Poverty Porn Essay Example for Free

Poverty Porn Essay Fundraising is a noble and selfless deed. However, an ethical issue has risen concerning the process of raising funds for poverty-stricken communities. Often, visuals of the harsh lives people in poverty face are portrayed when raising funds. The exploitation of such visuals to increase donations or support a cause is known as poverty pornography (Collin, 2009). Poverty pornography is effective in raising funds but it is incorrect due to the unethical way it is carried out that degrades the poverty-stricken communities. Poverty pornography is widely used by charitable organisations because it is an effective method of collecting donations. Research has shown that negative stimuli which evoke emotion can easily capture an individual’s attention (Murphy, Hill, Ramponi, Calder Barnard, 2010). Images of children as well as those which bring about negative emotions also tend to generate more donations (Burt Strongman, 2005). Thus, the disturbing visuals of dying children and women as well as their harsh living conditions portrayed in poverty pornography is effective in grabbing attention and generating feelings of sympathy. These feelings are then converted into actions whereby donations are increased. Therefore, poverty pornography plays a role in helping poverty-stricken communities as it easily grabs people’s attention and encourages them to increase their donations. However, its method of exploiting visuals that degrade the poverty-stricken communities makes poverty pornography unethical. The exploitation of biased visuals depicts poverty-stricken communities in a negative manner. Common examples are severely malnourished African children staring at the camera, waiting to be â€Å"saved† (Osa, 2010). While it is true that there are malnourished children, there are healthier children too. However, poverty pornography is biased as it does not represent this side of poverty-stricken communities. Although taken for a good cause, a distorted image of them is painted (Opoku-Owusu, 2003). This is unethical as the partial representation degrades them, leaving the impression that they are helpless individuals, waiting for their lives to be taken away and unable to do anything. On the other hand, some charitable organisations try to incorporate positive images into their advertisements by showing the after-effects of our donations. For example, they may show visuals of happy, smiling children as a result of our aid. However, such images indirectly degrade the communities as it gives us the impression that without our assistance, they are unable to survive. In 2001, a poll conducted in United Kingdom discovered that 74% thought that â€Å"Developing countries depend on the money and knowledge of the West to progress† (Voluntary Service Overseas, 2002). From this, we can deduce that many have the perception that poverty-stricken communities are weak and vulnerable as they are highly dependent on our help. However, this may not be true because in reality, they are the most â€Å"strongest willed, most tenacious people one could hope to meet† (Cowdroy Evans, 2010). Thus, the misrepresentation creates a false impression that poverty-stricken communities are weak and cannot survive without our aid. This false impression may also create an environment of self-pity which may lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. The self-fulfilling prophecy, introduced by Merton (1948), refers to circumstances whereby an initial false claim later turns into reality. The exploitation of negative visuals pertaining to the lives of poverty-stricken communities has led to a stereotype that they are â€Å"uneducated, incapable of freeing themselves from poverty, lacking in competence, and miserable† (Clark, 2004). This stereotype may cause people to hold negative expectations on the poverty-stricken communities (Madon, Jussim, Eccles, 1997). Although these negative expectations may not be true initially, the poverty-stricken communities might adhere to them thus leading to a self-fulfilled prophecy. Therefore, the use of poverty pornography to assist them may backfire as incorrect claims can become true. Nevertheless, many organizations unremittingly use poverty pornography. Does this make poverty pornography a necessary evil? Poverty pornography is definitely not a necessary evil. It is unethical to