Outward Appearance and Personal Identity

The Bluest Eye and Lipstick Jihad examine outward appearance from two different perspectives. The Bluest Eye is written from the perspective of race while Lipstick Jihad is written from the perspective of gender. The Bluest Eye examines outward appearance and the effect on the inward understanding of self and identity from the perspective of what others think of an individual and how those thoughts are internalized by the individual. The constant ridicule and criticism of how a person looks has catastrophic results in the Bluest Eye. Pecola, the object of the ridicule and criticism is terminally damaged. The perception of Pecola is described by a character named Geraldine on pages 91 and 92. Due to the length of Geraldine's perception, I will paraphrase it. Geraldine describes Pecola as wearing a dirty torn dress, plaits sticking out of head, hair matted where the plaits had come, muddy shoes and soiled socks. The effect of seeing someone like Pecola has a very negative impact on Geraldine. Geraldine explains that she has seen people like Pecola all her life and it disgusts her. Geraldine expresses this digust directly to Pecola who in turn internalizes Geraldines opinion of her. Pecola is described as being ugly and dirty by every character in the novel and she internalizes every negative opinion of her. By internalizing what others think of her appearance, Pecola has no self esteem and self worth. I can only imagine what it must be like to go through your whole life believing you are an outcast. One's outward appearance is a direct reflection of their self-esteem and self confidence. If a person believes they are ugly and worthless they likely will be ashamed of how they look.
The novel Lipstick Jihad examines outward appearance from a gender and political statement perspective. One the main topics of Lipstick Jihad is the wearing of the veil. The wearing of the veil has significant gender and political implications in Iran. The veil is so significant in fact "even secular women activists wore the veil when ouside the country, so the system's eyes abroad did not document their violation and use it as pretext to harass them upon their return." (pg. 169)
The decision to wear or not wear the veil is characterized as a point of uncertainty in the life of the lead character. The wearing of the veil is not congruent with Ms. Moaveni's attitudes toward gender and politics. While at times, clothing at times may signify a personal belief system, at other times it may represent a compromise between self and the system in which one lives. Such a compromise in all probality causes an individual to feel a great deal of pressure, unsatisfaction and uncertainty with one's lifestyle.
Unfortunately, an individual's outward appearance is what they usually are judged on. If the outward appearance of an individual is unpleasing or controversial, that individual may suffer adverse consequences. The consequences may be self inflicted as in Pecola's case or inflicted by others as in Ms. Moaveni's case.

Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag

Does beauty exist only in the perception of our minds? Is beauty abstract or concrete? Is it wrong to find beauty in the image of another's suffering or demise? The idea that I find some sort of satisfaction in knowing that the image in a wartime photograph is not me disturbs me. Pain and suffering are part of the human experience and have documented in words throughout the history of mankind. Why does the photograph of pain and suffering evoke strong emotions when words don't? It is because the photograph depicts the actual moment and intensity of the pain and suffering. It is as if you are mentally transported to the scene of the crime. Could the images of 9/11 ground zero be considered beautiful. "To acknowledge the beauty of photographs of the World trade Center ruins in the months following the attack seemed frivoulous, sacriligious. The most people dared to say was that the photographs were surreal, a hectic euphemism behind which the disgraced notion of beauty cowered".
Compasssion is at times a luxury that is dangerous to hold to close. One at times feels obligated to be concerned or care and at other times disinterested. All humanity is hinged on the ability to be compassionate and caring. When feelings of compassion arise they should not be discarded but embraced, for without them we wither and die. Photographs can shock and awe. One is drawn to the carnage and can't look away. Feelings of moral ineptness engulf us when we don't look away. We know, we see what man is capable of, and it can shock us. We become fearful of our known capacity to inflict pain on another. Do we accept the fact that we are one of them, or do we cling to the hope that we are different and could never do such a thing. My favorite quote of the book is, "Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of grusome, hands-on cruelities upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood. No one after a certain age has the right to this kind of innocence, of superficilaity. to this degree ignorance, or amnesia". Photographs make it impossible to escape the reality of mankinds cruelty. There exists a visual record, it can no longer be ignored. Even as horrible as the images may be, wars will continue to be fought and mankind will inflict pain and suffering on one another.

