Squashed Puppets’ blog

Since ancient societies women have had an important role to play; by any means they used to be a relevant source of knowledge, principles, the one in charge of raising children, the one behind of the social classes. Trough a long period of time women was at the top of any culture; they used to be the example of fertility, kindness, the good mother, etc... They were everything even an icon to venerate, and it was like this by many centuries. But what happened with this image, and why men started to be the center of the world?...
    Actually i dont know, but I´m going to use some sources to apply different examples:

Ancient Greece:
One of these might start in the Ancient Greece, where men was one of power, strength, prestige and honor; social status was based upon the quality of ones character, knowledge and integrity; rather than the ones we know today (wealth and political position). Men were the ones who “used to care” about society and not women, that´s why they were the ones dictating equality and democracy. The beauty and admiration to male body became very important, an example of equilibrium, respect and regards... It was until the Golden Age of Greece. It conveys the sense of a culture in which homosexual/homosocial love and behavior appear to have been valorized. Ancient Greek civilization was undoubtedly patriarchal in character, and the existent evidence is that homosexual/homosocial behavior appears to have been more or less a routine feature of male elite experience. Further, women were not envisioned as part of the governing class. Homosexuality was one of the reasons to make women less...

The Early Church:
    The Early church presented women as an ambivalence in many of it´s documents as a treasure to keep and also as an evil source. All this stories begin in the Genesis of the  bible with the Creation and the Fall story, where Eve is tempted by Satan and “thanks” to her now we live in a non perfect world.
But in this case what is the reason to take women´s importance away?
According with some lectures; the constant struggles between male and female deities  in ancient cultures was the origin of the problems, civilizations could not begin or be sustained until the Feminine or the Masculinity , as a dominant religious power or men had been mastered and domesticated, something unbalanced for any society. But then why is God presented as a male deity?...

    We can find many situations like these and never finish, but is true that most of these reasons has something to do with the actual state of women in society. Would be great to know the source of the problem, because actually is a problem that women are considered the weak gender; because of this most of the times they don´t have good jobs, are discriminated, are treated really bad, etc... or at least is the way that occurs in Latin America. Cultures have charged this attributes to them; somehow power and strength that men denotes made them to feel like this, they were pushed to the point that felt less important than us. The different interpretations and analogies trough time have led this situation to many cultures and have adopted this idea as something common. Is the case of the Yanomamo in Brazil, were men can even kill their wives if they want, and women feel unloved if they don´t receive a beat by their husbands... Situations like this minimize the potential that women have.
   
“During the last thirty years social science has paid scant attention to women, confining its explorations of humanity to the male. Research has generally reinforced the sex stereotypes of popular mythology that women are essentially nurturant/expressive/passive and men instrumental/active/aggressive. Social scientists have tended to justify these stereotypes rather than analyze their origins, their value, or their effect.” (Jo Freeman, n.d)

    A more thorough study which asked men and women to choose out of a long list of adjectives those which most closely applied to themselves showed that women strongly felt themselves to be uncertain, anxious, nervous, hasty, careless, fearful, dull, childish, helpless, sorry, timid, clumsy, stupid, silly, and domestic. On a more positive side, women felt that they were understanding, tender, sympathetic, pure, generous, affectionate, loving, moral, kind, grateful, and patient. This is not a very favorable self-image but it does correspond fairly well with the social myths about what women are like. (Bennett, E. M. & Cohen, n.d)

    Is really hard the situation where even women don´t feel strong enough, or when they minimize themselves, but actually the other side of the coin points in a different situation. I´m not trying to aggrandize women conception but to mention the part that everyone is letting pass by. Even do we, men, think they cant do anything without us is the opposite. Women is still behind each culture, we work for them, they rule the world and  we hadn´t realize about that, they just don´t know the great potential they carry with them.
    Would like to mention that media is responsible for such stereotypes in woman, is the case of AXE advertising, Wonderbra, Sky Vodka, JBS Men´s underwear, CHE Men´s Magazine and many more where want to put in evidence women as a weak symbol or as an icon of dependency to us.

Few examples about.

Because men live daily under his instincts, behave like animals most of the times and act like in the ancient times advertising and sex have take this situations to co-work one with the other.  
The use of sexual language really emphasizes the buy in many customers. Doesn´t matter to who is directed this kind of information, men or women, both equally answer to this with positive results. But why does sex sells more than ever?...  Simple. Crisis. Might sound ludicrous to mention crisis as the mother of all the problems however if it´s not the mother at least is the sister of most of the problems. Sex as well as drugs is a temporary parameter that provides an exit to  our problems, making us forget of our daily routines, the boring jobs, the situation of the world, etc... besides if we add the disinhibition through which we are passing by, what do we get? Yeah the sex era.
   
