Over the course of this project, I have looked at day to day
life very closely and analyzed just about anything that comes into hand, which
is completely against my nature. I have
absolutely torn apart some of my favorite movies and shows. But despite all of that, I have learned a lot
from the hidden message behind media and daily life.
There
is a very strong relationship between daily life and media. Media influences our lives in more ways than
one, whether it be movies, music, TV shows, etc. This, in turn, influences our daily habits
and routines. It also influences our
expectations and views on certain issues.
This in itself is quite risky.
The way media manipulates messages is tricky and can be taken the wrong
way. They can target younger audiences
and brainwash them by slipping subtle messages in to cartoons, persuading them
to believe a certain value. And because
of that, their entire view on reality changes.
If a majority of the movies shown to children send the message
that girls must be skinny and graceful at all times, that is what they will
soon believe in reality.
Are
those the messages we want to send to our youth?
Do we want to lead them into a false sense of reality? Do we want them to start falling for the cruel
and illogical stereotypes that media has set up for us?
I
believe that we let media make decisions about how things should and should not
be. We let them decide that women should
be portrayed as weak, helpless people.
We let them decide that people of color should be looked down upon. We can't let media decide what our reality
is. Our reality consists of a variety of
personalities and people. Our reality
consists of women in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Our reality consists of people of all sorts
of shades and personalities who have become successful, despite their ethnicity
or race. Our reality should not depend
on media's judgment.
Media
will always be a part of our lives, whether we want it to be or not. But do we want it to influence our lives as
much as it already does? Do we really
want to live with a false sense of reality?
Do we really want to give into the stereotypes and labels? What do we truly gain by it? What do we gain by labeling women or
different people? Aren't we all humans,
at the end of the day? Do we really need
a preconceived idea of what someone should or should not be?
So, do we?
Purvi, great, as always. I love how this actually had a concluding tone to it, which you established in the beginning. I also like how you explained each of your observations, and then kind of weighed them a little, especially with "Are those the messages we want to send to our youth? Do we want to lead them into a false sense of reality? Do we want them to start falling for the cruel and illogical stereotypes that media has set up for us?" This was done really well, your voice is becoming clearer and clearer, and it's super strong. keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteEllo Purvi!
ReplyDeleteSo this is a sort of Sum-up-everything-comment post and I'm going to be a bit critical I'm afriad :(. You see while I loved your Streets of Standford blog as it brought out class inequality I found your first and second blog to be a bit in contrast. The writing was fine overall but in one blog you were annoyed that the girl in "How to train your dragon" look pretty while fighting but then in your second you were annoyed that the nerdy girl didn't look pretty. Now I can see what the point is however is seems paradoxical since if the nerdy girl was pretty wouldn't the argument be that "Why does she have to be pretty? Why can't she just be smart?" Sorry for being harsh I'm just a guy and my mom has made me quite...negative towards feminist interpretations. So call me misogynistic but I cannot deny it. Moving on I like your final blog but I thought it didn't make enough connections to your other blogs only vague references. It was still nice to read but I would have like more direct connections. Sorry for being mean :( I like your writing style :D
Purvi, I agree with Brisa and (sorry, Charlie!) disagree with Charlie on this one. You weren't arguing in Blog #2 that the "nerd" needed to be pretty--you said why do smart women have to isolated and pretty women vapid. A bit different, in my mind. Overall, the writing in all of these is clean and articulate and analytical. I thought these were great.
ReplyDelete