Letter to the Editor in response to “From Jennifer Lawrence to Taylor Swift, it's a great time to be a leading lady”

Dear Editor,

On November 26, 2013, CNN published an article titled “From Jennifer Lawrence to Taylor Swift, it's a great time to be a leading lady” written by Maggie Furlong. I am writing this letter to appreciate how the author gave a balanced report on the film and music industry these days as she suggested that many females are leading the industry.

Nowadays we, the teenagers, are most likely to be exposed to different media such as the film, music and even the news uploaded on different reputable media such as CNN. Despite that, it seems like the entertainment section of the news these days are most likely to feature the bad sides of celebrities.

However, this article written by Maggie Furlong was different. I appreciated her article as she did not only concentrate on the negative side of the media as what most writers would. It seemed to offer me a contrast as I have seen both sides on this article. The example of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift used as a comparison on how they gain attention and fame was great. I saw the balance between the two.

As a reader, I do know that more bad news about the artists are featured because most of the people are likely to be more interested to read about those. However, I also want to point out that articles such as this can also make a difference in how the people would view the world. If we pay more attention to the publication and the awareness of what we read, wouldn't we live in a better society as the artists would also be motivated to do better?

Also, I was really surprised to know that “only 28.4% of the movie roles are women” despite the fact that we see many female artists in Hollywood such as Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and Sandra Bullock in “Gravity” which are listed under “many moviegoer's must-see lists”. Although women are said to be “leading” the industries these days, studies still show otherwise that they do not really have a solid position in Hollywood.

Thank you for reading and I believe and hope that reputable and influential media such as CNN would update more about the improvements of female's position in Hollywood to encourage the people and the artists to be more aware of the issues. “Now we just need to see more of them” to achieve true equality of women and men not just in Hollywood but our society as a whole.


Sincerely,

Jae Sun Lee
17 years old
High School Student

Miley Cyrus - What has happened?

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The recent actions of Miley Cyrus has been debated over since she has started to transform over the years. Recently, she rose into controversy once again because of her new music video, "Wrecking Ball". This time, she has also engaged herself into a argument with Sinead O'Connor when she wrote to Cyrus about her concerns towards her actions. Well.. I am very much in agreement with O'Connor. I have to admit that I am being one-sided at this point because... well.. Cyrus has gone too far as of what I think. Cyrus, in her interview with Matt Lauer, said that people do not understand her because they are not open-minded and that she is doing it for her fans. She also gave much importance of being in the top of the record list. This also resulted giving some teenagers of my age an idea that this is just.. 'okay' or maybe 'cool' because we live in a world of liberated culture. But here is what I want to tell my friends and all of the people of my age:

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What message did Sinead deliver in her open letter for Cyrus?

At first, I did not know much about the issues around Miley Cyrus until I got the chance in my English class to discover more about it. Maybe it was not about not knowing – it was about not giving attention to her actions. However, I began to pay more attention to it as people of my age were influenced by the issue. This began to rise and become bigger and bigger..and bigger day by day as O'Connor started the conversation by writing an open letter to Miley.

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Well, according to O'Connor in her letter, she said that Cyrus was being controlled and pimped by the music industry to reveal herself to earn money and fame. Uhuh.. I am not to be sure of if it is really the control of the industry or it is the her own will but.. who cares? The result is that Miley Cyrus have changed as I watched her as 'Hannah Montana' during my childhood and then now, to a person representing sexuality. This isn't cool. Isn't it? And Sinead added that Miley has to care and love herself so that she would not be used by the music industry to earn the money out of her. I strongly agree with this. As a person of the same gender, who would want someone to construct the concept of femininity through music which is a strong influence for both males and females? I see the point and I can understand that Miley wants the fame but it is not the right way. Why do these actions when she has the talent which I and everyone recognize by her songs in her Hannah Montana-days? At this point, I really wonder and question - what has happened?

