Enjoy your summer, everyone!
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
The Benefits of Clarkson Leaving
The show Top Gear, which the BBC currently hosts, has finally let go one of the most influential leaders in the car industry. Jeremy Clarkson was fired from his position after allegedly punching one of the producers in the face. While many fans of the show, including me and hundred of millions, are saddened by this dismal, it may be for the best for both the BBC and viewership.
The benefits of Clarkson's removal may not appear positive in the light of many, but it does have some very positive outcomes. Since Top Gear has an annual income of around $350 million dollars a year, Clarkson's contract is very expensive. The BBC was paying Clarkson anywhere from $3-5 million dollars a year just to host the show. Looking at this issue from just an economic sides is not where the benefits of Clarkson's release comes in to play. This comes from a more serious issue, which is the public image of the BBC.
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/report-top-gear-host-jeremy-clarkson-will-be-fired-by-the-bbc-2015-3
http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/03/25/why-the-bbc-is-right-to-fire-jeremy-clarkson-from-top-gear/
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-19/jeremy-clarkson-ive-lost-my-top-gear-baby-but-ill-do-another-car-show
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jeremy-clarkson-does-not-see-a-problem-with-his-racist-language-on-top-gear-says-bbc-9683097.html
It's going to be... Wait for it.... Legendary!
Those fanatics of How I Met Your Mother
know the character Barney Stinson. Most
people are able to quote him with, or at least recognize where it comes from:
“Legend… Wait for it… Dary!” On the
popular TV show, aired on CBS, Barney Stinson is played by Neil Patrick
Harris. His reoccurring goal throughout
the entire TV series is to have sexual relations with as many girls as
possible. He is always chasing after a
woman, wearing a suit and/or playing laser tag.
He also always trying to get Ted Mosby, one of the shows only single
men, besides Barney, to “Suit up!” with him and go talk to girls at the bar or night
club. Barney Stinson embodies a
stereotypical white male who is convinced that he can get anything he wants and
won’t let anything stand in his way.
Barney
Stinson is always after a female in the earlier seasons. He has a playbook that he talks about and
whenever he makes an impressive attempt at gaining the interest of a girl, he
adds to it. Later on though, he settles
down with their friend named Robin. Ted
had originally been in love with Robin, but that didn’t stop Barney. I find it interesting because Robin is the
only female on the TV show that is inherently independent and has a serious
business job that she works very hard for.
Lily Aldrin (Marshall's girlfriend and then wife) is the only other reoccurring female character, and she
embodies the aspects of being a slightly airheaded woman who is a nurturing
kindergarten teacher, and then an artist.
It’s ironic that throughout the show, there are many airheaded women
shown with Barney, yet he ends up settling for and marrying Robin, a
strong-willed, intelligent woman. It’s a
good way to challenge the pre-determined and held up aspects of the TV show.
Throughout
the TV series, Barney Stinson has this demeanor of being more “awesome” than
everybody else; this is where his cockiness with women comes into play. He is so convinced that he is God-like and
hardly gets hurt by rejection, because it happens so seldom. Ted comes in to balance out the cockiness of
Barney Stinson with his uncertainty and inability to even ask a girl out. Throughout the TV series, though, Ted Mosby
gains more confidence and has more ability to be like Barney Stinson, though he
never partakes in the action of “Suiting Up.”
