Meta-Blog Post, Fourth Quarter

Please view Hands of (HOW WE VIEW) the World (I will explain my choice later in the post).

Wow. It is already the end of school.  It's funny how slowly and quickly this came up.  I have really loved this American Studies class but I will admit blogging is not my favorite part.  I like to describe my relationship with the blog as something that I appreciate.  I appreciate the fact that it allows you to link to news articles, photos and videos and I appreciate how you can comment on other people's posts.  But I do not like blogging.  I think about potential blog posts often- reading the newspaper, watching movies and even in everyday discussions with my friends- the part that is the hardest part for me is putting it to paper, or rather to keyboard.  It has been a problem consistent with the whole year.  I believe that it is the reason my blogging is so scattered.  I can come up with the ideas easy enough but I delay the process of writing them as long as I can get away with.

Even though my attitude towards blogging hasn't changed much, I feel that I have learned valuable lessons in order to make my posts better each time.  My recent blog post Oxidado was where I learned the importance of blogging about "hot" issues.  I blogged about something I had just seen on AOL news about 5 minutes earlier and ended up getting over 640 views in just two days.  Also with my posts like The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and Oxidado I used videos for the first time.  I really enjoyed linking to videos because personally I would rather watch a clip than read an article and I feel it can be a successful  way to get information across that cannot just be seen through images and text.

I chose Hands of (HOW WE VIEW) the World as the blog post of choice because I feel that it is the post that best emulates the goals of the blog.  In the post, I responded to Dani's earlier post but took a different spin on it, I incorporated an outside source and used photos and asked questions.
All in all, although blogging wasn't my favorite I really learned a lot (this is sounding cheesier by the second but its true, promise!) and I think if I am so motivated I might keep on blogging.  You never know...

Hands of (HOW WE VIEW) the World

This is a response to a post Dani made called: Uniquely American.
In Dani's blog post she showed AT&Ts ad campaign, where hands were painted to represent the different countries of the world. While Dani focused on what America's hands might look like, I am goin to choose a different approach of analysing the hands. I think how AT&T chose to define the other countries is very interesting as well. While the photos are not necessarily the most historical or monumental building or image that country would choose, they are representations of how America views those other countries. 
For example Japan and China: 

While there are many images that Japan or China might choose to represent their country (either through traditional buildings, and economic or technological advances), AT&T chose to represent Japan and China as how many american's view these countries, through a sort of distant and mystical tradition sense. This representation of Japan or China is not uncommon, it is very much seeing these countries through the lens of the disney movie Mulan, without regard for any current culture.


How do Americans commonly view other countries? In what ways does this campaign represent how American's percieve other countries? Is this a positive perception?

Oxidado

When I got home from school today my older brother immediately showed me this news clip.  Following the epidemic of the drug Oxidado (originally in Brazil), the video highlights the dangers of the drug and why it has been brought into focus.

In both videos not only the horrible side effects of this drug are shown, but also its mass availability and why it is receiving attention now.  In the first video (link) at 0:28 the drug is described as so deadly because of how easy it is to get a hold of.  Costing only $1.00, this drug is so threatening because it allows all classes to get hooked and have the financial ability to stay hooked.  But almost more shockingly is the 1st video's clip at 1:20.  The drug Oxi has "been around for almost 2 decades" but is just gaining serious news attention now.  The very deadly drug, most users die within the first year of starting (1:16), is only gaining news attention as it transfers into the upper class.
This reminded me on a much smaller scale of the "big ditch" in Winnetka that we discussed in class.  Even after 30 citizen's deaths, the train tracks were not changed until a very powerful, wealthy man's wife was killed.  After this accident the problem was taken into focus and fixed.
How does society respond differently to the same problem in different classes? Why do problems gain more media attention when they affect upper classes? How does the rate of change and correction differ between the upper and lower class issues?

Modern Role Models

A while ago I was having a conversation at dinner with my family and my parents asked us who our role models were.  My brother and sisters and I had a difficult time coming up with any one specific example.  My parents were shocked.  They brought up that when they were younger they could name specific people who they wanted to be.  My dad mentioned that his role models had included Bruce Springsteen and the president while my mom mentioned singers and movie stars.  After hearing that it was my turn to be surprised.  It was hard for me to imagine wanting to be like a celebrity and I tried to figure out why.

I came to the conclusion that because of our intimate view into the lives of all different types of celebrities we are less likely to want to emulate the individual.  Where as my mom was able to look up to movie stars because she mainly saw them only in the best light- mainly through the films- we are constantly exposed to the most dramatic and worst aspects of the star's lives.  

