Notes to look out for this semester:
CSE 110
WRT 102
AIM 104
MAT 126
SOC 105
Monday, January 29, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
SOC 247 - Gender & Media
Gender and the Media
Men and women in society have been given a hidden guideline to follow right in our everyday lives. From the moment we wake up to the time we sleep, we are being slowly but surely shaped by the media. The media consists of advertisements, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. In our everyday lives, we are exposed to millions of advertising. A significant amount of those are slowly brain washing us towards how we should live as males and females in this society. The media is doing this intentionally by displaying females as weaker figures on ads and making males as the more dominant.
In Killing Us Softly by Jean Kilbourne, we saw how women we being used as objects rather than the subjects. Females were being used to sell products with their sex appeal and to a point, it works but at what cost? If advertisers keep using women’s sex appeal to sell, our minds will be set to seeing women as nothing more than just their appearance. The idea of “a woman is worth as much as their appearances” will ultimately become inequality between the sexes. However, if we want equality between men and women, we cannot shape our society to have that mindset. There is defiantly more to a woman than her appearance. In the eye opening documentary, we saw women dressed partially nude, selling cigarettes, cars and other products directed at a male audience. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something wrong with the way women are being used as objects to sell these products. It says a great deal about the respect we have for women even in today’s times.
There is a commercial airing right now for DirectTV, it features Jessica Simpson dressed in revealing clothes as her character in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). She says that the quality of DirectTV is superb, saying that the TV displays a resolution of 10,000dpi (a technological term). Then she goes on to say in her southern Texan accent that she doesn’t know what that means but she wants it. This commercial deliberately portrays her as being stupid but the way DirectTV hopes to sell its products is by using Jessica’s sex appeal. If she wants it and its good enough for her, it should be good enough for me, that is the notion they are trying to give.
Further research in female portrayal in media shows evidence that young girls are “seduced by advertisers” to loose their essence of childhood. According to Jean Kilbourne, girls are told to wear revealing clothes such as bras and thongs in advertisements. What is happening is that these girls are being exploited and being used, again, as objects. Unfortunately does sex sell and it’s proven by statistics. Advertisers only select females who are usually tall and skinny. In our society, tall and skinny is considered a beautiful model but the fact is that many young girls look up to these models, and want to be just like them. We have girls who now starve themselves in order to look like the beautiful models they see on television. Most of the time they over do it and become obsessively anorexic.
There are several controversies that say that most of us overanalyze ads and take them for things they do not mean. Those who argue against the fact that how women are portrayed in ads affect society might believe in some of these following things. Some will argue that ads are harmless and no one really pays attention to them. This is absolutely false because popular culture ads affect people’s decisions more than any other source. So if women are seen has inferior, given time, society will treat women as inferior. In fact, the majority of domestic violence against women derived from the male seeing women as inferior to them. A quick comparison in a magazine shows clearly how each sex is portrayed differently in ads selling the same things. In December’s issue of Maxiam magazine, a woman is advertising a Verizon Wireless mobile phone but when the phone half way tucked on her swimming suite. However, the same mobile phone with a male model shows the male using it in a business environment.
Another growing problem with the media is black entertainment music videos. Many say that black young adults are being exploited without them even realizing it. When you turn on the BET (Black Entertainment Today) channel, all you see is black women throwing themselves at rap artists in hip-hop music videos. The complex of sex and inferiority of women is strong in those videos. Despite what you see, what you hear is also amazing; lyrics are almost always about guns, sex and drugs. These are certainly not the things we want to put into our young minds of America but the trend has started and the hip-hop population is growing larger. By watching these videos, teenagers might assume its okay to be violent, use drugs and disrespect women. Young black women today are putting up this attitude that is unnecessary for this society, and this clearly comes from the influence of these music videos. Not only do the videos influence males to be more violent, it also tells the females that it’s okay and it’s normal to accept violence inflicted on them.
No matter where you look in modern advertising, you can still see reminisces of inequality between males and females. Don’t get me wrong, it has improved but still exists. No longer do we have racial injustice in our ads but sex issues are still present. Killing Us Softly took use through a journey of ads portraying women negatively, to this day; some of those ad tactics are still used. Tactics such as using women as sex objects. In The Dukes of Hazzard’s commercial with Jessica Simpson, the advertisers made her sound so stupid, this was intentional of her character in the movie but the point is that women are still portrayed as inferior in today’s ads. Young girls are taught to look slender and wear revealing clothes by our ads. Black women are getting the wrong messages in today’s hip-hop music videos. Women’s portrayals in ads have improved but can still get a lot better, there are lots of room for improvement.
