Religious stereotypes illustrated through Google

Religion has always been something in my life. Sometimes with a bigger impact than others. Attending Texas Christian University has really exposed me to different religions and cultures that fascinate me and keep me eager to learn more. After enrolling in a "Black Religions of America" religion course at TCU, my curiosity skyrocketed and learning about all the different stereotypes in those times still sparked my interest. Also learning from my Race Gender and Mass Media class has contributed to my discovered interest of the subject.

This past Monday, we briefly discussed the stereotypes that Christians have involving them. After reading the article, I never formally recognized that there are three main Christian stereotypes, including, the "Christian extremist", the "fallen Christian", and the "liberalizing young evangelical.

A "Christian extremist" would be considered a Christian that is known commonly on the TCU campus as a "bible beater". This has become a common phrase throughout my generation. The "Christian extremist" or "bible beater" would be really exaggerated with their speaking of God and his word. I hear a lot of students around campus making fun of Christians with this viewpoint of themselves.

A "fallen Christian" is someone who goes against their word. I had a friend my first semester that spoke the gospel all of the time, but on the weekends would be partying the night away. It was contradictory, so people pointed fingers and accused her of her wrong doings. When a Christian person lies about sinning is one of my biggest pet peeves.

A "liberalizing young evangelical" is considered a person whom is favoring a more liberal position on a contentious social issue. This would be someone like Al Gore who is concerned about global warming but drives an Escalade. Contradicting everything against global warming.

I was more than curious to see what other religions had stereotypes when I discovered a Ven-Diagram created by Google's generated search engine. The descriptions read as followed:

I really want to dive into Jews because it interests me the most. According to google they are considered: funny, cheap, hated, greedy, liberal, powerful, ugly, rich, successful, and smart. The common phrase: "You're so Jewish" has been thrown around my personal social environment since the seventh grade, especially in the high school I attended freshmen through junior year in Tucson, Arizona. Most of my best friends were jewish and they said the saying to one another, which wasn't very stereotypical. But after I moved to Rockwall, Texas for my senior year, the phrase instantly became stereotypical because there aren't very many Jewish people in the town I moved to. It started to become offensive to me because some of my best friends were Jewish and I felt like I needed to stick up for them.

All in all, stereotypes are everywhere and we really can't avoid them. Everyone is exposed to them everyday of their life wether it be through word of mouth, advertising, or social media. The best way to stop stereotypes is to stop thinking them and stop spreading them.

Read more with the link below:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/religious-stereotypes-venn-diagram-according-to-go

Misogyny or Reality?

Lil Wayne is the rapper
who only memorizes his lyrics

During the class discussion Monday, it was hard for me to listen and point fingers saying misogyny is prevalent in ALL rap songs and ALL rap artists have a hatred of women. Now, I'm not African American or grew up listening to rap since I was a baby, but it is a genre of music I enjoy. Misogyny can be used against any type of genre of music. Yes, more explicit language is used in rap songs, but it is the way the rap genre expresses themselves. This goes the same for any other music produced around the world, it is an art of self-expression, and rapists are artists just like Pablo Picasso or Beethoven. Lil' Wayne, one of the worlds most famous rappers, never writes down lyrics on a piece of paper. He memorizes them without using a visual. He also came up with an entire album Carter IV while he was in prison. Again, you wouldn't find Toby Keith in prison, but one would have to give Lil' Wayne credit for being able to memorize all of those raps without writing a single word down on a piece of paper. To me, rap is like poetry. It is vocal poetry, adding a beat and giving life this poem the artist is expressing before you.

Moving forward to the subject of misogyny in rap music would be assumed to the naked eye. But, this is judging someone by the words coming out of their mouth and not taking into why they are reciting this poetry to the audience. When rappers say "hoe", "b*tch", "slut", etc. it would be my most educational guess that these women deserved it. They probably did some awful things or dirty twisted things just to say they hung out with "X rapper." In their music videos there are girls dancing in bikini's, but they signed themselves up to work that music video. Why are women strippers? Because they need money to support themselves. Why do rappers keep rapping what their customers want? Because they need income to support themselves. It is a vicious cycle and people do things they sometimes wouldn't necessarily want to do in order to receive a steady income. To me, women who hurt rappers or men in general are going to have to face their problems and sometimes men need to express themselves as much as women. Heck, Taylor Swift writes about all of her x-boyfriends including celebrities John Mayer and Taylor Lautner. Both of whom were effected emotionally by her songs. Sure, rappers include more explicit words, but that is just the culture.

