Blog 33: Relevant

Eating disorders and doing other harm to your body is very relevant to many college students.  College is a whole new lifestyle compared to what many people experienced in high school.  There are light night study sessions, parties, more stress, more pressure, etc.  It’s not uncommon for college freshman to gain the infamous freshman 15 or 25.  On nights out drinking many people end up at the nearest pizza place or taco bell or anywhere they can get some cheap, good, greasy food.  This makes people gain weight and a lot of girls and some men develop eating disorders as a result because they think that it’s the only way to lose weight.  Drinking and doing drugs is also a common way that college aged individuals do harm to their bodies.  Drinking is an extremely common activity and on any given Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday you can find many students engaging in activities involving alcohol.  Many people don’t know their limit when drinking and end up blacking out, passing out, getting alcohol poisoning, and doing things that they normally wouldn’t do if they were sober.  Also, drugs are a common thing amongst students on campus.  I know many people that do all sorts of drugs including, marijuana, a bunch of different types of pills, and even sometimes acid.  I feel like getting your hands on these things in our day and age is easy and many people abuse it.  Since all of these are familiar to college students I think that this topic is relevant. 

Blog 32: Timely

The topic that I am thinking of using for my commonplace paper is timely because it is a real-life problem on not only college campuses, but also pretty much anywhere you look.  A large number of individuals do harm to their bodies and don’t think twice about it.  Often times they don’t think that what they are doing is dangerous.  People do drugs and consume alcohol; they use eating disorders as a way to lose weight, and many other things.  I’m not even completely sure if this is what I want to do for my commonplace paper because I haven’t had enough time to think it through.  I felt a little rushed during class trying to think of something in ten minutes.  I want to find a more interesting topic that I might actually enjoy looking into, researching, and writing about.  I’ll make sure that it’s timely so everyone will be able to relate. 

Blog 31

The pressure to be perfect leads people to do extremely dangerous things to themselves and to their bodies.  Everyone wants to be skinny, pretty, and of course have a group of friends that are always there for them. College students are especially vulnerable to this pressure.  Freshman students move away from everything that they have been used to for the last eighteen years of their life:  family, friends, etc.  In order to make friends they may go to parties.  Drink so they’re more outgoing and friendly.  Then, from all the alcohol they drink and the lack of exercise and organized high school sports that kept you in shape back in the day, they ultimately end up gaining weight.  Instead of getting to the gym and working out, many people (men and women) resort to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia to lose the weight.  Although they are doing harm to their bodies and they know it, they can’t stop because it brings results.  Many people wonder how someone could possibly do this to their bodies.  College also is the time where many students experiment with drugs and alcohol.  For this paper I want to focus on all the things that college students do that result in harm to their bodies and research on what causes them to do these things.  Some of the topics i’m thinking about are drugs and alcohol, eating disorders and things along those lines.  

Blog 30: Tech No Love

The article I read today, Tech No Love, talks about how our definition of a functional relationship has changed over time.  Back in our grandparent’s day there was no such thing as facebook or twitter or texting and they got along just fine.  Instead of constantly texting their significant other they would actually pick up a phone and hear the other person’s voice.  The author says, “Going steady was almost a holy endeavor back then, and marriage was a common result.  It’s comical that today our way of going steady is to become ‘Facebook official.’” It’s really sad to hear that but it’s actually true.  I have many friends who have had arguments with their boyfriends or girlfriends regarding their “status” on facebook.  The article also says that people constantly stalk their significant other’s page and get jealous whenever they see things that other people post on their wall.  I know for a fact that this is true.  One of my friends constantly stalks her boyfriend’s page and gets super pissed whenever a girl writes on his wall and starts an argument about it.  Sometimes he doesn’t even know what the person is talking about, but she still makes a huge deal about it so he deletes it.   I think that facebook is damaging to our relationships and we should pick up the phone every once in awhile and call our family, friends, and boyfriends or girlfriends because it’s crucial. I think if we go back to the way things used to be our relationships would be a lot more successful. 

Blog 29: Fat and Happy?

