This image says a lot about gender cross-over. When I first glanced at this picture i read the white text, saw the flames, and noticed the weights; I immediately thought to myself that this was an ad for men to get in shape. Then I realized that the person in the picture was a woman and it startled me a little. We as a society see these kinds of pictures all around; magazines, tv commercials, movies, but rarely do these ads feature a muscle-bound woman doing "male" exercises. Most women that I have seen at the gym are not lifting a substantial amount of weight to bulk up. The exercise that this woman is doing is a predominantly male exercise. Why is it a male exercise and who is to say it is a male exercise? Well society says it is male because this exercise is designed to build bulky muscle that men love to have and women love to look at. Women don't want to build bulky muscle because they would be out of the norm and most men do not want to look at a female hulk.
This image could also be seen as a female equality ad. As I said before, females do not do these kinds of exercises and bulk up; but what if this ad was telling women that in order to be an equal to man, she must not only be as smart as a man, but she must also be as strong as a man.
Perhaps this is simply another image to make the majority of the population feel like crap about their bodies. Most people are insecure enough as it is and then they have to see ads like this that say this is what you should look like and you have no excuse to walk around in your flabby folds.

Posting Assignment #3 (due Sunday 10/2, 11:59 P.M.; comment by 11:59 Monday, 10/3) Body Practices in Everyday Life

Find an example of a body practice from your everyday life (things you do or people around you do, images of bodies and practices and so on). Describe it (if it's an image, post the image, if it's a video, link to it) and explain what it does and how it does it.  Think: 'rhetoric'—how culture 'argues' us into subjectivity. Write in terms of our work, of course; things like: intelligible bodies, body practices, docile bodies, choice / agency (Leppert, 212-13; 243), 'pursuit(s) without a terminus' (Bordo, 166), constitutive power, 'other-oriented emotional economy' (Bordo, 171), praxis, and so on. 

Addicted to photographing

According to the article Becoming a Marihuana User by Becker, a person who is defined as a Marihuana user should satisfy three premise: 1. Know how to smoke in a proper way that produces the effects; 2. Know the effects and connected it with drugs and; 3. Enjoy the effects. However, Backer point out that there is no explicit evidence that shows the content of Marihuana will make people addicted, instead, the addiction comes from the effects. As Backer stated, “…the presence of a given kind of behavior is the result of a sequence of social experiences during which the person acquires a conception of the meaning of the behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations, all of which make the activity possible and desirable…” therefore, the behavior of marihuana user comes from their perception of that behavior, hence it is sane.

To expand the idea from Backer, I may use my dad’s addiction of photographing as an example. My dad became crazy about photographing when I was 19, he bought three expensive cameras (around one thousand dollars each) and five different kinds of lens (1,000 to 3,000 dollars), later he started to dress like a guy from National Geography. He enjoyed taking thousands of photos every day and modifies those through computer, he also brought lots of magazines about the photographing and spent lots of time reading those magazines. When he found some good photos that he took, he will show those to everyone in our family. My dad loved the feeling of creation especially when he received praise from us. He knew he is addicted to photographing but he still enjoyed of taking photos.

