Who are you?

I still cannot understand the purpose of the question “Where are you from?” The purpose of this question is probably to imply that “deep inside of yourself what do you feel you are?” I think identity has multiple components - the experiences we had our believes, the language we talk, our culture or lifestyle. When I think about identity a meal comes to my mind. You cannot cook a soup only with tomato souce you need to put some water,oil,salt etc. As in this example we cannot bound identity to only one thing. So its meaningless to consider a person only from a single identity. For the people who imigrated to Germany from Turkey we cannot say them totally German or Turkish. I think he/she belongs to both cultures !

same-sex relationships

I think for homosexual marriage to be legally approved only homosexual people's fight as not enough administration and society also play an important role in this process. As stated by Howley according to national opinion research center 53 percent of American's think that homosexual relationships are always wrong. This percent is much lower in eastern countries. Considering my own country I can definitely say that only a small percent of the society accept the situation. These people are usually the parents whose children are homosexual and who are obliged to accept the situation because of their children...Besides this in eastern parts this issue is out of question and these people would be killed. Although some countries like Holland is open to this kind of relationships and even their marriage I think it is impossible in Turkey..."Impossible is nothing" is not possible in Turkey!

Marriage...

Marriage has an important place in today's world but unfortunately the marriage has been turned into an event that makes no sense.I believe that marriage can only happen with love therefore I don't believe today's marriages.Marriage is now a very simple thing for instance now if I want to marry someone I can go to a wedding program and I can marry with a stranger. This is very scary!!! What will happen to our emotions? 

İn brief either be in love with your spouse, or dont marry at all...

The end of the term...

The first semester I can say that I have an excellent class.I hope we can be together in the second period, this is the only wish I can say for the moment ...

Thank you for everything :)

Empty Bamboo :)

The movie by Okan Bayulgen is comic represantation of the situation of media in today's world. In the movie a window cleaner watchs some programme while cleaning the window. Surprisingly each programme watched by this man becomes the most favourite programme of that day. The owner of the TV channel which is Kanalizasyon hires this man and broadcastes the programmes that the cleaner likes most all this programmes are the most ridicules ones like " Who Want 500 Slaps?","My Animal" etc. These programmes are usually "empty" in content but make people sit in front of the TV whole evening.With this film Okan Bayulgen tries to examplify that the media is becoming an empty bamboo ...

Marriage Programmes video

Marriage Programmes

Generally we find these programmes ridicules but each of us has once watched one of these programmes in our lifes. The main purpose of these programmes to make people married especially those who cannot get married by themselves. Media has gone to far that it became a helpful to in people's private choices. Marriage is a serious act in the society. It should take some time for people to decide on marriage but in these programmes people decide in a very short time and by considering only a few things like money, career, appearance and wealth. It is open to discussion that how healthy these decisions are...

Lets have a look at the following video no comment! :)

The effect of media on social norms!

Social norms are the behaviors and cues within a society or group. This sociological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. The social norms indicate the established and approved ways of doing things, of dress, of speech and of appearance.

The definition of social norm is stated in wikipedia like this.I think the contraction or the change of these social norms are profondly affected by television programmes. For instance the way we dress is highly affected by fashion programmes. There is a sharp transition in clothing style of young generation. Another example can be the fact that more and more people started to use foreign words mostly English in their daily life. In my opinion one of the most influential factor on this speech degeneration is Turkish evening serials. In most of these programmes the actors and actresses make use of lots of English words because of than these words easily take place in peoples daily life.

Considering the effectiveness of TV programmes on the shaping of social norms.I believe that TV programmers should pay attention for these issues but I do not see this attention in these programmes.

Different meaning of love for each...(New York I love you)

At the end of the movie that we presented in the class we realize everyone has their own love story.Newyork is a city like a melting pot which includes huge number of people. These people have different love stories. In the movie emphasized fundemental theme is that love is universal and also everybody fall in love in different ways and also feel different things from each other. As there is not one certain meaning of love.The crucial thing is how you fall in love and how you feel...

The film portraid different love stories first love,everlasting love,denied love etc.I thing the most impressive love story was the love between the old couples.Their everlasting love which is the difficult to find in todays world impressed me a lot...

"Everything in between"

(Part of Newyork I love you)

Abe and Mitzie are an old couple.On their 67th anniversary they take a walk outside we see a lots of examples of their squabble through the way.We also see some instances of love.The real love between them show itself in spite of the years.We can clearly see this when they stand next to a bank on the sea side.The director Joshua Marston, try to examplify everlasting love of old couple resistant to years without beauty or old age anxiety...

