Week 6 free choice

Recently my sister got the letters R2D2 and C3PO tattooed on her feet (she has many tattoos and is not known for making good choices of what they are of ). When she told me about them I was shocked. Not only because the tattoo was terribly done, but that she got fictional characters on her body permanently . This made me think about how a movies series can build themselves up so big that my sister would have a reminder of it on her body for the rest of her life. Star Wars was one if not the most successful movie franchise. It's power was not only in money or merchandise but in the hearts of many people  This proves not only my sisters stupidity but just how strong and memorable the media is and how connected we feel to it. 

Week 6 free choice

Recently H&M put out a youth hoodie with the phrase "coolest monkey in the jungle" written cross the chest. Online the sweater was modeled by a young black boy. The media (I encountered this on twitter first) erupted over this hoodie. People claimed the company was being racist by calling the boy a monkey. After thousands of responses to the topic the boys mom said that it was forgiven and forgotten. A few days after the incident a few stores in South Africa got trashed in response to the hoodie and workers were told not to come to work until the issue was handled. My response to this is mixed. While I do see how the hoodies message could have been offensive I don't believe it was meant to be so. I also don't believe trashing stores and making employees who have nothing to do with the design miss paychecks is the right answer to this. The media can be good in that it can bring light to problems and have them quickly solved but it can also be hurtful in that it can send out large responses that end up hurting many people.

Week 6 Miss Representation

   In MissRepresentation one of the first and strongest points made was how girls are taught from a young age that the most important thing is how they look. From this boys will get the impression that the most important quality in a woman is what she looks like. When I heard that statement it resonated with me. I have felt this myself as well as in how I notice most boys perceive woman. I remember from a young age desperately wanting to wear makeup, dress up and curl my hair so I could look beautiful like the models in fashion magazines. Never did I desire to memorize my multiplication charts or get ahead on my school work to impress others with my knowledge. My focus was to try to become someone people aspired to be or be with. What I didn't know then was even for the beautiful models in advertisements that standard of beauty is unachievable because companies photoshop the woman into alien like goddesses which we strive to be. This may contribute to fact that 71% of teens by the age of 17 are unhappy with how their body looks and that 65% of teens have an eating disorder.  Magazines aren't the only source of media which distorts out take on woman. In movies there is a lack of strong female representation. Movies imply that woman could never balance home and work. They are either portrayed as a "sexy kitten" or a "witch boss". In movies woman appear to be empowered but this empowerment never comes from their agency but rather seeming to be "doing things on their own terms" while wearing revealing clothing and having men swoon over them. Overall this movie once again brought to light how woman are misrepresented and just seen for their external features rather than what they are capable of. In the patriarchal world we live in, I believe it's going to take some time to transform peoples thoughts from these feminine ideals.

Week 5 Merchants of Cool

In the movie Merchants of Cool the archetype of the "mook" stood out to me. By definition a mook is a "stupid or incompetent person". The mook archetype fits this definition perfectly. The mook is the male stereotype presented in advertising as obnoxious, loud, and in-your-face. Perfect examples of this mook are the daredevils on Jackass or the frat boys who party it up with girls on MTV. By constantly seeing this mook it makes teenage boys think this type of behavior is desirable and right. It makes them want to prioritize girls, partying, and sports over academics or their life goals. I don't think teenage boys are mooks to the extreme shown in the media but I believe constantly seeing this ideal of teenage life makes them want to change to become more "mook like". I think advertisers try to cover all boys in one group by taking teenage male attributes and making them reletable to all but not specific enough to identify a single person. This way the ad can reach a larger audience.

Week 5 free choice

There is a famous You Tuber who is named Logan Paul. A couple days ago he posted a video of him in a Japanese suicide forest where he found a dead body. He was confused not knowing if the body was real or not. He was almost even joking about it because it was a situation he had never been in before. After the clips at the forest including a clip of the hung body, he talked about suicide prevention and linked a suicide prevention hotline. The media had harsh feedback to the video and it was taken down. People were upset in that he didn't take suicide seriously and used the content for views. I agree with the majority of the media in that the video was inappropriate and should be taken down. I feel if I was in his situation I would be shocked and wouldn't know how to act or how much was appropriate to show in my videos. With that being said he was insensitive about the topic knowing it could deeply upset people with family members or friends who had taken their own lives. I believe the course taken should have been to start the video blog as he did but not shown the clip of them in the suicide forest and instead explain what he saw and talk about suicide prevention. Right when he saw the body he should have called for help and gotten the situation underhand. Suicide is a very delicate subject and I believe he acted carelessly upon it. Overall what Logan did is terrible but I believe what he did wasn't intentionally caused to make fun of or disrespect people who have committed suicide and was a mistake.

Week 4 Free Choice

Today I was watching Scooby-Doo and while watching it I noticed product placement. At first when Velma was entering a room I noticed that right by the entrance there was a large red cooler with the Coca cola label. The bright red cooler stuck out like a sore thumb in a setting of muted colors. Later on in the movie there was a scene in a kitchen where Coke bottles in the back round. I thought this time the cokes were less distracting but you could still see them. The movie had good and bad product placement but either way I noticed it and it got me thinking so they achieved what the advertiser set out to do.