Sponge Bob and Burger King?

I recently heard about the Sponge Bob commercial in class and realized i needed to see it for myself. I looked up the commercial that was said to be annoying as it is funny. When I watched the cartoon meets burger king commercial I was completely floored at what I saw. It was a combination of MC HAMMER, Spongebob and half naked women. Although funny to me as an adult to others such as parents this is a controversial commercial due to its sexual explictiness. Spongebob has been known as a rising cartoon among younger adults and children it is always a show to watch to get a laugh out of. But I'm not sure Spongebob Squarepants is something that parents will no longer want their children to watch this show. Spongebob is taking on a new approach and becoming more of an adult cartoon instead of a childs cartoon. After all he is dancing with MC Hammer an 80's singer.

More Examples of the Male Perspective

After our discussion in class about the male perspective and how it is often

TOUGH LOVE

Everyone needs some tough love, especially these picky women on the new reality show "Tough Love," on VH1. The show has a lead therapist Steven and his mom who help the helpless women who are self centered, ignorant, crazy, picky women find love. This show is very funny if you watched it. It is a giant therapy session that helps these women in ediquette and better their personalities. Steven the therapists send them on dates with men that would work and men that wouldn't work to show these girls a lesson in love. This show helps people and especially single women recognize the good and bad in the opposite sexs. The past couple of episodes I have watched two women have came out successful and found love overcoming all the obsticacles. One girl dumped her ex for good to be with a guy Brock she met on the show who treated her with respect and he knows he wants a relationship. A show like this not only teaches exceptance but maybe that guys are not all pigs and there are some out there who want the same thing as a woman. So why should we dumb ourselves down for a man? We should do what some of these women did and except and better who we are so we can find TRUE love.



But some look at this as too much tough love. Steve will put you down and make you feel that who you are is wrong some say. But after watching this one girl was asking male advice from her cat! So I think there are some people that need this!

Obsessed

Watching television one day I saw a very interesting preview for a movie called "Obsessed," with Beyonce Knowles. The movie is about a new secretary that is hired at Beyonce's husbands work space. The woman is a white tall blonde who makes extreme advances toward her husband as he rejects her repeatdly. The scary spin on this movie is that the woman is stalking the man. She is the one making sexual advances and becomes violent with Beyonce. This movie adds a new spin on stalking when you see that the stalker is a woman it shocks you because majority of stalking is done by men. This woman is not only physically forward but mentally as well by leaving presents in his childs room. I hope that this scenario does not happen to anyone but I thought that this movie was a good example of the gaze being from a woman more so than the man.

FOR A GOOD TIME SEEK AMY...

Sex really sells but when everyone starts complaining about how videos and music are teaching are kids perverted things we can’t help but wonder why these songs and videos keep making the tops. One song in particular is by Brittney Spears called “If You Seek Amy,” really caught my interested when it was a huge topic on the Good morning America show. I just assumed that because Britney had been the spotlight for so long with her three melt downs and her babies’ daddy taking away the kids, but come to find out Britney is back on her “A” game with a catchy new song that is sweeping the nation but also making a lot of parents of young Britney fans uncomfortable. The song is about a girl in the club who everyone for some reason wants to take home with them, and this is not to take home for a sleepover. It directs towards men and women, bringing about the fact that this mysterious girl Amy is 100% sex kitten that everyone man or woman wants a piece of her. The song goes as far as talking about being obsessive by repetitively asking; where they might find Amy, what she likes with her drink, is she outside or in the bathroom? This song represents stalking, sexual abuse, and being permiscuis and that being okay. No one in the song that is looking for Amy is wanting her for her personality or just to meet this fun chick obviously Amy has been around this club once or twice. So I will let you look for yourself here are the lyrics complements of www.sing365.com :

La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la

Oh baby, baby
Have you seen Amy tonight?
Is she in the bathroom ?
Is she smokin' up outside?

Oh baby, baby
Does she take a piece of lime
For the drink that Imma buy her
Do you know just what she likes?

