SeX AnD AdS

After going to genderads.com and looking at the sex ads, it made me realize how much advertisements use sex to sell their products. After watching a bunch of commercials, I found that cologne and perfume uses sex to sell, clear to to topic of "under armour." There are so many things that need to be advertised, and there are so many different ways to advertise things in a very broad board. It makes me wonder why we have chosen to use our body to sell the product. And I came to the conclusion that it is because we are drawn into sex and appearance of others because of our human nature. we pay attention to what is interesting to us. Gender ads quotes: "Many critics of the critics of popular culture use the adage 'sex sells' the justify the depictions in popular culture." Sex sells the product, and weather we like it or not, it works. I don't think that it is always the right way to sell a product, but if sex gets the attention of the audience, then the people that advertise really don't have a choice to use "sex." Because their job is to sell things, and get results from us buying their things.

Not What You Think

In the book we have been reading, Where the Girls Are, it talks about something that I am very passionate about. And I know it sounds cheesy, but I LOVE pageants. In chapter 7 it talks about the Miss America Pageant. The chapter portrays the Miss America contestants as a "cattle auction." And the girls are only up on state to show off their butts and boobs. I have done 8 pageants, and let me tell you, there is a ton more the just modeling on stage. Pageants may not be what you think they are. I did the Miss UVU pageant here on campus last semester. In order to even qualify for the competition we were all required to do community service hours with something that we are passionate about around campus. We also had to earn a hundred dollars which would be donated to the Children's Miracle Network, a hospital with kids in need. If we did not do these things we could not compete. The contestants not only acquire service hours and fund raising, but they are all very talented as well. There is a talent portion in the pageant, which ends up being a majority of your final score. I play the piano, and I played a piece by Chopin for the Miss UVU pageant last year. I ended up getting first attendant, and I was so excited because I got scholarship money to help me further my education. I used the organization to get scholarship money, and make a difference in serving my community.
Pageants are not only about modeling in your swim suit, and walking around in high heels. But there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Like i mentioned before, there are some things that are required of the contestant to even participate.These girls want to make a difference in the community. These pageant girls want to further their education by earning scholarship money, because if you win a pageant, you get scholarship money, you don't get cash to use however you want.
Once again, there is a lot of stereotyping that goes on with pageants. But this is just some information about what goes on, so this information may or may not change your mind about pageant girls :)

The color pink is automaticaly the "girl" color. And the color blue is automatically the "guy" color. How the heck did we come up with these colors and what color goes to what gender? I agree with what Errin said in class today, its so lame how we have colors for each gender. We should not have to use colors do determine who is who. If a guy wears pink, society assumes that he is gay. But if a girl wears blue, we don't think twice. I just wanted to add my thoughts to that conversation :)

When you look at this picture what do you think? Does it make you think of sex? Going to the Gym to get buff like him? If you are a woman, does it make you feel depressed because you may or may not be able to get a man that looks like that? If you are an overweight man, does it make you feel self conscious? Obviously I'm not a man, but I'm sure the men in the world sometimes feel pressure about needing to look like this, because this picture is a perfect example of what the world portrays men to be.
But what about the men that do not look like this picture? Men that are overweight, and who are not "attractive"? How do you think they feel when they see muscular men all over the media. The movie that we watched in class the other day was so interesting because it talked about how men are so dependent on what they see through the media, and what it portrays. Men HAVE to be competitive. Men HAVE to be in good shape. Men HAVE to go to work everyday to support their family. The truth is, most of what was said in the video is an opinion of what the media thinks a man needs to be. If you go to a crowded mall and look around at the men, there will be a very small percent of men that are "perfect" in the way that media portrays them. Muscular, good clothes, confident, successful, good looking,... the list goes on and on.
Now, for us women. I am married now, but when I was in the "dating world" I was picky! I would look for men that had all of the characteristics of the "media man." Muscular, good clothes, etc. I quickly found out that there are very few men that have all those qualities. I think us as women need to look past all of the physical characteristics in a man, and start looking at the emotional and personal characteristics. The man that I married has some of the "characteristics" that I talked about, but he does not have all of them, just like 90 percent of the men in the world.
What I want to really get across is that the media does not only effect women, it effects men just as much! We as a society need to stop thinking that the media knows everything. In reality, all men are different, all women are different. Opposed to what the media makes us think, that all men are the same, and all women are the same.

The book that we have been reading "Where the girls are" has made me think about a lot of interesting things, about how our society looks at women. The book used "I Love Lucy" as one of the many examples of women in high heels and pearls. Do they ever take their nice clothes off even when they are cleaning? The following is what I got out of what the author Susan Douglas is trying to get across to us. The society perceives women to be a certain way. We clean the house and take care of the kids. And we never complain about it. If you think about it, even in most of the movies in the "I Love Lucy" time period, women do not complain about having to clean the house, and take care of the daily chores. I grew up watching "I Love Lucy" and because of that, I would feel out of place if I complained about doing house chores, because you simply don't see complaining on TV, with women and their house chores. Why does the TV business to this? Obviously this is not the way all women are, so why do they make us think this is the way we act? I just thought this was an interesting point that Susan made in the book.

President Obama

On Tuesday President Barack Obama was sworn into office. We watched the inauguration in all of my classes that day, because history was made. The whole week before, we were celebrating the birth of Martin Lutber King Jr. People say that our new pesident is going to be just as succesful as MLK. I think that it is great how Obama has a dream for us Americans. We are scared, we are in debt, and we are ready for change.

At the inauguration, the two million people in the audience "Booed" President Bush. How un-American is that? Think of the issues that Bush had to get us through, September 11th happened under his watch for crying outloud! He did not deserve the attitude America showed him. I respect the things that Bush did for our country, and I would like to get your opinion on weather you think Obama will be able to match what Bush has done. Bush put troops in Iraq to save us, with Obama taking the troops out... will that put us at a huge risk? Will Obama be able to get us through a major crisis? Will he really be able to do all he has promised America? I would hope so, but we can never be too sure.

I am excited for the upcoming years, to really see if America will change, for better, or for worse.

Martin Luther King Jr

We went to the Martin Luther King conference the other day instead of class, and I thought it was fascinating. The title of the confrence was Civil Rights and the Role of Media. I thought I would include the "I Have a Dream" speech, because Martin Luther King had such an impact on America, not only with freedom, but with the media aswell. He could see a change, he knew that we could become whatever we want to become. The last speaker at the confrence was named Albert Jones. An African american that is the Diversity times Publisher and Editor. Back in the day when Martin Luther King lived, an african american printing a newspaper would have been unheard of. But because of this speech that MLK gave, it presented hope to the the minorities. So take 17 minutes out of your day and listen to this speech word for word. it will change the way you think about yourself, and all of the things that we are gifted with everyday. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1732754907698549493