Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Jamming to the blues? or to the Bluest eye?

When you listen to the blues, it’s sad, it’s slow, and it wraps you around someone’s story. It’s so beautifully painful. The artist pouring out their heart and soul into the song they have created. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is like the blues. It’s a sad slow song that wraps you around someone’s story making you feel the emotions being portrayed but in her own style making sure you know its not you average story. Turning a book into a beautiful blues song.
            The book doesn’t speak of just anyone’s blues there isn’t one person going through a problem the book talks of everyone’s problems. Pecola, Freida, Claudia, Cholly, Mrs. Breedlove and even minor characters like Maureen had their problems reflected in the book. Their problems were not ass bad as Pecolas but they still brought out a sympathetic feeling out of the reader. We have Claudia and who is struggling to embrace her own colors in a way. You can see this in the way she gets upset at the white doll she is given and when Maureen was being put on a pedestal because of her skin tone. I feel like her anger and wanting to hurt people when she was upset was her way in coping with it. In a way I feel like she was having her own struggle even Maureen to me had her own little struggle because it seemed the she couldn’t even realize that she wasn’t white. Lighter than everyone she may be but one of her parents is still black and I feel that she doesn’t accept it. Sometimes when you hear a blues song it doesn’t just talk about that one person it has another party in the song and I feel every character in the book was another party that was added to make the story/song what it was.

            Ultimately though the song comes back to the one person that song or person was talking about. It may go to other topics but the song always comes back to the main point. To me the main point was Pecola because without her there would be no song. Her problems are so severe but it makes people feel better about their selves. It’s like their life may suck but at the end of the day as long as they aren’t Pecola they can survive. And like a blues song the story tries to make a good in that bad,  yes its bad they deserted Pecola and she was treated horribly but it helped others move on with their own lives. So in a way Pecola was a savior to the people.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

To Have Flawless Skin is to Serve Ones Country take 2

Beauty is all about outer appearance. So when you have pimples gracing your face you’re not thinking damn I look good today. Your think Oh My Gosh this is gross I need to get rid of it. What is the best thing to use? What about America’s number 1 acne system Proactive!
  When you first look at the ad you see Julianne Hough (who you may or may not know of) an already famous woman who looks perfect. She has pearly white teeth, and nice blonde hair that seems like silk, high nice cheek bones. Her eyebrows are done so beautifully, and nice bright blue eyes staring back at you. After looking at her you think of your own face and think of your own skin it’s probably (no offense) not as flawless (but if it is props to you bro). The ad obviously targets people who feel insecure because of their acne. If she looks like that then the proactive works right.
Then after you see this beautiful lady your eyes roam to the #1 that just can’t get any bolder. It’s telling you its number one it’s going to work after all its number 1 in America. The number one is not only like the boldest thing there it’s also centered meaning they wanted you to see it (just in case you missed the bolding of the number).  And then two other things that pop right at you is free gift but of course the rest of the sentence is smaller because it’s not really free. Free comes with a price of $12. Then lastly you see the Thank you for serving your country. What makes proactive so good that it’s like serving your country. Because its number 1 is that why? Or they might just be adding some random patriotism in there.
I also feel maybe they make the name of the artist in small print so they can try to fool people. Julianne Hough to me isn't all that I would think she’s kind of ordinary. They want her to blend in and seem normal. So it’s like I’m famous but I’m still one of you.
But while looking at this ad it seems we forget that she is famous with money of course her skin is flawless. As a singer she has to maintain her beauty was it actually proactive that made her skin look like this or Photoshop people aren’t really thinking that. They are thinking about the fact that her skin is smooth so it must work. But it doesn’t seem to stop with perfect skin! Look at her she has straight pearly white teach and she’s beautiful. That tells people, hey, you can be beautiful too just use proactive.
This ad reinforces the idea that you beauty is everything. If you have blemishes don’t worry we can fix that. We can make you beautiful again. It’s like having a pimple isn’t normal it’s a disease that needs to be treated and we have the cure. I mean to me that’s what the background kind of gives off a sort of medical like feel. When I saw the #1 in America sign I thought of the doctors gloves because of the color and then the white background reminded me of the jacket. But hey, maybe that’s just me.



Saturday, February 8, 2014

Serving ones country by getting rid of acne?