For this blog I read another article on Commonplace called Fat and Happy? This article told about how obesity in our country is becoming a more and more common thing.  The article tells about how in recent years obesity has been labeled the number one preventable cause of death and the next generation of children may be the first to be unhealthier and live shorter lives than their parents.  I think that this is all really sad and I don’t want one of my kids in the future to end up like this.  The article also tells that this is preventable if children get the recommended 60 minutes of exercise per day and they eat healthy.  I think that schools should be more nutrition conscious because I remember back when I ate school lunches they were I no way healthy.  I think that parents should also start their kids young and make them eat fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods so that they will grow to like them.  Parents should be a good example for their kids because it’s proven that they look up to them and are more likely to do something that they see them doing.  Instead of taking them out to lunch at McDonalds or some other fast food restaurant they could take them somewhere a little healthier like panera.  I hope that there are measures taken in the future to alleviate this problem because it’s a huge problem and something needs to be done right away.  

Blog 28: Leaders or Cheaters: Steroids for the Brain

I read an article on Commonplace titled Leaders or Cheaters:  Steroids for the Brain.  This article was about how it is becoming more and more relevant for college students and even business professionals to use Adderall to be more productive.  It’s true that Adderall is all around us today in this day and age and it is really easy to come by if you want it.  There is a debate on whether or not it is fair that people that are not prescribed this medication still take it and I don’t see anything wrong with it.  Yeah, some people need it to function properly but if it can help you get better grades and in the end be more successful, why not take it.  Everyone wants to be the best that they can be and this can help.  I also think that it would be a good idea if doctors and surgeons started using medications like Adderall before long flights or procedures because they would be more alert and awake.  But, there are side effects from this and it affects everyone in a different way so you have to take that into account as well.  I don’t think that it should be illegal to take this medicine because it helps people more than it harms them.  I’m sure that some people would abuse it, but that’s not different from anything else we have in our society.  Overall, I don’t think it’s wrong for college students to take Adderall if it will help to make them more successful and productive.  

Blog 27: Intro Paragraph

In our society today there is a remarkable amount of pressure placed on us to be “beautiful” and “perfect”. This pressure not only comes from the media; but also from our peers, magazines, advertisements and even our own family members.  I’m fairly confident that each and every one of you reading this paper have at one point or another in your life, had a negative view of your body and wanted to change something about yourself. This pressure to be perfect and beautiful has lead men and women alike to put their bodies at risk in order to fit the mold of what we think we should be.  People do this by:  using tanning beds, bulimia, anorexia, extreme dieting, plastic surgery and using of makeup. Individuals are embarrassed of the way that they look and are afraid to be themselves.  Women won’t leave the house without makeup on because they are afraid that someone will think they’re ugly, we do harm to our bodies because we think it will make us more attractive, people change who they are because they think that they will be better liked, people go on diets and starve themselves because they want to be skinnier and they believe being skinny makes you pretty.  It’s really sad to see the extremes that individuals in our country today will go in order to fit the mold of what we are told is pretty and accepted.  It’s unattainable beauty, but everyone’s out to get it.  

If anyone has any ideas of anything else I should add or take out please let me know!

Blog 26

I think that the episode and scene that I watched and my real world phenomena fit really well together.  They both show that no matter what you do perfection is really not an attainable thing, yet everyone aspires to be perfect for some reason.  Even with the huge strides that we have created in technology and science things can still go wrong and nothing can ever be absolutely perfect.  In Dollhouse this is shown because they have this huge organization, just like plastic surgery does, and they have done so much research and science is even more advanced than it is in our world today yet they still can’t obtain perfection.  Things will always go wrong.  This episode allows me to see that even potentially in the future when things are even more researched and advanced than they are today people will still want to be perfect but it still won’t be possible.  This episode has also showed all of the ways that people try to cover up their flaws and come off as someone different than they actually are.  Men want the perfect girl and they go to this dollhouse to get her, even just for a weekend because they can’t find her in real life.  People’s standards are set so high that they feel like they can never overcome them and be perfect for someone.  People put on faces and pretend to be someone that they aren’t because they think they would be better liked.  People get plastic surgery because they think it will make them more attractive and they might find someone.  Many women don’t leave the house without makeup on because they are embarrassed of the way that they naturally look.  It’s really sad that our society has come to this and it’s accepted nowadays.