Oh Oh
Tell me have you seen her
'Cause I'm so
Oh I can't get her off of my brain
I just want to go to the party she gon' go
Can somebody take me home
Haha hehe haha ho

Love me hate me
Say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy
Love me hate me
But can't you see what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy

Amy told me that she's gonna meet me up
I don't know where or when
And now they're closing up the club
I've seen her once or twice before she knows my face
But it's hard to see
With all the people standing in the way

Oh Oh
Tell me have you seen her
'Cause I'm so
Oh I can't get her off of my brain
I just want to go to the party she gon' go
Can somebody take me home
Haha hehe haha ho

Love me hate me
Say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy
Love me hate me
But can't you see what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy

Oh
Say what you want about me
Oh
But can't you see what I see
Oh
Say what you want about me

So tell me if you've seen her (let me know what she was wearing and what she was like)
Cause I've been waiting here forever (do you if she was going out all night)
Oh baby baby
If You Seek Amy tonight
Oh
Oh baby baby
We'll do whatever you like
Oh baby baby baby
Oh baby baby baby

La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la
La la la lala la la la

Love me hate me
Say what you want about me (Say what ya want about me!)
But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy (If you seek amy...)
Love me hate me
But can't you seek what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to If You Seek Amy (you seek Amy!...)
Love me hate me
Say what you want about me (yeah)
Yeah
Love me hate me
But can't you see what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy

Oh (love me hate me)
Say what you want about me
Oh
But can't you see what I see (love me hate me)
Oh Say what you want about me

All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to If You Seek Amy







The funny thing is the way they get you with this song is the hidden chorus that says “if you seek Amy,” but if you sing it and listen to it sounds like “F-U-C-K ME.” I have to admit it is a very clever song the first song I have heard next to “Stairway to Heaven,” but I don’t have to play this song backwards to hear Amy wants to get down. I can see this song as being controversial in that when Britney first hit the scene she was the girl next door making somewhat sexual songs but that didn’t seem to bother most because she was an all American princess. But as soon as Britney starting having children, a divorce, and a mental melt down people became uneasy. But as soon as Britney made a comeback more people wanted to hear her new single. Now the girl next door is the stripper next door. This is telling our younger generation that being sexual active will get you the attention you deserve, but maybe people are “seeking Amy,” because she is missing because she got raped or met the wrong crazy fan who did her in. People don’t tend to think of that aspect when dancing to the new Britney song, but they sure as anything absorb what she is saying and continue to think that sex is okay with multiple people anytime anywhere. So maybe this time parents have a right to be mad that their children’s ipods are full of “Hit me Baby One More Time,” “I’m A Slave For You,” and “If You Seek Amy;” because no one wants to be “seeking out” someone they love because they might have met Amy or Amy’s friends. Of course YouTube only has the edited :) but I'm sure the video says it all.

AWAKENING

Tanning as we all know is not the best for your skin and health, but as a pale woman the wish of a golden tan is always to be on the mind when vacation season comes around. While tanning at the local spa I took off their logo plastic sign off the bed that underneath holds free passes and informs you the bed has been sanitized. I placed the plastic mini sign on the ledge by the mirror and as I lathered myself in some golden tanning crème to prepare for my UV sun bath I read the sign. The sign said “IMAGE SUN, because image is everything,” this sign just made me realize how suckered I was as well as many teen girls to achieve a beauty that might even cause me great harm or kill me. That sign was the perfect saying for women around America and the world. Whether we are bleaching our skin, injecting it or trying to tan it we are taking great lengths to be the object of beauty. I decide after that to check online at several tanning salon sites to find out what other for women were out there. I found tons of information from HotSpot saying that tanning would make you “beautiful.” But after reading these testimonials of how tanning made people glamorous I read how tanning exposure can be negative. The lengths that we will go to be beautiful and feel good about ourselves is telling me and I hope everyone else that even girls who are writing blogs about this *hint hint* can be suckered into achieving looks that kill.

