Cultural Artifacts

1. Kelly Greer’s version on Jar of Hearts in American Sign Language:

This YouTube video is Kelly translating Jar of Hearts in ASL. She not only has very descriptive facial expressions in the video but it also teaches the watcher about how to sign a song. Showing that sometimes you have to just act out the exactly what you are trying to say but also that you do not have to remain in your “sign circle”, the box from the top of your head to mid stomach that when you are signing is where you should keep the signs. In signing a song, you can be all over the place to act out the song. But this song she is doing, even a hearing person can see the pain she is expressing and the emotion she wants to convey. This is one characteristic of a really good song in ASL.

2. A Paper Gloss in ASL.

In sign language, when a hearing person wants to sign a song in the correct grammar in asl, what they would do is gloss it. An example from the song humans by Christina Perry looks like this:

I can hold my breath

BREATH STOP CAN
I can bite my tongue

TALK STOP CAN
I can stay awake for days

DAY++ AWAKE CAN ME
If that’s what you want

IF WANT YOU

English and Sign Language don’t have the same amount of words, so a gloss allows a hearing person to interpret what the song is saying and convey that in ASL. A gloss allows you to talk about the direction a sign should go, the facial expression that should be paired and say if listing somethings, it allows you to say how long of a list you have. Any song can be glossed but from signer to signer the gloss may look different. It truly just depends on how the song is being interpreted.

3. Cochlear Implant.

This is a small device that takes a wire and replaces the cochlear nerve to the brain causing artificial hearing. Some of the issues that come with this device is if a Deaf or hard of hearing person had any hearing before, that would be destroyed in the process of the procedure. The implant can also not function correctly, causing the person to have spent around $ 10,000 for nothing. However, there is an argument circling the implant because of the idea that it takes away your Deaf identity. There are some Deaf communities that won’t even accept a person after they have had the procedure because they are rejecting something that causes them to be a true Deafee. Another problem that comes with the procedure is that for it be as successful as possible, it really should be done before the age of 2 or even 1. This means that the parents of the Deaf child need to make this not only physical but a cultural decision for the child, before the child can have any input. This causes the community to be very split on the topic.

Cosmopolitan magazine– On the cover of the magazine there are always girls with super low cut tops, tight dresses. Of course, the content on the cover surrounds sex. In big bold, letters, “Sex moves to keep him wanting more”, “kissing tips to win him over”. This magazine is not about the women, instead it focuses on the man. These are things you should try to please your man. It suggests that to get a man or make him happy you have to do these things. It basically puts women in a position as an object. Women are worth more than just pleasure.

Snapchat– Snapchat offers their users a variety of filters to make their photos more fun, cute,pretty and exciting to share with others. Users can play with backgrounds and effects on their photos. These different filters, however, can also alter someone’s appearance. Snapchat has photoshop like features. For example, on snapchat there is a “pretty” filter, such as, flower crown filter and butterflies. This filter can alter skin, hair, nose, and eyes. In this image, you can see that the nose is skinnier. The photos are all lightened to produce a much paler result. Skin becomes a lot smoother, the face more flushed with a rosy tint, and the jaw is visibly thinner. The hair becomes shiny and lips become rosy. This filter covers blemishes, birthmarks,freckles. These sort of filters encourage others to show what we think they want to see instead of who we truly are.This filter encourages girls to believe that their beauty is not good enough. By encouraging girls to use this filter, they are also letting girls lie about their appearances in fear that others will not accept the way they look like. It is a very superficial app.

Makeup- red lipstick is a must have for many women.  It evokes a confident, sexy look. Make-up has the effect to allow us to alter our looks. With makeup(contouring kit) we achieve defined cheeks and skinny nose, jawline is more defined. It comes to show that with  makeup, girls can achieve a sort of porcelain doll look. With the use of makeup, you can appear more attractive to appeal the opposite sex or feel more confident about yourself. The problem is that if you wear too much makeup that you look like 2 completely different people, it is likely that you are hiding something. You  look fake and deceite other people. Makeup is the most common mask we wear. We use makeup to cover up blemishes, dark circles, which is okay, but it is not the true reflection of yourself. You are covering up what you really look like. It seems that girls wear makeup because they are ashamed of what they look like when really makeup enhances the way you look.

Skirts/shorts– For example, there are many guys out there that say “she was wearing a dress or skirt, so she was asking for it”. It’s men that hold this mentality of girls that promotes and increases assault, sex violence and rape in our culture. They do not hold the guys accountable for their actions towards girls, instead they blame the girls and their clothes.  Clothes are not a risk factor. Even if a girl was wearing jeans, they’d still find a way. No one deserves to be raped or wishes rape upon themselves. Even if someone is dressing sexy because they want to have sex, they still get the choice of who and when. Stop shaming girls and blaming the victims. We need to teach boys to be educated, respectful men and not to look at girls as sex objects. Be responsible for your actions and have some self-control.

Technology was used for something good as stated in the reading. Unfortunately, society has utilized Social media as a way to sell beauty and false dreams. Women Now a days spend too much time surfing the internet and comparing their body image with other people. Postpartum weight used to be a secondary problem during the 19th and 20th century, because mothers used to focus more about the meaning and the responsibilities that having a child brings and they did not have to worry about what other women or celebrities looked like after the birth of their child. Facebook, Instagram and plastic surgery for example; have become one of the most toxic artifacts for women after they they give birth. These social media not only represent a competition as to who looks better and who has better material things etc. Social media has become the number one representation that women are supposed to have a six packs 6 weeks after having a baby and if not the women is considered to be lazy and unattractive. With the invention and advancement of plastic surgery most women that post pictures of themselves on the inter net and are showing a perfect body right after giving birth are considered to be “made up” meaning that they had different plastic surgery procedures in order to have a perfect body. Women will spend many hours throughout the day surfing the internet looking at other women who recently had a baby and a couple of weeks after they are back to their normal size. But what they are not understanding is that social media is destroying their self esteem and sense of self worth. Postpartum Women who are obsessed  to look like a celebrity right after they have a baby, they are forgetting that the time after their baby is born should be mostly about their healthy dieting and the welfare of the baby not their looks or what is  going on on social media.