Archive for October 2009
Blog #8
As a communications major with an emphasis in Media and Public, we often talk about the effect of commercials. A subject that comes up often is the emphasis of cleaning products during the day, and who is the target audience for these commercials?…Women! Soap Operas actually began because “soap” commercials helped sponsor these daytime melodramas for women. The idea is if the women are drawn to watching TV, they will notice the cleaning products and be persuaded to be them. The humorous thing about these commercials, are the way they are made. Of course intended for women, because that’s who does the housework; these women are happy, dressed very casually, and sometimes there are even sexual characteristics that come up. How can we relate these things to cleaning? Sarah Haskins is a feminist that has done many humorous videos that poke fun at women issues. In 2008 she made the short video “Target Women: Cleaning” you can find this video on youtube.com and feministing.com. The video pokes fun at the idiotic aspects of cleaning commercials intended for women. Some things mentioned are, cleaning equals sexual activity, how you can dress like you’re about to go out while cleaning, how not having a clean home can before harmful to your family, how everyone is an idiot when it comes to cleaning, but the women, and how cleaning products can be your friend or even date. She ends the clip saying cleaning products, seduce you, romance you, and even protect you from sexual diseases. Please check out the clip, is one you have to see just to get a laugh.
Add a comment October 29, 2009
Blog #7
I love that when writing these Blogs, I have realized something from my own life that relates to every chapter so far. Families are different all across the world and everyone should try to be understanding of these different lifestyles. It becomes more difficult when family members break apart from their family’s traditions. Due to families usually being accepting of each other, these issues can become settled, but there are some families that shame family members when they break traditions. I am currently in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,’ and this musical shows the difficulty for a mother and father when their daughters break normal Jewish traditions. I play Chava a young girl that falls in love with a Russian. This relationship is wrong on so many levels in the eyes of everyone else in the village. First of all finding a match for yourself was unheard of. There were matchmakers in which would arrange the matches for young girls in Jewish families. The family’s financial situation would also be a factor when deciding who the young girl would marry. There were occasions that young girls would be matched up with older men just because he had more money. The other reason Chava’s relationship with a Russian is unheard of, is because she would then be marrying outside of the religion, something that is saw to be worse than finding a match for yourself. In the production, Chava’s father even disowns her saying that because she married a Russian, she is dead to him and does not want to talk about her anymore. At the very end of the show there is a little re-kinder between her father and her, but the relationship between them will never be the same. Chava stays in Cracow with her Russian husband, while the rest of her family moves to America.
Add a comment October 22, 2009
Blog #6
I just recently watched the movie “Revolutionary Road” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet a movie in which shows an age when women would try self-abort on planned pregnancies. The movies is based on the novel written in 1960’s by Richard Yates. The movie makes you truly feel the depression of a woman in 1955. Frank (Leo) and April (Kate) Wheeler are married but in a rut with their lives and marriage. April wanted to be an actress but now is a housewife with two children. April tries to find a way in which they can live their lives happier and decides that they should move to Paris, she hopes this will rejuvenate their lives. April ends up getting pregnant which puts a stop it their plans moving to Paris. April is so unhappy, very depressed, and truly believes her pregnancy is wrong. She obtains the objects needed to self-abort but he husband disapproves. It makes me so uneasy to watch her life because she is truly unhappy and sees abortion as her only option. Women should not have to go through these circumstances alone and in the 50’s there was not much education on other ways of not getting pregnant and once pregnant not really options. April has to abort the child within the first twelve weeks, but goes past this time period. After an argument with her husband in which he states that he wishes she would have had the abortion, April then runs off. After her return she acts like everything is fine until Frank leaves and then she tries the abortion. Due to unclean circumstances, lack of knowledge, and going past the time period April dies from the abortion. Movies like this make individuals look at the situations in which women are unhappy and cannot fathom the idea of another child, the man does not have to have the child or stay home with the children so he does not understand. Abortion also shows the inequality between men and women, the women is the one truly going through the situation when pregnant. Yet, men can have sex with no consequences if they truly do not want the child.
Add a comment October 15, 2009
Blog #5
In GLAMOUR magazine, September 2009, there was an article called “What Everyone But You Sees About You Body.’ It is an amazing article that makes you think about the way you look at yourself. It talks about how we focus on our body flaws when we look in the mirror and I would have to admit that I do this. In the article Gyasi Atkins writes “Your body doesn’t deserve to be bashed,” and Madame Athena Chang writes “When you focus on the body parts you love, your flaws fade away!” It also explains how “fat days” are in our heads. A young women named Norell Giancana participates in an experiment were she takes a picture for herself in a bathing suit everyday and explains her feeling about the way so looks also. Ironically, over a thirty day time span in each picture her body looks the same, but it shows that on some of the days she felt fatter than others. Day 7 “The skinny jeans I wore on the flight home from my vacation were so tight they left seam imprints on my legs…I feel fat.” Day 20 “I actually felt lighter today. I think it’s because the pair of jeans I wore today fit. They looked great, so I felt great.” Yet her body looked exactly the same. The best part about this article is picture on page 194, a picture of a young beautiful women laughing. What makes this picture different then other pictures usually in magazines, is this women looks NORMAL. Please check out GLAMOUR online and search for the September article, it is worth your time to check out the picture.
Add a comment October 6, 2009
