Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Pecha Kucha

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Xn6babVBN4rG4Do5cfg9zuW0-NFesKchfA_Yiyiup0g/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=20000

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

"Locker Room Talk" Alexis Jones

Extended Comments
https://protecther.com/

In this Ted Talk Alexis Jones discusses the importance of respecting women through her advocacy and efforts of talking to young male athletes about locker room talk and their mindset of women.  For this blog post I will be using Bristol's post, discussing some of her main points.  Bristol points out that Alexis argues that boys at a young age are mainly influenced from media sources in their perception of women and the way they see and treat women are influenced by this.  I completely agree with Alexis and Bristol; one of the issues with our quick access to media is that we do not even realize how influential it is.  Also from Bristol's post when Alexis told the story of the guy that said it was cool to have sex with girls and he didn't even know where that came from I was very surprised.  It's interesting to hear directly that this young man had this opinion but no reason as to why he thought this way.

Another important issue that Bristol mentioned was that we need to go further to teach boys and men why rape is wrong; the first step is putting restrictions in place and talking about the issue at hand, but how do we teach young men that rape is wrong.  Alexis also mentioned consent.  We need to teach young men about consent and that making sure that who ever you are having sex with is okay with it too and not just assuming.  It's just one quick question to ask and this should be taught to everyone.

My question is: How can schools integrate consent, rape, and locker room talk into their curriculum.  Teachers, parents and students need to understand that these issues must be discussed at a younger age in order to prevent sexual assault and rape from occurring even more.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Materialism

ARGUMENT

Susan J Douglas, the author of "Enlightened Sexism" argues that even though much progress has been made in the equality of men and women there is still much work to be done in how the media represents young girls and women. Douglas defined enlightened sexism as a response to the possible threat of a new gender regime. Now that equality has been fully achieved its okay to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women. Within the media there is still the objectification of girls and women, there is still anxiety of females in power and the punishment of female sexuality. There are so many cases of women being sexually assaulted that turn the women into the reason for being assaulted; and we wonder why this is happening. Media is such a big part of our life and its almost impossible to see the line of where it enters our lives to when it becomes controlling. Douglas continues to discuss how media influences the population. Many shows specifically on MTV (reality love shows) focuses less on the finding love aspect but on the competition between young women, emphasizing on verbal and physical fights, berating other women, and competing for the man. These shows are the complete opposite of what young girls should be watching. On the other hand, sheltering children from media is impossible because its everywhere. Some examples of these shows that Douglas mentioned (to give a mental image) Next, The Flavor of Love, America's Next Top Model, The Hills. Douglas's main point in the reading is we have come far in equality but media misrepresented women in a variety of ways. Either tv shows and movies show women in positions of power, making the same as men and having a family or sexualizing women deeming them materialistic; both misrepresentations.


Peggy Orenstein, the author of "Cinderella Ate my Daughter" argues the mass production of materialistic things such as Disney Princesses, Barbie Dolls, American Girl Dolls, ect has influenced young girls to become obsessed with these products. First of all, lets not blame the parents of the children who "need" these products. The whole point of a company to be successful is to market and sell in the most effective way. Companies take their product and manipulate it in any way possible to make more money. Cinderella dresses, cups, tiaras, dolls and shows. Disney on Ice is a huge seller and when children see this, they must have it. One of the main points that Orenstein presents is the idea of "want" and "coercion". There really is no evidence that shows this obsession with princesses leads to low self-esteem but there is evidence that shows the more media consumed there is more importance on being pretty and sexy. This also presents the idea from Orenstein of "have it all but be it all". Orenstein also explains the rise in number of girls concerned with looks and weight and reports of stress levels and rates of depression and suicide.

From these two readings I asked myself:

From thinking about tv shows and movies, are we still heading in a progressive path, away from shows like "The Bachelor". Are we watching these shows because we think they are funny because people actually act this way or are we using these shows as a base for our lives?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/psychology-materialism_n_4425982.html

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Selfies

Connections
In this blog post the website http://selfiecity.net/# and Teen Vogue's http://www.teenvogue.com/story/no-selfie-day-self-esteem will be discussed.  In the website selfie city, five different countries were analyzed in the poses and expressions of people in thousands of selfies collected.  In the website demographics are collected showing that more women take selfies than men, specifically in Moscow females are 4.6 times more likely than males to take a selfie.  Overall, taking selfies is considered a thing that young people do, which is true based on the information from the website.  However, in every city the data shows that more older then (30) post more selfies.  Smiles and expressions were also analyzed; most selfies are of people smiling but in Moscow people smile the least.  I believe that selfies do matter and they mean something.  Personally, I don't really take selfies or even post them on social media but when I do I find myself to over analyze the picture to make sure everything looks good.  I feel like this is the problem with taking selfies especially too many.  Teenagers spend hours on their phones looking at other people's selfies and possibly comparing themselves to others.  Social media reinforces the dominant ideology that Grinner discussed in explaining SCWAMP (straight, christian, white, able-bodies, male, property holder).  We are able to identify the dominant ideologies today and teenagers are the forefront to picking out what is accepted and normal.

Teen Vogue's article on "No Selfies Day" and why you should participate discusses the word selfie as the "word of our generation".  Everyone takes selfies and theres even a song about it but what is shocking is that the average girl spends 1 hour and 24 minutes preparing for selfies each week.  I remember being in high school and putting on makeup and trying on clothes just to take a selfie.  Within taking selfies there is a need to feel noticed and to get positive feedback.  Today, access is unbelievably rapid with front facing cameras, editing, and filters.  By the end of the editing process, the selfie that is about to be posted doesn't even look like the person who took it.  Being a teenager is about "becoming".  As Raby discussed in “A Tangle of Discourses” (2002), becoming is about self discovery and forming an identity. If teens are spending so much time taking and editing selfies and worried about what others are thinking are they really forming their true identity or just molding into what society wants? The discourse of teens being "at risk" relates to the idea that selfies can be influential, negatively. Teens are more at risk to eating disorders but why is this? Is it the comparison of selfies? With anything that is posted on social media there will always be negative feedback and someone who spent an hour editing a selfie gets negative comments will think "that wasn't enough editing" or "I'm not pretty enough".

My question is; What are we getting from taking selfies and is it really worth it?