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Dolls Shaping America

 

The origins of Barbie go back to the early '50's. She is most commonly portrayed as a 6 foot tall, perky, long blond haired white female. She can be seen swimming in her mansions pool, or helping animals when they are sick. She symbolizes the woman of America.

The origins of Bratz goes back to the early '90's. They are urban, can be seen at parties, and come in a variety of races, but they are not as popular as a common Barbie doll. Their lips and heads are too big for their bodies, and they flirt with boys, making them not so innocent.

They are both dolls we used to play with as kids, but the images they put out are just some of the ways media shapes our views and ideas on race. The barbie doll unintentionally shapes the way girls and women see themselves. The barbie doll is perfect, perfect voice, hair, makeup, body and skin. She is what a white woman supposed to be: polite, kind, always happy, perky and suburban.

 

Bratz however get rid of the stereotype by having the main dolls of different races: white, black, latin, and asian. They represent a more realistic common girl in America.

 

 

superstitious

In the novel The Seventh Son, the devil is described to a young man named Alvin.  The describer states that the devil looks like "the horns of a bull, claws of a bear, hooves of a goat, and has the roar of a ravening lion."  The young man replies to this saying "An you call us superstitious."  From this conversation between two characters, i wonder if ones self can believe in a religion and at the same time, not believe it is indeed superstitious... 

Within the novel itself, a family called the Millers, see themselves as a superstitious family, The local Reverend "thrower", also see's it this way.  As a reader, in some sense i see the Reverend himself as a superstitous person.  He tries his best to force a religion onto a young man, who is uncapable of understanding the figure "god".  Is this how he should spread such a godly religion? i think not.  Along with that note, he wishes to kill the young man because the thinks he is the devil.  Being a man of god, could he take gods power into his "own" hands to kill one of "gods creations"?

In some sense i belive that the image of god we ourselfs have created is somewhat superstitious, no human on earth has ever seen this "God" but we still believe he is there.  Other cultures have many gods..doesnt it seem unnessesary to have multiple gods that withhold the same powers? could it not be possible that one "god" created us all, and not the the power of multiple "gods"?  For that matter, wouldnt having "A" god be superstitious enough? i believe that this "god" might just be a figure of the human imagination, and at the same time just a figure of history, not actually a person.

The frontier helps The American Identity.

The frontier helps the American identity because living and surviving out on the frontier makes us look better to other people who don't know what we have to go to live. Living out on the frontier is a difficult thing to do because its a free for all type of living, move there with your family, looking for land large enough for you, create a house, and live against the wild and thrive and there are many threats to your life and your families. Animals, other people, or sickness. If other countries who think we are just lavished and all of our people are rich, I feel like they will give us respect for what a majority of people have to do to live. The idea of a rugged individual is created from men living out on the frontier. People who are rich and always inside living the "cozy" life aren't going to be much of a rugged individual. I also feel that being a rugged person is looked at by other people from other countries as being a group of people that they don't want to deal with, or they would want to ally with them. Frontier is something that not all countries population have to go through that we the people have to go through.  

The Patriot-Loyalist Debate

Despites the amount of resentment toward Great Britain, many colonists considered themselves subjects to the royal crown for several reasons. The reasons were the fact that many colonists were from Great Britain, the British helped win the French-Indian war, and Great Britain was the most powerful nation in the world in the time. Although the British were miss treating the colonists by over taxing them and taking some of their freedoms away. The Patriots wanted freedom; they wanted independence and a government of their own away from the command of another country. With this, the colonists had all the right to rebel against Britain. The British Government had violated the colonists rights as British subjects and their fellow colonists had already died protecting their rights (text book Pg. 114). Such abuse could not be tolerated, so I have no pity for what has fallen on Britain, with all the Patriot riots and protests.

Thomas Paine’s book Common Sense is an inspiring book that called out to the American people, and like the books title it opened the eyes of people to what was really justice. The book told Americans that the path of independence was the key to finding peace and tranquility, and not path that the Loyalist wised to follow that was with Britain. For little did the Loyalist know, the British rule over the world would not be long one (text book Pg. 115). What makes Common Sense so enlightening was that it reached out to the common man rather then to the rich man, giving simple yet bold words of freedom and pride.

One of Tomas Paine’s famous quotes is one such as this, “Is life so dear, or peach so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!-I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” Thomas’s quote filled Patriot’s hearts with fire, fueling the drive for independence that even some Loyalists started to follow the Patriot way. Even if the Loyalists and the Patriots had separate thoughts and aspiration, in the end of the war they formed a new government together that would have a bright future ahead.

Families

Back then the families were considered large. The kids usually helped the mother with chores. The father worked at the farm all day, trying to feed his family. The mother was basically considered  a house wife. It was her duty to have dinner ready and make sure that she and all of kids did the chores. Also back then black families were very poor, so even the kids had to work at a very young age.

Old Atomic Bomb Safety Video

The link above is the old atomic bomb safety video we all saw in class last week. I bumped into the link while looking through YouTube and I thought that it would be cool for the class to see this video again on the blog and discuss about it here.

As you already know, the video is very humorous for several reasons. For some reason they down play how horrific the nuclear blast is by putting it in the same category as fires or car crashes. The atomic bomb blast kills everything in sight. Ducking and covering won’t save my life if there were an atomic blast near use. Even if I duck and cover, my skin will still be melted off of my face by gamma radiation, you know the kind that goes through walls. My hands and clothing will have been lined thoroughly with lead, and I will die of lead poisoning. That is of course if the nuclear blast doesn’t incinerate me first.

Also, I found the “with warning and without warning”” rather funny, this is how I see it…

Without Warning = Your Screwed

With Warning = Your Still Screwed

Can you guys point out some other things that were weird with this movie? My final comment is that I hope America never needs to use the atomic bomb and start an Armageddon.

What Has George Bush Done for the United States Of America?

What has George Bush done for the United States of America? Some of the things that George Bush has done is, he has sent troops to fight a war for oil which the American people won't benefit from. He has totally bullied Iraq and Iraq's people which caused 9/11 to happen as revenge for all of the things that George Bush has done to them.

George Bush has really done nothing to help New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina which caused a very popular rapper known by the name Kanye West to quote" George Bush dosen't like black people".

George Bush is all about money. We as American people has not benefited from him being our president. It's a coincidence how since George Bush has been the president gas prices have raised approximately 2 and a half to 3 dollars. It's a coincidence how we bully other countries, until North Korea threatens to launch a nuclear bomb and we leave them alone.

George Bush has turned the United States of America into a bully. America bully's other countries that are less fortunate then us, we bully countries that basically can't defend their selves. Now when I say America I don't mean the country, what I mean by America is it's leader and it's representers.

America Is a fortunate country and I feel that If we continue to be ungrateful for all of the things that we have as a country all of   those things could be taken away from us. So if your American or non American look forward to February of 2008 because hopefully during that time period, America will receive a good and positive leader.