The Effects of Marxism

Marxism says that you really can't be a self because you are a product of society. This brings me to my point in regards to Britney Spears, who started at a yound age in the music business. In the first clip from the music video "From the bottom of My Broken Heart", we see that her clothing was more on the reserved part.

In this video we see what Britney Spears used to be like as she was introduced into the music business, but as Marxism claims thar one can be a self but really infact is a product of society is where things do begin to change. The sweet looking girl, with the conservative clothing no longer works for society because as an artist she had to appeal to everyone and not just young teenage little girls. The music business begins pushing a new look in order the feed the need that society creates and the idea that sex sells more.
So here is where we clearly see that society does shape a person and so marxism claim, that one is a product of society, becomes clear. In the second clip we have the music video "Hit Me Baby One More Time", this clip was shot not far after the first video that was shown. Now the sweet conservative looking girl has turned into the entertainer that is fullfilling every man's fantasy about a girl dressed in a school girls outfit saying the words "Give me baby one more time".

She has now become the so called "product of society" because she has allowed society's demand to dictate the way she portray's herself in her video's in order to sell records and not be left behing making less money than those that allow themselves to be shaped by society in order to make money

Ideology in The Working World

After watching the video in class and getting into groups, we began discussing the ideology of the clip and what exatly it meant. After much thought we came up with the conclusion that the ideology in this clip was that men were defined by the income they bring to the household. Furthermore was the fact that being a good loving father and husband and nothing to do with what made you important in that world. We were also looking into the hegemony, and it this it meant that it explained the difference between what they called the "closers" and the "losers", it was apparent that if these salesman did not sell an adequate amount of houses they were to be considered losers compared to the salesman who went out of their way to go the extra mile and sell more houses. Here we noticed that the ones that were dominant were those wh made the sales, and in this case were the one's who had a guaranteed job offering and were not at risk of loosing their job. A great point to brung out here was that the main man had the authority and the higher standing to tell the workers they were fired and had a week to try and get their job back. Another key point we looked closely was the interpellation of the clip and in this we found that the main guy was being dominant towards them in order to show them that they need to be dominant as well. In order to accomplish this he builds up a competition between all of them to separate the strong from the weak. he follows this by breaking them down by claiming that a loser will always be a loser and that they will never rise from where they are. Finally we looked at the allienation aspect and realized that the main guy allienated himself from the rest by shpwing off all the money he had made and making the rest feel less that him.

My Habits!!!

It was very interesting to find out that my habit landed in a category of touching. As we did the group activity I started learning a little more of why I had picked up the habit of continuously touching my hair or touching my jewelry. It came to my attention that the reason I touched my jewelry was because I always felt the need to have my hands occuppied. I found myself having to have something in my hand when i was walking because I felt uncomfortable with my arms swinging along my sides. It was this uncomfortness that made me always hang on to my purse with one hand and have my phone or ipod in the other hand.
The interesting part with my obsessions in touching my hair comes from my background which i found to be very interesting. I always found my self touching my hair to test the lenght of it. I am a latina of Mexican descent where our hair is looked at as our pride, a very important part of us. Men and woman look at hair as women's main beauty. So it was what my parents looked at and loved, specially my father. Unfortunately i found myself not looking at my beauty through my hair and at the age of 18 decided to cut my hair very short. I no longer wanted to be looked at because of the lenght on my hair but for other things. It is not to say i was going against my background but becoming an individual within my culture. So the obssession with touching my hair which i came to realize was that i didn't want my hair to grown past a certain point.

Freudian's Theory In Hamlet

Freudians theory in clearly shown in the movie "Hamlet". We are able to see that Hamlet's actions depict that of a child who goes through the Oedipus Concept in which he desires to be with his mother and take his father's place. The Oedipus Concept is represed as he identifies with his father and decides to take revenge upon his uncle who has married his mother and taken control. Hamlet sticks with this plan until he is faced with his mother again and finds himself wanting to be with his mother again as he tries to force himself on her. This feeling continues until he is brought back to the reality of what he has to do by the appearance of his father's ghost and the sense of fear that a child gets with his father arises in his being. Freudian's theory showd that Hamlet's feelings as a child for his mother never really went away, they were simply repressed by the fact that Hamlet identified with his father and chose to take revenge on his uncle. Unfortunately his desire for his mother got the best of him and stalled his original plans until his father's ghost snapped him back to the original plan.

