America is a tough place to grow up. As a woman in America, there are certain roles and expectations one faces. With a push to be feminine and “sexy”, advertisements show women how they are suppose to look and act. As explained by multiple documentaries such as Kill Us Softly and Gender Roles, advertisements target women’s insecurities in order to sell their products. They send mixed messages of being pure, but experienced, tough but gentle. They also constantly send messages of what it is to be normal. A normal woman is tall skinny and has perfect features. Complete with perfectly quaffed hair, blemish free skin, and a bright, smiling face. As a teenage girl in America, I can honestly tell you, this perfection is impossible. There is no way to naturally be goddess–like. And as a filmmaker, I can tell you even the models in the T.V. ads and the actresses in the movies aren’t naturally perfect either. A mix of lighting, makeup and photo-retouching (in ads) create these flawless beauties.
Then there are the ads in themselves. The campaigns that tell us women that we are too fat, and should try this diet, or even which tampons to use for our periods. One new ad campaign, UbyKotex, focuses on sexual innuendos, using a puppet beaver that follows a girl around all day, the two acting like best friends. The tag line being, “you only have one, so for the ultimate care down there, make it U”. There is also an ad by Kotex (seen above) which pretends to be a stereotypical tampon commercial. The woman in the ad explains how she is an actor, who is racially undetectable; trying to sell the same tampons she uses because she has “nice hair” and is wearing “white pants”. The final statement she makes is “you wish you could be me”. Although satirical, making fun of “annoying tampons ads”, this is just the same selling point wrapped in a different marketing strategy- “Buy Kotex because we told you to”. The company might believe that by making this ad relatable, you will choose Kotex over other brands. They’re saying the women in other tampon ads are just selling tampons using “dynamic angles” to make you want to be like that girl, and one way to do so is buying the same tampons she uses.
I’m not sure how other girls feel about this, but I don’t like this ad even more than other ads because the other tampon ads don’t try to seem like they are your friends. If it were a person, this Kotex ad would be the girl with a hidden agenda, the one who says “look at those other ads trying to sell you things, I’m too cool to do that to you, I’m just here to be your friend”.
This is just one example of how ads try to lure women into a false sense of security. Ads are always trying to relate to the desires women have to be “perfect”. They point out insecurities, like how your butt looks, and then tell you they can fix it through a pair of shoes, like Shape Ups.
As a woman in America I have definitively felt the pressures that society pushes on me. In middle school, I can recall a girl telling me my shorts were too long and asking me if she could “help me” by cutting them to a shorter length. I can also recall all the years I refused to wear dresses to orchestral concerts or formal events, and instead wore dress pants (Everyone, including my mom weren’t happy I did this). I cannot say I rebel against the normal behaviors of women, (I still wear some brand name clothing) but I do have a set idea of what I like and don’t like. I have a certain way of dressing and behaving. I don’t believe in flirting or using the fact I’m a girl to help me gain or succeed in anything. I would rather struggle grabbing items from the top shelf in a grocery store than ask a guy to get it for me. I do a lot of “quirky” things that some people find strange, like not wearing makeup, but I am not a feminist and I don’t hate guys. I simply want the respect a guy would deserve and expect. I want to be known for my hard work and not how perfect my hair was every day. So although people may judge me on not living up to the standards of beauty for women in our culture, I can’t say I’m sad I don’t look like the girls in the advertisements of my Seventeen magazines.
The American Dream is the overall perfectly planned out life. It’s fame, money, a house with a white picket fence. It’s the perfect family. It’s supposed to unite us all as Americans, yet there are different variations that make each persons interpretation different. Now let’s pick this fairytale apart and soon we’ll see that the American Dream has turned into a nightmare.
Money is the motivator that drives our country. Lately we’ve been in a rut as a nation, a rut called the financial meltdown. The banking system almost crumbled after years of allowing people to take out huge loans that could never be paid back. These huge loans were taken out to buy huge houses. People who could only afford a $500,000 house were buying million dollar homes. But why were people buying houses they couldn’t afford? Because the American Dream told them to. Over the years, celebrity has taken precedence over the simplistic life that was idolized for hundreds of years. T.V. shows like Cribs allowed the middle class to grab a glimpse of the “good life” in the homes of the mega rich.
