Friday, March 28, 2014

Narrowing Down Junior Theme

As I have narrowed down my "why" questions for Junior theme this past week, I have been going back and forth between mainly two topics. I found myself contemplating the pros and cons of doing sexual assault in America and why so much of the sexual abuse in America goes unreported, versus why factory farms are on the rise. Sexual assault seemed like a topic that could pertain very well to me because I am going to be going to college in a year and it is a very prominent issue on college campuses.

I began to look into sexual assault statistics in America in recent years and was shocked to find out that only 60% of the victims ever report their stories to the police, and even more appalling was that only 97% of the perpetrators ever are convicted. This enlightened me to the fact that this problem is so large in America and also raised the ginormous question, why was this the case that so many people could commit this horrible crime with no consequence?

However, the factory farming and the whole food industry in America interests me a lot as well because it has been in the news lately with animal rights activists taking secret footage of the horrors that occur in factory farms. In the very popular magazine, Rolling Stone, there was an article that appeared, titled , "In the Belly of the Beast." This title itself is dripping with loaded language, by comparing the food industry and factory farming to a savage, wild animal. There are many text bubbles that are enlarged quotes throughout the article, highlighted in blood red, like one from an animal rights activist, which exclaims, "Wherever you stand on eating animals, I think we agree that making their lives hell is too high a price to pay for cheap food." There are very strong activists out there who believe in this issue as one of the most prominent issues in American society today and you can see they feel very strongly towards it by their use of swear words which would normally never be allowed in a formal article. However in this case they are used to convey the very strong sentiments towards the issue.

Since so many people believe so strongly in the issue of factory farming in America today and I have found many resources available easily in the library I have chosen to pursue this topic. However, I still believe sexual assault is a prominent issue in our country today but it is not the best suitable Junior Theme topic for me.

No comments:

Post a Comment