Star Trek

I never thought I would be blogging about star trek but here I am! I think the message was loud and clear of the episode let that be your battlefield. Hate in the end will consume you and all around you. Loki and The commissioner were blinded by their hate for each other's people. They were so blinded that they couldn't see that they were the same-of course with similarities but we all have similarities. If i heard and watched correctly, they called each other half white and half black while they were fighting- it was an insult, but in realty BOTH of the are half white and half black, but once again they were to consumed to come to terms with that. The commissioner has the ability to close his eyes and use his will to do what he wants. To bad he does not take advantage of that power to banish all hate and oppression. But just like people who oppress and hate now, why give up what they feel is power?

Biel had what looked like a collar around his neck. That in a way stood out to me. It symbolized to me all the people who keep our society chained up under the cycle of oppression. People's ignorance makes me so mad- i wish they would just let things go, yes we are different colors, genders, and so one but in the end we are people-people who love and feel like you and me. Maybe, we will reach a point like it was mentioned in the show that oppression does not exist anymore-that only went on thousands of years ago, but its just something we read in history books now.

GaMer

I did not expect to like the movie as much as I did-but i enjoyed it A lot. While watching it I was like whoa this looks alot like one person shooters that I have seen people play. I guess that just means that our video games have gotten that advanced that they can be compared to a film. Especially with what we are talking about-especially the cycle of oppression, the film had a lot of things that I think we learn from a young age that are not necessarily true. We saw the gamer himself:overweight, eating away while playing video games. Not only that but he had a scooter to limit himself that much more. No, not everyone who plays video games is overweight andhome ridden because of their weight. Then we have the "hero" he is in fact a murderer whetherhe had control over it or not. But he has been glorified because he has survived so many levels. yes he is white. The main "bad guy" is black and seen as this monster who only wants to go after Gerard Butlers character... why does he have to be black? The other gamer, is a rich kid who gets whatever he wants because his family is well off. once again he is white. Althoughsouthern people are usually seen as dumb-it was nice to see that Michael c. Hall's character the genius who created those games is in fact southern. Ludacris was also a hero type figure in the film, we do not see a black hero that often which i enjoyed seeing. An Asian was snuck in there! and he was the another genius who can hack the system and fix things as needed. I think at one point or another we learn all these stereotypes at a young and a refuse to use the liberation theory and unlearn them. Most of these characters are proof that these stereotypes do exist. The film was very intense and visually stimulating. and just like Americans like.... the hero wins in the end!!!

The Fabric of Oppression

The fabric of oppression- is when groups are created that are dominant or privileges and other groups that are targeted and oppressed by it. Subconsciously, I believe we all know that White Christians is the dominant group and everyone else..... is not. A point the article made which really made sense was the point that just because you are in the dominant group it does NOT automatically mean that you will have power and wealth, but it does mean that you will have a better chance of getting that. And of course the targeted group do not mean you will be poor and weak but you will have less chances of being powerful and wealthy. I think one thing that happens more than we think is internalized oppression. That is when a person takes all the untrue, biast, stereotypical thoughts of their group and turn it inward on themselves. How terrible is it to feel bad about yourself just because people do not want to learn about you and just go by what they hear and believe is true. This internalization is of course the dominant groups fault. According to the fabric of oppression the dominant group is white, male, physically and mentally able and of course heterosexual. It is so stupid. I am sure that anyone else female, Hispanic, black etc can do just a good a job as the white male-we just refuse to give people a chance. The fabric of oppression can be seen in video games. In rainbow six las vegas you are killing terrorists and the main "bad guy" is Hispanic. Younger people who do not know any better are going to get the idea that all Hispanics are terrorists and i think equate that to what happened on 9/11. We see the fabric of oppression Everyday whether in life or in video games or the media- we just pretend not notice it.

Connections

Yes, this article was long.... real long.... but it was interesting. I really enjoyed how it went through the different theories. I really did learn new things and had several A-HA! moments. One of my A-HA moments was when the article discussed Christmas. In December it is EVERYWHERE. Music, decorations, xmas trees etc. I never thought to think what do people who do not celebrate Christmas feel during this time of year. There are other holidays in December that i knew of, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah but I never once thought of how they felt when all they see is santa claus and almost no recognition of their holidays.

