Sample 1:

Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Suppose your website is perfect. Youve finally got all of the right content and images up,
and everyone in your office agrees its looking really good. But theres a problem. Your
traffics not going up. Youre not getting new customers. Why? No one sees your site
when its buried at the bottom of search results. You probably need some help.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising gets your website listed next to the top of search results
relevant for your business. Youll get noticed and youll just pay for the traffic that you
gain only if they click on your link or ad. With PPC, your website is going to get a ton
of new visitors and convert some of those new visitors into new customers. PPC is like a
performance-enhancing drug for your website except its perfectly legitimate. Think of
SEO Expert as the doctor that stimulates your website.
What is PPC Advertising?
Fundamentally, with PPC Advertising you pay a pre-arranged amount of money for each
visitor that finds your website through your advertisement. Unlike running ads on the
radio, TV or newspaper, with PPC you only pay for potential customers who make the
effort to click open the link in your ad. With SEO Expert, PPC is much less risky than
traditional advertising because we let you set the budget, the price youll pay per click,
and measure exactly how much traffic you gain from each of your advertisements.
In todays digital economy, PPC Advertising has transitioned from a luxury to a necessity.
Luckily, the costs of running a PPC Advertising campaign have come down significantly
over the last decade, making them affordable for most growing businesses.
While there are a couple other types of PPC Advertising, the most common type is called
paid search. And any campaign using paid search must also feature a mobile strategy to
attract people using tablets and phones, in addition to online visitors. This is easily the
most cost effective strategy and perfect for beginning your PPC advertising campaign.
And our staff of experienced nerds is here to walk you through paid search, making it as
easy as possible for your website to explode with new clients.
Paid Search
A quality PPC plan will leverage a variety of search engines. The big daddy of them all is
Googles paid search program called Adwords. With Google Adwords, you and your
agency will choose keywords certain words and phrases relevant to your business.
When a user does a search on Google using those keywords, your paid search ad is
served up alongside the organic results of the search. Amazing, right?

Suppose you own a pet food store. When someone searches for dog food, without a
PPC campaign your website is not going to show up on the first page of Googles organic
results. Those slots are taken by the big dogs like Purina. But with paid search, your ad
can show up above or alongside the organic results, and you only pay if someone clicks
on you. Can you imagine that happening with TV advertising? Purina airs a TV
commercial and your ad runs near it? Whats impossible with traditional advertising is
completely do-able with PPC:

Its important to mention that other search engines also offer paid search. While Google
generates the most traffic, websites including Bing and Yahoo Gemini often cost much
less, making them a potential target for you to begin your PPC campaign. If youre really
down to business, however, you should take advantage of a mix of search engines.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other massively popular sites also offer paid search. In
many cases youll want to use them in conjunction with the other forms of PPC
advertising shown below.
Some paid search ads utilize a remarketing or retargeting strategy. Youve probably
noticed certain ads following you online after you searched for something. Say you
recently booked a ticket for a vacation. Afterwards you notice ads over the next few days
for rental cars or new luggage. Those are examples of remarketing campaigns at work.
Remarketing ads take advantage of cookies left in a users browser and serve up new ads
based on what the user was previously searching for. Its incredible.
Here at SEO Expert, our genius (yet socially underwhelming) staff will help you decide
how much you should invest in each search engine based on your websites target
audience.
Pricing Methods
There are two methods of determining the price of PPC Advertising: bids and flat rates.
The bidding process allows the host to receive bids from a variety of advertisers for a
certain advertisement spot or keyword. The flat rate method differs by allowing the host
to directly determine the price for a certain advertisement spot or keyword. Working with
SEO expert as your agency can get you the optimum mix at the lowest cost.

PPC Best Practices

If youve read this far, youre probably serious about beginning or improving your PPC
Advertising. Good. Here are six practices that our team cant emphasize enough to help
you get the most out of your PPC Advertising.
1. Keywords
The most important component of PPC Advertising is selecting the right keywords and
phrases or strings of keywords. After all, you need to figure out where people are
searching so that you can direct all of that traffic toward your website. Unfortunately,
finding the right keywords isnt an easy one-step process. In fact, determining the right
keywords to use requires thorough research and experience to master.
To successfully pick your keywords, you should look at more than just what people are
searching. The most effective keywords are those that use a combination of words that
are commonly searched together to make sure that the results you are providing are as
specific as possible to the searchers request.
For example, say you are selling jeans for men. Instead of using the keyword pants,
which is pretty broad, includes women and kids, and may be expensive. Instead, you
should test the keyword phrase, men slim jeans black. This way, you get a much more
targeted and efficient result. Remember to take into consideration that the order of the
words is important too.
The other side of this, however, is that you dont want to be too specific. You should keep
in mind that if only two people are going to search for your product, you are probably not
going to gain much from the advertising.
Finding a balance between specificity and broadness is the big challenge. But dont
worry, our team at SEO Expert will happily figure this out for you.
2. Budget
One of the best things about SEO Experts PPC Advertising services is that you can
control exactly how much you want to spend. We help you to set a daily budget where
you can choose the most amount of money that you want to spend on PPC ads per day
or even per hour! Establishing an effective budget is integral to a successful PPC
Advertising campaign. A budget thats too small wont make a major difference in the
traffic that you receive, but a massive budget may cause you to actually lose money. And
we definitely dont want that.
3. Quality Over Quantity

Web traffic is great, but does it mean anything? The answer relies upon whos visiting
your website and what their intention is. Ultimately, you want people to buy, sign up, hire
you whatever it is you are looking to accomplish. You dont want to pay for someone
to visit your website if theyre just going to immediately close the tab and return to
repeatedly scrolling through their newsfeed. So how do you make sure that you get the
highest quality web traffic?
Essentially, this returns to an issue of keyword selection and how you market your
website digitally. Your goal is to reach your specific audience customers who will visit
and revisit your website, share it with their colleagues, hire you, purchase something
from your website, etc. You have to take into account the demographics of your target
population (i.e. age, gender, location) and then lure your target audience by being explicit
about the purpose of your website and as specific with your keywords as possible.
4. Staying on Top of PPC Advertising
One common shortfall of PCC Advertisers is they set up their advertisements and then
they forget about them. Dont let this happen to you.
Staying on top of PPC advertising means periodically updating your keywords to match
changes in search trends, following the PPC market to make sure that youre not
overpaying for your advertisements, and checking for website spots and keywords that
may become available. To gain the most out of your PPC Advertising, you need to stay
up to date and monitor it constantly. But dont worry, you dont actually have to do this
with our services well stay on top of it for you.
5. Expertise
While virtually anyone can begin PPC Advertising, having the right background and
experience is necessary to getting the most out of your dollar. SEO Expert will help you
accomplish all of these goals in the most cost effective way possible, letting your website
traffic grow and, subsequently, your business thrive.
6. Data Analyses
Any effective PPC Advertising campaign requires carrying out a variety of data analyses
and adjusting the campaign accordingly. Ultimately, data analyses provide you a variety
of quality scores, which basically tells you how well your PPC Advertisements are doing
according to a multitude of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to: click
rate, content quality, location, loading time, and keyword relevance.
Why does this matter? Because its essentially how Google, Bing, and Yahoo rank your
advertisement in search results and how much you end up paying per click.

Our SEO Expert team will provide you with a diverse variety of types of data analysis
involved in PPC Advertising, allowing you to get the most out of your data reports.

