John Berger Ways of Seeing Essay

In John Berger’s article, ’Ways of Seeing’, it explains European eighteenth century art and how it relates to many of todays cultural transitions. Before Berger begins explaining the art itself, he tells us about the cultural constructions that exist today. These cultural constructions are enforced and were highlighted through European eighteenth century art. He began by explaining the difference between a man and a woman’s presence. Men’s presence depends how much power he is able to successfully portray. This power can be social, economical, sexual, etc. A woman’s presence expresses her attitude toward herself and in turn how she will allow other to treat her. This explains why women are so critical of them and critique their actions no matter what the situation may be. Berger begins to explain how the art ties into this when he says, â€Å"men act, women appear.† He further explains how men look at women, while women watch themselves being looked at. Thus, a woman is turned into an object. He even provides an interesting example of how women supposedly became subservient to men. In the book of Genesis Eve gave Adam an apple they weren’t supposed to eat. After they ate the apple they became aware and self-conscious of the fact they were naked, so they made clothes for themselves. Eve was punished for eating the apple and giving one to Adam by being made subservient to the man. This relates to art because, in Berger’s words, â€Å"women in paintings are there to feed an appetite, not to have any of their own.† He also explains the nude women in paintings appeal to the men’s sexuality. In European oil paintings the painter is never painted, yet is always assumed to be male. The women in these paintings were treated and/or portrayed as objects, and this view still exists today. It is an unequal relationship that in Berger’s words, â€Å"still structures the consciousness of many women.† The insecurities women feel in a large part comes from the way they have been viewed as object, always needing to be perfect. This is proven through the European eighteenth century art as the way the women are portrayed in the paintings. These views still exist in the media today. Commercials show seductive women gazing into a camera with an equally attractive man staring at them.

Miss Evers’ Boys portrays the emotional effects Essay

Miss Evers’ Boys portrays the emotional effects of one of the most amoral instances of governmental experimentation on humans ever perpetrated. It depicts the government’s involvement in research targeting a group of African American males (â€Å"The Tuskegee Experiment†), while simultaneously exploring the depths of human tragedy and suffering that result, as seen through the eyes of Eunice Evers. The viewer watches as a seemingly innocuous program progresses into a full-blown ethical catastrophe—all the while taking Miss Evers through a moral journey, with her decisions having ramifications on the life and well-being of her best friends—her â€Å"boys. † I. Structure This movie deals with the ethical considerations present in human experimentation. The government, wanting to mimic the Oslo Experiments, intends to study a population of AfricanAmericans inflicted with syphilis. The movie takes place in alternate settings, transitioning between a 1973 Senatorial hearing and the site of the actual study in Alabama, beginning in 1932 and moving forward. Miss Eunice Evers, a nurse at a local Tuskegee hospital, is the centerpiece of the movie. II. Setting & Plot Summary With an ominous lead-in quote, Miss Evers’ Boys begins to tell the tale of an emotionally courageous young woman and her struggle to protect her â€Å"children. † Within the first few frames  of the movie, the viewer is automatically entrenched into the already tenuous history of racial tension in America—except, this time, under the auspices of segregation founded upon disease. The movie begins, placing the viewer as an observer of a 1973 U. S. Senate Hearing, where we are first introduced to Miss Eunice Evers. Miss Evers is testifying as a nurse, one who took the nurse’s oath to protect the health of those in her care. The claimed Senatorial goal is to discover the truth underlying the â€Å"Tuskegee Study. † Miss Evers worked in the study from 19321972. The movie progresses throughout the course of the hearing, with testimony by Miss Evers and reminiscent scenes telling the tale of the study. In the beginning, Miss Evers firmly supports the goal of the initial plan—to provide care and treatment to those suffering from syphilis. â€Å"It was the dawn of a new day,† explains Miss Evers. At this point (pre-study), she believes that the government is sending her patients, and her city, the best funding and medical support available. The viewer is then introduced to Miss Evers’ Boys—a folk music group. 1 The musicians (four of them) are the first patients to provide blood samples, one of them being Caleb, an eventual love-interest of Miss Evers. Each of the men test positive for syphilis. At this point in the movie, everyone (including Miss Evers) is still under that assumption that â€Å"bad blood† is the culprit for the disease. Ultimately, the funding for the initial study disintegrates. After a visit to Washington, various gentlemen confront Dr. Brodus, the head doctor in Tuskegee, with an offer for a new rationale for funding. The gentlemen explain their intentions of studying the African-American population, much like the Caucasian population in the Oslo Experiments (1891-1910). The government then reveals the true nature of the experiment—the proposed study of untreated African-Americans dealing with syphilis. 1 The government promises future treatment and The group names their band after Miss Evers when she drives them to their first musical show. 2 proclaims the future potential of the Tuskegee Experiment, appealing to Dr. Brodus’ pride. Dr. Brodus agrees, naming the study, The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in The Negro Male. 412 men, afflicted with syphilis, participate in the study. In a telling interaction involving one of the first patients, Miss Evers suggests that the doctors explain to the study group that they are providing â€Å"back shots. † Through her deceit, Miss Evers thus begins to involve herself in the â€Å"treatment. † The tension she feels manifests itself in her facial features; the viewer can see her apprehension in this instance and throughout the movie. She is torn, but yet continues to help Dr. Brodus conduct the study. As 6-months turns into years, Miss Evers continues to hide the secret behind the study. She urges the men to continue the study, in hope of future treatment—treatment that never comes, even through the eventual availability of penicillin. Miss Evers’ ultimate decision as to how she deals with the care and treatment of her â€Å"boys† will be left to the viewer. With the journey, however, comes a tumultuous story, exposing the hypocrisy of the United States Government through the eyes of Eunice Evers. Throughout the movie, as an audience, we want Miss Evers to defy all conventions and simply provide the necessary medicine to the patients. Yet, she struggles throughout with the pros and cons of such a decision. On one hand, she wants to support the experiment; yet, on the other, she wants to protect and comfort her friends. As we finally see in the end, as seen through Miss Evers’ unique perspective, while one may question Miss Evers, it is the Senators themselves, and the government agents before them, who prove to be more worthy of moral appraisal. III.

