Grace's Blog

Its no shock that women in the media are highly objectified.  This has been an issue that has gone on for too long with so little change.  Especially I have found that in cartoons and super-hero movies, women are put in outfits that are very showy outfits.  In the documentary " Miss Representation", they said that most  cartoons wear the same clothes with the same amount of coverage as in R-rated films. I believe this to be so largely due to a male dominated industry of film production.  "Wonder Woman" was released in the summer of 2017, and has shown incredible improvements in its representation of women since earlier depictions of Wonder Woman. This 2017 film was directed by Patty Jenkins,  while all other on-screen depictions of Wonder Woman were films directed by men.  The costume in the 2017 film was far less revealing than past films, and much more practical.  The costume was one that reflected an actually empowered women, while those of...

While watching Miss Representation in my Critical Thinking class, I found it fascinating that almost all photos of women that are publicized are photoshopped.  I find this to be terrible.  Why ask a woman to come in for a photoshoot if you are not even going to appreciate her natural beauty, to the point where you feel the need to change it?  It is horrifying.  It must be so damaging to those being photographed, to have to feel like they are not good enough to be themselves.  To have to constantly feel as though they in their natural beauty are not able to be accepted by society.  These women must feel like they have to be photoshopped in order to be accepted, which of course is not true.  This process also has very damaging effects on the women and girls who look at these image.  For the most part, they know not of the photoshop, and are then held to an unattainable ideal.  These girls and these women look to these models as what society acc...

Social media is the biggest way that trends are spread. Trends can travel the space of the world in only a matter of seconds. A popular account may post something, and minutes later, almost everyone has seen it. This quick spread has not only spread trends, but has made people popular. The biggest and most recent example is Mason Ramsden aka “the yodeling walmart boy.” It started with someone  video taping him. This video quickly went viral, and could be found on every social media platform. The next day, there were two remixes made of the short song he toddled in the walmart. People staged videos in which they went to their local walmart and danced to the remixes. Due to gained popularity on social media, and everyone talking about him outside of the screens, the kid went on to perform at Coachella. This kid became huge due to the quick spread of social media. A few weeks following his performance at Coachella, he real races a song that he wrote, and could be seen talking to celeb...

After watching Merchants of Cool , I was found asking my self: What is "cool"?  How does something come to be cool? How are trends started? In the past "cool" has been defined as toys, people, music styles, or clothing. Sometimes what is cool becomes cool due to its utilitarianism.  For example, Birkenstocks (the sandals) were seen as a really ugly shoe. My mom had a pair in the early 2000s, and everyone made fun of her for her "ugly" shoes.  However, a couple years ago, Birkenstocks made a comeback, due to the comfort that the shoes provide.  But who was the one brave enough to wear these supposedly ugly sandals in order to convince the rest of society that they are comfortable and practical shoes, that could be trendy.  Someone who was already praised in society?  But how could one person influence so many others, especially when no one person is credited? Sometimes phrases or words become cool.  This can typically be credited to Youtubers, Vi...

How many times have you heard the term “sales event?” Far too many? Yeah me too. When I see the phrase on ads and hear it on commercials, I almost tune it out. Isolating the phrase, it sounds sort of exciting. A sales EVENT. It sounds like a formal, fancy get together with all your favorite cars or household items or clothes. But when you hear it repeatedly it gets really annoying and, at least for me, is easily tuned out. Sometimes advertisers will throw in the name of a holiday to remind us of our procrastination in purchasing gifts. I think that it is sad that the virtue of these holidays is being overridden by sales events. The biggest example of this is Christmas and Black Friday. I think it’s awesome to be able to get such great deals, especially when Christmas can be so pricy. It seems that sometimes people will get so caught up in gift giving that they forget the true nature of the holiday. Some handle it really well and don’t let material things get in the way of spending tome...

I am a huge fan of the musical Wicked. The music is all so beautiful and catchy and fun to sing along to. I love listening to them. All the performers have such amazing voices. However, I have never seen the musical. I have almost gone on several occasions, but something has always come up, or the tickets were all sold or something, preventing me from seeing it. Almost ever since the soundtrack came out I have wanted to see the musical. There is something so exciting about back stories. Something that connects to what is familiar, but to a whole new level. Seeing things from a new perspective and seeing what caused things to be the way that we all know them to be. I have been able to sort of tell what goes on, a basic plot line, but not much more. Sure, I could look up a plot summary, and then maybe the words would all make sense, but I feel that that would drain from the excitement of actually seeing the musical, and seeing it all come into place. I feel like this is sort of similar t...

Every time I am in a car, I turn on the radio. I love the radio. It’s free, and if you find a good station, you are constantly listening to songs that you love. However, in order to pay for this free service, ads are a huge part of using the radio. I cannot stand ads. Usually when I am driving, I am only going a short distance, so ads take up all, if not almost all, of the time in the car. I have a couple back up stations, but there are some times where it is all ads, or no good music is playing at all. I think that this is why more and more people are turning away from the radio. Now people typically play their own music from their phones. The radio industry is kind of dying off. I find this especially sad because the radio has been such a massive part of our history. The first radio station came out in 1920, and it is preemptive insane that radios are still used over 100 years later. So it it time to move on from radios?

I'm sure that not many of you have heard of The Velvet Underground, so allow me to inform you.  The Velvet Underground is a band that came out of New York in 1964, with Lou Reed leading the band.  Their first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, was released in 1967, and their last, Squeeze , was released in 1973.  During their time, they were not very recognized or appreciated, but are now known as one of the most influential rock bands. In 1970, they released the album Loaded, which featured the song "Rock & Roll"  written by Lou Reed.  The song tells a story about Jenny, a girl who's "life was saved by rock 'n' roll." In the song, Jenny is surrounded by media, and doesn't really see the point of it all.  "Then one fine mornin' she turns on a New York station / She doesn't believe what she hears at all." She hears rock and roll for the first time, and it totally changes her life.  This song was a reflection of L...