The test I am creating is diving into the extras in movies and determining how do they impact the inequality or issue in the movie particulartly in a relationship. Are they around trying to help, or are they around allowing the physical and verbal abuse happen because of the main character’s position. I am calling this test the Outsider’s Reaction Test. If a film passes this test(needed at least a complete ⅔ rating) then the film has shown the outsiders involved did what they could to help the victim who is most likely loss in his/her abusive relationship. If the film fails(under a ⅔ rating) then this shows that the outsiders/extras in the film kept quiet and saw but didn’t react to their friend, associate, or another human being period being involved in a unfair, abusive relationship. I will dive into why (if the film fails) the extras decided to keep quiet instead of helping out a person of need.

The test requirements are...

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out.

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out.

3. The abusive relationship impacts the victim’s  family and friend relationships.

Movie #1: What’s Love Got To Do With It

This movie surrounds the interesting life of Tina Turner from when she was a little girl raised by her grandmother to her rise to stardom with soon to be husband Ike Turner. Ike and Tina Turner became a hit, making top songs such as Proud Mary and Fool In Love. Everything seemed great, they were at the peak of both careers, making good money, and seemed to be happily married. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Ike begin to use drugs which was quite popular in the music industry back in time after having so much success and wealth. This was reportedly the cases where Ike Turner would go on rages and argue to a point with Tina that he resulted to use his strength to physically overpower her. Beating her multiple times, and it was reported that it got so bad that it wasn’t behind close doors anymore, he would abuse her verbally and physically in front of their friends. Tina promised Ike she wouldn’t leave in the beginning of their relationship when he explained to her how so many people that benefited from him would walk away after some time. Tina, in love with Ike felt bad and never wanted to repeat such actions to hurt him again and she stated in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show that she stayed for so long because of that promise she made to him. She wanted to help Ike, yet she was just keeping herself in a situation to get hurt. This movie places males above women, as Ike took over Tina life as they got into a relationship and formed the iconic music group of Ike and Tina. Also, in this movie Ike keeps an entourage around him, most are his security or bandmates. It is obvious in the movie that everyone, including her sisters, friends knew about Ike Turner violent ways towards Tina Turner. Of course many friends wanted her to get away but there were many on Ike side that didn’t really put in effort to stop the pain emotionally and physically he was causing Tina.

Outsider’s Reaction Test(My Test) What’s Love Got To Do With It Rating

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out. Rate:0

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out. Rate:1

3. The abusive relationship impacts other family and friends relationships:½

Total: 1.5/3 FAILED

After rewatching Tina Turner’s biopic, I feel this film failed my test because of Ike’s power and control over his entourage. His position was the leader, he made people famous and received the respect because of it. Also, he was a violent man. Nobody wanted to deal with him on that level when he’s cutting them a check that helped them pay their bills. Their decision was just to mind their business as their loyalty began with Ike, not Tina. In Ike’s life, with his fame women came and went, they weren’t going to risk their relationship with Ike over females that was Ike’s business, which I don’t agree with but I can understand.

Bechdel Test: This test asks a work of fiction features at least two woman that converse about something other than a man or surrounding what that man does and impacts the movie. This test comes from the idea that women in movies majority of the times are shown by their relations with a male character in the movie.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it.

2. Who talk to each other.

3. Conversation is about something other than a man

This test exists because it creates awareness on not the amount of roles of women in movies but the stories behind them in the movie. For example, in Tina Turner this movie would be nothing without Ike coming into her life. Her conversations with his sister, mother, friends, and more were mostly over Ike Turner and how things were getting worse in their lives behind the fame.

Mako Mori Tests: This test was brought about in 2013 by chalia on Tumblr user who questioned feminist critiques of the depiction of women in movies, in this situation it was the movie Pacific Rim. The goal of this test is to determine what is truly a strong woman in film.

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character

2. Who gets her own narrative arc;

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story

This test exists because it begins the search for strong women in films and making sure they have an impactful role in a movie without the surrounding of a man. It changes the conversation on a “strong woman” in a film by making movies create a backstory for a woman based off of her life and even make men apart of the film because of their relationship to her instead of the typical vice versa.       

