Author: victorianruin303

With the Gender and media study assignment approaching I decided to create an assignment similar to that by analyzing the movies we have all watched and loved as a child; Disney movies. As children we may not have reached that deeply into the Disney films but looking back on them now the male and female roles becomes apparent. For this project I went through and watched a couple of Disney movies that, looking back on, I could remember witnessing distinct gender roles. The first movie I watched was Mulan. In case you’re not familiar with the story, it was about a girl in China who was expected to bring honor to her family by following the traditional Chinese traditions of becoming a bride. However, her vibrant spirit and independence hindered her from following traditional ideals. One day her fathered was served to go to war even though he was still injured from the last war and he didn’t have a son to take his place so she dressed as a man

and went to fight the war for her father and become a renowned hero and earns honor for her family. Throughout the movie there were quotes and scenes that demonstrated the role women were expected to play. When Mulan pleas to the emperor’s adviser to keep her father out of war, he interrupts her and says “Silence! You should teach your daughter to hold her tongue in a man’s presence!” Quotes and scenes such as these are just one of the many examples of how women were considered inferior to men. Mulan is one of the movies that was had more emphasis on independence and  a woman’s ability to think for herself, due to the fact that she was forced to decide between her desire for independence and her expectation to bring her family honor. (Until the sequel came out where she gets married and settles down).

This relates to the texts we have been analyzing during the Victorian era demonstrating a man’s superior role in family life and society as a whole. Other examples of Disney suggesting gender roles in society would be a majority of the Disney princess movies that has been marketed to girls for years. Each of the Disney princesses emphasizes the importance of marriage and a domesticated lifestyle. By watching each of these movies you rarely see the female roles deciding to break off and start a career or follow an independent lifestyle that doesn’t involve a man. Instead they follow societies gender stereotypes by endorsing the idea of marriage and family life. Just as we have seen in works such as the “Girl of the Period” women were inferior to men and were expected to be a proper housewife and mother and follow societal expectations that is typically derived form a religious component. Another example would be The Little Mermaid, where she dreams of having feet so that she can go on land and find the man of her dreams which demonstrates the romanticized idea that pursuing a man and a domesticated life is the popular ideal to follow.

-Michelle Davis

The first two photos show Victorian/ Gothic architecture which is so much different than today’s contemporary architecture.  Gothic architecture was modeled after mid evil castles and was developed in the 1700′s. In the 1800′s the style had became very popular for churches and many English houses that wanted to reflect the look of a castle. During her reign, Queen Victoria favored the Gothic style very much. Architecture, much like anything else, has throughout centuries fallen victim to ruin. Ruin is defined as destruction and ware on an object or place over time. In the pictures of the Gothic cathedral, I wanted to capture this concept. In the zoomed in photo, it is easy to see the roughness in the photo and how over time, it has been weathered from natural elements. The color of the stone has faded and is years past its prime.

When examining these pictures further and noticing the roughness that overcomes the cathedral’s walls, I wanted to take a second look at the picturesque and compare Gilpin’s ideas to my interpretation of architectural ruin. In his essay he describes the picturesque as being rough or rigid, which can also describe something that has been destroyed. Gilpin also discusses the idea of finding beauty in the imperfections of life. Ancient ruins, though crumbling and worn, still hold beauty and are seen by millions of people all around the world. The picturesque, much like ruin, is defined by onlooker. Every ones idea of these two concepts lies in their own beliefs.
-Victorianruin303

Anonymous. “Architecture and Sculpture.”http://www.erasofelegance.com/arts/victarchitecture.html

