Author: isakreut

For years male and female halloween costumes have differed in many ways.  Many female costumes are sexualized, while this is not often the case with male costumes. Many of these differences also reinforce gender roles. While female costumes for children may not exactly be sexualized, there are many apparent differences in halloween costumes for male and female children.

These differences can even be seen in childrens costumes as the ad to the right shows. The poses are even more important in these ads. The boys are all in poses that would be considered “power poses”. Poses that make them look strong and powerful. Those are not the terms you would use to describe the poses for the girls. They are in poses that make them seem more dainty and “ladylike”. In addition to all of the girls costumes you can seen their faces, but not in the boys costumes. This seems like yet another ploy to show that the girls need to show themselves off while the boys need to show off their strength. All the girls costumes include either dresses or skirts except for one of them. 

Showing ads like these in magazines leads young girls to feel like they have to dress up like that. It reinforces the idea that they are dressing up to be seen as pretty and cute. This makes it seem like the costumes are more for the pleasure of others rather than the pleasure of those who are wearing the costumes. In the ad below many of the same things are seen. The boys are all standing in poses that make them look strong and powerful. In contrast the girl is posed in a way more similar to the girls in the image above. This ad does however differ from the one above in one way. Rather than being a princess, the girl is dressed as a superhero to go along with the boys. Yet she is still wearing a dress just like the girls in the other ad. 

As fears of global warming sweep the world, many have attempted to find ways to become more environmentally friendly and reduce negative environmental impact. This includes new reusable products that supposedly have less of an environmental impact than single use products. It is no new discovery that single use plastics products are a huge contributor to waste of this planet. Two of these products that are currently very popular are reusable straws and reusable shopping bags. I aimed to compare the environmental impact of single use plastic bags and straws compared to the impact of reusable bags and straws.

In 2017 plastic production for the year reached 348 tons, an all time high. As plastic production increases, plastic waste also increases, resulting in more plastic ending up in the environment after being discarded. Much of this is ending up floating around in the ocean. “It is now believed that there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that mass, 269,000 tons float on the surface, while some four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometer litter the deep sea.” (Plastic Crusaders). With these statistics we are able to see the massive amount of plastic ending up in the ocean, which can be detrimental to some marine ecosystems. Many types of plastic products such as plastic bags and straws can release toxins into the environment that are harmful to ecosystems. Both of these products are big contributors to plastic waste ending up in the environment. There are certain areas of the ocean that are unlivable for organisms because of the high toxicity of the water due to plastic waste. Continuing to produce and discard plastics as we are now could result in more of these areas. With all of this information, it is easy to see why we have to become more environmentally conscious and why reusable products are becoming increasingly popular. 

Compared to single use plastic bags, reusable bags have less of a negative environmental impact after they are made. They are less likely to end up in the environment where they can cause harm. However both have negative impacts when being created, and many types of reusable bags take more energy to create and more carbon emissions are released when they are being made. “For example, the production of paper bags uses four times as much energy as the production of plastic ones. In general, more greenhouse gases are emitted during the production of paper products than their plastic counterparts.” (GetGreenNow). This quote gives some insight into how much more of an environmental impact paper bags have compared to single use plastic ones. Some of the reusable bags can be recycled and some are biodegradable which is a plus. The reusable bags must be used many times before they are actually more beneficial that just using single use plastic bags. Most reusable shopping bags must be used about 134 times before the environmental impact is reduced.So in conclusion reusable bags can be more eco-friendly compared to single use plastic bags, but it is really dependent on how much it is used. Though during the creation process, the reusable bags do have a worse environmental impact.

Since so many reusable straws are thrown out every single day, some reusable straws are a better option. They are very durable and last for a long period of time. The bamboo straws really do their jobs as they are all natural and do not really have any negative environmental impacts. In contrast, some of the other types of straws have negative environmental impacts when being made such as the paper straws and metal straws. Paper straws require more energy and material to make compared to plastic straws. Since paper straws are also single use, they are not much better than the plastic straws. They have a worse environmental impact when being made, but they do decompose at a faster rate than plastic straws, which lessen their negative impact. Metal straws also require much more energy to be created compared to plastic straws. The energy used to create just one metal straw is the same amount that would be used to make 90 plastic ones and the creation produces the carbon emissions of 150 plastic straws. So in this case the metal straw would have to be used over 150 times before it is considered “better” to use than plastic straws. Silicone straws have one main negative, they are colored using dyes that can be harmful to your health.  So similar to reusable plastic bags, for many reusable straws to be more ecofriendly than single use plastic straws, they have to be used many times. Although, some reusable straws such as the bamboo straws are all natural, so in these cases the straws are much better for the environment because they biodegrade easily.  

For my paper I plan to research how much reusable products are actually that much better for the environment. I will be focusing on reusable straws and reusable bags because I feel like those are both products that are currently very popular. I will analyze the environmental impact of different types of reusable products compared to the single-use plastic versions of them. This will include looking at what they are made out of. I will also use statistics in order to compare the environmental impacts of the reusable and single use products. At the end of the paper I hope to have come to a conclusion about whether these products accomplish the goals they are supposed to.

I am not that worried about the length of the paper because I have written papers this long before. However, I am worried about finding enough credible information to use. I worry that I won’t find enough data on my specific topic. 

I will be continuing with my topic of reusable products. My paper will focus on the question: Are reusable products such as straws and bags truly helping the environment?. I will be taking a look at the alternatives to single use plastic bags and plastic straws. I will evaluate how well these products accomplish the goal of reducing plastic waste. In addition, I will focus on countries that have prominent plastic waste issues and how they are dealt with.

The topic I have chosen for my paper is reusable products. Specifically, do reusable products such as reusable straws and reusable shopping bags actually help the environment and if yes how so. In addition, I will explore ways in which we could better accomplish the goals that these products attempt to accomplish. This would include alternative products that are better for the environment and other ideas for new products.