Rebecca Skloot Lecture

Instead of having a regular class this week, we had the privilege of attending a lecture presented by the author of the book we have been reading throughout the semester entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The author's name is Rebecca Skloot, and she is a very credited, educated, and accomplished author and teacher. She was nice enough to come to Fairmont State to be a presenter for our Lecture Series.

Rebecca talked for about an hour and a half and touched on different parts of her book, as well as answered questions that the audience had about the book and her life. She began by noting that she spent a lot of time in West Virginia to write the book, as she had friends that allowed her to stay in a secluded house to have a peaceful place to write. She then talked about who Henrietta Lacks was and why she decided to write a book about her. She would read passages out of the book, and then describe what she had read after she was done. She touched on many subject like Henrietta's family, what made Henrietta cells so special, and how they have changed medicine forever. She also spoke about the ethical issues that were involved in taking and distributing Mrs. Lacks cells.

At the end she took questions from the audience, and had a few words of encouragement for the college student to take advantage of every opportunity and don't give up on what you believe in. Overall the lecture was a success, as I got to see an author I admire, hear about some interesting things from the book that I did not realize while reading, and take some valuable life lessons with me. Rebecca Skloot was very inspiring and I am excited to see what she has in store for the future.

Soul Plane

Soul Plane is a movie that takes stereotyping to the extreme. We watched the first half hour of this movie in class on monday, and as it was pretty funny, the messages and ignorance in it was to much to oversee. The movie is based on a man who sues an airline for how he was treated and ends up settling for a large sum of money. With this money he starts his own airline company. He named the company NWA. It is an all African American airline complete with sensuous stewardesses, an onboard dance club, and a bathroom attendant. Chaos ensues in the form of a white family with the unfortunate last name of Hunkee. The father is an uptight, very conservative man, and his son is just the opposite. His son has embraced the hip hop culture and proves this with his dress and speech. We stopped the movie right before the plane had took flight, and popular rapper Snoop Dogg was introduced as the planes inexperienced pilot. 

Overall this movie really broke down not only what black people felt they were being portrayed as in the film industry, but also showed how they felt about white people and their assocation with black culture. It showed many things that people would associate with African Americans and really did not leave much for the imagination. For the most part is was pretty entertaining for what little I saw, and was definitely a good representation of how race, class, and gender is emedded in not only the film industry but in popular culture today.

Bamboozled

We watched Bamboozled in our last class session this monday. In the film Spike Lee takes us on a psychedelic mind trip illustrating the complexities of Black-White interactions. Pierre Delacroix is a creative writer for a cable TV station managed by Dunwitty. Dunwitty is looking for material that will shock audiences to improve ratings. Delacroix initially comes with an idea for a show, Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, where Blacks dress up in Black Face and satirise racism, but the audience appear to miss the point and the humour generated makes Delacroix and his show famous. Driven by greed for fame and fortune, he ignores the racist implications resulting in disastrous consequences.

The message the movie appears to be telling us is that almost all Black entertainment today is made to satisfy the White majority. The movie also directly implies that the mostly-White executives who control the Entertainment channels support Black entertainment mostly in a condescending manner, one that isn't that much different from Slave-era treatment of Blacks. These are all powerful statements to make and Spike Lee argues for their truth through this role-reversal story where economics, class, and race intermingle in a complex manner.

I recommend checking Bamboozled out if you have the patience for dialogue. It is a entertaining movie with some good messages in it. At first I was hesitant about whether or not I would like it, but in the end it turned out to be a pretty interesting film.

Maya Lin

We gave presentations in class this week on different influential figures of race in America. Although a lot of the groups did a great job, I thought that the most interesting presentation given was on architect Maya Lin. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C, as well as many other great accomplishments in sculpting and land art in her short career. She is a Chinese American that was born in Athens, Ohio and after high school she had quite the academic resume. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 from Yale and a Master of Architecture degree in 1986. She has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, Harvard University, Williams College, and Smith College. She was among the youngest in Yale University when she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 1987.

