16. The End :(

We did our presentation yesterdayi i think it was really good. We presented the subject with the help of really affective material like videos, statistics from and so on. After the presentation, we had the in-class essay exam. I couldn't arrange the time well so i got behind :(
Well, i think we spent good time in the classes this term. I have learned a lot of things in the Eng 101 course such as blogging, APA format ( i had already known it but i developed my skills), citing images from flickr, prepearing a proper presentation in English. Also our course material was really attractive; my favourites were Killing Us Softly 3, Tough Guise and Boys Don't Cry that are about gender. It was a hard, enjoyable and technological term :)

15. Marked Women

Tomorrow is the exam day, we will do our best in the in-class essay. The Marked Women is one of the exam texts. The texts points out the women's more message-laden way of presenting themselves to the world in contrast to men's natural way of presenting themselves.


Women have to make decisions about their clothing, make-up, hair, accessories etc. Each decision carries a meaning and women have to be always marked. Men also have to make decisions but they can be unmarked and marked, but they do not have to be marked like women. For example, if a women wear sexy clothes, it sends a message; if they do not wear sexy clothes it also sends message. Also both women with make-up or no make-up are marked but we could not say men didn't wear make up; no make-up is unmarked for men.


Also all married women are marked.

If a woman takes her husband's surname, it shows the world that she is married. People think that she has traditional values and she is less herself; dominated by her husband's idendification. If a woman doesn't takes her husband's surname, people think ''she kept her own name.

If a woman uses both her and husbands surname; it is also marked.


...There is no unmarked women...


In contrast, biologically women are unmarked while men are marked.

2 X chromosomes make female, 1 X and 1 Y chromosomes make male but 2 Y chromosomes make nothing.

Also few species produce only females but there is no species that produce only males.


In linguistics, s, es, ess doesn't mean anything - in that case women are marked but in biology, Y chromosome doesn't mean anything unless it is attached to X chromosome. That is the irony!

14. Final Presentations

Last week, our friends presented films V for Vendetta and The Truman Show. And this wednesday we will do our presentation. We finished our work today and i think it will be really good. Our film is Boys Don't Cry which is about a transsexual. The film is reallly impressive, dramatic and based on a true story. I hope everybody in the class like our presentation,. It was really a group work, everybody worked hard. I felt really bad while watching the film, this film really examines gender, gender role in society, masculinity, social pressure. I will mention about film a lot in the presentation, it's just a beginning :)

13. V for Vendetta

This week, our friends presented the film ‘’V for Vendetta’’. First of all i had been watched the film about one month ago and i was very impressed. The film shows us the power of media and also how it lies. First of all, we see that a lot of people from different ages watch TV. Watching TV is not something specific to an age group. The aim of the main character, 'V' who is wearing Guy Fawkes mask, is to make a revolution and change the fascist regime. Nobody was revolting before V. When V talked on television, he reached many people (because watching TV is really a popular thing) and lot of people started to support V's idea and revolt against the fascist political party. He succeeded in impressing many pople through the media.

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” From V for Vendetta. Yes, in the film people could manage to change the fascist regime.

As i mentioned before, V was wearing Guy Fawkes mask but who is Guy Fawkes? Guy Fawkes was the man who tried to explode the parliament building like V many years ago. Guy Fawkes couldn't achive his goal, he was arrested and executed but V could echive his goal. Media's role is very important in that case. Guy Fawkes hadn't millions of supporters like V. V influenced and people started to support V after his propaganda on the TV and not ony V; V and his supporters achived the goal.

Also i want to add some important points that drew my attention; human rights violations...
the curfew
no right to protest ( Eve's parents)
using people as test subjects in experiments, they die
torture of homosexuals and so on...

12. Christmas Message For Sonja!

11. Things to do

'Colour Pencils' by ATKR, made available under a Creative Commons Licence.

Finally i submitted my final essay.There are in-class essay and final presentation left and also finishing our blogs and i-blog papers for Eng 101. I am very exited about the final presentation but unluckly the in-class essay, our presentation and my tll exam is on the same day :( I think i had to work hard and start working immediately...

10. Pub Quiz

Yesterday's class was very different from the other ones. We reviewed the course themes and texts with a British pub quiz! It is very inordinary that the words ''pub'' and ''quiz'' come together. It was very enjoyable and entertaining. I hope we will have one in a real pub :) There were two groups and four rounds with ten questions for each. Our group won with 25 right answers and we will receive an extra credit:) Its was a great opportunity and a lot of fun.

9. Practice presentations :)

'Arirang (DPRK)' by giladr, made available under a Creative Commons Licence

This week we did our practice presentation with my team members Gamze and Burak. It was my first presentation in english so i was very excited. we couldn't work enough before the presentation but it was good i think. We talked a lot and rest of the class shared their ideas with us. It was an enjoyable debate. Also the other presentation was very interesting. Their powerpoint slide show was very fantastic. Our slide show was not bad but we will do it better in our real presentation. Thanks to our teacher Sonja for her feedback and comments, they will help us a lot :)

8. Yes, they are killing us softly!!!

When i watched the video Killing Us Softly 3, i realized that i totally agree with Jean Kilbourne. The advertisements create ''perfect'' women that are not fully human. They take someones perfect nose, others perfect mouse etc. and they create the perfect one. Also they use one part of body to sell product. For exemple they use hips or breasts and they are always ''perfect''. These type of advertisements encourage people to have perfect body and therefore encourage people to plastic surgery. Breasts become object of somebody elses pleasure and cause women to lose their sensation. In addition, we see women with covered mouth. Women have passive body language in opposite to men's active bosy language. Women are shown as ''passive, sexual'' objects. Also we see young girls and even children with make up and they give sexual message to society. Women are used to sell things. Murdered women and male violence are results of culture's pornographic altitude and advertisements. Women are not objects we have to prevent these type of advertisements and male violence against women.