Blog 25: Discuss in Depth

Plastic surgery is a huge craze in our society today and it’s not really looked poorly upon.  What used to be contained to only the wealthy and famous has now become mainstream and housewives and middle class citizens are beginning to go under the knife.  According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in 2010 there were 13,177, 063 procedures in the United States which is a 77% increase from the year 2000.  So obviously we can see that this is becoming a more popular phenomenon, but why?  The media and society its self places an extraordinary amount of pressure on individuals to be beautiful and perfect.  People look at themselves and see parts of their bodies that they want to change to be more like who and what they see on the TV and in magazines.  But, this isn’t a simple thing to do.  All plastic surgery procedures come with risks and these risks can be deadly.  Some people, even after their procedure, are still not happy with their appearance and oftentimes mistakes happen and they may look worse post-operation.  One example of the dangers of plastic surgery that got attention from the media was in the case of Kanye West’s mother.  She went in to get a few operations done and never walked out.  This got a lot of media attention because one doctor recommended that she only get one at a time and the next doctor agreed to do it.  So, the doctors didn’t really care about her safety they were just in it for the money aspect.  

Blog 24: Bridge

A real world phenomenon that links with this episode is how science is used today in our society in order to make people more perfect. There are so many plastic surgery operations that can be done on the weirdest body parts that you couldn’t even think of someone looking in the mirror and saying that they want that part about them changed.  For example, you can get dimples put on your face, get your toes shortened, get an eyebrow transplant, get your ears pointed like an elf, or even get fake abs on your beer belly.  It’s really strange that people would want these operations because they still come with risks but for some reason people think that they would look better if they got them.  It doesn’t stop with just plastic surgery but also science and the pharmaceutical industry have created so many pills, creams, lotions and stuff that are supposed to get rid of cellulite, wrinkles, fat and anything else you can think of.  These things don’t actually work but the people that create them are making millions because they have convinced American society that if they use them they will look better.  Also, some of these pills are harmful to a person’s health.  Diet pills can do bad things to someone’s body and they have harmful side effects like raising your heart rate and blood pressure, which will make it more likely that you have a heart attack or heart disease.  So basically society’s obsession with perfection is deadly. 

Blog 23: Analyze the Scene

I believe that the argument that is being made by this scene in Dollhouse is that perfection is an unattainable thing.  This doll was created for one job and one job only and she was technically supposed to be the “perfect” person for it but she still messed up.  This proves to me that no matter what kind of science, technology or anything else you can think of cannot make someone perfect.  Perfection is not possible.  This happened in other episodes as well.  The dolls don’t act like they are supposed to; they start being attracted to one another and recognizing each other when they’re not supposed to remember anything at all.  The main point that I am trying to make is that even with tanning, makeup, plastic surgery and everything else that is out there that is supposed to make you prettier, and skinnier, and happier nobody will ever be perfect.  Even celebrities that have had a ton of plastic surgery procedures done on them aren’t perfect and they sometimes are even worse than they started out as.  I think that the perfect person is someone that is happy with who they are and what they look like.  It’s more about confidence in yourself and celebrating the things about yourself that you like, rather than always focusing on the negative things and basically wearing yourself down.  If more people thought this way and actually liked the way that they look then the problems that we have with the media and body image and everything else would disappear.  

Blog 22: Significant Scene

In the episode of Dollhouse called “Gray Hour” Echo is sent in as an expert in order to help three men steal some expensive art from a museum.  First, Echo befriends a large security guard at a hotel next door to the museum after she pretends to be getting harassed and possibly raped by a group of guys during a bachelor party in one of the rooms.  When the guard sees this he takes Echo into a safe room in the basement of the hotel where he says that nobody can find them and offers her a large amount of money just to not tell anyone what had happened upstairs.  Echo then beats him up and he’s unconscious.  Then, she lets the three guys come in and somehow they knock a wall down that lets them in to the storage room of a museum and they go on searching for what they came for.  This entire time Echo has been extremely confident and has gained complete trust in these men and they have seen what exactly she is capable of, and they believe that she is the “perfect” person for the job.  Everything is going great until one of the men; the art expert, leaves the vault with the piece of art they all came for.  Echo makes a call to her handler and tells him to catch him before he gets away.  During the phone call a screech of the same frequency used to erase the doll’s memory is heard and Echo no longer knows where she is, who she is, or what she is supposed to be doing.  This scene proves that nobody is perfect, even when they appear to be.

