Women In Film!!!!

So the time has come! I have completed about nine and a half hours of blogging and this entry will wrap up my Civic Engagement Project for my Gender Women Studies class! I am really sad that it is over, but most of all, I am really glad I decided to do a blog. I really learned a lot, and I hope people actually read this and learn something! I think everything I talked about was fun and interesting, so I think maybe one day someone will read this and enjoy it!

 For my last blog I wanted to write about something that everyone loves and enjoys. I am going to talk about movies!!! I love going to the movies. Besides the fact that it cost sooo much money to go to the movies these days, going to the movies is something fun to do and everyone can enjoy a good movie every once in a while. I am going to talk about three movies that I thoroughly enjoy. This entry will be a lot like the commercials post. I will choose a movie that depicts women in a negative light, then borderline positive or negative light, then lastly a movie that depicts women in a positive light. Before I start looking more into each of these movies, I have to tell you that I love all of them! Each movie has a great story line, and they are also movies that are super popular around the world! Also, I think just about every movie can have bad and good representation of men and women. Just because I say that one movie gives women a bad reputation, doesn't mean that the whole film is that way. Each and probably every movie has good and bad representation of women, but I am just going to talk about certain characters in each film to support my observations and reasoning.

Without further due, let's talk about movies!!! The three movies I am going to be talking are Transformers, and 27 Dresses. I am a huge fan of all of these movies, and if you have not seen any of them...then go see them!!! You will not be disappointed! :)

SEX AND THE CITY

Character in Question: Samantha Jones Played By Kim Cattrall

Observation: Samantha Jones depicts women in a negative light.

(http://www.fanpop.com/spots/sex-and-the-city-the-movie/images/1478859/title/samantha-stills-photo)

I am pretty sure I do not need to go into details when it comes to explaining the movie Sex and the City. I think just about everyone has seen an episode and can just guess about what goes on in the movie. 

If you have not seen Sex and the City the movie, then I will explain a little bit about Samantha's role. Samantha has moved to Los Angeles to be with her model boyfriend. Whenever she can though, she jumps on a plane to go back to New York where she longs to be all the time. Samantha loves her boyfriend, but she looses herself because of him and she wants herself back. For instance, Samantha is a cheater. She has always been someone that loves sex and cheats. In this picture I have above, Samantha is shopping and keeping herself busy so she does not cheat on her boyfriend. Again, she loves her boyfriend and for once has not cheated on him, but being with him, she is not herself and decides to leave him to go back to New York. As you can see, Samantha's role is extremely sexual and she truly puts women under the bus. Not every woman is like this at all. Samantha is a strong lady who has her life put together, but since she is so sexual and wears revealing clothing and has a bad vocabulary, she sadly gives women a bad reputation.

TRANSFORMERS (2)

Character in Question: Mikaela Banes Played By Megan Fox

Observation: Mikaela Banes depicts women in both a positive and negative light.

(http://media.photobucket.com/image/megan+fox+transformers+2/aussieIDI-07/Motorbike/megan-fox-transformers2.jpg)

Transformers is one of my favorite movies of all time. I was dragged (not literally) to this movie by my boyfriend, and when the movie was over, I begged him to let me see it again! It is fabulous…go see it if you haven’t yet!!! This movie is about two groups of transformers from another planet called the Autobots and the Decepticons. These groups are fighting against one another, whereas the Autobots are fighting for the humans and their safety. Sam and Mikaela get thrown into this fight because one of Sam’s ancestors discovered a Decepticon in the past. (That’s a very summarized version of what happens.) Mikaela and Sam end up falling for each other and helping the Autobots fight off the Decepticons.

So, of course since this is a male action figure type of movie, they want a sexy woman in the film to spice up the plot. This would be Megan Fox who plays Mikaela. Mikaela is one gorgeous lady. I don’t think that she could look ugly if she tried, but in this movie she is seen as a hot, compelling, sexy young lady. I think the picture I posted above says it all. I mean…who sits on a motor cycle like that? NO ONE! Anyways, Mikaela is really seen as a sex object many times throughout Transformers and Transformers 2. I hate that the producers of these movies felt it was necessary to make Mikaela seem so sexual because I do not think she is sending off the right message to women watching the film. I mean, when I watched Transformers for the first time I remember saying that I wished that I had her body. Why should I want her body? I should be proud of my own body and proud of who I am. However, do you think that this movie would have been so successful if it weren’t for Megan Fox’s sex appeal? 

27 DRESSES

Character in Question: Jane Nichols Played By Katherine Heigl

Observation: Jane Nichols depicts women in a positive light.

