Fashion and Decorum Icons

Olivia Palermo and Chiara Ferragni: Two socialites and it girls that have conquered the world of fashion, more specifically, the social media of it. Traveling to more than four different places per month, attending the most important runways, and getting gifts from the best designers, are just some examples of how they live. How did they get to where they are? How come they have not thousands, not millions, but billions of followers from all over the world? Rhetorical decorum is the reason why these two icons have made it that far. They have mastered "the art of fitting in" (46). The audience loves them. Everyone, including me, loves the way they dress and they way they act, even if it's not in the same way as we normally do. "To show proper decorum, act the way your audience expects you to act—not necessarily like your audience" (46).

Palermo's and Ferragni's audience consists mainly of young girls that admire them for their taste in fashion. The majority, don't care at all if the two of them are good people. In fact, Olivia Palermo was part of a reality show called The City and it was here were people found out she was a real bitch. People follow them to look at their clothes. They don't care about the strange personalities hidden behind all those layers of Chanel, Prada, and Ferragamo. In this case, the values the audience looks for is their popularity, their bag and shoes of the day, and their hair-do for the specific occasion. "You don’t even have to do what your heart knows is right; you simply must be seen to have the “right” values—your audience’s values, that is" (57). Can you imagine how great it is for them? Wake up, do your makeup and hair, climb on to a pair of 5 inch Louboutin’s, and post pictures of what you do all day. Chiara’s and Olivia’s style make teenage girls, aspiring designers, bloggers, adults, photographers, and most importantly designers like and trust them.

These two icons seem to follow everything Jay Heinrichs says in chapters five and six of his book Thank You for Arguing. They are famous because they have virtue as well as practical wisdom which is that “you appear to know the right thing to do on every occasion” (56). In this case, the two fashionistas appear to know the right outfit to wear on every occasion. I think Heinrichs is right about most of the concepts he explains. However, I must disagree with him when he says that “style doesn’t make them man but rather the occasion” (53). In some cases, for example Olivia Palermo’s and Chiara Ferragni’s, style does make the man. 

Everyone Wants Baby Lips

          I wonder what an argument between two people that have already read Jay Heinrichs's book, Thank You for Arguing, is like. In the first two chapters, this guy promises so much! "After it awakens you to the argument all around, the world will never seem the same." (6) However, I need to accept that I am a little scared. What if I don't learn enough skills? What if this book might just mess up with my mind? This book seems as something very helpful. I hope it gives me superpowers or something that helps me because "rhetoric is the art of influence, friendship, and eloquence, of ready wit and irrefutable logic." (4)

        One thing I had never thought about before was how many situations in our daily life include rhetoric. For example, as Heinrich talked about his type of normal day, I was amazed by how many things included rhetoric: the smoke detector, the cat, the wristwatch,etc. (7) I like what the author says about how "we live in a tangled, dark (I almost added “moist”) world of persuasion." (8) 

       Another thing that came to my mind while I read some of the examples was the many ads I come up with every day that have to do with fitness, beauty, and health. I have come to see that the products that have the best or even the most propaganda are the ones who sell the most. A while ago, I bought a lip balm called Baby Lips because I saw it in every magazine. I thought it was so good but it was only a matter of buying the product to find out that I had been persuaded by great advertising and pictures of lips that probably didn't even use Baby Lips. I guess persuasion is, after all, everything. 

Social Suicide Video... I Mean, Life Skills Video

Self-evaluation for Life Skills grade. So embarrassing.  -___-

Dear Psychologist, I Hate You

 (This is sarcastic)

Brent Runyon’s memoir helped me remember how much I hate psychologists. I mean, could there be more annoying people on Earth? In my case, I was forced to visit not one, but several psychologists. I guess I am weird. Anyway, I can totally relate with the way Brent feels the minute he sees Dr. Rubenstein walk through his door. Or should i call her “Dr. Bitchenstein” (95) like Brent does? By what he tells, she really is a bitch: “Most people who come to visit me lean forward in the chair, but she leans away.” (49) God, I was really liking the characters in this book but Bitchenstein had to come along and ruin my fairy tale. That witch!

It is funny that most (if not all) of Brent’s thoughts while being with a pyschologist have ocurred to me before. “I wish she’d just leave me the fuck alone.” (59) I said this to myself infinite times while I looked at the Medellin’s amazing view through my psychologist’s window. “Dr. Bitchenstein is here to ask me about everything that’s ever happened and everything that ever will happen and to try to make me feel worse even though its not really fucking posible to make me feel worse at this point.” (95) I wouldn't be able to come up with a better way to explain how going to a pyschologist feels. Thank you Brent, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one with this kind of  archenemies.

            I must say that even with all my complaints, I appreciate pyschologists and the very difficult role they have on trying to make people happier or have less problems. Not everyone is willing to do this, for example I would never willing to solve extra problems aside from the ones i already have. For me, that would be like doing someone else’s homework. Crazy. In conclusion, i thank all of you psychologists out there and everything but I think Brent Runyon and i would agree on one thing: we dont need you unless you are going to solve our problems with real stuff. Ice cream, perhaps and make it New York Super Fudge Chunk.


Vocabulary:
gurney- (noun) a metal stretcher with wheeled legs, used for transporting patients

Journal Entry #1: Brent Runyon the Freak

The first paragraph of Brent Runyon’s memoir, The Burn Journals, seems very common for me: “Im awake, listening to the radio, and Mom is yelling at me to get out of bed. I don’t want to get out of bed. I don’t want to go to school. Maybe I should play sick, but ive done that too many times this year already.” (3) I immediately picture myself in bed pretending to be sick just because I dindnt get enough sleep the night before, and then how karma gets me and I actually get sick.

As I read a couple of pages, I am confused and freaking out. For example when this guy is talking about how obsessed he became with Vicent van Gogh while reading Lust for Life, a book about “how fucked up his life was.” (4) He mentions the story in which van Gogh cuts off his ear and sends it to his girlfriend. All the normal reactions to this story include comments such as “ew,” “what the fuck,” or even “I think van Gogh was high” but never before had I heard a comment such as Runyon’s: “God, that’s so great.” (4) I had to read this part several times to make sure I was actually reading correctly and not just making things up in my mind. When I get to the part where he “puts his hand under Abby’s sweater and rubs it against the fabric of her bra and the top of her breast,” (5) I know that this Brent is so fudged up. He was touching a girl IN A SCHOOL BUS! Ew! Now I don’t know what to think…

This is my first time reading The Burn Journals and I’m so confused. I want to ask a few questions to see if later on in the reading, they will be answered:

-Are there other reasons for his attempt of suicide other than because he was going to get expelled?

-Is the disgusting girl from the bus, Abby, going to be involved?

-Why is it called The Burn Journals?

-Does he keep a journal sort of like in the movie Mean Girls?

I hope my questions will be answered. For now, this was my first entry for my “burn journal” in which I feel a little bit disgusted with Brent Runyon and how he thinks a bleeding ear is a “great” gift for your girlfriend. 

Vocabulary:

slats- (noun) a thin, narrow piece of wood, plastic, or metal