Personal Response

http://www.blackfishmovie.com/news/

   

      After reading and analyzing #LikeAGirl and HONY in class over the week, I did not feel like I could connect to either piece. I feel like it is not in my place to talk about Always and their audience, as I agree with their cause, that we need to empower young girls as opposed to ostracize them for being who they are. Humans of New York is quite fascinating, however I felt like there was too much information there for me to build an essay on. Therefore, I chose a different topic for my essay. I will be focusing on the documentary Blackfish, which discusses the ethics of marine mammal captivity.
     Personally, I found this documentary eye-opening. First, it exposed something I had never really thought of, are marine mammals really better off in captivity? The film would argue no, while SeaWorld still believed it was better than being in the wild. Second, it allowed me to question both the theme park and the director of the documentary. Which one was really correct? Who had the most accurate information? The answer to these questions are left to your interpretation
     After many debates, all the different articles written by both SeaWorld and Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the OSHA ruling and most recently, the California Legislature movement to ban breeding of marine mammals in captivity, I realized this debate has moved from pertaining to the death of a trainer, to something much greater.
     I felt disgusted, disturbed and most of all, betrayed while viewing this documentary. Growing up, I had gone to SeaWorld, because I loved the ocean and all the creatures that inhabited it. I did not even question the fact that these whales were living in such poor conditions, because I was merely five years old. At this age, I was not questioning the logic or  integrity of a theme park, rather I was just going along for the ride. When a company makes its consumer question their judgement at five years old, it might want to reconsider the product its selling.