Creative project

        At the beginning of this class I was unsure on what a coming of age experience actually was but as the semester went on and we read the course books and articles explaining their own coming of age experiences I became more aware on what it actually was to have a coming of age moment. I chose these two photos because it was during a specific time in my life where I was away from my family, away to college, in a new state, and also experiencing living on my own for the first time. These pictures mean a lot to me the first picture with the championship rings. Winning a national championship was my first major achievement in my life. The picture with my friend it brings back a lot of memories that I had living in Illinois and it also represents the new people I was able to meet and make dealing with my own problems easier.

         I would first like to begin explaining about the picture of me and my friends because this was my freshmen year in college. I was 18 years old just graduated from high school and I was moving out of my mother’s house not just down the block or like 20 minutes away I was moving 6 hours away from my mom and my family into to area I have never been before in my life. During this big move I will have to admit I was nervous, anxious, scared and all of the above but I also had the courage to look deep inside myself and make it through this period of my life. Even though I was terrified of the new life I would be starting on the inside but on the outside I had my wall up to hide the fear of getting older and maturing in the process.  I pretended everything was just fine the boy code that William Pollack described in the article Inside the world of boys: behind the mask of masculinity. Over time I stopped hiding from the fears I had and embraced because everyone I knew was going through the exact same thing I was. William Pollack explains why I wasn’t able to express my emotions about my situation in another passage about the two research points. “The first reason is the use of shame in the toughening-up process by which its assumed boys need to be raised to feel ashamed of their feelings, guilty especially about feelings of weakness, vulnerability, fear and despair.” This applies to me word by word because I didn’t want to share my fears with anyone and be considered less of a man because I had fears of beign without my family. “The second reason is the separation process as it applies to boys, the emphasis society place on a boy’s separating emotionally from his mother at an unnessarily young age, usually by the time the boys are six years old.” These picture are important to me for many reasons but what I remember most is my friend Xavier who I talked to when at school because he was away from his family, friends, and in a new state just like me. That’s when I realized that’s its ok to be afraid of what the future holds because who isn’t and I would have never known this unless I expressed my feelings about it and get it off my chest.

Blog # 2: water lilies

Water lilies is a foreign movie that is filmed in France. The film takes places in a Paris suburb Cergy-Pontoise. It tells the story of three teen girls about their coming of age. Floriane who is a beautiful blond with a perfect body and remarkable talent in the pool, Marie is a tomboy and doesn’t know how to deal with confusion of her sexual identity, Anne is an overweight-but-outgoing swimmer who has a crush on a male swimmer that like the flawless Floriane. Coming of age in foreign countries isn’t different from coming of age in America. In this movie the three girls are faced with many of the same problems that teens here go through.  I am sure there are plenty more foreign films similar to this one. This movie isn’t a true story but it represents problems that some teen girls are faced with all over the world, whether it be about the sudden feelings they have to explore relationships with the same sex or not being happy with their body

In the opening scene after a synchronized swimming contest they show Anne waiting until all the other girls to leave the locker room to change, because she was embarrassed to change in front of them because of what her body looked like.  She was scared to show her body because she was different from the rest of the girls and didn’t fit in with the image they all had. In the Book Fat girls the Author’s weight dramatically affected her coming of age she was ashamed of her body as well. Judith Moore experienced teasing, harassment, depression because of her weight in her coming of age years. As like Anne she was also ashamed about her body because she didn’t look like the other girls around her looked like and the continued pressure she had to fit in with everyone.

Marie throughout the movie struggles with the feelings that she had toward Floriane. She was a young lesbian crushing on another girl but she was scared of that want she had for her due to the insecurities that society brings on gay/lesbian people. I would say that it is more welcomed overseas than it is in America. In the article growing up gay/ growing up lesbian it had many stories’ that described what it was like to be a gay in a society that doesn’t understand what it’s like. My interpretation of Marie’s character was she didn’t show her feelings sooner to floriane because she didn’t know how Floriane would react to the whole situation of her being gay. All the things she didn’t want to lose her as a friend and be left alone. Linda Heals from the article who came out of the closet to her roommate the reaction of her roommate was to move out just because Linda was homosexual. Linda felt like she couldn’t tell anyone about her sexual orientation. Marie also felt if she would tell Floriane about her true feelings she wouldn’t be able to accept the fact that she was a lesbian.

The coming of age experience I would say it is a universal experience. That every adolescent goes through some time in their lives whether it being able to come out the closet like Marie from the film or Linda from the articles they were faced with similar kinds of problems. In Anne case being able to live inside her own skins this problem of acceptance of herself for whom she was like Judith Moore.

Cover Girl Culture

Cover Girl Culture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRBp1x4vMc&feature=player_detailpage

With the advancements of electronics the mass media and popular magazines remain to keep a tight grasp on controlling how our youths and teens should look, act, and feel about themselves. Now a day’s more than ever the kids in America resort to saying inside playing video games, shows like TMZ to see what celebrities are doing, reading their favorite magazine, going on facebook, or playing with the latest gadget (Iphone, droids, and etc). I have also notice that the programmers of video games have started to put ad’s in the game so when your playing it you can see it. So I would definitely agree with the film and their critiques of popular media.  From the Film I remember Robert Stevens a success coach saying that “What is the Media doing to our kids? It’s creating an empty society.” That stuck out to me the most because it’s completely true about how big of an influence the media has on us and many fail to realize the power that media has on our youth and teens. They display this power by being the gate keepers on what should the perfect person look like male or female. In Kearney article “Producing girls: rethinking the study of female youth culture” the section about teen magazines, the magazine industry has had major effects on the formation of female youth since the 1980’s. Especially in Magazines that mainly focus on the spheres of fashion and beauty. After Looking at a few popular teen magazines like Seventeen, YM, and teen I notice that in some of magazines they give tips on many different topics and subjects particularly on ways to be sexy or hot. For example they had how to get the perfect body, one of the tips said to buy a dietary supplement drink that flushes your system that some celebrity uses. Instead of suggesting a healthy tips like working out or eating the right the foods something that would give them the best chance to achieve their goal, but they care more about selling the product to make money. They don’t care about what it may do to a growing child or teen that needs the nutrients that are being flushed.  Youth and teens now a day’s want to be like movies stars, models, and music artist instead of wanting to be like someone who wants to make a difference in a positive way like a doctor, cop, fireman, or a teacher. I am afraid to see how the future will be like if the media continue to increase their power on the younger generation. We will have a lot of self centered egotistical money hungry emotionless individuals in America. In Susan Bordo article Never Just Pictures Josie Natori says that fashion is not reality, this tells me that she doesn’t understand the impact that these fashion models have on adolescents. They see these glamorized skeletal models which makes kids want be as small as they are many of them that seek these kinds of body would develop eating disorders. Susan Bordo agreed with Josie on fashion not being reality but she added” it’s an artfully arranged manipulation of visual elements. Thos elements are, however arranged precisely in order to arouse desire, fantasy, and longing, to make us want to participate in the world they portray.” I completely agree with her because if the really wanted us to believe that all the models are is a fantasy, then they would try to give tips or advertise make–ups, heath/diet tips, etc  to help them look like these fantasy figures.