degrade or stereotype the poverty-stricken communities, even if it is for a noble cause. Moreover, poverty pornography can instead contribute to the  poverty cycle as the negative assumptions about the poverty-stricken communities may become self-fulfilling prophecies. Thus, instead of eradicating poverty, it may worsen the conditions of poverty-stricken communities. However what other methods can we adopt to increase awareness on the needs of the poverty-stricken communities without degrading them? Instead of exploiting biased images that generate feelings of sympathy, programmes that create feelings of empathy and responsibility can be created. One such event is the inaugural 30 Hour Famine Camp in Singapore held by World Vision. In this camp, youths are given a feel of life in poverty by taking part in activities that simulates lives of children in poverty. The youths also make a stand to end global poverty by fasting for thirty hours. This camp generates empathy which encourages youths to not only donate but also to think of more ways to assist by allowing them to realise that they have the ability and responsibility to help end poverty. To portray full representation of their lives, some have embarked on projects like ‘Perspectives of Poverty’ which â€Å"expose[s] this bias [poverty pornography] and present people in a light of dignity† (McNiholl, n.d). Even though it may not help in raising funds, by presenting poverty-stricken in a better light, it balances off how degrading poverty pornography has been and slowly alters people’s perception on poverty-stricken communities. This can help remove stereotypes on them thus avoid self-fulfilling prophecies. Poverty pornography has proven to be effective. However, its unethical methods have undermined the usefulness of helping poverty-stricken communities. Instead of assisting, it strips them of their dignity, their ability to help themselves and contribute to the poverty cycle. Even though poverty pornography cannot be eradicated in the near future as it is widely used, the two methods presented above are examples of how we can slowly break away from poverty pornography. People in poverty are human beings too. Thus, in the process of assisting them, we must create a full representation of them and treat them as dignified human beings. To achieve this, poverty pornography must be eradicated. REFERENCES Burt, CDB. Strongman, K. Use Of Images In Charity Advertising: Improving Donations and Compliance Rates. International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 8(8) 1, Retrieved from http://www.usq.edu.au/extrafiles/business/journals/HRMJournal/InternationalArticles/Volume%208/Burt%20Vol%208%20no%208.pdf Clark, D. J. (2004). The production of a contemporary famine image: The image economy, indigenous photographers and the case of Mekanic Philipos. Journal of International Development, 16, 693–704. DOI: 10.1002/jid.112 Collin, M. (2009). What is ‘poverty porn’ and why does it matter for development? Retrieved 16 July 2011 from Aid Thoughts website: http://aidthoughts.org/?p=69 Cowdroy, J. Evans, H. (2005), Poverty Pornography. Retrieved 16 July, 2011 from The Global Poverty Project website: http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/blog/view/238 Madon, S., Jussim, L., Eccles, J. (1997). In search of the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(4), 791-809. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.72.4.791 Merton, R.K. (1948). The self-fulfilling prophecy. The Antioch Review, 8(2), 193-210. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Murphy, F. C., Hill, E. L., Ramponi, C. C., Calder, A. J., Barnard, P. J. (2010). Paying attention to emotional images with impact. Emotion, 10(5), 605-614. DOI: 10.1037/a0019681 Opoku-Owusu, S. A. S. (2003). What can the African diaspora do to challenge distorted media perceptions about Africa? London: AFFORD. Osa, E. (2010). The starving baby syndrome is hurting Africa’s image. New African, (501), 72-73. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Scale E. (2010), WaterAid UK And Poverty Porn. Retrieved 16 July, 2011 from The Global Poverty Project website http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/blogs/view/262 Voluntary Service Overseas, (2002). The Live Aid legacy: The developing world through British eyes – A research report. London, UK: Voluntary Service Overseas.

