Killing Us Softly: Advertising

The average American sees 3,000 ads per day.  That is a lot of ads that we don't even realize that we are seeing.  They are full of subliminal messages that we don't even realize. Like this ad for example.  It shows a women and she is wrapped around in some sort of ribbon where she wouldn't be able to move or even speak.  When you see something like this you don't even think twice about it normally but when you actually look at the ad you wonder why they would make this an ad?  It's like she has been kidnapped and not allowed to talk.  Like she is being taken advantage of or even bondage.  It's a scary thought to think that our children are seeing these types of subliminal messages and don't realize that there's something not right about them.  There are plenty of other ads out there that do the same type of advertising.  Just go through any magazine and you will find tons.  The problem with these types of ads is that they are sending messages that say that women are supposed to be submissive.  That they should not have control of a situation.  That they should be quiet.  A lot of ads show women with their mouths either covered by their hand or some other object.  That's not right.  I thought women gained their rights a long time ago.  There are certain types of ads that I think shouldn't be allowed to be released to the public or even be thought of. It's not okay. 

Patience is a Vertue

One major thing that our society is lacking nowadays is patience.  We want everything NOW NOW NOW and don't care how we get it as long as we don't have to wait for it. We want fast results, fast food, fast cars, to get on the fast track to success, we want a fast pass at amusement parks, high speed internet, faster downloads, everything NOW.  It is a problem with America because the more impatient we get, the more stressed we get and the more frustrated we get.  If we don't take the time to do something right the first time then in the end it's still just wasting our time.  Our country has one of the highest stress rates in the world because we are always on a time crunch.  Someone above us is always wanting something done fast and efficient.  Time is money.  Due to the high stress rates we also have anxiety and insomnia.  How are you supposed to sleep when all you can think about is getting something done fast?  You don't.  Chronic stress also is one of the leading causes of a heart attack.  When you are stressed you have adrenaline that kicks in that is going to be making your heart pump faster and faster, causing your heart to be over worked and your pupils to be constantly dilated and the bronchial of your lungs to be open all the time. This is something that I think can be fixed but it's not going to happen over-night and probably not with my generation because we are so used to having things fast.  It could happen with the next generation though.  We need to stop trying to be so efficient and focus on what we are trying to do. 

How Real is REALity TV?

Reality TV is one of the most popular types of TV in America.  There's all sorts of shows that are game type shows like American Idol and Road Rules and Deal Or No Deal.  Then you have the shows that just throw strangers into a house and let them live together like Real World and Jersey Shore.  Then you have the shows that are Celebrities that are in "reality" like Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Dancing with the Stars.  
Personally I watch reality shows just because they are entertaining and hilarious.  My favorite is Jersey Shore.  I just think that it's hysterical because of all the drama and funny stuff that happens on the show.  I don't think that it's that great for a child to watch because there's a lot of sex and partying.  I was watching the Maury show the other day and on it was a 14 year old girl and her mom thought that she needs help because she is a sex addict and Maury asked her who her role model is and she said Snooky.  Now, generally the role models in peoples lives are athletes and older siblings but we have gotten to the point where children watch these shows and think that it's okay to act like that.  The only reason it's okay for them is because they're good TV.  I would never let my child watch something like that.  It's not good for their mold-able minds.  

Jersey Shore - MTV Shows

Religification: Party Like A Hawkstar

Sports teams are something that is very religified, especially football.  The main religified team that I support is the Hawkeyes.  I am a supporter of the Hawks and go tailgating on the weekends that I don't work but I definately don't belong to the group of people that are the die-hard fans that have season tickets and are there every game rain, snow, or shine who bring tents with heaters.  Those people who take being a fan to the next level.  Those who go on party buses to the away games and no matter how minor the game is, they're there.  I see those people everywhere in Iowa City on game days.  They have tricked out RVs with TVs that pop out of the side and had specially made emblems on the side of the RV.  It's almost as if following the Hawks is their religion.  They have all the black and gold apparel and have the bumper stickers and everything just as any religion would.  They meet somewhere on Melrose to drink and dance and support their team.

