Toronto Star Article related to romance novels

“But there's nothing we like more than NEARLY kissing each other near some horses. I always try to look hot in front of him so he doesn’t leave me.”
- best quote!


The full article can be seen here: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/972759--couple-re-enacts-harlequin-romance-book-covers?bn=1

Romance in the media

Fairy-tale romance. Taking the literal meaning of the word itself, the word fairy tale refers to a "fanciful tale that talks about legendary deeds," meaning that it is obviously something far from reality. Yet the media portrays this ideal as achievable, and it is often seen on reality shows such as the Bachelor, or Bachelorette.

Shows such as these portray myths and stereotypes around love and courtship which will often fail to succeed in current times. In fact of all the bachelors that have happened, none of them have stayed committed to their relationship. One would think that this would deter the audiences from believing in their storytelling and construction on love and relationships, but somehow the audience keeps being dragged in. Maybe it is because the show is an escape, because it provides for them something that would not occur in their everyday life. Either way, the idea of that beautiful vulnerable woman, and the strong man still runs throughout the media - be it in a reality show such as the Bachelor, or a scripted television show such as Mad Men.

Being Canadian

What does being Canadian mean? Everyone has a different answer, and different idea on what being a Canadian means to them. For an outsider being a Canadian is probably defined by a beer ad: we are people who live in the cold, play hockey, wear fur, say 'eh' a lot, drink beer, and have policemen that ride horses.

Of course, being a part of Canada, we know that this is far from the truth. Some of these stereotypes do apply, but more importantly one of the greatest things about being a Canadian is the acceptance of being whoever you are. It is in Canada that all the different cultures of the world have come together, to mix, and build new traditions, and systems. To many families, including mine, Canada was the place you could come to make a better life, and where working hard meant that you would eventually become successful.

In 2007, a journalist once wrote, "The Canadian Identity, as it has come to be known, is as elusive as the Sasquatch. It has animated--and frustrated-- generations of statesmen, historians, writers, artists, philosophers, and film... Canada resists easy definition."

But maybe it is our resistance to be defined, that allows us to maintain our true identity of being a nation that accepts everyone, allowing people to maintain their culture and traditions while building new ones.

Anyways, on that note, I just wanted to leave people with this video I was sent a few weeks ago, about the "average American" view on Canada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjih-WBqqM

The Carnivalesque and April Fool's Day

As April Fool's Day passed by last week, I thought it interesting to reflect on the carnivalesque nature of the holiday. In the third part of his essay on "From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse", Bakhtin points out that the Cyprian feasts of the Middle Ages allowed people to parody normally sombre sacred ceremonies and mock religious authority figures. Similarly, it seems to me that April Fool's Day, particularly on the Internet, allows companies and other content creators to mock things that are normally seen as serious rituals and events. For instance, last year, social news website Reddit.com made granted all users administrator privileges, thereby reversing the website's usual hierarchy and letting the servants become the masters, as it were. Similarly, following its usual tradition of mock product announcements, Google pretended to launch Google Motion, which claimed to allow users to type in e-mails using gesture control. The video mocked the tone and enthusiasm usually found in product launch videos, with Google employees acting out ridiculous gestures in order to create e-mails. It also parodied videos created by Microsoft and Sony in marketing their motion-based videogame software (Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move) in ways that may not normally have been acceptable for a corporation. In short, therefore, it seems that April Fool's Day lets users and companies on the Internet indulge in carnivalesque parodies and mockeries similar to those found during the Cyprian Feasts.

Smoking: Hot or Cool?

I found our class discussion on “Hot vs. Cool” to be very enthralling, however there was one item that I found particularly troubling in regards to the classification procedure. Lauren Bacall, I believe, did not belong in the “hot” category. To me, Bacall represents one of the absolute prime examples of “Feminine Cool.” There was a conspicuous underrepresentation of women in the “Cool” category, which at first struck me as potentially discriminatory (not necessarily exclusive to the attitude of the class, but of popular media and culture in general), and, in line with our discussion, seemed to me to provide evidence for the legitimacy of the sexist view of women as being strictly “hot” commodities vs. men as being iconic creators and innovators. However, upon further scrutiny, androgyny and transgressiveness in general seemed to be a prevalent theme in the “cool” category: from Isabella Rossellini to David Bowie. Lauren Bacall certainly did not fall in line with many of the contemporaneous standards of femininity required of the proto-typical Hollywood starlet of her time, although she was incredibly striking to look at. One of the most iconic shots is of her smoking a cigarette in “To Have and Have Not;” a very masculine, and what used to be, a “cool” activity.

Which leads me to the questions, and to somewhat of a tangent shift: how has smoking managed to transition from identifiably “cool” to “hot”? Or is it neither? Is “hot” necessarily always bad? Smoking to me epitomizes how activities are subject to the contemporaneous ideologies and attitudes of a particular time. It seems that the once “cool” smoking past time has been overshadowed, and discriminated against, by the “cool” green eco-friendly trend; a shift from a contemplative self-indulgence to an active philanthropic indulgence. The latter now chastises the former for its selfishness and through attempts to eradicate its presence from public spaces, it has elevated the idea and the rights of the environment and the community against those of the individual, which somewhat conflicts with the fact that smoking is often a social activity. Although the green trend’s scope and ambition seems to be long-reaching and potentially timeless (Harrison’s criteria for “cool” as per our class discussion), it is just that: a trend. That is not to say environmentalism is included in this; I am referencing a particular movement that was launched by environmentalist beliefs and ideals, and that is the highly commercial green/eco-friendly movement that is very heavily steeped in consumerism and subject to marketing tactics, and therefore is highly individualistic and it remains unsure as to whether or not people will awake to this hypocrisy.

