Here is the beginning of my post. Running Head: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS, INTERPELLATION AND HEGEMONY

Textual Analysis, Interpellation and Hegemony of the Crying Sheikh Toyota Prius

Textual Analysis, Interpellation and Hegemony of the Crying Sheikh Toyota Prius Advertisement
Toyota Prius “Crying Sheikh” advertisement (“ad “for brevity) has the following statement: “Unfortunate for some.” Without telling the whole story, the viewer of the image and the text together would understand the meaning that the advertisement is trying to express: Toyota Prius is a type of car that would not use a lot of oil to run. The Sheikh in the advertisement campaign symbolizes the rich Arabs who are usually associated with oil wells and global oil production and industry.

The ad promotes environmental consciousness: Love the environment, use lesser oil. Use lesser oil, thus buy Toyota Prius. Why myth and/or ideology? Because with the use of a hybrid car, such as the Toyota Prius, it does not mean that one has really saved the environment or has hurt the rich Sheikhs. Hybrid cars still use oil. The ideologies presented in the ad is however very strong, especially for those who are very environment conscious. In advertising and sales, determining your market and knowing what makes them buy is very essential. In fact, “the most influential among them are socially conscious, economically responsible and interested in protecting the environment. They have made the Toyota Prius the hot car of the moment (despite a 44% increase in its global production, there are more people on the waiting list than there are cars heading to dealerships). They eat organic, vegetarian and raw foods to preserve the environment and respect their bodies. They shun big businesses, refuse to wear fur, and flock to such brands as Carhartt and Camper because they are 'well made'.” (Kirby & Marsden, 2006, p. 211)

The interpellation in the Toyota Prius “Crying Sheikh” advertisement works in the following manner:

1. The Sheikh is crying because he has (and will have) losses from oil sales;
2. Losses from oil sales was caused by lesser consumption of oil due to the use of hybrid cars;
3. Hybrid cars consume lesser oil, therefore it is more environment friendly;
4. Are you environment friendly too? Then buy the hybrid car!
5. Yes, I am environment friendly, I am buying the hybrid car… I am buying a Toyota Prius!

Before falling in the trap of the ideological hail, which is being environment friendly, I would look closely first in the overall picture surrounding Toyota Prius. Personally, I rarely get in the traps of advertisements, thus, I am rejecting the hailing. I can always be a protector of the environment in another way, not only by purchasing the Prius.
Does the Toyota Prius “Crying Sheikh” advertisement use multiple voices as a narrative mode within a text, where "all languages merge and blend" (Short, 1992, p. 145)? Does the text persuade me to look at it in various ways or does it force me to read it how it wants me to be read it? Being an informed reader in general, yours truly find it difficult to look at the advertisement in another way. It has only one route to read the text: there is the “unfortunate” and it is coupled by a “crying Sheikh”. What else can I think? Naturally, I can think that one of the Sheik’s wives might have died but if the subject is the car, the only relevance that points to the Sheikh is the oil.

The ad admits, acknowledges and concedes: the oil industry is largely influenced by Arabians, represented by the Sheikh in the image. The ad indicates that it is unfortunate for the Sheikh but it does not mean that much, it can be only a few millions in hundreds of billions of the Sheikh’s earnings anyway. But the fact that the Sheikh “is crying” makes a lot of difference.
The ad negotiates the dominant ideology. Having the Sheikh himself cry makes it appear like an appeal to the public, and it represents humility. Yes, indeed, the message that we have to take care of the environment is there, but by doing so, we make someone else cry and show humility at the same time.

The Sheik’s cry may mean as an appeal, but since he is “the Sheikh”, it is quite difficult for the common individuals to have sympathy for him. Thus, the dominant ideology of saving the environment prevails over saving the crying Sheikh!

References
Kirby, J. & Marsden, P. (Eds.). (2006). Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution. Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Short, B. C. (1992). Herman Melville's Rhetorical Development Herman Melville's Rhetorical Development. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press.