On the ad we have Julianne Hough and already famous woman who look perfect. She has pearly white teeth nice blonde hair that seems like silk high nice cheek bones. Her eyebrows are done so beautifully and nice bright blue eyes staring back at you. The ad is about getting rid of acne. Viewers or people walking by see this flawless skinned woman before them and then think of their own skin problems. The ad obviously targets [people who feel insecure because of their acne. Obviously if she looks like that then the proactive works right.  But we forget that she is famous with money of course her skin is flawless. As a singer she has to maintain her beauty where it was actually proactive that made her skin look like this or Photoshop people aren’t really thinking that. They are thinking about the fact that her skin is smooth so it must work. But it doesn’t seem to stop with perfect skin! Look at her she has straight pearly white teach and she’s beautiful. That tells people, hey, you can be beautiful too just use proactive. Then after you see this beautiful lady your eyes roam to the #1 that just can’t get any bolder. It’s telling you its number one it’s going to work after all its number 1 in America. And then two other things that pop right at you is free gift but then of course the rest of the sentence is smaller because it’s not really free. Free comes with a price of $12. Then lastly you see the Thank you for serving your country. The brand is so good that when you buy it it’s like your serving your country. 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

You should all be ashamed of yourselves especially You Cartoonetwork

In all my eye opening examinations I’ve examined YouTube, Haiti’s unappreciative manner towards the disabled, and Steven’s Universe.  Through all my observations I look at everything in a new light. I’ve learned that everything can be analyzed and  seen differently. YouTube seems like a wonderful place you get to hear funny people and watch music videos. But then you don’t really think about what the person is saying. You watch it because you saw he had a lot of subscribers you laugh in the spur of the moment and don’t question anything. No one ever really pays attention to the comments. I mean  if your there for the music video you only need to watch the music video you don’t care who’s watching.  But once you scroll and see the comments it’s a whole new world. You learn things about people you don’t know all because they are so trusting of the internet. They let their business out for all to see no matter how old they are in reality. There is no age limit for YouTube but if there was no one would listen.
In Haiti you can see that people who walk are more valued than people who don’t but in Fairfield County I’d say we do a pretty good job of including the disabled. We have ramps people are usually driving if they are disabled but if they aren’t being driven in a car their special buses for them.
            I’ve seen that in cartoons they teach you young that of course white people are smarter. Whether its on purpose or just in their nature. They also start getting to know stereotypes at an early age. Black people don’t always rely on brute force and wear afros. We also don’t always follow the plans of the white man when they are wrong too. We speak up for ourselves and don’t stay silent while everyone contributes. Spanish people are not slow like Steven either.

            After making all these observations I will continue to watch children’s show with a closer eye because I feel the way the portrayal their races are ridiculous and I refuse to sit here and just let my friends and family watch such tomfoolery. I will point it out to people until I figure out an adequate way to get people to understand where I’m coming from with my opinions. But for now if anyone from Cartoonetwork is reading this I need you all to get it together you used to be so much better than this! Reevaluate yourselves please.

Duuh of course only white cartoons can be smart....

As a child I use to love Cartoonetwork it was my favorite channel now I’m really iffy on the channel watched 90 minutes of Cartoonetwork and I want those 90 minutes back. I ended up watching three episodes of Steven Universe (back to back to back mainly because cartoonetwork doesn’t have real shows they play the same shows over and over again until you want to scream) and at first I was really lost but then I got what was going on but I ended up comprehending. The characters were very interesting actually it’s about a little chubby Spanish looking boy, who isn’t exactly the brightest kid in the world. And he is half Gem half human so he has these powers but he can’t really control them. His mom died because she gave birth to him and she was Gem and I guess she wasn’t supposed to have a human boo and give birth I’m not really clear on that issue. But he has three Gem guardians. There’s Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst they are all Steven’s guardians. I don’t even know why but Garnet is black, Pearl is white and Amethyst is I don’t even know what race she is because she’s purple…Everyone else had a race but her. There aren’t many black cartoons so I was really excited to see what she would bring to the plate. And she was literally a black Ferb from Phineas and Ferb she didn’t speak and when she did she spoke in a British accent and said something really smart or useful in the situation. I mean she talked more than Ferb but it was like the same thing anyway. She was very curvaceous and had a big afro that’s why I feel most people identified her as black because for all I know she could have been Indian or Native American she was the brawns of the group also using brute force on most things. There was Pearl and not being racist but she seemed like a stereotypical white housewife. But without a husband she was constantly pouncing on Steven wondering where he was what he was doing worrying about his safety and babying him. She was always trying to figure out what was wrong and how she could fix it. She overthought almost every situation they were in. Then there was Amethyst she was very goofy didn’t use her brain much and just wanted to have fun. I had to say I was highly disappointed with the show mainly because after getting excited and seeing the black girl I had high expectations but I felt she wasn’t really significant even though she was a main character. Also all the main character except Pearl seemed to be not so smart so that kind of was a bust. It made me feel like so what your telling me is that only white people can be smart in this show. In the next episode I met another character and I couldn’t identify if she was black, Indian, or Native American it was kind of frustrating but I assumed she wasn’t black because she had no afro like Garnet but I’m not sure. She seemed kind of smart she was reading a book which was the first time I saw a book in the hour that I had watched the show and even she wasn’t the smartest cookie in the jar either.

