Rage Against the Machine: Kesey's Cuckoo's Nest

Although the book has received much criticism, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest shows the world through a man's eyes who is mentally ill and is on drugs. I don't feel like this book is bad in any way, and i don't think it should be looked down upon or banned. The man who is telling his story, Chief Bromden, is very much so separated from reality and says many things that are considered to be offensive. He refers to the African Americans that work in the ward as "Black Boys" and he is constantly using rude generalized gender slurs to refer to the Big Nurse and other women who work on the ward. There are people who look at this book as a bad, unethical piece of literature and I am not sure why, because from reading this book you can get that he is always talking about being in a "fog," obviously normal people who aren't ill don't walk around seeing everything in a "fog." In one part of the book, he has a dream that he thinks is reality where the floor opens up and the workers of the ward hang one of the patients by their foot and open him up. No one who isn't divorced from reality would ever dream this up and believe that it is reality. Why anyone would take his book and find it offensive in any way is beyond me.

Mean Girls

Even though this movie was not meant to be a serious movie that teaches you a lesson, or provides a commentary on the social interactions between teenagers, it succeeded in both. The movie showed how being popular and trying to strive to be liked makes you a bad person in the end. Cady, in the movie, originally was trying to sabotage the "Plastics", a group of the three most popular girls in the school. But in her pursuit of this goal she forgot who she was and why she was trying to break up this group in the first place. By the end of the movie she had become plastic and was not any better, if worse than the other superficial members of the plastics group. At the end, in the climax of the movie Cady apologized and realized the lesson that screenwriter Tina Fey wanted this movie to portray.

Mean Girls

After watching mean girls with a new look on gender i have found that the movie is a good representation of how girls and boys act in high school and how different they are. i found it so ridiculous that Cady thought she had to act like she didn't know how to do math so that Aaron would like her. It also shows clearly the difference between girls and guys because never in the movie did any guys (except for maybe Damion) betray any other guys. On the other hand many girls are always striving to be the prettiest or the most popular in school . It also made it seem that guys only want sex from a girl, this was the scene in the lunch room when that guy came up to Cady and asked her a question and Regina cut in and asked if Cady wanted to have sex with him and she said no, so Regina told him he could go shave his back. That also made men look like they take advantage of girls who are innocent and in a new environment, because Cady was still new to the school and extremely oblivious of what was going on. Although this movie is made up and the gender stereotypes are stretched out a bit, it still shows how high school creates many gender stereotypes as well as stereotypes in general of groups of people.

Yum! Gender

Gender roles have been around for a long, long, time and the media has definitely been one of the biggest influences. We constantly see the woman at home cooking their husband a nice meal, cleaning the house and taking care of the children on the telly. But the man however is not usually seen cooking, or cleaning or taking care of the child, he is usually out of the house, like at work. Men are seen as the providers and protectors of the family. Where as woman are seen as the ones who care for the child, clean the house and please the husband with a nice hot meal on the table right after he comes home from a hard day of work. All that we have seen time and time again on the t.v.(especially in old shows and movies) but gradually though i feel these gender roles are changing. We see more women out working then we used too and we see more men cooking, cleaning and taking more care of the children then we used to. Slowly gender roles are starting to bend but i don't think they will ever completely snap and change.

Gender ID

Gender roles didnt just appear in the 21st century, but instead have been around since people first walked the earth so gender.I admit the media does play a huge part in gender roles,peoples identity's. Its pretty easy to see where these gender "stereotypes" come from. For example, women are the ones who have the babies so wouldnt it makes sense that the women stays home with the child. People are always talking about the media putting pressure on gender identity and the roles we must play, but what about feminist putting pressure on women to meet mens gender identity. yeah and i hope these dont expect to get anywhere when they voluntarily degrade themselves,(escpecially in the media). I think that the media influencing gender identity is the least of the media's problems.





P.S i'm not actually sure where i stand on the media's involvement in gender identity
and yes i know this blog is unorganized and makes little sense.

