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Today when I look into the toy market, I’d never expect to see some of the toys that I do. Some are just a disgrace, some I just sit back and think what were they thinking, and some are the ones that I would think that are actually decent but when I actually think of it they are still portraying a twisted purpose. I know that me and my class watched endless upon endless toy commercials, we all thought some were just hilarious. After about a week of just laughing and fooling around, some actually got to work and started finding that some of these toys were trying to shape kids mind so they think they have to be just like these toys. An example would be Barbie, these dolls show a girl who is as close to perfect as a human can get.

Girls growing up today face a very difficult time, many watch TV and see these girls on the runway that stand 6 feet and are skinny. There is a very high rate of girls today that are becoming anorexic at a very young age.

40 per cent of 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade girls want to be thinner. And 80 per cent of 10 year olds are worried in case they become fat. In another survey, 70 percent of 6th grade girls surveyed said that their concern about their weight, shape and diet started when they were aged 9-11. In a study of children aged 8-10, approximately 50 per cent of girls said they were unhappy with their size. In a study of girls aged 9-15, more than 50 per cent claimed they exercised to lose weight, nearly 50 per cent claimed they reduced food intake in order to lose weight, and approximately 5 per cent claimed to use their parents’ diet pills or laxatives in order to lose weight.

These statics are enough to make me sick, young girls shouldn’t be trying to lose weight there young bodies aren’t fully grown yet. Their bodies are going through changes and some add-on a few pounds, I agree with exercising  to stay fit not to lose weight at that age, and diet pills are totally out of the question why would they do that to their body. Most don’t know the consequences of what that is doing to their bodies, I don’t think most adults know what they are putting into their bodies either.

For young boys it’s not about losing weight, it’s more about guns and violence. Some toys for young boys are mostly related to fighting and war. If I go to the toy section in Wal-mart and look down the boy isles I would find that most have a buff guy holding a gun, or some relation to fighting. There are also that deal with physical violence such as UFC fighting and MMA. I know lots of young boys watch these on TV with either their dads or brothers, and will try out their moves on commercial breaks or after. I can’t even count of many times I’ve been at my Grandma’s and watched my cousins ‘grapple’ each other or try to ‘pin’ each other down and make them ‘tap out’. 

Both boys and girls are effected by these toys. I don’t know if parents or people who buy these toys for them see what they are actually buying, but there has been more and more young people taking guns to school or bingeing. It is a serious problem that our world is facing today we need to teach the younger generation more about violence and eating disorders.  They need to see the outcomes of what both of these do to themselves and to the people around them.

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Commercials involving toys has much more of a bad affect on younger children then meets the eye. They are enforcing a strong message, and stereotype, that boys can dream to be astronauts, and positions not likely possible. But girls are training to become something that will most likely happen, no matter what. For example, realistic, pooping and peeing baby dolls, with changeable diapers, barbie houses with washer and dryers. It almost seems like there are two very different messages being sent, boys are being trained by toys to chase their dreams. While girls are stuck playing with toys that will help them fill their positions as a “house mother”. Or their being taught that they have to live up to a plastic, 6 foot, 4 inch waisted plastic barbie doll. How is that message leaving a positive affect on the younger generation of children? It really isn’t. There honestly is a gender stereotype in the modern day toys, and something extremely disturbing about the commercials. It is not only steering children to a world of disappointment, but some of the commercials are just plain wrong! They also are defeating women, as the toys seem to be training young children into mothers, or something thats completely realistic, their teaching young women their is no point of dreaming.

For example the Oozinater, a toy gun that portrays the image of a sexual activity. The gun does not shoot water, it shoots white ooze. If that is not disturbing enough the subtitles read, “requires major pumping”. No wonder the young boys in this ad seem almost horrified to be shot by this white Ooze. Something clearly tells me that the makers of this new gun, didn’t completely think this one through. This is far to disturbing to be a children toy. Do parents really want their children playing with a gun that looks like it is shooting the resemblance of something that comes from a male part? Also certain shots in this ad tend to miss out on the showing of the actual gun, all thats visible is a young child horrified and completely grossed out to be shot by this white oozing slime! Not only is the commercial wrong, its sick, and horrifyingly disturbing.

