When I was little, I was the baby girl of my huge family of mostly boys. So whenever my birthday or holidays came around, I would get a Barbie from everybody. I absolutely loved them, whenever my mom would want me to try harder when I was learning how to swim, she would bribe me with Barbie dolls. I would sit in the car ride home and open up the box, and sit with the doll (and bite her hands off, I don’t know why...) I vaguely even remember one day my mother and I decided to count all the Barbies I had, I was probably seven and I had over 100 Barbie dolls. Of course I ended up giving most of my dolls to my younger cousins later, and now my six year old sister plays with my old doll house and Barbies. Sometimes my mom will tell me to help my sister clean up and whenever I clean the Barbies, I secretly sometimes change their clothes to make them look nice. I can’t imagine my childhood without Barbies, I loved them so much and so does my sister.
People always seem to wonder about Barbie and the ethics/ morals behind her existence, but I really don’t see any harm in her. In fact I think that over the years Barbie has evolved over the years just like women have. Barbie doesn’t only come in a housewife form. When I was little had had a Doctor Barbie, a Ballerina Barbie, an Army Barbie and Dentist Barbie, Barbie was anything you wanted her to be, nobody said all girls had to play with her, and nobody said that she had to wear the fanciest clothes, I remember taking Kleenexes to make Barbie look like she’s been stranded on a desert island.
Barbie has also expanded over the years, my sister owns every Barbie movie on DVD, and I’ve watched them all with her, honestly, thought they’re quite cheesy and they all involve annoying singing the moral of each story is very sweet and has a good lesson, they’re also pretty funny.There is also Barbie clothing and accessories and much more.
I truthfully do not see any harm in Barbies, I think that they are one of the most memorable and favourite part of a lot of girls’ childhood. Barbies help girls develop their imagination and just simply have fun.
During March break I decided I would do a little experiment, I wanted to understand how the media influences people’s thoughts. The first thing I thought of was that from Monday the 15th to Friday the 19th I wouldwear clothes that would fit a different stereotypical persona, and see what people would say or how they would react. Usually I don’t dress in any real catergory of style, it’s usually just a pair or jeans and t-shirt.
Monday
On Monday I wore ripped acid washed jeans, leather jacket and a lot of black eye shadow. When I first stepped out of my room, my mom almost spilt orange juice all over my sister while pouring it in her glass, while my dad proceeded to ask me if I’m having “one of those mid-teen crises” I asked them what was wrong with what I was wearing and my mother told me I looked like her boyfriend from when she first came to Canada in the 80’s. My six year old sister refused to talk to me because I “looked scary”. I told my friend I would meet him at the mall at two, so at quarter to I went to the bus stop, it wasn’t too eventful, until I got on the bus and sat near a woman and her daughter who was probably four or five. After I sat down the woman put her arm around her child and brought her closer to her, and further from me. When I met my friend at the mall he was really confused and asked me what was going on, when I told him I had no idea what he was talking about he started acting really awkward and kept asking me if everything was okay. While we were at the mall people were looking at me differently than usually.
Tuesday
On Tuesday I wore a big band t-shirt, sweat pants and wore my hair in a pony tail, no make-up and wore sneakers. My parents saw me and assumed I wasn’t leaving the house, so they left to work without asking me if I had plans or if I was staying home and was able to watch my sister. A friend of mine wanted to go out, but I told her to come over instead. When she came over she had a surprised look on her face and asked me if everything was okay. We hung out for a while but then she wanted to go out for food, so I called the sushi restaurant nearby and told them I would be there in fifteen minutes to pick up the order. On my walk over with my little sister and friend, I got very little attention from the people in my neighbourhood, but once I walked into the restaurant, again people were looking at me differently. I asked my friend what she thought the strangers thought about me when the saw me, she said that I looked like a teenage mother that has let herself go and decided to take her pretty friend and daughter for sushi. When I got home my mom asked me if I had been crying and had boy trouble, how is this associated with sweatpants?
