Cultural Appropriation

 VS.

Do You Even Realize What You Are Doing?

     Nowadays, people like to intergrade themselves with different styles and cultures. That is okay to a certain point. The reason for mixing something into your lifestyle should be because you know about that and have learned the background of that culture. However, many people now tend to do things for the trend or because it is ‘cool’. People do not realize that the things they are doing or the things they are wearing have meanings and symbols yet the reason why people are doing it is because it is what everyone else is doing or reasons along those lines. Yoga is one of those things where people are doing because it is a trend, yet most of the people have no idea about the reasoning behind it.

     Yoga has become a mainstream form of exercise that people do nowadays, but what is being left behind is the reason yoga was created in the first place. I am pretty sure if you walk into a room full of people doing yoga and ask them why they are doing yoga the answer would probably be, “It is a great form of exercise” but no one will say, “I am toning for my meditation.” If you are going to do something find out why or what you are actually doing, so you are not doing something so shallow without you even realizing. 

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2012/01/yoga-debate-existentially-challenged-desi-chimes

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/10/my-practice-yoga-cultural-appropriation-andrea-macdonald/

crossfitfire.com

gurukripa.wordpress.com

elephantournal.com

generationginger.com

Celebrities in Advertisements

Celebrities in Advertisements 

Ads are apart of our everyday life. They are on the television, the computer, and in the streets we walk. It's one thing you cannot get away from. In this passage, columnist Sue Jozui argues that when advertisements use celebrities to endorse their products, it is a misleading type of marketing that insults the audience's intelligence. In other words, she firmly believes that the fraudulent type of advertisements should not exist. Jozui cites examples of different type of celebrities endorsing different products and how they pretend to use them in order to point out the advertising they do is untruthful. The author expresses her suspicion of the notion that the audience transfers the approval of the product depending on the artist. One of the main implications the author makes is if it continuous, ads will be less truthful and will use the image of a celebrity to sell. Because of this, Jozui concludes that that type of advertising should be boycotted and there should be certain guidelines for them to follow.

The fact that celebrities are in ads, should not be a bad thing, the celebrities help put the product out there and give it a bigger audience. By using celebrities, they can attract people into buying their products, that does not mean that the audience is unintelligent. It is up to the consumer to believe whatever they want to believe, the celebrity is just there to help the product strive. A celebrity could be doing something for their own reasons, they could possibly have faith in that product or for other intentions, but just because a celebrity uses a product means you will use it, they are there to help a consumer make a decision and it should not be the fault of the celebrity if you like or dislike the product, it is the way the companies push you to buy the product. It is inevitable to avoid something that has so much influence to society, people want to be just like there idols, so by using celebrities, product sell will raise. All celebrities do, is just build awareness of a product, it is up to the consumer to decide what they will do.

If advertisements had guidelines and were regulated, advertisements would not be as interesting and creative. Advertisements would be dull and would all be the same. If the legislation put rules on what companies can and cannot do, all advertisement would be the same. For example, ads would just show a product and have a background voice and it would be over. By putting regulations, there is no way to express one's creativity. There are ad regulations now, but if there were regulations like Jozui would want, there would be nothing cool and fun about advertising. By using celebrities, all companies are doing is just trying to beat out competition, they are just trying to get more people on their side then the next.

Not all celebrities that advertise a product do it in an untruthful way. A celebrity could be apart of a campaign because they truly believe in what it can do. For example, during interviews celebrities are asked products they like, they truthfully say a product they like because they believe in it, not just because they were told to say they like it. By doing so, they make the viewer more aware and advertise by accident because they like that product. Celebrities also can prove the credibility of a product and attract more people quickly. Also, if a celebrity likes something, they could give the brand recognition and give the success that the brand or product deserves, so it is not just always in the shadows of the big companies that made their names years ago. For example, some celebrities show off the underground things they like, like restaurants and music because they like it.

Jozui's way of thinking is an unrealistic way of thinking. If we follow Jozui's way of thinking, nothing will strive the way that they should, putting guidelines and taking celebrities out of ads would just hurt everyone because people need approval of what they do or buy. However, people could get approval by peers, the biggest way is through celebrities. Also, the way that celebrities advertise should not be insulting because it should be up to a person to know what is right from wrong or what to do or not do again. If we follow the mind set of Jozui, nothing will strive and creativity would be something frowned upon. There is no harm done if a celebrity advertises something because a product needs help raising itself up the ranks.