Future of PPC Advertising

Of course PPC Advertising becomes more and more useful everyday. As the field
continues to innovate, PPC Advertising will only become more essential for your
business to grow.
In the past few years, PPC Advertising has begun to use personal information shared on
the Internet, such as email accounts, Facebook interests, and phone numbers to more
accurately advertise to potential customers. In other words, your PPC Advertisement will
appear on the screens of people who are the most likely to convert into customers.
This also means your advertisements are less likely to be seen as pesky because they will
genuinely relate to the viewer. And who doesnt want to easily advertise to your target
population?
SEO Expert stands out from our competition by embracing the constantly evolving nature
of PPC Advertising, taking the newest practices into account and consistently updating
our strategies to be as effective as possible.
Why SEO Expert?
If youre ready to make your website as successful as possible, youll want to look into
hiring a PPC Advertising agency. Look no further SEO Expert is here to help.
We bring expertise, experience, passion, cost efficiency, and, most importantly, quick
results to the table. SEO Experts is one of the few agencies that lets you decide how
much you want to spend. We offer a wide range of management services to suit your
budget, beginning at just $299 a month. Our company offers up to 26 different services to
promote your PPC campaign in the best way possible.
If subscribed to our Premium PPC Management service, you will receive a daily targeting
report to make sure that your traffic goals are being achieved (if they are not, we will
make all of the necessary corrections), a daily keyword analysis that provides a quality
score, and up to 15 daily, simultaneous ad campaigns on Facebook, Yelp, and/or Google.
If youre not happy with what were doing, well change our processes to make you
happy.
Unlike other agencies, SEO Expert tailors a PPC Advertising strategy customized
specifically for your company. And we wont stop working until you get results.

So what are you waiting for? Click here to sign up.

Sample 2:
Dont Get Stuck (without) Traffic
SEO Experts can manage your PPC Campaign and accelerate your business.
Whats PPC?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising is a critical tool for any website trying to expand its
user-base in a cost-effective manner. Our team of highly trained nerds have dedicated
countless hours to mastering the PPC Advertising process in order to deliver the best
results as quickly as possible for our customers.
With PPC Advertising, your website will be listed near the top of search results that are
most relevant for your business, bringing you tons of new visitors who are interested in
what you offer and likely to return or buy.
Why SEO Expert?
We handle it all. You set a budget and let us do the work.
Choose from up to 26 different PPC Advertising services to suit your needs.
Youll receive daily targeting reports to ensure your goals are achieved. If at any
time goals arent being met, we handle the fine-tuning adjustments saving you
time and money.
True to our name, were experts in mastering the perfect balance in keyword
specificity: the right mix of terms that are not too broad yet not too narrow. Think
Goldilocks here.
Our professionals are certified by Google Adwords, providing you confidence that
an experienced team is managing your PPC program.
On average, our clients experienced a 35% increase in visitors in the first 6 weeks
of our typical PPC campaign. Imagine what those results will do for your
business.

Evidence that PPC Works

Google reports that businesses using PPC campaigns experience a $2.00 average
revenue gain for every $1.00 spent on keywords.
PPC Ads are clicked over three percent of the time! Thats actually a huge percentage
considering the sheer volume of Internet traffic. So the more you spend, the more
traffic youll win!
Its working for others (maybe even for your competitors). Google Advertising alone
generated over $50 billion last year.

Nearly 90% of traffic generated by PPC ads is incremental and cannot be duplicated
simply by organic activity. You need a PPC campaign, managed by SEO Expert, to
ramp your traffic up to the next level.

What do we do?
Its simple. We get you new visitors, so you get more customers. A lot of more.
How? By:
Determining the demographics of your target audience.
Consolidating our marketing focus onto the most efficient and effective platforms.
Writing copy for ads with in-depth informational analyses guiding us.
Targeting our ads to reach the most likely customers.
Continually updating and optimizing your ad campaign with the latest user data.
Auditing your current keywords, bids, and quality scores with PPC strategy
reports to support our fixes.
[Side tab]
Get in touch with us to (finally) get those results you deserve.
Entry-level plans start at just $299 per month.
Contact us today:
http://SEO.Expert
info@seo.expert
844-WANT SEO
602.483.1632

Sample 3:
An Intersectional Critique of Lipsitzs Conception of Whiteness
Since its origin, the United States has consistently established itself as a nation
plagued by racism. George Lipsitzs The Possessive Investment in Whiteness:
Racialized Social Democracy and the "White" Problem in American Studies is a
foundational text for anti-blackness theory that describes the underlying discrimination
against non-white bodies throughout the United States. The text provides a basic
understanding of white supremacys societal dominance, yet extends an exclusionary
concept of whiteness as an organizing force that solely relies upon race. In opposition to
Lipsitz, an intersectional analysis of white supremacy is necessary in order to holistically

comprehend whiteness. The successful dismantling of whiteness is only possible with a

holistic understanding of whiteness.
White supremacy aligns itself within both historical and modern societal
structures. According to Lipsitz, the very foundation of the United States set a framework
for a society that revolves around an everlasting yet invisibilized issue of racial inequality
through the genocide of the Native Americans. Upon the United States colonization,
Europeans were classified as whites to contrast with the darker skinned Native
Americans. This process evolved throughout American history into the present, largely
due to liberal misconceptions of racial progress, which promote the continued rhetorical
silence surrounding racial inequality. Liberals commonly believe that the state can
successfully reform to enable racial equality, however, this belief fails to recognize that
the very foundations of the United States uphold white supremacy. Capitalism, electoral
discrimination, slavery, colonization, and much more serve as pervasive forces that reify
white supremacy at a macro-political level, nullifying the abilities of the government to
successfully reform. These pervasive forces allow whiteness to be everywhere in
American culture, but very hard to see (Lipsitz 369). The difficulty that many white
Americans face in identifying racism allows it to continue unabated, reinforcing racial
inequality throughout the nation. Lipsitz provides a beginning framework for
comprehending white supremacy, however, he fails to identify white supremacy entirely,
which merely strengthens its power.
Unfortunately, Lipsitz ignores the totalistic social invasion of whiteness, failing to
recognize its inherently intersectional nature and restricting whiteness to an issue of race.
While the author initially vaguely defines whiteness as not simply a matter of black and

white; all racialized minority groups have suffered from it, his examples of racialized
minority groups are restrictively based upon skin color (Lipsitz 372). Lipsitzs racialized
minority examples include Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans,
and other groups designated by whites as racially other (Lipsitz 372). Such a definition
is too narrow in scope, failing to acknowledge the many ways that whiteness
discriminates against people not due to their race, but due to their sexuality, gender,
religion, and a multitude of other characteristics that place an individual on the
prejudicial side of whiteness (Thangaraj 2012). Lipsitz deserves credit for his reasoning
that whiteness is the dominant organizing factor between minorities and supremacists;
however, his focus on whiteness as being purely a matter of race, for example, places
heterosexual, male-centered racial violence at the same degree of violence as anti-queer,
patriarchal racial violence. This is wholly problematic because heterosexual black males
face only one mode of violence in comparison to queer, black females who face three
modes of violence (Hutchinson 1999). This failure of recognition allows whiteness to
continue to oppress minorities for non-racial characteristics, ultimately strengthening
whiteness by preventing a true understanding of it. Luckily, Lipsitzs argument is not
entirely devoid and may be reformed simply to effectively combat whiteness.
A successful movement against whiteness is possible by combining the basic
ideas of Lipsitzs text with the complex details of intersectional politics. A primitive
understanding of Lipsitzs text contains the ideas that whiteness is an evolving,
organizing force of society, historically and presently, and that racial movements
commonly receive backlash from those who benefit from whiteness. The most important
detail of Lipsitzs text is his rejection of faulty liberalism because whiteness is structural

and not contingent upon legislative reformation (Lipsitz 383). Instead of calling for
legislative change to dismantle whiteness, Lipsitz identifies Walter Benjamins presence
of mind as the most effective movement against whiteness (Lipsitz 384). The presence
of mind refers to an abstract of the future, and precise awareness of the present moment
more decisive than foreknowledge of the most distant events, or, in other words, an
understanding that the most important time to focus upon is the present (Lipsitz 370). The
adoption of the presence of mind is vital to promote a successful social revolution
against whiteness in the United States, as Lipsitz argues, however, this presence of
mind must contain a recognition of the multi-dimensional violence that whiteness
entails. If this does not happen, the presence of mind will solely entrench societys
ignorance of whiteness.
While the basis of Lipsitzs argument against whiteness is applicable to a
successful movement, his failure to challenge the intersectional nature of whiteness
prevents any movements based upon his work from succeeding. Lipsitz is correct in a
variety of ways throughout his work, however, by limiting whiteness solely to a matter of
race, he allows whiteness to perpetuate other forms of social inequality. The presence of
mind may present a successful alternative to whiteness as long as it acknowledges the
multi-modality of oppression. Although it may sound utopian, racial and social equality
can be achieved as long as the enemy (whiteness) is correctly identified.

