Stereotyping In Advertising In Mauritius Media Essay

Stereotyping In Advertising In Mauritius Media Essay This study will concentrate on the females attitude towards stereotyping associated with women in advertising. The controversy over the portrayal of women in advertising continues today. More and more, women are taking on a broader role and responsibilities in society. However, as we cross the threshold of this new decade, there is a significant question that needs to be answered. While the debate over whether or not advertisers portray women realistically bear on, the fundamental concern is how women feel and respond to the portrayal of females in advertising, despite of the action or inaction of advertisers to effect change. Do females believe that advertisers portray women in realistic ways or do they believe they are shown in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects? This study examines the attitudes, feeling and perception of female consumers toward the portrayal of women in advertising. Purpose of research The purpose of this study is to analyse Mauritian females attitude towards the stereotyping of women in advertising. More specifically, the primary goals of this study are: (1) To investigate about womens perceptions in relation to the stereotyping of females in advertising. (2) To examine if women believe that advertisers depict females in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects. (3) To explore the veracity of Cultivation Theory on Mauritian females. (4) To find out whether stereotypes have harmful effects on women themselves. (5) To investigate if the stereotyping of women in advertising affect the purchasing pattern of females. Research questions A vital step toward providing a sound theoretical foundation for the research project is the development of concrete research questions and hypotheses. This process typically begins with a preliminary review of the existing literature for your topic. A research question poses an affiliation between two or more variables but phrases the relationship in terms of some question. -What group of females considers that women are being stereotype in advertising? -What type of portrayal of women in advertising is offensive to females? -What is the miss-representation of women in advertisement? -Do females consider that advertising suggest that women primary occupation is as homemakers? -Do female consider that women are portrayed as sex objects? -Do females feel that advertising does not really show women as they really are? -Are females persuaded to buy products or services if they are being advertising by women? -What are the negative effects that females experience when they are stereotyped in advertising? Hypotheses Once the research questions are firmly established the next step is to develop a set of hypotheses based on the questions posed by the study. A hypothesis is a declarative statement that attempts to predict the relationship between two or more variables based on statistical consideration. Hypotheses are numeric estimates of population value based on data collected from samples. Testing of hypotheses employs statistical procedures in which the investigator draws inferences about the population from a study sample. In this study of Understanding females attitudes towards womens stereotyping in advertising in Mauritius, the hypotheses are as follows: Ho-Women believe that advertisers depict females in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects. H1-Women do not believe that advertisers depict females in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects. Ho-Stereotypes have harmful effects on women concerning their body image. H1- Stereotypes do not have harmful effects on women concerning their body image. Ho- Stereotyping of women in advertising affect the purchasing pattern of females. H1- Stereotyping of women in advertising does not affect the purchasing pattern of females. Chapter 2 Overview of Literature Review This chapter reviews the related literature that will include articles related to stereotyping of women in advertising, factors leading to stereotyping of women, how women are portrayed in advertisement, and how advertising influences females perception and behaviors. It will also examine the theoretical framework that will be used for the study presented in this research paper. Literature Review Introduction It has been argued that advertising over the yesteryears has not presented a pragmatic illustration of women and their roles in society. It is harmless to state that stereotypes exist and are a part of our lives. The advertisements from the 50à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s are not opposed from the advertisements broadcasted today in the present; reminiscing women where they belong: in the home, cleaning, mopping, baking and cooking, parenting, fostering, and looking sexually attractive. Stereotyping of Women in Advertising Stereotyping of women has been a main concern with media researchers. Studies have dealt with the portrayal of women in all forms of media. A close assessment of the literature on stereotyping of women in media revealed that each of these studies had its center of attention on at least one or more of the following categories (Shrikhande; 2003): 1) Women portrayed at domicile and with family 2) Women and occupation 3) Women and their age 4) Women and their physical appearance or attire 5) Women as product representatives or as product users 6) Women and stance The community acts according to these portrayal because they are considered socially acceptable. For instance, when people think of an advertisement for a household cleaner, what comes to mind, most likely, is a woman. It is also likely that the picture in peoples minds corresponds closely to what researchers have called the happy housewife stereotype. This is a stereotype that has been associated with the image of women in most print and television advertisements. Media is very effective at creating stereotypes because they are sometimes the only source of information we have about other groups and they often represent a distorted view of those groups (Straubhaar 2004). No matter what type of life a women lives, there will always be a certain stereotype about her within society. Women in commercials are confined into what roles they can play on television commercials. In most advertisements in which women act in, the commercial is set out to capture the interests of stereotypical womens hobbies and interests. A stereotype would be best described as when one ignores diversity and makes sweeping generalizations about a groups values, behaviour, and beliefs (Straubhaar 2004). Advertisements remain replicated in obsolete gender stereotypes by portraying women as having an ideal body image, eating disorders and acting as sex symbols. The debate over the portrayal of women in advertising continues today. One of the harshest criticisms of the way in which women are portrayed in television and print advertisements is that women are shown in an extremely contracted range of roles, with descriptions concentrated on the conventional occupations of housewife, a mother and secretary. Many studies have found support for this criticism (Bardwick et al., 1967; Courtney et al., 1971; Dominick et al., 1972; Ferrante, Haynes, Kingsley, 1988; Gilly, 1988; and Knill et al., 1981). Factors leading to stereotyping of women Early attitudes towards women Women have always been regarded as a creative source of human life. However, history reveals that they have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a main cause of temptation and evil. For instance, in the Greek mythology, it was a woman, Pandora, who opened the forbidden box and brought plagues and misery to mankind. Early Roman law described women as children, forever inferior to men (Womens International Center, 1995). Ancient Christian theology conserved these conceptions. St. Jerome, a 4th-century Latin father of the Christian church, said: Woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word a perilous object. