Question M: Ageism

I believe the root cause of ageism have a direct correlation with technology and science, and how they've been used to change our media world and societies. Our society is moving at a speed faster than light. With all the new technology these days, it can often times leave other people feeling, slow or left behind. Our society can have a preconceived notion towards old people that is completely unwarranted and incorrect at times. It is sad because we take out these frustrations on the elderly. Most elderly people do not have computers, ipods, ipads, smart phones, nooks, etc. There generation was very different than ours. I consider myself an ageist because I talk to my grandparents all the time. We are extremely close and before my grandmother got sick, we wrote letters back and forth monthly. I also volunteered all throughout high school in our Veterans Day Breakfast. I think that elderly people possess something that we should all want to acquire. They have wisdom, knowledge and a certain sense of life that I believe our society is losing sight of. With our new technological discoveries happening every day it is easy to forget what the meaning of life really is.

Blog Post #15- What can I do?

As a South Korean natural born citizen, adopted and living in the United States. I very much want to help guide people through the understanding of adopted citizens. I also would like to talk to children (and sometimes certain adults) about the importance of acceptance to every human being, involving race, gender, etc. Because I am adopted and stay in contact with everyone I was on the plane with, I know that I have a strong and solid sphere of people that are all fighting for the same cause as me. For people to understand, what it's like to be "different." I think we as a nation can start by trying to understand as much as we can about other people. There is not one "perfect kind of" person. There are many different lifestyles and many different types of people. As a society, we can start by trying to understand this.

Blog Post #14- Activism

I believe that there are many attributes that go into a good activist. One of these is the affective ability of being able to listen. I think it is important for anyone with a cause to be able to listen fully to everything, before forming an opinion. I also believe that it is very important to be well informed. In order to make a change, or stand for a cause you need to be able to be well rounded in all aspects of your cause. You also need to be aware of other opinions as well. I think a good activist must possess this ability in order to stay well rounded. In the 12 Keys of Spiritual Activism, it states that compassion is a very important aspect to a strong activist. An important point they also mentioned was that the activists cause or belief must be for the benefit of all, not just one person or personal group. In my opinion, an amazing activist was Mother Theresa. She literally gave all of herself for her causes and acted completely selflessly in every aspect of the word. She worked for the greater cause of the human race, not just herself or a specific group of people.

Quick Blog Post #6

I believe that I surround myself with many different age groups. Though, I recognize this is not the every day experience. I think that it is hard for some people at our age to be around other people of different ages, it just does not fit into the normal schedule. My grandmother is in a home, so I am around elderly people quite often. I find myself very comfortable around them and it brings me joy knowing my youth and enthusiasm bring them joy in return. I am around younger kids because my twin sister babysits full time for two little children. One boy and one girl, she often brings them to our apartment so I get to spend a lot of time around small children. I also have a niece and nephew and though I don't see them often, I do see them regularly though out the year. I don't think my personal experience is one of the norm, however. In our society we are constantly around people that are our own age. In college, you are always around only other college kids. Very rarely are you around elderly people. I think that it would benefit our society if we stayed in touch with elderly people more often. Often times we forget about that generation, and as they get older and drift off into homes, etc. we lose sight of them all together.  I think that our society has made it so that we are age segregated, we need to fix this by surrounding ourselves with other age groups, if possible.

Video Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-6T7rVFXh4

Quick Blog #4- Whip My Hair

After watching Willow Smith's, Whip My Hair music video I decided that I do not find her music video sexualized at all. I think because she is such a young girl and exuding so much confidence that it made some people uncomfortable. I think that because she has the image of an older teen and is talking things that do not pertain to her age group (talking about swagger/haters, etc) it is shocking people. I find the video INAPPROPRIATE for her age group but not overtly sexual. She's an adorable little girl who is clearly very talented, her video is gimmicky and somewhat not respectable for her age, however, she shouldn't be condemned for her talent because she is very young. I hope that she continues to produce music and keeps her great self confidence, but I hope she doesn't fall into the category of female musicians that feel the need to overly sexualize themselves to fit our society's idea of the female image.

side note about Video Project

But I have to charge

I know you want it,
The thing that makes me,
What the guys go crazy for.
They lose their minds,
The way I wind,
I think its time

[Chorus x2]
La la-la la la,
Warm it up.
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And they're like
It's better than yours,
Damn right it's better than yours,
I can teach you,
But I have to charge

