Remix Pt. Deux

1)
Midterms are upon us! Like a plague of locusts that can be seen in the distance, looming over the horizon, teasing menacingly as they begin their approach and inevitable arrival to students’ classrooms. They will leave many with blank stares and papers as barren as fields they devoured; no one in the land of Academia is safe from their attack. For many, the task assigned is not an exam but rather, an essay. Alas! There is a glimmer of hope! Perhaps one could prepare, so when the time arrives, they shall be spared (That is my official rhyme for the day). In order to do this, I’ve begun finding my sources and giving them annotations, and on that note, I’ll begin with the first one.

Ridley, Matt. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1995)

In The Red Queen, Matt Ridley presents thought provoking ideas into why males and females engage in sex. In the biological sense, the obvious answer he claims deals with the fact of keeping the genes a step ahead of disease and ensuring that one’s genetic offspring survives to replicate in the future. But what he goes into even more, is to see why the male and female minds are wired differently in the realm of sexual attraction as well as why each sex is attracted to certain traits the other sex would have no interest in.

In the first few chapters, his methodical approach to human sexuality can be a little mind numbing. For those who trek past them will later come to appreciate his reason for cataloging the various categories that he deals with. He draws many parallels to animals in the sense that sex is a major driving force in evolution. He contends that behavior such as polygamy, infidelity, monogamy and sexual jealousy, all stem from this theory and can be explained from his ideas. In my field of study, this can prove to be useful because it allows me to look at various topics I am already studying from a different point of view. I can use his ideas to explain why women tend to want to settle down and raise a family with one kind of man; while on the other hand, they prefer partying and letting loose with another kind of man.

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (October 25, 1990)

In his second book following Sperm Wars, Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene talks about how biological organisms are merely the vehicles in which genes are using in order to replicate more favorable genes by way of passing them to the biological offspring. He is quoted as saying:

“Selfish", when applied to genes, doesn't mean "selfish" at all. It means, instead, an extremely important quality for which there is no good word in the English language: "the quality of being copied by a Darwinian selection process."

The way his material benefits my research is that it, once again, can be used to describe human behavior. He draws parallels between genes and human using other biological objects in order to further their survival by way of “selfishness”, or what Dawkins perspective of selfishness is.

2)
They say that sex sells and if that’s indeed the case as it seems to be, one must come to understand what it is that appeals to a man and a woman in order to apply it to a successful marketing strategy. With the help of these next few articles, I will attempt to contribute to an already ongoing and often hotly debated argument about what seems to make both genders tick in the realm of sexual attraction.
Dr. Nina Buar.

“Some Like Them Hot: How Germans Construct Male Attractiveness.” Technical University of Berlin (2006)

In this study, a group of women in Germany ranging from 16-92 years of age were tested to see what traits they felt were most desirable from men. They are presented a series of photos in order to determine physical attractiveness and they were also given a questionnaire asking them to rank certain qualities such as personality and level of income. What also comes into play here is how their culture plays a part in deciding what is considered attractive. Factors such as religion and upbringing she feels, is going to contribute to her test subjects decisions. Dr. Buar also touches on how media has played a role in deciding how the ideal German male should look and act.
It seems as though Dr. Buar’s goal is to determine how the media and German history have played a factor in deciding what an attractive male should be and look. Her methodology seems to be geared towards how much culture plays a part in how one defines attractiveness, which would explain why each culture has its own standards of beauty. In my field of research, it provides an excellent source of information in regards to a group outside of the United States. It provides me a glimpse of how some Europeans define beauty in comparison to America’s perception.

McCormick, Brian Emerson .Arousal in Social Context: “The Social Basis of Perceiving Others’ Erotic Relevance and Erotic Desirability” Rutgers University – New Brunswick (2002)


In Brian McCormick’s article, he attempts to solve the question of what it is that makes us desire one another and if the answer lies more than skin deep, what else is there. Throughout his essay, he explores the various factors of desire based on the writings of other scholars. His two conclusions are, as stated in his summary, are: “(1) erotically ir/relevant to the viewer and (2)
erotically un/desirable to the viewer.”

Similar to what I am attempting to do, his approach involves using comparative historical evidence in order to find a pattern and come to a conclusion. His work helps my research in the sense that it allows me to approach an idea from a different perspective. His entry is different from my other articles because he is attempting to examine male-female attractions on a grand scale rather than by just focusing on a particular culture or group.
Some of my other articles that I’ve chosen for my research topic include:

Oliver, Mary Beth. ”The impact of sex and gender role self-perception on affective reactions to different types of film” (Jan. 1998)

Gender Roles in Music Videos

Dawkins, Richard: The Selfish Gene: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (October 25, 1990)


3)
I dunno about anyone else, but Pageflakes is a godsend in my opinion. I’ve just been introduced to a new site called Pageflakes.com and I have to say that it has to be one of the most productive and manageable websites one could have if he/she (as I’m sure plenty of women pay attention to my site haha) was to organize all of their favorite web pages into widgets onto one simple page. Rather than reading the newspaper in the morning, I could turn on my laptop, browse the top headlines of news sites from around the world, check my Facebook (because who really has a Myspace these days?), and even critique my blog, all on one page.


The first part I wanted to talk about was my universal search engines, one being a blog search engine, and the other, a kind of Google search application. By entering a key word like relationships, I can zero in on the latest news dealing with that specific topic. There’s a variety of topics that came up in the results. For example, an article dealing with a survey taken in colleges back east revealed that when it came to one night stands, looks over personality were preferred by women. With much of my interests in gender portrayals in the media and attraction between the sexes, it’s good to have a tool that will keep you up to date on the latest topics. I also have my bookmark widget set up called citeulike.com, that contained all of my Zotero bibliographies so all I have to do is click on the widget and presto, my citations are all listed. The second part of my widgets deals with the mainstream media. News articles like the New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and even BBC news allow me to see the latest research articles they publish on the sexes. Although many of them are consumed with the war in the Middle East, one should not rule them out as valuable sources of information. Topics on relationships may not appear immediately on the headlines, but I guarantee you, if you do a little bit of searching, there will be the occasional article that presents statistical information as well as polls on the sexes. I also chose BBC world news as a resource because I felt that I was important to have an outside world view on my topic, that way, my findings would not be biased to one country.

The next section I dedicated my pageflakes to was my RSS feeds. It’s important for me to keep up on my blogs that I followed the first few weeks I opened up shop with a blog of my own. With this tool, I’m able to follow Youngbucks’s rantings in New York as well as “the women’s view of feminism”. I was able to create an RSS feed for my social bookmarking soul mate “Ozonethegreat206”. I can now follow all of his bookmarking and see what articles he posts that could assist me in my field of study. A cool little feature pageflakes has allows you to add as many RSS feeds as you want. I did this for many of the blogs I already follow and mentioned in my previous posts. And yes ladies and gentleman, as shallow as it sounds, I included the blog of your’s truly onto my page. I know, how egotistical of myself. Moving on to my other widgets, I decided that it would be important to have a couple women blogs that dealt with relationship advice. Why, you ask? Because I feel that it is important to see from a women’s point of view what they consider as attractive, as well as how they perceive men. One article I found was called “http://womeneed.blogspot.com/2008/06/successful-relationships-tips.html”.Gossip blogs demonstrates what the media decides to focus on, but provided little on relationships. Feminist blogs were also a powerful tool in observing how the other side of the spectrum observed certain situations involving men. So there you have it. It’s still brand new, but over time, I’ll be smoothing it out and maybe adding a few more widgets. I’ll keep you updated on anything interesting I find on the way. Until next time, this is Stewie Griffin signing out, PEACE!!