Hello, internet! And now, we present to you yet another exciting journey beyond the comprehension of mere mortals... Into my unrestrained consciousness...
Hmm, seems awfully empty in here.
Today I am going to talk about Wright’s response to his mother’s illness, so get your pillows ready. Here we go!
Wright relies on his mother almost entirely. She gets the money, she makes him food (sometimes), and she provides an (inconsistent) roof over his head. She is the source of good in his life, and every time he goes away, whether to school, the store, or to the orphanage, he misses her. So his reaction when she suddenly stops... Being, is not too surprising to me.
What happens is Wright’s world stops. He can’t eat. He has difficulty sleeping. When he is brought to his granny’s house, he can’t really function. All he does is play in the backyard half-heartedly.
When he is sent to his uncle’s house, his brain and body basically shut down. He can’t eat well. His mind starts playing tricks on him. He can’t sleep. He begins picking fights at school. Everything kind of shatters.
Yeah. That’s basically what happens.
Wow. I don’t have anything more to say about this. This is a world first. A blog that came in under 250. Well, good night ladies and gentlemen. I think I’ll go eat a cow now.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
251 Words of Wonder
Hello, internet! So, looking over the past few posts that I’ve done, as well as the accompanying comments, it seems that I’ve been unduly cynical lately. Please forgive me for being a poopface. I’ve been going through a crazy lot of stress lately, and it appears that I’ve failed in my attempts to keep it out of my school life.
Anyways, today I’m going to talk about how Wright says that it’s his “cultural heritage” to hate jews. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I can give you the basic run-down of why I think he’s so hard on them.
Growing up, Wright was always spit upon. He was the lowest of the low, a poor black with a single mother and no education. Everywhere he went he had been the victim of hate and detestment... That’s not a word. People didn’t like him. And, according to that dude we read last semester with the weird name-- Vincent Parillo or something like that, people who are at the bottom of the rack need a vent, someone to hurt or to blame. It just so happened that Wright was raised Christian, so he naturally had the Jews to hate for killing Christ.
Or something like that. Of course, now we have the interesting question of what if Wright hadn’t been raised Christian. Would he still have hated someone? Would he have teased them so much? I think yes, but let me know what you think in the comments below.
One word over 250. Yes!
Anyways, today I’m going to talk about how Wright says that it’s his “cultural heritage” to hate jews. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I can give you the basic run-down of why I think he’s so hard on them.
Growing up, Wright was always spit upon. He was the lowest of the low, a poor black with a single mother and no education. Everywhere he went he had been the victim of hate and detestment... That’s not a word. People didn’t like him. And, according to that dude we read last semester with the weird name-- Vincent Parillo or something like that, people who are at the bottom of the rack need a vent, someone to hurt or to blame. It just so happened that Wright was raised Christian, so he naturally had the Jews to hate for killing Christ.
Or something like that. Of course, now we have the interesting question of what if Wright hadn’t been raised Christian. Would he still have hated someone? Would he have teased them so much? I think yes, but let me know what you think in the comments below.
One word over 250. Yes!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Welcome to the Hotel California
Hello, Internet! I'm crazy stressed right now, so no promises about the quality of this post. Now, if only I didn't have to worry about lawns...
In Black Boy by Richard Wright, the main character (Richard as a kid) complains a lot about being hungry. Today I'm supposed to talk about why he is hungry.
Richard is hungry because he has no food. Duh. He has no food because his dad left his mom and they can't afford food. He is malnutritioned, getting only tea and bread, not real food.
But there's possibly a deeper meaning to this. Richard's biggest problem, apart from malnutrition, is neglect. His mother loves him, but his mother has to work long hours and can't really take care of him. His father left his family and doesn't support him. When he went to school he learned language that made his mother mad at him. When he got put in the orphanage, the creepy beldam in charge cared for him, but in a weird way. Richard lived in fear and loneliness his entire life, and he is hungry for affection.
You can believe that if you want to. I personally think that it's BS. I know that it's what our educator wants us to write about, but common. This is non-fiction. An AutoBiography. Cool nifty little literary devices like metaphors and symbolism don't happen in real life. If Richard ate an apple in the book, it's not because he was becoming smarter, it's because a hundred years or so ago, Richard Wright actually picked up a granny smith and took a big bite out of it.