Which brings me back to Bacall: smoking, once a pervasive motif in classic cinema, has been actively protested against and almost entirely eliminated, and yet people still react positively to Bacall’s scene in “To Have and Have Not” in which she smokes. Does smoking, or watching others smoking, present some kind of outlet for contemporary audiences and a nostalgia for something lost from our culture? To close, I see smoking torn between “cool” and “hot;” while its health risks are now well-known, people cannot seem to escape its ambiguous allure which connotes selfish, care-free attitude and, especially for women, a space in which to transgress against feminine ideals of selflessness and cleanliness.

Romance Novel and the Masculine Other

What struck me the most about our class discussion about the traditional romance novel, was the observation that was referenced in a class discussion that the traditional romance novel's conceptualization of the gender dynamic is a palpable inversion of the "nature is to woman as culture is to man." Women are conceived as civilizing agents of culture through their commitment to the institution of marriage, which, through its endorsement of the nuclear family and the simultaneous requirement that men serve as the sole breadwinners, transforms the role of the family into serving as an obedient unit of production. The idea that women are "taking charge" or are the dominant figure of the family in this particular depiction is an illusory one, as they ultimately serve a very patriarchal function which is to preserve the subordinate role of the family to the state.

Although a lot of focus was obviously, and justifiably, on women in regards to this topic, I would be interested in turning the critical gaze on the depiction of men in not only romance novels, but in popular culture and indeed in everyday media regarding diverse topics, such as news and medical commentaries, etc. “Our” everyday view of men, it would seem to me, has been overwhelmingly influenced by a very traditional socio-biological view: they are the "simpler" sex, as magazine articles often characterize them, especially via widely consumed women's popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan; they are enslaved to the corporeal, and therefore excluded from being properly subjectivized due to the "primitive" sexuality attributed to them. Therefore, I would be so bold as to propose that there is a certain “Othering” of men occurring in this type of discourse; a discriminatory linking them to animality and thus a denial of the social and psychological forces that shape both their subjective and objective identities.

In their indiscriminate pursuit of objectified female bodies, men are “zombie-like” in being denied a sexual subjectivity. However, on the contrary, woman’s very subjectivity is used against her in the romance novel as justification for sexual assault or rape; the discursive strategies that frame her internal monologue insinuate doubt as she simultaneously rejects her perceptibly “true” feelings towards male advances, and thus alleviates the guilt of the male perpetrator. In the incredibly cerebral and existential* romance novel that I chose to read for class entitled “Annie and the Red Hot Italian,” masculinity and femininity are conceived in oppositional linguistic terms: masculinity is hard, inert, and stubborn; femininity is soft, flighty, and malleable. Both of these conceptualizations of women and men deny agency and individuality, in different ways. Women suffer due to the imbalanced power dynamic at work within sexual difference, and men suffer due the inability to recognize their subjectivity. So, although much criticism has been directed against depictions of femininity in romance novels, I think a critical investigation of stereotypical portrayals of men in popular culture would be very useful to not only general social theory but feminist theoretical work on these subjects.

In pointing out the male discrimination that occurs in both the traditional romance novel and in everyday life, I am in no way attempting to deflect attention away from the female discrimination or suggest that the female discrimination that occurs is less important. I am simply trying to acknowledge that the scope of the discrimination that occurs is much broader and extends to both of the sexes and create different levels of harm. The traditional romance novel dynamic undergirds even our contemporary perception of sexual difference.

*Sarcasm

I have spent the last few days trying to find a commercial on YouTube that I had seen a few times in the last couple of weeks. In my last effort, I sat at my laptop tonight searching when it came on the TV!...twice! Unfortunately, I still can't find it on the internet anywhere. Either way, the commercial interested me because the majority of the commercial is spent discussing how Canadians have no problem being in cold weather (showing people strutting down the street barely bundled up), and therefore, why shouldn't they wash their clothes in cold water with Tide! Don't ask me how this is related to being Canadian... I just thought it was interesting to see how a brand like Tide uses Canadian stereotypes to somehow promote the sales of their product. It was interesting to see how they used these "shared hardships" in order to create a kind of imagined community, connecting Canadians in this way and promoting their product.

Hip Hop in Japan

In a lecture of Black & White, I remember that we talked about Hip Hop as an anti-hegemonic culture. People who are marginalized in their real life commercialized their ghetto image by rapping. In a context of world Hip Hop artist such as Arab artist in France, Turkish artist in Germany, Professor Kalmar mentioned about possibilities of Korean artist in Japan since small amount of Koreans stays in Japan and it is often said that they had suffered discriminations historically. As I was curious about this, I researched a little bit. Surprisingly, one of the most popular rapper called ‘VERBAL’ was a third generations of Korea, and his nationality was actually Korean. I am pretty sure that not a lot of people know about this even in Japan, and he never mentioned or used this idea commercially. He rather uses his international experiences as marketing since he had studied in American University. I think it is because Hip Hop itself is just imported to Japan from States and its culture itself is not related to grass rooted culture at all. We are also not expressive about hardship itself. I think its radical commercialized image just did not fit into cultures like Japan.

Why would you say that?

