Blog Post #8
After reading the article, I agree with a lot of the points highlighted about sexual conflict between men and women. The information in the article provides support of the idea that men often seek sexual interactions and achieve it through various nonsexual means while women do the opposite. Though this is not all encompassing for all men and women, it does seem that a majority of individuals conform to this gendered idea. In looking at this article and relating it to present life, I believe there is beginning to be a slight shift in sexual conflict as more women become better acquainted with their sexualities. Drawing from my own experiences and the experiences of my peers, there are several examples of sexual conflict between men and women. Several examples show that men seem to upset women because males tend to be more emotionally aloof, show less desire to maintain commitment, show more superficial cognitive interpretation of certain behaviors, and display a shorter attention span. Conversely, men are upset by women for opposite reasons. Women upset men because they tend to be too emotionally complex, show a strong desire to maintain commitment, overanalyze men’s behaviors, and become overly detailed in day to day living. In looking at several examples of men and women upsetting the opposite sex, there seems to be that longing for similar types and intensities of emotions, cognition, and desires.
“New York City, 2017”
The chosen image is a picture of me and my boyfriend on a trip to New York City for the holidays last year. Although this particular picture is staged, it adequately describes the conflict between us during the trip. I was continually upset with him during the trip and he was upset with me for not understanding why I was upset with him.
Blog Post #7
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is an individual’s ability to be conscious of, manage, and adequately convey their own emotions, particularly demonstrated in social situations. EQ and the concept of self-regulation are intertwined as sufficient self-regulation is a marker of high EQ. If a person is able to self-regulate themself, they are able to acknowledge and control the emotions they feel thus demonstrating a high EQ. My personal meaning of EQ is being able to use certain strategies to stay calm and act carefully when presented with a conflict. Several examples of this are seen both throughout daily life as well as occupational life. An example in my daily life is when encountering reckless drivers on the road. Instead of immediately resorting to road rage, I instead do what I call a “pterodactyl screeching”. This odd display of EQ allows me to let out my frustrations quickly and efficiently while also allowing time for the initial emotions to fade and a more logical mindset to appear. On the other hand, there are times of extreme emotions in conversations where I need to better regulate my emotions. The other day, I was getting into a heated conversation with my brother over Facebook messenger. Although we were not face to face, the essence of the conversation was simply that we did not see eye to eye. As I continued to send messages, my responses became more emotional until I noticed that I was beginning to tear up. Upon noticing this, I looked back at the messages sent between the two of us and took a bit more time to be more thoughtful with me next response and try to understand the situation from his perspective. In this instance, there was a definite need to elevate my EQ and calm myself down. I ended up doing so and we agreed to disagree.
http://dinosaurpictures.org/Pterodactyl-pictures
I chose this image as it relates to my use of “pterodactyl screeching” as a mechanism to self-regulate myself and maintain a high EQ. Though not as appropriate in certain social situations, it is still effective for me.
Blog Post #6
My prior perceptions of how advertisements portray women and their current stance. It’s not a secret that advertisements use sexualization and idealistic portrayals of men and women, but I thought little about the cultural connotation of women in advertising. My understanding of women used in advertisements was simply: pretty and skinny. In watching this video, I’m realizing how ridiculous it is that something made several decades ago is still so relevant now. The sexualization and objectification of women and the poor view of femininity and feminine qualities is appalling. As a society, we’ve come to not be quite as tolerable of these overly rigid presentations of the ideal woman, but this concept is still prevalently used in advertising. The video made me realize that not only did this harm the attitudes of women about women, but also it harmed the attitudes men had towards those qualities that are defined as more feminine by society. Even though advertisements are barely seen for more than 5 seconds, those 5 seconds multiplied over several ads sum up to a good portion of exposure throughout the day. Despite this persisting use of women in advertising, there are several advertisement campaigns that are making attempts to broaden the ideal beauty typically seen in ads. The chosen five following advertisements found on YouTube, however, do not portray these attempts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=da1TBNXwyb4
This image is taken from the NARS Cosmetics channel. The advertisement shows a woman sensually moving her body with a red tinge overlaid on top. The movement of her body provides a sexual connotation and the red overlay echoes those of red light districts. Red light districts are areas where prostitution and sex clubs are often found. The item that is being advertised is a mascara appropriately named “Climax”. The entire video and product associate sex and beauty together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STk_uKsy1CU
The next image is from MAC Cosmetics. It is in partnership with a prominent YouTuber name Desi Perkins who has over 3 million accounts subscribed to her channel. In this image, the ideal of fame and fortune is portrayed through a YouTube celebrity sponsoring the product. She exemplifies the ideal beauty standard of being a light-skinned, rich, famous woman. Though out of focus, the shelves behind her are stocked full of the product she is endorsing, further showing the viewer the necessity of this beauty product as a well-off woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juKtnvcp_UE
This image is taken from Juicy Couture for their new Oui makeup. Though the women are more diverse, it still shows the same ideal: thin, light-skinned, and flawless. Each of the women look relatively young and the upbeat, fun aspect of the video shows the use of youthfulness in advertising to get people to buy a product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3Y9n26iqs
This video is from CoverGirl and the image chosen shows a strong, famous ethnic woman. Although her body type is more realistic than the others, we can see from the objects floating around her that most of them are associated with home life. Though it shows she is a busy woman, it seems that women, no matter how busy they are, cannot escape the housewife ideal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRihg1X89A
In this image, it is very clearly seen that the advertisement is sexualizing this woman. In other parts of the advertisement, it shows her face as a famous, rich, white woman. The cloth covering her legs was previously a skirt. The advertisement shows freedom in a very highly sexualized manner by literally taking of the woman’s bottoms as she happily glides through the water.
