Stressed, Tired, Rushed - Portrait of the Modern Family

I chose to summarize this article based on this past week and Thanksgiving.  Families now a days- of all backgrounds, live in a nonstop world.  They are always busy and running to try to finish one thing in time to start the next.  The article talks about how women still do most of the house hold work and child raising even when both parents work full time.  Women are the ones that suffer.  The article shows countless statistics about women that work and have families and the inequality in balancing the two.  Even bigger is the disconnect between spouses and division of housework/child raising.  Men say that they do an equal job as their wives.  But the wives say that they do much more.  Why is this?  How can this divide be changed?  Would paid paternity leave help with this issue?  I think it would.  I think that having dads stay home to help with the adjustment would make them better understand the work of a working mother and how difficult it is to balance work and home.  This would help with family bonding, lessen how tired families are, cut down on the rush, and even lessen stress in the household with more being taken careful by two people instead of one.
Stress is a huge factor in families today.  The article says "this is not an individual problem, it is a social problem" and that could not be more true.  Stress pulls people to their limits which effects work, school, family, friends, love, etc.  In a survey half the people who said that work and family balance was not difficult and that parenting was always enjoyable.  While 36% said it was challenging.  I think it is and should be challenging- not as challenging as it is though.  I do not have the magic perfect answer but I do think that anything worth while should also be hard work and not handed to you.  The work place is forgetting about the home life- this is seen in the book spoken about in the article, All Joy No Fun.  This is because working parents are around for the joyful times and big events not the day to day fun and activities.

Gender Neutral Children

Sasha's story is the following.  Sasha was raised gender neutral and the infants parents do not want to raise their child in the fear of a set gender.  The child has a yellow room- plays with Barbies and Lego's and is able to dress in any way.  The infants gender was not only not stated but went as far as being hidden from anyone that was not immediately close to the child.  The parents even waited to find out the gender of the child after the child was born for 30 minutes.  However, Storm's story for the child's parents was different.  A child psychiatrist said that the parents were disturbed and misguided for raising their child this way.
In my opinion I feel that gender neutral parenting is something that is difficult to achieve and must be carefully planned out by both parents in a careful way.  I also find it strange that they refer to their child as "the infant".  This is a human being, someone's child.  Those words do not dictate the gender of someone, however, they do show more affection than "the infant".  In the article the psychiatrists sat that "we do have male brains and female brains" if this is true I think it is great that parents are allowing their children to find out for themselves which brain the have despite their physical parts.  However, it is important that parents do not cross the very very fine line and take gender neutral parenting to the point that could be detrimental to the child.  Unfortunately we do not know enough yet to tell what gender neutral parenting does to a child and what effects them later on in life.  Because of that it is sadly a wait and see situation.  I think that children no matter what their gender is or is not, they should be able to think, play, and create with whatever they wish to.  They even should be able to wear what they want in order to express themselves in a safe way.  However, hiding their gender from them I think will be detrimental to them later in life.  Allow child to express who they are for what they are- not who they could be.

NetGirls

After reading this article I realized the true impact that media can have both positive and negative and how impactful media is to the masses.  Positively, it spreads messages, and raises awareness.  Media truly does get the word out there.  However, there is little differentiation between the words spread being positive or negative in terms of self-worth.  The study tried to find the relationship to internet exposure and adolescent girls body image.  The study showed that there is a relationship between striving to achieve ideal thinness and body surveillance to social media- specifically Facebook.  This study  speaks about the link between social influences and medias perspective/power.  This includes fashion magazines and television.  The internet is a way to spread ads, messages, and ideas.  Websites like Facebook allow people to create personal pages- Facebook has been researches and is said to be increasing exponentially with the number of risks for cyber bullying.
To further examine the study it shows that there was no correlation between body image concerns and sites like YouTube or Google.  However, MySpace was also related like Facebook to negative body image.  I find it interesting that sites that allow people to create personal profiles are the same sites that personally attack people's self-worth.  If 95.9% of girls have internet in their homes- 43% in their rooms it is no wonder that their minds and lives are being taken over by the Internets media. The article said girls are speaking 'about 2 hours each day' on the internet plus 34 minutes more with MySpace and 90 minutes more with Facebook- there is no question that they are impacted by its effects.  (This number has probably increased since the article).
I have personally struggled with body image and because of the strong impact and constant effect of media and the urge to reach perfection it is no wonder that so many girls struggle.  It is important to educate specifically young girls on the power of their self-worth and be sure not to criticize them for unrealistic expectations.  However, it is more important to educate the internet and media sites about the impact that they are having on people's lives.  These sites show appearances and pressures that impact young girls minds and body's.  Media's negative impact on girls spreads further than simply appearance, but this is an evident place to begin media transformation.

