boys looking like girls and girls looking like boys.

I've always found it strange how much more attention a guy gets when he dresses and acts like a girl than a girl gets when she dresses like a boy. It's for some reason much more controversial to see a guy dressing as a girl. I don't undesrtand why there's such a larger issue. Maybe it's because society thinks that it's more acceptable to be a boy than to be a girl. I may be thinking too deeply into this, but maybe there's some truth to this thought.

I can't help but be reminded of a song that Madonna wrote called, "What It Feels Like for a Girl." The song basically revolves around what I'm talking about here. Here's a few of the strongest lines from the song:

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
'Cause it's OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading
But secretly you'd love to know what it's like
Wouldn't you
What it feels like for a girl

I think there is a deeper issue embedded in society's outlook on the difference between males and females. I would have no idea where to start on this. I think it just all relates back to society's inability to adapt to new things. We haven't yet let go of racism. We still have yet to see men and women as equals. Though society as a whole might be close to it, discrimination like this will always exist. We can never wipe it out. That's why girls looking like boys is no big deal. But for a boy to dress like a girl is still so taboo.

I have a bone to pick with the rap genre

To me, there are a lot of problems with the current rap generation. Aside from the incorrect grammar and degrading terms rappers use to address themselves and women, the videos make things worse. I never realized before this class just how up in arms I can get about stereotyping women, but I'm seeing myself getting bothered by it more and more. I guess the thing that bothers me the most about the videos are that the women play no other role than just standing there barely dressed. They're silent. They get groped. They get rubbed on. Hell, they grope and rub on other people. But they play no other role! They dont'! It's very bothersome to me that women are silent in these videos. Until they occasionally say something in a cute baby voice like, "yeah, daddy" or something like that, they're just there for visual purposes. Rap videos are on all the time on stations like FUSE, IMF, MTV2, etc. Young people religiously watch these stations, and this is what we're showing them? They're seeing that it's okay to sexually objectify women. Young girls are going to start thinking that it's their duty to rub on guys, to be touched by guys, to be silent while they are the main event.

It disgusts me.

Again with Unilever and Axe

It is a mixed message that Unilever is sending out. With the Dove campaigns for real beauty trying to focus on protecting the young women of the future, why would Unilever carry such an opposite brand like Axe? It just doesn't seem like a good thing to do. They're aiming at two different ends of the sepctrum with these types of advertising. You've got trying to preserve the minds of young women by telling them it's okay to be who you are, no matter what you look like. Then you've got Axe who perpetuates the stereotype of women as sex objects. I don't know. I've already rambled about the whole Axe thing before. I guess I'm just slightly disturbed by Unilever with this. I didn't know that both brands belonged to Unilever until this class.

It's pretty messed up.

Black or African American

This is actually a very touchy situation. In reading that article, I am suprised to see that black people would prefer to be called black instead of african american. But just because an article says that most if not all people in a certain group says they'd like to be labeled a certain way, it doesn't mean that you can assume this in conversations with them. I've had the conversation several times regarding how to identify black people.

For instance, I have a friend who is a waiter and he told me about a situation that didn't go over so well. He was training a new waiter one day and asked him to take some food item to a table. The person in training said, "Who do you want me to take this to?" My friend responded, "The black guy at that table over there." The person in training acted very offended by that statement and confronted my friend about it. From that point on, he made it a point to be sure to identify a person by their clothing or what they were eating.

Whatever the case is, you simply cannot please an entire group of people. Some are very concerned about their label while others just don't care and would rather just be considered just like everybody else. I personally don't know how to approach this situation. I think I still hear in commercials the term 'african american.' All in all, labels are ridiculous and have only caused problems.

In Response to Axe

It's been tough for me to figure out if I should laugh at or be mad at the new Axe ads that have come out recently. As an advertising major, my instinct is of course to laugh since they've done such a good job creating ridiculous ads (my favorite kind of all). But at the same time, as a female, I can't help but be put off a bit in the way that we're depicted as sense-driven animalistic sex fiends.

It gets a little old seeing women portrayed in the same manner over and over again. Though their "Bom-Chicka Wow Wow" campaign is innovative, it's just the same idea that's been done a thousand times before. Just showing women as sexual objects, even if we're not the ones being objectified. It still focuses on the idea that sex sells, and in this case, it's working. I can only imagine the profits they've earned since they began running these ads.

But no matter what, I'm still an advertising major, and I do find a great deal of humor in these ads.

