Sex Modesty Sells

On You Tube I watched Ashley Tisdale’s new music video for "He Said, She Said" and I have to say I was both impressed and surprised because it isn’t really the “Family Channel” Ashley we are used to. While watching the Family Channel you may see one of Ashley’s older videos such as her remake of "Kiss The Girl" from The Little Mermaid. Both these movies are completely different, but I still think they were both made well. She seems to have grown up a lot and it is now showing in her songs and videos. In her new video she’s at a club with her friends and she is trying to get a guys attention the entire night. I personally enjoyed this music video and I was impressed that she could still make her video sexy while still keeping it classy. What I mean by that is that she didn’t have to take her clothes off and wear a skimpy outfit to make her look good. She was trying to get the guys attention and she did so, but she still kept her dignity by doing so. She didn’t have to look like a tramp to do it. Her outfit was classy yet still sexy. She didn’t have to dip as low as Christina Aguilera in “Dirty” or Britney Spears in “Toxic” to look good. The outfits she was wearing, I could have seen walking down the street. They weren’t trashy, but they weren’t “little kid” clothes either. In a recent interview with Cosmo Girl Ashley claimed, “ I don’t mind being a Disney girl. I think you can be sexy without taking your clothes off.” I think that Ashley is putting out a really good message to girls at a young age. Her along with other young female singers such as Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Aly and AJ and so on are good role models to younger girls. They haven’t fallen for the “have to be sexy to sell” phase and I think that’s really important.



In Ashley’s new video while she’s in the club she’s wearing a white tank top, black vest, shorts, knee highs and sneakers and in another shot when she’s singing by herself she is wearing a gray strapless dress and a black leather jacket. Now in one of the last scenes in the video Ashley is sitting in a white room by herself with a white backless dress on. Even though the dress is backless it’s still a classy dress that would see at any award show or on any red carpet. All three of these outfits are the type that you could see girls wearing on a night out or even at school. She kept her video tasteful yet still very stylish.


When listening to the lyrics of her new song it also shows that she has moved on from remaking Disney movie songs, to making songs that she find important to her. She wants to writes songs that are fun and that gets people excited to buy the rest of her album. This is that beginning of her song “He Said, She Said”;


“Boy walk in the spot, he's so fresh
He got what he needs to impressin'
Just look at the way that he dressin'
Ain't no question chicks like oh.

Girl walkin' the spot, she stop traffic
She blowin' your mind with her asset
So Jessica Alba fantastic,
Instant classic boys like oooh.”

(Click here for the rest of the lyrics)


I don’t think the song is inappropriate at all and I think that it would be fine to show on the Disney Channel. Ashley Tisdale is going places with her career and I think that she should keep on track with how she’s going and not fall for what the media thinks is sexy.


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Click here for Ashley’s video “Kiss the Girl”
Click here for Britney video “Toxic”
Click here for Christina’s video “Dirty”
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"Ashley Tisdale." Yahoo! TV Canada . 15 Aug 2007. Yahoo! Canada Co.. 16 Jan 2008 http://l.yimg.com/img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/site/21/11/0000042111_20070815142659.jpg. "Ashley Tisdale and Brenda Song." HSM. 01 Jan 2008. 16 Jan 2008 http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/walt_disney/the_incredibles/_group_photos/brenda_song22.jpg.

Photo Illustration by Michelle Leng

"Ashley Tisdale : He Said, She Said." Music Downloads. 28 Nov 2007. 16 Jan 2008 http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8526/sshot2ol9.png.

"Ashley Tisdale : He Said, She Said." HSM is Perfect. 30 Dec 2007. 16 Jan 2008 http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/Ashley-Tisdale-wb12.jpg.

"Ashley Tisdale." Blogger.com. 20 Sep 2007. 16 Jan 2008 http://poderosa-ashley.blogspot.com/2007/09/aqui-ashley-como-capa-da-revista-da.html.

Celebrity Juice, Not from Concentrate

Twenty nine year old Mario Armando Lavadeira Jr, also known as Perez Hilton, is the renowned celebrity blogger that everyone loves to hate. He was born Miami Florida, but moved to LA to be an actor. When that failed he went into journalism at the gossip rag Star where he wrote for the celebrity gossip column Pagesix. He then went off to the internet to start his own gossip blog called Pagesixsixsix. After being named "Hollywood’s Most Hated Website", receiving death threats and lawsuits, Mario made a new gossip blog and give himself a new online identity; Perez Hilton.