Midterm Research-Argument Essay Assignment

The topic of my midterm assignment is the antisweatshop movement. The main thesis of my argument is that the antisweatshop movement has in the past and continues to force multinational corporations to impose labor standards and workplace rules that are more compliant with the labor rules that exist in this country. What began as a movement to protest against labor practices in third world countries by multinational corporations has expanded into a global movement against unfair labor practices by corporations arounf the world.
My sources for the paper will primarily be articles written in professional and policy journals from 2001 to the present. These include Development in Pratice, Review of Radical Political Economics, Global Social Policy and Dissent. I will also utilize some mainstream articles from sources such as the Wall Street Journal and news television stations such as CNN.
The intent of this paper will be to persuade the reader that the antisweatshop movement is neccessary to force corporations to institute more humane labor practices and that without the antisweatshop movement corporations have little or no incentive to change. Protest movements have long championed the right of an individual to be treated fairly. Civil rights, abortion, the right to vote, education are just a few of the areas where protest movements have played a significant role and caused positive change. This movement is no different. The paper will also explore the relationships the movement has with goverments, labor unions and non-govermental organizations (NGO's) around the world and why they have crucial for past successes and remain critical for the future. I will also address the fact that in the end it is the consumer that is the ultimate protester and that if consumers would not buy products made in sweatshops, corporations would be forced to change their labor practices.

On Photography by Susan Sontag is a narrative on the evoultuion of photography. She makes the point that a new visual code exist because "photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have the right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the world in our heads-as an anthology of images". She asserts that this has changed the viewer in three ways. First, modern photography in concert with advances in technology has created an overabundance of pictures or visual material. I agree with this point. I would go so far as to say that the overabundance of visual images is partly responsible for the decline in the use of the written and spoken word to describe events. It seems that everyone is fixated on the visual record that photographs provide instead of the use of verbage.
Another change that she alludes to is the effect of modern photography on our education. She claims that "photographs now provide most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present". She believes and so do I that photography teaches us about things and parts of the world that our out of our immediate realm. It is my opinion that photography facilitates the gathering of knowledge by crystallizing an image or images. As an avid viewer of "American Experience", a documentary program that airs on PBS, I can say without hesitation that the visual images more times than not capture the context and essence of the subject much more effectively than the written or spoken word.
Her final claim is that photography desenstizes its audience. On this point I also agree. It seems as I gotten older, there is no more "shock value" when I view a photograph. I dare to say that I doubt that I will ever be shocked by a photograph of any kind again. As a child when I saw images of the Nazi concentration camps, I was horrified. Now when I see those images, I can't detect any emotion in myself. Images of any kind whether humorous or horrifying have no effect anymore. Photographs to some extent have taken the emotion out of living. It is almost impossible for a person to see an image that they have not already been exposed to. How boring!

The Branding of Identity and Culture

Whether the product is blue jeans or coffee, american consumers tend to identify with the brands they consume. While rarely there is no significant difference between the quality of products, some brands tend to be more successful than others. This success is due to how the brand is marketed. If an advertisement campaign of a particular product is successful in making the brand a symbol of the present culture and also cause consumers to identify with particular brand, the product or brand will be widely successful.
In No Logo, Naomi Klein relates her experience with Clavin Klein jeans. Calvin Klein hired an actress and model named Brooke Shields as their spokesperson. At the time Brooke Shields was argulably the most well known face in the world. The genius of the advertising campaign lay not in her endorsing the blue jeans but conveying the notion that if one did not where Calvin Klein jeans, they were not in step with the prevailing culture of the day. As many a young girl worldwide identified and wanted to be like Brooke Shields, the blue jeans literally flew off the shelves. The campaign was so successful that the pants were not called blue jeans but Calvins. The branding of culture and identity is not about products, it's about attitude.
As, Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Group, a multi-national corporation says in No Logo, the trick is to "build brands not around products but around reputation." Scott Bedbury, vice president of marketing at Starbuck readily admits that "consumers don't truly believe ther's a huge difference between products, which is why brands must establish emotional ties with their customers through the Starbucks experience." The brands that will flourisjh in the future will be the ones presented not as commodities but as concepts: the brand as experience, as lifestyle.
Marketing is not about products anymore. Marketing and advertising are about the psychological impact a particular brand can have on the consumers lifestyle. Successful products
not only are innovative and dependable, they also make the consumer feel good about purchasing them. They are able to convince the consumer that a particular is a "must have" in todays lifestyle and culture. The consumer must identify with a particular brand not a particular product. Identity and culture are clearly fixtures in the new marketing equation.

