So the Truman Show has really taken a toll in consuming my thoughts... Yes this is a super in depth thing to just casually stumble upon but luckily I am a long distance runner and have PLENTY of time to myself to think.
For starters I thought the movie was genius and I am so ashamed of myself for not seeing or even hearing of it sooner. The first day we watched it I walked to practice thinking about how weird living as Truman would be and what if that was my life right now. I realized if my life was a tv show it would be a terrible sitcom with a broken laugh track that would never take off so I know I'm definitely in the clear there.
In one of my other classes we discussed the whole "mapping your own reality" idea and we watched an episode from star trek where the lead guy (obviously not a fan I don't know the characters on a first name basis) was knocked out but his mind was in a different world where he was married and well known in a town. He knew it was fake but then felt as if he was there for decades so he had to rewire his idea of reality to this new world and start a family in this community. He had a kid and that kid grew up went to college blah blah. Then he was saved and realized only a few minutes really only passed and he was forced to remap his reality back but decided not to share his new world and just keep the memories.
We also went into detail with Plato's allegory of the cave and I thought it was so interesting and I have the PERFECT image of what this cave would look like, where the fire would be, and those stairs. I couldn't imagine trying to change my view of reality so dramatically but kind of wish I would wake up and realize I'm still 8 years old and that everything I've lived up until now was all a dream...
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Too Sarcastic To Grow Up
Finishing the documentary Tough Guise in class left me speechless feeling a lot of different emotions. I thoroughly enjoyed it and gained a lot of insight. My last post I said something that stuck with me but finishing the film something else truly stuck out to me and it was the video of the fraternity boys raping the passed out girl.
They made a HUGE joke about it calling her "dead as a doornail" and saying they raped her harder than the guy from Pulp Fiction. ALL of them were laughing and joking about it and I thought to myself how that would never happen with people that I know, It's too insane. But that's when I realized that some of the jokes they were saying I've heard before and get the same response. Although the people I know would never go through with such a disgusting act like that but the fact that they joke about it so casually is the universal downfall that I realized.
We live in a culture where everything is a joke and everyone does things to get a laugh. People put their lives on the lines just to be comedic. Our tv shows like family guy or south park take violence and abuse to the extreme to show that they are joking because they know it's wrong. I've heard people say "That test raped me" and they use rape in a context thats so extreme so people know it's a joke. That's the thing, we have become too okay with these terms and don't realize how serious they are.
People need to realize the severity of these words and what they actually mean. No, you can't be raped by a test but that word should strike fear and people should be conscious of its meaning. We use these words casually in our daily lives to make it less severe than it is. We need to remind people that our lives aren't a joke.
They made a HUGE joke about it calling her "dead as a doornail" and saying they raped her harder than the guy from Pulp Fiction. ALL of them were laughing and joking about it and I thought to myself how that would never happen with people that I know, It's too insane. But that's when I realized that some of the jokes they were saying I've heard before and get the same response. Although the people I know would never go through with such a disgusting act like that but the fact that they joke about it so casually is the universal downfall that I realized.
We live in a culture where everything is a joke and everyone does things to get a laugh. People put their lives on the lines just to be comedic. Our tv shows like family guy or south park take violence and abuse to the extreme to show that they are joking because they know it's wrong. I've heard people say "That test raped me" and they use rape in a context thats so extreme so people know it's a joke. That's the thing, we have become too okay with these terms and don't realize how serious they are.
People need to realize the severity of these words and what they actually mean. No, you can't be raped by a test but that word should strike fear and people should be conscious of its meaning. We use these words casually in our daily lives to make it less severe than it is. We need to remind people that our lives aren't a joke.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Tough Guise Tough Words
This is one of my favorite documentaries so far because of how much it is actually covering. Jackson Katz does a great job of showing that "boys will be boys" is not the case. I liked seeing how some classic movies can be interpreted into a violent mentor to boys. I always saw a lot of the factors mentioned effect boys growing up but what stuck out the most to me was how the media is so biased with their words.
There were multiple scenes of talk shows using a lot of sexist and stereotypical phrases when describing men. They would always make them seem like the victim rather than taking responsibility for their actions. This is hard to do considering they are 90% of the violence that goes on in our society. I was also astounded at the fact that these talk show hosts would address boys as a "wuss" or that schools were becoming too "feminine" as if it was a terrible thing.
The documentary addresses the problem very well by directing the attention to video games and movies like Fight Club where men have to prove themselves by being masculine and using violence. This is also a direct result of the older generations believing that this was really a way to live and that to be ashamed of being weak or not masculine. I'm glad we are becoming conscious of these decisions and are more accepting, but still have a lot of work to do.
There were multiple scenes of talk shows using a lot of sexist and stereotypical phrases when describing men. They would always make them seem like the victim rather than taking responsibility for their actions. This is hard to do considering they are 90% of the violence that goes on in our society. I was also astounded at the fact that these talk show hosts would address boys as a "wuss" or that schools were becoming too "feminine" as if it was a terrible thing.
The documentary addresses the problem very well by directing the attention to video games and movies like Fight Club where men have to prove themselves by being masculine and using violence. This is also a direct result of the older generations believing that this was really a way to live and that to be ashamed of being weak or not masculine. I'm glad we are becoming conscious of these decisions and are more accepting, but still have a lot of work to do.
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