Alright a couple days ago I posted my paper about Advertising for my Sociology class. Now I am going to post my second research paper about Women's Rights to see if I can get a little feedback about it. Well here you go.....

Women’s Rights

 

                How far have women really come since 1848 for women’s rights? Are there certain things that still need to be focused on regarding gender equality? This paper will discuss how women have been fighting to change women’s rights and what still needs to be changed as far as making sure there is equality between sexes. Also this essay will be talking about gender affects many aspects of people daily lives and if these certain things are helping women move forward with equality or if they are holding them back. There are a lot of equalities between men and women but there are still places in society that need to be changed for the better.

            The first thing that will be talked about is basic feminine theory and the different type of feminist there are to help give a understanding as to who is making changes for the greater good of women’s rights. According to Society: the Basics, written by John J. Macionis “feminism is support of social equality for women and men, in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.” What that means is that feminist really doesn’t want one sex to be more highly valued then the other. The feminist wants equality for both sexes. (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) Macionis says that feminist believe in 5 basic principles: to take action to increase equality, to expand human choice, to eliminate gender stratification, to end sexual violence and to promote sexual freedom. (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) These five ideas are not only to help women gain equality it is for both sexes to be more equal. The ideas that are listed above do not hurt women’s rights they are trying to promote them to help women gain equality also.

            To say that all feminist want the same thing is true in the most part but depending on the type it would show you how far they want the equality of men and women to go. Macionis describes three types of feminism in his book. They are liberal feminism, socialist feminism and radical feminism. (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) He describes the liberal feminist as wanting to follow basic society organization but they want to expand on women’s rights and opportunities. He describes the socialist feminist as wanting to change society through a social revolution ending all “domestic slavery.” Last he describes the radical feminist who wants to end the family system all together by eliminating gender. (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) The three different types of feminism described all want change and more equality they just believe in different way of going about to achieve it.

            Women’s rights all started with feminist looking for change. Next will be described some of the key events that have help women’s rights today. The Post and Courier wrote an article called “The women's rights movement: A timeline of significant events” in the article are some key years that have been for women’s rights. In the year 1848 five women made history by organizing a two day convention held in Seneca Falls, NY. (Courier, 2012)By organizing the event to talk about women’s rights they started the women’s rights movement. A few years later in 1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (two of the women involved in the Seneca Falls convention) established the National Women’s Suffrage Association. (Courier, 2012)In 1913 Alice Paul and Lucy Burns started trying to get women the right to vote but the 19^th amendment wasn’t passed until 1920 which made it legal for women to vote. (Courier, 2012)A little bit latter in 1963 congress started to pass a few acts for women in the work place. In 1963 congress passed the Equal Pay Act which requires equal pay regardless of sex, race or national origin. (Courier, 2012) In 1964 congress passed another act, the Civil Rights Act which makes employee discrimination illegal. (Courier, 2012)A few years later congress passed another act in 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which prevents discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. (Courier, 2012) It wasn’t until 1993 that the Family and Medical Leave Act were passed by congress which gives women time off of work after they give birth. (Courier, 2012) In 1994 is when the Violence against Women Act was passed by congress. (Courier, 2012) The Violence against Women Act provides funds for victims of rape and domestic violence. It was the most progressive act in nearly two decades. The most recent event was in 2009 when President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act which allows someone to file a complaint with the government if they believe their pay is not equal with someone that is doing the same thing. (Courier, 2012)All of these events have moved equality forward for women. It is important to know that there are still things that can be changed to help create more equality between sexes.

            Continuing on will are a few different ways feminist theories looking at sexuality and gender and if these help or hurt women’s rights. Macionis in his book Society: the Basics describes how the feminist theory views sexuality. The feminist theory says that sexuality is a part of social inequality. (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) How that relates to women’s rights is that sexuality is going to put holds on how people will perceive you based on your sexuality. That is going to hurt women’s right because if people are brought up to believe that one sex is greater than the other they might pass that same belief on to their child and so. Next will be how feminist theory views deviance and gender. Macionis says “Research confirms an important truth: Whether people define a situation as deviant-and, if they do, who in the situation is defined as deviant-depends on the sex of both the audience and the actors.” (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) That relates to women’s rights because it tells that certain things will be judged based on your sex by the people that are judging you if you committed a crime. That doesn’t help women’s right because it does mean that there are still inequalities in the justice system.

