In Egypt did the Arab Spring change gender roles and notions of where Essay

In Egypt did the Arab Spring change gender roles and notions of where women belonged in society Were women in Egypt better off before or after the Arab Spring - Essay Example Women’s rights in Islam-dominated nations have long been stifled by conventional Islamic culture which believes men should be in charge of women hence the press for women’s rights was a welcomed result of the Arab Spring revolts all through the Middle East and North Africa in ultra-traditional and Islam-dominated Egypt. From the protests, women hoped to gain from the altering relations of authority in society. That of course is a course that takes an extended amount of time to address (Ramdani 20-21) As the freethinking sought very much to drive forward for additional evident and more active roles for the female gender, some Islamist groups were not as keen about the notion of stirring in that path. It is without a doubt, there were unlike expectations on the roles played by women were to change due to the Arab Spring. In the present day, Egypt, the conventional patriarchal society is slowly fading without much of the democratic spirit of the Arab Spring. In its place, the thousands of females who contributed greatly to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak are now marginalized, if not ignored. Egypt has swapped a western-based, secular autocracy with an Islamic version, but for most the spot on headline figure was the trivial 12 seats for the female gender out of the possible 498. This translates into a 2.4% representation of women compared to the already low UN world average of 19%. All the 13 presidential race candidates were men (Ramdani 23-24) Women have, in general, been left out before and after the Arab Spring. In Egypt, it has been seen that the rights of women are all the time more under attack and violence against them on the rise. Women are to a less extent been involved in political parties and play an even smaller part in elections. The gap between women and men voting in Egypt has declined following the uprising. Currently, there are new worrying measures

The Highest Breed Essay Example for Free

The Highest Breed Essay How would you like to own a car that can run and transport you on the road for ten minutes without the engine turned on? (Gold, 2006) No, it won’t be on neutral and without speed control†¦ you simply have to be on a Toyota Hybrid vehicle. This is because when the car isnt using its gasoline engine, such as when you are in bumper to bumper traffic or coasting downhill, it shuts the engine off automatically. Isn’t that neat? That means that you are not burning gas (and your hard-earned money with it) as much as you would have on a conventional car. When you are not burning gas, you too are helping to preserve the earth from global warming. You might want to join the thousands of people who are already seeing the importance of clean air and financial savings just by driving a cool car. Today, I take it upon myself to show you why Toyota Hybrid vehicles, especially the Prius, are the absolute choices for economical and environmental reasons, especially when compared to conventional gasoline-powered cars and other hybrid brands. Global warming is a very urgent issue because it affects the survival of every creature on earth. Global warming happens when carbon and methane gases are excessive and form a sort of force field in the atmosphere. (Mendoza, 2005) This additional layer of smog blocks the heat from the earth from escaping the atmosphere and thereby causes the unnecessary warming which can alter natural weather cycles, etc. How can individuals like us help maintain clean air without sacrificing too much time, effort, and comfort? The answer lies within Toyota Hybrid vehicles. Toyota has been a pioneer in making environmentalists’ dreams come true on the road to zero emissions by coming out with the first mass-produced hybrid car in 1997 – the Prius. In eight years, the Prius has already sold 1,000,000 cars and is 9th best selling car in the US for 2007. (Vlasic, 2008) The Prius is a vehicle run by a battery but has an electric motor and a petrol-powered engine. This means that during stop lights and downhill stretches, the car is simply run by the battery and will only use gas upon the need for higher speed. Ergo, approximately 3. 5 million fewer tons of carbon dioxide had been saved by these cars in the short span of time. (Mendoza) This not only means less pollution but also less need to buy gas. When it comes to fuel efficiency, the Prius is also above its competitors. Compared to a Honda Civic Hybrid which goes about 42 miles per gallon (MPG), for example, the Prius can take the distance to 47 MPG. This means that if you consume $1007 worth of gas on a Civic, you will only be spending $902 on a Prius. This is even more dramatic when compared to the $1650 you would have spent on an ordinary gas-powered car. (Comparison Chart, 2007) Other hybrid models like the Camry and Highlander are also gaining popularity in the market. The Camry is not as fuel efficient as the Prius but is known for its Plasmacluster ionizer which filters micro dust and pollen so you can have clean air inside and outside of the car. The Camry’s battery is also good for 8 years compared to Honda Altima’s 5 years which means it can run longer by about 40,000 miles. The Highlander, on the other hand, is incomparable to the sedans because it is much largely built and therefore requires more power. However, it is preferable to the other hybrid midsize SUVs because of its 241 horsepower compared to the others which can only go up to 208 hp. Toyota, as anyone can see, has been a good pioneer and maintains to be the best in the hybrid industry. Toyota hybrids are above par in fuel efficiency, cost of maintenance, speed, comfort and cleanliness with regards to its emissions. Every responsible citizen who wants to help maintain economic and environmental balance simply has to own one†¦don’t you think so too? If you are thinking of getting a new car or is at least concerned in keeping the earth in proper temperature, please do consider Toyota hybrid vehicles. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Environmental Impact Assessment Programs and Regulations

Environmental Impact Assessment Programs and Regulations Introduction This chapter will provide a review of the development process of Environmental Impact Assessment Programs (EIAP) for buildings for different countries and different regions of the world as a reflection on the continuing evolution of building environmental assessment tools. This chapter includes two sections: the first section will present the initial structure and types for EIAP and will also compare some programs on their categories and weighting systems to anticipate the directions of future developments for building environmental assessment programs. Understanding how EIAP for buildings developed over the past 20 years is the main outcome of this chapter as it will provide evidence for the research hypothesis and justifications for the methodologies undertaken in this research. Objectives The main aim of this chapter is to review the development process of EIAP for buildings; its categories, weighting systems and methodologies used in developing these programs. It will serve as a starting point in developing an evaluation tool especially designed for the Egyptian environment. To achieve this aim some objectives have been adopted: Review and compare different types of EIAP for buildings from variety of regions, emphasizing on their categories of assessment, weighting systems and their latest developments. Investigate the future development direction for EIAP for buildings. The development of EIAP for buildings Building sector contribute significantly to energy consumption all over the world. It is responsible for 38% of the world primary energy consumption and the CO2 emission resulting from these huge levels of consumption, as shown in Figure 2-1 (BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2008, International Energy Agency (IEA) Statistics Division, 2008). A lot of experts believe that the building sector in the world could help reducing 1.8 billion tones of CO2 before Kyoto target in 2012 (World Business Council for Sustainable Development 2009 report). According to the UNEP 2007: significant gains can be made in efforts to combat global warming by reducing energy use and improving energy efficiency in buildings. There are number of ways that a building could affect its surrounding environment on its life time. During different stages; row materials, construction, operation and demolition, also, through different components, buildings could have a huge impact on the environment (UNEP 2007). For example: soil pollution, emissions into the air, water spills, waste generation, resource consumption, local impacts, impacts associated with transportation and effects on biodiversity (Gangolells M, et al., 2009). In addition to the previous environmental impacts, buildings affect peoples health directly. As (Theodore 1996 ) reported, there are a lot of health problems that could be linked to buildings directly especially to poor indoor quality i.e. the sick building syndrome. According to (UNEP 2007) it has long been established that to achieve an energy-efficient world, governments, businesses and individuals must transform the building sector. One of the approaches that have been adopted to address the building sector effects on the environment were developing programs to assess buildings performance. Environmental impact assessment programs (EIAP) for buildings were originally conceived as guidance to recognize best practice, promote green buildings and to provide a unified and coherent base for buildings to be compared on. Recent studies showed that EIAP have been a key factor in improving buildings design as well (pennenvironment pdf). This movement towards sustainable and green buildings has been growing rabidly since the second half of the 80s leading to the