Video 4

     Please enjoy the video "No Lie" by 2 Chainz-Feat Drake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQZMaG1eO74

Romance...How Movies Make Us Yearn for Love

     Chuck Klosterman wrote a very good and thought-provoking article on mass media's impact on our feelings about romance, love, and relationships. He opens by stating that he will never be satisfied by a woman, or will he be able to satisfy her. He blames this on mass media and their portrayal of romance. In movies you see the people who have out-of-control, crazy-in-love romances. This makes you want that same romance. In movies, no matter the difficulties, everything always works out. He states that we are all moved by these depictions and measure our relationships against them. He calls this "fake love" because we are yearning after a fictional symbol of romance that is often unattainable. He also points out that these fictional portrayals cause us to "need something more than we want." Humans feel a need for a relationship and emotional connection to other beings. If you stop to think about the effects that relationship may have on your life, you may find that you are actually happier single. People even go so far as to fall in love with fictional characters they see in movies, and then measure potential partners against those fictitious creations.
     There are several examples of these concepts to be found in movies. In "The Five-Year Engagement" you have two people who are madly in love until they are engaged. Then things start happening to postpone their wedding and force them apart. In the end, everything works out and they finally get married. In "Avatar" you have a good example of crazy-in-love. The main character is willing to give up his race, his world, to be with the girl he falls for. As for the "Twilight" series, it embodies fake love. The are groups of girls who are absolutely in love with Edward, a fictional character from the movie, and he's a vampire no less. These are just a few examples of how media shapes our views on relationships.

Video 3

     Please enjoy the video "I Wish You Would" by DJ Khaled ft. Kanye West & Rick Ross

http://www.vevo.com/watch/dj-khaled/i-wish-you-would-explicit/USCMV1200090?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=watch&utm_campaign=wp_djkhaled_iwishyouwould#/watch/dj-khaled/i-wish-you-would-explicit/USCMV1200090?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=watch&utm_campaign=wp_djkhaled_iwishyouwould

Killing Us Softly 3

     In the video, Killing Us Softly 3, Jean Kilbourne details many ways that advertising is harmful to women. Advertising subjugates women in a variety of ways. In ads you'll often see them portrayed as little more than sexual objects, infantilized, passive, silenced, etc. Very rarely will you see an ad portraying a woman as active and powerful. Ads also portray an unrealistic standard of how women should look. Studies show that only 5% of women have the same body type as the models seen in ads. This puts a lot of pressure on women to obtain an ideal beauty defined by society that is clearly unattainable. Below I have an ad for "Baby Lips" by Maybelline.

     In this ad you see the overarching tones of the infantilization of women in today's advertising. The product is aptly titled "Baby Lips." While some may argue that it's just promoting soft lips, it's implying that your body has to be more youthful than your age to be appealing. The product packaging also does not make it seem to be a serious adult product. This is pandemic in the advertising industry today where we are making grown women appear more youthful and innocent, while making younger girls seem more mature and alluring, blurring the lines of what is good and decent. This has a very negative impact on women. Men, seeing these images propagated by mass media, are also affected. These images can warp people's views of women and the role they play in society. We need to start presenting women as equals in society, and advertising it, if we hope to create a future where everyone is equal and valued for their own worth.

Video 2

This week we have a song from spring returning to the top of the Billboard charts. I happened to like this song when it came out. Now that it's receiving attention again I thought I would share it with those of you who may not have heard it. Below is a link to Whistle by Flo Rida.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSnkWzZ7ZAA

Pornography

     Pornography is something that has become increasingly common in society today due to the Internet. The Internet made pornography readily available to everyone in the comfort of their own homes. This easy and private access has led to the expression of ideals that were once considered taboo and not mainstream. Things like fetishes found on the Internet were not readily available in magazines at the newsstand prior to the inception of the Internet. Internet porn in a way has provided a deeper insight into the needs and desires of a variety of people because there are two benefits to communing online. You have anonymity, so nobody knows who you are or what you are doing. It also gives you a sense of community. If that video has already been viewed by millions of people, you're not an outcast or pervert.
     Along with pornography, sexual imagery is becoming more and more widespread. The old saying, "Sex Sells", is more true than ever. Sexual imagery is being used to sell almost every product known to man. You can't read through a magazine or watch TV for an hour without encountering an advertisement using sexual imagery to sell it's products. This over saturation of sex on society has started to influence and/or desensitize people to issues of sexuality that were once considered aberrant. Ten years ago the imagery and topics discussed in advertisements today would have been considered too graphic. Also there has been growing support and indifference to topics like same-sex marriage. The more exposed and educated society becomes to sexuality is going to help people identify with each other and form a more cohesive society.

First Video

     In line with the title of my blog, I wish to share some music that I hope you will enjoy, and help you recover from the tiresome task of reading my blog posts, LOL. Below is a link to the video for Lil Wayne's Mirror-Feat Bruno Mars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLUa8JUR18&feature=g-user-u

I hope you enjoy. As far as popular culture in rap and hip-hop, you can definitely argue Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars to be two of the biggest names in the game today.

The Pursuit of Happiness

     We all strive to make decisions in our lives that will make us happy. After all, isn't that what we all want? Despite that fact, studies have shown that we are not very good at making decisions that make us happy, or at least, not as happy as we thought we would be. One of the things these studies have shown is that people have an "impact bias" of how they feel future events will impact them. The "impact bias" causes people to think good things will be greater than they really are, and that bad things will be even worse than they end up being.
     I have found this to be true in my own life. I have had a variety of jobs that have provided me with different levels of income. Some jobs I thought going in that I would like less, but since I made more money, I would be happy overall. Other times, I took less money to do a job I thought I would like more, and thought that would make me happy. The truth is, after the newness of the opportunity wore off, I found my happiness back where it was previously. If I enjoyed work more than making money, that made my personal life more stressful as I had less money for the things I wanted. If I did a job that I liked less but paid more, my personal life improved, but I grew to hate going to work and overall my happiness was the same. In each case I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be for as long as I thought I would be. This same bias applies to material possessions as well. Last year I bought myself a huge 73" 3D DLP TV. I thought it was my greatest purchase ever and loved it. What should happen? A couple months later they came out with their new model year and had a huge 92" TV. I instantly wanted the newer, bigger TV. I still have my 73", mostly due to finances, and love it. I still have that thought in the back of my mind that I would like that bigger one a lot more, even though I know the one I have is enough. Popular culture has had a big impact on how I, and others view happiness. Media is always promoting things on the cutting edge, usually meaning bigger and better, and thus has caused many people to think of happiness in terms of the things they have.