OK, so that's enough for this week. Still over the 250 word limit, but I'm getting better. See y'all later!
In Black Boy by Richard Wright, the main character (Richard as a kid) complains a lot about being hungry. Today I'm supposed to talk about why he is hungry.
Richard is hungry because he has no food. Duh. He has no food because his dad left his mom and they can't afford food. He is malnutritioned, getting only tea and bread, not real food.
But there's possibly a deeper meaning to this. Richard's biggest problem, apart from malnutrition, is neglect. His mother loves him, but his mother has to work long hours and can't really take care of him. His father left his family and doesn't support him. When he went to school he learned language that made his mother mad at him. When he got put in the orphanage, the creepy beldam in charge cared for him, but in a weird way. Richard lived in fear and loneliness his entire life, and he is hungry for affection.
You can believe that if you want to. I personally think that it's BS. I know that it's what our educator wants us to write about, but common. This is non-fiction. An AutoBiography. Cool nifty little literary devices like metaphors and symbolism don't happen in real life. If Richard ate an apple in the book, it's not because he was becoming smarter, it's because a hundred years or so ago, Richard Wright actually picked up a granny smith and took a big bite out of it.
OK, so that's enough for this week. Still over the 250 word limit, but I'm getting better. See y'all later!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
50th Post!
hello, world. Blah. I just read a really depressing article.
It was about how schools in amerika are designed to turn us into mindless zombie-children who do nothing but degrade and consume. And I have some issues with consuming.
When I first picked up the article, I thought “there’s no way someone could present a good case to stop learning!”
Now I’m totally won, and I have half a mind to drop out of high school.
One of the things that bothers me so much about being a student is all I do is what others tell me to do. For example, let’s look at the AP test. I take the AP test because a bunch of people who I’ve never met tell me to answer a bunch of boring questions that are designed so that they can figure out how my brain works, and, oh yeah, the grading system is totally arbitrary. Why do I take the AP test? So that after I “graduate” from high school, sorry, College Preparatory School, I can spend another four to life at yet another fine educational establishment that I have to pay through the nose to attend.
University High School states that “classes here aren’t about passing a test or getting the grade, they’re about true learning. Then why is the purpose of this very AP lit class, as stated in the class syllabus, for us to get a good grade on the AP exam. Oh, wait sorry, we also study rhetoric, but only because the state of indiana requires us to.
What am I doing in school right now? I want to be a film maker. I try to make films in my free time, but school is my current “occupation”. Nothing, NOTHING I learn at You-Achh-Ess will help me make better films. Yes, I’ll be well versed in ancient roman history, yes I’ll be able to deal with differential equations, and yes, I’ll be able to pass the stupid AP exam, but I won’t be able to make movies any better than I can right now. What am I wasting my time for?
In short, I now completely and totally believe that school is 100% useless to most people. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some things that school does help with (I love computers, therefore I take Apple Help Desk), but those are all things that I could take as a separate class, like how some people sit in on college-level classes.
I write these blogs in Apple Pages, and this is the first time one has ever wrapped around to the second page. I guess I’ll go do my math homework... Or not.
End of line.
It was about how schools in amerika are designed to turn us into mindless zombie-children who do nothing but degrade and consume. And I have some issues with consuming.
When I first picked up the article, I thought “there’s no way someone could present a good case to stop learning!”
Now I’m totally won, and I have half a mind to drop out of high school.
One of the things that bothers me so much about being a student is all I do is what others tell me to do. For example, let’s look at the AP test. I take the AP test because a bunch of people who I’ve never met tell me to answer a bunch of boring questions that are designed so that they can figure out how my brain works, and, oh yeah, the grading system is totally arbitrary. Why do I take the AP test? So that after I “graduate” from high school, sorry, College Preparatory School, I can spend another four to life at yet another fine educational establishment that I have to pay through the nose to attend.
University High School states that “classes here aren’t about passing a test or getting the grade, they’re about true learning. Then why is the purpose of this very AP lit class, as stated in the class syllabus, for us to get a good grade on the AP exam. Oh, wait sorry, we also study rhetoric, but only because the state of indiana requires us to.
