A woman was saying that porn is not as creative and political as it use to be in the ’70s. Okay so I haven’t watched porn from the ’70s so I am going to take her word for it.

They also had this magazine, BOINK, featured on the show. It is a magazine with real models, and NO airbrushing. I think that this may be a step in the right direction because I am going to be realistic here as porn is not going anywhere and if we’re having some “real” modeling in a magazine like Boink then I say- whatever, go hard! (no pun intended)

MTV.com reports that: Oleyourryk [editor-in-chief] says that she is extremely proud that Boink features real students as their models, sans stylists, Photoshop and airbrushing. “We have average people modeling. They’re not perfect,” she said. “These are real people.”

I think I have a lot to learn in Wednesday’s class. I have limited knowledge when it comes to this video game stuff. To get a little background I decided to casually ask (oopsy-daisy is that a split infinitive there? Never put an adverb or adjective in between “to” and the “verb”, it splits the verb (infinitive) from “to”). So, I casually asked my boyfriend what he thought about video games.

I didn’t know I asked just a loaded question. He told me that he just can’t sit and play video games anymore. Perhaps this is why Wii has been such a hit. Wii captures the attention of the player by physically making them play the game.

Anyways, I didn’t really grasp the variety in video games until my bf told me all the systems he’s used and bought over the years, they are: Atari, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn and X-Box. WOWZERS!!! I had no idea, I guess this is why he got bored so quickly with my tried and true Super Mario Bros. Game.

My bf says that it’s much funner to play with multi-player games. The article The Sopranos Meets EverQuest Social Networking in Massively Multiplayer Online Games has the same concept, that the more, the merrier!

This article portrays a new vision of video games with many players. I had envisioned players locked in their houses, intently staring at their computer screens, the phone idle, without friends, you-know, the quiet types without social skills… that’s who I thought these people were.

Of course, this is a serious stereo-type in my head, and I am much wiser now from reading the article by Jakobsson and Taylor.

Playing online games such as EverQuest (EQ) is actually similar to real life minus the swords and wierd occupations.

Like in ”real life”:

-players can get ahead with the help of more experienced players (a term called “twinking” in EQ)

-social networks are very important

-knowledge and skills are gained through social networks such as “deep connections, the social rituals, the insider/outsider status, the exchange of favors, and the general reliance on others…” (similar to the norms we learn through socialization)

-there is jargon in the EQ environment that must be learnt (as one would have to do in a new occupation) such as linkdeath

-there are repercussions for actions as shown with Phrank’s looting episode

-trust is highly valued and repuations are formed

-grouping with other players can be more beneficial than being alone… social capital is vital!

-manners still matter!!! There are rules of behaviour

-people have specific roles (“characters”) and usually display only one at a time (like warrior and cleric in EQ). We have many roles in our repetoire like daughter, sister, student, employee etc.

-Responsibilty to group and the game itself

Now, I don’t consider gamers as geeky as before. They can utilize social skills and delve into another realm of social capital; in areas that I am not part of. I am sure I’ll have more to say on this topic once we discuss it in class!

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March 21st- The lecture from last week was super. The breast expert, Tiffany, brought forth some ideas that I hadn’t thought of but once I think about them, they’re so true!

When I see models and actresses and celebrities in the media I can’t help but compare myself. Tiffany said that these women are creating the “new normal”. The new normal is a small range of body types and shapes that I (and others) feel pressure to measure up to. There are so many celebrities and most have a similar body shape. Thin legs, flat stomachs, perky breasts (some large and some kinda small), and the famous protruding collarbone. With nearly every woman in Hollywood having this body type it is the norm in Hollywood… and it becomes the expectation for me to be.

Forget Bangles, Breasts Are The New Accessory

Another point made was that breasts are like accessories. How true! Woman push ‘em up, squish ‘em together, dust ‘em with bronzer, and flaunt the hell out of them!

Breasts can make a woman feel sexy or ashamed. With naturally sagging breasts many women feel the need to “medicalize healthy feminine appearances”. This is SO odd. To look healthy women are undergoing surgery!

