Final Project: Cultivating Racism

Also, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL8IpO3xoGE&feature=youtu.be

Princess Culture

I know it was awhile ago when we talked about Princess Culture, but it's something that I have been thinking about lately. I specifically want to talk about the princess culture and television shows. Toddlers and Tiara's makes it seem like every little girl should be wearing pink, tutu's, and competing in pageants. Other shows still show girls as being subservient and weak compared to their brothers, other male friends, or any male role in general. No one shows the Tom Boys or the girls who compete at real sports and that drives me insane. In other countries, girls are still being told that they shouldn't be educated because they are supposed to stay home and take care of that. In my television class we watched a newer foreign cartoon that really inspired me, as well as girls in other countries. It's called: Burka Avenger. It's a show that has a female lead role, who is secretly a "superhero". The fact that she is a woman though is what is making the difference. This show is inspiring girls to stand up for themselves and protect their rights. It's starting a revolution and that's really awesome to see. We need more shows like this, that encourage girls to be bold and stand up for what they think is right. We also need more organizations like Girls Incorporated. I grew up at Girls Inc with my mom working there. Their logo is: Inspiring all girls to be Strong, Smart, and Bold. Those three things have really made me who I am today. We need to get away from the princess culture and start to focus on empowering young women. They are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, aren't they?

"Reality" Television....

      I absolutely dislike reality TV shows. They are so demeaning to most people, or too glamorized. All these producers focus on is showing the highest of the high, or the lowest of the low. Everything is scripted these days, and I really can't stand to see people actually believe in their s***. Teen Mom basically encourages young girls to get pregnant, because they might end up on the show for the next season. Real Housewives just makes me want to vomit everywhere. I won't even get started on Honey Boo Boo. There is never a happy medium to these shows either. Why isn't there a reality TV show on a happy, middle class family who are living in the suburbs with their two children? Well, that's not exciting and dramatic, so there you go. Another reason that I can't stand to watch these shows is because when something happens, the camera/show people don't even help them out. On all of the Repo shows, they get into fist fights all of the time and the camera crews just let it happen. One day, someone is going to get seriously injured or maybe even killed and I hope that falls down onto the camera crews and their negligence to help people.
      I have other thoughts though. I am a screenwriter, so if I ever got offered a job to work for a reality TV show, I think that I would. I mean, money is money and I need a job. That still doesn't mean that I have to watch or even like the show that I'm working for. It's just a job. Either way, reality TV shows will always make me sick to watch.

The Wonderful World of Twitter

     I love Twitter. I absolutely love it, and for several different reasons than many others. First, it allows me to randomly check up and talk to my sorority sisters. I can see their tweet about having a bad day, and then I can tweet back telling them it'll get better or asking if there is anything that I can do for them. Second, I can follow TV shows, celebrities, movies, etc and stay updated on what is happening with them. A lot of transmedia interaction involves Twitter, whether it be promotional materials to sneak peaks to links to interviews. Next, Twitter allows me to express myself on a more simpler level. I may not necessarily want to write a short blog about something, but on Twitter I can post it without worry. Being a Film and TV Studies major, I follow and tweet about a lot of movies, TV shows, actors, writers, etc. You get the picture. One day I was tweeting about this foreign childrens television show that I watched in a class, and the writer/producer of that show tweeted back at me. I had a whole conversation with him about the television show and my opinions on it. That was literally amazing for me. I thrive on experiences like that because that is what my future career is going to be built on. Twitter is one of the fastest ways to communicate, and it is a great networking tool. You can literally follow anyone on twitter, without having to go through all the friend request of Facebook, or the slow process of emailing people. I'm connecting with people in the television agency, and that is definitely going to help me down the road.

Do Video Games Matter?

After watching the TED Talks video with Jane McGonigal, I have really thought a lot about if video games could actually solve real world problems. In my own opinion, I don't think that they can. Sure, that "epic win" can totally hype you up and boost your confidence in things, but how is that going to help our world and its problems? To solve real world problems, you need to be able to solve very complex problems. You just aren't going to do that by playing Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto all day. In order to solve real world problems you would have to play complex games that mirror the reality that we live in now.

Some of our real world problems anyways is that we spend too much time playing video games. People are exercising less, and playing games more. Wouldn't it be better to go play outside or do something else productive in your life than sit around and play video games? Read a book instead on Global Warming or Colony Collapse Disorder. Those are the real world problems, and you definitely won't find those in any type of video game. Another issue I have is that while spending all of your time playing video games, you aren't interacting face to face with other human beings, so you are losing social skills. If everyone spent all of their time on video games, we wouldn't know what to do when we came face to face with someone else. It would make life awkward. If you can't socially interact with anyone, how would you really solve real world issues anyways? There needs to be a happy medium between video games and living your life outside of them.

Social Media Activism

Awhile ago in class we talked about social media and live activism. I didn't give much thought about it because I am normally annoyed when I see continuous posts about certain rally's or protests. I always thought, "why can't you just post it once or twice, and then let other's spread the word about it." Since joining a Dance Marathon committee though, my views have changed. Social media is becoming one of the only outlets of media that people actually pay attention to and look at multiple times during the day. Sure, we could keep putting articles into the newspaper and on the radio giving information about the Marathon and our events, but those outlets don't help us as much as social media does. We create facebook events for fundraisers, and post the links to our own fundraising pages. People our age need to basically be pushed into doing something, so posting several times a day or a week about an event will most likely lead to higher attendance. It's hard to ignore something when you constantly see posts about it. It also spreads the word faster about things because you can retweet or share statuses and whatnot. Now I enjoy seeing multiple posts about different events because without social media I probably wouldn't have heard about them at all.