Dress to Express or Dress to Impress – That is the question

                                             

                                                       

The argument of many college students today is that the hip-hop genre of music is not all negative and that more educational faculty members should recognize that some of this genre of music actually offers a more positive statement than it is being given credit for.  “The Miseducation of Hip-Hop Discrimination in Education” essay written by Jamilah Evelyn addresses the social impact of the hip-hop music genre on environments of the educational nature.  Jamilah Evelyn emphasizes the negative impact on students that are stereotyped as bad students simply by the way they are dressed or by their choice of music and also contrasts this synopsis with the belief of Earl Midgette, the director of the Institute for the Study of Morality Issues at North Carolina Central University with the support of other higher education faculty members that students should display a degree of professionalism to enable them fit in to the professional setting to which they are pursuing an education for. 

Students that are fans of hip-hop music argue that not all music of this genre is negative and that faculty members of furthering education should refer more to this genre of music, offering a better analogy to help the students relate to something that they understand better.  Students also believe that they should be permitted to dress to express themselves without being subjected to stereotyping because of their dreadlocks, and pants hanging low below their navel, and their “dark-hued” nature (Gray-Rosendale, 2008)(Pg 559), whether attending classes or a job interview, they do not see a problem with it.

Faculty members argue that while it may be true that music of this nature may or may not be all negative, that dressing according to the message depicted in this genre of music for a job interview may immediately cause a negative image to be formed before the interviewee speaks the first word to the interviewer and that in order to establish a positive image of themselves when going to a job interview professional dress is still strongly advised for everyone as stated by Midgette, Gray-Rosendale, (2008)(Pg 563), “We’re not gonna serve them well in the university if we don’t shake their thinking about how dress is going to influence job opportunities.“  Professional dress is emphasized to all students pursuing higher education degrees. That is not a stereotypical response in favor or against anyone at all, it is stressed to everyone equally.

The real issue here is not “Are students that listen to the hip-hop genre of music more successful and get better grades than students that do not listen to it”, or even if “The hip-hop genre of music is more a negative or positive message to its fans”; but, more an issue of there is a time and a place for professionalism to be maintained and adhered to and respect for the professional world if that is the realm of which you’re aspiring to be a part.  It is better to be compliant and have more open opportunities than to be labeled a deviant and achieve no success at all.

WC 511

Gray-Rosendale, L. (2008). Pop Perspectives Readings to Critique Contemporary Culture. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.  (Pg 559-566).

“The Bias of Language, the Bias of Pictures” by Neil Postman and Steve Powers

Do you think that you see things the same way the world sees them?  Is a story ever told the same way twice?  Realistically the answer to both questions is “no.”  We cannot possibly see things the exact way that others see them and we certainly cannot tell a story word for word twice.  In the Postman and Powers writing “The Bias of Language, the Bias of Pictures” the topic is about not only the language used to describe something, but also interpretation of those words as well as the conclusion we come to regarding pictures either moving or stationary.  People obviously perceive and interpret things differently, everyone is unique and we all see and hear things in our own way, even if it is the same exact thing that we are experiencing as someone else at the same exact time. 

All three things discussed in this writing involving language, stationary pictures, or moving pictures involve how someone interprets or misinterprets the given facts.  The fact that we all form different conclusions of the same exact story only shows human diversity and should essentially help us appreciate our differences.

Postman and Powers describe differences between language, stationary pictures, and moving pictures and how they are identified by people.  The first of the three, language are words used to describe or detail an event.  Postman and Powers refer to these three sentences in their example:  “Manny Freebus is 5’8 and weighs 235 pounds; Manny Freebus is grossly fat; and Manny Freebus eats too much.” (Gray-Rosendale, 2008)(Pg 483).  These three sentences were made by three different people with regards to what they saw; that is their description of something, maybe a picture.  No one really knew anything about Manny Freebus; therefore the three statements were descriptions, judgments, and inferences according to Postman and Powers and all three statements are elements of the topic of discussion of this writing.  People either describe, pass judgment on or make false statements when using language to describe a particular event.