 (http://dameria.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/27-dresses/)

In the movie 27 Dresses, Jane Nichols is a secretary and a volunteer wedding planner. She helps a ton of people with their wedding plans, but is too busy trying to plan other people’s weddings then trying to find the man of her dreams. Jane is the type of women that I want to be. She dresses very classy and professional, but extremely cute at the same time. Jane also has a great career and loves helping other people. The only thing bad about Jane is that she always says ‘yes.’ Luckily by the end of the movie she is able to stick up for herself, but it was hard for Jane to learn how to do this.

Throughout the movie, Jane has the typical good girl persona. She does what a great job at everything she does with work and the wedding planning. Jane also behaves appropriately and that’s why I think she really puts a good image on women. With the exception of one scene where Jane gets drunk and sleeps with a guy she later falls in love with, Jane never gets drunk, she always has self confidence and she always works hard at what she is doing. I really think Jane is a great role model for a movie character and shows the film industry that you do not have to have a slutty main character to make a fantastic movie.

In conclusion to my blog...

Women are portrayed many different ways in the media.

Sometimes women are portrayed positively.

Sometimes women are portrayed negatively.

I really, really hope you enjoyed reading my blog. I learned so much and I hope you learned a little bit too. I must admit that I thought the majority of all media portrayed women negatively, but I think overall, after all of my writing, that there may be slighty more positive then negative portrayal. I would not have been able to come up with this result if I had not looked into all different sorts of media. 


Well I guess this is goodbye. 
Thank you so much for reading and have a great holiday season!!!!  

Commercials on a Monday night!

Hola! I’m back! I want to focus this blog on commercials. Commercials can really portray men and women in certain ways. TV is one medium that has EVERYTHING! Women and men are portrayed in soooo many different ways, and there are so many choices/ channels to choose from. From each channel, advertising plays a huge role in the commercials. For instance, I have been watching ESPN with my boyfriend all day and the commercials target the male audience. For instance, there have been razor commercials and beer commercials out the wazoo! I wanted to watch Monday Night Football with my boyfriend and blog about the commercials….however, I have been watching ESPN all day and there has not been very many commercials with women in them period. So that’s not going to work! But, I am still going to do the commercial thing. Throughout the game with my boyfriend we are going to be flipping through channels to find commercials. The past ten minutes that I have been writing this, we haven’t found a commercial with a women in it. How surprising is that!?!?!? The one time I want to watch commercials, they are not on. My goal is to write about 5 commercials that would be seen on specific channels on a Monday night. I will tell you what channel I got it from and a little bit about the commercial and/or series of commercials from that company. Let the Monday night commercial search begin!

ONE

The first commercial I want to talk about is probably a commercial that everyone has seen before and I am currently watching it on ABC. Does the word Flo ring a bell? Yes! I am talking about the Progressive Insurance commercials. Every single Flo commercial is so funny. Flo is a brown-headed lady that is very pretty and she is dressed in an all white Progressive uniform. She works at a Progressive warehouse where people can come “buy” insurance. All the commercials are hilarious because of how humorous Flo is. Here is a link to a commercial with Flo that I think y’all will like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPhq_gC9pZs&feature=channel

I like the way that Progressive portrays women in the media. Flo is well dressed, and has a sense of humor. She may be a little ditsy, but it only adds to her character. Progressive chose to advertise their company with an hilarious girl in a modest and fun way. And hey! Everyone know Flo, so I think Progressive accomplished their goal of spreading the word about Progressive Insurance Company!

TWO

The second commercial I want to talk about is regarding a company that has very controversial commercials. If you watched the Super Bowl this year, you know what company I am talking about….Go Daddy! Danica Patrick is an Indie car racer and has become very well known. She has become the Go Daddy! spokes person in all of their commercials. In each commercial, Danica and/or another girl is portrayed in a sexual way. Watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmdaB21E2tY

Now that you have watched that you know what I mean. In this particular commercial the masseuse was the one that started behaving in a sexual nature but she was copying Danica from other commercials. I think the Go Daddy! commercials are unnecessary. They really show women as being sexual objects. Why does this company feel it’s necessary to have a sexual vibe for all of their commercials? Well, from my past blogs, you should know it is plainly advertising and the phrase again “sex sells.” I hate the message that Go Daddy! sends off, but being honest, I would have probably never even known about Go Daddy! if it wasn’t for these specific commercials. So once again, advertising has paid off.