Blog 21 Integrate a Quote 4

The media plays a huge role in the way that men, and women alike view themselves and their bodies.  Millions of people a day see articles and advertisements featuring beautiful people and aspire to be like what they see. To achieve the appearances of the models and celebrities, many people are more than willing to put their health at risk. “Several studies have found evidence that the rise in the incidence of eating disorders coincided with a decrease in the body weight of women depicted in the and with an increase in the number of articles concerned with weight-loss diets and exercise in major magazines. It has been shown that exposure to the thin-ideal image as portrayed in the media predicts eating disorder symptomatology and produces increased body dissatisfaction, shame, guilt, stress, insecurity, and depression.” (Mahler, 119)  I believe that the main problem with body image is the media.  We see these people that have almost everything about them photoshopped before the picture is shown to the public and we think that this is what we are supposed to look like.  If more brands and companies took the lead, like Dove, and featured average individuals of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities then I believe that the rate of eating disorders would decrease drastically.  I don’t really understand how this thin-beauty came to be and in all honesty I don’t think that the thin models that I see are really attractive.  I find the average person, who’s bones you can’t see much more attractive. 

Blog 20 Integrate a Quote 3

There are many things that the media has helped us believe make us more beautiful and tanning is one example. “It has been suggested that the primary factor motivating UV exposure is the desire to obtain a tan, and the primary motivating factor for having a tan is the favorable impact that it has on perceptions of physical attractiveness.” (Mahler, 119)  It has been proven in multiple studies that tanner people are rated more attractive than people that are not tan. And, individuals believe that they are more attractive when they are tan; but, are the risks really worth it?  There are between two and three million cases of skin cancer diagnosed every year and the majority of those are due to sun exposure and poor skin protection techniques. “Historically it has not always been considered attractive or desirable to have a tan. Until early in the 20th century, suntanned skin was viewed as indicative of working-class farmers and outdoor laborers, whereas fair skin was associated with wealth and nobility and was viewed as more desirable.” (Mahler, 120) The tan movement began when fashion designer Coco Chanel featured tanned models in one of her shows.  Shortly after, the tan appearance no longer indicated poor lower-class farmers and laborers but instead was indicative of wealth and class.  It is no question that the media played a huge role in making this popular.  The media, especially magazines, featuring models with admirable traits encourages girls to aspire to be like what they see.  They see all these people that are “beautiful” and they will do everything that they can to be like them, even if it’s harmful to their health or deadly. 

Mahler, Heike I. M., Shiloh E. Beckerley, and Michelle T. Vogel. "Effects of Media Images on Attitudes Toward Tanning." Basic & Applied Social Psychology 32.2 (2010): 118-127. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 16 Apr. 2011.

blog 19 Integrate a Quote 3

The Dove campaign for real beauty is "a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty." The main goal of this program is to help girls and women see that they are all beautiful, even if they don’t have the body of a model.  They aim to convince people that beauty is a media creation and that everyone is beautiful in their own unique way.  Instead of having billboards and advertisements with anorexic, thin models they feature ads with women of all different shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicity.  Dove also created a video online called “Evolution” which shows the way an average looking person can be changed into a supermodel with the help of hair and makeup artists, Photoshop, and a computer.  I watched the video myself and I was shocked to see how easy it looked to edit the picture to create something that we saw as beautiful.  The actress started off with her hair down, no makeup on and in the 75 seconds they curled her hair, did her makeup, slimmed her neck, narrowed her face, made her lips fuller, her eyes bigger, and much more.  If this is what happens in Hollywood and what they do for all models in photographs, then of course the average person isn’t going to look like that.  I think that more businesses should make an attempt to feature “real” women in their ads so young girls and people our age can realize that Hollywood isn’t real life. 

