The Modern Prometheus Essay Example for Free

The Modern Prometheus Essay Look at the significance of chapter five of Frankenstein to the novel as a whole. Focus on the relevance and effect of writers use of language to describe setting, character and what it shows about social and historical context.  This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own. Aristotle, Greek Philosopher  The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one. John Dryden, British poet, dramatist and critic. Never judge a book by its cover. Doing so puts you in danger of jumping to huge conclusions about something before youve even gave it a chance.  Frankenstein is a prestigious gothic horror story written by British, 19th Century novelist Mary Shelley. It tells the enthralling tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a scientist consumed by his need to find a way to preserve life, as he succeeds in creating an immortal, super strong creature using different attributes of corpses.  Shelley wrote the novel when she was around the age of 19, after envisioning the story when her and husband, Percy Shelley, spent the summer with Lord Byron and friends near Geneva, Switzerland. According to Shelley, it proved a wet, ungenial summer and so the insistent rain confined them to the house most days. Due to lack of entertainment, the company amused themselves by sitting around a log fire in Lord Byrons villa, reading German ghost stories, which prompted Byron to suggest they each try their hand at writing their own supernatural tale.  Shortly afterwards, in a waking nightmare in which she saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together, Mary conceived the idea for Frankenstein; she began writing what she assumed would be a short story. However, with encouragement from husband, Percy, she expanded this into her first and most celebrated novel of all her work. It was first published in 1818. Shelleys mother, philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, died just 10 days after Mary was born due to puerperal fever, and this tragic event embedded itself in Shelleys mind, having a huge impact on the novel, circling childbirth as the main theme running throughout. However, there are other themes which appear during the novel, the more prominent ones being: responsibility, science, ambition and obsession.  In Frankenstein, the consequences of attempting to master life and death are made apparent when, Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, idiotically creates a monster that counteracts mans new control over life and death. Shelley intended to accentuate the importance of God being the only one who should be able to create life as she shows Frankenstein playing God and also playing a Mother, as the chapter in which the creature is born is told almost like a woman is giving birth. It soon becomes evident however, that he should attempt neither.  Chapter five the Creatures birth is a big chapter in this novel, not so much in length but the impact it has on the rest of the novel. It is the pivotal point; if Frankenstein hadnt brought the monster to life then he would have led a happy, normal life with all of his family alive and well. Nevertheless, Frankenstein does bring life to the dead limbs that lay before him and the monster is born. Shelley skilfully builds up the atmosphere at the beginning of the chapter by using a range of different techniques.  In the first line of the chapter the word dreary paints the picture of a boring, dull, wet night which combined with rain pattered dismally against the panes immediately sets the alarm bells ringing as it is not expected from a typical Gothic Horror novel.  For such an explosive event as the birth of the creature, it would have been anticipated for the weather to be stormy and electrifying exciting even. Yet, Mary Shelley chooses to use pathetic fallacy to reflect the mood of Dr. Frankenstein and to also warn you to expect the unexpected. Also Shelley uses words like anxiety and agony when describing Frankenstein. These two words alone show that all is not well and that something terrible is going to happen as Victor no longer feels happy about his creation. He feels exhausted by his toils, fed up and is itching to finish his work and bring the creature to life.  Shelley also helps to build up tension and atmosphere by isolating Frankenstein.  It was already one in the morning  It is typical of a Gothic Horror novel to have a character isolated and completely alone with no means of help if necessary. Here Shelley warns us that something is about to happen because of Victors solitary status and the reality that most other people arent around or awake at one in the morning.

Sexuality In North By Northwest

Sexuality In North By Northwest While the Cold War conjured diverse anxieties, I will center my presentation on the idea of Domestic Containment, specifically the containment of homosexuality in America (Cohan). I came across this concept in Elaine Tyler Mays Homeward Bound. It deals with the political and ideological reasons 1950s America insisted on promoting rigid heterosexuality and capitalist drives, ridding itself of backward men and Communist traitors, something completely in line with Hitchcocks mission in the film Moreover, by invoking the homophobic categories of Cold War political discourse, in particular the construction of the homosexual as a national security risk, N by NW virtually guaranteed that gender and nationality functioned as mutually reinforcing categories of identity. In this presentation, I will discuss sexuality as related to ideas of nation-hood and argue that there is a mini cold war being waged in North by Northwest, one that deals specifically with advancing the American heterosexual couple over the Soviet homosexual one coded throughout the film. With the American, heterosexual couples triumph on screen comes an ideological victory for America in 1959. SLIDE Before I analyze clips and stills from North By Northwest that deal with currents of sexuality and nationality, I wanted to show this clip from the latter half of the film to show that Hitchcock makes it abundantly clear that we are supposed to read North by Northwest as a Cold War film concerned with sexuality. CLICK!!! I want you to take away from this clip the obvious language of the cold war as well as how sexuality or bedding down is wrapped up in this international struggle. In this way, North by Northwest presents in biting form America immersed in Cold War ambiguity in which people on both sides were served up as sacrificial lambs. N by NW was made and released during the latter phase of the second term of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a time when the Cold War was in full force, with the US and rival Soviet Union utilizing the most sophisticated spy techniques. This new kind of war required constant vigilance and readiness to fight on a moments notice. The Cold War lasted longer than any other war in our countrys history, starting when the United States introduced nuclear terror to the world by dropping its first atomic bomb on Japan on August 6, 1945, and lasting into our lifetime with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although the Cold War shaped and distorted virtually every aspect of American life, perhaps more than anything else, nuclear weapons changed the world. With them, an element of vulnerability existed unlike anything in history. Nuclear threat escalated during the 1950s, the decade were concerned with today. In August 1949 the Soviets had their first successful nuclear bomb test. Both the US and the Soviet Union held hydrogen bomb tests in 1952 and 53 and in October 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik. Americas nuclear buildup, global mobilization, and interventionism during the Cold War were justified in the name of stopping Soviet communism, a foe policymakers deemed so diabolical that its defeat warranted the risk of destroying civilization itself. The fact that the Soviet Union was not just a military, economic, and geopolitical but an ideological foe, posed a unique kind of challenge to a resolutely capitalistic nation. This ideological antagonism between socialism and capitalism polarized the world along new lines. And it is against this backdrop that Hitchcock gave birth to his suspense thriller North by Northwest. SLIDE Certain historical trends and demographics are crucial to understand before analyzing the films comments on sexuality. During the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, an amazing rise in the birth rate, a declining age of marriage, a growth in the marriage rate, and low divorce rate all converged in the midst of the most intense years of nuclear fear and ideological and surrogate warfare. Since family formation and fertility respond to both positive and negative economic and cultural stimuli, it is not surprising that this era of comparatively good times brought increased marriage and fertility. At the same time, however, increased sexual activity at younger and younger ages, especially for women in the late 1950s and beyond, problematically, included increasing instances of pre-marital sex Thus the history of sexuality in postwar America is the story of increasing liberalization Men, too, participated. The rebellion of men against marriage and the increasingly permissive fantasy life associated with the playboy lifestyle of the late 1950s, appears to be the kind of life our protagonist and hero, Cary Grants character Roger Thornhill, ascribes to. And, in terms of female rebellion, perhaps even more dismantling is the sexual promiscuity of Eve Kendall, played by Eva Marie Saint. Thornhill is typed as a womanizer, with two failed marriages to boast of, and Eve, as if completely aware of the expectations of her 1950s culture, introduces herself to Thornhill curtly stating that shes 26 and unmarried, and thats all he needs to know. SLIDE Examining domestic containment in relation to national identity has multiple advantages. It allows us to see that what we have heretofore regarded as a unique Cold War phenomenon was in fact part of the larger, ongoing process