Last Post

Well, this is the final post for the semester. I can't believe it's already over. In honor of the break and Christmas coming up here are my top 5 favorite Christmas songs. In no particular order.

I Cannot Find the Way/Three Kings: Michael McLean's The Forgotten Carols

Cold December Night: Michael Buble

Sleigh Ride: The Carpenters

When Christmas Comes to Town: The Polar Express

The Night Before Christmas: Amy Grant

Earnest

While reading Preach My Gospel last night I learned a whole new doctrine I have never even heard of before. It is still blowing my mind. It is the idea of earnest and how it pertains to the Holy Ghost.

Bible Dictionary:
A pledge or security. The word thus translated is a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything. As used by Paul (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14) it means that the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. The Spirit is also the Lord’s surety that he will fulfill his promise to give eternal life to the faithful.


Ephesians 1:14
"Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."


I had a friend also give me the analogy of it being like a down payment from the Lord. He gives us a taste of eternal life through the Holy Ghost although we do not have the full knowledge and blessings yet in this life. It's God's promise to us of greater things to come.

Preach My Gospel

 

I am currently on page 65 of Preach My Gospel. My goal is to finish it by the end of January. Before a certain friend of mine returns home from the mission. I have loved diving into it every day and just immersing myself in this simple doctrines and divine teachings. I figure goals are better reached when telling others. So that's why I am telling you all. A great source of media. READ IT. Only 130 more pages to go.

Letter Assignment

To Whom It May Concern,

           

My name is Abbie Christiansen. I am currently an undergraduate student studying Human Development in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University. This semester I am enrolled in a Media, Family and Human Development course as part of the curriculum for my major. The semester is coming to an end, but in this class we have learned about all kinds of media ranging from literature to music to movies, and how they affect us and in turn how they can affect the family unit. This course has been very eye opening and brings into perspective just how much we use the media, especially in America, without even realizing it.

As part of our curriculum we discussed magazines and this magazine, Sports Illustrated, obviously came up specifically. There are not many magazines that are still circulated strongly or well-known because of new forms of media, but Sports Illustrated is one that has lasted. My family personally is a big sports family. I have grown up my whole life loving to play and watch sports. We do have a subscription to your magazine and for the most part I find it enjoyable, entertaining and informative.

There are however, some major concerns regarding your magazine. These relate directly to women. In a study done by Fink & Kensicki in 2002, “An imperceptible difference: visual and textual constructions of femininity in Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Women,” they found some shocking statistics of photos in your magazine, Sports Illustrated. They found that only 10% of total photos in the magazine were of female athletes. Of this 10%, 34% were female athletes in action and 55% were of female athletes in non-sport settings. Finally, 5%  of these photos were sexually suggestive/pornographic. Those statistics are only out of the 10% of the total photos, where males dominate the other 90%. Males are shown in action in 66% of the photos, 23% in non-sport settings and 0% in sexually suggestive/pornographic photos.

This shows that there are still huge stereotypes in portrayals of women in athletics. First, that they even get any attention at all and secondly that their attention is pointed somewhere beside their athletic ability. This is true in many forms of media. Many smart, successful women are belittled and seen only for their sense of fashion or how their body type and shape. This is sadly true of women in your magazine as well, not only of the swimsuit models, but of strong, talented athletic women. They are sexualized instead of truly realized for their talent.

Obviously the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated is the best example of sexualizing and stereotyping women. While I would love for it to happen, I am not suggesting you total ban the swimsuit issue. I know, unfortunately and grotesquely, that it has become part of our culture. I know there would be great uproar over the matter, but I do think there are other ways to better demonstrate female athletes in other issues. If there is an issue dedicated purely to the sexualizing of women, why not an entire issue dedicated to women as athletes and their accomplishments as such? There needs to be more representation of women in your magazine, and that needs to be positive representation. There have been many improvements in the way of giving women a voice, but that voice is still skewed and misrepresented. Please, do what you can to help this issue and give women more and increasingly positive portrayals and advertisements.

Sincerely,

Abbie Christiansen 

The Amazing Race

I gave in and started up again on one of my shows that I tried to drop this fall. Over this Thanksgiving Break I caught back up on The Amazing Race. Oh how I have missed it. I probably could have been making better use of my break, but that's what a break's for right?

Christmas Music

I am usually a pretty strong person about no Christmas music before Thanksgiving. This year has been different for some reason. The other day I was in my car and Let it Snow came on. It was snowing and the song doesn't even reference Christmas so I listened to it happily. The other day I went to my FHE brother's apartment to help them decorate with snowflakes and even sang along to the beautiful Christmas music they were playing.

Is it Thanksgiving Break Yet?

My mind has shut down. It shut down after I finished the research paper for this class. I have a teacher conference with my English teacher for a paper tomorrow, but luckily it isn't due until the 30th. I decided to watch one of the best shows of all time instead (Boy Meets World obviously), upload pictures of my awesome Thanksgiving dinner with my FHE family, and face time with my brother and sister-in-law. Effective uses of media.