Happiness

I believe that meaningful work means doing a job that fulfills what you want to achieve. This may be in the form of money or prestige or simply self-satisfaction. It should be the easiest way to get to where you want to be.

Most people view their jobs as terrible, hard or boring tasks that need to be done just to survive. I, however, would rather look at work as something to enjoy while making sure I get something I want in return.

Hating one’s job seems to be a public consensus. Very few appreciate their work.  Calvin, in the comic series, Calvin and Hobbes, is popular for saying “It’s only work if somebody makes you do it.”

Most people look at their jobs as stressful because of the pressure that goes with it: deadlines, hard-to-please employers and waking up early after sleeping late the night before. If we really think about it, it is not any different from school. At least in a job, you get paid not just a grade.

People would rather avoid work because of the pressure. However, stress management is something we all can learn because “stress is a response to pressure.” (What Is Work) To handle pressure, we must learn how to balance work and life instead of letting it rule our lives.

Sir James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, once said “nothing is really work unless you would rather do something else” but I believe that to achieve great things, we need to change our view of work.

In the book, “The Lazy Way To Success – How To Do Nothing And Accomplish Everything,” the author, Fred Gratzon, believes that the “basis of success is not hard work. The basis of success is doing less.” (25) What he meant was that by thinking clearly of how to solve our problems (money, most of the time), we can find solutions that do not necessarily take our happiness away. Gratzon believes that if you put the problem in its correct perspective, you can think of easier ways to get what you want less anxiety and effort.

Gratzon is right. Work, I believe is important to achieve what I want or need. It may be money or prestige or happiness. Whatever my goals would be in the future will determine my chosen jobs someday. Realistically, I know I can’t always get the job I want but I believe that I can choose the right attitude and do what I need to do to get what I want. Work is not a pain but a means for me to gain. Work is the way to put meaning in my life.

Works Cited

“What Is Work Related Stress?” workstress.net. 2006 http://www.workstress.net/whatis.htm.

Gratzon, Fred. The Lazy Way To Success – How To Do Nothing And Accomplish Everything. Iowa: Soma Press, 2002.

A Treasure of a Lifetime There are many great gifts that I have received in my life blessed and beyond words. The foremost greatest gift that stands out to me the most is my son. I don’t just look at this gift as just a gift; I look at it as a blessing and a true gift from God. Each and every day I wake up I am thankful for my son. I try my best to enjoy and cherish every moment that we have together every day. Not everyone that wants children can have them so not only do I cherish every moment with my son I take advantage of this great opportunity of bringing a child as great as mine into this world.

My child is the greatest gift that I have received because he is smart in so many ways, he brings nothing but joy and happiness into my life, and he is my biggest inspiration for why I strive for the best in life. One reason why I think my child is such a great gift to me is because, sometimes in life people don’t get to enjoy the special moments with their children. I can only speak for myself and the wonderful moments that I have enjoyed with my son. Ever since he was a baby, I have enjoyed just watching him grow up to be a smart kid. My son knows how to sing his alphabets as well as saying them and he knows how to count his numbers.

He knows all his shapes and colors he even knows how to spell and recognize the letter of his name. I’m not trying to brag but it’s just a thrill and an amazing feeling to just sit and watch your child grow and learn new things each day. It makes me a proud parent of a wonderful child with such great potential. Another reason why I say he’s smart is because he can go to the bathroom on his own I don’t have to tell him to go he just get up and go to the bathroom. He sometimes gets himself dressed, even though he might not match, but it makes me a proud to know that my son is trying.

I award my child for everything he does right, I don’t criticize him about the things he does wrong. I try to help him as well as showing him all of his mistakes, my son knows I love and care about him and I’m here to help him every step of the way. Another reason why my child is the greatest gift that I have received is because he brings so much joy and happiness into my life. Just knowing our struggle from the time he was born until now, I tried to raise him all by myself, yes it was hard but it just made me stronger and happier to be his mother.

