Blog Response 8 : Tommy Hilfiger

Why is she wearing work gloves (leather) and a hat? Why aren’t the gloves pink?

    In the Soft-N-Dri “Strong and Beautiful” advertisement, the girl is an attractive, white, blonde woman dressed in all pink except for her work gloves. Having her dressed in pink gives her a very girly appearance. The working gloves and hat however contradict the girly girl look especially since the gloves are leather. Leather is seen as more of a “hardcore” type of clothing choice to wear. I think the gloves are not pink because the creators of this advertisement wanted to have a beautiful woman who could also be hard working in a man’s point of view.  

Blog Response 7 : Is your thesis evolving??

     The main points that stood out to me the most were the two key concepts of the chapter. The first being a strong thesis evolves and the second that a weak thesis is not affected by evidence presented later. I always knew how a thesis works and changed throughout a paper but I never saw it in the perspective of evolving. However even with reading this chapter about thesis now, I still believe that my writing for the last essay has a clear, strong, and evolving thesis, even when comparing it to the exploratory student draft.

1983: The Female-Address Video

     The most interesting part in these two music videos are the similarities in both of them. I would never have thought to compare Pat Benatar to Cyndi Lauper because of the differences in their style of music. Pat Benatar strikes me as more of the punk rock genre whereas Cyndi Lauper is pop. Now, I can see by watching and reading this article all that is the same about the videos. The use of dance and the fight between the sexes are the most apparent to me. I think they both equally have a strong message because they both are sending the same message of the battle of the sexes and how females should be treated the same as males.  

     These two music videos from this article helped me with my own video, which is Pink’s Don’t Let Me Get Me, in thinking about how to organize my thoughts about what I am seeing in the video and making it easier for the readers of my paper to understand what is going on in the video while just reading my paper. It helped me think about my certain point and how to express it. My claims are that the video is showing people that do not fit into the typical American good girl or boy mold or misfits and how it affects them on a daily basis going through events like school and social activities.

TV vs MTV

     The last show I watched was Friends on Nick at Night. It is an older sitcom about six friends who live in New York City and shows the trials of friendships and dating during this time. This show is all about people and their daily lives with normal problems with friends, family, and their jobs. The commercials for this show are usually based to all types of people since it is on a children’s network. Most of the commercials are for McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and Chucky Cheese which are all “family friendly environments”.  I think it is interesting that the advertisers assume that whoever would watch Friends on Nick at Night normally has a family and children. I never realized that commercials are geared toward a certain audience that people think would watch the shows that are playing.  It interests me that when we watch tv we are paying for it because I had never heard of commercials being put in that context. Analyzing TV and music videos use some of the same techniques like observing the genre, the characters, and the setting. However, for music videos you will also want to observe the lyrics, mood, and tempo of the song.

Blog Response 4 Befriending Barbie

     I never realized just how many Barbie’s have actually been created. It was interesting to find out that Mattel even came out with military service Barbie’s with uniforms approved by the Pentagon. Barbie’s have been in my life since I remember. I have always like them and have good memories of my sister and I playing with them when we were younger. At that time, I was a Barbie collector but that form of entertainment died away as I grew older.  Now, my feelings towards Barbie’s are just those of happy family memories.  I liked that the essay showed the deeper reasons of why the people she interviewed where so connected to collecting Barbie. The most important part of the story is how Barbie is simply a symbol of hope, fun, and comfort to most of the collectors. It helps these people cope with difficulties in their lives especially with the woman whose son was killed in a shooting. This essay helps me think more about the importance of observations and how ones opinion can be changed once more is discovered on the subject.

Blog 3 Cable

     Cable being a first year college student walked into a funeral home with thoughts like many others. He did not know what to expect from it but knew that death would play a big factor. When he first comes to the funeral home he notes all the different features about the outside and inside of the building. These increased his nervousness and left him with a sad and uncomfortable feeling.  As he goes through his trip he first realizes that he has differing views from the funeral director but once time goes on he begins to change his perspective about death. He realizes that death is a beautiful thing and people should not be afraid of talking about it because death is just a part of life. Overall, Cable’s feeling developed more during this tour and he learned to have a new outlook about life, death, and funeral homes.

Blog Response 2 Self as a Text

     When I sit back and take a look at myself and my life, I realize how much my family plays a part in all aspects of who I am. Rather it is my behavior, speech, or even clothing; I can see fragments of my parents within me. The fact that I go home almost every chance I get to see my parents, and pets, shows in itself, that I am closely tied with them.  This family relationship means that most to me every day more than anything else in my life.

     People always meet me and say you look and act exactly like your mom but behave like your dad. My mom and I have the same style of clothing, which basically is anything that sprinkles and is shiny, and often we share clothes and especially shoes, the big high heels being our favorites. My mom, dad and I all hold some of the same characteristics in our personalities. We like to joke on and about each other but in the most not serious way. Outsiders of our little group most of the time do not understand. Also, we like to say my mom has her own language and I see her made up words in my speech on a daily basis. My parents are inspiring, fun to be around, and overall make me who I am as a person and who I hope to be in the future.

"Death of a Moth" Response

In the story, “Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf is watching a moth on her windowsill. As she watches, the moth, at first so full of life, begins to die. She struggles with the decision of rather she can help it but always ends up doing nothing and putting her pencil back down. I believe that there are two “significances” or “whys” to Virginia Woolf’s experience. Those would be the factors of life and the factors of death. She talks about both in great detail when describing the moth. I also believe that she is connecting the moths story to her own story because it linking up with her own life and death. In her life, she suffered from recurrent depression which can be seen in the moth when it starts giving up on trying to live almost like it is depressed. Both the moth and Virginia Woolf give up on their lives in the end of their stories. The moth stops fighting his death and Virginia Woolf drowns herself in a river.  The story affects me as a reader because as you continue to read you grow to like the moth however, it still meets its end at the close of the story. As a writer, Virginia Woolf inspires me. She does a good job of finding so many details in such a small event that most people would not even pay attention to and attributed it to such a controversial topic in people’s lives. The part of the story that stands out to me the most is the end. As a reader you do not see it coming because most other stories try to have the main character, or in this case, the main creature survive. This is not so with the moth.