Blog Post #4
From this entire test taking process, I learned that there are various weaknesses that I have as a student that I need to work on in order to excel in this course. I did add to my notes and the PowerPoint provided to me, but I failed to thoroughly learn the material and effectively apply the concepts it taught. I did not even know there was a review sheet. Had I known this, I predict that I would most likely wait to do it about two to three days prior to the test being open. I should definitely be much more proactive in studying for my tests. I learned that my environment plays a big role on being able to focus on my test. I chose an environment where I was surrounded by friends whom I haven’t socialized with in a while, and I would often take a few minutes to socialize with them. In looking at the various factors in my poor test performance, I know now that I need to prepare for the test much earlier and put more thought into planning when and where I take my test. I passed with a B, but I hope to better prepare for the next test and hopefully get an A.
http://www.iknowtoday.com/bad-work-habits/3/
I chose this photo because it is a visual representation of how my environment was for the test. I became increasingly stressed towards the end of test taking due to taking part in socializing with others. Although I enjoyed talking to my friends, I need to learn to prioritize my academics first and find a proper place to be alone and focus on my work.
Blog Post #2
I personally believe that I am the type of student that typically understands things quickly, but because of this it has caused my to become lazy. My current level of confidence as a student is relatively low as I often take on a lot at one time and optimistically believe that I will stay on top of it. It’s been proven in the past that this is not the case and I end up procrastinating to the last minute. My intellect provides me with some assistance in getting my tasks done and I am a good test-taker, but homework is usually what ends up being my downfall. I think the biggest factor to increase my confidence levels as a student is to take the initiative with my education, stay determined, and buckle down to truly accomplish the tasks I have set out to do. As stated above, I am unfortunately a lazy student. In taking responsibility for the assignments I must accomplish and material I need to study, I can see myself excelling as a student.
My self-efficacy results showed that I 100% believe that ability can grow with effort and that I 77.5% believe in my own ability. Looking at these results, I am not surprised. In relation to my task accomplishments, I know that if I make the effort to do a certain task, it will get done and be done well. My belief in my own ability is still relatively high, but I know that my biggest hindrance is that I procrastinate when tasked to do something. Overall, I have a high self-efficacy. I don’t believe that I am the worst student in the world nor is it extremely difficult for me to grasp academic concepts.
“Efficacy Results”
This image clearly illustrates my viewpoint on the type of student that I am. I value hard work and know that I can personally accomplish anything as long as I dedicate myself to it. My lower belief in my actual abilities are due to the lack of responsibility to regularly achieve the tasks set forth for me to do.
Blog Post #1
These course objectives outlined in the syllabus will help give a general focus to everything being learned in class. I should focus my studying on how to apply the content learned in each chapter by always relating back to these main objectives. My expectations for the course are to have open, honest communication with my instructor, timely posting of grades, and descriptive, distinct feedback on assignments. From this course, I hope to gain a better understanding of how an individual works in various social settings in order to apply this new way of thinking into both my personal and professional life. Some strategies I hope to implement to ensure my success in the course are to keep a running assignment list, minimize procrastination, and ensuring that I attend class and am attentive throughout the entire lecture.
https://mrstiggywinkles.ca/products/the-game-of-life
This image was chosen because The Game of Life is like being in this class. Each student is like a player and we all start at with different resources. In this class, we start off at different levels in our college careers with drastically different backgrounds. In this board game, we start the game with different careers and amounts of money. In both of these, we all have the same goal: either retiring comfortably or achieving a high grade in the course. Throughout the course and the board game we all have different responsibilities and events that will impact how we play the game or how excel in the course.