In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out 1,441 other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face, was completed in late October 1982 and dedicated on November 13, 1982. The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers.

Lin, who now owns and operates Maya Lin Studio in New York City, went on to design other structures, including the Civil Rights Memorial inMontgomery, Alabama (1989) and the Wave Field at the University of Michigan (1995). In 1994, she was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. The title comes from an address she gave at Yale in which she spoke of the monument design process. Talking about the origin of her work, Lin says "My work originates form a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings and this can include not just the physical but the psychological world that we live in."

In 2009, Maya Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Her work is very inspiring and innovative. At such a young age, she has accomplished so much and is a good role model for Asian Americans and anyone who respects hard work and commitment to achieving their goals and aspirations.

Experience with Race in College

This week in class was dedicated to the topic of race. Race is something that growing up was not much of an issue for me. I have always tried to never be prejudice or racist towards any other person. Diversity of different races was something that in West Virginia is not often seen. At my high school I don't think that there was more than twenty students that were not white out of some nine-hundred students. Also out of fifty or so teachers there was only two or three that were not white.

It was not until I got to college that I was introduced to many different cultures and races that I previously had no experience with. As a matter of fact, my very first college course was taught by a man from India. In some of my courses I take now, almost half the class is from either a different state or country. Of course Fairmont State University isn't the most diverse setting either. In fact, compared to WVU it is a very small diverse community. At any rate, it is a step up for me, and I embrace it wholeheartedly. I have gained many friendships with people of different race in the past four years, and these are friendships that will last a lifetime. In the end I realized that people of different color and backround are still just people, and while unique in their own ways, are in most cases very similar to myself.

Race, Class, and Gender in Media

In this weeks class, we were asked to team up and work together to find different articles, images, and video that depict either race, class, or gender in media. I was in a group of four and we gathered up all kind of different examples and information to present to the class on these subjects. It was interesting to try and find this information on the web as it was such a broad topic and we could literally use just about anything if we could back it up as to why we used it. Our group ended up getting two examples for each of the three topics. 

For race we showed an article that dealt with Hurrican Katrina. In the article it showed a white woman and a black man fighting through the flood water both carrying different items in their hands. Under the photo their were two captions, the first read a white woman carrying a loaf of bread and some groceries. the other caption said a black man looting a local store. It was an obvious unintentional racist depiction of two people essentially doing the same thing only viewed in a different perspective.

For class we found two photos showing the two extreme sides to class, wealthy and poor. The poor photo showed a white trash pair of men, one in overalls and the other with his shirt off and beer gut hanging out. They were standing in front of a beat up old vehicle outside of a trailer park in a run down part of town. The picture was entitled West Virginia Proud. The other photo was a shot of two high class, well dressed, jewelry covered females that were in a bright red corvette in a upscale part of Beverly Hills. They both seemed very materialistic and perfect from head to toe.

Finally for gender, we had two group photos of both men and women. For the women, the photo was out of Maxim Magazine and showed all of the females that did spreads for Maxim during 2010. All of the women looked about the same, they were all what the media would describe as the perfect females, skinny, big breasts, big butt, all of which really didn't have a flaw on them. The male photo was from a body building magazine in the same format, where it was just the men that had been featured through 2010. All of these men were tall, dark, and solid muscle. These two pictures I think showed how the media tries to make people think that they need to look this way to be relevant. I however think both the men and women in the photos looked phony and desperate. I think to focus on your looks as much as these people do shows weakness in one's self esteem.

This assignment was really interesting to do. It was fun to work with my group and get others opinions on the assignment. Overall it was good project that showcased exactly what is wrong with the media these days on three important subjects.

The Longest Yard

In our latest class, we watched the movie “The Longest Yard”. She picked this movie to point out certain aspects of masculinity depicted throughout the film. It is clear from the first scene that this was a “mans” movie. The movie is about a once pro football player named Paul Crew that is notoriously known for shaving points on a football game who ends up being imprisoned for stealing his girlfriends car and going on an all out drunken police chase. While in prison he is asked to lead a team of inmates against the guard’s football team in a “tune-up” game to start off the guard’s season.

