(via aleximythia)
This guy hand-forged his own wedding ring. OUT OF A METEORITE.
That’s it. Game over. You will never have a wedding ring cooler than that of redditor laporkenstein. Not only did he fashion the band himself, in the formidable fires of… well… his garage — he forged the damn thing out of a chunk of meteorite. (A Gibeon meteorite, to be exact.)
(via itsfullofstars)
(Source: that-hpsmolder-freak)
A fearless adventure is knowing what to do when no one’s there telling you what to do
— Valve Employee Handbook (via blabvoid)
Psychographics: Marketers and advertisers work toward selling their products to their target audience. Because of this, they have created an approach called VALS. This analyzes consumers attitudes, beliefs, desires and needs. When I go through the four VALS provided, I found that I do not fit into any of these. After more research, I found that I fit more into the VALS group of the “Experiencers”. This group has high energy, pour time and money into physical activities and social activities. We spend lots of money on clothing, food, and music, emphasizing on new products. Basically, I follow the motto, “Oh, pretty! Let’s buy it.” The complete opposite of my VALS group would be the “Belongers”. This group is about buying things they are comfortable with and don’t try new things necessarily. An example would be my Grandma Hughes, as she typically follows the same routine, watches the same shows and bakes often. She likes to email her friends, however doesn’t care to make a Facebook account. As a consumer, she buys the same brands.
Emulator-Achievers are a group of people who are always in fashion. They get high quality products and follow brand names. The first person to come to mind is my Grandpa Paul. He constantly makes sure he has the newest Mercedes and the best ingredients for cooking.
Toddlers and Tiaras
When thinking about beauty pageants, you typically think of Miss United States of America and Miss Universe. Young adult women in college dressed to the tens and absolutely beautiful. They have talent demonstrations, swimsuit competitions, interviews, evening gown and general presentation.
However, Toddlers and Tiaras show a shocking twist on this. Infants to prepubescent children are shown going through beauty pageants. They are decorated with heavy makeup, spray tans, fake eyelashes, hair pieces, revealing costumes, told to wax hair off their face, wear “flippers” and wear fake breasts and butt pieces.
The TV series started out tame, in comparison with later ones. It showed children with fake eyelashes, minor spray tans, and heavy makeup. There was a focus towards the appreciation these girls have for their community.
Season Two brought out more vanity, bright costumes, “career” beauty contestants, and more makeup.
Things become more shocking with Season Three, revealing stripping performances, fake breasts, showing stomach and other revealing costumes.
Season Four brings out a boy dressed in drag, sexual swimsuits and Pretty Woman, Dolly Parton and Beyonce costumes. Girls are taught that “Beauty is Pain” with fake eyelashes, spray tans, hairpieces and waxing.
The last season is as outrageous as the fourth. More tans, flippers, waxing, skin showing, hair extensions, and routines involving shaking their “boobs”.
Toddlers and Tiaras brings the affects of hypersexualization to eye and something should be done to solve this issue.
Sex and the Society
As a society, we have definitely progressed quite a lot in the last hundred, and even ten years. Not only have we gained new technology and knowledge, we’ve also allowed our filter of what is appropriate and disrespectful to disintegrate. Sexy Inc. (2007) is a documentary about hypersexualization and the effects on young people. It shows how marketing and advertising is targeting young audience with sexual images. Girls are shown as sex objects and boys as players. “The line between appropriate and sexual is blurred extraordinarily.” This movie may be from 2007; however, I found that the message is still relevant and the problem is still there, if not in a worse condition. I find that the media does display women as objects often, men are told they must be players and double standards are encouraged. Pop stars have become the idols of the day. With the easily accessible Internet, minors are at risk of prematurely viewing pornography. I find that many parents don’t remind their children to be critical of the images they view daily. Though it is not as visible as other communities may be, even Rouleau School students are influenced by hypersexualized images they see regularly. Young girls are singing about “…sun kissed skin. So hot, it’ll melt your Popsicle.” Granted, they may not understand the meaning, but with the music video, they are shown sexual images before they are mature. Both sexes are shown stereotypes, they are told by marketers and advertisers to mimic their idols. Hypersexualization most definitely could influence younger people, especially if they don’t actively question what it is they are being shown. Most people will mirror people they want to be like, whether it is one’s mother, Selena Gomez or Kim Kardashian. The way that people in the media present themselves will be reflected by those who adore them. I agree with this documentary when they say that the line between pornography and just simple advertising is blurred. Our idea of what is decent is warped. The line between is not clear at all. Though we are in pretty deep water, it is not too late to back off hypersexualization. People in the media could be people that live respectful lives and parents could encourage kids to think critically about advertising. Let’s clean up our act, Society.