of defining America. The very meaning of America had become greatly problematized in the 1950s. Perhaps this instability of American identity is why Hitchcock constantly reasserted distinctly American values and American locations throughout North by Northwest, on screen are just a few of the most memorable sites Hitchcock takes us. AD-LIB I will present many facets of North by Northwest that deal specifically with America and American life in order to further ground the containment of homosexuality as a Cold War strategy in the film. I first want to discuss the opening credits of the film. Understanding Hitchcocks brilliant beginning gives us-the viewers and our class today-a lens through which to understand Hitchcocks understanding of Cold War America, homophobia, heterosexuality and communism. SLIDE Designed by American graphic designer and Academy award winning filmmaker Saul Bass, the credits provide a kind of map meant to locate or orient the spectator. A series of intersecting lines, clearly intended to invoke a map or graph, traverse a blank screen placed at an angle to the camera. They eventually dissolve into a shot of an office building whose glass and steel faà §ade reflects the moving traffic on the busy street below. The mirror like surface of the faà §ade that emerges from the intersecting lines functions as a screen on which the images of the busy street below are not so much reflected as projected. Consequently, according to Robert Corber in his book In the Name of National Security: Hitchcock, Homophobia, and the Political Construction of Gender the opening titles seem to suggest that, as a semiotic practice, the film has the ability to organize and define reality, to construct a map of it that fixes its meaning for the spectator. In this way, they call attention to the artificiality or constructed-ness of the films representation of reality. It provides the spectator with coordinates that enable him/her to locate and define his/her position in the world and thereby make sense of it-a concept integral to audience reception that we have discussed at length this semester, and that I will touch on in greater depth shortly. By beginning in this way, according to Corber, the film demonstrates its ability to conjure reality, to construct a representation of the world that the spectator does not question but assumes accurately reflects contemporary society b/c of its perceptual intensity or so-called impression of reality à   thus, from the beginning, we are meant to assume that Hitchcock s representation of America in 1959 is how it really was. Another important element of the films beginning is that our protagonist Roger Thornhill appears as if plucked from the crowd at random, as he is initially shown emerging from an elevator jammed with office workers. He is completely typical of New Yorks crowded people, lacking direction. Indeed, purely by accident, he is kidnapped shortly after he arrives at the hotel by two of Vandamms men, who mistake him for the fictitious American agent George Kaplan. Thus, Hitchcock makes us think that anyone of us, too, could have been sucked into this crazy plot. One other interesting thing to glean from the title sequence is that it alludes to the traps in which the protagonists find themselves throughout the film as well as frames the films trajectory This grid recurs throughout the film, in railway cars, deserted prairie crossroads, and national monuments. From the very beginning, moreover, I want you to note that the film is an exploration of Cold War AMERICA, as seen in the vertical top shots of the Madison Avenue skyscraper, UN headquarters and Mount Rushmore and the horizontal shots of the railway car and of the empty Midwestern plane I will now show a hilarious trailer for North by Northwest from 1959, which gives a brief but comprehensive geographical tour of Hitchcocks locations, which I wont have time to flesh out on my own in this presentation, but are extremely important. SHOW TRAILER HERE! SLIDE Having recently discussed how the opening credits situate and control the spectators view of the film, and, by extension, portray the Cold War climate according to Hitchcocks construction, I want to specifically link this form of control with the viewers sexual identification. Hitchcocks films contributed indirectly to the pathologizing of same-sex eroticism by suggesting that in order for the individual to achieve a relatively stable heterosexual identity she/he had to successfully negotiate the Oedipus complex Because Hitchcocks films occupied the subject position, the spectator became complicit with her/his own Oedipalization, which, in the 1950s, was tantamount to accepting the terms of the postwar settlement. By examining N by NW in the context of the postwar settlement, I want show to that Hitchcocks films participated in a regime of pleasure that helped to consolidate the emergence of the national security state. His representational practices were complicit with the dominant construction of social reality during the Cold War era. Hitchcocks tendency to subjectivize the individual spectators experience constitutes one of the principal links b/w his films and the anti-Stalinist project of American Cold War officials. Thus, in N by NW, Hitchcock demonstrated how the discourses of national security produced fantasies that brought the individual spectators desire into alignment with the nations security interests. SLIDE Now I will move into the meat of my presentation: the politicization of sexuality. The Cold War persuaded millions of Americans to interpret their world in terms of insidious enemies who threatened them with nuclear and other forms of annihilation. McCarthyism contributed heavily to viewing the world through this dark, distorting lens and setting global and domestic policies to counter these threats. According to the Federal Government, if homosexuals felt alienated from mainstream American society, that was b/c they were maladjusted, their problems were not political but personal and were best remedied in a doctors office. On the other hand, however, the dominant discourse of same sex eroticism tried to show that homosexuality promoted communism and therefore politicized gay identities. The gay community, which had emerged with new cohesion and visibility in the wake of World War II, found itself a prime target for anticommunist crusaders. It was believed that they were especially vulnerable to blackmail by Soviet agents eager to recruit intelligence sources As a result, the early 1950s witnessed widespread purging of homosexuals from the State Department, the military, and other federal agencies. However, more than just a greater risk of blackmail was involved. Homosexuals were seen as deficient in character, moral integrity, and real masculinity. Unfit as Cold Warriors, they were thus undesirable citizens. This stigmatization, as historian John DEmilio points out in his study of Cold War sexual politics, was carried still further by conservative politicians who linked homosexuality directly to communism, re-conceptualizing homosexuality as a contagious disease spread by communists to weaken the nation from within. A single homosexual, officials maintained, could easily contaminate an entire government office. The oppression of homosexuals at all levels became yet another act of containment in the fight against communism. Homosexuals, further, were seen as especially dangerous to the extent that a gay male character was virtually indistinguishable from straight male ones, thereby demonstrating that homosexuals, like communists, could dangerously escape detection. During its highly publicized hearings in the 1940s and early 1950s, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee did not limit its investigation to the Communists who had supposedly infiltrated the federal Government, but extended it to include homosexuals who passed as heterosexual. On the basis of testimony from psychiatrists and other medical experts who testified that they were susceptible to blackmail by Soviet agents b/c they were emotionally unstable, thus officially pinning homosexuals as national-security risks. The publication of the Kinsey reports on male and female sexual behavior, in 1948 and 53 respectively, only reinforced the politicization of homosexuality. The reports provided scientific evidence suggesting that sexual identities were fluid and unstable rather than exclusively and permanently heterosexual or homosexual. In recognizing the fluidity of sexuality, hindering the attempts of gays to define themselves as members of an oppressed minority The pervasive allusions to homosexuality in North by Northwest enables me to stress the centrality of the politicization of same-sex eroticism to post-war American culture and to show that containment of homosexuality was necessary to conditions of the Cold War. Thus, North by Northwest epitomizes this tight bond between sexuality and national security in the Cold War era. SLIDE Now I will begin my analysis of sexuality in the film with what I call a montage of references to homosexuality. When looking at these stills from the movie, keep in mind how Cary Grant, our dashing American protagonist, too, can be wrapped up with homosexuality, speaking to the pervasiveness and dangers of homosexuality infiltrating American lives. SLIDE The films drama basically begins with Roger Thornhill going to an all-mens bar in the Plaza Hotel. Although he has a date for that evening, it is with his mother no less, a problem I will discuss shortly! SLIDE The theme of the kidnapping of the hero, Thornhill, by two sinister men, with the hero often seated in a car, tightly between them, recurs throughout the film in myriad forms. Pictured above are just a few examples that represent this theme of Thornhills encounters with homosexuality. CLICK FOUR TIMES. SLIDE Now we arrive at the Villain Phillip Vandamms home who is played by George Mason. I want you to keep this seemingly benign image on screen in mind throughout the remainder of my presentation. While no scholar has mentioned the significance of the cars pulling into Vandamms gate, I think this action is importantly