Lesbians on TV: Illusion of Progress When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal. In the 1990's there has been what is called a "normalized movement"(Warner 41). This so-called movement has permeated into all aspects of the Gay and Lesbian movement's agenda. It has become increasingly clear in the realms of the media such as television, movies and magazines. The major objective for the proponents of this movement is to make the homosexual seem "normal." This would be done by not focusing on the sexual nature of the homosexual. Since their sexual behavior is considered deviant by society, any outward expression of it will be looked down upon. So, it has been the goal of some leaders of the movement as well as those who control the media outlets to separate the identity and sexuality of the homosexual as far as possible.
It was back in the summer of 2004 when all was calm. The trees filled w/ dry green leaves, the grass barely green as patches of yellowness overcame its dried burned look, dandelions arose in monstrous amounts as the white cotton-like blooms of a dandelion flutter in the midst of an arid breeze, and visions of heat waves could clearly be noticed along a paved street on a clear afternoon. Yep, this truly was mid summer. But I do prefer summer over winter any day of the year. Around the hottest time of the year, a.k.a. middle of July, my church travels on a mission trip over to the Appalachia Mountains to help people in poverty rebuild their homes. I, among 14 other youths and leaders enjoy this yearly mission trip. Only to leave one week after my birthday the ASP (Appalachia Service Project) crew fled the town of Glen Ellyn and headed east towards the mountainous Appalachia Mountains. The mission had not only been to help people in distress but to also give an insight on personal faith, life, love, friendship, and a better understanding on why we are really here and why we have chosen to come here, as certain personality traits that we possess are revealed throughout the trip. I do remember last year's trip very clearly, and we've had just a few major dilemmas, but this year just clearly out does last year in every way, shape and form.
...sion of more city-like features like highways and billboards that are not needed. Although he constantly fought for the preservation of nature, he treated people who disagreed with him with “respect and courtesy” (Turnage). He was a man that fought for what he believed in and made a huge difference in the photography field by playing a role in establishing the first photography department in a museum, more specifically the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Turnage). Ansel Adams has changed the vision of landscape photography and will always be known and admired for the work he did.
It is said that, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Ansel Adams proved this statement correct with every single image he produced. Some of his best-known photographs were taken in the Yosemite Valley, including his first ever picture of Monolith; the Face of Half Dome nestled in the heart of the valley. When the thought of Yosemite comes to mind, Ansel Adams' name follows right behind it. Adams' life revolved around Yosemite in many ways, and he was often called "Ansel Yosemite Adams" (Fischer 8). He was a caring man and cared deeply about the Sierra Nevada, and seemed to have a psychic connection with Yosemite (Spaulding 615). Ansel Adams once recalled his first visit to Yosemite:
(Biography.com Editors) In addition to being seen in many galleries, as he grew older he decided to become an educator. Adams was one never to sit idle, and was always productive. He spent his time creating different books, lecturing, and enjoying the beauty that America had to offer. He spent much of his time in the 70’s trying to meet public demand, working with the negatives he had to create prints because they were so widely desired. Ansel Adams now has land named after him in Yosemite called the Ansel Adams Wilderness. In addition to that, a peak in High Sierra was declared Mount Ansel Adams. In 1980, he received another honor from the president of the United States by being awarded the highest civilian honor called the Presidential Medal of
A little info: Archimedes was a Greek Mathematician who was born in 287 BC and died in 212 BC. He was born in Syracuse, Sicily; during this time, the city was an independent Greek city-state which held a 500-year history. At the Siege of Syracuse Romans at the siege were specifically ordered not to harm Archimedes but he later was pronounced dead by being stabbed by a Roman soldier. His father (Phidias) was an astronomer and is believed to be related to the King of Syracuse. This information was found in his work “The Sand Reckoner.” Archimedes was labeled as one of the top scientists in classical antiquity. In those times, when blackboards and paper were not yet around, Archimedes constructed ashes, dust or all any available surface to help sketch his geometric figures. It’s been told that he used to get so intrigued with all of the work he did that sometimes he forgot to eat, skipped a meal or two just to finish on the project. He was considered the greatest mathematician in antiquity and possibly the greatest of all time.
Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California and his very early interests were more in music and other things than in photography. He hoped to one day become a professional of some sort in this venue. Adams, known for his great pictures of the western side of the United States, first took pictures in Yosemite National Park in 1916. This experience was so touching to Adams, he took it as a life long view of inspiration. Every summer he returned to Yosemite National Park to take more pictures. He also developed an interest in the conservative movement going on in the United States at the time. By 1920, he had become part of the Sierra Club, a group that wanted to preserve the western beauties. In 1927, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras was published. This was Adams' first portfolio.
In about 535 BC Pythagoras traveled to Egypt, a few years before Polycrates took over his home town of Samos. While in Egypt Pythagoras visited many temples and entered into the priesthood at Diopolis. Pythagoras would use the customs that he learned at Diopolis in the founding of his philosophical society. Till the day he died he would practice the secrecy of Egyptian priests and strive for purity.
Archimedes, a name commonly associated with the beginning of science, was an engineer and one of the greatest mathematicians in history. His impact on modern science rests on his use of experiment and invention to test ideas and his use mathematics to describe the basic principles of physical phenomena.
An example the author gives is movie Dodgeball which is a relatively older movie and at that time, the bisexual community was not as open as much to speaking their mind and demanding respect, so the fact that a comedy like this may show some sort of disrespect toward the bisexual is no surprise. The surprise is, is that the author would use such an outdated example and one that is not completely relevant. The reality is, even the LGBT characters are getting more and more roles in television today and not always as a fancy cliché for example the show Modern Family, the gay couple on the show are not portrayed as a very flamboyant couple they are portrayed as a normal couple. The author blames the world of television too much and maybe one degree to high, saying the writers and producers lack creativity. Today people are still fighting for a change in a lot of areas, areas like gender equality, and sexual orientation rights a lot of this new respect is coming for the LGBT community, who did not have respect before. The world around us is constantly changing and the television networks are now at this time in a learning
The 1990s saw a surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek
Archimedes inventions show just how much of a genius he really was but some of what he did has been extremely exaggerated, "Of the many exaggerated tales of his skill one mentions a giant mirror that he used to set enemy ships on fire. Another tells of how he made a crane to pull ships out of the water and these were just a few of many inventions" ("Archimedes and the Simple Machines That Moved the World”). because the stories of his skills have been exaggerated that means that they were passed from mouth to mouth which shows that many people talked about him. One of the famous inventions of Archimedes was the screw pump Some historians will argue that Archimedes didn’t invent the screw pump, but rather saw an example of it in Egypt. That is irrelevant because he was the one who developed a practical
Many were amazed at the fact that Hipparchus had calculated the distance from Earth to the heavenly bodies that is known to us today such as the sun and moon. We would describe him as mysterious because there weren’t many records of his early life or about his life in general. However, even with all his achievements within astronomy and the mathematics within the group there was some confusion on how he can correlate his math which is trigonometry into calculating the distances between each heavenly body with such accuracy. A tremendous amount of his discoveries is important to our daily lives today. Such as the use of trigonometry within our math and when the equinoxes where to show that the times for day and night are the
Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Italy during 287 BC, and he died 212 BC. Archimedes is one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time, along with Gauss and Newton. He was known by many as “the great geometer.” Archimedes got his attention of mathematics from his father, Phidias, who was an astronomer. He was so concerned in solving problems, that it became his hobby. Because he was care a lot about mathematics, this led him to be a student in Euclid's school, to expand his mathematical knowledge.
Pythagoras also did many studies with triangles and developing or editing shapes. His most famous discovery was the Pythagorean theorem (listed above). This theorem combined the sides of a right triangle, and this led to the development of irrational numbers by Pythagoras later on. Pythagoras discovered that the square root of 2 was an irrational number.
Media portrayal of the LGBT community is varying. It may be very positive and a “good” portrayal or negative and instead focuses on the stereotypical aspects of the LGBT community. One definition of a good LGBT television portrayal is one that depicts an LGBT character without over glaringly obviousness of their sexual orientation, or without adding many LGBT stereotypes that are all too often added.