Semester Overview

The thing I found most interesting this semester was how society and women view their own bodies. We try numerous products, whether it be makeup, special face cleanser, or an expensive lotion, we will try anything that we think will make us look and feel prettier. Most women seem to lack self-confidence and are not proud of their bodies or proud of what they have given, I think media seems to be the blame  for this. We looking at the ads shown in class, men in the advertisments seem to over power the women. I man is always shown as a strong, empowering person. On the other hand, women seem to be used as objects. In fact sometimes a woman's whole body isn't even shown, only her legs, butt, or any body part that will sell products. I found this to be very interesting because I never did notice how poorly women can be treated in social media. Being a woman myself, I found this to be very demeaning and hurtful to the women in our society and cultures all around us.

CNN News Stories

One of the CNN news stories consisted of the wives of American soldiers who had been wounded in battle. These wives were pampered with a new hairstyle and a new designer dress and shoes. Personally, I thought this was an interesting story. I thought it was a sweet idea to take these ladies, who had been put through so much, and pamper them for a day. However, in the story one of the stylists said they were going to, "make them look more beautiful", which I thought was a kind of degrading comment. Also, I the end of this story the news lady shared that the women were able to keep their designer shoes and dresses, which also had no relevance to the story. Klosterman said that the extra facts stated that have no meaning to the story, are simply done to catch your attention and to add more to the story.
Another story that we watched consisted of the infamous 'Boston Bombers'. The news reporter asked the lady who was interviewing outside of the courthouse what the boys were wearing and asked about their facial expressions, which again has no relevance to the story. Before reading Klosterman's article, I didn't notice the excess things put into news reports, but now it's too obvious and I will definitely be on the look at in more news stories to come.

Harry Potter

Most people of my generation have watched at least one, if not all, of the Harry Potter movies. Harry Potter is much like Star Wars. Not only did the Harry Potter movies have midnight premieres, but the people who attended these movies dressed as Harry Potter or in wizardly-type clothing. People have become obsessed and Harry Potter, at one point, seemed to be taking over the entire population. The popular trends taken from Harry Potter are not only the costumes but some cultural trends have set throughout the years. In the movie, Harry wheres circular shaped glasses, which seem to be a popular trend among teenagers and young adults. Fake glasses are becoming very common and I think Harry's famous glasses have put this trend over the top.

What Happens When People Stop Being Polite

The most significant idea of Chuck Klosterman's, "What Happens When People Stop Being Polite",  is that reality T.V., such as The Real World, isn't actually reality after all. The Real World has had a number of seasons. Although each season has different people each time, the individual personalities are the same from season to season. In each season there's almost always a man of color, a gay man or woman, a drama starter, and other people from total opposite backgrounds. Each character seems to be given a role to take on and they have to portray that role to the best of their ability.
 Chuck states on page 36, "They have to behave as if what they're doing hasn't been done before. Real Worlders always get into arguments, but you never hear them say, "Oh, you're only saying that because you know this is going to be on TV," even though that would be the best comeback 90 percent of the time." What Chuck means is that people on The Real World have to pretend like they aren't on TV even though they clearly know cameras and film makers are standing only a few feet away. But people seem to love reality TV. Why? Because we seem to think that reality TV can actually relate to our everyday lives unlike other shows or movies.

Country Music

People who listen to country music are usually viewed as white, patriotic, unintelligent males who seem to spend all day in their pickup trucks cruising down mud roads or parked outside of a trailer park. I know we've all heard the many names for these people such as rednecks or hillbillies. But how did these stereotypes of country music come into play? Most view country music as the number 1 music of our country. It seems as if everyone in some way, shape, or form can relate their lives to a number of country songs. The patriotic stereotype seems to originate from songs like Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue", with lyrics that sing, "And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A. 'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass; it's the American way," What patriotic American couldn't relate to that song? And you would be labeled as Un-american if you couldn't. As for the unintelligence stereotype, the lyrics seem to be direct and anyone with a brain could understand almost every message each country song was trying to get across. Also, country music seems to have originated in the south, and the southern states have a reputation of being dumb or poorly educated. The justifications of this argument are completely wrong. In fact highly educated people have been proven to listen to country music. As for the patriotism, many country songs and listeners are highly supportive of our nation and our troops and they tend to show it in their songs more often than rock or hip-hop artists. Therefore, the patriotic stereotype tends to hold somewhat true.

Billy Sim

Chuck Klosterman uses The Sims, which is a video game of virtual reality, to relate to how we think the perfect world should be. One of the main points Klosterman explains in this article is that video games cage our imagination and our ability to think outside of the lines. When he asked his niece to explain to him the details of The Sims she simply only described to him the rules and outline of the game rather than using her imagination as she does when playing with her dolls. Klosterman stated, "Computers make children advance faster, but they also make them think like computers." Another one of Klosterman's points that he mentions is that the characters in the game only become happy when they buy things, which is how many people seem to think. In reality, it's not the purchases in your life that will make you happy; only you can make yourself truly happy. The last point is that, when playing The Sims, people tend to make a character just as they seem themselves, but people are never really right when choosing their own characteristics. It is said that people only play in order to see who or what they could be without any real-life consequences. We can learn from Chuck's points and really put into perspective of who we really are and what actually makes life worth living. Also, although technology does seem to have positive effects, especially in our generation and society, it seems to have some severe negative effects as well. Technology is taking over our society and our children at such a young age, and it seems like it's only going to continue to get worse as the years go by.

Manly Ad

I chose an ad that I found of the Internet of a 'manly' Under Armour advertisement. Under Armour sells athletic gear for both men and women. Under Armour carries anything from back packs to sweatpants. In this ad Under Armour is targeting towards heterosexual men. This ad is implying that if men have or buy the new Under Armour underwear, then they'll have hot chick in their bed in no time. After buying the underwear they'll automatically become sexier and will become a chick-magnet. Also, it implies that purchasing the underwear will make you more of a man and they will bring out your strength and chiseled chest.