GENERATION LIKE

What are possible consequences of people structuring their identity around commercial products and initiatives? 

Nowadays young teens are so focused to portray their identity as "the one", to busy focusing on how to dress, impress and show off and not seeing the impact this has on them. They alter their lifestyle to suit themselves to be able to have the time to follow, re-tweet and get as many likes as possible. They're brainwashed to thinking that these products will help them in different sort of ways and help them achieve what they want and most importantly to them, receive the recognition they desire. 
As Douglas Rushkoff mentioned in the video, "They're living their lives in a marketplace" these teens spend all their time promoting products and movies, fame for other people when this isn't their job. They become so physically and emotionally attached to it, that after a while they don't realize it themselves, it becomes a natural habit.
Thanks to social media, teens are able to directly interact with their culture - celebrities, movies, brands -- in ways they would never have imagined but that's to some extent empowerment yet marketers still hold the upper hand. Young teens go through a quest to find their identity which has now migrated to the web .

All of that has consequences on these people who are just focusing their identity around commercial products. These teens start to become opposed with this idea and slowly start to lose touch with what actually matters, things such as family, education, socializing with people in person and another long term bigger effect would be that our society would alter to this transformation and it would become the new norm. People would adjust to this not realizing the effects that build up due to this. 

You better blur those lines Robin!

Robin Thicke's biggest song of the year Blurred Lines sure did make a massive hit when it came out last year but not so much now.

The song promotes a horrible attitude towards sex and consent which is why it has been an alarming issue for many women who view it as 'rapey'. The music video portrays a widespread sexism and especially the sexualisation and objectification of women which has a growing impact on women's day to day lives. These types of messages depict women as highly sexualised passive sex objects.

One might first listen to the song and find it quite catchy and not pay much attention to how the phrases have been put or intended but when looking closer to the lyrics of the song. He says:

" OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you

But you're an animal, baby it's in your nature

Just let me liberate you

You don't need no paper, that man is not your maker"

Implying that the woman should just leave her boyfriend for him and that it's in her "nature"

The video itself shows three naked women prancing around three fully dressed men. Robin Thicke absolutely degrades women in this video. Most women these days are required to wear close to nothing whereas men can stay fully clothed and still earn more attention than the women. Social media and celebrities have managed to devalue the feminine sex and convince a lot of the female population that they're worthless if they don't live up to the expectations of society.

This targets the male group yet uses the female group which are clearly not presented in the most appropriate way to do so.

This reveals a lot to us about our society and how we as a society have altered our perspective of women and their position in our society. They are viewed as nothing more than objects, inferior to men.

All in all this shows us how society has changed its perspective vision of what is now seen as appropriate and what can actually be accepted. As females in society continue to accept such a profane behavior and attitude from celebrities, it slowly becomes the norm for females to be viewed in such a manner, without this being viewed as disrespectful or of any offense to women therefore lessening the outrage that showed be happening and that women should be protesting. 

Written Task 2

1. How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

The text that I chose to focus on was the Fairy soap ad that features two young children of different races. The white kid stands in an etiquette posture wearing a clean blue dress, socks and shoes and standing by him is an black African American child who is wearing nothing but a side torn dress that she tugs on while bowing her head down in embarrassment and evidently unlike the white child her hairline is receded and unkempt. All of these features of the children are of course purposely inputted. 

This ad was published during a historically important time that affects how this ad would be viewed by different readers at that time.

It was during the time where the black race was segregated and slavery and considered to be inferior to the white race. 

This ad was targeted at the white Americans yet also to the black Americans. Although the ad degrades the black race it still manages to send them a powerful message. White American females are particularly targeted as a main audience in this ad. The caption below says: Why doesn't your mama wash you with fairy soap?" Women would view this and think that because they aren't applying fairy soap on their own white children, they're are equivalent to being as unhygienic as an African American. In some what ways it portrays a fear technique on these women trying to convincingly make them believe that they can't let their high class be brought down to a level of an African American. That being said, not only does this target the white women as stated before but also aims to remind the black race where their place in society is. They devalue their race and portray them as nothing more than dirty, unintelligent beings who don't play a single role in society expect for being forced to slave themselves to the white race. 

The white race readers reading such a text at that time would ofcourse not view it as offensive but rather as the truth being shown to the people and through the credibility of, what used to be a multimillion firm at that time, they manage to convince people not to stoop to the level of the African Americans by using fairy soap. Yet in contrary, if this text was to be viewed by an African American at that time, they would think of nothing but how offensive this ad is and how much it disrespects them and the way the look. 

English literature& Language 

FOA reflection 

My Further Oral Activity analysed how the black race was exploited in advertisements. Although many people would say that racism no longer plays a role in society, I portrayed by disagreeing argument by showing two different advertisements, one from a much older time and one that was much more recent and analysed how racism still holds a role yet more discreetly then it did before. 

