Feminist Critique

Bryant Allen

Feb 18th

History

Feminist Critique

Today in our society the way we construct gender came from many different places. It all started around the 1950’s, when women were forced into a box by society. Which was considered as domestic work in the house. This then became social, family, or cultural norms they had to conform to. Later on, these stereotypes of women were later put in the media. Magazines and television have played a big role in how we look at and construct gender roles for women and men. Also, popular music is starting to play a part as well. Being able to understand how we are affected by different stereotypes in media is very important because the media is becoming one of the things we are always using daily. Popular music plays an important role in our society because usually a popular song will be played over and over again on the radio and no one will care about the messages in the song, but only the quality of the song.

Many rap and hip hop songs are about men having control over women and viewing them as sex objects. Some songs use curse words toward women to show how much more men are dominant than women. Either way, there are very few rap songs that portray women in a respectful way. It is crazy because even though these songs say negative things about women, women will still listen to them and support the artist by buying their CDs. It is horrible that we are programmed to be okay with men referring to women in a negative way and acting like they are better than women. It's crazy but I can name over 20 songs that shows this but I will only name a one. This is a very popular song, the song “Gold Digger” by the famous iconic artist, Kanye West.

“Gold Digger” had a lot of sales when it came out. It was at number one on the charts in 2005, it stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 list for five weeks straight. Many people listened to this song and it was continuously played on the radio. This song was heard by many different people and actually a lot of people were affected by it in a different way. Since this song was so popular everyone who listened to it heard the way women were represented in this song. This song was dominantly for a male perspective and I believe that men will start to believe that it is alright to treat and view women in a negative way or as a sex object.

Popular songs like, “Gold Digger” has a huge impact on the way gender is constructed in our culture. If a song is played over and over and everybody likes it, then people will think its cool. Right? Since men they think the song is cool then they see the way women are being treated in the song must be cool too. For example, Kanye West used a word (derogatory term) to refer to a woman in his song, by basically saying all pretty women are trying to steal money and using men for things they don’t have. Also, he was calling women other names. But the chances of other people starting to use the same term to refer to women is very high. Also, in his music cover their is a woman wearing a tight dress. This has affected our society to because girls are starting to wear clothes like that just to get a male gaze. will think that they should be wearing the same kind of clothing. In most songs men are viewed as strong or and in charge while women are viewed as an object or submissive. There is rarely a song that talks about a woman having more power than a man. Most songs represent something in favor of the men. Usually, it will be a man with a lot of money has girls all over him and controls them like he owns them. The fact that a song can make person change their actions or how they feel about themselves shows us how the music industry and the media plays a big part in gender construction. Popular music today has the strength to construct the how people view each gender box that society puts us all in. The song, “Gold Digger” portrays women as submissive and men as the dominant figure.

How Modern Music Brings Back The 1920's

The song “Be Together” by Major Lazer is old school. It expresses many different stereotypes, but there are a few prominent ones for men and women.  This work also expresses a few ideologies, one of those being “women in the roaring 20’s.” The gender stereotype expressed for men in the song are the gangster. For women the seductress / mistress stereotype is shown.

The group that made this song is called Major Lazer. They are a group of guys who use many different people to perform in their songs. They recently made album with many different singers, men and women. One of the songs in the album “Be Together” is performed by Natalie Bergman, and the song is from her point of view.

There are many examples of the “women in the roaring twenties” in this work. The first line of the song is a great example of the ideology of the twenties Natalie Bergman says: “Let me escape in your arms, baby I'm yours, baby I'm yours.” This supports the ideology of the twenties because in that decade women were expanding their ideas about how they were allowed to act and talk. They wanted it to be socially acceptable to be attracted to men. Women wanted to break the stereotype that they were supposed to be pure and chaste sexually. Another example of how this song expresses the ideologies of the 20’s is: “Maybe on the dark side we can be together, be together.” This expresses 20’s ideology because women in the 20’s wanted to show their, “dark side,” more. Women wanted to be more disobedient and more out of the home, and this line connects to the 20’s idea that women wanted to disobey their parents in order to be with men.