What am I doing in school right now? I want to be a film maker. I try to make films in my free time, but school is my current “occupation”. Nothing, NOTHING I learn at You-Achh-Ess will help me make better films. Yes, I’ll be well versed in ancient roman history, yes I’ll be able to deal with differential equations, and yes, I’ll be able to pass the stupid AP exam, but I won’t be able to make movies any better than I can right now. What am I wasting my time for?
In short, I now completely and totally believe that school is 100% useless to most people. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some things that school does help with (I love computers, therefore I take Apple Help Desk), but those are all things that I could take as a separate class, like how some people sit in on college-level classes.
I write these blogs in Apple Pages, and this is the first time one has ever wrapped around to the second page. I guess I’ll go do my math homework... Or not.
End of line.
Now You See Me...
hello world. I’ve had a tough day, so work with me tonight.
My assignment is to talk about how I value the “non-academic” education I get from school.
Wow. I don’t really know where to begin. In middle school, I was an outcast. I still am, but I now know how to be good outcast. Going to school has taught me everything from how to be a good friend to methods of interrogation (long story) to organizational skills... The list goes on and on.
I think the best way to put this into a frame of reference is to examine people who don’t get the “non-academic” benefits of high school: home-schoolers. I know that I’m making a lot of generalizations here, and I know that not all that I’m saying is entirely true, but this is my general impression.
People who are home-schooled are just as nice and smart as you or I... Excuse me, you or me. But they tend to lack a lot of important skills. Things that you need experience for.
Like, for example, freshman year I had a great friend who I would often say the “wrong thing” in front of. I had no idea how it would happen, but I would just let something slip, and BLAH! poopsickle. Textbook high school drama. After a while, I realized that when I was saying something and they said “I see...”, it was a subtle warning: stop now. So I did. And it helped a lot.
Now I’m able to pick up on small non-verbal clues like that. I gained that skill in high school, and it’s just one of the many things I’ve gotten out of hallway interactions. High School isn’t just about 1492 and √(-1) and Appeal to Ethos and La Langue du Français...
Opp, over the word limit again. See you later.
I see.
My assignment is to talk about how I value the “non-academic” education I get from school.
Wow. I don’t really know where to begin. In middle school, I was an outcast. I still am, but I now know how to be good outcast. Going to school has taught me everything from how to be a good friend to methods of interrogation (long story) to organizational skills... The list goes on and on.
I think the best way to put this into a frame of reference is to examine people who don’t get the “non-academic” benefits of high school: home-schoolers. I know that I’m making a lot of generalizations here, and I know that not all that I’m saying is entirely true, but this is my general impression.
People who are home-schooled are just as nice and smart as you or I... Excuse me, you or me. But they tend to lack a lot of important skills. Things that you need experience for.
Like, for example, freshman year I had a great friend who I would often say the “wrong thing” in front of. I had no idea how it would happen, but I would just let something slip, and BLAH! poopsickle. Textbook high school drama. After a while, I realized that when I was saying something and they said “I see...”, it was a subtle warning: stop now. So I did. And it helped a lot.
Now I’m able to pick up on small non-verbal clues like that. I gained that skill in high school, and it’s just one of the many things I’ve gotten out of hallway interactions. High School isn’t just about 1492 and √(-1) and Appeal to Ethos and La Langue du Français...
Opp, over the word limit again. See you later.
I see.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Still over 250 words
Hello, internet!
So, my assignment is to blog about the picture presentations we just saw. Woo. So. What did I just see?
What I saw was interesting. There’s a lot of visual rhetoric out there, but very little of it was shown today. In other words, I was kind of disappointed. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were some really good images, but think about it.
America is the land. The land of nudity (not really, but as much skin as we can legally show without giving you the full turkey). The land of child manipulation (most ads are designed to make kids throw tantrums to get what they want). The land of commercial exploitation of credibility (I trust Tiger Woods because he’s smart, so he must really like that brand of cars. They must be really good).
I know for a fact that there’s a heck of a lot of visual rhetoric out there to be photographed. I admit that I didn’t do such a good job myself. I focused almost entirely on architecture. I could have gone to Starbucks, they always have some sort of sumatra super double venti macciato thingy they’re promoting. I could have gone to the mall, and taken pictures of the ads there (you know, the ones for the jeans where they show a hot 20yo with no shirt and a ripped bod and only the top few seams of the jeans they’re trying to get me to buy). In all fairness, I didn’t want to waste gas and I had to be home by dinner. Most people probably did. But I think this would have been a lot better if we all had more time to work on it, and made it into a much bigger project. Good bye!