With this assignment, I decided to take another look at the picturesque. I think it is detail and roughness in the photo but in this photo, the sky is very blue and plain making half of this photo beautiful in a sense. Beauty is defined as a plain look at scenery with not a lot of detail but more simple. There are many ways to make a photo simple yet beautiful. One way is by zooming in to the object you may take a photo of. Then it will seem more plain and have a beautiful look to it. A good method to taking a picturesque picture is to do it from a obscure angle that is very different that a straight forward shot. Taking a photo from an angle  that is lower makes the picture seem totally different than taking it straight forward. There are many different ways to accomplish a picturesque photo. Another way is to have the camera focus on something really close and yet having a good background that complements the picture. I have fun when I capture a great work of art in my photography. I have a sense of accomplishment and im sure everyone does when they are satisfied with the work they created when it comes to taking good photographs with different objectives in mind, whether its to take a simple pretty picture or to go in the other direction and take a picturesque photo. Both take different mindsets, and are important to the ideals of photography in many ways.

-SW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The assignment I chose to focus on was the picturesque. I chose this project because I found the assignment to be very interesting and each individual would contribute their own art into this. Also the writing prompt was very individualized so every person could write about whatever they wanted. In my assignment I chose a photo I had taken while hunting and described certain aspects of the picture. I have modified the assignment to just analyze the photo and discuss what is happening in the picture.

In this photo there are a few signs of human interaction with the natural world. The first major sign is the road running through the middle of the photo. This is a great success for humans because they can access different areas of the state easier. However for animals this is a deadly path they must cross over to survive. There are countless deer that have to cross the road and an unknown number of them are killed by humans who are driving cars. The next most noticeable human interaction with nature in the picture are the houses on the side of the road. These houses are killing animal’s habitats and forcing them to move elsewhere. The last human interaction we notice is the cut down trees in the front of the picture. This is a very small part of a huge piece of logging land. Logging destroys many animals’ habitats and way of life.

To summarize my homework assignment  I found the process pretty enjoyable. I was in the great outdoors when I took the picture having a great time. Protecting wildlife is a rising concern in the US and describing the things that are wrong in just one picture helps me realize just how big a problem it really is. The long term value of this project is to hopefully keep me aware of the wildlife problems in the world. The short term and maybe long term is to help reinforce my strengths of analyzing pictures and also my writing skills.

-Alex Holtman

The homework assignment I designed was centered on the ”Goblin Market.” In this assignment I created a more modern interpretation of the poem using words and themes that better fit our world today. The original poem has many underlying meanings that were hard to interpret when first reading. My goal was to bring these connotations to the surface and expose the truth behind the “Goblin Market.” The assignment consisted of three steps: 1) analyze and distinguish the meaning behind the poem  find a modern or more current way of bringing forth these meanings 3) re-write the poem in my own words.

The first part of this assignment was to  find the true meaning behind it. Since we discussed most of the poem in class I was already equipped with a pretty good understanding of the sexuality of this poem and the raunchy connotation. But I wanted to take it a step further. I went through each stanza and looked for words and phrases that I could manipulate and write in their true form.

After analyzing each part of the poem I wrote down each phrase and turned it into something everyone would understand today. Instead of a hidden meaning I wanted my poem to express everything they couldn’t back in the Victorian Era. Listing all the new meanings actually lent its self well to becoming a poem. I only needed to edit a minimal amount.

The last part of my assignment consisted of the actual construction of my poem. These steps including making a list of the phrases and then more delicately going in and tweeking them to flow and be structured in the way a poem should be. Finally I went through each line of the original poem and compared it to the new modern version. I wanted to make sure that every point that was made in the original had its very own place in mine.