Word Count: 775

MILES AND AISLES OF SEXISM

GENDER INEQUALITY IN TOY SAFARI

     The author states that toy stores are full of gender inequality, with separate aisles for toys for boys and toys for girls. The boy toys are often blue and violent. Toys for building or for destruction that make noises such as bang or boom. The boy toys are also athletic or jobs that are for "men" such as firefighters or policemen. The girls section is full of pink and toys for cooking, cleaning, or pretending to be a mother. The barbies also had different races, so a little girl could look just like her toy. The packaging plays a big part, with words appealing to each gender of pictures that would attract those kids who cannot read yet. However, there were gender neutral toys, such as the craft toys like play dough, crayons, and markers. But these toys were usually hidden in the corner and not advertised as much in the stores as much as the guns or the baby dolls. 

     These gender inequality roles in these stores should not be happening, however, this is how society sees it to be right. It is weird to see a little girl using a nerd gun or a little boy carrying a baby doll because society has made us think that that is not right. A boy should be tough and violent and a girl should be motherly and a "princess". It should not be that way because any child should be able to be themselves and play with any toy that they want to and it would be socially acceptable. Media also makes it seem like women should do this and men should do another. Most shows show that women as weak or showing some part of her body and the men are the people on the top and they are tough. The media makes it seem as if women are helpless and need men in their life to protect them all the time. There are rare times when women are the hero and if they are, they still seem to be the fit types of girls. These things should be gone and it should be acceptable for anyone to be who they want to be and not bombarded by what society thinks is right.

WC: 374

articles:

miles and aisles of sexism

Toys Start the Gender Equality Rift

Gender Inequality in Toys

Room for Debate

Is College for Everyone?

College is not always the answer/ Mishel

     -We beed to prepare students for jobs that don't require college degrees.

     -Support the efforts to complete

     -4-year college degree not the panacea

     -We need a nation that has and values all sorts of work and skills.

Skills with no credential are no longer enough/ Carey

     -The more complicated the world gets, the more complex skills the job market requires.

     -Large parts of the economy are evolving.

     -Not everyone is willing to or able to get a Bachelor's degree. Need a chance to try.

Some need more help to succeed in college/ Hrabowski

     -A college education equips students with the tools they need to realize their own best paths.

     -Some students don't come fully prepared.

     -Balancing college access, costs, and excellence is not with out its difficulties.

For a middle-class life, college is crucial/ Carnevale

     -Between 1973 and 2010, the share of jobs requiring education beyond high school more than doubled.

     -College is what distinguished the middle-class from the goring number of low-income Americans.

     -College is not a blue collar vs. white collar issue.

     -Good jobs that require only a high school education are gone and will not be coming back.

     My Stance

     I would have to agree with Mishel because I do not think that we should always focus on everybody going to college. Yes, college is one thing to succeed and life and improve our skills, but it is not what we should all focus on. If we all focus on everybody going to college and getting jobs that are in offices, then we will not have any blue collar jobs left, we will not have anyone to do the mechanical work or plumbing, but everyone in little cubicles. Thinking about that is some what of a scary issue because we won't have anything left and everything will be all the same and there won't be that balance that is needed in society. We need those people who do office work and "clean" jobs, yet we also need people who do the dirty work for the rest of the society that does not want to do it. Going to college is not the main goal and a degree will not always get you everywhere, there are majors that you take that won't really help you once you get out of college and you end up doing nothing with what you just graduated from.
     Hrabowski makes a good point when it comes to saying that some students need more help than others. The educational system is pretty unfair when you think about it, they set a goal for everyone to reach and if you are not up to that level and cannot reach that goal, you fail and that is how it works. What should be is that it is tailored to one's specific need and what they could do so that there are not as many people failing because they cannot reach that unfair goal. Also, after finish high school, it is a ginormous jump to college and it seems like what we were preparing for was not the right thing and some people do not come as prepared as they need to, so there should be that balance as to what us as students do, what teachers do, and what the community needs to do.
WC: 355

7 Billion Reflection

The fact that we don’t need space, but we need balance was very powerful to me. If all 7 billion people in this world cam fit shoulder to shoulder just in Los Angeles shows that geographically as a population that we are not overpopulated as we think we are. But if we keep growing and growing and producing more off springs our natural resources and what we need to survive will end up decline and end up disappearing and we will not be able to reach it any longer. It is a scary thought to think about and it reminds me of survival of the fittest and how someone has to compete to get what they need to survive and if they cannot, they will not be able to make it. This video made me curious because if there are so many people where are the places that are not populated or not as populated, are they places where it is hard to live or is it just unappealing  to people? Also, because there are now many major cities are people starting to move into the cities or move away? Is that why we do not need more space because people are either cramming in one area or they are becoming distant from each other and spreading out. It is also weird to thing about so many babies are being born yet, so little people are dying to equal the balance, it is a scary thought that eventually there may be too many people in the world and not enough space or resources.
WC; 264