Its not like disabled people are people anyway....

When I went to Haiti everything was wonderful except I couldn’t figure out how disabled people were able to go around. But when I really looked and thought about it deeply I didn’t really see any disable people around and I understood why. It’s hard enough to walk around Haiti when you aren’t disabled. The sidewalks are crowded and bumpy everyone walks quickly. On top of the crowded sidewalks there are street vendors selling so you have to be careful not to bump into them. Crossing the street to me was like signing your soul off to death. There was like literally no streetlights whatsoever and all the drivers drove like maniacs. There were lines on the roads but they might as well have been invisible since no driver cared enough to follow them. There was also no ramps anywhere I don’t know how people did it especially because the floors were so bumpy and there was so many hills. It seemed nearly impossible for someone who couldn’t walk to be able to get by safely in Haiti. No one seemed like they would stop if a person on a wheelchair was coming through especially if they were crossing the streets. If you were crossing the streets you had to run for dear life to make it across the street and not be killed by some crazy driver. Also taking the bus was no easy task for people who aren't disabled because it wasn't and ordinary buss people didn't really sit and when they did it didn't look very comfortable either. I love Haiti but if I was disabled Haiti would not be the place for me. I also feel like Haitians wouldn't have the patience to deal with a person who can't walk considering mostly all the people walked everywhere so its not like they can be driven everywhere. Not being able to walk is really hard in Haiti because everyone relies on their legs. But since the earthquake I would have assumed they could have added ramps and made it more convenient
  for the disabled since the people of the country had been physically hurt alot. There was a lot of people who came out injured. So I thought that would give them a motive to add more effort into making it possible for the disable to get around but I guess not.

My whole life as a YouTuber was a lie...

I love music it’s not a shocking statement really. Most teenagers love music so we spend time on YouTube a lot. So my observation is on YouTube. I love going on YouTube to watch funny videos and music videos. But what I did differently is that I read the comments and that I tried to analyze the funny videos. Why were these videos so funny? Who is watching them? What I found out was very interesting actually. At first I started analyzing the funny videos I watched and when I kept in mind why? Do I find this funny? And so on I felt ignorant the video that I and many people claimed were so funny actually weren’t so funny. I’m always talking about female empowerment; women should have equal rights, yet the video I watched were degrading women. I thought they were funny but every time a male referred to a female in the videos I watched they were called b***hes. Not once did they say woman or girl. They were referred to as b***ches and a lot of time hoes. Also most of the comedians were males. There were some female YouTube comedians but not famous ones with like 2 million subscribers. Even so they also referred to their fellow comrades, women, as b***ches or hoes. It made me rethink what I was watching. Then another question popped up as I was scrolling down looking at the comments. Who is watching these videos? I was watching a Carrie Underwood video the video for Just A Dream because I love that song. The video was about a female who instead of getting married and having a happy ending, had to attend the funeral of her loved one just as life was getting good. As I scrolled to look at the comments I learned of a 12 year old and her 14 year old boyfriends struggle because he wants to join the army when he grows up. For me it was just like wow put your whole life out there why don’t you. Then it was pure bewilderment because your 12 why are you thinking about that? Another thing that bothered me also was that some music videos had nothing to do with the song like it literally was like saying how the weather is and answering your mama. It was so ridiculous and meaningless, why do we have music videos again there’s like no connection to the music whatsoever.