Speechless

After reading the homework reading on Cosmopolitian I had the urge to look at the magazine from a different perspective. I picked up the new issue of Cosmo for March that i received in the mail yesterday. Reading through I looked for things that Brown was saying a "normal" woman should be. Brown said in the article that a woman should be sexy, and the way to sexiness is screwing you boss and being anorexic. Reading through the magazine I came upon "Sexy Secrets Your Lover and You Have." These 50 secrets were quite graphic but I read one that left my mouth open. It said, "cheating is okay if you only do it once." It first off sounded like a high schooler had wrote the 50 secrets full of sexy escapades and sexy positions, but this quote is telling women and men that it is okay to be unfaithful. How is anyone suppose to find prince charming? Similar to my blog post about the bachelor women and men are looking for a quick fix and fast love. But if we are taught that there is always something better and it is okay to be unfaithful in your relationship how are we supposed to ever trust and be confident and comfortable in ourselves and our relationships. I hope that someday magazines can read their own writing and realize that some of their content can be disturbing and advice that should not be taken.

Reality [TV] LOVE

The Bachelor, Bachelorette and teen dating shows such as Tila Tequila have rocked our televisions and our minds with the intense drama. Our culture craves the idea of the opposite sex fighting for attention. Watching the ending of the Bachelor Jason chose Melissa, the beautiful brunette, but in the reunion show, the bachelor decides his choice was wrong and begged for the runner-up back. Same with Tila Tequila, a bisexual woman craving attention from both men and women to find her one true love. Shows like these give the American public that sense of needing more all the time. What do these shows tell the viewers? It tells the viewers that being in a monogamous relationship is not what the norm should be. The norm is to test drive it before you buy it. Women want their prince charming and men want their fun and their sexy women. It disturbs me that even I would be attracted to shows such as this and getting caught up in some of the tabloid’s most destructive relationships. These relationships off these dating shows, although seem to make a match made in heaven, in fact end up in heartbreak and high viewer ratings. Lesson learned is that REAL LOVE IS NOT FOUND ON TELEVISION.

MEAN GIRLS....got to love them and got to hate them...

Mean Girls, one of my personal favorite movies, is so incredibly close to how real girls experience real problems: the friendships they form, the jealousy they feel, the backstabbing that happens. It sounds clichéd, but high school can really be a cutthroat situation. Every girl just wants to be liked; to be pretty and popular. They want the guy they like to like them back.
In the movie, the main character Cady has a crush on a guy named Aaron. Cady’s newest friend Regina says she’ll help Cady by talking to Aaron but actually steals Aaron from Cady. Cady then plots to ruin Regina’s beauty and popularity. This might not have happened to every girl while in high school, but the underlying problem was common: girl likes boy, boy likes another girl, and the two girls lose their friendship. It’s sad, but so many friendships in high school were either fake or so easily broken.
Another thing that the movie touches on is the lack of respect girls develop for each other. One of the teachers in Mean Girls offers this pearl of wisdom, “You’ve got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it okay for guys to call each other sluts and whores.” Girls call each other sluts and whores without hesitancy, and sure enough, guys do the same. I have been called a bitch affectionately, jokingly, and seriously, and been unfazed all the same. If it becomes the norm to call each other these kinds of names, you start to demean yourselves.