development of various methods for evaluating the environmental performance of buildings (Cole, Yudelson and Fedrizzi, 2008). The number of EIAP for buildings has increased significantly in the past two decades, as shown in Figure 2-2. From 4 programs in the 80s to more than 25 program now actively used worldwide. This increase in the number of EIAP for buildings or the revolution as Yudelson describe it, will likely continue over the next few years (Cole, , Yudelson). In countries all over the world -especially the developed countries- there is a growing interest in understanding how to reduce the building sector impacts on the environment. This is partially manifested in continues development of EIAP for buildings, either by introducing new assessment tools, or by developing and refining the existing ones. In recent years, the market for evaluating building performance was increasing, with clients demanding buildings that meet the highest efficiency standards and have minimum effects on the environment (U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), 2005). The time line progress for the environmental programs Environmental buildings or green buildings from the market point of view could potentially save money on energy bills, cut global warming pollution and help to secure future energy. Therefore there are growing demands for building classified as green or environmentally friendly. Another aspect that confirm the current success of EIAP for building is that a lot of conferences have been and still are held for the environmental impacts of buildings and the best way to develop and assess it (Cole, -, Yudelson). EIAP are now considered a driving force to develop buildings industry. EIAP were first conceived as a mean to quantify the success of a building in achieving reduced impacts on the environment during its life time. They were also developed to comply with standards from organizations like ANSI, ISO, ASHARE, ASTM and CEN. The structure and components of EIAP are always changing to cope with the latest editions in building standards. These changes include; categories of assessment, credits weighting, impacts calculation, cost efficiency and simulation techniques. EIAP assess buildings either on performance bases on prescriptive bases. They were initially developed as voluntary (cole,) but with the higher demands from the market some programs are mandatory in some parts of the world now for example-. Some organizations and local authorities now demand a certain qualification to be attained by the building in order to be authorized. For example EIAP were first designed to assess certain aspects of buildings mostly energy, water and material use. They were also firstly designed for certain types of buildings. New developments to EIAP for buildings included expanding the assessment categories to include every stage and component of a building during its life time. The new generations of programs are moving towards a more comprehensive view of assessment rather than it being for only one type of buildings or one aspect of building elements. New additions to BREAM 2008 and LEED 2009 included the introduction of new versions to assess new types of building (ref for Leed and bream websites). EIAP also assess buildings in different stages; designing, construction, operation and demolish. With number of these programs being in use for several years spotting the developments directions for EIAP for buildings could be recognized and analyzed. In the first generation of EIAP like and , assessments were usually made by a qualified third party. In recent years web based assessment have been introduced, for example in - and LEED V3 2009 (ref for Leed and bream websites). This came as a reaction to the market demand for an easy to use initial assessment. EIAP outcomes are a certificate grade (,), a report () or a to acknowledge the grade of a building in achieving its environmental targets. Recent additions to EIAP for building included the introduction of an outstanding rate for outstanding innovations in green building as in in LEED and -in BREAM (ref for Leed and bream websites). This comes as a result of the current need on the market for green buildings to achieve the highest the huge competition. The success of EIAP in reshaping the building industry is undeniable. In recent years, EIAP have been playing a big role in moving the building industry into a more environment conscious directions, as presented in (Cole, 2003): ..There is little doubt that building environmental assessment methods have contributed enormously to furthering the promotion of higher environmental expectations, and are directly and indirectly influencing the performance of buildings. This current success of EIAP for buildings is considered one of the -in the world (usgreen building council). This success derives from the ability of these programs to offers a common ground for designers, governments and buildings owners, to assess building performance and be recognized for good practice. This chapter will focus on certification programs that deal with evaluation and assessment of buildings to serve as a starting point in developing a specific program aimed at the Egyptian environment needs. From the author view Types of Building Assessment Methods EIAP for buildings could be divided to two types according to what they assess in a building. The first type assesses one or more of the building aspects to find out how it will affect the environment and how well the buildings elements will score against environmental standards, for example on energy efficiency or materials choice. Programs like R-2000 and ENERGY STAR assess mainly building energy efficiency (R-2000, 2007, ENERGY STAR, 2009). These types of assessment methods sometimes are specifically designed for a certain type of buildings like P-mark for prefabricated houses and GreenCalc for Dutch office buildings (Technical Research Institute of Sweden, 2009, GreenCalc, 2009). Also for some programs the assessment is done to only one stage of a building, for example ATHENA for design stage only and NovoClimat for after operation stage only (ATHENA, 2009, Natural Resources Canada, 2009). The assessed buildings either pass the assessment and given a certificate or a qualificatio n grade, or fail to qualify and be given guidance on how to improve the assessed element of their building. The second type of EIAP assesses building as a whole against a set of categories to find out the building total impacts on the environment. These types of programs always include a wide range of categories of assessment ranging from site design and energy efficiency to water usage and recycling management. They also cover different building types with specific consideration for each type, for example in BREEAM, LEEDS and HK-BEAM there are specific versions to assess homes, schools, retail and healthcare. These programs assess a building on different stages; design, construction, operation, maintenance and demolition stage in some programs. Usually a certificate or a qualification grade is awarded to the assessed building to define its standard. Table 2-1 presents EIAP that will be reviewed in this study. Developed in Canada in 1982 the R-2000 is a voluntary program encouraging builders to build energy-efficient houses that are environmentally friendly and healthy. It includes an energy efficiency standard for new houses that is continuously updated. It also includes comprehensive training and education courses for builders. The R-2000 standard assesses energy consumption performance for a house through a series of technical requirements: (minimum envelope requirements, ventilation system requirements, combustion system requirements, energy performance target, lights and appliances, indoor air quality and environmental features/eco-management) (Natural resources Canada, 2009, R-2000, 2007). During the first few years of application the R-2000 program didnt attract the anticipated Canadian building practice (Horvat et al., 2005, Adair, 1996), this was due to: Copying R-2000 homes by uncertified builders that lead to a failure of real application of the program standards. Being more expensive (6-10%) to build R-2000 home in comparison to regular building. Being flexible is what helped the R-2000 (2005 edition) program stay in the current market and being able to be applied to any type of homes. Another advantage is producing homes with 30%-40% energy savings (R-2000, 2007, Horvat et al., 2005). P-mark system (Sweden, 1989) P-mark came as a reaction to the manufacturers of prefabricated houses in Sweden need for an assessment program that assures the market of the quality of their houses. P-mark is a voluntary program. It was developed for design and after construction stages. P-mark authorities use the method of unannounced inspections to assure quality control procedures after operation. 