Around the world, many people’s lives are affected because of stereotypes, beauty standards, and even laws that tell them that they aren’t “good enough” in the eyes of the society they live in. Beauty standards have an immense impact on the way people are viewed and judged in their day to day lives, which can barr them from jobs and even hurt their credibility. This can be clearly seen in Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, through one of the main characters, Piggy. Piggy had a lot to say throughout the novel about him and his peer’s survival, yet he was seldomly taken seriously. Due to the societal beauty standards the boys were groomed to believe, Piggy was not taken seriously through his life on the island because of his weight.

In the beginning, Ralph and Piggy are becoming acquainted with one another after discovering the other on the deserted island. They begin to go over simple things like what their names are and what they are to do when and if they find any boys on the island besides themselves. After having not been given the same initial respect he gave by asking Ralph his name, Piggy sets himself up to give his name by saying, "’I don't care what they call me,’ he said confidentially, ‘so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school.’"(11) This interests Ralph so he prompts Piggy to tell him more, which lead to Piggy telling him the name and Ralph immediately making a mockery of it by laughing and jumping around. Ralph calls him Piggy from this point on despite being told not to, and even introduces him to the rest of the boys as “Piggy”. Piggy’s weight makes him a target for the other boys’ nitpicking and bullying throughout the entire novel. None of the other boys look like Piggy which makes him stick out and become easier to bother. This contributes to the boys discrediting the things that he says because they see him as the laughing stock of the group and nothing more. Throughout the novel, Piggy displayed great signs of maturity and intelligence that could’ve been immensely beneficial to the boys survival, yet he was continuously pushed to the side since the boys took away from his credibility because of his appearance.

Later on in the novel, Jack was being chastised by the other boys for allowing the fire to burn out when he said he wouldn’t. He tried to save himself from the embarrassment of the situation by saying that he went to hunt because everyone needed food. Piggy stepped in and attempted to hold Jack accountable for his actions like everyone else was. The embarrassment  infuriated Jack and made him say to Piggy, "You would, would you? Fatty!" (71) This is an explicit example of Piggy being discredited, and bullied, for his weight. He was doing the exact same thing all the other boys were doing but Jack only had a problem with and retaliated against Piggy. Piggy’s weight leads to constant attacks by Jack and the others, and it creates friction in the group when he tries to suggest an idea and immediately gets shot down.

Weight discrimination can be seen in many forms through media, laws, beauty standards, and many other things. It is also often times a major source of bullying, especially when it comes to children, teens, and young adults. This is done to make “the fat kid” feel inadequate for looking different when compared to the bully and the audience they have. Bullying ensues when the victim can’t stick up for themselves or when the bully is being encouraged by others. In The Fat Studies Reader, Weinstock and Krehbiel write, “Like hate crimes, bullying sends a message to the victims-- and those who are (or believe they are) similar to these victims-- that they are unacceptable, bad, wrong, inferior, and so forth.” These feelings tend to stick with the victims through their lives when weight discrimination begins to take on different forms as they grow older.

In December 2016, a BBC article explored this topic when talking to Shavonne Patrice Owens. Owens had just been laid off from her job at Comcast and decided to apply for work at a childcare center. After calling back to follow up multiple times, none of her calls were returned and she says, “I had worked in a day care centre before and was qualified for the position, but they told my friend they weren’t going to hire me because I was too big.” This event took place in Huntsville, Alabama where it is completely legal to discriminate against someone for their weight. In fact, it is legal in forty-nine of fifty American states as stated by the NAAFA. Owens was qualified to work in a childcare center having worked in one before, so there was no actual reason for her to be denied the job opportunity. Societal beauty standards have come a long way in recent years, yet the standard of always being “thin” is still lingering around. Anyone opposite of this standard is targeted and slandered relentlessly whether it be in the workplace, like Owens, online through social media, or in societal and friend groups, like Piggy.

Weight discrimination is a big problem in our society that has severe consequences. In the case of Lord of the Flies, Piggy tragically died because no one took him seriously and they were more concerned with their childish bickering than they were listening to logical reasoning that could’ve kept them all alive. This is an issue everyone is involved in, whether you are the victim, the aggressor, or just a mere bystander. So, what are we to do to fix it?

