The role of ghrelins Essay Example for Free

The role of ghrelins Essay Ghrelin is a general name for a class of hormones found in the gastrointestinal tract of vertebrates. It is a preprohormone containing a chain of 28 amino acid peptides. During synthesis, a modification arises whereas n-octanoic acid is bound to one of its amino acids. This makes it capable of playing its biological role. Ghrelins are synthesized at the fundus lining the stomach. It is primarily produced by epithelial cells lining the fundus. However, smaller amounts have also been detected in the kidneys, placenta, hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. (Brown, 2006) The ghrelin receptor was known before the discovery of ghrelin. It is located in the anterior pituitary and stimulates secretion of growth hormone when activated. It was named GHS-R or growth hormone secretagoue receptor. In 1999, Kojima et al. announced that they have discovered the natural ligand for GHS-R.   They named it ghrelin, deriving it form the word â€Å"ghre† which means grow in Proto-Indo-European languages. They obtained it from rat stomach and investigated its role in pituitary growth hormone and energy homeostasis functions. (Kojima Kangawa, 2004) Roles of ghrelin Ghrelin is the ligand of GHS-r. Its signal together with that of semostatin and other growth hormone inducers control the timing as well as the magnitude of growth hormone excretion. It is suggested that the stomach releases ghrelin into the bloodstream, where it is conveyed to the potiuitary gland, triggering the release of growth hormone. Kanagawa et al. found significant amounts of ghrelin in healthy people.(Kojima et al., 1999) In 2000, Ezio Ghigo et al. discovered that ghrelin injections led to prolonged increase of growth hormone concentrations in the blood. (Dickson, 1999)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ghrelin   also seems to stimulate appetite. Lab tests in rats show ann increase in body weight after ghrelin injections. This effect is independent of ghrelin’s role in GH stimulation. In people, a popular side effect of taking ghrelin containing drugs was the sensation of intense hunger. About 80% of test participants in a study to test ghrelins growth hormone functions also suffered an increase of appetite. It was found that ghrelin concentration in the blood increases as a person grows hungry and decreases as that person’s hunger is sated.   Another study showed that people injected with ghrelin before meals increased their food intake by 30%. (Cummings et al., 2002) Another study also showed that resting   ghrelin levels rise as net body weight decreases and returns once a set point is reached. This means that the body regulates ghrelin levels based on a specific body weight attainment, making you hungrier as you lose more weight. Persons with anorexia nervosa, a disorder in which people starve themselves show extremely high amounts of ghrelin. But it seems in their cases, their body does not listen. (Travis, 2002)The increase of ghrelins is also related to time as discovered by Yildiz et al. An increase in ghrelin was noted between midnight to dawn, mhowever, hunger is suppressed by other hormones, making it easier to fall asleep and eat in the morning after.(Yildiz, Suchard, Wong, McCann, Licinio, 2004)Alos, lack of sleep particularly in obese persons lead to production of ghrelin and less production of leptin, the hormone which suppresses appetite. Ghrelin levels also decrease dramatically with the conduction of gastric bypass surgery. Animal research has also discovered that ghrelin may enhance memory and learning as it enters the hippocampus via the bloodstream. High ghrelin levels, particularly before meals when the stomach is empty may be the time most conducive to learning. (Philips, 2006) REFERENCES Brown, R. (2006). Ghrelin.  Ã‚   Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/gi/ghrelin.html Cummings, D., Weigle, D., Frayo, R., Breen, P., Ma, M., Dellinger, E., et al. (2002). Plasma Ghrelin Levels after Diet-Induced Weight Loss or Gastric Bypass Surgery. New England Journal of Medicine(346), 1623-1630. Dickson, S. L. (1999). Ghrelin: A newly discovered hormone  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   [Electronic Version]. British Society for Neuroenterology from http://neuroendo.org.uk/index.php/content/view/26/11/. Kojima, M., Hosoda, H., Date, Y., Nakazato, M., Matsuo, H., Kangawa, K. (1999). Ghrelin is a growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide from stomach. Nature 402, 656-660 (402), 656-660. Kojima, M., Kangawa, K. (2004). Ghrelin: Structure and Function   [Electronic Version]. Physiological Review, 85, 495-522. Retrieved March 11 2007. Philips, M. L. (2006). Hunger hormone tied to learning [Electronic Version]. The Scientist. Retrieved March 11 2007 from http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23132/. Travis, J. (2002). The Hunger Hormone? [Electronic Version]. Science News Online, 161, 107. Retrieved March 11 2007 from http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020216/bob10.asp. Yildiz, B. O., Suchard, M. A., Wong, M.-L., McCann, S. M., Licinio, J. (2004). Alterations in the dynamics of circulating ghrelin, adiponectin, and leptin in human obesity [Electronic Version]. Medical Sciences. Retrieved March 11 2007 from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=478601.

