Advertisements...

I found this advertisement online today and it was an example of what we had talked about in class. Why is the girl being held down? Why is she wearing next to nothing? Why must she wear stilettos? We talked in class about how demeaning it is towards women. When you take a step out of reality and look at all the different advertisements with women being put down it makes you resent some of the advertisements that are out there.

Views on Advertisements

 Respond to the film Killing Us Softly.  What impact does advertising have on how people view themselves?  Can you describe or include in your blog an ad that perpetuates some of the messages Killborn describes?

EXAMPLE

I feel like a lot of women look at the advertisements and think they need to look or act like what they see. A lot of girls aren’t satisfied with their own body, and who they are as a person that they think they need to look like the people they see in magazines. Because people think this way they do use that to make money on advertising the thing they know people are going to look at. I think that the way they make women look in advertisements is demeaning and puts women down. They make us women look like an object, and a product. While we looked through magazines in class I noticed a lot of pictures of men and women in pictures together. The pictures that had both women and men in them always had the women in positions in where they looked to be overpowered by the man. Why is this? Why do advertisement companies use this as a way to sell magazines? 

Patients People!

How is impatience a problem in America?  How do you imagine this problem can be fixed?

The amounts of people who are impatient has increased. There are so many times that I’ve gotten honked at for not going RIGHT when the light turns green. There are many people who zoom by me to pass me because I’m going the speed limit. I also can’t say I have never been impatient, but I try to relax and let things happen with time. We talked about people who tried to rush through school. To do what? Pay bills, and grow up. We also talked about how we felt about people who had gotten their degree online compared to the people who sit through class to get it. I feel like having the class time and a real professor to go to means more than someone who get it online. I feel like they work harder and may even have more education. I think that people need to take a step back and realize that rushing or being impatient isn’t going to do anything. What is one more second at a stop light? What is a car length in front of me going to get you? 

Reality Television

How does reality television relate to and affect people who watch it?  What makes reality television shows so popular?  What is the largest archetype that you see being used in reality television shows?

I think that reality television does affect people. I think that many people find it entertaining, and then there are some people who see a reality show, and try to become someone that they saw on that show. I think that reality shows are so popular because people can relate themselves to the people on the show. I think that some of the reality shows on MTV are more directed at the people in their early twenties. The most common archetypes in reality television are the group of people who are competing for money. There are a lot of reality shows that have people of many ages on them.

Religification...

Select a popular culture artifact (company, celebrity, brand, sports team, etc.) that you can discuss in terms of "religification."  How has this artifact been "religified"?  How do people discuss this in reglious terms?  What people follow this particular "religion"?  Who are the people who directly oppose this popular culture "religion"?

There are many things that I have religified, but there is one that sticks out in my head. McDonald's or Burger King. These two fast food restaurants have been competing against each other for a very long time. However I do enjoy both, but I go to McDonald's a lot more. They have more of a selection, and you know what every things going to taste like because they have always had the same things. But when they do change their menu a little, Burger King thinks they need to update theirs to stay on top of things. Recently McDonald's changed their breakfast menu around, and not that long after Burger King changed there's as well. I have definitely made McDonald's religifed in my own life.

Popular Music 2010

Make a connection between popular music today and one of the other themes we've talked about this semester, such as women & sexiness or men/masculinity & violence.  Can you find examples of popular music either support the standard message of those themes or working against them?  How important do you think popular music has been in spreading these ideas?

I feel like music today makes people feel like they need to fit the group that they hear singers sing about. For example, there are all kinds of hip-hop songs that  talk about girls with big butts, or big breasts. Some girls feel as if they need to fulfill that type of person. Being a girl I haven't really thought about how guys feel when music videos come out with half naked girls. If you are a male please comment and tell me how singers that have this attitude make you feel as a man. When I see videos with girls shaking their fannies or grinding on men, it makes me feel ashamed as a women. I think that a lot of women look at the videos in disgust almost.

Hip-Hop and Country Music

Look at readings for hip-hop AND country.  Where do you see similarities and/or connections between these two music genres?  What do they have in common?  Where are they fundamentally different?


There are a few similarities between hip-hop and country music. They both sing about things that have to do with life. Although hip-hop is known for talking about murder, misogyny, and materialism, they do talk about some of the same things that country singers sing about. I've heard rappers sing about losing their girlfriends, and I've also heard MANY country songs about losing girlfriends. However I feel like country songs try not to offend people. Where as hip-hop songs are meant to offend certain people. That is one major difference in the types of music. I enjoy both types of music. However I like country music a lot more, because i feel like there is always a song to fit how you feel that day.

Holy Hip-Hop

Where to begin on this topic. In class we had a HUGE debate on what hip-hop was, and if it had "died" or not. There were only a few people in our class that thought hip-hop had actually "died." However most of the class seemed to agreed that hip-hop didn't "die," it just evolved. I agree that it has evolved. I also agree that hip-hop doesn't sound the same as it use to, nor does it talk about the same exact things, but its still considered a type of hip-hop. There were also a few students who thought that hip-hop only talked about three topics and that's it. Murder, materialism, and misogyny. Artists can write songs that have nothing to do with either of those categories, and still be considered hip-hop.

The Media!

