Bartle is a character in a book called “The Things they Carried,” a book that I wouldn’t read for another 6 years. One event in the story was him having to shoot up a car even though he didn’t want to. Not to compare my actions to shooting up a car, or anything else for that matter, but to me, it conflicted my “morals” in a similar way that the event conflicted his.
It is always nice waking up at ten in the morning. I would have been late for school if it wasn’t for winter vacation. I was in the 4th or 5th grade. We were going to New York for Christmas, I couldn’t wait for it. It was originally meant to be a surprise, but I figured it out a few days before. I had been in New York, but never really as a vacation. Everything was already packed, I already knew what I wanted to do when we got there, I was just happy to get away from normal life for awhile. I could have had a nice vacation, but I hated my teachers and they hated me. For my Christmas and going away gift from them to me, they decided it would be best to give me a pink slip. It didn’t mean that I was fired from school, it was there way of basically saying “You should know better, give this to your parents.” I was always a straight A student. I always did my homework and always did the best on tests. I just didn’t like them and they knew it. I don’t know why they would give me a pink slip, they always did it, but I wasn’t sure why.
We left for New York on a train, it took years to get there, but somehow we made it there just before noon. We got off the train, walked up a lot of steps, and then we were in Grand Central Station in New York. It was annoying, everybody was walking like they were late, the unintentional pushing and shoving that they were probably use to. It would have been fun to start kicking people in the shins, but that wouldn’t have helped anyone. We walked outside of the station, it was supposed to be cold, but somehow I felt the warmth of everyone walking by, it was weird. I didn’t know where we were going, nobody really told me, but it was really nice to look at all the tall buildings. We walked around for awhile, then we got to our hotel that we were staying in. It was in Time Square, from our room, we got to see the giant displays from the windows. We weren’t there for long though, we left out later to get dinner. My sister always made things interesting, because of her allergies, we usually had to do some extra searching to make sure that her need were accommodated. It wasn’t a bad thing though, and the search turned into an I-Spy game through the crowd to find a place she could eat at. After we found food for her, we went to Roxy’s. I had a burger (this was back before my vegetarian days) and then an oreo cheesecake. After that we walked some, we went to the Nintendo Store and the M&M store. We got back to our hotel at around 9, we unpacked and then went to sleep.
I never actually went to sleep though, I just stayed up and watched the repeating commercials flashing on the giant screens outside the window. The fact that I had a pink slip was getting to me for some reason. It wasn’t rare for me, they were always stapled into my journal so I couldn’t forget. It’s just that in this instance, I had hid it under my bed, I didn’t really expect anyone would see it in my room, no one was home. This is an event similar to what Bartle went through. A person might say “You didn’t have to hide it.” But I did, it’s not that I wanted to just ignore it or maybe I did, and I had eventually told her after vacation, I just wanted to to leave that back and home for when we came back. I had brought my Nintendo, but I never played it, knowing that I probably shouldn’t. To me, it was interesting how much I was thinking about it, but I normally think a lot. I think that it was more of the feeling of not telling my mom. If I would have told her before or during our vacation, everything would have been different.
Video: https://www.wevideo.com/hub/#media/ci/561928006
If I were to make my own rules I would make a total of 4. First it would be a 25% of the actors would be women. For if there were 2 women but 100 men that is not fair. The second rule would be that you have to look at movie situation because if there are 2 women that are in the a old timed movie zone when communication is hard, and when the communication is not made between the 2 women that is not always the movies fault. The third part is that at least one women/girl has clothes that does not show-off anything. The fourth rule would be that there has to a good communication that is not about men/boys but about something smart like work and/or education.
The movie that I reviewed is the The Lord Of Rings Trilogy there are 3 very important and strong, forceful women. They all were respectful clothing and even though they do not talk to each other for the huge distance gaps between them it is understandable. All of there conversation are well also for they do not exactly talk about men but about the war. Overall I give this movie a 4.5 they lost the .5 for they still could have found a way to at least find a way of communication between at least 2 or the women.
In Tech class, We watched a video based on the danger of the internet. In my opinion, the most memorable event that happened in the film was when Ryan committed suicide. This was memorable because, it goes back to our Cyberbullying session a few weeks ago.
It is important for us teens to watch this film because, it shows us what could happen to both our online and personal life. It shows that we could be talking to older men/women when their profile picture is a picture of a 14 years old girl.
I would keep my future family safe by making strict rules for online uses. The reason why you should have a talk with your family is because you need to tell them the dangers when they’re online. I would encourage other parents to get the password to their kid’s devices to search for things that shouldn’t be happening.
