Public Discourse Blog (JackieG)

For those interested, here is the link to the suicide prevention website I made for my capstone. Suicide Prevention Google Site

I think for me the most provocative thing we talked about was feminism and Douglas' book. It really addressed things that I hadn't really thought about before. For example, it always seemed to me that sexism was on its way out of our society when really it just has a different face now. I also found it really challenging yet interesting to write book reports and feature articles. These are things I really had to work hard on since I had almost no experience with that sort of writing. I’m too used to writing in an academic fashion. I felt it was a good change of pace though, especially after writing things like lit reviews for my capstone.

In researching for my final paper, I read an article about someone who used to be a “Hannah Baker.” She responds to the recent critiques about the show 13 Reasons Why and tells us how she really feels about the show. She talks about how the show does not dramatize or glorify suicide. Yes, some of the scenes were very graphic, but life can be graphic. This girl describes how her life seemed perfect. She had great friends, a loving family, and a job but just spent months feeling incredibly depressed and suicidal. She had a hard time getting out of that. What I found the most interesting was how she talks about how people don’t think the students that hurt Hannah should have any accountability for her death. That Hannah made her choice. She says that people like Hannah need someone to reach out and understand what is going on, and that even small slights can send someone at risk over the edge.

I believe there is quite a bit that can be done with “the system” in order to help alleviate some of the chronic issues that minorities are facing. For one, arrests and large fines for things that aren’t life threatening just exist in order to create revenue for the government. We know that minorities are disproportionately arrested for things like smoking marijuana. I’ve heard of cases where an individual receives more jail time for smoking weed than someone who abused a child. These consequences just do not make any sense and should be changed so they reflect the situation. I also think the prison system should be revamped so it focuses more on rehabilitation. I feel like once someone is in jail, we mostly just forget about them. We care about locking them up for some amount of time but not about making sure they will be different when they get out. They are usually even worse off after going to prison since they’ve been away from society for so long. Police officers should b

I'm honestly struggling to think of a tv show that really gets at what real women are about. There has definitely been exaggerated gender roles or women just going after power in recent shows I have watched. Scream Queens , for example, makes girls seem overly materialistic and lacking any intellectual ability. Obviously most women are not actually like this at all. However, some are. Who is to say what constitutes a "real" woman? Another show I watched recently, Penny Dreadful , has Eva Green as a very powerful yet reserved character. Susan Douglas might say she is not a real woman because she actually has power. The problem with this is some women do  actually have power. There are definitely more men in power than women, but that doesn't mean we should only show men in charge in tv shows. 13 Reasons Why  shows girls as petty and insecure in most cases. They hurt each other and try to get back at each other rather than communicating about their problems. The one gir

I believe social media, particularly Twitter, can be immensely useful when it comes to activism. It’s great for getting people interested in under 140 words, linking to relevant articles and other media, telling people where to meet, and giving quick updates as they arise. I also love how the hashtag is used to get more and more people connected and involved. It makes it easy for people to become a part of a movement. People who cannot necessarily make it to an event can easily show their support through their social media accounts as well. However, I think social media has made it too easy for people in a way. It allows them to just retweet something or share a hashtag and make themselves feel like they helped in some way. I truly believe social media can be a powerful tool when it comes to many things, including activism, but it needs to be used in the right way. Retweets don’t solve a cause, though they do create discourse around a topic. People need to get involved beyond the c

I hadn’t even heard about Senator Davis’ filibuster until reading Roxane Gay’s article. I don’t recall seeing any coverage about this very important event at all. This proves her point perfectly. Mainstream media only shows us what they deem to be important and significant while the events that actually matter get swept under the rug. Clearly this was very important to a lot of people and should have been covered. Gay points out that over 180,000 people from around the world were watching the YouTube stream at one point. If Twitter and YouTube didn’t exist, very few people would have even known this has happened. I’ll be honest. I find out about a lot of things from platforms like Twitter and Reddit. I always learn about things on Reddit first. Sometimes Twitter if it’s something I’m following specifically. I don’t like watching mainstream news because it’s so clearly biased and pushes an agenda on people. Our citizens are free agents who need unbiased information to make decisions f