Sample 4:
Homelessness in Poland: The Need for a New Response

The homeless population in Poland face unique challenges, not the least of which
is the extremely harsh winter that the country experiences annually, with January
temperatures averaging -4 degrees Celsius. Despite the homeless suffering nearly
everyday, however, there has yet to be a major national study on Polands homeless
population. In addition, the government has not articulated any recent strategies to
address the root causes of homelessness. Rather national policy appears to be aimed at
efforts to minimize the suffering faced by the homeless, rather than assist them in
obtaining shelter. This essay will strive to explain the current trends of homelessness,
including the governments responses, as well as propose potential solutions to the issue
at hand.
Before continuing, however, it is necessary to analyze the current demographics
of Polands homeless population. This analysis can only be directional in nature and not
statistically accurate due to a lack of definitive research data sets. This shortcoming
results from methodologies that frankly were consistently flawed in past research. To
further elaborate, most research consists of local surveys in regions or cities where active
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were providing aid through shelters.
Consequently the surveyed population is almost exclusively homeless people that are
currently staying in shelters, making it difficult to estimate the portion of the homeless
population that remains on the streets at night. While some surveys covering entire
regions of Poland have occurred, they were quite infrequent making the evidence
illustrative rather than definitive. Meanwhile there has not been nation-wide focus on
obtaining data.1

1 See Wygnaska 2005.

In fact, there have been no attempts of researching homelessness nationally that have
used a representative sample of the homeless population. This is largely because of a
shortage of funding, lack of attention toward homelessness, and an understanding that
homeless shelters and NGO facilities are bearing most of the responsibility for dealing
with homelessness in Poland, rather than local or federal governments. As a consequence
the data sets used to estimate national figures vary significantly. For example, the
National Welfare Statistics 2007 survey reported that there were 11,145 homeless people
in Poland, while in contrast the National Programme Return to Society survey of 2007
estimated that there were 83,804 homeless people.23 The sizeable difference in population
estimates here illuminates the challenge that surveys face when projecting regional data
in order to estimate the national homeless population. This paper will present the national
demographics established in a 2011 survey by a professor at the University of Gdask
while acknowledging that its results should not be taken as directional evidence; while
not statistically accurate, the evidence is based on the best available data.
The professors demographic results use a methodology that consists of averaging a
variety of surveys from many regions around Poland to come up with the mean number
of homeless people. (The report acknowledges its statistical limitation due to this
methodology). The studys demographic analysis shows that men consist of more than
80% of Polands homeless population; mostly aged between 40 and 60 years; less than
3% have received higher education; more than 50% of homeless people are divorced; the
most common environments for homeless people are urban areas; 97% of homeless
people are Polish nationals; the majority are alcoholics; there are very few drug users.4
2 See Dbski 2011.
3
4 See Dbski 2011.

While some of these points are expected, the dramatic gender inequality, high amount of
nationals, and lack of drug addicts sets the homeless population of Poland apart from
many other countries. Understanding the demographics of the homeless in Poland is
crucial to developing effective strategies to curb homelessness nationally.
The Polish homeless support system is primarily one that treats homelessness in a similar
manner to treating a population during an emergency. The goal, during an emergency, is
to manage and prevent the catastrophic effects from developing any further. Similarly, the
Polish homeless support system refuses to attempt to end the homeless peoples lives as
homeless, through housing support programs and employment opportunities. Instead, the
Polish homeless support system solely attempts to manage the suffering that homeless
people experience on a daily basis by feeding the homeless and providing them
temporary shelter, neglecting the why they need these things in the first place. Of the few
homeless prevention programs that exist, theres a drastic lack of coordination,
monitoring, and long-term evaluation, causing the programs to be largely unsuccessful. In
addition, theres no national strategy for solving the social issue; this is an anomaly in
Europe, where most countries do, in fact, have national policies for addressing
homelessness. The lack of a national approach prevents successful solution due to
regional fragmentation and coordination deficiencies.5 Many believe that since Poland
joined the EU in 2005, issues of homelessness have been addressed. However, as
indicated earlier, this funding goes toward managing the populations instead of directly
ending homelessness.
There are two primary factors of homelessness in Poland: a detached understanding of
unemployment, homelessness, and poverty; and the modern effects of Polands former
5 See Jakulski 2014.

communist regime. In terms of social exclusion, most people, including government

officials, commonly understand poverty and unemployment as, respectively, more severe
and less severe than homelessness. However, the problem with this understanding is it
fails to acknowledge that homelessness is a result of unemployment and is, indeed, a
form of poverty. An analysis of over 160 commune strategies for addressing social issues
concluded that homelessness is thought of as a relatively insignificant issue in
comparison to other social problems, ensuring continued political and national neglect.
Typically, unemployment and poverty are not only treated as separate issues from
homelessness, but are also prioritized in resolving over homelessness. Such a singular
understanding of homelessness causes nation-wide neglect of the root causes of
homelessness, as well as eliminates any roles that health, housing, or judiciary actors may
have in curbing the issue.6
The second factor of homelessness is the echoing effects of the former communist
government. Even though Poland transitioned into a democracy more than 20 years ago,
the problems of its communist regime still massively contribute toward homelessness
today. Polands slowly moving away from the housing schemes of communist Poland,
where temporary housing is rare, yet the only option for newly homeless people, and debt
levels remain high from the governmental transition. As a result, evictions frequently
occur and result in a permanent state of homelessness. Another result of this is that its
substantially harder to transition from being homeless in Poland than it is in many other
countries. This is because the Polish Welfare system isnt nearly as developed as most
Western European nations because the communist governments would consistently claim
that there were no social problems, allowing the governments to eliminate any spending
6 See Jaskulski 2014.

on institutions and strategies that were designed to remedy social problems such as
homelessness. Following the democratic transition, however, Polish NGOs begun to take
the first steps in setting up a new social system. These organizations begun with basic
infrastructures, such as night shelters and soup kitchens, but the economic effects of
transitioning away from communism quickly halted these NGOs, until 2004 when Poland
joined the EU. However, these programs are still in their beginning phases, ineffectively
addressing the homeless issue.
Up until this point, the majority of this paper has been a criticism of the use of
empirical data in Poland for establishing statistical trends regarding the national homeless
problem. However, an absolutist claim, such as refusing to acknowledge any statistics as
accurate, is impossible in gaining a full understanding of the homeless population. The
most interesting empirical data is a study that establishes the potential benefits of
homelessness, as per the homeless populations opinions. 57.5% of homeless respondents
to this study believe that there are no benefits to homelessness. .7% of homeless
respondents believe that there is nothing to lose in being homeless, presenting a more
apathetic/neutral view toward their lack of residency. 2% are just happy to be alive; 5.2%
believe that homelessness teaches them to be humble and modest; 12.4% believe
homelessness gives them a unique sense of freedom; and 4.6% believe that they are fine
because they can stay in shelters and suitably eat (Widera, Wojciech).
Homelessness is a major problem in Poland that needs to be addressed at a
national level. In order to do so, however, more nation-wide studies of the homeless need
to occur, rather than multiplications of regional and local surveys. One potential solution
to homelessness at a nation-wide level is to shift the current focus of managing the

suffering that the homeless face into focusing on employment services and housing.
National law should require local authorities to reintegrate the homeless into the labor
market, rather than just require local authorities to provide emergency relief, such as food
and water. By shifting the strategic focus and increasing the scope of knowledge about
the national homeless pandemic, Poland can dramatically decrease its homeless
population and remedy a problem that plagues a large amount of the nation.