I like how in the article it discussed the different theories. I liked to see all the different aspects and things it took to mold ones beliefs and how those are created. I particularly enjoyed the liberation theory. I know we as a society keep people down and almost make it impossible for them to rise up and be what they want-but everyone has the potential to! We CAN unlearn all the false information and biast that we have picked up in our lives. It is easy to learn yet really hard to unlearn. I also like the point made that it is a life long process. I appreciated that-because we all have our thoughts of certain people but through this process we can help break the cycle of oppression which we live under.

The Prince of Persia

I love this game. Visually, it is breathtaking, and the story line is not one you often see. The game takes place in India with the prince trying to defeat and evil jaffar and earn praise and respect from his father. All we really see is men in this game, we only saw one woman. That woman happened to be a princess-which quite frankly is a pretty woman. Which is obviously to entice the male players which are the majority of the players anyway. If we look at the culture of power, it is clear that in this game men rule all! it is the prince who is obviously a man going after the power- its painfully clear that men have all the power in this game when we only see one woman! If we think of ethnicity one thing really stuck out to me. The prince trying to win the praise of his father. I think in any ethnicity boys are trying to get praise from their old daddi-o. It doesn't even have to be their father anyone with a blood tie and is a male figure to them- a boy wants that praise almost needs that praise. I think it is very interesting how the game is constantly playing on the idea that the prince wants his father's approval. it is very realistic-and i like that, men even women can relate to that, no matter what age.

Race Vs. Ethnicity

Mostly everyone that i have spoken to does not know the difference between ethnicity and race. Sad huh? You would think that after everything people have gone thru in this country and the fact that Miami alone is one huge melting pot we would know the difference! Alas, we do not- so let me let you who don't know in on a little secret. Ethnicity is when real blood ties are shared or just assumed blood lines are shared. It is when we feel that we share something that comes from the same place. Within ethnicities we have sub-cultures. For example, one sub-culture that many may not consider is the gay culture. Race, is very different thing that confuses people left and right. Although many will nto agree with me there is only ONE race, the human race! Technically there is no biological definition of what race is, we just label people what we feel they are and that is their race. Race is seen by us humans as social categories, in other words its always a power struggle. The most powerful people are white which i think we all know and every other "race" is trying to claw their way up for a little taste of white people's power. It is not to say that ethnicities and race arent one in the same, they are very different but can in fact overlap, and yes, some races can be ethnic groups. But c'mon, if you sit and think about it it is so easy to see.....It is all a social construct. None of it is real!!!! it is all man made, it is made up by us!!! we take into account what we see with our eyes and because of how we were raised and by what we see on TV we automatically place the person where we want to place them in our minds. (black, white, hispanic etc) and when we place them in the category we choose to put them, we begin to think what we have been taught... this person is lazy... this person is bad... this person is good... Look we know that everyone is a little bit racist, there is no denying it! but i think we all need to grow up a little and say you know what, none of this is real, it is all made up, we are all people and DESERVE to be treated with the same respect and dignity.

