LIF3 ACCORDING TO TV

In Life According to Television, Harry F. Waters only confirmed what I partially already believed, that televisions hidden victims are women, the elderly, blacks, blue – collar workers, and other groups, for the majority of the time we are negatively portrayed. For example African Americans are almost always the criminals, or drug dealers, and the elderly are always helpless. And sadly because television is watched as often as it is, if we aren’t strong – minded enough, we begin to believe what we see, and ultimately begin to view ourselves as those same images that are portrayed on the television screen.
I was also surprised to learn from reading this text that I am an extra, extra, heavy television viewer. [They say heavy viewers watch more than four hours a day, and I watch twice as much]! I wonder if it’s still possible to take the Annenberg Team survey to see just how much T.V. has altered my acceptance of reality. Hopefully not, I mean television can only have the power over us that we allow it to have, and I can say that I am very much attached with my reality [if that makes any sense].

Finally, not really following the whole article on the Black Bart phenomenon, which I think I have some recollection of, coming across a few of them myself growing up in New York City, I had a better time relating to the article written by, Maribeth Theroux, which talks about MTV’s Sexual Objectification of Girls and Why It Must Be Stopped. Being a very big fan of the reality, dating, MTV, show, NEXT, about a guy getting to go on multiple dates until he found someone he liked, and vise versa, I never realized how demeaning it really was to women, until now. When ever a girl was getting to go on dates with guys, the contestants all had their own unique style, look, and size. As for the women, all of them wore clothes that was covering less skin then was appropriate for television, and for the girls who had any class, leaving their bodies to the man’s imagination, they was yelled, “NEXT,” to before they even got a chance to fully get off of the bus. I mean how sad is that? Is that really the image that the most popular network wants our future girls to live by, that the only way to get any male attention is to let it all hang out? What happen to having dignity, respect for yourself, and maintaining your self worth? Those are the type of messages that they should be teaching us. But I guess if it isn’t negative, sex related, or drama filled, it isn’t worth air - time (:/).

GIRL CONTESTANTS TALK SEXUAL ON MTV's DATING SHOW NEXT

S33IN' THRU MY LENS

If you knew me well, two things you’ll know about me is that I am not very argumentative, nor am I good at proving points. So when Silverman told me the best papers are those which contain an argument I became nervous about my success in English 015. My nervousness was only intensified when he said the best way to come up with an argument is to look through a lens. Not very much into politics I have no social or political approach. I am a female, but I’m beginning to think that maybe the sexism argument is getting old and boring [I could be wrong], and being born in raised in America, I have no cultural view, well I do, but nothing that I can bring to the table that many people don’t already know about the American culture [I could be wrong about this too].

But feeling like I was stuck, with no real sense of direction to a road that would lead to a good paper, I became discouraged. I asked myself, how could I write a paper that people would want to read? What can I say to an audience of many different types of people that would keep them all engaged? And then I stumbled upon the lens of class. Yes, I might have been born in America, but I grew up on a different step of the social ladder then others, I lived a different lifestyle, and was exposed to things different from others, and this makes for a good argument, for I can talk about a lifestyle different from those who, lets say, grew up in an upper class family. And through this lenses I can expose others to a lifestyle they might have knew a little to nothing about, and that makes me feel proud of where I come from because it’s part of what makes me unique.

Silverman has also taught me about a thesis statement. I always thought that for a paper, a topic and thesis was enough, I never knew that a thesis statement, which unpacks and explains the thesis, was essential to the paper as well. And it’s something that I will have to work on.

And finally, I was most surprised at how much we actually PAY for FREE television. For one the television sets we buy, wanting to keep up with the latest fashion flat screen. The cable we pay for monthly or satellites, which total to nearly $1000 dollars a month [yet television is free]. And let me not forget to mention the commercials that are constantly ran [for example ALLSTATE] to entice us to practice our consumer instinct. For all this money for “FREE” television, like Silverman said, were better off going to the library, to check out a FREE book, using our FREE library card…and I agree!

WHAT UH' READING: THE WORLD IS A TXT - CHAPTER 1

Maybe it’s just me, but was reading the introduction to The World is a Text as challenging for you as it was to me for some reason? I'm not sure if it was the television that was on or my sleepiness, but I had to read the chapter 5 or 6 times to get some understanding of what the chapter was about, and yet I still only partially know. I guess it's true what Silverman said, "Only by reading well can you write well," and I'm not that good of a writer (p.11). One concept that did stick out in my mind though was semiotic situations. According to Silverman, these are moments in which we try to make sense of our surroundings or interpret one aspect of our surroundings based on the signs or text of our situations. I do this all the time when I go somewhere foreign, or meet new people, especially when meeting boys, but I never knew the term for it until now. For instance, some of the signs I look for when I “read” people is their wardrobe. If there is a handsome boy, with a nice outfit on from the clothes on their back, to the shoes on their feet, but then they have on big fake chains, and earrings, and watches, I look for the nearest EXIT and head for it, because this tells me that they are trying to set forth an image of themselves that is not true to who they are. In other words, they are as fake as the jewelry they wear.
Another concept that stood out, of all the reading, was the section on font, and how font type can in some ways tell the reader something about the person who wrote it, or who you are as a person. I did not believe this at first until I “read” my own writing. I noticed that everything was neat and in order. All of my T’s were crossed and my I’s were dotted, and this is exactly how I am in life. I love to be neat and precise with everything I do, and I always strive for order in my life. Overall, one concept I know I will need to work on, is turning a “read” of the world into an argument, as in the example of Starbucks. Where I am an “O.K.” reader of my surroundings, I’m not great, so I am hoping with the help of Silverman, Rader, and The World is a Text, I become better at it…but only effort and time will tell...

NAME CALLIN'

So I'm sitting in my last period English class when the teacher asked, "What is the significance of your name?" I mean ::shrug my shoulders:: I don't know. To me, my name sound sooooo made up, there can't be any significance behind it! But I don't have a problem with it because although it's made up, it's not something crazy like Shenaynay or Keylowlow...You know the names from the television show Martin. My name is more unique and the spelling is even better. But anyway I get home and immediately I ask my dad, "where did he come up with a name like mines, like who would think to put together these letters and syllables?" And you know what he tells me - that my name and the spelling was inspired by night and day. "HUNH???" Yeah, I said the same thing - But he tells me that how night and day controls our daily activities, he wants me to have the same control over my own life and the choices I make...
Em...that's kind of deep if you think about it...