As far as gaming for kids goes, I think like everything else….in moderation. There are some games out now that I find completely disgusting and way too graphic for younger kids. I’m not sure what the games are called but I’ve seen my cousins playing them and they’re just all violence, the players are beating the crap out of eachother, blood is spurting everywhere–gross. I think there is a danger in allowing children to play whichever games they want because they become desensitized to the content and it seem normal for them, and I’m pretty sure that can’t lead to good things. What happened to the good old days of mario and luigi?

I’m not exactly sure where this last week has gone and its distressing because I’ve been working on the same paper for a week; it feels like we just had class yesterday….anyways I really enjoyed the last class about booborexia and pornography, probably the best class we’ve had this semester.
I didn’t realize there was such an increasing trend with women getting breast implants to resemble celebrities or models. The one thing that stuck with me about Tiffany’s presentation is that when the women go to plastic surgeons asking for breast implants they refer them to porn magazines, is it just me or does something seem inherently wrong about that? What does that say about beauty? that to look beautiful you have to look like a pornstar. Its obviously good for the plastic surgeons because they’re make money, but how healthy is it that in our society increasing numbers of women are opting to go under the knife for no health related purpose, and possibly having complications during surgery for no other reason than to have cantaloupe breasts.

Growing up simultaneously in two cultures has forced me to come to the realization that beauty is completely culture-bound and subjective. There really is no set way that beauty is defined or observed. When I was younger and went through the magazines that all of us girls had, like cosmo girl and whatever else…can’t remember them now, I would flip through the advertisements and not ever really notice them because none of the cosmetics at that time were geared to people who didn’t have visible characteristics that were of European descent, none of the cosmetic products were suitable for my skin tone. However, when I speak to other girls, who are Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, and Pakistani, who went through the same magazines as I did many of them expressed a strong desire to look like the women in the advertisements that they had seen when they were younger. I wonder what makes some girls immune and others receptive to changing their physical appearance? and I think that question applies to anyone, regardless of what they look like.

Surprisingly, I have begun to notice that many of the advertisements in the back of non-western magazines are for things that would make women look less “ethnic” and more like the women from North American advertisements. For example, Asian magazines have ads for women to get eye-lid surgery, breast implants, and rhinoplasty. Advertisements in South Asian magazines are for light skin creams, hair straightening methods, breast implants, and rhinoplasty. The effects of the media on non-western countries have been examined.

One study I looked into examined the impact the introduction of television had in Fiji; the study was conducted before television was introduced and then again 38 months later, the number of eating disorders drastically increased. So we can definitely say that the media affects us, but why are some of us affected more than others? and why does it still affect us when we know its wrong?

The titles of some of the articles I looked at on academic search premier are:
*Making Güeras : Selling white identities on late-night Mexican television
*Sites of attractiveness: Japanese women and westernized representations of feminine beauty
*Media Influences and Body Dissatisfaction in Young Women
*Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-Year-Old Girls

Okay so onto pornography, the video we watched in class was definitely different than the ones I’m accustomed to watching in classes. The extremely disturbing part of that movie was watching that girl not tell her friend that the guys are going to beat her up and rape her (or pretend to?), I’m not sure if I want to know the answer to that. The creepiest part is that people are buying movies where rape is the “storyline” (not sure if porn has a storyline). I can’t help but wonder who the people are that purchase these movies, are they violent criminals or just harmless people that have a fantasy? maybe both. I would call “rape” in pornography crossing that imaginary line and not even being able to see those ethical boundaries anymore, but I wonder if rape in porn will be the worst thing in another 10 years or if rape will be acceptable in porn and something else will be pushing at social morals.

This is a spoof on the mac commercials advertising porn

In other words (english), ’to boldy go’ is a split infinitive from the verb ‘to go’ 

 

I decided to blog about the Ross Horsely article. I definitely do not agree with the remark made by the New York school governor, I think that it is a pretty narrow minded and ignorant view of culture. To me it sounds like the governor thinks that to be a part of a culture, people have to be from some lone tribe in the middle of Africa or Asia and then they can be considered a separate culture. Wikipedia defines subculture as a set of people with distinct behaviors and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part; I believe that homosexuality is a subculture in our North American culture. Homosexuals were not given the opportunity to integrate into the broader society because their sexual behaviour was considered delinquent; they did not really have any other option than to come together and form their own subculture. There have obviously been huge mistakes in history regarding homosexuality; first it was a “disorder” that needed to be cured and it was eventually taken out of the DSM-II in 1974. So people have had 33 years to deal with homosexuality as an appropriate sexual orientation and yet it still comes up as an issue; the media has not really contributed to the cause of accurate representation for homosexuals or their lifestyles. I think the media has in its own subliminal way contributed to the perpetuation of homophobia in western culture, with the use of homophobic jokes in movies and television mainly expressed by young males. Like the Chandler and Joey article stated, for heterosexual males to form an emotional attachment with other heterosexual males they must be careful not so over step their boundaries into homosexuality. I feel the media sends out the message that for heterosexual men to be close they must do so in appropriately “masculine” ways, such as, bonding over sports or alcohol. I’m not sure how this happened but I do know that the word ‘gay’ now has negative connotations, people often use it when referring to something that they consider stupid or dumb. I can’t think of any examples in the media that have used the word ‘gay’ in such a way, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

I would like to point out that I think pretty great strides have been made for gay rights, but mostly by activists. There has been the legalization of gay marriage in some places, and allowing more and more couples to adopt children. Also, once big celebrities like Ellen, Rosie, T.R. Knight, Elton John, K.D. Lang, etc, have ‘come out’ (I guess they were hiding?) it has become more acceptable and possibly easier for youth who are having difficulty understanding their sexual orientation, now isn’t that hunky-dory?