I take advantage of being a part of my son’s life because I love him so much and I know another day is not promised to me and him or anyone else. So I enjoy our time together each day. I know my child loves me unconditionally and I know he knows I love him the same way. My son looks up to me as a positive role model in his life and as a provider, teacher, and friend. I’m here for all of those reasons, but when it comes down to discipline I want him to know there are rules and regulations that he has to follow. It’s just a selfless act of love, because my life is not my own and it’s not just about me.

In addition, to my son bringing so much joy into my life he is also a big inspiration in my life as well. He is what keeps this smile on my face from day to day. My son is the reason why I strive for the best in life. My child is the reason why I wake up and go to school and work, there are plenty of day that I wake up and don’t want to go to work or go to school. I just think about my son and I ask God to give me the strength to make it through the day, because I know this is something that I want and I don’t want to give up on.

I want my son to feel proud of me to know where we came from and to see how far we’ve made it through. I truly don’t believe I would have made it this far without him. But I still say all things happen for a reason. God knew exactly what he was doing. I am more than glad to have this child a part of my life he has helped me to motivate myself to achieve many goals and accomplish many things in life. This is still a learning experience for me when I first had my son I wasn’t concerned about being a mother.

I was mostly concerned about would I make a good mother because God knows it was hard to raise a child and still go to school and try to work, it’s not something that is easy but as these years have gone by I’ve learned to be a good mother to my child and except the challenges of motherhood. Today, I am a proud mother of a three year old little boy that bring so much joy and happiness in to my life I couldn’t ask for anything else greater than this gift God granted me with. Sometimes in life things are thrown at you from every open door and it just makes you want to give up.

These things that are thrown at you are called obstacles, these obstacles are thrown at you to make your way hard and to make you think you’re worthless but it’s up to you to continue to fight your way through these obstacles. Sometimes you need a little push and a little motivation. This is the reason why I consider my son a reason to why I kept going because I knew there was some work for me to do. God saw nothing but great opportunities in my life and I’m making it each day to have faith in myself and to believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I highly would like to recommend this to all the young girls that had children at a young age and wanted to finish school and didn’t and had obstacles thrown their way that knocked them down and they couldn’t find their way back up. I’m here to tell you there is no such thing as “I can’t” because “I did”, I kept going. I got pregnant when I was fifteen years old I had my son when I was sixteen I didn’t stop I graduated from high school and I made it to college. But I’m not giving up on my goals and my future that I can see before me, I am going to continue to stroll down that road called success.

Basing your discussion on an analysis of at least 2 contemporary artists or bands, consider the ways that Theodore Adorno’s notions of ‘standardisation’ and ‘pseudo-individualism’ might be applied to contemporary pop music. Do you see any problems or shortcomings from this approach?

Popular Culture has enticed much research; with the increase of media studies there are a number of minds picking apart what they see. With icons filing up and saturating mediums such as television, magazines, radio stations to name a few, the celebrity filled industry is undoubtedly causing a stir amongst the masses.

Theodore Adorno (1903-69) emigrated to England in 1934 to escape Nazism. He lived in the United States of America for 10 years, (1938-48) before returning to Frankfurt, where he was a member at the ‘Frankfurt Institute of Social Research’. Theodore Adorno was a key figure in the study of popular music and had intrinsic Marxist view on the capital nature of society. Adorno believed that the culture industry “is the central agency in contemporary capitalism for the production and satisfaction of false needs”. (Adorno, T and Horkheimer, M. 1977, p349).

He argues that popular music is a mass-produced and shallow standardised part of the culture industry. This would suggest that all aspects of popular music including types of songs, song lyrics and parts of songs e.g. chorus, are all standardised. (Longhurst, B. 1995, p5).

Popular music is therefore divided into particular categories or genres of music such as rock, pop, rap, heavy metal and reggae etc, however according to Adorno, all popular music is standardised consisting of verse, chorus, bridge, that are interchangeable from one song to another. The effects of standardisation are often hidden by what the industry calls pseudo-individualisation. These are incidental differences, also known as ‘frills’ that are put within a song to disguise that it sounds the same.

Adorno distinguishes sharply between pop music and serious music between high culture and low cultures. Serious music, which he regards as classical, Beethoven or Mozart for example, plays to the pleasures of the imagination offering an engagement with the world, as it should be.

