Author Archives: malisa.basic
Posts: 8 (archived below)
Comments: 2
My Video Project- ”Fake” Beauty and Photoshop
Heres my video…FINALLY!! I had some difficulty posting this on YouTube because of their ridiculous copyright laws. However, I’ve come around that 🙂 My video focuses on the idea of photoshop and retouching. How much is too much? How can soemone be more beautiful than someone else when beauty is an opinion? When looking at my ”before and after” pictures, I look liek a completely different person, but I am the same. Photoshop today is quite deceiving, and takes the character away from the way people truly look. In addition, many consumers look at magazines, and want to achieve a similar look to the celebrities they are looking at on many magazine covers without realizing the amount of editing and makeup that is used to achieve this look. People tend to lose them selves, thinking too much on their appearance forgetting who they truly are. in addition, another underlying message given in this video is that self esteem is something that can be brought down instantly due to the opinions of other people. Not to sound cliche, forget them! Love your self for who you are, and what you really look like because the physical appearance of an individual is just as I stated-physical. People can be made to look beautiful and strive for perfection;however, perfection lies in those who do not strive for it but are born with it, through their personality which most people can never change. In the end, you are yourself when stripped away from the ”falsity” of this world( I know its not a word, but couldn’t find a better one to match!)
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Help!
Does anyone know of a website other than YouTube to upload my video project because YouTube stripped the audio off of my video? 🙁
Video Project Proposal
What I will be focusing on for my video project is self image, and more specifically photo retouching. The poem that has inspired me to focus on this topic is ”Good Mirrors are Not Cheap” from the selections of Audre Lorde. I wanted to work on this poem because I actually could not get it out of my mind and had a perfect idea as to how my video would be made. As I was reading the poem, I was already brewing up numerous ideas I think could work for the video. I also chose this topic because it is a relevant one today, all magazine covers are photoshopped. Why do we do it? how has this affected self image? One challenge I hope to succeed in is trying to approach this subject in a non-cliche way, and something different compared to the thousands of articles and videos out there that already have discussed this issue.
Blog Post # 6
I have no idea what I would like to focus on for my final essay and digital video. However, one thing that has greatly interested me is the poem about mirros we had read as a class dealing with the subject of self image. Yes, its a well discussed topic and yes, we all hear about it all the time to the point where no one really cares. However, what I have started searching are highly retouched photos that are given out to the public which train our eye to believe these photoshopped images are ”real” and ”beautiful.” What ever happened to beauty in the eye of the beholder? Well with the magazines and catalogs provided to the average consumer, the image of beauty is given to us, though what we think is beauty is probably impossible to achieve. Just take a look:
When you look at this image, its actually really hard to point out whats wrong with it. This is because we have learned to accept the images sold, and are used to this ideal image of being thin, and beautiful. I highly doubted this girl needed editing anyways. However, this strive for perfection has caused an obsession with retouching. Now, I bet if I didn’t point out the right of the picture, you would never realize that her waist is not proportional to her lower waist. I mean, shes thin to begin with. Why alter the image further? Its quite amusing actually. But I guess we as viewers and consumers see this as an ideal image to sell products, and the mistakes made are minimal because its normal to be ”photoshopped.”
It gets even more amusing:
When looking at this image its apparent, she missing an arm!!! How could the publishers not even notice? Well I guess that’s not important as long as her waist is almost unrealistically thin and her cleavage are noticed. So, what I was wondering was: were her arms so large, that one had to be edited out completely? Haha, who knows. I’m pretty sure this went unnoticed by VS consumers as well because that’s not the obvious focus here. Remember ladies : ”The arm wasn’t important anyways. It’s the shirt we’re selling here, right?”
I wish people would realize that retouched photos are all over, the attempt to look like these images is impossible, so why try? I also wonder when something will ever be perfect? It seems as if the world’s most beautiful people are endlessly retouched, never ending this determination for looking perfect. Will being beautiful make you happy? ( Just a random thought) I want individuals to be aware that though they know most of the photos they look at are retouched, why do they continue to look at them, and want to become or resemble this when it only exists in the world of technology? Mirrors is a great poem to relate this to because people look at themselves in unsatisfaction knowing they do not look like the ideal image they want to be, without realizing this is not something even the world’s most famously- known- for -beauty people look like.
Here are other pretty interesting images I noticed, that maybe people should take a look at :
Creativity Response Post #5
We all know what creativity is; however, how would you define the term? Just like many other terms that I find difficulty explaining, I searched the meaning of creativity. According to Wikipedia, creativity is defined as ‘The use of the imagination or original ideas.” For some reason as soon as I read this definition, I had an issue with it. It in a way contradicts the idea of creativity. It is true that creativity is something that is original, but when analyzing the definition, it makes no sense to put a concrete definition to a word that brings a sense of openness and well, creativity. I just feel like the definition itself is not creative;it does not portray the true meaning of creativity.