Barney
Stinson embodies the idealistic “bro” male who is so dominant when it comes to
women, that he has very sexist actions towards them. I’m not sure if it is the best idea for our
younger generations to observe the actions of Barney Stinson. However, I am proud that they counteract this
stereotypical male dominance and show to the viewers, who continued to watch
the TV series, that Barney Stinson is capable of accepting and loving women,
his mother being one of them. SPOILER
ALERT: Barney Stinson gets a random girl pregnant after he divorces Robin and
gets back to his old ways of being a “bro,” and he learns the true meaning of
love. CBS does a good job of fixing
their mistakes that they create when it comes to attracting audiences and
Barney Stinson is a great example.
http://www.karanovic.org/courses/mca008/archives/1073
http://rebloggy.com/post/gif-how-i-met-your-mother-himym-barney-stinson-neil-patrick-harris-return-of-the/12938205166
http://weheartit.com/entry/84261822
http://suitupbros.com/funny/22-awesome-barney-stinson-animated-gifs#
http://deadshirt.net/2013/07/15/7-lessons-other-shows-can-learn-from-how-i-met-your-mother/
So Easy a Woman Can Do It
What do you see when you look at this ad? For the young and naive, it's an advertisement for a sandwich. For the rest of us, it implies a woman performing oral sex. This is made even more obvious by the use of the euphemism "It'll blow your mind away." While it may be a more subtle than sexist ad's of the 'Mad Men' era of the 60's, it still is very implicative. When I see this ad I see the implication that the only thing women are good for is oral sex and providing pleasure for men. When asked what she thinks of this ad, my girlfriend said, "That is despicable. How could that possibly published in this day and age?"
Advertisements in the 40's, 50's, and 60's were known for being generally sexist towards women. One of the best examples I could find is this:
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The '40s were a very different time. In order to be seen as successful in society, you had to be a white male. It didn't matter what job you had. If you were a white male, you were successful. Woman were thought of as helpless and inferior. Society thought that a woman was only good for cleaning and cooking. They thought that women needed a man to help them with everything. This mindset of the helpless and fragile woman was heavily portrayed in advertisements of the time. In the 1950's and 1960's, a group of men in advertisement were known as the "Mad Men." They worked on Madison Avenue in New York. They were well known for their derogatory and sexist ads towards women. They were thought of as the most successful men in America due to their demeaning attitude towards women. This is one of their many ads:
"It's nice to have a girl around the house." This is an advertisement for Mr. Leggs slacks. It was well known at this time that women were not treated equally. Men walked all over women, that's just the way it was. This was an easy thing to incorporate into advertisements. The idea behind this ad is that if you buy a pair of Mr. Leggs slacks, you'll be able to walk over women with ease. This is just one of the many sexist ads that were common in the 50's and 60's.
The "Mad Men" weren't the only advertisement group to use sexism in advertising. Sexism and the idea of being derogatory towards women was commonly used in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. Women were seen as objects rather than people. They had to exemplify sexuality while being the perfect housewife who cleaned and cooked. They had to be perfect. They had to have no flaws. One of the most well known advertisements involving sexism was for Schlitz beer. It reads:
.jpg)
This advertisement is truly one of the most sexist ads I have ever read. The picture shows a woman who clearly burned something in a pan with the husband saying "Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!" The general implication of the ad is that the common housewife is helpless and cannot help but to burn everything she cooks. The husband tries to console her by telling her she didn't burn the beer at least. Which, of course, can't be burned in the first place. The idea that the woman is inferior in this advertisement was pretty common back then. While this seems like a horrible ad to us now, it wasn't out of place when it was published.
While the role of women in our society has changed drastically, the thought that they are only good for cooking, cleaning, and looking good is still a popular one today. I constantly see advertisements to help women "look better for their man" or to help them cook or clean better. Women are professional athletes and CEOs of major corporations, yet much of society sees them as the inferior housewife. Their bodies are plastered on billboards across the country and are judged simply by how skinny they are or how big their "thigh gap" is.
What does it mean to say something is "so easy a woman can do it?" The implication, of course, is that women are inferior and helpless. My question, is why do I still hear that phrase today? Many of the most powerful people in the country are women. Women have fought for suffrage and won. They have taken great strides to earn the respect they were not given years ago. Why are they still being treated like they were 50 years ago? The idea that women are only good for cleaning, cooking, and sexuality needs to come to an end.
Works Cited
Jacobsen, Michael F. "Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society" Westview Press. 1995.