Sample 5:
The UN Millennium Declaration: A Brief Historical Review
After recognizing the importance of establishing an approach to poverty that
incorporates environmental responsibility, the United Nations (UN) adopted the UN
Millennium Declaration, a global agenda of eight development goals, known as the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. 7
The innovative approach has dramatically curbed poverty throughout the globe while
simultaneously adapting to ongoing environmental changes. Established in 2000, the
plan designated 2015 as the desired year to achieve its goals8. When 2015 came around,
more than 150 leaders from across the world met at the UN headquarters in New York
City and agreed upon a new framework of developmental goals. This paper will begin
by describing the Millennium Development Goals; it will then explore the effects the
plan has had on certain countries; and, finally, briefly dive into the new goals that the UN
has established in the fall of 2015.
The eight Millennium Development Goals sought to dramatically decrease poverty rates
globally while still setting forth an environmentally sustainable path for the future. The
goals were widely known as the first of a kind because of the wide, multi-dimensional
7 See World Resources 2005 to read an in-depth analysis of the
establishment, specifics, and shortcomings of the UN millennium
Declaration.
8 See UN 2015s Report about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development to learn about the final outcomes of the Millenium
Declaration. Furthermore, the report explains the many ways that the
results affected the 2015-2030 plan and the changes that were
necessitated due to the report.

approach they shared toward addressing poverty9. Unlike previous approaches, the
Millennium Development Goals emphasized hunger, disease, lack of shelter, gender
equality, education and environmental sustainabilityall in an actionable, pragmatic
manner. The goals consisted of a timed target with incremental goals prior to the
deadline. In addition, the Millennium Development Goals required countries to prepare
progress reports, instituting a new and evolved level of cooperative transparency.
Below are the Millennium Development Goals:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Overall, the eight goals mitigate a diverse array of oppressive structures globally.
While most poverty reduction plans would center upon solely Goal 1 (to eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger), the Millennium Development Goals go beyond such a
simple approach and improve societal wellness in a variety of ways. In addition, the
explicitness of the goals allows the UN to hold countries accountable for accomplishing
the goals. According to experts, [b]y stating goals in clear, straightforward
language, the MDGs make it easy for civil-society groups to evaluate progress toward
human development goals and to issue a public report card on a governments success

9 Again, see World Resources 2005.

or failure.10 The language of the goals and its specificity enable the UN to more easily
pressure the globe to accomplish the goals, making them more unique compared to other
poverty mitigation strategies.
The next section of this paper will explore the effects that the Millennium
Development Goals have had on certain countries, primarily focusing upon individual
instances of success. This section will present specific examples of economic success
that resulted from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which increased
revenue for the working, impoverished people of growing nations. The countries that
this paper will focus on include: China, Uzbekistan, the Republic of Malawi, and
Venezuela.
China and Tea Farms
With its strong influence in the United Nations, Chinas role in promoting
economic sustainability and its partnership with the United Nations Development Plan
(UNDP), the primary actor for ensuring the Millennium Development Goals are followed
through, is critical. One primary area of cooperation between China and the UNDP
involves the farming of green tea, an agricultural product that historically makes up a
massive component of Chinas economy.11 Through the cooperation and based off of the
Millennium Development Goals, the UNDP and Xinyang Municipal Government of the
Henan Province were able to establish 18 eco-friendly local government guidelines and
mechanisms, review 374 policies in Xinyang municipals leading to the amendment of 7
environmentally damaging agriculture and forestry policies, and eventually lead to the
creation of the Municipal Land Use Plan for 2010-2020.12

10 See Footnote 1.
11 See Sartors 2007 article describing the political and economic
impact that tea has had on China throughout history.

The UNDP worked with the Xinyang Municipal Government in order to launch a
pilot program to deal with the restoration and preservation of ecosystems in the Huaihe
River Basin. The overall goal was to address national environmental management and
to conserve global biodiversity.13 During the pilot project, the two organizations were
able to develop a mechanism for massively promoting and protecting land used for
growing tea in order to further stimulate Chinas economy. The cooperation resulted in
the discovery of new production techniques, mitigation of negative environmental
impacts, training for tree cropping and infusion, and technical innovation and support.
Briefly after receiving the support of the UNDP, one farmer noted, a 10 percent increase
in production this year and more leaves that could meet the premium level
standard.14 By the end of the five-year project, Xinyang contained up to 11 safe and
sustainable tea production sites, benefiting Chinas economy and paving the way toward
an ecologically sustainable tea-producing world.
Uzbekistan and Beekeeping
12 See the UNDPs 2014 article that explains thoroughly its
cooperation with the Xinyang Municipal Government of the Henan
Province. This article goes into detail about agricultural cooperation
between the UN and Xinyang officials and the direct correlation that
these had with the UNs sustainable development goals. In addition,
the article goes into detail about the programs effectiveness in
providing income to the poor within the region of China.
13 This is from later on in the UNDP 2014 article that describes the
cooperation between the two official bodies.
14 This quotation is from a farmer named Li, who lives in the Huaihe
region and was able to go from living an impoverished life to gaining
massive revenues. The quotation is toward the middle of the UNDP
2014 article.

Despite being a less influential country in the United Nations than China,
Uzbekistan still plays an important role in the UNDP and the success of the eight
Millennium Declaration Goals due to its drastically increasing impoverished population
as the Aral Sea disaster continues to leave fishermen and farmers jobless. The UN
cooperated through the UNDP in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals
with the Uzbekistan government to launch the joint UN Aral Sea Programme of 2012.
The purpose of the program was to establish a new way to revive Uzbekistans economy
and promote sustainable development, while dramatically reducing the amount of
impoverished citizens living in Uzbekistan. The conclusion of the program? Bees.
The study concluded that beekeeping would be the perfect economic replacement
for Uzbekistan, stimulating its economy by creating a new industry that the poor can
easily participate in.15 Beekeeping has an incredibly cheap startup price despite having a
consistently high demand, thus the UNDP concluded that it would be the perfect
economic replacement for Uzbekistan. Entrepreneurs who want to become involved in
the beekeeping business were able to register cheaply and attend UNDP-supported
seminars that teach the ambitious citizens how to run a sustainable business and perform
a demonstration to receive investments into their beekeeping businesses. Since the
program started, over 48 UN-supported demonstration projects have occurred in just the
Amudarya district, with more than 210 beehives being delivered to hopeful businessmen.
However, the UNDP helped the poor people regain an economic footing beyond just the
start-up costs. The UNDP also created a network of agro-consultants that would aid and
assist rural impoverished populations in becoming a part of the sustainable, beekeeping
practice. The results of the cooperation were fantastic. According to the UNDP website,
15 See Sherali Suyarkulovs 2013 article describing the effects of UNDP
cooperation with Uzbekistan over beekeeping. The article outlines the
economic effects, the details behind the cooperation, and the reasons
the two agencies decided upon beekeeping.