            

The character’s in this movie were all mostly male, and for the most part they all were roided out jocks. The guards were all big tough no nonsense guys, that had little remorse for Mr. Crew or the rest of the inmates. The inmates were mostly the same as the guards. They all joked around with one another, and were ready to fight at any moment. This movie showcases the competitiveness of men when put around one another. The majority of the inmates were very happy that they get the chance to hit the guards that ridicule them on a daily basis. The guards were equally pleased to beat up on the prisoners and blow them out on the field. The black inmates at first were hesitant of joining the team due to Paul Crew’s reputation of turning his back on his team, but Crew earned their trust and respect by taking a beating in a pick up basketball game. We stopped the movie right as the team had been fully assembled and were preparing for the big game.

            

All in all from what we watched, this movie had many instances of masculinity throughout. The men’s attitudes and demeanor in this film reminded me of Social Darwinism. It had a “dog eat dog” or “survival of the fittest” tone to it. The male characters had very few feminine traits about them, and there were very little female roles. Between all the testosterone, fighting, hitting, and dirty comedy infused action, The Longest Yard was a great example of a masculine film.

Mid Term

Tonight in Race, Class, & Gender we had our Mid Term. At the midway point in this semester, I must say I did not expect this class to be as informative and complex as it is. It is a lot of work, but nothing to difficult. As long as you come to class and do the homework asigned it isn't so bad. The Mid Term exam was interesting. It was not your normal bubble sheet multiple choice set up. This test was broken into two parts. The first part was a written exam consisting of like ten or so question dealing with social stratification and gender. It had scenarios that dealt with gender identity/performance, social theories, and definition to common terms discussed in class. It gave a few bonus questions to help out. The questions were pretty difficult if you didn't know the material and understand what was being asked of. I think that I may have missed a question on the front part of the test dealing with a boy named Dom being lead through schooling and life by his parents and elders. I think after going back though the material that the answer was contest/sponsorship theories. I chose the elite theory thinking that because he was helped by a "elite" group of people, meaning wealthy and intelligent, that this would be correct. I guess i'll find out when we get our tests back after spring break.

For the second part of the test, we had to watch an episode of NCIS and write down all the instances of class and gender.  The episode dealt with a homicide and the NCIS team trying to find who committed the murder. It had many twists in the plot, and for the most part, picking out class and gender wasn't that bad. I think I had about ten answers for both and overall had a much easier time with this part of the test than the other.

All in all, the midterm was interesting and unique. It made you think about what has been discussed in class and also use your context clues when understanding the material. I hope that I did alright on it, and I am looking forward to what our teacher has in store for the final.

The Women

In our last class, we got to watch the beginning of The Women, a remake from the 1939 film which follows the gossip, bitchy, wisecracking, and overall disillusionment that erupt among a group of socialite friends when their dearest and most envied girlfriend learns of her husband's marital infidelity at the hands of a backstabbing shopgirl. It includes an all female cast and shows some of the common stereotypes that a group of women often have in the eyes of most people.The central character is clothing designer Mary Haines, who lives in a beautiful country home with her wealthy financier husband and their 11-year-old daughter. Her best friend Sylvie Fowler is the editor of a prominent fashion magazine, a woman who dictates the latest in taste and style for New York City fashionistas. When Mary's husband becomes involved with Crystal Allen, a perfume salesgirl in Saks Fifth Avenue, her friendship with Sylvie is put to the test. All of her friends want what is best for Mary, and at first were hesitant of telling her the big news. Turns out that she figures it out for herself, and when the movie left off, all of Mary's closets friends confront Crystal at her workplace and let her know that they are on to her wrongdoing.