Another example is the doll named ” baby alive“. This is a very realistic baby doll, it eats, drinks, and wets while moving its mouth. The newest version of the doll includes Wets and Wiggles , Sip and Slurp, Sip and Snooze, Pat and Burp, Baby Alive learns to potty, and baby go bye-bye. The point of all these dolls is to cross the line of realistic, and lifelike. I believe it is somewhat wrong to have such life like dolls, when young children are getting the idea that since their baby dolls are almost life like its easy to take care of babies. Not only that but it is also another stereotype, that little girls can play with dolls, to learn to fit into the motherhood in the future. They may also feel like their dolls are so real, that the real babies are the same as their dolls. The young children could harm or danger their brothers, sisters,  cousins, or any type of babies around them. When these types of commercials come onto the television little children are being fooled. Fooled into thinking that their toy dolls are so lifelike, they are able to take care of actual living breathing dolls. For example, dolls are becoming so realistic, there is now a swimming baby doll. She actually moves her feet and legs when put into water. What is this going to present in the future. Possibly deaths of live babies, because the makers of the dolls are making them so realistic. Young 4 or 5 year old children wouldn’t know the difference. How upsetting is the thought of your son or daughter thinking their able to make your new born child swim. It makes a person wonder if the toy commercials, and the toys being made, are really safe. The makers don’t seem to think these things through, this could result in horrifying events.

Barbie dream toy house is another example of a stereotype aimed at young girls. This house comes with a toy washer and dryer that makes noises. I never thought that in this century young children would be playing with toys that involve doing laundry. I take offense to the making of this toy, because again it seems as though it is trying to train girls to be ready for motherhood. When boys are dreaming to be knights in shinning armor. There is a definite stereotype between girls and boys, and toy commercials are promoting their barbie doll house’s, they should be scolded for doing so. Because it seems as though toys are promoting the back in the day thought, that men are better then women. The barbie dream toy house is following that thought to the fullest. It is saying little girls have no room to dream, because they will be to busy learning how to become a loving, nurturing mother. A mother that takes care of the children, cooks, and cleans, while staying at home. This toy along with toy companies should be shut down for promoting an ongoing stereotype that many believed to be erased. Both girls and boys should be pushed to strive for the stars. Not just let girls believe all they can do in life is change dirty diapers, while boys have every single opportunity in the book to become all they can be.

So in conclusion, it is a upsetting offending thing to realize that this message is being sent through toy commercials. I believe that if toy commercials should continue, both girls and boys should be encouraged to reach for the stars. If being a mother is something that happens along the way then thats wonderful. But children should not be discouraged and told that all they will ever be will stay at home mom’s who do laundry, and clean dirty diapers in a house of 10 screaming kids. This stereotype is offending, and buying their toys are only telling them that it is okay to put women down, and treat them as a second class. Therefore, toy advertising is wrong, humiliating, and should not be allowed.

Here is a link to the same discussion we are having in the forum.

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One word, Superbowl, the first thing that comes to my mind isn’t football it’s what kind of commercials they are going to have this year. I know that living in Canada we don’t get half the commercials that the USA does but we still get a few. I love watching all the beer commercials and laughing at how funny they are. If I was to think about what they were actually saying I wouldn’t laugh like I usually do. I don’t think many people see the ‘big picture’ they are trying to portray in their advertisements. A lot of the beer advertisements show a discrimination towards women, they show them in revealing outfits, unporportionate sized parts of their body, and overall a bad name for women everywhere.

Most women don’t act like this in real life, and when guys go out to bars they expect the women to be in skimpy outfits and do what ever the men want. These commercials make it very hard for women today because many feel like they should look and act this way to be more appealing to the male gender. There is a overwhelming percentage of women today that wish they had that ‘killer’ body and amazing social skills. I think this is actually humorous because the majority of people who create and put these commercials onto TV are guys. I am a little sad that they portray women this way because there is the odd ones that actually look that way. It puts a lot of stress girls especially those that are in their teens they see that image of the girl at the bar and think thats how they’ll have to look and act.