These stars that have multiple cars, pimped out with crazy rims and stereo systems. They have swimming pools that can fit tons of people, and rooms dedicated to whatever they like (Elvis, guitars, sports, ect.). These multi-million dollar homes are shown as if they’re standard By exposing “normal” middle class people (especially teenagers) to these houses, they become unmindful to the fact that these houses are not standard. People end up expecting to live in a house as large as Eminem and Gene Simmons.
This expectation transitions to teenagers directly in the show Teen Cribs, where privileged kids live in houses built for them by their rich parents. These kids have room after room dedicated to “kid space”. Teenagers coming from a middle class family expect the same from their parents, something that may not be realistic, but is none the less demanded by kids.
The American dream for minorities may be different. Gay and Lesbians may be considered the sexual preference minority, as most relationships are heterogeneous. The American dream for these people might be to live as equals and not discriminated against.
Another group of minorities, such as new immigrants, may come with a certain view of what the American dream is, yet they find out that it’s not quite what it’s crack up to be. This is very apparent in the film The Lost Boys, which features a group of young men from Darfur who get a visa to come to America. From the second they touch down, they are taught how to assimilate to the American life style. They must find jobs, pay rent, and buy groceries. These boys soon find out that America is a hard place to live in. What they believed to be a land of “fat” lazy people is actually a fast paced capitalistic society, where if you can’t adapt and play the game, you won’t succeed. Without this success, one can never achieve the ideal American life style.
The Lost Boys focuses on the realization that one has to fit in and fully understand the culture of the United States in order to gain importance in the world. Yet there are other movies out there which focus on the difficulties immigrants face where they not only don’t have support, but are also illegal and trying to survive. In the movie El Norte, a brother and sister from Guatamala are forced out of their country under the threat of being killed. When they escape, their goal is to head north, to the United States, “the land of opportunities”. After a long, dangerous journey, they find themselves in California, living with other illegal immigrants in a housing structure. They end up doing blue collar, labor intensive jobs, never able to work their way up to a job Americans see as respectable. They have no career training, no health care, no car or luxuries that Americans take for granted. They have little to no money, and no matter how hard they work, they cannot seem to make any progress in achieving their dream, the dream to be someone of importance. Everyone has their own specific idea of the American dream, but everyone feels there is something greater in the world for them and they have to work hard to achieve their goals.
A new American dream/goal is the dream of not being in debt. Many Americans are thousands of dollars in debt, and have to give up the American dream of a big house and nice car because reality sinks in and they find that they cannot support living outside their means. People have to cut back and reassess what is important and crucial to living.
It is obvious that the American dream is dictated by money and wealth. As the gap between the rich and poor grows wider, it becomes more obvious that the American dream is unattainable. The poorer of the two may not see that large house with a white picket fence, the nice car and perfect family. Thus the American dream has become the American Nightmare. Struggling with debt? Easy ways to get back on track
Religious (In)tolerance The following will probably offend more than half the people who read this, but here it goes. Religion. Yup, religion, the controversial topic that divides the world. People flock to it, fight over it. People debate it, and of course, worship it. But what about those who “reject” it? These atheists? Where do they fit into the world? It may seem ironic, but religious intolerance stretches to the non-religious world as well.
Atheism is the absence of religion. It’s the belief that there is no Supreme Being, or spirit. Nor is there a heaven, or hell for that matter. Atheists are supposedly judgmental and “snooty” when it comes to religion. They look down on religion. But can it be noted that in the dictionary, the definition of Atheism is the “denial of a god”. Yes, denial, as in “there is a god, you just can’t accept it”. Can it possibly be assumed that the dictionary believes atheists are lying to themselves?
Atheists are made out to be the bad people. Their lack of faith automatically gives them no moral backbone. They don’t believe in anything, so they have no valid opinion.
