Urban Legends Essay

Urban Legends

Have you ever received an email from someone, telling you about a crazy rumor going around? This crazy rumor could be an urban legend. An urban legend is a story that is passed down from one person to another. Most of the time, urban legends are told as being true but in usually, they’re false but may contain a small factor of truth. They usually originate from the mouth and mind of an everyday person. While there are many different urban legends, this essay will talk about a deadly wedding dress, the Blair Witch Hunt, and a woman with a baby octopus in her stomach.

A young girl had a dance to attend at her school and she decided to go to a local department store and buy a simple but nice dress. During the dance, she and her date smelled a strong odor and she frequently felt faint. She went to the bathroom to check herself but there were no visible problems so she returned to the dance. Walking out of the bathroom, she fainted and later that night died. A doctor performed an autopsy and the doctor found that formaldehyde had seeped through her pores. As told, the dress had been worn by a corpse at a funeral and sold back to the department store. While dancing, the formaldehyde from the corpse soaked through her pores and stopped her blood flow. As determined by snopes.com, this legend is false.

The Blair Witch Hunt is a movie based on three students who disappear in the forest while shooting footage for a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch. Three young students went to the town of Burkittsville to film locals about the Blair Witch legend and they discover the video of gruesome deaths of several other students who disappeared a year ago. As the legend goes, the Blair Witch killed the three students just as she did to the several people she’s killed in the past. According to snopes.com, the legend was created by three young actors with wide imaginations and a liking for history, making this legend false.

A young girl living in California began to have morning sickness, stomach swelling and other signs of being pregnant. She told her parents that there was no way she could be pregnant because she had not had sex with any boy in her whole life. Her mother finally took her to the doctor and he discovered a large tumor in her stomach. While surgery was being performed, a small live octopus was removed from her stomach. As told, octopus eggs are very small and sometimes float throughout ocean water. This young lady happened to swallow one of the eggs and it attached itself to the lining in her stomach. Even though this legend seems possible, snopes.com has determined it to be false.

Stories about deadly wedding dresses, the Blair Witch Hunt, and a woman with a baby octopus in her stomach frequently surface onto the internet throughout the entire world. We don’t know why people make up these false legends. Maybe it’s the thrill of tricking someone or they just enjoy the fame of knowing that something they created is worldwide. All we do know is that you shouldn’t always believe what you hear or read, it may be nothing but an urban legend.

Blog #7 Pictures That Lie

Picture 1: Picture number 9 is a picture of a sea of soldiers behind a child holding an american flag. This picture stands out to me because the description says that more soldiers were added to be placed over Geroge Bush and take him out of the picture. It makes me wonder why someone would want to have him out of the picture. I think it might be because people blame him for the war in Iraq and sending the soldiers there, so why should he be in a picture with them? When I first saw the picture I didn't see anything weird about it but now that I take a closer look I can see that some of the soldiers appear more than once throughout the crowd.

Picture 2: Picture number 12 is a picture of Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey. In this photo, Bobbi is seen smiling and from what you can see of her teeth, they are straight. In the original photo, her teeth weren't straight so the picture was edited to make her teeth straighter and make her look "more attractive." This stands out to me because I think it's rude that the editor did that. I personally would be offended if someone changed a picture that I had taken to make me look "more attractive."

Picture 3: Picture number 13 is a picture of O.J. Simpson on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine. It is a picture from the mugshot taken after he was arrested for murder. I didn't know the public was allowed to use pictures from the government systems like that. This picture stands out to me because on the left it shows the original picture and on the right it shows a much darker picture. The picture was edited on purpose to make him look darker and more threatening. Even though I don't feel sympathy for him because he was a murderer, I think it's sort of wrong how the editor did this to his picture for those reasons. Would they have done the same thing to a white man?

Picture 4: Picture number 16 shows a new invention that allows a man to fly using his own lung power. The Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung put this picture in their april fools edition. This picture stands out to me because of the idea that the media can get away with telling the public anything. Some people might have actually went out and tried to do this. It also stands out to me because it's old looking and for some reason that just caught my attention along with the fact that the man appears to be flying on a weird object.

Picture 5: Picture number 17 is a photograph of a farmer with a large grass hopper looking bug on the back of his car. This picture stands out to me mostly because I hate bugs. If I saw this bug walking around somewhere I would faint. This to me is an example of the media making people afraid to become the victim. Some people might actually believe that there is a giant bug somewhere in the world and this could effect their life majorly because I know it would effect mine and make me not want to go outside.

