Curation Presentation

http://prezi.com/vfloppwxfadh/princess-culture/

Games for me

For me video games mean working with other people to achieve a big goal. In my favorite game, Guild Wars 2, there isn't really a way to troll players because without others they have a few very big battles that without a group are impossible for someone alone to defeat.

When I was little, I remember Zelda and Mario games teaching me basic puzzle solving games. These days, playing games with others teaches me how to work in a group and that cooperation is key.

This being said, I've seen pretty good people become not nice when playing games, even going to the extremes of insulting their own friends. I this sense I believe that video games can be very negative to people. Games have ratings which should be stuck to by kids and reinforced by parents, this can prevent kids from taking the wrong things away from more violent video games .


p.s. I am so sorry I had a family thing pop up and posted this as quickly as I could

What is normal anymore?

when you think of something being normal, you automatically think that its that way for everyone else around you, right?

well... in a perfect world, maybe.

What happens, when there are people different than you? That don't have the same hair color as you? Don't wear the same clothes? You'd probably see past those differences

What about if that person was gay? things get a little bit more complicated there.

We all have grown up with this thought of heteronormativity surrounding us, and not even being aware of it. The fact that girls need to like ponies and pink and boys like sports and blue. Anything against that is considered wrong and immoral, and when someone goes against it, it causes a stir.

I think that we should throw out our preconceived ideas about what normal really is, and not let socially acceptable practices dictate what is right for people.

Fourth wave feminism?

Recently, I have heard about the "fourth wave" of feminism coming out. This wave however, is an internet hoax. But although this satire pokes fun at modern feminist movements with the use of parody and exageration, is this wave actually doing good? While Wikipedia and 4Chan are not always a credible source, I did find that these two sites had the most unbiased and valuable information. Particularly for the two biggest topics "bikini bridge" and "free bleeding". Yes "free bleeding" is exactly what it sounds like. the first, Bikini Bridge, is essentially the gap that comes between a bikini bottom and the woman's stomach when lying down. The two hip bones create a "bridge". An example picture from google is below. This fake trend was meant to make fun of the "thigh gap", although the parody of it is starting to be lost among young girls. "Free Bleeding" again is just that, a "feminist" form of self expression in which the woman refuses to use feminine hygene products during mensturation. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't read much of it. Not that I am against the idea of a movement towards equality such as this...I just...can''t... The link to the article is also posted below. http://bikinibridge.tumblr.com/ http://modernwomandigest.com/disturbing-new-feminist-trend-free-bleeding/

Food culture. A global force for good?

Check it!

First off, what a cool idea, right? not only is coke using this commercial as a clever way to bring people together on what may possibly be the most awkward day of their lives, but they advertise their products to us almost subliminally. Never once did you see someone telling you to "enjoy a coke" or was there a celebrity endorsement. I guess it wouldn't hurt that coke is donating all their money that would have been spent on advertising either?

More now, then ever we are seeing a paradigm shift with food companies. There was a bad stigma between the consumer and the producer because we didnt know what we were getting. There was so many unknown ingredients, harmful sugars and additives and the companies didnt inform consumers. The power has shifted to the consumer, giving them the upper hand. They get better products, for better prices, and now companies are beginning to become more honest with their consumer base and letting us know what is actually going into everything.

A slow culture jam.

When you think of culture jamming, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

...is it the people throwing pies in the faces of senators?

...or people switching the voice boxes of Barbies and GI Joes?


Culture jamming exists mainly to throw the scent off of what we believe as mainstream media and counterculture. I can expect to see an advertisement for, say... an NFL football game or something of that nature, I am expecting to see certain stereotypical behaviors from the commercial. A deep manly voice from the announcer, lots of loud noises and possibly even some scenes from the field of people getting hit and hurt.

An example of jamming would be taking the advertisement and using unorthodox stereotypes to get a different message across. So someone could take those same images from the NFL commercial, and then possibly use it for a commercial against overly agressive sports, completely changing the message that the original advertisement had.

Switching gears a little bit, I like to think of the cartoon South Park as a good real world example of culture jamming. Trey Parker and Matt Stone use jamming throughout many of their episodes to make light of current events, or even make fun of pop culture icons...even 9/11 isnt safe...

Heteronormativity - Is it good or bad?

This article had several interesting pointsd for me. first, being the Bechdel Test. "The test is an extremely simple one: A work of fiction "passes" the test if it 1) includes two female characters 2) who talk to each other 3) about something other than a man. Yet, if you take any individual movie, it is likely to fail the test". This is an interesting concept to me. While I'm not sure if this test excludes any movie that includes this sort of behavior or not, I do klnow that it is very difficult for me to think of a movie where there are two female characters talking about something other than a man. The first film/show that came to mind was Game of Thrones. I probably thought of this show because not only is it my current favorite and the finale is coming up, but also because the show itself has been considered on the cutting edge of sexuality. But of course, after not much thought, I remembered that in fact there is much discussion between women about men. It's a huge story line in the show! I guess I find this test so interesting because of the idea of a movie/show/work that doesn't include the typical "wives bitching about stupid husbands" aspect. But alas, it is harder to find a work that does not incloude that. Below if the article in which I found the Bechdel Test.