4th Hour Charley Poole District Performance Event Jimmy Valentine was a man that changed his life from robbing banks and being in jail to successfully owning a shoe store. Jimmy valentine is a famous, or rather infamous bank robber that just got out of jail. He found a new town that he would like to stay in. He also goes by the new name of Ralph Spencer. Jimmy Valentine was truly dedicated to living a moral life because he changed his name, he was about to give away his robbery gear, and he gave up crime to start a shoe company.
Chris McCandless: Spiritual Revolutionary of the Primordial World Chris McCandless, a young, nonconformist man, died in the Alaskan wilderness trying to live off the land there. Some laud McCandless for his transcendentalist behavior and unique, nonconformist beliefs; others call McCandless a reckless fool whose impulsive actions ended up costing his life. Chris McCandless was ultimately a modern day transcendentalist because he believed that nature was purer than society, a common transcendentalist belief. An inscription McCandless engraved in Fairbanks bus 142 indicatesthat he thought of society as poisonous, thus making nature purer than society in McCandless’s mind. In September of 1992, Alaskan hunters found McCandless’s body
The Incredible life of Ben Mikaelsen Ben Mikaelsen is an author that has had his work take him all over the world from mexico to the north pole! Ben Mikaelsen loves the outdoors! He lives near Bozeman, Montana with Connie, his wife. Ben has been writing books since 1984 and has have published some popular books like Touching Spirit Bear, Sparrow Hawk Red, and Rescue Josh McGuire. Ben is an adventure and horseback rides, parachute jumps, motorcycles, sled dog races, flies airplanes (which he owns), scuba dives and raises bears as if they were his own.
Rodney Alcala, infamously known as the Dating Game Killer, was born on August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas, and died on July 24, 2021, while serving his sentence. Raised by his mother after his father left the family when Alcala was young, his childhood was marked by instability and trauma. Reports suggest that his mother was overprotective and frequently moved the family, which may have contributed to Alcala's difficulty forming stable relationships. Despite outward appearances, there were no significant signs of criminal behavior during his early years.
17 year old Christopher Simmons along with another friend robbed, kidnapped, and murdered a woman by throwing her off of a bridge with her hands and legs bound. Simmons and his friend were caught shortly after the heinous act, primarily due to Simmons bragging about what he did. When arrested by the local police, he was taken to the police station and was given his Miranda rights. Simmons “waived his right to an attorney and agreed to answer questions” (Cornell University, n.d.). Simmons confessed to the murder and gave a videotaped reenactment of how he committed the heinous act.
In most cultures today, it is often deduced that people who identify out of regular norms, such as gay or transgender are very untraditional. However, in the documentary Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender, and the Murder of Fred Martinez, filmmaker Lydia Nibley, shows us how far from true that is. According to the documentary, the term “two spirits” was only recognized in 1990 at an international gathering, as it was a more acceptable term for other cultures, rather than saying gay or lesbian (Nibley, 2009). The documentary focuses on Native American culture, specifically the Navajo culture, where we learn about their beliefs and how their history ties into an inviting culture towards the LGBTQ community.
Rodney Alcala: Autobiography Rodney Alcala, a serial killer, murdered at least 9 women and girls across the US in the 1970s. Rodney had been to prison for sexual assault and other crimes, but that didn’t seem to stop him as he continued to rape and kill. The autopsies of the victims showed that he would strangle women and then wait until they regained consciousness before the final kill. His final crime before being put behind bars forever was the abduction and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Alcala ended up dying of natural causes in 2021.
Despite critics’ attacks on Chris McCandless as a commendable person, Chris McCandless is an admirable figure to look up to as he shows that taking risks can be beneficial. During McCandless’s trip, he meets with a wide variety of people he get well along with. He has a great time during his adventure and gains a lot of experiences even though he is living a simple life where he doesn’t live with a vast amount of wealth. Kayt Sukel of Fox News quotes, “...helping individuals gain the priceless experience they need to make smarter, better decisions. And within these risks are the very kind of opportunities that can, ultimately, make us happier, healthier, and more successful in reaching our long-term goals… ”
When we talk about masculinity in America today we theorize that violence that happens more often than we like, from mass shootings or crime in general, including rape and murders in the real world and in the virtual thrill world of videogames and movies we find a parallel connection of masculinity as violent. Even though an overwhelming majority of violence is committed by men and boys we as americans rarely connect gender as a major key in violence. But when we lay out the plane lines about culture of violence were almost always hinting that it is a masculine trait that is a taught behavior. The modern society has conjured up the idea of the ideal man, that showing emotions is wrong but one must be charming, seeming smartish but more of an attitude of control showing that manhood has a hierarchy. Weakening the not so tough guy, society giving them labels to show they are outside of the gender binary.
Freedom Summer, or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population. The projects leadership and funding came from the SNCC and COFO, along with hundreds of white college students in the north. In 1963, the SNCC organized a mock vote for blacks, which gave them a chance to prove they were capable of understanding politics. The civil rights activists from both organizations and the white volunteers from the north faced many challenges during the campaign.
The Life and Death of Malcolm Little “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.” Around the year Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, the Great Migration was taking place. This affected his family's life, and the future lives of his children.
Brandon is a transgender male who is raped by two of his girlfriend’s, Lana, family members. This quote accurately describes how Brandon felt after he was raped by John and Tom: “Whether the victims are female of male, men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators. But we call it a women’s issue? Shouldn 't that tell us something?” (Katz 342).
Zac Lockhart at the age of just 16 years old, became one of Australia’s 26,000 young people who were homeless. Zac was constrained from his home after events which forced him into a youth shelter. Zac wanting to promote a positive message and lower the shame of being homeless, became an ambassador for homeless youth in Tasmania. Being in a youth shelter, Zac was often seriously connected with metal health and learning how to deal with everyday stress and seeing the lows of life. Zac himself, wanted to make a different and help people experiencing mental health issues.
The LGBTQ community is one that faces an ongoing storm of stereotyping and stigmas and the media is no relief from it. One major factor in this is the common trope of the violent and aggressive transgender woman, which is often shown through
These students are many times symbolically labeled and classed as, “weird,” “gay,” or “loser” due to non-conformist dress, behavior, or participation in unmasculine activities such as art and drama (Kimmel and Mahler 2003). Consequently, these labels tend to define how others treat and interact with these students (Ballantine and Spade 2015). Students displaying volatility in emotional self-management experience poor treatment. Young men who fall short or step outside of the representation of hegemonic masculinity are met with relentless persecution (Kimmel and Mahler 2003). Tragically, over time, the compilation of these various symbolic factors and negative interactions can compound and incite deadly, violent outbursts.