Homoeroticism in the media

Considering what we've been discussing about in class lately and what we've been reading, I decided to pay attention to homosexuality in commercials and in other forms of media. I definitely notice the depiction of women as lesbians more than I have seen men as homosexuals. I think that homosexuality in the media focuses more on touching on fantasies more than allowing them to express their sexuality in a free and loving way, if that makes sense. That being said, women are more easily accepted as homosexuals because of the fact that it in some sick way is more socially acceptable than gay men. I believe women are more easily transformed into sexual objects, especially as lesbians, because we've been broken down in the media from humans into body parts.

Either way, it's still quite taboo to have homosexuals in the media as much of the public can be seen as homophobic. Even if someone isn't very sensitive to homosexuality in ads, advertisers often take it to an extreme which can make a very open-minded person uncomfortable.

We're still too stuck in the same mindset regarding the media to move forward and accept different sexualities, religions, etc.

Disabilities in the media

I didn't pay a lot of attention to how people with disabilities were portrayed in the media until I started this class a month ago. It just so happened that I saw a report not too long ago about young children that had a crippling disease and how they were sent to this wonderful camp over the summer. These children were not much different from many other children their age in terms of their mental status, but they were treated as if they were incapable of understanding as well their peers. I don't want to say that they were belittled, but they were just in a very cushy environment with very positive people constantly telling them how great they were.

I think the thing that bothered me the most is that I never see any other type of reporting on people with disabilities. They are always in a victim-like position, which is understandable as a disability is not something anybody can help. However, people with disabilites are not incapable of living rather normal lives. They often want to be treated like you would treat anybody.

Either way, there is a very sensitive tone taken when reporting on people with disabilities. You VERY rarely see them in any other light. The other thing is when they report on someone with a disability and how they are living a normal life. The fact that there has to be a report on them telling people that they live a normal life actually prevents them from blending in with society.

My Thoughts on the Jena 6 Controversy

I felt out of the loop when I discovered the Jena 6 issue on the news just about a month ago. I was watching CNN and heard this really deeply disturbing story about a racial feud going on in a small town in Louisiana. Once I got the whole story, I was pretty upset at what's going on. I feel that the charges against the 6 students are completely outrageous and uncalled for. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be punished for the injuries they caused to the white student (if in fact they are the ones who committed that crime), but conspiracy to commit murder? Teenagers beat up teenagers every single day, but rarely are any charged with this serious of a crime.



Aside from the attack on that student, I was rather upset at the fact that there are still so many problems with racism in our nation. However, the media is handling it well, as I've seen all sides of the story being reported. Although I have noticed that I've seen mostly black reporters in Jena giving the newest bit of information. I suppose that's just stray away from any time of discrimination in an area where tensions are very thick at the moment.

News Coverage Entry

I like to consider myself very knowledgeable of current events. Each morning I watch the news as I get ready. For roughly one hour I watch the local news as I'm getting ready, then I change to national news as I'm wrapping up the morning and heading to work. I do this every work day, but I typically watch the national news during the weekend to keep up with what's going on. Of all the channels that are out there, I watch Fox 4 (ugh) for local news and MSNBC for national news (yay).

As far as non-televised news goes, I typically only read news from MSNBC. I'm rather partial to them because they seem to be the network that provides the best unbiased coverage, and if it's not always unbiased, it's at least leaning to the side I'm more in touch with. They're the least ridiculous of the television networks. I don't typically read the paper as I don't subscribe to one. The only print news I typically read is from Newsweek, and that's typically because someone else has just left a copy sitting around and I have a free minute or so to flip through it.

I would say that on an average day, I seek out roughly 2.5 - 3 hours of news coverage, mostly in the morning. Nightly local news coverage is usually full of "filler" news, so I don't typically watch that at night. In the evenings, I'll probably turn it to MSNBC again to see if I've missed anything big.

In regards to the final quesiton, I do notice a difference in the way certain issues are handled in news coverage. With a station like MSNBC, they often handle topics about race and gender issues with an open mind. They usually have someone from both sides come in and defend their stance, and I appreciate that, but I know that several other news stations don't take that same approach. Some stations just report on what they agree with, and that often deters many people. I also notice a difference in the way issues are reported regarding genders. Men in the media are often judged very quickly, beaten down by the system, etc. However, I often notice that women are reported on with a more muted tone. For instance, if a man commits murder, he is often a criminal without second guess. He did something terribly wrong, and it seems as if there is a "no excuse" attitude towards it. However, if a woman commits murder, the media often reports it as if it's due to an underlying mental flaw caused by some devastating event in her life, often caused by men. Women aren't allowed to be cold-blooded killers. I think that the media still wants to portray women as loving housewives, but it's not always the case.

I don't think that people from all backgrounds are ever going to be treated equally in the news. We're too comfortable being able to stereotype and make assumptions to change.