Wednesday
Wednesday was really nice out, so I wore a nice pair of jeans and a tanktop, I curled my hair and put on some high heels, and went out to meet my friend from Monday for ice cream. When I was leaving my mother asked me if everything was better with my boy troubles now, and at the bus stop I received several honks from the truckers passing by. One older man on a bicycle (who was missing a tooth) rode up to me, stopped and said “hello gorgeous” he proceeded to attempt conversation and when I ignored him he repeatedly said wow, he eventually and thankfully left me alone. When I got on the bus the driver smiled, as did most of the people on the bus. When I arrived at the ice cream store my friend gave me a big tight hug and asked me if I changed my hair and he payed for my ice cream. When I ordered my ice cream, the boy working there asked me if I wanted sprinkles on my ice cream he said “they’re on the house”. When I got home that night, my sister told me I looked pretty like a girl on TV and my father told me to never dress like that again.
Thursday
On Thursday I wore a blouse my grandmother sent me a few years ago and tucked it into my jeans, I also didn’t bother to put in my contacts and put a braid in my hair. My dad was very pleased with this look, he told me that I looked very intelligent with my glasses and that my shirt was lovely. My mother realized that something was up, she asked me why I’ve been changing my style every day, I simply ignored her, when my sister saw me she laughed and told me that I wasn’t pretty today, but I was yesterday. I went to go see a movie with my cousin, at the movies people were not nearly as kind as they were the previous day, they simply saw straight past me. My cousin thought it was hilarious and asked me if I would tutor him in math.
Friday
On Friday I returned to my simple jeans and t-shirt. My mother said she was glad to have me back, while my father and sister were completely oblivious and confused. When I met up with friends that day they weren’t asking if I was alright, if they could buy me ice cream, if I could tutor them or if I was having boy troubles. Everything was back to normal.
But why did everybody’s behaviour change around me because of how I dressed? I didn’t change my personality or habits in any way, but the people around me did. Clearly the media has influenced humans and their way of thinking because they associated certain traits to personality types.The media defined the curls and heels sexy, the sweats to “letting go”, the glasses as a nerd, and the leather jacket as a rebel. People judge based on the first impressions of what they see.
I interviewed my father who was born and raised in India about his first television experience and he seemed to have a lot of fun remembering way back when he first watched "that shitty box".
Q: Do you remember your first TV experience?
A: Yes, I remember it quite vividly.
Q: What did you watch? A: I wish I could tell you the name of it, but I watched an old black and white Bollywood movie.
Q: What was your opinion? A: I was very confused, it was probably '76 (laughing). I thought it was brilliant however now looking back it was hilarious. Q: Where you hooked? A: I bet you're expecting I say yes, because it was a great invention and changed life as we knew it, but I honestly wasn't. I was very young then and the TV only played some movies and nothing really that interested me, I thought it was much more fun to go outside and play with my friends.
Q: What did the TV look like?
A: There was a huge antenna on the roof, and from the roof came a big wire that came thought the ceiling into the TV. The TV itself was huge, the screen pretty small. The TV was like a piece of furniture, it had four legs and just sat there in the room. ( Smiling) The picture was fuzzy and black and white, we often had my dad go out and try to move the antenna around to try to fix the picture.
Q: Where were you when you watched it for the first time?
A: It was in the village ( My dad actually said that and I started laughing and the told him I needed more than that)I was at the neighbour's, our family didn't really like them, but we went over to watch TV anyways, even when they weren't home. Q: Compare your first experience to today's.
A: Today, I would say I'm hooked, TV is where I access most of my information, gain entertainment, and even bond with you sometimes. It has really revolutionized the life of humans, and there are hundreds of channels for thousands of shows, some shows that you wouldn't even imagine why they make, I watched a show about Pest Control and watched them kill rats and bugs, why? I don't know why. But at first TV was that shitty box, at least back at home it was.
When I was little I remember that my mother used to watch this soap opera called "Days of our Lives”. The show consisted of idiotic and unrealistic scenarios involving evil estranged twin brothers, the mafia, cheating, stealing babies and affairs. The show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” is like the baby of “Days of our Lives”. A friend of mine loves the show and mentioned it to me the other day, so I decided to watch a few episodes today and base my media log on the representation of teenagers on this show.