Today in class we talked about what we think the media has done to us as a society. We talked about if we thought it had made us smarter, stupider, meaner, or nicer. I think that media has actually made us smarter, however i would agtee there are some disadvantages to the media now also. The media has taught us a lot about technology, and how to use the internet or phones. The media has given magazines more topics to talk about. The power of internet has allowed us to learn more about the world and the issues that are happening as well. Instead of havin to tune in to a certain channel to listen to the president talk or an important speech by someone we can just get on the internet and watch it on a website that recorded it. I feel like it makes thing a lot easier, IF you understand technology.
However I feel like technology could make us somewhat stupid also. We get a lot out of computers now, and typing a paper isn't the same. A lot of people just type the paper without printing it out and reviewing it and making corrects. They just assume the computer changed all their mistakes. But today most computers do in fact correct a word automatically, without you even clicking spell check. Some computers don't even change it to ther right word.

"Tough Guise"

In class we watched a video on the stereotype of men, and why men act the way they do. Before watching this movie I asked myself why men thought that certain things make them masculine that women do not. Jackson Kats, who is an anti-violence counselor talked about how men think and why they act the way they do. He talked about how even from a young age guys are given toys with huge muscles, and even guns showing that this powerful toy was masculine. In the video he showed pictures of toys from the 70's and the SAME toy figures that we have today. They were the same character (batman, superman, etc) only they had more muscles and were built bigger.  There were many different things that Jackson brought up about why guys do certain things to look masculine. He talked about how guys need to be more vulnerable, and stop putting up this new "pose." There are a few men in the media culture now that do show their vulnerable side and allow themselves to cry to give hugs. Those are the types of men that are masculine to me. The kind of man that can show how he is really feeling and not put up a fake front to people. I really enjoyed this video and i think some men in our culture need to view it themselves!

Violence/Masculinity

Reflect on waht we've discussed in class and what you've heard in the video/what you've read in the article about violence/masculinity. Is it something to be concerned about?


I think that violence is something to be concerned about. Our crime rates have increased throughout the years. Does anyone sit back and think abou why this is? Could if be because of our violence in movies have increased? I think that there could be a connection with the crime rate increasing and the amount of violence that is in our media today. The movies today in our culture are much more violent, and have more speical affects. When we discussed this in our class we talked about why some people think that violence occurs more often, and if the media is to blame. I do think that our media may have a little impact on how people act. However i'm not saying that people watch a movie about gangsters and killing people, then go out and kill someone. I do think that people forget that we are in the real world, and that it's not ok to do the things that people do in movies. I don't think that its serious enough for the government to get involved or anything, but i do agree that this could be a cause for more crimes.

Masculinity

How important do you think sports and muscles really are to masculinity?

I don't think that muscles and sports really define masculinity at all. When I think of masuclinity I think of someone who is a good role model. A male who is proud of himself and confident. Some men may feel more confident if they have muscles. That's how they feel but as a woman I don't think a male whose skinny is NOT masucline. I know men who are very masculine that have no muscles. However when we were asked in class about what maculinity meant to us, muscles and sports did pop in my head. Maybe this had to do with sterotyping males to automatically have muscles and be into sports to be masculine. But I do disagree with my "fast" thinking. I don't think that sports really have anything to do with how masucline a male is. That's something that some people just aren't into. Maybe a guy is more into hunting or hiking, that doesn't make him less masculine that the males watching sports. The chart that was shown in class on how many people did think that being masculine meant they had to have muscles and be into sports. I'm wondering if this was because we only got a minute to write down our thoughts, or if people really did feel that these things were essential to being masculine.

Past Articles

The past articles have been either very excellent, or either it was very hard to get through the article. I enjoyed reading the articles about how people portray the body. I think that those are the articles that are important to people of our culture. There were a few articles that I've read that I felt were not as important as the rest. The articles that were about the body showed how people and media take advantage of a woman's body. The media does not show most women as a good thing, but more of a sex symbol. I do enjoy reading most of the articles, and I'm excited to read the rest of the up coming!

Pornography

Many people think of porn in a horrid way. Why is this? Is it because of what it shows, or how people portray it? I'm not quiet sure who benefits from porn, besides the people who are getting paid for it. However I don't think people are harmed from it either. Maybe it could harm children and the way they think sex should be or the meaning of sex. I don't see it was being something that will make people kill each other or cause harm to anyone else. If someone enjoys watching porn then that's their own business. I agree that people should be restricted form sites unless their 18 years only. This is only my opinion and many people may disagree and that's ok, but I think people should still have to reach a maturity level before watching porn. People that are young are still trying to discover how they feel about sex. Porn may guide their thoughts into a negative way. Such as thinking sex is not meaningful, and that they can have sex with whoever. Which I disagree with.

Physical Appearance

Our popular culture is not very healthy when it comes to the topic of beauty. Many people have the wrong idea of what beauty is. They look to media and then determine what beauty should be. Not how they think beauty should be portrayed. I believe we do think to much about beauty. I think that people decided what's beauty is from the media or what they hear people saying. People should be able to look at themselves and point out what is beautiful. This weeks discussion on beauty made me kind of happy when I read and thought about how the writer put things. I liked how our reading mentioned media being a part of the way people perceive beauty. I think a lot of people in our culture need to take a step our of the media, stop, and look at themselves. Then they need to think of all the different ways they're beautiful.