The Third Man Looking Through a Feminist Lens

In the movie, The Third Man, we observe how Holly Martins tries to hold power over the other characters. Looking through a feminist lens, we can see how  the character of  Ms. Schmidt instead holds power over Holly Martins because of her advantage of knowing the language that is being spoken. Ms. Anna Schmidt who was Mr. Harry Lime’s lover lives in Vienna and speaks the native language of German quite fluently along with English. Martins tries to make it seem that Ms. Schmidt needs him in order to figure out the murder case of Mr. Harry Lime. When really, Martins himself needs Ms. Schmidt to translate all that is said to him because he doesn’t know how to speak German. Throughout the scenes during Martins’ investigating, we see how he depends upon Ms. Schmidt for many translations of words spoken by different people who are being questioned by him. One scene in particular was when the Porter dies and the little boys reveals to the surrounding crowd that it was Martins who murdered him. The boy yells in German, “Papa der ist der murder!” translating to “Papa there is the murder!” and points to Martins. While this is happening Martins the whole time is begging Ms. Schmidt for a translation so he can understand what is happening and what it being said. Looking inside the shot  and what is happening, we see how the camera angles also make Martins look the same height and even shorter than the surrounding characters . This indicates how he has no higher power than the surrounding people including Ms. Schmidt. Not being able to understand what the boy is saying shows as a weakness of Martins and a strength for Ms. Schmidt all at the same time. Here we see how Martins fails in defining the roles of masculinity by being dependent upon Ms. Schmidt and therefore her holding power over him.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-Post Colonialism

Looking through the Post Colonialism lens, anyone who watches the Disney production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can see that the dwarfs are very separate from the rest of civilization. They live in a small cottage out in the forest very distant from the kingdom and any other towns or villages. One could argue that they are treated differently by not being treated, or not payed attention to, at all. By that I mean because no one pays attention to them or sees them as regular people, they are treated differently. Never in the movie does anyone besides Snow White visit and interact with the dwarfs. The animals don’t even interact with the dwarfs until Snow White comes along. Noticing this, the audience gets the impression that the dwarfs are very different from the rest of society. When Snow White first enters the home she seems shocked at the size of everything and assumes that several small children must live there. The small miniature sized chairs, tables, and other appliances led her to make that assumption. By making this assumption, the audience is also making the assumption that those who live there are different from Snow White and the rest of society. Snow White and even the Queen are portrayed as normal humans while the dwarfs are seen as different almost creature-like because of their appearance. All these situations show how the dwarfs are shown as very distant from the rest of society.

One TED Talk that I really enjoyed listening to was Haley's. First, her own experience of how a sport has changed her was very relatable from my point of view of also being an athlete. Although I don't know every little detail of the sport of gymnastics, I know the main jist of it and I thought Haley did a really good job of point out the things that we don't think of going on like perfectionism and such. Second, I like how she stuck to the three main key points of how being in gymnastics changed her and thought the repetition of the three really worked. Each of the quotes on the different slides Haley used were relevant to each topic she talked about. The only thing I would change would be the size of the quotes so they would be a little more easy to read. Finally, another part of her TED talk that I really thought was neat were the home videos she incorporated. The first one was hilarious of Haley showing her super shyness as a little girl just starting gymnastics. The second one was really cool to watch and see her progression in her self confidence. I thought it was a really good way to conclude her TED talk and prove what she was talking about true. Great Job Haley! :)

Full House

When deciding what to blog about this week, I wasn't sure at all what I wanted to write about. I even googled "what to blog about today" but I didn't find any results worth blogging. I then took a glance around the room taking in all that was happening. Heather and Hunter were breaking each other’s wrists while playing a game of mercy, my mom was sitting at the table paying bills, my dad was fixing dinner for tomorrow night, and I sat watching my favorite TV sitcom on nick@night, Full House. It then dawned on me that I wanted to blog about Full House and the connection I share with it. (If you've never seen the show you might not find as much interest in this blog: fair warning)

Short summary: Set in San Francisco, this is a show about a very loving family headed by Danny Tanner, who became a single father when his wife, Pam Tanner, was killed in a car accident. Pam's brother Jesse, and Danny's best friend Joey Gladstone moved into the house to help Danny raise his three daughters D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle. Full House consisted of 8 seasons, 192 episodes and was first aired on September 22, 1987, its last episode was aired May 23, 1995. Reruns are still on regularly today.

I’ll start from the beginning. I began watching Full House due to the suggestion from my childhood best friend Bailey Windecker. I can still vividly remember being 5 years old and standing in the kitchen of her old house making a turkey sandwich for lunch when she asked what my favorite TV show was, my response at the time was SpongeBob. Bailey then suggested that we watch Full House, I wasn't going to disagree just because I hadn't seen the show before so we watched it. Due to the handsome Uncle Jesse (John Stamos), I was hooked after my first episode.

As the show grew older with different storylines and more characters being added, I also grew with different storylines and characters added to my life. I found that each different situation and scenario in the show was handled similarly. Most of them began with a problem, attempted to be solved, and ended with a life lesson of some sort. With something to be learned every episode, it keeps me an avid watcher still today. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about the show that it comforting to me. It's the show that I watch almost every night between the times of 7-9:30 when I can, it is also the show that makes me feel better and comforts me when I'm sick or down in the dumps. It always manages to cheer me up. The show also brings me back in time to days I would spend with Bailey sitting and watching it with her. I have fond memories and connections with Full House and continue to watch all the reruns to this day.