General Conference

I LOVE General Conference. Thank goodness for modern technology! More and more people have access to the words of living prophets every 6 months. It's fantastic. 

I paid special attention to what the prophets had to say about media. And there were lots of comments on it. Overall the message seemed to be, "Use it wisely." There were praises and cautions concerning the uses of the media, especially the internet and cell phones. Here's Elder Oaks' counsel:

The Deseret News published an article about how people are sharing the gospel on social media. The image above is one of the 60 images the article showcases. Here's the link if you want to pin/share any of them. I think it's really cool.

http://www.deseretnews.com/top/3157/0/60-inspiring-quotes-from-April-2015-LDS-general-conference-.html

However, I think the apostles expect us to share more than Pins on our Facebook or Instagram. I think it's important that we stand up and live the counsel they offered in conference. Not only that, but we need to be actively engaged in defending the family, promoting kindness, and securing religious freedom through civic activities and conversations. I hope that as I do so, I can do it with kindness and not be a hypocrite by tearing down others with differing opinions. Let's all #sharegoodness no matter what religion we are!

A Letter to the Disney CEO

For class, I wrote a letter about Disney princess body portrayals. I am passionate about this issue because I have struggled with body image at various points in my life. I am not blaming Disney for that, but I do think the media has played a HUGE role in making me feel like my body is not good enough. Here is the letter I wrote:

Dear Robert A. Iger,

            I would like to offer some feedback concerning portrayals of females in Disney films. I have been impressed by movies like as Brave and Frozen that feature girls who are not stereotyped as the damsel in distress with love-at-first-sight syndrome. Specifically in Brave, I appreciate that Merida is depicted with a realistic waistline and body type. She is also spunky and different, with great character development throughout the movie. The first time I watched Frozen, I was so excited about Disney princesses whose sole purpose was not to win the prince. The film was about love between sisters and I felt like I could really relate because I have a close bond with my sister. Thank you for stepping outside the box and introducing more complex and deep characters and plots. These are the kinds of movies that I really enjoy and that I want my future children to enjoy.

            While there are many other things I truly appreciate about Disney films, such as the prosocial behavior of characters, I would like to bring some criticisms to your attention. I am currently enrolled in a university class that explores the effects of media on human development and I have analyzed some components of your Disney princess movies and advertising through that lens. Growing up, I idolized Disney princesses and wanted to be just like Ariel or Belle. However, as I have come to view the princesses more critically, I am disappointed. Most Disney princesses have extremely unrealistic and impossible body proportions that can really skew girls’ perceptions of body image and expectations. What is stopping Disney from widening waistlines to a normal proportion? I would like these “role models,” that are so influential for young girls, to be normal body sizes and types! Even in movies such as the new Cinderella, the use of a corset to create a ridiculous, though not fake, “ideal” or standard, in my opinion, undermines the good message of the movie. I think it is more detrimental to see a real person achieving that sort of proportion than it is to see a cartoon depiction. I am afraid women will feel inadequate because their normal waists cannot look like Lily James’ corset-tightened waist on an empty stomach. The diversity of ethnicities, social economic statuses, and roles of females have all been great improvements, but the body types of these princess protagonists continue to be disproportionate, misrepresentative and irresponsible portrayals of “normal” bodies. I would like to see that change made in future films.

            Additionally, I am frustrated that the advertising and merchandise of more realistic characters are changed and sexualized. Taking Merida as an example again, her body type in the movie is more normal, but her picture on certain products or merchandise is grossly skewed to the typical Disney princess unfeasible waistline. She is also made to look like an adult, with make-up and a more revealing dress. I think this is sending the wrong message to young children and teens. I think you are doing a better job with producing some more realistic, relatable characters, but the body type depictions must be improved as well. Children look up to and idolize these characters and giving impossible standards may possibly lead to negative outcomes and unhealthy self-images for children starting at a young age. Please consider making changes in your future productions.

        

    

In conclusion, I believe you are producing great films and improving by creating more complex female protagonists, but there is a real need to examine the messages you are sending by creating impossible, unrealistic body types for these characters. Thank you for making family-friendly films with good values and I hope you will continue to do so while making improvements to benefit the young viewers you target.