Kat Deluna, a female rapper, also would be considered representing Misogyny to the article we read for class Monday. She is constantly using her body to make the guys in the video attracted to her, causing a demurring look on women. But, in my age group this is one of the most popular songs during Formals and Proms. It is just a fun dance to dance to, in which no one really hears the words expressed in the songs. This is similar to Lil John's "Get Low". It is one of the most popular songs at formals and proms, but one of its main lyrics is "slapemwitdadick".

Kat Deluna, center shaking her booty
in guys' faces... good view of the women sex
is portrayed in that picture

In my opinion I think America and the generations before my generation need to accept the fact that rappers are expressing their views through their style of art. People paint, take pictures, dance, etc. rappers should be able to recite their poetry in a vocal manner no matter the case. Women need to not take offense to the way they express themselves because they are not pointing their fingers at every single woman listening to their song calling them out on a personal level saying they are all of these rude words. It's a type of self expression and should be openly accepted just like any other music genre. Women need to take more offense to the fact that women are dancing seductively in videos, sometimes wearing nothing but a thong. The world isn't like it was in the 1950's anymore. Times have changed and will continuing to keep changing.

I wonder what the next misogynistic subject is going to be.

To Read the Critic's top 10 Misogynistic songs view article below:
http://theurbandaily.com/854555/10-misogynistic-rap-songs-that-women-love-nsfw/

Indian Princess Stereotypes

During the class discussion on Monday, a lot of Indian stereotypes were brought up to the classes attention that I had no idea about. It really almost baffled me because I was caught off guard that my assumptions had not been correct my entire life.

Disney's Pocahontas character 

The most mind-blowing stereotype for me what that there was never an Indian Princesses. Disney's Pocahontas had gotten the Indian Princess stereotype engraved into my head. Growing up I always wanted to be Pocahontas for Halloween. It is almost like breaking the news that Santa Claus is not real! Doing research later I came to find out that the term "Indian Princess" was used by white males to make Native American females more legitimized to white males. No wonder Pocahontas was so appealing to both of the Johns in the movie. White men were more attracted to her than Native American men and since she was a Princess not many people opposed to the idea.

Karlie Kloss , VS model

According to Cornel Pewewardy (article at bottom of the page), the story of Pocahontas is mostly real. She wasn't a Princess in real life, but her father was one of the head Native Americans of their tribe. Pocahontas was captured, took up English fashion and religious structure in her life. She married a British colonist, John Rolfe. This is where the "Princess Stereotype" emerges because she was exposed to the British Royalty and everyone began thinking her as a Princess because she was one of the richer Native Americans known. The concept of Monarchial Royalty was not known to the Native Americans until exposed to them after the British came to America.

Now, Pocahontas is known as a Disney Princess and a lot of publicity around the character has been apparent for many years. Little girls dress up like her for Halloween, and also women in the media pretend to be Pocahontas as well... or a more scandalous form of a Native American. I'm talking about Victoria's Secret Model, Karlie Kloss whom modeled a bikini and headdress for the Victoria Secret Fashion show. Something that blew up a lot of negative PR for Victoria's Secret. Kloss was sporting a leopard bikini with a giant headdress on... which VS should have done its homework because men were the only Native Americans that wore headdresses. Women did not wear headdresses. VS was not trying to spark any controversy as they made a public appology. Kloss also apologized for the incident and now the outfit will not be broadcasted during the actual airing of the VS Runway show in December. I personally do not find the outfit  demurring to Native Americans, but  a lot of Native Americans were hurt by the look. Luckily, VS is adhering to their publics and removing the look from their show.

Read more about Pocahontas below:
http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/pewe/writing/Pocahontas.html

Disney's Controversy Regarding Racism

During class on Monday, we were discussing the stereotypes associated with Native Americans, and the topic got brought up about how Disney stereotypes their movies. Looking back on when I was a child, I didn't understand the stereotypes that are presented today. They weren't viewable to a childrens' eye, so it did not create controversy within my household. However, now looking back on some of the movies that were made in earlier Disney times, stereotypes are present. Occidental College in California created a video that shows how Disney incorporates different races throughout its movies using the same stereotyped themes.

