NUDE

NUDE is a collection of photographic imagery that highlights alternative and artistic images of the nude black female body.

Using photography, the goal is to capture the beauty and diversity of women of African descent. It is meant to dispel the pervasive sexualized images that our mainstream culture and mass media perpetually shows about black women. In addition, NUDE is one stepping stone to get people to decolonize their mindsets about nudity and to undo the social conditioning that western culture has imposed upon all women of color to obtain Euro-centric forms of beauty.

NUDE was a collaborative project and is a work in progress.  

Link to NUDE: 
http://www.slideshare.net/MarilynLouis/nude-10565436

Don't Let Media Create Your Ideal Image

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJx-UOYA6Qo

1,622,290. This is the number of surgical cosmetic procedures last year in the United States.
This is quite a few. While I was searching about "plastic surgery," I noticed that most of those had or want to have plastic surgery are swayed by media.

"I want to be more skinnier, and more beautiful."

This is what most women think.
Even though TV shows, magazines, and advertisings which we see in our every day like are telling us not necessarily the truth.

They show "photoshopped" pictures on magazines and advertisings, and set up the "standard of beauty" on TV shows.

Is she overweight?

It is not even an exaggeration to say that we are "brainwashed" to crave those body images we everyday.

In my paper, I talk about how media creates a "trendy facial/body image" and give people an idea that we should change our faces and/or bodies.


Link to my final paper: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75306613

Media Influences Women to Opt Out

Scribd Link

women-and-media

Russian "Traffic"

Human Trafficking in Russia



Russia is one of the most common countries in which women are captured and forced into prostitution

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the corruption and crime was spiking in Russia




There were little opportunities for women because of discrimination in the workplace.

Women are allowed to work the same jobs as men but for much lower pay.

In order to help their families, desperate women turn to ads that offer them jobs as waitresses, nannies, hotel workers, maids and dancers.

But when the women arrive, they are met by the thugs who will force them into prostitution.

There are many tactics in how the thugs lure the women into becoming "Natashas", (this is what the women are called.

If not though an ad agency, they lure potential victims though bogus ad agencies at college job fairs. Some women think they are safer in groups, so they then answer ads in a group.



They also run "Russian Mail Order Bride" agencies.

Many times though, the victims are lured by the "helpful" neighbor, or the relative willing to sell you out for cash.

It is very difficult to escape because the thugs keep the "Natashas" on a short leash.

The ones that do escape are often deported because they have no identification.

Some of the women are even jailed themselves for being a prostitute. Some countries do not care if they were forced.

Recently the U.N. has made some efforts to stop the traffic.

But that is not the only way it can be stopped. People have to become aware of what is going on, sometimes right in their own country.
It could happen now, or to anyone right now, never think it is fiction, because it could happen to you.

Images from (russiablog.org, iempathize.org, elliotandolivia.tumblr.com,www.womanstats.org)

Link to the essay: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75315667/Russian-Trafficking

P.O.W.E.R Proposal

For my final Media project I decided to construct a proposal for a young men's empowerment program. The program highlights educational importance, college awareness, and discussions of healthy alternatives to patriarchal masculinity and mass media. The goal is to cultivate a breed of successful young men from the inner city in order to promote a new way of achieving success among this demographic.

SLIDESHOW

PROPOSAL

CRITICAL LENS LESSON PLAN

COLLEGE WORKSHOP 1 LESSON PLAN

Myths about Eating Disorders Proven Wrong

(Photo courtesy of Clinically Clueless)

I became very interested on this topic of Eating Disorders while looking at research during my group's Barbie Complex project a couple months back. I never knew that this was a serious mental issue, so I never took it serious. To me it seemed like a cry for attention or to get pitty from others. So I am sad to admit that I too (along with a lot of other people out there) believe in a lot of Myths relating to Eating Disorders. In my project I will dive into more of the common Myths around it. I think that there is not enough of variety of people suffering from this disease. The only ones that we see depicted on TV talking about it are all the same types of people, so in a way it seems almost like a "publicity stunt" rather than a real world disease. Since not a lot of people who watch it can relate to it, since they don't see themselves represented as having it. Hopefully everybody would see that it is real disorder (as more cases come out), the way that I did after my research.

Myths about Eating Disorders Final Project - Media 384

View more presentations from relgendy1

My Final Newspaper Article

Thank you ALL for watching and reading! I appreciate it.

Media's effect on Women's Bodybuilding

For my final project I decided to write a paper on the sport of Women's competitive Bodybuilding and how the media has influenced social changes on what it means to be a female bodybuilder. Throughout the semester we have talked about how there is a strong establishment of gender roles in society established by patriarchy. I chose this topic because I felt that this is a field where women really challenge the hetero normative gender roles. The focus of my paper demonstrates the sudden transformation that Women's bodybuilding undergoes physically over a few decades and how society's lack of acceptance hinders the popularity of the sport, therefore officials of the IFBB(International Federation of Body Builders) attempts to "feminize" the sport which challenges the real meaning of what Body Building is all about.

Link to Youtube video about Women's Bodybuilding as a taboo



Link to paper




Discussion questions: Do you think these women have gone to far in challenging gender roles?