Leo Cassel-Siskind
In class we have been watching Digital Nation. It is about how all humans and teenagers in particular are online so much more than they used to be that being online is becoming a new lifestyle. The most scariest thing I viewed was about how people were chatting each other and encouraging each other to kill each other. There was even a website you could go to for the best place to kill yourself. It’s important to learn about things like this because it helps us protect ourselves online and helps us understand what we are doing online. If I was a parent I would make sure that I could see what my family was doing online whether talking to friends or posting pictures on social media. It’s important to do this so that in case someone is bullying my kids I can see that’s happening and help them out. Parents today who grew up without all of these things need to keep track of all the things their kids are doing online even though it may annoy them. Being online can be dangerous and they need to be protected.
Yesterday in class we watched a Frontline program called growing up online. It was about technology in our world now and how it is changing the way we do things, mainly our memories and behaviors.The most memorable part of this show for me was Evan Skinner's overreaction to her son's trip to New York and the videos of it. I think she was ridiculously irrational and should have kept her reactions and opinions to herself. However, it is important to watch shows like these because they have many opinions by researchers and professors, as well as kids like us. They often give a well rounded perspective on controversial topics. To keep my future family safe online, I would teach them about the dangers and benefits online, instead of shielding them and reprimanding them. The more educated they are on this topic, the better online decisions they will make. It is important to talk with your family about internet safety to see if anyone is being harassed online and your family can help you prevent bad situations online. If there are people in your family who are very afraid or opposed to the internet, this talk could help them use the internet as a resource and also protect them from unsafe online situations. Parents who are struggling to keep their kids safe online, here is some advice: Learn about the uses and dangers of the internet so you are not ignorant to everything your kids do online. After that, make sure your kids are informed of situations and consequences online. If you want, Parental Controls are available, but most of us kids know how to get around those. I mostly recommend talking about it, instead of making the internet a big, exciting, and possibly dangerous unknown that kids will try to explore in secret.
The film I’m choosing to review for this assignment, is Daniel Water’s 1988 movie, Heathers.
This movie actually, throughout different scenes in the movie passes both tests, the different Heathers talk to each other about many things, most of which are admittedly vapid, but are not about boys. In the movie there are three girls named Heather, who are secondary characters, and the fourth member of their high school clique is the main character, Veronica. Who as the main focus of the movie passed the Mako Mori test. She has her own narrative, backstory, and complete perspective throughout the movie, that at points involves a man, but does not revolve around him, and in the end she leads to his demise.
Thinking on the parameters of these different tests to asses how biased/gender based movies are, I noticed that a lot of these tests have rules that revolve around the female members of the cast, or lack there of. And if I were to make my own test I would do so a little differently.
1: Is there an equal presence of male/female characters?
2: Do the character’s relationships hinge on romance/sex between the sexes?
3: Are there characters throughout the movie that are purely to further the theme of sexualization and not relevant in any other capacity?
ie-Don Jon, the numerous woman in the start of the film, that you see have sex with the male character, then have nothing else to do with the movie, having no actual weight to the story.
Looking at the test I’ve come up with, I could probably add more if I thought about it long enough, and in all honesty, I’ll probably never be happy with it, and I’m not sure if all movies will eventually pass any test like this, but it is interesting to see the portrayal of different people based off of such trivial details, like gender in the media.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off passes the Bechdel Test, but just barely. The movie revolves around a high school senior named Ferris Bueller and his circle of friends. The plot shows us that Bueller has perfected the faked sick day, and the movie begins by him fooling his parents into letting him stay home. As soon as his mother and father leave for work, he goes on a series of wild adventures throughout the city with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron. The Bechdel Test is utilized in one of the final scenes, when he is racing home to beat his parents and sister (Jeanie) there. Jeanie was given a ticket for speeding while out searching for Ferris, and she is driving back from the police station with their mother in the passenger seat. The car ride consists of their mother nagging and lecturing Jeanie for her behavior, and the scene is interspliced with Ferris and his father travelling back home as well. Technically, this scene would qualify as a pass for the Bechdel Test because there are two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. But this interaction is extremely short, is not an isolated scene, and the dialogue is ultimately unimportant to the plot. Furthermore, many renditions of the Bechdel Test require both women to have names, while in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris’ mother does not have a specified name. The Jung-Allen Test requires the following things: two named women, at least one of color, that have an interaction about something other than a man for a full, uninterrupted thirty seconds. This would mean that Ferris Bueller would definitely lose this test. It is not as low a bar as the actual Bechdel Test, but it is still a relatively low bar that I can only think of one movie of the top of my head that would pass this test (The Help). As a reminder, both the Bechdel and Jung-Allen Test do not measure anything about the movie except for its amount of representation. It does not measure whether the movie is feminist or not, and does not grade its actual quality. But the Jung-Allen Test will do a better job of performing the aforementioned tasks. The racial component encourages racial representation (however low), and the uninterrupted thirty second rules encourages the idea that the conversation will have actual relevance to the plot.
