or another in their life. We associate shame with the things that no one talks about, the things that people aren’t proud to share. Not sharing and keeping your shame bottled up is what lead to this depression, this addiction, this suicide. The worst part is, the things we are ashamed of, there is a great chance that there are other people out there who are feeling the same shame as you for the same reason. It is difficult, but a solution to this shame and all its acquiring problems, is sharing and talking about. That solution is relating back to Hallward’s main point of her TED talk; that sharing your stories can help people all around relate and feel better about the struggle or situation they are going through.

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