Social Networks

Over the internet people portray themselves differently than who they appear to be in real life.  This makes me wonder who people truly are.  You could argue that who someone is in person is the real them and that the person behind a screen is a coward.  But you could also argue that in person someone is pretending where behind a screen they can be themselves without others physically judging their actions.  On Facebook, people that I am 'friends' with have recently been over-posting about the election.  These are mostly people that I knew in high school, some of which I have never heard speak.  I think that the internet gives them a voice and an opportunity to say their opinion by being able to reword and rewrite their thoughts accordingly.
In terms of summarizing what people represent I think this depends on the person.  Some people are very vocal with Facebook posting all their 'likes' and 'dislikes'.  However, I rarely publicly share things on Facebook and think I have made about 10 personal posts on my entire lifetime on Facebook.  I wish to keep my personal life exactly that- personal.  Do not misunderstand, I think Facebook and the internet is a great way to spread messages, meet people, create ideas, etc.  Because of these things pages are able to serve as virtual personalities and can give brief insight to a person based off of both what is and is not on their pages.
I think that the role of public network plays a large role in a teenagers social life and impacts gender and who they believe themselves to be as a person.  Social network sites are able to pull the younger generations- mostly teenagers and pull them in directions based off of networks.  This includes political beliefs, moral reasoning, academic intent, self-esteem, gender, and so much more that makes up an individual.  Social Networking is a way to portray to someone that does not know you who you are.  It's interesting when you know a person- or think you know them and their social page shows them in a different light.  This makes me wonder who a person truly is.

I Am Cait Proves Caitlyn Jenner Is the Kardashian Family’s Most Compelling Star Yet

I remember when I first heard about Cait Jenner I was in shock.  I pondered how a person who won Olympic Gold and set a world record, being a hero to so many, could have lived their life not being comfortable in their own skin.  I was in a sense 'happy' that Cait was able to come out and express herself at last.  However, because of media, pop culture, and that fame of the Kardashion family I was sadly a bit skeptical of the whole situation.  Although the family seemed to welcome much support to Cait I wondered if parts on the physical transformation of becoming Cait was for media purposes.  I think was strong and powerful to be shown on reality TV that the LGBTQ community should be supported and was supported by Cait's family.  Where my uneasiness lies is first and most obviously in the name- Cait.  The big power aspect of the Kardashion's is in the letter K.  The name Cait, is typically spelled with a K.  However, Jenner chose to spell it clearly differently using the letter C.  Media and pop culture went crazy about this aspect, which drew even more attention to Jenner.
Where I believe this transformation took a huge spiral was Cait winning the ESPY award.  This award was taken in many way- some agreed, some disagreed.  Many were turned away and offended by this award being presented to Cait.  At the time people said that it was an offence to women that Cait was receiving this award.  The award was presented on the basis of courage.  If Cait won this award simply on the basis of coming into the LGBTQ community then it is a shame because so many struggle and do not have support of anyone when they do the same thing as Cait.  I believe that Cait was compelling in wanting viewers to support "trans people with far less privilege, asking the viewer to care about them, too".  But I think that this award was over kill and done for media in this situation.  I also think it is a little extreme for the article to state that the show I Am Cait "might end up becoming the defining reality show of a generation."
However, overall I think it is important and compelling for media and pop culture for our generation to talk about the LGBTQ community.  It is important for the LGBQT community to be involved in reality TV, even though shows like I Am Cait, because all people experience reality and desire to be recognized, even if it is on 'reality' TV.

Reality Television

My favorite show is Greys Anatomy.  This shows when I began watching it was understandably fake, but portrayed a reality hospital setting.  The part that began as reality included the process of becoming a doctor- the long hours and rough shifts.  But what made it so enjoyable for me was the surgeries and the 'medical talk'.  I loved learning about the different procedures and the different wings and departments of the hospital.  However, there is SO much of the show that is not real, and mostly TV drama (specifically now in the show since it has been around for so long).  The characters of the show give off different vibes.  You would think being doctors all would be respected as so, however, that is not the case.  My favorite character is Christina Yang.  She was portrayed as the complete opposite of a typical female.  But many say that she is smart because of her culture (being Asian).  Which means it's 'okay' for her to be smart.  This is SO wrong and disrespectful, people should be looked at as individuals.  However, another character from earlier on in the show, Izzy Stevens, was portrayed as a stereotypical 'dumb blonde' despite being a doctor.  Christina Yang has quotes like: "Oh, screw beautiful.  I'm brilliant.  If you want to appease me, compliment my brain."  Where as Izzy is given quotes like "I believe that if I eat a tub of butter and no one sees me the calories don't count." It's interesting to notice that even in a medical situation women are still told that they are not good enough or cannot be something based on their appearance.
The title of 'Is TV for Real?' made me think about a lot of shows that are on TV.  Specifically, shows that claim to be 'reality TV'.  The first show that came to mind was Keeping up with the Kardashions.  This family has taken over the reality TV world, for better or for worse.  Many people idolize them, many people cannot stand them.  However, whether you like them or not you must look at the facts... they are good at what they do and have made themselves stars because of it.  People in today's world thrive off of other beings so called reality.  If someone walked around filming me no one would watch the show.  However, if you script 'famous people' and record their exciting Hollywood lifestyle people jump at the chance to live vicariously though them.
It's important to keep in mind that not much of television is real.  It may be based on a real story, or be located in a real setting but at the end of the day it is simply television not real life.  I believe that its important to keep that in mind and that it's important to make the youth aware that what is seen on television is NOT real.