Blog 18 Integrate a Quote 2

The Dove campaign for real beauty is "a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty." The main goal of this program is to help girls and women see that they are all beautiful, even if they don’t have the body of a model.  They aim to convince people that beauty is a media creation and that everyone is beautiful in their own unique way.  Instead of having billboards and advertisements with anorexic, thin models they feature ads with women of all different shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicity.  Dove also created a video online called “Evolution” which shows the way an average looking person can be changed into a supermodel with the help of hair and makeup artists, Photoshop, and a computer.  I watched the video myself and I was shocked to see how easy it looked to edit the picture to create something that we saw as beautiful.  The actress started off with her hair down, no makeup on and in the 75 seconds they curled her hair, did her makeup, slimmed her neck, narrowed her face, made her lips fuller, her eyes bigger, and much more.  If this is what happens in Hollywood and what they do for all models in photographs, then of course the average person isn’t going to look like that.  I think that more businesses should make an attempt to feature “real” women in their ads so young girls and people our age can realize that Hollywood isn’t real life. 

Blog 17 Integrate a Quote 1

In the article, “Celebrity Bodies”, Daniel Harris explains how the medias places and astounding amount of pressure on men and women alike to be thin.  We see advertisements, pictures, and TV shows all the time and the images of what we see and what we aspire to be like are just illogical.  “The typical American woman in 5’4”, weighs 140 pounds, and wears a size 14; the average fashion model is 7 inches taller, 23 pounds lighter and twelve to fourteen sizes smaller. “ (Harris, 1) So, how is it fair that we put ourselves up to these standards?  The average individual can not eat only water, toast and coffee for over two years straight like actress/model, Elisa Donovan.  The average American also needs more than just plain lettuce and grapes for dinner.  Seeing out role models and people that look like they live such lives of glamour puts a lot of pressure on us.  This is one cause of eating disorders and diets among the general population.  Seeing the perfection of these individuals causes both men and women alike to compromise their health in order to attempt to attain these bodies.  Ordinary people will resort to plastic surgery, binge diets, dietary supplements and deadly diet pills; all of which are harmful to our health.  We have to realize that Hollywood actors, actresses, and models are a different type of people and not everyone can look like that in real life. I personally would not want to live my life constantly eating gross food and hating my life. 

Blog 15

Today I found an article that shows that disordered eating is linked to body shapes that are shown in the mass media. It showed that the more a person favored a certain celebrity the more they wanted their bodies to be like that of the celebrity. This article was called: Relationships Between Body-Shape Discrepancies With Favored Celebrities and Disordered Eating in Young Women. I was fairly sure prior to reading this article that women looked up to and strived to be like the people that they see on TV, billboards, runways, and in movies. This was proved in the article but, I also wanted to see how realistic these aspirations were. I found another article called Celebrity Bodies and it laid out how much torture people, especially celebrities, put themselves through to be “beautiful”. This article states that the average American woman is 5’4”, 140 pounds and wears a size 14. The average American model is seven inches taller, 23 pounds lighter and 12-14 sizes smaller. So, how is it fair that we put ourselves up to these unrealistic standards? The article also covers how one model who died at a weight of 90 pounds ate only water, coffee, and toast for two years straight. A famous actress, Mischa Barton, supposedly eats only lettuce leaves. I think there is a definite line between being skinny and being deathly skinny and having a serious problem. In Dollhouse all of the girls are thin, eat nothing during meals, and are seen running on treadmills in almost every episode. This is yet another problem that our media helps create, giving people the idea that in order for them to look like this they must starve themselves as well.

Harris, Daniel. "Celebrity Bodies." Southwest Review. 135-144. Southern Methodist University, 2008. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.
Louise Hinton, et al. "Relationships Between Body-Shape Discrepancies With Favored Celebrities and Disordered Eating in Young Women." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 38.5 (2008): 1364-1377. SocINDEX with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.

