Midterm Blog #4: Reflection

I’ve learned quite a few things about Fairfield County and its values during this observation time period.

For one, us Fairfield County citizens love our personal space. On the train very precarious cautions are taken to avoid the catastrophic elbow touching of the person next to you, and even when everyone is squished by the door trying to get out, we really aren’t that squished. There is always that two inches of personal bubble around each person.

Now that I have observed and recognized this very singular way that everyone navigates Fairfield County, I will try harder to observe who breaks this custom and what is the result. I am curious now as to what would happen depending on who were to challenge this personal space bubble with little communication norm.

In a more grand scale, through my two blogs about television shows I have noticed that television likes to use the stereotypical molds of girls for their characters- fashonistas, weak, reliant. This starts at a young age and continues throughout the teenage years and demographics, which is really appalling. If we are making TV shows geared toward girls, wouldn’t we want our female protagonists to be strong and act as positive examples?

Both “Sofia the First” and “Pretty Little Liars” were equal in creating shallow female protagonists. Sofia is walked all over and doesn’t mind, and the PLL girls cant seem to realize that their boyfriends are the ones that are doubling as serial harassers and killers. They give girls little credit in taking action and having any ability to do so, which is parallel to my train observations of women. Upon observing their behaviors, I noticed that women were more likely to take any seat and be indifferent towards who they would be sitting next to or in between, showing they were sensible and rational.

My observations of real life disproved what is portrayed on television of the qualities of women, which makes me wonder even more why we then portray the stereotypes? Does someone somewhere want there no progression in the view of women? And to what effect does this portrayal have on the actual girls who watch these programs if this is not at all what its like in the real world? 

Midterm Blog #3: The New Haven Line

Taking the evening five o’clock train on the New Haven line is an incredibly beautiful experience. The businessmen in their Burberry trenches with leather briefcases in tow pile on in New York City, then the doctors, nurses, office workers, and painters in Stamford and South Norwalk. Everyone is so evidently different in their work attire and appearance, even race, yet everyone is at the same level- tired, and just looking for somewhere to sit.

This, however, is in stark contrast from at 6:30 a.m., when the same people load on to begin the day. This time around, Bridgeport and the “urban” cities get on first, then the wealthier parts of Fairfield County as the line goes on. Certain people congregate by either where they are going or where they get on, and once the seats begin to fill and there are single spots open here and there, that’s when it gets selective. Some will take the seats in-between strangers or sneak into the window seat, but many walk past dozens of empty seats until they find just the right one- but what makes that one special?

Well, I’ve noticed that women are more likely to ask someone to let them into an empty seat or take up the last single seat in a row, while the men usually walk half the car until they finally choose a seat, or, will just stand by the door waiting to take ours when we get off in South Norwalk. Men tend to sit with other men, and women usually don’t have a preference.

Seats are such a coveted commodity in the mornings, and I certainly consider it a triumph that I manage to snag one every single morning.  By why do certain people prefer to sit next to other people? The ipads and iphones tend to prefer one another, while the New York Times doesn’t usually have a preference. The Burberry coat who likes to make the sleeping woman get up to let him into the seat next to her usually has an elaborate performance of removing his scarf, folding it; removing his coat, folding it; taking out his reading from his briefcase; then neatly stacking it all on the overhead rack before sitting down so the woman can reclaim her makeshift bed.

So what does make the ideal seatmate for a Fairfield County citizen? For men, it seems to be, well, men, preferably of the same appearance both racially and clothing-wise. For women, it seems to be anyone nice or awake enough to let them in the row. And then narrowing it down, there seems to be a grouping of station and place of work. But to specific people, are some qualities more appealing in a seatmate people than others? 

Midterm Blog #2: Sophia The Not-So First

The new children’s show “Sofia The First” appears, on the surface, to be a new twist on the Cinderella story. Her mother falls in love with the king and they are whisked from peasantry into a life of luxury, where our female protagonist, Sofia, must learn how to be a princess while adapting to her new life with her step-father and siblings. But somehow, Disney failed to break the typical facets of every other princess story ever put to film.

Sofia, coming from a simple, working life, takes a bit of adjusting to having her own team of servants, a closet full of anything she could ever dream of, and a whole castle to call home. But why must she have to adapt to this? Why does royality and power have to equal wealth? Rather than having to adjust to being rich, why cant her new family adapt a more normal routine and reasonable lifestyle? Does power and being a strong figure have to translate to luxury and excess?

Sofia’s new sister, Amber, is exactly the type of princess-now-stepsister you’d expect her to be. She’s blonde, beautiful, prim, and the ultimate primadonna.  Upon meeting Sofia, she ensues to bullying her and making sure she doesn’t fit in. Yet despite this, Disney does not villianize Amber.  In the end she always gets what she wants, and everyone caters to her needs and her wants. Sophia always has to make the first move with Amber, and a quick apology usually suffices. Why should Sofia be a victim to Ambers need to be the center of attention? And why must Amber be concerened about her appearance and her coveted tiara- aren’t there occasionally more important things while growing up?

