Grade 9 Links: Esther Webquest

1. Canadian Encyclopedia - New France
2. Canadian Encyclopedia - Gilles Hocquart
3. 17th Century Clothing
4. Louis XV
5. Filles du Roi

"Honey I'm home"

Well this is a delayed post, as I unwillingly forgot to post this earlier. This is likely the last post I will make altogether. Likely there will not be any responses, but just something to ponder about as the blog closes. Why is it that in media, usually the males are seen as the ones chasing the females, instead of vice versa? Why is the latter rarely shown? Does this have any relation to the gender roles portrayed by media and/or the dominant discourse observed in society today regarding gender? Does this reveal the objectification of women? (Ok fine I just wanted to post the picture more than anything)

The evolution of Television Theory.

It seems television has had a massive change over the years. The days of classic family sitcoms and wholesom commercials .

Television back in the day was full of nice relaxing sitcoms that the whole familywould gather around and enjoy together. There are the few sitcoms today that do the same but they are very few. Now television seems to have evolved into mostly reality TV shows, where an american celebrity brings a regular person along with them to see how their life is. As for commercials, back in the day you used to see a stay-at home or little old lady advertising washing detergent or dishwashing liqud to young women bouncing around selling underwear.

How else do you think television has changed over the years, how does it affect the public viewers?

Latinos in the Media

As a born and raised Dominican I've grown up around the negative view the media has portrayed to the Latin community, our culture and views. Its not only dominicans who have to undergo the pressure of the media, but every hispanic nation.

For instance in the states if you speak the language Spanish you are autimatically assumed to be Mexican and an illegal immigrant. Movies have had a great deal in portraying this negative view of all Mexican's where they have tattoes, are in jail, and sell drugs like the movie the came out called "Blood in Blood out" of a group of young and old man in Prison trying to re-enstate their power as the superior to whites and blacks in jail. Regardles of the country itself if we speak the language and our apperance is hispanic we get judged as all been the same. The media portrays all the Latin guys selling drugs like Pablo Escobar from Colombia or Scarface from Cuba. Not to say these man weren't lengends but not every descendent of the Hispanic race sells, does or deal with drugs. We fear it because of the way it has damaged and corrupted our country. Not only do man have a negative reputation from the media but woman in their own way do as well.

When watching t.v and a commercial comes on promoting a new cleaning supply or a hotel laundry mat or the room a hispanic middle age woman who's chubby is portrayed as cleaning the space. We are viewed as cleaning ladies in order to make a living. For instance a huge movie with Jeniffer Lopez called " Maid in Manhattan" trully proves my point. We are not also known as that but as Sl*ts just because the younger generation has a figure and likes to show it off. We get judged on the way we dress and the way we carry ourselves. I've gone out with a bunch of my Latin freinds for a night out and we get looked at very strangely and made weird faces at.

Those are just a few of the way the media has portrayed the hispanic people. The list can go on and on with the way were viewd by the public eye, We like to drink and get drunk and we can't control it, we think were the hottest things around and we have no education because we come from the developing world, and we want to find a ruch sugar daddy to give us everything just to add a few more things.

Discussion Questions:

Is the way I perceive the media to portray my people correct or over exsaggerated? explain your answer.

Who else either then Latin people have to watch the media give their people a negative view to the public?

If you seen the movies blood in and blood out or Maid in Manhattan, did you think it was a realistic view on the Hispanic popilation?

Paco Rabanne- 1 million perfume/colgone commercial

I was watching T.v today and I came across two commercials for the perfume/cologne entitled "Paco Rabanne- 1 million". I believe that the goal of this perfume/cologne ad is to persuade people to buy it and feel like " a million bucks" when they use it (as the title suggests). It shows the audience that if one was to use this perfume, they'd get practically anything they ever wanted.

There are two versions of this commercial; one for men and one for women, both commercials have it's fair share of the common male and female stereotypes.

