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.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Connecting Dots to Terrorism
Tony Cai
AIM102.02
Analysis to Connecting the Dots … to Terrorism
It has long been a proven fact that the media slightly alters the stories or that they choose what to expose to the media; Bernard Goldberg admits that himself, exposing the facts after working for CBS for over 30 years. On September 11, 2001, the mass media had no time to alter or choose what to change on because the event was so catastrophic; it was not hidden from us through the norms of media filtering. “For a change, they gave it to us straight.” However, give it some time and the media would soon take control of our TV’s, newspapers and magazines again and that’s exactly what happened.
Did you ever notice on days where there isn’t much going on, the news features headlines from sports or an investigation about a how to save gas that goes on for days? Well according to Bernard Goldberg, it is a simple tactic that the media uses to keep its current viewers every night. It is when the real news comes up that we actually get news that really matter. In post 9/11, there was a nation wide coverage about Chandra Levy, news about a sex scandal. Meanwhile, terrorists were plotting to fly planes into the twin towers. It was a way to keep it’s ratings up. Then 9/11 happened.
There isn’t a better way to attract viewers to the media if the media gave us a clue about who was to blame for the attacks. Right after 9/11, all the focus was steered towards the
The media played a big role with racism against people with a Middle Eastern background. After the media portrayed Arabs and Palestinians celebrating the tragedy of 9/11, many Americans developed a sense of hate against all Arabs and Palestinians. This racist idea towards Arabs is wrong but it is very understandable seeing as how the media portrays them. What was interesting to me was when Goldberg, found that one network which put a Muslim women on the news who blamed Christianity in Timothy McVeigh’s attacks in Oklahoma; having failed to realize that he did not do it for religious reasons. I’d assume that people in the Arab world probably see American doing what we do for religious purposes, but they most likely put her on the air for the simple fact of telling the story from another point of view. Nobody really cared about what she said because we didn’t agree.
Then there is this whole thing about politics and the media. A war exists between the liberal left and the conservative right. The liberal left showing a more democratic point of view and the conservative right showing a more republican point of view. Goldberg says that an anti-government created by conservative politicians played a role in spawning Timothy McVeigh in the bombings which means that it plays a role in everyday culture. I can see where this anti-government view is coming from, conservatives should be more liberal. This is an ever-changing world and we should not live strictly by what the document says.
Goldberg talks a little about what goes on in the mind of a terrorist. The terrorists of 9/11 lived by the Koran. Does the Koran really teach the “religion of peace” or are followers interpreting the wrong thing? I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything in there saying that killing yourself and killing innocent others will grant you entry into paradise. The terrorists must be interpreting it the wrong way; there is “no apparent shortage of Muslim suicide bombers” and no suicide bombers of any other religions. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.
At first glance, we thought that the media was just a simple system to tell us the news everyday but there is so much more to it. Politics and religion surrounds and controls the media almost telling you what they want you to see. There is so much conflict that goes on which defines what you see or read. I’m glad that Bernard Goldberg took the time to write this, it really shows how controlled and clueless we really are. Take it from someone in the news business for over 30 years.
AIM Yale Assignment
Tony Cai
AIM 102
College Life verses My Moral Code
1) Hack believes that her traditional moral code is threatened by Yale’s freshmen/sophomore residency requirements. College living culture is not what is wanted by his religion. This can be backed up when he says that his fundamental principals has been taught for as long as he can remember with the Torah going back 3,000 years.
2) A potential solution to the problem is having the university wave the residential requirements however Yale has a strict policy. Yale is justified in that they want freshmen and sophomores to live on campus so they can be acquainted with the new environment. If no other freshmen or sophomore can have the right to live off campus then, there should be no reason for people of a certain religion to live off campus.
3) They could claim that they have stuck with the strict guidelines of their religion for all these years, and they are about to break it when entering the university.
4) If a sexual living setting is not suitable for certain groups of people, they should still be living on campus but in another location where all parties agree on the same things.
Yale is one of the top colleges of the
Yale’s own “residential religion” has an anything goes policy. Yale argues that an individual’s sexual morality is none of the university’s concern and in today’s society it shouldn’t be. To promote safe sex, Yale provides condoms which seem to be a concern for Hack, he believes that they are promoting sex. This is not so, with sexual freedom, if one were to engage in sex, they should at least have safe sex rather than not being protected at all. Yale recognizes the inconveniences that their residential policies might have however they cannot just establish a policy against the culturally accepted idea of sexual freedom for the sake of a certain religious group. I think this is a situation of “majority rules”. I’m pretty sure the majority will reject the ban of sexual freedom in today’s society.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)