"Humiliating Day"

   According to the Vancouver Sun (link), a critic called the release of Obama's birth certificate a "humiliating day" since it was caused by the ignorant "suspicions" of people such as Donald Trump. Because Trump made a statement about Obama needing to release his birth certificate to the public to end the suspicions of people who think he might be Muslim...(um, I think the U.S. gov would have figured that out by now if it was true), Obama went ahead and did it. And this is humiliating for our nation because it shows the continued existence of racism in 2011. Do you think we as a nation ever demanded to see a Caucasian president's birth certificate? No. It upsets me that things haven't really changed for the better. And I hope I'm not the only one upset by it.

Returning to Life

   First of all, I just want to apologize for my lack of blogging since April 4th...that's pretty sad. I'm apologizing more to my self than anyone because I know it only hurts me in the long run to forget to blog, but I neglected it anyway because I had to prioritize my life for a while and make some sacrifices. The week that our "full draft" for junior theme was due was a horrendous one for me. I had two auditions, an in school performance, a long dress rehearsal, 2 passover seders, and 2 tests, and that all occurred by Wednesday since I left school early on Thursday for a visit to IU. When I got back, I was expecting to feel this great weight be lifted off my shoulders with the turning on of my paper, but unfortunately that feeling has not taken over quite yet. Maybe because I still had the ACT to take. Maybe because there is still life after junior theme. I'm still waiting for that sigh of relief to hit me.

Assessment

Please assess Racism Still Exists. But please pardon the line about Reconstruction...I'm aware of how historically incorrect that is.

Suckerpunch Gets Suckerpunched

As you already know, (if you've read my previous posts), I am researching sexism and gender inequality in films for my junior theme project. A few recently produced movies immediately come to mind when I think about the over-sexualization of female characters in films today. The first one is Suckerpunch, which is about a girl who gets thrown unwillingly into a mental institution, which ends up being more like a whorehouse judging by the costumes and mannerisms of her fellow "institution girlfriends" in the previews. She is then told that the only way to escape from the institution is to fight and defeat demons in some kind of imaginary world. This would be a great example of a strong, "kick-ass" female character in a movie, had she not been dressed like some teenage boy's schoolgirl fantasy. Of course this movie would be gobbled up by perv-y guys if it didn't look as much like a chick-flick as it seems in the preview. But I was happy to read on PerezHilton.com: "Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch took a huge blow as it dropped 68% from the previous weekend, grossing only $6.1 million for the weekdn. So far, that's been the biggest second-weekend drop of any movie this year. Ouchie."

"Ouchie" is right. Looks like I'm not the only one disgusted by this horrific display of sexualization and demeaning stereotyping.