Public Discourse Blog (JackieG)

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...