In addition, something that I have been thinking about is the measurement of creativity. How can creativity be measured? How is one individual more creative than another? What abilities make certain people more creative, or appear more creative than others? When ”measuring” creativity, I think most people refer to terms of artistic ability. Creativity is usually expressed in art form, which is quite funny t mention, because when looking back at the definition of creativity, it was stated that the term is especially used in artistic form. I understand that creativity is vital in art, the strive for something new and interesting for viewers. However, why does it have to ”especially ” relate to art? After all, doesn’t creativity just deal with originality? Can’t someone be original in other fields, other than art?
This brings me to one lecture I had last semester in Psychology. I was told that one side of the brain was focused more on creativity, while the other is used for mathematical operations and similar forms of thinking. This is interesting, because when I was given this information, I was under the impression that mathematics was concrete, and absolute. It led me to believe that math was something that one had to learn, but required no creativity. I completely DISAGREE. Math I believe more than any other field, requires enormous amounts of creativity. When looking at math problems, there are many ways one can go about solving a problem. In addition, if it weren’t the creativity of the historic mathematicians who founded the basics of math, where would math be today? In addition, math is closely related to science. Each day, there are many new proposals to cures for diseases that years ago, were impossible to treat. The creativity of scientists has allowed the world to positively prosper in health, as it seems each day more diseases have been discovered, in need of more treatment.
The area of creativity is not only limited to artistic abilities. The idea of creativity is broad and not limited to art, which is what most people relate the term to. In addition, it is true that creativity is oppressed today because of the present educational system. With all the teachers who are losing their jobs, and the lack of proper material for students to have a successful education, it seems as if creativity will be hard to have.
Response Paper 4 (Option 2)
Malisa Basic JM13D
OPTION 2:
This option is an exercise in comparing and contrasting. Select two of the four stories we’ve read thus far (“Cathedral,” “The Birth-mark,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “The Story of an Hour”). Think about what these stories say about “happiness”–do they depict a uniform view of how people experience happiness? Why or why not? How?
You might even want to pick two specific characters to work with. For example, how does Jig’s experience of happiness differ from Georgiana’s?
Two of the short stories that left the greatest affect to me as a reader when referring to the similarities between the main characters of each story were Hills Like White Elephants and The Birthmark. In each story, the relationship between each couple is faced with the struggle of a certain situation that may potentially affect their relationships in a negative manner. In The Birthmark, the couple is faced with the issue that the scientist’s wife’s facial birthmark has made him concentrate on this ”imperfection” where he believes she would be perfect, if she did not have it. This causes him to find a method to remove the birthmark, which eventually kills his wife as she agrees and takes the drink given to her by him. In one way, he did achieve his desired goal, while losing another part of his life- his wife. In Hills Like White Elephants, the question whether or not the young girl should make the decisions to have an abortion creates apparent tension between her and the man. However, she decides to go on with the surgery and is reassured by her partner that everything would be fine, and she responds by telling him that she herself is ”fine.”
Some of the similarities I found in each story were quite obvious. Each story dealt with the dilemmas each couple was facing, and the tension between each couple had affected the decision made towards the end. In addition, the issues were directed to that of the woman gender in each relationship. What I mean by this, is that it was basically up to the woman to decide or make a decision in order to create a ”solution” for the problems each relationship was facing. However, in each story, though one problem may have been resolved, another emerged. this also raises the idea that relationships can never be perfect.
Though the wife of the scientist did make the decision to have her birthmark removed because of her husbands reaction to it, she died in conclusion. This shows that she was willing to remove something very much apart of who she was up to the day she decided to remove it, whereas her husband was not willing to accept it, and wanted to make her ”perfect.” In the other short story, the young girl decides to go on with the abortion. However, this resolution does not create an ideal relationship either because she did have doubts about making this decision and her last words were a clear sign of confusion, and uncertainty. In this story, we were not exposed to what happened to their relationship after word, hence it could lead up to many more issues within the relationship. Another basic similarity was the concept of death.
In each of these two stories, the idea of death is brought upon in different ways. In Hills Like White Elephants, this concept lurks because it is based on the topic of abortion while in The Birthmark, we are surprised with the term at the end of the story, not knowing it would occur while reading it at all. Though death was presented in a different way in each story, the impact of this event causes sorrow in each story. this is because the term death is associated with negativity, pain, sadness, etc.)
When focusing on the personality of each of these women, they do seem to have their own stand, but seem as if they both give in toward the end. In The Hills Like White Elephants, I was given to impression that though the girl did give her own stand, she was somewhat persuaded by the man that this was the right thing to do, rather than her believing it was. In the other short story, the woman does not approv of her husbands criticism and actually cries in defense. This is not a sign of weakness, however. For a woman to be able to accept something so blunt from her husband, in my opinion, shows strength. However, towards the end she does makes this decision in order to please her husband, which is what I also believed the young girl did for her spouse though it was not directly stated.