Sinead ended her letter by adding that females are looked up in the music industry. And so, it is very much important to deliver good message to the listeners with good songs. Well... I can't totally say that the music of Miley Cyrus is bad when I only 'listen' to the song. The lyrics of "Wrecking Ball" isn't quite bad at all. It is the music video that totally blew my mind. I think it is the music video that takes out the meaning and the essence of the song. Sinead also added that women deserves something much more than what we could receive through sexuality. As a teenage girl, I would always come to agree with this. Don't you agree? Well.. Put it this way.. I couldn't imagine my own sister, out there doing what Miley is doing. It is just so depressing that the society that we live in do enjoy what Miley is showing. Imagine, 339,438,235 views on her "Wrecking Ball" music video on Youtube?? This is just crazy. Despite the sexuality displayed in the video, there are millions of people out there to watch this porn-ish music video. They may be adult and may be not. What message is she trying to let the teenagers receive? I mean, I am a teenager but I have to agree that young girls these days are getting sexual 'too soon'!

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What is going on now with Sinead and Miley?
Miley's response to Sinead was too childish. That is what I could say. As a response to Sinead's letter written with 'motherliness and love', Miley was attacking, yeah, attacking what Sinead had suffered over the years. She posted tweets about Sinead asking for help for her mental illness that she had been suffering the previous years and she even brought in Amanda Bynes to this issue. Isn't this somewhat childish after all? Am I the only one thinking that way? Well, at an age younger than Miley, even I do not respond to criticisms by hurting other people's feelings. Sometimes, we do. But most often, we stop when we reach a certain age where we become mature individuals and learn to accept criticisms. Maybe.. she did not reach that point yet, which leaves me so disappointed..

Sinead also replied to this response of Miley. They continued to involve themselves in this conversation until recently, Sinead uploaded her fourth letter for Miley on her Facebook page. In this letter, Sinead told Miley that what she has said through twitter led her to think of suicide once again and that she is insulting all of the people who are suffering from different mental illnesses. This continues to go on even until today. I wonder when they would stop bringing down each other. 

Now that most of the people are aware of this issue, what do you think? Am I overreacting to this issue? As a teenager, it makes me so disappointed looking around and seeing all of these influences of Miley Cyrus. Please let me know what you think about this.

"Blurred Line" by Robin Thicke - What do you think?

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What is this song all about?

          “Blurred Lines” is a song by Robin Thicke, released last March 2013. It features T.I. and Pharrell. This song has catchy beat and tune which led it to top different music charts over the world and even rank the first in the Billboard chart. However, the song brought up different controversies due to its lyrics and music video.

          Because of these criticisms, we had analyzed the lyrics of song during our English class to know more about it. In the discussion, we had read over the lyrics closely and we also directed ourselves to what the public says about the song. According to our interpretation, the speaker of the lyrics was a man trying to convince a woman to engage in a sexual relationship with him. The audience was a woman who was being convinced by the man but she is already in a relationship with another man. The basic situation contained in the song is that a man was getting the woman to be in a sexual relationship with him although the woman had already engaged in a relationship with another man. The man is trying to convince that the woman wants it as well and she is being degraded as an 'animal'.

My opinion...

          To be honest, I never heard the song or I never paid attention to it before the discussion in class. Is it only me? Well, before the interpretation of the song, we had listened to the song once. This was my first time to hear the song and I found it very catchy as well, like most of the people did. Did you? However, after we had looked closely into the lyrics, I found the song very shocking. The song was disgusting in terms of how it portrays a woman. I may surely be biased in my opinion but when I came to truly know about the lyrics, I did not want to listen to the song anymore despite its catchy tune and beat. I agreed to the article on Mail Online which said that the song is banned in an university because it 'trvialises rape'. I thought that this might be really true. This is a song which is played anywhere and for anyone, even the little children and teenagers like me. Although not everyone of us would listen to the song after analyzing it, I still find it 'awkward' as it is trying to suggest to the young listeners that rape is an 'okay' thing. I found it more disturbing when Robin Thicke said in an interview that it is fun to degrade a woman. He later explained that this was just a joke but I don't really think it was entirely a joke. The Huffington Post also uploaded an article about this matter and because of that, I came to know that Robin Thicke thinks there is nothing wrong with the song and in fact, it is even promoting the rights of a women. This quite confused me because his stand was the extremes. I also had so many questions in my mind. Is the catchy tune really more important than the message of the song? Would a song still be considered as something 'artistic' with this kind of controversies over the lyrics? Well, I thought that music was supposed to build communication and give a form of entertainment 'equally' for men and women. As a girl, I may be only looking at one side of this issue but I do think that this song went over the limitations on what a song is to be. I hope that these songs would be tolerated from now on to create a better world for men and women.