In relation to a previous blog entry by Esther, entitled “Rape on TV”, I chose to discuss a recent event that happened in Toronto called the SlutWalk.

This walk was initiated after Toronto police constable Michael Sanguinetti told a personal security class at York University that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

I believe that this comment by Michael Sanguinetti quite clearly is linked to the discussions we had earlier this year in relation to how romance and sexual acts are represented in romance novels. In these novels, the male character’s sexual advances are usually rejected by the female character, however the male character continues to make these advances with an inherent knowledge that the female character actually wants them.

Also, I found that in the romance novel that I read for class, Tempting the Texas Tycoon by Sara Orwig, when the story was being narrated by the male character, he would usually be describing either her dress or actions as inviting, even if what the female character was actually saying was the opposite.

This premise is similar to the one that was suggested by police constable Sanguinetti’s comment; that when women dress in a certain way (and also act a certain way), they is implicitly giving men the invitation to engage in sexual acts, despite whatever verbal protests the woman might actually be making.

This also relates to the lecture we had relating to pornography and its affect on both men and women who watch it. The learned idea of male sexual power and force as normalcy, which is common in pornography, is one that is again reflected in police constable Sanguinetti’s; his comment implies that it is a logical conclusion that if a male’s sexual power and force towards a woman is expected in sexual interactions.

An article by CBC about the SlutWalk, which took place this past Sunday, can be read here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/04/03/slut-walk-toronto.html?ref=rss

Curious about Cool

"Ah," she cried, "you look so cool."

Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.

"You always look so cool," she repeated.

She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw."

— F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

The above is a a famous excerpt from one of my favourite books. Daisy, the speaker, is saying this to Gatsby, a lover from the past, while her husband Tom watches. The dynamics are not totally clear if you're not familiar with the story and its setting in the Roaring Twenties. The statement about "looking cool" is one that sticks and what I thought of when we covered the topic of Hot and Cool in class. This book was written and set in the 1920s which is before the use of 'cool' as we discussed in class came about. I actually feel like it refers to a slightly different sentiment: look at this clip of the dialogue from the 1974 film version with Robert Redford, scroll to 8:21.

To me, Gatsby is anything but cool, as is evident from the video as well. First, he literally seems to be sweating (yes I know that isn't the opposite of cool as we mean it, but it does add to negating the cool of 'coolness'). Secondly, from the story, we know that Gatsby is someone who is trying very hard, not just at being cool, but really to woo Daisy (who is kind of shallow and idiotic) and so become all she seems to covet materially.

Another thought that came to mind during lecture, and I believe others will be more familiar with this one, is this clip from 'Almost Famous'. Start watching from 2:55.

In case you don't wanna watch, "William’s mentor and fellow music critic Lester Bangs offers a frightening prophecy for rock and roll: You missed it. Rock and roll is dead. It’s nothing more than an industry of cool. And of course, as everyone knows, trying to be cool is uncool." (taken from http://www.next-wave.org/apr01/cool.htm)

Here, cool refers to the meaning we understood in class. But it raises an interesting and inherent characteristic of 'cool': it okay to be cool, but its very uncool to TRY to be cool. That makes me wonder what Fitzgerald's meaning was when he used it in 1925. From the text and Daisy's generally flakey and silly personality, I always inferred it to mean something like the 196os cool. Is it irony then that Fitzgerald was going for? By trying to very hard to be cool, Gatsby is positively uncool. Yet Daisy calls him cool, maybe because compared to her own 'normal' expected existence, Gatsby comes across as this cool, mysterious person who walks out and walks back in to her life as he pleases? Despite his apparent lack of cool, I still feel terribly sad about Gatsby; his trying, instead of being pathetic (which some think it was), was passionate to me and showed his utter desperation. I find that very sad.

This post is a bit rambling and I'm not really trying to make a point, just wanted to muse aloud about some things that ran through my mind while wondering about the quality of 'cool'.

WARNING: Our School is TOO Asian!!!

First and foremost, I just want to be clear that I am not posting this article due to the fact that I am Asian. I simply wanted to share it with everyone because I think it parallels quite nicely with our lecture on Of Colour and White. As well, I believe the degree of controversy it has attained, both for the University of Toronto and for Maclean's itself, is definately worth paying attention to.

This Maclean's article was originally titled, "Too Asian" but was later renamed due to its controversial attributes. As you read, keep in mind the idea from class that "'white' is not a race" but an unmarked standard of normalcy.

In this article, it is clear "Asian" has become a substitute or the new "Black" or as blatantly expressed in the article, the new "Jew"; issues of race that we discussed in class. Simply being Asian in a university has become a marked characteristic worthy of criticism. And apparently, this marked characteristic has been discouraging young white Americans as well as disturbing univeristy admissions officers to the extent that imposing a limit on Asian applicants has even become a reality.

As you read the following article, try and think about which stereotypes are marked and normalized by both white and Asian parties and subsequently, how they perceive race... Enjoy!

The enrollment controversy*
Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrollment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada

When Alexandra and her friend Rachel, both graduates of Toronto’s Havergal College, an all-girls private school, were deciding which university to go to, they didn’t even bother considering the University of Toronto. “The only people from our school who went to U of T were Asian,” explains Alexandra, a second-year student who looks like a girl from an Aritzia billboard. “All the white kids,” she says, “go to Queen’s, Western and McGill.”