Is the world inside Video game should running some law and limitation Essay

Is the world inside Video game should running some law and limitation as the real world - Essay Example In the video games virtual societies, the players must comply with specific rules and laws that seek to make the games more engaging. Failure to comply with some of such rules earns the players various punishments that range from point deductions and eventual ejection from the completion. The fact that the video games are increasingly becoming common among the modern societies and the fact that they seek to portray the nature of the contemporary society makes the design and the application of the laws and regulations a contentious issue. The developers of the games employ regulations that make the games more engaging without considering the implications of such rules and laws in the real society. In most games such as need for speed, the player drives a racing car capable of withstanding some of the worst car crushes. Additionally, in the game traffic rules are relative with the infractions such as ramming onto a police car and resisting arrest earning one more points that are compli mentary. Addiction to such games has effects on the peace and stability in the real world since some of such laws apply in the real world. Furthermore, in real world a car crush may turn fatal depending on the intensity of the crash. Moralists will continue to advocate for the harmonization of the video game rules to the laws in the real society while capitalists and entrepreneurs who develop the games continue to oppose such moves. Developers of the games rely on the large market turnout to sell their products thus make more profits. Abiding by such laws in the real world such as speed limits, the official driving age and drunk driving are some of the laws that should they incorporate in their games may affect their profitability. Developers of the games seek to make their products as interesting and as engaging as possible. â€Å"They heighten the conflict between the players and the authorities in order to make police evasion an interesting and intriguing experience to their cus tomers† (Jeff 257). In fact, breaking the laws in the virtual society becomes the game. Harmonizing the rules of the games to those in the real society would make the games boring thus affect their profitability objective (John 41). Among the most controversial issues in video games have been the heightened crime and violence in the product especially given the fact that most of the consumers of such games are children. Moralists have therefore often propagated for the minimization of violence in the games since they influenced the actions of the young members of the society. Propagators of such reasoning even called for the placement of age restrictions in the games in order to regulate the level of violence of the games accessed by younger members of the society. The liberal portrayal of guns in the games is contrary to the social structure in the real world. The games thus motivate younger members of the society to live an illusionary lifestyle in which they appreciate viol ence and shun peaceful ways of solving conflicts. Such are valid arguments that should influence the formulation and development of video games. Producers of the video game products are business people just as any other. They therefore carry out extensive market researches in order to determine the prevailing favorable trends in the market. Through such market researches, the producers have determined that

Why did Communism collapse so suddenly in 1991 Explain your answer Essay

Why did Communism collapse so suddenly in 1991 Explain your answer - Essay Example Communism seeks to establish a classless society for all. It endeavors to erase all differences of class and creed and bring all the citizens at the same forefront with the government leading them all. However, the communist theory has failed miserably in the past. It is believed that the communist theory includes some connotations that are bound to fail. Capitalists mock the communist theory by saying that if there will always be the poor then there will always be the rich. There would be classification and divisions with the dos and donts, and any effort to create a society that does not have classes, this side of heaven, mainly by means of the aggressive and godless means of Communism, is bound to lead towards frustration and failure1. Before moving on to discussing why this theory failed so miserably and what was inherently wrong with the idea of having a classless state with absolute government power, one needs to know what lead to this concept. The concept of communism belongs to the Marxist school of thought. Since the late 19th century the ideas of socialism were quite popular among the working class citizens around the world and they began to show their true color when in the early 20th century several countries formed their own Communist parties. While the ruling classes reprimanded the concept of communism or socialism since it brought their power at stake, it was very much appreciated by the working class. In the interwar period, however, since different classes began to fight for or against communism, its image tarnished. It wasn’t all good and now everyone knew that. The socialist activists stepped up their campaigns against their oppressor regimes and resorted to violence to achieve their goals2 . These ruthless activities, instead of promoting communism amongst the masses, lead to previously pro-communist populace to lose their interest in the movement. Therefore the number of those who favored communism

