My group did our project on our neighborhoods. I live in the Hollywood/ Los Feliz area. My house is on Kenmore Ave., in a very residential area. It is located a couple streets above the Hollywood Blvd and under the hill the observatory and the Hollywood Sign are on. A few streets away are Vermont Ave and Hillhurst Ave, where there are a lot of shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and fast food places. There's a library and an Albertson's on Hillhurst. On Vermont, there is a small movie theater and a bank. In the neighborhood there's a church, a small synagogue, and a Sikh temple. There are a couple of elementary schools nearby and my high school is a little away. On Hollywood Blvd, there are a lot of Armenian grocery stores and pastry shops. There's even an Armenian school. My street and most of the neighborhood is very quiet and there aren't many cars. You won't see a lot of people around there either. As you go towards Vermont and Hillhurst, you'll see a lot more people and more traffic. Overall, my neighborhood is a really nice place to live.

3) I went to Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister in Glendale. Both if these stores are part of the Abercrombie company, therefore they are quite similar in many ways. Their products are very much alike and their target customers are teens. The display in both stores are alike too. They are both very dark; this gives it a different look. Teens these days like it like that I guess. The stores are filled with pictures of models. The guy models are really buff. Obviously by putting these guys on the walls they get teenage girls attention and have them come in. By doing this, they're sending a message to girls, that dressing in Abercrombie or Hollister, they will get you a guy like that. And that's what the products mean (wear "hot", "summery" outfits and you'll get a guy). I can even get into the fact that every article of clothing has cologne sprayed on it; the whole store smells like cologne, do the customer walks by, smells it, and wants to go in. The smell pulls them in. Hollister, specifically, is a very southern California type of store. The teens who shop there are mostly born and raised on So Cal, so the display really works because it's really what they like. The store looks like a beach or a pier. I really feel like the Abercrombie company has put in a lot of work into in order to get teens to go in and buy stuff; from the teen-friendly, casual clothes to the rock pop music the play to the models and the cologne smells. Even their bags have models on them and those bags advertise the stores. Overall, everything they've done has been a success; in high school every Armenian was dresses in either Abercrombie or Hollister.

Raffi Tashjian
February 22, 2012
English 114B

Gamer Essay


“Gamer” functions as a social commentary and gives the audience a look at what life has become. It gives a clear view at what our society and culture have become and where we’re headed. During the last few decades, our society has transitioned from being very conservative to being very sexualized and liberal. “Gamer”’s society reflects what our society and culture are like now. It also gives us a look at who’s behind these changes and how they control what’s going on. Overall, the movie was kind of like one big metaphor for society in the 21st century.

The “Gamer” society depicts exactly what our society and culture are like. Throughout the movie, there are scenes in which there are half naked women, girls kissing each other, and basically a very sexual society. It shows the person watching it, how our society has changed and how the world is exposed to sex more than ever, right now. The last 50 years have brought drastic changes to our society and culture. The majority of people have become a lot more accepting of almost everything. The 50’s were a very conservative time; a time where women always covered up and Lucy and Ricky had to sleep in two different beds on “I Love Lucy”. Between the 60’s and the 80’s the sexual revolution occurred, which led to the society we live. During that time, modern birth control was introduced and Madonna became famous. A few decades passed and now we are living in a world where girls are dressed in very revealing outfits, the city’s filled with billboards with half naked women on them, and if pop stars don’t act like a sluts, they won’t have a hit (except Adele, of course). The scenes with the girls, who were dressed in revealing clothes, mirror the looks of girls in our world; we have girls wearing short shorts that are getting shorter everyday and girls wearing shirts that have their stomachs showing. As society has changed its views, so has the culture. Music and movies have become very sexualized. It’s almost like singers have turned in to a big group of whores. Every aspect of pop music exposes sex. Some examples are Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Nicki Minaj. In her video for her song, “California Gurls”, Katy Perry is shooting whipped cream out of her bra and in her “Teenage Dream” video, she is having sex with her boyfriend. Her song “Peacock” takes it to another level, in which she sings about wanting to see a guy’s “peacock”. Most Britney songs and videos are sexual; a great example of a Britney song is “3” which is about a threesome. Nicki Minaj, on the other hand is, getting a lot of attention for her “assets”. These pop stars are seen by the whole world and teenage girls look up to them. With “role models” like these and a culture that exposes sex every chance it gets, a very sex-driven and liberal society is created. “Gamer” did a very good job of showing what our world looks like.