Halloween and Gender Perfomance

To start my post I will show this image seen on several of the articles on Halloween.

People are saying that Party City should be reprimanded and remove this product.  While others are saying that they are simply promoting what sells.  Sadly, the second is true.  This image (and other Halloween costumes that I have seen this past weekend) are culprit to the content and stereotyped culture of the media.  On Friday night, I volunteered at an elementary school's 'Spooktacular'.  All of the young students that attended were dressed up- and very few altered from the gender boxed costumes for today's youth.  The boys were monsters, police, fire fighters, race car drivers, etc.  While the girls were princesses, cats, unicorns, fairies, etc.  I believe that sadly many parents do not see the issue with suggesting certain costumes to their children over other.  Because of parents influence (at least at an early age) on their children I am amazed that some care-takers allow their children to dress as they do.  Not only because of their gender boxed costumes, but because of either the violence of their son's bloody, weapon in hand, monster costume or their daughter's revealing tu-tu.  While reviewing my experience on Friday and the articles the following caught my attention.  

Lin Kramer: “Is this boy superman?

Daughter: “No, he’s pretending.”

Lin Kramer: “Exactly, he’s just pretending. So if he tells you that you can’t be superman, tell him that you can be because you are just pretending too.”

When I was little gender boxes must have existed, however, I do not know if it is that I just did not notice or if I was lucky enough to grow up with out it dictating my life.  When I was little my mom always made homemade costumes for my brother and I.  Halloween was always my favorite holiday because I was able to be ANYTHING I wanted to be.  I NEVER was a princess, despite being a girl.  I simply knew that I did not want to be a princess.  I was more excited by being a giant felt bag of Twizzlers candy because I could not be a bag of candy any other time of the year.  It deeply bothers me that youth is forced to conform to gender boxes at such a young age.  This issue grows from gender boxes to cultural appropriation, as ages increase.  College students (and high schoolers) are the worst with cultural appropriation and Halloween.  Many people insult religions, races, genders, cultures, and more through the way they dress act and dictate a group of people.  Whether one person from a specific group or even 10 from a group think the costume is okay- that small group does NOT speak for the whole.  People lose site of the greater picture and the greater effects that ones action of a costume could have to someone or a culture's image.  It is rude and unnecessary.  People are beginning to notice the issue with gender boxing and the same should be seen with cultural appropriation.  Both of these issues spread deeper than  Halloween, however, fixing the media's perspective for this day could lead to chain reaction of aiding the future.  

Code Pink, Raging, Grannies, and the Missile Dick Chicks

In this article  Code Pink, Raging, Grannies, and the Missile Dick Chicks, they talk about how different feminist groups do performances for activism for the contemporary anti-war movement.  Specifically, in the Raging Grannies use norm-embracing stereotypes to challenge their audience.  All of these groups aim to do this- challenge their audience.  Some allow for new members to easily join the group at demonstration while others like the Raging Grannies cannot have this because of their costumes and outward appearances.
The Raging Grannies use satirical songs and rewrite lyrics to spread a message.  This is seen with a re-write of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" making fun of "Georgie Porgie".  This re-do of the song spreads their message to their audience in a well known tune making the audience able to sing along.  Similarly to this, in 8th grade my history teacher made us change the lyrics (and preform to the class) for the song, "We Didn't Start The Fire".  This well known song connected to our meaningful lyrics added relevance to current history topics.  For our re-write we needed to continue from where the song 'left off' and include relevant historical events to make the youth of today understand their recent history in a new, enjoyable way.  This is a positive way of spreading a message through media action just like the Grannies and other groups.
The goal of all these groups is to show the illegitimacy of constructing gender roles.  For instance, typically, grannies are not out fighting and protesting.  These people defy ageism and dominant gender norms and manipulate the audience's stereotypes in the process.

Boys, Girls and Toys- Oh My

After watching the provided YouTube clip I decided to go to Google Images and simply type in the phrases "boy toys" and "girl toys".  Below are the first few items that popped up.

The little girl, Riley, from the clip was 100% correct- big company's make products specifically and 'only' for each gender.  As she put it, big companies, ""trick the girls into buying the pink stuff".  Because of the companies always making gendered packaging and colored products the toy market is NOT gender neutral.  My when my younger girl cousin was around 4 she 'hated' the colors blue, brown, black, and green- she would tell my aunt that they were boy colors and that girls cannot play with things that color.  This always bothered me because my aunt was not the girly-girl person that you would expect to have a daughter saying these things.  This video reminded me that it seems to be more of a media and company influence that is affecting the current youth (at times more effective than those raising the youth).  Not only is color a clear difference in terms of the boy side versus the girl side but the products being sold differ as well.  Again, as Riley stated, "some girls like super heroes and some girls like princesses".  However, in company minds girls are only to like pink princesses.  The Google search that I did exemplifies the fact that.  The girl products are almost all 'girl color'- pink.  They include dolls and make-up, baby-doll care sets, and even cleaning supplies.  Girls are taught at a young age that they are suppose to do the cleaning, care taking, and look 'pretty'.  While on the boys Google search images include trucks, cars, building sets, tools, and superheroes.  Toys are designed for enjoyment and even for constructive and dramatic life-skills play.  Boys are allowed to build, break, and create while girls are essentially practicing for what gender boxes dictate as their future lives.