<http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/CS/Marketing%20Madness.pdf>
Edwards, Jim., Jacobs, Harrison. "26 Sexist Ads of the 'Mad Men' Era Companies Wish We'd Forgot" Business Insider. 8 May, 2014.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/26-sexist-ads-of-the-mad-men-era-2014-5>
http://www.tekilaklub.com/inspyre/you-mean-a-woman-can-open-it/
http://sites.stedwards.edu/socialmedia-joliver3/2013/02/24/hathaways-man-in-the-hathaway-shirt-campaign/
http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/15chungm/2013/09/05/stereotypes-in-the-media-schlitz-dont-worry-darling-you-didnt-burn-the-beer/
The Standard Has Become an Obsession
The Standard Has Become an Obsession
In my previous blog I discussed how Toddlers and Tiaras only encouraged America to remain a
beauty obsessed culture and allowed viewers inappropriate entertainment through
this show. There are many other programs that are being aired that are also
promoting the beauty obsessed perfectionism culture we live in. A prime example
of this type of show is Botched.
Botched is a
look into the life of plastic surgeons Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif. The surgeons
usually only help patients that have received terrible services and bad plastic
surgeries prior to coming to the show for help. They usually ask to see a picture before the
surgery and after the surgery. More often than not, patients only paid for
surgery the first time because of their own dissatisfaction with their body.
Many have spouses who are present when they are showing this and over and over
the husband/wife will say that they looked beautiful or perfect before. Now
that the patient has had a bad surgery though, their face or body can be so
damaged that they need to fix it medically or it can just look so awful that
they are determined to have another surgery.
This show, like
Toddlers and Tiaras, allows Americans to indulge in their beauty obsession
through media. Several viewers may look at this show and think that they would
look better with surgery, or that if they just got their nose done that they
would some how transform their life. Some people simply get it “for
themselves”, but there must be a reason or beauty standard that they are
holding them self to in order to determine that they needed to have their image
surgically changed.
This beauty
standard is largely determined by what we see in the media everyday. There are
people that have gone into Botched being known as the human Ken doll, Justin Bieber look alike, or even a human blow up doll.
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| http://starcasm.net/archives/310994 |
Botched does
make people feel better about them selves and more confident in their appearance
or presence. The doctors are allow usually very concerned about the patients health which is a good thing. My problem is that the beauty standard is influential enough that these peoples' image were voluntarily destroyed a
first time by reconstructive surgery.
Now what YOU can
do as a consumer is prove to America that the beauty standard hasn’t effected
how you feel about yourself! Love your body, be thankful for how you look, and
if looks are that important to you and you cannot achieve the first two
suggestions, then really just work on being happy. One sees them self in the
way that they feel. If you look in the mirror and are upset about what you see
or wish you saw something different, try looking from a different perspective.
Things in life could usually be worse, so try not to dwell on something so
cosmetic.
The American People Could Win the 2016 Election
The American People Could Win the 2016
Election
Hillary Clinton could be the next President
of the United States. As all candidates before her she will have to prove that
she has what it takes to run this country. However, unlike those before her she
will also have to convince the United States that a woman is worthy of the
position. During her 2008 campaign she was attacked by the media and at times
heckled. This issue needs to be addressed if a fair campaign is to take place. If
not, the American people will miss out on the value of a fair election.
One of the worst abusers of sexist
attacks on Clinton is Rush Limbaugh. In the clips above you can hear the
ruthless attacks made by Limbaugh. If you don’t have time or head phones, this
quote from Limbaugh sums up the clips perfectly. He said, “The Democrats treat Clinton like an abused
wife.” This type of rhetoric has nothing to do with Clinton or her policies and
everything to do with her gender. It puts her in an inferior position just
because of her sex. Comparing her to an abused wife is insulting to not just Clinton
but all women especially those who have suffered abuse. It’s troubling to think
a man like this actually has a voice that is broadcast far and wide. What’s
even more troubling is the new $400 million dollar contract extension he just
signed. Limbaugh is being rewarded for the damaging words and attacks he makes
on women.