The scene in “Gamer” where two girls are kissing each other also shows what our society is like. People have become much more accepting of people and don’t really care so much about things like two girls kissing. They feel like people should do whatever makes them happy and that people should express who they are. This was made clear during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, when Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. This was kind of controversial but for the most part people viewed it as normal. Years later, Lady Gaga has made videos that feature her kissing girls; an example is her “Telephone” video, where she is kissing a girl while she is at jail. Everyone loves Lady Gaga and don’t think her videos are controversial; and know ones shocked by them, her meat dress does that. Overall, “Gamer” showed how our society has come to accept people’s differences and feel okay with everything.

Another part of “Gamer” was the part where the fat, gray guy was controlling the girl. He controls her every move. This is a very important part of the movie because it really shows what our society has been like and what it’s still like. It shows the audience that men have controlled and still control women. It has always been this way. Men have always been the leaders and women did everything they were told to do. Here and there a woman came along who didn’t bow down to men, but for the most part women were the weaker sex and had to be obedient and listen to men. Going back to the example of pop stars; we know that these stars do everything their record company tells them to do. The record company is filled with rich, powerful men who help the singer become famous, but in order to get to the superstardom they get to they have to be controlled by the industry. The way they dress, the way the act, what they say, and what songs and videos they release are controlled by the record company owners and music industry executives. With these singers under their control, the industry is able to control the teenagers who look up to the singers. Another thing that popped into my head is that my sister had a Barbie back in the day, which had a shirt that only covered her breasts, leaving her stomach open. This is kind of control by the toy industry that tells girls from a young age what they’re supposed to wear. Both of these examples show how men control women and society. Through these they show what society has to be like. “Gamer” revealed this perfectly, showing a man behind the scenes controlling a woman.

“Gamer” functioned as a social commentary in a number of ways. It showed how our society and culture have evolved and changed from a conservative society to a sexualized society. The girls dressed in revealing clothing showed how it is becoming more common for women to be dressed like that. The girls kissing shows how our society has become accepting. The man controlling the woman is showing how no matter how much everything is changing, men are still in control. Overall, “Gamer” reflected the world we live in and showed the audience what our society has come to be.

The orange grove/duck pond is a recreational place. It isn't a building or anything. It is on campus to allow students to just hang out there and have a nice time. They could do homework since its quiet. I saw a girl studying there. Or they can take a look at the ducks or can walk around there. The space is not populated and it is very quiet. There was only one girl there when me and my group went there. Since there is no one at the orange grove and duck pond, it is very quiet. It does serve its purpose to provide a nice, quiet place for students to go to, to spend done time. Although it dies serve its purpose, it is a quite unusual space for campus. There aren't many colleges that have orange groves. It does not feel like a CSUN facility. CSUN is a community because it ties the students and faculty together like a little town in Northridge. The duck pond and the orange grove are part of the CSUN community by allowing everyone, the students and faculty, to go there and enjoy their time. The history of the orange grove is that Northridge was originally a orange grove itself and when the university was built they wanted to keep a piece of it. The historical information is online. Going back to the past questions, this space functions as a piece of history, serves its purpose, and and allows the community, as a whole stick to its past.

My space is my room. It isn't that big. It is usually very quiet unless I put misidentified on or if I'm watching TV. It is a good place for me to study and it's obviously good for sleeping. I like spending time there when I'm trying to get away from everything or everyone or if I'm tired. I really like my room and it the one place that I can call it my own.