Prison Treatments Laws in New York State Essay Example for Free

Prison Treatments Laws in New York State Essay Michael E. Deutsch, Dennis Cunningham and Elizabeth M. Fink †Twenty Years Later — Attica Civil Rights Case Finally Cleared for Trial† Social Justice, Vol. 18, No. 3 (45), Attica: 1971—1991 A Commemorative Issue (Fall 1991), pp. 13-25 This is a journal uses the commissioner, the director of the correctional, Russel Osward as a center role to recall the Attica Riot, condemning his failure of management of the prison regime and the inhumane assault he had set to end up the uprising. The government had covered the facts of violent assault of the riot for years, but it had been dug out by the protest of the riot survivors 20 years after the riot, and they finally won the negotiations and gained their civil rights. Quotations can be cited for discussing how the negotiation had gone through. It also provides me some background information of the riot. It also gives a sense of what kind of civil rights had been violated and what had been brought back. I can use these rights as reference to seek changes of the State laws. Vicky Munro-Bjorklund â€Å"Popular Cultural Images of Criminals and Prisoners since Attica† Social Justice, Vol. 18, No. 3 (45), Attica: 1971—1991 A Commemorative Issue (Fall 1991), pp. 48-70 This journal focuses on the popular culture images that been shaped after the Attica Riot. It argues that the misunderstanding of the prisoner had been changed since the uprising, and media is also a force that pushes the prisons into reform. Because of stereotype, or the popular cultural images of the prisoners, no one had paid that much attention to the prisoners before the increasing exposure of the real â€Å"prisoners’ life† after the Attica Riot. The description of the popular cultural images of the prisoners in Attica is really a good resource to use. This resource is mainly a statement of the prisoners’ image. I do not need to describe the change of the images because I am focusing on the law changes, so nothing will be quoted, but it makes me think in a new way: The affection of exposure from the public or social media. George Edwards, â€Å"Foreword: Penitentiaries Produce No Penitents† forward-penitentiaries produce no penitents, 63 J. Crim. L. Criminology Police Scl. 159(1972): 154-161   This journal focused on how the social media have done to help the colored people inside the US penal system by using the example of the media affection of the Attica Riot. It focuses on and the cultural images that shape the stereotype of the black people so that they are isolated from â€Å"us†. The prisoners’ lives in the prisons have become more transparent through the social media after the Attica Riot when the social media have paid attention to them and cover more about them. Social media is condemning the brutal treatment to the prisoners and the injustice of the sentence through different ways. This paper is searched after the previous one, it is a good resource for seeing how the social media had pushed the State to change their correctional method and give back prisoners’ civil rights. Willi The Naturalization Act of 1790 am L. Wilbanks The report of the commission on Attica, 37 Fed. Probation 3 (1973): 3-5 This is a prime summery of the national commission report of the Attica Riot published on September 13,1972. It briefly summarized and explained what is the Attica Riot, recorded the cause of it, reported the negotiation of it, and analyzed the assault and the aftermath of it. The main highlight of the riot from the report is that it happened at a time when the prison was about to reform for better, and the violent assault was because the prison inmate was asking for general pardon, but the government refused so, yet the result was still inhumane. This report is brief and comprehensive; it is providing background information for the public to get the general idea of the riot. Part of it can be quoted for a prof of inhumane treatment after the uprising. Gerald Benjamin and Stephen P. Rappaport, Attica and Prison Reform, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. 31, No. 3, Governing New York State: The Rockefeller Years (May, 1974), pp. 200-213 This journal focuses on reporting the details of the negotiation and the assault of the Attica Riot. Informing us assault is because of the failure of the negotiation. This journal also mentioned that the riot happened when the reform was just about to be taken into practice. After the riot, the reform began, including the facilities change and the treatment changes. Changes are based on the fund from federal and the State, though something still needs to be change, it was already a big step. It is also showing some significant changes such as the change in the employment of the facilities from all whites to Latinos, the shortened time of locking. Though this journal is really detail, I need to quote the changes of laws rather than just physical changes in this piece. Angela Y. Davis: Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press New York, 2003: 10-19, 84-104 Chapter 1 introduces us with an idea of prison reform, which gains the majority supports of the public and it is also the reason for the Attica Riot. It also reveals the idea that not many people outside the prison are willing to think about the life inside the prison, which is going to be a support of why I said that there is not that much attention had been paid for prison treatment. Chapter 5 tells us how a mass of private companies and industries are gaining a lot of profit from the prisoners so that prisoners are not gaining what they are supposed to be gained. Both chapters are supporting the idea of why prisons should be paid attention and be reformed. Thought the industrial complex of the prison is written recently rather than the immediate fact, I would use them as reference of things that haven’t been improved after the riot. