amst201final-posts-blog

[amst201final-posts-blog]

Welcome!

This project is for Dr. Fouche’s American Studies class at Purdue University. My objective was to finish the sentence ‘America is...’ to which I chose ‘divided.’ Under each set of photos lies a caption to explain how the two things connect and contrast to divide America in some way. References can be found in the menu, or at amst201final-posts.tumblr.com/references. 

Enjoy!

[amst201final-posts-blog]

DESIGN

In American society today, there are three major areas in which the population lives. The suburbs, the city, and the country. Rather, urban and rural spaces. The country is divided here with these two options, with an overlap of suburbia for those who want the best of both worlds. America is divided in thinking one of these scenarios, skyscraper or open sky, is better than the other. Both are beneficial, with opportunities the other does not have. For example, New York City has over 8 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013. In the next year, Indiana had 6 million people…in the whole state! The design of our country on a macroscopic level, by which the population resides and lives their lives as, makes a huge impact on our socioeconomic status, our family, our opportunity, and our upbringing.

photos: 

http://usa-info.com.ua/samye-vysokie-neboskreby-ssha/symbol/skyscrapers

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/real-estate-agents-zmaz74zhol

[amst201final-posts-blog]

JUSTICE

Last year, Cory Batey, a 19 year-old football player at Vanderbilt University, raped an unconscious woman. With ample evidence and after being found guilty, was given a mandatory minimum of 15 to 25 years in prison. In the same year, a 19 year- old swimmer at Stanford University raped an unconscious woman. With similar, ample evidence including eyewitnesses, Turner was given a sentence of six months, with an option, on good behavior, of only serving half that time. America is divided on this issue, whether we want to admit it or not. The only outstanding difference, if you didn’t already guess, is the race of the men. As an author of Daily News put it, “Cory Batey's minimum (possible) prison sentence, though, is actually 3,000% longer than what Brock Turner was given for a comparable crime,” (King, 2016). While almost everyone with some sort of access to the media can tell you who Brock Turner is, there was almost no coverage for the Batey case. This is a prominent racial division in not only prison sentencing, but prison capacities as well, and how the justice system does not treat all equally.

photos: 

http://interactives.wkrn.com/photomojo/gallery/17144/310232/vanderbilt-rape-case/cory-batey/

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-months-requests-mugshots-stanford-rapist-brock-turner-finally-emerge-n586936

[amst201final-posts-blog]

MEDIA

The Facebook share button is one of the most prominent icons of the last ten years. The go-to for homemakers to share an interesting recipe or a frustrated teen to share a political video...that may or may not be credible. The ‘breaking news’ tune sings through the television; every station has their own way of catching the audience’s attention. America is not only (obviously)  politically divided, but socially, concerning the mass media and the incorporation of media into life in the nation itself. Without sharing information through media, on whichever chosen platform, there is little to be said about the impact of the original media of news: newspapers and word-of-mouth. Of course, current media aids in both those forms, things such as the Facebook share button and news stations’ breaking news stories makes them more prominent for America to divide into sectors of everyone you can imagine that may be on our internet and in any audience, (Vltchek, 2017).

photos: 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34224445/can-i-change-the-style-of-facebook-and-twitter-share-buttons

http://thepoliticalinsider.com/breaking-news-sheriff-deputy-shot-state-active-shooter-alert/

[amst201final-posts-blog]

TECHNOLOGY 

While very technologically advanced, America is challenged with staying the most advanced among first world nations to assert dominance in the military, the field of medicine, and social aspects such as phones, tablets, and the like. Technology can be, in some sense, miraculous. In 2016, the EPFL created a spinal cord implant to allow para and quadriplegics to walk again, gaining full motor function, (Pousaz, n.d.). On the other, horrific hand, nuclear bombs first created by Hungarian scientist Leo Szliard in 1939 have evolved to the worst of the worst, in terms of modern warfare, (Development of Nuclear Weapons, 2017).Technology is extremely divided in the simple sense that people of America do not understand, at times, the lengths at which technology can bring us as a society. Is technology good or bad? Are medical advancements always good? Are technological war methods always bad? Are simple technological advancements such as the iPhone positive, negative, or both in certain circles? 

photos:

http://www.inquisitr.com/1741637/e-dura-spinal-implant-could-be-the-cure-for-paralysis/

http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/the-nuclear-age/

[amst201final-posts-blog]

BEAUTY

What is a normal, in terms of American beauty? In recent years, the idea of plus size modeling as well as the conventional idea of beauty, has changed in America. In the last twenty years, it has gone from ‘heroin chic/grunge skinny,’ to Anorexia Nervosa being a status symbol, to the movement of health and comfort in our own bodies, that is still evolving. Here is a photo that went viral after U.K./International model Iskra Lawrence did a body-positivity photo shoot covered in ‘crisps,’ (potato chips, in America). Bella Hadid is notorious for her long, thin legs, and being a polar opposite of her girl-next-door beautiful sister Gigi. As one of the most influential Victoria’s Secret Angels, it is no secret that she is tiny in comparison to many everyday women. This dichotomy between models and plus-sized models is apparent and changing in American society, however America is still divided on beauty being in terms of someone’s body measurements, (Helmer, 2017).

photos taken from each models Instagram pages: handles on photos.