mirrored in the iconic ending of the film that I will show later. For now, however, just keep in mind that a car driven by a man and with our protagonist squished tightly b/w two other men in the backseat, penetrates the gate to a Soviet home. SLIDE Vandamm, the lead villain, unsurprisingly is connected with homosexuality. His masculinity should be suspect because of his relationship with his sadistic, overtly homosexual associate, Leonard, played by Martin Landau, who Hitchcock notes in the screenplay should be read as gay. The slide above features Leonard, with the help of two male henchmen, forcing the neck of a liquor bottle between Thornhills lips, making him drink its full contents-an obviously phallic reference of homosexual rape SLIDE As I noted a few minutes ago, a central facet of the politicization of sexuality in the 1950s, came with associating homosexuality with communism. While Hitchcock doesnt specifically mention the country of origin of the foreigners in the film, he locates Vandamms home importantly in Glen Cove, New York. This location directly implies that Vandamm and his associates are from the Soviet Union, who at the time had a mission in that town on northern Long Island. This fact sheds particular light on the stills of homosexuality I am showing, as they are directly linked with communism. Further, later in the film, the Professor describes Vandamm as an importer exporter of government secrets, thereby coding him as a Soviet agent involved in the Cold War. SLIDE Before I move on to show and discuss the famous crop-dusting scene-the scene I regard as the most compelling, and famous, visual representation of the threat of homosexuality to our protagonist-I must first discuss another aspect of Thornhills unsuitable sexuality: his unhealthy relationship with his mother. In order to Contain Thornhill and set him on the proper sexual path, his relationship with his mother needs to severely change. The basic mother-son story line goes as follows: the film opens with an ageless male, Thornhill, identifying himself first of all as a son. He speaks of his efforts to keep the smell of liquor on his breath from the watchful nose of his mother, and he comes to the attention of his enemies because of an unresolved anxiety about getting a message to his mother, whereupon he is taken captive. (Cavell) Hitchcock suggests that Thornhills involvement in the Communist underworld, an underworld marked by sexual as well as political deviance, is not purely coincidental but is indirectly related to his devotion to his mother. The film tries to show that b/c he has failed to internalize the Law of the Father and remains emotionally dependent on his mother, there is a sense in which his irresponsible behavior is complicit with the Communist infiltration of the American government. The discourses that linked communism and homosexuality actually warned against the potentially pernicious effects of motherhood specifically and point to a reaction against the emergence of the feminine mystique of the 1950s. On the one hand, as we have seen throughout seminar, post-war American culture experienced a proliferation of glorified representations of motherhood designed to lure women back into the home following the war. On the other hand, many Americans resented the glorification of motherhood b/c it gave women supposedly too much power in the domestic sphere. With the outbreak of the Cold War, Mom-ism too became linked to the spread of communism and led to the creation of a demonology of motherhood. Suddenly, mothers risked making their sons susceptible to Communist propaganda. The discourses of mom-ism limited womens empowerment in the domestic sphere and ensured that their child-rearing practices conformed to the nations security interests. For, if women disregarded the expert advice of psychiatrists and other trained professionals, they risked producing children who were Communists as well as homosexuals. In N by NW this aspect of the demonization of motherhood is obvious in Thornhills relationship with his mother. Thornhills sexual immaturity thus is incompatible with the nations security interest. In the postwar period, the nations political stability and economic prosperity were thought to depend upon the production of subjects who had internalized the rules and regulations governing Oedipal desire. Thus Thornhill was not so different from the films Communists and homosexuals. ADLIB-mom younger than Grant, problematic. SLIDE To close this section on homosexuality, I want to look at the famous scene where Thornhill is attacked by a crop-dusting plane. This iconic sequence of events is both the central image of Thornhills victimization and surprisingly, or unsurprisingly as my presentation is attempting to prove, a powerful instance of homosexual attack. The night before this scene takes place Thornhill and Eve violate a taboo. We know that Thornhill spent the night with Eve, boldly and obviously suggesting pre-marital intercourse. I understand the attack Im about to show, which once again occurs the very next day, to be a powerful visualization of punishment for intercourse CLICK SHOW CLIP!!! CLICK AFTER! The linkage of this scene with sexuality is evident in Hitchcocks filming. The association of the prairie with the sexual landscape of the train compartment where Thornhill and Eve had sex the night before is signaled by his camera shots. Right before the clip I just showed, a close-up of Eves face at the train station dissolved into an aerial shot of the road and fields of the plane attack, explicitly linking these scenes. This shot transition begs for an allegorical identification of the woman and this stretch of land, the very land where Thornhill undergoes his attack. To discuss this scene I will rely on the analysis of Theodore Price from his book Hitchcock and Homosexuality. He notes that firstly, we must note the phallic symbolism associated with birds and of flying objects in general. According to Price, aside from the birds shape, and its darting, pecking beak, a bird is, to everyones unconscious, a phallic symbol because it flies. Flying also is a symbol for getting an erection, for potency, and for sexual intercourse in general according to Ernest Jones. Thus, in a way, the crop-dusting plane scene can conjure undertones of homosexual rape from above. There are several meanings that arise when looking at this scene from this angle. 1) This scene could represent a fear on the part of Thornhill of homosexual rape-and/or fear in his strange attraction to homosexual rape. This connection is clear especially when considering the homosexual rape still I showed earlier of Leonard forcing liquor down Thornhills mouth. The phallic bird-plane then may be interpreted as Grants fear of his former attraction to homosexuality as he starts out on still another new love affair with a woman. 2) The plane could also stand for the avenging phallus of the father figure in the film, here Vandamm, who is understandably angry at the son figure, Thornhill, for making time with the mother figure, Eve. 3) Additionally, the sequence could mean that the plane represents the Castrator, Eve, who set him up in the cornfield to begin with. For, from the psychoanalytic view, birds can be woman or vagina symbols too. SLIDE Regardless of which way we read this scene, a powerful avenging phallus, sent by Communists, launches its bullets-take this fact as an allusion to ejaculation-at our male hero. Luckily for Thornhill, he finds safety in the cornfields of America-which, in my opinion, represents finding protection from this Communist phallus in the heartland of America. SLIDE Having catalogued countless instances of the presence and associated dangers of homosexuality in the film, I now need to show how these dangers were contained by the insistence on heterosexual couple. To do so, I will use Mays analysis of 1950s Domesticity in Homeward bound. In this work, May linked the exaggerated domesticity that characterized the long fifties-from 1945-1965-that weve discussed at length in seminar to homosexuality and anticommunist imperatives. May readily acknowledged the extraordinary stresses placed upon the American family by the Great Depression and World War II. Postwar Americans, finding additional threats to traditional family life in rising rates of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexual promiscuity, as I discussed before, juvenile delinquency, as Willi discussed two weeks ago, and the ultimate threat of nuclear war, Americans understandably sought normalcy in marital sex, pro-natalism, and suburban domesticity during this time. Further, just as anticommunism required the containment of Sino-Soviet expansion abroad, so, too, May argued, gender revolution and deviant expression of sexual desire had to be effectively contained at home, hence domestic containment. Promotion of family values, policymakers believed, would ensure not only a place for men to return to the workforce, but also the stable family life necessary for personal and national security, a kind of Cold War victory on the domestic front. Hitchcock too received the memo, as he promoted the heterosexual couple throughout the film. Hitchcock, by associating homosexuality with the soviets coded as communists, both comments on its pervasiveness of both groups in America at that time and establishes it as the inferior sexual bond that must be checked and contained by the heterosexual couple. Thus, no mere exercise in nostalgia, domestic containment was part of a new Cold War consensus about the meaning of America and deeply embedded in the plot of North by Northwest. Now Im going to show you a series of slides that blatantly show the heterosexual couple of Thornhill and Eve. CLICK AND ADLIB SLIDE When contextualized within the domestic politics of marriage during the cold war, heterosexuality and Re-Marriage take on great importance. We come to see that Thornhill and Eves adventures throughout the film serve as trials for their suitability to get married. Eve is sexually immature before she becomes an agent for the American government, according to the terms of the postwar settlement. Although