Taylor Swift has Girl Power

Taylor Swift is today's definition of girl power. While she is not your typical thought of a powerful girl (she does not appear to be physically strong or intimidating) she has climbed up the ladder of success herself using her own talents. Most of her songs tend to be about love and relationships, and while we learned in class that most media targeted to women and young girls is about geting a man, one cannot deny that to have love and relationships are a part of life. While I'll agree that that is not the best message to constantly send to women and girls, it is true however that relationships with others are an important aspect of our lives as human beigns. It is unavoidable that someone will not at least be infatuated with someone else. That does not make this person weak for conforming to society's standards, it just makes that person, well, human.


While one may not think that always singing about love and loss in sappy songs would make someone powerful, they should think again. Taylor Swift actually writes all of her own songs and performs them in crowds by the thousands. While she may not be the strongest girl out there, she is sending a positive message to women and young girls that it is okay to have feelings and it is okay to share them with others.

Subliminal Messaging in Children's Cartoons

After learning about children's media in this class, I remembered hearing rumors back when I was in high school that there was dirty images in Disney movies. I did some research and I did find a couple of drawings in some of these cartoons, such as "The Little Mermaid," that did look like a certain male body part. Coincidence, maybe? Recently, I did research on subliminal messaging in children's cartoons and I found the video above. While I do think it is wrong to have these sexual messages in shows directed towards kids, I don't believe the meanings of these messages are meant for the kids, but rather the parents that are stuck watching these cartoons with their kids. When I was younger, I would have never picked up on all of the sexual innuendos that were used on cartoons. Parents on the other hand, would. The point of these messages is not to sexualize children early, but rather to entertain the parents that have to sit through a thirty minute television show about a sponge that lives under the sea. I believe that the writers of these messages are just simply trying to give the parents watching these cartoons a good, harmless laugh.

2 Broke Girls Passes The Bechdel Test!!!!

The Bechdel test is a tool used to figure out with whether or not a movie has any female presence. In this case, I am going to use it to test a TV show.

According to this test, in order for a movie or television show to have female presence it must: have two or more women in it with names, they must talk to each other, and they must talk about something besides a man. Not surprisingly, many movies do no pass this test. In today's society, most shows and movies main goal for the female is to have them obtain a man. Refreshingly though, I have found a new television show that passes this test, CBS' 2 Broke Girls.

2 Broke Girls is the newest fall sitcom to debut on CBS. It is about two girls who are complete opposites that live and work together, and who also try to start up their own cupcake business. While in the beginning of the series, one character had a boyfriend (she later dumped him) the show depicts the life of literally, two girls that are broke living in the city. Unlike almost every other television show out there, they are not on a quest for a boyfriend or a husband, however, they are trying to build a life for themselves. While this show may not win any academy awards for acting or writing, I do believe it is society taking a step in the right direction realizing their is more to being a twenty something women than just finding a man.

Kim Kardashian, Helping the Economy?

With all the talk on the gossip websites being about Kim Kardashian's divorce to her husband, Kris Humphries, I figured I too would jump on the band wagon and give my two cents on the situation. While everyone is angered that she spent so much money on a marriage that only lasted 72 days, I decided to look at things in a more positive light. I work in food service and I know many people that work for catering companies. These catering companies provide bar tenders, servers, cooks, and bussers to different events such as parties and weddings. These people make their living based on how much people want to indulge in things like their weddings. Everyone from the people who baked and designed the cake to the people who shampooed the rug the day before the wedding all benefited from this wedding, and all other weddings. While people may go crazy and spend unbelievable amounts of money on things for “their big day," the silver lining is that the money they are throwing away is going to other people, other businesses, that helps put food in people's mouths and clothes on their backs.
I personally would never spend that much money on a wedding, even if I had crazy amounts of it. I understand why people are mad at her for spending so much money on a wedding that ended so soon, but what people fail to see is people like me (in food service and other types of service jobs) benefited from her mistake.

If It's White It's Alright

I am a Caucasian female, however I always get mistaken as being Hispanic or middle eastern. Both of my sisters have pale skin and blue eyes and when our friends in the neighborhood would tease me for being "the milk man's child" it used to really upset me. During my high school years, I would always feel the need to prove my whiteness to others around me by only listening to only rock music or insisting that my political views were that of a Republican. Silly yes, but I always wondered why it bothered me so much that others did not believe that I was white. I knew who I was, yet I let the cruelness of others affect my thoughts and feelings for many years of my life. I was not until last week in class where I learned where these feelings were coming from; society's notion that being white is more beautiful than being dark. 
In society, white features are considered to be more desirable than those of other races. A smaller nose, long and soft hair, and skin that is not too dark are all traits of beauty in main stream America. An example of where one can see America's idea of beauty (or in this case sexy) is Maxim's Hot 100 List. Maxim is a popular men’s magazine that features articles about beer, sports, cars, and, most importantly, women. Men read these magazines daily to see what is popular within the man culture at that time. Every year, Maxim puts out a list of 100 famous women (actresses, models, athletes, public figures, etc) and lists them in accordance as to "how hot they are." The list of 100 women features those mostly of a white, or an American/European heritage. Those on the list that are minorities, for the most part, usually have characteristics of white women. Being that many men get their idea of what is sexy and hot from this magazine, and being that what many women want is to be seen as hot and sexy by a man, it is easy to see why one who does not have the traits of a white women, would be insecure about her looks. Maybe it is time for Maxim to add more types of ideas and images of "hot" on their list or, better yet, not have a list that judges women based on their looks at all.