Especially due to this separation his theories were often attacked for being elitist. The comparison of pop music and serious music was a main topic for him. Adorno describes individuals who enjoy popular music “corrupt by immersion and open to the domination of industrialised capitalist systems.” (Longhurst, B. 1995, p8). This view accounts for the emotional needs that popular music may fulfil as ‘false and immature, rather than deep and/or penetrating. “Adorno continued to equate the form with Tin Pan Alley and jazz orientated variations of it, ignoring the rise of rock and roll in the early 1950’s. This undermined his critique and resulted in his views generally being strongly rejected by more contemporary rock analysts.” (Shuker, R. 1994; 23).

Adorno claims that Popular music is churned into a production line where everything sounds similar, it’s an industry that exploits us for profit and social control, to accept certain conditions about the world in which we live through a capitalist society. It would be fair to say that to some extent this is true. We do live in a capitalist society and in the music industry the process of absorption is achieved by capitalism through advertising and marketing of a product with a pop star or pop band. Everything about them becomes a commodity, their clothes, image, likes and dislikes etc, transcends its immediate functional use to become a key symbol of a whole lifestyle. The argument implies that the rise of the popular music to mass status is a consequence of the symbolic strategies invested in it rather than the actual quality of the music.

This essentially means that although the products of the culture industry are alike in most cases, some ‘individuality’ is consciously added to make it different from the rest even though essentially it is the same product. This is pseudo individualism. Adorno uses the Hollywood star system as an example, “the more dehumanised its method of operation and content, the more diligently and successfully the culture industry propagates supposedly great personalities, and operates with heart throbs.” (Adorn, T. 1991, p87).

A modern day example can be seen in boy bands such as ‘Westlife’, ‘Nsync’, ‘Backstreet boys’ and the most recent ‘One true voice’ derived from ‘Popstars the rivals’, a spin of show produced originally as ‘Popstars’ in January 2001. Although the music is very similar in structure, tonality and content, the customer can choose between several versions of these boy bands.

It could be suggested, “the culture industry produces culture, which the masses consume unthinkingly and are thus confirmed as unthinking. It is a culture which produces satisfaction in the here and now, depoliticising the working class, limiting its horizon to political and economic goals that can be achieved within the oppressive and exploitive framework of capitalist society”. (Storey, J. 1998 p188).

The audience, through a selection process selected the new boy band, One True Voice over a number of weeks. A group of 5 males aged between 17 and 22, they do fit into a typical boy band category. They released a Christmas song called ‘Sacred Trust’ which is actually a cover version of another male group the ‘Bee Gees’. Adorno would claim that we as masses consume everything the business churns out and on a personal level I would agree as this appears to be both standardised and contains pseudo individualism as it is sung by a new group with added frills however this has been apparent in popular music for generations and manufactured groups will continue to use this method in order to generate more sales. We live in a consumerist society where these manufactured groups are providing a service for their audience. A major critique of this is that Adorno does not look at the emotional response of the audience and how standardisation is also a form of pleasure. By this it means that standardisation is a form of security for the audience and this predictability is often welcoming.

Adorno and other writers of the Frankfurt school, especially Herbert Marcuse (1898-1978) sees the process of the culture industry as a means of capitalist society to stabilize itself.

Theodore Adorno claimed that popular music operates as a tool of social ‘cement’. Although his writings was published in 1941, his accounts on popular music does not account for the complexities of recent popular music and popular culture. He is heavily criticised due to his unchanging elitist views and it would be fair to say that popular music is not as monolithic as Adorno claims.

The perspectives offer a relevant but quite pessimistic and what can be considered as narrow minded views of popular music. They have offered foundations for interpretation and understanding of music however many theories since have built on how audiences’ contextualise and use the products of mass culture rather than what the culture industry does to the audience.

