Project

I have begun to work on my project for class, and I am excited to see what my findings will be. I am going to make copies of ads in magazines, but I think I want to try several magazines. If I only choose one magazine, it may limit the stereotypes of Latino women. I noticed this the other day just by looking at one of my favorite magazines. There weren't many ads with Hispanic women. So, I am going to spread out the types of magazines and categorize what the Hispanic females role is. I want to break it up into categories such as smart, rich, servant-like, fiesty, sexy, educated, etc. I want to see how women like me are portayed in media and ads. I also want to see what types of ads they are in. Are they in beer ads, sexual ads, only ads for food or Hispanic geared products? Hopefully, I will find a lot to work with. If this does not work out then I am going to look at the roles that Hispanics play in tv shows or movies.

In Bruce Lee's Shadow

I read the article on Asian-American stereotypes and I agree with the thoughts of the writer. Once I read about the Asian actors and remembered their roles, I definitely saw the stereotypes that the culture goes through. The Asian male is pretty much limited to the fighting, martial arts roles. The men are known as lethal, cool and graceful. You can always expect for them to win the fight and have some elaborate scene showing off their skills. Sad, but true. They never play the romantics although they have come close. In one of my favorite movies Romeo Must Die, Jet Li comes to Aaliyah's rescue and you can tell they like each other but nothing ever happens. He is like her knight in shining armor, but no kissing scenes occur or anything. Rush Hour 2 also shows the Asian actor interested in women but never gets one.
The Asian women also get limited roles of house servants, or sidekicks to the main actor. Even the more Hollywood Asian actresses still play in fighting roles, like the Asian girl in Charlie's Angels, she is still seen as a fighter and fierce. She, unlike other actresses, gets many good roles thought.
I definitely see how Hollywood roles in the past have cursed Asian movie opportunities.

Final Project

I have decided that my final project will be studying ads in magazines. I want to look at the images and roles that Hispanic women play. Do they play smart women, look sleezy, always play the spicy latin girl, etc. I want to see how society views them because I am Hispanic and it matters to me. I also want to see are there many ads with Hispanic women. I have not decided what magazine(s) I will use. If this study does not give me enough information, they I will look for my study in tv shows. I do not know yet what previous study mine will mirror but I am eager to begin collecting ads and finally seeing what Hispanic women are portrayed as in culture.

Protesting Images in Media

I read the article on the protestors getting their voices heard about images in videos, etc. I had no idea the group Enough is Enough was out there protesting. I think thats good that people are realizing how black and Latino men, and women are being depicted. I agree very much with the statements "BET/MTV does not reflect me". People in society think because they see videos with pimps and hoes or gangsters that thats how black and hispanic people are. I also didn't know that Viacom owned MTV, BET, VH1, and Nickelodean. Its crazy because all those networks have different values and they portray people in different ways. Its like the company that owns Axe and Dove-totally different commercials and ways of drawing people. I think that the companies that own these music networks should develop the creative standards, prohibiting language, vulgarity, and anything demeaning. They can still represent black life without the cussing and horrible images. The companies need to meet the public halfway, they want to sell records though. Sex is what sells, but it is scary to think that one day, that is how my kids are going to try to live, mirroring the images they see on BET. I watched the "Hip Hop vs. America" segment where the rappers tried to talk about issues in media and music. I commend them for trying to hear what others have to say about their music, but I do not think it will change their music videos. Maybe, they will lighten up on curse words and images, but for now, I think hip-hop will remain the same.

Black is Back Story

This is in response to Pepper Miller's story-Black is Back. Personally, I never really paid attention to the different names society used for blacks. Now that I have read the article, I do notice how shifts in time have used different terms. It went from negros in the slave days to black to African American. I do think that there should be one term, because it seems like people don't know what to call this race. African-American does seem to specify a descent from Africa, and that could exclude those who don't consider themselves African. But I think we are all American. So it is confusing because its like what do you say-Black American? It's just like Hispanics, are we Latino, Chicano, Spanish, or do we go by our home country? I never cared about race and what people are because I am mixed racially and I know that my family consists of a lot of different people. I think Pepper's article is good though, and it's kind of funny how she addresses the issue. According to her, black is back, so we will see what society determines next.