These alcohol advertisements can also put stress on guys too. A guy can watch these people acting a certain way and also think thats how they have to act too. In the commercials there usually show guys getting the girl pretty easy, just show them there case of ‘Bud light’ and the girls fallow them like dogs. I haven’t been to a bar but I am smart enough to know that probably doesn’t happen and if it does the girl must have learnt it from a beer commercial. I don’t know if that would actually happens but if it did I am ashamed of those that do. Being a girl that angers me that women think they have to be someone their aren’t, every person is unique in their own way and should be themselves.

I can’t sit here and say that they shouldn’t show these ads on TV because I enjoy laughing, but they should be less extreme in the ways they show both males and females. They should show normal people just having a good time. I would rather have a good time with friends or meeting new people then having to be someone I’m not. I know a lot of fakes and I wouldn’t want to live my life that way. If I be myself and act how I normally would I will find friends that will love me for me, and a true friend is better than one that’s not.

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Gender biased is in everything, even alcohol advertising. Even if you don’t drink, or haven’t watched that many commercials, I’m sure you could distinguish which ads are guy drinks and which are female drinks as soon as you saw them. What makes a drink a guy or girl one? From what I have noticed, girl drinks are the fruity, less strong ones and the male drinks are the strong ones that don’t taste as good. Also, male drinks have a higher percentage of alcohol in them than female ones. Is the world not supposed to be an equal place where everybody is treated the same regardless of their gender, sexuality, looks, religion, or anything else. That is what all the men and woman are fighting in the wars for is freedom and equality. In a way, we are just throwing away everything that they have worked so hard for just for alcohol.

Regardless of what anyone else says, I will always believe that wars are started to bring peace. A horrible killing event is started to bring the exact opposite. Think of it. The military in itself is breaking the gender stereotype. As stated in my post about children’s toys woman are supposed to stay at home and take care of the children while men go off and fight in the war. But the military enroles both men and woman which helps make the gender stereotypes in today’s world less obvious. I don’t see the point in wars if we are just going to take the benifits to our advantage, but do nothing to prevent further unequality. The discrimination of males and females is not helping the brave people in the army.

Alcohol is a drug. Simple as that. Sure it is not the first drug that comes to mind when someone tells you to name three drugs. Coke, crank, smack, weed, or angel dust might be some of the names that first come to mind. But alcohol is a drug, a depressant. I came across this ad that reenforces what I am trying to put across. I am not quite sure what the advertisement is for but this is the link. You see a girl that seems to be treating the alcohol as cocaine shown by her using the same tactic as would be used to snort coke.  I believe that most youth today consider alcohol  the least harmful drug. It is not portrayed as addictive, and it does not harm your image except maybe give you a beer belly, but that of course is only what men drink. This is why it is not a huge worry. Meth gives you ‘bugs under your skin’ and really bad teeth. Other drugs affect appearance in other ways, but alcohol is in a way, a silent drug. To get more on task with the gender stereotypes, do you ever see female drug dealers in commercials? Do you ever see male prostitutes, or female pimps? Alcoholics are normally portrayed as old men with bad hygiene or young females passed out at a party.

Advertisement also try to persuade an individual to buy them by promising certain lifestyles. Woman are promised to look skinny and be very fit like in this ad. But the  reality behind this ad is that if you drink it you will probably gain weight. And the sad thing is that it works. Woman are so desperate to be that skinny stay at home mom that they are taught that they should be when they are younger. These ads promising to look young and gorgeous like the models in the ad would not be as successful if society did not have the stereotype of what woman should be. Models are models for a reason. The average woman in America is a size 12 or 14. Thats why models get paid so much to be so skinny, is becuase the rest of America is not. So why do we as a society, try and portray that every woman should be like a model. I do not see the point. We are who we are and a fruity little drink is not going to change this.

I am very strongly in support for equality between not only men and woman and children, but also animals and any breathing thing on this planet. And the part that makes me even more mad about gender stereotypes in alcohol is that men do not have the same expectations. They are supposed to get a beer belly and fool around with woman in the ads, but woman are just supposed to sip their drinks, laugh, and look gorgeous. I think its time for the world to give up all the expectations of certain groups. Not all Germans are Nazi, not all woman are a size 2. There are diferent types of people in the world and it is cruel to try and fit them all into a couple groups. We should be able to be who we are, without pointless stereotypes holding us back. Alcohol ads are not the prime source, but they certainly add fuel to the fire. If the creaters of these ads stopped re enforcing the gender stereotypes, it would surely help. One company, one ad, one person at a time.

