Graduate Student Presentations

All the presentations were very interesting! I was particularly interested in the presentation that showed how the middle class was being portrayed in television shows. I also found the presentation about women in music. For the most part, I enjoyed the presentations and the interesting topics students chose.

New Perspective

This class has made me look at magazines and advertisements more critically. I recently recieved a catalog for Bebe and I couldn't believe how much sexual contact was being shown. Bebe usually has women who are dressed provacatively and sitting in sexually suggestive manners. The most recent catalog I recieved showed a women with two naked men on either side of her. The photo shows her in power of their gaze. The photo reminds me of some of dolce and gabanas advertisements. Women are portrayed as secxual objects over and over againg whether in magazines or advertisements. Do they beleive their clothing won't sell if women were portrayed in a less sexually provacative manner?

Dove evolution

I thought the Dove evolution video was very enlightning. I think parents and schools should show this to their students especially their young girls. It is important that young girls understand that advertisements do not show real women. I strongly believe if more girls saw and understood this they would accept their bodies and their self-image more. Young girls today are bombarded with images of extremely thin women, who almost look anorexic. They see that the ideal image is of a women with full breasts and long legs. The more they understand to love their bodies as they are the more they will feel better about themselves. I strongly agree with the message that Doves Real Beauty campaign is sending. It is unfortunate that others find it a laughing matter. (Slob Evolution)

I have finally found a study to shadow!!

After searching forever, I have found a study to shadow its method. I am doing a case study over media's negative portrayal of muslims. I found a study that the Mayor of London conducted. Ken Livingstone commissioned a study of media coverage of Islam in the UK media. The study was performed by looking at the British press over the course of a week. There were 352 articles found of which 91% referred to Muslims or Islam in a negative light. The results were very staggering. I have a much better outlook on how I will conduct my own study based of the method used to conduct the latter study. I am finding it intersting, that the more I ask people what they believe about the media's portrayal of Muslims, the more I am realizing people really have no idea who Muslims are as a people. This is extremely devastating since they are not being informed through the news media. Hopefully, through my own little study I will have a better understanding of just how big the problem is, and maybe how it can be solved.

"A Girl Like Me"

I thought this youtube video was very sad. There is an ideal image that the media sets for black women. The "lighter they are the more beautiful." Having relaxed hair is seen as more beautiful than naturally beautiful hair. It is a sad and distorted ideal that needs to be changed. It was disturbing to see that statistics have not changed since the study conducted in the Brown vs. Board of Education trial. It was shocking to see when the same study was conducted again 15 out of the 21 children preferred the white doll over the black. It says a lot when childrens views are so tragically distorted. Seeing the young black girl prefer the white doll because she believed it was good, and the black doll was bad because of its color was heartbreaking. When she was asked which doll looked like her you could see the sadness in her eye.

Ny Times Articles

I found the Ny times articles very interesting. I strongly believe that their are many contributing factors to creating dangerous and violent sexual habits. If everywhere a teen looks they see sex as unconsquential, soon they will believe it. I admire what the group "Enough is Enough," is doing. There definetely needs to be a change in the way hip-hop portrays women as ho's and men as pimps and gangsters. I find it quite interesting that as a society we almost have become imune to noticing the obscene language in the songs. For example, I can listen to a song and hate the degrading lyrics but love the beat. Over time I don't pay attention to the words, rather the beat of the song. The other day I went to my little sisters Highschool Varsity Basketball game and during the half-time they were playing a hip-hop song that had a lot of degrading lyrics, sexual content, and obscene language. Everone seemed to carry on as normal. They payed no attention to the words but they were enjoying the beat. Hip-Hop artists and record companies know exactly what they are doing when they are putting a song together. Something definetely needs to be done to change the content of the sings we are listening to.