Alexandra eventually chose the University of Western Ontario. Her younger brother, now a high school senior deciding where he’d like to go, will head “either east, west or to McGill”—unusual academic options, but in keeping with what he wants from his university experience. “East would suit him because it’s chill, out west he could be a ski bum,” says Alexandra, who explains her little brother wants to study hard, but is also looking for a good time—which rules out U of T, a school with an academic reputation that can be a bit of a killjoy.

Or, as Alexandra puts it—she asked that her real name not be used in this article, and broached the topic of race at universities hesitantly—a “reputation of being Asian.”

Discussing the role that race plays in the self-selecting communities that more and more characterize university campuses makes many people uncomfortable. Still, an “Asian” school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun. Indeed, Rachel, Alexandra and her brother belong to a growing cohort of student that’s eschewing some big-name schools over perceptions that they’re “too Asian.” It’s a term being used in some U.S. academic circles to describe a phenomenon that’s become such a cause for concern to university admissions officers and high school guidance counsellors that several elite universities to the south have faced scandals in recent years over limiting Asian applicants and keeping the numbers of white students artificially high.

Although university administrators here are loath to discuss the issue, students talk about it all the time. “Too Asian” is not about racism, say students like Alexandra: many white students simply believe that competing with Asians—both Asian Canadians and international students—requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they’re not willing to make. They complain that they can’t compete for spots in the best schools and can’t party as much as they’d like (too bad for them, most will say). Asian kids, meanwhile, say they are resented for taking the spots of white kids. “At graduation a Canadian—i.e. ‘white’—mother told me that I’m the reason her son didn’t get a space in university and that all the immigrants in the country are taking up university spots,” says Frankie Mao, a 22-year-old arts student at the University of British Columbia. “I knew it was wrong, being generalized in this category,” says Mao, “but f–k, I worked hard for it.”

That Asian students work harder is a fact born out by hard data. They tend to be strivers, high achievers and single-minded in their approach to university. Stephen Hsu, a physics prof at the University of Oregon who has written about the often subtle forms of discrimination faced by Asian-American university applicants, describes them as doing “disproportionately well—they tend to have high SAT scores, good grades in high school, and a lot of them really want to go to top universities.” In Canada, say Canadian high school guidance counsellors, that means the top-tier post-secondary institutions with international profiles specializing in math, science and business: U of T, UBC and the University of Waterloo. White students, by contrast, are more likely to choose universities and build their school lives around social interaction, athletics and self-actualization—and, yes, alcohol. When the two styles collide, the result is separation rather than integration.

The dilemma is this: Canadian institutions operate as pure meritocracies when it comes to admissions, and admirably so. Privately, however, many in the education community worry that universities risk becoming too skewed one way, changing campus life—a debate that’s been more or less out in the open in the U.S. for years but remains muted here. And that puts Canadian universities in a quandary. If they openly address the issue of race they expose themselves to criticisms that they are profiling and committing an injustice. If they don’t, Canada’s universities, far from the cultural mosaics they’re supposed to be—oases of dialogue, mutual understanding and diversity—risk becoming places of many solitudes, deserts of non-communication. It’s a tough question to have to think about.

Asian-Canadian students are far more likely to talk about and assert their ethnic identities than white students. “I’m Asian,” says 21-year-old Susie Su, a third-year student at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. “I do have traditional Asian parents. I feel the pressure of finding a good job and raising a good family.” That pressure helps shape more than just the way Su handles study and school assignments; it shapes the way she interacts with her colleagues. “If I feel like it’s going to be an event where it’s all white people, I probably wouldn’t want to go,” she says. “There’s a lot of just drinking. It’s not that I don’t like white people. But you tend to hang out with people of the same race.”

Catherine Costigan, a psychology assistant prof at the University of Victoria, says it’s unsurprising that Asian students are segregated from “mainstream” campus life. She cites studies that show Chinese youth are bullied more than their non-Asian peers. As a so-called “model minority,” they are more frequently targeted because of being “too smart” and “teachers’ pets.” To counter peer ostracism and resentment, Costigan says Chinese students reaffirm their ethnicity.

The value of education has been drilled into Asian students by their parents, likely for cultural and socio-economic reasons. “It’s often described that Asians are the new Jews,” says Jon Reider, director of college counselling at San Francisco University High School and a former Stanford University admissions officer. “That in the face of discrimination, what you do is you study. And there’s a long tradition in Chinese culture, for example, going back to Confucius, of social mobility based on merit.”

- Stephanie Findlay and Nicholas Köhler on Wednesday, November 10, 2010


Also Read Comments Online: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/

Black Comedy as the new Black Face

(The Clip does have A LOT of swearing and reference to sexual material so be warn when watching)

Thinking about the lecture on the relationship between Black and White, I was really interested in the way that the characters form Spike Lee’s movie bamboozled characterized their idea of what it was to be black. Putting on a black face and parading themselves in over exaggerated stereotype about black people and the black community. In the movie, the exaggerating of black character could symbolize two things. One, as a coping method in which to deal with the pressures they felt as part of the black community and another a way liberating themselves and controlling the jokes said about them. This idea about creating exaggerating character about the black community in also seen in modern comedy where there is a entirely distinctive genre dedicated for back humor. Jokes such as “yo mama…” “he was so black…..” and “I am so ghetto…” all buy into black oriented stereotypes. The jokes, besides there hilarity, often hold deep and hurtful ideas that are rooted in years of prejudice. Even in the video clip, he often refers himself as lazy, unemployed and poor, claiming at the beginning of his act that it was relating to his real life. He often also makes a lot of jokes regarding his mother, whom not only could not provide for them as kids but also was also addicted to drugs and suffered abuse. Although these are serious issues, he addresses them with exaggerated humor ad funny anecdotes as a way to make it easy for everyone to accept it. Comedy is seen as the taking of the ordinary life events is portraying them in a humours way, and in some way, the idea of black comedy sort of reaffirms these ideas as they take prejudice they feel as a community and add movie to it as a means to deal with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgTPodsq3Aw

