1 person dies and 100 million cry, 1 million dies and no one cries.

Thoughts? 

Volkswagen Polo: Small but tough.

When I first watched this clip, I thought it was just funny and creative. But then I started to wonder what if a person from middle-east saw this commercial by Volkswagen, would this person feel the same way I do? I wondered. 

This clip is a commercial created by Volkswagen, features a man from middle-east leaving his apartment and going to a restaurant with bombs. At first, he does not look like a suicide bomber but a normal man in a normal life. However, when he starts his car, we can see his scarf that probably only people from middle-east would wear, but I am not sure if such pattern represents any meaning or organization. This man then drives his car and stops right next to a bunch of people who sit outside of a restaurant, this man presses a button and commits suicide. Until then, we know he is a suicide bomber. However, he did not kill anyone because of what Volkswagen is trying to sell that their polo is just strong. 

A lot of people online have been questioning about whether or not this is a racist commercial since these people claim that Islam is not a race, but does it really matter? From my perspectives, although I am not an expert on Islam or middle-east culture or the relationship between them, I just think that if you are picking on other people who come from different race, it's racist. And I do think that this video is pretty self-explanatory. 

As I read other people's comment on this video, frankly, some people don't really care if there's something wrong with this ad but whether or not it's funny. However, one comment really draws my attention: There's one race we all belong to: Human. This line just reminds me of an interview of one of my favorite actor, Bruce Lee, that he once said he no longer consider himself American or Chinese, but rather a human being, all human beings are just one big family under the same sky. Does race really matter? 

The link of clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6rBrJhWAfk&feature=player_embedded

Terrorist Ad

When I watched this I was shocked. My first thought was how could someone even think this would be an okay thing to do an ad on? It depicts an East Indian man as a terrorist going to do a suicide bombing and shows all of the innocent lives he will be taking, and then when he detinates the bomb, the car holds the impact in because "although it's small, it's strong." This is such a touchy subject and for VW to think it would be something to create an ad about is disgusting. To me, I think this shows how much our culture is uncaring to such a severe topic like terrorism. People don't take something like this serious, and it is very serious. Just like when someone was talking in class about the football game on campus when there was a moment of silence for people who's lives were taken by the 9/11 terrorist attack, and someone was booing because "the game was supposed to be a fun time." It is so sad that there are subjects in our culture who are so heartless to this fact that innocent lives are being taken in such brutal ways. This ad also shows how our culture judges people. The man who is the terrorist is middle eastern. Whenever we see someone wearing a turban or we can tell that they are East Indian, we tend to judge them and think they are terrorists because of the Islamist terrorist organization Al Qaeda. We tend to classify everyone of that race to "terrorist." The fact that the man is of that race supports my idea. I couldn't believe this was created when I saw it. I'm glad it was banned and I feel embarrassed for VW that they would think it would be okay to create an ad like this.

Lack of Diversity in Magazines

Looking through the Vanity Fair covers over the years was somewhat concerning. All of the covers were very airbrushed, photoshopped, and conventionally beautiful. They were also conventionally and predominantly white. This cover in particular sparked my interest. It featured the year's "freshest faces" in Hollywood.

The actresses and actors are all white. It's lacking cultural diversity severely. This was also the year Gabourey Sidibe had her breakthrough performance in the movie Precious.

She received much praise for her work, but she never got the chance to be in this shot. She was actually interviewed for a feature inside the magazine, but wasn't featured on the cover.

This just perpetuates the "normalcy" of white culture as the assumed and invisible race. Most would not see anything controversial about this magazine cover, but it really glorifies young, thin white women and leaves out anyone that's different. I would love to see more diversity in magazines. This has yet to happen- for example, Rhianna (on the cover of Vogue) was featured, but she was obviously made to look lighter-skinned and dons blonde hair, reminiscent of a prototypical white woman.

I hope that in the future the fashion industry can look beyond what they think is beautiful and normal and utilize their power to perpetuate equality and fairness, which will bring true beauty to the media and world.

This was a picture taken from my old high school lunch room a few weeks ago with my younger brother. Now this isn't a necessarily a 'bad' advertisement. The words on it say that by putting more colorful things on your lunch tray, you will have a more colorful day. I think many of us have heard this before; the more colorful your fruits and veggies are, the wider range of nutrients you are getting. But the image is of a raced body. It's a black boy in an athletic stance. My brother took this picture because he cringed about it and so did I! To me it seems that the people who made this ad were using the black person to emphasize the word color. This pushed the idea that white people are not colored and that they are 'normal'. If there wasn't a person in the ad would it make sense? Why did there have to be a person in it?

Keep the house clean and better look good while doing it!

I found this advertisement as I was searching for vintage advertisements for another project, and to be perfectly honest, I was blown away by the blatant sexist message. One of my group members and I both had the same reaction which entailed pure outrage and disgust, while a male member of my group simply shook his head and said "it’s just an old ad." After viewing these reactions, I realized this is the best subject I can blog about.

Just reading the physical appearance of the advertisement, I can see proofs of Susan Bordo's theory of "body practices." We can see in this image of the woman so strenuously doing her household chore with a smile on her face which makes me suspicious of the reason behind that smile. That smile I believe is a marketing strategy designed by men who undoubtedly think that women should be doing house hold tasks and since that is their 'niche' in a man's world, she must obviously be happy. Such a chauvinistic attitude may seem old fashioned but I still see signs of it around me even in college environment. This image also reminds me of the idea of 'essential-ism' women as those responsible for domesticity.

Furthermore, the advertisement's main point is not only to keep women doing what they are meant to do, but to keep their bodies at the society's standard. This angered me to no end. Why does this woman have to clean the house? Why is she not at an office, a park, a school or anywhere that does not imply marriage? Why does she have to lose weight to please the society?
The image represents the culture at the time it was published but the woman in the image represents Susan Bordo's concept of docile bodies. This white woman cleaning the window thoroughly with a light blue, conservative clothing, a content smile and in a dark confined area, has been trained through childhood to be this particular person. The everyday practice of being a nurturing, responsible, conservative has honed a woman that is being told what to do by her peers. It makes me wonder when her content smile is going to transform into a sad expression of an agoraphobic. I understand that Stuart Hall was speaking mostly about how the society tries to maintain the racial and political order every day, but I believe his theory also applies to the maintaining of gender roles.