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, Keywords for American Cultural Studies, New York University Press, 2007: 37-42 This piece gives readers a brief history from the ancient Greek to now of how Citizenship has come to its status in the United State. The civil rights have been violated by the sovereignty, but finally came to equality through the push of institutions, religions, as well as civil movements. This piece also introduces us that how the technology and transportations are important to a new understanding of citizenship. This piece is important for analyzing the prison rights because I am writing through the prospect that prison inmates are also citizens, that they should have the same rights as those normal citizens, but prisoners’ rights are somehow always been valid or even ignored by the U.S. penal system. This article helps to define the citizen in my paper. Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee, Policing the National Body Sex, Race, and Criminalization, South End Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002: 1-48 Chapter one gives us a general idea on how the US penal apparatus has been enforced by the participation of multiple â€Å"relevant† institutions. It is showing audiences how those institutional officers themselves are offending the laws but still act as a law executive, and how they use the name of immigration law to violate the rights, especially the rights of the women with colors, they offence their bodies, and use them to incarcerate colored men. This helps to analysis the female prison treatments in recent time. Though it is a good example to show the violation of the civil rights but it might be a little different from the topic that I am writing about because it is mainly focused on the recent time and the immigration laws. Dylan Rodriguez, Forced Passages, Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London, 2006 This chapter focuses on the formation of the key word: The War. Though the war is supposedly be the conflict between states, the writer tells readers that the U.S. government is using the war zone as a way to control the citizens. It talks about how the power is contributed through the use of the prison regime. I would like to quote the history of the prison regime to inform that the prison today has a slavery background and that is what makes the rights of prisoners been blurred so reasonably. U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790, The Transcript of 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) The naturalization act is the fundamental act to the U.S. citizens. It indicated that free white of good moral character that had lived in the U.S. for two years and swore allegiance. It can be used as a historical accordant to the descriptions of the history of the prison regime. The 13th amendment establishes birthright of citizenship due process and equal protection, formally extends citizenship to newly freed, black men. Both of these laws can be use as track of the citizenship as proves of the inequality of the civil laws roots. Abstract Citizenship refers to the link between state and person who lives in. Citizens by broad should be within the link and should be someone who lives in the sate. Prisoners as a special type of citizen are supposed to have the same civil rights and be protected by the same laws, yet their circumstances put them into a situation where their rights are violated constantly with or without justice. Prison treatments in the US, can been seen as a significant example of the violation of the prisoners’ civil rights. It has never been paid attentions until the four-day uprising in the Attica Correctional Facility burst out in 1971. Attica Riot was the most violent riot in the entire U.S. history. Through out the uprising, many inhumane treatments of the prisoners have been revealed through the exposure of the social media. As a curiosity on the affects of prison uprisings on the New York State government, this paper is going to discover some significant changes that had been made by the New York State immediately after the riot through the aftermath negotiation of the Attica riot to indicate that the prisoner rights are still not have been treated rightly.

Constructs of Orientalism and Stereotyping Eastern Women

Constructs of Orientalism and Stereotyping Eastern Women According to Edward Said, the West constructs a notion of the East as â€Å"other,† through orientalism which turns the East into a place to be feared or desired as an image of the Wests imagined â€Å"otherness.† as noted in the work of Peter Brooks Mahabarata, and contemporary films like we have seen in Avatar, or of practitioners that subvert and challenge orientalist perception found in the West, as we have seen in M Butterfly. Through an examination of performance from at least two different cultures, show how the theatre is used to either exotify the other in a kind of â€Å"Oriental Gaze,† and the work of other contemporary practitioners who wish to challenge these â€Å"otherings† of a culture. Introduction The phenomenon of orientalism in art and literature is one of the most historical and cultural phenomena. The idea of orientalism played an important role in literature of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century in Europe, It was more widely referring to the portraying of the East by Western artists, as the fascination with the orient influenced many of the romantic writers who situated novels and poetry about the mysterious Eastern lands and also dazzled many famous painters who were surprised and impressed by the charm and beauty of the East. These painters translated that fascination in their paintings using many methods, while some of them painted what they actually saw and experienced in the East, others painted their imagination about the myths and magical tales of the mysterious East. The East became an interesting destination for travellers, many of whom went on to write about and paint their experiences in the exotic lands among unfamiliar peoples and customs. In arts in gene ral, the orient became associated with beautiful landscapes, eroticism and mystery. Many scholars place the beginning of postcolonial studies in history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and arts at the publication of Saids orientalism, published in 1978. Said focuses his attention in this work on the interplay between the Occident which refer to the West and the Orient, which refer to the East. In this essay I will explore the meaning of the other and otherness from the perspective of the European gaze. I will try to find out how the west sees the east by focusing on their image of the eastern women through theatre