she is partially redeemed by acting as an American agent-showing her willingness to perform her patriotic duty-she nevertheless continues to occupy a position outside the law. This is so because to perform her patriotic duty she must violate the rules that govern female sexuality in the 1950s, making her only partly rehabilitated. She is a treacherous little tramp and uses sex like a fly swatter according to the movie so she remains a marked woman throughout. However, when Thornhill rescues her from Vandamm, he enables her to do something genuinely worthwhile for the nation: become a proper wife and mother The relationship b/w gender and nationality suggests that Thornhills activities as an American agent also need to be reconstructed according to the post-war settlement. His activities as an American agent create a scenario that puts an end to his womanizing. Thornhills mix-up within the CIAs efforts to combat communism actually increases his desire for marriage and domesticity. To Thornhill, the domestic sphere not only provides a refuge from the government which has recklessly endangered his and eves lives, but also constantly restages his pre-Oedipal attachment to his mother. In this way, his espionage activities ensure that the organization of sexuality and his identity as a citizen are mutually reinforcing. Thus, Hitchcock stresses the ability of the American government to regulate and control the construction of the individuals subjectivity-as it is only once he is involved in its activities that he is redeemed. According to the discourses of national security then, Thornhills resistance to his role as a husband is un-American, and his activities as an American reorganize him as a proper citizen. This scene shows how the series of events that have unfolded have transformed both protagonists views of marriage, and suggest that re-marriage in the name of national security is on the horizon. CLICK SHOW CLIP As you just saw Thornhill uses the loaded word proposal that explicitly suggests marriage. Also, they discuss his former failed marriages, alerting the viewer that we are dealing with re-marriage here. Also, Cary Grants sly wit about leading too dull a life suggests that as a result of his involvement in matters of state, he has achieved a level of excitement suitable for marriage and can now enter into a proper relationship. SLIDE I want to show you a series of images and a clip from the end of the film that pit homosexuality explicitly against heterosexuality. With their placement at the end of the film they attain great significance, suggesting that the winner of this sexual battle is the victor in a mini cold war. In addition, I show images with men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, in these clips, to show both strains of sexuality at odds within a single frame. SLIDE Before I show these stills and clips, I need to discuss the importance of the Vandamm house itself, where the majority of these clips take place. Situated in a fictitious forested plateau atop the Mount Rushmore, Vandamms house dominates a devotional shrine of American democracy-its positioning alone reveals how even Americas most iconic monuments are endangered by Soviet penetration. Further, the houses Midwestern location-in the Black Hills region, near Keystone, South Dakota, is also important. The move toward the west, evoked by the films title, brings the protagonists to the American heartland, the spine of the continent. Additionally, the houses placement atop a mountain has wider implications. It expresses visual domination and panoptic control. The fact that blatant homosexuality pervades a site that serves simultaneously as a great threat to an iconic American monument and exerts intense control, suggests how dangerous the threats of homosexuality and communism have at once become at the end of the film. CLICK THROUGH CLIPS and ad-lib CLICK, SHOW CLIP! In this clip, we see Leonard using phrases like his womans intuition aligning himself with homosexuality, or femininity at the least and Vandamm noting that hes touched by jealousy. SLIDE Now I would like to move into the final phase of my discussion: a comprehensive discussion of Mount Rushmore, and the battle between the US and Soviet Union that occurs atop its democratic faces. First and foremost, we must understand Mount Rushmore to be a place so definitely and undeniably American. Using a carved rock containing the gigantic granite portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln as a backdrop, Hitchcock suggests that what happens there is of NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. After a few savvy moves, Thornhill and Eve leave Vandamms house and find themselves atop monument being chased by Vandamm, Leonard and their henchmen.

Women in the IT Sector

Women in the IT Sector The underrepresentation of women in IT is a research section that has received much attention in recent years. Extant research has examined several factors that contribute to and/or increase the widening gender gap. Information technology abbreviated as (I.T) according to Information Technology association of America can be described as the study, development, implementation, support or management of computer based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware (Answer co-oporation, 2012). From the above, it can be deduced that Information technology deals with information handing out and knowledge management processing. In the early 60s and 70s, places like banks and hospitals knew about information technology, and understood then as the procedure used to store information. However, in recent times I.T has now become a familiar name. It is an Industry that uses computers, software programs and communication materials to retrieve, store transmit and secure data. Developing and developed countries rely on I.T to ensure rapid progress. Businesses and organizations also rely on the field for maximum output. Over the years, people have effectively adopted and embraced information technology in all sectors and works of life, and it contributes a significant quota to the development of the economy of most countries. Furthermore, it is quite remarkable to note that the foundation and practise of Information technology around the world is a contribution of both the male and female counterparts, and this is quite evident in most developed countries such as the United Kingdom, The United states of America and China. It is quite the opposite in seemingly developing and under-developed countries as statistics which would be presented in the latter of this report shows that women are significantly under-represented across the field. I have carefully carried out a search of literature on participation of women in the industry; also I have examined the women who had made their mark in Information technology. Moreover, the research points to the fact that womens participation in I.T has drastically dropped over the years across the field, despite efforts to attract and keep them in the field. This information presented is a rigorous social science review which would give the reader in-depth background knowledge of where Women participation in the industry started and provides accurate statistics across the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa gotten during the research on this subject. INTRODUCTION Information Technology is rapidly changing the world; it has significantly changed the way we do, the way we communicate with people all over the world. I.T has also advanced the teaching system used in all learning and teaching institutions as well as the way we protect ourselves. People are better informed, and the method of disseminating quality information across the world has improved. The gradually transforming of the IT industry into a household name has been an labour of both male and the female gender who have worked relentlessly to the acceptance of the field; particularly in high developed countries who support the practise of information technology in all fields of life. However, inequality between women and men has persisted in hiring and retention of women at all levels of information technology (I.T), this accounts from the few number of girls who have had an understanding of computer modules in schools, to the low percentage of women/ females who take up any IT course as an undergraduate level and more visibly the lack of female in excellent organisational and academic positions. What seem to have been a common ground and industry for both gender has now become a seemingly mans world due to the low participation of women in this sector. Gender indifferences in IT careers seem to be affecting the competitiveness of companies globally. It posited that given the current labour shortage in the IT industry, it has become more critical than ever to reduce sources of leakage in the IT career paths of women. Figures so far indicate that the proportion of women in IT has dropped from 40 percent of the IT workforce in 1986 to about 29 percent at the end of 1999 and is still dropping (Andrea Kvasny, 2004). This report presented, suggests that stronger representation by women in technical roles would help to resolve troubling human capital deficit, and will refine and extend the scope of technological applications, products, standards and practices; which will improve the society. It also shows the continuing under-representation of women in the Information technology sector. This report consists of figures and graphs. It will also discuss the contributions of women from 1842 when we had the first female programmer. It also shows the steady decline in female participation and activities over the years. AIMS OF THE REPORT Tell a valid account about the current situation of women participation in the industry. Provide a comprehensive summary of the key barriers to womens participation in technology. Provide promising practices and for addressing these barriers. Suggest ways to evaluate and improve working conditions for women in technology. HISTORY AND CONTRIBUTION An extensive research done on this subject, it is quite obvious that women have been of high repute in this