5% of the finished houses is inspected and measured annually. The inspections are on performance bases for the finished homes on air-tightness of the building envelope, air exchange rates, air-tightness of ducts, sound pressure levels and heat requirement, to verify compliance with P-mark requirements P-mark certificate is considered a form of quality assurance in Sweden (Technical Research Institute of Sweden, 2009, Horvat et al., 2005, Swedish Institute for Technical Approval in Construction SITAC, 2007, website) One advantage to the application P-mark was that it has helped the Sweden market in reducing complaints from people about the failure of prefabricated homes (Anneling, 1998). The upgrades that have been made to the P-mark in recent years involved improving the assessment categories to include: 1) Testing for ventilation, air-tightness of houses and ventilation ducts, 2) Inspection for HVAC performance, water-tightness of the kitchen or toilet (Technical Research Institute of Sweden, 2009). The Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria (BEPAC) is a voluntary EIAP specifically for commercial buildings. It assesses the building on five categories: energy use, indoor environment, ozone protection, resource conservation, and transportation. BEPAC was Canadas first non-residential environmental assessment tool and has influenced a lot of the programs that followed for example: BREEAM Canada, GBTool, C-2000 and GreenGlobes. On its first version it used an experienced third party to undertake the assessment. As a reaction to concerns regarding the costs of using an expensive third party to carry out the assessment in BEPAC; the self-assessment version of BEPAC was developed. It allows facility staff to evaluate their own buildings. It contains a program for user training. This new addition has been criticized as the facility staff might be not experienced enough to carry out an assessment. BEBAC label consistency has been questioned and this led to the assessment not being used much in the Canadian market (SDIC, 2009, Marshall, 2008, DEH, 2000, Bond, 1999). Eco-profile (Norway, 1995) Eco-Profile is a simple environmental assessment method which was developed to be easy to use to encourage the uptake of the scheme. It assesses life cycle effects of a building on external environment, resources and indoor climate (Boonstra and Pettersen, 2003, Strand and Fossdal, 2003). The program uses 82 parameters to assess the building performance and then given a grade. The grading scale is: 1 for Low environmental impact, 2 for Medium impacts and 3 for Greater impact (Strand and Fossdal, 2003). Eco-Profile is not currently used in the Norwegian market. It has not been marketed since 2002 due to funding limitations with the Norwegian Building Research Institute. Even though more than 60 commercial buildings have been assessed by this program in 2000-2001 it is not considered a successful one as it didnt continue, as presented in (Boonstra and Pettersen, 2003): so far Eco-profile cannot be said to have been a success Some of the suggested improvement for the program included simplifying the program by presenting one index instead of three and reducing the number of the assessed parameters. Another direction for improvement will have to include updating the weighting of parameters. (Boonstra and Pettersen, 2003, Strand and Fossdal, 2003) (Andresen, 2005, Krishnan Gowri, 2004., Hasegawa, 2003, G. Assefa et al., 2007). GreenCalc (The Netherlands, 1997) GreenCalc is an assessment program for Dutch buildings especially commercial and industrial. It uses computer tool to calculate the buildings environmental load in terms of cost. It is divided into four modules: 1) material module: choice of materials, quantities and insulating values. 2) Energy module: energy consumption in operation phase (use of building, air-conditioning, ventilation and lighting. 3) Water usage: water consumption in the operation phase (facilities, sanitary facilities and rainwater). 4) Mobility: accessibility from home to work place; location, public transport and own transport. Assessment is performed in comparison to a benchmark building designed to 1990s standards. The benchmark for environmental index for 1990s building is 100 and current building is 150-300. The program predicts that buildings in 2050 will achieve environmental index of 2000 (Seo et al., 2005, GreenCalc, 2009). The latest version of the program GreenCalc+ has tried to cope with the highly developed market of green buildings. It included expanded simulation modeling with the designer being able to evaluate the effects of better insulation, glazing, efficient lighting systems, and solar energy systems as design options. It updated its energy consumption prediction method to be able to calculate the Energy Performance Norm option (GreenCalc, 2009). ENERGY STAR (US, 2000) ENERGY STAR is a program to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. It is operated by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy. It assesses products as well as buildings, for example; lighting fixtures, home electronics, office equipment, heating and cooling equipment. The building certificate is for residential (single/multi-family and renovated houses) and commercial buildings (ENERGY STAR, 2009, Horvat et al, 2005). Criticisms to ENERGY STAR buildings came from it being more expensive than other conventional buildings especially on design and material aspects. Studies proved that these costs are accepted because the building save on running costs (i.e., the HVAC system) (Tanmay Tathagat 2007, Horvat et al, 2005). In recent development to the program and as a reaction to meet the escalating demands for energy savings, modifications have been applied to its minimum energy saving requirements. Initially in 2000 the ENERGY STAR label required a building to be at least 30% more energy efficient (heating, cooling and water heating) than a comparable one built to the 1993 Model Energy Code. Also the building should be 15% more efficient than the state energy code. New modification in 2007 demanded that a building must be at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code IRC (ENERGY STAR, 2009). (Roosa, 2007, Greg K and Capital E, 2003). (Yudelson and Fedrizzi, 2008b, Greg K and Capital E, 2003, ENERGY STAR, 2009). 2.5.1.7 NovoClimat (Canada, Quà ©bec, 2000) NovoClimat was initially conceived to allow Quebec builders to increase the energy efficiency of their homes. It was developed by the Quebec Agency for Energy Efficiency (Natural Resources Canada, 2009, Horvat et al., 2005). The assessment is done to the building in construction stage and after completion. A typical Novoclimat home will score EnerGuide rating of between 78 and 80 (http://www.ottawasnewesthomes.com/novoclimat-for-gatineau-new-homes.php, http://www.aee.gouv.qc.ca/en/my-home/novoclimat/). It is a voluntary program inspired by Canadas National Model Energy Code. What makes this program different is the fact that it connects energy efficiency and air-tightness to the durability of the building envelope. The new Novoclimat 2007 aimed directly to quantify the effects it makes to a building, by setting a goal to improve a buildings energy performance by a minimum of 25% (Efficient Energy Agency, 2008, Natural Resources Canada, 2009). http://www.ottawasnewesthomes.com/novoclimat-for-gatineau-new-homes.php http://www.aee.gouv.qc.ca/en/my-home/novoclimat/ (Salomon and Nigel, 2006, Robert C, 2003, Natural Resources Canada, 2009, Horvat et al., 2005). 2.5.1.8 ATHENA (Canada, 2000) Athena is North American software for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for buildings. It assesses industrial, institutional, office, multi-unit/single family residential homes and also assesses both new buildings and renovations to existing buildings. It is for design stage only to help in deciding which materials to use as it recognizes more than 90 materials and simulates over 1,200 different assembly combinations (structural and envelope). According to ATHENA institute 2009, this software takes into account the environmental effects of: material manufacturing, (including resource extraction and recycled content), related transportation, on-site construction, regional variation in energy use and other factors, building type and assumed lifespan, maintenance, repair and replacement effects, demolition and disposal, operating energy emissions and pre-combustion effects, embodied primary energy use, global warming potential, solid waste emissions, pollutants to air, pollutants to water and natural resource use. ATHENA (4) Impact Estimator, is the newest version of the program and was released in 2009. As most of the new generation of EIAP, ATHENA (4) newest edition included improving simulation modeling. The software will help designers choose a design from up to five design scenarios. It is also more flexible in handling data flows with more impact measures. Another new feature is the ability to choose new regions to assess (ATHENA, 2009). Eco-Quantum (The Netherlands, 1998) Eco-Quantum is a LCA based computer tool. It starts by entering building data, then the calculation section and finally the output results. It has two versions; one for offices and the other for domestic buildings. It calculates the environmental effects during the entire life span of a building. This includes the impact of energy, the maintenance during the use phase and the differences in the durability of parts of the construction related to the life span of the building. The program has an advantage of being easy to use. As a reaction to the evolving market for environmental assessment, Eco-Quantum V3 latest additives included improving assessment categories. Not only it assess materials and energy flow, it now also takes into account the possibility for selective demolition, recycling, ozone depletion, human toxicity and product reuse ((Kortman, 1999, Breedveld, 2007 Forsberga Malmborgc , 2004, ISPRA, 2009). MAK refernce BEAT (Denmark, 2001) The Building Environmental Assessment Tool (BEAT) is a LCA based tool. BEAT is a relation database designed using Microsoft Access. The user must supply: type of building, estimated lifetime of the building, geometry of the building, number of floors above/below ground, roof pitch, number of windows in the building, % of facade area covered by windows and natural or mechanical ventilation. BEAT assessment is for design stage only. It can be used both for supporting the general design choices early in the design phase, and later for supporting the more detailed design choices. The total environmental effects are the sum of multiplying the environmental effect by a weighting factor. Motivated by both the increased requirements to the energy performance of buildings and the recent developments for simulation tools for building assessment, the Danish Building Research Institute (SBi) is studying a project to develop BEAT. It is studying how to facilitate the use of BEAT by integrating it into new simulation software called BSim. This will allows both energy and environmental assessments to be performed in one operation. The new program is expected to be flexible in respect to the anticipated Canadian Environment Network (CEN) requirements. Early signs of the anticipated merge suggest that it is useful to support decision during design phase (Pedersen, F., Hansen, K., Wittchen, K. B., Grau, K., Johnsen, K. (2008). Combining building thermal simulation methods and LCA methods. In C. Rode, Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on Building Physics in the Nordic Countries: Nordic Symposium on Building Physics 2008, NSB2008, Copenhagen, June 16-18, 2008, Vol. 2 (pp. 605-611 ). Lyngby: DTU.