Obsessive

Susan Bordo talked about the issue females have more now than they did in past decades. I believe this is because now, our culture is to be the most active and healthy you can be. Everywhere we look we are slapped in the face with "Try this new diet to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks" or "Try these workouts to get a slimmer stomach." Just like Thursday in class when we were looking at the covers of Shape Magazine talking about which exercises to do to tighten your thighs or flatten your stomach and tone your arms and butt. We are constantly shown the way women's bodies are "supposed" to look like and it makes us feel very insecure if it isn't what our bodies look like. Females are becoming so addicted to exercising and dieting and it is wearing down our bodies. We are becoming addicted to trying to be accepted by people for the way we look and feeling good about ourselves when we finally hit that low weight and become "healthy." Along with exercising and diets, eating disorders are also signs of this new culture. Women are developing eating disorders because they are so obsessed with changing their bodies to become thin. We are working our bodies so hard that as Bordo said, "the practice of femininity may lead us to utter demoralization, debilitation, and death." Dieting, exercise, and the other ways people are trying to shape their bodies is the social construction. We are addicted to perfecting our bodies and will always be trying to create a better body image. I feel like women are always trying to better themselves because they never feel like what they are doing is good enough. They could be exercising every day and eating a healthy amount of food, but there are new diets and informative articles in magazines changing what they think is the proper thing for them to be doing. There will always be new diets and such being created and new women looking like models being plastered all over the place making us feel insecure. I know from personal experience. I have lost quite a bit of weight and I can definitely see a change for the better from my body, but I don't think I look good enough yet. I don't know if I ever will be completely satisfied with the way I look, but I know every day I will be exercising and watching what I eat to try and lose that extra few pounds. I think everyone feels this way some times. We all want to feel good about ourselves and feel accepted by others, but a question arises. How far are we willing to go to perfect our body?

My Addiction Isn't Socially Acceptable.

What defines an addiction? Is it a noun, a verb, a place? To everyone it’s different. Howard Becker says that the “meaning of the behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations, all of which make the activity possible and desirable.”

To me, that means that if the activity is desirable it can be considered an addiction. But what if the addiction isn’t so desirable. There are a lot of things that I like to do, I like to drink coffee, go running, and clean. I don’t think I’d go as far to say I’m addicted to coffee or running, but I could be addicted to cleaning. It’s weird, people tell me that’s something that should be on TLC’s My Strange Addiction. So what makes it so strange?

I like a clean apartment, cleaning is good, and it doesn’t hurt anyone. Why is it more acceptable to be addicted to coffee or marijuana than cleaning? I would argue that society has shaped our culture to believe that certain things are better than others, more acceptable to be addicted to. So you want to be addicted to coffee-great you probably just need it because you work over twice as many hours as you sleep. So you want to be addicted to marijuana, perfect everyone needs some relaxation time. So you want to be addicted to working out, that’s good at least you won’t be adding to the obesity epidemic.

I really try to enjoy everything I do, but as far as addictions go I try really hard to not be addicted to anything. I don’t like the dependency that comes along with an addiction. But, that’s just me. Some people are addicted to addictions, and if that’s how you have to live then feed your addiction.

Shopaholic?

While reading Becker's article on the use of marihuana, the passage "...the presence of a given kind of behavior is the result of a sequence of social experiences during which the person acquires a conception of the meaning of the behavior" stood out to me as I have a friend who claims to be addicted to shopping. It would be odd to say that she is addicted to the actual articles of clothing (shoes, specifically), rather she is addicted to the aftermath of attaining the new additions to her wardrobe. It's almost impossible for her to go a day without checking out what's new on the online shopping venue. There seems to be a mental craving to find something to make oneself look even better or seem more appealing to others. I for one can relate, as I am well acquainted with the satisfying feelings of putting on a new pair of jeans and going out with friends. Something about new clothes seems to provide that extra boost of confidence that makes a person want to strut around and be admired. Others help to reinforce this behavior by complimenting on how cute those shoes are and how adorable that top is. The act of shopping itself can give off a certain high as people often partake on shopping trips while accompanied by close friends. Shopping would not seem nearly as appealing if not for the attention we get from others and the excuse it gives us to socialize.

I’ll Have a Nonfat Caramel Macchiato, Please... And A Joint.

Howard Becker in his essay Becoming a Marihuana User stated that “the presence of a given behavior is the result of a sequence of social experiences during which the person acquires a conception of the meaning of the behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations, all of which make the activity possible and desirable.”

This statement can be applied to marijuana use, but also can be applied to many different behaviors and activities that people enjoy.

In the realm of drugs, many people use and enjoy certain kinds in recreational use. From Marijuana to alcohol to coffee, people have found that they enjoy the effects they perceive and experience.

