Sunday, October 23, 2011
Facebook Hate Group
Joshua Thomas
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Media
After watching the Dove Beauty video clips in class, the many different ways to alter the way a person looks is shocking. They change "imperfections" from removing blemishes to widening a male's shoulders or whittling a woman's waist. Why? All to make their products fool people into thinking that it'll make them just as beautiful. I'm still waiting for the day Victoria Secret has a 5'4" model at a healthy weight - I think that would be even more attractive and sexy to women and men.
Reality shows that are suppose to be real are far from it. There are not many shows that has a goal of displaying morals or anything similar to how real life plays out. I know shows like Teen Mom and The Secret Life are suppose to show the consequences of getting pregnant at a young age, but it is still played up and glamorized.
As far as people of color - my observation is that there are not many shows including them. Most shows are about white, middle to upper class people. I personally do not have cable now that I'm in college and paying for my own bills, and it's liberating to not have to be pulled in and hook on the shows that waste our time.
Haley Daniel
Friday, October 14, 2011
WS 200-007: Representation in the Media
In television, actors are the key in forming a perfect picture. As we've all noticed they are virtually perfect. families all have the same setup: a working father with pretty mother who stays at home to watch the children. This stereotype has been going on for many years now, as far back as the late 60's when the Brady Bunch aired.On people of color, as in blacks, I feel are most often seen as the stereotypical "black people". But this stereotype has been going on for a long time. However this is not in all cases. I have seen many commercials with people of color who do not show the fixed stereotype such as All-State and many McDonald's commercials.
Also, there is the model industry, which i feel is the most dangerous to younger teens. tall, skinny women are the set norm for models, which is often photo-shopped. This is very wrong because it presents a false image of a regular person.
Media Representation
The media is deceitful.
The media tries to present to society this dream of the way society really is in the world today when it could not be more of the opposite. All women do not look like they just stepped out of a Victoria's Secret catalog and all men do not look like they just stepped out of a GQ shoot. The media further promotes this in their reality shows. You never really see a regular looking person on reality T.V unless it's in shows like those MTV True Life episodes or 16 and pregnant. This is the only time you are going to see a regular American doing reality T.V. Never in the ads or on the commercials that promote products will you see a person with a couple of acne marks or a little baby fat on their waist or face.
The media only makes their deceit even worse when they promote some of these reality shows. I mean like seriously, how is it in one town you see so many beautiful and rich people that just so happen to hang out together? Then there's the fact that they all don't even much like each other but just tolerate one another! I never use to put much thought into it until I saw this show Laguna Beach which first premiered on MTV. At first I wondered, out of all the cities here in the U.S how did this particular area get chosen for a reality T.V show. It hit me when I saw the first episode. They were all beautiful and came from very well off families. This isn't reality for me, this is reality for rich people. It only got worse on other networks over the years. Why? Because we kept watching it. We soak it all up. Do we not realize that the media is promoting this as the accepted norm of society and anything other than that is unacceptable. I think we do and we just chose to ignore it. It's entertainment and we shouldn't take it personally right? Wrong.
The only good part about all of this is that slowly people are starting to get tired of it all. It's the only thing you see on T.V now a days and it's really become over done. When is the media ever going to the reveal the “real” side of reality besides in those sad commercials where someone's life is taken so suddenly and they ask you to call the number at the bottom of the screen to stop it from ever happening again. When it changes let me know, in the mean time I'm still flipping through channels looking for something “real” to watch instead of ESPN.
Misrepesentation
Families that are seen on television go about their lives in an unrealistic way because they try to make up this picture perfect family. Although these families still come across problems, they take care of these problems in a way that an average family would not. For example, the television show "Kardashians". When Kourtney and her mother disagree on something they curse at each other. Not saying that mothers are not aloud to curse at their children when they become adults, but for a daughter to curse at her mother is out of hand.
The way that people of color are misrepresented in the media challenges other African Americans to be just like the people they say on television. African Americans are judged by other African Americans according to skin color. Even in music you hear of rappers talk about a light skin woman and vice versa. If you were to ask a few African Americans who they would prefer to date, light skinned people will definitely be the majority. The opinion of having a light skinned woman because she is better looking, was advertised by the media. I am pretty sure if rappers like Lil Wayne started rapping about chocolate women instead of red bones, those would be the ones that African Americans would be after.
