Advertising Influence On Culture Essays - Sexualization,

Advertising Influence On Culture Effects of advertising Advertising promotes more than mere products in our popular culture. Because images used in advertising are often idealized, they eventually set the standard which we in turn feel we must live up to. Advertisements serve to show us what the ideal image is, and further tell us how to obtain it. Advertisers essentially have the power to promote positive images or negative images. Unfortunately, most of the roles portrayed by women tend to fit the latter description. The irony lies therein since it is these negative images which have been most successful in selling products. It is easy to understand the appeal which these ads hold for men, as they place women in an inferior role; one characterized by helplessness, fragility and vulnerability. Certainly one can not deny that visual images serve to create the ideal female beauty within the material realm of consumer culture. The problem is that if one strays from this ideal, there's the risk of not being accepted by men. Advertisers, by setting ideals, not only sell their products, but in fact reaffirm traditional gender roles in mainstream America. Women portrayed in sexual ads are depicted as objects and commodities, to be consumed by men for visual pleasure and by women for self-definition. Any depiction of a woman in scant clothing ultimately makes her look vulnerable and powerless, especially when placed next to a physically stronger man. Studies show that advertisements will concentrate primarily on a woman's body parts rather than her facial expressions. Also, it was proven that over 50% of commercials portraying women contained at least one camera shot focusing on her chest. Men enjoy these images, and sadly, women tend to try to embody them, regardless of the extent to which they degrade themselves. Perhaps one of the most recent, successful, and controversial ad campaigns of the nineties is that of Calvin Klein. Ironically, in contrast to the normal, objectifying advertisements that deface women altogether, Klein focuses on his model's expressions. However, these expressions are similar to those of a scared child. The naked female model in turn looks even more vulnerable than when she was faceless. Here, in this ad Kate Moss is depicted as an innocent scared child. Her fingers touch her lips as if she is not permitted to speak, while her eyes look as if they are bruised. Moss' breast is exposed in this image, but instead of appearing voluptuous, Moss appears to be almost prepubescent. She stares vacantly and helplessly into the camera. Again, women see these images as attractive to men and subsequently feel the need to embody them. Unfortunately, the body of Kate Moss is an unrealistic and unattainable ideal for most women. This distorted ideal body image is one of the leading causes for the recent rise of anorexia in young girls. The waif woman image is causing extreme low self-esteem for women in the nineties. The advertisement proves effective because normal women can never, and will never look like Kate Moss. All the hollow attempts will only bring more attention to these marketing strategies, and ultimately more business for Calvin Klein. It is difficult to pinpoint the cause for Klein's overwhelming success despite the nature of his advertisements. Before Calvin Klein's waif image developed, it was thought that concentration on a woman's voluptuous physical features was what intrigued men. But this idea of Moss as a helpless child, with no real feminine curves at all, reiterates the argument that the male attraction to certain ads lies in the sexual power it gives them. Women please men in their nudity, their purity, and their body size. Women can never be happy with themselves until their representation in advertising become more reflective of reality. But if the ads become more realistic, then the advertisements aren't able to sell their self-help images. Essentially the world of morals and advertising, if the two can logically coexist, form a constant vicious cycle. Physics

