Dr. Jane Caputi

Yesterday evening Doctor Jane Caputi, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, came to Morningside College to speak about her movie, Pornography in Everyday Life. She said pornography is being aroused by the use, overpowering or abuse of a person, commonly a girl. Her movie showed a series of images and clips where women were treated as sex objects, toys, and slaves to their master. Other images showed men dominating women, or comparing them to some thing to be controlled; a car is one example of this. There were also clips of Dr. Caputi speaking about the images and how these images came to be “accepted.” After viewing the movie Pornography in Everyday Life, we had a discussion on thoughts and feelings from the audience.
Overall I felt that this was an extremely interesting topic, and not something I had thought long about in the past. It really made me wonder how many people feel they should be over powered, or over powering, their partner, or even other people in their life. It was also fascinating to hear what reactions were of some of the audience members. I believe by the way some people spoke after watching the movie that they don’t see how deeply they have been influenced by some of these pictures that they have been seeing their whole life. Most people tend to not pay close attention to what is shown in an advertisement, other than the product(s) being advertised. This is were subliminal messaging and product placement become normal, and ethically tolerable.
Personally, I really like subliminal messaging, but it is almost always found as being used in a bad way. Often it shows how drugs or alcohol is marketed to children, or violence is shown in video games and movies. I don’t normally hear about how porn and even ads subliminally say that overpowering and dominating women is not only all right, but something that we should actually do. Something that women should enjoy being dominated and men should enjoy using women as objects. I hadn’t actually heard of this as a problem before, but after watching Pornography in Everyday Life I relized just how common this really is. And in some ways I have even been affected by these messages. I frequently read postsecret, an online blog where people send their secrets on post cards, and they are posted every week. Last week one caught my eye, and it ties directly into this discussion.
Also, when asked during the discussion if Dr. Caputi thought that men and women shouldn’t like the slave and master domination, she said to each their own, but it should be their choice. This made me feel better about how I view some aspects of how life is portrayed in the media. I honestly think that it was very good for her to mention that sex is still something that can be done in the slave and master idea, but it should be up to the partners, not a forced thing.

X

The other day (like last week) Jessica had us do a reading on Malcolm X, and his pilgrimage to Mecca. I really enjoyed this reading, even though it was a little long. I like the writing style of this chapter and kind of want to read the rest of the book. At first I was like, “yay,” another reading for class...but once I started reading I really got into the story and how everyone was trying to help X. It started with people, some of his friends and co-workers encouraging him to go to Mecca. Then his sister paid his way with money she had saved up for herself. Once he started his journey it seemed as though X didn't have problems making friends very quickly, although he only spoke English and most everyone else didn't speak English. One thing I noticed is that he kept referring to his race, and the race of others. It made me wonder how he was treated previously, obviously poorly, and why he was treated that way. Was it really because he is black and living in America? It also made me think, because he seemed rather racist against white people, in the way he spoke of the people he met on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Pilgrimage

I am the type of person that gets bored and fidgety when we have to sit still and listen to a teacher lecture for hours, or more than 15 minutes. I like when we move around and when class is interactive, so I really enjoy Jessica's teaching style and the way our religion class is taught. Last week on Thursday we took a mini-pilgrimage around campus for class, and I really remember more that way. We started with the ritual cleaning of the body, by washing our hands just outside our classroom door. Next, we found that the first and last part of a Hajj is the Kaaba, and we walked around it counter-clockwise, seven times; just like they do on an actual Hajj. We walked to our school's learning center to run between the hills looking for water, just as Hagar had done for Ishmael in the desert. Then Jessica provided us with bottled water to make it more accurate. After that, in a normal Hajj they go to the top of Hira, a mountain near Mecca. We went to the science center, the highest point on campus. This is where the Muslims go for judgment, and some believe that what you are wearing when you go to Hira is what you will be wearing at the end of the world. After standing on the mountain all day the Muslims look for 49 stones to throw at three pillars, symbolic of the meetings with the devil and temptation. We had ping-pong balls and the oblisic in front of the learning center, but it was the same concept. Last, they sacrifice a lamb, but we ate chocolate instead, and I liked that better. I don't want to sacrifice an animal, and I know we have vegetarians in our class who really wouldn't want to do that. Overall, it was a fun experience and I learned a lot from it.