Movie Review on ‘Best in Show’
Malisa Basic (JM13D)
OPTION 1: Write a movie review of “Best In Show.” Do NOT just summarize the film. In fact, for this response paper, you are to use no summary unless it is a detail or scene that helps you to prove the argument you are trying to make about the film.
Though I am not to write a summary about Best in Show, its hard to really go around that, so I’ll keep the summary brief. The movie depicts a dog show held in America annually of dogs all across the country; the dogs focused on mainly in the movie are different from one another as well as their owners. My first initial thoughts about the movie was quite unusual. I had never heard of this movie before, and to be quite honest, I was skeptical of the concept, and how the movie began. I was also surprised to see how many familiar actors were in the movie that I recognized from other films. I was surprised because not only did I never hear of this movie, when I was introduced to the outline and general concept, I thought it was quite silly. All popular stereotypes are depicted in this movie; From the the ”nerdy” husband with a ”hot” wife that live in a Suburban area, the overly dramatic gay that acts somewhat feminine, to the angry couple that blames each other for anything that happens. In addition, their pets even resemble their personalities which is what I thought was quite interesting.
One thing that I thought was interesting was the fact that a dog show was chosen to portray this hidden message of happiness. The reason I thought this was interesting because American people all LOVE dogs. There are dogs every where around us. Sometimes I wonder if there are more dogs than people. That’s probably where the saying ”A dog is a mans best friend” comes from. i believe that there is a specific reason a dog show was used rather than any other competition. The reason why it may have been used is because even after the competition, the joy the dogs bring to these peoples lives does not end. Even after the show, they are able to go back home and take care of their pets. This was shown to be true when the lives of these characters were shown after the show. Even though there was only one winner, the lives of the other contestants did not change all too much, and the changes that did occur were actually positive experiences they had gained from the whole experience itself. Even the winners did not have much of a change with their life. Sure they did make a new CD of their music which they haven’t done before, but the endless men that seem to recognize his wife through the past, never ends which shows that winning doesn’t necessarily mean everything will change, or change happiness more specifically. In general, winning does not mean that happiness will come, or that losing will have the opposite effect. People need to find their own happiness within them self rather than showing of their cute dogs they believe will make them happy if they win because they appear to have the ”best” dog.
Malisa Basic Response Paper #2 JM13D
Malisa Basic- Response Paper #2 (Option #3)
Rather than the two given options where I had a choice to write about what Gilbert may have learned through Plato’s philosophy or discuss in detail and explain child’s play, I took a different approach and decided to analyze the two different texts, comparing and contrasting the views of Freud and Plato, and the way they decided to approach their won ideas in text. The ideas Plato portrays in the Allegory of the Cave is set up differently than Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Plato states his ideas in a story format, contrasting to Freud’s piece where he talks directly to the reader being the audience about his views and opinions. Even though it would make more sense understanding a certain concept through a moral or story, I found it more difficult to read than Freud’s work. This may have resulted to the time period each article was written. However, in this case, it seemed as if a more direct and simple approach was easier for me to understand in which ideas the author was trying to express through his work.
In the Allegory of the Cave, prisoners are locked in within a cave where they are only given sight to shadows of objects by carriers of the objects who show the object through fire. They know nothing of the outside world, or exposure of anything else aside from what they are shown. However, once prisoners are taken out of the cave and are exposed to reality and the world outside , they find themselves having a difficult time returning to the cave. Though this may seem like a simple concept, the way Plato has worded this story is quite confusing. However, I find the main idea of this story to be up to one’s own interpretation. The way I interpreted this story was that once individuals are exposed to the truth, they cannot trust what information is given to them. They rather learn about certain objects through their own experience.
In Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he states that ”Most of the ‘pain’ we experience is of a perceptual order, perception either of the urge of unsatisfied instincts or of something in the external world which may be painful in itself.” (pg. 6) Here he states that most pain is a cause of a mental process, a deficiency in pleasure. This can be expressed in Plato’s book because the prisoners don’t feel pain until they leave their cave. Exposure to the unknown brings pain, as does ”something in the external world which may be painful itself” as Freud explained, even though this may seem like positive progress towards improvement for the lives of these prisoners. When people are exposed to reality something that was not shown to them before, it may cause confusion and denial because it is hard to believe this new truth exposed to them, and hard to understand how what they knew before and thought was true, really wasn’t. A feeling of denial as well as deceit can eventually cause pain as the prisoners did. What other factors cause pain? Can pain eventually become an indifferent feeling? Is there a term for this feeling? How would Plato or Freud describe this?
