rkeller's blog

GSW 1120

Ryan Keller

This article is about the struggle of motherhood when influenced by wealth and race. The author does a good job of proving her point through statistics about the marital differences between the average white woman and the average black woman. What’s great about this article is that it describes the sacrifices a mother must make when deciding what is best for her child. The author spoke of a situation where someone she knew had to buy a stroller that was hundreds of dollars or help her cousin buy textbooks for college, another about whether a woman should send her son to a private school and spend 20 grand on kindergarten. Although many women probably wouldn’t admit to not spending the extra money for their children but the author has a lot of experience with making sacrifices like that. the thought process of why black woman don’t stay at home and instead go to work is that they are more likely to become single mother, why is that? The only question in the article without an explanation. I never before really thought about how much harder it could be to be a black mother then a white mother, but to be honest I never put much thought into being any kind of mother or father for that matter. black women may be more likely to be single mothers but at least they tend to make more then the white women.

I understand Synthesis because I read about it in the AWR textbook, but seriously it is important to consider the possibility of a source for your paper being false. If there are a lot of unsolved questions while walking through your sources then you haven’t done a good job researching and your paper becomes too opinionated. Of course being too opinionated isn’t exactly a bad thing but if it’s your opinion it it because no one cares about what you think…. usually (except for when the assignment is asking for an opinion of course).

Ryan Keller

GSW1020

Annotation for: “The Radical Idea Of Marrying For Love” by Stephanie Coontz

“The Radical Idea Of Marrying For Love” by Stephanie Coontz is an informative essay about the aspects of Love through marriage in comparison to different generations and different cultures. This essay was very interesting because it describes cultures extremely different from our own and their views on ‘love’, which today is declared as one of the strongest emotions.  The best story is that of Peter Abelard and Heloise, two lovers who came together and had a child without getting married first. They never did because they thought marriage would ‘undermine’ their love for one another. That theology is so dramatically different from ours(USA 2011), there are no statistics about love in this research paper in the past century but I suppose that would be less interesting then how adultery was the highest form of love in the middle ages.

The paper is set up very well, the paragraphs are arranged by social love ideas and the corresponding cultures that contrast in belief in such ideas instead of organizing them by culture first and having a long boring paper that no one reads past ancient French culture (BORING).

Annotation for “The State of Our Union” by David Popenoe and Barbara Whitehead

This informative essay has absolutely everything in it except a reason to read it.  I must admit that the only thing that surprised me in this essay was the last bit about how men and women are happier in marriage now then they were the past 20 years. There were a lot of statistics and numbers and charts but there was not a lot of text explaining what the overall message was for these things and how they were related. The authors seem to jump back and forth without any transitioning between number of marriages for every one thousand women (not men), percentages of people married varied by sex and race (between only blacks and whites), percent of people age 35-44 who are married and percentage of people who are ‘happy’. It’s almost as if the two authors did their own research and one day just mashed it up together and didn’t try to add any fluidity throughout the paper.

Of course this whole paper could be summed up in a sentence: less people are getting married, white people marry more then black people and people are happier.

Annotation for “For Gay Marriage” by Andrew Sullivan

This Essay is obviously about the homosexual marriage situation in the United States, the argument is pro gay marriage. This paper has a rare trait that many political situation papers with many radicals on each side don’t share. This paper has counterarguments; they are actually quite extensive and include anything anyone on the opposite side of the argument could come up with. Unfortunately there is only one definition with no real statistics; the definition doesn’t even back up the point of the essay.

Therefore, this essay (unlike the rest) is not informative but ‘persuasive’ the assumption is that the target audience are those who despise the idea for gay marriage, Although no one will be likely to change their morals based on a persuasive essay with no statistics.

It is interesting reading about the insignificance in marriage in “the radical idea of marrying for love” and then reading a essay by someone who demands the right for it.

Annotation for “Against Gay Marriage” by William Bennett

This essay was interesting compared to the previous because it dealt more with politics in gay marriage then Andrew Sullivan. There were no counter arguments, there were sentences in the essay that rebutted why Bennett took his side and he was quite considerate for his stance. A lot of literature anti-gay marriage will be extremely offensive and prove not just anti-gay marriage but also anti-gay in general. He did provide a quote from a former Harvard Professor and he also referenced Andrew Sullivan’s argument but only to call him out for contradicting himself.

My critique will be of the article: Understanding Mom from Unit 9.  I will give it a good rating because the story actually had a happy ending unlike all the other failed feminist stories. My criteria will probably include the fact that its happy ending can inspire women instead of just making them sad or angry. Another criteria is the subtle introduction of the change of morals through generations relating to the position of the “Housewife”. Thats my criteria so far and have a great day…

The woman who wrote this essay tells the story of her motherhood and the failure of her marriage. After explaining her loss of a husband she explained how she was inspired to pursue a higher education and to become a doctor, of sorts. She then has a conversation with her old-fashioned mother who, after witnessing everything that happened to her daughter, stated if she hadn’t gone through the divorce then she would never had to go back to school. The woman in the story understands her mothers position because she was raised in a different time period when women didn’t work outside of the house often. In a way she writes as if her divorce was a good thing.

A whopping 15 words/sayings chosen to never be said again by anyone could never be so comprehensive. I’m glad that ‘fail’ is on the list because that will get annoying very fast. I must say I haven’t ever heard ‘mama grizzlies’ or ‘wow factor’ before but I’m sure they would annoy me too, as for the ‘A-ha!’ movement I’m not quiet ready to let go of that startled and sudden epiphany statement. In fact it could be old enough to bring back and enjoy for a while longer. I’m disappointed ‘random’ and ‘fo sho’ is not on the list but perhaps next year… As for ‘live life for the moment’ I’m actually a big fan of that one, its a great way to destroy sobriety along with youth, naturally for most college students that is the goal isn’t it??? Overall I would rate this list a D- with several frowny faces to clarify my judgment.

After reading this article I am glad to finally receive an assignment with a happy ending. I like this article because it deals with the difference in morals between generations which I find very interesting. Everyone in the world at some point or another deals with the difference in either their parents morals or their children’s, often both. I enjoyed reading a story where a woman is divorced and instead of whining and making a huge deal about how unfair the world is she instead set out to conquer it and succeeded. She its more successful and has accomplished more then most of the population of the United States. In fact divorce may have been the best thing that could have happened to her.

I never really thought about the “housewife situation” in the US partly because I’m not concerned by such things but also because I suppose I’ll never have to deal with it. My mother is a housewife and she works as hard as anyone else, homeschooling and taking care of my little brother and sister. When I read the first article about how she is proud to be a housewife I felt it was slightly stupid because I have never heard of any housewife being harassed because she doesn’t “contribute” to the family. I don’t pretend to know anything about the continuous struggle of the common housewife in America today but if I had to guess I can assume that its easier then it was a century ago, just because she may stay home and take care of you children while everyone else apparently goes out and does something with their lives doesn’t mean she made a wrong decision or anyone else did. I was surprised to see her change in belief though she did go through a traumatic experience, its good to have an open mind when going through that kind of stuff.

Ryan Keller