Rape on TV

Janice Radway analyzed the complexities of concept in romance novels, which blurs the line between rape and romance. I found it specifically provoking that something so unassuming as a romance novel could have the power to alter the rules of everyday erotic encounters as well as what is considered rape under the law. However, upon further investigation, it was revealed to me that the distinction between seduction and aggression is constantly being blurred in popular culture: on TV, in the movies, in comments by the Toronto police. Take for example, the award winning show Mad Men, in which 1960s power dynamic between men and women underlies all sexual encounters. When acts of coercion and sexual assault are portrayed on the show, audiences hotly debate whether or not rape actually occurred. Our culture teaches us to excuse rape, to rationalize it away.

Here are three instances of sexual assault or coercion, all of which have been hotly debated by TV audiences.

1. Season 2 Episode 3: Bobbie uses her sexuality as a bargaining chip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDY9Zs5XWvo

2. Season 3 Episode 8: Pete and the Nanny


3. Season 2 Episode 12: Joan is raped by her fiancé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6zZYCb-hyQ

Would you consider these events rape?

In an interview, Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan, is quoted saying,

“ The rape was a shocker—but the audience reactions were perhaps more disturbing. “What’s astounding is when people say things like, ‘Well, you know that episode where Joan sort of got raped?’ Or they say rape and use quotation marks with their fingers,” says Hendricks. “I’m like, ‘What is that you are doing? Joan got raped!’ It illustrates how similar people are today, because we’re still questioning whether it’s a rape. It’s almost like, ‘Why didn’t you just say bad date?’ ” “

(The rest of the interview can be found at http://nymag.com/arts/tv/profiles/58170/ )

I Am Canadian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

When I first had the lecture about Canadian identity, the first thing that came to my mind was the Canadian beer commercial. If you follow the link above, you will instantly know what it is since it's probably one of the most famous ad that presents Canadianness. Basically, a young man named "Joe" powerfully declares what it means to be a real Canadian. He points out extreme and somewhat ridiculous Canadian stereotypes such as being a lumberjack or living in igloo, and then corrects them with real Canadian characteristics. In his speech, I could see both positive and negative identities we talked about in class. For example, he distinguishes Canada from America in that Canadians speak English and French, not American, that Canada has a prime minister, not a president, and that Canada believes in peacekeeping, not policing like the US. Also, he mentions positive aspects such as Canada has diversity (multiculturalism) not simulation, hockey as national sport, beaver etc. Joe in the ad shows strong enthusiasm about and pride of being a Canadian, not American, and this definitely promotes viewers' patriotic sentiment as well. For this reason, I think this commercial, even though it became somewhat cliche, is the best illustration of the essence of Canadian national identity.

Tim Hortons and Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrmIJ7SkC0&playnext=1&list=PL5DDECF2758DD9F3D

The link above contains the Tim Hortons' commercial with a Canadian hockey player Sidney Crosby. In the adversisement, with the montage of young Crosby playing hockey, he narrates that hockey is "our game" and it's in "our heart." This clearly demonstrates that hockey is not just another sport game, but a symbol of Canada and even what defines Canadianness. The fact that Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby is in the commercial boosts up the nationalistic sentiment and bring about the viewers' patriotic emotions. As you can see from the comments, the viewers are all talking about how they were so impressed that they got goosebumps just from watching the commercial. It is obvious that Tim Hortons effectively uses hockey and the heroic player Sidney Crosby to make people think that Tim Hortons is the major supporter/advocate who has always been behind to preserve or uphold this national identity.

Tim Hortons and Multiculturalism

This youtube video demonstrates Canadian multiculturalism and how we are different from the Americans, as discussed in the lecture on Canadians, US and international. It also shows the pride we have in Tim Horton's as it brings everyone together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzmHwF2G4Vk

Bombshells

During last Tuesday’s lecture on Terrorism, I was reminded of a the film, The Battle of Algiers (1966) by Gillo Pontecorvo.



In the film, three Arab women undergo a process of transformation, cutting their hair, putting on makeup, and wearing European style clothes in order to resemble French women. They are then able to place bombs in heavily populated French areas without detection. Similar to the anecdote discussed in class about the Russian women who was acquitted by a jury after committing an act of terror, the viewer understands that these women believe their actions are necessary and justified. In both cases, the women are not technically suicide bombers because they do no die in the act. There is a personal connection to the source of meaning which provokes violent actions. In this clip, the viewer both sympathizes with the Arab women placing the bombs, sensing their fear and uncertainty, and with the unassuming French victims. I am reminded that not all terrorists are religious fanatics, and it is important to consider the social and economic factors, which provoke acts (especially as anthropology students).

I cannot embed the scene of the women placing the bombs. if you are interested, please copy and paste this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oAtMMvnDy0&feature=related

Black, Hockey, and the One-Drop Rule

During the black and white lecture, the professor talked about the one-drop rule. This was basically that, if you had one drop of black blood, you were 'black.' You weren't white.