THREE

As my last commercial, I am going to look at beer commercials. Most beer commercials use women in them somehow or some way. This specific commercial came from watching ESPN. It is a Miller Lite commercial about the difference of light beers. What happens in the commercial I am not concerned about, but what I will mention is the girl behind the bar. We all know that all bartenders are not gorgeous and big-boobed. Really! But in this commercial, and there are a few different Miller Lite commercials trying to get the same point across, they are. These girls are tall, skinny, gorgeous, and big-boobed. I mean really…do we have to make the bartenders come of as slutty? I am sure that some people may obtain this stereotype, but not all of them do. Here is one can you watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wkryBeRx8I&feature=related

Miller Lite has a great reputation in the beer world and this series of commercials have given them a lot of recognition…or at least for me they have. I think these commercials are really funny, but they need to be careful about how they portray the bartenders.

These three commercials give a small insight to how women are portrayed in the media through commercials. I know from just three commercials, it does not prove or disprove anything, but it shows us that not all commercials show women in a negative light. I really like the three commercials I talked about though. One was too sexual and showed women very negatively, one was semi-sexual that could show women in a positive or negative light, and the last showed women as being funny and having good personalities in a positive light. I gave y’all a little taste of everything!

Well I hope y'all enjoyed me ranting and raving about a couple of commercials! Commercials can really be fun and I hope that  y'all enjoy watching them as much as I do!

Magazine Advertisements!!!

Hello again!!!! ADVERTISING is the topic of choice today!!!! This is going to be my second little project…my first being the google searches…and it should be really fun and interesting. What I am going to do is go to the grocery store and buy two magazines. I think I will buy Cosmopolitan and Tiger Beat. Why did I choose these two?

Cosmopolitan: 

the typical woman magazine. It talks about all sorts of women issues and it is one magazine I used to buy religiously!

Tiger Beat: 

the ultimate teen magazine. IT is a magazine I read when I was a young teenager and it is still popular today!

So, I literally just went to Publix and bought these two magazines. I got an adult and a teen magazine. I got these two because I want to see what kinds of ads each of them have and how they differ or how they are similar with each other. I have not looked in either of these magazines and I look forward to seeing how their ads portray women. So let’s begin!!!

Cosmopolitan

Front Cover: 

Actress Julia Stiles in a black leather dress. The dress is kind of low cut, but not too revealing.

First Page: 

Dolce & Gabana perfume ad. Double page. A man and woman are on a boat and the guy has his hands around the woman in a little white bikini. (What a great start!)

More Ads.

1. Lancome perfume ad. One women in a tank top. Very sleek and mature.

2. Michael Kors “Very Hollywood” perfume ad. Man and women in a limo. The

 woman is gorgeous and has huge diamonds on her ears and hand.

 3. Bebe clothes ad. The women is very skinny, dark makeup, and is 

wearing a very revealing leotard and fur coat. Very dramatic.

4. Bulova watch ad. A ballerina in a nice costume is dancing in the back 

ground. It gives the ad a sense of elegance and grace.

5. Juicy fragrance ad. A woman in mature Juicy clothes has her face up 

against the bottle. It is different and fun.

6. Skyy vodka ad. It’s a bottle with a womans hand around the handle. The background

 is a mans chest and his legs. The mans body is very oily. Very suggestive!

7.  Dior and Estee Lauder fragrance ads. They both have a very sexy, 

suggestive woman in the ad by themselves.

8. Radiance by Britney Spears perfume ad. It is very nice. It shows 

Britney in an elegant gown and it does suggest “radiance.”

9.  Mark makeup ad. This shows actress Ashley Greene’s face. It is very clean and very natural.

10. Birth control ad. It shows a lady fully dressed lying on a bed. She seems 

very confident and secure.

WOWSERS! So just about all the ads in this magazine had sexual innuendos. What surprised me the most was the fragrance advertisements. One, I never realized how many fragrance ads were in Cosmo. And second, I never realized how sexual the fragrance ads were. I am really astonished by this. Cosmo has always been a magazine I have loved to read, but all the sexual meanings behind everything were too much. Every woman in the magazine was the typical skinny, gorgeous lady that had it all. I want to read a magazine that doesn’t show women as sexual beings on every page. Is that so hard to ask? The advertisements in Cosmopolitan really portrayed women negatively and I hate that because there are always really good “true” stories in the magazine that help women in different subject matters. Maybe Cosmopolitan will get better at this, but I guess for the meaning “sex sells” is extremely accurate for this magazine.

Tiger Beat

Front Cover: 14 Stars align the cover with normal clothes.

First Page: Justin Beiber everywhere!

I went through this magazine and realized that there were NO ADS in it!!!!! Well there was one Wii ad, and an ad for the Disney movie Tangled. I am amazed!!!! How in the world does this magazine not have any ads in it?