Lastly I think its important to recognize that homosexuals are a minority and the article is bang on when they say that the dominant discourse about homosexuality cannot be changed in the media, until the people producing the media are homosexuals themselves, or empathetic to the views of homosexual individuals; by not generalizing all homosexuals as flamboyant and overly concerned with their appearance etc.

This is a hilarious clip from the John Stewart show:

I visited pitchforkmedia a few weeks ago when Paul mentioned it one day in class, but I never bothered to browse around to see what I would like; I find asking my friends much more convenient.  However, when I got tired of all my music a couple of days ago, I stumbled across pandora.com; I haven’t been able to spend that much time on the website but its pretty interesting.  You put in an artist or a song that you like and the radio generates other songs that are similar to the artist or song. Unfortunately, licensing on the website limits the number of songs you can go through in an hour. 

I think pitchforkmedia is either going to have more activity on the site with readers faithfully reading the reviews, or they are going to have a decline in subscribers and no one is going to visit the site.  If they do get an increase in readers then eventually they won’t be ‘cool’ anymore because everyone will be listening to the same music. It reminds me of the same situation with MTV, no one really goes to MTV to see what’s hot and new for music. I think Itzkoff is bang-on when he says MTV is just being used for reality TV now. The article also reminded me of merchants of cool; once a music reviewing authority becomes too popular and mainstream, not many people are going to go back to the same place for new music. If pitchforkmedia becomes too popular the readers won’t care, they’ll just find a similar up-and-coming music review website.

Heres a video about some guy talking about why pitchforkmedia and rolling stone suck, he’s got some valid points.

            I certainly do not agree with Russell Smith’s article about the movie going experience.  Even though the movie was gross and boring I would still pay money to see another movie.  When I arrive inside, I go up to the booth and ask for one ticket for Touresta to my surprise she asks me for ID! I was shocked because I cannot remember one time that I have been asked for ID to watch a movie.  Luckily, I had ID but only because my roommate told me I should bring it since she cannot find hers, I told her she was being stupid, ‘they never ID you for a movie,’ and I was wrong; when did they start asking for ID?  Anyways I will move on to bigger and better things, popcorn. One of the best experiences of the movie is being able to buy the popcorn, even though it is grossly over-priced.  The popcorn is the first thing you smell as soon as you enter the theatre and it almost calls to you…’I’ve been waiting for you, buy me.’  Once you get your gigantic bag of popcorn (with extra butter), that you probably will not finish and most likely spend about half an hour trying to pick the kernel shells out of your teeth, you find your seat.  I have always preferred the very last row in the very middle because even the thought of someone kicking the back of my seat gives me heart palpitations; not sitting in the last row or in a seat with someone behind me, is the best way to ruin my movie going experience.  However, for this assignment I sat in the middle and fortunately no one was behind me.  When I sat down, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my seat was significantly more comfortable than I ever remember it being.   I was lucky enough to be with two of my friends and did not have to pay that much attention to the advertisements. 

            When I finished reading ‘why movie going sucks,’ it sounded to me as if Smith was jealous because he maybe does not have friends to go to with to the movies, and that may have been why he was so infuriated with other people talking.  I did not eavesdrop too much on other people’s conversations, because I was trying to have my own which I am sure Smith was not fortunate enough to experience.  However, when I did listen in, just to find out if people really only talk about how tired they are, I did not hear superficial conversations; instead, people were discussing their family, friends, school, and work.  These conversations really did not bother me; even if people had been discussing how much they eat, I do not think that I would have cared.  The only way someone in the audience could be annoying is if they were overly obnoxious and loud.  I know among my friends there is a consensus that other peoples conversations do not matter as long as they are not interfering with their own conversations.  

            One thing I have to mention that I find a little amusing is the reminder for turning off cell phones, I cannot remember when those started, but cell phoneS still seem to go off; I wonder if this would give Smith a heart attack? I am not sure how to take the comment about
Hollywood trivia being there for my death, it sounds a little bit dramatic, I think it is just there to see how much I know about celebrities.   It really is remarkable too see that when paying attention to what the audience is doing during certain scenes, you see that almost everyone experiences the expected emotions simultaneously.  I find it interesting that a group of strangers can come together in one room, sit relatively close to each other, and be enjoying the same experience; the audience can be laughing together or be disgusted together.  While sitting in my comfy seat with my notebook open ready to take notes and my feet half up, ready to come down when the usher (is that what they’re called?) comes in and tells me to.  I make eye-contact or what I would call eye-contact in the dark with what appears to be a guy about my age sitting with his friend.  He looks as unimpressed with the movie as I am.  At various times throughout the movie, specifically when the scenes were getting too gory or meaningless we make some form of eye-contact.  How strange is it to share this experience of annoyance with a stranger you will most likely never see again? Could this type of mutual connection happen anywhere else?  I am sure it could, but I doubt it would be in the same way and have the same effect on your own movie-watching experience.  This is when I write in my notebook that movie going is an excellent experience, and really is individual for everyone; contrary to Smith’s beliefs, I do not think that movie-goers sit docilely and watch the movie.  One thing I am able to semi-agree with Smith on is that emotional music is basically telling us when we should be happy, scared or angry; however, I completely buy into whatever music is being played for the emotion that is supposed to be expressed in the scene, and I am okay with that.  At some point near the end of the movie the usher starts to come by, telling people to take their feet down; he then eyes my notebook and begins to walk suspiciously over, I am not sure what I could be doing wrong with a notebook, but I give him a look hoping he knows I do not want to argue with a fifteen-year old kid about why I have a notebook and it apparently works because he shrugs and leaves.

            My advice for Russell Smith is to go with a friend to the movies next time, so that he will not be so bitter about his life, and try enjoy the movie, if the movie does end up sucking…well it really is not that big of a deal.