Afranco2's Weblog

Wikipedia Assignment Part II: Reflection

afranco2 — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:59:23 +0000

When I first started this assignment, I felt extremely overwhelmed because it was so new to me; I even had a hard time choosing a stub article. I didn’t really know much about how Wikipedia worked, I just knew that the articles could be edited or deleted somehow and that teachers generally did not approve of students using Wikipedia as a primary source. The hardest part of writing this article was getting started with gathering and organizing my research. Putting the article itself together was not as hard as I thought it would be because I was able to view other articles and utilize the Wikipedia tutorial. The only thing that I had a really hard time with was uploading images. I couldn’t find enough information in the tutorial about uploading images and how to place the image in a specific location in the article.

After I had completed my article, I watched the history for the remainder of the in class semester. Not a whole lot happened at first. But then one day I checked up on it and noticed that it had been vandalized, but the Wikipedia people quickly edited my page and reverted it back to its orgininal state. I guess some idiot got bored with my article and decided to replace one of my footnotes with a bunch of random letters and curse words. The only other change that was made to my article was that my single image was deleted. I tried to talk to the person that performed the deletion, but I did not get a response, not yet at least. I must not have cited the image appropriately because that is the only reason I can come up with to justify the deletion. I’ll have to gather more information on how to cite images properly for next time.

Overall, I learned quite a bit from this assignment and I was very proud of myself after I had finished. I had always imagined that it would be so difficult to develop one of these Wikipedia articles, but now I know that it really isn’t, you just have to follow the rules and utilize the help menu. I have a better understanding now as to why teachers don’t allow their students to use Wikipedia as a primary source because a lot of the information posted can easily be incorrect and edited. I really don’t like how anyone can just edit your page by writing whatever they please, even though the Wikipedia people seem to be right on top of all of the pages and changes. But, what I do think is great about Wikipedia is that you can develop a factual article, for free, that will hopefully be helpful information to anyone in the public. I think that it would be fun to see someone find my article useful enough to cite my information in their own paper.

Class Reflection #10: 05/05/08

afranco2 — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:04:43 +0000

During out last night of class we finished watching the McNamara documentary. My overall impression of the film was that it was interesting, but it made me feel like McNamara was trying to show the world that he was not a bad man. Everytime he started crying it seemed so insincere and set up to me. He had a consistent arrogant tone throughout the film, which made it very hard for me to feel any sympathy for the man. I think that the director made the film so that the viewers could develop their own opinion about McNamara because McNamara was able to tell his side of the story without being attacked or interrogated. What I did like most about the film was the music and use of video clips when McNamara was telling his story. A lot of what was in the movie, I had never seen before on film or television.

Assignment #4: Women and Postwar Film

afranco2 — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:16:21 +0000

The depiction of women in films and television has dramatically changed since the 1950s. In the first Youtube video, “Oldsmobile What Women Want Part 1,” women were perceived as prim and proper and pretentious, who only cared about fine materials; whereas the second video, “Women Help Drive Formula 1,” shows how women today work alonside men, are respected, and regarded as equals. This drastic change in women’s roles has evolved as education, culture and society have all changed over time.

This first Youtube video, “Oldmosbile What Women Want Part 1,” was made post-World War II and emphasizes the idea that women during this time cared mostly about beauty, elegance and wealth. The video shows a beautiful women at a car dealership being shown a high quality car by a salesman, while the storyline is narrated by a very proper and well kempt woman. The narrator describes how women love to feel richness and elegance of cars, on the inside and out, just like they do with their dresses. The narrator gives tips that the salesman should use, such as asking the woman, “how many other women in your beach club have a car like this?” Not once during this video does the salesman tell the woman anything about the mechanics or engine of the car; perhaps this is because women during this time were perceived as not being intelligent enough to understand such matters. The video portrays womens’ roles during this time as being beautiful, well kempt, unambitious, and only caring about expensive materials of the finest quality.

This second Youtube video, “Women Help Drive Formula 1,” is a modern day video about the important women that are behind the success of the Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Formula 1 team. This video focuses on the fact that these women have taken on the roles that have customarily been filled by men, and are respected for their hard work and intelligence. Several women and men that work for the organization are interviewed during the film about these women and all have very positive and respectful comments; they don’t perceive these women as exceptions or special cases because they are all regarded as equals within the organization. Women carry different roles behind Formula 1, some are in very high ranking decision making positions, while others are working directly with the cars and racers. One particular woman talked about during the video, named Margarette, is a highly regarded engineer for the Formula 1 team. Among many other things, her job includes checking the electronics of the vehicles before they can be driven. Both men and women have much respect for her hard work and intelligence, which is a big change from the post-World War II times.

After viewing both of these videos, it is clear that the perception of womens’ roles in society has changed immensly since the post-World War II era. Women were not taken so seriously during the 1950s as they are today. Much of the change has to do with how education and society as a whole has been changing. Slowly, women in the past have stepped up and proven themselves to be just as intelligent and competent as men. These actions have helped to pave the way for women to strive for their own dreams and gain respect and admiration along the way. Just like the women that were portrayed in the Oldsmobile video, women today still appreciate beauty and fine materials, the difference though is that women today don’t have to depend on their husbands to finance what they desire. Women today have the educational backgrounds, capabilities and drive to work just as hard, to become just as successful as their male equals and competitors.

Class Reflection #9: 04/28/08

afranco2 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:06:50 +0000

During tonight’s lecture, we were shown an actual picture of a Lunch Counter Sit-In, where a large group of white men surrounded the counter where two black women and a white man sat in protest. In this picture, the crowd was harassing the three protesters and pouring drinks and condiments on them. I felt so disgusted when we were shown this picture because of the clear racism and abuse that was portrayed. It is sometimes hard for me to believe that people were so cruel and inhumane like this and that in a lot of places today, they still are. I’m glad that times have changed and people have become more accepting of one another, but a lot of work still needs to be done to decrease the amount of violence and discrimination that exists in the world today.