The TV show was called Growing Up Online. The show was about kids and how they grew up with computers, how it impacted them, and how they spent most of their time online. The thing that I remembered the most would probably have to be how people would spend so much time online that they lost their ability to communicate with others and that people would die doing a long marathon. I think it is important that we watch these shows so that we can learn from the mistakes of others and and from those of the world. I would inform them of the dangers and tell them what to do and not but encourage them to use it but only if they let me know when they make an account so I can monitor them. It is important to talk to your family about internet safety because they should know what could happen from their doings and how different things can impact you and your family. I would tell parents to make sure they know what their child is doing and monitor it the best they can and ask your fellow parents about what they do.
‘Sisters’ Movie Review Using the Bechdel Test
The movie Sisters is about two sisters whose parents are trying to sell their childhood home. They come home to pack up their stuff and they decide to throw one last party in the house for old times’ sake.
This movie definitely passes the Bechdel test. The first piece of criteria in the Bechdel test is that there are at least two named women. The movie’s two main characters are women: Maura and Kate Ellis. Kate’s daughter, Haley is also named many times. Another is Brinda, a woman who the sisters hate from their childhood who ends up trying to get into their party.
The second piece of criteria in the Bechdel test is that women must talk to each other in the movie. The main characters, Maura and Kate, talk to each other about many things, most of which is about their childhood home being sold and party planning for their party. They also do some talking to Kate’s daughter, who is going through a hard time because Kate is not being as responsible as her daughter would like for her to be.
The second piece of criteria for the test is that they speak to each other about things other than a man. There are times in the film where Maura and Kate talk to each other about men but it is not an overwhelming amount. They each have a crush at the party they throw but only Maura really falls in love with the man she likes and that is not until the end. They talk about the home, their parents, the party, and Kate’s daughter a lot more than they mention men.
If I were to make up my own test the criteria would be:
-At least 2 women are named in the film.
-They do not abide by strict gender roles.
-They are at least somewhat developed characters in the film.
‘Sisters’ Movie Review Using My Test
The first piece of my test says that at least two women are named in the film, like the Bechdel Test. I found this to be an extremely important for a film to be woman-friendly, so I kept it in my test. As I said before, Kate and Maura Ellis are the two main characters as well as Kate’s daughter, Haley.
My second piece of criteria for my test says that the women in the movie do not abide by strict gender roles. I found that “Sisters” also passes this part of my test. Maura and Kate are not overweight, but they are an average weight and they are proud of it. There is a scene in the movie where they stick out their stomachs and laugh about it, which I found pretty funny. They are not ashamed of their normal weight and they are not trying to obtain the skinny woman image that so often appears in the media. There is also a scene where they are picking out provocative dresses for their party. They are not doing this to attract men, they are doing it for themselves and they are laughing about it because the dresses are tailored more for younger girls. I thought that was pretty cool because they were just being themselves and showing as much as skin as they would like-just like a guy can. They also swear and drink which goes against the “polite, happy, and pure” stereotype that girls are held to.
My last piece of criteria says that the women in the movie are at least somewhat developed characters. “Sisters” of course passes this one with flying color as the two main characters are women.
Conclusion
What TV show did you watch in class?
We watched Growing Up Online
What was this show about?
It was about teens who grew up in the generation of new technology and social internet interactive websites.
What is the most memorable thing to you about this show?
When the boy said he never read book only the summary online and when the girl who was anorexic went on websites that praised anorexic people.
Why/Why not - is it important to watch shows like these?
It's important to watch these types of shows because it’s important to have an idea about what your kids are thinking and doing online
How will you keep your future family safe online?
By telling them that everything that goes on the internet isn’t good and tell them everything that can harm them
Why is it important to talk with your family about internet safety
So, that nothing happens to them and they won’t go buck wild online and to keep their reputation in tact
What advice would you give to parents that don't know how to keep their children safe online?
I would tell them to show their children clips of predators online and people's children going missing from online interactions with strangers
1.) The TV we had watched in class was called Growing up Online.
2.)This show talked about how kids were affected online and how their entire lives changed after something that was put online. They had told us about a fight that happened in their school and that it was recorded and now whenever someone looks up the kids or the school they will see the video.
3.)The most memorable thing about this show was about the girl who was a model on the internet but in real life she was a nobody.
4.)Yes it is important to watch these shows because it teaches us about the dangers of the internet and shows us how much it can affect our lives.
5.)I will keep my future family safe online by not letting them have any social media until they are of appropriate age. Also I will block any websites that are inappropriate or unsafe to children.
6.)It is important to talk to family about internet safety because they need to know how dangerous the internet is and how it can affect your future.
7.)Some advice I would give to parents that have children online is to right away talk to your kids about the dangers of the internet and how one little mistake could affect their entire life.
