20. Happy New Year:))

Here is my lovely, sleeper Santa Claus and our christmas tree:):)

Letter for Santa Claus:

Dear Santa Claus,
I don't want much thing from you. A new year means new hopes for me. I wish having an healthy and happy life with my family and friends. I also wish happiness and all good things for the people who need help. My christmas sock is near my bed and it is waiting for you to fill it with lots of love, happines and health for all people:) I think i am growing and being a "big girl" , because i don't want anymore cars, toys or sweets for myself. Sincerely, i only wish having an happy life whole together:) I am sure 2010 will be a hopeful year for all of us. Finally, i also want you to bring more goodness for good people and to bring mercy for bad ones instead of bringing coal:p

Lots of kisses and loves for you and for your deers:)


It is a letter from little blogger to Santa Claus which contains her feelings and wishes for a new year:)(may be in a childish way but she prefered such a way to express herself:))

Happy New Year For Everyone!<:)

19.The man who was almost a man

Retrieved December 25,2009 from
http://www.yourdrum.com/yourdrum/images/boy_with_gun.jpg

Dave Saunder was 17 years old. He was between boyhood and manhood. One day he decided to be a man. In order to achieve his goal he decided to buy a gun. Gun meant power, masculanity and equalizer for him. He and his family was worker for a white and rich man who called as Jim Hawkins. He was the landowner and Saunders were just labourers. So, we can see social stratification in this story. By the influence of social stratification, Dave felt himself as humiliated and looser infront of a white man. That's why he wanted to proove himself and change his status. He wanted to scare people by hiding behind his gun. There were two options for him: one of them was to accept his fate and the other was: to make people respect him by having a gun. There is another important point that: he bought a gun and tried to fire it in barn but accedently he killed a mule which called as Jenny.After this event, he was injured both financially and emotionally. People around him made fun of him because he couldn't know even how to fire. Besides, he had to pay 50 dollars(ps: he bought the gun for 2 dollars) for a dead mule and this was a big amount of money for Saunders. Thus, Dave's manhood effort was totally a disappointment. But, at the end of the story we can see that he didn't give over. He went somewhere else by a train and here train is symbolising another way for manhood. It meant a ticket for manhood for Dave.

18. Error Correction

After practice presentations, our lovely teacher Sonja gives us a list of phrases with errors:).She asked us to correct the errors in each phrase.

Here it is:

WRONG
1)the Jim Hawkins
2)He is lack of self-confidence
3)poorness
4)He couldn't success to be a man
5)open the TV
6)They behaved her very badly
7)his husband(:D)
8)grow their children
9)listening them
10)our wearings
11)men with similar dresses

CORRECT
1)Jim Hawkins
2)He is not self-confident
3)poverty
4)He couldn't manage to be a man
5)Turn on the TV
6)They were bad against her
7)her husband
8)raise their children
9)listening to them
10)our clothes
11)men with similar clothes

17. Racism

Retrieved, December 11, 2009 from:
http://cdn-write.demandstudios.com/upload//8000/600/50/8/8658.jpg

"The man who was almost a man" is a story which is both related with gender and racism. Racism is not obviously mentioned by the author(R.Wright)but you can feel racism out of some sentences in the story and Dave's reactions. I will talk about this subject more in detail in my further posts. But before that, i want to share something about racism which i read about and impressed a lot. It is an effective and funny criticism on racism.
Here it is:

When i'm born i'm black,when i grow up i'm black!
When i go in the sun i'm black,when i feel cold i'm black!
When i'm scared i'm black!
When i'm sick i'm black!
When i'm dead im still black
BUT YOU WHITE MAN
When you're born you're pink
When you grew up you are white!
When you go in the sun you are red
When you feel cold you're blue!
When you 're scared you are yellow,when you're sick you're green!
When you die you're grey!
And you dare call me coloured!

Retrieved from,
http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/famous/malcom_x/when_im_born_im_black_when_2041.