When I watched this show I couldn’t help but laugh throughout several parts, not because it’s witty or funny, but because it is probably the most dramatic thing I’ve seen since that soap opera my mother watched, but this show is targeted for teens. The main story of the show is that this one teenager named Amy had sex in band camp with this guy Ricky and she is now pregnant. Now Ricky is in a “friends with benefits” relationship with this girl Adrian, and Adrian’s mom is having an affair with Amy’s dad. Amy’s dad’s ex wife is the mother of Grace who is a very religious girl who’s dating Jack, who wasn’t getting any sex with Grace since she’s very Christian, he decides to sleep with Adrian, and when she kisses him in front of the whole school, Grace finds out. Meanwhile Amy’s big mouth friends tell the entire school that Amy is pregnant, and her boyfriend (not the father of the baby) offers to marry her (at the age of 15) and help her raise the baby. So that’s just some of it, and I hope you can understand why I laughed at the five episodes (yes, all that happened in five episodes) Supposedly, this is all supposed to be the secret life of the American teenager, well being Canadian can’t be all that different and my life is FAR from this. The only “secrets” I know in any teenager’s life is liking somebody and not knowing what to do, and that’s probably one of the most exciting parts.
Obviously if the show was just like real life nobody would care enough to watch it, because why watch it if it’s just what you see all day, right? But this show is absolutely ridiculous everybody is inter-dating and are all linked together, of course there’s a helpful guidance counsellor that’s always giving advice, and there’s a lesson in every episode, but this just might be one of the worst portrayals of teenage life I have ever seen. Every single character is either in a relationship, having sex, or wanting a relationship or sex, teenagers are defiantly a little sex-crazed because of all the crazy teenage hormones, but there a tons of teenagers out there who don’t want relationships, or are happy to be single. The writers of this show clearly tried very hard to portray teens accurately because they took every stereotypical character and put them on this show. There’s the band geek, the adoptive son, the cheating father, the slut, the Christian, the quarter back, the rebel, the insecure boy and the womanizer. Teenagers do not just fall into these categories, these are overly used stereotypical characters, it is true that some people are like this, but very few. I also watched a few promo ads for the show, and in each one they mention that there will be “a shocking twist”, teenagers don’t have shocking twists. We go to school, eat, sleep, and hang out, we do not go around and get the religious girl to lose her virginity, or get pregnant at band camp. It’s also ridiculous that most of the show takes place in the high school, but I’m almost certain in all the episodes I’ve seen, I have never seen the teenagers in a class or doing any work, which is what the average teenager’s life usually consists of.
So in conclusion this show has a terrible interpretation of teenagers and their lives, I am aware that teenage pregnancy is on the rise, but this just might be the most overly dramatic teenage show ever to exist.
In the last media log, I interviewed my little cousin Evan, who is currently in the eighth grade, I asked him about what he thought high school will be like. Luckily for me I have a really big family, I also interviewed my other cousin Kyle. Kyle is in the ninth grade, I decided that I also wanted his opinion on how different high school is then how he thought it was.
Q: Tell me your name and a little about yourself.
A: Kyle, I’m 15, I go to Aurora High School and hope to go into engineering Q: What were your first expectations of high school?
A: I thought it was going to be a lot more interactive than it is. I thought it was going to be a place where you knew everybody, even if they were your enemy or something. I thought there wouldn’t be this much work and that everybody would be dating.
Q: So how would you describe what high school is really like?
A: High school is a place where you learn; not only from books but you learn about yourself and others, as cheesy as that sounds its true. I really like high school because it’s a lot of fun.
Q: Do you think the media had given you your original thoughts about high school?
A: Yeah, I guess. Because there are so many shows, movies and like commercials that show you how high school is dangerous and that teenagers are crazy sex maniacs and all that. But really it’s just a place where you meet people, and learn.
Q: What would you tell people about to enter high school?