Katie Ramstad

In Oscar Wilde’s poem “The Harlot House” he uses the word lust to describe the Harlot house when he sates “Love passed into the house of lust.” Whenever we hear the word lust it is typically depicted as a negative term in comparison with the word love which is seen to consist of more depth and is known to be a more pure emotion while lust is seen as a representation of a pursuit of pleasure, not in the context of love but in the pursuit of fulfilling desires without any sort of matrimonial commitment. In the Victorian era this could be depicted as scandalous in the sense that it was morally and religiously wrong to have carnal relations with a man who you were not committed to. These type of women were known to be ruined. A lot of times the word lust can be compared to words such as appetite, as stated in the Oxford dictionary, which can be seen in the sense that you have a craving but you are not seeking to fulfill your appetite due to hunger or due to a nature of importance and necessity. Such as the desire for chocolate and sweets; they are not needed but desired. Sexual expression that was performed to fulfill desire was looked down upon in the 19th century. You will commonly see people seeking to fulfill their desires cravings for that feeling of fulfillment that has you feeling satisfied once that desire has been pursued and achieved. The Oxford dictionary describes lust as an “inclination for something,” thus confirming that lust is not an obligation or a necessity for life and survival, nor is it socially acceptable to pursue such inclinations if seen in from a religious standpoint, it is simply a pursuit of happiness and curiosity to satisfy the desires of human nature itself. However during the Victorian era it was not seen so much as human nature but as a sin or an act of the devil. Wilde was one of the many who portrayed lust in a negative light as he uses it to describe the negative acts that take part in the “Harlot’s House” that has placed his grabbed the interest of his lover and has pulled her into the house of shadows, which can be interpreted as a form of darkness and ruin, leaving him to ponder the acts of sin occurring in the house of lust.
-Victorianruin303

The word that I picked was conflict. I found this from the readings from week 8, Mrs. Warren’s profession. In the reading, the word conflict was used to describe the emotions Mrs. Warren had. Conflict is under cooperate, as a hidden message according to that oed website. This relates to Mrs. Warren because she has a monopoly of brothels. She can be seen as a cooperate figure that has a conflict within herself. She felt guilty for keeping her profession from her daughter, which was a conflict for her to overcome. When I used the oed website and searched the word conflict, generally meaning a problem between two parties or a situation. I saw a lot generally over war. One example is the rebellion that took place in America in 1860. Conflict can be over two different principles such as religion and science. Conflict is a powerful word and is used to get a point across in many aspects of literature. Mrs. Warren continues to work as her job and run the brothels even after her daughter finds out about her disgraceful profession. Conflict is used to convey disagreement. It shows uncertainty. Mrs. Warren is unsure if she should tell the truth because she had the means to provide for her daughter and ends up not telling her daughter. In the author’s apology, the author continues use the word conflict to relate as a social problem.  The word has been popular in the 18^th century and is still a very commonly used word today. The word conflict also fits in with the prostitutes that work for Mrs Warren. These prostitutes create tension and conflict between families because many men back in that time were unfaithful to their wives and went to the brothels, which in turn created conflict between families and relationships.

-Scott Wolf

The word harlot is defined as a prostitute or promiscuous woman. I chose this word because in my old blog group the theme was scandal and it seems that a lot of the literature we were reading was about harlots and their scandals. This word was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries since prostitution was legal until the contagious diseases acts. After these acts police could arrest harlots making their profession even more scandalous. The word harlot is derived from the word prostitute which comes from the Latin word prostituta. Pro means “up front” and situere means “to sell or to offer up to sale.” The first signs of prostitution being a bad thing in terms of health started back in 1494 when a syphilis break out was starting to occur in Naples. This word would continue to become more and more scandalous in both a social and health related sense. Prostitution would continue to be a problem with passing on disease effecting people’s health. In terms of a social problem men will go see prostitutes and cheat on their wives with them. This gained prostitutes a lot of hate from women. This profession was also frowned upon by society because many of the women would be seen was corrupt or un-pure and no one would want to marry them after just one “one night stand.” The long history of the word and its meanings has brought a ban to the profession and anyone describing themselves with the word is looked down upon by society. People of society do not look deeper into the reasons behind prostitution or why people would title themselves with the word Harlot. Some people are driven to the profession due to a need to survive while others are forced into the business by sex trafficking. I believe people should not be using harlots in the first place and should also consider the reasons behind the choices of the prostitutes.

-Alex Holtman