Antonio Gramsci’s (1891-1937) work on Hegemony opened many doors for thought, including ideas that ‘members of society negotiate with the products of the culture’. (Fiske, J. 1992, p309). Hegemony helps identify that popular culture is not simply imposed on the subordinates by the bourgeoisie and that people are not simply “passive and helpless mass incapable of discrimination and thus at the economic, cultural and political mercy of the barons of the industry”. (Fiske, J. 1987, p309)

Fiske suggests that audiences draw contrasting ideas from different text. Madonna is a fine example where pleasure of the audience is in the “power of a severely suboridatly subculture to make their own statements and own meaning”. (Fiske, J. 1987, p233)

These theories have their strengths and differences in helping unpack the tapestry of music. One element they all share is the acknowledgement that pop music has important social effects. Who are the main consumers of popular music? Youth are highest consuming marketing within pop music accounting for the highest percent of single sales. Bradley (1992) accounted the significance with youths and music as reaction to post war teenager with an increase in disposable income and new position in society. James Coleman (1961) highlighted the separateness of youth culture from adult society and its closeness to the market through consumption of popular music. Consumption has been linked to youth culture as far back as the 50’s, where growing western markets created specific products and goods for the teenager. (Wulff, H. and Taliai, A. 1995).

An example of success in popular music is Madonna. She is a key figure in the pop industry as a pioneer for breaking conventions within gender and sexuality, and has been around for 3 decades, now in her 50’s still appealing to the youth, However much debate on Madonna has taken place focusing on her image rather than her music. She has been perceived as ‘the lowest form of irresponsible culture a social disease’ and ‘an inauthentic product of the culture industry who was involved of the exploitation of others of the gain of that industry’. (Bryman, A. 2001).

In relation to Adorno he may have perceived Madonna to be a cultural product, taking pseudo individualism to an extreme, which in turn made her very popular. Madonna moves from various genres of music and blends them together; she had a hit record with ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ a more operatic song very different to what is considered mainstream music. I feel that Adorno would have critiqued this as popular classical as she took something that can be considered elitist and brought it into popular culture.

This view is contrasted with her comparison as an ‘organic feminist who ‘allows girls to see that the meaning of feminine sexuality can be in their control, can be made in their interests, and that their subjectivity’s are not necessarily totally determined by the dominant patriarchy’. (McClary, S. 1991.)

McClary in her analysis of Madonna has found her to be exceptional as a musician who has endured maintained an incredible amount of power as a successful female artist over three decades. A simple look at her back catalogue and it is apparent that she uses sexual power as a commodity alike many women throughout western history. Including seventeenth century composer Barbara Strozzie, who was one of a few women who broke through the elite circle of classical music, by posing bare breasted for publicity. It would be very interesting to know what Adorno would account for that. (Rosand, E. 1986).

Madonna however ‘brings hypocrisy to the surface and problematizes it’. With publications of her book, sex and video discourses like ‘in Bed with Madonna’ She takes a key role in the aggressor sexually. She connects the notions of power and sex and projects it back outwards into the main stream hands on hips Gautier bust pointy and proud. Her intentions never simplistic, it is possible her representations aim to detach stigmas and notions of taboo to certain sexual matters. ‘This may lead to greater tolerance for those engaged in these ‘perverted’ practices’ and a layered stream of meanings dipictable from her messages.

Irony has been depicted as a key strategy in her possible master plan. In ‘Like a Virgin’ her little girl voice and play with signs of famous temptresses, her pouts, her coquettish nature and using ‘”traditional music signs of childish vulnerability projecting her knowledge that this is what patriarchy expects of her and also her awareness that this fantasy is ludicrous”. (McClary,S. 1991, p153).

A principal factor in the understanding of Madonna messages is the language of cultural experiences and perceptions that she speaks to her audience with. Madonna gives her audience standardisation in the sense that some of her music can be chopped and changed however she also gives her audience challenging and contrasting views about being a woman in today’s society, that could be argued against Adorno as being engaging, testing and also plays to the pleasures of the imagination offering engagement to the world as it is now.

