A woman on a roof

Figure 1. Up on the roof, 2008. Note: Copyright ipquk, (made available under a Creative Commons licence)

First of all, I knew Doris Lessing before we read her story. She has got the Nobel Price in 2007. And I was wondering how she writes, what kind of a writer she is. I saw that she writes plain(in a good sense) and clearly. She says in her story what she wants, what she intends and she does it without, you know, a pretentious register. Her symbols and the dialogues she wrote in the story are quite understandable. I liked her style.

About the story: Three different types of men seem to be perfect to emphasize the situation. Each of them think differently about the half-naked woman and through them we can see three different approach to such a woman. I liked Tom the most because he is 17 and he behaves naivly. The only one who talks with the woman is him. As soon as she showed her resentment at him, he felt depressed! That's a typical mood of a person at that age. I found that very symmpathic. And the gray sky is a good metaphor at the end, I think.

Additionally, I guess that the reaction of the woman could be because of the class of the men. They are workers and women often don't like workers. If the person who peeps were a handsome and rich man, then the woman would be likely not to show her resentment to him, don't you think?

The Oral Presentation Practice

Oh, unfortunately my presentation did not go well as I expected. First of all, I couldn't say all the things that I have in my mind. That was because of my nervousness maybe, but eventually, it wasn't satisfying for me. I would give a low grade to it. Something between 60-70.

However, presenting something is fun, I think. It is a creative way of learning and telling something. And with a slide show, it becomes more effective. We can emphasize things with pictures or displayements. Besides, through oral presentations you get used to talking in front of other people, which could bring some advantages in life to us. Another point is of course the teamwork. Members of the group work together. Additionally, hearing parts of one subject from different voices makes audience get attention more easily, you know. If one single presenter talked, audience would fall asleep:D But if a second or third person continued to talk, that could wake up the audience:D

This presentation was a practice for me and I can see now what I should work more intensively on. And there was a bad luck for me in the presentation, I couldn't read my notes in my hand during presenting, because I had written them illegibly! That was gross, but next time I will write a better note-paper :)

The Plug-in Drug

I think this is an issue of our modern world. We live fast, the Earth moves fast, days go by fast, everthing is faster than before. In the past, only the dad used to work the whole day, but today the mum also works so the family could survive OR catch up with the today's modern world.

However, what about the kids? Parents have today not much time to spend with children, so they use modern methods and ways to handle with them. They either employe a nanny or send their children to creche. At night, uncommunication continues. Parents got mostly tired when they come from work so they follow the easy way to solve the problem: TV - another modern world thing. They let their children sit in front of it and the child communicates with the screen.. I don't say this is the same in all families, but we may quite agree that this is a common family type nowadays.

Of course, that is not OK at all. It is even awful to my point of view. Families should absolutely spend some time with their children, otherwise children tend to get mentally seperated from the family. If two people do not communicate, they get likely to ignore each other because they even do not have anything in common - what should they talk about or what should they share with each other? And such a case could also emerge in a family between the parents and the kids.

On the other hand, I cannot blame the techlonogy for all that. Technology also brings many advantages. It also has good effects on children - for example visuality. I think that the alienation in the family mostly depends on it's members. It is up to parents if the children feel lonely or seperated. If parents come into children's room and start a conversation with them, the children could indeed stop being busy with the device and join to the conversation.

In this post, I've talked about the subject from the parents-children side :)

* Figure 1, Earbuds, (2009). Note: Copyright Peter Gerdes (made available under a Creative Commons licence)

Killing Us Softly

Figure 1. Offensive Target Ad, (2008). Note: Copyright ATIS547 (made available under a Creative Commons licence)

I liked this documantary. Especially, the narrator was humourous and that made me watch it more attracted. The points she stated were quite good.

I am of the opinion that sex discrimination has always been in the society. Women were segregated by men from society anyway (mostly because of religion or because of the family structure in different areas) However, in the 20th century, with visual technology, this segregation was encouraged. It became more popular and known by society. And it made people change their minds. A man, for example, saw a husband hitting his wife on TV, then he got encouraged and started to hit his own wife. Or from sexist advertisement, more rape incidents occured. Advertisements were the bellows so to speak.

Jean Kilbourne(the narrator) stated indeed that women became "for other people's pleasure" in society through various advertisements. I liked especially her statement about plastic surgery. Since most women see in advertisements that they should look perfect, they throw a conclusion that they could have a plastic surgery. Let's say they have their breasts operated. Nevertheless, they do that but they cannot enjoy themselves. They satisfy other men but not themselves. In other words, the aim of the spotless breasts is at men. Women do not have plastic surgery for their enjoyment but for other people.

Another shocking point was for me "the passive girl and the active boy" part. Kilbourne emphasizes that all of the ads from that year which consist of a boy and a girl would include a passive girl and a active boy. She showed us many pictures as well. On them, we saw a boy lookind down to a girl or a girl who smiles(innocent and valnurable). This is a perfect observation.

There was a part in which it says that women became objects. In ads, women play roles which make them similar to an object. And therefore, men get to think that they could use women for their sexual/brutal etc. purpose. That is right. However, this part is also true for men. Mostly, women also control men, as a result men also become objects for them.
Example: (in an advertisement)
If a man wears an X shirt, he is more likely to attract other women.
OR
If a women wears an X underwear, she is more likely to attract other men.
It's the same. Look at the pictures I've posted in this post.
However, as Kilbourne also explained, women are more likely to have disadvantages from that object-being; because they live in a world where their bodies are criticized more often unlike men.

http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images/voodoo.jpg