Tying it All Together

consumerism media patriarchy inequality

America has grown up as a patriarchal society. From childhood, women have recognized men as the superior gender, consciously or not. It's not like when babies started growing they immediately knew that "Girls should get 77 cents for every dollar a man earns! Yes!!!". No. At least, I don't think that happens (that would be incredibly creepy). For consumerism to link to everything else above, children need a push in the wrong direction.

   Growing up, a child in America eventually gets the notion that all scientists are "butt-white old dudes" (quote my science teacher*) that have a crazy mad scientist's snowy-colored hair and a bushy mustache, which is also known as Albert Einstein. They always wear lab coats and have beakers and chemistry equipment nearby. There's a major flaw here. This image of a scientist excludes about every scientist out there, except for the stereotype. Why can't a scientist be African American? Latino? Asian? And why must it have to be a man? Do all scientists wear a lab coat everywhere they go, even if they are studying nature? Preetty sure they would wear something else.

   Already, society has planted a bad seed in their own children. With exceptions, they may quickly understand from their own parents that the woman is meant to be a housewife while the man is supposed to work long hours, or how the wife is there to be the cook all day. The media helps even more by showing cartoons based around the accomplishments of boys, like "Jimmy Neutron". In this show, the mother of Jimmy likes baking and taking care of her family. Well, the media's really not helping.

   So how does this all link to patriarchy? As explained above, most people envision an old man working with bubbling green beakers. One point for Slytherin. How about the presidents? Well, until Obama showed up they've been graying old men as well. Great. Our society nowadays is perfect isn't it? Ah hah...

   When kids are first asked what they'd like to be when they grow up, the common answers vary around vet (animal lovers who will abandon this idea later on because NEEDLES MAN), astronaut, fireman, cop, chef. This list will probably go on and on, but that's all I know off the top of my head. As kids near adolescence, they don't know anymore. Girls can't be a firemen (note the 'men' in the word). They can't be police chief. They can't be an astronaut. They don't believe it anymore. See that list I put up there? All of them are male dominated. Stereotypes for firemen include a tall muscular man, for cops, a fat guy eating a doughnut, for chefs and equally fat guy with a white hat on top. Again, no females. The only female job that popped into my mind was babysitter. Yeah, I sure want to be a professional babysitter when I grow up...Yeah.

   All this groups up into the idea of inequality. If women are supposed to be the housewife, they have to go home and actually do the house work. This does not help in the workplace at all. If you need to work long hours, you can't cook or clean the house anymore, much less take care of the children. This may lead superiors to give more important jobs to men, while they simply ask the women to get the coffee for the next meeting. 

Thanks, America.

   At Discovery, they have listed ten examples of global gender inequality, with number eight being violence; "In 2008, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that one in every three women is likely "to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime" ". When a kidnapper sees a lightweight girl walking by herself, it's probably just easy pickings. When it's a skinny male teen, why even bother? Unless you've got a real grudge, kidnapping a stranger with that description is going to turn them away.

   America is too far gone. Stories considered classics, like Cinderella, almost always include the prince in shining armor waiting to whisk away the damsel in distress (this excludes Alice in Wonderland). Since the beginning of the Union, women have only been there to step up when men were away at the battlefield (seen in the Civil War). America has existed independently for 238 years, from 1776, not to mention the time Americans spend as British colonists. Men were favored for being strong farmers that could help with work. It's not exactly that now, but it has left a lasting effect; men are still more valued that girls, whether its to carry on the family name or not.

   Three is a thing called water memory. It is the idea that water has the memory of what was previously dissolved in it (like a tiny bit of coke thrown in a swimming pool), even after taking half of the coke water and combining it with half a swimming pool's amount of normal, coke-free water. Continue doing so and there will be no more coke molecules. But the water will have the memory of the coke in it. Women are slowly tossing themselves into men's realms. They are trying to overcome this inequality. It's not exactly working yet, but people are remembering Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton, as well as those other people with absurd ideas of giving women the rightful spot to a man's job.