Prince James, Sofia’s new brother, is perfectly kind to her, and even gives her advice on how to handle her new princessness a time or two. Howver, he is every bit the stereotypical prince as Amber the princess. He is athletic, popular, well respected, and has a fan base of girls in a Justin Bieber fashion. When Amber isn’t taking the attention away from Sofia, James is accidentally taking it. And although there is no harm done with James, there is harm done to the idea this instills in toddlers about what a prince or “dream” man is. He’s blonde, flawless, crafty, and good at anything outdoors or with a ball according to Disney. Why is this the model for what the fantasy crush is?

What once were called “blended families” are now the new normal, but I can’t help but think that Sofia the First threatens this progression in ideas of acceptance, change in family situations, and relationship building in its toddler audience. Sofia accepts the hate and animosity from her new sister, Princess Amber, and must live under the shadow of her kind but exceptional-in-all-ways brother, Prince James, all while navigating princess-ship and adapting to a life of luxury, and Disney does all this while perpetuating stereotypes of manliness, femininity, and economic status. 

Midterm Blog #1

As a young woman, I am proud of everything my forerunning feminists have fought for and the progress they trail-blazed. However, I can't help but observe that pop culture seems to be spoon feeding girls shallowness and perpetuating inferior stereotypes from a young age. 

Pretty Little Liars, which at its best has brought in 4.2 million viewers, is a popular television show among teen girls. The show is dark, gritty, and, on the surface, different. Four female protagonists join forces to find who murdered their best friend, and along the way, get into some really gripping situations. Their clever tactics and strong relationships with one another manage to keep them alive, but why can't they ever seem to catch their terrorizer, A? Could it be because they spend considerable time putting together elaborate outfits and immaculate makeup and hair for school? I mean, come on, even the most fashionable wear sweatpants occasionally. And why are all of their terrorizers, who they never seem to be able to foil on their own, older men? Why do men always seem to have the one-up on our young, female sleuths? 

This show not only provides girls with the latest fashion trends and the newest Pantene products for their hair, but also promotes shallowness and sheer stupidity. Even the smartest and most revered girl of the group, Spencer, loses her mind and must be committed after she finds out her boyfriend betrayed her. And every time one of our female heroines turns around to check her phone, she ends up locked in a coffin, a telephone booth, or drugged and abandoned in a warehouse without struggle. 

Sure, romance and fashion are popular among teen girls, but so are social issues, intelligence, having common sense, and just about any other life skill anyone else possesses. I'd like to think that if someone were shoving me into a coffin to push me off a train to my death that I'd put up some sort of struggle. Can’t we ever have a female protagonist who can sense something is wrong? Or at least know not to go into the woods at night by herself when someone is trying to kill her?

ABC Family does boast some really culturally diverse shows that cover socially relevant topics, yet their most popular is Pretty Little Liars, or Girls Who After Four Seasons Can’t Seem To Catch Their Killer In-between Shopping Sprees. Does ABC Family really think that their audience is that shallow to enjoy such frivolous entertainment, their audience being young girls, or rather are they just as clever as A in accessorizing stereotypical gender roles, male-dependent female heroines, and lack of depth or intelligence with a never ending plot and cute outfits? 

Ownership- An Argument Essay

            The experience of being a human being is, lets face it, determined by the façades we put on: the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the relationships we have and we don’t have. The idea of owning these things has become a disease in our culture. The more we have, the more we want. The more we want, the more we lose sight of ourselves and allow the material things and the status in life to dominate the experience of life. Ownership devalues, as humans, our sense of self and warps the value and meaning of our lives. The falsity of the entitlement we all feel is rooted in ownership and the greed and immorality it creates.

            This cycle of owning and wanting more, leading to immorality and the desensitizing of what is valuable is especially prevalent in one of my own cultures- youth. In the school environment, it is thought that we as individual students earn and own our grades. In reality, our cleverness is what really owns our merits, not our own selves. The A, leading to the GPA, leading to the ivy league has become what defines our self worth, trumping over the honesty of an earned and unassisted-by-the-writing-on-your-arm grade. The college(s) you are accepted into have become what defines, as young adults, our self worth; therefore devaluing the ownership of our own deserved and earned intelligence. Cheating has become the social norm among many, as seen through the faces in laps and the insides of desks glowing with the heavenly luminous cell phones during tests. The falsity of what now appears on report cards is an ownership that embodies the corruption that is human nature.

Wanting higher grades at any cost, even a falsified one, is just how ownership leads to greed and the inflation of our sense of self.

            The tangible grade is also serves as an example of the intangible status we own. Although not all strive to be the best and the brightest, or the wealthiest and the most indulgent, everyone strives to own some sort of status, whether it be falsified or not. The extent to which one will go to own this status is what defines their sense of self, and as it turns out, this extent is quite an extent. Tumblr (a popular “blogging” site with a young demographic), boasts “depression” blogs- blogs that feature enigmatic photos of fog and rain and drug use, something that has become glamorized by John Green books and small production movies where the girl is fallen in love with because of her sadness and is wanted for her brokenness. This idea that sadness and pain is romantic and dreamy is now a status people want to own, which is an obvious way in how we devalue our sense of self with ownership of the intangible.

            Ownership is something that is inevitable; we own ourselves, our decisions, our morals and values, and also our desires as a result of the things we own. We strive to be better than we are (sometimes decided upon by social trends in the example of “depression blogs”) as a result of ownership, which can, in turn, function to work against us by devaluing our sense of self.