16th Feb 2010
Blog 7 for Spring Break and March…
Hi all, I hope you have a terrific break. A few notes about the next two weeks:
For the break, you are to watch some of the Olympics…the purpose is to analyze the language used in describing the participants. Specifically, how is language used for males and for females? Is there a difference? What about the few athletes who are not “white?” Is there discussion involved in their “difference?” How is Canada discussed in the Olympics? And, most recently, what is the discussion about First Nations/Aboriginal people during the Olympics? As we discussed in class, Canada made the First Nations performers up front and then put in the back….is this being done during the games? Is there a Native presence at the games? Bring these remarks to class on March 1st. Make sure your names are on the paper. Don’t expect to find “anything,” just listen and observe. What are ads used during the Olympics? Is there anything discussed about Canada’s future after the Olympics? Will the Olympics help Canadians in any tangible ways?
Also…..in regard to March 4th, from 7-9PM, that is our Hip Hop Conference. It is geared to students in education, and I think you will enjoy it. If you attend, and then do a blog on it, you will receive 5 extra points….or, you can skip one blog, and get the 5 points. NOTE, you still must blog on this conference. Meaning that your total possible points for the class would be 105 out of 100. Email me if this is not clear.
FOR BLOGS: Yes, you blog this week. On the topic of your choice, I suggest the Olympics, and your impressions. Check out this video for thought on the opening ceremonies…
Enjoy your break….
POSTSCRIPT- ‘WHAT MAKES THE RED MAN RED’: For those of you interested in the way aboriginal identity has been constructed in media, take a look at this clip from Disney’s Peter Pan.
I may be going against what was said in class by a majority of the students, but I enjoyed the opening ceremonies. While I understand the issue with the Natives and how they were portrayed, I think the way they were brought into the Olympics was fine. Even though some may have been offended by this, the Natives that took part obviously were not or else they would have refused to participate. I am aware that many were not happy with the Olympics and the “fake relationship” that was broadcasted in relation to the Natives, but it has to be understood that we are not the first country to do this. In fact every host country has tried to include their Natives and have also faced controversy. I think that it’s nice for them to be included, and for those who don’t want to partake, it is their choice. Perhaps this is a step towards inclusion…you have to start somewhere.
Also, I didn’t see anything wrong with having the Olympians parade in front of the Natives for the Olympics are about the athletes. They worked many years and put many hours into making it to the Olympics, they deserve to be glorified. While I know that every coin has two sides, I do believe that all those who took part in the opening ceremonies knew their role and expected the Olympians to be the center of the attention, as they should be.
Enjoy the rest of the Olympics! (2 gold medals! – same as U.S I may add)
Go Canada Go!
RICKERS–CANADA’S GOLDEN GIRL
After an amazing win by Maelle Rickers last night for women’s snowboarding, everyone is emensely happy that Canada has one another gold. I too am happy and my family and I were filled with pride that a Canadian one, especially due to the conditions and harshships of last nights race.
Today however, I am quite appauled at the use of language done by the media, both television and newspapers. This morning, on the news it was statements such as “The first gold for a Canadian girl! Here’s hoping we can have a first gold for a team next!” “An English Canadian has won a gold!” “Canada’s golden girl!” “You go girl!” Every statement refered to Rickers as a girl despite the fact that it was WOMAN’s snowboarding.
On the newspapers, there were two things I noticed. First off, in the English newspapers, Maelle Rickers was on the front page with similar headlines. “Golden Girl!” “Vancouver Native” etc. However, on the French newspapers, she was not even mentioned on the front page. The hockey outcome was. She wasn’t mentioned until much later, on the 30s or 40s of the newspaper. But even then, there was much emphasis on her home town, that she was English but not that she was a girl. They mentioned her as a young woman.
Looking at the Olympics in such a critical manner is really depressing and rather unenjoyable. It is making the enjoyment, pride and facination that I get from the Olympics deminish. Yet, it is an informative exercise.
The opening ceremony at the olympics were a dissapointement. I won`t talk about the Natives as it was largely discussed in class. I will only mention that it was just tacky to have the feathered red skins that we conquered and tamed a long time ago parade for us. The rest of the opening ceremony was also very mediocre: what were those giant iceman doing there? if you haven`t watched it all or at all near the end when Wayne Gretzky (apparently the only good Canadian Hockey player worth mentionning with Bobby Orr) was waiting proudly for ten minutes… this wait time was due to a technical problem with one of the arms that wouldn`t come out of the ground. I don`t want to blame these poor technicians who couldn`t make it work but the whole team for creating such a lame concept in the first place. No matter what people said about the chinese opening ceremony I personnaly thought that at least it was impressing. Being the ones to receive right after them we could have trying a little creativity. We could have asked the Canadian Guy Laliberté (president of cirque du soleil) to do something with that opening ceremony and make it interesting. I don`t know who was in charge of creating the opening ceremony but in my opinion he/she will not make have a lot of contracts after that one.
While I was wandering through the supermarket, I struck how easily the concept of commodity fetishism could be applied to my weekly sojourn in pursuit of food.
I had always heard about how product placement within the shop floor is actually a very complicated process. Companies actually have to pay more to have their cookies placed on an “eyelevel” shelf or to be in close proximity to the end of aisle. Even the magazines and sweets at the check-out lines are not put there by accident. The very draw of the classic packaging pulls on our heart-strings and soon we find ourselves buying those beloved tic-tacs (even though they are so disappointing when you finally eat one). But I decided to do something thinking about it.
Here are a couple of emotional impulses my roommate and I were faced with when doing this week’s shopping:
-When selecting what brand of juice to pick for the week ( I kid you not) we went for the $1 more expensive Tropicana “because that’s what my [roommate’s] mom buys”.
- We selected “Lays original chips” because the picture on the packaging reminded us of the good taste.
-Later we argued over whether to buy the (cheaper) President’s Choice pasta sauce or Prego’s classic . Just as Marx’s argument for commodity fetishism suggests the relationship between individuals is sometimes superseded by our relationship with the object. What’s so wrong with P.C anyway? It’s no name after all!
This just goes to show yet another stealthy tactic on the part of the food company’s advertisers. They buy into our emotional connections with their products so we just keep on buying.
DIFFERENT TOPIC- Aboriginal Australians
With respect to the discussion about Indigenous people being misrepresented in the media, I wanted to share my experiences as an insider living in Australia. I had the opportunity to go on exchange to the University of Melbourne, Australia last semester for 6 months. I took two classes on Indigenous Australians as my elective courses. It was one of the most popular classes in the faculty of arts. I learned a lot about how Indigenous Australians were treated by the white establishment. I never had enough background to begin to understand the implications of how serious the issue was in Australia just a few years ago. Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, offered his apologies to Indigenous Australians saying: “we apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islanders children from their families, their communities, and their country” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7KBLIXnfKE).
Many Indigenous people had comments like “they think they are better than us, but they’re not”. White Australians create stereotypes about the Indigenous community. Many Indigenous people don’t get any qualification of education and a lot are unemployed. They have never found a connection to white society and blame the racism of white Australians. Seeing as though I lived in Melbourne for 6 months, and also worked with the community as a part time job, I saw A LOT of racism still present! Many of my co-workers pointed out anyone who was Indigenous and mocked them, and invited me to join in. As much as this was a shock to me, I wondered why I didn’t see this on the media here in Canada. Perhaps I am biased because I don’t watch the news often, but this was outrageous to me. Kevin Rudd’s apology only happened almost 2 years ago, in 2008. It hasn’t been that long that they are now trying to heal the wounds they have opened. My instructor for my course “Indigenous People of Australia”, spoke a lot about how Aboriginals are involved in the media (creating music with their didgeridoos, and even some artists are now very well known for their work). They sing, rhyme or rap about their oppression.
The elders have kept the traditions alive, while the young adapt to an ever changing world. Europeans brought change. Indigenous people’s land is sacred to them. They tell stories and sing songs of the dreamtime. Australians Aboriginals have treated huge demonstrations to draw attention to discrimination against them. One more thing I wanted to note was how the film “Australia” with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman was critically biased to many of the misconceptions people have about Indigenous people. It was a film centered on the idea of “whiteness” and disregarded the importance of Indigenous culture, struggle, and hardship. I just wanted to know how many people saw the film, and if so, would you agree it was a film that deconstructs their reality and their past struggles? Do you think the film has any similarities to other forms of media, such as the Disney film Peter Pan and how they represent their Indians?
In my opinion, all the criticism on Olympics is not giving a fair picture to the Games.
I understand why the opening ceremony may have been deceiving to some, but regardless of what was done or could have been done instead; it is impossible to please everyone. I could also understand how some parts of the ceremony may have been falsely represented, and yes some things did go wrong (the lighting of the cauldron), but in the end, we must remember the opening ceremony is a show. I think that the work, the effort, and the dedication of everyone who participated in the opening of this ceremony were truly present and should be acknowledged.
The unfortunate death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, the lousy weather, and the mishap at the opening ceremony may not have been the greatest start to the 2010 Olympics, but I still don’t believe the Games should be receiving the quantity of criticism they are getting all over the media.
The Olympic Games unite people from all over the world. They allow for the coming together of all nations as one and that is what should remain the focus of the Games.
As I observed the Olympics, I noticed several things that came up in the past class. First of all, when the Canadian male hockey team played, it was assumed by all of the news broadcasters that they would win their games. They were spoken about as if they were completely unbeatable and untouchable. When the woman hockey team had a winning of 18 to 0, the news broadcasters talked about it as if it was such a great surprise even though it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if they won by that much. It seemed as if Canadian men were expected to win and the women would surprise everyone if they won. As well, when it came to figure skating there was so much attention on Patrick Chan which is possibly because he is not Caucasian. The way he was hyped up was almost as if Canada was trying to show the world that they were multicultural by having a talented Asian athlete. Since the opening ceremonies, I honestly didn’t see anything mentioned at all about the aboriginals. I guess they were forgotten after they danced around in the background.
I have actually been thinking similar to Alice’s train of thought lately. I actually worked in a Pharmaprix for a long time in highschool, which gave me alot of inside perspective on how placement works in stores. I worked as a cashier most of the time, but I was also trained in the pharmacy, cosmetics, photo, and merchandising departments. In eeeevery single department there was a clear cut set of rules of how to place/sell each product. For example – in the merchandising department, the most annoying and important thing to do was to re-stock/re-order the shelves according to the shelf plans given to us by the head office. You could clearly see that products like Pantene and Tresemme would always get better places than the other shampoos. Our store would even go so far as to display the most expensive products instead of the ones on sale in special sections. I never understood how my boss could have the audacity to specifically always display the most expensive items rather than the best available.
The worst thing was how cosmetics handled their sales – they were on commission, and that was clear through every sale they made. What was the worst was how they would advocate for products that were behind on their sales, no matter whether it was the best product for the customer! I was a fully trained cosmetician for a while and I always ignored this rule. If Aveda’s blemish care wasn’t as effective as Lancome’s – I wouldn’t push the Aveda.
Retail stores are slightly horrifying because of things like this. I never EVER trust people on commission, no matter how genuine/honest they may seem. Their best intentions might be covered up by an order from the head office. And keeping your eye out for ALL products, not just the ones easiest to see, is how you really find good deals for good products.
DIFFERENT TOPIC: GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN MEDIA
In popular culture, women are typically portrayed as the inferior and subordinated gender, while the male specimen is generally regarded as the ruling and dominant gender. When we look Charlie Angels, such a television show/film would have never been popular if it were to have been about three detectives who solved mysteries without the aid or inclusion of a patriarchal character. It is because of the imprisonment to the strict rulings of the social order that makes a show such as Charlie’s Angel’s fit the criteria of the social experience, otherwise known as real life. Therefore, if the Angels were to have been a crime-fighting trio that worked without orders from a male figure, the show would have ultimately been unrealistic to the social order thus making it not popular. Now, I am not saying I agree with such a statement, but rather pointing out that Charlie’s Angel’s was popular do to the fact that it presented “real” life, where male figures were the dominant group.