   Okay, so I don't think America will become a matriarchy anytime soon (I really hope it doesn't. That's pretty much a huge step backwards), or that we'll close in on the gap between the genders. Since the 1990s, the US has made narrow progress with this whole ordeal. Over time, some woman Obama will hopefully come, being the first female president. I don't doubt that this will take a while. Slavery itself took years and years of attempts at abolition, with few results. As the Declaration of Independence states, "All men are created equal". Ignoring the fact that is says men, this isn't yet true. The Declaration is still at fault. If by men, Thomas Jefferson also meant women, it's still at fault.

   Maybe there's a little hope for society. America needs someone with some resemblance to the four figures atop Mount Rushmore--Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson--to help society rebuild itself the correct way. It's not impossible, though it's going to be an incredibly, incredibly hard road to victory.  

*This actually happened. My teacher told every body to draw a scientist at work in groups of four to six when sixth grade just started. Well, everyone drew (a) white scientist(s) in a white lab, excluding the people that didn't have apricot and colored their people yellow. Go us.

   In seventh grade I had him again because there were so many seventh graders. He always puts the scientist posters on the wall. The only girls I saw were prettied to the point that they were scary or just really bad anime.

Week 8/9 Prompt

FINAL BLOG PROMPT!

Here you go guys!

So we've spent weeks dealing with the different layers of consumerism/the media/patriarchy/inequality etc. I want you to write the best blog of the summer examining the interconnectedness of these issues and more importantly discuss how you think we can fix these problems. Your answer should be well reasoned and at least one really really good paragraph.

Good luck,

Ms. Krissy

P.S. Make sure you're really well prepared for your final. A debate on sexualized pop culture stars being empowering to women. 

Very Clever

Look closely. What do you see? It's just normal apps on an iPhone, right? Well, you might want to look at the apps placement again...

   Hidden in everyday life is some sort of subliminal message, some more subtle than others. like some hidden picture of a person on a vending machine with Coke or Pepsi as the huge photo, for one. Just keep on walking to your destination. No  need to stare at the picture for so long. If you actually do, you might notice something, like with the picture above..

   So maybe all of us are dumb and can't even see it (the apps say "OB3Y", with the following app being Apple). We're probably already geared towards buying Apple products,  not Samsung or Google or the like. Perhaps they're working with some doohicky in our brains for our subconscious to follow. But this is one of the more faint examples (the person that took the shot might have rearranged the apps, but I can't be sure).

   Here's an ad for Popchips. At first glance you see Katy Perry, a singer that people admire. If she eats Popchips, I can too. After all, she's fit, right? And it even says love without the love handles. Less fat! Always welcome, unless you're underweight.

   If you look at the bottom, the ad even says that it's never fried, which means it's healthier. All this clever planning tells you that you should eat Popchips. Now, you might even reach for the Lays or Ruffles or Cheetos you have at the counter next to you because suddenly, you want potato chips again. 

   Of course, all businesses exist for one goal: money [or world domination by money]. So this isn't exactly ethical, because as with most potato chips, you want to eat more. After you finish that family-size bag all by yourself, you put it off. Thirty minutes later, you're back and hungry for more. Great. You're already hooked on the chips now, and in big quantities, not very many things are good for you. All the while, you're thinking about how you won't get fatter because they said so.

   Tell that to yourself again when you step on that scale again, mind you.

Hidden Messages: What do they really mean?

Many commercials, messages, and ads in the world have hidden messages or pictures. Some are just to advertise the company even more and others are to convey messages that have a meaning of some sort to the customers. One example of advertising the company more is the Pirates of the Caribbean logo. The skull is in the shape of the Mickey Mouse head, which advertises the Disney Company. Many other Disney products have hidden Mickey Mouse shapes to get people looking as a game which gives the company more popularity. There are even shapes hidden around theme parks! This act has increased the attention and fortune of the Disney Company.

Another commercial that has a hidden image is the commercial for the KFC snacker. If you pause the commercial at one point, the lettuce in the burger turns into a dollar bill which can have different meanings. One thing it could symbolize is that the burger is cheap because you will save money by getting it back. The reason that the company put it in the commercial is because they wanted to give the customers a challenge to try to find the dollar for a prize. This only got KFC more attention and customers between the game and the message of saving money.