Women in general are misrepresented by the media in way a scary way. Women are expected to wear make-up, heels, and have a body that contains a big butt, decent sized boobs and a flat stomach. As the twelve year olds in our society that haven't hit puberty yet look in the mirror, they think they are suppose to look like actresses such as Megan Fox. They do not realize the true definition of beauty comes from the inside. Boys that see these women on television are made to believe that they have to find the girl that looks closest to the the woman seen on television. This causes girls to think that they are not good enough at a young age and are not able to identify their self-worth. Misrepresentation causes a lot of problems in our society and it just gets worse. Kids thinking that they are not good enough, ruin something great that they could be in the future.
Media
Yet, plots that consist of a wealthy family consists of Caucasians. As a society, we've seen this in the media so many times, it doesn't seem as wrong as it should. We see so many stereotypes daily on television that we probably don't even notice them as much as we should. When a convenience store is incorporated into a plot, an Arabian individual is cast, but it doesn't seem to bother many people.
The media shows society what they think is good,bad, beautiful, or ugly, but it's our choice on whether or not we believe it. Just because something is in a magazine or on television doesn't mean that it's true or relevant to life. It is up to society to look and discern for themselves and decide what they chose to believe and apply to life.
WS 200-007: 10/14/2011
Also, the media and society choose to portray what they believe it means to be male or female. Women are expected to be ultra feminine and men are expected to be deeply and undeniably masculine. Feminine women and masculine men are also expected to be sexually attracted to each other, get married, have “vanilla” sex, and have babies. The man is usually expected to “bring home the bacon” and the woman is expected to take care of the cooking, cleaning, and children. Anything that falls outside of these categories is considered queer and not a part of the normalizing factor. For example a woman not wanting kids, a couple deciding marriage isn’t for them, a gay couple living together, and a person who is gender-queer would be people who do not fit into normal factors
It seems as though people do not even attempt to understand people who are different from them. For example, if a person is openly gay, many people shy away from them. It is even worse in certain communities and cultures. In the black community, an openly gay woman is accepted before an openly gay man is. This is because men in our community are seen as the epitome of masculinity and to see one who is acting femininely is a huge turn off. The media plays a huge role in how we perceive people of different races and social norms to be which is very unfortunate. A change needs to be made in how things are depicted, but we have to speak up first..
Media Representation
10/14/2011
Media Representation
In the media everyone fits a criteria that is not necessarily the norm for everyone else. For example, many people aspire to look like the people they see in magazines or on television. They feel like they are obligated to lose weight, dye their hair, or buy certain clothes to fit in with the rest of the world. They are misled to believe it is normal to look like those models, yet don't realize that the models they aspire to be only represent a small fraction of the population. There are too many models, actors, or any other social icons that fit the same body type. Not everyone in the world is tall, skinny, with flowing hair.
I also feel that minorities aren't represented enough in these ads. It goes back to the point I made in the previous paragraph. The media should do a better job at representing people from all cultures, races, etc. Families portrayed by the media are misleading as well. Each family includes one father, one mother, and usually two or three children. The media almost doesn't represent any families that don't fit this mold. Single parent homes, families that don't have children, step-parents, homosexual couples, etc. seem to be looked upon by the media as less appealing.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Media Representation
Families are often represented on television. In today's progressive, liberal society, the typical family does not really exist. Television today is pushing the limits of what a family is. For example, on "F.R.I.E.N.D.S.," a character, Ross, gets a divorce from his wife after she reveals that she is a lesbian; however, she is pregnant with his child. Ross, his ex-wife, her lover, and the child create a modern, abnormal family. Another example would be the television show "Gilmore Girls." In this show, a single mom raises her only daughter. This is not a typical family either. There are abnormal families represented in the media today.
People of color are often represented in the media with other people of color. Even it today's society I feel that it is rare to see black and white people together on television or in movies. For example, in the "Tyler Perry Presents..." movies, there are only people of color in those movies. On the show. "F.R.I.E.N.D.S.," it seems as if a character of color never appears. However, I feel that everyone is intermixed in print media and online.