16.My First Presentation:)

The practice presentation was a nice exprience for me:). We were the first group to present and this was making me a bit excited but all in all, we tried to do our bests and it was over. I think having a practice presentation, will benefit our performance for the final presentation. Also, the feedbacks from our classmates will be effective in order to make less mistakes in our presentations. The most interesting feedback from one of my friends was: "Nothing!" which was written under the "negative parts of our presentation".:) Besides, most of our friends warn us about the time problem of our speeches. They indicate that, the time was not equally shared by each of us. So, in the final presentation we will all consider these feedbacks. Shortly, thank you for your comments dear my friends:))

15.Beauty is nothing without brains:))

As i mentioned in my previous posts it is obvious that beauty is important for most of the women. If a woman wants to impress a man her beauty is most effective thing to achieve her goal. But if the woman is lack of brain there is no more importance of her beauty:). Watch a funny video about this situation. I think this video gives a message for women that there are some other important things than beauty in life:) Click here to watch it:)

14. Killing Us Softly 3

As American culture there are ideal images in Turkish culture too. There are some difference between Turkish advertising and Americans. But generally the point of view of women are common. They want to be beautiful and sexiest. However, Turkish moral values don't let Turkish brands to use women as a sexual or pornographic image as Americans do. Being sexy is important for Turkish women but unlike other cultures, in Turkish adds we can't see women as sexual objects. There are some Turkish swimsuit,bikini brands using women as object but they have some limitations and do not pass over that limits. This doesn't mean that for Turkish women beauty and sexuality is not important. Beauty is very important for a Turkish woman because she use it as a mask, as a gun against a man and as a way to gain respect. As J.Kilbourne mentioned "Women spend their time,energy and lots of money for beauty". Turkish women are also trying hard to look beautiful. But why? Why is it important for a Turkish woman to look beautiful. To impress people particularly men because in a male dominated culture they assume that this is the only way to take attraction and fill space in someone's life. The other reason for this is media. Because the adds and models in Turkey provides women to emulate that models and ideal images. There are very beautiful young women on Tv and it is not possible not to desire to become as beautiful as they are. Furthermore lets talk about sexuality in Turkish culture. There is not much sexuality in adds and it seems like there is also no sexuality inside Turkish women. But i think it is wrong. Because both in adds commercials and both inside Turkish women there is sexuality which is repressed but exists. Beauty,image and being sexy gives power to woman. The film also indicates that men are also used in adds but it is different from women's adds. Because men's bodies are not criticized or judged like women. Thats why a woman should always do something to look beautiful but a man doesn't have such an apprehension. This is also current for Turkish culture. Another point is by media women are forced to get thinner as a fashion in order not to fill too much space in society and not to be powerful. So media inoculating wrong social messages by showing it as fashion. And as a woman i also be an insturment to this messages. I want to look thin or look beautiful it is mostly because of media and it's ideal images.


BEAUTY AS A GUN AGAINST MEN
I think beauty is used by women as a gun againist men. They can use their temptation and get whatever they want from a man.(it can be a diamond ring or holiday or may be something else.)That's why we can see lots of women who are trying to look more beautiful. They want "beauty" to gain a man or to reach their desires which can be provided by men. Of course, this situation is not valid for all of our kinds:)(women). But unfortunately,it is known that there are some kind of women who are using their beauty as a gun. But the important point is actually they are forgetting that it can be an effective weapon but it is not permanent. So if you want to impress a man or if you want him to be your slave you should look for other options. Only beauty can not be the solution.

13. Who is Jean Kilbourne?

Jean Kilbourne,(born January 4, 1943) is an author, speaker, and filmmaker who is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.Kilbourne’s work links the power of images in the media with current public health problems, such as eating disorders, violence, and drug and alcohol addiction. Through her lectures, films, and articles, many of her original ideas and concepts have become mainstream. These include the concepts of the tyranny of the beauty ideal, the connection between the objectification of women and violence, the themes of liberation and weight control exploited in tobacco advertising aimed at women, the targeting of alcoholics by the alcohol industry, addiction as a love affair, and many others. She has received many awards and honors recognizing her achievements. If you want to have more detail about her life and work click here.
I will give information about Killing Us Softly3 which is Jean Kilbourne's popular educational film so i wanted you to know who is jean kilbourne before i start:)