Our culture is constructed in a way that perpetuates the social acceptance or social rejection of certain drugs. Marijuana has a particular negative connotation in our culture. The intertextual meaning of the practice is pretty prominent in people’s minds- the word “stoner” pops into our heads, leading us to picture some dude in dreadlocks and tie-dye, sitting in his basement smoking a bowl. Maybe watching Pineapple Express. Or The Office. Something funny, of course. The smoking sub-culture is just that. A sub-culture.

On the other hand, coffee is also a drug, yet our culture as a whole is addicted to it. Starbucks rules our lives. If your town doesn’t have one, your town is behind the times. Dated. Coffee has a history in our culture; in the past, it has been frowned upon, even banned in some countries. The “coffeehouse” was something to be equated with an underground “rave” of the 90’s. It indeed was a sub-culture.

Enough people exhibited the pleasure from coffee that Becker explained in relation to marijuana, the government perceived it to be no threat, and the coffee sub-culture dissipated, leaving the coffee industry to grow and become the everyday drug of choice for millions.

The point I’m trying to make is that culture dictates how we see things, how we feel about things, and whether we condone, condemn, or partake in certain activities. You might have considered the first part of my title to be normal and the second part to be deviant. Becker states you have to recognize the effects of a drug and learn to enjoy the sensation it has on you... but firstly, I think that one has to see something for what it is, not what society has taught you to think it is, before you can experience it to its full potential.

Whether its smoking, knitting, or playing chess, one shouldn’t have to worry if it’s considered wrong, boring, or nerdy; if it’s pleasurable to you, you shouldn’t need society’s nod of approval.

How to Become Addicted

In Howard Becker's essay on smoking pot he explains the three steps into becoming a pot user. You have to learn to smoke the drug to produce real effects, recognize the effects of the drug, and learn how to enjoy these effects. As we talked in class on how the person does not actually get addicted to the drug itself but the social culture and acceptance, it made me think of other situations where these steps could be applied similarly.

I grew up a very active child engaging activities of a common young boy and playing many sports. Thus I became really involved and committed to sports growing up over the years. This is where i made the connection from Becker's steps to sports.

To become a committed athlete, or subject, in high school and beyond you must follow almost identical steps as to what Becker explained. You must learn to play the sport first. Practice to become better. In most scenarios, you want to be good at what you do. Otherwise there is no point in practicing. Second you must recognize the effects of participating in sport. This was harder for me to make a connection. I believe in the recognition in the so called "effects" is seeing a difference in you due to the sport or how it has impacted you. For example maybe you developed leadership or became more obedient from being disciplined in the sport. Third you must learn to enjoy the effects of the sport. Basically just learning to have fun and enjoy the sport for what it is. You wont win every game but its playing the game with your closest friends is what makes it most enjoyable. Also cherishing the long lasting frienships you build over the years. These steps is what creates sports addicts and for some they are life lasting. They never quit it meaning they join adult leagues or coach children when they are older. For some lucky few they turn it into a career.

I understand that this does not work for everybody, but these steps can be applied to many other cultures like sports. It could be music and playing instruments, or drawing and creating art. Whatever the culture is, when following these steps the subjects are surely guaranteed to become "addicts" more often then not.

Why is Charlie downloading movies illegally? Addicted or what?

Charlie is a friend of mine and I met him in high school. He is a film geek and he knows a lot about films. He admires and appreciates so much what films have been bringing to societies and those who deliver insightful and meaningful messages by making films. As his friend, I am glad that I know someone who is this passionate about something and totally completely devote himself into films. However, there is one thing I do not quite understand, or may be do not quite appreciate is that Charlie does not like to go to movies, to buy or to rent any films but to download them illegally. When a film is released in theaters, Charlie rather wait for the torrent of film is up on the Internet than going to theaters and to enjoy the film with huge screen and surround sound. 
Is he addicted to download movies illegally or what? 
I once discussed this issue with him so I asked him why and one of the responses he gave me was "What if I don't like the film at all after watching it?. At that moment, I kind of agreed with him because I think most of us have said to ourselves "I should have watched the other one" or even said "I want my 10 dollars back!" This explained why Charlie likes to watch movies online or to download them illegally. He does not want to waste money on something that he thinks it is not worth!
I think, not only that Charlie does not want to waste any money, it seems that he either is used to it already, may be he is addicted to it without himself knowing it or he is enjoying the fact that he can get entertainment without spending money and if whatever he is watching is not good, he is not losing anything. He can come up with a hundred of excuses if he needs to.
People like Charlie never thought about giving credits to people who work hard to make films and never thought about supporting local film industry. If this is case, perhaps Charlie is not clear on the concept of admiration and appreciation. 

