This article is about a woman named Justine Sacco who was publicly shamed last year through Twitter. She tweeted a joke making fun of AIDS and it blew up on twitter with people shaming her for the joke with the hashtag #HasJustineLanded. The tweet was, "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Which was seen as very offensive by many people in the twitter community. Justine Sacco was a public relations executive but lost her job because of the tweet and hasn't made progress in her career. She is in the news again because it is the first time she is speaking out about in in a new book called So You've Been Publicly Shamed, a book about people who have been famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been affected. I was especially intrested in this because the man who wrote this book is Jon Ronson, who also wrote the book I am reading for my IRB right now. This is also interesting because after people have been "publicly shamed" on twitter, or tumblr, or facebook, you don't generally hear about them and what happened to them and even if you do there's no sympathy for the woman who is making fun of AIDS. There's no forgiveness and I think that's what the book is really going to be about, forgiving these people who yes made mistakes but have learned from them and are trying to rebuild their lives. The book talks a lot about how the internet created this fake persona of Justine Sacco that was a racist, loud, clearly evil woman and that was not the true Justine Sacco. It was interesting to see how this one tweet destroyed a woman's life and if she had just thought about this crass and inappropriate joke a little longer she would still be a successful executive.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
TOW #13 Can The Next Generation Of Morticians Breathe Life Into The Death Industry? by Katie Heaney
Article Here
Can The Next Generation Of Morticians Breathe Life Into The Death Industry? by Katie Heaney is the article I read for my thirteenth TOW. This article is about the lives of morticians students, and studying to become a mortician. It also tackles larger issues that realte not only to morticians, but to everyone, topics like life and death, how the dead should be treated, who should deal with the dead, and other big ideas with the morbid thoughts that come along with interview and stepping in the lives of young students choosing the life of death. The author, Katie Heaney, asks at the beginning, "The young, close-knit, predominantly female students in SUNY Canton’s mortuary school are fascinated with our most difficult, yet unavoidable, subject. But when it comes to changing attitudes about death and grieving, are educational programs like the one they’re in part of the problem?" Throughout the piece, Heaney gives fascinating commentary on the lives of these students and why they picked their area of study, but also questions their lives, questions the things they are doing and if they make sense. For example, she questions their air of superiority because they think they are the only ones that can deal with death when in fact, they aren't special they're just better equipped. One of the students tells the story of after a close friend died, everyone in her hometown came to her for help because she was the death expert but she had no idea how to help them, or help herself in her own grieving process because how to help the living isn't taught in mortiary school. The author challenges the belief that in mortuary school, all they should be taught is how to embalm. She believes they should be able to cremate, bury, other forms of honoring the dead, and bein gthere for the emotional support of loved ones. This was very effective for this piece because the audience were questioning youth and she is one of her audience, the questioning youth that find that there is something wrong with the world and want to change it.
Can The Next Generation Of Morticians Breathe Life Into The Death Industry? by Katie Heaney is the article I read for my thirteenth TOW. This article is about the lives of morticians students, and studying to become a mortician. It also tackles larger issues that realte not only to morticians, but to everyone, topics like life and death, how the dead should be treated, who should deal with the dead, and other big ideas with the morbid thoughts that come along with interview and stepping in the lives of young students choosing the life of death. The author, Katie Heaney, asks at the beginning, "The young, close-knit, predominantly female students in SUNY Canton’s mortuary school are fascinated with our most difficult, yet unavoidable, subject. But when it comes to changing attitudes about death and grieving, are educational programs like the one they’re in part of the problem?" Throughout the piece, Heaney gives fascinating commentary on the lives of these students and why they picked their area of study, but also questions their lives, questions the things they are doing and if they make sense. For example, she questions their air of superiority because they think they are the only ones that can deal with death when in fact, they aren't special they're just better equipped. One of the students tells the story of after a close friend died, everyone in her hometown came to her for help because she was the death expert but she had no idea how to help them, or help herself in her own grieving process because how to help the living isn't taught in mortiary school. The author challenges the belief that in mortuary school, all they should be taught is how to embalm. She believes they should be able to cremate, bury, other forms of honoring the dead, and bein gthere for the emotional support of loved ones. This was very effective for this piece because the audience were questioning youth and she is one of her audience, the questioning youth that find that there is something wrong with the world and want to change it.
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