I decided to include a work that was assigned for my Cultural Anthropology course here on this eportfolio. The idea behind the assignment was to find three news articles about some sort of cultural tradition, event, or controversy. We were then supposed to explain how and why it would be important to an anthropologist. I decided to write about sexual abuse and specifically sexual abuse in Hollywood. I find the controversy intriguing given the nature of how things are handled so differently there. What I mean by that is there is a different standard that people live by and that people are held up to in places like Hollywood, D.C., and even New York City.

Specifically sexual predators in Hollywood that are actors and movie directors we see that people treat the news about their acts of abuse differently than if an average Joe or Jane were accused. A lot of the controversy surrounded the Harvey Weinstein allegations so I definitely included that in my writing. When I wrote, I kept things basic. I didn’t use huge words to sound more sophisticated and to add fluff to reach the page limit like it was mentioned many academics do in their writing when we read “Why Academics Stink at Writing” by Steven Pinker. I gave my opinion and I did so quite bluntly.

I revised my essay twice like I do in English 110. For my first draft, I just wrote it straight through to get my thoughts on the page. I left the organization and other structural problems for later. I read through the essay right after I wrote it to fix the glaring mistakes and grammatical errors and all that stuff. And finally, I reread the paper the next day and gave myself time to move things around and figure out how the essay makes the most sense. In a general sense, English 110 has helped me be more organized in my writing process. It’s helped me see the priorities and work based on that.

I think the main thing people need to remember when doing academic writings is that there still needs to be a sense that a human wrote the essay. People don’t want to read something a robot writes. People need to allow themselves to write maturely and formally while at the same time staying human. Another point Pinker brings up is that there is no incentive to write well. If people have that attitude, then they won’t care what they sound like as long as they’re getting words on the page. I say just take pride in your work and write something that you would want to read for yourself.

 

Excerpt:

In the third and final article is titled, “Hollywood Under Pressure to Crack Down on Child Sex Abuse.” That’s a heavy topic if there ever was one. The article says very plainly that there has always been a pedophilia problem in Hollywood. It was not until recently, in the early 2000s, that efforts were being made to protect child actors in Hollywood. Even then, it took nearly a whole other decade to pass some form of legislation.
Something emphasized in the article is that these predators have been in the business for a long time. These aren’t men and women just starting out, still getting used to the pace of the city. These are adults who have been the business their whole life.
When people try to speak out about it and shed light on the issue, there is major push back. This can be clearly seen by the way the production of the documentary “An Open Secret” was handled. Even though it had great ratings and many people went out of their way to watch it, movie theaters refused to display it and it couldn’t get into any festivals.
Again, we see these people being influenced by a select few that run the entire entertainment industry. These people have so much power and are choosing to abuse it on the weak. They don’t care about picking on someone their own size because what these people crave is power and control.