An American Carol trailer

Gender Roles

The gender issue becomes more important every year. Times have dramatically changed from the 1920's and some people still haven't gotten over it all. Then, they didn't have certain media's like television and the Internet that have a big influence on our culture. Their knowledge of gender roles was based on what their parents taught them. It wasn't until much later when women started to break out and become their own people. Men were always the head of the house and the women ran it.  Today, men and women get their ideas about gender roles from sources like the Internet, magazines, and t.v.  the media today tells girls to be thin and independent and for the boys to be strong and intimidating.  Women can have jobs and be independent just like any other man.  Some people think that things should go back to the way they once were where the men made the money and the women took care of the kids.  Today, women are stronger then ever. 

Gender Fender Lender Bender, Back to Sender

Theres nothing I can write that would be better than that title, but I'll try.

I think that gender identity does not need harsh rebuke as authors such as Jackson Katz and Sut Jahlly. There are inherent differences between men and women and this is a good thing. If men and women were the same just like if every person looked the same it would be boring. Gender identity should be something that deserves funny mocking. It is not a big deal if a man wants to appear tough and a woman appear womanly. Like anything else, something at the extremes is always going to be be a little crazy. For example politicians at the extreme ends of the political spectrum are seen as crazy. To be succesful in a business environment you have to be tough, you cannot let other walk all over you. However bad it may seem it is a simple fact that will never change. Let boys be boys and girls be girls.

the end.

After watching Fahrenheit 9/11 I was shocked by all that Moore had to say about the Bush administration, and all the corruption in our government. Even though I do believe some of what Moore has to say. I think he came off way too opinionated and scornful. The movie was throwing information at you way to fast and like Hitchens says in his article, Moore’s evidence contradicts itself. Because of the information overload, the audience isn’t sure what to believe. Which in fact may be Moore’s intentions. I believe Moore’s motives behind producing this movie were all very good, even though he was harsh. It’s safe to say that Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 may have been even more successful if he hadn’t been so blunt.

Gender Bender

Personally I think that gender identity is what you make of it, if you think that a woman should be a stay at home mom and do house work and cleaning all her life, that is all your own opinion and your entitled to it. I also think that media and our culture has a large impact on our perceptions of gender. If all the movies that you watch and all the music you hear is about women who should are trying to please men and are not the bread winners of the family and such, then that will soon be your perception of gender also. I think it is strange that some men are intimidated by smart women, personally i think smart men are much more intimidating but women still are attracted by them. It is even weirder that men are supposed to be "macho" and they feel like they cant even like smart women, or so they say.

Moore Racism

The movie farenheight 911 was not only full of deceit and half thruths, it also had a racist undertone at parts.

When Moore was making fun of the coalition of countrys that were to fight with the United States in Iraq at several parts he showed overt racism and stereotyping. He also failed to mention the rest of the countries in the coaltion that were strong countries, including: Spain, Italy, Poland and Great Brittain. When describing Palau, Moore, sterotypically, uses a video of native Palaun dancers, inplying that this is the way that all Palauns act and live.

Another racist part of the movie is when Moore taps into the fears of Americans by portraying Saudi leaders that members of the Bush adminsitration meet with as evil. By doing this, he is using video of American leaders meeting with Middle Eastern people, to try to prey on the fear of some Americans that Middle Eastern people are evil.

Moore Lies

In history class we learn about the propaganda of the past. How during World War II, Americans would see movies and printed advertisements about how bad the German's were. During the Red Scare there was propaganda about how bad communists were. Propaganda has a long history in our country and unfortunately pieces of propaganda are still out there like Michael Moore's documentary Farenheight 9-11.

His distortion of facts and his supposing of what President Bush is thinking, or doing, is a blatant attempt to conceal the facts in order to create a more compelling case. An example of his distortion of facts is when he says that Fox News implys that Fox News was the first news outlet to change its decision about whether Florida went to Bush or Gore. They were not. Moore says "Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy..." Moore implys that soon after Goore was declared the winner in Florida, Fox News changed everyones minds. When in fact the events happened several hours apart.

This kind of propaganda is dangerous and if Moore can make people believe in his ideals through lies, it shows that our country is not past the days of anti-German propaganda of WWII.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Persuasion or Propaganda?

