When most people watch movies they tend to not look to deeply within the whole process of why this went that way and why that had just happened — they are mainly there to watch the movie and then analyze or critique it afterward if they choose to do so. I know for myself that I like to watch the trailer first then the movie and then go and say my thoughts about it after I have watched it. I think, we as the audience, forget how easy it is to get manipulated by the movie or in other words how easy it is to get a profound response either positive or negative from the film.

Mainly, we just want to watch the movie and have fun doing so and that is that. However, for filmmakers and I guess I could say Hollywood itself, I believe that it is trying to persuade the viewers to get a profound response and to have the audience to have a reaction to what they are watching. In Rick Groen’s, “Why Hollywood Hates Capitalism”, he mentions that Hollywood is a big business that portrays itself to hate big businesses on screen but is willing to do so in order for the audience watching to believe that big businesses in real life are actually good.

Groen points out that “Hollywood the big business is ready and willing to cast itself in the role of the corporate heavy” (335) if only they are making money off of it. I think that this strategy of Hollywood and filmmakers is creative, but it can also cause the movie to be more dramatic and entertaining which I believe is one of the main goals of the producers. I just hope that the whole business side of Hollywood does not corrupt the whole entertainment business because what will we do if entertainment just becomes a bunch of small, meaningless ways to promote big businesses.

What is Your Role?

I was watching the television show 30 Rock the other day and one of the characters, Tracy Morgan, is the only black main character on the show — other than a few other minor black characters. Not only that, but he is there to help the other white characters to make their own television show funny and to bring in more viewers, by making fun of himself in ways that stereotype black people.

I mentioned what I said above because when watching movies and television shows, it is hard not to notice the lack of diversity on the screen. I mean yeah there are more and more black actors making their debut on the camera, but what are their roles most comprised of — supporting characters. There are a few characters who are black and the main character, but there is not enough. In Rita Kempley’s, “Mystical Black Characters Play Complex Cinematic Role”, if a black character is a main character, they are basically there to help a white character. It is not that the black characters are not likeable, it is just that they are given roles that are in a way ‘godly’ or ‘holy roles’ that causes them to be the supporting characters in a sense and help “rescue the better-drawn white characters” (331).

I don’t think writers and producers who create the movie or television show do this on purpose, I just think that there is this subconscious reason to do so. I feel like they have an idea of their character and its attributes and sadly, it does not have a black character playing it. I am not sure what people can do about it, but it is a start that there is awareness of the lack of diversity.

To Watch Television or To Not Watch Television?

From the looks of this title, you're probably assuming I'm going to talk about television and guess what? You are correct, but more specifically I am going to discuss how television is affecting family and household relationships. Television has been such a huge influence on American families dating back to the mid-1900s; however, before the television, it use to be radios that would be the main attraction that brought the whole family into the living room. There use to be imagination and creativity listeners would have to do when they sat near the radio because of course back then they couldn't see what was going on, they only could hear it. 

Now with the television screen right in front of our faces and all the images we can even image appear so vividly, it's easy for viewers to forget to imagine what is happening and rather just watch blankly into the moving pictures. It feels more common now that everyone is glued to a television screen or a laptop screen wasting hours upon hours of absent-mindedly staring instead of socializing. What has happened is that we have lost something of ours and that something is too valuable to even lose. What that something is, is quality time with your family. With the advances in technology and the rise of television access such as Hulu plus, Netflix and Xfinity, adults and children have their own way to watch tv. What I thought was so incredibly relatable was when in Marie Winn's "Television: The Plug- In Drug", she wrote that the mother would be watching her tv show in the kitchen and the kids would be in their rooms while the dad is in the living room watching a sports game. This to me is so unbelievably accurate to my life and I'm sure to many others of my generation. 

For my family, my father watches his shows in the living room on the big screen and since my mom and I don't want to watch what he's watching we go to our separate rooms and watch what we want. Even though I don't have a tv in my room like my parents, I still find a way to watch shows whenever I feel like it because of the wonders of the internet (since I have neither Netflix or other tv program accounts). Basically in my opinion, the whole idea of television when it first came out was to entertain a bunch of families to get some relaxation and quality time, but now it just feels like it is used to entertain a broad amount of individuals for their own alone time. 

Just Doing Our Job

Recently, my boyfriend and I was shopping along Santana Row, and while in the stores, we were greeted with a welcoming "Hello" and notified about all the sales going on. The same thing happened at the following stores we went to and some even suggested other items to go with the items we already purchased. It was like they wanted us to buy more of their products- who would have thought! Later, at a restaurant while my boyfriend and I were in the middle of eating the waitress serving us asked if we wanted any desserts. We politely said "No". After she left I remembered that earlier right before we even began to look at the menu, she asked us if we wanted to know about the specials for the day.

Now, does any of this ring a bell or at least sound familiar?

We'll for me it does because I use to do the same exact thing. At my summer job, I was told to greet everyone with a friendly "Hello" within the first ten seconds of them walking into the store. I would always have to tell the customer about our new this or our new that, and if they would also like this to go with that. Basically, it was a lot of trying to make our customers think they might need something else to go along with their purchase, similar to what Eric Schlosser said in his excerpt Behind the Counter. Schlosser wrote that "Workers ... are told to increase the size of an order by recommending special promotions ..." (53) and other suggested items that can be added to their order.

At this point, it is obvious that all employees don't mean to keep pushing all this information or sales to the customers, but as employees we don't do it on purpose. We are just trying to do our job so we don't get in trouble with our managers or jeopardize our own jobs. So the next time, someone comes up to you asking if you are interested in their new sale or products, don't get annoyed or ignore them, just say "No thank you" because after all, we are just doing our job.

The Hidden Meaning of a Toy

Let's take a trip to Target, Toys "R" Us, or even a general store and look along the plentiful aisles that stores all the toys a kid could dream for. If you look closely, you will see the difference in the types of toys and which are specifically for boys and specifically for girls. In our society today, gender roles have become hand in hand with one's identity and their self-worth. As consumers, especially for toys for our kids, we intentionally out of habit buy items that are gender specific to guys and gender specific to girls. When we do this we cause our children to associate the toys they have in comparison to the toys another gender has and because of this, boys think their toys are only boy toys and vice versa. A perfect explanation of this is in Toys by Roland Barthes when he says, "toys literally prefigure the world" and "prepares the child to accept them" (27). Meaning, toys are constructed in a way that resembles jobs or characteristics that have similar attributes associated with specific genders. 

When Barthes said that it made me think of how we are making our children make connections with things as simple as their toys and even colors and the way people talk to their gender and the roles they come with. For boys, there are soldiers, construction workers, and policemen toys that are associated to the roles of what it is to be a man which is manly and strong. For girls, there are dolls that come with houses getting them ready for housekeeping, or a baking set to bake sweet snacks, or even baby dolls that are associated with being a mother which is the key aspect of what society defines what a woman should be.

Even aside from toys, when I go to the mall and see baby clothes and accessories that are specifically blues and greens for the guys and pinks and purples for the girls. It makes me think that even before the child is born or is still too young to make decisions for themselves, there is already a limit to what they can and cannot wear. We as a society are making separate items for boys and girls just because of how our society has been thinking it should be from the very start. If a guy acted a bit feminine, he was to automatically assume to be gay and if a girl was acting tough and manly, she would be seen as a tomboy. Both of which show how in our society there isn't a middle ground where you can be both.