12.Tough Guise

"TOUGH GUISE" in Turkish Culture and Media

As i mentioned in my 10th post: There are tough guise in Turkey who known as machos. There are similar features those tough guise who are related with American culture and Turkish ones. Because there is a common phenomenon between those cultures,it is "masculinity". Violence,power,freedom,domination, being strong both physically and morally, being respected etc. these are requirments of masculinity. If you don't provide one of these requirments you are soft,fag,sissy etc. in other words you are not a man! There are ways to become a man! But who sets the ways of manhood? Answer is obvious MEDIA. "Tough Guise" also touchs on this subject. Media teachs men how to be a man.The film is questioning the issue which is based on media constructs manhood which is full of violent and it is not a natural way. It is the same in Turkey. There are many examples of teaching Turkish men violence as a symbol of manhood. Guns, fists,murders are seem normal for a MAN because of films and series which are full of violence.For example,Kurtlar Vadisi is a Turkish series which becomes a model for Turkish boys and men by it's gory way. Guns are used in this serie as an ordinary thing,men kill each other wildly and this seems like natural thing. By this way particularly boys take these guys as their models and try to be a real man by using violence. It is a fact that series are not realistic but teenagers and even some uneducated region won't realize it like this.Turkish men like to use force to show their potential of masculinity. There is an interesting point that there are such films or series which are based on male domination,power and violence because the culture,the facts are obvious. Male are dominant in many situations. Media should prevent the male domination,violence and avoid making such programmes. Also news are again an example from media which gives wrong messages. The murderers are MEN because it is not a strange thing but as the film Tough Guise indicates if the murderer is a woman people criticize and find it strange. This is mostly mistake of the media and someone should stop it!

11. 2012 Doomsday

Now here are some daily news:)) Last Saturday i went to see "2012" and it was amazing. I think also you have to go and visit it immediately if you haven't see it yet. The film is based on Mayan calender which is ending in 2012. Mayans predicted most of the meteorological datas in the ancient years and they created a calender and this calender ends in the year of 2012. Thus there is a belief that this society who are mostly right on their predictions about earth set the ending at 2012 so this day will be doomsday. This film is based on this interesting belief. The year is 2012 and doomsday is near. Who will survive and what will happen? It is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that bring an end to the world. I think it was impressive but i should confess that there was some exaggerations and unrealistic lotteries in the film. However in the abstract it was a nice film and you should watch it. I want you to stay curious so this is all for now:)

10.Masculinity in Turkey

Polat Alemdar(Necati Şaşmaz)-KURTLAR VADİSİ(this man is a symbol for masculinity among Turkish men)

If you live in Turkey it is an usual thing to feel male domination in many parts of your life. Masculinity is essential for men to prove theirselves. But main question is that a man how can be a "man"? Power, violence, domination, jealousy etc. these are the things which increases masculinity among Turkish men. If you have a gun and a strong structure it means most of the people would afraid of you and many women would respect you.(ex: Polat Alemdar). Also Turkish people assume that being macho is the golden rule in order to be a real man! Macho man is rude,strong,courageous, lack of emotion and intensive. If you carry some of the features of a macho man it is not so dangerous but if you try to be much more macho and contrubite it with more violence you won't increase your masculinity,you would just become more wild! But this fact is not important for Turkish men they use violence even againist women who are defenceless in order to prove their masculinity(what a pity!). The other important point is they try to show theirselves as emotionless in order to protect their manhood. "Boys don't cry!" this world view is very common among Turkish men. Killing,fighting won't humiliate you conversely it would exalt you in manhood concept! Thus they don't hesitate to use violence. Moreover, jealousy is very common for Turkish men,they try to limit their girlfriends',wifes' or sisters' rights. For example, if you are a macho you won't let your girlfriend to wear mini skirt or you won't let her go out with her friends. These are very usual for Turkish men in order to prove his authority and show masculinity. Most of the Turkish women are obedient and lets the men to dominate their lives and limit their freedom. Jealousy looks like an innocent thing and a consequence of love but it is not so pure. It can cause many bad results. For example, Münevver Karabulut & Cem Garipoğlu. Here girl is the victim and the boy is macho(jealous! and murderer)! This boy kills her girlfriend because of his jealousy and as a result of his MANHOOD(violence!) There are many similar examples like this! All in all, i think men should be more kind and not to act in a wild way. Instead of using his power they should impress women and increase their manhood by their admirable kindness.