Apparently most of the commercials that started with  this kind of advertising were hygiene and beauty  products, today most of the brands do it to be part of the attention, no justification is presented and each time is more shocking the information showed. Time by time we get more used to it... Today´s advertising let us break the social taboos that still stand in us, or even the social rules that were not seen as “good” years ago; erotism has take protagonism, but it goes beyond this  but also showing homosexuality, sado-masochism, exhibitionism, etc... In one word “causing” people´s buys.

How does this happen?
Human mind divides in two; conscious and subconscious. Conscious mind works with processes we can warn.
Iscapable to criticize, analyze, modify, accept or reject proposes that receive. Subconscious in the other hand is constituted by a dynamic amount of desires, feelings and  unreflective impulses out of our conscious perception field. Is like a huge memory bank that saves, by variable periods of time most of the information we gather. The purpose of publicity is to achieve the subconscious to program trough stimuli that appeal sex trough sexual emotional impact it causes. It also works with compliments, this means that not necessarily with stimuli co-working with sexual desire, but  responding to different interests manipulated that respond to the most intimate, deep and complicated og the human nervous system.

Fields involved:
Cosmetics industry (Loreal, Cover Girl, Ives Saint Laurent, Max Factor, Lancaster), Tobacco companies (Fortuna, Camel), alcoholic drinks advertising (whisky DYC, Single Oak Cash, Ron Barceló, Magno, Ballantynes), automotive industry (Citroen), publicity agencies, preservatives companies (Sico, M-Force, Trojan, etc...), Underwear (Intima Cherry, Abanderado, D&G, Guess, Gucci Rush).

A few examples...

The arrival of Barack  Obama to our country gave a new perspective to the drug´s problem we present and many other cases in Latin America; however what was this chat between presidents Obama and Calderon about?... Well no one knows, but is true that drugs discussion came to the top themes to talk about and to attack. Suddenly Mexicans received the news about drug´s legalization and the way we can buy and the legal amount we can carry with us. Apparently Obama insists in in “avoiding” this reform acceptation but then why did the government accepted the opposite?
At the same time we were bombed with “hundreds” of swine flu cases in the capital, suddenly this virus spread to other states and  has come to other countries, but how true is this disease affecting us?, Is it really affecting our country in such way to worry about? or is it just a maximization of the news to hide drug´s legalization?
This is just a theory, but Influenza  is working as a facade to make everybody´s attention focus on taking care about swine flu, while ourselves give time and the opportunity to government to apply this legalization of drugs or even worst, to  live in uncertainty for a while until everything get clear and clever about what is going on.

Many other countries have done it before, the most clear example is the US with the 9/11 to attack Iraq, the crisis in our country in the 1990´s with the "chupacabras" and apparently the same case of influenza in China to cover the situation that was passing trough; and this wont be the exception to do something similar in our country, who knows if the American president is not behind everything. Seemingly he supports our country against drug´s cartels and everything around this problem but until now he hasn´t even say a word about it. Of course this might benefit United States in a very good way, at the end who cares about Mexico... We are destroying ourselves.
"Apparently! Obama came here to do a "treaty" with our country El  Comando del Norte (The north command) where american millitars are able to break the border rules and can pass here to "reinstall" peace in our country, having as allowance the recovering of the Mexican territory, but how will this benefy the United States of America?... There´s the mistery but our rubbish governments hadnt learn with all the cases that UE has, Chile, Iraq, Mexico during Santa Ana´s government, Korea, Japan, and many others...

All these situations might be the responsible of some marchs, clossing of highways and roads, civil movilizations and arms raising from narco, curiously all these was appeased by INFLUENZA; very opportune need to mention because sindicates will be closed, people is locked down in their houses watching corrupted media, schools are closed and any other crowdable place, this might be to not spread the real news...

Between the legalized substances are opium, cocaine, marihuana, LSD, MDA Crystals, etc... Not only promoting the consumption of huge drug amounts stocked in Mexico because the detention in the border or in the corruption attacks but also increasing the demand and dependency of these. We are already in chaos, lets sum the crisis, “swine flu”, poverty and now drugs... what´s next? This just show a part; while most of the population be kind of "happy" because this stupid legalization other coneveniences of the north neighboor  become in march. Other reforms were aproved such as: The undercovering of police agents that just increase corruption and extortions; Intervention of phone calls, Intervention in E-mail addresses,  etc... Lets remember that is almost a tradition to have civil wars in our country each 100 years, and the bicentenary is comming soon; just a theory.

