Novita's Influence

I always enjoy watching Draemon. A lot of adventure, friendship, and team work, the anime is very exciting and meaningful to watch. Nobita is one of the two main characters, who is so unlucky, weak and lazy that his descendants had to send the family robot back in time to help him out. The robot's name is Draemon. Nobita always jumps on to Draemon and asks the robot for help even though the problems are caused by himself.
Nobita's lazy and dependent acts discourage child viewers to work hard in school and take responsibility on things they have to work on. Before growing to be mature, children should be taught to work on their problems before asking their parents or teachers for their helps. The ironic factor is that many Draemon fans say that they like Novita's charming and kind character. I think Novita is charming in the ways how he acts or talks, but we should judge his laziness and too much dependence on Draemon from the critical viewpoint.

Drug Booms Will be Taken Away

The earthquake took more than 10,000 precious lives. What can we learn from the incredible disaster? Being grateful that we are living. Now, many Japanese celebrities, who did not know how to use their money and wasted for buying drugs, must find the right way to spend their money.

Ichiro Suzuki, a Japanese MLB star player, donated $1.25 million to Japan quake relief. Ichiro is one of the most successful Japanese, and his action of donating that much money saved many Japanese lives. On the other hand, there is an ex-idol, who was caught by the Japanese government the last week. She ran away to Philippine after finding the cocaine from her apartment.

Celebrities have money, but not everyone is like Ichiro, who knows how to spend money. These people, who are using their lots of extra money for drugs, should think and ask themselves for a second. Which way is better? Buying drugs or helping others??       

The Earthquake Chases Away All The Teachers

A few days ago, I talked to relatives over the Skype to hear how they were doing in Japan. My cousin goes to the Temple University at Tokyo, the public university system of Pennsylvania. All classes are instructed in English by English spoken professors like other colleges in the US.

My cousin told me that he had had two weeks with no school even though it was during the semester. He told me that the reason why they had no school for the whole two weeks was because all the teachers from other countries went back to there home countries. Even though the safety of nuclear explosion was announced, but they were already scared of experiencing other life risking natural disaster. The Temple University at Tokyo finally started after replacing all the professors, who left Japan, with Japanese licensed professors. 

That was the big loss for the school to lose all the English spoken teachers because that was the value of the school, which was to speak ONLY English during the classes. The Temple University at Tokyo is owned by the state of Pennsylvania, so I hope that the state will send other American teachers. The Earthquake took too many things from Japan. Now, we work as a nation!

The Message Driven By Who?

 I had a chance to see the art exhibition in the Visual Arts Building in the UTD campus, and I disagreed with one of the arts exhibited, Jesus killing Native Americans with machine guns and other modern weapons.

I soon realized that Jesus did not literally mean himself, but the Christian immigrants from Europe, who came to America in the past and killed so many Native Americans to gain dominance over the land. It was so ironic that Jesus as a savior became a destroyer in the painting. Even though the painting symbolized the tragedy of Native Americans in the past, I disagree that Jesus was an accurate representation of the European immigrants, who had destroyed the Indians’ communities. I thought the painting was the representation of what other people think who Jesus would be to teach his members to kill. Wrong! These immigrants never followed and practiced Jesus’ direction of living for the sake of others and saving the world, but rather destroyed them; therefore, the immigrants with the cross on their chests were not the representation of Jesus.

“Ghost in the Shell”

                Ghost in the Shell, an animated film, reflects women’s identities and their relationship with men in society. The story of the film describes the battles of the Japanese National Public Commission known as Section 9 against criminals and illegal associations. Motoko Kusanagi, a main character of the film, is built as a cyborg soldier, which gains a superhuman power. Kusanagi’s exceptional physical strength helps Section 9 capture and execute criminals. In Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii, the director of the film, stresses the limitations of women’s physical strengths in the battle field through describing Kusanagi.  

            Oshii illustrates that women’s belief and desire of having equal power with men’s can be denied especially in the battle field. Kusanagi appears as a female cyborg, which body is structured as a female and constructed with machines in inside of its body. The characterization of Kusanagi as a female cyborg becomes the crucial point, which explains the limitations that women have.

