No %$@*&$% way

The day in class we talked about swear words an why we use them is a very interesting topic to me. Why is it okay for me to swear in front of my dad but not in front of my mom? Why do I swear more when I'm around my friends?

Interesting note on not swearing around my mom, she swears constantly, but if I even say "damn" or "hell" she's like, "What did you just say?" This is something really confusing to me and reminds me of a thing I can't stand. While I swear around my dad, I never swear at him. I absolutely cannot stand when people swear at their parents. Like, how more disrespectful can you be? But back to why we swear. As a future journalist, I did some research.

This article says that we swear to relieve pain. Which I suppose makes sense if you trip or stub your toe but what about when you're just hanging out with friends? Maybe there was a heated debate between everyone or maybe someone just said something stupid. However, they do make a good point in saying that swear words are used to convey emotion. No one is just going to be like, "Damn that sucks" without actually thinking that that thing does indeed suck.

On the other hand, I also wanted to know why people choose not to swear. This post was interesting to me because I've heard people say that they "just don't like" swearing. But after reading it I kind of understand that there are better was to put emphasis on things that you're angry about; however, I feel that only works depending on the group you're around. If you were at church or an elementary school, you would not be throwing out swear words all over the place.

Another interesting thing that came up in our group was that there are more derogatory words towards women than there are towards men. As a woman, it's extremely annoying that this is true. You can barely think of words that are derogatory towards a man, and when you do it's usually a word that implies in some way that he is acting like a woman. What? Why? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy? It's 2015 and you'd think we'd have come up with words that are derogatory towards men.

Or should we? Maybe we should stop being so god damn mean to people and use our swear words for better things like falling down the stairs or getting shot.

Words That Hurt

Words can denote aggression and mean different things to individuals. Words when used to hurt groups can even perpetuate systems of power in society. Also, the same word can have two completely different meanings based on gender and experience.

Swear words do a variety of things in our culture. They display pain, anger, contempt, and a multitude of others things. My focus, though, will be on when they are used to cause harm. Words such as bitch, slut, and whore are used to categorize and demean women. Power structures in today’s society, consisting of the white male at the top, use the word “slut” toward women in order to diminish her choices of having sex with men and to allude to her unappealing persona. On the other hand, men use the word “prude” to belittle a woman because she doesn’t give what he is asking for sexually. The use of these words create a harsh undertone and carry demeaning aspects that allude a negative connotation. These words also create a Madonna-Whore Complex that keeps women in a position of figuring out their sexuality instead of being able to further their lives. Not only are women left being mistreated by society, but they now possess a deeper pain from these words.

            

We know that these words being told to women by men enforce aggression and pain, but why do women use “slut” and other words like “bitch” in a positive dialect to refer to their other female friends individually and as cohesive groups? The word is now passed in a playful manner and isn’t thought about in a deeper meaning. Society is portraying that these words have become to be “OK” to use in general context from woman to woman but derogatory when men use it toward women. 

The word “slut” gains a new meaning when women use the term to diminish another woman. Depending on the tone and situation, the word is purposely used to cause pain to the other woman and categorize them on a lower level than themselves. The word is now used in the context of a man’s perspective, which is to portray a woman as an undesirable, less-than woman. When called this word, feelings of prior experiences become conscious and cause even greater aggression and pain. Because greater society has pushed women to use this word derogatively amongst each other, it becomes even more powerful in holding them back from progress.

Topoi used in everyday life and conversation

Over the past couple weeks, I found our readings on Topoi the most interesting topics we have studied and discussed so far. In my opinion, it is one of the most related topics he have talked about so far. Its a type of rhetoric that we use in our everyday lives whether we realize it or not. We watch it be used on television whether its commercial convincing you how much better their product is compared to competition, or your everyday sports show where analyze argue about daily sports topics. Either way you look at it, topoi is essential to everyday rhetoric especially when you are trying to get your point across.

To the average person who wouldn't be taking a rhetoric class, it would be difficult for them to recognize and distinguish how much topoi is used in on everyday lives. For example, you wake up in the morning and make your coffee to get ready for your day. You turn on your TV to espn to see the highlights of last nights games. There, you see Steven A. Smith arguing over last nights top plays. Just about every other statement he makes is filled with topoi as he tries to convince the audience that his argument on the topic is correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbMoYOPBZik

In the link above Smith argues about the use of Marijuana with certain players in the NFL. He uses many forms of Hypocrisy topois, as he talks about how disappointing it is for certain players to continually be punished for there use of marijuana instead of being more responsible with there actions. Throughout the video former Cleveland Brown wide receiver Josh Gordon appears in numerous offenses of the drug policy. Disappointed with Gordon's decision making, Smith's argues force us as the audience to think Gordon should not have gotten second chance based off his decisions the first few times he was caught.

Overall topoi is used in our everyday lives. Whether its a young child convince his mom why she should buy him a new video game, or the politicians on CNN arguing over who is the best candidate from president. Each topoi is used to impose your thoughts and opinion on other to hopefully get them to see your side of the argument. Used correctly, and topois can be used as a very persuasive tool. It something that we all see used in everyday conversation but very few of us know how to successfully use it.