In case people didn't read the Becker article, he boils it down all in one simple sentence--and don't worry TA, im not counting this towards word count ;)

No one becomes a [marihuana] user without (1) learning to smoke the drug in a way which will produce real effects; (2) learning to recognize the effects and connect them with drug use (learning, in other words, to get high); and (3) learning to enjoy the sensations he perceives. (9)

WOW! I bet Becker was enjoying his perceived sensations when he was pounding the bong while writing this article. I kid. However drugged up Becker was, though, he nevertheless has identified for his readers an important aspect on the subject within marihuana culture that may replicate itself in multiple subjects within other cultures as well. In fact, I just might contend that any activity a subject might involve itself follows these distinct guidelines before creating habit in that particular activity. For example, lets take my procedure in deciding to use weights during my workout at the gym: I learn through my trainer how to effectively use the weights to build my body; I connect the burn and the ripped feeling with weight use; I enjoy the burn and the ripped body that I now have ;) Unfortunately, I'm lazy, so I don't have a ripped body that people can't take their eyes off. However, the procedure I have laid out for you demonstrates that similar practices are being used within different cultures.

Not only would this procedure use the same procedure as using marihuana, but it also professes a certain body practice. the definition of body practice is the following: a habitual physical procedure made by the body that usually produces a certain political discourse. In other words, without me actually saying it, my body has actually submitted itself to the culture where males strive to be trimmed and toned, even ripped. If you don't believe there is such a culture, just watch Jersey Shore. Gym, Tan, Laundry is their motto. Need I say more?

The Dukan Diet

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot about the “Dukan Diet” when I go online and when I looked through some magazines. It started to become really popular after Kate Middleton and her mom apparently went on it to lose weight. The author is a French doctor that guides people on losing weight and the secret to staying thin like French women.
Reading about this made me think about what Susan Bordo was saying about feminine bodies and how our culture is all about image, nowadays. It’s a struggle for women to keep up with our modern culture and the representation of women as having to be skinny and fit. It seems like it’s not enough to just have a well-balanced diet and exercise. Everywhere I look there’s always some weird tips on staying in good shape and being as healthy as possible. There are constantly new ways to lose weight while doing this or shedding a pound while doing that. As Susan was saying, it’s hard to work to keep our bodies in shape. This takes up so much time and effort, and sometimes it appears that our culture is based around an obsession with being seen as healthy and portraying ourselves as fit and happy people to society.
I know for me and most of my friends, our lives are already so fast-paced and stressful. Thinking about weight and trying to maintain a good balance is tough and adds even more anxiety on a daily basis. It’s probably not helpful to be seeing new diets pop up everywhere a person looks. In the readings, it also talked about women having a fear of never being good enough. I feel like this may be a bit extreme, but there could be a part in our subconscious somewhere where we’re scared of not being perfect, and that could be what’s driving us to become more obsessed with our physical bodies.

Harry Potter

Howard Becker had an intriguing argument in his study “Becoming a Marijuana User.” He stated “The presence of a given kind of behavior is the result of sequence of social experiences during which the person acquires a conception of the meaning of behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations.” This brought up in an interesting idea that the drug is not is what is addictive; it is the social construct of it. A person is addicted to the idea behind it such as hanging out with friends and bonding over the experience in that particular sub-culture more than they could ever actually be addicted to the marijuana. It is the behavior that is addictive to these people and the social connection they gain by doing it. This can relate to a lot of people with “addictive” habits, not the thing itself but behavior behind it and what one can get out of the experience.