This movie showcases the close friendships between women. It shows every side of a woman; from the emotional, to the caring, the bitchy and deceiving, and of course the gossip, it touches all the bases. These women in this movie depict what I think is ideal persona of a group of close female friends. They all have something unique to bring to the table, and they all see things differently, but they all can somehow gel together and get along like a family. Even though Mary's relationship is the one on the forefront of this movie, the others all have relationship problems of their own. The way they deal with their problems in the movie is dysfunctional and often pretty funny as they just can't keep their mouths shut and yell and talk over top of each other until they get everything off of their mind and out in the open. Im sure as the movie progresses it gets more interesting and in depth, but from what little I saw it seemed that the girls will do whatever it takes to get Mary back on the right track and make sure that Crystal gets what is coming to her. 

Views of Homosexuality: 1950's to Now

In the 1950's, homosexuality was not seen as a choice, but as a mental illness. Since the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a mental disorder, many gay people hid their sexual preference from society. Homosexuals were also considered being evil, disturbed, and pathetic. Homosexuality was not seen in any books or movies. If there were supposed to be an appearance of a homosexual, they would immediately remove it. Society was so worried about homosexuals, that in 1953 President Eisenhower gave sufficient reason to fire any federal employees from his or her job if they were homosexual. The government even went as far as putting tracers on those who they suspected as being gay. Homosexuality was something that no one wanted to admit or dare to talk about. Moreover, commercials were produced warning men of homosexuals, and their disease.

Views of homosexuals have changed since this era. Society has grown more comfortable with the thought of gay people, and homosexuals embrace their unique sexual preference, instead of hiding it. In the recent years, homosexuality has begun its shameless effort to be noticed, tolerated, but most notably, accepted. The media has given rise to several television programs with elements of homosexuality. Shows like Will and Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Grey's Anatomy include actors leading roles either playing a homosexual or live the actual lifestyle. As the popularity of these shows increases, awareness and open-mindedness universalizes and, in turn, the gay community comes another step closer to acceptance and justice.

Advertising on Facebook

Facebook advertising is an excellent marketing technique and a great opportunity to reach out to hundreds of millions of active users. Today, Facebook has become one of the most popular online social networking websites, making it a gold mine network for traffic and business. People spend a great amount of time online on the Facebook website looking to make new friends, interact with people, play games and interact within interest groups. When you make it possible for your advertising message to travel to these people through Facebook, you will absolutely see a rise in the amount of website traffic that you attract, and you will also see more members, more subscriptions, more sales and more inquiries as well.


There are different ways to advertise your business or message across on Facebook. First there are social ads.This is one of the most straight forward ways that you can promote yourself on Facebook. You can use social ads to target people based on a number of different functions including age group, gender and interest for example. By targeting your ads in this manner, you can increase your click through rate. This will give you more visitors to your site and also an increase in the number of customers that you are able to attract. Also there is Groups and Pages.You can create groups and pages for your business, company or website on Facebook, and then you can get people to become a fan of your page or to join your group. Both pages and groups are two excellent channels that you can use to gather more potential customers as well as to build more brand awareness on Facebook. 


Facebook is able to read the information you post on its site and then stream ads that are connected to that information in hope to find similarities and spark opportunities to gain new customers. It will also be a great up to date source on whats going on not only in your community, but all around the globe. It is a very good resource for any business that is trying to make a name for itself for the right price and has potential to be the leading form of advertising on the web. All in all, advertising on Facebook at this point in time is a win/win for anyone looking to spread their idea or products quickly and effectively to the masses.

Social Class in America

The facts regarding social class in America are blurred in the sense that this is a rather controversial topic. Whatever your thoughts are on social class in America, the fact is there is, always has been, and always will be different social classes in America. What is Social Class? Dictionary.com defines social class as “a broad group in society having economic, cultural, or political status.” An individual’s income being different than another individual’s income is an example of economic social class. Cultural social class is the difference between the majority and minority of ethnicities in one’s community, region, or country. And finally, political social class is the difference between an individual’s political views in comparison to another individual’s political views.