field; it is publicized in an article by Anita Borg: Women participation in Information technology can be traced back to 1842; when the first woman programmer Ada Lovelace who studied mathematics at her young age designed a document that elaborated on her idea that the analytic machine an plan by Charles Babbage, might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. These notes contained a specification for the first computer program. This note can be described as an algorithm encoded for processing by a machine. She also suggested that the machine that could manipulate symbols in accordance with rules and that numbers could represent entities other than quantities characterize the underlying change from calculation to computation. Years after she wrote her article, her ideas were implemented in developing the firs t computer, which over the years has transformed to the desktop and laptops. With her contribution in helping to analyze Babbages invention, she is referred to the analyst of Charles Babbages analytical engine and the first computer programmer. (Borg, 2002) Furthermore, between the1970 to 1980, Dr Adele Goldberg who has a PhD in Information science combined with Alan Kay in developing the object- oriented programming language Smalltalk-80. This programming language was then used to model the windows, icons, menus and pointers interface at Xerox PARC which is a method for todays graphical user interfaces. With this contribution, she is accredited the co-founder of the Smalltalk-80 programming language. (Borg, 2002) Anita Borg a computer scientist also played a vital role in introducing women into the field of computer technologies by developing Systers in 1987. It was an electronic mailing list exclusively for women in the information technology. It also provided a framework that helped women who were in the field develop themselves, share and solve challenges they faced in their respective organizations/ workplace. In 1997, she later established the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology which aimed at encouraging young women to go into the technology industry. Having put all her energy into trying to encourage women into the technology industry, she is highly regarded as the cause of introduction of women to the field and a mentor of young women in the career. (Borg, 2002) STATISTICS Although, science and engineering disciplines such as Mathematics had existed over the years and dominated by men, Computer science can as well be traced far back to 1960 when it started up as a recognized academic discipline. Quite a handful of women had taken up careers in information technology. The report shows that the percentage of women in the field increased to its highest by 36%; 1985 to 1991, but it slowly drops to 25% between 1991 down till 2008; this suggest that there has been a significant difference in the position occupied by women in the industry compared to their male counterparts. Fig 1.0 a chart showing the degradation of women in the industry Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf) Despite the increasing number of computing jobs, interest in these majors and careers has steadily declined over the past decade. Statistics show that more males have attained bachelor degrees and employed in the industry. However, female students who are enrolling in computer science and graduating with computer science degrees in the industry is steadily diminishing with only a few holding top positions in organizations. Mary Lou Roberts suggests that if the current trends continue, by 2018 the industry will only be able to fill half with its available jobs with more male candidates holding bachelor degrees in computing and information sciences (Roberts, 2007). Fig2.0 Graph showing the difference between men and women taking up a level in I.T Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf) Furthermore, the data in this study clearly indicate women are not well represented in the sector that constitutes the growth mechanism of most highly developed and developing countries. Consequently, the Anita Borg foundation relentlessly tries to encourage more young women to take up a career in the industry as well as provide more to make it an fair industry for both the male and female sexes FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY An article by J.Cohoon and W. Aspray, argues Information technology/ computing remains a heavily male dominated area even after twenty-five years of extensive efforts to promote female participation (Joanne William, 2012). Most popular discussion and research focuses on the increasing numbers of women as users of information technology with a strong emphasis on their use of the Internet and World Wide Web; several efforts have been geared to attract more women into the industry, so as to reduce the dominance of the male sexes who have taken up more careers in the industry. However, as reported by Cheris Kramarae, these efforts have not brought up the expected result, and specific factors are attributed to be responsible for the gender inequality and large disparity in the industry. ( Cheris, 2003) This section of the report reveals the factors that have been responsible for slow reduction of women representation in the industry. These factors would be discussed in the following sub-headings: LABOUR LAWS AND REGULATION In some of the middle-eastern and north- African countries, such as Jordan and Sudan. The labour laws and regulations which were originally meant to protect women have turned around to have adverse effects on womens participation and contribution to the industry and the willingness of employers to hire females into the industry. Some of the laws and regulations are listed below: Law: Regulation 55 of the Jordan law states that family allowances should not be paid to female employees for her Children if the father is still alive or not retired except in a situation of permanent disabilities Impact: there is unequal treatment of women in the area as well as her dependants and this gives women the notion that women are secondary breadwinners of the family. (Danna, et al., 2010) Law: 1996 Labour Code (Article 69) states that the Ministry of Labour can determine the industries and Job prohibited to women. Impact: this limits the womens freedom of choice of courses to study at the university as well as the careers to take up in the university. It fails to protect women and thus, exposes women to Jobs that may be quite risky. (Danna, et al., 2010) Workplace-PLACE ISOLATION In some workplaces and offices, Women who are chief executives in offices are often separated from other female workers who are under the ladder and require appropriate mentorship or sponsorship, and this affects their retention and advancement. In The Athena Factor, one-third of women in private-sector SET jobs said they felt extremely isolated at work. In the same study, 40 percent of technical women reported lacking role models while nearly half reported lacking mentors, and 84 percent reported lacking sponsors or someone who would help make their accomplishments evident throughout the organization. This particularly leads to feelings of isolation, and these feelings become more pronounced as women move up the corporate or academic ranking (Gibson, 2012). Furthermore, in some I.T industries as well, the job roles of the women are different from that of the male counterparts. This has negative effects on women as they often have no male counterparts to share ideas and problems with; either relating to their career challenges or matters outside the work place experience, hence, forcing them to either quit their job roles or change their direction of career away from the technology industry. Also, Women are left out of board meetings and taking key decision in most organizations as they sometimes are considered as un-important and their ideas or contributions would not count towards the development of the organization. They are left to their offices and only informed about the new policies, Fig3.0 Graph showing the effect of the work-place isolation factor on women. Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf) STEREOTYPING Over the years, women have cultivated fears and anxieties in taking up a career in the technology industry as they often consider it as a highly technical field and complex academic subject. Furthermore, they have developed the notion that Engineering, sciences and technology is a mans field. This therefore has reduced their sense of competence and trust. This can and most times negatively affect performance, confidence, and risk-taking behaviour. Stereotype has been a serious threat, and this majorly has made employers, supervisors, or co-workers incorrectly assume that these behaviours or lack of confidence are the result of personal characteristics of the employees themselves. These senses of un-importance and anxiety have undoubtedly ensured that these employees are not able to live up to their full potential and in most cases make them to leave the office for sense of inferiority. GLASS-CLIFF EFFECT This situation occurs when they seem to be promoted too early or put in charge of tasks they do not yet have the expertise or the ability to carry out. This often happens as supervisors, managers, or organization leaders try to meet diversity requirements. Meeting these requirements in this way, however, unconsciously sets these employees up to fail and is detrimental to the long-term interest of the company, to the employees own interest, and to future efforts for hiring and retaining diverse employees. When these female practitioners fail in the various tasks they have been assigned, it sets them up and gradually reduces their confidence and self-worth, causing them to either resign or choose another career. These factors mentioned are responsible for the decline and reluctance of young women to take up a career in I.T. It has also discouraged those with a degree in computing from taking up a career among the various opportunities in the field. WAYS TO ENCOURAGE WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY A growing body of evidence demonstrates the importance