Expanding on this argument is the idea of Harry Potter. The movies and novels of the Harry Potter series have made an enormous amount of money for everybody involved because of the huge fan base they have. I know myself personally, I feel like I am “addicted” to Harry Potter when it comes to reading the books and seeing the movies. I always went to the midnight premieres and when the books came out I would read the newest one as fast as I could. It social construction behind it with the idea that my friends are also reading the books and going to see the movies with me so we can all bond over the “magical” experience of Harry Potter. I do enjoy reading the books and seeing the movies but part of the fun is that my friends are also doing it. It is addicting to talk about the subject because there is much complexity to it. Therefore I feel as though I am part of a Harry Potter sub-culture in society because of this common interest with other people.

My experience with Harry Potter helps me to understand Howard Becker’s argument about being a marijuana smoker. It is the social construct behind the idea of it.

Hipster Paradise

For the majority of young people the term "hipster" is old news as well as a word used far too often. A lot of negative stigma is created whenever the subject is brought up. In fact, I can practically hear the sighs and envision the eye rolls from some of the blog community when glancing at the title of the post. To get down to the point, since Minneapolis was named the most hipster state as well as the most gay state and the most biker friendly state, I once again was forced with trying to explain what a hipster actually is to my parents. After being asked before and doing my best to explain in my own words as well as even reading off some Urban Dictionary information, I still felt like my parents were very confused. Not until my mom and dad came to visit me in the Cities from my small hometown in Wisconsin did they have the opportunity to notice the subset of culture and actually comment with, "People dress a certain way here that's different."

This was a perfect invitation for me to point out some objects that would traditionally classify a person as hip based on the way society has constructed the subjects of the particular culture to appear. I said many of them wear clothing that is unique, often found from thrift stores and may sport edgy hairstyles. They don't strive to appear conventionally good looking and/or clean cut and often listen to unpopular music, ride bikes, and appreciate creative, artistic endeavors. Their whole philosophy is to be different from everyone else by deviating from mainstream culture as much as possible. With the combination of the verbal and visual explanations, I think they finally understood more or less. I also tried to tell them about how a lot of individuals now go out of their way to become a part of this culture just because of its inter-textual popularity. Our society has portrayed hipsters in many different lights: dirty, pretentious, assholes, Parliament smokers, skinny jean wearers, PBR drinkers, fixie riders, underground party goers etc. Ultimately, my parent's response to the entire phenomenon was, "That's pretty silly." Having to break down this social construction for other people helped me to realize just how strongly culture dictates the way people practice and live everyday.

Bowling to Billiard

      This post is to elaborate and further expand on Howard Becker's claim brought up in his journal entry "Becoming a Marihuana User." Becker pointed out that in order to become a marihuana user, one must meet three requirement in order to gain a long additive behavior. In short, they are: proper method of smoking, know the effects, and enjoying the effects. Notice that here, there's no mention about marihuana and its contents, because there is no addictive substance in marihuana. There are only factors involved around the usage of it. The people you've done it with, the act of doing it, and the rewards of having done it. These are all things done that affects ones sense and generating such behaviors that are addicting and this is addiction isn't only limited to drugs but to everyday ordinary actions/rituals as well.
      Before I was born, my father who was in his mid 20's at the time, has just migrated to the U.S. from Laos with his family and siblings settling in California. There, my dad met some companions in which he was introduced to bowling. He immediately fell for the sport and got addicted to bowling with his new friends in this vast foreign country he knew nothing about. Stemmed off from this addiction, my father would always bowl on any if not every free time he had. Whether that be on the weekends or after getting off from work, he would head to the bowling alley to meet his friends and have a good game of bowling. The act of bowling which is fun and hanging out with friends, he was rewarded with satisfaction and having met those three criteria, Becker would say my father had reached addiction.
      After several years of this behavior, my grandmother finally snapped on my father's behavior of never being home to help her and my mother take care of the kids; after several years of construction to bowling, my father's bowling addiction came to an end. However, that was not the end of an addictive behavior, my dad soon developed the same feelings but for a different sport. That of which is Billiards. Like bowling, my dad and a few of his friends transitioned towards billiard. Hanging with the same group of friends, doing fun things together, and enjoying their time, my dad's addiction to billiard grew bigger if not worse than his attachment to bowling. My father became overwhelmed with this sport, and soon he started aiming higher and not just casual plays. My father started entering tournaments. From tournaments to tournaments, my father aimed higher and higher to which he even participated twice in the annual billiard tournament held in Las Vegas.
      To conclude, I am only able to understand my dad's addiction and his position to bowling and billiard only to an extent, because I find both sports as enjoyable and so does my friends. However, I am not able to cope with my dad's strong feelings towards billiard. To my dad, billiard is part of his identity because he developed himself and his skills in that field for so long. He has made a name for himself there and has many trophies and plaques as proof. He socially constructed his behavior to that of which playing billiard regularly is normal to him. As of now, even my grandmother can't talk him out of this one.