However, this magazine is sending a different message I think. Every single page in this magazine had a Hollywood star in it. Every SINGLE page. What this magazine is showing young teenagers is the world of stars….they do not live normal lives, so this magazine is very misleading. The celebrities have nice clothes and nice cars, and we don’t need to tell/ show teenagers that having materialistic things will make them a better person or even famous. Also, this magazine is all about who is dating who in the Hollywood scene. If I was a parent, I would not my kids looking at a magazine that has pictures of Miley Cyrus making out with her boyfriend. Many kids (me included when I was younger) are so easily persuaded. When I was 13, I saw a picture of celebrities kissing, and I wanted to kiss a boy too. What message is this magazine sending to teenagers that are having raging hormones? I must say that most of this magazine is harmless, but I think Tiger Beat should lay back a little on putting pictures of celebrities getting physical with one another. One thing I loved about this magazine is that it showed a lot of the younger celebrities with their parents. That is awesome. That is what teenagers need to see! I’m so glad that this teenage magazine did not have ads portraying women in a negative light. Many young ladies have a negative self/ body image, and if Tiger beat had ads portraying women in the negative light, then young girls may get worse than they already are when it comes to having a negative self image.

Well I hope y'all learned something about advertising! Advertising is a super cool industry and it is awesome to see and realize how much advertising impacts our every day lives!!!

Next post: Commercials :)

Advertising!

Hey guys! I had a great birthday weekend!!! :) Now I have to get straight on to finishing this blog/project! I only have a few entries left to finish my ten hours and I am kind of sad its almost over. I really enjoy talking about the media and its effects on women. I really have learned a lot because once you do an assignment like this, you realize how much we are persuaded by the media and how the media TRULY represents women. So what I want to do is today is talk about advertising. I am taking a Persuasion Methods class right now and it really hits this "how women are portrayed in the media" topic because it is true, right? Media DOES persuade us in many many ways. Most of the time, we may not even realize we are being persuaded. That's pretty crazy! So for my third text reference I will be using my text book from my persuasion class. It is called Persuasion in the Media Age, Second Edition by Timothy A. Borchers.

First off. What is advertising? Advertising is a constant stream of persuasive messages that are transmitted through media to audience members to sale a product. In our text, James B. Twitchell states that advertising is ubiquitous, symbiotic, profane and magical. Twitchell is describing the qualities of advertising here. Let's look at this a little closer.

Advertising is ubiquitous. 

This means that advertising is all around us. Also, we can escape it because ads are everywhere.

Advertising is symbiotic. 

This means that we recognize ads through cultural organisms. The book gives the example of Nike and Tiger Woods. They are correlated with each other because Woods is a spokesperson for Nike.

Advertising is profane.

This means that ads can be shocking and repetitious. Many ads use shocking ads to get an audience to react to it. In addition, ads are played over and over to get them into the audiences' minds. 

Advertising is magical. 

It is. This means that when an item is purchased, it is going to make us feel more important. For instance, if I buy a new designer purse, I may walk a little straighter because I am proud of what I have on my shoulder.

I like what Twitchell has stated here. These are true qualities of advertising. But before advertisements go on the TV though, agencies have to find out what audience a specific product is targeting. After the audience is found, they have to measure the audience by figuring out how many audience members there will be and how frequent they would see this advertisement. Now the important part...figuring out what media should be used for this product. The book states 7 types of media that can be used. They are...

Television Newspapers Radio Magazines 

Out-Of-Home Advertising Internet Direct Mail

Now that we can see some features about advertising, let's look at the effects of advertising. Twitchell says that ads today really don't result in an audiences buying a product, it more or less now, creates our culture. I have to agree with this. As each decade goes by, you can see how advertising changes and progresses to other subjects. Now, there are more sexual ads on TV and other media outlets, then there was in the 1980's. Advertising now creates a culture that values the pursuit of certain lifestyles. This can't be more accurate on the women front. Women see ads with skinny women and expensive clothes, and women at home seeing this ad, want that lifestyle or something similar. A cool statistic in my book that Twitchell explained is:

We see 3,000 advertisements a day.

We notice 8 advertisements a day.

We react to 12 advertisements a day. 

That is crazy. We see 3,000 ads a day? Who knew! And we only react to 12 of these ads? Wow. As I read further in my book, it says that other researchers such as White, 1999, say that advertising plays a strong role in creating awareness about a product. I have to agree with White. I never really think about ads after I hear or see them, but if I hear or see an ad a million times, I am aware of the product and then come to my own conclusion about whether or not I like, dislike, want, or don't want that product. Makes sense, right? Moving on, Twitchell says that the major impact of advertising is the value that it gives our lives. He says we consume the ads more then the goods they advertise. To expand on this, he says that a good example is that we call products "goods" instead of "bads." I have to admit that I think that Twitchell may be a little off on this because I do not see myself thinking about an ad when I buy a product. For example, when I buy mascara or eye liner, I am not thinking about the ad, I am thinking about the way I like them for my own reasons, not because the ad is cool. 