I can see youre on it,
You want me to teach thee
Techniques that freaks these boys,
It can't be bought,
Just know, thieves get caught,
Watch if your smart,

[Chorus x2]
La la-la la la,
Warm it up,
La la-la la la,
The boys are waiting,

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And they're like
It's better than yours,
Damn right it's better than yours,
I can teach you,
But I have to charge

Oh, once you get involved,
Everyone will look this way-so,
You must maintain your charm,
Same time maintain your halo,
Just get the perfect blend,
Plus what you have within,
Then next his eyes are squint,
Then he's picked up your scent,

[Chorus x2]
Lala-lalala,
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And they're like
It's better than yours,
Damn right it's better than yours,
I can teach you,
But I have to charge


I can teach you,
Damn right it's better than yours,
It's better than yours,
And they're like
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,


Above are the lyrics for the song that I will be re-doing. Originally I thought it would be an excellent idea to be sexual to a non-sexual song, bringing about my point that everything these days is hyper-sexualized. This causes woman to feel that they must act a certain way in order to gain notoriety in today's society. After some thought, I realized it might be somewhat uncomfortable for me and my classmates/professor if I acted like that. So, I decided to do it in reverse order, which ultimately is the same theory anyways and more comfortable for me to act/produce. I will be un-sexual to a song that reeks sexuality and sexual innuendos. I hope that you will be able to see my point, even though I will be as non sexual as possible, I believe that the lyrics and lyrical imagery the female musician is trying to produce will still shine through, despite my best efforts. I will be OVERLY trying to mask any sort of sexuality, so please keep that in mind. I also will be using metaphors to try and prove my point. For example, in this song milkshake refers to her butt, her sexualness, etc. For me, milkshake will represent the things that I FIND important in a woman, what makes me attractive to different people.

Blog #10- Queer Streets

Sylvia's Place is a wonderful shelter that takes in for emergency over night stays, LGBT teens. It provides a safe and warm environment for people who need a place to stay. They also include food and a staff willing to listen and offer advice and services for people who need help.

Heterosexist oppression is a dangerous view because it can seriously cause harm to many different people. In Queer Streets it shows homeless LGBT teenagers and adults that were driven to the streets, drugs, prostitution and other dangerous situations because of their sexual orientation or gender change. If we as a society were more accepting than many people would not be driven to doing certain things. Heterosexist oppression is a serious problem. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" separates homosexuals from heterosexuals and in my opinion shouldn't be. Civil Rights means everyone has rights, but in some places gay marriage is not even allowed. This is cutting out an entire population of people, they don't have the same rights as heterosexuals. If you are homosexual you aren't allowed to donate blood. I find this appalling, who cares about someones sexuality? One of my good friends who is homosexual donated blood and his bone marrow also matched up perfectly to someone who was dying. When they found out he was homosexual they rejected his bone marrow and he wasn't allowed to donate it. Someone's life could have been saved, but because of heterosexist oppression, he was unable to help.

Blog Post #9- Tough Guise

When males were asked to describe what it was to be a man they all reacted with the same response. Tough, independent, in control, physically powerful, etc. When males do not conform to these strict male representations they are often called queer, fag, bitch. There seems to be a growing connection with violence and what is considered masculine. "85% of murders are by men; 95% domestic violence is by men; 99% of rapes in prison are by men." It seems that media also plays a huge role by making all male characters adhere to a specific physical image. Big biceps, smooth talkers, and in control of the situation. Women also appear to look a certain way in society as well. They are often thin and seemingly sexualized. In order to put an end to this we as women must adopt an attitude to make it accepted to men that do not uphold the "tough guise" image. 


I believe class and race play a huge role in male and female representation. If you live in a ghetto for example you must appear tough and fearless, this is not only for image but also for survival. If a white 18 year old boy was to move into an all black neighborhood in an inner city, he would undoubtedly have to prove himself to the people around him usually involving acts of violence to make a name for yourself. Females also battle the very same problem. If a white girl comes into a mostly black school, she will also usually have to prove herself. In my culture, Asian men often times have to appear tough in order to gain respect and acceptance from certain races. Asian men are often viewed as being weaker because of their size and many times feel they must disprove this by acting a certain way. They want to also fit the masculine model that we have created. 


I've recently been watching Glee and I think it is a great representation (and healthy) of a high school. They have a larger African American girl, a boy in a wheelchair, two asians, a homosexual boy and several ditzy cheerleaders. They are not just showing good looking, skinny  females with the same body shape, or only muscular men. They have many different varieties of "average" people, which I find to be a positive step in the right direction.