9. Learning New Details

"Copyright"
This is a word which most of us are familiar with.But the important question is are we aware of it's function. For example, today i learn that if i want to use a copyrighted image on my presentation i have to contact with it's author and get a permission. Although i know what is copyrighted means this function of it seems strange to me. In other words it is difficult to deal with it.:/ So what are we going to do? Stop putting images in our work's or continue doing illegal things? I suppose both of them won't be a good solution for us. The best solution would be "Creative Commons" for us.:) It is an organisation which helps you to use images in your work easily. This was again a detail which i wasn't aware of before=) You can visit this cite http://www.compfight.com/ for using image which is suitable for creative commons. You can also visit my 8th post for having information about citing images. I wanted to share these details with you.

8.Citing Image

Figure 1, Photograph of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi (2005). Note: Copyright Flo (made available under a Creative Commons License)


List of references

Flo (Photographer). (2005) [Photograph of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi] ,[Online Image]. Retrieved November 9, 2009 , from Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46126272@N00/83453648/

7.What do you think?

1)

OR


2)AFRICAN CHILDREN DYİNG OF HUNGER


OR


3)'23 MILLION' FACE SEVERE HUNGER in E.AFRICA: Oxfam
(AFP) – Sep 29, 2009 (giving numerical data //other way to take attention.)



WHICH ONE IS MORE IMPRESSIVE?

6.Photojournalism

Photojournalism is a requirment. Just reading a news text is not sufficient to understand the content or the events which are happening in world. Photograph supports the news text and make people have more comprehensive knowledge about events. It also take attention and make people concious of the truth's of the world. Thus, by it's visual way it impresses people. It gives us the opportunity to see the facts closer. I think photos are more reliable and more effective than any other sources. Let's test it.(Please visit next blog, to have your own decision about this situation)

5.Show world:)

FEAR FACTOR
A scene from the reality gameshow "Fear Factor" (please watch this video to have some idea about reality world)
What a pity to see such a scene? People make theirselves cheap. They try to do some strange things in order to be famous or make money. Reality shows offer people price and fame together. Thus,it makes them attractive for majority of people. Let's give some information about a reality show which called as "Fear Factor". The show pits contestants against each other to complete a series of stunts better and/or quicker than all the other contestants, by doing this in the fastest time, for a grand prize of US$50,000.This program gives difficult missions for contestants.There are full of terrifying and strange items in it.To wrap up,like all reality shows "Fear Factor" also include some absurdity.For example,in this video the contestant try to eat the insect in order to gain the price.I think it's not a right way to be famous or make money.It makes me think this question all the time: "What will happen in the future? What will be the destiny of the reality shows in forward years?".I think people will continue to compromise from their personality. In the other hand, it gives people the chance to face with their fears it is an optimistic point of view but not a realistic one:) Yes,people have to face with their fears but not in front of 70 million people:)

4.Famous Reality Shows

American Idol:"The Search for a Superstar."The program seeks to discover the best singer in the country through a series of nation-wide auditions. Through phone voting America chooses their superstar. In Turkey, we had such programmes which called as "Popstar","Akademi Türkiye"exc.



Big Brother:is a reality tv show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house. In Turkey, we had "Biri Bizi Gözetliyor(BBG)"which looks like Big Brother but arranged suitable for Turkish customs.



The Bachelor: is an original one hour prime-time reality television series that gives one man and 25 women the opportunity to find true love in a most exciting and adventurous way.The Bachelor will get to know the 25 women in a series of fun, exciting and exotic dates that will elicit real and raw emotions. Along the way he must follow a gradual process of elimination, as his initial 25 bachelorettes are narrowed down week by week by presenting them with a single, red rose. In the end, he will ultimately decide on the one woman who captures his heart.In Turkey,of course having such a program is not possible so the format of this show changed and adopted to our ethical issues. We had "Biz Evleniyoruz". It was a program which also aims contestants to find their true loves and the winner of the show gets the price but there wasn't 25 women and a man:)



Who Wants To Be a Millionaire: is a television quiz show which offers very large cash prizes for correctly answering 12 or 15 consecutive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. In Turkey, we had exactly the same program which called as "Kim 500 milyar İster?".Kenan Işık was the booby prize.