of gender balance in leadership including improvements in organizational performance and corporate governance. Hence, there is the need to establish practices that would attract more women into the industry and increase the overall output from the Technology sector of the economy. This section gives in details specific practices which would increase womens participation in the industry and further enhance the output of the few who are still practicing. These practices are listed in the sub-headings below: Establishing Fair and Clear Promotion Criteria It is necessary to note that the basis on which men and women are judged as successful should be made even during promotion. Both men and women strongly value teamwork and realize that collaboration is essential for success. Providing an balanced working environment and opportunity is critical to retaining women in the industry. This is because in most organizations and industries, the males are quickly promoted to managerial and supervisory positions while the women kept at their primary roles take a longer time before they get promoted to managerial positions. When there is an open framework for promotion for both genders, women would give more efforts into their jobs, and this apparently would bring out the best in them. Introducing effective mentoring Mentoring is a vital practice can help female employees develop the skills and confidence they need to take on more senior roles and give their full potentials at their various place of work. It is not about the mentor teaching a specific skill; it is about creating a reflective learning environment through conversations between mentors and mentees. This would allow the younger staffs gain the confidence and the ideas they need to explore issues and develop solutions. Seeing someone like themselves in a position they pursue, will improve their workplace experience and give them Job satisfaction. Improve workplace culture Another practice most organizations and industries have not paid care to is that of providing a good working condition for the female employees. This can be achieved by providing an on-site child support to carter for nursing mothers, giving them more allowances and defining a good salary payment plan. Furthermore, providing gender specific training in leadership skills for women in the organization would provide tangible benefits. It gives a clear message to them that the industry views them as leaders and is making an investment in them, boosting their confidence and morale. Organizations which practice excellent workplace culture appeal to, and benefit, men and women, employees and manager. CONCLUSION It is quite distinct from this report that Women are relevant and to the industry. Records show that they have contributed immensely to the introduction of information technology and computing in this present age. This information document Ada Lovelace designed an algorithm used to design the first computer and have transformed to the various systems we have today. Furthermore, in 1893, Henrietta Swan Leavitt joined the Harvard computers, a group of women engaged in the making of astronomical data at Harvard. She was instrumental in discovery of the Cepheid variable stars, which are evidence for the expansion of the universe. Hence, it would be a tremendous step if these practices mentioned above implemented as this would boost the overall output from the field and send a message to the young women taking up a degree in universities that a lot awaits them in the field. It would also give them a sense of belonging and support coming into the industry. Bibliography Andrea, T. Kvasny, L., 2004. Recruitment is Never Enough. Retention of Women and Minorities in the IT workplace, 22-24 April. Answer co-oporation, 2012. What is Information Technology. [Online] Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/What_is_information technology [Accessed 24 November 2012]. Borg, A., 2002. Women in Computer Science. [Online] Available at: http://cssu-bg.org/WomenInCS/anita_borg.php [Accessed 04 December 2012]. Danna, p., Ghoshesh, H., Darawazeh, N. Sabaggah, A., 2010. Factors affecting Women participation in the Private Sector. [Online] Available at: http://www.almanar.jo/AlManarWeb/ [Accessed 03 December 2012]. Gibson, R., 2012. Factors affecting online mentoring acceptances by women professionals. [Online] Available at: http://udini.proquest.com/view/factors-affecting-online-mentoring-goid:304819169/ [Accessed 02 December 2012]. Joanne, C. William, A., 2012. Women and Information Technology. [Online] Available at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/women-and-information-technology [Accessed 25 November 2012]. Roberts, M. L., 2007. Why the Number of Women in IT Is Decreasing. [Online] Available at: http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh011507-story02.html [Accessed 04 December 2012].

Country Music from the 1940s Through the 1950s Essay -- essays researc

Country Music from the 1940s Through the 1950s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Changes in the Recording Industry -In the 1930s there were basically three types of radio stations: the large networks, the network afilliates,and the idependent stations. -Agroup called the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was in control of the song copyrights. -At the end of the National Broadcasters Company’s contract, ASCAP wanted it renewed at the price of 9 million dollars. -NAB ofcourse said no way and developed their own network called Broadcasters Music Inc. (BMI) -Slowly people were signing with BMI, most important was Ralph Peer’s Southern Music Publishing. -When the disputes were finally settled in 1941, popular music had changed drastically. -On the tail of the broadcasting ban, the musicians’ union, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) went on strike. -In anticipation of the strike the large companies had been stockpiling records. -The American people were hungry for new music, so they accepted the independent stations of the majors. -Over the span of the next few years the American public would embrace this music known as â€Å"Western.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Country Music in the World War II Years -The American presence in World War II redefined many American’s commitment to their country. -By 1939, the Grand Ole Opry had become the most popular and important music show on the radio. -The four-and-a-half hour program was condensed into three hours. -Th...

Designer Babies Essays -- essays research papers

Designer Babies I’ve been poked and prodded at ever since I can remember, but what I didn’t know was that I was actually a poked and prodded at individual even before my existence. Transplanted DNA is what they should have named me instead of Wang. I find my existence to be not as real or as wanted as others who were conceived naturally with both loving parents and even the idea of other loving parents adopting their children. It just seems unfair that my parents would make decisions for me before I was even born. The idea of someone wanting to create their child is absurd. Our bodies own process of getting rid of the bad genes is something we can not control. We can not begin to have the same instinct as our bodies. Allowing this to go on could jeopardize an individual’s identity and its remarkableness and how far is too far in parents decision making. This process will also affect the â€Å"designed baby† emotionally for the child may think they are not real in the sens e that they were created for selfish purposes. Altering an embryo's genetics affects the child physically and emotionally. As well as affecting the society as a whole in the long run. Designer babies, a term used by journalists, are described as â€Å"advanced reproductive technologies allowing parents and doctors to screen embryos for genetic disorders and for selecting healthy embryos† (Bionet). There are three ways that can be used to create this â€Å"designer baby†. â€Å"The simplest way to a designer child is human cloning: taking a cell from an adult and combining it with a human egg to make an identikit clone of the adult. This is the ultimate pedigree child with guaranteed genes [†¦] Another more difficult way to make designer people, or a super race, is to take sperm or eggs, or cells in a developing embryo, and add new genes to them. This is called germ cell alteration [†¦] A third way is to alter cells after birth. This is called somatic cell alteration. Here the effects will die out when the person dies, and will not be passed onto a second generation of designer babies† (Dixon). Parents make decisions for their children before they are even born. The unborn fetus is robbed of molding their own identity because their physical traits have been chosen for them indirectly. The child is artificial and unnatural. A science experiment preformed wrongfully, in hopes to create one’s self conscious idea of... ...hat fate can only be made possible by altering the traits that nature intended us to inherit. Thus putting wrongful thoughts of people’s views of what’s acceptable. When in reality everybody is different and that’s what gives a person an identity and if we all look the same then that would be a world of chaos and if you're not rich enough then you’re put to the side as â€Å"the ugly duckling†. Once we are capable of changing our child genetically the imperfect will not be accepted in a society of a â€Å"super human race† of intelligent, flawless, disease free people. websites where i got the quotes 1http://www.bionetonline.org/English/Content/db_cont1.htm â€Å"Advanced reproductive technologies allow parents and doctors to screen embryos for genetic disorders and select healthy embryos.† -definition 2http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DD57.htm Debating 'designer babies' Personal reproductive choices should not be a matter for legal regulation. by Ellie Lee 3http://www.reason.com/rb/rb030602.shtml helpful info for debate pro 4http://www.globalchange.com/designer.htm sex selection should not be allowed because one should love their child no matter what sex or appearance it may have.

