Female Kharacter's Klothing in Mortal Kombat 11

Let me start off by saying that women can wear whatever they want, as long they are not hurting anybody, women should wear whatever that makes them happy and comfortable with themselves. But in this blog post we are not going to be talking about real life, we are going to be discussing Mortal Kombat 11. Mortal Kombat is a series that I hold very dear to my heart despite all of the gore and violent spirited nature of the franchise, it is a franchise that makes me connect with the characters and for that I will have nothing but love for this series. While Mortal Kombat is special to me, there is no denying that one of its major flaws was it customization of female characters. Where we can see this take place is in the game Mortal Kombat 9.

This was the first game in the Mortal Kombat reboot and it has been praised for its Story Mode and game play but the female character designs were less than satisfying. For example, let’s take the character of Sonya Blade. This is a character who is supposed to be a General in the Special Forces. She does a lot of hands on fighting and is always on the for front when it comes to saving another. This outfit just does not make a lot of sense for a General. Also she is in heels, so it would be very difficult to fight in tournaments in said heels. The developers realized this how ridiculous this was as well. The art director Steve Beran states "Our design is just getting more mature and respectful. You’re not going to wear a bikini to a fight. You’re not going to be showing so much skin. I think it’s just what the game is about: You’re going in to fight for your life, and you’re not going to be wearing such scantily clad items." 
Going by their word, in Mortal Kombat 11 the designs of the female characters were a lot less sexy and the portions were a lot more realistic.

People lost their minds over this change. They said that Netherrealm Studios has gone too far and were trying too hard to be politically correct and that would be the games downfall. I disagree, Female characters looking like fighters, which they are supposed to be is not a bad thing. To go further, these new designs have so much more personality than the previous ones ever have. Take Scarlet, from her Mortal Kombat 11 outfit we can see she is some one who deals with blood, judging by the villas on her waist. That one thing is already better from what we can say from her Mortal Kombat 9 outfit, where she is basically a re skinned Sonya. A debate I see quite often with this discussion is 'what about the male characters, they are shirtless?" While, yes that is true. Male Characters are not shirtless because they are being sexualized but to show power.With these new designs female characters are projecting strength and power as well. So that is where the difference lies between the two. People are boycotting Mortal Kombat 11 over this and I find that really ridiculous. If you are only playing Mortal Kombat to see half nude fictional characters, then you completely missing the point of the franchise. Long story short, women are allowed to wear clothing, people need to grow up.

Lovemarks: The Marketing Strategy with Heart

Love marks is the use of making your buyers have a connection to what they are buying to be more profitable. It’s the idea of “They don’t understand what we have” the point of it is to make you think of a stronger emotional bond when you think about this product. This can work by not just having an emotional bond with the product but convincing yourself that you do not fit in if you do not have this or are associated with a certain product. This is a smart way of marketing because you are getting rid of just the surface level of what the product does or can do. Using love marks you are going deep of what the product or company means to you and how it has changed in you in one way or another. It's trying to separate itself from an intangible thing into a real emotional bond with you. I have been affected by this strategy through the comapny of Disney. It is no serect that disney holds a place near and dear to a lot of people's hearts. For some people it's the reason they get into animation as a career. Personally,   Disney was one the first things that I was exposed to. It was so bad as a kid I would refuse to watch Nickelodeon because I was so  dedicated to Disney that it felt I was cheating on a company if I watched anything else. Disney wasn’t just a show or toy it was my childhood. One of the traditions that my mother and I do is that the day before my birthday we go see Disney on Ice and each time I always end up listening to Disney soundtracks or re watching Disney movies. Even now as I have mostly grown out of my Disney phase, every time I see something with Disney’s name I want to go see it. It’s not just me either, there’s a reason why Disneyland is called the “happiest place on Earth.” I believe that Disney knows what they are doing as Disney is a something that a lot of people grow up with because it was everywhere on children’s Television and movies and knowing that kids are young and impressionable so they are aware that they will attach on to Disney and that emotional bound will never truly go away.

CNN vs Fox News: The Muller Report

             https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-declares-mueller-probe-win-tweeting-out-ny-post-front-page.amp

          https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/04/22/politics/democrats-trump-strategy-mueller-report/index.html

  Politics are a big thing in America right now. People have the argument that current political climate is the biggest thing threatening American democracy. So if politics are a big thing in American culture it makes sense that our news sources are a big influence on who we are. It should be important that the news we get unbiased and just fact based. This idea is mostly true but certain words change the meaning to pull it into a certain idea, this idea works both conservative and liberal. We are these idea through CNN and Fox News and how they reported the Muller Report.

Fox News shows the Muller Report as a win for Trump. They focus on this as a win for Trump focusing on the detail that this doesn’t exonerate him. They didn’t talk much about how this report didn’t say that he didn’t collude with Russia. They framed this has proof the entire thing was just a waste of American money and that Trump was innocent all along and that they knew it the entire time. They only focused on people who were on Trump’s side and praising the Muller Report and how it found him not guilty as well as talking about this framed the Democrats in a bad light. They take Trumps tweets as a statement against the democrats and think he is being a leader, we can see this by the use of the word “declare.” Which was in the title of this article.