Feminist Ideas the Screwball Comedy Film Genre Essay -- Feminism Essay

The Screwball comedy is a film genre that found its way onto the screens in the early 1930s and lasted till the early 1940s. They were a consequence of the newly adapted censorship law in 1934 that restricted addressing adult content on screen. They therefore incorporated more comedic and creative ways of symbolizing topics such as sex and homosexuality. Screwball comedies were mainly based on plots that had conflict between social classes as their many premise and always had a happy ending which was almost always marriage. This consistent maintenance of the status quo of marriage is a major aspect of feminism depicted in screwball comedies (Heather 26). While advocating for marriage, screwball comedies highlighted the shift in the foundations of marriage and greatly highlighted the growth of feminism in light of a shift in roles and expectations surrounding this institution. Feminism is motivated by the need to establish equality between the genders since most feminists attribute women’s problems to inequality between the two genders. Therefore, by way of a collection of political movements and social theories, feminists seek to curb this inequality between men and women. It is important to note that the equality sought after by feminists is not just economic and political, but also social equality. According to Heather Gilmour, The institution of marriage during the pre-modern era or the Victorian era was based on inequality as the roles to be fulfilled by both genders for the success of the marriage were essentially different (Heather 26). As the roles kept changing over time due to different circumstances, so did the expectations of marriage and along with that, the rise of feminist movement. Screwball comedies such as It... ...r to be pragmatic and cautious when drawing lessons from screwball comedies. Works Cited Gilmour, Heather. â€Å"Journal of Film and Video.† Different, except in a Different way: Marriage, Divorce, and Gender in the Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998. 26 – 39. Print. It Happened One Night. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable. Columbia Pictures. 1999. DVD. Shumway, David, R. â€Å"Cinema Journal.† Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1999. 7 – 23. Print. Willet, Cynthia. â€Å"Cultural Critique.† Baudrillard, â€Å"After Hours†, and the Postmodern Suppression of Socio-Sexual Conflict. Minnesota: University Of Minnesota Press, 1996. 143 – 161. Print. Woman of the Year. Dir. George Stevens. Perf. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn. MGM. 1997. DVD. Feminist Ideas the Screwball Comedy Film Genre Essay -- Feminism Essay The Screwball comedy is a film genre that found its way onto the screens in the early 1930s and lasted till the early 1940s. They were a consequence of the newly adapted censorship law in 1934 that restricted addressing adult content on screen. They therefore incorporated more comedic and creative ways of symbolizing topics such as sex and homosexuality. Screwball comedies were mainly based on plots that had conflict between social classes as their many premise and always had a happy ending which was almost always marriage. This consistent maintenance of the status quo of marriage is a major aspect of feminism depicted in screwball comedies (Heather 26). While advocating for marriage, screwball comedies highlighted the shift in the foundations of marriage and greatly highlighted the growth of feminism in light of a shift in roles and expectations surrounding this institution. Feminism is motivated by the need to establish equality between the genders since most feminists attribute women’s problems to inequality between the two genders. Therefore, by way of a collection of political movements and social theories, feminists seek to curb this inequality between men and women. It is important to note that the equality sought after by feminists is not just economic and political, but also social equality. According to Heather Gilmour, The institution of marriage during the pre-modern era or the Victorian era was based on inequality as the roles to be fulfilled by both genders for the success of the marriage were essentially different (Heather 26). As the roles kept changing over time due to different circumstances, so did the expectations of marriage and along with that, the rise of feminist movement. Screwball comedies such as It... ...r to be pragmatic and cautious when drawing lessons from screwball comedies. Works Cited Gilmour, Heather. â€Å"Journal of Film and Video.† Different, except in a Different way: Marriage, Divorce, and Gender in the Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998. 26 – 39. Print. It Happened One Night. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable. Columbia Pictures. 1999. DVD. Shumway, David, R. â€Å"Cinema Journal.† Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1999. 7 – 23. Print. Willet, Cynthia. â€Å"Cultural Critique.† Baudrillard, â€Å"After Hours†, and the Postmodern Suppression of Socio-Sexual Conflict. Minnesota: University Of Minnesota Press, 1996. 143 – 161. Print. Woman of the Year. Dir. George Stevens. Perf. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn. MGM. 1997. DVD.

