Blog Post #4

In todays society we witness many ways people are being stereotyped, through the internet, television, magazines, or books.  A stereotype is “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same”.  An example I constantly hear is when people consider white girls as girls who always go to Starbucks, or wear white converse.  Sometimes people consider Asians as intelligent people, or people who always eat rice.  None of these are true, they are stereotypes! 

Many commercials include stereotypes such as this one:

I do not find this ad highly offensive nor do I find this not offensive, I guess I just find these stereotypes annoying because why does their product involve by the way we are seen and why does it matter?  Buying a company’s product or not owning their product does not define who we are.  An ad that has stereotyped women is the Chocolate Axe commercial.

In this ad it presents that wearing this product allows you to attract "hot chicks".  This ad considers "hot chicks as white females who are blonde and fit.  I found that their stereotype of a "hot chick" was dumb because everyone is beautiful in their own way and an ad like this is able to create the insecurities of many.  These ad's are different because they have different audiences but present the same message to the audience and i think sending out messages like these are dumb, annoying, and inappropriate. 

Blog Post #3

Barber Russell Fredrick and his team at A-1 Kutz create a new kind of discipline for children who are misbehaving.  This barber provides a Benjamin Button Special where the child’s hair will be styled in resemblance of a balding senior citizen in order to create unwanted attention and humiliation upon the child.  This public shaming is supposed to teach kids a lesson since they cannot use physical punishment as they did in the past, so instead they find an alternative by making the child learn their lesson through their an unwanted appearance.

In my opinion I simply find this the meanest thing ever to do to your child.  Yes, it is a way of disciplining children but you cannot involve their appearance in order for them to learn a lesson.  These children have insecurities or insecurities that are evolving, enforcing this punishment can possibly make it worse.  This punishment can also lead their child to experience bullying due to their senior look, which would take a while to grow out!  Save them the embarrassment because obviously no one wants to have this image. Why would parents want to put their children in this situation? I think this idea is just cruel!

This situation is similar to what I recently read.  I read an article about a mom shaving her daughters hair as punishment for lying to her (http://www.bakersfield.com/columnists/lois-henry/2011/08/22/shaving-child-s-head-isn-t-abuse-seriously.html).  I understand that they are learn what they have done wrong but what has their appearance done to cause the problem they did, why does their appearance need to be punished.  Parents should let their kid learn from their mistakes not punish them in a cruel way. Why must their parents ruin their child’s appearance? This just makes the child so upset and insecure. Even if you look at these other pictures of parents shaving off their child’s head as punishment you can see how unhappy the child is.

Blog Post #2

Twitter is a popular social network that is used to allow to express how we feel in 140 characters, present our lives through pictures, or post things we find amusing, which can be seen by other users. As a user I can say that it is pretty enjoyable posting messages about what is happening (also known as tweets) or reading the tweets of others.  Throughout my experiences on twitter I have I have witnessed many situations in which people try to be cool or funny by tweeting insulting things. These situations have occurred when mean tweets are directed to celebrities, making fun of their appearance or the way they act because they think that their insulting tweet is funny.  I have also observed the amount of mean tweets arising when there was a snow storm and schools were still open.  Many mean tweets were directed to schools and school boards for keeping the school open and I think that's nonsense. So why do people do this even though they know it is wrong?

People tend to abuse twitter although they know what they are doing is wrong because they feel as if no one "important" can see it, only their followers.  They do this to entertain their followers and become someone big on a social network.  Twitter users find it easier to say it behind the screen rather than saying it to their face because they know the worst the victim can do is fight back on screen and not physically hurt them.  It's just like cyber bullying!  We cyber bully because we feel as if we are stronger and can be anyone we want on screen since no one can hurt us.  Obviously they are too scared to say it in person for a reason, because they know it is too offensive! If they know it is offensive then it is dumb thinking that it is right for them doing it behind a screen.

The creator of Twitter had no intentions for Twitter to be this way.  Twitter is supposed to be used in a positive and fun manner.  In my opinion I think that our behavior is disappointing and I believe we cannot really change this growing trend of tweets. If we were to stop people they would find different ways to express themselves.  I believe that this problem will not go away, it is just too big of a problem that is trending and it will get bigger.  There should not be laws nor should twitter be governed because twitter is used to tweet freely, if there were laws people would think the purpose of twitter would be defeated and less people would go on twitter and find a different social network to express themselves. So instead we should ignore this issue it will bother us less and show people who tweet negatively that it is not entertaining and just rude.

Blog Post #1

Many celebrities go through tough situations with the media who constantly follow them Celebrities are usually annoyed of the fact that they constantly have paparazzi on their back, so they tend to start fights with them because of their frustration. Situations where celebrities have fought the media regularly happens because there is always someone unwanted invading their privacy.  Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Britney Spears have fought the paparazzi due to their presence, but whose side should we take?The celebrity or the paparazzi?

                                           
I have recently watched a video of Australian rapper, Iggy Azalea, fighting the media after grocery shopping.  It was during the night while Iggy was grocery shopping with one of her friends while the paparazzi followed them to take pictures of her.  Iggy felt as if they were invading her privacy so as she left the store she verbally fought the paparazzi with her friend using harsh language and telling them to die.  The paparazzi defended themselves saying she is in a public area and that she is a celebrity in LA who has to deal with these situations.  Eventually this situation got pretty violent and escalated into Iggy pushing a cart at the paparazzi.

When it comes down to celebrities and photographers in these situations I would take the photographers side.  It is the paparazzi’s job to take pictures of the celebrities and this paparazzi was doing his job. In no way did the paparazzi try to aggravate Iggy, the paparazzi only fought back to defend himself after Iggy was being violent towards him.  Of course everyone wants privacy but Iggy needs to know along with fame the paparazzi will follow her, she should just be the bigger person and learn how to deal with it in a mature way.  The photographer is just doing his job and only fought back as self-defense because Iggy made the first move.  I understand that being in Iggy's situation would be irritating to have paparazzi on your back, but as a role model I believe Iggy should have personal bodyguards if this is an issue to her.

Another example of a celebrity and paparazzi feud is Justin Bieber.  Justin Bieber had also lashed out on the paparazzi with the use of harsh language, swearing, and threatening language.  As what Iggy did Justin also tried to get physical but was stopped by bodyguards.  This is a natural comeback for celebrities but I believe as role models they should be the better person because the paparazzi is just doing their job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y11DFEsV8EY