7. Photo from Flickr...

As i mentioned at my previous post, we learned citing images and using the site flickr. Our second presentation is about the film 'Boys Don't Cry' and here is a photo of the film actresses that i took from flickr:)



Figure 1. Photograph of Hilary and Chloe #2 (n.d.). Note: Copyright myyearofnewthings (made available under a Creative Commons License)

List of references
myyearofnewthings. (Photographer). (n.d.) [Photograph of Hilary and Chloe #2], [Online Image]. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34213856@N00/441495659/

6. I have learned so far...

When I first entered the ELEA, it was very difficult for me. I hadn't even know what is an academic essay or i hadn't even heard of while listening part in an exam. I learned a lot of things in the prep class and in English 101 i am using the things i have learned. Eng 101 is enjoyable because the lessons are not boring. We are reading different texts from many different authors and their subjects are interesting. Also our teacher Sonja Tack encourage us to use our blogs. It is good for me because i didn't know using or creating a blog and thanks to her i have a blog now and i am posting to it regularly. I can show my blog to my parents when they ask me ''what are you doing in the school?'' or '' how is your school going?''. Also i learned how to search photos on the different internet sites like flickr instead of ''google images''. Furthermore, i learned how to write an essay in APA format and citing images legally. I wish i will learn many other things in this course, we still have 8 weeks and a lot of things to learn.

5. Deborah Tannen

We will do our practice presentation on december. After the class i did some research on our text ''Marked Women'' and its author Deborah Tannen. Deborah Tannen is a professor at Georgetown University and author of many books and articles. Most of her books were on the bestseller lists and translated into many languages. She is also published a lot of poems, short stories and essays. Our text ''Marked Women'' is about gender differences in communication styles.

4. Is Photoshop Killing Photojournalism?

We see a number of photos on the internet, television, magazines, billboards, newspapers, advertisements etc. Very large amount of space are given to visual. We can see people and different events from all around the world with photos of them. But are they real? We don't know. I think some people use the technology for their own benefits. For instance, people are curious about famous people's life and journalists make fake photos of famous people to draw attention. In my opinion it is not ethic, these fake things decrease their reliability and they must always tell the truth to us.

3. War Photographer

We talked about the war photos in the class and i wanted to share this film which is about this subject. It is about the war photographer James Nachtwey.
''I have been a witness, and these pictures are
my testimony. The events I have recorded should
not be forgotten and must not be repeated."
-James Nachtwey-

2. Ordinary people in extraordinary situations - REALITY TV!

People in a place, there are cameras everywhere, millions of people watching you...
Why are the reality shows so popular?
Millions are watching these programmes (Big Brother, Survivor, Popstar) all around the world and they are always popular...
Reality TV offers many opportunities for tv channels, advertisers, radio channels, internet sites,magazines and even news! In short, it offers cross-media and cross-marketing potantial.
People talk about the programme everywhere, they vote for the one who they support, they create fan clubs, newspapers, tv chanels, radio channels publish what happened in the programme and these programmes are also advertising spaces for companies.
What happens in the shows are generally fabricated situations. For example, there is a gay person, an agreesive person, a sensitive person in most Big Brothers. It causes sensations and people get curious about it. Also, many of them involve dramatisation. Maybe there is a disabled competitor and most of the people support him/her.
While the reality tv offers many opportunities for media, it also gives chance to people for being famous. Beren Saat, who performs Bihter in the popular tv series Aşk-ı Memnu, is a good example of this. She became famous after the show Türkiyenin Yıldızları.
Reality tv is not real, it is generally a scenario. It is constructed by media and for media... But the events in reality tv have immediate and considerable effect on our lives.

1. The Enormous Radio

Last week we read The Enormous Radio which was written by John Cheever. The story is examinig the American families of 1940's and the dream of perfect American family. Jim and Irene Westcott are the main characters of the book. Their dream was to have a house in the suburban country sides and have a life without any problems that are caused by lack of money and quarrels. They could hear the voices of their neighbors with their enormous radio. While their dream was being a perfect American family, the radio revealed the problems and hidden truths of the American families. Irene became curious about their neigbors' problems and secrets so she became addicted to the radio. As she became obsessed with the radio, she felt depressed instead of appreciation. She started to interrogate her own marriage and she could not stop listening the radio although it depreesed her. Their marriage became miserable and filled with a lot of problems.

The reason of their marriage problems was not the radio. They were far from perfect American family and Irene failed in hiding the problems. The radio only revealed their hidden problems. John Cheever reveals the truth that perfect American family does not exist by showing the truths with the help of the radio.

When i read the life of the author of story, John Cheever, i learned his addiction to alcohol. The story is a study of an addictive person and it is also a story of an addictive person, Irene! In my opinion John Cheevers' obsession to alcohol may have effect on his work.