Race to the Oscars

It's that time of year again, and the 83rd Annual Academy Awards are right around the corner. Many movies and actors have created "Oscar Buzz" this year, with nominees including Natalie Portman, Jesse Eisenberg, and James Franco, just to name a few. However, this year is a little different. None of the actors nominated are black. This is the first time that this has happened in over a decade, according to an article I stumbled across. To read the full article, click here.
I thought that this article, and situation, was extremely relevant to what we have been discussing in class. The topic of racial tokenism has come up quite often as we have been reading the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As we finished the book, we discussed Huck's redemptive arc, and whether or not Huck has grown at all throughout the year. As a class, we came upon a quote on page 230, where Huck states "I knew he was white on the inside" (referring to his companion Jim). By saying this line, it seems as though Huck has not grown, and is still back to his racist ways. And by comparing this line to the recent Oscar controversy, it makes me wonder if we have grown at all. By not having any black actors nominated this year, is it safe to say that America is still partial to one race?
I don't think so. While many people are discussing what this year's list of nominees really means, I honestly believe that it is nothing more than a list of talented actors. Black actors have been nominated in the past, and have won. And so have white actors. The nominations are nothing more than a list of noteworthy performances, and should not be perceived as anything more.

Everything but the Game

Today as I'm sure everyone knows is the Superbowl XLV (!) between the Green Bay Packers, and the Steelers. It's a super hyped up event, as last year over 106 million people tuned in to watch.  I'm sure many of the people are tuning in to actually watch the game, but a good percent of the people are only watching for the commercials. Since the beginning of the Superbowl in 1966, it has become increasingly media based, rather than based on the actual game. The program is advertised by the quality commercials shown in between plays, and the over the top, entertaining half time show, this year featuring the Black Eyed Peas. It has become so focused on commercials that many cable channels have begun broadcasting programs featuring the "Best Superbowl Commercials of All Time". The question is, why has the Superbowl become so focused on the media, rather than the actual game? The most obvious answer is money. Since hundreds of millions of people are watching, companies spend millions of dollars creating the best advertisement possible. But is this really necessary? Will people really wish to spend their money more on a company that featured Justin Bieber in their commercial, versus a company that didn't? While watching the game, it will be interesting to think about whether or not the over the top commercials actually attract costumers, and whether or not they are worth it.

Pretty Women

This week in class, we were discussing the role of women in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One of the main themes that we came up with was the idea of the word Lady, versus the word Woman. As a class, we decided that the word Lady has a connotation of delicate, polite, refined, and ornamental, and that the word Woman seemed stronger, and less delicate.This reminded me of a song that I remembered hearing in the musical Sweeney Todd, called "Pretty Women". The song somewhat contrasts what we came up with in class, because rather than using the word Lady, it uses the word Woman with a delicate, ornamental connotation. Here is an excerpt of some of the lyrics:
Pretty women
Fascinating...
Sipping coffee,
Dancing... 
Sitting in the window or
Standing on the stair
Something in them chills the air.
In this song, and much throughout Huck Finn, women are objectified. Rather than being praised for their intelligence or personality, they are praised by looking good. This can be seen on page 124 of the book, where Huck describes a woman as looking like "the most loveliest parasol". I think that we can still see examples of this kind of objectification towards women today. If you look around you can see cases of this objectification in movies, television shows, and music videos. I'm not saying that this angers me beyond belief or makes me disgusted with men, but it's interesting to wonder why women have always been portrayed this way.

Whatever happened to English and Social Studies??