Not all atheists agree on why religion isn’t “real”. For example, during an interview on Bill Mahr’s show, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (the band) talks about the music he writes being very anti-religious. He admits to having a “fetish with the bible”. In a lot of the bands music, there are references to religious, Christian characters. He says that religion is bull, used as a way to keep law and order. Green Day is a popular band with a lot of followers, but people try to attack green day for their religious views all of the time.
Another attack against atheists occurred in North Carolina, where a councilor being sworn into office was given the oath where the words “so help me god” were replaced with “solemn affirmation”. A group is attacking the councilor due to his lack of belief. They want the man taken out of duty and sadly, they may have the right to due to the fact that their state constitution states anyone who denies the belief in god cannot hold office. Yet in the U.S. constitution, it states that no one will be attacked for their religious beliefs. Rachel Maddow says it best when she states “beating up on atheist is politically popular…they’re a group that takes a lot of abuse”. Atheists get beat up for their lack of religion and implied rebelliousness.
Atheism is not about rejecting faith to be different. It is a belief just as Christianity or Islam or Buddhism is a belief. No one knows what happens to a person after they die, so there is no one “right” way to believe. As long as you believe in something positive, it shouldn’t matter what that is. I am an atheist, but I believe that I should live a productive life and do what’s right, not to be rewarded with an afterlife, but to better the world. But do I believe that my way is better than someone else's? I believe in religious tolerance because it works both ways.
Many people disagree with me on my non-religious stance. A lot of people cannot accept Atheism. They look down on atheists as scumbags, and some want to refuse people jobs due to their lack of belief. But in the end Atheism is just the same as any other religion, and therefore, the people who commit to this belief should receive the same respect as any other religious group.
Throughout the teenage years of life, a person tries to figure out where they fit in. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Like a jigsaw, the pieces have to match, fit perfectly together, or they are deemed useless to the puzzle. As teens develop, they learn where they fit in the puzzle. But what happens if a person turns out to be a rogue piece? The one piece that doesn’t fit. What are the consequences of discarding these pieces? These outcasts play an important part of society. They don’t fit the cultural “norm” and therefore, people believe that these individuals are strange. They become the butt of cruel jokes and the punching bag for stronger “normal” kids. They are constantly beat up on both mentally and physically.
Example 1- I’m just a kid by Simple Plan. This music video shows the stereotypical groups of teens at a normal high school. There are cheerleaders, jocks, band geeks, and skater kids. There is one kid who stands out and is almost an observer to everything that’s going on. He is an outcast and everyone else pushes him aside in order to look good in front of a girl. Ironically they end up looking foolish instead. This is a positive spin on being considered an outsider, a fantasy almost, as there are plenty of negative examples of outsiders being the target of the “cool kids”.
In the reverse is Korn's music video, Thoughtless. The main character is a boy who obviously doesn’t fit in. No one acknowledges his entrance to school, and he doesn’t meet up with any friends. Throughout the whole video, one can see that the boy is being bullied. In the end, he literally spews his anger and hate at the entire school. The act represents the physical response to how upset the boy is as well as metaphoric, showing how anger can spread, shocking the people who witness it.
The example in Korn's video can be translated into real life through school shootings. Most of the time, an outcast loses his cool and retaliates against his attackers by shooting and killing them. The act of revenge usually seems out of the blue. People are shocked by events like these, yet nobody thinks of all the warning signs that are out there. The countless observers who watch bullying take place and do nothing to stop it. This violent response to harassment is just one consequence of "othering" people. But there is a brighter side to being “othered”.
When a person is out -cast by classmates, it may only enforce their “strange” behavior. But being out-cast has its perks. A teen can develop without the pressures of normal teen behavior like partying and drinking. They learn how to be self sufficient and learn to be confident in being by themselves.
I’m not sure if I’m an outcast or not. I have heard people say things about me, such as “she could be pretty if she tried, and had better friends”. These people referring to my lack of makeup use and obviously, group of friends. I personally am not offended by this statement. Mostly because when I think about it, do I want to be that girl, known for partying, being crazy, and have no respect from others? I would rather them have nothing to say about me, than be the center of negative attention.
Although I’m alright with being out-cast, there are many people who wish to fit in, try to change their appearance, suppress their personality. And to me, not being yourself is worse than not being accepted for who I am.
