Dear Carl's Jr.

I am writing to address your advertisements, specifically the sexual nature of them. I think it is very wrong and very unnecessary to have over-sexualized women in your advertisements. The purpose of an advertisement is to talk about and describe your product to try and convince consumers that your product is good and worth buying. This is not what you are doing, from a consumer’s standpoint. Instead of glorifying your product in your commercials, you are glorifying the degradation and over-sexualization of women. Women were not created with the sole purpose of providing sexual pleasure for others. Women are strong and intelligent individuals and they are worth way more than just their bodies. If young girls grow up watching your commercials and looking at your advertisements, they are going to grow up believing their main role in life is to look good and please others. Commercials and advertisements have very strong effects on people, especially young people. They can alter the way young people see the world and themselves. After being brain washed with your commercials, young girls are going to lose hope in ever becoming more than their bodies. Girls everywhere are already bombarded with pictures and articles telling them how to look. They do not need to see it during fast food commercials too. Even older women feel bad about themselves after watching your advertisements. I am 22 years old, and after seeing your advertisements, I start to feel bad about myself because I don’t look like the women in your advertisements. This is crazy. Is this what you want to do to women all over the world? Make us feel ugly, fat, and worthless? If that is what your goal is, then you are succeeding. Would you want your wife, sister, or daughter starring in your advertisements? I don’t think so. Because you know their worth. You know they deserve more than to be over-sexualized. You know they deserve more than to be objectified. How can you continue to do this to so many women in your advertisements? Your advertisements are offending and hurting people everywhere, of all ages. And in doing this, you are ultimately hurting your business too. I have not spent one penny at your restaurants because of these damaging advertisements, and I will continue to not spend even a penny at your restaurants until you change your advertisements. Please take the time to at least think about the damaging effects your advertisements have on people before continuing to produce them.

xo
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General Conference

Isn't is so cool that we can all be a part of General Conference through media? Because of the internet, television, radio, and other forms of media, we can all experience conference together. Even if we cannot watch it or hear it while it's going on, all of the talks are printed in magazines. Isn't this so cool? Media can be used for such good things! A goal I have for myself is to focus on the good things in media and the things that can uplift us through media. It is so easy to focus on the negative aspects of media, but there are some really great things too.

I am so grateful for modern technology, especially during General Conference, so it's as if we are all there together in the Conference Center.


xo
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Technoference

Technoference is the term that refers to "technology interfering with relationships". We talked about technoference in our last class and it really got me thinking about how technology affects my relationship with my husband. Unfortunately, as I started observing technoference in my life in general, I realized it occurred way more than it should in my marriage.

My husband works for an IT company, so he is ALWAYS on his laptop and his phone. This is normal for him since it's part of his job, but it becomes a problem when it takes over our alone time we have together. Of course, I am part of the problem too. Once I started monitoring the technoference in our relationship, I realized that while my husband is sitting with me and trying to have a conversation with me, I'M ON MY PHONE. Like what? I rarely get time to be with him, so I have no idea why this is happening. I think it's just one of my bad habits. Also, every time we eat dinner, we eat in front of the TV. I guess we do this because it's any easy way to wind down for the day, but seriously, these are some bad habits we really need to get rid of.

Since then, I have been very conscious about when I am on my phone. I try to put it down more and focus on the one thing I am actually doing, trying to not pick it up every 15 minutes to see what's new on Facebook. Especially when I am with my husband, I do NOT use it unless I'm showing him a  funny video I saved to show him. Also, my husband and I discussed technoference together, and we decided that we would eat dinner at our kitchen table like normal people instead of eating in front of the TV so we could have that extra time to talk and catch up with one another. We also decided that when he was done with work for the day, he would try to leave his computer alone so we could spend time together without that interference. Of course there will be exceptions when he needs to work late or keep calling a client throughout the night until he reaches him, but it's already made a difference in our relationship after like 2 days. We have realized that spending quality time is really important to our relationship and our feelings, so we are making it a goal to always have some alone time every night without any technoference.


xo
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Follow up on Dr. Coyne's Gender and the Media Lecture

I apologize in advance- this is not the most eloquent piece of writing. I just had a lot of thoughts. So here they are:


Dr. Coyne's lecture on Gender and the Media was life changing for me. I don't know if it was for anyone else, but it really stuck with me (probably because everything she talked about literally described how I felt when looking at media). I have always longed for the "perfect body" that every woman has on TV and in magazines. Doing this and constantly comparing myself to others really started hurting me. I felt really bad about myself and felt pretty worthless because of my outward appearance. This is CRAZY, but I think it's a common effect of media on lots of people.

After Dr. Coyne's lecture, I decided to change. I was so motivated from what she was lecturing, I knew I had the power to feel better about myself and not be as effected by what I see around me. Right after class, I deleted every person  didn't personally know that I was following on Instagram. I used to look to these strangers that I felt had "perfect lives" to inspire me to be better. However, they always had the opposite effect and made me feel less as a woman because I didn't look like them or didn't have as cute or as clean of a house as they did.

