10. The Meaning of Beauty

As I watched "Killing Us Softly," I began to think about what it truly means to be beautiful, and that made me remember a Dove commercial that I've seen some time ago. In the commercial, which I've posted at the end of this post, you'll see what Ms. Kilbourne has touched up on in the documentary: our manipulated perception of beauty. The media relentlessly plays with the public physcology, and distorts our definition of beauty. Nowadays, the formula of beauty equals to this:

Razor-thin body+colorful eyes+straight hair+always make-up ready face+stylish and expensive wardrobe..

OR

to make it easier to visualize in our minds, it is either Angelina Jolie or Cameron Diaz.

I bet for the ladies who are reading this, my 'formula' is not a big surprise because after all, don't we hear that men find these women attractive and chase after girls with similar qualities or don't our friends say they wish they had a butt like celebrity A or lips like celebrity B??

But why must such feature of a person be beautiful? Who decides this?

Obviously, the media does, and women are the ones who are victimized by these impossible, unrealistic, and shallow standards of beauty. These days, it seems like having a unique appearance or an amazing personality is not appreciated at all.It actually scares me to say this, but if this is how we are in year 2009 when the rates of eating disorders have skyrocketed like never seen before, then what will we be like in year 2019?? That is the core issue that we must tackle as soon as possible.

Finally, please watch the video below:

9. Wake-up Call for Turkey

'Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay' by Flowery *L*u*z*a* licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

After I read Sonja’s blog entry on gender equality in Turkey, I decided to look at the Global Gender Gap Report, so in this entry, I will share my thoughts about it. Firstly, though I didn’t guess Iceland for the #1 spot, I did think of European, especially the Nordic countries, to have been placed at the top places. Iceland’s triumph was not surprising; however, I did see something that not just got me by surprise, but it actually shocked me!
As you take a good look at the rankings, you will see that most African and other developing countries that are much poorer and troubled than Turkey, place really high on the chart- specifically higher than Turkey. I never thought that would be the case! In the chart, Lesotho is #10, Trinidad&Tobago #19, Mozambique #26, Namibia #32 and finally, we come to Turkey which places at number 129(out of 134 countries!!! )
When I saw these results, I was at a loss for words. One might ask, “How could this be?” Well, I guess it is time for the Turkish society to examine itself. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US?!?”---this is the question that the society needs to be asking and there is no need to be polite about it.

8. What I've Learned in ENG101

This week, we were asked to blog about what we’ve learned so far in ENG101, so here I go.

Firstly, I learned about Creative Commons. On that website, I found some amazing pictures that I can use. Nowadays, I just search for anything that pops into my head. It’s sooooo much fun (^-^)

Other than that, the APA format is also quite new to me. I’m trying my best at learning how to reference correctly so that I do not face any problems in the future.

I really enjoy ENG101. Other than the fact that I just love English so much, I also enjoy discussing the themes ‘media’ and ‘gender.’ I plan to be a Cultural Studies major, so these topics really interest me.
Till the next entry,
C’ya :)

7. Darth Vader Getting Schooled About Japan’s Keitai Culture

Yesterday, we learned about citing images, so I thought I would share what I did back then. Also, I just love the photo I found on Flickr :) :)

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In-text Citation:
Figure 1. Photograph of Darth Vader Getting Schooled About Japan’s Keitai Culture (n.d.) . Note: Copyright: Chriskk (made availible under Creative Commons License)

List of References:
Chriskk (n.d.)[Photograph of Darth Vader Getting Schooled About Japan’s Keitai Culture], [Online
Image] Retrieved November 9, 2009, from Chriskk’s Home Page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894151073@N01/33674186/

6. “Boys Don’t Cry,” but I Probably Will

Yesterday, in class, we started to research our film “Boys Don’t Cry,” and what I found astounded me. Apparently, there really was a Brandon Teena! Brandon was born into a female body; however, he had a male identity, and his death was tragic. I’m not going to say how because it might ruin the movie for the other assigned groups, but I’m positive that I’m going to break into tears about mid-way of the movie now that I know the true story.

After class, I did some more research, and found some other interesting information. Hilary Swank who played Brandon in the movie lived as a guy for just over a month. She even wrapped her chest with bandages and put socks down her pants!! Was she convincing? Her neighbors thought that her male version was a cousin of hers! This is why I like Hilary Swank. She approaches every role professionally and does an exceptional job at portraying her characters. In my opinion, she really has talent unlike other Hollywood wannabes. Also, did you know that this movie ranked #24 on Premiere’s “The 25 Most Dangerous Movies Ever Made”??

Anyways, it looks like I’m going to be crying on the couch as I watch this one..

Credits: 1) If you want to find out more about why “Boys Don’t Cry” was voted #24 or learn what the other movies are, go to: http://www.premiere.com/List/The-25-Most-Dangerous-Movies-Ever-Made
2) For other basic information on the movie, go to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171804/