David Slayden, 1999, says that advertising has changed from being about the product to the users of the product. I like and agree with this theory. This goes back to me buying a designer purse. If I buy a designer purse, then I may look like I am at a higher upper class than I really am, and therefor I feel like I am someone who is upper class. I think Slayden hit this right on. Ads do go towards the users way more than the product!!!! 

So, that is my lesson regarding advertising! It may have been a little boring, but I think it is important to get background information on things like advertising. Advertising can have a huge effect on audiences and I like having knowledge about the advertising industry.  I mean really, advertisements are EVERYWHERE!!!!! Why wouldn't you want to know a little about that industry? So, for my next blog, I am going to demonstrate how women are portrayed in advertisements in three different ways! I look forward to it! It will fun like the google searches :) See you later! 

Music Videos :)

Two blogs in one day!!! WOO! Im full of different thoughts today! It is sometimes hard to find things to write about when it comes to women being portrayed in the media. I dont want to be repetitive, but it is in the sense that in all aspects of the media, women are portrayed badly in most cases. So, I apologize if I am being repetitive and I will try my hardest to bring different ideas to the table for each entry that I do!

My second blog for the day is going to be about music videos. I loveeeeee watching music videos. I was a huge fan, and still am a huge fan of MTV. However, they only show music videos 1/50 of a day. It is music television isnt it? Anyways....I love watching music videos, and now the only music videos you can watch on TV for an extended period of the day, is on the country music channels. I love country, so I dont mind it. But what about other people? If they dont have channels like Fuse, then they dont have a channel that plays rock, rap, and pop music videos. This isn't fair!

So who is getting all the business for music videos? YOUTUBE!!!!! If I ever want to see a new music video, I go straight to YouTube and there it is! For example, Katy Perry just released her new song "Firework" and I went to YouTube to watch it, because I cant watch it on MTV! :( 

Music videos are so fun. I think the reason why I like them so much, is because I kind of feel like I am up close and personal with the music artist. I get to see a little bit of them outside of what I hear on the radio...and that is super cool to me.  

I think there is one thing wrong about the music video industry though...the way women are portrayed in them and by what genre. i had to a study on this of course! I went to YouTube and watched 6 videos. Two for each category. The categories are rap, country, and pop music. All three genres had a different theme to it and I found this very interesting. Lets study each video more closely.

RAP!!!!!!

1. Lil Wayne- Lolli Pop featuring Static:

This video was all about the glamorous life of being famous! The video was in Las Vegas at a pool, in a huge stretch limo, and a casino. There was a lot of very expensive jewelry, lots of poker chips and money, alcohol, and very nice clothes. The last thing the video had was girls, girls, girls! There were a lot of girls of all sizes and they all had on some pretty skimpy clothing. The video was just all around and about Las Vegas and did not have a plot of any kind.

2. Beyonce- Single Ladies:

I love this video soooo much!!!!! I have been a dancer my whole life, and Beyonce is just an amazing woman who has done a lot with her life. This video only consist of three girls wearing black leotards and high heels. The three girls dance the whole entire video with no other components in the video. 

COUNTRY!!!!!!

1. Sugarland- Stuck Like Glue:

This song is so fun. I have always been a Sugarland fan, but this song just makes me want to get up and dance and be silly. This video has a specific plot. The lead singer is obsessed with a man and basically kid naps him and loves him to pieces! This video had normal clothes, a beat up car, and was consisted of "normal" people for extras.

2. Kenny Chesney- She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy:

This video is so funny. Kenny Chesney is very laid back and a very well known country singer who loves the summer! The video is on a farm where he is hanging out with a girl wearing jeans and a tank top, and Kenny is also singing in a barn. There isn't a plot besides the fact that Kenny is just hanging out with his girl and the tractor. Sounds like a good time huh?

POP!!!!!!

1. Katy Perry- Teenage Dream:

I loved this song the first time I heard it. I made it my ring tone, and I just cant get enough of it. I have to admit too, that I had never seen the video until today! (I cant believe that!) This video is very sexual. Katy Perry is a sexual person in real life I hear, so I guess she took it to this video also. The clothes and props are all normal things with some semi-revealing clothes and there is somewhat of a plot. However, when I listen to the song, and then watch the video, I do not get the correlation. I think the song is fun and meaningful, and the video is full of partying and sex. I do not think I am getting it.

2. Kelly Clarkson- Because of You:

This video is so sad. There is a story line that will break your heart. The song is about a normal family where the dad leaves his wife and daughter behind and how those characteristics from what the daughter experienced, can move to her future relationships. The characters wore normal clothes, and it takes place in a middle class neighborhood.

Now, what are the themes present in each genre?