(The Danish Building Research Institute, 2007). LCAid (Australia, 2001) LCAid is the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Design Aid software package developed by department of public works and services categories. It is to identify the largest impacts over the building life cycle. It is user friendly decision making tool used to evaluate the environmental performance of design options over its life span. The program inputs are: raw materials, building product manufacture, energy, and water. Outputs include: resource extraction, emissions to air, water, land and waste, demolition reuse, recycling and disposal. The software outputs identify the areas that have the greatest impact on the environment so it could be reduced by other solutions. LCAid improvements included to separates the environmental impacts within each indicator into four stages; construction, operation, maintenance and demolition (Eldridge, 2002, Graham, P. 2000). Green Globes (Canada, 2000) Green Globes is a system to manage the assessment of environmental designs. It is an online assessment for green buildings. The system requires the client (i.e. property manager, owners of commercial and multi-residential buildings) to complete an online confidential questionnaire at design stage. Another stage of the assessment is an online report from a third-party at the construction stage. The categories of assessment for green Globes are: site, energy, water, emissions and indoor environment. It was developed based on BREEAM/Green Leaf as their upgrade or as their web-based tool. It was much anticipated and there was an immediate uptake to it with more than 100 users registered for existing building assessments only in 2002. One of the reasons for the huge uptake could have been that the program was filling the gap for an online assessment method that is related to BREEAM. To be certified a building will have to achieve at least 35% of the total number of 1,000 points. New editi on of Green Globes are in the line of developing the program to consider the building surrounding environment and not only the building itself. The new tool for Continual Improvement of Existing Buildings (CIEB) will look at aspects such as resident transportation opportunities (ECD, 2009, Boonstra Pettersen, 2003, Green Globes (2009). BEES (US, 2002) Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) is a program to help making an environmental but cost effective building. BEES measures the life time effects of the building and its components. The categories of assessment are in terms of: Global warming, Acidification, Eutrophication, Resource Depletion, Indoor Air Quality, Solid Waste, First Cost and Future Cost. The software strength comes from the extensive assessment for economic performance of a building using the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard. It produces results for environmental performance and economic performance and an overall performance as shown in Figure 2-9. All stages of buildings construction are analyzed from the row material manufacture and transportation to the waste management. The program is constantly developing by adding assessment categories and new materials to the software database in order to keep up to date with the latest editions in the green designs. BEES 4.0 function to the newest data from U.S. EPA and have more than 200 building products in its database (BEES, 2007, Lippiatt, et.al., 2002). Programs that assess the whole building. BREEAM (UK, 1990) The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), initiated as a tool for assessing the environmental performance of a building. BREEAM assessment is divided into 9 categories: Management, Health Comfort, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Land Use, Ecology and Pollution. It was initially started as a questionnaire based tool. These questionnaires were designed for each stage of a building from design to post-operation. The actual credits were given to a building only on two stages: concept design stage and the preparation of construction stage. One criticism for BREEAM was that finished buildings sometimes differ from the design. This has been addressed in the latest version of BREEAM (2008) by introducing a post construction assessment. This assessment will ensure that all the specifications stated in the design are carried out in the actual building (BREEAM, 2009, BERR, 2008, Howe, 2008). Another criticism for BREEAM was that design teams used to cop y whole paragraphs of the checklists provided by BREEAM and put it in the design specification to get the credits from the assessor. Also a lot of credits could have been obtained from number of very small additives to the design (for example parking sheds). These credits will help buildings in getting a high rating without necessarily being green as a whole. In BREEAM 2008 mandatory credits was introduced to address this problem. These credits will ensure a minimum application of a holistic view of green concept in the rated buildings. Also by making the Code for Sustainable Homes and BREEAM or equivalent mandatory in April 2008, this will secure sustainable measures in larger developments (BREEAM, 2009, BERR, 2008, Howe, 2008, Glasson et al., 2005). BREEAM initially didnt include benchmarks for number of criteria; it used to make reference to them. This was designed to help BREEAM being flexible. In BREEAM 2008 a lot of credits have been expanded especially setting benchmarks for CO2 emissions to align with the new Environmental Performance Certificate (EPC). BREEAM assess new and existing building for deferent types of buildings: Courts, homes, Industrial buildings, Multi-Residential, Prisons, Offices, Retail and Education. Latest developments in BREEAM 2008 included expanding the assessed building types to include BREEAM Healthcare and BREEAM Further Education. As a reaction to the evolving market of green buildings and the urge to use the highest environmental developments in buildings industry; a new rating level (BREEAM outstanding) has been introduced in 2008. This will enable innovative designs to be recognized for being leaders in their domain (BREEAM, 2009). HK-BEAM ( Hong Kong, 1996) The Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK-BEAM) is a voluntary environmental assessment program for buildings. It was originally developed by Real Estate Development Agency but it is owned now by BEAM Society. The program main assessment categories are: site, materials, energy, water, indoor environment and innovative aspects and its award classifications are Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. It was the first program to finalize its assessment only when the building is completed. HK-BEAM is updating periodically to keep up with the industry standards and regulations. New versions were released on 1999, 2003 and 2005. The latest version HK-BEAM 4/04 has a lot of modifications to respond to the developing market of green buildings. BEAM 2004 highlighted the increasing importance of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ); by making it necessary to obtain minimum credit for it in order to be eligible for a grade. The grade awarded is based on percentage of applicable credi ts gained both for IEQ and overall assessment. BEAM is considered a very successful assessment tool. Though being voluntary program, in 2003, over

white fang :: essays research papers

White Fang By Jack London   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  White Fang, by Jack London is an amazing tail of survival and the wild. White fang is a wolf born into a cruel life, but endures it and becomes stronger because of it. He finds hate, but then finds love in the epic tail of this amazing animal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Two men, Henry and Bill go sledding with six dogs. Each night they camp in the merciless wilderness, a dog is killed by a wolf pack. The wolves come closer to camp every night, until there are three dogs left. One of the wolves is different and bigger then the rest, a she-wolf, who’s use to people and afraid of guns. One day the men’s sled overturned and got caught up in trees. They had to untie the dogs to fix things. One of the dogs saw the she-wolf and took off after her, only to be ambushed by a dozen wolves. The dog ran for his life, while Bill went with his gun to save him. Bill and the dog both became a meal to the wolves. A couple of nights later, so did the rest of the dogs. The only thing that saved Henry was sheltering in the middle of a fire he’d made. By the time the fire had died, other men came with sled dogs to his rescue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The she-wolf had taken off with her pack, only to abandon them to be with her one-eyed mate. They traveled to an Indian camp and stayed a few nights, then found a cave where the she-wolf had her five puppies. The father loyally went out hunting for them and let them eat before he did. Sometimes food got scarce though and all but one pup died from hunger. The father also died from tangling with a sphinx. The last pup was curious one day, While his mother was hunting, he went out of the cave and got his first kill, baby birds. He also fought with the mother bird, but lost the battle from getting pecked. Later a hawk ate that bird. Then the pup walked up to a stream and accidentally fell in. he was quickly swept downstream. Downstream the cub swam to shore and was met by a weasel and her babies. The pup attacked and was nearly killed by the mother weasel, but his mother came to the rescue. She killed the weasel and they ate it.