The playmate and the rabbi: unlikely bedfellows fighting internet porn

I was confused by the title of this article as a playmate and a rabbi are an unlike pair in any situation.  However, after reading the article I believe the pair makes their stance much more meaningful and powerful in attempt to fight internet porn.  Of course one could assume that a rabbi would be against internet porn as it is demeaning and degrading- but to have a playmate say this as well is something unexpected.
I found Pamela Anderson's stance on the whole pornography matter to be interesting as she has been a part of so much dealing with the sexual image that is associated with women.  She has been a victim of sexual abuse as a child and young teen, she has posed as a sex image posing naked for PlayBoy, and she has stood up as an activist.  Shmuley Boteach, despite the negativity and backlash that he has received is firm in his standings and decision.  The two state how porn is effecting and shaping young mind stating that children, "are the crack babies of porn."
Anderson understands that people will call her names and say that her controversy is disqualifying the two.  However, Anderson reacts by stating the following, "There are people who eat meat and become vegetarian - that doesn't make them hypocritical, that makes them a growing, evolving human being."  I like this comment and agree with those who say that she based off of her experiences would best know the impact of the culture.
I also like that she states how growth and evolving human beings are critical, especially when talking about how pornography is shaping the mindset of the future generation.  I hope the two continue fighting the controversy and educate people on "loving sex without the demeaning side of it."

Gender and The Military

My grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-uncle have been a part of the military.  The military is still specifically a great influence in my grandfathers life.  He is my mom's father and because of his being part of the military I feel that the family has a greater connection and care for America and its value than some other people.  However, because of his military experience his view on gender remains consistent with gender boxing.  There is the expression, "don't ask, don't tell" with gay people and the military.  There is also feeling women's job is to care for the men- in all ways.  This mindset is changing, however, I think there is still a ways to go. 
As for gender, I have seen this clearly from the fact that all my family members that have served in the military are men.  This is reflective of the fact that only 14.5% of people that serve are women, and only 2.7% of people that serve on the front line are women.  I believe that women are still unsure about joining the military as they feel as though they are unwelcomed, and these low percentages demonstrate this.
Military wives differ than military husbands because of social expectations.  No matter who is deployed the other parents becomes the only parent.  This causes them to take on ALL of the responsibilities and act as both mom and dad.  This is a new, challenging task for either gender.  Struggles include becoming overwhelmed and feelings of guilt as not being able to be the breadwinner of the family since they have to compensate time/jobs for being the only available parent.  On the negative, it seems the military wives and husbands differ by what society deems as 'allowed'.  An example of how this is viewed can be through media and pop culture representations.  In commercials, you see the wife with a flag, sign, and children waiting for her husband to come back from the military.  Or you see the military son coming home and brewing his family some coffee awaking them to see him.  The media portrays the fact that it is males who are soldiers.  This goes further than commercials, movies, music videos and more always portray the men as soldiers and protectors of our country.  Sadly, the military is still seen as only a man's job.  I hope that more women are able to fight this and that women can be recognized for the great service that BOTH men and women are providing for our country. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/24/us/military-women-glance/

Intelligence vs. Icon

The article on Marilyn Monroe surprised me on many accounts.  First, I did not know about Monroe's hidden intelligence.  Second, I cannot believe that she allowed the world to portray her as a 'dumb blonde'.  I am  amazed that a woman with the IQ intelligence of 163 was 'dumb enough' to allow the world's ignorance to hid her intelligence.  I feel sorry for Monroe as she was never truly understood by any of her so called fans.  "I've never fooled anyone," she said, "I've let people fool themselves.  They didn't bother to find out who and what I was.  Instead they would invent a character for me.  I wouldn't argue with them.  They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't."  It makes me wonder if she had not hid her intelligence would she have been as famous.  Sadly, I believe that the reason in which she hid her intelligence was because people would be threatened by a beautiful and intelligent woman.  This threat would remove her fame, lessening her success.
Another example of a celebrity hiding their intellect to secure greater success can be seen in the sit-com actress, Lisa Kudrow, better known as Pheobe.  Phoebe is the quirky blonde that is seen as 'dumb'.  Kudrow playing this character causes others to view her as a dumb blonde.  Phoebe did not graduate high school and because of this Lisa Kudrow is viewed to have this same life.  However, Lisa Kudrow graduated with a B.S. in Pyschobiology from Vassar College.  She went on to do be a medical researcher before playing to funny ditz.
In the case of both this blonde beauties their intelligence is played down in order to continue their rolls in fame.  I hope that this can change and that having beauty and brains can stop being hidden... so what if being intelligent and beautiful is seen as a threat by ignorant people?  It's a 'threat' to be proud of!

