Princess and Superheroes cont'd

Personally, I think that parents have a right to raise their kids how they want to. If they want to let their children dress themselves like in the Adam Sandler film Big Daddy or put their daughters in pageants, that is one parents' right. Do I think that parents always have the best interest for their child or themselves; I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I see nothing wrong with putting a little boy in a decked out Batman suit because he looks handsome or masculine. I have no problem buying Disney products for a little girl to dress in. Disney may not appeal to all and are stereotypical with their gender roles, but I feel like Walt Disney backed the company with a mindset of family. What else are parents supposed to do put their child in all white or black clothing to be neutral, that’s no fun.

Superheroes and princesses give children something to believe in when they are little. It allows their mind to run wild with endless possibilities. I know I am a little hypocritical because I wrote a previous blog about princess culture and the show toddlers and tiaras. Even though the show personally disgusts me, I do not have a right to tell mothers and fathers how to raise their children. I grew up watching Disney and not once did I question the gender roles or really think about how the females were being portrayed. To me those films were all about the music. My twin sister and I used to dress up in costumes for all different characters male and female and sing along to the songs. I agree now being older, I cannot believe some of the content in these movies but as a child I never understood, this is why I believe that Disney movies are harmless to children. Therefore, I say yes to free spirits and movies that challenge gender roles and I say yes to movies that portray gender roles. Currently both can exist and the world will still function with praises and haters.

"Princesses"

According to “How Many of Me.com” there are 793,723 people in the United States with the name Sarah. The origin of Sarah is Hebrew and means “princess.” I do not know if the meaning of the name was addressed every time a person named there child, but I do find this ironic because Sarah is one of the most widely used names in the world. I do not know if you can link it to family heritage or the bible. I am just making a correlation with the topic we addressed in class. I feel that some individuals do look at the meaning behind the name before they give it to their child. In this case, many parents want their little girls to be princesses.

I guess I never really thought about the effect culture has on the color stereotype for girls and boys. Because of our discussion in our pop culture class, I see societal norms differently. This evening I went to Wal-mart to shop for my residents program because I am a resident assistant. I was looking at some crafts and saw some letters (the stick on kind) that were in a package but did not have glitter. I thought to myself I have to get the glitter kind or my girls won't like it. Wait, this is exactly what we were talking about in class! I had an "aha" moment as Oprah would say. So I was with my friend and once we were done picking out the letters I thought it would be fun to go look at the Christmas stuff since the season is almost upon us. As soon as I got to the stocking section the only stocking for little girls was bright pink and purple and had huge Princess text written straight on it. For the boys they had green camouflage stockings to choose from. I looked over at my friend and said this is exactly what we learned about today in my pop culture class.

Another topic I wanted to address is toddlers in tiaras. I had never watched the show until a couple of days ago. I found the show to be outrageous and crazy. The episode that I watched featured three moms. The one mom decided that because she did not have girls she was going to dress up her boys to appear in pageants just like the girls. Then there was another mom who looked like a Barbie doll and so did her daughter. This show was almost hard to watch because I felt so bad for the little girls and boys because they were doing what their parents wanted them to do and not what they wanted to do. The stereotypes and gender roles set by society are played out in this show. It is hard to believe how far our society has gone to play up these “princess and superhero” roles.

Don't sugar coat it

The hormones our “meat” is being given is an excessive amount. Watching Food Inc. has made me realize how unnatural our food process is. After seeing just the first part of the film I have become cautious of the meat I am eating.

This article on artificial hormones that I read said our meat is being pushed with six different types of hormones. This article is also interesting because I just became aware that Europe is not importing United State beef. This subject on food has intrigued my brain to look at the fact of artificial hormones being shoved into our food. When I went to do a bit more research, I found many of the sites to be controversial and contradicting one another. Obliviously, there are the prevent cancer sites that state the hormones from the animals are getting into our food our environment and causing people to develop certain types of cancer. Then there are the other types of websites for the ranchers and food industries that state there has been no scientific evidences that state hormones in the meat are causing health defects. At least they are admitting there are hormones involved!

