Week 11- Media and Halloween

This week in class, we began discussion over gender, as well as the effects of media on children, and how gender and media coincide with each other in relation to how it effects children. The video we watched was one of the most interesting videos I have ever watched and really opened my eyes to all of the effects of media on children, and how even from the beginning of their birth, they are constantly being bombarded with pressures, brands, and gender-specific rules, such as the cute-sy halloween costumes for females, or the rough-and-tough truck toys for the boys. I never realized this before, but after the video I realized that we are all surrounded by these gender-specific rules- girls are considered sloppy in they don't wear makeup or wear sweatpants every day, but if guys dress a little nicer, people question it. The basis of these "rules" and who or what created them was the question on my mind all week, and this week really made me think about how we don't need to follow the "rules" set for us from the time we are born- we must follow our own beliefs and attempt to avoid as much of these rules as possible in order to avoid corruption from media.
We also watched Freaks and Geeks again, which was very amusing, as well as interesting. Although it does not tie into gender, I did find the conflict over what age is "too old" for halloween very interesting, which also tied to the part of the video that discussed that the age at which we reach adulthood is decreasing. The freshmen boys were considered losers for trick-or-treating at that age, but the mother found it perfectly OK for them to be trick-or-treating, because she had done so when she was his age. That age has clearly changed, according to Freaks and Geeks, which has led to conflict and an interesting question- Who or what can determine the zenith of adolescence and who should be able to control the age of adulthood? Because clearly, media is only decreasing the age of adulthood more and more.
This week was very insightful and posed a lot of questions about our society and how we are all a part of everything and that we really do have an impact on people, just like the bell's sound that travels and reaches many places.