In television and film, when the main character is a male, he is most often the primary focus throughout the media text, while the women are considerably less important and presented in a negative light. Women are typically depicted as the victims or the sex objects for the men. Basically the female characters are subordinated and placed in an inferior rank, below the dominance of the male characters.
In one of my favorite (not because of the details I am about to explain) television shows, “The Sopranos”, men and women are represented not as equals, but in form of dominant and subordinate groups. The males are dominant and the females are inferior beings that are subjected to the ideologies of white trailer park trash or sexual objects, which can be accorded to many of the female characters in the show. Most of the female characters that portray the gumar (girlfriend) that Tony and his gang sleep around with are often seen wearing tight revealing clothes which illustrate that she’s an easy girl, a prostitute and inferior to men; only there to serve the men. Throughout the six seasons of “The Sopranos”, it wasn’t rare to see one of the male characters treat women in a derogatory manner or as an object that only the males had control over.
Based on the above examination, can it be said that in order for a text to be not only considered, but highly regarded as popular, the women in the texts must fit and be confined to the relevance of the social experience of women continuously limited to living in a patriarchal structure. As John Fiske (1989) states, “popular texts may be progressive in that they can encourage the production of new meanings that work to change” the social order, but they can never be too radical or to go to far as to as oppose the social order. Thus, the texts must stay in the limits and confined spaces that they are given, never really crossing the boundary. This idea of popular gender discrimination is seen in many media texts, and it is only presented this way so that it doesn’t break the social order; ultimately staying true to how life “really” is. What are your thoughts on this subject?
DIFFERENT TOPIC: ADS ON THE INTERNET
In this week’s blog, I would like to look critically into internet and its use for advertising. It seems to me that it is almost impossible to find a webpage free of ads of all sorts. As soon as you search for information on the internet, you eventually inevitably end up on a website that will strike you with ads to play poker, to try IQ tests, to win IPhones, to lose weight, etc. The number of ads for one webpage is truly unbelievable; it is overwhelming. Moreover, there are ads on about every subject possible, even for the most pointless ones. The worst is that most of them won’t even lead to you what you want to know but just try to get something from you. Those ads trigger your curiosity, and then trap you into giving your e-mail address, phone number, credit card number. It is unthinkable that such advertisements still exist and increase in number, when we realize that most people are aware that they are dangerous. I guess there are also some people who still get trapped by these tricky ads and reinforce their creation. However, I do hope that the situation will change, because such advertising is pollution on the internet.
I was a little taken aback by what was said in class about the opening ceremonies. Personally, i thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes there was a strong emphasis on the native cultures in Canada, but that is the heritage of our land, so think that it should have been clear. Also, in terms on them dancing behind the athletes as they paraded in; I do not think that the fact that we were not able to see them clearly was symbolic in any way, rather, I believe that it was simply a means of creating a pathway for the athletes as they came in. The athletes, which I may add, are really the stars of the games (not the natives).
I also know that many people were appalled by the fact that they spoke French first to make Canada seem “fancy”, however, after doing a bit of research, I have found that French is actually always spoken first at any olympic games, followed by English, and then the language of the host country. It had nothing to do with officials wanting the world to think Canada was fancy.
I also think that there was plenty of representation from Quebec. The girl who sings the song that they play constantly on TV is Quebecois, and also about 10 minutes was dedicated to that French singer.
There was also mention about there being no Atlantic province representation, however, all of the celtic dancing and music was a tribute directly at them; a scene that lasted about half an hour during the ceremonies.
Overall, I think Canada did a great job on the ceremonies!
I am also one of the people who seemed to enjoy the opening ceremonies. I took them for what I think they are: an opening for the Olympic Games as opposed to a look into Canadian culture. I personally feel that the athletes should be the stars, and their abilities should be what are focused upon. While I understand everyone’s point of view and that perhaps the Native Americans were not in the spotlight, but I also think that if they (they being the Native Americans) should have made a louder statement regarding this. More peaceful protests or conferences to discuss the issues should have been alerted to the public, if not by TV then by word of mouth, facebook or even newspapers. I have heard of small protests, but nothing to the scale where I thought most aboriginal people were angry. Having a friend also participate in the event, and be so proud of who he is and what he was doing also made me think that the ceremony was beautiful and that the ATHLETES would bring a great competition this year.
Before even beginning to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, I had already certain expectations in my mind that I was hoping would be present in the show. What I was particularly focusing on throughout the show was the representations not only of the entire country but more specifically of the provinces and territories. After having watched the opening ceremonies, I came up with various conclusions.
Firstly, not all of the provinces were included in the portrayal of Canada. The Native Americans ongoing presence including certain segments that involved the breaking ice and the dancing around four large totems would relate mostly to the Canadian Northern territories. The whales as well as the Celtic sounding, Scottish-type music played by the fiddle including tap-dancing describes the Maritime Provinces. The Prairies, according to me was described in the piece that had a younger man sort of flying over the central stage and landing on areas with high grassland (the Prairie Provinces are known for having tall grassland). British Columbia was represented through the many high as well as large mountains on the Western Coast. My dilemma arises when considering the central provinces such as Quebec and Ontario. I found that there was little portrayal if not any of these two provinces during the opening ceremonies. Perhaps including the French language at the beginning of each announcement as well as inviting Garou and Nikki Yanofsky to sing helped give a certain description of Quebec. As for Ontario, I had difficulty finding something that related to this province and I felt like there was nothing included to represent this province.
Secondly, I had many issues with the authenticity of the entire ceremony. One thing that constantly bothered me was the ongoing presence of the Native Americans throughout the ceremony. I remember mentioning to my family that this is the most false representation since the media tried to make the entire world believe that Native Americans are a dominant population everywhere in Canada and that Canadians tend to know many aboriginal people. I remember specifically telling my mother that “they are making it seem like I have many Native American neighbors” when I do not recall ever meeting an aboriginal person and I even know less about their culture. Another thing that captured my interest was the four totem poles that were being included in the Native American routine. I simply did not understand why they were there and I found that they just reinforced more Aboriginal stereotypes. I had an issue as well with the representation of the bear that was presented through the constellations (the big bear) and the large white bear that was taken out. Apparently the black bear is the most common type of bear in North America but I think that the idea of the bear was introduced for a more corporate reason. One of the most important advertisers of the Olympics is Coca-Cola hence the bear and I strongly believe that it relates to that. I even found that the large white bear greatly resembled the Coca-Cola bear. There are more things to mention but these points were the dominant ones in my mind.
As much as I found many flaws in the ceremony and I was sort of disappointed of certain moments throughout the ceremony, I still feel just like my peers. I enjoyed the majestic and aesthetically appealing moments in the show as well as the great Canadian talent that was present. I still believe that Vancouver put on a great show regardless of the glitches and lack of authentic representations.
In response to Alison Court, I hate to admit it, but I feel the same way about people who work on commission. I too, have a hard time trusting them. Unfortunately it’s really rare to find a nice honest person. I understand that they need to make a living but at the same time, I am more likely to return to a store where I appreciate the service and where my needs are met. I think in the long run when it comes to retails, honesty SHOULD be the best policy.
I also feel manipulated by product placement and find it somewhat scary how well it works. I used to work at Toys R Us and on boxing day, not one item was on sale. However there was a line up around the building. My manager gave us a meeting before and told us how he placed all of our newest most expensive items on the “track” (where shoppers tend to follow) and put them in a nice display. As he was laughing he told us about how much this technique works and to watch how many “suckers” would fall for it. I was appalled and luckily quit shortly after. I will never forget the hundreds of dollars people where spending on toys, it was just ridiculous! This really made me stop and think about the effects of product placement and the aspirations of the corporations.
Olympics
Hi everyone,
I would like to express my disagreement towards the way women and men are not talked about in the same way in the Olympics. I know we are supposed to write about in our assignment for our reading week, but I really felt it was important to be mentioned.
First, while watching the women hockey game earlier this week, I was stunned that the players were called by there first names whereas men are always called by their family name. The commentator seemed to talk as if he new each woman well <>.
Second, when Marianne St-Gelais won the silver medal on the 500m, the first thing the commentator found to say about her after saying it was her birthday was that she was Charles Hamelin’s girlfriend. Who freaken cares who her boyfriend is?! She won the medal, not him. I felt like the commentator was taking away the woman’s credit for winning.
*Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of Charles Hamelin as well, but I did not feel it was appropriate to talk about that when the young woman won her unexpected medal.
I feel that the only reason some people feel disappointed about the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is because of the big hype that was created leading up to the big day. I do not exactly understand how much ‘WOW’ people were expecting from these ceremonies and quite frankly, I think that aside from one or two mishaps, the opening ceremony definitely had its WOW moments. I understand that perhaps Canada was trying to sell a certain image of our country that perhaps some feel was not all true, however I do not believe that we should be criticizing our own country as such. We should be recognizing how our country came together for a worldwide event and showed the world our dedication, hospitality and hard work put forward towards carrying out a successful event.
I agree with Amy and everything that she has mentioned concerning the opening ceremonies, she is absolutely right. Yes, we did oppress the Natives at one point in our Canadian history, however now we are giving them the chance to show the world what beautiful cultures make up our country. It was a celebration for them and a chance to finally show the world who they are.
Personally, I found the ceremony a bit long and at times boring with all the dancing that went on, however for those who enjoy watching, I think it was a beautifully done. My sister is currently at the Olympics and she attended the opening ceremonies. I called her to tell her that I thought the ceremony was really long and not at all what I expected and she said that actually being there and watching it happen right in front of her was so overwhelming. i think she’s right, I guess it is easy to criticize when we are not actually there, however I think that if many of us were there as it was happening we would not hold as many criticisms as we do now.
Elisa is right, the Olympics is an event that brings the world together and I think that Canada is doing a great job at keeping it all together!
I personally enjoyed watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics because it was really nice to see all the nations uniting together. It wasn’t until I got to class Monday morning that I realized all the misrepresentations. However, even though there may have been misrepresentations I believe Canada put on an aesthetically good show.
Watching the news I did notice that the media expressed that Garou’s performance was exceptional compared to the other Canadian artists present during the Olympic ceremony. Garou was the only artist who performed a French song and he actually admitted that he felt very nervous during his performance at the Olympic ceremony. Yet the media glorified its Canadian singers like Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams. Headlines in the newspapers read “Canadian Stars Dazzle At Winter Olympics Ceremony”. However, during the show it was clearly evident that Bryan Adams was lip-synching throughout his performance. This was noticed when he missed his cue and was singing along to the wrong words while his microphone was near his leg. I think that the media should have given our Quebec artist more praise especially since he was able to sing live.
I spoke of my disappointment with the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in class and hold true to my points. As Chantalle Gauthier described her enjoyment of the Opening Ceremonies and the inclusion of our native population, she said: “it has to be understood that we are not the first country to do this. In fact every host country has tried to include their Natives and have also faced controversy”. I completely agree that inclusion is important, however there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. I really thought our country was more careful and tactful and not exploitive. I am insulted at the fact that our country has fallen into the world trap of greed, money and performing for egotistical gain… I think we could have done a much better job at promoting all of the people of Canada, perhaps by involving more children in the show to promote our future. We have a huge asian population that was forgotten. I hope the Opening Ceremonies will foster dialogue and discussions regarding our Canadian heritage, our opinions on the exploitation and diminishment of Native people of Canada. Another issue is the Government tells us that there is no money for schools and teachers, but it is able to fund “outreach” programs to build schools in Afghanistan, and yet we have native communities up north that don’t have clean water! Our own people are starving! This is what angers me. Through the Olympic Ceremonies, we are portraying ourselves as a beautiful, young, progressive, clean and rich country, when in fact we are just as corrupt as every other country in the world. I am ashamed.