Blog 14

For this blog I found an experiment about whether or not tanner people were perceived to be more attractive than people who were not tan.  This article is called Hot or Not-Evaluating the Effect of Artificial Tanning on the Public's Perception of Attractiveness CHUNG ET AL TANNING AND ATTRACTIVENESS. The study took photos of forty-five women between the ages of 21 and 35 years old and took pictures of them.  They put these photos on a website where people would rate them on a scale of one to ten.  After the picture had been rated a minimum of 100 times they used the average rating as the baseline for the experiment.   Then, they took the same exact photograph and used photo shop to make the individual appear tanner.  The study found that the population of people who logged on to the website and rated the photos did rate the tanner people higher; which proves the theory that tanner people are perceived as more attractive.  Before reading this I already assumed that this would be the case.  I think that tan skin is pretty but the sun is harmful for your skin and tanning beds are even worse.  It’s really appalling how much we will put our bodies through to fit the status quo of what we are made to think is attractive.  Tanning is just one of the things that is harmful to us, yet so many people continue to do it.

Suephy C. Chen, et al. "Hot or Not-Evaluating the Effect of Artificial Tanning on the Public's Perception of Attractiveness CHUNG ET AL TANNING AND ATTRACTIVENESS." Dermatologic Surgery 36.11 (2010): 1651-1655. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.

Blog 13

This morning I read an article by The Journal of Social Psychology.  This article was called “Effects of Cosmetics Use on the Physical Attractiveness and Body Image of American College Women”.  This article tells the findings of a study conducted at Old Dominion University where 38 women were photographed with and without makeup and then their peers were instructed to rate them on a scale of 1-10.  The study showed that women felt more confident about themselves and their body while they were wearing makeup.  It was found that men found women that were wearing makeup more attractive than the same woman without any makeup on.  But, women had no preference to the natural photo and the made up photo.  I think that this is interesting because the makeup industry is so huge and women believe that makeup makes them more beautiful.  I found it interesting that women, the people that wear makeup had no preference while men did.  I wish that in this study they would have researched more about what exactly people found more attractive in the photos so we could understand better what makes someone “beautiful”.  I think that it’s kind of sad that people rate the attractiveness of an individual solely on appearance, but I understand that everyone does it.  For my next article I think that I am going to look up something on how harmful trying to be “perfect” is to a person. 

Chris Galumbeck, et al. "Effects of Cosmetics Use on the Physical Attractiveness and Body Image of American College Women." Journal of Social Psychology 129.3 (1989): 349. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Apr. 2011.

Blog 12

Today I read an article called “The Truth About Beauty”.  This article tells about Dove and their effort to give women and young girls self-esteem and cultural transformation.  They call this the “Campaign for Real Beauty” and say that it is “a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty.  Instead of saying that their products will magically make you beautiful and now people will love you they tell people that the definition of beauty is just something the media created and in fact, everyone is beautiful.  Instead of having stick skinny anorexic models in their advertisements they use ordinary everyday women of every shape, size, and ethnicity and show that everyone is beautiful in their own way.  I think that what they are doing is really good and can show younger girls that you don’t have to be skin and bones and you can still be beautiful.  I think that in the future what they are doing can prevent girls from resorting to eating disorders and can show them that everyone has something that makes them unique and beautiful. For my next article I want to look up something either about tanning and how bad it is but people think that the tanner you are the prettier you are.  Or, I want to look up something about makeup and how big the industry is and it’s all about appearance.

Postrel, Virginia. "The Truth About Beauty." Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 299.2 (2007): 125-127. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.

Blog 11

After thinking a little bit more about the Dollhouse and what message the writers are trying to give to their viewers I have decided to focus on a different topic.  I want to research how people perceive perfection and the extremes that some will go to in order to be their version of “perfect”.  In the show the goal was to find the perfect person for the job. In our society today magazines, TV shows, billboards, and movies bombard us with people that we think are beautiful.  We think to be beautiful we need the perfect body, perfect skin, and perfect hair and in all reality this isn’t possible.  People put themselves through hell in order to achieve this: spending tons of money on makeup and hair products, frying themselves in tanning beds, and even doing physical harm to their bodies.  The first article that I read was about how men aren’t immune to the effects of media on body image.  A study at a university determined that men that spent more time watching TV, music videos, and reading men’s magazines were lest confident with their bodies.  This was surprising to me because I didn’t really think men thought much about what they looked like.  As a result of feeling less confident, the study showed that these men were more likely to avoid emotional intimacy and more likely to take part in promiscuous activities. 