Sincerely,

Chelsea Borup

Like what is this?! Disney Princess 10 year Reunion???

What's so hard about these minor changes?

The Office

When I haven't felt super good lately, I've looked up funny videos. It's a win-win-lose because it's something to do when I need to rest, it makes me laugh, but then I'm sort of wasting time. But no matter! I wanted to share some funny Office ones because they are my favorites lately.

Let Me Google That

I wish I could travel back in time to when my parents were my age so I could see how they did things differently. I use google for EVERYTHING. 

I call my mom every time a quick google search fails. My iphone maps app gets me most places. I can compare stores and prices with the touch of a button. What was it like when cell phones weren't a thing?? It sounds kind of nice, but I am grateful for all the good the internet does.

Real Life Example:

I needed a quick alteration on a dress that was my great grandmother's. Needless to say, I didn't want just anyone working on it and messing it up. I jumped on the WWW and looked up nearby tailors and alteration store reviews. Most had normal, mixed reviews, but one place had exceptionally good reviews. I read some of them and they all talked about how they took a vintage or meaningful piece of clothing and she did a great job. So that was that. I took it to her. I guess I will see on Saturday if trusting the reviews proved a good choice or not. But isn't it cool that I didn't have to drive around looking for alteration stores or ask everyone I know if they know of someone who does a good job?!

Elder Perry: Laying Down the Law

I'm getting so excited for General Conference next weekend! It's so amazing that we can hear living prophets' counsel and cautions, wisdom and promises. In preparation, and just in general, I love watching Mormon Messages. Today I watched the newest one about the Ten Commandments. Elder Perry talks about how our world still values some of the commandments but many are ignored and seen as less important. I thought they were things that really went along with our media discussions. For example, no graven images seems to be perpetuated by media portrayals and focus on celebrities and icons putting them on pedestals and seeking to be like them, instead of striving to be more like our Savior. I love Elder Perry's promise that we will find true happiness as we are obedient.

Running Songs

Yesterday I went on a run and had my ipod on, enjoying the weather. I had a good run on Monday, but yesterday was a struggle. I was lucky I brought my ipod because my only motivation was good music. I had Pandora on some of the time and I didn't want to waste a good song on walking, so I would tell myself I'd keep running for that song then walk a block. It totally worked. The ratio of run to walk would have been much lower if I had decided to run without music. So it was a total blessing yesterday, despite my goal to use my runs more as a time to think without distractions! Yay for technology!

Save the Bros

The fact that this is a real product made this video so much funnier. Props to the creativity of this company. Although it swears once (bleeped), I think it's funny that they can use satire to sell a product. Funny funny stuff.

Nie Nie

I went to a stake fireside on Sunday and Stephanie Nielson was the speaker, with her husband, Christian. She is one of the most inspirational people to me. She has turned her trauma into something that blesses other people. I have some chronic health issues and hearing her story has reminded me what's really important. Her perspective on what it means to be beautiful and how to appreciate the little things has helped me so much. Listening to her speak in person was SO amazing, but I first heard her story through the Mormon Message and then reading her book. Her blog is also awesome. It's so cool how social media can make our lives better through sharing stories and experiences!

http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Youtube home videos

So as we were talking about people posting home videos on youtube, I caught myself thinking, "Why do people do that?" I think one of the main reasons is entertainment value. I have posted one video, and one video only, that's probably considered a home video, in the sense that it was impromptu and filmed at home.

I lived at home last semester and I learned something about my dad. I already knew he is a complete goof, but he has some of the best (funny) dance moves. It kills me. He is the best. My sister came home and I told her to put on some music and see if he would start dancing. He has this thing with "the young people's music" haha. So in this video he has no idea what the song but tries to be cool. I apologize for the hilarious "gangster" attempts. Maybe you won't think it's as funny, but here it is.

Dove

I loved our discussion about gender and the media the other day in class. I am continually shocked by how skewed the media is on body image and stereotypes of both men and women. I've been looking for it more and watching commercials yesterday for a show made me so frustrated! One campaign that I love is Dove. I'm sure most people have seen it, but when it came out it had a huge impact and got a lot of attention. Step one is for us to be AWARE of the ways the media twist and manipulate images and portrayals of people!