            Moving on to how gender roles have affected women’s rights in either a positive or negative way. Macionis says “Gender roles (also known as sex roles) are attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex.” (Macionis, 2009,2011,2013) The types of areas that gender roles affect are family, schooling, media and the workplace. From when we are born there are all ready set standards that girls and boys are suppose to follow. As we get older we are still meant to follow these standards that even lead over into adult hood. These gender roles have been affecting women’s rights because if we are raised to believe that one sex is greater than the other then it will be hard to change the inequality between the two sexes.

            Therefore one of the last things that affect women’s rights is all the people that are still opposed to the fact that there should be equality between sexes. T. D. Rozairo and H. Zheng wrote a article called “11 Myths and Facts about Feminism.” One of the things that they talk about in their article is “There are still many inequalities in society’s perception of the roles of men and women. We want to build a world in which no person, because of their gender, must curtail their hopes and dreams.” (T. De Rozario, 2010)They say that because there are still people how think that women should stay home and men should go to work. That hurts feminism and women’s rights because women should be able to go out and achieve their goals just as must as men.

             In conclusion to what is helping women’s rights move forward and what is keep women’s rights  on the back burner is society. It is people still thinking that women should be at home instead of equally achieving in the workforce. But with change and feminist pushing forward with what they believe there can eventually be equality between sexes. It may take a while before things are completely equal but with enough work it will happen.

 

Bibliography

Courier, T. P. (2012, March 9). The women's rights movement: A timeline of significant events. Retrieved from The Post and Courier: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20090306/PC1208/303069957

Macionis, J. J. (2009,2011,2013). Society: The Basics. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.

T. De Rozario, Z. H. (2010, Febuary 26). 11 Myths and Facts about Feminism. Retrieved from Association of Women for Action and Research: http://www.aware.org.sg/2010/02/myths/

Advertising

I recently wrote a paper for my sociology class about advertising. I wanted to share it to see if I could get some feed back about it. Here it is....

 

Advertising: Influence on Society

By:Nichole Bennett

How influential is advertising to people when they are exposed to it every day? When people look at advertisement whether it be on TV, radio, internet or even in magazines they influence people into buying certain products.  They can influence people by making them think that if they buy a certain product it can make the happier person, a more attractive person and even a better person. Kids are being influenced at an even younger age than ever before. According to an article Parents Buy, but Kids Rule, kids are being influenced 24/7by advertising. They are seeing 20,000-40,000 articles a year. (Evans, 2003)That is a lot of advertising going into influential young minds. This paper will describe 10 advertisements and how society is influenced by the advertisements. Some of the ads will include Coca-Cola, Axe cologne, Volkswagen and McDonalds. This essay will describe the influence the ads have on society and how people perceive them.

The first advertisement that is going to be talked about is a print ad about Playstation. The ad is the Playstation controller buttons displayed on the side of a mountain side like the Hollywood sign. The ad is based off of an iconic American symbol. A symbol according to Society: the Basics written by John J. Macionis is “anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.” They used the Hollywood sign to catch the audience’s attention as well as using bright colors. Playstation also added a slogan in the ad saying “Live in your world, Play in ours.” This means to the audience that if you purchase their product you will be able to escape reality and go into a world that they create for you. It is shown mostly in video game magazines so the audience that this ad is for is men. Men perceive this ad more openly because they can relate to the controller buttons and remind them that they can step into an alternate reality at the click of a button.  The ad does influence men to go out and purchase the Playstation products like the company intended.

The second ad that will be discussed in relation to how society perceives it is the Axe Anarchy print ad. It is a based on all nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is communication using body movements, gestures and facial expressions rather than speech. (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) The ad is an attractive man that is dressed as a welder and a pretty woman dressed in a nice dress and high heels. He is holding a blow torch and she is holding a bag of fireworks suggesting that they are going to create sparks together from the scents they are wearing from axe. The slogan for this ad is “Unleash the chaos.” That means that once they meet they will in fact ignite the bag full of fireworks creating the chaos described. This ad is influencing society through sexual appeal to both men and women. It is showing that people will be more attracted to you if you purchase their product. People will go out to buy the product making them feel that they are more sexually attractive to people.

