Summary of 'Disney Princess Culture'

Princess culture still has its place in today's media and commodities, while it becomes less stereotypical. We still tend to think obedient characteristics is necessary for female characters subconsciously. The stereotypically gendered message creates a wrong preconceptions for growing children. For example, males are expected to be both physically and emotionally strong. Females are expected to be submissive and emotional. Initially, Disney princesses showed typical womanly characters, but over the time, these portrayals exhibit more manly behaviors.

                                                                                                          Yifan  [78 words]

Journal on 'Teams and Teamwork'

Link:http://www.derekstockley.com.au/newsletters-06/067-teamwork-importance.html

1. Typical definition of team and teamwork from people in a leadership training program is A group of people, contributing their individual knowledge and skills but working together to achieve a common goal/task.
2. most people agree that using teams and teamwork provides benefits to both individuals and organisations.
3. Modern technologies and new ways of doing business are changing the ways we use teams,  but the underlying principles and benefits remain.
4. Distance is no more a barrier. Virtual teams are more and more common thanks to internet.
5. They collaborate from different parts of the word through telephone calls, email, file sharing technology and other online meeting methods.
6. Team composition is critical for success. In fact, the definition has highlighted three important fundamentals.
7. Team members each contributes individual knowledge and skills.
8. Working with harmony and a positive attitude together is critical.
9. An understanding of the common goal of each member conduces to effective teamwork.
10. Teamwork as a concept has grown over the last 20 years. However, teamwork success is not automatic. Teams have to be established for the right reasons. Team member selection is very important, as is ensuring that the team purpose is clear and agreed upon.

Opinion:

I think teamwork really becomes vital in many aspects of our lives, especially for working. For example, our school's mathematics program requires students to make up teams to solve problems. However, while teamwork has its increasingly huge importance, personal abilities and achievements cannot be ignored. After all, the standard of a team is decided by the least capable member, just like volume of water a barrel can contain is decided by the length of the shortest wood block. We cannot only focus on how to foster team players because teamwork is not only relying on others but to do a better job through cooperation. For example, no matter how well primary school soccer team members can cooperate with each other, they can be easily defeated by untrained adults. Therefore I believe a personal abilities should not be underrated as they are premises of excellent teamwork.

Journal: Media stereotype

--Summary:

Alberti required for a day that her female schoolmates come to school without makeup. This is to build their self-confidence. Julia asked a magazine to promise not to beautify photos and to be honest about the process. Mass media portrays impossibly thin, barely dressed female with perfect features. This gives an impossible model for girls and continuously causes low self-esteem and anorexia. The Girl Scouts of America puts effort against mental problem caused by the model. They may better the image of girls of every ethnic. However, it takes time.

--Opinion:

The image of thin body figure is formed deeply in most girls’ mind. Mass media always chooses slim models to be presented to the public. Since people commonly  just blindly think that the models are beautiful, girls tend to admire them and thus lose a lot of weight at a younger age in order to fit the ‘traditional beauty’. For example, even Alberti still struggles against the images. When asked if she also thought of herself as pretty, she paused, then said, "I'm still working on that. It's a little harder to do it yourself." Therefore, the stereotypical way of media portraying female really affect girls and women’s opinion on what is beauty, and causes them to lose self-confidence.

--Synonyms:

1.scantily---barely

2.unattainable--unapproachable

3.celebrity---dignitary

4.traction---resistance

5.artful---skilful

http://www.northjersey.com/news/young-women-are-fighting-back-against-media-portrayals-of-b

Journal: Disney princess culture

--Summary:

Plentiful princess culture still exists in media and commodities. Princesses have become less banally ‘pink’. People are uneasy with powerful female roles without classic obedient manner. The gendered information needs female to appear beautiful and concentrate more on their appearance than intelligence. This can affect girls’ prospection and concepts of what different genders “normally” do. Men are muscular, confident and agile. Women tend to show obvious mood. Earlier films portrayed female stereotypically while later ones added muscular features.

(80 words)

--Opinion

The image of Disney princesses should not focus on the traditional stereotype of female as it may bring negative impact on girls. Some films like Cinderella tell girls that it is not how hard you work but how beautiful you are that lead to success. In this way girls tend to lose a lot of weight at a younger age and a higher amount diagnosed with an eating disorder in order to fit the traditional beauty of princess portrayed in Disney films. A study carried out by researchers from Brigham Young University, Texas Tech University and Linfield College in the US, funded by the Women's Research Initiative targeted at both parents and children found that ‘Princess culture’ in Disney films could lead to body esteem issues in young girls, as Disney Princesses tend to be slim, pretty, and often with an impossibly small waist. Thus, Disney princess should not be portrayed to be thin and beautiful which always comes into people’s mind when they think of beauty.