If I can turn this from negative to positive, I have been awakened and I hope others have too. I want to educate myself, my children and my community on the Native cultures and people of our country. I want to find ways to help. I pose these questions: How do we define Canada? Who are the people of Canada? What are we proud of? Where do we see Canada in 100 years from now?
After class on Monday, I was really curious about a few things related to the Olympics so I did some research. I found out a little bit of information about aspects from the opening ceremonies. First of all, the reason why all the announcements are in French first then followed by English is because the man who modernized the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, was French and because of him the first language for the Olympics is French, no matter what country they are in. Also, the reason why there were only 4 tribes at the beginning is because this year’s Olympics are only on those 4 major tribes’ lands.
Also, I agree with the majority of the comments here. I think it was just the right amount of cultural dance and the Olympians because in the end, aren’t the Olympics about the Olympians? I think that it was very tastefully done. Personally, I like watching the opening ceremonies to see what kind of athletes Canada has and what they will bring to the table so for each country to walk in like they did; I thought it was just right.
I, like several of my peers here, actually enjoyed the opening ceremonies. I was excited to see the opening ceremony to see how Vancouver welcomed the world to Canada. It was not the best ceremony that I have seen, and there were parts of the ceremony that could have been better, but as a whole, I think it was good (the whales was one of my favourite parts). Yes, there was a lot of emphasis placed on native cultures, but, as Amy said, they are part of our heritage and I think it is important that they were included.
While in class, we also discussed the fact that there was a lack of Quebec representation. However, I believe that Quebec was represented at the ceremony. There was Nikki Yanofsky who sang the national anthem and Quebec singer Garou (though he didn’t sing all that well, in my opinion). However, there were also two people from Quebec who brought in the Olympic flag. They were race car driver Jacques Villeneuve and astronaut Julie Payette. So, Quebec did have some representation at the ceremony.
As Elisa said, it is impossible to please everyone. However, the Olympics are about the athletes and that is what the focus should be on. The politics should be left out of it (though that rarely happens). The Olympics allow nations to come together. For two weeks, we have a chance to support our athletes and show our pride for our country. I personally am enjoying watching the Olympics and definitely am proud of the Canadians and to be a Canadian!
I have been following figure skating since I was a little girl and it comes as no surprise that I have been avidly following it during the Olympics. There is a Canadian figure skater, Patrick Chan, who was expected to medal at these Olympics. He was in many commercials prior to the games and was even featured on a bottle at Mc Donald’s. There was a lot of pressure put on him in the media because it has been a really long time since a Canadian man has won gold and it would be even greater if he could do so on Canadian soil. There was a major media focus on him before the competition started but unfortunately he was not able to live up to the expectations. After he had a disappointing short program, the commentators were still sure that he would be able to rise to the challenge in the long program. Then, he skated well but it was not enough to medal. After his final performance, the commentators spoke about all the pressure put on the 19 year old and how it was normal that it would be difficult to live up to it. I just found that it was ironic that people only saw the pressure after he was unable to live up to everyone’s expectations. I do agree that there was a lot pressure on Patrick but I also believe that this pressure could have been avoided if the media wasn’t constantly projecting expectations on him. I think that it is important to encourage athletes but creating unnecessary pressure added to personal expectations can negatively impact the athletes. I think that finishing 5th in the world is a great accomplishment but others may not feel the same way after hearing that he could have won gold. I feel that by creating these high expectations, we become unimpressed with anything less. In any other circumstance, being the 5th best athlete in the world would be an amazing accomplishment but unfortunately all the build-up may cloud our judgement and make us disappointed with that result.
**Olympic Opening Ceremony**
Just like many have already said, I really enjoyed the Olympics opening ceremony. The introduction to Canada and the snowboarder snowboarding in was amazing! You were able to tell how much hard work and dedication was put into the whole show. The long hours of work they had to put into it was shown! This is our country and we need to be proud of it, not criticizing it like many do! Of course, it is important to have our eyes open in order to make sure that no one is offended in any way, but overall, I found the opening ceremony well-done! Many people are comparing ours to Beijing’s, but reality is, they spent much more money, and the people were not working in the same conditions as they do here! Since it is such an important event which everyone comes together (like Elisa said), we need to support one another and recognize the hard work that was put into it! No matter what was done, there will always be complainers, criticizers,…
**DIFFERENT TOPIC** – Tiger Woods’ apology
This morning Tiger Woods broke his long silence and apologized repeatedly for the things he had done. He said, “I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior” and, “I was wrong and foolish…” He was truly sorry to his family, and his fans and said that he would continue to attend therapy.
Watching this I really believed that he was sorry and actually felt bad for him and the situation he put himself in. He said that he would like to return to golf, and I think that it would set a great example if he did. Having the strength to say sorry to the public and to get back on his feet will give the right message across the sports world, especially to his young fans.
After Tiger’s speech we saw his alleged mistress, Veronica speak to the public along with her attorney. They went on to say that Tiger apologized to everyone except for Veronica. Veronica started crying, she was deeply hurt. Her attorney represented by Gloria Allred, said that Tiger needs more therapy than just sex addict therapy; he needs lying and betrayal therapy… along with other things. Veronica said she wanted to meet with Tiger face to face and wanted an apology, I just find that ridiculous! I mean, Tiger is trying to fix his life, to get back on his feet, why would he want to go back to the source of the problem?! I was quite shocked when I was watching this. It was really surprising to see Gloria and Veronica go on about Tiger and how he should be apologizing to Veronica. Tiger just made a great speech, and they were trying to ruin it. Was it just for the attention, and maybe money?
To prove how ridiculous it was, CTV News didn’t even mention the two ladies when they spoke about Tiger and his speech. They said that, “…what the world saw was a very apologetic tiger woods.” They didn’t mention the alleged mistress at all.
Tiger can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?
When did the Olympics become about buying things? I must have missed that memo because I was thoroughly surprised when a CTV commercial went on for about 5 minutes advertising all the Vancouver 2010 Olympic memorabilia that viewers can purchase, at the click of a mouse. The website, the announcer most proudly declares, is http://www.ctvolympics.ca/store. Curious, I checked it out.
CTV offers nine pages of different Olympic related products. A fan can buy anything, from a 75$ sterling silver key-ring mascot and 30$ Canada scarf, to a 300$ Limited Edition Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch replica. I must admit that even I am guilty of advertising for the Olympics through commercialism and my beloved red Olympic mittens. Nevertheless, I feel like this online purchasing store is a little much. At least, (and this is the reason why I wear my mittens) “Net proceeds from every pair [of red Olympic mittens] sold go toward supporting Canadian athletes in gaining access to top equipment and training” (The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games). I am not monetarily supporting a corporation, I am supporting the athletes. I wonder where the net proceeds from all of the memorabilia advertised on CTV’s website go. Unable to find information on that topic, your guess is as good as mine. My guess: all proceeds go, not into helping the athletes train, but into the company’s own pockets.
As much as I hate to admit it, I’m pretty biased about the Olympics. They could be the worst Olympics ever, and I would still love them and follow them as closely as I do now. A big part of this is because they are the Canadian Olympics, but even if they weren’t, I would still be almost as big a fan as I am now. I think that winter Olympics are the most exciting things that happens to the world as a whole. Yes, the summer Olympics are exciting as well, but I find the winter Olympics to be filled with more excitement and hope, and less controversy between countries and athletes. Especially this year, there is such Canadian pride, all over the country. You can see this walking through any town or city in Canada; more than two million red Olympic mittens were sold, with another million being circulated during these two weeks. I know that many people see buying this memorabilia as consumerism, and maybe it is, but I see it as a fantastic way to show everybody how proud I am to be Canadian.Throughout residence over the last week, you can always find a few TV’s on that are showing the Olympics, and every time a Canadian is competing, you can tell just from the cheers that go up and down the hall. I think that the role that the media has played in hyping up the Olympics is amazing, and an amazing way to use all sorts of media in a positive way!
I have been watching the Olympics n and off when I have time. Personally I have been watching it on CTV (Canada) and NBC (USA).
I have been enjoying watching the segments that CTV have been airing that allows us to get more of an inside look at the lives of the athletes. The only thing that I wonder is how they pick the segments that we see. If my speculations are correct we are only seeing the athletes that are major contenders for medals or the segments are being aired after the have won a medal. Today I saw a segment on Jon Montgomery and what his life is like back home and what he does on the off season to practice. Jon Montgomery won Canada’s 4th gold medal yesterday in skeleton. We have 3 Canadian male skeleton athletes and none of them were mentioned other than just before they did their run. Are the other Canadian athletes being left at the way side because they are not winning medals?
NBC has been interesting to watch because they are making efforts to introduce Canada and Vancouver to the American people. Which like we discussed in class has been a Canada that even Canadian’s don’t know. My question is why?
This morning they were taste testing Canadian Micro-brury beer. Is that all we are know for “Great Beer” with a high alcohol content (which was mentioned about 5 or times in a 5 minute spot) There must be more about Canada that we can share and teach the world/American people about.
Many of the other channels have been reporting from bars and restaurants and I, someone that has not been to Vancouver or Whistler is stating to get the impression that drinking is just part of what it means to be a proud Canadian Olympic fan. It must be more than that??
So today I’m going to choose about talking about the Olympics. For this one, to save me from discussing it in my content analysis (I’m not sure if you want this in point form or not), but I’ll discuss the Opening ceremonies.
Granted, I never watched any previous Olympic games, partly because I’m not into sports, I kinda don’t watch what’s on TSN, so this makes me a first time watcher.
The opening ceremonies left me indifferent. It was good but was bad at the same time. So for the pros of the ceremonies was the recognition of our Canadian culture…somewhat. They recognized that we’re a bilingual country and have the presence of the Natives there. It’s a good thing, because going back to our Canadian history, they were here first, and then the land began to be settled in the 1600s-1880s. I liked how they used their 3 languages. They introduced themselves in their Native tongue, then French, and then English, so I feel the ceremonies actually recognized their presence by letting them speak their Native language. That’s good.
Now for the cons, and I can think of several. One, why the heck did the ceremony starts off in French? I can understand if it was held in Quebec, but in BC, is French really their official language? Absolutely not. Two, note I did say the openings recognized our culture…somewhat. According to my EDEE 280 notes, in 1971, Canada has signed a multiculturism policy. Multiculturism is recognition of all languages and cultures. multiculturism is so unique to the world, it’s become very important to us, it’s even part of a course that is optional to take in our education faculty. So did the opening ceremonies fully represent this? Nah, not really? Sure they got the language down spot on, but their missing all the cultures. Why can’t there be one person representing their own culture. We have Italians, Asians, Greeks, and so forth, surely they can include them in the opening ceremonies. Sure they have the athletes, but they should have been dancing with this Indians. That leaves me to three, oh those poor Indians… while it was nice to be represented they were totally background. They didn’t even get enough camera time. While they were introducing the athletes of the competing countries, they just blended into the background, and dancing for 3 long hours, wow, that’s sure got them all tuckered out. That’s pretty much what to say, it was a nice ceremony but could have been perfected a lot better.
Vancouver Olympics
Like Tania mentionned with her example of Patrick Chan there is a tremendous amount of pressure put on Canadian athletes because they are competing at home. I am surprised that for so many of our Canadian athletes that this is there first Olympics. Some of there Olympians do extremely well in competition but when they come 4th or 5th or lower they seem to feel as if they have let Canada down. For their first Olympics these seem like a great rankings! Although, it would be amazing for some of these Olympians to win a medal in the country it seems difficult to imagine when they are competing against athletes who have been training and competing for years and years. Yes, we should be rooting for our Canadian athletes but not expecting them to win medals or being sad when they do not get a medal. We should cheer loud when they do but cheer loudly just the same when they receive their ranking.