as it is one of the important arts that reflect the community gazes, by analyzing the â€Å"Veil† symbol and it representation through Oscar wild play â€Å"Salome† and the â€Å"Fan† symbol through Puccinis opera â€Å"M. Butterfly†. As well as I will show how some practitioners subvert and challenge orientalist perception in the West and also how they sometimes fall victims to the stereotyping in the middle east of the challenges. Orientalism Orientalism broadly defined, as the representation of the Eastern world by the western world, more deeply, as the study of the Orient by western scholars and their evaluation of its social and moral values, and its future prospects. The beginning of oriantalism perception was in the 19th century by scholars who translated some writings of the East into English, in order to know more about the Eastern cultures which will empower the west with knowledge of how to conquer and defeat the Eastern countries (Sered, 1996). By the mid-19th century oriental studies expanded and became important to many scholars. However, racist attitudes and stereotypes have become inherent to this cultural movement. The West saw the Eastern art and literature as exotic and inferior to their ideals. Many critical theorists pointed out that there is much that can be learned about the Wests image of itself through the way Western writers have portrayed the orient The idea of the oriental as the â€Å"Other,† or the mysterious unknown, reflects the European concerns about ones own identity (Byington, 2001). Orientalism is a way of thinking about the East as strange, exotic, dark, mysterious, erotic and dangerous, and has helped the West to define itself through this contrasting image. The west had always seen the East as inferior and to rationalize the colontiastion of the East, they had to define eastern people as despotic or stagnant and in need of Christianizing, civilizing or controls (Hà ¼binette, 2002). Edward Said and Orientalism Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the Orient and (most of the time) the Occident†¦ In short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. (Said, 1978) The most influential critique on orientalism came in 1978 with Edward Said. He managed to attack the oriental perception not only to our notions of the ways in which the West constructs representations and portraitures the East but, to how the ideology of Othering is facilitated through Art and literature in his book â€Å"Orientalism†. According to Said, the West has created a â€Å"dichotomy† between the reality of the East and the romantic notion of the Orient. The Middle East and Asia are viewed with prejudice and racism. The West has created a culture, history, and future promise for the East. On this framework rests not only the study of the Orient, but also the political imperialism of Europe in the East. He discussed the dialectical relationship between Occident and Orient as is a manifestation of â€Å"us versus them† (Said 1978). Said argued that Orient and Occident worked as oppositional terms, so that the Orient was constructed as a negative inversion of Western culture. He studied many works of European scholars and writers specialized in the peoples of the Middle East in order to denounce the relations of power between the colonizer and the colonized in their texts. Said thinks that by knowing the Orient, the West came to own it. So according to Said, it is imperialism which motivated orientalism. Without imperialism, westerners would never have study near and Far-Eastern societies and culture (Sered, 1996). Said asserts that according to the Occidentals, the Orientals had no history or culture independent of their colonial masters. Orientalism is more an indicator of the power the West holds over the Orient, than about the Orient itself. After Said, numerous studies have been published on the different orientalisms of the West that various countries and cultures of Asia have suffered. Among many orientalists, Said ´s book provoked angry and sometimes even hateful responses, while others declared themselves ready for a fundamental change of attitude towards Asia and the Asians, their objects of study. Said ´s theory of orientalism has also provided feminists and post-colonial theorists with a general method of understanding the nature of oppression (Hà ¼binette, 2002) Said argued that the West has stereotyped the East in art and literature, since antiquity such as the composition of The Persians by Aeschylus so in modern times, Europe had dominated Asia politically that even the most outwardly objective Western texts on the East were permeated with a bias that Western scholars could not recognize. Western scholars appropriated the task of exploration and interpretation of the Orients languages, history and culture for themselves, with the implication that the East was not capable of composing its own narrative. They have written Asias past and constructed its modern identities from a perspective that takes Europe as the norm, from which the exotic, inscrutable Orient deviates. Said concluded that Western writings about the Orient depict it as an irrational, weak, feminised Other, contrasted with the rational, strong, masculine West, a contrast he suggests derives from the need to create difference between West and East that can be attributed to immutable essences in the Oriental make-up. A mean of expressing cultural and social identity The term oriantalism was increasingly used by sociologists and other scholars since the 1990s, to refer to ethnocentrism, stereotyping, and cultural representations of the Eastern societies (Chua, 2008). Orientalism became a way of thinking about the world and the cultures that inhabit it. It acquires global significance through the identification and provision of these cultures in ways that support, even promote, on a political and economic superiority of the West. Edward Said, pointed out in his definition of Orientalism that the Orient is â€Å"almost a European invention, a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences† (Said, 1978). He also pointed that the Orient helped the West to define itself, as it consider to be a contrasting image in terms of people, ideas, experiences, etc. As Orientalism lives on in the academic world, many writers, ideologues, journalists, political, historians, poets, painters, moviemakers