Rhetoric of Lindsay Lohan

http://which-hairstyle-is-better.bellasugar.com/Lindsay-Lohan-Red-vs-Blonde-vs-Brunette-95321 

http://www.eonline.com/news/lindsay_lohan_tested_negative_alcohol/186437

The first picture was of Lindsay Lohan right after the premiere of Mean Girls, when the world fell in love with her. The second one is of her present day. So what happened? Why does everyone dislike her now?

I honestly do not believe that she is disliked for her lesbian affairs, alcohol problems, or cocaine addiction. I think is is entirely the media's fault for her "bad image." I think every person has tough phases in their lives but Lohan's were over-dramatized and the stories were not well balanced. Instead of giving her a sympathetic image, to show that she was battling some demons in her head and her life, the media used her screw-ups as gas to set her reputation on fire.

But it is not entirely the fault of the media. At first, Lohan was a "good, innocent red-haired girl" but then she changed her image. She became a typical rebellious blonde. Can hair color change a persons reputation? I think yes. No offense to anyone, but I think it is a lot harder to respect a blonde girl than a brunette haired girl. Society and movies instill these commonplaces in us but Lohan knew what she was doing when she went blonde.

Overall, Lohan's declining reputation was the effect the media and of her own image change.

Not Going Green

A while back I read an interesting article in the Collegian that claimed that society falls for buying overpriced "organic" clothing and food because it makes them feel better about themselves because they get an illusion that they are saving the world. In reality, most of these organic products are not much different than regular products in their chemical makeup and all of them are still produced in the same factories that cause pollution. What the article suggested is that instead of paying for a NEW pair of organic jeans...why not just wear an OLD pair of jeans and NOT make a new purchase? This is the only sure way of helping the environment.

Many products like Levi's organic jeans

http://www.gingerbreadrunning.com/2009/05/runners-wear-jeans-too-levis-501.html

have come up with organic clothes. The green label that reads "100% organic cotton" manipultes people to think that these jeans are made with better material and are safer for the enviroment. Since there has been a big "green" push recently, many people believe that it is the right thing to do to purchase these products. In reality, this is a trick companies use to make a profit. These jeans are probably more expensive than regular Levi's jeans and the only thing that the consumer is paying more for is the tag that says "100% cotton" because the materials used are generally the same.

Fact: there are no regulations/standards that companies must follow to ensure that their products are "organic." Essentially, most companies can lie and get away with it.

Going back to the article, instead of purchasing MORE organic clothing, why not just re-use old clothing? If someone really wants to change the world and the environment then they cannot fall into these marketing tricks. The best way to be green is to reuse and recycle what one already owns.

Rhetoric of Spring Break

Spring Break in New Orleans:


http://blog.carnivalneworleans.com/?p=2742

 Spring Break in Panama City:

These are not uncommon pictures to see of college student's Spring Breaks. In fact, these images and sterotypes are a commonplace. It is generally accepted that during Spring Break, college students take trip to warm and beachy parts of the world like Florida or Latin America and party for a whole week as a way to celebrate the near-end of the second semester and to welcome the warm weather.

However, although this sterotype is very common, how many college students actually do this? I know that I went home this break, most of my friends did as well and we all did not break out our bikinis and margarita glasses at the beach while we were there. It seems that very few students actually do celebrate Spring Break as the pictures above portray.

My theory is that travel companies and even certain states and countries want to make it appear that this is what everyone does and you should too. How many times have we seen  pictrues or commericals advertising a group of people enjoying themselves at the beach? Spring Break is a very big money-making time for companies and they want to advertise as much as they can and therefore we subconciously think that this is what everyone does during the week off of school.

Truth is most of us cannot afford these type of trips and many of us rather visit our families and friends back in our hometown rather than go to Mexico or Miami. So the lesson that can be pulled from the hyped of image of Spring Break is that not all stereotypes are true and that many commonplace ideas can be fabricated by the media and by companies.

Penn State Memes

Memes have been a hot topic of conversation recently. They are dramatizations of the truth for a comical effect. They are persuasive in a way that they use famous characters or quotes and twist them in a way to relate to a certain topic, like student life at Penn State.

For example,

This meme uses an image from the movie Mean Girls where the gym teacher says, "Do not have sex or you will get pregnant and die." The creator of this meme put his own spin on it and came up with a similar quote for the situations that could arise on State Patty's Day. The comparison to the movie makes it more persuasive because most young adults can recall the famous movie and then relate it to PSU, while laughing out loud.



This meme uses the famous quote from Dos Equis commericals: "I don't always drink beer, but when I do I drink Dos Equis" but instead alters it to make fun of how students fall on the tiles near the Forum building. In a way, this meme can make students feel better about their accidents because they can laugh about it and realize that others have tripped in the same area as well. Once again, the famous Dos Equis man and the comical effect of the quote causes the rhetoric of the meme to be successful.

My question is are these memes good for a schools reputation? They are meant to poke fun at unique characteristics of social and university life and maybe meant to laugh at the faults of the school and students. However, it can be possible that memes can have the power for outsiders to judge the school on its bad traits. Memes are usually made about the negative aspects of a school, not positive and in my opinion can cause future problems.