Works Cited
Jean in the Media
<>
Gender Ad Controversies
<>
Killing Us Softly 3 – Advertising's Image of Women (2000 with Jean Kilbourne)
Maxiam – December 2006 – Verizon Wireless Ads
GenderAds.com - Side By Side Comparisons of Ads Portraying Women Negatively
<>
Men and women in society have been given a hidden guideline to follow right in our everyday lives. From the moment we wake up to the time we sleep, we are being slowly but surely shaped by the media. The media consists of advertisements, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. In our everyday lives, we are exposed to millions of advertising. A significant amount of those are slowly brain washing us towards how we should live as males and females in this society. The media is doing this intentionally by displaying females as weaker figures on ads and making males as the more dominant.
In Killing Us Softly by Jean Kilbourne, we saw how women we being used as objects rather than the subjects. Females were being used to sell products with their sex appeal and to a point, it works but at what cost? If advertisers keep using women’s sex appeal to sell, our minds will be set to seeing women as nothing more than just their appearance. The idea of “a woman is worth as much as their appearances” will ultimately become inequality between the sexes. However, if we want equality between men and women, we cannot shape our society to have that mindset. There is defiantly more to a woman than her appearance. In the eye opening documentary, we saw women dressed partially nude, selling cigarettes, cars and other products directed at a male audience. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something wrong with the way women are being used as objects to sell these products. It says a great deal about the respect we have for women even in today’s times.
There is a commercial airing right now for DirectTV, it features Jessica Simpson dressed in revealing clothes as her character in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). She says that the quality of DirectTV is superb, saying that the TV displays a resolution of 10,000dpi (a technological term). Then she goes on to say in her southern Texan accent that she doesn’t know what that means but she wants it. This commercial deliberately portrays her as being stupid but the way DirectTV hopes to sell its products is by using Jessica’s sex appeal. If she wants it and its good enough for her, it should be good enough for me, that is the notion they are trying to give.
Further research in female portrayal in media shows evidence that young girls are “seduced by advertisers” to loose their essence of childhood. According to Jean Kilbourne, girls are told to wear revealing clothes such as bras and thongs in advertisements. What is happening is that these girls are being exploited and being used, again, as objects. Unfortunately does sex sell and it’s proven by statistics. Advertisers only select females who are usually tall and skinny. In our society, tall and skinny is considered a beautiful model but the fact is that many young girls look up to these models, and want to be just like them. We have girls who now starve themselves in order to look like the beautiful models they see on television. Most of the time they over do it and become obsessively anorexic.
There are several controversies that say that most of us overanalyze ads and take them for things they do not mean. Those who argue against the fact that how women are portrayed in ads affect society might believe in some of these following things. Some will argue that ads are harmless and no one really pays attention to them. This is absolutely false because popular culture ads affect people’s decisions more than any other source. So if women are seen has inferior, given time, society will treat women as inferior. In fact, the majority of domestic violence against women derived from the male seeing women as inferior to them. A quick comparison in a magazine shows clearly how each sex is portrayed differently in ads selling the same things. In December’s issue of Maxiam magazine, a woman is advertising a Verizon Wireless mobile phone but when the phone half way tucked on her swimming suite. However, the same mobile phone with a male model shows the male using it in a business environment.
Another growing problem with the media is black entertainment music videos. Many say that black young adults are being exploited without them even realizing it. When you turn on the BET (Black Entertainment Today) channel, all you see is black women throwing themselves at rap artists in hip-hop music videos. The complex of sex and inferiority of women is strong in those videos. Despite what you see, what you hear is also amazing; lyrics are almost always about guns, sex and drugs. These are certainly not the things we want to put into our young minds of America but the trend has started and the hip-hop population is growing larger. By watching these videos, teenagers might assume its okay to be violent, use drugs and disrespect women. Young black women today are putting up this attitude that is unnecessary for this society, and this clearly comes from the influence of these music videos. Not only do the videos influence males to be more violent, it also tells the females that it’s okay and it’s normal to accept violence inflicted on them.
No matter where you look in modern advertising, you can still see reminisces of inequality between males and females. Don’t get me wrong, it has improved but still exists. No longer do we have racial injustice in our ads but sex issues are still present. Killing Us Softly took use through a journey of ads portraying women negatively, to this day; some of those ad tactics are still used. Tactics such as using women as sex objects. In The Dukes of Hazzard’s commercial with Jessica Simpson, the advertisers made her sound so stupid, this was intentional of her character in the movie but the point is that women are still portrayed as inferior in today’s ads. Young girls are taught to look slender and wear revealing clothes by our ads. Black women are getting the wrong messages in today’s hip-hop music videos. Women’s portrayals in ads have improved but can still get a lot better, there are lots of room for improvement.