Last night, as I'm sure almost everyone knows, President Obama delivered the annual State of the Union Address. To read the full text of the speech, Click Here.
Throughout the speech, Obama constantly discussed the current issue of education. According to the speech, America has fallen to "ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree", and the President feels that America must do better than that. I completely agree with what he is saying, the quality of education is a major issue in the country, and it is something that needs to change.
Obama also stressed the importance of teachers, but most notably he talked about teachers of math and science. He stated "we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math. (Applause.)" The question that instantly popped into my mind after he said this was "What about English, or Social Studies, or arts? Why are math and science suddenly the most important subjects?"
I'm personally not a fan of either of the two, so maybe I'm biased, but it seems to me that other subjects taught in school are equally as important. Perhaps many people feel that students taught in the subjects of math and science will somehow be more beneficial to society, that they will be quicker to stop global warming, or save the world. I don't think this is the case, I think students taught in other subjects have just as great of a chance to be beneficial to society, which makes me wonder why the President chose to only reference those two subjects.

Meta-Blog Post

Please Assess Secrets, Secrets are No Fun, Unless They are for Everyone

Last quarter, in my meta-blog post, I mentioned that "Blogging makes me nervous." I guess I could say that in some cases that is still true, but for the most part, I think my blogs have really improved this quarter! In my opinion, over the course of a quarter, I began to write posts that interested me, not just posts that I thought would tie well into class. For example, in my post titled Secrets, Secrets are No Fun, Unless They are for Everyone, I wrote about political issues and wartime, two subjects that rarely catch my interest. It was a big change from my normal blogs about pop culture issues. However, I was so excited to write the post because it was finally a political subject that did interest me, and I was able to make some really cool connections into what we were learning in class. (Not only that, but I got a total of 4 comments on that post...an all time record!!!)
Another way that my blogs have changed from the past quarter was that they became more frequent. Rather than simply blogging once a week, I began blogging more often, on subjects that caught my eye. This really changed my outlook on blogging, because instead of writing because I had too, I blogged because I wanted too. That is a big change from last quarter.
In some cases, blogging still makes me nervous because I never know how my opinions will resonate with other people. But I think for the most part, I am becoming much more confident with my posts, and I hope that will only improve in the quarter to come.

New Huck Finn Controversy!

Today as I was skimming through Perez Hilton.com (possibly my favorite website of all time), I came across something that surprisingly enough was not celebrity related, but was actually about the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As most of you know, we are currently reading the book in class, so I clicked on the article as fast as I could to learn more. As it turns out, a decision was made to edit the 'N Word' out of the entire book, and there has been much controversy about that decision.
Mr. O'Connor mentioned in class that the word is used somewhere around 217(?) times in the book, so clearly, the book would be significantly altered. Alan Gribben, who is in charge of the change, also stated that they will be removing the word 'Injun' from the book. These words will be replaced with the word 'slave'.
Gribben defends his decision by stating that "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century." In my opinion, the word should not be removed. It is, in a way, altering history by changing the way that the story is told to make it more appealing, or politically correct to others.  However, others completely agree with the decision Gribben has made, and feel that the book should be edited.
To read the full article Click Here

The Age Old Question

Since most of my winter break was spent with me sprawled on the couch watching movies, it was no surprise that I made a connection to one of those movies today in class. Today, we were discussing the controversial subject of when a child officially becomes an adult. It reminded me of a movie I watched one afternoon over break called My One and Only. This movie centers on the life of a recently single mother, struggling to find a new husband that can support her family.
The main plot of the movie is that this newly single mother (Renee Zellweger) feels that she cannot raise her two boys without the help of a husband, so she sets out on a quest to find one. There is a line in the movie that made me think of class today. She is talking to her ex husband, and he asks her if she loves him anymore. She responds by saying "I don't know, but I do know I don't NEED you anymore."
I think at this point in the movie, the mother finally reached adulthood. Though she was much older than eighteen, and would have been considered an adult by many others, she finally realized that she could live her life without relying on someone else to help her, and to me, that made her an adult.
Now, I'm not saying this is the case for everyone. Everyone is different, and everyone reaches adulthood at different times and under different circumstances. Some may argue that adulthood is simply reached when one turns 18, or moves out of the house. I personally feel there is no set date. But it brings up a good question: Is there a certain time when every person reaches adulthood?