Source: http://www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=429252

Since one week ago when influenza cases started to appear in Mexico city, and when all this cases started to get worst and to spread to other places in the republic we knew this was going to get worst, is not about the disease that i´m talking about but the collective panic that appear in those people.  Is proved that a high percent of diseases can be controlled with placebos, which means non existent or fictitious pills that “work” because patients  think that are taking medicaments. So if this is true then our brain controls everything, even our illnesses, our dreams, our creativity, memories, movements, etc... Some people can even move things with their minds; is well known that humans use only 10% of our brain potential.

In moments like this the worst thing we can do is to be part of the panic collectivity, to think we can get infected or to stay locked down in our houses. Yesterday was amazing to see how worried about are Mexicans, when i was passing by the church in the moment when everybody was doing communion and receiving the hosts the priest didn´t allow people to take it with their mouths, instead of that just share it in their hands, Isn´t this guy the one who must show faith and not influence the collectivity to be afraid; such a surreal case.

Until now what is true is that 81 people have die in our country because of Swine Flu, and many other countries as well such as UK and United states have similar conditions.
From the “first” cases that appeared in our country, that were almost 2000 infected cases, 900 were not even influenza, which means that almost 50% of people is scared about this and want to over react or to be over protected in a situation like this, nothing else than just collective panic.

Take this easy, chill, act as if nothing is going on, advance in your assignments, work, etc... Is going to be a long week and there´s nothing you can do but to spend this time properly.

Have a nice week!

They are called the Dotcoms, the spoiled generation and Generation  Free Shit. They are 15 to 29. They seem to be permanently plugged in. And they really do know stuff you dont.

Welcome to the world of Gen Y´s, also known as dotcoms, the spoiled generation and the baby losers. That roll call of labels is a clue to the contradictory characteristics of the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s. Is a generation of boys whose principal interest is  spent all the money in electronics; they are capable to manipulate technology as no one else; they are teaching the elder generations to use gadgets and they know more stuff about everything than other generations. They have changed their view of things, from being pessimist to become positive beings; they are hedonistic, loose with money, “maybe you will never own a house but you can damn well get the new iphone”;  the world of gen Y´s live has made them more demanding, they are not satisfied with just the answer of some general questions, but they ask more and more; technically they are more smart and if you try to compete with them you will look like a fool. But, what is the reason of this new generation?... It´s that ease with technology that tends to singled out. Some commentators have argued that because of their lifelong immersion in a world of computers, game consoles and cellphone, today´s adolescents think and process information fundamentally different from their predecessors. The fact that teens and children today are often more at home with technology than their parents and teachers is a new phenomenon. And it can be an unsettling one for a parent, when your child steps in and shows you how to do something on the computer.

What are Gen Y watching and reading to form their view of the world? Less mainstream media, less radio, more computers and cellphones. They get worked up about the global environmental issues, particularly and the local rather than the national; they spend heavily, crave instant gratification and make liberal use of credit, all of which makes them bait for marketers.
They are also known as Generation free shit, well used to downloading their entertainment free; they are also  possibly  more conformist then their predecessors. Cellphones mean they are constantly connected to friends and family. But paradoxically that may have made them less independent and innovative, more tethered teenagers, constantly seeking reinforcement for every small decision.

However kids are going to have to be able to deal with change and ambiguity in a way that no previous generations has had to do. I we get our education right, it´s going to lead to unprecedented levels of creativity and innovation. If we get it wrong, we´ll end up with a cohort who are less creative and innovative and more conservative then ever before.

Source:
"North and South" magazine
Why you dont understand your kids, by Matt Philp
September 2008
Page 38 - 48

Opinion:

The new generations is a topic everybody talks about, but is real this new movement of technology? is really affecting adolescent´s minds? well certainly is evident that technology and skills developed thanks to this technology bring certain characteristics to children and specially to all users, not only providing them facilities to answer faster to stimuli, but also making them think faster and react better than other generations. Since 1980s a huge step on electronic devices was planted, the development of new gadgets such as computers, walkman, video games, etc... provided the new users a whole revolution of the thinking way, making them not only satisfied by the products but also creating a chain of reaction where the consumers wanted more and more; but how design interferes with this?... Products as we all know attract the buyers somehow by cognitive factors, and thus this way we are giving a new sensation, experience that the buyer is happy to feel, makes him glad and makes him want more, but can we say this is a consequence of consumerism?  is it good or wrong?; cause there are two ways; one that we are having a continuos exchange of goods, we design and provide an artifact to the user and it responds with satisfaction; and the other one where we provide a good to entertaining for life but are affecting skills. Sells are occurring, and this new generation want to have everything that appears on the market, which somehow is good because we as designers have more terrain where to work and develop our products, but if we look beyond, in the ethical area maybe we are not making it as it should be. Is a theme we must discuss with intelligence, in some way these new skills that electronics provide are making people better, intelligent, smarter, etc... but also are making them to be dependent of this advantage resources.