When in doubt that people interpret things differently, there are many games in which people can test for themselves that this theory is true; one of which involves one person making a statement or simply stating a fact in their own words and then whispering that fact or statement to the second person, the second person whispers it to the third person, and so on down the line until the final person hears the statement.  Then the final person repeats the statement and everyone then realizes how the statement has changed through the line of people that have all just heard how the story has changed through the line of people.  Everyone is usually pretty amazed at how the story has changed. 

The second two topics of this writing are stationary pictures and moving pictures which involve how someone interprets or misinterprets the given facts they witness in either a stationary or moving picture.  Seeing a stationary picture leaves much room for misinterpretation as we only observe a single view of an event.  Normally a lot more false statements can stem from stationary pictures as they leave room for much interpretation; whereas a moving picture or video details more of an event by showing a constant motion of an event leaving less detail to imagination.  For example, a video clip that lasts even three minutes shows much more detail than a stationary picture.  Even though there is a lot more information available to view, there is still a lot of passing judgment and making false statements. 

In conclusion, people form a variety of opinions stemming from events being described in language, stationary picture, or even moving picture formats.   As described in the writing even news crews are only giving their version of an event, and therefore only a portion of their reports can be believed to be true.   They are not really any better than anyone else when it comes to stating or restating facts of an event with absolutely no bias what-so-ever.  Ultimately each person will always continue to describe or illustrate the stories they are providing details for in their own representation of what happened.  It is not right or wrong, it is just the way human beings are made.

The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R55e-uHQna0#at=11


The world would be a better and far more entertaining place if only we could see it through the eyes of a child.  Everything would always be well within our reach, dreams could always come true and absolutely anything would be possible.  Volkswagen’s “The Force: Volkswagen Commercial” captures the fantasy world as seen through a child’s eyes.  As we see the child in the commercial trying so assiduously to use the powers of Darth Vader and his own cute little hands to create his own powers and to make magic. 

It seems the target audience of the commercial is the typical upper middle class American family and the message that is being sent in the commercial is “Hey, buy a Volkswagen, most happy, typical upper middle class American families own them and look how happy they are!”  With regards to the gender representations in this commercial, they seem to be quite normal as well as the interaction between genders seems quite traditional.  The representation of the father and the mother in their roles may not be as adequate as it is in reality today, as there are many single parent families in our world these days, but the commercial certainly represents the typical 21^st Century “American Dream” type family (the type of family that most people ultimately want of their own someday).  The father comes home from work to his family in what appears to be a fairly typical upper middle class home.  Mom seems to be a housewife that stays home with the children while Dad works; as it shows her making a sandwich for the little boy “Darth Vader” character.  In many typical 21^st Century families today there is not a mom and a dad and even if there is, it is more common that both parents have to work to survive and afford an upper middle class style family home such as the one shown in this commercial.

The Darth Vader character that “heralds from about 30 years ago” that is still very well known today because Star Wars was such a popular movie in its time.  Everyone knew about Darth Vader even those of us who still to this day have never even seen the movie which incidentally are surely in the minority.  There was even a remake of the movie in recent years rehashing Star Wars mania from the fans that so loved the original movie from 30 years ago.  It only seems natural that the next generation has either seen the movie themselves or at the very least knows all about it. 

This childhood vignette reveals that the nature of traditional families in the 21^st Century are loving families and they still take the time play with and entertain their child’s imagination as the Dad started the car with the keyless entry remote from the kitchen window; thus empowering the little boy with the “super magical powers” he was obviously striving for with such diligence.  The observers unquestionably laughed at the point where the little boy jumped when the car actually started making this commercial very memorable to potential customers in the market for a new car.  This undoubtedly wins over the hearts of many people, especially parents all over the world; in fact, they are probably out shopping for their new Volkswagen right now.