Mr./Mrs. Right? or Wrong?

Wow. That was a shocking and somewhat random bunch of pieces. Well, first of all I don’t think there is any one ideal Mr. or Mrs. Right that would fit the mold for every person. I think it is an individual choice on whether or not a person feels right for someone else. There is no specific checklist that every woman or man uses when picking someone to date/marry/etc. That being said, clearly the woman in the “It’s not about the nail” clip wants a man who can just listen to her explain her problems without trying to tell her what her problems are. She wants him to accept her, flaws, nails, and all. And as a woman, or anyone really, I can relate to that. Sometimes I just want to complain about everything without someone trying to tell me what to do about it or trying to fix things for me. I can see how this can be frustrating for a man who experiences this in a relationship because I feel like generally they just want to know what the problem is and find a way to fix it and move on.

It’s no wonder men get frustrated with women! Just kidding. I had to find a tie-in to the other article and there it is. Abuse is nothing to joke around about. A statistic according to the “Women and Girls in the Criminal Justice System” states that overall, 26.2% of arrests in the United States were female. It also talks about the main contributing factors for women being arrested or imprisoned are due to substance abuse, mental illness, and spousal abuse. I can see how even those factors could tie into one another: woman is depressed, husband gets frustrated with her gloomy mood and starts abusing her, so she begins to drink excessively or take prescription pills and eventually it causes her to commit some type of crime. Obviously that is not how every case would go, just a possible scenario. And many couples may marry before they truly know one another causing tension in the relationship, but rather than getting divorced they try to tough it out making tensions worse and worse. The divorce rate is so high because this happens too often; people marry for the wrong reasons or marry before they truly know the person they’re taking lifelong vows with. As with the Princeton article or the Monstrous dating profile video, it is easy to see how people marry or get together for the wrong reasons whether it be looks or money. We see it time and time again in real life or in movies: old man marries young woman for her looks and she marries him for his enormous fortune. Look at Hugh Hefner for goodness sake. How many young women has he married? Too many to count. And what would their interest in him be, aside from fame and fortune? I don’t think it would be for the sex because by the looks of the women he marries, they could certainly have a younger, hotter…did I say younger?...man to marry. He just might not give them the fame or fortune. It disgusts me quite honestly.

           

Then there is the Trifles story. It actually frustrated me immensely how rude the men in that story treated the women. Like they couldn’t have anything on their minds but quilting or cleaning. It’s not like the women stand up for themselves, although they do try to stand up for Mr. Wright’s wife. I would say this story is from a time when women did not have the rights they do now and they were more inferior to men, but who am I kidding? It may have been from that time but that type of treatment from men to women still occurs often today, obviously not as much, but some men today still feel the need to put women “in their place”. Yet some women tend not to leave their “Mr. Right” because he “loves” her and supports her (financially and otherwise).

“Hanging Fire” is this sad poem about an adolescent girl who wants to grow up but is afraid she might not make it there. She is just beginning to realize how the color of her skin affects her life, likely because it is the time of puberty and such. On top of that the boy she loves is still too childish, but so is she whether or not she realizes it. And through all of this she has no one to turn to for help or care because her mom closes herself off from her daughter. She wants a fairy tale but is realizing her life is real. Too real.

Blog 5: Superheroes

           Where the “Camelot” trailer and the “Crowning of Arthur” story make out the story of him to be majestic, (help with instrumental music in the trailer), and hero-like in the “Crowning of Arthur” because he proves to be king-worthy despite his non-noble association of the mask of his true identity. It all gives a very positive image of King Arthur and a negative image of the noblemen because they judge Arthur by his class. However, in the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” video, King Arthur is made to seem like a careless dictator. In “Crowning…”, Arthur is of the commoners and they offer their support for him whereas in “Monty Python”, the commoners are shown hardly knowing who King Arthur is and showing him no respect. Why such a large difference in the portrayals of King Arthur? Well, one idea that came to my mind is perhaps in “Monty Python” King Arthur has had many years of reign, is older, and has changed in character and become less hero-like to the peasants. That could just be one possible reason for the difference in the pieces though.

            In regards to race, gender, and superheroes, it is clear that most superhero comics consist of generally white males. We do not see very many female-led roles in comics, more side-kicks and victim characters. Even in the “Superheroines…” article it talks about Charlie’s Angels being a female-led hero group, they still follow men in their missions whether it is Charley or Bosley (both presumed to be white men—John Forsythe in one and Bill Murray of the other). Despite the lack of female superhero leaders in comics, we now see more female-led hero protagonists in movies and books like The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen and Disney’s Brave’s Merida. To me, this is just the beginning of women-led heroes.

            In the article’s “What if the X-Men were Black?” and “Who Gets to be a Superhero…” we read about the inequalities of race in superhero comics. Both articles discuss the issues that come with trying to change the races of superheroes, like Wolverine for instance, if he was black, he might just be seen as a wild black man. If this is the case, then change it. Change the storyline if necessary to make it how you want it to appear. Yes, I do see the issues with all of the superheroes in comics being generally white (males), but as we see in “Meet the New Muslim-American Green Lantern” they are changing the race of the hero and character using Simon Baz. And as pleasing to the eyes as he is, I never really pictured Ryan Reynolds as a Green Lantern character anyways, in my opinon, and I could see the comic portrayal of Simon Baz to fit better.