and others contributed to the Orientalist vision of the world, they justify that by the impossibility of studying the Orient, without being influenced by Orientalism. The other and the otherness The other can be defined as the image outside oneself, each different yet somehow the same and, therefore, connected by their reflection. It can also be understood within the double of self and can be seen as organizing the very existence of individual subjects. While otherness is the condition of being different from that otherwise experienced or known (1). The term The other is usually used by social, ethical, cultural, or literary critics, they use this term in order to understand the social and psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalizes another group. By using the term â€Å"other†, the persons begin to notice the dissimilarity from another, and this is usually shown in the way they represent others, especially through stereotypical images. The West used these terms to identify what they didnt understand about the Eastern culture as the contemporary preoccupation with other and otherness in the west which represents a concern for personal identity. But in order to understand the Eastern culture they had to exclude them from the normality and surrounding them with mystic cloud thus the focusing on â€Å"otherness† became a way of understanding the cultures differences more than similarities ((Portis, 2009). Portrayal of the Orient in arts In the nineteenth century, when more artists travelled to the Middle East, they began representing more numerous scenes of Oriental culture. In many of these works, they portrayed the Orient as exotic, colourful and sensual. Such works typically concentrated on the Middle East countries. French artists such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres who painted many work portraying the Middle East culture. When Ingres, painted a highly coloured vision of a Turkish bath, he made his eroticized Orient publicly acceptable by his diffuse generalizing of the female forms. Even so, in contrast to Eugà ¨ne Delacroix who had visited an Algerian harem in person which after he painted the Algerian harem, Ingres never travelled to Africa or the Middle East to see such subjects in person, and the courtesans shown are more Caucasian and European than Middle Eastern or African in appearance. For Ingres the oriental theme was above all a pretext for portraying the female nude in a passive and sexual context. Exotic elements are few and far between in the image musical instruments, a censer and a few ornaments (Elif, 2008). In Theatre, Madam Butterfly and Mikado are considering examples to the oriental perception to the Far East. As Gilbert and Sullivan in Mikado and Puccinis Madam Butterfly -which is based on a short story written by John Luther Long and dramatized by David Belasco- depict Japanese culture musically and dramatically. They used Western musical views of Japanese and Oriental music in both plays as well as they used the western stereotyping of the Japanese people as the costumes, white faces, hair design, etc. without presenting the true nature of this culture. These performances played on stereotypical Western views of the Far East in general and the Japanese culture in particular. Moreover, in movies, Arabs were largely romanticized and viewed as exotic and part of an alluring orientalism during the 1940s. The rich Arab in robes became a more popular theme, especially during the oil crisis of the 1970s. In the 1990s the Arab terrorist became a common villain figure in Western movies. The images of women in East Many scholars who wrote about or painted the East didnt really visit or experienced the Eastern culture, they just interpreted what they imagined, that inherent the image of the Eastern people, in particular the women, with stereotyping. Asian women have been portrayed as prostitutes, aggressive, opportunistic sexual beings and predatory gold diggers using their feminine to get what they want (Hofstede, 1996). Also Arab women were usually portrayed as exotic belly dancers or mute, subservient, and repressed. Western film and literature has continually portrayed such stereotypes of Eastern women. Stereotypes of Asian women There are lots of terms portraying the stereotyping of the Asian women such as the â€Å"Dragon Lady† which was portrayed as a strong, cold and ferocious woman who was knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. Another is the â€Å"China Doll† stereotype which portrays Asian women as subservient, compliant and anxious to please. It also identified all Asian women as Chinese. From the perspective of the west, Asian women are meant to be seen and played with as a doll. In Western culture, The â€Å"Geisha† is seen as a prostitute or sex entertainer, this stereotype indicates that Eastern women are valued and used for their bodies for aesthetic pleasure. On the contrary, a Geisha in Japanese culture is a kind of an artist. They are trained in developing certain social skills such as dancing, singing, tea-making, conversing and serving to be an artistic entertainer not prostitute (Prasso, 2005). Also there are other terms refer of stere otyping the Asian women suggesting that they are sexually available to foreign white men as â€Å"Yellow cab†, â€Å"Sarong party girl and Comfort Women There is lots of stereotyping to the Asian women from the western perspective that harmed their identity; all these stereotypes perceptions depended on how the West misunderstands the East, Asian women are usually portrayed as beautiful, sexually available, exotic, and loyal but submissive. According to Elaine Kim a Professor of Asian American Studies, the stereotype of Asian women as submissive has hindered Asian womens economic mobility. Stereotypes of the Middle East women From decades, separation between nations and individuals has been maintained by very powerful symbolic boundaries leads us, symbolically, to close ranks culture and to stigmatize and expel anything which is defined as impure, strangely attractive precisely because it is forbidden, taboo, threatening to cultural order (Hall, 1997). Since the first contacts with the Arab world, the West has developed a set of stereotypes depicting Arabs as uncivilized and violent. As with the spread of