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Christian theologian, stated that woman was created to be mans helpmeet, but her unique role is in conception . . . since for other purposes men would be better assisted by other men (Womens International Center, 1995). In the East, the approach toward women was at first more favorable. In early India, for instance, women were not deprived of possessions rights or human freedoms by marriage. But after the evolution of Hinduism in India about the 500 BC, obedience of women toward men was compulsory Women had to walk in the rear of their husbands. Women could not have possession of property, and widows were not allowed to remarry (Womens International Center, 1995). In the fourteenth centuries women acquired more status when they were allowed to educate themselves and earn mastership in a variety of trades. Unfortunately womens status suffered a blow during the Renaissance as there were more restrictions on womens sexuality and political rights. Although women were learned and able to act as rulers, the dropping position of working women amplified the significance of womens contribution to the family. During the reformation womens status as wives and mothers was increased and they were controlled by their husbands (Womens International Center, 1995). Cultural images of women Merriam Webster defines culture as the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. Culture ideas, symbols, norms and values occupy a major role in the conception of women images and the demarcation of gender roles. To understand the images of femininity the Indian society can be taken as an example. India, a heterogeneous society, demonstrates incompatible women images. The standardize model image of Indian womanhood has disclosed significant consistency. Images of women have not remained stagnant and have been subject to various metaphors. Nevertheless, some basic models have prevalent approval. Diverse cultural images of women: Pativrata- absolute devotion to husband, glorified motherhood, Bharat Mata Image. The insight of diverse categories of women is specifically formed by the commonly accepted female images and stereotypes in the society (Bhargava 2009). Moreover, at the interpersonal stage within the family situation, these images are often imposing in a variety of ways. Indian girls grow up with deep rooted sense of apprehension and anxiety which not only confines their social mobility in the everyday life but also often psychologically cripples them to confront the afflictions of life in general and oppose gender based discrimination in particular. These gender divisions, flowing nearly straight from the popular imagery fostered these images in most Indian families. It can be stated that possibly most significantly; these images leave a profound imprint upon womens self-perception (Bhargava 2009). Women in advertisement Advertising has been a major goal of attack and investigation. The fundamental enlightenment for the significant focus on sex role portrayal in advertising lies in the close relationship, which prevails among advertising, the consumer goods industry and the vital economic role of women as consumers. Usually it is exhibit in advertisement a womans ambition in life is to magnetise and achieve a man:-women are publicised in advertising as forever young and attractive. They are repeatedly depicted as sexual objects. Women in advertisements are constrained to the home and isolated from other women outside home, man is her preferred partner. Domesticity is the next role of two dimensional image of femininity in advertising (Bhargava 2009). Moreover, there are open obscene advertisements relating to sexual stereotypes that are established in different media. The Indian description of sex stereotyping would have all women carrying themselves like legendary sita and savitri- docile, submissive, sacrificing, emotional, fearful, and incompetent of coherent action, their most important duty being wives, partners and mothers. What is being canvas here is gross counterfeit modern lifestyle which is detached from the common Indian womans struggle to survive completely negating and never inquiring her reality (Bhargava 2009). Stereotyping of women in Television Commercials One of the earliest studies that discussed about the image of women in television commercials was by Bardwick and Schumann (1967). Bardwick and Schumann (1967) examined male and female role portrayals in television commercials and settled on the fact that women are portrayed first and foremost as homebound or as housewives. Courtney and Whipple (1974) analysed the stereotyping of women in television commercials and identify major distinctness between men and women. Women were over-symbolised in advertisements for cosmetics and were less likely to appear in advertisements for cars, trucks and related products. 75 percent of all advertisements using women were for products found in the kitchen or bathroom, strengthening the stereotype that a womans place is at home. Women were typically portrayed in house settings rather than business settings in contrast to men. Women were represented as reliant on men and were looked at above all as sexual objects. Courtney and Whipple (1974) described sexual objects as, where women had no role in the commercial, but emerged as a piece of decoration. Researchers found that 87% of voiceovers were male and only 6% of voiceovers were done using females (Courtney Whipple, 1974). Later studies confirmed this (Culley Bennett, 1976; Dominick Rauch, 1972; Lundstorm Sciglimpaglia, 1977; McArthur Resko, 1975; O.Donnell O.Donnell, 1978; Schneider Schneider, 1979). Women were most prone to be characterised not by job-related or other types of roles, but in roles that defined them in terms of their relationships with others, i.e. as spouse, girlfriend, parent or friend (McArthur and Resko, 1975). Moreover, it was discovered that women were portrayed as product users in 86% of advertisements and as product authorities in only 14% of the commercials, compared to men who were depicted overwhelmingly as authorities (McArthur and Resko, 1975). Browne (1998) analysed sex role stereotyping in television commercials aimed at children in the United States and Australia. Her results are in general