Popular Music Encouraging Violence

One of the most popular music especially in my age group is rap/hip hop music.  It seems that a lot of the generations ahead of us aren't too fond of this music because they say that it is very vulgar and this tends to be true.  When you listen to the actual lyrics of a song, you read about how the artist wants to be better than someone, has lots of girls used ONLY for sex, and has lots of money to flaunt.  There is a lot of songs that use "bitch" referring to women or talk about killing someone.  

I am definitely a fan of hip-hop and rap music but I don't always agree with the lyrics.  One of my favorite songs is "Love the way you lie" by Rihanna and Eminem.  The song is about the guy (Eminem) beating his girlfriend.

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

Now I know we said things
Did things that we didn't mean
And we fall back
Into the same patterns same routine
But your temper's just as bad
As mine is You're the same as me
But when it comes to love you're just as blinded
Baby please come back
It wasn't you Baby it was me
Maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is I love you too much
To walk away though
Come inside Pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity
In my voice when I talk told you this is my fault look me in the eyeball
Next time I'm pissed I'll aim my fist at the dry wall
Next time, There will be no next time
I apologize even though I know it's lies
I'm tired of the games I just want her back
I know I'm a liar if she ever tries to fucking leave again
I'mma tie her to the bed
And set the house on fire


In these lyrics he talks about how he felt when he was beating her.  Eminem has always been the headline for controversy with his songs and this is one of his that I actually like, but some of the stuff he says would be inappropriate for some little kid that hears the song and they had this song playing on the radio for a while.  I think our world is just less censored than it used to be.  We are so used to hearing things like this that it doesn't really even phase us anymore to the point where we don't realize what we are singing about when we memorize lyrics.  I never really thought about the meaning of this song until I watched the music video and really paid attention to the words. 

Rap vs. Country

Rap and country music are totally on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to the musical style of the two.  Country is generally slower and you can understand what is coming out of the artists mouth.  Country is more focused on the lyrics than on really the beat of the song.  On the other hand, rap is faster paced and the lyrics are usually pretty hard to understand and even if you do look up lyrics to a song online, you STILL sometimes won't even understand what they are talking about or the point they are trying to get across.

On the outside, these two generes seem completely different, but when you look deeper into it they have a lot of similarities.  When you look at the die hard fans of rap compared to the die hard fans of country, they are actually a lot alike.  I can pretty much bet that 95% of the fans of rap HATE country and the fans of country HATE rap.  Another similarity that they have is that the fans are also both sterotyped a lot.  When you picture a rap music fan or artist, you think of someone who is a gangster type who wears baggy clothes and lots of bling and flaunts their money.  When you think of a country star or fan you think of the cowboy who wears flannel and tight jeans with the big belt buckle and cowboy boots.  Another similarity is that both of these music types originated from the south.  That is something that a lot of people don't even think about.

Popular Culture Media

The Popular Culture media in our society is a good and bad thing. It can be a good thing because anything and everything that we have ever thought about or wondered can be accessed in 2.3 seconds on GOOGLE, Yahoo!, or any other search engine that we have. We also have so many people that are involved with Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. We can find people that we haven't talked to since elementary school or keep in touch with relatives that are 2,000 miles away and send pictures back and forth that would have never been seen if it weren't for Facebook.  My 70 year old grandparents have Facebooks and comment on my things that I have and understand the basic knowledge of how it works.  I also have an aunt that lives in Korea that used to live with me and we can keep up with each others lives and can see each other live on Skype.  Also it has become more and more common to use internet dating sites.  According to Match.com 1 in 5 relationships are started by an internet dating site.  It's amazing what our world has become.