Works Cited
Jean in the Media
<>
Gender Ad Controversies
<>
Killing Us Softly 3 – Advertising's Image of Women (2000 with Jean Kilbourne)
Maxiam – December 2006 – Verizon Wireless Ads
GenderAds.com - Side By Side Comparisons of Ads Portraying Women Negatively
<>
BIO 101 - Presentations
Our first presenter up was Christine, she was born with a condition called Nystagmus. It is the involunteery movement of the eyes and it somehow seems to be related to the environment shes in. Sometimes the eyes will moves around under stress but several things have helped her. Christine says that when her head is tilted at a certain angle, that it helps her focus and see better. This condition reduces her vision slightly but it's not like shes blind. Glasses has also helped made her eyes better. Another thing she tried to make better of the condition was to use acupuncture. This is done but putting tiny needles in her eye brow area. This condition is said to be perminat and is common in people who are albinos. Nystagmus happens in 1/several thaosand children.
The second presenter which I found to be pretty entertaining was Ed. He was born with mild autism syndrom. 1/166 people are born with it but back when Ed was born, it was estimated that 1/2000 children are born with autism. Autism is a condition where your brain is 8% bigger. The conditions that go with autism might be having a slow response towards things and limited speech. However I was amazed when Ed said he read the last Harry Potter book in about 9 hours, that had to do with his faster processing of information. Autism comes with weak social skills but in a mild case like Ed's, he can do pretty well. One incident he told us about was when he was hiding under the bus in Kindergarden because some kid bullied him. He also said that kids with autism are often more affected by negattive remarks and is damaged by it.
The last presenter was a girl who was born with Congenital Heart Disease. Her name was Jenna. She says that 1% or 8/1000 has her type of heart disease at birth. She was born in September 19th of 1984 and just 2 days later, she had her first heart surgery. Jenna called herself a blue baby and even showed us a picture of it. Technically she was that color because not enough oxygen was allowed in her body, therefore turning purple/blue. He oxygen level was 39 when the norm should have been near 100. Her heart was missing critical vessels that allowed blood to correctly transfer to the heart and some heart tissue was simply not present. The doctors had to use the veins in her arm to repair the heart. Several procedures was done including the recent one of replacing a calciumated tissue of the heart. She is due for another surgery soon. Dispite her condition, she is very happy about being able to still do the things she does, she still parties and eats anything she wants. She looks really healthy for someone with these problems and I wish her the best of luck with her health.
The second presenter which I found to be pretty entertaining was Ed. He was born with mild autism syndrom. 1/166 people are born with it but back when Ed was born, it was estimated that 1/2000 children are born with autism. Autism is a condition where your brain is 8% bigger. The conditions that go with autism might be having a slow response towards things and limited speech. However I was amazed when Ed said he read the last Harry Potter book in about 9 hours, that had to do with his faster processing of information. Autism comes with weak social skills but in a mild case like Ed's, he can do pretty well. One incident he told us about was when he was hiding under the bus in Kindergarden because some kid bullied him. He also said that kids with autism are often more affected by negattive remarks and is damaged by it.
The last presenter was a girl who was born with Congenital Heart Disease. Her name was Jenna. She says that 1% or 8/1000 has her type of heart disease at birth. She was born in September 19th of 1984 and just 2 days later, she had her first heart surgery. Jenna called herself a blue baby and even showed us a picture of it. Technically she was that color because not enough oxygen was allowed in her body, therefore turning purple/blue. He oxygen level was 39 when the norm should have been near 100. Her heart was missing critical vessels that allowed blood to correctly transfer to the heart and some heart tissue was simply not present. The doctors had to use the veins in her arm to repair the heart. Several procedures was done including the recent one of replacing a calciumated tissue of the heart. She is due for another surgery soon. Dispite her condition, she is very happy about being able to still do the things she does, she still parties and eats anything she wants. She looks really healthy for someone with these problems and I wish her the best of luck with her health.
BIO101 Extra Credit Gatacca Review
Gattaca Movie Review
This wasn’t the first time I have seen the movie but the last time I’ve seen it was a while ago. I managed to find things I have not picked up the first time I watched it so YES, I did learn a few things. I felt like after our biology lectures, I understood the film more clearly. There was one thing that isn’t relevant now but it was before. In the beginning of the film, Vincent-Anton mentioned that the apple was the ninth planet Pluto. This is no longer true, scientists have ruled out Pluto as a true planet this year. Enough about I understood the film and how relevant to me it was, let me give the synopsis of the movie.