Also my dad says that when he was younger it was very taboo to directly question the current president.  While there was a focus on debating the issues, it was rare to contradict the president and to not see him as something more than the average citizen.  

How has the use and perception of role models changed? Is this a positive change? Who, if there are any, are examples of model role models?

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD

According to CNN world news, Osama bin Laden has died.  I will update this blog post soon, but I wanted to let people who haven't heard know.

Great Gatsby, Tennis and the Use of the Color White

This week we started reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  We have been focusing on class indicators in relation to this book including: income, wealth, location, occupation and exclusivity.  Another focus of our discussion has been the importance of the color white in the book.  The use of this color in the book so far is to emphasize the upper class, exclusivity and social status.  This discussion reminded me of country club tennis.

Country clubs are commonly associated with upper class.  They are very exclusive, some requiring months of work in order to get accepted.  Tennis is also a sport associated with high social status.  Country club tennis makes an interesting link to our discussions.  At many country clubs "tennis whites" are required in order to play.  It is a dress code of all white necessary in order to be able to be on the tennis court.  White is strictly associated with the upper class and exclusivity represented in club tennis.
In what ways is white a tangible representation of exclusivity?  Is white always associated with the upper class?  What are the problems with associating white to the upper class?

Junior Theme Expanded

The week after Junior Theme was turned in!  Congratulations everyone- we did it!  But even though my Junior Theme is turned in I still am thinking about my topic outside of class.
This past week I was on my favorite website, PostSecret.  It is a blog to which people anonymously send in their secrets on postcards and they are shared.  The secrets are all different, some are very serious and others are quirky or funny, but the secrets told are all important to the person in a different way.  The secrets posted on the blog are rotated out weekly, but last week I found this very interesting secret that got me thinking about my Junior Theme:

Because I focused my Junior Theme on: Why are eating disorder on the rise, this secret showed me a different focus on my topic.  This secret illustrates a link between eating disorders and feminism.  While my paper did not highlight this link, except slightly in the conclusion, it is an interesting expansion of my topic.  

This secret reminded me of the interview I did with eating disorder therapist, Suzanne Gazzolo.  When I asked about the future of eating disorders she said, "I believe that we still live in a patriarchy that often when things begin to affect men and boys in negative ways than it begins to be taken seriously... I think when it was only a girl problem it just could be ignored in a lot of ways, but it is going to be hard to ignore now".  This is a quote that also looks at eating disorders in terms of feminism and patriarchies.  

These two expanded links to my Junior Theme are really fascinating to me because they are representations that the Junior Theme wasn't just some random paper I wrote, but it allows me to look at a bigger picture idea and link it to my everyday life.  

Junior Theme #3

As we continue to work on our junior themes I am feeling confident and stressed at the same time.  Friday in class I finally put to paper what my research had culminated in.  I got to four major points as an answer to my WHY question and I realized I had a lot more than I originally thought.  This not only got me organized for the upcoming writing of my paper but also boosted my confidence level.  Before I did this I was stressing that no matter how much research I did, I wouldn't be able to fit it into a coherent paper that could successfully answer my WHY question.  Now I have gotten it down and feel I am ready and prep-ed to move forward. 
At the same time, like many others in the class, I am struggling to manage the stress of the end of junior year.  While it hasn't been as bad as some of my friends, the culmination of sports, schoolwork and college prep work I understand while seniors call junior year hell.  For all of those who are feeling like I am right now, here is a link to a sleepcalculator website (just so we can try to be well rested for the 9 weeks left of school).  So, while I am confident in my paper so far, I cannot wait for junior theme to be turned in and done with!

"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"

Today I saw the movie trailer for a new film coming out called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.  It is a documentary film by the director of Super Size me that focuses completely on product placement.  A concept we have been talking a lot about in class, product placement is the advertisement of products in a media source usually devoid of advertisements.  It is most commonly used in television shows, movies and music videos.  The film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold takes a head on approach to product placement.  It is a movie that documents the logistics of product placement, but is 100% funded by the products themselves.

The part that stood out to me the most was at 1:42 in the trailer when the man he was interviewing says that people deserved to be warned about the products that were being advertised.  And immediately in the film pop-ups start forming about which brands were being displayed.   And I was shocked to see that I was completely unaware of what I was being shown as advertisement.  Although the things listed were not directly being drawn notice to in the original shot, we were still being exposed to the products.
Do you agree with the man who said that we deserve to be notified when we are exposed to product placement?  Or, does product placement lose its affect when people are told of its presence?

Please view: Every Breath You Take from March 13th.  Thanks!