But on the other hand it's not all clouds and rainbows.  Facebook and Twitter have evolved into cyber-bullying central.  There was a story that I read in a magazine about a kid who was a freshman in high school who committed suicide because his roommate left his web cam on and recorded this kid kissing another guy.  The roommate displayed the video on facebook and Twitter-ed that his roommate was in fact gay.  Since when has being a homosexual become a taboo again?  Who cares?  I really think that this roommate of his is just so bored with his own life that he tries to get into this kids life and try to ruin it.  He is not the only victim of cyber-bullying.  It's sad that something that was supposed to be a good thing has turned evil.  There is also the problem with older men pretending to be younger and talking to younger girls and getting caught for it on Dateline's To Catch A Predator.   When I was younger and used AIM, my parents would be crazy about pounding into my head to not talk to anyone that I didn't know personally.  There is also a HUGE problem with kids being addicted to video games at such a young age.  My brother is 11 and since he was like 9 he has had a Nintendo Gameboy thing and the PSP.  He would go through days where that was all he would do WHEN HE WAS ONLY 9!  When I was 9 years old I was a dirtball who was always outside catching bugs and making tree houses.  And the worst part is that my parents have a pool and a trampoline in their backyard that would never be used.  Then my parents decided that enough was enough so they stopped buying him all of the games that he wanted and took his hand held games away and he has yet to have them. Now he will go outside and play from the morning until it's dark.  I think that a lot more parents need to do the same thing.  I also dated this guy in high school that would spend hours and hours playing this real life game called WOW.  Obviously I am not with him anymore, but when I was he would ditch me and not want to hang out because of this stupid game.  And he would spend like $30 a month on his membership for it. He was literally addicted.  This isn't an abnormal situation and it's really sad.

Tough Guise

To me, I find it difficult to really believe that there is a direct link between violence in the media, and violence in children.  It's not the violence that is making kids more aggressive and mean, it's the way that they are taught they have to act to get respect from other boys. Men and boys often use violence to hide their vulnerability, but in reality...nobody is 100% "tough". No matter who you are, whether you're a murderer or a bully at school, there is SOMETHING that will trigger you and that gets to you. I just watched the newest Friday the 13th movie the other day and in that movie Jason kills people because of his mother. She was crazy and killed a bunch of camp councelors and this one girl eventually killed her. So Jason goes on a rampage. But in the movie, there is this one girl that he runs into, he doesn't kill her because she finds this necklace of his mothers and wears it, and he softens up. My whole point is that no matter who you are, how tough you think you are, there is something that you will or have gone through that you cry.

But that leads to the next problem that I see in that movie and lots of other slasher movies. For some reason, there ALWAYS has to be a vulnerable beautiful women either get naked or take a shower or something right before she dies. That is also the case in Friday The 13th. There is a man and women having sex right on the screen, clear as day, and you can see her full out breasts and everything, and then 2 minutes after, she gets killed. I don't understand why these movies are like that. Its like they arouse every man out there watching the movie and before you know it, they're dead in the goriest way. It's sick. No wonder we have men who love crazy sh** like bondage and gaggers and whips. It's like our society has no problem how we sexualize violence.

In the Tough Guise movie, Jackson Katz tries to help us understand masculinity. In the media, the bodies of superheroes has changed dramatically.  The body has become a killing machine in itself. (ie: RAMBO) It also shows how men of color are thought to be scarier and not mess with them, so then white guys will try to act like them. Being a "real man" is taugh to be related to the black urban style. The irony of it all is that black men get their ideas of masculinity from the Italian mobster movies like the Godfather, and white guys get their ideas of masculinity from the black guys who in turn are getting their ideas from white guys. It's all just a big circle. The reason that school shootings happen is because of the kids that get bullied. They get fed up with being pushed around and picked on that they just snap. They are generally the scrony, nerdyish kids, so they make up for not having a strong body to fight back, by having a gun as their power. 

The whole thing is that violence is not the problem...violent MASCULINITY is the problem. Its boys and men thinking that they need to fight eachother to show who's the bigger man. But honestly, who are they trying to impress? I speak for myself saying that if a guy gets into a fight with another guy, it's definately a turn off. I've had guys get in fights over me before and guess which guy I always chose...the one who didn't fight back. To me, fighting is just a sign of immaturity. If you are confident in yourself that you think you have to prove yourself to me by FIGHTING, then you still have the mindset of a 12 year old.