From Sickness to Citizenship

Susan Stryker - Speaker at TCNJ

Susan wished to tell the story of trans-history to the culture that is today.  Susan's book, "Welcome to Trans-Reality", speaks about how the root of oppression.  She states that due to people's ignorance many do not believe that trans is 'real'.  This made me think about the threat that trans people must feel by societies placing people in those gender boxes (that we spoke about the beginning of our class).  Susan read a section of her book and then discussed as a synopsis.  The section she read spoke of race, sex, and gender fluidity.  "Everywhere we go is dangerous... I am dangerous."  This sentence caught my attention.  I felt awful that men and women are forced to be oppressed by others because of an unwilling and un-understanding society.  Technology is helping to change this mindset by making it known that people have different identifies, for example the growth of the Google search of the word 'trans'.  Susan's speaking made me better understand trans-people and taught me to reassess and attempt to remove the gender boxes of today's culture.

Language of Persuasion

Examples of Persuasive Advertisements:

BASIC:


1. Experts:  The Colgate ad shows a testimonial done for toothpaste carried out by 'experts'.  This ad shows the experts as being dentists since they are those most associated with teeth care and shows the certified by PDA check mark making viewers rely on this ad to advise them about the best toothpaste decision.  This ad is useful as it shows dentists and the PDA as credible sources for people to believe that this is the best.


2. Fear: This ad used fear of the audience to promote a solution.  The fear is a hurt/dead child while the promoted solution is a speed limit of 30 miles per hour.  This is useful because it uses a child leading to a useful scare tactic in order to promote the claim of having people drive 30 miles per hour, instead of for example 40 miles per hour.  


3. Plain Folks: This advertisement used a 'plain folk' making the product relateable to the regular people in the world.  Unlike, celebrity endorsements this Subway ad uses a 'regular' person to market their food.  This ad is useful because it shows that Subway is interested in the average consumer and shows that just like the 'plain folk' in the ad, you too can 'make history'.


4. Celebrities: This advertisement shows Jennifer Aniston as the endorser for Aveeno's product.  She is used to advertise for Aveeno simply because she is a beautiful famous celebrity.  People pay attention to celebrities and wish to emulate their actions.  This ad is useful because it makes it seem as though if you use this product you will end up looking like Jennifer Aniston.


INTERMEDIATE:


1. Flattery:  This advertisement persuades the viewers to buy this mascara "because you're worth it".  This is a good way of getting someone to buy a product because it shows praise to the buyer.  Also, typically people appeal to situations that make them feel good or feel praise.  This ad is useful because it makes the buyer feel like they are worth something good, therefore making them likely to buy a product that is worthy to them.


2. Name-Calling: This advertisement uses the technique of name-calling by saying that 'i' products, example, iPhone, iPod, etc. make someone an idiot.  This is a persuasive technique as it associates idiots with people that use those products.  This ad also points out how "i" products are so much more expensive than those that are not "i" products making the comparison that you're also an 'idiot' if you are willing to spend more for the same thing.  This ad is useful because the word idiot is a negative word comparing the "i" product buyers/users to the name-calling word of idiots.



3. New: This advertisement shows exactly how as a culture we associate old with boring and new with exciting.  This company if you look closely seems to have just changed the direction of their product making it 'new'.  However, at a glance one would choose this product of the company's opposed to the other kind simple because it is 'new'.  This ad is successful because in the United States we place great faith in new products and new ideas.


4. Nostalgia: This advertisement is the opposite of 'new' and makes the audience crave simpler times, bringing them back to when they were young.  Remembering how "great" the world was.  Trump campaign promises to bring back the "good old days" and his followers jump on to the nostalgic ways and old time traditions.  This advertisement works despite Trump being a new presidential candidate because his slogan is 'old' reminding people of the good times from the past.


ADVANCED:



1. Scapegoating: This ad shows that the United States loss of jobs is due to work being exported to China.  Scapegoating is used here to claim that the loss of jobs in the United States is 'only' due to China.  This mindset does not acknowledge any other possibility for the reason of lost jobs in the United States.  This is useful because it takes the attention off of the United States by pointing blame elsewhere, this is often used in political situations.


2. Timing: This ad was run around Halloween making timing key to the products success.  The delivery of this timing is important because it would look like Pepsi was trying to be Coca-Cola at any other time of the year, however, because of timing this ad shows that being Coca-Cola is 'scary'.  This is useful because it is carefully-timed to grab the attention, demonstrate that Pepsi should be the desired brand, and generates a response, for example funny because of the dressing up of a soda can.


3. Ad Hominem: This ad shows the use of attacking the opponent instead of the argument.  In this ad approved by Obama, he attacked Romney by saying that he is directing "the problem" instead of attacking the argument, or lack of argument, that Romney produced. This is useful because it allows for the audience to belief that there is something wrong with Romney, since he 'must be' a problem.

 
4. Analogy: This ad compares an unwashed tomato to a bomb.  These two situations being compared shows that not washing your fruits and vegetables can be just as dangerous in the long run as a deadly weapon.  This uses emotionally-charged images because you would never feed a loved one a deadly weapon- so why would you feed them unwashed food.  This ad is useful because it shows a comparison between the unwashed food and a harmful weapon, demonstrating the correspondence between the two. 