Beyond 20’s ideologies, “Be Together” expresses a lot of stereotypes of men and women. The first stereotype of women the song expresses is the seductress stereotype. A great example of this in the song is: “Maybe on the dark side we can be together, be together.” This quote shows that she is trying to seduce the man to the, “dark side”. This is part of the seductress stereotype. One of the stereotypes of men in the song is the gangster. This stereotype is expressed by this quote: “Tell me, is this freedom, baby? Chasing after danger, making my heart race.” This expresses the gangster stereotype because the guy is trying to impress the girl and win her over. This is also expressed by this quote because he is being a bad boy. Another quote that shows the same thing is this quote: “He was a dreamer at heart chasing the stars, chasing the stars wings spread to the sun I miss you so much, I miss you so much.”

The idea of women expressing themselves and still being accepted for it hasn’t been around for very long time. But popular culture and modern media are accepting it by leaps and bounds. This song isn’t the only piece of culture that expresses these ideologies and stereotypes.

Into War

In the song, "American Blood" by Reckless Kelly on the album Bulletproof is an anti-war song with clarity about war. Reckless Kelly is the one who first performed it in 2008, released with his album. This song is arguing that war is horrible. It is not a good thing all of this is for a silver or golden or bronze star or medal, they can keep this star. For the war or not, the main idea is that the troops of war deserve a little more respect and support for the job they are doing. This song is helping appreciating the sacrifices and work men and women in uniform did as well as their families. This song also calls out Washington getting money for the expense of 30,000+ american lives.The very first line provided a new perspective of war was when he said “Johnny can't drink 'cause Johnny ain't twenty-one.Yeah but he's eighteen and he's pretty handy with a gun. They sent him off to a foreign land”. Johnny is young, he is not even in his twenties yet but they sent him to war. It just a demonstration of crazy it is in America, you basically do not have a choice for whether you wanted to go or not back then. It is like striking you of your rights. In the third verse he says, “Well Johnny can't walk but the medic said he's okay to fly. And the newspapers tell us he's a hero and hell of a guy”
This is extremely powerful because Johnny fought in war and lost his legs and all he gets for the work he did was tell the world he is a hero. It does make you think of how the world actually treats the people who fought and lost their limbs and other parts and all we can say is wow he is so brave and all that and give them a piece of copper or something. I know we have a day to celebrate them but we can do better than that.

Clinton Bashing Or Giving Facts...

In this ad, Clinton is tieing Trump to the white supremacists of the world. Hillary is using pathos to make the audience feel a certain way about Trump's supporters. Clinton's pathos is believable due to her evidence of white supremacists associated with Trump.
White supremacists and trump believe in the same things, making trump out to be supporting the whites. In the background of this part of the video you hear one the "KKK" members say this, which makes it more believable. The first concern, is donald trump actually supporting the supremacists in their movement. Why are the members so comfortable with saying that Trump supports them if it wasn't true?
A reporter then asks Trump does he want the vote from the white supremacists, he replies saying he has no idea what the white supremacists are. which makes that very hard to believe, because with history this country provides all the way from slavery how could you not know what the supremacists are? Which brings up the question why is donald trump acting so brand new to this situation.
Then with Trumps new campaign CEO is a supremacists, so with that being said, there's nothing much else to say honestly.
All of this being said in one campaign ad, really leaves us, the people, thinking is this someone we want to be in office soon. Do you really want history to repeat itself even more than it already has?

Hillary Clinton: Can she make our children proud?

An ad for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was released titled, ¨Role Models.¨ This ad shows young children as they watch all of the controversial and unpopular things that presidential candidate Donald Trump has said throughout his campaign. It then shifts to young children watching Hillary give a speech on TV about how America needs to set a good example for the future generations and electing her would make the future generations proud of their families choices.