Blog Post #8- Divided We Fall

Divided We Fall touched me deeply. I am so glad I had a chance to watch this. It absolutely blew my mind the amount of hate that was turned toward Middle Eastern looking people. The video brought up a very good point, how could we as Americans stand together against terrorism, yet we could so violently turn against each other? It was a simple thought but one I had never fully thought of. I'm surprised I hadn't because my parents best friends are from Iran. Many times they are targeted because of their ethnicity. People have even come up to them in the airport and made crude and racist remarks about terrorism. They brush it off and even try and make jokes about it, but it must be incredibly hard for them. They've done nothing wrong, they are amazing people, extremely intelligent and kind hearted. They are subjected to hate and ignorance because of their own religious beliefs and Arabic complexions. So terrible that we can turn on ourselves. We stand together to fight terrorism and try and tell other countries that they should be able to religiously practice on their own accord, yet we racially target others and condemn them for their own religious idea and expression.

Blog Post #7- Classism

"People Like Us" was an extremely interesting video to watch. The way class is mixed up is comprised of three different sections, upper class, middle class and lower class. The movie we watched showed us how class divides us as Americans and how different everyone's lives are, according to class.

For this blog, I will discuss my own personal story and how my life is affected by social class. My story is interesting because my parents are divorced and both have two totally different lifestyles. My mom and stepdad both work affluent jobs and I would say are upper middle class. We live in a big house, colonial style, swimming pool, vacations etc. My dad and stepmom live in Vermont in a smaller house in a very economically poor area. Jobs are few and far between and the town they live in is unpopulated and extremely small. For me, this was interesting because I often times switch back and forth between my parents two houses. My dad felt guilty he couldn't "give me everything" I desired because of his job, I think he always felt that he wasn't good enough because of where he lived and his income. I think I became aware of class at a young age because of my parents divorce and different lifestyles.

I think class is something that isn't spoken about as much in our society due to the fact that we are not all equal. Some people might feel ashamed of how they live or that they aren't good enough because they don't have everything money could buy. I think we should discuss class more often and maybe people will be more aware of the differences. By doing this, we will break down the barriers that are held around social class and make it more socially acceptable to talk about different lifestyles.

Video Project

The Topic: Gender orientated in regards to Feminism and Sexuality. I chose this topic because to me these women choose to objectify themselves and conform to gender stereotypes. They do this to promote sexuality, sell records and essentially themselves. By adhering to these specific roles, the media has undeniably made women think that they must act a certain way in order to gain notoriety. There seems to be a growing trend among female musicians that I personally do not agree with. Sexuality is safe, sex sells, if women are sexy, records will sell.

The Story: I will make a music video where I will use tactics that women in the media seem to use to sell records and music. I believe that it is possible to sexualize anything if you so choose it to be. Therefore, I will make this point by making a music video to a completely sex neutral song. By doing this, I hope that I can prove to what I believe to be true.

Software: I will be using iMovie to make my video. I want this to appear as if it is actually a music video. Using iMovie will help convey the message, rather than using a slide show.

Research: I will start by looking  into many different videos that I believe follow the trend that I am trying to prove. With the media the way it is today, I know I will have no problem finding examples that I can use in my music video. I will make this educational for viewers by making the juxtaposition between the un sexual song and the very sexual imaging clear. As viewers, who are so jaded by the amount of sexuality we encounter in the media and videos, we often overlook or do not realize to what extent this type of content is utilized. As a society we generally openly and unthoughtfully accept the amount of sex we accept into our lives: in our music, movies and other media.

Timeline:

January 10th- I will be using iMovie to briefly outline a music video. It will be in way, shape, or form the finished project, but I am excited about this project and want to get something down.

The rest of my timeline will be based on each day. I will write out a script, put together costumes and edit my music video.

Take Away Message: I want people to understand and realize what is going on in the media. Whether people realize it or not, there is so much sex in the media, sometimes its not even obvious.

Question F: Jane Elliot

Jane Elliot's project, "Brown Eyes-Blue Eyes" was something that I am glad I had the opportunity to watch. According to the background, though it appears its not 100 percent proven, Jane Elliot created this project right after Martin Luther King's assassination. She stated that it seemed the children were not aware of the concept of racism. They could not internalize what African Americans were going through during that time.