Description of the role and importance of the NAACP for Public Research Paper

Description of the role and importance of the NAACP for Public Administration class greating writing skills needed - Research Paper Example This paper describes the NAACP influence in the development of new legislation, some of its social programs, defines its sponsorship role in various advocacy efforts, and also its influence in changing youth and labor laws that benefit not only black citizens, but general society as well. A riot which occurred in 1908 in Springfield, Illinois, the hometown of former President Abraham Lincoln, sparked social outcry about the ongoing victimization and violence against blacks. After these events, two notable white liberals that were direct descendents of individuals involved in the abolitionist movement, Oswald Garrison Villard and Mary White Ovington, coordinated a meeting to discuss this violence and prejudice in order to discuss matters of improving racial justice (africanaonline.com, 2009). There were sixty people in attendance to this meeting call and, interestingly, only seven of these individuals were actually African-American (africanaonline.com). From these discussions, the NAACP was founded with a mission to secure African-American rights by securing their liberties protected by the 13th – 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. These amendments guaranteed slavery’s abolition and equal protection under American law. Shortly thereafter, the NAAC P selected its headquarters to be based in New York and began organizing new members and coordinating research projects that are still ongoing today in favor of securing African-American needs. The NAACP has been an advocacy group working closely with public figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and has been integral in many social change policies and legislative improvements to advance this social groups’ needs, careers, and status position in American society. The efforts of the NAACP have paved the way for equal opportunity and other important black liberation movements. The association describes itself this

Identity theft through the use of the internet and how businesses and Literature review

Identity theft through the use of the internet and how businesses and people are affected by its continuous threats - Literature review Example In the end, the mission critical data is compromised, resulting in severe losses for organizations. Generally, the business functions and processes, which exist electronically and digitally within the organization needs to be protected. The people who use Internet, provides a lot of personal information on the Internet in order to perform banking, registration, subscription, purchasing a product or service. The personal information has enormous dimensions to get extracted and become vulnerabilities. One of the most common threats in the context of misusing personal information is identity theft A network dictionary demonstrate the concepts of Identity theft as â€Å"Identity theft is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personal information, such as Social Security or driver’s license numbers, in order to impersonate someone else. The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, and services in the name of the victim, or to provide the thief with false credentials.† In order to protect identities of the customer, organization need to protect and manage identities. A good definition of identity management is illustrated in the network dictionary as â€Å"Identity Management is an integrated system of business processes, policies and technologies that enable organizations to facilitate and control their users’ access to critical online applications and resources while protecting confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users†. In the code of deferral regulations (CFR), identity theft is defined as a fraud that is conducted by using the identity information of another person without permission. Identity theft can also contribute to other crimes. For instance, identify theft is successful in document fraud, bank fraud, immigration fraud and in the form of burglary and robbery. Consequently, the challenges for eliminating identity theft including victimization, offending and prosecution rate s, needs to be considered by the congress, as these threats are arising by the contribution of identity theft and related crimes (Finklea 2009). Online privacy policy is of great concern, when considering identity theft as privacy policies of some websites does not satisfy the users for disclosing their personal data. There is no undertaking from the website owner for securing the contents provided by the user online. This is one area, which needs research and improvement, in order to provide a mechanism of securing data privacy, policies that are implemented by web services to ease privacy concerns associated with information related to their clients and adhere to legislative measures. Moreover, this also involves the undertaking for personal data usage including, what organizations would do or not with the personal information of their clients. This is crucial as some websites may sell personal information of their clients to cyber criminals or other competitors in terms of cash. This personal information is substantial for online cyber criminals to extract and guess passwords and retrieve credit card numbers, once they break into the email account of users. In order to eliminate identity theft appropriate measures are required. Identity theft is categorized into two domains i.e. Physical identity theft and

Culture, Technology, and Expansion Assignment Essay

Culture, Technology, and Expansion Assignment - Essay Example Structures and cultural elements such as, human creations have offered social relations organization tools, relations among social systems, and a connection of environment with the social systems. The science creating a reflection of the world expansion in terms of new technologies, information and dependence, has integrated the global socio-cultural systems through civilization (Fernandez-Armesto, 2001, p. 22). Technological benefits have initiated the worldwide expansion. Over historical models, technology has successfully served societal needs tremendously. The modern society in terms of durable institutions is as a result of technology. Technology has internationalized science in which students can easily access information to get the required skills in various educational fields. Widely accessed education decreases the gap within social classes. Economic development is stipulated through new technologies. Population enriched through education initiates growth within a nation. T hrough out history, technological dynamisms have improved economic set ups of many countries. For instance, industrialization has boosted the economy of many western countries (Targowski, 2008, p. 34). In worldwide expansion, the technological progress is cost oriented. In order to attain industrialization in a given country, i.e. shifting from traditional modes of production to the current ones, hiring of machinery and skilled labor is required. Such machinery and skilled labor are expensively acquired. Modern technology requires intensive training. Cost incurred and time for training workers makes global businesses decrease their production. New modes of technology are implemented in the global education system which makes education expensive to acquire (Fernandez-Armesto, 2001, p. 29). Current expansion is affected either positively or negatively by the technology. Positively, technology ensures effectiveness and efficiency in