-Kristi Bardosi
People in the Media
Media Representation
The media has corrupted our society. Everytime you turn around there is a commercial about losing weight or having perfect skin. Everyone is not made out to be skinny or with perfect skin. I believe that the media pressures society to look that way and it honestly takes a toll on those with low confidence or self esteem. There's always that one commercial that starts off by asking "Want to lose weight?" or "Tired of how you look?". It is a proven fact that America is overweight, but that does not mean that everyone should wear a size 2. To be completely honest, it seems as if some models practically starve themselves because they look super skinny all the time. As for men, they are represented to have abs of steal, muscles and clean shaven. Sad to say, but all men are not made out to look like Hulk Hogan! As for women of color, they are more so promoting weight loss or diet plans instead of speaking on something positive. In my opinion, I rarely see a woman of color advertised as a model.
People are not set out to be perfect. There are commercials that advertise women who are 65 to look like they are 30. I mean there is nothing wrong with that because if someone feels comfortable that way, that's them. But i mean i find it quite ridiculous when i see anti-aging creams in the store. Do these products actually work? I remember watching Keeping up with the Kardashians and Kris (the mother) was all stressed out about the way she looked. Kris practically convinced Kim to postpone her wedding so she would be able to get a face lift. Kris Kardashian is gorgeous! So i do not see why a face lift was even necessary.
It seems as if everyone just wants to perfect. The media is making the majority of the society feel uncomfortable in their bodies, when in actuality you should appreciate how you look. There is a difference in being healthy and practically wearing yourself out to be skinny, or as society makes it seem, "the perfect size". As far as the family sitcoms, you rarely see a "regular" family. By that i mean, family sitcoms portray families as being perfect, where everyone gets along with each other and the wife and husband are chipper all the time. I know that's just for ratings though. I believe it's just difficult for the media to be realistic.
-Bianca Jones MWF 9-9:50am
Media Representation
Honestly, I will never be skinny, my body is not built that way and all I can work on is being fit. I have acne. I have big quads. My fingers are really fat. I have terrible tennis tan lines on my feet and my back. My teeth are not perfectly white. One of my eyes is smaller when I smile. I do not always dress up and my makeup and nails are not always done. Yes, I do not feel perfect but I am confident in who I am. I am healthy and I am fit and I am blessed to have a body that works perfectly fine. But not everyone feels this way, why? Why can't we all be happy with the body God has given us? It is because of the media. It is because we see ads on looking better, appearance wise, forty times a day. This is not right.
So what can we do about? We can show society that we love ourselves. That we do push ourselves to be healthy, not perfect, and we push ourselves to be happy with how we feel. Women are beautiful no matter what shape, size, race, or age they are. We are all built beautiful by God and we need to embrace that. The media will always try to market something new to make us think we need to buy it to look better. So ignore it and fight for all the beautiful and healthy women in the world.
Representation in the Media
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
WS 200-007: The Politics of Housework
WS 200-007: Facebook Page
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Politics of Housework
I do not think house work is trivial, but very important while living with the opposite sex. Not completing housework can cause arguments and complications dealing with your partner. Things like cutting the grass, pressure washing the house, taking out the trash, and cleaning oil stains off of the drive way I believe are a man's job. On the other hand something like cleaning dishes, mopping the floor, and doing laundry are a woman's job.
As husband and wife I think that the wife should learn the husband's duties and the husband should learn the wive's duties in the event that one of them are away for a business trip or one of them just need assist. Yes, certain jobs were made for men and women, but I do not think there is anything wrong in learning how to do the job of your spouse. I think men and women should role switch or do the jobs equally.
Politics of Housework Reading
I believe that housework is trivial, according to our normalized society. Our society has been molded into believing AND practicing the ability a woman has when it comes to "housework". It is not normal for a man to clean up a house, although that would be helpful. Society makes it seem as if it is a woman's job to perform house duties, while the man or husband do other things, as in watch television. Anything other than cleaning. I guess men feel as if women do a better job at cleaning, which i feel is an excuse for being lazy, as reiterated in "The Politics of Housework".
Since my father was never around, housework was just divided between my mother and myself. I am also the only child. Housework was not difficult at all, my mother and I usually REALLY cleaned up the house on Saturday mornings. It is easier to keep a clean household if an individual just cleans as they go. Not saying that it is okay for a household that includes a dad needs to have a woman to clean up after herself and her husband too though.
