It's Okay It Is Just a Joke

A picture from the show of Christine and Richie.

    The other morning I was watching the show The New Adventures of Old Christine and there was a pretty racist comment that caught me off guard. The show is focused around a single mom who is a little crazy and in this scene she is dropping off her son Ritchie at his first day of private school.

Christine: Look at how nice this place is! Look at the nice artwork. Oh and there is nice markers and a nice teacher.

Richie: Mommy where are all the black kids?

     Before taking my American Studies class I would not have thought twice about this joke. Now I see that this is very racist and I am wondering why these types of jokes are allowed on television?
     Christine uses the word nice so many times in the opening line and, as we have talked about in class, this gives the connotation that the people who go to the private school are nice and those who don't are not. Then when Richie comes in the one liner about "black kids" it connotes that blacks are not nice. Also, since it is a private school that costs a lot of money it is also connoting that blacks can not afford to go their and all of them are poor. Stereotyping people is the most common form or racism.
     This all comes back to our favorite question is American Studies. Is America a cycle or are we always progressing? We are supposed to be a country of equals and racism supposedly died with The Civil War yet we are still making racist comments to over thousands of people. Again and again our country falls back into the same issues of our past that caused so much trouble back then,

Ready the Foam Fingers for War

Chicago Blackhawks fans getting rowdy at a game.

     In The Kentucky Cycle the character Patrick Rowen is complaining about being poor and says, "when we was fightin' I was doin' fine --- it's peace that's killin' me!"(100). You'd think that Patrick has his words mixed up because usually all the killing is during war. However, he is speaking to what America really values most. Money. War is great for the economy with all the jobs and weapons sales. Other than that, going to war with another country brings people together.  America loves war.
     To be clear, I am not saying that Americans go around shouting "I love war". We find more modern and socially acceptable ways of supporting it. For example, supporting professional sports teams like the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are currently in the NHL playoffs and their fans have been going crazy. Supporting professional sports teams is like supporting war. Just think about it: the violence, the economy boosting from apparel, and the sense of community from rallying for a common cause. Also, when a team's season comes to and end whether successful or not fans are depressed just as Patrick Rowen is in the quote above. What makes the violence in sports more socially acceptable? Could America survive without the competition of sports?
   
   

The Token Nose

     "A small, flat-nosed Jew" is how Nick describes Mr.Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby book. Does the man in the picture to the right look like he fits that description? Yeah, I don't think so. The man to the right is Amitabh Bachchan the Indian actor who play Wolfsheim in the newest Gatsby movie. I think what we have here is movie tokenism.
     Nearly all the characters in The Great Gatsby book are written as white. I guess it is okay for books to not have diversity but movies are similar television shows because they too have token characters. Wolfsheim plays an important role in Gatsby but he is not a main character so I guess the movie makers thought it would be okay to change his race. I mean the one physical aspect that Wolfshein is know for in the book is his nose. All though is he is not "flat-nosed" he does have a very distinct sniffer.
     Making Wolfshein an indian shows some of the token character examples we saw on television. First, he is is an "authority minority". At his times in the movie he is always dressed in a suit and tie and he is also kind of like Gatsby's boss. He is the one who brought Gatsby into all of his money. Indian Wolfshein is also very sketchy and secretive, making him a "mystic minority".
     Does this race change effect the movie at all? Why is it all right for books to not be diverse?

Haters Gotta' Hate

The necklace all students receive
for going on Kairos.