Bad Advertisement

1. This ad is bad advertising as it demonstrates that there is an expectation for girls and boys- even at a young age.  The fact that Gap- a well known company, was able to publish this advertisement is awful.  This shows a bad ad by stereotyping the young girl as needing to be a 'social butterfly'.  While, stereotyping the young boy as the 'little scholar'.  This ad is not 'bad' like some others that are funny or sexually inappropriate, however, this bad is bad because it shows that as a culture that even well known companies feel that they can continue spotlighting girls to be nothing more than social.  This forces girls to remain in this societal bubble of social instead of allow girls to spread their wings and learn for themselves that they are capable of being the spotlight as a little scholar.


2. This ad from Victoria's Secret is very misleading.  I felt that in order to understand how bad this ad from Victoria's Secret is it needed to be compared to the Dove Ad that shows true, real beauty.  This Victoria's Secret ad shows titled "love my body campaign" shows the audience that only the perfect skinny, toned body is worth loving.  This ad is seen by men, women, and children.  This makes men feel as though the Victoria's Secret ad demonstrates what women should look like.  This makes women feel that they can only love their body if it looks like these women.  Finally, this teaches children from an early age that either women are only worth loving if they look like this or that women in order to be loved need to look like this.

It’s Time to Stop Beautifying Violence Against Women for Fashion

In the Time magazine article I was disgusted with the number of horribly photographed situations that can so easily be related back to the rape of the India girl.  This bothers me because I know that there must be so many more images like this out there relating to her rape.  However, I am even more bothered because I know there are millions of more images and ads that subjectivity women as objects for men's enjoyment.  
The image of the India women fending off a group of men on the bus bothered me specifically because of what it was called, "The Wrong Turn".  This title makes it appear as though it is the woman's fault, or that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  How can that be acceptable?  How as a society can we teach that women are not objects and should not need to be concerned about their well being every second of the day?  I am baffled as to how the photographer, Raj Shetye, was able to not feel morally guilty for his actions and publication of the image.  The fact that Nirbhaya the 23 year old from New Delhi was fatally gang raped on a bus and then his ad glamorized the situation.  I am glad that women's rights activists caused outrage on Twitter, however, I am bothered that situations like this have and will continue to happen again and again.
I am concerned for the future generations, they see glossy magazine covers and ads but don't think of the greater meaning, the struggle that could have influenced the shot.  Because of this I believe that what the girls father said was correct- "they should be ashamed of it, what is the photographer trying to show to the juveniles and youths of the nation?  He should be punished".
I feel that we as a society need to educate current and future generations to not make women feel as though they are the ones that are the problem.  In school girls are told that they cannot wear SO many things because it will be a distraction for boys education.  When in fact it is the girls that spend so much time worrying about if what they are wearing will get them in trouble instead of being able to focus and learn.  We need to change the way media and ads portray women and we need to stop believing that violence can be beautified.

Gendered Slang-Language

We live in a world dictated by gender.  The world we live in is comparable to a middle school dance.  Boys on one side- eating, talking about sports while girls on the other side- gossiping, hoping a boy will approach  her.  THIS IS A PROBLEM!  There is no reason that we need to live our entire lives as middle school students that cannot grow up.  There is no reason that women need to be approached by a man in order to feel accepted or 'allowed' to do something.  There is no reason that men need to all be lumped under a category of baboons.  Our language is gendered- so gendered that the word firewoman is not considered a word (as it is underlined red as I type this).
Colloquialisms are words or phrases that are stated in society and influence the way people speak and act.  Growing up as a female I have been taught from an early age that there are 'boy things' and 'girl things', 'boy colors' and 'girl colors'.  This differentiation of boy to girl roles has gone as far as 'boy jobs' and 'girl jobs'.  Think of a doctor, a construction worker, the police, a sports player, a member of the military, the president, a boss of a company.  All of these occupations have been taught to be a 'man's job'.  Think of a nurse, a teacher, a caregiver, a secretary, a flight attendant.  All of these occupations have been taught to be a 'woman's job'.
Our language is divided to male words and female words.  Male words are powerful and female words are objects.Woman are stuck in a world that is gendered so far to the point that even the words feMALE and woMAN are influenced by the presence of male or man.  Woman are unable to escape these gendered words and are taught at an early age through typically taunts that there are things for men and things for women.  For example, "you throw/run/kick/punch like a girl" is a bad thing.  This means you're a 'wimp' and not good enough.  However, for girls we are simply being ourselves, and as usual, in our gendered society, being ourselves is not enough.  We need to "act tough" and "man up" making man the highest form of power.
This needs to change, we need to grow up from taking sides at that middle school dance and meet in the middle.  This can start by teaching those middle schoolers that the middle of the dance floor is a good thing.  Maybe then the next generation will be able to demonstrate respect and progress- eliminating  this gendered language world.