It is hardly a stereotype that white people play hockey. However, on Martin Luther King day, TSN did a special on a group of five black hockey players playing in the city of Atlanta, where there is the highest population of black people among all NHL cities. The general manager, who puts together the team, insists that the city’s population was not a factor in the decisions to acquire these players, but one has to wonder if there was some underlying motive to sell more tickets. In the mini special, the players talked about reaching out to the black community of Atlanta.

It is also interesting because none of these players are 'purely' black. One was raised in Sweden, and the rest of them have a biracial family. Interestingly, they are still called black by the hockey world. Never once was it mentioned in the special.

That doesn’t really offend me….

I was looking back to the lecture on what constituted as an offensive image and it had me thinking about what actually offends me. An image that is offensive is an image that is supposes to morally and physically disgust me and should not make public something private or bring down something highly regarded. When I take in these qualities and try to think of what images affect me in that way, I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t really seen or think of an image, which affects me to such a degree. Sure, some images will knock me off my feet for a few minutes with shock or embarrassment, but those images don’t make me physically sick or angered at all. Pictures or war, posters of explicit nudity and even taboo words or actions seen on television and film don’t truly offend me. I think the reason why I cant any medium truly offensive is become I’ve become so exposed to things which are supposed to be offensive in a way which it seems normal. I don’t mean that offensive material becomes naturalized into everyday life, but the fact that ‘to be offensive’ seems to be a trend or a goal people strive for. It appears that anyone who want to achieve recognition in the media aims to offend. From lady Gaga’s meat dresses to the creation of art over touch subjects, the derogative and disgraceful are the latest trend. New offensive material is also so frequently occurring in media that it makes if difficult to stop and internalize its meaning. The offensive has become very one dimensional, sort of like ‘hot media’, over sensory material which cannot resonate with people at the same level that it previously did before.

Being Canadian

I think it is interesting when people automatically associate being Canadian with hockey. Being as multicultural as it is now, I don't know if there are even half of the population that plays and watches hockey. By this, I also mean that they watch, even when no one else is watching. For instance, I know many people who watch hockey, but only when everyone else is. To me, this isn't a real association between hockey and Canadianness.

It irks me because of the wide assumption that (in my personal experience) Canadians watch and play hockey all the time. It may just be because I see myself as truly a fan, as I watch and play hockey all the time, whereas people who occasionally dabble in it are essentially the same amount of "Canadian" as I am. Nonetheless, I'm proud to be a beer-drinking, hockey-loving Canadian, and to all those who feel the same, make sure you do it because you love it.

Judging the Book by its Cover much?

Students have been shaped and reshaped in universities and colleges. However, what they often fail to recognize is that it's not the institute, it's actually the actors within those institutes.

A student who simply made a mistake on referencing by not adding quotation marks can be accused of plagiarizing. With an intention to learn and correct in order to gain more knowledge and experience, at least that was the original purpose of "schooling", the student is verbally abused and criticized. Could it be the previous bad mark on the test that manipulated the professor into forming a misrepresented image of the student?

There are social and personal factors that can interfere with one's performance, but professors after years of working with the formal, lifeless, systematic curriculums in these institutes seem to forget that.

Thus, with no interest in hearing explanations or patience to help the student, professors rule out any possibility other than what they subjectively assume.

This, is what shapes students. This, is what corrupts students. The doubts on character.

Virtuality: Technology is Taking Over

The advance in technology has undeniably launched in our daily lives. Yesterday when I was in the Soc. Department at 725 Spadina, I saw a high school teacher testing his student on cello in the hallway. As I walked by, I looked at him and he was using an Ipad as marking utensil....I remember when I was in music class, there was only a simple paper with different sections and now, it has been replaced...with the new Ipad..


http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/

Imagining and Re-imagining

This recent news story of a woman who tried to destroy a Gaugin painting touches upon many of the themes covered this year in this course. The power of images to incite extreme emotions in people causing some to want to deface the image like with Orfili's image of the Madonna, the politicization of the body, the idea of "low" (sexuality, homosexuality) being represented in "high" media (Gaugin's painting at the National Gallery in Washington DC).

What I find interesting is how larger, ongoing, unresolved problems in society's structures become manifested in the behaviour of certain individuals. These individuals are then often scapegoated as having individual problems or quirks, and the rest of society, the rest of us, have no responsibility to bear for what they do.

While of course we are individuals who make our own choices for the most part, this course and others are showing me how my choices (and everyone's choices) are not only limited within the scope of our experience, what we have access to, who we know (network theory), what kind of social capital we have acquired, etc., but also our choices are limited by what we can imagine which is largely based on social norms and whatever the hegemonic structures we are located in dictate that we are even allowed to imagine. From liberal capitalism, to modern romance, to gender roles, to imagined communities (that work by exclusion as in immigration policies, and by inclusion of unseen other members of the community), and beyond, many people are unable, untrained or unsure how to imagine things outside the norms of their societies.

Education of other ways that people imagine themselves and the world helps in unblocking our imagination, and ultimately, once we harness the power of imagination, only then can we begin to consider how we are formed by the worlds we inhabit, and how we can begin to affect any change in our worlds.

This has been a wonderful class. Thanks to Professor Kalmar, to Sharon, and to all the students for participating in this mind-expanding experience.

Peace
Kiran Mehdee

Tim Horton - retired from the Leafs for timbits!

Tim Horton - a passion to unite all Canadians.