This film takes place some time in the near future, where we have genetic doctors who artificially conceive a baby with absolutely the best genes of both parents. Vincent-Anton was conceived naturally the traditional way by sex. However, he was born with a high probability of problems, heart diseases, mental retardness, etc. Society at that time ran a space program that sent “elites” to space and to distant planets. Elites were those with the best combination of genes. Elites were those who were almost physically perfect. Although Vincent-Anton was no where near elite, he had a dream and a vision, to one day be abroad a ship and travel to space. To accomplish his dream, he would have to train physically and push himself to become as strong as an “elite”. In the movie, the future is portrayed as this place where everyone only cares about your genetic make up and that a sample of blood was good enough for a resume. Your genetics had to be good enough to join the force of elites. Of course, Vincent-Anton’s genes were not close to perfect so he makes a deal with Jerome. Jerome has the best of the best genes but he was involved in an accident and decides to help Vincent accomplish his goal of going up to space. Everyday, Jerome prepares blood samples and urine samples and for Vincent to use so he can enter Gattaca as an elite using Jerome’s blood for validation.
This wasn’t the first time I have seen the movie but the last time I’ve seen it was a while ago. I managed to find things I have not picked up the first time I watched it so YES, I did learn a few things. I felt like after our biology lectures, I understood the film more clearly. There was one thing that isn’t relevant now but it was before. In the beginning of the film, Vincent-Anton mentioned that the apple was the ninth planet Pluto. This is no longer true, scientists have ruled out Pluto as a true planet this year. Enough about I understood the film and how relevant to me it was, let me give the synopsis of the movie.
This film takes place some time in the near future, where we have genetic doctors who artificially conceive a baby with absolutely the best genes of both parents. Vincent-Anton was conceived naturally the traditional way by sex. However, he was born with a high probability of problems, heart diseases, mental retardness, etc. Society at that time ran a space program that sent “elites” to space and to distant planets. Elites were those with the best combination of genes. Elites were those who were almost physically perfect. Although Vincent-Anton was no where near elite, he had a dream and a vision, to one day be abroad a ship and travel to space. To accomplish his dream, he would have to train physically and push himself to become as strong as an “elite”. In the movie, the future is portrayed as this place where everyone only cares about your genetic make up and that a sample of blood was good enough for a resume. Your genetics had to be good enough to join the force of elites. Of course, Vincent-Anton’s genes were not close to perfect so he makes a deal with Jerome. Jerome has the best of the best genes but he was involved in an accident and decides to help Vincent accomplish his goal of going up to space. Everyday, Jerome prepares blood samples and urine samples and for Vincent to use so he can enter Gattaca as an elite using Jerome’s blood for validation.
BIO 101 Extra Credit - Harry
BIO101
Gattaca
In the near future, discrimination is based on genetics, not race or class. Parents at the time went to see their geneticist to filter out undesirable traits in their future child. Vincent's parents decided to go trust mother nature and conceive naturally. Vincent was born as an unhealthy baby. Vincent is seen as genetically inferior and had a 99% chance of heart disease. His parents wanted to have a second child and chose to consult a geneticist. Anton, their second child had the best of both parents’ genes. Vincent is treated as if he's fragile and will die any moment. No childcare center would provide him service because of the possible risk of premature death. However all that changed when he one day beat his brother in the game of chicken where both of them would swim out to the sea as far as they could knowing “each stroke was another [they’d] have to take back”.
Vincent dreams of going into space but he is seen as unfit. He was known as an invalid in his society, those who are unfit. He uses Jerome’s “valid” genetics to deceive Gattaca to let him train to go to space. Jerome was known as an elite. He decides to use one of the genetically elites identities to get into the space program. It's a complex procedure, in which he uses the donor’s body fluids to fool gene testing machines.
He completes his training successfully regardless of what the science told him. The science at birth told him that he would have a 99% chance of heart disease and that he would never be qualified for space. But despite that, science was wrong about him or maybe luck was on his side. He beats the odds and finally is launched to the planet Titan.
Gattaca
In the near future, discrimination is based on genetics, not race or class. Parents at the time went to see their geneticist to filter out undesirable traits in their future child. Vincent's parents decided to go trust mother nature and conceive naturally. Vincent was born as an unhealthy baby. Vincent is seen as genetically inferior and had a 99% chance of heart disease. His parents wanted to have a second child and chose to consult a geneticist. Anton, their second child had the best of both parents’ genes. Vincent is treated as if he's fragile and will die any moment. No childcare center would provide him service because of the possible risk of premature death. However all that changed when he one day beat his brother in the game of chicken where both of them would swim out to the sea as far as they could knowing “each stroke was another [they’d] have to take back”.
Vincent dreams of going into space but he is seen as unfit. He was known as an invalid in his society, those who are unfit. He uses Jerome’s “valid” genetics to deceive Gattaca to let him train to go to space. Jerome was known as an elite. He decides to use one of the genetically elites identities to get into the space program. It's a complex procedure, in which he uses the donor’s body fluids to fool gene testing machines.
He completes his training successfully regardless of what the science told him. The science at birth told him that he would have a 99% chance of heart disease and that he would never be qualified for space. But despite that, science was wrong about him or maybe luck was on his side. He beats the odds and finally is launched to the planet Titan.
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