I am   

   Imaginative

       Objective

       Straight Forward

No matter what, everyone in the world has strengths and weaknesses; things they do good and things they do...not so good. We tend to find these strengths and weaknesses through life experiences over time and when we receive feedback on the things we’ve done. But, if you’re an SLA DigVid student, you find them through taking a personality test. After taking the personality test, we were split into groups according to personality type (mine being INTP) and told to discuss our findings and pick out our favorite strengths about ourselves. These were the results:

Originally Imaginative

One of the strengths I received was “Imaginative and Original”, which means that someone like me always has original and innovative ideas because our imaginations are always going one thousand miles per hour. This is a key trait to have when in creative spaces and tends to help us most when we are given complete artistic freedom on a task. As I read the description for this trait, I thought back to the many projects I’ve done for school over the years and can totally attest to letting my imagination run wild with all the possibilities of what I could do to knock my teacher’s socks off. I can also say that with the older I got, the more intricate my creations became due to my expanding knowledge of the world and my heightened attention to detail.

A Lost Art

Another one of the strengths I got was “Objective”. Being objective means listening to and stating facts in an unbiased and fair manner. Objectivity usually leads to one being more open-minded--also one of my strengths according to my test results--because situations can be viewed from, and solved with, multiple view points in mind to establish the best conclusion for all people involved. I feel that, in today’s climate, the idea of being objective and open-minded has gotten away from so many of the world’s people. It hurts to see because if only we knew how much better we could be if we decided to open ourselves to ideas opposite our own.

Straight Talk No Chaser

The final strength I decided to report on is “Honest and Straightforward”. This is basically telling it like it is and calling it how we see it. Sometimes people with my personality type can be honest to a fault because we accidentally hurt people’s feelings without even realizing it. However, us being straightforward is never done with malicious intent, we just believe that honesty is always the best policy.

I know that these strengths of mine will have a great influence on my performance in DigVid throughout the year. When combined, they will help me collaborate, create, and give honest feedback to not only my peers but also to myself so that we can be the best filmmakers possible. These traits will help me gain a perspective like no other through the experiences in this course and further who I am across all aspects of my life.

The language teacher pointed at me and began to beckon me with her finger.

“Come here. I have something I want to say to you,” she said.

So far, seventh grade had not been my year at all. I walked around unexplainably miserable and tired all the time. I couldn’t seem to focus long enough to do my homework until the late night or wee hours of the morning, making my grades take a major hit because of it. I also hated my life and everything in it. Why? I couldn’t tell you, especially not without falling apart and bearing what felt like the darkest depths of my soul and inner psyche.

Now, anybody who knows the slightest bit about me knows that I’ve always been that kid that loves school and is always at the top of her game no matter what. For the opposite to now be true, panic spread around me like wildfire. Teachers were concerned, pulling me aside for “talks” with looks of sympathy, and my mom was yelling at me every time she saw anything less than an A on every piece of paper from school. Meanwhile, I was scrambling to fix it all, still trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

We walked over to the side of the gym before she started to speak.

“Now, I’m not sure what’s been going on, but I’ve been hearing your name come up very often.”

My heart began to race as my emotions and words got caught in my throat, rendering me speechless.

“I don’t like that and I found it weird because in my mind I’m like, ‘They can’t be talking about her because she’s always on top of her work and she always tries to do her best.’ ”

My eyes welled up with tears as she continued. I blinked trying to keep my composure and hold back the tears threatening to fall from my eyes. It’s never a good feeling having your teachers talk about how poorly you’ve been performing. Not only do you know you aren’t performing up to standard, but you also hate yourself for it and beat yourself up over it every waking moment of every day.

She doesn’t even get it, I thought.

She kept talking, but my thoughts were louder. I felt the first tear roll down my face, my hand flew up to catch it before anyone could see it. Just as I had done so, another fell from the opposite eye and my world crumbled down around me. She ended her spiel by hugging me. I had never felt so trapped before in my life.

As she turned around to walk away, I quickly turned about face, darting for the bathroom to clean myself up. With my luck, it was inevitable for me to run into two peers that I rarely talk to who’d definitely never seen me with tears streaming down my face.

I dodged their questioning, left the bathroom and sat with my friends, making sure nobody was looking at me funny along the way. Just like that, I had managed to pick my entire life up off the ground and bandage it together just enough so that it would appear like I had everything together like I always do.