So, my assignment is to blog about the picture presentations we just saw. Woo. So. What did I just see?
What I saw was interesting. There’s a lot of visual rhetoric out there, but very little of it was shown today. In other words, I was kind of disappointed. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were some really good images, but think about it.
America is the land. The land of nudity (not really, but as much skin as we can legally show without giving you the full turkey). The land of child manipulation (most ads are designed to make kids throw tantrums to get what they want). The land of commercial exploitation of credibility (I trust Tiger Woods because he’s smart, so he must really like that brand of cars. They must be really good).
I know for a fact that there’s a heck of a lot of visual rhetoric out there to be photographed. I admit that I didn’t do such a good job myself. I focused almost entirely on architecture. I could have gone to Starbucks, they always have some sort of sumatra super double venti macciato thingy they’re promoting. I could have gone to the mall, and taken pictures of the ads there (you know, the ones for the jeans where they show a hot 20yo with no shirt and a ripped bod and only the top few seams of the jeans they’re trying to get me to buy). In all fairness, I didn’t want to waste gas and I had to be home by dinner. Most people probably did. But I think this would have been a lot better if we all had more time to work on it, and made it into a much bigger project. Good bye!
Monday, February 9, 2009
FEED me
Hello, internet!
Does the media shape reality? Well, of course it does!
I’m not really sure how to answer this question. It seems kind of obvious. I turn on the TV, and I am given the rare opportunity to see what it is like to be wealthy. I am served up depictions of what being poor is like. I am exposed to reasons to want to be wealthy, like them.
Do you know who Billy Mays is? He’s the OxyClean dude. He shouts at me to buy buy buy buy buy. So does Tiger Woods. So does Miley Cyrus. Sorry, Hanna Montana. Wait...
My point is that consumerism is an advertisey thing. Let’s see... What about racism? I don’t want to be friends with any black people because they’re always the ones getting on the 11:00 news. Oh, and I need to look pretty, because you see all those happy people, you know, the ones who have perfect lives and donate to dolphin-whatevers? They are all really well dressed. The Jonas Brothers have no acne. Brad Pitt has that busty blonde babe. I should be like that, too. Then I’ll be happy.
What else? I guess the classic example of the media changing reality is Disney. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Disney. But they are an evil empire. How have they changed reality? Oh, I dunno. Everyone believes that if they wish hard enough, and try, their happily-ever-after will come true. Oh, and high school is full of preppy hot jocks who are perfect singers, dancers, and have a 4.0 GPA. It isn’t actually like that? Then my life sucks. Good bye!
Does the media shape reality? Well, of course it does!
I’m not really sure how to answer this question. It seems kind of obvious. I turn on the TV, and I am given the rare opportunity to see what it is like to be wealthy. I am served up depictions of what being poor is like. I am exposed to reasons to want to be wealthy, like them.
Do you know who Billy Mays is? He’s the OxyClean dude. He shouts at me to buy buy buy buy buy. So does Tiger Woods. So does Miley Cyrus. Sorry, Hanna Montana. Wait...
My point is that consumerism is an advertisey thing. Let’s see... What about racism? I don’t want to be friends with any black people because they’re always the ones getting on the 11:00 news. Oh, and I need to look pretty, because you see all those happy people, you know, the ones who have perfect lives and donate to dolphin-whatevers? They are all really well dressed. The Jonas Brothers have no acne. Brad Pitt has that busty blonde babe. I should be like that, too. Then I’ll be happy.
What else? I guess the classic example of the media changing reality is Disney. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Disney. But they are an evil empire. How have they changed reality? Oh, I dunno. Everyone believes that if they wish hard enough, and try, their happily-ever-after will come true. Oh, and high school is full of preppy hot jocks who are perfect singers, dancers, and have a 4.0 GPA. It isn’t actually like that? Then my life sucks. Good bye!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Hello, internet!
I just spent two hours driving in circles and pissing people off by taking pictures of their buildings. Whoo.
What did I find? Well, the first thing that I noticed was that Zionsville and Carmel have no black people or asian people or mexican people… or anyone that’s not caucasian. It bothered me a bit. I took the two street sign pictures in “Historic Zionsville”. They were one street apart. You can guess which street sign was on Main Street.
