SEX

--> It's sad to see how far the advertisement companies have to take the level of sex appeal to grab people's attention. And what's even sadder to see is how it actually works on us.
Not gonna lie over here - I don't mind seeing some beautiful ladies like Victoria Beckham or Eva Mendes while I look through a magazine or drive around the city. But what disturbs me about these two ads is how they are portrayed.

1. Intimately Beckham 

Intimate my ass. If that is the definition of intimacy, I'm outta here. Okay, I understand that David Beckham is the super globally famous soccer stud, but why is only her back shown? Girl, you need to voice your opinion and be like "I WANT MY FACE TO BE SHOWN!” And what's up with David creeping his hand up insider her dress? This print advertisement has SEXISM written all over the place! It's basically saying, all you single ladies out there put some of that Intimately perfume and POOF, you'll find yourself a nice looking British boy. And for y'all dudes out there, you'll get a skinny, submissive girl once you sprinkle some Intimately on yourself. This is not the first case where the male figure dominates the female. Same goes with Axe commercials where whole bunch of hot girls stick to a guy because he smells good. Do most guys really smell that bad that simply smelling nice would attract people? Why is it always the women being submissive? What is that saying about the role of women today? Victoria’s going “oh, David, I love you so much” and all David does is go “Yeah, mate, who’s your daddy now?” with his awkward grin.

2. Secret Obsession

My instant reaction to this advertisement was “What about the kids?” No wonder kids these days are so… inappropriate! Back when I was young, going out in middle school was holding hands and hugging; but now look at the kids today making babies and all that. At least ads in magazines are somewhat controllable by parents, but this ad is a freaking huge billboard! And may I just say Eva, you have a nice body, but you don’t need to strip butt naked for everyone just to promote a fragrance. It seems like our world today is so used to raunchy, half-naked people giving us the I-want-you-look that the only way to catch our attention is, well, fully naked people giving us the I-want-you-look.
I have this picture pop in my head with the advertisers going,
A: “Hmm, we need to step it up with the whole sex appeal for this one. Last one with Megan Fox and her bikini didn’t fly so well.”
B: “Well, I think the only option is to go naked.” 
Next thing you know there won’t even be a hand covering the breasts. That’s when I’ll know the world is coming to an end.

P.S. I hope my title "SEX" didn't startle you - I was just trying to get some attention.

POWER OF LANGUAGE

Response to "From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle" by Min-Zhan Lu

I doubt that many Americans know the power of English. Outside the United States, understanding and especially speaking fluent English is quite the novelty. Parents in Korea spend literally thousands and thousands of dollars just to have their child learn English. I was fortunate enough to learn English since kindergarten when my family moved to the Czech Republic.

I can closely relate to Min-Zhan in many aspects. Like her parents, my parents extremely valued education -- well, maybe this isn't a good example since 99% of Asian parents do as well. The section where Min-Zhan writes how she took "pride in [her] ability to speak [English]" in her classroom in China is something I had also experienced. I, myself, have also lived in China for a year and starting from the first day of class, I immediately attracted students with my ability to speak English fluently. I earned an extra level of respect just because I knew English. (I also knew how to speak Czech, but no one seemed to be interested in that). My friends around me were struggling so much just to learn the different between "had been" and "have been". Until then, I didn't realize the power of language. I took my blessings for granted.

Reading about the parts when Min-Zhan had to write a new book report with "censorship" reminded me of all the online censorships I faced while in China. For example, do y'all know that Facebook is banned in China? Google Image search "Tian'anmen Square" in China and you get completely different results. I remember sneaking in to the Internet Cafe because I was not over 18 (Shhh, don't tell anyone!). The server randomly crashed whenever I went to MySpace.