Walt Whitman Poetic Devices

Poetic Devices Walt Whitman: Parallel Structure – In â€Å"I Hear America Singing† lines 2-8 are the best examples of Parallel Structure. Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the plowboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Free Verse – Free verse is a poem that is written without any type of rhyme in it and â€Å"A Noiseless Patient Spider† is a perfect example.It doesn’t rhyme, but to make the poem make sense he uses repetition, metaphor, all iteration and personification. Apostrophe – An example of apostrophe in â€Å"A Noiseless Patient Spider† was when the narrator addresses his soul. Mood – in the beginning mood of the poem â€Å"When I Heard the Learned Astronomer† was kind of tired and sick. But in the second part of the poem his mood changes it to kind of romantic. Catalog – Catalog is like to make a list, and Whitman makes a list of worker like carpenter, mason, wood maker, etc. in the poem â€Å"I hear America Singing†

Women and Advertising

2AHIFA? JELAI It’s the Image that Is Imperfect Advertising and Its Impact on Women Advertisements and media images have a stronger impact on shaping gender images than books on feminism and scholarly experiments on gender equality. Stereotypes and generalisations in ads continue to objectify women, and place stress solely on their appearance, thus devaluing their innate worth. INDHU RAJAGOPAL, JENNIFER GALES Prologue I n examining higher education, there is a tendency to assume that all students have equal opportunities and only merit matters. There are, however, some unique factors that mitigate chances for qual treatment for all groups because of different ascriptive characteristics of students who wish to access, and achieve merit in, higher education. Gender is one such ascriptive characteristic that blocks girls and women both socially and academically from realising their fullest potential. In this paper, we will examine how gender-based social images that are transmitte d through the media act as barriers to realising students’ full potential in their life. Could higher education intervene in and vitiate these media images? As far as gender issues are concerned, it can be proven that the power of advertisements nd media images has a stronger impact in shaping gender images than what books on feminism and scholarly experiments have on gender equality. On the assumption that education shapes our intellect, we proceed to explore in this paper how media shape the images, especially those of girls and women. The Image-Making As we sit here watching the new Levi’s commercial – yes, the one with the catchy tune with the singing belly buttons – we find ourselves becoming a victim to the Economic and Political Weekly power of advertising. We were thinking how good these jeans would be especially for someone with my body type as we hum he song and do the dance. Then it hit us we are turning into the advertiser’s best friend – the one who believes anything they say. Furthermore, we are getting ready to tell our friends about the new ‘item’ on the market and how there are jeans to fit women with the wide hip too! The power that advertisements carry with them is sensational. They have the ability to change and shape people’s opinions of themselves with one picture of an image that is technologically modified to represent the advertiser’s perspective of what is seen as perfect by viewers. The key word is advertiser’s perspective because often he person who has created what she or he deems as the ideal image has also created the model. Often advertisements do not correctly represent the majority of society or even a small percentage of how women actually look. This analysis is intended to enlighten readers on the effect advertisements carry with them, specifically on women. First the discussion will expand on the societal milieu that ads hold, and then continue to e xplain the effects consumerism and promotional messages on this group of individuals. By looking at advertisements, and at theoretical and scholarly literature as well as popular culture material on the topic, this nalysis will show how the images advertisements allude to can influence and shape a woman’s perspective of herself. Matlin (1987) explains how the media’s misrepresentation of women in advertise- August 10, 2002 ments has created plenty of stereotypical representations of women. She lists seven empirically documented stereotypes that have been created by advertisements. Matlin’s1 sixth stereotype states that women’s bodies are used differently from men’s bodies in advertisements [Matlin 1987: 43]. In advertisements, men are shown accompanying the female and looking directly into the camera whereas females are portrayed with their eyes ooking away from the camera. Women are often shown in a sexual or vulnerable position in order to sell t he product, whether it is an advertisement for shaving cream or alcoholic beverage, for instance, Edge Shaving Cream, Pepsi-Cola or Absolute Vodka. Is this a reasonable representation of how women act and dress? No, it is not; but these types of ads are able to change what women think they should look like. When magazines feature pages on â€Å"make your butt look good in every outfit†, you have to wonder whether your butt does not look good now. You think: â€Å"I must have had a problem all along and I never noticed! Then, as you read on, you see some skinny and obviously attractive woman is advertising this article, which makes you think, â€Å"I will benefit and look like her if I read this article and buy the product†! Matlin illustrates how, when women look at advertisements showing beautiful female models, they tend to be less satisfied with their own attractiveness [Matlin 1987:44]. It is evident that the media will be the catalyst for these women to have body image problems. But do you blame them? Anyone would be self-conscious of his/her image after looking through a magazine filled with attractive women who portray unattainable images.Matlin describes how the medium is an important force in shaping reality [Matlin 1987: 43]. It is these stereotyped representations that help to shape womens’ opinions of what they should look like. Often girls and women forget that, and become sensitised by advertisements. They do not realise that they are conforming to what the ads show by reading the magazine ad’s prescription that will help them look like the woman in the ad in just three weeks! Realistically, these gender stereotypes only create more barriers for women. By creating 3333 these unrealistic images of women both genders are affected by these unreasonable nd often unattainable expectations and goals. The power of ads shapes men’s expectations for finding women who are over five feet and six inches tall, but still wei ghing less than 100 pounds, who look great in tight clothes, and demure and submissive. This is not a practical or reasonable expectation. In real life situations, it creates a downward spiral of disappointment and disillusionment. We live in a world where the goal of many North American women is to look like the next model in the Victoria’s Secret advertisements, which is one of the few catalogues a man generally grabs from the mail pile nd eagerly reads. Kang tries to answer the question: what messages do magazine advertisements on women transmit to society (1997: 979)? Following closely on Erving Goffman’s original study on gender analysis, the findings in this article are quite similar to the original survey that not much of a change has occurred over the years in the way women’s roles are portrayed. Advertisements have consistently confined women to the traditional role of a mother, or beauty, or sex symbol, and these do not represent women’s diversi ty [Kang 1997: 981]. This is similar to what Matlin refers to as gender stereotypes in ads.Ads use women not as humans but as objects. Stereotypes and generalisations in ads continue to objectify women, and place stress solely on their appearance, thus devaluing their innate worth. Kilbourne (1995) points out that a picture ad by only looking at one part of the body, for instance, the breasts, dismembers the woman’s body and objectifies her. This effect is demonstrated in alcohol or beverages or perfume ads that use a women’s body as the bottle. Ads seem to show more often skinny women cleaning the bathroom, making dinner or even worse putting on make-up; the women in these pictures are never heavy or even verage in size. The ads are made to portray unrealistic and over-exaggerated images. Women may indeed be engaged in such tasks; but how many women at home are organising their husband’s clothes and dusting antiques, wearing the latest makeup collection or the newest and trendiest outfit? These ads are so reminiscent of the 1950s image of June Cleaver waiting for her husband Ward to come