I also found an interesting pregnancy ad. It is obviously an anti-abortion ad, but it never states that. It just says “Thou Shalt Not Kill. Pregnancy Help”.
Let’s see. I also came upon the “You are Now Entering Carmel” sign. It’s much better than the one for Indianapolis. I’ve posted it here.
Overall, what I found was a lot of people want you to think their store, product, or service is “high class”. Of course, I took these pictures mostly in Zionsville and Carmel, but there weren’t any instances of visual rhetoric advertising “coolness” or “hipness”.
Other things I found… Restaurants are really into exterior decorating. Abuelo’s, which is a restaurant but advertises itself as a Mexican Food Embassy, looks like they hired some rich italian dude from the fifteenth century as their architect. Chile’s looks like a mexican restaurant, even though it isn’t, and Panera is painted yummy green, bread tan, and plum purple. The building almost looks edible.
Whoa! I came in a t 500 words. Awesometastic!
I just spent two hours driving in circles and pissing people off by taking pictures of their buildings. Whoo.
What did I find? Well, the first thing that I noticed was that Zionsville and Carmel have no black people or asian people or mexican people… or anyone that’s not caucasian. It bothered me a bit. I took the two street sign pictures in “Historic Zionsville”. They were one street apart. You can guess which street sign was on Main Street.
I also found an interesting pregnancy ad. It is obviously an anti-abortion ad, but it never states that. It just says “Thou Shalt Not Kill. Pregnancy Help”.
Let’s see. I also came upon the “You are Now Entering Carmel” sign. It’s much better than the one for Indianapolis. I’ve posted it here.
Overall, what I found was a lot of people want you to think their store, product, or service is “high class”. Of course, I took these pictures mostly in Zionsville and Carmel, but there weren’t any instances of visual rhetoric advertising “coolness” or “hipness”.
Other things I found… Restaurants are really into exterior decorating. Abuelo’s, which is a restaurant but advertises itself as a Mexican Food Embassy, looks like they hired some rich italian dude from the fifteenth century as their architect. Chile’s looks like a mexican restaurant, even though it isn’t, and Panera is painted yummy green, bread tan, and plum purple. The building almost looks edible.
Whoa! I came in a t 500 words. Awesometastic!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Monkey's Uncle
Hello, InterNet! I’m not feeling too great tonight, so this is going to be a short post (yeah right).
First of all, let’s get our facts straight. Disneyland in Anaheim, CA is “The Happiest Place on Earth”, not WDW in Florida. And it’s not Disney World, contrary to popular belief. It’s WALT Disney World. The name was changed when it opened, a couple years after Uncle Wally’s death. Gosh Golly!
OK, so tonight’s post is about what Gitlin is saying about the mounds of rhetoric Amerika exports.
Amerika, for all it’s inability to “make stuff” (ie make cars, make electronics, make cellphones, make food, etc.) is a great content machine. What is content, you ask? Content is intellectual. This blog is content. Slogans are content. Logos are content. Music is content. Movies are content. tShirts are not, but whatever is on the tShirt is content (this makes sense, then, that Americans order more custom tShirts per capita, yet almost none of the tShirts people order are physically made here in Amerika.
How can I say this in the least amount of words? Thinking… Got it!
Remember, way back when, in the fall of 2001? Something momentous happened that rocked the world to the core. That’s right. I’m talking about the release of the iPod®. What was the iPod®? Nothing too new. PMPs (portable music players– try and keep up with the acronyms) existed before this. The iPod® was just a really good one (with a poopbucket of money to advertise it and over thirty years of company credibility behind it).
Now look where we are. There are– literally– hundreds of MP3 and WMA pocket players out there right now. And the vast majority of them are iPod® knock-offs. Everyone wants to have an iPod®, and owning a ZUNE (what some consider to be the worst iPod® knockoff) is taboo among “geeky people”. Is the iPod really that great? Does your music sound better on an Apple, Inc. product? No. An iPod® is a ZUNE in a white painters suit.1
So… wait. What does this have to do with the Gitlin dude? Well, imagine that we’re not talking about iPods. We’re talking about culture. Everyone wants to be part of the Amerikan culture. Why is our culture “better”? Here in Amerika you can be entertained. You can have fun. America offers no better (in fact quite worse) cars than the rest of the world, but these aren’t just any cars. They’re fun, Amerikan cars. They have silly SuperBowl ads. They have catchy theme songs. They’re entertaining.
