10. TV on New Year's Eve

“Victoria’s Secret” by CJ Sorg licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.


It’s a classic. People who stay at home on the New Year’s Eve got used to it. What am I talking about? Of course about Victoria’s Secret fashion show. I can see your smile from here. In this evening I was at my friend’s house, making a house party. Even if you make a house party there’s no way to avoid watching it! Because most of the boys want to watch it and it is so as if they could die for it! You could think that I’m overreacting, but actually I’m not. If you are alone at home or really got bored I can understand the purpose behind it. Anyway what if you’re having fun with your friends and everyone is dancing and drinking? At the midnight after the countdown it’s time for the show. (I know that you know this.) So everybody has to sit down and be quiet and watch it. If you don’t watch it then you have to be excluded. After the show is ended (for me it is like 2 hours have passed), everyone starts to behave normally. And I couldn’t help but wonder, why? Me and a friend of mine(a girl)are in thoughts: what was gonna like if there was a men version of it? (It reminded me the Full Monty) And I’ve asked to my boyfriend. (no no, I did not shouted!) What makes this show so special? I know there are lots of girls too, who wait for it impatiently. In general they are waiting for the glamorous underwear. (Different aims, again) Anyway he said that the show is made once a year and it causes an excitement. Also they are known for being best angels of the world. Having all thoughts from Killing us softly in my head, I laughed and shook his hand.

I’m curious about your night, with or without the show?

9. Our final presentation

On the 30th of December, just before the New Year’s Eve, we had our final presentation. As Ayse also have said on her post, we were a little bit concerned because we couldn’t manage our time properly as we did in the practice presentation. It is still hard to talk in front of an audience, but I realize that I’ve started to improve myself in that field. Another hard thing to achieve for a group is making a presentation without boring the audience. I think it’s a sensitive point to be careful about. When a person from an audience gets bored and looks at his watch and presenter sees that, his/her concentration breaks down immediately. At least for me it was nearly like that. In order to find a common way, presenters should not keep their voice down and presentation slides should be more colorful. The empathy is something has to be thought about for both sides.

Thanks all for listening.

8. Tough Guise

"Face lift" by 7-how-7 licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
"Masculinity Crisis"
Jason Katz describes Tough Guise as a front so many men put up.
-emphasize toughness, physical strength,gaining respect through violence
-"real men": strong,tough, respected,independent..
-"Latino boys" usually criminals,boxers..
-"a survival mechanism"
-size of men bodies got bigger
-gun images got bigger from 1930s to 1960s-70s and 80s(stallone)
-Schwarzeneger: killing machine
- Indian movie: " You've got to look mean if you want people to respect you!"
-the social& economic structures of the society denied them to access the opportunities that middle class have.
-domestic violence
-homicide
-vulnerability
-assault
-What to do? --Redefinig the manhood in order to reduce violence (90% of violence commited by boys and men)
-not just the video games are guilty--a much larger context-a cultural thing-from childhood-violence through guns, sports culture
"You gain respect by disrespecting another person."
"We need to define courage; it is more than a physical courage."

7. Few notes about Killing us softly 3

Here are some keywords&concepts:
-3 years of life watching TV commercials
-Advertisements sell product+images+concept of love&sexuality
-seeing a woman's body as an object: violence against women
-a culture: in which women are seen as things
-turning a woman in to a thing--first step of justification violence against that person
-objectification
-dehumanizing
-active boys& passive girls in ads
- insulting
-innocence&sexiness at the same time
- hyposexualized teenagers
- pornography as a mainstream
- masculinity linked with violence

6. Few notes about Tannen's Marked Women

Hi all, I want to share my notes, some key words with you, just before the final exam. I hope this helps. =)

Tannen's thesis : The unmarked forms of most English words convey "male".
- ummarked tense ~ present tense
- being male ~ unmarked case
- Unlike women, men have chance of being unmarked.
- "There's no unmarked woman."
-If a woman does not have a stylish haircut, then she would be considered as "not caring about how she looks".
- in marriages: keeping her own name & taking the husbands name - both marked for women
-But for man: using his own name unmarked
-on the other hand using both name : stands out in a list
-according to Fasold:
biologically men are marked, "men have modified female bodies"
"For grammarians female is the marked case."
-According to some ideas: writing this article makes Tannen a feminist.

5. Yes, we presented.

Today we did our presentation as you know. I hope, you didn’t get bored a lot. =) Although it was fun to present something in front of an audience, mostly it was difficult. But I’m happy for having experienced it before our main presentation, which will be based on a film. Because I’ve heard that some ENG 101 classes have to do only one presentation. So I think our system is good to get closer with the group members and to know them better. Another point that I want to offer my class mates is that we should keep meeting with our group. The best would be once a week. I know that it’s not easy to arrange the time, but it’s the only healthy way. Thanks all for the listening!
p.s. the discussion about “Marked Women” was interesting. I’ve learned lots of ideas from different point of views, which I’ve found useful in order to get the point of the theme. p.s.2 yes, I've managed it!

4. Posting Error?

I don't know why but I got difficulties with posting my new post which is about our presentations. I hope I could post it tomorrow.. =( (you would say: how did you post this one, I don't know it either.. =)