The third ad that will be talked about is a Nikon S60 camera print ad. When describing this advertisement it has a humor aspect that is very apparent.  The ad is of the camera screen pointed to a man getting his picture taken next to a big tree. The humor in the ad is that man doesn’t see the other faces in the tree but the camera picks them up. The slogan for this ad says “The Nikon S60 can detect up to 12 faces.” According to Macionis “humor arises from the contradictions, ambiguities, and double meanings found in differing definitions of the same situation.” (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) This applies to the ad because people will see the humor in the ad and relate to the comical affect of the ad. That is how people will react to the ad. They will remember the humor of the ad when they go and look for a camera and remember that it has a feature that they want. That was Nikons intention so they will buy their product.

The fourth ad that will be talked about is a print ad about Play-Doh. The ad is very simple to describe. It is a brightly colored pink and lime green hatchet. The slogan for the ad says “safe no matter what you make.” That suggests that the ad is not only aimed at children but also towards their parents. The reason why it’s aimed toward parents also is because it needs to show the parent that the product is safe for their child. Macionis suggests that children are taught their families values and skills through what their parents use to make the child a well adjusted person. (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) Play-Doh is suggesting that if a parent purchases their product the child can develop their skills in a safe environment. That is going to be well received by parents because they always want the best for their children.

The fifth ad that will be discussed is a ad for Coca-Cola. The ad is print that was run through many different magazines. The ad is of three glass bottles of Coca-Cola that demonstrate the three of the stages that movies have gone through. The bottles start out as black and white, then move to color and finally into 3-D. It has the slogan “125 years at the movies.” That shows people that Coca-Cola is a product that has been through the many changes that culture goes through but Coca-Cola has remained the same. Coca-Cola is considered to be material culture. Material culture defined by Macionis is “the physical things created by members of society…” (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) Coca-Cola is part of American culture. This ad shows the audience that Coca-Cola is a dependable product that they can get anywhere because Coca-Cola will go through the changes culture goes through but it will remain the same.

The sixth ad that will be discussed is the TV ad that is about the New 2012 Dodge Dart. The TV ad is a very high paced ad. It goes through the process of how the inventor of the car went into making the Dodge Dart. The music that plays in the background is very fast paced to catch and keep the audience’s attention. The ad is geared more toward men with the way the advertisement goes on about describing the way the car is made such as the speed and the high tech features of the car. The slogan for the TV ad is “How to change cars forever.” This as is shows one of the ways that culture is changing. Macionis say “invention, the process of creating new cultural elements.” (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) This ad is showing how the invention of this car will help shape culture. People will see the ad as if they buy the car they will be advancing with technology which will help with the changing culture.

 Coca-Cola has many famous TV ads that people can relate to. The seventh ad that will be talked about is a Diet Coke ad that is played on TV. The description of the ad starts off with a man sitting in traffic which people can relate to because it’s something everyone has been through. The ad then goes into a frame of the diet coke can and a man reaching for it. The man then takes a sip of the diet coke and then he slowly starts to move forward in traffic.  The slogan at the beginning of the ad is “a little drive, for the ride to work.” And at the end of the TV ad it says “Stay extraordinary. Diet Coke.” This slogan says to people that you can drink diet coke to make your life a little bit more extraordinary. The ad is trying to sell diet coke in a way that will make people think that it will start their mornings off better than if they didn’t have diet coke.

                The eighth TV ad that will be discussed is an ad put out by McDonalds. The description of the ad starts with the McDonalds slogan “I’m lovin it”. It then zooms in on a man’s face he seems to be staring at someone. The camera then focuses on a woman with music that sounds like they are falling for each other. The camera goes between the two of them a couple times with the man in the back ground saying “chicken piece nuggets”. Then the screen is now focused on the man and an older man steps out from behind him. The older gentlemen says “Lovely girl. Caught your eye. Looks like the 20 piece nugget is only 4.99. Go over and share them. The conversation begins.” The younger man says “That’s pretty smart.” Then the older man says “I’ve been around.” The screen the goes to a screen that shows some of the food that is offered at McDonalds. Then the end shot is the two younger people sitting at a table enjoying a 20 piece chicken nugget meal.  Then it shows “I’m lovin it.” The McDonalds ad is trying to sell both items off of the menu as well as trying to sell the audience the idea of happiness if they purchase the items. People will relate to the ad because they want to be able to find the happiness that McDonalds is trying to show and they also want a meal for a deal which McDonalds is also selling.

