Reflection, the Finale

Taking a look back at the times where I'd stay up late watching TV, I remember that I watched a lot of infomercials and even today, due to basic cable, see a lot of infomercials too. When I'm at my grandparents, eating dinner, my relatives typically turn on the news channel in the dining room and I listen in to the stories, and when I'm done eating, I sit in the family room where the news is also being broadcasted. When I use the internet, there are tons and tons of stories about what's going on in the world. So basically, I'm exposed to the media every single day, even from people who talk about what's going on in the world. When I hear these stories, it immediately goes to the part of my brain of the value systems, and then it affects my view on reality, as the media is able to make reality assumptions. The media actually is shaping my brain to believe that different things are going on in the world and they're my only way to figure this out.

Being aware of the way the media is producing things is actually very important. Because they're allowed to manipulate words, events, stories, etc. like in the news or for a product, they can basically control what we think with a few simple words. I believe limiting the media only to advertisers is silly; isn't the news just advertising the things going on in real life? You can apply lots of the things used to analyze and break down advertisements to the news broadcasts.

When I watch the news, I realize they typically pick stories of bad things that have happened and those typically have the most coverage due to the amount of viewers they gain for those stories being interesting. After critical thinking, I've used some of the habits to debunk these stories and understand why they come first. Even in the drama I was watching, Pinocchio, they focused a lot on how the media coverage is used to derail our minds from what's really being presented. Like when a certain news station covers an event such as a police shooting or anything in the media that covers the police shootings, I find myself having problems joining the outrageous bandwagon every other person seems to be along; the "fact" that all police are bad or corrupt. Through tentativeness and keeping an open mind, I've been questioning why people have been judging the police force to be like this, an recently I saw the effect of this as police officers now have to wear cameras on their bodies to monitor behavior. The media can make any hero a villain, and can also make any villain a hero. I remember during this one discussion about media in some class where we looked at a video of the police officer beating up a person on the highway quite violently. When I chose to speak, I talked about how it was too quick to assume that the police officer was "evil" and that we should analyze all the facts before we jump to conclusions.

The media, in my opinion, is an evil institution. It takes what's going on in the world and twists it in some way that denies the facts and leads to speculation. While not all of the media is like this, many of the companies for advertising and broadcasting are manipulative and don't realize the weight of their words, or do and use this to brainwash us. The uneducated masses suffer the worst because they're typically found following the crowd.

"I don't think of broadcasting as a joke. With one word, you can kill a person. That is what broadcasting is. How would I dare to think that it is a joke?" -Choi Dal Po, Pinocchio

Miss Representation GET IT? Because it's about females...

So, within the video we watched in class, and also common knowledge, I have learned that America is basically a male dominated nation. By this, I mean the ideas, actions, etc. are typically made by men, for men, without ever having any consent to women and their perspectives.

There was talk about how the media typically portrays women for their bodies only and typically not their minds. They also talked about how the media trains men to care only about how the woman looks and not who they really are. And they try to put the idea that women's bodies are the only thing that are important into women. While agree this is true, I dislike the way the people in the video talked about this. Basically, to me, the "opposition," the opposite gender, I see it as them saying that EVERY male thinks this way; that women should be judged based on appearance. I beg to differ. That's basically like me saying every women likes a man who looks handsome; which is actually a double standard that is not as often portrayed by the media. Typically, the media objectifies women, a term that has been used quite a lot by feminists recently. I have to agree, that seems like it's the case today for the majority of teenagers (from my experience). I walk down the hall, see my friends, whatever interaction I have with guys and I realize; these guys are super shallow. They only care about how a girl looks rather than getting to know her and finding out who she is before they can make a judgement on her. Personally, whenever I talk to someone, no matter who it is, I am interested in who they are, I always worry about how they're doing; but that's just me. Honestly, making someone an object seems dehumanizing, a term coined in the video, and this is probably the biggest part I have to agree on.


When I walk downtown or in a mall, I notice that the majority of advertisements that advertise aesthetics like makeup, clothing, jewelry, etc. are mainly of women. Probably one of the more well known of these is the Victoria's Secret line of advertising. Typically portraying scantily-clad women or a woman. While I understand they are trying to show off products, I can't help but notice the big sign that says, "I l<3ve my body." This is pretty discouraging because I know from just general knowledge that people go to shopping centers and watch TV that have these sort of images. And these images and messages inject into our brains that the only things that women should care about, or that anyone should care about, is their bodies.

I honestly feel like this is what makes things worse in the world. Because people are naturally self-conscious. Nobody likes being told, "Hey, you're ugly," "You're fat," "You're different because you don't buy the same designer brands I have," whatever insult about how you look. Now caring about your body is a good thing, like if you want to be healthy, that's important cause you know, dying isn't good in most people's minds. But being happy in your body is seriously what the media is trying to manipulate. A bit ago, I heard that girls really cared about this thing called a "thigh gap" where there is a gap in your thighs typically brought on by lack of muscle or mass in the legs that produces this. And girls would go out of their way to even just make their entire body look good in the eyes of other people.

But that's just the thing; instead of trying to look good for themselves, they try to look good for other people. The message of the media, you don't look good, try to be as "perfect" as our models, buy our product, whatever it is. Do this so people will love you because you look good. They don't care what you think, they don't care how you feel, they only want your body. That's the media's ideas that are meant for women.