Everyone’s been there. You decide to have a date night at your favorite local movie theatre. You take settle down into a moderately comfortable seat after spending entirely too much money on tickets and popcorn, and something kills your mood. A baby starts screaming banshees. We’re all entitled to see movies, as long as we can afford the ticket price. But should babies really be part of this experience? Who benefits from having very small children at the movies? Most movie theatres do not charge for kids under the age of 2, which may entice parents into just bringing their little ones with them. Still, parents usually end up having to buy snacks to keep their kids happy enough throughout the show. This is money that parents would likely be better off spending on more important things. Things like educational toys or new clothes that their baby is constantly growing out of. Young children usually do not even want to have the movie-going experience. They find it hard to sit

One of my op-eds highlights why declawing, cropping ears, and docking tails on pets is cruel and unnecessary. These surgeries are purely cosmetic and have no actual benefit for cats or dogs.

Shows such as The Colbert Report and The Daily Show allow a more general audience to understand and access politics in a way they couldn’t before. They are very easy to grasp and encourage everyday people to have a political opinion. It does further polarization in a way though. These shows are clearly very democratic or very republican in their views. Most people probably only watch the shows that most closely match their political views. This causes them to become further wrapped up in those views and to believe they are right. Instead, people should listen to the other side’s rational argument and formulate their own ideas.

It seems that most of what is represented in the media today is political or historical. Fields such as sociology and psychology do not get much attention at all by mainstream media commentators. Politics is extremely important, especially with how the climate of America following the 2016 presidential election; however, it would be refreshing to see a variety of intellectual topics covered. It seems to either be political in some way or more like entertainment than news. Most media commentators appear to have either a very liberal or conservative view, with few moderate mainstream media commentators existing. Either they talk about abortion being absolutely wrong no matter what or being a woman’s choice. Immigrants are terrible and need to leave or they are lifting this country up. Our citizens need to hear more balanced perspectives in order to really form their own opinion on such matters.

I'm actually having a hard time coming up with who I consider to be the leading public intellectuals living today. The readings just seem to be further confusing me on what exactly a public intellectual is. When I hear public intellectual, I think of people from the past rather than the present. Machiavelli, Marx, Locke, and all those other intellectuals we read so much about. To me, people like Stephen Colbert, Bill Nye, and Muhammad Yunus. These are individuals that definitely direct their work toward the general public. They are very accessible and work hard to keep their work understandable.

I believe public spheres are still very much alive in contemporary America. It seems that much of our public discourse has moved online in recent years, which can be both good and bad. Anyone can post their opinion about some event or political view on their blog, twitter, or facebook for the whole world to see. Everyone has some sort of audience to react to their post, whether it be in the form of likes, retweets, or comments. If someone disagrees with the post or has a different take on it, they can start a discussion. Anyone can jump in with their own ideas. This is the ideal online public sphere. However, this isn’t usually what ends up happening. I would say that most people would rather ignore a post they disagree with, post a comment that starts more of a fight than a discussion, unfollow that person, or unfriend them. Having these conversations online makes doing such things safe. You can say anything you want and ignore everything else. In this way, having multiple public sp

Hi everyone, My name is Jackie Grelck and I'm in my last term of the MLD higher ed track. Currently, I am a manager at a movie theatre in St. Charles, but I want to go into academic advising. I graduated from Elgin Community College in 2012 and North Central in 2014 with a degree in psychology and sociology. I have two miniature pinschers named Lacey and Rigby, and a hamster named Mordecai. I enjoy playing board games, punk music, and watching horror movies. My favorite games include Dead of Winter, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, and Settlers of Catan. I show movies for my staff once or twice a week after close, which they seem to enjoy. This week, I’ll be showing Ghost in the Shell. At work, I’m in charge of the birthday party operation and end of the month paperwork, but I also do a lot of the staff scheduling, staff reviews, and hiring.