A Wilderness Station Essay

In â€Å"A Wilderness Station† the character of Annie Herron is presented through a series of letters and memoirs. These documents tell us some of the events surrounding the death of her husband, Simon. These letters and memoirs are written by different people in Annie’s life, such as George Herron (Simon’s brother), Reverend McBain, James Mullen, Christena Mullen and by Annie herself. In a memoir published in the Carstairs Argus newspaper Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, George Herron wrote his version of the circumstances of his arrival to Carstairs and he also gives his version surrounding the accidental death of his brother. Annie, on the other hand, gives conflicting stories of the day her husband died. She tells two different versions of what occurred on the day her husband died. She tells Mr. Mullen that she killed her husband when she first arrives at the Gaol and then tells her friend Sadie Johnstone in a letter that her brother-in-law killed Simon. Given t hese conflicting stories we are unable to determine what really happened to Simon Herron. In George’s memoir we get the impression that George didn’t really want to go to Carstairs with Simon. After the death of their parents, George went to live with a schoolteacher and his wife where he had a very happy home. Simon, was not so lucky, he lived with his mother’s cousin Archie Frame and was never sent to school. Simons upbringing was not as comfortable as George’s, so when he was nineteen, he and George left Halton and went towards Huron and Bruce to find their fortune. Soon after the leave Halton, Simon marries Annie and a few months later he is killed in what seems like an accident. According to George, in April of 1852, he and his brother were chopping down trees on the far corner of their property when a branch mysteriously falls and his Simon on the back of the head, killing him instantly. George then drags his brother’s body towards the house. Since there was a really bad storm passing, he and Annie are unable to call the Reverend to give Simon proper funeral, the pair bury him near the house. Soon after, George leaves the shanty and he eventually marries his neighbor’s daughter, Jenny Treece. Five months later Annie leaves the shanty and heads towards Walley Gaol. In a letter responding to Reverend McBain’s initial letter, James Mullen reports  to him that Annie Herron had indeed arrived at the Gaol. He writes that her story â€Å"all accords pretty well with what you told me. Events in her account begin to differ only with her husband’s death†(200). In her first version, she claims that she â€Å"picked up a rock and threw it at him (Simon), hitting him on the head†(200) ultimately killing him. When Mr. Mullen disputed her story she changed it, saying that she did not throw a rock but picked up a large rock smashing it down on his head. Mr. Mullen decided to admit her to the Gaol pending her getting charged with insanity. After trying to write to her friend Sadie Johnstone several times, Annie sews a final letter in a curtain, posted to find Sadie in Toronto. In this letter Annie gives a different account of the death of her husband. Again the story is similar to that of George’s except for the way Simon is killed. According to Annie, she says that George told her the story of the branch falling and hitting Simon, but notices when she is cleaning his body â€Å"where the axe had cut†(209). She goes on to tell her about how they buried him and about the dreams she had of Simon or George chasing her with an axe. The facts in the story are distorted several times and we are not really sure how Simon is killed. It is difficult to believe Annie because she doesn’t seem stable and has changed her story several times after her arrival at the Gaol. It is much easier to believe George Herron, because his state of mind was never in question and after all, his entire memoir was published in a newspaper. The final letter that Annie writes to Sadie makes me believe that this is the true account of Simon’s death. Annie has no reason to lie to Sadie because she probably fells that Sadie will never actually receive the letter, making her feel safe in revealing the truth.

Gang Representation in Sons of Anarchy Essay

Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama created by Kurt Sutter that airs on FX network. The drama series, also known by its acronym SOA or SAMCRO, is centered around the culture of motorcycle gangs and includes multiple gangs with differentiated racial makeups. The series is set in current-day California in a fictional town called Charming. The town is modeled as a small-town community which has limited government interference normally and lenient authorities. The first season was aired in 2008 and followed the lives of motorcycle gang members in the caucasian gang, called the Sons of Anarchy. Other gangs included in the series were a black gang, called the one-niners, and a hispanic gang, called the Mayans. Each gang is criminal and commits various crimes from murder to drug dealing. I am studying closer how FX network incorporates the criminal actions of minority groups in the show. They are always placed opposite of the Sons of Anarchy and their criminal actions seem to be scrutinized more than the criminal actions of the Sons of Anarchy. The question I am trying to answer is â€Å"What is the difference in the representation of criminal activity based on the racial group involved?† By focusing on the racial roles in the show and how they compare in relation to criminal activity I hope to come to a conclusion on minority representation that I can present to Kurt Sutter and FX Network. I chose to study this topic since I am an avid viewer of this series and the topic of media representation of gang violence interests me. There seems to be a disparity in the way gang crime is portrayed on news outlets depending on the race of the group and I wanted to find out if that disparity would be similar in Sons of Anarchy. For example, do crimes by black groups fac e criticism than those by white groups or is the reaction equal without regard to racial factors. I already knew from watching the show and following Kurt Sutter’s personal blog that the series has come under-fire before for using race and violence as a shock-factor instead of using it for plot progression. Kurt Sutter is known for his use of profane language and defending his show from critics by decreeing that they do not understand the concepts. For example, in a recent post he wrote about a contest in which he and the cast would visit the  winners hometown, â€Å"We will come†¦basically disrupt your neighborhood and piss off all your neighbors. Fuck those neighbors, I hate those shitheads anyhow.† (Sutter, â€Å"Season 6†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) He seems to have no care for the hatred his words incite. Other than his hatred of neighbors he has had to defend himself before because of his use of race in the show. During season four of the show one of the members of Sons of Anarchy named Juice was threatened by the police with the race he was born. The sheriff, a middle-aged black male, had found out that he had actually been born with a black father and threatened to tell the Sons of Anarchy that he was not the latino label he had been hiding behind his whole life. After three seasons it surprised me the Sons of Anarchy seemed to have this new rule about not allowing blacks into the gang but latinos were fine to join. This disturbed me a little because the gang had no problems working with black gangs in the past and there did not seem to be any racial tension besides the racial slurs thrown around by all the gangs. There seemed to be no major race-based violence within Sons of Anarchy until this plot point was brought up. Sutter challenged the outcry to this plot point by saying, â€Å"It was one of those odd, historical barriers that i’ve wanted to explore. The depth and weight of this rule varies from club to club and this season we see how it’s handled by the Sons of Anarchy†.(Sutter, â€Å"BLACK†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) For the sake of authenticity he felt that this must be included because â€Å"they [motorcycle clubs] function within a  structure that is built upon a form of segregation†.