The Black Bart Simpson and MTV

The two reading assignments we had both revealed how television has had lasting effects on our society. The first reading “The Black Bart Simpson: Appropriation and Revitalization in Commodity Culture” by Peter Parisi talks about the obsession of “black Bart Simpson” t-shirts in the black community during the summer of 1990. The shirts acted as billboards and personal ads for the people wearing the shirts with slogans such as “it’s cool being black” or “we are all brothers and sisters so live in unity, love and peace”. However even though the “black Bart” t-shirts reflected peoples attitude and was a phenomenon that swept through the entire country many people both of white and black race disapproved of Bart’s underachieving character. In a time when dropout rates were low, parents, teachers, and schools did not want the Bart character that curses and doesn’t complete homework to be a national icon for young children. Even young seven year old children were quoted saying “You can’t learn anything from that! You don’t learn you’re A-B-C’s!” Children should instead be looking up to iconic figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

The second reading “The Next Plague: MTV’s Sexual Objectification of girls and Why it Must be Stopped” by Maribeth Theroux explains that through reality shows such as “Next and “The real World” women are beginning to be viewed as objects in which they are only being viewed for their sexuality. Women are looking to these shows understand what it is like to be women and know what role they play in society and by watching shows such as “Next” they are only learning to sexual objects since that is how other women are portrayed on television. The author also reveals that feminism in America has to be dead since women not only view these programs, but they accept what they see and act the same way in their daily lives.

Television definitely has an effect on our society, but we must learn that what we see on television, even on reality shows is mostly fake and set-up to send a particular message. However we should not base our lives off these messages because they change us into people that we don’t try to be. People that portray Bart Simpson character or women that sexually objectify themselves because of what they see on television are doing in the wrong direction. We should not look towards television to direct our lives, we should act the way we are.

World is a Text 119-125

Who would rather read a long boring book when I can watch my favorite show or favorite sports team in action? However this chapter in a World is A Text takes a negative spin on television and actually presents reasons to why reading a text offers more structure than a television program. First of all just as the text said, a book has an author, someone that can take credit and ownership of what they have done, when I am watching a movie or television show I have no idea who to give credit to. The book also makes another good point that I can physically connect with a book because it can be held in my hands and carried with me wherever I go. However why would I want to carry around a two hundred page book, when I could stretch my feet out and watch television. The book also goes into detail that even though we may think television is free, when you add up the cost for television itself plus the monthly subscription it is actually much cheaper to just own a library card and check out a book.
This chapter also goes into that a book has an intended audience but television doesn’t because it could be intended for anyone. I also disagree with this because to me if I am watching a show I already know who it is intended for. If I see “SpongeBob” a cartoon show then I know it is for children but if “House” is on then I know it is intended for adults. To me the reason why television is so popular even though it is costly and doesn’t offer the same physical attachment as a book does is simply because people do not like reading two hundred pages book when they could easily watch a show on the TV. Television also attracts us in society because it is visual, we can see what’s taking place such as the explosions, car chases, love and drama. When reading a book the reader has to visualize those situations and events inside their minds.

World is a Text 1-21

I cannot lie when I say this chapter was boring and difficult just to finish. However it does offer some very interesting points. From the beginning you can tell that this book is trying to develop the readers reading skills. It wants to teach the reader that books and stories are not the only objects that can be read, but anything that we encounter throughout our daily lives can have some kind of meaning. In addition the book also wants the reader to develop a deeper and more critical thought process on objects. Instead of reading an object and understanding its simple meaning the book tries teaching how that object can relate to a bigger picture such as the world. Furthermore we may not realize it but we do a lot more reading than we realize each day. When we watch television, listen to a song, or view other people we usually attach some meaning to it and during the process did not even recognize we were reading it.

The one subject I am able to relate to is "The Semiotic Situation"(Or the Moving Text) which is when we try to make sense of our surroundings. When I was in high school I played basketball for the school team and as one of the shorter and faster guys on the team I played the position of point guard. As the point guard it was my responsibility to run the offense and call the plays on each possession. However if I was going to call the plays that would work I had to know how the opposing defense was playing our team and I did this my reading the players on the other team. I had to know if the defense was in man or zone and if it was zone what kind of zone it was. I can still remember my coach yelling at me that making the right call, finding open guys and generating points laid completely on my shoulders by the success or failure I had reading the opposing defense.

How I got my name

When my mother was pregnant with me she decided from the start to not have an ultrasound and have the whole pregnancy be a surprise. However she had a strong feeling inside of her that I was going to be a girl, therefore an entire room filled with girlish toys, clothes and colors was setup for the arriving baby. Even family members and close friends had bought all these gifts for a baby girl. Then when she gave birth and discovered I was boy not only was my mother in shock but they had no ideas for a name. Both my mom and dad liked different names and could not decide what to name me. So they decided to put the two names into a hat, and the one they drew would ultimately be my name. Essam was the name drawn out of the hat and that was how I was named.