Junior Theme #2

As we continue with our work in the library during junior theme, I feel like I am getting closer to solidifying my ideas.  My why question that I have cleared and am increasingly confident with is: Why are eating disorders on the rise?  I have found a great deal on the issue of eating disorders: caused by the media, family issues, and a need for control all reflected in increased awareness. 
I am also currently reading Wasted by Marya Hornbacher.  It is an autobiographical book about Marya Hornbacher's 14 year struggle with anorexia and bulimia.  While the book is quite detailed and frightening, I can't put it down.  It is adding a personal story to the list of statistics that continue to come up in my research. 
Overall, I am excited to where my research is going.  I am finding a lot on my topic and although I have not yet come to a thesis statement I am happy with my progress. 

Tokens in OnDemand

Yesterday, when relaxing after finishing my homework, I was looking for movies to watch on Comcast OnDemand.  For those of you that are unfamiliar, Comcast has a channel in which you can choose ready-to-watch shows and movies.  In the right hand corner they always have advertisements running of new features to OnDemand.  Yesterday a commercial on repeat was for "Black Cinema" in the "Movie Collections" section.

While this was not very surprising to me, the movies that they previewed for this section all had two common themes: basketball and hardship.  While there are over 20 movies in this OnDemand section consisting of all different genres of film, the three that they advertised all had a black lead playing an athlete and up against diversity and poverty.  This is a clear representation of tokenism, having the only black cinema represented be the athletic and diversity cliche movies.

Lost and Gilligan's Island

The other day I heard a rumor that the original unaired pilot for the popular 60s show Gilligan's Island, was the basis for the newer show Lost.  While I was not able to find out through research if this was actually true, it got me thinking on the similarities and differences of the shows.  Both of the shows involve a plane crash of a group of people on a desert island, who are forced to live there waiting to be found.  And both were very popular and well-recieved shows.  But the plot of the shows are played out very differently.  Gilligan's Island is a happy- go- lucky comedy where as Lost is a dark, action-packed thriller.

Although these shows have very similar premises, the way the show played out is starkly different.  I believe it has to do with what the audience will accept at the different time periods.  Lost premiered nearly 40 years after Gilligan's Island.  How does the audience at the time of the show dictate the material that is played?  Why is a modern audience able to watch a darker more sinister show?  How do the current shows on television reflect our society and morals today?

Photo Source 1, Photo Source 2

Junior Theme Post #1

This past week has been Junior Theme work.  For last Monday we had to have 5 possible "why questions" in order to start exploring one of those as our topic.  When I actually got to class on Monday and started exploring my topics, I released that not 1 of them would work/ got me interested enough.
Winston Churchill once said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm".    This quote has certainly reflected my work over the past week.  By now I have chosen my topic but over and over throughout this process I have had to go to square 1 yet again.  I had to continue to search for new inspiration, in topics that I was unfamiliar with previously.  The only reason I am where I am now is because I accepted the (multiple) failures that I had experienced, and continued to keep looking.  I just hope I can maintain the "enthusiasm" Mr. Churchill described when I am 3 weeks into the project!

Every Breath You Take

Last night I was listening to the Police song Every Breath You Take.  While it is an amazing and was an incredibly popular song, the lyrics of this song are creepy.  The song describe a man's obsession with a women saying that he is always watching and that "[she] belongs to [him]".  But the song was misinterpreted by many people.  Sting, the lead vocals and songwriter of The Police, in many interviews believed that the song has been taken the wrong way by many.  When writing the song Sting said "he was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control" but couples have told him "that it was the main song played at their wedding" and many more believe it is a beautiful love song.

This song and the confusion behind it remind me of the poem by Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz".  This poem describes an abusive and drunk father and relationship with his son.  He describes a night with his father where the father is drunk and is beating the son while dancing.  This poem, like the Police song above, was very misinterpreted when it first came out.  Many believed and still believe that the poem represents a joyous moment between a son and his father, as represented by Dr. O'Conner's (an educator at Millikin University) analysis of the poem here.  It was not until recently that people noticed a abusive undertone to the poem.

In what ways do songs and poems get misinterpreted?  And how does this reflect the individual who analyses them and the time period in which the original analysis was made?

The Onion Reflected in Class

The other day I was looking at videos on The Onion's website.  The Onion is a news station that broadcasts fake news stories in order to satirise the government, legal system or pop culture.  While most of the news stories that they show are hilarious, they all have a backing of some truth.  I was specifically struck by a video entitled "Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried As Black Adult".  The video describes a young teenage girl who is tried for a brutal murder of her classmate.  The judge decides to try her as "a three-hundred pound black male" and the jury should imagine her as such.  The photo below stuck me in a similar way as the video.