After the experiment, the results seemed astonishing. The "inferior" children seemed to be doing poorly in their studies and seemed more meek in demeanor and attitude. They were even made to wear collars around their necks to signify the difference between them and the "superior" children. The "superior" children did much better in class and their attitude seemed bossy, they even looked down upon the "inferior" children. They seemed to carry themselves with more authority and confidence.

I think that Jane Elliot's experiment was something that was necessary for those children, and probably many more children across the board. Ethically to a certain extent this exercise in no way harmed the children. She didn't physically hurt them and though she might have been a bit harsh, the outcome was remarkable. In the 60's with everything that was going on, I believe that what she did was a life lesson and was very important. The children got to experience what it was like to be white versus black in that time period. They got to experience how terrible it was to be inferior to someone else, based on nothing but a physical change. I agree with the lesson, I agree with what she was trying to accomplish. I also believe that those children in her 3rd grade class got to experience something they will probably never forget.

Question E: "The Opening Door Ritual"

I think most human beings are romantic at heart. To sit here and tell you I don't want a man to "take care of me," hold the door open for me, take my coat, etc. would be a blatant lie. I wish for all those things. When my boyfriend remembers to open the door for me, I think to myself, "chivalry is not dead." Though Johnson would argue that "the open door ritual" is in fact a symbol of male dominance, and that it actually goes against what we as women should want. In a world where we are constantly arguing for equality and fair rights why should we want a man to do those things for us? I think we should remember that respect and being polite or chivalrous is not demeaning ourselves as woman or making us weak, but rather proving more to society and ourselves that these things can be done and we STILL can feel empowered. 

Lady Gaga and Kesha

I absolutely believe that Lady Gaga and Kesha are feminists. Do I respect what they say as something I would necessarily do? No, but they empower themselves and push the sexual social norms constantly, of our society. While Lady Gaga openly sings on national television and radio, "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick." To me, this seems to be a undersided remark on her sexuality. What seems to be so amazing to me is that years ago someone like Lady Gaga would have been stoned to death for saying such raucous things. Now, everywhere females are embracing the fact that they can get away with saying the same thing as a man. Kesha raps about "turn around boy, let me hit that." If a male rapper was to say the same thing in a rap song, we wouldn't think twice about it. How sad it is in our society that, that can happen. Its one thing to be disgusted with the language or innuendo its portraying, but its another if you only feel that way because a female "shouldn't be talking like that." If you take apart Lady Gaga and Kesha's videos, you can see how strong some of their feminist view are. They way they carry themselves, socially shock women and their attitudes, they all show strong feminist qualities.

Question D: Stanford Prison Experiment

The video Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment was horrifying. In the beginning of the video the commentator makes a remark on how shocked and disturbed Americans were when this video was released. The fact that every day, normal, well to do citizens could intentionally cause physical harm to someone else was something they didn't expect. What I found most remarkable about this whole thing was the way subjects carried themselves in their own roles. The prisoners chose to act shameful and confused, submitting themselves to the guards. The guards acted very dominant, violent and abrasive. They seemingly embodied the role they were given. I believe this very much pertains to the world we live in today. People have a role and they act, dress and play the part of the role they believe defines them.

The question for this blog hits pretty close to home for me. Being an Asian woman born outside of the United States I feel that it took me a while to find my “role” in society. I think in racialized the guards would be Caucasian people and the prisoners would be other minorities. For Nazi Germany this same sort of racial power was dispersed. People acted and did (Nazi soldiers) because a higher, controlling power told them what to do (Hitler). In the Milgram experiement the teacher repeatedly kept shocking the subject with intense electric jolts simply because a man in a white coat told him to. I think this sort of thing can be seen everywhere in the world at pretty much every age. When I was younger and kids didn’t know any better I was picked on shamelessly for being Asian. The kids knew I looked different and couldn’t seem to accept it. I remember one bully in particular who would try and beat me up on the playground, she often times made her friends chime in and partake in some of the pranks they would try and pull on me. I don’t think her friends really cared let alone wanted to be a part of it, yet they complied to her orders without question. It’s the same for the Stanford experiment, guards acted and embodied their roles because they had power and precedent.

The experiments that we watched really show privilege, power and oppression. It is a sad thing that we cannot seem to make our own decisions based purely on our own. It seems there is always someone higher up than you that can control you to act or do something a certain way. I’d like to see if maybe we can try and break free from power, privilege and oppression. We’ve made a long way during our history, lets see if we can’t improve it even more.