Her audience within popular music are aimed specifically at the mass (for financial and wider broadcast of her messages) and ‘as evidence in that she plays for the lowest common denominator-that she prostitutes her art an extension of her self’. Prostitution is a service never the less, and it evident that she uses her role to play with traditional boundaries and identities. Madonna uses the tool of fantasy a mode typical of the culture industry, however she here compliance to the powers stop, as she twist notions within them. Her fantasies have been seen as ambiguous and unsuccessful for men and she has been compared to a genuine ‘Boy Toy’ as male interpretations and reactions to a majority are often that of anxiety and unease rather than appease. (Rolling stone 508 March 28th 1989). On the other hand, the power of Madonna is undoubtedly clear, her vast empire of her Production Company, her own music label and a net value of 600 Million speaks volumes about her nature as a business women as well as an artist and social figure.

It is fair to say that that although popular music in today’s generation can be considered as standardized, and to a great extent, manufactured music will always be so, Adorno’s views are out of date and biased as he had a very low opinion of popular music. Being a musician himself, his opinions were based on his own assumptions of high and low culture and although he did make some substantial claims about standardization and pseudo individualization, popular music today has more important factors to be dealt with such as the messages it is portraying. One being that we do live in a consumerist society where essentially everything is a product, even classical music today, which Adorno would have considered high art is now commercialized and used as a commodity to sell through advertising. Through it all music captures a moment or feeling that Adorno does not account for. Music is another form of expressing an emotion whether it is classical or pop music and it is there for enjoyment, to provide a service and an option to listen to whatever pleases the ear.

Happy people become happier through kindness intervention. The relationship between the character strength of kindness and subjective happiness, and the effects of a counting kindnesses intervention on subjective happiness Happy people to perform on their motivation, recognition and enactment of kind behaviors. They have more happy memories in daily life in terms of both quantity and quality. Subjective happiness was increased simply by counting one’s own acts of kindness for one week.

Happy people became more kind and grateful through the counting kindnesses intervention. Compared with less happy people, happy people have better social relationships and more pleasant everyday lives. For example, very happy people have highly satisfying relationships with friends, romantic partners, and family members and that, compared to their less happy peers, they report more positive events and emotions in their daily lives relative to negative ones. Happy people are more extraverted, more agreeable, and less neurotic.

Some studies have shown that subjective happiness is one of the key factors in subjective well-being and overall satisfaction with life. Therefore I expected that in addition to the strength of gratitude, the strength of kindness would also play an important role in increasing subjective happiness. Gratitude is an important human strengths that contributes to subjective happiness, especially appreciative of the contribution of others to their happiness. I suggest that grateful persons would further be characterized by the appreciation of life’s simple pleasures.

These imply reciprocal relationships among gratitude, subjective happiness, and good social relationships. Consequently, compared with unhappy people, happy people report close and satisfying relationships and feel more gratitude in their lives. Gratitude when people receive kindness form other people, kindness entails enacting kind behavior toward other people. In personal mindset, how to act of kindness can be expressed in countless ways? A warm hello said to a stranger, giving money to those in need, allowing cars to merge into traffic… all of these are acts of kindness.

Kindness may be best expressed as a state of mind. With the holiday season over, and many of us feeling the effects of a far-reaching world disaster, understanding how kindness can help is very important. People you help can see the direct result of your actions, and people who witness your gestures can be touched by what you do. From giving money and time, to the way in which you communicate with friends, family, and co-workers, the ripple effect of kindness is far-reaching.

It is easy to think that kindness is only a “one-way street”, but kindness can go both ways. Giving, in and of itself, can be a great reward, but how is the giver affected? The giver can be rewarded in many areas, both psychologically and physically. It would be impossible to list every way that kindness can be shown or given. Being attuned to situations where you can help almost becomes a “state of mind” or “attitude” that you can live by. Start by making a list of areas where you can help.

This may include giving to a helping organization, such as a local homeless shelter, food-bank, or a national/ international organization. With the natural disaster in the Far East dominating what we see on the evening news, perhaps you could start by identifying national or international organizations that could use your financial donations. You can even look to your community for places that could use your donations or volunteer time, such as visiting patients in a nursing home or hospital ward.

