"Life is Graded on a Curve"

In Jean Kilbourne's video Killing Us Softly she discusses the connection between everyday advertisements and women--most of which were very negative. Take this "got milk?" ad for instance... Everything about this is objectifying women. A lot of ads are for men and this one is no exception.  Since this ad is obviously for a man, everything in it is also for a man. This seemingly happy women holding HER baby (which SHE gave birth to) is for a man. The milk that is feeding the baby is even for a man because without it... this woman's breasts (which are HERS, they are stuck to HER body) wouldn't be of any use for the man. What I gather from this ad is that this woman, who I assume is looking at a man (the father of her baby), is giving herself up to him. Girls are taught to devalue themselves while boys are taught to devalue these girls as well. Most of these teachings are learned subconsciously. This woman is an object. You better buy milk so you can use your girl! "Because her boobs are for YOU... not YOUR  baby" "Milk helps YOU take back what's YOURS". Everything is for a man and women have no meaning alone... a man adds purpose to a woman's life.

Another point that Jean Kilbourne made was the fact that girls are told to be pure yet sexy at the same time. Even adult women are told this. This is why we see grown women looking like children because apparently "innocence is sexier than you think." This angelic girl in the ad above looks to be no older than 10 and she already symbolizes sex with her make-up done, Marilyn Monroe styled hair, and her lips partly opened. 

Over time, innocence and sexy have become a pair. 

We see young girls like this everywhere, it has become a norm. There are high heels for babies and even a popular show called "Toddlers and Tiaras" which is a glittery display of this issue. I ask myself... How is this okay? and why? 

A little girl is now a sex symbol.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

~ Raising little girls to be erotically suggestive since the mid 1900s ~ 

Seeking Happiness on the Internet

The internet is a whole new world that was given to us through technology. People would probe and find new interfaces to interact with. The internet is a new venue for self-expression. The fact that it's participatory can help people connect with others and this kind of social interaction can easily make people happy. This would be synthetic happiness because it's secondary. Expressing yourself and talking to others over the internet is very different than doing so in person, physically face-to-face. The tangible contact with others is natural happiness, it's what we humans pine for... the real stuff.   

Not only does interaction with others on the internet create forms of happiness but so do certain websites and features that the internet has to offer. You can listen to music, watch TV and movies, keep up-to-date on your favorite sports teams, read whatever you want, shop, share and edit photos, and so much more. These cyber goodies can influence people to go straight to the internet instead of to the store. This kind of interaction would lead to natural happiness while going to the store would be synthetic. The internet is so versatile that it can create different configurations of happiness depending on how you use it and what you use it for. It seems like everything bad can be good for you too!     

And may the odds be ever in your favor

In the documentary "Generation Like" many ordinary teenagers and young adults beam popularity through millions of computer and phone screens. You might ask yourself "why them?"... because they're likable... it's that simple. Not only are they likable but they use the media to let everyone know that. The people reading this blog are probably likable too but aren't using the media to draw the entire world to them. There are people out there who post pictures and videos for the sole desire to get "like"s, "share"s, "retweet"s, etc. These people can easily turn their "like"s into $$$. Just like the Hunger Games, "to get sponsors, you get people to like you." In this case, they're already halfway there.

Money has been a huge factor in the media. Not only do "popular" internet faces get money but so do companies who are helped out by those famous cyber-heads. Again with the Hunger Games, fans go wild when it comes to promoting their favorite action packed movie. They tweet, share, create gifs and memes, and show off their already bought Hunger Games attire. Like the video states, the fans do the marketing... consumer=primary marketer. These companies sell the product to the audience but then rely  on the audience to sell it for them... and they do. Fan bases emerge and Víolá ("wallah")!! Immediate cha-ching in the oversized, saggy pockets of the media-hungry companies.

Why so saucy?

The work of Howard Moskowitz was thoroughly illustrated by Malcolm Gladwell in his lecture "Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce." Gladwell used multiple stories from Moskowitz's career life to demonstrate that people don't actually know what they want. Moskowitz experimented with diet pepsi to find the "perfect pepsi"... what is the sweet spot? Gladwell then moved on to talking about Prego and how Moskowitz had the same goal... finding the perfect sauce! M. made a variety of sauces and tested them out by having people rank the "goodness" from 0-100. M. took the results and congregated the ranked sauces into categories--plain, spicy, and extra chunky. Chunky sauce ranked the highest...why? Because it was something new and different from the traditional sauce! 

Gladwell describes both natural and synthetic happiness in this lecture. Natural happiness is created when people get what they want. Synthetic happiness is created when people settle for something else because they couldn't get what they originally wanted. People created this type of happiness, synthetic happiness, when they had the normal, runny sauce. Natural happiness started being expressed when people had more choices to choose from. They could pick what their tummies desired instead of settling for what was available to them. People didn't know what they actually wanted until more variety was introduced. Not only did Howard Moskowitz reinvent spaghetti sauce... he reinvented feelings of happiness for the saucy eaters out there!