After being up for less then three years http://www.perezhilton.com/ gets about 5 million hits a day. On the website you'll see everything from top celebrities such as Britney Spears getting either praised or ragged on to different everyday stories you hear in the news. On a recent interview on The View, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd sat down with Perez and got the dirt on his website. Perez claimed that the reason he writes what he does is that he wants to push the envelope and he wants to get people talking. He's all about equalizing and normalizing. "Why should I not report about Lance Bass and his boyfriend, the same way that US Weekly reports about Jessica Simpson and who she’s dating?" says Perez. He wants people to know what's really going on in celebrity news, not just what celebrities' reps want the media to know. In the interview Sherri asks Perez where he got his information and he claimed that everything that is coming from his sources are 100% true and everything else he gets from magazines and other sources. So can you really take in what he says to be true or is it just because it’s from Perez Hilton it has to be true? Well on the website Askmen.com, Perez claims “I get stories because people know that I will never lie or make things up or pay for information,” he says. “I apply a journalistic standard to my work.” After reading this you kind of get a notion that he is doing his job as a blogger, he’s not trying to sugarcoat things or make them worse, he’s telling it how it is. But this causes alot of controversy with the public and the celebrities on the site. Is he reporting celebrity gossip or is he just being rude?

In the interview on The View, Elisabeth points out that on the site there are a group of celebrities that Perez praises and a group that he cuts up weekly. Is that fair? Should he be able to get away with writing the things he does? I personally think that people love what he does and if they didn’t he wouldn’t be getting 5 million hits a day. I think he gets praised for writing things no one else has the guts to say and people love that about him. To be blunt Perez Hilton gets paid to kiss and kick celebrity ass.

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"Tight headshot of celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton.." ABC News. 23 Apr 2007. ABC. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200704/r139160_476527.jpg.

"Perez Hilton." AskMen.com. IGN Entertainment Inc.. 16 Jan 2008 http://ca.askmen.com/men/business_politics_60/87_perez_hilton.html.

"Perez Hilton." PerezHilton.com. 2008. PerezHilton.com. 16 Jan 2008 http://perezhilton.com/.

Fulla vs Barbie

Fulla is the Muslim version of the original doll we know as Barbie and was produced by NewBoy Design Studio. She is extremely popular in places such as Saudi Arabia and in Muslim homes. In a toy-outlet in central Damascus, Fulla is out selling Barbie 40 - 1. NewBoy has sold 1.5 million Fulla dolls since November 2003, which shows just how popular Fulla is becoming. You can now buy Fulla clothes, Fulla CD player or even a pink Fulla bicycle. Fulla has become much more popular and will probably continue to grow with the upcoming Doctor Fulla and Teacher Fulla.

The purpose of Fulla was to bring a more cultural view to the average Barbie. By doing so not only is Barbie being sold, but to those families who would not buy their children Barbie, can buy them the doll Fulla. And when a lot of people buy Fulla many people are benefiting from this, especially NewBoy Design Studio. When creating this doll, NewBoy did a lot of work to create something that would appeal to one ethnic group, but could also apply to many others. They wanted to show that Barbie doesn’t always have to be skinny, have blonde hair, blue eyes, big boobs, and white skin to be considered pretty. Fulla on the other hand has darker skin, auburn eyes and covered with a abaya and is still equally as gorgeous. This is a great message for girls of this ethnic diversity. This is why NewBoy made Muslim girls the target audience so not only the Caucasian girls can see beauty through a doll, but so can Muslim girls.

Just like Barbie, Fulla has come out with a video ad of the doll. In the Fulla video you can see some of the aspects that she does that makes her different from Barbie such as the praying and the abaya that she wears out in public, but is taken off in the house. You can also see the obvious language difference between each video. In the Barbie video you see Barbie wearing much more skimpy clothing as well as the young girls in the video. You can really see a huge cultural difference between the two dolls.

Barbie commercial



Fulla commercial



I personally think we should keep going with this idea and not only make Fulla dolls, but other dolls of other ethnic groups and religions. I think it would be a really good profit and a good self-image boost for young girls of other religions and ethnic groups.

PLUS!

Click here to check out the very first Barbie commercial from 1959! Notice the difference in music, clothing and price of the doll and commercial.

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"Barbie...or really a Baddie?." Telegraph.co.uk. 29 June 2007. irPublish. 16 Jan 2008 http://my.telegraph.co.uk/VirtualContent/93583/20070629113745.jpg.

"Fulla, la Barbie musulmane." Such a Blog. 13 Apr 2006. Such a Blog. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.suchablog.com/images/2006-avril/fulla-gd.jpg.

MacKinnon, Mark. Barbie Meets her Muslim Match." The Globe and Mail [Damascus]27 Oct 2005: A21.