Gender Ideas

I. My Idea of Gender

I strongly believe that there is a wide deviation between the treatment of males from the females. Gender is inherently bias. This bias has its strong roots and have been in the minds of everyone, including me, for centuries of human existence. Women have been clamoring for equality but I do not think that equality can be achieved. Equity, yes, but equality is really difficult, or should I say, impossible. At least these days, the gender bias is not as strong as before. The only sad news is, it still exists.

Bias on gender and inequalities are not only towards women though. Although as seen by the naked eye and observable in everyday life, women are the aggrieved party. However, I also believe that men are victims as well. In any situation where there are both men and women present, it is inherent to give a heavy task to men such as construction work or any work requiring force.

In this course I would like to learn many things. Among these are: :1) how can I be more impartial in my idea of gender roles, (2) to develop a strong knowledge of the philosophies on gender, {3) to learn how to minimize gender bias, including that of and to, my peers and friends, and (4) to have a general understanding of the relevant things and ideas talked about in this course.

II. The Masculine and Feminine Archetypes

I agree with the idea of the masculine and feminine archetypes that were presented. Though they may be only “archetypes” as what we call them, they represent the majority of the truth that are happening around us, not the ultimate truth but the one that everyone believes to be, the popular reality. This means that even the majority believes in these archetypes, it does not follow that they are necessarily correct. What we read in the myths, legends, fairy tales, heroic stories and what we hear over the radio and see in the television affect us greatly in terms of gender archetypes.

It is very agreeable that indeed human minds have innate structures in it playing a major role in determining the way our brains perceive the world around us and “which organize and give meaning to the multitude of information which our senses receive every second of our lives. (Knox, 2003, p. 12) Thus, the way we are raised is a very strong determining factor in terms of these archetypes together with our connection to the Universal Mind or Higher Self.

As for me, I feel to have the Hero archetype, the “mega myth” or “super archetype”. I thought to have this archetype due to challenging situations in life and I always imagine myself being able to overcome all the extreme difficulties. Actually these imaginations that I have give me a temporary illusion of triumph over feelings of helplessness and impotence. I also imagine, sometimes, to have battles of my own against the wicked guys and protect some friends and loved ones that I have in case those wicked and crooked-minded guys want to inflict damage or pain upon them.

When I read about archetypes and discovered mine, I was happy of what was Jung tells about it in the book of Sidoli.

“[T]he hero’s nature is human but raised to the limit of the supernatural—he is ‘semi-divine’… The motifs of ‘insignificance,’ exposure, abandonment, danger, etc. try to show how precarious is the psychic possibility of wholeness” (Sidoli, 2000, p. 17)

III. Women, Men and Society by Renzetti and Curran

Presenting the book in a way useful to both men and women is one of the best feature I can observe as I flipped through the pages of Renzetti and Curran’s Women, Men and Society. However, in the later section, male concerns are not as detailed as how it was presented in the first chapters.

Browsing through it, I found one topic that interests me. It is on Gender and Intimate Relationships which I found to be very useful for everyone. I was glad to learn how sexual orientation, race, and age together with the effects of stereotyping in roles of each family member as they were explained in the book. From this chapter I learned the importance of socialization. In this section the authors have thoroughly presented and discussed relevant theories such as the social learning theory, identification theory, cognitive-developmental theory, and Bem's theory.

Gender, Politics, Government, and the Military is the section that does not match my taste very much. I feel it is overrated topic to discuss more of these in a gender book including sexual harassment of women in the military and the exclusion of women from many military training experiences and combat roles. I clearly understand however, that this chapter is necessary part of the entire book.

IV. The Values of Belonging by Carol Lee Flinders

The book of Flinders entitled The Values of Belonging impresses me in a way that it is something revolutionary for my knowledge. I have to agree with her idea that it is all about values and not really of gender why the so called “gender wars” happened and admittedly, still happen.