As i watch Fahrenheit 9/11 it only makes me hate Michael Moore even more than i did before. I don't agree with some of the things that Bush has done, but i am still a Bush supporter. I think that Michael Moore should keep his comments to himself. He has taken advantage of the movie by putting words to Bush on tape and is trying to persuade everyone to agree with him by this. It makes me angry that all he does is point fingers, if he is so concerned about the country he should run for president.

Native Soil

Its been seven years since September 11th. When 9/11 happened I was only in fifth grade and knew very little about the incidents that occurred that day. I realized something tragic had happened and that America now felt extremely threatened. As years past and we continued to "remember" and discuss September 11th, i was able to learn more about what had happened. It wasn't until i saw On Native Soil, seven years later, that i was able to see and understand the view points of both, the public and the governments. When watching the video I began to realize how much power our government has and how much they had know about terrorism prior to the attacks. The plane crashes were seen by the public and couldn't be hidden by our government and because the public had witnessed this act of terror it was almost like all that prior knowledge the United States government had been hiding, was now revealed for everyone to see and question. It makes you wonder, what else isn't our government telling us? As for now September 11th has made me more patriotic and have greater apprecation for my "native soil".

September 11th

After watching On Native Soil i was completely blown away. I had no idea that our government had been notified several times that there could be possible attacks on America and they chose to ignore. If they were doing their jobs and paying attention to the little things those thousands of people that died that day could have been safe. If the government wasn't so ignorant they could have prevented so much from happening. It's absolutely ridiculous that the hijackers were allowed to come into the country without even filling out the papers correctly and better yet, on the plane. While watching the film, On Native Soil, i was traumatized when i saw people jump out of the buildings to their death so they wouldn't have to die burning. Having to choose whether to die burning or die jumping off a building is something i could never imagine doing and watching people doing that was horrifying. I have been flying all my life, back and forth to Italy, and I'm glad that now finally, security in the airport has been heightened. The government should make sure this is kept up and that the security doesn't start feeling too comfortable and starts to slip, we can't face another attack like September 11.

September 11th

The video On Native Soil, showed me a entire different side of the 9/11/01 attacks. I didn't realize how many things could have been prevented. It makes really angry that people in the buildings and in the planes could still be alive today if people did their jobs. The highjackers shouldn't have even been allowed in the country let alone get on an airplane. I don't know if i feel as safe as I did flying on airplanes now. I knew about people having to jump out the windows but actually seeing makes it so much worse. Seeing the faces of the people that caused our country so much pain was really hard to see. It really made me think about the things that are really important like family and friends. The sad thing is that whole entire day of events could have been prevented if people were doing their jobs.

September 11, 2001

It was around ten thirty in the morning on september 11, 2001 when I heard a knock on the door of my fifth grade classroom. I saw the principal come into the room and whisper something to my teacher. I saw is face change from a smile to a frown instantly. I knew at that moment something horrible had happened but I had no idea that an event happened that would continue to effect me today.

After watching most of the movie On Native Soil I feel that some of the blame for September 11th should be placed on the government. However, I do not think that as much blame should be placed on the government as many people call for. We can't forget that it was not the government who hijacked the airplanes, and it was not the government who crashed planes into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Most of the blame should be placed on the terrorists who want to hurt America at all costs. Since 9-11 there have been several terrorist attacks that have been stopped by American officials. I think that this horrible tragedy gave the United States a wake up call, that there are people out there who want to hurt us.

September 11th, 2001

After viewing On Native Soil, my views of September 11th, 2001 have changed pretty drastically. After seeing all of the friends and relatives who were so determined to find who was behind the attacks of September 11th talk about how they feel about the tragedy that occurred, it filled me with passion to know the answer as well. I found it very disappointing to listen to all of the people who could have stopped or put a damper on these attacks just talk about how they didn't know it was a big deal or that they didn't think it was necessary to inform a higher person to deal with it. This makes me question many people who work in airports and even in people riding in airplanes. Now I question them as to if they are really doing their job to the fullest ability and are they keeping me safe as i use their services? I feel like these things should not have to be questioned because people should be doing their jobs to keep America as safe as possible to prevent this from happening again.