Fashion Police – The Grammys

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Award show season is known to be a cutthroat race to the top of the best-dressed list amongst celebrities.

Sometimes a risk will pay off, other times you’re the laughing-stock of television and magazines for weeks to come.

At the Grammy Awards this year, there were many fashion standouts, along with plenty of fashion disasters. At the top of the best-dressed list, Taylor Swift is sitting pretty.

An Ellie Saab gown with a blue ombre effect – the gown had an open front and shoulder cutouts, inspired by the designer’s spring runway.

Swift paired the gown with bright aqua Lorainne Shwartz earrings, blue-toned eye shadow, and a pop of purple with Giuseppe Zanotti heels to pull the whole look together.

On the other hand, there is Rihanna. Normally, a red-carpet fashion lover can count of RiRi for a sleek and sexy look.

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Photo Credit to: http://www.loopjamaica.com

This year Rihanna was the exact opposite of that – she was wearing a bright pink diamond and tulle layered dress. The star looked more like a princess cake topper, or maybe even a bright pink loofah you’d find in a 14-year-old’s shower, than a fashion icon.

Next to Taylor on the best-dressed list are Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani.

Queen B was rocking an elegant sheer black gown with a plunging neckline created by local New York designer, Proenza Schoule.

Gwen Stefani took a different route and went with a jumpsuit.

Atelier Versace made an asymmetrical detailed bustier with voluminous pants tapered at the ankle that created a graceful while fun and sassy look.

To cap off the worst dressed list are Madonna and Charli XCX. Madonna was wearing a terrible hodge-podge of lace and leather. Shoulder pads are not back Madge. The star wore a Givenchy Bustier and leather thigh-high boots with a strange ensemble of accessories.

Up and coming star Charli XCX was wearing a white Moschino metallic pantsuit that had a cheap looking sheen. Her pink bow tie, ruffled maître d’ like shirt, and baby pink fur coat topped of her risky fashion faux pas.

“Like”

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Where on earth did this term come from? I’m not talking about Facebook likes or Instagram likes.

I’m talking about how one will be talking to a new person, a potential new friend, and everything is going great until they say it. Or rather, they say it half a dozen times in one sentence. And all of a sudden you feel like stabbing someone, but not the person because you want to be friends with them.

Img cred; sodahead.com

I’m pretty darn guilty of this myself, but I’m definitely noticing it and am trying to fix this habit. But when I try, I find it difficult to find words to replace “like.” Sometimes I feel like if I use any other word or phrase other than “like,” I’ll sound too formal and/or weird.

I wonder if any “likers” don’t notice this habit of theirs. I also wonder how many are aware and just don’t care. And I also wonder how many other people feel the irresistible urge to lash out in fury after the sixth “like.”

Cop Control

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In this day and age, police have an astronomical amount of authority. They can ticket, arrest, and charge people whenever they deem fit.

But at what point is the state giving police too much power?

A number of times within the past year, news reports of police brutality have been popping up. For what you may ask? Police abusing their power and unnecessarily harming, who usually seem to be, African-American or Hispanic males.

This raises another issue: racial segregation.

Are police prone to act forcefully against different races? Although there are a good amount of African-American and Hispanic officers in the Force, there ARE more white than any other race.

Do these officers act so strongly because there is a pre-requisite for violence in these races? But what about Caucasians? Why is there no pre-requisite for them?

One of the most popular events that occurred was the shooting of Michael Brown.

Michael Brown was only 18 years old when he was shot by a Police Officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He, un-armed, approached a white officer’s police car and got into a short struggle that ended with Mr. Brown fleeing, surrendering, turning around face-forward at the officer, just to have the officer shoot him twelve times.

This caused an uprising all throughout Ferguson. Many rallies and riots were held even months after his death. Probably due to the fact that the white officer was not charged with anything.

Photo Credits: http://www.bet.com

More recently, two white officers in Philadelphia were charged with unnecessarily beating of a hispanic man, Najee Rivera.

Rivera required many stitches and staples in the emergency room after these two police just about beat the living daylights out of this man.

When does this stop?

Are the American people misunderstanding the intentions of these officers?

Are they just protecting their own?

Or are they choosing to abuse their power because they think they are above the law?

50 Shades of Hype

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If you have access to the internet, friends that live in countries that have books, or generally do not live under a rock, you have probably heard of 50 Shades of Grey. Notorious for its promiscuous content, this novel has taken the world by storm and is soon to be a major motion picture – on Valentine’s Day, no less.

An avid reader and an admittedly avid consumer, I decided to purchase this work when in an airport preparing for a five-hour flight. It was definitely fun to snap a picture of the familiar cover of the book and upload it to my Snapchat story, immediately to receive texts from my friends asking me “WHY?!”.

To be honest, I wanted to read it to see if it really was what everyone said it was: fan fiction you could read out of a book. In other words, a bunch of pornographic material slapped in between a meekly written romance. It ended up being exactly that. The book follows a quiet and innocent but opinionated girl named Anastasia fresh out of college. She meets Christian Grey, a rich, handsome CEO of a huge company. One thing leads to another, and they begin a very interesting relationship that I cannot elaborate on, as this is a school blog.

The book itself is not very well written – if it was not as widely discovered as it was, it probably would not have been successful at all. The writer, E.L. James, probably owes her success to the internet and honestly, the immaturity of teenagers. The over-hyping of this “sex book,” spread by young adults, is probably how it got so popular – the simple novelty of it, reading it, owning it.

Now that I own it and have read it, I can confidently say that 50 Shades of Grey does not live up to the hype, it simply is hype.

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

 

Social Prejudice

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Although terms such as racism and sexism are given negative connotations, any form of generalization, whether good or bad, falls under these categories.