colonization during the 19th century, an organized scholarship devoted to the representation of ‘Otherness emerged as a defining moment in this cross-cultural history (Hirchi, 2007). The stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims are often manifested in literature, media, theatre and other creative expressions. Arabs and Muslims in TV and movies are often involving themes associated with violence. As the words â€Å"Muslim† or â€Å"Arab† is connected with the image terrorist and bomb-making or sometimes refer to the wealthy oilmen. An Arab woman is usually represented, a belly dancer, sex objects, whore, terrorist or subservient, imprisoned behind a veil of powerlessness (Shaheen, 1988). Even in cartoons which is consider to be aimed at children is full of negative images of Arab women which portray them as belly dancers, exotic and harem girls, (Wingfield and Karaman, 1995). These stereotypes dont only harm the psychological and cultural part of the Eastern civilisation but also helps dehumanizing a group first before attacking it (Qumsiyeh, 1998). Salome as a representative of the Arab women For decades Salome figure has became a representation of the Arab women. The west used to see the Arab women evil, seductive, belly dancers, nudes and that was shown in lots of arts work of that time which is considers stereotyping to the Arab women. The origin of Salome story and her famous dance came from the Bible: But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, so he vowed to give her anything she wanted. Consequently, at her mothers urging, the girl asked for John the Baptists head on a tray. The king was grieved, but because of his oath, and because he didnt want to back down in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. (Matthew 14:6-11) Herodias chance finally came. It was Herods birthday and he gave a stag party for his palace aides, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee. Then Herodias daughter came in and danced before them and greatly pleased them all. Ask me for anything you like, the king vowed, even half of my kingdom, and I will give it to you! She went out and consulted her mother, who told her, Ask for John the Baptists head! So she hurried back to the king and told him, I want the head of John the Baptist right now on a tray! Then the king was sorry, but he was embarrassed to break his oath in front of his guests. So he sent one of his bodyguards to the prison to cut off Johns head and bring it to him. The soldier killed John in the prison, and brought back his head on a tray, and gave it to the girl and she took it to her mother. (Mark 6:21-28) In reading the Biblical description, we find out that there is no specification of the kind of dance Herodias daughter did. Nothing claim that her dance involved veils, or the removal of clothing, or seduction. Actually there is no proof in the bible story that the death of John the Baptist is linked to the seductive seven veils striptease. In 1891, Oscar Wilde wrote his play Salomà © based on the origin story in the bible. Wildes play portrays Salomà © as an evil character who becomes obsessed with John the Baptist (Elliot, 2002). Herod: Do not rise, my wife, my queen, it will avail thee nothing. I will not go within till she hath danced. Dance, Salomà ©, dance for me. Herodias: Do not dance my daughter. Salomà ©: I am ready, Tetrarch. [Salomà © dances the dance of the seven veils.] (Wilde, 1891) The script of the play does not specify that the dance must be seductive or a consisting any striptease of veils. In the beginning of the 20th century, the fascination with the Middle East become at its peak, the writers and painters saw the story of John the Baptist as a good example of the orient from their perspectives the story had all the elements that make for public interest sexual overtones as murder, politics and the seductive dance. However, the dance of the seven veils has never been a part of Middle Eastern dance traditions, and is not performed in the Middle East today. But it was invented by western, and has been preserved for entertainment reasons. The veil which is just only a piece of cloth is marked as a part of mystery and myth. It is both part of the culture and the imaginations of people in the East. The veil and the harem symbols have always fascinated the Western people. They were prevented from seeing and communicating with Arab women and that produced feelings of frustration and aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, the veil has provided men with the fantasy of exotic and erotic experiences with the beauty behind the veil (Mabro, 1991). In the Middle East, the veil was and still is a modesty garment which is worn to protect a respectable Muslim woman from the prying eyes of male strangers. May be it is used in some dance performance but without the incorporate removal of seven veils until the dancer stands totally nude. To conclude Salome is seen as an oriental misrepresentation to the Middle East women from the perspective of the Western. This misrepresentation have harmed the image of the true nature of the Middle Eastern women as they were seen as evil, belly dancers, seductive and nude with no respect to their own identity and religion. And the veil become associated to that mis representation as it become a seductive tool linked with nudity. M. Butterfly as a representative of the Asian women â€Å"Female sacrifice narratives can be traced back to biblical tales like the story of Ruth, who gives up everything for the sake of her husband who has a culture and religion different from her own. In America Pocahontas tales, which call for the sacrifice of the woman of color for the sake of white men, have been common. However, the Japanese Madame Butterfly has become the best known modern manifestation of this type of narrative.