Addicted to Running

Howard Becker’s pot user study illuminates a psychological construct that almost all of us partake in: addictive behavior. In fact, the pot is not addictive, but the act, the social buzz, and the rewards are addicting. I’d like to expound upon my mother’s running addiction, and I’m going to do so as if I was trying to explain it to her!

When I was born, my mother took up running. She gradually built up her miles until she did her first marathon. Then, she started running marathons across the country, excelling in all of them. Eventually, she got bored of running 26.2 miles. She began running 50 mile races…and then 100 mile races. Ironically, she just texted me after finishing “The Bear 100” in Park City, Utah with “33 hours and 8 minutes”, her finishing time. She has an irrefutable addiction, but it most definitely is not the physical act of running that fuels this addictive nature.

After my birth, my mother felt a sense of emptiness as a new mother in a new town, so she took up running. She developed a passion for the sport and soon she was meeting other subjects like her who shared that passion. From my position, I can’t quite understand her addiction, because I myself am not a runner. From her position, she understands running and running understands her, and the same goes for the friends who she runs with. My mother craves the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing 100 miles. I don’t crave it because I haven’t ever partaken in an ultramarathon (the proper term for 50/100 mile races). Her addiction to running is no different than the pothead’s addiction to pot. She is addicted to the results and rewards of using: the friends, the medals, the reward of finishing.

Tolerance and Smoking

Before I state the purpose of this blog, I would like to establish that I am not a smoker.

Now since that is out of the way, I consider our society's intolerance of smoking and smokers is astonishing and extremely unique. As an anecdote, my history teacher from 12th grade persistently preached the importance of acceptance of various cultures and how judging others' habits can lead to prejudice. I was a fan of his pedantic lectures, until a class mate of mine walked in to class from lunch break, and my teacher, after catching the scent of cigarette, not threw my classmate out of the class room, but belittled him in front of his peers with anti smoking scolding. I was stunned. Do the adults in our society honestly believe our generation does not know the hazards of smoking?

The position our society has taken against smoking leads me to believe that social construction is in fact cyclical. A decade or two ago, doctors lit cigarettes as they examined the patients, mothers smoked cigarettes while babysitting and smoking was common at a business meetings, but now, smokers are being chased out of bars, apartment buildings, hospitals and many more public places. At this point, I want to let the readers know that once again, I not a smoker, and I do not mean to offend anyone who has lost someone they love to lung cancer or any other smoking related cause. This blog is not about figuring out why people hate smoking, because everyone hates some part of our society, but its is about when and where did tolerance and acceptance merge?

Yes, I strongly believe that tolerance and acceptance are different. Just because we tolerate something, does not mean we have to like it. Social construction is turning this concept of anti-smoking concept into a witch hunt and I refuse to become a part of a movement where imposing my will on someone is involved. Am I too old fashioned in this idea? If so, then I do believe the idea of free will must be old fashioned as well.

