HaLlOwEeN & MeDiA!

For Halloween this year my husband and a few friends and family got together at my parent's house to have a fun party. We carved pumpkins, played Mario Chase on Wii-U and watched a scary movie. Not to mention, we had delicious hot apple cider, cinnamon cake donuts (my absolute favorite!), pumpkin seeds, sloppy joes and of course, candy. It was one of the best nights I've had this last year!

One of the best parts was playing on the Wii-U (Mario Chase, Sweet Day and Luigi's Haunted Mansion)-- we had about 7 people playing, screaming, cheering and creating strategies to beat one another. I am usually critical about newer game systems, but this one was amazing as it brought us all together! It was so fun :) 

Lastly, another fun part of the night was watching a scary movie! We finally decided on "When A Stranger Calls," the newer version. I hadn't seen it since I was in middle school and so all of us got pretty scared! After we watched the movie and talking about how the stranger got into the house, how dumb the teenagers were, etc.. we all talked about how less thrilling it would have been if the music hadn't been there. It turned into a great discussion as we talked about other factors that increased our fear, such as the fact that most of the girls in the room had had experiences babysitting at night time. Also, we all wanted to be scared, so we were more open to the emotions and plot in the movie. 

All in all it was a great night and I'm grateful for good media activities that can help bring people together---In fact, I saw some snuggling from my sister-in-law and her date...so literally, it can bring people together ;)

P.S. Enjoy this funny Halloween commercial that makes fun of the stupidity in scary movies :)

USU Speaker Cancels Due to Threats

Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist speaker that has become well known by her blog videos: "Feminist Frequency." In her videos (I've personally only seen one), she discusses how women are portrayed in video games. I believe she had really good points that showed that women are highly sexualized and that they usually play the damsel in distress. In fact, this video made me think of the one we watched in class about the portrayal of women in movies.

This past fall she was invited by Utah State University to be speak on her thoughts, research, blogs, etc... on women in video games. However, the week before she was to speak she received messages from a USU student saying that he would kill her if she spoke on campus. I read through the article and he has many more explicit, gross and violent things to say to her. In response, the university added more security, but after more and more threats came in Anita cancelled.

I looked her up online and she is the target of much hate mail, memes, youtube videos, etc...
In fact, it's really the only thing that pops up when you search her name. It's crazy how hateful people can be towards anyone sharing their observations of video games. Does she make a great point? Yes! Do I agree in every example she brought up? Not necessarily (which I've discovered is how I feel about a lot of radical feminist ideas). Nonetheless, no one should ever have to experience such backlash! People need to be respectful, even when they disagree with an opinion.

With the increase of video games and their popularity, I hope that more research on how women are portrayed in them stems from this woman's ideas. I hope that in the future we can make changes that will influence how we see women.

More Ads...

#3 Product Placement (Funny!)
This isn't necessarily an Ad...but when I took a Marketing class we discussed how several businesses' including grocery stores use product placement to increase their sales. Also, someone in our class wrote a great blog post on this topic from the Man of Steel Superman movie. I agree with her in that it's crazy how the internet and even movies today target us to buy products. Although it's helpful to find running shoes I'm searching for on Google when I log in, I don't like the thought that people know what I like and don't like from what search for online. I think that type of product placement has gone too far! How about our movies? Man of Steel has over 100 product placements within the movie including IHOP, Sears, Carl's Jr., etc...
As for myself, I think it crosses the line. Ads should be left for television and highway billboards. However, others have expressed to me that it is sort of cool to see products we use everyday in movies---it can give a realistic feel to the movie. Despite the coolness, however, I don't think movies are showing products for a realistic world in their movie...Superman earned $160 million for placing those products. Is that fair? Are our movies becoming selling mediums? What do you think?

Ads Continued...

#2 Liberty Mutual Commercial
Another touching ad that plays to my emotions and beliefs is this random acts of kindness commercial. I remember watching on T.V. for the first time and being surprised that such a good-loving commercial existed!