Just as a bonus, I love pretty much all of their videos. They are so real and so inspiring. I'm a cryer so I confess I sometimes get teary-eyed when I watch them. Let's all be more loving and accepting of ourselves!

Ellen is a Champ

I love Ellen. She is one of the nicest, giving people on tv. I love all of her service acts. There is so much trash on talk shows so it's refreshing to have this kind of content. This is one that I just saw recently. It's my love for Ellen + Extreme Home Makeover. Good stuff.

She is just great. These things make me want to be more giving and service-minded. I love what she says at the end of every show:

"Be kind to one another."

You rock, Ellen!

The Dress

SOO the media is funny because even though everyone can be talking about something, you can still be totally oblivious. I just found out about this whole blue/black/gold/ivory dress thing. I realize now that I've been scrolling on Facebook and seeing posts, but I thought it was just some random post. BUT apparently it blew up social media the other day. If the apocalypse is coming, I'm sure I won't get to a safe house in time. Tell my family I love them.

The other funny thing is all the backlash. Here's one of lots of FB posts I saw when I followed a # link.

Going Smart

Today I was thinking about smart phones and how beneficial they are. I had to call my pharmacy and get a medication transferred over, but there was some difficulties about which number to fax it to. Luckily, I was able to get look it up on the internet while walking to class and get it all figured out. I think that's such a miracle. I am so grateful that it didn't add days worth of time to get things figured out because of having to call back and forth and wait for people to look things up and get connected. There is so much potential for good with smart phones. Sometimes I hate my phone because I get distracted by games or wasting time on Instagram or Facebook, but the truth is, smart phones are a miracle! I think the good it is in my life is much greater than the bad it brings.

I love this quote by Randall L. Ridd:

“The divine purpose of technology is to hasten the work of salvation. … The Lord expects you to use these great tools to take His work to the next level, to share the gospel in ways that are beyond my generation’s wildest imagination.

 “Where generations past influenced their neighbors and their town, you have the power through the Internet and social media to reach beyond borders and influence the whole world.”

It's a Party

During the video game lecture today, I was thinking about the few times I've played video games. Most of the time, it's been with my siblings. One of my favorite traditions growing up was playing video games until 2am on Christmas Eve with them. It was a fun way to bond and spend time together. I still enjoy playing video games every once and awhile with my family. I wouldn't normally play them by myself or for long periods of time, but as a way to connect with people, it's a fun time. I got really nostalgic watching people play Mario Party games in class. It made me want to call my brother! In that way, I think video games are a neat tool for good.

Nose Stuck In a Book

I loved our lecture on literature and books. I LOVE reading. My parents taught me to love books and enjoy reading. Many of our family vacations consisted of all of us sitting on the beach reading books for hours. From the outside, we probably looked boring, but it is just something we all love doing. It's not uncommon for us to end up in the living room reading our own books when we are all home. Books have such a power to transport and teach.

I was feeling lousy last weekend so I stayed in bed most of Saturday, but I stopped by the Provo library to get a book, luckily. I spent the whole day reading and it made me realize how much I've missed reading for fun! I just went back to get a new book and I had the hardest time picking one out. Dr. Coyne talked about having a rating system for parents to know the content of the books their children read, but I need one too! I kept getting excited about a book, only to start reading a little in the middle and find lots of swearing or just bad content. It's unfortunate, because I just got a book I've read a couple of times before instead of getting a new one. Anyways, I think I would appreciate a rating system or at least some content review because I love books and wish I felt better just picking one off the shelf without a suggestion from a friend!

I Can Smell the Love

With V-Day coming up, this is sometimes how I feel. But for the most part, I think Valentine's is a fun, cute holiday. It's not my favorite, but all us singles can still have some fun!

