NaraineV

Take me away to a place where peace and harmony comes as one...
From turmoil and corruption...
From crimes and guns...
From a thieving government...
To religious freedom and free speech...
To the land of opporunities...
Take me away to America, where I can be free.
Let me live the way I want to be.

"Men are also encouraged to never take no for an answer. Ad after ad implies that girls and women don't really mean "no" when they say it, that women are only teasing when they resist men's advances" (Kilbourne 421). Through the media one can see that women are portrayed to be submissive to a man which leads to violence in their relationship. When a woman defies a man they take action towards that woman, which is usually violence towards them.  

The media promotes violence in relationships and justifies that it is right to keep your woman in line, if not that makes you "unmanly". When a woman says, "no", men usually are supposed to stop at that instant, but through the ad, it shows men that women are only playing around and want you to keep going further. This usually leads women to resist but at the same time triggers actions which leads to violence in their relationships. Men are portrayed to be controlling and this exhorts them to show their manliness. The media has the power to stage and mold men into violent human beings, and is justified by keeping women in their place. When they take no as an answer it shows that they are in control. The media is the perpetrator that influences women to be oppressed.  

Violence in relationships are not new to society, we see it through the media, day in and out. It has become accustomed to the point where it’s an everyday thing; not a big issue. The Chris Brown and Rihanna issue is very controversial. It was the biggest scandal of a violent relationship in the media. It was shocking buy yet understandable because they are celebrities. It was acceptable because we always forgive celebrities for the “mistakes” they make. To us in society, it shows that it’s acceptable because she went back to him, which tells the young society of females, its okay if a man hits you. Women should break free from violent relationships; it’s unhealthy and will always go wrong if they keep going back into them.

"I remember one incident where I stepped out into the playground in my baggy gym shorts and one Puerto Rican boy said to the other: "What do you think?" The other one answered: "Her face is OK, but look at the toothpick legs" (Ortiz 399). I can relate to this quote because ever since I was a child, I have always been skinny and bony. I always had "chicken legs", as my peers would say. I never really had the typical body most guys wanted throughout junior high and the beginning of high school.

In the playground in elementary school it all started and claimed its way into high school. Throughout my school years all of the girls around me were really fully developed and had way much more than I did. I would feel really insecure and always hide my body underneath larger pieces of clothing. I didn't like the way I looked and the way people around me made me feel. Some of the boys would call me names and talk crap about how I looked and always compared me to other girls. The name "chicken legs" came out when I was in elementary school, and all of a sudden one of my close friends started to call me that, and ever since I have been stuck with that name. Even through high school I was seen as small, no body, no curves or anything. My boyfriend even called me "flat" when we started to date.

Now I look to myself and see something much different than of what I was before.  I am still small, but I have grown in every way possible that you can imagine. I love my small size, it makes me who I am, and it's unique to me. As the trend today, some boys prefer smaller and skinny girls, so it shows me that at least someone wants you. I don't feel insecure anymore, because of the person I am dating; he loves me for who I am and not what I look like. He can care less about my physical attributes. My size hasn't changed who I am; I have grown to love my body and my small size.

Ortiz was called "toothpick" legs because she was a very tall and lanky girl, but the boys only saw her physical features and never knew the real person that she was. Boys tend to only look for physical characteristics and never to the inner beauty of girls. They are very quick to judge and that is what Ortiz is trying to portray through her story.

"America for Dummies", is about Americans and how they don't know anything about American history. The Bengali guy who made the video asked a number of people a series of different questions, but they couldn't answer it. They could easily identify who Lindsey Loan, K. Fed. and Paris Hilton were, but not who the U.N secretary was. Many did not care for the history of America or wanted to know anything about our country's history. Most teenagers care more about how many parties they go to, who can get the most girls and who has the most friends. The video depicts that the generation of American’s young show ambition but not in an educational way; they seem to care more about trends than of what's happening around them. 

          The message of this video is that American's are very ignorant when it comes to the American culture, history and political affairs. The video sends the message that Americans are giving up on themselves and it shows that they are in need of a proper education. Today our society is lacking in that area sufficiently; not knowing much of the world beyond American soil. Americans don’t want to learn the history of our country and/or is concerned about anything that happens to our society. This ignorance is depicted through the video, where many of the people that we’re asked the series of questions and couldn’t give a simple answer. It shows us how our generation is not ready for the upcoming events of our country.

          A majority of today’s adolescences are in relation to this video. This video doesn’t relate to me because, I went to an American history high school, so American History was embedded into our minds for four years, and being a Gilder Lehrman flagship school, history was taught in details. As a strong student in American history, I know most of our nation’s history and understand it. Reading the newspaper and also following politics have opened my mind into a world culture and how global society works. Teenagers in today’s society needs to take on more responsibilities and understand what is going on around them, and take it all into consideration. We are the future of America and America should have a well educated generation.