To persuade the people of the United States to vote for Clinton this ad appeals to ethos. It calls out Trumps character and presents him as loud, obnoxious, and ignorant. It sets him up as a leader who the future generation would be ashamed of and they would be embarrassed their families chose to elect him. It paints Hillary in a much different picture, as a leader who the children can be proud their families elected and even look up to her as a role model.

To back this argument the ad uses clever lighting to vilify Trump and make a hero out of Clinton. Whenever the children are shown watching Trump, the lighting is very cloudy and gloomy, almost as if to say if Trump is elected the bright days in America would be over. When the children are watching Hillary however, the lighting is much sunnier and the children are smiling, bringing a sense of a bright future for the United States if Hillary is elected.

With the United States getting closer and closer to the day that the next president is elected, this ad helps strengthen Hillary's campaign tremendously by making her out to be a president that would make the future generations proud, along with the many other great presidents the United States has seen.

Hillary's Human Rights Speech

Hillary Clinton Human Rights Speech

I chose to analyze a speech Hillary Clinton made on human rights, or more specifically, women’s rights. Although I would want Bernie Sanders for a president, I definitely agree with what Hillary Clinton is saying about human rights. She explains the ways in which women’s rights should be equivalent to human rights, but are currently not. The issues she was addressing are not issues that we never talked about. One thing she emphasizes is when she says, “It is a violation of human rights when…,” by repeating it at the beginning of each statement to help get the point across. Clinton says, “It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.” She repeats the phrase, over and over.

The women have no personal rights; they aren’t allowed to make their own decisions regarding their own bodies, such as the choice to have an abortion. They are often forced to have an abortion. Clinton establishes warrant by expressing her beliefs about the way women should be treated, assuming they do not appreciate or agree with the way they are currently being treated. Therefore, it is safe to say she shares a common belief with her audience. Logos comes into play because it’s only logical that women's rights should be equal to all human rights because, after all, women are humans as well as men. Mostly everything she said in this speech was just common sense. She gives examples of some of the important roles women play, or have the potential to play, in society.

Pathos, is what this speech revolves around. Clinton gives quite a few horrifying examples of the way women are abused and treated unjustly. She paints a picture for the audience that is intended to make them feel bad toward the victims of this violence. One really upsetting example was when she stated, “It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives.” This statistic probably surprised many people in the audience and maybe even hit close to home for many others.

Clinton does a very good job of establishing pathos and logos in her speech on women’s rights. One thing she said to summarize the message of the speech was, “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.” All in all, the speech comes together very well and practices a number of methods to persuade the reader to agree with what she was telling them.

Why Gun Control Isn't All Bad

In the advertisement "Defenseless" by the NRA, about gun control, they argue that you shouldn't vote for Hillary because she will take away your gun and then you wont be able to defend yourself when you need to, and that if you vote for Hillary you will get killed because you don't have a gun.

The way that the ad shows that you need a gun is that it shows a women getting her house broken into in the middle of the night. In the ad the the women hears the person and gets out of bed and calls 911 and then reaches for her gun. This section shows what the NRA supports.

Once she reaches for the gun it disappears then the announcer says that if you vote for Hillary this will happen to you. Then she turns around in slow motion, which is powerful because it shows how terrifying it would be to not be able to defend yourself. After this she drops the phone in slow motion as well, this shows that she thinks the police wont be there in time help. After this it cuts to outside the house and a bunch of police cars. 

This ad appeals mainly to pathos it is designed to make you sacred enough to make you not vote Hillary because you are afraid she will take away your gun , and then this situation will happen to you. It also appeals to ethos a little because it makes Hillary look bad because she is the reason the NRA gives for why this woman got killed     

After this you are supposed to assume that something very bad happened to her because she 

didn't have a gun to defend herself. This is exaggerated by the fact that the announcer say "don't let Hillary leave you defenseless." Finally this ad shows that gun control isn't good sometimes because if she had had a gun she might have survived.        

