White Guilt

Yesterday in class we looked at two different papers which, under Resources in Oncourse, are titled Race Relations. The first paper specifically caught my attention. It was done by an African American woman who says, "I will never claim America as my country." Her reasoning was that it was built on the backs of her people through enslavement. On the one hand I can understand where she is coming from. Not entirely, because obviously I do not share her race. But I understand how the thought of her ancestors being enslaved would be upsetting. However, I believe it is wrong that she doesn't recognize all of the great opportunities and freedoms this country has provided her. Not just her, but all of us for that matter. I have never understood why my peers and also fellow Americans, take our Land of the Free for granted. Perhaps because of their lack of proper education in our country's history. I don't know. Regardless, my point is that she didn't give recognition to the beneficial America in which she currently lives. Feel free to travel to any other country in the world, become a citizen and see if you receive the same freedoms you do here. It won't happen. Also, it was very insulting that she seemed to be pointing the finger at us "white folk" as if it were all our fault. I'm sorry, but slavery ended a long time ago and neither myself, my mother, my grandmother, or great grandmother can be held personally responsible for that. Oh and by the way, you weren't a part of that era either. I seriously doubt anyone ever came to your residence, snatched you from your household, took you to another country by way of ship and sea, put you in chains and made you work for nothing. If this has happened to you, I will withdraw my position. Don't get me wrong, I know and believe whole heartedly that slavery was totally and completely incorrect. But there is no reason to create this feeling of "White Guilt." I mean, for chrissake, when I was looking at scholarships for college, there were more available to African Americans than there were for me! If anything, we "white people" are becoming the subjects of racism and that's just as wrong as it ever has been for anyone else. I propose we all stop pointing fingers. I also propose that we stop pretending that we don't see "color." Clearly, we all are different. That is what makes us great. It is once we learn to accept these differences and appreciate what each race has to contribute to the world, that we will all live together in peace and understanding.

Voting to my label association

I guess one issue I have with what we have been talking during this class is that everything must have a label applied to it. We are constantly hearing that someone is liberal, conservative, Christian, atheist, republican, democrat, black, white, Asian, and so on. We are also being constantly hounded about needing to conform to society, but isn’t this only due to have a label affixed to a person.  If were truly without label then we would not have something to conform to and we would be free to be our own person and to make our own choices.  Now I accept that we do have labels for a reason, it is a way of identification our association within a particular group.  It is when we make that identification the sole statement of a person or the only way we identify with that person that it goes too far. For example, I am studying at a college so I am a student, but to say that due to my being a student means that I voted within a certain political affiliation is wrong.  This is what we heard in the last presidential election, it was widely proclaimed that due to someone being a student they were going to vote for Barack Obama. Maybe I did and maybe I didn’t, if I did was it because I am a student, or did I look at both candidates and choose who I thought would be best for the job? If I voted for McCain was it due to me being a conservative, or was it because I once again thought he was the best man for the job? Applying a label in this case would be wrong as according to both labels I should have voted for both.

Work in progress

I think Ive made the finishing touches to my image analysis paper. At least for the purpose of a peer review. Im not one hundred percent sure that I wrote my paper to the standard or expectations placed toward everyone else because i missed the first day of discussion on the paper. But i spent the majority of my time focusing on describing the image in all possible aspects that were apparent to me. I covered not only each individual person in my image, but the background and foreground to the image. As well as the palcement of the logos. This correlates with my thesis which makes the claim that american advertising relies on subliminal messaging and false imaging to makes the tension by causing people to have to question the things that may have ben taken for granted before. As i said, not sure if this was the intent of the paper, but this was my take on it.

Ethical Sexual Ads

A study found that sexual appeals are used often in advertising. Sex does catch people's attention in advertisements, but usually without much brand recognition. Woman have been the primary focus in sexual ads in the past and present, but men are starting to be used more often ad the sexual objects in similar ads. Ethics play a definite role. There is no clear view of what is ethical and what is unethical when it comes to advertising, but with careful consideration and planning, it could be possible for advertisers to find a common ground and use sexual appeals without offending people in the process. It is important to take the audience that will be viewing the ad into consideration before adding sex appeal into it. Ethical issues involving sexual appeal in commercials are more controversial than those in print advertisements due to the high number of viewers that see the commercial. Sexual commercials have many type and consist of a variety of element. Commercials often involve visual elements such as attractive models, and they may portray different degrees of nudity and suggestive poses. Commercial not only use visual elements for sexuality, but also verbal and sometimes music. There are ways to limit exposure the sexual appeal that need to be explored by ad companies.