                The ninth TV ad is a Volkswagen commercial. The description is the ad starting with a little darth vader walking down a hallway. It also has the signature star wars song associated with darth vader. First the mini vader starts to try and use the force to more the workout machine. Then he tries to move his dog. He then tries to move the washer and dryer machine. He then makes his way into his sister’s room and tries to move her baby doll. Then he keeps trying to move the dog by following it around the house. Then his mom makes him a sandwich that she moves toward him while he tries to use the force. Then the Volkswagen pulls into the driveway. His dad gets out of the car. The boy seems to be running toward him but he really is running toward the car. He starts to use his force and the car starts to run. It makes it seem like the little vader started the car but really his dad had started the car from inside with his keys. The end screen says “the all-new 2012 Passat.” Then the Volkswagen logo with “Das Auto” underneath it. This ad is very relatable to people because of the fact that it was referencing a very recognizable character from a popular movie franchise. This ad is also has a sense of eurocentrism. Macionis says that “eurocentrism is the dominance of European culture patterns.” (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) The fact that the ad uses the words “Das Auto” in it also shows that it has a European influence. There are many reason why this commercial was so popular was because it was so relatable to the people that watched it. Volkswagen succeeded in making a commercial that would be likeable enough to have people remember the product and want to go out and buy the Passat.

                The tenth and the last TV ad that will be discussed is a Gillette ad. The description of the ad starts with the first scene. It is a shot of Adrian Brody getting ready for the day. It shows him shaving with the razor that says “styler”. Then the screen goes to Gael Garcia Bernal getting ready. It shows him using the same razor to get ready.  Then it goes to André 3000 getting ready. It also shows him using the same razor to get ready. Then all three of them start to walk down the street together. It says they are “masters of style”. Then it goes into different types of razors that it works as. Then the ad shows three women walking by staring at them and the men look back at them. Then it goes on saying the name of the razor and then the slogan is “Gillette. The best a man can get.” This ad is a very sexual ad. It shows men that they can look like the famous actors if they use that brand of razor to get ready which will in turn get women to be attracted to them. People will perceive this ad in a different way. Macionis says “men focus on the product being advertised and women often focus on the men.” (Macionis, 2013, 2011, 2009) Gillette uses that aspect very effectively by concentrating on the way people focus on different aspects of TV ads causing people to purchase the product based on the ad.

                Advertising is a very important way to sell products to people. Companies will spend millions of dollars to play an ad during the Super Bowl just because it will be viewed by millions of people.  People are very influential and based on the ads that were described companies can tailor ads based on the consumers needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Evans, D. &. (2003). PARENTS BUY, BUT KIDS RULE. Asia's Media & Marketing Newspaper, 22-23.

Macionis, J. J. (2013, 2011, 2009). Socciety: The Basics. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.



Puppy Love

Ok so I was going to write about some more of my adventures in Germany but I have decided to write about something really strange….My dog.

 

My dog Pazoozoo (that’s right his name is Pazoozoo) he likes to do the strangest thing that I have ever seen. He loves to cuddle with me and my husband when we sleep but that is not the issue. Its him wanting to be under the blanket all the time. He loves to be under the blanket. He always seems to find his way under the blanket. When we wake up in the morning to get ready for work he is under the blanket. When I am done making the bed he has found a way to get under the blanket from jumping up from the side of the bed to get under the blanket. He is under there no matter how hot it is. There was one day that me and my husband were sleeping with just the sheet but yet Pazoozoo still wanted to sleep under the blanket at the foot of the bed. We have to be careful when sitting on the bed because sometimes he is under the blanket and we don’t want to squish him.

 

So I was wondering if anyone else has a dog that loves to be under the blankets no matter what? We don’t mind it we were just wondering why he is doing this silly thing.

Cruise Outfit

I know that I said I wasnt goint to post another fashion blog until Tuesday next week but I picked my formal dress for the cruise I am going on. Its a beautiful chiffon red heart cut dress. I am so excited to wear this on my cruise in october. If you love this dress as much as I do you can pick it up at www.Milanoo.com. This dress is also really a great deal. With shipping and handling the total came to around $140.00 and it should be here within two weeks. I am so excited. I cant wait.

Cruise Outfit by nicholebennett featuring plastic jewelry

Hunger Games Book Review



The Hunger Games is a fiction novel that takes place in the future of America. It is divided into different section called districts. Each year the district must place one boy and one girl into what they call The Hunger Games, which is a fight to the death for the young people going in. The reason they have to do that is because the capitol wants to make sure they know who is in charge. The main character of the book is a girl Katniss Everdeen. Her little sister is picked for the Hunger Games but Katniss can’t let her go in, so she volunteers to take her place. The rest of the novel tells the story of how Katniss gets ready for the Hunger Games and how she tries to stay alive during the Hunger Games.