The criteria were based on 4 different criterions which were Knowledge and understanding, organisation, language and understanding how language is used. The problem with both my advertisements were the fact that they both lacked language. The first one only contained one line of writing because the picture itself was so powerful so therefore there wasn't too much on the language. The second ad as well as the first focused mainly on the image and seeing as it was a more modern ad it was harder to find one with open racist language because that's not something seen nowadays in society so the image discreetly tries to portray the racism. The organisation of the presentation was good, I talked in order of what I wanted to say with a bit of looking into my transcript but otherwise it was fairly well. 

My overall feeling to the presentation is alright, I feel like I could have done more and said more yet it was very time consuming to find images that fit my expectations to present to the class and I was also very nervous throughout the presentation which of course had an impact on my speech because I could have included much more which I had written on my transcript and elaborated on it much more than I had. So therefore I was quite successful yet I could have been more.

I choose this topic because I found it very interesting and I liked how I could talk about how this issue is still seen nowadays in advertisements and now only in the past. I was able to touch on the audience and purpose and intent meaning of both the ads and the tone and mood, style and the content of the ads, ethos and I had some pathos that I wasn't able to fully elaborate on during my presentation.

I've learned many new things about language and advertising and how society chooses to portray certain aspects through advertisements. In my particular topic, I have gained new knowledge that I didn't know beforehand. Yet not only through my topic but also through this Further Oral Activity how language is portrayed and the different techniques used and how to identify them when looking at a text and how this can change the meaning of a given advert. 

For future FOAs I will spend more time trying to memorise the speech to keep it following and not be as nervous to make it all formal and presentable and also find ones that suit the criteria more, so they'd include more text to be analysed but overall as this being my first time presenting a Further Oral Activity I am quite happy.  

Advertisements and Culture Reflection 

Olay emerged an ad that focused on selling a stereotypical fancy lifestyle as they portray a close up image of a beautiful woman with words such as 'mother', 'wife', 'shoe aficionado' that were situated right next to her glowing and joyous face expression.  This induces emphasis on how Olay impacted her life and lifestyle. Yet this ad, although efficacious, manages to characterize the stereotypes seen in our present society. It devalues women's ambitions and associates women with mothers and wives as the ad implies yet does not suggest that they could have bigger roles than just that and actually have a contribution to society. Due to the strong gesture of stereotype, I as well as my group thought this ad was from a longer time period where such stereotype was expected and a woman would be known for her housewife contribution and care for the house and no play a major role in anything else which is not at all surprising but what was surprising was how recent this ad was, being published only in 2002 which clearly shows that stereotyping but not be as seemingly obvious nowadays doesn't mean that it has disappeared but yet still roams around and used to persuade women.
This ad sets a powerful feminine vibe yet when clearly analysed, it can be seen that it only targets and aims to empower certain women, women who have those roles such as wife and mothers to encourage them that Olay will succeed in supporting them to have a fancy and healthy lifestyle. The theme it focuses on is also self care and healthcare which shows that a woman should take care of herself as a mother and wife yet simultaneously the ad dis-empowers and ignores women who have other more important roles to society and focus on their careers for instance.
In the ad, the woman is wearing a wedding ring, which again focuses on her priorities of a being a wife and mother encouraging women like her to purchase the lifestyle Olay has to offer to lead them to a more open and happier life. 

GUESS WHO'S NOT BROKE THESE DAYS: CELEBRITIES ...!

There is no doubt that celebrities do in many ways entertain us through their majestic music and artistic ways yet since when should this be appreciated through millions of dollars. Up until 2014, Beyonce has made a solid $115 million just for the music she produces which consists of 3-minutes of dancing and wandering around and for tickets that get sold for their concerts in the first hour. Since when did it become so easy to simply auto-tune your voice and considered music and then make millions worth of it. Yet you would think these celebrities would contribute to the world and help out with the mounts of money they're making. Though many argue that celebrities are role models, it is easily proven against. Many young kids become obsessed and look up to these young, fashionable, forged looking celebrities and want to become like them but do you really want your child to end up looking or being like Lil Wayne or Nicki Minaj? Do you really? Many of them set bad examples for the youth and try to make them strive for the impossible. Since when is beauty classified by the amounts of make up worn? Or the tight clothes and the body we have?When did we give celebrities the right to portray beauty in their own fashion? Its simple, since the time we decided to cash out our own money to keep supporting them because, without us, there's no them. Celebrities gain all the credibility and money due to how much they influence us and yes it is fine to spend money to buy music but since when should they be making more than doctors and lawyers, actual professionals that are needed on a daily basis. 