parallel to those of earlier studies and point out significant gender stereotyping (Macklin Kolbe, 1984; McArthur Eisen, 1976; Sternglanz Serbin, 1974). Her outcome specify that boys appeared in greater numbers in the television commercials, were assign more dominant, dynamic and aggressive roles compared to girls. Gender role reinforcement was detected at the level of body language and facial expressions; girls were portrayed as reserved, giggly, improbable to assert control, less active and helpful. Stereotyping of women in Print Advertisements Chafetz, Lorence and Larosa (1993) analysed six trade publications to evaluate if there had been an impact in female participation in professional vocations and whether an editorial personnel with more women has helped reduce gender stereotyping of professional women. Chafetz, Lorence and Larosa (1993) found that greater relative numbers of women in the occupation over time and an increased share of women in the editorial staff have resulted in portraying women as professionals, confident, independent and attractive. Gender composition of editorial staff had a consistent and a positive effect on how women are portrayed in advertising. However, women are still portrayed less favorably in male-oriented professional publications. Chafetz, Lorence and Larosa.s (1993) findings also suggest that the non-advertisement visuals appear to be conveying a decreasing level of gender stereotyping, because such visuals often appear with stories about work being done by those who practice the target ed occupation or are closely related to it, hence encouraging gender equitable treatment. Perception about womens stereotyping in advertising The Womens Liberation Movement put pressure on marketers to cautiously study how women were portrayed in advertisements. Many studies (Courtney Lockeretz, 1971, Wagner Banos, 1973) analysed womens role in advertising, but they are mainly content analyses. Wortzel and Frisbie found that there was no consistent preference for a specific role for all product categories. Women tended to choose their preferred role based on the class of the product being advertised. In addition, it was found that women with positive attitudes toward the movement, considered modern or progressive, did not reject traditional female role portrayals. Women were satisfied and accepting of traditional role portrayals in advertisements, regardless of their thoughts on Womens Liberation. Studies indicated that for both traditional and modern women, more favorable attitudes resulted from consistency between the ad role portrayal and their role orientation. The most favorable attitudes were from traditional women exposed to the traditional role portrayal. The least favorable attitudes were found by modern women who viewed the traditional role portrayal (Leigh, 1987). Mode rn woman is supposedly more free with choices to exercise and this is apparent in the slick advertisements where women have free body language and seem more open, articulate and more sexual (Aruna, Nidhi Kotwal Shradha Sahni, 2008) Females perception about stereotyping of women in advertising A Canadian research carried out by Susan DeYoung and F.G. Crane shows that that a more realistic portrayal of women in advertising is not only desirable but fundamental in a modern marketplace. Women do not only want a more realistic portrayal but believe that they deserve it (Susan DeYoung and F.G. Crane, 1992). A predominantly imperative finding in this study is the fact that the attitudes held by women cut across age, income, education and marital status categories. Therefore, advertisers cannot simply overlook complaints about the portrayal of women in advertising to a small group of liberal feminists. The concern seems to be widespread. This study is a replication of an American study which was conduct 10 years ago prior to the Canadian study. The following table shows the attitudes and perception of women towards stereotyping of women in advertising. CANADIAN STUDY 1990 VERSUS AMERICAN STUDY 1979 Percentage agreeing with statement Canada 1990 US 1979 1. Advertising suggests a womans place is in the home 51 60 2. Advertising I see does not show women as they really are 77 60 3. Advertising suggests that women are dependent on men 51 50 4. Advertising shows women mainly as sex objects 80 60 5. Advertising suggests women do not make important decisions 63 82 6. Advertising suggests women do not do important things 46 60 7. I am more sensitive than I used to be to the portrayal of women in advertising 54 55 8. I find the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive 50 60 9. If a product I buy is advertised in a way that I find offensive to women, I would stop buying it 51 31 10. If a new product uses advertising that I find offensive to women, I would not buy it, even if it was a good product 48 28 Source: Females attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising: a Canadian study 1992 Theoretical Framework Cultivation Theory Cultivation theory also referred to as the cultivation hypothesis or cultivation analysis was an approach developed by Professor George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania (Chandler, 1995). The purpose of the Cultural Indicators project was to identify and track the cultivated effects of television on viewers (Buchanan et al, 2010). A research by Buchanan (2010 cited by Miller 2005) showed that they were concerned with the effects of television programming on the attitudes and behaviours of the American public (Buchanan et al, 2010). There are various communication theories, but Gerbners Cultivation Theory is above all pertinent to numerous situations. It focuses on the suggestion that television plays a fundamental role in viewers perceptions of the humanity by touching attitudes, beliefs, and ways of thinking (Lindquist, 2006). Thus it is harmless to state that through television, people are exposed to various advertising that are typically stereotyping women in a negative manner. The severity of these effects depends on the amount of television an individual watches each day (Lindquist, 2006). Gerbners Cultivation theory suggests that television can alter or cultivate a viewers perception of social reality (Buchanan et al, 2010). It is harmless to state that according to Gerbner, a viewers belief of reality is shaped by the amount of continual exposure to television combined with media messages over a long period of time. Application of the Theory to the Study An extremely widespread problem in our society today is the misconstrued perception many women and adolescent girls have about their bodies. The media portrays thin bodies as being beautiful and desirable, yet most of the women on television and in advertisements can be considered to be dangerously underweight when looking at them from a medical perspective (Lindquist, 2006). Consumer culture and media imagery have a pervasive and powerful influence on girls at a critical developmental stage; American girls are socialized to cement and signal identity through visual symbols that include visible consumption of prestige goods or a particular body presentation that conforms to cultural aesthetic ideals (Becker, 2004). A research by Becker (2004 cited by Gordon 2000 and Pipher 1994) suggest that there are several reasons to believe that adolescence places girls at particular risk as participants in consumer culture. For instance, many have suggested that adolescence is a time when American girls are challenged by simultaneous conflicting cultural demands to maintain both a trajectory of achievement and the requirements of female roles; such conflict, if severe and unresolved, may manifest in a variety of difficulties, including an eating disorder (Becker. 