Timmy's Essay 7

Timmy O’Brien
Mr. Salsich
English 9
20 November 2008

Prejudices Reign Free:

An Essay on the Queer Side of Life

        1. When you criticize someone, whether it is deliberate or accidental, it can have different effects. 2. They can see the joke and take it in stride, or they can dwell on the negatives and have a hard time forgiving you. 3. This can happen with heterosexism because if someone says the word “gay” with a negative connotation, they might let it slide a few times, but if the vocabulary persists, things could get more extreme physically and verbally. 4. Heterosexism changes a lot of lives for the worse, including Ms. Stump Olsen.
        TS Being an expert on the harshness of words, Ms. Olsen came in to talk to us about the effect they can have on people. SD The first thing that stood out to me was her saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones. That’s not true.” (quote) CM Sometimes when we say something that we think might hurt someone, we think of that phrase to reassure ourselves. CM Contrarily, this phrase, according to Olsen, is completely and utterly meaningless to the targets of the harsh words. SD Something else that caught my attention was when she told her story – her inability to lead a normal life. CM People had assumed she was “queer” since she was about 12, and punished her for it. CM She spent most of her teen life thinking about how to survive the walk to the next class rather than the next class itself. SD Along with her story, I was surprised by the way “coming out of the closet” changed her life. CM At the age of 20, she decided it was time to tell people because she had already been hiding her true self for 15 years. CM When she told her parents, they politely asked her to get out of their lives, and she hasn’t spoken to them in 15 years – something I can’t even think about. CM Along with that, if she got into an accident and had to be hospitalized, her parents would be able to make an uninformed decision – not knowing what she would want because of the 15-year gap. CS Her fate being in the hands of another person (absolute), Ms. Olsen was horrified, and I understand her feelings toward this and wonder how anyone could impose so much negativity onto a person just because of prejudices.
        TS In this case, the prejudice is called heterosexism. SD Unbeknownst to many people, heterosexism happens a lot in this world. CM Trying to ignore it (participle), we pass it off as unimportant and that the targets should deal with it themselves. CM Unfortunately, this doesn’t work because there seem to be more people actively supporting this prejudice than opposing it. SD With this information, we must also consider that the people being discriminated against did not choose this life. CM People don’t wake up one morning and say, “Today, I think I’ll turn some of my family, friends, and people I don’t even know against me and be physically and mentally abused on a daily basis.” CM It is an uncontrollable action, and we must try and respect them and their views. CS If we don’t, aren’t we saying that we don’t believe they are a whole person?
        1. If a person isn’t considered whole, how can they be forced to pay attention to our laws of society? 2. How can we make them pay taxes if we refuse to let them marry whom they love? 3. As Melissa Etheridge says, “I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen.” 4. Through this, she says that if she cannot be treated as an equal because of heterosexism, why should she, Ms. Olsen, and people like them have to deal with the consequences of being seen as such a monstrosity?

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Self-Assessment

1. Some writing issues I am continuing to work on are tightening my writing - trying to omit unnecessary words. Also, I am trying to make sure my writing makes sense and doesn't cause confusion for the reader.

2. Some strong points I see in this piece of writing is my first paragraph. It was all I wanted it to be and I was able to write what I wanted without any misinterpretation.

3. Some weak points I see in this writing is the concluding paragraph because it brings up a new topic and seems a little jumbled.

4. The grade I would give myself is around a B.