[t]he UN Aral Sea Programme helps address the economic, health and food needs of
more than 130,000 people directly affected by the environmental crisis, while other
community development plans, such as the provision of basic infrastructure, improved
social services and healthcare, benefit almost 500,000 people indirectly.16
Malawi Women and Recycling
As a historically patriarchal society, the drastic lack of income for women in the
Republic of Malawi is one of the largest problems facing the republic in modern times.17
The fundamental barrier to women obtaining revenue is the lack of access to the job
market due to the patriarchal ideologies within the society. While it certainly does not
enable equality for women in the Republic of Malawi, the UNDP has helped create a
massive leap toward female equality in the republic by launching the Waste for Wealth
project. In the republic, over 80% of urban waste is organic and recyclable, holding
massive potential to increase not only income for women, but food security for everyone
in the country.18
16 See the UNDPs 2013 article that explains the goals, mechanics,
and outcomes of cooperation between Uzbekistans government and
the UNDP. In addition, the article goes into the details of the
beekeeping industrys effect upon the overall Uzbekistan economy .
17 See the Denmark Economic Empowerment Initiative article on
empowering women in Malawi.
18 See UNDPs 2015 article that explains its Waste for Wealth project
in the Republic of Malawi. This article goes into in depth detail not
only about the project itself, but what instigated the project and the
very beneficial outcomes of the project.

In 2010, the Waste for Wealth project begun with the training of just 37
women, starting with the simplistic job of converting compost into fertilizer.19 The
conversion enables the women of Malawi to not only gain a large amount of revenue
directly, but also use the manure-based fertilizer to grow crops for their own uses. The
UNDPs training included teaching women the most effective mechanisms for acquiring
the garbage in the region; organizing it into distinct categories based off of the different
materials that the trash is made of; sanitizing the materials to get rid of germs;
decomposing the materials to turn them into a fertilizer; and finally, bagging the manure
fertilizer and selling it to corporations. The project has allowed the formerly
unemployed women of Malawi to be able to earn a living wage while simultaneously
cleaning the region and promoting the agricultural industry throughout the region. In
addition, water-vectored diseases have dramatically diminished in the region due to the
enhanced cleanliness of the region.20
Not only did the UNDP help set up the basics for Malawi female employment via
training the women, but it also provided thousands of dollars toward constructing storage
places for the fertilizer.21 As a result, every waste dump in the project areas has been
removed. Over 158 new fertilizer entrepreneurs have been trained by the UNDP, and
compost sales have amounted to record high levels. Overall, the UNDP program
epitomizes the importance of combining economic growth with socially progressive and
environmentally friendly initiatives. Not only does the project provide massive amounts
of wealth to the Malawi economy, but also it furthers equality for women in the country
19 See Footnote 12.
20 See Charles Mkulas 2014 article to read a thorough analysis of the
pros and cons of the UNDP program in Malawi. The article details a
personal narrative, in addition, which may help contextualize the
programs broader effect on the women in Malawi.
21 See Footnote 12.

while simultaneously dramatically benefiting the pollution and agricultural industry of

the country.
Venezuelan Youth and Music
With more than seven percent of its inhabitants living in extreme poverty, the UNDP
targeted Venezuela as a key country to employ dramatic sustainable anti-poverty
measures within.22 However, Venezuela has been known as a nation that is historically
against Western imposition. In order to accommodate Venezuelas anti-imperialist
desires while simultaneously accomplishing the objectives of relieving poverty
throughout the nation, the UNDP decided to promote and invest a significant amount of
effort, wealth, and time into a project known as the System of Youth and Childrens
Orchestras of Venezuela. The program began in 2002, however, is still functioning even
today. Poor Venezuelans between the ages of three and 29 are the main demographic
targeted by the program, which teaches them the art of music and how to play certain
instruments. While at first this may seem to be insignificant toward eradicating poverty,
the UNDP has cited many studies that indicate that a musical education promotes
discipline and healthy past-times, thereby setting children on a path to create better lives
for themselves and their families.23 Through the orchestral methodology of the UNDP,
students are able to not only work harder toward improving their own lives, but they are
able to work harder toward improving their familys lives.
The funding for the Venezuelan program required a partnership with the International
Development Bank due to the relatively large amount of funding required for the
initiative. The program supplies instruments to 99% of the students, trains them with
22 See Patricia Clarembeauxs article about the UNDPs initiative in
Venezuela to learn more about the current situation regarding poverty
in the country, as well as to learn further details regarding the UNDPs
musical teaching program in Venezuela.
23 See Footnote 16.

professional musicians, and even inspires the students with famous musicians. In total,
over 350,000 of the Venezuelan youth population have gone through the program and
begun living happier and more sustainable lives. While this program doesnt deal with
the UNs ideal approach toward sustainability, which is usually in relation to deterring
environmental degradation, this program still meets its goal of sustainability by not
contributing in any way, shape, or form toward ongoing environmental devastation. The
program begins at the preschool age, giving children the attention that they need but are
not able to achieve due to the systemically impoverished structures of the nation.
Additionally, the children are placed in a safe yet challenging environment, teaching
them endurance, resilience, a deep sense of value, trust, and confidence.24
Lebanon and Water Scarcities
A large focus of this paper has been on the UNDPs sustainable initiatives in regards to
attempting to mitigate environmental damage, whether through the Republic of Malawis
composting efforts or Chinas environmentally friendly tea farming efforts. However,
this next section will focus on how Lebanese farmers are fighting the effects of climate
change in order to effectively adapt to its damages and successfully maintain their
agricultural efforts despite the drastic environmental modifications that are to come in the
near future. In the last few decades, the most common months in Lebanon for rain
(December, January, and February) have seen roughly a 16% decrease in the amount of
precipitation during these months.25 The significance of that number means that there is a
substantially smaller amount of well water needed to continue hydrating the crops of
farmers, causing an inevitable food crisis.
24 See El Sistemas article about their program in Venezuela to further
learn about their objectives and the individual training and strategic
approaches that the program takes.
25 See Assaad Razzouks article that thoroughly details the problems
being created by climate change in Lebanon.

However, in response to this increasing water shortage, the UNDP partnered with the
Lebanese Ministry of Environment to provide climate resilient infrastructure to the
farmers. The project has implemented rainwater-harvesting systems on top of
greenhouses used for growing crops, storing the water in underground storage tanks.
While this seems like a modest solution that is incredibly simple, it more than doubles the
amount of water that is harvested by the farmers, increasing the potential for crop growth
and fully mitigating the water scarcity effect caused by ongoing environmental changes,
such as climate change.26 This project not only dramatically increases crop yields, but it
also saves money farmers would have spent on purchasing water, protects the water from
pollution and salinization, and preserves the water quantity overtime. In addition, the
project reduces the CO2 emissions that are generated from water pumping, serving as a
climate-friendly project in the long run. The UNDP, fortunately, did not stop at
providing the infrastructure. In fact, the UNDP continued its efforts by creating a
guidebook for any farmers that are interested in preserving rain water in such an effective
manner, making it available for the broader Lebanese population.
2030 Sustainable Development Goals
As mentioned previously, the initial goals established 2015 as the target year,
or year that the goals were desired to be achieved by. Thus, in 2015, a new plan was
needed to extend the initial framework and continue promoting sustainable development
in impoverished areas throughout the world. During 2012, a UN meeting occurred
named Rio+20, which determined and created a planning commission that would come
up with the new sustainable development goals to propose and eventually adopt in the
2015 United Nations meeting.27 The commission then spent over a year negotiating the
26 See UNDP 2015 article that describes thoroughly their program for
providing infrastructure and training to Lebanese fighters in order to
resolve the problems being created by climate change.
27 See the article published by the United Nations in 2015. This article
describes the Rio+20 meeting and its eventual evolution into the

plan and eventually proposing 17 new goals for the United Nations to adopt. These goals
were adopted in August of 2015, with all 193-member states of the UN agreeing that the
goals would be ideal for promoting sustainable development between 2015 and 2030.
The new framework established 17 distinct goals for countries to achieve; these goals
were foundationally the same as the Millennium Development Goals while maintaining a
fundamental distinction that set the goals onto a path of unique success.
The new goals not only embraced a broader approach than the Millennium
Development Goals, but also attempted to eradicate the root causes of poverty and gender
inequality, as well as the overall process of development rather than merely the
outcomes. The 17 new goals that have been adopted by the UN are as follows28:
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and
promote sustainable agriculture.
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy
for all.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full
adoption of the new sustainable development goals globally.
28 See Liz Fords 2015 article that describes the creation,
implementation, ideals, criticisms, and fundamental problems behind
the 2015-2030 sustainable development goals. .

