Final Paper Proposal

I will be looking at how the media represents pregnant teens. I will take a look at the TV series on ABC family, the secret life of the American teenager, and the TV series on MTV,16 and pregnant. I want to take a look at how teen moms are represented on TV. I feel that the representations on 16 and pregnant and teen mom are correct but the representation on the secret life are not. I want to look at a situation where all teen moms could have their baby, stay in school, and still live a normal teen life, much like in secret life. but as we see in 16 and pregnant, this isn't always possible.
The audience for the paper is young people who watch and enjoy these shows. People that may be interested in my information are people who watch these shows, or possibly young pregnant girls wondering what their life will realistically be like with a baby. I want my readers to understand which representation is correct. to do this is will need to gather real life statistics about teen pregnancies and compare them to the shows.
I will have to draw from many sources on the Internet about the shows as well as from the things we have read in class.
I will need to have all of my research collected by the middle of week 10 in order to compile and create my essay by the thursday of exam week.
I hope to discover some new information of the shows i enjoys to give me some more insight into the real life context they contain.

Thomson and Disabilities

I wanted to discuss farther what we talked about in class last Thursday. In my small group we discussed how when we see people with disabilities we don't want to be rude and stare, but we also have a curiosity towards them. Then we started talking about shows we see on television that involve people with disabilities and the different ways they are portrayed.There are shows on discovery health that I would consider spectral shows. These are usually one hour specials that talk about and show people with very rare and unusual disabilities. Some examples of these shows are "The Half Ton Teen" and "Mermaid Girl" and "The Tree Man". These shows give a short glimpse into the life of someone with disabilities that people can stare at in the privacy of their own homes. They do not feel as guilty looking at these people when they know that no one can see them or judge their thoughts. Then their are also shows on TV like "The Little Couple". This show is about a newly marries couple of little people and their struggles to make it in a big world. This show, even though the people are disabled is not the same because, besides being little, they look the same as everyone else. They do not have a type of dwarfism that causes their bodies and limbs to be disproportionate. They couple also lead very normal lives. The woman is a doctor and the male is a business man.
These shows would not be on TV if people did not enjoy watching them. Thomson is right when he discusses people feeling uncomfortable looking at people with disabilities but with modern technology and television people can now stare without actually staring at the person. They can stare in the comfort of their living room and then go on with their day without anyone every knowing.

Essay 2 proposal

For the second essay in woman and writing we are suppose to select a television show, advertising campaign, or a web page. Then we are suppose to critique how gender and sexuality are represented. For this essay I would like to write about The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I watch this show religiously! I think it is also an excellent TV show to critique because it touches on numerous sexual topics, such as teens having sex, masturbation, homosexuality, marriage, teen pregnancy, and peer pressure to date and have sex. I also think this would be a great topic for my research paper. Even though it is still a relatively new show, only on its second season there is a lot of information about it and many people with different opinions and view points on many different aspects of the show.