Still I found some varying breast sizes in the media… take a gander if you wish…

In my opinion most women getting breast implants would opt for the middle set. When breast reductions are happening I highly doubt that women are asking to come out looking like Paris Hilton. Maybe they are… but I highly doubt it. And I hope I surprised a few of you by including good ol’ Dolly instead of Pamela Anderson, I am trying to show the range of breast size not give some guys in this class a total hay day! (And since the majority of us think of Dolly and Pamela when we think of big boobs it goes to show that not that many women are getting enormous breasts.)

I don’t know what to think of all the “perfect” bodies in Hollywood. They are anything but natural. Diet pills, drug-use, very low calorie diets, excessive exercise all contribute to very slim celebs. It is a celebrity’s job to look fantastic, as for the rest of us we have real jobs, there’s school and work and it can be tricky finding time to balance it all with proper diet and exercise. I’m not making excuses but it is a model’s JOB to look hot! They have nothing else to do!

Now I feel like I’m completely lost when I look at these new video games. I had friends camp out at stores to get the new Wii. I guess they have their reasons but all of that stuff is lost on me. Now my favourite past time as a 10 year old is an ancient artifact and outdated video game. Oh well, it’s still functioning so maybe I’ll break it out and dust it off. That would definitely be a good time!

Girl doesn’t get mad at boy but gets mad at best friend.

Apparently it is expected and accepted for a boy to make mistakes and screw up but when a female does it, it’s considered wrong because she should have known better. I think our culture has burned in our brains that women have the control to say “yes” or “no”. Men want whatever they can get and when the woman says “yes” she pretty much loses all the power she ever had. Gender roles were put on display on tonight’s episode of The Hills.

What Kind of Male Friendship?

This article baffled me right from the start. I was an avid Friends viewer and though I was younger and not a critical thinker at the time, I never considered Joey and Chandler’s behavior as meaning anything but to entertain. I feel that the purpose of Friends was to make us laugh and I don’t think that the director and producers were trying to create a thick plot with deep underlying meaning.

While I was reading this I tried to think of other male friends in TV that depict a similar relationship. I don’t watch too much TV but The O.C came to my mind with the characters Seth and Ryan. As I recall Seth was a little more open about his fondness for Ryan, in a brotherly way, and Ryan was more reserved and distant. I think that males tend to be more casual with their relationships, not talking on the phone to catch up, but just hanging out and going places and doing things together. In my mind males are just hunky dory doing their own thing and while females tend to be more socially attached and emotionally connected to their friends.

I think that this article saved itself when Iglebaek finally began to speak of his/her(?) point of view. At first I was thinking that this article was attempting to prove a homosexual relationships between Chandler and Joey when I feel that this wasn’t the case. I guess Chandler and Joey do project “new ways of men dealing with each other, which includes a higher degree of emotional presence…”. I think that Friends tried to bring humour into the living situation with Joey and Chandler. It is funny to me to compare the heterosexual men as being in a romantic relationship. I think its funny that Joey and Chandler behaved in ways akin to how a couple would react in similar situations. Seriously, how cute was it to see (or read) that Joey came back to give Chandler a hug after he moved out. I thought that it was seriously cute and it kind of defies how guys usually act, right?

Maybe it isn’t good for these situations to make us laugh, and instead they should make us think. Obviously we feel warm and fuzzy after this scene because it isn’t common. I thought it was sweet that Joey was compelled to give Chandler hug, to “part properly”. In my life it is rare to see men hug, and if they do it tends to be the ol’ back slap. Men should be able to hug their friends if they feel so inclined. I hug my girlfriends whenever I see them, it seems a little excessive to me actually but still, anyone seeing us isn’t going to give the sight much thought… okay maybe they will, but for entirely different reasons. Instead of a backslap my friend insists on squeezing me tight because she secretly wants to be considered the best hugger.

 I want to know what males think about this article. How do men from our class display affection for fellow friends?

I am completely surprised by the comment, “men being the focus and the women human furniture and scenery, rather than the driving force of the series”. Maybe I need to re-watch an episode but I felt that the focus was on Monica and Rachel. Joey and Phoebe definitely were in the shadows until the last seasons. How many girls tried to copy Rachel Green’s haircut? I think the ladies were focal and the dricing force of the series.

This article is classifying the actions of Joey and Chandler. I don’t think that Friends was scripted and designed to be analyzed in such a way. I think it was just a good,  comedy. The focus was to get high ratings by making us laugh, and cry to an extent, I really do not feel that Friends was trying to push boundaries of conventional male behavior.