buy custom Mark Twains Humorous Works essay

buy custom Mark Twain's Humorous Works essay Mark Twain is an author who has many humorous works. Good examples of such stories are The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain introduces a young boy called Huck who is looking for adventure and freedom. The setting of the novel is on the shore of river Mississippi. Pap, Huck drunken father, kidnapped him because he wanted 6000 dollars Huck had been awarded after finding the gold treasure with Tom Sawyer. As a result, Huck escapes using a canoe to the other side of river Mississippi where he meets Jim, a slave of Miss Watson. Jim too is searching for freedom and Huck, and he spend days and nights together to look for freedom. Jim and Huck travels down the river using a raft and they have adventure during their journey. They end up becoming best friends. Later, as they travel, they come across a house that had a dead man. They steal all what is in that house and go to a wrecked ship so as to travel. Unfortunately, they find murderers in the wrecked ship, and they take away the goods and money they had. Later, Jim and Huck separate after their raft crashes but reunite where they start to perform plays, but they find out that the person who had employed them had stolen other persons identity. Huck escapes but left to find his friend Jim who was sold by king, their employer. Jim is found in Tom Sawyers aunt, and tom and he rescue him. In the book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Mark Twain brings out a story within a story. The author begins the story by recalling the mission he had regarded Angels Camp mining town. The narrators friend from the east had requested him to call Simon wheeler who stayed at Angels Camp to ask him about reverend Leonidas Smiley. He finds Mr. Wheeler in a local pub, and when he mentions the name of the reverend, he is taken to a corner. Mr. Wheeler claims not to know Leonidas Smiley and starts to narrate a tale of another character called Jim Smiley. He narrates that Jim was a gambler in that Angels Camp that could bet on whatevr thing, even when he had to alter sides to get the bet. However, whichever side he could take, Jim always ended up being the winner. Jim could also use his animals to bet, for instance he first uses a horse that he had named nag since she appeared to be in poor health. The horse won in the race, and Jim decides to use a dog. After going to a full action fight, it gave up the fight and; unfortunately, died. Smiley later uses a frog that he had trained to do somersaults, jump and catch flies. The ability of the frog to jump became famous in the area, and a stranger, one day asked for a frog contest, but Jim lost after the stranger tricked him. Simon wheeler later goes to the yard after he is called and the narrator gets an opportunity to escape from boredom and comes out of the corner. Later Simon re-enters the pub to narrate smileys one-eyed cow, but the narrator stops him and leaves the pub. In this two story, there are both similarities and differences in how the author, mark twain uses humor. Humor is whereby the author uses words or actions of the characters to prove amusements or laugher to the reader. In the similarities, mark uses the characters to bring out his humorous tone in the story. For instance, in the story The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses Huckleberry Finn to bring out the humor. This humor is brought out with the action and words of this character. Twain puts his humorous word in the mouth of Huck. Twain also uses huckleberry tale as a tool satirize and evaluate his society. Twain also satirizes the religion to bring out humor when he talks about the widows plan to educate Huck using the stories in the bible. When the widow tells Huck that Moses had died, the author gives his reaction by saying: But by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I did not care no more about him; because I do not take stock in dead people (Twain 71). In the story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, also uses characters too bring out humor. The characters have humorous traits, for instance, Jim Smiley is portrayed to have a greedy character whereby he bet on anything in order to attain it. With this greedy character, the author used Jim to describe how he did humorous act such as frog jumping contest and one-eyed cow to bet. For instance, when Smileys dog was defeated in the fight context the writer says: He give Smiley a look, as much as to say his heart was broke, and it was his fault, for putting up a dog that had not no hind legs for him to take bolt of, which was his main dependence in a fight, and then he limped off a piece, and laid down, and died" (Twain 20). In the difference, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn uses satire to bring out humor. The author uses religious satire once he portrays the Shepherd sons and the Granger fords. They are two neighboring families fighting and killing one another, yet they share steam boat landing. When asked what the reason was, the son of grander fields humorously answers: It started years ago, along there. There was trouble bout something and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the lawsuit when one of the men, and so he got up and shot the man won the suit-which he would naturally do, of course (Twain 171). On the other hand, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County uses irony to bring out humor. The narrator is connecting this story with reality whereby he uses chooses word that show how simple and disinteresting westerners. For instance, the narrator portrays connection humorously when he says: Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph (Twain 97). In conclusion, it is evident that mark twain stories is humorous, and this makes the stories appealing to his readers. The humor also helps in expressing things that happen today; hence, these stories help improve peoples life. Buy custom Mark Twain's Humorous Works essay

There is more than one topic(choose what you want from them) Research Paper

There is more than one topic(choose what you want from them) - Research Paper Example Wal-mart is driven by the objective that they should serve their customers to the best way possible keeping the costs as low as possible but still earn a reasonable amount of profit. Wal-mart ends up reducing the wages and encouraging relocation elsewhere to meet the motive of low cost1,2. The first point is that Wal-mart introduced a â€Å"pull† system of retailing. This means that Wal-mart would direct the manufacturers regarding what to produce and how much to produce. While studying macroeconomics, the first three basic questions that are asked are - what to produce, how much to produce and for whom to produce. In this case, also Wal-mart decides what consumer goods the manufacturers must produce. Wal-mart also instructs them regarding the quantity that is to be produced. Wal-mart, as any other company will want to maximize its profit level. For attracting more customers, it keeps the price of the goods at a low level. However, if prices are kept low then the profit level of the company must also be low. However, this does not happen because the company reduces its cost of production. One way of reducing the costs that has been adopted by the company is by paying low wages to the workers. In 2005, the average weekly wage was $8. While the average hourly wag e rate is $8.23 on average, the average supermarket hourly rate is $10.35. In 2001 there was discrimination between female and male workers –â€Å"the average male employee was paid about $5000 more per year than the average female full time employee†3. In order to protect this low wage policy, Wal-mart does not support the formation of unions. In the year 2000, when a meat-cutting department built up a union at Wal-mart in Texas, the commercial giant phased out the department meticulously. Hence the largest private sector in Europe is free from any union. According to estimates of January

