Shoshi's Blog

WONDER WOMAN

Shoshana — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:58:51 +0000

I really enjoyed watching the cartoon “Wonder Woman.” It was very interesting and funny. I never thought that I would be watching a cartoon in college, but I’m glad I did. The cartoon brought up good points about the role of gender and how society views it. This cartoon shows that women are not helpless, which is a characteristic many people associate women with. This cartoon, along with its main character, Wonder Woman, shows women as strong, powerful, smart individuals who can do a lot to not only save themselves, but also to save the world.

EXAMINING DIFFERENCES

Shoshana — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:41:15 +0000

Last class we started looking at the chapter “Examining Differences” in the book Seeing and Writing and we talked about how important it seems to be for people in society to look at the differences between them and others. Examining differences sets off racism and more conflict between different people, different races, and different cultures. We began watching the movie “X-Man” because it relates to the topic of examining differences. In “X-Man,” mutants are different than the other humans since they have supernatural powers while others do not. Although not all mutants are bad and not all of them have anything against the rest of the human population, all mutants are looked at as dangerous and harmful people. This is seen in the movie when the mayor wanted to separate all the mutants from the other humans. He believes that this way, the rest of the human population will be safe and away from danger. Because of the bias towards the mutants, the some mutants ended up hating the rest of the human population and are now causing harm, harm caused by extreme dislike because of prejudice. This movie portrays the effects that can be resulted from looking at differences between people instead of looking at the similarities and seeing how alike we all are.

“SOME LIKE IT HOT “

Shoshana — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:01:28 +0000

Sexuality plays an important role in the film “Some Like It Hot.” Although the film was made in 1959, it takes place in 1929, and therefore prohibition and cross-dressing is a significant part of the movie. This is shown in the movie by the alcohol consumption by the women in the band, especially by Sugar. Sugar keeps on drinking alcohol even though she always gets in trouble for it. In the film, there are several examples of sexual implications such as ending up with the “sweet-end of the lollipop.” In my opinion, in order to make the film funny and the ending ironic and humorous, the producers deliberately made the film further classify and emphasize that what the two musicians were doing, pretending to be women, was wrong. They did that to make the ending unpredictable and funny.

The film focuses on not only the role of sex in a heterosexual sense, but also its role in homosexuality and transvestism. Homosexuality is portrayed when Daphne suddenly wants to marry the guy who proposed to her even though she knows that she is a man too. It is also presented at the end of the film, when Daphne’s “fiancé” does not refuse to marry her when he finds out that she is a man. Transvestism is presented all throughout the film by Joe and Jerry as the pretend to be female musicians and join an all-female band.

NEVER JUST PICTURES

Shoshana — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:14:55 +0000

The article “Never Just Pictures” by Susan Bordo brings up very good points about kids growing up with images of skinny people being seen as the perfect way to be. The ideal body type is portrayed by models in advertisements, and the media. More and more people think of themselves as fat and overweight even if they are of healthy weight. It is crazy that so many girls think of themselves as fat when they are too skinny and are suffering of an eating disorder.

Question: How can we stop people from thinking that being skinny, underweight, and unhealthy is the perfect and ideal way to be? How can we make people, especially teenage girls, understand that it is not always a good thing to be thin if it means that you will also be unhealthy?

CHILDHOOD TOYS

Shoshana — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:55:41 +0000

I remember when I was little, I used to love to play with dolls. Everytime my parents would come home with a doll, I would be so happy I would start jumping all around from excitement. I did not have any brothers at that time, so there wouldn’t be any trucks or toy cars in my house. I remember going almost everywhere with my doll; the park, daycare, my room. I was very shy as a little girl, so my doll was kind of like my friend for a while. I would pretend to feed the doll, give her baths, and play with her. Now that I think about it, it’s kind of funny how much I loved that doll as a little girl and how dependant I was on the doll to serve as a friend to me.

SPOT NEWS

Shoshana — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:53:05 +0000

Andrew Savulich’s photos of these accidents were all taken spontaneously and in the moment. Savulich likes taking pictures unexpectedly because this way, strange and unusual events can be captured. In my opinion, the photos on pages 274-277 can have many explanations to them, which is why is it helpful that they have captions that explain what the photos are really about. My favorite photo is the one of the taxi driver on page 276. I think that photo is funny because the taxi driver doesn’t look very concerned about the fact that he drove into a restaurant. Instead, he looks puzzled. I would expect to see this photo on a website like facebook as one of those random pictures posted that people become fans of and comment on. The picture of the woman laughing after a car wreck would probably be seen in a newspaper next to an article about a miracle of a woman staying safe after her car was pretty much destroyed.