And the world is a better place through your kindness. Never underestimate the impact of a single act of kindness. I still remember, after many years, the time someone stopped and helped me after my car had broken down in high-speed road. Since then, I have stopped on the road myself and helped stranded motorists a number of times. All because of that single act of kindness by a stranger. The implications of kindness are far reaching. Showing kindness even on a small level is a great start. Also, it is important to carry out your acts of kindness without expecting anything in return has its own rewards. 1013 words

Stupid- adjective: lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; Characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless. Failure- noun: lack of success, nonperformance of something required or expected; an insufficiency. Everyone has been called at least one of these, and felt that sideways glance or condescending stare from people that look over and see a low quiz grade or test score on your paper. Especially at our school, there is lots of pressure to be “the best”, and extreme competition to get the highest grade.

Many students obsess over their grades; incessantly discussing them with their friends as if nothing more important existed. There is obviously a great deal of stock put in grades by AMCHS students. It’s understandable; a high GPA or test score gets you into a good college, which in turn gets you a high paying job that helps you get ahead in life. That way you can make lots of money, buy cool stuff, and be well thought of. I’ve seen students receive what they consider a bad test score and distress about how they’ve failed, and how others might think they’re stupid.

But students shouldn’t measure their self-worth by grades; they should store confidence in themselves and value their life experience. Intelligence is a relative thing. People try to categorize it as a linear component when it’s actually a multi-dimensional feature, which is why grades should be regarded as an indicator of academic achievement, not a determining factor of an individual’s brightness or intellect. Exemplary, all A, book smart students are great; but, if you can’t generalize what you learn and apply it to other situations, then you haven’t contributed to your community or history in any way.

Life experience is just as valuable as high test scores. You can do as much good with a developed understanding and empathy for others as you can with a perfect test score. So, don’t distress if you find yourself not at the top of your class, because someone will always excel above you in one subject or another. Someone who is better at algebra may not be as good at geometry, or the history buff may falter with English grammar. If you try to compare yourself to others you may always find yourself not measuring up in one way or another.

That is why you should be content with yourself and your best efforts. So don’t shy away from your failures, embrace them, and learn from them. Fail as many times as necessary. Failing doesn’t make you a failure, and all A’s doesn’t make you a competent individual. Remember failure isn’t fatal. You shouldn’t be angst-ridden over getting “just” a 100 that you miss the whole point of the lesson. Be encouraged to venture out, and in the words of William Zinsser ,“(w)e need more mavericks than class presidents” in this world.

The world needs presidents, but they are equally as great as the dreamers and dissenters of the world. Both make history, except presidents generally happen to be far less interesting. Is that to say that there’s something wrong with good grades being a priority? Certainly not, but do not let the goal of perfect A’s, or fear of those who might call you stupid, abscond with your enjoyment of life as they dash ahead to the finish line, not realizing how short the race truly is.

Your time in high school and college is a unique one. You have the benefits of freedom, but not yet the burdens of complete independence and responsibilities. You’re not tied down by a full time job, utility bills, or mortgages. So take advantage of this time; don’t chain yourself to a specific formula for success. Take time to live in the moment, even if it means setting aside the goal of a perfect score on a standardized test. You’re not a standardized individual, so why devote so much time to trying to be one?

If you spend all your time trying to get ahead in life, you will end up looking back wishing you had paid more attention to the things that passed, not the fact that you passed. As the old saying goes, life isn’t about getting through the storm, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. But how can you learn if you’re afraid to get wet? Don’t step lightly to avoid messing up your coat by splashing a little mud. Get completely drenched and enjoy it.

Emotion and Culture Paper Kerry Rogers PS2000 Intro to Psychology Professor Eva Owen March 20, 2013 Evaluating the culture-specific and culturally universal aspects of emotional expression. Also, evaluate how this is related to evolutionary psychology. Be sure to discuss how you would integrate this with a Christian worldview. Culture-specific or culturally universal expressions dominate the lifestyle of very culture on every nation on earth.

And language is not as much of a bearer as one might think. Now lets look at the word “culture” to get a deeper understanding of the meaning. The word culture has many different meanings; let me give you some examples… For some it means, a appreciation of good food, or literature or music and yes even art. Which for some is an enquired taste. Many books have been written on the subject, so we are never for a lac of understanding. “For news of the heart, ask the face. As people of differing cultures and races, do our faces speak differing languages? Which face expresses disgust? Anger? Fear? or Happiness? Sadness? Surprise? Those are just some of the question asked by very culture. From a psychological aspect researchers have found that happy people tend to have high self-esteem. People also tend to be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable. They have close friendships and more satisfying marriages. And more importantly they have a more active faith.