The Effect of Media...

Media is the best way of imposing women with the beauty. With the help of advertisements, magazine programmes, some kind of movies girls are told how to be beautiful or how a beautiful woman looks like. A researcher from Brigham and women hospital in Boston found out that the more girls read magazines the more they go on a diet. Another study from Stanford University and The University of Massachusetts show that seventy percent of girls studying at colleges state that they feel worse about their own appearance after reading women's magazines. In such kinds of magazine covers, we mostly see women who are in good shape, sexy, attractive... It becomes impossible not to be affected. In many of the pages of these magazines women are told some tips to be beautiful, what to wear, how to make up, the best diets etc. just next to these texts usually there are some pictures of “beautiful women”. Affected from these things women rush to cosmetics and cosmetic or plastic surgery.

Beauty Trap !

Sontag(2010) states that beauty is like a trap for women. To get out of this trap requires women to put some distance between themselves and beauty. Instead of keeping the distance, women find themselves more and more surrounded by that trap. This starts from the childhood. Toddlers beauty contest can be given as the best example for this situation. In “Toddlers and Tiaras” broadcasted in Travel and Living Discovery channel different age groups compete with their beauties to get the tiaras. Every episode follows a different group of contestants. This compelling series showcases the traditional elements of child pageants, stage mums and dads, hair extensions, spray-tanning, make-up and glitter. I sometimes watch this programme and I see that the kids who are not aware of even the term “beauty” are imposed to become beautiful through make up, hair style, clothing etc. In the picture above we can see how a mom forces a four years old girl (at most) to wear make up for the contest. I think this is the most brutal side of the beauty. It is not surprising that when these kids grow up, the image of being beautiful will stay in their mind as wearing the best make up, having the most attractive hair style, having a good shape which is slim and sexy. In my opinion as long as human beings can not get rid of this consciousness they will continue to be the slaves of beauty.

"Otherness"

“Men defends women not in herself but as relative to him”says Beauvoir(2010). As a consequences of this the term “otherness” emerges. In this regard women are not seen as independent beings but they are regarded as the ones who are dependent on men. This dependence reminds me of such words: weakness, vulnerability, enslave, oppressed etc. Although we can say that the relationship between men and women is not same with master and slave we can still claim that women are at a disadvantageous position. For instance, men usually have better jobs they get higher salaries or they have many more positions in politics. I think in our culture mostly in eastern part of Turkey men are more supported in terms of education or having a better job. On the other hand when women do not have a job this situation is seen as a normal thing because her man will definitely look after her. Today things seem to be changing. Women are started to have more legal advantages and they are represented in many more different areas. However still this world mostly belongs to men.

The more you are beautiful the more you subtract...

The model Eliana Ramos was only eighteen years old. Her sister Luisel and she went on a diet to be more beautiful and they became anorexic.They did not know they were going to die. It is so sad but both of them died soon.Here is a terrifying picture of her (from www.habervitrini.com)

There is nothing that a women can do for "beauty" I think women feel the pressure of being beautiful this situation stems from the media and the society !

Advertisements influence women

As it is stated in our reading text advertisements tell women to be beautiful, to smell beautiful, to be in a good shape etc. Women wait ready to be fooled by the advertisements because for majority of women the only important thing is being more beautiful. Since advertisers are aware of this concern they make use of “beautiful women” who are usually well shaped or well dressed in their advertisements...As we can see in the advertisement above the woman's well shaped hips and legs take attention first than we can see the trainers. Also women are tried to be influenced "have better hips with these shoes".Unfortunately we are all fooled by this maybe most of women have these kind of shoes :)

The Man Who Was Almost a Man- Richard Wright

In the story all the people laughed at the scene for them the event was amuzing( a boy is killing a mule) but in reality the situation is more than killing an animal in spite of his young age the boy can get a gun just because his being a male.If it was a girl, could she buy the gun? Of course NO... Here we can see families descriminate gender among their children!

The Enormous Radio by John Cheever

     Irene is trying to cover her own unhappiness by focusing on other people's problems.For instance she is telling her husband that everybody have been quarrelling and they are all worried about money and their relationships but I think instead of pretending to be happy if she attempts to solve her problems by discussing them loudly with her husband just as the other do.She maybe happier.
    Although she thinks that their life is good and they are loving each other its obvious that she is not sure of herself.She after each positive statement about their life.She askes question to her husband for confirmation.For instance"We are happy aren't we darling?" , "We have been good and decent and loving to one another haven't we?"