Gender and The Media

I am a huge supporter for Dove's campaign for self-esteem. I can absolutely see how the media has influenced girls to be skinny, perfect, and self-conscience. We see so many commercials in our lifetime and the majority of them have these perfect models or at least use words like thin, skinny, perfect in them. Unfortunately, girls don't recognize that the people they see on TV and the ads they see in magazines aren't even real. These people are photo-shopped to hide all of their imperfections. Recently, a Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton was fired for being too fat when in all actuallity she is still very skinny for her height. She is 5 foot 10 and 120 pounds. She was fired because she didn't look the same in her ads as she did on the runway. That was only because her photos were extremely photo-shopped to make her look very thin.

Now, the media doesn't just influence women, it also plays a huge role in men. Men think that have to be strong, independent, powerful, and tough in order to be a real man. In order to assert one's manhood, some turn to violence. They see violence as a way to earn respect. Most school shooters are men and there is a reason for that. These guys usually feel left out or picked on. Thus, they feel that if they bring a gun to school people will be scared of them and stop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3G2zSP32_A
Copy and paste the link above to see youtube video for an example of a school shooting (One Tree Hill episode)

Get the Grade

What's wrong with schools these days? Grades grades grades. That's all they focus on. And now, that's all I focus on. We don't go to school because we are enthusiastic about learning. We go to school to get the grade. It is not about if we understand the school work, it's all about the points. For instance we get extra credit for bringing in a box of tissue. We get extra credit for all these ridiculous things. But, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't be able to get the grades that I get without all those easy assignments. In class, we were talking about the Barbie and Beavis scenario. Barbie passes while Beavis fails despite the fact that Beavis actually knows more that Barbie does. I was completely lost in honors geometry last year but I ended up with a B because I did my homework. I got very low test grades which obviously showed that I didn't understand the material and doing the homework didn't help. I'm glad to see that teachers are starting to understand this obsession with grades. The only grades in my APUSH class are tests and essays. Thus, if we get an A, we really understand the material. O'Reilly is totally against extra credit for tissue and useless homework. Also, Sal is all about learning to learn not learning for the grade.

Dependent

Today we learned that humans need social interaction in order to survive and thrive. We were made to interact with other human beings. Thus, we aren't able to live on are own right away like most animals. It takes us many years to become fully human, meaning we are aware of our emotions, our instincts, our nature. When we become fully human, we can survive on our own. Yet, even then, we still ask for help. We will always need our parents and depend on them. If humans are so dependent, why do we value independence? Why are we so ashamed of asking for help? We are all human! We only survive by the help of others. However, as Americans especially, we value independence. We live in a fishbowl. We don't even realize the water around us, or the fact that we can only survive through human interaction. In the article we read for today, they talked about people living without social interactions. Studies showed that those people had very low IQs. When they began to interact with others, their intelligence rose rapidly. This reinforces the fact that we need each other.

Tuesday's With Morrie

This week we are watching Tuesdays With Morrie. Since we have been discussing American values, I was sociologically mindful and I especially paid attention to values during the movie. Although we have not finished the movie, I know that the number one value in this movie is time! First of all, Morrie obviously doesn't have a lot of time left. The movie talks about life and death. If you know how to die, you know how to live. As Americans, we live by a schedule. We know that at a certain age, we will die. Death is inevitable. Everybody is scared of dying. Thus, we do as many things as possible to prevent an early death- we exercise, eat healthy, play supports, spend time with family, laugh. Yet, we do all those things to prevent an early death, not to make the most out of our life. Morrie is trying to teach people that we should focus on living. Thus, he had a funeral while he was still alive, to once again stress life over death. The movie also mentions time in regards to Mitch's personal and work life. He needs time to finish an article, Jeanine doesn't want to waste anymore time with him, she doesn't have the time to wait for Mitch to finish working, Mitch doesn't have time to visit Morrie, Mitch's boss won't give him some time off to deal with personal issues, ect. As you can see, our lives revolve around time. Thus, I believe that time is the number one value that we Americans have.

The American ATM

American culture is all about money. I believe that money is the one cause for our impatience, individuality, and time-based culture. Everything revolves around money here. Time is money. We have to get things done as quick and efficient as possible or else we are wasting time. Also, we believe that we control our own destiny and have the opportunity to achieve great things because we get rewards. We would not be motivated if we didn't have rewards. Americans chose capitalism because there is competition and rewards. If we had a socialist economy, everyone's income would be equal and we wouldn't be motivated to be the richest and the best. I think Americans are so influenced by money because we value it so much. America was born because of money (issues over taxation). Money is limited. Money buys luxury items. Money is success. Those are all reasons why we value it so much. We now love to watch TV shows about people with money or at least successful people. I read an article responding to USA's new show "Royal Pains." It answered the question of why people watch the show when it is so unrealistic in this economic recession. The answer was that money makes people happy. It sort of acts like an escape from reality. When we watch a show about a bunch of rich people (Gossip Girl, Royal Pains, 90210...), we get happy. We simply enjoy watching rich people. It motivates us to work hard to get rich.