home, while she cooks dinner and waters the plants wearing her pearl necklace. Again, we 3334 see the emphasis on the woman being attractive, no matter what role she plays. Once more, we see that advertisements ranslate and portray attractiveness as being tall, skinny and with flawless skin to condition the onlookers and attract them to such representations made in the ad. Kilbourne is a pioneering researcher on the topic of misrepresentation of women in advertisements. She is an avid lecturer, and has produced many videos on the topic of her lectures. Her most recent book Can’t Buy My Love (1999) talks about the way advertising can influence women and mould their opinions. Just as we are more vulnerable to the glory and heartbreak of romantic love than we will ever be again, at no time are we more vulnerable to the eductive power of advertising an d of addiction than we are in our adolescence [Kilbourne 1999: 129]. Thus, we are shown how a woman is actually influenced by ads and can end up physically trying to change to fit what she sees as acceptable because the advertisers show her that she needs to be skinny. In her video ‘Killing us Softly 3’, Kilbourne continues to look at magazine advertisements and the images they promote. She looks carefully at what Goffman outlines as his â€Å"categories† to analyse advertisements. 2 Kilbourne’s mandate is to make people take ads seriously because they do have an effect on humans and specially marginalised groups in this case, women. In her video, she touches on the obvious, but often forgotten, fact that technology plays a part in what we view as the perfect-looking person [Kilbourne 2000]. It is impossible to remove every line or blemish to create the illusion we viewers try to create. That is why I feel that ads are not healthy for women because they gi ve that fond hope that we could look like that person if we just, do/use ‘this’ and take ‘that’. What many viewers do not realise, as Kilbourne so quickly pointed out, is that often what we see are advertisements that have been air-brushed or created from a atabase of physical parts of various attractive human beings [Kilbourne 1995]. So Kilbourne asks the real question: when only 5 per cent of women can look like models why do we rush around to look like something we cannot be? [Kilbourne 2000]. Kilbourne’s research proves that young girls are easily influenced by these ads and will do anything to create the look granted as attractive. Cultivating a thinner body offers some hope of control and success to young women with a poor self- image [Kilbourne 1999: 132]. The image of beauty in thinness is often the only body type ever advertised, and therefore shown to women.Marilyn Monroe was a national sex symbol, but was a size 12! [Kilbourne 2000]. It wa s originally thought that the extra skinny women would wear clothes well for a designer, and that way the audience would only see the outfit not the body because there was not much to see. Unfortunately, that plan backfired and the media had a field day with stressing the beauty of the women under the supposed item in question, the outfit. In the past, women who were skinny were not attractive, and were even thought of to be living a povertystricken life because they were so thin. In the present day, many young girls do not ee that these images of being thin are unattainable, and turn to being anorexic or bulimic [Stemple and Tyler 1974: 272]. Having advertisers choose what is sexy is not correct or healthy for a society. Girls live day by day on what is cool or not because the latest issue of Cosmopolitan dictates what is cool. Their life revolves around the new ‘get fit diet’, or around the top that makes them look like they have extra big breasts. The advertisement i n the Martha Stewart magazine (January 2002) is an example of how women of all ages can become the new target audience. It would be logical o assume that ‘Billi Jo’ can be seen as a middle-aged person (shown in the picture of herself in the inset before she lost weight). Following her use of the Jenny Craig Ultimate Choice Program, she was able to lose weight and feel good again. Keep in mind that it does state that results are not typical, but still the persuasive language and attractive picture only assist in making the advertisement truthful. The advertisement was featured in the prestigious Martha Stewart magazine. This magazine personifies a specific image of good taste and sophistication, which is another way to promote these ad images s acceptable. Kilbourne talks about the objectification of women. This is a common advertising tactic often used. â€Å"Many ads feature just a part of a woman’s body – a derriere, a headless torso† [Kilbourne 1 999:258]. An article in Newsweek explored the truth of stereotypes and how these stereotypes affect the genders. In the eyes of Cross (1996), this can be seen as gender typing: the process by which we identify not only people, but also vocabulary and speech patterns, gestures and behaviours, objects Economic and Political Weekly August 10, 2002 and activities as either masculine or feminine [Cross 1996: 94].By allowing this to happen, stereotypes are formed and perpetuated by the people who believe in these gender stereotypes. Claude Steele, a Stanford University psychologist, showed something more important – the impact on targets of a stereotype whose behaviour is most powerfully affected by it. A stereotype that pervades the culture the way ‘ditzy blondes’ and ‘forgetful seniors’ do, makes people painfully aware of how society views them – so painfully aware, in fact, that knowledge of stereotypes can affect how well they do on intellectual and other tasks [Begley 2000: 66]. This in turn emonstrates the truth of how gender stereotyping contributes to this problem and sustains its existence. Generalisations of this nature can be seen to have a role in advertising campaigns. Either they are the ads that create the gender stereotype or sustain it through pictures and catchy slogans, such as ‘you’ve come a long way, baby’. The ad for Victoria’s Secrets shows a woman, but all you see is her body with a caption of ‘all you see is curves’. This model’s gestures and behaviour are portrayed as feminine, and she only helps to further the idea of women as objects and more so as merely shadows in the dark.Another example of how popular culture material only encourages the stereotypes to exist is e-mail that defines what are seen to be the differences in male and female vocabulary patterns; this is a demonstration of what Cross defines as gender typing. Stemple and Tyler (1974) are ab le to give a brief synopsis of the historical changes of women in advertisements, ultimately showing how the portrayal of women has not changed very much over time. There is still the emphasis placed in the ads on what we should be, but not what we are. The ever so prominent theme still jumps out to the reader of how advertising elped to create an obsession with a woman’s physical appearance. The obsession became so deeply imbedded in women in a short span of time that they began to believe that if they did not work to look like the women in the advertisements – beautiful and youthful – they would never get or keep a man [Stemple and Tyler 1974: 272]. The most surprising aspect of this article was the survey conducted on how 30 college women interpreted these advertisements. Stemple and Tyler found that these women were not affected by the images the ads showed and felt no real Economic and Political Weekly negativity.These results were questionable, but still u seful in showing the different assumptions that can be made on this topic. Not knowing the criteria or specifics of these individuals, I speculate that the sample that saw these ads was small, and maybe these women have been exposed to this type of ad so often that they are immune to the message and image from these ads. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Kilbourne talks about how ads need to be taken seriously and not disregarded because there is a larger picture that results out of the message the advertisements give off; the idea of ‘perfection’ for women.She has shown how women’s obsession with body image has been nurtured by the advertising industry, and how historically this has not changed the idea that only skinny and pretty women live on earth. Women have to remember that it is the image that is imperfect, not the body [Wrinkler 1994: 231]. Sullivan and O’Connor give you an idea of alternative bias on the topic of advertisements influencing what women think. Results indicate that current advertisements in some ways reflect more acutely the true diversity of women’s social and occupational roles than did those of earlier time periods (1988: 181). This is not to say that hanges have not occurred in the area of advertising. We have seen an increase in the appearance of males in magazines, but they are still not being degraded in the same manner as women are usually portrayed. This is an extreme limitation to a controversial argument that ads create an unrealistic image of what women should look like and in turn causes women to feel a large sense of insecurity about themselves. One reason for the findings could be that this article did take its conclusions from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. On the contrary, the earlier article by Stemple and Tyler (1974) concluded that not much as changed in the way women are shown in ads. Sullivan and O’Connor looked specifically at the connection between social changes and the way in which the media has reflected these changes in advertisements since 1910. These authors are able to argue that ads have gone against what they have been stereotyped to do; show women in the home, needing the help of a male, and as decorative pieces. They feel that those responsible for the creation of magazine advertising have begun to recognise the increasing economic and social status of women in America [Sullivan and O’Connor 1988: 188]. The reasons for August 10, 2002 hese assumptions could range from their choice of magazines analysed to the nature of sample group they used. Even though they were able to state that changes had occurred on the image and the way women are used, they still felt that there was room for improvement. How many ads realistically depict women in their true form? The argument would seem to centre on whether advertisements have changed to realistically portray women or that there is no change in their portrayal. But both sides will agree that there can always be more improvement in this area. The true goal of advertisers is to create an image hat will generate profits for the product they are selling. The question remains whether these advertising executives are conscious of the societal problems created by them or whether they have intentionally created them as part of their selling strategy. We will never be told. We do know is that they do profit from advertisements that encourage girls to want something more, something difficult to attain/achieve in the context of where they are now. Looking through various current magazines, it was apparent that the stereotypes are evident, but maybe not to the extent that we have seen in the past. Could a hange be taking place? Sullivan and O’Connor feel that advertisements are changing with time. Women should be better represented, and not as Matlin would say, stereotyped characters. Kilbourne disagrees with this so-called change, and feels that much larger problems h ave been created by advertisements. Her research has shown that women’s selfesteem goes down at adolescence due to advertisements that portray a fake reality of women to these susceptible teenage minds [Kilbourne 2000]. This is not to say that men are left out of this process of stereotyping. They are stereotyped too, but men are usually generalised as being too ld or extremely wealthy [Kilbourne 2000]. Advertisements for men often do not degrade them by comparing them to objects, or focus on their thighs being too large and hence needing the new cream to create longer legs in four days or less! Advertisements and Their Impact A recent article in a York University student newspaper, Excalibur (January 2002) illustrates the feeling the university student experiences with advertisements and the allure of new products. The caption defiantly uses gender-specific terms to only 3335 emphasis the stress of being a woman these days. If people do not ‘smooth their wrinkles or im prove their pigment’, they ay not feel like a woman or even a person. This ad seems to carry plenty of sarcastic overtones of hate for this type of environment at York University. It seems that institutions such as a university are a focal point for advertisers to market their new ideas and watch if the trends take off. Another article in the university newspaper contributes to this materialistic critique of the university environment. The title, ‘You are What You Wear’, sums up the basic point of how the York students feel that clothes, and in a larger sense looks and appearance, shape the views of others. The interesting point of the article is that t is written from a black woman’s point of view on the topic of ‘label’ dressers. The author seems to be more embarrassed that black students follow the trends and sport the labels because, â€Å"wearing these name brands gives the wearer an elevated status† [Barnes 2002:8]. Her argument s eems to be similar to mine, that if you know yourself, then you may not be caught up in this fashion trend. But when looking at university students and this fashion environment, I cannot help but question whether this is a problem only for this age group. Advertisements have now changed their target towards multi-audiences with ne ad. Why would we think that this label issue affects only our demographics? Well it does not, and the message sent through ads is that everyone should be a part of this cultural trend of dressing well. Advertisements have the power to make the poor, rich, fat or skinny students feel insecure about their selves. If they did not, then what good would these ads be? The insecurity created by pictures ensures that the consumer will be spending or trying something to fix their appearance. Labels are just another area where advertisers use a name to target the audience. A name goes a long way, especially when ttractive individuals wear the advertised clothes. Kle in (2000) attacks this problem created by advertisers. A major reason why these advertisements are placed in schools is due to one basic fact. The advertising agencies are aware that students form their opinions in this environment, and take them with them wherever they go. Is it not better to start at this easy, impressionable age and have students edified into believing what the advertisements preach? They want conformity and lack of decision on 3336 the consumer’s part. That is what I see as so ironic, we are in an institution to learn and form our own views and not try to be haped by others. Oddly enough, in a university or college, there is an effort made in using other people’s views, and then shaping our own, for example, to learn about Freud’s or Erikson’s theories on child socialisation and then creating your own point of view. The use of popular cultural material creates a vehicle that makes it a lot easier to shape a person’s point of vi ew. This is second nature to the advertisers producing this abundance of ads in magazines. The university is seen as an ideal starting point. Klein focuses on the university as a tool/ venue used by brand-name companies to establish themselves.For example, many universities will turn to the scientific community for funding of new university building and locations, such as the University of Western Ontario’s 3M Centre devoted to research in the sports medicine field. Or they will accept donations placing these company names before the university name on the large sign that greets students before they enter their new learning environment. Klein concludes by saying how, â€Å"university campus in particular with their residences, libraries, green spaces and common standards for open and respectful discourse play a crucial, if now largely symbolic, role: they are the one lace left where young people can see a genuine public life being lived† [Klein 2000: 105]. This seems t o be ideal but not evident from our conversation on advertisements and the power they hold to possess individuals to create unrealistic goals for themselves. Universities are filled with logos – ideals and images to follow which only create a larger plain of unrealistic pictures of what women should be like. The difference between viewing an image and hearing or imagining is that ones imagination can create an unrealistic image in a person’s mind. Itamar Marcus is the Canadian director of the Palestinian MediaWatch, which is a privately funded organisation that monitors the media’s influence on the citizens of that country. Through his presentation on the topic of media and the powerful influences they create, he demonstrates the power pictures and words have. He explains that the media has shaped the lives and views of these people. People believe what they have been told, and furthermore what the specially edited books tell them [Marcus 2002]. In this case, Ma rcus shows how the school books have been rearranged to teach the youth a history different from what is taught elsewhere in the world. The Palestinian ids learn that Israel is not a country, and they are told that cities like Jaffa are a part of their land. By viewing these distorted maps or pictures they believe what they are told even more. This shows the power that words carry and