Living in a Post-9/11 World

In the year 2001 I was in the 5th grade at Winona Public School. On September 11th I don’t remember much that went on at school, but I do remember when I got home my parents were really upset. They explained to me what happened and I didn’t really understand at first. I mean how can a group of people get a hold of 4 different planes and crash them into 4 very important places in the United States? It just didn’t make sense to me at the time. To make things worse my mom told me that my cousins were visiting New York City that very day. It really scared me to think that I could loose my family members for something they had nothing to do with. We finally heard from them and it turned out that they were fine. It was a huge relief to know that they were OK. The next day at school I remember talking about it before we went inside. I was talking about how it kind of made me mad that all that was on TV the night before was news. After I finally got the whole story I felt bad for getting mad. At school I remember the grade 7 and 8’s were much more upset about it then us. This made me think about how serious it all really was and how this was going to change everything that goes on in not only the United States, but also Canada and the places in the Middle East. What happened on Sept. 11th changed people views on the world as we know it. Racial profiling is a huge thing ever since Sept. 11th. People just assume things of people of a Muslim religion that shouldn’t be assumed. People don’t want to be racially profiling people but now it just seems like an expected thing. People may not be racist, but they may be making their choice out of fear. Fear has taken over many people’s views and has clouded their judgment.

In the song “Where Were You” by Alan Jackson he writes a line, “I watch CNN but I’m not to sure I can tell the difference in Iraq and Iran.” I have to be honest, neither do I. I think that CNN along with many other news channels, want to keep the world entertained so they play what the people want to see. They don’t play things like the difference between Iraq and Iran because people don’t find that interesting. They want to be informed while still being entertained, not informed and bored. I personally have to agree with what Brittany and Cassidy had to say about just leaving people alone. I think people just get bored of their own lives so they feel the need to find flaws in other peoples work. Alan was just writing a song that meant a lot to him and it truly came from his heart. Just because the target audience is Christian adults doesn’t mean that average adults of any age or religion cant enjoy the song and take out of it the meaning as anyone else would. You could rally take any line out of the song such as “ did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble, and sob for the ones left below” and apply that to anyone, it doesn’t really have to only apply to Christian Adults. I think that this song is a great song and it really shows how one man can reach the hearts of so many.




Seven Days in September is a documentary of live footage taken by average people and filmmakers of the tragedy in New York City. When watching this, there was a man that said “ This is like a sick f****** movie”. When looking back on that day it really is like a movie. You’d never expect something lie this to happen one day out of the blue, but it did. So many lives were saved yet so many lives were lost. Firefighters and cops risked their lives to try and save people just like how the movies show. When watching movies with major disasters, people never really think that that could actually happen in real life, but after September 11th, people aren’t so skeptical.

When watching the trailers for both United 93 and World Trade Center I had mixed feelings about both. After watching each of the movies. I would have to say I really only had mixed feelings about World Trade Center. I think they were both produced well, but Universal Studios did a better job with United 93 then Paramount Pictures did with World Trade Center. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with who produced it, but more with why. After watching both I would have to say that United 93 was produced to inform people and educate them on what exactly happened that day, but as for World Trade Center I think it was made more to entertain. You can some what tell by the fact that United 93 used no famous people or actors, but World Trade Center features big names such as, Nicholas Cage, Jay Hernandez and Michael Pena. Each movie shows a different part of what happened that day. Both movies talk about the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight United 93. The only thing is, is that you can take the story line of World Trade Center and apply it to any other major disaster and still have a big hit. Two men, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno are trapped under immense rubble and their families have no idea what’s going on. The movie is based on a true story but I honestly believe they could have used a different disaster and still would have had the same message of courage. You could say they were taking the World Trade Center story and using it to get people to come watch the movie. When people see the film name they assume it’s about what happened that day, but it’s really about the two men and their family. The movie hardly informs people of the details of what really happened that day in New York City.

World Trade Center Trailer


United 93 Trailer


What I really enjoyed about United 93 was the fact that it showed true courage and patriotism. It shows the story of a group of American people standing together as one to try and stop what the main purpose of the hijack was. It wasn’t your classic “Hollywood courage” when you only see what the firefighters or cops or important people do, you got to see what average everyday people would do for their country. Both movies use courage, patriotism, fear, etc, to create a feeling in people’s hearts and minds that they should go watch these movies. It makes each movie’s message more attractive and believable.

Americans, Canadians and everybody who was affected by 911 would definitely be the target audience for this movie. We know this because the producers chose two significantly sad tragedies that affected all of those people. The message of both these movies was simply to tell you what happened in New York City on September 11, 2001. I completely agree with the message of both movies, just not why World Trade Center was made.