Movie #2: Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman is a movie starring a prostitute and wealthy businessman falling in love with each other, creating a relationship that the outside looks at as unhealthy and unlikely. They both live in what looks like to be different worlds, more respectful and proud achievements for Edward and for Vivian she is known hooker who has a backstory of men who were attracted to the sexual experience she made available to them for money. Edward hires Vivan to stay with him for a weekend, the two gets closer and this is when the number one rule of prostitution is broken, never share a kiss as this shows a sign that there is love besides romantically. Obviously because of there two different lifestyles, there are a lot of differences and barriers for them to work through just to get through what was only suppose to the weekend.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it. Rate: 1

2. Who talk to each other. Rate:1

3. Conversation is about something other than a man Rate:0

Total: ⅔ PASSED

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character Rate:1

2. Who gets her own narrative arc; 1

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story 1

3/3 PASSED

Pretty Woman passes both the Becdel and Mako Mori test requiremnts in my eyes because the movie is based off of BOTH Edward and Vivian life. Now of course, Edward brings Vivian into another world by hiring her to be his woman for the weekend, but it’s her backstory that creates the bumps and diversity of lifestyles in the story. Basically, Vivan’s role is as big as Edward role in the Pretty “Woman”. The movie cannot be created completely without Edward and Vivian. Pretty Woman passes the Mako Mori Test more than Bechdel Test however. Even though Vivian has her own backstory and purpose in the beginning, once Edward comes into her life, Vivian falls into trying to change herself to suit his lifestyle but she has to do this as this is what she was paid to do. She’s attractive and lights up the room with her beauty, this is her purpose of the weekend with Edward.

There are many experiences from birth to a teenager that a person will go through that will build themselves as they will get older. These experiences are a guidance to a variety of roads that will give a certain path and it’s up to that individual to make the decision that’s best for them and their future. One of the trials that the youth are impacted by regularly is, “peer pressure”. Peer pressure is the influence from members of one’s peer group, usually the influence being negative. This is claimed to happen to many teenagers as they become accessible to more freedom from their parents and they begin to crave a larger desire to be around their peers. Teenagers are curious and sometimes this curiosity leads to them trying negative actions such as; smoking, drinking, and even having sex when not ready with their peers of course as they decide to go through these experiences together. For teenagers that have a more positive mindset, doing such things are often claimed to have happened because of peer pressure since people who are associated with them expect them to not fall for these types of mistakes. However, this brings the counterargument that peer pressure is just an excuse for a teenager to make a mistake and receive sympathy for their wrong choices. Which brings up the question, is peer pressure a real thing or can it be resisted and labeled as an excuse? The answer to this question is it can be resisted and mistakes by one should be owned up too.

It is true that most teens or a person at any age desires to be accepted. For teens, this pressure comes into play a lot throughout the school year. It’s important for teens to be accepted into a group that likes them for themselves. Without this happening, one can become depressed and feel abandoned in school as they feel like they are not wanted by the ‘cool kids’ or feel as they aren’t good enough to be involved in a group of entertaining friends. This is where teens tend to do whatever they possibly can to fill that emptiness inside from not feeling wanted by their peers which leads to decisions being made without thought. This is where the pressure supposedly lives, the decision making of the teen. However, the youth at some point in their young lifetime are educated on the difference of being a follower and a leader. Also, how doing drugs and other negative actions similar are bad and can lead down a path of destruction. It’s up to that person the teenager to listen and understand how doing things like drugs, drinking, and even dares that can put their life at risk, is something they should work to stay away from. Putting the blame of their actions on another is weak and in reality can be a downfall because if they continue to make mistakes at a higher scale, judges in courtrooms will not take in “peer pressure” being an excuse for committing a crime. Parents stressed this a lot to their children, how it’s easy to mess up or slip up. As long as the parent is pressuring this on their teen, the peers shouldn’t be an issue or at least not enough to not receive necessary consequences for one’s negative actions. Living and learning does not involve making excuses and allowing a teenager to rely on the fact that another teen making the same mistake makes their actions less unacceptable. In a CNN survey, it stated that 17% of high schoolers are caught drinking, smoking, during the school day with peers. Also, in another CNN survey, 75% of high schoolers say that they are encouraged to party with marijuana or alcohol when they see images of their peers doing so. Reflecting upon the second survey of the two, it can be reasonably assumed that the high schoolers will not be surprised to see smokes and drinks at the party. In fact, in most scenarios it’s highly spoken about before going to the party, “who’s bringing what and who’s doing what?” Essentially, this makes it the teenager fault of being aware of their surroundings and allowing themselves to be persuaded into doing something illegal or something their not suppose to be doing.

When it comes to the idea of peer pressure it’s mostly looked upon as all negative but that’s not always true. There is a such thing as positive peer pressure. This is a peer that will help one do something they should be doing. Encouraging one to do right and keep up the good work. For example, positive peer pressure can consists of consistent completion of homework, exercising, and more. In a teen’s perspective there is a better chance of getting this type of encouragement from parents or guardians. Parenting can definitely impact a teenager’s decision making when it comes to situations involving themselves and their peers. The parents must be the people they want their children to become which will display how the teenagers should behave in a way that is in their best interest. In reality, teenager don’t want to take responsibility for things they do which is why they blame the people nearest to them which is their peers. If one tell their peer to jump off a bridge, most teens have an absolute NO in this case. So when one tell a peer to smoke with them, the teen will either not smoke or smoke based on what values and lines they have set in their mind, not on what their friends are telling them is “cool” or not.

