Anne Marie’s blog

I looked up what Panopticism and found out that it is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham during the time of the bubonic plague. It is different because it takes a circular shape so everyone can be view at one time. This was a was of quarantine to watch over the infected and make sure they didn't affect anyone else. People's privacy was taken away they had little to no freedoms, someone even had to come lock their doors at night. This resulted in some people having to live with a dead loved one for days until the quarantine was complete. It amazes me that people took the quarantine and surveillance to such extremes. The surveillance in the piece is super intense, not only do the people who are infected have to be under constant surveillance so do the people who are healthy so they won't get infected. This constant surveillance reminds me of the book 1984, the "Party" keeps a constant watch on everyone making sure that no one forms opinions against the party. The party's head person is Big Brother, I know ironic right. It amazes me that the book is set in 1984 yet their technology is so advance they can watch people through their television sets.

When I read “Eden By Wire" the first movie that came to mind was I, Robot it is a movie about life in 2035 where every household owns a robot. There is a murder that takes place and Will Smiths character is called in to investigate. he doesn't trust this new technology and like from the reading something goes bad and all the new models of robots go bad and start trying to control the humans. Technology has become so advance that robots are even able to have their own thoughts. It is amazing how society could actually change that much in that few of years, when just a few years back no one even knew what the internet was.

In Bordo’s “Beauty Rediscovers the Male Body” she talks about how women have been socially accepted as sexy and something to be admired for sometime but just recently had it been ok for men to be models too. Calvin Klein was the first to lead the way by having men pose in feminine like ways, while displaying rock hard abs and sexy underwear. Before Calvin Klein men were not socially accepted as being sexy like women. Women are paraded around in magazines like playboy and in movies. Nine times out of ten you see nude women in movies as opposed to nude men. It was not always like this in ancient Greek times men’s bodies were exalted as can be seen by the statues that remain.  Hollywood and Playboy have change how we perceive woman and most of society has come to recognition with the fact that woman are beautiful and their bodies are something to look upon with awe. Women are in their natural state when they are naked but men seem more awkward when they are undressed. Now more and more we are seeing men posing in the nude or in their undergarments. Still women are not sexually aroused by these pictures. Eventually the tables will turn and men will be socially accepted.  

I noticed that the beginning of the reading talked about seeing before using words. I found this ironic because the passage is composed of words instead of visual stimuli. The author talked about love and how there is a special connection someone has with that special someone. This helped me to understand the seeing before words concept because when you see two people who are in love you know by how they act and appear that they are in love. This is not always the case when it is verbally stated. When someone says they are in love and you do not see it, it is hard to believe. The author talks about paintings and how truth is conveyed in paintings. I understand this to be true, because sometimes artist convey opinions through their art that they would never state out loud. In the past artist have painted women smaller than men in paintings to show that women were not as important as men. This just shows that the seeing of images can convey opinions sometimes better than words.

I wonder if the opinions we show through our images now, will still be conveyed that way in the future. The author of the passage talks about how images are seen over time, the opinion one once showed may mean something completely different. In older paintings of rich women they are pale because it means they did not work out in the sun all day. Today if we saw a painting a pale woman we would think she spends too much time in the office because all the rich heiresses have tans from lying out all day. I wonder if in the future the use of images will die out because the technological age will override the need for images. With texting and e-mails people are constantly communicating without ever actually meeting face to face. Even other languages are being translated easily using translation websites, soon there will be no communication barriers; so will images still be needed?

This is my first post. I'm a student creating this for my English 102 class. This is where I will answer short writing assignments and other class writings.

Google Maps is the place I go to get all my directions because I always get lost!

Me