Adultolescence

Adolescence and technology have become immersed into a very overlapping category.  Because of the ability and availability of technology to EVERYONE, children are growing up faster.  Since children are learning more about the world at an earlier age the stage of adolescence and discovery has become lessen and the time frame of 'being' an adult has shortened.  This time between adolescence and adulthood has been termed- adultolescence.  Technology has changed the ways families interact and has made some parents resort to allowing technology educate their children instead of themselves.  This is dangerous and allows children to be exposed to ALL that the internet has to offer at an early age.  Being exposed to so much so early taints with the idea that Rousseau said, "children must be shaped into active and thinking beings."  This age of adolescence, typically dictated by puberty is even occurring on average six years earlier than it did in 1850.  It says, "puberty is not so much a fixed physical state as it is a complex sociological experience".

Despite children growing up faster there is an increase in the age in which people marry.  To be exact the age has increased by 5 years. "The average age at which couples exchange vows is now 25 for women and 27 for men."  Also increased is the age at which women first give birth, this number is now ages 30 and up.  Technology is changing our lives an allowing us to live longer.  This allows for life events like marriage and pregnancy to happen later in life.  This technology also changes family dynamics and can allow from a younger age for children to be open with modern family forms- as the article states, "to remain relevant to the twenty-first century, the economics of the family will need to push beyond the production of children and traditional notions of specialization."

All in the Family

The nuclear family includes the stereotype of a stay at home mother, a working father, and two and a half children.  The gender roles of the woman was to stay at home and care for the children and their pick-fence home.  The woman would go shopping and bow down to the man's demand while cleaning up and taking care of the children when they came home from school.  The man would go to work and then on the weekends do yard work that included climbing high up on ladders and building things with tools.  The children included a girl- who would wear bows, dresses and help her mother in the kitchen or dust the home.  The boy would go outside and play ball and then come in with scraped knees.  The roles of everyone in this nuclear family has been modified in some way for the modern age we live in.
For the inclusion of the modern family, there is at least four types of families that immediately come to mind (however, there are many more that I acknowledge as families but will not be comparing to the nuclear family).  There is the typical family- woman, man, and child/children.  There is the gay family- two women or two men and possibly children.  There is the mixed family- an older man or woman with a younger man or woman and possible children (either of their own or from prior relationships).  There is the divorced family- a split in any of these types of families.  There are so many more and so many different types of family dynamics in this modern age that I am personally not surprised from any combination of people.  Even with the make up of genders in these families being different there is even greater change in the working aspect of the modern family compared to the nuclear family.
The greatest difference in the modern family to the nuclear family is the role reversal of who works and who stays home.  Today there are families where both spouses work and families where it is the mother that works and the father that stays home.  In the article, Working Mother, it is the father, John, who "does the dishes" and the mother, Christine, who supports the home financially.  The recession changed the way roles and family dynamics work shuffling around the nuclear family.  Today (2008), 51% of workers on payroll are women, however, when the nuclear family existed in 1969 is was 33%.  Also today (2008), 31% of working moms earn just as much as their husbands compared to 11% in 1967.  The gender roles are changing- either making woman work while men stay home or having both spouses work and split the home duties.  The modern families have come a long way from the nuclear white picket fences.  It is refreshing to see the number of woman positively impacting the work force and the number of men that are emotionally confident to care for their family.

Cornrows and Cultural Appropriation

Social appropriation is sadly not a new pop culture issue.  However, because of famous celebrities such as Fergie, Gwen Stefani, Heidi Klum, Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, David Beckman, and, more recently, Lena Dunham, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian, the list goes on and on.  This issue of cultural appropriation is popping up in magazines and feeds all over.  The issue of cultural appropriation stems further than a celebrity wearing their hair in braids.  It is important to remember what things mean to the culture and the people in the culture, "...cornrows, it is symbolic of a cultural identity that does not want to be homogenized...".  Cultural issues are becoming normalized in society- mostly seen in college age students.  Most retable seen in party themes, the media has allowed for cultural appropriation to seem insignificant as it has gone un-noticed and unpunished.
"Whether it’s a hairstyle or jazz music, there’s a difference between honoring a culture and stealing from it."  The difference between enjoying something from another culture and using it to make a statement are two very different things.  People everyday are living their lives everyday with what you are "using" to make a statement.  The identity of individual's are being harmed because of negligence and stupidity.  Even 'asking' someone from the culture's if you can use their style is not an acceptance from the entire culture.  However, some may say that bringing about another culture to the mainstream is a way of immersing the culture into America's "melting pot".  This could at first be seen as a positive, however, not in the minds of corrupt businesses as the article states, "it feels an awful lot like slavery to have others profit from your efforts."
It's important to remember there is a difference between stealing and enjoying.  Enjoying and appreciating another culture's music, dance, clothing, food, etc. is acceptable and allows for people to become more cultured.  But it is important to remember there is a line that must not be crossed- the line or cultural enrichment and cultural appropriation. 

Modern Love

To me love means that you unconditionally trust, care for, rely on, and believe in a person.  I believe that you know that you have 'found' love when you are able to happily put that person ahead of yourself- and that that other person does the same.  My feelings on love are comparable to the Corinthians verse.  "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."  However, in terms of media and pop culture's representation of love, love and dating are taboo.   Between the fear of true communication and the mindset of needing to be the best, media and pop culture has tainted what love is for the millennial generation.