2004). The concept of mainstreaming that Gerbner discusses can be linked to this problem regarding females and poor body image. According to the Cultivation Theory, heavy viewers of television will experience the effects of mainstreaming, where their attitudes and opinions are essentially created by information and portrayals they receive from the television. In the media where womens beauty and body perfection are defined by emaciated figures, it is only natural that heavy-viewing females begin to have their attitudes shaped by this ideal. They begin to be affected by the reality constructed on the television more than the reality of the world around them. It has been discovered that heavy-viewing young women glamorize weight loss and dieting due to what they see on the television (Harrison Hefner, 2006). In fact, the study found that television viewing [is] linked to subsequent increases in eating pathology (Harrison Hefner, 2006). Another example of this idea is a study that was conduc ted in which the impact of television being introduced to young women in a rural community in Fiji was investigated. The young womens opinions about their bodies in terms of weight had been drastically influenced by the television and had urges to reshape their bodies in order to fit in with the ideals that were presented to them through the television (Lindquist, 2006). Limitation of The Cultivation Theory to the study Even though this theory provides us with a unique way of looking at television as a highly influential part to stereotyping of women in advertising, it omitted some aspects that also seem to have an impact on the perception of people. The Cultivation Theory ignores the influence of other forms of media, such as commercials, magazines, newspapers, music, advertisements, and many others (Lindquist, 2006). Relating back to the issue of womens obsession with thinness, it has been discovered that both print and electronic media exposure are associated with an increased drive for thinness (Harrison Hefner, 2006). Commercials, magazines, and printed advertisements are heavily lined with figures that maintain the negative body image that many women have. While these aspects of the media are most likely cultivating similar attitudes that are produced by the television, it is possible that they have some sort of other effect on womens perceptions of themselves. The attitudes that have been co nstructed for people by the media cannot be based solely on television. Female Body Image and the Mass Media Perspectives on How Women Internalise the Ideal Beauty Standard Mass medias use of unrealistic models sends an implicit message that distorts the healthy body image and it makes it thorny for females to attain any stage of satisfaction with their physical appearance. There has been a plethora of study to show that women are negatively affected by regular exposure to models that execute the unrealistic media ideal of beauty; nevertheless, it is not clear how these images in fact come to affect womens satisfaction with their physical appearance (Serdar [no date]). Female Body Image Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individuals perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance (Cash Pruzinsky, 2002). Females of all ages seem to be particularly vulnerable to disturbance in this area; body dissatisfaction in women is a well-documented phenomenon in mental health literature. Researchers have called females concerns with their physical appearance normative discontent; implying that body dissatisfaction affects almost all women at some level (Striegel-Moore Franko, 2002, p. 183; Tiggemann Slater, 2004). Females have been found to experience dissatisfaction with physical appearance at a much higher rate than males (Striegel-Moore Franko, 2002), and women of all ages and sizes display body image disturbance. It appears that body dissatisfaction is more closely linked to appearance-related cognitions than physical reality. People are at higher risk to display disturbed body image if they hold dysfunctional belief s and cognitions about their physical appearance, regardless of body mass (Butters Cash, 1987). Concerns with the development of disordered eating are an especially vital issue because such patterns have been found to be a major predictor of clinical eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction and preoccupation with food, shape, and weight are some of the core features in the diagnostic criteria of both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Estimates of the prevalence of such disorders vary, but most state that 3% to 10% of females ages 15 to 29 could be considered anorexic or bulimic. Most individuals who develop an eating disorder start with what is considered typical dieting behavior. With increasing numbers of females reporting disturbed body image and engaging in dieting behavior, there has been a significant level of concern about the increasing incidence of eating disorders. This is especially true of individuals who display early signs of body image disturbance and disordered eating (Polivy Herman, 2002). Images of Women in the Media Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves. From the perspective of the mass media, thinness is idealized and expected for women to be considered attractive. Images in advertisements, television, and music usually portray the ideal woman as tall, white, and thin, with a tubular body, and blonde hair (Dittmar Howard, 2004; Lin Kulik, 2002; Polivy Herman, 2004; Sands Wardle, 2003; Schooler, Ward, Merriwether, Caruthers, 2004; Tiggemann Slater, 2003). The media is littered with images of females who fulfill these unrealistic standards, making it seem as if it is normal for women to live up to this ideal. Dittmar and Howard (2004) made this statement regarding the prevalence of unrealistic media images: Ultra-thin models are so prominent that exposure to them becomes unavoidable and chronic, constantly reinforcing a discrepancy for most women and girls between their actual size and the ideal body (p. 478). Only a very small percentage of women in Western countries meet the criteria the media uses to define beautiful (Dittmar Howard, 2004; Thompson Stice, 2001); yet so many women are repeatedly exposed to media images that send the message that a woman is not acceptable and attractive if she do not match societys ultra-thin standard of beauty (Dittmar Howard, 2004, p. 478). In recent years, womens body sizes have grown larger (Spitzer, Henderson, Zivian, 1999), while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner. This discrepancy has made it