Throughout the decades, women have gained their rights and power in the fields of academic, politics, media, and business. If someone says “you cannot do this because you are a woman” without giving explanations and examples of what make the one think that way, the one will create enemies oppose against the comment. Oshii shows that women can become powerful enough to fight and beat the enemies only if they become a cyborg.  Kusanagi plays a significant role to explain the limitation of women’s physical strengths in the battle field.

Today, women have become powerful and influential in society. For example, Condoleezza Rice became one of the most distinguished secretaries in the U.S. Rice’s outstanding performances in academics and politics have demonstrated the power and capabilities of women. But is she capable to carry a heavy weapon and run in the battle ground? Are there any female war heroes in the U.S. history? If you say, “women are less than men,” you will be in a big trouble opposed by society, unless you particularly point out “women are less than men in terms of their physical strengths.” Oshii proves that the limitations that women have in their body functions comparing to men’s in Ghost in the Shell.

Musical Porn

                Why are music videos exciting to watch? Male viewers may find something attracting other than singings in music videos. That iss the purpose of music videos. Kenneth Burke in his movie, Dreamworld, clarifies that music videos present sexuality for selling their products.  In Dreamworld, Burke says that the primary role of females in music videos is to arouse male veiwers’ sexual desire by exposing their bodies. He creates incongruity and challenges the tragic frame of music videos’ gender narrative through his strategies of story telling, constructing femininity, and demonstrating the roles of female artists.

                Burke presents the technique of story telling to demonstrate the incongruity of music videos’ gender narrative. He tells that “the presence of sexualized female bodies are so prevalent” in music videos. A male musician in the Dreamworld says that all the music videos are all about women. In music videos, the musician’s comment implies that women play more important roles than the main male musicians do in music videos.  Women appear to get an attention of male viewers by presenting their exposed bodies. Burke discusses, “Women are also shown as simply hanging around male artists, their only function being to dram in male viewers into the fantasy created by the producers and directors of music videos.” He says that many music videos make women’s figures more bizarre than only wearing bikinis, such as coating them with silver or gold. The point may tell that females with bikinis in music videos have become so normal that videos need to present their bodies in different way other than just wearing bikinis. Music videos use women’s bodies to get attention from male viewers, and also the videos include their bodies to identify the genre and the story of music videos present.

                Burke’s Dreamworld challenges the tragic frame of music videos’ gender narrative through presenting the strategy of constructing femininity.  Burke says that the most important elements of women in music videos are sexuality.  He tells that the scenes of music videos, which show a number of women, surrounding a man, are one of the most enduring techniques in music videos. He tells that the scenes of a man surrounded by many women show that the understanding of femininity is always defined by the powerful men. The movie illustrates that females in music videos are sexually motivated that if males are absent, females need the substitutions of males to satisfy their sexual desires. And also, they are so dependent on men that if men are absent, women become depressed easily. Females are presented almost like sexual monsters in music videos. Females often appear to be in a pool, wearing bikinis and drinking, in many scenes of music videos. They invite males in the pool. Burke says, “Music videos tell the women’s wet bodies are one of the cornerstones of adolescent male sexual fantasy.” He also tells that music videos do not only present women’s sexual relationship with men, but also the videos show their relationships with same sex. Music videos construct females as sexual characters, who arouse males’ sexual desires.

                Burke demonstrates the roles of female artists in music videos. He says that female artists have to present themselves as primarily sexual beings, such as showing pornographic images of them, to get males’ attentions in music videos. These female artists slip off their cloth to expose their bodies, and cameras zoom in on the parts of their, especially focusing on the bottom. Burke says there seems to be no escape for female artists from music videos’ producers to make pornographic images of them. He discusses, “The price of female entry into what is considered the mainstream of the culture is to accept the vision of the pornographic imaginations that the only things of value about women are their bodies and sexuality and their willingness and desire to enact male fantasies.” His statements imply that female artists are required to appear like porn actress in music videos, and that is more significant than singing.

                Burke tells that music videos present females as the subjects to tempt males into the dream world and objects to satisfy the males’ sexual desires. Females’ bodies are products to make music videos popular. But the images of females presented in the videos let males think that females always desire to have sex and obey to males’ sexual demands; however, females in the real world are different. We need to consider music videos as musical porn rather than just music so that we can distinguish that the females in videos are different from the females in the real world.