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Alcohol Advertisements are commonly played on the television. It seems as though most commercials are about beer, and the commercials portray a message that is directed at men, and is a fantasy for men. These commercials promise men that it is okay to have a degrading outlook on women. If you drink beer, you will have a sexy hot babe, or two, or three, in front of you or hanging off you. There are few alcohol advertisements that do not base the idea of the ad around this message. In every commercial there is at least one girl with little clothing on, holding, bringing, or helping a man drink beer. Beer commercials are building up fantasies that will never happen, and are extremely degrading to women. The truth is that in beer commercial reality these men are able to drink beer and end up at the play boy mansion, but in real life reality, men are not able to go and act like they are in these commercials. The real reality that beer commercials are lacking, is the abuse that alcohol consumption is able to bring. Such as: Beating of girlfriends, and wives,” Bro” fights, tragedies of drunk driving, also deaths that are eventually reached because of damage to the body. The commercials are portraying a non socially acceptable message, that drinking beer leads to a satisfying life, that involves half naked girls. When really, most alcohol leads to the exact  opposite of this message. These commercials and advertisements are also having a large effect on the younger children. It’s almost wanting the younger generation to see these commercials, while pushing them to practice up acting like men that are pig’s, condoning violence, and helping them to forget the real world isn’t like beer commercials.

For example: this Corona commercial where the couple is on the beach, and a women walks by in a white bikini. The mans head turns as the women walks by, then the girlfriend reacts by squeezing the lemon from the beer at the man. The message still condone’s that fantasy that comes along with beer commercials. But this one appears to be socially acceptable, because the man goes back to his girlfriend. This also sends the message that men are uncontrollable, unless a women stands there with a whip telling them what to do. Most men would probably have a hard time liking this commercial, because men, don’t like the idea of being controlled by women. This commercial is not only sending a wrong message because of the controlling of the girlfriend, but because of the perverted male fantasy. This commercial is somewhat sending a message to younger children to, a message that helps them to grow up to think like this degrading, disrespectful, pig.

Another commercial that could be used to describe the bad behavior, that beer advertisements are adding up to, is a commercial about Hahn beer. In this commercial it is not so much about the fantasy of a hot girl coming with the bottle or can of beer, but instead it is about the man so intrigued by the beer he disrespects the women. Any way that the beer commercials are brought up the women are disrespected, this brings up the subject of gender inequality, and how the man are the beer drinkers, and the women are the man’s “toys”, or “fantasies”. Even though this commercial does not contain the same message as the above commercial, it is still giving off a wrong message. Commercials, and beer advertisements, seem to focus on all the non realities of life, and non realities of alcohol.

All of the commercials seem to have one thing in common, and this next commercial does not lack the message being sent through beer commercials. These commercials are encouraging people to believe when you drink beer, you escape to a made up fantasy world. When you consume this alcohol, you escape all responsibilities, and get the fantasy girl. But this commercial is sending an even worse message, it’s sending the message that bad behavior will turn out to be a good thing. This commercial is about an office creating a swear jar, and every time one of the office member swears, it’s one step closer to a box of Bud light beer. So even though this has no disrespect towards women, it is disrespectful towards reality. swearing, and bad behavior will not end you up with a box of beer. This commercial gives false accusations about the work place, I imagine at work if you’re caught swearing or cussing you will be in large trouble, or worse, fired from you’re job. This is sending the wrong message to the people watching the commercial, and could end up getting people who live in the ” reality ” world into a lot of trouble. Therefore, these commercials are unfair, misleading, and wrong to every possible person who could be watching them. Every beer commercial ends up in a situation where someone or something is disrespected. Plus again, the gender inequality is shown again in this commercial. Most people in this commercial are men. Men swearing at each other in hopes to end up with a box of beer.