          Now, what do you think about the song? I think it is now the time for us to be more concerned on what we are exposed to in our world...

Making a Difference to achieve a Balance - "The Mask You Live In"

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          "The Mask You Live In" is a documentary film by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, which the trailer was uploaded on Kickstarter.com by July 9, 2013. This film was created to raise concerns around masculinity and to take a step closer to achieving a balanced and equal society for both men and women.

What are my thoughts about this?

          I can certainly say that I did learn and realize a lot of things from this film. I think that this was really a great film to draw my attention to social issues such as this. The video presents the idea that men's problems and difficulties are not directly shown in different forms of media unlike the females but they also do suffer from these things. I think this is very well said because I do not see much of masculinity problems in public. However, it seems like boys are restricted to certain rules since they are a kid. This includes, "You shouldn't cry, you should be cool" and many other statements. According to the video, it says that these restrictions are causing men to hide their problems, pain and anger. Because of that, the psychologists suggest that men in America are more prone to behavioral diseases, drug abuse, dropping out of school and even taking away their own precious life.

          The things said in the video is really saddening and I believe that is what we are supposed to work on. As a female, I certainly do not know how it is to be a man in our society but I do believe that men have the right to social and emotional well-being as well. I think that all of us can work together towards achieving a balance in our society. All of us do have a role in creating a society of equality. To know more about this, you can watch the video below, "The Mask You Live In".

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jensiebelnewsom/the-mask-you-live-in

Changing our Lives through Blogging

Mena Trott
http://www.ted.com/speakers/mena_trott.html

          Mena Trott, the founder of blog revolution, delivered a great message through TEDTalk which might interest everyone here. It also drew my attention to blogging after meeting her through it, which I am trying to do right now. She have shared some stories about herself, her friends and some bloggers who touched my heart greatly.

What benefits do we get from blogging?

          According to Mena Trott, blogging can be influential and that it can even change our lives. Well, I really came to agree with this after browsing through different blogs. One of her examples was about "Odin". He was born one-pound at 25 weeks. Because of that, his father started blogging about him every single day from birth until present at Snowdeal.org. That is how Odin and his father were able to gain courage - by blogging. So now, Odin is a healthy boy. I think that is the power of blogging. It generates motivation for people to strive harder to live, succeed and be happy. Another example was about a cancer patient who spent her last days blogging. Blogging was a form of comfort for her. Although she was not able to survive the sickness, she was able to live her last days to the fullest. She was happy to tell her life by blogging. Mena Trott also shared a personal story that there was a time she slowly stopped writing about her personal life. This was when she had received unwanted comments after writing about her husband, who did not allow her to buy a banjo. I do think that these might really happen too, if I am to write here about myself. Despite that, I think blog is a great place where we can speak of ourselves, our lives and our moments because of the fact that we are not able to speak of everything in our real world. I believe many people would be able to relate to that. I also think that blogging can really serve as an inspiration for ourselves and even to the readers. As we share our problems and thoughts through blogs, we are able to see things in different perspectives and make a change in our lives. This makes us to be encouraged and motivated to face the world.

          So why don't we all take a step closer to blogging? As Mena Trott calls us to get interested about blogs, I do believe it would really be a great chance for us to clearly see who we are and direct our lives towards a brighter one. To know more about Mena Trott, you can follow her on Twitter, https://twitter.com/dollarshort or below is her speech about blogs.

http://www.ted.com/talks/mena_trott_tours_her_blog_world.html