Did you know why Tim Horton chose to use hockey so much in there adverts? Not only is it a demonstration of Canadian imagined community and a sense of home coming, it is also because it was closely related to the owner. The founder of Tim Horton (Tim Horton himself, and Jim Charade) founded Timmie's in 1964 in Hamilton, and they actually played for the National Hockey League from 1949! Canadian author Pierre Berton once mentioned that "In so many ways the story of Tim Hortons is the essential Canadian story. It is a story of success and tragedy, ..... [ ] .. and tough fisted business, of hard work and of hockey."

Check out this website for a video from the 1940's when Tim Horton was still playing Hockey! -http://www.timhortons.com/us/en/about/bio_timhorton.html

Paradise Women - Clear as Pearls!

Check out this video about Muslim relationships, and men's view on Paradise land!

I think it is interesting that aside that it touches on our Muslim topic, it also touches on two other topics we've had this semester - Offensive Imagery & Romance relationship (Male power.) In the video it mentions that the black eyed women is clear from all the "negatives and unwanted" - the menstruation, the sweat, the faeces etc. They are described as "clear as pearls." The other interesting thing is that man is enlarged to be 100 times powerful when in paradise, seems like when you get to paradise in Muslim culture, man has enlarged but women is the same. Women still lower their gaze for men in Muslim paradise.

However, I'm slightly confused by some lecture materials and this video. - I thought in the lecture Professor Kalmar suggested that Muslim men are encouraged to sleep with as many black eyed women as possible, but here it is suggesting a relationship....

Imagined Community

So this is a shameless promotion blog post really... but here a site that I think some people in the class might find interesting and to whom it might apply!

www.denizenmag.com

This site was created by a friend of mine from high school. It's a place for people who live their whole lives in imagined communities... as expatriates. It's about Third Culture Kids and while it is is only just starting out the mag already has so much to offer! If you feel inclined, you can even contribute articles, send photos, etc. It's a unique community for those who just can't quite place themselves in one place.

Zombieland!

The other day, while procrastinating as usual, I flipped the channel to the movie "Zombieland". Under any other circumstance I probably wouldn't have watched it, but I thought this, or paper. Somehow Mark Zuckerberg's (I mean... Jessie Eisenberg)'s monotone won me over. We discussed Zombies at some point in class so I feel this could subject matter could be potentially justified.

Now, what is it about zombies that we just love so much? There have been countless zombie movies made over the years.. and in keeping with my theme of general procrastination, I even went to see the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers over at Bloor Cinema last week. It is pretty much a zombie movie (sans gore). But, really, I just want to put that question out there... what it is that we love so much about this movie formula? It's always the same situation, a group of people running a way from these mindless cannibals. There's always some love element, there's always a parental/older sibling element and there's always the rumor that there's some place where the mysterious disease hasn't taken over. So if I can summarize the film in less than 100 words, why keep making it? We all know what's going to happen... is it for the pure love of gore and action? I'm just wondering.

Maybe we just like to imagine ourselves as the protagonist.. I mean who wouldn't want to look like Will Smith in "I am Legend"? Just admit it, you and your roommates have a zombie apocalypse emergency plan.

The meaning of the word "Semetic"

In class the professor said that "Semetic" is a language group not a race.This tree outlines his point. The Semetic languages are organized together in order of theorized age and similarity. All the current Semetic languages are believed to have come from some unknown ancient language known simply as "Proto-Semetic". Arabic and Hebrew are both modern Semetic languages, so it makes little sense in labeling anti-Israeli Arabs as anti-Semetic.

The word "Aryan" originally was a name for another language group, what is now called the Indo-European language family, of which most modern European, Iranian, and Indian languages belong to.

(image from http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/proto-semitic-dating-and-locating-it/ , sorry about the bad quality)

THE TIGER MOM THEORY

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV, no computer games and hours of music practice create happy kids? And what happens when they fight back?

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By AMY CHUA

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

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Erin Patrice O'Brien for The Wall Street Journal

Amy Chua with her daughters, Louisa and Sophia, at their home in New Haven, Conn.

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

• not play the piano or violin.

I'm using the term "Chinese mother" loosely. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise. I'm also using the term "Western parents" loosely. Western parents come in all varieties.

Ideas Market

The Tiger Mother Responds to Readers

Chua's Daughter Sophia Explains What Life is Really With her 'Tiger Mom'

An Asian Father's GIft: Permission to Fail

Ms. Chua answers questions from Journal readers who wrote in to the Ideas Market blog.

All the same, even when Western parents think they're being strict, they usually don't come close to being Chinese mothers. For example, my Western friends who consider themselves strict make their children practice their instruments 30 minutes every day. An hour at most. For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It's hours two and three that get tough.

When it comes to parenting, the Chinese seem to produce children who display academic excellence, musical mastery and professional success - or so the stereotype goes. WSJ's Christina Tsuei speaks to two moms raised by Chinese immigrants who share what it was like growing up and how they hope to raise their children.

More Parenting Videos

Teaching Math to Spark Creative Thinking

Can Bilingualism Make Preschoolers Smarter?

Despite our squeamishness about cultural stereotypes, there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when it comes to parenting. In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job." Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.

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What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it's math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more.

Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can't. Once when I was young—maybe more than once—when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn't damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn't actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage.

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Chua family

From Ms. Chua's album: 'Mean me with Lulu in hotel room... with score taped to TV!'

