I put this flier near an entry of Aztec Corner Apartments. I figured a lot of students wouldn’t be on campus so I brought the flier to them. It says “I don’t know about you, ladies, but I’m sure F@*King tired of cat calls and unequal treatment. I want more power than that of turning a guy on. You? #girlpower”

I found this picture and article off http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/qt/Playboy.htm. I google searched Playboy’s first iconic magazine cover. I knew this magazine was quite scandalous at the time and I wanted to learn a little more about Marilyn Monroe and her image portrayed in this time period. This image is clearly scanned off this initial magazine and I have it in PDF form. The condition is clear due to the fact it’s been copied and scanned. An original would be expected to be worn out due to time. The size of this image is 95.8 KB and the dimensions are 570 x 786.
This image of her waving her hand was an original from Playboy in December of 1953 but the nude inside centerfold was purchased from a local printer who made calendars. A fun fact about this first edition is that it doesn’t have a date on the cover because he didn’t think there would be a second edition. That quickly changed after he sold 54,175 at 50c each. This edition is also the only one without Hugh Hefner’s name inside. The intent of the image is as stated, for the entertainment of men. Hefner joked about if a woman had picked it up that she should find the nearest male and simply hand it over because there was nothing she would want from such type of magazine. What seemed to be a simple magazine full of girls turned this young man’s life around and his company exploded with profit and success. He spawned a sexual revolution and no imitator has compared to this classic.
I chose this image due to a recent conversation I’ve had on the image of women today. The discussion revolved around how men tend to have a love-hate relationship with women who confidently portray their sexuality. They love looking but hate that they reveal everything right away. They love the confidence but see them as “easy.” I find the current trend contradicting and decided to research the beginning of one of America’s most prized lifestyle and entertainment magazines.

Yes, I know quite a few people have posted about feminism but it’s something that has really sparked my interest. The difference between then and now, the types of supporters meaning hesitant and bold, and really where its going next. I found this article about then and now and it mentioned how in the past, feminism was about equal rights for voting, jobs, political status, things like that. It said how the technical Second Wave of Feminism rejected Barbie. Women threw away their heels and lost their bras. NOW however, young girls embrace Barbie. They focus more on famous women who yes have the spotlight and a lot of attention, but not for the right reasons. Girls aspire to be Brittney Spears or Beyonce. What do they really take from them though? Is it the sex appeal, the fact that they are desired after? Or is it their entrepreneurial ways of making it so far in such a competitive world? Beyonce, one of my personal favorites, teaches empowerment and self confidence, something I think girls need to be reminded of. Maybe this new wave of feminism is because we already have the right to vote and women can have mens’ jobs now. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems anymore. Why aren’t women like Ellen Degenerous highlighted more often? Why are the movie stars and pop singers cherished more than the philanthropic celebrities? Why is it more important to spend your money on a choker necklace to look like Kylie Jenner than to donate it to children who don’t have access to water? I want the next wave of women to want to change to world, not just their placement in society. Let’s go ladies. Girl Power.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/05/09/feminism-then-and-now/

This weeks hack went to a game that has in a sense hacked my life on almost a daily basis. Triviacrack is a game I downloaded a few months ago and it quizzes you on different categories, one of them being history. You play friends and can see what answer they chose. It allows you to make fun of them for being dumb and not knowing a simple question or actually be that person. A few days ago I received a question about Malcolm X. My friend had said his name was Martin X and so I took the question to the chat room where I called her out for thinking that was his name. This reminded me of Professor Putnam’s discussions. The Malcolm X part yes, but more the fact that when she dismissed herself for getting the answer wrong she said “I don’t need to conform with the social standards of school maaan” which connected to his lecture on the hippies.
 

A weekend ago I went to Disneyland and remembered how it was created to be a distraction from the war going on. I realized how I had been to Disneyland so many times to get away from the pressures of school or work and how I guess that’s what it was made for. I went on to tell my family, who i was with, but to be honest I doubt any of them heard. I decided to do some more research on it later and found information about how Walt Disney would invite world leaders such as the Shah of Iran and Empress Farah to come enjoy their time here. Other Cold War politics went on to explain how Khrushchev was denied from entering.

My thesis is, Martin Luther King Jr’s actions created a turning point in history and his efforts are continuously mentioned today through media and movements resulting in racial acceptance. He was able to stand up in a time where no one else would and will forever have his voice heard. He influenced people around the world and gave others the confidence to stand up for what’s right. Hist mentions the massive resistance and black response. It specifically mentions the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and how “King was selected as the group’s leader…embracing a philosophy of peaceful integration and nonviolence” (447).This action, like others, led others to join voices and better our society. It goes on to talk about desegregation in sports and how “Robinson vowed not to retaliate against racist taunts.” This was a movement inspired by King’s nonviolence breakthroughs.

This past weekend I went to a party at my friends house where they had a game of beer pong set up. My friend lost the game and hadn’t made a single cup therefor he “trolled.” This meant he had to sit under the table for the rest of the next game. Embarrassed, he sat in a ball with his hands over his head. In class we had learned about duck and cover from atomic bombs and I immediately saw the resemblance. I then called him Bert from Bert the Turtle for the rest of the night, hacking my friends about what students used to have to do and how lucky we are to not have it so prevalent in our lives now.

Questions to think about: 
Why was there a cold war? Did Russian aggression make conflict inevitable, or did the United States overact to the battered Soviet Union’s quest for security? What was the effect of the cold war on the worldview and psychology of American citizens?

The Cold War began after WWII where the United States and the Soviet Union indirectly fought by using fear with the creation of nuclear weapons. Historians argue on whether this was necessary and if the US’s ego got in the way. Document 2 shows how Americans should try to understand their efforts. Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace himself says how our efforts “make it appear either (1) that we are preparing ourselves to win the war which we regard as inevitable or (2)  that we are trying to build up a predominance of force to intimidate the rest of mankind.” He basically saw the flaws in our motives and ultimately it wasn’t worth the nuclear arm race they were initiating. He agreed that we overreacted and he saw the consequences that would happen.

Document 8 deals with the new lifestyle of American citizens. Life Magazine titles “We Won’t All Be Dead” After Nuclear War in 1959. It was a policy that each family should be able to survive on their own for two weeks if they survived a nuclear attack. This article provided the harsh truth that the government can’t save everyone. It included where citizens can buy toolkits and how avoiding the topic of nuclear attacks isn’t helping anyone. This magazine emphasized the need for citizens to get active and start preparing for the worst.

Today in between classes I decided to sit at a new spot on campus, facing Hepner Hall. I took a picture and sent it to one of my good friends who is going to transfer here next year. She expressed how she couldn’t wait to be an aztec and I figured I would continue to brag about how great SDSU truly is. I remembered how Professor Blum mentioned how we were the first to have a Women’s Studies Program so I took my free time to find a little more about it and ended up informing and hacking one of my good friends.

So in class we discussed the idea of how we are all haunted by history. The idea of how even a chair comes from a long “line” of work really sparked my interest. The same concept applies to each and every one of us. Who are we really? There has to be someone from our parents’ pasts who have inspired them to name us. Did they hope we would be like them? I went to my grandparents’ house and found this family tree. He was able to show me a bit of “my family’s line.”(I didn’t realize how blurry the picture was when I took it)