Beauty and the Geek?!

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Okay, do you guys remember about Beauty and the Beast Walt Disney story? The story is about a pretty girl who falling in love with an ugly man (actually he is a handsome prince, but because he is very arrogant, he became a beast). I think in the real world, it is very rare that a good looking girl can falling in love with a boy who consider not attractive. What I mean is a real true love, not only because of something else (such as money). Of course it really depends on the person itself, but if it’s happened to you, do you want to marry someone who most people see him/her unattractive?
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Sometimes we have a schema about someone which we feel attractive. This schema (mental structure that represents some aspect of the world) is influenced our way of thinking to choose our “best” partner. This schema also can create a stereotype about other people appearance. A stereotype is a simplified and/or standardized conception or image with specific meaning, often held in common by people, it can be an opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the other group hold in common. For example, some people think that a good looking woman is a person who has skinny body, tall, long hair, etc. Or for guys, he must have muscle, tall, nice hairstyle and have a typical “fitness man” body. This schema and stereotype about people who consider as attractive can be influenced by media also. Nowadays media shown a lot of model who have “good looking” criteria and this also can construct our mind about people who consider attractive.

I remembered a story in a radio, it’s about a girl who is very shy because of her looks, she feels that she is unattractive therefore she decided to find online friends. Once, she has online friend (a boy) and after a while they decided to meet each other. She told the boy that maybe she is not a good looking girl, and she hopes after they meet they still can be friends. But as she expected, after meeting with the guy, he never contact the girl again. The girl was very disappointed, and wondering "do all boys like that? Are they only judging someone by her appearance?" There is a proverb that says “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, I agree with that. Sometimes what we see is not always true. For example people who dress very simple doesn’t mean that he/she is poor, maybe he/she is a millionaire who don’t want to “show off" that they are rich, we never know.

Our schema sometimes misleads us to judge and stereotype people. But beside of thinking about someone’s appearance, do we ever think about what is inner beauty? There is a TV show call “Beauty and the Geek”, it’s about attractive person VS unattractive person, usually they have a group of girls which is beautiful (usually a model) and a group of guys which is consider unattractive (usually a bookworm in a school). The goal is to be a couple that can get along and match with each other. This TV shows can be an example that “Geek” people, who consider unattractive, have ability or something special in him. So, once again, it’s not about the way they look, it’s about inner beauty. Beauty is not only about face or body; it’s more about what is in inside, it’s more about personality and not based on appearance. Every person is unique; there is no good or bad looking. I believe that everyone is special, regardless of their looks. So can we try to not judge people based on their appearance?

Good entertainment or bad influence? Parental Guide Pleasee..

Most of us of course like to watch cartoon, especially a funny cartoon. Nowadays we can easily watch cartoon in TV, DVD, or internet. But can we know whether the cartoon is a good one or contain a bad influence for us? I posted some cartoons video from youtube. Maybe you will think that the video is funny, but do you think it is suitable for children to watch?

We all know that children like watch cartoons at home, but do parents know what kind of cartoon their watch? As children grow these media influences become even more powerful. The media influences on children is not always a good influence and parents need to counteract this influence by discussing and monitoring what their children are exposed to.

There is no doubt that the media has an impact on a child, but does it really influence them to act out even though they know it’s wrong? Is the media that influential that it can make a child do something they would never think of doing, if not seen on the television? According to Dr. Susan Villani (1999), “there is an established body of evidence documenting the troubling behavioral effects of repeated exposure to media violence.”

In the Shin Chan video, it shows some nudity and also how this young generation doesn’t have any respect to the parents. Maybe we will think that the film is funny at some part, but is it a good example on how to teach our child about respect? In Simpson film, it shows about bully at school. Is it how we want our children do at school? And for the last film is showing violence. Maybe at first we will think that it is a cute cartoon, but without knowing the content we can be misjudge and let the children to watch it.

It has been suggested that cartoons need to have stricter ratings control stating exactly what type of content is included. It is recommended that parents occasionally watch cartoons with their kids and comment on the characters behaviour that they do and don't like, talk about the consequences of real world violence, and finally parents should try to limit the viewing of extremely violent cartoons. Also the media needs to try to improve the quality of their cartoons and be aware that young impressionable children and watching, learning and imitating.

References

Villani, S. (1999). Violence in the media. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,38,1208.

Is it a good cartoons? You decide..

Is this kind of cartoons are suitable for children?

Shin Chan Cartoon

Or if you cannot view this video, copy this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lw1yj4lGSs&feature=related

Western Uncle Gone Wild!

This is my story when I was waiting in a taxi stand. Last Friday I went to Vivo with my mum, after we finished shopping at about 9 PM, we felt very tired and decided to go home by taxi. We went to the taxi stand, and there was a long queue already. In front of me and my mum was a young man and in front of him was a western man. The time passed by slowly, and few taxis available that night. When I was queuing with my mum, this western man was speaking in his language; I didn’t know what language is that. I kept on waiting in line and did not care about what he said. But as time past by, he talked louder and louder, and it caught my attention; I was wondering what did he blabber about, because he talked like he was scolding someone, yet he talked to no one. Also, every taxi that passed by he was shouting “Here! Here!!” in an angry tone, and looked into the main gate where the taxi drop off the passenger. For once, he talked in English to a man behind him; he asked whether the taxi also take a passenger from the main gate. The man pretended not to hear him, maybe because he thought that the man is weird and he was listening to MP3 player at that time. As I looked into the main gate, I realized that this western man misunderstood about the taxi procedure in Vivo City. He did not know that the gate is for the taxi to drop off the passenger only. I understand that he was tired and frustrated as there were little taxis available during that time. I also wanted to go home because I have waited about an hour for a taxi. The western man became furious and he jumped from the taxi stand hedge and went angrily to the gate. As he went there, he stopped the taxi and immediately went inside the first taxi available, the first taxi driver asked him to go out from the taxi. So he went out, and stopped another taxi behind. The second taxi did not ask him to go out, but what I saw was the taxi driver explained him to wait in the taxi stand.

I’m trying not to judge his action, but I can’t control other people perception and thoughts. Because there were a lot of people saw the incident that day, social perceptions, which is how people form impression and make inferences about other people, are inevitable. People usually have some thought about other people behavior, which is in this case this western man. Maybe some people thought that this man was weird, or maybe the others feel that this man was annoyed.

We create our own reality with our thinking; something happens and we think about it. What we think determines our reaction and experience. Our minds are always busy making meaning of life events. The problem is that we don’t always know we are doing it. Over time this making of meaning becomes automatic and happens outside of awareness, that’s why it is called automatic thinking. It is automatic because we have practiced certain thoughts and reactions so often. The first think in my mind when I saw his behavior is he was tired and frustrated. I was tired myself, and was irritated by fact of few taxis were available at that time. As of this, it is how I see my emotional reactions; I felt that other people were also felt the same way to. They also tired and want to go home soon. But this western man with his anger cut the queue and takes the taxi from in front. I’m not blaming him because he misunderstood the rule, yet no one told him about it. So based on automatic thinking, other people will think that he is a weird man instead of telling him the rule.