Does “Assassin’s Creed” Influence a Teen’s Mind Essay

Imagine a world where everything that happened was secretly controlled by a large organization of people. Every day you are constantly recorded and monitored. Everything that you do is secretly planned out in advance, yet you think that everything you’re doing is by your own free will. Everyone including your family, your friends, and the government are all controlled by this organization, and you can’t even tell. While you blithely and involuntarily follow the path planned out for you, another organization is secretly and quietly trying to put a stop to the evil plans of the organization that wants to control your every move. This is the plotline of a very popular videogame known as Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed is a great game that has influenced and challenged people’s view on government and democracy. The game Assassin’s Creed influences people’s minds by making them think more outside the box, and by aiding there curiosity of conspiracy theories. Assassin’s Creed take places in 2012, following the life of Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several Assassins. Although Desmond was raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. While enjoying his freedom he is kidnapped by an evil company known as Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar who are aware of Desmond’s ancestry. Templars want to control everyone, and they believe in absolute order similar to totalitarianism. Desmond is forced to use a device known as an â€Å"Animus† which allows him to experience his assassin ancestral memories. Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, known as â€Å"Pieces of Eden,† in order to obtain great power and control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into a single unified group. Later Desmond escapes Abstergo due to the help of some modern-day Assassins who he later ends up working with. Desmond uses their version of the Animus (Animus 2.0) to continue to re-live the memories of his ancestors and discover the locations of the Pieces of Eden before Abstergo can do so. Desmond relives the events of his Assassin ancestors who live in worlds full of chaos, injustice, and indirect captivity. Doesn’t this seem similar to the way the world is today? Several countries have yet to establish a government system where people have a say in what they want the government to do for them. There are even more countries that have yet to abolish their governing laws on slavery. Our own government is hiding secrets from us (trying to protect us), yet causing more accidents and tragedies that could be avoided if only we had access to their classified information. Assassin’s Creed is a completely made up story, but it has a lot of interesting and intuitive facts to its plot. In fact, the majority of it seems plausible, and many others within my age group seem to think the sa me after playing this game. Along with the several games that my peers play that can relate to Assassin’s Creed, there are also several books that are similar. Assassin’s Creed got its inspiration from the novel Alamut written by a Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, which is what inspired most of the first game’s plot. Another story very similar to the plotline of Assassin’s Creed is The Traveler written by John Twelve Hawks. The book takes place in the future and lays out a world where the power lies not with people or governments, but in the hands of a secret organization who call themselves â€Å"the Brethren.† Their enemies refer to them as â€Å"the Tabula†. The Tabula are an ancient secret society who thinks that control and stability are an absolute necessity, similar to extreme Utilitarianism. The Tabula gets the majority of their influence from the ideas of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The Tabula wish to enforce a Virtual Panopticon which is a society where all i ndividuals become accustomed to being watched and monitored and they act at all times as if they are being observed; making them more afraid to do immoral things. The Tabula’s sole objective is to kill all Travelers. Travelers are people with the special ability to â€Å"cross-over†, which is often inherited from an ancestor. Crossing-over can be defined as your spirit leaving your body and going off to another realm, and then returning. Upon this return, most Travelers would have experienced a different perspective of our world. Many Travelers become religious prophets, or enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction. Harlequins are a warrior group sworn to defend the Travelers from the Tabula. The Harlequins are opposed to the Tabula, and the two sides spent centuries fighting over control and power which allowed the Tabula to gain control and almost completely exterminate the Travelers and Harlequins. Despite the nobility and self-sacrifice of their cause, the Harlequins are cold and cruel figures who dedicate their lives to fighting and killing without remorse or hesitation. Sound familiar? Due to its graphic, plausible, and suspenseful storyline, Assassins Creed has become a big hit to gamers, historians, and conspiracy theorist alike; causing them to have a current series of five games in all, selling millions of copies worldwide. The series has been a big success and has won a number of awards. All of the Assassin’s Creeds make an adolescent see the world they live in differently. I wouldn’t even have considered governmental control, Templars & Tabula, or Assassins & Harlequins as being realistic, but now I’m starting to have second thoughts (I also know of several friends in the same state as me). Reading books similar to The Traveler and playing videogames similar to Assassin’s Creed makes one think a little more outside the box and take into cons ideration other conspiracy theories and stories.

The Controversy Over The Drug War - 958 Words

In recent decades, there have been increasing trends of incarceration, specifically in relation to the use and possession of illegal drugs. In 2010, there were 1.6 million people arrested for drug related offenses, which is approximately 1 person every 19 seconds. The majority of the arrests, however, are for possession of small amounts and are minor offenses (Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, NAACP). The controversy over the drug war is the element of concentration in cities, consistently in underprivileged neighborhoods, resulting in the emphasis of disproportionate incarceration of minority groups, expressly African Americans. This group is influenced heavily by over-imprisonment, which affects their economic standing and place in society, causing inequality between them and whites. The war on drugs and the measures used by the government to control drug use contributes to racism and inequality problems, as well as to the stigma following African Americans in modern America. The combin ation of segregation, concentration, and unjust treatment by police has caused an imbalanced focus of the drug war towards African Americans. Due to a large number of businesses and factories moving to the suburbs taking those privileged enough to move with them, concentrations of poor, black communities appeared throughout inner cities without the presence of jobs and resources to nourish them (Wilson, 1996). These areas, which are vulnerable to decay and poverty, are more likely to experienceShow MoreRelatedLegalizing marijuana1092 Words   |  5 Pagesrecreational use, medicinal, and industrial products as well. In the 1960’s the government’s war on all drugs was created putting Marijuana in the same category as Cocaine, Heroin, and Morphine. Today Marijuana remains a schedule one drug to the federal government. With new medical studies and evidence emerging over the last decade about Cannabis, some states are beginning to rethink their stance on this issue. 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