The social class in America has changed with each decade. In the ‘30s, social class was dependant mainly on financial status, and it changed as the economy fluctuated and individual’s finances changed. A wealthy individual affected dramatically by The Great Depression for the worse experience change in their social class. People found themselves on the same level as those who were previously socially ‘beneath’ them. In the sixties, when peace and equality began to fight its way to the surface, social class was being threatened as things began to change economically, culturally, and politically. In the last five to ten years, social class has fluctuated with the fluctuations in economics, the increase or decrease of cultural differences, and as politics began to rage its own battle as it continues today. The changes have affected families differently, and some may not realize the effects. These changes have been affected by the economic stability that America experienced in the ‘90s, as well as the cultural growth that brought more people and diverse ideas to the country.The past election has brought an outpouring of change to social class as the current recession has caused a higher rate of unemployment across the nation and political control has forced local and federal governments to make cuts in programs that aided the lower class.

There are different classifications that define social class. You can ‘Google’ the term social class to find these different classifications and use that to determine the social class you might be considered a party of. The changes that have affected the status of social classes make it imperative to find the classification that fits your family for today. You may be surprised that it has changed with time and circumstances. The concept of social class is not often considered by the average person and social class may not seem as important today as it was years ago. Understanding ones social class may help an individual be more aware of real life situations that are directly affected by social class. In business or personal situations social class may be affected by the annual income, taxation, and size of your family. Many people have taken their status and improved it from when they were young and classified by their parents’ social class. As the next generation grows into the role, they will find themselves improving their own social class and building a future that redefines the social classes in America today. 

Kids Owning Cell Phones

Cell Phones have become less and less a luxury, to the point that people say they don't know what they would do without one. As an adult, that's fine. Spend your money as you'd like. However, I do not think that kids need cell phones. Kids these day are exposed to way to much information and try to grow up to fast. With texting, picture sharing, and face-time, it is almost impossible for a parent to have a good understanding of what their young kids are really doing or saying to one another anymore. Kids should be doing homework, not texting their friends. 

It bothers me to see kids talking on their cell phone. You are nine years old...who are you calling, other nine year olds? What do you have to say to them that can't wait? Parents need to wake up and realize just how dangerous it is letting a pre teen have all the freedom that cell phones posses. It is very easy for a young kid to abuse their cell phone privileges and be persuaded to do foolish things such as rack up thousands of texts a month which sends the bill through the roof, or talk to their friends at any hour of the night without their parents knowledge, or send inappropriate pictures and video of themselves and having these pictures end up on the internet for all to see.

If safety is the sole concern for a parent getting their child a cell phone, then they should get them a child's phone that allows calls only to specified numbers such as the parents, a grandparent, and the authorities, like the Firefly.

For me, the cutoff to getting a "real phone" would be when the kids can pay for it themselves, with money they earn (not gifts from Grandma). If they are responsible enough to work for one, then they are responsible enough to have one.

Race, Class, and Gender - Class 1 Blog - Movie Advertising

In my first blog, I would like to talk about how companies will use films for mass advertisement. As we discussed in this weeks class, companies will use the film industry to push their products and brands to the general public. I don't typically mind product placement if it's done subtly, though subtlety isn't what advertisers want. When movies plan for product placements in scripts and will try altering or adding scenes specifically for the purpose of advertising, it can become pretty sickening. The thing is, though, most of us wouldn't know when or how much this goes on. 


I know that in almost every movie I can remember watching, their is some product that will be referenced to or show up multiple times within the length of the movie. This is fine, I understand that without these companies sponsoring the movie they would not be possible, so it makes sense to use their products in the films. There are many different examples of this, I will name just a few: GM Automobiles in Transformers, Sony electronics in 2012, Converse in I Robot, Cadillac in The Matrix movies, even older movies such as Spaceballs that showcased Mercedes Benz and Audi on the front of the vehicles, or the numerous Coca Cola references in Back to the Future. 


As i said before, this happens in almost every movie made but is a hidden fact within film. So the next time you watch a movie, try to keep in mind this advertising trick and see if you can't spot it out yourself. It is a different way of viewing a movie and gives a better understanding of the different ways that a company can push a product to stay ahead of the competition.