Chellening the Status Quo Mash Up Final

1.       After a whole year of humanities and looking back on all the things we have learned is pretty astonishing. I think that the English humanities course should be required to take because you are taught a lot of ideas and concepts that will definitely be able to benefit you in the future. One of the big concepts that I will take with me is challenging the status quo. I think that this is a very big thing people should always over come. We cannot let ourselves follow the crowd or the “norm”. If you do it may prevent you from: growing, gaining experiences, learning new ideas through experiences, and it may prevent you from living you life to your fullest. I believe strongly in that new let anyone drag you down or hold you back especially from your dreams. Branch away from the rest of the world and allow yourself to find who you really are.  

2.



Gay Marriage

3. There are many ways that people are able to challenge the status quo; One being in terms of society. We are programmed to fit into what the society thinks is right and how we should act. Not many people in this world are willing to gain courage and follow their hearts. One perfect example of this is gay marriage. Even though today it has gotten a little bit more accepted by society it is still high on the list of “not normal”. I have noticed through media and around me that over time more and more homosexuals are coming out of the closet and not caring what society thinks. This group of people has huge aspirations to sticking in what they believe in, they follow their heart. A lot of them have not given up they continued to have protest and continued to be open with their sexuality. Everyone should be more like them and not give up and stand up for what they believe in no matter how many times they are told no.

4. “I came across your recent statement calling my present activities unwise and untimely…  Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

5. “The joyful cave dweller could now have gone [after exploring what makes the shadows they see] skipping away into the countryside, delighting in his new- found freedom.  But instead he thinks of all the others who are still down in the cave. He goes back. Once there, he tries to convince the cave dwellers that the shadows on the cave wall are but flickering reflections if “real” things. But they don’t believe him. They point to the cave wall and say that what they see is all there is. Finally they kill him” (90).

6.



Rosa Parks

7. “We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community”.

8.  “This humanity of women , carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be astonished by it… someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer ,mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only of life and reality: the female human being“ (77-78).

9.

“VIOLA: “There is a fair behavior in thee, captain,

And though that nature with a beauteous wall

Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee

I will believe thou hast a mind that suits

With this thy fair and outward character.

I prithee—and I’ll pay thee bounteously—

Conceal me what I am, and be my aid

For such disguise as haply shall become

The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.

Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him.

It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing

And speak to him in many sorts of music

That will allow me very worth his service.

What else may hap to time I will commit.

Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.”

10. Not just another outfit, Lady Gaga (open in new tab)

11.The smart pretty and pink, Legally Blonde (open in new tab)

12. “Modern art touches a sore spot, or several sore spots, in the ordinary citizen of which he is totally unaware. The more irritated he becomes at modern art the more he betrays the fact that he himself, and his civilization, are implicated in what the artist shows him.”

13.



Andy warhol



14. One of my personal experiences I have faced in terms of challenging the status quo is my parents and friends tell me I should date my boyfriend, because he was Mexican and “you can do better than that Mikaela”. Not even were the closest people telling me these things I also had somehow created the reputation of dating a bunch of Mexicans when really I have only dated two. To me this was very hurtful because I am not a person who cares about race or ethnicity. I looked within these guys’ hearts and liked them for who they were.  For the longest time me dating a Mexican was not accepted at all form my parents, friends and other students especially living in the North Shore.  This really made me feel horrible inside that people actually were thinking this way and that one of them was even my own mom. One time my friends mom told me that the reason I am dating a Mexican is because I don’t know any better because at the time I was living with my dad and not my mom.  After all this I was very tempted to not be with him because of how it made me look to everyone else. I decided that I didn’t want to let this special person who makes me happier than ever and who treats me better than any guy has before, so I stayed with him. This is one of the better choices I am proud I have made because me and him are still together and happier than ever. I couldn’t imagine how things would be without him. I am happy that I decided to follow my heart and my gut in what I believed was the right thing for me.  I am going to take this idea with me for the rest of my life because nothing feels better than stepping out of the social norm.

Works Cited:

1. Mikaela Allmon

2. Gay Marriage  

3. Mikaela Allmon

4. Luther King jr, Martin. “Letter from a Birmingham jail.” April 16, 1963

5. Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World.  New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994.
6.Rosa Parks

7. Luther King jr, Martin. “Letter from a Birmingham jail.” April 16, 1963

8. Maria Rilke, Rainer. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Random House inc. 1984.

9. Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 1993. Print.   

10. youtube video- Lady Gaga’s style

11.youtube video- Legally Blonde trailer

12. Barrett, William. “The Testimony of Modern Art”. Chapter Three.

13. Andy Warhol

14.Mikaela Allmon