In a trailer promoting the new Spiderman 3 movie there was a scene that involved a helicopter getting caught in a web spun between the Twin Towers. This trailer was quickly removed after 911 due to the fact that they were gone. It didn’t really make sense to show a movie that millions of people were going to see and show the twin towers standing there untouched. It would bring back horrible memories that many people tried very hard to push away. I think it was very smart to pull the trailer due to that very fact. September 11, 2001 was a very hard time for people and I think whenever it gets reintroduced it stirs up unwanted feelings. I think that whatever happened in the past should stay there and that we should look forward to the future.



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"The World Trade Center." 9-11 Research. 26 Mar 2007. 911Research.WTC7.net . 16 Jan 2008 http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/info/docs/twin_towers1.jpg.

"Is Alan Jackson's 9-11 song touching or tacky?." CNN.com. 07 Mar 2002. Cable News Network LP, LLLP. 16 Jan 2008 http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/ew.hot.jackson/.

Gwen's Controversial Career Choice

Love, Angel, Music and Baby, the names of the four girls that you will see following around Gwen Stefani on a regular basis. You see them in music videos, at award shows, on TV, but do you ever hear them speak? Do you know what they sound like? Probably not. Gwen Stefani has hired these girls to help promote her new perfume, clothing line and CD, but the catch is, is that they are all of an Asian decent. So the issue lies in four Asian girls following a Caucasian girl around and not being able to talk, Exploitation or Adaptation?

When it comes to the matter of Gwen Stefani’s career choice it has caused much controversy in the media and in today’s society. There are many people who agree with what she’s doing, “I don’t see what the big deal is? What’s offensive about it? It’s just for fun” and there are some who think she’s being disrespectful, “ I used to think Gwen was cool, but now as an Asian I’m really offended by her stupid actions”. As one can see the audiences are split. As for myself, I really don’t think Gwen is doing anything wrong. Did she break the law? No. Is she abusing her rights as it states on the contract? No. So what do these people all have against her? The reason Gwen hired these 4 girls was to promote her “Harajuku culture” inspired perfume, clothing line and CD all labeled L.A.M.B. That was the only reason why she named these four girls the way she did; she wanted publicity. She wanted people to hear “L.A.M.B. or Love, Angel, Music, Baby” and to say, “Hey isn’t that Gwen Stefani’s products?” She wanted people to know why she hired these girls to do what they are doing. Hiring these four girls didn’t have anything to do with being famous and having the money to make people follow you around, it was about bringing these girls’ culture and making it the main inspiration of Gwen’s products. Gwen’s clothing line is based on the style that appears in the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan Gwen wanted to bring that style into her clothing line and she wanted to really bring out the cultural side of it. She not only brings out the culture in her clothes but also in her songs. In the song dedicated to the 4 girls called “Harajuku Girls” she describes the streets of where the style essentially comes from.

“ Yoji Yamamoto, I'm hanging with the locals
Where the catwalk got its claws, all you fashion know-it-alls
With your underground malls in the world of Harajuku
Putting on a show, when you dress up in your clothes
Wild hair color and cell phones
Your accessories are dead on ”

Gwen may not be taking the exact style from the Harajuku clothes, but she’s trying to bring some of the unique qualities out into her own clothing line. The fact that she has 4 Asian women practically being spoke persons for her clothing line keeps the media interested, which keeps her producers happy. Love, Angel, Music, and Baby are bringing a lot of media attention to Gwen, her new products as well as her image. They’re now making dolls of each of the girls and of Gwen as well, which means just because kids wont listen to her songs they can still buy the toys. Gwen Stefani is not only reaching out to teenagers and young adults, but she’s also getting her products to suit the interest of the younger generation. This makes it easier for the media and some society to look at the girls and see them as advertisements or models for Gwen’s products. These girls are not just ads for Gwen; they are her way of bringing out Asian culture in American society. How many Asian women do you see on TV or movies on a regular basis? I bet not as many as you do Caucasian women. Asian women don’t get near as much publicity as Caucasian women do. “I am so sick of not existing, that I would settle for following any white person around with an umbrella just so I could say I was there”, says Margaret Cho, Asian-American comedian. This comment coming from a woman of Asian decent should paint a picture for what people in our society should really consider about in this whole situation. Gwen Stefani is not exploiting these four girls, she taking something from their background and their culture and bringing it into ours. Yes, they do follow her around everywhere, but to just see more then a few faces of the Asian decent is better then having none at all. In the end, Gwen Stefani has done nothing wrong and instead of being attacked, she should be thanked for being one of the few who is trying to bring a different culture into our own.

Watch Gwen's "Harajuku Girls" video here

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