Here is the link to the Male version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPHVygoca4
and this is the link to the female version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1lP7scdurI&feature=related

These commercials have many of the common stereotypes of males and females.
For example, In the male version the male snaps his fingers and he gets everything he wants; he snaps, There's a car, A woman drops her clothes, a bag of money falls etc.
It shows the typical stereotypes that guys are interested only in money, cars and women.
What really got me thinking is how the commercial attempted to show Male dominance over Females.
He snaps his fingers and the woman loses her clothing... it makes it look like the woman is less than the man and that she obeys his commands.

Then in the female version: she snaps she gets several cars, she stomps and she gets tons of heels, she snaps again and she's surrounded in a sea of men. For me, the key highlight of this commercial is how a male gives her a diamond ring and she snaps and it grows in size.
There's a saying that "diamonds are a girl's best friend", when I researched the meaning of this statement a site defined it as "A statement that suggests, while love is a luxury, material wealth (particularly jewelery) is more valuable in the long run."
So it basically says that female's too are interested solely in material things as well.


For discussion:
1)How do you think younger audiences would react to this commercial?

2)Do you think these commercials are powerful enough to have influence over the
minds of younger audiences?

changes in gender roles.

Long time ago, women had to stay home, take care of their children, cook, clean and do all the other house work. Meanwhile, men use to go outside and hunt for food to feed their family. However these gender roles are changing in some parts of the world. Now women are getting education and a job. Both the husband and the wife are earning money. Recent studies are showing that more women are graduating than men in the western society and this number is growing as we speak. Also the drop out rate of boys in high school is higher than girls. Women are getting employed for many jobs due to their education and their training. When the husband and the wife are both working and they have a child, these days the one that earns more income goes to work meanwhile the one with less income stays home and takes care of the child. In some situation, the husband has to stay home with the child meanwhile the wife goes to work. Long time ago women had no value but these days their are laws that protects them and gives them their rights. In some parts of the world, women couldn't even think about getting education but now they are starting to go to school and are getting jobs?

Recent studies are showing that woman are graduating more than men. Keep in mind that long time ago, men were the dominant ones and woman had no value. Do you think that in the future women will be the powerful ones due to their education and occupation? Do you think that they will control their husband?

For those individuals who don't want a nanny for their children and want to take care of their children by themselves, will you see more husbands staying home since they had less education? (In the future)

Most jobs that men have, do you think that they will be taken over by the women in the future for example: will you see a lot of female presidents in 50 years?

Hip-Hop And The Media

Hip Hop is a cultural interest group that coalesced in the early 1970s. It was known for many various things such as break dancing, deejaying, graffiti and rap. All of these were different cultural movements put into one and named Hip-Hop. Graffiti was the art of hip hop it was typically staged in New York where it was born. Also break dancing was part of the art perspective, causing different b-boy dancers to battle each other for money and prizes or for the fun of it. Rap and Deejaying were the musical perspective of Hip-Hop.

Like everything things got to change. Hip-Hop changed dramatically during the late 90s and early 2000s. The style of hip-hop became more aggression towards money, then its other purpose which was towards freedom of speech and appeal to emotion. We see “Gangsta Rap” arise in the early 90s and has a big effect later on as you see rappers such as 50 cent in rap videos portraying toughness and waving guns in addition to wearing a bullet proof vest. Along with this when 50 cent released his album it was huge on the charts because he was satisfying the people by talking about guns, violence, and women. This influences people like me and you to think rap and hip hop is corrupt and violent when only a few individuals only represent negative images.

Lastly I want to show there is also the positive side of Hip-Hop for everyone who has the bias that it’s completely damaged and misguiding. A rapper by the name of Chamillionaire wrote an album called “Ultimate Victory” which is out of the ordinary because it does not have any profanity also violent speech as well as no portrayal of women in the sense of nudity and disrespectful. K’naan also who’s a rapper who is from our hometown Toronto, formally he was a poet and usually he raps about freedom and equality. Hip-Hop being a multifaceted culture transcends into many popular characteristics creating Hip-Hop fashion. Hip-Hop fashion is also a positive aspect in the media, by turning your own style of wardrobe to share with nations around the world who relate to this particular music.

My question to you is the following:

Do you think Hip-Hip in the media is completely negative and misguiding and if so why? How do you think we can stop the negative stereotypes within hip hop?