11. First semester: Beneficial, Different, Hard.

Weeelll well well, the end of the semester is drawing near and my resumé of this first semester is positive, but difficult. I have learned a lot but it was a very big challenge for me, the last weeks. I had to spend a lot of energy and time in writing the academic essay, the presentations, the blogs and studying for the exam.
Many things were new for me, like writing an academic essay or the posting, it was all a bit difficult, but i think it was worth it, since i feel that i have improved a lot.

picture retrieved on the 7th January, from http://www.msc.pef.czu.cz/info/data/study.1.gif

10. Women in the Media

In a variety of ways the mass media helped make us the cultural schizophrenics we are today, women who rebel against yet submit to prevailing images about what a desirable, worthwhile woman should be…the mass media has engendered in many women a kind of cultural identity crisis…We are ambivalent toward femininity on the one hand and …feminism in the other" (Douglas 8)
Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell everything from food and shampoo to cars and beer. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner.
Women in the Media, they are thin, they have a beautiful skin, beautiful hair, they have a thin waist, they are tall and they have big breasts. They are flawless.
And there is a definite impact these people in media have on for example younger viewers.
Perhaps this is part of the reason that so many teenagers today are unhappy with their appearance and are often on a diet .
But what most women and men don't realize is that every image of a model or actress in a fashion or beauty magazine has been touched-up using the latest computer technology to remove bulges, pimples, stretch marks, etc.


Like the Picture above, i know so many pictures like these, unfortunately i can post them all :)
Even Elizabeth Hurley even admitted that her breasts were electronically enlarged for the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine.
MoreoverJean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. “This focus on beauty and desirability effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate.”

1. picture retrieved on the 5th January, from http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00660/news-graphics-2008-_660936a.jpg

2. picture retrieved on the 5th January from http://photos.commongate.com/11/39234_955jz3tv5v_l.jpg

9. Dolce&Gabbana : banned advertisement

retrieved January 4th from http://www.adrants.com/2007/02/dolce-gabbana-ad-cartoonish-edginess-or-g.php

A few days ago I read a very interesting article about a provoking advertisement of Dolce&Gabbana which got banned because it looked as if there were a couple of guys raping a girl.
The advertisement shows a woman pinned to the ground by the wrists by a bare-chested man, with other men in the background looking on her.
This advertisement can be very offensive for many people, it can convey a feeling of humiliation and misogyny.
But on the other hand it can be defined as art. And expecially art and advertisements have to provoke in a special way to get attention, because in these days it’s getting harder and harder to get attention so easily.
And you know, i bet if it was 5 girls and one guy, no one would say anything

But apart from that it’s justifiable to ban advertisements like these, since the woman in this ad is represented (as often) rather as an object than a subject, and so many people get provoked and irated for nothing.

8. upcoming exam

Woow, how fast the time has passed.. 2009 is over, 2010 begins.
It’s hard to believe that i have almost spent 4 month in Sabancı, they ve passed so quick.
And right in the first week of the new year, we are going to write our first english exam in class.
I think noone has an accurate idea on how it will be, we all remember our english exams from school, but i’m sure that this one will be a bit different.
And I have thought about what i could learn for this exam. And i think the most important thing is the ability to summarize the four texts and to connect them with our main themes “genders” and “ media”.
I hope we all are going to do good in this upcoming exam.

Good luck! :)