† (Marchetti, 1993) Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. He based his opera in part on the short story Madame Butterfly (1898) by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco. Puccini also based it on the novel Madame Chrysanthà ¨me (1887) by Pierre Loti. Puccinis Madame Butterfly is a tragic story of love, betrayal and a young mother ultimate sacrifice. It is a story and myth lies at the heart of Western perceptions of Japanese women as passive, selfless, and dedicated completely to their husbands and families. The work reveals numerous stereotypes and prejudices of the Western world concerning oriental culture. It become an icon and myth of the Japanese woman as the ideal of loving self-sacrificing, devoted wife to a Western husband. â€Å"Despite the changes and the increasing independence of Japanese women in the nineties, the dated Western stereotypes of Japanese women remain firmly entrenched in print, broadcasted, and film media. In the latter, especially, Japanese women are still routinely depicted with painted faces and geisha attire†¦.The prototype for all of these images was Cio-Cio-San in Puccinis Madame Butterfly†¦ This classic portrayal has no doubt had a long-lasting effect on the psyche of Western males. The compliance and gentleness attributed to Japanese women have long struck a responsive chord in men used to self-assertive, confrontational, and independent Western women† (Ma, 1996) There are lots of visual elements in this performance that contributed in the stereotyping process of the Asian women as the hair style, white face makeup, scenograph of the place and most important, the costumes which are the kimonos of the main character of the play, Madam butterfly. The west attempts to understand Japan through the metaphor of the kimono. The kimono was inherent to the Asian culture for decades. There are many types and styles of kimono which are worn depending of the formality of the occasion, the age of the wearer, their marital status, time of day, and time of season. In addition to colours and styles, the way kimono is worn differs between whether it is a single or married woman. All of these factors come into play when deciding what kimono is appropriate to wear and how to wear it which means that the kimono is not just a dress but its a culture. The West has treated this culture by great contempt, as any shape of kimono represent the Asian women regardless this kimono culture. (Goldstein , 1999) To conclude, Madam Butterfly helped stereotyping Asian women by surrounding them by the fence of isolation. It has become a representation of the cultural identity and a misrepresentation associated with submission, fragility, and femininity. And by dealing with the kimono as a representation symbol of that culture it became associated to these concepts. As if Madame Butterfly didnt wear the kimono a lots of concepts and stereotyping perception could change. Contemporary representation History reveals that western arts have humiliated, demonized, and eroticized Arab women. These images inherited and embellished western pre-existing Arab stereotypes. In the 18th and 19th centurys western artists and writers offered fictional renditions of women as bathed and submissive exotic object. The stereotype came to be accepted as valid, becoming an indelible part of European popular culture. Nowadays the Arab women in western arts still trapped in the siege of being veiled, silent or a terrorist. While the Asian women representation changed a little as female characters in movies or TV dramas have shifted from obedient weak girls to strong, intelligent, working women. David Henry Hwang change attempt in his M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang is a contemporary Asian American playwright his play is a deconstruction of Puccinis opera Madame Butterfly. Hwang play shows that gender roles provide people with an identity based on determining the â€Å"other† and being the opposite. The actual categories of what we consider to be male and female exist only in our minds as ways to identify ourselves. Madame Butterfly is not just a story about love relations or the homosexuality; it is more than that where it raises themes as sexuality, ethnicity, imperialism and race. Madame Butterfly is consider one of the most important play in terms of challenging the political, social and cultural identities of the West over the last decade, This play forces its Western audience to deal differently with Eastern stereotypes involving sexual orientation, gender, and culture, especially those stereotypes issued by the myth of Orientalism (Burns Hunter, 2005). In Hwang play, the reason that Gallimard failed to discern that his lover was a man can be attributed to the cultural stereotype imposed by the West on the East. The West thinks of itself as masculine while it regards the East as feminine, â€Å"weak, delicate, poor but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom — the feminine mystique.† (Hwang, 1988).The West expects Oriental women to be submissive to Western men. Also the themes of racism and sexism are linked. Thus, even Eastern men are feminized. As Song puts it, â€Å"being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man.† At the end of the play, the Hwang reversed the roles of Gallimard and Song; he began to demolish the racial and sexual stereotypes that he has been steadily exposing from the beginning. Gallimard, exploited, loving, betrayed, becomes like Butterfly, while Song is revealed not only as a man but also as a deceiver like Pinkerton in Puccinis Madame Butterfly who was never what he appeared to be. He wanted to show the Western audience that stereotypes are not only dangerous, they are also false. Conclusion It is important to say that the East had fascinated the Western and became a new source of inspiration for the artists, as painting, literature, theatre, movies and other creative arts. A new artistic movement, Orientalism, was born from this fascination. However, Orientalism in the 19th century was not always representative of what and how the East really was. Many distortions and stereotypes existed, and that led to some criticisms from scholars like Edward Said who didnt agree of how the west stereotype the East without real understands to the Eastern cultures. The West treated the East as inferiors in order to have the right to colonize them; their justification was that the East has to be civilized by the hand of the West. The stereotypical images of the Eastern women which was and still promoted by the Western media has a great effect on the culture image in general and the economic mobility in particular, as this stereotyping had harmed the tourism in the Middle East as it a t errorist countries as well as created the sex tourism in the Far East it exotic countries.