Resources:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/
www.tv.com/the-bachelor/show

3.Reality TV: a dearth of talent and the death of morality

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie censures Reality shows on his article. "I do remember the American Survivor contestant who managed to fry his own hand so that the skin peeled away until his fingers looked like burst sausages,but that's because he got on the main evening news." he said.By saying this he means that although this behaviour was not normal,it makes the contestant famous and the spotlight. So he highlights it is an easy thing to become the spotlight,it is enough to take attention,that's all this will make you famous for a few time. He also mentions reality shows are successful because they tell us things about ourselves in other words they share same properties of our lives. So it's like a mirror. It provides us to see other people's problems,loves,cheers,laughs,tears. He thinks people are really interested in reality shows maybe because "they are the most boring and normal way of becoming famous" .Thus, these shows adds our lives dullness. We are getting use to watch people when they are just sleeping,laughing,kissing,maybe when they are actually doing nothing. Do you think this adds our lives anything? I don't think so. I think it is just waste of time.If you want to become famous and rich you don't need to have a talent, just a camera and self-acting is sufficient.(eg:Big Brother) I suppose, the most interesting part of this article is Salman's ideas about future of the reality shows. He doesn't see it's future bright and thinks it will contain much more absurdity in it by the following years. For example,"the witnesses at an execution(Oklahoma bomber's execution) watch through a glass window is also a kind of reality show" he mentions and by this he tries to show the future of such programmes, which are full of voyeurism. So the reality show producers actually don't know what to do. To get more detail about Oklahoma bomber's execution watch, click here.

2.Some essentials about The Enormous Radio

In the story radio is a symbol of voyeurism.(voyeurism: stimulation derived from secretly watching people and their acts.) Irene listened her neighbours' conversations all the time by the radio. Followed all their actions in other words, she attacked to their private lives. She was a voyeurist and actually she was not in a healthy mood. She tried to listen the radio while no one was in the room so she was obsessed to listen others' secrets.

Let's think the similarities between the enormous radio& media
Nowadays, majority of people are captured by voyeurism. Media encourages people to deal with others' secrets or private lives. This is not just consist of celebrities' lives also ordinary people are followed by some reality shows or contentions.People like to watch this kind of shows which are full of voyeurism. Because i think everybody carries voyeurism inside them. Media helps people to reveal their voyeurism. Actually we are not different from Irene, may be we don't have any radio which helps us to listen our neighbours but thanks to MEDIA we have lots of programs which helps us to follow people closely. For example, we have a great voyeurism source which called as 'paparazzi'. This helps us to attack people's private lives deeply particularly to celebrities' lives and there are lots of people like Irene who are obsessed by voyeurism. I also admit that i like to watch this kind of programmes so am i also fan of voyeurism :p? This is a question for all of us:) This story can be a message for us in order to accept our voyeuristic way:)

1.The Enormous Radio(John Cheever)

The story is about Jim and Irene Wescott who were living on the twelfth floor of an apartmen house near Sutton Place.They were interested with music and liked to listen radio. It was a great luxury for them. But there was an interesting point that they didn't mention to their friends about their music interest.

Irene's radio was an old instrument and usually faltered but one day the music faded away and never came back. Thus,Jim promise to buy a new radio for Irene. Everything started after that. When the new radio was in Wescott's house,Irene started to play with it before it was plugged. This made radio to confuse. While Irene was listening the radio, some disturbing noises started to spread out of the radio and this were the sounds of their neighbours. Jim also experienced the same as his wife when he tried to listen the radio. They tried to solve this problem but there was nothing to do they continued to listen the neighbourhoods' conversations. Irene started to follow the conversations as a duty. She was defeated by her curiosity. Firstly, it seemed to be sort of fun but then Irene started to depressed by the conversations. Because she started to hear her neighbour's problems. This problems made her to think about their future. And there her apprehen-siveness' about life,money,love and honesty began. When Jim saw her wife's bad mood, he called people for reparation and spent a lot of money for this reparation. Actually their income was not fine and this was an extravagance for him. After that,Jim learned Irene was lying to him and her behaviour's was not normal. So this made Jim went crazy and he exclaimed all the mistakes of Irene. And there we understood that as the radio also their relation was misleading. The radio seemed an ordinary thing but by this story we saw it wasn't and also Wescott's relation seemed perfect but by the end of the story we understood it wasn't.