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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Taylor Dress

Yes, I own one of these. I tried to find the purple one online but I guess they no longer sell it on the website, which is weird since I just saw it in the store.
Anyway, love this dress and the details of the corset. I originally wore nude lipstick but totally forget it for this shoot. I think it looks great with heavy make up but Taylor pulled it off with light make up, so it really depends on your interpretation of the dress. Gold or silver jewelry works well, but wear a short chain to compliment the neckline of the dress.  As well as studs for earrings because you don't want to distract too much attention away from the dress. Once again, hair style is pin curling by Krista Bradford.

Taylor-Red Prom Dresses


But now to the heart of the matter, Obama backing gay marriage is a huge step for equality. He knows this could possibly hurt his election campaign, but his stance will be supported by many. Please check out these links: 
Read all the comments that WHATTHEBUCK puts on the video. If you have any human decency, you'll be enraged by the information too.

You are not alone Mr. President. We applaud you.




Monday, May 7, 2012

Glee



I love Glee. I love everything it stands for in terms of giving people rights and introducing issues that some people do not know exist. Yet, there are some stances that I think contradict themselves. I don’t appreciate some of the choreography that sexualizes the actresses. Regardless what the song is implying, the choreography is sending all the wrong messages to women and girls who watch the show. Then there is the constant bullying and rivalry amongst Sue and Roz. Yes some rivalry is healthy to some extent, but it’s perpetuating the constant cycle of being bulled. Lastly, tagging in the bathroom? Really? Do teens do that in school? Yeah, probably.. But to instill this in teens mines and making it okay for television, reinforces the idea that they can get away with it in real life.
Let’s analyze the latest show - Choke. Watch it here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/356212/glee-choke
The music was beautiful. Their rendition of “Shake It Out” was incredibly moving and Glee raised awareness of domestic violence, which I have discussed in a previous posting. Let me just say, Beiste should not have given Cooter a second chance! Hello! The first hit was signs of getting out. Don’t create excuses for your spouses abusive behavior. Get out! There is help who provide shelters and can help with a fresh start.
I'm glad they instilled the idea of having Puck graduate. The boys of the Glee got together in efforts to help him pass his last class when he lost hope in himself and wanted to drop out of high school.
Earlier in the show, it displays Puck singing “Schools Out For Summer,” and there are the cheerleaders being overtly sexualized and parents are not criticizing Glee for this? Look at the movements and judge for yourself.
Later, Tina, Brittany, Santana, Candy, and Mercedes sing “Cell Block Tango.” Once again, I understand this is a sexual broadway, but teenagers are watching this writers! They are watching the way these girls dance and will do this to get attention. Not all the dancing is sexualized. The choreography for "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" was artistic and fun.
Am I overanalyzing this? Glee seems to do just as much good with the same amount of bad. Maybe their writers should reanalyze their scripts? Or just modify the finer details that are not necessary?

I hope this blog gets to the right people.

But for those of you who came for the look, parks are great places to shoot photos, but I apologize that this was look was for the greater scheme of things.
Lipstick: MAC Vegas Volt
Nail Polish: Kardashian Kolor 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Is masculinity a business on its own?

In this post I want to discuss a very important issue: Violence. Where does it stem from? How can we prevent it?

I watched a film today titled "Tough Guise" that I promote you all to watch. The interviewer, Katz (sorry I never got the full name), began with the scene from the Wizard of Oz where Toto unveils the wizard and explains Oz is a metaphor for masculinity. He symbolizes rejection, a guise, a mask, and shield of vulnerability, which men are typically are not seen as. Katz later goes on to describe how men must emulate masculinity and all its characteristics otherwise men are viewed as inferior. In this film it also gives statistics of men involved in the following:
Murder: 85%
Assult: 90%
Domestic Violence: 95%
Date Rape: 95%
Sexual Abuse: 95%
Rape: 99.8%
I do not know the exact date of the release of this film but I'm pretty sure these statistics haven't changed drastically. Katz comments about when an act of violence occurred by men/boys, it is concealed by titles such as "Kids who attack kids"or "Road rage amongst people" instead of "Boy attacks kids" or "Road rage amongst men," when if it were a female in these headlines the gender is always being defined.
Pop culture plays a significant part in this male stereotype of masculinity. Katz shows the audience a series of films of movies with crimes and how there are not critics against assaults against woman or sexualized images of women being assaulted but it's controversial over women being dramatized as violent in films like "Thelma and Louise."
Did you know Howard Stern's main concern during the Columbine shooting was that the attackers didn't have sex with the women before they killed themselves? He said the men should have taken them out with sex? I am extremely offended by his belief he's "challenging traditional morality" when in reality, he was reinforcing sexist values and sexually degrading women in a crude fashion.
People, this isn't funny. All these sex related jokes are hurtful and demean women. If it were the other way around, we are seen as too liberal, wrong, and not taken seriously.
Do we see a pattern here? We downplay the dominant characteristics of people such as white, heterosexual, and most importantly male. Because they are dominant they are almost invisible and we do not view them as being the issue to our culture.
A very significant quote from the film that I think you should consider is "There is nothing natural about images because they were made by someone." There are mind games and truths hidden behind the media all the time and we must delve deeper to find the root of their meanings. For example, the pop icons that we have embedded in our culture are not who we visualize them to be. Take our good old president Ronald Reagan. Did you know he opposed the equal rights movement of blacks? How about the women's movement? Don't forget the gay movement? Oh, and lastly the anti-war movement? These are all things that have created the society we live in today, and he felt we lost the Vietnam war because our nation went too soft because our country was fighting these issues. For those of you who supported Reagan, please reassess why you liked this president. My opinion is my own of course but please take this information into consideration.

My main point here is, as Katz was trying to inform me, that violence may stem from the ideal of masculinity. So how do we fix this? Well, I haven't finished the film yet, so I will inform you as soon as I know. But please, take the time to watch this film. But what I do think is that being masculine and promoting it in media has become a business of its own. Thus, action figures have changed over the last 50 years by become buffer and more defined while wrestlers have become more toned and bulkier. So we must rethink our business strategies and promote anti-violence in any way we can.

Thank you for reading this post.

Disclaimer: All quotations are not exactly cited from the film.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

For the record, Rue was supposed to be black.

Yes, I am obsessed with the Hunger Games. I've already read through the series twice, seen the movie twice, and would not mind reading through it again. Here are the pieces of the Lookbook post.
 Love the back of this dress. I would definitely recommend a skinny belt, but it didn't fit this look.
 The chain really isn't this long. I had to add another to make it longer. The quality of the necklace is decent, it would have been nicer if it had a more metallic feeling to it.
Other heels/shoes would work also.
I tried to look like a bird as much as possible. I didn't realize the dress was tighter than I remembered. The photo still came out nicely.

In the book, on page 98-99 it describes Rue's features. So for those who disagreed about Rue's actor, read it for yourself.

This has been my favorite way to curl hair. Check it out below.
Pin curls Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWs-XQgc-GE&list=UUC-ALgpEE2c2C46qZGQLGsQ&index=36&feature=plcp