(Sutter, â€Å"BLACK†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) How the plot point ended though had me scratching my head wondering if Sutter had missed an opportunity to make a statement about race. In the end Juice admits to the main character Jax, a young white male, that his father is indeed black. Instead of using this opportunity to show how outdated the rule is and that progress can be made against racism no matter how long the rule has been around Sutter decided to have another character again use race to blackmail Juice. I understand the need for authenticity but I felt this scene was just reinforcing to all watching that it is shameful to be black and it can be used as threat. It was a weak way of showing how racism can effect someone after all the build up during the season and concern for his  life. In a matter of one scene it was brushed off, there was no lesson learned nor was there any realism in supposed racist actions of the gang. The ending was neither insightful nor authentic. It just seemed to end without any real conclusion. It had also seemed out of place in the story because during season two the Sons of Anarchy spent the whole season fighting a white supremacist gang. During that season the gang seemed just as disturbed by the ideas of the white supremacist gang as much as their threat to Sons of Anarchy’s control of Charming. It seemed to me that Sutter was using Juice’s race as a shock-factor. This was no surprise to me though as there are many off-hand racist jokes made during the show as well that seem to have little value. For instance, in the pilot one member of the gang makes a remark after finding two hispanic women burned alive, â€Å"Goddamn, fried and refried† Clay says with little remorse. The show plays this racism as a fact of life that the gang cannot escape, control or overcome. It hides behind trying to make the racism humorous like Clays line instead of showing it show racism how it actually exists, ugly and disturbing. After thinking back on Juices plot point, which originally had me interested in studying and discussing this show for my study, I went back to re-watch the first season. I decided to start with the first season because it was Sutter’s first attempt at depicting the gangs and it would not be fresh in my mind since I had not seen it since last summer when I binge-watched all the seasons again. This time instead of just taking in the show for entertainment value I set up some guidelines for my viewing. I decided that I would make a table which would include the three most prominent gangs: Mayans, Sons of Anarchy, and One-niners. Each column would represent one of the gangs and the rows would be the type of crimes committed on the show. Whenever a gang was involved in any crime I would mark down which category it was in and then what response it garnered from the community and the authorities. These groups seemed to me most likely to be unbiased when it came to criminal activity. Neither necessarily should have any stake in the violence besides wanting it to be eradicated. After collecting this information I would have a breakdown of each gang: how many crimes were  committed, how many deaths were caused, were the actions deemed necessary or unwarranted, what kind of police action was taken. Gangon-gang action would be analyzed in the same manner. The information I collected was then compared to see who was responsible for the most crime and which gang had the worst reputation. Assuming all things normal it would be the same gang. This show being less than a normal representation of society as it is a dramatic television series I did not expect to find that the gang with the worst reputation had committed the most crimes. My expectations were the hispanic gang, Mayans, would garner the worst reputation while the Sons of Anarchy committed the most crime. These expectations came from my previous knowledge of the show and the  vague feeling that the show might be a little more distasteful towards hispanics since it was set in California where race issues abound with the immigration of hispanics across the border. After watching the first season over these were the figures for each of the gangs. The figures ended up being somewhat similar to what was expected but I was surprised by the amount of crimes that Sons of Anarchy had in the â€Å"unwarranted† column. When watching the show for pure entertainment the communities response seems heavily in favor of the crimes. The data tells a different story with only five of the thirty-five crimes committed being deemed â€Å"necessary†. The crime numbers for Sons of Anarchy may have surprised me but the other gangs fit the profile that I had expected. With thirty murders in just thirteen episodes the show is more  violent than I remember. I attribute this to murders being desensitized throughout the show by dark humorous remarks from characters and no consequences for those committing the crimes. Overall, the Sons of Anarchy committed the most crimes in season one by a long shot with more than both Mayans and One-niners combined. This may have been attributed to them being  the centerpiece of the show. What cannot be explained is the representation of each of these crimes. The Mayans and One-Niners never caught a break from the community and authorities but the Sons of Anarchy did. Five times, after being found guilty of committing the crime, the Sons of Anarchy were represented as just doing what was necessary for Charming. Three of these crimes were murder, while the other two were assault. Such violent crimes without an eyelash batted by the police. One of the assaults was even encouraged by the police who stood by and watched. On the other hand, every crime known about by the community and authorities that the other gangs committed was scrutinized and pursued. These groups never received the blessing of Charming. Even though they committed less crimes than the Sons of Anarchy combined they were seen as the outlaws. I believe this originates from the Sons of Anarchy attempting to brainwash the town by telling them crime is needed to keep worse crime out of the city. The Sons of Anarchy continue to tell the white community they live in that their town needs to be protected from invasion. I believe there is more too it than that though. While watching I also kept tabs on the racial makeup of the town. I could count the amount of black and hispanic people not in a gang on one hand and thats the whole seasons worth of episodes. It seems to me that according to Sons of Anarchy if you are colored then you are a gang member. Even the brutality of the crimes is more dramatized with regards to the other gangs. The crimes  always seem done out of haste and are unplanned. It gives the rival gangs a sense of stupidity that they cannot control their actions or make a plan. In conclusion, it seems that Kurt Sutter seems biased towards the Sons of Anarchy when it comes to representation of crime. They are seen more as a police force by the community than a gang. While they are pursued for various crimes during the season they are never actually charged with anything. Even when all the evidence comes together they end up getting away. This is extraordinarily annoying as it just perpetuates that a crime committed by a white male compared to a black male is any different. There are no repercussions for their actions while the One-Niners are hunted down for drug charges constantly. I believe the FX network and Kurt Sutter could do more to better represent the crime equally. It might be better to actually put one of the Sons of Anarchy behind bars for once. Instead of them continually getting away they could show the real-life struggle of having members constantly going to jail. It would be both more realistic and more equal criminal representation. Kurt Sutter could also spend more time discussing the problems both the Mayans and One-Niners have. It could be a way to combine all three gangs under one banner. I’m sure it would not be too difficult to discuss why those groups may be committing crimes like Sutter does with the Sons of Anarchy. It would add an emotional tie to the characters in those gangs. They could be seen in the same light as the Sons of Anarchy; a group of troubled people with needs and no way they see fit to satisfy them except crime. Right now those minority gangs are just a group of hooligans committing crimes with no motive, no mora ls, no reason. If Kurt Sutter were to make these changes it would add a new dimension to the show and also attract a more diverse audience. My hope is the show takes a more neutral stand as it enters its last season. Sources Sutter, Kurt. â€Å"BLACK AND WHITE OF MC’S.† Sutterlink.blogspot.com. N.p., 24 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 May 2014. ! Sutter, Kurt. â€Å"Season 6 Viewership Challenge.† sutterlink.blogspot.com. N.p., 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 May 2014. ! Sutter, Kurt. â€Å"Sons of Anarchy.† Sons of Anarchy, Season One. FX Network. 3 Sept. 2008. Television.