     Kairos. The whole school is talking about it. At my high school Kairos is the closest thing that we have to a cult. For the readers who are still in the dark, Kairos is a retreat that high schoolers around the country can attend at a location nearest them. The retreat usually has a religious affiliation and the most important thing about the retreat is that the people who attend it can not tell anyone what goes on during the retreat. Not only is the whole thing very secretive, but all the retreatants also come back very close. There is even a well know term, "the Kairos hug", because that is how all the retretants greet each other after they come back.
     Due to the fact students come back "different" and the whole thing is so secret, many of the non-retreatants tend to hate on the Kairos kids a bit. I do not mean physical violence or anything along those lines, most of the hate is through jokes. At my high school there are a lot of jokes and the Kairos kids do not take it very well, but I do not know if it is the same at other high schools. I live in a pretty wealthy suburb and there is not a huge amount of poor people or outcast type students. So, since there is not a lot of other outcasts, Kairos is left with all the hate in our school.
     Our power hungry society is constantly fighting within itself. People want power because with power comes control. Power is just another thing like living in the upper class; people see it, want it, and then try to work for it. Ostracizing people is a quick way to gain power and as long as there is a power struggle there will be ostracizing.
    Why do we need to feel superior to people? What is there was no struggle for power?

I FEELGOOD in Whatever

     You may think that fashionable sweatpants in an oxymoron, but here on the North Shore we have found a way to make sweatpants a coveted item. The pictures to the right both show sweatpants both pairs serve the same function and yet one costs $80 and the other cost $10. Spoiler alert. Apart from color and the waist band the pants are the same. You might ask what do you get for the extra $70? For that you get a high class brand of sweatpants that you can wear to a North Shore high school without being looked down upon for wearing cheap sweatpants to school.
     This expensive brand of sweatpants are called FEELGOODS. The name itself tries to to tell customers that they will only "feel good" in these pants. All though the pants are essentially sweatpants they put themselves on a pedestal above regular sweats by simply changing their name. I mean who who chose pants you "sweat" in when you could "feel good" for $70 more?
     This speaks to our society's constant want for better things. If people can not strive for something "better" then why would they continue to work. The lower class of the U.S. makes up most of our manual labor force and to keep them working the upper class dangles their lifestyle in front of them. Jealousy is a constant driving force within society. Is the difference between the upper and middle class just as small as a pair of pants?

Someone Get This Lady a Turtleneck

Paltrow in Iron Man 3 fight scene.

     I am not a radical feminist or anything like that, but I saw something the other day that even got me to take a critical look at the gender inequality in our society. At the end of Iron Man 3 (don't worry there will be no spoilers) there is a big fight scene with a lot of combat, a good amount of explosions, oh and Gwyneth Paltrow dangling from a building in nothing but a bra and spandex pants. With the amount of money this film probably had for costumes it is safe to make the assumption that this clothing choice was done for entertainment and not expense issues.
     The most probable explanation is "eye candy." The viewers most likely to see this movie are men and I guess a fast paced action film is not enough to keep their attention because otherwise why would Paltrow be half naked?
     If the success of a movie now depends on the number "hot chicks" are in it then I wonder how far gender equality has come. It is very common to see women portrayed as sex objects in the media. Before the feminist movements women were just seen as household objects who were here to serve men. If the media continues to show women as sex symbols, how long until we as a gender start to only see ourselves like that? This would result in the same "mens' objects" mind set of the past.

It's Vintage! So Cute!

Old fashioned car found through Google

     Why is vintage cool, in style, and expensive? I was driving around with my family when a car pulled up next to us that was definitely not from this century. My dad and my brother were amazed saying things like "what an awesome car" and "I'd kill for a car like that. I didn't understand why they would want a car so old as compared to a brand new one.
     In The Great Gatsby,  Gatsby sends his whole life fawning over things of the past. Nick, another character in the book, describes Gatsby's obsession with the past as, "an extra ordinary gift for hope". With Gatsby living in his past life with Daisy he is hoping to make his future more like the past. Except, a future with his past life is nearly impossible and the only way it would happen is if something "extra ordinary" occurred. That something is not likely though do to the fact it just is not "ordinary". Anyways, this hope for  future based on the past could be the answer to the obsession with vintage cars.
     It is not ordinary to see "classic" cars on the road so maybe people like to own them because they have accomplished something near to impossible. They have brought back the past while in the future. People could also be obsessed with the past because those were simpler times. However, is bringing objects from the past back in style really going to make this current life simpler?