"Mirrors"

The ad released by Hillary is a very powerful ad. The purpose of the ad is to show how bad Donald Trump degrades women and talks about them in a sexist way. It shows different videos of young women looking through the mirror while Trump is talking about  he appearances of women which why the argument is effective. The ad is trying to persuade the audience that Trump shouldn't be president with how the way he talks about women.

The ad appeals to Pathos because the ad used different women while Trump is talking about their appearances to make it more emotional. It also makes you feel bad for the women in the video because what Trump is saying kind of corresponds which each girl and their facial expressions for example.

This ad also appeals to Ethos  because it showing what type of person Donald Trump is and this ad is making his reputation bad by using his own words to prove a point like when he says "Shes a slob she eats like a pig " and "I look her right in that ugly face of hers" showing that he has little character and that he his very disrespectful and rude.

Lastly this ad appeals to logos because it is using facts and reasoning. It is using facts because it is actually trump saying these things. It is using reasoning to show that he shouldn't be president if he talks about women this way and that he wouldn't be a good president.

In conclusion this ad uses all three different appeals and shows why Trump should not be president because he degrades women and doesn't treat them with respect.

"Sacrifices Not Good Enough"

Sacrifice | Hillary Clinton

This ad "Sacrifice" approved by Clinton about Trump mistreating veterans. Hillary Clinton is trying to persuade voters that Donald Trump is a very self-centered person and is very unappreciative and ungrateful of what veterans have done for our country. Her ad is very persuasive due to pathos, ethos and image of the ad.

Pathos was one of the major contribution that helped Clinton make this ad argument very effective. She used veterans to help show emotion then the hurtful and disrespecting words that Trump said. For example, Trump said, "He is not a war hero. He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay". When Donald Trump said that about John McCain, it just creates a lot of aggression towards Donald because the veterans do not deserve someone who treats their righteous actions as if they were not nothing. It demonstrates the type of person who does not thinks of others sacrifices as significant as Donald Trump's sacrifices were.

Another way Clinton persuades voters is by using ethos. She is bringing his reputation is down to the point where people realize what kind of person he is. An example is when a Reporter was explaining that Donald Trump was comparing his sacrifices to two parents that lost their son in war. Donald Trump even trying to compare his sacrifices to parents losing someone is completely inconsiderate and highly disrespectful as if their son's time in war was nothing as significant as Donald Trump's sacrifices for this country. This ad shows him as someone who is basically a monster and is very vulgar.  This demonstrates the type of person we would have as a president, a president who disrespects parents along with the veterans were or now are in war.

In addition to the last two contributions, the image shown in this ad made this very compelling. Hillary used images to help lift the ad and show more emotion and point out more clearly the words Donald Trump uses. For example when Donald Trump explains his "sacrifices" he made for this country, an image was shown of a mad in a wheelchair with no legs. These veterans fought in war, losing body parts, being captured, being killed or injured but somehow sacrifices like that is just not good enough. These veterans made huge sacrifices but Trump wants the glory for himself and think that he is that being insubordinate to these veterans because their sacrifices are disappointing to their country.



 

J. Cole - Love Yourz

I decided to do 'Love Yourz' because what J. Cole is saying is so important in this day and age. Basically, throughout the song J. Cole is talking about how you must be happy with your life, because you will never know a better one. He talks about how someone will always have more than you, someone will always have more fame. He says, "it's the beauty in the struggle", which sounds kind of like a total cliche, but it's so important.

"Think being broke was better, now I don't mean that phrase with no disrespect, to all my ****** living in debt, cashing minimal checks, turning on a TV see a ***** Rolex, and fantasize about a life with no stress."

He is remembering times when he was in the same position as the people he is referring to in this quote, providing a sense of motivation that life is good where they are.

