Untitled

Take a look at these two scenes.

Japanese version


American version


When looking at these two clips, what stands out to you? They are both the same character with the same power, so what sets these two apart that makes one better in America than the other. If your thinking the language, then you are close. its the tone of the voice. In the Japanese version of Dragonball Z, the characters have a much lighter voice whereas in the American version, even though he is just a child, the voice is more deeper, more masculine. It was not good enough that the body of this child in the Japanese version was ripped and muscular, America feels that the voice should match their body.

Take GI Joe for another example


Obviously GI Joe represents the soldiers of America. In this intro, what made this cartoon popular was the guns and action used throughout the show but the other thing that helped solidify the strength and how manly the cartoon was, is the voice of the singer. He sings not for pitch and tone, but for bass. The tone of a man's voice helps to define a man's strength; the louder and more intimidating a man can sound during and before a battle helps win the psychological battle...we think. But as you can see hear, its not always the case.


The yelling and screaming men do is meant to strike fear in their opponent. It shows the other man that he is not afraid. In actuality, it is a distraction for who is more afraid. Yelling and talking with bass in your voice lets people know how much of a man you really are; well this is what our society has made us to believe. And we are teaching this to men, women and children that if you do not talk the talk, you are considered, according to Tough Guise, as a wimp, punk, sissy, bitch and any other possible feminine name.

We have even made women to believe that not being a man makes you less of a person and more of an object in the U.S. Women believe that they have to act like men, or even pretend men to get ahead in this world.


The media and certain people in this world are simple minded when they believe that men are the dominant beings on earth and in order to be one, you must walk, talk and look like one. We are all equal and have different abilities that we have that set us apart from the person next to us. We must learn to judge and accept the abilities and talents of a person and look past their gender, and how manly a person can act. This is just something to think about when we our viewing how our society is ran.

Dream world 2

As I was watching Dream World 2, I had a chance to see all these old music videos that I used to enjoy watching. I was only a child when I had first watch them but I do remember wanting to be the star who had all the friends and women at his place. But thats why the videos were setup like that in the first place isn't it. the videos main focus he said was to help sell tapes and CDs by advertising sex and sexiness. The video is supposed to attract a younger audience who (at their age) thinks slutty looking women and men who dominate the women are cool. The way the women in the video show off how sexy they are to the men appeals to both the female and male adolecent crowd; To the young girls, it protrays a woman with a desirable body that all the men want. And to the young boys, it shows a fantasy of male dominance as they are surrounded by beautiful women who are half naked; every boys dream come true.

When these women take it to the next level and try dressing suductive like they had seen on the video, yes they are putting themselves at risk when they go out dressed like that. Most women who go out have one thing on their mind besides dancing, and that is to look better than the next girl at the party. Sometimes this posses a problem when some men can't control themselves.

Music videos do set up illusions and fantasies that both men and women sometimes wish they were apart of. When women bring these fantasies to life, it does put them at a serious risk when they go out, because some men are determined to bring their fantasy alive as well. So women be careful when the cloths you wear are chosen to make yourself stand out sexually, some men will take that as an invite and the night could go the wrong way.

-Mike Graise

Five Faces of Oppression

There was much I didn't understand about this reading because it was difficult for me that is to follow. There were a couple of things that I thought I might touch on because it was the one thing that I really understood and could relate to. The part on how we view oppression was interesting to me in the sense that the book, in a way, made it seem like we misuse the word in our society. They mention how oppression is "the exercise of tyranny by a ruling group" (pg. 38). In the book they mention how the Hebrew were oppressed as well as people from South Africa; as far as African Americans, it says that we were struck with some form of oppression, but not actually oppression. This got me thinking about our class discission when we talked about how sometimes the institutions in our society, mainly the government, bends the rules of the constitution or certain strong words like oppression and racism to favor for themselves. I feel that oppression is the same as murder, there is no form of murder, murder is thought out and executed; murder is murder and oppression is oppression. For them to try to justify their actions by labeling the oppression that took place in America as "some form", it takes away from what African Americans went through, what Native Americans went through, Asian Americans and any other foreign race went through.

Oppression has clouded our country as well as several other countries and comes in all forms; whether it is sexism, racism, or homophobia, we as a people will never be able to move forward until oppression is erased from our minds and our vocabulary.

I Was There

I Was There



I was born in a time where
Men shook the world
with their bravery,
I was born in a time where
Men sacrificed their lives
to End slavery.

I was there to witness
my Brothers and Sisters
Hanged for being Black,
I was there to witness
America built on our
African ancestor's back.

I was there when Emmittt Till was
Murdered and both men served
No Time,
I was there when Sitting in the front
for black people was
considered a Crime

I was there to see Huey P. Newton and Fred Hampton
Preach about how we are
Not Free,

I was also there to see them
Die for Me.

You should not Forget, but give Thanks for the
Life you live today,
because you would not have it, if someone
didn't Pay.

-Mike Graise

Racial Formation

When someone thinks a person is going t act a certain way because of their skin color or better yet, their race, it is a form of racial profiling. Just because you profile other races that does not mean you are races. Everyone does it when you think about it, but when you act a certain way that represents discrimination or harmful acts torwards that indiivisual or group, that is when it becomes racism. It is not always the person's fault for acting the way they do, most blame should go to the person's immediate family first, then the community, and last the media and money. All of these factors have a tremendous influence on how people view other races; the other factor is the person's own knowledge, but even that could be altered and poisoned to think or do the worst.

Most racist people grew up in a racist enviornment, maybe their parents can't let go of the past and have embeded their racist ways and beliefs on the next generation of their family, or maybe their close friends have an influence on how they view other races. The other factor- which is a huge contributor of racism- is the media. The media, which most of our economy pays the most attention to, influences people to do damn there everything in their daily lives from figuring out what and where to eat, all the way to what a person should invest their money into. But what we are talking about is racial formation. The media for example, forms African Americans into ganstas, drug dealers and sell outs. Which makes no sense when you sit down and just think about it; it is considered normal for black people to act...BLACK, which means talking slang and acting ghetto, but as soon as they talk proper and wear business atire instead of wearing the Sean Jeans and Jordans, they are labeled from some white people as a "wanna be" and by African Americans as a "sell out". Another thing they might say to a sophisticated black person who talks proper is that he is not being true to themselves.

I blame most of this deception on the media as well as money; they both work hand and hand. Think about this, have you ever seen an all black cast on a television show or movie that was set up like the shows "The Office" or Frazier? No, because it wouldn't make any money. Even though both of those shows are comedies, it wouldn't be a norm in our society to see a whole cast of African American men and women looking and talking sophisticated. Instead they team up a sophisticated character with a funny delinquent who makes fun of the black person talking proper and wearing business suits constantly; as does most most of our society, white and black.

The media taught teaches fear of other races as well as teaching some races to hate themselves. we must learn to look beyond the past so we can move forward, because if we do not, we will end up where we left off, which is where we are today.

Old Dave

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