Help the Homeless in this Bitter Weather

If you've taken one step outside in the past two days I'm sure your aware too that America is experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures, none of which we have seen the likes of for two decades. Here in Chicago, it was -11 degrees yesterday with a wind chill of -42. That's crazy! So crazy that I have seen multiple you tube videos of people throwing boiling water into the air and it comes down as snow! 

I'm sitting here on my day off, not too affected by the bitter cold because I'm bundled up in many many layers, multiple pairs of socks and I have the heat blasting in my house. But I can't help to think that others aren't so lucky. 

There are currently 21,000 homeless people in the city of Chicago alone. I doubt they have many many layers and heaters blasting at all times. In this freezing cold any exposed skin will turn to frost bite in on average 7.5 minutes. After doing a little research, however, I was comforted to see that the city is aware of these dangers as well and have taken measures to help. Homeless shelters that would normally be at maximum capacity are not turning anyone away and the city buses are allowing these homeless people ride continuously (when they would normally be kicked off), even overnight if they have to. 

I was very impressed with our cities compassion and will to look out for these people in need, but then I wondered, why can't we do this all the time and not only when these people's lives are in danger? This may help them stay warm for a few nights, but in the long run their situation is not going to get any better. We need to make these kinds of commitments to their well-being all the time and search for the long-term solution as well because no one should ever have to live like that. 

Justice for Beauty

This week in one of America's most popular fashion magazines, Elle, they published four different covers featuring some of America's funniest actors. These four actors are Amy Poehler, Zooey Deschanel, Allison Williams and Mindy Kaling. You may recognize them from their features on many popular sitcoms that I enjoy as well like New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Parks and Recreation. One difference that stands out to me immediately is that they are all body shots in color except for Mindy's picture which is neck-up and black and white. Mindy also happens to be the only ethnically diverse woman here because she is American Indian and she also is not model thin like the rest of the women. 

Commenters on the Elle website like Chinyere Echewe were outraged at Mindy's shot, saying, "Hey, Elle, I know you're only a fashion magazine, but perhaps you should have done Mindy the same justice you did the other ladies." She is so outraged she even questions the legality of this shot by calling justice into question and by saying Mindy deserves the "same justice," as the other girls by letting her true ethnicity shine through. I'm with Chinyere here because it seems like the editors of Elle went to great lengths with the black and white affect to make Mindy's different color skin blend in with the background, almost as if they are ashamed to present it to the public. 

Another commenter, Aisha Mapp, said, "Way to cover up the only normal sized person." The magazine cropped the photo very differently as well as if to hide Mindy's torso from the public because it doesn't fit in with their stick thin standards. One definition of "normal" is mentally and physically healthy and by Aisha calling Mindy "normal" she the calls in to question the other models in Elle   as being abnormal. Whether Aisha meant to or not, this is also making a stab at the fact that many of the average models in Elle are probably underweight and therefore not physically and mentally healthy. 

But in all honesty, the magazines are not responsible for this. The magazines print what the average American will buy and they feature in their magazines the type of woman who they think American's will take the most liking to and want to buy their clothes. This means that the standard of American beauty is specifically a white, stick thin photo shopped woman and we cannot blame the magazines for this because that is a problem deeper en-grained in our American society than we would like to admit.  

Dr Pepper 10: 10 Manly Calories

The newest Dr. Pepper drink on the market is very controversial because all the advertisements for the drink are directed only towards me, and the "manliest" men specifically. After market research showed that men tend to regard diet sodas as not manly, advertisers went above and beyond in their campaign to make it know that this new Dr. Pepper drink has "10 manly calories." 

I became aware of this because in one sitting of TV I viewed the commercial included above for the soft drink twice and became increasingly offended each time. In this commercial you see a scruffy looking man enjoying the outdoors and doing many adventurous activities like biting off a piece of wood, carrying a huge log, climbing cliffs and crossing a roaring stream. Is it portraying the message that these are the only things that make a "manly" man and these are the kinds of men who deserve to drink Dr. Pepper 10. It is obvious that the advertisers are trying to appeal to the men consumers who they were missing before with diet sodas but I believe they are just offending both genders in the process. 

Everything about the drink screams that is it not for women. As it is well stated in an article in The Week, "The can is gunmetal gray, and an extensive campaign for the beverage boldly declares that "it's not for women." Above even the advertisements, the can itself is not the usual metallic silver, it is a "gunmetal grey" which seems to fit their "manly" theme because I'm sure these advertisers wouldn't dare think of a woman holding a gun, would they?

But these advertisements will even offend the male sex because what if a man is more into theater or music or watching the football game on his couch than going outside and hiking in the woods. To me that is perfectly fine and they shouldn't be discriminated for their interests, however according to this campaign they aren't "manly" enough, and are not worthy of drinking Dr Pepper 10. 

The commercial ends with a a screen showing the soda can and these huge bold words, "The MANLIEST low-calorie soda in the history of MANKIND."  "Manly," according to dictionary.com is "having qualities traditionally ascribed to men like strength or bravery." To me I would think that this drink would offend men by questioning their strength and bravery and also would offend woman for being excluded. However, we cannot blame the Dr. Pepper advertisers for this because they do not care about who is offended in the end, they care about the profit. They are banking on the fact that because women in today's society are more concerned about diet or "healthier" sodas, this drink will draw more male consumers and that more people will want to buy the soda than will be offended. The only way we could change the way advertisers campaign would be to as a society break these gender roles that the men are the only strong and brave ones and if we could do that the advertisers would not campaign in this manor, because the advertisers play to what we as an American society want.