The Ambiguity of Language

As time moves on, the ambiguity of modern language becomes more and more apparent. Words, regardless of their actual definition, can now be defined based on their usage, and their effect on the people it's directed at.

An easy example is the word, "literally". Literally, by definition, is exact or precise. However, you will often hear literally used in an informal sense, when something might not necessarily be true.

That's just one example out of many, and while the definition of a word may stay the same, it's effect on people might be drastically different depending on the circumstances.

The meaning of language is based off of interpretation, and different people can have different interpretations of language. This is why communication, why theoretically direct, is actually rather indirect. When you say words to somebody, they interpret the message you are trying to send them based off of what they were taught what those words meant.

Regardless of what they were taught, certain words can still have different meanings than what the sender may or may not have intended. This becomes more obvious in racism by language. If a sender were to say something that one person takes as racist, it doesn't matter what the sender intended, the receiver will feel offended.

Even large political figures say things that offend the people they are trying to appeal to. On a large scale, language becomes one of the most powerful tools you can use to promote a cause, for better or for worse.

This also extends to the non-verbal medium. If you drive by a group of protesters, they will often have signs with text written on them to promote what they are trying to say. The same principle applies to written text, the words can have different meanings than their definitions, depending on who is reading it.

Similar to political figures, the words that protesters choose to use can have a positive or negative effect, based on who is listening to them, or reading their signs. Protesters and politicians need to strongly consider how to best send their message to their audience, and adapt that message as their audience changes.

What is the point of all of this? It means that we need to be aware of the effect that our words have on other people, and realize that our meaning might not get across to the people we are talking to. Understand that everything is based off of interpretation, and that we need to consider that when we are talking to people, or a group of people.

How Eloquence Made History Class Cool Again

On May 12, 2009, the White House hosted an evening of poetry, music, and the spoken word. Lin-Manuel Miranda, a lyricist, musician, actor, and recent Tony Award winner, was invited to the event to share a little project he had been working on. Miranda, who is known for his fast paced and witty hip-hop songs, got up onstage and said, "I'm thrilled the White House called me here tonight because I'm actually working on a hip-hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop: Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton." His idea was met with a bought of laughter from the audience, including President Obama. Of course the idea seemed silly. Who would ever associate our founding fathers with the musical influence of Eminem or John Legend? Miranda continued his presentation and stumbled through a rap that chronicled the early life of Secretary Hamilton. The audience occasionally erupted into laughter at the absurdity of the concept, but Miranda was rewarded with a warm applause as he left the stage. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda at the White House in 2009

Since that night at the White House, Miranda has performed his award winning musical "In The Heights" hundreds of times, and has been thrown into numerous projects in the performing world. The Hamilton album seemed to become Miranda's background project. Yet, here we are six years later, and Miranda has not given the world a Hamilton album, but rather the most envied ticket on Broadway. Behind the scenes all these years, Miranda turned his concept album into a full blown musical, and no one is laughing at him now. The musical, entitled "Hamilton", is completely sold out at the Richard Rodgers theater until January 2016. Luckily, a cast album was released on NPR a few weeks ago. And as much as it pains me to say it, NPR just dropped the hottest mixtape of the year. Tumblr is exploding with praise for the album and the internet is already predicting "Hamilton"s inevitable Tony Award sweep. I sat down and listened to the entire album in one day and was completely blown away by its brilliance. However, I couldn't help but notice that the opening number of the show is nearly word for word what Miranda performed at the White House in 2009. This made me wonder why he was met with laughter in 2009 and nothing but sincere praise now. I listened to Miranda, who plays the role of Hamilton, eloquently share the story of the founding of our nation and realized eloquence was exactly why the show was receiving such accolades. Miranda chose to tell a story that has great significance to every American with "nearly Shakespearean" eloquence. The patriotic pathos, theatrical magic pathos, and beautiful wordplay make the music almost irresistible. My attention was immediately captured with the line, "The ten dollar founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder by being a lot smarter by being a self-starter. By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter." This is only the beginning of two hours of fantastically crafted lines, but I loved how the assonance and anaphora grabbed my attention before I even realized those figures were being used.

In class, we discussed how rap and hip-hop are some of the most common forms of eloquence today. Miranda's musical is the perfect example of this and I think it is also a perfect way to bring American history directly to high school students. The show's fierce political rap battles between Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton resonate wonderfully with the current culture of teenagers. Miranda even retweeted a video last week of a class of students attempting to rap along with him. By taking a piece of history and rewording it into art that catches attention, engages the mind, and stirs up emotion, Miranda has efficiently used rhetoric to prove that a hip-hop musical about our founding fathers is anything but ridiculous. Below I have embedded the opening song from the musical as well as one of the rap battles that exhibits both Miranda's eloquence and the actual rhetoric used by the original members of president Washington's cabinet.

