Masculinity Overdrive

Male violence is a very big part of advertising. Almost every advertiser who is trying to appeal to a male audience uses male violence to their advantage and it works in their favour. Men are in dominating poses over woman, showing strength, and power. Is this really a big deal showing these images, does it matter whether or not males look this way. I believe it has a strong impact on how people in society act especially younger children, making them think that they should behave and look just like they do in advertisements. Advertising themes that encourage these ideas are Attitude is Everything, The Cave Man Mentality, Muscles and the "Ideal Man", and Heroic Masculinity.

Attitude is Everything shows men as cool desirable figures getting what they want and often showing a certain product as the way they receive these things such as cars, woman, and money.

Cave Man Mentality shows men as cowboys and pirates displaying that men have always been aggressive and untamable.

The New Warriors often use sports figures to promote violent behaviour among younger influential children. (eg. Football, Rugby, Hockey)

Muscles and the "Ideal Man" states that a man without muscles is no man at all. All men should have veins popping out of their arms and woman are fragile, dependent, and all women want men that look and act that way.

Heroic Masculinity is often used in movies, they have very violent characters as the hero and winning all the beautiful damsals in distresses hearts.

A Day to Remember

On Friday November 20 2009 we went on a trip to Toronto for our media class. We visited the Museum of television, had educational exploration and by 5 pm we were on the set of Much Music. If you ever have to chance to go to Much On Demand I strongly suggest you take the opportunity, it was insane how they do what they do. The hosts don't have a script just headings of topics on their paper, and often had to stretch out what they were saying even though they had nothing left to say. For those who haven't even seen the show before it's purpose is to show the top five music video's of the week, talk about celebrity gossip and to have guests such as Hedley on to tell about their tour and how the band is doing. The format they use every show is a practice round when the audience gets to talk and practice for the main ideas the host have to discuss. The money makers are the station, the hosts, the producers, camera guys and basically everyone who has a role on the set at that time.


Their messages are mainly towards teenagers, although i know of many children watch the show too. While we were on the show they were talking about Kate Moss's tweet that went along the lines of "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels". Tim Deegan went to ask the audience what they thought of her tweet and the two girls who commented on it were both against her tweet. While Sarah Taylor our other host for the day said that some days we all feel like that and shouldn't be so judgemental on Kate Moss. What really made the message believe able was having students get involved in the discussion rather then it just being the hosts the whole time. Kate Moss demonstrates a negative lifestyle because her tweet seems as if she would rather be thin then eat at all. Although I didn't agree with what Kate Moss had said it was interesting to know that she felt that way and I think many people felt the same way.

The intended primary audience is teenagers the music, questions, and guests make it seem that way and the secondary audience is parents they watch it to see what our interests are and why we watch the show. Other people might think the show is very versatile and that children could watch it but its more for an older audience. I know the show has no script which is amazing, I don't know how they get all the guests on their shows, and I would like to know how to get a job there. To get more information you could go to http://www.muchmusic.com/ or call the station and possibly talk to a manager or producer and ask for more information. With this information I now know how everything works on a live show and now I know exactly how to get on the show. Overall i had an amazing time and I'm thankful for having such an awesome trip and day.

Flash Back of the 1970's

In the beginning, I thought that doing a project on the 1970's would be easy but it turned out I was defiantly wrong. Finding pictures, television shows, music, and fads were easier than expected. While the creation of the videos turned out to be quiet difficult. We struggled to come up with good ideas that would be funny and people would not get bored of. We thought that a trip to Value Village would inspire us and help with our clothing options because let’s face it I don’t have anything from the 70’s.

Our first step towards finishing our project was finding pictures and music that would suit our movie. It took awhile to find pictures that were actually from the 70’s with all the Halloween costumes there are on the internet. The next step was to start putting the movie together adding the music, pictures, and headings. Then Sarah went to the extent to actually find videos off of YouTube from the 1970’s which were amazing and I think really made our documentary. When it came to our videos we had tons of ideas from disco dancing to coming in late from a party high and our mom catching us but nothing really worked out. Until it hit us why don’t we just make a video of us using the disco slang instead of disco dancing or even just a Burger King commercial instead of trying to use a car which became harder as you could tell that the car was not from the 70’s. After many trial and error attempts we finally got the hang of it and our videos worked out beautifully. Our added bonus which was so much fun to put together was the Orchard Park year book from the 1970’s. I just found it funny to see how things were so clean and wholesome then for example the cheerleading uniforms, which seemed to have a lot longer skirt back in the day.

I found that everyone seemed to have worked very hard and long on their projects. Many were shocking how good they were, actually looking like a movie, while other were funny and interesting to watch. It was crazy to see how much time and effort was put into these projects even adding bloopers to make their documentary that much better. From the 1950’s to the 1990’s we have now seen it all.

To Plagiarise or Not to Plagiarise

Canadian artist Avril Lavinge released her album "The Best Damn Thing" containing the song "Girlfriend" which she had co-wrote with Luke Gottwald. She was later sued by Tommy Dubar, founder of the band Rubinoos for having plagiarised their song "I Want to be your Boyfriend". The artist claimed that the music and many of the lyrics were the same. Avril was extremely angry by this assumption stating that she would never use any ones work.

I am in the middle in whether or not to believe that Avril has copied the song or not because that song was written by a band no one has really ever herd of. Their might be some similarities but to me it doesn't seem as if she intentionally copied the tune and lyrics possibly by accident. Another thing that makes me question whether or not she should be charged is the fact that other bands like The Rolling Stones and The Ramones also have very similar lyrics to each of these songs but neither has been charged. Maybe Tommy thought that he could make money off of Avril if she just admit to the charge rather then taking on a anyone that might go against him.