If teenagers stop to think about it, they would realize that peer pressure is an excuse for them to make mistakes and they it’s important to be a leader by understanding they are in control of their actions and making the best choices for their future. However, if one does decide to be a follower and make negative choices, be prepared to own up and face the consequences instead of placing the blame on a peer.

Throughout the year, I have wrote many 2Fers that touched on many different topics. However, out of all I strongly believe this 2Fer was the best. Because I touched on a topic that impacts almost every human person at some point in their life whether as a teen or even as an adult, I felt this 2Fer was way more powerful than the others. With this being said, also in this 2Fer I was able to correct many of my mistakes I made in previous 2Fers to make this written wise a lot improved! In conclusion, I can say my ups and downs in my previous 2Fers contributed to this 2Fer in my opinion being my strongest of all.

Works Cited:

• Zeiger, Stacy. "Statistics on Peer Pressure." LoveToKnow. LoveToKnow Corp, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017. <http://teens.lovetoknow.com/Statistics_on_Peer_Pressure>.

• "Teens and Peer Pressure." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017. <http://www.webmd.com/parenting/teen-abuse-cough-medicine-9/peer-pressure>.

The “Power” Of Love

The day is September 8th, 2014. I arise at 6:00 in the morning to prepare for another day of school, however this time it’s my first day of high school. The eagerness to start this new step in my life that I had throughout the summer was gone because of the increasing nervousness every minute closer to 8:15, when school officially starts. I’m ready to get through the rough times of now attending a new school with new people surrounding me everywhere I’d turn, or at least I thought I was on this day. Coming to SLA on the first day I looked around and saw the most obvious difference between my old school and now current school. Besides the fact there was no rule of wearing uniforms, the diversity was shocking. I walk down one hall and I see white students, I walk down another hall and I see Hispanics, and walked into the cafeteria on the first floor of the school and stop to look. I see everyone. Right here is where I feel I learned my first lesson of change, expect EVERYTHING to be different and out of one’s comfort zone.

*Flashback to the world I grew to feel most comfortable in…

Growing up I attended Kearny Elementary/Middle School from Kindergarten to Eighth grade. Residing across from the community the school was apart of made it easier for me to establish a name and a picture to that name throughout the school and neighborhood. With this being said, I was able to quickly make friends and be apart of my own group or team of people who were good friends of mine. Teachers at Kearny watched me grow from a little boy to a young adult, and obviously I became accustomed to being around certain teachers as well as certain peers. Peers, that were more so African American. Being around mostly my own race growing up, I sort of fell into a comfort zone where I only talked to people that acted like me. My thinking growing up was “that’s probably only my race”. The way we talked to each other. “What’s up bro”, “yo bro”, “what’s the move today” I only seem to hear from people throughout the African American race, the people who were similar to me. There were no more than two white students in my grade or that was around my age to be considered a peer to me, and because of them acting and even talking different it created a barrier between white students and my friends and I. “Why is he so uptight”, “why is he so weird” is the question we were so quick to ask and judge upon. Even when we were forced to interact because of table discussions there was this blatant awkwardness between both sides. Everything between us was different which made it really uncomfortable for us and them as well.

Many people might say “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover, you have to try to adapt to the change and new environment.” Specifically this because my mother is the one who told me this. As I listened and took this advice, the beginning of a new change was here in full effect and I felt I had to first figure out how to stop running from it because no matter what, this problem was going to catch up to me as the SLA school year continued. It’s easy to just say I will change or become more of this, but when the situation comes along where the opportunity appears to attempt whatever it is one needs to do, it’s easy to become stagnant. The enthusiasm and care to seriously adapt to that new thing is loss because at the end it is common for one to dislike change. Stick to what I’m used to right now was the mindset I had and when I’m willing and ready to adjust I’ll put the effort into doing so or at least hope to do so. Change is in any form costly because it involves time and effort to adapt to a new reality. Because of this I thought I was acting rationally by resisting change. I knew that I wasn’t the only student going through the same uncomfortable change, probably most of the incoming Freshman felt the same way.