So in conclusion, every advertisement commercial about alcohol displayed on the television is sending a wrong, unfair, misleading message out to the people watching it. It goes from disrespect towards women. To disrespect towards each other and everyone around, and ends with a fantasy world that the thought of beer has created. These commercials continue to tell and convince men it is okay to have a degrading and disrespecting outlook on women. Not only are these beer commercials portraying a gender inequality problem, but they are creating a fantasy world for men, that will never become real or true. When in reality alcohol really only leads to a world of disappointment. Beer advertisers know the message they are sending, and they are being paid to disrespect women, and tell lies, these are normally things we discourage but how come it has become alright for beer commercials? In my opinion something needs to be done about the false accusations, hopes, and attitudes that are being sent out through beer commercials. Also, in the world today it is believed that there is no longer and attitude that men are better than women. But these beer commercials are clearly portraying that the attitude about men being better then women is still hanging around. If this is something that has been discouraged for years and years, shouldn’t it be discouraged in these commercials? Or is it okay, because it is giving men the chance to believe they can escape all there duties, and responsibilities by getting drunk? I could care less how men feel when they watch these commercials, it is wrong, degrading, and should be overly discouraged.

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Like every coin there are two sides to every person a public and private self. It is a sense of responsibility for people to not let these these two versions form into one. I find myself with a struggle to show the people in public the person I am but in private the search of meaning and my role in this world and my place within it. It is a very protected part of one’s self and even under the most extreme circumstances at all costs we try to protect this private self cause it is the only thing that we have that no one else can take away from us. It can only be exposed which that in itself loses our ability to have a sense of ourselves.

The darker side of human nature is to manipulate the minds of their true and best friends, for their own gain or for the gain of others whether it is helping a friend or not. I find it is much easier to deal with problems in isolation, solidarity and long periods of thought provoking sessions. It is only these periods of isolation that allow us to see what is wrong with ourselves and allow us to critically come up with solutions or a “where do I go from here” plan that keeps us on track. I have several friends when I can tell that something is wrong all they ever say is “Being alone is what I want. It’s the only way that I feel safe inside the darkness that is me must try and heal when sadness is in the eyes distance is the best friend.”  

There are few circumstances I would take into acccount to do such a thing for my friends parents. The only way I could try to find out what is wrong is if there was clear intent to cause harm to oneself or cause harm to another. If I saw my friend on a ledge I would do everything to stop them rather than sit back and watch them fall.  I expect the courage from my friend to come and talk to me if they feel hopeless and cannot help themselves. It is so difficult to try and feel for a close friend because I will never see my friends whole life, and I can never try my friends life.

I would feel so intrusive if I was requested to find out what is happening in my friends life, if it were to be justified I would feel I was doing a lot more good to my friend than harm. I also feel it would be part of the parents’ responsibility to find out why their child is acting strangely. They could very well be the solution or part of the problem as to why their child is acting strangely. It is human nature for an offspring to feel compelled to have a relationship with thier mother and father as they are the giver and keeper of life to the offspring. When one’s world falls to pieces, they feel that someone will still be there to pick them up.

Honesty, there are no shades of grey only the truth as it can be. With honesty towards a friend comes with the actions of honor which are the choices that I make that reflect who I truly am. By being straight and telling my friend up front what I am doing that is the only way to show that I am truly a friend and not against him or a servant to his parents. How are we suppose to help the ones that we love when we can not even tell them that we are helping them to begin with?

The greatest fulfillment is having a concrete relationship with others, one in which both persons are able to meet their psychological needs. Our needs of fulfillment, sense of worth, belonging and just the fact that someone who cares. The fact that someone who cares is one of the most important needs. The recurring question I have about society is always why is it so hard to find someone who cares about you, when it is easy enough to find someone who looks down upon you? The need of belonging and caring is what we all get out of relationships with one another.

The darkest side of human nature is that at some point we always feel that all hope is gone and all freedom is lost. We all need a reason to believe in something to control our fear, pick ourselves up when we feel down. The feelings that we need to be alone and away from it all is another part of the darker side of human nature. If God calls all of us to love one another and care for each other then why do we feel the need to be away from the ones that we love the most at times. Behaviour that most of us see as strange when we find another in that state but behaviour that is the norm when we find ourselves in the same situation, the greatest fear of human nature is the mysteries that surround it.