The Culture of Power

Ahhhh the culture of power, something we very conveniently forget exists. Although we choose to live in our very comfortable bubble and carry on our daily lives thinking of only OUR problems does not mean that a culture of power does not exist. Lets be honest here- if you have not notcied that their is a culture of power wether it have to do with religion, gender, or ethnicity, it is probably because you ARE in that culture of power. Men, whites, Christian, these are all a culture of power. Just like we read in the article we all have atleast one trait about us that puts us in the majorirty and not in the margins. For example, although I am female and hispanic and that already margianlizes me, I am Chrisitan which makes me part of the majority. Most people do not even realize that this sort of thing exists because ethey are so comfortable. The truth is that the people who chose to be comfertable and chose not to walk in someone else's shoes will never help fix this.
The people who are maginalized like Jews, women, african americans etc. constantly feel the fact that they arent good enough and the majority has all the power, control, and respect. Everyone ignores the people whjo are off in the sidelines because as a society we automatically write them off-they scream and we dont hear nor listen to what they are saying, simply because we have put it in our minds that they dont know what they are talking about. It is up to us to stand up and fight for them. It is up for us to try and walk in their shoes and realize that not everyones life is as comfertable as us. Society will listen to the "in-group" it is in our hands to fight for the people who go unseen and unheard because of what WE have labeled them.
This sort of thing can be seen everywhere- even videogames. Usually in videogames the "good guy" is in fact a white male. The white male is either fighting against terrorists who are middle eastern or hispanics. The culture of power is defiantly seen in video games! We are so programmed to think that white males are in charge and anyone who is not white is less worthy we even have it in our video games. Although people do not notice this sort of thing, the fact of the matter is that it is in our videogames ans subconsiously we are confirming what societies rules seem to be. From a child when you are playing videogames it gets burned into your brain that the white guy is the good guy and that everyone else is the bad guy. How must the people who are maginalized feel when they see in video games that they are being depicted as the bad guy? The people who are in the culture of power never have to grapple with feelings like that because they are ALWAYS the good guy.
We must become more aware of ourselves in everyday life, in the media, and in our videogames. We must consider how others must feel when they are not the majority that is accepted, respected, and have all the power. Maybe once we are able to actually see life thru someone else's eyes we will be able to change things. The sad truth is that change is only going to come if the culture of power takes charge and starts changing the way things are. I am not optomisitc seeing that in this world is kill or be killed and in that sense everyone is looking out for themselves and do not care for people

eXistenZ

As decades pass, we as a society depict our fears in society thru film. The film eXistenZ directed by David Cronenberg is no different. This film takes our society's obsession of video gaming and really puts in under the microscope in a unique way. Many things can be taken a way from this film as to what our fears are about video gaming. One of the things I found the film was saying is that video gaming has made our society lazier than we have ever been. A perfect example is when Allegra tells Ted "C'mon you know no-one skies in real life anymore", they simply do it in their video games. We do not do anything physical anymore because we can have it at our finger tips right in our living room. As a result of a lot of our time being spent on playing video games we are lazy and in some cases overweight. Kids do not go outside and play football anymore, they sit in the living room playing the latest version of Madden. Kids spend so much time playing games that their work ethic and drive is non-existent which in turn creates lazy adults who do not contribute to society. Another thing that was seen in the film was video gaming as a addiction. Through out the game Allegra, one of the main characters in the film was constantly wanting to play every chance she got. Even when she was being hunted all she wanted to do was plug in. When they did port into the game they got such a sense of satisfaction that could not be beat. Video gaming is actually being treated now in clinics as an addiction and I think Cronenberg is trying to show us that this can be a leisurely thing but it can also be a dangerous thing. In the film the characters had ports which were installed right into their backs. True gamers I believe, would want something they could port into whenever they wanted. It helps show that now video gaming is so much apart of us, it is apart of everyday life for many people and is truly an addicting thing. What also got me thinking was the end of the film. Are they still in the game? or is this is fact reality? I think that since our video games are so realistic and people get so into it they do actually forget what is real and what is not. Especially for our younger generations it is troublesome because they try and mimic what they are doing in these games and think there is no consequence for their actions. Our society gets caught up in what we see, television, movies, as well as video games. We have trouble differentiating what is real and what is not because the technology is so realistic and simply because we give ourselves mentally so freely to video gaming and media.

I'm glad we saw this film. It's a given, this is something I would have never seen if not for my video game analysis class.I really enjoyed it, I loved how Cronenberg touched on so many different issues about of fears of video gaming so intelligently. He does not want to tell you exactly what he is trying to say- you have to think about it and work for it, which I love. Video gaming is going to continue to expand and become more and more realistic, there is no stopping it especially for those hard gamers out there. The question is, when is the realism of a game to realistic? I believe we are going to reach a point where video gaming is going to look a lot like eXistenZ. When that time comes, I think we are only going to be more destructive to our bodies, more addicted, and have even more trouble differentiating between real and fake. One can only hope that when that time comes we are able to deal with the blurred line between reality and virtual reality better than we do now.