The song lyrics for the chorus are very similar just changed in certain areas but if you were to just look at the rest of the song lyrics there aren't the same just about the same topic. Avril's music is a lot faster and up beat while the Rubinoos song was slower with a softer tempo. Having said that her music also resembles the classic 90's hit "Hey Mickey" however she was never sued for that and no questions were asked.

I do not believe that Avril has committed a crime of plagiarism because that would also mean that The Rolling Stones and The Ramones have also committed the same crime. Or that the person doing the suing Tommy could have been the one in question long before Avril Lavinge had even written the song but no one put two and two together. This makes my view on who is really at blame very confusing but I still strongly believe that Avril did not do anything wrong.

I don't think that this will effect her career because before this assignment I didn't even know about this charge against her, so it is possible that not a lot of people know about it that are not in the music industry. Then again in one of the articles that we had read a woman had said that after hearing of this case she will never work with Avril again. In the long run I bet that everyone will forget about it and she will still have a great music career, with many loyal fans and people behind her.

The Wrong Judgment

Have you ever walked down the street passing a lady wearing something that to people outside of her culture looks like a huge black gown. It covers her legs, arms, hair, and face only revealing her eyes. Most see it as weird and a lot are scared of people who wear them, but have the people making judgements ever wondered who that person is or wanted to understand their culture.

After the 911 attack the news was filled with people pointing fingers at the Muslim people for every airport security problem. It was well understood that people were just scared, scared it was going to happen again and scared of those accused. The Muslim community was being harassed, well those who looked Muslim were.

The situation confused me of course i was just as upset and mad about what had happened but how can you say that everyone who believed in the same thing were also at fault. I don't understand how people can treat another person a certain way because of what they believe in or what they choose to wear. It's all very unfair, now I am a proud English, Irish, and Scottish person. If someone were to walk up to me and tell me that I am not allowed to wear my English, Irish, or Scottish jersey I would be confused and upset.

Many Muslim people had to adapt to the world suddenly against them now revealing their arms and faces just not showing their hair or loosing their traditional clothing all together. Loosing their heritage over someone they never knew doing an awful thing to a lot of people.

Now I find myself asking the question is this right, what the media is telling us about these people. Can they just say what they want when they want whenever they feel it's necessary. Calling it freedom of the press and the right to freedom of speech but are they pushing it too far. Hurting more people then they are helping.

I'm now wondering if I'm the only person who feels for what they have to go through everyday and can't believe how cruel and cold the world can be towards a person who was born into a religion that they love and respect and how they show that respect by wearing traditional clothing and going to a mosque to worship. Isn't that what catholic people do as well they gather every Sunday in a church to worship their lord. They may be very different but they are still similar in many ways so before you decide to judge these people who are "so different" think about how much they are just like you.

Rise and Fall of a Starlite

My name is Stephanie Williamson I used to be a normal person until my life changed drastically. Playing guitar and singing had always been my favourite things to do, that was when I decided it would be an amazing idea to make a career out of it. I started playing my music at my schools talent show and everyone thought I could make it as a singer and my confidence was getting higher. My mother and father thought it would be a good idea to get my music out there and try to sing belonging to a record label.

Moving away from my friends and family I think was the hardest thing for me to do. We ended up signing with a big Hollywood record company and they thought it would be the best plan for me and my music to actually live in Los Angeles. Our house starting out was an okay size for a family of four but it wasn't all the space we needed. My parents found it extremely hard to find work moving all the way from Canada to the United States of America. I thought that when I was a little older they could move back home and be happy and comfortable with where they are.

The label was working hard to get my name out there, all I did for almost a year was record music and do things to get more publicity. Then after a year of waiting my first album was published. I ended up calling my album what most of my songs were about “Star Struck”. My family and I couldn’t be more thrilled, my agent called later breaking the amazing news that I would have a cross Canada tour opening in August. My tour ended up selling out within the first day; it was all so surreal to me. That’s when it all ended for me, going out with my family with no security shopping where everyone else shopped and even just going out for ice cream it was over.

I was in the eyes of everyone now paparazzi showed up at my door trying to just get one glimpse of me with their cameras. My family and I ended up having to move into a gated community where no one could get in or out unless they had a key card. Driving to and from the studio was always scary paparazzi followed us in their cars running through red lights and making illegal U turns whenever they had to. I had to have tinted windows and three body guards in the car with more waiting at the place I was going. I felt as if I was a mouse trapped in my home trapped in my car and wherever else I went.

After my tour ended with having to sleep on a bus for four months, and taking an airplane when it was too far to drive. I was tired and needed a break from all the cameras and fans. With all the money I made I had enough to go around the world for a year. My family and I decided we should take a trip to Atlantis which is somewhere we have always wanted to go.

It was so peaceful, calm and the best part was that we were alone for once. Had I spoke too soon we started noticing that we were being followed again and within two days our hotel was crawling with paparazzi. That was the day I decided I didn’t want to live in Los Angeles anymore I want to be home with my friends and live a normal life. But that wasn’t easily done. After I stopped doing things for publicity the paparazzi calmed down a little but I still had to have protection which is how I think it might be for a long time.

It’s been five years now and I still live in Los Angeles and I now act in movies small roles but I like them. The paparazzi have calmed down a lot now and I usually only see the regular few taking pictures and asking questions but it’s alright now. Things have changed a lot since I was sixteen and couldn’t walk out house now I think I am at peace with this life I chose and in the end I’m glad that it never got so crazy that I got hurt or someone else, yet it could have happened a number of times. To all you sixteen year olds who want to be living the Hollywood dream think about what could happen if you choose that life.