When thinking about this song as a true story in America, I find it very true. People everywhere are in crippling debt in America. The story J. Cole is telling is too common today, and I think the amount of people who can relate to what he is saying is too far over an acceptable number.

I think the most important part of the song is when he is talking about how there is no such thing as a life that's better than yours, because when you think about it, he is really right. You're never going to experience another life, so the one you're living is the best one you'll get. So it's okay that you might not have the nicest things, or the biggest house, because it's what you have, and as long as the people you have in your life love you, and you can find happiness, that's all that matters!

J. Cole stated once, "I thought that success was all I needed, that what was going to bring the happiness, getting the fame, the accolades, having people say 'oh you're the best in the game.' Then when those things came the happiness wasn't there and I realized why that was."

The importance of money in America is too high. The importance of objects and brands is alarming. America is more about money and name brands than it is about taking care of mental health or inequality.

The Purge

I believe the movie The Purge is a bad representation of America. In the movie there is a time of the year when all the laws are shut down. Most people hide and go on a lock down for the 24 hours while the purge is going on, and some people go out for revenge by killing people or just killing people for fun. The Purge is very violent, and america isn't always violent but there are a lot of occurrences where it might seem extremely dangerous. The Purge is a holiday in the movie but it is not an actual holiday in real life only in the movie. Which thankfully it isn't real because that would be terrifying. Lastly, in the movie the poor people are more likely to die because they don't have enough money for the security and protection while the rich people have all the good security so they are the safe. This is why I think The Purge is a bad representation of America.

Stereotypes in Never Back Down

The movie Never Back Down is a true story in the idea of presenting traditional male stereotypes because it shows a lot of ideas of what men should be. A few of the stereotypes that are presented in the movie are that men are fighters, aggressive, show no emotions and protectors. Jake, Ryan and Hounsou fit the stereotype that men are aggressive and fighters because that's what Hounsou trains Jake to get better at and what Jake and Ryan do when they meet each other for the first time. Throughout the movie all three of them never show emotion except for anger and aggression. The only time any of them show any other emotion is at the very end of the movie where Hounsou breaks down when he talks about what happened to him and his brother and why he left his family and the reasons he tells Jake this story is he always wants Jake think are you doing the right thing.

Another stereotype this movie presents is that men are the protectors of women. When Jake confronts Ryan about what he is doing to Baja and Ryan's response is that he doesn't care. So Jake goes and helps Baja with the problems with Ryan throughout the movie and eventually Baja leaves Ryan and goes out with Jake. All of this happens right before Jake and Ryan go to a tournament that ended with Jake and Ryan fighting and Jake winning. Finally throughout the movie it shows you that you can learn thing from your life and from the things you do in your life. So in the end the movie Never Back Down is a true story because it shows a lot of stereotypes about men.

Pink Houses and American Exceptionalism

John Cougar Mellencamp’s hit song, “Pink Houses”, was written with the intention of challenging and debunking American culture and dominant ideologies but the song has been misinterpreted and misused to the point where it is now an anthem for patriotism and the dominant ideologies of American culture. The first verse of the song is about the struggle of an African American man and his community against the federal government when they use eminent domain to take private properties from the community to build an interstate highway. In the song, the specific story is about I-65 in Indiana.

The line, “You know he thinks he’s got it so good,” shows that although he has “an interstate runnin’ through his front yard”, he is glad that he was able to keep his house and was not forced out like his neighbors whose houses had been replaced by the interstate.