Although this video and photo were comical there was a strong undertone of truth of a sometimes racist justice system.  In class we have talked a lot about African Americans in the justice system during Reconstruction projects and during our TV tokenism discussions.  

During our plans for Reconstruction, many of the groups decided that in the justice system in that era, there should be separate judges and juries for tried African Americans.  They believed that the separate legal systems would provide a non racial bias justice.  But the groups made clear that this would be a temporary practice, till after America could move past racism.  But as shown in the onion video above, is America at the point that the Reconstruction groups expected?  If this practice had been put into use would it have ended by now?  Is the justice system in America unbiased racially?

During the TV tokenism discussion with Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor we discussed how blacks in television shows often play the role of "authority minority", commonly a judge.  They do this in order to dispel stereotypes of African Americans as the onion video depicts them.  Does the TV token African American judge successfully negate these stereotypes?  How is this reflected in our justice system?

Turnabout and Defining of Genders

During our class talks about Huckleberry Finn the issue of gender roles has been very prominent.  We talk about the different ways in which women are portrayed in the novel and how this affects the way the book is viewed.  In a scene where Huck dresses up and tries to fool Mrs. Judith Luftus into believing he is a girl. She is able to discover that Huck is in fact a boy, not by a physical characteristic but by the fact that he can throw a brick and does not know how to thread a needle.

  

In school there has been a lot of talk about the upcoming Turnabout Dance.  If you don't know, Turnabout (also known as Sadie Hawkins), is the dance where the girls ask the boys and then pay for their dates.  While this gender role reversal can be a lot of fun for one night, there is an undertone of discomfort when asking a guy to the dance and paying for everything.  

In our society, as reflected in Huck Finn, there are specific roles assigned for genders in society.  While we have accomplished more women in sports and in many different jobs previously associated with males only, it is still rare for girls to ask boys out, pay for dates and dinners and propose to a man.  How are gender roles defined?  How prominent are gender roles in our society?  In what ways and to what extent does straying from these roles add discomfort or a to the situation?  Is straying from these roles a positive or a negative goal?

Meta-Blog Post, Second Quarter

Please look at the post Using Connections as Tools.

Blogging this quarter has been more difficult for me than the first quarter.  This is not a comment on my inspiration for blog posts, I believe that more and more in my daily life I am looking critically at the world around me, consciously trying to decipher why people make the decisions that they do.  But the difficulty has been with the transition from idea to coherent blog post.  I get inspired by the things around me but then I can't represent my ideas in writing on a post.  I really love the inspiration blogging gives me and how it lets me connect in my own personal way to huge issues, but the major challenge has been to represent that feeling, and to have others feel my same inspiration.
As for the transformation of my blog posts from first quarter to second, I believe that I have started to address some of the goals I set for myself.  In my meta-blog post from first quarter I said that "A change to my blog that I would like to see in the future is finding a news topic or article before linking it to class".  I believe that I have accomplished this well.  In my post Using Connections as Tools, Depressive Realism and Society and Harry Potter 7, I had the idea for the blog post from my every day life, before linking it to class.  I believe this shows a sophistication in my ability to draw connections to class from a preexisting idea or interest.  
Like last quarter, my favorite part of the blogging process has been the commenting.  If I am struggling to put my own thoughts into words then I will go and comment on another person's blog post.  I feel that commenting is very much an escape as well as a way to challenge the views of others.
My goal for next semester is to keep my blog posts consistent.  I have to make myself move past the difficulty of the transition process from idea to words and continue to write posts.  

Using Connections as Tools

In class on Friday we received our final exam prompt.  The question is whether or not anyone is ever NOT making things up and whether or not that mattered.  Lawrence Weschler, the author of the book Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences, believes that it is not possible to see or imagine an object completely independently from something previously viewed.  He gave these two images as examples:

 above: Jasper Johns, Three Flags (1958); below: Joel Meyerowitz, Autumn Afternoon (2001)

He believes that Joel Meyerowitz saw and was channeling the Three Flags in his inspiration for the photo.  While I am not entirely sure that that was the case, I do believe that certain images that spark a connection can make you feel an emotion.  For example, in the above photo taken by Meyerowitz, the colors of red, white and blue pop out and, even if you had never seen the painting Three Flags, a sense of patriotism and America are immediately established. 

Another example occurred in my own life on Friday night.  I was babysitting and the kids wanted to watch The Incredibles, and I was probably as excited as they were.  But when watching the scene where Mr. Incredible was captured, the image stuck out to me.  