Getting wasted!

Getting wasted Is a culture commonly associated with party going college kids and heavy drinkers. A lot of signs can be read which characterize it's nature. These include drunken destructive behavior, inability to act sane, morning vomit found in elevators, as well a lot of other gross stuff. Getting wasted is often associated with a lot of negativity mainly because most of the knowledge associated with it, often from media as well as some personal experience, suggests that it does fall out of the category of what is generally deemed as being 'socially acceptable'. It has been regarded as a discipline that that falls out of the norm of a good society. The object in this culture is the alcohol with whoever is abusing it being the subject. The position that any individual takes regarding this culture is often associated with their gender, age, as well as other aspects of their personality. Irresponsible youthful exuberance is often inter-textually connected with getting wasted. Mainly because more often than not when the culture of getting wasted is being discussed the picture that pops into a lot of minds involves drunk 'kids' causing havoc. Kids here emphasizing that this culture is often anlyzed by the more mature and elder persons. The society we live in has been socially constructed so as be against the culture of getting wasted, mainly because of the destruction it often results. As a result a lot of measures have been put inplace to discourage the culture.

Posting Assignment #2: Why Theory? And how can you explain it to Mom (Due 11:59 Sunday 25; comment by 11:59 Monday 26)

The Hard Part: Last week we offered a 'show and tell' project.  They're seldom boring, because we get to find things and talk about them.  This week we're asking you to engage with  ideas and readings.  It's so, so easy for this sort of writing to fall into the 'school essay' trap: quotes, dutiful summaries, claims about which nobody could possibly care, blah, blah, blah.

Please don't.  There are stakes in these readings—how we lead our lives; what our families and friends will be like, the relationships we form.  The nature of society.

So follow the basic rule of CSCL 1001:  'don't bore your friends.'  Take a position.  Think about how it matters.  Put yourself in it.  Mean it. Read close and sharp.  The job here is to help us all to see all the possibilities in a couple of ideas and one of two readings—and maybe a few things we hadn't thought of.

The Issue:  We've been building a theoretical account of culture and its operations, recently looking at the intimate, maybe scary ways it impacts us--in our bodies. Shorthand for keeping track of our work are the keywords naming basic concepts.
If theory is to be good for anything, if it's to do what Gang of Four suggests (Why theory?) and 'change how we act' by changing 'how we think,' it's got to make sense to normal human beings.  Mom for example.  Or your Uncle Abe.

1) Pick a couple of linked keywords (use the list from the 'News Forum' (Moodle) for a start, and maybe add (social) construction, body practices, and 'docile bodies.'

2) Write your blog post as if you were explaining 'em to your Mom (or some other normal human being whom you can visualize and know really well).

3) Working from an example (little one; yours or from the readings): use your keywords to explain / expand / confront / elaborate one of the key ideas or part of either Howard Becker on becoming a pot user, or Susan Bordo on bodies and femininity.

How long? Well, we always want to avoid suggesting that simply longer is better, but we’ll read whatever you write.  But maybe 3-400 words?

Blackberry is not as popular in Hong Kong as it is in America.

First, I have to apologize for this late blog post. I am sorry. Okay, let me get back to my first cultural object blog post!

This is what I have been noticing since I have been studying abroad in American: Blackberry is not as popular as it is in America.

When I was an exchange student at Shakopee, Minnesota, I had to get a phone so that I can call my friends and my host family could call me. So I asked my host parents to take me to a carrier store so that I could get a phone. As far as I remember, it was my first time seeing phones like Blackberry and phones with qwerty keyboard. Some looked cool, some did not. I quickly realized a pretty major cultural different in network gadget, especially cell phones. Americans compose words and sentences with english letters, so it is better and convenience for them to have a qwerty keyboard, instead of having three letters on each button, like old-style phones do. But Chinese don't compose words and sentences with english letters, Chinese do that with "lines" (I do know know what it should be called in English). So it explains why Blackberry is not as popular in Hong Kong as it is in America, although phones with qwerty keyboard are getting more popular nowadays.

