Women in Advertising...

After reading Jean Kilbourne's essay "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," I am unable to look at an advertisement the same way.  The essay in particular interested me because I am going into that field of advertising.  It is neat to look at someone's perspective into this world of marketing and give their take on the negatives.  I never really thought about it before; women really are perceived as a thing in advertising.  This is unfortunate because for this reason it gives advertising such a bad reputation.  

Our discussion in class today made me realize that for women these ads are negative but for a man to view them they do not find them to be bad.  They do not look at them the same way.  I find this to be very interesting.  Is it because us women can associate with each other and know what each other is going through?  Is it our maternal nature that bonds us?  Or is it something else?  Sure, in some cases Kilbourne might be going to the extreme for example the girl with the cherry dress advertisement; but I do think she has a point.  Women are viewed negatively due to the media, what are we going to do to change that? 

Gun Use?

Like Ellen, I completely agree that in the piece "In the Combat Zone" by: Leslie Marmon Silko, gun use is perceived wrong.  In my opinion no one should be able to have a gun.  To me guns are scary, inappropriate, and completely dangerous if in the wrong hands.  

Silko defends the idea that it is okay for people to carry around guns.  Especially in a woman's case because if they know how to use them right they can get back at their attacker.  Nevertheless, I question... is this morally right?  Guns should not be used in this way of getting even... they are the one thing like Ellen puts it perfectly ..."that equalizes all."  She is right... someone who has a gun in their hands has a lot better of a chance of winning the battle than the person on the other side who does not have one.  With one shot you can kill.  How would Silko know that the man following her wanted to tell her something important about her car and instead she perceived it as him being out to hurt her?  I think Silko needs to think outside of the box a little more.  I mean there ARE some good men out in the world...

Identity

"I remember the very day I became colored." (167) said Zora Neale Hurston in her autobiographical story "How It feels to Be Colored Me".  This quote says so much about a person and society at that.  What is she saying?  Well, she never used to think her color was strange.  Everyone around her in her hometown Eatonville, Florida was African American.  It was only when she went to Jacksonville, Florida that it sunk in that she was different.  However, was she really that different?  All it was, was that she had a different color skin.  In Eatonville, Zora was known for who she was as a person.  When she walked into the world of Jacksonville her identity change to being the little "colored girl."  What gave them the authority to do this to her?  Her identity was forced to be change because she was "different."  She was defined this way, yet she does not even define herself in this way.  How is it then fair?

Compared to From "The Black Notebooks" by Toi Derricotte who was a very fair skinned African American she did not know who to identify herself with.  She looked white and was treated like a white but she was African American.  She never knew when to confess this to people in fear they may disregard her.  She felt a sense of disconnect in a public situation, this forced her to constantly negotiate this border.  

Identity is always forced on each individual... you are always perceived one way instead of the other...

Inner-Rebellion

I have rebelled against my high school principal.  My senior year I was captain of the tennis team.  We had found these shirts in a magazine that said on the back "In tennis love means that you have not scored yet."  We thought they were hilarious and so did our coaches, so we invested in them.  

It is known throughout our school that when a team has a game or a match they will wear the same outfit to school.  This way everyone can see who is on the team and advertise for the competition they have that day.  When our "clever shirts" finally arrived we decided to wear out tennis skirts and our shirts to school with flip flops.  The girls were all for it.  However, we only made it through first period until my best-friend Kim and I (co-captains of the team together) were called down to the office.  Our assistant principal had the athletic director and our two coaches there.  We sat down with them listening to a speech telling us how inappropriate our shirts were.  

We fought back against our stickler of an assistant principal by wearing our shirts under our tennis hoodies every match after that.  We did this so we were united as a team.  Everyone knew we had them on underneath in spite of her.  It was a bond we all shared.  This is an example of an inner-rebellion.  This happened in the story "The Socks" by Marjane Satrapi.  In the story the women had to be covered in public so they could not reveal their "shape."  However, in private they would remove their burkhas and  be able to show their true selves.  No one should have to hide themselves from the world... 

Why are we in such a rush?

After reading Nora Ephron's piece "A Few Words About Breasts,"  it never really hit me until now...but...why are we in such a rush to grown up.  Life is so short why not enjoy the moment we are in.  In the story Nora at the time is extremely frustrated that she has not developed as much as her friends.  However, I understand that at the time this may have been such a big deal to her.  Nevertheless, in all reality how big is it?  Everyday I look around and am just in complete and utter shock that I am in college.  How did time fly by so fast?  Why do we want to rush the good times?  

