Boys Don't Cry is a film by Kimberly Peirce, which tells the story of a lesbian girl, Brandon(Teena) who keeps her real sex as a secret. She introduces her as Brandon, wears and acts like boys, hide her breasts, puts on a fake penis and make everyone believe that she is a boy, because she knows how diffucult it would be when people know about her being a lesbian. She falls in love with a girl, Lana, who has a tough boyfriend. Then people find out that Brandon is not a boy and Lana's boyfriend beats and rapes Brandon, which is the most dramatic scene of the movie.
The film becomes more dramatic when we think that this movie is based on a true story. When I watched this movie, I realized that we live in a very insensitive and cruel world, noone respects noones sexual choices and gays are always forced to be shamed of themselves. People become victims of their own choices and be insulted in lots of ways. For example, in a scene of the movie, Lana's mother mentions Brandon as "it". Because for her, she is not a girl and a boy either, so she does not deserve to be called like other "normal" people.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
11. Ideal Woman
There is an "ideal woman" created by media and women's desire on looking like that woman can sometimes cause big problems. For example, I read a story about a woman, who had always been overweight in her whole life. She gets married and starts living with her mother-in-law. Her husbands family always tries to make her lose weight, takes away her meals in front of her and tells her that a woman cannot be like her and if she does not lose weight, her husband will go to other women. These insulting actions of them make her miserable and she makes an unhealthy diet, which turned into blumia in 2 years. Now, she is still trying to be healthy as she used to be.
This created ideal women are only 5% of the whole women, but on TV, the percentage of those women are about 100%, which makes the other women think like they are the only one who is not "perfect". Of course this being perfect is also an issue, which is determined by the tv. For example about 40 years ago, the film stars were all a bit overweight and all women were trying to be like them. But now, we see that especially in advertisements that woman are unhappy when they are fat and do not enjoy life, but as they lose weight, they have fun again and be happy. Especially in the advertisements of diet products, we see that the key of happiness is being beautiful.
This created ideal women are only 5% of the whole women, but on TV, the percentage of those women are about 100%, which makes the other women think like they are the only one who is not "perfect". Of course this being perfect is also an issue, which is determined by the tv. For example about 40 years ago, the film stars were all a bit overweight and all women were trying to be like them. But now, we see that especially in advertisements that woman are unhappy when they are fat and do not enjoy life, but as they lose weight, they have fun again and be happy. Especially in the advertisements of diet products, we see that the key of happiness is being beautiful.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
10. Practice Presentation
Last, week we did our practice presentations, which was my 2. experience. Comparing to the one I did in high school, the audience was looking more interested, which had a motivating effect on me. Their taking notes made me feel like I was an important person and strengthened my self-confidence. :)
When we took the feedback, I agreed all the "negative facts" except the one about the font and color of the texts in the slideshow. I had really worked hard in adapting the text's colour with the dominant colour of the images. :)
What I did not like about myself was being too nervous. I forgot half of the things I had to say and had diffuculties in making correct sentences, although I did not have any in writing the same ones.
If I were the one to grade, my mark would be 65/100.
When we took the feedback, I agreed all the "negative facts" except the one about the font and color of the texts in the slideshow. I had really worked hard in adapting the text's colour with the dominant colour of the images. :)
What I did not like about myself was being too nervous. I forgot half of the things I had to say and had diffuculties in making correct sentences, although I did not have any in writing the same ones.
If I were the one to grade, my mark would be 65/100.
9. An Online Tragedy
Voyeurism is one of the methods of attracking attention, even if it has horrible results, and sometimes we can describe that kind of voyeurism as a serious psychological illness, like a 19-year-old boy from Florida has. The mentioned boy keeps on saying she will commit suicide but noone thinks he is serious till that day. First he writes a suicide note and then he commits suicide while 1500 people's online watching.
According to the article I read about this case, the ceo of the mentioned website, Michael Seibel tells that they have absolute rules about these kinds of cases and they have removed the video immediately, but here comes to mind if it is possible any of the charged people like an admin not to realize such a big occasion happenning, or could not they prevent him to do it online on their website after his suicide note?
8. Tv: The Plug-In Drug
Last week, we made a presentation about Marie Winn's article, Tv: The Plug-In Drug. I had to tell about her ideas, which I mostly disagreed.
I think, her description of the factors which harmed the American family structure was really sexist. She says that "working moms" are one of these factors. Why are "working dads" out of subject? Is the woman more responsible on the child, or is the man more talented in making money?
Another thing is about the "horrible" results of having a television at home. It is obviously true that the family members do not interact as much as the old days without tv, but sometimes it can be fun to watch something with your family, or just watching a movie together.
Her point of view is very strict and this attitude of her makes her tv scandal more ironic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotto)
7. "The economic illness"
Obesity, is an illness, which spreads in recent years faster than before. Surveys also tell that, but we can see it too, if we look around a bit more carefully. In my childhood, there were always some friends to play around my house and we were never getting bored. But now, when I look from the window, I never see kids playing like we did years ago, I just see them in shopping malls playing with their ataris or asking their moms to buy one more pc game. I can see it also in my relatives. My cousins' mom never allow them to go to the park without herself because of the "unsafe" environment. So they just come home and watch tv, because they have nothing to do with their nanny, and they both put on weight fastly. Maybe the mothers are right because of the increased crime rate but obesity is much more risky than playing outside.
Especially the children are more likely to have this illness because watching television and playing pc games are generally the main activities of their lifes. Surveys tell that people eat extra meals during watching tv and children, who watch television more than 4 hours/a day are more likely to have obesity comparing to children, who watch less. These illness can lead to more serious health problems but ironically, there are sectors which gain advantage from the obeses.
This is mentioned in an article I read. A research made in Holland tells that the obeses and people who smoke live shorter than healthy people and this makes government save $50.000 per person, and the explanation is that the treatments of the illnesses such as obesity and cancer are much more cheaper than the illnesses like alzheimer. I think it is very inappropriate to make estimations about people's lifes, even if the mentioned people do not think about their lifes so much.
Especially the children are more likely to have this illness because watching television and playing pc games are generally the main activities of their lifes. Surveys tell that people eat extra meals during watching tv and children, who watch television more than 4 hours/a day are more likely to have obesity comparing to children, who watch less. These illness can lead to more serious health problems but ironically, there are sectors which gain advantage from the obeses.
This is mentioned in an article I read. A research made in Holland tells that the obeses and people who smoke live shorter than healthy people and this makes government save $50.000 per person, and the explanation is that the treatments of the illnesses such as obesity and cancer are much more cheaper than the illnesses like alzheimer. I think it is very inappropriate to make estimations about people's lifes, even if the mentioned people do not think about their lifes so much.
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