With all of the different sites I have visited over the past few days, it seems the cold hard facts are not being presented. I can see both sides of the argument. In one aspect, if the meat was potentially killing thousands of Americans each year don’t you think the Government or the FDA would be putting a stop to the artificial hormones. So, are they really affecting us that much? Then you have this movie and other articles like the one here stating how gross the environment is for the meat before they are slaughtered and how the hormones are being released into the ground which in turn is being cycled into potential water systems. This is all a big cycle and trying to find the cold facts is difficult. I have learned over the past few weeks that America is more corrupt than I thought. We sugar coat everything to make people happy. For example, politicians, branding companies, and society in general all tell us what we want to hear. That is beside the point. I just wish that someone would give it to us straight as Americans, we deserve the right to know what is going on in our country and especially what is going on with our food!

There is a Soldier in All of Us

When we were addressing this topic of War and Popular culture in class, I immediately thought of this commercial for Call of Duty. The title is “There is a Soldier in All of Us” which was perfect for today’s topic. I think this kind of answers the question how America understands war. This game is letting people from all over who range in age to surround themselves in military tactics. Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel are both featured in this commercial. If they can fight than so can others. This commercial concurs with what Stahl was saying in the article talking about the boundary between citizen and soldier. This commercial depicts that they are one in the same.

An additional topic that was brought into the mix was that of, do video games like shooting and blowing stuff up have an affect in the real world. I feel that history shows that video games can have an affect on individuals because the simulation of the game becomes too real. Take the Columbine shootings for example. The shootings were to have taken place by students who had played shooter games and wanted to try it in “real life.” Another example that does not have to do with shootings, but rumors have spread that the 9/11 pilots used the video game flight simulator to learn how to fly a plane. So, I feel like there is a relationship between video gamers believing that games can become reality.

However, I do think that there are individuals that are mature enough to handle the content simulated in the shooter/military games. Personally, I have become addicted to Call of Duty. For no particular reason do I enjoy this game other than the fact that it is fast paced. I have no desire to make my addiction to the game a reality. In class, the idea was mentioned that teens and younger kids are being targeted and may not have the mind to understand what is going on. I totally agree with this comment. I think that at a younger age there are so many advertisements and video games being pushed out with incredible graphics that kids what to pretend they are something or someone in a video game that they are not and never will be but don’t know it yet.

Can't catch a break

I like most people enjoy using twitter and facebook, occasionally. I however, am not a heavy user. I enjoy learning new and unique ways to grab individuals attention and sell products. I wake up watching TV with social media/advertisements on the broadcast, I go to class and learn about why people watch the shows they watch, use the social media sites and then I come back after class is over and watch the shows and use the social media talked about in class. The social media/advertising circle is a never-ending continuum.

Today, as I was sitting in church waiting for the preacher to start preaching the youth pastor got up to make the regular church announcements. So, in the announcements, he proceeds to tell the congregation about this new campaign their starting and with that campaign there will be a facebook page. The facebook page is to help build community within the challenge of the campaign. At church, you do not expect to be talking about facebook and social media. Advertising to the community through facebook sure seems to be the thing to do these days. We are constantly being advised to go on facebook and like a page. One morning I turned the TV on and noticed on almost every channel I flipped through, the facebook logo and page of the channel popped up during the broadcast. As a society, social media sites are being used to advertise everything.

I have a new campaign like me on facebook; I have a garage sale join my event on facebook. I’m staring in a play come watch my highlights on facebook. I could go on and on, but you get the point everything is being advertised through facebook.

What are we going to do as a society when the facebook community does not exist anymore or will that ever happen?

I have this overwhelming feeling that social media and advertisers have taken over the world and everywhere we look, it’s always going to be there. Can I not get a day off from social media and advertisements?