Marisa

**M** **A** **RISA'S WRITING PORTFOLIO**

Hello, my name is Marisa. I have always found English to be the most challenging subject for me, however over the years, the English courses at Iolani have definitely helped met  overcome obstacles that I previously face in English. My confidence in writing and the ability for me to understand the deeper meanings of literature and to look beyond just the words  on the page have greatly improved. I chose Women in Literature because as a female, I felt that I would be able to connect to the things we learned in class. When there is a topic that I can relate to, it makes learning more interesting and fun. Going into this course, I was hoping to learn and be more aware of the gender roles in today's society, especially about my  role as a female. media type="file" key="Memo.m4a" width="300" height="50"

This is a video about women having a voice. We as women should not be afraid to speak up. media type="youtube" key="9ajJWwWgtEI" width="425" height="350"

 This is my first time I had my own blog up on the internet that everyone could see. It was easier and more fun than I thought because it was all about my own opinion and I was able to decorate my page with my own style. As I wrote my blogs, I began to understand more about my own thoughts and feeling towards feminism and gender awareness. When it was all bunched up in my head, I was still a little confused and unsure what my opinions were and which way I was leaning towards. Actually writing it out and seeing what I had written helped me to have a better understanding of what I was thinking about those topics. The fourth blog is the most meaningful to me because I explain what feminism means to me without actually looking up the definitoin. It shows me how much I actually know about the topic. This was the difficult blog for me to complete because I thought I knew what feminism was and meant, but I was wrong. **[|Blog Site]**

The Coming of Age Essay was the most meaningful assignment I completed in this course because it was a personal realization. This paper is about me turning into a woman and how my twin sister is holding me back, but at the same time is forcing me to be a mature, strong, and independent female. Writing this paper helped me realize how dependent I am on my twin sister. It's funny because my sister and I are like a married, her being the husband/father and me being the wife/mother. I do not consider myself a **WOMAN** yet because I still feel like I have to learn about the husband/fatherly side to growing up. **Coming of Age Essay**

My Media Paper focused on the Nickelodeon channel. I enjoyed the research part of the media paper because I was able to watch television. It was harder than I thought to find the gender stereotypes that are portrayed in Nickelodeon shows, however after a few nights of analyzing //Big Time Rush// and //iCarly,// I found that Nickelodeon depicts the leading female character, whether its the protagonist of the show or not, to be nurturing and sympathetic young ladies. The thing to not get confused about is that it is the leading female character who portrays these stereotypes; the female character doesn't have to be the lead of the show. **Media Paper **

I created two panels to add in the //Persepolis;// these two panels go between the second to the last and the last panel on page 273. After Marji comes out of her therapist's building she stops along the sidewalk. She rethinks what her therapist had said to her while looking at her reflection in a puddle. She takes a good look at herself and realizes that she was not made to die which is shown in the last panel on page 273. Every time Marji looks at a reflection of herself she has a realization like on page 151, 245, and 291. This part is where Marji makes a huge realization and does a complete 360 turn with her life so I thought creating these two panels were appropriate. I learned that pictures can make a huge difference in telling a story. Persepolis Final Panel Writing

This poem is about the mystery of my great grandpa Hashiba who died in his early forties on a fishing trip. However, no one knows what happened to his body, so I wrote a poem about the possibilities that could have happened to him. From this assignment. I learned that I really don't know much about my ancestors because I realized I didn't even know the first names of my great grandparents. Below the Song Imitation Poem link is a voice recording of my Song Imitation Poem that I recited myself. **Song Imitation Poem** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">media type="file" key="Memo (2).m4a" width="300" height="50"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Hollywood Criteria
 * <span style="color: #7c00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 25px;">FINAL PROJECT **

<span style="color: #bd7de8; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Out of all the English courses I have taken, I have gained the most knowledge from Women in Literature that I can actually take out into the world with me. This class has opened my eyes to what we as women mean to society, whether its positive or negative. I felt that Women in Literature was the right choice for me because as a female, I believe I should take the opportunity to understand my gender and what it meant in our society to be a female decades ago and also in today’s society. This course has taught me that gender stereotyping is not only in books but in other things as well and that it has a huge effect on society and the way we live our lives each day. It holds people back from doing things that can possibly change the world because they think they cannot do it or because other people think they cannot do it just because that person is a he or a she. Unfortunately, society has set boundaries on males and females that controls the way we live our lives each day.

<span style="color: #bd7de8; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have completed a variety of writing pieces in this course. I thought the “Coming of Age” paper was the most special to me because I had learned something between my sister and me from writing that paper. The hardest assignment was definitely our final project not because we had to do the most work but because of my topic choice. I think I chose a harder topic than I thought. I am guilty to say that I am intrigued with celebrities and that is why I chose to do my project on actors and actresses, however, finding results between actors and actresses was a challenge because I couldn’t just find the stereotypes of males and females in Hollywood because that is too vague so I had to look deeper. Thankfully Mrs. Falk helped me find my direction of my essential question which was, “What are the expectations of the highest paid actors compared to the highest paid actresses in Hollywood?” It was a little hard for me to find credible sources but I manage to do so. It was great that Mrs. Falk helped me get in contact with an actress (Joanna Sotomura) who graduated from Iolani School. I thought it was pretty cool that she was on //Criminal Minds.// My product that I made for my project was a magazine. I wish I had started on that a little earlier because I had so many other projects to do for other classes but thankfully, I got it done. I think my magazine is something fun because it’s almost like reading those celebrity magazines like //PEOPLE// and //Us// magazine. Overall, although this project took **a lot** of work and time, it feels good to have worked on something so hard and to see it come out a success.

<span style="color: #bd7de8; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">I went into this class not knowing much about gender stereotyping but the obvious, however in the past two quarters of my senior year, I’ve learned the role I need to play in society as a female, and it only pushes me to break the stereotypes that are subjected upon us as women. This class has enco <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> uraged and motivated me even more to be a strong, independent, hard working, successful, and respectable woman in the business world. I will not let the stereotypes of women stop me from being what I want to be nor will I let it make me be hesitant on doing something. Gender assumptions should not matter, but unfortunately they exist, however, I will make a great effort to remember that **<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">we shouldn't judge people based on gender ** <span style="color: #712097; font-family: Georgia,serif;">.

Here is an article about Asian women in particular in business. I chose this because I'm Asian as well as a female. [] Flickr Photos: [] []o.jpg [] []