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I have always felt invincible, impervious to harm. I didn’t fully respect or appreciate how delicate and precious life really is. Humans are so fragile, at any moment the life we have before us could be taken away at any moment. Unfortunately for me, I had to learn the hard way.

It came with no warnings, starting out just a normal summer day. Nothing out of the ordinary, just another day trying to kill the small town boredom. We were off to look at housing so the boys could move out of their parents house.  He was a new driver, just getting his license that day or, a few days before I can’t quite remember. Before leaving to go check out the houses one of us yelled “buckle up!” so fortunately for us we had all done up our seat-belts which probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

What do you think of before you feel that you are going to die? To be honest I can’t quite remember everything. So many things were shooting through my head I remember thinking so this must be what it’s like before you are going to die.  I thought about what would happen after if I died and god for a short time but I was more concerned about my family and friends and how sad they would be if I was gone. We only rolled about 8  times, but it felt like a life time. Every second was another haunting thought, what if I died and someone survived? I haven’t even lived my life yet.  And that I never even got to say goodbye.

After the crash was terrifying. I remember being confused, and not being able to take off my seat-belt. But the worst part of it was seeing my friend half way out the window. Thankfully he just stuck his head out to avoid being crushed by the caved in roof. Words cannot describe the feelings felt when you think one of your best friends has died.

Was it intuition? If it wasn’t for him, saying “alright guys, he’s driving buckle up for safety”  Would we have all had our seat-belts done up anyways? Or was it just luck? Or perhaps there was some invisible force that protected us from a sure fate. Although the disturbing memory will always remain, we will never fully understand how we walked away. The crash has bonded all of us closer together, and we will  always remember and appreciate how precious and how fast life can be taken away at anytime.

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I had a lifetime dream of playing of the Canadian Women’s fastball team at the Olympics. I dreamt of wearing that Maple Leaf on my chest and seeing my parents smiling back at me. My family understood what was needed to be at that level and they completely supported me with every move I had to make. My closest friends did not understand the lack of time they could spend with me but they also respected the time we did have.

I have been on a ball field all my life and have played since T-ball. At the age of 15 my parents and I agreed that I was not being challenged enough with the softball in the area and started looking for something more. Lloydminister was our answer.  Playing ‘A’ caliber of fastball helped show off the skills I had learned from various coaches, and my parents. Tracy, the scout of the Canadian women’s fastball team, soon took me under her wing and taught me the needed advancements that allowed me to go with the Calgary Diamond Devils to San Diego.

The pressure of playing at this level was very intense and demanding. The Diamond Devils had four coaches one outfield coach, one infield coach, nutritionist, and one head coach. We all had a small contract to follow which included a no eating list, no cell phone rule, respect clause, and further more. This fastball allowed for little social life because the travel was difficult, and time consuming. My dad and I normally made the trip to Calgary every weekend and I had to work out every other night and practice on the off days. All my time away from school was to be focused on fastball.

People did not understand how I balanced everything. I honestly tried to put on a face that showed I had all my life under control but truly the pressure was getting to me and distancing me from friends and my sister. I changed the amount of communication that I was involved in, I was changing myself I quickly learned.

I did not like what this caliber of fastball was doing to my life. My life was changing as I knew it I wanted my old life back. I never thought I would ever pass the chance of my dream up but i had to choose my life or fastball. As I was conflicted between keeping my dream alive or having a social life, my dad and I had numerous, deep talks about our shared dream. My dad kept saying “I will support you in whatever you do, as long as you wanna be doing it.” I decided to stop playing this high end caliber and to regain my social life.

Playing in the Olympics was a lifetime goal and dream I shared with my dad. I would have done anything to get to that level but once I found out the amount of time needed to be at that level I couldn’t handle the pressure. The pressure had me change who I was and how I interacted with my family and friends. Being under that pressure caused me to buckle and alter my dream. Family and friends helped me get as far as I did because of their respect, love, help, and commitment.  I owe them all many thanks.

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