Communication in a relationship is key no matter how deep the relationship is. Communication acts as the judge, jury, and executioner who has the final say on whether the relationship lives or dies. Learning how to talk to different types of people is important as well and coming to SLA for me it was critical for me to master. “Why is he so quiet”, “Why doesn’t he like to interact”. These are things I would hear a few times out the day a lot between the first two weeks of high school. The feeling when I heard these things to me was first a funny one. I used to chuckle when I heard this because the transformation from me being a somewhat talkative person to feeling like one of the most laid back student in the school was amazing. Also, it was hysterical to realize how one of the most hushed personality student in the class could still receive as much attention. At my old school, I received the attention but I was more involved with my environment. I was confident to approach anyone at my old school and communicate to them about anything, something I clearly had to learn all over again coming to SLA since I literally only knew one person from my old school that attended SLA. There was an obvious difference between how I acted, my mood, and my comfortability speaking to my old friend I been really close friends since 1st grade and my new classmates I only knew since a week ago. I was around a like minded person for sure. Coming into SLA, I had a tendency to speak with a lot of slang which comes from being around and interacting with my fellow race. There is a stereotype of black people being more illiterate compared to whites when speaking because of the constant use of slang or profanity and was another reason for it being easier to speak to my friends or at least peers that have a better chance of understanding what I’m saying and can relate to the exactly what I’m saying. Especially in a school like SLA, you can be judged for that especially when there are a lot of students coming from different environments when attending their previous schools.

This change in environment was definitely tricky and made me face an obstacle that was harder than expected. However, the changing reality contributed to my ability to present myself to other races in a more comfortable way. Also, I feel as though I came to an understanding that change is nothing more than a learning experience that I will continue to go through throughout my existence however will approach me in different scenarios. Mary Anne Bell from The Things They Carried relates to going through a change and seeking ways to adapt to it like I did with the curiosity of how difficult this change in environment from Kearny to SLA would be. Still to this day SLA helps me with having the confidence to be able to speak to peers outside of my race, personality, and the people I’ve grown accustomed to interacting with which is a great thing to be the best of both worlds in my opinion. Having the capability to be professional when needed and understand the slang that is widely used throughout all races but more so popular in the African American race.

In the United States, same race relationships have been more common than interracial relationships. The reason for this is the limits people set themselves at by being hesitant to be involved seriously with another from a different race. It's all about comfort in a relationship, having things in common. Growing up it's a better chance to relate to people of the same race rather than another race because many people find comfort and reliability in partners who share physical characteristics as well as cultural and racial backgrounds.

Because of the intensity regarding black and white history, society has made interracial relationships focused more on these two races rather than others. The evil era of slavery and racism is what really separates these two races and makes black people feel intimidated to date a white person, Being comfortable is key in a relationship. It gives off a state of belief and ease that everything in the relationship will work out for the good.  has showed it’s easier to be around like minded individuals. For most people, it’s easier to communicate and be around people who have many similarities and most of the time them people are the same race. Every race comes from different backgrounds and sometimes different beliefs plays a big factor on the ability for people from different races to unite.

Location plays a factor on same race relationships being more common than interracial relationships too. Indeed everyone is raised differently depending on the lifestyle one can afford to live, however lots of races have a tendency to live fairly close to one another. For example, African Americans are minority and many grow up similar by being raised in a more ghetto neighborhood surrounded by poverty. Many blacks believe that only the African American race understands the struggle and that’s what relates the many people throughout the race. This is apart of the reason for the continuous awareness of the Black Lives Matter Movement with black people feeling their race aren’t getting the  equal amount of respect compared to white people. With this being said, black people along with other races can tend to limit themselves to only date people throughout their race because of the belief that only their race understands where they come from and can have a better chance to have a long, successful, relationship.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that socio-economic status significantly affects someone's choice with regards of relationships. Socio-economic status consists of one’s income, education, social class, profession and more. These researchers at University of Birmingham also did a survey that showed white people have a lower chance to find a partner outside their race because of their advanced social status compared to other races. There are more white people involved in essential aspects of the world such as politics, presidential candidates, and more compared to other races like African Americans and Asian Americans. In 2008, Jennifer Bratter and Rosalind King used the National Survey of Family Growth to investigate the likelihood of divorce for interracial couples compared to same race couples. The comparisons across different marriages showed that interracial couples have higher rates of divorce. Furthermore, these statistics showed that white/black marriages are twice as likely to divorce compared to white/white couples and white/asian marriages are 59% more likely to divorce compared to white/white marriages. The core reason for this stems from people’s contentedness of being with the same race and the inability to develop the needed when involved in an interracial relationship which makes it difficult for an interracial couple to last.

If couples and researchers stopped to think about it, they would realize that same race relationships are more common compared to interracial relationships not only because of being raised closely to people of the same race, but also the lack of desire and ability to develop comfort with another race, and because of prior history that may have separated the many different races. The barriers are not just psychological -- they are geographic and economic as well.

Works Cited:

Gladstone, Sarah. ""Swirling" vs. Same Race Relationships." Ravishly. Ravishly Organization, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.ravishly.com/2015/09/07/swirling-vs-same-race-relationships-%E2%80%94-will-we-ever-reach-post-race-america>.

Wang, Wendy. "Interracial Marriage: Who Is ‘marrying Out’?" Pew Research Center RSS. FactTank, 12 June 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-marrying-out/>.