Over the past 5-10 years media has influenced dating by bringing about online dating sites- too many to count.  There is a dating site out there for EVERYONE.  Which could be seen as a positive- bringing people together based off of common interests that could have never met before.  But for me, these online dating sites remove the true spark of love.  Whether you believe in love in first site and destiny or think it is a bunch of BS this online game of checking some boxes to find your soul mate is not the type of romance I wish to tell my family or future children.  My parents grew up around the block from each other and my mom was friends with my dad's younger sister in elementary school.  The two re-met years later when they happened to be working together.  My boyfriend's parents met in high school and have been together ever since.  Today's dating age is a mixture of wishing to have "#relationshipgoals" and wondering how long one should wait before responding to a text message.  This pop culture has made a 100 day Snap Chat streak the equivalency of meeting your significant other's family.  This is unhealthy and not in any way a true representation of love.  This 'modern love' made by media is focused on sex and degrades specifically women to become objectified objects.  Due to the impression medial and pop culture has on the millennial generation it is obvious as to why their interpretation of love and dating is so tainted.  

Feminism Without Feminists - SATC

This article, Feminism Without Feminists, demonstrates starting with the title that there are exclusions and separations in feminism.  This separation lessens the power and impact of women coming together for one another to promote change.  For example, feminists that were not white created their own form of feminism.  How is this okay?  If women of different races and ethnicity's cannot join forces and fight together, for one fight against gender equality, than how can other genders begin to take feminism seriously?  The feminist movement would have the ability to empower women everywhere, however, due to the lack of unity between women this societal progress was lessened.  This is evident in the first chapter of the article that focuses on the sociology of the television show, Sex and the City (SATC).  The article depicts the audience, fans, and race theories that could have either been on purpose or a mere accident.
On the positive the article points out how, "SATC has been praised for its feminist elements, such as showcasing female friendship, privileging female subjectivity, challenging dominate narratives, and encouraging frank talk about female sexuality".  This article points out how in television, popular culture is able to be discussed.  The article shows how through popular television touchy issues can be brought up and educated.  On SATC this is done through characters debate.  The characters show the pro's and con's leading the viewers to come to a conclusion on their own, or at least think about a topic that was otherwise brushed under the carpet.  For instance, SATC brings up an accidental pregnancy- a relatable topic to women questioning pro-life or pro-choice.  What helps allow for the show be radical is the fans and their ability to accept upfront talks about things like abortions and sexuality.
However, the overwhelming negatives pointed out through this article question if SATC gives a fully public spread of feminism.  For example, the women on the show although trying to demonstrate power to women only are comprised as "heterosexual, middle-class white" women.  Despite the positives pointed out by the article, the show still is not able to fully address feminism.  Even with having all female lead roles who demonstrate the power and ability of women, the show lacks inclusion from characters of race and ethnicity.  This lack of cast leads to lessening the ability of showing the power of women and pushes for those opposed to feminism to question the lack of diversity in the show instead of the empowerment of women.

YouTube, I Tube, We All Tube

The role of gender in these videos is viewed very stereo-typically.  The focus is that boys are good at throwing, running, kicking, etc. and that girls simply are not.  However, the second video goes on to defy these stereo-types put on girls.

“You play ball like a girl” – The Sandlot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrG5UBzSJ-U

 

“… like a girl” – Always Commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

The YouTube clip that I found that portrays stereotypical gender roles is from the movie, The Sandlot.  In this scene two groups of boys are at a baseball field and fighting about being “an insult to the game”.  The two leaders of the group go back and forth with comebacks at each other.  This comebacks start as simply insults to one another such as jerk, idiot, and moron and escalate to saying, “you play ball like a girl”.  This final comment despite the countless before is the one that stops the fighting and silences the fight.  However, this silence is not due to a mutual understand of how inappropriate, wrong, and disrespectful the comment was but because that comeback is viewed as the most hurtful to the group of boys.  This demonstrates hegemony, as stated on page 39 of our textbook. “Hegemony is the power of dominance that one social group holds over others.”  This difference in power among boys and girls is immensely strong in the lives of people today. The target audience is all boys- young, old, and in between.  Comments and comebacks such as “you play ball like a girl” is taught to boys at an early age to be a negative and something/someone that one never wishes to be compared to.  This comment is sadly effective in reaching the audience because boys, of all ages, can relate to this and know that they do not want to ever be compared to a girl- especially when it comes to a situation involving sports. 

The second YouTube clip, takes this comment and others like it one step further.  This video asks both girls and boys to do acts “like a girl”.  For example, running and throwing.  Both girls and boys that have reached puberty mimic these acts to dictate a negative connotation.  However, when asked the same things to children, the girls run and throw just as they normally would- as girls.  The target audience is girls, however, the video also speaks to all genders.  This is seen by asking a boy if his imitation would insult his sister, he tries to say not her but other girls.  How is this okay?  The goal and effectiveness of this video reaches a wide spread of diverse audiences.  This is effective because even throughout the short clip the view and stereotype of how women treat themselves changes.  If only more young girls could see that doing something “like a girl” is not a bad thing than maybe the men in the world could better begin to realize that doing something “like a girl” is not a disability.