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 The Portrayal of Women on Television

My favourite movies include:

When Harry Met Sally- Main Character (MC)- Female and Male
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days- MC- Female and Male
Polar Express- MC- Male
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-MC-Male
The Holiday-MC-Female

Well, I was skeptical about what Ingham said about men dominating TV… then I took a look at my favourite movies… oops. But we’e suppose to talk about  TV so here are my favourite shows:

America’s Next Top Model- Women Dominate on This ShowDesperate Housewives- 4 Women DominateThe Hills- Girls are the FocusGrey’s Anatomy-I’ll say that Women Dominate

I think that my selection of movies is biased because I’m a girl. Still, contrary to this article, women are frequently in the dominant roles.

Reality shows tend to be equal in male and female ratios. Think Survivor and Big Brother. The thing with reality shows is that there is extreme editing that takes place. While there may be an equal number of each sex the sexes may not be represented accurately. Many reality show stars say that they were portrayed in a distorted way. If this form of TV is suppose to be real then many viewers are watching, taking cues, believing that people are real when they’re as fake as an actor in a sitcom.

It was said that men appear incompetent, in domestic situations, in adverts. I agree completley with this. Just about every commercial has a female cleaning, doing laundry etc.. I can recall one Swiffer commercial where the man is obsessed with the new tool and is dusting everything. But then the message is to buy this Swiffer product so that your male counterpart will contribute to cleaning because it is kind of fun. So… the female is stuck with the unpleasant tasks while the male presumbably gets to dust and dance around the house.

I was watching the Search for the Next Pussycat Doll show and I am amazed at how the contestants feel that this contest is positive. Am I the only one who feels that the Dolls make themselves look like sex objects rather than role models? Still, it is stressed on the program that the Dolls are about female empowerment! I guess it’s good that these women are proud of their bodies but this breeds insecurities and the relentless attempts to attain unnaturally high beauty standards.

So many programs show the limited portrait of a woman, either a housewife or a sex object, and sometimes both. Think of Louise on Family Guy or Marge on The Simpsons, they are both housewives yet (I may be wrong but…) I think they’re little vixens! They’re tiny little women that can turn heads but their husbands are overweight. So while the wives seem to value inner beauty of their husbands maybe the men are slightly superficial chosing pretty hot (cartoon) wives.

Grey’s Anatomy has “real” characters, as real as we can get on TV. While they are ALL attractive and mainly thin the women are given personalities, brains and challenges. But, before I can salute Grey’s any more I do notice that there are few women that are at the top of the corporate latter. Just Dr.Bailey and Attison.

In Desperate Housewives I think that there is a  lot of diversity in the cast and their roles. Still, as shown by Gabrielle’s inability to model anymore it goes to show how TV has punished women for “pursuing their careers”. As well Lynette is struggling to be a business woman, wife and mother. I think though, that this struggle embodies the challenges that working mothers face in our real world.

This article and last week’s Advertising Topic are tied together. Women as displayed in advertising is a topic that is redundant in our society but I think it should be carefully thought of. I definitely pay more attention to commercials now, not to cave and buy the product but to identify their target, their message and their intentions. I am forever tainted from this course.

THE IDEAL BODY: It Gets Scientific

World’s most beautiful couple: and the figures to prove it By Roger Dobson Published: 11 March 2007

It is the holy grail of the fashion and beauty industries: a scientific blueprint for the most beautiful women, and men, in the world.

Researchers have thrown away the old vital statistics and, instead, focused on how the dimensions of different parts of the body relate to height and body mass index (BMI) to give the perfect physique. Perhaps surprisingly, two of the most important measurements are the girth of the thigh and the slimness of the calf.

The researchers, from the University of Gdansk in Poland, studied the vital statistics of 24 finalists in a national beauty competition, together with those of 115 other women. They said that while weight, height and hip ratio were normally used to assess female attractiveness, these might not throw up crucial differences between the super-attractive and others.

For men, scientists said height, BMI, waist-to-hip and waist-to-chest ratios were key measures.

Super-attractive women had a thigh-to-height ratio some 12 per cent lower than other women, giving them a more slender look. Skinfold tests on the calf showed 15mm of fat compared with 18mm in other women.

