Female Action Heroes

When I think of Female Action Heroes the ones that come to mind are Lara Croft, Charlie's Angels, Catwoman, Elektra, The female cast in the X-Men movies. All of these women are women who are empowering because they are women who don't need help from men, they can take care of themselves and they are independent. All these women are also sexualized in a very big way, they are all sexualized in the movies in one way or another and I think they are all sexualized in the most obvious way: Costumes. All of these women have a uniform when they are fighting crime and these uniforms are tight and sleek, showing off every curve. I think the ones who are sexualized the most are Lara Croft and Catwoman ( the most recent movie with Halle Berry). Catwoman I think was a little more sexualized than Lara Croft. She wore less, she wore a leather top exposing her belly and leather pants. I did like that the character changed in a positive way in the movie. In the beginning she was shy and didn't have the nerve to defend herself when it came to her boss because she was treated like crap. As she became Catwoman she became more independent and gained self confidence, she tells her boss off and in the end her life becomes better for it. What I don't like is that after she became Catwoman her dialogue was complete crap when she was in her fighting scenes. She would always make references to cats and say meow all the time. It was weird and it didn't make anyone watching her want to take her seriously. Lara Croft wore her typical tank top and shorts and I think that is when she is sexualized the most, when she is wearing her outfit and when she is in the shower. There is a scene in the first movie when she is fighting intruders and she is wearing pijamas. These pijamas are pretty modest but her top is only halfway buttoned so when she is fighting she does show her belly. In both movies Lara has male protagonists but she never really ends up with any of them. That is what I liked the most. You don't have to end up with a man to be happy and in a lot of action movies where the heroe is a female they seem to need a man to fill that void. In a lot of other movies although the women are made to look like they can take care of themselves there is always a point where a man needs to save them from a sticky situation. Lara Croft may have had a few mishaps in the movies where she might have needed a man to save her in small situations but in most of the movies she does whatever she can to protect herself. She plays with the men and then disposes of them for her own gain. It helps her move forward and in the end leads her to success.

Ads and Toys

Like it was discussed in class it does seem like the media and advertisements dictate the way kids live their lives and socialize. Their imagination isn't as good as it used to be back in the days and having good skills when it comes to imagination and problem solving is crucial for every day life. I do think that ads and media should back off when it comes to children because almost everything in toy stores that appeal to kids are not helpful to build imagination. All the toys and pieces are already available and the toy itself tells the consumer what they are supposed to be and supposed to do.

These toys and ads also cause depression, anxiety and obesity in young children. All three of these things have gone way up since ads started to consume our every day life. These ads dictate not only what kids should do but what we should do as well and the main message here is SPEND YOUR MONEY! Every ad that we see is selling us something because they want something back from us and although we don't really have a plan to purchase something we do because they are good at getting our attention and sucking us in. They make ads in a way that appeal to the mass market as well as kids by making bright beautiful ads that catch our attention and they put them all over. Although they are obviously taking over on T.V they are also taking over online. Pop ups with ads enticing us to buy something we don't need or tempting us to join some online store. I think when it comes to the kids we should buy them toys that make their imagination grow and have them go outside and play to beat obesity and depression.

Video Vixens

When it comes to hip hop videos I don't understand why the women are so happy to demean themselves on t.v. Maybe it is because they want to be famous and hope that being watched on t.v. will advance their careers but for the most part they end up staying in the same spot. Very few of these hip hop women end up furthering themselves in their career. I once saw a documentary based on women in hip hop and this is what most of them were saying. They ended up doing the videos and staying because they were only being offered these types of jobs and nothing else. In the beginning it can be exciting and glamorous but it almost always ended up getting worse. The women ended up being objectified just like in the videos. Because they played the part in the music videos they were treated like that outside of work. Some said they were mistreated and abused. They were absolutely compared to prostitutes as the men were compared to pimps. The men treated them all the same way pimps would treat their prostitutes. Some of the rappers were also married and having affairs with these women and these women never ended it because it meant possible connections into the music world and a sense of comfort when it came to their money. These women were called Video Vixens. This world can also be scary and compares to the pimp prostitute relationship in the same way when it comes to trying to leave. It can be a very violent world because they are sorrounded by powerful men who are always in control and can be heavily involved in illegal activities and whom don't answer to anyone. They do what they want when they want with no consequences and the video vixens are witnesses to this so if they try to leave this world they could be in real danger. I think that wanting some media attention in a demeaning way isn't worth it. You may feel good about it for a bit because you get attention but it is always the wrong kind of attention and in the long run, if you start with a bad reputation it is hard to go down the right path.

Samantha's past

When Sex and the City first came out I didn't know what it was about and I wasnt one of the ones that watched it from beginning to end until it became more popular. I did think it was interesting how they portrayed all four women, especially Samantha when it came to sex. I liked how all the women were different. They weren't carbon copies of each other at all. You always knew who was who pretty much by what they said. What threw me off is the fact that they seemed to jump into bed with men rather quickly, excluding Samantha. I remember watching an episode where Carrie was with Aidan and she was pushing to have sex after only about a week of dating which I thought was crazy. Carrie was acting like the man and Aidan was actually telling her that they needed more time. I think it was one of the few episodes where Carrie was shown as being more of a "man" by pressuring sex and I didn't like the way she looked. I think the name of that episode was actually called ARE WE SLUTS. I thought after that episode they would slow down and enjoy the courting and drag it on more, if not the others then at least Carrie but it seemed like she just went back into the sack just as quickly as before. My favorite episode with Samantha was when she decided to have a relationship with a lesbian because throughout the entire season we are shown how much she loves men so I never expected her to get with a woman. I do like that her true colors where shown and it certainly didn't take long. She had men from her recent past drop by to have sex and flirting with her infront of her new girlfriend so it seemed a bit more realistic to me. It seems that even when Samantha should be learning about her mistakes she doesn't. She is proud of the men she has slept with and keeps doing it. There was also an episode where she went to get tested and couldn't remember the amount of partners she had had. For most women that would have scared them into reality and maybe be a little more careful about who to sleep with but Samantha was only worried about catching aids and when she didn't she went back to her normal self. In the end the only thing that managed to tame her was love and I think that is what made her the most relatable. We finally saw her soft spot towards the end and we realized that although she loved sex with many men and didn't apologize for it, she also wanted love.
When it came to the movies I realized that they weren't as good as the series. The first movie was ok. They all stayed true to character but I started noticing corny lines of dialogue that I hadn't noticed before and I thought it was way to long. The second movie had me gagging with the corny lines but it was very glossy and glamorous, which is why I watched it. It seems to me that the movies, especially the second one, started to promote more fashion and glamorous living instead of long lasting friendships like the series did.