I know the image is rather fuzzy, but it was his position that inspired the post.  Upon looking at Mr. Incredible here, there is an immediate sense of his helplessness and persecution.  I realized that it was not only the content of this part in the movie that inspired the emotion, but the way that his pose seemed to link to that of the crucifixion pose.  Because the image of Jesus on the cross has been so engrained in my memory from years of Sunday School and Church, the bridge of the two sparked an emotional connection to what was being shown on the screen.  Just by seeing him in this pose, I had already determined a mental and emotional response to the character being shown.  The connection between the two was used as a tool by the filmmakers to spark a mental response.

To what extent does the repetition of familiar images spark an emotional connection?  And how does this change the way that way we perceive the art and media around us?  

The Power of A Word

In class we have been talking a lot about the new version of Huckleberry Finn.  The "n-word" used 219 in Mark Twain's classic has been replaced by the word "slave".  This change has caused much uproar.  Many people believe that it is a positive change and that it will allow more schools to be able to read the classic novel while others believe that the "n-word" is there to highlight the racism and spark an emotional response in the reader.  I agree with the latter argument.  The "n-word" even in today's culture holds a lot of weight.  Many people, including myself, do not feel comfortable or appropriate using or hearing the word.  The immediate emotional response to the word is used as a tool in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in order to highlight the racist society of the time and as irony.  I believe that removing this word does not provide a simply cleaner version of the book but makes the book lose a stunning emotional reaction associated with the word.

Human Ownership

In class we were asked to agree or disagree to the statement "Children are their parent's possessions".    Many of the class agreed to this statement saying that legally parents are in charge when their child is in trouble.  Another argument is that the mother has the baby in her womb and therefore is in complete ownership of the child.  I strongly disagree with these statements.  I believe that under no circumstances can a human own another human.  I believe that parents are responsible, legally, financially and otherwise, towards their kids, but never have the right to claim ownership over them.
During the class discussion Mr. Bolos and O'Connor brought up public displays of ownership.  Although not their original point, the class immediately jumped on the conclusion of leash babies.

We have all seen them and been sufficiently creeped out by them.  A direct claim of ownership over someone, the 'leash baby' is an iconic example of parent control and displays of ownership over their children.
When talking about the leash baby, a picture came to my mind from our World History class last year.  When studying Iraq, our teacher taught us about the torture prison Abu Ghraib and the photo from it was stuck in my memory (WARNING: there are frightening and graphic images here- if you choose not to click the links below, there will be little confusion through the rest of the post).  Abu Ghraib was a torture prison in Iraq.  The tortured Iraqi citizens were forced into sexual, painful and humiliating poses while the US soldiers working there snapped photos that were put on facebook and myspace.  The separate link of the photo shows a female US soldier holding a leashed, naked and tortured Iraqi.  The particular photo stuck out to me because of the sense of ownership and control so clearly exhibited through the leash.  The complete control that one human has over another is sickening and whether in a prison in Iraq or with a simple parent child relationship, a human being under no circumstances has ownership over another human being.

Depressive Realism and Society

In class today we talked about the moment when children become adults.  While many people threw out different ideas concerning age and maturity level, living on your own and being independent from your parents, we struggled to find a solid definition of adult.  Is being an adult a state of mind? Is it economic or social? Without the clear idea of what we were discussing, everyone's answers were personal.  Mr. O'Connor told a story about a boy who clearly knew the exact moment he became a man, age eleven.  The class, upon hearing this, immediately laughed thinking the boy was just juvenile and didn't know what he was talking about.  But he could name a specific moment when his father left leaving him as the sole man of the house, thus forcing him out of childhood.  When we first heard this and laughed our views of manhood where dictated by society; a certain age of 18, living solo and supporting yourself financially defined being a man.  Because this boy fit none of these he was immediately labeled as too young to fully comprehend what being a man meant.  The view of society shaped the definition.

While on StumbleUpon over break I came across an interesting phycology article on a concept called Depressive Realism.  It proposes that those people suffering from depression actually have a clearer view on reality than those whose views are skewed by feelings of optimism and personal success.  If this concept  is true and those who are depressed have a better perception of reality then why does society choose to accept the non-depression as sane?  Society choses all of our ideas of normal and sane.  The views of society control who is medicated and who is labeled sane. They chose the definition of being a man and control the views.  Without society's premeditated ideas on the definitions of these certain ideas, there would be no standard to live up to.  Is not having a clear and set standard of normal a positive of negative concept?  How would living without the normal change our views of those around us and require us to use personal experience to define ourselves rather than society?