Wow, I went way over my word limit again. So, to finish, Amerika produces and exports content, everyone wants to have fun and be like us, and I’m tired. Good night!
1Except for the iPod Touch®/iPhone®, which is a crazy kickass product that no one, not even the Palm Pre, can approach in coolness.
First of all, let’s get our facts straight. Disneyland in Anaheim, CA is “The Happiest Place on Earth”, not WDW in Florida. And it’s not Disney World, contrary to popular belief. It’s WALT Disney World. The name was changed when it opened, a couple years after Uncle Wally’s death. Gosh Golly!
OK, so tonight’s post is about what Gitlin is saying about the mounds of rhetoric Amerika exports.
Amerika, for all it’s inability to “make stuff” (ie make cars, make electronics, make cellphones, make food, etc.) is a great content machine. What is content, you ask? Content is intellectual. This blog is content. Slogans are content. Logos are content. Music is content. Movies are content. tShirts are not, but whatever is on the tShirt is content (this makes sense, then, that Americans order more custom tShirts per capita, yet almost none of the tShirts people order are physically made here in Amerika.
How can I say this in the least amount of words? Thinking… Got it!
Remember, way back when, in the fall of 2001? Something momentous happened that rocked the world to the core. That’s right. I’m talking about the release of the iPod®. What was the iPod®? Nothing too new. PMPs (portable music players– try and keep up with the acronyms) existed before this. The iPod® was just a really good one (with a poopbucket of money to advertise it and over thirty years of company credibility behind it).
Now look where we are. There are– literally– hundreds of MP3 and WMA pocket players out there right now. And the vast majority of them are iPod® knock-offs. Everyone wants to have an iPod®, and owning a ZUNE (what some consider to be the worst iPod® knockoff) is taboo among “geeky people”. Is the iPod really that great? Does your music sound better on an Apple, Inc. product? No. An iPod® is a ZUNE in a white painters suit.1
So… wait. What does this have to do with the Gitlin dude? Well, imagine that we’re not talking about iPods. We’re talking about culture. Everyone wants to be part of the Amerikan culture. Why is our culture “better”? Here in Amerika you can be entertained. You can have fun. America offers no better (in fact quite worse) cars than the rest of the world, but these aren’t just any cars. They’re fun, Amerikan cars. They have silly SuperBowl ads. They have catchy theme songs. They’re entertaining.
Wow, I went way over my word limit again. So, to finish, Amerika produces and exports content, everyone wants to have fun and be like us, and I’m tired. Good night!
1Except for the iPod Touch®/iPhone®, which is a crazy kickass product that no one, not even the Palm Pre, can approach in coolness.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Let's get together
Hey, internet! I’m back! Today, we get to talk about S. E. X… sex! I should warn you all that I’m all pumped up on Tylenol and TheraFlu and I’m feeling a little woobily right now, so if I start rambling or not making sense, please forgive me. :)
According to Kilbourne, the objectification of women and men as sex objects is bad because it enables rape, battery, and sexual assault. Just as with almost all other forms of violence, it is easier to hurt an object than a person. The media, by showing us what it is to be sexually successful and likening it to being successful in life, tells us that we need to have sex. If I have sex, and drink beer, I’ll be in charge of my life. If I have sex, and buy this really cool watch, I’ll be the happiest man in the world. Actually, what the media does is it gives us enablers. I’ll be able to have sex BECAUSE I drank Miller Light. If I buy that really seductive pair of jeans (and get a six-pack) I’ll sleep with four really pretty girls tonight. Men aren’t responsible for their actions because they are drunk, or attracted by that arousing cologne. Kilbourne even gives us an example where that’s happened: in the lawsuit in Canada against the guy who raped a girl. He got off because she was wearing seductive Victoria’s Secret underwear.
Kilbourne says that the objectification of women is worse than the objectification of men. She backs this up with the logic that women are objectified to become submissive erotic fetish toys for men to enjoy at will, while men are objectified to become powerful, dominant, sex machines. This is a big problem for women because it puts them into an environment of fear and harassment, where they are either beautiful chesty bitches or ugly slutty whores.