--Synonyms:

1.stereotype---banality

2.submissive---compliant

3.prone---tending

4.masculine---manlike

5.expectation---prospection

Why mind blanks happen during exams ( Kent)

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/why-mind-blanks-happen-during-exams

Summary:

There are three region in the brain. Firstly, it is the hypothalamus. This part of the brain had strong connections to the endocrine system which is is responsible for the type and amount of hormones flowing throughout the body. The second one is the hippocampus. It plays a significant role when we are learning and recalling things. It is like a memory door . The third one is the prefrontal cortex (PFC). All the things that suggest you , as a human being, are in control are largely meditated here. Example is the ability to hold and manipulate information in your mind.

When an exam is interpreted as a threat and a stress response is triggered, working memory is wiped clean, recall mechanisms are disrupted and emotionally laden hot cognition driven by the hypothalamus overrides the normally rational cold cognition driven by PFC. This cause mind blanks.

Opinion:

As the saying goes. "practice makes perfect". In my opinion, practising in situations or scenarios that is similar to the actual can enable one to perform better. An example can be seen from the armed forces. They often train the new recruits in stressful situations that simulate active combat scenarios . This is to ensure that the recruits are able to adapt quickly during a real war. The more a person experiences a particular situation, the less likely he or she is to perceive such a situation as threatening. Thus , we should practise under scenarios when preparing for examinations to refrain from experiencing mind blanks.                                                                                                                                                                                          

cognition:perception

unimpeded:unrestricted

cascade:pass (something) on to a succession of others.

cortisol:a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex and used medicinally to treat inflammation resulting from eczema and rheumatism.

laden:loaded

Twitter tackles the free speech conundrum

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/10/twitter-free-speech-rules-hostile-behaviour

Summary
Social medias such as Twitter are said to be promoting freedom of speech,but for many social medias,freedom of speech is not achieveable anymore.For instance in January 2016,a writer's posts on Twitter were removed for breaching Twitter's newly created guidelines for speech and conduct on the platform.

Opinion
I feel that although the aim of social medias is to give people the freedom of speech,it is something that is hard to achieve because there are powerful figures such as the Internet mob and the government.These figures are unforgiving and overreactive,constantly looking out for aggressive online comments,wether intentional or not.Thus with many people judging our actions and comments on social media,it is shed for freedom of speech to survive.

Vocab
recalibrating:adjust 
affiliation:connection
accommodating:considerate
accede:permit
ethnicity:nationality

Media stereotypes by Yuejun

xcxcxcxc https://sites.google.com/site/eltuitionsite/home
Link to article
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Disney princess by Rahik

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2016/09/27/german-regulator-orders-facebook-to-stop-collecting-whatsapp-user-data/#94ca687ba694

Disney Princes and Princesses still slaves to some stereotypes by Jennifer Welsh 2011 (Kent)

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7491234494875661974#editor/target=post;postID=2091539063187758413

Disney princes and princesses fabian

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7491234494875661974#editor/src=dashboard

Disney Princes and Princesses Still Slave to Some Stereotypes by Jovia

Opinion:
I feel that gender stereotypes is bad and should not be exposed to young children. Girls can have trait of a boy and is not viewed as being abnormal. Young children should not believe that girls should just be pretty. Girls can be physically strong, assertive and athletic while boys can be emotional as well.. Girls not only tend to their physical appearance but can have more traditionally masculine traits. Once young children are exposed to gender stereotypes, they will change their expectations of the 2 different gender. Therefore, gender stereotypes is bad and should not be exposed to young children.

Vocab:
shedding: dropping
exhibits: display
predominant: prevailing
assertive: confident
prone: inclined
overt: apparent

Germany Orders Facebook To Stop Collecting WhatsApp User Data (http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2016/09/27/german-regulator-orders-facebook-to-stop-collecting-whatsapp-user-data/#94ca687ba694) 

Summary: 
In 27 September 2016, 35 million Whatsapp users in Germany had their personal data used and kept by the company. Germany ordered the company to stop collecting data, and to wipe any information that’s already been transferred so as to protect the users’ data. 

Opinion: 
I feel that personal data of all electronic devices’ users must be protected. Our information ranging from messages to photos are personal. It should not be taken and collected without the approval of the users as those are private. I believe that such actions of stealing personal data should be restricted as it may lead to inappropriate use of data. In the passage, says Caspar, “Facebook’s answer, that this has merely not been done for the time being, is cause for concern that the gravity of the data protection breach will have much a more severe impact.” The collection of personal data will lead to many severe impacts once users find out. Hence, I believe that personal information should be protected from applications that intend to collect and misuse them without approval from the users.