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?