Mini Project Number One!

http://issuu.com/acraver7/docs/what_passes_the_bechdel_test?mode=window

The above link is to my photo essay on the Bechdel test and way each selection either passes or failes.

REFLECTION:

My 'question' of inquiry for this assignment is "Why are women represented the way they are and why do some not fight for themselves?" So t took me a little bit of time to decide how I wanted to construct this first project then finally I chose to do a photo essay on films, tv shows and books/authors that pass the Bechdel test. The main reason I used the Bechdel test as one of my resources was the fact that you were given reasons behind the rating that the movies got in regards to the test itself. So I found 10 examples that I thought seemed like good candidates for the test. The first five examples show strong female characters who fight for the way that they want to be seen by the men in there lives/workforce, those types of women in a real life situation is not easy to find because most times women are the ones picking up the slack from men and not getting any credit from it. Those situations are the ones that I want to figure out why the women do not fight for the representations that they deserve.  To make it easier to understand I added a section of what didn't pass the test because it really puts this topic into realization for individuals.

Passing the Bechdel Test

On Monday when I was reading the comments that Lacy made on my Project Reflection, she mentioned that I could use the Bechdel Test on the examples that I plan to use on the first Mini Project. Since my topic of choice is Women Representation in Popular Culture, this test will help me determine if certain movies, television shows and books represent women in the way that they should be represented. Along with using the Bechdel Test, I was planning on using a Photo Essay to show the results that I have come up with. Using a Photo Essay will allow me to display examples that pass the test and why they passed; personally I believe that this method will help me get my information across.

There are three rules to the Bechdel Test:

• There must at least two women
• The two women must talk to each
• The conversation can not be about men

Here is a link to the website: 

http://bechdeltest.com/

Finding the right topic

In Monday's class we were asked to expand on some of our previous topics in class that we could use for our mini projects. Lacy asked us to make a chart with four slots; we had to label them daybook, blogs, other blogs and misc., once we had finished labeling we were told to go back through everything we have done in the first half of the semester and pick out what stood out to us.

When I finally decided on two topics that I felt strongly about I knew that this was going to be easy for me to complete. The topics that I chose were Women in Popular Culture and Heroism, these were two topics that I have strong feelings towards and I feel like I could make one heck of a project on it.

If you're a bird I'm a bird

To be quite honest in Monday's class I was a bit out of it, so during our Writing Into the Day assignment I chose to just let my mind wonder instead of reading the article that Lacy gave us to read. My mind drifted to the book that I have chosen to read for the Inquiry Project, the novel that I chose to read is The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I am a huge Nicholas Sparks for many reasons, the major one is that all of his books take place in North Carolina and not somewhere extravagant, another reason is that his books are really easy to read and enjoy. Throughout the last couple of years I have seen the movie and read the book at least a million times, but I thought that it would be fun/interesting to dig deeper into the story line and find some inquiry within the plot or characters. Hopefully I won't find myself at a dead end because I feel like I could find some really really interesting answers to some questions that have arose for me in the past.

A Hero is.....

In class today we were asked to look into heroism through our list of movies, tv shows and music list that we made last week prior to class. I enjoyed looking through the list of things and picking out ones that could possibly have heroes in them. Once class was over and I was making my way back to my dorm I was listing the different types of heroes in the movies that I watch now or what I watched when I was a kid. Since this class is all about Inquiry i felt it was appropriate to research some of my favorite movies or shows that have one or more substantial hero figures. But as I was making my list I remembered the movie called Conviction which starred Hilary Swank who played the sister of a man who was convicted wrongfully of murder. Throughout the movie she is going to law school trying to get a degree that will save her brother, I won't ruin the movie but that made me realize that being a hero doesn't have to be extravagant it could just be helping someone cross the road. Popular culture nowadays tries very hard to make heroism extraordinary which in reality never truly happens.











My list consisted of:
The Mummy Returns
Scooby Doo 2 (you will realize that its true..)
The Following
Criminal Minds

Women in general.

Once we dove into the lesson for the day I was excited to further research the roles that women play in popular culture such as television, movies and music. My favorite television shows usually consist of very strong lead female characters because there are situations in real life where women do have to be in charge of a group. To further explain my favorite show as of the last couple of months is Rizzoli & Isles because it has two normal women taking on jobs that are very male dominant. Jane Rizzoli is a detective and Maura Isles is a medical examiner(the person who finds out how a person dies), in a normal setting those roles would probably not be filled by women and that is what drew me to those characters in particular. I am a crime drama 'junkie' so when women are able to take charge in those work fields it makes me excited because it shows how far women have and are coming to be noticed in those areas.

   With my group we went over to Fretwell to gain access to some wifi and look up some ideas that we could use to further explain our cause. I am not a feminist by any means but I do get upset when women especially in very high positions get the backlash from the male workers. My group and I were able to come up with a pretty decent list of movies, television and music in which women are either taking charge or simply confident in their sexuality which is hard to find.

Lego's

For class on Monday we were asked to bring in ideas about the different games that we discussed in class last Wednesday. Out of all the games that were discussed I knew immediately that I wanted to play Legos. As a child Legos were considered a boy game, so I never really got the chance to play with them growing up unless I was at a friends house. The instance we were allowed to play with the games in class I grabbed hand  full after hand full of various Lego's. I just started to make a staircase with various pieces, that is what makes Lego's so much fun to me you get to see which pieces fit together and make something really cool! Lacy actually came up to me during my building and asked what I was creating, but honestly I did not know. Then we got into a discussion about how they are making Lego's for girls but they are based solely on work or jobs that they can have, which made me made because boys get the ones where they are allowed to create whatever comes to their minds.

I able to connect really this activity to the HOMAGE category "Messing Around", because of the topic of interest driven activities. When you are given a big box of Lego's you automatically know what you are planning to create and from then on you fixate on that idea. Usually your "idea" is interest driven because people want to relate everything they do back to their favorite interests or activities.

 (my "masterpiece"; notice the only pink Lego in relation to my writing)