Blog #3

I suppose for my last blog post I wanted to continue my reoccurring theme of including cartoons and their strong impact on my life. For my cultural artifact I decided to go with teen titans, the original tv show that aired on cartoon network back in July 2003. That means I was 5 years old when the first episode was aired. I remember in elementary school I would jump off my bunkbed and sing a long to the catchy and mesmerizing intro.  Although I was fairly young, the lessons the show taught me stuck with me up until now. One specific episode I can explain from beginning to end was season 2 episode 7 “transformation”. This episode was important to me because Starfire (being the main character in this episode) undergoes this extreme transformation that ultimately leaves her feeling insecure and alone. Although I believe this episode was targeted at young girls who experienced or are in the process of experiencing puberty because her body changes so drastically, it had also taught me certain things are short lived and not meant to be the entirety of one’s focus. Overall since the very beginning I have always looked up to Starfire because she expressed both beauty, grace, and incredible strength. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in and always had been the voice of reason by doing what she believed was right. An example of this would be season 4 episode 6, the teen titans had contacted an outsider for help on a mission. This episode dealt with racism, because this outsider had called Starfire Troq instead of referring to her actual name. When Cyborg confronts her on why she has been so down lately she expressed how the word was created to attack people of her kind. With this Cyborg apologizes for misusing it, from which Starfire reiterates, "There will always be people who say mean words because you are different. And sometimes their minds cannot be changed. But there are many more people that do not judge people based on how they look, or where they came from. Those are the people whose words truly matter”. I remember writing this quote down in my diary when I was younger because it was my first introduction to bullying. This taught me how to never treat someone different because of how they looked or where they came from and to preach it to my young friends. It wasn’t until high school I reflected back on the show to see how different I thought of the show after I was more mature. I feel like the creators of the show had also tried to teach mental health through the character of Raven. She didn’t say much but her impact was also powerful. She had captivating powers that reflected solely on her own emotions, if anything it taught me how as a human there is so much to balance that we can be struggling inside but can never express it out of fear or judgement from others. I can’t remember the episode where all of Ravens personalities come out, but her friends make it their mission to help her, it might have been a hidden PSA to check up on friends you know have it quite hard. Overall this show was one of the biggest blessings and I couldn’t be fonder of everything it taught me and others. 

Blog 2

Prompt #1

The cultural artifact I decided to choose is yet another cartoon, this time from the popular series created in 2005 “Avatar the last airbender”. This cartoon taught me and a lot of other kid’s important life lessons and was probably one of the best cartoons up to date (just my opinion). Here is a video clip I am so sorry I couldn’t find another one I really don’t know why Pirates of the Caribbean music is playing https://youtu.be/vlj9Qqgs9vA  .Anyways I wanted to focus primarily on a strong independent girl named Katara who in the first episode discovered she had the power to water bend which was a rare thing in her village. Every episode I saw her become increasingly stronger, she decided to leave her village to find a teacher that could help her use her power to the fullest extent. I wanted to focus on episode 18 called, “The Waterbending master”. This episode is interesting because as Katara and her friends arrive she is greeted by people from this village and the water bending master, Master Pakku. Master Pakku from the start already thought of Katara as less of a person because she was a woman and refused to teach her anything when she got there. He had said women with powers cannot fight they are only meant to heal the injured. This right here was an early depiction of trying to create this wall for women where they could not be seen as prestige fighters but only as nurturing individuals. The women that had already lived at the village had complied to this rule because they didn’t know anything outside of the norm. This can be compared to the many women who are silenced in other countries having no voice, who don’t know any better because they aren’t exposed to freedom. Katara challenges this mentality because she doesn’t see anything wrong with women gaining the benefit of learning the skill of fighting. Master Pakku represents sadly, how many men view women as fragile and incapable beings. This mentality is seen a lot throughout the world now as women continue to push through in hopes of being on the same level as men. Katara can be seen as possibly someone who desires equal rights because her strength cannot go unnoticed. Throughout the battle Master Pakku spews many sexist comments at Katara, he had acknowledged that she is a good waterbender but still denies her as a student. In the end he sees his flawed ways of only teaching men the sacred art but sadly it is not an outcome that it is always generated in todays society. I realize on the blog I could’ve gone a bunch of different ways and picked many other videos but instead of seeing women as only sexual beings I wanted to focus on the other stereotype of them being fragile and unable to hold themselves up.

Prompt #2:

1.       I believe the person that created this message was someone who wanted show a young generation how fierce a girl could actually be.

2.       Some creative techniques that were used could be the creators used a cartoon to portray sexism, in a way the youngest of minds could understand it.

3.       The opposite sex often don’t see the mistreatment placed on others if it doesn’t directly affect them.

4.       The values represented correlate with each sex having a multitude of ways of expressing themselves without one weakness determining the entire genders capabilities.

For my cultural artifact I decided to choose an episode from one of my favorite cartoons running currently on cartoon network. If you are unfamiliar with this show it centers around a boy who is half boy and half gem trying to find his own identity, and break away from his mom’s shadow and dark past while being accompanied with his fellow crystal gems. These crystal gems are significant because they are all female and they can fuse together if they are truly in love. In this specific episode we have two gems that have been together for many years getting married. Ruby (red one on the left) and Sapphire (blue one on the left) are both female and they seemed to have switch each of their roles because throughout the episode’s ruby is seen as the tomboy while sapphire is seen as the one always wearing a dress, but for this special moment they reversed their attire. The picture on the right is Garnet (their fusion) and she expresses both of her unique sides by wearing both a wedding dress and a suit to express being both masculine and feminine. My cultural artifact says that gender expression is very fluid in a scene that any one individual can cultivate both feminine and masculine identities. I suppose it can reinforce traditional feminine and masculine ideas by placing the attire worn as one represents either gender. I believe the creator of this show is trying to push back on traditional ideas because she creates a fluidity and sense of freedom of how even though they are both female, one gem can wear a suit if she likes. It’s also beautiful how everyone is joyful of this commencement, no outside forces questioning or judging the couple. I feel like in many ways this kid show has impacted me, but like me and so many other people it just shows how even being female doesn’t exactly require me to be female all the time. For example, if I want to roll up my sleeves, or wear a long sleeve under my shirt I have every right to do so regardless of those trying to hold me back from doing it. My cultural object is basically a representation of love between two females who has swapped roles. My social world in the cartoon is one of acceptance that normalizes what most individuals have an issue with accepting today. The creators are most likely individuals who would like to change the mindset of the youth to be more accepting. The receivers are most likely the younger generation, since this show was meant for them but also it can prompt them to be more loving than the last generation. 
-Yasmine Felipe