and productive employment, and decent work for all.

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable
industrialisation, and foster innovation.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable.
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking
note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum).
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources
for sustainable development.
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt
and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable
development, provide access to justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global
partnership for sustainable development.
The 17 goals were chosen following the conclusion of the open working groups
draft agenda and resulting negotiations at the United Nations throughout 2014.
According to the UNDPs Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Policy
and Programme Support, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is based on the
understanding that only economic growth that respects ecological boundaries, fosters
social equity and equal access to common goods, and contributes to poverty eradication,

is destined to succeed.29 This indicates that the new goals are consistent with the former
goals, only that they recognize the previous short-comings of the 2015 goals and are able
to adapt well in order to better stimulate economic growth while promoting social equity,
diminishing poverty, and being environmentally responsible.
However, despite the plan having a previous 15-years of effort to improve upon,
challenges certainly remain. According to the German Minister of the Environment, the
primary challenge is to achieve, as quickly as possible, the paradigm shift to an
economic development that finally respects the ecological boundaries of our planet and at
the same time eliminates poverty and hunger.30 Despite the UN coming to a consensus
on the plan to establish sustainable development, a massive economic paradigm shift will
be necessary globally. This will, assumedly, be largely problematic due to the consistent
global shift toward and subsequent evolution of capitalism, which promotes a lifestyle of
consumption in opposition to environmental responsibility.31 To further elaborate
without losing the focus of the paper, ongoing globalization enables corporations to
29 This quotation comes from Magdy Martnez-Solimn in an article by
the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative that was published in
2015. It is very significant because of how much of an important
leader Martnez-Solimn is within the UNDP. The article goes into
further details describing the establishment and unique hopes of the
2030 Sustainable Development Agenda based off of being better than
the Millennium Development Goals.
30 In 2015, Hendricks, who plays a significant role in the promotion of
and compliance to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
globally, criticized it thoroughly for a variety of reasons. To go into
further detail about Hendricks criticism, her arguments can be found
on the UN website linked in the bibliography.

frequently ignore environmental regulations, undermining environmental responsibilities

in order to widely increase profits. In addition, the United Kingdom and Japan disagree
with the implementation of the goals. The two countries agreed that the goals are too
complicated and costly to implement, very difficult to convince the public that they are
worthwhile goals that are realistic, and would prefer a substantially narrower plan,
similar to the 2000 goals.

32

In fact, David Cameron has publicly stated that he desires

merely 10 goals, however, has not indicated which goals hed like to be removed from
the current plan.
The remaining barrier to a successful path to sustainable development,
unfortunately, remains the most obvious barrier: money. An intergovernmental
committee of experts on sustainable development financing roughly estimated that the
goals would cost over seven trillion dollars a year to effectively eradicate global
poverty.33 In order to come up with the funding, the committee has suggested not only
should the global governments use public financing, but also that the UN can raise a
massive amount of the money through the private sector, tax reforms, and further
crackdowns on illicit financial flows and corruption. While the problem of financing
will cause the goals to be less than as ideal as when they were proposed and agreed upon,
the goals have still been adopted by the UN and will become applicable starting in
January of 2016. Even if there is a shortage of financing, the UN will still be able to
successfully diminish poverty globallyjust not necessarily eliminate it.
31 In their article about neoliberalism, Parker & Prudham point out the
fundamental incompatibilities of the growing forces behind capitalism
and attempts at preserving the environment through actions labeled as

sustainable.
32 See Footnote 17.
33 See Footnote 21.

In conclusion, the United Nations has led a very successful campaign to promoting
sustainable poverty eradication globally between 2000 and 2015. Specifically, in the
period between 2003 and 2015, the United Nations Millennium Declaration Goals guided
the UN Development Group to hugely successful initiatives in regions of China,
Uzbekistan, the Republic of Malawi, Venezuela, and Lebanon. The UN has lead the first
global movement to not only diminishing poverty on a large scale, but also
simultaneously promoting responsibility toward the global climate. In 2015, the
Millennium Declaration Goals expired and the UN adopted a new set of goals known as
the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. These new goals attempt to confront the
problems associated with the Millennium Declaration Goals, yet bring with them some
additional problems. The real question remains whether the UNs 2030 Sustainable
Development Agenda will be able to eradicate poverty, while mitigating current
environmentally disastrous habits on a global level.

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June 24, 2011. Accessed November 20, 2015. United Nations Development
Programme.
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/ourstories/venezuela_music
_orchestras_impoverished_youth.html.
Denmark Economic Initiative. Economic Empowerment of Women in Malawi. Act
Alliance. February 28, 2014. Accessed November 18, 2015.
https://www.danchurchaid.org/where-we-work/list-of-projects/projects-inafrica/economic-empowerment-of-women-in-malawi.
El Sistema USA. El Sistema in Venezuela. The Alliance of El Sistema Inspired
Programs. No Date Provided. Accessed November 20, 2015.
https://www.elsistemausa.org/el-sistema-in-venezuela.htm.
Ford, Liz. Sustainable development goals: all you need to know. January 19, 2015.
Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/globaldevelopment/2015/jan/19/sustainable-development-goals-united-nations.
Hendricks, H.E. Barbara. "Global Environmental Leaders Explore Policies to Put
World on Inclusive Sustainable Growth Path." UNPEI. September 27, 2015.
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Li, Mingshui. Biodiversity conservation yields organic tea in China. United

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Martnez-Solimn, Magdy. "Global Environmental Leaders Explore Policies to Put
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Mkula, Charles. How women in Malawi are turning waste into wealth. Citiscope.
September 18, 2014. Accessed November 19, 2015.
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Parker, David & Prudham, Scott. Neoliberal nature and the nature of
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Razzouk, Assaad. Climate change: the elephant in the room. The Daily Star.
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Sample 6:
Review: Mary Shelleys Dehumanization of the Disabled
Mary Shelleys 1818 novel, Frankenstein, revolves around Victor Frankensteins
rejection of his creation due to its unexpected appearance. Toward the end of Volume II,
Chapter II, the monster confronts Frankenstein at the summit of the Montanvert
Mountain. The identity of the monster plays an integral role in garnering a holistic
understanding of certain themes of the creature and its creators conversation. However, a
complete comprehension of these themes is impossible absent a discussion regarding
Tobin Sieberss unstable identities: a theory that explains the role disability plays in the
formation of identity. The dehumanization of the monster in Shelleys Frankenstein can
be directly correlated to Tobin Sieberss theory of the instability of identity.
According to Tobin Siebers, disability is the underlying determinant of an
individuals identity; blindness, deafness, an inability to walk, etc. are commonly thought
of as disabilities, yet are also often used to identify individuals with such disabilities.
Within Frankenstein, the monsters disability, a product of its visual representation, is the
foundation of its identity. Due to its unusual appearance, Frankenstein describes his
creation as a monster, dmon, wretch, and many other names. After having his life
threatened by his creator, the monster admits that all along he knew his existence was
endangered due to his identity. As Frankenstein shouts furiously about his desire to kill
his creation, the product responds sorrowfully, I expected this reception. All men hate
the wretched (Shelley 77). The monsters expectation of hatred as a result of his ugliness
exemplifies Sieberss argument of the role disability plays in the construction of identity.
Frankensteins fury toward the monster is merely a result of his disgust in its appearance.