Racism stems from discrimination against those who are not caucasian, especially in the form of slavery. Nowadays, just because all races are given equal rights, it is a common misconception that racism is no longer relevant. As long as there are different races, any division between them is racism. Grouping a race together and making a general statement about a huge number of individuals is absolutely racist, whether the statement is criticism or praise.

Photo Credit: images.sodahead.com

Sexism follows the same patterns. Former discrimination of women was obviously sexist, but modern-day feminism borders on sexism as well. Although it represents the flip side – the hype is about women’s rights – it still caters to one race much more than the other. Even if men or women as a whole are commended or put before another, it is segregating them from the opposite sex, a form of sexism. Any stereotyping of a gender, no matter the intention, is grouping and labeling an entire sex – a countless number of people – and is therefore perpetuating sexist behavior.

Both racism and sexism continue to be relevant in everyday life. A huge compliment may be given to an entire race or a single gender, but that is still a form of discrimination. These prejudices should not be a standard occurrence, and recognition of their existence is key.

What would you do…

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… if your passion was so far away?

If the one thing you loved to do more than anything else was inaccessible?

I don’t really know either.

Since I was a toddler, I have been skiing. As soon as the season starts until the day the season ends, I have always taken every opportunity I get to drive up to the mountains. I feel at home on the mountain; I know there is no other place I would rather be.

This year, I have only had a week of ski time in Mammoth.

I guess living in Southern California is not the best place for an avid skier to live.

Photo Credits: statim.guo.uk.com

This brings me to my main point: where would an avid skier live? Aspen? Switzerland? Canada?

In about a year and a half I will be deciding which college to attend for the next four years of my life, which makes me question if I should move out of California and move somewhere I can ski on a regular basis.

But do I really want to move states or countries away from family and friends?

The decisions begin.

Writer’s Block

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As a first-year journalism student, I have the tedious task of producing two blogs a week. They aren’t hard pieces of writing – they have a 150 word minimum and can be about absolutely anything. However, every time I sit down to write one, I find myself with intense writer’s block.

Photo Credit: poetjohndavisjr.files.wordpress.com

It’s not that my life is so boring that there’s nothing to write about, honestly. It’s just that I can never translate it into writing! I never know if I should talk about what’s happening in my day-to-day life or if I should speak more about worldly current events.

The most difficult part of writing blogs is the mandatory aspect. If I sat down whenever I had inspiration and simply wrote, my blogs would be great! However, I’m forcing myself to scrounge up “interesting” material and scrape out 150 words, which just takes the magic out of writing.

I’m not saying that everything I write is dull and completely forced, I’m only introducing the idea that if I were to write of my own accord, my writing would be full of life.

Respect our Speakers

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When a certain well-educated, poised, and cultured Emmy award-winning investigative journalist said that Putin censors the media in Russia, he was probably not expecting a Russian freshman to get up and forcefully contradict him. I guess OVS is full of surprises.

When we invite a speaker to our school, it is expected that we will be polite and kind. However, when Terry McCarthy visited, a few students were upset by what he said and did not hesitate to speak their minds. McCarthy stated that Putin regulates the media in Russia, and then defended this statement by pointing out that stories told one way in the US are told a different way in Russia, and you can see this by watching their news. A Russian kid sitting behind me immediately became upset and started saying things, quite loudly, to his friends. Eventually he grew so angry that he raised his hand and asked our guest how “he could say this” about Russia.

I understood that he was upset, but I thought what he said to our speaker was incredibly rude. Not only was I embarrassed for McCarthy, who was shocked, but I was also embarrassed for our school. In the future, we should be more respectful towards our visitors and appreciate the time they take to share their stories with us, instead of trying to argue with them.


Photo credit: Telegraph.co.uk

The ISIS Crisis

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We have all heard the horror stories of terrorism – beheadings, genocide, suicide bombings and kidnappings. They happen every single day in many different countries. But when is it time for international forces to step in?

Within the past year, an especially violent extremist group called ISIS has been popping up in my news feed quite a bit, usually with a title including the word ‘beheading’.

Journalists, school-children, women and tourists are the central targets for ISIS kidnappings. These are the most profitable groups of people as women and young girls can be sold to wealthy men, and the journalists and tourists will have families back home willing to give everything for their return.

Often, journalists who are kidnapped at their hands will never return, but the gruesome videos of their death will.

ISIS’s signature horror is far beyond anything any extremist group has bothered to do before: publishing the videos of beheadings and slitting of throats on the internet for everyone to see.

Photo Credits: topinfopost.com

The scary thing about ISIS is the unpredictability of their beheadings. There is no negotiating with ISIS – if they decide to kill a captive, they will.

But why has nobody killed their leader already?

Because extremist groups this large are like a Hydra (to reference Greek Mythology). You can eliminate one leader, but when you do, another will just take their place.

Currently there is no way international powers or the UN can end this reign of terror.

Still want to go hike those Algerian Mountains?

 

Am I Right?

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Photo Credit to www.clipartlord.com

We live in a world where we have to be politically correct at all times to avoid offending others. One aspect of being politically correct is avoiding racist terms. Racism occurs when one race is referred to as being superior or having special characteristics that only they have. Calling an African-American person “black” isn’t considered proper by many people – most would say it’s racist. But is it worse than associating a group of people based on a region even if it has no connection to the person?  Personally, I would much rather be called white than European-American. I was not born in Europe, neither were my parents or my parents’ parents. I’m sure there are African-Americans that feel the same way. Many so-called African-Americans have no association with Africa; is it logical, therefore, to classify people that way? I strongly believe in equality, that all are born equal, but I don’t believe that it is okay for us to say that something is racist when we are simply referring to skin tone. I think categorizing people by region is more racist than calling a “black” person “black,” because you are saying that people with that skin tone are all from one region. This is classifying people as a whole and is still racist.