Although there are a few advertisements that have extra advertising, most send inappropriate messages children shouldn’t see. I believe these are unethical and should not be out for everybody to see, especially when they are on products like Coca Cola, phonebooks, McDonalds, and many other normal things that kids see. There might be some advertisements that encourage good messages, but most are just to catch attention.

Week 7 Prompt

Hi Guys!
For this week, I want you to find an advertisement (any advertisement) that you think has an overt or hidden message? What is the ad actually trying to sell? What values is it trying to sell you too? Is that ethical?

Also, for next week's debate it may be helpful to do a little reading on the 3rd Wave of Feminism to help inform you how women may think that being sexual is empowering rather than degrading.

Can't wait to see you all next week. Good luck and don't forget to post a picture of your advertisement as part of your post!
Good luck!
Ms. Krissy

Week 6 Prompt

Hi guys!
Sorry for late post. As I indicated in class, for this week's blog I want you to respond to the film and consider advertising. Find an advertisement and link it here. You should make an argument about your interpretation of the ad and the positive/negative implications of the ad.
We're going to continue this discussion so please come to class prepared.

Ms. Krissy

Serendipity is Yet to Come

   In 1947, the United Nations gave the Jews a large part of Palestine. That was 67 years ago. Now, the Arab-Israeli war is ranked number 49 on Daniel Pipe's Middle East forum, with 51 thousand dead (and countless others injured). This rank may start to rise as present day events tie in; about two weeks after battling it out in Gaza, at minimum 150 Palestinian children were killed, and 32 young Israeli soldiers have died. Because of all these unsolved conflicts, Israel is starting to lose the support of countries outside of the US (yet America's support is readily available).
   Here is a daily tally of the shots fired in Israel and Gaza. By just browsing through the numbers, you can see the Palestinians are losing a lot of their people. Every day, the death toll fluctuates, but the Palestinian side hasn't dropped to zero recently. Meanwhile, the Israeli death count is staggeringly low in comparison, with numbers around three each day. 
   The current conflict in Israel is not exactly because of the three teens that went missing, though it has sparked riots in Jerusalem. These three teenagers were located in the West Bank, which is pretty much one of the biggest areas of tension within Israel. That's not good. 
   The above is an example of the violence raging in Israel. As a matter of fact, astronaut Alex Gerst has captured a picture of all this brutality from outer space. It looks really cool, but once you remember it's a snapshot of all the explosions happening, not so much...

To be honest, it reminds me of your brain and neurons and networks and the like....Never mind.

   In response to the kidnappings, Israel is firing more rockets than a few weeks ago. While investigating, the police also detained about ninety or so Palestinians. Looks like the Israeli government is getting slightly more tense.
   Several opinions have risen; there might not even be a proper resolution, as Daniel Barenboim says "there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is not a political conflict but a human one, between two peoples who share the deep and seemingly irreconcilable conviction that they are entitled to the same small people of land." As stated here, the one-state solution is not even a choice because it is just a recipe for disaster, while the two-state solution, which most of the world supports, is as terrible a choice.
   The one-state solution means the Jews and Arabs will be merged into a single state. All the citizens will have the same rights, yet this is intolerable to the Jews. Palestinian media communicates effectively how much they hate Jews. That being said, that's not a good thing to put into play.
   The two-state solution isn't all that great, either. It doesn't include merging into a single state, it includes negotiations. Not too sure about this. If you try to negotiate with someone who has already been bombed way more than enough, chances are they'll act like a huge amount of employees on strike. By employee, I mean a country who has bottled up all their anger and wants to throw that Molotov at the last second. 
   Personally, I'd wait it out a little longer (that is a really bad decision with all these people dying, I know) because another holocaust is a lot worse than waiting it out. The president has vetoed the two-state solution, which is slightly better than the former. Right now, nothing is actually looking too clear, for the president and Israel.

Hopefully the road to success isn't under construction....Which it is.