Yesterday, I learned some horrible news.  One of my friend's father died.  How can you ever replace a father?  I remember all last year just saying how much I wanted to be done with high school and get away from my parents... but then yesterday it hit me... why do we want to get away from our parents and not be under their control anymore.  Why do we want to rush it?  My friend was in tears all day just frustrated with the fact that her relationship with her father was over and she wished she could have said so much more.  I spent my whole night comforting her and I came to the conclusion that we should not want life to pass by so fast.  It is so short that we need to make the best of it.  I realize that this is quite cliche but it finally all clicked in for me last night.  

That is why you should not want things to go by fast or want to be over with a certain part of your life immediately enjoy it...it won't last that long...

Self-Conscious

After reading Jodi's blog. She discusses what it was like for her to go through life being self-conscious of her nose. This relates to me in regards to my legs. Simply put my legs are short...therefore, I am short. For me this sucks! Being short makes me always feel that people are looking at me and wondering why I am this way. Not only that but I hate having the feeling that I am missing out on the opportunity of what being tall has to offer. Like Jodi I am writing my Body Collage about the one part of my body I am bothered with the most...my legs! It is not my physical legs that bother me it is the fact that they make me short. I will not go into detail about my legs now since that is what my paper is for. However, a few things that I face day to day related to my height that affect me are going to parties and not being to see over people's heads, having to wear painful heels, and being forced to buy clothes in the kid's section. Hopefully writing these essays will help people like Jodi and I along with the rest of the class come to terms with the parts of our bodies we despise most. I guess it all comes down to being happy that we are healthy and not worried about how we look or being self-conscious. But in reality is this possible?

The Stress of Disease

In Dan's Blog he discusses the stresses that disease puts on one's family. As illustrated in the story disease impacted Updike and the people around him to the extreme. He was forced to not be himself. He had to do things on the spur of the moment just so he could appreciate his chance to be able to do them. For example when he got married and had children young.

Everyday people are getting diagnosed with diseases. They get worried because they know how much the disease will impact their family and the ones they care about. It is unfair but also comes with the territory.

Disease is not an enjoyable thing; it is heartbreaking to watch someone you know and love break apart piece by piece as the disease keeps attacking. My grandfather had Parkinson's and Cancer and whenever I would see him over a period of time he would get worse. It was very emotional to watch him break down. It took a huge toll on my Dad who was spending as much time with him as possible near the end. I saw the look my dad had on his face when he would come home from the hospital after visiting his father. The look he was giving me indicated that my grandfather would keep getting more and more sick. You could tell how much it was affecting my Dad. I could only imagine what it felt like for my Dad to see his Dad in such a horrible state. I do not know how he did it. Disease hurts the people who are diagnosed and even more it hurts your loved ones.

At War with My Skin

In class today we discussed Updike's autobiographical piece called "At War with My Skin." Updike's story is about his everyday struggle with his skin disease psoriasis.  He takes us through many times in his life when the disease has halted him from being able to take part in things that other people can (who do not have the disease).  Right at the beginning he tells his audience that disease is a STRONG WORD (299).  His point is that a disease in its self is one thing but when put into context it is a terrifying experience for one to be put through.  Updike uses the example, "red spots, ripening into silvery scabs, that invaded our skins..." (299).  This vivid image shows what this disease did to him.  It invaded his body and took over his mind.  It got to the point that he feared if he did not marry his wife he would never find another woman to love him for himself instead of his disease scaring them away.  Updike always feared being out in public because he knew people would always be observing his skin and its differences. Updike became a writer so he would not have to be in the public eye; instead he could write and people would know him for who he truly was not for his case of psoriasis.    

It is society and the media's fault...

In Walker's story she believed that she was no longer that cute little girl that she used to be.   I think that if I was in her shoes I would have done the same thing.  I would have wanted to mask my eye from everyone in fear of not being accepted.  It makes you wonder why do the marks and blemishes make us want to hide from society?  Why can't we all be happy with what we have?  

We always want to have that perfect body and that new surgery to enhance our figures.  Her story is just an example of what society and the media have portrayed on  us.  Even though her incident took place many years ago it was still pressure from her surroundings that made her feel uncomfortable with herself and her eye.  If people would have accepted the fact that she had gotten in an accident then maybe she would not have felt as embarrassed.  

If this happened in todays world, in my opinion it would have been worse.  The media just puts so much pressure on us to look flawless when in reality this is not at all possible.  We see all of these celebrities on the cover of magazines and on television shows all fixed up to look this perfect way but it is not real.  "Normal people" do not have this ability to be made up this way so why should it be accepted?

Alice Walker's story proves that just because you have a noticeable mark on your body or in this case your eye does not mean that life stops.  You need to go out and be proud of your mark and just let it be another thing that sets you apart from the rest of society.  In the end what the media and society portray is very negative and in the long run only hurts people detrimentally.