Which contexts and developments help to explain European expansion (wk Essay

Which contexts and developments help to explain European expansion (wk 16) and New World conquest (wk 13) - Essay Example First of all, the course for the New World explorations and the European expansion was dented by the unhealthy interactions and relationship that existed between the indigenous people and the explorers. It is through these interactions that pestilence and violence occurred resulting in a significant decline in the population (Greenblatt 11). The religious conflicts witnessed between the Christians and Muslims resulted in crusades that would go a long way in shaping the conquest. As early as the 11th century, the Catholic Church felt it was its duty to redeem the Spaniards and the Holy Land from people it regarded as religious infidels. It is these fervent crusades that opened the way for European inhabitants to take root in North and South America. ` The religious expeditions into the Middle East exposed the Europeans to the valuable trade goods which came from Asia. These goods namely silks, sugar, spices and other products that were synonymous with India and China were highly regarded in the European households. However, the transportation of such was a rather tiring process that required the services of Muslim middlemen and sometimes the payments of tributes. To solve this, the Portuguese sailors had to look for an alternative route through the coastline of Africa. This way, colonization, took place and slaves were sold to Europe. Another contributing factor to this conquest haze was the discovery of gold by the Spaniards. The Spaniards quickly realized that magnanimous profits would not be drawn from the silk and spices but the gold and silver in the â€Å"new world." This mania about the mineral ores was generated in part by Columbus’ preliminary to Isabella and Ferdinand. All in all, the conquest and expansion was favored or discouraged by the respective natives (Greenblatt 12). While some were subservient, timid, kind and welcoming, others were the direct

Yasukuni Shrine Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Yasukuni Shrine - Research Paper Example Since 1970s these visits have sparked controversy and for many to see respect being paid to Class A war criminals of World War 2 is being considered very offensive to the nations that face the aggression of the Imperial Japan. With Japan’s former Prime Minister Koizumi visiting the shrine, this controversy has been given new life and limelight (Okuyama 2009) The Yasukani Shrine is one of the most controversial shrines in the world. It is a Shinto Shrine that is situated in the Chiyoda district in the capital of Japan, Tokyo. The reason for its controversy is that this shrine was built as a dedication to all the Japanese Soldiers who died fighting in World War 2 on the orders of the Emperor of Japan (Yasukuni Shrine 2008). The Symbolic Registry of Divinities has listed about 2460000 men and women who died for the Imperial Japan. The souls that are enshrined here include all of those who have served the interest of the Imperial Japan since the year 1983. This will include the na tional crisis like the Boshin War, Seinan war and also wars with other countries like Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. The most controversial aspect of this shrine is that it also has the souls of soldiers who were killed during the active duty during the World Wars (Yasukuni Shrine 2008).... This location was chosen by Meiji Emporer. It was first established to help commemorate the men and women who had died in the Boshin War that resulted in the power restoration of the Meiji. The shrine is among the many that were built under the government sanction Shinto program throughout Japan. Since 1879 the shrine has been named as the Yasukuni Jinja (Ponsonby-Fane 1963; Yasukuni Shrine 2008). It has now become the principal shrine to commemorate the dead who have sacrificed their lives for Japan and its interest. When World War 2 ended, the United States and the Occupation Authorities issued what is now called the Shinto Directive. This directive ensured that the state and the religion was separated in Japan. This obviously had an impact on the Yasukuni Shrine. It was pressurized that either the shrine be declared a religious institution that will not be dependent on the Government or it can itself become a secular government institution. It was then decided by the general masse s that the shine will become a private institution that will be privately funded. Since the year 1946 the shrine has been operating privately (Tetsuya 2008). There is no person buried in the Shrine. This is of the essence as only the souls are enshrined here. There are no ashes, graves or bones of any soldiers here. The priests here only perform purification traditions for the souls of the dead. So the issue arose from the fact that there are many souls enshrined here that are considered to be World War 2 criminals. This enshrinement started in 1959 by the enshrining of 1068 souls that were either Class B or Class C criminals and were declared so before their execution by the tribunals of the Allied Forces. Then in 1978 the kami of fourteen soldiers was

