Class 5/13/15

Today in class we finished the documentary "Sexy Baby".  The documentary continued to a scene where we saw Winifred doing a "photoshoot" with her friend Olivia.  When I saw this, I was astonished for a second time.  First of all, I was surprised that Wini's father allowed her to do a photoshoot.  Then, after the photoshoot, I saw the photos.  Wini and Olivia were both caked in makeup to the point that I couldn't even tell how old they were.  They were 14 years old however, they looked 16.  This was shocking because I wondered how the parents could allow their daughter to again, post such revealing pictures.  Later on in the documentary, we also learn that Wini quits gymnastics when she is older.  When I learned of this, it made me wonder; Did Wini quit gymnastics due to Facebook and social networking?  To see how cyberspace can actually be dangerous to new generations who dont have the judgement on whether or not to post a "revealing" photo.  During the last part of the documentary, we also discussed an important point about how people can essentially create "fake" images of themselves.  For example, in the beginning of the documentary Wini seemed very smart and studious.  However, after seeing a glimpse of her Facebook page, I know that if I had not seen how smart she was earlier, I would have judged her and assumed she was not as smart as she truly is.  Simply put, young children can now appear to be vastly different online than they are in real life.  As class ended, we started watching Oprah.  In the documentary, a racist part of West Virginia was filmed in 1987, bashing Michael, a gay man for jumping into a public pool.  Then, Oprah went back many years later and talked to the perpetrator who was saying the most vicious words towards Michael.  Overall, this class period was very interesting as I was able to learn how social media is affecting the younger generation and also later learn about how we are entering a new era of Homosexual Rights.