Question C- Kimmel

The subject on the differences between men and women is one that has existed since the beginning of time and is represented in John Gray’s book “Mars or Venus or Planet Earth”. For many moons the ideas of gender and theologies have been changed, argued over and critiqued. However, Michael Kimmel’s discussion on gender differences and his critique of Gray’s work shows that men and women may not be as different as they seem.

My idea on gender differences started at a young age. I was always the "perfect" role of a little girl. I liked tea parties, dressing up, playing house, etc. My twin sister and I often argued over who got to play the mom because we both wanted too. As I grew older I noticed that most if not all girls seemed to be thinking about their lives, their futures. The small details were important, prom came and went, marriage is slowly coming up, college is almost being finished...everything is thought about over and over again. For men, it seems they also think about all these things, but not to the exact detail that girls do. In this case, I believe they are different. However, the older I get the more apparent it becomes to me that boys and girls, men and women, are really not that different. My boyfriend and I share the same fears and hopes for our future. We rarely argue because are so alike, he understands my wants and needs and I understand his.

What struck me as most interesting is when Kimmel goes on to discuss marriage. Everything he says makes sense, shared household work seems to be incredibly positive. It results in more sex for most couples and improved health in both sexes. The friendship model is an important one, equality within in each other. Shared work, equal chores, equal work, equal.

So in conclusion, it seems that men should want equality within their lives, marriage, etc. It results in everyone being happy and accepting in their roles and shows that our society has come a long way.

Question B- Feminism

I'll probably get hit by someone for saying this, but I have to start off with the fact that yes, I think feminism has a seemingly bad label attached to it. Whether people want to admit this or not, its the truth. Not so much now, but if you had asked me what I believe feminism to be a couple years ago, my answer would have probably shocked you. All that would come to mind would be some sort of obnoxious, loud, woman, hootin' and hollerin' about independence and how she probably doesn't need to rely on any man, ever. Feminism probably would have annoyed me and I might not have even taken someone seriously back then.To me, this isn't the reality anymore.

The hardest part for me to come to terms with is that it seems that feminism can have many different definitions attached to it, and not just one. One of my friends who I find to be a very intelligent and interesting person, told me that she believed feminism to be a muddled and mixed up idea. She believed that it was wrong we have labeled girls as "sluts" if they sleep around. That it is their own body and can actually be empowered by being sexually promiscous. As much as I would love for this idea to be true, I don't really believe it, entirely. But for her, its her ideaology. My own mother is a self proclaimed feminist. "My body is my temple. I am my strongest supporter. I never need a man to take care of me. I am independent, hear me roar." That is roughly her idea of a feminist. Another friend I have thinks she is completely an empowered feminist because she has decided she wants to be a stay at home housewife and not a hardworking bsuiness woman. But to her, the fact that she can make that choice and hopefully make it without any stereotypical stigmas attached to it, makes her proud. By giving these examples I'm trying to relate that I don't think it has one core definition. I think it depends on the person. For me, feminism means that I understand my own self worth as a woman, that I am comfortable with the decisions that I make. I understand my own sexuality and I am proud to be a strong, self sufficient woman. To me, that is feminism.

Question A- Bell Hook Response

Bell Hooks video on cultural criticism and transformation discusses the often taboo issue of white supremacy displayed in different forms of media. In my opinion, I do agree with the majority of Hooks ideas and thoughts. People might not even be aware of how powerful the media can be. The media holds in its hands, the ability to make people think a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, etc.  Hooks spoke about how important it is for us to understand the media and our world.  Many times people can be blindly unaware of how the media works. We must stand up and realize that we must not let something control us, but rather make our own assumptions and conclusions about the world we live in. 

Hooks gives an example in which the cast included a black man as the "bad guy." When asked why that was the choice the director said he wanted it to be clear who the "good guy" was, vs "the bad guy." This is blatantly racist and wrong. Why not cast it the other way around? Why has our world decided that this is the stereotype? Why have we let the media portray African American men as being criminals, gangsters and bad guys? This is the case with not just one movie but many, not just one type of media, but all forms. It goes to show that we have fallen victim to these exsisting racial and supremacy issues.

As I said before, we must question ourselves, is this truly what we believe in? Most of us have gone so long with just accepting these mass media messages, stereotypes, etc. But we must stop and think, who is behind these mass media messages? More importantly, is this truly what we believe?