With the money celebrities make some of them, mercifully do spend it on good causes such as helping the poor, donating and taking part in helping or donating with organization and some even have their own organizations that they're in charge of. The Ressler Gertz Foundation,actress Jami Gertz and her husband, Anthony Ressler . Grants from the foundation include $1.7 million to the LA County Museum of Art, $400k to Cedar Sinai Medical Center. Actor Matthew McConaughey —  invested $1,537,292 To the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation that he established. Grants distributed include $88,000 to Communities in School Los Angeles West and $38,000 Communities in School Central Texas. one of the most known celebrities is Oprah Winfrey, she is an example of a celebrity to look up to even though she does make too much money. Through the Angel Network, Oprah Winfrey has awarded hundreds of grants to organizations that support the education and empowerment of women, children, and families in the United States and around the world. She has also provided significant funding for The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, which is an academy for young women who have done service in their communities and have an ability to create positive and enduring change. 

Yet unfortunately, the vast majority of celebrities have the tendency to spend most of their money on overly expensive and useless items which are never really needed. Like when Beyonce cashes out $100,000 on a pair of leggings or when Nicolas Cage decides to spend $275,000 on an octopus and two King Cobras and a ridiculous  $1.6m on a collection of comic books. Only to get started on Paris Hilton who decides its normal to cash out $325,000 on a dog house. 

Rihanna, known for her beautiful voice, is of course a very over the top paid artist who decided to spend $1m on hairdos. Over 70% of celebrities waste their money on needs rather than necessities.
Regrettably, most of the celebrities are over paid for what they do and provide to society, unlike doctors, they don't have the ability to help or cure humanity in any sort of way or offer much of help and sadly those few that do try and attempt to help clearly haven't made too much of a difference whereas maybe if that much amount of money had been invested into countries, insurances, medical help, doctors, society and more, then there would be more of a difference and help issued to our society. 

TEXT 1 ANALYSIS

Audience and Purpose:Text 1

Text #1 is memoir extracted from the autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole. It follows all conventions of memoirs, namely direct narration, hindsight wisdom, dialogue and anecdotes. Direct narration is evident through the repeated use of ‘I´ throughout the extract, as well as from the content being a direct recounting of her history. The author also provides multiple instances of hindsight wisdom in her observations on death and life, saying that, ”Death is always terrible – no one need be ashamed to fear it.” Similarly, she reflects on her relationship with the surgeon in, “I think he had some fondness for me… I used to…weep over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”  Notable characters are also given their own voice, in “Let my lay my head upon your breast.” Finally, it was anecdotal as she recounted a specific event from her past – her falling in love with the surgeon. The aim of the piece was to recount her experiences, and to retell her emotions on them. At the publishing time of the piece, it was likely the audience were the English. This is shown in the sympathy she expresses with them, in “the mother country pays a dear price for the possession of her colonies,” and in the older styled diction. The audience may also be people who have experienced the deaths of loved ones, as it offers support for them and suggestions on dealing with it.

In this memoir, the author is able to retell her experience in Jamaica in the year 1853 and express through writing, all the emotions she had during that time period. She then goes on to reflect on her time there and her experiences. She talks a lot about deaths and its sufferings and because she was a nurse, it was much harder on her. This could relate to people going through similar times with a loved one, so it provides the readers with an insight. The author retells a very personal and intimate anecdote of her relation with a surgeon. This makes it more of a memoir because the author is able to engage with her audience and to portray her insights on their personal thoughts and views. The author has also gained wisdom through her experience with death and realized: “Death is always terrible- no one needs to be ashamed of it” and “for before that time, if I had not learnt to meet him with a brave, smiling face, and this he taught me.”

The mood of the memoir is friendly and quite personal/ private. The author uses this memoir to reflect on her time in Jamaica. One of the main themes is death, which adds a bit of a depressive atmosphere yet gradually brightens the mood by retelling the story of her and the surgeon, relating the theme to love instead of death and says: “I do not willingly care to dwell upon scenes of suffering and death.” She continuously towards the end focuses on the positive things of the surgeon and how he made her feel instead of talking about his death: “his kind heart feigned a feeling that he saw would give me joy; for I used to call him “My son- my dear child”, and to week over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”

It is written in a form of a memoir so throughout the whole extract there is a repetition of ‘I’ which is an example of direct narration which reflects her feelings and personal experiences. Through using a memoir, many anecdotes can be told that which shows a person’s wisdom evolving creating inspiration for other people, here we see how she gains wisdom of death: “Death is always terrible- no one should be ashamed to fear it.” The uniqueness of the piece gets the readers sort of engaged yet due to her more old structure and older dialect; many readers might find themselves not able to identify with such a piece. She also structures her sentences to be very long, sometimes five continuous lines. She relates herself with England and refers to it as “the mother country” which hints where this style of writing emerged from. Due to her relation with England, the author’s views and opinion are limited and it would be bias because it would affect how she viewed incidents and occurrences around her relation with the surgeon.
Throughout the extract, pronouns are used.