RAP: Glamour and money!!! Rappers love being in the spot light, and they love the attention they get when they have nice things.

COUNTRY: Story lines. Country singers love to tell stories and have a good time.

POP: Pop videos has a combination of both rap and country videos. Some have a plot, some show lots of money, some are extremely laid back!

How are women portrayed in music videos? Each genre portrays women in different ways. For rap, I feel like women are portrayed as objects that the rappers obtain. And I am not saying this is how it is in every video, but a lot of rap videos, women just look like fancy objects that rappers want and can have whenever they want. For country, I feel like women are portrayed more like human beings. Im sure there is a country video out there that proves me wrong, but for the most part, country music videos put women in a very good light. For pop, it is a mix between the two again. In Katy Perry's video, women are portrayed as sex symbols, whereas in Kelly Clarkson's video, there is a clear story line told in the song and by the video.

I think it is really important for women to not appear as "objects" for someone to obtain. If women are portrayed that way, then some may feel that that is all they are and all they deserve. Body image and being "objects" correlate with each other. They both can weigh very hard a women's self-esteem and can lead to a horrible life. No women deserves to be an object or feel like their body isnt good enough.

Music videos, such as Lil Waynes, really puts a negative light on women. We know that rappers can get whoever they want, but that does not mean they have to dangle them from a Christmas tree like ornaments in their videos. Rappers need to respect women if they can "get whoever they want" just like they say in every song. This doesnt just go to for rappers though. Music videos can easily send the wrong message, and the producers and artist themselves need to realize what message their video is sending out.

Searching Google Images!

Hello all! I am STILL sick, but I think I am finally getting a little bit better. My birthday is tomorrow (yay!) so I dont want to be sick over the weekend!!! That would stink! Well I will be half way through this blog when I am done with this entry. This blog has really helped me see how women are portrayed in the media. I knew before I started doing this that women do not have a good image when it comes to the media, but I wanted to dig deeper and find out why. I think today's topic will give us a fabulous look into women and the Internet! But anyways...

I hope my last post about representation was understandeable! I went back and read it, and it is a very complicated subject, but it is easy to understand that everything is represented in a certain way, and I guess that is the point I was trying to get across! Women are represented sooo bad in the media, and today I wanted to focus on how women are portrayed on the Internet.

So how should we do this?? What I am going to do is go to google.com and search different SIMPLE subjects and see what images we come up with. I will be doing the searches as well as this post at the same time, so that way I can explain to you what came up and what I see. I will be looking at the first 5 or 6 pictures that come up! Let's see what we can find!!!

BEFORE SEARCHING THESIS: I am hoping to find some positive pictures, but I think there will be more negative images than positive ones.

SEARCH ONE: Women

RESULTS: women anatomy chart, women in langerie, a gurdle picture, an old painting of naked women, a women with head phones, and a women and man in bed. So, 4 out of the 6 pictures had to do with sex or body image...

SEARCH TWO: Girls

RESULTS: WOW! four of the six have teenage girls in bikins or next to nothing clothing, one picture is of three teenage girls in a bed together, and the last picture is an old painting of a woman. This was very disturbing....

SEARCH THREE: Women around the world

RESULTS: All five images are of women around the globe. One in particular is an African American girl with the statement "I am powerful" written on it. That is awesome... 

SEARCH FOUR: Bathing suits

RESULTS: All 6 pictures that came up showed VERY skinny girls in bathings suits. I think maybe one of them was a celebrity and then one picture had three ladies laying down with bathing suits on. Interesting...

SEARCH FIVE: Victoria's Secret

RESULTS: Of course all 5 pictures are of the famous VS models at one of there big fashion shows. Each lady is extremely thin and beautiful.

(Versus)

SEARCH SIX: Dove

RESULTS: I am talking about the Dove soap commercials here. Since I cant distinguish the animal from the company in my search, 5 of the first

 8 pictures were pictures of a dove bird. However, the other three photos were of women of all shapes and sizes and color. This is nice to see for once...

THESIS RESULTS: 20 out of the 31 pictures I saw were, to me, "the way women are perceived in the media."

WORST/MOST DISAPPROVING SEARCH: GIRLS

 I was expecting to see girls doing teenage things like talking on the phone. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!! Searching girls was the most unexpected and the most absurd search I did. All of the pictures were showing teenage girls behaving very inappropriately. I mean, one picture was a bikini contest with teeny boppers!!! WHAT? My parents would have never let me near a bikini contest...even now and I am 23!!!!  

BEST SEARCH: WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

This search was prety awesome. Each image either showed a single women of a different culture smiling, or a group of people from another culture. It was very up lifting, and there were no negative images whatsoever!!! I like that!