What do you think the IFBB(International Federation of Body Builders) should do to help the popularity of the sport instead of trying to "Feminize" it?

Domestic Violence

A website with interviews of victims of domestic violence. Lots of resources regarding this growing phenomena. Very informative radio segment from the morning show "Street Soldiers" This website is hosted on my home computer, and uses a free domain name that I got from Dyndns.org.
http://domestic-violence.is-very-bad.org/

I chose this topic because this topic has personally affected my life
Domestic violence was thrust into the forefront of American society when OJ Simpson allegedly murdered his wife.
Before that time police wouldn't care or pay much attention to domestic cases
This attitude has changed  a lot since.
Women now have lots of resources to help them in their situations and this website speaks and introduces some of these resources 

Group Presentation: Women making Independent Documentary Films

Please view our slideshow again if you'd like to:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=1ubcSBUggL4Lm5i_3yJmwEUjNZs1erG11AwcFm2Fgy7FoCQlvNxdOcYsFf9jf

And follow to the great clips you didn't get to see in class:

PBS Women, War and Peace

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/features/women-war-peace-series-preview/

tonia. m.: black womyn: conversations with lesbians of African descent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y4AvmR2txw

Florence Vigner: Sexuality the Documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO_jfbs9WtI

Charlie's Bitch Ass Hos

http://www.charliesbitchasshos.com/CBAH/intro.htm

Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf: Wish Me Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigKTp9oxxA

Netflix: Female Directors section

www.Femaledirectors.com

Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/565830346/feminist-stories-from-the-womens-liberation-moveme?ref=search

Nancy Cain: Harriett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-G-Z7LV9Co

Reelworks:http://www.reelworks.org/rw/watch/sex/

DCTV: Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story Terrance Fischer

http://www.dctvny.org/documentaries/bullets-hood--stuy-story

Thanks for listening and the great discussion after.

-Marilyn, Lezlie, Neil and Sushana

Farah Khan

            When doing research for this blog post I found an interesting article in the New York Times entitled In Bollywood, Female Directors Find New Respect. The article touched upon the career of four female Bollywood directors; Zoya Akhtar, Mira Nair, Kiran Rao, and Farah Khan.  I found myself extremely interested in the career of Farah Khan. According to the article, in 2004 Ms. Khan debuted the second highest grossing film of that year. Ms. Khan has experienced great success with her career.

             Initially I found this article and the directors involved to be interesting and quite successful especially Farah Khan. In America, we often critique the inequalities and the fences that divide us because of our gender. Although this is true, women in other countries often experience worse forms of discrimination. I appreciated the female presence within Bollywood.

            Farah Khan rose to success as a choreographer.  She studied sociology in St. Xavier’s College  and inspired to be a choreographer after seeing Michael Jackson” Thriller. She received many awards for her choreography within Bollywood cinema. “The first contemporary female filmmaker to break the all-male stranglehold on the box office…”.  Her film debut “Main Hoon Na” (I Am Here of You) became  a hit and was followed by another hit in 2007, “Om Shanti Om,”

            The NY Times article brought up a point that completely changed my view on Khan and the other featured female directors of Bollywood. “Interestingly, unlike earlier female filmmakers, this new generation isn’t making women centric cinema. Ms. Akhtar said that she never considered turning the friends in ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ into women because that ‘would have been a very different journey.’” When asked about her latest project she is working on now she considered her latest work to be Ocean’s Eleven meets The Full Monty. “It will take testosterone to another level.”

            Khan is a female director that has no interest in telling stories for women or about women. I began to further believe her success would not be as great if her career choices had been any different. That is if her subject matters changed. “…the history of that cinema as the self expressive signatures of Hollywood  directors rather than a collection of ideas to which these signatures were signed. A move towards the notion that a film’s structure produces the author’s viewpoint…” The means of camera technique, lighting and editing are all part of how the film is “written” not so much the subject matter of the film. “If their films don’t focus on women, these directors have nonetheless created female characters who tend to have more texture than the usual Bollywood heroine. The difference in Khan’s treatments is most obvious in Ms.Khan’s songs… Still, they wear their accomplishments and gender politics lightly.”

            I began to ask a lot of questions as I looked into Khan’s career. As I looked through a series of interviews she had done most of the interviews were about her expecting triplets and what kind of mother she would be.  I had yet to find an interview written in English about her presence as a female within Bollywood cinema. Is Khan expected to pave some type of way for female characters and female subject matters because of her commercial success? Would she have achieved the same level of success had she not made action films or films that cater to men? Upon reading “Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory And Feminist Film” I began to wonder does your gender affect the means in which you will tell a story. After a discussion in class I learned that the answer is no.  Within this article women such as Marleen Gorris who won an Oscar for her “gendered preoccupations and styles…A Question of Silence and Broken Mirror being elaborately women centered films about women’s experiences of sexual exploitation, violence, the everyday domestic ‘abuses’ of heterosexuality and sexual division…”. Similar to Kathryn Bigelow, are we content with simply seeing women becoming successful in cinema for making a “mans film”? Should women be expected to make film for women and about women simply because they are women?

Work Cited:

-http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/movies/zoya-akhtar-and-farah-khan-bollywood-directors.html

-Author/Auteur:Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film