Unfortunately the sexism does not stop there.
It trickles down to the average man and woman who will be voting in the 2016
election. In the clip above an example of this is shown. At a speaking event a
man stands up and yells “Iron my shirt!” Clinton skillfully shrugs it off not
allowing it to get to her. However, the real damage is how that type of
thinking will affect the voters at the election booth. There are many others
who share this man’s same sexist beliefs. Though they share their views on
twitter. If we allow this type of thinking to hijack the election the real
loser will not be Clinton but instead the American people.
The election process is one of the most
important events in a free democracy. By just focusing on the gender of Clinton
we hinder this process. Her opponents could instead serve a valuable role of
critiquing her policies. Instead of comparing Clinton to an abused wife
Limbaugh should be attacking her support for the Iraq war. Or he could instead
attack her failed healthcare bill in the 1990s. These are the things that the
voters need to and deserve to hear about. A democracy only works if all the
voters are educated on meaningful issues before the electorate.
This election is not about electing the
first woman president. It is about giving a woman the same non gender biased
treatment her husband received when he ran. We have come a long ways in gender
equality. Yet we still have much ground to cover. Everyone can help in the next
step, not just her supporters. Those who oppose her fairly are just as valuable
to gender equality. If everyone comes together and accomplishes this we will
have a stronger United States no matter who gives the inaugural address in
2016.
Works cited
Beck, Laura. "Sexist Tweets Emerge Amid Announcement of
Hillary Clinton's Presidential Bid." Cosmopolitan.
Cosmopolitan, 12 Apr. 2015. Web. 15 May 2015.
Schere, David. "Rush Limbaugh Reprises Sexist Role To Attack
Sec. Clinton." Media Matters for America. Media Matters, 24
Jan. 2013. Web. 15 May 2015.
Thumbelina. "Hillary Heckled "Iron My
Shirt"" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 15 May 2015.
This Ones for the Girls
This Ones for the Girls
My whole life I have been a strong independent women, and I definitely don’t need anybody or a man for that matter of fact to save me. Okay, maybe I’m not that independent but I am a part of the strong women community and we can do for ourselves whatever our male counterparts can do for themselves, and maybe some more. So my question is why won’t Hollywood give us our due credit. Where are our female superhero movies, we can save the world? Why must we always be portrayed as a worrisome nuisance to our male counter parts who are always having to save us?
Maybe I'm a little biased towards how great our abilities are, and would love to see them brought to us on the big screen. I believe that a wonder woman movie would make a huge impact, she is a strong woman with many abilities that allow her to take care of herself, and she has empowering and intimidating presence as well as physique which is another trait that shows that she can hold her own. This is what I think it comes down to in making a female super hero movie, having the best candidate to really show our strength, and will send a strong message to our women.
A little girl by the name of Rowan wrote a ‘angry’ letter to the DC comics people, as she should, frustrated with the lack of female superheroes we have being represented on the big screen. She goes on to say, “I’m a girl, and I’m upset because there aren’t very many girl super heroes or movies or comics from DC. I love your comics but I’d love them a whole lot more if there were more girls. I asked a lot of people I know whether they watched movies, or read comic books where girls were the main characters and they all said yes. Please do something about this, because girls read comics too.’ She’s only 11, but shoot, someone had to say it and bring it to light.
Growing up I’d always see cartoons or movies of Superman, Batman, The justice league, Hulk, Spider-man, Wolverine, Thor, Iron man and the list goes on and on, but with the same consistent concept of a male super hero. Each movie has the same scheme, the helpless damsel in distress finds herself in some sort of sticky situation and the superhero must come to the rescue, but obviously the movie director forgot to factor in us women’s resilience and the fact that we probably don’t even need saving. It’s not that their isn’t female super hero's, Wonder woman is the most strong and best representation of a women who can take care of herself! But Hollywood fails to put these women into action on the big screen. We have many young women who have been trained into obedience of what the world asks of them the common stereotype that you are supposed to always be protected and taken care of, and that you are to be a care taker of your children and let the men do the work, which in most cases is right but this doesn’t mean that we aren’t strong and that we can’t look after ourselves.