    The Socio-economic status (SES) is the total measure of the economic and social state of an individual, of its working experience and its economical and social position of the family; is necessary to mention that “jobs” people play are the clear example and source of the same socio-economic levels. The fact of “good living”, working place, working area, completely depends on the same strata. Business men, are the ones we see as example, in this case because of the classification and social layers we can observe in the way they act, behave, wear, in the mannerisms, and specially in the stuff they carry with  to use in the working area, such as: brands in clothes, suits, ties, shoes, socks, tie clicks, cufflinks and specially the role that “pens” play in this environment. (http://www.tendencias21.net/Estudio-demuestra-que-el-lenguaje-corporal-expresa-nuestro-estatus-socioeconomico_a2952.html, Abril, 2006)

    The pen is an essential element in handwriting, it has had a strong impact in social classes history, used to represent more than a way to express ideas trough writing documents, but a privilege that used to have patriarchies and nobles.
This idea is kind of stocked in the minds of all the users of this element, that´s why somehow a pen represents masculinity and the intellect of itself. The reason is that even inside the classes privileged with handwriting the only benefited were men; women were limited to lecture, however little by little femininity  appropriated  this skill. Nevertheless this right to women was always limited and controlled by the same men that used to be in charged of these women or at the command. (http://www.bne.es/esp/actividades/piezamarzo09.htm, Marzo, 2009)

    Nowadays pen keeps accomplishing its funcion, exist thousands of design directed to the thousands of users that exist, we can find from disposable ones, fountain pens, to left handed, etc... and all and each one of this pens were designed for different customers, in spite of that, almost most of people have access to this product.
In the other hand pens that denote “class” and “status” are still sold, is the case of brands like Montblanc, Van Cleff, Arpels, etc... that accomplish with the most expensive handwriting product estandars, taking their products to limited editions with prices that go beyond the economic average expenses, clear example is the fountain pen “ Limited Edition Mystery Masterpiece”, that is the result of the collaboration between Montblanc y Van Cleef & Arpels, only 9 pens have been fabricated, each one with 840 diamonds and more than 20 carats of precious stones. This pen has a price of 525,652.00 € (http://refugioantiaereo.com/2007/02/la-pluma-mas-cara-del-mundo, Febrero, 2007.)

Lets remember that this pen has the same purpose than a BIC pen and that luxury, according with Bruno Munari “is the manifestation of the uncivil richness manifestation that wants to impress “poor” people. Is the manifestation of importance that has been given to  the external everything and that reveals the lack of interest in cultural elevation, is the triumph of appearance  over substance. Luxury is a need  many people  who want to feel domain over others; most of the times luxury is understood  as design, having nothing to do one with the other.  Luxury is a manifestation of stupidity.”  (Como nacen los objetos, 1983).

If you believe that “good living”, the utopian principles, the respect to nature and the respect for humans  is impossible to reach, why don´t u take a look into the Ecuadorean constitution.

The Sumak Kawsai is a word from the quichua (native language from Ecuador), which represents the celebration for nature, The “Pachamama” (mother earth); from we are part of and is vital for our existence.  The concept was applied in themes like State, Ecology protection, education, citizenship, development, economical model and debt.

Basically is a new implemented philosophy to live. In today´s life where capitalism and ecological over-seasoning  is transforming our thinking way, this term come´s out to the surface to show us everything is possible, and not only that but working as example in its origin place, Ecuador, that is a sub developed country but with such great ideas to show the world what they are capable to do.

In the complex  latin-american reality, people have to fight against the utopian principles we live with; in times of crisis like this there´s nothing more realistic than the utopia, the more difficult is the situation easier is the way to dream about it. Latin America fight for the deinstitutionalization that modern institutions created; state, political parties, schools, etc... all these to create fear and social violence in us to produce social anomy, making constant dependency of us to this places, providing wealth to them and enriching names and emblems that represent.