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

A man wakes up at the crack of dawn and is embraced by a loving wife who prepares him his lunch for his long day at work. He makes his daily route towards the corner market where he is picked up by the white working truck already filled up with other working men. As they make their way towards the fields they take a look at all the houses that are beginning to light up in the sign of their awakening. The workers finally arrive to their destination, a place that has become so familiar even come close to being called their second home. No need to explain the day’s work, it has become second nature to them, the workers head out to their station and assume the position as they begin picking out the potatoes. Fellow workers gather as the bag becomes full and simply replace it with another empty bag to be filled up soon. The hard work seems to be endless especially under the scorching sun, but this is the only job an undocumented worker can obtain. He spends his whole day on his knees until the relief of the bell that informs them it’s time for lunch break, but the lunch break and the freedom from work is short lived as the fifteen minutes fly by and he has to go back to work until the sun sets and it’s time to go home. There are no wall clocks letting him know how much longer there is for work, it is the sun that tells him the time and how much further the days tasks are to remain. Once the day is gone and the sun has finally set the worker makes his way to the white working truck and follows the same route home until the next break of dawn when he once more will rise and set out to the same route till the sunset lets him free to his home.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

The artist portrays the big basket which seems to be the main focus by the size of it and the fact that its centered in the painting. We then notice the man under the basket and we begin to understand that the artist main focus is the story behind the man and the big basket he is about to carry. The woman putting the basket on his back doesn't seem to be forcing it on him but seems to be doing it with ease. The painting overall doesn't have dark tones but instead halm calm warm and bright colors that give a sense that the artist Diego Rivera wanted to show the beauty of the hard work of a campesino instead of using this piece of art to portray the negativity. Instead Rivera uses the painting to glorify the hard work the campesinos go through everyday

What An Experience

In getting together as a group to figure out our presentation was very interesting. The feeling of nervousness in being the first group was one of our first thoughts but once we got our concept together I started feeling a little better. Being the only girl in the group it was interesting when Nakia presented his idea of showing the two views of birth, so to those who might have believed it was my idea you are mistaken. It was very interesting in putting our ideas together and hearing everybody's reactions to our findings. As i started searching for real live birth videos , I began debating on how raw the video should be in order to get our point across, so with that in mind I found a very graphic live birth video and then thought about the story I had seen on MTV on the show "Teen Mom", a show about the experience of teenage girls in their transitions from being a teeneager to motherhood. I chose the story of Farrah a high school cheerleader who after learning of her pregnancy chooses to keep her child and become a single mother. The clip showed a combination of the raw concept of a real birth with the universal concept of the births we see on the big screen. Unfortunately it wasn't able to play the day of the presentation so for those of you interested in watching the video here is the link

http://www.mtv.com/videos/16-and-pregnant-ep2-farrah/1628036/playlist.jhtml

you have the option of viewing her whole story or you can far forward to the birth portion it is up to you. This group project cleared up the idea that Plato had when it came to "Republic 3" and "Republic 10". The idea of showing the "Friends" video was to show what many see when it comes to birth, a comical thing, but it was clear after viewing the live birth in seeing and hearing the reactions, that there is a reason why the the "Friends" video is more acceptable in the world because people can not find themselves comfortable with the raw footage. This was a fun experience while helping understand Plato's ideas and concepts.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

We live in a world where you have to compete to be on top. Men and women both struggle day to day to have the highest paid jobs available. The question of morality comes to play, how far will you go to achieve the ultimate job opportunity and what is the price of obtaining that job and the lifestyle that comes along with the job. It could involve having to stay away from loved ones for long periods of time due to traveling or long days at the office. Every choice has an outcome that can be positive or negative; it is really up to the person if they view it in a positive or negative eye. In the discussion in the last class we concluded that
Plato was trying to sell a sense of morality through his writings.In the video “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga, shows the reality of what striving to be famous in the crazy world of entertainment and what comes with being famous. Plato’s idea of morality is very important because to what extent is it morally correct to pry in the lives of people for the sake of earning the big bucks for the best picture and for capturing the next best scandal on film. Furthermore the idea that the world needs to know the every move of a person who happens to be talented vocally or artistically and it involves going to the extreme to capture the moment. It is to say that the role of the famous subject is to be followed and the paparazzi to pry into every aspect of their lives until they can no longer find interest in them.
In Plato's "Republic 10" in the book Classical Literary Criticism, he expresses an idea of a utopia in which each person has a role. In his ideas he expresses the importance of everyone’s role in his world and how they should go about their jobs. The paparazzo’s role in this case is to keep the readers or his audience updated on the lives of the rich and famous and do whatever it takes to make sure their shot or their story makes the biggest headlines. While this is all great for the audience, who is interested in how the rich and famous live , they don’t stop to think how the rich and famous feel in regards to being followed 24/7. The role of the rich and famous becomes that of an ant under a magnifying glass, they become the main focus of the world until the next hit star appears. It is very clear how Plato’s idea of a utopian place, a perfection where everyone knows there role and keeps up with it. The role of the famous is to continue being rich and successful so that they can provide for themselves as well as for their family members, but then comes to play the question, of how far will you strive to achieve the highest paying job. The question begins to be clear, “Is it really worth it?” and surprisingly many will say yes and back it up with its part of the job tying back to Plato’s idea of each person having its role and following it in his utopian world.