I WISH I HAD A CAMERA

Shoshana — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:41:00 +0000

I remember the last day of school in eighth grade. It was the last time that I would see my friends and I wanted to make the most of it. I had charged my camera the night before to make sure that it will not run out of battery power while taking pictures. I couldn’t wait until lunchtime so I could take pictures of my friends and me. As soon as my friends and I got to the lunchroom, I reached for the camera in the small pocket in my bag, but I couldn’t feel my camera. Everyone started taking pictures while I was still looking for my camera. After a little while, I gave up and figured that I probably left the camera at home. My friends took many pictures of us, which was fun, but at the same time, I wished I had my camera with me so that I would be able to have memories of my friends that will be with me forever. After that day, anytime I go to a place that I know I’ll take pictures in, I always make sure I have my camera with me before I leave the house.

RAISING THE FLAG

Shoshana — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:29:22 +0000

The photo “Marines Raising the Flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima” by Joe Rosenthal shows the courage and bravery of the American soldiers during World War II. After all they have been through, they still did everything in their power to raise the flag of the United States. In my opinion, this picture represents the pride that U.S soldiers have in their country and this makes the picture very powerful and influential. The photo “Flag Raising, World Trade Center” by Thomas E. Franklin in a way conveys the same message as Rosenthal’s photo, but in a different way. Rosenthal’s photo is associated with World War II, which took place in the 1940’s. However, Franklin’s photo is associated with the 9/11 incident, which took place in 2001. While looking at the two photos, it is easy to notice that the photos were taken in different time periods since Rosenthal’s photo is in black and white, while Franklin’s photo looks more up to date and is in color.

The mural painting on pages 590-591 shows many signs of the important aspects of the United States. Some of those are the eagle representing freedom, the four soldiers trying to hold up the American flag showing the importance of the flag to our nation, and the blue lady with hair in colors of red, white and blue, representing the statue of liberty. The mural is very colorful and very influential because of what it depicts. The pictures are very powerful and altogether cause the mural to convey a message of the United States.

LEGEND OF THE SEEKER

Shoshana — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:02:20 +0000

I picked a scene from an episode of the show “Legend of the Seeker”. I chose a scene where the Seeker’s enemy, Rahl, tries to kill him with his sword. During this scene, the background was dark and you can tell it was really late at night. The seeker and his enemy were surrounded by the seeker’s friends, all with fear on their faces. As Rahl tries to kill the seeker, nobody is doing anything. Instead, everyone is standing still. As the seeker tries to resist Rahl, you can see a bright green flash coming out of their eyes for special effects. This shows the viewers that magic is being used and this show is fiction. The setting is a forest, which can be seen by the many trees surrounding the characters. The clothes that the actors are wearing are not modern, but are old fashioned. Therefore, you can see that the story line is taking place in a time period hundreds of years ago. The fact that it is dark in this scene adds to the intensity of the moment of the bad guy trying to murder the hero. This scene is very dark, filled with anger and shock from the characters.

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Shoshana — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:10:21 +0000

In the Seeing & Writing book, photojournalism is defined as “reporting on events through the use of photographs.” I agree with this definition because people can take photographs to report certain events or situations that occurred such as a murder or a wedding. The way a photo is portrayed can have an effect on the way a person sees the photo. If a photo is taken from a certain angle, it can cause a person to notice some aspects of the photo more than others. This relates to filmmaking since filmmakers try to focus more on certain features of the set to grab the audience’s attention.

The picture of Mount Rushmore National Monument on page 192 shows that Mount Rushmore is very important because of what is around it. You can see that the monument is surrounded by trees, not houses or other buildings. Therefore, you can assume that this is important and is being protected because there isn’t a residential area nearby. Also, the monument is in the top center of the photo, which also shows its significance since it is meant to be the focus of the photo. In my opinion, photojournalism does not only report on events, but it can also editorialize events. By focusing on certain features of the photo, the photographer can express his or her opinion about an issue. Using photojournalism, the photographer can introduce personal views depending on the picture that was taken, the angle it was taken away from, and how much attention certain features in the photo were given to. Photojournalism allows the audience to use their imagination more because each person can perceive something different from seeing the same photo. That is because in examining a photo, you are not always told what is happening directly, you need to look at it and figure out from your point of view.