Blog #6 Violence in the Media

Example 1: Video games effect the daily life of children. In these video games children get awarded for killing people in the games. Awards can range from getting put into the next level, earning money or even gaining another life. By getting these awards in video games, children may grow up to think that they will also get these rewards in real life by going around killing people, (Imitation of Media Violence).

Example 2: Movies effect the daily life of the people who watch them. Even though movies are rated R or PG13, children still see these movies. Grown ups too can see these movies and get their own ideas in their head. When they get these ideas in their head they act them out just as that person in the movie did, (Imitation of Media Violence).

Example 3: TV news reports effect the daily life of anyone who watches them. They effect people by making them afraid of violence. People may hear of someone getting killed in or around their neighborhood and be afraid that they too will go through the same thing that person went through, (Afraid of becoming a victim).

Hip Hop #1

"Rap music as a whole is disrespectful toward women."

I agree with this statement because a main subject in many rap songs is women. In rap songs women are either disrespected or respected. We can be respected in many ways, but disrespected in many more ways also. In some rap songs, rappers sing about beating women, prostitution, hooking up, or even use foul words to describe them. Music has changed majorly over time and rappers now rap about their lives and their point of view on life. Even though women don't like this form of disrespect, we don't really defend ourselves. Women want attention and will do anything they need to do to get that attention, for example, the way women dress. Women are made to believe that to get a mans attention they need to wear the least amount of clothes possible, so that's what they do. I think women need to be more focused and determined to stop the disrespect given about women, and stand up for themselves.

"Generally speaking, black people do not believe that misogyny and sexism and violence against women are urgent issues ... we still think that racism, police brutality, black male incarceration are the issues that we should be concerned about." -Dr.Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Spelman college

Movies - Toughguys

I wasn't here to see the movie played on Tuesday but I did see the one on Wednesday so I can't really compare the two movies, but i can tell what I've learned from the movie that i did see. From the movie "Tough guys" I learned a man's point of view on what being a man really means. To them, being a man means being in control and having full power. There were many cases of men who beat their wives and even men who rapped little boys and girls. The majority of rapists' in prison were men. To some men, murder isn't something bad. It makes them feel like they're respected by others and have power. Men think that being a man means that you're strong, have a built body and big muscles, take control of situations, never cry, and basically never show any sign of weakness; only strength. Over the years, the media has changed many aspects of what a "tough guy" looks like. For example, star wars action figures and the G.I. Joe dolls have majorly changed. Star wars action figures are more detailed and G.I. Joe dolls are also more developed with bigger muscles and stronger looking bodies. Also in many movies the size of the weapons used have increased. Before, they were small and not that intimidating but now-a-days big guns like machine guns are being used in movies like Rambo. I think that if men keep thinking that being a man means being violent and not showing any signs of weakness, that the percent of woman being abused or sexually assaulted will raise. Men aren't the only people in jail who have assaulted someone or killed someone but the majority of them are. The media is a major thing that adds to these men's perspective of what a man should be by putting big muscled guys in movies. It makes men want to be like that and think they have to be like that so that they're considered to be a man. I think men should be showed by the media a different definition of what a man really is. The picture that fills the minds of many men today, won't be successful or have a good outcome in the end.

Super Bowl

During this week i have learned super bowl commercials are the most "famous" commercials throughout the entire year. Many people watch the super bowl only to see the commercials. This year, 30 seconds of a super bowl commercial costs $300,000,000. The majority of commercials during the super bowl were for beer products probably because most of the people watching the super bowl were men over the age of 21. This year, many companies that have usually posted their commercials in the super bowl haven't advertised one because of the low economy. Denny advertisted their company for the first time. Annheiseur Bush is usually a major advertiser and had three or four advertisements during this super bowl. There were quiet a few movie advertisements this year. These commercials had many sounds and characteristics that grabbed your attention and made you laugh; which then made you go out and buy or see their products.

Key Concept

The key concept that I understand the most is Concept number five which says, "Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power." This concept says tells how most commercials are made only for the profit the maker gains from it and that they aren't always made to help you like they say they are. For example, proactive says that proactive can clear up any acne you have in just a few weeks and they even use a famous person to come in and help convince you to buy their product. Why would these people want to help you clear up your acne? What's in it for them? The answer to that question is the money. The only thing that these people gain from people buying this product is the money that the consumers give them. By bringing these famous people into the commercial it may make you want to be just like them and look exactly how they look. On the proactive commercial, Jessica Simpson is the main person to advertise the product and seeing her makes teenagers with not perfect skin want to buy the product to have skin just like her. Basically, companies make commercials to advertise their product and they made that product to make money, just like everyone else in the world.