For this assignment I was required to reconfigure an argument for a piece of writing that I’d done previously.
I chose to work with a paper I wrote for a communication course. It was about the construction of narratives in the Real Housewives series, a show that was a guilty pleasure of mine. The topic of the paper was really interesting, but it didn’t allow me much room to explore the consequences of the fabricated “realities” in this series, or my own complicated relationship with them.
Original piece for repurposing
I wanted to focus specifically on feminism, which is extremely important to me, and the negative effects that the Real Housewives shows have on this movement. Because the fight for women’s rights means so much to me, I wanted to do what the academic paper didn’t allow me to do: inject my own opinions and my own voice into my piece.
The audience I had in mind was a community of men and women that is concerned with media representation and gender equality. I wanted to reach out to those who, like me, struggle to integrate their personal beliefs with their media habits. This is why I started the piece by admitting my own guilt in consuming media that is destructive to feminism, and ended by inviting my readers to join me in changing my viewing habits. I wanted to involve myself in my writing and participate as a member of my audience.
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