            And my other issue with these articles is that if you cannot change the race of one of the classic superheroes, why not get creative and make a new superhero? All of the classic superheroes (Batman, Superman, Iron Man, even Spiderman) have been done so many times and changed and improved and made worse etcetera, etcetera. Make a new classic and make him (or her) exactly as you want to portray him (or her). Maybe there are already comics that were made with a different race, I really don’t know. But to me, that seems like the best solution at least in regards to making a non-white superhero. I know that it doesn’t change the issues with the current superheroes but it would be a step in the right direction.

            And finally, “Superman and the Jumper”: the relation I see between this and the previous articles is that we have our typical white male superhero, a white damsel in distress, and a tertiary male black character. I just think this is an example of what all of the superhero articles are expressing.  

Blog 4: Dystopian 10th grade

            One of my all-time favorite genres of reading are dystopian fiction novels. I do not know what the lure is of them. Since I read Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 in the seventh grade I have been obsessed. So I can see how Goodread’s “Dystopian Timeline to the Hunger Games” makes sense for the rise in dystopian readers. It starts with students having to read these types of books in school and with all the excitement of the Hunger Games it is no surprise that the trend is increasing. Harrison Bergeron is like the short story version of the Hunger Games or any other dystopian novel really, and there is no happy ending per se. But with dystopian novels, there tends not to be a fairy-tale happy ending.

            So what do dystopian novels have to do with zombies? Well in dystopian novels the government is controlling its people and in some zombie movies it is usually the government’s fault for a zombie apocalypse by some outbreak of secret formula they are trying to produce like in the Resident Evil movies for example. I enjoyed how in the “Why do we love zombies?” youtube video that the guy says we like them because we see ourselves as the protagonist overcoming the odds. Also looking from that perspective, I could see overcoming the odds as overcoming a zombie apocalypse or overcoming a totalitarian government. I seriously love dystopian books and movies but I don’t know what I compare myself to them as described in the video. I am not totally anti-government but I’m not for everything the government does either. I think I personally like the idea of overcoming something way bigger than oneself like in the Hunger Games, Divergent, or even in the book like The Giver. Another thing I’ve noticed in almost ALL zombie and/or dystopian movies and books is that the protagonist has to face someone they know well or love who has either been brainwashed and turned against them or turned into a zombie. I noticed this in The Night Of The Living Dead and the guy having to shoot two people who I assumed friends by his reaction. In a zombie situation the protagonist either has to kill their friend or be killed by them. You see this in the Hunger Games with Katniss and Gale, and in Divergent with Tris and Four: both lovers in the books.

            Also in like Night of the Living Dead, we sometimes do not see a resolution for the protagonist and even through everything becoming resolved, they still die. This happens also in the Hunger Games and Divergent in the ends of the series.

            Finally, with the “Night Vale” podcast we see many of those things all wrapped in one: government secrets, “angels”, zombies. After reading about the podcasts I found how they incorporate all of the conspiracy theories in one. I also found it was one of the top listened to and purchased podcasts on Itunes. This just goes to show how much these topics interest people nowadays: what with the current hype of the Hunger Games, (newest movie coming out later this year is very anticipated…especially by me), and possibly a new craze with the Divergent series first movie coming to theaters this spring. It is such an exciting and fascinating genre. 

Blog 3: Just Dreamin'?

            I was initially very confused about the connection between the first three pieces and the last video—until I saw what the topic was: “Just Dreamin’”. Ah, now it all makes sense. Between the first three media, I saw a connection with race, or in this case racial minority. Also, the topic of rich versus poor is seen in these pieces as well. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza wants to escape her poor, small, red house, not necessarily to be rich, but to be on her own in her own home. That is her dream. And then in the New York Times article, I linked the connection with minority race (or races) and the poor trying to succeed in their goals—in this case three girls making it through college. That article was very frustrating to read as someone who relies on scholarships and financial aid myself. And then in the Chris Rock video, Chris tries to get a wealthy neighborhood to change one of their main boulevards to ‘Tupac Shakur Blvd.’ who was an African American rapper. From what I saw, Chris mainly asked white and possibly some middle to upper class people to sign the petition. Many of them completely rejected him, some laughed, and some also agreed to sign his petition.

            So far, in all of these pieces we see similar dreams to escape poverty despite race or current class; and then there is Chris Rock trying to move Tupac up into a class all his own. But still moving forward. And if it had stopped here, I would have expected the next piece to be the song “Movin’ on Up” by Ja’net Dubois (because of the lyrics and the relation to race in the themed show “The Jeffersons”). But no, we get Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. A young, white, possibly lower class couple in which the boyfriend goes off to war. From what the boyfriend says in the video, it seems a possibility that he agreed to go to war to support the couple financially. Whether or not that is true, that is my guess for the relationship between the video and the other pieces.

            There are correlations here between class and succeeding in school, class and race, and the difficulty of “moving on up” in class, just within these three pieces. The struggle to achieve dreams seems to be more difficult the lower the class one is, and even more difficult when combining lower class with a minority race.

            However, in contrary to all of this and despite hurdles based on race or class, the people in these pieces make attempts to overcome these challenges. We never truly find out if the people in these stories “succeed” or fail, but that also depends on each person’s definition of success. The girls in the NY Times article may have seen just getting into college as a success. It all depends on the individual and what their dreams are. Some may achieve those dreams, some may have changed their dreams, and some may still be striving towards those dreams. It is all a matter of perspective. There will always be difficulties, especially when it comes to race and/or class, but it shouldn’t stop those from reaching for their dreams. Very inspirational.