SOCIETYS SLAVES :: essays research papers

The books Brave New World, by Aldrous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell, are alike because they have comparable organizations. By using brainwashing techniques, censorship, and the obliteration of history, the leaders in Brave New World and 1984 control the thoughts and recollections of the people in their societies. Without using these techniques, the societies being controlled could not exist, because the people would not be disciplined like they needed to be. The citizens in these societies are slaves of the leaders, but cannot resist or do anything to change things for themselves. Chiefly, brainwashing was essential to accomplish while the children were young because then it would ensure that they would grow up to be model citizens in the society. Principally, love was disallowed in both societies, by the virtue that it would cause problems. Fights would begin over relationships that would cause uncertainty that was not needed in the society. When the citizens Brave New World were young, they were involved in sexual games that would introduce them to sex and portray it as something casual. "†¦.this little boy seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play." (Brave New World, pg. 30) As they got older, they were not able to know love, or would not be able to distinguish it from sex, so it became the norm to 'have everyone'. In 1984, marriages were allowed, but on the grounds that the two people getting married were not in love. They wanted the people to feel like they were only getting married to be of service to the party (when their children were set up working with the Spies, growing up to be pawns for the Party). The one they were supposed to love was Big Brother. "You must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him you must love him." (1984, pg. 201) Everyone was designed so that people would feel like they were existing for the Party, and the Party is virtuous. People's reactions towards death was also deteriorated in Brave New World, so people would not show anxiety if one of their friends died. "What are these filthy brats doing here? It's disgraceful." "Disgraceful? But what do you mean? They're being death conditioned." (Brave New World, pg. 208) They would just continue on living in the society, as existing happily and productively was their purpose. In 1984, emotions about occurrences like death was frowned upon as well.

Living with Computers :: Essays Papers

Living with Computers Ergonomics is the study of the physical relationships between humans and their tools, such as computers. Office chairs should be adjustable in height and should have lower-back support and arm rests. Desks that allow proper keyboard height and special ergonomic keyboards have been developed to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, a type of repetitive stress injury. To avoid damaging your eyes, avoid starring at the screen for long periods, position yourself from the monitor between two and five feet from your eyes, make sure no bright lights reflect off your screen, and use a monitor that has a relatively large screen without noticeable flicker. The computer industry has become know the fast pace rate of obsolescence, with both hardware and software being replaced every couple of years. Some of the leading toxic wastes coming form homes and offices are heavy metals used extensively in batteries, such as cadmium. Although some experts recommend leaving computers on all the time, this practice was shown to consume unnecessary amounts of electricity. One response has been the development of energy star equipment, which conserves electricity even when left on. Our legal system is gradually developing a code of laws to provide a legal framework for working with computers and on the Internet. The most prevalent breach of law in cyberspace is software piracy, the illegal copying or use of a program. Copyright laws relevant to computers and software are covered by the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Software Piracy and counterfeiting Amendment of 1983. Instead of building copy protection into their programs, most software developers discourage privacy among organizations by offering site licenses and network versions. Software viruses are parasitic programs that can replicate themselves, infect computers, and destroy data. Users can protect their data and software by using an anti-virus program. Hardware is sometimes stolen for the value of the data stored on it rather that for the value of the machine itself. Government, legal professionals, and computing professionals continue to debate computer-related ethical questions and attempt to develop laws that protect the freedoms of computer users while limiting immoral or illegal use of computers. Few actual laws, however, have been created or enforced to requiring computer users to let their own sense of ethics guide them.

The Struggle in My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch :: Asher Lev Naked Lunch Essays

The Struggle in My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch Though most of the experiences and actions revealed in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch directly contradict philosophies believed by the Jewish faith, there is a definite connection between My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch. This connection lies is the narrators' artistic roles in society. Both Lev and Burroughs stray from the surrealistic aspect of their mediums: art and writing, respectively, and portray life as they see that it really is. There is no embellishing on either of their parts nor is there any glorification to the events happening around them. William S. Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch as a conclusion to his fifteen-year addiction to opiates, mainly heroin and morphine. In his "tell all" story of himself as a junkie, he never tries to lie about any of the events that took place during this time and he never augments anything in order to make for a better story. Burroughs clearly depicted the distraught and dillusional life that he once led including his experiences with almost every drug possible and his encounters with sexual relations and situations that went against the status quo of the time (as it still does now). Burroughs' role as in artist in society, however, was that he was one of the people that clearly showed why the life of a drug addict was not as glorifying and "cool" as people falsely make it out to be. The phases of drug addiction are able to be clearly seen throughout the novel since Naked Lunch was a book written before, during, and after his drug rehabilitation. Just as Burroughs reveals the drug underground as it really is, Asher Lev is an artist of reality. His talent for art was recognized early in his life, but it was some years later that his view of the world became more apparent. He was neither a pessimist nor was his an optimist, but his drawing capture a little of both realms. He drew what he felt: what he saw as reality in his mind. More often in the book, however, do we see Asher's pessimistic views on the world come out because of the events that are going on in his life. "I don't like the world, Mama. It's not pretty. I won't draw it pretty." (52) Just like Burroughs, Asher does not think about what would be acceptable to those who view his works, or the beliefs of his religion, or if what he is drawing may be considered wrong; he just draws what he truly feels at the time.

Giberson’s Glass Studio

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