However happiness seems not much related to other factors such as: Age, gender, parenthood and physical attractiveness. A wealth of studies has revealed another curious correlation, called the faith factor. Religiously active people tend to live longer than those who are not religiously active. Health and other factors have an affect on our life’s outcome. I am not sure how culture and psychology work into a Christian worldview, but I do know that God does affect very culture and aspect of very human life that was born or will be born.

Whether you believe that God is your creator or not does not negate from the truth. Evolution is a theory and a lie that came from human evolutionary lies that have been handed down for the past two hundred years. While Christianity, has been around since the beginning of time. You want more proof all you have to do is read the book, the book that has been reprinted and read more than any other book. Christianity is full of culture and life stories that give history like no other lifestyle known by man.

A stereotype is a standardized character, of appearance or lifestyle which people expect. For example most people if asked to describe a ‘Super Hero’ would reply with, ‘strong, tall, brave and good looking,’ but is this always the case?

Therefore sexual stereotypes are about how people expect a person to look or act because of their gender.

Men are thought of as successful businessmen in suits and striped shirts, which is a sign of wealth. In some cases the male is seen as the father figure in a family of four, but in both of these cases his is attractive to the opposite sex.

Young boys are often cheeky and mischievous, they tend to wear blue as it is though of as a ‘boy’s’ colour. In the majority of cases they are portrayed as been sporty and even from this early age show a keen interest in cars.

In advertising, a woman is seen as the mother of a family who does all of the housework and cooking for the other members of the family. They wear purple or pastel blue, which brings across the message that they are soft and feminine.

If they are acting the housewife they are usually slim, attractive and extremely good-looking. The reason for this is that the company will try and sell the product using a ‘sex appeal’ method which can be very effective. If this is the case, bright, bold colours such as red and pink are used so that the model stands out.

Little girls are often portrayed as cute and gentle, so that viewers get emotional when they are watching. In most cases they are dresses in a pink dress, with a doll and their hair is styled into little curls.

I have decided to use three ‘OXO’ advertisements, which are advertising gravy to show how different sexes are addressed in different circumstances.

In the first advertisement a women is cooking in a kitchen with a big grin on her face, this suggests that she is happy with what she is doing and feels at ‘home’ with cooking.

She is wearing a light purple top, the reason for this is that it helps the bright colours of the ‘OXO’ logo to stand out.

The young girl who is most probably the lady’s daughter is helping her mother happily and brings across the message that she will one day become the mother and cook for her own family.

Finally the little boy is watching his mother but not taking any part in the cooking. He has a big smile on his face, as he waits for his lunch to be made. The fact that he is not helping is significant because this is the case in most advertisements that include males and cooking.

On the whole this is a stereotypical advertisement with the mother cooking the dinner and the male not taking part.

The text in the advert is emboldened and bright, this is so that the logo stands out and if someone has a quick glance at the poster the logo is the image that will stay in their mind.

The second advertisement is different from the first for the simple fact that this time it is the farther in the kitchen not the mother. The father has done the cooking for his two sons but he has made a mess, this shows that most people have the idea then men can not cook but women can and this is another stereotypical idea which is obviously not true at all.

The two sons are looking at their father in disgust and as most likely thinking, ‘What will mum do?’

The advertisement shows that even though the father does not know how to cook he still knows that ‘OXO’ is the best and if a man who can not cook knows this, its obvious to a woman who can cook that ‘OXO’ is the best gravy to use.

There is no ‘OXO’ logo on this advertisement and I think that is because it is a ‘still’ from a television advertisement unlike the first which was a poster.

The third and final ‘OXO’ advertisement uses both male and female characters.

It contains a stereotypical image of a women who has done the cooking and serving the food to the other three family members two of which are male and are sitting at the table waiting for their dinner.