No Logo by Naomi Klein is No Bull

No Logo by Naomi Klein is fascinating. She offers insights in to the psyche of the american consumer while also exposing the manipulation tactics and intent of the modern culture marketing machine. The first topic that stood out for me is the theory that american consumers don't buy products anymore, they buy brands. She states that by the end of the 1940's advertising agencies gradually moved away from "individual products and their attributes and toward a psychological/anthrpological examination of what brands mean to the culture and to people's lives. This was seen to be of crucial importance, since corporations may manufacture products, but what consumers buy are brands." The book discusses the strtegy employed by Nike, the largest athletic footwear company in the world. Nike discovered that they could offer athletic shoes at a huge premium if they sold their shoes in conjunction with selling a culture statement. Their strategy has been so successful that a pair of Nike athletic shoes is considered a bargain if thet are priced less than $100.00 a pair. You see Nike just doesn't sell shoes and apparel they also offer the consumer a chance to own a recognizable symbol of status and image in our culture.
The book also speaks about how successful corporations and companies no longer manufacture their products. Once the hallmark of a successful business, manufacuring is now taboo. Successful companies now use third world and chinese labor to make their products. Quality has taken a back seat to cheap production costs. This formula, needless to say, has proved enourmously profitable, and it's success has companies competing in a race toward weightlessness: whoever owns the least, has the fewest employees on the payroll and produces the most powerful images, as opposed to products, wins the race." Using Nike as an example again, their footwear and apparel is manufacured in countries such as Indonesia, where wages average $2.00 a day. They don't pay the production wages or benefits as their predecessors once did, and consequently has smashed the competition.

Ohman versue Adorno and Horkheimer

One of the contrasts between Ohman and Adorno and Horkheimer is that Ohman epouses the the Marxist theory of hegemony while Adorno and Horkheimer subscribe to the theory of manipulation. According to Ohman the theory of Hegemony "shares with other marxisms the historical materialist view of how history happens, and of how capitalism happenend, in particular. It places the same emphasis on forces and relations of production, on classes, and on class struggle" (Ohman, pg. 44) However it diverges from other marxist theories, including the theory of manipulation in the fact that although the "bourgeoisie did come to own the means of mental production, but not as a system apart from material production. Rather, it has to establish and control new means of communication in order to carry out its scheme of production for markets, and of accumulation." ( Ohman pg. 44,45) This is in stark contrast to Adorno and Horkheimer's theory of manipulation that holds the view the the "mental production" of the superstructure is for the purpose to hold down the lower class and to confuse the masses into a delusional bliss of mass consumption for products that they do not need or can afford.
A second contrast between Ohman and Adorno and Horkheimer is the function and purpose of the advertising of mass culture. According to Adorno and Horkheimer, " the deceived masses are today captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are." Adorno and Horkheimer also believe that "advertising today is a negative principle, a blocking device: everything that does bear its stamp is economically suspect. Universal publicity is no way neccessary for people to get to the kinds of goods - whose supply is restricted anyway." According to Ohman this point of view is incorrect. Mass advertising evolved for different reasons in Ohman's opinion. The first reason is to sell the output of mechanized production. In order for business to return a profit it is essential that supply and demand are as close to identical as possible. The second reaon is the production of many of the goods in factories that were once produced in the home, (i.e. soap, food, clothing) created a new class of consumers. Ones that not only produced the goods but consumed them as well. With so many items now produced in factories, consumers have leisure time. According to Ohman it is a natural progression for the producers of convenient and efficient goods to "situate their products within a way of life that was becoming the norm for urban and suburban people, mainly of the proffessional and managerial class." (Ohman, pg. 91) National advertisers helped create this new way of life and also siezed the opportunity it afforded them. Corporations were doing more than dumping surplus product through advertising. They were "looking for a nexus between high speed, continuous-flow manufacturing and the reshaping of people's habits and lives." (Ohman, pg.91) The hegemony of corporations reached out beyond the sales of commodities, "to a metamorphosis of aspirations and imaginations. In this, corporations were no less powerful because those who took up their messages wanted to be consumers." (Ohman, pg 91) For this reason hegemony is responsible for national advertising not manipulation.