I am also quite dismayed when we keep hearing about how dangerous different tracks and courses are at the Olympics. The 2010 Olympics began with the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili. Yet after this accident it has been said other competitors said the track is far too dangerous and if there been plexiglass on the sides the disastrous accident could have been avoided. Last night on CTV they showed how a bobsled team had to withdraw due to an accident because of the track and also s skier went off the course and fell into a gully and was injured because the course was unsafe. When hosting the Olympics one would think that everything would be made a safe as possible yet many Olympians said prior to the Olympics that these courses were dangerous but Canadian officials deny this. Are Olympic organizers simply trying to save money at the expense of athlete safety? Is it to give the Canadians an advantge? Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry. I am appauled that they did not seem to do anything about the allegations that the tracks were unsafe.
I agree with Diana that the Olympics are too commercial. Leading up to the Olympics everyone is told to show they “believe” by going out to buy official scarfs, hats, sweater etc… with the slogan on them. Many products advertised on television for the Olympics mention that proceeds help Canadian Olympians. I am skeptical about just how many dollars from the “I believe” merchandise actually end up helping Olympians! Most items seem just another ploy to get people in our consumer economy buying more stuff.
Last week I read something in the NY daily news that really caught my attention. As some of you fashionistas may know, this past week was fashion week in New York city. Since I love everything fashion, I have been keeping a close eye on all the runway shows, and all the gossip and news from the week. This one story really surprised me and I would like to share it with you.
Even after all of the protests and promises, the fashion industry is still calling normal girls fat. Supermodel, Coco Rocha, is the fashion industries latest victim. Rocha a mere size 4 has had a very difficult time booking jobs for this past weeks Fashion week in New York city. Rocha claims that she usually books six or seven shows during fashion week, however this year she only booked two due to the fact that she does not fit the sample size, which is a size zero. A size ZERO!!!!!!!!???
Rocha had spoken out to the New York Times, saying, “It took a while to grow the confidence to say, ‘This is who I am, take it or leave it.’” And the fashion industry just so happened to leave it. Rocha shares that two years ago she was at her thinnest, 108 pounds and standing at 5-foot-10, and someone in the industry told her that she needed to lost weight. So that is exactly what Rocha did. She made herself ill with diuretic pills taken on an empty stomach. Rocha made a promise that she would never do that again.
After reading about this story on all of the fashion blogs, and websites, I decided to do some more research and found that while former Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham was guest hosting the View last week she shared her views on the fashion industries use of size zero models. According to Beckham, designers should not shun thin models but supports calls for bigger girls to promote their clothes. She insisted that many girls on the runways do not starve themselves and instead have a naturally small body shape, “most of these girls are naturally thin. And I don’t think we should be discriminating against someone because they are too thin or too curvy or too large or whatever it is,”
This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to be sending out, as we have been preaching for many years. The people watching the fashion shows are young, impressionable women. The fashion industry has gone too far in pushing a dangerously thin image that women, and even very young girls, may try to emulate. It sickens me that this is still going on and that supermodels are not being hired because they are a size four and not a size zero.
Just as Tania commented, I am also following the figure skating during the Olympics. I am really enjoying the performances, no matter how well they do. I think that each athlete has really tried their best and competed to the best of their abilities. I think it is important to realize that even without the media, these athletes are already under and immense amount of stress. In my opinion I believe it is extremely disappointing that after an athlete performs, and doesn’t live up to expectations for whatever reasons, he or she is put under even more pressure by the media, discussing all the factors to why the athlete didn’t perform well. I have to agree with Tania when she says that the media adds a lot of unnecessary stress to a situation. Win or lose, the Olympic athletes need our support. No matter what position the athletes finish in, we should be proud that they have the courage to compete in such a high profile competition.
In response to Ilana Carmeli’s comment, I also heard about this incident regarding supermodel Coco Rocha, and i am absolutely appalled. Just because she is not a size zero, she is not getting booked for fashion week? this is just crazy. I just do not understand what these designers are thinking sending young girls that appear so gaunt and frail down the run way. I don’t know if they are healthy or not, but I don’t think the frail, fragile look is very feminine, and I do not think it’s attractive. For a while the fashion industry was big on putting “normal” women in commercials and on the runway, however this example of Coco Rocha proves that the industry really has not changed. Stories such as Coco Rocha’s is so sad to hear and designers are setting such a bad example for young girls who would like to pursue a modeling career. Imagine going through puberty and being told you were too big to go down the runway, at a size 4!!!! This is just causing more insecurities and eating disorders in our society.
The other day i came across the March issue of Canada’s Fashion magazine. The magazine was advertising spring’s new essentials, the latest perfumes, the season’s top trends and how to wear the ”must have cropped jacket”-four ways. While these articles were very intriguing and interesting to me, I turn the page and the next few articles discusses places in Montréal to get plastic surgery procedures. They had at least 10 pages with different cosmetic surgery ads. One page even gave the address for the Montréal Jewish General Hospital, and directed the reader to a doctor who could do “the best!” liposuction and botox!! The magazine even showed before and after pictures of Canadian’s who had visited these places to get procedures done. Additionally, the magazine offered coupons for 10 and even 20 percent off of their next botox procedure. When doing research about this issue I came across the title for this section of the magazine. It is titles, “Our Cross-Canada Guide To The Best Places For cosmetic Fixes” This really appalls me that this magazine could advertise the best places for “cosmetic fixes”!! To me, using the word fix sounds like an addiction. How could such a reputable magazine try to sell this addiction? On this note, reality star Heidi Montag has been said to have a horrible addiction to medical procedures. She even went as far as having over ten big procedures in one day. Did I mention this Hollywood star is in her early 20’s? She even stated to Entertainment tonight that she wants to get more! What is this saying to young girls who look up to Heidi? To me it is saying that you are not beautiful if you are not plastic. Here are before and after pictures of Franken-HEIDI!!…enjoy…
http://yeeeah.com/2010/01/15/heidi-montag-before-and-after/
A few days ago I was getting my daily dose of Perezhilton.com, a very well known celebrity blog site, I came across an article Perez posted. The article spoke of another gay-oriented ad that had CBS rejected from playing during the Super bowl.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network PSA featuring Hilary Duff is an ad that highlights the “Think Before You Speak” campaign. In the ad it shows a few girls shopping and trying on clothing. One girl asks the other girl if she likes the top that she is trying on and the girl responds by saying “that is so gay”. Meanwhile, Hillary Duff is shopping in the same store as the two girls and hears them using the word gay when referring to the girl’s shirt being ugly. Duff stops the two girls and explains to them how insulting it is to say that something is gay when they mean it is bad. She advises them to think before they speak and then leaves the store causing the girls to look at each other feeling very guilty.
I think that the ad was fantastic and I am shocked that this ad was rejected. First of all, the ad speaks of something that is an issue during this day and age. Many young teens use the word gay as a synonym for bad and it is unacceptable. Many young people are not even aware that by using the word gay in that context, they are insulting many people. Since many children, teens and parents were watching the Super bowl, this ad would have been very beneficial. I believe that it would enlighten many of the views and maybe teach children and teens to think before they speak. Secondly, Hillary Duff was in the ad. She is a young, and very popular in the media. Why would they not want her in an ad during the Super bowl?
I am appalled.
NEW TOPIC: Beauty in the media
I was laying in bed the other night thinking about what to blog on for this week and there is a topic concerning media that hit me hard that I really wanted to write about. Has anyone ever noticed that whenever something bad happens to someone (e.g. murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.) it is always emphasized so much more and seems so much worst if that particular person is pretty?
Just to give an example, think back to the Dawson shooting. There was tones of media coverage for this event. In the end, one person died on this tragic day. And she was gorgeous. I remember watching the news and news anchors on all stations focused on how sad it was to lose such a pretty girl. Of course, it was extremely sad that this girl passed away but really, if she was considered ugly, would it have been any less sad? Why is it that you think there is such an emphasis on beauty in the media?
So after class on monday, I was left with a bit of a negative feeling and so I am going to blog about it. Like most people that have written, I did enjoy the opening ceremonies. As Elisa and others have mentioned, it is impossible to please EVERYONE, and there will always be groups that are forgotten or left out, or find this and that offensive. As with any internationally televised event, it will never be 100% pleasing to every citizen, but I think we are concentrating on the wrong things here. YES, maybe there were cultures and demographics in Canada that were not represented. YES, maybe the Natives were made to dance for too long, and there were hitches in the ceremony. Of course there will be controversy. But why are we not concentrating also on the positive effects of the entire Olympic event? I am so sick of the constant debates in the media about the ceremonies and how different things have gone wrong, and Canada should have done things another way.
The Olympics, especially in 2010, are something our country (and all countries for that matter) really need! The unification and national pride that they have created is phenomenal. When Alexandre Bilodeau won our first gold medal, I felt so proud to be Canadian, and the fact that Vancouver is the setting for all these victories… its something money cannot buy. Aside from the amount that the Olympics cost, which I somewhat understand can be seen as a “waste” of money to some people, they have put our home country on the international scene. I did not see one angry face in the millions of people watching that ceremony, and I have not spoken to one person that does not feel immensely proud of our country and our athletes for their achievements.
The Olympics, which promote healthy competition, athleticism, national pride and many other positive aspects, are what I believe to be a necessity in our day and age. How often can you turn on the TV and cheer for someone that is representing you as a Canadian citizen, and smile proudly along with them whether they win or lose? With all the depressing news that our modern society is bombarded with every day, I know I am not the only one that enjoys watching the games and feels connected in such a special way to every Canadian that I see cheering for our country. All issues aside, why do we have to make this into another negative controversy that our world really just does not need? I will never feel “ashamed” or “dismayed” that my country is showing to the world how far we have come, and how welcoming and strong we really are.
Different topic: Painted Skin Color in Media
February 8th we talked in class a lot about skin color and what adjectives usually are associated with the color. For example, dark color such as black skin is evil and white is pure. We were also shown a video about contestants on a variety show who performed a Jackson Five song painted and dressed as African Americans. This made me think about the recent controversy about a white, Dutch model Lara Stone who posed for French Vogue magazine painted in a dark chocolate color. Many criticized the photography and artwork behind the shootings and considered it racist. I am not really familiar with Vogue Magazine but I can understand why some people of other racial colors than Caucasian may be upset. Why didn’t they simply hire a black model? From my point of view, you can consider it racist if you want to view it as racist or you can view it as fashion art. This model was also painted white in other shootings but nothing much was talked about that. All in all, I guess Vogue wanted to do something different that would spark some talking about their work. If you want more background information about the situation, just Google it and type “Lara Stone controversy” Does anyone know of other supermodels or fashion magazines that have created similar hullabaloos?
RACISM AND DISNEY
I am actually very interested in the discussion we had regarding Disney and the depiction of the natives in Peter Pan or the ethnically incorrect depiction of Arabs in Aladdin. Disney has been known over the years for their casual and/or subliminal displays of discrimination but does this demean its entertainment factor? As a child a watched movies like Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, and the Little Mermaid religiously. I realize now, when teachers and peers point out the casual racism that as a child I never really even noticed it, and I don’t think it really affected me neither since I’m not the kind of person that has negative views of other ethnic groups besides my own. I would how ever like to mention that the gender roles in Disney movies always make women/girls look like damsels in distress, and give young girls the idea of perfect prince charming, which is just not a reality of life sometimes!
Like what Genevieve has said, I also think that disney movies didn’t affect me either. I loved disney movies and I used to watch every movie more than 3 times. I used to sing along the songs also, but I never noticed there were any racism to the songs or the color of the skins of the characters. I remember in one of the class, someone mentioned that people in Aladdin, people who were the mean ones had a darker skin compared to the ones who were nice, such as Aladdin who had a whiter skin. I didn’t realize the song in Peter Pan to be racist as well. Yes, it is true that I don’t really think to the meanings of the songs when I listen. I just sing along, and there would be children who may be affected because of the songs. In my thought, like what Genevieve mentioned, I was more affected by the prince charmings and always wanted to meet my mister perfect more than racism against cultures.