I like the idea presented in the book that it is only women, or the feminine nature who retained the value of belonging and men or the masculine character has chosen to live the values of enterprise.

The part which I do not like so much about the book is on the “spiritual knot” aspect where Flinders claimed to “only be untied by women and men committed to reclaiming balance, mutuality, intuition, and wholeness together”. I, instead believe, that it is proper values education together with open mindedness that can unite men and women.
References

Knox, J. (2003). Archetype, Attachment, Analysis: Jungian Psychology and the Emergent Mind. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Sidoli, M. (2000). When the Body Speaks: The Archetypes in the Body (P. Blakemore, Ed.). London: Routledge.

Warning and Friendly Reminder: Plagiarism is a crime. This essay is here to give you an idea or guide you, not to be copied by you. You can look at the references and Works cited provided by this free academic essay and from that you can create your own. Be a smart student,be honest: look for free academic essays anywhere in the web or the Internet but don’t forget to make your own. There are so many free essays online as guides but please do your own. You can also utilize free plagiarism checkers available online.

Communicating at Work emphasized, as the title says, the importance of communication in the work place. The art of communicating is often lost in the workplace as everyone is very busy and occupied with their respective jobs. Moreover, the organizational ladder in an entity or an organization is a barrier that separates everyone. The lower level employees are too timid to approach someone that is holding a higher position. These are the usual observations in the workplace. The book has emphasized that understanding the meaning of the words is very important because these words or phrases or sentences may mean something else. Ambiguous sentences can cause a lot of interpretation errors. No one knows what these ambiguous sentences really imply.

If one of the employees or a supervisor tells "Let's get together sometime" how one can understand it or derive meaning from this sentence? It can mean a thousand things. For one, according to Dr. Alessandra, it may “mean your colleague wants to get together, maybe this afternoon for lunch, or is this just a superficial phrase for politesse?”

The author have emphasized that there is something heavy at stake. The lack of communication in the workplace may mean “botched plans, political in-fighting, lost productivity, lost profits, and, ultimately, lost jobs. This ambiguity is the foundation of errors, misunderstandings, and strained relationships.” Interpersonal skills that are effective are very important, both at home within families and at work within co-workers. These skills can either be through verbal or non-verbal, personal, written or by phone communications. Proper communication helps ease out tension between and among persons as well as improves their relationships to each other making them more efficient and effective in the workplace.

The book, overall is a great guide for everyone in terms of business communication. It tries to help readers in enhancing their communication skills and eventually making them a better communicator in the workplace.. Since the book have real-life illustrations, readers can easily relate to it. Furthermore, the book offers instructions in memo-writing, presentation-making and productive meeting guides. Finally, the book tackles some necessary telephone skills and etiquette, body language interpretations and on personal communications.

Reference
Alessandra, A. (2008) The Art of Communicating at Work. Accessed 16 May 2008 from

The title itself caused prejudice upon my mind on the theme of the story. I have been expecting, from the very beginning, the idea that indeed “a good man is hard to find” theme would be all throughout the story. Indeed my insights were correct. The reasons why my perceptions have stayed intact and have not been swayed can be attributed to the way the story itself have progressed. In fact, at the start, I never had the faintest idea how and why Flannery O’Connor gave such title to her story. With the presence of the “wicked grandmother” in the story as I may say, I have drawn conclusions on how humanity or a person can really be bad.

In the story, I have observed the absence of heavenly guidance on the characters, especially to the old woman, the grandmother. In her alone, I have imagined the reality of an evil act and evil’s existence. Moreover, I have learned that in many occasions, human beings cannot really make better decisions and how their thinking can be influenced by the things they believe and by their ambitions: materialism. I have seen this specific situation when the old woman believed that nicely dressed men are better and good-hearted than those that are haggard looking and dirty ones.

Moreover, I can see the bulging ego of the characters and how material world have influenced the lives of humanity in general. I see egocentricities and heavy pride in the old woman as well in the dominant hard character of the son. In the presence of the Misfit, I have perceived lack of respect and a strong absence of beliefs to the supreme being.