The monster universalizes the hatred that it faces, removing any blame placed on
Frankenstein for his disappointment in the monsters appearance, by claiming that all
men hate him as a result of his identity, rather than just Frankenstein. The creature
continues its generalization, saying, [i]f the multitude of mankind knew of my existence,
they would do as you do, and arm themselves for my destruction (Shelley 78). Through
his distancing of blame, the monster makes it clear that Frankensteins animosity toward
him is a result of his ugliness and abnormality, rather than the personal relationship
(which includes murder) that the two share.
While Sieberss theory of identity formation explains why the monster is
perceived in such a way, an analysis of Sieberss theory of social construction is
necessary to understand ways, besides hatred, in which the monsters physical features
affect its role in society. According to Siebers, the social construction of disabilities
centers around the role that rhetoric, modern images, and descriptions play in formulating
the perception of disabilities (14). Siebers criticizes popular portrayals of disabilities,
claiming that society replicates disabilities in a marginalizing and blaming manner (15).
The social construction of disabilities forces disabled individuals to be recognized as
inferior in some sort of way. People that are disabled are perceived as completely
different beings and are faced with suffering from constant prejudice due to the way that
disability is depicted throughout society.
While identity formation is, in and of itself, a result of social construction, it is
only a minor subset under a large umbrella of norms that result from societal perceptions.
Thus, much of the evidence that reinforces Sieberss theory of identity construction
overlaps with evidence supporting his theory of the social construction of disabilities.

However, the rhetoric that Frankenstein uses to describe the monster contributes to the
social construction of disabilities. Upon seeing the monster, Frankenstein describes his
own creation, declaring, its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human
eyes (Shelley 76). The claim that the monsters ugliness is too horrible for human eyes
relies upon a determined notion of what broader humanity deems as pleasant enough for
perception. Through his description of the monster, Frankenstein separates the ugly from
the human based upon what he understands would be the consensus of other members of
society. Rather than describing the monsters personality or traits, the scientist describes
his creation solely by its physical nature, dehumanizing the totality of the monster into
merely what its labeled as: a monster. The monster explicitly flags Frankensteins
murderous desires as a double standard that results from the arbitrary yet socially
recognized binary between abled and disabled. The monster questions Frankensteins
murderous justifications, saying, [y]ou accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a
satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature (Shelley 78). This inquiry by the
monster serves as a criticism of broader social norms that surround disability. The
monsters question criticizes not only its murder, but also the justifications behind its
socially designated inferiority and the distinction between abled humans and disabled
monsters.
The binary that differentiates abled and disabled identities results in two divided
communities: non-disabled and disabled. The final relevant component of Sieberss
theory of unstable identities is the need for these two communities to unify, rejecting the
distinction between bodies that are abled and disabled. Siebers emphasizes the power that
social collaboration presents in influencing political action (Siebers 16). He calls for

different communities to work together in order to create a multitude of large movements

that cooperate with each other, rather than competing, which enables further social
progress.
In Frankenstein, the monster makes it clear that it wants to be part of a
community. Frankensteins rejection of the monster causes it to experience endless
loneliness. While later on the monster unsuccessfully seeks a mate, this passage
exemplifies the isolation faced by the scientists creation. Upon describing the image of
joy, the monster despairingly vocalizes, I am rather the fallen angel Everywhere I see
bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded (Shelley 77). The monster explains
that the consequences of the isolation he is forced to live with prevent him from
exploring the pleasures of happiness and, instead, require him to suffer. The creation
identifies himself as the fallen angel, biblically known as Satan and his demons, which
represents the rejection and banishment the creature faces due to his physical appearance,
similar to the demons that were cast out of heaven for their sins. Later in the passage, the
scientist explicitly denies the monsters request to escape isolation and engage within a
community. The scientist furiously informs his creation, [t]here can be no community
between you and me; we are enemies. Begone (Shelley 77). The rejection only serves to
further isolate the monster from any sense of community that it needs in order to flourish.
While Siebers identifies the benefits of engaging in communities, Shelley depicts the
consequences of an inability to engage in such communities, with the result being misery.
The dehumanization of the monster is exemplified through an evaluation of
Shelleys Frankenstein from the perspective of Tobin Sieberss theory of unstable
identities. Due to its appearance, the monsters identity is understood as distinct from a

humans identity. The role disability plays in the monsters dehumanization is clear
through the monsters understanding of its identity, the social construction of the monster,
and the communal seclusion that the monster faces. The attitudes, words, and emotions
expressed within the brief conversation between the creature and Frankenstein are
problematic according to Tobin Sieberss theory of unstable identities, reinforcing the
binary between abled and disabled. However, there are other scenes throughout Shelleys
novel in which Sieberss theory cannot potentially be applied, such as the killing of the
monsters mate. In this papers particular scene, the seclusion that the monster faces is a
result of its different identity. However, the existence of a mate, which occurs earlier in
the novel, presents an opportunity for the monster to live in a small community. Though
the monsters mate ultimately is killed before it can truly live, the potential of another
monsters existence disproves the seclusion that the monster is forced to live within due
to its disability. Despite this exception, however, Sieberss theory of unstable identities is
necessary to understand the critical role that disability plays in the sequence of events the
monster faces throughout the novel.

Sample 7:
Review: Non-Hetero-Normative Eroticism and Power Shifts within Baldwin
and Cliftons Works
James Baldwins short story Going to Meet the Man and Lucille Cliftons poem
homage to my hips share the theme of the sexual objectification of the black body and
gendered norms in relation to sexual ones. In Going to Meet the Man, the black body is
solely used as a homoerotic object of desire for the sublimated sexual tendencies of the
white man. However, Lucille Clifton describes her black hips, a feature commonly

associated with both female sexuality and child bearing, as analogous to a means of
obtaining freedom as a woman. Her celebration of her hips, or her sexuality and freedom
sexually and reproductively as a woman, is ultimately in direct opposition to the white
dominated, hetero-normative, sexually repressive views Baldwins main character Jesse
portrays. Both works of literature are premised upon the black bodys deviance from
predominant hetero-normative structures. While the black body serves as an object of
sadism and unmet homosexual desire for the white man in Baldwins story, Clifton
utilizes her hips as sexual freedom and representative of her reproductive freedoms as a
female member of the black body.
When he wrote his story in 1965, Baldwin was deeply involved in the civil rights
movement. Baldwin marched on Selma that year and witnessed the common brutal police
tactics present in the South at the time. He exhibits his perspective clearly of the white
oppressors confusion as they began to come to terms with the growing assault, or
socially progressive movements, that opposed their traditional, hidebound culture. As one
of the only openly gay men during the civil rights movement, Baldwin was a rarity. This
position in society enabled him to understand that there was a second level of oppression
against homosexuality in addition to race. Consequently, his deputy character, Jesse, a
white male, sexually objectifies the black body through violence and repressed
homosexual desires.
Early in the story, Baldwin sets up his criticism of hetero-normativity when he
contrasts the Jesses feelings about his wife to his feelings about the black body. It is
important to note that the Jesses wife being named Grace is symbolic of the whitecultured views that white male/female marriage is sanctified and most prominent, or the