I also decided to stop comparing myself to others (or I started trying my hardest not to compare myself to others- trust me, I still mess up time to time). Every time I have a negative thought about myself, I basically call myself out for doing it. It has extremely helped me to try and look at everyone (including myself) as a child of our Heavenly Father. This makes it much harder to criticize yourself FYI. I used to look at other girls and long for their beautiful hair or their small waist and make myself feel awful. But now if I catch myself noticing things that I admire about other people- I focus on doing that- ADMIRING. Not envying. Now when I notice something I used to be jealous of on another person, I think "Wow, she has such beautiful hair. I am so happy for her. I bet she's so nice too". (or something to that effect- that sounded cheesy) It really helps me to think about another aspect of that person that does not involve their appearance. For instance, thinking "I bet she's so nice" to myself, helps me see her as a real person and helps me think less about only her appearance. We all deserve to be thought of for more than our appearance. Appearance really doesn't matter in the end. We are all PEOPLE. Not OBJECTS. And then I think to myself "My hair is not that bad. And that is not my defining feature. I have a husband who loves me, I'm at a great school, my family loves me the way I am. They think I'm alright so I should too". I know that sounds extremely dumb but it has changed the way I live! Now, I think more about my worth than my appearance. And I focus on other people's worth too! We all have it! And that is my favorite feature about everyone! We are all doing the best we can with what we have- so let's help each other and ourselves by not comparing.

And compliment someone if you notice something you admire about them! In my experience, when I notice something about someone else that I admire and I compliment them on it, the receiver of the compliment perks up and I perk up because I have made someone's day better. Spread joy!

xo
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P.S. Since doing this, my husband tells me how much happier I seem- and it's TRUE. Comparison is the thief of joy.

PLL

Guys. So I know Pretty Little Liars came out when I was in, like, 8th grade. But what can I say? I'm a late bloomer! So I got hooked on this show like a week ago, and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit it. I think I'm drawn to this show because A) I love drama and B) I still feel like I'm in high school, so I totally relate. This is why I tend to watch lots of high school dramas like Gossip Girl and 90210. Again, this is so embarrassing but it's so real.

From taking SFL 358, I analyze every show I watch. When I was thinking about this show and how it compares to Gossip Girl, 90210, and other high school dramas, I noticed one major difference. There is pretty much no sexual content (in season 1). However, as we started watching season 2, there is more. Interesting, eh? I wonder why? Is it because they wanted more viewers? Is it because the characters got older, so they could talk about more mature themes? I have no idea. At first, I was so impressed because I feel like sexual content is super hard to escape on TV. I was thinking this is an interesting, still dramatic, show for high schoolers to watch that wouldn't influence them to have sex at an early age. But then season 2 came on. Dang it. But even if there was NO sexual content in this show, there is still such a high level of relational aggression in this show that could affect teens watching this (or people that are a little older than teens- like me).

Are there any shows for teenagers that don't feature relational aggression in them? I can't even think of ONE. Crazy. This makes me wonder if it's having an affect on me...?


xo
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P.S. Please don't tell me who A is. Thanks.

Are family values still shown on current TV shows?

My husband and I finished Fuller House in like two days when it came out and it really got me thinking about what the differences were between Fuller House and Full House. In my post last week, I talked about how I thought Fuller House was more focused on the comedy aspect and the cast-is-back-together aspect. Although it was entertaining, I wish it was more focused on family values like Full House is.

This got my husband and I thinking, so we decided to watch Full House all the way through from the beginning! We are only one season in, but it is drastically different from Fuller House. We love the cheesy lines, the cheesy music, and the family lesson teaching moments. It's adorable and we love how focused it is on the family.

This got us thinking even further. I believe Full House was mainly based on teaching and showing good family values on TV. Are there any shows on TV right now that do the same thing? I can't think of any. Even on Disney channel, I believe that these are made purely for entertainment and they do not have any real teaching/learning value. (unless I'm just watching the wrong shows) Anyway, I wish there were more family friendly shows on TV nowadays. In my opinion, everything is oversexualized and created for mindless entertainment. What do you think?


xo
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Fuller House

As you all know, Fuller House premiered this week on Netflix! I was a die hard fan of Full House, so you know I was way excited for this to happen.

So I haven't watched all of the episodes yest, but I can pretty much tell you that I love it. It totally gave me the feels seeing the whole cast (minus some characters) back together again! Especially Uncle Jesse ;)

Although part of this show is totally directed towards kids, I think this show is definitely for the adults who were hooked on the original show. This is a great example of how media companies attract and keep audiences/consumers. We, 90s kids who loved Full House, are automatically going to watch this new show because the first one captured our hearts.

I think I still prefer Full House because it was more tied to family values and I think Fuller House is more comedy-focused, but I will still watch every episode of Fuller House because duh. What can I say? I'm a true fan.


xo
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