School for me had become stressful. Waking up early to get to school early, rushing around to classes, and then going home to do more work was a lot and it took a toll on my mental health. I had to realize that it was okay to not have everything together all the time. I learned that it was okay to just cry it out sometimes and let yourself feel. Maybe not in the middle of the school gym like I did, but you get the point. School is a challenge and your mental health is a lifelong battle. Though it may be hard, you have to speak up for yourself and do what is best for who you are and what you’re capable of. You're going to struggle without a doubt, no matter who you are, but you get to decide how you overcome and learn from each challenge you face while being in school.

From the critique of my slide, I learned that since I am the creator, only I know what I want to grab the audience’s attention. I also learned that images get distorted sometimes when being shown on a projector in comparison to a computer screen so I should be careful when enlarging or minimizing images and text because it may make things be grainy or go unseen by the audience.

To remake this slide, I first remade a version that had my original background and text color but with more paint splatters as a border. I then decided to completely remix my slide so, I inverted the colors making the background black and the words white. It was suggested that, to catch the eye, I should make my name multicolored so, I did so. It was also suggested that I make my quote bigger so that the audience can read it since it was put on the slide for a reason.

I think the research helped me make a better slide because it showed that there are many different ways to interpret information and in order to convey the message you want, you have to catch the eye of the audience. I would also consider my classmates’ presentations research because I could see the things I liked about a slide and the things I didn’t like about a slide and I could see common mistakes that were present in my slide as well as theirs. For the most part, I used the given resources, google and advice from my friends to create a good slide. I used the ideas of eye catching colors, the rule of thirds and other advice from classmates/friends to formulate a new and improved idea for my slide remix.

I made my slide the way I did because it was what felt most natural to me. I started out with just the silhouette and the wording in the top left corner because that was something I knew I definitely wanted to do when the project was introduced to us. I added the paint splatters because I like how abstract paint splatters seem even if they are controlled. I also added paint splatters because it my research, I found that color is very eye catching and my original idea was just black and white with a lot of negative space so, the bright colored paint splotches added contrast. I came up with the idea of a silhouette because I didn’t want there to be too many colors for the audience to focus on. The girl is seen reading while lying down on her stomach and I picked this specific silhouette because this was the most relatable image to me. I love reading and when I am reading I normally find myself in this position. In addition to the silhouette and the paint splatters, there are words in the upper right hand corner that I think sum who I am up in less than twenty words. From the top, the words read as my birthday, my name and a sentence I thought up to describe everything about me. I was born November 3, 2002 and on that day I got my name, Londyn Monét. Over time, I became “the little girl with big dreams and a powerful mind” because I was curious about everything and interested in learning all I could while always pushing myself to go above and beyond even when it wasn’t required. Since I was a child, I’ve had crazy dreams of being trained at every profession under the sun. Now, I know I want to be a self-made billionaire to be able to help others all around the world. Can you say big dreams?

I placed everything the way I did after taking in the advice Ms.Hull gave and after doing more research on how to create an eye-catching slide. The silhouette of the girl bleeds off the slide because it makes the image appear bigger and more appealing to the audience. The paint splatters, as I mentioned before, add contrast to an otherwise black and white slide. The few words on the slide get straight to the point of telling you what the slide is about and supposed to represent; me.

A. Explain your L.A.N. (Local Area Network - all the devices on your internet connection.)

• There are seven devices connected directly to my L.A.N. My mother, brother and I all have one phone and tablet connected to WiFi. On the L.A.N., we also have a desktop that is shared amongst the three of us that is directly connected to the router/modem and my brother and I have our personal laptops connected to the network through WiFi.

B. Reflect on what you learned about networks. Did you have an OMG moment that you learned something new and interesting? If not, write about what you learned.

• I actually learned a lot about networks because I never knew how they worked, I just knew that they existed in many homes across America and the rest of the world. My “OMG” moment was when Ms.Hull said that if you have Verizon than you more than likely have a phone cord that connects the internet to your home. I thought that the internet was always connected to homes and other facilities through through ethernet.

C. What would you tell other people that they need to know about having an ISP/Home network?

• I would tell others that have an ISP/Home Network that they need to be very careful about what they do and post on the internet because viruses and hackers could infiltrate your network if you aren’t. I would also tell them to educate themselves a little bit on home networks and how they work because if they don’t know at least the basics, a money-hungry company could overcharge them for something that they either don’t need or could've done themselves.