As for a conversation between my roommate or a partner, I do not believe rules or anything would be different. I experience somewhat of a problem with that now, if we all took turns cleaning up after ourselves, there would not be a set person that has to trail behind others to clean up everything. I just honestly believe that men have it easy when it comes to anything and everything. i must say though, we as women do know how to clean. As for me or any other woman, i would not have a problem cleaning the house, as long as my partner or roommate helped out as much as they could. I think it is a great idea for a roommate or partner to have specific weeks or even days where they can clean up, as in taking turns. Or for everything to go by much smoother, just clean up after yourself. As in the story, I completely agree that men always seek help from a women, some are not as independent as they may seem.
--Bianca Jones, WS 200 9-9:50AM, MWF
Indiana School Imposes Extreme Sex-Segregation
Online Day 4
The group at ASU has made a list of rights women can have. They are very stereotypical generalizations that give women the right to reproduction, make a man pay on a date, women are allowed to be sympathetic, etc. The author states that women stay in and make biscuits as well as sit by the fire while men handle everything else that is important. The author also accuses the women studies' classes that they are all feminists and are feeling corrupted by men. This is not true, they are just trying to become equal.
I think these men in this organization are blindly missing some things. Do they not realize how capable women are and how much they have gone through to work to be equal to men? Men are protective towards there family and so are women. Men work to support their family and so do women. The article makes some points by the fact that society never looks at the oppression of men, but the generalizations the author makes very closed minded. I believe that the members of this organization need to do some research first on the oppression of women or what women are doing in society today. I don't want to only make biscuits in life, I will not be oppressed.
Facebook Page
I think that Facebook should without a doubt delete this page and not allow any similar pages like this one to ever be brought up again. If this continues, it will only be a matter of time before many more pages similar to this one are created just to get a good laugh out of people, and these are the kind of things that our society never needs.
Housework
I do think it's a problem when men think that they aren't supposed to help around the house with chores because they've been at work all day. It all goes back to how you were raised and what kind of household you grew up in. Growing up, I always observed my father cutting the grass and not my mom, so if I were asked by my husband to cut the grass, I'd be confused on why he'd want me to do something like that. I may be contradicting myself, but I do think that kind of chore should be left to a man if he's available. That leads me to my next point, for people who specify what women's and men's work is, what if there is only one gender in the home. Do other chores get neglected or are they done?
Since early times, there have chores that were portrayed to be women's work and men's work, especially on early television shows and from older members of the family. Even in earlier days, such as stories in the Bible, men have done dirty work and done heavy lifting, while women did work around the house. Housework isn't that important to me, I think that if it needs to be done, someone needs to do it.
It was astounding to me to see how even when 176,000 people petition against this crime, nothing is resolved. Instead it is twisted in the males favor because they are just merely doing it for kicks and giggles. The most controversial question that our group discussed was that what if woman wrote this about men? Of course men are not as sensitive but in reality they would not be pleased with the web site either. Than we asked the question, what if the owner of facebook was a female? Would she immediately take care of the situation or not.
It was very funny to see face books consent forms and all of their regulations. In the terms it says not to bully or harass anyone. It is extremely easy for the facebook team to delete these nasty posts, the question is why aren't they doing it? Hopefully this issue will soon be resolved and taken more seriously. No woman should feel degraded or looked upon as a joke. The facebook team needs to realize this and be more sensitive about this matter.
Facebook Is Fine With Hate Speeches..
Yet, it actually does violate their policies according to facebook's statements of rights and responsibilies.
It says, "You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence."
I don't know what facebook's idea of threatening is but I know when I see a page entitled "Roses are red, Violets are blue, I've got a knife, get in the van" it's a bit disturbing in my point of view and not a joke to be handled lightly. In agreement with me are over 176,000 people from the U.S who have signed a U.S. based petition and nearly 4,000 people who have signed a U.K. based petition to have Facebook take down these pages. I know possibly that these numbers mostly include women, but men need to understand that this can happen to them too. Yes, no matter how masculine you think you are it's possible for you to get raped. All it takes is for a man to be weaken to have him physically unable to fight back. We all have our weaknesses, men included.
I know more would sign these petitions if only they knew about them. I know I have a Facebook page but I don't go surfing around the site for pages like that. I'm sure if a lot of people were well aware of these pages that they would say something about them, but I'm sure a lot of people don't know about these pages. So what does this say about our society? I don't believe that we don't care about any of the things that are going on Facebook, but it usually takes something bad to happen for us to learn from it. As sad as that sounds that should not have to happen if Facebook were following their guidelines. I do have a feeling through that something bad is going to have to happen through for Facebook to realize that they need to start cracking down on these pages.