A: That it’s not as scary or dramatic as you think. It’s not like High School Musical where everybody’s in love and sings, it’s not like Gossip Girl where everybody has sex, and it’s not like in seventh heaven where everybody prays. It’s just normal. I watch a lot of girl shows don’t I? Oh, and it’s not like a Public Service Announcement where they tell you to just say no because drugs will lead you to nowhere.
As you can see Kyle has almost finished his first year in high school and already understands that it is so different than how it was hyped up and really likes going to school. In comparison to the previous interview it is clear that Kyle is much more realistic and mature than Evan, he mentioned studying much more than Evan did, but has much more knowledge on the subject because he has experienced it. Kyle’s point of view may change because he is only in the ninth grade and by the time he graduates his priorities and ideas about high school may change, but in the end he still knows that life isn’t really like the movies.
In this interview I spoke with a cousin of mine who is currently in the eighth grade about what he thinks high school will be like.This script is edited a bit because Evan is immature and had said some inappropriate things that I had to get rid of.
Q: Tell me your name and a bit about yourself.
A: My name is Evan, I live in Mississauga Ontario. I like watching movies and playing baseball. I turned 14 in February.
Q: What do you think high school will be like?
A: It will be hard because there will be a lot of work and a lot of personal problems and you have to balance both and maybe get a job.
Q: What kind of personal problems do you think teenagers have in high school?
A: They have problems with boyfriends and girlfriends, their friends, fitting in, and bullying. They also have problems with their parents, trying to look good or “find themselves”, drug problems and alcohol problems.
Q: Where do you think you’ve got all these ideas from?
A: Well, I guess through like TV and movies, they also teach us a whole bunch of stuff at school in health class about what will happen in high school to prepare us.
Q: Are you excited to go to high school in the fall?
A: Yeah, I guess. It will be cool to meet new people and be older and stuff, but I’m kind of nervous, I don’t know if I can handle all those problems and stuff.
Q: What do you think your biggest accomplishment will be in high school?
A: Being smart and popular and getting with all the ladies!
Evan’s thoughts about high school have all come from the media; he thinks the world for the average teenager is filled with drama, cheating, lying, drugs and sex. When I asked him about the problems teenagers encounter he only listed problems involving social life, he didn’t mention actual school or studies, in fact he barely mentioned it at all. He has this idea that high school will be just like on TV where everybody has problems that will resolve by the end of the day, and nobody actually does school work. Evan seems to think the goal of high school is to meet women, I left some of his answers out of this because they were inappropriate, but I can say that Evan pretty much thinks after school everybody just gets together and has sex during study sessions, at first I thought he was kidding, but then while he was talking I realized what an influence the media has had on my little cousin.It was mentioned that in elementary school they are teaching kids the "problems" teenagers face, when Evan told me about how they talk to him about pregnancy, drugs, alcohol and suicide, I had to set him straight and tell him that high school isn't a drama filled and bad place, that the average teen doesn't get pregnant after a night of hard core partying and then kill herself. It's clear that even the school's education is highly influenced by the media's dramatic portrayal of high school.
This AdBuster is a picture of the American flag, and instead of stars in the blue upper left corner, there are logos for television, entertainment, food, and equipment that are popular in America. I believe that this media text is portraying the message of how America idolizes these forms of media, as they do their country. The flag of a country is supposed to symbolize the country, and signify what is important to the country. Therefore this media text reveals the common assumption that America lives up to these companies and is a very superficial place, I believe this stereotype is true for most of America today, even Canada; we depend on huge companies every day of our lives.
There isn’t a day that goes by where the average North American does not watch, eat, drink, or use a product from the companies shown in this image. Some people might take this media text with offence, however I believe that this has become a norm in today’s society, and whether we like it or not, we are very heavily influenced by them. Since we are exposed to them everyday, we take in what we see, this is quite frightening because in fact we are being brain washed by the media, simply wanting everything we see, whether it be the lifestyle portrayed on a certain show, a product being advertised on a certain website, or a brand of soda being used on a television. These things will be shown to society and make them want what is on the screen, page, or on the bus stop.
