The News Cycle

                  Well looking online for some interesting news to write about, I noticed a complete lack in anything that could actually educate me on the issues today is facing. Those articles are out there, but I found I had to dig through the useless articles like “Awe inspiring recipes”. This really has no relevance to anything so does it really need to be front-page news and why is it right beside an article on a mass murderer? On the other hand, I am a teenager, and to be completely honest I’m not that interested in “CP Rail union, Tories battle over collective bargaining”. I didn’t even open the article because it has nothing that interested me in the title. And that would be the problem. A huge group of Internet users are teens and young people like myself, many of whom have the same interests and those interests are not politics. So are the people producing the media and news to blame or is it our increasing lack of interest in real problems. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that although world issues interest me, as I’m sure they do most people, I don’t go looking for them or read the news to find them. This could be because the media industry has given us so much else to focus on such as the Kardashians and Brad Pitt and all the drama they bring to the table. I think this is a, what comes first the chicken or the egg, type situation; what came first the lack of interest in the issues or the lack of issues being shared. Where did this cycle start?

Transgender Miss Universe

                  I’m sure everyone’s heard about the Miss Universe Canada controversy that has been in the news for a while, but now that all the drama is over I wanted to take a look at the outcome. The story is, transgender contestant Jenna Talackova was kicked out of the competition because of a qualifying rule that stated all contestants must be a naturally born female. She was later allowed back into the pageant, as she received overwhelming support on many social media sites and gained many fans. Of course along with fans she got a lot of negative attention as well. Beauty pageant contestants have to fit a very rare criterion of extreme beauty. They have height and weight limits and overall there’s a very small select group of women who make it to the top of this industry. York’s Gilbert said the pageant is trying to “fit everyone in a pigeon hole.” And that the world’s view of transgenders is very negative. I think that there is lots of room to open up beauty pageants to more people and different types of beauty, so why not let transgenders compete, and open up this pigeonhole. However Gilbert is correct in saying there’s a negative aura around transgenders, which may have been the real reason the pageant kicked her out in the first place. But if we don’t start treating transgenders as equals and as the specific sex they have chosen rather than some sort of weird male/female combo, people’s opinions will never change. When the competition did allow her back in, they ultimately decided to look at Jenna as a female as opposed to someone who used to be male and I think that this is the outlook the rest of the world is starting to adapt.

Nudity in Oreo Ad

           Recently an extremely controversial Korean Oreo ad was leaked and went viral throughout the states. It has got so much attention from the media because it is an image of a baby breastfeeding and holding an Oreo, with the caption “Milks favorite cookie” ( The Ad ). Any ad that contains nudity will get people talking but no one was expecting this kind of racy content from Kraft! Turns out that this ad was never supposed to be released; Kraft told TMZ that it was not even created by them but rather by Cheil Worldwide ad agency in South Korea. Nonetheless, the ad has raised some questions. Why was the tinniest bit of nudity such a problem? The ad was really not sexually suggestive, but yet came across as very offensive to many people. Breastfeeding is a natural thing but today’s society has been taught to fear any type of nudity. This ad wouldn’t have been nearly as controversial in more isolated cultures where breastfeeding is completely normal and not something to be ashamed about. Breastfeeding in public is a right in Canada but often time’s people are still offended or uncomfortable when they see it. A friend of mine was at Disney World a couple of years ago; a place filled with young children, and was breastfeeding while waiting in line for a ride with her family. She had nothing exposed, but the man ahead of her in line asked her to stop, saying it was not an appropriate place and time. She refused to stop feeding her child and continued breastfeeding because she had every right to do so. When has something so natural become a problem? Has our society criminalized nudity to the point where something so innocent is a problem? 

Reactions to Gay fruit

                  For the past few weeks we have been working on our video project which has been an interesting experience. My group members and I have never attempted a task like this one and one of the hardest parts was coming up with an idea for the video. We ended up deciding to do a stop motion short film about same sex marriage, portrayed with fruit. This concept has gotten us some strange looks and I have to say most peoples reaction to it so far have been unexpected. From my time at EDSS I have noticed that there is a lot of homophobia among a large percentage of the students. This has been changing but a lot of people are openly against gay people and particularly gay marriage. Because of this, our film may be on the more controversial side when we present it in class but so far students reactions have been much more positive than I expected. For example, the other day when we were filming a scene of the oranges meeting, two grade 10 male students came up to us and asked what we were doing. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting them to say but when one said, “Why can’t gay people get married anyway? Its not bothering anyone, its there choice, I’m not gay but it doesn’t effect me at all, why can’t they be happy?” I was surprised. Then his friend responded with an extremely immature comment and called the boy a “homo”. They walked away arguing and I was impressed that this student stood up for himself and what he thought was right. Other students have been having similar reactions. Some think the video is a really cool idea; others ask why we would ever even think about doing our project on same sex marriage. I’ve realized that Elmira is a little less homophobic than I thought and more people have been on the gay rights side, but there is still a major problem with homophobia at our school. I hope this video continues to make people think about where they stand on same sex marriage and I hope more people realize that homophobia is not ok.

Representation of Teen Girls in the Media

                Teen girls are everywhere in the media, we see them in T.V. shows and movies, magazines and advertisements. Generally speaking, teen girls are represented similarly in all situations. We have been labelled as moody, boy crazy drama queens. Normally they are also shown as being obsessed with their appearance and wardrobe. If teen girls are not given that stereotype they are either goths with tattoos and piercings or a nerd who doesn't care about her wardrobe. There are exceptions to this but in general teen girls are divided into those three categories, the materialistic drama queen, the goth and the nerd. As a teen girl there is some pressure to fit into one of these categories, but the real problem is that society clumps girls into these categories by telling them what they are supposed to like through ads, magazines and T.V. I think many girls understand that they aren't a nerd if they are smart and for most teen girls boys and clothes are not the most important thing in their lives. But yet the media tells girls that thats how we all are. A good example of these categories being shown is in the show "Modern Family" where the two teen girls are drastically different. One is a humorously stupid, fashion forward stereotypical popular girl while the other is a smart, nerdy and opinionated. Both fall into the typical teen girl image, and there is so many more examples of these stereotypes! The other day when reading a teen vogue magazine I saw a quiz called "what type of girl are you?" the 4 options were drama girl, preppy girl, sporty girl and emotional girl. Girls are being taught that they are original but the media is telling them otherwise, you  can be one of 4 things so choose wisely ladies. If you want to see what type of girl you are you can take this quiz The What Kind of Girl Are You? Quiz. This quiz is one of many that just enforces the idea that girls can have one of 4 personalities even though they are at the same time being told to be original. Overall the media has taken the general outline of a teen girl and made it common knowledge that that is how girls are and should be.