Again, a good man is in fact difficult to find. Man is generally evil, proud, materialistic and lost. Only with God’s grace and guidance they can be led in a correct pathway of life. In the story, these ideas were emphasized making me stay with my thoughts regarding the story. As the grandmother and the Misfit found something uncommon, it was actually not as uncommon as they have thought. It was sin and suffering in life. Certainly the grandmother “would have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

Reference
Castle A. (2007). “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The Literary Encyclopedia, 14 October 2007. Accessed 16 May 2008 from .

Women, Marriage and Dissatisfaction Gender roles are some of the stronger defining factor of historical events as well as its representation in literature. The role of women in society during the early days was very limited. Women were either daughters or wives but rarely having a title of her own without the reference to the role of the men, as fathers or husbands. Even in histories there were very few women involved: either there were indeed few contributions or they were simply unrecognized and/or unwritten. Women had little control of their own lives because of the authority imposed upon them by either the father or the husband. Women in history who tried to be independent of the male figures were ultimately defeated and demonized such as in the case of Joan of Arc and Margaret of Anjou who "lead men in battle, but Joan is exposed as a whore and burned at the stake, while Margaret becomes first the "tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide" who commits the most memorable atrocities in a play remembered primarily for its bloodshed and horror." (Kurtz)

When it comes to marriage, women are often disappointed with what their husband are doing. Strong stereotyping in the roles of women is one of the strongest factors causing women to be an unhappy the wife. She "must" be a good wife and her husband does not necessarily need to be a good husband. A "good wife means the woman who puts priority on caring for children and supporting the husband's career"("Stereotypes of Marriage Roles" A03). In fact this situation has not changed so much but it was very well-defined in the earlier days. In the recent years, researches have been conducted to discover the reasons for the dissatisfaction of women in marriages, being the wife of the household. Women may seem to live naturally as wives to their respective husbands but deep inside their thoughts and feelings, they have clamors. Some of the reasons for dissatisfaction and unhappiness of many wives are their feelings of being neglected and their husband's irritations on them being too self-absorbed.

According to the Study Defines Major Sources Of Conflict Between Sexes by Daniel Goleman published in the New York Times on June 13, 1989 there were also factors such as men's condescension that women complain about, not to mention the unfaithfulness and abuse by the husband in some married relationships. Further dissatisfaction are related to sexual aggressiveness of their husbands, emotional constriction, insulting remarks as to their (wives') appearance and open admiration towards other women. . With the mentioned factors, women feel to be trapped in unhappy marriages. With this feeling mixed with the general "forms of inequality and discrimination, variously seen to be independent of or related to the patriarchal oppression of women" (Thurner 122) in the past (and is still existing up to the present), life is, and was not easy for women.

One of the literary works relating to some reasons why women were dissatisfied is that of Virginia Woolf, an English essayist and novelist who is regarded as one of the foremost figure in the modernist literature, in her work A Room of One's Own. Al though in this literary piece by Woolf, it was not stated verbatim but the point she was trying to convey is the freedom of women that is strongly restricted in and by a patriarchal society. It was emphasized in this that if a woman is to be a writer (or to be someone with ambition), she must have a "room of her own". This phrase can be understood literally and/or figuratively. Indeed if one is to be a writer or educated for that matter (which also applies to men) she has to have a room to concentrate upon her ideas and to develop her work. However, it can be viewed that what Woolf really wanted to tell is, for her or other women to be free- free from the controls of the fathers and free from the controls of their husbands: a space or a room of their own, a decision of their own and a way to direct their own lives. Following is the illustration of Woolf's work in 1929 as printed from the book of Wallach entitled Gender and the Politics of History. Another literary evidence of women discontentment, both in a married life and as a person during the past centuries is that of Charlotte Bront, entitled “Shirley”. In one of the chapters of the book, there was written what a husband thought of the relationship that a married couple has. Following is taken from page 53 of the book, which was published in 1849:

She accepted him at the first offer, and they were married. Nature never intended Mr. Helstone to make a very good husband, especially to a quiet wife. He thought, so long as a woman was silent, nothing ailed her, and she wanted nothing. If she did not complain of solitude, solitude, however continued, could not be irksome to her. If she did not talk and put herself forward, express a partiality for this, an aversion to that, she had no partialities or aversions, and it was useless to consult her tastes. He made no pretence of comprehending women, or comparing them with men: they were a different, probably a very inferior order of existence; a wife could not be her husband's companion, much less his confidant, much less his stay. His wife, after a year or two, was of no great importance to him in any shape; and when she one day, as he thought, suddenly -for he had scarcely noticed her decline -- but as others thought, gradually, took her leave of him and of life, and there was only a still beautiful-featured mould of clay left, cold and white, on the conjugal couch, he felt his bereavement -- who shall say how little? Yet, perhaps, more than he seemed to feel it, for he was not a man from whom grief easily wrung tears.

It is not necessary that a woman be hurt physically or be abused to feel used by the man. In a common husband-wife relationship, the woman in the relationship is bound with a lot of responsibilities. The above excerpt from a literary piece proves that women were or are of no equal to men who view themselves superior. Even the society itself has this belief and this cannot be blamed to men alone. Wives are neglected and they do not deserve consultation when it comes to decision making process. They are around men to serve! Men are viewed as the pillar of the family and he must be the one to have the "say" on what should or should not happen. Women have a very wide array of responsibilities at home but never to have a decision of her own. Even with the household chores taken away, she still has a lot to do, especially in satisfying the husband. With the caring nature of women, it is natural for a her to do all for the family. But is it the nature? Society has shaped the mind of all that a wife, or a woman for that matter, must do this and must not do that. The gender-bias society! It is not actually correct to say that the woman in the relationship is the weaker one among the two. It is not the husband alone the made her feel all the desperation that she has. The standards that are asked by the society, these so called rules, known as ethics and morality which force many to follow is one of the limiting factors that serves a lot of limits to what the woman can do. It is all right for the husband to go at work without making his bed but it is wrong for a wife not to wash the dishes before bed time. Whose wife can be happy of this? How a wife can be ultimately happy with a husband sitting in the table and relaxing as he reads the paper while the wife sweats in scrubbing the floor and cleaning the house? Wives have their own sets of wifely obligations but men do not have this kind of rules. Even in simple things, the wife is bound to make her husband happy, not the other way around.

As the short story of Stephen Crane published in 1898 entitled, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, so short a story like this, there still must be some evidence of the truth that the woman is bound to satisfy the man, whether she is happy to do it or not. The following is taken from the short story mentioned:

"We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42," he said, looking tenderly into her eyes. "Oh, are we?" she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince surprise at her husband's statement was part of her wifely amiability. She took from a pocket a little silver watch, and as she held it before her and stared at it with a frown of attention, the new husband's face shone. ”

Is it really necessary to "evince" or to fake something just to be amiable or agreeable to her husband? In this part of the story she was also presenting him a gift, which, as mentioned is the silver watch to make him even happier. She deserves the same happiness.

Works Cited
Charlotte. Shirley: A Tale. Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder, 1849Goleman, Daniel. Study Defines Major Sources Of Conflict Between Sexes. The New York Times, 1989. 9 May 2008. < res=" 950DE5DC173FF930A25755C0" ampsec="&ampspon="&amppagewanted="all&gt." a="o&ampd="">.

Issue to discuss:
This Research Paper is has to prove the fact that women have always been the less dominant person in the Man - Woman marriage. The paper needs to show how women often get trapped in unhappy marriages, not necessarily violent or unloving marriages, just marriages where the woman is less in love than the man. You can use some historical references, but the paper needs to include 3 sources from English Literature (short stories, novels) that show this kind of relationship. Please dont use too many complex words, just prove the point effectively.