Killings have always been a problem between boys, but it was always in the "urban areas" that these things were happening, which is what is expected in our society. We think that socioeconomic status has everything to do with shootings and gang fights. Now that their is "normal" boys bringing guns to SCHOOL it's a different story. We need to take our focus off of the pathological killers and focus more on "normal" kids gone bad because they can do the most damage. This leads to the topic of men having depression. Men have a problem with having the mindset that they are "fine" and "I don't want to talk about it". Men tend to think that if they express their feelings to anyone that they are showing weakness. Look at the kids who were involved with the Columbine shooting, or Virginia Tech. These are "normal" men who for some reason or another killed others and themselves. To me, that is depression at it's finest. These men are emotionally immature and don't know what to do with themselves so they decide not to deal with it anymore by killing the ones that hurt them, and themselves. 

There has to be something that we can do to stop the violence of men against women, and other men.

What Makes a Man a MAN?

To me, whether a man is athletic or not doesn't define whether they are masculine or not. It would be awesome if they had the same interests in sports as me, but its not the defining factor. What makes a man a man to me is more the hardworking protector that I know that I can rely on to keep me safe and to take care of me. I want someone who doesn't just expect things to get handed to them. I've dated my fair share of those type of guys and the relationship usually goes nowhere because they expect to not have to contribute anything to the relationship. There's something about a blue collar worker that I picture as being a MAN. A guy who drives a truck and can be a handyman with anything. They don't usually make a whole lot of money unless they are the hot shot guys running the show, but i find that blue collar workers usually take more pride in what they do than the "average joe".  I don't want some CEO of a company who drives a Mercedes and wears suits all day. Give me hard working MAN. :)

Past Articles

The past 6 articles have been pretty interesting so far. I'm not necessarily a fan of the ones that come out of the book, Discovering Popular Culture. Yes, they are shorter, but you don't get as much information out of them. They are kind of just to the point and that's it. The atricles that Chuck Klosterman writes are much more entertaining and flat out hilarious to read. They keep me more engaged than the others so they are easy to get through. My favorite one has definately been the Marilyn vs Pam one, when he refers to Pamela Andersen as an "orgasmitron"...all I could think about is that Orgasmitron could be Pam's Trasformers name.

Pornography

Pornography used to be something of a taboo. Something not heard of. And now you look around and it's everywhere..you can't escape it. It's mostly displayed right in your homes on the internet. You get pop ups, you get side bar advertisements on the websites you go to. Anymore, when you try to google something as simple as a picture of a fireman or cop or even an elderly person, the first page of photos that you're going to get are half naked or even naked people. 

I don't even really understand the whole reason for pornography. It's not really benefitting anyone except making wives and girlfriends mad. What's the point in it? If your sex life is so horrible that you resort to watching some middle aged women give a BJ while you jerk off to yourself, then you have some problems. Like are guys so simple minded that they don't realize the difference between virtual reality and reality?

When pornography was started, it took off in sales because of the internet. There are $3,075 a second spent on porn. That is absolutely ridiculous. We should be ashamed of ourselves for spending THAT much money on something so disgusting. Now that porn has become something so open and normal, there are people out there making their own porns (ameture porn) and displaying it for the world to see..FOR FREE. Now why would people spend money on something that they can get for free? They wouldn't. So thanks to the internet who made the porn industry take off, it is now tearing it down. Can you even imagine a world without porn?

Marilyn Monroe vs Pamela Anderson

Pamela Andersen and Marilyn Monroe are both defined as being physically attractive. But there are different kinds of "attractive"..Monroe is the classy "girl next door" beautiful and Andersen is that tough trashy attractive. Andersen I think comes off that way because of how big her physical assets are and how much make-up she uses and the way she presents herself. Monroe is the type of girl that you would like to take home to your mother.

As a society, I don't think that we truely understand what beauty is. What defines a women as beautiful. We are so obsessed with the physical aspect of beauty, but it's much more than that. Beauty is outer AND inner appearance. But thanks to the media, being truely beautiful without make up or cosmetic surgery has become a nearly impossible task. What we need to all understand as a society is that our imperfections, our differences are what makes us all different. What makes us beautiful.

We need to stop judging ourselves and look in the mirror and realize what it is that makes us beautiful.