VICTORIAS SECRET VS. DOVE

I did this to prove a point. These are two very big companies in the United States. We see their commercials on television, and see their products at the mall and in other stores all the time. So how are they representing their products? These two companies did opposite approaches. VS approached it by using fashion models and fancy bras and fancy underwear. Dove used real people of all shapes, sizes, and color with comfortable bras and underwear. So, what I was trying to prove here, is that a company doesn't have to use fashion models to have a successful business. I think Dove actually probably got more business because their products could relate to a broader audience and was more affordable than VS.

So, 20 out of 31 images were a little/ a lot on the negative side. That is about what I expected I guess. It is very interesting to see what a google search will come up with. I was very surprised what I found, but I feel like this really shows people how women are represented. The media shows us women as having to be skinny and having to be gorgeous....well, it is NOT like that in real life. The media does this to sell products and that puts an image in women's heads....then that can lead to body image image problems, etc. I think we need more companies like Dove, to show women and men that we are ALL beautiful and we ALL need to be healthy. We are facing a huge obesity epidemic, so we need to start promoting good, healthy behavior...not VS models who eat a carrot a day to be skinny.

Well, I hope this cleared up the meaning of representation for you. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and I hope you and I can both start being a litle more wise about what we see in the media, and understand that we are beautiful and we need to stay healthy!!!! Take care of yourself  and I will see you next time :)

RePrEsEnTaTiOn!!!

Im back :) I am still sick as a dog, but the blogging must go on!!!! And...I have a follower!!!! I didnt think I would actually get one, but I am extremely glad I do now :) So please enjoy all of my post casey rnc!!! I hope I get more followers...I actually want people to read what I have to say, and I think a lot of people agree with what I have to say. Hopefully since I only have one follower it doesnt go against my grade on this project...that would be bad! lol

So I am here tonight to talk about representation. Someone might say representation is boring, but it really isnt! I am going to be referencing my text book for this post. The book is called An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World Second Edition.

This book is very interesting and can be very difficult to understand because each section are excerpts from different texts. I have to read each section 3 times to get it all the way. However, it is a very good text and really hits a lot of points all over the globe. 

The book states that representation stands for how we understand, think about, or make meanings about something or someone. John Berger states that representation has two definitions. One is an image or likeness of a thing. The second is in politics, when one person speaks on behalf of a group of constituents. 

So, what does this mean? I will use an excerpt from the text to explain. Women is an Island by Judith Williamson is a good example of how representation is used. This article talks about how to analyze advertisements when it comes to portraying non-Western and non-white women. 

For example, there is an advertisement of a non-white woman that uses Pond's Cream and Cocoa Butter to "discover the tropical secret for softer skin." The women in the ad has darker skin and the ad has a tropical/ Hawaiian vibe to it. In this ad, it also says that the Women of the South Seas have shared their secret to soft skin...and that now your skin can have the best of both world's. 

So basically...if you use this cream, then you can have the soft skin like you are from the Tropics. This ad represents a lot of things to me. (It may be exactly what the author meant, but it is how I interpret it) I think this ad is saying to whites that if you use this product, then you can look just like a natural tropical women. We all know this isn't true!!! All ads have hidden messages, and this one plus many others, portray women non-Western women as inferior to all other women. Why do ads put other cultures or opposite sexes down? 

Representation is a serious thing. An advertisement can have so many hidden messages in it, that it is scary! I mean, if I dont use this Ponds Cream does it mean I dont have soft skin and that I am unnatural? This ad really demonstrates how different cultures are portrayed in ads. I have never even thought about an ad like that until I read this article. 

In conclusion, most ads portray women in a negative light in some way! Whether it is about cultures or sex, women are portrayed badly somehow! It is very sad.

So, I hope this made sense. How things and people are represented is actually a really cool thing to think about. Representation is EVERYWHERE, and it is our job to read things the correct way...and not how advertisements want to be read!

Well, I will wrap this up by finally posting a pic from the Carrie Underwood concert. Carrie Underwood is someone who is represented in the best way in the country music industry :)

The Fat Boy Chronicles

So, it never fails...I get sick every year around Halloween. I feel like my head is the size of a watermelon. To top that off, I havent slept well this past week, so I am incredibly exhausted! Regardless of how I feel though, I still have to work. I still have to go to school. I still have to do papers and projects :) andddd I still have to put on a happy face for the Halloween party I am attending tomorrow night!!! :)

So, in my last blog I said I would write about representation from my text book....well my text book is at home, so I am going to side track a little bit because I am writing this while I am at work.

For this project, I have to have three text references. One will be from my text about representation (i swear it will be my next entry!!!) and the second one will be from a book that I just read for my health and physical science education class.