Re-Reading America
Growing Up Female in America in 2010
America is a tough place to grow up. As a woman in America, there are certain roles and expectations one faces. With a push to be feminine and “sexy”, advertisements show women how they are suppose to look and act. As explained by multiple documentaries such as Kill Us Softly and Gender Roles, advertisements target women’s insecurities in order to sell their products. They send mixed messages of being pure, but experienced, tough but gentle. They also constantly send messages of what it is to be normal. A normal woman is tall skinny and has perfect features. Complete with perfectly quaffed hair, blemish free skin, and a bright, smiling face. As a teenage girl in America, I can honestly tell you, this perfection is impossible. There is no way to naturally be goddess–like. And as a filmmaker, I can tell you even the models in the T.V. ads and the actresses in the movies aren’t naturally perfect either. A mix of lighting, makeup and photo-retouching (in ads) create these flawless beauties.
Kotex "So Obnoxious" from Bee Reynolds on Vimeo.
Then there are the ads in themselves. The campaigns that tell us women that we are too fat, and should try this diet, or even which tampons to use for our periods. One new ad campaign, UbyKotex, focuses on sexual innuendos, using a puppet beaver that follows a girl around all day, the two acting like best friends. The tag line being, “you only have one, so for the ultimate care down there, make it U”. There is also an ad by Kotex (seen above) which pretends to be a stereotypical tampon commercial. The woman in the ad explains how she is an actor, who is racially undetectable; trying to sell the same tampons she uses because she has “nice hair” and is wearing “white pants”. The final statement she makes is “you wish you could be me”. Although satirical, making fun of “annoying tampons ads”, this is just the same selling point wrapped in a different marketing strategy- “Buy Kotex because we told you to”. The company might believe that by making this ad relatable, you will choose Kotex over other brands. They’re saying the women in other tampon ads are just selling tampons using “dynamic angles” to make you want to be like that girl, and one way to do so is buying the same tampons she uses.
I’m not sure how other girls feel about this, but I don’t like this ad even more than other ads because the other tampon ads don’t try to seem like they are your friends. If it were a person, this Kotex ad would be the girl with a hidden agenda, the one who says “look at those other ads trying to sell you things, I’m too cool to do that to you, I’m just here to be your friend”.
This is just one example of how ads try to lure women into a false sense of security. Ads are always trying to relate to the desires women have to be “perfect”. They point out insecurities, like how your butt looks, and then tell you they can fix it through a pair of shoes, like Shape Ups.
As a woman in America I have definitively felt the pressures that society pushes on me. In middle school, I can recall a girl telling me my shorts were too long and asking me if she could “help me” by cutting them to a shorter length. I can also recall all the years I refused to wear dresses to orchestral concerts or formal events, and instead wore dress pants (Everyone, including my mom weren’t happy I did this). I cannot say I rebel against the normal behaviors of women, (I still wear some brand name clothing) but I do have a set idea of what I like and don’t like. I have a certain way of dressing and behaving. I don’t believe in flirting or using the fact I’m a girl to help me gain
Media is affecting our body image
Today’s American Dream Nightmare
The American Dream is the overall perfectly planned out life. It’s fame, money, a house with a white picket fence. It’s the perfect family. It’s supposed to unite us all as Americans, yet there are different variations that make each persons interpretation different. Now let’s pick this fairytale apart and soon we’ll see that the American Dream has turned into a nightmare.
Money is the motivator that drives our country. Lately we’ve been in a rut as a nation, a rut called the financial meltdown. The banking system almost crumbled after years of allowing people to take out huge loans that could never be paid back. These huge loans were taken out to buy huge houses. People who could only afford a $500,000 house were buying million dollar homes. But why were people buying houses they couldn’t afford? Because the American Dream told them to. Over the years, celebrity has taken precedence over the simplistic life that was idolized for hundreds of years. T.V. shows like Cribs allowed the middle class to grab a glimpse of the “good life” in the homes of the mega rich.
