My "ideal" citizen, Morgan Klein, from the first few weeks of the quarter was a blond student at Ohio State who was involved in many different things such as a sorority. Her interests included sorority life, nursing, music, intramural sports, and movies. She associated herself with the Democratic Party and was a Christian. Her music selection included the more popular music of today's society such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, and Rihanna. Her television shows were the popular dramas and reality shows. Her favorite movies consisted of mainly chick flicks with the occasional comedy. Morgan's favorite books were Twilight, Gossip Girl, and Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants due to these books' popularity for today's teens. Morgan enjoyed shopping, hanging out with her friends, partying, listening to music, sorority life, and going to movies.
My newly imagined "ideal" citizen would have several different changes made. For example, her music selection would consist of more "indy" bands because to be "ideal" does not mean to be statistically normal. I think a person's musical selection tells a lot about a person, and for Morgan to stick with her favorite music as of the first week of the quarter, would explain that she listens to what "everyone else" listens to. Another thing I would change about Morgan Klein is her favorite movies. Although a lot of people are fans of chick flicks, there are a lot of different and inspirational movies out there that don't just tell love stories. For example, some of her favorite movies could consist of Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Laramie Project, Crash, or Thank You For Smoking. For the most part, this new list of movies are "based on a true story" and all have unique plot lines which address different issues seen around the world. To me, this new list of movies is much "deeper" than the flakey list of chick flicks and comedies.
Like Michael Warner explained in his essay regarding normalcy, everyone's desire to be an individual is corrupted by their yearning to be labeled as normal. Individuality is not something that we work for, it is a quality that just comes to us. For my "ideal" citizen to be individualistic, her interests and favorite media would have to be unique. People are only labeled as normal when they follow statistical analysis. Also, as Warner explained, "normal" would be defined as having bad breath, outstanding debt, and health problems. Nobody I know of has the desire to have these problems in their own lives. So, in conclusion, to be "normal" is not something that people should strive to be because "normalcy" is defined by statistics.
I think it was interesting that you chose to change some of her favorite music and movies to show that she is "deeper". I think society sees youth as naive and maybe not that intelligent so to change her favorite movies and music can show that she goes against the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteHey Kenzi,
ReplyDeleteI really like the changes you made to your ideal citizen. It makes the person seem less stereotypical, which is a good thing. The change you made to the favorite movie selection were my favorite. I think a healthy selection of movies, with different types of messages in each, is a great thing to have. Being a movie lover myself, I enjoy that your ideal citizen has a range of favorite movies.
Kenzi-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the new changes to your ideal citizen. It seems as though Morgan Klein has branched out from the norms of society which is always a great thing to hear. I really liked the diversity of the movie selection. That shows much diversity and it also shows depth in a person. I especially liked the fact that you linked in Michael Warner's view of normalcy. Great job linking to class discussion :)