OLYMPICS
A lot of my classmates have made comments about the Olympics this year and so I would like to contribute by giving my input. I’ve been watching the Olympic Games quite a bit including the opening ceremonies and I’ve enjoyed it thus far. In the opening ceremonies, I was truly touched by Nikki Yanofky’s performance of the Canadian National anthem, and thought that she did an excellent job. The following day when I was reading about the opening ceremonies in the paper, I was stunned at how many people hated her performance. People were outraged at her interpretation of the national anthem, and I don’t understand why. Nikki Yanofsky is a 16 year old girl with an amazing voice and in my opinion sung the anthem beautifully. I’ve noticed that is has become popular for people to complain about certain events in the Olympics. For instance, I also read in the paper that some people don’t consider figure skating to be sport and therefore should be removed from the Olympic games. It seems to me that everybody has something to say about the Olympics which genuinely makes me mad. The whole point of the Olympic Games is to unite all the countries. This is the one event that the entire world can share together and yet people are completely disregarding its whole meaning. People need to calm down and get in the spirit of things, the Olympics only come once every two years and we should make the best of it.
Tiger Woods’ Apology- Response to Camille Charbonneau
I agree with Camille about the sincerity of Tiger Woods’ apology. He did seem genuinely remorseful about his recent actions and is taking steps to fix his problem.
However, I find it ridiculous that he had to have a press conference in the first place. He is a successful star golfer, but despite being rich, he is still just a human being. What he did was definitely wrong, but I feel that the only people he should be apologizing to are his wife, family and friends. I don’t see why the whole world needs a public apology from Tiger. Yes he may be a role model to many, but in the end this is his life and his mistakes that he will learn from. It’s unfortunate how much the media takes these stories and runs with them, but I guess that’s what happens when you are considered a celebrity. Even after his press conference, all the entertainment news stations had a body analyst come on the shows trying to decipher whether or not he was being sincere. As for his alleged mistress and her own press conference, I do not even want to comment on that. She is obviously just looking to extend her 15 minutes of fame and I am glad that most stations chose to ignore her.
The media is constantly looking for a story to give people something new to gossip about. Now, I am not saying that I don’t read gossip magazines or sites, because I do. However, everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I realize how I am contradicting myself by saying this because we all know that the magazines print what sells and as long as people continue to buy the product, they will not stop. I prefer to buy magazines to look at the fashion more so than the gossip columns. I am just shocked at how the paparazzi don’t care about anyone’s privacy. How is taking a picture of a celebrity playing in the park with her kids interesting? They will now continue to bombard Tiger Woods’ wife Elin, despite her plead to be left alone. This poor woman didn’t deserve all this unwanted attention. She is now forced to hide out and try to shelter her young children even more, while her husband’s actions are scrutinized.
Paparazzi are constantly hounding all celebrities, and although they are doing their job, there are many incidents where they cross the line. For example, Lindsey Lohan crashed her car due to a photographer who was driving so close to her and hit her. Nobody likes it when other cars are tailgating yours, so I can just imagine how annoying it must be to not be able to go put gas without being followed closely everywhere. They cross the line so many times but nothing has changed. What needs to happen before they start being more careful with how they handle their job? Are we waiting for a celebrity to die due to a paparazzi incident before anything changes?
**DIFFERENT TOPIC**
TV has made us into monsters.
Banksy, a graffiti artist is someone who I thought would fit in perfectly in our Media Literacy class. Some may have heard of him, but for those who are not familiar, Banksy (name given to him since his real name is unknown and no one has ever seen his face), goes around stenciling or doing graffiti art on buildings related to politics, culture, and ethics.
Banksy’s work is not sold. He does it for passion and to make people understand what type of world we actually live in. There is one piece that I love from him which is called “TV has made us into monsters”
http://www.nerdbanite.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/banksy-sketch-tv-has-made-us-monsters.jpg
In the sketch, we see a religious family around the table, praying. Seems very normal and sane. However, beside them lays a television with a baby’s body inside. How are families supposed to communicate when there is always a television around? Suppertime is one of the most important times to be with you family since you are all together! You can talk about your day or later plans. Nevertheless, the TV is always there, so we give more of our attention to a tube, which only displays movement.
I have to agree, there are good entertaining shows, and sometimes after a long day, it’s nice to sip on a warm hot chocolate watching the Olympics. But when are the boundaries crossed? I knew a family whom, they couldn’t eat supper anywhere else but home (unless there was an occasion, of course), and while they were eating, none would speak. The only noise heard would be the sports commentator, and the father getting angry because he didn’t agree with what he had to say. On the other hand, my mother has never forced my brother and I to be home for every supper. With that said, there was never a television in the kitchen. We would take those forty-odd-what minutes to be together and talk about everything and nothing, without any interruptions!
I think it’s so important to distinguish the line that lies between, acceptable and not! I’m not saying to stop watching television while you are eating, I’m just presenting the fact that a lot of families don’t even spend time together because a machine is involved…
Banksy is known for his secretive stunts; such as sneaking into major art galleries switching famous paintings for his own. In the next video, he remakes Paris Hilton’s album and doesn’t get caught. What an artist! Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqQYVKSmugc
OLYMPICS: ALL ABOUT WINNING
Yesterday, while watching some Olympic games I noticed something that I had not really thought about before. The Olympics is obsessed with winning. It seems as though the only point is to win, if you do not, then you have failed. I was watching speed skating finals last night and I noticed that they only showed the first few people who crossed the finish line, they did not even both to show the rest as if they did not matter. I think every athlete there should be proud and recognized even if they do not come in first, second, or third. They still did their best and completed the race, which I think is the accomplishment. There was a short commercial on for the Olympics that said “The only thing better than winning. Is winning at home.” I actually thought the second sentence was going to say something nice and talk about how winning is not always the goal, or at least not the only goal, but I was wrong. What ever happened to good sportsmanship, having a good time, and being proud no matter what you place? I think the Olympics need to start promoting these qualities in their athletes and their games because it is quickly fading. As I read in Colleen Lindsay’s article, “Olympics games forget empathy for sake of winning”, the Olympics is about national pride, not all about winning. The original goal of the games is that national pride and we need to return to it.
When watching the clip from “Peter Pan” several things came to mind.
First of all I began to see things in the clip I had never noticed before. I noticed that Wendy looked at the native tradition with disgust. It was almost as if she represented the “white” man, she was disgusted with the pip smoking ritual and was not allowed to dance like the others. She is also clearly upset by Peter Pan’s reaction/ attraction to the native girl. I can see how someone might think this gives a bad impression of the natives, as they do seem to portray wild people that dance around and have trouble speaking English. After looking closer at Wendy, I am not too impressed with the “white” man’s attitude in the clip either.
Understanding how people may think this gives our children a bad impression or an unrealistic image of native people; I don’t feel that children pick up on this while watching the film. I do not recall even thinking about this while watching the film as a child. When I saw this movie and others like it I never thought this was an actual representation of native people. When I was in Cegep I met a girl in one of my classes who lived on one of the native reserves. I remember one Friday she was telling me that she was going home for the community Powwow. I was taken a back, until this point I had always attended a private Jewish school and had never met anyone from native decent. I didn’t think of the native people as they are portrayed on TV and as ignorant as it sounds I didn’t even know they lived on reserves. I was immediately consumed with questions. She told me that they wear feather head dressings and danced. She said it looks a lot like the movies! I was shocked! My friend invited me to come but unfortunately I had previous plans. I remember being disappointed because I love learning about other people’s cultures.
All in all I can understand how children’s media could support unrealistic stereotypes about other peoples and cultures, I don’t think that most children internalize this information. I feel like children should be able to simply enjoy something and not have to read to much into it.
Different topic: Olympic Drug testing
I simply cannot comprehend the fact that there were approximately 30 athletes that violated anti-doping rules prior to the Olympics. Now they won’t be allowed to compete at the Vancouver Games.
This makes me feel infuriated! I cannot believe how athletes attempt just about anything to get an edge on their competitors.
There are some people that work tremendously hard year round to try and make it to the Olympics and there are some that throw away their dream by their idiocy. I have a good friend that has been trying for many years to get into the Olympics but never made it and her coach tried to enhance her performance by making her take drugs. She told me at how sickened she felt by his proposition and she immediately quit and found another coach.
Whatever happened to winning fair and square? This makes me wonder to what our society is becoming like. A world filled with cheaters and scoundrels? The Olympics is a prestigious place to be in and it should be filled with the world’s elite and not with cheaters.
I have been watching a lot of the Olympics and I though some may have been bothered by the use of “Golden Girl” for Maelle Rickers, when the other men (such as Alexandre Bilodeau and Jon Montgomery) they were called Canada’s Golden Boy. I think we often place far too much of a weight on the way the media describes minorities then we look at the overall picture.
It is true though from watching and listening to many of the events, you can tell that the commentators due tend to focus on different things with the men and women while they are competing. However, the one thing that I found interesting last night during the speed skating finals was how the male commentator kept on shushing the female one before the start of the races. Yes, they even do that within the stadium because the start has to be entirely quiet, but the entire event, it was always the male commentator going “Shhh’. It is only a minute detail, but I found it interesting that the roles never reversed.
Another point that I want to bring out is that I agree with Tania when she says that a lot of pressure has been put on our Canadian athletes. Francois and Charles Hamelin raced last night in the Men’s speed skating finals and unfortunately neither brought home a medal for Canada. There is a great pressure placed upon them to succeed on home soil, and many of us want more golden boys and golden girls.
Corrected version:
I have been watching a lot of the Olympics and though some may have been bothered by the use of “Golden Girl” for Maelle Rickers, when the other men (such as Alexandre Bilodeau and Jon Montgomery) won gold, they were called Canada’s Golden Boy. I think we often place far too much of a weight on the way the media describes minorities then we look at the overall picture.
It is true though from watching and listening to many of the events, you can tell that the commentators do tend to focus on different things with the men and women while they are competing. However, the one thing that I found interesting last night during the speed skating finals was how the male commentator kept on shushing the female one before the start of the races. Yes, they even do that within the stadium because the start has to be entirely quiet, but the entire event, it was always the male commentator going “Shhh’. It is only a minute detail, but I found it interesting that the roles never reversed.
Another point that I want to bring out is that I agree with Tania when she says that a lot of pressure has been put on our Canadian athletes. Francois and Charles Hamelin raced last night in the Men’s speed skating finals and unfortunately neither brought home a medal for Canada. There is a great pressure placed upon them to succeed on home soil, and many of us want more golden boys and golden girls.
Thank you Kelly Toman and Noemie Battista for your thoughtful reflections on the position of First Nations in the national discourse of western countries. Here is my own reflection:
’ve been thinking about why indigenous people, as Prof. Steinberg mentioned in class, are paraded at the beginning of national ceremonies. At a glance, this could simply be a matter of chronology as the First Peoples’ were the first ones to inhabit the land. But that would be too simple in lieu of power relations, historical injustice and such. When one of our classmates described the botched sequence of Canadian dignitaries entering the opening ceremony – the First Nations leaders were supposed to go first and symbolically welcome the others in – we were reminded that the land was effectively taken from them, not only in terms of broken treaties but, more significantly, in the form of a hostile world view that destroyed their cultural connection to the earth. After all, the European way is to control the earth, to treat nature’s bounty like chess pieces, and my ancestors have effectively paved over the indigenous ways of life as though it were inevitable (“The west is the best…” sang Jim Morrison, with his peace beads and leather vests). I was really moved by Ani Desautel’s self-reflection concerning her perceptions of First Nations people as the homogenous and perpetually feathered ‘other’. Of course, the racial slurs, like “squaw” in Peter Pan, make me cringe but I am guilty of idealizing First Nations cultures. Long story short, I fell in love with Robbie Robertson (he’s Métis and was a musician in “The Band”) when I was 13 years old and throughout my adolescence, idealized those high cheek bones and beaded vests and the supposed wisdom and mystery of these men of little words. Idealization has the same homogenizing effect as negative stereotypes and, finally, we Westerners really don’t know how to represent the First Nations people because we really do not know them, as they live today. I’m over-generalizing here – some of us have had the opportunity to learn about particular First nations groups due to geographical proximity (I went to high school in Chateauguay and became friends with a couple of Mohawk kids) or teaching in First Nations communities like Desautel but we still have a long way to go to include the people behind the feathers in our national identity.