These stars that have multiple cars, pimped out with crazy rims and stereo systems. They have swimming pools that can fit tons of people, and rooms dedicated to whatever they like (Elvis, guitars, sports, ect.). These multi-million dollar homes are shown as if they’re standard By exposing “normal” middle class people (especially teenagers) to these houses, they become unmindful to the fact that these houses are not standard. People end up expecting to live in a house as large as Eminem and Gene Simmons.
This expectation transitions to teenagers directly in the show Teen Cribs, where privileged kids live in houses built for them by their rich parents. These kids have room after room dedicated to “kid space”. Teenagers coming from a middle class family expect the same from their parents, something that may not be realistic, but is none the less demanded by kids.
The American dream for minorities may be different. Gay and Lesbians may be considered the sexual preference minority, as most relationships are heterogeneous. The American dream for these people might be to live as equals and not discriminated against.
Another group of minorities, such as new immigrants, may come with a certain view of what the American dream is, yet they find out that it’s not quite what it’s crack up to be. This is very apparent in the film The Lost Boys, which features a group of young men from Darfur who get a visa to come to America. From the second they touch down, they are taught how to assimilate to the American life style. They must find jobs, pay rent, and buy groceries. These boys soon find out that America is a hard place to live in. What they believed to be a land of “fat” lazy people is actually a fast paced capitalistic society, where if you can’t adapt and play the game, you won’t succeed. Without this success, one can never achieve the ideal American life style.
The Lost Boys focuses on the realization that one has to fit in and fully understand the culture of the United States in order to gain importance in the world. Yet there are other movies out there which focus on the difficulties immigrants face where they not only don’t have support, but are also illegal and trying to survive. In the movie El Norte, a brother and sister from Guatamala are forced out of their country under the threat of being killed. When they escape, their goal is to head north, to the United States, “the land of opportunities”. After a long, dangerous journey, they find themselves in California, living with other illegal immigrants in a housing structure. They end up doing blue collar, labor intensive jobs, never able to work their way up to a job Americans see as respectable. They have no career training, no health care, no car or luxuries that Americans take for granted. They have little to no money, and no matter how hard they work, they cannot seem to make any progress in achieving their dream, the dream to be someone of importance. Everyone has their own specific idea of the American dream, but everyone feels there is something greater in the world for them and they have to work hard to achieve their goals.
A new American dream/goal is the dream of not being in debt. Many Americans are thousands of dollars in debt, and have to give up the American dream of a big house and nice car because reality sinks in and they find that they cannot support living outside their means. People have to cut back and reassess what is important and crucial to living.
It is obvious that the American dream is dictated by money and wealth. As the gap between the rich and poor grows wider, it becomes more obvious that the American dream is unattainable. The poorer of the two may not see that large house with a white picket fence, the nice car and perfect family. Thus the American dream has become the American Nightmare.
Struggling with debt? Easy ways to get back on track
Religious (In)tolerance
The following will probably offend more than half the people who read this, but here it goes. Religion. Yup, religion, the controversial topic that divides the world. People flock to it, fight over it. People debate it, and of course, worship it. But what about those who “reject” it? These atheists? Where do they fit into the world? It may seem ironic, but religious intolerance stretches to the non-religious world as well.
Atheism is the absence of religion. It’s the belief that there is no Supreme Being, or spirit. Nor is there a heaven, or hell for that matter. Atheists are supposedly judgmental and “snooty” when it comes to religion. They look down on religion. But can it be noted that in the dictionary, the definition of Atheism is the “denial of a god”. Yes, denial, as in “there is a god, you just can’t accept it”. Can it possibly be assumed that the dictionary believes atheists are lying to themselves?
Atheists are made out to be the bad people. Their lack of faith automatically gives them no moral backbone. They don’t believe in anything, so they have no valid opinion.
rt4092010 from Rudy on Vimeo.
Not all atheists agree on why religion isn’t “real”. For example, during an interview on Bill Mahr’s show, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (the band) talks about the music he writes being very anti-religious. He admits to having a “fetish with the bible”. In a lot of the bands music, there are references to religious, Christian characters. He says that religion is bull, used as a way to keep law and order. Green Day is a popular band with a lot of followers, but people try to attack green day for their religious views all of the time.