Song writing with a cannon view

Keith Urban has definitely come out of the music star slump and has shot right up to the number one spot on a number of his songs in recent years. Being interested as a singer songwriter myself I have been looking into famous people and how they effectively do what they do. My love for music is not just country but all genres of music, but in this case it is country… don’t judge.  In my opinion not every average person becomes famous; then we would all be famous. People that have a certain uniqueness to them, different background, tonally different voice, distinctive sound, that is what makes people famous… not just a copy of what was already done. I say this laughing to myself because music in its natural form is built upon what is already known. To a person who doesn’t understand artistic views this would be like math. What is learned in one lesson of math is then transferred over to another lesson and so forth. In music you must know how to play but also be able to play with others and bounce ideas off each other. This is how a famous musician goes from famous to revolutionary in my book. Creating new sound and paving the way for new musician. A network of music can be made from the artist’s influences which then the influences can be heard slightly in the new music of the artist.  

Looking a one specific song such as John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16 a person can see and hear all of the influences of Keith urban in his playing and abilities. This song probably wouldn’t get popular if some random artist chose to play and make this song their own. This song got popular because Urban had an intention behind the song; he wanted the song to be different. I believe he effectively used the cannons of communication to do so.  Just to look at a few aspects, he wrote the song originally on guitar (sounded just like every other country song) he then reinvented his song by starting it with bass and drums.  He recreated something from an idea he had in his head and thus invented something new. This song has made it to the top of the music charts for a reason because it is very memorable. The chorus has a very catchy line and can be sung by nearly any body.  This song is relatable to everyone and people like to hear songs they can relate to in their own life.  Urban’s song stands out amongst the rest because no other country song starts out that same way so people recognize it as something new and unusual so are therefore more likely to remember the song as a whole. Lastly this song has a great delivery both on Urban’s part of his attitude he puts into the song but also because he is an already established musician. He has access to display his music in form of audio sound on the radio, internet, and TV. He can also use the power of vision with his music video he has for the song as well which shows his physical attitude while playing the song.

Being famous is what I aspire to be but realize it will be a long journey ahead to play for audiences bigger than football Saturdays. I find joy in the fact that yes music that is on the radio is on the radio for a reason but also the fact that I could have music on the radio by using the cannons of communication. By looking at already established musicians you can see the cannons at work in their songs especially but also in every other aspect of their life. Using cannons correctly to display your thoughts is all a musician has to do. After that is done you play. Kairos.

Communication today

                A large class concept grasped was when we talked about Orality, Literacy, Visually, and Networking in terms of communication. Our world has well advanced in the last few hundred years, and these four ways of communication are a great example as to how.

                Communication began with Orality. Orality can be more defined as the quality of being spoken to. Prior to text print, such as newspapers, news was orally communicated to one another. This associates orality with a multi–author aspect, but can also be associated with the singular form. In other words, more than one person would go around spreading news, or just one person can be associated. Although this form is much outdated due to mass media, it is still demonstrated daily. Oral communication is still performed to this day in forms of speeches. The President of the United States is a great example of this. While he embodies mainly the multi-author aspect of Orality, he can also compose a speech on the spot. A famous example of this is when President George W. Bush gave his famous speech at the World Trade Center, just days after the September 11^th terrorist attacks in 2001. You can watch him compose the short speech on the spot here. President Bush utilized the singular aspect here, forming a short speech to help unify those involved in search efforts. This speech later became one of the most memorable moment in modern American history.

                Literacy is another effective form of communication. The most traditional definition means the ability to read and write. Literacy can be paired up with another common, Visuality. Visuality refers to the quality of being visible, while also demonstrating learning types. I paired both of these up, because they both have the singular author aspect in common. Back in the day, Literacy was required for effective communication. By being able to read and skillfully write, journalists were then able to push their ideas out more efficiently, producing visual text such as newspapers. Literacy was required on both ends though, because if the receiver picked up a newspaper and could not analyze a piece of writing, he or she would not be able to comprehend it. This is a great example of what Visuality truly means. For a better understanding, check out the image below.

These two commons have changed a little bit as the years passed, such as that they are no longer fully single–author. One could potentially argue that in this day, Literacy & Visuality could be both. For example a newspaper is not published solely by one person. It takes journalists, editors, printing machines and so on. Either way you categorize them, you end up with the same output; effective communication.

                Arguably the largest form of communication to this day is networking. Networking involves the use of the internet, and all different types of social mediums working together to push a topic across. Networking could be referred to as the new form of newspapers, except all digital. This networked form has had a dramatic impact on today’s generation, because we have everything at our fingertips. A great example of a popular networked communication form is Facebook. Facebook has become the major source for everything from news, to what my friends are up to, or something as simple as messenger. Although this new, digital form of communication is a large benefit to us, it also has its negatives. The largest down side is laziness. In my three previous commons, it is able to be concluded that communication takes effort. With this electronic format, the Orality is eliminated completely and vital skills are lost. Back in the day, you would call your friends up and form plans. In this day of age, all you have to do is create a post on Facebook and you’re set. You can access more about the negative impact of networked communication here.

                Overall, this day in age relies on all four of these commons. Whether it is Orality, Literacy, Visuality or networking, they all contribute to the same goal and in the end get you to where you want to go. It is all based on personal preference which route you take, although I am sure the younger generations would choose networking while the older would choose Orality.