True and something believed to be true

True and something believed to be true In the gospel of John in the New Testament (18:28-40), Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor. Pilate, who is a sensible and experienced man, is perplexed as to what Jesus has done to warrant a meeting with him. After a short exchange between the two men, we begin to see truth in two different ways. On the one hand, Jesus has a very firm idea (18:37): You are right in saying I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. To which Pilate merely replies: What is truth? as if to say, You think truth exists independently of everyone as a standard by which we can judge our beliefs?[1] The question, what is truth, is central to everyday life and the ways of knowing help us begin to answer it. When you know something, you are certain about it and have no doubts regarding the matter; when you believe something, you merely think it is true and are not completely certain about it. There are many things that people assume are true but a quick look at specific ways of knowing might prove otherwise. The ways of knowing-language, perception, reason and emotion-serve to distinguish the truth and remind people that some claims arent meant to be taken at face value. There are many types of perception. Nave realism is a view of perception that asserts that we directly perceive the world as it is. Objects are simplified; the way that things smell, look, taste, sound and feel is how they smell, look, taste, sound and feel. We hear a sound when a tree falls because the tree made a sound when it fell. Though, reasonably, there is a lot more to perception. For example, Though thing s may appear to be colored to us, our experiences of color are merely representative of the surface properties of objects[2]; the physical property of reflecting certain wavelengths of light and the actual color as we experience it are two different things.[3] This eventually leads to the idea of representative realism, which suggests that perception is not as simple and passive of a process that the naive realism is. Representative realism follows the idea that we simply are not able to obtain enough information about our surroundings with our senses. Instead, it involves the person; we supply most of the content of our experience.[4] For example, to most people touching a table means that contact had been made. But this perception is a mistaken one; science refutes that claim and states that when someone touches a table, no physical contact had taken place. According to physics, the table is made up of millions and millions of atoms and it is in their nature that when coming into contact with another atom, they repel each other. So when a hand, also made up of millions of atoms, comes into contact with a table, the atoms repel each other and scientifically, the hand touched nothing. Our sense of perception allows us to take the claim of touching the table to be a true claim and there is little or no doubt regarding it. But after studying the ways of knowing that involves perception, it has been ascertained that it has several weaknesses and learning about them helps us re-evaluate what we considered to be true. Language is a matter of syntax, in this case, representation of meaning. When communicating, the first step is to encode meaning in syntax and then convert it back into something significant. Thus language is the medium of communication. But not everything can be expressed in language, though it is a dynamic part of peoples lives language changes. Words go out of fashion, they start to mean different things and people invent words and different ways of stringing them together. So things that might have been one thing during a certain period of time might not be the same now, and since knowledge also differs with every language, something that is considered to be the truth in one language may not be in another. The quest for knowledge and truth is limited by our language and its ability to control what we can and cannot know.[5] Language is ubiquitous and something that surrounds us so completely that we rarely are consciously aware of it. Language is relevant to the theory of knowledge because it is the primary way we acquire knowledge about our surroundings. But truth sometimes becomes ambiguous due to the variety of interpretations of language. For example, the U.S government has been accused of approving the usage torture such as water-boarding on extrajudicial prisoners by the CIA. The government denied it as torture and instead claimed that it is an enhanced interrogation technique. The truth remains ambiguous in this case , is it really a severe technique of interrogation or is it torture? Water-boarding is classified as torture but the government manipulated the words used to describe the action to blur the truth of the matter. Language can be misinterpreted because what one person means when they have said something may not be what another person understands. If a person sometimes does not understand the implied meanings of certain words, they can be misled to believe that it is something else, leading to misunderstandings. Meaning is an integral part of language; to discover the truth, one must first try to understand what is meant by this sentence before the decision of whether this sentence is true or not can be made. Emotion sometimes makes it harder for us to differentiate between what it true and what is believed true. Strong emotion distorts the other ways of knowledge.[6] Emotion influences the way we think and many of our intuitions are based on gut feelings, so when it is linked with find ing the truth, it can be described as a sixth sense, or having a feeling, we do not know that there is truth in what we believe, we just feel it.[7] Feelings cannot be trusted all of the time because we do not know whether or not they are indicating the truth. Because emotions affect the way we perceive, perhaps finding the truth based on emotions isnt the best way to start, it does one thing. It allows belief to bloom. Peoples strong beliefs considering some matter is able to power their notions that what they believe is in fact the truth, and even though it may not be, it is the truth to them. A definition of knowing could be the awareness of the truth of something; for instance a belief or faith in something; which is regarded as truth beyond any doubt.[8] To reason means to let logic take the reins of trying to find the truth. People are able to use past experiences to work out what has happened in situations. Rationalists believe that reason is the most important way to find kn owledge. The central principle of rationalism is that we can discover important truths about reality through the use of reason alone.[9] Cogito ergo sum, a famous saying by a famous rationalist Renà © Descartes, was used as the foundation to build a rational system of philosophy. The two ways of reasoning are deductive and inductive. Deductive reasoning allows a person to work from a general case to a more specific instance whereas inductive reasoning is reasoning from a specific case or cases to a general rule. Deductive reasoning uses a general claim to classify something. So it can sometimes be unreasonable to come to a conclusion and simply claim it as the truth without being more thorough about the matter. For instance, the premise all humans are mortal is true, and we know that Socrates is human, so we are able to come to the conclusion that Socrates is, indeed, mortal. Another example uses another premise, everyone who drives at 90 mph is breaking the law, and we know that P aul is breaking the law, so do we come to the conclusion that Paul is driving at 90 mph?[10] No, it is important to remember that when coming to such a conclusion, that it can be a conclusion of an invalid argument. Inductive reasoning goes beyond the immediate evidence of our sense, so we cannot always trust it to be truth.[11] People have a tendency to generalize too fast and jump to wrong conclusions, a result of faulty and unjustified reasoning. Confirmation bias makes these generalizations even worse as people tend to only remember the facts that support what they believe and leave out anything that goes against what they have believe to be the truth. Truth is hard to find when reason and logic are clouded with prejudice. There is a huge difference between knowing something is true and believing that it is true. The various ways of knowing have many drawbacks and may lead one to believe something is true when it isnt. Understanding these shortcomings can only help us recognize that claims of knowledge cannot be taken at face value. Bibliography Goleman, Daniel. Know Thyself, Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2005. Print. Holt , Tim. Theories of Perception. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. theoryof knowledge.info, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language, Norton Reader. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 6th ed., 1984. Print. Sacks, Oliver, The Case of the Colorblind Painter, An Anthropologist on Mars. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print. Southwell, Gareth. Knowledge. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. Philosophy Online, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . Trochim, William. Deduction and Induction. Research Methods: Knowledge Base. 20 Oct 2006. Social Research Methods, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. Van Dyke, Frances. Venn Diagrams and Logic. Illumination; Resources. 2010. thinkinfinity.org, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . Whiteley, C.H.. Physical Objects as Not Reducible to Perceptions, in Klemke, E.D., A. David Kline, Robert Hollinger, eds. Philosophy: The Basic Issues. New York: St. Martins Press, 1982. Print. [1] Southwell, Gareth. Knowledge. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. Philosophy Online, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . [2] Whiteley, C.H.. Physical Objects as Not Reducible to Perceptions, in Klemke, E.D., A. David Kline, Robert Hollinger, eds. Philosophy: The Basic Issues. New York: St. Martins Press, 1982. 90. Print. [3] Holt , Tim. Theories of Perception. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. theoryof knowledge.info, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . [4] Sacks, Oliver, The Case of the Colorblind Painter, An Anthropologist on Mars. New York: Knopf, 1995. 32. Print. [5] Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language, Norton Reader. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 6th ed., 1984. 392. Print. [6] Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 146. Print. [7] Goleman, Daniel. Know Thyself, Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2005. 50. Print. [8] Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 160. Print. [9] Ibid, 143. [10] Van Dyke, Frances. Venn Diagrams and Logic. Illumination; Resources. 2010. thinkinfinity.org, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . [11] Trochim, William. Deduction and Induction. Research Methods: Knowledge Base. 20 Oct 2006. Social Research Methods, Web. 10 Jan 2010. .