Keim, Brandon. "MEDIA MESSES WITH MEN'S MINDS TOO." Psychology Today 39.5 (2006): 26. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr. 2011

Works Cited

In my Analytical Research paper I want to focus on the greediness of people in our society today as well as ethics in medicine.  Everyone wants to be better than the next person and they are willing to do anything to get there.  People will compromise their morals to get where they want to be in life and I would like to research why.  Also, I want to see how ethics in medicine has changed over the years and there are more and more corrupt doctors that will do anything to make more money.  I think that I need to do some more research and I still might change my outlook on this paper but I have to think about it.

Stumpe, Samuel Enoch. "Momentum and Morality in Medicine." Annals of Internal Medicine 67.3 (1967): 10-14. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Lea, Stephen E. G., and Paul Webley. "Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive." Behavioral & Brain Sciences 29.2 (2006): 161-176. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Xinyue, Zhou, Kathleen D. Vohs, and Roy F. Baumeister. "The Symbolic Power of Money: Reminders of Money Alter Social Distress and Physical Pain." Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell) 20.6 (2009): 700-706. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Iserson, Kenneth V. "Has Emergency Medicine Research Benefited Patients? An Ethical Question." Science & Engineering Ethics 13.3 (2007): 289-295. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Pellegrino, Edmund D., Arthur Caplan, and Susan Dorr Goold. "Doctors and ethics, morals and manuals." Annals of Internal Medicine 128.7 (1998): 569-571. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Blog 9

For my Analytical Research Paper I am going to focus on ethics in science as well as in medicine.  In many of the Dollhouse episodes this was a recurring theme.  More often than once the question was brought up regarding whether or not the dollhouse should be legal and if it was only bad or, as one character put it, “a beautiful thing”.  In the final episode I watched, “Man on the Street”, throughout the episode there was a news broadcast where many people were asked their opinion on the Dollhouse.  There were mixed responses, just like there are today involving ethics in both science and medicine.  In our world, as science and medicine are becoming more advanced, the same questions are asked to doctors, researchers and even Judges.  People wonder if certain treatments are more beneficial or hurtful to patients, clones are being made, and many other things are happening as well. I want to research how throughout the years the rules regarding ethics have changed and see arguments where people think that something that is being done is unethical. I don’t think that anything in science, here today is as extreme as the Dollhouse is but I think it would be interesting to look into.  Another thing I would want to look at is brainwashing and what people think about that. A lot of the Dollhouse episodes that I watched had this theme as well. I could look into the ethics of this and see people’s opinions on it and if they even think that it is possible.   

Blog 8: Highschool is Hell

In this writing, the author, Tracy Little analyzes how the writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the shows creator, Joss Whedon use metaphors.  The use of these metaphors help the audience to connect with the characters and relate what is happening in the show to their own lives. "High School is Hell!" "My boyfriend is a monster!" "I feel invisible!" "My mother is just clueless!" "I would kill to get on the cheerleading squad!" "After we slept together he became a totally different person" Using metaphors like this helps many high school girls relate to the characters because more often than not they have had the same thoughts.  In their high school years girls just want to fit in with the “popular” crowd, have the perfect boyfriend, be a good athlete, and they want everyone to like them.  I liked how in this article they showed how the use of metaphors changed from season to season.  In season one they were focused on fitting in, finding friends, finding out who you really are and being confident in yourself.  In season two this changed a little bit.  Season two focused more on love, troubled relationships, and peer-pressure.  Season three was high school graduation and in this season they focused on how it feels like “the end of the world” and you have to figure out what you want to do with your life.  I can relate with the metaphors that are presented in this article and I believe that many other people can too.