DEATH RACE

Recently in class we have been discussing how masculinity is defined in movies. After class one evening I went back home to an excited brother who wanted to watch this awesome movie called Death Race. Watching this movie completely shocked me that a fourteen year old boy thought felons, and super cars, bombs, fires, and women was awesome to watch.
In this movie there is an island where these criminals live and because there is so many of them the leader of the prison who is a woman makes some of the men race to the death and even sometimes for their freedom. Although movies like this don’t interest me much I saw the glee my little brother had for it and wondered if that’s what he thought a man was supposed to do fight to the death. Not only in the movie did the men race a lot with their cars but their cars could blow up other people and crush them. But, the woman who was in charge of the prison was able to control whatever she wanted. This gives a new spin on masculinity because a woman is controlling what these men can achieve, she can push a button and it all be over for these hunky guys. Another interesting factor was that these men had women in the cars with them who were wearing scandalous clothing, meaning pretty much nothing, and navigating these men through the course. I feel that the woman in this movie gave a new spin on masculinity it showed that men need women to control them and put them in the right direction. In the end though the men come on top and escape the prison by blowing the place up with the women helping to take the fall so the men can escape. This movie although confusing to me shows men that it is okay to have a woman there for help and to crack the whip but in the end we rule and make the final decision. Especially our youth watching these things gives them the idea that it is okay to be rebellious and dangerous because in the end the women take the fall. Let’s hope that this Death Race isn’t our reality.

BEAUTY is PAIN :) (WARNING: MIGHT GIVE YOU FOOT CRAMPS!)

Women have always had conflicting feelings about looks from the earliest of times. Sitting here thinking of what to blog about I came across some pictures of Chinese women and how they used to bind their feet. This sparked interest in looking at how things have changed in style and what is sexy and what an “acceptable” woman looks like.






Back in ancient China even now women were binding their feet. Chinese women were seen as upper class, stylish, and sexy women if they bound their feet.Binding of the feet was started as soon as the girl could walk. Their ultimate goal was to get their feet as small as possible, the empresses went as far as making her feet a size 2 at the age of 30. This process involved bandages about 2 inches wide and 2 feet long and the feet were wrapped so that the top of the foot made a hill and the toes and top of the foot curled under to meet he middle of the foot. According to various sources I read about this history of binding from girls to women sleep deprivation was common unless with the assistance of narcotics, this is because women wanted their feet so small as small as possible the pain was unbearable. These women though were left with painful scars and forever walking with fancy canes got to wear their “golden lilies,” (which were special shoes that were a privilege to wear), and that is all that mattered to them. The years of binding for the smallest of feet caused lack of circulation and infection that decayed and eventually when the bandages were changed some toes would just fall off. They definitely have coined the term “beauty is pain,” because in our society we think that we are the only ones so fixated on how skinny we can be, how our hair looks, how many Botox injections we can get to look younger as we ironically get older. These women back in old China prided themselves on the size of their feet not the size of their waste no matter what the cost sometimes even death. SO the question is how far would we go for perfection?

WOMEN ONLY TRIBE

Women all around the world no matter what race seek out happiness. Searching YouTube I came upon a couple short videos of an all women’s tribe in Kenya called the Samburo tribe in Umoja. This video sparked my interest because the caption for the video said, “the village were men are forbidden.” Knowing very little about the African tribe I watched a couple of the videos. These heart wrenching videos show the reason why these women live together without men. Majority are there because of the British army rapes that happened years before but still shake the lives of the women because after the rapes the women were ostrised and looked poorly upon in their home villages. Other women were tired of the polygamy and their daughters’ being raped and forced into marriage with much older men when the women were not of age to reproduce. So one women spoke and started this village of women, her name is Lolosoli. Over three dozen women live happily in this tribe in the dry grasslands and do everything that a man can do. The men are allowed in the village to have relationships with the women as well as come to eat and reproduce without the use of sexual force but consensual. The fact that the men respect the village of these women to me sounds incredible because these women were tortured and looked down upon for something so horrific. Especially living in a society where the norm is that women obey the men and live the way the men want them to. The men were told by the local government they were not to overstep their boundaries as read in the Washington Post article of this tribe, but it is amazing to see a society where men rule that they are comfortable with giving the women the respect they deserve and letting them live the way they want to. "… Women have to demand rights, and then respect will come. But if you remain silent, no one thinks you have anything to say…” Lolosilo said to the Washington Post. These women have made such an impact on their society that people went from disrespecting them to the government being on their side to help protect them. I believe everyone can learn from this because it is a perfect example of not forgetting what you have been through, not being the victim but being an inspiration and positive advocate for others like you and a voice to change not just a village but the world.