increasingly difficult for most women to achieve the current sociocultural ideal. Such a standard of perfection is unrealistic and even dangerous. Many of the models shown on television, advertisements, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (Dittmar Howard, 2004). Research has repeatedly shown that constant exposure to thin models fosters body image concerns and disordered eating in many females. Almost all forms of the media contain unrealistic images, and the negative effects of such idealistic portrayals have been demonstrated in numerous studies. Schooler et al. (2004) found that women who reported greater exposure to television programming during adolescence were more likely to experience high levels of body image disturbance than females that did not report such levels of exposure. In addition, certain types of programming seem to elicit higher levels of body dissatisfaction in females. A study done by Tiggemann and Slater (2003) found that women who viewed music videos that contained thin models experienced increased levels of negative mood and body image disturbance. Music videos seem to send a particularly direct message that woman should live up to the sociocultural ideal; women portrayed are almost always direct representations of w hat our culture considers beautiful. In addition, music television is an increasingly influential form of media, especially for adolescent and college females. Mainstream magazines and advertisements are another potent source of idealized images of women. This is disturbing because many women, especially adolescents, have been found to read such material on a regular basis. Findings of one study indicate that 83% of teenage girls reported reading fashion magazines for about 4.3 hours

Against Animal Testing Essay -- Animal Cruelty

We all have a pet either is a dog named spot or a cat named fluffy would you wont some one to test medicine or cosmetic on your pet so why let them on some one else. Today I am going to tell you why animals testing is wrong, what the drug and cosmetic companies do to these poor creatures. Drug testing on animals is unnecessary because animal‘s body never reacts to drug like humans. Drug and cosmetic companies are the biggest animal tester. They have a lot of drug recalled because animal testing didnÂ’t show that they where harmful. It is just a waste of money, time and effort to test on animals because 60% of the time it just torments the animals and never benefits anyone. Why do you need to know this because I think you need to know how useless animal testing is. Drug companies use animals to test their products to make sure their safe but it doesnÂ’t always work and it is very inhumane to the animals they are testing on. According to geocities.com article paw_n_tails that I accessed on November 10 to measure severe burns on live tissue, a pet is burned alive with a flame-thrower until the charred flesh can be removed in large pieces from   while the animal is still alive. An experiment to study head trauma requires a animals head to be strapped down and   receive high impact blows to the head resulting in severe brain damage. To demonstrate there is no difference in eye protein levels of the site deprived, the animals eyelids are sewn shut then later compared to normal protein levels. Drug testing on animals has caused harm and death to humans, too. Many patients who were administered the general anesthetic Methoxyflurane lost function of their kidneys because animal experiments failed to reveal possible kidney toxicity. The arth... ...are used to determine the amount of a substance that will kill a predetermined ratio of animals. For example, in the LD50 test, subjects are forced to ingest poisonous substances (through stomach tubes, vapor spray inhalers or injection) until half of them die. Common reactions to LD tests include convulsions, vomiting, paralysis and bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth or rectum. To day I have told you that we are made different so why test on animals to help us when half the time it doesnÂ’t work, and that animal testing in drug companies cause an injury to an animal just to see if a product will work on them, and how cosmetic companies cause death to animal just so people can look more beautiful. Now you are asking your self what can I do to help these poor puppies and kittens that are treated so cruelty well you could use product that are not tested on animals.

The Censors, by Luisa Valenzuela Essay -- Satire, Symbols, Analysis

â€Å"The Censors† by Luisa Valenzuela The short story â€Å"The Censors† by Luisa Valenzuela is set in Argentina during the dictatorship of Jorge Videla who reigned from 1976 to 1983. Juan, the protagonist of the text, starts the story by writing a letter to his old friend, Mariana, at her new residence in Paris. He had received Mariana’s new address from a confidential source and was too excited to think of his actions before writing and sending the letter. Later, Juan’s â€Å"mind [was] off his job during the day and [he couldn’t] sleep at night,† thinking of the letter (Valenzuela 966). He believes the contents to be innocent and irreproachable, but the censors of the Argentine government â€Å"examine, sniff, feel, and read between the lines of each and every letter† (Valenzuela 966) for the signs of uprising among the people. He then thinks of the censorship offices and the extremely few letters that are actually sent. He ponders the months or years that a single letter cou ld take to be delivered and all that time â€Å"the freedom, maybe even life, of both the sender and receiver [are] in jeopardy† (Valenzuela 966). Juan is troubled for Mariana’s well being. He knows that the â€Å"Censor’s Secret Command operates all over the world [and] there’s nothing to stop them from going [to the] obscure Paris neighborhood [and] kidnapping Mariana† (Valenzuela 966). Soon he decides his course of action is to join the Post Office’s Censorship Division and retrieve his letter to save Mariana. Juan was hired immediately as there was a great demand for censors and no one â€Å"bothered to check on his references† (Valenzuela 966). He was content to be working; all he could do to retrieve his letter was being done. Even when he was sent to Section K where envelopes were ... ...ack to destroy Juan. Since he didn’t find the letter to be important, he acted carelessly and discarded it and was â€Å"one more victim of his devotion to his work† (Valenzuela 968). Although many people would not go as far as to essentially commit suicide through the government, Valenzuela is making the point that secrets are dangerous. At the same time, Valenzuela is showing the average person can always be corrupted and caught up in their government if said government is corrupt. The most innocent person will always be tainted and destroyed by an iniquitous government. Through Juan’s letter and actions, Valenzuela depicts the satirical theme of how anyone can be corrupted by a perverted government. Works Cited Valenzuela, Luisa. â€Å"The Censors.† Elements of Literature: World Literature. Trans. David Unger. Austin, Texas: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2006. Print.

