IB Lang Lit Blog

These two ads for boys and girls clothing differentiates in that the boy is wearing clothes that promote learning, with an Albert Einstein shirt, and the heading saying ”The little scholar”. Meanwhile the young girl is wearing less academic clothes and the heading reads “The social butterfly.” My perception of gap did not change after this, they have been slammed for similar ad campaigns in the past.  This ad implies that only boys can be scholarly, and that women are not interested in learning, only in being social. I do not think this ad is okay, and this controversy could easily be fixed by just having both of the children’s titles in the ads be scholarly. For example, just call the little’s girls look “the bookworm” or some other nerdy phrase and it wouldn’t have been a problem. I doubt the makers of the ads were purposefully trying to offend people, and whether or not they did it unconsciously is up for debate, but how this ad actually reached people is astounding. ...

I feel I am most happiest when I am alone in a public space, free to explore. One day I went into town to meet up with a friend but he was running late, so I bought some specialty doughnuts from the bakery and some weird flavored soda from the local market, and then walked down to the waterfront and ate my food on a bench. I didn't talk to anyone, I didn't do any activity or have any life-changing experience, but its one of my favorite memories in the 5 years I have lived here, purely by how calm and relaxing it was. In this high-paced hectic world, we rarely get solitary moments like that and we have to appreciate them when they come by. I do not think that a national happiness index is a good idea. It can be harmful in many ways, and I think just having it can cause low-scoring countries to go even lower on the scale, just by knowing they aren't happy compared to the rest of the world. Since it is in place however, I do think we are doing a good job with what we have, h...