I thought I would use this essay as an opportunity to explain my 3rd blog more in depth. As I had said, “Gamer” functions as a social commentary and it reflects what life is really like. I’d like to go more in depth about what our society and culture has become. “Gamer” had many scenes in which women were showed in a very sexual way. They were dressed in very revealing clothing. There was also a scene in which two girls were kissing. The way the girls were dressed and the way they were acting shows the audience how much our society has changed and how we have come to accept many of these things. Years ago it wasn’t normal, but now we’re used to it. In a way, the movie also shows that as we go further into the future, society becomes more sexualized, but people aren’t shocked. Another aspect of our society that I mentioned in my blog was what our culture has come to be. Music is a very important part of our culture. These last couple decades, music has become very sexualized and it depicts what society is like. As I said girls are dressed way less now. Girls go to high school wearing short shorts and have their belly buttons showing. That would not be acceptable just a few decades ago. An example I brought up was Katy Perry. In her video for her song, “California Gurls”, Katy is shooting whipped cream out of her bra and in her “Teenage Dream” video, she is having sex with her boyfriend. Her song “Peacock” takes it to another level, in which she sings about wanting to see a guy’s “peacock”. Another example is the attention Nicki Minaj’s “assets” are getting. I’m not even going to talk about Kim Kardashian and her family. The part of “Gamer” that I mentioned about the two girls kissing, also imitates life because it shows how much more people have become liberal. The younger generation accepts everyone and isn’t shocked by it. During the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Although, it was somewhat controversial, it was quite normal. Now, Lady Gaga has a number of videos in which she kisses girls. One of them is “Telephone”, where she kisses a girl while she’s at prison. What I’m trying to say is that “Gamer” imitates life by showing the audience how much our society has become sexualized and have come to accept everything.

“Gamer” functions as a social commentary in so many ways and it gives a good view of what life is like. The most obvious way the movie imitates life is by showing how people can get addicted to video games and virtual worlds. The best example of that is the fat man who plays the video game as the woman. He has become very fat and can’t even move he has to use a wheelchair. They made him look so terribly nasty; by making him look like this they were able to show the audience what people who are addicted to video games turn into. I think they did a very good job of showing it. Another social commentary was how men control women. That same fat man was playing the game as a woman. This shows that in our world men are always telling women what to do, no matter what it is. It could be how to act, what to say, and basically how to live. Another way art imitates life is by showing the audience that our society doesn’t care about the people on death row. People don’t really care what happens to them; whether they live or die, it doesn’t matter. One last social commentary “Gamer” made was the sexualization of our culture. There were many scenes with half naked women, which represent how our culture has changed from being ashamed to show sexuality in movies, music, and in society overall, to a very sexualized culture where you see it all the time. Girls are dressing less clothing now; their shorts keep getting shorter and their stomachs are opening up now. Pop stars have taken it to another level and act very sexually both onstage and in music videos; for example Katy Perry’s whipped cream bra and almost all of Britney Spears’ music videos. Overall, all the aspects of “Gamer” resemble life; it shows the audience how people can get addicted to games, how men control women, how people don’t care for the lives of the people on death row, and how our culture has become very sexual.

Waggoner’s essay was very relevant to “Gamer”. They both showed how people who play video games get really into them and become addicted to them. They allowed the audience to see how much of an impact these games have on those people who play them. They start only caring about the game and forgetting about reality. The virtual world becomes their reality. Basically, both Waggoner’s essay and “Gamer” reveal what happens to people who play video games.

I don’t play RPGs, I don’t play video games, and I do not create avatars. I have never played them and I have never really been interested in them. I don’t plan on starting to play these or to create avatars and to live in a virtual world. The idea of creating an avatar and creating a world and getting sucked into it is not appealing to me. A lot of people are addicted to these games and it kind of seems like, it’s highly possible for me to get addicted to it too, so I’d rather not play them. Although I don’t play RPGs and video games, I have friends who love playing them. They are always talking about the avatars they have created and they always mention the virtual worlds. They usually play this during their free time. Most likely they play it after school or work. It kind of allows them to forget about reality for a while and to go to another world. It also apparently releases stress. They really like playing RPGs and videogames but they are not addicted to it. My friends identify themselves with their real world identity (thank God!). Once they stop playing the games, they get back to their own personalities. It’s not like they’re always identifying themselves as the avatars when they are in their bed and they really want to jump back into the fake world, just like in Waggoner’s essay. My friends always have a sense of reality once they aren’t playing games. The real world identities and the virtual world identities of my friends are really different. In the virtual world, their bodies are very different and they do so many things that they wouldn’t do in the real world. They’re probably tougher in the virtual world (not that they’re weak in real life ha ha). They are also stronger and have so many powers that aren’t even possible in our world. Overall, the real world identities and the virtual world identities of my friends are immensely different. I believe in many cases, videogames play can impact identity formation, but from what I have seen (from my interview with my friends) is that it is possible to not get impacted. They are able to not play the games and not act like the avatar. They are able to stop themselves from turning into the character. They can tell the difference between the two worlds. Basically, video game play can impact identity formation, but in most cases it should not.