"Say Yes to the Dress" vs "The Rise of the Lavish Wedding"

I think one of the first connections I saw between the TV show and the reading would be the reference to princesses or royalty. In the reading it talks about how everybody started wearing white gowns AFTER Queen Victoria’s wedding. It shows that even back then, every woman wanted to look like royalty. This compares to the TV show because a ton of the women were talking about how they wanted to look like Princess Diana or Grace Kelley, because they wanted to look like royalty.

Another connection I saw was how much department stores were gaining from women wanting to look like royalty and spending a ton of money on their wedding dresses. I saw this in the reading when it talked about how much retailers were making off these brides by advertising the level of importance of having the perfect wedding. I saw this in the TV show when I saw how high the women’s budgets were and how they were willing to push the budget a little to get that “perfect” gown.

Sexual Objectification

According to Caroline Heldman, there are a few things that are sexually objectifying in this Bavarian Bier Cafe Ad. One way that this is sexually objectifying is that the image suggests that sexual availability is the defining characteristic of these women. They are not doing anything but showing off their breasts, as if that is the only thing about them that matters. I also feel like this image could be showing the ladies as a commodity. I think this because it is comparing the women's breasts to the rack of ribs, showing that if you buy these ribs, you can also get the women's breasts. This ad is for a cafe in Germany, and they actually ended up pulling the ad because it was so controversial.

According to Caroline Heldman, there are multiple things here that show it is sexually objectifying this woman. For one, this image is suggesting that the sexual availability is the defining characteristic of this woman. She is not doing anything, she is just casually leaning on this bottle of Budweiser.  I could also see this image as treating this sexualized woman's body as a canvas, because she is about the same size as the bottle and is in front of the bottle so we can't really see it because the woman is the only thing that matters. I could also see this image as showing this person as a commodity. I think this because she is in front of the actual product being sold, which to me makes me think that the message is that if you buy this bottle of alcohol, you also get this attractive woman.

Duke Porn Star Student

I focused on the news groups "The Young Turks" and "The View". It seemed like The Young Turks talked a lot about how unfair it is for her personal business to be leaked to the world, while The View was more focused on getting the girl's side of the story and the people on the show didn't really say much. The Young Turks thought that making fun of her for her personal life is "going too far" and that they shouldn't be bullying her when it's her own life choice. They also said that the girls at Duke who were talking bad about her were just mad because of her financial opportunity, and the guys were just mad because she hasn't slept with them. The View just focused on practically her life story. "Belle Knox" says that she has watched porn since she was 12, and one of the ladies said that that made her sad that she has watched porn since she was that young, and they were also very surprised because she said that her parents supported her porn choice. We also got to see how much she makes from these porn videos ($1000-$1500) and how often she does them (25-30).

I believe that The Young Turks focuses more on defending the girl because they are more laid back and have a lot of young viewers, whereas The View may have not provided a lot of opinions because it is more formal and a lot of older people or middle-age people watch that. So I feel like The View doesn't want to offend any of their viewers by supporting the girl or attacking her because a lot of people watch that show and might have conflicting opinions, whereas I feel like less people watch The Young Turks so they don't have to worry as much about offending anyone.

The Young Turks mainly had young people talking about this issue, while the View had more middle-aged or older people talking about the issue. I feel like that age group and how they talked about this topic really reflect our attitudes towards sex and pornography. I feel like the older people in The View seemed less accepting because in their generation, sex and porn wasn't accepted as much as it is in this generation. I feel like The Young Turks were more accepting because they have grown up in this generation where sex and porn aren't that risqué anymore.