Another cultural different of carrier or cell phone industry I noticed was that when I wanted to get a specific cell phone, I had to sign a at least one-year contract, which was pretty expensive. If I did not want that contract and of course I did not want that because I only stayed there for ten months, I would have to get whatever I want to get on the web like Amazon etc. Unlike America, we have more than plenty of stores that sell electronic gadgets like cell phones, MP3 players, laptops, digital cameras etc, which I think it's much better because I can go with a lot cheaper phone plan. 

Below is a web link to one of the most famous electronic gadgets stores in Hong Kong. You will see it has a lot of more choices of cell phone, in the meanwhile, you can see how Chinese words are composed with "lines".

http://www.broadway.com.hk/

The Russel Petter's Comedy show

http://youtu.be/7pYOZduNhtY

This is a comedy show by a famuous Indo-Canadian comedian, Russel Peters. In this video, he jokes about how Chinese people try to sell fake Louis Vuitton bags to Indian people. Russel is born and raised in Canada, but his family is of Anglo-indian ancestry, hence he always identify himself as a Canadian instead of an Indian. Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humor to poke fun at the subjects of race, class and culture, often using his own life experiences as well as impersonations of different cultural accents to illustrate his act. Different than the other comedian who are in the position of North American culture, Russel tends to be standing in no position, which means he jokes about all the cultures or races including indian or canadian people. He jokes about the audians and about himself. His experties is try to capture the signs from different culture and raise them up through humor, he jokes about the culture differences but his goal is to eliminate people's misunderstanding of allien's culture.

New "feminine" Cigarette Advertisement

This cigarette ad is for Camel No. 9’s and is Camel’s attempt at targeting women in their advertising. Take a look at the ad:

Some of the things you might have noticed at first glance are:

1. the hot pink border and text
2. the soft, swirly, whimsical, background
3. how it’s labeled as “new”
4. the slogan “light and luscious”
5. the pink roses framing the cigarettes
6. the contrast between the black cigarettes and the rest of the ad
7. the text is soft and feminine

Further information can be seen through the Circuit of Culture:

Production: Cigarette companies

Consumption: Smokers, non-smokers who buy cigarettes because of the ads

Identity: CEO’s of cigarette companies

Regulation: Illegal if under 18

Presentation/representation: Negative connotation to smoking, but advertisements try to put it in a good light

That’s the basic analysis, but what does it mean? The pink colors and background attempt to appeal to a feminine audience. The slogan “light and luscious” is softly worded and is also attempting to appeal to women. The roses are an interesting addition; roses, and flowers in general, are seen to be a symbol for beauty, love, and femininity. Combined with the slogan, that seems reminiscent of some sort of chocolate advertisement (light and luscious), this can be seen as an effort to pair up flowers and chocolate, a stereotypical view of what women like and enjoy. It seems as if the Camel Company studied conventional ads targeting women and twisted their strategies to create this cigarette advertisement.

Smoking started off as a masculine activity, so many advertisements are aimed at men; they are bold, peppered with cowboys and rugged deserts, and feature beautiful women (who are being objectified as sexual objects to sell a product to a man).

This advertisement takes a different approach and utilizes more “feminine” attributes to target women. There has been a lot of controversy over these advertisements, stating that the ads are in fact attempting to target young women in the 15-17 yr old range.

This is wrong and immoral what cigarette companies do. It is not fully apparent that they are targeting specifically young women, but they are not excluding them either. The uproar around the ad says something about our culture, too. The stereotypes that our culture perpetuates are being used against it to target women into smoking. The articles I read on the controversy, such as this one, seem to view women as “gullible” and in need of protection from these ads. If the ad was in blue, with a slightly different slogan and text, I personally don’t think anyone would care. Our culture seems to support the idea that men are more self-sufficient and can make their own decisions.

Ultimately, our culture is upset that these cigarette ads are targeting women, but it’s just as much at fault for perpetuating the stereotypes and ideas that the advertisement is utilizing to attract these women.