Class Reflection #8: 04/21/08

afranco2 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:57:47 +0000

During tonight’s class we watched a Ritz Cracker commercial that was from the 1950s. The commercial portrayed women as “Susie Homemaker” wives with their dresses and aprons, who’s sole purpose was to take care of household chores and keep their husbands happy. It portrayed men as having no clue as to how to take care of normal household chores, such as buying groceries, or in this case, Ritz Crackers. The commercial seemed to portray the wife as being the savior because the husband was so distraught when he thought that there were no more Ritz Crackers left, but the wife revealed a large cupboard filled with boxes of Ritz Crackers and the husband was happy as a clam again. I think that this commercial portrayed men and women in such a way because that’s how their roles were during this time; women took care of the kids and home, while the men went to work all day and supported the family financially.

Class Reflection #7: 04/14/08

afranco2 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:31:31 +0000

During class we discussed the topic of womens’ role during WWII. We talked about whether the war helped gender inequality or not and I think that the war did not benefit women because after the war, the women had no choice but to go back to their “female responsibilities.” At the same time, I think that the experience that they had during the war by being able to perform the jobs and duties that were normally the responsiblities of men, gave women more confidence in their abilities and rights. And I think that women gained a new found sense of courage.

Class Reflection #6: 04/07/08

afranco2 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:14:56 +0000

During tonight’s class, we discussed the topic of consumer culture. One of the questions that was asked was, “who makes consumer culture, corporations or individuals?” I think that both corporations and individuals make up consumer culture because they are dependent on each other. Without corporations, individuals would have a very limited selection of products to purchase, and without the individuals, corporations would not have the means of making a profit off their productions.

Assignment #3: Alien Menace

afranco2 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:47:38 +0000

During the 19th century, American’s began to develop different perceptions about other nationalities and depicted these stereotypes through cartoon drawings. Among these depictions were those about Asian men. Americans stereotyped Asian men as feminine, only capable of performing “women’s work,” and also as being small, sneaky, and threatening. Today, however, these stereotypes have changed and Asian men are receiving more respect and opportunities.

One particular cartoon that was published during the 19th century, which stereotyped Asian men, was called “Wanted: Chinamen to play baseball.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/23325267@N06/2401963976/ This cartoon shows an Asian man in a room that looks like a sewing room, with an iron, clothing and other garments hanging in the background. There is also a flyer hanging in the background that reads, “Wanted: Chinamen to play baseball – $20 per week.” The Asian man is drawn as dancing around the room, improperly holding a baseball bat and appears to be very thin and small with a very long braid of hair. This picture conveys that Americans did not believe that Asian men, Chinese men inparticular, were capable of playing masculine sports, such as baseball. The background setting also tells us that Asian men were stereotyped as doing “women’s work,” because of the iron and garments hanging on the walls; women were responsible for such household chores during these times. Another way in which this cartoon stereotyped Asian men as being feminine is by the way the man is dressed; he appears to be very slender and wearing an oversized shirt, cropped pants and what looks like platformed slippers or shoes.

Asian men are not so stereotyped by Americans today as they were during the 19th century. Asian men can be found in powerful positions, lower positions, and even on professional sports teams here in the United States. Chinese men have even been transferred from China to the United States, just to play for the Major league baseball teams and NBA teams. http://www.flickr.com/photos/23325267@N06/2393758409/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23325267@N06/2393889197/

These pictures represent how much of the American perceptions and stereotypes have changed over time. Pictures were once drawn making fun of Asian men and depicting them as being feminine-like and now pictures are taken of these men playing sports for professional teams in America.

Class Reflection #5 – 03/31/08

afranco2 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:45:11 +0000

Part of what was discussed in tonight’s class was if you consider yourself American and why. I personally consider myself Asian American because I was born here in the states and both my parents are Asian. Living here in the states, where people of so many different races reside, it’s hard to categorize “American” into one race or type. It is interesting though that when I visited countries outside of the U.S., it seemed like only those that spoke perfect english and were caucasian were considered “Americans.”

Wikipedia Article Bibliography

afranco2 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:47:27 +0000

Bibliography

“Charles Coughlin.” Wikipedia. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

–Charles Couglin founded one of the Mother’s Movement groups and this article will give background information on his specific roles.

“Elizabeth Dilling.” Wikipedia. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Dilling.

–Elizabeth Dilling was one the main leaders of the Mother’s Movement; this article contains background information and supporting details.

Jeansonne, Glen. Women of the far right: the mother’s movement and World War II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

–This book discusses the Mother’s Movement as a whole, including its members and trials.

Lawrence, Dennis, and Maximilian John St. George. A trial on trial; the great sedition trial of 1944. National Civil Rights Committee, 1946.

–This book discusses the Great Sedition Trial of 1944, which is the ulitimate result of the Mother’s Movement.

Lewis, Jone Johnson. “Women and World War II – Opponents.” About.com. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/a/opponents.htm

–This article contains information about women’s roles during WWII and their involvement in the Mother’s Movement.

“Right-wing politics.” Wikipedia. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics

–This article gives background information on the politics surrounding the Mother’s Movement and other antisemitic such groups.

“Women and the Home Front During World War II.” Teacher Oz’s Kingdom of History. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://www.teacheroz.com/WWIIHomefront.htm

–Discusses the life and roles women played during WWII, giving background information on their lives during the war

“World War II.” Wikipedia. 2008. 1 Mar. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

–General and background history on WWII