The father figure, in the scene is just reading his newspaper and the fact that he is doing nothing else is a stereotypical idea of a father waiting for his dinner.

All of the family is smiling as they receive their dinner and this is because they are about to receive ‘OXO’ gravy, which brings across the message that it is good.

The way in which the advertisement uses both male and female characters in a stereotypical form is important because it sets a common family scene and people think that it also applies to their family.

On the whole all three of the advertisements used both male and female characters and I think that is because the product is for both sexes but I also think that even though this is the case women are still portrayed as the cook.

There are some adverts, which use only male models, and these usually advertise products such as cars, aftershave, DIY products and shaving equipment. One example of an advert, which uses just a male character, is advertising Hugo Boss Aftershave.

The man in the advert is brought across as a successful businessman and we can tell this by the way he dresses. I think that the striped shirt, which he is wearing, is a sign of wealth and success.

The man’s hands are clean and his nails have been professionally manicured which suggests to me that he has a surplus of money. He is holding a file-fax in his hands, which would mean that he, is heading for a meeting and therefore adding to the ‘Businessman Image’.

The advert contains a typical stereotype image of a man and I think that he dresses like this so that a man will buy the aftershave because he will think that it will make him rich and successful. If this is not the case and the mans wife or girlfriend is buying him a present she may buy this because her sub-conscious will tell her that her man will end up looking like the model in the advert.

In the same way that men are used solely in advertisements, women are also used in order to sell products to males using sex appeal or to sell products to women through a sub-conscious method.

In an advert for ‘Hot Choc Drinks’ an attractive woman is dressed in red and has a slim figure and this is another example of stereotyping.

The reason that the woman is dressed in red is to attract the customers’ attention and the colour red is good at doing this. The attractive face and slim figure suggests to other women that if they drink ‘Hot Choc’ they too will get a body like the model, which unfortunately is untrue.

To a male buyer it suggests to his sub-conscious that he will be likely to encounter girls like the model.

The cup in the model’s hand is the same shape as her body to remind the customer of what’s in store in the unlikely event that they will forget.

After looking at the five different adverts I have decided that companies use different types of models and stereotype these models to grab the customers attention or to act on their sub-conscious, which will hopefully result in an increase in sales.

Nowadays most advertisements are shown on television and here are two examples showing how television also uses stereotyping.

The Yorkie advert has a slogan, which states, ‘Yorkie; it’s not for girls.’

This shows that the chocolate is so big and chunky that it is only for men.

The idea of the big chunks of chocolate suggests that women are too small and weak to handle this. It may be also portraying the same message as in the ‘Hot Chocs’ advertisement meaning that women are not allowed it because it will cause them to become fat and unattractive. During the adverts a women dresses as a man in order to purchase the chocolate, she wears male clothing and a fake beard as it would be extraordinary for a woman to have so much facial hair. The woman also speaks in a deep voice so that the shop owner does not realise because women are expected to talk in a soft voice and doing so would give her game away. This is an example of sexual stereotyping saying that men have facial hair and speak in deep voices, which may not always be the case.

Towards the end of the advertisement the women’s real identity is revealed which is another example of sexual stereotypes.

The second television advertisement that I have chosen is advertising an insurance company, which is just for women. The company says the if you chance your insurance to them it could be cheaper because it is just for women.

This brings across a stereotypical image that males, young and old, are dangerous drivers who push their car it its limits. This of cause is untrue and there, as just as many bad female drivers as there are bad male drivers.

In the advertisement there is a women who is presenting the information and the company logo contains the colour pink, these two points are significant if the company wants to keep with the idea that women are better drivers. The reason for this is that the people who are watching the advertisement will be getting the information from another women, which they will probably value more. Pink is a stereotypical colour which as always been associated with females of every age.

Both of these advertisements express stereotypical images of men and women in completely different ways, but these are just a small selection of the many ways men and women are portrayed.

The roles of men and women have changed considerably over time, but in peoples sub-conscious they appear to have stayed the same and therefore have also not changed in advertising.

For example most males are portrayed most successful businessmen and nowadays women go to work rather than staying at home doing the housework.