Another attack against atheists occurred in North Carolina, where a councilor being sworn into office was given the oath where the words “so help me god” were replaced with “solemn affirmation”. A group is attacking the councilor due to his lack of belief. They want the man taken out of duty and sadly, they may have the right to due to the fact that their state constitution states anyone who denies the belief in god cannot hold office. Yet in the U.S. constitution, it states that no one will be attacked for their religious beliefs. Rachel Maddow says it best when she states “beating up on atheist is politically popular…they’re a group that takes a lot of abuse”. Atheists get beat up for their lack of religion and implied rebelliousness.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/34424043#34424043
Atheism is not about rejecting faith to be different. It is a belief just as Christianity or Islam or Buddhism is a belief. No one knows what happens to a person after they die, so there is no one “right” way to believe. As long as you believe in something positive, it shouldn’t matter what that is. I am an atheist, but I believe that I should live a productive life and do what’s right, not to be rewarded with an afterlife, but to better the world. But do I believe that my way is
Many people disagree with me on my non-religious stance. A lot of people cannot accept Atheism. They look down on atheists as scumbags, and some want to refuse people jobs due to their lack of belief. But in the end Atheism is just the same as any other religion, and therefore, the people who commit to this belief should receive the same respect as any other religious group.
The Social Critic by Eddie Filer
Sick Of Hearing Christians Claim "Religious Discrimination"
Fitting In
Throughout the teenage years of life, a person tries to figure out where they fit in. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Like a jigsaw, the pieces have to match, fit perfectly together, or they are deemed useless to the puzzle. As teens develop, they learn where they fit in the puzzle. But what happens if a person turns out to be a rogue piece? The one piece that doesn’t fit. What are the consequences of discarding these pieces? These outcasts play an important part of society. They don’t fit the cultural “norm” and therefore, people believe that these individuals are strange. They become the butt of cruel jokes and the punching bag for stronger “normal” kids. They are constantly beat up on both mentally and physically.
Simple Plan - I'm Just A Kid from Darky on Vimeo.
Example 1- I’m just a kid by Simple Plan. This music video shows the stereotypical groups of teens at a normal high school. There are cheerleaders, jocks, band geeks, and skater kids. There is one kid who stands out and is almost an observer to everything that’s going on. He is an outcast and everyone else pushes him aside in order to look good in front of a girl. Ironically they end up looking foolish instead. This is a positive spin on being considered an outsider, a fantasy almost, as there are plenty of negative examples of outsiders being the target of the “cool kids”.
Korn - Thoughtless (Official Music Video) - Funny home videos are a click away
In the reverse is Korn's music video, Thoughtless. The main character is a boy who obviously doesn’t fit in. No one acknowledges his entrance to school, and he doesn’t meet up with any friends. Throughout the whole video, one can see that the boy is being bullied. In the end, he literally spews his anger and hate at the entire school. The act represents the physical response to how upset the boy is as well as metaphoric, showing how anger can spread, shocking the people who witness it.
The example in Korn's video can be translated into real life through school shootings. Most of the time, an outcast loses his cool and retaliates against his attackers by shooting and killing them. The act of revenge usually seems out of the blue. People are shocked by events like these, yet nobody thinks of all the warning signs that are out there. The countless observers who watch bullying take place and do nothing to stop it. This violent response to harassment is just one consequence of "othering" people. But there is a brighter side to being “othered”.
When a person is out -cast by classmates, it may only enforce their “strange” behavior. But being out-cast has its perks. A teen can develop without the pressures of normal teen behavior like partying and drinking. They learn how to be self sufficient and learn to be confident in being by themselves.
I’m not sure if I’m an outcast or not. I have heard people say things about me, such as “she could be pretty if she tried, and had better friends”. These people referring to my lack of makeup use and obviously, group of friends. I personally am not offended by this statement. Mostly because when I think about it, do I want to be that girl, known for partying, being crazy, and have no respect from others? I would rather them have nothing to say about me, than be the center of negative attention.
Although I’m alright with being out-cast, there are many people who wish to fit in, try to change their appearance, suppress their personality. And to me, not being yourself is worse than not being accepted for who I am.
Outlaw Bullys