I agree that this is a problem, but I’m concerned about the objectification of men as well. As Kilbourne points out, boys as young as eight are beginning to turn into the power-hungry lust machine that the media portrays them to be. From my point of view (and keep in mind that I live a horribly sheltered life), it’s just as bad that men are being made into sex objects (or should I say subjects? Grammatically speaking, men are the subject and women are the object; those who receive the action of the subject). A friend of mine who went to elementary school and middle school with me once had a science project in which he, along with a partner, had to test some product. He almost chose to test condoms. Needless to say, he had a very pretty female partner for the project. This was sixth grade. Locker room conversations in middle school shouldn’t be about women’s body parts. That’s something that I always assumed happened in high school locker rooms, but middle school? Really? With the constant strive for young boys to have as many sexual experiences as possible, people like me (the exact opposite of what the media wants me to be: passive, submissive, not horny 24/7, gay, and not ripped in the least bit) get left behind. I got teased in middle school for my lack of… everything just as much as most girls did at my school. So yes, it is a vicious cycle, but men don’t necessarily get the long end of the stick.
Wow. 600 words. OK, so this has come to a premature and maybe disappointing end. Yet another thing the media has told me to avoid in sex. Oh well. Until next time… stay paranoid!
According to Kilbourne, the objectification of women and men as sex objects is bad because it enables rape, battery, and sexual assault. Just as with almost all other forms of violence, it is easier to hurt an object than a person. The media, by showing us what it is to be sexually successful and likening it to being successful in life, tells us that we need to have sex. If I have sex, and drink beer, I’ll be in charge of my life. If I have sex, and buy this really cool watch, I’ll be the happiest man in the world. Actually, what the media does is it gives us enablers. I’ll be able to have sex BECAUSE I drank Miller Light. If I buy that really seductive pair of jeans (and get a six-pack) I’ll sleep with four really pretty girls tonight. Men aren’t responsible for their actions because they are drunk, or attracted by that arousing cologne. Kilbourne even gives us an example where that’s happened: in the lawsuit in Canada against the guy who raped a girl. He got off because she was wearing seductive Victoria’s Secret underwear.
Kilbourne says that the objectification of women is worse than the objectification of men. She backs this up with the logic that women are objectified to become submissive erotic fetish toys for men to enjoy at will, while men are objectified to become powerful, dominant, sex machines. This is a big problem for women because it puts them into an environment of fear and harassment, where they are either beautiful chesty bitches or ugly slutty whores.
I agree that this is a problem, but I’m concerned about the objectification of men as well. As Kilbourne points out, boys as young as eight are beginning to turn into the power-hungry lust machine that the media portrays them to be. From my point of view (and keep in mind that I live a horribly sheltered life), it’s just as bad that men are being made into sex objects (or should I say subjects? Grammatically speaking, men are the subject and women are the object; those who receive the action of the subject). A friend of mine who went to elementary school and middle school with me once had a science project in which he, along with a partner, had to test some product. He almost chose to test condoms. Needless to say, he had a very pretty female partner for the project. This was sixth grade. Locker room conversations in middle school shouldn’t be about women’s body parts. That’s something that I always assumed happened in high school locker rooms, but middle school? Really? With the constant strive for young boys to have as many sexual experiences as possible, people like me (the exact opposite of what the media wants me to be: passive, submissive, not horny 24/7, gay, and not ripped in the least bit) get left behind. I got teased in middle school for my lack of… everything just as much as most girls did at my school. So yes, it is a vicious cycle, but men don’t necessarily get the long end of the stick.
Wow. 600 words. OK, so this has come to a premature and maybe disappointing end. Yet another thing the media has told me to avoid in sex. Oh well. Until next time… stay paranoid!
A really short post
OK, so right now I’m on Hulu.com watching all of the Superbowl ads since I slept through the actual game. I’ve only watch about ten so far (I want to watch ALL OF THEM!), but there’s definitely a pattern emerging:
We don’t need to tell you how great our product is, because you already know. If you don’t already know, or if you dare question it’s awesomeness, your an IDIOT!
That’s what almost all of them are basically saying. Let’s watch some more…
OK, fifteen later, there’s been a lot of boobies. Female boobies. I’ve only seen one pair of male boobies. Lots of underwear, too. I’m also noticing that there’s more tv show and movie commercials than in past years. I’m not sure what that means, but Transformers II looks good.