Blog 7: Dollhouse Episode 6

The episode of Dollhouse that I watched today was called “Man on the Street”.  This episode was very good and a lot of weird things happened during it.  There was a news broadcast going on throughout the episode where numerous civilians were asked their opinions on the dollhouse and whether they even thought that it existed.  There were a lot of mixed opinions, some people thought that it was cool and they would hire a doll if they could. Or, if they were asked to be a doll they would say yes in a second.  Others, however, were extremely freaked out about the idea and thought that the idea of a dollhouse was repulsive.  This made me think a lot about whether or not I thought that the dollhouse was an okay thing.  In this episode an extremely rich man paid to have Echo come and act as his wife for a day.  At first, I though that it was gross and creepy but then once the story was told about why he did this it completely changed my mind.  Every year on the same day he buys a doll and tells them to meet him at a certain address.  He does this because he bought this house for his wife as a surprise and when he told her to come see it she got into a car accident on the way there and died.  I think that scenarios like this are acceptable for purchasing a doll.  But, I think that when the only goal is to have sex with the doll, kill someone, or steal something; it’s not right.  I’m interested to see how if in the future episodes they change the way the dollhouse is run.

Blog 6: Dollhouse Episode 5

I just finished watching episode 4 of Dollhouse season one called “True Believer”.  In this episode Echo was made blind and cameras were put in place of her eyes so that the ATF could monitor what was going on at a cult in Arizona. She was sent to this cult as a blind hitchhiker that had a vision from God about the man that ran it. “True Believer” was by far the best episode that I have watched so far and it kept my attention the entire time.  In the middle of her mission, Echo’s eyesight came back and I believe that it was due to another error in her imprint just like last time.  Also, Topher realized that while Cierra and Victor were showering in the group showers Victor couldn’t keep his eyes off of her and was attracted to her.  This technically shouldn’t be possible because when the dolls are in the dollhouse they are in a child-like state and usually stay to themselves.  However, in the last few episodes Victor, Echo, and Cierra have begun to almost recognize each other and have been friendly and always sit and eat lunch together.  The people that run the dollhouse are very confused about how this is possible and believe that it is due to human instinct.   I think that it is very interesting that Victor, Cierra, and Echo all get along and that Victor has feelings for Cierra.  I am very anxious to see what happens in the next few episodes about this and I hope that all of the dolls aren’t sent to the attic. 

Blog 5: Dollhouse Episode 4

Today I watched the fourth Episode of Dollhouse called “Gray Hour”.  In this episode Echo helps a client that wants to steal some very expensive art from a museum.  At the beginning everything is going well.  But, when one of the men that is in on the task bails and leaves with the item they are all looking for Echo makes a phone call to her handler.  During this phone call she tells her handler that they are locked inside of the vault and one of the men left and that he needs to stop him.  At the end of the call a loud screechy noise happens and it erases Echo’s memory.  At this point Echo is extremely frightened and doesn’t know what she’s doing there.  Topher, the man that imprints them with their new personalities has no idea how this is even possible and says that he only knows of one person that is capable of doing this, another doll named Alpha.  Alpha is a doll that went crazy and cut up and killed everyone, but he loves Echo and he didn’t hurt her.  Topher questions the woman in charge of the entire Dollhouse because Alpha is supposed to be dead, and she ends up firing him.  I don’t understand why the Dollhouse allows all of these wealthy people to come in and hire people just to do bad things like steal expensive art and kill people.  I think that the idea of the dollhouse would be okay if the purpose of the dolls was to do good and help people.

Blog 4: Dollhouse Episode 3

Today I watched “Stage Fright”, the third episode in the Dollhouse series.  In this episode, Echo was hired by a pop star’s manager to protect his client because a crazy fan was attempting to murder her. Throughout this episode Echo acts as a backup singer for Rayne during her performances.  At the beginning, Echo and Rayne get along extremely well and are best friends.  All of this changes completely when Echo realizes that Rayne is actually communicating with the stalker fan and together they have a plan that will ultimately end in him shooting and killing her during her concert.  I think that this shows that even people that have it all:  money, looks, talent, fame, etc. still aren’t always happy.  It’s true that money doesn’t buy happiness.  You may be the richest person in the world but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t love what you’re doing and you’re miserable. Rayne says in the episode that she just wants to be free again and that she thinks that being dead is the only way that’s possible.  Echo tries to tell her that this isn’t what she really wants and she can stop being a singer but Rayne insists that this is what she wants, she wants to be dead.  However, when Rayne is actually faced with death and has a gun pointed at her all of this changes.  She realizes that her life isn’t horrible and she doesn’t want to die. I believe that sometimes people think that their lives are so bad, when in fact they aren’t.  People should just be happy that they’re alive.