the effect that images have on a group of people. Another example is the manner in which the youth of Palestine are taught to hate westerners. With pictures of westerners raping and killing their people, they are made to believe what they are told to be the truth about the western world. Marcus points out how images such as these are so â€Å"powerful† that the youth are socialised to become martyrs or their country because they see it as the right way to act. The government is using its power to create images that are not necessarily true. Verbal or written images will coerce individuals to use their own reference to imagine the truth, but pictures show exactly what they want us to believe. This is a situation illustrating how the way an image when projected with design has power and an undeniable appeal and validity. In North America, the advertisers use their power to create unrealistic images for whatever products they are hired to advertise. These images have the power to create an impression, a desire and a reality that ay not always be true. By creating a possibility, a hope and a dream, women are made to hear and then see pictures of other attractive women achieving these goals through using or having these products. These images have a strong and somewhat subliminal effect on them. It is easy to forget that we need to celebrate the differences among human beings and the uniqueness of each. We are not ‘transformer toys’ or ‘robots’ that can change body parts with a snap of the wrist and a new outfit. Advertisers hope that we will buy into these changes. Unfortunately, this misconception is perpetuated by the advertising industry.The more that women and even men realise that it is all right to listen and read the ads as long as you realise it is not a way to judge yourself by their standards that you will survive in the advertising war of pictures and words. It seems hard not to be concerned with your appearance when there is such an emphasis to look good, right or wrong. Essentially, this paper has been looking at various literature and current advertise- Economic and Political Weekly August 10, 2002 ments to speculate what effect advertisements have on women’s self-images. There still is another facet of the topic that has roubled me: is it not a question of socialisation? Does the way a woman is socialised as a child maturing into adolescence determine the likelihood of her being affected by the media’s depiction of women? If a young girl is taught to be confident and happy with her own self, would sh e still be influenced by advertisements? Why should the advertisements have the final say on beauty? The simple answer is that we let them. Can girls be properly taught that these pictures and images are not always truthful and that they should not use them as a mirror? Could self-confidence be the proper tool for teenaged girls to overcome he messages from the advertisements? As Marshall McLuhan said, the medium is the message. We need to teach girls how to deal with the message. The message will continue to be strong and distorted. Instead of fighting the images, we should teach girls that these ideals are unattainable and that they should not literally kill themselves to try to look like something that is impossible to achieve. Possibly these young women have been socialised into a pattern of insecurity or worthlessness even before they view advertisements. When they see these images on paper, the images reinforce what they already assumed about their role and omen’s roles in society. It has been stated, however, that since the early 1900s advertisements have depicted women in an insulting and often degrading manner. Hypothetically if the women who grew up during these periods are now mothers, then most likely they taught these norms to their daughters as well. Then the next generation is influenced by these advertising stereotypes, and in turn transfer these ideals to its youth. It believes in what was shown because it was not taught any better. Socialisation is a lifelong process, but it does not guarantee that a person can change or has the tools to change.With presentday slogans of ‘girl power’ from the Spice Girls, it seems hard to take them seriously when the same girls preaching girl power are wearing close to nothing on stage and over-made up with exaggerated cosmetics and costumes. Stemple and Tyler touch on how the women’s liberation movement has been devalued. The authors showed, however, that ads are a blatant co-optin g of the women’s movement; the offensive ‘baby’ in ‘you’ve come along way, baby’ clearly indicates we have not [Stemple and Economic and Political Weekly Tyler 1974: 273]. It has been shown that advertisements create a vicious cycle that emands an audience to become engulfed with an idea in order to create a profit for their clients. These advertisements and social ideas, rather than education that teaches you to be objective and critical, have been engraved in one’s culture and in the psyche of the general population. It seems to be illogical and naive on the part of any women who feel they need to starve themselves or throw up their food in order to look ‘good’. It is obvious to see how these girls feel that this is what they are supposed to do to deal with societal pressures of looking a specific way. It is difficult to accept, but women have been ingrained with hese pseudo-images. In turn, women and girls buy into this fantasy in the hope of fulfilling their desires and dreams. -29 Notes 1 Margaret Matlin outlines what she views as ‘stereotyped representations’. She states, â€Å"Hundreds of studies have been conducted in the representation of women in the media. From these resources we can draw the following conclusions†. She continues on to outline seven stereotypes that target women these are: 1) Women are relatively invisible; 2) Women are relatively inaudible; 3) Although most women are employed they are seldom shown working outside the home; 4) Women are shown oing housework; 5) Women and men are represented differently; 6) Women’s bodies are used differently from men’s bodies in advertisements; 7) Women of colour – when they are shown at all – are often represented in a particularly biased way [Matlin 1987: 43-44]. Her conclusions are helpful in deciphering the reality of how women are affected by advertisements. It was very useful to have the se stereotyped representations to add a sense of soundness to the conclusions made on the advertisements and the societal situation that has been created. 2 Kang, Mee-Eun, ‘The Portrayal of Women’s Images in Magazine Advertisements: Goffman’sGender Analysis Revisited’ Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 37 11/12 (1997): 979-996. pp 984985: The following theoretical definitions in Goffman’s Gender Advertisements are utilised in this study: (1) Relative size: One way in which social weight (eg, power, authority, rank, office, and renown) is echoed expressively in social situations is through relative size, especially height. The male’s usual superiority of status over the female will be expressible in his greater girth and height. It is assumed that differences in size will correlate with differences in social weight. (2) Feminine touch: Women, more than men, re pictured using their fingers and hands to trace outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface or to effect a â€Å"just barely touching†. This ritualistic touching is to August 10, 2002 distinguish from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates, or holds. (3) Function ranking: When a man and a woman collaborate face – to face in an undertaking, the man is likely to perform the executive role. This hierarchy of functions is pictured either within an occupational frame or outside of occupational specialisations. (4) Ritualisation of subordination: A classic stereotype of deference is that of lowering oneself hysically in some form or other of prostration. Correspondingly, holding the body erect and the head high is stereotypically a mark of unashamedness, superiority, and disdain. The configurations of canting postures can be read as an acceptance of subordination, an expression of ingratiation, submisssiveness, and appeasement. (5) Licensed withdrawal: Women more than men are pictured engaged in involvements which remove them psychol ogically from the social situation at large, leaving them unoriented in it and to it, and dependent on the protectiveness of others who are present. Turning one’s gaze away rom another’s can be seen as having the consequence of withdrawing from the current thrust of communication (p 62). The individual can also withdraw his/her gaze from the scene at large, and be psychologically â€Å"away† from the scene. References Barnes, Alicia (2002): ‘You are What You Wear’ Excalibur, February 1. 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