norm. Additionally, the wifes body is referred to as a frail sanctuary, furthering the
religious aspects of white-culture that perpetuate hetero-normativity. In bed but impotent,
the Jesse is unable to have sex with his sacred wife. However, when thinking about
having sex with black women, Jesse begins to use more emotionally driven, first person
language to suggest self-damnation; alluding to religious values regarding heterosexual
marriages in white-culture. Jesse curses the pleasure he finds in the black body,
exclaiming [t]hey were pretty good at that, all right. Damn, damn. Goddamn (Baldwin
1750). A close reading of this passage shows that Jesse subtly pivoted from describing his
desire for black women to a depiction of the entire black body, including men, as he
refers to the black body, or the object of his desires, collectively as they. However,
Jesses refusal to directly acknowledge his desire for black men exemplifies his inherent
conflict with hetero-normativity. Even if Jesse will slightly acknowledge his desire for
black women, he only subtly admits to his eroticism of black men and does so very
indirectly. Jesse also uses animal symbolism to describe black men, depicting the young
boy he tortures as a goddamn bull (1753), and the black man being burned as an
African jungle cat (1760). The animalistic depictions of black male, in addition to his
previously put forth sexual desires for the black body, clearly show his eroticizing of the
black male body through sexual objectification and violence.
Jesses feelings towards the black body reflect his status as a homophobe who has
sublimated his latent homosexuality under a crust of shocking, violent rage. Baldwin
describes Jesse as wrestling [with] a secret he could not articulate to himself related
yet more surely to his privacy and his past (1754). Jesse recalls getting an erection after
placing a cattle prod on the genitals of a young black man, describing his arousal as

weird, uncontrollable, monstrous howling rumbling up from the depths (1753).

Additionally, in the flashbacks to his youth, he recalls the arousal he felt as his family
attended a picnic and watched a black man get burned to death (1755). Baldwin also hints
at Jesses homosexual repression in regards to his childhood friend Otis, who is hidden
away during the story. Jesse had wrestled with Otis in the dirt as children and he found
great joy in it; but now they are apparently estranged, and the thought of Otis made him
sick. (1755). Otis may, therefore, be symbolic of Jesses homosexual desires. The illness
felt by Jesse at the very thought of Otis is likely the result of his embarrassment of the
homosexual desires he felt towards Otis during his childhood; and his denial of Otis in
his life may also be symbolic of his denial of his homosexual desires.
After various allusions and hints, Baldwin bluntly exposes Jesses desire for the
black male body at the climax of the story with shocking, nearly unbelievable violence.
Baldwin describes a horrific method of execution of a black man and Jesses reaction to
such to make the scene work on multiple levels. During this graphic flashback, the childversion of Jesse gets vastly aroused when he sees a white a tormentor grab a black mans
genitals. Furthermore, the scene continues and the black man is castrated, burned and
tortured to death, and Jesses arousal only increases. As well, the raising and lowering of
the chained black man in this flashback is a metaphor for Jesses constant struggle with
impotence and for an erection. Recounting it all, Jesse remembers feeling a joy he had
never felt before (1760). Once the victim is castrated and murdered, Jesse recounts a
post-orgasmic feeling of peace and deep love for his father whom he previously felt deep
anger towards.

In Baldwins story, the black male body is the object of white rage, repressed
sexual fetish and violent sadism; as seen through Jesses desires to torture and even
murder black men to purge himself of his sublimated homosexual desires. The constant
reemergence of sexual eroticism for the black body, as exhibited through Jesses constant
desire to inflict violence and pain on them, portrays the overwhelming control that his
homosexual desires of black males have on him. Therefore, it can be said that Jesses life
is nearly controlled by the black body, as they are the object of Jesses lust and are thus
the object that controls the majority of his actions and feelings about himself, or selfesteem. The black body is equally powerful in Lucille Cliftons poem but has the power
to free her rather than control her actions like Jesses in Baldwins story.
The manner in which Clifton employs her hips as allegorical of female
empowerment is certainly unique. Cliftons poem was written in 1987 and for the
previous 20 years, the reproductive rights of woman were contested across the nation. It
is important to understand that Clifton chooses to use the body part hips, as representative
of her black, female identity and the freedoms that she feels should accompany such. It is
often understood that the larger the hips, the more sexually desirable a woman is. As well,
the larger the hips, the more suitable the woman is for child bearing. Therefore, by using
hips, Clifton is both discussing the sexual freedom of black woman, as she is discussing
her own hips and is herself a black woman; and she is addressing the reproductive rights
of woman and their right to choose.
Clifton finds great pride in the freedom of her hips, and her self-control of such.
She exclaims that no one can enslave her hips; this may be understood in relation to the
constant control for struggle of their bodies that women faced during this time period.

Furthermore, by claiming that her hips, which represent woman everywhere, do not fit
into little petty places, she is essentially claiming that all women cannot be categorized
as one and to do so is over simplistic and oppressive (Clifton 4-5). One law addressing all
womens right to birth control or to choose abortion is not fair and does not acknowledge
the inherent freedom of a womans body as not to be controlled by laws or anyone else or
the diversity amongst women. Lastly, as a woman with large hips, she is capable of
childbirth, which may be part of the magic and mightiness that the poem points out
(Clifton 11-12). The necessity of childbirth provides a space where women are in power;
men rely on women for the continuation of human existence, and absent a womens
willingness to care for and nurture her baby or to even reproduce, there will be no
continuation of humanity. In this scenario women are given the upper hand and ultimately
control humanity and men with their sexual, childbearing hips.
Furthermore, she portrays women as being in power in regards to sexual desires.
In describing her hips as free to do what they want and go where they want to go, it may
be analogous to women being sexually free. As well, her hips are described as mighty
magicknown to put a spell on a man (Clifton 11-14). Her hips are therefore large, as
depicted earlier in the poem and sexually desirable to men. This sexuality is something
she takes great pride in and acknowledges her sexual abilities to nearly control men. She
implies that men and their actions are dominated by sexual desires and tendencies; and
her hips being sexually desirable allows them to control men to a certain extent thus
sexuality is very dominating and powerful. The theme of sexual desires being dominant is
also exemplified in Baldwins story through Jesse. Ultimately, Clifton takes pride in her
hips as they represent her reproductive rights as a woman, sexual freedoms and the power

that accompanies such. Her protection of her hips and their freedom is a protection of
women and their reproductive rights and sexuality. Her explanation of the enchanting
nature of her hips sexually represents the dominating nature sexuality has on men; and
that women, who hold the object being lusted for, are thus in control. In both views of
hips, reproductively and sexually, women are in control; therefore, hips, as representative
of sexual lust and reproductive abilities, speak directly to powerful and free women.
Throughout Baldwins story and Cliftons poem, sexual desires seem to take the
upper hand and give freedom, or a lack thereof, to the characters and speakers. In
Baldwins story, the character struggles with homosexual desires and is constantly
attempting to repress such desires. Jesse appears ashamed because of his sexual desires,
thus his sexual desires ultimately have control over him. Similarly, Cliftons hips seem to
control men both in their existence through reproductive abilities and in her hips sexual
manipulative abilities. In both instances, a character finds power in sexuality and is
speaking out against societal, hetero-normative views. Baldwins character, controlled by
his homosexual desires, subtly discusses his disposition, which is one that vastly opposes
his hetero-normative culture. Similarly, Cliftons hips, able to control men, turn the tables
from a male-dominated society thus speaking out against hetero-normative culture and
laws.