The study also showed that the average super-attractive height was 5ft 9in, with the waist 76 per cent of the size of the chest, and 70 per cent of the size of the hips. Models built like Naomi Campbell came closest to the ideal.

“Attractiveness of a woman’s body is one of the most important factors in mate selection, and the question what are the physical cues for the assessment of attractiveness is fundamental to evolutionary psychology,” said Leszek Pokrywka, who led the study.

Perfect woman: Naomi Campbell

The vital statistics:

Body mass index 20.85

Bust girth to height 49.3%

Waist-chest ratio 1.4

Leg-to-body ratio 1.4

Calf girth to height 19.5%

Height 175cm

Thigh girth to height 29.7

What it all means:

“Super beautiful” women have waists a third smaller than their hips and three-quarters their bust measurement. They have longer legs, and slimmer thighs and calves than the average woman.

Perfect man: Christian Bale

The vital statistics:

Body mass index 26.5

Waist-chest ratio 0.6

Leg-to-body ratio 1

Height 188cm

What it all means:

The physically ideal man is more than 6ft tall, with legs the same length as his upper body. The leg-to-body ratio of 1 makes him appear more muscular, which is why the ideal BMI for men is higher than for women.

[http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2347535.ece]

Anyways, check out this PRO-AGE (rather than anti-age) commercial by DOVE, which has reportedly been pulled from North American broadcasting. Click on replay commerical to view it.

Now… click here to see the mixed reaction to the commercial. Maybe this type of thing is too advanced right now… but I’m all for it!

I found this very interesting in showing our unrealistic expectations for beauty when the photos we see in magazines aren’t even real.

I find that traditional roles of women are still portrayed in commercials and advertising. Women are either seducing or cleaning. Every cleaning product commerical that I can think o has a woman as the main actor.

Often men are portayed as powerful or dumb. Men are the ones that make errors that the women correct them on. There is a banking commercial on now when the husband tells his wife that when she married him not only did she get his sexy body (which is supposed to be a joke) but a little brains too… and then he proceeds to put his car in drive rather than reverse. I am surprised that men are taking any offense to this, if women were portayed this way I’m sure it would be a big deal and pulled from the air. 

How often in TV shows like, King of Queens, The Family Guy, The Simpsons, According to Jim are the wives thin and the males overweight? All of them! As I can recall the only fat wife on TV was Roseanne from Roseanne. What does this mean? Well to me it seems imbalanced. The majority of mothers out there don’t weigh 120 pounds after giving birth to 3 kids.

What’s wrong with advertising being real? If advertisers abolished airbrushing and retouching would people fail to buy their products? I’m thinking not.

As to Friedrich’s article, All of Your Insecurities Wrapped up in a Thirty Second Spot, I think she missed the point when she mentioned the importance of subliminal messages. Dr.Vokey from the university has made it very clear that even if subliminal messages are inserted in adverstising it has not been proven to have an effect.

It  is not subliminal messages but rather the intention of the company’s advertising ploys. I am aware of what is blatantly portrayed in advertising: Sexuality and Attractiveness. 

I think that advertising is fake. I think that with time most women and men will come to realize that models aren’t what women really look like, they are simply the exception.

Listen to what a supermodel has to say about the high standards for thinness these days:

Supermodel Gisele Bündchen thinks parents – and their genes – should be blamed for the current trend of incredibly skinny models rather than shunting all the blame onto the fashion industry.Speaking to O Globo newspaper in her native Brazil, she said: “I never suffered from [anorexia] because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry.”

“Everybody knows that the norm in fashion is thin. But excuse me, there are people born with the right genes for this profession.” She added that she was bullied for her height and slight physique before she became a model but “in fashion I felt accepted”

“[But] I never felt lonely because I always relied on my family.”

I don’t know what else I can say about advertising except I think we can’t blame insecurites on the media. We need to strengthen self-esteem in people and emphasize personality and character rather than appearance.

 Center of Attention by Jackson Waters

Jesus Christ by Brand New

Speeding Cars by Imogen Heap

Konstantine by Something Corporate (this is the live version)

Breathe Me by Sia (reminded me of the Joanna song, not as out there but kind of raw and raspy)

 Those are just a few and now I realize that these songs may be just good songs to me and not so much to you. Anyways, I enjoy them thoroughly, take a little listen.