From Teenyboppers To Croptoppers

Ke$ha preforming live.

    And the Junior Theme blogs continues. I am still attempting to discover why prostitution still exists. A prediction I had, that ended up being a dead end was that children, specifically girls, are becoming sexualized at younger ages.
     I have heard about the olden times like the 50s. Girls wore skirts down to their ankles and couples who held hands were scandalous. So how have we gone from that, to a generation full of girls who like to wear minimal clothing and call each other "sluts" and "whores" regularly? One of the reasons I see for our sexualized generations is the role models these girls have to look up to.
     Young girls find role models in a lot of famous actresses and singers such as Ke$ha. The picture to the right is of Ke$ha preforming in minimal clothing and grinding with one of her dancers. This problem along with prostitution are both feeding gender stereotypes. When women where less clothing they are giving into the idea that we are only sex objects. Why are these possible role models pushing the sexual boundary? If we continue to sexualize children at younger ages what does this mean for women in the future?

Just a Time Out for Prostitutes

     All though my Junior Theme is done my topic is still forever in my mind . In the Chicago Sun-Times there was an article about over population in the Cook County Jail and how it is being handled. To summarize, the jail has decided to put people who commit non-violent acts on house arrest instead of jail. Specifically the county officials will "end felony arrests for prostitution". If the jail refuses to put arrested prostitutes in jail then the business is only going to continue to thrive.
     In my research I have found that most women who stop prostituting stop because they get arrested and placed into a center to rehabilitate themselves. One example of this is Marian Hatcher and the Sheriff's Women's Justice Program which you can read about in my earlier post. It is programs like this that help women who have prostituted get clean and get their life back on track. Prostituted women who are on the streets are addicted to that lifestyle and almost always need outside help to get off the streets. Without these arrests prostituted women will continue in their lifestyle of personal destruction.
     Someone else who is against this new idea is Chief Judge Tim Evans who feels that, "the purpose of a bail hearing is for a judge to decide how best to ensure the return of the defendant to court and protect public safety.....not to reduce jail population". With prostitutes being on house arrest the jail can not monitor their progress or help them stay out of jail in the future. And all though it is keeping jail population down currently, without help these prostitutes will likely be arrested again. What could be another solution to decrease jail population? Without arresting for non-violent felonies, do you think that this makes crime less illegal?

A Powerhouse of Women

    In class we had to write an essay called, "The Junior Theme". I wrote mine on the why the prostitution business has stayed around till now. Even though I found my topic extremely interesting I also found it a little depressing because I read a lot of horrible stories on the lives prostitutes lead. Also, I focused so much on the negative aspects of life that have kept prostitution around and I never got to shed light on some of the amazing things people are doing to try and stop the business.

Marian Hatcher, working with a women in the Sheriff's
Women's Justice Progam

    An example of one of these amazing programs and people is Marian Hatcher who works at the Sheriff's Women's Justice Program. Marian is a former prostitute that also struggled with mental illness and illegal substance abuse. She "got clean" in 2004 when she was arrested and put into the Sheriff's Women's Justice Program. Clean is just another word for fresh start or a blank slate which is what Marian got going through the program. Now, Marian has dedicated her life to the same program that helped her out.

    The Sheriff's Women's Justice Program works with women who have been arrested by the Cook County Jail for prostitution along with some other reasons. The program sees the arrested women as victims instead of criminals and give them the support they need to leave the dangerous life on the streets. They have parenting classes because many prostitutes actually mother multiple children, they also have support groups, and the most amazing thing I found in the program was the one on one attention from the ladies like Marian who work there with the ladies who are in the program. It seemed like most of the women in the program just needed someone to care about them in order for them to start caring about themselves. If you want to learn more about the program and Marian there is an Oprah Winfrey Network documentary called Prostitution: Leaving the Life.