Blog Post No. 3

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece titled, "A Combat Zone, With Desks," high school math teacher and Afghanistan veteran Ashley Nicolas makes a compelling plea for gun control. Before establishing her main argument, however, Nicolas dives into her military past, recalling her extensive and intense military training, and commenting on how ironically similar most school drills are to those that she experienced in Afghanistan. As she explains the drills she and her students perform at the school, she notes that despite the similarities in the drills, the school's methods of defense would not be enough to deter an active shooter. Nicolas illustrates the tactics she brings to the drills, and she provides a rich description of her attempts to make the classroom as bulletproof as possible. Nicolas then interrupts her own thoughts with the heart of her argument: that it is astounding at how commonplace this kind of classroom defense has become. She states, "I was preparing my classroom for combat. But our school was built to cultivate learning, not withstand an attack; our teachers were trained to instruct, not shield students from bullets." Nicolas is not the only person to make a compelling argument for gun control, and nor is she the first teacher to do it. But, what makes her argument so effective is her experience both in the military and in academia. By giving her readers a brief description of her military credentials and experiences, she makes her argument for sensible gun control all the more trustworthy and credible. If anyone knew the proper defense tactics against gun fire, it would almost certainly be a former soldier. Furthermore, Nicolas' years of teaching in a high school give her the kind of perspective that she, and so many other gun control advocates, know is not matched by many pro-gun politicians. An increasingly popular suggestion, made predominantly by Republicans, that teachers and schools themselves should be armed is a proposal that Nicolas wholeheartedly disagrees with. Nicolas goes so far as to directly condemn recent comments made by Senator Mike Rounds, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Senator Marco Rubio, and, of course, President Donald Trump. But again, Nicolas' experience as an educator, as a teacher, and as someone who has to directly face the consequences of any kind of gun regulation or deregulation, gives her argument the perfect and unique amount of credibility, making for a fresh, poignant, and honest opinion piece.

Blog Post No.2

Uma Thurman is angry. She has reasons to be.

Maureen Dowd, a New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, gives actress Uma Thurman a platform in this recent piece. Thurman open up about her experiences with sexual assault and misconduct in the workplace. Incidentally, the workplace is Hollywood, and like most other businesses, it is male-dominated, cutthroat, and can be a young, beautiful, up-and-coming starlet's worst nightmare. Uma Thurman, alongside many young women in show business at the time became the victim(s) of film producer Harvey "The Robe" Weinstein. And, although Thurman speaks in depth about her sickening experiences with Weinstein, the majority of the article focuses on Thurman's relationship with her long-time collaborator, Quentin Tarantino. Thurman recalls a moment on set during the filming of "Kill Bill Vol. I", in which Tarantino pressured her into performing a stunt that she wasn't comfortable doing; Tarantino instructed her to drive a malfunctioning car, on a sand road, at forty miles per hour so as to achieve the perfect shot of her hair. Of course, Thurman crashed the car during the stunt and suffered permanent damage to her knees and neck. This, unfortunately, was Thurman's only abusive encounter with Tarantino. As Dowd writes, "Thurman says that in 'Kill Bill,' Tarantino had done the honors with some of the sadistic flourishes himself, spitting in her face in the scene where Michael Madsen is seen on screen doing it and choking her with a chain in the scene where a teenager named Gogo is on screen doing it."

The #MeToo movement is in its prime and this article could not have been more appropriate. As more and more women in Hollywood come out and talk about their experiences of abuse, mistreatment, and injustice, the more people will recognize how widespread this problem, at least in Hollywood, really is. This also brings to light a twisted pattern in some films with female leads or with female driven narratives. Abuse is not empowering. And yet, so many men in Hollywood create stories where women become empowered and realize their potential through their abuse. In Kill Bill, Uma Thurman's character is beaten, raped, nearly killed, and that experience inspires her to blossom and grow. As Thurman herself states, “Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you ‘in love’ with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.”