Corporate Valuation - Dandy Fashion Berhad :: Business Finance Stock Market

The value of public companies is determined by the stock market. The value of companies not publicly quoted will be greatly influenced by the same market. Therefore, we will focus on the main stock-market-related ratios. They are:  · Market Capitalization  · Share values, nominal, book, market  · Earnings Per Share (EPS)  · Dividends Per Share (DPS)  · Dividend Cover and Pay-Out Ratio  · Earnings Yield  · Dividend Yield  · Price To Earnings Ratio (PE)  · Market To Book Ratio Below is the balance sheet for Dandy Fashion Berhad: Dandy Fashion Berhad BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2006 ($000,000s) Assets Liabilities & Shareholder's Equity Long Investment $ $ Owners Funds $ $ Net Fixed Assets 440 Issued Capital 80 Investment 40 Capital Reserves 60 Revenue Reserves 220 360

Agrarian Discontent In The Late 1800s :: essays research papers

"Why the Farmers Were Wrong" The period between 1880 and 1900 was a boom time for American politics. The country was for once free of the threat of war, and many of its citizens were living comfortably. However, as these two decades went by, the American farmer found it harder and harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the bulwark of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them. Furthermore, improvement in transportation allowed foreign competition to materialize, making it harder for American farmers to dispose of surplus crop. Finally, years of drought in the midwest and the downward spiral of business in the 1890's devastated many of the nation's farmers. As a result of the agricultural depression, many farm groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what farmers saw as the reasons for the decline in agriculture. During the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, many farmers in the United States saw monopolies and trusts, railroads, and money shortages and the demonetization of silver as threats to their way of life, though in many cases their complaints were not valid. The growth of the railroad was one of the most significant elements in American economic growth. However, in many ways, the railroads hurt small shippers and farmers. Extreme competition between rail companies necessitated some way to win business. To do this, many railroads offered rebates and drawbacks to larger shippers who used their rails. However, this practice hurt smaller shippers, including farmers, for often times railroad companies would charge more to ship products short distances than they would for long trips. The rail companies justified this practice by asserting that if they did not rebate, they would not make enough profit to stay in business. In his testimony to the Senate Cullom Committee, George W. Parker stated, "...the operating expense of this road...requires a certain volume of business to meet these fixed expenses....in some seasons of the year, the local business of the road...is not sufficient to make the earnings...when we make up a train of ten of fifteen cars of local freight...we can attach fifteen or twenty cars...of strictly through business. We can take the latter at a very low rate than go without it." Later, when asked the consequences of charging local traffic the same rate as through freight, Mr.

Genre Defense of Shakespeare’s ”As You Like It” Essay

â€Å"As You Like It represents, together with Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night, the summation of Shakespeare’s achievement in festive, happy comedy during the years 1598-1601,† proclaims David Bevington his The Complete Works of Shakespeare (288). Bevington is obviously not the first editor to have categorized Shakespeare’s plays. In fact, part of the plays’ popularity might be based upon the fact that audiences know what to expect when they begin viewing the productions. For example, As You Like It’s title hints that audiences should expect the play to end happily. This play’s name is not, however, all that helps classify it as a comedy. Every element of the play drips with comedic elements, as Shakespeare characteristically critiques love, while highlighting the pastoral motif. The theme of the play is an obvious remark on its classification. Shakespeare exploits literary convention by mocking the foolishness love generates in us all. Kenneth Muir, in Shakespeare’s Comic Sequence, declares, â€Å"His [Shakespeare’s] lovers-Rosalind, Orlando, Celia, Oliver and Phoebe-would all make answer to Marlowe’s question ‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?’ with a chorus of ‘No one.'(88)† Each of the characters do and say impulsive things based solely on emotion. The Forest of Arden gives the characters freedom to act in such silly manners. Once their love relationships have been realized in marriage, the couples can prepare to return to the order, and presumably reason, of the court. The plot of As You Like It centers on the love relationships of four couples. Made up of the lovers’ stories and the story of the overthrown Duke Senior, who has fled into the Forest of Arden, the plot is quite complex. It centers on the movement of the characters from the court to the forest and then readying themselves to return to court. The play begins with the instantaneous falling in love of Rosalind and Orlando at court and the nearly simultaneous retreat of each into the Forest of Arden, due to Duke Frederick’s sudden disdain for Rosalind and Oliver’s intention to kill Orlando. The plotline continues with Rosalind disguised as Ganymede, a boy, blocking Rosalind and Orlando’s love. The plot moves from disorder to order, though, and the play concludes with a typical comic ending: a marriage ceremony. The marriage masque further solidifies the play’s comedic classification. Helen Gardner notes in her article that the masque of Hymen returns order as it is able â€Å"to end the whole with courtly grace and dignity. This is an image of civility and true society, for Hymen is a god of cities† (59). A song sung at the wedding feast declares Hymen’s dominion over towns: â€Å"Tis Hymen peoples every town / High wedlock then be honored. / Honor, high honor and renown / To Hymen, god of every town!