The book is called The Fat Boy Chronicles. This book was fabulous. It was about a boy however. But, for the purposes of gender studies, what happends in the book can surely happen to women also.

The Fat Boy Chronicles is about a boy named Jimmy who is way over weight for his age. He is a freshman in high school and is 5'5". As you can guess, everyone makes fun of him because of his weight. It is very sad that kids made fun of him so bad!!! So, bullying and body image is the message for this blog. And...this is a true story by the way!

I wont go into details about the book because it is a classic case of a boy in high school that is bullied. However, this book has a happy ending. Jimmy is a Christian boy who loved going to church and who had a very supportive family. With the help of both of his parents, he decided to lose the weight. 60 POUNDS to be exact. He did it in 7 MONTHS!!!! He felt so much better about himself, and even got a girl friend!!! Kids at school still bullied him a little, but the joke was more on them in the end :)

Overall, this book really inspired me to conquer my goals. I have lost almost 30 pounds and still have 20 more to go. I am ready to lose that weight!!!

I liked this book because it can really relate to the problems that women have. It doesnt just teach you about how to diet and get healthy. It teaches a lesson that anyone can use for all of their problems. Jimmy had his faith and family support, but most importantly he had the desire to lose the weight so he literally wouldnt die. By Jimmy conquering his weight, he can use those same methods for all the aspects in his life. 

Women (i know because I am female!) can have many problems, and they can easily let those problems build up on top of one another. However, using coping strategies and having self confidence can truly help you conquer anything!!!!

I guess the moral to this book is to never give up. Jimmy could have killed himself and he did think about it. BUT he didnt. Jimmy knew he was better than that and when he put his mind to something, he achieved his goal.

In today's society, women are under a lot of pressure and I think it is important to hear success stories like Jimmy's to keep us going sometimes. It is so easy to get lost in the world, and the pressure of all of our surroundings is too much sometimes. There are soooo many people getting bullied and pressured for the correct body-image these days, and we really need to sit back and figure out how to stop this epidemic.

Maybe self-confidence is the answer....that's what Jimmy had...???

I encourage everyone to read this book. It is really great and I am very proud of Jimmy for not letting the pressures around him get the best of him. And I hope that everyone reading this does what Jimmy did. Never let people put you down. You be the better person!!! I promise it feels good to have self-confidence...it is probably the best feeling in the world!

CARRIE UNDERWOOD IS AMAZING!!!!!!

Hello loves! So, like I said in my last blog, I had two test yesterday and then I went to the Carrie Underwood concert. Well, although I was soooo super stressed studying for my exams, I am pretty sure I got two A's on my test yesterday! YAY! Go me! It is sooooo nice getting good grades! Then, I attended the Carrie Underwood concert that Billy Curington opened. Billy is pretty sexy!!! He is an awesome singer, and his songs are really fun :)

But the main event was all about 

CARRIE UNDERWOOD

I am amazed at how spectacular she is.

She is my idol and inspiration.

Besides the lights and the cool set, Carrie did things that truly surprised me. Carrie Underwood got her fame from American Idol. She is from an extremely small town and is a devoted Christian. While she was singing Jesus Take The Wheel, She broke into a gospel for about 2 minutes. It was awesome. How many singers today show their faith to everyone? NOT MANY!!!!! Many of her songs either mention her faith or God, and that is truly inspiring. I like being a hard core fan of a singer with wonderful and true values that I have also.

Since this class is about gender studies, I also wanted to talk about how Carrie was represented. Carrie probably had about 6 outfits last night. EVERY ONE of the outfits were classy. She wore two short dresses, but they were never short enough that someone could see something they werent supposed to. She also wore two big dresses, and then had a few cute outfits with leggings and jeans.

So, let me get this straight....she is classy and a Christian...Carrie Underwood is an inspiration and she represents herself so well. She is someone who has never lost sight of what is important in her life. I was in awe last night watching her. She has it all. I think it is rare today to find famous people that are actually good people. Carrie is such an amazing role model, and I am glad I FINALLY got to see her in real life. She is my faveeee! But...I think many singers, actors, etc. lose themselves once they become famous, but Carrie hasn't (and I hope she never does!) and that is awesome.

Some examples of people that have lost themselves are Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. These two girls had three phases in their careers....sweet and innocent, crazy and rebellious, and then to sophisticated and restructured. Although these girls have gotten their lives straightened out, they still lost themselves for a period of time and that was not how they wanted to represent themselves! It is sooo easy to misrepresent yourself in today's culture.

Well, I am at work, so when I get home I will talk more about representation according to my textbook. Representation has been one of my favorite topics in the book and I think it really important in today's society. See you later guys!!!! :)

(Ill also post a pic or two of the concert last night because it was SOOOOOOO super duper awesome!)