Here's a newspaper article that's full of fun movie ideas for all you single ladies out there. I thought it was a fun, thoughtful idea! Thanks DU:

http://universe.byu.edu/2015/02/13/all-the-single-ladies-7-best-galentines-day-movies/

Exodus

As mentioned in the last post, I went to see a movie recently at the dollar theater. It was Exodus, the movie with Christian Bale about Moses. Confession - I absolutely love Christian Bale, a lot. SO I might be biased when I say I really liked this movie. The people I saw the movie with didn't really like it. I can see where they are coming from because there were some things I really didn't like. But here's what I did like:

1. It gets people interested in the Bible story and one of the greatest prophets, Moses.

2. It showed Moses' development of faith and coming to God in a really interesting way. You'd expect the parting of the Red Sea to be the climax, but I liked how Moses' first true, humble act of faith, with complete reliance on God, led to the Sea being parted. It was just a neat take on how Moses might have become the faithful prophet we know him to be. Maybe it wasn't completely scriptural, but I liked the director's telling.

3. It had a LOT more scriptural accuracy than I thought it was going to have.

4. There was a real "humanness" to the story. I felt very connected to the characters and the portrayal seemed to show how any one of us might have reacted. And despite not liking all the violence, I think that's really how it would have been in that time. It wasn't a time of peace.

5. I LOVE that, even though there were things I didn't necessarily agree with about the interpretation, overall the movie was a good message and made the audience think about God, and maybe how they view Him. I know I did.

Make it Happy

Last night, I rushed my friends to the dollar theater because I was worried we wouldn't get in to see our movie because Friday nights sell out fast. Well, we bought our tickets and went to the correct theater and... there were like two people there. So my friends were annoyed to say the least. My bad. Anyways, while we were waiting for the movie to start this Coca-Cola ad came on and it made me smile. It's so nice to see positive, uplifting messages in commercials! It made me want to buy a Coke just because it was such a good commercial. Well done, Coke guys!

Red Light, Green Light

I like a good pie chart as much as the next person. But what's up with all the systematic charts about dating?

My roommates were looking through BYU's dating magazine, TWO, this week. It's been sitting on our table all week so I thought I'd look at it in case there was something funny I could blog about. I saw this chart as I flipped through the pages.

Now, in general, I don't take much of what's in these kind of magazines seriously. But these sort of things really bother me. There seem to always be these types of charts as if there was a rule book or manual for dating. I think we'd all LOVE a map to navigate dating and "the game," but if it was this easy or simple, we wouldn't need one! Maybe there's a lot of truth to it, but I think it gives people skewed views of what every situation should mean or not mean. Yes, one guy might follow this to a tee, but I think there are lots of cases where these "signals" only apply to a certain type of person. It does a real disservice to a lot of people, guys and girls, to generalize. 

I know it's just a fun, little magazine, but I think we should do away with this sort of thing. Or maybe I just don't like this chart because I never liked the game "Red Light, Green Light" growing up...

Gilmore Girls is Ruining My Life

With all the hype about Gilmore Girls in class on the first day, I decided to find out why everyone loves it so much. It only took me three episodes to get hooked. I laugh, I cry, and I feel like I'm getting vicarious diabetes from all the junk food they eat. I should do a study about how my eating habits change while I watch it. It always makes me hungry. Anyways, it is a really entertaining show that is witty and real. I love the characters and how the pace of the show matches its small town setting. I also enjoy the relationships between the characters and how they develop.

One of my favorite things about the show is seeing different parent-child relationships. Lorelai and Rory have a very unique relationship, very different from Lorelai and her mother. They are often more like friends than mother and daughter, which is understandable given their relatively small age difference. After watching the first season (and almost the second), there are a few good things and a few bad things that the show portrays through their relationship.

Good things:
1. Mutual trust makes for a much healthier relationship between a parent and child.
2. Both mother and daughter support and encourage each other. When something goes right or wrong for one or the other, they smile or cry with the other (Mosiah 18: 8-9 - solid Christlike principle!)
3. They spend a lot of quality time together which, from a human development perspective, is extremely important for adolescents.

Something I don't like as much, is a common issue in most relationships to some extent. Lorelai models a lot of immature and unhealthy behaviors and attitudes for Rory. While that is inevitable, I get bugged by it sometimes. That being said, I think there are more good things going on than bad. Sure, I don't agree with some of the things Lorelai does, but I think she is a really good mom and does a good job parenting.

From a critical media standpoint, I think it's a relatively good influence on its audience. But it's addicting and eats my free (and not so free) time, so it's sort of ruining my life. But at least I'm getting a good laugh!