Of course, my standpoint should probably matter here since this is my blog post. Honestly, I feel no one should be limited by their body or even really care about how they look. I mean if you want to look good for YOURSELF, then by all means go for it. Nobody's input is more important than your own because you will always judge yourself harder than anyone else does. I like to always think of the song, New Beautiful, by the group Epik High which basically tells you that other people's viewpoints don't matter because you are beautiful as you are. As different as you are, your opinion is the only thing that matters because nobody really knows you as good as yourself.

"If beauty is not talent, but being included, and harmoniously blooming into a flower, you can go do that."

"The world’s fingers pointing at me, only trying to give me orders.
It’s an irregularity, not a foul play, so why am I the only one who gets a yellow card?
Not everyone is like Picasso just because they have a slanted, close view.
I’m me, you’re you, you look at me with different colours, only."

The song has such a deep meaning to it, and I think more people should realize this viewpoint instead of stubbornly sticking to their views on the world. I'm willing to listen to how you think, why are you not willing to listen to how I think?

But I digress. Honestly, the media is extremely manipulative in how it deals with the minds of our society. The media makes our nation and sets our ideals. It's the strongest form of idea spreading. People need to realized the weight of the words they carry and how disgusting their words can really be. The media can make anyone beautiful, but the media can also make anyone ugly. The women can make humanity, but the media can also make objects.

Calvin and Hobbes Insight

Whenever I read the comic, Calvin and Hobbes, I find myself lost in thought at the amount of depth that Bill Watterson put into his comics that I, years ago, would have never thought of.

Take this for example. It seems like some ordinary comic that could stand for just Calvin's childhood endeavors. But if you think about it, it could be in relation to the fact that we as humans want to make ourselves noticed and seen. Calvin here just gave us some insight on how we feel as humans that we feel insignificant at times and want to be out of the crowd, want to be noticed, want attention. 

It is generally said throughout the comics that Calvin does very poorly in school, but he has lots of insight on the world as a whole and on human nature. Calvin and his portrayal of his vastly different imagination that argues with him at times but also agrees on some points, Hobbes, is actually more of a genius on humans and nature in general.

Another little insight on life is this one discussion/rant Calvin has. In this, Calvin attempts to describe to us the reality that the world was currently in. People are destroying and fighting over the earth, and it really is sad when you think about it. Calvin may be a pessimist, but this pessimism is in the right direction, and I agree, and this may just be because I grew up on

Calvin's pessimism, but the world really is in an awful situation.

It really is sad to think about because the way things currently are going, the earth doesn't seem to have much left in it. Fossil fuels are going out and people are still stubborn to use renewable energy for whatever reason, we fight over "precious" minerals all the time. (I'm not very materialistic and live a somewhat Buddhist philosophy guided life). 

Just something to think about, how the author portrayed his views on the world inside the mind of a little boy.

Merchants o' Cool

The video of Frontline we saw, "Merchants of Cool," explained to us how the marketing campaigns target and get to kids. Two of the important things is the "Mook" and the "Midriff." Both of which are basically the mindset of the two genders, male and female.

The mook was described as a man who is not grown up, or someone who is immature. One of the first people I thought of when this was said was Adam Sandler who is probably the king of the mooks. He is a grown man who stars in movies where he is typically a sort of immature man who resorts to crude humor and complains a lot. This was the description more from a decade at least ago. Today, I see the mook as more of someone who is "punk." Like the 20+ year olds you see who have tattoos, gauges, probably smoke, probably ride a skateboard, or probably sing/play the guitar. They live the party lifestyle that certain teens want and want the freedom of adolescence to still be relevant in their lives. I feel like this is because they just aren't ready or weren't taught to be ready for life and the challenges that are in it.

Now the midriff. This is certainly a fun one, ironically. Today, it is one of the most prevalent things within our society. Looking back a few years, we saw Miley Cyrus who became one of the more "exposed" peoples of today. But she did give us a very compelling and good argument. Basically the midriff is like the premature sexualization of girls, at least that's what I got from class. I basically just see it as anyone who is showing off their body prematurely and without seeing all of the consequences in doing so. For Miley, it's different because I can kind of respect her decision because she wanted to make an image, and the media reacted poorly to it. But there is one thing that really bothers me. Toddlers and Tiaras. This show seriously just makes me dislike humanity. The parents of this show and anyone who watches it is okay with the parading of their daughters in dresses, makeup, etc. basically selling their bodies to the judges. To make matters simple, it basically just disgusts me. What's even worse is that I feel the parents are actually ruining their daughters' lives because the daughters don't seem to have much of a say and were force fed this idea that they want to look beautiful on the outside. But maybe it's just a cover up for the ugliness that the parents have inside of themselves.

One last response to the Toddlers and Tiaras thing is the episode of South Park, Raising the Bar, where Honey Boo Boo, one of the well known children from Toddlers and Tiaras comes to fight an obese Cartman who finds himself entitled to a scooter. James Cameron comes to save the day by raising the metaphorical but physical, in the show, bar that raises standards to more appropriate levels because everyone finds the fight between Cartman and Honey Boo Boo to be perfectly fine and entertaining. After raising the bar, the people watching on the White House lawn begin to realize, hey, this is messed up.

This leads to my point that the media actually is trying to force feed us this information to choose who we should be. When we can set standards for ourselves, we also let the media control what we think and like and use the rationalization, even if subconsciously, "It's okay if everyone is doing it," to allow ourselves to indulge in this behavior that, without the media, would seem shameful.

A quote from Green Day's American Idiot;

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.