I’m done now. So, maybe I didn’t get to watch all of them. But most of them are the same. They assume that you already know OF their product, so they can tell you how great their product is. If you don’t already know about whatever their commercial is about, then you’re an idiot.
I feel like an idiot.
I give you: THE TRUTH
Hello, internet! First of all, I have to apologize for the lateness and simplicity of this post. I’ve been sick for the past five days, and I’m just now able to sit up in bed and feebly type this out on my laptop. I’ll do my best to make it interesting, but humor me if I don’t.
Neil Postman’s article “The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures” was about how we must watch the news on tv critically. Postman, along with Steve Powers, talk about how the news is simply an approximation of what really happened, not a true representation. The news anchors have many goals in mind, only one of which is presenting the news as it happened. News people must also take into consideration the fact that they must retain audiences, their news must fit between commercials, and that it all has to fit within a one hour block.
This is related to our conversations about language at the beginning of the semester. For example, look at the following situation:
I just went to go see this new movie, “Hours Over”, starring Faraday White, Brad Kane, and Kevin Daille (not a real movie, this is another of those hypothetical situations I like to use). You ask me what it was about.
Well, in the beginning, Sarah (played by White) is working at her step mom's restaurant. She has a crush on the popular kid, Chad (played by Daille), who doesn’t notice her. Mr. Reslie (played by Kane) is the principal at their high school, and is being investigated for embezzlement of school budget (by the way, they’re all in high school). In the end, Reslie is arrested, Chad falls in love with Sarah, and the step mom’s restaurant burns to the ground.
Sounds like a fairly detailed description of the movie, right? How about this movie?
This movie is about a school for blind children run by a man who may have mob connections. When two students band together to discover the truth about the faculty, they discover the truth: the principal has been accepting bribes from the mob to cut down enrollment at the school through arson and pocket the budget for the missing student’s school supplies.
So you probably realize that these are two descriptions of the same movie, just from a different angle. The first focused on characters and made the movie seem like a chick-flick with a weak “b” plot. The second made the movie seem like an action adventure film about blind people.
This is similar to how the news works. There is no “true” description of what happens, only representations of the truth. And because truth isn’t something that can be conveyed through words, each news story has a spin on it, just like the two plot summaries above. When we watch the news, we must keep in mind that we are only hearing one person’s attempt at conveying the truth.
Neil Postman’s article “The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures” was about how we must watch the news on tv critically. Postman, along with Steve Powers, talk about how the news is simply an approximation of what really happened, not a true representation. The news anchors have many goals in mind, only one of which is presenting the news as it happened. News people must also take into consideration the fact that they must retain audiences, their news must fit between commercials, and that it all has to fit within a one hour block.
This is related to our conversations about language at the beginning of the semester. For example, look at the following situation:
I just went to go see this new movie, “Hours Over”, starring Faraday White, Brad Kane, and Kevin Daille (not a real movie, this is another of those hypothetical situations I like to use). You ask me what it was about.
Well, in the beginning, Sarah (played by White) is working at her step mom's restaurant. She has a crush on the popular kid, Chad (played by Daille), who doesn’t notice her. Mr. Reslie (played by Kane) is the principal at their high school, and is being investigated for embezzlement of school budget (by the way, they’re all in high school). In the end, Reslie is arrested, Chad falls in love with Sarah, and the step mom’s restaurant burns to the ground.
Sounds like a fairly detailed description of the movie, right? How about this movie?
This movie is about a school for blind children run by a man who may have mob connections. When two students band together to discover the truth about the faculty, they discover the truth: the principal has been accepting bribes from the mob to cut down enrollment at the school through arson and pocket the budget for the missing student’s school supplies.
So you probably realize that these are two descriptions of the same movie, just from a different angle. The first focused on characters and made the movie seem like a chick-flick with a weak “b” plot. The second made the movie seem like an action adventure film about blind people.
This is similar to how the news works. There is no “true” description of what happens, only representations of the truth. And because truth isn’t something that can be conveyed through words, each news story has a spin on it, just like the two plot summaries above. When we watch the news, we must keep in mind that we are only hearing one person’s attempt at conveying the truth.
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