I don`t know where my obsession with the Olympics came from this year because I never really seemed to follow up until this year, but I absolutely love learning about it. One of the things I find difficult however, is that I realize how uneducated I am when it comes to these different sports. Personally, I didn`t know that half of these events existed until I watched an actual race. I find that the media hasn`t been representing the sports enough for this reason. Afterall, the Olympics are about the world coming together to compete in sports aren`t they? Of course they are about a lot of other things and I do believe we should be more aware of the countries and athletes that are taking part in it, but I just think many people would find the events more enjoyable if they knew what was going on. Last night I watched the speed skating with the two Hamelin brothers competing together. Obviously, I was greatly disappointed with the results, but I actually really enjoyed the coverage they showed about them beforehand. Perhaps it was only done because they are from Quebec as I haven`t seen such a detailed coverage on the other athletes (I may have missed it), but they gave me an idea of how the brothers live on a daily basis and how they are regular young boys who enjoy a night of video gaming from time to time. I found this interesting because I had the impression from the little background given on athletes of other countries that these people are machines who do nothing but train for these events since the last winter games. However, after the race took place and the brothers finished in 4th and 5th out of 5 skaters, I don`t even think I saw or heard much about them since then. Loosing is just as much a part of the game as winning is and although we may have put such high expectations on our athletes because the media has glorified the games since they are being held in Canada, we should still be proud of those who have made it this far. I really love the fact that our athlethes individual personalities get to shine and be seen in these Olympics, however I find that this is only the case for those who are performing well or are expected to be the best.
I’ve been spending a lot of time watching the Olympics and have been very impressed with the round the clock coverage by the main networks, notably CTV, RDS, TSN and Sportsnet. Especially when compared to previous Olympics, broadcast on the CBC, which were not nearly as extensive. Many people have commented on the amount of pressure being placed on the athletes to perform and medal for our country and their points are valid. They seem to be running numerous segments profiling the athletes and suggesting that they are medal contenders, even if they are not. Furthermore, as they cover the events live, the announcers constantly suggest that Canada is a favourite to medal.
While I do feel that the athletes do not need any added pressure, it is completely understandable given the nature of the event. Olympics occur every two years, the winter Olympics every four years and given that we are competing against other countries we become very nationalistic and strive for excellence. Everyone seems to take great pride in Canadians winning and it heightens the excitement when there are Canadians competing for a medal.
The reality is that the majority of Canadian viewers know very little about the various sports that take place during the Olympics, save for hockey. In addition, we know very little about the athletes competing in the events. Therefore we rely on the broadcasters to inform us and educate us on the events being shown. Furthermore, given that these are sports that are fairly unpopular outside of the Olympics the broadcasters feel the need to entice people into watching by suggesting that Canadian athletes are favoured. It generates interest and viewers.
That said, I don’t think the athletes feel any added pressure because the broadcasters try and pass them off as medal favourites. They compete year round in their events and know the competition and know what they are capable of. They obviously want to represent their country but the athletes themselves, for the most part, are not negatively affected by the excessive amount of pressure being placed on them.
Different Topic: Justin Bieber
While I was browsing YouTube, I came across Justin Bieber’s new single Baby. I didn’t know much about this new Canadian teen sensation besides the fact that he’s acclaimed to be the next big thing and that he’s only 15. So I was intrigued when I stumbled across his music video on YouTube. I won’t lie, I found the song catchy but I was also a little disturbed by it. The song is about losing his first love and how he’s heartbroken. The main fan base for the young star is probably high school girls. What worries me about such songs sung by 15 year olds is that they are portraying an image to teenagers of teenagers that is distorted. How much do young high school students know about love? Another thing that disturbed me in this song was the lyric:
“For you, I would have done whatever
And I just cant believe we ain’t together
And I wanna play it cool, But I’m losin’ you
I’ll buy you anything, I’ll buy you any ring”
When I heard this line I kind of got the impression that he thinks anything can be fixed through materialistic gifts. I can’t help but imagine what kind of impression this sends young girls. I know it is only a song, but I think it’s one of the factors young teens today are pretending to be older than they are, and trying to grow up too quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4&feature=player_embedded
Topic- Pressure placed on Canadian athletes in the Olympics
Because practically all TV shows are available online these days, I rarely watch anything on the actual television and so I miss out on commercials. Prior to the Olympics, because I don’t usually watch TV, I had seen very few commercials concerning 2010s Vancouver Olympics. I remember the first time I saw one was on the night of the opening ceremonies and it completely shocked me. I was unable to find the commercial I saw that night but it was basically a 2 minute spiel about how no Canadian has ever won Olympic gold on our soil and this was our year. It talked about how our athletes are ready and they’re all going to get gold and make us proud. I found this particular commercial odd and off-putting but of just how much pressure it was putting on our countries’ athletes to get a gold medal. That was the entire focus of the commercial and I just felt incredibly bad for them because it’s obvious that they can not all perform to these standards. Furthermore the amount of pressure on these athletes that was evident in the commercial, actually made me uncomfortable, sitting at home on my couch, just imaging how the athletes felt. I think that all Olympic athletes are already under a tremendous pressure and this commercial did not help anything. I do realize that some people do perform better under pressure but I’m sure there was more than enough to go around prior to any event going on over the next few weeks. I kind of feel that this commercial was actually setting our competitors up for failure because they even placed emphasis on Canada getting the most medals as well and although this would be great, with so many other countries out there competing this is a very hard task. This commercial left me asking the question whatever happened to simply being the best that you can be?
Unlike most people in this class who have been following the Olympics religiously, I have to admit that I have not. I watched ten minutes of the opening ceremony: I noticed towards the end that there were people dancing in the middle like Natives do. We talked a lot about Natives stereotypes in class, but what we need to understand is that there are still some that apply. My friend teaches up North and she came down this weekend. She says that they do have their ‘Spring break’ during hunting season to accomodate their hunting lifestyle, they learn cri language up until grade 3 so when she gets them in grade 5 most of them are very behind in English, and so many things that we say are not true, actually apply..and she is living them now. I do think that the Olympics used them as an aesthetic, more than as a ‘let’s honour our heritage’, but any big show will do that, it’s no surprise. Perhaps having more emphasis on the dancers would’ve not been fair to the athletes coming in..so it’s kind of a vicious circle. Also, from what I heard, they do dance like that, and well, we need to remind ourselves that the Olympics are supposed to be about sports…which makes me react on another topic: how they introduced the countries.
When Afghanistan came in, the commentators said: with all the terrorism going on in this country, no wonder there is only one athlete present. Am I the only one who thought this was, once again, generalizing the terrorism in all arab countries? My thoughts were that there were not many athletes because there is no snow there…and they have other things to do in Afghanistan than practice their figure skating or bobsleigh…
Sorry if I offended anyone..
DIFFERENT TOPIC
Should NHL Team Owners let their Players Participate in the Olympics?
The battle between owner’s and the Olympic Ice Hockey federation will only get uglier. Rumours are swirling around that in 2014 the NHL will ban players from joining the Olympics. Is it worth playing for your country and getting hurt for your club, and the fans? That’s the question the owners are asking themselves. When the Olympics are over and the players go back to their club, they will be exhausted. The problem is that they will still have a season to finish, plus playoffs. Furthermore, what is more important, your nation, or your club? The conflict begins because the owners are responsible for paying each player’s salary. Although being part of the national team is a great honour, from an owner’s perspective the club that is paying each player should be the first priority. In Turin four years ago, Ottawa was rated as a team full of talent great offense, defence, and goaltender. Suddenly the same team became a mediocre squad with the loss of their goaltender for the remainder of the season and they were unable to capitalize in the playoffs. If it wasn’t for the Olympics, maybe Ottawa would have won a Stanley cup in 2006. Moreover if we were owner’s would you send your players to participate in the Olympics?
I was also surprised that some people from class found the opening ceremony to be controversial. I personally found that it was well done. As Chantalle said earlier, if the Native dancers thought it was offensive or falsely representative of their culture, they would have never participated. As someone said in lecture, a friend of hers (who had participated in the dance at the Olympics) felt proud and honored to be a part of the festivity. I believe that they were not purposefully made to be in the “background” but that they needed to be because of the way the Olympians had to enter. I, like many of my peers, believe that the focus was, as it should have been, on the Olympians because after all they are the stars of the show. Again, it is definitely impossible to please everyone; there will always be some who think it was unjust or misleading, however I think that we should focus our attention on the unity of all countries and on the people who have worked for years to show the world what they’ve got!
***Different Topic***
Money & Amateur Sports
During this Olympic fortnight, I have noticed a lot of advertisements (TV, print, internet) that either explicitly or implicitly draw a connection between corporate funding and an athlete’s success. It seems like a win-win situation for all participants: on the one hand, the athletes receive money to train and on the other hand the corporations benefit from the goodwill that Canadians have for companies that support our athletes. But because we are talking about amateur sports I find the involvement of big corporations creates, at the very least, an impression of a conflict of interest and does not allow for a fair playing field (which I believe should be a priority in amateur sport). Essentially the corporations are free to choose which athletes to support financially without any need for transparency in terms of the selection criteria and the dollar amounts. As a result, amateur athletes who do not receive funding are placed at a disadvantage. It seems that private funding is becoming more and more important to achieving success at the podium (eg. look at the impact that the B2ten group has had on Canadian athletes at this year’s olympics) and this is widely portrayed in the media either as a natural state of affairs, or, an issue not worthy of a more critical reading.
Different Topic: Beauty In Media
In response to all the beauty in the media blogs written by Ilana, Nathalie and others.
I’ve noticed too that whenever something bad happens to someone the media does make it more tragic if the victim was gorgeous. I think that targets women more then men however. That is just appalling and it seems to send the message to women that unless you’re gorgeous nobody cares about you or whatever happens to you. You are robed of any value your life may have. It doesn’t matter if you’re brilliant or successful you are diminished unless you’re beautiful. That’s really sad.
For men of course that is a different story. It matters more what they did or were in their life than whether they are good looking or not. In a way, although women have come a long way from where we stood a few decades ago, it appears that our main purpose is still to be beautiful in this world.
Like many of you guys I’ve watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics live on television last week and must admit that I was quite disappointed. I agree with Mathieu Murray and I think that the ceremony was tasteless compared to the one made by the Chinese two years ago. After Monday’s class, I had a conversation about the opening ceremony with some of my friends and we talked about how we are not particularly proud of being Canadians or Quebecois for the matter. Know don’t make me wrong here, I respect everything that I am and all the sacrifice my ancestors made to make the life we have today. Also, this has nothing to do with the fact that I’m French-Canadian or that I may or may not be sovereignist. We were just wondering why should we be proud of the place where we where born? It’s not like we had anything to do about it. I just don’t get why some people are so fascinated by their flags. During the Olympics, I think we should be cheering for athletes not for flags.
In response to: Olympic Drug Testing
I had no idea that 30 athletes were disqualified considering that they violated the anti-doping rules! People train all their life hoping that one day they would be part of the Olympics and many never make it. It is really disappointing to see that others make it, however, are they using steroids, growth hormones, or any other type of enhancement drugs? Unfortunately, not all the athletes using these drugs will actually get caught… They will be winning medals that they may or may not have deserved.