† (Shakespeare, V. iv. 142-145). Furthermore, the scene accounts for all of the characters happy state: Rosalind and Orlando have finally overcome all obstacles to be united; Oliver and Celia are able to immediately marry and Oliver has changed his ways; Silvius finally obtains Phoebe’s love; Touchstone and Audrey are married; and Duke Frederick has repented and joined a monastery, leaving Duke Senior to assume his rightful throne. All problems have been resolved, which leaves no room for arguing that the play is a comedy. The characters also prove that the play has been appropriately classified. The different lovers demonstrate stereotypical kinds of love. Commentator Kenneth Muir remarks, â€Å"In As You Like It different kinds of love are examined-the lust of Touchstone, the self-love of Jacques, the pride and vanity of Phoebe, and the sentimental idealism of Orlando-and all are found wanting† (91). The central relationship is between Rosalind and Orlando, whom Bertrand Evans describes as â€Å"the brightest of Shakespeare’s bright heroines† and â€Å"the least conscious of his unconscious heroes† (92). Orlando seems a typical jock. He wrestles Charles in the court and then falls hopelessly in love with Rosalind-so hopelessly in love that he, despite being a poor poet, carves Rosalind’s name and poems about her into tree trunks. Although Oliver has denied him a gentleman’s education, he is a noble character, who is loyal to his servant Adam, brave enough to fight Charles, and loving when speaking about his beloved Rosalind. Nonetheless, Orlando must have some naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ in order for Rosalind to continue fooling him. Evans expounds, â€Å"Despite the deserved praise which Oliver heaps upon Orlando [†¦,] Orlando is exposed repeatedly in situations of which the truth eludes him. [†¦] His abrupt disposal of Charles the wrestler; his first tongue-tied meeting with Rosalind; his sword-brandishing, valiant, but frightfully unaware entrance to demand food of Duke Senior-all these are parts of the preparation.† (92-3) Orlando’s good intentions are mocked somewhat by his actions. Rosalind is also a good person, as is evident in her devotion to Celia, her father, and Orlando. However, Rosalind’s disguise leads to some humorous scenes as the (at least, original) audience is aware of the fact that, as Muir describes, when Ganymede is helping Orlando, â€Å"We have a boy pretending to be a woman, pretending to be a boy, pretending to be a boy, pretending to be a woman, satirising feminine behaviour† (90). Her disguise provides numerous incongruities as the audience continues to see the male Ganymede in opposition to Rosalind. Taking on a masculine role helps Rosalind to develop inner strength. In fact, Diane Dreher explains in her analysis of androgynous Shakespearean characters that â€Å"Rosalind’s disguise enables her to examine Orlando’s motives, allowing her to say and do things that traditional feminine modestly would not permit† (121). Despite her depth of character, the audience is constantly aware of her super objective : to marry Orlando. This goal in and of itself is a romantic convention that cannot be ignored. While Oliver and Duke Frederick appear as antagonistic characters in the beginning scenes when they are at court, both make a turn around after entering the forest. Shakespeare utilizes a romantic convention, the sudden conversion of a villain, to further illuminate the plays comedic nature. When Orlando rescues Oliver from a lioness, Oliver finds favor in his younger brother, and the two are reunited. Oliver and Orlando’s brother Jacques explains that Duke Frederick has changed: â€Å"And to the skirts of this wild wood [Duke Frederick] came, / Where, meeting with an old religious man, / After some question with him, was converted / Both from his enterprise and from the world, / His crown bequeathing to his banished brother, / And all their lands restored to them again / That were with him exiled.† (Shakespeare, V. iv. 158-164). Entering the woods leads the characters to become better people. The characters language, although sometimes a bit poetic, is rather common. The play’s pastoral elements make prose a more likely language choice. In fact, Dr. Sharron Cassavant, professor of English at Northeastern University has calculated that 54.5 percent of the plays 2, 636 lines are written in prose. The opening scene, exposition in conversation between Orlando and Adam, is entirely prose. Rosalind and Celia also interchange in prose. Prose dominates the dialogue between the lovers. Rhymed verse is generally used when Orlando attempts to write poems about his beloved Rosalind. Blank verse, a higher form, is used most often by Jacques, but Duke Senior also utilizes to proclaim the good that nature has offered him. In this critique of love, blank verse is reserved most often for use by those characters unaffected by love. The language lends itself to the play’s love-at-first-sight theme in that the lovers do not have time to organize their thoughts in a collected wa y, but rather speak whatever first enters their mind. The play appeals to the comedic audience visually and aurally as well. Most notably, Rosalind’s disguise allows the audience, aware of the fact that the boy they see pretending to be a woman is actually the woman he is pretending to be, to laugh at the incongruities of Orlando’s pretend love for and Phoebe’s real love for Ganymede. The disguise also presents funny sounds as Rosalind’s voice must change depending on the character she is playing. The other pastoral characters also lend country-bumpkin accents to the plays aural elements, as they are less sophisticated than the courtly characters. As You Like It could not be more comedic. Each of the plays elements presents stereotypical characteristics of comedy. Shakespeare obviously knew the requirements of each genre and managed to control those requirements while never ceasing to dazzle his audience. His works were all as we like them. Works Cited Bevington, David. Introduction to As You Like It. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. By Bevington. NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1997. 288-91. Cassavant, Sharron. As You Like It Main page. Introduction to Shakespeare. Course Website. Dept. of English, Northeastern University. 11 December 2004 . Dreher, Diane Elizabeth. Domination and Defiance: Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986. [OBU] Evans, Bertrand. Shakespeare’s Comedies. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1960. [OBU] Gardner, Helen. â€Å"As You Like It.† Shakespeare the Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays, Ed. Kenneth Muir. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1965.