The chorus “Oh but ain't that America, for you and me/ Ain't that America, we're something to see baby/ Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah/ Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me” mocks American patriotism, rather than supports it. On John Mellencamp’s website, there is a Rolling stone article that is John Mellencamp reflecting on fifteen of his most notable songs. In the article, Mellencamp reflects on the song “Pink Houses” saying, “This one [Pink Houses] has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus - it sounds very rah-rah. But it's really an anti-American song. The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore”. Mellencamp did not intend for this song to be used to support the dominant ideologies of American culture and patriotism that it is often used to support. He has actively fought against the use of his songs, including “Pink Houses” for political causes that are at odds with his beliefs and with the true content of his songs, such as the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John McCain. Although many people consider him one of the faces of a blue-collar, conservative heartland rock movement, he does not support many of the political views and much of the patriotism that is often associated with heartland rock. After 9-11, Mellencamp told the New York Daily News that he found the “U.S.A.-U.S.A.” chants that the crowd would often do at his concerts to be “frightening” and that he would rush between songs so that the audience would not have enough time to start chanting.

The third verse begins with the lines “Well there’s people, and more people. What do they know” this mocks conservative anti immigration ideologies; that illegal immigrants are coming into our country in large numbers through open borders and are causing problems. In the words of the 2016 Republican party’s nominee for president, “People are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants.” John Mellencamp disagrees with this rhetoric, he has played his music at a rally for Hillary Clinton in his home state of Indiana.

The middle two and last two lines of the third verse “Go to work in some high rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico” and “‘Cause the simple man, baby Pays for thrills, the bills, [and] the pills that kill] mock people who fall into working 9 to 5 for corporate America and fall into the cookie cutter conformist patterns of the upper middle class American lifestyle rather than following their dreams and daring to be themselves. Mellencamp has personal experience in this field, he briefly worked installing telephones when he was in college before he moved to New York to pursue a career in music.

The second to last two lines of the third verse, “And there’s winners and there’s losers But they ain’t no big deal” reflects Mellencamp’s distaste for America’s system of corporate capitalism.

The Perfect "American Dad"

American Dad is a show aired late night, a cartoon for teenagers and adults. The show perpetuates the ideology of how a man is supposed to be, and what he is supposed to do. Stan, the main character and father, works for the CIA and is shown as incredibly muscular and big. He has a deep voice, proudly wears the American Flag, and is the sole provider for his family.



His son, Steve, is a sympathetic “cry-baby”, but Stan, being the perfect “American Dad”, has to make his son into a man by hammering the ideology of the perfect “American Man” into his head. The perfect man in America is usually big, muscular, handsome, rich, and brave, and all of these qualities describe Stan.

Welcome!

Welcome to the weblog for our American Studies class. Here's the place we will be continuing conversations from class and starting new ones. We'll be discussing and debating current events, historical controversies, and literary conundrums. We might even see a little poetry.

So, what's a blog? And how will we be using it class? For information on blogging and how to join and post to our blog, see "All About Blogging."

We're looking forward to a great year.

Make sure you check your e-mail for your invitation to join the blog. Also – and this is very important – the first step you should take after you accept the invitation is to edit your user profile so that you control how your identity and your communication preferences.  Click on the pull-down menu next to your name in the upper right corner of the browser and click on “Blogger Profile.” Then click on “Edit Profile.”

You can fill out as much of it as you want, but the only requirement is -- under “Identity” -- make sure your “Display name” is your first name and last initial only -- so we provide some anonymity while still allowing your classmates and teacher to be able to identity who you are. For example, change “Bernie Heidkamp” to “Bernie H.”

Cultural Analysis: Wild Card

The comedians Key and Peele had made numerous knee-slapper videos. The anger translator video they did back in 2012 shows the brute stereotype, where the translator is kinda wild and uncontrollable; like a wild card. This work kinda reinforces the stereotype, even though it is making fun of it. Being in the media makes it so well know to many people giving them the idea. It reflects the identities in society and helps shape how society views some African American men, connects to how a lot of the violence in the media mostly shown on the news is an African American man, or a person of color who is very violent. In the video the Obama character (Peele) is calm and collected, but then comes the translator (Key) who is like showing the feeling on the inside. Even though that Obama is the president, he is under pressure and can’t express that much emotion, even if he is overly excited people would automatically fit him into a stereotype. Not only can this be shown in comedy, people get so much information in media today whether it be songs, movie, a TV show that  people are always making assumptions of others even if they don’t know it.