“Good living” (Sumak Kawsai), Pluri-nationality  and Nature´s rights were gathered as principles of the new Ecuadorean constitution, to build collective options of life, to overcome the actual “development” model; economic dependency, social fairness, ecologic predacity and anti-democracy in essence.
This way it emends the possibility of extinction of the state, allowing us to recover peace and life as an axis of existence, participating with fulness in the society and with no fear in the participation of our rights.

This practices enable the re-design of our occidental philosophy, it challenge the actual models in which we live and feat new appliances in society, giving a new spin to the world.
Do we really need to be a “developed” country to live “fine”, or is it just a model of our minds?...  Our world moves around money, mercantilism, commercialism, seasoned sustainability, even socialism are involved with this, all these doctrines to measure an individual according to what he/she has.  However Ecuador risks itself to show the world what people really need, is the first country that defines richness as “good living”, and is the first one that promotes all its infrastructure to reach their ideals.

For more information visit this page:

http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blog/09-01-29-sumak-kawsay-and-what-got-lost-translation-development

    Since the beginning of our pre-hispanic cultures society coexisted with the infra structure of a place, their cosmovision, the way they arranged the power and everything around their beliefs, traditions and culture. In the ancient “Mexico” cultures were polytheist, many Gods and Goddesses adored and sacred for Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs, Zaphotecs, Mexicas, etc... All them with one characteristic in particular but with one purpose in common, to take care for the believers.
Later on, during the Spanish conquest new ideas were brought and the believe of an “only God” was settled; adopted by the natives but still giving tributes to their old Gods and Goddesses. The “devil” also appears at these stage, however it was completely different from the European devil; the combination of cultures gave birth to many other beliefs and many other ways to behave. Between all the different cultures that were brought from many parts of the world (black people, Europeans, islanders from the Caribbean, natives from the New Spain, etc...) a new deity came out to the surface. The Sacred Death.

    Now a days a new trend for adoring Sacred Death is becoming a way to believe in something, to base faith and to practice religiosity. Here in Mexico Narco- traffic (traffic of drugs), kidnappings, robberies, and many other kind of risky “jobs” is straightly linked with this deity or saint; but why?...

Well known as “La Santa Muerte” (Holly Death) or “La Niña Blanca” (The White Girl), is a  belief that appears around 1960´s  with a sorcerer at the east of the country when he claimed to watch the Holly Death in one of his many magical practices, an image of “her” appeared in a wall of his house, being him a believer tried to integrate this deity to the catholic church but “she” was denied and linked as part of satanic movements, however her cult became very popular in just a few years, gaining place in the poor sectors of our country and becoming more strong day by day until today.

Mexico is well known around the globe because of its faith to the catholic church, just after the conquest “The Christian God” was adopted by almost its total population, being this way the country with more churches for the catholic religion, representing a nation with strong beliefs and united by their god; nevertheless this seems to be a menace for the church, being the poor sector the one who based their complete life in Catholicism, and being the same who is changing to adore the “Sacred Death”. Considering that poor people represents more than 50 % of the total population this is a case that makes the Catholicism feel a small but consistent tremor.  Believers affirm that the Virgin of Guadalupe; one of the most important icons in Mexican religiosity, is not enough in times like this, they say: “Virgin of Guadalupe is not enough, we need a tough mom, who take us out of any problem”...

The actual economic crisis is making crime raises up, drugs are linked to these practices, besides relationships with the northern country (United States) becomes more hostile; the fact is that all the demand of drugs that use to circulate trough our country to get there is now stocked here since few years ago, specifically since the “terrorist acts” in the 9/11. If we make a relationship between who is the people committing crimes, selling drugs, committing robberies and try to attack the country because of the result of our government with the actual beliefs that appear, we can see that “Sacred Death” is somehow “protecting” all the criminals and parias in our country.

Is incredible the way a religion icon like this is making the poor sectors to feel strong enough to do whatever they want, to feel the confidence to attack an trying to compete with our own government. People say she is a mother that receives petitions and requests of love, good luck, money and protection; but ill-disposed requests and damage to enemies as well. The believers share a vision of the natural death, and the way they pray to her is with the purpose to have a peaceful and fast death, with no sufferings.

It has become a common practice between people, violating the norms in society, it is displacing the church and is getting to the high classes, becoming even more casual to see it. We can find altars in the suburbs, statues in the markets, pictures in the streets and lucky charms worn by people as icons of interest, many other have no idea of what they are doing and just practice this to follow a trend, but i´m pretty sure that the real followers of the “Sacred Death”  are the ones we don´t see frequently, the ones that are hidden because of their crimes or because they are already death.