EmmaFiona

In The September Issue, Anna Wintour, the “director and producer of [the] fashion world,” is determined to make this issue longer than any other issue of Vogue. Wintour, the editor in chief, “sees collections, has meetings, dissects collections, and decides what trends to feature in the issue.”  She knows that people will wear what they see printed in Vogue, and she is always busy making sure that everything looks exactly right. Grace Coddington, the creative director and former model for the magazine, plays another essential role in making the issue successful. Coddington and Wintour began working for Vogue at the same time, and Coddington says that they “understand each other.”

Although Wintour seems cold and and often intimidating, the entire Vogue staff seems to respect her and appreciate her criticism. The movie shows what it is like to work at a magazine, and how to be successful in doing so. Wintour says to be tough and “learn to make yourself necessary.” The editor in chief loved fashion from an early age, and knows that “fashion’s not about looking back — it’s about looking forward.”

When the lights went up on the set of “Superior Donuts,” Max was standing in a donut shop with overturned tables and graffiti on the walls. The run-down shop is owned by Arthur, but it does not get much business, and Max wants to buy it and turn it into a video store. Arthur refuses the offer, and he hires an assistant, Franco, to help out. Franco has just finished writing what he calls “The Great American Novel,” and Arthur reads it and tries to help him get it published. Arthur and Franco are both experiencing problems of their own, and the play has an unexpected and bittersweet ending.

“Superior Donuts” has a well-written, funny script, despite the serious story behind it. The show also has a very realistic looking set, and great lighting affects. The actors were very convincing as their characters, and each one had hilarious lines that fit their parts. Overall, the play was sad, but uplifting, and ended with the words “America will be.”

Charlotte Cook heard of Blue Tree through a friend who came here and knew that Cook would like it. She came here to “have fun and develop skills for the future.” The Smith College kitchen staff cooks for the many vegetarians at Blue Tree and other programs located on campus, including Cook. When asked about her decision to become a vegetarian, she replied that she “[doesn’t] like animals being slaughtered for people’s enjoyment.”

Hilary Clinton has always spent a lot of time focusing on one issue in particular: women’s rights. Cook agrees with this decision, since not enough people focus on this extremely important issue. She also agrees with the Facebook-related rules that so many people question or simply ignore. Although the age-limit for the social networking site is thirteen or older, many people break this rule. Cook says that age twelve and under is “too young,” and that they would most likely be “influenced by older people dong bad things.” She also thinks that teachers and students should not be allowed to be friends on Facebook. She says that it could be “damaging if a teacher saw a student’s post.”

“The Hillary Doctrine,” written by Gayle Tzemech Lemmon, is about the accomplishments of Hillary Clinton, especially those related to helping women and girls. It has a strong lead that makes the reader want to learn more about the topic, and the way that Lemmon states the many accomplishments of Clinton makes the reader more likely to appreciate what she has done and want to do the same. The body paragraphs hold the reader’s attention with quotes from Clinton and others working towards the same goal: to improve the lives of girls and women worldwide. The article concludes with an inspiring quote from Clinton: “It is like any challenge,” she goes on, her tone brightening. “You just keep at it, take it piece by piece, seize the ground you can, hang onto it, and then move forward a little bit more.” She pauses. “And we are heading for higher ground.”

By reading this article, I learned more about Hillary Clinton and how passionate she seems to be about her job. She seems to constantly be traveling from country to country to help girls and women get an education and lead a better life. “She is, it seems, everywhere at once, crossing time zones and defying jet lag, though signs of exhaustion—a hoarse voice, bleary eyes—slip through. (A recent 19-hour “day trip” to Mexico landed her at Maryland’s Andrews Air Force Base well after 2 a.m., which left approximately six hours to get home, sleep, and make her first meeting of the day that would culminate in President Obama’s State of the Union address.)” 

I was also surprised to learn how often weddings between a man and a young girl with only a primary school education occur in other countries. “During her remarks, Clinton had cited the story of Nujood Ali, a Yemeni girl in the audience that day whose very public fight for a divorce at age 11 has become a global cause célèbre—one that Clinton herself follows closely.”

Questions:

• How did Hillary Clinton get involved with trying to give women girls more rights, get a better education, etc?
• How can other people help, other than giving donations to charities?

This article, posted February 14, 2011, and written by Nancy Gibbs, is about giving girls and women a chance to do everything that men can do. In many countries around the world, girls only get a primary school education before they marry by the age of fifteen and get pregnant, and often die in childbirth. “The leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19 worldwide is not accident or violence or disease; it is complications from pregnancy.”

Many women spend the rest of their life taking care of their children, cooking, and cleaning. However, by keeping girls in school longer, their eventual wages will be much higher than if they were to drop out early. Also, women are more likely than men to invest most of their income into their family: “the World Food Programme has found that when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90% of it in their families. They buy books, medicine, bed nets. For men, that figure is more like 30% to 40%.”

I think that this article, “To Fight Poverty, Invest in Girls,” deals with an important issue that does not get as much publicity as many other world problems, although it is equally important. However, in many countries, families do not have enough money to send their daughters to school for more than a few years. Although this is true in many countries, girls and women should still get the same education as males. Boys and men can also cook and clean, so there is no reason for only females to do these jobs.