 

                                            

Plastic Surgery; You Take The Good With The Bad

With everything in life something can be both and bad. Sweets taste good, but they can also cause one to gain weight. Technology has made it possible for people all over the world to connect with one another, yet it is also making some more secluded than ever. Plastic surgery is another example of something that is both good and bad. On one hand plastic surgery can be used to fix defects people are born with or insecurities people have about themselves, which is good. The bad is that many people will have impossible expectations of what a surgery will do for them and their self esteem.

An example of this which is used a lot is the story of Heidi Montag. Heidi was a beautiful girl on a very popular reality show on MTV, "The Hills". For one reason or another, Heidi felt the need to get plastic surgery and got a nose job and a breast argumentation. After the surgery, she was still just as pretty, but for some reason she decided to go back under the knife and get ten more procedures. On the show, her family was disgusted by how she looked and many viewers felt the same way.

The bad thing about the Heidi Montag story is that she did what she did, and she has to live with the consequences of what she has done (hopefully she likes the way she looks). The good thing about what happened to Heidi Montag, however, was that because what she was did was in front of millions of people who did not agree with her decision, they are less likely to get as many, if any, procedures done because they saw what it did to her. Heidi Montag is definitley no martyr for people thinking about getting plastic surgery, but her story will most likely be used as a cautionary tale.

Money Equals Masculinity

During our masculinity discussion, we have come to the conclusion that there are many different attributes men can have to be considered "manly." Men with big muscles are strong and they can protect women, funny men can entertain women, while intellectual men can provide stimulating conversation. Out of all of these types of men, however, the type of man that is seemed to be the most desirable is the successful man, or one with money. 


The show Mad Men on AMC has become a new obsession of mine. Mad Men is a show about a thriving adverting agency based out of Manhattan. The main character, Don Draper, is the object of affection for pretty much all of the female characters on the show. While he is extremely handsome and sexy, the thing that gets him most of the ladies is the fact that he is successful. He is the head of the creative department for the agency at which he works, and he definitely looks the part. He always dresses in a suit, eats at expensive restaurants, and drives a nice car. This shows to the female characters on the show that this man has money and is successful. While I am not saying that this character wouldn't get attention from ladies just on his looks or personality alone, the fact that he looks like he has money definitely makes women swoon over him. 

This message that this is giving to the viewers is that he who has the most money will have the most girls. While it is not a bad thing to be driven to want to be successful, a man’s goal to have money should not be to attract females. If a man just wants to have money for female attention, then they are going to attract the wrong kind of female

In Defense of Professional Wrestling

Theses past few days in class have probably been the most difficult for me because I am actually a pro wrestling fan. Not only that, but I am a smart wrestling fan, one who knows the ins and outs of the business, just as how it is described in the book. Now I am not here to say that pro wrestling is perfect or that everyone is overreacting, because that is not true. Pro wrestling can be degrading towards women, homosexuals, and everything in between.Today in class, we talked about how the wrestlers were all freakishly muscular, and how they seem to keep getting bigger. This, however, is not at all the case. In fact, over the last decade, the wrestlers seemed to have gotten smaller in size. While a few are still pretty tall, and most are muscular, the sizes of the athletes has gone down. Rey Mysterio is an example of one of these wrestlers. He is only 5'4. yet he has won multiple world championships, including, the most prestigious, WWE Championship. While most people say that that doesn't matter because wrestling is scripted, think again. It is a step in the right direction in showing that one does not have to be huge in order to be seen as masculine. I know pro wrestling is not perfect, far from it, but just like a lot of other forms of entertainment in our society if you don't like it, don't watch it.

http://www.wwe.com/superstars  This is a link to see the WWE roster.

Diamonds Are [Not] a Girl's Best Friend

In 1953, Marilyn Monroe, arguably the biggest sex symbol of all time, starred in the move "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." In this movie, Monroe sings a song that is still popular to this day entitled "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." The song essentially states that no matter how a man feels about a girl or no matter what he does for a girl, she will not be truly happy unless she is presented with the gift of diamonds. It also helps that Miss Monroe is dressed to the nines in a very sexy, form fitting pink dress and is covered with diamonds. Because of this, men watching were brought to believe that in order to prove their love or liking for a girl, they had to shower her with expensive jewelry. On the other hand, now women had these incredibly high standards as to what was an appropriate gift from their boyfriend or husband. Monroe was also kind enough to name drop a couple of diamond suppliers in the song too (Tiffany's and Harry Winston). While it is unlikely that an owner of a diamond company had someone write this song for Marilyn Monroe to sing, there is now doubt that these standards are still true to this day. Women still believe that men need to shower them with expensive gifts to prove their love, and men still feel the pressure to get the best, most expensive gift for his girl that he can afford.