This makes me think about other professional sports such as hockey, baseball, and football. Are these highly paid athletes actually playing fair game or are they using drugs to perform? Another issue to look at is their salary being based on their performance prior to signing their contract. By living in a very competitive society where everyone wants to be “the best” people turn to illicit drugs to be “perceived” as the BEST. Using these drugs then creates not only competition between the athletes, but as well a competition with the drugs that these individuals are using. Competition becomes unreal once enhancement drugs are used to their benefit. As a final remark, I believe that all athletes should be tested during such a prestigious event. Only the best “natural” athletes should have their place during these competitions.
***different topic: media and technology is making kids grow up too fast***
Response to Kathryn Mitchell. I too was looking at Perez and came across Justin Bieber’s new video. I’ve heard of him before, well actually I hear him in my nightmares, this being because my 12 year old sister has developed the biggest possible crush on him and this is all that plays in my house for over a month now. I feel that songs like these may be harmless because I remember having the biggest crush on Aaron Carter at her age and to tell you the truth I feel like they look exactly the same. Each generation seems to have their “Justin Bieber”. At the same time I can see where she’s coming from because I’ve listened to some songs that I listened to as a child and am sometimes shocked at the lyrics that I used to go around the house singing when I was young. Considering the fact that kids are growing up faster, such lyrics may actually have a worse effect on the current generation.
What Kathryn discusses at the end about teens growing up too quickly is something that I too have notice d lately. I sense that my sisters are much more advanced in terms of knowing things they shouldn’t learn for a few years then I remember knowing at their age. My 12 year old sister has a cell phone! Yes a cell phone. She can’t stay home alone because she’s scared but she can have a cell phone… I feel that technology has really aided children in their fast frowarded growth process because everything that they want to know about is at their fingertips. The idea that kids are losing out on their childhoods is sad because I remember being careless and unknowing until about the age of 14 but now it seems that kids are just bombarded early on. They aren’t satisfied in just going out and play but rather want to have the newest iPod or video game console.
***Different Topic: Beauty In Media***
During my third stage, I designed an introductory lesson unit on advertisements. The response from the grade 6 class was fantastic. They were intrigued in analyzing advertisements in magazines and on television. From this, we viewed and discussed the image of beauty. We discussed the several definitions of beauty from a variety of perspectives. Their responses from answering questions, such as what makes a person beautiful, or what makes a celebrity beautiful were all extremely interesting and surprising. I was shocked by a few of their responses; kids these days are really going up faster than their time. From this, we discussed several eating disorders and how these individuals also view themselves as beautiful. My next step is to show the class this dove commercial: http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx#/features/videos/video_gallery.aspxcp-documentid=9150719/
This commercial depicts the deceiving image of beauty. I am interested in viewing the grade 6’s reaction and hearing their thoughts. The media has great power to constitute the definition of beauty. The goal for Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” is to make women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty. ( http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx#/cfrb/ ) They focus on “how girls today are bombarded with unrealistic, unattainable messages and images of beauty that impact their self-esteem” among other issues. Hopefully, this campaign will be successful in achieving their goal.
I accidentally posted this under the wrong blog…so here goes again.
Today while at work I caught a few minutes of Tiger Woods’ apology on television. Frankly, I am unimpressed by the whole situation. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch a lot of television, but I can’t seem to get involved into celebrity gossip. I can’t relate to it and it in no way impacts my life. Any guy friends of mine have a multi-partner sex addiction affair? Anyone I know helping a married person ruin their marriage and personal reputation? I think not.
I think it says a lot about us as media-consumers that this is the type of thing that warrants a whole press conference, the type of thing that makes it on to the news on various networks. Aren’t there more important things that we should be concerned with? Where’s the integrity? This type of reporting is far and few between. Perhaps this explains why I don’t watch much television in the first place…
I was in Ottawa this weekend. I went to go skating on the Rideau canal. As I sat on a bench, lacing up my skates, I started listening to a conversation next to me. Two strangers (to me and to each other) also sat, one tying his skates, one untying his skates. They began to chat. They talked about good pubs around there–one of them was from out of town. They started talking back and forth about beer. I laughed a bit to myself as one said they had known each other for less than two minutes and already talking about the important things in life. Which of course led to a conversation about hockey, which is where I also felt I must join in. The man from out of town was from Hamilton–so he was a Leafs fan. He apologized for it, but said he had no choice. I thought this was great, of course. The other man was a Sens fan, coming from Ottawa. And of course, as a Montrealer, I am a Habs fan.
I wrote about this to relate it to the Olympics. Specifically, the idea that the Olympics is a time for countries to come together and face off against each other, all “obsessed with winning”, at odds with each other. I don’t think this is true at all–in fact that isn’t always the nature of sports. The announcers seem to be obsessed with winning–that I will talk about next week. In my opinion, this isn’t the fact. Winning is a perk, but the competitors are just there to do their best. No matter of the other countries, just their own best. Spectators like to see their country wins a medal for completely normal and acceptable nationalistic feelings. But they too just want to see people excel at sports. I relate this to my experience on a bench in Ottawa because of the fact that it brought three people, followers of rival teams, together in a friendly conversation. We did not treat each other as rivals, but as people with something in common–an interest in hockey. Just as the Olympics brings people with a passion for sports together from across the world. I think this is a wonderful thing.
*DIFFERENT TOPIC*
http://cocoperez.com/2010-02-22-lofficiel-hommes-brings-blackface-back
I stumbled upon this when I was getting my daily dose of tabloids from Perez Hilton. This article is about a French magazine, L’Officiel Hommes, that recently decided to use a white model to portray a black model.
What is the point to doing this “Blackface” concept. How do people see it as an art form? I admitted in class to liking Tropic Thunder. I even think Robert Downy Jr. did a great job portraying a black man. But then again, I am not black woman, that I would take offence, and that is part of acknowledging the problem, you don’t think about the people it might be upsetting to, and why.
But the bottom line is that there are people who are offended and sensitive about their heritage/ culture and the same goes for all who are considered to be of a minority. However, every race, religion, culture and gender is subject to stereotyping – but what is the exact purpose that the concept of “blackface” is trying to serve?
Therefore, while I do not take offence to it, I do not condone it either. I think that there are enough perfectly talented, good looking and able black men and women around the world to get the job done, without having to resort to using the “Blackface” idea which is highly offensive, inappropriate and unnecessary.
http://cocoperez.com/2010-02-22-lofficiel-hommes-brings-blackface-back
So I’m assuming this blog will still count because it’s says Blog for Spring break and March… if not then… oh well?
Alright, so I’ve recently taken an interest in watching the Olympics. Before this year, I’ve never watched the Olympics. At most, I watched the opening ceremonies, but never more. It just seemed kind of boring to me, but for some reason, this year, I was actually intrigued by the sports presented, so hey, why not? As I was watching the Olympics, a few things jumped out at me. They mostly had to do with CTV commentators. One of them was during the snowboard cross event. It was funny because as the snowboarders were gliding down the snow hills, the commentators (a female and a male) would discuss the current snowboarder’s past performances. As soon as the female commentator said something really good about the snowboarder, it would seem that they would FALL. Literally: “She’s the youngest snowboarder to ever win gold (in some competition)” *plunk* the snowboarder would fall from grace. It was oddly funny. Even the commentator herself noticed this weird trend, so she basically stopped talking as much. Another commentator that almost killed me was a commentator during the women’s single figure skating. A Chinese figure skater had made her way onto the ice when he exclaims: “Mao! Mao rhymes with ‘wow’! She can fly!” Seriously now? Was that the best he can come up with? The worst was that there wasn’t even a follow-up to that comment. It was just for the sake of rhyming, I supposed. But yeah, that comment somewhat made my night. On another note, did you realize how the commentators refer to the female figure skaters as the ‘girls’ whereas you would never witness them calling the men the ‘boys’? What makes it okay to call the women girls and men men? To me that seems kind of juvenile. It almost sounds as if the women aren’t as skilled as the men.
So on a completely different note about the Olympics, as I watched the first Canadian Women’s team hockey match against Slovakia, I was completely shocked. 18-0 for us! That seems almost ridiculous a score. Then I read an article online about it. In the article, the writer reminded us to keep in mind that this was Slovakia’s first women’s hockey team, and also that they probably didn’t do as well as the Canadians because they didn’t have a big pool of women who played hockey to choose from. Then it got me thinking: is the Olympics a fair event? It’s almost always the same: the countries with the most medals seems to be either 1. more developed or 2. have huge populations. What I mean to say is that, would it be considered fair if the USA had tons of athletes to choose from whereas some smaller country would not? Not only the size, but the country’s economical standing. We all know that the USA is the superpower country. They have money to invest in athletes. But do smaller countries have the same money to develop in training athletes? It just seems that there are a lot of factors that affect a country’s ability to gain so many medals. But this also raises the question: why is there such a craze about Gold medals? I will not lie, the whole reason I was wondering whether the Olympics were fair was because I thought it kind of sucked for countries that didn’t get medals. But is that was the Olympics are really about? Getting medals? It really isn’t. If anything, the Olympics is an event where countries get together to celebrate that although they are different, they’re able to have fun and compete fairly. The whole gold medal craze is scary. Alexandre Bilodeau! First gold medal for Canada in a Canadian Olympic! Have you noticed how every gold medal seems to be a first time record for something? It’s almost insane. They find the most mundane titles to validate that these medals are good and something to be very proud of. Of course we’re proud that Alexandre Bilodeau got gold, but the emphasis that it was the first gold to be won on Canadian soil is so trivial and unnecessary.
I only now realized we were supposed to blog last week, I should have checked during last week to see if others posted. Sorry.
I agree with Chantelle Gauthier, I enjoyed the opening ceremony for the Olympics, apart from seeing how many Olympians each country had, I was more interested in watching the natives dance. I’ve always been fascinated by Pow Wow dances, so I was really excited when they started dancing and was a little taken aback when we discussed the opening ceremony the following Monday in class and some people were “insulted” or “embarrassed” by the ceremony.
I do agree that they were dancing for far too long, but in all honesty, I’d agree to dance for an hour to be part of the Olympics opening ceremony. I understand that what made people angry was that the natives became “part of the background” and are not realistically represented, but I feel we did have to stereotype them a little because it wouldn’t have had the same impact if they came out in “regular clothes”. One of my classmates went to teach English abroad and wanted to teach her students about Canadian culture, but noticed, in doing so, she had to stereotype us; we like hockey, maple syrup, etc. I suppose this also can be said for the natives, we weren’t trying to mock them, they way they were dressed can be called traditional or, well, I’m not to sure what to call the wolf outfit.
DIFFERENT TOPIC-Olympic media and ads
I have been watching some of the Olympics and have not noticed any great language difference when it comes to talking about women and men olympians. However I have noticed that some sports indicate “Ladies” to describe the women teams which I think is rather lame. It is kind of known that some women tend to be more ‘sensitive’ and ‘fragile’ then men generally speaking and I feel like this has come across in their categorization of some women’s teams under the term “Ladies.” It feels a little demeaning because many women have proved to be otherwise in the past and recent time as independent, strong, resilient, etc.
I have also noticed a lot of emphasis being placed on ‘Canadian’ athletes over any other which makes sense considering the games are being held in Canada (and Countries wherever the games are held would naturally jump at the opportunity to glorify their place). It almost feels like they are being glorified at times even when I’ve been hearing talk around me about the disappointment many people feel about Canadians not winning many Gold medals.
Finally, there has been hardly an feed on Natives and Aboriginals from the airing that I’ve watched of the games. I find this to be somewhat sad. I have seen only one 30 second feed of a group of Natives playing music in downtown BC (I think it was) and found it a very poor representation considering there are so many that live in that region.
Overall I feel as though Canada, especially BC, has done a poor job of representing Native groups and the Canadian perspective as a whole. It seems as though when people are going to look back on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games they will not remember much of what Canada is about, least of all Native/Aboriginal culture.