Crows in Dumbo dancing to jazz

The most controversial stereotype presented throughout the clip is the African Americans that are presented. In the movie Dumbo the Crows are black and are depicted by using slang in an African Americans voice. Some have even hinted towards this being represented for the Jim Crow laws. The movie was even made in 1941, during the black civil rights movement. The crows were depicted as poor and uneducated, along with constant singing and dancing to jazz music, and African American creation. Years later in 1967, The Jungle Book, featured the King Louie, the monkey, as the only gibberish speaking animal in the entire movie. He also emphasized how he wanted to become a "real person" throughout his scene in the movie. The final African American stereotype I will bring through this blog post is Sunflower, the centaur from Fantasia. She is a black centaur that polishes and grooms other centars. Depicting a slave symbol.

Indian figures in Peter Pan

Also, relating back to our discussion on Monday, Native Americans have not been portrayed in a positive light throughout Disney movies. The "Red Man" is the song sung during the Indian encounter during Peter Pan. According to cracked.com, the song says that a long time ago, a Native American blushed red when he kissed a girl and since then, science dictates that that is how Native Americans race has been genetically made up. In class we were discussing how Tonto, the side-kick character to the Lone Ranger and how his name is controversial since the word tonto in Spanish translated to stupid in English.

In my opinion, it is hard to think that something like this occurred behind Disney's publics backs, but I can also see it being an extreme contribution to the times that the earlier movies were created. The 1940's-1970's held a lot of racial tension through most minority races. Many people held hostility towards one another because of these racial tensions, and lines could have been crossed. I'm not sure anyone will ever really know if these similarities are indeed stereotypes and racist. However, I do believe that movies today are not going to be explicit with their racial stereotypes. I personally don't believe the new release of the Lone Ranger is going to create controversy with the Native American people. The article we read in class said themselves that the Native Americans were appreciative of the movie because it create publicity for their community and culture. Something everyone is striving for in this economy.

Read more:

http://www.cracked.com/article_15677_the-9-most-racist-disney-characters.html#ixzz2BgI2vHX8

Watch Occidental College's Video:

http://soctheory.iheartsociology.com/2011/11/01/racist-stereotyping-in-disney-movies/

Barbie Turned Real

Lukyanova modeling her
doll resemblance body

I grew up as an only child, so when I had play time, those activities were limited to things I could do by myself or with my stay at home mother. One of my favorite activities way playing with Barbie. Still to this day I own over 150 barbies. For me, I stopped playing with Barbies around the age of 12, but some other women in this world are trying to make themselves become literal barbies. 

Valeria Lukyanova, an Ukranian model is questioned to have under gone extensive plastic surgery that cost her $800,000 in order to make herself look like this Mattel look alike doll.  According to BBC News Magazine, it would be near to impossible to display Barbies features exactly in human form, but that doesn't mean people in the world aren't trying. Aside from Lukyanova, a recent American socialite, Hedi Montag, star of "The Hills" also changed her body to be considered "perfect". 

Montag spent over 1 million dollars on her plastic surgery, in which no she is broke. Her addictiveness made her transform from the sweet girl next door to a "Barbie". She wanted to look perfect for her media life, which soon ended after the show was cancelled following the plastic surgery. Montag went through 10 plastic surgeries in one sitting and dealt with months of pain to follow. 

Left: Montag before Right: After plastic surgeries

Now, Montag admits to regretting doing everything to her body. She went through tremendos pain both emotionally and physically. She and her husband also do not have any money left to afford a house! They have to live with Spencer's parents at one of their homes. 

Media and the idea to look "perfect" has really been effecting women nationally. Women are forgetting that inner beauty is what matters, not what you look like from the eyes of others. Being "perfect" is costly emotionally and physically, and I don't believe that the media is helping with the self-esteem of teenage and college girls. There are too many women suffering from anorexia and bulimia in order to obtain the "perfect body". 

Montag now has a G-cup
breast size

Barbie isn't real, and is a fictional character. Same with T.V. show characters and movie characters. Girls are beginning to believe that looking like this is the "norm" when it is physically impossible without plastic surgery. The world needs to do a better job of making it known that this is unhealthy and the way you look is absolutely beautiful and that is how you were meant to look. Throughout my lifetime, I want to mentor teenage girls to be more comfortable within their body both emotionally and physically. 

This is how the media, advertising, and products are destroying young girls self-esteems, and I want to start working towards changing this. 

Read more about Lukyanova below: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/22/valeria-lukyanova_n_1444169.html#slide=more222075

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm

Photos of Lukyanova below: 

http://vk.com/photos4926666

Read more about Montag below:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/10/19/heidi-montag-regrets-g-sized-breast-implants-wishes-would-have-saved-her-money/

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/slideshow/heidi-montags-plastic-surgery-transformation-12175653