Does sex in advertising sell?

Posture Photos vs Star Wars

Just today I came across an interesting story that I never heard before that goes along with our class assignment.  Apparently a group of scientists were taking the image analysis thing a little too far by taking nude posture photos of all incoming freshmen at Ivy League schools. They thought they could determine social, intellectual, and economic outcomes based on body type. The scientists felt that by studying the bodies of those admitted to these top schools they could breed a super race, the idea for this came from studies conducted by the Nazis in World War II.

While I agree that pictures will tell us quite a bit about a person I don’t think this is one of those things.  I don’t think you would be able to create a whole new class of individuals just by comparing waist sizes.  At times I feel that we over-analyze situations, on one hand it is a good idea to delve into the background and backstory in order to find the deeper meaning but I sometimes wonder if we are missing the mark.  Are we delving too deep, isn’t it possible that a picture of a family is just that, a picture of the family with no special meaning.  Maybe the picture just works better with the parents sitting down with the kids standing around them versus the parents standing and the kids sitting.  Of course Star Wars was probably just meant to be a good entertaining movie and not an epic story of good vs evil and the redemption of a fallen man.

Photo's through time

Our past class got me thinking, and about something that I had never really considered before. The fact that we as a society have greatly changed the way we stand for pictures. Now it is safe to say that anything goes except what was mandatory 50 years back. Back in these times people stood very posed and solemn. It was rare for people to even smile. Now you look like a total idiot if your caught not smiling in a picture! 50 years ago if you where smiling, especially if you were male, it looked odd. Smiling was reserved for children who even were oddly rarely caught in mid grin.
I think the main reason these things have changed because we as a whole have loosened up. We don't stand solemn and posed because we are rarely like this is normal day-to-day life. During these times it was more about who you were perceived to be rather than who you exactly where. Now it is much more acceptable to express you own individuality. Today's generation is also much more willing to get into a picture. I know from my experiences with older people that they will normally avoid pictures at all cost. I think something can be said for all of these trends. Though this is not the way I am going with my essay, it would be interesting to see this all thought out.

Images _Emily Thurston

Today in class the subject came up that images do not have the power to negatively affect people. I just wanted to discuss the topic more because I feel that images really do have the power to affect people’s thoughts about themselves mentally and physically in a positive and negative manner. Eating disorders are usually caused because the person has a distorted image of their body in their mind. They feel that they are not as skinny or as beautiful as they should be. Where do people get this idea of how skinny they should be and what beauty is? Obviously they do not get this image form the just our culture because he average woman weighs 140 pounds and is 5’3. They get this image of beauty from WHAT our culture values and who is positively reward for their actions. You rarely see the girl who weighs 170 pounds and is 5’3 staring in a TV show or movie normally she is tall and extremely thin. Our society grows to expect this unrealistic view of what we should look like. Saying that images can only effective them if they let you is also unrealistic. If you are constantly falling short of the idea of what beauty is to your culture it is most definitely going to affect the thoughts you have about yourself. How images could negatively affect men is for example think about the axe commercials. In this commercial the average looking man has extremely attractive women all over him; this is not reality for the average looking man. Seeing yourself fall short of the message they portray in this image could possibly hurt your ego and make you start to question your “game” or even your own image. Images have a lot of power if they didn’t have power then things like the Cross, Star of David, and peace sign would have no meaning to and you would have no idea what I was talking about. But I guarantee you can picture the image of at least one of the above symbols named which proves images do affect you and you most definitely notice them and take to heart what they mean.

Image Analysis

I know we have yet to start our image analysis but I thought it would be a good time to do a blog to get other people’s opinions . At first, I couldn’t find any pictures that I really liked enough to write about and it was even harder to find some that can be related. I did end up finding ONE picture but I don’t have any ideas for another. The picture is that of a fetus’ hand reaching out of the womb and grabbing a surgeons hand as he is finishing operating on the baby. I personally believe the image is a very strong and effective one. Although, I am having trouble finding another picture to be relatable. I did consider prochoice or prolife pictures but I haven’t decided if abortion is not such a good topic. I will not state what I believe in at the moment, but I found a picture that is more prochoice. It is a picture of a baby with a ribbon on him and a tag that says “From God.” Too much? I don’t think so. But I do think it is a strong subject that can be easily depicted through pictures but are still able to be effective. Suggestions?