 

The Hunger Games is a wonderful book. It definitely keeps you turning pages and you so don’t want to put it down. You’ll end up reading this book in every free moment that you have. This book has everything people could want in a book. It has action, adventure and even a romantic element in the story. The author keeps you attention throughout the story. Suzanne Collins the author wrote a wonderful novel that captured my undivided attention as well as many other people. It is such a great book, it created a vivid story for the reader to follow. It was a great read and I definitely recommend this book for people that want to step out of their own lives and into a world that gets your heart racing.

 

You can purchase The Hunger Games in many places but I recommend you Amazon Kindle because then you can buy the whole wonderful series at once.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Games-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004XJRQUQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347994249&sr=8-1&keywords=hunger+games+trilogy+kindle

Light outdoor

So I have decided that I want to start kind of like a schedule with posting my blogs. I am making Mondays fashion day. I have been using a great site www.Polyvore.com to put together really cute outfits that are my style. So the first outfit that I am going to write about is what I called Light Outdoor. It starts with a really cute white lace tee with a dark wash skinny jean. The jacket that goes with this cute pair is a tan double breasted military jacket. The shoes are a tan suede wedge. To top off the whole outfit is a super cute white ruffle clutch. All of the links to the pieces to the outfits can be clicked on to go and look at them. So that’s it for Fashion Mondays. Tomorrow I’m going to review a book that I loved.  

Light outdoor by nicholebennett featuring wedge boots

Well for my first official blog post I am going to start about my traveling and life living in Europe. To start off I moved to Germany in January 2009 because my husband is in the US Air force. We were stationed there for the next three and a half years. We have traveled to many places in Europe and we absolutely loved every minute of it.

            Our first adventure didn’t really come until about a month after we moved there. It was Valentine’s day 2009 that we decided that it was time to become super adventurous. We decided that we wanted to do a tour with RTT travel. They are a travel company that works on the base that we were stationed at. They set up tours for military families. Anyways the tour we decided to take on Valentine’s Day was a tour to Castles of the Rhine River.

            Starting out we left early in the morning from the gas station that was close to our house. The parking there confused us because of the fact it was our first trip with RTT travel and also that we didn’t want our car towed because we didn’t park in the right area. After we figured out the parking situation we got on the bus to head toward the castles.

            When we arrived in the area we first went into a wine and schnapps tasting. Since we were both so young it was our first ever tasting. The drinks there were really good. We actually ended up buying a bottle of peach schnapps to take home with us. (It didn’t last long.) After that we headed up towards the castle. The roads in Germany are usually pretty small to begin with but the tiny side road that lead up to the castle made me so nervous that I didn’t think that we were going to go up it. When we got up the steep tiny hill we were finally at the castle.

            The castle that we went to is called Burg Reichenstein. It was our first castle. It was beautiful on the outside. It was everything I thought a castle would be. The inside was great. The walls were full of art and antlers. There were full suits of armour everywhere. The furniture inside was so ornate with beautiful detail. The inside was pretty cold though but that could have been because it was February. Burg Reichenstein is one of the oldest castles on the Rhine River so it was a really nice way to start off our adventures in Germany and Europe.

            After we were done exploring a gorgeous castle we headed down to the Rhine River to go on the river cruise. It was a half an hour long it was really nice. We got to see some of the stunning valley that the river was in. After the cruise we headed to dinner at a really nice place. It was a old wine cellar. It was renovated to look amazing. It had lights that hung from the ceiling and it was lit with candles. It was like something out of a movie. At the end of the dinner there was entertainment. One man with no one but himself started singing a wonderful opera song. His voice filled the room and silly me I was so into the music I forgot to record it.

            It was a great first adventure in Germany and I was very happy that we went on it. It was the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day with my lovely husband.

My pinterest page

The first thing that I am going to put on my blog is my pinterest page. I think I have some cute things on there but I also haven't been on there in awhile. The cutest thing I have on there is a picture of my sisters puppy cuddling his cute dolphin. But that's just what I think...

 

My pinterest page

 

 

 

 

How to start?

Luxembourg 2012

Well I guess I am going to start a bog. I think mostly my Momma and Daddio are going to read it. But hey at least they will know whats on my mind and what me and Randy are up to. I guess I will talk about whats new with me and Rand and whats considered old news. So yeah. Just have to decide what to start with….