CNN on the other hand took the Muller Report as reasons to be more suspicious of the Trump Administration and that we should be digging more into this as this is “suspicious” CNN used the idea that Trump wasn’t found innocent and that this was a reason to dig closer into this and find out why this happened. Even when accepting the fact that Trump was found “not guilty” they talked about how Russia still interfered with our election and how we should take that seriously as that is a very bad thing. They also talked about how Trump's answers were seen as "inadequate" which proves the idea that Trump is an idiot which some liberals believe so it keeps that idea of him in check.

The Representation of Black Women in T.V

        Black Women in Media has changed drastically over time in America. In America, around in the early 1920's black women were only shown as the 'Mammie'. The Mammie is the stereotype of black women working as maids under a white family and their job was to take care the white children.  They were shown to be happy, but more docile than anything. This is one of the stereotypes that deepened the idea of anti-blackness in America. Most if not all 'Mammie's' were shown to be overweight and dumb, this idea was shown everywhere and this was the idea of many White Americans had of black women. This stereotype was the only representation black women had in a while up until the 70's.
         The 1970's and 1980's was an amazing time for not just black women in media but black people in general. Shows like The Jefferson's, Good Times, Amen, 227, and Sanford & Son showed black families being normal people living their everyday lives. The Jefferson's even showed a black family being rich as well this show was one the first shows of it's time to show a healthy interracial relationship through the characters of Tom and Helen. When it comes to black women it was an array of emotions and feelings. No longer were the days of black women being the docile mammie we were shown as more. We were shown as smart and witty women who should not be messed with.This was true but it had a twist to it. Black women were shown as these things yes, but only on black shows. A good portion of America still had this warped idea of black women and didn't try or care to change it. The idea were changing but slowly. Black people still needed a way to reach white audiences in an effort to change their ideas. That's when the 1990's came along and changed the scene for ever.
           The 1990's introduced a new archetype for black women the black girl best friend. This was  in shows like Saved by the bell and Boys Meets World. The problem with this archetype is that these characters personalities completely revolted around their relationship with the white main characters. For example take Dionne from Clueless, who is she without her friendship with Cher? What is her hobbies? What are her goals in life? We do not know. Some shows do it better than others, Angela from Boys Meets World had a personality. We knew that her loved literature we knew about her home life because it connects to who she is. Boys Meets World was one of the first shows that showed an interracial relationship for kids shows. This was a bold move as she was in a relationship with Shawn, the shows heartthrob, and having him fall in love with a black girl was something never heard of.
       The writer Shonda Rhimes created a new area from black women on Television. She created the show Scandal which starred the now cultural icon, Olivia Pope. Olivia Pope was not just a black lead she was a black female lead, a black woman in power. She had everyone fall to her feet and she controlled everything. Olivia wasn't just powerful she was real she had her emotions cloud up her judgment. She laughed, she cried and she loved. This was important because it showed a complex character, Olivia Pope is not perfect, she is human that is what made her so iconic today. This launched more black women to be more prominent in Television. Shows like The Flash casted Iris West as black woman and Titans casted Starfire as a black woman so slowly we can see more black woman take more of a role in American television. The representation is not perfect but it is getting better. I am excited that little black girls can grow up and see themselves as heroes, artists or politicians, so they can now that they can do anything.
       

My Relationship with Media

I have always had a strange connection with media. For the longest time it has always been a part of me. From when I was a little girl I remember talking about my favorite Disney shows from Hannah Montana to Austin & Ally. I loved characters like Kim from Kickin't because she showed power and that women can be just as strong as boys. I remember dressing up like Draculaura from Monster High because I loved pretending that I was a pretty vampiress that could wear pink all the time. Still to this day I watch an insane amount of T.V shows that influence what I like and dislike. I watch movies like US and Get Out because I could relate to the message of what the movie is saying I liked seeing my own ideas and views being represented. I did not just watch these T.V shows as a kid, I analyzed them I theorized about my favorite characters before I even knew how to spell theorized. I love Media but it has not always haven the best affect on me. Due to consuming so much media my attention span has dropped. As well, I have a tendency to over think everything because as a kid I used to think about things that do not matter for fun.s

Unlike some of my fellow peers I do not use Instagram or Snapchat so I believe that when it came to social media I would not be affected at all. Although I have reached the conclusion that this thinking is wrong due to the amount of time I spend on YouTube. Last week I spent a total of eighteen hours on YouTube alone so needless to say I am on there quite a bit. Whether it is just listening to music or watching the news it is obvious YouTube has affected me. I get so many notifications a day I ignore them and I have been so used to that with video notifications I do it when my friends text me using excuses like "I'll talk to them later'' when I never do. I watch a lot of analysis videos on YouTube something that has carried over from my childhood so I have gone deeper into that as media has grew. 

A franchise I have always loved was the Mortal Kombat games. I loved playing as characters like Kitana, Sonya and Scorpion because I felt that I was powerful and could do anything because in those games, I could. In Mortal Kombat Universe I could save Earthrelm and look great while doing it. I fell in love with these characters and their stories but that is not what Mortal Kombat is notorious for. Mortal Kombat is famous for it's gore. I will not lie and say that the gore is not a part of the series but it wasn't all of it. I wonder if subconsciously I have become more numb to violence after performing so many fatalities. If so, that is another way media has effected my life. Media is a great thing and it has done some good things but it has also affected all of us for better or for worse.