the Impact of Stereotypes

Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington hosted a Muslim Family Day on October 14. The event raised controversy among a small group of protestors, about 10 in all. The event was a celebration of the end of a month of fast and charity.
Joe Kaufman, flew in from Forida to lead the demonstration with a speech. He is the chairman of Americans against Hate, and founder of CAIR watch.The protestors held posters with bold accusations. They faced the cars driving into the theme park. Some of their posters said "Six Flags over Terrorists," and "ISNAS Dollars at Work." Most of the protestors main source of information came from Kaufman. They heard him speak on KCBI radio asking for people to come out support the protest. The demonstrators were very hesitant to speak with reporters and when some did they chose to remain anonymous.
"I am here to inform the people of the threat right in their background," said Kaufman.
Kaufman's spoke about the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on Islamic-American Relations, and their supposed connections with Hammas and the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan. When protestors were asked whether they new the core principle of the organizations or their mission statement, they said no. One woman actually said she was not intelligent enough to answer that question.
Jamal Kaddura, spokesman for the local Muslim community said the accustaions were slander to the organizations name and completely false.
"We are peaceful people. We are just trying to celebrate our holiday," said Kaddura.
Marwa Arakeeb, a local Muslim woman, said she was appauled by the signs the protestors held. She fealt they had no right to make these false accusations. They are preaching hate.
"I wish they could come inside and see us with our children and families," said Arakeeb.
The protest raised a question for me. If news and television stopped associating Muslims and terrorism, would society see that not all Muslims are terrorists? Would people see us as humans and in a more positive light?

Oversexulaized Videogames

Although, I have never been into videogames I have seen the covers of vdeogames in stores. The last time I played anything it was Mario Brothers on Nintendo. It is amazing to see how most of the videogames today have covers that could be seen on an R-rated movie. It does seem to be true, that it is mostly men who play these games but it doesn't justify the violence along with sex seen in the games. When reading chapter 4 I couldn't believe that there is a game that rewards players for killing prostituts after sex. We worry which programs and shows are children watch on T.V. but we should not forget to monitor which games they are purchasing or borrowing from friends. The stereotypical roles that men and women are portrated in is extremely damaging to an impressionable teen or pre-teen. These images if seen over and over again whether in movies, shows, or videogames it leaves a negative impression in our minds. Over time the image and association will go hand in hand.

Learning to avoid our own stereotypes

It's a sad reality that most of us have our own stereotypes that lead to certain bias. We have learned that more often than not blacks are portrayed as the criminals in the media, and whites are the victims. This leads to the thinking that blacks are dangerous people and to watch out for them. Now a days news is everywhere. Whether it be online, on T.V., newspapers, text messages, or blogs. The key is to learn to sort out the credible and accurate news from the stereotypical news with the inaccuratre information. If as a consumer of knowledge we do not learn to create our own views based on the reality of the facts, we are doomed to continue on the path of stereotypes. We have to learn to navigate through the sea of knowledge and reach the shores of truth.

Stereotypes of Disabilities

My younger sister developed a rare condition about a year and a half ago. She has seen top notch doctors and specialist. She origanlly was misdiagnosed with Vasalvago Syncope, and now she has been diagnosed with Narcolepsy with catoplexy.Her condition causes her to pass out several times a day all over the place. She is a junior at UT in Austin now. I went down to Austin last semester to walk my sister to each of her classes and show her how to avoid stairs. I spoke with all her proffessors and most were very understanding and accomodating. There was one instructor who was very rude about her situatuation. My sister is in perfect health except for this condition she has to deal with. So, for those who do not know her they would think she is perfectly fine. I tried to explain to her instuctor that in order for her to avoid stairs she would be taking the long way to his class since the elevators weren't exactly fast. He seemed skeptical of her situation and therefore made her feel it was better to take the risk of taking the stairs then show up late to his class. Here is an unfortunate example of stereotyping what a person with a disablity should look like.

Jena 6 coverage

I have read about the Jena 6 online at dallasmorningnews website. I was shocked to find out that this actually happened in 2006 because, I only recently found out about it. There obviously seems to be more media coverage over the events that took place now then when it first happened. I feel it is extremely sad to see racism alive and kicking today. The beatings that took place were definetely unacceptable behavior but sending them to jail for attempted murder is insane. If everyone who got in a fight in highschool was sent to jail half of our teens would be inmates for attempted murder. I believe the coverage has been fair, and I have been able to get a complete understanding of what is happenning.

Race, Gender and the Media

I Like to get my news from very reliable sources. Hence, I do not like local news. The only time I watch local news is to find out the weather forecast for the week. Otherwise, I like to watch CNN healdline news in the morning when i'm getting ready. I also have the satelite so usually when there is news on a more national level I will watch the Arabic news stations.
I usually like to read the Star Telegram to keep up with more localized news.
I usually watch news about an hour and a half a day. I believe CNN does a great job at being politically correct. Although, I have not found any news station that does not present its own bias. I do feel overall news coverage has steered away from race and gender stereotypes.