1880 or 2007?

As far as I know, slavery ended in the 1880's but Intel seems to think differently. Back in 2007, Intel released an advertisement in which a white man is being bowed down to by 6 black athletes in an office.

The first stereotype begins with the black men bent over in a ready to race position. I see where Intel is coming from, as they try to represent the super fast technology Intel has to offer but the way they portray the athletes makes this a stereotype because the world sees black men as good, fast runners.

The second stereotype is shown with the white man standing in the middle of the black men being bowed down to in the office. This is the stereotype that white men have power and are usually the boss of the office. 

In a way, this advertisement is also representing slavery by saying "maximize the power of your employees" yet the one boss is white and everyone bowing down to him is black.

Intel claims they meant no wrong in releasing this ad but it portrays all types of stereotypes. They should have defiantly rethought about their ways in representing power and speed.

Modern day Slavery: The Terrible Truth About Sweatshops

The US needs to immediately address the issue of the sweatshop economy and unfair labor practices because victims of these unfair labor practices are being injured in large amounts. These victims are also not making livable wages, which is causing children to give up on their education and work to earn for their families. Julfikar Ali and Nida NaJar reported “the 2013 collapse of a building that housed several clothing factories, left more than 1,100 people in the worst disaster in garment industry history” (Julfikar & NiDa).
American companies are the ones who buy lots of these garments so they should also be the ones to reinforce regulations for these factories. The US also needs to immediately address the issue of the sweatshop economy and unfair labor practices because it is happening in the United States of America. The BW.com staff also reported that “just this May, it came to light that a number of families living in the U.S. were forcing immigrants into slavery, making them perform household chores for up to 16 hours a day without pay.” It is also happening on US soil so now it is our responsibility to protect all the victims and make sure no one is being forced into slavery or working in inhumane conditions.

America´s Role in the World

A/P/E Paragraph

What Should the U.S. Do About Isis?

The U.S. needs to immediately address ISIS because they are kidnapping Americans and killing them on video, so we need to address this immediately so there are no more victims. To solve this issue, we should find where ISIS is and take everyone involved and give them consequences. According to President Barack Obama, we can do this with airstrike. According to the CNN article,¨Obama gave the go-ahead to pound ISIS forces in Iraq from the air. Why not do the same in Syria, a country the President himself ceded Thursday has become a "safe haven" for the terror group?¨ This shows how Obama thinks an airstrike is the effective way to end ISIS. Another source from bookings.edu, says  ¨The United States should also rebuild its Sunni contacts from the Sahwa uprising against al-Qaida in Iraq, bolstering the voices of important Sunnis so that Baghdad has no choice but to hear them.¨ His idea of ending ISIS is building a relationship with the Sunnis. Clearly, these are two very different approaches that we need to decide on immediately in order to prevent and stop ISIS all together.

How can we stop sweatshops ?

The US needs to stop sweatshop in other countries where the poverty rate is up because the people don't even have enough money to support their families or to buy something as simple as food. What the US should do to is demand them to make better work conditions and higher pay for them and if they reject tell them to take their products back ( meaning they can no longer sell in the US and none of their products in our stores). Another option is to not buy sweatshop items. 

What you could do is “Demand sweatshop- free products where you shop.Ask companies you do business with to ensure that no sweatshop or forced child labor is used in the manufacturing of the products they sell.”Sweatshops are supposed to enforce certain regulations and “By law, he is supposed to provide time-and-a-half pay after eight hours on weekdays and between double and triple pay for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. "The price [Nike pays] never increases one penny," Wang complains, "but compliance with labor codes definitely raises costs."Sweatshops are a big issue in four world countries people and children are working under very harsh conditions and paid very little or none at all. Ones that are paid little can't even supply their families with basic necessities. In my second article they talked about how china is expected to ship 280 billion dollars worth of US goods but they couldn't pay them a higher wage.