Sunday, March 31, 2013

Talking Points #8 (Argument)



Kimmel argues that all school shooting have the same thing in common: masculinity. Therefore in order to understand the shootings we must take into consideration gender specifically the constellation of adolescent masculinity, homophobia and violence.

I am going to agree with Kimmel on this one, gender is a huge factor in these shootings, but why is the real question. Boys are thought to be tough, strong to the point of even violent at times, vulgar especially to girls, physically fit, and most importantly not a girl. I can only imagine a boy in school who does not fit into these criteria, the shame and humiliation he must get from his peers. the torture he must go through on a day to day basis in a place where he is supposed to be safe. I am sure many of these boys went up to teachers and principals and told but no one listened.

Why not girls? I think the answer to this might be that girls can pass easily as either a lesbian or straight, also girls can go back and forth without any consequences and its okay for her to do so. A boy on the other hand cannot.

This might also answer the question as to why only boys open fire and not girls, since they are also getting tortured and picked on. One side of it might be that girls are not as severely damaged as boys are, and to boys might be more of a pride thing and proving something, to themselves and also to everyone else.

I also noticed that every time there is shooting; the news and the media want to then make this teenager a bad person: gangster, bully, came from an unstable family, or was abused as a child, teen violence, etc., but then of course overlook gender. The reason all these excuses come up is because all or most school shootings occur in white neighborhoods by white kids, so media wants to make sure they give a reason that the public would be okay with and not ask too many questions. I found this Wikipedia of school shootings in the United States alone, and I can’t even express in this blog my initial reaction to it.

Here are some of the faces of some of the suspects of a few of the recent shootings:

 














Smile :)
kt

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Media Final Project

Topic:
Stereotypical Representations of Black Youth in American media

Group Members:
Myself

Smile :)
kt



Talking Points #7 (Connection)



I want to connect this text Cinderella Ate My Daughter to the movie we watched in class Brave.
I think the main connection I saw was in the text when Orenstein talks about her daughter having the first ever fight with her best friend in school, and that fight was precisely about who can be the princess. The main idea of this fight was that there can only be one princess therefore one of them couldn’t be. Is this taken very seriously and if Orenstein wouldn’t have told her daughter to apologize that could’ve ended their friendship forever.
In Brave we see this same kind of competition, when the clans arrive with their first born sons to compete for Merida’s hand in marriage and become the prince, again because there can only be one, and competition between them must be involved in order to win the throne. 


This need for competition and need to be the only person able to shine is embedded in us from a young age. We grow up wanting to be the fastest, biggest, better, the center of attention, etc… There is I think no "safe" competition, because there always has to be a winner and on the other side of that coin there must be a loser, this can bring about anger, fear, low self-esteem, and many other feelings in any person. This article about competition tries to soften the blow.
This can torn apart families and friendships because in order to want this so bad for yourself, one I think must have greed and a sense of feeling that you are better than everyone else.
My question is why can’t we just work together to be one great unity of many different styles and ideas.
In Cinderella for example: why can’t all the girls in the house have a nice dress, be beautiful and pleasant? Why do we always have the need for competition and the need to belittle others in order to make us feel better about ourselves?
This also ties into all the discourses we’ve been talking about in class that are feed to us via the media, we watch these movies, shows, videos, etc. … judge whoever is on the other side and say to ourselves “at least I’m not like them”. I think this is a horrible way of doing better or trying to do better for you, by belittling others.

Smile :)
kt

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Talking Posts #6: Final Project Ideas

Wow!
Thinking about final already. This actually gets me very excited because it means that I will soon graduate :).
Ok so I did not put up my post by Sunday night because I had no idea on what to do it on, but after reading my classmates ideas, I got one of my own, not sure if it'll work.
So, my idea is to do something with the Spanish teen community and tie it together with the idea of discourse and the themes we have learned about thus far and the ones to come.
What I would use for an artifact, not sure at this moment to tell you the truth but what I'm sure of is that I'll think of something soon enough.

Smile :)
kt

Monday, March 4, 2013

Midterm Assessment Talking Points

sooooooo.......
all i can say at this point is that ....

1. i do have all my information written down on a piece of paper (yay me!)
2. i am trying to do an xtranormal video BUT i guess i can only use 2 actors .... soooo i am extremely frustrated and confused on how to use the damn thing.
3. aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! i'm going to end up pulling the little bit of hair that i have out .... i will be bald by class time.
4. i don't really have a 4 lol

ummmmm ......
i was very excited at first about this project and had it all mapped out in my little old head....
and now it seems like its a disaster .....
nothing came out like i thought it would :(
i'm so sad and disappointed ..... sucks!!!
a very frustrating process ...

well y'all can be the judge of it tomorrow .....

ok well i'm over it lol

smile :)
kt