Heroes (my Parents) :: essays research papers

When one thinks of heroes, names such as Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Theresa often come to mind. These people had done a lot of favors, courage, helps, and more of things for the people who needed them. They have change the world. But, heroes can be in anyway, even in each of individuals in the world. I have the persons who I think is the best hero in my mind. They are my parents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My parents are brave; they will do anything for my happiness. Not only mine, but also their friends, and families. My father has many friends, and he always helps them whenever they need them most. Without my parents, I probably will not survive. Heroes usually best described as selfless, brave, and often inspiring. A friend of my mother just heard a bad news from her family back in Indonesia, telling that her father has a cancer that already spread in his body. She has to go back and visit her father, but can't afford the plane ticket. My mom not hesitantly let her borrow her money for the ticket. During The May riot in Indonesia, everybody in my complex tried to run away since the natives were going to kill the Chinese. But, My father and couple of his friends ordered them to stay and fight back, and it worked. The natives ran when they saw a crowd of Chinese trying to kill them back. My parents are the most inspiring people for me. They taught me things that I need to know like drugs, and other important things. My father always inspired me to do the right things, to be strong, and be independent. I am sure that all parents that did a lot of things for their children are heroes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Heroes always change in our mind as we grow. As a child, we think Hercules, Xena, superheroes, imaginary friends, comics', and cartoons' heroes as the real heroes. As we grow older, our opinions keep changing from time to time.