As an adult, I once did the same thing to Sophia, calling her garbage in English when she acted extremely disrespectfully toward me. When I mentioned that I had done this at a dinner party, I was immediately ostracized. One guest named Marcy got so upset she broke down in tears and had to leave early. My friend Susan, the host, tried to rehabilitate me with the remaining guests.

The fact is that Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable—even legally actionable—to Westerners. Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, "Hey fatty—lose some weight." By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of "health" and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image. (I also once heard a Western father toast his adult daughter by calling her "beautiful and incredibly competent." She later told me that made her feel like garbage.)

Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can say, "You're lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you." By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they're not disappointed about how their kids turned out.

I've thought long and hard about how Chinese parents can get away with what they do. I think there are three big differences between the Chinese and Western parental mind-sets.

Chua family

Newborn Amy Chua in her mother's arms, a year after her parents arrived in the U.S.

First, I've noticed that Western parents are extremely anxious about their children's self-esteem. They worry about how their children will feel if they fail at something, and they constantly try to reassure their children about how good they are notwithstanding a mediocre performance on a test or at a recital. In other words, Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.

For example, if a child comes home with an A-minus on a test, a Western parent will most likely praise the child. The Chinese mother will gasp in horror and ask what went wrong. If the child comes home with a B on the test, some Western parents will still praise the child. Other Western parents will sit their child down and express disapproval, but they will be careful not to make their child feel inadequate or insecure, and they will not call their child "stupid," "worthless" or "a disgrace." Privately, the Western parents may worry that their child does not test well or have aptitude in the subject or that there is something wrong with the curriculum and possibly the whole school. If the child's grades do not improve, they may eventually schedule a meeting with the school principal to challenge the way the subject is being taught or to call into question the teacher's credentials.

If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A.

Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough. That's why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it. (And when Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.)

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Chua family

Sophia playing at Carnegie Hall in 2007.

Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is a little unclear, but it's probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it's true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud.

By contrast, I don't think most Westerners have the same view of children being permanently indebted to their parents. My husband, Jed, actually has the opposite view. "Children don't choose their parents," he once said to me. "They don't even choose to be born. It's parents who foist life on their kids, so it's the parents' responsibility to provide for them. Kids don't owe their parents anything. Their duty will be to their own kids." This strikes me as a terrible deal for the Western parent.

Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences. That's why Chinese daughters can't have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can't go to sleepaway camp. It's also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, "I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends." God help any Chinese kid who tried that one.

Don't get me wrong: It's not that Chinese parents don't care about their children. Just the opposite. They would give up anything for their children. It's just an entirely different parenting model.

Read More

• A Cartoonist on Tiger Parenthood
• In China, Not All Practice Tough Love
• The Juggle: Are U.S. Parents Too Soft?

Here's a story in favor of coercion, Chinese-style. Lulu was about 7, still playing two instruments, and working on a piano piece called "The Little White Donkey" by the French composer Jacques Ibert. The piece is really cute—you can just imagine a little donkey ambling along a country road with its master—but it's also incredibly difficult for young players because the two hands have to keep schizophrenically different rhythms.

Lulu couldn't do it. We worked on it nonstop for a week, drilling each of her hands separately, over and over. But whenever we tried putting the hands together, one always morphed into the other, and everything fell apart. Finally, the day before her lesson, Lulu announced in exasperation that she was giving up and stomped off.

"Get back to the piano now," I ordered.

"You can't make me."

"Oh yes, I can."

Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu's dollhouse to the car and told her I'd donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn't have "The Little White Donkey" perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, "I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?" I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.

Jed took me aside. He told me to stop insulting Lulu—which I wasn't even doing, I was just motivating her—and that he didn't think threatening Lulu was helpful. Also, he said, maybe Lulu really just couldn't do the technique—perhaps she didn't have the coordination yet—had I considered that possibility?

"You just don't believe in her," I accused.

"That's ridiculous," Jed said scornfully. "Of course I do."

"Sophia could play the piece when she was this age."

"But Lulu and Sophia are different people," Jed pointed out.

"Oh no, not this," I said, rolling my eyes. "Everyone is special in their special own way," I mimicked sarcastically. "Even losers are special in their own special way. Well don't worry, you don't have to lift a finger. I'm willing to put in as long as it takes, and I'm happy to be the one hated. And you can be the one they adore because you make them pancakes and take them to Yankees games."

I rolled up my sleeves and went back to Lulu. I used every weapon and tactic I could think of. We worked right through dinner into the night, and I wouldn't let Lulu get up, not for water, not even to go to the bathroom. The house became a war zone, and I lost my voice yelling, but still there seemed to be only negative progress, and even I began to have doubts.

Then, out of the blue, Lulu did it. Her hands suddenly came together—her right and left hands each doing their own imperturbable thing—just like that.

Lulu realized it the same time I did. I held my breath. She tried it tentatively again. Then she played it more confidently and faster, and still the rhythm held. A moment later, she was beaming.

"Mommy, look—it's easy!" After that, she wanted to play the piece over and over and wouldn't leave the piano. That night, she came to sleep in my bed, and we snuggled and hugged, cracking each other up. When she performed "The Little White Donkey" at a recital a few weeks later, parents came up to me and said, "What a perfect piece for Lulu—it's so spunky and so her."

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“ I am in disbelief after reading this article. ”

—James Post

Even Jed gave me credit for that one. Western parents worry a lot about their children's self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.

There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests. For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.

Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment. By contrast, the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them see what they're capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits and inner confidence that no one can ever take away.