Back to what I was saying about women superhero’s and to touch on the influence they have, because not only would that strengthen women’s conviction in her ability to take care of herself and for all the young boys to see to see this on a big screen would help culture views and biases that start from a young age, These young boys/men need to understand that women are in the same playing field in all aspects of life and if you don’t act right, a women could kick your butt. It’s crucial that we start to have feature films, where we empower them and also recognize there beauty, letting them exemplify themselves as they are not hiding what is so great about them. We must let women be who they want to be as it is said by actress Eliza Dushku, to truly empower our women which has been an issue we must let them be as sexy or sexy as they want to be, as they are powerful and independent. So what women will step forward and play the roles of these pivotal female superhero's, don’t be shy cause if we don’t have any takers soon I may have to step up and do it. Lets set the bar high for a future women who will run this country, that they can be confident with who they are and that they are strong leaders.
Maybe I'm a little biased towards how great our abilities are, and would love to see them brought to us on the big screen. I believe that a wonder woman movie would make a huge impact, she is a strong woman with many abilities that allow her to take care of herself, and she has empowering and intimidating presence as well as physique which is another trait that shows that she can hold her own. This is what I think it comes down to in making a female super hero movie, having the best candidate to really show our strength, and will send a strong message to our women.
A little girl by the name of Rowan wrote a ‘angry’ letter to the DC comics people, as she should, frustrated with the lack of female superheroes we have being represented on the big screen. She goes on to say, “I’m a girl, and I’m upset because there aren’t very many girl super heroes or movies or comics from DC. I love your comics but I’d love them a whole lot more if there were more girls. I asked a lot of people I know whether they watched movies, or read comic books where girls were the main characters and they all said yes. Please do something about this, because girls read comics too.’ She’s only 11, but shoot, someone had to say it and bring it to light.
Growing up I’d always see cartoons or movies of Superman, Batman, The justice league, Hulk, Spider-man, Wolverine, Thor, Iron man and the list goes on and on, but with the same consistent concept of a male super hero. Each movie has the same scheme, the helpless damsel in distress finds herself in some sort of sticky situation and the superhero must come to the rescue, but obviously the movie director forgot to factor in us women’s resilience and the fact that we probably don’t even need saving. It’s not that their isn’t female super hero's, Wonder woman is the most strong and best representation of a women who can take care of herself! But Hollywood fails to put these women into action on the big screen. We have many young women who have been trained into obedience of what the world asks of them the common stereotype that you are supposed to always be protected and taken care of, and that you are to be a care taker of your children and let the men do the work, which in most cases is right but this doesn’t mean that we aren’t strong and that we can’t look after ourselves.
Back to what I was saying about women superhero’s and to touch on the influence they have, because not only would that strengthen women’s conviction in her ability to take care of herself and for all the young boys to see to see this on a big screen would help culture views and biases that start from a young age, These young boys/men need to understand that women are in the same playing field in all aspects of life and if you don’t act right, a women could kick your butt. It’s crucial that we start to have feature films, where we empower them and also recognize there beauty, letting them exemplify themselves as they are not hiding what is so great about them. We must let women be who they want to be as it is said by actress Eliza Dushku, to truly empower our women which has been an issue we must let them be as sexy or sexy as they want to be, as they are powerful and independent. So what women will step forward and play the roles of these pivotal female superhero's, don’t be shy cause if we don’t have any takers soon I may have to step up and do it. Lets set the bar high for a future women who will run this country, that they can be confident with who they are and that they are strong leaders.
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