Online Posting 4
The Politics of Housework
A) You may write about a topic we discussed in class on Friday. What do these articles say about our society? What are the repercussions of these issues? This is an option for closing remarks on these topics.
OR
B) You can write on "The Politics of Housework." Do you think housework is trivial? How was housework divided in your home growing up? How is housework divided in your home now? Would this be a different conversation with a roomate rather than a partner?
Happy Blogging!
Facebook Hate Speech
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Online Day 4
Facebook Hate Page
WS 200-007: sex segregation
This may be seen as stereotypical, but girls can be extremely messy at times, and being around nothing but girls will cause so many unwanted issues. Segregating students based on race would still cause many problems if not more. The opposite sex does not prevent other students from performing positively in school. That is something that must already be wanted by the student.
When we discussed our article with the class, we all seemed to have the same opinion on the matter. We all agreed that if parents wanted their children to be in an all girl or all boy school, then they would put them in one. The public school system should have no say in whether a child should be sent to same sex schools. It should be a personal/family decision.
Facebook Hate Speech
Haley Daniel
Class Article - Sex Segregation
sex segregation
In my opinion, this is a rather drastic change. saying that mixed sexes poses as a destraction almost sounds like a joke. Also, I found that their action was a violation of Title IX, which prohibits the descrimination on the basis of sex in all levels of education. It was also mentioned that separating sexes has absolutely nothing to do with acedemic performance, but rather social statuses.
I (as well as many others i'm sure) think that segregating schools based on sex is a bad idea. In fact, I feel that it will actually do the exact opposite. people who are of the same sex tend to be more comfortable with each other, which leads me to believe that not much work will get done due to a lot of drama and talking. I also agreed with another student in saying students will need to interact with people of the opposite sex when they finally graduate. students without this skill will have a hard time doing so.
-Austin C.
In Class Articles
Another topic that I found interesting was the mylifeisbro website. I know that this wasn't listed in the articles but I find that site very offensive and sexist. The alternative though is a website called mylifeisho which is just as disgusting and offensive as the other. These pages just add to the sexist oppinions of our society. There are countless postings on these pages and they show how sexist our own generation is. I think that if they were shown what true feminism is and what it's about that they would feel differently. Most of the guys say that women's rights are a joke which proves that women aren't thought of in the right state of mind and that they aren't valued the same as men.
These articles and websites opened my eyes to how so many feel about women's rights and what they think of feminism.
Online Day 4 - In Class Articles
After reading this article, I think that separating males and females at a public high school shouldn't be considered sex discrimination because both males and females are getting equal opportunities; they are just not doing them together in the same setting. Even though I think that separating the sexes in a public high school is not sex discrimination, I still think it should n0t be allowed. Single-sex learning environments will not eliminate distractions; it will more likely create more distractions because same sex peers tend to have more drama between them. Not to mention, separating sexes in high school will decrease the students social skills of interacting with the opposite sex once they enter the world after high school. Separating sexes is not practical because the real world is full of males and females interacting together. Lastly, I feel that a student goes to public school expecting it to be co-ed. If the student wanted a single-sex school, he or she would have chosen to attend a private school. Public schools should stay co-ed.
-Kristi Bardosi
Online Day 4
Now, don't get me wrong. I believe that if women have an opportunity to study their oppression and fight to fix it, then men should get the same opportunity. But what this group of people (I won't even say all men) don't understand is they do have this opportunity, in every history class ever taught. They are all about the accomplishments of men, and their success in establishing societies and exploration. Men have been taught of their forefathers struggles and successes they're whole life. It is only once we get to college that we have the opportunity to learn about the female side of the fight and struggle.
Overall, I feel like the people in this article have a point; they just aren't very educated in their fight and the knowledge that their group of study already exists. I believe if you are going to fight for a cause, you need to educate yourself entirely and in every aspect before you take it to the public and the media to make a fool of yourself. I also think these men need to understand that they are not losing just because women are more assertive now, and women are not winning just because we are taking charge. They need to understand that equality is what its all about.
-Emily Hamilton