Deloneys view of age Essay

The word ‘age’ is also paired with the adjective ‘crabbed’, however the word ’youth’ is not attached to any word and seems almost completely separate. Youth seems quite isolated from the word ‘age’ and could represent how nowadays parents and children are quite segregated from each other. As well as the word being isolated, it seems to be independent, as it is not relying on an adjective to describe itself. Following onto the point of where I had written that parents and children are isolated from one another, this is clearly demonstrated to us in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, throughout the play, as well as in ‘crabbed age and youth’, when it is written that they ‘cannot live together’. The isolation between a parent and child, can be expressed due to the fact that these two humans are both from different generations, and have been brought up to have different opinions, or in some cases, completely contrasting opinions and as a consequence have little or nothing in common. For example in ‘Follower’ we are not informed of any similarities between the father and son, however the fact that the verb stumble appears twice and that both the father and the son have experienced it, suggests that this is the only thing of which they have in common. Another example is in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ where we see at the beginning of the play Capulet displaying a willingness to become a better parent as he attempts to understand Juliet’s thoughts and emotions by saying to Paris that Juliet is too â€Å"ripe to be a bride†. This portrays to us a parent who is willing to change their own opinion in a matter. in the Elizabethan era it was considered normal for a 14 year old to be married and expecting children, which is made clear to us when Paris says to Capulet ‘younger than she (Juliet) are happy mothers made’, to which Capulet answers by saying that young mothers are ‘too soon marr’d’. By defending his and his daughter’s actions, shows him to be a protective father. There is no doubt that along the path of parenthood there will be clashes between a parent and child, of which the child or parent feels that they ‘cannot live together’, due to different factors, the most prominent of which is a severe clash of opinions. We know not to take the line ‘cannot live together’ literally, because Deloney is talking about the two opinions of the youth and the old and how they are so severely differentiated, almost contradictory. I translate this stanza to mean that the two opinions are so contradictory that neither can win the argument. I can refer this to the poem ‘Catrin’, in which Gillian Clarke talks about a ‘red rope of love’ which represents the bond that a parent and child have. To demonstrate how contradictory these 2 opinions are, Deloney offers us a variety of antithesis, such as â€Å"Youth like summer†¦ Age like winter†, â€Å"Youth is hot†¦ Age is†¦ Cold†. The roles in this parent child relationship are clear to us; Capulet even tells us that he thinks of Juliet as a ‘whining mammet’. A mammet is a puppet, and so obviously a puppet needs a puppeteer, and due to how Capulet acts in this scene, it is evident that he is the puppeteer. This hierarchy of a parent and child is also shown in ‘Follower’, when Heaney describes his father to be a ‘full sail strung’ and that ‘horses strained at his clicking tongue’. By saying that even ‘horses strained at his clicking tongue’ shows how much power and authority his father had; he had to do such little, to get the horses to do a lot of work. The fact that an animal listens to him, demonstrates just how powerful he is. Deloney also thinks that age and youth are completely opposite by saying ‘age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave’. By using two completely opposite seasons of the year, Deloney is also pointing out that parents and children are also completely opposite. For example it is hot in summer and cold in winter, it cannot be hot in winter and cold in summer, however when we get too hot, we wish for it to be cooler and when we are cold, we wish for it to be hot. Similarly, when we are old we desire to be young, and when we are young we wish to be older or you could say when children are in need of parents, they may not be here, but that when they are here, you do not need them vice versa. If we were to interpret this to fit the role of a parent child relationship then we would say that when as children we become older and our parents eventually die, suddenly we seem to miss them immensely. So by using antithesis, the poet is basically telling us that once a parent or child is deceased, we learn how much we appreciated them. I feel it is a shame that we only realise things like this once it has been taken from us. This is shown in Romeo and Juliet when Capulet discovers that his daughter has apparently died from depression, he feels overwhelmed and his true feelings for Juliet are revealed as he says ‘with my child are my joys buried’, however when she was alive (in act 3 scene 5), he did not seem to care if she were to ‘die in the streets’.