I was shocked at the conversation we had last class. I feel that there were some comments made that were not based on actual facts but on hear-say. Growing up, my best friend was a Micmac and I learned a lot, but of course not all, about what it meant to be a Native American. I know that there was a lot of pride felt by the natives people to be part of the Olympic opening ceremonies. Let it be clear that the dance that some thought was them just ‘jumping around’ is actually the type of dancing you will see performed by native peoples. It would be wise to go out and join or watch a pow wow. If you do your research, native dances are not choreographed; movements are based on becoming in touch with the spirits of elements, animals, deities or different processes of nature.
The opening ceremonies were wonderfully open and accepting of the native peoples and the fact that they were given so much time was an indication of the awareness that they are a hugely important part of Canadian culture. I am also upset at the term ‘costume’ when describing native dress. It is disrespectful to the native culture to refer to their history and traditional dress as mere costumes rather than the historical pieces they actually are. I hope that in trying to become aware of the stereotypes in the media, we are also (hopefully) becoming aware of our own blind acceptance of certain stereotypes. Let’s be a bit more careful.
(I am hoping that this blog post still counts as I only realized now that we were supposed to post for last week..)
I have been trying to follow the Olympics as much as possible, and I must say that I am really enjoying watching them and cannot find many negative things to say about them. In fact, that is the only issue that is bothering me – the fact that many people are criticizing the Olympics and not allowing themselves to sit back and enjoy this special event in Canadian history. I found that the opening ceremonies were done very well; they were obviously not “perfect”, as many people were quick to judge the Native dancing as “offensive”. I agree with Rebekah’s statement that what viewers saw during the ceremonies as the Natives simply “jumping around” in an unchoreographed manner is actually the kind of dancing that they do and the whole purpose is for it not to be choreographed, so I don’t see how it could be seen as offensive. It was also mentioned in class how the dancers were not in full view when the different countries were being presented. But hello, how else are we going to bring attention to the athletes representing their countries as they are walking onto the stage? Something has to be the main focus of the camera, right? Or am I just missing something here?
**Sorry I didn’t raelize we had to post!!
I agree with Katherine…I’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics and am having a hard time finding negative and offensive things. I actually find that this year is much better than the last ones in China. I also didn’t find it ‘perfect’ in how they presented Natives, however I think that they did a much better job than in 2008 when the olympic torch was carried through Tibet, an invaded and illegally claimed state by China. This year it seemed less offensive and more of an integration with the natives then how (in my opinion) China used the Olympics as an opportunity to use an event that was meant to bring countries together to a peaceful global event, and fool people into thinking China and Tibet are at peace. It is interesting that China was even allowed to host the Olympics while an exceptional amount of human rights abuses go on. I think that so far this year’s Olympics were not perfectly done, however it has definitely been an improvement compared to the last one’s in China.
I think that the Olympic comittee needs to go over how the Olympics started and how the ideas of peace and a global community have been lost in the competitiveness of today’s Olympics.
**Didn’t realize we had to post until now either!
I just got back from Vancouver yesterday as I went back home for the Olympics. This is my second time actually being at the actual city that the Olympics are taking place in. The first Olympics game I attended was the Beijing Olympics in 2008. I had an amazing time as I went with my best friend as a great trip. As she had a house in Beijing, traveling was very convenient and I was able to learn a lot about Beijing as her grandma lived there. However, comparing the Beijing Olympics to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, I could almost say that I had more fun at the Vancouver Olympics. I believe a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was born and raised in Vancouver. The amount of Canadian pride and spirit is also unbelievable. Walking around the streets seeing people wearing Canada jerseys, holding Canadian flags, and singing the Canadian national anthem is one of the best feelings ever. I went to watch the Canada vs. Germany hockey game and it was one of the best experiences ever! All the stands were filled with red and white as almost everyone was cheering for Canada. As we beat Germany 8-2 the fans went crazy! I have never cheered that many times at a hockey game before, as scoring 8 times is quite hard to come across! I definitely want to try to attend the next Olympic games and I would highly recommend it to everyone too!
**Better late than Never**
This is a post on last week’s topic, as I, too thought we had 2 weeks to blog about the Olympics since they are only ending in a few days.
I am absolutely amazed at Team Canada’s successes and can definitely say I AM PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!!!!!
I am very pleased that our country is living up to all the hype and expectations that we had had in anticipation to this big Vancouver event.
Just to look a little past some of the issues we have been discussing throughout the past few weeks regarding the Olympics, such as the exploitation of the Natives and the money spent on this commercialized event, I think it’s great that we have at least one common ground and event to look forward to that brings us all closer to our national heritage! In this situation, we are all allies, vying for the final gold medals. If you asked me, we need more events such as these to bring our nation close together by uniting for a common cause. There are definitely great sides to the Olympic games and Unity, for me, before all else, such as winning, is number 1!!!!
I wonder if any event that would bring a nation together as such would need to be sure to have as much media coverage as the Olympics did to win over all their followers. Is it really the media that provokes us all to follow the Olympics for different reasons that leads us all to this common cause, or is our mere status as Canadians enough to unite?
I have been watching a lot of the Olympic events. I have to admit I really enjoy the curling, but I have watched most of the hockey games too! One thing I found really interesting this week was in regards to the Canadian women’s hockey team. After they beat the U.S. for gold, Canadians were so proud. It was the hype of the internet, television and radio! People were saying how amazing the team is and how they always work so hard to be the best they can be.
Well all of this praise is fine until the whole “incident” happened. For those who are not aware, the Canadian team decided to celebrate their win on the ice after the game. They were found drinking and smoking cigars. One of the biggest problems with the situation was that not all of the girls were of legal drinking age.
One of the committee members was quoted saying “We condone celebrations. … We don’t condone actions of irresponsibility.”
The team was expected to apologize for their actions. Hockey Canada released the statement saying, “The members of Team Canada apologize if their on-ice celebrations, after fans had left the building, have offended anyone. In the excitement of the moment, the celebration left the confines of our dressing room and shouldn’t have. The team regrets that its gold-medal celebration may have caused the IOC or COC any embarrassment. Our players and team vow to uphold the values of the Olympics moving forward and view this situation as a learning experience.”
Haha I think this is very funny! My thoughts while reading the statement were who wrote this? These are young women who just want to celebrate their victory. While I understand that it may have been inappropriate at some level, at another level it could have just been laughed off. The girls could have been warned and everyone could have moved forward. I think it’s ridiculous that it was dwelled upon. They’re young and they want to have fun. Give them a break! There is no need for people to change their opinions of the girls; they are still champions and they still won a gold medal for Canada, no matter how they acted off the ice. Let’s get over it!
who cares if the Canadian women’s hockey team smoked a couple cigars and drank a couple of beers. They are the gold medalists are they not they should be allowed to celebrate. Had they not celebrated on the ice no one would have said a thing. GIve me a break they would have had the same type of party in the locker room. Everyone has seen a locker room after a professional sports event the athletes are drinking and having a great time. Remember this is the biggest event in women’s hockey they have reason to celebrate all the hard work that got them to this point.
The fact that the media focused there attention on this rather than the fact that they just won a gold medal is irritating. The women won the most important prize in women’s hockey and they focus on them drinking beer and smoking cigars. I say congratulations Team Canada and have a beer for me. I hope the CAnadian Men destroy the U.S.A and have a party on the Ice as well.
The Olympics. – I disregarded you this whole time, mostly because that Believe song is slightly annoying, but CANADA DID AMAZING today.I think it’s safe to say that a lot of canaians have more or less put their lives on hold during the Olympics.So, as much as I’m going to miss the excitement of the Olympics (and the awesome BC Media Centre, which is a Freelancer’s Dream office – even has a bar), I think the party is ending exactly when it should. The hangover won’t be too severe and the guests will be missed – nobody has overstayed their visit and we can prepare to welcome the Paralympics’ athletes and their supporters on March 12.There are questions on my mind and possibly on the minds of my fellow passengers, most of whom appear to be locals who probably have been scared into even thinking about getting behind the wheel of a car while the Olympics are in town.Are we more focused on the inescapable post-Olympic hangover than we are on owning the podium? And what if visitors discover that we really do have the best weather in Canada and it doesn’t actually rain all the time? What if they notice the beaches are full when the sun shines even on a work day and that most offices close a bit early on summer Fridays? Will there be an influx of new British Columbians to clog our already congested roadways and drive our real estate to even greater heights of absurdity?
I want to apologize at first because i completely forgot to do my blog and i just left to go to my hometown. However, I did watch the olympics during the two weeks and i found it very exciting. I don’t know if it’s because it was in Canada or because i am older, but i related more to these Olympics than the ones before.
Just like Chantalle said; i really enjoyed the opening ceremony. I know the Amerindians dance was a bit long, but it is the way they dance and people just don’t understand their cultures if they taught it was ridiculous. The ridiculous part is that we kind of forget about them in the end.
I also find it kind of funny when the media made Alexandre Bilodeau story look like the American Idol stories with his handicap brother as his source of inspiration.
The most touchable part of the olympics for me was Joannie Rochette’s short program that she did only 3 days after the death of her mother. She was very courageous for finishing the Olympics and she put so much emotions on her presentation that it made a lot of people cry and sense her emotions.
Finally, i am happy that Canada beat their own records by winning 14 gold medal and 26 medals in total. As you may all know! It was an awesome way to finish the Olympics by the gold medal from our national sport which is Hockey. People could finally stop saying than some players shouldn’t be there and others were forgotten.
Good Job Canada!!
OLYMPICS!!!!
Ok so I kind of dropped off the planet for the past few weeks and I am going to catch up on my blogs! As for the Olympics, my family and I are very big fans whenever there are Olympic Games going on. For these winter Olympics Games my family was even more excited because they were being held in Vancouver, CANADA!!! We had been looking forward to them for quite a while. It felt like I had seen Olympic commercials for 2 years, you would think that these commercials would get annoying and over-repeated however, I actually really enjoyed them, it felt like the audience was getting to know our athletes. Before the Olympics started it was stipulated that Canada had put more money into the Olympics, because since we were hosting they wanted us to do better than we usually do. It was obvious that we were going to put more money into the Olympics since we were hosting. I enjoyed the opening ceremonies, however, the Amerindians dance was a little bit to long. However, like Karine said Amerindians are a huge part of true Canadian culture. When the Olympics started I began losing hope that Canada was going to do very well. However Team Canada stepped it up in the last few days, and ended up beating a world record! When athletes won medals they would have their “believe” moment, and they were made out to be heroes. This was especially seen when Alexandre Bilodeau won the first gold medal on Canadian soil. It was an amazing moment, but they made it seem very cheesy, especially with his mentally handicapped brother in the stands. For the two weeks that the Olympics were being broadcasted I watched them whenever I had any spare time. As for the scandal that some have been discussing about the women’s hockey team, it is completely understandbale. I do thin kit was kind of blown out of porportion, but their celebrations should have been kept in teh dressing room. There are underaged women on that hockey team, and it just sends out the wrong message. I understand they are a bunch of young women who just won a gold medal and want to party, however, there are certain places where celbrations can be carried out appropriately. I do not think this situation was handled well because they made such a HUGE deal about it, in the end who really cares eh?! Finally, Canada had the most amazing end of the Olympics with the hockey game of the century; the hockey game which made history and made every Canadian across the country proud. We showed the world whose game they were playing. Overall, the Olympics were amazing other than the cheesy and over exaggerated athlete stories. While watching the closing ceremonies I found myself laughing, I do not think there is any other country out there that would outwardly and blatantly make fun of themselves. There were so many stereotypes involved in the closing ceremonies. When I was watching it I joked around with my dad and said: “Watch, next the moose and beavers are going to come out”, and sure enough a few minutes later the floating moose and beavers came out. It was just funny, but I kind of think they took it a little too far. I understand that Canada is a very free-spirited country but I think their humorous attempt turned into a huge joke. They could have made it more oriented around how proud Canadians are to be Canadian, and not around making fun of our country!
Here in Oregon people love to cover themselves with tattoos. It’s sort of hobby with us. So I am always interested in seeing what others are doing and learning new things. Thanks for the post.